They joined Caroline walking to the house. She went to the phone in the kitchen and placed the call. Joyce was irritated but relieved. Caroline asked if she should go on to school, or come home first. Joyce said she would meet her at school.
Charles, Caroline, Natalie and Wayland said goodbye to Bev and Carson. Charles drove to school. The students discovered they weren't very late. The bell rang for the end of the first hour as they walked out of the office. Caroline stayed behind and waited in the office for her mom.
The rest of the school day was uneventful. At the end of the day, Charles walked Caroline to her mother’s car. They said goodbye and Caroline got into the car. She waved as her mother drove away.
Charles hurried to his car and saw that Wayland and Natalie were waiting patiently. Everyone got into the car and Charles drove out of the parking lot. As he was driving toward the farm, they discussed Caroline visiting the kingdom and the events that occurred at school that day. Charles came to an intersection with a four way stop and signaled for a right turn. The car in front of him turned right. Charles pulled up to the stop sign and stopped. He glanced in his rear view mirror and saw a car quickly approaching. Charles pulled away from the stop sign and turned right. He checked the mirror again. He saw the rear car run the stop sign and speed toward them.
Charles said over his shoulder, “I think we’re being followed.”
Wayland didn’t turn around to check in case they were being tailed. He asked, “How close is the car?”
Charles replied, “If I apply my brakes, they’ll run into us.”
Charles was quickly approaching the car in front of them. The car appeared to be slowing down. Charles flicked on his turn signal and moved to the next lane in order to pass the front car. Suddenly the old beat up car accelerated and pulled in front of him. Frustrated Charles returned to his previous place behind the car. The sedan behind them pulled closer until it bumped the rear bumper of Charles’ car. The car in front gradually slowed down until the cars came to a halt and Charles was boxed in. He put his car in park.
He sighed. “Well, I guess I was right. They couldn’t be any more obvious. Any ideas?” Charles reached for a baseball bat that was on the floorboard and put it on the passenger’s seat.
Natalie looked around and counted the men in the two cars. “I count five of them.”
The men in the sedan got out of their car.
Wayland sized them up. “Well mate, they aren’t classmates for sure. Those two blokes appear to be in decent shape.”
Natalie offered a suggestion. “We could lock the doors.”
Wayland scoffed, “That won’t do us any good. I imagine they’d just break the windows to get at us.” Charles agreed with Wayland’s assessment.
Natalie said, “Then we get out and fight.”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” said Charles.
The two men approached Charles’ car, one on each side. They were both dressed in brown suits and wore large mirrored sunglasses.
Natalie said under her breath, “It’s the brown men. Possibly the same men who attacked my dad.”
“Charles, wait until the bloke gets closer to your door then whammy him with it. If you catch him off guard, it will be easier to take him down. Natalie, you and I will jump out as soon as his door swings open,” advised Wayland.
As soon as the man neared the door and reached for the handle, Charles put his hands on the door and thrust the door open. When the door knocked the man sideways, Charles jumped out of the car and swung his fist into the man’s jaw. “That’s for damaging my car!” The two men battled. Charles remembered his moves from the Brotherhood of Finders. He was ready to take the jerk down.
Wayland and Natalie were right behind him. Wayland grabbed the baseball bat from the front seat on the way out of the car. He went after the man fighting with Charles and whacked him between the shoulder blades with the bat. As the man fell to the ground, Charles aimed a kick at the man’s gut, knocking the breath out of him. Natalie easily took care of the other man who mistakenly thought she was an easy target.
The men in the front car saw that their buddies were in trouble. They got out of the clunker and headed toward the three younger people. One man pulled out his switchblade and waved it at Natalie. She engaged in the strategies she learned from years of lessons with Sensei. Charles was able to quickly attack his opponent in hand-to-hand combat. When the third goon saw Wayland rushing toward him with the bat, he took off into the dried cornfield. Wayland was right behind him.
Charles was able to elbow his attacker in the stomach. When the man leaned forward, Charles hit the man on the chin with an upper cut punch. The man’s eyes rolled back as he fell to the ground. Charles hurried to help Natalie. He could see that she was bleeding from a cut on her left forearm. She carefully aimed her next blow at her assailant. As she followed through with the strike, Charles kicked the man behind his knees. The man’s nose broke from Natalie’s hit. When he collapsed to the ground, the back of his head hit a rock knocking him unconscious. Natalie picked up his knife and put it in the back pocket of her jeans.
As Charles and Natalie were fighting her opponent, one of the criminals from the sedan got up and staggered to his car. He opened the driver’s door and reached across the car to the glove box to get the semi-automatic pistol inside. He unlocked the safety and staggered toward Charles and Natalie.
Just as his buddy collapsed to the ground, the goon with the pistol fired a warning shot into the air then pointed the pistol at Charles. “Put your hands in the air!”
Natalie and Charles followed his orders. The man limped toward them and yelled, “I’ve got you now! Get down on your knees in the road and place your hands behind your head! Go on, do it now!”
As Natalie and Charles complied with the demand, Charles called out, “What do you want with us?”
The man walked unsteadily, waving the pistol at them. He wasn’t aware that Wayland had sneaked back to the scene using the dried stalks in the cornfield for cover. Charles kept asking the man questions, trying to distract him.
The brown man continued to wave the pistol at them saying, “Never you mind. Where’s your…”
He fell to the ground after Wayland knocked him on the back of his head with the bat. Wayland grinned and said, “Right behind you, bloke.” He bent down, picked up the pistol and put it in the waistband of his jeans. Charles and Natalie helped each other stand.
Wayland ran to Natalie and wrapped his arms around her. He whispered, “That’s the second time in my life that I have been truly scared. I’m so glad you are safe.” He looked in her eyes and kissed her lips.
Charles coughed. “All right you two. I hate to interrupt, but we’ve got to work fast. Wayland, let’s use your shirt to wrap Natalie’s arm. Then we’ve got to get this mess cleaned up.”
Wayland agreed and hastened to take off his shirt. He inspected Natalie’s wound. “Here Natalie. I think this slash is superficial but we need to return as quickly as possible to the Jones’ farm to have it checked and cleaned. Let me get this wrapped tightly around your arm.”
As soon as Natalie’s wound was wrapped and tied off, Wayland asked, “Do you have any rope, cables or duct tape in your car?” Charles shook his head.
They split up and looked in the other two cars. Natalie found rope in the trunk of the clunker. She took out the switchblade and began cutting the rope so the brown men could be tied up. They tied the hands of the four men behind their backs and wrapped rope around their upper arms, binding their arms to their sides.
Wayland and Natalie went into the cornfield to get the goon Wayland took down. They found the guy who was sitting, holding his ankle.
Wayland pulled the gun from his waistband and pointed it at the brown man. “Stand and put your hands behind your back.” The goon followed the orders and Natalie tied his hands together. The couple followed behind, as the man hop-stepped to the road.
Natalie asked, “What happened to his
ankle?”
Wayland answered, “The strangest thing happened when I was chasing the bloke. A fox ran through the cornstalks right between the guy’s legs and tripped him. I guess he sprained his ankle. When he fell, I was able to deliver a home run knocking him out. Then I headed back to the road to help you and Charles.”
Wayland, Natalie and Charles finally got the five brown men crammed into the trunks of the two cars. Then they wrapped rope around the miscreants’ ankles.
Wayland got in the clunker and drove the car off the road, up far enough for Charles to pull his car onto the road. Wayland took the car keys from the car and ran to the car in back. Next he drove that car off the road behind the clunker. Finally he took the car keys and jumped in Charles’ car. They drove to the farm.
Bev saw them pull in the driveway. She ran down the front porch steps to meet them. Charles began to explain what happened as they ran to Carson’s office. When they entered Carson’s office, Charles kept telling the events of what happened on the road.
When the Passageway opened, Carson joined them as they went through to the Hub and made their way to locate an authority. Carson saw an agent and waved to the man. The agent flew his disk to meet them. Wayland explained what happened. The authority radioed the situation to headquarters.
Captain Caruzio immediately met them and took control of the situation. He asked Carson if the authorities could use his Passageway to get to the scene of the crime. Carson granted permission and everyone, except Carson, returned to the farm with the authority agent. Captain Caruzio then notified Dimitrios about the brown men. The captain and several of his agents went with Carson through his Passageway. Wayland gave the agents the car keys. Charles and Carson took the agents to the location of the crime. The agents got into the criminals’ cars and followed Carson and Charles back to the farm. The agents took the brown men out of the car trunks, untied their ankles and marched them into the office, through the Passageway to the Hub.
While the men were taking care of the criminals, Bev and Natalie went up the stairs to the rooms above the office. Bev wanted to tend to Natalie’s wound. She took the shirt off Natalie’s arm and looked at her wound. The bleeding had stopped, so Bev began cleaning it with supplies from their medicine cabinet. She then put a sterile gauze pad on Natalie’s wound and taped it. Then Bev wrapped the arm with a roller bandage. When she finished dressing Natalie’s arm, they went downstairs to the office.
Dimitrios soon came through the Passageway. Natalie ran to his arms, into his hug. He asked, “Is anyone hurt? Is everyone okay?”
They told him Natalie had a superficial cut on her arm that needed attention. Dimitrios immediately left with Natalie and Wayland.
They went to the Bridgeiro hospital first to have the doctor check Natalie’s wound. The doctor inspected her arm. He checked the wound, replaced the sterile gauze pad and rewrapped the area. He gave her some pills to hasten her recovery. The doctor then convinced Dimitrios that his daughter was fine. Feeling relieved, Dimitrios sat in a chair beside her bed. He listened as Natalie and Wayland told how the events unfolded. When Natalie insisted she was ready to leave the hospital with Wayland and return to the Jones’ farm, Dimitrios left to find Anthony and inform him of the attack.
Later Anthony and Dimitrios returned to Carson’s office to discuss the aftermath. When they put together all of the facts, Anthony decided the danger had passed. The agents had taken the criminals to headquarters and interrogated them. The authorities had gained important information that Max was in fact behind the foiled abduction. They confirmed what Dimitrios had stated in his prior report. The criminals that Max had hired were amateurs. They were weak cognitively and the authorities had little trouble giving them mind eraser drugs. The brown men were sent to the border of the “Unknown” sector with a plausible story in their heads.
Just to be safe, Dimitrios and Anthony made the decision that Natalie and Wayland would continue to protect Charles during his senior year. They would have to keep up the pretense of being foreign exchange students.
Before Charles went to his bedroom, he called Caroline. She told him the crystal didn’t work to open the Passageway in the kingdom because her mother had taken the queen’s marble off of her Marble Track. Then Charles briefly told her of the failed abduction incident. He said he would tell her more the next day.
That night, even though the situation had been resolved, no one slept soundly.
**********
For the next several days, Joyce took and picked up Caroline from school. Charles missed her terribly. She would arrive to her first hour class just in time for Charles to tell her to have a good day. Then he would have to hurry to class himself.
It nearly drove Natalie and Wayland crazy spending their days in high school classes in order to protect Charles. The days began merging together, and every day was the same as the last. They didn't understand the students’ childish behavior or the everyday drama going on around the school. Charles felt like he was just going through the motions of being a student. He couldn't wait for his senior year to end.
Friday night after dinner, Carson set the Hub newspaper on his desk. He picked up the page with bold print headlines that read: “Passageway Thieves Are Robbing Us Blind”. He read the article out loud as he paced the room. When Carson finished the article, he continued to pace the floor. "They really have no clue as to whom these thieves are? I know they are a pack of dangerous wolves. How do they do it? How do they fly under the radar and get away with destroying lives?"
Wayland mumbled, "We Journeymen have an idea as to who they really are. No one has been able to prove it though."
Carson looked at him. "Why not?"
Wayland frowned. "Anjoleah, that's why."
Carson looked puzzled. "Anjoleah?" Wayland nodded. Carson asked, "She’s not following up on your leads?" Wayland shrugged.
Natalie cleared her throat. "Stop Wayland. Don't start rumors of a conspiracy."
"Who said anything about a conspiracy?”
Natalie retorted, "You are implying it."
"No, I'm not. Nothing has been proven."
Natalie sighed. "Leave it alone. Just leave it alone. These are no ordinary people. We shouldn't even be talking about them."
Charles thought for a moment then asked, "What do you know about them?"
Natalie turned to him and said, "I am sure you will learn very quickly all about them from my dad. I think Anthony and Dad should teach you about these things, not us. If there is something you don't want to have wrong information about, it is the Stygian Market.”
Charles played along. "The Stygian Market?"
Natalie put her hands over her face. "Yes, Charles."
He smiled and looked at Wayland. Wayland smiled back at Charles. He knew what Charles knew; they wanted to visit the place and check it out. Natalie gave Wayland the look. Carson had returned to his desk and was looking through paperwork.
Natalie thought about what her father's response would be to her careless discussion with Charles. If only she could kick Wayland for piquing the young man’s curiosity. Natalie wasn't about to say anything else. She stood with her arms folded across her body, trying to think of a way out of this dilemma. Instinctively she knew this predicament could lead to a disastrous situation. She would have to go along with them if they decided to go, to protect Charles. Natalie sensed she was going to be his shadow now, and for years to come.
Wayland smiled at her. She turned and gave him a fake smile back. She mumbled to herself as she stood. "Talk about friends in dark places." She glared at Wayland.
The Journeyman nervously scratched his forehead and began fidgeting. Then he pulled a book from his book bag and began reading.
Charles’ curiosity was piqued. He wanted nothing more than to get rid of Natalie and Wayland so he could reread Phil’s journals to review what was written about Passage Thieves and the Stygian Market. He suspected that most Sojourners were not privy to the information he already had. The
first time he skimmed through Phil’s journal pages he was just beginning to learn about Sojourning. Phil’s writing left questions about many details unanswered. That led to even more questions about the journal’s passages that now were floating around in his head. He seemed to recall other points about the “Unknown” sector Phil had written about. He sat and thought about the research he needed to do for the answers.
Charles devised a plan to sneak out and meet Carson in the office later that night, without Natalie and Wayland. He knew that Natalie was obligated to report back to Dimitrios any suspicions she had about Charles and his curiosity.
He looked around the office and noticed the other snitch watching him. Airabelle was looking right at him. She turned her head to the side as if she was offended he thought she was a snitch. Charles smiled at her and raised an eyebrow.
She responded in his head, “Really Charles, I am not offended, or a snitch."
Charles closed his eyes briefly and silently laughed. "I know you’re not. Just don't tell Paw Paw I am coming tonight. I don't want Natalie to follow me."
“Charles, you are not going to the Stygian Market tonight! No way-- no how!
Charles looked away and thought: If I don't go tonight, I may not get another chance.
Moments later Charles looked at Carson sitting at his desk. He was turned around in his chair working. Then seeing Airabelle at the lectern in the shadow, he saw Carson slowly turn briefly around and look at him over his shoulder. Carson immediately went back to work. Charles began scheming and running through the events of the night.
Bev brought snacks and drinks for everyone. The conversation was kept light, but everyone was actually preoccupied with the previous conversation.
When it was close to bedtime, Charles yawned and stretched. "Time for bed." He stood and said goodnight to everyone.
Natalie commented that she and Wayland would be going to their Hub home for the night. They would be back in the morning bright and early, ready for school. They waited for the Passageway to open and waved as they disappeared. As they were about to exit the Passageway, Wayland stopped and dropped Reiko to follow Carson and Charles if they tried anything foolish.
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