Dave slowly walked back to his place at the table, all eyes were on him, he carefully put his coffee on the table, he didn’t fully pull his chair in. Jane Goodley had seen this before, she knew what was happening, he was asserting himself. As he looked round the table, he was trying to judge the mood, he wasn’t hopeful. Sir George Makin, the Defence Secretary looked down the table at him, “Mr. Stretton, I can see from your informative talk this afternoon, you are definitely not a diplomat, you laid into the Americans, telling them a few home truths, we have been talking for two days without getting anywhere. In fifteen minutes, you put what we had been trying to say from the start. There is to be a short meeting tomorrow to iron out the details, there is a group working on this now and into the night. The deal had been done with a free exchange of most information, no more having to beg or offer more than the value of the information we want. A liaison group is to be set up. Thank you.” Dave said nothing, he didn’t think a response was required, he sipped his coffee, “In view of the agreement today, you are invited to this evening’s dinner party.” Again, he wasn’t sure if he should reply, he thought for a moment, “I will have to check with Miss Fellowes, she might have something planned. Jane looked at Dave, the look said don’t push your luck. “I’m sure the concierge will be able to arrange a suit for you.” The meeting was over, either he had come in for the last part, or it had been arranged to tell him he was invited to dinner, he thought it must be the first one. Jane caught him up as he left, “I want to speak to you, may I come up to your room.” He went in first to make sure Sally was dressed, she was relaxing in a chair watching a game show. “Jane is here, I’m not sure whether it is me or the both of us she wants to talk to.” “Both of you.” He picked up the phone, “I need a tuxedo and a silk evening gown for this evening, is this something you can arrange?” He was told there was a hire department in the hotel, open until 20:00. “Would you please inform them we will be down shortly.” Looking at Sally, “I’m back in favour, we are out to dinner this evening,” turning to Jane he asked what time they needed to be ready by, “Cars will be here at 20:30, dinner is at 21:15, it has been pushed back because of you.” Sally asked if she wanted coffee, there was a shake of the head. “David, you nearly screwed up big time in there, one wanted you arrested for breaking in to their servers, I advised it would be a very bad move if they did that. From our point of view, it has worked out well. How did you do it, you didn’t have any notes?” “I never do, I wrote down the four topics I wanted to talk to them about, everything is in my head, it just comes out, not always politely, but you know that.” “You were brutal in there, you took them apart then carefully put them back together, explaining where they had gone wrong and how they needed us as much as we need them. No one approves of how you did it, but as usual, you achieved the desired result without having to shoot anyone this time. I’ll leave you to get ready, thank you for today.” She kissed him before leaving. “We’ve been invited to the Embassy dinner, we had better see what clothes we can hire.” “Tell me what happened in the meeting,” “they said thank you, Jane told us more than they did, I guess they are pissed off an ex sergeant sorted it out in fifteen minutes.” It didn’t take long for Dave to have a tuxedo fitted, Sally spent ages looking through the silk dresses, she chose a royal blue full length dress, matched with a white shawl. She had a bag and shoes in the room. It was 20:15 when they were both ready, the dress was backless, there was some padding at the front to stop her nipples showing, “I’ve got a tiny thong on, I might as well not be wearing it,” “take it off then, don’t bother with it, it will save time later,” “no, I have to concentrate on what we are doing tonight, I’ve never been to anything like this before.” Dave said it was a new experience for him. He picked up tickets left for him at reception. Jane was waiting for them, “we are going in the same car, there will be a photographer taking pictures of everyone as they arrive, you will have to tell him you don’t want yours taken.” It was a cool evening, Sally was glad of the shawl, as they entered, Dave showed the tickets, his name was checked off a list, they were in a queue for pictures, when it was their turn Dave explained there wouldn’t be any official pictures of him, he asked the photographer to take a couple using Sally’s phone. Jane had also dodged an official picture. Entering the reception, they were offered London gin, Scotch whisky or orange juice, there were probably fifty people in the room, those who had been involved in the negotiations were there with their partners. Sally was at ease talking to the other guests, she was a natural talker, Dave didn’t enjoy these types of events. He was always asked what he did, there was a choice, say he drove for Uber or tell them what he did the rest of the time. Both were usually conversation stoppers. Tonight, he said he was part of the British team, he wasn’t pressed any further. He talked about Washington and how he hoped to stay on for a few days to see a little of the city. There was the usual question Americans always ask, ‘is this your first time here’, he replied saying he had been many times but it was the first time in Washington. He was pulled away from Sally by one of the Americans he had spoken to earlier, “is what you said today how the rest of the world view us?” “Pretty much so, the problem is you go poking your nose in where it’s not wanted, it causes resentment. Do you think 9/11 would have happened if you hadn’t caused trouble in the Middle East? It might have still happened, but maybe not.” The man looked at Dave, “You sure tell it like it is.” “As I said today, I’m not a diplomat, I say how I see things, it gets me in a lot of trouble back in the UK.” A gong sounded, doors were opened, people started to shuffle through into the dining room, there was a table plan as the entered. Sally and Dave were on a round table for six, the other couples were both American. Introductions were made, hands shaken, Dave turned his place name round so the others could see his name, Sally did the same, “in case you forget who we are.” One said there was no way he would be forgotten after this afternoon. Sally asked about life in Washington, what the prices were like and where would be a good place to go shopping, one of the ladies asked why he looked so different from the rest of the team sent over. “You’re not a penpusher, what do you do the rest of the time?” “Sally and I are investigators, we are here as I have a good rapport with one of the people at Langley. We were here to smooth out any problems if they occurred, fortunately we weren’t needed.” The food was very good, each course was British themed, with the main course being Welsh lamb. English wine was served with the food. Tea was offered as well as coffee at the end of the meal. There were more drinks afterwards, Dave was more used to the social chit chat, he said little unless he was asked specifically, he thought about the café on the industrial estate where the drivers met, he would much rather have been there. It was all over by midnight, they were back in the hotel by 00:30, he and Sally were invited into the bar for more drinks, Sally whispered saying she had to go to the toilet, she had to take the thong off, “it’s too bloody uncomfortable.” When she joined Dave in the bar, he felt her put something in his jacket pocket. There were celebrations, the agreement had been drawn up, it would be signed in the morning and then they would be on their. Sally said to Jane they wouldn’t be flying back, she said they were staying for another couple of nights, returning on Saturday. In the morning, it was back to Langley, there was a signing ceremony, pictures were taken of handshakes and documents being signed. Dave and Sally took no part, they sat in the lounge reading the papers. Cyrus came in to say goodbye, “we’re staying until Saturday, we rebooked the flights. I want to see you once everyone has gone, I have something to show you.” Dave and Sally watched from a window as the coach left for the airport, they remained in the lounge, Cyrus came to them shortly afterwards, “what can I do for you?” “I have a short video I would like to show you, not here, in your office.” The three sat round a table in Cyrus’s office, Dave switched on the laptop, found the video he wanted and pressed play, there was no audio or views of people’s faces, nothing would give away the location or who was presenting the video. There was a commentary scrolling along the bottom. A laptop was shown on and working, a red coloured USB stick was pushed into one of the slots. Various different anti-virus tools were then run on the laptop, nothing was found. The video panned out to show a second laptop, both were then connected to a network by cable, a few seconds later the first laptop stopped working. The camera now showed three more laptops, one was seen to have a green USB stick inserted into it, one of the new laptops was connected to the network by wi-fi this time, as the connection was made the previously connected laptop stopped, the one with the green USB stick remained working as did the last laptop. A final laptop was connected to the network, the working machine with the green USB stick remained working, the other one stopped. Cyrus had been reading the commentary, “let me get this right, the first machine is infected, it remains working until it connects to another computer, when it does, the first machine dies and the infection is passed on, it carries on working until it finds another machine, it will carry on spreading without stopping, like a virus, the green USB is obviously the anti-virus.” “It’s undetectable, it buries itself somewhere in the bios or operating system, it would spread through a network like wildfire, if you infected one PC in this building, I would guess within ten minutes there wouldn’t be a working machine, I think you need to involve your bosses, a bit of mutual cooperation.” Cyrus made phone calls, within five minutes his office was full, it was decided to move into a larger room with a projector and screen, Dave emailed the video to Cyrus, he was then able to show it on the screen. Dave and Sally stood at the back, “Where did you get the video from?” “A friend, no, more a business associate, he helps me obtain the software we use.” The video was shown twice, most of the people in the room were asked to leave, only Dave and Sally, Cyrus and two people from the dinner party yesterday were left. Cyrus was asked if the head of IT had seen the video, the answer was no, he was phoned and told to be here within ten minutes. While they were waiting, Dave was asked where the video came from, “it was on my laptop,” “listen bud, don’t fuck with me, do you know who you are talking to?” “Possibly, as you would say over here, an asshole.” Sally laughed, Dave carried on, “I stayed here this morning to show you something that could be very harmful to your organisation, I’m not one of your employees or some soft British diplomat, I don’t care who you are, talk to me like that and you will get nothing.” “Dave, come over here,” Cyrus pulled Dave to the other side of the room, “he’s one of the deputy directors, you can’t talk to him like that.” “Cyrus, you earn respect, a fancy title after your name doesn’t cut it with me. Talk like an asshole and you will be treated like one.” The head of IT had arrived, the video was shown again, “who knows how this works?” “I do, from what I have been told, it embeds itself somewhere undetectable, once it finds a network connection, it copies itself onto the new machine, where it waits for another connection, it sends a message back to the previous machine which then has its hard drive corrupted. The green stick stops the machine being infected.” “Do you have it here?” “No, I can supply it, the software was offered to me, but it isn’t something I need in my line of work.” He was asked what his line of work was, “I’m an investigator, together with my partner Sally we are sub-contracted to the UK Government, we are not employees.” “Who knows about this software?” “The people who were in the room earlier, the developer and his agent.” The next question was the one Dave had been waiting for, “how much does he want for it.” “$1m will get you two of the red and green sticks, one lot I know you would keep, the second set you would try to figure out how it worked.” “Out of the question, we won’t pay for it, we will track it down and take it, eliminate those developing it.” It was the Deputy Director again, Dave turned to him, “you are obviously the political appointment as you have no understanding of how this works. You find the developer, he is in another country, you send in a team to eliminate him and retrieve his computers and anything he has, don’t you think these people haven’t thought about that scenario. Within hours the contents of his cloud storage would be everywhere, the software would be available to every hacker from here to North Korea, imagine the damage control you would have to do then.” “We would seize his cloud storage.” “If it’s anything like mine three goes at accessing it with the wrong password will set off alarms, copies made and distributed to other places, the original files destroyed. These people think of everything. They’re good with computers.” “We’re not paying,” he was now looking at the other man in the room, he turned and walked out. “He’s the White House appointment, one deputy is political, the other internal.” “Can you speak to the internal one then? Cyrus we are going back to the hotel, you won’t be turning us over will you, if anyone goes through our room, we will be gone, I am offered a lot of software, most of it I don’t need, but I can always let you know if there is something that might interest you.” As Cyrus was escorting them to the exit, he asked if they would like to have dinner tomorrow night at his house with himself and Marybeth. Sally said it would be great, “send us the address and time, we will be there.” In the taxi back, Sally wanted to ask questions, Dave said to wait until they were in the hotel. They sat in the lounge away from other people, “only talk generally in the room, nothing work related, just to be sure.” “Is what you are doing safe and is it legal?” “It’s safe, I have the usual precautions in place, it’s a deal we are doing, we are only acting as middle men. If the Americans decide to buy, then we will make a little profit on the deal.” He was smiling as he said it. “How much?” “Enough for me to match the value of your house, if you wanted, we could move or stay and live comfortably, it’s up to you what we do.” Dave said there was to be no more talk about work, the rest of the time until they were back home was to be about them. Later they did the tourist trail looking at the sites they had seen on TV. Dinner was in a diner near the hotel, Dave’s steak was almost hanging off his plate, Sally ordered chicken, the half chicken served up to her was huge. She said it was no wonder so many of the people they had seen were overweight. There was no room for anything else, they had coffees in their room, Dave lay fully clothed on the bed he felt full. “Mr. Stretton, get your clothes off, don’t think you are going to sleep yet. Sally was out of her jeans and top, she had pulled on one of Dave’s tee shirts, she pulled off his shoes and socks. Dave lay still, his shirt was undone next, when he was fully undressed, Sally took off the tee shirt and joined him in bed.
© 10210ken 2025
