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  Chapter 07 - Helen

  Helen Giangreco was the youngest member at twenty-three; the newest member, arriving five days later; and the prettiest member, as unanimously voted by all males. She was a knockout with eyes set wide apart to make her look every bit as intelligent as she was. Those eyes were neither blue nor green but grey. Still they could draw you in like a blue summer sky or impress you like twin emeralds. When you saw her focus those eyes on you she was in command of your attention. Men were taller and their stomachs flatter whenever there was a chance Helen might glance their way.

  She still tapped into youthful energy and enthusiasm and was almost always in motion. Prehistoric instincts made one notice this movement. Once noticed, your eyes stayed on Helen until after she left your line of sight. Your eyes did not want to be deprived of the image of her perfect figure and enchanting smile on that very pretty face framed by long full billowing curls of brown hair with its red highlights.

  She has a laugh, almost a giggle, which could turn a bad day into a great day and a singsong voice that is a delight to listen too.

  With those attributes, she did not need any others but she was smart too.

  She was picked for this job because Walter Smith was her doctoral advisor and when he came to GNI, he insisted she come too.

  Helen had done well in college. Because she was so attractive, a rumor went around saying she had slept her way on to the dean’s list. That lie wouldn’t have bothered her so much if it hadn’t been for that one incident when she had slept with a member of faculty. She had confided this indiscretion in her friend and roommate who inappropriately told others and the rumor was off and spreading.

  This unfortunate breach of confidence caused Helen to do two things: she never had relations with any member of faculty again — probably a good decision — and she avoided friendships with girls at the college. She even declined to join a sorority.

  The second decision had other negative results. Those girls who bothered to notice other people’s business noticed that Helen had only male friends and concluded she was a slut, and didn’t avoid opportunities to spread that news – after all, hadn’t she slept her way to the dean’s list? Fact was Helen finished her undergraduate degree having slept with only five guys.

  After graduating, Helen again evaluated her life and made another change. In graduate school, she swore herself to celibacy. She poured the energy that would have flowed into relationships into her work instead and generated a reputation of an exceptional student. She seemed to be racing to see how fast she could get her MS. When she did get her masters she broke her vow of chastity and one lucky post grad found her to be a fountain of enthusiasm.

  The head of department approached her to study under him personally for her PhD. She accepted because she did not want to hurt his feelings. She sensed that he was a good person and had problems sensing things about people.

  Troy was young and male. No other reason was needed for him to be interested in Helen. They had flirted with each other from the first day they met at Fort Detrick until two weeks later.

  They met at the coffee machine in the lunch area during one of those work sessions that ran into the evening. Chitchat was loaded with innuendo. It was Helen who finally said, “Do you want to do it?”

  His eyes said “Sure”. His voice said “When? Where?”

  “Here. Now.”

  “No way!”

  “This way.” said Helen and hooking her finger in Troy’s shirt and walking backward pulled Troy through the door to the lunchroom storeroom. She countered his worried look. “The lunch crew has gone for the day. There won’t be anybody in here till morning.”

  Troy was beginning to see that this could really happen. “So, do you want to take off your cloths seductively or do you want me to rip them off lustfully?”

  “Decisions, decisions. Why don’t I start and you jump in when you can’t stand it anymore?” Said Helen, pulling at her sleeve suggestively to show some smooth shoulder.

  She started her seductive strip tease by throwing her blouse over her head — this wasn’t going to be a slow strip. It reviled that Helen wasn’t wearing a bra and it verified that Helen didn’t need a bra to improve anything.

  “We can’t do it here,” mumbled Troy, his brain quickly being deprived of blood that was rerouted elsewhere.

  Helen took a step forward and, being the scientist that she was, proceeded to demonstrate with convincing thoroughness that the postulated restriction was false. You could do it here and do it quite satisfactorily.

  Twenty-two minutes later the security camera in the lunch area again showed the two young people leaving the coffee maker with cups in hand. The minutes that the two were missing was not lost on the security officer monitoring the thirty some cameras inside the facility. Because it was quite dull just now, security-wise, this officer thought he should mention the incident to management. He copied stills from the video log – couple entering storeroom, couple leaving storeroom more relaxed. He chuckled. “Damn I wish there was a camera in the store room.”

  The second time they did it in the storeroom Helen noticed a camera watching from the ceiling. She said nothing to Troy but after they parted, she went to the security room and knocked on the door. The lone on-duty officer peered at the image of Helen at his door on the monitor.

  He had just watched her in the storeroom and now she was at his door. It took a couple seconds for him to stop his fish mouth and decide to open the door.

  The look on her face told him why she was there and told him she was not going to go away before she did what she came for. He opened the door. He had been watching her but this was the first time they looked at each other face to face. He was impressed. She deferred judgment.

  "Specialist Standish," she said reading his nametag, "We need to talk

  They went inside. Stan was tall, black, and acted nervous. He was the one in uniform. He was the one with the side arm and a locker full of automatic weapons. He should have been the one in control. However, this is hard to do when you are trying to hide an illicit erection.

  "Show me the video," she instructed.

  “What vid....”

  Without moving her head, Helen’s eyes did a quick glance at his bulging crotch then went back to looking into his eyes. His resolve and his hardness melted with equal rapidity. He gave up the protest. He showed her the video.

  “Well, Specialist, if you show that I could get in trouble. If you don't show it and they find out about it we both get in trouble. Either way no more private porn shows.” She looked at him. He was trying to keep a cool ‘I’m in charge here’ expression but Helen detected a plea. Security work was really boring. Helen thought for a second and added softly” If they don't find out, nobody gets in trouble.” She paused. “Be carefully”. She said, winked and let herself out of the small security control room.

  Stan spend the rest of his shift thinking about what he should do but each time he viewed the video of a woman he had just talked to doing what she did very well he leaned farther and farther toward taking Helen’s suggestion. She was willing to let him watch as long as it went no further. She trusted him. He might never be in the position Troy was in but in his imagination, he could be king.

  Screw management. She wasn’t creating a security risk. He wasn’t being negligent of his duties. She didn't even seem promiscuous. There was just the one guy. What harm did it do to ignore this?

  He would have to remove the video from the system lest some other officer run across it. He erased the video reluctantly after a few more run-throughs. Since the cameras only record when there is movement the missing minutes wouldn't be missed unless someone wanted to follow the action from the coffee machine – not very likely. The camera in the storeroom was the newest in the system. Failure to record could be blamed as an early life malfunction. Case closed.