34Day at the Beach Ch 34

Chapter 34

    The goon in the rider's seat of the SUV craned his neck for a second look at the couple in the patio, but the restaurant that they passed blocked the view. He thought about it for a moment as they drove slowly around the complex. “Hey, Mike. That hippie dude has a short beard, hair passed his collar, brown hair and athletic looking, right?”
     “Yeah. Why?” the driver responded.
     “And the chick has auburn hair, about five-eight. Good-looking, nice body, right?”
     “Yeah, yeah, that's right. Get to the point.”
     “I think I just saw them back there at a table.”
     “Are you sure?”
     “Of course not. If I was sure I would have said something when I saw them. I said I think I saw them. 'Think' is the operative word, here.”
     “In your case, that might be debatable.” Mike said as he quickly spun the SUV around, creating enough honking to rival a disrupted flight of geese.
     “Careful, Mike. Somebodies going to get pissed and call the cops.”
     “Are you kidding? What the hell do you think we look like? This vehicle couldn't appear more federal and we're carrying solid looking FBI credentials. No ones going to fuck with us, and if they do, we flash our I.D.'s and tell them to take a hike.”
     The speed limit around the complex was 10 MPH, but traffic was moving at a leisurely 5 MPH.
    Mike slammed the steering wheel with the palm of his hand. “Shit! How far up did you see them?” He asked peering to the sidewalk side, studying the people walking by.
     “See that alcove between those two restaurant's?” He said pointing a few buildings down. “I saw them in the back of that patio.”
     “Okay. Get your butt out of here and go snag them. Be discreet. Make sure that nobody but those two sees your gun. I'll park and meet you.” He came to a stop and looked over at his partner. “What the hell you doing, waiting for me to kiss you good-by? Get your ass into gear.”

    As Brad and Susan exited the patio area, they rounded the corner of the restaurant leading in the opposite direction of the SUV. As people came in and out of the restaurant delectable odors wafted through the door, brushing the passerby’s taste buds with the scent of oak fired ribs and steaks. Now, Brad wished he had chosen a restaurant instead of espresso in the open patio. The two men would never had spotted them, and chances are they would have seen the two men as they drove by.

     As Brad and Susan stepped into the flow of foot traffic, they both glanced up the road and watched the black, official looking vehicle suddenly make a U-turn in traffic, creating a cacophony of squealing tires and honking horns.
     “Kind of a delayed reaction.” Susan opinionated. “But they figured it out.”
     Brad and Susan snaked through the moving crowd with more urgency until they found a thick knot of people and immersed themselves within their midst. They inched through the crowd until they were on the store front side of the flow of tourists and shoppers that flowed down the walkway. Stopping to look inside a display window they glanced back down the street just in time to see the passenger jump out of the SUV and run into the patio that they had just left. As he did so, the SUV veered off the street and raced through the parking lot, making people scatter out of its way.
     “This doesn't seem like the best place to try to capture us.” Susan commented as she watched them. “I wonder what they have in mind.”
     “I doubt that they have anything in mind.” Brad responded. “They're just reacting without thinking.”
     “That could work to our benefit, don't you think?” Susan queried.
     “Yes. I do. I'd like to turn the tables a little bit. In fact, I'd like to know where we could find Spike. He's the one pulling these guys strings.”
     “Me too.” Susan agreed. “I'm getting real tired of assholes with guns. We need to cut those strings.”

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    Director Ted Warner clicked off his personal phone, placed it on his desk and sat back in his chair, thinking about how he wanted to word the message he was about to send through the internal network of the agency to Special Agent Armando Martinez.

    While he was considering how he wanted to present it, he thought about the Assistant Director's accusations against Armando. He had not yet heard from Sam Levitt, whom he had ordered to present data validating his accusations. He wasn't sure that he would. It seemed evident to Ted that Sam was attempting to create disruption – distrust among the ranks. Ted was well aware that the Assistant Director was an ambitious, yet arrogant man. His dislike of Ted was so thinly veiled that it shined like a beacon. Ted didn't really care what the man thought of him, but he was glad that Sam was so transparent, giving Ted a shield of caution when dealing with him, and an insight that Sam was not aware of. The Assistant Director's self-serving actions was just an added problem to the ones of finding the mole and recovering the stolen secret weapons data, but not one Ted considered a high priority at the moment. He just had to keep an eye on the man and pay attention to what he did in his own interests.
     Ted typed in a memo to Armando, marked 'confidential – for your eyes only', that gave just acquired information of the location of the secret weapons memory stick. He then coded it and hit the 'enter' button.
     There was not way of telling how long it would take the mole to spot it, plus he would have to decode it, but Ted made it a simple code, easy to break. The mole could have operatives within the agency, or underlings who simply followed orders without question, which would not be considered out of the ordinary. How well connected the mole was would determine how quickly the memo would be retrieved and action be taken.
     Fifteen minutes after sending the memo, Special Agent Armando Martinez entered the Director's office.
     “I got your memo, Ted. I assume Brad and Susan successfully planted the stick. How long do you want me to wait before sending a team in to extract it?”
     “That's a good question. Have your team keep an eye out. Watch for any quick or nervous activity. Do you have any characters in the main office that have raised your suspicions?”
     “Yes. Actually, I do. One of the clerks.”
     “Okay. Keep an eye on him. We have to wing this one. We can't linger too long, because that in itself would create suspicions. When you do initiate the retrieve, pick your team from the San Francisco office. It will take them a couple of hours to get it together and get to Los Gatos, giving the bad guys plenty of time to get their first.
     “Call a meeting of your personal team in the secure room. That alone should stir the pot if someone is watching you, and I can almost guaranty that someone is.”
     “Yes, sir. On another subject, has Levitt brought the information to you yet validating me as the mole?”
     “No, but I'm sure he will as soon as he creates it. When he told me that, he was just planting a seed. Now he has to back it up, and I don't think he had taken it that far yet when we spoke. Don't worry about it. I want you to focus on this operation. I'll take care of Levitt.”

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