The Phoenix Agenda: A Thriller (A Rossler Foundation Mystery Book 6)

by JC Ryan

  Sam’s hopes came right back when they sat down at the table under the pergola for breakfast, and three hummingbirds soon hovered over the table. Susan had covered the cloth with a few paper towels in preparation for another accident like yesterday. But the birds all behaved themselves very well. Soon there were a few more of them around the table trying to get their beaks into the cups and sugar bowl.

  Sam laughed as he said to Susan, “Look at this little bugger, he has his beak right into my coffee! I bet the caffeine is going to keep him awake the rest of the day.” Both Susan and Sam knew that one had dropped something in his coffee. They were astounded that it was impossible to tell the difference between the real and fake birds, although they knew there were fake ones among them.

  Sam carried the breakfast tray to the kitchen, and while loading the dishwasher, he slipped two metal capsules, one out of each coffee cup, into his shirt pocket. His hopes were sky-high again as he looked at Susan who was watching him with a smile on her face. “You are very domesticated, for a man who was a bachelor until recently.”

  Sam turned around and gave her a hug while he whispered in her ear. “Two capsules,” and then so the audience could hear, “I guess I’m still afraid of my mother, who always insisted I clean up what I’ve used.”

  The first message read “get a bird feeder,” and on the flip side it read, “I am the old lady,” with a tiny smiley face in the corner. They had a hard time not laughing aloud when they read that. The second message read, “No tunnel - will get you out,” and on the other side, “will send in earphones soon.”

  Susan immediately spoke to one of the guards to see if it would be a problem to get her a hummingbird feeder and extra sugar to make some nectar for it. “No problem, Mrs. Lewis. I’ll get it for you tomorrow morning when I go shopping,” he replied. The guards always treated them with respect, which was one thing, despite their circumstances, they both appreciated.

  Susan was so excited she could barely keep her voice down as they walked into the park that afternoon. Both she and Sam had to use all their willpower not to rush up to the two people on the bench. “Sam, how on earth did they manage to do that? This is like a spy movie! I just can’t believe what’s happening! It’s as if they can hear every word we say. Is that even possible? They really are here to get us out.”

  “I told you there’s a lot you have to learn about the spy business. But then, I have to be honest and admit that I’ve also learned a few new things in the last few days,” Sam replied.

  Susan peppered him with questions, and Sam had a hard time to get her to keep her voice down and act normal. He’d just remembered about the spyflies Roy had constructed and used to catch the Sword of Cyrus conspirators just in time to avoid the disaster they were planning. He explained to her that possibly Luke was using those spyflies now inside and outside the house, and somehow when they are out here on their walks. That might explain why the young man and girl who always accompanied the old woman were always busy typing on their cell phones when they saw them.

  When Sam thought he had figured out how Luke could know what they were saying to each other, he told Susan he was going to test his theory. “Luke, I think you can hear me. If that’s the case, hold your walking stick in your left hand when we walk past you on our way home.”

  When they walked past the bench on their way home, the old lady had the walking stick in her left hand, and the young man beside her winked at Susan when he caught her eye.

  When they got home after their morning walk, the hummingbird feeder was waiting for them with the groceries they ordered. The two of them were like children with new toys, but for an entirely different reason than the guards thought while watching them on the monitors.

  Light a cracker under your brother’s bottom

  Soon after Luke left on the Boise mission, Daniel gathered JR, Mark, Doug and Aaron and explained to them the urgent requirement to locate etorphine. The four of them required no encouragement. They were too happy to get involved in something a bit more adventurous than life in the caves. Daniel told them there was a good chance that one of the Yellowstone ranger offices could have etorphine that they would use to sedate animals such as wolves, bears, mountain lions and others. Mark was placed in charge of the group and asked to work out a plan to be presented to the Steering Committee.

  A few days later, the quartet of excited adventurists returned with their plan. There were two likely park offices within a reasonable distance from the Rabbit Hole, one a ranger station and the other Park Headquarters. Two groups of two would venture forth to visit them armed with spyflies and zingers to see if they could find a place that held etorphine and what the security conditions were. They would then come back and finalize their plans before going in to obtain the drugs.

  Since the almost calamitous 9th Cycle expedition when they thought JR and many others were dead, Daniel was ever vigilant when his younger siblings were involved in dangerous situations, and he cross-examined them like a trial lawyer. “What will you do if you encounter bears or wolves? What are your plans to avoid contact with other people? How much food will you take with you? Do you know how to operate the spyflies and hummingbirds? Do you even know what etorphine looks like?”

  They had their answers ready, and in answer to the last question Mark produced a few pictures of what etorphine, or M99 as it was labeled in the USA, looked like. After a few more minutes of intensive questioning, Daniel was happy that if he left his two brothers in the care of Mark and Doug they should be reasonably safe. The next few days they had rainy weather, but when the bad weather cleared they were ready to go - Mark and JR in one team to the west, while Doug and Aaron headed south.

  The cave-dwellers were all gathered in the big hall at the exit of the cave to wish them well. Rebecca noticed her older sister, Cindi, helping Aaron with a last minute check of his backpack. She could see they were talking and smiling, but could not hear what was said. She didn’t miss the winks they gave each other or the sparkle in her sister’s eyes when she smiled and said goodbye to Aaron. He turned, shook Daniel’s hand, and walked out. Rebecca hadn’t seen that sparkle in a long time. She wondered if Aaron or anyone else noticed it.

  Outside the caves, the teams launched the zinger hummingbirds and would keep them in the air about five hundred feet above them. That would warn them of other people or dangerous animals, and they would help find the best routes all the way to their target destinations and back.

  As the group at the cave turned back to their tasks, Rebecca could not control her curiosity any longer as she got hold of Cindi and dragged her to the side. “Sis, tell me about it!”

  Cindi had no clue what Rebecca was talking about, “Tell you about what?”

  “That sparkle I saw in your eyes when you spoke to Aaron earlier,” she said very excitedly.

  “Oh my God, Becky. Was it that obvious?” a worried Cindi asked.

  “To me it was, but then I’m your sister. I haven’t seen that sparkle for way too long. I thought you’d lost it, sis.” Rebecca said.

  “Becky, I like him very much. I’m happy and excited when he’s around, but I don’t have a clue about how he feels. I'm not going to tell him or ask him,” Cindi said as her cheeks reddened.

  “Don’t worry about that, sis. I have firsthand experience with the Rossler boys. You must remember they grew up in an all-boys house with no sisters around to teach them about us. They're a bit clumsy with women. That was from my own experience with JR, and Sarah has told me it was the same with Daniel. They’re slow movers, but I can tell you, once they get into action there’s no stopping them.” Rebecca laughed.

  “Tell you, Becky, if I can figure out how to get him into action, I’m not the one who’ll be stopping him. I've been on my own for way too long.” Cindi, now sporting a full blush on her face and neck, laughed.

  Rebecca decided to have a quiet word with Sarah at the first opportunity. She would have to see if Daniel could find out how Aaron felt, or what had
to be done to kick some life into him. The two sisters would have leaped over the moon, had they known what Aaron said to his oldest brother when they shook hands earlier.

  Mark and JR had a shock on the second day of their trek when they were not keeping a close eye on their hummingbird’s monitor. It was a close encounter of the bear kind. They almost walked straight into a grizzly with cubs, which is not recommended as bear mothers are very aggressive around their cubs. The two of them followed every protocol in the book as they stood close together, looked straight at the bear and slowly, but very surely, retreated the way they came, walking backwards. Once they reached safety, the two of them were all bravado again trying to prove who was the braver of the two.

  Doug and Aaron’s trek was not as eventful as the others’ were. They reached their destination first and quickly deployed the spyflies. They found a safe hiding place and lay quiet for the rest of the day while they maneuvered the flies around the park rangers’ buildings.

  It took them about three hours to find what they were looking for – the animal research facility. An hour later they had located the room where the M99 could be kept, but they could not get spyflies in - the door was closed, and soon after the offices closed. They fine-combed the rest of the office complex to get information about the alarm system, locks and computers before they retreated into the forest to a safe place where they would camp overnight. They would return for more observation early the next morning.

  Mark and JR reached their target and found that it was just an information office with only a few administrative staff in attendance. Their spyflies quickly showed them there was no chance of finding the M99 there, after which they returned to the Rabbit Hole.

  Doug and Aaron returned to the office complex very early the next morning to make sure they had the spyflies in position as the staff arrived. They were determined to capture the access codes for entry into the building and deactivation of the alarm. Shortly after the first employee arrived, one of the Rangers turned up and went through to his office, where they saw a glass-door cabinet with veterinary pharmaceuticals. They carefully maneuvered the flies over to the cabinet and recorded the labels on each of the bottles and packets inside. To their great disappointment, they could not find anything with an M99 tag.

  At about midday they started the return trip to the Rabbit Hole. When they arrived back home, the sad-faced Mark and JR were there already.

  While the four men were out on their assignments, Rebecca had found an opportunity to have a chat with Sarah about Cindi and Aaron. Sarah, the eternal matchmaker, with the matches between Sinclair and Martha, JR and Rebecca, and a few others to her credit was onto it immediately. Rebecca knew she would have an answer back in no time.

  “Daniel, what is it with the Rossler boys and women? Why do you take forever to tell a girl that you like, how you feel about her?” she asked later.

  Daniel was on alert immediately. “Maybe it’s because we have been raised always to think and consider things before we act and to be modest at all times. Why are you asking? Are you thinking about my clumsiness around you when we were dating?” Daniel replied, knowing that his wife was up to something.

  “Yes, that came to mind. I would have thought that your younger brothers would have learned from your experience and would do better, but then JR arrived, and he was much worse than you. In the process he almost missed Rebecca.”

  Daniel sensed he would soon know what the real purpose of this conversation was.

  Sarah continued, “Now, if it wasn’t enough that the two of you were so inept, along comes Aaron, and he’s just as bad, if not worse, than the two of you.”

  Daniel got it; Sarah was up to her matchmaking antics again, and he knew exactly what she was talking about. He had the advantage of knowing what Aaron said to him before he and Doug left. Even so, he was not going to tell Sarah about it yet – he was going to make her work for it.

  He kept a straight face. “Sarah, my dear, you’ve lost me. Have I missed something I was supposed to know?”

  “Daniel, don’t tell me you haven’t noticed the look in your brother’s eyes?” Daniel frowned and shook his head. “I’m talking about that far-away look, you know?” Daniel, still frowning and shaking his head, was struggling to keep his composure.

  “You know, it’s like you said; the Rossler boys are a weird bunch. I don’t know anything about far-away looks and stuff like that. Did I have a look like that back in the day? That far-away look you’re talking about? What does it look like – can you show me?” Daniel asked, knowing he was going to crack up in another second or two.

  “Daniel Rossler, I know … ” was as far as she got before Daniel threw in the towel and surrendered to the urge to laugh out loud.

  “Sarah my love, I know all about that, and I know about Aaron and Cindi. I guess it’s Rebecca who put you up to this, right?”

  Sarah was smiling while she nodded her head. “Yes, Rebecca and I had a talk this morning,” Sarah admitted with a half-guilty shrug.

  “Okay, I won’t torture you anymore. I’ll tell you what I know. When Aaron left, he said to me, 'Please take care of my girl while I’m gone.' He didn’t say who the girl was, but I’ve seen him and Cindi together often, and I’ve been wondering.”

  Sarah responded immediately, “Now, you see! That’s what I mean about you Rossler boys! Cindi is getting older, and time is a girl’s worst enemy if she wants a family. And your brother is too shy to tell her he likes her?”

  “But does she like him?” Daniel wanted to know.

  “Of course she does! Do you think she’d be spending so much time with him if she didn’t? And have you not seen the look on her face when she’s with Aaron?” Sarah questioned.

  “Sarah, you know I only have eyes for you. I’m not studying the looks on other women’s faces, and even if I did, I wouldn’t know what it meant!” Daniel quipped.

  “Okay, now you know what that look means, and what you have to do is to light a firecracker under your brother’s bottom. There's a beautiful girl waiting to hear from him.” Sarah concluded the discussion with a big smile.

  Robin bronze green

  The hummingbirds, real and fake, just loved the feeder on the breakfast table. Soon the guards could hear Susan’s ecstatic laughs as she enticed one of the birds to come and investigate what she had in her fist. Not long after that, Sam managed to perform the same magic. It was difficult to tell who enjoyed the game the most, the birds or the humans. The humans almost forgot to eat their breakfast.

  When they went back to the kitchen they had collected four capsules. They took turns to go to the bathroom to read the messages, and then waited for their afternoon walk.

  When they entered the park, they immediately noticed the bench was empty. They had nearly invisible tiny earphones in their ears, sent to them in the same way as he got the paper messages there – via capsules concealed in ‘hummingbird poop’, and microphones hidden in parts of their clothes closest to their mouths. They looked at each other briefly when they saw the empty bench and wondered if something could have happened to prevent Luke and his companion being there. That was until the moment they both almost screamed in shock when a voice that sounded as if it originated somewhere in their heads said, “Hello there, love birds.” Their hearts raced. They finally had contact with Luke. The voice said, “Let’s just check a few things, Robin.”

  Sam placed his finger on his lips to show Susan to be quiet while he silently counted, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five before replying, “Bronze.” He then counted another five seconds as before and said, “Green.”

  “Sam, my friend, what a relief to be able to finally talk to you.” Luke’s voice was loud and clear over the earphones. “Can I take it that the beauty queen by your side is the same Susan you’ve been telling me about for forty years?”

  Sam laughed as he saw Susan blushing, “She can hear you, you idiot! Yes, the one and only,” Sam said with pride in his voic
e.

  “Please to meet you, Susan, I heard a lot about you, and Sam did not do you half the justice you deserve.”

  “Thank you, Luke,” Susan said. “The pleasure is mine. I heard a lot about you, too, but I have the impression you already know what Sam told me about you, thanks to those spyflies.”

  “Susan, let me just warn you, don’t believe everything that old coot tells you,” Luke laughed.

  “So my friends, from my eavesdropping on you two in the last few days, I've got the impression you’re contemplating a change of venue?” Luke wisecracked.

  Sam replied, “You can bet your ass on that. I've had a gutful of this shit.”

  “Sam, your language!” Susan reprimanded him.

  Luke couldn’t help but smile at Susan’s reaction to Sam’s language, “In that case I have got a job offer for you, Sam.”

  Sam knew his friend and his sense of humor well enough after all these years, “What’s the pay, working hours and conditions?”

  “No salary, free board and lodging, no set working hours, no traveling, but excellent working conditions. Your residence will be in a place three hundred yards from where the trout are standing at attention to take a hook on command,” Luke replied.

  “Done. I’ll take it,” Sam said without hesitation.

  Luke explained to them that they'd figured out all they needed to know about the guards and their routine. He described the four stages of the plan and that they were ready to start preparing for stage four – their evacuation.

  Luke said, “One more question. Have either of you been implanted with a microchip?”

  “Oh my God, no!” Sam said. “Are you telling me those sons of bitches are implanting people with microchips?”

  “Yes, my friend, that’s exactly what is happening. Our guesstimates are many millions have already been inserted, and billions more will follow. That’s how they will eventually have total control over every living soul on this planet.”