Everyone laughs. They all know Bruce Watson’s fondness for puns, and the next few minutes are spent trying to out-pun one another.
Violet actually starts the ball rolling, “Have you heard about the guy who broke it off with his girlfriend, the whiskey maker? But he loved her still.”
Anderson contributes, “There’s a report that a hole had developed in the wall around the nudist camp. We’re looking into it.”
Even Dr. Holman gets one in. “The sign on the lawn at our drug rehab center clearly reads: Keep off the Grass.”
Karen struggles through her favorite one, “What happened to the cannibal who– No, wait. What happened when cannibals, or when the cannibals ate a missionary?”
Patiently, everyone says, “What?”
“They got a taste of religion.” This makes her laugh so hard that people enjoy the joke anyway.
But the biggest laugh most appropriately comes from Watson’s own telling for his favorite, “A diminutive fortune teller was reported escaped from prison.” Everyone braces for the punch line, sure to be a groaner. “The police said to be on the lookout for a small medium at large!”
They all laugh. But, in the midst of their merriment, in comes Sherman Phelps, a grand nephew of Mrs. Phelps, but more importantly, the pizza delivery boy who delivered the Market pies. He’s fresh off from his shift at Pizza-Daddy-O and wants anything but pizza for dinner. He asks, “What’d I miss?”
Karen, “We just finished a moment of pure, unadulterated silliness, but prior to that we were talking about the fire.”
Sherman, “Huh, I was just there.”
“Really?” says Watson.
“No thanks to your friends, Mr. Anderson!”
Anderson, “Oh, really, what happened?”
“One of your guys, I didn’t recognize him, must’ve been new; but he pulled me over for no apparent reason; then let me go.”
“And where was this?”
“Over on Mt. Hope.”
“Hmm.” Says the officer, and that might have been the end of it had it not been for the inquisitive mind of Bruce Watson.
While Karen is taking Sherman’s order, Watson walks down to the end of the counter and sits next to Mark Anderson. “You had to say hmm didn’t you?”
Anderson, “What?”
“Don’t what me. What did you mean by hmm.”
“Oh, nothing, it’s just that we don’t do patrols on Mt. Hope.”
“Really?”
“No. I mean, yes, we don’t.”
“So, what are you going to … you know, what are you gonna do about it?”
“I’m not sure. This could be nothing, or it could be a serious problem.”
“How so?”
“Well, think about it. It’s either a kid’s overactive imagination or alibi, or somebody is in town posing as law enforcement.”
Watson, this time, “Humph.”
Anderson, “Now you said humph, what do you mean by that?”
“Nothing.”
“Oh, so, mine had to mean something and yours don’t?”
“First of all, I didn’t say hmm like you did, I said humph. One means, imagine that; while the other means, something doesn’t seem to add up.”
“Is that right?”
“Yeah, and second, you’re … you know, a cop!”
At that point Officer Anderson calls his station on his walkie-talkie and looks into the strange report. He says to Sherman, “What time was it when they pulled you over?”
Sherman, “About nine p.m.”
Anderson then continues to talk with his station and then says, “Hmm.”
Shift Commander Watson looks at him with anticipation. “Well?”
Anderson, “It could be nothing, or–”
“You said that earlier. What is it?”
“Well, you know Riley, right? He said that on his way home from hunting there was a deer struck by a vehicle on Seventeen. At the scene he was certain that he saw a federal agent in an unmarked car.”
“Out on Seventeen?”
“Yep.”
“Heading into town?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmm.”
“Yeah.”
The two town officials sit there a moment then all of a sudden, as if on cue, they both get up saying the same thing: “I’ve gotta go check something out.” And they leave the diner in a rush.
• • •
At the Market residence, now after 10:00 p.m., the family and Lauren are all in the living room chatting. Back on task, Lauren has steered the conversation towards discussion about keeping journals.
Downstairs, FBI Agent, turned-electrician, George Sandoval, is crouched on the floor watching as lead FBI Agent, turned-insurance-adjuster, Albert Hinton, paces back and forth. Hinton is deep in thought on how to manage to stay close to the Market family as the time for their insurance man to leave, comes; but even more concerning is this question of why the sniper seemed to want them to know that he was out there, waiting for them. Without taking a shot, he has had both him and Lauren Coles in his sights. In his mind there’s no doubt about it, he must know somehow that they are government agents.
The veteran agent is legitimately perplexed. “Damn, I need Ramirez!”
Sandoval, “Why, what are you thinking?”
Hinton, “You ever had a feeling that something is going on, and you are just one bit of information shy of figuring it out?”
Sandoval, “Maybe you can reach him at home, it’s pretty late on a Saturday. He’s gotta family, doesn’t he?”
“Yeah, but, he’s with the Secret Service AD somewhere. I think they are sequestered.”
“My God! Sequestered? Sir, please, when department heads are being tucked away for safekeeping, that’s serious! Now, come on!”
Hinton, calming Sandoval down, “No, no, no. I don’t think it’s– It’s not that. Listen, I’ll tell you everything that I know, but this isn’t the time. Right now, it’s just you and me, and I need to bounce some ideas off you.”
“Okay, okay. Go.”
“So you just found out that there’s a kid in New York that has info that you need, info that could make or break a nation. What do you do?”
“I go get him.”
“Yeah, you do. Don’t you? But what if you can’t get to him?”
“Then I wait for an opportunity when I can.”
“Agreed. But what if it looks like somebody else is going to take him first?”
“And that’s gonna end my chance at getting him?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, sir, if my nation depends on me getting this kid, I’m gonna kill the people trying to take him before I can, and then I’m gonna take him.”
“Right, and they had the chance to do it. The question is, why didn’t they?”
“Maybe the timing wasn’t right on their end; the pickup wasn’t in place.”
“That’s exactly where I wind up, which means we should be expecting company.”
Sandoval then says, “Correcto!”
“How are you packed?”
“I just got my Glock service weapon.”
“Same here. I may have a rifle in the magic trunk.”
“The wha–?”
Hinton smiles a little and says, “The trunk of my car, it’s kind of a joke I have with– Never mind. I think I was supplied a rifle.”
“Nice! We’ll go get it.”
“Well, here’s the thing, we’ve got to pack out of here or our cover is blown right? But if our theory holds true, the reason Agent Coles and I don’t have sniper bullet holes in us is the sniper didn’t want to accidentally kill the kid. So if any of us go out now, and they have their pickup team is in place, there’s nothing stopping them from plucking us off!”
Right then, Sandoval gets a call on his cell. It’s from FBI Special Agent William Ramirez. He answers and immediately tells Ramirez that Al Hinton is available and hands Hinton the phone.
Ramirez tells Hinton, “Al, lis
ten, it looks like we might be pulling back a little. I’ll send you a text message with the details.”
Confused, Hinton says, “Pulling back? What?”
But what Ramirez said begins to make sense to Hinton when he sees the text that starts with, “Two crucial updates. 1: Analysts suspect that the Market home may be bugged! This is the only secure way to communicate at this point.”
Without a word, Hinton shows the message to Sandoval, who immediately looks around their surroundings for a device. But Hinton gets his attention and draws him back over to read the next message. “2: It is important that none of you guys expose yourselves to the sniper again! We’re pretty confident that it’s Stone, who was posing as a church worker, and he will take you out if he can. We think he’s a professional! In fact, the only reason he didn’t take you out earlier is because he wasn’t sure he could do so without hitting the boy or because they weren’t ready to grab him.”
With his signature deadpan, Hinton says to Sandoval. “Terrific, don’t you just love being right?” He then lowers his voice and says, “That’s probably how they know we’re government.” Handing back the phone to Sandoval, he whispers, “Text this to him for me: That’s what we were thinking, sir. What now?”
Sandoval, a whiz at text messaging compared to Hinton taps it out like a teenager.
Ramirez sends a message back, which the two men read together. “We’d like to you to locate the device and provide some specific bogus information, too complicated to text. Is there a secure room you can go to, where we can just talk?”
While looking around, Hinton cleverly begins talking to Sandoval about general things to make it seem like they don’t know there’s a bug to anyone who might be listening in. He spots the basement bathroom and after getting Sandoval’s attention, slips in.
When Sandoval comes to follow, Hinton asks him to text Ramirez telling him to call him on his cell, and then closes the door between them. Sandoval is disappointed that he’s literally having access to the case closed in his face. But, he quickly sends the message and gets back to looking for the bug.
In the bathroom Hinton has placed his phone on silent and has the sink water running to block out any sound. He uses the toilet as a seat and answers the call on the first vibration. He didn’t mean to be rude to Sandoval, but he’s used to working alone, and besides, there simply would be no way to explain why two men were in the bathroom together with the door closed should anyone from the family venture downstairs.
Ramirez tells him that on Danning’s orders, they’d like to have the would-be assassin, or abductor, to think that they are all pulling out. “Make comments about a debriefing at the FBI headquarters in New York. Then, when they come to get the kid, we’ll apprehend them.”
Hinton likes the plan, but out of respect, and perhaps fondness for the Markets, he, not too delicately, makes a point of asking if the family should be informed that they are going to be used as bait for a killer! But before Ramirez could defend the plan, another voice joins the conversation.
“Good afternoon gentlemen, this is Alice Wheaton with the NSA. Excuse the interruption, but I’ve got some important information. Mr. Hinton, I need you and, uh, George to check the house before you leave.”
“Uh, certainly,” says Hinton, not sure how Miss Wheaton factors in. “Check it for what ma’am?”
“For a bomb, Mr. Hinton, our guys just figured that the fail-safe for this, if the whole thing goes sour for them, would be to take out the kid, his family, and whatever they can get with a single blast. It would be their last resort measure, but any group willing to crouch and lay low for six years would have that measure in place.”
Hinton, “Oh, okay—just keeps getting better!”
Alice adds, “Do you not agree Bill?”
Ramirez, “Yeah, it makes sense.”
“Good,” she says then with a dry tone, “I wouldn’t want Agent Hinton to think that I was usurping your authority or anything.”
Ramirez is confused for half a second, then realizes what she’s getting at, and the horrible position he’s put Hinton by blaming him for spreading rumors about Alice. He replies, “Um, Alice, I’m sure he’d never think that. Uh, you know Al–”
“Well, at any rate, one can never be too sure.” Says Alice. “I’ve heard a lot about you Mr. Hinton, I look forward to meeting you someday.”
Completely confused, Hinton says, “Uh, yeah, same here.” Hinton hangs up and after staring blankly for a moment, emerges from the bathroom with his pad and pen in hand.
Sandoval has a radio playing and is sitting with a confident and comfortable expression on his face. Hinton calls him over and writes a note telling him the news and their new task: looking for a bomb!
For George Sandoval, that is the last straw. “A bomb, sir? Are you kidding!”
Hinton tries to shush him, and whispers, “Keep your voice down. And, no; that’s what the analysts are thinking.”
“Sir!”
Still whispering, Hinton says, “Okay, okay. Let me quickly tell you what I know.”
Sandoval exclaims in Spanish, “Por fin! I guess I can tell you what I know, also. I found the bug. It’s in the light fixture, in the center of the sitting area; and I’ve got that radio playing right near it. There’s no need for us to whisper standing over here.”
Very impressed, Hinton looks at him and says, “Bravo, Don Jorge! You know if I hadn’t requested a background check on you myself, I’d think you planted it yourself!”
“Nice. I can see you’ve got some trust issues there.”
“Once bitten. Twice–”
“I see, so when or how were you bitten?”
Changing the subject, Hinton says, “Look, Freud, you want to hear the background on this case or not?”
• • •
Upstairs, Lauren has the conversation right where she wants it; they are talking about Joanna’s journal.
And Joanna says the magic words, “Well, let me go get it.”
“Oh, that would be fun!” says Lauren, who is about to leap out of her skin, she’s so happy!
As his mom takes a flashlight and goes upstairs, James, who is picking up on Lauren’s enthusiasm, says, “You know? I have a journal of that time also.”
Thrilled, but cautious, Lauren says, “That’s excellent!” But she can’t send James after his journal because Hinton already found it, and on the chance that it has not been returned, she better not risk him finding it missing. So, she says to him, “Show it to me in the morning, I’d like to see it.” Then she says to Joseph, whose journal everyone really wants, “And what about you? Yours is the most famous journal of them all.”
Joseph replies, “I think I lost it.”
“Oh, noo!” says Lauren.
“When everyone got so angry and worked up about it, I stashed it somewhere, and I can’t remember where it is.”
“Aw, that’s too bad. Maybe you’ll find it someday.”
At that point, Al Hinton and Sandoval emerge from downstairs. Officially, they are doing one final check of the circuit before turning on the electricity again; but in actuality, they are checking the house for any type of bomb.
Hinton manages to discreetly tell Lauren to read her email. The note from Ramirez should bring her up to speed.
Then, in walks Joanna with her journal and hands it to Lauren.
Agent Hinton can barely keep his countenance as his eyes and face express, “NICE JOB! How did you manage that!”
To which Lauren just returns a happy and confident smile. Turning her attention to Joanna she says, “Just like that? You don’t mind me looking through your personal Journal?”
“Well I actually have two, that one really only chronicles what was going on with Joe, my personal, personal, is tucked safely away.”
And for Hinton’s benefit, Lauren, addressing James and Joseph, says, “And you two promise to let me see your journals on the what was going on with Joe, tomorrow, if you both can find them.”
&
nbsp; They both agree, and Hinton looks back, again, at Lauren with an expression that shows he’s very impressed!
• • •
Meanwhile, George Sandoval has already located some suspicious wiring. He gets Hinton’s attention and shows him a wire connecting into the circuit. It leads outside to points unknown.
Hinton decides that it’s perhaps too dangerous to be working outside. He takes him into the kitchen and in a hushed conversation tells him, “That’s great work George, but let’s not end a win with a disaster”
“Sir, if we stay in here, and they decide to go with their last resort, won’t that be a much worse disaster, like trading the Valliant for the Titanic?”
“Yeah, but if you go and get yourself aerated, and they still go for the last resort, it doesn’t matter does it? Besides, you’re no bomb expert, and I’m not comfortable having to tell your wife that I ordered you to do this.”
“Okay. What if I just take a look? Aren’t we ordered to locate a possible bomb? And how did you know I was married?”
“Everything about you screams I’m married, that was easy. I’ve been having more fun trying to figure out why you have a wedding ring tan line, but no ring?”
“Oh, I um–”
“No, don’t tell me. I prefer to figure it out.”
“You’ll never do it.”
“Twenty bucks says I will!”
“Okay, sucke– Uh, I mean, sir. So what about the assignment?”
“I agree, you can go look but do not touch. Fact of the matter is, if they see that we know about the bomb, they’re much more likely to detonate.”
“I’ll be right back.”
“I bet, now that you think I owe you a Jackson, you’ll be back without a scratch. That’s just how things go for me.”
• • •
On another side of the Market’s house, Lauren has the second most sought after item of the mission in her hands. With less than 20 hours left in the prophecy, 20 hours before the president is to die, she has what may be one of the most important keys to solving the mystery of how.
Joanna shows her to the pertinent pages, the pages covering from the very first prophecy.
Lauren reads carefully, but she also is plotting how she might get some digitals of the pages and send them to her research staff. She says, “So, this is the very first one, huh?”
The Journal: A Prophecy, A President & Death Page 24
