The Alberta Connection (5 page)

“The original Pendergast Ranch consisted of a
large barn and a three-bedroom ranch house built by John’s
great-grandfather on four hundred acres. Both of the buildings are
still on the Ranch, although they have been relocated.

“John’s grandfather created a self-sustaining
dude ranch that could house almost two hundred vacationers who paid
for the opportunity to work. Guests would come from all over to fix
fences, work cattle, clean stalls, hoe corn, and sometimes repair
their own bunkhouses. They became part of an actual working cattle
ranch.

“John’s grandfather expanded Pendergast Ranch
to over five thousand acres when he purchased the two thousand acre
Cromwell Cattle Company just north of here. John’s father expanded
the Ranch even more with the acquisition of three additional
ranches east of the Pendergast Ranch. When John took over
management of Pendergast Holdings, he opened up several areas of
the Ranch to developers. Those developments created Pendergast City
and the City of Sanctuary. He also expanded the Ranch with the
purchase of almost six hundred acres at the Sanctuary, and the
LeClerque homestead with one thousand acres.”

Ramona finished the history of the Pendergast
Ranch as they arrived at the ISP officer’s entrance. She parked the
golf car, and they walked into the elevator center. After she
pressed the elevator button, Ramona turned to Ryce and Tanya.

“As soon as you two get situated, I will take
you to the Sanctuary. John has kept it in a primitive state. There
is no electricity, no power tools, and no modern conveniences. John
made a rule that if it was used before 1825, it is OK. I have no
idea why he picked 1825. O2 thinks it was the year John was born
the first time. More than fifty craftsmen are living or working on
the property and have created heaven in a little piece of Idaho. I
know John goes there often to just sit and think. I do, too. Just
watch the park benches when you sit down. Most still have
splinters.”

Ramona was interrupted by the arrival of the
elevator. They entered the car, rode to the sixth floor, and then
walked to John’s office. John’s secretary motioned them to the
conference room.

As he walked into the conference room, Ryce
looked around. The conference table had been relocated to along one
wall and chairs had been lined up facing the table. Ryce saw there
were more than twenty people in the room, most of whom he had never
met. John waved Tanya and Ryce over to the table.

“There are a few things you need to sign
before we swear you in.”

John pulled some papers out of a manila
folder, created two small stacks, handed one stack to Ryce and the
second to Tanya. Both picked pens off the table and began to sign
the papers they had been handed.

When Race and Tanya finished signing, John
slid the papers into the folder and turn to face the group.

“OK, let’s all be seated.”

John looked at Tanya and Ryce and pointed
toward four empty chairs in the front row.

“I’d like to take care of a few things before
we swear Ryce and Tanya into the Idaho State Police. First, a
little background on Ryce. He has spent the past two years as the
Billings, MT, district supervisor of the Joint Border Task Force.
He will be here for four months or until he checks himself into one
of Pen’s psychiatric wards.

“If you weren’t at the chow hall last night,
you might not know that Ryce and Tanya were married the evening
before last. Unlike O2 and Ramona, Ryce and Tanya allowed some of
us to watch. Congratulations to both of them. Ryce served with O2
for two years in Afghanistan, so he knows about some of the
insanity we have to deal with around here.

“We will be having additional personnel join
us as Ryce develops his team. I have given him permission to ask
anyone within reason on the Ranch if they would like to transfer to
the JBTF. There are announcements on all of the bulletin boards.
Let your department members know they can apply. I think Doug has
submitted his own request to transfer, but it has been denied.
Twice.”

John waited until the laughter had died down,
and then continued, “And now, let’s get this program on the
road.”

John asked Ryce and Tanya to rise and then
conducted the swearing in. Both were issued badges, ID folders,
keys to an ISP cruiser, keys to the office building, and a folder
with recommendations for temporary personnel.

Those in attendance were asked to sign the
daily log, and then John turned back to the group.

“Break time is over. Be safe.”

John requested Marge, O2, Ramona, Doug,
Karen, Ryce, and Tanya follow him back to his office. After they
had found somewhere to sit, John looked around the room and then at
Ryce and Tanya.

“I know you have met Marge, and O2, and
Ramona.”

John pointed at Doug. “The fellow in the
Hawaiian shirt is Doug. He is the computing guru for Pendergast
Holdings. Sitting beside him is Karen, his delightful wife. She is
the human resources guru for Pendergast Holdings.”

John pointed at a stack of laptops on his
desk.

“Those are six of the latest and greatest
laptops we could find. They are all exactly the same and loaded
with exactly the same software. As you add people to your group,
Doug will add laptops.

“We only work with laptops around here,
except for the mainframes. We encourage everyone to take their
laptops home with them and work for free from their living
rooms.”

John smiled at the polite laughter.

“Just one small issue. Karen and Marge run
everything around here. If Doug tells you something, check with
Karen first. If Karen says no, go ask Marge. It works for me.”

John was so pleased with his humor that he
almost tipped over the office chair.

“Seriously, any personnel questions you have
must be run through Karen. Be safe.”

Ryce sat for a moment wondering if the
meeting had ended. When Marge stood, Ryce concluded the
pleasantries were over.

Marge reminded Tanya and Ryce that they had
many gifts in Research 1 to open. They would all meet in Research 1
at noon for the grand opening. Doug stood, offered a hand to Karen
and another to Tanya, pulled them out of their seats, pointed at
Ryce, and the four of them left John’s office.

It was Doug’s turn to play tour guide on the
way to the elevator. He explained that Ryce and his group would be
in Suites 422 through 425. Suite 425 had five individual offices
and a conference room. The suites all had connecting doors so the
occupants would not be required to use the corridor.

Ryce noticed when they arrived at Suite 425
that his name and Tanya’s were already on the doors to the offices.
After a quick glance at their new offices, Doug led Ryce and Tanya
into Suite 424.

“John designed these three suites to be
convertible from a few offices to one gigantic room. We can even
roll the walls back and make a bigger gigantic room. For O2 and
Ramona’s anniversary two years ago, John rolled the walls and hired
a country band. The suites are normally used as training
facilities, but we don’t have any recruit classes going through
right now.”

As they walked back into Suite 425, Karen
planted a kiss on Doug and walked out of the suite.

Doug smiled. “Karen’s office is in the Ranch
headquarters building, on the other side of the county road. That
is where Research 1 is located. She only tagged along to meet
Tanya.”

Doug led Ryce and Tanya to the conference
room.

“You two will be doing some intense learning
for the remainder of the week. Plan on eating, sleeping, showering,
and making love with your new laptops. We have Wi-Fi in all the
cafeterias, so I expect you will get crumbs on the keyboards.”

Doug stopped to allow Ryce and Tanya the
opportunity to absorb what he had told them.

“John is confident you will be ready to start
building your team in ten days. I can speed up the transition if I
see you are doing better than anticipated.”

Doug pointed at a service cart stacked with
laptops near Ryce’s office door.

“Pick one of the laptops and become its best
and only friend.”

Ryce chuckled. Things just magically appeared
around here.

Doug smiled at the look on Ryce’s face.

“One of my techs brought the laptops in while
we were checking out the other offices. You’ll get used to things
suddenly showing up. It’s part of the great John Pendergast
mystique. You think you’re alone, and then you aren’t. I only have
to deal with John eight hours a day. I do not have a clue how Marge
copes with twenty-four hours a day of John. But, I wouldn’t trade
this job for any other job in any universe.”

Ryce could hear a cell phone, but he was sure
it wasn’t his. Doug turned and walked into Suite 424. Ryce turned
to Tanya.

“So, what do you think you’ve gotten yourself
into?”

Doug returned before Tanya could answer.

“That was Karen, reminding me to send you
over to Research 1. Go down to the lobby, out the main doors, turn
right, walk to the end of this building, turn right again, and walk
across the road. Research 1 is the first room on the left after you
turn left at the receptionist.

“And don’t forget to grab a laptop before you
leave here.”

Ryce could hear Doug chuckling as he walked
out of the office suite.

The top shelf of the service cart held the
laptops, power supplies, and wireless mice. Ryce poked Tanya and
pointed at the cart. There were also several laptop cases on the
second shelf.

Ryce quickly selected a laptop and a case and
then waited for Tanya to decide on the case she wanted. John was
very wise. All of the cases were the same color.

Tanya grabbed Ryce’s hand as they entered the
elevator.

“Ramona and O2 make a great couple. How did
they get together?”

Ryce chuckled. “I think it all depends on
whose version you get to listen to. All I got was O2’s version, so
I do not know what Ramona has to say about things. As you know, O2
was a SEAL. He was on his way to Okinawa, or somewhere in the
ocean, and discovered that he only had a few days left on some
marksman certification. He did some checking around and found out
if the certificate was not up to date, he’d have some restrictions
on his activities. And, he does not like being restricted.

“O2 stopped by Camp Pendleton and talked to
someone he knew, but then who doesn’t he know? About the same time
O2 was working his magic, Ramona was getting ready to ship off to
Afghanistan. She was touring with the Army shooting team as an
alternate. Somehow, she had let one of her certifications lapse. If
she did not want to get a crappy assignment, she needed to bring
the cert up to date. Somehow, she got permission to go through the
process at Pendleton, too.

“The Range Master had a good sense of humor.
There were only two shooters, thirty targets, and Ramona and O2
were assigned adjacent shooting stations. Ramona proceeded to eat
O2 for lunch. She out pointed him on the first four distances. Made
him feel like he had never held a rifle before.

“When they got to the final distance, 2,000
yards, she purposely missed the complete target on her first shot.
That made O2 feel good enough to ask her out to dinner. During
dinner, they discovered O2 was shipping out to his favorite island
in the Pacific in twelve days, and Ramona was scheduled to rotate
to Afghanistan in fourteen days.

“They also discovered they really liked each
other. O2 does not go into any detail after the first date. Ten
days after they met, they stopped at the Hitching Post in Coeur
D’Alene.”

Ryce looked around. He and Tanya had not yet
crossed the street. Tanya had somehow steered him to a bus bench.
He kissed her as they waited for the “WALK” signal.

When Ryce and Tanya arrived at Research 1,
Marge introduced AP, John’s older brother, who introduced his wife,
Danielle. Ryce did not remember seeing AP at the reception, but he
remembered meeting Danielle. Marge confirmed AP had been
volunteered to deliver the wedding gifts to Ryce and Tanya’s
apartment. Marge pulled a laptop out of a case. Ryce noticed her
case was the same as the ones he and Tanya had just selected.

As soon as Marge finished booting the laptop,
she showed Tanya a gift registration program. Danielle was asked to
enter the names of the givers and the gift description as the gift
was opened. Using the laptop camera, a picture was taken of the
gift. Even with the help of AP’s two children, opening the gifts
took almost three hours. AP promised he would have the gifts
delivered before dinner.

After returning to the apartment, Ryce
plugged in his laptop. As he waited for it to warm up, he wondered
into what he had gotten himself. He thought he was a better than
average computer user, but he would find out extremely quickly that
he didn’t know anything.

Tanya grabbed a seat next to Ryce in the
apartment living room and plugged in her laptop power adapter. They
both felt as if they were starting at the beginning. Ryce checked
the time that he started the program. It was 3:20 PM.

At 6:00 PM, a window popped up on Ryce’s
laptop, telling him that it was time for dinner. He stared at the
screen for several moments. How did Doug know when he was going to
start working on the program? He waited until Tanya caught up, and
then they both walked into the kitchen and opened the
refrigerator.

As they looked over the shelves, Ryce
commented, “Did someone get their hands on our shopping list?”

Tanya chuckled. “This will do until we can
get to the grocery store.”

The doorbell rang at 6:20 PM. When Ryce
answered the door, he found AP and several Ranch employees with
large wheeled laundry carts standing in the hall. The carts were
wheeled into the spare bedroom and the gifts unloaded. AP chuckled
and told them that they had made out like bandits.