Entrance to Nowhere

by Marja McGraw

“Young man, you’ll show me the respect I’m due, and you’ll do it starting now. How dare you come into our fold and lie to us? I will not tolerate your attitude. You’ve put us all at risk, and I won’t tolerate that, either.”

  Layne stopped and took a good look at my aunt’s expression. She could certainly be intimidating, with just a look.

  I walked up and stood next to him, but after seeing my aunt’s face, I stepped back – slowly.

  “Uh, yes, ma’am.”

  She stopped tapping her foot. “We understand each other?”

  “We do,” he said.

  She turned and walked into the mansion without another word. Her back was ramrod straight and she held her head high.

  Layne turned to me. “Your aunt would be a great addition to the agency. She’d be an interrogator that no one would mess with, am I right?”

  “The only person she doesn’t seem to intimidate is Griz. Well, she hasn’t tried her attitude with Pete or Scott yet.”

  “A match made in heaven,” he said.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Your aunt and Griz. I’ve seen the way they look at each other.”

  “Oh, that. Yeah.”

  Pete walked around the corner of the house carrying an armload of gym bags. Bubba and Clementine followed him.

  Layne hurried to meet him. “Here. Let me take those.”

  He left Pete standing and headed inside, probably feeling like the bags were a barrier between him and my aunt.

  My husband looked surprised at Layne’s offer to help. “Did I miss something?”

  “Yeah. Aunt Martha on a tirade.”

  I stopped to pet the dogs, but when Clem began her incessant licking, I gave up and followed our local fed into the house. Pete was right behind me.

  Clem followed too closely and kept licking my ankles.

  “Would you please stop that?” Speaking to her only made her lick faster.

  The geeks were tearing through their gym bags when we entered the mansion, presumably making sure everything was there.

  “You boys carry your bags to your sleeping quarters and change,” Aunt Martha said. “Bring me your dirty clothes and we’ll wash them.”

  I could tell she was still miffed at Layne by her demanding tone.

  Trap sat quietly, taking everything in.

  He glanced at Layne and cleared his throat. “I had to tell her the truth.”

  The fed nodded before pulling a cell phone out of his pocket. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to make a call.” He headed for Trap’s office.

  My aunt glared at him.

  “When you come back, we want to know what you found on those laptops,” I said.

  He nodded while punching a number into his phone.

  Griz walked in, coming from the kitchen. He held two cups of coffee in his hands and handed one to my aunt.

  She made a noise that sounded like ppfff. “I would have expected more from a government agent. He was too easily intimidated.”

  “Aunt Martha, I don’t think you realize just how, uh, staunch you can be. I don’t think he’s used to dealing with women of your, um, caliber.” I picked that word out of the air.

  Griz laughed. “Did you make that poor soul cry, Martha?”

  She smiled at him. “It was close, be he managed to hold it together.”

  I looked at each of them. It was my turn to feel like I’d missed something.

  Griz threw his arm over Pete’s shoulders. “Come downstairs and tell me what happened at the mall.”

  The geeks returned, bearing dirty laundry.

  “Where do you want this?” Mason asked.

  “Follow me to the laundry room.” Aunt Martha turned on her heel and led a parade of young men to their destiny. I had a feeling she was going to show them how to do their own laundry.

  They left the room, leaving me and Trap alone. I didn’t know him that well and I didn’t know what to say to him.

  “Your aunt is a force of nature,” he said.

  “I’ve heard that term used in conjunction with her name before.”

  “It’s not what she says, but the tone in her voice when she speaks.”

  “I know. I’ve been on the receiving end from time to time over the years, but it’s always been on the phone. I had no idea what to expect when she came to visit.”

  He smiled. “She has a sweet side, too. She simply doesn’t show it very often.”

  “Yes, she does have another side to her. I’m really just getting to know her, after all these years.”

  Trap’s smile disappeared. “You know that Thomas will want our help, don’t you?”

  “He said as much.”

  “This is a horrendous situation. If this General person were to succeed, our country would be fighting for its life. Chances are there would be riots in the streets. Neighbor would fight neighbor for food. With no electricity, we’d be at the mercy of people like these thugs. Those who have wind towers, solar power and generators would be under siege. We – “

  “I know,” I interrupted. “It’s difficult to imagine that an entire country could be dependent on what we few can do to stop the assault.”

  “These culprits have kept themselves well-hidden. Thomas tells me they always seem to be at least one step ahead of the government. That’s where we come in. They think I’m the answer to their problems because of my knowledge.”

  I started to say something, but he held up his hand.

  “They’re right,” he said. “I dislike saying this, but I’m the key to everything. Maybe I’d be better off if my expertise had been in other areas.”

  His demeanor made me feel like he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.

  “Trap, we’ll take care of things. Pete and I may be mere private investigators, but we’re working with a fed, two preppers and some young men who aren’t too far behind you in their expertise.”

  He smiled. “There’s nothing mere about you and your husband. You’re good, intelligent people and you’re doing your job.”

  He looked thoughtful for a moment.

  “Think about this, Sandi. Each of us is a cog in a large machine. Without each other, we couldn’t stop this from happening. With each other, and with each of us having our individual talents, we’ll bring this crazy man to his knees. I’ve dealt with bullies before, and really, that’s all he is. A bully who’s too sure of himself.”

  “Well put, Andrew,” Aunt Martha said from the doorway. “As a group, the world is ours, not The General’s.”

  Pete and Scott came up from the Safe Room.

  “I’m taking a break,” Scott said. “Griz has things covered.”

  Almost as though there was a magnet in the room, the boys joined us along with Layne. Even Bubba and Clem sat down next to Trap’s feet.

  His small dog began to lick his hand.

  “Not now, Clementine.” He pushed her away and, looking hurt, she walked around a coffee table and settled in next to Bubba.

  Ryan looked at Layne. “Why didn’t you bring our laptops back?”

  “There were some, uh, problems with those.”

  “Like what?” Mason asked.

  “They were infected with malware. You have spyware, viruses, worms and it looked like there were trojan horses. The General really did a number on your computers.”

  Aunt Martha tipped her head and looked interested. “What’s malware?” she asked.

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Layne appeared uncomfortable talking to my aunt. “In layman’s terms, malware is intrusive and malicious software. It leaves the user compromised. There’s even something called ransomware. Someone can take over your computer and ask for money to release your computer back to you, similar to what The General wants to do to the government. It’s too complicated to explain any more than that. Anyway, it looks like The General installed a lot of things that could cause problems; problems that we don’t want. They might hinder our search for this guy. If we’d brought the laptops he
re, it would have been asking for more trouble. I wasn’t taking any chances.”

  My aunt turned to Trap. “Andrew?”

  “Do you know much about computers?” he asked.

  “Not really.”

  “Then you’ll have to take our word for what’s happened.”

  She glanced at Trap fondly and acquiesced without asking more questions.

  I turned to the four young men who’d suddenly become a part of our lives. “Were you aware that there was a camera watching your at the mall?”

  “Nooo,” Jason replied, speaking slowly. “That would explain how he seemed to know every move we made.”

  “It was unnerving,” Ryan said. “We made a few covert attempts to sabotage his moves, but he threatened us and we had to stop.”

  Layne turned to Trap. “If they were watching you, they removed the camera. We didn’t find anything in the room where you were being held.”

  “Andrew, could you have left if you wanted to?” Aunt Martha asked.

  “Yes, but I knew the boys were being threatened. I couldn’t take a chance on this monster following through.”

  “What kind of threats was he making?” I asked.

  “Let’s just say gross bodily harm,” Trap replied. “The General, as he likes to call himself, is a scary guy.”

  Pete had been listening quietly. “Layne, is there any possibility that Greta is part of all of this? You said she’d been defrauding the company for big money, and The General needs funding.”

  “It’s possible, but if she is, she’s covering her tracks pretty well. I have someone working on that angle and she’s being surveilled twenty-four/seven. She mysteriously disappeared a couple of times, and that’s when we started paying closer attention to her. Something just didn’t feel right.”

  “Ah, the old gut feeling,” I said. “That’s come in handy for me a number of times.”

  “Realistically, we need hard, cold facts,” Pete said. “We need to find something that makes the feeling more than just a hunch.”

  I glanced at my aunt. “I think it’s time Aunt Martha and I have a little face time with Greta.”

  Her eyes lit up like a Christmas tree.

  “Sandi – “ I could hear a warning coming in Pete’s voice.

  Layne interrupted. “She’s right, Pete. These two women could get a lot more out of her than we could.”

  “Let’s see. I’m an old friend of Andrew’s, one of his teachers, and I’m in town and wanted to look him up. You know, for old time’s sake.”

  Trap’s face brightened. “I keep a schedule on my computer, which she has access to, and I’ll add your name as an appointment. I’ll telephone Greta and ask her to give you my apologies, but I couldn’t make the appointment.” He raised his eyebrows.

  “Excellent, Andrew.” My aunt smiled at him, looking like she wanted to hug him. “Is she intelligent? Might she see through us?”

  Layne answered for Trap. “She’s street smart. I think someone is telling her what to do.”

  “Why didn’t you fire her?” Pete asked. “If you knew she was stealing money, why’d you keep her on?”

  “When Layne approached me about her, he filled me in on who he is and what he’s doing. Let’s just say he strongly suggested I keep my enemies closer than my friends so we could keep track of what she was doing.” He turned to Layne. “That’s the way you say it, right? Keep your friends close but keep your enemies closer?”

  Layne nodded.

  “In the meantime,” Layne said, looking at the geeks, “your four hours is about over. We need to come up with something to put The General off. I don’t want you going to his new location.”

  I could see relief on every face.

  I glanced at my watch and looked at Trap. “We don’t have time to get to your offices before they close.” My mood sank.

  “It’s okay, Sandi. I’ll schedule the appointment for first thing tomorrow morning. If we can make an excuse for these gentlemen,” he pointed at the boys, “it will all work out.”

  After a brief discussion, we came up with a plausible reason to drag things out.

  Right on time, Ryan’s cell phone rang. He put it on speakerphone at Layne’s request.

  A deep and strange voice spoke before he could say “hello.”

  “You’ve had your four hours,” the voice said. “Are you ready to move to the new location? Or are you ready to meet your Maker?”

  I had to admit that the voice was creepy and the sound carried a threat, and I also knew the man, or woman, was using some kind of voice changing device. It sounded too unnatural.

  Ryan sounded frightened. “I know that you know where we are and you could come get us anytime you want. It’s just that we ate some leftover food we found here and now we’ve all got food poisoning. Hold on a second,” he said just before sticking his finger down his throat to cause a retching sound.

  I tried not to laugh. This kid was good at improvising.

  “If I find out you’re faking – “

  “Oh, I’m not. But I can’t talk much longer because I feel the nausea starting again.”

  “You’ve got until this time tomorrow. No more excuses or I’ll take care of you – the hard way. And if you were smart you’d show up, sick or not. This is the only chance I’m giving you.”

  The call was disconnected.

  Sometimes things strike me funny, even if they shouldn’t. I had to fight laughing when the boys turned to Aunt Martha instead of any of the rest of us. They seemed to know who the force to be reckoned with was.

  She was used to being in control. “You’ll all pull yourselves up by your bootstraps and move on. I believe I heard the expression ‘suck it up’ on TV, so suck it up. There will be no more fear. This man is a cockroach that we’re going to step on and get rid of, do you hear me? Tomorrow is a new day and my niece and I will be taking steps to solve this issue. My instinct is telling me that Glenda, or Greta, or whatever her name is, will put us on the right path.

  “Now I’m going to fix dinner, we’re all going to eat, and then we’re going to get some rest. Tomorrow is a new day.”

  She turned and headed for the kitchen, motioning for me to follow her.

  I looked from face to face in the living room. “Uh, she doesn’t take prisoners. Keep that in mind.”

  ~ * ~

  I had to give Trap credit. A trip to his offices would have taken a few hours, and our appointment had been penciled in for eight o’clock in the morning. He had his helicopter pick up my aunt and me and drop us off at a parking lot near the office. The helicopter ride wasn’t something I wanted to do, but I had no choice. He had a car ready and waiting for us.

  We wanted to do it up right, so we’d both worn dressy clothing. Aunt Martha, as usual, wanted to intimidate Greta, and walking in wearing jeans wasn’t going to do the trick. I hadn’t brought anything but jeans with me, but Aunt Martha had arrived with all her luggage and some nice outfits, so I borrowed something from her. Her clothes were a bit big for me, but I made do. Shoes? Hers were a bit small, but I managed.

  At five minutes to eight we entered the building and, after checking a log, a guard showed us to Trap’s private office. Greta wasn’t at her desk.

  The guard looked apologetic. “Ms. Barlow should be in momentarily. Would you like coffee while you wait?”

  “No, thank you,” I said. “Thanks for offering, though.”

  He nodded and left.

  I immediately took off the shoes and rubbed my pinched toes. Too bad my aunt and I didn’t wear the same size.

  After waiting for a few minutes, my aunt glanced at her watch. “She’s already ten minutes late. This just won’t do.”

  I patted her back after putting my shoes back on. “Remember, we want to stay on her good side, if we can.”

  Another five minutes passed.

  “I wonder if she’s even coming in,” I said.

  My aunt frowned.

  The outer door finally opened and a ta
ll bombshell with frosted brown hair walked in. She was not at all what I’d been expecting. The word bombshell came to mind because she was gorgeous in a slinky kind of way and I had a feeling she might be involved in our situation.

  She glanced at us as an off-handed gesture and took her time seating herself behind her desk after placing her purse in a drawer. Without a word to us, she booted up her computer.

  My aunt stood and approached the desk. “I have an appointment with Andrew. My name is Martha Washington.”

  Greta looked amused. “And I’m Mary Todd Lincoln.”

  “Don’t get smart with me, young lady! I’d like to see Andrew right now. He’s expecting me.”

  “Let me check the schedule.” She brought it up on her computer and looked surprised. “I’m so sorry, Mrs. Washington. I shouldn’t have made fun – “

  “No, you shouldn’t have made a joke about my name. It wasn’t funny.”

  Greta glanced at her screen again. “I’m sorry he’s late, but he should be here any minute.”

  “We’ll wait.”

  The woman looked a little uneasy. “Would you please take a seat?”

  Since we were standing in front of a desk and Greta couldn’t see what I was doing, I gave my aunt a gentle kick to the shin, which made my pinched toes hurt. We needed this woman’s cooperation.

  “Aunt Martha, didn’t you tell me that Mr. Trapper was once one of your students?”

  “Uh, why yes, he was.” Her voice softened. “He was my favorite student.”

  Greta looked at my aunt with interest. “Your favorite? Are you sure we’re talking about the same man? For such a smart man, he can be old-fashioned.”

  The phone rang and Greta picked up the receiver.

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Greta spoke for a moment and hung up. “Mr. Trapper will be late. He asked that you wait.” Her voice was abrupt and she turned away from us, back to her computer.

  My aunt and I looked at each other. He was giving us time to bond with his secretary, or in my aunt’s case, to grill her.

  We returned to our seats.

  “So what’s new?” Aunt Martha asked, watching the woman.

  Greta looked up, surprised. “Excuse me?”