Chapter 6

Southern France

Mike and Jack hadn't been too pleased at all with Elizabeth and Nicole for getting them soaking wet along with their spare clothes. So the two of them had to walk the entire way to the nearest town which they were able to see was not very close. It was hot and muggy as the four of them trekked down a road bordering a boggy bit of terrain that suffocated them with its sheer humidity. At least it wasn't an eye sore, the French countryside was indeed a pretty bit of country to behold.

Jack and Mike had their jackets off, hanging over their shoulders while Nicole and Elizabeth had folded theirs and tucked them into their backpacks. Elizabeth and Nicole had taken their hair out of their pony tails and let it down to protect the back of their neck to keep from getting sunburnt in the high noon.

Low grasses sprinkled with numerous flowers of most descriptions lay along the side of the road, covering the washed up banks of the low ditches on the side of the road as they trudged over a hill and saw their new destination, a sleepy little French village a few miles from the Swiss border between Geneva and Lyon. Nicole had suggested that perhaps they could barter a ride to Geneva and from there head into Italy and continue their quest to find the Shield of Gallia and get it to someone who would see to it that its power would never fall into the hands of power hungry maniacs like Hitler or Mussolini.

Although Jack was able to tell already that there was no train station. This left them with a dilemma as to how to get from here to Geneva, a dilemma that was solved when Mike laid eyes upon a barn on the immediate outskirts. In front of it was a Frenchman who was busying himself laboring over the engine block of what seemed to be a really old flatbed truck with sun worn burgundy paint and an unreadable emblem on the door.

"Look there, I think I've found our ride," Mike said, pointing at the old car.

"You can't be serious," Jack groaned, "Why can't we just get some horses and ride there? At least then I'll be comfortable," he said, stopping only to have to run to catch up as the others jumped onto the idea and followed Mike on the side road to the barn.

"Horses are expensive my friend, and besides, we may be able to get a decent price off that old truck."

"That thing? It's a junker! I would like to remind you that farmer's probably working on it for a reason!" Jack snapped, "Horses don't break as easy as a car."

"And when you're riding a car you don't have something that has a mind of its own in between your legs."

"Oh cars have a mind of their own, at least horses-," Jack was about to say until Elizabeth looked at them and finally settled the argument.

"We don't have much money and Mike can fix just about anything, so we'll try to get that car for a decent price," she said affirmatively, "Oh stop pouting you big baby," she giggled at Jack who was none too pleased.

"I ain't poutin' I'm a might bit ticked. There's gotta be a horse or somethin' I can get my hands on."

"If you can get one be my guest, but good luck seeing as you don't speak, what was it you called it? He used something very good not too long ago, oh yes, you don't speak Frog," Nicole mocked smugly.

"Damned Frenchies," Jack grumbled dejectedly as he admitted defeat.

Mike walked ahead, straightening out his jacket as he motioned for them to stay back.

"I'll take care of this," he said with a wink towards Nicole who just rolled her eyes as he walked up to the Frenchman who now noticed the group walking towards him.

"If he can't can I please get us some horses?" Jack asked.

"Jack, once again, we probably won't be able to afford horses here. But a cheap truck that Mike might be able to fix up is within reach. Just give it a minute, Mike can handle it," Elizabeth said plainly.

The three of them watched as Jack greeted the Frenchman who just gruffly nodded his head to the young American who proceeded to inquire about the busted old truck before them. Mike pointed to the truck, speaking some fluent French that was a bit too quiet to make out properly as the others watched in rapt attention. The Frenchman nodded, responding to Mike's inquiries with a nod towards the car and lifted three fingers to signify a potential price. Mike didn't seemed too pleased with what he'd been told and responded and only got the shake of the man's head and the three fingers telling him what he wanted. So Mike turned and said a quick spat of French to the man and walked back over to the others.

"Well?" Elizabeth asked, fearing the answer.

"He wants three thousand Francs for it, we only have about two hundred dollars left to spend and the exchange rate it what? Twenty-four, twenty-five francs to the dollar?"

"Oui, that depression hit us quite hard, our economy still has not recovered, the exchange rates are still quite bad, but not too bad."

"Well right now it's good enough that we can't afford the car, we need to work that price down."

"Allow me," Nicole stated, handing Jack her bag and walked over but Mike grabbed her by the arm and stopped her.

"Just what do you think you're doing?

"You don't send a man to try and convince another man," Nicole stated with a confident smile.

"Ya don't do what now?" Jack scoffed as she took Mike's hand off of her arm.

They watched as Nicole walked over to the man who turned around with a pleasant smile and started speaking with her. Soon the two were conversing, and Nicole seemed to turn on some real charm as Mike seemed to get annoyed as she let out a clearly rehearsed giggle that was all part of her act. The older Frenchman seemed to be quite a bit more receptive to dealing with her than with Mike. Elizabeth paid her slightly peeved older brother no mind after Nicole spent about two or three minutes talking to the man. But it seemed to end well, as Nicole finally held out her hand and the Frenchman took it and they sealed a deal that Nicole had yet to share with them. So as they were walking back Nicole's face said it all.

"We've got a ride my friends."


Several hours later Jack and Mike found themselves with this beaten up old truck in the alley of a small inn in the center of the little French village. It was a nice little place, with cobbled streets and flowers hanging from pots in people's windows all over through the small streets. It was a quiet place, with the only real gathering place being the main square, where a small fountain sat in front of the town hall and was surrounded by stands set up by nearby farmers selling bread, milk, cheese, grapes, onions, radishes, and other assorted produce. There were also several different cafes along the street with tables underneath umbrellas serving uniquely French dishes. The open air of the market and was able to mix with the scents of the cafes and their fine foods and create a mood of absolute peace that was able to almost make the young adventurers forget the gravity of their situation.

And this constant presence of pressure to get moving forced Mike into immediately rolling up his sleeves and getting to work on the little truck in the confident knowledge that he would be able to get it running. He'd quickly figured out the problem with Nicole's help, narrowing the problem down to the fuel injectors of the small diesel engine. However this is where the two immediately began butting heads about how to fix it.

"I'm telling you Nicole we can just flush it out with some water to get the gunk out and it'll be fixed. I've seen this on Model T's all the time, their fuel lines get clogged up all the time," Mike said pointing at the rubber fuel lines in question with great exasperation.

"Oh and how do we do that? This isn't exactly a well-equipped garage Michael," Nicole responded with equal tenacity, "We should just clean it off and it should be fine. This is a French truck, not one of your cheap American carts."

"Hey don't you go talking bad about Ford or Buick! We were driving cross country when you people were still galloping along in little wooden carts and picking up your horses' shit off the street," Mike snapped back.

"Hey don't you go talking bad about horses Mike or I'll kick your ass," Jack piped up, "If you'd followed my advice we'd be twenty miles down the road and not having to worry about gas or maintenance or any of this black magic."

"It's not magic, it's science and engineering, something you don't know anything about," Mike growled without turning around.

"My daddy had a truck you know. And all I know is that when it started acting funny you hit it with a stick and everything was fine."

"And did it act funny more and more often? I can guess why it did that," Nicole chuckled.

"What do you mean guess?" Mike laughed along with her.

At this moment Elizabeth walked out of the inn that they were next to. She'd made certain they'd be able to reserve a room in the event that they wouldn't be able to fix the truck before nightfall. They were getting tired from not sleeping in well over a day while running around and fighting German spies at the same time, and it was starting to show.

"How's it coming?" Elizabeth asked as she was noticed by her companions.

"Well we've got the problem narrowed down but its solution is not so simple. I think we should wash out the trucks fuel lines and make sure the flow is right. Nicole seems to think that cleaning the injectors will fix the issue. But it could be worse, the timing of the cylinders could be off or the injectors could be damaged so we got off fairly lucky with this one," Mike stated, "We even got a full tank of gas."

"That's good," Elizabeth breathed in relief, "How long until you can fix it?"

"That depends, if we go with my suggestion we'll need to take off each of the fuel lines and blow them out with either air or water and then put 'em back. That could take an hour, maybe two if these bolts aren't in great shape, which seems to be the case," Mike stated, looking at several of the nuts and bolts and shaking his head in irritation.

"But if we take out the injectors we'd maybe take fifteen minutes with each of them, since there are four cylinders and thus four injectors we'd be gone in an hour tops," Nicole stated plainly and confidently.

"Yes but that's only true if you don't damage one of them in the process," Mike pointed out.

"Why don't you both do it?" Jack grumbled, "Stop arguing and do it already and let me get some shut eye."

"He's right, we need to hurry up here. And Jack you're coming with me, we probably need some provisions and there's safety in numbers. Also having someone wearing a gun on their belt is a good deterrent," Elizabeth stated, eliciting a groan from Jack.

"Glad I brought my gun now aren't you?" he grumbled.

"Don't you go starting that again!"

Jack stood up, stretching a little bit as he followed Elizabeth out into the open market square. It wasn't all that busy, but there were people around. Many gave Jack some odd looks but didn't seem to care in the least. Elizabeth seemed not to care either, as she knew exactly what she wanted.

"Okay we'll need some bread firstly, and this is France so they'll have that in abundance and it'll be cheap. I think we'll also need some meat and probably some cheese."

"It should be smoked or salted so it'll keep for a long time. I'm seeing a bunch of different fruits and veggies we might also look to get if we have the cash," Jack noted.

"Okay good we should get some fruits and veggies and um…how much do you think we'll need?" Elizabeth asked.

"Oh probably a few different fruits and veggies, and a few pounds of meat and a half dozen loaves of bread," Jack shrugged, "I'd assume we don't want to use the long ones so those small circular ones probably?"

"Yeah I'd say so," Elizabeth said, but seemed detached as if she weren't paying attention.

"Lizzy?" Jack whispered, getting her attention and made her whirl around to look at him from where she'd been looking about.

"I'm okay, just, it feels like we're being watched," she said with worry laced through her voice.

"Listen you're scared and paranoid. I mean, you've been held at gunpoint by Nazis and then shot at by them. Come on, we're alright for now. There's no way they'd be here, especially with the thrashing we gave them last night."

"But what if," Elizabeth paused, looking around, "What if they're here? Are we making a mistake by continuing like this?"

"You said it yourself, this is bigger than a treasure hunt now," Jack shrugged, "This could be very dangerous if we don't at least try."

"But it'll be even more dangerous for us if we continue. I don't want any you to get hurt because of me," Elizabeth replied sadly, guilt evident in her voice.

"Well, either way we're in danger. Might as well do something about it," Jack smiled, placing his hand on her shoulder.

"Easy for you to say, you're a real cowboy. Danger is something you're used to. I'm just some city girl in over her head."

"The city girl I saw on the train sure didn't look over her head. You looked like you knew what you were doing when we were fighting them Nazis," Jack chuckled.

"What?"

"You're not some dainty little doll Lizzy. If you were what you say you are we wouldn't have even made it this far."

"You-you really think so? I'm not some…you know, damsel or weak link?"

"Well if I had to guess I'd say no one wants to be the damsel. And weak link is subjective. Whenever Mike or that Frenchy girl start jabbering about stuff like cars I don't have a clue what's goin' on. If things come to fightin' I'm just opposite I reckon," Jack shrugged.

"I guess I never thought about it like that," Elizabeth responded, taking in the surprisingly wise words.

"You've had other things on your mind."

Elizabeth smiled lightly at that, "Yeah I guess I have. Thank you Jack."

"Hey, you brought me for a reason didn't ya?" Jack chuckled.

"I just wasn't expecting this to be one of them," Elizabeth stated sourly as she walked over to a vendor with many different loaves of bread on their stand. She ordered a dozen rolls, paying six dollars for them and had Jack carry them.

This continued with Elizabeth choosing to get some salted and smoked ham, some green and red onions, a few radishes, and some dried peaches. She also grabbed themselves a small pot to be able to make some soup with along with four bowls and the forks and spoons that they came with. Half way through this trip Jack had been forced by necessity to borrow a small cart to drag their newly acquired provisions back. By now Mike and Nicole had dissembled the engine's components and were going about their respective repairs. Nicole had the injectors of each cylinder already off, and was going over them very carefully, cleaning them with a small white cloth, removing the black gunk on them. And after she had finished she reapplied some grease and put them back to the side and moved to the next one.

Mike was taking off the gas lines, one by one, being careful not to spill any of the gasoline onto the ground. He carefully took each one of them and blew out anything that may have been clogging the lines and used a thin wire with a small rag to clean them out. After each of them had been cleaned out he returned each line to their proper place. He was moving deliberately but with no small amount hustle to his pace. It seemed as though their argument had been replaced by a drive to get things done and so far, they were getting very much done.

"How's it going?" Elizabeth asked, walking over and leaning on the front of the truck.

"Faster than we thought. This engine isn't what the truck had been built with, which is good, because this own is a beauty. Its designer clearly had ease of repair in mind when he designed it," Mike said as finished tightening a bolt onto the main fuel line.

"In other words we might be able to leave within the hour," Nicole simplified for everyone.

"Great, Jack and I got some supplies for the trip so we're just waiting on the truck to get running."

"What all did you get?" Nicole asked.

"Some bread, meat, cheese, and a few assorted vegetables for the pot along with some dried peaches."

"Alright, looks like we're good for food now. Let's get this truck moving so we can get to Italy."

"I'm on my last injector Lizzy, so we should be good to go once I get them all back in place," Nicole said, cleaning off the final fuel injector and once finished she started putting them all back, one by one.

It was a complex process, requiring some real patience and finesse. But thankfully it was what Nicole was best at. And with lightning quick movements she managed to place them all right back where they belonged. About halfway through her work Mike had finished his own work and made sure that everything else on the car was the way it needed to be until Nicole finished up.

"Alright, start her up, let's see if all this work has been worth it," Mike grinned, knowing that the most likely outcome now was a working engine.

Nicole opened the squeaky door and sat down in the driver's seat. She then twisted the key and the engine began turning over. It was expected that the engine wouldn't start immediately, as it needed to get fuel into the fuel lines and into cylinders. But after a few seconds the engine sputtered weakly into life. It sounded like it wanted to die, but after a few revs of the gas the engine began hitting its stride and its rumbling grew ever healthier. It was working, and working well.

"No need to applaud but a thank you would suffice," Mike grinned widely as he bowed in self appreciation.

"And how do you know it wasn't me that actually fixed it Mike?" Nicole asked crossly, not appreciating how she believed that she was the one who'd done the actual work that had gotten the engine working.

"Let's get moving. Mike help Jack load the stuff into the back. We've got somewhere to be."

Jack couldn't help but chuckle at Elizabeth's new confidence and get-up-and-go attitude. It didn't seem like the nervous and scared Elizabeth he'd seen a half hour ago. This was the Elizabeth that had started out on a mission. And now she and all of them were hell-bent on finishing it.

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