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"Too much alphabet soup, Rachel. I'm still in the Army. Or at least, technically I am." He leaned away from his computer and sighed. "I'm military intelligence, have been since I was twenty-one."
"Twenty-one?" Her surprise was evident. While he was still vibrant and in great shape, Gavin had to be over thirty.
"And undercover since I was twenty-three," he nodded.
“Wow.”
He grunted and stretched his body on the chair, almost becoming supine on the thing. “I specialize in being other people, am good at it.”
“But, you’re you, right now, right?” Surely she wasn’t falling in love with a persona he donned like a jacket or a pair of socks.
He sat up straight again and started typing, avoiding eye contact. “Who knows. I’m not sure I remember who I am anymore.”
They worked in near silence, only speaking when she asked the directions on how to make a time loop or when he gave her another time frame to examine. When Mrs. Finch came in to announce lunch, both passed and then drank the protein shakes she delivered as they worked. All the while, Rachel’s mind whirled. Did she know the man she was falling in love with?
CHAPTER7
By dinner,Rachel and Gavin had seven men of interest, but none of the film clips were of decent quality. The requested enhancement program arrived and Gavin input the first of the many clips they had into the program, frowning as he realized it would take up to an hour per clip to refine the images.
"All night," he muttered and made sure his power cord was plugged in, then tilted the screen down. He stood, stretched kinks in his back, and headed to his room. He needed some activity to relieve the stiffness.
When he’d changed into his workout clothes he headed to the enclosed gym and took in the equipment. The Senator might live economically, compared to other elected officials in the metro area, but he didn’t splurge on the machines and set up. Bear was in the corner with the free weights, being spotted by Vince, Dallas rode a stationary bike like she was in one of the many triathlons Gavin bet she participated in and the Senator was at a rowing machine. Gavin took the treadmill and spent several peaceful minutes on the thing before the Senator cursed aloud. Thinking a charley horse or cramp was to blame, Gavin focused on the older man.
"What do you mean you found an encoded message? Send it to me, now." He waited for a second, then barked. "I don't give a good goddamn if the DEA wants it first. Send it to me." He stood, straddling the rowing machine, and fiddled with an earpiece before turning to the assembly. "We meet in the study in ten minutes."
Gavin slid off the bike and headed for a quick shower and to locate Rachel. Encoded message? From whom? To whom? And who had the Senator been talking with?
Rachel, who he found in the backyard wandering around the potted plants, looked vulnerable and a little too young for the job she was doing. How old was she?
“The Senator wants us in the study.”
She nodded and joined him, entering the house through a patio door and walking silently through the house. “You okay?” he said as they neared the study.
“I’m fine, just restless. I’m not used to having this much free time.” She didn’t meet his eyes. He followed her into the study and found chairs for them both. The spacious room felt cramped and warm with all the bodies assembled. The Senator walked into the room, carrying a small sheaf of papers. He sat at his desk and then took in all of them. “I got a call from Hank a few minutes ago. They intercepted a communique that was going from the US to one of the foreign supply depots. It’s encoded and Hank has his men on it. I want us to work on it too.” He focused on Gavin. “As far as I know, you’re the most computer savvy of this group. You up to the task?”
Gavin’s pulse sped up. “Yes, sir.” He might not have the most expensive computers, but he had some tricks up his sleeve.
"Good. Now, I've got a printout of the thing, but the file is on my computer. You can handle it from there." The former general took in the rest of the group. "What have you all been working on?"
To Gavin's surprise, each of the new guys outlined security, surveillance, and contingency plans they'd been working on since arriving. Hank Patterson had good people, he mused. When the Senator turned to Rachel, she outlined the work she and Gavin had been doing that morning with the communications taps. Mitchell looked surprised. "I didn't know about this."
“We’ve been kind of busy, sir, what with the dead bodies and poison. I didn’t get a chance to review the program with you.” Gavin said mildly. Mitchell quirked a smile then asked Rachel if she could continue without Gavin. She nodded, adding, “I might need a few minutes to review the programs with him but I should be fine.”
Senator Mitchell nodded. “I’ve decided that, when the office opens on Monday, we’ll not be using it. At least for now. I’ll make meetings and be there for roll call and votes but otherwise, I’m going to be stationed here.”
“Sir,” Rachel interrupted. “You may be at higher risk driving from your house into the city several times a day than staying at the office building.”
He nodded approvingly at her. “I thought of that. I’m going to be joining the meetings virtually unless I have to be there in person. It’ll cut out eighty percent of my traveling this week. At the end of the week, I’ll review and decide accordingly. For now, we’re all safer if I stick around here, including the staff members at the office building.”
They dispersed soon after and Gavin joined Rachel in what he was beginning to think of as their office. She silently sat through a review of the original communications tap program, as well as the enhancement program, jotting some notes on her pad, then picked up the laptop and moved to the opposite side of the table. Gavin didn't react, other than to move her chair to the designated spot before sitting down and rebooting his own computer. He changed his sim card for a new, larger one and brought up the deciphering program he'd been working on. A multi-year long process, he constantly upgraded and tweaked the program in his spare time and it had been helpful in more situations than he'd like to recall.
A couple of hours had passed before his temper finally bubbled over. “What’s going on, Rachel?”
“I haven’t found anything so far,” she said, her gaze on her monitor.
"I don't mean that. You've been silent all day. Everything that has happened," he fanned his hand at their computers, "is good news, news you'd normally be talking about, wanting to troubleshoot, give an opinion on. Instead, you're over there, perched on your chair like a, a—"
“What?” Her head shot up and she glared at him. “A toad on a mushroom? A wart on a chin? What?”
