Chapter 12

2056 a.d.

The Aleutian Islands

He could barely see the water in front of his boat through the heavy, but swift moving fog. He knew he was somewhere between two reefs. Shutting off the engine, Jake pulled the lever to drop anchor. At sixty feet, the chain stopped and Jake breathed a sigh of relief. He was in the channel with very little possibility of holing his ancient little craft on an upthrust rock.

He sounded his deck horn to see if any nearby craft would respond. Only the brisk wind whipping the fog around responded, seeming to pick up as he faced into it. He leaned against the side railing, hoping the wind would blow the fog away, but glad that the water was relatively calm. The boat moved gently in the long, slow swell of the waves beneath it, the hydraulics easily holding the deck level as the surrounding hull gently rocked back and forth.

It was a warm evening – well, sixty-seven degrees, a higher than normal temperature for a brisk, late August evening. It was almost ten p.m. and if the sun had been visible, which it wasn't, it would be disappearing beneath the southwestern horizon any minute. With any luck, the fog would lift enough so that he could spot the lighthouse, or, it would thin out so that he could see a few overhead stars. Either circumstance would enable him to determine which way to steer toward the safety of the harbor and a soft bed.

Why not simply use a compass, one might ask. The twenty-six foot yacht had been built almost forty years earlier, and had been equipped with the most advanced technology of its time, which, today, no longer functioned, mostly due to unavailable replacement parts – the main reason Jake had gotten the boat so cheaply. Plus, it simply didn't have a mechanical compass. It hadn't been sufficiently 'state of the art' when the little yacht had been built.

It was growing darker by the moment. Jake grinned at the thought of the fog 'visibly' becoming darker. It was becoming invisible instead, and therefore more treacherous. He tightened his jacket zipper up against his throat and pulled the narrow fur collar up to protect his neck; actions that weren't strictly necessary because of the jacket's built-in heating coils, but, being an 'old-fashioned' sort of guy, he felt better girding himself against the wind.

He sounded the deck horn again, like he had been doing every few minutes (whenever he thought of it). He wasn't trying to be rescued – he just didn't want to be run down by a fishing trawler coming into port using GPS while he was waiting for the fog to thin.

'I really oughta get a portable GPS, ' he thought to himself, then sighed, knowing that, until he was ready to sell this little craft, he probably wouldn't get it fixed up.

It was after midnight when he finally got back to his hotel. There were several bags next to the check-in desk that Jake had to wade around.

"Anything in the kitchen?" he asked the thin, tired-looking man behind the check-in desk.

"Ah'm sure you'll find somethin', Jake," the clerk drawled. "Don't suppose you wanna help lug these bags upstairs ... ta' elevator's out, agin."

The odd little hotel was located on the western tip of Yunastka Island; the most western of several Aleutian Islands called the Islands of Four Mountains. The hotel was old and weatherworn, having been built thirty years before, during a time when development of the Aleutians as a tourist attraction, like Hawaii, seemed like a good investment.

A small nuclear war, a giant tsunami and several volcanoes coming to life as a result of that war, a plague two years later and the resulting collapse of the U.S. government ended any entrepreneurial interest anyone had in the Aleutian Islands.

Over a period of several years, The Aleutians (and Alaska, itself, abandoned by the United States), became independent of any neighboring governments and currently lay unclaimed by any other nation, American, Russian or Asian. There simply wasn't anything here that anyone wanted, or that could be reached and utilized easily enough to make a profit.

Transportation was privately hired these days if anyone wanted to travel, as there were no regular flights going anywhere from here. As business gradually recovered and took over the running of ... well, business, most of the world was able to continue where it left off. The Aleutians, however, lay stretched across the Northern Pacific, mostly forgotten by everyone.

That was why Jake was somewhat surprised to see travel bags shoved up against the check-in desk. In order to get here, someone would have had to hire a private jet or a boat to ferry him or her out to this long, lonely chain of islands.

"Who's our guest?" Jake asked, stepping around the expensive looking bags and toward the door marked 'Employees Only'. "Some rich old fart come out here to pit himself against the raw elements of nature?"

"Nope!" Caesar, the hotel clerk replied, suddenly more cheerful. "It'sa dame! Gorgeous, too! Young, blonde, makes a man hurt inside just t' look at 'er..."

Jake grinned. "I know what you mean, old boy. I've known a few like that."

"Not like this'un, I'll bet," Caesar challenged. "She is heavy with money! Arrived here four hours ago in an air limo, no less! Sez to the driver, 'I'll call you, Charles, when I'm ready to leave'." The last part was spoken in a high, falsetto voice to mimic the dame's Boston accent.

"The limo driver's name was Charles?" Jake asked, not believing the tall tale his best friend and fishing buddy was laying on him.

"Well," Caesar replied, shrugging his shoulders, "I don't really know that, but he sure didn't wanna leave her here in this two-star diarrhea dive. She practically threw him back into his limo and told him to 'scat'!"

Jake laughed. "Does this rich, blonde diva have a name?"

Caesar didn't have to look at the registration console; he'd spend the last four hours memorizing her name. "It's Burke – like in Burke Oil; Mrs. Barry Burke. Her first name's Alicia. I looked it up. Barry and Alicia Burke. She was probably his trophy wife! Fucking cradle-robber was sixty-eight when he croaked last week! When you see 'er, you'll know what killed him!" Caesar grinned victoriously at Jake.

"Well, I'll not be stalking her tonight," Jake replied, turning away and heading into the kitchen. "I'm too tired and hungry to woo some old geezer's rich trophy widow."

Jake was browsing through the wide refrigerator shelves for something to nuke when Caesar came into the kitchen.

"Jake, guess what?" he asked, grinning and pointing toward the ceiling. "Mrs. Burke wants to know if she can have some 'Room Service'." He snickered, then wiped his mouth with his shirt collar.

Jake found some cold hot dogs and got them out. "What'd you tell 'er?"

"I tol' 'er," Caesar snickered into his collar again. "I tol' 'er I'd check the kitchen and see if anything was available."

Getting a can of bean soup off an overhead shelf, Jake fed it to the food processor. When the red light came on, he added four hot dogs. "Well, ask her if she likes franks and beans."

"I bet she was thinkin' more 'bout caviar and smoked salmon," Caesar replied. They both laughed as Caesar returned to the front desk.

A few minutes later, a 'ding' signaled to Jake that his dinner was ready. At the same time, Caesar came scurrying back into the kitchen.

"She's comin' down!" he gasped, not believing it himself. "She said, 'Franks 'n beans sounds wonderful, ' and she's comin' rat down! Oh my God! I was a-hopin' I wouldn't have to see 'er again, today!"

"But you said she's beautiful," Jake replied, grinning at his love-stricken friend.

"Oh, she is!" Caesar exclaimed. "It hurts me just to look at 'er! An' she's comin' down here expectin' t' be fed!"

"Well, I'd better get another bowl down, then," Jake said, pretending to yawn with boredom just to irritate Caesar.

"You're gonna feed her in the kitchen?" Caesar yelled, trying to make an impact in Jake's mind about what was happening.

"Well, yeah," Jake said, frowning. "The dining room's closed. Has been for a week, now, since your last guest left."

"Yeah, just me 'n you," Caesar replied, sighing heavily. "I'm glad I didn't put any o' my money into this little venture."

Jake laughed. "But you did, O Mighty Caesar, and so did I, fool that I was."

"Well, I guess it's a good thing money's worthless now, eh?" Caesar asked, then staring at the entranceway into the kitchen, "Ooh, my..." His voice died away.

Jake looked up. His mouth dropped open. A voluptuous, tall blonde was standing in the half-open doorway dressed in an almost transparent pink baby-doll nightie, an equally thin bright red wrap that barely extended past her hips and didn't close in the front at all, pink stockings that matched her nightie and strap-on heels with bright pink plastic (or maybe leather) straps that wrapped around and halfway up her legs to her knees. This outrageous costume was finished off with a pink boa wrapped around the girl's neck, which was the only sensible part of her attire as it could at least keep her neck and shoulders warm. She looked very familiar!

'She looks a lot like Tanya Tabor, ' he thought, then froze as he suddenly realized...

"Uncle Jake?" Alicia cried out, raising her hand up to her mouth and pretending to be surprised to see him. "My God! Is that really you?"

Recovering first, Caesar asked incredulously, "You know her?"

"Uh, yeah?" Jake replied intelligently, then continued to stare at the tall, blond goddess rushing across the room with her arms held out to embrace him.

Almost bending him back over the counter, Alicia warmly hugged Jake and kissed him passionately right on the mouth while mashing her almost bare midriff against Jake's front with quite a bit of enthusiasm.

"Well, I guess you do..." Caesar muttered, watching this rich, gorgeous woman throw herself all over good old homebody Jake. "That's a funny way to kiss an uncle..."

Jake finally freed his face from Alicia's lip lock. "What in the world are you doing here?"

"Just thought I'd look you up and drop by for a visit," Alicia replied smiling, then kissed him again, on the cheek this time. "It's been ages since we've seen each other! What's wrong, Uncle Jake? Aren't you happy to see me?"

Suspiciously holding the vivacious blonde at arm's length, Jake said, "I seem to recall the last time I saw you, you fucking tied me to your bed and tortured me for three days, trying to get me to marry you!"

Jake felt a hard set of knuckles rap the side of his head. "Ow! What the fuck did you do that for?" He looked at Caesar, who was glaring at him, still waving his knuckles in front of his face.

"Don't use that word in front of a lady! It ain't polite!" he fumed. Before Jake could react, Caesar rapped him again up alongside his head.

"You had a chance to marry her and you turned 'er down, you Jack Ass?" Caesar yelled right into Jake's face. "I just thought you were a damn fool to invest in this flea-bag hotel, but I'm sure of it now! Pardon me fer swearin', Ma'am."

"Well, I seem to have a knight in shining armor," Alicia said, ignoring Jake's cool ardor and smiling at Caesar. "I apologize for kissing the wrong man..."

She draped her arms around a suddenly terrified Caesar and kissed him squarely on the mouth. When she released him a moment later, he swayed sideways a bit, his mouth hanging open and his eyes glazed over. Jake reached out, fearful that Caesar might fall over.

"Well," Jake admonished her, "you haven't changed a bit. A little older around the eyes, maybe."

"I may have made a mistake in coming here," Alicia admitted. "But now that I'm here, I'm not leaving for awhile."

"I heard about your husband," Jake replied. "I'm sorry."

"That's it?" Alicia asked, disappointed in his brevity. "I'm surprised you even knew I got married."

"Caesar told me," Jake admitted, "about ten minutes ago."

"Figures," Alicia smirked. "The joke's always on me. You're still my one true love, you know."

Jake sighed, not wanting to be even more cruel than he already was. He didn't believe she knew what love was. Alicia was a sex addict. It was probably the vampire blood in her veins, but she made up for the sexual aversion Tanya, her mother, seemed to have toward him.

"You're not hiding anything from me, Jake," Alicia said, after a moment of silence. "I know you don't approve of me, or even like me very much. But, I'll have you know that while I was married, I was completely faithful to my husband, and I bore him six children. I've lived a complete lifetime denying you."

"And now you're here," Jake said simply.

"And now I'm here," Alicia replied softly, her voice low and a little sad. "I know you still love her, and I'm not trying to interfere or take that away from you. I thought maybe we could just..." she sighed before continuing, "Well, just console each other."

"You're still alive because she lived!" Jake accused, almost snarling at her. "You're a part of that world she left behind! Why on Earth would you believe for a single second that I would want to see you again? That I would want to be reminded of her?"

Alicia was silent, having no answer. Caesar glowered at Jake, fuming that his good buddy would speak to a woman like that. He had definitely misjudged Jake's character, but if that bastard snarled one more foul word at this magnificent woman, Caesar was going to hit him!

Alicia watched as Jake turned back toward the counter to stare at his bowls of beans. He wasn't preparing the food anymore – he was just standing there with his back to this unwanted intruder and hoping she would go away and leave him alone.

Alicia spoke after a moment; "I've been flying over your world for the last two hours before we landed here. The desolate wildness of this place speaks to me, Jake, and it tells me about you. It's beautiful here, but this is a lonely land. It's the last wilderness, isn't it? This is someplace she's never been."

Jake pushed his way past her and through the kitchen doorway. She couldn't see the expression on his face. Embarrassed at witnessing that very private moment, Caesar blushed and blinked rapidly, his breathing shallow and nervous, as well.

"Um, Ma'am," Caesar stammered. "There's, um ... There's soup."

He gestured nervously at the counter behind where Jake had been standing. Two bowls of bean soup sat steaming, waiting for whoever would consume them.

Tearing her eyes away from the swinging door, Alicia gazed at the frightened clerk, then at the counter where he was trying to direct her attention. She gazed at the counter for a moment, realizing that she'd interrupted Jake's ... supper, breakfast, whatever meal it was for him.

She looked up at Caesar, smiling, trying to get him to relax. He was obviously terrified of beautiful girls. She had no idea why, but she had run into that problem all her life. The only way she'd ever learned how to handle that problem was to simply ignore it and pretend that the other person wasn't acting completely freaked out.

"Well," Alicia said, making up her mind about eating, anyway, "it was nice of him to leave me ... something to eat." She sighed. "Would you stay and eat with me? I don't like eating alone."