Ashes to Ashes

The idea for this story was inspired by an idea from a reader. If you haven't read the previous three chapters, I suggest you do so to fully understand the story.

The references to an incident involving President Pierce, the former First Lady and Speaker of the House come from a previous story, "Revenge in Advance: The Briefing."

For those who want to say this or that would never happen, remember this is my universe, a place where nearly anything can, and often does, happen. At least on paper...

As always, constructive comments are always welcome and appreciated. Please refer to my profile for more on my personal policy regarding comments, feedback, follows, etc.

*****

End of Ashes to Ashes, Ch. 03:

John closed his eyes, but his mind was still active. Yes, he thought as he fell asleep next to his wife, things could certainly have turned out much different than they did. As he slept, a very familiar dream began to creep into his subconscious...

...

There's a funny thing about dreams. It seems that sometimes you just "know" about events and things in your dreams whether they actually happened or not. That's what went through John's mind as he stood at the top of the gangplank in New York City.

He "knew," for example, that he had just wrapped up a 200-day cruise around the world. He "knew" that he had spent much of his dream cruise with a woman who initially introduced herself as "Sheree," but was, in reality, FBI Special Agent Cheryl Masters.

He learned that after a random encounter with a man on the pool deck. Suddenly, as dreams are wont to do, the scene changed and he was no longer at the top of the gangplank...

A couple days after the ship pulled out of Miami, John's cruise director told him of a nice adult-only night club where he could dance, drink and maybe meet some of the ladies on board. He went to the club and was ushered to a small booth. Looking around, he spotted a number of young, attractive women wearing extremely skimpy dresses. After he placed his order, a young dark-skinned woman wearing a very short club skirt came to his table.

"Hey, sugar," she purred. "My name is Sheree. That shirt looks really nice on you." John smiled as he looked at the young woman addressing him.

"Well, thanks, Sheree," he said. "My name is John and that is a mighty nice dress you're wearing." She smiled and lifted the hem of her short skirt to reveal her pantiless crotch. He couldn't help but notice the small landing strip above her slit.

"What, this old rag?" she asked. "Say, why don't you let a real woman take care of you tonight?" He was stunned as he had never experienced this before.

"That is a mighty tempting offer," he said. "Shall we dance?" She smiled.

"Of course," she said. "Oh, you mean on the dance floor?"

"Sure, we can go there as well if you want," John said, standing.

"Lead the way," she said, taking his hand. John led her to the floor and the two danced through several songs. Sheree did everything she could to keep John's attention, even rubbing herself against him several times, causing his manhood to grow in his khakis. With her arms wrapped around his neck, she ground her pelvis into him.

"What do you say we take this to your cabin?" she whispered in his ear.

"Who am I to deny a lady?" John asked. They stopped dancing and John led Sheree back to his cabin. Once there, Sheree threw the tiny dress over her head, revealing her nude body. John took in her shapely form, which he noticed had no tan lines. She dropped to her knees, pulled his trousers and boxers off and gave him an incredible blow-job.

John grabbed a condom out of a box he purchased before boarding the ship. Sheree made a production out of putting it on him and gently pushed him onto the bed. She straddled him and guided his manhood inside her as she rode him, cowgirl style. John fondled her breasts and sucked her nipples as she bucked up and down. After an intense orgasm, she climbed off of him and the two traded places.

After another orgasm they fell asleep in each other's arms.

Scene change...

The next morning, John headed down to the pool deck and enjoyed a mid-morning cigar while watching the scantily-clad women around the pool.

"Excuse me, you got a light?" John looked and saw a man in khaki shorts sitting down on the chair next to him. He pulled his lighter out of his pocket and handed it to the man, who lit his cigarette. After taking a deep drag, he handed the lighter back to John and extended his hand.

"Bob," he said, introducing himself. John shook his hand and put his lighter away.

"John," he said.

"Nice view, huh?" Bob asked, looking at the bikini-clad women.

"Yeah," John said. "Best part of the whole cruise." Bob laughed.

"I know I've seen you somewhere before, John," he said. John looked at him and tried to remember the man's face, but couldn't. The baseball cap and sunglasses he wore didn't help.

"I don't know where," John said.

"I know," Bob said. "You were the guy who had a funeral for your marriage."

"Yeah, that's me," John said.

"It was all over the news," Bob said. "That was fucking brilliant."

"Thanks," John said.

"So, is the divorce final?" Bob asked.

"Not quite," John said. "It will be in a couple months."

"You going after the guys who screwed your wife?" Bob asked. John shrugged his shoulder.

"I was going to file for alienation of affection, but my lawyer advised against it," John said. "Called it a waste of time and money. He named all the assholes involved, so whatever happens, happens, I guess."

"So what are you going to do now?" Bob asked. John wondered why this guy was asking so many questions.

"Live my life," John said. "Travel the world, get drunk, get laid, you know the drill." Bob smiled and nodded his head.

"Yeah, I know," he said.

"So," John said, "are you going around the world?" Bob shook his head.

"Nah, I'm getting off in Los Angeles," he said. "Got transferred there from Miami, so I thought I'd take some vacation time and go by boat. You?"

"I'm in for the whole trip," John said.

"Have a good cruise," he said. "Good meeting you," he added, standing up. "Thanks for the light. I'll see you around."

"My pleasure," John said with a friendly wave of his hand. He watched as Bob walked away, but his attention was drawn to Sheree, who came on the pool deck in a tiny two-piece suit that barely covered her nipples and landing strip.

"Damn, you look good," John said as she sat down. She smiled.

"Thanks," she said. "Flattery will get you everywhere. Personally, I'd rather be naked, but we're required to wear something out here. So, who was that guy?" she asked. John shook his head.

"Just some guy asking for a light," John said, taking a drag off his cigar. Sheree watched him blow out a plume of smoke.

"You know those things will kill you," she said. He smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

"I've lived a clean life so far and look what it's gotten me," he said. "So I figured, what the hell." Sheree was looking at the man walking away from them intently as John spoke.

"Say, would you mind getting a girl a drink?" she asked.

"Not a problem," John said. "I could use something myself." After John left, she pulled out her phone. As John waited for his order, he noticed Sheree talking to someone on the phone. She looked as though she was having an intense discussion with someone, he noticed. A husband, maybe? A boyfriend? He got their drinks and headed back.

"Everything okay?" he asked. She nodded her head.

"Yeah, just talking to my boss," she said.

"Work getting in the way of fun?" he asked. She smiled.

"Something like that," she said, taking a sip of her drink. "John, can we go somewhere private? We need to talk." What the hell was this, John asked himself. He shrugged his shoulders and ground out his cigar.

"Sure," he said. "Let's go back to my cabin." After John closed the door to his cabin he turned to look at her. "So, what's going on?" he asked. "Are you a married woman? Got a boyfriend somewhere?" She shook her head and pulled something out of her purse. She opened it up and handed it to him.

"Nothing like that," she said. "I'm sorry for the deception, but my name's not Sheree. It's Cheryl. Cheryl Masters. And I'm with the FBI."

"FBI?" John said. "Why the hell is the FBI getting involved with my cruise?"

"It has to do with your wife, April," she said.

"Is my wife having me followed or something?" John asked. She shook her head.

"No," she said. "Nothing like that. But we believe that at least one of the men you named in your divorce is planning to kill both you and your wife." John shook his head.

"You gotta be kidding me," he said.

"I'm not," she said. "In fact, I believe that man you spoke to on the pool deck is the man we're looking for. Did he introduce himself?"

"Yes," John said. "He said his name is Bob."

"Bob," Cheryl repeated. "His real name is Robert Cramer. Former NSA, CIA. He's an enforcer for Senator Jenkins and he's the one who first drugged your wife. Did he say anything else?"

"Said he was getting off the boat in Los Angeles," John said. Cheryl pulled out her phone and made a call, turning her back to John. She turned back around when she was finished.

"My boss wants to see you when the ship pulls into Los Angeles," she said. Terrific, John thought to himself.

The scene suddenly changed and John found himself at the bottom of the gangplank with Cheryl by his side. He "knew" the ship had pulled into LA and passengers were streaming off, heading to parts unknown. John would loved to have spent his time sight-seeing, but a man in a dark suit and sunglasses approached him.

"John Sullivan?" he asked. John nodded his head. The man pulled out a set of credentials. "Special Agent Ryan Williams, FBI," he said. "I see you've already met Special Agent Masters."

"Yes, I have," John said. Ryan nodded his head.

"Come with me, please," Ryan said, leading them to a dark SUV where another man waited for them. John and Cheryl climbed in the back and Ryan took them to a building in downtown Los Angeles. John was escorted to a room and ushered into a chair in front of a large desk. Ryan took a seat behind the desk.

"John, is that really you?" a female voice said. John turned to the voice and saw... April. She looked horrible, as though she had lost 10 or 15 pounds. Her once long wavy brunette hair was cut short and her face looked drawn. Her eyes were sunken and she looked as though she had aged at least 10 years and had spent a lot of time crying. John almost didn't recognize her.

"April?" John asked. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"She's working with us," Ryan said.

"What do you mean?" John asked. "What the hell's going on?"

"What's going on is we're trying to break up a sex and corruption ring that extends far into the halls of power," he said. "It's been going on for years and now threatens our national security. Your little stunt nearly cost us the whole investigation."

"You mean the funeral?" John asked. Ryan nodded his head.

"Yes, the funeral," Ryan said. "Which, by the way, was headline news from coast to coast for days. Thanks to you, we were forced to move much earlier than we had originally planned."

"Well, maybe if someone had bothered to keep me in the loop it would've turned out differently," John said, looking from Ryan to April. Ryan nodded his head.

"I understand, Mr. Sullivan," he said. "But you have to understand that you were kept in the dark for your own safety. If you had known what was going on, there's a chance you and your wife could've gotten hurt."

"And April was working with you the whole time?" John asked.

"Yes," Ryan said. "She was feeding us valuable intel from inside the operation. We coached her and advised her to put on a good performance in hopes they would trust her and open up to her, which they did. If it wasn't for her we wouldn't have gotten half of what we now have. And Jenkins and his cronies would still be on the loose."

"Instead, it cost my wife her career, her reputation and her marriage," John said.

"I thought you two might be able to reconcile once you heard the facts," Ryan said.

"You thought wrong," John said.

"I see," Ryan said as April began crying.

"So, have you got all the bad guys yet?" John asked.

"Pretty much," Ryan said.

"Pretty much? What about this Robert Cramer guy?" John asked. Ryan's face briefly turned white at the sound of Robert's name and the two feds exchanged glances.

"What do you know about Cramer?" Ryan asked.

"Just what Cheryl told me. That he's some kind of bad-ass who works for Jenkins," John said. "Former CIA, NSA, all-around asshole. Have you got him yet? You know he's here in Los Angeles."

"We have a nationwide APB out on him. We're doing the best we can, working with local law enforcement agencies," Ryan said.

"In other words," John said, "you don't have him and you have no idea where he is."

"You just told us he's here in Los Angeles. We believe he's watching the two of you, but there's been nothing show up yet," Ryan said. "Trust me, if he so much as buys a burger at McDonalds, we'll know about it." John shook his head.

"I don't believe this shit," he said. "You let my wife become a prostitute for a shithead like Jenkins and you don't even know where his enforcer is? He's right here in town!"

"Mr. Sullivan," Ryan said. "I don't think you've got the big picture here. Before your wife contacted us, we had no concrete evidence against Jenkins. Nothing. Just a lot of circumstantial evidence and rumors. Thanks to your wife, we've been able to shut down a corruption ring that's been operating freely for at least seven years."

"Seven years?" John asked. "How is that possible? You're the goddamn FBI. How can you let something like that happen?"

"I understand your frustration, Mr. Sullivan," Ryan said, calmly. "Really, I do. You have to understand that before the coup attempt against the president, the corruption even worked its way into my FBI. But after that attempt, there's agencies you've never even heard of working around the clock to root that corruption out. And we're making headway, thanks in part to good citizens like your wife."

"But you let her become a whore for that slimebag," John said.

"I regret that," Ryan said. "But it was the only way we could get what we really needed. Your wife was never in any real danger. Her apartment was wired and we had agents close by just in case. We even had a bug in her wedding ring. Unfortunately, that's now buried in your back yard."

"How much longer would you have let it go on?" John asked. Ryan shook his head.

"Not much longer," he said. "Your wife expressed concerns for some time and we could tell it was beginning to affect her negatively. We were preparing to bring it to a close but then you had your funeral and served her with divorce papers, naming most of the men involved. We had no choice but to act. You should know there were some who considered charging you with obstruction of justice, by the way."

"What?" John asked. "Are you kidding me?" Ryan shook his head.

"No," he said. "I spoke in your defense and told my director that you were in the dark about the investigation. Fortunately, he relented. Otherwise, you'd be in a federal prison right now."

"So," John said. "What now?"

"Well," Ryan said. "We have agents watching your home and you now know about Agent Masters, who's keeping an eye on you. If Cramer makes a move, we've got him." He looked at April. "Could you please step outside the office for a bit? I want to talk to your husband in private." April nodded her head and walked out of the office. After the door had closed, Ryan turned to John.

"I wanted to talk with you, man-to-man, for just a bit," he said. "First off, speaking as someone who's been through a divorce, I want you to know I thought that funeral was fucking brilliant."

"Thanks," John said. Ryan nodded his head.

"Second," Ryan said. "Your wife has been through hell ever since this all started. She wanted to confide in you from the beginning, but I told her not to."

"Why?" John asked. Ryan pulled out a stack of folders.

"This is why," he said. "Husbands, fathers, boyfriends - all people who tried to take Jenkins to task for what he had done to the women in their lives. Several of them never lived to regret it. If April had told you what was going on, I'd probably have a folder here with your name on it as well. I didn't want that."

"So you're saying she was protecting me?" John asked.

"Basically," Ryan said. "Look, April was put into a no-win situation. She was screwed no matter what she did. If she had refused Jenkins, she'd be destroyed. If she told you, both of you would have been destroyed, or worse. If she went along, you would eventually have found out, which you did, and she would have been destroyed. So she did what she thought was best. It was damn hard on her but at least she had a chance to help take him down and put an end to what he was doing."

"But he's a Senator. Senators don't do that kind of thing to members of Congress, do they?" John asked. Ryan shrugged his shoulders.

"In normal times, no, they don't," Ryan said. "What if I had told you three years ago that a group of extremists were working to take down the president and transform American society? Would you have believed me?" John shook his head.

"No," he said.

"That's exactly what happened," Ryan said. "Now, what if I told you that the First Lady was involved in that plot. Would you have believed me?" John shook his head.

"No," he said again.

"Well, that's precisely what happened," Ryan said. "In fact, it happened twice in the last few years. That's what happens sometimes when people get a taste of power. They like it and are willing to do anything to get more. So, is it really all that difficult to believe that a U.S. Senator could do what Jenkins did?"

"No, I guess not," Ryan said.

"Mr. Sullivan, I know this has been hard on you, but believe me when I say your wife is the victim here," Ryan said.

"So what about her reputation? Her career? Our marriage?" John asked.

"I apologize for what's happened to her political career, but I think it was sunk the moment she was drugged. She was very well-thought of by many of us. Once this is all over, maybe she can write a book," Ryan offered. "I think I can put in a good word for her and maybe get her a spot in the Bureau if she wants. We're always looking for good legislative liaison officers. As for your marriage, I can only hope the two of you are able to work things out."

"I don't see that happening," John said. "She put me through hell that last year. It's not just the cheating, although that's bad enough. She disrespected me the whole time, in public. She should have come to me first."

"But it was too dangerous," Ryan said.

"I don't care," John said. "I'm not stupid. I built a successful business from scratch, with my bare hands. I would have been there for her if she had just confided in me. But she didn't even give me a chance. Did you also tell her to disrespect me?" Ryan shook his head.

"No, I didn't," Ryan said. "I'm truly sorry you had to experience that." He motioned for April to be brought back into the room. "I'll let the two of you speak alone for a few minutes," Ryan said, getting out of his chair. April spoke after Ryan left the room.

"You look... good," she said weakly. "You remind me of that guy in those beer commercials, the 'most interesting man in the world'," she added.

"So I've heard," John said.

"I can't tell you how sorry I am about all of this," she said. John looked at her.

"How in the hell did you let this happen?" he asked. "Dammit, April, you're not some 27-year-old freshman just out of college. You've been in office for 22 years. You know better than to let yourself get into a situation like this. What the fuck happened to you?"