Chapter 4
Posted: July 02, 2007 - 09:03:41 am


As Tim Brown sat down at the lunch table with Mike, he asked, "Do you like to fish?"

Not recognizing the voice, Mike looked up from his plate. He didn't know Tim that well and it took him a second to recall the man's name. In fact, he had only met Tim in a couple of meetings. The man was normally very quiet, but people tended to listen when he spoke. He answered, "Yes, but I don't have the time for it any more. My wife and I are fixing up our house. That kind of keeps us busy all of the time."

"You're fixing up a house?" Tim asked in a friendly manner while removing the plates from his tray. He set his tray off to the side and rearranged the plates in front of him.

"Yes. It was a mess when we bought it. We stripped the interior and are now putting it back together again," Mike answered thinking that Tim didn't sound that surprised by the fact that he was fixing up his house. He noticed that other people who normally ate with him for lunch were going to another table to eat rather than join him at his table.

"Could you use some help? I work cheap. All it will cost you is a beer every other hour or two," Tim said with a grin. He made a gesture as if he were downing a beer before grabbing his fork.

"Sure," Mike said with a shrug of his shoulders. He had a feeling that something else was going on besides a discussion about fishing or working on a house.

"Great, I'll stop by on Saturday," Tim said. He took a bite out of his lunch and watched Mike while chewing.

"Wear some old clothes. The work is still mighty dirty," Mike warned him. Over the weekend they had only gotten about a third of the wallboard up. The panels that went on the ceilings were killers.

"I used to work in construction while going through school," Tim said shrugging his shoulders as if to dismiss Mike's concerns. He looked around the cafeteria and paused to watch a table. He said, "Unlike some, I had to work my way through school."

Mike glanced in the direction that Tim was looking. Tim was gazing at the table filled with Chinese. Nodding his head, Mike said, "Same here, but I was lucky to have the GI Bill helping me out."

"Yes. I spent a little time in the Marines, too. It helped cover some of the costs of going to school," Tim said with a wink.

Mike looked at Tim for a second trying to remember if he had ever mentioned that he had been in the Marines. He couldn't recall such a discussion ever taking place. Trying not to react too much, he nodded his head and said, "It helped us buy our house."

"Lots of advantages of having served in the military," Tim said. He turned his attention to eating and the conversation died. When he had finished his food, he rose and said, "I'll see you Saturday afternoon."

"Right," Mike said. He watched Tim leave realizing that the man hadn't asked for the address of his house.

Although it was the middle of the week, Mike swung by the house rather than heading straight home. It was time to mow the yard again and he decided that he'd rather do it after work than to use some of the precious time over the weekend. He pulled the lawnmower out of the garage and tied a piece of rope around the handle so that he could get it started. When he was about to yank the starter cord, the man who lived next door wandered over and said, "Hello, Mike."

Dropping the starter cord, Mike said, "Hello, Bob."

"It sure is nice to have a neighbor who takes care of the yard for a change," Bob said gesturing to the lawnmower.

"Well, it is still mostly weeds. I figure when we move in here, we'll kill off the weeds with some weed killer and re-sod the lawn," Mike said surveying the disaster that had been left behind.

"I'd tell you to get some of that weed and feed that I use, but I don't think there's any grass here for it to feed," Bob said with a laugh. He had to use a lot of that to keep the weeds from Mike's yard from encroaching on his lawn.

"It is pretty bad, isn't it," Mike said shaking his head sadly.

"You can say that again."

"We'll get it in shape soon. Just bear with us while we're fixing up the house," Mike said. He knew that the folks in the neighborhood took a bit of pride in their lawns. It was all part of keeping up property values.

"Hey, we understand. After that last bunch that lived here, you'd have to be a pretty bad neighbor before we'd complain. You need to get the house in shape to live in before you worry about the yard," Bob said knowing that a nice lawn didn't keep you warm in the winter.

"Thanks," Mike said.

"The roofers did a great job," Bob said gesturing towards the house.

While Mike was willing to take care of the interior of the house, there was no way that he was going to climb up and down ladders with his bad hand. He had hired a roofer to replace the roof of the house and they had done the job over the last week. It was a major improvement to the exterior of the house. The next big job on the exterior of the house was painting it. Mike nodded and said, "They did a good job. I hope they weren't too noisy."

"They worked during daylight hours. That was a hell of a lot better than the loud music we used to get at all hours of the night," Bob said. He had called the police about once a week to complain about the noise coming from that house. If it wasn't loud music, it was shouting matches.

"I bet," Mike said.

"Anyway, the reason I came over was to let you know that an FBI agent was by the house the other day asking about you," Bob said looking around uncomfortably.

"I'm not surprised. They're just doing a background investigation for my clearance," Mike said with a smile. He had wondered how long it would be before someone came around asking the neighbors questions.

"That's what I figured," Bob said feeling a little relief at the explanation.

"I hope you told him all about our orgies and invited him to attend the next one," Mike said with a wink.

Laughing at the joke, Bob said, "It completely slipped my mind. I'll be sure to invite the next FBI agent who stops by to join us."

At a little after nine in the morning, Tim knocked on the open door of the house and called out, "Hello. I hear that there's some beer here."

Mike stuck his head out of the bedroom and shouted to Tim, "Come in. We're putting up wallboard in the bedroom."

"I guess that explains the white dust that covers you," Tim said with a chuckle. He looked around the interior of the house with a critical eye. He said, "It looks like you're doing a good job."

"We're taking our time. I want to do it right," Mike said without remarking that he found it odd that Tim was able to find his house without ever asking for the address.

"Let's get to it," Tim said. He had shown up ready to work. Despite the fact that he had a very different reason for being there, he had spent the week looking forward to the chance to do something constructive.

They worked together for the entire afternoon without once talking about work. Tim was a great help in putting the wallboard on the ceiling. With Karen and Tim holding up a panel, it was easy for Mike to nail it into place. True to his word, every hour or so Tim drank a beer.

An hour before dinner time, Tim helped pack up the tools. Once the house was straightened up, he looked over at Mike and said, "That was a lot of fun. Would you mind if I came out next Saturday to help?"

"I'd appreciate the help," Mike said. The work had gone a lot faster with Karen and Tim holding up the wall board and him nailing.

"Great. I'll see you next Saturday," Tim said with a friendly smile. He shook Mike's hand and then left.

Standing at the door of their house, Mike and Karen watched Tim drive off. Once the car had turned the corner, Karen looked at Mike and asked, "How well do you know him?"

"I've only met him a couple of times before today," Mike answered. The entire day didn't make sense to him.

"That was really strange," Karen said.

"I know. We didn't even talk about anything other than working on the house," Mike said. Shaking his head, he said, "I really expected him to tell me something important, but the most personal thing he said was to ask for another beer."

"I noticed that," Karen said.

"It looks like we are going to have a Democrat in the Whitehouse," Karen said looking over at her husband and her father. The two men were drinking a scotch and listening to the news. The polls leading up to the election were not good.

The early front runners of the Democratic Party had withdrawn from the race leaving behind a 'peace at any price' candidate to take the Party's nomination. Mike suspected that it was because the smarter candidates had come to the realization that they would be inheriting a mess that didn't have a real solution. He felt that they would rather serve later in their careers than have to reverse themselves on major campaign promises immediately upon being elected. Mike said, "You're probably right."

"I'm supposed to be apolitical, but this worries me," Vincent said. As a military officer he was in the terribly difficult position that he was not allowed to publicly express his political opinions. When President Clinton was in office they weren't even allowed to repeat political jokes that involved the President.

"We'll be out of Iraq by June of next year," Karen said as if it was a given fact.

Her mother, Sally, said, "I remember when we pulled out of Vietnam. That was one of the saddest days of my life."

"That whole Vietnam mess was horrible. That is a fine example of where politics got in the way of winning," the Captain said. He swirled his glass before taking a sip of the scotch.

Nodding his head, Mike said, "So is Iraq."

"Personally, I couldn't give a damn about what happens to the Iraqis after we leave. They didn't step up to the plate and take control of their own country. It's the message that we send to the brave men and women of our military by leaving Iraq that bothers me," Sally said with more than a little venom in her voice.

"Down girl," Vincent said with a smile. He earned a mild glare from his wife and withstood it until her ire disappeared.

"You're right. I get too emotional about it," Sally said. Her father had been killed in Vietnam and she was more than a little sensitive about the government sacrificing people without the intention of seeing the actions all of the way through to victory. Shaking her head, she said, "Those cowards who won't let our soldiers do their jobs drive me crazy."

Mike shrugged his shoulders and said, "I know what you mean. I think the thing that scares me the most is that they'll repeal the Patriot Act, close down our detainment facilities, insist on public criminal trials, and tear apart the few effective intelligence programs that we have. We're going to be defenseless in two years."

"That's right," Vincent said.

Karen said, "You know that a lot of people feel that the Patriot act has elements that violate the first three amendments of the constitution."

"Since when did foreign nationals who are attacking this country get full American civil rights? They aren't citizens, but they have all the rights of a citizen except the right to vote. I really doubt that the founding fathers intended us to allow foreign powers to set up shop in this country for the purposes of making war against it," Mike said.

Vincent nodded his head and said, "I agree with you on that, but I think our whole approach is wrong. We should be pursuing the terrorists under the old piracy laws."

Mike reread a questionable section of a report on particle beam weapons and marked up one of the paragraphs that bothered him. The Americans had canceled a major research program in particle beam weapons development six months ago and the Chinese had started one at the same time. The principle researcher of the American program had returned to China and was now heading the effort there.

He looked at the section about the software development activities going on in support of the research. It was an outsourcing firm in India that was doing the software development for the Chinese. Looking at that part of the report, he said, "That can't be right. It would cost the Chinese more to outsource to India than it would cost them to do it themselves. What in the hell is going on here?"

He could hear Chang coming down the hall from the meeting the man had attended. He closed the report and set it aside. Sitting back in his chair, he considered what he had read. It sounded to him like the project was intentionally killed. He had a friend who had worked on the project and decided that it was time to make a call or two. He wanted to find out if the Indian firm had been writing the software for the American project. If so, the Chinese were basically going to steal it.

Chang stopped by his office and said, "Dan Whiteman over in Satellite Imagery was just fired."

Mike looked over at Chang and said, "I'm not sure who Dan Whiteman is. What happened?"

"He went postal on one of the Indians who worked in his area," Chang answered with a smirk.

"Wasn't he the guy who was screaming at the Indian about running twenty convenience stores out of his office?" Mike asked recalling a little of the gossip he had heard at lunch. No one had mentioned any blows being delivered; just a lot of yelling. It hardly qualified as going postal.

"Yes," Chang said. He studied Mike for a second and said, "Don't tell me that you are on Dan's side."

"No. Going postal is always a bad thing," Mike answered holding up both hands as if surrendering. He frowned and asked, "What exactly did Dan do?"

"He was yelling at Devras and calling him all kinds of names. He disparaged the man's family and that is very wrong. He stepped over the line and became very abusive," Chang answered.

"That is bad," Mike said thinking that he probably called the guy a bastard. Looking curious, he asked, "What happened to Devras?"

"What do you mean?" Chang asked suspiciously.

"Well, he was running a personal business from his office here. If I remember correctly, we aren't supposed to be running personal businesses from our offices," Mike said.

"He was reprimanded," Chang said shaking his head sadly.

"That's reasonable," Mike said hoping that his voice didn't convey the outrage that he felt. If the guy had been working for him, he would have been tempted to escort him off the premises by throwing him off the roof.

"I think it was fair," Chang said. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "You can't really blame a guy for wanting to get ahead financially."

"That's the American way," Mike said barely suppressing the sarcasm in his voice.

Chang frowned and said, "You might want to tone down that patriotic talk a bit around the office. We're not supposed to be political here."

"Sorry," Mike said trying hard not to get angry.

Even though it wasn't an anniversary or birthday, Karen had spent the afternoon setting up a nice dinner. Her parents had gone out to some major social event with foreign dignitaries and they had the house to themselves. Mike entered the dining room and looked at the lobster dinner. Raising an eyebrow, he looked at Karen. She was wearing her slinky black dress that he liked so much. Curious, he asked, "What's the special occasion?"

"I'll tell you after diner," she answered with a mysterious smile.

"Okay," Mike said holding out a chair for her. She gracefully took her seat and he pushed the chair in a little. He took a seat at the table and poured some wine. Looking across the table at his wife, he said, "I know I don't say it very often, but you are so beautiful."

"You say that all of the time," Karen said with a laugh. There was hardly a quiet moment in which he didn't compliment her on her appearance.

"It's just that I love you so much that I can't say it enough," Mike said reaching for her hand. Taking it in both of his, he added, "I know there are times when my job seems to get me down and I take it out on you. I just want you to know that I appreciate how you let me rant and rave when it gets too much for me."

"You don't take your job out on me. You share your feelings with me," Karen said with a smile. Others might find him stone faced, but she knew the emotional guy beneath the façade.

"I'm so lucky to have you in my life," Mike said.

"We better eat before the food gets cold," Karen said.

"Okay," Mike answered. He looked down at the meal and said, "It looks great."

"The real question is how does it taste?"

The young couple ate and chatted over the meal. Eating lobster was messy and they were both overdressed for it, but that didn't matter. Clothes could always be taken to the dry cleaner. They were almost done when Mike asked, "How is school?"

"I got an F on my last paper," Karen answered with a growl.

"What? What happened?"

"I had to write about American Foreign Policy of the 1960s. The professor didn't accept my premise that the threat of communism by Russia required the United States to respond in some fashion. He even used my paper as an example of the kind of misguided political thought that dominated the conservatives of the 1960s. He said that the United States could have stood by and done nothing. The Domino Theory was just a hypothesis and there was no evidence to support it. According to him, the end result of being inactive would have been better," Karen said with disgust in her voice.

"That seems reasonable. From his perspective, it might have been," Mike said.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we'd be a communist country by now. I'm sure that he would have been a major player in the communist party," Mike answered. He knew that there were a lot of people who would have exploded over that comment. They believed that enemies who were treated with civility would stop being enemies. Everyone knew that Hitler and Stalin could have been dissuaded from their hardcore political positions after a few beers down at the local pub.

"Right," Karen said. She sighed and said, "I really do think that Daddy is right. There are a bunch of people who would like us to become a socialist country. I keep hearing about how the government owes the people this or that. When did government become a money tit for the lazy?"

Shrugging his shoulders, Mike said, "I don't know. I'm becoming convinced that everyone should have to serve two years in the military. At least they would have earned their right to benefits."

"What about women?" Karen asked looking at Mike with a smile.

"Yes, women too," Mike answered puzzled by the expression on her face. She knew how he felt about women in the military. Not every job required one to be in harm's way and not all women felt the need to be protected from danger. Women were required to serve in the Israeli Military and they didn't seem to have any major problems as a result of that.

"How about mothers?"

"Mothers?" Mike answered trying to imagine his mother carrying a rifle around.

"You know, women who are expecting babies," Karen said with a smile.

"Well, I don't know. I haven't given the matter much thought," Mike said wondering why she had never raised the question of motherhood before when they discussed the matter. He was going to have to look up how Israel handled that problem. Frowning, he said, "I guess that they'd have to take a leave of service."

"What do you think about babies?" Karen asked.

"I think they are small," Mike answered surprised by the question and groping for a reply. Seeing her immediate reaction, he held his hands apart as if he were demonstrating the volume occupied by a typical infant. It was closer to the volume occupied by a kitten.

"Small?" she asked surprised by his answer. She had been expecting him to say that he liked or disliked babies.

"Well, you know they aren't big," Mike said moving his hands apart. He looked at Karen for a moment wondering about why she was interested in his opinion about babies. She was smiling at him and then nodded her head. The light went off in his head. Not completely sure that he understood the nonverbal exchange, he asked, "Are you telling me you're pregnant?"

"Yes, I am," Karen answered with an uncertain smile.

Mike leapt up from his chair and went over to her. He lifted her out of her chair and gave her a big hug. He kept repeating, "I love you."

"I love you, too," Karen said pleased at his exuberant reaction. She had been a little afraid that he'd be upset. Their house was a long way from being finished. Work wasn't going well. She was having problems at school. There were so many negatives, that she would have understood a less exuberant reaction.

Raising his fists into the air and leaning back, he shouted, "I'm going to be a Daddy!"

Laughing at his actions, Karen said, "I think there are some people in Japan who didn't hear you."

He looked at her with a goofy grin on his face. In a softer voice, he said, "I'm going to be a Daddy."

"And I think you are going to be a great Daddy," Karen said with a smile.

"This is so great! Do your parents know?" he asked wanting to tell the whole world the good news.

"I haven't told them yet," she answered.

Grinning, he said, "I want to be there when you tell them. The Captain is going to be so happy. Your mother is going to dance with joy."

They had just finished taping the wallboard when Tim stepped back. He knelt down to examine one of the holes where a CAT-5 cable hung out. Looking at the cable, he commented, "I noticed there is an internet café not too far from here."

"I don't need one. I've got my own computer and will get cable when I move here," Mike said surprised by the rather odd direction Tim was taking the conversation.

"You know that internet cafes have some advantages that home computers with internet connections don't have," Tim said.

"Really? Like what?" Mike asked.

"Well, it does allow you to visit websites with greater privacy. Even if you know what computer was used, it is very hard to find out who visited a website when the identity of the person sitting at the computer isn't known," Tim said. He knelt down and started cleaning the tools. Looking up at Mike, he asked, "Are we going to get this stuff cleaned up?"

"Yes," Mike said squatting down to help. The sudden changes in conversation were suspicious. Despite the fact that he appreciated the help, he felt that Tim's visits were very odd. There was no reason for the man to want to come over and help him with the house.

"It looks to me like you'll be able to start painting next weekend," Tim said smiling over at Mike.

"I could, but I'm going to get to work on the bathroom first," Mike said. He was getting tired of using the porto-potty that was in the backyard. He had made a mistake in planning and had torn out the fixtures in both bathrooms. That had left them without a functional bathroom. He was pretty sure that the neighbors would be more than happy to see porto-potty gone as well. He said, "Next weekend, I'll install the bathtub."

Tim nodded his head and said, "Well, maybe I'll bring a friend over next weekend to help wrestle it into place."

"It is definitely a heavy job," Mike said wondering who Tim would bring over. He wondered why someone would want to come over to work on the house of a complete stranger.

"Yes, it is," Tim said. Looking over at Mike, he said, "Difficult and unpleasant jobs often require more than one person to get them done to a satisfactory end."

"Sure."

Pausing significantly, Tim said, "That's why we have Marines. A good team of Marines can over come any difficult task, including wrestling a bathtub in place."

"OohRah," Mike said in agreement giving it the standard Marine pronunciation. Tim was telling him something, but he didn't quite know what it was.
Lazlo Zalezac
Chapter 5