Jeff versus Spot

Jeff waited in the hall for the bathroom to become available. He had managed to get to sleep after another hour of tossing and turning and he still felt fuzzy headed. A good shower and some coffee will help that, he thought. As he took out his shaving kit, he became aware of the only drawback that Lou's little cottage had: there was only one bathroom. And Lou had gotten up early enough to claim the shower first.

There was a steamy quality around the door, and a scent that he couldn't quite place oozing out with the steam. Every so often there was a wail from inside, something that would occasionally resolve itself into words. Jeff chuckled as he realized that Lou was singing in the shower. Boy, now I know why she refused to sing in public, even when the boys begged her to way back when. And even the acoustics of the shower do nothing to help.

Eventually, the shower stopped, and a few minutes after that, the door opened. Lou came out, toweling her hair, wearing jeans and a ribbed v-neck shirt, her feet bare..

"Good morning, Lou," he said with a smile as he edged his way into the still steamy room.

"Good morning, Jeff. I hope you slept better after that warm milk," Lou replied.

"I did. Uh... excuse me but I really have to... uh..." Jeff never did finish his explanation as he ducked into the bathroom and closed the door.

"Towels are on the rack, Jeff," Lou called through the door.

"Okay," Jeff called back.

Lou turned away to leave him to his morning routine. But before she could take two steps toward her bedroom, she heard him call out again.

"Uh, Lou? There's a cat in here. She... he... is sitting on the commode lid."

Lucinda stepped back and spoke directly to the door. "Yes, I know. That's Spot, my bathroom cat."

"And just why do you need a bathroom cat"

Lou grinned. "I don't need one. It's just that she feels most secure in the bathroom."

"Well, I need the commode. What do I do?"

"Just pick her up and put her on the floor."

"All right. Down, Spot! Down!"

Lou leaned up against the wall by the door jamb, trying hard not to laugh, and shaking with the effort. There was clear, loud "mayow", and Lou heard the lid on the commode going up, then Jeff said, "Okay, now she's on the vanity and she's watching me."

A fresh wave of silent laughter shook Lou. "Well, what do you expect? She's curious."

She heard another familiar "mayow", then Jeff's voice came again. "Lou, she's meowing at me. What does she want?"

Lucinda was losing her battle with the laughter; a low chuckle threatened to give her away. She took a deep breath to calm her voice, but her amusement at the situation showed in her tone. "All she wants is some conversation. When she meows at you, just meow back. I do it all the time."

"What do you two talk about?" Jeff asked, his tone just a touch sarcastic.

"I have no idea. I don't understand much Cat," Lou replied, her face almost hurting from grinning so widely.

Spot mayowed again, and Lou heard Jeff say, "Sorry, Spot, but I don't speak Cat," in a serious voice. The cat sounded off once more and Lou leaned back, her hand over her mouth now to stifle her laughter as Jeff said, "She's still meowing, Lou."

"Try scratching her between the ears and along the cheeks," Lou suggested.

There was silence for a moment, then Jeff could be heard cooing to the cat. "Oh, you like that, do you?" A few more seconds, then, "You've got a loud purr there, Spot. Hey! Watch out what you're... OW! Lou! She's climbed onto my lap and she's using... OW!... her claws on me!"

"Is she scratching you?" Lou asked, her amusement toning down into concern.

"No! She's just... OW!... flexing her claws and... OW! That smarts!... and pushing on my legs, one paw after another!"

Lou now knew exactly what Jeff was doing in the bathroom, and the vision of Spot kneading on his bare thighs was just too much. The laughter burst forth, and Lou's eyes teared up with the force of it.

"This is not funny, Lou!" Jeff complained. "OW!"

"Oh, Jeff! She's kneading! It shows she likes you! She likes you, Jeff!"

"I'm so glad!" Jeff cried, his sarcasm returning. "But what do I... OW!... do about it?"

"Just pick her up and put her on the floor," Lou leaned back, catching her breath. "Seriously, Jeff! You'd think this was the first time you'd ever had contact with a cat."

"On the farm, we always had barn cats," Jeff huffed from inside the room. "They never came in the house, they never sat in the bathroom, and they never crawled on your bare lap!"

The toilet flushed, and Lou could hear the shower curtain being drawn back. Suddenly, the door opened and Jeff stuck his arm out. Spot was dangling uncomfortably and unceremoniously in his hand. Lucinda grabbed her cat, cuddling her and cooing to her in a soothing voice as Jeff's bare shoulder and red face appeared in the slightly open door.

"Spot has seen enough of me and mine," Jeff said, scowling. "I am not putting up with a kitty voyeur while I shower."

"Ohhh, Jeff," Lou replied, her eyebrows up in amused reproach. "Spot doesn't like the shower! She's not fond of getting wet!"

Jeff glared at her and shook his head. "That doesn't matter. I'd like to shower without having to make conversation."

Lou laughed as he closed the door. "But Jeff, just think what a help she'd be while you're shaving! She could tell you if you missed... a spot!" She continued to laugh as she put Spot down and moved away, while inside the bathroom, Jeff shook his head again. Then he stepped into the shower, pulled the curtain back across, and began to run the water.

When he had finished showering and shaving and was dressed for the day, he went to the kitchen. The kitchen was filled with music, and the small green light was lit on the player. He found Lou feeding her cats, spooning out a small portion of a disgusting smelling paste from a can into four ceramic bowls. The cats wound themselves around her booted ankles or looked up at her expectantly, the four of them meowing in a peculiar harmony until, one by one, they were silenced as they gobbled down their food. Lou turned to Jeff as she headed for the sink to rinse out the can.

He waved a hand at the feeding felines. "I thought that all cats sounded alike," he joked. "Meow. Yours don't."

Lou smiled at him and shook her head. "Now you know better," she replied. "C'mon. There's something important to do downstairs." She led the way to the workshop, where the player was already at work, covering their tracks. She stopped long enough to grab a hammer and open the door to her sanctum sanctorum. She pulled the disk from its slot, and handed it to Jeff.

"Put it in the computer," she told him. He was puzzled, but he did as she asked.

"Now, access the disk, and look through the files," she said.

"Why?"

"So that you know for sure that this is the disk, the one with all your information on it." She put a hand on his arm and her eyes pleaded with him for understanding. "Please, Jeff. It's important that you do this."

"Okay." Jeff took her mouse and accessed the disk, scrolling quickly through its contents.

"Are you satisfied that this is the disk I showed you last night?" she asked, her mien serious.

"Yes, I am," he replied, wondering why she would ask such a question.

"Good. Now, last night I downloaded all of these files into two or three zip files, and attached them to emails. I sent them out to a secure site I use as a drop box of sorts."

"When did you do this?" Jeff asked.

"After the nightmare. I got the idea then and figured I'd better take care of it right away. Now, take the disk out," she instructed. Jeff did so, and laid it carefully in her hand. She put the disk on the floor, and to his shock, began to pound on it with the hammer, shattering it into dozens of sharp, shiny pieces.

"What are you doing?" he cried.

"Destroying the evidence," she replied between swings. Finally, the disk was demolished to her liking. She pulled a small plastic bag out of her pocket and began to sweep the remains of the disk into it.

Jeff's eyebrows went up. "Why?"

"Because, Jeff, I want the only copy of this information to be in your hands. No one else's. Not even mine. It's much too damaging for anyone else to have access to it."

"Couldn't I have just taken it with me?"

Lucinda shook her head. "Jeff, we've been watched all the time you've been here. By now they may have put bugs in your plane and in your offices in New York. Your rental car is safe because it was in my garage and no one tripped the alarm out there. There's probably also a tracer on your plane so they can find out where you're going. We'll address that issue before you leave. If by any chance you were found with this disk on you, then they wouldn't have to wonder who was bankrolling International Rescue. They'd know." She sighed. "By destroying the disk, we'll greatly cut back on the possibility of them getting their hands on the information."

Jeff shook his head sadly. "Lou, you were nowhere near this paranoid back when we first met."

She gazed at him wearily. "I know. Working twenty years or more in surveillance has done that to me. I know what can be done, I know how it's done, and as a result, I've been looking over my shoulder a lot, especially since I got this file. I never feel that even the precautions I've taken with the jammers and the alarm system have been enough. This one room is the only place that I feel totally secure in. But I'll be blunt: that paranoia has saved my neck on more than one occasion. You and your family need to be a little more paranoid, in my estimation."

Jeff bristled at her implication. "We've done what we could to protect ourselves."

"There's a lot more you can do," Lou replied, fixing her gaze on him. She indicated the bag with the crumbs of data disk. "This shows you how much more you need to do."

They stared at each other for a long moment, then Jeff sighed. "You're right. We have been lax in the matter of security. Rescuing people came first, and comes first. Our own safety comes second, or perhaps third, after the safety of the Thunderbirds themselves."

"That has to change, Jeff, or whoever is behind this will start gathering the information all over again," Lou said fervently. "And that's the last thing I want to see happen."

"You and me both," Jeff said. "So, what's next on the agenda?"

"What's next?" Lou said, suddenly smiling. "Breakfast out. I have a craving for corned beef hash and I don't have any in the house." She pocketed the shards of the disk and they left the secret room. She placed the hammer back where it belonged, then indicated for him to leave the room while she turned off the music and the jamming device. As she joined him and they went back upstairs, she murmured, "Bring along your PDA." Jeff nodded, and went to the guest room to pull it from his briefcase.

They took the truck again, and Lou took them in the opposite direction as before, following the river for a short space, then losing it entirely as they sped south along the two lane highway.

"You know, I saw one of my Dr. Seuss collections last night in my bedroom bookshelf," Lou said offhandedly. "It made me think of the boys and what they used to have me read to them when I babysat for you and Lucy."

"Oh?" Jeff asked, wondering where this conversation was going.

"Yeah. Let's see. By the time we left, Gordon was beginning to like being read to. Take a guess which Seuss book was his favorite."

"I have no idea. It's been so long since I've even looked at Dr. Seuss," Jeff replied, shaking his head.

"Oh, it's so easy! One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish," Lou said with a mischievous smile. "He'd sit on my lap and listen to me read about the fishes. 'One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish. Old fish, new fish. This one has a little star. This one has a little car. Say, what a lot of fish there are!' Of course, he'd get antsy once we finished with the fish."

"Sounds like him," Jeff said. "What was Virgil's favorite?"

"Well, he really liked If I Ran The Zoo, for reading, but one time, he heard that there was a book called The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T. I looked and looked for that thing, and even told Lucy about it so she could look, too. Turned out it wasn't a book, but an original screenplay and it had been turned into a movie musical. I scoured the used film websites and finally came up with a copy. We watched it one night, and it was the weirdest movie I have ever seen! Even weirder than The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao! He never asked for it again after that."

Jeff laughed. "I think I remember that one. John had nightmares a couple of times that seemed related to it."

"Oh, I wish I'd known," Lou said, shaking her head. "I was a lot more careful to screen anything that I brought for the boys to watch after that."

"Did John have a favorite?"

"Yes. His was always Fox In Sox. He just loved the tongue twisters in it, especially about the tweetle beetles." She began to recite: "When tweetle beetles fight, it's called a tweetle beetle battle. And when they battle in a puddle, it's called a tweetle beetle puddle battle. And... that's as far as I remember."

They laughed. "Getting old, Lou. They say the memory's the first thing to go," Jeff quipped.

She shot him an incredulous look and reached out to smack his upper arm with the back of her hand. "Watch what you say, mister! After all, you're a few years ahead of me. If I'm getting old, you're positively ancient!" she said, amused.

"Okay, okay. No more cracks about getting old... for now," Jeff said with a chuckle. "So, tell me about Scott's favorites. You do realize that I'm taking notes to use as blackmail when I get home."

"I figured you were," Lou replied. "Scott. Hmm. Oh yes! He had two favorites, Bartholomew and the Oobleck and Marvin K. Mooney, Will You Please Go Now. He was at the point where he could read both books, so I occasionally asked him to read Marvin K. Mooney to his brothers."

"Oobleck? What the hell is oobleck?" Jeff asked.

"Let's see. As I recall, it's something that falls from the sky that's not snow, or rain, or sleet. Green gobs of goo, if I remember right," Lou informed him. She looked up. "Ah, here we are." She made a right hand turn into a full and well used parking lot. The sign that they passed as they entered the lot said, "Abby's Country Kitchen".

"This is one of the more popular meat-and-three restaurants around here," Lou explained as they climbed out of the truck.

"Meat and three?" Jeff asked, puzzled.

"Uh-huh. For lunch and dinner, you can choose a meat and three side orders for one price. Very popular family restaurant down south."

The bell over the door chimed as they walked in. A petite middle-aged woman with her highlighted hair pulled back into a French braid came over with two menus. "Hey, Luci! How's it going?" she asked.

"It's going, Margie, it's going," Lou replied. Margie looked Jeff up and down, waiting for an introduction, but when none was forthcoming, she asked cheerfully, "Table for two?"

"Yes, Margie. For two, please," Lou answered.

Margie craned her neck around to see what was available, then beckoned for the pair to follow her. She plunked the menus down at a booth along the inner wall of the dining room. "Here you go. J.J. will be along in a minute to take your orders."

"Thanks, Margie," Lou said. Jeff helped her off with her coat, then slipped out of his own and folded it, laying it beside him on the booth's bench seat. A dark-skinned, college-aged girl in khaki pants and a white polo shirt, wearing a navy blue apron, came up to them.

"Hey, Miz Myles," she said with a smile. She, too, looked Jeff up and down, then turned her attention to Lou, taking out her electronic order pad. "What can I get for you?"

"Hi, J.J. Hmm. A cup of coffee for me. Regular, not decaf," Lou said. "And I'll have two eggs over easy, an order of corned beef hash, a biscuit with jam, and an order of grits on the side. Jeff?"

"Uh, that sounds good to me," Jeff said after a moment's hesitation. "But I'll have my eggs scrambled."

"Gravy for the grits or biscuit?" the waitress asked. Lou shook her head, and Jeff murmured, "No thanks."

"Okay. I'll be back in a moment with your coffee," J.J. said, uploading the order to the kitchen.

"Thanks, J.J.," Lou said.

Jeff leaned over slightly. "How come these people know you so well? It seems that everywhere you go, people call you by name."

"Well, I'm a regular customer here," Lou explained. "The hostesses and wait staff tend to get to know their regulars after a while, especially if the customer makes it a point to be friendly and treats the staff with respect. It's the same no matter where you go on a regular basis, be it the supermarket or the hairdressers."

J.J. came at that moment to bring two coffee mugs, both of which she filled with a fragrant brew. Lou murmured her thanks, and wasted no time adding creamer and sugar to her cup.

"I'm also a fairly regular customer at Vincenzo's, but my relationship there goes a bit beyond just frequenting the restaurant. I helped them track down someone who had copied down their unique pasta recipe and taken it up to some restaurant in Vancouver. It wasn't anything real official, but I was glad to help out, and got to know the family while I was doing it. There weren't any arrests made or anything, but we got an injunction in Vancouver to keep the restaurant there from using the recipe. Eventually, they paid the Giordanos-that's the last name of the family-for the right to make the pasta. It's all about credits and royalties when it comes to intellectual property rights." She smiled at him. "But of course, you know all about that."

"Yes, I do," Jeff replied, returning the smile. "I remember."

Lou rummaged around in her purse and pulled out a small PDA. She opened it up, keyed in a password with her stylus, and slid it over to Jeff.

"What's this about?" he asked, puzzled.

She held out a hand. "Let me see your PDA. I'll put my information into yours and you can put your information into mine. That way, the entry will be correct and we won't get any unwanted calls or emails from someone who happens to overhear."

He pulled his PDA out of the inner pocket of his jacket. "Has that happened to you? Getting unwanted email or phone calls because someone overheard you?" He entered his password and then handed it over to her.

"Hell, yes. I had someone practically stalking me for a bit, back when I was married to Greg. He had overheard me give my email address to somebody and used it to both spam me and to write me some really disgusting pornographic emails. It took a bit, but I tracked him down and stumbled on a case that the FBI was working on. I gave them my evidence and let them go to it. Wasn't in my bailiwick, so to speak." While she was talking, Lou was keying in what she wanted to. Jeff, whose attention had been on her story, now looked down at her mobile memory and pulled up the address book. He found his name already in the list.

"I put an entry in for you already, Jeff," Lou said, glancing up at him. "I don't have any information in it though."

"Okay. I'll fill in the blanks," Jeff said. He opened up the file with his name on it and entered his phone and extension at Tracy Industries' headquarters, his email address for work and at home, and then went down to the Notes section. I'll leave the home phone number there and she can put it where she wants to, just in case she wants to camouflage it somehow. But when he scrolled down, he found there was already a message written there, one addressed to him.

Jeff, wen i giv bak ur PDA there wil B a new ntry. the name is the passwrd 4 the site n addy listd. the files R there 4 u 2 download. Acknowledge msg by deleting.

He read it over twice to make sure he understood it, then deleted the message and put his private phone number in its place. J.J. came up and Jeff saved his entry as the waitress served them their breakfast. Lou looked up and smiled at the waitress, then finished her work with a flourish, and handed his mini computer back to him. He had the sudden urge to see what new entry she has added besides her own, but instead he gave her back her own PDA, then made sure his was turned off and slipped it back into his coat pocket. Lou noticed this as she dropped hers back into her purse without looking at it, and nodded in approval. Then they began to eat.

"You haven't told me what your plans are for the rest of the week," Lou said after sipping her coffee.

"Well, when I leave here, I'm heading for Tallahassee to check on our manufacturing operations and talk to my people there about expansion. Then I'll put in an appearance in Atlanta for the same reason, and to pick up Brains from the conference he's at. Then home again."

"Sounds busy. When do you plan on leaving?" Lou asked. "I'd like to know because I want to take a trip down to Greenville to meet with my inventor friend."

"My plan was to leave the day after tomorrow," Jeff said, kicking himself mentally. He hadn't even thought that Lou might have plans of her own when he came to visit.

"Don't worry, my friend is flexible. I was going to go tomorrow but I can wait," Lou mentioned. "I don't want to seem like I'm kicking you out or anything."

"No, I've imposed on you enough, I think," he replied. "I'll head out to Tallahassee tomorrow."

"Jeff, with friends it's never an imposition," she reminded him. "You're welcome at my place anytime. Now, what do we want to do for the rest of the day? We could take the Parkway again, or visit the Arts Center. The Arboretum is a good bet and not too far. Or we could visit Biltmore and I could show you how the rich are really supposed to live."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Jeff huffed. "I own several homes all around the world, not to mention the island."

"Ah, but compared to the Biltmore Estate, your villa is a cottage," Lou said, grinning. "Or at least that's the impression I got. I never did get to see much of it."

"The Biltmore Estate, huh?" Jeff looked thoughtful. "I think I'll pass. I'd rather see more of the Parkway now that it's sunny and early."

"Sounds like a plan. We'll go south again. It's actually more scenic than going north, at least around here. By going south, you end up in the Great Smokey Mountains." Lou replied. She drained her cup, and signaled J.J. for the check. "My treat this time, Jeff. We can get lunch somewhere along the Parkway or just off of it."

"I'm ready," Jeff said, finishing his last bite of biscuit. Lou paid the bill at the hostess station, leaving a generous tip for J.J. As they left the restaurant, Lou slowed down as they passed one of the outside trash cans. She dipped into her coat pocket and pulled some of the CD shards from the bag, tossing them into the trash can as nonchalantly as she could. Jeff noticed her action but didn't ask about it.

Lou took the driver's seat again, and as she drove them back toward Asheville, Jeff took out his PDA and opened it up to satisfy his curiosity. He scrolled down his rather long list of business acquaintances and five names before Lou's appeared, he saw it: Mooney, Marvin K. He opened the entry and found a website address and nothing else. Lou glanced over at him as he shut the address book down and put it back in his pocket.

The Parkway was beautiful. Jeff found that the greens, while still variegated in colors, weren't as distinctive without the damp background. But without the clouds, they could see for miles and make out clearly the mountain ridge across the valley from them. They went higher, diving into the tunnels that cut through the mountains, stopping at various scenic spots. There were more cars on the road today, going in both directions, but for a long time, there was no sign of human habitation.

"Hmm," Lou said. She kept her eyes flicking back and forth between her mirrors and the view out of the windshield.

"Are we being followed?" Jeff asked, not turning around.

"Yes, we are," Lou said softly. "We picked them up when we went past my road. They're about two cars back. They are very good, very professional. When we've stopped, they've gone on by and onto the next stop, then picked us up when we passed."

"Then how do you know they're following us? I mean, they could just be driving along like we are."

Lou kept her voice low. "I know because they always keep two cars behind. If they're farther back than that, they'll pass the other cars to the second spot behind us. Then they won't pass again. I mean, if they wanted to go faster to their destination, they'd pass us, don't you think"

"I suppose so," Jeff said doubtfully. He didn't quite trust Lou's newly revealed paranoia.

"Let's pull over at this next site. There's a trail we can follow for a bit. If they keep to their pattern, they'll pass us by and continue on up to catch us farther along. It should give us some time to talk in relative peace and privacy."

"That sounds like a plan. I'd like to stretch my legs."

The scenic spot came up on the right, and Lou pulled in. She kept an eye on the car she suspected of following them and when it passed by, she smiled. "Come on."

They got out of the truck and Lou locked it securely, pocketing the keys. Ducking into the trees that surrounded the parking lot, Lou brought Jeff to a wooden sign that had the colored dots of several trails marked on it and the difficulty of each one next to the name of the trail. She pointed to a white dot. "This trail isn't too bad even when it's damp, as it will be after yesterday's rain."

"I think I can handle it," Jeff said. "After you."

Lou grinned, then led him to the portion of the trail that edged into that scenic area. There was a bit of a hill to begin with and the damp leaves were slippery under their feet. But they made it to the top and kept going along the relatively wide trail, walking slowly and in step.

"So," Lou began. "Tell me more about Penelope. I know you said she was a good friend and what else she did for your family, but that picture told me there was more to it than that."

Jeff snorted a laugh. "It is a big picture, isn't it? You'd be surprised how many visitors assume she's my wife. Not that I have a lot of visitors or anything. I live where I do to keep out of the public eye, after all. And... I don't think that Penelope would be disappointed to be thought of as my wife. She's made it clear to me that a romantic relationship would be more than welcome."

"And what's holding you back from that?" Lou asked, fixing her gaze on his face.

Jeff sighed. "Her age, for one thing. She's a few months younger than Scott. Most men my age would be thrilled to have a woman as young and beautiful as she is interested in them. But I can't get past the fact that she's young enough to be my daughter." He looked down at the trail for a moment, then ahead of him. "Then... there's Lucy..."

"I know. Deep down in your heart of hearts you're still married to her, aren't you?" Lou said softly.

Jeff nodded. "Yes. I guess I am." He glanced over at her. "What is it like for you? Do you still feel things for Greg even though you're divorced"

Lou thought for a moment, then shook her head. "No, I don't. I think that the difference between you and me is that in my case it was the marriage that died, and not the people. In your case, Lucy died, but the marriage didn't." She took in a deep breath and let it out. "I miss her, too, you know. She was a great friend, one of my best. I could tell her almost anything and she just listened. Gave me advice now and then, reamed me out on a couple of occasions, too. I haven't had a friend like her since."

They walked along in silence for a few minutes, both with hands in pockets, engulfed by their own thoughts. At last, Jeff took a deep breath and let it out with an audible, "Ahhhh." He smiled as Lou looked over at him to see what the noise was about.

"This feels so good, just walking in the woods with a friend, talking. I never realized how much I missed it. Ever since Lucy died, I've immersed myself in my work and forgotten that there was life out beyond the bounds of the island. Even when I would go to England to visit Penelope, or the one time she took me to her ranch in Bongo-Bongo, I couldn't leave work behind. It felt so strange to not be supervising something, or working on a plan, or a project, or overseeing one of my sons'... ahem... excursions." He glanced at her to see if she had understood his deeper meaning. She winked at him, telling him she had. "I've made a lot of sacrifices for my dream, and asked my sons to do the same. I know they miss this kind of thing, too."

"I'm sure they do, Jeff," Lou said. "But your cause is worth sacrificing for, and I'm sure that they wouldn't be involved if they weren't aware of what they'd have to give up."

"Still, now that I've had this reminder that there's life outside the island, life outside my work and dream, I feel like I need to offer them the chance to have it, too. And I'm not talking about a week at corporate headquarters either," Jeff said wryly. "They should have time to pursue what interests them, to reconnect with old friends like I have with you." He looked down again. "Problem is, we're short-handed if someone is away from the island. And there's always the likelihood that they'll decide they don't want to make the sacrifice anymore. I'm always afraid that will happen."

"Do you really run your whole operation with just your boys, Tin-Tin, and Brains?" Lou asked, incredulous.

Jeff nodded. "I didn't want to go outside the family with this. I did, in a way, when I set up the agents' network, but most of those are hand-picked people who I've either known personally or known about for years. People I felt I could trust." He shook his head. "Maybe, in a way, I'm as paranoid as you are."

Lou chuckled. "I doubt that very much, Jeff. I've got at least ten years more experience at paranoia than you do. But it's time you thought more about the security of your family and your... creations. Especially since they are all you have." She became very serious. "I trust that you don't go out on those excursions yourself."

"I wanted to, not long ago. I even tried to, but I was convinced, quite emphatically, that I wasn't cut out for it," Jeff said sadly, rubbing his arm absently.

Lou stopped walking and put her hand on his arm. "I'm glad. You are far too recognizable to go out with your sons. It's the reason why I didn't introduce you to the people at Abby's. You'd be surprised how much someone like Margie knows about celebrities. You, sir, fall into that infamous category." She slid her arm under his elbow, linking them together as they resumed their walk. "And I'd hate to see you get hurt. Hell, I'd hate to see any of you get hurt. But I suppose that going on those excursions of yours means making the sacrifice of bodily safety."

"Yes. It does. I'll probably have to talk to Brains about more actual safety measures. He's worked out just about everything so that one or two people can do the job, but my boys have come home bruised and battered more times than I can count."

Lou lowered her voice. "One of the files I sent on to you is a recommendation on security measures for your personnel. Most of them are very low tech. The problem will be security for the equipment. I'd like to throw the problem at my inventor friend, naming no names, of course. May I do that?"

"Let me put Brains on it first, Lou," Jeff said, frowning. "If he has trouble coming up with what we need, then maybe I'll have him get in touch with your inventor friend." After I have Penelope check her out.

"Good enough," Lou said. She looked at her watch. "I think we'd better head back. By now, our tail must have figured out that we had stopped for longer than usual and would be coming down to try and pick up our trail again. I'd like to be on the move before they can get here."

"Okay. My legs have been stretched enough."

They turned back, talking about more general things as they walked. Before they came to the place where they had picked up the path, Lou indicated spot to their left. "This will take us back to the parking lot but on the opposite end and near a trash can. I'd like to get rid of some this," she indicated the bag of plastic bits, "before we go on."

"Fine with me," Jeff said. "Why have you been doing that anyway?"

"There was a case in the office once where a crucial piece of evidence was on a vid disk. The suspect shattered the disk into several pieces, but left them all in one trash can. The detectives involved were able to pick the pieces up and pretty much reconstruct the evidence. Now, I've chopped this up into smaller portions, and ground parts of it to grit, but I am taking no chances. It's not going to be worth their while to try and put this together, especially if they don't know where all the pieces are." She shrugged and smiled wryly. "It's that old paranoia surfacing again."

Jeff chuckled as they took the side path and came out onto the parking lot. Lou dumped roughly another third of the shattered disk into the battered trash can, letting it sift down through the abandoned drink cups, used tissues, and old newspapers. Then they sauntered over to Lou's truck, got in, and left the area, leaving behind three or four other cars, one of which was occupied.

The woman in the driver's seat watched as the truck pulled out and headed farther up into the mountains. The man took out a satellite phone and spoke into it. "They're heading your way. Just follow and report." Then he turned to his companion. "We could have taken them. I don't think she's armed."

She shook her head. "Not with him around. He's too big a fish. The locals would be all over us in a heartbeat. We wait until he's gone."

"But our superiors..."

"Our superiors will have to suck up and take it. I'm not doing anything when one of the world's richest and most powerful men is staying at her house." She started the car and headed back down the mountain. "While they're gone, however, we can spend a little time trying to figure out that alarm system of hers. The sheriff's department showed up entirely too quickly for my liking when we searched her house the first time."