“Yeah but he didn’t deny it did he?” Chris pointed out. “He could have just kept quiet and said ‘sure Lee that would be great if you could record it for us’. I mean, Christ Ali, this is the military. They pretty much record everything!”
She shook her head. “I don’t trust him.”
Chris dropped his head. “Ali, you don’t trust anyone.”
Her eyes widened in surprise. “That’s not true!”
“Oh yes, it is true and you know it! Look, we’ve been friends a long time but admit it, you keep your cards close to the vest on pretty much everything.”
Alison squinted at Chris with a look of indignation. “Not everything!”
“Ali you’re great,” he said. “But you’ve got to let some of this stuff go. I don’t like the military either, and you know what, maybe they end up screwing us again somehow, but I don’t want to go through life being pissed off all the time.” Chris looked back out on the water. “Look, I don’t know this guy Clay, but it seems like he genuinely appreciates our help with this. Okay, are they getting some PR out of it with the press, sure, but who cares? They can’t get some attention without us getting it too.”
Alison stared at him for a long time and finally exhaled. “Fine. I’ll give him a chance.”
“That a girl,” Chris said. He put his arm around her and gave her a quick squeeze. “Now let’s enjoy the view and try not to think about the fact that he’s probably going through your purse right now.”
Inside Lee looked up from his monitor again at Clay who was leaning against the wall to steady himself against the rolling of the ship, and watching the crew members at the helm.
“So John, what is it exactly that you do for the Navy, if you don’t mind my asking?”
Clay raised his eyebrows. “Not at all, I work for a department in the Navy called Special Investigations.”
“That isn’t one of those ‘I’d have to kill you’ type of groups is it?”
Clay laughed. “No. Our investigations are unique issues, usually outside of normal naval operations.”
“What kind of things do you investigate?” Lee was curious.
“Most of it is classified but it typically has to do with system malfunctions or communication problems. An example might be two systems using overlapping frequencies and causing problems. Pretty boring stuff.”
Lee smiled. “That sounds about as boring at a cocktail party as what I do.”
Clay laughed again. “Well if we run into each other at a party, I’ll listen to your stories if you listen to mine.”
“You’re on,” Lee said laughing along. “Well for what it’s worth, it nice to be around another tech head for a change. I think I bore the team a lot with my geek speak.”
“That’s understandable,” he nodded. “It’s a hell of a project you’re working on.”
“That it is,” agreed Lee. “Things have gotten really exciting since the translations started. We didn’t expect things to happen so quickly, but we’re certainly happy about it. We were afraid it would be just the opposite, especially Alison.”
Clay nodded and looked out the window at Chris and Alison talking to each other.
“Listen,” Lee continued. “About Alison, she’s a great girl. She’s just very protective over this whole thing especially Dirk and Sally. She had a bad experience with the Navy in the past, kinda got screwed career-wise, so she’s not too excited to go down that route again.”
“I can understand that.”
“She’s smart as a whip too,” Lee added with a wink. “So be careful.”
Clay smiled. “I’ll watch myself.”
Captain Emerson approached and looked at Clay. “We’re starting to see some chop.” He then looked down at Lee. “Any idea, son, on how long we might be waiting here?”
“No sir,” Lee replied. “That would probably be a question for Ali and Chris.”
Alison checked her watch and looked at Chris. “They are coming back right?”
“I sure as hell hope so,” he said squinting.
The door opened behind them and they both turned around to see Emerson and Clay step outside. Emerson glanced at the water again and approached Alison. “Ma’am any word from your dolphins?”
“Not yet.”
“Well it looks as though we’re seeing some chop building. If the swells increase too much, we won’t be able to stay here.”
She raised her eyebrows. “You mean leave?”
“I’m afraid so.”