Chapter 22: The Broken Trust

Later, up in their new hotel suite, Mark asked Sam which room was theirs. Sam pointed toward the nearest closed door to him. Mark opened the door and Rachel entered ahead of him. She went over to the bed and plopped down sideways. Mark grinned and undressed. Rachel got back up and did the same. "It's over," she whispered in his ear.

"Almost," he answered and rolled up against her naked body. "We hope it's over." He closed his eyes and slept.

After a few minutes, Rachel got up off the bed and got dressed again in fresh clothing. "I better go to charm school or something. My man keeps going to sleep on me." She walked out and talked to Sam until everyone else came back. Cole had purchased a large laptop and was buried nose deep in a new something he had found.

A couple of hours later, Wendy was helped in by one of the bodyguards. "Where's Cole?" she asked. She was ecstatic and exhausted. Sam pointed toward one of the bedrooms.

Claire had her arms full of shopping bags, while the guards carried more. "This is a wonderful town to explore. I need a larger allowance. May I borrow a couple of thousand from you until I ask my son to not be so stingy?"

Rachel handed Claire a debit card. She laughed at Claire's new mood swings, from happy to elated and back again. "You've changed a lot, Claire."

A loud yell came from the room Wendy and Cole were assigned. "Jesus!" Cole's voice exploded through the door.

Claire explained, through fits of laughter, "Our no longer so shy little Wendy discovered a sex shop, during our outing. That darling girl insisted we shop for toys. I believe she just used the "Smiling Butterfly" on Cole."

Claire told the people in the room. "It's an oral implant, I guess would describe it."

No more noise was heard from the two teens' room. By ten in the evening, Rachel returned to their room and lay down on the bed close to Mark. Everyone but the guard who took the first shift was soon asleep. At midnight he was relieved and the suite remained quiet.

The next day officially began when Mark got up, showered and had sex in the shower with Rachel. Claire and everyone else were already up and waiting. A stranger sat talking with Claire.

"Good morning," Mark said and looked at the newcomer.

"Hello, I'm Raul. I'll be your pilot for the trip back to San Diego. Our plane has been serviced and is parked on the tarmac at a private airport not far from here. We have a helicopter on the pad waiting to take you all there."

Mark said, "I'd like to eat first, then I'll be ready." He looked around the room. Everyone else nodded they agreed with him.

"Well, if you people don't mind, I'll join you. I got called out early and haven't eaten yet, either." Raul smiled at Mark and he nodded.

Claire called down and checked out over the phone. She grinned at her only offspring and asked, "Would you double my allowance? I spent everything I had yesterday. Money just doesn't go as far as it used to."

"Rachel, give her a credit card. And make arrangements to do whatever." Mark laughed all the way to the door. He stopped and added, "Tell Gina to give her a title and something to do."

"Mark!" Claire protested. "You're mean."

"You wanna go to work out at the Willows?" he asked, as a joke.

"Sure, I bet I could fit in quite well out there." She was not joking. Mark thought a moment and nodded in agreement. He decided his mother was right. She would fit right in with the crowd Del and Will hung with.

"Let's go," he told everyone.

The dining room was not too crowded and adjoining tables were occupied. "Owww," Wendy complained when she took a sip of hot coffee. "I chipped a tooth on that..."

She blushed and Cole growled, "Wendy, shut up!"

Raul looked at the two teens and wondered what all the laughter was about. Mark told him, "You'd have to have been with us yesterday, to appreciate the joke."

By the time they got to the back entrance of the hotel everything was ready for them to climb aboard and take off. The luggage had been sent ahead of them and was already stored away. They saw the large helicopter with US Marine insignia on the side facing them. "We were too big to land on the roof," Raul told them.

"Oh man, why couldn't have at least sent us home on Air Force Two?" Cole whined.

Wendy nudged him. "Shut up, Cole," she whispered.

"The Vice President took Air Force Two to El Paso when he left the country. The pilot refused to go any further without more authorization. It hasn't returned yet," Raul told them. "I can get one of the other planes from the White House Fleet readied if you'd like."

"Oh man," Cole laughed, I was just joking."

"Well, I wasn't," Raul said. "I was ordered to do whatever it took to make your trip home a pleasant one."

"Just get us there safe and sound," Sam told him. "We're not fussy. Mark nodded agreement and they all got in.

The trip to the private airfield was fast and efficient. The trip to San Diego was uneventful. A reserved limo took them to the same hotel and they checked in. Rachel ordered a limo to be kept ready for them at all times and then checked in with Gina.

"Rachel, could you and your mother in law come here? I have a situation." Rachel disconnected, kissed Mark and motioned to Claire to come along.

"What is it?" Claire asked.

"I don't know," Rachel told her. "Gina just asked that you and I come in to the office." Rachel forgot about the waiting limo and caught a cab and rode to their offices in the bank building. They rode the elevator to the fifth floor and found a disheveled Claude Richards wandering the short hall. He looked as if he had been through Hell.

"Claude!" Claire exclaimed. What happened to you? I thought you were dead. Oh my poor baby." She clutched her lost lover tight against her.

"I was kidnapped. You were there, because you were kidnapped too.

"After you escaped I was knocked out. When I regained consciousness I was in a back room of a bar in Tijuana. They kept me there and fed me tortillas and beans and some awful tasting stuff they called 'cabeza.' Today they let me go.

Rachel shuddered, "Oh, nasty. You were fed pig brains. I tasted them once."

Claude ignored the interruption, "All I got to keep was my wallet and ID. They kept my money and credit cards. I had to walk to the border from that ratty bar. I had that hundred-dollar bill hidden in my belt. I didn't dare cash it on their side of the border." Claude kept rambling.

"Hush, Dearest. I have you now and you're safe. I'll take care of you. Let's take a taxi to your apartment and get you cleaned up."

"I don't have an apartment, any more. The FBI tore it apart and trashed everything. All my possessions are gone." He looked ready to cry.

"Rachel, we'll meet you back at the hotel. Claude and I are going to get him a change and then a shower.

"Wait one," Rachel said.

She turned to Gina and asked, "Is there anything else that's pressing?"

"Well, no." She looked at Claude and shuddered, "I just needed to get that person out of here." Claude was too miserable to be embarrassed.

"Let's go," Rachel told Claire and Claude. There's a men's wear shop in the hotel that has a nice selection. We'll pick something up there and Claude can use your shower and stay with you. That's what you planned to do, wasn't it?"

Claire nodded. "Yes," she said, "The thought did cross my mind."

Rachel laughed, "Uh huh, I'll bet." She stared at the disheveled mess Claire held onto so tight. "Let's go.

Claude's unwashed body assaulted their noses when they entered the elevator. Claire's tears for what he had endured brimmed in her eyes. "Oh, Claude," she whispered in a sad voice. She also remembered the rapes she had endured while still held captive.

Rachel was surprised, pleasantly so, when she noted the new Claire that had begun to emerge. "I'm glad," she said aloud.

"Glad? Glad about what?" Claire asked.

"Oh nothing," I had a nice thought cross my mind. Rachel found it hard to smile and take shallow breaths. Claire didn't seem to mind the odor at all.

When they tried to hail a cab, they found a new problem. "I do not carry derelicts in my vehicle," the Bosnian driver told them.

"What's your name? I'm going to call Immigration," Claire demanded. The driver sped away.

Rachel thought fast. She whipped out her phone and punched in a new number. "Sam, we just got a mixed blessing. Get one of your SUVs and come get us. We're in front of our offices. Make it quick, please."

Sam arrived in the limo Rachel had forgotten. "Hey!" he exclaimed, when he saw/smelled Claude. "What's up?"

"No questions, just drive. Takes us to the hotel and up the freight elevator." Rachel told him.

The big man shrugged and said, "Okay."

Two older hotel guests accosted them in the hotel hallway, right after they got off the elevator. "Oh dear!" the woman exclaimed.

Her escort, a man in his sixties, took one look at Claude and said, "I been on a few toots like that myself, when I was younger. Tabasco sauce and beer helps."

"Claude shuddered at the though that anyone would feed his abused stomach another hot pepper in any form.

"Come, Charles," his wife snapped at him. He winked at Claude and followed his wife to the passenger elevators.

Rachel got the door open and Sam half carried his burden into the suite and toward Claire's room. "Put him in the bath," Claire ordered.

"What in hell was that?" Mark demanded He didn't recognize Claude...

"Honey, that was Claude Richards, your old lawyer. That damned Jiggs had him sent across the border. They had him stashed in Tijuana. I guess that when the money someone paid to keep him locked up ran out, they just released him."

"Christ, what a mess. Well, there's our tie in between the Cheswick crowd and the Mendoza Cartel, at least another one."

Mark went to the phone and called downstairs. "Please send up a heavy duty trash bag. We have some pretty bad stuff to throw away."

"Good idea." Rachel thought a moment. "Let Claude have one of your suits to wear. I bet he's skinny enough to fit in one now. Claire and I can take him downstairs to the clothing store tomorrow morning and get him outfitted.

"You handle it. I've already arranged for us to move in to Mike's old cabin. Further arrangements have been made to put in a phone relay station not far from the Alpine entrance to The Willows. I finally guessed where that prototype Stirling has to be."

"Wow, it took you long enough. Cole figured it out right after I did. I threatened him on pain of death to keep quiet about it until you figured it out on your own."

"Well, I been sick," Mark whined at her.

"Okay, smart guy, where is it?" Rachel grinned at him.

"It has to be driving the generator that supplies electricity to the Willows and to Mike's cabin. Am I right?"

"Hey, don't ask me, I've never seen it yet. I thought it was the pump that supplied water to that place."

Rachel frowned and explained, "Honey, I thought it was the pump that brought water to the Willows. There were no electric lines leading into the place that I could see."

"How about both?" Claire asked, as she led a cleaned up, but still ravaged looking, Claude Richards out of her room. She helped him to sit on the couch in front of the big TV set in one corner.

Mark had trouble accepting this caring woman who showed so much compassion for Claude with the older version that ignored him and left him alone most of the time. He shoved the memory of Old Claire out of his head and asked, "How so, Mom?"

"I remember something Mike said in a boast to me, not long after one of your birthdays. He told me The Willows was self-sufficient in more ways than one."

"Tomorrow, we'll ask Rhonda Wheeler." Mark smiled to himself. "I just know she'll be oh so glad to see me."

"She's a nice woman, dear. Now I want you'll treat her nice." Rachel gave Mark a hard look.

Their first stop was to drop by the bombed out house. Between the blast, the ensuing fire and the firemen, the living room and the dining room were a total loss. The security measures in place on Wendy's, Cole's and Mark's computers had destroyed them when the first bomb blast created its destruction.

The bedrooms and the kitchen were mainly intact. "Oh god, what a mess," Rachel moaned. She looked at the thousands of dollars worth of damage to all their property.

On the other hand, Cole was happy his security measures worked to perfection. He called from the kitchen, "There's no power. Can we order out?"

Wendy put her foot down, "No pizza and no hamburgers or corn dogs."

Mark assessed the damage and told Rachel, "Call in Merry Maids or whomsoever and let them sort through and clean up the mess. They can box up everything salvageable and ship it up to The Willows.

Del and Will came in through the back door. "Why can't you keep in contact with us?" usually mild spoken Will began.

Mark frowned and started to verbally tear into the lawyer, then paused and took a deep breath. "We have been to Washington, DC, not state. We have spoken to one of the real master minds behind this mess and found out what were their ultimate goals where we were concerned."

"Oh? And how did you accomplish this?" Del asked.

"Actually, a Texas senator's son tried to bushwhack us and got in over his head." Then the other group of enemies contacted us and flew us out. Hopefully we have reached an agreement that leaves us alive and thriving."

After he explained the agreement to the attorneys, Rachel spoke up, "You know, it's hard to reconcile such a sweet looking old grandfather type with all the violence we've run into.

Del jerked his gaze from Mark to Rachel. "Could you describe this old man? Exactly what did he look like?"

Rachel smiled, "Well, the first things I noticed were his twinkling blue eyes and his gentle smile. To me, he looked almost angelic. He'd win a grand father year contest just by showing up."

"Oh shit! Del exclaimed. "You met Edward Bartholomew. You've been flying in rarified air, that's for certain. You say you have actually reached an agreement with him? As a rule he doesn't negotiate, he destroys."

Mark got a queasy feeling in his gut. "We're to meet out at the Willows in a couple of days to finalize our agreement. We have a working model of a Stirling engine out there that's supposed to be more efficient and rugged than anything on the market today."

"I have the working plans, the actual production drawings, for the Stirling." Claude's voice startled Mark. "They're in a special lock box in another bank, up in Alpine. Claire has the keys, I believe."