Chapter Eleven

Alex had been sitting the shadows, watching every car that came by with great interest for fear that it might be Victor or more of his goons, when a powder blue Camaro rolled to a stop directly in front of him.  The driver’s side window rolled down.

A woman’s voice said, “You’re not hidden very well, Mr. Minor.  I saw you from two blocks away.”

Alex didn’t recognize the driver at first.  Then he realized it was because he hadn’t seen her with her hair down before.  Mr. Darcy had sent Megan to pick him up.  And she looked a little annoyed.

“I’m hidden fine, and from here I could see who was coming.  Anyway, you knew where to look already,” Alex said as he got up and brushed himself off.

He walked over to the passenger side of Megan’s Camaro, and heard the door unlock.  Alex got in the car, and said, “Thanks for coming to get me.  I didn’t have anywhere else to turn.”

“People in Mr. Darcy’s organization rarely do.  It’s part of what qualifies them for the job,” Megan said.   “Anyway, let’s get you to the safe house.  I had to drop what I was doing to come get you, and I was in the middle of making dinner.”

“Sorry,” Alex said.  

“Forget about it,” Megan said.

Alex paid attention to where they were going, and realized that Megan was driving him East, towards Saint Paul.  They rode in silence for quite a while, until Alex couldn’t take the quiet any more. 

“So if not having anyone else to turn to is one of the qualifications for working for Mr. Darcy, does that mean you don’t have anyone either?” Alex said.

Megan sighed, and said, “That’s really none of your business.”

“OK,” Alex said. “Just trying to be friendly.  I guess that’s probably not the best topic, though.”

Megan said nothing.

“So what do you do for Mr. Darcy?  I mean, besides sitting in the front office and greeting visitors,” Alex said.

“Mr. Minor, I think you’re going to find that all of the people working for Mr. Darcy value their privacy.  I’m not at liberty to discuss what I do, any more than you should be discussing what you do with me.  People who know what we’re doing are the reason we need safe houses.  But, just so we’re crystal clear, I do much more than act as a receptionist,” Megan said.

“OK, sorry, I hear you,” Alex said.

They rode in silence a little further before he had to try again.

“So, Megan, do you like toast?”

Megan snorted, and laughed despite herself.

“I admire your persistence, Mr. Minor,” she said. 

“You know, I feel weird calling you Megan, when you refer to me as Mr. Minor.  I don’t even know your last name.  You really can call me Alex,” Alex said.

“Megan is my last name.  You can call me Ms. Megan if you like, but that just sounds like you’re being cutesy,” Megan said. 

“Well, hang on, if Megan is your last name, what’s your first name?” Alex said.

“It’s Melissa, but I want you to call me Megan, thank you,” Megan said.

Alex mused to himself, “Melissa Megan.  Hmm.  That makes you Missy Megan.”

Alex couldn’t be sure, but it certainly seemed like the temperature in the car suddenly dropped about thirty degrees.

He continued, a little more quickly, “So, I see why you’d prefer being referred to by your last name only.  No problem, Megan.”

After a few miles, Alex realized they were well out of St. Paul now, and still headed east.  Before long they were in farm country, and the streetlights became few and far between.

“So, where are we going, exactly?” Alex said.

“To one of our safe houses, like I said.  You’re going to hang out here in the middle of nowhere until we’ve figured out how much of a threat Victor Steel is likely to remain for you.  Mr. Darcy admires your nerve, and you’re doing an excellent job of proving that you can handle the job.  Even if you really suck at being stealthy,” Megan said.

“Did Mr. Darcy actually say that I suck at being stealthy?” Alex said.

“No, but that doesn’t make it less true,” Megan said.  “Anyway, we don’t need you getting kidnapped, again, and possibly not being returned in the same condition you were found in.  So you’re going to lay low for a bit.”

Before too much longer, they arrived at a driveway that wasn’t much more than two gravelly ruts about the width of a car that ran between the trees in a thickly wooded piece of property.  Megan slowed way, way down, and eased her Camaro onto the driveway at maybe five miles per hour.

“I hate this frickin’ driveway,” Megan muttered.  Alex was mildly shocked by her sudden lack of professional demeanor.

He realized why she hated the driveway so much a couple of seconds later, when something that sounded a lot like a big rock scraped its way along the bottom of the car as they drove over it.  They also hit several bone-jarring bumps.

“My Camaro isn’t made for country living,” Megan said.  She winced as the bottom scraped against something else that sounded hard and likely to damage paint.

They reached the house, which was fairly compact, and painted white with black trim.  There was a disconnected garage a short walk from the house, a smaller shed nearby, and a pole barn a couple hundred feet away.  Alex noticed a large stack of firewood, a propane tank, and an enormous satellite dish parked in the yard behind the house.  It looked like the safe house had all the comforts of home, and then some.

He and Megan walked up to the side door, and Megan produced a key ring from her purse.  She unlocked the door, and they walked inside. 

The side door, apparently, opened into the kitchen.  There was a gas range and oven, a big refrigerator, a deep freezer, and an incredible array of cooking implements stashed and hung from various shelves, cubbies, and hooks.

“Let me give you the dime tour,” Megan said.  She gestured to the cabinets.  “Just about every kind of dry or canned good you could need is stashed in the cupboards.  I think there’s enough in there for a few people to survive an entire winter in relative comfort, though they’d probably be a little tired of canned food by the time spring came around, even if Chef Boyardee does make a mean ravioli.  There’s meat in the deep freezer.  The fridge should have a decent supply of butter and cheese, apples, and sturdy vegetables.  There ought to be plenty of frozen veggies in the freezer up top, along with some hot pockets and frozen dinners.  The tap water comes from a well, and tastes fine.”

She led him into the next room then, which turned out to be the living room.  There was a couch and a pretty big TV, along with a selection of DVDs.  Megan pointed at a little box with a few blinking lights on it.

“That’s your wifi, if you need it.  The password is stuck underneath it.  If you do use it, please don’t be an idiot and go out on the internet to tell everyone where you are.”

Megan pointed at a nearby door, “That’s the bathroom.” 

She turned slightly and pointed at the other door, “And that’s your bedroom.”

Alex pointed at the other two doors in the room.  He said, “How about those?”

“The one is a coat closet, and the other is officially a bedroom, but we’ve just got stuff stored in there right now,” Megan said.

She led him back into the kitchen and opened a drawer.  From it, she took out another key ring.

“There’s a car in the garage you can use if you need it.  Just don’t forget that you’re here laying low, OK?  And be careful driving the car, it’s been souped way up, and it’ll surprise the hell out of you if you’re not careful.”

Megan stopped talking for a minute, and appeared to be checking off items on her fingers.

“OK, I think that’s it.  Stay in, be good.  We’ll arrange to get your things from your apartment tomorrow,” she said.  “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I want to get home and eat.”

As she was walking out the door, she turned back and said, “Oh, if you decide to explore the pole barn… Try not to mess with anything in there.  Good night, Mr. Minor.”

“OK, whatever you say,” Alex said.  “Good night, Megan.”

Alex suddenly realized he was entirely exhausted.  He decided to go find out if this well-equipped house was also equipped with a fresh toothbrush and toothpaste for him.

He was delighted to discover that it was.

Alex didn’t sleep particularly well that night.  He figured it was due to a combination of being in a strange house, which had strange new noises (there had been coyotes howling the night before, for Pete’s sake), on top of the sheer craziness of the day he’d just had.

Around six o’clock in the morning, he realized that he just wasn’t going to be getting any more sleep, so he might as well get up.  He climbed out of bed, and wandered into the kitchen to make some coffee and see what there might be for him to make for breakfast.

He was thrilled to discover a fresh package of coffee, several cans of corned beef hash, and fresh eggs in the fridge.

After he’d eaten, and cleaned up the kitchen again, Alex realized he had nothing but time to kill until he heard from somebody about getting his stuff from his apartment.

It occurred to him that he sure hoped no one had wandered in and helped themselves to his bicycles, or the huge envelope of cash that had been tossed on to the floor.  He knew he hadn’t locked the door behind them when Victor and his goons dragged him out of his apartment.

Well, he decided, there’s nothing I can do about it now if someone did go into my apartment and steal stuff.  For now, I should just find a way to keep busy.

So, Alex grabbed the key ring that had the house key, and a few other keys that he was willing to bet were for the garage, shed, and pole barn, and went outside to discover what it was that he wasn’t supposed to mess with.

Since it was the closest, Alex went to the garage first to see what was waiting for him in there.  He got a bit giddy as he imagined a Corvette, or maybe an old Dodge Challenger, or perhaps an Old 442.  Or maybe it was something classy, like a classic Rolls Royce, or an old Mercedes.

Alex tried keys until he found one that fit the lock, and opened the garage.

He was a little disappointed when he saw the car was a brownish Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera from the early 1980’s.

Souped up, right.  I bet it can almost get out of its own way now, if there’s a good tailwind, Alex thought.

He shut the door again, and wandered over to the shed.  He wasn’t sure what to expect inside, but figured it was probably a few lawnmowers, rakes, and other kinds of yard equipment.  Maybe a punching bag, or something.

What he found was a well-equipped communications center.  There was a computer, what looked like some kind of radio setup, a Morse code key, a couple of phones, and a bunch of other things he didn’t recognize.  Oh, and a wall calendar that had a picture of a pinup girl holding a big wrench.

He really had no idea what to do with any of that stuff, so he shut the door, and made sure it was locked again, then wandered over to the pole barn.

He unlocked the entrance, stepped inside, and found the light switch.  As the lights came on, he realized there was so much in there it was kind of hard to take it all in.

There were a couple of boats, a tractor, a bunch of snow blowers, an airplane, motorcycles, snowmobiles, an old military Jeep, a bulldozer…

Alex paused for a second, and looked again.  An airplane?

Sitting there quietly, almost unobtrusively, was a bright yellow airplane, with a black lightning bolt painted down the side.

Alex was about to investigate the pole barn a little further when his phone rang in his pocket.  He pulled it out and answered.

“Mr. Minor, an associate is on his way to pick you up to go and recover some of the things you can’t live without.  He should be there very shortly,” said Mr. Darcy.