We think something terrible is going on. Henry Jellicoe has dropped off the face of the earth, as far as we know. We think he’s gone to ground but don’t know why. Ted and Joseph have not seen him during the course of their employment, according to Maggie. No one can figure out why the two of them were hired by Global Securities in the first place, especially Ted and Joseph. Ted, according to Maggie, has suspected for some time now that things aren’t right, but he doesn’t know what the problem is, either,” Annie said.
“There is also the little matter of Hank becoming engaged to the president of the United States, then disappearing. There has not been a word, a squeak, or a peep about the engagement. We don’t know if the engagement is on or off. As far as we know, Jellicoe has not been back at the White House since he walked out the night of the pardons. I know you saw him when you signed your contracts, but Harry, did you ever see him again?”
“No. We all went our separate ways that first month. Then we did our stint at the boot camp, which to me was a joke. Then—I guess the correct term would be ‘deployed’—we deployed to the four corners of the globe. Yoko and I went to Israel, where I trained some of their men in martial arts. In the beginning, they had me going in all directions, but Israel was our home base. Every month it was someplace new. Then we ended back up in Israel and were there for the last six months with no other deployments. The Israelis weren’t keen on my brand of training, and I had the feeling I was being humored by both the men and their superiors. It was almost, to me, like they were honoring a promise or a debt of some kind by having me there. We were tolerated, barely, and that’s it. To be honest, I don’t know how Yoko and I lasted as long as we did. She had two miscarriages, and it was her decision to come back to the States, with or without me, was how she put it. As you can see, I’m here, and she sure as hell didn’t have to coax me to accompany her. I’m going to have to ask Lizzie to help me negotiate about the payback and canceling the contract. I’m assuming the bonus money has to be paid back and will be prorated. We banked my salary for the year and a half that we were gone. Housing and transportation were free, so our outlay was very little. Yoko is very thrifty, and so am I. We have more than enough money for a down payment on a house with a yard and a fence. That’s what Yoko wants. I do, too. In the meantime, we have the dojo.
“At this point in time we are no worse off than we were before that out-of-the-blue offer of employment. Definitely better, in the sense that Yoko got her pardon and we got married. I suppose I can now add to my résumé that I helped train Israeli soldiers. I already have a full class signed up for next week, so that means I am here to stay.”
“What was it that made you throw in the towel?” Annie asked with an intensity that made Harry’s eyebrows shoot upward.
“We both hated the whole deal from day one. I admit, and so does Yoko, that we were dazzled by the money. That didn’t last long. Yoko got depressed after her miscarriages and blamed it on being out of the country. I hated seeing her like that. She missed the others terribly. She used to cry every day, and she cursed the day the pardons came through. She went into a real funk when we weren’t able to come back for Christmas last year. I did, too, to be honest.
“I think I know what you want me to say here, and yes, it was a job that was created for me that had absolutely no meaning. No one took my brand of training seriously. They’re all about guns and ‘real’ soldiering. Yoko is the one who finally came up with something we both thought made sense. She said Hank Jellicoe wanted to separate us, to scatter us to the four winds. Neither of us could figure out why, but it was the only thing that made any kind of sense. I can’t tell you the last time I talked to Jack or Bert. The sat phones always, somehow, mysteriously jammed when I tried to call any of the others. Yoko had the same problem when she tried to call the girls. Neither of us could figure that out, either.”
Annie thought she had never heard Harry talk so much. Always a man of few words, he was certainly being more than vocal at the moment, which told her he was more than a little concerned over his present circumstances.
It was Myra’s turn to speak. “Harry, I’m going to ask you a question, and I want you to really think before you answer me. Do you think Hank wanted you boys to separate or do you think he wanted the vigilantes to separate? In a way, it is the same thing but not really.”
Harry pondered the question, wishing he had his cup of tea to wrap his hands about. “It’s strange, Myra, that you should ask me that question. Yoko and I beat it to death so many times I lost count. We both think he wanted to separate the vigilantes. We can’t figure out why, though. Is that what you all think?”
“We do, and Maggie agrees,” Annie said. “But like you, we can’t figure out the why of it.”
Harry rubbed at the bristle on his chin. He wished now that he had shaved earlier. “If you think Charles was into all that covert stuff that goes on all over the world, he’s a novice compared to what Jellicoe has going on. That man plows through some really deep shit, or, at least, his people do. Yoko and I are good listeners, and of course, since Jellicoe was our benefactor, we tried to learn as much as we could about Global Securities during our stint away from home, at least back in the beginning. Later on, we didn’t want to know any more than we knew at that point. Hank Jellicoe is the eight-hundred-pound gorilla in the espionage and security business. He outshines the CIA by a mile. By the way, do you know that only the CIA and Homeland Security can freeze a person’s monies, even a foreign government’s monies? A while back I remember reading about that in some article in the paper, probably the Post. Well, I’m here to tell you there are three organizations that can do it, and number three just happens to be Global Securities.”
Myra stared at Harry. “What does that mean, Harry? I mean in regard to us, to you, me, the vigilantes? You must have had a reason for bringing that to our attention.”
“Myra, I don’t know. I just mentioned it. I guess we have to figure out what it means. Hey, I’m a martial arts kind of guy. I’m not into all that spook stuff. At this point in time, I just feel like I want to burrow in and get on with my life. There are no words to tell you how glad I am to be home. I just wish Jack and Bert were here. The rest of this crap means squat to me personally, but I do care how it affects Yoko. I want to be on record as saying that.”
“Duly noted,” Annie said.
The world took that moment to move, with Yoko rushing to the back of the dojo and throwing herself up against Annie and Myra as tears rolled down her cheeks.
“I think she’s happy to see them, don’t you, Harry?” Maggie whispered.
Harry laughed—such a strange sound that Maggie grinned. She thought for a moment, and realized she had never actually heard Harry laugh out loud. That had to be a good sign. Of what, she didn’t know. She looked down at the BlackBerry in her hand, at the text that was coming through. She felt the fine hairs on the back of her neck start to move. She looked up to see four sets of eyes staring at her.
“Listen, you guys stay here and talk about old times. I have an errand to run. I shouldn’t be more than an hour, and I’ll be back.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Ted wants me to pick up something he says is important.”
Sensing an urgency in Maggie, Harry stepped forward. “Do you want me to go with you, Maggie?”
Maggie thought about the offer and shook her head. “No, it’s better if you stay here and pretend that everything is normal.”
Myra’s tone was so anxious, Maggie found herself cringing when she said, “But, dear, where are you going? How can we pretend to be normal when we don’t know what passes for normal these days?” Even though it was a question, Myra didn’t expect an answer, so she wasn’t disappointed when Maggie just shrugged.
“To
