Chapter Forty nine
Lying Eyes
Nadir and Shade combed the grounds. Wiping the sweat from his brow, Nadir reflected, "You do know we aren't dealing with a novice here?"
Shade studied the third floor window, "Well she does have guts. She climbed down that tree, and was outta here."
"She wouldn't have taken any of the bigger trails. We are so far back in the wilderness she would have zig-zagged to the road," Nadir mused.
"Didn't you say she couldn't heal the boss' face anyway? Why would he want to keep her? It would be a good thing for her to disappear under the grid. Except.. she knows the way here."
"Did you know what he wanted all along? I thought she was a Machaeon spy, wanted by Core." Shade pondered.
"Yes and no. Agent Zane did order her capture. Erik didn't tell me anything else, I figured it out on my own. He hoped she could heal his face.
"There is a bigger issue now. I saw in Erik's eyes something I thought I would never see again since Sorelli."
"Who is Sorelli? What do you mean," Shade tossed Nadir a water bottle and a rag, in order for the elder man to rid his brow of the perspiration gathering there.
Nadir gathered up a garbage sack and stuck it in Shade's back pocket, "We need to look like we are looking for aluminum cans."
Retracing their steps out to the road, Nadir wrestled with one of the Phantom's secrets.
Walking along the side of the road the men looked for footprints.
"Sorelli used to be an Agent for Core. Or so we thought. Come to find out she was a double agent, with allegiance to Machaeon. Sometime in the early eighties Erik and she were thrown together as a team.
"Being the good undercover she was, Sorelli ignored the mask. Never having a relationship with a woman, except my Rookheya, Erik fell hard. She was tall, with long flowing blonde hair and very intelligent.
"Sorelli used it to her benefit. Thankfully, Erik never revealed anything important," Nadir stopped and rubbed his neck, "Just his heart."
"Damn," Shade growled.
"Yeah," Nadir echoed.
"She twisted him in every way, and then disappeared. Not long after, he learned she had inherited the top position at Machaeon."
"So she knows…"
"Yeah, she knows he is a double spy. She keeps it in her 'someday it might be useful, file'. Erik makes sure her information is, shall I say, mostly incorrect?"
"What does that have to do with Ms. Daae," Shade poked around under a small pile of hay, "I don't see anything but where some farmer rode by on a hay wagon," the young man grumbled.
"Erik was looking at her the way he did Sorelli in the beginning," Nadir almost squeaked as he backed away from a snake crossing the road.
"Damn," Shade repeated.
"Yeah. But the strange thing is…she was giving off a strange vibe…Might just be me, I don't meet a healer every day," on that statement Nadir crossed his fingers, "She surely wasn't aware…but attraction floated in the air."
"Crap and double crap," groaned Shade.
The two men noticed a dilapidated car slow down, "Here is some more for you, Hoss," a teen threw a carton full of used aluminum beer cans in front of Nadir. Laughter filled the car as it sped away.
Nadir rejoined with a few foreign expletives under his breath.
Christine bought makeup and hair coloring along with a pair of scissors. She had sweated it out until the credit card was approved.
Next door was a used clothing shop. Purchasing some over- large nondescript clothing, and a pretty cushion, she walked outside and noted a small movie theatre. A matinee was playing in a few minutes.
Following a giggling family in, she broke off and entered the restroom. Once she heard the booming of the speakers she started to work. Sadly, taking a deep breath, she cut her long curly hair.
Flushing the long strands, she silently apologized to the plumber. The curls she left automatically tightened into curly shag. Donning the clothes, she stuffed the pillow under her shirt. Voila! Instant pregnancy.
Leaving the theatre, blinking in the bright light, she noticed a rental business. Annemarie Likens rented a car and sped east.
"Did the two of you find anything," the Phantom's grip was tight upon the cell phone.
"Nope, nothing here. Don't guess there were any cars except maybe a hay wagon and a carload of teenaged hoodlums."
Erik's jaw tightened, "Darius and I will drive into town. Maybe she hitched a ride with someone."
For such a small town, they had come up with a blank. Because it was a small town, they couldn't mimic police and ask for surveillance cameras. That would draw unwanted attention.
"Let's see if she rented a car," Erik indicated a small business on the outskirts of town.
Darius walked in. A young woman with a company logo baseball cap sat on a stool behind the desk. She eyed him balefully before popping her gum in a rude manner, "What can I do for you," she asked in an aggressive tone. Before Darius could answer, she raised the blinds and perused the SUV.
"Have you seen…,"
"Look buddy. You should be taking care of your sister instead of buddying up with the dead-head husband of hers."
Darius blanched, "Dead-head," he questioned to himself, "Excuse me?"
"You are too late. If I were pregnant and my husband beat me, my brother would've gelded him."
Darius' head swam in confusion.
"I hope she makes it into Mexico soon. I hope you follow and some Mexican dude sharpens his knife on his privates. Getting hurt in a fire and having to wear a mask is no reason to beat a woman."
An older woman glared around an office door, Darius nodded and exited the hostile room.
Sweating buckets, Darius slid behind the wheel. Swallowing, he repeated what the girl had spouted. He jumped when the Phantom hit the back of the seat with his fist.
Chills ran down Darius' spine, the masked man had begun to laugh hysterically. "It was her. What a story! She made a fatal mistake. Who else, pregnant or no, would be trailed by a man in a mask?"
The warehouse was in the middle of a long row of storage buildings. The outside looked dilapidated but the inside was pristine and clean. The building had been used for sewing and storing uniforms.
The up stairs was divided into several smaller rooms. Ancient industrial sewing machines filled two of them. Sari nodded in satisfaction, "You can live in these rooms and the lab can be housed below. Plenty of room to manufacture an airplane."
"I'm tired," Cole rubbed his eyes, "I miss Mommy and Daddy and Anya."
Green perused the boy as Alan picked the child up, "I am going to buy some new sleeping bags, young man. What kind would you want?"
Cole turned and looked at Carlotta, "Can I have Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles, so I can be a Ninja like Carlotta?"
Green grinned at Carlotta's surprised snort, "Yes. What would you want to eat?"
"Well, I don't really like them, but Mommy said I needed to eat my vegetables so I could grow up big and strong. So, vegetables would be fine."
Cole looked at Alan and back at the rest of the men, "Alan must not have eaten his vegetables…"
Carlotta loosed her first real laugh in days. Alan gave her a lofty look and replied, "Well fish is brain food and I ate a lot of that growing up."
