Rick pockets the picture and looks over the briefcase. A metallic silver samsonite with black trim it looks like any other out there. When opened it reveals a black cloth liner with dark gray foam block, three cutouts reveal cylinder containers that hold used depleated Uranium shot. ( they are the leftover shots from anti-tank 30mm rounds) the cylinders have a lead look and feel to them, and lock down with four clasps on the lid. The General shows you the door and Rick slips out in to the hall, the door shuts then locks after you.
Back in your room you shoot some pictures of the stolen photo, and hand it over to Barett, and head out to get some food in the dining room. Shelia meets you at the kitchen doorway at shoots you a look that says, be more careful. Then shows you to the food, the rest of the gang has already dug into the cheese and crackers and olives. Barett comes wandering in a few minutes later, smiling big. After a quick meal Shelia tells you to relax for a little bit then you will head down to the port and catch the last ferry from Gozo to Malta, this one will take you direct to the Oracle Casino where your rooms are at.
Maria looks around and says " lets take a stroll thru the gardens before we go". Rick grabs the camera and does some digital scans and the like, with some nice shots of Maria.
The ferry ride is short but boring, you learn from "spanky" that the General is well known in the spook world, and has held several cabinet positions in the past over security. It turns out that Spanky was a transfer over from the "Royal Green Jackets" because he wanted more action, although he never served under Wineburg, he knows about his history.
Shelia on the other hand is not his daughter, that is her cover. She is working as a spook keeping a eye on drug traffic coming out of the middle east, opium and the like. She was made on her last bust and is laying low, and doing background analysis on intel.
The hotel you have is very nice, they take your bags, and show you to the rooms. Large suites with connecting doors at the sitting rooms ( each suite consists of a large sitting room, a large bathroom with jetted tub, and bedroom with king size bed. There are three rooms, one for each couple. It's just before midnight now and Barett suggests using up the complimentary game chips downstairs in the casino, before turning in for the night.
What does Rick do ?
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The Casino seems to be a bit to much at the minute for Rick.
Rick politely declines Barett’s offer but gives him his chips and tells him and the others to go and have some fun. I looked at Maria with a look of quiet longing, asking her without words to stay. He wants to spend some time alone with her. Some time to forget about the world and the stress they will be faced with come morning. He is hoping for a relaxing and nice walk along the moonlit beach with her so they can talk and listen to the sounds of the night serf. He wants to know how she is doing.
Maria decides to stay with Rick and head down to the beach. They find the beach completely deserted, the half moon casting just enough light to make navigation across the patio and down the path to the sand easy. You can tell Maria is relaxing and happy for some down time with you, alone. She snuggles up to your arm and squezes you tight, pulling her hair back with the other hand to rest her cheek on your shoulder. The cool breeze off the ocean feels good, and the steady beat of waves on the beach add a calming tempo to the whole scene.
You walk for a while in silence, then she stops and asks you.
" How do you seem to stay so calm amid all the confusion and destruction that is around you ? "
" I mean all this is great. " Pointing to the beach and Hotel.
" But sometimes.......sometimes.... I just can't seem to relax, you know...really let my guard down. Do you have that problem to ? "
Rick wrapped his arms around Maria’s waist and pulled her in close. It was nice for him to be able to look almost directly into her eyes without having to look down. It was as if they were somehow perfect equals. He liked this tall cat. That is why his warning of their reality hurt him. He wished he could lie. But that would be even worse because if she did relax and let her guard down, she would end up as some many others.
“The sad truth in our line on work, the moment you let your guard down is when you die. Someone is always waiting for you. You can never let your guard slip.”
“But remember there are different levels. When you are point every nerve ending is on fire and every hair on your body will be like an antenna. But there was something I heard somewhere that helps. It goes that the mind can be trained to act like a bunch of individual boxes. Each box holds related information and these can be plugged in and out when needed. Some things need to be stored away and forgotten about until needed. We learn and implement the important lessons and then let go. Stuff the box with emotions and such and just up it away until you need it. Then our guard can be like sonar. Sometimes it is active and sometimes it is passive. I guess that is a little of what I do. I have learned that I need to always have in on is one form or another and separate that from events and dangers I have been in.”
“I don’t know if that makes much sense but it works for me. Does it help you at all?”
Maria looks up at Rick and holds him even tighter.
"Do you really think that we must live this way, all our lives?"
She says to him with tears in her eyes. Then she looks away and mumbles.
" It can't all be bad can it, I mean there is some good in here, something worth cherishing and loving and nourishing?"
She grabs Rick even tighter and cries into his shoulder for a few minutes. Then her body relaxes and she loosens her grip on him.
" I guess I just needed a good cry, its been a long time. A long time since I have been comfortable enough with someone to feel vunerable. Do you feel the same with me ?"
The question Maria asks is a deep one. Is he comfortable enough with her to be vulnerable? It is not a position he likes to be in. There is always a wall and he knows it. No one gets in, no one ever. At times he can’t even get in. It is too tightly locked away.
Rick looks back down at Maria, holding her questioning eyes like a snake charmer watches the eyes of the dancing snake, following each flicker of her eyes. The question bothers him more than he would like. It would be easy to lie to her but he doesn’t. This answer alone is good enough for him to know he isn’t a complete bastard.
He has never been really close to anyone else but his brothers. And their closeness is only because they are brothers. They fight and argue, even shot at each other, but in the end, they are still brothers and they will die for each other.
Is that vulnerability?
Is it strength?
Her eyes are so blue they are almost violet.
Finally after a breath of the dark ocean air and Maria’s beauty he says. “I’m glad you’re comfortable with me Maria. We all need times like this to cast off our worries. You can cry on my shoulder anytime you need it. I promise I will be there for you.”
Rick kisses her nose playfully and then gives her a smile.
“We have a long road in front of us that I hope to take with you. You make me think about things in a way I haven’t done so for a long time. Sometimes I come across as a complete selfish bastard. I hope you will forgive me for that. It is hard for me to let others in. But you, my lovely, are finding your way inside. Hang-in there and be patient. You’re an incredibly strong woman.”
With that said, Maria flings Rick into the sand and pounces on him. Dicarding her clothes and sandals, she runs toward the sea.
" If you can catch me, you can do what you wish with me !"
She yells as her naked body bounces down the sand and in to the surf.
Rick is sitting in the sand looking at the beutiful view.
It has never taken Rick long to lose all his clothes and tonight was no exception. He gave Maria a 20 second head start before he took off after her for some fun frolicking in the night surf of the Mediterranean Sea. Man was she ever a lucky cat.
Rick wasn't suffering much either.
Rick and Maria fall into the sandy beach after the third time, completly relaxed. Rick has the largest grin on his face that makes Maria giggle.
" You are such a teenage boy some times "
Maria says through giggles.
They walk back along the beach and to their hotel rooms.
Rick sleeps the best he has in six weeks. It isn't till the sun hits his eyes that he even moves. Maria is still sound asleep, she doesn't even move when you shake her. As He wanders out into the hall he meets Barett and Shelia talking.
" Hey, just the man we are looking for, looks like you still got sand in your hair from last night lover boy! "
Proclaims Barett in his loudest, I'm your brother, here to embarass you voice.
" Look the next tourist flight doesn't leave till 8 am. tomorrow morning, so it looks like fun in the sun today, live it up tonight, then off to the main land for some serious windshield time tomorrow. What do you say little bro, care to hit the beach this afternoon, for some water sking and the like ?"
After some breakfast and a long shower, with hot company ( aka Maria ) Rick heads down to the beach. Maria says that
" she needs to do her makeup and choose out a swim suit, this may take some time"
she confesses.
" Why don't you head down and I'll meet you there in a little bit".
so off he goes.
It seems like a long time to Rick that Barett, him and Spanky are at the beach by themselves.
What does Rick do ?
Rick starts to suspect somethings afoot here so he runs back up and sneaks into the house as best he can without being noticed. He heads for his room to check on Maria.
Rick sneaks up to the door and listens.
He hears the muffled sounds of womens voices talking.
" your breasts are so much perkier than mine, its like my nipples are pointing different directions, mostly down I think."
" no they look fine, but you have the best butt, I mean look at it so tone and firm.'
"Yeah, well you both have great breasts, look at the shape of mine. I mean feel them, they are kind of loopsided, and the nipples are different colors I think. maybe they are to big, should I get them reduced?"
Rick peers in the door to see the three girls, topless comparing thier body parts to each other.
Right now Maria is rubbing suntan lotion on sheila's back and shoulders while Briget is checking out her butt in the mirror and keeps pulling off her trunks to try on another pair, there must be five pairs on the floor by her.
What does Rick do ?
Some men would start sweating heavily like the temperature just jumped 25 degrees above boiling as their eyes fall out of their sockets and their jaws knock against their knees to see such a site. Some men would stay put, hidden behind the door, glued to the spot and give heavenly praise for the divine intervention. More pious men would have their eyes pop as their head exploded from the trauma. They would be fighting, but failing for all eternity to purge the image from their mind.
Then there would be those who would turn into a carnivorous creature of instinct that would pounce into the room like a fox hunting a flock of quails, scattering the birds in all directions.
Rick wasn’t any of these. Being the man he was, he simple walked into the room and sat down. Of course he used is charm and seductive personality to utmost so he would scare the birds into flight.
He had had a suspicious feeling that something was wrong and upon finding that the situation was clear, took it upon himself to come in and participate in conversation, sit back and enjoy the scenery as any collector of fine art would do and help move things along a little bit in helping the girls get ready. Life was good at the present.
Rick walks straight in the room like nobody but Maria was there, and sits down at the end of the bed.
Bridget quickly puts a top on that matches the latest swim trunks she had on and stares at Maria.
Shelia doesn't even flinch, and looks straight at Rick.
"Do these look loopsided to you, and the left nipple seems to be a different color ?"
Rick looks them over, its noticable that shelia has had some work done, but it's good work.
"They look fine to me, but I prefer Maria's."
Says Rick as Bridget is quickly getting her bag put together.
Maria likes that answer and points to a top over by the dresser.
"grab me that top will you, I think we are ready to go now"
Shelia puts on her top and sun dress and walks to the door with Bridget.
"It was nice to get your opinion Rick, at least you are a more neutral party when it comes to these matters"
Says Shelia as you all walk down the sidewalk to the beach.
"It's so hard to get an honest opinion about these things, from most men. So what are your plans for tommorow morning ?"
“Well, as you girls were playing dress-up the boys talked about what we plan on doing. The plan is KISS, we are going to play leap frog currier so each of us will have the package to take for part of the run. This will make it so if one group gets caught, the other two will come in as rescue party. But we aren’t planning on getting caught of course. As you three know, today is Friday and we only have till Monday morning 05:00 hours to get this job done. We don’t have much time for sightseeing. But we also can’t be moving in a way for too long that will draw too much attention. To solve this we are going to separate today after lunch into three teams, Maria and myself, Barett and Bridget, and finally Spanky and you Shelia.”
“Maria and I will take the first leg. Barett and Bridget are going to head down to Hamrun and call in a terrorist bomb threat at the Bank of Valletta’s main building. That will get things crowded downtown as they are bound to close down the Marsa Hamrun bypass. An hour after that, Spanky and Shelia are going to cause some Friday night congestion on the Triq II express if you get my drift. You close those two roads down in the afternoon and no one is going to be moving anywhere fast.”
“Maria and I are going to go hang out at the Siren’s Aquatic Club looking for the fastest boat St. Paul bay has. Then when all the chaos starts in full down in Hanrun we will commandeer it and bust for France. We should be able to slip out when the rest of the island has its focus down Hanrun. You then have plenty of time to fly out from either Luqa or Gozo airports to head for the continent. We will meet Barett and Bridget in Sѐte which is south and west of Montpellier France. That will give them a straight drive up E11 into Paris where they will meet Spanky and Shelia who will take the package one the train under the channel to London. “
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