“What if it’s a replacement?” she said.
“It’s not a perfect system,” he said, “but if the date under the lid is, say, ‘November 1, 1969,’ then you know the house is at least that old. Could be older, but unless it was built before indoor plumbing, it probably isn’t any newer than that date.”
“Ah. Good to know.”
“A real estate agent showed it to me. If somebody is trying to sell you a house they claim is twenty-five years old, and the toilet was built thirty years ago, chances are likely they are lying.”
She laughed, took another healthy swig of her champagne.
“Am I missing a joke?”
“Not at all. We’ve been sitting here for two minutes, and already we’re having a deep philosophical discussion about bathroom plumbing.”
He laughed. A sense of humor, too. Ah, he was going to enjoy this conquest. “But let’s get back to your day,” he said. “We’ll always have Kohler… ”
19
Alex Michaels looked up and saw Tommy Bender standing in his doorway. “You’re like the bad penny, aren’t you? You just keep turning up.”
Tommy didn’t smile, though. “I thought I’d better warn you, Alex. You’ll be getting a copy of the records request later today, pursuant to the lawsuit.”
Michaels frowned and shook his head. “Oh, good,” he said. “That’s just what we need, putting an operative on duty, spending part of our budget pulling files so they can be used against us.”
Tommy nodded. “That’s how the game is played, Commander. And a word of caution, even though I know it’s totally unnecessary: There will be judicial review, with input from assorted federal agencies as to whether or not any material requested is vital to national security. If something should be kept secret for such reasons, it will be tended with appropriate deletions. Don’t decide that the list needs to be trimmed here. If they ask for it, give it up.”
“Of course,” Michaels said. “We wouldn’t want to do anything illegal, would we?”
“Exactly what you are supposed to say. I’ll drop by later and see how it is going.”
“It might take days,” Michaels said. “Weeks, even.”
Now Tommy did smile. “Of course. The initial order won’t set a deadline, it will merely specify that said documents be delivered in a ‘timely manner.’ They don’t expect you to shut down operations for this. But if it looks as if you are deliberately dragging your feet, the judge will not be amused.”
Alex nodded. “I understand, Tommy. We’ll be sure to smile, nod, and tell everybody we are going just as fast as we can. And thanks for the heads up.”
Tommy left, and Michaels leaned back in his chair. Just another day in paradise. He glanced at his small top drawer, the one he reserved for personal items. Inside it was an envelope that came the other day, and inside that was a job offer to head up a computer security service for a big corporation headquartered in Colorado.
He got two or three similar offers pretty much every week. He read them all, but most of them he just threw away. This one he’d kept, though he wasn’t sure he could really say why. And now, in the wake of Tommy Bender’s latest announcement, it was starting to look awfully appealing.
Colorado was certainly beautiful, and the job would be a lot less work. It pretty much had it all, a lot more money, a lot less stress, and more time for his family. On top of that, Colorado was a great place to raise a child, and it was closer to his ex-wife and his daughter, which would make it easier for her to visit. They could learn to ski. Hike in the summer. Enjoy the fresh air, if they could get far enough away from Denver.
Maybe he should talk to Toni about it. This job was never easy, and it seemed like it had gotten worse lately. There was something to be said for working in the private sector…
“Sir?” came his secretary’s voice over the com.
“Yes?”
“Ms. Skye is here to see you.”
Michaels sighed. He had forgotten all about Cory. She’d said she was coming by.
“Send her in.”
John Howard was walking toward his office with Julio, talking about the latest revision to the official requisition forms, when he heard something. It sounded odd, like an electric motor’s hum. “What’s that?” he said.
Julio looked at him. “What’s what?”
“That noise, kind of a low drone.”
“I don’t hear any — wait. Oh, that. It’s one of the scooters I told you about.”
As if to punctuate his words, Sergeant Franklin Kenny rounded the corner of the hall heading in their direction, riding on what looked like an old manual push lawnmower.
Sergeant Kenny rolled past at a pretty good pace.
Julio frowned and said, “You know, General, I couldn’t hear the scooter until after you did. Maybe I ought to look into getting one of those little earplugs like yours.”
Howard smiled. He hadn’t told anyone about his new toy. He certainly hadn’t mentioned it to Julio. On the other hand, he hadn’t made any real effort to hide it, either. He’d just been waiting to see who would say something — or even notice — and who wouldn’t. That Julio had spotted it wasn’t a surprise. The surprise would have been if he hadn’t noticed it.
“Just so you know I’m not always asleep at the switch,” Julio said.
“Even a stopped clock is right twice a day,” Howard said. “So if you’ve got any deaf old man jokes, now’s the time.”
“Oh, no, sir, I wouldn’t do that. Now if you want to ask me if I have any
“You are getting droll in your old age, Lieutenant.”
“Yes, sir, General Howard, sir, I confess that I am. I’m surprised you didn’t take care of that ear thing sooner. You’ve been deaf as a post on that side for a couple years.”
“Why didn’t you mention it before?”
Julio grinned. “Well, sir, I did. You just didn’t hear me is all.”
“Does your wife think you’re funny, Julio?”
“She thinks I’m a riot. That’s the reason she married me. Well, that and my handsome face and dashing and courteous manner, of course.”
Howard laughed.
“I saw Gunny on the obstacle course today,” Julio said.
“Gunny? Our Gunny actually went to the obstacle course?”
“I believe he was holding up one of the barricades by leaning on it. I didn’t actually see him running the course. Anyway, he allowed as how Tyrone has been showing up for the pistol team practices.”
“Ty seems to enjoy himself,” Howard said.
“Gunny says it makes him want to cry, how good the boy is. Says if he can have him for another three months, you can start building display cases for his shooting medals. He’s got all the tools to be a world-class pistoleer. Any of the military services would snap him up to have him on their shooting squads. Pay his way through college, full-ride military scholarship. Has he considered joining the Guard’s very own Net Force troops? Gunny says he could shoot full-time, never have to get his boots muddy, if it was left up to him.”
