Welcome to Paths Not Taken, the thirteenth Operation Quickline story. When a sting operation is set up on the resort owned by Lisa Wycherly’s father, she and Sid Hackbirn find themselves revisiting their high school jobs. And hoping their covers don’t get blown. You can read the first chapter here.

I slept in the next morning, then took Janey with me to go running by the lake. It was so nice to not think about missing plans and room cleaning and everything else.

The only problem was that when I got back, Lita paged me. I met her at the paddock next to the horse barn.
“What’s up?” I asked, scooping up a bit of hay for one of the mares.
“It’s Maria Sanchez,” she said. “She came over to the table where we were having dinner last night to say hi. She recognized us as Cuban.”
“As in, she is, too.” I smiled as the mare nibbled delicately from my hand.
“Yeah.” Lita shrugged. “It doesn’t necessarily mean anything.”
“Except that we have intel that there might be a Cuban operative around.”
“I know. She seems like just a nice lady.”
“That’s what I thought.” I grinned at Lita. “But you seem like just a nice lady, too.”
Lita laughed. People frequently underestimate her and her partner, Barb Wasserman. It’s not a healthy thing to do.
“The funny thing is,” Lita continued. “Barb said right before we left that she’d heard that the Cuban operatives had given up.” She shook her head. “That doesn’t make sense, but it could be. They don’t have a lot of resources to spare.”
“And Ms. Sanchez does.” I looked back at the lodge thoughtfully. “Well, thanks for the update. You’ve seen the Fosters, right?”
“Oh, yeah. Dierdre and I are making friends with each other.” Lita sniggered. “She is pissed to hell at Clint for dragging the grandkids out while he’s working. Apparently, he didn’t tell her they were coming here for an operation.”
“My poor heart just bleeds for him.” I rolled my eyes, then patted the mare on the nose. “You know, I think I’m going to go for a ride.”
Lita put her hands up. “All yours. They’re pretty to look at, but I’m not going to mess with one.”
The time on horseback did me a world of good. I came back right before lunch and joined Sid, Nick, Janey, and Daddy in my parents’ kitchen. Sid said I smelled like horse, but he was smiling.
I got a quick shower before heading out to run an errand. Not only had the ride helped me relax a little, it got me thinking about that TV in Lipplinger’s room. So, I called Judy Osbourne and told her I’d bring in the broken television to see if she could fix it or use it for parts.
I liked Judy’s shop. It was in a strip center that held the local supermarket. The shop had a lighted sign over it that read, “Video Stop. Rentals. Repairs.” You went inside and it was almost dark, with all four walls lined with videotapes. Worn and sometimes yellowed labels identified the different genres, and chest-high shelving units filled the floors. Judy provided videotapes for a lot of places in the area. Her own interests were eclectic as all get out, and the wall behind the glass case with the register held laser discs, Betamax tapes, and a host of foreign films in VHS, as well as some movie memorabilia.
The back was equally full, but exceedingly neat. Metal shelves along one wall held televisions and VCRs, most of them either waiting to be repaired or waiting to be picked up by their owners. A large table stood in the center of the room with a large white fluorescent fixture overhead, flooding the table with light.
Judy had me set the broken TV on the table, then turned it around.
“Well?” I asked.
She shook her head. “It’s worse than that. It’s dead, Jim.”
“What?”
“Oh.” She smiled and shrugged. “It’s a Star Trek tune on the Dr. Demento show.”
“You mean the radio program?” I nodded. “Nick has been getting into that.”
Judy laughed full out. “You realize that means your kid is turning into a massive nerd, don’t you?”
“Not turning into,” I replied grinning. “He’s always been one. He’d rather spout batting averages than try to hit a ball. He can recite the entire Periodic Table. The only reason people don’t figure it out right away is that he takes after his father in the looks department and doesn’t dress funny.”
I couldn’t tell her how good he was getting at explosives.
“I knew there was a reason I liked him.” Judy smiled softly, then turned to the TV. “Anyway, there’s no point in fixing this. The parts would cost more than a new television.”
She shifted the set around, then yelped.
“What’s the matter?”
“There’s a loose wire here.” She pushed the TV onto its back, then looked at me. “How long has thing been unplugged?”
“Over a week. Why?”
Judy sighed in relief. “TVs can be kinda dangerous. They have these parts called capacitors that hold a lot of electricity. Now, normally, when something is turned off or unplugged, that electricity dissipates within a few minutes. But the capacitors in televisions hold on to their charge, and a lot of it, for up to twenty-four hours after the box has been unplugged.”
She pulled out a flashlight and shone it through the broken screen into the set’s insides.
“You mean a TV can be unplugged and still electrocute somebody?”
“Exactly.” She suddenly cursed. “And this one may have done just that.” She looked at me, her eyes filled with worry. “Lisa, this looks like it may have been set up as a trap. Look here.” She pointed with the beam of the flashlight. “There’s that loose wire that bit me just now. And see? It’s wired to that capacitor near the back.”
“And if somebody picked that up, even if it was unplugged, he’d get zapped.” I bit my lip.
“Like Dr. Lipplinger.” She gasped and squeezed her eyes shut.
“You know his name.”
Judy nodded. “He ruined my life.” She sank onto a nearby metal stool. “Okay. I mean, it wasn’t just him. You know I got accepted to Georgetown right out of high school.”
“No, I didn’t.” I bit my lip. Lipplinger had been teaching at Georgetown when Sid and I had first known him. “You went?”
“Yeah. But I couldn’t hack it. I was so far away from my family and friends.” She blinked back tears, but they fell anyway. “I took beginning physics with him. I was going to be an engineer.”
“I remember that.” I looked at her. “You were one of the smartest kids in school.”
Judy snorted. “A lot of good that did me. Lipplinger had it in for me. We’d get quizzes back, and the one guy I was friends with would get a better grade than I would with the same answer. I went to Lipplinger for help, and he said that I was wasting my time. That I’d never understand physics, and I might as well go home, get married, and have babies.”
“That sounds like something you could have sued over.” It also sounded a lot like something Lipplinger would have said.
“I was eighteen. You think I thought of that? No. I believed the bastard. And I got an A in physics in high school.” She shook her head. “I went home for Christmas and couldn’t get myself to go back. My confidence was shot. I was miserable and lonely. I tried going to Sac State, but I spent so much time doubting myself that I failed again. So, I gave up. I learned how to fix TVs and then VCRs and built this business from the ground up. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, when I was delivering tapes, I saw Lipplinger checking into your dad’s place. I nearly died. I’m pretty sure he didn’t see me.” She shuddered and sniffed. “I never wanted to see that bastard again.”
“I can imagine.”
She suddenly sat up straight. “I didn’t rig this.”
“Why would you have told me about it if you had? Besides, when would you have had the opportunity?”
She nodded. “That’s right. We should probably notify the police.”
“Not a bad idea. Can I look at the inside again?”
She got out her flashlight and showed me the wire and the insides of the TV. It was as I’d remembered it, except for the tape and floppy disk that I’d removed. I thanked her and rushed back to the resort.
I was so lost in thought as I hurried into the main lodge that I almost ran over Brian Lane.
“I’m so sorry!” I yelped. “Back with us again?”
“Yeah. I like it here.” He smiled. “Beats the corporate-owned cookie cutter rooms.”
“I’m glad.” I looked around and saw Ms. Wannamaker slinking along the hall to the playground and indoor pool. “Excuse me, will you?”
I tried following her, but was interrupted by loud voices coming from the stairs to the basement.
“You have to write her up!” Mira yelled. “She’s just going to keep walking all over you.”
“I don’t need you to tell me what to do,” Lourdes snapped back. “I know what I’m doing.”
I hurried downstairs. “Ladies? We can hear you upstairs.”
Lourdes glared at Mira. “See? This is your fault. Now, leave me alone!”
Lourdes stomped upstairs. I looked at Mira.
“Beatrice again,” Mira grumbled.
“Daddy said that you thought she was okay.”
Mira rolled her eyes. “Yeah. When I’m in charge.”
“Well, maybe Lourdes is trying a gentler approach.”
“That’s fine.” Mira snorted. “I totally agree with being gentle. But you also have to follow through with consequences. Lourdes does not get that and Beatrice is taking advantage of her to goof off.”
“Do you want me to talk to Beatrice?” I sighed.
“No. I want you to get Lourdes out of here. She’s a disaster.”
“I’ll try to think of something.”
I went back upstairs, shaking my head. Lourdes wasn’t a disaster, but she was awfully close to being one. Once up the stairs, I headed toward the pool area, but didn’t see Ms. Wannamaker. I found her in the activities center.
“Hi!” I said as brightly as I could.
“Oh, hello, Lisa.”
“How has your afternoon been?”
Her eyes narrowed as she looked me over. “It’s been fine. We had fifteen kids in for the open crafts period, another seven for drawing. Twenty-three video tapes went out, fourteen were returned. We also checked out twelve books from the grown-ups library.”
“Sounds like a normal day.” I smiled. “It’s just that I saw you a bit ago, heading toward the pool. I almost thought you were sneaking out to get a smoke.”
Ms. Wannamaker held herself up in high dudgeon. “I do not smoke, and I have been here the entire afternoon.”
“Must have been the lighting in the main lobby.” I smiled at her.
It wasn’t, but I knew darned well that Ms. Wannamaker snuck out to go to the bathroom several times a day. The only problem was that there was a bathroom much closer to the activities center than the one near the pool.
I slid through the back of the lodge to head up to the apartment. Nick came running up.
“Mom!”
“What’s up, sweetie?”
“Dusty’s pager went off.” Nick grinned. “It was my turn to tail him, so I did. I think I know why he’s spending so much time in the woods near here.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. He met up with Donna. You know, the maid?” Nick looked around, then leaned closer to me. “They were necking.”
I pulled back. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“Why not?” Nick’s eyes rolled like the reels on a slot machine. “He’s totally gone on her and she likes him, too.”
“You’re right about that, sweetie.” I frowned. “But why go out to the woods? Half the college staff is sleeping with each other and no one cares.”
Nick glared at me. “Well, if you’re not going to believe me…”
“I do believe you.” I smiled at him. “You did a good job. Thank you. I’ll see you back at your grandpa’s for dinner.”
Instead of huffing off, however, Nick hung his head and wandered away. I sighed inside. As if I needed yet another mystery to decipher.
Sid was reading in the apartment.
“Well, we’ve got a new development,” I told him as he put his book down.
I told him about my conversation with Judy.
“That’s interesting.” Sid frowned. “I know she’s your friend, but do you think she wired the TV?”
I made a face. “Actually, I don’t.” It suddenly hit me why I didn’t. “She had it in for Lipplinger, but why would she have set a trap in the TV? It doesn’t seem like she’d have known that he wanted the TV moved every day. People don’t do things like that. And everyone on the floor knew that it was Dusty who was moving the TV, not Lipplinger.”
“That is an excellent point.” Sid mused. “But Dusty was off that Thursday. Wouldn’t someone have figured that out?”
“You’d think, but no.” I shuddered. “Even Lipplinger hadn’t. He’d called down that morning demanding to know where Dusty was.”
“He did.” Sid got up and began pacing. “And if I recall correctly, Ms. Sanchez is in the room next to where Lipplinger was.”
I groaned. “I hope not her. She is really nice.”
“So are several people we know who are pretty deadly when push comes to shove.” Sid paused. “Honey, is it possible that Dusty set the trap for Lipplinger?”
I thought about that. “Given what a pain in the backside Lipplinger was, I’d almost have to say that it’s not just possible, it may even be likely.” I stopped. “No. There was no reason to believe that Lipplinger would move the TV himself. He’d been pretty adamant about having someone else do it, and there was no way Dusty could have known who the old man would get to do it.”
“So then we have to believe that Dusty was the actual target of the trap.” Sid sighed.
“Yeah. I know.”
Sid got up and paced. “How likely is it that our mole is someone on the staff?”
“You mean one of the college kids?” I asked.
“Possibly, but it could also be someone else.” Sid had a pained look on his face. “I know most of them have been here for years, but it is possible that the Soviets got control of one of them.”
“Like who?” I thought over the staff members. “Maybe Lee Whitney. Come to think of it, he hasn’t been here that long. Um. Mira?” I frowned. “Lyle has been a problem, but that’s the computer, not Soviet control.”
“Irene is pretty good with computers,” Sid said. “In fact, she and Esther have been talking a lot, and Irene obviously gets what Esther’s saying about data collection and inputs. She might be able to look at that floppy disk and recognize it as something Lipplinger might have had.”
“That also makes sense.” I shook my head. “We don’t have any actual evidence, though.”
“I’ll get Esther to question Irene a little more closely.” He paused. “You know who else is very new here compared to everyone else and is also a foreign national. Bracha Solomon.”
My eyebrows rose. “You know. You’re right. I saw her wandering the perimeter of the resort last week, too, and she brushed it off to getting the kinks out. And she was not on her usual schedule. But would she have the tech savvy to wire that TV, and if she did, when did she?”
“Both excellent questions.” Sid smiled. “I’ll make a point of talking to her about her background, and leave Mira and Lyle to you.”
I sighed. “Thanks.”
Sid turned, and he got that hot little smile on his face that means he’s thinking about us making each other happy. I went for it. Hey, it was our day off.
The next day was also supposedly a day off. Shortly after breakfast, I helped Irene work around another over-booking that Lyle had made.
“Daddy, we have to do something about him,” I told my father a bit later in his office.
“I know.” Daddy looked over some papers on his desk.
“Can’t you talk him into retiring? It’s not like he isn’t old enough.”
“I’ve already tried.” Daddy shook his head. “Lisle, the poor fellow doesn’t have anything else in his life. All his friends are here. He has no interest in traveling or anything else. I can sometimes get him out to go fishing, but even then, he won’t go on his own. He goes home and watches TV, and that’s all he does. His life is at this resort and that’s it.”
I winced. “That’s kinda sad.”
“Well, it’s his life.” Daddy sighed. “And I let Neff work until he dropped.”
“But Neff was still competent and was even able to handle the new reservation system.”
“I am well aware of that, Lisle.” Daddy shook his head. “I’ll figure something out. I’ll take any suggestions you have, but you don’t need to worry about Lyle. That’s for me to.”
I left the office just tense enough that I headed for the horse barn. Even if I couldn’t get a ride in, being around the horses would make me feel better.
I found Sid and Bracha on the grass behind the barn. Bracha came after him, throwing several punches. Sid blocked them, but Bracha pushed him back. She didn’t seem to have a weapon on her, but I couldn’t count on that. Sid and I hadn’t been able to carry our guns while working, so I was pretty sure Sid was mostly unarmed.
Sid pushed back on Bracha, but she deflected his blows expertly. My heart in my throat, I ran and jumped on Bracha’s back.
Bracha yelped as Sid fell back even further. Bracha tried flipping me, but I hung on and tried to hook one of my legs around hers. She punched my right bicep as I kicked her calf. She staggered, and I rolled off and then, keeping low, tackled her. We both fell, me on top of her, and Bracha stopped struggling.
Laughing like a maniac, Sid came over and helped me up.
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” he said, then held out a hand for Bracha. “We were just sparring.”
“What?” I looked at the two of them.
Bracha got up, laughing as well. “Why not?”
“What?” I repeated.
“Bracha’s teaching me some krav maga,” Sid said. “It’s the Israeli army martial art.”
“Okay,” I said weakly, then bent over and stretched just in case. “Crap, you guys scared me.”
Sid pulled me into his arms and kissed the side of my head. “Sorry, lover. I suppose it would look pretty bad if you didn’t know.”
Bracha laughed again. “Sid’s pretty good at it.”
“We have to be,” Sid said. I looked at him in alarm. “It’s okay. She’s Dale’s extra mole.”
I gaped. “You’re with the Mossad.”
“Unfortunately.” Bracha shrugged her shoulders. “I’d really rather be just a chef. But it’s the same in our business as yours. Once you’re in, that’s it. You’re in for life.”
“Pedro got the intel on the transponder back here,” Sid said. “It’s Israeli. So, I came to check it out, and it’s hers. I caught her red-handed.”
“I’m the coordinator between my government and yours,” Bracha said. “My job is to feed your government what my government wants you to know, and feed my government what your government wants us to know. Dale’s my primary contact, and when he found out your dad was looking for someone who could run a restaurant, he sent me here.”
I looked at Sid, who rolled his eyes.
“We can bounce Dale on his ear some other time,” Sid said.
Bracha looked at us curiously.
“I’m sorry, honey,” I said. “I am getting really fed up with him just deciding he can play around with my family’s lives.”
“Dale knows what he’s doing,” Bracha said. “I’ve had to trust him with my life more than once, and he’s not going to risk killing a bunch of kids. But he needs somebody here in Tahoe. There’s a KGB operative in town. I’ve seen him around. Bumped into him at the Video Stop last week. His name is Yuri Voskoff, and he’s a known operative and doesn’t care.”
I swallowed. Both the CIA and the KGB had operatives that the other side knew about, which generally meant they weren’t that effective. But then there were the ones that everyone knew about who didn’t care that everyone knew about them. That’s because their job was not to ferret out secrets, but kill people.
“I don’t know who his target is,” Bracha said. “My guess would be Dale. It might be worth it to the KGB to take him out.”
I glanced over at Sid. “On the other hand, someone wired a trap that could have taken out our target for the tech sale. It’s just how and when?”
“It wouldn’t have been that hard for Yuri.” Bracha made a face. “He’s really, really good. One of the best around. He can break in anywhere, and he’s even defeated a few alarm systems.”
“But how would he have known about Lipplinger wanting the TV moved twice a day?” Sid asked.
“Unless Lipplinger was the intended target.” I made a face. “But again, how would Yuri have known to set the trap on the TV?”
“Maybe he had Lipplinger bugged,” Bracha said. “I don’t know how. I’ve checked this place out regularly since I got here and haven’t found any. Or maybe he’s working with somebody on the inside to tell him what’s going on.”
“Any thoughts on who?”
Bracha frowned. “Maybe Lyle. I know he doesn’t have much of a life outside this place, and it could be because he doesn’t have any money to speak of.”
I shook my head. “Daddy’s got a pretty good pension plan in place, so unless Lyle is spending a lot of money on something that doesn’t show, it’s not likely. And Lyle doesn’t gamble as far as I know.”
“How about Lee Whitney?” Sid asked. “He’s got that pot problem. That would make it easy to control him, and he needs money for his drugs.”
Bracha rolled her eyes. “I’ll keep an eye out for him.”
“You know, it could also be Mira or Lourdes,” I said. “Lourdes could be worrying about losing her job, and both of them would have known about Lipplinger and the TV.” I made a face. “And this Yuri guy wouldn’t have had to bribe them to get the information. He could have just made friends with them and listened to them gripe.”
“I think I know who they are,” Bracha said. “They live off the resort, don’t they?”
“Yes. Mira and her family live just south of here and Lourdes and her husband live on the north side of town.”
“Can you give us a description of Yuri?” Sid asked.
“I’d say around one-point-seven-five meters, dark hair and eyes,” Bracha said. “Probably looks older than he is, but he’s got a solid build, and like I said, he’s darned good at what he does.”
Sid was doing some math in his head. “In other words, he’s about my size. You know. I think he was here last Saturday night. Almost got me.”
“Hm.” Bracha nodded. “Well, why don’t we find some time to spar again? Either you or Lisa.” Bracha grinned. “Lisa, you’re pretty good, too. It would be fun.”
“I suppose.”
Sid laughed again and he and I headed back to my parents’ house for lunch. What we found there did not help my mood any, although when Sid saw the bottle that had come in the mail for him, he laughed even harder than he had when I’d tackled Bracha.
“It’s to help with my potency,” he said, reading the note my grandmother had packed with it.
“Oh, for crying out loud.” I grabbed the note and read it myself. “I told her that wasn’t the problem.”
Sid grabbed me around the waist and licked the back of my neck. “Wanna see if it helps?”
“Sid Hackbirn, the last thing you need is help performing.” I gulped. “What if it works? I mean, not with the performance, but with the sperm?”
“And?” Sid chuckled as he began running his hands all over me. “Do you really want to disappoint your poor, aging grandmother?”
I pulled away. “Sid!”
“I’m sorry.” He softened. “I was just teasing. I don’t want another kid any more than you do, and whatever is in that bottle is not going to override a v-sect and several cases of gonorrhea.” He looked at me and his eyes grew a little worried. “You okay?”
“I don’t know.” I smiled softly at him. “I guess I’m just feeling frustrated. We’ve got lots of possible leads, no real direction on what we’re supposed to be finding out, and if we don’t take care of things fast enough, it could really hurt somebody we care about.”
“And you’re not having a very good time here, are you?”
I shrugged. “I had a good time in Kansas and you didn’t. It’s only fair that we get a case where I’m chronically annoyed and you’re having all the fun.”
“I’m not having all the fun, but I get what you’re saying.” He smiled and pulled me close to him. “Come on. Let’s get some lunch made, and then maybe just the two of us can take off for a while.”
Sid made a point of emptying the bottle Grandma had sent. Nick, Janey, and Daddy joined us for the sandwiches and cole slaw that Sid and I put together. Sid pulled me away the second we’d finished, leaving the others to clean up.
In the car, Sid and I spent a few minutes talking about the coke Marina had given me (no conclusions to be made about that), and what Nick had said about Dusty and Donna necking. It was possible that Donna was secretly working with Dusty, but she hadn’t acted like it before. Sid promised to tell Bracha so that she could also be on the lookout, while I would brief the rest of the team. Then Sid put his foot down and tabled any more talk about the case or the resort.
We went to see A Fish Called Wanda, then went to dinner just the two of us, still giggling over the movie. Later that night, Sid talked to me in Italian and Russian (one of the jokes from the film). Neither language got me all that excited, but I did laugh hard, which I sorely, sorely needed.
Thank you for reading. For more information about the Operation Quickline series, click here.
Please check out the Fiction page for the latest on all my novels. Or look me up at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Vroman’s, in Pasadena, California.