JANET

James Lakewood took a twenty-dollar chip from the top of his stack and pushed it onto the banker circle on the table. The dealer, Catherine, drew two pairs of cards and dealt a six and an ace for the banker and a seven and a two for the player.

Lakewood made a small noise of disgust as the dealer took his twenty-dollar chip. He placed another twenty on the banker circle and took a sip of his beer as the dealer prepared another hand. The banker space was dealt a pair of aces, and the player space received a six and a three.

“Hi there stranger,” said a smooth voice somewhere behind him. A hand landed on his shoulder, and Lakewood saw a set of long fingers with ruby-red nails. “Mind if I join you?” said Joanna.

She was in a luxurious flowing blue sundress and wore dangling silver earrings. She looked absolutely perfect as she lounged in the chair beside him, draping one arm over the backrest and setting down a stack of chips on the table with the other.

“Joanna,” said Lakewood. “Stunning as always.”

“Oh, James. You always know what to say,” she said, brushing her hair behind one ear. She carefully straightened the pile of chips in front of her. “You don’t look happy to see me.” As she spoke, the dealer took his twenty-dollar chip and added it to the house take.

“I haven’t decided how to feel about it yet,” he said, reaching into his coat pocket for his wallet.

Joanna raised a hand lazily, and a waiter appeared within a second. “Blanton’s, neat. My friend here will have another beer.”

Lakewood set down a stack of bills on the table, and the dealer picked them up and replaced them with a large stack of chips. “You know what I love about cards? There are millions and millions of possibilities. So much variability. It’s impossible to know the outcome before our friend Catherine here draws. What a beautiful thing to not know what’s coming. It’s so freeing, wouldn’t you say? Anything can happen!”

“I suppose. But not so much when a little foresight could save you twenty dollars,” she said, as he lost another hand, and Catherine took another twenty-dollar chip from him.

“I was doing okay for a while, but my luck seems to have run out,” he said.

“Maybe not,” said Joanna, rolling one of her own chips between her fingers. “I might be your lucky charm.”

Lakewood grinned. He’d forgotten about her piercing stare. Her eyes never left his face. It had a disarming effect by design. “Perhaps,” he said. “We’ll have to wait and see. That’s a beautiful dress.”

“You should see the one I have for the Gala tonight,” she said. The waiter returned with a silver tray holding their drinks. He placed the neat whiskey in front of Joanna, who picked it up and sipped, still not looking away.

As the waiter placed down a fresh beer for him, he said, “It’s a shame I won’t see it.”

“Oh, James. You know it’s not too late for us,” she said.

“I’m afraid it is,” he said.

“Don’t you want to dance with me tonight,” she said. “I’ll save a special dance for you.”

“Let’s not play games,” said Lakewood.

“But this is a game,” she said, reaching out with a small stack of chips and dropping one on each space; player, dealer, player pair, banker pair, and tie. Lakewood chuckled, placing his own twenty-dollar chip in the dealer space.

Catherine flipped the cards on the player and dealer spots, revealing a pair of fours, a seven, and an ace. “We have a tie,” she said with a smile. All of Joanna’s chips were taken away, and then she was awarded an 11-1 payout for the player pair and an 8-1 payout for the banker player tie. Lakewood received nothing, but he let out an incredulous laugh as Joanna’s winnings slid across the table toward her.

Still laughing, Lakewood gestured for the dealer to leave them. Catherine inclined her head and walked away, leaving the cards, the chips, and the pair of them unguarded. Lakewood listened to the casino for a moment: the chimes of slot machines, the chatter of card dealers, bartenders, and gamblers, and the muted notes of Frank Sinatra echoing from speakers far above them. “The gig is up,” he said at last. “You’ve had a year to try and figure out a way into Groom Lake. I know it was a long shot. And there’s no way you’re getting in now with the Gala happening tonight.”

“That’s too bad,” said Joanna, taking another sip of her whiskey. Her amber eyes glinted over the rim of the crystal glass. “I think you’d really like the dress I bought.” Lakewood sighed in a resigned sort of way and was about to beckon for Catherine to return so they could continue their game, but Joanna put her hand on his to stop him. She said, “It’s a good thing I never take no for an answer.”

Lakewood checked his watch and said, “If you’ve got an idea, I’m all ears. But you better hurry. The last JANET flight heading to Groom Lake leaves in less than two hours.”

“Booker Dunn,” she said.

“What about him?” said Lakewood. He couldn’t help but smile.

“For starters, I think you were right about him,” she said. “He’ll make a great candidate. I’ll even sponsor him. All the hallmarks are there; messed up home life, eager to prove himself, a little hot-headed and willing to get his hands dirty. He even saved my life last night.”

“Did he now? Care to explain?” said Lakewood, rolling the beer in his hand absently.

“We’ll get there,” she said. “But more importantly, you need to know that he’s my ticket into Groom Lake.”

“I told you that his father, Robert, would get you into Groom Lake. Booker won’t be able to help you. He’s just a kid,” said Lakewood.

“Not so fast. You said Robert could get me in,” she said. “I’d already given up on him. I was ready to call it quits on this whole thing before last night.”

“Get to the point,” said Lakewood.

“Well, you told me that Robert Dunn was selling government secrets to Hummel Labs. That’s where all the money is coming from; the fancy beach house, the fast cars, the country clubs. And you told me to exploit any and all information at my disposal to get access to Groom Lake through Robert. No luck. He might be selling information to the private sector, but he’s done a good job avoiding me. Even if I could get to him, it doesn’t seem like he has the pull to bring an outsider with him to the base. But I did find out that he isn’t working alone. There’s at least one other person on the base working with him; someone higher up the chain of command with access to some of the really fancy stuff. I thought, maybe we should turn them in, tell the Colonel about Robert and his accomplice to get on the Colonel’s good side. Maybe he would invite us to the base for a victory glass of champagne.”

Lakewood shook his head. “No good. The Colonel will appreciate knowing about a pair of turncoats on his staff, but he can handle that on his own. And while he’s handling it, he’d have time to wonder why the CIA is spying on his people in the first place. Any goodwill we gain, we’d lose twice over in the same stroke.”

“Exactly. Ergo, dead end with Robert,” she said. “With Robert being ruled out, we’re back to the Colonel. He’s the only one who can get me into Groom Lake, and he’d have to be pretty desperate to bring in an outsider.”

“Indeed,” said Lakewood. “And how do you plan on making the Colonel desperate enough to extend an invite?”

“I don’t have to do a thing. He’s already desperate,” she said.

Draining his beer, Lakewood said, “Alright, I’m playing along. Let’s hear the whole thing. What’s your plan.”

“I told you. Booker Dunn,” she said.

“What about him?”

“The Colonel is going to be desperate to get his hands on him,” she said.

“Why?”

“Because Booker Dunn can get the Colonel’s lost UFO back,” she said.

Lakewood hated how she would do this, dangling a few bits of information but never revealing the big picture. “Colonel Jacobs didn’t lose a UFO, or any aircraft for that matter,” he said. “My information is they lost contact with an unmanned aircraft over the Pacific, but it was recovered.”

“Who told you it was recovered? The Colonel? Seems to me he’d say it was recovered regardless of what happened just to stop the CIA snooping around.”

“Please, Joanna, I don’t have time for this. If you have an angle, tell me now, or let me get back to my game,” he said.

She gave him a pouting look and said, “Oh, James. You used to be so much more fun. Here it is: I know Jacobs is missing one of his special ‘aircraft,’ as you like to call them, because I have one. It crashed into Robert’s house last.”

“Bull shit,” said Lakewood, chuckling.

“I’m serious,” she said. “Turns out that Robert was planning to actually steal some of the Colonel’s tech right out of the sky.”

“Not possible,” said Lakewood, more to himself than Joanna. The timing was all wrong. Why would Robert try to do that now?

“He was already selling project details, sketches, and all kinds of complicated data. Why’s it hard to believe he’d make the leap to physical technology?”

“I mean that it’s not possible that he stole an aircraft from Groom Lake. He’s still on the base, isn’t he?”

“Look, all the info I’ve gathered these last few months points to the fact that Robert Dunn was planning something big this weekend. It’s plastered all over his office. He has maps of the California coast. He has been charting the flight path of the Colonel’s aircraft every day. He’s been building some kind of radio device out of spare parts and junk from his electrical drawer for weeks. Couple all that with the back and forth we’re seeing between him and the people at Hummel Labs, and it’s easy to see something is coming. Robert is scheduled to be back in San Diego after the Gala, and we know that a team hired by Hummel Labs will be off the coast running drills the same night Robert gets back. My guess is that Robert was going to do a handoff on the beach outside his house. Quick and easy getaway once the aircraft was stolen. Last night, I was trying to get into Robert's house and see exactly how all the pieces fit together.”

Over Joanna’s shoulder, a server was approaching with another beer on a tray. Lakewood shooed him away and Joanna continued. “I found the device Robert’s been working on - it’s some kind of radio built into an old briefcase. It looked like an old air strike console built into a metal box. So, I flicked a few switches, entered some frequencies Robert had written on his blackboard, and ended up setting fire to the whole house.”

“You turned it on in the house?” said Lakewood.

“It occurs to me now that Robert probably planned on turning it on outside. Hindsight is 20/20, I guess. The box redirected the Colonel’s unmanned aircraft, causing it to crash right through the roof. I thought it was an artillery strike at first. The whole building collapsed in on itself. I ended up getting stuck under a lintel. Just my luck, right? There was a fire, so smoke was everywhere. I couldn’t see, I couldn’t breathe. And then Booker showed up out of nowhere with a baseball bat. He used it to pry the beam off me.”

Lakewood smiled. “Brave kid.”

“He is.” She watched him for a moment, resting her chin on her hand, then said, “Why did you ask me to keep an eye on him?”

He shrugged. “I just had a hunch you’d like him.”

“Really? A hunch?” she said.

“So what happened next?” he said.

She looked as though she wanted to question him further, but said, “I slipped through a hole in the second floor down to the kitchen. Ended up falling right on top of the crashed aircraft. It’s a sphere. The same sphere we’ve been seeing in all of Robert’s drawings. I grabbed it, and a few bits and pieces of Robert’s device strewn around the room, and then I bolted.”

He leaned back, stretching his neck from side to side, processing everything she had told him. “So, you’re telling me that you have the aircraft everyone believes crashed in the Pacific last night?” She tipped her glass to him as a confirmation. He shook his head and said, “I hired you to watch Robert. Gather more intelligence and figure out a way to get access to Groom Lake through him. I didn’t ask you to steal one of the Colonel’s aircraft. If Jacobs finds out about this, there will be hell to pay.”

“It’s not my fault,” she said, sipping her whiskey. “I just pressed a few buttons and then-” she mimed an explosion with her hands.

“I don’t see how any of this helps you get access to Groom Lake,” he said.

“It helps because we hold all the cards now,” she said.

He shook his head. “You’re going to have to explain that one to me. From where I’m sitting, we’re even more stuck than we were before.”

Smiling, she pushed three stacks of chips toward him on the table. Pointing to each stack in turn, she said, “Three groups know about the stolen sphere. The first is Colonel Jacobs and his inner circle, who know the sphere is missing. Jacobs should be feeling pretty desperate for more information at this point. The second group is Robert Dunn and his accomplice, or his group of accomplices. They are the ones who were planning to steal the sphere, but Booker and I sprung their trap early, and right now, they’ve got to be feeling pretty pissed off that their plan was ruined last night. The third group is you and me. You and me hold all the cards.” She smiled that sly smile, mischief sparkling in her eyes. God, he missed working with her.

Joanna continued in a low voice, leaning closer to him. “The Colonel wants his sphere back. He’s also going to want to know who tried to steal it and how. Robert and his people want the sphere back, presumably so they can sell it to Hummel Labs for an insane amount of money. And something tells me the people at Hummel won’t just say ‘live and let live’ if Robert doesn’t come through as promised. A couple of desperate parties trying to get their hands on the same thing. So how do we use all this to our advantage?”

“How?” said Lakewood.

“That’s the question I kept asking myself last night,” she said, leaning back again, pushing a strand of hair behind one ear.

“And?” said Lakewood.

“Booker. Dunn,” She flipped a single chip in the air between them, and he caught it. “You are going to call Jacobs and tell him that you have the breakthrough he needs to get to the bottom of this whole fiasco. Tell him you know where the sphere really crashed. Be ambiguous if you want, so he doesn’t know we’ve been spying on Robert for the last year. Tell him that when your agent - me - arrived on the scene, she was too late to recover the sphere. Tell him your agent saw it being handed over to a group of men on the beach who escaped by boat. And tell him that it was Booker Dunn who handed over the sphere. Seeing as how your agent has Booker Dunn in custody and bits and pieces of the device he used to hijack the sphere, tell the Colonel that we’ll hand both over to him under one condition.”

“And that condition is?”

“That your agent gets to attend the Gala tonight,” she said.

Lakewood shook his head, chuckling to himself. “You want me to blackmail Colonel Jacobs into letting you attend the Gala?”

“It’s the least he can do,” she said. “We’re doing him a favor. And I’m a decorated veteran of the CIA, but I’ve never been to Groom Lake. It’s a feather I’d like to stick in my cap. Tell him I’ll hand deliver Booker and the device used to hijack the sphere. And I’ll offer a full debrief of what I saw last night.”

“It’s still blackmail,” said Lakewood.

“Indeed,” she said. “Be nice about it. But it won’t hurt if you … suggest the CIA will have trouble cooperating unless this one tiny demand is met.”

“Relations between the CIA and the military are bad enough as it is already. Jacobs would go to war over this,” said Lakewood.

“Do you want me to get on that base or not?” said Joanna. Before he could answer, she said, “You asked for the impossible, and I’ve spent the last year trying to create a miracle scenario that puts me right in the middle of Area 51 so we can finish this one last job together. Now that a miracle literally falls out of the sky, you’re going to let it slip by? This is our one shot, James. It’s now or never.”

He knew she was right; it was now or never. But all this wasn’t sounding like a plan he wanted to enact. Aside from the blackmail angle, another problem occurred to him. “This whole plan falls apart as soon as Jacobs talks to the kid.”

Joanna was ready for him. The way she sipped her whiskey, savoring the moment, made him think she was pleased he was trying to poke holes in the plan. “You see, I don’t think the Colonel will get the chance to talk to Booker at all,” she said, licking her lips again as she set down the glass. “There’s one more thing we know; Booker’s father Robert - and whoever he is working with - are scared shitless right now. The Colonel is smart enough to know that the sphere could only have been captured by someone with intimate knowledge of how it works. That means, Booker must have gotten help from someone on the base.”

“Okay,” said Lakewood, not sure exactly where she was going with this.

“So, when Booker arrives, the only people who will want to question him more than the Colonel, are the ones working with Robert. They’ll be desperate to get their hands on him and find out how their plan fell apart. And they’ll want to know what happened to the sphere so they can recover it before the Colonel does. If we make the call to the Colonel and he agrees to let me and Booker get on a JANET flight this afternoon, they are sure to find out. And when they do, all we have to do is wait and see who takes him into custody once the plane lands at Groom Lake.”

“You think they’ll get to him before the Colonel does,” said Lakewood.

“I do,” she said. “And, it will give us the final piece of the puzzle too.”

“Which is?”

“Who is working with Robert?”

“Jesus. So, your plan is to use the kid as bait to find out who the turncoats are?”

“It’ll work,” she said. “When the Colonel hears your story, he’ll be worried that Booker sold the sphere to the Chinese or the Russians or some private entity like Hummel Labs. But when Robert and his team on the base get word that someone is being hand-delivered for questioning about a crashed sphere, they’ll think Booker still has the sphere or that it’s buried in the wreckage of the house somewhere. They need to question him before the Colonel does, or else they will be hung out to dry.”

Lakewood rubbed his face with his hands, thinking. “If I tell the Colonel that this kid is responsible for the crash, won’t he realize that Robert is the kid’s father? Won’t that be enough for the Colonel to realize it must be Robert behind the whole thing?”

“Be ambiguous,” she said. “We don’t have to tell the Colonel the kid is Robert’s son. He’s just some kid.”

“This is a terrible plan,” said Lakewood.

“It’s the best one we got.”

“What happens when Robert and his accomplice question Booker?”

“They’ll probably put two and two together and realize that I have the sphere,” she said. “But by then, it doesn’t matter. We will know who they are.” She added. “Don’t worry about Booker. They won’t hurt him.”

“So you think,” he said. “You know I can’t help him once he gets on that plane. There’s no turning back.”

“I know,” she said.

Lakewood pondered his options. She was right; this plan would get her on the base. Jacobs would sure as hell take the bait. But he knew that Booker would be in serious danger. “About this kid: They will kill him if they feel they have to,” he said.

“I won’t let that happen,” she said.

“How?” he said.

“I’ll figure something out. We have the sphere, so we have leverage,” she said.

“We’re not using that sphere as a bargaining piece,” he said.

“Desperate times,” she said. “Didn’t you say this is the most important mission of your entire career? Didn’t you tell me that if I failed, it could alter the entire course of history? I’m trying to help you. And right now, helping you means finding any way into Area 51 that I can. I’ll take full responsibility for what happens to Booker. What’s it going to be? Are you going to tell me what I’m looking for out there, or are you going to throw in the towel?”

Lakewood sighed again, still processing everything she had told him. “You’re sure about this?” he said. Joanna nodded, not breaking her piercing stare. “And the sphere will be returned to Jacobs? Undamaged? Any way to trace it back to you or me?”

“Of course,” she said.

After wrestling with the situation in his head for what felt like several minutes, he finally said, “I’ll make the call to Jacobs. He’ll clear you for this afternoon’s JANET flight. You better have that kid ready for what’s coming.”

A grin spread across her face as she said, “Tell Jacobs they can pick us up outside the lobby. He’s already sedated and ready to go.”

Lakewood groaned and shook his head before saying, “I’ll let him know. And everything is in place for our little mission?”

“Based on the limited information you’ve given me, everything is ready. It’s been ready for months in case we ever figured out a way for me to get onto the base,” she said. “I just need to know exactly what I’m looking for.”

“You know you won’t be able to just slip it in your pocket and walk out, right?”

“Please,” she said. “You know me better than that.”

“Alright,” he said. “What you’re looking for is located in High Point Hall. It’s one of the displays the Colonel has set up in there. But there’s a problem,” he said.

“Which is?” she said.

“I hadn’t counted on you doing this the same weekend of the Gala,” he said.

“What difference does it make?”

“Well, Colonel Jacobs hosts the Gala in High Point Hall. You’ll have to pull this off during the party.”

“Don’t worry about me,” she said. “Just tell me how I find this display. What is it? What does it look like?”

“Yes, yes,” said Lakewood, looking around. Joanna was a skilled thief, but she never took a job without fully understanding what she was taking and why it mattered. Lakewood had learned this the hard way years before, but he and Joanna had a good relationship. It was he, after all, who made it possible for her to retire. He made it possible because she was one of the only people in the CIA, or in the world for that matter, whom he trusted. She wouldn’t share secrets. She wouldn’t give him up if she were caught. And she wouldn’t take the job if she didn’t agree with its merit. Seeing that they were still alone, Lakewood said, “Listen close. I don’t want to explain this more than once.” He began his story.

It took several minutes to explain. When he finished, Joanna seemed to have a slight smirk on her face, but she didn’t question him. They sat in silence for a few moments as she pondered the information he’d given her. “So, I get these…”

“Documents,” he said.

“So, I get these documents for you. Then what?”

“I have plans for them,” he said. “But eventually, they’ll be destroyed.”

“Right,” she said, the smirk appearing on her face again. “Because they’re just too dangerous should they fall in the wrong hands.”

“Yes and no,” he said. “I believe the world, as a whole, would not be in danger. I firmly believe that little we do will ever harm this big rock we call home. But, in the wrong hands, yes, those documents could prove dangerous for one person in particular.”

“Who?”

“You’ll know,” he said.

“I will, will I?” she said with a small laugh. “It’s a good thing I like you.”

“Can you do it?” said Lakewood.

“Of course. In fact, I’ll deliver them on a silver platter. You have my word.” She stood up, drained her glass, and beckoned for Catherine the card dealer to return. “I need to freshen up and pack a few things before the flight. Always a pleasure, James.” As she walked away, she stopped and looked at him again. “Tell me the truth - why Booker?”

Lakewood considered her for a moment, then said, “Get this job done, and I’ll tell you.” With a half grin and slight scoff, she turned away. Calling after her, he said, “I’m looking forward to seeing your dress! Still saving a dance for me?”

“Always,” she said, blowing him a kiss over her shoulder.

He chuckled, grabbing his phone from his jacket pocket. As Catherine started dealing the cards again, he dialed and heard a voice asking him to direct his call. “Get me Colonel Jacobs. I have some news he’ll be interested in.”