The Alberta Connection

by R. Clint Peters

  Ramona finished the history of the Pendergast Ranch as they arrived at the ISP officer’s entrance. She parked the golf car, and they walked into the elevator center. After she pressed the elevator button, Ramona turned to Ryce and Tanya.

  “As soon as you two get situated, I will take you to the Sanctuary. John has kept it in a primitive state. There is no electricity, no power tools, and no modern conveniences. John made a rule that if it was used before 1825, it is OK. I have no idea why he picked 1825. O2 thinks it was the year John was born the first time. More than fifty craftsmen are living or working on the property and have created heaven in a little piece of Idaho. I know John goes there often to just sit and think. I do, too. Just watch the park benches when you sit down. Most still have splinters.”

  Ramona was interrupted by the arrival of the elevator. They entered the car, rode to the sixth floor, and then walked to John’s office. John’s secretary motioned them to the conference room.

  As he walked into the conference room, Ryce looked around. The conference table had been relocated to along one wall and chairs had been lined up facing the table. Ryce saw there were more than twenty people in the room, most of whom he had never met. John waved Tanya and Ryce over to the table.

  “There are a few things you need to sign before we swear you in.”

  John pulled some papers out of a manila folder, created two small stacks, handed one stack to Ryce and the second to Tanya. Both picked pens off the table and began to sign the papers they had been handed.

  When Race and Tanya finished signing, John slid the papers into the folder and turn to face the group.

  “OK, let’s all be seated.”

  John looked at Tanya and Ryce and pointed toward four empty chairs in the front row.

  “I’d like to take care of a few things before we swear Ryce and Tanya into the Idaho State Police. First, a little background on Ryce. He has spent the past two years as the Billings, MT, district supervisor of the Joint Border Task Force. He will be here for four months or until he checks himself into one of Pen’s psychiatric wards.

  “If you weren’t at the chow hall last night, you might not know that Ryce and Tanya were married the evening before last. Unlike O2 and Ramona, Ryce and Tanya allowed some of us to watch. Congratulations to both of them. Ryce served with O2 for two years in Afghanistan, so he knows about some of the insanity we have to deal with around here.

  “We will be having additional personnel join us as Ryce develops his team. I have given him permission to ask anyone within reason on the Ranch if they would like to transfer to the JBTF. There are announcements on all of the bulletin boards. Let your department members know they can apply. I think Doug has submitted his own request to transfer, but it has been denied. Twice.”

  John waited until the laughter had died down, and then continued, “And now, let’s get this program on the road.”

  John asked Ryce and Tanya to rise and then conducted the swearing in. Both were issued badges, ID folders, keys to an ISP cruiser, keys to the office building, and a folder with recommendations for temporary personnel.

  Those in attendance were asked to sign the daily log, and then John turned back to the group.

  “Break time is over. Be safe.”

  John requested Marge, O2, Ramona, Doug, Karen, Ryce, and Tanya follow him back to his office. After they had found somewhere to sit, John looked around the room and then at Ryce and Tanya.

  “I know you have met Marge, and O2, and Ramona.”

  John pointed at Doug. “The fellow in the Hawaiian shirt is Doug. He is the computing guru for Pendergast Holdings. Sitting beside him is Karen, his delightful wife. She is the human resources guru for Pendergast Holdings.”

  John pointed at a stack of laptops on his desk.

  “Those are six of the latest and greatest laptops we could find. They are all exactly the same and loaded with exactly the same software. As you add people to your group, Doug will add laptops.

  “We only work with laptops around here, except for the mainframes. We encourage everyone to take their laptops home with them and work for free from their living rooms.”

  John smiled at the polite laughter.

  “Just one small issue. Karen and Marge run everything around here. If Doug tells you something, check with Karen first. If Karen says no, go ask Marge. It works for me.”

  John was so pleased with his humor that he almost tipped over the office chair.

  “Seriously, any personnel questions you have must be run through Karen. Be safe.”

  Ryce sat for a moment wondering if the meeting had ended. When Marge stood, Ryce concluded the pleasantries were over.

  Marge reminded Tanya and Ryce that they had many gifts in Research 1 to open. They would all meet in Research 1 at noon for the grand opening. Doug stood, offered a hand to Karen and another to Tanya, pulled them out of their seats, pointed at Ryce, and the four of them left John’s office.

  It was Doug’s turn to play tour guide on the way to the elevator. He explained that Ryce and his group would be in Suites 422 through 425. Suite 425 had five individual offices and a conference room. The suites all had connecting doors so the occupants would not be required to use the corridor.

  Ryce noticed when they arrived at Suite 425 that his name and Tanya’s were already on the doors to the offices. After a quick glance at their new offices, Doug led Ryce and Tanya into Suite 424.

  “John designed these three suites to be convertible from a few offices to one gigantic room. We can even roll the walls back and make a bigger gigantic room. For O2 and Ramona’s anniversary two years ago, John rolled the walls and hired a country band. The suites are normally used as training facilities, but we don’t have any recruit classes going through right now.”

  As they walked back into Suite 425, Karen planted a kiss on Doug and walked out of the suite.

  Doug smiled. “Karen’s office is in the Ranch headquarters building, on the other side of the county road. That is where Research 1 is located. She only tagged along to meet Tanya.”

  Doug led Ryce and Tanya to the conference room.

  “You two will be doing some intense learning for the remainder of the week. Plan on eating, sleeping, showering, and making love with your new laptops. We have Wi-Fi in all the cafeterias, so I expect you will get crumbs on the keyboards.”

  Doug stopped to allow Ryce and Tanya the opportunity to absorb what he had told them.

  “John is confident you will be ready to start building your team in ten days. I can speed up the transition if I see you are doing better than anticipated.”

  Doug pointed at a service cart stacked with laptops near Ryce’s office door.

  “Pick one of the laptops and become its best and only friend.”

  Ryce chuckled. Things just magically appeared around here.

  Doug smiled at the look on Ryce’s face.

  “One of my techs brought the laptops in while we were checking out the other offices. You’ll get used to things suddenly showing up. It’s part of the great John Pendergast mystique. You think you’re alone, and then you aren’t. I only have to deal with John eight hours a day. I do not have a clue how Marge copes with twenty-four hours a day of John. But, I wouldn’t trade this job for any other job in any universe.”

  Ryce could hear a cell phone, but he was sure it wasn’t his. Doug turned and walked into Suite 424. Ryce turned to Tanya.

  “So, what do you think you’ve gotten yourself into?”

  Doug returned before Tanya could answer.

  “That was Karen, reminding me to send you over to Research 1. Go down to the lobby, out the main doors, turn right, walk to the end of this building, turn right again, and walk across the road. Research 1 is the first room on the left after you turn left at the receptionist.

  “And don’t forget to grab a laptop before you leave here.”

  Ryce could hear Doug chuckling as he walked out of the office suite.

  The top shelf of the service c
art held the laptops, power supplies, and wireless mice. Ryce poked Tanya and pointed at the cart. There were also several laptop cases on the second shelf.

  Ryce quickly selected a laptop and a case and then waited for Tanya to decide on the case she wanted. John was very wise. All of the cases were the same color.

  Tanya grabbed Ryce’s hand as they entered the elevator.

  “Ramona and O2 make a great couple. How did they get together?”

  Ryce chuckled. “I think it all depends on whose version you get to listen to. All I got was O2’s version, so I do not know what Ramona has to say about things. As you know, O2 was a SEAL. He was on his way to Okinawa, or somewhere in the ocean, and discovered that he only had a few days left on some marksman certification. He did some checking around and found out if the certificate was not up to date, he’d have some restrictions on his activities. And, he does not like being restricted.

  “O2 stopped by Camp Pendleton and talked to someone he knew, but then who doesn’t he know? About the same time O2 was working his magic, Ramona was getting ready to ship off to Afghanistan. She was touring with the Army shooting team as an alternate. Somehow, she had let one of her certifications lapse. If she did not want to get a crappy assignment, she needed to bring the cert up to date. Somehow, she got permission to go through the process at Pendleton, too.

  “The Range Master had a good sense of humor. There were only two shooters, thirty targets, and Ramona and O2 were assigned adjacent shooting stations. Ramona proceeded to eat O2 for lunch. She out pointed him on the first four distances. Made him feel like he had never held a rifle before.

  “When they got to the final distance, 2,000 yards, she purposely missed the complete target on her first shot. That made O2 feel good enough to ask her out to dinner. During dinner, they discovered O2 was shipping out to his favorite island in the Pacific in twelve days, and Ramona was scheduled to rotate to Afghanistan in fourteen days.

  “They also discovered they really liked each other. O2 does not go into any detail after the first date. Ten days after they met, they stopped at the Hitching Post in Coeur D’Alene.”

  Ryce looked around. He and Tanya had not yet crossed the street. Tanya had somehow steered him to a bus bench. He kissed her as they waited for the “WALK” signal.

  When Ryce and Tanya arrived at Research 1, Marge introduced AP, John’s older brother, who introduced his wife, Danielle. Ryce did not remember seeing AP at the reception, but he remembered meeting Danielle. Marge confirmed AP had been volunteered to deliver the wedding gifts to Ryce and Tanya’s apartment. Marge pulled a laptop out of a case. Ryce noticed her case was the same as the ones he and Tanya had just selected.

  As soon as Marge finished booting the laptop, she showed Tanya a gift registration program. Danielle was asked to enter the names of the givers and the gift description as the gift was opened. Using the laptop camera, a picture was taken of the gift. Even with the help of AP’s two children, opening the gifts took almost three hours. AP promised he would have the gifts delivered before dinner.

  After returning to the apartment, Ryce plugged in his laptop. As he waited for it to warm up, he wondered into what he had gotten himself. He thought he was a better than average computer user, but he would find out extremely quickly that he didn’t know anything.

  Tanya grabbed a seat next to Ryce in the apartment living room and plugged in her laptop power adapter. They both felt as if they were starting at the beginning. Ryce checked the time that he started the program. It was 3:20 PM.

  At 6:00 PM, a window popped up on Ryce’s laptop, telling him that it was time for dinner. He stared at the screen for several moments. How did Doug know when he was going to start working on the program? He waited until Tanya caught up, and then they both walked into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator.

  As they looked over the shelves, Ryce commented, “Did someone get their hands on our shopping list?”

  Tanya chuckled. “This will do until we can get to the grocery store.”

  The doorbell rang at 6:20 PM. When Ryce answered the door, he found AP and several Ranch employees with large wheeled laundry carts standing in the hall. The carts were wheeled into the spare bedroom and the gifts unloaded. AP chuckled and told them that they had made out like bandits.

  At 9:00 PM, a new window popped up on Ryce’s laptop display. Doug announced that it was time for bed, and the laptops would shut down and not restart for eight hours. Ryce and Tanya were not inclined to argue about the issue.

  Chapter 7

  Ryce reached over, shut off the alarm on his cell phone, and then attempted to focus on the time. Was it actually 5:30 AM? What day was it? Ryce remembered it was Saturday, and he and Tanya were not expected to spend all day on their laptops. He had no doubt they would be on the laptops all day, but this was supposed to be a weekend.

  The previous two days of training had revealed one important fact: He knew nothing about computers. And he knew even less about the Internet. He thought it was possible to follow someone around the Internet, but didn’t know where to start. Forty-eight hours had changed all that.

  He looked across the bed and discovered that Tanya was missing. He could not hear water running in the shower. Where was she?

  Ryce slowly slid off the bed, grabbed a bathrobe, and walked out of the bedroom. Tanya was sitting at the dining table with her laptop open in front of her. It took several moments for Ryce to realize she was naked. She looked up and smiled.

  “I was getting in the shower and remembered the answer to one of the test questions. I hope you don’t mind that I just rushed out here to play with my laptop.”

  Ryce grinned. “Well, having no clothes on could save a little time.”

  Ryce turned and walked back to the bedroom. He was trying to decide if he should shower or go back to bed when he felt two arms wrap around him.

  “We don’t have to be at the family table in the chow hall until 7:00 AM, and I got 100% on the quiz. It’s time to celebrate.”

  Not long after John moved his software company to Idaho, he heard someone in his family was having a birthday party. He checked his email, but found nothing telling him of the event. He checked the fireplace mantel where he kept important papers. There was nothing to tell him about the party. When John asked about the party, he was told that he was out of town when the invitations were handed out.

  John’s solution to the problem was to establish the “Family Table” at the Ranch chow hall. It was not always only one table, but John hoped that at some point during one of the three meals of the day, the members of his family would actually talk to each other.

  Tanya and Ryce arrived at the chow hall a little after 7:00 AM. Ryce looked around, but did not see anything that said “the Pendergast family eats here”. He and Tanya walked toward the serving line.

  As he completed the transaction with the cashier, Ryce heard a very small voice.

  “Mr. Dalton, my mommy asked me to come show you where we eat.”

  He turned to see a young girl.

  “My name is Annette Pendergast. My mommy is Danielle and my daddy is AP. Please follow me.”

  Annette led Tanya and Ryce across the chow hall to a separate room. Ryce noticed a sign reading “Pendergast Family Dining Center” was attached to the wall beside the door. Ryce and Tanya had been to the chow hall the first evening they had arrived at the Ranch, thanks to the reception organized by Ramona and Marge. However, since that night, they had eaten in their apartment. Ryce was not willing to share Tanya with anyone, at least not yet.

  As they walked into the room, Doug stood and began to applaud. He was soon joined by the other ten diners. Doug looked around the room.

  “Ryce and Tanya have been attempting to conquer the Cyber Crimes course.”

  Ryce heard a chuckle from somewhere in the room. “No wonder they haven’t been here for any of the meals. That course would make an alligator lose its appetite.”

  When the laughter died down, Doug poin
ted in the direction of the voice. “That is Mark. He wrote most of the course. He will be your tour guide starting Monday.”

  Karen began laughing. “Now that they know about Mark, I am surprised Tanya and Ryce are not running back to Montana.”

  John looked around the room, and then at Ryce. “As you can see, we have a very close-knit group here. And some of them actually like each other.”

  Ryce and Tanya found two open seats at one of the tables, sat down and began to eat. Soon after Ryce finally placed his napkin on the tray, Doug walked over and sat across from Ryce.

  “You did a lot better than I anticipated.”

  The look on Ryce’s face was more than Doug could handle. He started laughing.

  “We have everything connected here, by either Wi-Fi or Ethernet. The two laptops you are using have been reporting your progress since the first log in.

  “Ryce bogged down in module 5.6 and 5.9. Tanya had a hiccup in module 3.7 and 5.9. I had predicted that you would each have problems in at least five modules. John, Marge and Karen all bet against me. They are now each $20.00 richer.

  “There will be no classes today or tomorrow, unless you can’t keep your hands off the laptops. On Monday, we will throw you into the cavern of lost hope.”

  John walked over and sat next to Doug. “You have been taking the standard entry course for the Cyber Crimes division of The Washington State Patrol. It has been adopted by almost every law enforcement organization in the country. Anyone who wants to work in Cyber must pass this course before they are even considered.

  “Doug says you have done very well. If you do not make any more errors, you will finish with a better grade than the developers did. Mark wrote most of the course and missed four modules. Doug, by the way, missed five modules. That is the same number he thought you would miss. It’s like taking candy from a baby.”