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making love with your new laptops. We have Wi-Fi in all the
cafeterias, so I expect you will get crumbs on the keyboards.”
    Doug stopped to allow Ryce and Tanya the
opportunity to absorb what he had told them.
    “John is confident you will be ready to start
building your team in ten days. I can speed up the transition if I
see you are doing better than anticipated.”
    Doug pointed at a service cart stacked with
laptops near Ryce’s office door.
    “Pick one of the laptops and become its best
and only friend.”
    Ryce chuckled. Things just magically appeared
around here.
    Doug smiled at the look on Ryce’s face.
    “One of my techs brought the laptops in while
we were checking out the other offices. You’ll get used to things
suddenly showing up. It’s part of the great John Pendergast
mystique. You think you’re alone, and then you aren’t. I only have
to deal with John eight hours a day. I do not have a clue how Marge
copes with twenty-four hours a day of John. But, I wouldn’t trade
this job for any other job in any universe.”
    Ryce could hear a cell phone, but he was sure
it wasn’t his. Doug turned and walked into Suite 424. Ryce turned
to Tanya.
    “So, what do you think you’ve gotten yourself
into?”
    Doug returned before Tanya could answer.
    “That was Karen, reminding me to send you
over to Research 1. Go down to the lobby, out the main doors, turn
right, walk to the end of this building, turn right again, and walk
across the road. Research 1 is the first room on the left after you
turn left at the receptionist.
    “And don’t forget to grab a laptop before you
leave here.”
    Ryce could hear Doug chuckling as he walked
out of the office suite.
    The top shelf of the service cart held the
laptops, power supplies, and wireless mice. Ryce poked Tanya and
pointed at the cart. There were also several laptop cases on the
second shelf.
    Ryce quickly selected a laptop and a case and
then waited for Tanya to decide on the case she wanted. John was
very wise. All of the cases were the same color.
    Tanya grabbed Ryce’s hand as they entered the
elevator.
    “Ramona and O2 make a great couple. How did
they get together?”
    Ryce chuckled. “I think it all depends on
whose version you get to listen to. All I got was O2’s version, so
I do not know what Ramona has to say about things. As you know, O2
was a SEAL. He was on his way to Okinawa, or somewhere in the
ocean, and discovered that he only had a few days left on some
marksman certification. He did some checking around and found out
if the certificate was not up to date, he’d have some restrictions
on his activities. And, he does not like being restricted.
    “O2 stopped by Camp Pendleton and talked to
someone he knew, but then who doesn’t he know? About the same time
O2 was working his magic, Ramona was getting ready to ship off to
Afghanistan. She was touring with the Army shooting team as an
alternate. Somehow, she had let one of her certifications lapse. If
she did not want to get a crappy assignment, she needed to bring
the cert up to date. Somehow, she got permission to go through the
process at Pendleton, too.
    “The Range Master had a good sense of humor.
There were only two shooters, thirty targets, and Ramona and O2
were assigned adjacent shooting stations. Ramona proceeded to eat
O2 for lunch. She out pointed him on the first four distances. Made
him feel like he had never held a rifle before.
    “When they got to the final distance, 2,000
yards, she purposely missed the complete target on her first shot.
That made O2 feel good enough to ask her out to dinner. During
dinner, they discovered O2 was shipping out to his favorite island
in the Pacific in twelve days, and Ramona was scheduled to rotate
to Afghanistan in fourteen days.
    “They also discovered they really liked each
other. O2 does not go into any detail after the first date. Ten
days after they met, they stopped at the Hitching Post in Coeur
D’Alene.”
    Ryce looked around. He