Storm Chaser: Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Elena woke early and stretched, luxuriating in the fact that she didn’t have to be up quite so early and could linger in bed a while.

“Be more fun if someone were with me,” she said to herself. She stretched and thought about the bug detector. She smiled wickedly and got out of bed. She decided to leave off getting dressed for a bit and went straight to the wooden box Peter sent. She followed the instructions and was soon waving it over and near things in what she hoped was a professional manner.

“I really hope they don’t have video,” she muttered. Elena nearly dropped the wand when the beeps began to sound. She stopped. Slowly she moved the wand. The beeps increased in frequency and then diminished again. She pulled her arm back slowly. The same thing happened. Elena put the wand down and took a close look at where the beeps were most frequent. It was the edge of her book case where there was a decorative lip. Elena ran her hand under the book case and came up with a small roundel of metal similar to the one she handed Smith. She thought about yelling into it on the off chance someone was listening on the other end but controlled herself and continued her search.

An hour later she stood in her kitchen with several of the little metal bits placed in a row on her kitchen table. Her lips were pursed in a thin line as she looked at the last one. It had been on her headboard.

“Probably a good thing I didn’t have company,” she muttered darkly. Elena drummed her fingers on the table as she wondered what to do with the little things. With a small, tight smile she pulled a roll of duct tape from her kitchen’s all purpose drawer. She cut a small strip and attached the bugs to it. She took the strop of tape into her spare room and fastened the tape over one of her stereo’s speakers. Elena then looked at her rack of cds. On nights when she couldn’t sleep Elena had taken to listening to audio books. Her hand hesitated over the rack. The copy of Beowulf was read by a man with an Irish accent that suited the tone of the story quite well to her mind. However, the collection of old radio dramas also had some appeal. She decided to go with the radio dramas.

‘I wonder if they listen constantly or just every so often,’ the thought as she loaded the CD player. It had the capacity to hold 6 cds and the ability to play them in a continuous loop. Elena turned the volume on low so as not to disturb her neighbors and so that the words would be slightly indistinct. She turned it on and went to get dressed.

It was with an odd sense of accomplishment that Elena left her apartment a short while later. The wand was in her bag and she would check out the conference room so she could be more confident when meeting with the other grounded pilots on Monday.

“The Shadow knows,” Elena whispered to herself and giggled a bit as she headed down the stairs. Sunday was the only day the stores were closed and she planned to have a look at the receipts and stock before heading to brunch with her friends. One day did not a success make but it might give her an idea what types of items people seemed inclined to buy. At Nibbles Elena started out on the floor and worked her way around the room, picking up some of the trash that had been missed the night before. She shook her head as she fished a small plastic cup from the base of a potted plant. The trash can was less than two feet away. She wondered if it was laziness or just sheer contrariness that let some people drop their trash anywhere rather than where it belonged. The drink mixes appeared to be popular as was the vegetarian pates. Elena made a mental note and headed back to the stock room. Here she smiled at the reduced stock. Several times the staff had brought stock forward to keep the displays up and sales were much more evident. Surprisingly the alien cookware had sold well. She was fairly certain they would find uses that the creators had never intended.

“Chalk it up to ingenuity,” she said. She doubled back to the front and pulled the files of receipts kept beneath each register. She took them and a blank records book upstairs to the conference room and set them on the table. She started a fresh pot of coffee and sat down to see what was what. Andre came into the room about the same time the pot of coffee had finished brewing.

“I’m sorry did I wake you?” Elena said. “I thought with the doors closed…”

“No no, I was up.” Andre said waving off her apology. He yawned hugely and Elena smiled.

“I didn’t mean to disturb you.”

“I know, I just smelled the coffee and figured since it was here I wouldn’t have to make my own pot.” He paused. “If you are willing to share.”

“I can share,” she told him. He poured two mugs and walked one over to her.

“Good. Besides I had a hunch you would be in this morning.”

“That predictable?”

“Just made sense is all. Mateo mentioned the two of you were having lunch with your grandfather today. I figured you’d want to have something to tell him.”

“Not exactly,” she said with a laugh. “Grandfather does not approve of business on Sundays.”

“Even after a big event?”

“Especially after a big event,” Elena told him. “After all it is easy to hold to a plan when there is no temptation but resisting temptation takes character. And no one will accuse him of weak character.”

“That I can believe.” Andre took in her large balance book and folders of receipts. “That looks awfully Victorian of you.” Elena frowned.

“I know. The expenditures are on the computer downstairs and I’ll have someone else enter these in later but I always liked doing this by hand.”

“Guild raised.” Andre said with a smile. “You can always tell.” Elena frowned and took a sip of her coffee.

“You can’t always tell,” she said.

“Are you going to tell me you couldn’t pick out the guild members from the crowd last night?”

“No but that has nothing to do with my balancing the books by hand.”

“True but the guild raised always have that odd balance of traditional and technological.” Andre said. “Admit it, when you send thank you notes you write them out with a fountain pen rather than buy a ready made card from the store.”

“Most of the things I end up thanking people for don’t have ready made cards.” Elena said. “But I see your point. Riko sent me a calligraphied dinner invitation rather than calling on the phone or sending an e-mail.”

“You are having dinner with her?”

“Had,” Elena corrected. “It was a distinctly odd experience.”

“That I can believe. I heard the dragons guarding her doors have smoke that come out of their nostrils.”

“Not that I saw.” Elena thought about it a moment. “But I could see her doing something like that.”

“She really does have dragons at the door?” Andre asked, his mouth quirked up in amusement.

“Yup.”

“Huh.” They sat and drank their coffee in silence as Andre pictured the dragons.

“Riko mentioned you.”

“At dinner?” Andre asked.

“Well yes actually, but I meant last night. She seems to believe that I pulled off some sort of coup by getting you to design labels and ad campaigns.”

“Ah,” Andre said. He paused for a moment and then started laughing. His coffee swished close to the rim and he set it down before it spilled. Elena waited until his giggle fit wound down.

“You find that amusing?”

“No, I find any council member interested in my life disturbing. I find the way you actually managed to say that and make it sound polite amusing.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Andre wiped his eyes on the edge of his t-shirt. “My guess would be that you were complemented on your ability to lure me back into the guild and wrangle me into working for the good of the families.”

“Something like that,” Elena said with a grin. “And I do have superior wrangling skills. I very sneakily asked you to send me a resume and when you did I offered you a job which you accepted. I am truly a master of deception.”

“Very sneaky, keeping everything up front like that.”

“I try.”

“It shows.”

“So why is it exactly that you are considered so hard to wrangle?” Elena asked.

“It is not so much that I am hard to wrangle,” Andre said. “I just didn’t want to work for Peter.” He shrugged.

“Then why did you agree to work here?”

“Well this isn’t exactly working for Peter is it?”

“Because it is working for me?”

“Not exactly. I like the guild. And I was bored where I was. All that I told you during my interview was true.”

“I didn’t think it was a lie. But you are still working with Peter.”

“True but I have you as a buffer.” They both sipped their coffee.

“You aren’t going to tell me any more are you?” Elena asked.

“Probably not,” he said. He grinned. “But maybe.”

“But not now?”

“Nope, not now.”

“Fair enough. Can I ask you what you told Peter about the other night.”

“What makes you think I told Peter about the other night?” His smile was just a little too teasing to pull off innocence.

“You are lucky I need everything on this table or I’d throw it at you. He told me you had a talk with him about Jonathan’s persistence.” Elena leaned back in her chair as Andre once again laughed. Elena frowned at him.

“I mentioned dropping by your place and finding Jonathan in the hallway and that I stayed until he left. He thinks Jonathan has some non-military interest in you.”

“You dropped by?” Elena raised an eyebrow and smiled as Andre blushed.

“Well Peter didn’t seem to take Jonathan’s added interest in you well so I figured giving him another target for his ire was not a good plan.”

“I see. Is he planning on doing anything about Jonathan’s interest?” Elena personally wouldn’t mind seeing less of Jonathan but she didn’t exactly want to see him end up as shark bait.

“I have no idea.” Andre frowned. “My cousin is more into collecting information rather than disseminating it.”

“That I can easily believe. I never seem to get any information from him.”

“No one ever seems to. But at least Jonathan thinks you aren’t fair game any more.”

“Why is that?”

“Well he spent the night in the hallway while I spent the night inside.”

“So that makes me un-fair game?” Elena asked.

“Well he doesn’t know what happened.” Color once again started to creep up Andre’s cheeks.

“Unfortunately the bedroom was bugged.”

“You don’t know that for sure.”

“Actually I do.” Elena told him about Peter’s opening night present.

“Thoughtful gift,” Andre said. He thought for a second. “We didn’t have to use the bedroom.”

“Every room was bugged.”

“Oh.” He drank his coffee. “Every room?”

“Yup. I was less than amused by the one in the bathroom.”

“I can imagine.” Andre tried valiantly to smother his smile.

“Go ahead and laugh before you break something,” Elena told him grumpily.

“Maybe they hoped you would talk to yourself in the shower.”

“I do talk to myself in the shower,” Elena told him.

“Really? Anything important?”

“No, nothing important. Just private stuff.” This time it was Elena’s cheeks that flamed red.

“Okay.”

“Not really.”

“Okay, not really. So what time are you meeting the family for lunch?”

“Around 1:30 Elena told him.” She glanced at the clock out of habit. “But I am meeting friends for bunch around 9:30. I’ll have to leave soon.”

“Working brunch?”

“Nope girl’s brunch. Lisa, Tina and I try to go once a month. I’ve missed the last two and have some explaining to do.”

“Sounds serious. How are you going to explain piloting?”

“It’s not the trips I’ll have to explain.” Elena said with a laugh. “It’s the fact that I am apparently hiding attractive men.”

“Really?”

“Yup, apparently I should have sent out a flyer when my cousin moved to town.”

“I didn’t think he needed the advertisement,” Andre said with a laugh.

“He doesn’t. But then I also didn’t send one out for Jonathan, or you and following the fact that I had dinner with a hottie and didn’t explain that, well you can see I am in deep trouble with the informational services.”

“I can see that. So who was the hottie you had dinner with?”

“Peter,” Elena told him.

“My cousin is a hottie?”

“Apparently so is mine,” Elena told him. She finished her coffee and gathered her paperwork. She hadn’t gotten much done but she did enjoy the company. Andre stood up.

“That is never a term I would associate with Peter,” Andre said. He shook his head as if trying to jar the thought loose.

“Me either. Dangerously handsome maybe but hottie, no.”

“Dangerously handsome?” Andre asked with a half smile.

“He is attractive, I’m not denying that. But he is also likely to get you killed.”

“I’ll take your word for the handsome bit but I will second the getting you killed part.”

“You don’t think he looks attractive?”

“I think he looks like a Baranov.” Andre said simply.

“True,” Elena said looking at Andre. “You can kind of see some of the characteristics in both of you.”

“Does that make me dangerously handsome,” Andre asked winking at her suggestively.

“Some how you don’t seem to pull off the danger bit.”

“I can live with that.”

“And apparently so can everyone else,” Elena told him. She scooped up the papers into a pile at the end of the conference room. She would be walking to brunch and didn’t think they would make a good addition to the table.

“Oh quick question before you go.”

“Yes,” Elena said.

“Are you doing anything Monday night?”

“Not to my knowledge.”

“How do you feel about bowling?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t been since early middle school.”

“Would you be willing to give it a go?”

“Sure, would this be some sort of league thing?” Elena asked.

“Nope, just us. I like to have someone to compete against.”

“Ah so this would be like a friend thing?”

“No this would actually be more like a date thing. Would that be okay?”

“Sure. I just wanted to know this time. Would after 7 work for you? I’ll be here most of the day talking to grounded pilots.”

“After 7 works great for me. Enjoy your brunch.” Andre picked up his coffee mug, turned and went back into his apartment. Elena turned and headed downstairs.
“At least I will have something to tell them at brunch.”