Chapter 7

Somewhere in Heaven

"Did you hear what she said!? if anything happens to that Sam Stocker, we get such a coup! But this has to remain a secret, from Him, of course, but expecialy from Her, and her Daddy! This could all backfire, and blow up in our faces, if we don't use the utmost caution. Only work through deniable cut-outs, with plausable motives! The Gains are worth the Risk, this is too big to pass up! It is unfortunate that our Plan requires Mr. Stocker to become martyred, but we will make it up to him with an entrance pass- he wouldn't have ever made it in here, otherwise! Alright, you have your orders- Try not to Get In Eachothers Way, and be Discrete!"

I had noticed the dark blue ford van, with the tinted windows in my rearview mirrors for the past fifteen minutes. At freeway speed, that is beyond the laws of chance, unless it was intentional, especialy as I had sped up and slowed down up to five miles an hour since I had noticed it. My spidy senses were tingling. I thought to Eliza, "Blue Van" and she squeezed me reassuringly. She indicated an off-ramp ahead, and I decided to pull off and top up. The Van swerved onto the off-ramp behind me also, without signaling or slowing down. I checked out the pattern of the cross traffic at the bottom of the ramp, and noticed where the gap was, timing my approach to the signal to match. Luckly for me, my blind spot under the overpass was clear as well, and since the van behind me was speeding up, if anything, I blasted on through the gap I had chosen, against the red light, and the Blue Van followed me, but I hadn't included a gap for them. A noise of impact, crumpling metal, honking horns, clattering of small pieces and a rolling hubcap, as I got back on the freeway up the on-ramp on the other side of the intersection. I passed the next two off ramps, and took the third. Pulling into the shade of an industrial building, next to a cyclone fence, I dismounted, removed my helmet, and looked at Eliza.

"That was very strange," she answered my unspoken question. "They thought you were someone else, who had wronged them, but the image in their mind even as they were looking at you didn't match our actual appearance. It was like they were having a very specific hallucination, or vision." I thought that perhaps we should hole up and wait until evening to travel, to give people less of a look at us, and Eliza's enthusiastic response had me grinning also. I decided on a hotel, to get the highly noticible bike off the street. Parking in the underground lot, we walked to the elevator and went to the lobby. One thing about checking into a hotel while wearing motorcycle leathers, they don't really expect you to have any luggage. We booked a room, Eliza payed cash, since it had seemed that I was the target of the attack. We took a shower, and went to bed, and this isn't really that kind of story, so you will just have to use your imagination about the details. When we woke up seven hours later, it was after dark, and we left leaving the 'Do Not Disturb' sign on the door, without checking out. I kept the engine noise as low as possible until we were back on the freeway, and then opened it up. We had decided to head for the coast, since we were getting so near, anyway.

Somewhere in Heaven

" Are you insane!? We want to convert Her, not kill Her! We were so close, before that Sam Stocker came along, she was wearing the outfit and trying on her vows for size! We can bring her over into our camp, but not if you turn her into Roadkill! New order of business- Try to separate them -First-, and -then- take out that interfering Sam Stocker! And try to use a little finesse, ok? "