Chapter 73: Hot Crazy Chick II
"Here I am yakking about myself. What about you guys? Alan, what do you do?" Frankie asked after not saying a thing about herself.
Alan shot back sarcastically, "Good question. Guess," mirroring some of the words she had just used.
"How about that?" he added, challenging her.
Charlie cut in, "Alan, don't be childish."
"She started it."
"He's a chiropractor," Dad revealed to Frankie.
"Really? That's terrific. I have so much respect for what you guys do," she said enthusiastically.
"Seriously?"
"Yeah."
"Because my brother thinks I'm just a glorified masseuse," Alan deadpanned.
Charlie corrected, "I never said glorified."
"Charlie, you're so wrong. Chiropractors are like angels of healing." Frankie grabbed Alan's hands. "These hands have amazing powers to bring relief and even pleasure."
"You know it's not those massages with happy endings, right?" I pointed out, which made everyone turn toward me.
"I know," she glared before breaking into a smile. "I do one once a week. In fact, I'm in desperate need of an adjustment right now."
"Let me get my table, I'll fix you up," Alan offered, finally seeing someone in the house giving him credit.
"Awesome." She followed him. "Do you want me with clothes or without?"
I raised my eyebrow after hearing that last comment from Frankie.
Dad just stared, dumbfounded, frozen in pure disbelief as he tried - and failed - to process what had just happened.
He put a hand in his chin, trying to make any sense of it.
I burst out laughing.
"What are you laughing at, Francis?" he snapped.
Still chuckling, I managed, "From my point of view, this was really funny."
Charlie placed his plate in the sink and walked out, annoyed. I stayed behind, finishing my dinner.
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I wrapped up a phone call in the living room.
"Yeah, thank you for the information. Bye." I hung up and headed down the hallway.
On the way to my room, I saw my dad coming out of the bedroom Frankie was using - Jake's room.
"Bad luck?" I asked, noticing the untouched bottle of vodka in his hand.
He nodded, "Round one to the hot, crazy chick," he muttered before heading to his own room.
I knocked on her door. A "come in" made me step inside
Frankie looked at me a little surprised. "I was not expecting you."
Then added, "That girl from earlier… she's your girlfriend, right? And aren't you a bit too young?"
"Yes to both," I confirmed. "I just want to talk to you." I pulled a chair that was in Jake's room (sometimes I use it to play video games with my cousin).
"Don't abuse our good will," I blurted out. "My dad may not have the noblest intentions, but he helped you out."
"And Uncle Alan is too much of a pushover. Even when he doesn't want to, he ends up helping," I finished.
She glanced at me with mild surprise. "Wow, you're trying to be the man of the house. It's kinda cute," she joked amused, not taking my warning seriously.
I leaned slightly toward her and whispered, "Mess with my family, and I'll make sure you never see Joanie again."
Frankie widened her eyes and went pale. She shifted into a defensive stance, probably debating whether she should attack me.
But before she could do anything, another woman entered the room. She was wearing FBI gear, one hand resting on the gun at her hip.
I raised my hand, stopping her. "No need to scare her more, Alana. I'm done talking."
But I added a final warning, "I know about your husband's death, about his parents wanting to hold custody of your daughter... and what you're planning to do in the next few days." Then I closed the door.
I value my safety and my family's. And as someone who handles sensitive data -especially for DARPA's project - I can use government resources for things like investigations around me. They'd look into it even if I didn't ask.
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The next morning, Alan was serving pancakes for me and Frankie.
Frankie complimented him, "Man, deep tissue massage, pancakes… If you had a TV on your forehead and could breathe through your ears, you'd be perfect."
I lifted my head, confused. "Breathe through the ears…" I muttered, not understanding her thought process. Well, she is nuts...
We had talked before Alan entered the kitchen, so she wasn't as wary of me anymore. As long as she didn't do anything stupid, I wouldn't interfere. They are all adults.
"So nobody makes you pancakes where you live? Not your husband?" Alan asked curiously.
Seeing her shake her head, he continued, "Boyfriend?" then in a high pitch, "Girlfriend?!"
She didn't answer, and Alan went on, "Mother, father, grandma? …cellmate?"
I chuckled at the last attempt. "Good guess."
Moments later, Dad entered the kitchen. "Morning, Frankie, Francis."
"Morning, Charlie," she greeted back.
Alan stared at Charlie. "Morning."
"Yeah," he answered curtly, grabbing a mug before returning to the hot chick. "So, Frankie… boy, that is a pretty name" he grinned, "How did you sleep?"
"Great," she smiled, but paused. "Except I had this wild erotic dream. And I woke up all drenched in sweat." She gestured toward her body.
Both Alan and Charlie stared at her like idiots.
"Could you pass the syrup?" she asked, completely switching the tone.
"Sure. Yeah," both fumbled, while I was already handing it to her.
Frankie showed appreciation, "Thanks, sweetie. You are a doll." Then she commented, "You know, I can't thank you guys enough for letting me stay here last night. I just wish there was some way I could repay you."
Alan proposed, "For a start, you could tell us something about yourself."
"I wouldn't mind hearing more about that dream." Charlie smirked, already sitting down.
"All right," Frankie agreed. "I guess I can trust you guys. I know this may sound totally crazy, but I work for a secret government agency, and my current mission is..." She stopped and began laughing. "I'm sorry. You should see your faces. You guys are so easy."
"Yeah, like a pimp fifth grader talking with the it girl of the 10th grade," I spoke dryly.
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Author's Note: I haven't gone into much detail about this so far, but Jake is working on an important DARPA project for the U.S. military, and he is leading it. Because of that, it's normal for him to have protection from the government.
My idea is this: he uses encoding based on the Fundamental Lemma to create a coordinated set of drones designed for area monitoring and reconnaissance. Given the technological limits of drones at the time (2004), they would not be armed.
So basically, well-coordinated drones - which would be incredible in 2004."
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