Chapter 24: The Team is Assembled

Monday was when my team and I were supposed to work out of our offices in the Truman State Department Building, except that building security wouldn’t allow us in. It was another bureaucrat attempting to throw their weight around. No one in this town was accepting the upstart the President had brought in to do a specific job. It was one thing to make the Russians look foolish, but this was Washington and you had to earn your chops in this town. It was said that no one was so special that they could come right in and take over.

I went out to Robert’s SUV and asked to use his phone to call my mentor, Harry Anderson, the President’s Advisor on International Affairs. He became irate when I informed him that we weren’t allowed entry into the building. He asked me to call back in thirty minutes.

I led everyone to the coffee shop down the street that I had spotted earlier while we waited. We could hold an impromptu office meeting and work on office organization. We had an informal discussion on office organization while we sat drinking our morning beverage of choice. Everyone approved of the following temporary arrangement after an initial discussion. Molly was to be our Office Manager and Director of Office Communications. She would be responsible for all office memos. We would be able to eliminate workload duplication this way. Andi would be would be our expert on Russian culture, and on any questions on Russia. Dr. Frisch was our expert on legal matters, on any questions about international law, and on treaty rhetoric. Security was the responsibility of Scotty and Jean. Jean was on loan to us from the Secret Service, and Scotty was our counter-espionage expert. They could handle just about any situation involving office and personal security together. Lastly, Randy was our computer guru and backup security team member. He was responsible for keeping our PCs running and was a backup to Jean and Scotty. Robert would be our office driver and gofer. He would drive us around DC and would handle deliveries and pickups.

I called my mentor, Harry Anderson, back when thirty minutes were up, as requested, and got his answering service. I followed the instructions on it, and left my message. We were off to a spectacular first day. It was 11 AM when I heard back from Harry. He met us at the coffee shop where we had commandeered a couple of tables. Harry even got the runaround from the bureaucrat and he was a Presidential Advisor. The bureaucrat had hung up on him when he tried to explain that he was acting on direct orders from the White House. Frustrated, he went to make a discrete phone call, and came back a few minutes later.

Harry came back smiling, reporting that there should no further problems. He asked me to follow him to his car. I was handed a Post-it note on which I was told was the direct number to the number one man. I was to call him directly if I have any more problems, however I was to only use it as a last resort. There are no words to describe the surprise that gave me. Harry wished me a good day and drove off in his chauffeured limousine. The question was how I would list that number in my address book. I decided to keep it simple, or I could forget who it was for otherwise. The number had a simple RR as its name.

We were treated entirely different when we arrived back at the State Department building. The guard was friendly and directed us to where we could get our photo IDs. We walked as a team to our offices with our ID badges. Security was waiting for us to open the door. The guard handed me the key and went back to his regular duties. All the equipment I had requested was there, just boxed up. It was approaching 1 PM, so the day was shot. I suggested that everyone take a lunch break and be back by 2 PM. We could probably get the office set up by quitting time. Everyone was back by 2 PM, and we all pitched in to get the office ready for us to officially start working. We were close; it took until almost 5:30 PM before we finished. We locked up for the day, and the hallway was practically deserted. The only people left were the custodians cleaning the offices and halls. I wished everyone a good evening as we were leaving the building, and headed for the exit. It had been a trying first day.

It didn’t take me long to spot my ride. Robert had driven his robin egg blue town car instead of the SUV. He and the Secret Service Agent assigned to me for the day were waiting beside it. No one said much on the way home, and I was glad as I was mentally exhausted. Robert was concentrating on the DC traffic, and the Agent was watching for any potential threats. Traffic was exceptionally heavy for a Monday evening, and what was normally a 5:30 PM arrival time became 6:30 PM. Robert stopped the car in front of the house and the Agent got the door for me. I opened the front door and Beast came bounding up to greet me, and he got a few scratches between the ears from me. Satisfied, he turned and bounded back to the kitchen where he was told to get his nose off the table. I dropped my messenger bag on the desk in the study and headed for the kitchen. I was hoping supper was ready.

Grandma Jorgenson and Karen had held up supper until I got home. and I told them how much I appreciated it. Karen had just dished it up when the telephone rang. I got up to answer it on the kitchen wall extension. It was Scotty, and he was calling to tell me that the contact about the guard dogs was in town and wanted to meet if possible. I asked him to hold on a second, as I had to ask if we were free tonight. Karen and Grandma both nodded their heads to confirm that nothing was pressing. I told him we were free and agreed to meet with him and the representative at 8 PM.

We hurried through dinner, with Beast fortunate to end up with more than the usual amount of scraps to savor. The dishes had just been done when the doorbell rang. Beast took off to stand at his usual spot in the front entrance way. Beast made sure he was there to protect us if needed ever since Grandma was hurt. Scotty came in when I opened the door, but the other person hung back for a second. I thought that was an odd. Beast gave him the customary all over sniff test, and then his stub tail started wagging in greeting. It was only then that the man came in. I asked them to follow me into the living room, where Karen and Grandma were sitting.

I led the way with Beast taking up a position between me and our visitors. I invited them to sit down. Scotty and our guest sat down in the club chairs opposite the couch where I sat. Scotty introduced our visitor as ‘Titan Levi’, who was a professional dog trainer and breeder. Mr. Levi proved to be a very interesting man. He had served in the Israeli military and intelligence services. Retiring due to a combat related injury, he became a professional dog trainer using the skills learned from being in the military.

Mr. Levi asked about my interest in acquiring the guard dogs. I was candid and told him about the intrusion a few weeks back. I further explained that I was working on a sensitive project for our government. While the Secret Service Agents were doing their best to provide security, I didn’t feel confident in what they provided. I needed additional protection than what I was getting, in my opinion. Mr. Levi, being sympathetic, thought he could provide what I wanted. It wouldn’t be cheap, but it would get the job done.

Mr. Levi then surprised us when he asked where I had acquired Beast. According to him, Beast was one of only a few Black Russian Terriers in the United States that he knew of. The Black Russians were some of the finest guard dogs ever bred. They had been a Soviet Project since before WWII, and rarely found outside of Russia. Mr. Levi couldn’t believe it, when I told him that we found Beast at a local animal shelter. It was indeed fortunate for both Beast and us that we adopted him.

Grandma related how Beast came to her aid on her way home from the market. Mr. Levi made the comment that the bad guys were lucky to be alive. The victims normally die once a Black Russian Terrier attacks. The thought of that caused a chill to go up and down my spine. I looked down at our lovable Beast and couldn’t ever think of him as a killer. He was just a big of a dopey mutt most of the time, however he became a different dog when he perceived at threat.

Mr. Levi then went on to describe how he could provide us with the two dogs trained as family protectors. He had brought along a VHS video tape of the dogs in action. He asked if he could play it for us. The tape lasted not quite thirty minutes, and I would say that I was very impressed with the dogs’ performances and looked forward to acquiring a pair.

Now came time for our questions, and I told him that I knew male dogs didn’t get along in a pack situation. I was concerned about Beast and the other dogs. I didn’t want a dogfight where a member of my family, or Beast, could be injured. Mr. Levi assured me that the dogs we would get would get along with Beast and members of our household after training. He had originally proposed having the Malinois as our solution, but he changed his mind upon seeing Beast. He would now recommend the Dobermans instead. He did say that the Doberman breed didn’t do well as a kennel dog and needed to be with its pack or family. He thought the Dobermans would do better with Beast than his original Malinois recommendation.

The next question was harder. I asked if he could train Beast to be a companion or protector, and still keep him as a big goofball. Mr. Levi smiled and said he would try his best. It was all up to Beast. Mr. Levi added that he had never worked with a Black Russian Terrier before, and was looking forward to it. I looked at the others, meaning Karen and Grandma, and they both nodded. I informed Mr. Levi to go forward with it. We were all in agreement to get the dogs and for him to start working with Beast. Mr. Levi looked pleased and asked if he could spend time with Beast. I didn’t see a problem with it and said so.

Mr. Levi got down on the floor with Beast and started petting and softly talking to him. Beast wasn’t sure about this new person at first. Beast had a new playmate and was having a blast roughhousing with this human by the end of the evening.

Grandma had gone into the kitchen to dish up fresh coffee and some strudel she had made that afternoon. Scotty and I went into the study, as I wanted to confer with him about his relationship with Jean in the office. He promised me they would keep it professional. I did get him to turn red when I suggested that I didn’t want to come into the office and find the two of them going at it. We then went out to the kitchen to get a plate of the strudel and coffee. Grandma had gone into the living room to ask Mr. Levi if he would like to have coffee and a snack. He agreed and went to follow Grandma. Beast making sure that he would get his share, zoomed ahead, almost knocking Grandma down. That earned Beast a nasty comment from her and a promise of the wooden spoon. He immediately settled down. Mr. Levi laughed and said that the breed is one of the more intelligent dog breeds. He said he doubted if it took more than a few whacks to get the point across.

Mr. Levi thanked us for the strudel and coffee, and said he would have the contract ready for me in a couple of days on the way out. He left with Scotty. Karen didn’t say much when Scotty and Mr. Levi were here, but I knew something was bothering her. She had her first Ob/Gyn appointment this week and something I knew concerned her. She would tell me when she was ready.

It was getting late and I headed to bed. Beast raced up the steps ahead of us when he heard the word bed, and dropped at the foot of the bed. We learned that Beast would be up several times a night to check on us and the house early on. He would come into our room and sleep for a few more hours when he was satisfied things were okay. I felt safe with him on the job.

The next morning was the first full day at work for my team and me. I assigned projects for everyone to do with a deadline. It was surprising that everyone was enthusiastic to start after the rough day yesterday. I had Randy, Jean, and Scotty see about getting a scanning device to check our offices for bugs and listening devices. I asked for the scans at random times twice during the week. I didn’t want us to develop a routine that others would find made us vulnerable. I also asked Scotty and Jean to do my house from top to bottom, and to especially concentrate on the study, once they had scanned our offices.

I asked Randy to look into the Bernoulli box as a means to secure our files. I learned from reading a technology magazine that the USAF and its contractors used the Bernoulli box to boot and store sensitive files. The platters went in to a safe and secured box at night and on weekends. I had Molly check on acquiring a locking safe to store Bernoulli disk boxes.

I asked Andi to start compiling a module that I could use to learn the Russian mindset. I believed like Sun Tzu, the Chinese warlord and writer, to know your enemy. I wanted to know what made them tick.

Lastly, I put Dr. Frisch at work finding all the terms the Russians agreed to in previous treaties. I wanted to find some continuity in their acceptance of terms. I could assign a numeric value to that continuity and then predict the outcome of whether the Russian delegate would accept terms put forth by American delegates. With the others busy, I went about adapting my algorithm to this format.

Scotty and Randy scanned the offices by the end of the day, and found no listening devices or bugs. They planned to do the house the next day, so I had to tell Grandma and Karen to expect them. Robert and the security detail were waiting for me at the usual spot when we left the State Department building. The trip home wasn’t as long this time and I was home closer to the expected 5:30 PM arrival.

I was met by an extremely happy wife and an equally happy Grandma when I got home. Beast wasn’t sure why everyone was happy, but he joined in anyway, bouncing around with his stubby tail vibrating. I was trying to think what would cause of all the excitement. The only thing that came to mind was that Karen’s OB/GYN appointment had been today. That had to be the reason for two bubbly females.

I asked Karen why all the happy faces and good moods. She said she had something exciting to tell me. It was her hope that I would be happy as well. I made the comment that I guessed she was pregnant. She smiled even bigger and said there was more. I was playing along and commented that it was probably twins. You would have thought I said the babies would be ugly with the look she gave me. She was ticked off that I guessed so easily. Myself, I was shocked by the thought of having two infants in the house at the same time. It was too much; I felt lightheaded and went to sit down. Karen seeing that I had turned white, laughed at me while assisting me to sit in one of our club chairs. She did comment that I wasn’t the quite the superman who everyone else thought I was.

I was only kidding about twins, but it wasn’t so funny when verified. That Russian Proverb hit home hard, ‘Trust but Verify’. I trusted that Karen knew that she was pregnant, she was a nurse after all. She didn’t need to go overboard and verify it twice. “I wasn’t ready for parenthood,” I whined to myself. I never thought that I was ready for marriage, yet I stumbled through it and survived. Another thought just hit me, twins, what if they are girls and as beautiful as their mother. I would die a premature death from the stress of teen boys hanging around. I began to hyperventilate, sweat profusely, and my heart began racing. The news was causing me to have a panic attack. A good thing that I was married to a nurse or I would be on my way to the ER. It took Karen a while to assure me that I wasn’t having a heart attack with the way my heart was pounding. Yes, this superman had discovered his kryptonite, twin daughters.

Karen got in my face, having me take deep slow breaths as she moved behind me and started massaging my shoulders to help me relax. In trying to help me relax, Karen told me to think about my special place in Chicago. She then had me imagining that I was back on my motorcycle exploring the roads around Minot. My heart rate and breathing eventually returned to a more normal rate. Karen asked what caused me to have a panic attack. I told her that the idea of twins being as beautiful as the their mother, and what would happen. I said that I would die from the stress of keeping teen boys away from my ‘little princesses’.

Karen found that hilarious and started laughing at me. Grandma wanted to know why Karen was laughing, and Grandma started laughing as well when Karen told her. I didn’t find it at all humorous. Supper that night was rather quiet as I didn’t say a word to either of them. I went to the study after supper to read over the information the others gathered. I got a lot of work completed and went to bed at my usual time. Karen got a cold shoulder instead of a goodnight kiss that evening.

I was up earlier than I usually did the next morning, and skipped breakfast. I headed out the front door and had the protection detail take me to work instead of Robert. I grabbed a microwaveable breakfast sandwich and a bottle of juice from the building’s concessionaire for breakfast. Molly was surprised to see me there so early when she came in. She greeted me and went to her desk to get ready for the day. The rest came rolling in over the next fifteen minutes. The last one in was Andi, and I decided it would fun to tease her and kept looking at the clock, and then at her, and back at the clock. She gave me a look of ‘what is your problem’ and went to sit at her desk.

Scotty and Randy asked if I had time to meet with them. They had their report on scanning the office and my home completed and ready. There were no listening devices or bugs found in either location. The only negative thing to report was that Beast would sneak up on one of them and gently nip them. He wanted to play tag. Beast was in one of his let’s play moods and they didn’t have the time to play. I assured them that I would speak to Mr. Levi when he came with the contracts. That would be one of Beast’s bad behaviors needing correction. He did the same thing to Karen, and it left a bruise on her backside. He tried it with Grandma and got the wooden spoon for his troubles.

Work that day was focused on getting the file structures ready to receive the data we would need. Dr. Frisch went to the Library of Congress archives to do research on Russian-American treaties from the past. The Russians were very formal in their negotiations. They followed a strict protocol. It was very rare for them to stray off script on formality and the form they followed. This went back to the Czarist days and hadn’t changed. We were especially interested in treaties during the Stalinist era, as that was the format Russians used in treaty negotiations. They never strayed from that rigid format, so it made it easier to predict what a Soviet response would be to our proposal.

I had a terrible headache by mid-afternoon. There were so many aspects to this verification process that it overwhelmed me. I hadn’t even started on the material Andi had gathered for me to read on the Russian mindset and culture. There was just too much for one person to discern. This created a dilemma for me as facts, figures, names, and history were overwhelming me. I considered most of it as minutia.

I would call a staff meeting and delegate responsibilities tomorrow. We wouldn’t meet our mission statement of providing measurable, accurate, probabilities of predicting the Russian negotiation strategies in real time otherwise.

I came home exhausted that night. Supper was a silent affair like the night before. I wasn’t silent this time because I was angry. I was silent because I was mentally exhausted. I went right to bed after supper, and was asleep in no time. Karen coming to bed didn’t even disturb me. I left even earlier in the morning; the sun was just starting to show itself above the horizon. My driver and security guard showed their fatigue when they dropped me off. They would be off the clock and heading home to get some rest soon.

I was walking down the corridor to our offices while greeting the last of the night janitorial staff finishing up. They were pushing their carts back to their storage area. I greeted those I passed with a “good morning”. The staff would respond with an often tired “good morning” in return. The return greeting was more of a grunt than a verbal response in a few instances. I had just arrived at our office when the cleaning crew was finishing up. I saw the safe cabinet had arrived with the lock’s combination number taped beside the safe’s dial. The only ones with the lock’s combination would be Molly and myself. It would be easier to track anything that came up missing, and would lessen the chance of sensitive materials being stolen from the office.

I looked at my watch and saw that it was only 6:00 AM. I had gotten in earlier than I had planned. I didn’t feel in the mood to start work and tried to think of what else I could do. It occurred to me that I hadn’t called my parents to inform them about Karen having twins. It was now or never, so I decided to call and inform them. I had to get my address book out to look up the number. It had been so long that I couldn’t recall the phone number to dial it.

It took three rings for someone to answer, and with my luck, it was my mother. I almost ended the call, but decided that I was the better person and would tell her. I greeted my mother and got a cold response in return. I asked Mom if she would get Dad to come to the line because what I had to tell then was something important. She reluctantly agreed and went to get my father. I asked if they could put it on speaker when Dad came to the phone. I started by saying Karen went to the doctor and that they were going to be grandparents which they knew, when my dad confirmed it was. My ever-nasty mother burst into tears as I could hear her sniffling. I told them that wasn’t the end of the good news, as it was confirmed to be twins on the ultrasound. I heard both of them sniffling this time. I then heard my mom ask through tears, “Will you allow me to see my grandbabies after they are born?”

I didn’t know how to respond at first. I had to think of a response that put full responsibility for seeing them back on her.

I responded by saying, “That is totally dependent on you, Mother. I don’t see why not if you treat Karen and me with respect and can refrain from nasty and insulting remarks.”

That made her cry that much harder. I didn’t hear any attempt to console her by Dad. I sensed there wouldn’t be a reconciliation for them. I was positive that I would soon have divorced parents. I ended the call and wished them both well. My mother maybe did have a soft spot left in the heart of stone residing in her chest.

I needed juice and an egg and bacon sandwich to start my morning. It was off to the concessionaire to purchase them. Molly greeted me as she started her day when I got back to the office. She joined me at my desk while eating a prepackaged snack cake and drinking something that smelled herbal out of her thermos. She kept it hidden in the depths of that suitcase she called a purse. Molly asked what was new since we hadn’t talked much lately. I told her about Karen being pregnant with twins. Molly got up and came around the desk to give me a hug and commented on how happy she was for us. The happiness was short-lived when I asked her if she was volunteering to babysit. The look I got would have killed a mortal man.