Ingrams & Assoc 2: Retreat Ch. 01

In the case of the one couple who had split, where the bank branch was not robbed, they'd claimed that things had gone too far on the island; that the events there had been not what they'd expected – things had happened with other people and neither one had been able to handle the fall out, and so they'd split, as amicably as they could.

It was at this point where Tom Patterson had gotten Pinkerton involved – they'd re-interviewed everyone and while they hadn't come up with anything new either, they drew the same conclusions that everyone else did. Something was going on on the Island, and someone would need to check it out. In actual fact, their recommendation was simply to shut down those yearly trips. It was their thinking that would end the activities and everyone would be happy, but that was not enough for Tom Patterson. He wanted to catch these bastards, and know how they'd done it, andknowthey would never do it again, because they were behind bars.

Since the location was a problem for Pinkerton, and because of the marital discord involved, Pinkerton had reluctantly recommended Ingrams as a potential way to get to the bottom of it.

And here it was, on April's desk.

She'd looked hard at the reports of the actual robberies, trying to gauge what kind of people these were. They planned, they weren't violent, they'd never injured anyone and they'd made it very plain they didn't want to; they were there just for the money – although what they'd do to someone actively trying to stop them wasn't clear. In that situation they might get violent, or they might just walk away.

April's initial thinking was these people were not violent, at least no more than they had to appear to be in order to rob a bank in the first place. And she also figured that unless everyone who was on the Osoros Island was in on it, she'd be relatively safe.

After reading all this, she'd taken a look at this year's winners of the Branch Manager competition.

There were four couples and three solo men – all of whom had bumper years in their branches. Of the couples, two of the branch managers were women.

She skimmed over their names – Bridget and John Fleischman, Paula and Mike Woods, Brenda and John Roaker, and Kim and Rashid Patel rounded out the couples and the single guys were Mark Roschgord, Sal Girodano and Kevin Smith – she did smile at the same name as the renowned movie director.

She then checked up on the support staff of the resort. Each year, they were different. The main contact and the chef had full time year round contracts – they were different every year, but they were resident on the island full time for the duration of that contract. The masseuse and 'wait staff' were brought on a few days before the lucky winners arrived, so they could be settled in and to understand their duties. All were new every year, although she did note that the same agency was used in all cases. She made a note to do a background check of them, although she also noted that Pinkerton had mentioned they had already done one and found nothing. She didn't find that report included. She made another note to see if they could get that.

By the time she'd left, April had already made the decision to accept the case. It scratched her investigative itch and while the sex was going to be a challenge, this was one of the reasons she came to Ingrams in the first place.

She'd already started in on a research plan – she wanted permission to hack the computers of the marriage counselors , in order to get background on what went wrong and what she should be looking out for. Such hacking was strictly illegal and definitely unethical, but she justified it to herself that she was the one putting herself potentially in harms way – she wanted to be as forearmed as could possibly be.

She'd also wanted full background checks on the people she would be sharing time with on the island. What was in the packet was the internal HR documents from the Astrid Bank HR. She would want more detailed documentation, so she could build up a profile on each of them, and see if anyone had any skeletons in their closets that could open them up to possible blackmail. While they were doing that, she'd also get the same profiles on those who'd been there before – see if there were any telling overlaps.

She did wonder a bit why Pinkerton hadn't already done all this – after all, this could all be done from their offices in the southeast. Maybe they had and just didn't want to turn that information over; she could see them doing that. Either way, she'd feel more confident if Ingrams' people did the work. She trusted her researchers. They'd never let her down in the past.

She came in late the next day and went straight to Dermot's office, knocking on the doorframe, like he'd done to her the day before.

"Knock Knock."

He looked up, putting down the iPad he'd had in his hands and smiled at her, genuinely welcoming her.

"April. You look bright eyed and bushy tailed!"

"It's all makeup and cocaine," she said, facetiously.

He raised an eyebrow and that and then gestured to the chair in front of his desk. He, like his boss, Jessica Ingrams, had an amazing view of the Potomac behind his desk. Like Jessica, April could never understand why both of them had their desks arranged so it was at their backs. If she had a view like that, she'd want to look at it all the time. Perhaps that was why – if they didn't close off the view, they'd never stop looking at it.

Perhaps Dermot was telepathic, or perhaps her thinking was written over her face, but as he sat back, the grin got wider and he nodded at April, to look behind her. She turned and noticed for the first time the long, wide mirror that sat on the wall beside the door entrance. Dermot got the view whenever he wanted, and still got to face the door.

"So...?"

"I'll do it. It sounds...interesting. I need interesting right now."

"Ok then. What's the plan?"

"I spent most of last night going over the packet. I'd like to spend the day preparing a basic plan, then send it out and do a team meeting say on Friday?"

"Sounds good. So I can definitely tell Jessica we'll take it on, then? You sure about that?"

"Hell no I'm not sure about it. But I'm going to do it. I want a tan," laughed April.

"Fine," replied Dermot. "Just be sure you use sunscreen."

*****
And so it began. Research and Development started their background checks, and April began an intensive course on becoming a masseuse. She found the work interesting – learning about the internal musculature of the human body and how it all fit together. She started each day looking in the mirror and naming each bone, and then at the end of the day, naming each muscle.

She learned about deep tissue massage, and how it was best done by those with a lot of experience, since it could do as much damage as it could repair when done incorrectly. She did smile when the instructor mentioned how we'd all had that one friend who thought they could massage, and they'd get on behind you and start kneading your shoulders to the point where you felt your arms would fall off, and them going on about having 'magic fingers.'

It takes a lot of training to do deep tissue and do it well – especially a sports massage, where it's possible to hurt someone if done incorrectly.

She learned about knots – what they actually were – blood engorged fissures in the muscle - how they felt, what you could do to relieve them, where they normally cropped up. She learned it was mostly in the shoulders, since it's the central point where lots of muscle groups come together, but it's almost a massive moving part on the body. Almost everyone had knots in that area. And she found that performing a massage well was actually quite a relaxing event. She obviously had no problem putting her hands on people, and after getting a very cheesy document awarded two weeks later – which she couldn't help putting in a frame and displaying in her office – she bought a chair and table, installed those in her office , and then offered anyone in Ingrams a free massage for the next three weeks, so she could practice.

She was quite popular and had almost everyone in the company in her chair or on the table at some point or another. Even Jessica Ingrams herself stunned April when she walked in, discarded her clothes and climbed on the table, just asking April 'to be gentle'.

She had learned where to concentrate on different people given then backgrounds – those in the R&D section she spent a lot of time on shoulders, arms and forearms, and the hands, since most people who work at computers only really tense them muscles in one direction – almost none of them have any reverse tensile strength in their forearms, since they spend all the time with their hands resting on the computer or using a mouse.

She learned how exotic and sexual a massage could be, done properly. She learned about oil usage, the use of aroma therapy during sessions, and how she could excite someone – or even quash that excitement - using her fingers and hands. When she was done, she was very happy with her new skill set. It was a hell of a seduction technique to add to her repertoire, and she ended up recommending to Jessica and Dermot that all new recruits go through this training, regardless. It was just too handy a skill for what they did as a company tonothave it.

In the meantime, Ingrams and April worked hard on getting profiles built up of all the participants of the island's activities. April had specifically asked for profiles of all past participants, too. She wanted to know everything about everyone. It put the R&D group under quite a strain, since normally they didn't need to go into deep dives on so many people at once.

But, as April put it in the meeting where they protested about the amount of work, "It's not your ass in the middle of the Pacific, hours from any help."

That got them to stop whining and buckle down.

In the end she had her profiles, everything that was known about the individuals concerned and after reading them all, April was none the wiser.

She began to suspect that she had the same results that the Pinkerton agency had gotten, and this had played a part in them passing the case on to Ingrams; Pinkerton simply didn't have a place to start, any more than she really did.

She did smile when she thought about that, that perhaps this assignment would simply be her, relaxing on a private island, handing out massages, getting a tan and getting laid. Wouldn't that be nice, even if unlikely. Ingrams assignments never worked out like that.

Time moved on, contingency plans were laid, and eventually it was the week before she was due to leave. Before that happened, April was summoned to Dermot's office.

When she got there, she found Jessica Ingrams herself sitting in his office, in the easy chair net to his desk, waiting for her along with Dermot.

Jessica pursed her lips as April sat down. April gave her a tight smile and sat, looking at Dermot, waiting for whatever they had to say.

"Well, let's get down to it, April. I'm not wildly thrilled about this one. Being so far out of contact seriously worries me, particularly when we aren't completely sure what we are sending you into. I've looked over all the documentation and I can't see what is going on here, and my understanding is that you can't either. Which both worries me and reassures me. It's entirely possible that this is a wild goose chase, but then it's also possible that something very deep is going on here."

Jessica paused, looking intently at April for a moment, then continued, "So, given we are doing this – and yes, I heard all about that bonus Dermot promised you..." she threw a fast dirty look at Dermot who just smiled back, looking like a shark about to go for a seal, "we need to protect you as best we can. So here's what we propose. We will have a team on Fiji, and a helicopter on standby the whole time. You call and we are there, as soon as we can get there. We will also have a zodiac crew on standby, in case the weather makes the helicopter impractical. And in terms of contact, we have this."

Jessica nodded to the table, where some hardware sat. There was a tablet, several small black objects and what looked like a phone with a gun silencer on it.

Jessica nodded at Dermot, who leaned forward and started going through the items.

"Ok, so what we have here is a modified Chinese android tablet. We get these direct from the factory in Shen Zen, and they are extremely expensive because they don't make these, apart from our requests. It's got a much larger battery and also has a huge amount of internal storage. It's also got a radio built in, that talks to these." Dermot gestured at the small black objects. "Small wifi mikes. This thing will both record all of these mikes at once, at up to a distance of 100 feet, and then it has software loaded that will analyze the recorded samples, looking for whatever sample words you tell it to look for. The fact is that there's simply no way for you to record what is going on in other people's cabins without this; you'd just never have the time to go over all the samples you'd get back. We figured this would be the best way to be able to eavesdrop and not have you spend all your time with headphones on."

April picked up one of the mikes and examined it. It was small, black, had a small wire out the back and had what looked like a magnetic clip on it.

"So, I'd have to plant these?"

Dermot nodded. "Yes. The batteries I am assured will last for at least a month, so it'll cover the time you are there."

"Ok. Well, that's... nice. Very cloak and dagger. Do I get something in the heel of my shoe too?"

Jessica shot a dagger look at April, while Dermot covered a smile.

"I had no idea you were familiar with the old Man from Uncle stuff, April," he said.

"Uncle Marcus loved all that old cold war spy stuff. We used to do weekend marathons. James Bond, Man From Uncle, Mission Impossible, we watched them all. Do I get a pen with a radio in it too?" answered April, blithely.

Jessica humphed. "April, I'm trying to ensure you have the tools you need. This could be dangerous."

"I know. I just don't think a bunch of clever bugs is going to make that much difference in keeping me safe. It'll help with working out what is going on, but it's not going to make me any safer. Quite the contrary, if anyone finds one of these bugs."

"We did think about that. We were wondering that if you put them in the same place in every cabin, like a decoration or something, they may get overlooked and assumed to be part of that decoration." said Dermot.

"Yeah, perhaps. Only takes on curious person to pull it off and realize what it is though, and it all suddenly becomes a witch hunt," replied April, putting down the mike she had in her hand.

Dermot nodded with his head on a tilt, the way people do when acknowledging a point.

"What's this?" asked April, picking up what looked like a walkie talkie with a gun silencer on it.

"Satellite phone. Besides the island radio, there is no communications from the island. I'm not happy about that, so you are taking this as well. Your own personal communications device, guaranteed to work. We are taking no chances here. Works just like a real phone, you just dial and it connects."

"Oh cool," said April, looking at it closer. "What area code is it in?"

"April," said an exasperated Jessica. "I don't think you are considering this with the seriousness we are."

April looked back at Jessica and for the first time, felt a little pissed.

"Look, I'm the one going. I'm the one doing this for you. It's not like you've said 'oh April, don't go, this is too dangerous' is it?" There was a hint of steel in April's voice she'd never let out to her boss before.

Jessica did at least have the sense to look away. She glanced over at Dermot, who cleared his throat and then said, "Yes, well, be that as it may, we do have something else for you."

He gestured to some parts - that looked like a disassembled camera - on the table.

"These are individual parts for a taser. There's no way you'll be able to travel with a fully assembled one – security would never let you on the plane. But these should go under the radar just fine. You reassemble like this..." Dermot picked up four individual parts and slotted them together easily, "...and it's ready to go. They will fire four times when fully charged and can be charged either by replacing the rechargeable batteries, or from just plugging it into the wall. There are charger cables supplied with them. And you are getting three of them, just to be sure."

He passed the assembled taser across to April, who examined it.

"Now this is more like it. Love it. It's nicer than the original one you guys gave me. Nice feeling of weight to it."

"It has a range of thirty feet – way more than the 8 feet of the originals. That should be enough. Guaranteed to incapacitate an elephant. Well, a small one anyway."

Everyone smiled and the tension in the room slowly evaporated.

"Well, definitely liking the new toys, have to say it. Thanks guys," said April.

Then Jessica said, "One more thing. This is just for you."

She leaned down and picked up a bag under her seat. The moment she brought it up, the top opened a little and some very pungent smells erupted. They weren't unpleasant, just...pungent.

April took the bag and peeked inside. Inside were the small round bath bombs that Lush had made popular. She knew that if she dropped them in a bath, they would start to fizz, distributing their scents and oils into the water over five or so minutes.

She looked at Jessica, puzzled.

"I have a friend who is both a bit of a mix wizard and also works part time at Lush as a mixer. These bath bombs are...special. They are designed to relax and sooth sore genitals. They actually work great. I've used them myself." Jessica actually blushed at this.

"They contain special soothing oils. It's likely that this assignment might be a little rough in just how much sex might happen, and I wanted to give you something that might help. I don't know if there even baths on the island, but I figured if not, maybe you can drop on in the hot tub. Either way, they are for you."

April was touched by the gesture, and put down the bag and got up and went over to Jessica and gave her a hug. Jessica was obviously surprised, but didn't say anything, she just accepted the hug.

April leaned back out of the hug and said, "Thanks Jessica. That's a lovely gesture."

Then she stood up and asked, "Anything else before I get this show on the road?"

"Just, best of luck, April. We will be in constant communication with Simon the whole time. Be safe. And figure it out. You are one of the best agents we have; if anyone can figure this out, you can."

Simon Miles was her contact on Fiji. She'd be flying out with him in a couple of days, along with two large contractors Ingrams had hired to be muscle, if it was required. Ingrams did a lot business with contractors, most of whom weren't even aware of who they were actually hired by or what was going on at any given time. Simon Miles, though, was a full-fledged field agent. They'd worked together before, when April had to be his girlfriend, for an operation which required that. They'd operated well together, and he'd been free to run support for April's op at the time, so off he went. He was more than happy – it was a couple of weeks sitting in a nice hotel and at the beach for him. He couldn't exactly leave and go diving, but it still beat sitting in an office in Washington D.C.

The operation was about as planned out as she could make it, covering every angle she – and the rest of the staff of Ingrams – could conceive. Now, it just had to happen.