Devlin's Defiance: Book Two of the Devlin Quatrology (18 page)

“
Hey, Pam. Life
intrudes again. I've got another job, and if you want, I'd like it
if you'd join me on it.”

“
Mmm, happy to.
I love joining with you; I was just daydreaming about that. C'mere.”

“
Okay; we've got
time.”

- 46 -

November
18, 2012
3:23
p.m. local time

Bonita Beach, Florida

Gordy was again
awakened, this time from a deeper sleep, but by Rosemary, who gently
ran her fingertips along the top of one of his feet and softly said,
“Are you awake, Gordy?”

Eyes still closed and
feet twitching, he said, “Mmm. Not yet, not quite.”
Then he smiled. “Hi, Ro.” Then he slowly opened his
eyes, rubbing them and adjusting his sunglasses. “Mmm. That's
a nice way to be woken up.”

“
I'm learning.”

“
You sure are,
and in more ways than one.”

Rosemary blushed,
looked around the crowded beach, then put a finger to her lips.
“Shhhh.”

Lowering his voice,
Gordy whispered, “Well, you are, and I'm liking it.”

Smiling, she whispered
back, “Me, too; it's been a nice week.”

“
Mm-hmm.”
He sighed and stretched.

“
More awake
now?”

“
Getting there.
But I'm proving the truth of that old song.”

“
What? Which
one?”

“
'Waking up Is
Hard to Do.'”

Rosemary chuckled.

“
Okay; you're
back. And you asked me to remind you about your 3:30.”

“
Right; Steve
and Bruce.” He chuckled, and Rosemary joined in, then blushed
again.

“
Oh, remember
that writer we met, Dallas?”

“
Yeah.”

“
She was here
this morning, showed me some of her work, and she's gonna help me
with the three-way scene. No charge.”

“
That's nice.
She's sure pretty … ah … open-minded.”

“
F'sure. And
you've been loosening up some since then, too.”

“
Like I said,
I'm learning.”

“
By the way, for
Thursday, how about if I pick up a couple of to-go turkey dinners,
save you the trouble of cooking? Would that be okay?”

“
Oh, Gordy, I
was thinking the same thing, but I was gonna pick 'em up at the
supermarket. Gotta be sure they're gluten-free for me.”

“
Oh, right; I'd
QH'd that. And no string beans for me.”

“
Right.”

“
How about this?
We'll go over there later today or tomorrow, pre-order what we want,
and I'll pick 'em up Thursday.”

“
Sounds like a
plan.”

“
Great. So”
–

“
Hi, Gordy!”

“
Oh, sorry, Ro;
life intrudes.”

“
No problem.
I'll get outa the way.”

“
No, no, no; let
me introduce you.

“
Hi, Steve,
Bruce – and who's this with you?”

“
Gordy, this is
Virginia Plaistokovitchofski, chairwoman of the business department.
She asked if she could come along.”

“
Nice to meet
you, Virginia; welcome.”

“
And you,
Gordon.”

“
Oh, call me
Gordy, okay?”

“
And you can
call me Ginny.”

Suppressing a chuckle,
Gordy said, “And this is Rosemary, my – a good friend of
mine. Rosemary, Steve and Bruce and Ginny.”

“
Nice to meet
you all.”

They shook hands all
around, then Steve added, “And our sociology chairwoman is on
her way.”

“
Her name isn't
May, is it?” Gordy asked, glancing at Rosemary as both of them
stifled their chuckles.

“
No, it's
Pamela.”

At that, Gordy and
Rosemary could no longer stifle their laughter.

“
What's so –
oh, I – no, I don't get it,” Bruce said.

“
I'm so sorry,
folks,” Gordy said, regaining control. “Kind of an
inside joke.

“
But I see
you're not really dressed for the beach. How about if we go over
there and use one of the gazebos?”

“
Thank you. I'm
very sun-sensitive,” Ginny said.

“
Okay if
Rosemary joins us?”

“
Oh, no, Gordy,
you don't need me.”

“
No, but I'd
like it if you would. Please. Anybody mind?”

“
No, that's
fine,” Steve said.

“
Ro?”

“
Okay, okay.”

Gordy picked up his
beach bag and a bottle of water from his cooler, Rosemary got her
bag, and all of them headed to the gazebos.

“
Ah, here comes
Pamela,” Steve said, waving to her. She waved back and joined
them; after another round of introductions and pleasantries, they all
settled around the picnic table in an empty gazebo.

Half an hour later,
Gordy looked around the table and said, “Well, I guess we're
all agreed.”

Everybody concurred,
smiling.

“
And, Bruce,
I'll be sure to add your idea on the China sanctions.”

“
Thanks,”
Bruce replied.

“
I think it's
great. Not something I thought of.”

Steve asked, “So
you're sure you can have it all done by the end of the year?”

“
Absolutely; no
problem. Maybe even sooner; it's mostly just cut and paste, probably
wind up at less than a hundred pages. And I'll get you all some
preview copies, probably well before Christmas.”

“
Great,”
Steve said, and the others all nodded.

They shook hands all
around and left the gazebo, the professors walking out to the parking
lot, Gordy and Ro heading back to their spot on the beach.

“
That went
well,” Rosemary said.

“
Yeah; they're
all nice people … and VERY bright,” Gordy replied.
“Just my target audi- – oh, shit.”

“
What?”

“
Ron and Jenny
are here.”

“
So?”

“
He's probably
gonna want to blab away at me again, and I really don't want to deal
with him.”

“
Well, it's past
four, time to head home anyhow.”

“
Right. I'll
just pack up and go.”

“
Want to come
over to my condo for a while?”

“
Sure; I'd like
that.”

“
But we can't
leave together.”

“
I know. You go
on ahead and I'll drive over in a few minutes.”

“
Sounds like a
plan.”

When they got back to
their stuff, Rosemary folded up her chair, said, “See you
tomorrow, maybe,” and headed across the street to her condo.

Gordy flipped his
lounge over and packed his cooler and all his other stuff on top, but
before he could start wheeling it out to the parking lot, he saw Ron
striding toward him.

“
Hey, schlub”
–

“
Sorry, Ron; no
time. I've got an appointment.”

“
But” –

“
Didn't you hear
me? I've got no time for you.”

“
But” –

“
Dammit, Ron, no
buts. I've gotta go.” He picked up the front of his lounge
and headed for the parking lot, leaving Ron where he stood, fists
clenched. Gordy noticed Jenny sitting in her chair and nodded to her
as he left; she nodded back, smiling and chuckling, but not so Ron
could see.

Ten minutes later,
Gordy joined Rosemary in her condo. Ten minutes after that, he
joined her in her condo.

Two hours later, he
left a smiling Rosemary and headed home to start on the cut-and-paste
job.

- 47 -

November
22,
2012
11:27
a.m. local time

A
private airfield near Prien am Chiemsee, Bavaria, Germany

“
And you are?”

“
Tori; I'm
subbing for Arturo today and I'll be taking you on this jump. Your
first, right?”

“
Yeah.”

“
On your bucket
list, right?

“
Yeah.”

“
You've seen the
tape, right?”

“
Yeah.”

“
So you know what
to expect, right?”

“
Yeah. We go up
in the plane, you buckle in behind me and we jump out and fall for a
minute and then you pull the ripcord and we float down until we land.
I watched the tape.”

“
Good. Now I
need to ask you a few questions. First, how much do you weigh?”

“
230.”

“
Pounds?”

“
'Course.”

“
Okay, okay; just
asking. Let's see; a little over 100 kilos. I'll have to get a
larger chute.

“
Height?”

“
Five foot
seven.”

“
Hmm; one point
seven meters.

“
Age?”

“
47.”

“
So in metric
years, that'd be” –

“
Metric years?”

“
Just kidding;
lighten up.

“
Nationality?”

“
American.”

“
Me, too. What
state?”

“
New Jersey.”

“
I thought I
heard the accent. Eh, fuggeddabouddit, huh?”

“
C'mon; next
question.”

“
You nervous or
something?”

“
Nah.”

“
Okay, okay.
Occupation?”

“
Uh,
import-export.”

“
What kind of
stuff?”

“
What's that got
to do with the jump?”

“
Nothing; just
curious.”

“
Mostly furniture
and some electronics, okay?”

“
Okay; thanks.”

“
Next of kin?”

“
That should be
on the papers I filled out.”

“
Oh, the release?
Yeah, it's on there, I'm sure, but I haven't seen that yet.”

“
Well, quit
wasting my time.”

“
Just filling it;
we've got a few minutes before we can load up. Tell you what, you
wait right here and I'll go swap chutes. Now, don't let your nerves
bug you. We'll be fine.”