Why I Hated The Guy From The FBI Ch. 08

"Rose how good are you at keeping secrets from your husband?"

"If it is a good secret I can keep it for a very long time. If it is a bad secret I am terrible at it, because it shows all over my face. I worry and he sees it and he will pester me until I tell him what is going on. You will have to decide if you wish to tell me or not."

"Rose, is keeping Tony out of jail a good secret or a bad secret?"

"That would be a very good secret. We have started new lives together recently and we are very happy with one another again as we were as newlyweds. I would like to keep it that way for a very long time."

"Rose, you are going to do the best acting job of your life, because Tony cannot know anything about what I am about to tell you. However I want you to be prepared not to go back to the United States ever again after you come here to the wedding."

Rose was shocked into silence. She looked at Frank and Antonia and could not believe what she had just heard. Frank took her hand and pressed it into his head and said, "Rose, when I first met you, I was working for the FBI." Rose nearly fainted. It was like a prize fighter taking a left and right to the jaw, one right after the other. Antonia moved her chair to sit beside her mother.

"I will not go into the details of it, because they are minor, but I do not work for them now, and I will never work for them again. What I am doing for Tony and for Antonio Castronova, Phillip's grandfather, is preparing a safe refuge for them, from their governments because all hell is about to break loose on them. For Tony it could be one to five years, before they could get to him because they are after Don DiAngiolla first. As soon as they have him in custody is a short walk for your husband, and then possibly Vincent, into jail. Vincent is not involved yet, however the longer Tony is on the outside the more time he has to pull Vincent to the inside of his organization. Once Vincent is inside, the feds will get him. I got that message from an inside source at the FBI. It is no surprise to you what your husband does so that part should not be a shock. Here is what we plan to do. When you go home you will plan your Thanksgiving and Christmas's normally. Dress the house up extremely festive for Christmas; inside and out. Have Vincent do the same thing for his house. All of you will be coming here the Sunday after Thanksgiving and you will be returning the Sunday, one week after the wedding. The FBI will be looking for any inconsistencies in your travel plan, so we will not give them anything to be suspicious about. I would bet they will have people watching our wedding and that will be fine, because everybody is going to be here having a wonderful time. The hotel rooms will be booked everything will be perfectly normal and routine. The change will happen at the airport. There will be another couple by the names of Anthony and Rose Caruso there. They will have tickets to Tunisia. They will board your flight back to New York. You and Tony will take their seats and fly to Tunisia. The flights depart from the same international concourse. We will make sure that a great number of family and friends are at the airport to say goodbye to all of you. The clothes you bring with you will be packed and sent by parcel to your new place in North Africa. The clothes that go your suitcases will be from the other couple. The ticket exchange between you and the other Caruso's will be done through a middleman. Everything should go off like a dream, however if it does not we have a backup plan, already laid out. Are you with us so far?"

Initially, it is going to work this way. The flight to Tunisia is scheduled to leave and 9:30 PM. It will develop a technical problem and be delayed indefinitely. Your Delta flight is the last flight scheduled to leave that evening. It is scheduled to leave at 11:30 PM. It will develop a technical problem and be delayed indefinitely. If there are any police watching, they will only see you and dad and Vincent and Donna and possibly the baby with everyone else hanging around the Delta boarding area. The flight for Tunisia is four gates and down from you. They should have no reason to hang around. The longer they do, the longer the planes will be delayed. However, they will leave. They will be on overtime, and even the Italian police and the FBI do not like paying overtime by watching people sit in a boarding area waiting for an airplane to be fixed. You are in a secure area; you cannot leave without going through security. Why bother staying? If they become a real problem, they will get a call telling him that there are coffee and sandwiches for them by the security exits. While they are there we will switch the four of you and quietly start loading the aircraft. Everything after that should take care of itself. The air Tunisia flight is a smaller aircraft and should take off quickly and be on its way to Carthage; before anyone realizes that you and Tony are on it."

"I guess I should not buy a book on Tunisia just to have lying around the house."

Antonio laughed, "No mother that would not be a good idea."

"What should I expect when I get there? What does it look like, what are the people like?"

"Mom, you are going to be here for another five days. We will go to the library together and find out. Plus, you will never guess where Frank and I are going on our honeymoon?"

"You are just saying that to make me feel better."

Frank said, "No mom, she is not. We are renting you a place in the city of Hammamet. It is a tourist city, north of one of the country's largest cities, Tunis. It has a major airport and all the amenities you could want. It is as westernized as any Arab country can be. It is called the Riviera of North Africa. The brochures show people bathing "alfresco" on the shore. It does not look half bad mom. The best part is Tunisia does not have an extradition treaty with the United States. The FBI cannot touch him there."

"Frank, are you going to get in trouble for doing this?"

Frank looked around the room underneath his seat and under the table and back at his future mother-in-law and said, "Who me, what did I do. I just got married to the guy's daughter. I did not know what he had planned. I told him that is where I was going on our honeymoon and he showed up there."

Rose looked at her daughter and said, "Does he always lie this poorly?"

"Mom you should see his face when he tries to hide something from me. How he ever kept the secret that he worked for the FBI from dad, I will never know."

"When did you find out that I worked for the FBI, smart ass?"

"I hate it when he is right. I did not find out until recently. I had a feeling he was lying to me about something, but I was not sure about what."

"That reminds me, I have to speak to Philip because we need two sets of passports. One Italian set from mom and dad and one set of US passports for his grandfather and grandmother. It turns out Italy does have an extradition treaty with Tunisia. His grandparents will have to go to Morocco. Italy does not have a treaty with them."

"Frank, where do you find all this stuff out," Rose asked?

"On Google, mom. You ask a question you scroll down find the closest related question and click on it. Up will pop your answer. Two minutes worth of work and you are done."

"Computers are amazing."

"Speaking of computers mom, have you ever watched porn on a computer yet?"

"Antonia, that is disgusting."

Antonia stood up and grabbed her mother's hand. "Come with me mother, and 30 minutes I want to know if your panties are dry."

"Antonia, I have never done anything like that in my life."

"Mother should I tell Frank about the things you have never done in your life until recently?"

Rose looked at her daughter with daggers in her eyes and said, "You would not dare."

"Frank, at the age of 42 my mother gave my..."

"Stop, stop, I give up and I will go with you, just stop. I forgot who I was dealing with for a moment."

"Rose, she never lets you forget for a very long. She has a way of distributing pain in ways people never have imagined before."

"And you really are going to marry her?"

"Mom, one more word out of you and I will finish my sentence."

"Frank did you buy the soap I asked for?"

"Yes I did Rose. It in the bag by the front door."

Rose stared menacingly at Antonia. "If my daughter opened her mouth, get me that bag."

"It would be my pleasure Rose."

The two women stood about 8 feet apart and Frank was equidistant between them. No one moved. Frank waited for one of them to blink and he knew it would not be Rose, who leered at her daughter with eyes of steel, daring her to say something.

Frank turned his body towards Antonia and smiled widely at her. Antonio looked at him with fury on her face. She was as red as a beet and her blood pressure must have soared to the highest point on the scale. Finally she could not take it anymore and through clenched teeth and seal lips she said, "e hhhhttt uuu fffkk."

Frank move closer to her and asked, "I did not understand what you said would you repeat that please?"

"e hhhhttt uuu fffkk."

Rose laughed as Frank said again, "I am sorry doll, but I just do not understand you. Do you want me to bring you a pencil and a piece of paper so that you can write it down?"

Antonia answered "Yes please."

Rose yelled, "Frank the soap."

Antonio screamed, "Oh shit, I opened my mouth," as she ran to the safety of her room.

Unfortunately, Frank was there to block her retreat holding a brown paper bag in his hand.

"First you tricked me into talking, and now you are holding the soap over my head. I should kick you right in your balls."

"Yes you could. However, I am going to watch your mother wash your mouth out with soap. If this was Yankee Stadium I would pay for the thousand dollar box seat for this event. Please do not say it. I will do it for you. "I hate you Frank. I hate you, I hate you, and I hate you. I hate everything about you. You are the lowest human being on the planet." Does that about cover everything that you have to say about me, because if I left anything out I do apologize."

Antonia lowered her head and meekly turned around to go into the kitchen. In a sad voice she said, "No Frank, you about covered it. Thank you for reminding me how I treat you."

Frank, who was as happy as a hell one second ago, had just had the wind knocked out of him by her tone of voice. He looked at Rose and mouth silently, "What happened?"

Rose smiled at him, took the bag from his hand and shushed him out of the room.

He went to his room and pulled down the Kel-tech mini-pistol, and disassembled it. He loved that little gun because it had power, punch and capacity all in a little package. In less than 30 minutes he had taken it apart cleaned and oiled all its moving parts, reassembled it and was ready to put it away, when Antonia walked into the room.

She asked, "Is that for me?"

"It is to protect you."

"I thought you were getting ready to use it on me."

"I would not need anything so big to take care of a dwarf like you."

She climbed up on his lap and put her head on his shoulders and said, "Frank, I am sorry I am such a bitch. Sometimes I just do not know when to stop. My mother and I have been talking about it and she told me some things that I did not want to hear. I do not want to lose you and I worry if I change, into my mother, I will. I want to be me, but I do not want to be mean to you, and that is what I have been lately. I miss Celeste, and I am worried sick about her. However, there is no excuse for my behavior. I am going to try to back off a little bit. If it gets you nervous or upset you have to tell me because that is what I worry about the most. Our attraction to one another came from our differences. We fought like cats and dogs, and that is how we fell in love. I do not want to fall out of love, because we do not fight, but I do not want to fight with you, if I am going to hurt you. Did that come out right?"

"I don't know; who are you?"

She hit him, with her open hand, right across the side of the head. "Do you see what I mean Frank? I opened my heart to you, and you make a joke out of it. You are useless piece of shit."

"Oh Antonia, it's you." He laughed, threw her over his shoulder and spun her around the room, as she laughed and giggled in delight.

Rose could not help but overhear their conversation. She could not believe how perfect they were for one another. Frank's answer nearly made her pee her pants, because she had to stifle her laugh. How things had changed, since she was a young woman, here in Italy. The pendulum had swung the other way. If she had hit Anthony, her father would have cut off her arm, because of the show of disrespect towards a man. Times had surely changed in the past 30 years; and she liked it very much.

Celeste loved talking to Prof. Michaels. She had been her favorite educator throughout her college years, and helped her keep her head on straight, after her father had passed away. She was not a psychiatrist, but Prof. Michaels knew every brain cell in Celeste's head better than any other person on the planet. They kept in touch every few months, and the professor's pension plan was better than the President of the United States. Celeste had seen to that little item. California Poly-Technical University St. Louis Obisbo was not a big college campus, but its location, temperate climate, and ambience made up for the lack of a big college feel. It also gave Celeste a choice of where to live while she went to school. She could live in a private dorm room, her father's palatial home, or in the beach house moments from the college. You would think she had a list of friends a mile-long, but she did not. Everyone knew who she was and how much money she was worth and tended to let her make her friends rather than try to make friends with her. She broke out of her shell, after her father died. She had always felt smothered by his presence, and once he was no longer there to stop her from doing whatever she wanted to do, she became the butterfly she had always wanted to be. She was still very selective, but those people she chose were always close friends for the remainder of her college life. Some were still friends now six years later. However, her closest friend of all was Professor Michaels, and after her talk with Philip, she ran home to the only person she knew she could talk to openly. Celeste insisted on calling Ann Michaels, Prof. Michaels because it made her feel more comfortable. She even insisted on paying for the time she took up with the professor, although a dime was never asked for. She stayed at the professor's home, inundated the house with flowers, wine and expensive knickknacks, that made her home look nicer. For all of this, the professor gave Celeste what she needed, "Peace of mind." Their discussions were wide ranging and not just about religion. Celeste's favorite subject was sex. Her least favorite subject was money, although she did warn the professor about the upcoming doom and gloom of the housing and financial markets. After six weeks of tiring out all the other conversations, the professor asked Celeste if she was ready to tackle a real problem.

Celeste thought she would turn the tables on the professor and ask her what she thought her real problem was?

Prof. Michaels said, "You fell in love and you got the shit scared out of you. Then, he mentioned his religion, and you wondered if you would have to change who you were to be more like him? You already knew the answer to that, but you were so blinded by your love, you could not even see it."

Celeste looked at the professor and said, "I do not fall in love. It is for other people, not for me. People try to take advantage of me through sex, because they know how much I enjoy it. I never let anyone get close enough to me, to fall in love with them. I told him I would only be there for two weeks, and he said he was fine with it. He would love me while I was there and he would let me go when I wanted to leave."

"He must have loved you very much to give you that freedom."

"Philip was a very nice young man. He was a gentleman in every respect of the word. I liked him very much."

"Then why did you leave before your two weeks were up? Why did you run away?"

"Why do you think I am here? I do not know what is going on in my head. I have never run away from anything in my life. Why did I panic? What is wrong with me?"

"Do you want me to repeat myself, or do you want to admit to yourself that you are in love, and it is a feeling that you have never really felt before, except for your father. The love you felt your father, was a suffocating love. He controlled every aspect of your life, and you fear Philip will do that to you. Intrinsically, you know that can never happen. You have boasted about your prenuptial agreement for years, now you actually have a chance to prove it."

"I do not have a prenuptial agreement."

"Oh you naughty girl you. You said that to scare off any suitor that even came close to you. Kings, Count's and Earl's have pursued you, since the day after your father's funeral, and you have used that line to scare them away. Celeste you are magnificent."

"That is what Frank and Philip said about me."

"Who is Frank?"

"He is marrying my best friend in December. I do not know if I am going to be there. Philip is going to be there, and I do not know if I am going to be ready to see him."

"Young woman, if I have to tie you up like a mummy, and put a gun to the back of your head, you are going to be at that wedding. You have nothing to fear except yourself. Philip does not expect you to change because of him. He told you that he did not expect you to change. He told you about his religion, about his God. He told you he did not know what would happen to you after death. I do not know what is going to happen to me after death. 70% of this planet does not know what is going to happen after death. Why should you be any different? The Bible is a bunch of fairytales. If you believe those stories, every time somebody makes love today, we are committing incest. Each and every one of us."

Celeste looked at the professor and asked, "Would you mind explaining that to me?"

The professor smiled, and asked Celeste if she knew the story about Noah and His Ark.

Celeste said that everyone knew that story.

Professor said, "Everyone on that Ark was related to Noah and his wife. Therefore, from that time on, anyone born on this planet has been related to Noah. Therefore, everyone, and I mean everyone, has been having incestuous sex, and apparently enjoying it, considering the overcrowding of this tiny planet."

Celeste laughed at the professor's analysis of incestuous relationships. She did not laugh at her thoughts about religion, however. She asked her if there was anyone on the faculty that was an expert on religion, with whom she could speak.

Prof. Michaels replied, "Of course we do. I will arrange an appointment with Father Chang. You will absolutely adore him."

Celeste could not believe what she heard. "You are sending me to a priest?"

"Well, we call him Father Chang. Actually, he is Msgr. Chang. He knows more about the religions of this world than anyone I have ever met. He could talk of Buddhist Monk into becoming an atheist overnight."

"I do not want to be talked out of what I am, into something else. I just want to figure out what I am, and how I fit in."

"Darling, he will do that for you also."

28. Chasing a Wild Goose

"I found it Frank," Gomes said. "It is called Manaus, Brazil. It even has an airport there, with a direct flight out of Miami. Civilization exists in the middle of the Amazon River basin."

"I cannot thank you enough, big guy. How would you like to take some unpaid leave and go down to Brazil for me? Antonia and I will make it very profitable for you."