Interlude (41 page)

Soren leaned over and looked at him from the
back seat. “Not bad huh? I haven't stitched myself up in years.
It's so much easier to do it on someone else!” He said.

Cal's knife injury was at least distracting
him from his raging headache. “Ugh, can you keep it down? I feel
like someone hit me in the head. Again.” He said.

Aamina yelled from the driver's seat, as she
turned down the stereo. “Hey Cal! Sorry I dosed you with the hard
stuff. I figured you might wanna sleep through some of the pain.”
She smiled at him in the rear view, as he held his head
quietly.

“Yeah, what did you give him? He was out
forever. You may need to get help girl. I think you have a
problem.” Karen said half-seriously.

Aamina waved her hand dismissively. “Oh
nothing bad! Just some horse tranquilizers and an Oxycontin.”

“Club drugs and narcotic pain killers. The
ultimate nap time!” Soren joked.

“Where's Ethan?” Cal asked.

“Right here lad. Try and keep it down. I may
not have a knife wound, but at least I can compete in the hangover
department.” He said slowly. He was slumped so far down in his seat
that he was almost invisible.

“That was insane! I haven't had that much fun
in years! We have got to do this next year!” Aamina yelled.
Everyone but Karen offered up a groan, as they continued
driving.

Cal looked at the morning sun as it shone off
of the colorful stucco houses sliding past. “So, what happened
after I passed out?”

“It got a little crazier after that. Somebody
loaded an artillery shell into the tank and finished off your car,
but not before I got my purse out.” Karen said proudly.

“I also got you a souvenir.” Soren tossed Cal
a round object. With slow recognition, he saw that is was the
scorched steering wheel to his quarter million dollar rental car.
The airbag had popped, and it hung in a tattered mess like a battle
worn flag from the innards of the steering wheel.

Karen continued her play by play. “Then,
somebody tried to fly the Harrier jet. They didn't get very far.”
She recalled with a smirk. She remembered all the noise that jet
made as it careened slowly into the DJ scaffolding. At least the DJ
was already passed out in his trailer when it happened. Thankfully
nobody was hurt, and the joyriding pilot ended up passing out in
the cockpit until daybreak.

Ethan chimed in from his slumped seat. “I
told you the gyros were shot.”

“Since the jet wash from the Harrier dumped
all the booze, the party started to wind down after that.” Aamina
said loudly. Cal and Ethan held their heads again at her loud
voice, as the car made its way towards the coastline.

Later that week, Cal sat quietly on the plane
heading home-. His knife wound had healed somewhat. In spite of
that fact that he and Karen were still making love like crazed
rabbits. He watched her, as her chest slowly raised and lowered
itself with each breath. God, how he loved her! He smiled and
thought back to the look on the rental clerk's face when he tossed
the keys and the steering wheel to his car, up on the counter! At
least he was insured. He took solace in that thought as Karen
slouched over onto his side. He hated leaving. The working vacation
became a life that he didn't want to return from.

His new life would be this way from now on.
Nothing but foreign trips and long vacations as he helped the woman
he loved sell the toys of death and destruction. His morals had
become more ambiguous and pliable as their time together wore on.
Seeing a rack of RPGs, or a shipping container full of missiles was
nothing new to him now. He had some research to do, to be able to
keep up with her fast paced life of buying this crazy stuff. How
would he manage being her employee and her boyfriend at the same
time? How would he resist her every whim? She held a power over him
that made him do things that he thought were impossible, or
immoral.

As he dozed off, he saw her waking up. She
looked over at him with those piercing, green eyes and smiled at
him. It was the happiest and most genuine smile he had ever seen.
He knew right then and there that he had some shopping to do when
they got back. The kind that makes you nervous and shaky, as you
try and figure out what to get. While she reached over and caressed
his cheek, he dozed off trying to calculate how much money he had
earned in the last two months...,

“Look, I got in a hang gliding accident. Why
the third degree?” Cal said in an annoyed voice.

He was stuck in a small office at the Santa
Barbara Airport, with two agents from Homeland Security making
assholes of themselves. His knife wound had popped a stitch, and
one of the flight attendants called the agents when she saw the red
stain on his shirt. Now, he was here trying to cover for the odd
vacation that had left him stabbed and dosed on various
medications. As the agents stepped out to talk amongst themselves,
he craned his neck to see what Karen was doing. When they had been
confronted by the agents at the gate, he saw Karen whip out her
phone and start typing away fervently. She had a weird smile as the
two agents looked back and told her to stop her communications.
After the third degree of why they were in Ibiza, they were split
up and questioned separately. Karen seemed to be of less
importance, as they had given her back her phone and
possessions.

Cal wound through all the normal anxiety and
panic as he was unsure what the agents knew, or how far their
questioning would go. Could he really get in trouble? He
technically didn't do anything wrong, but that never stopped a good
investigator from finding out more details during questioning. As
he looked at Karen, he felt his normal calm at observing her
graceful beauty. Maybe she had some way out of this?

Karen fired off her last text and smiled in
at Cal though the window in the little room. As she stood outside,
she felt better as his mood brightened at her smile. She knew they
were in no trouble. In about five minutes, this would be one big
misunderstanding and they would be on their way up to her house.
God, she wanted him so bad! Her mind clouded as she thought back to
the Ibiza trip. The things they did! His strong body, and his broad
shoulders tensed back up as he gave he a questioning look through
the glass. Her arousal must have been written all over her face!
She gave him a confident wink, and rubbed her breasts playfully
against the glass. His look of shock, and the resulting smile, made
her giggle to herself as the two agents came back in.

Just as the men were about to chastise her
about her unauthorized communications with the suspect, she heard
another set of footsteps come into the room. Standing there, in his
official suit and tie, was her father's longtime friend. He was
also a high ranking field agent in the CIA, as well as their
liaison for arms transactions. Standing at over six and a half feet
tall, his barrel chest and wooly gray beard made him look like a
biker attending a court date, as he straightened his brown tie.

Karen turned to him and gave him a warm hug.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Cal trying to make out
what was going on. She smiled confidently and introduced the agents
to him.

“Agents, this is my friend, Mr. Timothy
Treadwell.” She said with a smug gleam in her eye.

“Miss Lawrence, attorneys don't have much use
when you haven't been charged with anything yet.” One of the men
said with a condescending tone.

Mr. Treadwell stepped in front of Karen and
whipped out his badge. After allowing the two agents to examine it,
and his credentials, he spoke.

“Gentlemen, here's what's going to happen.
There’s going to be a call on that phone right there.” He said,
pointing to a plain phone sitting on a nearby desk. “That call is
going to tell you to release Mr. Johnson into my custody. For the
sake of simplicity, I would recommend doing what the call says.” He
finished with a smile. While the two men stood there staring at
him, the phone on the desk rang.

One of the agents picked it up. After a
series of nods and mild protests, he hung up and rubbed his
temples. He finally spoke. “Look, I've got enough things to deal
with without having to muddle through this cloak and dagger shit.
Just fill out the forms and he's yours to keep.” He finally said.
Karen looked over to Cal and gave him a happy thumbs up through the
window. He smiled a relieved smile and gave her his famous smile.
The next half hour was a blur of paperwork, as Mr. Treadwell filled
out form after form. Finally scratching his signature on the last
page, he clicked his pen closed and gave a polite smile to Cal, as
the agents un-cuffed his wrists.

Cal reflexively rubbed the reddened marks
left by the cuffs. In a split second of impulsion, Karen leaned in
to whisper in his ear. “Don't worry, my cuffs are fur lined!” She
retracted away with an evil smile, as Cal stared at her in
astonishment. Cal grabbed his giant gym bag from the agent, as Mr.
Treadwell lead both he and Karen out of the tiny office.

“Hey Karen, can you give Cal and I a second
to talk alone?” He asked her politely.

“No problem! Cal, I'm gonna get a head start
and drive up to the house. I'll meet you there?” She said
brightly.

“Yeah babe, I'll be up there shortly.” He
replied. He tried to sound cool and calm, though he was wondering
what this gigantic CIA agent wanted with him.

As Karen strolled off, towing her little
wheeled luggage behind her, Mr. Treadwell led Cal to a cafe table
in the airport lobby.

“So, Mr. Johnson, I hear from Karen and her
crew that you're rather good with networks and cyber technology. Is
this true?” He asked in an authoritative voice.

Cal squirmed uneasily in his seat. Aside from
all the other weirdness he had to deal with, now he was getting
grilled by the CIA. “Yes. I majored in Computer Science, and I
developed some software that allows me to setup networks quickly.
Aside from that, I also have a fair amount of experience in GPS
based geo-location technology. Why do you ask?”

“Well, we have a need for somebody with your
kind of skills. If you would be interested, I could really use a
guy like you on a Per Diem job by job basis. You would work with me
directly, at the local field office. That way, your travel stays to
a minimum. You don't have to answer now, but I think you would be a
good fit. Given your relationship with Karen, I know that you have
a mindset for discretion.” He said.

His personality and mannerisms gave him a
fatherly quality, as he leaned over to shake Cal's hand. He took
the proffered hand. Cal noticed a black semi auto handgun sitting
in a shoulder holster under his coat. He followed Cal's gaze and
smiled politely before standing and walking away.

Cal sat at the table for a minute and let the
conversation sink in. He’d just been offered a job by the CIA. And
by a man who knew that his girlfriend bought and sold illegal
military hardware. His mind was still trying to come to grips with
all this new stuff as he made his way to the Range Rover. He
climbed into the driver's seat, and thumbed the ignition. As the
air conditioning cooled the interior, his thoughts turned the girl
that had made all this happen. In the time it takes to close escrow
on a house, she had managed to disassemble his former life and
create something so much different and so much better. He pulled
away from the parking lot, and made his way up into the hills above
Santa Barbara. The coastal fog was beginning to roll in, as he
waited for the gate to slowly groan open for him.

When he pulled into his spot in front of the
house, he could feel his stomach doing flip-flops. There had been
so much sexual tension between them since the party in the desert,
and they hadn't had a chance to seal the deal since their last
light in the hotel. He silently wondered what she would have
planned as he maneuvered his gym bag through the front door. As he
closed and locked the door, he heard her call from upstairs.

“Hey sweetie, I'm up here!” her voice
called.

His piqued senses told him that her voice was
hiding something. “I hope you're not going to try and get the jump
on me or anything!” He yelled up to her, as he made his way up the
stairs.

“Nope! No tricks. I just climbed into bed.”
She punctuated her statement with a loud yawn, as Cal opened the
bedroom door.

He looked at her body, outlined by the heavy
comforter. Her hips and torso moved around slowly underneath, as
she smiled lazily up at him. He could feel his cock stirring, as he
dropped his gym bag on the floor. His eyes traced up and down her
body, slowly taking in her beauty as he took off his shoes and
socks. She rolled over on her back, allowing the blankets to pull
taught over her breasts and her naked womanhood. Cal climbed on top
of her, pinning her body under the blankets as he ran his hands
over her through the comforter.

Karen relished his touch through the thick
blankets. She was aching with need, as she writhed and squirmed
under the covers. She was already dripping wet when she heard him
come in the front door. Now, she wanted him all to herself. She
wanted to use him like a toy, like some kind of novelty that would
please and satisfy her. She knew he had monumental amounts of
staying power, and she planned on using all of it. She clenched her
teeth and clamped her legs together at the thought of him bearing
down on her, like the tireless fucking machine that he was. As she
groaned quietly, she could feel him reaching his hands under the
blankets.

Cal couldn't stand to be teased anymore. He
wanted inside her like a cold traveler looking for a warm bed. He
needed to smell her, to feel her soft skin as he took her in every
way possible. He could feel her breasts against the back of his
hands as he reached down and flung the blankets off her waiting
body. He laughed as she covered her chest and crotch with her hands
and arms.