by M. Garnet
Myers was everything he needed. The warrior had been unbelievable in the service. He had moved up to become what the service looked for. Not only did he finish in the top of all the training thrown at him—Seals, Special Forces, Special Ops and any other military special behind the scenes that took both stamina and mind control training thrown at young Americans. Then again, it didn’t take long for the science wise guys to see the talent. He out performed some whistles and tricks that worried all the smart people.
Put him in the dark, surrounded by a lot of bad guys, and he would walk out without a scratch and very little dirt on him. Most of the bad guys could hardly walk at all. Ask him to retrieve something from anywhere, inside a safe in a residence, a mountain top abbey, once even a Russian prison, and he was like a shadow. The most he left behind was a body or two, but he always got the item.
Then, he triggered a blowup on leaving an odd military encampment in Egypt, but it was next to a hospital set up by volunteers from the United Nations. Franklin and his people knew about the hospital, but for them, the cost of these people was nothing for getting rid of the insurgents. They considered it just collateral damage. When Myers found out the details, he told Franklin he was quits. Franklin explained that it didn’t matter that his service term was over. No one quit Frankin’s group. Tim walked anyway.
Ever since, Franklin had been looking for bait, the contract, the threat or whatever it would take to get Myers back in.
* * * *
Michelle
The next morning, I drove Connie’s sedan over to her house. Actually, it was closer to noon. I had talked to her on the phone, but she had a hangover the size of the sedan. To get even for being bored from the evening out, I enjoyed blowing the horn several times and watching her hold her head as she came running out.
“Jesus, Michelle, stop the noise. Oh, my God, what is with this sun?” Connie had on huge, round sunglasses and placed her hand to one side of her temple.
I got Connie into the passenger seat and drove back to my house so that she could drop me off and take her car home. This all happened because she was sound asleep when I dropped her off last night.
Connie finally spoke in a sad little girl voice. “Michelle, I am sorry. I meant to take you out to show you a good time. Instead, we all had a good time. Somewhere along the way you became the designated driver.”
I looked over at my friend and smiled. I couldn’t stay mad at Connie. She had a warm heart that always got her in trouble, especially with men. “Connie, I have told you over and over, I don’t drink much. It’s a metabolism problem. I drink too much and I will have black outs.”
Connie finally let go of her head. She twisted in her seat belt so that she could look at me as we came to a red light. “All the years I have known you and you never explained this?”
You never got a chance to explain much to Connie as she was always doing the talking. I drummed the steering wheel, then took off slow when the light changed. “I have this weird metabolism. It has always done strange things. I can’t take certain medicines. If I drink too much, I draw a blackout, but still have a good time. I only let it happen two times, but it scared the hell out of me when everyone told me what a good time I had. I called it quits when I woke up in my car parked in the woods all by myself, too close to a couple of trees.” I changed lanes, glancing over at her and decided to continue. “Sometimes, I can tell when someone is lying.”
“You’re kidding me.” Connie raised her eyebrows. “You mean when I told you that purple bridesmaid dress looked good on you, you knew I was lying?” She actually looked worried.
I had to laugh. I really loved Connie. See, there is that word again, love. “Silly, not on little things. However, on important things, I get a tingle on the back my neck and sometimes a tight feeling in my stomach. I get the same feeling about danger.” Actually, it was much stronger than that, but I didn’t think it was smart to go into details, even with Connie.
Connie sat there and looked at me. “I know you are one of the most honest people I ever met and that is one of the things I admire about you. Gosh, you mean you get a danger signal?”
“Yep, once I was driving and was sitting at a light in a line of traffic and I had the feeling. For no reason, I jammed my foot on the gas and pulled out onto the side grass. Then, there was this loud noise and several cars in front of a large truck plowed into the line and pushed each car into the other. They piled up like toys, one on top of the other. The space I had vacated was full of twisted metal.” That was a mild happening so I didn’t mind telling her about that issue.
Connie shuddered and said, “Wow.”
“Connie, how much do you remember about the parking lot last night?”
I watched the road, but did look at Connie out of the corner of my eye. I wasn’t worried about her lies, but I was worried about something else.
“Oh, that.”
Connie did have the good grace to look embarrassed.
“I had a problem with somebody. Sorry.”
“Do you remember someone coming up and helping, because your admirer was being a little too persistent?”
She closed her eyes, then opened them and looked over at me. “Yes, I do remember. We did have a hero, didn’t we? I have to admit it is all a little hazy.”
“Hey, do you remember the guy who was looking at my jeep outside of Kohls when we were buying clothes? He was the one who came up and quick-marched your masher away.”
A big smile came over Connie’s face. Just like that, she forgot her hangover.
“Really, gosh, I must have a secret admirer. I told you he was a hunk. Gosh, what are the chances of running into him twice, and he was able to help me out.” Connie turned around and pushed her sunglasses back up on her nose. She pulled the visor down to check out her hair in the mirror.
Life was so simple for Connie. On the other hand, maybe I was making it too complicated. Connie and I parted company.
The rest of the weekend went without any excitement. As usual, I went to my job on Monday. I researched history on line for a small company that sent out brochures for travel agencies, countries and museums that needed the correct information to draw in tourists.
Around ten in the morning each day, I took a bundle of mail to a local mail drop. It was one of those privately owned stores. The owners were a nice couple that liked to chat. They had the usual mailboxes in front with a counter half way back. They offered all the usual boxes, envelopes, and packing material hanging conveniently along the walls.
I always had several FedEx envelopes along with a half dozen large envelopes. Today’s load included some regular mail. I chatted for a short time and handed over everything, then started for the door. Nevertheless, I had one of those strange warnings. I felt the hair on my neck curl in alert. The closer I got to the door, the more the muscles in my stomach started to cramp. By the time I had my hand on the door bar, it was almost painful.
I had parked my jeep illegally against the curb right in front of the strip of stores. Most people using the mail drop did this and no one got a ticket. My jeep was only about fifteen feet away so I had my keys in one hand. I had the other hand on the door bar, but I froze, looking through the glass.
Because of the feeling, I guess I was expecting to see a fire, or a car coming towards the building, or something blowing up. Instead, there was a man leaning against the fender of my jeep. I stood frozen inside the glass door as he looked at me. Now, I did know that his eyes were dark, black, as if his irises were expanded. He had heavy lashes with his skin colored by a deep natural tan, his hair streaked by the sun. With his arms crossed over his chest, I could see the muscles in his arms and shoulders.
He looked at me and shook his head. He stepped away from the jeep, moved around in front of it, and took off in a slow jog through the parking lot. It was obvious he had been leaning against the jeep for a while, but he had waited for me to see him. Why?
I stood f
or another moment until he was out of sight, then I went out and approached my jeep carefully. It looked okay. I got in, finding the seat was hot from the sun. I looked around and couldn’t see anything missing. I lifted up the center console and it looked the same usual mess. I sat for another moment, then looked at the glove box. I leaned over to pop the door, reached in and pulled out the owner’s manual and the box of tissues, then I realized what was missing.
The envelope that had the copy of the license and the copy of my insurance was gone. I looked up and around once more, but other than a couple of people going into the Chinese carry out, I couldn’t see any trace of him. Yet, he knew a lot about me if he indeed had taken that envelope. Why would he want it? More important, why did I have the Michelle warning signal? Even more perplexing, he had let me see him. He had stood there until I came out, well frozen inside the glass door. Was he telling me something?
I hated to disappoint Connie, but I didn’t think he was chasing after her. I was afraid he might be stalking me for some reason. I knew that there were car thieves out there, but I didn’t think there was much call for jeeps. Besides, if he had wanted to jack my ride, he would have been able to pull the wires and be out of there before I had finished talking to the store owners. He had taken my information and he wanted me to know he had that knowledge about me.
When I got back to the office, I did some research on stolen cars, including the statistics. I was right. Jeeps weren’t even on the list, but Hondas, Accords and Acuras were because they could be stolen and sold easily. There were a couple of American cars on the list, but most cars now had sophisticated alarms with tracking devices and so thieves stuck to the cheap easy cars that the parts could be sold. The current car thieves were kids, drug users, or street gangs.
Unless you were going after something special and knew what you were doing. Then, you went after the high-end tickets with special knowledge and special equipment, and the jeep was not on that list either. Now, I was learning more than I wanted to know about stealing cars along with selling parts.
Okay, I had a stalker. He knew my address and name. If he went on line with the information he had on the papers he took from the car, he had a lot of facts about me. So what could I do?
I thought about it. I could report it to the police, but then I thought about what I would say. Yes sir, I saw him three times. Yes, once he was in the parking lot at Kohls looking at my car. Well, I think he was looking at my car. No, he didn’t do anything to the car. No, he didn’t touch it. He just turned away and left. Yes, I was sure he was looking at my car. The next time I saw him? He helped us with a guy who was attacking a friend of mine in the parking lot of a bar. No, he didn’t say anything. No, he didn’t do anything threatening to any of us. Yes, he helped us and just went away with the guy that was causing us trouble. Then the third time I saw him was today. He was leaning against my car. Then, he left. After he left I found out my personal papers were gone. No, I didn’t see him take anything. I didn’t see him have anything in his hands. I just saw him lean against my car and then leave.
I really had nothing to report so I decided I shouldn’t over react, but just watch out for myself. Maybe it was a onetime thing. Alternatively, maybe Connie was right and he was interested in her. Maybe he was just getting the information from my car. I had nothing that was of interest to car thieves, and a guy as hot looking as this one would probably be more interested in Connie. Okay, what was it I was thinking the other day? Simple for Connie, complicated for me. Could it be just that I was over thinking and my weird warning signal was finally turning sour on me?
The next couple of days, I was careful coming and going. I parked close to wherever I had to stop. I did not delay on coming or going. I didn’t see him and I didn’t get any of my warning signals. Unfortunately, I was so distracted that I began to screw up on my reports and although my boss was a pretty nice guy, he finally called me in to ask me what kind of problem I had?
“I don’t want to pry into anything personal, but if you need a couple days off, let me know.” He smiled.
I liked him and I loved my job. Usually everyone worked on individually assigned projects. I got to work quietly alone in my own little cubby—my computer and me. I loved history, getting away from this world and into another that made more sense to me. I didn’t want to screw anything up that would reflect negative to me or to him with his customers.
“Hey, I am sorry, and I will get this under control. Just need to snap back. I owe you the apology for letting a silly personal thing interfere with my work. It won’t happen again.”
He looked at me a long time. “Michelle, you never take time off, and tracking info on the computers can wear a person out. If you do need time off, just call in a let me know. Okay?” Again, he gave me that fatherly smile that I had seen before and believed was genuine.
I got up feeling so guilty because I had this great job working for such a nice guy. “Thanks, Steve. I appreciate it. Let me work through this. I promise I will get my head on right. I’ll see that all research is done properly. I know how important the background checks are for you to your customers.”
I heard him sigh. “Michelle, I think in some ways, I have taken advantage of you. Before you came to work for us, we just threw together brochures and pasted in photos of sites from places people might want to travel and explore. Since, then, you have taken over and researched, and pulled together information that has piqued the interest that no one else has even thought about obtaining. We have people from all over contacting us about the unique historical planned tours.”
He looked at me and then looked down at the most recent printouts I had done. Even with the mistakes, they were colorful and interesting. “Please let me help you as much as you have helped us.”
All I could do was nod, keeping my head down as I went back to my computer to work through lunch. I didn’t want to tell him about my strange issue at the mail drop. It was beginning to seem just too weird to discuss at this time.
At quitting time, I decided to call Connie and tell her about the strange experience that day because she understood weird. She agreed with me that the guy was probably looking for her. She had no shame and a very large ego. She had a need for the next man in her life. We agreed to meet on Friday, this time just the two of us without a lot of bar hopping. She let me pick the spot and what we would wear so I didn’t have to go shopping. Hooray.
By Friday, I had decided that I had too vivid of an imagination. I was ready to get lost in Connie’s silly fantasies. I got dressed in jeans with a tight top that had tiny straps. I grabbed a comfortable sweater that matched. I pulled out my only good piece of jewelry, a nice piece of carved jade on a long thin gold necklace. I liked it because I had always had it, and it brought out the green in my brown eyes, actually listed as hazel on my driver’s license. Hazel sounded so nice, but next to Connie’s blue eyes and heavy makeup, I still felt just normal.
I had decided on a meal at a chain restaurant followed by a movie at one of the ABC movie houses. I loved these houses because they stacked the seats so you could always see over the person in front of you. For some reason this also seemed to cut down on the noise. The high ceiling and each row about a foot and a half higher that the next, let the sound of the rude talkers seem to get lost. You could actually hear and enjoy the movie.
Connie was up to par. She had me laughing and wondering how such a woman as she was could really exist in the world. She talked about a new skirt, then in the next breath she talked about a new position she and her present beau were in last night. I held up my hands to indicate TMI, especially since her voice carried and those at the next table were also laughing reacting to her descriptions.
We were late for the movie—well, with Connie, we were late for most things, so I had come to accept this. I didn’t allow it to upset me. Besides, these theatres set up a lot of sneaky advertisements before the movie actually started, so the only penalty for being late was fi
nding your seat in the semi dark. We found a couple of seats and settled down to relax.
I really enjoyed the show, then we joined the mob as we made our way out, being pushed as other shows also let out. This was one of the weaknesses of the design for these theatres, as there were eighteen screens. Several of them let out at the same time, so there was this press of people to one side to leave while the front was full of the entering customers. Most of these big multi units could let people out both sides, but due to parking problems, this one had only one side exit area. It was large with several glass doors for exits, but it did create a jam at times.
Then, I had one of those Michelle warning signals. Was there danger in here? I stopped as several people bumped into me. One guy swore at me for blocking the way. I took a step forward, but looked around. I could see Connie’s head bobbing along about ten feet ahead. I was beginning to feel panicky because there were so many people who were packed so tightly. The warning feeling of something wrong was here, making me feel like a sniper was watching me in his crosshairs. I knew I was breathing too fast. I needed to control this or I was going to hyperventilate. Another man pushed me roughly, shoving me into someone else who mumbled at me. I was just stumbling along, in the way and being jolted on all sides by people in a hurry to get out to find their cars. I needed to reach Connie, but I also needed to get away from this push of bodies.
Then, a hand reached out and closed around my upper arm, pulling me sideways through the crowd until I found myself shoved up against the wall away from the rush. I took a breath, then looked up into the dark eyes. He stood in front of me, protecting me from the moving river of people. He reached down to lift the little jade hanging from its chain. He then looked from it to my eyes. I wasn’t sure I wanted to look into those dark eyes this close. He only looked at me for a second, then let go. He then moved away, disappearing in the river of people moving past me.
