OXYGEN Part 15

OXYGEN

Part 15


“Despair says little, and is patient.”  – Neil Gaiman.  Used without permission.   


“Charlie.  How did you get saddled with this task?”  Tracey asked.

“I offered,” Charlie said, shrugging.  “Here’s the cat you requested.  His name’s Elmer.”  The cat had continued to hiss and spit and managed to jab a sharp claw into his hand. 

“Aw, come here, baby,” Tracey cooed to the cat.  Charlie figured the cat would be insulted and attack her, but oddly enough, Elmer was willing to go to Tracey.  Charlie set the cage down and Tracey opened the front door of it.  She reached for him.

Charlie stared in astonishment.

“Charlie, you know me well enough to know I like cats,” Tracey said.  She cradled the big orange tom.  “Hi there, Elmer boy.”

“It’s not astonishing that you like cats.  It’s just that if he’d had his way on the drive from the shelter, he’d have killed me.”

Tracey laughed.  “Maybe he doesn’t like men.”

“Possibly. Or maybe he just hates me.”

“Charlie, Charlie,” Tracey laughed.  “I’m assuming that you’ve gotten to a place where you know the world doesn’t revolve around you.”

“Trust me, four kids make that appallingly clear.”

“How are the little angels?”

“Angels would be a very long stretch.”
“It’s oddly comforting to know that even the children of geniuses can be normal kids.”

“That they are, if by normal you mean utterly draining me of cash, time and energy,” Charlie said, relaxing a bit. 

“Care for a beer?”  Tracey asked.

“Thanks, but I’ll pass this time.”

“Hope you won’t find it rude that I’m having one.”

“Not at all.”

“Hope you’ll also find it not rude if I ask you to grab one from the fridge,” Tracey said.

“At your service, ma’am.”  Charlie relaxed a bit.  Banter of this sort had always characterized their friendship.  It was nice to see some of it in Tracey.  “So what’re you doing with yourself these days?”

“Sold two Droid apps.  Working on another.”  She shrugged.  “Never imagined doing apps programming, let alone for mobile phones.”

“You sound like it’s a comedown.”

“It is.  I don’t expect you to understand – “

“I do.  Your talents are being underutilized.”

Tracey had gotten Elmer to purr.  “Thanks for bringing him to me.”

“I still can’t believe it’s the same cat that wanted to take my hand off a short time ago.”

“He and I will get along just fine.”  Tracey groaned.  “Are you aware that we’re getting another inmate?”

“I’ve heard that they were bringing a girl named Olga, but that’s about all I know.”

“All I know is that it’s been a long time since I spoke Russian to anyone.  I’m not looking forward to this.”

“Liz is intent on moving her as soon as she can.”

Tracey sighed.  “I’ll never have my old life back, but I’m waiting for the day when I can call the life I have, however mundane it may be, my own.”

Charlie nodded.  “We’re working on that.”

“I know.  It doesn’t make it less frustrating, though.  How’s Amita?”

“Amita’s doing well.  As are all the ankle biters.”

Tracey laughed.  “I love kids, but ironically, I never saw myself having any.  I guess that did come to pass.”

“You’re always welcome to steal ours.  We actually pay people to do it,” Charlie said, laughing.

“I may take you up on that,” Tracey said, her smile and laughter genuine.  Charlie was heartened to see his old friend returning to her soul.

“We offer hazard pay.”

“Now I may definitely have to take you up on that.”

01123581321345589144233377610987

Olga could not conceal her nervousness as she sat silently in the back seat of the Yukon.  Nikki was driving, Colby was riding shotgun.  The heavily tinted windows were supposed to make her feel less vulnerable.  They did nothing of the sort.

“You’ll be staying with a family of sorts,” Nikki explained.  “Tracey’s a friend of a friend.  She’s got her brother, her brother’s fiancee, and her brother’s best friend living with her.  And Tracey speaks Russian.  She says she’s a little rusty.”
“Rusty?”  Olga could barely get out in a whisper.

“It’s been a while since she spoke it, but it’ll come back to her once you guys start to talk,” Colby explained.  “Do you like cats?”

“I like much cats.”

“Tracey just got a cat today.  His name’s Elmer.”

The agents were trying to comfort her, and it wasn’t damping down her nervousness very well.

“How long?”  She whispered.

“Not too much farther,” Nikki said, trying to take a reassuring tone.  The fact was that it was drivetime and everything was clogged like 100 year old plumbing.  LA didn’t have rush hour.  Rush hours had such a negative connotation.  Drivetime was the local vernacular and covered the hours from 6 to 10 am, and 3 to 7 pm.  It was currently 5:30 pm, the thickest part of it.  “Why don’t you lie down, try to take a nap?”

Olga complied, closing her eyes.  Whether or not she was asleep wasn’t relevant to Nikki and Colby, but the girl was clearly exhausted.  Perhaps lying down would make her feel more at ease in the event they were shot at.  The glass was bulletproof, but if an assailant possessed certain types of bullets, it wasn’t going to do much good.  The agents were more than acutely aware of this, and were just hoping they wouldn’t have to engage in what was delicately called ‘defensive driving.’

Colby’s cell went off.  “Charlie, what’s up?”

“The cat loves her and she loves the cat.  I just took off.  How far out are you guys?”

“Probably another 20 minutes.”  Charlie laughed knowingly.  When it came to getting anywhere in the LA area, 20 minutes was the standard response.  It was also quite meaningless. “Tracey’s doing all right?”

“Well, she wasn’t thrilled with the idea of an additional space invader, but Tracey can deal.”

“We’ll try to find a different house for her as soon as we can, but right now, every safe house from Santa Barbara to San Diego is filled to capacity.  One thing’s for certain: crime never goes out of business.”

“Well, it’s job security.”

“Have a good night, Charlie.”

01123581321345589144233377610987

By the time the agents had arrived at the safe house, Tracey’s family had returned.  Joel, Leo and Cindy all welcomed Olga warmly; Tracey was a bit cooler but greeted her in Russian, which made Olga relax. 

“We’ve told you the rules,” Colby said to Olga.  “One, you have to let everyone know where you’re going, and you can’t travel without a guard.  Tracey’s a veteran of this, she’ll guide you along.”  Tracey winced, but said nothing.  The agents knew they were annoying Tracey, so they kept the visit as short as possible. 

“And keep this.”  Nikki handed Olga a toss away mobile phone.  “It’s got a GPS tracker in it so we can locate you.  The bad part of it is, anyone you know who has a phone with a GPS chip – and that’s nearly all of ‘em nowadays – will be able to locate you, but only if they know this number, which they don’t.”

Olga reluctantly thanked them.  “No clothes.  I no clothes.”

“That’s all right,” Tracey said.  Olga was a bit thinner than Tracey, but not by a large amount.  “I have plenty.  You can wear some of my things.”  She said it in Russian; the agents didn’t understand but Olga smiled.  “Why don’t you take a shower?  Cindy is making us a delicious dinner.” 

“You all set?”  Colby asked Tracey.

“For now,” Tracey answered, her tone neutral. 

“Call us if there are any problems,” Colby said to them as he and Nikki departed.

01123581321345589144233377610987   

Tracey had been reluctant to take in a new roommate, and understandably so, but she and Olga began talking.  Somewhere between Tracey’s rusty Russian and Olga’s negligible English, they’d managed to communicate.  Tracey offered Olga some wine, which the young woman accepted.  Cindy had cooked a delicious dinner of kalbi and rice with vegetables, and Tracey and Olga had worked together to bake a blueberry cobbler for dessert.

“Doesn’t quite fit the Korean theme,” Joel commented.

“Who cares?  It’s delicious,” Cindy laughed as she scooped some vanilla ice cream to have with hers. 

Olga had eaten ravenously.  She had been more or less adequately fed since coming to the US, but not such delicious food in a friendly setting.  For the first time since arriving from Russia, Olga found herself able to relax a bit.  She’d asked Cindy to teach her some Korean.  Cindy laughed.

“My parents were born here in the US, in New York,” Cindy laughed.  “I might know ten words of Korean.”

Leo had stared at Olga throughout dinner.  This had not gone unnoticed by Tracey, who’d glared at him several times throughout dinner.  Olga, now cleaned up, free of heavy makeup, and dressed in a pair of Tracey’s sweats, was quite attractive, but Tracey felt it was rude, and considering the circumstances Olga had just escaped from, she felt he might make Olga uncomfortable. 

The four original residents told their stories of how they ended up in a safe house in California.  What was odd was that considering what they’d gone through, they laughed about many aspects of their captivity.

“I wonder if we could just get rid of the guards and stay here when the trial’s over,” Joel said, grinning wickedly.  Tracey then noticed, to her surprise, how much her brother resembled Charlie Eppes.  She didn’t comment on it. 

“I don’t think we can afford the rent.  Houses like this on the water rent for about 10 thousand a month,” Tracey reminded them. 

“Too bad,” Leo said, sneaking a glance at Olga.  “If it weren’t for the whole protection gig, this’d be a great place to live forever.”

“Thanks, but I’m looking forward to having my own place.  Well, I’ll share it with Elmer,” Tracey conceded.  “But once we’re out of here, if you want to come over, you’ll have to call ahead.”  Tracey actually smiled.  Being in this house, despite its lovely setting, was deadening to her.  She was, after all, the reason they were there.  She was grateful that Joel, Cindy and Leo were comfortable there.  Part of the reason Tracey wasn’t was that she had no desire to get comfortable here.  She was adjusting to the idea of having a quiet life, maybe working for Google or Yahoo or Apple, and coming home to a peaceful apartment. She’d feed Elmer, watch some terrible TV, and put her feet on the furniture.  She still had a considerable sum banked; she wasn’t going to find anything that paid like corporate security, and she’d held on to her earnings from that. 

“You’d make your own little brother call ahead?”  Joel gave a hurt puppy look.

“Especially my own little brother,” Tracey said, and everyone laughed.

Leo spoke up.  “I’d like to propose a toast,” he announced.

“Go for it,” Joel said.  He and Joel lifted their beers, the women their glasses of wine.  “L’chaim.”

“L’chaim,” the rest echoed, Olga included.

Olga frowned a bit.  “You Jewish are?”

“All except me,” Cindy laughed.  “I’m Jewish by association.”

“I am Jew,” Olga said.

“Someday, we’ll all live in places where we can put mezzuzahs on the door,” Leo said happily.

“I hope you got rid of the one you had in Jersey.  That was totally tacky,” Tracey said.

“We didn’t have a lot of time to pack, so whoever moved into our place, it’s theirs,”  Joel said.  “And it wasn’t tasteless.”

“All right, it was in poor taste,” Tracey conceded.  She turned to Olga.  “Surprisingly, Joel has standards.  They’re low, but he has them.”

Olga offered to help do the dishes.  “It’s Leo’s night, so if you want, you can help him,” Tracey said.

“I help,” Olga said, gathering plates.

Once the two had gone to the kitchen, Cindy whispered to Tracey, “Did you catch how Leo was looking at her?”

“Leo looks that way at anything that can wear a skirt,” Tracey remarked dryly.  “All right, it’s time for Jeopardy.”

01123581321345589144233377610987

It was a cool but pleasant night.  Billy Cooper was sitting on the dock next to the boat.  He’d reminded Harley and Rick that just because their mom wasn’t there to nag them didn’t mean they could get away without doing their homework.  Harley was attending Santa Monica College, a local two year college a few miles away, and Rick was attending Playa del Rey High School. 

While they worked, Billy looked out over the harbor.  Boat traffic at night was thinner now that it was fall.  It was cold out on the water, and people had school and jobs that occupied most of their time.  Others might have found it desolate; Billy found it comforting.  It was a shallow water port, so there was no worrying over tankers or steamers; those came ashore at San Pedro.  Billy enjoyed being there.  People were friendly; something about the ocean made everyone more relaxed.  They had several fellow residents they’d met up with.  Parties were fun, and telling stories was a pastime.  Generally the drunker everyone got, the more exaggerated the yarns.

Billy watched as a power boat entered from the breakwaters.  It looked substantial and expensive.  Some of the boats they harbored with cost more than Michelle’s house in Texas.  He noticed that, in violation of marine law, the boat displayed no port or starboard lights, and no other light emanating from the vessel. That set his radar off.  He’d seen this happen two other times, and both times he’d felt a vague uneasiness, but he’d gone below and forgotten about it.  This time, however, all of what he’d learned in his many years with the Bureau was ringing alarm bells in his head. 

He moved his deck chair to a less conspicuous spot.  The cabin was lit brightly, and Billy didn’t want to be seen.  He then stuck his head into the companionway and asked for the binoculars.  Harley handed them over without comment.

He watched as the power cruiser nosed its way into its berth, just two rows over from his own.  The row where his boat was tied up was in the middle of a forest of sailboats, their masts like aluminum trees. 

He could see shadows exiting the boat.  A male voice was chiding them to hurry along.  He counted 7 people.  Most of them looked like women. 

Now that’s weird, Billy thought.  He considered going to Paul Miller, the harbormaster.  Paul had been very helpful on a previous case, both he and his sweetheart Cathy.  Then he remembered that Paul and Cathy were sailing to Hawaii and would be gone at least another month.  Cathy’s son Trevor was filling in for them.  Trevor was a very nice kid.  He was in his mid 20s, but to Billy, that was still a kid.  Trevor taught sailing, along with his best friend Ian and his girlfriend Becca.  Trevor didn’t live at the marina, though, and by now, he and Ian and Becca had probably gone off to shoot pool or watch movies back at the apartment Trevor and Becca kept in Marina del Rey.

Billy had done what he’d been doing long enough to know that while he couldn’t define the situation, it seemed wrong.  Once the passengers had cleared the area, he intended to head over and check out what was going on.

Either that, he thought, or I’m just getting paranoid.

Then again, he reminded himself, just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean that no threat exists.