Back From The Dead

I arrived at Chris's Pizza shop and found Sepia holding our baby Kimmie and rocking her softly , while Eva sat with her and munched on a slice of pizza...

Neither of them looked like they were in any distress...

In fact they both smiled upon seeing me...

"Heyy Lover.." said Sepia seductively....

"Hey baby.." I said and kissed her..."Hi Eva." I said.

"Hello Mr. Kevin" she said.

"How long you guys been here?" I asked..

"Oh about a half an hour...we decided to grab a slice after work...Bonita will be joining us shortly."said Sepia..

Mr. Smith had lied..He had never come into contact with them..

While at my house...Two men were in the back ,one attempting to beat my security system ,one designed by Peeping Tom...

"This is good..almost like someone ,like someone from the agency installed this.."said one man..

"So what? Hurry up and bypass it so that I can get in..." said the other..

"For what? He has nothing that can help you or save you." came another voice...

Both men turned around in shock...

"YOU!!!" they said in unison!!!

A bullet from a silencer went right between the eyes of the one tying to by pass my security system!

He fell to the ground...Dead!!!

The second man , a blond man who also had a silencer fired back....

The man who he aimed at was like a ghost, he wasn't there....

The blond man was shocked..

"Over here" came the voice and two shots rang out...One hit the blond man and knocked him down...but didn't kill him...He was wearing Kevlar..He stumbled up and returned his fire...One shot hit the mysterious man...

The Blond man had no more fight left in him....He ran out to the street,jumped in his car and pulled off....

At the pizza parlor....my phone went off!!!

"Hello!"

"Mr. Morris..You are safe now...You can bring your wife and your baby home!" came he voice of Marlow Smith...

"SMITH!!! You lied to me..You never talked to my wife or my friend..."I said.

"Okay,you're right...but I had to make sure you were with them...I knew they'd be safe with you...The man I told you about...The dangerous man..Drago...He and an accomplice tried to break into your house." said Mr. Smith..

"WHAT?" I said.

"His accomplice is dead...I took care of that and I believe I wounded him..He won't be bothering you anymore.." he said.

"I need for you to answer some questions for me."I said.

''What questions Mr.Morris? The less you know...The better...Now bring your wife and daughter home...They are completely safe.." he said.

"I need to talk to you.." I said.

"In time Mr. Morris.." he said.

"This number is blocked...I know you ditched your other phone."I said.

"And I will be ditching this one also...I promise..The next time we talk..I'll tell you what you need to know." he said.

"How will I get in contact with you?" I asked..

"You won't get in contact with me Mr. Morris..When the time is right...I'll get in contact with you."he said and hung up.

I drove Sepia and my baby and Eva home...

I called Sissy...

II-

Naturally when we got home...There was no trace of any gun battle...No shells, no blood ,no nothing..

And my security system was intact...

I told Sissy everything about the phone call ,the supposed gunbattle  and everything and asked about a security team being put on my house...

"Of course I will Kevin...These guys are really good...They train with the FBI counter-terrorist teams..They are so good, you won't even know that they are there..I'll have some guys on your house tonight." she said.

"Thank you Sissy."I said. she could hear in my voice that I was rattled a bit...

"Kevin, you're my closest male friend...You and Keith Wallace..." she said.

"Thanks for believing me.." I said.

"Of course...You've never lied to me before." she said.

Sissy put a team on my house and Chris, Chess and Donald Smooth had guys pick up Sepia and the baby and Eva and take them to work and bring them home...

Still this guy was good..I had a feeling that whoever he was...He was way over the heads of the security measures I had put in place...And plus ...He didn't want them...He wanted me..He somehow knew that I was on to him..

III-

A week went by without incident...I was leaving my job when I heard a very familiar voice..It was the mysterious Mr. Marlow Smith...

''We meet again Mr. Morris..Let's just keep walking...So we don't arouse suspicion.."he said.

"Smith, you've got the Feds looking for you."I said.

"Yes..and so far they've done a bang up job finding me haven't they?" he laughed..

"Most of you spooks are humorless."I said.

"And then there is me...I was always a cut above the others.." he said..

We walked to Jake's Hot dog joint..

We sat down...We ordered one of Jake's fantastic hot dogs and a coke..

"I've really got to stop hanging with you....All I do is eat junk food when I'm around you."I said.

He laughed..

"Nonsense Mr. Morris..these dogs are fantastic..."he said as he ate and drank his coke..

"So are you going to tell me?" I asked..

"Oh alright...Mr. Morris....

"No...Ola Blue was not my fiance...She was my partner in the agency..." he said.

''She was CIA?" I asked.

''Yes..We recruited her ,right out of law school...She was a very highly skilled operative...I was her handler...Steven Shipp, not his real name had defected...Steven was a A former system administrator for the agency and a counterintelligence trainer at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), he later worked for Dell assigned as a contractor to U.S. National Security Agency facilities in the United States and inside an NSA outpost in Japan. In March 2013, he joined the multi-national conglomerate known as Lock 15 and worked as an infrastructure analyst inside the NSA center in Hawaii.  

 ''Wow this sounds like real cloak and dagger stuff." I said.

He smiled..

"Yes..it is..Steven came to our attention
after disclosing to several foreign media outlets thousands of classified documents that he acquired while working as an NSA contractor for Lock 15 and their foreign affilliates. Steven Shipp leaked documents revealed numerous global surveillance programs, many of them run by the NSA and the Five Eyes with the cooperation of telecommunication companies and European governments.

A subject of controversy, Steven Shipp has been variously called a hero, a whistle blower, a dissident a patriot, and a traitor. His disclosures  fueled debates over mass surveillance, government secrecy, and the balance between national security and information privacy.

Two court rulings since the initial leaks have split on the constitutionality of the NSA's bulk collection of telephone metadata.


Last year in May, Steven Shipp flew from Hawaii to Hong Kong, where in early June he revealed numerous classified NSA documents to journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, both of whom he had summoned to Hong Kong for that purpose.

In June , four days after the press first exposed a secret NSA program based on his leaks, Mr. Shipp made his identity public. On June 14 the U.S. Department of Justice charged him with two counts of violating the Espionage Act and theft of government property, punishable by up to 30 years in prison. The U.S. Department of State revoked his passport on June 22.

According to the Russians, Steven Shipp met with Russian diplomats while in Hong Kong." said Marlow Smith..."That's where we got in contact with him...We sent Ola...Posing as a consultant."he said.

"You said "our attention''...Aren't you Ex-CIA? Aren't you listed as being deceased?" I said..

He laughed again...

"That's my cover...I'm rogue...I'm a ghost...They call me in for jobs like this...That are highly sensitive.. I'm deep cover my friend for lack of a better term...Why do you think the Attorney General shut your investigation down?...Told your cop friends to back off?? This is on a level way over what they can handle...Even your FBI friend, the Deputy SAC..She was told by Asst U.S. Attorney Burnside to back off.. I got to hand it to you and them...You guys did good in finding the killer's handy work and IDing him...Very good.." said Smith...

"You said you were Ola's handler..."I said.

"Yes..I was...She made contact with him again in Norway of all places...We were going to reel him back in, He had information about something vital to National Security...He wanted to come home...He wanted to sell that information for his freedom...but she got too close to him..She fell in love with him...When he was supposed to come in...They both vanished...They both went rogue...That's when they called me in.." he said.

"Back from the dead eh?" I said.

"Yes...I knew of her Philadelphia background....and I figured she'd hide in the Black community here..A square old white guy like me couldn't get anybody to talk to me...And then I heard about you..A Private Investigator who not only travels through the underworld, but is a friend to the police, The FBI and The DEA ...You Mr. Morris were like a gift from Central casting...and you did not fail..You got me the information I needed..Unfortunately...The man I'm after is just as good as you..He somehow found them before I could get to them.." said Smith.

"And how is that? I gave you that information...Two weeks ago...You knew where they were all along..How did he get to them first?"I asked..

"Kevin...I went there to see them the next day..They weren't there...but I found evidence that they'd been there...I went to all of the clubs you said they frequented..but no sign of them..I staked the place out the best I could without blowing my cover...but I missed something.. My guess is that Drago and an accomplice found them first and kidnapped and tortured them and them brought them back here and killed them..

Mr. Shipp probably didn't give him what he wanted which is why Drago is still around...He thinks that maybe you have it...." said Smith.

"I never made contact with them directly.."I said.

"Well ,he doesn't know that....I shot him, but I didn't kill him...He shot me too."said Smith, who opened his shirt and revealed a bandage....He'll be back..I'll be waiting...When he comes back..I'll get him.." he said.

"He's not who you want...You want whoever sent him here don't you?" I said.

Smith looked at me..

"You know ,I've trained many many talented people and none were as on the ball as you..You'd of made a hell of an agent." he said.

"Yes....Steven Shipp found out something incriminating to someone high up in our government..Drago is not working for the Russians..He's a free lance agent..Somebody high up in our government hired him to silence Steven...Ola was just collateral damage..I want Drago and whoever he is with.."said Smith..

"But first we have to find him." I said.

"Not we...Me!..You've done enough...I don't think you're in any danger...It's me he wants...Go home to your wife and baby Mr. Kevin." he said..

Smith paid for both of us...

He smiled, got up and vanished into the Philadelphia night..

And me?..I did as he said..I got in my car and drove home...I rang the doorbell..

Sepia answered the door..

"Hey babes..I was starting to worry..." she said.

I kissed her passionately for a long long time...right there in the doorway...

''Kevin.....The door is open...I don't want the neighbors seeing us....all loved up in the doorway.."she said giggling..

"Nothing to worry about baby girl."I said as I closed the door behind me..

I wished I could believe that.

(CONCLUSION NEXT)