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An Inconvenient Spy Ch. 01

By: TexasFarmBoy



The Chevy Suburban pulled into the drive and I knew that something was wrong. It wasn't the car itself; it was the fact that only a select few people knew where to find me and fewer still had the code to get through the front gate without setting off the alarm by the front door of the house. This visitor was at least very close to one of those very few that I actually trusted. 

How did a 42 year old get to this state of paranoia? It is fairly easy I guess when you make a couple of choices when you are young and they blossom for the productive part of your life and then overnight, things disappear in a maelstrom of things that are not of your doing. Then you are retired not by your choice and are not employable by dictate. Every month a check is deposited in your bank account and a note arrives in the mail to remind you to keep your nose clean. At least, that is what the words mean.

So you find a quiet place where no one will bother you and you build yourself a fortress of solitude out of bricks and mental energy and you hope that a day like this never happens. Confused? So am I.

I graduated from college twenty one years ago with a degree in modern history and political science. With job prospects severely limited, I took an entry level job with an innocuous government agency. Three years later, my agency was absorbed by another one whose mission was virtually identical to ours. Five years and two more absorptions later, I was elevated to the rank of section leader and became privy to the real mission of our agency. 

My original agency was organized to monitor local and regional economic and political movements in various countries which at the time seemed friendly and politically safe and write reports which went into some data bank or another. We never really knew where. The second iteration added social trends to these reports. By the time I made it to the level of section leader, we were compiling data on everything from marriages and divorces to the number of condoms purchased and the number of birth control pills prescriptions written and sold. In short we were compiling an in depth of reports on the social, political, and cultural practices of our supposed allies but who now appeared to be on the verge of wanting to expand their political influence in a number of directions, some of which were not in our national interest. In short we were the social spies for our overseers on our former friends and potential enemies. We weren't foot soldiers on the ground but historians, social scientists, statisticians and others who collected available data and put into a form that our mentors could decipher.

One of the great dichotomies of our time is that before the internet, a huge amount of money was spent gathering and assimilating limited publically available information and making sense out of it. After the development of the internet, we had access to more information than we could process with three times the number of people. Much of the information was inaccurate and mostly useless but you really can't put that stamp on it until you have at least looked at it. So the truth is that today we are awash in information, too much information. And that is the heart of my rise and fall.

The problem in the intelligence business is that you never want to be blatantly wrong or inconveniently right. Either condition makes you look bad in the eyes of those who authorize your paycheck. I had advanced and I had more and more responsibility and therefore more people looking over my shoulder. I had never been a political person and had always focused on the quality of my work and reports with generally acceptable results. My wrongs had never been blatant and my rights had usually been inconvenient but lost in the morass of secrecy. That was until the day that one of my inconveniently correct reports surfaced on page one of a major newspaper. For over a week the pseudo news talk shows had a field day condemning one branch of the government for their oversight. It took a week for another story to be planted that changed the focus from my report to a non-existent one that polarized more people than the original. The press had a feeding frenzy for those several weeks.

That proved to be just long enough for me to be retired and shuttled off to a state of non-existence with a warning to keep my mouth shut or vile things would befall me. The Congressional hearing that followed proved to be the usual mish-mash of conflicting ideologies and resulted in a total waste of taxpayer money with no resolution of any kind except for promises that no stone would be unearthed until the truth was discovered. That meant that nothing would happen until they could come up with a plausible story to baffle the most people. By then I was in a small two bedroom house on five acres in the country with limited phone and internet service. I became an instant and invisible non-entity.

For me, this change in life wasn't horribly traumatic because I had never married and had no family to force into exile. Others were not so fortunate. As the agency had grown and matured, several "benefits" had been introduced that I found handy. One was an unwritten and easily deniable policy that social contact with outsiders was discouraged for fear of leaks. As a result, single people like me were encouraged to date within the junior pool of analysts and if a married person wanted diversion outside of his or her marriage, they should seek it from this source also. This junior pool consisted of a wide variety of smart younger men and women all of whom had been vetted and trained and were considered safe. Being single, I had restricted my dating to within the pool for simplicity's sake.

As a result, when I retired, I had about a dozen women who I could call depending on what my interest was at the time. One woman loved to go to the theater and opera and she was my date for this events. Another was a sports fanatic and would be my date to any game that involved a ball. A few of the women the dozen women I had access too were not sexually active but most were. There were rumors that the girls had an informal sex club where they talked and trained using various techniques to insure that they were good lovers for their partners. There were also rumors that they kept score on the performance of their partners although no one ever admitted that this actually existed. This benefit continued into retirement to help insure that the retiree could have a social life without having to go through the usual "what did you do before you retired" conversations. 

Related to this program was that a single senior analyst who wanted to be marry usually married a "safe" junior partner. The partner had the choice of "being retired" with a stipend when they married or he or she could continue working until children became involved. At that time, the partner was retired with a pension and an allowance for each ensuing child. While this program might offend a large number of people, it actually worked very nicely. Everyone knew the rules of the game and could find satisfaction within the framework of the game. To my knowledge, there had been no serious leak of any kind resulting from this arrangement. Even the few divorces that inevitably occurred were not overly contentious or public.

As a retired senior analyst, I still used the service regularly except that with my remote location, I only had easy access to three junior analysts within a reasonable drive. All three were fun dates and we enjoyed our time together when I took advantage of them.

The other benefit was one that appeared to be good but I felt was a double edged sword. We each had a mother with whom we maintained all contact with the agency. The mothers were experienced junior analysts who had never made the rank of senior analyst but who were transitioned into the role of administrative mentors for retirees. Most of them were women and they were our sole contact to the agency on everything from paycheck problems, insurance issues, and other such mundane matters. They also maintained a website that we could visit for a sanitized version of agency news and PR. The other edge of the sword was that they most certainly were reporting our status and attitude to their superiors. A regular report of a bad attitude generally led to a visit from "counselor" to discuss an attitude adjustment. I didn't worry much about that since, once I was out, I tended to look forward and didn't spend much time looking in the rear view mirror.

I had settled into a sedate life as a retired hobby farmer who puttered around on my John Deere tractor and planted various vegetables and herbs that I sold at the local Farmers Market. I also made several homemade candies that sold fairly well at the market. I didn't need the money but the money was a convenient way to measure the success of my ventures. Most of the money I made was re-invested in things to use around my homestead or just parked in a saving account I had. This was my life after retirement or at least the part of my retirement that anyone knew about.

The other part of my life was the paranoid part. While roaming the area around my property, I had discovered that the adjacent property had a series of caves carved out by eons of weather and erosion in a solid rocky outcrop on top of a hill. They weren't deep as caves go but they were fairly tall and could provide shelter and protection from the elements and man if necessary. I realized that I was an open and easy target for anyone if they choose to make me one.

At this point someone might ask why I might become a target since I wasn't involved in external activities and overt actions. But the truth was that once we delved into the social, political, and especially the religious fabric of the countries we studied, we began playing with fire. The rise in fundamentalist religions worldwide also brought about the rise in the age old tradition of revenge. Revenge was especially strong in those highly placed individuals whose lies and fabrications were brought to light. My highly publicized inconvenient truth had put a spotlight squarely on a well established family whose history was filled with stories of intimidations, manipulations, and outright corruption. Even with the cloud of the following cover-ups and distractions, I had a feeling that there were people afoot trying to locate and cause me great discomfort.

As a result, I bought the adjacent land under a corporate cover I created. The land itself had little use for farming or development so I was able to buy it for a very low price and was able to pay cash for it in a simple deal. I then began quietly fortifying it. In fact, I turned it into a very comfortable place with electricity, heat and ventilation, tile floors, and running water. The other thing I discovered was that from this point, I had excellent cell phone connections and that I could tap into four or five WIFI hot spots. I used the dial up line at the house for routine internet things like talking to my company mother but I bought a laptop and set it up from day one under my nom de plume and a generic e-mail address which would be difficult to trace back to me directly. I also used this laptop for my other activity which was to write erotic novels which I had begun selling on an e-book publishing site also under my pen name. 

It wasn't perfect by any means but I had two places and one of them could not be easily traced back to me. It would take a fairly sophisticated search and analysis to link the two personas I had. So I felt relatively safe in my life as I watched a female get out of the Suburban after penetrating my space.

She looked familiar but I couldn't place her. She had dark hair but my memory suggested a blonde. She had a nice slim figure with a firm bust and slender hips. My mind wanted to think twenty pounds heavier and a flatter chest and rounder hips. The one thing that triggered something the strongest was her smile. For me, it was always the smile that triggered my memory and this smile was in my registry but I couldn't put the rest of the features with it.

"Good morning." I said, trying to be pleasant as my brain went rapidly through my data base of pretty smiles.

"Good morning, Jeff. I can tell that you don't remember me."

"I will admit that you are familiar but I can't place you for sure."

She laughed, "Eight years ago, I was blonde and a little heavier than I am today. We went to a number of art and craft fairs and flea markets together. You also brought me toe curling orgasms in bed later."

"Natalie Crawford, of course. I knew the smile but the dark hair and the trim figure threw me off. How are you?" But my suspicions were raised since I had had no contact with her for almost seven or eight years.

"My name now is Natalie Fisher and I would be better if you can help me out. Can we walk in your garden for a bit?" There it was, she had a company -related problem and these problems were only discussed where there was no possibility of a listener.

"Sure; I would love to show you my garden. Let me get my bag." I went in the house and brought out what appeared to be a gardening bag. In fact, it contained a scanner which should be able to tell me if someone had planted a listening device anywhere nearby.

I smiled and took her arm as she moved close to me. We walked the hundred yards to the garden. My meter showed a device nearby but we were walking away from it. When we got to a clear spot, I stopped and started pointing at different plants and things but asked, "What's going on Natalie?"

She continued to smile and stooped to touch a tomato plant. "I don't know. I married John Fisher a year and a half ago and retired to just be his wife. He didn't want me involved. Six months ago he told me that if he didn't call me or come home by 9:00 in the evening, I should pack a bag and tell people I was going to visit my sister for a couple of weeks. Then he said to come to you and wrote down the address and the gate codes in my date book. He didn't call or come home the night before last; so I left yesterday morning and drove in the direction of my sister's place. I got up at 3:00 this morning and came here. Do you have any idea of what is going on? He didn't tell me any more than that."

I moved us toward a row of bell peppers and replied, "I've stayed far away from things since I retired and haven't heard from John since he helped me move two years ago. I heard that he got married but didn't know it was you."

"I worked for him for two years while he was mentoring under you. I never told him that we dated for awhile. He always said that you were the one person who he trusted the most. We got married a year and a half ago and I retired."

Cautiously, I asked, "Did he say anything, anything at all that might help?"

"A week ago he reminded me of his note and said it was a K19. I don't know what that means. Do you?"

I did. "It is a code we used that means he was being followed and that it might be about me. I imagine that he didn't say what he was working on?"

"No, he didn't. Rumor at the time said that he picked up a couple of your projects but he had others. Most of yours were spread around to several people."

"That is the way it usually worked when a senior retired."

"What can you or we do from here? I hate to admit it, but I'm a little scared."

"You should be. I guess that I need to ask you how much you trust me right now?"

"Jeff, I trust you just about as much as I trust John. You treated me extremely well and I liked it a lot. When they promoted you, I was sorry to lose contact with you but understood the situation. I just did my job until I started working for John. He idolized you and how you managed to keep yourself focused on the work and not the politics. He was royally pissed off when you got dumped on. So there is no one I trust more than you in this situation."

"Good; I hope I can live up to your trust. I think that the first thing we need to do is go run a couple of errands and make a few calls. Let's take your car and go to town. At least there we can be a little anonymous. What kind of clothes did you bring?"

"Mostly sundresses and shorts. My sister lives in LA."

"Then we need to get you some jeans and a couple of shirts to wear around here. I think that you need to stay here until we can find out something to go on. When we get to town, call your sister and tell her your car broke down in Kansas or somewhere like that and that you will be a couple of days late getting there. I would expect that they will have her phone tapped. Keep the call short so they can't trace it and use a pay phone. I'm going to check in with a couple of other sources and see what they might know."

"I'll do whatever you say."

"We are clean here in the garden but there is a bug somewhere between here and the house. Keep things on other subjects until I check out the house and your car."

"Gotcha."

I led her back toward the house and we talked about plants and vegetables. The bug seemed to be near the spot where I had a load of compost delivered several days before. Other than that, the porch and house were clean. Someone had gotten interested in me in just the past couple of days, it appeared. Surprisingly, her car was clean. I guessed that if she had waited another day to leave, a bug would have been planted. Things were moving quickly but were not fully functional yet.

We drove into town and stopped at my favorite café for lunch. Natalie was tired and hungry from her early departure and she ate heartily. When she finished, she went to the pay phone in the corner and called her sister and was off the phone in less than twenty seconds. When she returned, she said that she had gotten her sister's voice mail and left her a message. That was good since there wasn't any chance of getting into a longer conversation. I hoped that her whereabouts could remain hidden until we found out what was going on or at least for a week.

When she finished telling me about that, I sent her to the local farm supply store and told her to buy several pairs of jeans, blouses, a vest or jacket and a pair of good walking or hiking shoes along with a hat and put it on my account. I felt that her using her bank cards was too risky. I told her that I would be in the library if she finished before I caught up to her.

In the library, I used one of their computers and logged into the news website and was surprised to see a popup telling me to log into an ad website using a certain password. This meant that I had a message and that the password could only be used once. If anyone else accessed it, the password would not work. Therefore I was assured that only I saw the message. I logged in and found a disturbing message waiting.

I had been on a team of three senior advisors who developed our coded message system. We spent weeks evaluating all sorts of possible situations. Some of them almost seemed like they were straight out of a James Bond movie but when we finished, we felt that we could quickly alert anyone of any kind of situation that might possibly arise. The first letter indicated the threat level and its certainty with 'A' being simple and 'Z' being critical and dangerous. The first number indicated the threat. 1 meant being watched; 2 meant being followed; 3 meant imminent danger; 4 meant a signal that the message was being written under coersion; and any other number was jibberish. The second number indicated who the threat was directed at. A 1 meant that the sender was the target; a 5 meant that a number of people were the target; and a 9 meant that the recipient was the target. John's message through Natalie meant that it was a moderate level threat with fairly high certainty and that he was being followed as the target.

My message that morning was P39. Things had heated up quickly and was getting dangerous and that meant someone was looking for me. This was followed by a space and another number. This number referred to the project involved and this told me that my inconvenient truth project was the reason. This led me to believe that someone or more than one of the family involved was looking for revenge. Somehow, they determined that the best way to find me was through John. I logged out of the message and went to the date site and entered my three local girl's numbers. Two were on line and the third was out of the loop for a couple of days. I asked the two to meet me for dinner at a certain place they both knew at 5:00. I got quick acknowledgements from both.


An Inconvenient Spy Ch. 01



Then I logged off and went to find Natalie. When I found her she had a basket full of things and was trying on boots. She asked my opinion on the ones she had on and a pair sitting next to her. I suggested that she take both. So she did. We checked out and as we walked to the car I told her what I had found out.

"It looks like John may have sent you from the frying pan into the fire. Someone is looking for me and may have been using John to find me. Maybe you would be better off going off on your own."

"Thanks, but I think I might feel better with you than by myself. You senior guys have more access to information and more knowledge to fall back on that I do. I just did research on politics in certain regions. I am totally in the dark about everything else."

Although she wasn't supposed to say, I asked if she had done research on a small middle eastern country involved in my project.

"Yes, as a matter of fact. I was working on that while I was working for John. That is one weird place."

"You have that right. Alright, at least for now I think you are safe with me but if things get ugly, I might send you off for your safety."

"I like that better than going off on my own. What's next?"

"We are going to do some shopping for food and then I am going to let you into a private place that hopefully no one knows about but me." She looked at me with questions on her face but asked none of them. She just nodded.

We went to the grocery store and I told her that we needed to buy only non-perishable foods like canned goods and dry products. We filled half a basket with things and then picked up several bottles of wine and two cases of beer. Then we checked out and I drove us back to my place by a back road. She was surprised when I stopped at an old barn and got out to open one of the doors. I pulled her SUV inside and closed the door.

"What is this place?"

"It is a property adjacent to mine. I own this one too but that should be a secret. I'll show you the rest in a few minutes. Let's move the food into the truck." I pulled a tarp off of a ten year old pickup with a camper shell covering the bed. We moved the food and things into the bed of the truck and then I covered her Suburban with the tarp. 

The truck was registered to the company that owned the property and had been bought for cash. There was no way to trace it to me. I had chosen a non-descript vehicle that would attract little attention but had then paid a friend to replace the engine with a more powerful one and to beef up the suspension and wheels in case I needed to go off road.

"This is my getaway vehicle in case I ever need one. If something happens, we will leave in it and go away until things settle down. Get your clothes and overnight bag; we will take them up to where we will stay tonight." 

We carried her bags out of the back door which immediately put us in some thick woods so that we were invisible from the road. A hundred yards into the woods, we went behind a large rock and began climbing a gully toward the top of the rocky hill. The only way we could be observed was from overhead and that was only in a couple of places. The last turn led us under the first outcrop and into the maze of connected areas until we came to the door in the wall I had built to make my safe room.

"Wow, this is impressive. You did this all yourself?"

"Yes; I never expected any problems but I felt that I needed a safe place if any trouble cropped up. It looks like that was a good decision. As far as I know, no one knows about this place or that I own it. I only come up here after dark. Make yourself at home. I am going to leave around 4:30 for an hour or so. You can come with me or stay here. I am meeting a couple of other juniors to see what they might be able to find out."

"Are they as good in bed as I was?" She teased.

"No comment but I will say that I still have strong memories of our times together."

"Me too. I think I would like to go with you if I can. There are a couple of things that you might not know about that might help."

"Really?" I asked.

"Yes, the world didn't stop when you retired. We'll see if it can help."

"Ok by me. I'm going up and take a look at the house and see if everything is alright?" I climbed a ladder to another opening that allowed me to look down over my house and property. The first thing I noticed was the van parked near the corner of my lot. There was a sign on the side but I couldn't read it from this distance. Then I noticed movement in my garden. There was a guy dressed in camo pants and a tee shirt doing something to one of my fence posts. I looked around some more and saw another guy on my porch doing something and then a third man near my small barn. Something told me that it was not safe to talk openly around my house anymore.

When I climbed down, Natalie asked, "Did you see anything?"

"More than I wanted to. There are three guys who look like they are planting listening devices around the house and garden. It is a good thing we came up here but I don't know for sure how long this will be safe too. We might need to move quickly." 

Natalie had been taking off the tags from her new clothes and getting them ready to wear. I pulled out another overnight bag and told her to put as much as she could in there and have it by the door if we needed to leave in a hurry. I went back up the ladder with a pair of binoculars to take a closer look at my visitors. When I settled in I saw that they had finished whatever they were doing and were climbing the fence near the van and were putting their tool bags inside. Then they got in and drove off. This time I could read the sign on the van and it said "Smith Geological Surveys." Well that sounded legitimate except that there was nothing anywhere around here that required a geological survey.

I climbed back down and looked at Natalie while I thought about what to do next. "Natalie, I think I want to confuse them a little more. I'm going to take a walk through the woods to my neighbor's house and get him to drive me back to the house. I'll try to throw them off with some stupid message or something. It will take me about twenty minutes to get back to the house. Climb up there and watch through the binoculars. If anything strange happens, take your things back down and take the truck and go where ever you want. If nothing happens, just wait. I am going to pack a few things and will come back up another way. I shouldn't be more than an hour."

"Alright, but it looks like they have found you."

"Yes it does; the next question is what are they going to do next?" I doubt that they will do anything right away but listen; at least that is what I hope. It will take them some time to get together whatever they are going to do. What I don't want is for them to see you again, if they did earlier. So just stay up here."

She nodded and I went back down to the woods and walked about a half a mile before I cut across my neighbors pasture and up to the front of his house. He was sitting on his porch drinking a beer.

"Hey Jeff. What's up? Are you on foot today?"

"Sort of. A woman got lost out here earlier and I took her up to town to get her straightened out. She dropped me off up at the turn off. But I kind of twisted my ankle a little walking back down. Do you suppose you could drive me back to my place? I need to soak it for awhile."

"Sure thing. I'll get my keys. Do you want a beer? Beer cures everything that ails you."

"I think I will accept that. Thanks." He went into the house and came out with his keys and a beer.

He drove me to the gate and I punched in my code. I also noticed a fresh small hole in the fence post. As the gate slowly rolled out of the way, he said, "Those guys that were here said that you gave them the gate code but it wouldn't work. I didn't know that you were having a survey done. Anything important?"

"No, I am thinking about putting in a pond to catch the runoff from the rocks. Maybe I'll get a cow or two and some chickens."

"Hell, they are a pain in the ass. Get a horse instead. With your garden, you can get the manure but not have all of the other hassle." 

"I might do that." The gate finished opening and he drove down the drive to the front of the house.

As I got out, he asked, "How the hell did she get lost out here if she was coming from town?"

"She wasn't coming from town. She came from that direction and was trying to get to town and missed the turn down the hill. She was cute but a little old for me but she was nice. So I took her to town and had lunch with her. I thought that I might get her to come back for a roll in the hay but she is heading south to meet her husband who is working on a job down near Clinton. So I missed a chance for a lay."

"Isn't that the way it always is? You should have fucked her before you took her to town."

"I realize that now. Maybe I'll be more alert or maybe she'll stop back by on her way home." I grinned and shut the door. He waved and drove back down the drive. 

I went up on the porch and found small holes at each end and one in the ceiling right above the front door. I went in and a quick check told me that they had probably only planted the devices on the porch but I wasn't sure about that. I quickly packed several days of clothes in a back pack and put the bag with my guns and my stash of cash inside on the back porch. There was no sign of a device back there. Then I went through the motions of doing some normal activities like taking out the trash and sweeping the front porch. Then I yawned and said out loud. "Crap, I think I need a nap." Then I went inside and locked the door. I turned on a living room light for later and then went out the back door but tried to be as quiet as I could. I put the back pack on and carried the gun bag and quickly walked into the woods behind the house. I went slowly until I came to a clearing that gave me a good look at the front of the house. I heard a helicopter overhead and waited for it to pass and then I walked around the clearing and came up the side of rocky hill. I hid in the woods again as the helicopter made a second pass and then went to the back entrance and was under the outcrop before it flew over a third time. A few moments later, I was inside and I heard Natalie climbing down from the lookout perch.

"I guess you noticed the helicopter?" She said.

"Yes, I was in the woods and stayed hidden until it passed. Could you tell anything about what they were doing?"

"The sign on it said something about Geological Services and a guy was hanging out the side with a camera. I think he was taking pictures from all angles. What did you do?"

"The guys planted several listening devices I am sure. Fortunately, my neighbor was in good form and I got to plant a couple of things for them to hear and think about."

"Like what?"

"Like you are an older woman who got lost and who I took to town. And that I was trying to get you to come back for some afternoon delight but that you were driving south to meet your husband. Just some bullshit to keep them guessing."

"If I wasn't so nervous and scared, another roll in the sack with you would be wonderful." She grinned at me but then added, "So what is the plan now?"

"We'll go to dinner and see if they know anything and then come back here and stay up here for the night. If nothing happens tonight, I'll go back down tomorrow and try to act normal but will close some things down and stuff. Then if the other girls come up with anything, we will either sit tight or get out tomorrow night. We will just go and get lost as best as we can and check in until we find out if it is safe or not. If things get really bad, I'll call in the heavy troops."

"I am with you all the way. We have an hour before we need to leave. What do you want to do until then?"

"I'm going to take a shower and clean up a little. I have some clothes up here and I brought something to travel with. Unfortunately, my shower is open air so if you don't want to watch me, either climb up in the observation perch or watch television or something."

"I think I will watch you and see if you have improved with age." She was grinning. "Oh, do you by chance have internet connection up here? I haven't checked my e-mail today." I thought about it a moment before I replied.

"I do have connections up here but they aren't secure. If you don't mind, I'll take the laptop with us and you can log in from the restaurant. If anybody is watching, it will take a while to figure out what and where you are."

"Good idea. I'll watch you then."

I grinned at her and went out into the alcove that I had set up as a shower and turned on the water. I undressed and started to get wet when I felt Natalie join me. She pressed her body to my back and I felt her nakedness against mine.

"Does this bring back memories?"

"Probably more than you want to know. Are you sure about this? I mean we don't know where John is or what has happened to him."

"Don't worry about John. I married him because we got along so well; but he still sees a couple of his girlfriends from the pool and I see a couple of my dates occasionally. We both know what the other is doing; I expect that he figured we would sleep together when he told me to come to you for help. I was actually looking forward to it. I have nothing but great memories of our times together. Now turn around and look at me as I am today. I know that you are wondering."

I turned and looked and all I could do was whistle. She was perfect in my eyes. Her breasts were exactly as I remembered them; perky and round with tight little nipples that seemed always to be slightly aroused. If anything had changed, it was that they were fuller and perkier. Her stomach had lost the slight roundness that she had and was now flat and tight. Her hips were the biggest change in that they were firm and well shaped. Her legs showed signs of exercise and her once hairy pussy was now neatly trimmed into a landing strip.

"There was nothing wrong with you before but everything is just tighter and more toned now. You are gorgeous."

She blushed, "Thanks. Some of it was work and some of it was nature. I still had some baby fat when we were dating and it finally went away with some exercise. The rest was just toning up by running and doing some gym work. I wanted to see you again someday so you could see how I turned out when I was through growing up. I have never forgotten you."

"I'm somewhat surprised that John would still seek out others with you available to him."

"Part of that is that he has a couple of kinky things he likes that I don't do and the other is that I told him before we were married that there were a couple of people I would want to continue to see after we got married. The other two I mentioned and the other one was you although I didn't mention your name. So now you are back in my life and I would like to keep it that way unless you don't want me in your life."

"I don't know what you see in a worn out old bachelor but I certainly wouldn't mind renewing our relationship at all."

"You aren't worn out and you certainly aren't old. I know because I have kept track of you on the sly. The woman you dated for the opera and theater was a good friend of mine and we roomed together for a couple of years before you started dating her. She always told me about your dates. Unfortunately, most of the senior analysts are pretty raw socially. You were an exception and most of us knew that. It was one of the reasons you never had a problem getting a date. That and the fact that everyone knew how good you were in bed."

"I always thought that you guys had a secret rating system or something like that."

"We did and you were right at the top of the list of most of the girls who reported in. There were a number of girls who wanted to marry you or have your children even if you didn't want to get married."

"Now you are giving me a big head."

"This is the head I want to get big." She grasped my cock and stroked the shaft and head. "Now, why don't you kiss me and reacquaint yourself with my body."

That was a real pleasure to do. I pulled her to my chest and found her lips to be soft and sensual and ready for kissing. Her breasts against my chest were firm and eager for attention. The rest of her was accessible and wonderful to touch. We kissed for a number of minutes before she pulled my very hard cock between her legs and trapped it between her thighs. With her hands now free, she set about caressing and exploring my ass and back. I dipped my head and took one of her nipples between y lips and teased it with my teeth and tongue. That earned me a loud moan and a plea for more which I was glad to give her. A few minutes of that and she rose up on her toes and moved so that the crown of my cock was resting against her wet pussy llips.

"I can't wait any longer. Fuck me now." The crown slipped inside her pussy and I was taken back almost a decade as I remembered how her pussy almost sucked me deep inside her warm and welcoming womanhood. It had been a couple of weeks since I had been with either of my local dates and I wish I could say that I held out longer than I did but I didn't last much longer after I entered her.

"Natalie, I'm going to cum; you feel so wonderful, I can't help it."

"Don't try Jeff, just fill me up. I have been thinking about this moment for eight years and I can't wait much longer either. We will have all night to do it slower. Just cum in me now."

I lasted only another ten strokes and I pumped a load of cum inside her. That triggered her to grasp me tightly and cum like she had never cum before and flooded my spurting cock. "Oh yesssss. Just like I remember it."

When we both stopped, I had to lean against the wall to keep from falling down. She must have felt the same way because she just melted into my arms and kept me inside her. Then we kissed each other as our heart rates returned to normal. When I finally softened enough to slip outside of her, she stood up and said, "My God, you are still the best fuck I have ever had and I am going to enjoy our time together a lot. We better get dressed so we can go meet the others. I hope that you aren't planning to fuck either of them tonight because I want a lot more of you and won't give you up easily."

"I don't think that I will want them either after that. I want more of you too. Now I wonder why I ever gave you up in the first place."

"You didn't give me up. They promoted you to regional head and transferred me to another region. We both got really busy for a long time. I didn't date any guy again until I started up with John."

"That was a long time doing without."

"It was a long time without a guy. I dated two women during that period and was quite happy about it. They were the other two I mentioned. You are the only guy I was interested in dating at all. Now let's wash off and get going."

We cleaned ourselves off and dried with the towels I had just outside the shower. In twenty minutes we were dressed and walking back down to the barn. I opened the door and drove the truck out and closed the barn door behind us. Then I pulled out onto the road. For some reason, I chose to drive a mile down the hill for a mile and come back up in front of my place just to see if anyone was around watching. As I drove back up the road, I found another van parked on a deserted driveway about two hundred yards from my gate. I told Natalie to slide down until just the top of her head showed in the window. I hunched over like an old man would look as I drove by without looking at the van. I saw no movement in the rear view mirror after I passed it. When we got to the top of the hill and the crossroad, I sat up and told her that she could get up also.

"I'm not sure who they are but they didn't show any sign of recognizing us. So let's get out of here and go eat." She slid over in the seat after raising the console and nestled against me..




An Inconvenient Spy Ch. 01



"I think I will be your lover tonight; not your child." She giggled. "It's funny but I ought to be more scared than I am but you make me feel safe. I'm so glad I came and we reconnected."

"Me too. Let's just hope that this goes away easily and soon. I don't like the smell of this at all. I hope that we can find out something and soon."

When I got to the highway, I drove at the speed limit for twenty minutes. During that time, I saw two other Geological Services trucks parked on each side of the highway. My guess was that they were looking for the red Suburban which was confirmed when we were passed by one and the truck was right behind it. I turned off before we found out what happened. We drove three miles into the small town and parked in back of the restaurant after cruising around the area nearby for ten minutes.

We entered the restaurants and I found the two girls sitting at the bar. I motioned them to join us at a table in the back. They each followed us and sat down. I quickly introduced Natalie as Nat and Jillian as Jilly and Gwen as Gwen. The three already assumed that they were all juniors and asked no personal question but began talking as if they were long lost friends. We ordered dinner which was quickly served and we ate as if enjoying a night out together. When we finished, I paid the bill and the four of us rose and left the restaurant and walked next door to a park. There was no one else around.

Once there, Jilly asked, "What's going on Jeff? I am guessing that you aren't here for a threesome or a foursome."

"No, it isn't a fun visit. Something is going on and we don't know what it is. First, Nat's husband has disappeared after reporting that he was being followed. Then I found out that my place has been bugged and I am being watched. I had a message on-line that sounds like a real problem was brewing but I am afraid to go on-line to find out just the usual crap. Can you two go into your informal network and dig up anything that you can find?"

"Sure. That's not a problem. What are you looking for?"

Nat spoke up before I could answer. "Are you both on the new gossip network?"

Gwen replied, "I am but I haven't been there in a couple of days. Is something going on that we should look for?"

"I don't know, maybe. The thing is that I am also on there and it is the most secure place I know to give and get information. If you find out anything, post it to me personally and I will get it. Don't use the other communications tools. I'm Nat 105. I think that Jeff and my regular accounts might be monitored."

Gwen nodded. I looked funny at them and asked, "What is this gossip line you are talking about?"

Natalie explained, "After you retired, the normal communications lines for dates and things got tampered with by someone with a dirty mind. There was a stink and it was reorganized into a date line and a communications line but it was constantly monitored. One of the girls who had been transferred to the NSA but still part of the group set up the gossip line on one of their servers. Her husband is one of the IT gurus there and he keeps an eye on it for her but no one else can access it. Only junior girls are allowed in and they are invited to join. This has let us air out a lot more things about people and stuff going on. We can post something for everyone or we can focus it to member only. Most of us only trust it to say important things now. The other is just for making dates and posting news."

Gwen picked up the talk and said, "That's right. One of my talk buddies just told me that two juniors were being promoted to senior status and they got a promise that the two wouldn't disclose the existence of the line but that they wanted to remain members. So far no one has said 'no' to having two seniors remain in the group."

Jilly finally said something, "I'm glad to hear that because I am one of the two. I want to stay in the group because I get more real information from it than I do from sitting in all day meetings. I hate all of that bullshit. I don't see how you stood it as long as you did, Jeff."

"When I started, we were a lot smaller and tighter than it is today. But in the end, the bullshit caught up with me. So make sure that you keep your nose clean while you can."

Jilly continued, "Now that you know, maybe I can find out more than the juniors can. What's going on?"

"Nat's husband is John Fisher. Several months ago he told her that if he didn't call or come home before 9:00, she should pack a bag and leave and come to me. He reminded her last week and this week, he didn't come home. So she came to me yesterday. All he had given her was a K19 message. I found one bug this morning before we went to town. I checked in at the library and got a P39 message with a note that it was my big booboo case involved. When we got back, there were three guys planting bugs all over the place and a helicopter flying around taking pictures. One the way here, we saw two more of their vehicles on the road. They all had signs on them that said 'Geological Services' on the side. So I am pretty sure they have zeroed in on my house."

"Were you spotted?"

"I don't think so. I have a safe place near my house that I don't think they know about and my truck can't be traced to me. If we can't find out anything for sure soon, Nat and I will probably take a road trip. What we need to know is if there is any word on John, her husband, and if there is any rumbling about me from any source."

Natalie added, "John is JFish10."

Gwen's eyes lit up. "There was something on the gossip line about a JFish the other night but I didn't pay much attention to it. I'll check when I get home and post you about it, Nat."

"Thanks."

I added, "That is about all we know for sure. I wouldn't pry too much otherwise you might get visible in a hurry but anything you can find out and let Nat know would be appreciated."

Jilly said, "I guess we are all a little wary these days with all of the politics and games going on. I think that a road trip might be in order Jeff as long as you can stay invisible."

"I agree. If we do hit the road, it will either be tonight or tomorrow night depending on what happens. If we do, I will have Nat send you each a note that says 'on vacation'. If we go, we will only contact you through the gossip line. Anything from either of us on the other lines will be bogus."

"Got it." They both responded and with that we rose and gave each other hugs like friends departing. We waited and watched them get in their cars and leave. Then we got in the truck and drove the long way through town and took the highway back to my place. I passed the usual exit and took the road that pointed to the town landfill. I passed the dump and made several turns on a rutted dirt road and came out directly across from my barn. We sat and looked both ways for several minutes and then I had Natalie go and open the barn door. She did and I backed into the space. She had just closed the door when a truck went by. She peered through the door and nodded and pointed in the direction the truck was going. We put the board across the door to hold it shut and quickly went up to the room.

Natalie said that the truck was going too quickly to be looking but seemed to be doing more than just cruising around. I climbed up into the perch and in the fading daylight, I looked around with the binoculars. I saw the truck turning back up the hill from the other road and stop by the van. The van pulled out and drove up the hill and the truck pulled in and parked in its place. It looked like the truck had missed its turn and just looped around to replace the other lookouts.

I climbed back down to the room and picked up a television remote and another switch and said I would be right back. I went back down the hill to the clearing and pushed both remote devices and I saw the television in the living room come on and a light in the kitchen lit up. I nodded to myself and went back up to the safe room.

"What did you do?"

"I came up here one time and forgot to turn off the television. So I got another remote on and off and found that I could turn it on and off from about half way down the hill. Then I also wired up a couple of other lights to this remote so that if I stayed here after dark, I could have the house lit up when I went back down. So now the lookers can hear something and see something different than before and think I am inside."

"That's pretty smart."

"Lucky is more like it. I did that to make things easier on myself but it sure helped tonight. I'll keep an eye on the truck until later. Then we will decide if we go tonight or not. So music or television?"

"Go see if things are still quiet down there." I climbed back up to the perch and looked around. I paid special attention to the area between the fence and the house looking for any movement. Everything appeared to be quiet, so I climbed back down.

Natalie was naked on the bed and said, "If we are leaving tonight, I want to go with another orgasm for the road. If we go tomorrow night, we will try for three tonight. So strip and come make this girl happy." Once again, I did as she asked. This time we took a lot longer kissing and caressing each other. She sucked on my cock while I ate her sweet pussy and she ended up on all fours as I fucked her doggy style through two more orgasms before I unloaded inside her again. We lay for fifteen minutes panting in each other's arms before we moved again. "That was even better than before. Go on up and check while I clean up. If the movies and stuff are right, the bad guys always wait until dark or early in the morning to make their move. It is 10:00 now. See what you can see."

I climbed back up to the perch but it took a couple for minutes for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. There was an almost full moon shining so there was some light on the scene below me. When I looked I quickly spotted two small lights moving along the garden fence. I couldn't make out any details even with the binoculars but I watched them get close to the house before they stopped. I wished I had a remote that could reach from here to change the lights but I didn't. The two lights seemed to be just watching as they settled down against the base of a tree and out of the brighter areas of the moonlight. That was all it took for me to make a decision.

I climbed back down and told Natalie to get dressed and that we were going. She dressed quickly in jeans and a blouse and boots. I grabbed my pack, my computer bag and gun bag and one of hers as she grabbed the other one. There was only one small light and I turned it off and we made our way down the hill to the back of the barn. We put our bags in back with the food and she went to open the barn door again. I pulled the truck out without turning on the lights as she closed the door and latched it again. I quietly drove down the hill in the moonlight and turned right at the intersection. It was only then that I turned on the head lights and sped up. I drove for a few miles and then turned north. My intention was to go on back roads for at least twenty miles and pick up the Interstate and turn west.

I had decided that while you may be more exposed going west there were too many eyes going east. I preferred the desolation of the west. I also figured that we needed to be off the Interstate before the sun came up. We drove for three hours without talking much before we stopped at a truck stop and diner at 1:00 in the morning for gas and a bite to eat. I took the computer inside since the truck stops all had busy WIFI networks and logged in while our orders were being prepared. When I was logged in to my pen name I turned the computer to Natalie and said, "Log in to the gossip network and see if Gwen has posted anything yet. This should be secure but let's keep it logged on as short as possible." 

She nodded and logged in. A few minutes later her face clouded and turned it back to me. The message read "Report, JFish10 in car accident on Tuesday thought to be hit and run. In hospital. Wife said to be on the way to sister's. Jilly reports that Jeff 10 is W39 and Nat105 is P39. Suggest you go on vacation now."

I turned it back to Natalie and said, "Send the' on vacation' message to her and Jilly and log out. I'm going to get a map so we can decide where we are going." She nodded as I went to the counter and bought a detailed truckers map book. Our orders were waiting when I got back. "Are you Ok, Natalie?"

"Yes, I was worried about John but now I am more worried about us. When we get back in the truck, tell me what those codes mean."

"I will." 

We ate quickly and as I waited for a couple of large coffees to go, I heard a trucker say loudly, "Holy shit, look at that." Then the sound on the television turned up loud enough for everyone to hear it.

"From rural Van Zandt country, there is a report of a spectacular explosion and fire at a farm house. First reports say that the explosion occurred about thirty minutes ago. The sheriff and fire department are on the scene but have not released a statement yet. However a neighbor spoke to us moments ago." The screen changed to one of my neighbor talking to the camera. "I was getting ready for bed when I heard shooting going on over there. They sounded like automatic weapons to me. Then there was silence for about ten minutes and a helicopter flew over and what sounded like rockets were fired and then the house blew up and the helicopter flew off. The guy that lives there is a really nice guy who lives alone and causes no one any problems. Whatever happened, it was really big I can tell you that."

That was all I needed to hear as I pulled Natalie behind me and I paid the check and we got back in the truck and got back on the road.

Natalie said in a shaking voice, "Was that your house?"

"Yes, it was. I wonder how long it will take for them to find the safe house now. But we are going to get as far away as we can before day light and then we will try to find a place to hide out for the day."

"What do those codes mean?"

"They were set up as a way to quickly inform the seniors of impending situations. When you told me K19, that meant that John thought there was a moderate threat of someone looking for me. When I checked later it was P39 which mean it was a lot more serious and that there was danger for me. Gwen's message said that it was really dangerous for me and probably a danger for you too but that hasn't been confirmed yet. What it all means is that we need to disappear and hope that Jilly and Gwen can find out more."

"Where do you want to go?"

"There are only a couple of places that I know that I feel comfortable hiding out because they are remote. One is in the mountains in New Mexico and that is where we are going now although it will probably be tomorrow night before we can get there. The other is up in the state of Washington. It will be safer but there is a lot of road between here and there. Fortunately, there are a lot of small towns and no tell motels out this way where we can stay for a night."

"Why a no tell motel?"

"Because the chains all have linked data bases that can be hacked by almost any teenager. The small local motels don't. Some of them only keep their records on paper and don't keep a data base at all."

"I see. I'm glad I'm with you. Why do you think they are after us?"

"I'm not sure but my message said it had to do with the report that got leaked two years ago. I don't have a clue about why they want you except as a way to find me unless...........You said that you had been doing research on that screwed up country that was involved in my report. Did you find anything that might cause problems?"

"Not really. Most everything was common knowledge and on the net. The big thing at the time was that the younger son was in trouble again and that the father was rather pissed at him. Then I retired and someone else picked up the project. I think that the son has a serious mental problem but that was out of my territory."

"Well, that is a link between us but it is still at least a year old."We'll try to think if there was anything else." I felt her lay her head on my shoulder.

"Who is Russell Fisher?"

"You noticed, huh? Well it is me. When I retired I got interested in writing. I wrote a mystery novel which is on the e-book list now. I wanted to write under an assumed name but couldn't come up with one I liked. I also needed to have the character in the book change his identity. All of the books I have read about that said that you find someone who was born about the same time as you were and get a birth certificate for that person. Then apply for a new driver's license in the new name. I thought that was too simplistic so I talked to an attorney friend of mine and told him what I was trying to do in the book. He suggested that I find someone who died recently who was about my age and looks and do the same thing but also get a duplicate Social Security card. Then apply for a replacement license in that name. That way the character would have two good forms of ID. So I tried it and it worked. I liked the name Russell Fisher so that became my pen name for the book. I setup an e-mail with that name and only use it on that computer for my writing stuff. That's why I feel it is fairly safe. I guess someone could make a link but it would take some time. You are the only person except the lawyer who knows about my writing and he doesn't know the name Russell Fisher. Is that ok with you?"

"Yes, I just wondered but now I can be Mrs. Russell Fisher while we are together. I have the same last name and I can just say that I haven't changed my driver's license since I moved down here yet."

"Now that sounds like a plan. I hadn't made that connection but it is a good one. But I think I will call you Nat in case someone is looking for a Natalie."

"I like that. When I was young, my friends all called me Nat. That is why I use it as part of my user name."

"If you want to doze off, go ahead. We'll drive until dawn although I will get off the Interstate before it gets light."

"Why?"

""Just in case they come looking for us. They might find out about the truck and we know that they have a helicopter. Just precautionary."

"Take all of the cautions you want. I'm comfortable with your decisions." She lay down across the seat and put her head in my lap. "Oh and if I start sucking on your cock, just ignore me. I like it."

"Like I will be able to ignore that. Go to sleep." She giggled and then fell silent. Ten minutes later, I could hear her regular breathing and figured that she was sleep.

We drove a lot of miles before I turned off the Interstate. Logic said that I should turn north and pass through several towns and one bigger city; so I turned south and bypassed the city. At 7:00 I pulled into another truck stop fifty miles away from the city. Nat had gotten up about 6:30 and was ready for coffee and food as I was. I filled the tank on the truck and picked up several newspapers as I found a table. Nat had gone to the ladies room to freshen up. I was reading through the newspapers and drinking coffee when she returned.

"Anything in the paper?"

"Not in this one. I'll try the Dallas paper. It ought to have something." It had a small blurb about an explosion in a nearby rural county but nothing else. We ordered breakfast and were waiting when the morning news came on. This was a Dallas station and the first story was about the explosion.

"Good morning, everyone. An overnight explosion in rural Van Zandt County has law enforcement officials very confused this morning. There are mixed reports that it was a natural gas explosion and possibly a rocket attack from a helicopter but there are no reports of bodies or anything else suspicious at the scene. Here is the report from the sheriff's news conference that was just completed."




An Inconvenient Spy Ch. 01



The sheriff who I had talked to briefly a couple of times began, "Folks, I know that you want answers but frankly all we have right now are questions. What we know is that the house belonging to Jeff Franklin blew up late last night. The cause is undetermined at this time. Federal investigators are on the scene checking out the cause. There have been several reports from neighbors that say they heard a helicopter in the area about the time of the explosion. We have not been able to confirm that any local helicopter was flying last night. The Dallas Sheriff's office is checking up there to see if anything was flying. Jeff Franklin was seen by his neighbor yesterday afternoon but his car is still in his barn but no one was found in the house when we searched in it this morning. A search of the surrounding area found a SUV in an abandoned barn about a mile and a half from here but it has out of state plates and the owner has not been determined at this time. In short, we have a mystery going on here. Please don't speculate on anything. We will let you know if and when we find something concrete. I have met Jeff Franklin a couple of times and have never had any reason to suspect him of anything but being young and retired. His neighbors all say the same thing about him. So we don't have any idea if this was an accident, a crime scene, or what. I'll give you an update around noon. That's it. There'll be no questions because we don't have any answers at this time."

The news announcer returned and said, "In an unrelated story, a red SUV was hit by a hit and run driver last night just before dark. The lone woman driver was killed instantly when her car hit a bridge abutment. One witness reported that it was a white truck with no markings on it that rear ended the SUV and drove off at high speed. The sheriff's office has not released the name of the dead woman and an area-wide search is on going looking for the truck. In other news.............."

Natalie asked in horror, "Do you think that they thought that was me?"

"I don't know Nat but I guess we have to assume so until we hear otherwise. Finish your breakfast and let's go find a place to stay for the day."

"I'm with you."

"You keep saying that."

"I know but I kind of like it. We need to find a place for you to sleep."

We paid and left. We found our place to stay thirty miles down the road when a sign came up and pointed up a road to a state park with trailers for rent. That sounded perfect to me. We drove five miles to the gate and I got out and went into the office. A young lady was listening to music on her iPad.

"Good morning, miss. I see that you have some trailers for rent?"

Her perky voice answered, "Yes we do, Mister?"

"Fisher, Russell Fisher. My wife and I are returning from California and I drove all last night and couldn't go any farther. I think we would like to stay today and tonight if we can. I need to get back to Dallas tomorrow."

"I will have to charge you for two days since our day starts at 3:00 in the afternoon. Sorry, but that is the rules. The trailers are all new since we are trying this out as a new thing to attract visitors. We don't have the cable television in yet but the WIFi works if you have a laptop or an iPad. The radio reception is pretty good too."

That will be fine. I just need a long nap this morning and a good night's sleep tonight. We have some food for today but might like to go out to dinner tonight. Is there anything good close by?"

"Not really. Thirty miles that way is a town with a truck stop and a diner and that is about it."

"Well that will have to do. I can't drive any farther today."

"Ok, it is $25 per night so it will be $50 for two days and I need to see your driver's license." 

I pulled out my wallet and almost pulled out my real driver's license but then pulled out the Russell Fisher one along with two twenties and a ten. She wrote down the information on the license in a journal book and handed the license back to me and then handed me a key to number twenty. 

"Pull through the gate and drive down the left fork of the road. It will be the third one from the turn off. There is no one else in the park right now but there might be later."

"That's great. If we do go out to dinner tonight, is there a problem getting back in after the office closes?"

"No, this key will open the gate and if you leave in the morning before we open, just drop it in the box on this side. This gate will open automatically when you pull up."

"Thank you so much. I think we might have to come back next time we go this way."

"I hope so. I just started working here and hope that we can make this a success."

"Me too." 

I went back out to the truck and we drove the short distance to the trailer which indeed looked brand new. I told Nat everything that the girl had said and she nodded. Then we unloaded our overnight bags and opened the trailer. It was really nice with a queen size bed in back and a small but workable bathroom and shower and an electric kitchen. We set the bags down and she pushed me to the bed.

"Get undressed, get under the covers and go to sleep. I'll wake you up if something happens or for lunch. I might even let you have me for lunch today." She smiled at me but by now it was almost too hard for me to smile. I took off my shoes and clothes and crawled into bed. 

I woke with a naked nipple caressing my lips. I could only guess who the nipple belonged to but I found out when I sucked it into my mouth and nipped down on it with my lips.

"Ouch, you horny devil. I was just trying to wake you up nicely."

"Then how come you are naked?"

"Because I wanted to be ready for you if you woke up horny."

"And."

"If you aren't horny yet, I am going to make you horny in a few minutes."

"I think that you are the horny one. Regardless of what happens, you are ready to fuck anytime we are together."

"You noticed. It is you by the way. John isn't a great lover and the two women I enjoy are nice and all, but you make me crazy. I wanted you in the truck last night and I wanted you when we got here even though I knew that you were exhausted. So now, I still want you. Are you complaining?"

"Sit on my face for a few minutes while I decide if I have any complaints." In a flash, I had a warm wet pussy against my lips and a mouth around my cock. This time she came three times and when I tried to pull out in order to fuck her properly, but she pulled off just enough to say, "No, I want to taste you." Then she went back down on me and coaxed a full orgasm from my cock.

Then she pulled off and crawled up next to me and snuggled close. "You can kiss me if you want. I don't mind the taste of my cum on your lips." She rose up and kissed me fully and completely for quite some time. She finally pulled back and lay back down next to me.

"Damn, you fuck me the best and you taste great in my mouth. Loving you is easy and wonderful."

"What time is it?"

"Oh, it is about 4:00 I guess. I just let you sleep."

"Did you get on the computer?"

"I thought about it but realized that I didn't have the log in or password. We probably ought to get up and check. I've just been puttering around and getting things in order. What is your plan now?"

"We need to eat something. The office closes at 7:00 so I thought we would leave about 7:30 and get on the road. I pretty well told the girl that we would leave early in the morning so if anyone checks, we could have ten hour head start."

"Do you think that someone is looking for us?"

"I assume so. They spent a lot of time and money finding me and maybe you. Now they know that we aren't there. I would imagine that they aren't going to pack their bags and go home after one set back."

"Who do you think they are?"

"I really don't know but if I had to guess, I would think it might be that kid or his family from that country we both wrote about. That is the only real link to both of us."

"That makes sense because I was working on that when I worked for John too. He reviewed all my reports before they went to wherever they go."

"True. Think again about what you wrote. Did you say or project anything that might have alienated someone in the chain if the report got leaked? That is what happened to me. I wrote that the family was poised to try a coup on the ruling family and that is what happened. Everyone else discounted the family as being a minor power. I felt that they were more powerful. I have no idea who leaked the report but when it was out there, the shit really hit the fan."

"I remember. It was really nasty all around the place. The only thing that I wrote that might have been hard was a comment that if the younger on became the head of the family, things might not go well for us. The older son would probably follow his father and support us in the area. Everything else was just routine stuff."

"Well that could be a match but it sounds pretty weak. If we get to a safe computer, we can look up more. I haven't paid much attention to things over there since I retired."

"Me neither. And John hasn't said anything but then he wouldn't."

"Ok, let me shower and then we can eat and log in and see what else is Gwen or Jilly have found out."

The shower was too small for both of us so we each took a quick shower alone and then dressed in clean clothes. Nat heated up a couple cans of beef stew and we ate as I logged in.

"The user name is highly creative. It is Russell the Fisher Man. It was the best I could come up with at the time. I am going to change the password so don't worry about the old one." I logged in and went to the change password screen and typed in the new password twice.

"Ok, smart ass, what is the new password?"

"One star then Nat105followed by five stars."

"And what is the significance of that?"

"Before Nat105, my life was a one star life; after Nt105, my life is a five star special."

"You sure do know how to make a girl feel good."

"Listen you make me feel better than I ever have before."

"Seriously?"

"Dead seriously. The past couple of days have been wonderful with you except for being on the run. Now log into the gossip line and let's see what is there."

She did and there were three messages. The first was a short one from Gwen that said simply, "All hell is breaking loose." The second was from Jilly who said, "Jeff, be careful. Someone is after your ass." The third one was three pages long from Gwen. Instead of staying on line to read them closely, I opened Word and copied each one and pasted it to a document and then had Nat log out. Then we read it together. I highlighted each phrase that caught my eye.

Briefly, Gwen reported that the investigation of the explosion was still ongoing but that there were two dead men in camo uniforms with automatic weapons found dead near the trees. This information was not going to be released to the press. The FBI was all over the sight and had found my safe room. Nat's car had been identified but her name wasn't made public. By now, I could smell the cover up being put in place.

She went on to say that they found the drivers of the hit and run trucks that hit both John and the girl in the red SUV. They were both gang members who were paid $5000 each to rent a truck and hit an assigned target. Neither of the men knew who hired them but that they were paid in cash by a foreign sounding man. 

She then said that the gossip line was full of speculation but that no one seemed to have a real clue what was going on. She was going to follow up if anything broke.

The last bit was interesting. Jilly would not be logging in to the gossip line for awhile. They realized that we had dated and since she was now senior, they were monitoring her closely. Gwen said that she could get written messages to Gwen since they had offices in nearby buildings.

Natalie asked, "So what do you think now?"

"Someone is spending a lot of money to find us and doesn't mind hurting people. I think that we are on the right track by getting away but the question is still where can we lay low for a week or so?"

"We could go to my parent's cabin in Colorado. It is remote and not many people know about it."

"Let's keep that in mind. We might go there after things cool off. I expect that they are looking through our backgrounds pretty closely and will check everything they find as a link. Where do your parents live?

"San Francisco. Dad got transferred there a couple of years ago. They live in a condo near Fisherman's Wharf."

"We might pay them a visit. I don't trust the phones so it would have to be a personal visit. Their phone is probably bugged trying to see if you call."

"Shit. This is really like a spy novel, isn't it?"

"Sure does seem like it. Log back in to the gossip line and send a short note to Gwen and log out quickly. She might be monitored too. Just ask her if Jilly can find out who got my report two years ago and who got yours last year. It may not be worth anything but it is the only thing I can come up with right now."

She did and was on line for less than a minute and logged out. Fortunately, she was a faster typing than I was. It was now 7:00, so I said that we should get our things back in the truck and be prepared to leave when we saw that the office was closed and the girl was gone for the day. At 7:30, we drove out of the gate after leaving the keys in the box. I turned west but planned on turning back north at the next road that way. I didn't want to leave a straight path in case anyone was following us. At this time I guess the one thing I wanted to know most was if people were on our tails and how close they were. Knowing how close or not they were could help me make better decisions. 

I realized that if I drove directly to Cloudcroft, we would arrive way too early in the morning and might arouse suspicion. I decided to go north and hit the Interstate and go south again to Alamogordo and then up the mountain from the west. That would be consistent with the cover story we were using and would also put us in Cloudcroft about 9:00 in the morning. That should be a good time to arrive. 

Natalie and I talked about this and that about ourselves without talking about our previous lives all that much. She talked a little about John but I could tell that she was holding back something. I decided to just wait and let her tell me when she was ready. Around midnight, she curled up on the seat and fell asleep in my lap again. This time, I had put a blanket in the cab to cover her with and she snuggled right down to me and went to sleep. I hoped that I was making the right decisions for both of us.

I stopped for gas at midnight near the New Mexico border and then drove on until dawn when we got to Soccoro. I stopped at a truck stop on the Interstate and we went in to freshen up and eat some breakfast. Truck stops seemed to be our best ally as we could eat, gas up, watch television and access the computer without being noticed. We were one of many that just stopped on their way to someplace else. This one also had some computers to use for a fee and you could access the net anonymously. I chose to use that and check my Russell Fisher e-mail account. I could at least see if anyone else had tried to log on through the activity screen. So far it appeared that no one had tried to access it except me. All that was posted was the daily news updates from Yahoo. I took a few minutes to look at the news updates on the explosion and there was little of value in the updates as the cover stories were starting to solidify and people were losing interest in further updates. The only other thing of interest was a blurb that a Senator was going to be on Fox News Sunday morning to talk about the pending Energy Bill. Politics as usual. The Energy Bill in question had been bouncing around Congress for over fifteen years and had gone through five rewrites. Meanwhile, nothing had changed. Frankly, nothing ever changed much when Congress got their hands on it because no one really wanted to change anything substantially. The status quo put money in the right pockets and any change would disrupt their cash flow and cause problems during election years. Debates on the status quo were par for the course; changes were forbidden.

I sent Natalie back to log in to the gossip line on the anonymous computer and see if there was a new posting. She came back a few minutes later with a confused look on her face.

"What's up?"

"I'm not sure. Gwen said that your report went to the Energy, Commerce and State departments and mine only went to the Energy Department. She also said that there had been an on-line meeting of all seniors today with the big guy talking. He asked if anyone had heard directly and indirectly from either one of us. A few said that they had only heard rumors or gossip. He then told them that he personally wanted to know if either of us contacted them directly or indirectly or heads would roll. Gwen said that Jill was going to stay out of the loop for now since she was the newest senior and had a previous history with you. She said one last thing and that was to watch the Sunday morning talk show on Fox. Gwen added that everyone was getting off of the open gossip pages and only talking directly to individuals now. So she didn't expect much news. It sounds like the screws are really being put on."

"That it is what it sounds like but it also sounds like something is fishy here. I've never heard of anyone being focused on like we are. Me maybe if I was doing something wrong, but never a junior and a retired one at that. There is something going on behind the scenes for sure. I think that we need to be somewhere to watch the talk show tomorrow morning. I hope we can find somewhere private so we can watch interrupted."

We finished our breakfast and as we were about to leave, something came to mind and I went back to the computer and looked up the Senator who was supposed to be on the news talk show. There it was. It was either a big coincidence or the making of a scandal. He had been a representative on the Energy Department committee when both our reports were submitted. He was now on the Senate Energy committee and on the Foreign Relations committee. A quick look at the law firm he was with before he was elected to congress listed that little dust bin country as one of their clients. So what we were looking at right now was a possible link from me and Natalie through this useless country and into the bowels of the House and the Senate. There was no telling who might be in the loop besides a few hit men from a country known for their violence. We definitely needed a place to lay low and let things unfold.

We finished and got in the truck and drove the two hours to Cloudcroft. We pulled into the center of town at 9:30 just as the stores and galleries were beginning to open up. We parked in an off street parking lot and walked down the main drag. It was cool and we wore our jackets and hats and appeared to mix in with the other tourists who were poking their way along. Something caught my eye in a real estate office window and I pulled Natalie over to look at it. 

There was a big note that said "FOR SALE" with a picture of a travel trailer below it. It further said that the trailer was in excellent condition with new tires and the rest of the month left on the space rental. The price was $10,000 and was described as below market price and the reason for selling was a death in the family. All offers considered.

I looked at Natalie and asked, "What would you think if we bought that trailer and took our hotel room with us? We could stop in parks and roadside layovers and almost anywhere. It would slow us down a little but we aren't breaking any speed limits anyway."

She looked at me and said, "I like the idea but $10,000 is a lot of money and we would have to access our bank accounts to get it. That would leave us open to being noticed."




An Inconvenient Spy Ch. 01



"I've got about $50,000 in cash in my bag in the truck. It is money I have been getting for my writing and selling vegetables at the market. Frankly, I squirreled it away so I wouldn't have to pay taxes on it. We might get it for less than the $10,000 and I could put it in Russell Fisher's name. By the time the paperwork and everything goes through the system this will probably be all over and I can keep it, sell it or donate it to a charity. Plus if we have to leave it behind, so what? As long as we are safe, I don't care."

She looked hard at me and then said, "Let's go see what we can find out."

We went into the real estate office and asked about the sign in the window. The smiling woman behind the counter said that they just posted those as a convenience for some of the transient people in town. She gave me the name of the man who owned it and directions to the park. She also said that he was quite eager to sell it. She would also be happy to show us a nice cabin if we wanted something more permanent. We thanked her but said that we were taking a cross country vacation and that this would be perfect for us now but that we might come back when we were through and consider a place up here. She nodded and went back to work knowing that she would probably never see us again.

We walked the three blocks to the trailer park which was quite small and well maintained and found the trailer. An older gentleman was drinking coffee in front of the trailer.

"Hi, we saw your sign in the real estate office and wanted to take a look at the trailer."

"Sure, come on in. I think that this is the best buy in the area. I have kept it clean and am the only owner it has had. I have let a couple of relatives use it but no one else. I'd take it with me but I didn't bring my truck this trip and my car won't pull it. I'm trying to get out of here this week. An uncle died and I have to go back east and clean up his estate. I won't be able to come back for quite awhile. If you are serious and have cash, I'll cut the price to $7500 for a quick sale. As the sign said, the space lease is paid until the end of the month. You can renew it or take the trailer with you before then."

Everything looked very clean and well cared for. I asked a few technical questions about towing it behind a pickup and the proper set up procedure. He assured me that his pickup with a six cylinder engine towed it at the speed limit with no problems. He only had a little trouble in a heavy wind. The set up was easy and could be ready in less than an hour. 

An hour later, we shook hands after I got a smile and a nod from Natalie. He suggested that if I paid him $5000 in cash before we went to the bank, we would write the bill of sale up for $2500 and save a bundle on the state sales tax. I agreed. And we agreed to meet in the bank in an hour. He also said that he could be loaded and out before dark.

An hour and a half later Russell Fisher and his wife Nat owned a five year old travel trailer and Jessup Walker had $7500 in cash in his pocket. We each had a copy of the simple notarized bill of sale and were told that the license transfer would take about a month to go through but the bill of sale was all we needed in the meantime. As we left the bank, Jessup said that he had already loaded most of his stuff and that he would be finished and gone in about an hour. He also suggested that we might want to get new sheets and blankets although he was leaving the ones he had used. We shook hands and he went back to finish packing. I had noticed that the trailer park had cable hook up but that Jessup only an old black and white television. We went to the local mercantile store and Natalie went to the house goods section while I went to look at small televisions and perhaps a decent stereo and CD player. An hour later, we loaded these things in the back of the truck and drove to the trailer park and pulled in next to our new home. 

While Nat unloaded our purchases, I went to the office to tell them that we had just purchased Jessup's trailer. All the woman wanted to see was the bill of sale and asked if we were going to stay on or move the trailer. I told her that we would probably leave before the end of the month to continue our cross country journey. She smiled and said to just let her know when we were going to leave. She had a waiting list of people who wanted a space. It cost me another $20 for the cable and WIFI service that Jessup didn't use but that was all I needed to pay until the first.

I went back to the trailer and found a bundle of sheets and blankets of the sofa and Natalie was making the bed with fresh new sheets. She told me to unload the food and bags from the truck and bring them in and to hook up the television and stereo. An hour later, we were listening to some nice music and Nat was storing food in various closets and lockers. She then sent me to bed for a nap after we decided to go out for a good dinner that night. Tomorrow, she would go to the local market and get some meat and stuff so we could cook better meals than from the packaged stuff. We could have that on the road.

She woke me up at 4:00 again and showed me where she had stored everything. She seemed very happy and satisfied with everything. I did too and for the first time in several days I had a feeling of peace and security. I felt that we would have been hard to trace so far. At no time since we left had we used either of our real names and had paid cash for everything. The only way to trace us was through the internet connections but they had been few and short on fairly safe connections. I decided to wait until the next afternoon to check in with Gwen again. I was also beginning to doubt that she would be able to provide much more information to us since things were getting tight around the work network. I felt that we might need to go on our own for awhile and not make contact with anyone.

We talked and I could tell that Nat was also feeling a sense of security. I told her that we wouldn't check in with Gwen until tomorrow and she agreed. We talked about where we would go after we left here and for some reason, her parents place in Colorado seemed like a good choice but I thought that we should think it over some more. She agreed. 

At 6:00, we dressed and walked into town and looked at several restaurants and decided to eat at a small Italian place. The interior was nice and the smell was good. The bottle of wine we shared was also very nice. We felt almost normal rather than like fugitives.

We walked back to the trailer hand in hand like two lovers or husband and wife. It was cool but there was no wind adding to the chill. We also found that the heater in the trailer worked very nicely. Even though it was early, we turned on the stereo and put on some nice quiet music. I slowly undressed Natalie as she undressed me and we crawled in to bed together for the first time in three days. She felt wonderful in my arms and we tenderly kissed and caressed each other. The other nights had been passion filled and with an urgency. Tonight it was slow and tender and expressed love rather than need. When I realized that thought, it seemed to feel slightly odd but very right somehow.

We made love twice that night and fell asleep in each other's arms under a warm blanket in our own place.

I woke up early and slipped out of bed to go to the bathroom and then went to the kitchen to start coffee in our new coffee maker. Nat had bought us new dishes and eating utensils so that everything we used was now our own not someone else's used stuff. We had decided to keep Jessup's blankets and give all of the other stuff to a local charity store. When coffee was ready I turned on the television to find the Fox channel and find out what time the show would be on. It turned out that it would be showing in about an hour. As I was looking for something else to watch, Nat came out in a robe she had also bought and I poured her a cup of coffee and we sat together on the sofa and watched another early news program. Halfway through the program, they made a mention of the growing mystery of the Texas explosion. They reported that the two missing people were retired government analysts but that no one knew what connection that might have had to the case. Natalie's sister had reported that neither she nor their parents had heard from Natalie since she had left a message about being broken down in Kansas. They also reported that Natalie's husband was still in critical condition in a Washington hospital and was under 24 hour guard. There appeared to be no link between his accident and our disappearance. The only really new information was that the FBI had arrested three men who were found snooping around my house and that they were from an Alabama-based gang with reputation for being linked to several other big gangs. They appeared to be techies for hire in the underworld. In short, we hadn't learned much of anything new.

Then I turned on the Fox news program. The first half of the program went over the history of the Energy Bill pending in Congress and how important it was to the future of the country. It was a fairly accurate assessment depending on your political persuasion but then they introduced the Senator who then spend five minutes extolling the merits of the bill and stressed that things had changed in the middle east and now was the best time in years to wean ourselves from undemocratic sources of oil and make a long term agreement with a reliable ally for a continuous supply of oil from a newly discovered source. Twenty minutes later, I looked at Natalie and we both had stunned looks on our faces.

She spoke first. "I cannot believe what I just heard. That is almost totally bullshit compared to the research I did."

"I agree totally. There had never been any report of oil in that piece of shit country that I heard of."

"As of a year ago, I hadn't either and if there had been, it would take ten years and billions of dollars to develop it. And that is if that little psychopath doesn't skim twenty per cent off the top. It is like both of our reports were totally fabricated based on his assessment."

"I noticed that too and that has got me thinking. What would be the worst thing to happen right now if he is really pushing this Energy Bill and a long term pact with that pipsqueak?"

Natalie thought for a moment. "I guess the worst thing that could happen is if our reports were released before they got a vote on the bill and if someone read them."

"With the amount of money being bandied about plus the power and all that shit, if two minor analysts leaked their old reports into the right hands, all hell would break loose, wouldn't it?"

She turned to me with a worried look in her eyes. "Would they kill people for that?"

"A lot of people have been killed for a lot less of a reason."

"Jeff, now I am really scared."

"I am too. The only thing we have going for us is that we know where we are and they don't, we hope. I have been trying to think about where we can hide until this blows over but maybe we need to think about what we can do and stay alive until something happens one way or another."

"What do you have in mind?"

"I don't have it all together but do you have a copy of your report?"

"No, I have my notes on a flash drive at my parent's house, but not the report."

"Can you recreate the important parts with maybe the web sites and data reports you accessed?"

"Some of them. It would be easier if I had my notes."

"Then we need to figure out how to get your notes without raising suspicion."

"What about your report? Do you have a copy?"

"No but it was already leaked and is available from several places. I do remember some of the most important data sources though and I can recreate those. What I am thinking is that if we can get the data into the right hands, maybe we can make some big waves. If so, maybe we can scare some people into leaving us alone."

"Do you trust anyone enough to help?"

"Just a couple of people but they could be very important help. Right now I want to focus on getting your notes in your hands and find us a safe place to do some work. We will also need access to the internet for some time; maybe a few days. We don't need to get the data; we just need to confirm that the data is there and reference the sources."

"Ok, I think I see what you are getting at. As for my parents, my other sister might be our best contact. She is quiet and hasn't shown up on any of the reports we have seen so far. She could go to mom and get the flash drives fairly easily, I think."

"Where does she live?"

"She is a student in Portland Oregon. I could probably contact her and get her to meet us somewhere."

"I think that it would be better if we went to her and talked to her directly rather than trust any phone or computer contact. I don't trust the electronic stuff anymore. They are too easy to crack and trace. Let's see about driving up near there and see if we can find her on campus somehow."

"That shouldn't be too hard. She is usually in the library studying."

"Then let's figure out a way to get to Portland safely."

"I'll say it again; I am with you all the way."

"Do you want to cook breakfast or shall we eat out?"

"Let's eat out. I'm hungry but now I'm not in the mood to cook."

"Ok, we'll dress and find a place to eat and maybe we can look around town some more. Maybe an idea or two will come to mind."

We dressed and went walking back into town. We found a small café and had breakfast and then walked along the main street for awhile. I noticed a convenience store with a sign out front that caught my eye. 

"Nat, let's go in here. I'm going to do something. Just play along with me."

She looked at me and grinned. "I'm still with you. Let's go."

We walked in and found a young guy probably still in high school behind the counter. "Excuse me, can I ask you a couple of questions?"

"Sure. What do you want to know?"

"I did something really stupid. I left my cell phone on the trunk of the car and drove off and it is gone. I called from the hotel and cancelled the service. It was a company phone and they will replace it when we get back home to St Louis, but my wife wants to call and check on the kids every day we are gone. Will one of those prepaid phones you sell call like a regular phone?"

"Yes sir. The service is a little expensive because the company just buys roaming time from the big guys. But you can use it anywhere you have a signal regardless of whose signal you have anywhere in the country."

Natalie piped up, "He always leaves his phone somewhere and this time he lost it. I just want to call and check with my sister that the kids are alright. You would think he would take care of a $600 cell phone, wouldn't you?"

"Actually ma'am, we sell quite a few to travelers who lose their phone. Some people can go to a local office and get them replaced quickly. But some people just buy one of these to use until they get home and throw it away. They call them throwaway phones. All they do is make phone calls out. You can't text or do the internet or do any of that stuff. You will have to dial the number you want because there is no memory or anything like that. Shoot they can't even trace calls to it. It is really a basic phone but you can make calls. That is why they are so cheap."

"Honey, get one. I don't want to wait until we get to a pay phone to call the kids."

"Alright." I looked at the kid and said, "Let's get one so I can keep momma happy. How many minutes do we get?"

"You can buy any amount from 20 minutes up to two hours. The price varies according to the minutes."

"How about an hour? That will give you twenty minutes each day until we get home. Is that enough for you, honey?"

"Yes, I think so. At least it will be unless my sister wants to blab."

The clerk added, "If you run out, go into any convenience store that sells prepaid phones and they can add minutes and you don't have to buy another phone."

I said, "That's great. Wrap one up with an hour of time."

Fifteen minutes later, we walked out with a prepaid phone that would be virtually impossible to trace.

As we walked down the street, Natalie asked, "I see why you want one of these phones but tell me, just how many kids do we have husband?" She grinned.

"How many do you want to have?"

"With you, maybe two or three. Can we start trying to make one today?"

"Sure; as soon as we get back to the trailer."

"What are we waiting for?"

"So we can finish our walk."

"Ok, but let's walk fast."

"Are you horny again?"

"Of course; I'm with you stud. I can't wait for you to knock me up."

I saw a small computer store across the street and led Natalie over to it. The store said computer sales and service on the window. Maybe he could recommend something to help slow down tracing of the computer. After talking with him for thirty minutes, I was satisfied that I was relatively safe with a moving computer and using busy routers to connect for short periods of time. The key was if a looker had identified my Russell Fisher account as belonging to me. That meant that so far, they would have to be watching Gwen's computer. I decided that if need be, I would buy a cheap used computer to use once and get rid of it when I finished. For now, we would only use my computer in emergencies.

We stopped at the small market and Natalie bought some chicken to prepare for dinner along with some eggs and sausage with some other necessary items that we didn't. We decided that we would look for a small charcoal grill to be able to cook things outdoors along our journey. 

When we got home, we put things away and Natalie dragged me to the bedroom and pulled me down on top of her. "Come on stud; fuck me. Make me your woman." I spent the next hour using every technique I knew to do just that. When we finished, she wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me deeply and announced that she was mine. 

We made a salad for lunch and then sat on the sofa and started to watch a bad movie but gave it up thirty minutes later. I then asked her a question that I had been putting off and she had only been hinting at.

"Nat, talk to me a minute about John. You have said several things that make me wonder about your relationship with him and just now you declared yourself my woman. What are you thinking and what about John?"

"I wondered when you were going to ask about that. I was going to wait until things all settled down before I told you but it looks like it might be awhile before that happens. So here goes. Everything I told you so far has been true. I just left out several things. When John and I started dating, we were both involved in fairly heavy relationships. I was involved with a woman named Judy. John was involved with a guy named Bruce. I hope that doesn't surprise you. Like I said, we got a long really well at work. Both Judy and Bruce were married too and worked in other parts of the agency. John and I decided to get together so that we could socialize with both couples not just as singles. Things worked fairly well for about six months and then things began coming apart. Judy and her husband decided to get a divorce and she moved home to her parents. That left me without a lover. At about the same time, Bruce and his wife decided that they both wanted John to be their lover. That left me basically alone. As it turned out, Bruce's wife is something of a dominant woman and likes to have control over her men and slowly began to bring John more and more under her sway. John and I talked about it and he admitted that he was really drawn to that lifestyle probably because of the stress he felt at work. They are really hammering on the seniors these days. This is when he told me about finding you if a problem came up. I don't know if he felt something then or if he felt that he might be coming apart."




An Inconvenient Spy Ch. 02



We ate a leisurely breakfast and walked into Dan's office shortly after 9:00 and were quickly shown into a conference room where we were met by Dan and David Collins, the assistant director of our former agency. There was coffee and sweet rolls and fruit on the table and we all shared greetings. Then Dan began.

When we left his office, both Natalie and I were shocked and a little bewildered by what we had learned but also pleased at what had occurred. We were also both significantly wealthier than we were when we entered.

Dan had begun by telling us that our part of this saga was over and that we were safe and then he explained that we had been involved in a much larger three pronged effort that had spun out of control. It had started with that pipsqueak satrap who envisioned himself as the second coming of Saladin or something like that. His problem was that he wasn't the likely heir to the throne of his country and couldn't put his plans for grandeur into action. So he had arranged the assassination of his brother two years ago using the leak of my report as an excuse. Then he had helped his father into an early grave with the aid of one of his mistresses. Once he gained control, he began to launch his well organized plan to become the regional kingpin. His big problem was that his country had few resources or wealth. That was the reason his father had insisted on maintaining friendship with the US. The young kid had other ideas about what he wanted to do to the US but needed to use us to get to where he wanted to go.

To start, he befriended a neighboring country that had a small oil reserve near their joint border. By drilling a slant hole and manipulating the test results, he claimed that he was sitting on top of a huge oil reserve. That caught the interest of some of the big oil companies and he was convincing enough to get them to put pressure on Congress to revise the Energy Policy to include his country as an acceptable partner and for them to invest billions in development of the oil field with himself as an equal partner. Part of the deal was that the project would be fully insured by the oil companies until the plant went into operation and then the joint company would take over the cost of everything. His plan had been to get the plant almost to the operational stage and then have his personal band of terrorists destroy it and collect the insurance settlement of which he would get half.

With that money, he would be able to fund his real mission of wreaking terrorist attacks on the US. His biggest strength was that he was charismatic in the local arena and garnered both popular but also financial support from the rich fundamentalists in various countries to fund his dream. His other plan was to not train the actual terrorists but to train the leaders and planners and then export them to the US and have them affiliate with local gangs and underworld groups to do the actual dirty work. The FBI had been afraid that someone would think of this someday because it had become obvious that the other major terrorist groups had been able to recruit plenty of people but that it was costly to train and then set them up over here in a country they didn't know or understand. They had lost many of their zealous recruits in training and botched actions in other countries so that the money people got tired of funding their activities and only losing their own children with nothing to show for it. So their money supply slowed down with a resulting slowdown in activities. This new leader had side stepped that with his plan to use domestic muscle to carry out his plans and only provide the brains. The FBI had been watching this trend closely for a number of years. When this oil deal began to emerge, they stepped up their activities overseas.

On the local front, they had noticed some odd coincidences especially after the furor surrounding my report. A number of strong incumbent congressmen retired and were replaced by fairly weak front men like the Senator we had watched that Sunday morning. They discovered that there had been some serious intimidation going on behind the scenes but they weren't sure who was behind it. There also seemed to be some leaks from within our agency, the FBI and inside Congress itself that was subtle but real.

In short, there was a lot going on behind the scenes on the day Natalie arrived at my door that we didn't know about and much of it had only a distant relationship with us. But then the shit hit the fan and fortunately, we escaped and went on the run. Dan said that the FBI was actively trying to catch up to us to protect us but also to try to get us to help them stop what was going on behind the scenes. The main man was a friend of the dictator who had lived here for a number of years. He was the one who hired the Washington gang to do the dirty work. He also hired the Alabama gang to do the more sophisticated things like the bugs and the helicopter work. The FBI closed these guys down quickly after the first week we were on the run. The problem was that the main guy had also contracted with the Chicago underworld for two hit men to take us and others out quickly and without too much publicity. The FBI had discovered this but didn't know who they were or how to track them down. Meanwhile everyone had lost our trail.

He had been literally shocked when we walked in his door and laid our stories out on the table for him. It also triggered a plan that he couldn't put together until after we left. He had us followed to Boise and had people watching us there. He apologized and said that he had kind of used us as bait. The day he told us to move was the day before he actually informed the insiders that we had been in Cloudcroft and then Denver. An hour after we left Boise, he had a couple who were similar to us move a trailer into our spot and continue acting like we had been. Two days later, the hit men showed up. They were a middle aged couple who were just about as invisible as we were. Their modus was to try to befriend their target and get them to some remote location and take them out. Once he had them, they opened up and implicated several people in unsolved disappearances. From that moment on, there was no one looking for us and we were safe but he continued the scam to try to ferret out the inside leak in the FBI. That came about when the bogus message was posted in our message box. The only person who could have done that was a regional man who had come in to help with the cleanup. 

As a result of everything, they had cleared up two violent gangs, gotten rid of two dangerous hit men, and had opened doors into some of Chicago's major crime bosses along with plugging a dangerous leak. When they finished cleaning out all of the gutters, they felt that a whole lot of problems would go away. Again he apologized for using us but that he tried to make sure that we were safe. He would have contacted us personally earlier except that the guy who was following us from Boise had a flat tire and lost track of us in an area where there was no cell phone service. When he finally got back on the road, we had left Spokane. They saw that we had tickets to Seattle but we never got off the train there. So he figured that we had gone into hiding and he would get to us in time. Then he thanked us again and said that he and his wife would be joining us for dinner that night with Tim and his wife. He didn't need to know the rest of the story that David Collins would be telling us and he left.

Shortly after that, his secretary delivered lunch for the three of us and David began filling us in on the inside part of the story.

"My story shouldn't take as long as Dan's but you might find it more interesting because of your direct involvement with the players involved, both of you. It starts about four years ago when a senior member of our staff became enamored with that small middle eastern country and the large sum of money they offered to protect their interests. The first sign of this was when your report came out, Jeff. He hated your report but the rest of us loved it and we voted to send it on the committees, which we did. However, our disgruntled member decided that he needed to do something to kill its importance. So he released it through a friend of his."

I asked, "That seems counterproductive. Why would someone release a report if he didn't like it?"

"That is the first fallacy of our friend who by the way was the Big Guy himself." Both Natalie and I looked stunned. "Even though we all know it to be true, he fell into the trap of thinking he could control events although he couldn't control how people would respond to these events and that was his downfall. In short, it wasn't anything that you wrote in that report that bothered him and his contacts. The problem was that if the Energy Bill came back to life which it appeared likely at the time, this little country would become more visible than before and you would be digging deeper into it. That is what they were afraid of; that you would find even more things that would be harmful to their interests. The country offered to have you removed but the Big Guy decided that getting you retired was a cleaner option and that is what he did. He made it so that you wouldn't be able to go back and dig deeper. The whole stink at the time was of course a smoke screen to get you to disappear as I am sure you figured out. And it worked just fine; they thought.

Unfortunately, a few people realized that something was wrong on the home front and they asked me to look into things with the eye toward an eventual reorganization. So that is what I have been doing for the past two years. I got involved too late to save you but it appeared that you landed on your feet ok. In any event, your projects were dispersed and this one was purposely given to John. Now John had many good qualities but brilliance wasn't one of them. He was an organizer and a manager but he never had the insight to be able to dig deeper like you would have done. But at the time, this appeared to be the safe thing to do."

"But things got complicated when Natalie picked up on your project. When she delivered her report to John and he passed it on up, the Big Guy panicked again. Once again, it wasn't what she said but what she would uncover in the next round that bothered them. So they decided to find a way to get her retired too. The truth is that they should have done what would have happened anyway which was to promote her to senior level and assign her to something else, but he didn't think of that."

Natalie gasped, "Me? I was being considered to become a senior analyst?"

"Yes, Natalie. You were about nine months away from a promotion. Like Jeff and other brilliant people, you don't realize just how smart you are. Everyone else could see it except you. In any event, the Big Guy decided to follow the advice of Bruce's wife. He was also under her guidance and influence. The truth is that Bruce was pretty useless but they kept him on at a high level to keep her around and well funded and also to help control her clutch of minions like John. She recommended that John marry you and convince you to retire. John wanted to spend more time with Bruce but finally agreed and you two got married and you retired. The Big Guy was happy and thought that everything was fixed."

Natalie looked at me in a strange way. All I could do was take her hand and hold it. Our mystery about John, Bruce, and Bruce's wife now made more sense.

"The real problem turned out to be John himself. Six months after your report went in, he asked about the follow up and evaluation. The thing was that the Big Guy had never sent your report to committee so there wasn't any follow up and evaluation. In fact, he took all of the copies and destroyed them except the one that I got my hands on. So Natalie, your report never went to committee. But John kept asking about the follow up so the Big Guy had him followed and tried to put some pressure on him to leave it alone. He didn't know that John had told you to go find Jeff if things got bad. He decided that he needed to put some stronger intimidation on John and he turned that over to the guy who was running the goon squads that Dan mentioned. Unfortunately, these guys think that light intimidation is a drive by shooting or a hit and run incident. They found Bruce and John leaving a gay club and one group beat up Bruce and the other broadsided John a couple of miles away. Bruce died that night and John died after they administered a lethal dose of narcotics administered by the girl friend of one of the gang members."

He stopped for a moment and then went on. "Then the Big Guy made his last mistake. We were already planning to remove him but he did one mores stupid thing before we got to him. He did that broadcast thing to all juniors and seniors about you two. As you know, our people aren't field agents but analysts and they don't take kindly to threats and intimidation. The place almost shut down after his tirade. His partner authorized the Chicago couple to eliminate Gwen and Jillian before anyone could stop them. But they are all being detained now. So that is the inside story. But now the Big Guy is out and is trying to convince his wife and kids to move to that certain middle eastern country to enjoy his wealth there along with Bruce's wife. She is eager to get her hands on some of the locals over there but the Big Guy's wife is balking mainly because she wants to divorce him and marry her boy friend who just happens to be a young single Senator who happens to be on our side. So the Big Guy will be alone with Bruce's wife I think."

I asked, "And who will taking over the agency?"

"I am the acting head but that is temporary until the full reorganization takes place. It will be the usual balloon reorganization."

Natalie looked at me and asked, "What is a balloon reorganization?"

I replied, "If you take an inflated balloon and put pressure in one place, something changes here and there but the balloon doesn't really change. The same amount of air is still inside but it moves around. That is what most government reorganizations are; everything changes, but nothing changes. Right, David?"

"He's right, Natalie but in this one there will be a couple of things that have to change and that is really why I came to see you. We have some loose ends to clean up. So let's get to those now. Natalie, as a senior analyst, John had a $5 million life insurance policy and as is only heir, you are the beneficiary. If you will sign here, you will be a wealthy widow in a few minutes." Natalie signed the paper with a shaky hand and then David handed her a government check for $5 million dollars that she was almost afraid to touch.

"Now Jeff, your house in Texas is a total ruin. However, one of the seniors down there is very intrigued by the property and wants to relocate there. If you accept, he will buy your place for $500,000. Sign here." I signed and he handed me a check for the amount. It was at least double what I had paid for the whole thing and my improvements.

"Natalie, one of our analysts in your area would like to purchase your house too. Sign here if you accept the offer." She did and he handed her another check for $500,000.

"Now for both of you, the current state of politics is such that we need to make some long range budget cuts and that means the end of the pension and stipend plan. If you accept our offer, we will buy you out for a lump sum of $2 million for Jeff and $1 million for Natalie. Sign here." Natalie looked at me and we both signed our documents and received our checks in return.

"That is great, we only have one more issue to cover. Jeff, I doubt that you want to return to the agency but if you do, I would welcome you back."

"Thanks, but I seem to have developed other interests to pursue."

"I figured that. Natalie, I make you the same offer if you would like to return as a senior analyst."

Natalie looked at me and I shook my head. "Thank you; it is tempting but Jeff makes our big decisions now and I want to pursue our dreams up in Washington State."

"I understand. But you said Washington State; would the two of you consider being an outside contract consulting team in that area? One of the things we are doing is to convert retired seniors into consultants within certain areas of specialization. This would be a five year contract for $250,000 each per year."

I replied, "What areas of specialization are you looking for?"

"The one I have in mind is specifically for the Pacific Northwest. The market for fresh fruit in the Far East market is growing very quickly. We have the usual market data, but we need some in depth analysis of local growing conditions and practices to insure that we can continue to meet the demand. Interested?"

I replied, "Yes." Natalie looked at me and smiled.

David reached into his briefcase and pulled out a thick file and handed it to me and said, "This is the file and the brief on this contract. You are independent contractors and will have to supply your own equipment and data sources. We would like a report every six month but for the first year, an annual report would be fine as you get acclimated. Look over the contract when you get a chance and send it back to me when you are satisfied. The contract would start one the first of the year and your first report would be due in December of next year. Do either of you have any questions?"

Natalie shook her head and I said, "David, I hope that they make you the permanent head of the new agency. You are really good and will make the agency a good one."

"Thank you Jeff. That is the plan but politics being politics, who knows what will happen next week. I wish the best for both of you. And now, I need to go catch a plane." We shook hands and Natalie walked out of the office and onto the street. She looked at me and said, "Take me to our hotel and fuck me."

"Are you sure that you still want an old worn out analyst? You are now a very wealthy widow."

"I want to be a wealthy married woman whose last name is Franklin. Let's go practice for our honeymoon."

"What kind of honeymoon are we going to have up at the retreat? We will still be there for a year and a half, you know."

"I know that but I think our honeymoon is going wait until we have a week or two outside. After that we have the time to find us a place to settle down and plan how we are going to do this contract. We have every other weekend off and we have the truck and trailer to look around until we find our place."

"I like the way you think. So how many times do you want to cum this afternoon? We have to be dressed and ready to meet Dan and Tim at 6:00."

"I don't care; as many as I can have between now and 5:00 or so."

We went back to the hotel and took advantage of the three hours we had and I lost track of the times she came but it was more than a few. I decided that I was going to have to start eating better to keep up with her insatiable appetite for sex. We showered and dressed and met Tim and his wife at 6:00. He said that we were going to meet Dan and his wife at a restaurant across town and so we took their car. I sat in front with Tim and talked while Natalie sat in back with Becky. By the time we arrived at the restaurant, Nat and Becky were old friends and were giggling like school girls.

Dan's wife was more like Dan but she too loosened up as they three women found common ground and got along greatly. The three guys talked about the women, sports, the economy and everything else except work and the past month of activities.

Everyone started paying attention when Natalie started talking about the retreat we had been at and would be for the foreseeable future. Both women were intrigued by all of the activities and things to do. By the time we left the restaurant, they both promised to come for a stay before winter. I suggested that they come after school started because then the number of families and kids would be less and they could enjoy it more. They agreed and Natalie promised to send them literature and reservation forms when we got back.




An Inconvenient Spy Ch. 02



By the time we arrived back at the hotel, I felt sure that Natalie and Becky would be lovers soon. That thought was exciting because Becky was certainly a beautiful woman with large breasts and a fine figure. The thought of me also being involved was also exciting except that I would be screwing a friend's wife. I might have a real problem with that.

I should also have guessed that Natalie had covered that base for us. When we were in bed after making love, she looked at and said, "We are going to have so much fun with Becky. She wanted to come up and stay with us tonight but I told her that you weren't ready."

"And what constitutes me not being ready?"

"Well I am sure that you are wondering about fucking your good friend's wife but mainly, you aren't ready for another woman yet until after we are married. I'm not going to risk losing you to another woman."

"There is absolutely no risk of that happening. I have the treasure I have always wished for."

"Thank you, lover; but still, I don't you fucking another woman until after we are married and we can share her."

"Actually my big problem is that she is Tim's wife."

"Oh, don't worry about that. Tim has this hot thing going with his secretary and Becky has been thinking about finding a lover too. Tim suggested that she take a look at you. She did and she liked what she saw in both of us. That was why she was ready to stay with us tonight. But then she wanted to come to our wedding but can't because of a work conflict. But she said that she would be up for a week in September like you suggested. Tim is going to take his squeeze to Vegas for several days then for a convention so she will be free. I told her to just let us know the details. Oh and she needs to get on birth control pills. She hasn't been using them since Tim can't father children."

"That's a nice thought. I would prefer to father my children with you."

"I like that idea too. I am now thinking about four, two years apart. What do you think?"

"I think that is a bedroom decision and therefore yours to make."

"Smart decision. Four it will be then. Now, what are we going to do with all of this money that we suddenly have?"

"I think that we will put some of it into a savings account to buy us our property or house and the rest we will open an investment account and put it away for our retirement and kids and stuff."

"I like that idea. Let's do it."

"Fine. I have also been thinking about something else too. Originally, I planned on us going back up to the village on Friday. That means we would have to do a number of things on Thursday to be ready to meet the boat on Friday morning. But now I think that we take care of things on Thursday and wait to catch the boat on Saturday or Sunday. Then we could look around the area some more."

"Honey, I will go with you whenever you are ready. I just don't want to be away from you that long again. You are so much a part of my life right now, I feel naked when you aren't nearby."

"I feel the same way. Now are you ready for sleep or a repeat?"

"I am always ready for a repeat with you. But this time, imagine that I am Becky. You need to start getting comfortable with that thought."

An hour later, I was very comfortable with that thought as Natalie kept up a flowing story of the things we would do with Becky when she came to visit.

The next morning, we rose and caught a cab to the airport for our flight back. We got to the train station shortly after noon and had lunch in the Italian restaurant which we both liked a lot. Then we paid a visit to our new banker and explained that we wanted some kind of savings account for some of our money that would be earmarked for buying a house and property. He suggested a series of roll over CD's that would earn maximum interest but which would also be available in regular intervals if we found a place. He almost choked when I told him that we had $1.5 million to put aside but he quickly got over it and we signed the account papers. 

I had finally looked at those real estate magazines and found that we could buy a nice house and property for around $1 million. With the rest of the $1.5 million we could furnish it and do whatever changes we wanted to make. Then I asked him for the name of a good broker locally. He looked at me and asked if I was willing to work with a young guy who was just getting started. I answered that I didn't have a problem with that as long as he was looking out more for our interests more than his own or the brokerage house. I didn't want to lose money while enriching someone else. He replied that he knew just the person and led us across the street to a well known brokerage office and asked for Michael.

Michael turned out to be about 25 and also turned out to be the banker's son. After the introductions were over, the father left and Michael escorted us to his office. After talking with him for a half hour, I felt very comfortable with his long term, moderate risk approach to investing. He said that he grew up here and knew so many people and that if he tried any other approach, he wouldn't have much of a career for long. He also assured us that his father had ingrained his customer first approach in him since he was young. He was just getting started at the brokerage company and was trying to get to the point where he was paying for himself.

When we left his office, he was paying for himself after we signed over$7.5 million in government checks to our new account. From that day forward, we became his favorite client and he and his wife became our friends and became frequent visitors to our house after we got settled and had kids the same age as theirs.

After that visit, I went to the farm store and picked up the garden supplies I had ordered. The owner had thrown in a few extras and gave me a couple of seed catalogs to use. He also set us up as a commercial account. Then we went to Marie's to pick up Natalie's wedding dress. She tried it on but wouldn't let me see her in it. She did say however, that both my choice and Marie's fitting were perfect. As we were about to leave, Marie said that I needed to call Swede as he had left word that he wanted to see me before we went back to the village. I called him and he was pleased to hear from me. He then invited Natalie and I for lunch and said that he had something to show me. I agreed and said that we would be there at noon.

We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping. Since all of my clothes were gone now except for what I had with me, I bought a number of other pairs of jeans and shirts to wear at the village along with underwear, socks and a couple of pairs of boots and walking shoes. Natalie still had some clothes but they were half was across the country, so she bought some new casual outfits to wear and work in also along with some casual shoes and another pair of walking shoes. By the time we went and checked into the hotel, we needed another bag to carry all of our new clothes.

The next morning, we went and bought a small trunk to carry our clothes and the wedding dress. We would be able to use the trunk as a table or storage chest at the village. After we took it to our room, we took a slow drive out to Swede and Doris' house. Once again, we were both enchanted with the area. Doris met us and called Swede from the fields on their cell phone. We had a great farm lunch prepared by Doris and we updated them some about our Denver trip.

After lunch, Swede started talking. "Jeff, after we talked the other day, I got to thinking. I know that the two of you are going to be up in the village for another year or so but I know of an opportunity that you might be interested in. So let's the four of us take a drive and I'll show you what I mean." We agreed and piled into his car. He started driving in the direction of the German village and passed through many of the orchards I had seen before without Natalie.

"Swede, is there a growers association around here or statewide or something like that?"

"Yes, there is a statewide organization and a local chapter here. Why? Are you interested in becoming a grower?"

"Maybe. The main thing is that Nat and I got a contract in Denver to study the fruit industry in the Pacific Northwest and we need to get to know some of the growers."

"Then you need to join the association. You will meet plenty of people and can learn a lot quickly. We all have lots of experience and opinions and are ready to share. But if you are interested in becoming a grower, what I am about to show you might be more interesting than I thought. As we neared the village, he turned off the main road and started up a hill and stopped. "This house is owned by a friend of ours. He has about 500 acres of apple trees down here that he has worked for over thirty years. He thought that his kids would take it over but they aren't interested. They want to join the techie crowd over in Seattle. But he wants to semi retire. For now he wants to keep this part but if we go farther up the road he has another 200 acres of cherry trees he'd like to sell. I'll show you."

We drove up the hill and I could hear Natalie gasp at the beauty of the scenery. He drove to a flattened out place just below the peak of the hill and shut off the engine. As we got out, Natalie gasped again. We were looking down on the village and out over the valley. Below us were rows of cherry trees full of bright cherries.

Swede came over by us and started pointing. "His property runs from the road over to that tree line and down to just above his house down there. He also owns the hilltop but nothing is up there but native trees. He had this area leveled so his kids could build a house here and had the water and electricity run and a septic tank installed before he realized that they didn't want to live here. So he stopped. Basically, it is ready to build up here. Now around here, producing orchards run about $5000 per acre. So this property would be about a million dollars for the trees. He's going to have a hard time selling it because there isn't a house here and people want trees with a house. As a result, when he gets back from Europe, he will probably list this part for around $750,000 to see if he can sell it. What I was thinking was that if you can get financing or have some money to make him a deal, you might be able to get this place for $500,000 before he lists it and save the real estate commissions."

I looked at Natalie and saw that she was about to wet her pants. The excitement was written all over her face.

"Tell me something Swede, I imagine that this gets a lot of snow in the winter," He nodded. "What would someone do if they lived up here?"

He smiled, "Drive around and you will see. What most people do would to build a garage down there at the bottom of the property and keep their truck there during the winter. Then they would have a snow mobile up here with a ski trailer and drive it down to the garage when they needed to go to town. When they came back, they load their groceries and things in the trailer and drive the snow mobile back up the hill. You could ski or snow shoe down but that would be hard to bring things up."

"What is the market for cherries right now?"

"These are special cherries and are just now getting to the productive age. Virtually all of these are exported to Japan and China and bring a premium price. That's why you don't see them in the market in the states. These trees probably produce around $4-500,000 a year alone and that will probably increase as they finish maturing."

Natalie couldn't constrain herself anymore. "Tell him we want it! Well, tell him that we want it if Jeff says so. It is his decision."

I grinned and said, "When your friend gets back, tell him that you have a serious cash buyer but that I want to talk to him and see what we can work out. I love everything about it but I might want to see if he can continue to work it until we come back from the village. I don't want to let it just sit for a year of two."

"I can almost guarantee he will do that deal. He wants to start pulling back in the next year or two and then fully retire in five years. If you are serious about a cash deal with no real estate commissions, all you have to worry about is hammering out the details. I can guarantee that you will make out like a bandit with this place."

Doris added, "And Natalie, you will love the people here in the village. We come over here all of the time and they have so many fairs and events, it is like a year round party."

"Living here is going to be like a year round dream." She replied.

Swede asked again, "Are you serious, Jeff?"

"Yes I am, Swede. One of the things that happened in Denver was that I sold my house in Texas for close to what we are talking about and with our contract and some other savings, we are ready to find a place just like this and build our own place. We have eighteen months to design what we want and get it built. This is just a perfect opportunity for us."

"My friend will be very pleased to hear that. He will be back here in about a month. Plan on getting together when you come out for your weekend off around then. Let's go somewhere and get a beer. I think this deserves a celebration."

"I agree and I'm buying."

He drove us into the village and parked in front of a beer garden and restaurant. We sat outside and a pitcher of dark beer miraculously appeared. It was good and rich like the beers I had tasted in Germany one summer. One beer led to another and people who knew Swede and Doris started joining us. We were introduced as soon to be members of the community and we were welcomed warmly. By 5:30, there were more than a dozen local people sitting around a couple of tables that had been pulled together. At 6:00 platters of sausage, sauerkraut, potatoes and other German delights began appearing. By 7:30, our party of almost 20 people were glowing with pride, with the food and drink and with new neighbors.

I looked at Natalie and she was enjoying herself even more than I was and that was a lot. I knew that we were at home here and belong here. Everything else was just a matter of negotiations. We were invited to visit homes when we were out on weekends and encouraged to come to their monthly festivities. We couldn't promise anything since we didn't know our schedules yet, but we assured everyone that we would be back often. At 8:00, Doris announced that they needed to get home and that I was driving. She told me that Swede was too far gone to drive because he was now speaking Swedish to his buddies. It was then that I realized that while I had been listening to them, I hadn't understood a word I had heard. I suggested that Natalie drive. Doris agreed with me. And Swede and I rode back to their place with Natalie driving and Doris giving directions. Needless to say, we spent the night at their house. 

Both Natalie and I were moving slowly in the morning but both Doris and Swede were sharp and ready to get busy after a wonderful breakfast. That also helped us feel more normal and we said our goodbyes and I drove us back to the hotel. On the way, Natalie just rambled on about how wonderful our new home was going to be and how I was going to have to fuck her in every room and underneath every tree in the orchard. I figured that I would be about 60 before we achieved that goal.

When we were about halfway back, I suddenly said, "Nat, I don't know where my head is. You need to call your parents and let them know that everything is alright."

"Oh, I already talked to them. They and my sisters will be here for the wedding. Dan had called mom and told her that I was fine and then I called her while I was waiting for you at Marie's the other day. They had already heard about John and were surprised about us but are just so happy. They are eager to meet you. By the way, no matter how much you beg, you aren't going to fuck my sisters. Well, maybe the older one but not the baby."

"Why would I want to fuck your sisters when I have you, my love?"

"Honey, I am the ugly duckling of the family. They are just gorgeous and sexy as hell too. My little sister is the best looking one of all although she is also a book worm. But I won't let you touch her except for hugs and kisses."

"You amaze me."

"When we get to town we need to see if the courthouse is still open to get our marriage license. Otherwise, we will have to make another trip down this week."

Fortunately, they were open until noon on Saturday and we got that taken care of before we went to the hotel. We were still stuffed from breakfast so we spent our lunch time in bed satisfying Natalie's other hunger. After that, I looked up local architects on the internet and found several in the area. We looked at their work that was shown and we both decided on one in particular who had a style that we liked very much. We made a point to contact him after we made a deal on the property.

That night we went to a simple restaurant and had salad and wine. We had eaten more in the past week than we had in the month on the road together. On Sunday morning, we packed our bags and drove to the village B&B to wait for the boat. Hopefully, they would be able to carry all of the tools and our stuff to boot. I covered the truck with a tarp and we were ready when they arrived. Fortunately, they had a light load of newcomers and we were able to get everything on the boat. We were met at the dock by Sheila who was driving the bus that day and she was thrilled to see all of the tools I brought. We got all of the things on the bus along with the new arrivals and their luggage. On the way up, she asked me to make a brief introduction to newcomers and gave me a schedule of things for the afternoon. Most of the people were from out of state and were on their first visit. I did the best I could to welcome them and tried to give them a rundown on what they should expect to see on the way up and at the village itself. Then I gave them a rundown on the schedule for the afternoon and evening.

When I finished, Sheila motioned me over and said that I had given one of the best greetings she had heard and that I might be called on to help greeting people especially on weekends when there were large groups of visitors. That surprised me but not Natalie who said, "Isn't he wonderful." Sheila nodded with a grin.

When we arrived at the village, we led the newcomers to the dining hall for their first meal. Natalie and I sat with several couples in our age range and got to know them better. One couple was from Nebraska, another from Michigan. The third was from Texas; they were from Dallas in fact. One of the couples asked him about the explosion mystery. Natalie and I remained silent and just listened as we had no intention of offering anything substantial to the conversation.

The man shrugged his shoulders and said, "We heard a lot about it and a lot of it makes no sense. We've had a lot of these kinds of things and most of them are drug related. This one could be that but I think there might have been something different here. For one thing, the FBI was all over the area and never made any public announcements. The sheriff was the only one who talked to the press. That was unusual because the Feds always like to take their credit. I think that it might have been a terrorist thing gone bad and they are covering it up for some reason." 

That led the others to talk about rumors of terrorists in their towns. By the end of lunch, the subject had changed and they were talking about the scenery and the village. I suggested that they walk around a little and get settled in their rooms before the orientation. They nodded and we all went our separate ways.

As Natalie and I went to take our things to the chalet we would be living in, she asked, "What do you think about what he said?"




An Inconvenient Spy Ch. 02



"I think that he is pretty sharp and that what he said is accurate enough and vague enough to be satisfy most everyone. If it ever comes up again, we might as well use that story too."

"That's what I was thinking too."

We found that Sheila was waiting with a cart for us to load our things and led us to the house. The garden tools had already been picked up and taken to the storage shed. The chalet wasn't big but it was nice. She lived in the smaller space upstairs and we had the down stairs. We shared the kitchen. She told us that during the week, the staff usually ate in the dining hall because we were working. But on weekends, they usually cooked in their houses. We agreed that that was a good plan and agreed that we would share cooking and clean up duties. Then she left us to unpack and get settled as she went to prepare for the orientation. We found that the closet was adequate for our clothes and the few other things we had brought. Natalie had thought to bring our new sheets and blankets from the trailer and we changed the bed. We also unloaded the cache of wine we brought and put them in the trunk for safe keeping. So we were now set up in our new living quarters and Natalie wanted to christen our new bed; so we did.

After we cleaned up we went out and walked around the area and ended up in the bookstore. There was a young volunteer working and she smiled at Natalie when she recognized her.

"Hi Natalie. Did you guys have a good week out?"

"Yes, we did Heather. It turned out to be better than we expected for several different reasons. How was business last week?"

"It was pretty good. I think you need to reorder some things though. We had a run on certain books last week because the speakers talked on this subject. I left a list on your desk. I leave next Saturday, so let me know if I can help you get settled."

"Where do you go to school, Heather. I never asked."

"I go to the University of Portland."

"Wow, my sister goes there."

"Really; what's her name? It isn't a big school and I probably know her."

"Her name is Cindy; Cindy Crawford." Surprisingly Heather blushed. "Do you know her?"

"Um, yes I do. She and I have had several classes together and um we share several interests."

Natalie looked at the squirming girl and then said, "You are her girl friend, aren't you?" Now Heather was totally red. "She told me she had a girl friend but didn't tell me her name. Don't be embarrassed; I know that she is bi because so am I. She's going to be up her for our wedding this coming weekend."

"Really? Wow. Maybe I'll stay over and go back with her. We haven't seen each other for a month since she was in summer school and I was up here."

"I think they are coming up on Thursday because the wedding is on Friday. I've got rooms for them in the hotel. She's supposed to stay with my other sister."

"Well, maybe we can find some time together."

"If I were you, I'd plan on it. If she hasn't had you for a month, she'll want more than a little time with you." Heather just beamed at the thought.

We left and I asked, "So are there any other things I ought to know about your family before they arrive?"

"Just that we are very close and are really open with each other. That might take some getting used to for you. We don't have many secrets from each other."

"This ought to be an interesting week."

"I think it will be. I'm already excited but a lot of that is because of you."

"By the way, if you are ordering books this week, see if you can get me a book about growing cherries. I think I need to start learning now so I am not a total idiot when we move into our house."

"I'll see what is in our catalogs. If they don't have anything, I check when we go out next time."

We went to the early dinner seating and were joined by the couples from Texas and Michigan. The other couple was going to the later seating. We were joined by Heather after she closed the store. The three of us picked up where we left off earlier and they asked Heather a lot of questions about what to do and where to go to take pictures. Heather was eager to talk about the area and the events. She told them about the two lakes nearby and the waterfall. She also said that they could take some really nice pictures at night after the lights went off. She said to not go outside of the village areas because there were bears in the area especially at night. That convinced the Texas couple to stay indoors after dark but didn't faze the Michigan couple very much as they had bears in their area too.

After dinner we all walked outside in the nice evening air. Heather walked next to Natalie and they talked quietly several times. I didn't try to listen or interfere. I felt sure that I would hear about it soon enough. Heather left us to go help set up the evening service. We waited and then led the other couples to the large meeting room.

After the event, we all went for ice cream and talked some more. I could see some chemistry building between Natalie and the Texas woman whose name was Rachel. Her husband seemed oblivious to anything going on around him. Once again, I decided to wait until Nat was ready to tell me what was going on.

We all walked toward our rooms and said good night. I took Natalie's hand and she took my arm in hers. "I love you." She said simply.

"I know and I love you. Are you getting nervous about the wedding?"

"A little. I think mostly it is because of my family being here and having not met you. I'm not worried because I know that they will love you. I'm a little scared because of how you might react to them."

"What are you worried about most?"

"I think that you might be uncomfortable with how open we are. I mean I expect my older sister to ask how good you are in bed right in front of you. Things like that."

"Well that might be uncomfortable but I think I can get used to it as long as you are there to support me."

"Oh, I'll be there for sure."

"What were you talking quietly about with Heather?"

"She was asking me if it was alright if she asks Cindy to stay with her in her room. She's alone this week. I told her that I didn't have a problem with it as long as the village didn't have a problem with it. They are really a strong couple she said."

"Is that all right with you?"

"Of course, it is alright with me. That's one of the things about our parents; they have always told us to go with our heart and make ourselves happy regardless of whom it is with."

"That I understand perfectly. I think that I never married before because I never met anyone who truly made me happy. Then you came along and you make me deliriously happy."

"I love you." We went in our room and undressed slowly and crawled under the covers and snuggled together.

"So what was going on with you and Rachel?" I asked.

"You noticed; I shouldn't be surprised tough." She sighed. "She asked me if I would like to fuck her husband. I told her no and that the only man I fucked was you. But I added that if she wanted me to fuck her, we could do that. All she said was that she had never been with a woman before. And that was all. But then she started warming up during ice cream. Then I whispered to her that I would only fuck her if you were involved with her too. She got really embarrassed hearing that. I don't know what will come of it but she is certainly thinking about it. I doubt that she will want to; they are leaving Saturday and that doesn't give her much time to think."

"If she did, would you want to fuck her?"

"Only if you were fucking her too. She isn't bad looking and seems to have a nice body. It might be fun to teach her about making love to a woman."

"I'm with you; I doubt that she will decide in less than a week."

"We'll see. Now fuck the woman you love before we go to sleep. Tomorrow we start our new jobs."

We made slow sweet love and then fell asleep together in our first home together.

Monday was our first day to work. I rose early and went to the dining hall and brought back a pot of coffee. We discovered that Sheila was a tea drinker and made her own. I made coffee for Natalie and I and she and I drank our coffee while we dressed and then went to the dining hall to eat. Then I walked her to the book store before going to the storage shed to look at the schedule for the week. I had three volunteers scheduled and it appeared that the goal for the week was to freshen up a portion of the garden and plant some lettuce, radishes, and carrots to be ready in late August and early September. I got one of the new tillers out and gassed it up. Then I arranged with one of the drivers to bring us a trailer of compost to work into the area. While I waited, I went back to the dining hall for another cup of coffee. I made a note to get a thermos and an insulated cup on our next trip out.

When I got back, I met my volunteers; two of whom just started. The other one had been here for a week. We talked for awhile and made a plan for the week. The returnee suggested that we start loosening the soil and then work the compost in. She went to the shed and came back with a grin and the tiller. "Now this is going to make that job a lot easier that using the hand cultivators." The newcomers nodded but didn't realize that they had been doing this job by hand before. We took the tiller to the part of the garden we planned to plant and thirty minutes later, we were raking up weeds and rocks and waiting for the compost. 

While we waited, I looked around the garden area and found what looked like the rock foundation for a building of some kind about fifty feet uphill from the top of the garden. The building had been gone for a long time from the look of it. An idea began germinating in my mind but I was interrupted when the truck arrived and dropped off the trailer with our compost. We spent the rest of the morning spreading the compost over the tilled area and also side dressed the existing plants with a layer of freshness. Then it was time for lunch. I told the others that we would till the compost in the afternoon and then water it down well and plant the following morning. They nodded and we put the tools up and went to lunch.

I stopped by the bookstore and found that Natalie had already gone to the dining hall. When I went in, I found her sitting at a table with Heather and two other young volunteers and two other couples that I hadn't met. I said "hi" to her and went to get my lunch and took a seat with Sheila.

"So how was your first morning in the garden?"

"Great, we got the area tilled and a load of compost spread. We'll till it in this afternoon and plant in the morning. From what one girl said, those tillers will cut the time it takes to prepare the beds to about a third of the time."

"I imagine. We have had tillers before and they were great except that they were used and usually didn't last a season. The young people really didn't know how to use them and they wore out quickly."

"Then I will have a training class for them before they can use them."

"That would be great."

"Listen, I was thinking about a couple of things. The first was that what the kitchen wants would require an expansion of the garden. Are there any problems with expanding it?"

"Yes and no. At that site, you can't go down because of the road and on the far side, we can't cut the trees. Uphill is almost solid rock. You can come the other direction about twenty feet or so before you run into some of the plumbing pipes. We would have to check with engineering to find out exactly where the pipes are. So you could expand some and that would be a nice addition."

"What would you think about making a kitchen herb garden along the front of the dining hall. If the herbs were closer, that might help and that space in the garden could be used for other crops. It wouldn't cost anything except labor."

"I like that idea. Let's talk to the head cook after we eat."

"Also, above the garden there is a rock foundation or wall. Have you considered putting a green house there?"

"Actually we have. A visitor who was here last spring builds green house and suggested it. He offered to build one for cost. The problem is that the structure has to be strong enough for the snow loads so even at cost the greenhouse would be $50,000. Then it would take another $50,000 to put up solar panels to add heat for the winter. In other places, they can burn wood for winter heat but we can't because of the forest around us. It is too dangerous. He could actually have it up in less than a month if we could do it. We have it on our long term to-do list but fund raising is always an on-going issue with us so it might be a few years before we can get to it."

"I know a couple of people with some money, would you mind if I contacted them about donating it?"

"Oh that would be wonderful if you could."

"Let me see what I can do?"

"Great. Keep me informed."

I put my dishes in the cleaning area and went over to Natalie who was also getting ready to go. I waited for her and she smiled and took my hand as we left the dining hall.

"Hello lover, have you missed me?"

"I didn't miss you because you were close by but I thought about you all morning."

"That is just as good as missing me. I worked up our book order this morning and found one book on cherries which looked pretty good; so I ordered it for you. It will probably be two or three weeks before it gets here."

"That's great. I probably won't be able to get into it until it gets colder. How would you feel about me spending about $100,000 of our money?"

"You don't have to ask; you make those decisions."

"I want to put up a green house by the garden. They have a plan for one but it will take a few years to raise the money for it. If we go for it now, it can be up before winter."

"Then do what you have to do, my love. We can dedicate it to you."

"Actually, I was thinking that we should dedicate it to John, Bruce, Jillian, and Gwen."

Natalie looked at me quickly and said, "That would be even better. No wonder I love you so much."

"So what were you all having so much fun talking about at lunch?"

"The couples and two of the volunteers had been in the morning session about changes in the concept of marriage and family. It was interesting to see the different thoughts between the older couples and the younger kids."

"Have you changed your attitude about marriage?" I grinned at her.

"Hell no; you are my man and that is that and I am about to wet my panties waiting until Friday. You are probably going to get raped tonight."

"I think I can stand that."

"You better. You're getting married on Friday too."

"Yes I am."

I gave her a kiss and started toward the garden when Sheila called for me. I went back up to the dining hall. She was standing with the head of the kitchen.

"Jeff, Maggie got real excited about the idea of a kitchen herb garden. Show her what you have in mind."

"Hi Maggie; lunch was really good today. Thanks."

"I appreciate it. So what are you thinking? This is kind of steep along here for a garden."

"Unless there is a problem with moving rocks, we build up a wall along here and make a raised bed garden. It can be four or five feet wide. I was also thinking about covering it or part of it with plastic so that we can grow some things during the winter."

Maggie replied, "Sheila, if he can do it, I'm all for it. It would really add to our meals and I think that it would also add some beauty to the front here in the spring and summer."

Sheila responded, "Alright, Jeff you have a project. Draw up your plan and let's run it by engineering to make sure they don't have a problem with it. We can't take rocks from the creek but we have a big pile out back that came from other sources. The work crews can help build the wall."

"Great. Maggie, make a list of the herbs that you want to use so I can plan around your needs."

"I'll have the list in your box tonight."

Then Sheila walked with me toward the garden where we found the head of engineering. She said, "Mike, this is Jeff and our new head gardener. He wants to know how far he can expand the garden this way before he runs into your pipes."

"Hi Jeff, I'm pleased to meet you. We have pipes running along here where you see the change in color of the soil. So if you came to this point, you won't bother anything that we need to do. Actually, it might help a little to have the soil loosened up a little. I should warn you that there is no telling what you might dig up. When we ran some new pipe along here, we found dishes and cooking utensils and other stuff. This might have been a house or an outdoor kitchen for the house that used to be up there. Nothing shows up on the old plans, but then the people who were here didn't keep detailed records of the living areas; only the work area."

"Thanks Mike. I'll stake out what I want to do and let you look at it before we start working on it."

"That would be great. Sorry, I've got to run."

Sheila looked at me and asked, "Well?"

"This adds about a third to the garden area and if we move the herbs to the dining hall, that would about double what we can grow here in the garden."

"That would be wonderful. We'll confirm it at the Operations meeting so that everyone knows what we are doing."

"Sheila, do you have the plans and the name of the green house guy? I want to go ahead with the green house and try to get it up before winter."

She looked at me in shock. "But you said that you needed to contact people who might donate..."

"Sheila, when Nat and I went to Denver, several things happened including that we sold both of our properties, got a life insurance payment for Nat's husband, and a settlement on our pensions. We have some money to build our lives on. We would like to make this an anonymous donation in memory of the four people who were killed."

"I need to tell Monica, but I don't think it will be a problem at all. The board will have to approve it at their next meeting but they have never turned down a donation like this before. So I will let you know at dinner for sure."

"If you agree, I'd like to take Natalie down lake on Wednesday to talk to this guy and get it ordered. Then we can come back up with her family Thursday morning."

"I think that would be great. Frankly, I'm in shock. Things like this don't just happen that quickly around here."

"Things that happened to us don't happen that quickly either."

"We'll talk at dinner."

She wandered back toward her office in a daze and I turned to my volunteers and said, "Let's get to tilling and watering."

Two of them got to work with both tillers and the other one came with me and we put stakes out to mark the new area. At 3:00, Natalie came down with three sodas and two iced teas and some cookies. I introduced her to my kids and we showed her around the garden. Then I walked her up to the place for the green house and told her what I had talked about with Sheila. The opportunity to ride up lake with her family really pleased her. Then we got back to work. 

When it was break time, I met her and we went to the chalet so I could shower. When I got out, Natalie said that we were supposed to meet Sheila and Monica in the office for dinner. So we took a bottle of our wine with us. We found Monica and Sheila in the small dining room where the board ate when they met. They had big smiles on their faces as they greeted us and glowed even more when we opened the bottle of wine. Shortly afterwards, one of the cooks brought us our dinner which was fresh grilled salmon. We ate and just chatted while we ate. After we finished, Monica said, "I have to say that I am really impressed at how much you two have accomplished in your first day. You are impressive."

I nodded and Natalie just said a simple, "Thanks."

"Now for the important business of the moment; Sheila says that you want to make this donation anonymously. Is that correct?"




An Inconvenient Spy Ch. 02



Natalie took my and looked to me to respond. "Yes. Until two years ago I was a government researcher until my report was leaked to the press and I became highly visible. Then I disappeared from view. Natalie was also an invisible researcher also. We were well known within our community but not outside of it. Then this recent event has had our names and pictures all over the news for weeks. I think that I have had more than my fifteen minutes of fame and I want to go back to being a normal guy leading a normal life. Natalie might feel differently but that is what I want."

Natalie added, "I agree totally with Jeff. Being so public was not a comfortable feeling for me. I am very content being just an average person."

Monica responded, "I can understand that except that both of you are far from being average and it shows. I will need to tell the board who is making the donation so they can formally accept it and give you the tax exemption that I am sure you will need. But they are used to keeping donors names private. Do you have any information on the four people you would like to dedicate this too?"

"Natalie probable knows about John but neither of us knew the others well; only as co-workers. I can get some information on them from Washington I think."

"That would be nice and their next of kin if you could. We would like to send them an acknowledgement of the dedication."

"I'll see what I can get."

"Great. Now Sheila, what do you have for them?"

"I called the green house guy this afternoon and told him that we might want to go ahead with the project now. He was excited as his business has slowed a little like it normally does at this time of year. So, he will meet you for dinner Wednesday night at the restaurant in town to go over the details. He said that he would be there at 6:00. Is that alright with you?"

"That works perfectly. I will call my banker when we get off at the B&B and tell him to expect a call from him to confirm the financial arrangements or do you need a cash donation and then order the materials yourselves?"

"We can do it either way. As long as we can call on any warranty issues, we are fine with it."

"I'll do it whichever way that will let us get it up before winter. I want to grow things during the cold and start seeds early for spring."

"Then we have a go. The formal go will be after the board meeting next month but Monica has already talked to three of the board members and there won't be any problems."

"That is great news. I am also going to go forward with herb garden and hopefully have it functional over winter."

"That's great but remember, we only feed staff and a few visitors so the whole herb garden doesn't need to be covered. Here is the cooks list of things she would like. The ones with stars are first priority; the others are secondary but desirable."

"I'll check to see which of these grows best in this area."

"Thanks. We have enjoyed having you here with us and look forward to the winter. We have a lot more time to talk and work then."

"We are looking forward to it too." We all rose and I carried the dishes back up to the dining hall. Monica went to the evening service while Natalie and Sheila got a cup of coffee and talked for a moment. Then Sheila left to go to the service also. 

I went to Natalie asked if she wanted to go to the rest of the service. She smiled and said that we probably should but she had a better idea. Unfortunately, the better idea would have to wait because it had been a short service and everyone started filling out. So we went to get an ice cream. We were joined by Heather and the other two volunteers who sat with Nat at lunch. The five of us went outside and found a bench near the dining hall to sit on.

Natalie introduced the two girls as Diane and Marcie. They were both students at Washington State and were here for another two weeks.

Diane started the conversation, "Natalie, at lunch you said that you felt that there was a future for polyamory families. How exactly do you think that would work?"

"I'm not exactly certain but I know that they do work. There are already a number of multiple partner families in the country that I know of. I did a paper in college on the subject and there were a couple of things that stood out. The first was that there had to be a dominant leader. Families don't work well when two of more people are always striving to be the dominant one. That is true even in normal one man-one woman relationships. That doesn't mean that the relationships are master/servant ones. It is more like a 'managing partner along with other partners' relationship."

"Does that mean that these will all be male led relationships?"

"Not necessarily but that will probably be the norm. Guys are competitive and try to control their lives. A woman can lead but she then will have to find away to balance those competitive issues."

"Are you and Jeff going to have a relationship like that?"

"I don't know. A lot of that will depend on Jeff. He can definitely be the managing partner for sure. But he might not want to manage two or more women."

"So let's say that a year after you got married, he came home one night with a hot young thing and announced that she was moving in with the two of you. Isn't that going to bother you?"

"Yes definitely. But it would also say that then we had a master-servant relationship and neither of us wants that. However, since I am bi and he isn't, if we together found a woman that we both liked and felt strongly about and she was receptive, then that could become a viable situation. I actually think that that is a very reasonable relationship because there are so many women who consider themselves bisexual these days. They could have their own relationship within the framework of the larger one. It also allows for a great deal of sexual diversity within the family and we know that sexual boredom is often the seed that leads to the breakup of a family."

"What other advantages might occur? I can see the sexual diversity for sure but that also seems a little shallow and limited. There has to be something else at work to make this viable, isn't there?"

"You are exactly right on that point. The sexual diversity is important but only one dimension. The greater benefit is an economic one. Consider a two person relationship. They each work and the family has a nice income and life. But when they have a child, the income goes down, the costs go up and the stress increases on everyone. Now let's add a third person to that relationship. She may not be career oriented to the same degree as the others. If either woman has a child and the third woman takes over the household and child care as her job and role, then the income stays up, the costs do go up but not as much because the child care is taken care of, and the stress is level is reduced greatly. At some point it becomes impractical but three or maybe four people would be about the practical maximum I would guess."

"That makes sense but that also means that you are looking for a certain type of woman for your third."

"Maybe, maybe not. Look at the two of you. You are both young and ambitious. In ten years, are either or both of you still going to be that way or will one of you have a strong need to be a mommy and a caretaker? You don't know for sure but the odds say that one of you will want that. You can be a girl couple with a male friend with benefits or you can enter into a relationship with a man and work your leadership issues as you go. That's one of the reasons I felt that these relationships had a place in the future. There is a lot of flexibility and the ability to adapt as time goes on plus I really am drawn to the idea of reduced stress in a relationship. There was a lot of stress in my first marriage but with Jeff, even though we were involved in a very stressful situation, I felt more relaxed than I ever have when I let him make the decisions for us and I supported him in every way I could. Jeff, do you have a comment to make?"

"I'm a little late in this discussion and I am still trying to absorb what Nat just said; but I will say that during our adventure I didn't always feel like I knew what to do. There were times that I felt that anything I did would be wrong. I always talked things over with Nat and as she said, she let me make the decision. The fact that she had that much trust in me and my judgment and then that she supported me in my decision gave me a lot more confidence that even if I made a wrong choice, we would come out of it ok. I can also say that we bonded more closely than I have ever felt with anyone in my life. I'm older than she is but right now, she is half of my heart, one of my lungs, arms, and legs. She is part of me and I really don't know how I would be if I went back to my old life. But I also have no desire to go back."

'Wow, this is pretty impressive. How would you go about looking for someone like that?"

I looked at Nat and she just nodded for me to reply. "I guess that I would say that you can't go looking for it. You just live and allow it to find you. As I look back, I probably had twenty opportunities for something good like this but I was too wrapped up in other things to let it just happen. This time I didn't really have much of a choice. We came together out of mutual need and we came out of the other end as one."

Natalie added, "I agree with Jeff. I don't think that you can make it happen; all you can do is be open to it when the opportunity arises. Hopefully none of you will be caught up in something like we were, but there will be opportunities in different forms for you."

I said, "Marcie, you have been quiet. What do you think?"

She smiled and said, "I want Diane to take me to our room and fuck me."

Natalie smiled and said, "I think that the two of you are on the verge of a good poly relationship and haven't found it yet. You already have the core relationship working."

Diane stood up and pulled Marie with her, "Good night all; I must see to my girl. We will see you at breakfast." They headed for their dorm.

I said, "Heather, you have been quiet too. Do you have anything to say?"

"Yes; I wish Cindy was here to fuck me tonight too. But I only have a couple more days to wait."

"Then we will walk you to your dorm and wish you sweet dreams."

I took one of her hands and Natalie took the other and we walked her to the volunteer dorm. She gave each of us a hug and went inside.

As we turned to go to our room, Natalie said, "Now it is time for you to fuck me, lover."

As we walked back, I asked, "Did you really mean what you said tonight?"

"Honey, I believe it intellectually and I think that it is very possible even for us; but as I said, I don't want to go look for it, but if it arises, I would be open to considering it. I have a feeling that Becky might be good for us if she and Tim ever break up but I am not going to hope that they split. Heather would be nice but she is so young that I doubt that she is ready for something this sophisticated. The one thing I didn't say was that it would take intelligent people acting intelligently to make something like this work."

"That makes a whole a lot more sense when you add that in."

"I think it can work at all levels but it would be a lot harder with a plumber, a waitress, and a secretary for sure. Their goals tend to be focused on today and tomorrow. It takes people with a longer vision to see the potential in a relationship like this."

We went in and got in bed and as she promised, she took advantage of every bit of energy I had in me. But then she gave me every bit that she had too.

In the morning, I repeated myself by going to get coffee for us but this time I brought tea for Sheila which she rewarded me with a kiss. Natalie wanted a kiss too and then Sheila wanted another one too. Well, that went on for several minutes until we were all giggling. As Natalie and I walked to the dining hall, she said, "I think that tonight we will be having Sheila visiting us if you don't mind. She is getting horny again."

"You make the bedroom decisions. It is your call."

"I just want to make sure that you don't have any problems with her."

"None. I like her, I feel comfortable working with her, and I like the way she looks too."

"She looks even better without clothes on and she cums really nice too."

"I guess I will find that out tonight, won't I." I grinned.

"Yes, you most certainly will."

We ate breakfast and then went to work. The first thing I had one person do was wet the new area down very thoroughly. I wanted to probe it with a pitch fork before I ran the tiller over it. The rest of us planted lettuce until break time and then we probed the area together. We dug up two old cast iron skillets, several plates, a couple of ceramic crocks, and assorted knives, forks, and spoons. We set those aside and then took one of the tillers and began working out way out a row at a time. During this, we unearthed more small items including a couple of rings and a bracelet. When we finished for the afternoon, I had one of the girls go get Sheila and the others went to clean up. Sheila came down with Natalie and was surprised at the things we had found. We boxed them up and I carried them to the office. She would have the curator of the small museum we had look at them when she came up over for the weekend.

I went and took a shower and changed clothes. Then I went to dinner and sat with Natalie and Heather. Shortly after that several other visitors joined us and we got to meet some new people and go through the "who are you and where are you from" routine. So far, everyone we had talked to had been interesting and enjoyable. I didn't expect that everyone would be that personable but so far I liked everyone.

After dinner we went to services and then to ice cream. We walked Heather back to her dorm and then went to our room. Sheila was waiting for us with a bottle of wine opened and three cups. She poured us each a glass and the three of us sat on the sofa in our small living room and talked. Natalie was in the middle. After a few minutes, Natalie's arm was around Sheila's shoulders and Sheila's head was resting on her shoulder. Then came their first kiss and then the second which lasted much longer. I began caressing Natalie's arm and thigh.

A few minutes later, Natalie had the smaller woman move onto her lap and they kissed more passionately. Then Nat took my arm and slid it around Sheila's back and let her move into my embrace. Sheila made no effort to reject the effort and I leaned down to kiss her. She met me eagerly and sucked my probing tongue into her mouth. That was when I discovered that Sheila was indeed a very passionate woman but that she did not initiate contact. When Natalie or I initiated contact, her response was eager and passionate. Natalie told me later that this was the way it was with her husband too. He wanted to control things and she was happy responding to his initiatives. While I was kissing Sheila, Nat slipped her hands under her bulky sweater and began caressing her breasts. Sheila moaned in my mouth at her first touch and sucked harder on my tongue.

I felt Natalie doing something and lifted my head as she raised Sheila's sweater over her head and tossed it aside. Now I saw what Natalie meant; Sheila's breasts were full and probably a nice B-cup with erect nipples on the tip. They were well hidden under the heavy sweaters that she normally wore. Natalie's mouth sought one of her breasts and Sheila shuddered and moaned. I went back to kissing her and was met with even more enthusiasm. I pulled her arms around my neck and they went eagerly and her fingers began playing with the hair on my neck. I felt Natalie move again and then she gently pulled my head down until one of Sheila's nipples was pressing against my lips. I opened my mouth and ran my tongue over the firm tip and received a moan for my efforts. Meanwhile, Nat was undoing Sheila's pants and wrestling them off her legs. Our prize was now naked on our laps and in our arms.

Natalie whispered in my ear, "Bring our baby to bed. I think all of us are ready to explore each other."

I easily lifted Sheila and stood up. Natalie went to our bed and pulled the covers back so I could lay Sheila in the center. Then we both knelt next to her. Natalie said, "I'm going to warm her pussy up for us; you let her get a taste of your cock." Sheila was lying there with her eyes closed but she was breathing deeply. I saw Natalie spread her legs and crawl between them. I moved up a little and let the tip of my cock touch her lips. Her mouth immediately opened and let the crown inside and sucked on it with enthusiasm. Slowly she pulled the rest of it inside until I was bumping the back of her throat. She didn't stop however until I was in her throat and my pubic hair was against her mouth and lips. The she pulled back and continued to suck a full mouthful of me. I felt her tense up and freeze for a moment as she came from whatever Natalie was doing. 

Natalie waited a minutes and rose and said, "Sheila honey. Let him go and get on your hands and knees and come make love to my pussy. Without hesitation, Sheila released me and crawled between Natalie's legs and began licking while holding her hips. Natalie nodded to me so I got behind her and slipped my cock inside the waiting pussy. She was fairly tight and it took a few extra adjustments until I was fully inside her. I could feel her muscles contracting against me and then she froze again for a few minutes. When she released the grip on my cock, I began to slowly thrust in and out of her. Her hips immediately began to move to meet my every move. She rolled in a way that her clit rubbed against me on each stroke. She came two more times before I felt myself about to cum. I looked up at Nat and she smiled and nodded her head so I just kept moving and was deeply inside her when I spit out my first load of cum. That triggered Sheila to explode around me and a deep moan escaped from between Natalie's legs. I looked and Nat was in the throes of an orgasm at the same time. I heard Sheila lapping up her sweet cum.

When I finished I just stayed still until I softened enough to slip out of her. Sheila rolled over on her side with a huge smile on her face. Natalie said quietly, "Honey, go clean his cock up for him. When he is ready again, he will fuck me and you can watch and help."

Sheila moved and took me in her mouth and cleaned every drop of our mixed cum. Then she lay back on her side but held me in her hand and began gently stroking me. Natalie snuggled up to my back and caressed my chest and abs. She was also lightly humping my ass. She whispered in my ear, "Do you like that, honey?"

"Mmm, yes I do."

"I thought you would. Just relax and let Sheila and I to enjoy you until you are ready to go again."

It didn't take long especially after Natalie pushed Sheila's head down and she inhaled my cock again. When I felt ready again, Natalie asked, "Are you ready?" I nodded and felt her roll onto her back. "Sheila lover, bring Jeff to me and put him inside me." 

Sheila rolled me over to face Natalie and coaxed me between her legs without ever letting go of my cock. When I was in position, she rubbed the tip against Natalie's clit and up and down her slit to get it wet and then she put me right at her entrance and held me there while she began to push my ass with her other hand. I slid into Natalie's waiting pussy and once again felt that was where I was meant to be. Sheila removed her hand in order to let the last part of me to enter. Then she lay and caressed my ass as I move inside my love. Natalie met my thrusts and began moaning with passion. As our movements and passions increased, so did the intensity of Sheila's caresses on my ass.




An Inconvenient Spy Ch. 02



After a while, Natalie began panting and said, "Lover, I'm ready to cum. Cum with me. Love me." She grabbed me around my shoulders and I was getting ready to cum too. Then I felt Sheila take her finger and deftly push it in my ass. I exploded inside Natalie and kept cumming for a long time. She flooded me and herself with her own cum. We just lay against each other panting to catch our breath. Sheila removed her finger from me and again caressed my ass. When I caught my breath, I rolled off of lay next to my Nat.

Then I heard her say, "Sheila honey, clean Jeff up and then clean me. You are wonderful."

For the first time tonight, Sheila said something, "Thank you Natalie, both of you were wonderful and that was the best sex I have ever had." Then she sucked me clean and went to work on Natalie's very messy pussy. When she finished, she lay next to Natalie.

Nat asked, "Sheila, would you like to sleep with us or do you want to sleep in your bed?"

"I think I better sleep in my bed. I have an early meeting and my husband is coming in tomorrow."

Then she kissed us both and went upstairs. Natalie pulled the covers over us and said, "Go to sleep my love. We will talk about this tomorrow. I know that you are curious."

"Yes I am, but I can wait. I love you so much."

"Not nearly as much as I love you. You made Sheila very happy tonight."

"I think we both did."

We snuggled together and fell asleep.

I woke up when I felt the bed move. In the dim light, I opened my eyes and saw Sheila gently kissing Natalie and whispering to her, "I have to go to my meeting. I just wanted to tell you thank you again. He is everything you said and more. I have never felt so filled and fulfilled as I did with him. Make sure you tell him about me; I want all of it with him."

"I will. Kiss me and go." Sheila leaned down and gave her a long kiss and then she was up and out the door.

Natalie rolled over and whispered, "I know you are awake; I could feel you move. I guess you heard her, didn't you?"

"Yes; I just don't know what she meant."

Natalie straddled me and when I was firmly inside her, she leaned down and spoke quietly. "Sheila's husband is a little strange. He feels that a woman who is aggressive in bed or asks for what she wants is a slut. So she has learned to lie still and be quiet while she internalizes all of her passion like you saw last night. It is like he wants a life sized sex toy. He can put his cock in her mouth, her pussy, or her ass and do what he wants and she has learned to enjoy it immensely without showing it. I know that sounds weird, but that is what he wants. He treats her well and lets her have women lovers. He brings a man home to fuck her once in awhile but you are the first man she has had on her own and the first threesome she has been in. As you heard, she is thrilled. She will not speak to you during sex or afterwards. She will only talk to me and tell me what she wants before you are there. During sex, she will do anything either of us tells her to do. I led the way last night for you to see what I mean. From now on, you can tell her to do anything to you or me and she will respond eagerly."

"That is interesting. I guess that they aren't a candidate for a relationship like we were talking about last night."

"Actually, they might be but it would be unusual. They would probably respond to a strong decisive woman. It sounds to me like he has very limited creative skills and simply responds to what he is used to. A strong woman can insure that he gets that but also train him to accept more plus she would be a conduit for Sheila to express her needs. That would be hard for them to find because he would probably initially reject such a woman."

"I think I see what you are saying."

"When I did that study in a sexuality class I took, I looked at all sorts of variations and possibilities. We talked about this scheme and it is viable but would require a certain type of dominant leader. The most normal situations are what we talked about last night; a strong man and two women or a strong woman and two submissive men. Other combinations could work but they require special people."

"Do you want a relationship like that?"

"Only if it works for all three of us. We would have to be very sure before we tried it. It wouldn't work with Sheila for sure. But if we find someone that fits us, I might like to see how it would work."

"What kind of woman would it take for us do you think?"

"She needs to be beautiful and smart for sure. I suspect that she would be less work focused than we are and perhaps more domestic. That's why I think Becky would fit; she would rather be a mommy and homemaker but that isn't going to happen for them. I also said that Heather might fit if she was older. As we have talked and I have gotten to know her, she isn't terribly career focused but she is highly organized and loves to cook. One of the things she is thinking about is opening her own restaurant someday."

"How will she work out with your little sister?"

"I don't really know. I am eight years older than Cindy is and I was gone when she hit puberty and young adulthood. I am interested to see her now. If she is like mom, she and Heather will be fine. If she is more like dad or me, it probably won't work as well."

"Why do you say that?"

"Mom and dad have an unusual relationship and the three of us are a combination of things. What you will see when you first see them will be a dominant mom and a quiet and somewhat unassuming dad. As you get to know them more, you will find out that dad is the real dominant in their relationship. Mom wears the clothes, but dad makes the decisions and no one questions his decisions because they are like yours; sound and obviously valid. That was why it was so easy for me to let you make the decisions. Heather is pretty strong herself and if Cindy is like mom, then they can resolve things like mom and dad have. If Cindy is like dad, then there will be conflicts. If Cindy is like mom, they would need a submissive male because either of them will be able to dominate him. If Cindy is like dad, they would need a very strong male to keep them in balance. So for them to go this way will be difficult."

"What about your other sister? You haven't mentioned her very much."

"Donna is a dominant woman period. She is mom and dad combined. If she wants to fuck you, she will. If I said "no," she would take me over her knee and paddle my ass and then fuck you."

"It sounds like we need to introduce Donna to Sheila and her husband."

"That might not be a bad idea. But now, you need to make me cum and we need to get dressed so we can get things going and catch the bus in time."

I rolled her over and thrust into her and she came quickly followed by me. Something about our talk aroused both of us.

We dressed and went to breakfast and had our first cup of coffee for the day. Heather joined us and then the two of them went to the bookstore. I went to the garden and laid out what needed to be done this afternoon and in the morning. They understood and I felt confident that things would get done.

Shortly before noon, I went and got Natalie and we went to find Sheila to tell her we were leaving. She smiled at us and asked if we would bring back a case of wine; half red and half white. We agreed. Then we went to catch the bus that was going down to the landing. Once there, we had about a fifteen minute wait for the boat. When our arrivals got off, we boarded and made the twenty minute trip to the top of the lake village where we had a burger, fries and a beer. Almost everyone from the village who came up had the same meal. Then we boarded the boat for the three hour ride to the B&B and our truck. There was no one going back from the village so we didn't stop at the landing and went straight on down lake.

We got to the truck at 3:00 and I quickly called our banker and told him to expect a call from the green house guy to arrange payments and that I would let him know the final price when we got it hammered out. He said that everything would be fine as the green house guy was also one of his customers. Then I called his son and said that I had totally forgotten about tax issues with the money. He said that he picked up on that and rolled our pension money into 401K accounts and all we had to do was sign a couple of papers but that we had a couple of months to do that. I told him that we would only be in town until the boat left in the morning but if he needed them quickly. He lived only a short ways from the town and agreed to meet us at the restaurant near the dock as 7:00 for breakfast and we could get that detail out of the way. I also asked him to find us a good tax accountant. He said that he knew one and would arrange for us to meet him when we came down for a weekend.

With that all settled, all we had to focus on was the greenhouse tonight and the family in the morning. Natalie snuggled next to me as we drove into town. The first thing I did was stop and buy a coffee maker for the chalet and two insulated cups and a thermos. We then bought two cases of wine, one red and one white that were from a local winery. Just before 6:00 we pulled into the restaurant to meet the green house guy.

He wasn't hard to miss because he was 6'6" tall and built like a linebacker. He also had a huge smile and a warm personality. We had a drink and got to know each other and then ate before we started talking business.

An hour later, we had the details hammered out and he felt that he could start to building up at the village in a month and that it would take three days to build and two days to put the solar panels in. I also asked for grow lights and he added those to the order. When we finished, he was pleased. Then I told him that we were planning on buying a place locally but that it would be a year or slightly longer before our house would be complete. I told him I wanted an almost exact duplicate of this one for our house and that we would take him to the site after we closed on it. He could schedule to build it in his slack time. That made him doubly happy. He was also very pleased that he would be dealing through our banker on the financial things. That gave him confidence that there wouldn't be a screw up. We shook hands and he left. Natalie and I shared a coffee laced with brandy and then we went to the local hotel and checked in for the night. We made very simple and pleasant love for an hour and then took a shower together and went to sleep.

In the morning, we met our broker for breakfast and signed the papers and he was on the way. We decided that Natalie would wait in the restaurant for the bus and hook up with her parents and that I would take the truck up to the B&B and park it and join them there. When I saw the bus coming up the hill from the valley, I kissed her and left. It felt right to me that she get her greetings out of the way with her family before I was introduced. I drove up and parked the truck and unloaded our things and waited.

I started getting excited when I saw the boat in the distance. After our talk about them, I wasn't sure what to expect so I was a little apprehensive. I had never met a woman's family before with the expectation that I would become part of it. So I took a deep breath and watched it slide to the dock. There at the gangway were Natalie and two others that had to be her sisters. They were indeed beautiful but in my eyes, Natalie was the most beautiful of all. She smiled at me as I carried our things on board and set them down. Then she was in my arms kissing me. Then she was replaced by another one who looked me over with the eyes of a cat. I said, "Hi, Donna; I'm Jeff."

"Damn sis, you were right; he is a hunk." Then she pulled me to her for a kiss. When she broke it she added, "And you were right about his lips too. Alright, Cindy, it is your turn; don't wet your panties."

"Hi Cindy, I'm Jeff."

She pulled herself up on her toes and kissed me. Then she said, "Yes, you are just like daddy. Nat, you did really good with this one. I'm surprised that Heather hasn't been all over him. He is just her type."

Natalie said, "Honey, these are my sisters; but I think you figured that out already. Come inside and meet mom and dad. You two go look around the boat and see if you can find your own guy." The other two giggled and went to the bow of the boat to watch us pull away.

"I figured that you ought to be assaulted by them first and get it out of the way. Are you ok?"

"I am fine and I think you called them exactly right. Let's go meet mom and dad."

"Mom wanted to be here too but dad made her stay. She is just as excited about you as they were. Come on." She led me into the cabin and even if it wasn't empty, I would have recognized them as her parents. All of the girls had their mother's good looks and their father's penetrating eyes. As we neared their table, mom couldn't stand it anymore and jumped up and surrounded me with her arms.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you for taking care of Nat. I was so scared for you two. But the FBI man told us that she couldn't have been with a better person and now that you are going to be my son, I couldn't be more thrilled. Come sit down and meet Nat's father. Gresh, this is Jeff; Jeff this is my husband, Gresham Crawford." Some bells rang in my head but I could determine why. He reached out his hand and shook mine while his eyes never left mine. I was sure I never met him but somehow he was familiar. I also understood immediately that he was indeed the power behind his wife's bubbly front.

"It is a pleasure to meet you sir. It is a little late, but may I have the hand of your daughter in marriage?"

He broke out in a huge smile and laugh. "I just knew that you were going to do something like that Jeff. I don't know how I knew, but I felt it coming on. And yes, I would be pleased for you to marry Natalie. She needs someone just like you. Welcome to the family. And I am not 'sir,' I am just Gresh. Before we sit down, let's go get the ladies a coffee and a sweet roll. We had to get up so early to catch the bus and we didn't have time for breakfast. But that is the way it is when your life is filled with women."

Momma said, "Hush Gresh, you will give him the wrong impression of us."

He smiled and said, "I don't think so. I think that Nat briefed him a little and in about ten minutes, he is going to feel right at home. Come on Jeff."

I followed him to the concession counter and we ordered several things and waited for them to be warmed up.

He looked at me and asked, "Have you figured it out yet?"

"No, but the tingle is right there trying to latch onto something."

"Remember fifteen years ago, you had just been promoted to area analyst and there was another merger..."

"And you were the manager of that other agency! Gresh was his name but I never met you."

"No, we didn't meet. They moved me to another nameless faceless agency where I stayed for another ten years and then retired. That was just before you got snookered. I knew about you from the merger; your reputation was already solid and I have kept my eye on you ever since. I'm surprised that they retired you; there was no reason to."

"It turns out that there was a reason but it was a backward reason. It was the same reason that got Natalie married to John."

"No kidding; this is new. When we get up to the village, we need to get private and have a talk."

"I think that would be good. But tell me, does Natalie and the others know about you?"

"No, they don't; they think I was just another government paper pusher. When I retired, I went to work for a bank as an economist and that is what I do now. I'm still in the network although I hear that it is changing. Maybe you know a little about that."

"A little. We'll talk later but if you don't mind, I think that it is time for Natalie to be part of the discussion too."

"If you think so, then that will be fine. I'm sure the others can cope for themselves for awhile."

We carried the coffee and sweet rolls back to where Natalie and her mom were talking. The first thing mom said was, "Gresh, they are going to stay up here. They have found a place about twenty miles from the lake and are going to raise cherries. Isn't that wonderful? We can be here in a day to see them and the grandbabies as soon as they get busy and have some. It looks like it will be awhile for the other two."

"Yes, dear; that will be wonderful." I now heard the voice that I recognized as a man in control but who let the others wear the clothes. "Where are the other two?"

"Who knows? Donna is probably fucking the captain of the boat and Cindy is probably having her pussy licked by some cute young thing." Just then, the two girls came inside and sat down and started on the sweet rolls.

"Will we be in time for lunch when we arrive?" Donna asked.

I replied, "Yes, Donna; we arranged for a special lunch to be prepared just for you." Nat reached over and pinched my thigh but she giggled anyway.

Cindy asked, "Will Heather be at the boat when we arrive?"

Natalie replied, "I doubt it. She is running the bookstore for me today. She works for me."

"No kidding. Have you fucked her yet?"

"No, but with your attitude, I am surprised that she is fucking you. She's a great girl."

"Yes and she is great in bed too. You need to try her, sis."

"She's too hung up on you, snit. You need to treat her better or you will be licking your own pussy soon."

Momma cut in, "Girls, let's let it go. I am sure that Cindy will be happy to see Heather and that everything will be alright."

Everyone smiled at momma. She was indeed a piece of work I thought to myself. Natalie then started telling them about all of the things that were going on at the village and reminded them that it wasn't a resort, but a piece of history that people used to get totally away from the world and relax. Gresh and I smiled at each other as if to say, "Thank God. I love it."

A few minutes later, Donna got up and said, "Excuse me; there is guy outside I want to get to know." For some reason, I had the feeling that she was talking about Sheila's husband. I saw her approach a single guy about the right age who wore a dour look on his face. It disappeared the moment that Donna said something to him. Natalie must have seen it too as she winked at me. I smiled back at her.

We just talked and got to know each other better and I did feel comfortable with them. We talked about mundane things as I had with my parents before they died. The truth was that Gresh and momma were only a few years older than I was. Gresh was about fifty five and momma was about fifty although she looked forty. And I was going to marry their twenty eight year old daughter. Donna was about twenty five and Cindy was probably twenty. I felt that the rush of the initial greetings were wearing off and everyone was reverting to their day-to-day personality. Cindy certainly had after Natalie had warned her about losing Heather. I wasn't sure about Donna but she was certainly entertaining Sheila's husband.

I talked about the green house that we had just ordered and our plans for the property we hoped would be our home. Momma talked about San Francisco but I saw that she was really groping for an identity with her girls virtually out of the nest. Gresh was just comfortable in his own skin. I liked that and knew that we were going to get along very well. I was looking forward to talking to him about our common history and felt that Natalie would like that too. We had all been in the same goldfish bowl and we all shared some things that no outsider would understand.

We spent the rest of the trip like that. They had sent the small bus down for the pick up because there were only a few of us. Surprisingly, Sheila was the driver. We loaded our things and as we left, Sheila asked me to do the introduction again. It felt a little odd but I did it. We had already talked to the family about the village but the other four people were new. Donna was sitting with Sheila's husband. Sheila and he had shared a brief very dispassionate kiss at the dock and that was all. Donna was standing nearby and introduced herself to Sheila shortly afterwards.