Jim had noticed how quiet his friend was on the ride home from the Thai restaurant that they had ended up at for dinner.  Silence from Blair was never a good sign.  "Chief?  What's wrong?"

Blair looked over at the man sitting on his left, behind the wheel of the old Ford pickup.  "What makes you think that something's wrong?"

Pulling up to a stoplight, the detective turned to face him.  "Oh, I don't know.  Your lingering silence since we left The Dragon Pearl?"

"What do you expect?  You tell me, just as we're leaving mind you, that you are running a background check on Alicia and you want me to just let it go?" Blair turned his gaze away from his friend, opting to look out the passenger side window instead.  "I thought you were joking that one time that you said you were going to start running checks on my friends."

The light turned green and Jim pulled forward into the traffic flow.  "That's not why I'm running the check on her," he growled.

"Then why?"

Taking in a deep breath, Jim tried to explain.  "Chief, Blair, remember when we got that information that led to the arrest of Stuart Phelps?  The Clown?"  Glancing over at the younger man, he saw him nod in agreement.  "Okay, remember that little 'zone-out' I had?  The one connected with a scent?"

Looking back at the Sentinel, Blair lost all interest in keeping track of the passing landscape.  " I recall.  You said it was feminine, but couldn't place it at the time."

Turning onto Prospect Avenue, Jim decided to tell the whole truth.  "True. But it came to me on the first day of our camping trip.  I figured out where I had smelled that scent before."

"Where?"

"It's Alicia's."

Blair rocked back into his seat.  "No way!  It couldn't have been!  She'd only been in Cascade for, maybe, a month when that 'tip' came into the precinct.  Maybe her scent is just similar to whomever sent that letter to
us."

Stopping at yet another stoplight, Jim looked at his partner.  "That book you brought back from Alicia's earlier?  It had her scent all over it.  It's the same."

"Okay, I think I see where this is going.  You don't think she was involved in the scheme that Phelps had cooked up, do you?"  Blair looked at his friend, his eyes pleading for the truth.

"No, I don't."  He pulled forward as the light changed and the Sunday evening traffic started flowing again.  "But I would like to know how she came by the information."

Blair let out a sign of relief.  "I think I can answer that one for you, Jim."

Pulling the truck into the parking area by the loft, he pulled into a vacant space and turned off the engine.  "You can?  How?"

Rubbing the back of the hand that he'd injured while helping Alicia change a flat tire, he answered.  "The first time I met her, I found out that Alicia is an insurance investigator."  Looking around the parking area, he spied the car that belonged to the woman he and Jim were discussing.  "Look, she's home.  Why don't we just go ask her?"

Jim looked over at his friend. "I don't think that would be such a good idea…"

"Look, you think it's her, so why not get this out of the way?  Right now, tonight?"  Blair opened up the truck door and hopped out before Jim could protest and slammed it shut again.

Scrambling to reach his guide before he got too far ahead of him, Jim jumped out of the truck and caught up to him at the door to the building.  "Chief, wait up."  He held the door closed, preventing Blair from opening it. "I'd rather wait until I get something back on the background check."

Understanding Jim's need to have as much information as possible before confronting someone, Blair nodded.  "Okay. On one condition."

"What?"

"Tell me why you're having Interpol look into her?"

Jim smiled a crooked smile that showed his relief at such an easy question. "Because her Driver's License showed a little note on it that said it was 'valid without photo.'  A common enough occurrence for a person who is serving in the military overseas when it's time to renew the license."

"Oh."

Jim opened up the door. "So, are we good with this?"

Blair shrugged as he ducked under Jim's arm to enter the building.  "For now. When do you expect to hear back on your inquiries?"

"Hopefully tomorrow, when we get into work."  Seeing that the elevator still had the 'Out of Service' sign on it, Jim led the way to the stairs.  Halfway up from the second floor landing, he found himself confronted by a seething, black, fur ball.

Blair held back a snicker as Saint Gee walked, stiff legged, down the stairs, keeping as much space between him and Jim as possible, his fur standing up on end.  It was comical.  As soon as Saint Gee got close to him, the fur lay back down, and the younger man was rewarded with a friendly bump and 'mrreow'
as the little kitten continued his trek down the stairs towards home. Shaking his head, Blair finally let out a small snicker.  "Man, Gee just doesn't like you, Jim."

"So I noticed."  Jim grumped as he continued up the stairs and on towards the loft.  Entering their home, he turned back to his roommate.  "So, you won't say anything to Alicia?  At least not until I get the background check back?"

Closing the door behind him, Blair headed over to his bedroom.  "Nah.  I won't say anything."  Ducking into his room, he came back out with the book he'd borrowed from their downstairs neighbor.  Holding it out towards Jim he grinned evilly.  "Here, take that."

Grabbing the book, Jim caught the smirk on Blair's face.  "Okay, what's going on in that devious mind of yours, Chief?"

Seating himself down on the couch facing the kitchen, slinging his arms over the back, he raised an eyebrow.  "You should know me well enough by now, Jim.  You tell me."

He didn't bother to hold back the moan that escaped his lips.  "Oh, I get it. Test Time."

"Got it in one.  Come on, Jim.  You want me to believe that you recognized Alicia's scent from a letter that we got three days before you could recall it?"  Blair noticed that Jim nodded as he took a seat on the couch opposite of him. "Then prove it."

Monday mornings, Blair hated them.  Okay, well, maybe not hate, but he certainly disliked them.  Especially when they started out like this morning had.  First, the hot water heater had gone on the fritz, leaving only cold water for his shower, and Jim's too.  Due to that little surprise, neither of them was in a very good mood, and then the coffee maker had decided to really mess up the morning.  The basket had clogged up, for no readily apparent reason, and instead of dripping fresh brew into the carafe, it overflowed coffee 'sludge' onto the counter top.  Cleaning up the mess, Blair recalled that he'd promised a couple more fish to Alicia.   Grabbing up the wrapped parcels, he took them down to her, luckily catching her on the way out.  She was obviously heading into work, dressed in dark blue dress slacks, a light blue shirt and a navy blue blazer with a double world globe emblazoned on the breast. She'd thanked him for the fish, then had to run after putting the wrapped fish into her 'fridge.

The drive in to the central precinct hadn't been as calm as normal either. First, needing the caffeine boost, they stopped off at a Coffee Hut and ended up waiting in the drive thru for fifteen minutes. Then, just about a mile from the station, they'd got caught up in a stand still traffic jam.  As they sat there in Jim's truck, Blair had recalled reading somewhere that the street department was supposed to start a huge resurfacing project this week.  Thinking that if he had recalled that little detail earlier, they could've taken another route, didn't help either.

Finally getting to Major Crimes at a few minutes after nine, each man had found message notes on their desks.  Jim was requested to report to Prosecuting Attorney Hidlemier's office when he had a chance and Blair's presence was also required.  The message for Blair was from Alicia, telling him that she should have dinner ready by seven on Tuesday evening.  Letting Rhonda know where they were going, the two partners headed over to the PA's office.

Rhonda looked up from her desk just as a liveried courier walked into the bullpen.  Getting up from her seat, she walked over to the young man. "Can I help you?"

"I've got a package for a," The courier looked down at his note pad, "Detective J. Ellison?"

"He's stepped out for a while, I can make sure that he gets it if you'd like."

"I need a signature." He held out the electronic note pad and stylus to her, watched as she signed for the package, then handed over the large envelope. "Have a good day, ma'am."

Rhonda looked over the envelope.  It was large, but not too thick, and the sender's address was vaguely familiar.  Records Depository, Denver Colorado. Shrugging, she walked over and placed the envelope in Jim's 'in' basket, on top of the five reports that had been returned to him from Records with post-it notes all over them.  Rhonda chuckled.  Even with Jim's using the computer more frequently, he still got reports returned for 'corrections'. Not as often as he had when the reports where still hand written, but often
enough to frustrate the man.

Jim returned to the bullpen alone, Blair having to stay behind with Hidlemier to double, and triple, check his arrest report of Stuart Phelps.  Reaching his desk, he spotted the large envelope and picked it up.  Seeing where it was from, he ripped opened the package and pulled the file out.  It was disappointingly thin.

The file contained a copy of Alicia A. Andreson's military service record. Sitting down, he started to read the file.

She'd joined the US Air Force in 1985, trained in Security, worked at Lackland AFB, then transferred to Ramstein AFB in Germany in 1988 where she worked in communications.  There was a note that showed that she'd gone back to Lackland in 90 for further training, but the nature of the training wasn't available.  The last entries in her file showed a temporary duty assignment to Nellis AFB in Nevada, duties unlisted, then her discharge from the Air Force in 95.  Her base of separation was Ramstein, but there was no mention
as to when she had transferred there after Nellis.

Her personnel jacket showed several reports for excellence in duty, a Top Secret clearance and her DD-214, the discharge papers, listed her as 'Inactive Reserve - Indefinite.'  A very unusual occurrence, as most military personnel were only subjected to spend half of their active duty time as inactive reserves upon discharge.  Therefore, if you had severed after twenty years as an active member, you'd spend ten as inactive.  Andreson had served as 'Active' for ten years, which meant that she should've had five years of
'Inactive' time to serve, and not have to worry about being called up for the rest of her life.

Jim dropped the file onto his desk top, thinking about what could cause the military to hang so tightly onto a former member. Only one thing came to mind, Covert Operations.  Covert operators could be kept on the
Inactive lists however long it took to declassify their missions, thus keeping them under their oath of secrecy.  He looked up as Rhonda approached his desk.

"Jim?  This fax just came in for you."  She handed over three pages of papers, then returned to her desk.

Seeing that the fax was a response to his request from Interpol, he flipped over the cover page to read the report.  Nothing.  Well, nothing of interest.  Alicia A. Andreson had applied for a work visa in May of 1995 to work in Europe, then had shown up in Austria in July of the same year.   Less than two weeks after her discharge from the US Air Force, she was reportedly working for Hallstatt International Trust, Inc. out of their offices in Salzburg, Hallstatt and Vienna, Austria.  The next page showed her passport records:

England, Germany, Austria, France, Norway, Russia, Brazil, Peru, Costa Rica, Egypt, Libya, South Africa, Japan, China…

The woman had been all over the globe in a few short years.  Most of her entries had been in the last few years, the last one showing her return to the US in May of this year, two months ago.  She'd come in through Dulles in Washington DC.

"No wonder her DL is active without photo."  Jim said under his breath, "This is the first time she's been back in the US since 95."

"Who?"

Jim looked up to see Blair seating himself at his desk.  "Alicia."  He tossed the file and fax over to his partner.  "Read that."

"Wow!  She's traveled to more places than I have!"  Scanning over her military records he came to the status report.  "Jim?  What does 'Inactive Reserve - Indefinite' mean?"

Raising an eyebrow, Jim answered with another question, "What do you think it means?"

Blair thought about it for a moment. "Uh, she can be recalled to active duty at anytime?"

"Correct."  Jim started to boot up his computer, hoping that his other inquiries about his new neighbor were back.  Checking his email, he found one response.  Her financial records were clean, and showed her monetary 'worth' at just under 250,000 dollars.  They showed holdings in several companies, and land holdings in Austria and several sites in the US, including a new one just outside of Cascade, fifty acres of woodland in the Cascade Mountain Range.  Printing out the response, he looked up at his partner. "What do you say to lunch, Chief?"

Closing the file, Blair nodded. "I can do that."

After letting Rhonda know where they were going, they headed out.  Jim was getting more curious about Alicia Andreson with every response that came in to his inquiries.  He wanted to run one more check, but that would require getting her car tag and running the registry.  He'd try to get that tonight when they returned home.

Alicia walked into the recently completed HTI Building, the final touches having been completed just last Thursday, and, nodding a greeting at the company's receptionist, headed to the elevators.  Upon arrival on the sixth floor, she walked to the large office that had been designated for her use and walked in.  The place was relatively clean, but the furniture that had been ordered for the space had yet to be arranged in the proper configuration.  Except for the large cherry wood desk, that was set up.  She smiled as the older woman sitting behind the desk stood and greeted her.

"Morning, Alicia."

"Bernie.  Don't let me interrupt you."  She walked over to a coat tree and removed her jacket.  Turning her attention back to the other woman, Alicia automatically took in the appearance of her fellow office worker.  Bernice "Bernie" Goldwater was a fairly tall woman, just shy of six foot, with dark brown hair that was heavily salted with silver strands.  Her build was slender, but not so much that she looked like a model.  However, it was her eyes that got Alicia's attention.  The normally amber orbs were clouded, bloodshot and tiny lines had appeared overnight at the corners.

Bernie shook her head. "Mr. Erbauer called this morning."  She stepped away from the desk gesturing for Alicia to take the chair. "He didn't seem too happy.  Said something about Wilhelm having come down with a nasty bug?" Pulling a spare chair from against the wall, Bernie sat back down, across the desk from Alicia.

Sitting down, Alicia pulled up the information on her computer that would tell her just when Erbauer's call had come in.  Looking back up at her companion, she said,  "Bernie, you've been here a while?  Did you get any sleep?"

Shrugging, she responded. "Some.  Still haven't adjusted to West Coast time. Been in since 0430 this morning."  Reaching over to the desk, she picked up a clipboard, glanced at it and composed her briefing.  "You ready for today's itinerary?"

Leaning back in the chair, she sighed.  "Go ahead.  But I'm guessing I won't like it."

Bernie chuckled. "Probably not.  Okay, a few of the boys from Security have offered their services to get this place straightened out."   She gestured to the surrounding room.  "They'll be up here in an hour. Then we need to go over arrangements for the Grand Opening next week.  Public Relations is completing the guest list and tells me we should have it in our hands by noon.  They've also hired a caterer, here's the list of employees."  She pulled out a two-page report and handed it over to Alicia. "Looks clear to me, but you're better at that sort of thing than I am."

Bringing her head up, Alicia stared at the woman.  "Don't sell yourself short, Bernie.  You're just as good as I am, maybe even better."

"Yeah, right!"  Flipping over the paper on the clipboard, she continued, "So far, only fourteen of the offices have been fully completed, sixty-nine should be completed by tomorrow evening, the rest of them, twenty-one in all, should hopefully be completed by Friday."

"With the Grand Opening Gala scheduled for the following Friday."  Alicia stood up and began pacing, "I hate this.  I don't see how Hiram expects us to get everything done in such a short time!"

Bernie watched as her friend paced between the desk and the huge window that had a spectacular view of the Cascade Harbor.  She grinned at the restlessness being displayed.  "Alicia, Hiram trusts you.  Though I will admit that he should've sent more than just a handful of us to this lovely city with you."

Coming to an abrupt halt in front of the window, Alicia glared at her reflection in the glass.  Her response to Bernie was a growl.  "He should have sent Wolfie to handle this.  I'm just not qualified."

"And Wolfie is?"

"Wolfgang Caiden has opened more HTI offices than anyone, Bernie!"  She executed an 'about-face' maneuver and faced her long time friend.  "Hell, he had the DC office up and operational in three months!"

Bernie raised her hand to hide her smirk. "But isn't Caiden approaching mandatory retirement age?" She recalled meeting the man in question a time or two, back in Vienna.  Wolfgang Amadeus Caiden was a tall, imposing man in his late seventies whose mind was still as sharp as the saber that he loved to
'play' with.

"Ha!  Like one ever fully 'retires' from the business!"  Alicia stomped back over to the desk and instead of sitting back into the chair, she walked to the front the massive desk and leaned against it, facing her companion. "Okay.  Let's get on with this.  What else is on the agenda for today?" Crossing her arms over her chest, she listened attentively.

The rest of the briefing was fairly smooth, according to Bernie's point of view.  Alicia only 'blew up' one more time, and that was over hearing that Hiram had requested that she take care of the interviews for the remaining slots in the Technical Support Department.  Once that storm blew over, Bernie excused herself and made herself scarce.

When the security personnel showed up, Alicia gave the lead officer a detailed floor plan, grabbed up her jacket and left the large office.  Taking the stairs, she walked up to the seventh floor and entered one of the three offices on that floor.  The office was large, taking up more than half the floor space of the entire floor, and it was, thankfully, one of the fourteen offices that was completely ready for occupation.  Sighing in relief, Alicia shut the door behind her and walked over to the desk that exactly matched hers.  Slinging her jacket over the back of the desk chair, she picked up the phone and dialed a phone number from memory.

Her call was picked up on the second ring.  "Hiram?  I've rethought my decision.  I'll take the assignment after all."

Jim and Blair had just finished their lunch, at a new vegetarian eatery that the health conscious younger half of the pair had been wanting to try out, when Jim’s attention was drawn to a nervous looking customer that had just walked in the door.  Sliding out his side of the booth, he kept an eye on the man, as he silently drew his partner’s attention. "Chief."

Looking up from where he sat, Blair placed the tea glass down on the table and made eye contact with his friend.  The sentinel’s face was tight with concentration.  Jim’s eyes shifted to the where the cash register was, and Blair noticed the nervous customer.  He slid out of the booth, grabbing their ticket as he did so. He was standing close enough to Jim to hear him say, "Gun. He’s demanding the day’s receipts.  Cover him."

Grasping Jim’s plan, he raised his voice to ‘normal’ levels and said, "Sure, meet you at the truck."  Grabbing up his tea glass to slug back the last of the beverage, he watched as Jim headed towards the bathrooms and the back door that he’d noticed when they had arrived.  Carefully pulling out his wallet as he walked towards the register, not wanting to reveal his sidearm and badge, he stepped up behind the robber.

Years of observing people took control as he looked the man over: early to mid-twenties.  Painfully thin.  Caucasian.  Bad shakes.  Long-sleeved shirt. Drug user was the profile that leapt to mind. Probably needing to make this happen to score his next hit.  Spotting Jim sliding in the front door, he carefully slid his gun out of its holster and kept it low by his thigh, just as his partner stepped forward, gun and badge displayed.

Sensing that Sandburg was ready, Jim moved forward and pulled his weapon, bringing it up to bear on the would-be robber. "Police.  Drop the gun." He kept his voice low, not wanting to scare the eatery’s patrons into a panic. The criminal, a kid really, started to bring his own weapon up.

"Don’t even think about it, man."  Blair placed the muzzle of his .45 on the back of the kid’s neck.  The guy dropped the gun with a loud clatter to the floor.

Jim smiled as he retrieved the perp’s weapon, his eyes never leaving his target. "Smart move," he told the kid, and nodded to Blair that he’d cover the subject while he took the subject into custody.

Slipping his gun back into its holster, and pulling out a pair of handcuffs, Blair moved in to secure the criminal.  The first cuff went on fairly easy, but just as he was bringing the other arm down around the perp’s back, the fight was on.  Desperately maintaining control of the arm that already had the cuff on it, not wanting to give the guy a chance to use the handcuffs as a flaying weapon, Blair was thankful that Jim moved in to assist.

Seeing that his partner was in trouble, Jim moved in with fluid grace. Grabbing up the free flying arm, he stepped in towards the twisting body and jerked the limb in his hands, pulling both the perpetrator and his partner off balance.  He followed through with a stunning blow to the perp’s brachial plexus nerve cluster at the junction of the neck and shoulder.

Feeling the robber’s knees give out from under him, Blair followed the subject to the floor, bringing his knee to rest on the man’s back, forcing the air and the fight out of him.  Reaching out to secure the left arm into
the free cuff, Blair grinned at his partner, who had his own knee on the man’s neck.

"That went smoothly enough, don’t you think?"

Jim shook his head. "Sure did."  Looking up to the cashier he smiled reassuringly. "Ma’am, I’m Detective Ellison, I called dispatch, patrol units are on their way."  Lending a helping hand to Blair, they got the robber to his feet.  "I got him, Sandburg.  You want to start taking the lady’s statement?"

"Sure."  Pulling a notebook out of his pocket along with his badge, he leaned over the counter, smiling at the young woman.  "Detective Sandburg.  Can you tell me what happened before my partner and I interfered?" Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Jim hauling the suspect out the door to greet the two police cruisers that had just pulled up, lights popping and sirens screaming.  From the increased noise level behind him in the seating area, the customers of The Garden Spot had just figured out something had happened.

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