Monster

by Bernard L. DeLeo

  “I can understand your feelings. We just can’t do it your way this time. If we can get them alive they could give us leads into who is controlling them and picking these missions.”

  “Maybe, if someone gets to ask them in the right manner.”

  “Ken told me about your neck scar. Where’d you get the face scar?” Reskova asked, avoiding the subject. “It looks like some kind of knife wound.”

  “Same thing - shrapnel,” McDaniels answered after a moment of silently reigning in his feelings about the kinder, gentler terror war. “I have a bunch of little matching ones under my shirt, compliments of a landmine in Gulf War I.”

  “It doesn’t help with your blending in. It’s not real visible until you get close though. It’s kind of kinky looking.”

  “Oh, thanks. How about you? Have any scars?”

  “Other than emotional? Yeah, I have a tattoo.”

  “You’re kidding?” McDaniels asked in disbelief. “No way!”

  “I was young and foolish,” Reskova explained with a sigh. “My Father told me only cheap whores and gangsters had tattoos so naturally I had to get one.”

  “What did he say when he found out?”

  “He was really mad at first but then he just smiled. He told me a day would come soon when I would look back on his advice longingly, wishing I had followed it. I kept my mouth shut, all the while thinking not in this lifetime. Boy, was I wrong.”

  “Okay, show me the tat,” McDaniels ordered.

  “Not in this lifetime, Mr. Mountain.”

  “You know you want to. Otherwise you wouldn’t have told me about it in the first place. Besides, you were trying to seduce me. I would have seen it anyway if I would have succumbed to your schoolgirl wiles.”

  McDaniels chuckled appreciatively as he heard a sharp intake of air and saw Reskova’s face redden.

  “I was just practicing my Russian,” Reskova argued. “I needed something besides encyclopedia facts to practice my conversational language skills on.”

  “Very commendable. Now, show me the tat. I’ll show you my scars.”

  “This is childish.”

  “I promise not to tell your Dad you showed it to me. Speaking of which, does anyone else know about it?”

  “Not in the FBI, at least not the ones without access to my medical records. It’s no big deal anyway.”

  “Good, then let’s see it,” McDaniels persisted. “I have a scar right next to my dick where a piece of that landmine almost had me singing soprano. I’ll even show you that one.”

  “You’re too willing. Besides, we need to get back to the very dangerous business at hand,” Reskova reasoned, cursing herself silently for wanting to see the scar he had just mentioned.

  “You wouldn’t let me deal actively with the business at hand so I’m trying to take my mind off it. Show me the tat.”

  Reskova glared at McDaniels’ grinning face and then stood up. She turned provocatively. Reskova reached around and unzipped her dress down to where the zipper ended just below her panty line. She pulled the top of her black thong down slightly, revealing a rainbow approximately the size of a silver dollar. Reskova spun around as she fastened her dress again.

  “There!” Reskova wondered at her actions as if observing the behavior of a stranger. “Your turn.”

  “A rainbow, huh? Wow, I can…”

  “You’re stalling.”

  “It’s only because it would not be a good time to show you the one I promised. Give me a few minutes to forget the rainbow.”

  Reskova laughed, realizing why McDaniels had hesitated. “Show me, Cold, or are you just a tease?”

  McDaniels shrugged, reaching down to unfasten his belt, waist button, and zipper. As he stood up, pulling down on the suit-pant waistband and boxer shorts, Reskova recoiled. Hands over mouth, eyes widened, Reskova looked from the area McDaniels had bared to McDaniels’ face comically.

  “I told you it would have been better to wait a few minutes.

  Reskova blushed but moved closer to McDaniels, tracing the fingers of her left hand lightly over the ugly jagged scar on McDaniels’ right groin area.

  “You’re not helping, Boss,” McDaniels informed her. “You didn’t let me touch the rainbow.”

  “Mother Mary,” Reskova said in a hushed tone, looking up into McDaniels’ eyes.

  “It’s ugly looking but it’s not that bad.”

  “I’m not talking about the scar.” Reskova gulped, still touching the scar.

  “I know but you’re getting into the realm of sexual harassment, Boss.”

  “Good Lord, Mr. Mountain.” Reskova returned her gaze to McDaniels’ eyes. She moved against him and put her arms around his neck. McDaniels kissed her with a tense welling desire. Reskova groaned, swaying tightly against McDaniels. He reached down and pulled her dress up. With one sharp tug he ripped her thong off. Reskova cried out as McDaniels picked her up gently and lowered Reskova’s body against him.

  * * *

  McDaniels stroked the area displaying Reskova’s rainbow tattoo with his fingertips. He kissed her back and flanks attentively, listening to her moan with each touch. After a few minutes of his ministrations Reskova turned to face McDaniels where he knelt next to her as she lay on the large flowered sofa.

  “Jesus, Cold,” Reskova whispered huskily, trailing her fingers over his face, looking downwards. “Not again.”

  McDaniels kissed her, pulling Reskova down into his lap. “You’ve ruined our working relationship already so we might as well go for broke.”

  Reskova laughed. “You brat. Can’t we just cuddle for a while?”

  “Sure, how’s this?” McDaniels shifted Reskova easily so she lay against his chest.

  “Hummmmm…” Reskova replied contentedly, running her hand over the scars on McDaniels’ chest. “You must be a real conversation piece at the beach.”

  “Yeah, I’m a real hit. Back to the subject: our working relationship.”

  “What about it?” Reskova caressed McDaniels’ ribcage. “I’ll still be your boss tomorrow morning. You’ll still be a psycho. What will be different?”

  McDaniels began describing in detail their intimate moments from the prior two hours as Reskova tried to seal his mouth with both of her hands.

  “Okay… that’s uncalled for.”

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you. I thought it might be a good idea to find out what you had in mind.”

  “I’m not upset. I just thought maybe we could enjoy the moment before we dissected it. Your dog watched the whole thing.” Reskova pointed at Dino, who lay contentedly under the computer desk.

  “He’s been asleep for over an hour. Dino was bored to tears.”

  “That makes one of us. As to your relationship question, how serious do you want to get?”

  “As serious as you allow me to get.” McDaniels ran his hand slowly through her hair.

  “I have no objection to getting to know you better. I…I don’t know what happened. When you showed me Hughes’ head, I thought you were a monster. The last few days with you under extremely stressful situations and I lost the monster image I had. I was attracted to you the moment you walked up in the parking lot with Dreyer.”

  “Really?”

  Reskova looked up at McDaniels. “Yep. How about you? Were you attracted to me?”

  “What’s not to be attracted to?” McDaniels answered with a question. “I love red hair and strong women. You handled yourself pretty well during the interrogation Kay and I put you through. I respect the way you do your job. I just don’t want something going on between us to cause a problem with how we handle our work together. It’s too important.”

  “Don’t worry about it, Cold. I’ll snap you into shape in the morning. It will be back to business as usual.”

  “In that case, I guess I better take care of a little business until then.”

  * * *

  Reskova woke abruptly, reaching over to touch McDaniels, only to find he had already left
the bed. The memory of their night together burned through her consciousness. Her hands trembled. She shivered, remembering his touch. She turned over onto her back, wishing he had stayed in bed with her. After seeing it was nearly five in the morning she put on her robe and walked out to the kitchen. McDaniels had already made coffee. Reskova poured herself a cup and then carried it with her to the room they had set up their listening post in. McDaniels sat at the desk with headphones on typing furiously. Reskova walked into the room. He was dressed in blue-jeans, white strapped tee-shirt, and tennis shoes. McDaniels stopped typing. He took off his headphones and sniffed the air comically. Dino lifted his head to look at Reskova with fleeting interest.

  “Oh Boss, you smell good,” McDaniels said, turning to face her.

  “I missed you.” Reskova set her coffee down. She brazenly straddled him, putting her arms around McDaniels’ neck, allowing her robe to fall open.

  “Jesus, Boss,” McDaniels whispered, stroking her back with a feathery touch. “What happened to snapping me back to business?”

  Reskova arched her back in delight at his touch, eyes closed and lips parted. “You’re a self… motivator… Mr. Mountain. I knew you wouldn’t… ah… need me to scream at you this morning.”

  An hour later, McDaniels sat on the sofa, coffee cup in hand. Reskova lay contentedly with her head in his lap.

  “What were you doing when I took role call this morning?”

  “Translating all the tapes recorded last night while we were playing house.” McDaniels set down his coffee cup on the table next to the couch. “I wanted to take my notes to the meeting this morning and compare them to Kay’s.”

  “Did I interrupt you too soon?”

  “Nope, I only have a little bit left. Will Kay be there this morning or will you have to call Tom back?”

  “They’ll all be there to go over details and bring you up to speed on what they’ve been able to uncover. You can fill me in when you get back. I’ll play the lovely housewife today.”

  “And be damn convincing too.”

  “You were right again.” Reskova pulled her robe tighter.

  “About what, Boss?”

  “This morning when I woke up, I forgot what we were even here for. You obviously remembered, jumping up before dawn to get right to work. Anyway, I should have…”

  “Hey…” McDaniels cut her off, pulling Reskova up next to him. “It took all my will power when I woke up with you against me to get up and do what I was supposed to do.”

  “Really?” Reskova leaned into McDaniels.

  “Hell yeah. We’ll have to cool it though until we round up these assholes.”

  “I don’t know if I can cool it,” Reskova admitted, stoking McDaniels’ chest. “I can’t think of anything but being with you.”

  “Boss, if you keep talking like that, you’re going to cause me to run across the street with a few grenades and erase our present mission,” McDaniels replied, only half joking.

  “Like I said, you were right.”

  “Okay, I was right. Now, what do we do about it?”

  “Let me stew about that problem today while you’re gone.” Reskova stood up reluctantly.

  “You won’t treat me like a stranger when I get back, will you?”

  “Not a chance. I don’t know where we’re going with this relationship but I’m willing to find out.”

  McDaniels pushed up from the couch, towering over Reskova. He cupped her face with his huge hands and kissed her on the forehead. “Good, that’s fair enough. I better go get ready.”

  “I’ll take a shower with you,” Reskova offered, putting an arm around his waist.

  “I don’t think so, Boss.” McDaniels pushed her aside. “I’ll never get ready that way.”

  “I guess you’re right again.”

  “By the way, thanks for the wake up call this morning.” McDaniels walked toward the bathroom making loud snoring sounds.

  “You no good, rotten…” Reskova said under her breath, smiling.

  Chapter 14

  Playacting

  McDaniels walked into the small conference room, having followed Reskova’s detailed directions to the building set up for his business meeting cover. Barrington, Rutledge, and Rasheed all looked up from where they sat with their portable laptops. Rasheed gave his old friend a little wave. Rutledge gestured at the chair opposite her with a welcoming smile.

  “Sit down, Colonel. I’ll upload all our data into your laptop,” Rutledge said, as McDaniels put his briefcase on the table and extracted his portable computer.

  “Good morning, Colonel,” Barrington said, shaking McDaniels’ hand in greeting as McDaniels sat down next to him. “We have a pool going concerning what time you nailed Diane.”

  “A what?” McDaniels radiated confusion with professional skill. He took the serial port cord offered by Rutledge and plugged it into his own computer.

  “Oh, he’s good, Tom. That’s an award winning look of consternation. Isn’t it Kay?”

  “Do not bring me into this game, Agent Rutledge,” Rasheed said, moving his chair a little further away from Rutledge’s. He looked over at McDaniels, who glanced around with knitted brows. “I am not a part of this, my friend.”

  “A part of what?” McDaniels asked, booting up his computer. “I have no idea what you all are talking about.”

  “I bet you left her with a big contented smile on her face.”

  Rutledge laughed at her partner’s exaggerated imitation of what Barrington thought mimicked Reskova’s look.

  “I thought we were here to catch up on putting a bunch of murdering swine where they belong,” McDaniels said, with some irritation in his voice. “Now, what’s this all about?”

  “That’s five bucks you owe me.” Rutledge pointed at Barrington with some satisfaction. “I told you he’d do the outraged look next. Perfectly done too, I might add.”

  “Damn, Colonel, you’re costing me money. C’mon, give us the time frame and we’ll get right to work. This could mean fifty bucks to me.”

  “Okay.” McDaniels folded his hands on the table in front of him as Rutledge uploaded data into his computer. “Let’s start at the beginning. Pretend like I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about and explain it to me.”

  “Hey, maybe he didn’t, Jen.” Barrington looked over at his partner uneasily as he sat up with a more solemn expression. “Sorry, Colonel, we were just having a little fun and it appears we may have overstepped ourselves.”

  “That is what I told you,” Rasheed inserted.

  “Nope,” Rutledge said with surety, looking directly at McDaniels. “He did the deed. I can tell but I think he’s going to play it out. I know you slept with Diane, Cold. Don’t bother denying it.”

  “That’s what this is all about?” McDaniels asked incredulously. “You have an office pool as to when I seduced our boss? Man, you two are nuts. I’m glad you weren’t in on this goofy speculation, Kay.”

  “I know better than to make such intrusive comments,” Rasheed replied, looking at Barrington and Rutledge reproachfully.

  “Why you…” Rutledge gasped as Barrington laughed. “You were the one who suggested it, Kay.”

  “Kay?” McDaniels looked at his friend accusingly. “Is that true?”

  “Well, I may have inquired as to what you and the Boss were doing while keeping an eye on the Mercado house. These two have corrupted me with their suspicions.”

  “I see,” McDaniels acknowledged, shaking his head in disbelief. “Here’s how the day and evening went. The Boss and I watched the Mercado house even though we knew there were two other teams checking on Terrorist movements. We took the dog around the block, doing a walk by to see if Dino picked up any scent from the house. We talked Russian so as to set up our cover. All but one of the people inside bought it. The one who didn’t will probably come over today to test the Boss. Agent Reskova and I worked on her conversational Russian, which improved greatly. I spent much of the day and night
listening and translating conversations they had. I’m going to upload my translation file for my once good friend here to compare with his own. Any questions?”

  “Sorry,” Barrington repeated his apology.

  “I am sorry to have instigated these uncalled for insinuations as to your professional relationship with the Boss, my friend. I am very ashamed.” Rasheed grinned, not looking the least bit ashamed.

  “I’m not sorry,” Rutledge countered. “I knew the moment you walked in the room here you cleaned Diane’s clock. I have a sixth sense about matters of the heart. I’ll let you off the hook though for now. Go ahead and upload your file.”

  Maintaining his look of annoyance, McDaniels uploaded his translation file. He next looked over Rasheed’s translations and the new information on the suspected terrorists.

  “Our translations are pretty close, Kay. Your note here on the one who called us into question is pretty harsh.”

  “She does not believe your cover at all.” Rasheed confirmed with conviction. “I can tell there is more than suspicion in her voice. The Boss will have to be very convincing to change her mind.”

  “These people have been very careful in their discussions. I believe they may suspect someone is listening.” McDaniels skimmed over the rest of the material. “I see you’ve found out most of these people’s identities. Jesus, we ought to just blow up the house. They’ve been into a little of everything.”

  “We need these folks alive, Colonel,” Barrington told him. “This investigation will hinge on leads we turn up from them.”

  “So I’ve been told - just so a bunch of kids don’t have to die while we’re protecting these assholes’ lives. Let’s go through these guys one by one. Then I’ll get back and see how the Boss did with our Chechen neighbor’s curiosity. Did anyone follow me over here?”

  “Yep,” Rutledge replied. “As soon as you took off around the block, one of them followed you in a gray Honda Accord.”

  “They must be good. I didn’t spot them and I was looking.”

  “I think you grew a bug on your SUV. They stayed well back of you, further back then they should have been able to maintain.”