Jeff finds himself in Washington DC on business trying to close a big deal for his company where he meets up with Nancy again, the FBI agent he had fallen in love with in Atlanta nearly two years ago. Jeff is separated from his wife because of Nancy
Chapter 30 of K Street
Wednesday, 9:23 AM:
A Very Good Thing
The Iranians got the go from
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- Chris Lamela
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Author contact: Chris Lamela,
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K Street, Chapter 30
Wednesday,
9:23 AM: A Very Good Thing
“Well,
look who decided to join us!” the light in Arnie’s voice filled the room. Jeff
looked around the living room that had nearly every seat filled. All faces
turned to Nancy and Jeff.
“Hey, they were slow with breakfast!” Jeff declared. There were soft
laughs around the room, everyone remembering that breakfast consisted of a
large tray of donuts and muffins, two huge pump containers of extra-strong coffee.
Jeff had gone down coming back up with this little breakfast, doing his poor
food-balancing act again, barely managing not to spill coffee all over the
carpet in the bedroom.
Jeff looked around the other side of the room, surprised to see tables
set up with computers and other gear, a half-dozen people at various tasks. He
smiled how fluid these guys operate, empty room at night, filled with tables
and people the next morning.
Turning the corner away from the others Arnie’s grave expression told
Jeff everything, “How’s she doing?”
“About as well as we could expect. She’s a trooper.”
“I talked to the Iranians again this morning. They called.”
“What’s the news?”
“They got the go from Tehran
“That’s good news, right? Why the frown?”
“I asked about the shooter. Did they finish the job.”
“What did they say?”
“They said that they are going to finish it today.”
“That’s good news right?”
A stern face told Jeff that this wasn’t good news as Arnie looked down shaking
his head. “No, it’s not. We’ve got to go back to their embassy after lunch to
outline the UAV deal with them. They said they need something in writing.
Didn’t I tell them yesterday that we won’t give them anything in writing? What
are those guys, stupid? Do they want me to announce it in the Post?”
Jeff laughed to himself seeing the headlines in the Washington Post: Clinton Approves Selling Advanced Technology Spy Aircraft
to Iran
Yeah, that would be bad.
“So what do they want?”
“I told them again that we will not provide anything in writing.”
“And?”
“He said that we need another meeting asking if it would be okay if they
took notes, have me sign the bottom.”
Jeff laughed raising his head jovially, “Then what, do the thumb print
thing?”
Arnie frowned trying to remember Jeff’s reference, remembering Jeff’s
stamping his big digits on the little contract he made with them. He frowned
shaking his head.
“So what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know, we’ll figure that out when we get there, but I sure as hell
am not going to put any ink on anything to do with this. They’re probably
making a cot for me at Leavenworth
“It sounds like you have lots of cover with the General, though, so
things should be fine, right?”
“I’m sorry, do you have a copy of the permission slip from the General
that I missed?”
Jeff shook his slowly, realizing that all of this was totally verbal. It
was all off the record.
“So what are we going to do?”
Arnie glanced around the corner to the room filled with people chatting
softly, happy to see Nancy
“We talked a lot last night. She woke up this morning like nothing
happened.” He looked to the ceiling in wondering thought, “Actually, it was
kind of creepy.”
Arnie peered around back to the living room again.
“Okay, you know her, so I guess she can come along today.” He gave a
quick tug on Jeff’s coat sleeve, “Come on, let’s get back.”
A few seconds later Jeff was seated next to Nancy
“Okay people, we have at least one more big event today.”
“Tell us about what happened yesterday,” came a voice.
Arnie looked to Nancy
“What about the explosion, we heard that―”
Arnie shot a caustic glare at the voice, “I SAID―” clearing his throat,
“I said, I don’t want to waste time going over yesterday.” He looked around the
room, “I need your heads in the game.” He made a flicking motion with his
finger toward Nancy
When he was done with his silent admonishment, he turned back to Jeff.
“Jeff here technically doesn’t have to be involved here out, he’s a civie as you
all know. But his involvement has been instrumental in this whole damned
thing.” Jeff smiled to himself that the word instrumental in his case meant danger
magnet. “So first I want to make sure that everyone is okay with that.”
There were all nods around the room. Jeff’s hands held tensely to chair
arms, feeling a pat on his right hand looked down to see Nancy reaching over,
her hand on his flashing him a quick relax,
everything will be fine smile.
“Okay, I got the call from the Iranians this morning, they want another
meeting. They need to get something on record―which is ridiculous of course―but
they need something that they can take back to the Ayatollahs to show the deal
is for real.”
“So let me make sure I understand,” Earl spoke up, all eyes turned
tentatively toward him, “they managed to blackmail us into selling them weapons
systems―,” glancing to Jeff “Uh, I meant surveillance systems.”
Arnie scratched his chin speaking softly
almost to himself, “Yeah, they did, didn’t they? Well those clever bastards!”
“I mean, I’m not trying to be disrespectful,
Arnie―” Earl hesitated.
Arnie gave him a no harm shrug.
“I am just an analyst, after all, and we
only look at the facts. That’s what we’re trained to do, the best of us are the
ones that know how to look only at
the facts, right?” Uncertain nods tried to follow the words hoping they would
arrive somewhere meaningful which often didn’t happened with Earl. “So I see
that they hired a murderer. We think that’s a fact. We know he has murdered
congressmen. We also think that’s a fact. We know the Iranians kidnapped
people,” glancing at Jeff, “but that they didn’t kill them. That’s a fact. We
responded to all this by offering a deal that this administration wouldn’t dream of making. That’s a fact.”
Arnie rubbed his chin again looking to the
ceiling, back to Earl, “No, you’ve got it wrong. Lots of things have happened.”
“Yes Arnie, lots of things happened but those are the only facts.
Anything else we draw from the things that happened are not facts, they are speculation.”
“Like what?”
“Well, for instance, we assume that
whoever attempted to poison Jeff there,” gesturing toward Jeff, “was our
shooter. That is speculation.”
Arnie nodded slowly looking to the ceiling,
listening.
“The bomb yesterday, we can assume that it
was the shooter that planted the bomb. Like his grand plan to take all the
players out at once. That is speculation.”
The whole room nodded thoughtfully.
“That Shawn was killed in the explosion―”
Arnie jumped up, Jeff stepped forward, turning
her around, her face buried in his shoulder sobbing. They stood for a minute, his
shoulder felt the moisture of tears soaking into his shirt. He glanced at Arnie
who signaled Jeff with his fingers to take her back upstairs.
“Come on,” he said softly to her, “let’s
go upstairs.” She sniffled a glance around the room, not looking at Earl who
sat forward with wide regretful eyes.
A minute later they were sitting on the
bed together. “Jeff,” she sniffed, “I know he’s just an analyst weenie, that’s
what they do…” she reached for two tissues blowing her nose, he handed her two
more, she wiped her face, “I know that’s his job,” blowing her nose again, “but
it was so hard to hear.”
He laid his hand on her hand filled with
moist tissues. “You’re right, he was only doing his job.” For some reason his
mouth kept moving, “It’s just sometimes we don’t want to face the obvious,
sometimes we have it in our heads that things should be a certain way, that
people should know what’s inside of us. That they should magically already know
that we need them to―”
“Shut up, right?” she laughed.
He smiled turning to kneel in front of her
looking up into her rich golden eyes with the little black flecks. “Yeah, shut
up,” he whispered, she smiled down at him. “But do me a favor, okay?” She
nodded, “Ask me politely when you want me
to shut up, okay?”
Nodding she laughed, “Okay.”
“Look,” he said, his hands on her knees, “I
want to be brave for you. I want to be there for you.”
She started to stand, he rose to steady
her.
“You are,” she smiled, “actually you are there
for me more than he ever was.”
“I
don’t know. Is that a good thing?”
“Yes, it’s a very good thing.”
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K STREET!
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