They'll Call It Treason

by Jordon Greene

  Kallie smiled and cocked her head to the side. Jason pulled her in and hugged her.

  “Now it’s time for the birthday girl to go to bed though.”

  Kallie’s demeanor quickly dimmed to a distraught frown.

  “I wanna stay up late tonight. We can watch a movie or something,” she begged, her voice’s pitch heightening.

  “Well we could, but you have school tomorrow morning. If you don’t go to bed now you won’t want to get up when your mom tells you to,” Jason reminded her. “So how about we just go to bed and you can play or watch movies tomorrow after school.”

  Still not pleased with the single option, Kallie gave in, her head hung low. Jason knew this is how every kid acted when faced with the dreaded prospect of sleep, but her sad face about melted him. Jason knew he could not give in every time she cried or whined, but he wanted to keep her smiling so badly. Yet, he held his ground.

  “Alright now, I’ll see you in the morning Kallie. I love you.”

  Kallie finally gave in. “Love you too daddy, goodnight.” A slight smile broke on her lips with the last few words. Relieved to have her smiling again, Jason kissed her on the forehead and urged her up the stairs. As she jogged up the stairs she hollered her “I love you” and “goodnight” to them once more, and disappeared down the hallway.

  A smirk on his face, Jason stood back up and looked at his wife, “Kids.”

  “Well, it’s time to clean up,” Amanda began, dropping the grin she had worn the whole afternoon. “It’s amazing how much of a mess a few little girls with some presents can make of a place.”

  Jason huffed, taking in the scene again. It really was a disaster. “Yeah, just be glad we didn’t let them bring their food in here.” The thought was daunting, and Jason was glad to have avoided that fiasco. Just one less problem to solve.

  Amanda handed Jason a white drawstring trash bag like the one she was using. He took it and dutifully began to make the sweep of the living room. He chose his footing deliberately to avoid the sting of some small figurine or pointy toy in the bottom of his feet as he canvassed the living room. Minefield. That was the image he conjured in his mind as he chanced each footstep.

  A minute or two passed in silence as the cleanup commenced. He had grown accustomed to the silence, but it still felt sour.

  You could at least say something, Jason thought, aggravated over nothing. Or was it the silence that bothered him?

  “She is really growing up isn’t she? Seems like yesterday she was just a little baby.” Jason reminisced, finding something to break up the silence.

  “Yeah, she is.” Amanda paused for a second, “She got an award at school for being a top reader.”

  “Really? When?”

  “Last week,” Amanda said with a hint of accusation, letting her voice trail off.

  “Last week?” Jason asked, trying to focus on what she had said rather than her tone. “Why didn’t she tell me?”

  Amanda turned to Jason derisively, “Really? She thought you were too busy. As usual.”

  “Oh.” Chagrined, Jason looked back to the floor and picked up another wad of pink wrapping paper.

  “’Oh?’ Is that all you’ve got, Jason?” Amanda’s freckled face redden.

  Jason looked back up. Amanda was right, and he could see the anger beginning to build in her face.

  “I… I’m trying. You know that.”

  “Trying? You’re trying?” Amanda mocked. “You mean the extra fifteen or so minutes you spend with her a day? She needs more time with you. She needs to know you love her.”

  “Of course I,” Jason bellowed back, catching himself in mid-sentence, “love her. She knows that.” How could she question his love for Kallie? He loved her to no end.

  “Does she?” Amanda asked as she took a step back, not used to Jason raising his voice. “You’re always gone and when you are here you seem to be elsewhere. In your office checking on some cold case you’re never going to solve or God knows what else. She needs you. I need you,”

  “I know I tend to bring my work home.” Jason admitted, still pained by the accusation. “I know I need to spend more time with her, and you, but don’t those families deserve closure, justice? Don’t they deserve that too?”

  With her hands at her hips Amanda took a step closer through the trash as her expression eased.

  “Yes. Yes, they deserve closure. But Kallie deserves you. Do you not think that the one thing those families wish for the most is simply to have had more time with their loved one before they were taken away? To have simply been there with them more? They’ll never get that back… You’ll never get that back.”

  Jason turned away and wiped a single tear from his eye. How had he never thought of it like that? It had always been the victim’s family that deserved closure. They deserved for the culprit to be behind bars. He had to figure it out. But no, maybe the one thing they needed was the one thing he could never provide. The one thing he was missing out on.

  She’s right.

  His eyes still locked on a small doll, half its clothes missing, he tried to think of what to say. It was hard to accept, but he knew she was right. He would never get this time back with Kallie. He loved his little princess, and he wanted to be sure she knew it.

  “I, uh…” he struggled to find the words. “I have to work on that.”

  He took in a deep breath and let it out. Amanda maneuvered through the remaining debris, sneaking up behind him. She put her arms around his firm waist and laced her fingers together over the gentle rising and falling of his stomach. Her cheek rested against his back.

  “I know,” she said in his ear. “We’ll work on it together.”

  Even with her arms around him Jason felt distant. A large chasm seemed to separate him from her. She kissed his neck. Where was the shiver, that ecstasy he had once felt anytime she touched him? Dutifully Jason lifted a hand and blindly placed it on the side of her face, hoping for some connection. Nothing,

  Pulling away, Jason bent down to pick up more trash leaving Amanda standing behind him. He kept his eyes down. He knew he loved Kallie and he would do anything for her, but where was that desire for Amanda?

  Have I grown that distant?

  CHAPTER 6

  January 27 at 7:40 a.m. EST

  Norfolk, Virginia – FBI Norfolk Field Office

  Beams of sunlight filtered through the bare forestry and around the cloudy sky. Ethan welcomed the balmy rays that slivered through the trees and into the Tahoe. The warmth was refreshing, a contradiction to the freezing temperatures outside the SUV.

  Ethan was on his way to the office, still trying to shake the sleep from his eyes. Unlike the yellow Beemer that had blown by him a couple miles back, nearly clipping his front bumper, Ethan was in no hurry. He took the drive slow and cranked up the radio. His ears bathed in a hard-hitting guitar riff from a new number from one of his favorites, Five Finger Death Punch.

  His thoughts were stuck exactly one hundred and ninety-eight miles south in Raleigh, with Kate. After four years of dating, Ethan was finally ready to commit to a lifelong relationship. It had only taken him two years longer than Kate to get to that point. It was all he could do to resist turning around and heading for Raleigh right now. Yet, he was sure the federal government would not take kindly to a federal agent skipping town to propose to his dearly beloved.

  As the Tahoe drifted from forest covered state roads to the interstate, his thoughts shuffled between avoiding the idiots driving around him and Kate. Her deep brown eyes beckoning to him. The occasional fifty in a sixty-five mile per hour zone grandma. Kate’s soft cheeks and rosy lips. The teenage wannabe race car driver trying not to be late for school. Her long locks of soft hair in his hands. He wanted to be with her; he dreamt of feeling her lips against his.

  “Oh, hell,” Ethan snapped back to reality to the sound of a blaring horn. Lost in his daydreaming, the Tahoe had drifted into the neighboring lane. The tiny excuse for a sedan next to him was not esp
ecially happy about it. He made a quick course correction with the snap of his wrist and waved apologetically. In return he received a single, long, boney finger.

  Ethan looked away, keeping the irritation bottled up and forced a smile as the car sped in front of him. He refused to stoop to their level. Not today at least. Any other day, but not today.

  Ahead he took the off-ramp for exit 11B onto East Brambleton Avenue. The street brimmed with traffic. He hoped it moved quickly.

  A few minutes later he pulled into the parking lot of the FBI’s Norfolk Field Office and stepped out of the Tahoe. Using the SUV’s window he checked his reflection. He straightened his blue striped tie and pulled his long coat tighter around his chest. Satisfied, he made his way into the brick faced structure.

  Ethan continued down the hall, passing office after office until he reached an open door. The plaque next to the door post read Special Agent Grayson Whitaker and Special Agent Dante Mercer. He peeked in, finding Grayson sitting at his desk, coffee cup in hand and his sandy brown hair messy as usual. Dante sat by the opposite wall in about the same state, except the coffee.

  “Gray, Dante,” Ethan greeted them, startling Grayson.

  “Good morning Ethan,” Gray said, flashing a faint smile as he settled back down. His usual morning grogginess evident. A few cups of coffee would eventually fix that.

  “Morning, Ethan,” Dante echoed, pointing one large finger out toward Ethan in greeting. “Just as a reminder, nothing Gray said about me at the party last night was true.”

  Ethan chuckled at Dante. He was confident most of Gray’s stories were true. How either of them survived past the age of twenty-five always bewildered him.

  “I’m sure, Dante,” Ethan smirked at Gray and continued down the hall to his office

  Just a few steps down, he entered the office he shared with his lifelong friend and partner in the Bureau. Jason sat at his desk to the right engrossed in his computer screen as usual. Ethan was sure he had arrived at least twenty minutes early. He always did.

  “Good morning, Jason,” Ethan greeted him as he hung his coat by the door just beside a crowded brown tack board with pictures strewn across it. To anyone outside the Bureau it probably looked like a smorgasbord of random images. To Ethan it showed a coordinated effort at connecting the seemingly unconnected. Progress, or at least he liked to think of it that way.

  “Morning, Ethan,” Jason said without turning around. “Amanda wanted me to thank you for coming to Kallie’s party yesterday.”

  “Of course, it’s your little girl,” Ethan smiled, “That’s the closest I have to a kid right now. How could I miss that?”

  Jason grinned brightly. Ethan never understood his friend’s penchant for being so alert in the mornings. Ethan already wanted to unbutton the first few buttons on his white dress shirt and loosen his tie. He felt suffocated in the tight collar. Instead he gave the collar a tug and tried to ignore it.

  “So did she enjoy the party?” Ethan asked.

  “Yeah, I think she did. She definitely has more dolls than I think she knows what to do with,” Jason joked.

  Ethan laughed, “Well, kids are entitled to a little excess every now and then. I remember having way too many video games as a kid, or teenager, maybe both.”

  “That we did,” Jason agreed, his smile growing. “We had way too many games and much too much time to play them.”

  Laughing, Ethan swung his chair around to face his two LED monitors.

  “Yeah, of course now we have other things to deal with,” he said as he began his usual morning routine. Checking his e-mail for any new information or memos from Washington. Most of the messages were the usual. Spam, spam and more spam.

  After minutes of sifting through all the messages, only a few remained. A memo from their immediate superior, Agent Frank Summers, a beefy agent twelve years Ethan’s senior who had recently formed a balding crown of grey atop his head. A few leads from informants they were following. And an e-mail from Kate. He was about to open Kate’s e-mail when Jason startled him.

  “The judge just approved our warrants,” Jason blurted. It was still early and Ethan had to take a second to remember which case he was talking about. The Rivers case. A warrant for a wiretap they had requested yesterday on two possible suspect’s phone communications.

  “Great! I bet no one else in the building has gotten one of those lately,” Ethan joked, though he knew he was likely right. Matters of national security had taken a giant leap over the normal legal process the past several years.

  Jason smirked, but did not acknowledge the sarcasm. “You want me to head over to pick them up so we can get started?”

  “Definitely,” Ethan started. “Ah, hold up a second. I told you I was planning on proposing to Kate soon, right?”

  “You did.”

  “Well, I’m going to tonight.” Ethan’s grin spread from ear to ear.

  CHAPTER 7

  January 27 at 10:30 a.m. EST

  Raleigh, North Carolina – North Carolina State University

  “If there is one thing to take from this course, beyond a basic understanding of party systems and party structure, it should be that in politics winning elective office, while important, is not everything.”

  Kate paused for a moment, letting her students take in the unusual thought. She half expected someone to challenge the statement. Yet, no one said a word. Not even the short and feisty blond two desks back from the front, the leader of the campus Democrats.

  Kate fondled the heart pendant hanging low around her neck. Ethan had given it to her last Valentine’s Day; it had rarely left her neck since.

  Genuinely surprised by the lack of objection she continued. “Sometimes, as shown by the Liberty Party and others throughout American history, just competing can be enough to prompt policy reforms. Fundamentally, it boils down to the ability to compete and in so doing, to cause one of the major parties to fear they’ll lose votes because of a smaller party’s appeal."

  Kate paused briefly in case someone wanted to interject. Nothing.

  “Often we see that the major parties will then co-opt the issues of that smaller party to stay relevant. So in the end both sides win even if they don’t win office.”

  With that statement began the sound of students packing their belongings. As always, the sound started in the back of the room and rode like a wave, coming to a crescendo at the front. Kate glanced at the large round clock on the rear wall. She had five minutes left, but she saw no reason to press it.

  “Alright, be sure to get started on your first mini-project. They’ll be due two weeks from today,” she reminded the class as they began to pour out the back door into the hallway. “I’ll see you all this coming Monday.”

  Kate shutdown her Power Point and logged off the computer where her notes had been displayed. She packed up her remaining supplies along with the weekly homework assignment she had collected at the beginning of class.

  After a few goodbyes to students whose names she still had not memorized, she stepped out of the classroom. As expected, her colleague, Martha Pike, stood a few classrooms down the hall waiting for her. Kate waved back at her diminutive friend, admiring the long braided ponytail that hung down her back, accentuating her Ute heritage.

  “Good morning, Martha,” Kate said as she approached.

  “Morning, Kate,” Martha replied. Her v-shaped jawline and pale lips contrasted well with her taut dark skin. She brimmed with youth and beauty, but she would never say a gloating word about herself.

  “You ready to grab a bite?” Martha asked.

  “Sure, let’s get going,” Kate agreed.

  They passed a group of students and stopped to check traffic before crossing Hillsborough Street. Traffic in a college town could be trying at times. Crossing the tiny road was a hectic venture.

  As a break in the cars opened, they jogged across the two-lane road and stepped up onto the other curb. The sidewalk was lined with interconnected shops and restaurant
s bustling with the activity.

  “So how was class?” Martha asked as they walked.

  “Early, but good.” Kate responded giggling slightly, “It still surprises me how some of these students are so awake in the morning.”

  “Kate, you’re just not a morning person.” Martha assured her.

  “True.” Kate paused, “How did you manage not to get a class before eleven?”

  “Just lucky, I guess.”

  Kate smiled, stealing a glance at an image of a foot-long sub, piled high with meat and veggies. Then another advertising pizza by the slice. But they were headed to the organic coffee shop down the street. Martha was insistent on eating better, and prodding Kate to do the same.

  A block later, they entered the coffee shop. The length of the line always seemed much longer than Kate expected for an all-natural café.

  “How is Jake doing? How is school going for him?” Kate asked.

  “He’s doing better, but his math grades are still not where we want them to be.” Jake was Martha’s thirteen year old son. Martha had been worried about his academics the last couple years. The more complex the math grew, the lower his grades were.

  “Lisa is doing well, she is super excited about graduating high school in June,” Martha continued. “She got her acceptance letter from Gardner-Webb the other day. I still want her to come to State.”

  Finally they reached the counter. Martha ordered a bagel and dark coffee, Kate a mocha latte and, reluctantly, a croissant. They took a seat by a set of windows looking out onto Hillsborough Street and the university campus.

  “You would. That’s understandable. But you need to let her make her own decisions too, she’s growing up.” Kate said before realizing that she was treading on ground she knew nothing about.

  “I know. It’s harder though when it’s your kids,” Martha told her. Martha briefly looked down then back up at Kate, “With them growing up it almost makes me want another.”