Chapter Eight

You Know What You Need To Do
by Tammy Mehmed

As the three of them exited the East Side Club, Jack waved his hand for his driver to approach.  A black Mercedes SUV pulled up to the curb at 86th Street.  Ollie and Hayden quickly crawled into the back seat, while Jack slid into the passenger seat.  They ran out of there quickly, but both Ollie and Hayden had picked up their squash bags with their gear and change of clothes.

Ollie’s heart was pounding.  “Thank you Hayden, for winning the game.  Does this really mean I get to walk away?” 

“Honestly, Dad, how did that happen?  Jean-Luc was in such good shape – it just doesn’t make any sense that he would drop dead,” rambled Hayden.  “The bet was that Ollie gets to walk if I win.  Do you think his Quebec group is going to honor that bet or do they even know?”

“Well, I don’t think we can take any chances with that group.  They’ll be suspicious about the entire arrangement – and who knows if he had approval for that.  But he clearly had a heart attack.  His boys were right there and saw him go down,” said Jack.  “I just wanted a little insurance so I had Gus put a little something in his coffee this afternoon to guarantee your win.  Not that I was ever doubting your skills, honey.  And I certainly wasn’t planning on him literally dropping dead.” 

Ollie kept at the questioning, “What – so Gus is working for you too?  But hey, so am I okay?  What about the ‘we nail him’ text?  Didn’t that mean they wanted to kill me?”  

Just then, Hayden’s cell phone rang.  It was Hank, the pro at East Side.  “Hank!” she exclaimed. 

Hank’s voice sounded uncertain, “Hayden – are you okay?  Some older guy with gray hair approached me this afternoon and told me you wouldn’t be needing your lesson but still wanted the court time and paid me cash for the last minute change.  It was all rather odd, so I wanted to make sure you were alright.” 

“Sorry for the change in plans, Hank.  Maybe I can explain one day, but I can’t talk now.  Thanks for understanding – see you around coach.”  And Hayden hung up the phone staring out the car window.  It had begun raining and the rhythmic sound of the wipers had a calming effect on her.

Ollie continued to be confused and was getting impatient.  “Hayden, so, what about that text?  Jack is your dad, right?  I thought your parents died in a car accident.  God I am so confused – seriously all this over my oil sands research?”

“I’m sorry Ollie, I know there is so much to explain.  Yes, Jack is my dad and I thought he died in that car accident too.  My mom really did die, but as you can see, my dad survived.  The CIA decided to keep him underground and fake his death because of the mission he was working.  The bad guys think they killed him.  So while dad was underground, they were devising a plan to trap Jean-Luc.  My dad thought they could eventually bring me into their plan since Jean-Luc started using me for some of his dirty work.  Just over a year ago my dad finally contacted me to recruit me for the Agency– you can imagine how shocked I was to see my dead father.  He knew everything I had been doing because the Agency had been following Jean-Luc after he went rogue.  In the beginning, I didn’t even know I was working for Jean-Luc and only came to meet him with this project.”

“Holy shit, so you’re essentially a double agent then,” blurted Ollie.

Hayden smiled and winked at Ollie, leaned back into the seat, and looked out the window again.

“So Hayden, what about that text?  Didn’t that mean they wanted to kill me?” repeated Ollie.

“Well not literally.  They were going to use an ether gag so you would go easily, but we never got to that part, and, well, all the teams had to change plans.  They really did want your expertise on the Canadian oil sands for the Keystone XL pipeline.  I’m not sure what they were going to do with you after they got what they wanted though.  Those covert Quebec groups play dirty since they are competing with the local mafia and Hells Angels.  It was your freedom guarantee I was playing for.”

“Well, I’m set up to meet with my colleagues tomorrow morning.  In my paranoia this morning, I set off the warning system after you left.  I don’t have any way to contact them now to tell them it’s not about Dr. Karwah.  I just need to get back into the city by 10 a.m. so I can meet them at The Ground Zero Memorial.”

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The car dropped my dad off at his concealed Agency office in Manhattan.  I got out of the car and kissed him on the cheek.  He whispered to me, “I’m sorry honey, but it’s time now.  You know what you need to do.”  I slipped into the back seat and slithered closer to Ollie, touching his hand and looking into his eyes.  The SUV continued through town over the George Washington Bridge, heading north on I-87 toward Westchester County.  Our bodies were completely exhausted from the day’s activities, but I couldn’t let my guard down.  Stay focused girl.  We bantered back and forth about our days at St. Exodus Prep and how thankful we were for the squash coaches we had.  It kept my mind off the inevitable.

I had been briefed about the Safe House we used in quiet Tarrytown near the Sleepy Hollow border.  Enough tourist traffic in the neighborhood so Safe House users could look like vacation renters.  As we pulled up to the long driveway, I could see it was a quaint little ranch style home on a heavily wooded acre lot.  In my head, I had been going through the floor plan I had been shown remembering the rooms and where to find the hidden weapons closet.

As our driver pulled up to the garage door, he used a remote opener and there in the garage was a Ford Escape, black of course, with tinted windows.  The driver handed me the keys and the security code and then we grabbed our bags and headed toward the door through the garage.

I was thankful for the refrigerator filled with all the necessities.  Ollie found wine in the wet bar and promptly opened a bottle of David Bruce Pinot.  “Cheers,” he said, “mission accomplished, right?”  I smiled at him and said “Yes, well done.  We make quite a team.  To us.”  I took a sip, but Ollie drank the entire glass in less than 5 minutes.  I took his hand and walked him toward the bathroom where we undressed to get into the large Jacuzzi tub.  I turned on the hot water to steam up the bathroom for warmth and then guided him to the sitting chair next to the tub and began massaging his neck.  He was relaxed from the wine and the warmth and was enjoying the deep massage. 

And with a quick twist, I heard the snap and watched his naked body slump in the chair.  I leaned over and kissed his head - ‘Sorry sweetie, I wish it didn’t have to end this way.’




Tammy Mehmed is practically a native San Franciscan having relocated from Michigan in 1981.  By day she is a legal secretary at a large international law firm; by night and weekend she trains people and their dogs and competes in canine agility and rally obedience.  She photographed the recent PSA NetSuite Open.