I woke to the sound of birds chirping in the tree outside my window. The sun was warm and bright, making the large room feel safe and inviting. The high ceiling seemed to soar above me. The room was large, and furnished with an understated elegance. The windows were almost floor to ceiling with beautiful lace curtains. At first, I thought it had to be a dream. I stretched lazily.
Then I felt the ankle-cuff. I sat bolt-upright, feeling my ankles under the warm down comforter. There was only one cuff, and it was lined with something soft. I tried to wiggle my foot out, but it wasn't happening. I grabbed the chain. It wasn't a heavy chain, but it was high quality stainless steel, and I knew I wasn't going to be able to break it.
My heart was pounding in my chest even though I was pretty sure I knew what had happened. I thought back. The last thing I remembered was Ranger coming to bed. I was sure he had bit my earlobe. Then...I rubbed the stinging spot on my hip. I was pretty sure he injected me with some of that sleepy-time juice Lester had mentioned that Rangeman kept in the infirmary. I leaned over the corner of the bed. Yep, floor bolt. And I was connected to it.
I should have been more angry, and probably I would be later, once the drugs wore off. But right now, it just seemed like too much trouble. I lay back down, and allowed the lazy contentment to wash over me again. The room was large and old-fashioned, with fresh yellow paint and a pretty floral wallpaper with light purple flowers and green stems playing lazily above the wainscoting. I watched a bright blue bird with a red breast singing on a branch. The tree branches waved in a breeze. I was pretty sure I was upstairs. I could smell a fireplace. When I listened, I could hear the sound of a roaring chainsaw outside. I listened for a moment, realizing there was a rhythm to the sound. Then it hit me. I knew that sound.
"Lula?" I called weakly. I slid out of bed. I had soft slipper socks on my feet, so I had to be careful not to slip as I stood on the hardwood floor. "Hello?" I called.
I heard footsteps coming up the stairs at a leisurely pace. For a moment, I felt a tingle of fear. Fear of the unknown. I knew it wouldn't be Ranger. I looked down at myself, relieved to find I was wearing a very modest, sea-green flannel nightgown, complete with long sleeves with ruffles and a lace bib overlaying the bodice. The hem all but touched the floor. I recognized it from the bag Ella had packed for me. She said it was cold in Maine and I'd thank her for it later. The last time I had worn pajamas like this I was five years old. And I could only imagine what my hair looked like.
Zero appeared in the doorway with a breakfast tray. I saw two Tastykakes lying on a painted china plate and light-colored coffee in a matching china cup with saucer. The tray was complete with a long-stemmed, white wild-rose sticking out of a crystal vase.
"What's going on?" I asked as Zero placed the tray gently on the end table beside my bed. "Do I hear Lula?"
If I looked like an irate toddler just up from a nap, Zero didn't seem to notice.
"Connie's here too. We had no choice," he said.
"What's happening at Rangeman? Is Ranger OK? Tank? Everyone?"
"As far as I know, everyone is accounted for. My orders came directly from Ranger." Zero was standing at parade rest just inside the doorway, feet apart, hands behind his back, chest out. But he wasn't staring straight ahead like he was being grilled. He seemed oddly relaxed, as if resigned to his fate.
"What are your orders, exactly?" I asked.
"To keep you here until we get the all clear. We have a sat phone, and Ranger has given us a safe word. Until we hear from Ranger, Manny and I are charged with keeping you safely hidden at all costs." Zero gave me a meaningful look. "I'm sorry about the shackles, but I'm not allowed to remove them. You can travel freely from room to room. There's a bathroom in the hallway. And we can allow you downstairs anytime you like. There's a library in the sitting room with a fireplace. We are also authorized to use any force necessary to prevent you from leaving the house."
I waved that away. "I know the drill," I told him.
"There are no stun guns here," he told me. "So don't get any ideas about putting our lights out."
Zero and Manny were not going to fall for any of our usual stunts like Hal would have. Even Cal we could gross out. But not these guys.
"We're at the lake house in Maine," I assumed.
Zero looked just a little surprised that I was prepared for this eventuality. "Maine, yes. House, yes. Lake, no. Amphibious aircraft could land on the lake. We could never defend. Plus, there's a chance Ranger's safe house could be traced back to Rangeman ownership if someone were skilled enough."
"If Rangeman doesn't own it, who does?"
"A friend?" he shrugged. I could sense that Zero didn't even know where we were.
I raised my eyebrows. "Who else is here?"
"It's just the five of us. Manny and I were put on notice some time ago that we would pull this duty if you were ever in serious danger again. Since then, we've sat on witnesses at the lake house until Ranger felt we were prepared enough that we could live off the land if we had to. Manny had extensive first aid experience in the field, out of necessity, not by choice. But he's been working with Bobby in the infirmary for nearly a year now."
"Where the hell are we?" I asked again, looking out each of the windows facing two directions. My room was a corner room. But I saw the same scene out every window. Green grass down below, endless tree bark, singing birds, a hint of blue sky above, and nothing more.
"We're no where close to civilization. From the temperature and what I can see, I'd guess we're near the Canadian border. We may actually be in Canada. Either way, we're deep in a densely forested area. It'll be impossible to get here by car or boat or plane. They have a saying in Maine. 'You can't get there from here.' This is one of those places."
"What about water?"
"Natural spring. The house has solar, plumbing, and hot water heated by the fire in the kitchen. We have a small generator that we can use to re-charge our electrical devices. We're running infra-red at night for a mile radius. When you're up for it, we'll go over the plan in case we are attacked."
"How did a house even get here?" I asked. "This house looks old, but like it's been kept up."
Zero shrugged again. "It's not a typical safe house. But there is a safe room hidden beneath the house."
"How did we get here?"
"Private helicopter picked us up from the roof at Rangeman."
I stared at him for a beat. "We were lowered down, unconscious, from a helicopter, in to the middle of a forest?"
He nodded.
"What about Lula and Connie? They weren't at Rangeman."
"They arrived shortly before the helicopter. Tank and Bobby brought Lula to Rangeman, taking the stairs from the garage to the roof, and Ranger and Lester brought Connie right after that. I stayed with you on seven until they were ready."
"Did Ranger come with us?"
"No. Just me and Manny."
"Why? What happened?"
"I don't know. I wasn't briefed before we left."
"Am I the only one awake?" I asked.
"So far."
"Where's Manny?"
"Watching the perimeter."
"Have you had any sleep?"
"Don't worry about us."
I tugged at my chain. It was long enough that I could leave the room. I walked out the door, peering over the banister as I walked towards the next open door upstairs. I peeked in at Connie. Her room was a light lavender with yellow flowers, almost the reverse of my room. Connie was still dressed in her street clothes. Her shoes were peeking out from the end of the bed. She was snoring softly.
I went to the next door, and found it was closed. When I opened it, Lula's snoring hit me at full volume. I quickly closed the door. She was fine.
"What's going on?" Connie called out.
I hurried back to Connie's room.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you," I said.
Connie's eyes were wide. She took in my hair, my night gown, and the chain in my hand. Then she took in Zero standing behind me.
"What's going on?" she asked again, this time much more slowly. She held her head in her hands like the room was spinning.
"Rangeman put all three of us in protective custody," I told her.
Connie pulled back the covers, and tried to stand, but was stopped when her chain snagged on her other leg. She had rolled around and gotten tangled. I came over to the bed to help her get free. Connie rushed over to the window and made the same assessment I had. We were prisoners.
"What's Ranger thinking? He can't just kidnap people like this. It's illegal," she spouted.
"He can. He did. And He does," I said.
Zero was standing at parade rest in the hall outside Connie's door. "I can bring you breakfast," he suggested.
I nodded, and Zero disappeared down the stairs.
"I can't believe this," Connie said, sinking back on to the bed. "What about work? What about Vinnie? What about Lawrence? We have things going on. A life. He can't just..."
"It had to be life or death, or he wouldn't have done it," I assured her. "Donaldson saw the five of us together yesterday. If he threatened us, Ranger wouldn't take the chance."
Zero was pounding up the stairs with Connie's breakfast. It looked a lot like my breakfast.
"That'll work," Connie said, taking the tray.
"Come on. We can eat in my room," I said. We shuffled back down the hall.
"Is that Lula?" Connie asked, referring to the muffled snoring.
"Yep."
"How did we get here?"
"Helicopter."
"Oh my God," she sighed.
We ate our Butterscotch Krimpets and drank what was a surprisingly superior coffee while we discussed our situation. Zero had returned downstairs once he was convinced we had accepted that there was no point trying to escape.
"This is kind of insulting," Connie complained. "It's like he doesn't trust us."
"Go figure," I said, rolling my eyes. "I wouldn't trust us either, given our record. Besides, we've only got two Rangemen to keep us safe, and that only leaves one at a time to watch us while the other is doing surveillance. If we're being too much trouble, they'll never get any sleep."
"Speaking of sleep, I was really looking forward to seeing the bags under Lawrence's eyes today. That 3:00 alarm must have made him crazy," Connie said with a mirthless little smile. "And we were going to find out about Joyce."
"Maybe we still can," I said, calling for Zero.
He bounded back up the stairs.
"You mentioned that we would have a chance to recharge electrical devices. Can we still use our cell phones?"
"Your phone only," he said. "Connie and Lula had to leave their phones at Rangeman."
"What's so special about your phone?" Connie asked.
"It's Rangeman property. Encrypted, like Ranger's."
"It can't be traced or tri-angulated, and it will scramble your voice so it can't be picked up by monitoring devices. It's safe to use. It's in your bag, in the closet."
"What about my mom? She lives with me. She'll be calling the cops if I'm missing," she said.
"Ranger had her moved to Cranberry Manor while you're gone. She's been told you were called out of town on an emergency."
"What about Vinnie?"
"He was told the same."
"What about Lula? Vinnie will expect someone to show up today."
"Same. You're both out of town on an emergency."
"He'll never buy it," Connie said. "That's the best you could come up with?"
Zero shrugged. "We didn't lie."
"He's got a point," I said.
Connie rolled her eyes. "I'd have preferred a good lie."
We heard a door open and close, and felt a gust of cold air rush up the stairs. Zero went back downstairs to talk to Manny.
I went to the closet and found the duffel bag Ella packed for me. My purse was hanging on a hook on the wall inside the closet. Otherwise, the closet was empty.
Connie ran to her room and found her purse and a black duffel much smaller than mine.
I was dumping my bag onto my bed. Connie's eyes were wide, looking over everything I could need for a month or more. She pulled the zipper on her duffel and found only generic black sweat pants, sweat shirts, and t-shirts, all men's size medium.
"I don't think Ella was prepared for your evacuation," I told her. And I doubt Rangeman even bothers to order anything in men's small. You're probably lucky there were that many mediums."
"I suppose Lula's going to be wearing the same," she said, "Except Tank's size."
"Yeah. It'll be the first time we've ever seen her wearing clothes that fit," I laughed.
Connie dug around in the bag some more. "No underwear?" She looked over the bed at my assortment of underwear and bras.
"Rangemen don't usually wear any," I told her.
Connie froze at the thought. She glanced over at me to see if I was kidding. "Hey, Zero!" she yelled down the stairs.
Oh, boy.