Chapter 54

After almost a month I awoke on a Monday morning to start my day at 6 AM. I got the fire rebuilt and then closed the draft. I did all that while I waited for the call from Jeremy or Alice. The one that told me they were on their way.

While I waited I also reviewed the last few weeks of my life. I had to do that every so often to keep the big picture in mind. Otherwise I got mired down in whatever project that was most pressing at the moment. The reason I chose this morning to do the mental review was because my self-imposed deadline of March 31 was only a week away. I had promised Luis a completed house by that time. Since he had lived up to his end and taught me one hell of a lot about pen and ink drawing, I wanted to complete my end of the grand bargain.

Actually his house, the retail store, and one other house were all ready to open. Ten houses had been demolished. There were twenty one houses I wanted to demolish. So we were moving along on schedule. After my breakfast race and breakfast, I would join Carlos on the site of the third house we planned to rehab.

The phone played the theme music, from some long forgotten movie. It was the signal that someone wanted to speak with me. I checked the caller ID and said, "I'll be waiting for you." I was already on my way to the door. I grabbed the camo hunter's coat, climbed on my trike and road to the end of the drive. I noted that the road had fewer icy patches all the time. The ones that were there weren't too dangerous on the Trike but they did tend to keep one's mind in the game, so to speak.

I hit the Hardee's just a second behind Jeremy. Alice was almost dead even with me. "I am going to be so humiliated when I come in last," I said with a laugh.

"Not even you can win all the time," Jeremy said. "Alice and I intend to teach you some badly needed humility."

"Well if you do win, it will be because you have your trikes turned once a months at the bike shop in College Hill," I said with a smile.

"We had them stripped and tuned for racing, but I assure you they aren't any faster," Jeremy declared. "If we have an edge it is a minor one. The big difference is in our bodies. Have you noticed Alice's body?"

"I have no idea what is under all those clothes. I haven't seen her naked lately," I said thinking that it had been too long.

"Maybe you should honey," Alice said with a coy little smile.

"Rose, how is the Village coming?" Jeremy asked.

"Not bad at all Jeremy. How is your resort?" I asked.

"We have ten cabins ready to go. I am going to have an open house next week. See if some of our friends would like to tour. We even put a notice on the web about the place. There seems to be lots of interest, but you know how that is. We won't know for sure till we have their money," he said.

"Well I wish us both luck," I said lifting my orange juice for a toast.

"We should have stayed with it as a team," he said.

"Hell Jeremy, we both have to be in charge," I said.

"Except in bed," he said.

"Except in bed," I agreed.

After breakfast I stood by the fire and stripped again. I knew that if anyone hacked into my computer system, they would find a lot of naked footage of me by that stove. I got an idea for a drawing from that. I couldn't use the video feed, but I could use the timer function on the new Panasonic camera I bought. I used the highest resolution to shoot several pictures of me sitting and standing by the wood stove.

I had been arriving at the Village job site later than I had at first. The worker called Eddie had worked out really well, so I kept him on at $75 a day. He would cover the early morning hours while I went up to the church with my camera to make a shot of the stray dog, if he was there. He would also have to do something worth drawing. I was looking for something to at least equal the shot of the half drowned dog on the tag around my neck. It was a shot by Silvia Porter. I was determined to make a better one.

When I got to the studio, I found it undisturbed. I couldn't say the same for the second cabin on the site. There was a chair on the deck which looked like it had been disturbed. I checked the door and found them secure, so I went to the studio to place some dog food on the steps. The stray dog did not show of course. It took me no more than five minutes, but then add that to the fifteen minute drive time each way and it made me an hour late for the job site.

I found a large amount of used lumber laying about and Eddie doing his best to bring some order to the pile of pick up sticks. I joined in to help. Together we put about half of it in some kind of order by noon. While we were working on the empty lot, which had been a house three days before, Carlos and Juan were removing the damaged parts of a house near the block building. It would be the third house we had rehabilitated.

"Let's break for lunch my shoulder is giving me a fit," I said.

"You really should see a doctor Senorita Rose," Eddie said.

"Eddie, I saw a doctor, that's why it hurts like a blond hair blue eyed bitch right now," I suggested.

I answered the ringing phone. "Hello," I said. "I'm busy I'll have to call you back." The call was from the Church Camp. I knew because there had been a whole lot of static on the line. The static wasn't because the connection was bad, it was their signature.

I placed a call to Anna the bookkeeper. "Pay any invoice from Carlos, Juan and Eddie. I will have Carlos write the invoice, but he isn't too good with written English, you will have to help him. He will bring the invoice on Friday by noon. Don't question it just pay it," I said.

"Very well Miss Seabold," she said and then hung up. It had been a couple of months either she wasn't doing shit, or she was doing great because we had no contact with each other.

First I had to tell Carlos I would be away for a while. "I am going to see my new boyfriend, who is in trouble," I said. Then I drove by the Country Store for my large black backpack. I filled it with all the cash in the house just in case someone broke into the cabin while I was gone. I also loaded the house shotgun into the truck. Once my truck was loaded I drove it to Jeremy's house for Alice. From the house the two us headed to the resort office where Jeremy was waiting.

Alice and Jeremy shared a black canvas bag with a change of clothes and a bunch of cash from the fee for locating the blood diamonds. My bag was almost identical, except mine did not have any men's clothes, so I had more of my own clothes.

Alice and I threw both backpacks into the trunk of Jeremy's large comfortable Mercedes Sedan. He drove to Church Camp with hardly a word. He did say, "Their timing couldn't have been worse. The open house is this Weekend. I have the Realtor handling it."

"It better be over quick. I have to move Luis in ten days," I said.

"You know Andrew can take care of that for you," Jeremy said.

"True enough," I replied.

"Welcome home," Andrew said when we entered the dining room.

"It ain't home, but it ain't bad," Jeremy said shaking Andrews hand.

Alice and I hugged Andrew. "So show me what you got big boy," I said.

"Come on up to the office," Andrew said.

I followed along behind them all. As always I was anticipating the adventure and was willing to do whatever was necessary to get it done. I had been a stripper and first mate on a fishing boat, so I was ready for anything.

Andrew led us into the office and there at his desk sat Sylvia Porter. I had met her, but neither Alice nor Jeremy had. "Hello Miss Porter," I said.

"Hello Rose, it's good to see you again. Jeremy and Alice it's nice to see you for the first time. Both of you are a bit newer to this than Rose, so follow her lead and let me tell you there is no such thing as being too careful out there. Unlike the last couple of things you have done, this is not going to be in and out. It's going to take some time to make this work. Even then you may not be able to make it happen." She looked up at Andrew.

"Right," he said. "It's another kidnapping, but this time you are going to prevent one. You are also going to work with one of our overseas teams. They've been flown in for this. They will be inside the residence of the Ambassador from Chile. You will work outside the walls and try to head this off."

"So how good is your intelligence," Jeremy asked.

"We are one hundred percent confident that it is going to happen within thirty days of the Ambassador arriving in the States. He is arriving tomorrow," Andrew said.

"Don't they provide their own security," Jeremy asked.

"Yes, but the Ambassador is quite wealthy and has decided to bring us into the fight," Sylvia interjected.

"So who is the target?" I asked.

"No idea," Andrew replied. "The Ambassador has a wife and a twelve year old daughter."

"So what's the plan?" Jeremy asked.

"The compound is almost impregnable, except for an internal threat. That's why we are going to be inside. We are calling in every favor we have, but so far we have no idea who or how. There is a small but vocal exile community in Washington. We think they are helping the people planning this kidnapping."

"So who do I screw?" I asked.

"If you could arrange to get Father Marco Quever interested in you, it would be a plus," Sylvia suggested. "If not just stick to him like glue and bug the shit out of anything he goes near. He is the leader of the exile community. If the kidnappers need help, they will most like contact him."

"Tell me you aren't going to ask me to seduce a priest?" I asked.

"Okay I won't, but that would be an ideal outcome," Andrew said with a laugh

"Are we going to have all the equipment we need?" I asked.

"Anything we can buy, beg, borrow, or steal," Sylvia said.

"How do we get to D.C.?" Jeremy asked.

"You are going to drive. Make your plans as you drive up there. Spend the night, then start driving in the morning. You should easily be there before dark," Sylvia suggested.

"You insinuated the Ambassador wasn't in the country yet, so when is he due?" I asked.

"He is coming on a Chile Airliner sometime over the weekend. We really expect it to be tomorrow," Andrew explained. "The whole family will be coming with him. There will be lots of security during the drive from the airport, so the Swamp Team is just following along behind, just in case."

"If they need one of your operatives they are a sorry excuse for a security force," Jeremy said.