Chapter 20

Chapter 20—The wand

9:56 a.m., Thursday, December 15

The first meeting was just about to begin. But before Allison would allow it to proceed, she had the matter of security to deal with. “James, go ahead and do your thing,” she commanded.
“Okay. Let’s start with cell phones. Everyone open your cells, and remove the batteries. Then do the same with your notebooks, laptops, and any other gadget you might be carrying. Remove the batteries from any electronic device that has one.” No one had a problem with that. They all started popping open their electronics and removing batteries.
“I suppose that means that Reg needs to pop the one out of his Glock?” Jerry quipped. “It does have a lazar sight, right Reg?”
No one even smiled. Then James got out of the Escalade, and walked around to the rear hatch. He hit the release button, and retrieved a small black case, not unlike what high school students might use to transport a saxophone. He then closed the hatch, and returned to the driver’s seat. Opening the case between himself and Allison, he removed from it a very expensive looking stainless steel and black plastic piece of electronic equipment. “This will tell us if we’ve got company,” he said as he turned it on, and adjusted the settings.
“Al, you can be first,” James said, “just set your purse on the floor.” He then swiped the wand across her seated torso. The device was emitting a low-volume tone, but he did not seem alarmed about it. He then passed the wand over Allison’s purse. Still there was no change in the tone.
“Okay, now you check me out,” he said handing the wand to Allison. She seemed very comfortable, wielding the wand like a weapon. Again, the tone did not change—it remained steady at a low volume. Allison asked, “should it be making a noise like this? Maybe it needs to be adjusted.”
“I just calibrated it, and it is on the right settings. Maybe there is some ambient interference in the building. It’s not sounding an alarm, so we need not be concerned.”
When she had finished wanding James, she handed the device back to him so he could proceed to check the three sitting behind him. As he reached the wand back to Jerry, it went nuts.
‘What is going on with you?” James asked, as he “frisked” Jerry with the wand. “You’re the reason this thing is acting up. It doesn’t like something about you.” What’s up with you, anyway?”
James then made a startling discovery—the wand went into full alarm as it moved past Jerry’s head. “I’ll be damned!” Jerry exclaimed. “It’s my implant. It doesn’t like my implant.”
“What’re you talking about?” James asked, as he pulled the wand back to silence it.
“I have a cochlear implant. I have ninety-percent loss in my left, and seventy in my right. With the implant I can hear almost normal. It’s great, but your wand wouldn’t agree.”
“What can we do about this?” James asked, looking over at Allison.
“Yeah, I have known about his implant for months. It shouldn’t be a problem. Just wand the rest of his body and see what you get. Is there some setting to accommodate something like that?”
“There’s nothing I can do to compensate. Fortunately it’s only his head. Mr. Bionic Brain here.” James then paused for a moment, and thought about what he was doing. “Allison, I am not going to be able to check out the other two with him in the car. He’s going to have to get out for a few minutes.”
“No problem,” Jerry said. “Slide out Reg, and let me get some fresh air.”
Reginald opened the door and let his friend out, and then got back in. James quickly scanned Steve and Reginald. “That is weird—this thing goes totally silent with Jerry outside. Maybe we should leave him out there.”
“I don’t think so,” Allison said, lowering her window and inviting Jerry back.
Jerry opened the back door, expecting Reginald to slide over to the middle to allow him back in. But Reginald would have no part of that. He pushed past Jerry, exiting the Escalade altogether. He then  motioned for Jerry to get back in first.
“You guys are like a couple high schoolers,” Allison chuckled.
“Reg doesn’t want to sit next to Steve—afraid he might catch something,” James observed.
“I’ve got long legs, that’s all,” Reginald explained. “The outside just works best for me.”
“Okay,” Allison said. “We all passed James’ wand. We will do this every time we meet. We will assume nothing. That means no one will say a word until we have all been thoroughly checked out.”
“May I ask a question, now?” Reginald asked.
“Sure,” Allison answered.
“The wand that James used, I’ve never seen anything like it. It doesn’t look like the ones we used in the White House. Where did that come from?  CIA?”
“No, not CIA. Mossad. I got it from one of my buddies. It’s better than anything we’ve got. In fact, the CIA is now buying them from Israel.”
“But it didn’t seem very sensitive with Jerry. You had to put it right up against his head before it went nuts.”
“Right. But that’s a good thing. It has to see a powered microphone, or some sort of transmission device, before it will sound. When I first powered it up, I did question the tone, but I knew we would get to the bottom of it.” Reginald started to interrupt with another question, but James was not finished. “Had there been a hot transmitter anywhere within fifty feet, any kind of transmitter, wired or wireless, it would have set off a major alarm. That’s why you powered down your cells and notebooks.”
“So we’re good?” Reginald asked.
“We are. I checked out the vehicle thoroughly before I picked anyone up. So, right now, we’re good.”
Allison then jumped in. “This is how it is going to work. We will have a total of four meetings—no more, perhaps less. Each of them will be one-hour long—no longer. No one will take notes. In fact, no one will ever write anything down. No one will discuss anything about the meetings with another human being. Ever. You will not even discuss the meetings or the content of the meetings with other members of this group, should you have occasion to get together outside this forum. Is all this clear, so far?”
No one said a word, but all four of the men did acknowledge their compliance, in one way or another. It was obvious to them all that Allison was taking charge. She had learned a great deal from Bob through the years.
“Now, one more thing before we begin discussing the issues at hand,” Allison added in a very somber tone. “The five of us are now committed to this group. No one will be permitted to quit, not until we have ended our fourth meeting, and arrived at a decision. Am I perfectly clear about this?”
They all heard what she said, and knew what she meant. The only way out of this quorum was in a box.
Reginald then recalled his thoughts as he walked through the Greek and Roman Galleries earlier, and he wondered what his life might have been like had he never become involved with the Fulbrights.