“So what is life about now?’ I asked.
“Looking.” Said Mary Ann.
“For?” I wasn’t sure what she meant.
“I’m not sure,” she said, echoing my thoughts, “but when I find it I’ll know.”
“So now…” I started.
“We talk about Mum,” Mary Ann interjected, “I have made you wait too long already.”
I smiled and said nothing.
“There’s no easy way to say this so I will just say it. Mum has been working for a government agency as a sort of free lance, um… spy.” Mary Ann said.
“A spy?” I said, shocked.
“Sort of,” Mary Ann repeated, “you will have to ask her what it really involves, I don’t know.”
“Shit.” I was stunned.
“But now,” Mary Ann continued as if I had not said anything, “the whole deal is coming to a head. You know about the Major?”
“Wendy’s Dad,” I said, “yes I met him once, is he still around?” I sort of hoped not, he was a pretty scary character, you know the sort of person you would use to threaten disobedient children with.
“She didn’t tell you anything?” Mary Ann was a bit taken back. “She said you didn’t know and it was for your own good.”
“I didn’t know what?” My patience can be a bit short, particularly when people are talking about what I don’t know without telling me what it actually is.
“Oh, sorry David,” Mary Ann focused again, “the Major was murdered in Peru in 1948, just after he was sent there on a diplomatic mission, Mum decided to go after the people who killed him and has spent forty odd years trying to bring down what is now one of the biggest drug cartels in the area, in between raising a daughter on her own.”
“My, God,” I was stunned, “she said it was bad but I never imagined this.”
“It is pretty awful.” Mary Ann continued her story. “The man who murdered the Major had two brothers and between the three of them they eventually had eight sons, all who joined the family business. Mum has tracked most of them down and passed the information on and there are now just two of the sons left at large and they are running a multi million dollar a year empire based on just about anything criminal, but mostly hard drugs.”
“The other members of the family are…” This whole story was starting to worry me.
“In jail or dead.” Mary Ann answered, not making me feel any better at all. “Mostly dead.”
“But she…” I was struggling with the concept.
“Mum finds them,” Mary Ann interrupted, “she then passes the information on and people are sent to deal with them.”
“Oh.”
“She almost never kills them herself.”
“Almost never…” My future wife, the killer spy?
“Settle down David, I’m only joking.” Mary Ann smiled. “Mum is under cover and only ever passes on information. She is the nurse for one of the few doctors who will work in the area and they are taken wherever a cartel member needs help. They are now trusted so she would not risk that by using any direct action.”
“Wendy in the nurse uniform, my god…” I was thinking aloud.
“She doesn’t wear a nurse uniform.” Said Mary Ann.
She did for me I thought; maybe I should get the photo…? No.
“All right,” I said, “I know the history, now why are you here?”
“Mum has decided to get the last two and get out.” Mary Ann said, “but this time she thinks they may be on to her. She isn’t a real operative so there is no back up and if she gets in trouble the department will deny she ever worked for them. She needs an emergency exit.”
“What can I do?” If the American government can’t help, I thought, what good would I be?
“Let’s go on a trip to South America.” Mary Ann said.
“Why, how?” I was confused.
“We take your boat.” Mary Ann said, “We stay near where she will be and get her out if she is in danger.”
Two weeks later I was at the helm somewhere in the Pacific heading for Peru wondering how in hell I got into this situation. It had not taken Mary Ann much to convince me to go even though I was not sure we could be of any help, but one thing I had found out was that Wendy must have been much regarded on a personal level within the mysterious department. The boat had been fitted out for the trip with no expense spared and no questions asked. We had been given navigation and communication gear that was definitely not commercially available, provisions were provided and paperwork and permits were produced without delay. I had recruited Jeff, an ex employee who had stayed a friend, to be the captain for the voyage as I had no idea how to tackle a voyage like this. Jeff was an ex commando who had served in Vietnam and was very familiar with long voyages having used his service money and an inheritance to buy a seaworthy two master which he put to good use. He knew the area as well as anyone.
With the department, who I had re-named Rupert (the last American sounding name I could think of at the time) doing everything Mary Ann asked, and offering plenty that she had not asked for, on one side, and Jeff the Captain taking command on the other side I was suddenly just a passenger on my own vessel. This was not a feeling I was familiar with but for the sake of Wendy I put up with it. Two days before we left Mary Ann was watching me as I watched the action all happening without my input and she said that I must really love her mother to allow this and that for what it was worth we had her blessing. This was not at all offensive and actually made me feel good.