Calculated deception, p.12
Calculated Deception, page 12
Before Ree could get too lost in her reverie, Joanna picked up the salad bowl to serve the table. Joanna wasn’t one to mince words, and before she even lifted a leaf of lettuce from the bowl, she asked, “So, Parker, what do you do for a living?”
“I’m a writer,” Parker replied.
“What kind of writer? And have you always been a writer?” Joanna asked.
“No, ma’am, I have not. I spent some time working for an electrician and then found my calling. I write a mix of things, both fiction and non-fiction. I’m working on a novel right now that’s almost finished.”
“Interesting. What type of novel are you writing?” Joanna asked, leaning her chin on her hands, ignoring her salad.
“A spy thriller,” Parker answered. Ree nearly spit out her water. Fortunately, her friends were focused on Parker and didn’t notice.
Joanna leaned closer. “Have I read any of them? I love a good spy thriller when I can find the time.”
“No, unfortunately, nothing has been published yet. I have a family member in the business who read my first draft and said he would back my work. Hopefully, you’ll be able to read it in a few years.”
Ivan, the seemingly absent-minded professor, jumped into the fray. “Parker, if you are writing spy novels, what are you doing on a college campus meeting our Ree?”
Parker took a sip of water. “That’s the non-fiction piece. In addition to the thriller, I’m writing a series of articles about female scientists and engineers. My sister is a school teacher in California and wants to have something for her students to read, so I offered to work on it in my spare time.”
Joanna made the same face she made when she saw puppies, and Ree knew her friend was sold. Ivan, acting as her unofficial big brother, probed further. “Oh? And are you planning on staying in town or going back to – where did you say home was, again?”
“Here. In town, actually. I grew up around here, but my sister always wanted to move out west.”
“And are you guys getting serious?” Joanna asked, raising her eyebrows.
“Oh my gosh, Joanna, it’s a little early to be asking that,” Ree said, heat creeping up her neck.
“Ree – he spent the night. I think that’s a fair question,” Joanna said in a stage whisper.
“Joanna!” Ree shot her friend a look, her embarrassment genuine.
“That’s all the answer I need,” she said smugly and winked at Parker. “I think you may have hooked our girl. Be good to her, or we’ll have to hunt you down like the spies in your books.”
* * *
Joanna studied Parker over the edge of her wine glass. The way Ree looked at Parker confirmed Joanna's suspicions about how serious they were getting. When Ree failed to mention the new man in her life, Joanna had expected him to be kicked to the curb before they had the opportunity to have him over for dinner. However, it looked like it was shaping up to be exactly the opposite of that.
Joanna adored her friend, but between a busy work schedule, obliviousness to the attentions of the opposite sex, and impossibly high standards, she’d long been worried that Ree would never find someone to share her life with. It took a certain kind of person to keep up with her, and Parker seemed to be enjoying the challenge. More than once, he squeezed her hand under the table when she started to get nervous. This guy might actually be a keeper. For Ree’s sake, Joanna hoped so. It wasn’t easy to find someone you were happy to spend fifty years or more with. She rubbed her hand on her husband’s knee under the table and smiled into her glass.
* * *
As the girls became engrossed in their shared stories over wine, Parker excused himself to go to the restroom. He kept an ear out for noise from the dining room, where there was laughter and conversation, and turned his focus towards the books on the shelf in the hallway. There was an abundance of textbooks, which were expected, and some novels in both English and Russian. Nothing out of the ordinary. Of course, one of the Russian textbooks could be called “How to Build a Missile” and Parker wouldn’t know the difference. He continued on, his brief scan of the bookshelf barely adding any time to his walk down the hallway. Pausing to listen for footsteps or sounds that Ree was in trouble, Parker looked over his shoulder and didn't see anyone. He stepped into the Nobelkov's study and gently closed the door behind him. Spotting a pile of papers on the desk, he sent a text to Ree: Keep them busy and let me know if there is trouble – P.
* * *
Ree kept a tight grip on her wine, trying not to spill it as she laughed at Joanna’s latest work stories. It wasn’t every day you saw a patient with breathing problems because they read on the internet that peanut butter stuffed into their nose would help cure a sinus infection. In the middle of their discussion, Ree's phone vibrated, and she looked down. Usually, she left her phone in her purse when she was with her friends, but given the fact that it was also doubling as a distress beacon, she had it in her pocket.
“Everything okay?” asked Joanna.
Ree's eyes must have conveyed her discomfort as she read Parker’s message, and she quickly improvised with the first thing that came to mind. “Yeah, it's just my sister. She's been having trouble at work.”
“Aw, what’s going on?”
“She’s just dealing with a difficult personality at work, and we've been talking about how to approach it,” Ree diverted. Everyone had a clash of personalities at one time or another, and she wouldn't have to remember the lie she told later.
“We can call her right now if you want. I haven't talked to her in ages!” Joanna offered excitedly. Ivan stood up from the table and Ree watched him leave. Had he heard Parker?
Ree’s palms began to sweat. “I think she has plans tonight.”
Joanna’s face fell. “That’s too bad. You’ll have to tell her hello from us.”
Ree leaned back in her chair to look down the hallway but saw no one. Had Ivan had gone into the kitchen or followed Parker? It had been less than two minutes since Parker sent her the message, which was not enough time to do whatever he was doing. She hadn't seen him bring in any equipment, but even poking around took more time than that. She quickly improvised, “Ivan! I think your wife could use some more wine. I need more funny stories!"
Joanna's glass was still half full, but it had the intended effect of Ivan popping his head out of the kitchen to shake his finger at them.
“And some for Ree, of course,” Joanna offered. She fought a smile. “You don't have to worry, you know.”
“About what?” Ree asked, her head still slightly tilted towards the hallway while trying not to make it obvious that she was looking for Parker.
“What else?” Joanna looked at Ree as if she should already know the answer.
Ree paused, searching her friend’s bemused expression until realization dawned. “Oh, Parker! Yeah, he’s great, right?” How much longer was that man going to take?
* * *
In Ivan and Joanna's study, Parker snapped on a pair of gloves and looked towards the closed door. He didn’t hear anything that concerned him, but sound traveled both directions. He would need to be hyperaware of his surroundings and the noise of his own actions. It’d be tough to explain his way out of this one. There was a dark mahogany desk in the center of the room, clearly an antique. Sitting on top was a short stack of papers that caught his attention when he entered the study. He flipped through them, phone out, ready to snap pictures of anything incriminating, while hoping there was nothing to be found. It would devastate Ree if he confirmed her friends were criminals, but he'd seen stranger things in his time at the Bureau.
There were mostly bills in the small pile, some receipts from donations to local charities, and some journal articles, none of which yielded any conclusive answers. He gently pulled open the middle drawer but closed it quickly when it only held pens, pencils, and other office supplies. Given the state of Ivan’s desk at the lab, Joanna was clearly in charge of the office at home.
Parker glanced quickly at his phone to confirm he’d only been gone four minutes and pulled open one last drawer. Files filled the drawer, some in English, some not. He flipped through the folders and saw tax returns and some correspondence. He quickly snapped some photos of the letters in Russian but didn't see anything that piqued his interest. However, it was his job to get pictures, not to determine whether they contained anything that mattered.
One more look at the clock told him he’d been gone five minutes. He snapped his gloves off, stuffed them deep in his pocket so they wouldn’t fall out, and sent a message to Ree to let her know he was coming back. Parker approached the door and listened for footsteps. Upon hearing nothing, he swung the door open quietly and walked across the hall to the bathroom, flushed the toilet, turned the water on and off, and then walked back to the table.
* * *
Ree looked down at her buzzing phone. Parker was almost done. She forced a smile and shook her head. “I'm sorry. I'm being a terrible friend. Let me go put this in my purse.” She walked slowly, trying to buy time. Ree placed her phone in her purse and discreetly wiped her sweaty palms on her pants. Why wasn’t he back yet? Ivan joined them at the table with an open bottle of wine and put his arm around his wife. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw them exchange a look. Hopefully, they only thought she was losing her mind.
Ree returned to her seat and exhaled loudly. “I’m sorry about the phone. What were we talking about?”
“You are so adorable. Rest easy. We like him.” Joanna gestured her head in the direction Parker had gone. “He’s a much better choice than Brent. Ugh, but let's not talk about him. So, you blew me off earlier, but now that Parker is out of the room...it looks like things are serious?”
“That's none of our business, is it, dear?” Ivan gave Joanna a look that suggested they had discussed her prying – or something else – earlier. Parker returned to the table and placed his hand on Ree’s shoulder.
“Did I miss anything?” Parker asked good-naturedly while Ree covered his hand with her own. His calm was a welcome oasis in a sea of nerves, fear, and confusion. He released her hand to rub her shoulders. “So, should we let these guys get some sleep? It's going to be an early day for us tomorrow.” Parker smiled at Joanna and Ivan. “Ree and I are getting up early to hike, so we should get going. Thank you, guys, so much for inviting me over. It was great to meet you both.”
Back in the car, after saying their goodbyes, Ree looked at Parker hopefully. “So?”
“Your friends are really fun, and they didn’t try and kill us, which definitely counts as points in their favor.”
“You know that’s not what I am asking.”
“I didn’t see any red flags. Unfortunately, that was just step one. There were a lot of books and papers in Russian, which I don’t speak. The FBI doesn’t have enough evidence to do anything beyond what we just did. We already have our hands in too many pies, and I’m afraid restraint is the name of the game right now.”
Ree growled under her breath but said nothing further. It had been a pleasant evening with her friends but had been overshadowed by the unfortunate reality of the situation at hand. And she would soon have to explain an eventual break up to the two people currently celebrating her happiness. But if she was still alive and they weren’t trying to kill anyone, it would be a small price to pay.
* * *
The following evening, Ree sat in front of a movie that neither of them cared about with Parker, recovering from their hike in a nearby state park that Parker insisted was for Ree’s sanity. It had actually helped calm her nerves, but they were slowly ratcheting back up from the effort of sitting still. Ree turned to Parker and, without preamble, asked, “Why would the Russians need us?”
“What do you mean?”
“Ivan. The Russians. They don’t need our help. They certainly don’t need a small university lab to help with whatever it is that they are supposed to be planning. It looks like Ivan is up to something, but if you think about it, under the surface, it doesn’t make much sense.”
“What about a lone wolf, not a part of the official government?” Without a good counterargument, Ree harrumphed. “I was trying to give you a weekend off, but since I can’t seem to find your off button, I can fill you in on the latest.”
Ree flipped off the TV and turned to face Parker, who raised an eyebrow. “What if I wanted to watch that, Professor?”
“You weren’t paying any more attention than I was, Agent. Don’t hold back now. Need a whiteboard?” Ree gestured to the closet, but Parker shook his head.
“The analysts agree with you – it feels like an operation, but there isn’t a good reason for a country to be behind this. We’ve asked Scarlett to spend a little more time on it, to look beyond the obvious suspects. Scarlett is Mikey’s wife, you remember. She’s been working with her team to build a better profile of our perp. So far, she’s given us a list of adjectives to help us narrow down the list of suspects – calculated, deliberate, most likely a male, but we can’t guarantee it. This guy thinks he’s smarter than everyone around him. We have no intel that suggests he’s selling the components. Scarlett thinks he’s trying to pull off something big and he doesn’t want to get his hands anywhere close to dirty.”
Ree crossed her arms. “How do you figure?”
“Well, why build a missile when you could build a bomb? Missiles are a lot more complicated – they have to have a whole separate set of parts just to get them where they are going. Something close range, like a bomb, wouldn’t require all the extra parts for guidance and course correction. The fact that he’s going to all this effort to make a complex weapon means a simple one won’t serve his purposes. We also believe it’ll be a short-range weapon since you can’t exactly build an intercontinental ballistic missile in your backyard without someone noticing.”
“Fair point.”
“And what type of personality will stay in the same place for at least a year to make it look like he wasn’t involved? There are easier ways to make money and very few dealers will take that kind of risk. This perp is most likely motivated by something other than money.”
“Someone who thinks he’s smarter than everyone else and believes he’s doing something important. Okay, I see what you’re getting at. But where is he hiding everything? You can’t exactly stash a missile in the lab without someone catching on. Even a small one.”
“No, you can’t, but you can stash the parts that are small and the hardest to come by.”
Ree nodded. “Yeah. Normally, I’d ask Ivan about something like this.”
“We’ll just have to keep an eye out without him.”
“Want me to poke around?”
“Yes, but carefully. Let me think about some rules you need to work under. I don’t want you getting hurt.”
Ree pulled a piece of chocolate from the drawer in her coffee table and offered one to Parker. “I can live with that. One last question before I try and shut my brain off so I can sleep. Who are they planning on aiming this thing at?”
“That’s what we’re trying to find out. We figure out who will be at the other end of this thing, we find our guy.”
Ree finished her chocolate and walked upstairs, slowing her pace as she found herself once again thinking about the man sleeping on her couch. She wasn’t intimidated by his mannerisms or stature, which seemed to both surprise and amuse him. She’d dropped bigger guys when sparring to get her black belts. And underneath his consummate professional exterior was a genuine concern for other people, including her. Parker’s demeanor was steady and even-keeled. He was solid, a counterbalance to her bursts of energy. He had proved that he was on her side, even when he didn’t know she was looking. She bit her lip. Despite her best efforts not to get attached, she was growing fond of him. She closed the bedroom door and tried not to make too much out of their interactions. She had a lot of work to do this week and didn’t have the luxury to think much about it. Finally succumbing to exhaustion, she dropped into her bed and fell asleep.
18
Simon slammed his fist into the hard metal frame of his test machine and let the pain soak into his hand. He closed his eyes and rubbed his throbbing knuckles. The propulsion laboratory was empty, and no one was there to witness his rage. He needed the last shipment of components, and his part supplier couldn’t get it to him for another three weeks. Three weeks.
He had precious little time remaining in what he was trying to treat as just another job. Without the controls for his thrusters, the only thing he could do, besides wait, was a detailed inspection of the parts he did have. The inspection would be critical since he couldn’t put everything together until mere days before his plan would unfold. He couldn’t afford to fail. No matter how many of the big bases he had covered, it was still the small things that complicated a mission. And thanks to the visit from The General’s friend, he now had to look over his shoulder in enemy territory.
Worse, his efforts to get the fuel he needed to run preliminaries on the missile’s small thrusters were being blocked by security rules. He had only a month left to finish his work here. Then he had to execute a successful mission without access to fuel or the secure labs to test his designs. His choices were to accept failure and disappear so that he didn’t get killed by his fickle ally, or eke out success despite his current setbacks. Reaching into his pocket for his knife as a balm for his worries, he refocused his attention on his machine.
With only the humming of the computers as company in the otherwise empty lab, Simon unscrewed his equipment’s side panels and checked his inventory. His existing circuitry neatly hooked into connectors that would never work but would look convincing to curious passersby. The fatigue test equipment also had some heavy metal components designed to look like they supported the structure of the equipment, but when properly disassembled, they became his control systems housing and rudimentary nose cones. They wouldn’t be perfect, but they would do well enough on their short flight.
