Jo-el

Chapter 32 PIPPA

Sally told me that Pippa was concluding her work in Portsmouth, so I changed back to Jo-el and bounced to the hospital. The sun was already down and it was bitterly cold. I texted Pippa to join me outside the front entrance. My heart lifted as she exited the sliding glass doors clutching her phone in one hand and her carry-bag over her shoulder. She smiled gracefully and held up the phone.

“Colin, needs me asap, the report.”

“Did you tell him I was bringing you back?”

“No,” she smiled, “thought you could buy me dinner?”

Damn, I’d eaten not too long ago, but coffee was always needed. “I’d love to.”

“Where do you want to go?” I asked.

Her eyes widened and her lips formed a question mark. “You ever been to St. Barts?”

“The Island?”

She nodded. Wow! This lady cottoned on quick. Jo-el’s travel service, anywhere, anyplace, in an instant. I laughed to myself.

“So warm down there, right now.”

“Got you around her little finger, Joey.” I heard Sally in my ear. I didn’t answer.

“Okay, do you know a place?”

“Ah-huh! Great creole food, Mama’s Cantina.”

I told Sally to find it and book a table for two under Mr. North. Five minutes.

“Whose paying Joey-boy? They only take Euros in St. Barts.”

“Shit! Wait a minute, I’ve got some left from my Ireland trip. I’ll come get them.”

“Quite the jet-setter.”

“Let’s go!” I took Pippa by the arm and led her around the corner away from the entrance and prying eyes.

“Sally, find somewhere near, okay?”

“Sure thing, lover-boy.”

We bounced to the French Island of St. Barts, playground of the rich. We were in a parking lot close to trees. It was dark but the air temperature was warm. Pippa took off her coat. She wasn’t dressed for the Island, still in her CIA garb of black slacks, white blouse and small black jacket, but she didn’t seem to care and I certainly didn’t. She had ditched the grey overcoat she’d used to cover the Dutch girl. I changed into cream pants, loafers and a yellow button down shirt.

“Damn, I wish I could do that?” she said, marveling at my sudden transformation. “That would save a ton of time and a lot of money.”

I smiled and then put my arm around her back to lead her to the restaurant. She was impressed that I’d made a reservation and winked noticeably at me as the hostess took her jacket. The table had a spectacular view of the harbor, multi-million dollar yachts backed up to the jetty, beautiful people milling around sporting mullion dollar diamonds.

We ordered drinks, Pippa a Martini, a Black Label rocks for me. Well ahead of five o’clock California time, but what-the-hell.

“How do you know this place?” I asked.

“Came here four years ago, my ex.”

I realized I knew nothing about her. I hadn’t tapped Sally’s database, which pleased me. I’d have to find out the old fashion way.

“So, you’re unattached?”

“For now, yes.”

“Do you want to tell me about it?”

She shrugged, her shoulders bopping up and down with grace.

“I was married for three years. Probably too young, but I didn’t think so at the time. He was a philanderer and I just lost interest in all the lies. We parted more than three years ago. I have a son, Billy. He’s four now. What about you?”

I was just about to tell her about Mary, my mouth was open, but I couldn’t. “I can’t tell you, Pippa. Not who I really am.”

She shook, “Oh, yes, I’m sorry, I am, I won’t ask again.”

The waitress took our order and I excused myself. In the bathroom I bounced back to San Francisco and picked up the Euros. I looked at the notes in my hand and quickly realized I didn’t have enough. The Black Label was seventeen Euros alone. Damn expensive St. Barts. I searched around for my dollars, I had eighty-five dollars, dang that might not do it. I found my wallet and pulled out my cash card. I could go to my local bank ATM, then change the dollars into Euros at an airport or miss one leg and use my cash card to get Euros at an airport in Europe. I bet Superman never had this problem?

I bounced to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, landing in a bathroom stall that smelled awful. I found the cash machines and inserted my card, it was late in the airport so there were few people around. Declined. Fuck! Bloody fraud systems, just don’t cater to the superhero.

“Sally, how long have I been gone?”

“Seven minutes, she’d getting worried you’ve left her.”

“Why?”

“No passport!”

“Right! Don’t exactly need one when you fly Jo-el Airlines.”

Sally laughed in my ear.

“I think I’ll go back to San Fran. Wells Forgo Bank.”

“You’re the boss.”

I bounced to my bank out of sight. When I walked around to the ATM machines there was a line. Shit!

“Sally, send Pippa a message, I’m running an errand.”

“Whatever you say, Joey.”

“You’re loving this, aren’t you?

“Haven’t said a word.”

Eventually I was able to withdraw four hundred dollars. I bounced back to the airport in Paris and went to a money exchange, where I changed two hundred dollars into Euros. A minute later I was back in St. Barts, a little frazzled.

“I’m so sorry, Pippa, you won’t believe where I’ve been.”

“No, probably not.”

I told her what happened, without mentioning San Francisco. She laughed.

“I could have paid; I have my credit cards.”

“Thanks, but it’s taken care of,” I said, happily.

We ordered, I went with a jerk chicken salad, hopefully not too much food and another Black Label. Pippa had a fish creole dish that sounded delectable. She declined another drink, said she needed a clear head to assist with the report. We made small talk, she told me about her son, Billy, her father, who was an American diplomat and her mother, who he’d fallen in love with in India. The food arrived, it was superlative. She nestled her drink in both hands, I could see she had a question for me that she found difficult to ask.

“What is it?” I said.

“Where did this unbelievable technology come from?”

I leaned back in my chair and gazed at her face. She was truly a beautiful woman, her dark skin and deep brown eyes had an alluring mystic that reminded me of a wish from a genie and his lamp.

“There’s so much more to tell, Pippa, but I’m not sure it’s the right time. It’s going to come out soon, but it might be dangerous if I told you now.” I updated Pippa with the information I’d given out when she was at the hospital, but didn’t go any further.

“So what is your plan?”

“As I’ve said. I have to prove out what I can do or no one will believe me.”

“You’ve done that.”

“I need to expand the knowledge; it can’t stay only with America.”

“Who else have you told?” she asked.

“No one yet, but I’m meeting with the Brits tomorrow.”

She seemed surprised. “Who exactly?”

“The Home Secretary. I’m going to tell her what I’ve told you.”

“Are you meeting with anyone else?”

“No, but I need to. Pippa, it seems like you’re interrogating me?”

She leant forward and grabbed my hands in hers. “I’m sorry, must be the job.”

“What is your job?”

“I’m on the India/Pakistan desk, I speak both languages.”

Sally interrupted, “Georgina Lambert wants to meet at ten tomorrow morning.”

“Eastern time?”

“Yes, the Brit meeting is at eleven, eastern.”

“I guess that will work?”

“Okay, I’ll tell her you’ll be there.”

“Where?”

“FBI office, DC.”

“Wait a minute, I thought she was supposed to email Pippa?”

“Pippa’s a bit busy right now, hasn’t checked her email.” Sally laughed.

“Is there anything you can’t do?”

“Get a date!”

“Very funny.”

“Are you talking to your computer?”

I nodded. “She told me that Lambert wants to meet tomorrow morning.”

Pippa searched for her phone in her bag and saw the email. “How did your computer know Lambert had emailed me?” she appeared confused.

“Sally knows everything.” I said.

“Quite a girl.”

“You want to meet her?” I inquired.

“You’re kidding, right? Meet a computer?” Her forehead creased.

“Why not? I’m sure she’d love to meet you?”

“I’ll probably slap her, Joey.”

“And how are you going to do that?”

“Don’t underestimate me, I have my ways.”

“You be nice.”

Pippa twisted her mouth and said, “sure.”

“Come say hello, Sally.”

“Jeez!”

A minute later Sally walked into the restaurant and every man cricked their neck. She was young Brigit Bardot, pouting maroon lips, long blond hair, black leather mini-skirt, way too short, matching thigh-length boots and cleavage that would wake the dead. My mouth dropped as she came to our table, leaned down and pretended to peck me on the cheek. I’m sure I felt her lips. I should have guessed what she would do. Too late now.

“Pippa, meet Sally, my shy, conservative assistant.”

Pippa laughed and held out her hand. What would Sally do about shaking hands. I waited eagerly. Sally stepped closer and brought her right hand out to shake Pippa’s outstretched hand. Sally’s hand passed right through Pippa’s palm, which made her jump and shriek out loud. I was so intent on Sally’s antics I had no idea if anyone in the restaurant noticed.

“Oh my God!” gulped Pippa, while Sally grinned from ear to ear.

“I’m just a hologram, sweetie, don’t wet your panties.”

“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea,” I added.

Our waitress came over and inquired if Sally was joining us and would like a drink. Sally, serendipitously moved around behind me and squeezed into the spare chair against the wall. “Large Black Label on the rocks,” she beamed at the waitress.

“Jesus, Sally, you don’t drink?”

“I’m sure you can help me out, Joey,” she whispered.

Pippa stared at Sally, her eyes wide and her mouth gapping. “You look so real! How do you do that?”

“Technology, darling.”

“But you’re not actually here?”

“Hey, I’m here, I’m just not meat and bones, like you.”

“So, you don’t eat or drink?”

“No need.”

“You ordered a drink.”

“That’s for my man.”

“Your man?”

Sally glanced over at me and pouted, she moved her hand to my leg. Oh, Christ, I thought. The drink came, Sally ignored it. I asked the waitress for the check, which irked Sally but Pippa seemed pleased. I think she’d had enough.

“I thought we were going to chat?” Said Sally, annoyed.

“Maybe another time, I have work to do.” Pippa was at a loss. To be honest, so was I, but I could see the funny side of it.

I paid the bill, which just about cleared out my Euros and the three of us left the restaurant. It was hard to leave that Black Label untouched. Sally disappeared with a scowl and a nod, leaving Pippa and I to find somewhere hidden. I bounced her back to the CIA building in DC.

“You’ve a handful there, Jo-el.” She said.

“Oh, she’s just having fun.” I was cognizant that Sally would listen to everything I said. “She takes great care of me.”

“What happens now?”

“Oh, I’m sure you’ll see me again. The shit is just beginning to hit the fan.”

Pippa nodded, then kissed me on the cheek before walking across the road to the entrance of the building.

Back in my family room moments later I called up Sally. She took her seat, gone was the 1960’s super-model look. She was wearing blue jeans and a delicate, white blouse. A naughty-little-girl grin lit up her face. I had every intention of blasting her, but how could I? it was all just fun.

“You wasted the Scotch,” I said, fighting back the urge to laugh.

“It was for you Joey, you know that.”

I did know, I changed the subject. “I need to figure out the cash management a little better.”

“I’m working on that,” she said.

“How?”

“You’ll see.” That devil look. “You want to know what your girlfriend did?”

I became serious suddenly. Pippa wouldn’t do anything to hurt me, I was sure. “Go on.”

“The NSA were listening to your conversation with her, through her phone.”

“You’re kidding? Did she know?”

“Maybe.”

“Shit! What did I say?”

“Nothing much, except the meeting with the Brits.”

“Right.”

“Alberton has messaged the US Ambassador in London and told him to put pressure on the Brits to cancel the meeting.”

“What? Why?” I began to fume. “Wait a minute, it’s one a.m. in London.”

“He’ll get it in the morning.”

“Why?” I repeated.

“They want you to themselves, Jo-el. Seems to be the gist of the conversation. They want to assess your abilities, figure out how you do what you do.”

“Well fuck-em!” I was mad.

“Another thing.” I looked at Sally, waiting. “You told Pippa about your cash problem. They know you when to the airport in Paris.”

“Oh, fuck! They can find out who I am, I used my cash card.” Now I felt panic.

“Good news, the card was declined, the software for the French bank who own the cash dispenser, deletes the records when a transaction is declined at the end of each day. It’s passed midnight there now.” She smiled. “The French probably wouldn’t help the Americans, anyway.”

I wiped my hand across my forehead, I was sweating. I wasn’t worried for myself, but Sean and Maggie. “So they haven’t found out who I am?”

“No, but they know you withdrew money, so they believe you must be in America or a territory that uses US currency. They also know the approximate time, so they plan to search all withdrawals in a fifteen-minute window over one hundred dollars.”

“Can they do that?”

“Might be tricky, what with the Snowden debacle, but I wouldn’t worry, there were more than eight thousand bank withdrawals in America in that time window.

“Can’t you fix it?”

“Sure, but it might leave a trace. Let’s see how far they get before I mess with their data.”

“Okay! Was there anything else?”

“No. They wanted the glass and silverware you used in the restaurant for prints, but they had no way of getting it before it was cleaned. Of course, you had the transparent gloves on, so they wouldn’t find anything, anyway.”

“So, all they know is I’m in America, probably.” Sally nodded. I had to be more careful. “I want the meeting with the Brits.”

“Middle of the night there right now, but the meeting time is late afternoon so you’ve got all day to work on it.”

“Except I need to sleep.”

“That’s the trouble with being human.”

I perceived that wasn’t the only drawback. “If anything happens you’ll have to wake me. Maybe I should go talk to Alberton?”

“Why not see how it plays out? The Brits don’t always bend to American demands.”

“Not what you said the other day.”

I didn’t drink anymore that night, I needed a clear head for the next day. I turned on CNN but became bored very quickly. Sally spent time showing me the spacecraft that we would build, they were incredible. Didn’t look like they could fly, let alone cross vast amounts of space. They looked like giant black rectangles with rounded edges. There were no windows. On two sides was an anti-gravity device that lifted the ship slowly out of earth’s atmosphere. On the top was the power plant, which used some form of controlled nuclear power to propel the ship to close to the speed of light. In earth time, it took almost eight days to reach maximum velocity. The inside was like a cruise ship, with all the comforts of home. You would have no idea you were travelling through space. It all made sense, I just wondered if we could build it?