The Layered World - Part 2 - Fallout from Air Disaster
Chap 6 - Sam and Sybil
He asked to be driven to the central London office. As they fought the late afternoon traffic, he mused on the fact that Brit intelligence never disclosed, even among friends, more than was necessary. The Cold War double agent scandals had left permanent marks.
Sam's headquarters were convenient, but as innocuous as possible. In a row of upscale houses near Paddington, with commercial premises on the ground floor, the polished brass plaque said, 'Investment Management Services, Ltd.' An extremely narrow drive led straight down to a remotely operated door. This was Hugh's private area. Only he and a few chosen helpers had access. There were a dozen parking spaces, work facilities, and a comfortable lounge with napping and shower rooms.
"That's it for today, Hugh, but I might be taking the Jag out later."
Joshua was a graduate of Hugh's course in offensive and defensive driving, and had done well. Hugh's return glance was comfortable that the boss was making off with an immensely valuable and completely restored E type Jaguar from the Sixties.
A great deal of money had been quietly spent on renovation of the building, which had a brick core and had been built well in the mid-19th century. The ground floor was occupied by Sam's staffers with client contact responsibilities. The first floor was a suite of offices and a conference room for highly valued clients. There was a kitchen for food service and a small bath suite. Above that was an apartment for Sam, and a suite for Jay when he was in residence. Access between floors was by elevator and elegant stairways, all with provision for being locked down tightly in the evening and when otherwise necessary.
He had long ago learned that personal attention was the key to motivated employees and took the trouble to memorize names, faces and personal facts. A room full of smiles, almost all of them female, greeted him as he exited the elevator from the garage. Each got a kiss and a warm hello. Sam's personal secretary was securing the stairway doors to the floor above and descending with her purse as he swept her into his arms for a big hug and a fierce kiss.
"Jay! You are such an embarrassment in front of the staff!" He swung her around and laughed with the others. "Molly, without your divine presence, we would be lost!"
"Go on now, Samantha is waiting for you in the apartment." To the room, she announced, "The CEO is giving us an early closing because of the holiday on Monday. Enjoy yourselves."
Two bodies dropped on him as he attempted to leave the elevator on the second floor. Burdened by a duffel and briefcase, he went down hard. He felt a hand pound him on the back, to the left of his spine.
"There, you're dead."
He probably was, if there had been a sharp knife in the hand. His eyes were closed as he felt the two muscled bodies checking him for weapons, as they had been trained to do. The stilletto from his ankle was retrieved in a flash. It was constructed of very hard and specially sharpened plastic, and had evaded the security check earlier at the beginning of the trip.
He turned over and got tongue kisses from both of them. "Not bad. What if he already had a gun in his hand when he came out?"
"I was ready to break his wrist." Another kiss. "And he wouldn't have got to the elevator anyway. Even if he disabled the monitor and power, my alarm would have gone off."
They helped him up, with the aid of more kisses. The black cat suits, for use at night, did good things for their curves.
"What are both of you doing here?"
"You are not allowed to play favorites. I called her immediately after you hung up."
Sybil hissed in his ear, "Traitorous male, my knife should have been in your testicles."
Sam whispered as she led them to her sofa, "I suppose all bets are off now that we attacked you?"
He responded, "Bring us some wine and cheese, will you? I have to make up with this one."
He lowered the zipper on the cat suit to reveal naked breasts. His mouth lowered and went to work. Teeth and lips pulled at the stiffening nipples.
"You are truly a beast. Why did we ever hook up with you?"
Jay and the women never tired of sexual banter and innuendo. It covered a sense of wonder that strong bonds could possibly come from the crazy relationship they had. He kept telling them life was often cruel and not to count on loving him. But they did, anyway. Jay was such a force in their lives, sexually and otherwise, that when he joked about their finding other lovers, they became angry and took him down in a wrestling pile of crude oaths.
Sybil was about to come when Sam returned. "Every time I see your glorious tits, I get jealous. No wonder Jay goes after them."
She reached between the other woman's legs and pinched. Sybil screamed and shuddered, falling back on the cushion. Sam grabbed his hair. "That's enough making up. More than enough. What about me? I am very deprived."
She unzipped her own suit and thrust a fine pair at him. "Don't these count for anything?" Her laugh was almost a giggle.
He ran his tongue carefully over each of them, leaving a wet trail. "You will have to wait. We need to talk."
They sipped the chilled Pinot Grigio and gave him the bedroom eyes treatment. He could tell there would be no peace until loving had occurred. Rough loving was what they had in mind, he thought.
From his briefcase, he extracted the small package wrapped in very fine paper. His fingers dawdled over the tape until Sam took it away and swiftly opened it to discover the two small boxes. They looked at him and he handed one to each, hoping he had remembered the right contents for the right person.
He looked guiltily at them, "I apologize for my long absence. Perhaps these will help."
They were frowning as the lids were raised. Even in the dim light, the baubles flashed brilliantly. "Oh my." They leaned for a kiss and he joked, "Not the best adornment for your night suits."
They smothered him and hissed, "Trying to make up with jewelry are you? Very old trick."
"Is it working?"
"Of course, you idiot. Just when we are working up a good snit, you do something terribly thoughtful. Catches us offguard."
His hands reached out and pulled their lips to his for soft kisses. "Enough of your teasing. We need to disappear for several days. Perhaps you have some ideas."
They leaned back against him and relaxed. "Do we get to know why? What about the home cooked dinner you promised?"
"You remember Philip telling us it pays to be paranoid?" Philip was a retired Wall Street investment advisor who was an acquaintance of Jay's father, Jack. After first refusing a fee, he had become a consultant to the shadowy entities that comprised Jay's growing empire. Every few months, they gathered at his retirement home in the Adirondacks for a Philip seminar. His education, some sixty years ago, had been of the classical variety. He used the Socratic method on them and delighted Jay, who had filled himself with the Greeks years previously.
"We have an accumulation of signs. If we were at Delphi, what would the oracle say?"
They exchanged looks with each other and said to him, "We don't get to tease, but you do?"
"Answer me."
Sam began. "There are rumblings in the industry about some of our latest wins. Perhaps enough hostility to fuel revenge activity."
Sybil continued, "The jihadists may correctly suspect we are involved with the attacks on their banking connections. And sending us an indirect message to back off with the plane crash."
He added, "And it is possible that someone at MI6 or the CIA has leaked something out of unhappiness over our ability to keep our activities off their radar screens."
Sybil pushed back, "But Jay, going to ground sends a signal. Maybe we want to send a signal, maybe we don't."
He nodded and said, "I'm hungry, let's go to the other place and let me cook while we talk more." To Sam, he said, "Bring your overnight bag with a change of clothes in case we do decide to disappear."
He eased the Jag out of the garage and headed around Hyde Park to Sybil's flat. The women were very tightly clinched in the small passenger seat next to him. He popped the clutch and they giggled as the car thrust them back into the seat cushion.
Their free hands reached to tousle his hair. "Watch how you treat this car, boyfriend, or your driving privilege will be suspended." The Jag attracted attention wherever it went, and he was glad for darkness this particular night. All too soon for the women enjoying the ride, he was squeezing into a narrow, below ground garage door. They pulled his lips to theirs and congratulated him for no damage to the vehicle. "Hugh will be pleased to hear you are still able to care for his beauty." He tickled them and growled.
In her gorgeous modern kitchen, Sybil got out the Boodles and glanced at him, "We won't be driving after a martini, will we?"
He hesitated for a moment, and said, "Go ahead. Some gin will help our thinking." His smile betrayed him, and they all laughed.
Sybil's proper British martini, made in the Bond manner, did relax them. They helped assemble the dinner ingredients, and then sat on stools at the counter while he worked.
He said, "Let's give a holler to Natalie and Kelly, they probably don't appreciate all this bad news and being by themselves."
