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 11 of
Saturday 7:03 PM: Tangled Web
They meet to unravel
what happened at the Smithsonian and the murderous event, and try to figure out
who's the leak? Jeff says "I love you" to his wife and wonders why she asks
if he is staying at the Hilton.
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- Chris Lamela
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Author contact: Chris Lamela,
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K Street, Chapter 11
Saturday
7:03 PM: Tangled Web
That
sledgehammer of words pounded on the room with such force that the room jerked
back in stunned silence all eyes intently on Nancy
Jeff couldn’t stand the weight, he felt a rise of anger swelling in his
chest.
“What the hell is going on! Somebody please tell me you have a handle on
this!”
The silence of the room delivered the answer Jeff didn’t want to hear.
Arnie reached out touching Jeff
on the forearm, “Jeff, this is not like Atlanta Nancy
Jeff felt the swelling in his chest subsiding, he began to look around
the table in resigned hopelessness. He was so fatigued by the events at the
Smithsonian that he didn’t have the energy to respond to seeing Yitzak Spilman
and Andrew Perlman, the Israeli agents, three other men he didn’t recognize.
Finally one of the three strangers stirred, everyone turned toward him, he
leaned toward Jeff, “My name is Roger Clement, congressman from Ohio
Roger shook his head in
amazement, “You know, you have a remarkable resemblance to a former colleague
of ours, truly remarkable.” Roger frowned, he turned to the other two men
seated to his left, they nodded affirmation, “Congressman Frank Schedz, did you
ever met him?” Jeff looked blankly back at him. “Died in a car accident what,”
he looked to the others, “yeah, about a year-and-a-half ago.” He shook his
head, “Hell of a nice guy, very tragic. But the resemblance is uncanny.”
Somehow hearing this actually cheered Jeff up. He remembered that
congressman Frank Schedz was not a
nice guy, that he didn’t die in a car accident but instead was murdered by the
same man that almost murdered Jeff. Boy
these guys really stick together.
“Who are those guys?” Jeff
asked flicking his finger toward the two men on his left.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Roger introduced the others, more congressman that Jeff
had never heard of, “we are all three on the House Intelligence Committee, of
which I am chairman.” Jeff recalled that he had heard of Roger Clement nodding acknowledgement.
“Okay,” Nancy
She turned to Yvonne, “Yvonne, can we get you to do your good work
keeping track of everything?” Yvonne nodded. “This meeting cannot be
classified,” she pointed to the Israelis, “but I don’t think we need that.”
Yvonne’s pen scratched some words.
“So let’s start with what we know.” The room suddenly exhaled, all
bodies leaning forward with purpose. “We have this unusual deal for UAV
aircraft and components where the planes and the add-on equipment are being
shipped separately to the Saudi government. This was done to get around certain
export restrictions, it was the best that could be arranged by ODS. The three
congressmen here have arranged for clearance for ODS to get the export
licenses,” the three men nodded, “and we know that this is all destined for…”
she paused looking around the room, “let’s just say someplace that is highly
sensitive and should never be disclosed. It would be a huge problem for the administration.”
The room nodded. “These two
gentlemen,” pointing to the Israelis, “have the ability to create all sorts of
headaches for this deal, so we have included them here to assure them that the
equipment cannot be used for surveillance over their homeland, right?” The two
Israelis nodded. “That is to say that they don’t have the range that would be
required to get anywhere near Israel
“So this was all fine,” she
scolded, “but then you guys got a little over-anxious to learn about this so
last night did the unthinkable of shooting at this poor man,” she waved her
hand toward Jeff, the two men looked down at their hands on the table in mild shame,
“so they could learn what we would have been perfectly happy to tell them if they had just asked!” The shame-faces
deepened.
“So now we discover,” she picked up two
pieces from the pile that Ted had gotten from the dead men in the bathroom at
the Smithsonian, “that Iranian agents are so anxious to kill this deal that
they have started going around the city trying to kill people involved in this,
including this poor man,” again waving at Jeff, “who is not even close to being
instrumental in this deal.”
Arnie signaled to have the pile pushed over to him. He picked up a
couple pieces shaking his head. “Here’s the bad news, guys,” eyes turned to him,
shaking his head, “this was the B Team!
That’s what Nancy
“B Team?” Jeff’s voice had a tinge of panic even he could hear.
“Yes, the B Team. This means
that when they find out that their little foray at the Smithsonian failed that
they will bring out the real pros. This is very, very bad news.”
“So if they’re shooting at me, what about Amid and Hazim? Those guys are
toast!”
“No, we’ve got our boys safe.”
“So why can’t we just hurry this all up, get the deal done so I can go
home? I mean, I am beginning to seriously lose interest in the six million
dollars if it means I will going home in a box.”
Congressman Roger glanced at his two colleagues, turning to Jeff,
“Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. The rules are quite clear in these―how do
I say it―backroom deals. All must be present at the same time for the final
deal consummation. We need some assurance that people are who they say they
are, that requires them to be physically present. The final signing and passage
of payment must be done personally. It can’t be done in any other way.”
Jeff shook his head skeptically, “I heard you guys make the rules, there
must be some way that I can get the hell out of here, go home and still get the
deal done.”
Roger’s firm expression made Jeff lose hope that there was a way out of
this. “I wish there was, but if we just let couriers take checks and contracts
all over the world this would be even a bigger mess than we already have. We’re
bending the rules enough here at it is, so this is a failsafe to make sure that
we know exactly who the players are.”
Jeff sat silently remembering how he cherished showing up back in Seattle
“What about my safety? Am I going to have to watch out for spraying
bullets until Tuesday?”
“No, we are certain that they don’t know where you are staying, but we
are not sure how they found you today.” Nancy Roswell
Somehow Nancy
“Okay,” Arnie said, “let’s move on to figure out a plan.” He turned to
Jeff, “Any ideas from Sherlock Holmes come to mind?” Jeff smiled at the
reference to how he had used Sherlock Holmes so much in Atlanta
“Okay, here’s the status.” Nancy looked to Yvonne, “Let’s get a baseline of what we
know,” looking to Jeff remembering his comments in Atlanta
They spent the next half-hour cataloging all the facts about the entire
affair starting with the arms deal itself. Jeff felt uncomfortable calling his
equipment arms because as he told
people, his stuff did not go boom.
They went on to talk about the aftermarket
arrangements which Jeff already knew to be sending the equipment to Iraq
“Now let’s start a little speculation,” Nancy
There were shaking heads all around when a voice spoke up, “What are the
possible sources of leaks,” waving generally toward Jeff, “I mean how would
they know that this guy is involved, how could they know that he’s a decision
maker?” Heads shook, “I guess it’s not really new information that he is
involved. This deal’s been in the works for what, a year at least. So there’s
been plenty of chances for names to leak out.”
Arnie turned to Jeff, “How have your guys been treating this back in Seattle
“All black curtains. Not a peep about anything as far, I know. The
purchase order says ODS and there hasn’t been any export permit yet to see, so
no way our people would even know to be able to tell.” With a determined shake
of his head he was emphatic, “It couldn’t have come from us. I am literally the
only one at my company that knows anything.”
“Not your CEO or any other executives? Wouldn’t they want to know?”
“Look, we do this kind of thing all the time, they are depending on me
to have the need-to-know, they don’t ask questions. The answer is no, I have
never told anyone anything. Hell, most of what I know I have only learned since
yesterday.”
“This is not helping us.” Nancy
Arnie went on to tell them that they have created a special task force
within the FBI to provide security, the plan has been made to keep everyone but
the Arabs status quo. “We’ve got those two tucked away nicely,” looking at
Jeff, “and no more Smithsonian for you, there mister.”
Jeff half smiled glad not to be hanging around in any men’s room with
bullets flying. That suited him just fine.
“Okay, that’s all we know,” Arnie slapped his hand on the table, everyone
began standing up.
Jeff looked at his watch, saw
nearly eight forty-five. He looked at Nancy
Arnie had pulled back the curtain, everyone was out of the room by the
time Jeff pulled out his phone to dial his mother-in-law’s phone number.
“Hello,” came his wife’s soft voice.
“Hi, it’s me.”
“Hey, how’s everything. I heard the weather there is gorgeous.”
Jeff was surprised at how warm his wife’s voice sounded. “Yeah, very
nice. Everyone in short sleeves. It’s even mild tonight.”
“Everyone misses you.” Jeff smiled at those words. “I miss you.”
Without thinking the words, “I love you,” popped out of Jeff’s mouth.
“I love you, too. Say, you usually stay at the Hilton when you’re there,
is that where you are?”
Jeff wasn’t sure why she was asking but answered, “Yeah, it’s just a
hotel, really, but it’s a good location.”
“Hold on, the kids want to say hi.”
A minute later his son Scott was on the line telling him about how he
did in soccer, that he scored two goals. They talked about it for a couple
minutes when his daughter came on saying that he didn’t really score the second
goal because it ricocheted off one of the other team’s players. Jeff smiled to
himself at this ongoing sibling rivalry, “Yeah, but doesn’t it still count as a
goal?” His daughter reluctantly agreed but wouldn’t confess it to her brother.
They talked about her day before she handed the phone back to her mother.
“So are we still on for lunch on Saturday?” Jeff asked.
“Yeah,” he could hear his wife give a precocious laugh.
“What’s that laugh for?”
“Oh, nothing, I just keep thinking about our phone call yesterday.”
Jeff paused thinking about all the confusion with her and Nancy, him
bobbling the phone with I Love You back
and forth between them. “Yeah, that was nice,” he said thinking more about what
transpired with Nancy
“So I’ve got to go, I have people waiting for me.”
She laughed, “Really, people waiting for you on a Saturday night?”
“Yeah, the people I am dealing with are being really hospitable, they invited
me to dinner.” In fact he had no idea
what was happening tonight, but it sounded good.
“Okay then, you go. We’ll see you soon.” There was a pause, “And Jeff,
thank you for yesterday, I have been feeling really good about us since that
call. I want to make it up to you for everything that’s happened.” Jeff heard
her sigh, “I mean, I don’t want to talk about it, not yet, but I trust you. I mean
what I said yesterday that I want to give it another chance. I want to find a
way to will show you that I am serious. You’ll see,” she gave a cute laugh that
made him smile.
Jeff wasn’t exactly sure about the lightness in her voice, finding
himself really distracted, barely paying attention to her words. “This is all
really good. I’m glad.”
“And Jeff, I love you. I really love you. I want to make this work.”
“Me too.”
“Okay, good night. I’ll see you very soon.
I promise.”
“Good night,” he hung up, falling backwards into a chair.
He thought about the crazy phone calls yesterday, his anticipation of Nancy
Jesus, he thought, my life is just one big tangled web.
“No,” he said out loud, “my life is just a big mess.”
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