The Trade (19 page)

"None of the above,” Jay answered. "It's
work. They've offered me a promotion. It's a lot more money, more
responsibility and probably more hush-hush.”

"It's not illegal is it son? You know those
Wall St. Sharpies. They'd sell their mother to make a buck!"

"No it's not illegal. Just hush-hush,” Jay
repeated.

"Well I've never believed in hush-hush son.
If you can't do it at noon on the town square then you probably
shouldn't be doing it!" she said. Jay had heard this gem of
mother's wisdom a thousand times.

"I know. I know,” Jay said. He rolled his
eyes and held the phone away from his face. He mouthed the next
line in time with his mother.

"If God meant for us to have secrets, She
wouldn't have given us eyes, ears, and especially mouths,” his
mother finished.

"You're right mom,” Jay said. He waited for
another second but his mother was finished. She'd voiced her
standard piece.

"Say mom?"

"Yes?"

"Have you noticed anything strange
lately?"

"Strange how?" she asked.

"Strange like wouldn't normally happen in our
small little town?"

"Well not really,” she said. Jay noted the
hesitation.

"What does ‘not really’ mean?" Jay asked.

"Well there was that FBI agent came around a
few days ago.”

"FBI?" Jay prodded. "What did he want?” Jay
couldn't believe that a visit from an FBI agent warranted a ‘not
really’ on the strangeness scale from his mother.

"SHE wanted to know about your family, about
your friends, any girlfriends, you know. SHE said it was just
standard stuff for someone in your position.”

"What did you tell her?" Jay replied,
catching the female indignation at his chauvinism.

"I didn't tell her anything,” she said.

"Why not?" Jay asked, curious to learn about
this secretive side of his mother. He'd expected her to have
spilled her guts, to have talked the agent's ear off.

"Because who you know and where you go is
nobody's business but yours,” she said proudly.

"Thanks mom,” Jay said. He relaxed into his
chair. The momentary tension slipping away from him. He figured
he'd just earned some breathing room from whoever was stalking
him.

"Now your father, there's a totally different
story. He'd been drinking and he talked to that little blonde
number for almost an hour. I think he liked her,” Mrs. Calloway
said, emphasizing "blonde.”

"An hour? What did he talk about?" Jay asked,
the tension back.

"I'm sure I don't know,” his mother lied. "I
didn't listen.”

"Yeah right. You listened. You know you did
mom,” Jay teased. Not a word was said within 20 yards of his
mother's house that she didn't hear.

"Well... Mostly he talked about your friends
from high school and how bright you were and how stupid they were.
About how you were the one who went to college and wowed everybody.
He sounded very proud of you.”

"What?" Jay couldn't believe it. His father
praising him to an FBI agent.

"I told you he'd been drinking,” Mrs.
Calloway defended her husband. "He did speak well of Rick though,”
she added.

"Rick?" Jay said. "He told them about
Rick?"

"Yes of course dear. He was your best friend
wasn't he?"

"Shit,” Jay mouthed.

"What?"

"Nothing Mom,” Jay said. "Mom?"

"Yes?"

"When exactly did the FBI agent visit?"

"Why baby? Are you in some kind of
trouble?"

"No I'm not in any trouble,” he said. "Can
you remember when it was?"

"It was a couple days before you left for
your vacation,” she said.

"Vacation?" Jay asked. Although he couldn't
that believe his mother had found out, he knew immediately how
she'd found out.

"Whoops,” she said. "I wasn't supposed to
know about that was I?"

"About what?"

"Well... About your secret with you know who.
I was at the lawyer's office and he let it slip that you were on
vacation. I guess it was supposed to be some big national secret or
something? Something you couldn’t even tell your mom."

Jay could hear the hurt in her voice. It was
like the night he'd come home drunk from the school dance. His
mother had been crushed, she thought she could never trust her
little angel again. It had taken him months to regain her trust. He
heard the same hurt in her voice. He wanted to apologize and tell
her everything, come clean. But he needed to find out about the
agent. What did they know? When did they know it? Did they know
about Rick before the vacation? Jay grilled her but soon the hurt
and confusion in her voice overcame him.

"Look mom I gotta go okay?"

"Okay. I love you Jay.”

"I love you too mom.”

He sat looking at the silent phone in his
hand for a long time.

Chapter

"I'm not going to take it,” Jay Calloway
announced to Bill Beck and Hal Kreitzer. "Bill, it's been great
working for you and with you. I'm very happy here and I don't want
to move.”

The statement fell on unbelieving ears.
Neither Bill nor Hal could understand. They were certain Jay would
go for the money. The profile practically guaranteed he’d go for
the money. They'd planned on telling him about the "special
conditions" of the job after he'd signed on the dotted line for the
transfer. Now they were stymied.

"What's the sticking point?" Hal asked,
unwilling to give up on his candidate.

"Something my mother said,” Jay said,
emphasizing the word mother.

Hal and Bill shot each other quick
glances.

Did he find out about the tap
? Bill
wondered.

Did he find out about the
surveillance
? Hal asked himself. The two men quickly regained
their composure.

"What did she say?" Bill asked.

"She reminded me about openness and honesty
and loyalty to your family and friends,” Jay said. He looked
directly at Hal as he said these words. Jay still wasn't sure if it
was the CIA or Angus MacKenzie or maybe even Hal who'd been
investigating him. He meant to find out about Hal right now.

"Did you read your employee handbook?" Hal
asked matter-of-factly.

"Yes. What's that got…?"

"It has a lot to do with it kid.” Hal assumed
a lecturing lawyer voice. "It clearly states that due to the nature
of our business we have the right to commission periodic security
checks on our personnel.” Hal sought to pre-empt Jay's
complaint.

"But what about my…?"

Hal cut him off again. "Your constitutional
rights and right to privacy and blah, blah, blah?" Hal finished
Jay's sentence. "What about them? Did we do anything wrong? Did we
do anything except exactly what we said we were going to do? Your
parents didn't have to answer any questions. They invited us
in.”

"You told them you were FBI,” Jay
accused.

"The people who visited your parents are
FBI,” Hal said. He let it sink in, doubting that Jay would question
his version of the story.

"But why would the FBI do background checks
for MacKenzie Lazarus?" Jay asked, not certain that he wanted to
know the answer.

Hal leaned closer to Jay. He tossed Bill an
almost imperceptible wink. He fixed Jay with his steely grey
eyes.

"I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill
you,” Hal said.

Jay’s eyes widened, he looked back and forth
between Bill and Hal. It has to be a joke, Jay realized. Jay's
deep-seated psychological defense mechanism kicked in and he
started to laugh. Soon Hal and Bill were laughing along with him,
the tension was broken. The laughter died down slowly.

"So is that the only thing?" Hal asked.

"No,” Jay answered.

"What else kid?" Hal asked.

I don't particularly like being called
'kid'
Jay thought but did not say. "Well now that I know about
the security checks it explains a lot. But. There's two other
things.”

"What are they?" Hal asked.

"First. What exactly would I be doing?
Second. Why would you pay me so much to do it?” Jay released a
heavy sigh. It wasn't his way to lay all his cards on the table.
But things lately had been too much for Jay. He had really not
expected such an open confession of responsibility, or maybe guilt,
concerning the security checks from Hal.

Ask him about Tennessee
, a small voice
kept saying the back of Jay's head.
Ask if it was Hal's personal
FBI in the Smokies
, the voice insisted.

"No,” Jay said out loud in response.

"What?" Bill and Hal asked together.

"Nothing,” Jay covered, trying to quiet the
voice in his head.
Don't trust anyone
, he heard Rick's voice
warn and then both the voices were silent.

"Let me answer as best I can,” Hal started.
"You'll be designing new systems, fixing old systems, and even
programming some extremely sensitive projects,” Hal said. "I can't
tell you the exact projects before you join, that is a secret. We
have tight security and impose extremely stiff requirements on our
personnel. No excessive drinking, no drugs at all, no friends at
other firms. You agree to let us read your emails. Some of our
people say it's like going to jail. That's why we have to pay so
much. We're trying to beat the other firms on trades. Sometimes we
trade over $100 billion in a week, like when England was trying to
shore up its Pound during their last currency crisis.”

"Okay,” Jay said. "But it's such a huge
raise.”

"If the money bothers you,” Hal started, "We
could always pay you less…” Bill chuckled at the joke. Jay looked
at them both in that puzzled Midwestern way of his. Both Bill and
Hal started to laugh again.

They're laughing at me
, Jay
realized.

Just fell off the turnip truck
, Hal
thought.

Like Woody from Cheers
, Bill was
thinking.

"What's so funny,” Jay asked. "What's so
funny?"

Hal and Bill stifled their laughter.

"We're going to pay you so much because
you're going to earn every penny. Pressure. Late nights. Weekends.
Interrupted vacations. No vacations. Tense people. People who make
me look all warm and fuzzy. Most of our people are burnt out before
forty. We’re going to pay you so much you won’t even listen when
the head hunters start calling you."

"Burnt out but rich if they invested right,”
Bill tossed in.

"Yeah,” Hal added. "Believe me kid, after six
months you'll be screaming for a raise,” Hal said. “Claiming we
didn’t warn you.”

Jay sat back in his chair and tried to soak
it in.
Hal admitted he's been checking me out
, Jay said to
himself.
If it's been him all along, then I'm free to see Tonia,
she had nothing to do with it. Rick was wrong. But what if she was
in on it? What if Angus was after me too? Weren't there two sets of
people in Gatlinburg?
Jay puzzled for another few minutes.

"Are you sure it's okay with you?" Jay asked
Bill again.

"Yes I'm sure. We're sorry to see you go but
it is a great opportunity for you,” Bill answered, trying to sound
sincere.

He'd been planning the transfer since the day
he interviewed Jay.

"Okay then,” Jay answered. "Let me finish up
what I'm working on now, go home for Christmas and then January 2nd
I start in the new group. How's that sound?" Jay asked.

"Fine,” Hal answered, a satisfied look
crossing his face.

“
And I’ll take the 50k
right now,” Jay said.

“
Sorry kid. You get it on
January 2
^nd
, at the end of the day. But nice
try…”

After Jay left, Bill picked up his phone and
dialed a 4 digit internal number. "Get ready to hand it over, he's
in,” Bill said. He waited a moment listening to the other end.
"January 2nd, but he goes home for Christmas break before then so
you can scale it back while he's away,” Bill said. Bill listened
again.

"Good job. We'll take it from here,” he said
and hung up. Bill Beck put his feet up on his desk and cast an
imaginary lure into a river of his dreams.

"Hook, line and sinker,” he said to himself.
"Hook, line and sinker.”

Chapter

Jay raced the last few steps back to his
office, hoping to catch his phone before it rolled over to his
secretary, Missy. Jay had picked up a habit of his most respected
mentor, answering his own phone whenever possible. He scooped up
the receiver.

"Good morning, Jay Calloway,” he
answered.

"Good morning Jay, Stan Krantz here.”

"Stan?"

"Yes.”

"How are you?" Jay asked guiltily. He knew
Stan was calling to offer him a job at the CIA but the ink was
still wet on Jay's transfer papers to Hal Kreitzer's CTSG.

"Fine thank you. How are you?" Stan
asked.

"Pretty good. What's up?" Jay asked, hoping
to get down to business and have the unpleasant little scene he
anticipated done with quickly.

"Jay I'll get right to the point. We'd like
you to come down to the shop so we can offer you a job,” Stan said
proudly. There was an anxious tone in his voice that Jay hadn't
heard before.

"Stan if you'd only contacted me last week
I'd have still been interested. But I just got a big raise and
promotion here at MacKenzie Lazarus. I have to pass on your offer
Stan.”

"Oh?" Stan asked, feigning surprise. "That's
too bad. We had big plans for you here. Bigger than what they’ve
got planned for you in CTSG.”

“
CTSG?”

“
Jay. Come on. We’re the
CIA, and you’re our top prospect. We knew before you did. So it’s
not a problem for us if you tell them no.”

Jay started to feel more guilty. I led them
on, Jay thought. As soon as I found out I liked MacKenzie Lazarus I
should have told them to stop considering me. "I'm sorry Stan. I've
known for some time that I wouldn't be joining you. I like my job
here and I like my new friends and it's just too late for me. I
should have told you the last time you called. I’m sorry,” Jay
said.