Chapter 2 The Ne’er Do Well was a tavern near the docks, its wooden exterior faded over the decades into a blurry grey. When one of the waitresses at the bar got a look at the man who had just entered the noisy, smoky pub, she said to her fellow worker, “Coo! Look at that! I’d be pleased to handle that one, I would.” The other waitress, who was also waiting for the bartender to fill her drink order, turned tired eyes to survey the newcomer. Tailored suit, expensive watch, buffed shoes – oh, yeah. This one would be worth her smiles. “Not if I get to him first, Syl,” she told her friend. Over in the corner, a card game was underway. One of the tough men around the table happened to glance up and saw the new man enter the pub. His bushy brows rose, and he said to the table at large, “Somebody’s in the wrong place.” He grinned ferociously. “Should we tell him?” There were noncommittal grunts around the table. A fight was always enjoyable, but the stakes on this hand had gotten high enough for the players to want to finish before pursuing other pleasures. Another of the men glanced up and saw the man approaching their corner. He whistled between his teeth. “Now there’s a suit!” he marveled. At that, the handsomest of the men at the table looked up, concern clouding his brow. It didn’t fade as he recognized the man coming toward their table. He sighed, laid down his cards, and shoved his take into his pocket, saying, “I’m out. Nice playing with you, gentlemen.” There was a chorus of groans around the table as he stood. “Dammit, I was wanting to win some of my money back before we finished!” a droopy-eyed sailor complained. The man reached back into his pocket and pulled out a fiver, handing it to the sailor with a cocky grin. “There you are, Joe,” he said. “Your next bet’s on me.” He walked away as the table erupted into guffaws. One man thumped Joe on the back hard enough to topple a man from his chair. Luckily for him, Joe was built on large lines and barely budged. The departing man met the newcomer halfway to the door, raising an enquiring brow. In answer, the man in the suit glanced over to the table, where the play had resumed amidst a certain amount of heckling of poor Joe. “Am I interrupting?” he asked smoothly. “Sure,” replied his friend with a grin. “But since when is that news?” He looked toward the bar, where two waitresses were fighting, tearing at each other’s hair and screaming curses. “Let’s go, shall we, before you incite a riot?” Straker frowned, taking in the fight, which was beginning to escalate as nearby patrons joined the fray. “That wasn’t about me,” he assured his friend as they left the tavern. Freeman sighed. “Ed, somehow it’s always about you,” he retorted. * * * The colonel followed him several miles down the road to another area of town. He parked next to the commander’s car and got out. Together they entered a homey restaurant that was doing a brisk business. An enormous black woman glanced up from behind the bar and broke into a huge smile. “Why, Hector!” she exclaimed in her deep bass voice, nudging the elbow of the bartender. “See who’s come to pay us a visit!” Straker flushed slightly as he came over to the bar. “Hello, Rose. I see that word of your amazing culinary skills has gotten out. You’re full even at this hour.” She cackled and pointed a thick finger at him. “Don’t think I don’t know who’s to blame for that, Eddie! I read that interview you did for that fancy magazine.” He shrugged, but looked pleased. “Do you have any room for us?” “Always,” she assured him, coming out from the end of the bar and waddling over to a corner table where a group of college students were discussing deep topics. In no time at all, she’d moved them on their way, nodding her head in agreement with a long-winded straggler as she herded them out the door. Then she brushed her hands together and came back to the bar. “There! Hector’ll clean it up, and the table will be ready for you in just a minute.” Indeed, Hector had already gone over to bus the table as if anticipating her. “Thank you, Rose,” Straker said, admiring her efficiency. She shook her head. “No thanks needed. You know that.” She leaned onto the bar and said, “I got a letter from Adela this week. She says your daddy’s been to the doctor’s.” Rose’s cousin Adela had been the Straker family housekeeper since before the commander had been born. “It was just a routine checkup,” Straker told her. “Nothing serious.” “Well, that’s good news then,” she said with relief. As Hector came back to the bar, she added, “Your table’s ready, and your food will be out as quick as you please.” “You’re a gem, Rose,” Straker told her, which made her blush. But Freeman said, “Wait! I haven’t had the chance to even order!” Rose gave him a headshake and a sigh. “Now, Alec! Haven’t I got a nice barramundi in the back just waiting to be fried up for you? Go on now! Have a seat.” He grinned and left the bar, following Straker to the corner table. * * * Alec knew that his friend only came to Rose’s place when he was in need of the comfort of good food and family connections. And since the commander had been fine earlier in the day when the colonel had last seen him, he was certain that whatever had upset him had occurred since then. He kept a close eye on his friend while he ate his delicious barramundi, resigned to seeing Straker eating lobster. Nasty things, Alec had always thought. They looked like something from an alien planet and hardly edible. But you couldn’t tell that to a Bostonian, of course. Hector swept their plates away when Rose brought out lemon meringue pie for dessert. Over years of constant exposure, Alec had developed a taste for the treat; although unlike his friend, it wasn’t a reminder of his childhood. When their coffee had been topped off and they were alone once more, he forked up a bite of the tart pie and said, “I suppose there was a reason for you to come looking for me? You haven’t done that in – well – years.” Straker set down his coffee cup with a sigh. “I know. Sorry about the game. Were you winning?” Alec shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. There’s always tomorrow. What’s up?” The commander ran a finger around the rim of his cup in an absent gesture. “I needed to be grounded. I couldn’t even begin to process everything until I had a sense of normalcy around me again. So I guess that meant pulling you into it.” “Sounds serious.” Straker nodded, then finally met his friend’s eyes. “I had a . . . visitation, I suppose you could say.” Alec’s brows lifted. “You saw an angel?” “No.” Straker pondered a minute, then added thoughtfully, “Although it’s possible there is some kind of connection between the two. After all, if the one is real, then the other might also be as well. It’s an interesting concept, but not what we need to discuss tonight.” He leaned forward. “She said she represented Gaia.” The colonel stared at him blankly. “You mean, the Gaia referred to in mythology?” “I believe so. Earth as aware.” “And she is – what? A servant of Earth? A guardian?” Straker frowned. “She called herself a ‘keeper.’ That may actually mean a little of both of those things.” “Okay. And you believed her.” The commander grimaced. “You would have too, if you’d been there.” “Oh?” “She flew, Alec.” Freeman blinked in surprise, then said, “Now that I would have liked to have seen!” Straker smiled wryly. “It was quite – impressive.” “I’m sure. What’d she look like?” The commander sat back, bringing her image into his mind with surprising clarity. “I thought she was in costume at first. You know: fairy dress, cascading curls, wings. But when she came closer, I could see that although she looked young – perhaps twenty at the most – her eyes were ancient. No actress could pull that off; I don’t care how gifted she is.” Alec tried to picture it. “Pretty?” “She was the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen.” The colonel blinked. The words were spoken calmly, but he doubted very much if he’d ever heard his friend say anything remotely like that before. “So – what’d she want? Was she lost or something?” “She came with a warning.” Freeman’s brows rose again. “Don’t litter?” Straker sighed. “I wish. No. Basically, she said that the upgrades we’ve been anticipating so much are actually a trap set to destroy us.” Alec choked on his coffee. He coughed for a minute, but when he got his breath back, he just stared at his friend. Finally he said, “Jesus, Ed.” “My sentiments exactly.” “And how in the hell did she know anything about it?” “Apparently, they’ve been watching us.” “Oh, well. That’s reassuring,” his friend said sarcastically. “Good God, why?” “They appreciate what we’ve done to protect Gaia.” Alec considered him for a moment in silence. “That must have been some conversation.” “You cannot begin to imagine,” Straker said drily. “So, what do we do? I mean . . .” “I said I would do what I could to verify what she told me.” Freeman frowned at him. “And how are you going to do that? If the bastards who did this get an inkling that we suspect, we could lose any chance of getting our hands on them.” “I think that’s the least of our worries, Alec. It’s absolutely necessary that they don’t become aware that we suspect. Because if the keeper – fairy – whatever she was – is correct, they can do more damage than we’ll ever be able to recover from. We’ve got to stop them without giving them the opportunity to activate any of their devices.” The colonel whitened. “What do the devices do?” he whispered. Straker shook his head. “You don’t want to know.” His friend accepted that, certain that Ed was right. If it was that bad, he didn’t want to know. “So, do we have any idea who in R & D has been turned against us?” “A few key men. Her words.” “Damn. What’s the plan?” “I don’t have one yet,” the commander admitted. “We don’t have a lot of time to come up with one. Those upgrades start being shipped to the various facilities this week.” “I know.” “It’s just key members of R & D that have been compromised? Not the entire team?” “Right.” Freeman brooded for a moment, then met his friend’s eyes. “In a way, it would have been better if it was all of them.” Straker gazed back, understanding the colonel perfectly. “In a way.” Alec sighed, wishing it could be that easy. “Didn’t your new friend have any ideas?” “She’s willing to help us, although I have no concept of how she might be of assistance at the moment. If we brainstorm the rest of the night, perhaps between us we can come up with something.” “In that case, I need another cup of coffee.” Alec signaled to a passing waitress for a refill. After she had topped off both their cups and left, he said, “You do realize that whatever we decide to do, we’re going to have to explain ourselves to someone who is never going to believe that a fairy told you all this.” Straker pinched the bridge of his nose. “I know,” he sighed. Then he said unexpectedly, “But I might just have a way around that.”
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