The next morning, we got to Agent Lee's office without any problems and without much conversation. It was still tense between us from the way the previous evening had ended. Like every other important thing in our relationship, we weren't talking about it. You know, our communication skills still needed work.

We found our way to Agent Lee's office knocked and were told to enter. His was a typical government set up. It looked like it was meant to be a shared office. Agent Lee's gunmetal gray desk was currently the only one in the room, but it was mostly to one side as if there might be plans for another desk at a later date. Although, there was no other desk, there were extra chairs, so the room could accommodate quite a few people.

Agent Lee was sitting behind his desk reading through some papers. His desk was neater than a professor's, but more cluttered than a banker's. There was a sparsely filled bookshelf against the wall closest to his desk. Against the opposite wall and partially hidden by a partition was a table covered with electronic paraphernalia with wires and straps clearly intended for attachment to a human. It looked like it belonged in Doctor Frankenstein's lab. I recognized it as a polygraph setup. Rogue eyed it as if it might be a torture device and yet she was clearly unintimidated by it. I guess compared to chemo, the prospect of torture was not that daunting.

Agent Lee got up as we came in, shook my hand and said, "Mr. Farley, thank you for coming." He turned to Rogue and asked, "And you are...?"

"Anna Marie. We're partners."

"I believe we have already met in a manner of speaking," Agent Lee reminded Rogue. "We just haven't been introduced before. You sort of got the better of me in Disneyland. Let's not repeat that."

"I wouldn't dream of it Agent Lee," Rogue gave him her most disarming smile.

Agent Lee was not the stereo-typical stern-faced emotionless FBI agent I was expecting. Of course, his shoes were shined to a mirror finish, his suit was freshly pressed and he was immaculately groomed. But he actually smiled back at Rogue as he said, "Very well. Please have a seat." He indicated the chairs in front of his desk. I had never before seen an FBI agent smile.

We all sat. Agent Lee showed us his credentials clearly a habit for him. I put my cellphone into record mode keeping it in my pocket. This was going to become standard operating procedure for me. After all this was the FBI, I was sure they were recording me. I wasn't going to give them any advantage.

Agent Lee began, "I don't know how much you know, but you've clearly identified Carmella Rodrigue as a person of interest. Do you want to tell me why she is of interest to you?"

Rogue caught me off guard by taking the lead on the conversation. "Agent Lee, I don't mean to seem uncooperative, but we need to be clear on something from the start. Unlike you who gets paid for your efforts regardless of results, we only get paid when our efforts produce information of value to our clients. Information is our livelihood. We cannot just give it away." I was totally unprepared for this, but I realized what she was doing. Rogue was negotiating an exchange of information.

I was glad she jumped in when she did. I would have told Agent Lee everything we knew without getting anything in return. Rogue was going to make sure we came away with more information than we came in with. She clearly knew how to handle Agent Lee. I figured it was best if she continued to take the lead.

"Are you aware of the penalties for obstructing a federal investigation?" Agent Lee reacted to Rogue's parrying.

"Why Agent Lee what are you implying? We came here at your request of our own free will as good citizens prepared to help you in your investigation and you start threatening us?" she sounded genuinely offended.

"Then as good citizens you won't mind answering my question."

"Of course. What was your question again?"

"What is your interest in Carmella Rodrigue?"

"She is involved with a friend of ours. We spotted them in Disneyland and then, we caught you following her. We called you to find out why." It was clear she was only going to divulge the absolute minimum with no intention of elaborating.

"Is that your only interest? You are not aware of any criminal activities she is involved in?"

"Agent Lee, you need to be more specific. I'm not sure how you define criminal activities. I'm sure she has broken some traffic laws, maybe cheated on her taxes and who knows what is legal in California as far as marijuana is concerned. As far as what we are directly aware of, we know you were following her so that implies she is involved in criminal activities doesn't it? I mean, the possibilities of criminal activities we may or may not be aware of are endless ―"

"Okay, I get it," Agent Lee interrupted Rogue's ramblings which showed no sign of ever ending. "You're clever and getting information from you will be like pulling teeth. So, let us start over. To make this easier on all of us, I'm willing to tell you what I know in exchange for what you know. I'll even go first."

I don't think this was Agent Lee's normal process, but I think he was somewhat taken with Rogue's audacious negotiating tactics; so, he was willing to deviate from his normal hard line. I also think he was in a hurry and chose the most expedient course.

Agent Lee leaned forward and began. "I have been investigating Carmella Rodrigue for over three years, ever since she left NARA Systems. I know she is responsible for infecting the computer systems at several major corporations."

"So, why haven't you done something about her before now?" Rogue asked.

"Because we have reason to believe she is working for a larger organization. We need to find out more about that organization and she is our only lead."

"Do you think it's a foreign government?" I asked.

"Honestly, we don't know. When I spotted you following her in Disneyland, I thought you might be a foreign agent. That is why I started following you. I took your picture in Disneyland and used it to identify you. I then accessed the files we have on you."

"Funny, we thought you were a foreign agent," I pointed out the humorous coincidence. Then, his last sentence registered with me. "Wait, you said you have a file on me?"

"From the Single Scope Background Investigations that the Defense Investigative Services did for your security clearances," he reminded me. "The fact you have clearances is the only reason I'm willing to share this much with you. This brings me back to my original question. Why were you following her? What is your interest in her? How much do you know about her activities? And who are you working for? Your turn now." He leaned back in his chair and waited for answers.

I seriously doubted he had told us everything, but I suspected this was all we were going to get for now and it was certainly more than we knew when we came in. I looked over to Rogue and she nodded the go ahead for me to proceed.

"We know she's planted spyware in two different companies, First Tech and Advanced Comms. We have been retained by both companies to find out who has tampered with their systems. We've been following her to gather evidence. Also, we know someone is worried enough about our investigations that to scare us away, they hired a Vietnamese gang to kidnap us, threaten us, and abandon us in the Santa Cruz mountains." I then related that entire Santa Cruz Mountains adventure to Agent Lee.

Agent Lee listened intently then said, "I will definitely look into that gang but with no more information than what you have told me it's unlikely we will find them. So, who exactly are you that these companies hired you for this investigation?"

"We're the Farley Detective Agency," Rogue picked up the lead again. "We specialize in cyber-crime and cyber security."

"Why haven't I ever heard of you?"

"We don't exactly advertise. Anonymity is rather advantageous in our line of work. We depend on word of mouth to get business," Rogue said very convincingly.

"What kind of resources do you have?"

"Currently on this case we have two software specialists analyzing the spyware we've detected so far. We also have a psychologist working undercover developing profiles of the people we are investigating. Chuck and I are the field agents on this case."

"Sounds like an impressive organization," he said as if to humor us. I'm sure he suspected Rogue was exaggerating our resources. He couldn't help but grin at his own over statement. Then seemingly to make up for his unintended condescension he added, "You know we do hire private consultants sometimes, maybe we can work something out where we formalize your cooperation?"

"We might be interested," Rogue was playing hard to get. "You realize. We have discovered more in the month we have been working this case than you have in the three years you have been on it. It would seem you clearly have more to gain from our help than we from you." Of course, Rogue was exaggerating a bit since a lot of what we knew now was the result of what she had just conned Agent Lee into telling us which allowed us to put what we knew into the bigger picture.

"You can stop negotiating now, Miss Marie. I'll do what I can to get you read in on this case and get you compensated as best we can. We are on the same side now. By the way, if you've never done government contracting before, get prepared for a deluge of paper work. You may want to get some help."

"We have it covered," I assured Agent Lee convincingly. I wanted to keep up Rogue's pretense that we were a fully functional organization. "Mrs. Crowley is a retired government contracting officer. She handles our contracts," I explained hoping I would be able to convince Mrs. Crowley to come out of retirement for us.

He handed me a pad and pen. "Write down the names and social security numbers of your people who you'll have working on this." I texted Ripley for his information and asked Rogue to text Pixie and Jean for theirs. They responded immediately. I wrote Ripley's and my names and numbers and handed the pad to Rogue for her to add Pixie's, Jean's, and her own information. She also seemed to be adding a note at the bottom of the list. She handed the pad back to Agent Lee. He took it without looking at it. I supposed if he had, he would have noticed the name Anna Marie wasn't on it, since Rogue should have written her real name. I suspected she included the note to explain her alias.

"Let me talk to my superiors and see what I can arrange. Once they give me an okay, I'll contact you and I will read you in. I'm anxious to hear what your software analysts have found." He got up to escort us to the door.

As he walked us to the door, I just had to ask, "Just one more question, why did you tell the rental car agency you worked for the Chinese consulate?"

"So, that's how you found me," he answered with a smile. "I was technically under cover while I was following Mr. Johnson and Miss Rodrigue. I like to try out different cover stories. That day I was in the mood for Chinese." He chuckled like he thought that was funny. "I look forward to working with you Mr. Farley." We shook hands and parted.

#

We met Ripley, Pixie, and Jean at McDonald's for lunch. I had a lot to tell them and started with our conclusion about Carmella. I told them how Rogue and I made the connection between Carmella and both Martin and Bernard and how it made Carmella privy to all our plans.

"Cherchez la femme!" Ripley oozed out in a Cajun accent. "Look for the woman, how very pulp fiction."

Jean just smiled at Ripley's Cajun French and then filled us in on her dealings with Carmella. "You know, Carmella and I have become coffee break buddies. She doesn't have any female friends at the company. They all think she's a slut for sleeping with the boss. Anyway, she told me the other day she was looking for a roommate. She's been acting nervous lately. Maybe she's feeling threatened and is afraid to live alone?"

"Why doesn't she move in with Bernard?" Pixie asked.

"Maybe, she is not ready for that much of a commitment. Or maybe, she just doesn't want to confirm the rumors she is sleeping with the boss. They both seem to want to keep their relationship a secret. Of course, that cat is out of the bag and roaming the rumor alleys."

"Do you think you could learn more if you were her roommate?" I asked.

"I think so. My current housing arrangement is about to end. I'll actually need to find a new place soon."

"How did you get such a short lease?" Ripley was always seeking information on the valley's run-a-way housing and rental markets.

"It's actually kind of a sublet. One of my old instructors at Stanford was going on a lengthy cruise and was looking for someone to basically house sit her apartment in Mountain View while she was away. She gave me a really good deal, but she'll be back in three weeks so I was going to have to find a new place anyway."

"Good luck always seems to find good looking girls," Ripley concluded.

I then finally got around to explaining about our meeting with Jay Lee and how we might in fact have a third client, the FBI. I told the others how Rogue had crushed Agent Lee and manipulated him into hiring us. I was hoping my praise might begin to thaw the chill that had developed between us after last night's abrupt conclusion.

I told Pixie and Ripley that Agent Lee was looking forward to hearing what they had discovered, and I was looking forward to finding out why Agent Lee thought Carmella might be part of a larger organization.

This prompted Ripley to give me a preview. "The malware Pixie and I have analyzed so far does seem to indicate it is intended to be part of a much larger threat. It appears it includes a rootkit designed to enable privileged access to the operating system. We have not completely isolated all of it yet. Bernard has agreed to let Pixie and I work on the code at the office which helps, but it still takes time to figure it out. So far not all the code we've found is functional, but there are clearly entry points for modules to seek out servers and replicate itself like a virus. It can be commanded to go dormant to avoid detection. All these functions can be enabled remotely. The potential threat is enormous."

"Can you put all that in simpler terms?" Rogue asked.

"It's really bad," Ripley summed it up. "Think remotely controllable, undetectable, ultimate virus-spyware combination."

"You said not all the code is functional?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's like they're testing parts of it out before deploying it on a much larger scale."

"I wonder if the FBI knows any of this?" I asked. As if on cue my cellphone rang and it was Agent Lee. The others all stopped talking and focused on my end of the call.

I nodded and then relayed Lee's request, "He wants to know if all of us could come by this afternoon to sign confidentiality agreements."

"I'm not sure I can get off?' Jean pointed out. I indicated that was okay. The others all nodded indicating they could make it.

"Sure, that should work for us," I informed Lee and closed my phone.

"Jean, you go on to the office. See if Carmella is still looking for a roommate. Getting close to her is our highest priority at this point. We can get you cleared with Agent Lee later. We should keep your relationship to us as close to the vest as we can. We do not want to jeopardize your cover. You are the one person we haven't told any of our clients about. Let's keep it that way. In fact, we shouldn't tell our other clients about Agent Lee either. I'm not sure who we can trust at this point."

#

We got to Agent Lee's office, and he already had the paperwork laid out for us to sign. We showed driver's licenses for identification. He had a secretary take our information, and I assumed she began checking us out. As I learned later, they had already researched us very thoroughly and knew more about us than we knew about each other.

"What exactly are we signing here?" Rogue asked.

"Basically, it says I can shoot you if you divulge any of the information I give you," Agent Lee said smiling. I'm pretty sure he was kidding. We all signed anyway.

"This is not a security clearance like I know Mr. Farley and Mr. Arnot are familiar with. This is really just a glorified non-disclosure agreement. By the way, where is your psychologist?"

"She is indisposed for now."

"Okay, but you can't tell her anything until she signs one of these."

"Got it," I acknowledged his warning.

We finished signing and we all sat down around Agent Lee's desk.

Agent Lee looked toward Pixie and Ripley and asked. "Why don't you guys start. Exactly how much do you know about this malware?"

Ripley filled him in on what Pixie and he had so far. Lee was impressed. He said Ripley had given him more details in that half hour briefing than he had been able to find out all year from the NSA.

Agent Lee then proceeded to fill us in on what the FBI knew of Carmella's activities. "Our investigation began when someone at the NSA found an early version of this malware in some image editing software that was sold to the NGA, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. The editing software had components from several different sources but we think it originated at NARA Systems.

"We have been tracking several NARA Systems' employees and former employees who have displayed suspicious behavior. Things like unexplained bank deposits, frequent job changes, and blackmail vulnerable behavior. Carmella Rodrigue checks all those boxes. I was following her in Disneyland in case she was using the trip to covertly connect with foreign agents.

"The NSA agrees with your assessment of the potential danger of this threat. There is a lot of pressure on us to find out who is behind it. So far, we haven't been able to get anything concrete on any of our suspects. Somehow in only a couple of weeks' time, you guys have uncovered just as much as the NSA and you've gotten inside information from both First Tech and Advanced Comms.

"I am hoping to direct your superpowers toward NARA Systems next? Technically, I'm only hiring you for your software and cybercrime expertise. I can't pay you to actually investigate NARA Systems. That would be our job. Unfortunately, right now we don't have any agents qualified to get hired into NARA systems. If, however, you were to get inside the company, I'm sure we can find a way to compensate you for any information you obtain in the course of your own investigations. I must emphasize that any investigating you do while at NARA systems will not be at the direction of the FBI," Agent Lee looked at us hopefully.

"I think I understand," I answered. "If we get into trouble the FBI will disavow any knowledge of us, 'Mission Impossible' style."

"Hopefully, it won't come to anything that dramatic, but yes. We can't pay you to do our job, but we can pay you for specialized expertise and information. How you get that information is your own business."

This was actually rather clever of Agent Lee. He had found a way to pay us for doing his job. He couldn't pay us to conduct an investigation but he could pay us for the fruits of those efforts by paying us for our software expertise and insider knowledge of the companies we investigated.

"I've got it. Just tell us where to send the bill." Lee gave us some paperwork with instructions for our contracting officer.

We were getting ready to leave when I remembered there was one other request I had for Agent Lee. "Superpowers, reminds me. We all use code names to protect our identities. You have our real names on the non-disclosure agreements, but could you use our code names from now on? This is Ripley, Pixie, Rogue," I said as I indicated each member of the team, "and our psychologist we call Jean." I hadn't looked at the girl's names on the agreements. I was trying to protect their anonymity.

"Sure, "Agent Lee chuckled. "Whatever works. Rogue wrote me a little heads up note when she gave me her name and social. So, you are all named for superheroes. What is your code name Mr. Farley?"

"Two-buck Chuck," I said using the nickname Rogue had suggested. It would seem odd if I didn't also have a codename.

"What is his super power?" Agent Lee asked.

"Cheap intoxication," I laughed. "Just call me Chuck."

Agent Lee was still shaking his head as we left. I didn't know if Agent Lee hired consultants very often, but I was pretty sure, we were the oddest crew he had ever contracted.

#

When Rogue and I returned to the apartment complex, we called on Mrs. Crowley and recruited her to become our agency's contract officer. She was thrilled by the prospect of helping us. I think she would have worked for free. She also offered to help Rogue with the bookkeeping.

With Mrs. Crowley on board, Rogue and I returned to my apartment. I decided it was time to break the ice that had formed between us last night.

"Maybe we should talk about last night?" I asked.

"Listen. That was my fault. You were right to remind me of the emotional consequences. Now, I just want to forget about it. Last night ended with the kiss at the door. It was a beautiful evening. The fantasy is back in place. The end."

"We are good?" It never ceased to amaze me how quickly Rogue could reverse emotional course.

"We are good."

"Friends?"

"Friends."

"With benefits?" I asked hopefully.

"Nope," she said without emotion.

"That was rather definitive."

"I'm just trying to say that I want to leave it with the kiss at the door. Can we drop this now?" The way she said it suggested she might not be being completely honest.

"And I'm just trying to say that I'm okay with that," I lied.

We both grinned at the progress we were making on improving our communication skills.

I walked the dog. We ordered a pizza. We spent the evening watching television. She went to the bedroom after the Daily Show and closed the door. Ours was a strange relationship. I didn't know how to describe how I felt about her. I turned out the lights and turned on my stereo receiver for a little music. "Cherish" by the Four Seasons was playing.

The song said it all. I turned the stereo off when the song finished. I plopped in the bean bag chair and stared at the ceiling. Yep, cherish is the word.

#End Chapter Eleven