Chapter 2

She took a laptop computer, then went on line somehow. When she finished her research she said, "This one is an ace inhibitor. It might control your heart rate and your blood pressure. Since you aren't going to be shot at again, you might not need the other blood pressure one. However, if it goes up again, you are going to take the pills even if I have to dissolve them in your coffee.

"Most of the others are crap to make you relax. I don't figure you are going to need them anyway. I am going to keep you relaxed." She smiled a very wicked smile for a doctor. "This one," she said thrusting a white pill at me. Is for your cholesterol you need it, and you need an aspirin."

"Okay Aspirin in the morning, the white one at night." It was all foolishness, but I didn't plan to be over medicated.

"Okay, I can live with that, and I hope you can." Her words carried that medical mumbo jumbo quality meant to impress the hell out of me. It loses something when you have pulled the sawbones out of a crap hole, where she had been cowering.

"So Doc, where are you going to spend the day?"

"I have some loose ends to tie up at the Doctors Without Borders office, then I should buy some real clothes."

"Does that outfit pay you?" I asked it because I had assumed that it was a charity.

"Not really, just enough to keep the payments up on my Visa card and my student loans."

"Then do you need money?" I asked it because I felt bad for allowing her to take care of me. As you might guess, I was fiercely independent.

"How sweet of you to offer, but I always need money. I suppose it is time I try to forge a compromise in my thinking. I guess I will try to do good works and get paid for them at the same time."

"The rural clinic thing I suppose?"

"It does have an appeal these days." She seemed to enjoy looking me in the eye when she told me of her plans. Autumn was a very bold woman it seemed.

"I imagine you have the background for it. The kind of medicine you have been practicing has to have been similar."

"Hell, a good paramedic could have done what I did the last few years. But then they can do most of the stuff a family practice doctor does as well. So the short answer is, yeah I am qualified."

"If it is what you want, I hope you can find a place."

"I honestly haven't given you a chance to tell me no, have I?"

"Why would I want to say no, you do whatever you want, I owe you remember?"

"Oh, I think we are even. However if that is what it takes to get you into bed, then you owe me big time. See Jake honey, I am gonna be shameless in my pursuit of you."

"Not to worry, you are already growing on me." I smiled as warm a smile as I had in my repertoire.

"Now you go watch TV or something while I go out and take care of business." She left the house in a green scrub top over a pair of jeans. I had no idea what she had been up to while I lay in the hospital bed but it surely wasn't shopping.

I looked out the window of the apartment hidden away in a residential area somewhere in New York City. I was already bored. I hadn't done anything but rest for six days and it was maddening for me. I found a reasonably clean pair of green cotton trousers and a wrinkled but clean white shirt in my half duffle bag.

Even though the team had taken my pistol, some thoughtful person at the hospital had left a set of throwing knives in my bag. The three handleless knives were sharp as hell but hard to use without a handle. You couldn't skin a deer with them, but you could gut a man. I slipped the holder under my shirt before I left the apartment. Hell, if what I had heard was true, New York City could be as dangerous as Beirut.

Stepping out the door made me a little nervous. I had the feeling that I wasn't up to anything more than a walk in the park. It was a bad feeling but I recognized it as the feeling that most people have all the time. We all live in a world where only the most dangerous men go about armed. We trust in our luck, since calling a cop to walk you to the corner store isn't an option.

I recognized the man who stepped from the plumbing van. I walked across to a restaurant as he followed. I had spotted the restaurant sign from the window of the borrowed apartment.

"Well Robin, looks like our run is over." Allen said that taking a seat across from me in the booth.

"Well mine is for sure, but you guys can go on."

"Oh, I am sure some of us will, but it won't be the same. We were the last of the renegades. All the rest are college boys, I think."

"Yes, I have seen the milk drinkers. I don't know Vlad, in my case it might be for the best. I had already decided to retire."

"I know you had, seems you waited one trip to long." He changed the subject. "So, has the good doctor tried to kill you yet?" He was smiling.

"Not even tried to screw me to death yet. She is a bit of a flake I fear, but I am pretty sure she is harmless."

"She is, do you want to see her file." He asked it tossing a palm reader on the table.

"What can I get you two?" the middle aged waitress with the bad teeth asked.

"Coffee for me?" I handled the reader without turning it on.

"Well Robin, don't you want the details on your savior."

"Some savior, all she did was pump me full of morphine." I looked at the reader in my hand as I spoke.

"They say the aspirin, morphine, and oxygen kept you out of shock. You know that is the big killer anyway." All said without his Russian accent, it meant that he was talking out his ass not from a script.

I slipped the reader into my pocket. "Tell the Jew to take it out of my check." I returned to my coffee.

"So Robin, you gonna be headed home anytime soon?"

"Yeah, you can call off the dogs, I am leaving in a couple of days."

"Can't do it. ISC wants you alive till you leave New York at least. You know there are some people who would be more than happy to finish that heart attack for you."

"Not anymore, I am out of the business."

"Well that takes care of most of them, but a couple would see it as a personal thing."

"Yeah, it is hard to reason with some people." I smiled knowing Vlad was armed to the teeth. He was out to make sure I left New York on my feet not in a box. I had no idea if it was just a job with him or personal. It didn't really matter, I decided.

After I returned to the apartment, I struggled with the decision about the file on Autumn. I broke into laughter. It took me all that time to get the joke her mother had played on her. Autumn Daze had to be some hippy's idea of a joke. Okay a stoned old hippy's idea of a cool name. For the remainder of the afternoon I broke into laughter at the thought.

I fought off the temptation to look at that file all afternoon. Autumn rescued me by arriving home with several boxes and bags. One to the bags contained several small white cartons filled with Thai food.

"Now this is good for you, no more of that animal fat you have been eating. Now you are going to eat healthy. Even if you won't have the surgery, I will keep you alive anyway."

"No animal fat but MSG by the pound." I laughed at the face she made, but only because it brought her name to mind again.

I wanted a drink after dinner but she vetoed the idea. Since it was more or less her apartment I succumbed to the pressure. I sat with a glass of iced tea, made from the contents of a jar mixed with tap water. I know it is blasphemy but hell when in Rome.

"So what do you want to do tonight?" I asked it trying to find something to do besides nap.

"Can you play cards?" It seemed a natural question for her to ask.

I had to give it a lot of thought before I could find an answer. "I can play about ten kinds, but none that you know."

"Oh and how do you know that?"

"Most of them are native to some small country in the middle of hell." I wasn't smiling when I said it.

"Okay then, how about poker. Can you at least play poker?" she asked.

"Yes but you are so far in debt that you could afford to play with me." I remembered her mention of the visa and student loan debt.

"I had strip poker in mind." She grinned at me. When she saw my reaction she went on. "You don't think I brought you here for the intellectual conversation do you?"

She broke out the cards and I made short work of her clothing. She didn't seem the least bit embarrassed to be sitting naked in front of me.

"You lady are a lousy poker player," I suggested.

"Now what makes you think that?" she asked with a wink. That night Autumn slept with me, or I guess since it was her place, I slept with her. Either way is was nice to feel her body against me, even if I wasn't up to much else. Oh I tried, of course I was curious. The equipment worked alright, but I ran out of energy before I finished. I felt badly because I was sure autumn didn't either. As the kids on the computer would say, I took care of Autumn digitally.

Afterward she sighed deeply, then fell asleep in my arms. Having a woman sleep in my arms wasn't a totally new experience, but it was unique enough that I didn't sleep well at all. I would drift off only to find that I needed another position, since the one I occupied was uncomfortable after all. Of course the difficulty sleeping might have been all the napping that I was doing in the afternoon. I decided to drop the naps that very day.

After breakfast the next morning, I insisted on a walking tour of the neighborhood. Autumn wasn't sure about it, but she permitted it only because it was obvious that I was going with or without her. The majority of the brick apartment building seemed to be retail shops on the ground floor with apartments above.

The trip was as much a discovery voyage for her as for me. Since the apartment was borrowed, she had no idea what stores were in the neighborhood. She was able to point out only the grocery store. She explained that she had moved into the apartment only the day before I had been discharged from the hospital.

"So where did you stay for those other four days?" I was curious as I always was. That curiosity would either kill me or save my ass once day.

"With my mom, who you are going to meet in a few hours." She suddenly looked worried.

"So how did Mom feel about you moving out to stay with me?" I wasn't sure what to expect but I figured a little advance briefing might be helpful.

"Four days is one day longer than we can usually stand each other." Autumn smiled at me again. Again I couldn't read it. Smiles are usually the most easily read facial expression, but not on Autumn.

"Ah, so is Mom cooking dinner for me?" I knew I should be a little concerned about the dinner arrangements.

"Mom cook? hardly. She hasn't cooked since I left home."

"Not at all, come now Autumn aren't you being a little hard on her?"

"Jake, you don't know Mom, but one dinner is all it will take. Trust me, you two will hit it off famously."

"Why does that sound slightly like a snide remark?" I was smiling in what had to be an easy smile to read.

"I just fucking hate when you try to be tolerant. You know, I would rather you tell me how you really feel."

"Autumn you don't have a clue how I feel about things. You know we just met."

"And you don't know how thorough my Mom is." She grinned before going on. "I do admit that sometimes her butting into my life is interesting. It is amazing how much information even a minor league politician can come up with."

"Ah so Mom is a politician?" I didn't like the way the conversation was going at all.

"So what do you know about me?" I asked it grinning at her. The grin was to hide my concern.

"Nothing yet, but I expect I will know all about you soon." The grin convinced me that she had a sexual connotation in mind. I think I have figured out a couple of things though. You are a pure capitalist's lackey." She was grinning ear to ear. "Never do anything that doesn't have a payoff."

"See you do understand me. So what else do you know?"

"I know that I don't care, what you were. What is important to me is what I can make of you..."

"Good, and I don't care that you were in the left wing of hell playing humanitarian. Just don't bring any homeless people to my house for dinner."

"Then you understand that when you leave New York, I am going with you."

"Of course I understand. Why I understand I haven't a clue, but I do." I honestly didn't. It was just there somehow. It had been since she insisted that we take the dead doctor with us. When she fell to her knees and began to dig with her hand, when she saved my ass on the plane ride home, she was forever tied up in my life. How remained to be seen at that point, but she was there to stay. At least for as long as she wanted to be.

"Good, now did you bring a tie?"

"That would be about as useless to me as a knife in a gun fight," I replied.

"Dinner with my mom, is worse than any gunfight."

I simply nodded. I still suspected that mom was some kind of airhead hippie, but one with a liberal congressman friend. I knew that there was more than one old hippie in the congress. "So I need a tie for dinner with mom?"

"Not really but I think she might be inviting some others and they will have ties. If you don't mind. I don't either."

It seemed a little strange, I was in the process of revising my thinking about her mom when we spotted a street peddler up the block. He had a suitcase set up on one of those motel type folding stands. We were moving in his direction so I just ambled patiently. Lest you think it was some kind of off the wall coincidence. let me tell you I had passed dozens of them in that residential area. They sold everything from umbrellas and scarves, to small toys for the kids. The area was like a sanitary street bazaar in some foreign city. Hell parts of New York are a foreign city.

In the movie Rick said it best. When asked how he would feel about the nazis in New York, he replied, "There are some parts of New York you wouldn't like." New Yorkers are probably the hardest bunch of people in the world to control. If you are a control freak, it would make you crazy as hell.

All that to tell you the guy was selling ties. Hell a man selling ordinary ties on the street would starve. His ties were about eight inches wide with supposedly hand painted pictures. The pictures were naturally of scantily clad women.

Autumn broke into side splitting laughter when I bought one of them. The one I had was much more voluptuous than Autumn.

"I should be jealous. Even your damn tie is better built than I am."

"Aw, there is always the implant route."

"Oh, was that a complaint?" She looked hurt but just for a second. Either she had been faking the hurt or she came to the realization that I didn't care much able the box she came in.

With tie in hand we headed back to the apartment. Autumn had in her mind that I needed to rest. "Ah, before we go in, there is a store that sells my one great vice." I pointed to an grocery story which advertized Krispy Kreme donuts.

"Which vice is that?"

"The donuts of course. It is a hold over from my cop days. Come on, I'll spring for coffee and a donut."

"You spring for the donuts, I'll make the coffee."

"Fair enough," I noticed the group of young men standing near the grocery. I really should have known better than to go in, but I didn't give it near enough thought.

We were third in line for the checkout counter when they invaded the store. It should have been a quick snatch and grad of the money but they didn't seem in much of a hurry. It looked as though it was a harassment of the owner. I had a bad feeling about it all. I heard the bell on the door and realized why.

Marian came walking in just as if she were a customer. She obviously had watched from across the street and decided to intervene, or at least be close enough to make sure I didn't get myself killed. She walked to the rear of the store as if nothing was happening. The kids were just surprised enough to stare. Four of them and they didn't even seem to have a plan but they did have a leader. He was standing by the door overseeing it all.

If the four of them had guns they weren't showing them. On another day Marian and I might have made them eat their clubs and knives. On that day I wasn't in good enough shape to deal with them in a real fight. I was thinking more of letting them walk until Marian caught my eye. It was all over her face that she planned to do something stupid. It was in the smile that seemed to light her face while at the same time giving her a devilish look.

Autumn was holding onto me to try to prevent me moving. All of it happened in much less time than the telling takes. I knelt down as if I was about to toss my cookies. One of them kids laughed until I came up with the long Swedish surgical steel knife with no handle. It had a long tang which was shaped to fit the hand but no handle was attached. It was made for concealment not to skin deer or gut fish.

No one expected the resistance, at least not from a middle aged man and a younger women. While I moved to put the very sharp knife against the leaders throat, after brushing aside his sawed off bat, Marian showed the rest of them a very nasty looking stainless steel automatic pistol. She got their attention easily when she shot one of the kids in the knee. It was a trademark with her. The kid would be on crutches for a long time. The hollow point ten millimeter no doubt did a number on the knee.

"Do you think you could spot my friend the donuts?" Marian asked it of the store owner who nodded his head. "In that case Robin either cut his throat or lets get the hell out of here." It had taken her only a second to collect all the weapons. The kids were allowed to run away before the cops came. They even carried their injured friend with them. I had to hold Autumn back to keep her from going to his assistance. She was pissed.

"Let me go damn it, I'm a doctor."

"This time you aren't the only doctor around." I snapped it as the kids made the door at the run.

"He may bleed to death," Autumn shouted.

"Are you kidding, more likely he will go into shock and die." Marian said it laughing. "Robin, you want to come with me."

"No Marian, I am going to try to straighten this one out."

"Good fucking luck," Marian said as she delivered an evil smile to Autumn. "Either way we need to move the cops will be here soon I am sure."

"We probably should stay. We are staying just down the street." Autumn said that.

Marian turned to the store patrons. "It was a gang of blacks fighting with a gang of Mex, right?"

Everybody nodded their heads, some even smiled. "See nothing to worry about, I said to Autumn."

"Power to the people," Marian said as we walked quickly out of the store. "Damn Robin, I could get into this." The last was delivered in a whisper.

"We are not in the righting wrongs business." I pulled Autumn along.

"So, when are you leaving town?"

"Sooner than I had planned for sure. I am gonna pack up and spend the night in a hotel. Tomorrow I am off for home. If this one," I said that pointing to Autumn, "Still wants to go, she will be with me."

"That is probably a good thing. Somebody is gonna crack in that store."

"Bet they don't," I said.

"Hundred bucks?" Marian suggested.

"Done," I replied as Autumn and I crossed the street.

We were several yards away when she said, "Don't ever try to stop me treating an injured person again"

I took a deep breath before I answered. "Okay, you treat them and I will kill them." Might as well get in out in the open.

"What do you mean?" she was far less angry than I expected.

"If we had let you treat him, he would have still been there when the cops came. All of us would have gone to jail. He might well have had another weapon which most likely would have gotten him killed. As it is he is off to an emergency room where they have enough blood to keep him alive while they fix him up."

Autumn didn't speak, what she was thinking I didn't have a clue but she really did look pissed. I expected it would come up again if not often. We spent a little of the afternoon packing then moved to the Montpelier Hotel. It did not have a very nice view so it wasn't all that expensive. I chose it because it was a throw back to the 1950's. Even if I hadn't been born yet, I liked the times. At least what I read in books.

Finding the hotel had been simple, I just asked the cab driver. I could have walked across the street to ask my guardian but I chose to do it on my own. I had just as well get used to it, since I was gonna be on my own for the rest of my life.

Autumn seemed antsy as the time for dinner approached. I couldn't say I blamed her. She had me to worry about and she had lost her control of things. I expect she planned to take care of the invalid who had saved her. It would have made a great romance novel but alas it was not to be.

After the move we barely had time to shower and change for dinner. Autumn wore a simple black dress that looked as though it cost a small fortune, while I wore a British battle jacket with the very vulgar tie.

The Taxi dropped us at a small French restaurant. Autumn seemed to know her way around so I followed her inside. She walked right up to the man standing by the small table. He seemed to be engrossed in some kind of hand printed book. I assumed it to be the reservation book.

"Andre, is Mom in the private room?" Amber was flashing him a nervous smile.

"Of course Miss Autumn, would you like for me to escort you and your friend back?" He didn't seem enthusiastic so I was glad when Autumn shook her head. I followed the pixie as she strode across the main room to a closed door at the rear. I was more than a little surprised to find several people in the private dinning room. I would have thought nothing of it, except that the room was set up like a banquet room. There was a head table, then three smaller tables. The dozen or so people didn't come close to filling the room.

"Well, it's about time," the salt and pepper haired lady said, after she noticed us standing at the door.

Autumn closed the distance between them and then spoke. "Hello Mom, I see it is a small group of friends this time." She kissed her Mom on the cheek.

"You surely didn't expect me to be alone with you? Autumn dear you and I fight when we are alone."

"I know," was Autumn's simple answer.

"So?" her mother asked tilting her head to me.

"Mom this is Jake, Jake this is my Mom."

"Jake, my friends call me Mona, I hope I can convince you to do the same."

"No convincing needed."

"Good follow me," she demanded. I allowed Autumn to follow behind her mother. I also gave her a wicked smile as she passed me.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to introduce my daughter the Doctor." Everyone laughed. "As you all know Autumn has been serving as a Doctor with the organization Doctors without borders. She was kidnapped and held for two weeks while working in Afghanistan. It seems some war lord took a liking to her." They all laughed again. "She is home with us now thanks to the man sitting beside her. Everyone applauded. I tried to simply wave but Mona would have none of it. She made me stand so that she would kiss me on the cheek. Now she could have done that when I was alone with her but for some reason she waited until we were all in front of the crowd. That made me rather uneasy.

I reseated myself and waited for the waiter to bring me a menu. Instead of a menu he brought food, lots of food. I had no idea what I was eating but I ate it with real gusto. I sat between Autumn and her mother during dinner. I half expected her mother to correct my table manners. She kept a close eye on me for some reason. I had a feeling that I was being examined.

The plates were taken from the table while the wine still flowed. The waiter tried to fill my glass again but I said, "Any chance you can find me a real cup of coffee?"

"Absolutely sir we have twelve varieties of coffee. I am sure whatever you desire is somewhere in the kitchen."

"How about you pretend I was driving from California to New York and stopped in Bertha's Place at two am for coffee. Do you reckon you could find that kind back there?"

"You mean the coffee that they keep for the staff. I am afraid it isn't very good. It is usually stale and burned."

"Just the way I like it. Can you bring me a very large cup, maybe in styrofoam."

The waiter smiled at my lack of breeding but nodded.

"No you don't. Waiter he will have decaf." Autumn said it sternly trying to stare us both down.

"Waiter if you bring me decaf, not only will I not drink it, but you will wear it." I turned my attention to Autumn, "Decaf is like kissing your sister. I will do most of the things you and the doctor recommend but not decaf coffee."

"Well since you quit smoking, I can live with the regular coffee, but no more than one cup a day." I could tell she didn't much like the grin I flashed at her, but she said nothing.

The waiter looked to Autumn's mother barely nodded her agreement to him. He was probably right to do so since she was paying the bill.

"So Mr. Burke, you are quite the hero I am told."

"If someone told you that Mona, you need better information. I am a far cry from a hero. I am a simple businessman."

"Now that is more like it. Mom can understand business better than heroic idealism." Autumn was looking at her mother with a smile only slightly laced with sarcasm.

"I can't help who understands what Autumn, it was a simple business deal with me. A private company that I am." I stopped a second then went on, "Was affiliated with got hired to bring out that team of doctors. I did what they paid me for, no more and no less."

"Ah well then Mister Burke this dinner seems to have been a waste," Mona said barely loud enough to be heard.

"Not for me, I had to eat anyway." I smiled broadly at her.

"Mr Burke it might interest you to know I had a check run on you." She was till using that voice just a little louder than needed.

"Ah don't tell me you have a dossier?"

"Quite extensive actually."

"I couldn't help it, a line from an old movie came to mind. "Are my eyes really blue?" She missed it completely.

"You have been involved in many things since your days in the army. Was there really a CIA connection?"

"Hardly, I don't play well in group situations."

"You were always on the right side at least according to this." She had a stack of notes.

"Right is the side with the most guns at the time." I said it trying to stay one step ahead of her.

"How can you say that Robin," Autumn replied. "Right is right, no matter who has the most might."

"I didn't come to argue with either of you ladies. I was the natural choice since I wanted to go to Afghanistan for the waters anyway."

"Mr Burke, Afghanistan is a mostly desert." Mona said it with a twinkle in her eye that led me to believe she might just know what I was doing after all.

"Ah, it does seem that I was misinformed." I smiled back as the small gathering burst into laughter. Some I thought might get it others wouldn't have a clue.

Mona lowered her voice when she asked, "So which are you Robin Hood or Richard Blane?"

"Neither, just a country boy who is willing to kill other country boys for money." Autumn shivered at the pronouncement.

"Well at least you have the good sense not to glamorize it."

"He doesn't need to mom. You weren't sitting in that hot stinking room waiting to die, so you don't know how glamorous he is."

"Autumn honey, you really should read this," Mona said it as she slipped the folded papers into her daughter's handbag.

"Yes Autumn you should read it before you travel five hundred miles into the wilderness with me."

"There is nothing there that I can't overlook or forgive."

"But I don't want you to forgive me, I want you to accept it as just me. I might have to do it again someday and I don't want you to be part of something that you cant live with." I saw Mona nod toward me as she lifted her wine glass.

"If you insist Robin?" I nodded that I did indeed. "When we get home, I will read them." Autumn gave her mother a fierce look. "You know mother, it isn't required that I be you."

"But honey, I was once you. It is just required that you see things as the are, not as you wish them to be. Mr Burke is right you don't want to walk into something you can't live with because if you do, you might well find him to be someone you can't walk away from. He is hardly the romantic figure you think he is. You will see when you read the report."

"I will read it because he wants me to, not because you want to taint who he is."

I decided that it was best for me not to speak. The file would be filled with things Autumn as a humanitarian would frown on. If they didn't send her from the room screaming, it would be a miracle. It had always been my belief that she would find me impossible to live with after about a month at the castle. I thought that it might not take that long if Slocum hadn't made enough progress for us to move at least into the basement of it. With her mother's report hanging over us, I had a feeling that it might already be over.