Twenty-four
After Ed Slonaker and his wife, Kim, finished their meal with their new friend, Elijah Pike, they strolled back down the gravel path toward their cabin in the lodge at Jasper National Park.
As they walked, Ed put his arm around Kim’s waist and leaned over to kiss her on the neck. She moaned softly under her breath. “Is that a not-too-subtle message for me or are you just being unusually romantic tonight?” she asked, leaning into the kiss.
Ed smiled and waggled his eyebrows. “And if I told you I can’t wait to get back to our cabin so I can eat you up, what would you say?” he murmured in a hoarse whisper.
She turned to him and put her arms around his neck and kissed him full on the mouth. “Then I’d say that we need to go on vacation more often.”
A nearby elk, grazing on the sweet grass of the lodge grounds, raised his head and stared briefly at the two humans making out in the moonlight. He snorted through his nose as he caught a whiff of their scent on the evening breeze, his eyes widening and his head lowering so that his massive rack of horns would protect him in case of an attack by these strange beings.
Keeping his head down and his eyes on the pair, he slowly backed away, shaking his horns a bit to show them he wasn’t afraid, until he was back in a nearby copse of trees. Once he was in the shadows, he turned and galloped away, raising his nose and trumpeting a warning to the cows that were also grazing nearby.
Kim glanced over Ed’s shoulder at the departing elk as Ed’s hands roamed over her breasts, making her breath come in short gasps. “I think we’d better get indoors, dear, we seem to be scaring the wildlife.”
Once they were in their room, Kim kissed him quickly on the mouth and headed for the bathroom to take a shower. “Don’t start without me,” she called over her shoulder as she slowly shut the door.
Ed sat on the edge of the bed, his eyes thoughtful. Finally making up his mind, he picked up the phone on the nightstand and made a call to Banff.
After a couple of rings, a deep voice answered, “Ashby here.”
“Hey, John,” Ed said to his chief of intelligence and longtime friend.
“Hello, Ed. What are you doing calling me? I thought you were on vacation.”
“I am, but I need you to do me a favor before we get back.”
“Yeah?” Ashby answered.
“When you get to the office tomorrow, would you get on the computer and find out everything you can about a man from the states named Elijah Pike?”
“Just a minute, let me get a pencil and write this down,” Ashby said. A moment later, he was back on the line. “Okay, Elijah Pike. No middle initial?”
“If there is I don’t know it,” Ed answered. “He’s supposed to be a medical doctor coming up to Banff to do some research with the wildlife people, so he ought to be pretty easy to check out.”
“Do you know anything else about him?”
“Nope, just that he doesn’t smell right, and I’d like to find out if he’s who he says he is.”
Ashby was quiet for a moment, and then he asked, “What was your initial impression of him?”
Ed shook his head, even though Ashby couldn’t see it over the phone. “I don’t know. He’s a pretty hard guy to read. At times he seems okay, but there’s something about him that doesn’t fit the picture of a doctor up here to do research. Find out what you can and let me know, all right?”
“Sure, boss. You still due back day after tomorrow?”
“Yeah, and I almost forgot, Pike has supposedly rented a cabin up near the border to the park there in Banff. Run it through all the rental agencies and see if you can get a line on just where he’s going to be staying.”
“Will do. Leave it to me, Ed, and you and Kim enjoy your last couple of nights. Quit worrying about all this stuff. Remember, you’re supposed to be on vacation.”
“Okay, John. See you in a couple,” Ed said and hung up the phone just as Kim emerged from the bathroom in a pink, see-through nightie.
As she stood posed in the doorway, the light behind her outlining her beautiful figure, Ed growled and bared his teeth. “Come here you,” he said, his voice husky with lust, “I’ve got something to show you.”
Her eyes dropped to the bulge in his lap and she grinned. “Oh, I think I see it already.”
Ed stood up and began to jerk his clothes off as she moved toward him. “How does it look?” he asked as he dropped his pants to the floor.
Kim licked her lips and reached out for him. “Delicious!”
* * *
Matt Carter parked the car in the long-term parking lot of the Austin airport, and the four friends walked into the terminal.
While he and Shooter went to the airport restaurant to order them all some food, Sam and TJ took seats in the passenger area well away from anyone who might overhear them. TJ took out her cell phone and dialed Elijah’s number.
When he answered, TJ said, “Elijah, we’re at the destination you directed us to. What do you want us to do now?”
“Give me a minute while I check out my atlas.” There was silence on the phone for a moment, and then Elijah was back. “I think your best bet is to fly to Spokane, Washington. Pay cash for the tickets.” he said. “I’ll wire nine-thousand dollars to the airport and have it waiting at the customer service counter for you under the name Sally Ford.”
TJ interrupted to ask, “Why nine-thousand dollars?”
“Because banks have to report transactions of ten-thousand dollars or more to the feds, and we don’t know how extensive Morpheus’s contacts are.”
“What do we do then?” she asked.
“I want you to buy a good, used four-wheel-drive SUV, because you’re going to be driving though some rough country and you’re liable to go through some heavy weather.”
“Okay, where do we go from Spokane?”
“You’d better get a pen and write this down, it’s complicated.”
TJ fumbled in her purse for a few seconds and then she said, “Shoot.”
“Take US Route 2 north to Sandpoint, Idaho, it’s about 75 miles. From Sandpoint, take US-95 north to the Canadian border. Once you’ve crossed into Canada, take Provincial 95, then Provincial 3 and then head east on the Trans-Canada 1 until you get to Banff, Alberta. Go to the Banff Springs Hotel. It’s very large and will be full of other tourists so you won’t stand out. I’ll have a couple of rooms reserved for you under my name. Contact me when you get there and I’ll give you further directions on how to find me.”
“But, Elijah, how are we going to get across the border without passports or giving our names?” she asked.
She could hear Elijah sigh heavily into the phone, as if irritated by her lack of imagination. “TJ, didn’t you tell me that you and Sam have quit taking your treatments?”
“Yes.”
“Well, then, between the two of you, your mental powers should be strong enough by now to cloud some bored border crossing guard’s mind and get you into the country.”
“Oh,” she said, “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“And TJ,” he added, his voice becoming softer.
“Yes, Elijah?”
“Please be careful. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
TJ blushed and smiled. “I know, Elijah. We’ll see you soon.”
* * *
TJ and Sam went into the small restaurant area and sat at the table with the men.
“Okay, TJ,” Shooter said, his voice slightly sarcastic. “What did the guru have to say?” It was obvious to all of them that Shooter was having a hard time dealing with Pike and had still not quite forgiven him for getting them all, and TJ especially, into this mess in the first place.
She recounted her conversation with Pike, wisely leaving out his personal message to her, and then she gave all her attention to the hamburger Shooter had ordered for her.
“Canada?” Matt asked, frowning. “What the hell is he doing up there?”
Sam wiped mustard from her own hamburger off the corner of her mouth and answered, “Remember, he told us months ago that he was going to try and work with Dr. Bartholomew Wingate over at McGill University to try and improve the treatments we’ve been taking.”
“But,” Matt argued, “McGill is in Toronto, as I recall. Why is Pike staying in Banff?”
Sam shrugged. “I don’t know. Perhaps he thinks it’s safer there since he knows there are still quite a few . . .” she hesitated over the words for a second, and then continued in a lower voice, “vampyres who are against this research. Maybe he’s trying not to draw attention to Wingate to keep him safe, since as far as we know none of the others know who helped Elijah devise the treatment.”
“That’s probably it,” TJ agreed around a mouthful of her burger. “And like he says, he can do his research just about anywhere as long as he has a phone and a fax to keep in touch with Wingate.”
Shooter’s eyes narrowed. “And do you girls think Pike is right? Can you really mess with a guy’s mind enough to get us across the border?”
TJ winked at Sam and patted Shooter’s arm as she gave him her most innocent smile. “Of course, dear. After all, I’ve been messing with yours for weeks now.”
Shooter’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. “What? How . . . ?”
TJ and Sam both laughed. “Just kidding, sweetheart,” TJ said soothingly.
Shooter calmed down and glanced at Matt. “Can you believe these two?” he asked.
Matt laughed. “Actually, I can, Shooter ol’ boy. Messing with your mind would be almost too easy for them since it’s already so screwed up.”