The next morning, Robert and Anna, showered and wearing warm, fluffy bathrobes, are sitting together on a sofa in their bedchamber. They are sipping orange juice and chatting companionably, as they look into the warm glow of the fireplace.
"You have a lot of faith in Jax, don't you?" Anna asked.
"Yes, I do. As you know, he's been invaluable many times over the past several years. When there was no safe way to get information where it needed to go, he was able to do it. Beyond that, there have been times he has come through when nobody else could, and not only for us.
"Lives have depended on him on more than one occasion. I've known him to set up a business deal that was of no particular interest to him, just so he could get to the right place, to do what had to be done."
"I remember," Anna commented. "What he did that last time saved thousands and averted what could have been a bloody civil war."
"Yes, I have faith in his ability to help us now too," Robert added. "Though what he will do here is a little different than the usual, he is the ideal man for the job."
"And what about his wife? What about Brenda? I must say that was a surprise! I thought he was THE confirmed bachelor!"
Robert thought for a moment and, grinning at his wife, said, "Nobody is a confirmed bachelor, my love, when the right woman comes his way! Just look at us!" Robert dropped a kiss on Anna's forehead, then
continued, "She seems to have a cool head on her shoulders. Of course, I would expect no less from Harlan Barrett's daughter, even if he wasn't much of a father to her. I believe she is loyal to her husband though and that's important. They are very much in love, aren't they?"
"Well, he is. There is no doubt of that. I don't think she realizes just how much her husband means to her, but I believe she will. I believe Jax knows his wife's heart very well and everything will be fine in the end. That young man knows what he wants and Brenda is it!"
"I'm sure you're right love! You usually are." Robert pulls Anna into his arms. "While we wait for our lovers to wake up, let's enjoy the rare luxury this place provides before we have to go out into the cold cruel world again!"
In the next chamber, under a warm down filled duvet, deeply asleep, Jax and Brenda were curled together, his arms wrapped possessively around her. Slowly, Jax began to wake. His left arm felt numb. As he was about to move he realized Brenda had his arms held his forearm tight across her breasts. She was still deeply asleep. "So beautiful!" he whispered, and moved a stray lock of hair from her face. Memory of the night before swept over him. He recalled what she had told him, and the wonderful joy of their lovemaking. "She is etched deep in my soul," he reflected. "My beautiful wife! You love me, you know, my Brenda! You don't know it yet, but your heart knows. You really do love me, maybe as much as I love you! I told you you would, and soon you will know it too."
Gazing upon his wife for several minutes, Jax let himself experience a deep sense of peace and love, as he contemplated this beautiful woman, his life's companion, his one true love, the counterpart of his soul. Did he believe in destiny, he wondered? "I don't know about that," he thought, "but chance is a peculiar thing!" When Lois Ashton came breezing into his life, some deep instinct had told him that she would change his life. And she had! She had led him to his beloved wife. Getting to where they were now had not been easy, but it was worth every heartache, every moment when he had forced himself to seem indifferent, to appear not to want to know, not care about the unresolved issues and the other man in Brenda's past. Even when jealousy and anxiety at the thought that he might lose her were eating him alive, he had offered her his trust, given her his confidence, along with the love and attention, the caring for what mattered to her, that nobody had ever offered her before. He had done his best to heal the wounds of her childhood, to ease the loneliness in her heart, to show her, rather than tell her, that she was loved, that they two were together forever, never to be parted no matter what. His prayer now was that he had chosen the right way to get through the shell she had built through her entire life, the way to her heart, to the love he knew would be well worth winning.
"I've got to wake her," he thought, "I hate to disturb her, but I must get circulation back in my arm." "Sweetheart, my left arm could be developing a permanent disability if you don't give it back to me for a few minutes!" and he dropped a gentle kiss on both her eyes.
"What...? Oh! Good morning! What did you say?", and she stretched and wiggled a little as she woke up, Jax's arm still clasped tight. Suddenly, her heart and mind were flooded with memories of the night before, their extraordinary lovemaking. "My husband!" she thought. "My incredible, wonderful husband!"
Jax gazed lovingly at his wife, drinking in the wonder of her beautiful, open, happy, welcoming smile. "How I love you, my Brenda!" he thought. "How I love you!"
"Good morning Mrs. Jacks! I said that my left arm is in imminent danger or becoming permanently disabled! Can I have it back, just long enough to return the circulation?", and leaning toward her smiling, upturned face, with gentle passion, he claimed the lips she offered him.
Eager lips sought one another and, pretty soon, their love and passion prevailed, the world was forgotten and they cruised among the stars once more!
Some time later, Robert, Anna, Jax and Brenda are chatting idly over coffee. Breakfast was over, and while they couldn't tell the time of day deep in the Catacombs, the mantel clock said it was just past 9:30 in the morning. Robert stood up, looked around the group and led them to the sitting area near the fireplace.
"Time to talk," he said. "Brenda! You, young lady, are the wild card here! Our unknown quantity! Come, sit with me. We must have a chat."
Brenda felt and looked apprehensive. For her, Robert and Anna Scorpio were names, people with formidable reputations. She'd had no time to think about the implications of their being here in the Port Charles Catacombs while the world thought she and Jax were in Alaska! "Tell me this doesn't mean trouble," she thought.
A glance at Anna's face told her nothing, but she could see that Jax was barely hiding a little amused smile. Holding her breath, she turned to Robert. "Better find out..."
"Brenda, Anna and I are on a very important mission, something many people have worked on for nearly three years. Being here, meeting with Jax, was part of the plan. You were a surprise!
"Now, in the circumstances, I understand why your husband brought you here, but he has a job to do and I must be sure that you are not about to complicate matters. Since you are here, the simple, obvious thing would be to make you part of the team, but it's not quite that simple. We need to know that we, and Jax of course, can rely on you and that your presence will not jeopardize the mission."
Somewhat shocked at this direct approach, Brenda, at a loss for words, was silent for a moment, looking directly at Robert, and then she told him, "Robert I know nothing about any mission. Jax has told me nothing about this. There has been no time."
"Not even last night?" Robert grinned.
She looked at Jax, their eyes held, and both smiling said together, "Not even last night!"
"Young love!" said Robert, and looking at Anna, "Were we ever like that?"
"Yes, we were! I should hope we still are on occasion!"
"Right! Well, then, young Brenda! Here's what I need to know. How well can you cope with being cooped up here for maybe two weeks? And how discreet can you be?
"When we reveal the mission, or as much of it as we must, can we trust you, can Jax trust you? Can we rely on your silence? I'm not talking about now, while you are here, but later, next month, next year?
"Can you accept that there may be parts of this situation that we cannot tell you, for your own safety, as well as your husband's and ours, and can he count on you when it is just the two of you here alone for a lot of the time?"
"Wow! That's a lot of questions! Let me think!
"First off, if I am supposed to spend two whole weeks here in this amazing place, alone with my husband, well... Yeah, I think maybe I can, we both can handle that!" Jax actually managed to look a bit shy!
"As for the rest of it, Jax knows that I made a choice some time ago to support him, to be loyal to him, no matter what. And I've learned to trust him. What he says is what he does, and I trust that. So, if he's here and he's with you, then it has got to be all right."
"As for the mission, well... my husband's business is his business and I really do my best to not get involved. He can tell you that, though it is not always possible to really avoid the spillover. But we manage. Sometimes we even fight over it and I can get pretty upset, but we manage our way through it. We have an agreement about how we handle the things that might go wrong between us. So, you don't have to worry. Even if it's something I might not like it, you don't have to worry! OK?"
"Well Jax, old son! What do you have to say about this? You're being pretty silent over there."
"There's not much to say. Brenda has said it all. We trust one another, we are pledged to support one another no matter what, we are loyal and together, always, no matter what comes along. These are things we have pledged to one another.
"The thing that you need to know, what is important to you, is that I trust my wife, completely. I rely on her loyalty as she relies on mine. At the end of any day, we both know where the other stands and that's what counts.
"It is quite possible that Brenda may not like, or not understand, or even be scared by what you tell her about this mission. I will understand if that happens and we will deal with it together, Brenda and I. But you can trust her. I do! If she has misgivings, I know she will tell you. Right Brenda?
Brenda looked around the group... Then, with her eyes on her husband's, "Right!"
"You're sure of that? My wife and I were about your age when we got married. We were WSB agents and we knew the game. Marriage was against the rules, but we did it anyway! A time came when things happened that put us apart for many years and I wouldn't want..."
"Robert believed I betrayed him and we separated, divorced..."
"Right, and it was five years before I realized I had a daughter, before I even knew about Robin. Of course, you know Robin..."
"I do. We do. She has been like my little sister for years. She's one of the few people in the world who really knows me for who I really am... and I love her with all my heart. Truly, I won't let you down. And I will not let my husband down, not for anything!"
"That is good to hear," Robert continued, "But Anna and I never expected to lose one another either when we started out..."
"Brenda, come here," Jax interrupted, and held out his hand to his wife. When she reached him, he pulled her down beside him, his arm around her. "Robert, Brenda and I are well aware of the perils that couples face. We've talked about it and we have no desire to lose one another, quite the contrary. That is why we have agreed together that, whatever happens in our lives, nobody leaves! We've seen people we love become lost to one another for reasons that seem incomprehensible. We don't plan to let it happen..."
"OK then," Robert said, "here's the situation."
"Brenda, you are aware, aren't you, that there are criminal elements in society, not just here in Port Charles, but in every city of any size. Crime these days is not about goon squads shooting it out in the street like the good old days, it is big business?"
"Yea, I know that!"
"I know you do, which is why we needed to be clear about a few things before we felt free to include you in the details of the present mission. Brenda, we know you were very close to someone who has become quite powerful in this underworld business. Few people realize just how powerful he is today, compared to what he was when you were... let us say, involved with him. We know you were not on the inside then, all about the wire business and what followed. I have no comment on the folly of that whole episode, the deadly danger you were faced with... Let me just say you were very lucky, young lady! Now, tell me, what is your connection with this person now?"
"Well, I see him of course. He goes to a lot of the places we go and I can hardly avoid him. You know he and Robin are really close, don't you? And she knows what he does."
"And don't think we're not concerned. But we've watched the way Mac is handling it and now that she's at Yale, she's in the clear, at least for now. Hopefully, by the time she comes back to Port Charles, the danger will no longer exist. You are my concern right now, young lady, so what about it?"
"The last time I saw him was when I was at the hospital with Lois when she had that false labor scare."
"You didn't tell me about that!" Jax intervened.
"No, I didn't! I was too busy being mad at you because I was blaming you for what was happening between Ned and Lois, and what happened between Sonny and me went right out of my head. We argued about ELQ and Ned and Lois all that afternoon, as you know, and that was our last night together before I went on the tour for Jacks for Men you know, and I didn't think about Sonny and what he said again until right now, when you asked me..."
"So, what happened? Is it something that Robert and Anna should know, or should we be minding our own business?" Jax asked.
Robert and Anna looked at Jax, at the cool, detached way he sent the issue back to Brenda, while at the same time, his eyes were fixed on her, and it was clear to them that every fiber of his being was focused on her answer.
"Interesting!" And both Robert and Anna began to get an insight into how things were between these two. They DID have an understanding on a very touchy subject!
Brenda looked at the three of them, from one to the other.
"I don't know Jax if it's important or not, so maybe I'd better tell you and you can decide."
"I was in the Emergency with Lois and it was really scary. We thought she was going into early labor. Ned was in New York and Lois's mother was trying to find him, so Lois and I were together. She was really scared. We both were. She didn't tell me the details, but I knew something really bad happened between her and Tracy and that's why the false labor started.
"Anyway, Lois's mother and Ned both came in and it was decided that Lois and the baby were OK and that she could go home. Right then was when Sonny showed up. He'd been on the 'phone with Edward and found out about the emergency, so he came over, just before they left to take Lois home. After they'd gone, he checked with me if I knew about the ELQ thing you were involved in and he was surprised I hadn't said anything to him when I'd met him for a few minutes the day before. I told him it was your business, not personal, that I trusted you, I am loyal to you, that we are loyal to one another and I wanted to stay out of things that didn't concern me. Well, he told me loyalty wasn't everything, and that the whole thing would come down on my head anyway. Then he said that his wife was loyal when she shouldn't have been and now she's dead. And there was some more stuff like that."
"That sounds like a threat to me. Why would he think he could talk to you in that way? Jax asked.
"I don't know Jax. I guess maybe because he thinks he had some right to know, or I should have told him or something, but I told him that I hadn't asked for his opinion, that I trust you, that I am loyal to you, and you know that I am, and that I was going home to my husband, and that's what I did.
"Then, you know, we got into an argument because I was so scared about what the whole thing was doing to Lois, and then she left and I got even more upset, and then the next day I left on the tour and I was only thinking about us, and about missing you, and I wasn't thinking about Sonny or what he'd said.
"And the next thing I know, here I am, so maybe you guys had better tell me what it's all about, right?"
"She's right Robert. I trust Brenda. We are together, the two of us. If that doesn't work for you, then maybe I'm not the person you need here. So, let's decide and get on with it, OK?"
"You're right. I expect I'm being overly cautious. There's such a helluva lot at stake for a lot of people, not just here in the U.S.A. but in Canada, Mexico, in several countries in Europe, in Puerto Rico and several other places. We, Anna and I, have been involved for over three years. Others have been on the job longer. Any mistake by anyone now could destroy years of work."
"Robert," Brenda said, "I was involved with Sonny Corinthos. I didn't know officially that he was working with the mob, but in my heart I really knew it. I couldn't help hearing things at times. I was nearly killed, twice... Jax knows about this and, for both of us, it is in the past. It's not part of my life now. That life is like a bad dream. It's over, thank God... and thank my husband."
Brenda turned to Jax. He kissed her gently and pulled her close. Looking at Robert over her head he said, "So, what's the deal?"
Robert paused for a moment. "Right. Over there, behind that loaded bookshelf, there's a secret room which is filled with electronic equipment. At the moment, it is the nerve center of our operations in North America. When Anna and I leave here in a day or two, Jax we are asking you to man the station, relay information, keep track of surveillance world-wide, keep an open line to Interpol and the WSB. You will generally funnel the information that will come in here day and night, making sure it gets where it is supposed to, running it through the relays that have been set up, so that it cannot be traced back to this location. That part is critical. I don't know anyone else that has the competence to do that job and right now, keeping the information flowing is vital. At the same time, Jax, I want you to carry on your own business without missing a beat. Make it appear that you are based in Alaska for a while, visiting with your family. And when this is over, I would like for the two of you to go and spend a little while with them so that when you come back to Port Charles, you really will come in directly from Alaska."
"That's no problem. I'm confident that Brenda and I will pass the time here quite nicely, and do everything that you want us to do. And, no doubt my parents will be glad to have us visit."
"Good. Now, Port Charles, increasingly, is becoming a real center of interest for Interpol, and the WSB, mainly because of our Mr. Corinthos. The local police can find nothing on him, the FBI, the CIA, all of them are coming up empty. Yet, we know he is at the center of the web and he's got young Jason Quartermaine up to his neck in everything that's going on. Ever since Rivera died, he has had an entirely different kind of business. Rivera's mob is violent and, with them, Corinthos cannot keep his hands as clean as he generally thought he could in the past. We know he is moving major money out of Puerto Rico. We have it on reliable authority that he plans on moving considerable cash into the US mainland in the immediate future. What we don't know is how he will do it. With any luck, we'll find out.
"There are other centers, like Chicago, Detroit, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Washington, as well as New York and here, to name but a few, and that's not counting the foreign connections. Right now, we cannot touch him. We have nothing, no proof. Maybe, shortly, we will find some ways to keep him distracted, and that might help, but what we can do in the meantime is to chop away at the different centers of his operation. We know where most of them are and they are about to receive some prime, top level attention. That will be our job, Anna's and mine, when we leave here. Out big advantage is that nobody knows we exist. We are supposed to be dead. Who knows, maybe when this is over, we will be able to resurrect our lives, get to know our daughter, drop in on Mac and give him a heart attack... but that's a dream for another day."
"Make no mistake about it, the mob is using the world we live in to build themselves legitimate cover wherever they can find a way. They are clever, resourceful and they are everywhere. The electronic age is working in their favor, for the time being at least. But, it's a game everyone can play! Our job is to see that the good guys win, at least some of the time!"
"Brenda, do you think you could plan something for lunch? Robert asked. "I know it's not long since breakfast, but I want to take Jax through the electronic jungle we have back in there and that's going to take a while.
"Then, I want to take both of you on a tour of this place so that you will become very familiar with the escape routes, should you need them over the next couple of weeks. I don't expect you will, but it pays to be safe. Or we might ask you to come outside to meet us somewhere discreet. You will need to know the exits and entrances. It will take quite a while and we should eat before we do that."
"Maybe you'd better let me do the cooking," Jax said. "Brenda has a lot of skills (big *grin*), but cooking is not her major forte."
"I'm sure she can manage the microwave, Jax. Give your wife some credit man!. "You can rustle us up some grub, can't you Brenda?"
"Sure I can! I've run a microwave before! As for you Jax, what confidence! For that, I'll....."
Jax grabbed her, kissed her into silence and said, "You'll do what, Mrs. Jacks?"
"Make sure you get a good lunch! Go on, go study your electronics. Make sure you do a good job. I don't want you wasting any unnecessary time at it when we're here alone!"
And the first full day of the work in the Catacombs began.
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