Daniel Ganninger - Icarus Investigations 03 - Snow Cone (28 page)

Jane nudged me with her elbow.  “I think she would make an excellent addition to the team,” she said.

“Sally?” I said in surprise. 

“She’s good, and we need a true adventurer with us.  We’ll just have to take a chance that
Galveston won’t break her heart,” Jane said.

“Sounds good to me.”  I wasn’t going to be the one to tell Joe we had stolen his research assistant, however.

“Sally,” Jane started.  “How would you like to join us at Icarus.  I think you would fit right in.”

Sally beamed from ear to ear.  “I, I don’t know what to say,” she stammered.  “I would love to, but I’ll have to check with my Uncle Joe first.”  She then paused.  “But between you and me, I think he’ll be okay with it.”  She didn’t want to leave Joe high and dry, but I was sure she would find a way not to hurt his feelings.  It was the type of job she had dreamed about.

Galveston was elated.  I kind of thought he would run screaming from the room like he had when he had gotten too close to other women, but this wasn’t just another girlfriend to him. 

We finished up our meal and ordered dessert.  I kept thinking that the whole ordeal we had gone through was so surreal.  It would take weeks to understand what we had done.

Galveston twirled his napkin in his hand as he laughed about something dumb I had done in the past.  “Do you remember that, Roger?” he asked.

I nodded my head but didn’t try to defend any of my previous antics.

“I have something to say,” Galveston announced to us at the table.  He moved his chair back and stood up.

Sally moved her chair to see him and wondered what he was doing. 

“I just want to say…” he started while holding up his wine glass but then stopped and bent down on one knee next to Sally.  He reached for something on the floor.

I reached out and clutched Jane’s hand.  “Was he really doing this?” I thought.  “And was he doing it before me?”  I looked on in horror.  I couldn’t believe this was happening.

The room fell quiet as he held the object underneath Sally’s chair.  Sally looked down at him in shock.

Galveston
raised his head with the object in his hand and looked into Sally’s eyes.

“Here, Sally
—you dropped your fork,” he said nonchalantly.

The entire room let out a gasp as
Galveston gave Sally her fork.

“Uh, thank you?” she replied.

Galveston pushed himself back to a standing position, unaware of how his actions had been perceived.  “Now, what was I saying?  Oh, yeah.  I just want to say I’m honored to be able to work with such a fine group of people.  And Sally,” he said turning toward her, “I’m truly grateful I got to meet you.”

The words redeemed his previous transgression—a little.  Sally seemed to forgive him with her eyes and grabbed his hand.

I was determined, at that moment, to not let Galveston beat me to the altar.  Jane was the one for me.  We had some serious matters to discuss when we returned to Nashville.

We closed down the cafe and went back to the hotel to get our first, restful sleep.  We had a new life awaiting us back in
Nashville—and new adventures.  I couldn’t wait to get back home and get started.

-
Epilogue-

Bastian Muller of the Swiss Federal Police found the highly enriched uranium-235 in the safe deposit box of the Geneva bank.  It was in a lead lined case with a note from Nikos explaining how he had switched the material.  His last wish was for Veronica to be taken care of, but Muller was unable to afford her that opportunity.

The Swiss authorities raided the auction house, but the Red Hand had disappeared and any trace of them being there was gone—except for a pair of burnt curtains.  Muller kept the news about finding the uranium a secret.  It was a blemish on the Swiss government that nuclear material had been stored in one of their banks. 
Galveston read on one of his conspiracy websites that they had found it, but no one took the story seriously.  We certainly weren’t going to tell.

Browning’s involvement with the Red Hand was denied by the State Department, and the CIA discredited Mayfield.  They knew the truth, but managed to keep it out of the papers.  Both government entities were now being carefully scrutinized for any other possible moles working for the Red Hand, even though both organizations denied that they even existed.

The FBI arrested Sartine at his Terrain Scape office.  He denied involvement with the Red Hand, but they found incriminating evidence of communications between him and Browning.  The Federal Prosecutor was still deciding what crime to charge him with.

After much handwringing,
Galveston finally got around to telling Sally about the death of Veronica.  She took the news hard, as we all did, but realized there was nothing we could have done.  At the time, we didn’t understand what the Red Hand was capable of or who we were dealing with.  It could have been a week, a month, or even a year later, but somehow the Red Hand would have gotten to her.  Sally understood why we had waited to tell her, but we vowed to not withhold information from her ever again.

Joe recovered from his ordeal and returned to work after a month long hiatus.  He was eager to get back to
Greenland.  When Sally had told him she wanted to work for us, he understood.  Joe had no trouble in recruiting a new research assistant after the news got out about his exploits overseas.

I recovered nicely from my leg wound.  I was up and berating
Galveston in no time at all, and preparing myself to ask a big question to Jane. 

Galveston
and Sally began more formal dating, and Jane and I were surprised he had not screwed it up yet.  It was a good thing too, because Sally was becoming an excellent asset to the business.

We took on a few easy cases from our new office in
Nashville.  Jane had done a wonderful job with it and spent too much money, but I still loved it.  We had an interesting visit to our office one day, a few weeks after we had returned from London with Joe.  Our old friend and friendly contact in the FBI, David May, paid us an unannounced visit.  He was accompanied by a high-level official in the Justice Department named Nathan Erickson.  We trusted May without question and listened intently to what he had to say. 

The men had a proposal for us.  They wanted us to work as consultants to the FBI, dealing with any
matters related to the Red Hand since the CIA and State Department had been compromised.  The FBI was taking over on any matters related to the Red Hand.  They needed some outside help because we had been the only people able to infiltrate the organization and discover a few of their secrets.

It was an intriguing thought to be able to work for the FBI. 
Galveston and I thought it over for a few hours before we took the offer.  It wasn’t that we needed the work, but we knew the Red Hand would always be looking for the men that destroyed their plans.  This was our opportunity to dismantle them bit by bit. 

We knew the Red Hand would come calling one day, and we planned to be ready.  They didn’t know they started a war with Icarus Investigation. 
It’s all in the case file.  See for yourself. 
Case File #3 Snow Cone
.

Author

Daniel Ganninger lives with his wife and two children in
Central Texas and has a love of useless trivia and flying airplanes. He graduated from the University of Texas and when not writing works at his other profession in the medical field.

Catch up on the previous adventures of Icarus Investigation!

Flapjack
, Case File #1

Peeking Duck
, Case File #2
 

Join
Galveston and Murphy in their next adventure:

Case File #4 coming up next.

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Thank you so much for reading.  I hope you had as much fun reading as I did writing the story.  My goal is to provide an enjoyable escape and fun, and I hope that was accomplished.