Apologies for this very late update. Here's something:
A few hours later, a dark block of land comes into sight.
Nancy's phone rings.
As she reaches for her cell phone, she remembers the other disposable phones Zoe gave her and checks those. The ringtone is a little different than her normal one, she notes as she sees which one is lighted and snatches it up.
"Dock and walk forward a hundred yards, and you're here," speaks a snap of a Mid-Atlantic accent before Nancy can even say hello.
"Thank you," Nancy replies, but a click in the middle of her sentence tells her that the mysterious figure has already hung up. She continues eyeing her phone for the next few seconds in some stupor, which prompts Sonny to ask, "What is it?"
"Something tells me that these people are on a faster clock than we are."
"Hmmm," he replies.
"That's all?" Nancy asks on a chuckle.
"For now."
"The next few days are going to be cryptic enough. Can we dial back the cryptic responses from you?"
"What's the fun in that?" The left side of his mouth twitches upward.
"Just want to know I have an ally in all this."
"I'm always on your side," Sonny says, frozen as he watches small waves creep up the front and sides of the boat. Nancy has become accustomed to his touchy-feely mannerisms to the point she almost misses the physical contact for comfort, but the warmth in his voice leaves her wanting for nothing.
She cuts back on the motor as they slide closer to the dock. After another few seconds she turns it off, leaving them a perfect distance from the edge of the pier.
"Nicely done." Sonny tears his gaze away from the water and throws her an appreciative look.
"Thanks." Nancy hoists herself up on the pier and reaches for her flashlight. Switching it on, Nancy waves the light briefly to her right then her left while Sonny gets out of the boat. Tall coniferous trees surround a large pentagonal shadow (probably the house, she thinks), their leaves black and curling threadlike in the night. Visibility of just a few feet. Easy place to hide out in.
Or for enemies to sneak up on them in.
"The person who talked to me on the phone sounded familiar, that's for sure. But I wasn't expecting the call and she spoke so quickly that I can't remember a lot specific about her voice. I suppose that Justin—I mean, K2—is probably right."
"About what?"
"About my knowing her. Or, her knowing me," Nancy adds quickly.
"You mean it's not necessarily both?"
"Right."
Sonny pops up at Nancy's side, and the two start walking. "That's gonna give me a headache."
"Good luck with that. Luckily we'll be meeting her soon. Like, in one minute." Nancy's eyes fall on a wooden structure of medium height that looks to be a cabin. She shines her light on it.
Sonny's head lowers with his eyes from the edge of the shadow to the contour of the cabin. "So that's the home of the person who gave Infinitum and K2 all that money to build the safe houses? That doesn't look anything like a mansion."
"It's probably just a cover for a bigger covert hideout. There might be more underground. Come on."
They continue to the door, which swings open when they're on the porch. A petite woman in her sixties steps out. Her chin-length hair is gray with streaks of lingering blonde, and there are tiny wrinkles around her mouth and eyes.
Nancy doesn't recognize her. "You're Diegesis?"
"Yes. I know you're tired," the woman says. "Come in. I'll make this brief."
As she and Sonny follow her in, Nancy pays closer attention to the dialect this time. Definitely from the northeastern United States, Mid-Atlantic as she guessed before, but not New York. More Massachusetts or Connecticut. Very similar to how Katharine Hepburn spoke in those old movies her father is fond of.
This clue doesn't help as much as she hoped it would. Nancy hasn't solved very many cases in that region.
"Good to talk to you again, Nancy," Diegesis says, tearing her away from her thoughts. "I don't expect you to remember me since you never saw me. We only talked. I'm Hilda Swenson."
The pieces fly together. "Hilda Swenson—of course!"
"It's good to be back in the San Juans, isn't it? So peaceful here."
"Bet it's not going to be so peaceful in a few days," Nancy adds wryly.
"I see you haven't lost any of your acuity since our last encounter," Hilda smiles. She turns. "And you must be Sonny Joon."
As Sonny replies to the affirmative, Nancy notices the tightness of Hilda's smile. After a few seconds she notes that it doesn't put her on edge and concludes that it isn't the insincere or stressed kind of smile, but more of a businesslike one.
"I've been funding the agency's projects and houses for a while now," Hilda says as she sits them down on a forest green couch in her living room. She perches herself on the edge of an easy chair, folding her right hand over her left and sitting up very straight. "People will never turn down more money even when they have plenty, something I learned while working in Hollywood. When my husband and I moved to Deception Island, we didn't know what to do with it all."
"So you gave it to Infinitum?" Nancy prompts.
Hilda nods. "We met Zoe some time back. We liked what she does. In those days when I was Mayor of Snake Horse Harbor and Max—my husband—was harbormaster, we put a lot of money into the town. There isn't a lot of funding for smaller settlements like these, so we paid for some things out of pocket. We gave some money to Zoe and her agency periodically and left the rest in reserve, as sort of a 'rainy day' fund for Snake Horse Harbor."
"But that doesn't sound like a lot of money to build two safe houses," Nancy says.
"That's right. It wasn't until Max died that they got built. As I told you when you were here before, I got bored. Max and I always worked as a team, and it wasn't until he died that I realized that he loved Snake Horse Harbor for the people—I loved it for the place. I stepped down as Mayor and moved to a secluded island so I wouldn't have to talk to the people anymore. They thought I was crazy for not wanting to gossip with them."
Hilda pauses, a sheer mist settling over her eyes as she loses her place in the present.
Nancy bites the inside of her cheek, waiting impatiently for Hilda to continue.
"So I went with that image and left most of my things behind. The unknown breeds all kinds of fears, and since I live here in complete isolation, people stay well away from my island." Her gaze clears, and she blinks and refocuses on Nancy and Sonny. "Perfect place to build a couple of safe houses, as far as Zoe was concerned. Most of the time they're used as witness protection sites. Sometimes, in this case, they're hiding places for agents. Which goes further to remind me that I have to call you Kestrel and Wren from this point forward."
"And no one suspects anything?" Sonny asks earnestly.
Hilda sends him a wry smile. "There's no way to know for sure, but I believe so."
"Good enough for me," Nancy replies.
"Yeah. Obviously we need to crash this guy's party." Sonny looks to Nancy for endorsement. She's trying hard not to laugh. "Thanos, right?"
"Thanos Ganas," Hilda confirms. "He's an assassin for some high-ranking members of the Greek mafia."
"Who has it out for me," Nancy adds. "He's also a former accomplice of Xenia Doukas, whom he killed so she wouldn't testify against him."
"Don't worry about the circumstances around Xenia right now—you have bigger things to focus on. Grigor's not on his radar right now, since he already sent him his warning through poisoning his cellmate. We're monitoring the location, and Thanos is too smart to go back there. Niobe you don't have time to worry about, either. Based on attention to his patterns of behavior and K2's intelligence, Thanos' newest target is you," Hilda nods at Nancy, "which is the perfect situation to spring a trap. We'll do our best to protect you, but it isn't much. Mainly we're relying on you to stay on your toes and help Infinitum and K2 get what they need to catch him when he makes his move."
"Okay," Nancy says, "and what about—" she stops short when her pager beeps. "Why can't she just call me on one of the phones like you did?" she mutters as her hands knock around the items in her purse.
"Safety. Infinitum likes to switch it up in case our communication gets compromised. Better to be out one communication channel than all of them."
Nancy scoops up the pager with both of her hands, nearly dropping it as she raises it and clicks open Messages.
Call me in a bit. – I
"Does it say to call her?"
"Yep."
"Then that's my signal to show you to your room." Hilda places her hand on the arm of the chair to push herself up.
"Wait!" Nancy protests, trying to keep things straight with her mind split between the pager and Hilda's announcement. "We weren't finished talking—"
"I'm sorry we can't talk for long intervals, but that's the way Infinitum wants it," Hilda cuts across. "You already know what you need to know, and Infinitum or K2 will brief you further as needed. Infinitum wants you to call her when you're in the safe house, so I have to take you there now."
"Uh, well," Nancy blinks and stutters, "Okay."
Sonny springs to his feet. "Come on, Nance. You should be getting sleep right about now anyway. Driving a boat probably takes a lot out of you."
"Yes, sleep as much as you can." Hilda stands and flexes her fingers. "Who knows how much any of us will be getting over the next few days?"
She leads them outdoors to a heavily-populated forest of Douglas firs.
Remembering the little reading she'd done on the region last time she visited, Nancy begins observing. All the logging that had pervaded the San Juans is absent here, she notes as she takes in the dwarfing height of the trees and watches for stumps—and finds none. The only dead trees are still standing, untouched. If these trees are this old without having been cut down, this island must have been privately owned for some time even before Hilda arrived, she deduces.
They walk for the next few minutes in silence. As they get deeper in, the trees become older, thicker. Most are healthy. But a few are in varying states of decay.
"What's that one?" Sonny points to the lowest, saggiest one of all of them.
Nancy turns her eyes toward the tree. It's not the oldest tree in this part of the forest, but it's closely surrounded by a cluster of similarly-sized trees, and almost half of the trunk is rotted out.
No wonder it's diseased, Nancy thinks. It didn't have any room to grow.
"Good eye," Hilda replies, then guides them into the rotted trunk.
The interior is hollow. Some slabs of wood are hammered into the side. Nancy's eye follows them up all the way to the top of the tree.
"Vantage point," Hilda explains.
"Is this thing safe?" Sonny asks, voice rising in excitement.
Nancy bites back a smile. Clearly he's hoping it isn't.
"Of course. Infinitum added this a few years ago. The tree is fake. A steel foundation keeps it from falling."
"That explains why it's unusually close to some of the other trees." Nancy continues to turn, inspecting it. "A little conspicuous, isn't it?"
Hilda chuckles. "Just wait."
A few seconds after that the ground begins to quiver underneath them. Then it jolts and drops a foot.
Startled, Sonny grabs Nancy's arm.
"It's equipped with a retinal scanner. Only those whose DNA is in the system can get down here. If any of us is with a stranger who isn't in the system, though, it shuts down, and you can't access the safe house."
"Neat!" Sonny says with admiration.
"How did you get my DNA?" Nancy's eyebrows draw together low over her forehead. "Or Sonny's, for that matter?"
"You've been in the system for quite some time, Nancy. You," her eyes flick over to Sonny, "were just added a few days ago. As for how, that's a question for Infinitum. Just don't expect her to answer."
"Aren't I supposed to call her?" Nancy asks as they plunge deeper underground.
"When we're in the safe house," Hilda says. "No contact with her outside the safe house except in case of emergencies. There's a communications protocol in your room."
Overhead lights snap on, revealing a large gray metal door in front of them. Nancy realizes that they've stopped moving.
A click sounds from the door.
"More security, huh?" Sonny looks at Hilda.
"Yes. The door won't unlock for just anyone." She pulls it open and strides into a gray narrow hallway with four doors on each side and one on the farther end, followed first by Sonny, then by Nancy, who slows down as her eyes wander the facility.
"Kitchen on the right, dining room on the left," Hilda nods at the first two doors in the hall.
Nancy mentally records the locations.
"These next three doors are rooms—the second to last on the left is yours—a bathroom on each end, and the last one on the right is an exit route." She moves toward the door at the end of the hallway and waits for them to catch up. Then she opens it.
They're in another hallway, this one longer than the first. The first thing Nancy notices is a row of metal lockers on the right. In addition there are two doors on the right side—one before the lockers and one beyond—and five on the left.
Moving from right to left, near to far, Hilda rattles off more names: "Briefing room, general communications room, another exit, code room, resources, map room."
This time it's Sonny who stays behind and takes it all in.
"And that last one? What's in there?" Nancy stares at the last door on the right.
"I believe equipment. Electronic devices. Gadgets—whatever you want to call them."
Sonny's eyes light up. "Really?"
"Check it out." Hilda smiles. "Now that I've given the grand tour, I should go. And Nancy, now would be a good time to call Zoe. It was wonderful seeing you again, and good to meet you as well, Sonny."
Sonny grins by way of reply.
Opening the second door on the left, Hilda disappears.
Making a beeline toward the gadgets room, Sonny grabs the knob—it rattles. "Why won't it open?"
"Take your hand off." Nancy examines the knob, then points. "See that?"
Sonny looks closer. There's a black square on the top of it.
"Fingerprint scanner. You know what to do."
Pressing the black square, he carefully pulls at the door. It opens this time.
While he's exploring, Nancy pulls out one of the disposable phones and dials the number Zoe left for her.
"Hey," Zoe says.
"Hi."
"Are you in the safe house?"
"Yep."
"That book of codes I gave you is memorized?"
"Uh-huh."
"Good work. There's another book in your room I'll need you to memorize."
Nancy suppresses a groan. "How much information do you think I can hold?"
"It's not difficult. You'll have it in no time."
The line clicks.
Sighing, Nancy pockets the phone and returns to the first hallway, heading to their room. Second to last from the left, she mutters under her breath. It opens readily under her thumbprint. The room is small, and the walls are pale concrete and spare—probably won't be colorful enough for Sonny—with a bed and sturdy-looking wooden desk shoved neatly against them at the farther end. A short wooden dresser and nightstand with a gooseneck lamp make up the rest of the space. All in all, a definite improvement on their even-more-cramped apartment.
Nancy looks back at the nightstand. Sure enough, a book is perched on the corner.
Picking it up, Nancy reads the handwritten title. Book of Life.
"Cute," she says. Sitting down on the bed, she begins to read.
I.
Lilacs are purple;
Hydrants are red;
If you don't memorize
You will be dead.
"Ha ha." Nancy flips through the rest of the book, which offers similar quatrains.
Suddenly it makes sense to her. The keywords to deciphering the codes Zoe sent her are in these poems.
At least they would be easy to memorize.
A beeping sound distracts Nancy. She pulls out her pager and checks messages.
"PAST REMEMBRANCES. WSLMWEKRBXMKFXKFXXHVWWBGZ."
Nancy's mouth tightens in a concentrative frown. "Past remembrances…" she mutters to herself.
"Eh?" Sonny asks, walking into the room.
An idea flashes through her head. She feels around for Zoe's book at her side and, starting at the table of contents thumbs through the pages.
Nothing.
She sits back and blows air through her lips, causing her shoulders to deflate.
Lying down next to her, Sonny doesn't say anything else for a while.
Another notion seizes her. Quickly she grabs the book again by its soft front cover. Gravity pulls the rest of it downward, revealing a word written in Sharpie on the inside cover.
Dottore.
Without moving her eyes, she reaches for the Vigenère Square on the nightstand. And then she grabs a pencil and notepad and gets to work. Running a finger first across the top horizontal line and then down the leftmost vertical line, she finds the letter where the lines form a corner.
D and W meet at T.
O and S at E.
T + L = S
T, M, T
TEST
A familiar word. She's doing it right. Encouraged, Nancy continues.
TESTING
"Is that fun or something?" Sonny asks.
"A little."
"Looks tedious."
TESTINGTES
Lips press her shoulder.
"Are you trying to distract me?"
A nose nudges her neck. "Mmm-hmmm." Then he freezes. "Oh no."
"Jamila's project?" Nancy guesses, smiling over her code.
TESTINGTEST
"Oh no. Oh no. Oh shit." His words tickle her skin. "She's gonna kill me. I just know it."
"Just come to terms with the fact that you aren't going to be getting them done anytime in the next week. Then try to relax."
The worry is wearing him out. Nancy can tell by his sudden retreat, the string of nonsense words that follow, and a final defeated thump as his head lands in the pillow on the other side of the bed. "Would contacting her put her in any danger?"
"Probably."
"But I can't just—not—"
TESTINGTESTING
"Since the first two words are 'testing,'" he begins tightly, not moving, "bet all the words left are numbers. It's a nothing message."
Nancy quickly counts the remaining letters. "That would be consistent," she admits.
"Email's off limits, too?"
"Wouldn't suggest it, but it's up to you. Do whatever you need to make sure that you're focused for the rest of the week." She squints and traces a line of letters across the Vigenère Square. "This takes priority."
"I guess I'll leave it then." He yawns. "Let's both call it a night."
"Can't leave any stone unturned."
"Weren't we just told to sleep as much as we can?" His voice drops a few pitches due to exhaustion.
TESTINGTESTINGONE
"There's probably something at the end of this message and Zoe is trying to trick me into not reading it just so she can scold me about it later."
"You're the detective. Right now I've got nothing better to do than backseat snoop, though."
TESTINGTESTINGONETWO
She's tempted to set it down. Just a few more letters, though…
"Free pass to backseat hack whenever you want. Who knows? Maybe you're better at airport codes than me."
TESTINGTESTINGONETWOTHREE.
Nancy shakes her head. "Really, Zoe?"
Sonny glances at the sheet of paper. "Told you."
"Better at airport codes, huh?" She sets everything down on the nightstand and turns on her side to face him. "You knew exactly what you were doing."
"No. You knew exactly what I was doing. I never know exactly what I'm doing." Yawning, he winds an arm around her back.
"Sure you don't." She grins weakly at him, then falls asleep.
Design of the safe house is inspired by the Churchill War Rooms.
My mental health has been very poor as of late, and I'm sorry to report that I have no idea when I'll next be updating this story. (I'm not even doing Nanowrimo this year, if that's any indication.) I wanted to include a chapter with this dismal author's note so it wouldn't be a skimpy update-the first half of this has been written since September, anyway.
