The move from San Clemente to Albuquerque New Mexico is not without huge growing pains and some great degree of loss in relationships.
Ownership of a house, two new cars of some substance, and then a future of adventure takes all decision-making away.
That the Agency is not all it was cracked up to be by media, movies, and television becomes readily apparent.
Did the Agency need me or did I need the Agency more?
That question becomes a principal feature of my service in the CIA
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter I
Los Alamos, New Mexico is about a three-hour drive down to Albuquerque. My wife and I, after a delivery meeting at the labs, had taken the potassium Iodide tablets Dr. Hans Bethe had instructed us to consume and were prepared to take the rest of the pills in the...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter II
Pat came in through the closed door as I got off the phone. Her barging in part of the continuing exhibition of disrespect she’d been exhibiting from the beginning. No bonus apparently meant anything to her. “You want to knock in the future?” I asked her, pointedly....
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter III
I continued to stare at the man, wanting to ask how he’d come to be in my room through a locked door. As I prepared to recover myself from the shock and get back into the real world again, the bathroom door opened, and a rough looking man stepped out. “Oh, sorry, had...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter IV
There was no point in asking my wife anything or filling her in about the potential mission. She would say no and very forcefully, at that. Then she would worry that I might overrule her and do it anyway. I would not. I was never going to step into the jungles of...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter V
Kris Anderson kept moving, looking around my office, which unaccountably had a wood fireplace set in one corner. “Nice idea,” he said, pointing at it, “wish I’d thought that far when I was building the winery.” I thanked him but didn't inform him about Allen Weh being...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter VI
A sense of great power, seemingly not entirely rational, overcame me as I felt the bottom of the balloon basket leap upward, causing my knees to bend slightly. A simple brass lever being moved less than an inch had released tens of pounds of propane instantly, to be...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter VII
I had to get away from the office, people, and everything that might allow me to continue to communicate with the outside world. I was not ready for any of it and whatever I said to anyone would be a mistake. The side entrance to the short hall that allowed me to come...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter VIII
I drove to Kris Anderson’s winery and looked around. The place seemed dead with no cars around or even a pick-up. There were plenty of collections of heavy earth-moving equipment surrounding the huge warehouse where I presumed most of the winery was run, wine was...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter IX
I ran through the open garage and on into the house through the kitchen door. The living room was to my right and Marcinko was sitting on the couch that faced me and the television set angled to his right. Mary stood talking to him but had not seated herself. “What...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter X
I turned toward the big tent where everyone was gathering for the first class, but I walked as if on some sort of surface made of Jello. Ben’s comment, driving into my heart like a lance, caused me to literally shiver in apprehension. If McCain would do such a thing,...