Inthe Interest of National Security

He was friends with the section chief, so maybe here at work he was trying to distance himself from me, just in case there was a shit storm brewing. It really wouldn't do to have both of us out of work. Of course he could have been pissed at me for having to vouch for me with Arnie too. He'd had to do that once before during my probationary period as an agent, and had sworn never do to it again. That's probably what got Ray and me out of trouble.

Four hours later Ray and I were back on the op. We'd heard from the agents that had the duty before us that our subject, Mr. Gallascos, was sleeping one off.

"Meg, I'm sorry for all of that shit I said last night," said Ray.

"I was just pissed about us letting that guy get away from us," he said.

"So no hard feelings?" he asked extending his hand.

"Well maybe," I said.

"Look Ray, you know how I get," I said, "When I'm on edge I get sloppy."

"In our business sloppy and nervous can get us killed," I continued.

"But I promise, this will be the last time," I said seriously.

"It doesn't have to be," said Ray, "I told you I was just pissed last night."

"And shit your blow jobs are way better than my wife's," he said.

"I still wish you'd let me hit that pussy just one time," he begged.

"No can do Ray," I said, "Just taking the edge off is one thing, but everything else like my pussy, my ass, my tits; they all belong to Dan alone."

Dan

I'd been on my op for about 5 hours. It was 7 p.m. and my relief would be here at 10. My AD was as usual, out for the count. I'd rented a car earlier, and had my Mustang parked where I always did. I couldn't take it for 2 reasons, first because I was sure that in the event of an investigation, they'd look at my tire tracks. Secondly because the car's engine and exhaust system, were so loud that both my handlers and my suspects would hear it. I knew that my watchers, who checked on me every hour or so at random intervals, wouldn't come by while I was gone. Andy Taylor was one of the guys I'd helped through his divorce, and he didn't know what I was going to do, but he'd make sure not to come by until I was back.

After starting my tape that was time stamped at 7:00p.m. 4 nights ago, I forced the window in the back of the shack I was using for cover open, and climbed across to the next building, on a rope I'd strung up just for this purpose. I also didn't want any extra foot prints tipping off an investigator that I was gone. Once I hit the ground, I got into my rental Car and drove the 3 miles to my vantage point above Meg's op. I started my digital camera, and recorded video of Meg and that bastard Ray, then set up my Browning.

I watched through the scope, and found that they'd started without me. I could see Meg, trying to keep her eyes on the subject's house, as Ray swabbed her deck with his tongue. I had them both in the Browning's cross hairs, it would have been so easy, but I didn't want to murder anyone.

Meg's hand tapped Ray's shoulder; I guess they both used that signal. Then Ray stood up, even from this distance I could see the wetness around his mouth, and his smile. Meg didn't look happy, just nervous. She quickly knelt before Ray, who now tried to keep his eyes on the subject as she had. Meg again just started sucking Ray's dick, she could do much better than she was doing, I, knew that from personal experience. She didn't even seem to be enjoying it, but that bastard Ray sure was. I began to wonder if maybe he was blackmailing her or something.

I aimed again, this time for the center of the space between Ray's abdomen, and Meg's mouth. I had to get this just right; if my timing was off, I might accidentally kill my cheating whore of a wife. I breathed out, and gently squeezed the trigger, sending a hyper-velocity round straight to its target in less time than it took to think about it. Through the Browning's scope I could see the shock on Meg's face, as most of Ray's dick was suddenly separated from his body. There was blood all over her face, and Ray was screaming and holding his crotch and jumping up and down. Blood was flowing out at an alarming rate and Meg, after spitting out over half of his dick, was trying to get him to lie down so she could assess the damage. I think old Ray thought at first that Meg had bit his dick off.

I calmly grabbed the Browning and returned to my rental car. I drove the four miles, cut through the alley and ran the last block to the building next to my surveillance point. I climbed back across the rope, and into my surveillance shack. I heard my voice on the tape still making observations about what the subject had been doing 4 nights ago. Between sentences I shut off the tape, and started talking about how the subject was still lying down. I told a corny joke that was so stupid the guys listening to me had to laugh, even though I couldn't hear their response to it.

"How do you get a sweet little 80 year old woman to say the F word?" I asked

"Get another 80 year old woman to yell "Bingo," I said and then laughed.

The guys monitoring me, would have a whole tape of the nights op, with me constantly talking from when I started at 2 p.m. until my shift ended in a couple of hours at 10.

Not that anyone would suspect me, of Blowing Ray's dick off, after all we were friends and I had no motive that anyone knew of. Also there was the fact that my gun hadn't been fired. The Browning, which I had disposed, of couldn't be traced, and everyone knew that I loved Meg far too much to risk hitting her.

The last thing I needed, to totally remove me as a suspect was a clean polygraph.

I knew how Arnie worked, and I knew he'd probably call me in very soon, and have someone relieve me. Then he'd take me into the conference room that we sometimes used for interrogating important or celebrity witnesses, and he'd tell me about what had happened, and ask me if I knew anything about it. He'd have our polygraph expert Carter Hall there, to gage my honesty and responses. Carter would use one of the newer machines, that the subject didn't have to be hooked up to. They detected lies from, voice stress analysis, and from increases in the heart rate.

Carter, the other colleague that I'd helped, out would guarantee me a clean test. And it all went pretty much as I expected except for the fact that Arnie didn't pull me off of my op. He waited the 2 hours until I was done, and had even listened in on some of my conversation.

Almost as if on cue, he called me into the interrogation room when I checked in. His demeanor was very much off the cuff, as if this was nothing special. Arnie had obviously missed his calling because he should have been an actor.

"Dan," he said, "There's no reason to be alarmed, everything is OK."

"Meg is fine," he said, "Just a little scared."

I immediately jumped to my feet. I was no slouch when it came to acting either.

"What's wrong with Meg?" I nearly screamed.

"Relax Dan," he said, "I told you she's fine."

"But someone took a shot at her and Ray, while they were on their op tonight," he said.

"Meg has been shot," I screamed.

"No," he said sadly, "The bullet hit Ray."

"Didn't you know about this?" he asked

"Fuck no," I shouted, "I'm on one way comm."

"Someone would have had to come out and tell me," I said.

Arnie left the room; I knew he was going to talk to Carter. He came back a few minutes later and told me where I could find Meg. She was being debriefed about the incident, and her story had a few discrepancies with what the investigating officers had found.

I ran straight down to the debriefing rooms. I looked through the glass and saw Frank Caspari talking to Meg. I waved at him and he shook his head no, telling me not to enter the room. I'd expected as much; if I had the task of interviewing an upset woman, I wouldn't want her husband there either.

I left and went back to Arnie. I softly knocked on his door, and went in.

"Arnie, what the hell is going on?" I asked "Meg is downstairs with Frank, and he wouldn't let me sit in."

"You really need to learn some better jokes," he said, motioning for me to take a seat.

"Dan there's something funny going on here, and right now you're one of only a handful of my own agents, that I can actually trust," he said.

"Earlier when you and I spoke, I had Carter go over your answers with the VSA," he said.

"You were telling the truth," he said, "Your heart rate also indicated that though you got upset, when I told you about Meg being at the scene you were still being honest."

"Also I listened to nearly two hours of your op today, especially between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.," he said.

"Except for those stupid jokes, you were thoroughly professional as usual," he continued.

Then screwing up his face he added, "I guess, having to sit there and watch some scumbag for 8 hours a day would make me want something to laugh at too."

"But that wasn't enough, I had the shrinks go over your tape, and they cleared you," he said.

"Your guns, both your sidearm and the sniper rifle you take with you, were unfired and the wrong caliber," he said.

I started to say something but he held up a hand stopping me.

"The guys in the unit checking on you, reported that at 7:30 p.m. only 2 minutes before the incident occurred you were still in the surveillance shack," he said.

"I had an incident team go over your scene as well," he continued.

"There was only one set of tire tracks going in, and one set going out," he said.

"Your car never left the shack," he added.

"There were also only your footprints, going into and out of the shack once, and your handlers' prints in the area," he said.

"Why the hell are you checking up on me," I asked.

"You really have no idea of what's going on, do you?" he said.

"I would, if someone would just fucking tell me, something," I snapped.

"I told you yesterday about Meg and Ray's sloppy handling of their surveillance," he began.

"I also told you I was going to wait until after the op was over, to decide how to handle it," he continued.

"Tonight they were back on the job, and at approximately 7:32 p.m. were fired upon by persons unknown," he said.

"The shooter is believed to have been either extremely lucky, or extremely good," he continued.

"But you said Meg wasn't hurt," I screamed, "I saw her, she's fine."

"She wasn't injured during the shooting," he said.

"Then how was she hurt?" I asked. I just sat down, as if I was near an emotional collapse. In actuality, I was cool and calculating and laughing my ass off. I could tell that Arnie had seen the blood splatter patterns on Meg, and probably at the scene. He was probably trying to avoid telling me, that Meg had blood on her face and upper body, but very but much less blood on her lower body and abdomen. That shouldn't have happened, because if they were standing near each other, their abdomens should be the heaviest areas of blood splatter.

All of that pointed to the fact that Meg's face had to be near Ray's abdomen.

He was also trying to avoid telling me, that they'd found traces of Meg's saliva on the end of Ray's dick. He also avoided telling me, that the forensic guys hadn't detected any traces of cloth on either end of Ray's dick; that meant that Ray probably had his dick out, when he was shot. Why would Ray have his dick out, and Meg's head be near his abdomen, at the same time? To avoid any of that at this point, he was avoiding telling me that Ray got his dick shot off.

"Look Dan, we've known each other for a long time, and I promise to get to the bottom of this, just go home; it's going to be a long night," he said.

"After Meg's debriefing, I'm going to need to talk to her for a while, and I think that you and she need to have a long talk when she gets home," he said.

"Perhaps having the two of you involved in the same agency, isn't a good idea after all," he said.

"I'll stay and wait for Meg," I said stubbornly.

"Look Dan, I'm ordering you to go home and wait for her," he said.

"I'll have her call you, and let you know when she's on her way," he said.

"Have her call me when she's finished, and leaving the building," I said.

"So I can get up and wait for her," I said, "I'm going to try and get some sleep, I have early shift tomorrow."

"I guess you don't want to think about taking a few days off?" Arnie asked.

"No, why would I need to?" I asked in return.

"Well if you decide to, just let me know," he said.

After I left Arnie's office I called to leave a message for Bonnie, to call me at her earliest convenience. To my surprise she was still in her office.

"Hi uh Bonnie, Dan Almond," I said.

"Hi Dan," she said, "Her voice had that scratchy, smoky quality to it that I'd always found incredibly sexy in a woman."

"I didn't expect you to be there, I was just going to leave you a message," I said.

"Well, if it's about your papers, when you use irreconcilable differences as the reason for a divorce, it's probably the easiest thing in the world to do," she said.

"Nothing to prove on either side, in your case no kids, you've already split the finances and you claim she'll give up the house, so done deal I can have her served tomorrow," she said.

"I can also do the other party for alienation of affection if necessary," she said.

"OK, how did you know?" I asked.

"You and I, have run into each other a time or two in court," she said.

"You always have your "I's crossed and your T's" dotted," she continued.

"So I know a little bit about you, enough to know in fact that you love your wife dearly, and would probably never cheat on her," she continued.

"Other attorneys I associate with, have told me that your wife is a lot looser in court, and with the law, so I just figured that if there was someone stepping outside of the rules, it was probably her," she said.

"Thanks Bonnie," I said and hung up after giving her the address and Meg's office number.

I got into my Mustang and drove around for a while, listening to what passes for radio these days and wondering where the hell my life got off track. Less than a week ago, I was probably the happiest guy on the planet, I had my life all planned, a career that I love, a woman who loved me, and everything was swell.

Now I'm slipping into depression, I don't know who I can trust, especially not Meg, I've broken the law and nearly killed a fellow agent, and will be divorced very soon. I don't know what to expect tomorrow, or even later on this evening, let alone the rest of my life. To tell the truth I've been thinking a lot about Meg and the way she does things, especially how many partners she's had in the past year, she seems to go through them rather quickly. Maybe they go through her rather quickly. So I really don't know how many of the men I expect to have my back, have already had my wife's back, and probably her front, mouth and sides as well.

In all likeliness Ray probably wasn't the first, Shit how many bullets was I going to need? After driving for a while, I realized that I hadn't eaten, so I started looking for something that was open. I saw another Mustang parked outside of an old fashioned Coney place. That had to be some kind of sign, so I pulled in next to it and went inside.

There was a greasy and rumpled night cook, who sat behind an even greasier counter and a lone customer at a table away from the windows.

"2 Coneys with everything, and put pickles on them," I said as I sat down near the other customer, "to go."

"The pickles add to the flavor," I said in response to his curious look.

"What year?" he asked.

"08 charcoal gray GT," I said.

"06 "Screaming Yellow GT," He replied.

"I like your paint," I told him

"Sometimes I wish I had yours," he said, "There are times when I'd really like to be un-noticed and a bright Yellow Mustang is pretty fucking hard to hide."

"Hiding sounds good about right now," I said.

"Can't run away from it though," he began, "It's just like our cars."

"How so?" I asked as the cook brought me a bag.

"Well right there on the front you see that horse, the Running Pony," he said.

"That horse is purely an American symbol, it means freedom," he continued.

"But if you look at the horse, it isn't running away from shit," he said looking at me.

"That fucking pony, is running right into the thick of things, and that's the kind of guys we are," he said.

"So whoever they are," and he hesitated here, "be that Mustang, run straight at them and give em hell."

I think my back was a little bit straighter, than it had been when I came in, and I revved my engine a bit louder than necessary as I pulled out of the parking lot.

Fuck this pity-patting around; I went home.

Meg's viewpoint

After my debriefing session, I was told to go immediately to Arnie's office. He had basically reamed me a new asshole, and let me know that there was going to be a very thorough investigation, both internally and externally. He had already cleared a couple of the agents in the unit, including Dan, but would be interviewing everyone. He told me that he'd been having conversations with some of my former partners, and they were acting funny after hearing about Ray. Did I know anything about this?

He asked me if there was anything I wanted to tell him, and then told me not to answer. He told me to take the rest of the night off, and the morning and report to him tomorrow afternoon. Then he'd have the preliminary findings and the site crew's report, and we'd have a serious discussion. If there were things I wanted him to know, and he got them through my confessing or admitting them, it would be better for me in the long run.

So he was giving me time to go home and talk to Dan, and figure out what I wanted to do, and where I wanted to be, when this was all over. He also told me that Dan wanted me to call him on my way home after I'd left the building. Hearing that Dan wanted to talk to me, was the best news I'd heard all day.

My mind was racing, what did Dan know, who had he spoken to? How much did I need to tell him? If this all got out there was no way anyone would understand it, especially Dan. I had a little more than 12 hours to figure out a way out of this. Realistically there was no way out. It seemed like the best thing to do would be to go in confess to what Ray and I had been doing, ask Arnie, to allow me to resign, and for the sake of all the years that we'd known each other and worked together, please not to involve Ray's wife, or Dan.

If I had to give up either my career or my marriage there was no choice, Dan and I could start having babies. I'd miss the excitement, and the sense of serving my country, but I could never give up Dan. I started to get all warm and fuzzy thinking about it. I could see myself as big as a fucking whale, with my belly all bloated from carrying a miniature version of Dan and I, combined. It would be heaven.

I called his cell phone as I drove out of the parking structure.

He actually answered this time.

"Dan honey I'm on my way" I said already looking forward to being held in his arms again. He had a way of just making everything alright.

"We need to have a talk about our future and my job," I said.

"We don't have anything to talk about," he said coldly

"Dan I don't want to give up my job," I said, "but maybe it's time for us to look to the future."

"That isn't what I meant," he said, I don't remember his voice ever being so devoid of emotion.

"I know you're angry at me honey, but there are things you don't know," I said, "We'll talk about it when I get home."

"Meg, don't come here," he said, "go to your mom's house, check into a motel, sleep in your car, I don't care."

"This isn't your home anymore, we have no future, and I don't care about your fucking job," he snapped