Under Her Wing, Part 7

The knock came on Gretchen's door at a quarter after six.
   Ken and Gretchen were sharing a smoky kiss and the abrupt noise startled
them both. They dove under the covers as Ms. Tremblay's voice cut through the
thick oak.
   "Get your pants on, Ken. You have visitors. They're waiting out front."
   Gretchen laid back and exhaled a thick, creamy cloud of smoke while Ken
dashed over to the window. Parked out front was a long, sleek black
limousine. He had a good idea who was inside that car, and he wasn't looking
forward to chatting without at least downing a cup of coffee. He took his
time dressing, letting an appreciative Gretchen watch.
   As he walked out of her room he was surprised to see Ms. Tremblay standing
there, mug in hand.
   Even more surprisingly, she smiled as she handed him the steaming mug.
"Drink this first."
   There'd been no question in his mind that Tremblay would not be happy
about-things- but her smile was so warm and reassuring that he found himself
re-thinking that. He took the mug and cupped it between his hands, enjoying
the heat. Amasingly, the coffee was hot but not so fresh that it was too hot
to drink. He took three quick sips and that was when Tremblay finally showed
some impatience.
   "Goddamn it, man, drink it. You think they'll wait all day ?"
   The answer to her question was a loud braying of car horn.	
   "They'll wake the whole damn house. Impatient bastards."
   Ken drained the cup, wondering if the coffee would hide the smell of smoke
on his breath.
   "I put something in it that will freshen that monster breath of yours.
They'll expect your clothes to smell smoky."
   "What ?" he asked. Things were going much too fast for the hour of the day.
He felt vaguely like a rag doll whose affections were being fought over by
small children. "They who ?"
   "They- they they, Ken. Like I don't know-"
   She held up a floppy disk, close under his nose. "You downloaded this from
my c-slash conspiracy directory. Repeat after me-"
   The disk looked like a huge flat bug swimming under his nose. He reached up
and took it from her. "Your c-slash conspiracy directory."
   "Good," she said, smiling again as she took the mug away. "Then you deleted
the directory and wiped all my free space. This is the only copy. Understand
?"
   There was another loud honk. 
   "Goddamned assholes," she said. Tremblay then did the most amasing thing.
She reached up and rubbed his head, tousling his hair the way she would a
small child's. Strangely, it was a demonstration of affection Ken didn't
mind. "Look, you did a great job so far. Don't screw this up. Now get going."
   
   The windows of the limo were dark. Of course they were. Ken had seen this
before, but it had never scared him the way he was scared right now. The
disk, hard and square, felt odd in the baggy pocket of his khakis. All he
wanted to do right now was go back to bed- with Gretchen. Of course, Gretchen
was probably helping Tremblay cook breakfast by now, so there was no chance
of that.
   Boy, did Gretchen look good in the morning. Her hair was wild from sleep but
her face was always so fresh and pretty. She rolled over this morning and
reached across him for the- for their- cigarettes and lit one, putting on a
show that he'd been more than happy to watch. Waking up next to her, knowing
that would be the first thing she would do-
   It took great effort to force the thought down but he had no choice because
he didn't want to have to hide an erection right now.
   He noticed the back window on the passenger side was open and there was
smoke coming out, faint wisps-
   The door swung open and he ducked his head to step inside. It closed quickly
behind him.	
   The woman sitting across from him was smoking a Benson and Hedges and
smiling. She was late-twenties, short but thin, with a killer smile and long
black hair that had been teased with great patience. Her face was narrow but
pleasant and her grey eyes were intelligent. He knew he'd seen her before,
but he couldn't decide where. Just as he thought he was close to figuring
that out, the car pulled away from the kerb and his stomach lurched. The
driver apparently wasn't too worried about the speed limit, it seemed.
   "It's a pleasure to meet you, Ken," the woman said, extending her hand and a
long stream of smoke in his direction. "I'm Vivian." He took the hand and
shook it suspiciously as Vivian inhaled deeply on the B & H with practised
ease. "We stopped by today to see how you're doing getting that information
we asked you to retrieve."
   "Excuse me ?" he said.
   Vivian turned away from him and held her cigarette straight up between her
short but slender fingers. She smiled as though it was a diamond stick, moved
her hand back to her mouth and pulled again. Turning her attention back to
him she exhaled, a beautiful nose exhale that made him smile faintly in spite
of himself.
   "I don't usually smoke in front of the members of the group, but I happen to
know that you're okay with it."
   "That's just part of the act," he said defensively. "I plan on quitting as
soon as I leave here-"
   Vivian smiled, like a cat studying a mouse caught in her paws. "And take
those nasty pills ? Oh, the games we play to keep everyone honest. It
wouldn't work if the foot soldiers didn't believe. But if you've done as you
were asked, you know what the real game is about. You don't need those pills.
All our best agents smoke, Ken. You have it ?"
   This was too much at once, but at least the coffee was helping Ken think
straight. Playing along seemed like the only way to go right now, so his hand
went to the disk in his pocket. He removed it gladly because it felt
uncomfortable pressing into his-
   Again he suppressed any thought of that.
   "Just like- was it you who asked ?"
   Again the smile. Vivian had a very attractive smile, and suddenly it came
into sharper focus. He remembered seeing that smile last night. At the bar.
Yes, Vivian had sat alone for about an hour, occasionally fending off one of
the locals who'd gotten his nerve up to talk to her. She'd sat and pretended
to watch a baseball game, sipping at a beer and occasionally looking their
way. She'd had a cigarette in her hand the entire time, and it made his skin
crawl to know that he'd been watched that way the whole time. 
   "Yes, it was me. I've known the truth since the day they brought me in and
now you know it, too. It's a great little plan, isn't it ?"
   The pitch of her voice had changed. It reminded him of the nuns at St.
Vincent's High School. They asked you a question, thinking that you didn't
know the answer. There was a vaguely mocking quality to it, and he decided
then and there that smoker or not, he didn't much like Vivian. Not that it
made any less enjoyable watching her light another long white cigarette and
inhale deeply.
   She handed it to him as he was thinking about the limousine. Her bare wrist
sported an expensive diamond inset Rolex. He took the cigarette without
hesitation and pulled deeply. The smoke was thicker and harsher than he was
used to but the effect was the same. As he handed it back he experienced a
brief respite of absolute clarity.
   "There's a lot of money to be made," he said casually.
   "Exactly," she answered, letting her hand linger on his as she reclaimed the
cigarette. He understood from that touch that the limousine driver would park
the car in some secluded place if Vivian asked- if he asked her to make the
request. It was as though he'd stuck the hand on a wet battery terminal.
   "Why me ?"
   "You remember all those psychological tests and the blood work you went
through when you started with the group ?"
   He nodded and accepted the cigarette again. They were filling the back of
the car with smoke and he found himself enjoying at least that part of it.
   "I can't believe that you didn't know about yourself until you came here.
Those tests told me that you were attracted to smokers- and smoking- from day
one. I never thought you'd last five years in the field without discovering
the truth about yourself. I sent you here because I knew this sort of an
environment would open your eyes."
   The betrayal which was swimming in his mind must have registered in his eyes
because she added "But that has nothing to do with Gretchen. To be honest,
I'm jealous. I had hoped to crack your shell myself."
   She took the disk from him and asked for details.	
   "I wiped the c-slash conspiracy directory as soon as I had the data," he
lied.
   "Yes, I know. We hacked Tremblay's computer at four this morning, thanks to
a security bug in her browser's java script. Then we crashed her hard drive
directory. She'll be suspicious, but she won't suspect you- as long as you
act naturally. She knows she's been hacked from outside before. And I told
her this morning that I'd stopped by to find out how our grant proposal was
coming. Stood on her porch and smoked a cigarette. It's amasing. All you have
to do is light up and they lose all their suspicions."
   Ken smiled because he knew that Tremblay was not so easily fooled.
   "And now that I've joined this select little sub-set of the group-"
   "Your assignments are going to change. And your pay. We can discuss the
numbers later."
   Later ? Ken was worried that the unseen driver was indeed going to be asked
to pull it over, but instead Vivian opened the speaker and told the driver to
take them back.
   "Maybe down the road you'll be running your own smoke-easy. Right here in
Ranford, if you'd like. You'll tire of Gretchen after a while, though- you'll
look for someone a little more mature. In the meantime, I just need to make
sure that our friend Sarah doesn't have this as well-" She put the disk on
the seat and smiled. It was cold and heartless.
   Stunning.
   Her hand found his again and he knew that the driver had better get them
back soon-

   Debbie knocked on Sarah's door. There was no answer at first, so she swung
the door open a crack and looked in. Sarah was across the room by the window,
hunched over her power book. She was scrolling urgently through something,
and Debbie was starting to close the door when Sarah turned around and said
"Come on in."
   She swung the cover of the power book down and did her best to smile.	
   It came out poorly enough that Debbie asked what was the matter.
   "It's a long story, Debbie. What can I do for you ?"
   "I just- I just wanted to talk, I guess."
   "Have a seat. What's on your mind ?"
   The girl paused to light a cigarette. It wasn't an hungry gesture, but the
look of satisfaction on her face told Sarah that she was now a very contended
smoker. Her exhale was full-bodied and patient.
   "I'm worried about what's going to happen when I go home."
   "Things between you and Kirk that serious ?" Sarah asked teasingly, as
though she didn't know what this was about.
   "No. We're having fun together, but I know I'll never see him after this."
   "You could end up at the same college."
   "I suppose. But I'm concerned about something that is going to happen in a
few days, not a few years."
   Of course Sarah understood. She remembered that day her mother had walked
into the house, walked in and seen her daughter smoking. 
   It had been the best day of her young life. And she told the story to
Debbie, omitting any reference to the cameo because Debbie hadn't needed a
talisman to discover the obvious joys of smoking.
   "You said that you thought she expected you to start, Debbie."
   Debbie stubbed out her cigarette just as Sarah lit one of her own. "I never
said she'd be happy about it, did I ?"
   "Do you really think she'll be upset ?"
   "I don't know. That's what worries me. I really appreciate your sharing your
story with me, but your mom isn't my mom, if you know what I mean."
   "I'll talk to her if you want-"
   "No, I need to do it myself. I mean, I am a smoker now. There's no question
about that. The question is, how do I tell her ?"
   Sarah had an idea. She walked over to the nightstand and picked up the
portable phone. "Your mom works out of the house, right ? Light a cigarette
and we'll make a call-"
   "I can't," Debbie said, but Sarah could see that she liked the idea. The
girl did light another cigarette and then Sarah handed her the phone. There
was a brief pause as it rang and then hellos were exchanged. Debbie smoked
nervously, looking as though she was sure this would work out badly.
   "I have something to tell you, Mom-" Another break.
   "I've started smoking." There was a long pause, after which the girl said
"Yes, I really do enjoy it- no, I'm not sure why I waited so long- yes, I've
really just started this week. I wanted you to know-"
   "Sure, I can do that. Love you. Bye."
   Debbie was crying not, but they were happy tears. 
   "What happened ?"
   "She said that it was about time. That she can't wait until I get home. Did
you bring a camera ?"
   "Sure."
   "She wants me to send her a picture. Priority mail. She wants to see it so
she knows it's really true. She sounded-"
   "Happy ?"
   Debbie nodded, and Sarah proceeded to take a whole roll of her student, in
all sorts of different poses. Watching her through the fish-eyed lens, she
thought Debbie had never looked so happy.

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