Sorry for the delay; I thought I'd published this several days ago, but evidently I got distracted before I completed the task! Special thanks to KJay99 for all your time and effort on this project.
"This was a great idea," Myka said with a smile as she practically bounded towards the car. Leena smiled serenely back at her companion. There wasn't much, even in their strange world, that couldn't be fixed by a good massage, followed by manicure, pedicure, and tame curls that somebody else had done the work to accomplish.
"Unfortunately, we still have to go home and get some work done," Leena said, "but we've only got to put dinner on for ourselves and Artie. Should go quickly." Myka smiled even more fully at that. Leena often did much of the work involved in caring for the B&B, so the agents could focus more fully on work, but Myka pitched in often enough to know that feeding five people was not as small a production as she would have thought. As Leena turned the car out of the parking lot and homeward, Myka slid a classical music disc into the stereo and let her eyes drift closed. She'd needed this break, badly, and she wasn't quite ready for it to end. Leena glanced over periodically, watching the agent draw deep, cleansing breaths during the entire drive back home.
"That's strange," Leena said, shaking Myka from her meditative state. Her eyes opened to reveal the B&B, looking just as they had left it that morning.
"What's strange?" Myka asked.
Leena pointed at the time displayed on the car stereo screen. "Five o'clock. Artie's usually here by now, and rummaging through my kitchen, eating as if he's forgotten dinner's going to be on the table in an hour," she said, a mix of amusement and annoyance almost concealing her concern... almost. Myka's brow furrowed at Leena's observation, before she blew out a deep breath.
"He's probably gotten sucked into Pete and Claudia's case, and lost track of time," Myka pointed out. It wasn't often that Artie forgot about dinner, but it had been known to happen from time to time. "He said it was an easy case, after all. It probably fell apart on them as soon as we left this morning," she rationalized, and Leena nodded in agreement, and the two bounded inside and into the kitchen to begin preparing dinner, their concern abated.
Leena was preparing a fruit salad when she suddenly realized she was seeing some kind of motion at the edge of her visual field. Glancing over, she realized it was a flashing indicator on a cell phone.
"Myka, I think you've got a voicemail or something," she said over her shoulder toward the taller woman, who was fileting chicken breasts to grill. Myka hummed noncommittally as she washed her hands, and picked up her phone to check messages. Her curious look turned to one of such seriousness that Leena stopped what she was doing, leaving a half-formed melon ball when she reached for a damp dishcloth to wipe her hands on.
"Leena, you need to hear this," Myka muttered, as she put her phone on speaker, and replayed the message.
Artie's tinny voice projected from the tiny speaker. "Myka! Why aren't you..." he paused to sigh loudly into the phone. "When you get this, I... ping. Some guy going psycho in California, uh Yosemite...you... ow!.. who puts a post in the middle of a walkway... get on the next flight out there. .. ICU and beat his wife. So, just... just meet me out there and CALL me back!" The call abruptly cut off, and Myka wasn't sure how much of the strange message was just Artie being Artie, and how much of it was a connection problem. Leena and Myka stared at each other for a moment before both leaped for their cell phones, Myka calling Artie back and Leena making arrangements for Myka to leave as soon as possible.
"Why didn't you have your phone with you?" Artie snapped as soon as he picked up Myka's call.
"I left it at home because they don't allow them in the spa," Myka explained, feeling just a tad defensive. "Leena had hers in the car; why didn't you call it?"
"I'm in Denver already," Artie said, charging into his conversation without bothering to answer Myka's question. "You may have already missed the last flight to California for the day, but... just get out here. We've got a guy going totally nuts, even though he is, by all accounts, the most mild-mannered guy in all recorded history. It's got to be some kind of artifact, I just can't figure... just call me when you get here!" With that, he simply hung up on his agent, who rolled her eyes. Leena pointed towards the stairs and mouthed "pack," and Myka didn't need any further instructions. She ran upstairs and ripped open her duffel bag, taking mere moments to inventory the supplies within, and launch a few more articles of clothing in to round out her bag of gear. Leena was already by the front door when Myka thundered back down the stairs, grabbing a light jacket off her coat hook as she passed it, and the two were back in the car in a matter of moments.
"Artie thinks I've already missed the last flight for today," Myka said, shooting a questioning look at Leena.
"I've made other arrangements," the innkeeper said as she pulled the car onto the road, not bothering to explain any further just yet. Myka wanted to ask more, but it really didn't matter, she realized as she watched the scenery whiz by. She was a little surprised at Leena's driving; the woman was known for being calm and in-control, following the speed limit religiously. But this time, they were doing nearly 30 over. It didn't take them long to get to the local airfield at that rate. Usually they parked at the double-wide trailer that had been pressed into duty as a passenger terminal, back when dinosaurs still roamed the earth. But this time, Leena drove around to a hangar, and parked practically side by side with a quite small plane. Myka considered the woman leaning against the doorway of the aircraft in casual attire, then shot a questioning look at Leena, who only leaped out of the car and grabbed Myka's bag to pass up to the other woman.
"Myka, I'd like to introduce you to Joanne, Mrs. Frederic's personal pilot," Leena said. Even in her most terse, rushed moments, Myka observed, Leena was still grace personified. "Joanne, Myka needs to get as near to Yosemite National Park as humanly possible."
"You want me to land her, or just give her a chute and toss her out?" the woman asked. Only the sparkle in her eyes clued Myka in that she was joking... Myka hoped that meant she was joking, anyway.
"Doesn't matter as long as she gets there in one piece!" Leena shouted as she ran back to her car. "I've got to get to the warehouse to coordinate resources." Myka's eyes went wide at that. It doesn't matter if the plane landed or not before she disembarked? And this Joanne woman, in spite of being a couple inches shorter than Myka, looked like she was perfectly capable of shoving a passenger out of the plane if she wanted to! "Self," she heard her mind say as she took a couple timid steps up the stairs towards the plane, "this is perhaps not the most intelligent thing to do." Suddenly, Myka found herself rethinking this whole secret service career plan, and wondering if it wasn't too late to get an accounting degree and run the bookstore with her parents.