Chapter Eighteen

Alex woke up that morning around nine o’clock.  He was extremely groggy, and could easily have slept more, but at the same time he felt very strongly that he should be awake and moving already.  He noticed that he was still sitting upright, and hadn’t even touched the blanket or the pillow Megan had put out for him.

He also noticed that Malcolm was sitting on the coffee table, staring intently at him.

“Good morning, Malcolm,” Alex said.  He wasn’t quite sure how to act suitably non-intrusive around an attack cat, but he did his best.

Megan came into the room then, dressed and ready for the day. 

“Good morning, Mr. Minor,” she said.  “I hope you slept well.”

Alex said, “Good morning. Thanks. Did you get enough rest?”

“Oh yes.  I can function on way less sleep than how much I got last night, if I have to.  Besides, I’ve got a coffee pot.  Would you like some?” Megan said.

“Yes, thank you,” Alex said.

“I’ll pour it in an insulated mug, we’re going to go straight in to the office today.  I’ve got work to do, and we still need to get your car situation figured out.  Do you want to wash your face before we go?”

Alex was still trying to wake up.  He scratched the side of his head, and said, “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.”

He paused, and then asked her, “Will Malcolm be OK with that?  He seems to like me right where I am.”

“Oh, don’t worry about him.  If he was going to do something to you, he’d have done it already.  I wouldn’t stick my hands in his face, though, if I were you.  There’s no need to tempt him,” Megan said.

Alex heard her pouring coffee.  He got off the couch, slowly, keeping an eye on Malcolm to see how he would react.  Malcolm continued watching him, but didn’t move a muscle.

He turned and started walking to find the bathroom and wash up a little bit.  When he reached the hallway, he heard a quiet rushing sound, and little footsteps.  He put it together that Malcolm was running up behind him just as the cat rushed past his leg.  Alex was relieved that he just ran past.  Malcolm stopped at the bathroom door, turned, sat, and resumed watching Alex.

Alex washed up, and tried to shake off his sleepiness, without much success.  He was going to have to take advantage of whatever naps he could manage today, or else go to bed very early.

Malcolm walked along with him as he returned to the kitchen, where Megan was sipping her coffee and flipping through a copy of War and Peace.

“A little bit of light morning reading?” Alex said when he noticed the massive book on the counter in front of Megan.

“Exactly,” Megan said.  “Are you ready to go, Mr. Minor?”

“As ready as I’ll be,” Alex said. He smiled half-heartedly.

“Well then, let’s roll,” Megan said.

They arrived at Mr. Darcy’s office after a fairly quick drive.  Alex was surprised when, once again, Mr. Darcy came out of his office to greet them as they walked in.

“Good morning, Ms. Megan, Mr. Minor,” He said.  “Quite the evening you had last night.

“It was a little more excitement than I usually like on a weeknight,” Megan said.

Alex nodded in agreement.

“Yes, odd hours are one of the hazards of our industry.  Anyway, come into my office and sit down, please,” Mr. Darcy said.

For just a second, Alex was afraid he was going to get fired again.  For nearly leading Victor’s goons straight to the office, or for letting himself get kidnapped while he was, apparently, carrying Pandora’s box. 

They sat down, and Mr. Darcy said, “I’m very relieved that you took some precautions to make it a little more difficult for Victor Steel to find us, Mr. Minor.  I’d love to find you another car to use, but for the moment the Cutlass is the only one I’ve got free.  Our friend from Expedient Car Service will be along shortly to help you find and remove any tracking devices Victor Steel had installed.  Then you’ll be able to use it to get around until we can find another, less known car for you.  Or until you purchase your own car to drive.  Granted, I won’t blame you if you don’t want to buy a car right away.  It’s easier to stay incognito when your car doesn’t give you away everywhere you go.”

He continued, “But speaking of our friend from Expedient Car Service, he gave me some details about the three men who were waiting for you in your apartment, Ms. Megan.  I admit, I’d been expecting hear that Victor Steel had somehow traced you as well.  However, our friend informed me that they were only too willing to answer his questions about what they were doing and who they were working for.  It turns out they were affiliated with the gentleman you recently encountered in Hawaii, Ms. Megan.”

“What gentleman is that?” Alex asked before he could stop himself.

“No one of interest to you, yet, Mr. Minor,” Mr. Darcy said.  “Although he was key in an assignment Ms. Megan recently had, and I’d say he’s not particularly happy about how that all turned out.”

“Are they going to be more trouble?” Alex asked next.

“No, I wouldn’t think so.  I expect they’ll spread the word to their compatriots about their experiences last night, and that’ll make it harder to find volunteers to try again,” Mr. Darcy said.

“So what’s next, then?” Alex said.

“Business as usual, Mr. Minor,” Mr. Darcy said.  “Ms. Megan already has her assignments, and like we discussed last night, you’ll be laying low until I’ve got another assignment for you.”

Just then, there was a knock at the door to Mr. Darcy’s office.  He looked up, and said, “Ah! Come in, we’ve been expecting you.”

Alex turned to see who they’d been expecting.  It was none other than Mr. Expedient.  He was looking a little tired this morning, but seemed ready to keep moving.

“How did the coupons for Der Wienerschnitzel go over?” Alex asked him.

The driver smiled slightly, and said, “They were suitably baffled, and unenthused.”

“Der Wienerschnitzel?  I thought it was going to be coupons for The Sizzler,” Megan said.  She sounded somewhat disappointed.

“Usually it is,” the driver said. “But this time I got my hands on some coupons for half off of chili dogs, and I had to use them.  They were even less valuable than the Sizzler coupons.”

“I suppose,” Megan said.  “Next time let’s stick to our usual plan though, OK?”

“Fine, fine,” the driver said.

Mr. Darcy cleared his throat, and addressed the driver.

”I’d like you to take Mr. Minor back over to the Cutlass, and remove any tracking devices or bugs that you might find,” he said.

“Sure thing,” the driver said.  He turned to Alex, “Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah, I’m ready,” Alex said.  He polished off the rest of the coffee in his mug,   and then said to Megan, “I’ll leave this on your desk for you, unless you’d like me to wash it and bring it back for you.”

Megan said, “Leaving it on my desk will be fine.  Given how things have been working out for you lately, I’d be a little worried about sending a defenseless mug out into the cruel world with you.”

Alex laughed, and said, “OK, I’ll leave it on your desk.  Thanks for the coffee.”

He and the driver were about to leave Mr. Darcy’s office when something occurred to Alex.

“Hang on a second, “ Alex said.  “What if Victor’s goons are still there watching the car?  It’s not going to do too much for us to conspicuously show up and start working on the car in broad day light if we’re just going to be watched and followed from there.”

Mr. Darcy smiled, and said, “Victor Steel isn’t the only one with people who can act as observers.  I’ve had a few of my own people over there, keeping an eye on the Cutlass, the men who were watching it, and everyone else coming and going in that neighborhood. Victor’s men left around eight o’clock this morning, and no one has been back.  Our people have checked the neighborhood over thoroughly, and there’s no one there that isn’t supposed to be.  And the people who are supposed to be there really aren’t interested in the Cutlass.  I’d say you’re pretty safe.”

“OK, cool,” Alex said.  “I guess that’s good enough for me.”

He and the driver actually left then.  As they passed by, Alex did leave the mug Megan had loaned him on her desk.  It seemed awfully important to be true to his word and maintain good relationships with his co-workers after all.

Especially when one of them apparently owns a murder cat.

Mr. Expedient’s car was out in front of the building.  He and Alex got in, and Alex directed him to where he’d left the Cutlass the night before. 

In the neighborhood where it was parked, Alex noticed a worker apparently changing the bulb in a street lamp.  There was also someone in an orange vest with what looked like a metal detector, sweeping it back and forth near the curb, and occasionally marking a spot on the ground with bright orange spray paint.

The driver cruised through the neighborhood once.  He pointed discretely and said in a low voice, “Friendly,” as he drove past the worker changing the street lamp, and again as they passed the other worker with the metal detector.

The two of them drove around the block again, and then parked behind the Cutlass.

“Let’s get this car sorted out,” the driver said.

He and Alex got out of the car, and the driver went around to the trunk.  He pulled out a tool box and a person sized piece of carpet, and carried them over to the Cutlass.

He started at the back of the car, laying the piece of carpet down on the street, partly under the car and then climbing under the car with a flash light.  He slowly examined the under carriage of the car, and Alex heard him mutter, “Ah ha!”

Alex saw him reach up somewhere behind the body of the car, tug slightly, and a few seconds later he dropped a black bundle that looked like a pager that had been shrink-wrapped together with six D cell batteries.

“That’s one,” the driver said.  He climbed a little further under the car.

“Should we disable this?” Alex said, looking at it.  He felt very weird seeing it just laying there on the street, and knowing for certain that he’d been tracked.

“Nah,” the driver said, “we’ll just leave it here for them to wonder about.  Or one of the folks that live in the neighborhood will take an interest in it.  Depending on how that goes, it might make things real interesting for the folks who put it on the car.”

Alex heard him mutter, “There you are,” and another device landed on the street next to the first.  This one was a little bit smaller.

The driver crawled out from under the car, and moved the carpet to the driver’s side door.  “I’d sure appreciate it if you would stand here over me and make sure I don’t get run over,” he said.

He looked around under the car with his flash light, and then said, “Nothing here.”

He moved to the front of the car, and found something right away, just at the bottom of the radiator.

“That one was probably a decoy, just in case you were stupid enough to think they’d only use one.  Though, they’ve done almost as half-assed a job of hiding this stuff as Lo-Jack installers do…” he said.

After a quick peek under the passenger side of the car, he said, “OK, have you got the keys?  Let’s open this car up and see what they’ve hidden inside.”

Alex handed him the keys, and Mr. Expedient opened the car up and started crawling all over the interior of the car, poking into cracks with a long screwdriver, removing panels, and peering under and behind everything that he could.

When he was done, he held a finger up to his lips, and showed Alex a handful of little circuit boards.  One by one, he popped the hearing aid batteries out of the circuits, and then tossed the boards on the ground. 

“Microphones,” he said.  “Not much power though, so either someone would have to be right here listening to you, or they’ve hooked up a recorder somewhere in the car.”

Alex felt a little sick.  All this over a beat up old spearhead?

The driver popped the trunk and the hood open.  He went to the trunk first, and laughed sarcastically.

“Jeez, they weren’t even trying,” he said.  Alex saw he had pulled up the carpet in the trunk, and sitting there plain as day was a familiar looking circuit board, with a couple of wires attaching it to what looked like an MP3 player. The driver cut the wires, handed the MP3 player to Alex, and dropped the circuit board on the ground next to the other devices.  Once he was satisfied there wasn’t anything else hidden in the trunk, he closed it and went back to the front of the car.

He found one more device hidden in the engine compartment.  After he’d thoroughly checked in every nook, behind every panel, and each cover, he shut the hood of the Cutlass and starting closing up his tool box.

“Well,” he said, “the car is clean again.  I don’t know who you pissed off, but they are either really interested in you, or they want you to think that they are.  Do they seem like the sort that would go through all this trouble just to give you a scare?”

Alex thought about it for a minute.  On the one hand, he couldn’t think of any reasons why Victor Steel wouldn’t do something just to screw with him.  He seemed fairly eccentric.  On the other hand, he didn’t seem like the kind of eccentric who wasted his time with unnecessary things, either.

“I’m guessing they’re really interested in me,” Alex said.  “Thanks for getting all of this crap out of the car for me.  I wouldn’t have even known where to look.”

“Yeah, I figured that.  If you’d known where to look, I wouldn’t be here cleaning your car for you.  Anyway, don’t worry about it, it’s all part of the job.  On the other hand, I’d start being a lot more wary of my surroundings, if I were you.  And if things start feeling funny while you’re working, bail.  You can always try again another time, if you don’t get it right the first time.”

“OK, thanks, that’s good advice,” Alex said.  He decided not to say, I’m already way ahead of you on both of those points.

“Say,” Alex said, “are you ever going to tell me your name?”

“Why? Do you need to know it, Mr. Minor?” the driver said.  “You were already calling me Mr. Expedient.  Stick with that.  Have a good one, I’ll see you around.”

With that, he got into his own car, and drove off with a wave.

“Man, I work with some weird people,” Alex said to himself. 

He got back into the Cutlass, looked around to see if there was anyone or anything suspicious about, and started driving back to the farm house for a bit of rest.