David Golemon - Event

"Achilles."

"I have New York on the secure line in the office," the voice said.

Farbeaux acted as though he didn't overhear the man's counterpart downstairs and continued to examine the cross on his desk.

"I have the report signed. Inform New York it will be sent on the secure channel."

Farbeaux saw the man out of the corner of his eye tense up as the caller said something he couldn't overhear.

"Hendrix himself?" he mumbled into the small radio. "I'll be right down," he said quickly, and placed the radio back into his pocket.

"If you'll excuse me, I'll get this off to the New York office," Achilles said as he quickly turned with the file and hurriedly left.

Farbeaux finally looked up and watched as his door closed.

"Idiot" he mumbled, and slid the valuable cross across the desk and then leaned over and used a key to unlock his bottom right drawer.

The Black Team were guests in his home while they were here to assist in the Pomona operation. They had brought their own secure communications system and thought their software was invulnerable to tapping, which it very much was, but it wasn't the system that Henri was tapping into, it was the man himself.

He pulled a small box, a gift he had liberated from the French government while he had been employed with them, from the drawer and set it on his desk and opened the lid. Inside the opened lid were sixteen small six-inch monitors lined in three rows. He selected DOWNSTAIRS OFFICE, and the monitor came alive showing a clear color picture from an embedded camera in the heating duct on the ceiling. One of the Men in Black was pacing in front of the desk that had their secure phone system upon it. Farbeaux smiled as he reached down and found a small toggle switch and tested the camera angles. The picture easily moved toward the door and waited. Then he turned on the laser system that was mounted just below the camera and initiated the invisible beam. Then he turned on the small recording device and looked to make sure the small two-inch disc was turning.

Farbeaux saw Achilles enter the office and, ignoring his pacing counterpart, go straight for the scrambling device on the desk. Anyone hardwired into the system for spying purposes would only hear meaningless blips and beeps instead of words. But that didn't worry him as he watched Achilles pick up the phone receiver. He quickly adjusted the camera and pinpointed the laser on the man's ear as he sat in the chair behind the desk. Farbeaux adjusted the beam and moved it down an inch as the camera zoomed in. The laser was now exactly centered on the earpiece of the phone itself. Thus the conversation was being recorded after the voice on the other end had already been descrambled by the Centaurus system. The cleverer you think you are, the easier the system is to beat in the simplest manner , he thought. Just eavesdrop, like putting a glass to the wall. He set the system on AUTO-TRACK and the system imprinted on the receiving earpiece and kept tracking that spot.

"It's very rude to keep secrets from your host, Achilles," he said as he leaned back in his chair and waited.

The flashing light blinked several times when a few minutes later the call downstairs was terminated. Farbeaux then lightly punched a button that shut the system down as he watched Achilles leave the room. He smiled as he hit the playback button on the recorder and placed a set of headphones over his ears. He heard the chirps and whistles as the filter scrambled the call, making it come out the other end sounding like a slowed-down recording of Darth Vader. Very dramatic , he thought, smiling. Then he listened, it was indeed Mr. Hendrix calling his boys.

"Achilles," the man said downstairs.

"I have an assignment for your Black Team. The Frenchman is not to know anything," Hendrix said.

Farbeaux listened with his eyes closed, seemingly not even breathing.

"Yes, sir."

"This involves Purple Sage, so it is of the highest priority. This is why the Black Group was first created. Do you understand that?"

"Perfectly," the man downstairs answered.

"There will be a man at the Ivory Coast Lounge in Las Vegas. He is our main asset at a think tank nearby. He is to be eliminated immediately, is that clear?"

"Yes, sir. Subject's name?"

"Reese, Robert Reese. He's expecting to sell information concerning our Purple Sage file. We don't need it and sadly we also don't need him any longer, as he has just undoubtedly and unknowingly compromised his position. We need him buried deeply. We believe he may even be aware of the Event personnel disappearances in '47. This we cannot have and cannot take a chance of Lee and Compton finding out about. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir, I will gather my team and be in Las Vegas ASAP."

"Don't bother to explain your destination to Legion, the Frenchman can smell opportunity. His loyalty does not figure into our company's goals."

"Yes, sir, he is someone that can clearly be handled," Achilles said.

"Do not, I repeat, do not underestimate that man. He is resourceful, he knows the Group in the desert intimately. He is not one of your case files that you can scare into silence. Now, did he receive his payment for that detail work in Silicon Valley?"

"Yes, sir, he's admiring the cross as we speak."

"Good, that should keep the greedy bastard occupied while you're in Las Vegas."

"The field report on the success of the General Dynamics operation?" Achilles asked.

"No hurry, it's now a low priority. This Reese operation takes precedence, is that totally clear? Waste no time getting your Black Team out there."

"Yes, sir."

The connection was terminated.

Farbeaux removed his headphones and then placed his magic box back in the drawer and locked it. Purple Sage, Reese? The only asset he was aware of in the Las Vegas area was the Event Group rat that worked for Compton and Lee. What was so valuable as to burn such a man as he? And this Purple Sage?

Farbeaux stood and retrieved the Cross of Father Corinth, wrapping it carefully in the black satin cloth, and returned it to his wall safe. He then went to his desk drawer and removed a walnut box and lifted the lid. He drew out a polished Glock nine-millimeter pistol. He also removed a small cylinder that was embedded beside the weapon and slipped the silencer into his jacket pocket and the Glock into a holster he had removed from the same drawer. The desk phone buzzed.

"Yes," Farbeaux said as he picked it up.

"My team has been ordered out of state for a day or so," Achilles said.

"Good, maybe I can do some research without interruption."

"Yes, sir."

He knew his corporate sponsor had been scared by something and knew that whatever Purple Sage was, it had been initiated by the Event Group. So, that's why this Reese had become a liability, that and information he had on Event personnel disappearing in 1947.

He would have to find out exactly what was at stake. He wasn't about to be left out of an Event that could well be beneficial to Henri Farbeaux. He looked at his watch as he slid his jacket on. It would take the Black Team a while to gather and then make the commercial flight to Vegas. He would have time to beat them if he hurried. He quickly called his pilot and ordered him to file a flight plan from LAX to McCarran Airport in Las Vegas. He would beat the Black Team to Vegas and find out why New York was in such a panic.

For those fortunate enough to take the time to really watch, the desert is a living, thriving place, and the magic is never more noticeable than at night. As the sun sets, the dance of life and death usually begins in all the violence and splendor that we humans can only imagine. It ensures the survival of those species indigenous to the desert, this delicate dance. Now the animals, confused and frightened, had all but vanished from the small valley, leaving it still and motionless and far different today than yesterday.