The click-clack sound of high-heeled shoes echoed off the tile laminate floors of the long hallway at a fast pace. The personal aide to Senator Gavin Albrecht had a concerned look on her face. She was about to tell the Senator the findings of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation of the Serbia incident. It was not good. After months of inquiries, interviews, and examinations of all the evidence, the Senator’s son was incompetent in his actions which lead to the deaths of several American assets and dozens of civilians in the city of Belgrade. The Committee had convened for two weeks to deliberate whether it would bring formal charges against Jason.

  Arriving at the big oaken door that led to the Senator’s chambers, Alison MacKenzie stopped and readied herself, for what would be the angry storm that was a very pissed-off Senator Albrecht. He was already yelling as she walked through the door into his phone.

  “My son is an idiot, but he shouldn’t have to pay for it with years in a federal penitentiary!!!” he yelled as he looked at Alison when she came in. Gavin rudely pointed at her and then to the chair in front of his mahogany desk. “I don’t care what you think!!! CIA operators and analysts are paid extremely well for what they do. They know the risks!!” he added loudly before slamming the handset into the receiver.

  “So, you have heard, Sir,” Alison commented in a measured calm tone.

  Gavin glared at her intensely. “I thought I told you to tell me as soon as you found out,” he his green eyes narrowed as he seethed at the black-haired smartly dressed young woman seated before him.

  She glared right back and the white-haired overweight Senator. “I’m sorry that the Committee rendered their finding the same time you were in deep conference with... what is her name? The blonde intern. Rebecca?” she shot back her reply with a defiantly calm if demeaning tone. The intensity of her steel-grey eyes was unsettling to the Senator.

  The Senator’s ego deflated with a long-drawn-out sigh. Alison had served him well for the last four terms of his senatorship in the capital. Her unwavering support and demanding work did not go unnoticed by him. It was more a testament to who she was as a person than his guidance. The ability to handle all the aspects of his life and keep him below the radar of the media was a great boon to him. “Yes, well, I apologize,” he offered. “Who can we sway on the committee?” he said calmer but still irritated.

  “Senator McCann has an insatiable appetite for young boys. Senator Rawling is currently in deep with some local bookies, but other than that, it looks like you still need at least two other senators to sway the decision,” Alison coldly relayed the facts.

  “Senator Anderson wants me to vote his way on the ATF director’s nomination. So that leaves one more Senator to convince,” he sighed.

  Alison looked at the Senator with slight compassion for his plight. His only son faced a minimum of twenty years in a minimum-security federal prison for nothing more than a desire to make his father proud of him. “That is going to be a hard sell to the rest. All the remaining Senators have extensive military records and the fact that three former SEALs died and one of them that was highly decorated is going to play against you,” Alison stated the harsh facts. “Not to mention that, according to my information, they were all related to the surviving analyst,” she added as she checked for the facts in the file she was carrying.

  “The Masters’ woman?” he asked as if he vaguely recalled it.

  “Yes. Her father, her brother, and it appears the other one was her fiancé,” she stated, having found the information, “Your staunchest opposition is Senator Henshaw from Texas., he served under the woman’s father as a SEAL and has seemed to have taken this very personally,” she explained.

  Gavin balled his hands into fists.” Can’t we use that to our advantage?”

  “How so, Sir?”

  “That he has a personal vendetta against my son,” he stated.

  “Only if you can prove that Sir. He has been transparent about knowing the Masters’ girls’ father and that wasn’t enough to get him off the committee for conflict of interest,” she replied.

  “Does he have any vices we can exploit? I mean, a proud Texas guy like him must have some sort of skeletons in a closet,” the Senator queried.

  “None that anyone knows of, Sir,” Alison answered. “From all appearances, he has unreproachable morals, is wise for his age, and is a devoted husband with a child on the way,” she added.

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  “No one is perfect. Dig as deep as you can. Find me, something I can use as leverage,” Gavin ordered.

  “Yes, Senator.”

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  There was a knock on his office door. “May I come in, Sir?” the other side asked.

  Daniel Henshaw, a U.S. Senator from Texas, looked up from the documents he examined. “Yeah, Scotty, come in,” he replied as he took his reading glasses off. Daniel turned to face the harried visage of his aide, Scotty Lansing, as he entered the office. The young man in his early twenties looked as if he had slept in his clothes again, likely because he constantly researched to the point of exhaustion. However, Daniel himself did not look any better. He needed a good, strong cup of coffee and a hot shower. “You look like crap, Scotty,” he remarked to the sandy-haired young man.

  Scotty offered a weak but sarcastic remark. “Well, I’m just following your example,” he gestured toward Daniel. That example hasn’t failed me yet, Sir,” he said as he produced a file from his khaki-colored messenger bag. This is the compiled personnel file on Jesalyn Masters. Let me tell you now, if even half of this file is true, I’m in love and want to marry her,” Scotty said with a wide smile.

  “Oh Really!! You understand that, essentially, she is like a niece to me and my wife?” he stated with a sarcastic tone and mischievous grin.

  Scotty looked at the senator and became very uneasy. “No. No, I did not, Sir. Sorry for my exuberance,” he replied in a weak tone.

  “Give me the highlights,” Daniel ordered.

  Scotty cleared his throat as he opened the file and read. “Jesalyn Illyana Masters. Born January 7, 1992. Age twenty-eight. Tested I.Q. 180. Graduated valedictorian from First Colonial High School in 2006 at age fourteen. Attained a Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice specializing in Terrorist Infrastructure through the Naval College online program in 2008. Enlisted on March 10 of the same year into the United States Marine Corps. Earned Expert rifle badge and holds the highest woman’s marksman score of 325 and in the Top 10 all around. Hand-to-hand proficiencies include third dan black belt in Tae Kwon Do, Black belt in Brazilian Jujitsu, trained in Krav Maga, with a prominent level of competency in stick and knife fighting. Primary MOS 5811 Military Police with secondary MOS being 8152 Marine Corps Security Force. Member of the Fleet Anti-Terrorist Security Team.

  Serving in those capacities for two and a half years before transferring to MOS 0211 Counterintelligence/Human Intelligence Specialist in which she served the rest of her six-year service contract plus 2 years of her reserve time before the CIA recruited her. Serving as an analyst with several redacted assignments that showed field operative work.”

  Scott looked up at the senator for a moment, then continued. “Jesalyn is multilingual, able to read, write, and speak eight languages fluently. Besides American English, she knows Spanish, French, Norwegian, Greek, Russian, Pashto, Serbian, and Japanese,” he again looks up at the Senator with a bewildered look. “Who is this woman? Jane Bond?” Scotty asked, exasperated.

  Daniel chuckled at him. “The very exceptional daughter of a very exceptional man. Her father, Harlan T. Masters, was one of the last original Seal Team Six members before we absorbed them into DEVGRU under JSOC. He was also my commander and mentor when I joined the SEAL Teams. The man was always reading, researching, or learning something. He once told me that it was important to learn something new daily to strive for perfection. The last time I saw Jesalyn was at her graduation from Boot Camp on Parris Island. I can tell you that she learned close to eighty-five percent of what you just read to me before that. Harlan ran as tight a ship at home as he did in the Navy,” he commented. “What’s her psyche eval say?” he asked.

  Scotty rifled through a couple of pages before he read aloud again. “Jesalyn is well disciplined and is borderline obsessive-compulsive, most of which is internally focused. She has a mental focus so well developed that it was hard to discern that she was ADHD. Her observational skills and high intelligence allow her to react to people and her surroundings in anear-clairvoyant way. She is well-mannered and courteous to a fault but exhibits a proclivity towards sarcasm and speaking bluntly when stressed. She is emotionally stable, though there are some unresolved underlying issues with her feelings toward her father that drive her self-assurance negatively. Jesalyn holds herself to higher standards that are unrealistic and detrimental to her growth in interpersonal relationships with people exhibiting lesser intelligence or wisdom,” Scotty finished the evaluation. “That the clinical definition for she hates stupid people?” he chuckled.

  “Probably,” Daniel chuckled himself. “I can imagine what she would say to me about becoming a U.S. Senator,” he added.

  Scotty looked at the tall, well-groomed, and fit man he considered a mentor. “I take it she’s not a major fan of politics?” he asked.

  “No, in the slightest. Her father and brother knew politics as unavoidable but a necessary evil. Jesalyn, however, despises the process altogether. She will do what she is told if the reason is logical, and fact-based. Two things that rarely go hand in hand here on the Hill,” the Senator commented. “I’m only glad that the investigation revealed Jason Albrecht’s incompetence. She won’t be happy that the committee is delaying recommendations until after the break,” he added.

  “But, Sir, isn’t that the reason you worked out letting her escape the capital?” Scotty asked.

  “Partly. Jesalyn needs time to come to terms with all her loss. The fact Serbia has yet to release her family remains because of international bureaucratic red tape does not help that, and she definitely will not be thrilled that they all have been cremated,” Daniel explained as he rubbed his tired eyes with his right hand. “This is news I have to tell her in person. Make travel arrangements to Nowhere, Nevada A.S.A.P., please, Scotty,” he added.