NaNoWriMo, Day Fourteen

While I normally put in a lot of  internal links to previous, related posts here, I won’t be doing that for what I hope will be thirty NaNoWriMo posts. If you have jumped into or stumbled onto this story in mid-adventure, there are plenty of other ways to navigate around the site to find previous installments. Actually doing so is left as an exercise to the student.

The NaNoWriMo organizers do a good job of keeping us stocked with helpful information and resources, including inspirational pep talks from established authors. Today I got an email with a link to one from a favorite author of mine, Neil Gaiman. (Yeah, I probably borrowed his name to use for Margaret’s son in this story, for no particular reason other than I needed a male name and a couple of Mr. Gaiman’s New Years’ pep talks are plastered to the side of my computer.)

Again it’s almost 21:00 by the time I get going here and I don’t know if I’ll get a full chapter done. On the one hand, I’ve bitched about that several times already, and I’ve often gotten it done, much to my surprise. On the other hand, it feels like being a football team that consistently gets behind by two touchdowns early, but keeps coming back and winning. It seems to be a method that produces results, but you can’t help but feel that you’re playing with fire.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“You’re correct,” Tom admitted, somewhat nervously. “I didn’t give you the whole story when we talked and flew yesterday, and there might have been some small bits of misinformation in there to move the process along. However,  I truly never expected any kind of problem like this. I never would have gotten you involved if I did suspect it. Now, given this complication, may I suggest that we not discuss things here in the parking lot?”

“Are you going to tell me what in the hell is going on or do I need to call the sheriff?” Margaret asked.

“It would be a really bad idea to get law enforcement involved, possibly for them as well as for us. How about this? I promise that I won’t lie to you at all anymore, but I will reserve the right to not answer certain questions. That’s for your protection,” he said as she started to interrupt him, “as well as mine. But we really need to not be out here in the open if someone’s looking for me and following you.”

It was clear that was a possibility that hadn’t occurred to her. Looking around quickly, there was no one else moving in the parking lot and just a few cars and trucks wandering by on the road, but she realized that he was correct.

“Grab your bag and get into the jeep,” she ordered Tom. “Leave the stuff in the trunk. Let’s go.”

Now it was Tom’s turn to see if he wanted to trust her. He really wanted to go get a closer look at the commune site, but Margaret’s news had changed everything. He didn’t know what dangers were now out there, but he did know that there had to be plenty of money and influence behind getting the compound built and then hiding it. His gut was telling him that he wouldn’t simply be given a scolding and told to stay away. Margaret knew the local area, where he was stumbling around blind.

Tom grabbed his bag, locked his car, and got into the jeep.

Margaret headed out of the parking lot and turned back toward the airport on the main highway. Her face was grim and her jaw set, but she was focused on her driving and not doing anything that might draw attention. She kept checking her mirrors constantly, now alert to the possibility of being followed.

Tom thought that she was going back to her hanger and was going to suggest that she not do so. She must have seen his expression. “I’m not going to the airport, don’t worry.”

“Can you tell me where we are going then?”

“We’re going to drive around and burn gas while I get some answers. Then I’ll get to decide whether to drive you over to the police station, drop you off at that lawyer’s office, or just leave you out somewhere in the desert. Maybe you’ll convince me that I should find a fourth option. That’s up to you.”

Looking at her calm fury, Tom had no doubt that she was not kidding him at all. “What do you need to know?” he asked.

“Is my kid safe or did you drag the both of us into whatever god awful mess this is? Think about your answer carefully, because he and that business are all I’ve got and if you’ve done something to endanger him, we have a serious problem between us.”

Tom thought a few seconds. “I don’t think he’s in any danger or trouble, but I can’t be one hundred percent sure. I can make a good guess about who might be looking for me because of yesterday’s flight, but I don’t know exactly who they are or why they’re reacting this way.”

“What do you mean you can guess who they are but you don’t know who they are? That’s stupid.”

“I mean that I don’t know exactly who these guys are and I don’t know exactly why they’re pissed. There appears to be a group of some sort that wants to stay hidden and I may have stumbled into them by accident. I wish that I could be more specific and less vague about it, but it really is that ambiguous.”

“Why were we flying yesterday and why did you give me that bullshit about how it had to be yesterday, not today?”

“It had to be yesterday because I think that I’ve got very little time and I couldn’t afford to wait another day or maybe even longer. We were up because there’s a group of buildings that we flew over, just at the bottom of one of the canyons coming out of the mesa. I don’t know if you remember seeing it. I needed to get pictures of what was there.”

“Are you a cop or something, a private investigator, or detective? Or are you trying to break in to there for some reason?”

“No, I’m really a science reporter, just like I told you. I’m not a cop and I would really like to not break in there. For now I just need to know what’s there and possibly who’s in there.”

“So, are you really writing a story about erosion like you told me?”

“At this point I might as well. I’ve gotten all of the material I would need for it. But no, that’s just a cover story in case anyone wondered why I was taking so many pictures and what I was asking questions about.”

“What are you looking for? What’s in those buildings? Is it drug manufacturing or something else illegal?” They had now gone past the airport and were headed out of town toward the area where they had set up the balloon and taken off the day before.

“Believe it or not, I’m just looking for my aunt. I need to find her, but she’s been out of contact for years. I found where she had been arrested in Colorado a couple of years ago at a commune, so I went there first. I found a woman who said she had known her years ago. This woman was going to take me to someone who might know where my aunt is now, but she bailed and took off in the middle of the night. I got information that led me here, and once I got here I’ve seen her and her car. The car was out there yesterday, which is why I wanted to look.”

“You’re simply trying to find a long lost aunt and that’s all,” said Margaret, “but now I’ve got lawyers and thugs showing up at my office and trying to put me out of business because of it? That makes no sense at all. There’s got to be something more to it than that.”

“I wish that there were, but it’s really just about me trying to find my aunt. At first I didn’t know if she’s alive or dead. In fact, I still don’t know if she is. But I’ve found several things that pointed to her possibly being in this area. I don’t know exactly where. I don’t know who she’s with, but it might be people from that Colorado commune. I don’t know what she might be doing, but the harder I look, the more folks start acting bizarre. It was shocking enough when Ellen, the lady in Colorado, left me hanging, but from there it’s just gotten weirder and weirder. Honest, I’m just trying to find my lost aunt, but it’s turned into a bad Hitchcock movie.”

“How did you know that the lady’s car would be out there in the desert?” Margaret asked.

“Um…,” Tom stalled. “That would be one of the things that I’ve done which might be somewhat less than completely legal. When I stumbled on the car while checking out another lead that I had, I bugged it with a GPS tracking device.”

“I beg your pardon, you did what?”

“It’s similar to the emergency beacon you have in your plane. I saw a chance and I slipped it up under the fender. Which reminds me, are you still checking to see if we’re being followed?”

“I have been checking and I don’t see anyone. Out here the cars are few and far between, so I would notice.”

“May I ask that you pull off for a minute at the next exit where there’s gas or a restaurant? I want to check something.”

“Sure, we can do that. In the meantime, why didn’t you just drive out to these buildings in the middle of nowhere and knock on the door to see if your aunt is there? If it’s just a commune or if they don’t know her, the worst that could happen is they’ll wave a shotgun and tell you to bugger off. You never did answer my question about what you think is going on out there.”

“There are other factors to this search which I really think you shouldn’t know about,” Tom said, trying not to sound too vague and mysterious about it. “Trust me, all you need to know is that we’ve stumbled on something very bizarre, with someone unknown going to great lengths to keep the whole thing hidden. I don’t have any evidence that they’re doing anything illegal, but they appear to be a little obsessed about their privacy. Obviously they’re even more obsessed that I had guessed.”

“Obviously,” Margaret agreed wryly. “You’ve said that ‘we’ve’ found things on this quest of yours. It didn’t sound like you meant me and you. Who else is involved?”

Again Tom hesitated. “I can tell you there’s one other guy, sort of a tech and logistics support guy. Out here it’s just me. I would prefer not to tell you who he is, if you don’t mind.”

“But he knows who I am, right?”

“Yeah, he does,” Tom answered.

“Then I mind. Who is he?”

“I really can’t tell you. We both sort of stumbled into this thing and I really don’t know him super well. In fact, I’ve only met him in person once. But so far he’s had my back. I’m keeping him up to date on my activities and location and he helps me out by looking for information that I need.”

Margaret let out a frustrated sigh. “Okay, we’ll leave that for the moment. Here’s an exit.” She steered the car off of the highway much faster than Tom would have driven and pulled up into the parking lot at a fast food restaurant.

As soon as she parked, Tom got out and started looking underneath the car. Margaret got out and watched before kneeling down beside him. “Do you want to tell me what you’re doing?” she asked.

“We’re not being followed you said. But I want to know if they’re tracking us the way that I’m tracking Ellen’s car. I’m looking for a tracking beacon.”

“I’ll look over on the other side,” Margaret said.

They each worked their way down the side of the car, until Margaret called out to Tom. “What would this thing look like?”

“I don’t know exactly, this isn’t my field of expertise. I guess it could be anything that’s big enough to contain a battery and some electronics, possibly attached by a magnet or possibly clipped on to something. Why, have you found something?”

“Maybe. Would you like to look at this?”

Tom got up and went over to where Margaret was peering under the car. He bent down beside her and saw a small fob hanging down from a wire near the bottom of the engine. It looked was a bit bigger than his thumb and looked like a small flashlight.

“Oh, shit,” Tom said as he scrambled to his feet. He quickly went around to the passenger side and got in, pulling out his phone. The restaurant they were parked next to had a wi-fi system so in a few seconds he had pulled up the tracking software. The green and the red dots were right on top of each other, and when he tapped the dots, the bread crumb trails showed them to be moving in complete synchronization ever since they had left his hotel.

Margaret was looking over his shoulder at the phone. “What’s that and what’s wrong?”

Tom leaned back and closed his eyes. He pinched the bridge of his nose and took in a big breath to try and calm down. “That thing you found is the tracking beacon that I had put in Ellen’s car. They obviously put it here to throw me off of their track.”

Margaret let that sink in before she walked around and got back into the driver’s seat. Starting the car, she turned back toward the highway and then headed back into town.

“Where are you taking me now?” Tom asked.

“Back to your hotel. If you have any brains at all, you’re going to get your stuff, get out of town, and go home. I don’t know who these guys are, why they don’t want you to bother them, or what they have to do with your aunt. The one thing I do know is that you’re so far out of your league it’s not even funny. So give up and go home.”

“I can’t do that, I have to find my aunt. I have to know what’s going on.”

“No, you don’t. Let it go. If your aunt is with them and she wants to get in touch with you, she will. If she doesn’t want to talk to you, get over it. If she’s not there at all and these guys just have a serious jones about being left alone, leave them alone.”

Tom thought about that for several minutes. He knew that she was right and everything she said made sense. But she was impartial and could be calculating. He was fully involved and still needed answers.

“It doesn’t matter if I go home, they know everything about me by now. You told them who I am.”

“Actually, I never said that. I just said that they came asking.”

Tom was surprised. “You didn’t tell them who I was? Really?”

“I don’t like folks sticking their nose in my business for no damn good reason, and I really don’t like being pushed around. I told them to come back with a court order if they really wanted to know.”

“What about your business? You said that they had filed a complaint and were going to try to shut you down.”

“They did file a complaint and they did threaten that. Any idiot can file a complaint with the FAA and most of them do. Any bully can threaten, but I know that either they’re bluffing or they’re lousy lawyers. Airspace is under federal jurisdiction, not local or state. No one other than the feds have the right to restrict the airspace over their property. I’ve got the records of our flight and we were never below five hundred feet and we never flew directly over them to begin with. Yeah, I remember the buildings you were talking about.”

“You may be right, but you might not win. One of the things we’ve found out is that these guys have a lot of resources. If they’re pissed they can tie you up in court for years and just wait you out.”

They had passed the airport and were now slowing as they came into town. “They can try, but you said that whoever they are, they really like being hidden. If they want to get into that fight, there are general aviation industry groups that will back me up in court. These guys wouldn’t be the first to try to complain about something like this. We can shine a nice, bright spotlight on them in the press and in the courts if they want to play that game. I think if you leave them alone, they’ll leave me alone.”

She pulled into the hotel parking lot and swung into the space next to Tom’s car again. “Go home, Tom. Take a hint from the universe. You know how to contact me if you need to, and I can contact you if anything comes up here. Send me the information about your aunt. If I see her, I’ll call you. But go home.”

Tom grabbed his bag and got out. He was turning back into the jeep to speak to Margaret when a large, black SUV pulled up behind the jeep, the passenger side facing them. As it stopped, two large men wearing mirrored sunglasses popped out of the side doors and proceeded to stand there silently, staring at Tom. He could hear the driver’s door open and the sound of footsteps as a woman walked around to stand between the two thugs. Of course, Tom recognized her.

“Hello, Ellen.”