Cross Roads. Fern Michaels

Housing and transportation were free, so our outlay was very little. Yoko is very thrifty, and so am I. We have more than enough money for a down payment on a house with a yard and a fence. That’s what Yoko wants. I do, too. In the meantime, we have the dojo.

      “At this point in time we are no worse off than we were before that out-of-the-blue offer of employment. Definitely better, in the sense that Yoko got her pardon and we got married. I suppose I can now add to my résumé that I helped train Israeli soldiers. I already have a full class signed up for next week, so that means I am here to stay.”

      “What was it that made you throw in the towel?” Annie asked with an intensity that made Harry’s eyebrows shoot upward.

      “We both hated the whole deal from day one. I admit, and so does Yoko, that we were dazzled by the money. That didn’t last long. Yoko got depressed after her miscarriages and blamed it on being out of the country. I hated seeing her like that. She missed the others terribly. She used to cry every day, and she cursed the day the pardons came through. She went into a real funk when we weren’t able to come back for Christmas last year. I did, too, to be honest.

      “I think I know what you want me to say here, and yes, it was a job that was created for me that had absolutely no meaning. No one took my brand of training seriously. They’re all about guns and ‘real’ soldiering. Yoko is the one who finally came up with something we both thought made sense. She said Hank Jellicoe wanted to separate us, to scatter us to the four winds. Neither of us could figure out why, but it was the only thing that made any kind of sense. I can’t tell you the last time I talked to Jack or Bert. The sat phones always, somehow, mysteriously jammed when I tried to call any of the others. Yoko had the same problem when she tried to call the girls. Neither of us could figure that out, either.”

      Annie thought she had never heard Harry talk so much. Always a man of few words, he was certainly being more than vocal at the moment, which told her he was more than a little concerned over his present circumstances.

      It was Myra’s turn to speak. “Harry, I’m going to ask you a question, and I want you to really think before you answer me. Do you think Hank wanted you boys to separate or do you think he wanted the vigilantes to separate? In a way, it is the same thing but not really.”

      Harry pondered the question, wishing he had his cup of tea to wrap his hands about. “It’s strange, Myra, that you should ask me that question. Yoko and I beat it to death so many times I lost count. We both think he wanted to separate the vigilantes. We can’t figure out why, though. Is that what you all think?”

      “We do, and Maggie agrees,” Annie said. “But like you, we can’t figure out the why of it.”

      Harry rubbed at the bristle on his chin. He wished now that he had shaved earlier. “If you think Charles was into all that covert stuff that goes on all over the world, he’s a novice compared to what Jellicoe has going on. That man plows through some really deep shit, or, at least, his people do. Yoko and I are good listeners, and of course, since Jellicoe was our benefactor, we tried to learn as much as we could about Global Securities during our stint away from home, at least back in the beginning. Later on, we didn’t want to know any more than we knew at that point. Hank Jellicoe is the eight-hundred-pound gorilla in the espionage and security business. He outshines the CIA by a mile. By the way, do you know that only the CIA and Homeland Security can freeze a person’s monies, even a foreign government’s monies? A while back I remember reading about that in some article in the paper, probably the Post. Well, I’m here to tell you there are three organizations that can do it, and number three just happens to be Global Securities.”

      Myra stared at Harry. “What does that mean, Harry? I mean in regard to us, to you, me, the vigilantes? You must have had a reason for bringing that to our attention.”

      “Myra, I don’t know. I just mentioned it. I guess we have to figure out what it means. Hey, I’m a martial arts kind of guy. I’m not into all that spook stuff. At this point in time, I just feel like I want to burrow in and get on with my life. There are no words to tell you how glad I am to be home. I just wish Jack and Bert were here. The rest of this crap means squat to me personally, but I do care how it affects Yoko. I want to be on record as saying that.”

      “Duly noted,” Annie said.

      The world took that moment to move, with Yoko rushing to the back of the dojo and throwing herself up against Annie and Myra as tears rolled down her cheeks.

      “I think she’s happy to see them, don’t you, Harry?” Maggie whispered.

      Harry laughed—such a strange sound that Maggie grinned. She thought for a moment, and realized she had never actually heard Harry laugh out loud. That had to be a good sign. Of what, she didn’t know. She looked down at the BlackBerry in her hand, at the text that was coming through. She felt the fine hairs on the back of her neck start to move. She looked up to see four sets of eyes staring at her.

      “Listen, you guys stay here and talk about old times. I have an errand to run. I shouldn’t be more than an hour, and I’ll be back.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Ted wants me to pick up something he says is important.”

      Sensing an urgency in Maggie, Harry stepped forward. “Do you want me to go with you, Maggie?”

      Maggie thought about the offer and shook her head. “No, it’s better if you stay here and pretend that everything is normal.”

      Myra’s tone was so anxious, Maggie found herself cringing when she said, “But, dear, where are you going? How can we pretend to be normal when we don’t know what passes for normal these days?” Even though it was a question, Myra didn’t expect an answer, so she wasn’t disappointed when Maggie just shrugged.

      “To Neiman Marcus at the Galleria to try on a slinky dress I am going to buy, so I can leave the store with a shopping bag. I shouldn’t be more than an hour or so. You can bring each other up to date while I’m gone.”

      “How wonderful! I so love slinky dresses. Just put it on your expense account, dear,” Annie said generously.

      “I’m not into slinky, Annie, and thank you for the offer, but I really just need the shopping bag. See ya. But if the dress comes with the deal, who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth.”

      Jittery small talk followed before Yoko excused herself to take her groceries inside. Everyone looked down at their watches. Yoko was back in less than ten minutes carrying a tray with a teapot, cups, and a plate of honey-rice cakes. The women all started to babble at once as they tried to figure out where and what Maggie was up to other than buying a dress she didn’t want.

      In the cab she was fortunate to hail almost in front of Harry’s dojo, Maggie leaned back in the seat to scan the latest text from Ted, who said he would arrive Stateside no later than 8:00 P.M. She scrolled till she found the previous message, the message that had her in this cab at this precise moment. And to think she was going to get a slinky dress out of the deal, compliments of the Post. She had no idea where or when she would have an occasion to wear said slinky dress. And at this precise moment, she couldn’t care less.

      Maggie closed her eyes as she tried to figure out where all of this was going. She was almost giddy with the thought that in less than ten hours, give or take a few, she would be talking to Ted and Espinosa. She just wasn’t sure if that would be before or after a round of lovemaking. Right now, though, lovemaking was coming in second to the weirdness that was going on in all their lives.

      She was back in the game. She could feel it in every bone in her body. She knew in her gut that the others felt the same way. Yoko had come alive inside the fish market the moment she’d voiced her suspicions about what was going on. By the time they reached the alley of the dojo, her eyes were sparkling like diamonds.

      The only thing throwing her off at the moment was Yoko’s question, which she couldn’t answer. “Maggie, do you think it’s possible something happened to Hank Jellicoe?” Considering his profession, all that the man was involved in, Yoko’s question did bear thinking about. And it was a question that she, as a reporter, should have asked herself early