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 bottle as he described when we got home and during the days and nights of the week ahead.

The drive from Los Alamos to Santa Fe was conducted quickly and in silence. Mary wanted to shop in Santa Fe. She’d asked no questions after Hans Bethe conducted his tour of the physics facility and exotic program he was heading up. She’d taken the iodine pill without comment, which wasn’t like her. She also hadn’t been raised in Hawaii in a family where the father was heading out every few months to attend an atomic bomb test at Johnson Atoll. She had no clue. Her trust in me, and Hans Bethe, despite his wandering hand, sustained a belief system she held that I knew I’d never fully understand.

Herbert was right, not just for my family or even for the success of the mission in setting up an office of insurance operations in D.C. or a base and set of jet planes to provide supposed evaluation of Americans living abroad who needed to be transported home to receive credible and quality medical care. The more I thought about what I was creating the more astounded I became in thinking about the fact that it had all come to me automatically and without what I considered creative thought. I’d merely been just the right person in just the right place to come up with the plan, which made me wonder if some people knew me better than I knew myself.

Three days from the incident up at the labs my wife was getting out of the tub while I was coming out of the shower to dry off.

“Where were you laying out in the sun?” she asked, staring up and down at my naked body.

I looked at myself in the mirror and was surprised to see that I was sunburned. I twisted and turned to see what I could of every inch but it was all the same. I hadn’t been out in the sun at all. I stopped checking myself out and looked at Mary.

“You got the same amount of sun I did. Look at your skin.”

She climbed out of the tub and stood next to me. We stared at each other in the mirror.

“Alpha waves,” I whispered to myself more than to her. “We’re not sunburned at all or we’d be in pain. “We’re taking Bethe’s pills because we were both exposed to alpha waves from whatever was in the crate we hauled up to Los Alamos.

“Oh my God,” Mary said, taking and towel and rubbing her skin to see if she could get the red off. “What are alpha waves and what do they do?” she asked, after dropping the towel to the floor.

“The redness is from damage to the epidermis, the top layer, of our skin. The red is blood that escaped all over our bodies but didn’t break out of our skin, at least not so far. I’ll call Herbert and find out what the hell happened and what to do.” I said the words, but I was uneasy.

If Matt hadn’t been around when we’d gone up there, and with my misplaced trust at work, we might have had the kids with us for the trip. That thought was disturbing. I finished getting ready to go out, waiting for what I knew had to be coming. Mary’s anger was going to simmer and then blow sky-high, and I wanted to get out of the house and to the office before she blew. At first, it would be directed at me, I figured, putting my shoes on, but the worst might be directed toward the Agency itself, and I so hoped that her hatred and fear of the organization wouldn’t destroy my new career before it was even off the ground.

I made it to the Rover and almost down the driveway before the front door of the house opened and she stepped out, wearing only a robe and slippers. We looked at one another while the Rover idled. Three houses down at the curb one of the late model Chevrolets sat waiting, the FBI not attempting at all to hide the fact that they were following me. After a moment I put the vehicle in reverse and back out into the street and drove off. I knew your communication about what had happened was a long way from over.

The trip down to the office only took ten minutes. Montgomery was a straight shot to the Rio Grande River and the office was only two blocks to the north. I pulled into the lot. There were only two offices in the building, Banker’s Life of Iowa and CSI Aviation, an air charter company, run by a former Marine Bird Colonel named Allen Weh. The Chevy pulled in right behind me but headed for the back of the lot to join another of the ‘clone cars’ tailing me.
Weh came out the side door as I tried to enter.

“Who are those clones?” he asked.

Both Allen and I had fought in Vietnam during the same period, he flying and not getting hit so his duty period was the full thirteen months and nothing like my thirty days. We got along but not well. As far as he was concerned in one of our short discussions, he didn’t appreciate someone like me who got so many medals but ‘bailed out’ so early in my tour. There was no talking to the man, particularly since he moonlighted in the reserves working for the Defense Intelligence Agency.

“I have no idea, sir,” I replied, “I thought they were here to see you,” I lied, calling him sir because he’d found out rather quickly after meeting me that I was still a lieutenant in the Corps, although that identity was surface only, which is another part he couldn’t understand, much less accommodate. What was I doing in life, who was my commanding officer and why was I in an office next to his operation were questions that had been asked but with no answers forthcoming from me. Unless I was on active duty reporting to him then his authority ended right there at the opening to the office door.

“I’m sure likely to believe that” he replied, with a small snort, before turning to go back inside.

I went inside, wondering why it was almost always hard to deal with those who’d fought in the war. There was an inner rage and pompous attitude that was exhibited by most. Men like Colonel Weh.

The office was a beehive of activity, as two new agent prospects waited to be interviewed. I didn’t care about the interviews as I was going to hire them anyway. I needed quantity not quality, although I wanted at least college graduates. My salary was only two grand a month, which just about covered the home mortgage and the Rover and Mercedes payments. I was going to need money, and I wasn’t on a mission wherein I could take the Amex card and simply pull cash out of it. Before I’d discovered that I would look like a Native American for a while, I’d called Pat, the office secretary (she reported to Banker’s Life personally and not me, as she’d informed me about upon my meeting her), and told her to prepare some overnight packages. My new Blue Cross Blue Shield general manager and the head of the school in Seoul were about to purchase one-million-dollar life insurance policies. I’d have to talk to underwriting about the headmaster, as although as an American citizen, he could qualify to purchase the policy, he still had to medically qualify using medical underwriting tools and rules acceptable to the Banker’s Life decision-makers. The combined annual premiums would be about forty thousand dollars a year and my first-year commission would be about twenty, not to mention the ten thousand or so that would come to the office for additional expenses.

I closed my office door and called Herbert. Seconds later I was connected.

“Tell me about alpha waves,” I said.

“Nuclear stuff,” he replied.

“I delivered the package up to Los Alamos from Sandia Labs. The trip took about three hours. The package was about five feet from me for that period. Today I’m taking potassium iodide pills given to me by a physicist up there and my entire body is red as a beat. Exposure to alpha waves does exactly that. I no longer care what was in the package, not that you would tell me. If they wanted me to know I’d have been told that information before making the trip. What do I have to do.”

“Nothing,” Herbert said, his tone subdued and defensive. “Wait it out, as there’s no treatment. You’ll be tired for a while. If the exposure had been more serious, you’d know it by now.”

I wanted to vent to the man but knew it was useless. The Agency was compartmentalized. Herbert wouldn’t have any idea what was in the package, not that he would tell me if he did. Nobody was ever going to answer any question about why someone like me was sent with such a package in such an unprotected way.

“I’m installing Geiger counters in all my vehicles and if one alerts on any future driving lark of a mission then I’m stopping dead in the water wherever that might be.”

“What’s the word on my first mission and what kind of reports do I need to start keeping?” I asked, changing the subject.

“You haven’t been on your first mission yet,” Herbert replied, his voice recovering itself back into the gruff delivery I was used to.

“What in hell do you call Korea and then Los Alamos then?” I asked, shocked.

“Korea was a test and Los Alamos an accidental aside.”

“Test?” I breathed out, and then “accidental aside?”

“Yes, you’re not being processed through in a normal fashion, and I know that all sounds illogical and unsound. You won’t get your first mission until a minimum of training gets done, which was why I wanted you to get straight to that. What you started in Korea is rebounding everywhere, not that you are aware of it.

Offices are being remade, homes purchased, people hired, and more, all because of what you unexpectedly did. The planes, incidentally, can’t be Lears. They’re simply too short in range. It’s going to take a Gulfstream II to fly intercontinental at anything beyond three thousand miles. Those are expensive as hell, even on the used market, and the fuel maintenance and crews are up there in price too. When spending gets this big then big eyes want to see it.

“Well, okay, but did I pass the test?”

“You have to ask? Herbert said.

“Mountains are not moved for new field agents, or by them, so what’s going on is extraordinary, and that will be reflected on your assignments here on out, although what happened in Korea and the results will occupy for some time to come. It would appear that the Agency isn’t populated with very many agents who have an understanding of the insurance industry as you do, so this is all a shocked surprise to many people reviewing the results of your work, and mine, of course.”

I nearly laughed at his inclusion of himself in the process of what had happened and what was developing. He wasn’t standing or sitting on the other side of the line with my sunburn either. There was no risk to his part of the deal but there was plenty to go around when actually in the field.

“We need to get you to Washington D.C. as soon as we can. The card is hot so you can use mission rules in paying for what you need. Call me when you’re ready to go. You might want to go down for a day or two with your condition.”

“And who is this Allen Weh and why do we occupy the same building together?”

“He’s a righteous prick to some but a war hero to others, just like you.”

The phone went dead in my hand. I smiled to myself and put the receiver down into its cradle. What mission rules were there for using the Amex? I needed the training to find out just what my limits were as well as the benefits. I also found it humorous how the man could change the exposure to alpha waves into something more akin to athlete’s foot. My condition.

Pat opened the door and stepped in without knocking. I knew by her expressed attitude that I wasn’t going to be loved by her anytime soon. I said nothing, waiting for whatever was coming.

“Your interviews are still here.”

“Send them in,” I replied.

“Both together?” Pat replied. “That’s really uncommon.”

“Pat,” I began, breathing and out heavily to get control of myself. I wasn’t in the Marine Corps anymore, not a police officer. I was a Banker’s Life General Manager, and I needed to act like it.

“I’m an uncommon manager, it’s true, and I think that’s why they picked me. You have a bonus, new office space, and more. How long have you worked for the company?”

“Seventeen years,” she replied, seeming to retreat a little from her aggressively negative delivery.

“Then you’ve noticed how things have gone downhill for this agency. If I don’t save the agency, then it’s going to be closed and you don’t strike me as the kind of woman who wants to pick up and go to wherever in the U.S. they might have an opening for you.”

“No,” was all she said.

“Send in the two potentials and then think about throwing in with me, as you have everything to gain and not much to lose.”

She walked out without replying, leaving the door open.

I closed the door once more and called home. Mary picked up straight away but didn’t say anything.

“There’s nothing to be done for the sunburn,” I informed her. I talked to Herbert, and everyone is apologetic. I didn’t mention that you were with me, nor did I go into why I wasn’t informed about the possible dangers that might be involved.”

“No kidding,” she finally said, letting some of her anger out. “What about that fact that we were likely driving around with nuclear weapons stuff that some dangerous people might like to get hold of, and we have nothing, except those FBI idiots in their stupid Chevys.”

I hadn’t even given theft of the stuff a single thought, but she was correct. Why wasn’t fissionable or fissionable material transported by regular people with no security at all? The federal government was spending untold thousands watching me while something like what we were carrying should have far outweighed our importance. Despite her anger, the clarity of her thoughts and conclusions were spot on, just like always. Not for the first time I thought about the fact that she should be the secret agent, and I should be the one helping her along, instead of having it the other way around.

The two agents came in, Pat ushering them into the two available chairs in front of me. Both of the applicants were taller than I was, which seemed a bit odd. At five-nine, I was of average height but the two were both above six feet tall and one was woman.

I looked at the resumes Pat dropped onto the desk.

“He’s mostly all bark but no bite,” she said to the prospects before going to the door and closing it after she left. The woman had made a joke, which had to count for something.

“So, you two moved here from back east a few weeks ago and not looking for a job. Both have college degrees from great institutions. Both drive new cars.

Is there something you want to tell me or do we go on with this charade?”

I stared across the desk, from one to the other. They both looked at one another briefly, finally the young man nodding at the woman.

“I’m Kelly and this is Tom, and we need to train as insurance agents on the product you’re creating so we can help.”

“Somebody’s making decisions I know nothing about,” I mused into the thin air instead of talking directly to them. “Staffing for the future, as we head into the international market isn’t something I’ve given any time to but it’s vital. When this is all up and running you have to be able to hit the road, or air, already prepared. You’ve no doubt been to Charm School and more, so you know more than me, and I can sure use what you know before I get there myself.”

Pat will assign your offices and I’ll arrange the training.

“What can we do to help in the meantime?” Kelly asked.

“Be creative,” I murmured, sitting back in my chair and realizing that it was going to be good to have a staff and not just be running on my own.

The two new agents seemed bright as hell and they probably wouldn’t take time and energy for me to try to win over. The agency, I now understood, would be bifurcated, with real local agents and then with the agents cleared and sent in by the Agency to work abroad.

“Those FBI agents, do you need them removed from the property?” Tom asked.

“Good God, no,” I quickly answered. “They wouldn’t be there if they knew what was going on and that would give away the whole show.”

I looked at them both deeper. They were predators, I realized, and they were so good that I didn’t spot that in them until Tom gave it away. The FBI agents would have no chance if it came to violent contact, but violence wouldn’t be a part of the training nor, hopefully, the implementation of my plan.

A red light started blinking on the side of the phone and it buzzed once.

“That would be Pat,” Kelly said, as they rose to their feet in unison. Matt, in an aside aboard the plane, had mentioned something about how field people only came in two kinds. Team leaders like me and knuckle draggers to do the ‘wet’ work. I had just hired my first two knuckledraggers.

I picked up the phone and was about to say something before Pat spoke.

“A friend of yours named Herbie is on the line,” she said. The line clicked and Herbert’s voice came through.

“Okay, I hired my first agents, who have to be trained, but that’s okay.

“Washington D.C. is called. The man you are to see there is named John McCain, Navy Captain. He’s got some things to tell you.”

“The prisoner of war guy?” I asked, surprised. “I’m supposed to be getting the new office there off the ground and coming up with the medical policy we need to field to get started, not fooling around with high-ranking military guys.”

“When you get to D.C. go directly to the old building complex next to the White House and give them your real name. They’ll take care of the rest.”

“Did you hear a word I said?” I asked, in exasperation.

“The test is not over,” Herbert replied, once again hanging up.