Chapter 42

Twice a week Cathy spent the evening at school working towards her degree. She had a long way to go until completing her degree and the move had made that a little more complicated. It would take her an hour and a half to drive each way to the University of North Texas. Until she finished the first two years of her studies, she could go to Grayson County College. That was about a twenty minute drive from their house.

While Cathy was in school, Mike went to the Internet Café to search for more terrorists. After having spent months without finding any of the terrorists in the United States, he decided that it was time to find the bigger fish in the Middle East. Although lots of terrorists were getting killed by the military, he suspected that none of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood were anywhere near danger.

Thinking back to the discussion about what were the common characteristics of the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mike typed in a query to the biographical database. Rather than looking at battlefield experience, he searched on religion, business experience, wealth, and education. He selected from the resulting list those who had basically sowed their wild oats when younger. He then eliminated the individuals who were still active in business assuming they would be too busy to lead the Muslim Brotherhood. A list of eighty-seven names remained after he added a few more factors.

Curious as to what he would find, he put the known locations of those eighty-seven individuals on the status board. They covered the entire globe. Sitting back in his chair he considered the implications.

Frowning, he said, “That’s interesting. We’ve got a bunch of bored rich old men sitting around with nothing to do. You don’t get rich doing nothing, so I seriously doubt they are just sitting around on their asses. It makes me wonder what they are doing.”

He decided to query the airline records for individuals leaving Iran, Iraq, and Syria bracketing the month before the Americans invaded each country. Four of the names on his list showed up. They had flown to Muslim friendly areas in Africa and South America.

In a very soft voice, he said, “That’s very interesting. It makes you wonder what they are doing in those places. They are definitely not living in the lap of luxury. They could have flown to Switzerland, but they didn’t.”

Mike flagged all eighty-seven names and requested that efforts to establish surveillance on them be initiated. Within a day or two, a cockroach or two would take up residence in their homes and he’d have answers to his questions. He figured that the answers would be very interesting.

Cathy slid into the bathing pond with a grin on her face. She sat down across from Mike and gave him a million watt smile. Curious, Mike asked, “What’s got you so happy?”

“School is over and we’re getting married in two weeks. Why shouldn’t I be happy?” Cathy asked thinking that Mike was more attuned to her than she had thought.

“You should be happy, but you look happier than that,” Mike answered.

“Okay, I got three good pieces of news this afternoon,” Cathy said.

Mike waited for her to share the news, but she didn’t volunteer anything. His curiosity drove him to ask, “Are you going to share the news with me?”

“Sure,” she answered looking at him innocently.

Mike waited a few seconds and realized she wasn’t going to tell him anything. Finally, he asked, “When?”

“When what?” Cathy asked with a smile.

“When are you going to share the news with me?” Mike asked starting to get into her little game.

“Oh, you want me to tell it to you now?” Cathy asked.

“Yes,” he answered looking over at her with a hang dog expression.

Cathy laughed at the expression on his face. Climbing onto Mike so that she straddled him, she said, “The first piece of news is that I got accepted into the history program at the University of North Texas.”

Surprised that she was going there instead of Grayson County College, Mike said, “That’s great. How did that happen?”

Reaching down between her legs, she fondled Mike for a few seconds. Finding that he was rising to the occasion, she said, “That’s the second piece of good news. Joe told me that my internship came through.”

Somewhat distracted by the sensations in his nether region, Mike asked, “Internship? What internship?”

“I’m going to college half-time and working half-time until I get my degree,” Cathy said rubbing herself against him.

“That’s really great!” Mike said. It was so easy to be enthusiastic when she was rubbing herself against him like that.

“The third piece of news is that I am transferring,” Cathy said.

Despite the pleasurable sensations that Cathy was providing, Mike frowned at the news. He asked, “You’re transferring?”

“Yes, I’m going over to work under another Section Chief,” Cathy answered.

“Oh,” Mike said finding that he was going to miss have her around.

Seeing the disappointed look on his face, she said, “Joe said that I can’t work with you once we get married.”

“I guess I hadn’t thought about that,” Mike said as Cathy resumed rubbing herself against him. Somewhat at a loss at what to say, he asked, “Who will you work for?”

“I’ll be working in the Southeast Asia Section under Alex Darnell,” she answered.

That was the Section that dealt with Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. She thought the work would be interesting despite the fact that she wouldn’t really be an analyst until she completed her degree. Until then, she’d spend most of her time proofreading reports and verifying references.

Mike sat up so fast that he nearly dumped Cathy out of his lap. He created a minor wave that pushed water out of the bathing pond. Excited, he asked, “Did you say Alex Darnell?”

“Yes. Do you know him?” Cathy asked shocked by his reaction to her answer.

“He saved my job a long time ago,” Mike answered thinking back to when the Chinese had tried to maneuver him into submitting a report that would get him fired. He said, “I owe that man a beer.”

“How did he save your job?” Cathy asked.

“He gave me some information I needed when I needed it,” Mike answered.

Knowing there was probably a long story involved, Cathy asked, “So are you going to help me celebrate?”

Enjoying what Cathy was doing to him below the surface of the water, Mike answered, “Sure.”

Cathy waited for Mike to say something. When he didn’t say anything, she asked, “When?”

“When what?” Mike asked with a grin.

Cathy realized what Mike was doing and burst into laughter. She lowered herself on him and said, “Just keep it up buster.”

Mike’s eyes crossed and he said, “It’s not going down with you doing that to it.”

Mike went outside to move his car so that his visitors would have a place to park. His parents, his in-laws, and Cathy’s parents were coming over to the house. The women were going to talk about the wedding. Mike was expected to entertain the men. He had no idea how Cathy’s father would get along with the General and the Admiral. He knew it was an unfair judgment on his part, but there just weren’t that many things that a bus driver had in common with flag officers.

Bob was outside and waved to Mike. Despite the fact that Bob was always talking about hiring his gardener, it seemed to Mike that Bob was always outside puttering around the yard. He waved back to his neighbor as he went to his car. It took him a minute to park it in front of the ‘for sale’ sign along the curb.

The sign held a prominent place in front of the house. Mike looked at it hoping that the real estate agent didn’t call to bring someone by to look at the house. It seemed to him that the woman was bringing every customer who walked in the door of her agency by the house.

Mike was about to make his way to the house but decided to swing over to where Bob was working. Bob was carefully laying out a garden hose along the sidewalk that led from the driveway to the front door.

When Mike reached the man, he said, “Hello, Bob. What are you doing?”

“I’m thinking about putting in a lighting system,” Bob answered.

“That’s nice. Why?” Mike asked.

“Oh, I’m thinking about selling the house,” Bob answered.

“I didn’t know that. Moving up to a better neighborhood?” Mike asked.

Bob looked around rather embarrassed before he answered, “I’m thinking of buying your house.”

“Really?” Mike asked.

“I’ve got to tell you that I really love that backyard of yours. My wife fell in love with the patio,” Bob answered. The afternoon they had spent in the patio had been one of the nicest times they had as a couple in years. Shaking his head, he said, “It’s hard to believe what you’ve done with that house. I had given up ever being able to sell our house back when the renters lived there.”

“I don’t know what to say,” Mike replied scratching the back of his head. He’d never thought that any of the neighbors would want to buy his house.

Bob shrugged his shoulders and said, “Well, we’re just thinking about it.”

“Thanks,” Mike said trying to decide what he was thanking Bob for having done. Seeing Cathy’s parents drive up, he said, “I guess I better get in the house. Cathy’s parents have just arrived.”

“Have a good evening,” Bob said.

“Thanks. You too,” Mike said before heading up to greet Cathy’s parents.

For the first hour of the visit, Robert, Chuck, Vincent, and Mike walked around the garden checking out what the gardener had been doing. Vincent said, “This garden is a real beauty. I’m sorry I never took the time to check it out when I’ve been here in the past.”

“Thanks. The gardener just redid this part of the garden,” Mike said.

He had noticed that the flowers had changed from season to season. It seemed to him that it changed every time he went out to look at it.