Duke was pissed. Raging.
"How could he know? How the fuck could he know?"
"Duke, we've been working together for three years. With Meier's money and power, I don't imagine it's too hard," Joan said
"I know, Mac, but come on. That guy? We got found out by that guy?"
Joan shrugged. "Tell you what, though. You call me Mac again, I'm going to stab you in the neck."
"Calm down you two," JC said. He knew Joan didn't really like the team's nickname for her. But Duke was glaring at her, ready to start an argument over nothing. Now was no time for infighting.
Duke threw up his hands and stalked around the playground. It was their pre-arranged rendevous point if anything were to happen during the meeting and just a swift ten minute walk from the bar. They had all left separately after Meier revealed they were under surveillance. It took Duke about twenty minutes to arrive, Joan and Bannister about thirty. They had all been over cautious.
Bannister was sitting on top of the jungle gym. Duke planted himself on the ladder to a small slide. Joan went and sat in a swing, waiting. She wasn't the boss. It was Bannister's next move.
"We go."
"What?" Duke exclaimed.
"We go."
"Come on, man! They know us. They know who we are. You've got no idea what we could be walking into!"
"Duke, the only thing we're sure they know is that you guys were with me tonight. That's it. All that means is maybe they had the bar under surveillance longer than we knew about."
"Or maybe we're finally done!"
"Or maybe we expected the wrong thing tonight. We went in there expecting a rich guy who needed us to fix a problem for him. That was our level of preparedness. We didn't expect a team with surveillance and multiple assets. We got outplayed. We didn't get found out by that guy. We got found out by his boss."
Duke was shaking his head. JC paused. He had put Duke in charge of surveillance. He had been asking for more responsibilities, for more duties. JC knew he was looking to the future, looking towards running his own team someday. As upset as he was at Duke for dropping the ball, he knew it didn't come close to how badly Duke was kicking himself. They had gotten lucky tonight - lucky that getting found out was all that had happened to them. Bannister knew Joan would support his play. She always did. But he needed to make sure Duke was going to back his play as well. Needed him to be with the team, ready to go forward, not looking back.
"Duke, it wasn't that guy who found us out. It was his boss and their team."
Duke stopped, beginning to understand JC's decision now.
"Don't you want to find out who's behind this guy?"
Duke and Joan both nodded curtly.
"Because I sure as hell want to find out whose hand is up this sock puppet's ass."
*****
Daniel Meier returned to his office. The team that performed the surveillance this evening was not his team but provided security for his boss. He did not meet them after leaving the bar. They had other places to be and truthfully, Meier had no desire to see them.
He had planned to get a late dinner but the meeting with Bannister had set him on edge. Going back to his office was the one place he felt he could go and relax.
"Hold my calls," he told his secretary as he passed by without looking at her.
"Of course, Mr. Meier," she said. Then, to his closed door, she said, "It's 10:30, who the hell is going to call you now?"
Meier sat at his desk. Turned around to the bookshelf behind him. Turned on his high-end audio system. Put on his equally high-end Grado headphones and started up Miles Davis's Sketches of Spain. Maybe not his best or his most famous, but it was the one Meier liked best and that is what mattered to him.
He couldn't listen to it. Couldn't stop thinking about Bannister. Ridiculous waste of time for him to go to the meeting. His boss knew his feelings about the military and soldiers, both current and former. Knew he considered them a necessary evil. Contemptible but useful at times. But his father had secured the position for him, in addition to him running the DC offices for the firm, so he did what his boss requested. But tonight good old Miles was losing out to the irritating Bannister, so he turned off the audio equipment and went home.
It was almost midnight when he arrived at his two story townhouse in Georgetown. His girlfriend's shoes were just inside the front door. She apparently had come over. Lights were all off. No TV sounds from upstairs in the bedroom. Probably fell asleep. Dinner was still on the table. Meier didn't touch it. He couldn't stand her cooking and avoided eating it whenever possible. Sat down on the sofa. Sent a text to his father. "Meeting went well. Call me tomorrow for details." It was 9:00 pm in L.A. and his father wouldn't be asleep for another four hours. But he knew his father was conscientious about time zones, having lived in both New York and Los Angeles. He would wait until tomorrow to call.
Meier wanted to go upstairs and sleep in his bed. But that meant waking up his girlfriend. And the mood he was in he really didn't want to deal with her tonight. It had been four months already and he was tiring of her.
"Scratch that," he said out loud, "tired of her."
Worried that she might hear and wake up, he decided to sleep on the sofa. Leave early, before she got up. Skip the gym. Just go back to the office. Meier decided to call his girlfriend in the afternoon and break up with her over the phone. Made a mental note to call the security firm and have them come by around lunch time to change the locks and the alarm code.
What had Bannister called me? Soft? Son of a bitch.