The Brandons arrived back at their home in time for Jack to take Shadow for a walk before the lawyer, Lee Jensen, arrived with a carry-out dinner. Jack was anxious to get started with a life far different than he had ever dreamed. Picking a spot in the fading sun, Jack let Shadow off his leash and sat down to think over the earlier meeting with Frank. He was committed now. He had to trust Frank Batcher, and he had to trust Frank’s people almost the same way Shadow trusted him. The big black Bouvier always stayed close enough to keep Jack in sight. He often wondered who was taking care of whom as he walked back to the house.

When he returned, Jack found his father was taking a much needed rest. Settling down in the library with a cup of black tea, Jack opened the package Frank had given him. Each dossier had a picture attached of a very attractive woman. Kathy Grayson was younger with long blonde hair. The other, Anita Marino, was older than Kathy and as dark as she was fair. Opening Anita’s file, Jack started reading. After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh, Anita served ten years with the Army in the Rangers and later in the Special Forces. She had seen combat in Iraq with the Special Forces and served with distinction. She was promoted to the rank of major before deciding to leave Special Forces for the CIA. Her specialties were demolitions and small unit tactics. At the end of the brief write-up was a handwritten note saying both women would be forthright in talking about their backgrounds during his interviews. Jack guessed Frank believed written records should be kept to a minimum and the best way to keep a secret is not to put it in the records.

Kathy Grayson joined the CIA right after she graduated from the University of North Carolina (UNC). During her eight years with the Agency, she served two tours in the Arab world and one tour in Moscow. Her Arabic was quite good, Russian less so. Of the two, Anita was the better language student, speaking several languages with near-native pronunciation. At UNC Kathy majored in Middle Eastern and South Asian studies. She had completed more than half of the class work for a Master of Arts degree. Jack decided he would try to see them both tomorrow. Now he was going to work out in the house gym. On the bottom floor of the house, his father had installed a rather complete workout area in a 20’x20’ room with a padded floor for martial arts practice.

After a hard work out with weights and a shower, Jack was just checking on his father who was sleeping soundly when Shadow’s loud barking alerted him to a car coming up the driveway. Jack opened the door as Lee stepped up on the porch. Shadow bounded out the door to confront this invasion of his turf. Jack told Shadow it was okay. Jack could see Lee had held his composure but just. An unexpected confrontation with a 100-pound black bear-like dog had caused Lee’s jaw to clench a bit.

Following a dinner carried in from the Café Italia and a bottle of decent Chianti, Lee opened his briefcase and, with the use of charts and graphs, began to explain the financial mechanism controlling the Brandon assets and real estate. All were controlled by two separate holding companies through a cascading tier of corporate sub-owners. Lee told Jack, while the ownership could be tracked back to the Brandons, it would take a team of experts at least a year to unravel the network he and Jack’s father had set up. Lee’s firm handled all the legal requirements and managed the tax returns each year.

After Lee finished his presentation, Jack told Lee he intended to hire a few employees, and he wanted to pay them and required expenses through a holding company. The company should be difficult to trace back to the Brandons and fit the activities of a group of consultants. A location in Northern Virginia would be preferable. He would also need an office complex for six people, very low key with no nosy neighbors and no competitive consultant businesses or lawyers’ offices in the same building. He wanted to see the building before Lee took care of the lease arrangements. Lee told Jack he could handle that requirement. But it would be at least a week before he would be ready to show Jack a possible location.

The next morning Jack called both Grayson and Marino on the numbers Frank provided. In both cases he had to leave a message to call his number. His father found him on the sun porch enjoying a cup of strong black coffee. Jack told his father he had left a message for the two people Frank had suggested he interview. Peter sat across the coffee table from Jack and said, “If you are going to talk to people in the spy business, you’d better learn some of the jargon.”

The next four hours were taken up with exposing Jack to the vocabulary of clandestine operations. His father covered alias documentation, surveillance principles, and general tradecraft and communications options. Jack knew many of the principles from his police training and on-the-street experience, but nuances appeared when it came to espionage and terrorism. By the end of the afternoon, Jack had learned a new lexicon of dead drops, brush contacts, safe houses, secret writing, clandestine signaling, double agents, the uses and limitations of disguises, surveillance and counter-surveillance.

The phone rang just as his father was going to take a short rest before dinner. Kathy Grayson was returning his call. Jack asked her if she had a few hours to spend with him.

Kathy said, “Sure, especially if you feed me.”

Jack laughed and said, “You’re on. Meet me in the lobby of the Ritz in an hour.”

“Okay. How will I know you?”

“Easy. I’ll be the only man in the Ritz lobby who knows your birth date and grade point average at UNC.”

“No fair. I don’t know anything about you.”

“Yeah. I know. See you in an hour.” Before she could answer, Jack hung up.

Kathy put the phone down and wondered how interesting this was going to be. He was pushing her wardrobe by taking her to the Ritz. Basic black might have to do.