The First Deadly Sin

McCarthy chimed in, "The General was looking for a non-entity to do some deep cover investigation. It had to be somebody we could activate, and who we had by the balls contractually."

He was right. They COULD activate me and I WAS on contract. I'm tough enough to walk away but that's another conversation.

Frank got an evil grin as he said, "I told him that you were a world-class smart-ass and a giant pain in the tuchus. But that you knew your stuff. So, you're the lucky bastard who gets ass-fucked by the rigid rod of reality.

I said grimly, "I don't do anything without my partner." I knew Kelly would demand that I drag her into the shit with me. It was who she was.

Reynolds looked like he was going to say something stupid. So, I added with menace, "I'd hate to resign and let the chips fall where they may. But that's going to happen if Kelly doesn't come along." The dude could see that I wasn't kidding.

He glanced scornfully at Kelly. She stared back at him daring him to say something. The contest went on for several seconds. Finally, he sighed and said, "You can include her If she passes the background check. This is a highly sensitive assignment."

Then he turned to McCarthy and said, "You were right. He IS a pain in the ass."

*****

Billy had flown his usual capable show, showered, and changed into his whites. The Navy wanted the Angel's presence to be noted. He had driven the 15 miles to the Marshall family compound, on River Drive. It had an excellent view of the Ohio.

Billy had spent his entire life going to society parties, thanks to his mom. So, he could slide into a milling pack of beautiful people with ease. Nevertheless, it was hard for him to be anonymous, since he was in an all-white uniform, with medals hanging all over his chest.

People looked inquiringly at him, as he made his way around the rooftop in search of Suzy. He could hear the whispers, "That's Suzy Marshall's new man." All he had done was sign a picture for her. It was a little disturbing to discover that he had been promoted to boyfriend-in-absentia.

He finally spotted Suzy on the dance floor. She was dancing with a Tom Cruise lookalike, her vibrant spirit and joi d'vivre filled the room.

She was in the standard little black dress, but the woman inside that dress was spectacular. Her thick mane of blond hair hung down to her shoulder blades. Her beautiful face was suffused with the joy of sensuous movement, but the most remarkable part was her body.

Suzy's thighs were proportionally a little longer than the average women's. That left the illusion that she was all slim, shapely leg. He could see her leg muscles flexing, because the dress was at least four inches above her knee and skin tight. That showcased her full, round butt and exceptionally long, narrow waist. Her breasts were much larger than the norm, and her scoop neck showed off three inches of pure cleavage.

The music stopped and Suzy blissfully hugged faux-Tom. Her big boobs pillowed between them. They shared a long happy kiss and then she turned and began to walk toward her father's group, holding faux-Tom by the hand. There was intense familiarity between the two. It was obvious that they were lovers.

Billy experienced a couple of emotions. The first was aching jealousy. The second was bitter regret. He turned and made his way to the exit stairs. He was upset, but he wasn't going to show it. He had that kind of pride and self-control.

Billy was just getting back to the Crown-Plaza when his phone lit up. Suzy was on the caller ID. He didn't want to talk to her, so he didn't answer. The phone lit up three more times in the succeeding hour. She wasn't going away. He answered the fifth call. He said, "Hi Suzy."

Her voice was distraught. She said, "Where did you go? People told me that you were there, but you disappeared."

Billy was in new territory, caught between conflicting feelings. He had been hurt by what he saw. But the disciplined naval aviator wouldn't admit to an emotion as petty as jealousy, especially since it involved a woman he barely knew.

He said, "I was there but I saw you were occupied. I only came to the party to see you, so I just went back to the hotel. We fly out at 07:30 tomorrow."

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. Finally, she said timidly, "Can I explain something?"

Billy said, "It's a little late, Suzy. I need to be up by 04:30."

Her voice had tears in it as she said, "Please, it won't take long. I promise to leave by 10:00."

Billy had flown combat missions on three hours of sack time, so, it wasn't a matter of losing sleep. The thing that bothered him was the idea of having a woman in his room at 22:00. The Angels were grownups. They could have guests, even at that late hour, but Billy was a bit of a stuffed shirt when it came to appearances.

The tricky part was that he felt unusual things for Suzy Marshall, emotions that he had never experienced, so he said cautiously, "Okay, Room 146." The knock on his door came almost immediately. He opened it puzzled.

She was standing there in her little black dress, mascara running down her cheeks, holding her cell phone and looking like a recently drowned kitten. Crying, she threw her arms around Billy and buried her face in his chest.

Billy was knocked backwards, the door slammed shut and he stood there with a weeping woman in his arms. Being Billy, he was concerned about what her makeup was doing to his white shirt. She reared her head back and said tearfully, "I'm so sorry."

Billy led her to the room's little table. She sat there looking at him solemnly. He said truly puzzled, "Sorry about what?"

She said, "You saw me dancing with Chip, didn't you?"

Billy said, "If Chip is a six-two, hunka-hunka-burning-love, then yes."

The conflict was written all over her beautiful face as she said, "He's my fiancé, or he was until tonight."

Billy thought, "Okay, that makes no sense whatsoever."

Suzy looked at him pleadingly and said, "I don't know what's happening to me. I am normally a sensible girl. But, I went completely nuts when I found out that you had been there, and then left. It hit me like a thunderbolt, I love you!!"

She looked at him pleadingly and said, "I've known from the instant we met that you are the only man for me. I told Chip that. He didn't like it. Daddy didn't like it, but I'm comfortable with my decision."

Billy looked at her shocked. She rose from the chair smoothed her dress and said with deep womanly conviction, "So, this is all yours if you want it."

Billy didn't know what to say. He had flown into SDF as a 28-year-old jet jockey wedded to the Navy, but, there was no doubt that the woman in front of him ticked every box. Her beauty, sexuality, intelligence and shining spirit were everything a man could want.

The problem was that, every other member of the team was more sexually experienced than Billy. During his Academy days and afterward, Billy had fucked a few over-bred, rich-girls. But, it was always classic missionary; in and out with no mess.

Women of a certain status don't do wild sex. And God help you, if you delivered your payload on anything but the authorized target. So, Billy had never experienced anything but reserve and repression in his sex-life.

He stood hesitantly. She came to him radiating predatory assurance and dropped to her knees. He looked confused, as-if he had no idea what she was planning next. Suzy thought that was preciously droll. He really WAS a boy-scout. She unzipped him. He finally realized what she had in mind. He tensed.

The instrument she withdrew was as perfect as the man. Even Chip, who was well endowed, couldn't compete. It was the embodiment of the F/A 18, long, sleek and potent. As she slid it into her mouth, she gave Billy her patented "fuck-me" stare, her gorgeous cornflower blue eyes broadcasting her hunger. He groaned in ecstasy, his head rocked back and his eyes closed. Suzy purred with contentment.

She worked on him until he was panting and pumping with need, then she stopped stood and sinuously slipped her dress off, dropping her cheekster panties as she did it. He made a little moan of frustration. She unsnapped her bra and stood still for his inspection.

Billy couldn't believe what was happening to him. This golden goddess had just given him more sexual delight than he had experienced in his life. Then she had revealed herself in all her erotic glory.

Her body was both hard and soft, fragile feminine shoulders and formidable, full tits, without the slightest hint of sag. They had been helped a bit, but Billy would never be able to tell. Her aureolae were perfectly round and pink with big, red distended nipples.

Her body from boobs to hips was rock hard and narrow. Her stomach was flat, and her waist was nipped-in perfection, but of course the seat of womanly power is in the hips. Suzy's were tantalizing, sturdy and fruitful, with the joining of her legs bare and inviting.

Nonetheless, her crown jewel was the splendor of her legs. They were perfect, slim, yet powerful. The open triangle at the top revealed muscled inner thighs and the tops of those thighs were so long and faultlessly shaped that he couldn't take his eyes off them.

Suzy knew how devastatingly beautiful she was. Men prior to Billy had also just stood there gaping at her, so sometimes they needed a jump-start. She took things into her own hands. She smiled alluringly walked over to Billy and began to unbutton his shirt. He got the hint. Soon, he was as naked as she was.

Bill's body was chiseled perfection. Chip was several inches taller but there was no way he could exude Billy's erotic energy. Chip was a businessman, ten years older and soft from too many power-lunches.

Billy's shoulders and chest were the ideal male build. Insanely strong, but not intimidating, nicely furry but not a pelt. His pecs and deltoids were big and well defined from hauling stick in a 3g environment. His legs were the marble pillars of a Greek God, but it was the precision of his movement, every motion controlled and exact, that drove her into a sexual frenzy.

She yanked him forward and they fell on the bed together. Suzy normally liked a little oral stimulation, just to get the juices flowing so-to-speak, but in this case, she was so excited that she was dripping. She was still making all the moves, but he was following along nicely.

She elevated her legs and pulled him into her. That hot thing slid up her passage. It filled her to perfection and. she lost all control. She groaned; a lingering cry of sexual duress. Her hips elevated to take him to the hilt. She wrapped her long, slim legs around his waist as he began to pound her. She howled her pleasure to the surrounding walls.

Billy had never experienced a woman like Suzy. He had several girlfriends in his high school and Academy days. Still, they were all members of the same elite social group. Hesitancy and restraint were the order of the day, at least for "good" girls. None of the women he'd known to that point had ever came close to Suzy's downright feral approach to mating.

Billy simply had no point of reference for what was going on underneath him. Suzy was wildly out of control. Her legs held him in a vice. She was panting like a steam engine and writhing her boobs on his chest making loud animal cries of pleasure. The sweat pooled between them making the contact even more sensuous. Her pussy was pulsing on him like a busy Wisconsin milkmaid.

The hormonal smell of aroused female was driving him nutty. Still, Billy Hughes was a man of discipline and in excellent shape, so he continued to drive into her and she pounded back on him until she began to shriek, "Nyyyaahh, Nyyyaahh, Nyyyaahh, Nyyyaahh, YESSSS!! OH!! MY FUCKING GOD!!"

Her hips went into overdrive, torqueing up slowly until they were cycling at impossible speed. They reminded him of how the GE-402s, that powered the Hornet, got to max-RPM. That made her come again. She shouted, "CUMAGAIN!! OH JESUS!! DON'T STOP!!" And Billy didn't.

She was contracting furiously around him, eyes white, with the cornflower blue irises completely rolled up into her head. Her breathing was frantic. Billy couldn't stand it anymore. He never made sounds during sex, but he heard himself roaring, "Fuck Yeah!!" as he shot round, after round into her.

He came back to awareness lying between her widely spread legs. She was breathing dreamily, almost like she had passed out. He looked into her gorgeous face worried. Her eyes popped open confused. It was like she really was coming back from another place. She took a second to focus. Then her full, lips contracted into a merry grin and she said, "That was the most amazing experience of my life. I'm never letting you go."

She never did. They corresponded for a short time while she got her affairs together in Louisville. That included officially ending her engagement. Daddy wasn't happy. She didn't care. She had found the man of her dreams. As far as Suzy was concerned, the faster they married the better.

The following month, Suzy joined Billy in Pensacola and they were wed. Both should have been a little leery of the radically short time of the courtship. And perhaps Billy should have been more cognizant of his soon-to-be bride's impulsiveness. But none of that mattered. They were in love.

*****

The briefing was short and sweet. Reynolds handed us off to one of his flunkies. The minion took us into a TEMPEST shielded room. The shielding told me the information was important. The fact that they were using a nobody to brief us, told me that we were ALL expendable. They call it, "plausible deniability."

The target of investigation was a dude who I would have liked to have a beer with. Even if he was a squid. There was simply nothing suspicious about him.

But then again, if Hughes wasn't a person of interest, his little sister sure was.

That's because, there was indirect evidence that she was a card-carrying member of the Red Dragon Revolution, one of the world's most feared hacking groups. The fact that she and her husband just happened to live outside U.S. jurisdiction didn't seem like a coincidence.

The rest of the family were power players. His Mom was a big-time DC lawyer and society friend of half of Congress. One aunt was a Senior Partner in a Big Four firm. She had her dainty fingers sunk into major chunks of the economy. The other aunt was part saint, and part globe spanning doctor.

I finally stopped the nerd, who was doing the briefing, and said, "So far you've shown me nothing. There might be a potential black sheep. But this guy is a hero. Why the fuck would you waste the taxpayer's money on something as flimsy as this?"

The nerd said, "There's a lot more to show you." He then proceeded to outline the background of the Esfahan family.

The daughter, Samreen, was Hughes's current object of lust. I didn't blame him. If I wasn't carrying on a frustratingly platonic lifetime affair with Miss Kelly McMahan, I would DEFINITELY do Samreen Esfahan. She was sex on an exotic Persian stick; as hot as the Dasht-e-Kavir, the Great Salt Desert of Iran.

On the surface, she seemed perfectly innocent. But, McCarthy alleged that she was working for the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence, known in the trade as VAJA. There was no direct evidence to link her. But, her father Jahangir and her two brothers Rahim and Bahadur were high up in the Revolutionary Guard. Plus, her mother had been an operative with the old VEVAK. So, it ran in the family.

The surveillance that had started the ball rolling, was through London's network of street cameras. Hughes was important enough to justify keeping an eye on. It was handed to a CIA Case Officer when it became apparent that he and Miss Esfahan were more than casual acquaintances.

Our job was to confirm whether Commander Hughes was an appropriate candidate for a CIA headbag.

So why use a couple of Windy City gumshoes? The action was in London, not Chicago. the answer was obvious. They needed easily-disposable cover, and we were available.

If you're the government, you can't just outright screw-over one of your citizens. You'd have to surrender the moral high ground if you did that. So instead you pretend to do a thorough investigation. Then an analyst "interprets" the "findings." THEN, you do whatever the fuck you wanted to do to him in the first place.

The CIA Directorate of Operations had been burned by Ames, Hanssen and Snowdon. So, they planned to make an example out of Hughes. That's the way it works; it's all in the optics and carefully planned misdirection.

How did I know that? Because I had done that shit for years, first as a military cop and then as an analyst. So, I knew that Hughes had gotten crosswise with somebody powerful. And THAT somebody was fitting him for a gold-plated frame.

The only real mystery was; why Hughes? That question would make for a worthwhile puzzle to sort out.

****

After his tour with the Angels, Billy was assigned to VT-21 at NAS Kingsville. He was an Instructor/Pilot. He was flying T-45 Goshawks instead of F/A 18s. But, he found to his absolute delight that he loved taking eager trainees, on the long journey from novice, to naval aviator.

Meanwhile, Suzy was the leading light of base society. She was the star of every social event. Billy was proud of his beautiful wife and she was delighted to be married to the Base's star instructor.

Billy's Annapolis credentials and his time with the Angels were marks of distinction. However, there was one exception to the universal respect. That was Captain Dirk Bennett.

Bennett was Billy's commanding officer and the son of Admiral Lindsay Bennett. Admiral Bennett might be a member of the Joint Chiefs. But, his son would get boiling mad if anybody implied that his rapid advancement had anything to do with nepotism.

Dirk Bennett was a big, good-looking guy; running to overweight. He had been the star of his own show growing up. He was the best at everything and the acknowledged Prince Charming. Now, his far too humble underling kept stealing his thunder. Worse, Billy seemed to do it without any visible effort. He was just a great pilot and a natural leader.

Bennett's own flying career had been less than stellar. At six four and two-thirty, Bennet was too big to qualify for anything but the propeller pipeline. So, he had flown the P-3 Orion.

There was nothing wrong with submarine hunting. In fact, it was an essential cog in the defense of the Nation. But, spending a career putt-putting along at 400 knots made Bennett hate the jet jockeys. Now he had the most righteous of them all under his command.

Dirk Bennett saw everything Billy did as a conscious effort to hog the hero worship that should rightfully have been his, and he resented it. Even worse. Hughes had a goddess for a wife.

Bennet's wife Julia was attractive enough. But, she wasn't the big-titted trophy that every aspiring macho-man needs, to prove his innate superiority. Ipso facto, Bennett had to steal Suzy Hughes.

Bennett was a smooth operator. He could sense Suzy's fatal flaw. She was addicted to conquest, in that bagging attractive males propped-up her self-image. Even worse, Suzy was impulsive to the point of recklessness. THAT was something that Bennett knew he could exploit.

So, Bennett slithered over to Suzy at every party, and spent his time telling her how much he valued Billy, both as a friend and as an instructor. He would make it a point to tell Suzy that, he was dedicated to advancing Billy's career.

That put two things in Suzy's head. The first was that Bennett was an important guy, because he could help her husband. The second was that Bennett could be trusted to do the right thing. Bennett worked hard to make sure that Suzy believed those two things.