Storm Chaser: Chapter 40

Chapter 40

“Remember we ship out with the morning tide. We’re only in port for the night,” Elena called as Benjamin walked away. He waved.

“I’ll see you in the morning,” he called. The final leg back to Grant’s Inlet had gone smoothly and Elena was hoping luck would hold. Mateo offered to drive them back to town and she let him so she could concentrate on returning phone calls. Spin curled up around her feet and went to sleep. Elena spent much of the two hour drive making sure supplies got where they needed to be, when they needed to be there. There were several unknown callers that left no messages. She ignored these figuring that sooner or later Jonathan and Smith would learn. The final message she listened to was from her friend Lisa. Well, from Lisa’s number anyway. The voice actually belonged to her husband Bob. She listened to the message and a smile lit her face.

“Oh you are going to like this,” she told her cousin.

“Really? Do tell.”

“Lisa’s husband is a real estate broker. Before we left I gave him the requirements you said you needed for a work area.”

“Did you?” Mateo sounded more eager than questioning.

“Yeah,” she said. “Peter offered to provide a space but I thought this was a better way.”

“I agree. If we put the lab anywhere near him I can guarantee he would find reasons to drop by and see how or what we are doing. And he would probably use a type of bug the wand he gave you couldn’t detect.”

“That was my thinking. Anyway, he has found several possibilities and we can stop by and pick up the information from his office at our earliest convenience,” she finished. Mateo glanced at the clock on the dashboard.

“What time do you think they close?”

“Why don’t I call and let them know we are on the way?” She said with a laugh. Mateo grinned.

“Is it near the First National Bank on Elm?” he asked as she pressed the buttons needed to return the call.

“Not too far away,” She answered. “Why?”

“I rented a safety deposit box to stash the information from the probes until I can get a workplace set up. That way we don’t have to worry if Smith and Jonathan actually get bright enough to search my apartment.”

“Good plan. Isn’t it going to bother you not to look?”

“We aren’t going to be in town for long enough that I can do much with it. And each trip through has a less than ideal effect on the memory chips which nixes the idea of keeping them on the ship. So I am labeling each by collection date and the specific probe the chip came from and stashing them until I can take a look. Once I get the workspace set up I can start compiling data and each trip you make without me you can gather additional rounds now that you know how to work the system. If Benjamin is with you that would help.” Elena nodded. More information was better, especially on a project like this.

“I’ll tell them we will be there after we hit the bank. That way we won’t miss closing time. Bob might hold the office open by a few minutes if he knows we are coming. I doubt the bank would.” Elena made her call and found that Bob would be delighted to see them when they made it over.

There was very little parking near the bank so Elena took the driver’s seat and circled the block while Mateo dropped off the memory chips in the deposit box. She came back around the corner as he stepped back out. She stopped at the curb and he took the passenger’s seat. Spin barely registered the change.

“All done,” he said nearly rubbing his hands together in glee. “Now lets go see Bob.” Elena laughed and rolled her eyes a little.

“Apparently the day has finally come for you to get your own secret laboratory.”

“Yup. I wonder if Bob found anything under ground or maybe a secret mountain top fortress.”

“Not sure you put that on your requirements list.” Elena reminded him.

“How about near an active volcano. That way I have a place to dump the projects gone bad without anyone being any wiser.”

“I thought your projects never failed?”

“Of course you think that, everyone thinks that. Hence the importance of the volcano.”

“Will you have an assistant named Igor too?” She asked as they pulled up in front of Bob’s office. Elena managed to snag a spot less then three yards from the office door.

“I was thinking more like Jellybean.” Mateo answered as they got out of the car.

“Jellybean the lab assistant?”

“Yes. Igor is so last century. Besides could you imagine yelling, ‘Jellybean throw the final switch!’ And then laughing maniacally. Too cool.”

“Maybe we ought to make sure that secret laboratory has padded walls.” Elena suggested.

“Where is the fun in that? You throw things and they just bounce instead of shattering dramatically and spraying the wall with brightly colored toxins.” Mateo said with a snort. He paused as Elena tugged the outer office door open. Bob’s office was located in a building housing several different offices. He was actually right across the hall from her chiropractor. “You know at some point I will need an assistant or cohort if you prefer. Analyzing this data is nothing but eventually we will need to get samples of plants and such, which will require a different set of skills.”

“I know,” Elena said thinking of the larger laboratories many of the families had. The Calabrese Family had never gone into them as most of their skills tended to be mechanical in nature. Mateo had the same black thumb she had been born with and kept an entirely different sort of lab. Unfortunately they would now need that kind of a lab and even if the Alliance with Riko went through she didn’t trust the councilor enough to rely on her laboratory.

“You thought of that before we left didn’t you?” Mateo asked, his half smile letting her know he already knew the answer.

“I looked into a few things at the Docking Facilities library.” She told him. They crossed the open foyer to the inner door to Bob’s office.

“Uh huh,” he laughed.

“How may I help you today?” A bright cheery voice asked. They turned to the receptionist, who was as bright and cheery as her voice, if not in the same conventional way. Her hair was dyed a platinum blonde and her eyes were large and blue. Elena always had the word fish bounce into her brain at the sight of them. The woman, Faith by name Bob’s assistant by profession, also had orange skin. Elena did mental math, was spring really that close? Every year Faith prepared for swimsuit season with an out of the bottle tan, each year with a different bottle. Some years this worked better than others. Mateo just stared.

“Um, yes,” Elena said, elbowing her cousin to jolt him. “We are here to see Bob, I mean Mr. Franklin. We called ahead.”

“Of course,” she said brightly, flashing a smile that nearly blinded. She had apparently over done the whitening gel as well. “Why don’t you have a seat while I let him know you are here?”

They took their seats and Elena tried not to look at either Faith or Mateo. She knew looking at the first would be construed as staring and if she did the latter she would burst into helpless giggles. Luckily the wait was not long.

“Elena good to see you again,” Bob said stepping out of his office. Elena noticed he carefully avoided looking at his assistant as well. He crossed the room and gave her a hug, which she returned.

“Good to see you too. I’d like you to meet my cousin Mateo.” The two men shook hands and then Bob led them back into his office. He shut the door behind them. Mateo started to shake with silent laughter for a moment. Bob looked resigned.

“Sorry,” Mateo apologized. “I couldn’t hold it in any longer.” He regained his composure.

“I understand completely. Lisa can’t even come down here until it passes.”

“How long…”

“Three days,” Bob answered. “And let me tell you, that first day was a doozie.”

“I can imagine,” Elena replied.

“But to business,” Bob said. “I looked over the list of parameters. Thank you very much for breaking it down into a five year plan. It really helps me to know how you plan to expand.”

“I try,” Elena said. Mateo shook his head at her. “What?” she asked him.

“Only you could break things like this into five year plans.”

“We can’t all be mad scientists,” she told him. “Please continue,” she said turning her attention back to Bob.

“Well I found several spaces for rent that might serve your purpose.” He indicated a stack of files. He picked up the top three. “Only these were in the area you preferred however.” Elena nodded.

“I thought it would be easier to have something close by rather than farther out in one of the industrial complexes,” Elena said.

“We wouldn’t need anything the size of an industrial complex,” Mateo responded with a nod. “I like closer.” A little while later they left Bob’s office with a stack of eight properties to go through. Bob’s assistant had already left for the day as they had kept Bob after normal business hours. Bob had presented twenty-five different sites. Many of them he felt he had to show but understood why they were easily eliminated. Two of the properties in the stack of eight were within walking distance of both of their apartments.

Elena drove past them on the way home so they could take a look from the car window. In the fading light they couldn’t see much. They debated the merits of each in an easygoing way, knowing that in depth conversations would take place later. The basic run through the channel took just under two weeks. By the time they docked, they would have an answer for Bob as to what property ranked the highest. Elena dropped Mateo off at his apartment and went home. Because Spin looked as tired as she felt, Elena carried the cat up the stairs in the crook of her arm. To Elena’s immense delight there was no one on the landing in front of her door. She let herself in, locked the door behind her and walked back towards the washer and dryer.

She emptied her dirty clothes into the washer, added detergent and let it go. When they were clean, she would transfer them to the dryer. When they were dry she would put them right back in the bag. While they washed she rummaged around in the kitchen until she found a can of tuna for her and some dry cat food for Spin.

In consolation, she drained the oil from the tuna on top of the dry cat food. She then stirred a little bit of mayonnaise into the can and ate it with a fork standing over the kitchen sink. When the washer dinged she transferred the clothes and set them to dry. Figuring she could dump them in the bag just as easily in the morning, Elena wandered into her bedroom, changed clothes and turned on the small bedroom television set. She crawled into bed and was asleep before she could think of the movie’s title.