Storm Chaser: Chapter 16

Sorry I didn't get around to posting this yesterday. Mondays are always crazy. v

Chapter 16

“She didn’t seem crazy,” Elena said to herself as she drove away from the restaurant. “Impressive and a little scary but not crazy.” The cards depicting recipes were in the passenger’s seat and Elena glanced over at them. They had sounded delicious and Elena found herself thinking of Grazos. Technically Peter had hired Consuelo and presumably he knew why Consuelo had left the restaurant. Elena hadn’t felt comfortable asking on such short acquaintance. And it felt wrong to just ask Peter about it. Elena didn’t like the thought of going behind Consuelo’s back to find out about her.

“I guess I’ll just have to wait until I know her better to ask.” Elena said. She glanced again at the recipes. The one on top had sounded promising. “And I do need to get some groceries.” Elena detoured her car to Nibbles and picked up the few off world items she would need and then headed to the grocery store. At the store she grabbed a cart from the line by the front door and began her shopping. It would be nice to actually have food in her fridge again. The cart rolled a bit unevenly and Elena looked down to see that part of the tread was missing on one of the wheels. She shrugged philosophically at it. “At least it isn’t squeaking,” she said, straightening. She took a loaf of bread from the rack and placed it in the seat of the cart. Elena pulled the recipe card from her jacket pocket and checked the ingredients as she pushed her cart towards the produce section. She looked up to find Jonathan entering the grocery store and looking around. Elena tucked the card back in her pocket and continued forward.

“The car must be bugged,” she said with a frown. She pulled a plastic bag from the roll by the scales and picked up a bunch of green onions. By the time she had placed them in her cart, Jonathan had caught up with her. She noticed he was pushing a cart of his own. Elena resigned herself to a longer meeting as she had no intention of going home with no groceries.

“Well hi,” he said. “What a coincidence, running into you here again.” He smiled his toothy grin and Elena noticed he looked a little nervous, like an actor given lines he knew wouldn’t fly.

“Yes one would almost suspect my car was bugged.” Elena said with a polite smile. She took another bag from the roll and pushed her cart towards the tomatoes. Jonathan laughed nervously. “At least you are helping to break me of the habit of talking to myself.” Elena felt a perverse spurt of glee as Jonathan struggled for a polite way to respond. She bagged several tomatoes and moved on to the potatoes.

“I wouldn’t say bugged Ma’am.” He said as he followed her. She turned and raised an eyebrow.

“Of course you wouldn’t,” she said dryly. “Just like you wouldn’t say my kitchen was bugged.” He blinked and the tips of his ears turned pink. Elena begin picking up fingerling potatoes and putting them in a bag.

“Anyway I was asked to speak with you.”

“And you were told that Peter is now the person you need to talk to.” Elena said.

“He doesn’t seem very trust worthy,” Jonathan commented. Elena laughed before she could stop herself and shook her head.

“He can be trusted,” she commented. “To a point.”

“Yes but it is that point that has us a bit worried.” Elena glanced down at his cart as she moved out of the produce section and towards the dairy case. Jonathan’s cart was squeaking as it rolled.

“Are you actually shopping or just following me around?” Jonathan looked down at his empty cart. He grabbed a bag of Oreos as they passed the shelves and placed them in his bag. Apparently he wasn’t going to ditch the cart. Elena continued her shopping.

“And we have questions that need to be answered.” Giving in to the inevitable Elena realized Smith and Jonathan were not simply going to fade out of her life.

“Like what?” She asked as she surveyed the specialty cheeses. Jonathan looked surprised at her question and looked around.

“I can’t ask here,” he said. Elena chuckled to herself as his voice made it sound like she had suggested something pornographic in the dairy aisle. A woman pushing a heavily loaded cart with a toddler bouncing in the kiddie seat glanced in their direction.

“Do you think there are terrorists and secret agents hiding by the eggs to catch details of your evil plot?” She asked.

“You never know who is listening,” he said. She looked over at him and realized he was serious.

“That sounds like a bad movie line,” she told him. “But I suppose you have a point,” she said thinking of the bugs in her car and apartment.

“Will you agree to meet and answer our questions?” Jonathan asked. Elena picked up a carton of eggs and opened the top. Two were cracked. She put it back and opened another one. This one was fine so she added it to her cart.

“You do realize you are putting me in a difficult position,” she said carefully.

“What is so difficult?” he asked. Elena turned to him and realized he actually was puzzled.

“I’m just an Indian not a chief,” she told him. “The guild has a hierarchy and they have decided Peter is your go to guy.”

“Oh,” Jonathan said. He thought about it as Elena headed towards the meat counter. “So you have to follow orders.”

“In a way,” she said. She could tell he was puzzling the situation out before he spoke. She left him to it and told the butcher what she wanted.

“I have to follow orders too,” Jonathan said.

“Well you did join the military,” she replied taking the first of the paper wrapped packages the butcher passed over the counter. She saw his lips quirk up in a smile at her comment as he worked.

“But you left the guild,” he said.

“Until you forced me to go back in,” she said.

“We didn’t”

“You did,” she said. “I was out and living a non-guild related life and then you kidnapped me off the street and made sure that I had to go back to the guild.”

“Oh,” he said. He frowned. Obviously this was not how he pictured this conversation going. Elena thanked the butcher as he passed her the last of the requested cuts and placed the brown paper bundles in the cart next to the bread. Having made her way around the perimeter of the store she now turned towards the aisles. Coffee was the first item on her list.

“Would it help if I said I was sorry?”

“It would help if you said a lot of things,” she told him. She realized she was starting to sound snarky but didn’t really care.

“I see,” he said. “Is there any way you would help us?”

“It is nice to see that you finally decided to try asking instead of demanding,” she told him. The tips of his ears turned pink. Elena actually found herself feeling pretty bad about the hand Jonathan had been dealt. She had the feeling in a normal situation he might actually be a nice guy.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” he said. He paused as she placed coffee and filters in her cart. “So is there a way you would help us?” Elena thought about it. She knew they weren’t going to give up and she really wanted to avoid another kidnapping. Also she had the feeling that if they couldn’t get her they might start looking elsewhere rather than trust Peter. That could get messy.

“Well the guild is commercially based,” she said. “If I could prove there was some kind of benefit for me in helping you independently of Peter they may allow it.”

“So we would pay you sort of like a consultant?” he asked.

“I was thinking more like a trade.”

“A trade?” He asked. “What would we trade?”

“Well,” she said a sly grin on her face. “I’m pretty sure you have some kind of device that lets you search for electronic bugs and things. Perhaps we could start our trade by letting me borrow it.” Jonathan smiled at her. This time it wasn’t the toothy grin he usually flashed but an honest, if sarcastic smile. She liked it a lot better.

“I’ll have to run that past the boss,” he said. “After all, I’m not a chief either.”

"You do that," she said.