Listening to his favorite music on the radio, Peter finds himself driving down the interstate. Tapping his fingers on the steering wheel, bobbing his head with the beat of the drums coming through the speakers, he tries to not think about the huge task before him of finding Jacob and convincing him to go to Plum Island. After driving through the night to make it to the small little town where Jacob is suppose to be living, he finds himself more awake than he thought he would be. “Just a few more miles,” he thinks to himself as he approaches the sign telling him that his turn off is just a couple more miles ahead.
He turns off the interstate onto the off ramp, then down the country road and into the small town. Pulling into the little town, he looks around to see all of the buildings that line the main street. He slowly drives into town, and can’t get his eyes off of the buildings that remind him of the set of an old cowboy movie. The tops of the buildings are all squared off, and the front walks are all covered and the roof of the walkway continues from one end of the road all the way down to the other end of town. He is in awe of the look of the town, it was to him was like going back in time to the eighteen hundreds. He eventually finds the restaurant in the middle of the town. Thinking that since it is a small town, everyone will know everyone else, and if he is going to have a chance of finding Jacob then the restaurant will be his best bet. It will not hurt that he is hungry from driving through the night and still needing some breakfast in his stomach.
He pulls the car into the parking spot just outside the front door of the restaurant. He steps out of the car, pausing to stretch his arms and legs from the long drive. He glances around the town, and sees people going to and from each of the businesses, some of them taking a look at the new face in town. He wants to seem friendly, so he nicely waves to a few of the people walking down the sidewalk. When he does not get a wave back, he figured it was time to just go inside and get a bite to eat and to see if he can get some information from someone in there.
He walks into the front door of the restaurant, and just like in the old movies, the door strikes a bell that was hanging just above it and the familiar “ding” rings out. When he steps inside, he sees about a dozen people sitting at different tables around the restaurant. They are all talking until he walks in, then there is a pause in the conversations, as they all took a moment to see the stranger walking in. He smiled, trying to seem friendly, and found himself a table in the corner up by the front main window. He sits down, noticing that the napkins and the table cloth are matching, and it looks like he was sitting down at a table getting ready to have a tea party, all that was missing now was the women and the tea cups. As he was looking around the walls and seeing all of the old tools hanging around, he is approached by the waitress.
He looks to the woman approaching him, and he sees an attractive brunette, with the typical waitress outfit. She had on the knee length dress with the apron around her waist and the lace hair piece holding back the bangs. She was carrying a menu in one hand and in the other hand she had the water pitcher. She walked over to him and said,
“Welcome to May’s, here is your menu, I will give you a few minutes to look it over and decide what you would like, I will be back with you in a few moments.”
“Thank you.” Peter told her as she turned to walk back to go attend to some of the other patrons.
He looked over the menu, then he turned and looked out the window. Across the street from the restaurant, he saw the local gun shop. Parked out in front of the shop was a camouflaged pickup truck along with several motorcycles. It was the first time that he had seen a truck painted in that fashion. He could not help but giggle to himself a little at the sight of the truck. He shook his head a little bit, but then his attention on the truck was interrupted by the sound of a soft voice,
“Have you decided what you would like?” The waitress asked as she stood by his table with her pad in her hand waiting for his order.
“I guess I will just take a couple eggs over easy and some bacon.” Peter answered as he was handing her the menu back.”
“Alright, I will get that order in right away.” She answered as she took the menu and put the pad back into her apron.
“Do you mind if I ask you a question?” Peter asked her as he leaned back in his chair and looked at her, trying to seem harmless.
“Sure, just be quick, I have other customers to wait on.” She answered him as she chomped on her gum and stood there giving him a look as if she was in a hurry to be on her way.
“Is there a Jacob Williams that lives around here? He is retired military and probably tries not to be around people too often.”
“Well, if he don’t want to be around people then why would I know the guy?” She answered with a tone that screamed to him that she was just wanting to go about her business.
“I was just hoping to find him, I have a job offer that I am hoping he will be interested in.” Peter said, trying to get her to ease up and maybe give him the information that he was looking for.
“Well, there is one Jacob that lives just outside of town, down the main road. He was in the military, the Rangers I think. He is a pretty private guy, he don’t like visitors unless they are invited. Trust me, he don’t invite too many people to his place.” She said as she was turning to walk away.
“Thank you for the information.” Peter told her as she walked away from him.
He then turned and looked out the window and glanced down the road as far as he could see. Wondering if it was the same Jacob that he was looking for, and if he was going to be welcomed when he showed up or if he was going to be shot down in the drive way. As he was staring down the street through the window, his attention was drawn back to the gun shop by the front door opening and a man stepping out. He saw a man walking out of the gun shop carrying a rifle case and wearing all camouflage clothing. He watched as the man walked over to the camo truck. The guy laid the gun case into the back bed of the truck, then he watched as the guy looked around as he opened the door and got into the truck.
Peter watched the man as he wondered if the guy getting into the truck was Jacob. He noticed that the man in camo had a short cut haircut, and looked every bit the part of a man that had been in the military. He watched the guy until he had pulled out of the parking spot and drove off out of sight in the truck. He watched the guy go down the road and was some what excited thinking that the man may just be the guy he is there to see.
“Here is your breakfast, I hope you enjoy it and is there anything else that I can get for you?” The waitress asked as she came to the table and sat the plate down in front of Peter.
“No thank you, this will be just fine. What kind of truck does Jacob drive?”
“He drives an F150.” She answered as she went to walk away.
“Excuse me, would it be a camouflaged truck?” Peter asked before she could walk away.
“Yeah I think it is.” She replied as she walked away to wait on other customers.
Peter went about eating his breakfast and wondering how he is going to start the conversation with Jacob once he is able to find his house. Once he was finished eating, the waitress walked over to his table and began to pick up the dishes from in front of him.
“Is there anything else I can get for you?” The waitress asked as she picked up the plates.
“No thank you, just a little bit more information if you don’t mind.” Peter asked as he reached around to his back pocket to retrieve his wallet to pay his bill.
“What?”
“You said that Jacob lives just outside of town right?”
“Right.”
“Just down the road in that direction?” Peter asked as he pointed out the window and in the direction that he had seen the truck drive off in.
“Yeah, that’s right, about a mile out of town. There is a long gravel drive that leads up to a big white house, that is where he lives. But I warn you to be careful, he does not like uninvited guests.” The waitress warned as she took the dishes away from the table.
“Thanks for the warning.” Peter said as he walked out the front door of the restaurant. When he stepped out onto the sidewalk, he looked down the road in the direction where he saw the truck drive and took a look to see where he was going to go. He walked over and got into his car. He pulled out of the parking spot and headed off into that direction of town to go and find Jacob’s house. As he was driving out of town, he looked into his rear view mirror and noticed a black car that had come out of no where and was now just behind him. He was not sure if he was just being paranoid, or if there really may be a threat. The same kind of threats that you hear about when you hear stories of how people in a small town stick together and look out for each other.
Peter turned off of the road onto a small gravel area that was at the side of the road, he was wanting to see if the car was going to pull over with him or drive on past. To his relief, the car passed right by him and went on down the road without even slowing down for him to pull over. “I was hoping that didn’t go sour really fast,” Peter said to himself as he took a deep breath and pulled back out into the road to find the drive to Jacob’s house. He drove on down the road, going over in his head how he was going to approach Jacob and what he was going to say to try and convince him to take the job. As he was going over in his head what he was going to say, he found the drive that would take him to the house. He pulled off the highway, and onto the gravel road, driving to the house checking out all of the woods that ran along the sides of the drive.
“Why am I not surprised that he would live in a place like this,” he thought as he looked around at the seclusion that the area offered. As he rounded the curve in the drive the house came into view. There he saw the big two story, Victorian style house, it had the paint beginning to peel in places. There were big columns on the front porch, and some of the shutters on the upper level were falling sideways as if the house had been abandoned for decades. It reminded him of some of the stories he would hear about old haunted houses, and thought that this is the house that they were describing in those tales. To the one side of the house was a little wooden shed, it must have been there when the house was first built, the roof was in very poor shape, and the old wooden doors looked as if they would not be able to close or open even if someone wanted to move them.
On the other side of the house was a large metal pole barn building. It had two very large doors that slid out to the sides to get them open. Between the pole building and the house was a large garden, full of tomato plants and radish shoots coming out of the ground. He looked all around the house and buildings, looking for any signs of life or any movement that would say that someone was around. He could not see anyone, but over next to the metal building he could see the back end of a camouflaged truck. Just the back quarter of the pickup bed was visible from his point of view. He pulled up to the front of the house, stopping just in front of the big steps that lead up to that big front porch. He opened the car door and stepped out of the car. As he was shutting the car door, he could hear all of the birds singing their songs, and as he looked all around he still could not see anyone and there were no signs of anyone being around. He looked up at the big front door, and began to walk to the stairs and up to the porch. He could hear the old stairs creaking with each step that he took up, for a moment wondering if they were going to collapse under the weight of his steps. He stepped up onto the porch, and stopped and turned around to have another look around to see if he could see anyone around on the property. He looked and listened but he could not see anyone. He was surprised that there was not even a dog around to greet him at the porch. He thought of the old adage of there is a dog at every country home. He turned back to the house and stepped up to the front door. He reached up and began to knock on the door, taking note that even the front door looked as if it had been the original door when the house was built. It was an old wooden door, that when he knocked sounded like it was a thick solid door, the way that only the old wooden doors were made, good quality and solid, built to last for years, even though like the rest of the house it could use a good paint job. He knocked several times and waited for someone to either answer the door or if he could hear someone yell out asking who it was knocking.
He stood there waiting, and listening for someone to be moving around on the other side. But he neither heard anyone yelling nor moving around. He knew that someone had to be home as he had seen the man in town get into the truck and leave and now that same truck was parked at the side of the shed.
“Hello,” Peter yelled as he knocked on the door again. He waited a moment for someone to answer, but again there was no response. He turned around and stepped back to the top of the stairs. He looked around the area, thinking maybe that Jacob was not in the house but maybe he was out in the yard. He looked, putting his hand up to his forehead to shade his eyes from the bright sun. He did not want to leave without speaking to Jacob, so he thought that he would take a short walk around the house and see if maybe he would find someone in the back of the house or maybe out in one of the buildings. He first walked down the steps and around the side of the house next to the old wooden shed that looked like it was in its last years of standing. He went to the back of the house, and as he rounded the back corner of the house, he did not find anyone in the back yard.
There was no one in the back, but in the back yard he could see a table set up just outside the door, and at the back of the yard, down by the wood line about a hundred yards from the house he could see what appeared to be a standing target. It looked like whom ever lived in the house had their own personal shooting range set up in the back yard. Seeing no one around he went back to the front of the house, then he decided to walk over to the metal shed, and see if there was anyone over by the truck. As he was walking around the house, and back across the front of the house towards the truck, he stopped just past the back of his vehicle when he heard someone yell out, “Who are you and what the hell do you want?”
Stopping in his tracks, he looks around behind him and to the front porch of the house trying to see who was talking to him.
“My name is Peter, I am looking for Jacob Williams.” He yelled out as he looked around, still trying to see who was talking to him.
“Who invited you here?” The unknown person asked.
“I am not invited, but I have a job offer for Jacob.” He yelled back, trying to pinpoint where that voice was coming from. He looked around, from building to building, then back to the house. Then some motion on top of the house, just above the porch caught his eye. There on top of the porch, standing on the roof was the same man that he had seen coming out of the gun shop back in town. He was standing there, wearing camouflage clothing, and holding an AK-47 in his hands, pointing the rifle right at him.
“Whoa buddy, I just want to talk to Jacob.” Peter said as he was now putting his hands up and praying that he was not about to be shot.
“I am Jacob, and I don’t know who the hell you are, far as I am concerned you are uninvited and that makes you a trespasser, therefore it is my legal right to shoot you right where you stand.” Jacob yelled out as he pulled the bolt back then letting it go, loading a round into the chamber of the rifle.
“I am not here to cause you any harm or trouble, I just want to talk to you.”
“Harm, how the hell are you going to harm me, I have the high ground and the gun, and it is pointing right at you and I will say that I do not have blanks in this magazine.” Jacob smurked as he enjoyed scaring the hell out of the stranger.
“Would you mind putting the gun down, and just come down here so we could talk?”
“Do guns make you nervous?” Jacob asked as he stepped to the front of the roof just over the stairs.
“I am one of those people who do not like guns.”
“So I am going to guess that the job you want to offer me has something to do with guns?” Jacob asked as he slung the rifle over his shoulder and jumped down off of the roof to stand face to face with Peter.
“Yeah actually it does.”
“What is the job?” Jacob asked as he walked over to the steps, and walked up onto the porch and sat down on one of the chairs that was sitting next to the front door.
“I work for a company that investigates what the government is doing out on Plum Island.” Peter answered as he walked up the porch stairs and stood at the porch leaning against one of the columns.
“Isn’t that the island where they do experiments on animals?” Jacob asked as he took a canteen from his belt and took a drink.
“That is the story that they tell the public, but we believe that they are doing much worse things than that, we have reason to believe that they are experimenting on humans.” Peter said as he sat down on the porch at the top of the stairs.
“And what makes you think that?”
“We sent a couple of investigators out in a boat, to try and get as close to the island as they could, and do some video taping hoping they could get some coverage of something going on out there. They went out there at night so they would have a better chance of getting close without being seen.”
“Let me guess, they were taken into custody and you have not heard back from then since that night.”
“Right, how did you know that?”
“Don’t you know, when you mess with the government, people can disappear and they are never heard from again.”
“Well, we don’t want that to happen here. That is why we want to hire you to go to the island and if possible, break our people out of there and we are hoping that you can get us some evidence that they are experimenting on people out there. We want to break this wide open and expose them so that the public knows the truth about what goes on out there.” Peter told him, as he was getting worked up over just the thought that he may not hear back from his people.
“So you want me to break into a government facility, find your people, break them out of there and get them back to you?”
“Yes, that is what we would like to see happen. So do you want the job?”
“Why me? Why not some other ex-military man, someone that could do it just as easy as I could?”
“Because every source that we spoke too, and believe me there were many, all gave us the same name, and that was you.”
“What makes me so special?”
“They all said that if anyone could get our people back that man was you.”
“That is flattering, but why should I have an interest in helping you, I mean people go missing all the time, and besides, if they were taken by the government, then chances are they are already dead and you will not see them again.” Jacob said as he took another drink of water from his canteen and leaned back in his chair, lying the rifle across his lap and just blankly looking at Peter.”
“We are willing pay you a very handsome price for your services.” Peter said as he stood up and looked away from Jacob out into the front of the property, as if he thought that he had Jacob on the hook.
“What good would the money do me if the government was on my trail looking for me?”
“I am sure that you would be able to handle that. Besides, if you can get in there and get out and not be caught, then they would never know that it was even you.” Peter said with confidence in his voice.
“Yeah right. So what kind of money are we talking about here?” Jacob asked, leaning forward in his chair wanting to hear a large number.
“We are prepared to offer you, if you choose to take the job, a half a million dollars.” Peter said with a look on his face like he was doing Jacob a favor offering him that amount of money.
“Half a million, you want me to put myself on the fed’s hit list for a measly half a million dollars!” Jacob replied with much surprise in his tone, while he stood up from the chair and acted as if he was going to shoot Peter down right there for a great insult.
“Alright, alright, I will give you a million dollars but I can’t go above that.” Peter said as he backed down the stairs away from the porch holding his hands up wavy, waiting to see and hear the report of the rifle thinking that he was about to be shot.
“Hmmm. So to be clear, I just have to go to the island, find your people and get them off of the island safely?”
“Yes, and get us some evidence as to what is going on out there. We want to expose them to the public.”
“Oh, there is the catch, so if I don’t get the evidence you want, then I don’t get paid regardless if I get your people out of there.” Jacob said as he stepped towards the top of the stairs.
“No-no, you will get paid for getting our people out safely, we want you to get the evidence for us if you can.”
“I tell you what, I will take the job.”
“Great.”
“But, I want half the money in my account up front, then the other half when the job is done.”
“Agreed.” Peter replied with excitement.
“I will tell you this.” Jacob said as he stepped down onto the third step of the stairs, raised the rifle up, pointed it towards Peter. “If you try to screw me out of the money, I will hunt you and your friends down and I will make you all disappear. Do you understand?”
“Yes, I get your point.” Peter said as he stepped back and looked at Jacob like he was nuts. “When can I expect you to do this job?”
“I tell you what, I will be out there within the next two days, I will meet you across the bay before I go, I will get ahold of you to let you know when, I don’t want anyone being prepared for me and waiting to ambush me.” Jacob said as he walked back up onto the porch and headed for the front door.
“That sounds good, the sooner you get out there the better. I don’t want to waste time, I want us to get our people out as quick as possible.” Peter said as he turned and started walking to his vehicle to leave.
Jacob hesitated on the porch to look back and make sure that Peter was in his car and leaving before going inside. Peter got into his car, and drove off down the drive way. As he was pulling out of the drive back onto the highway to head back to the interstate, he picked up his cell phone and called his boss. “Hello, Jerry?”
“Yeah, Peter, was you able to find him?” The voice on the other end of the line asked.
“Yeah, I found him. He said that he would take the job. I think that he is perfect for the task.”
“What did you offer him as payment?”
“He wanted one million, half up front, the second half once the job is done.”
“That is a lot of money, but no matter, we can deposit the first half, then take it back once this is all over.”
“So you don’t really think that he can do it?”
“It doesn’t matter, he is just gonna be a distraction, once he gets them all worked up, we will send in our team from the other end of the island and get inside and get what we want, he will take the fall if the law gets involved.”
“So this is all a set up?” Peter asked as he was gripping the steering wheel ever tighter just from the thought of Jacob coming after them when he finds out that he had been tricked.
“No, this is a business deal that makes us come out on top.” The voice on the other end of the phone said sternly as he hung up the phone.
“Wow, that was pleasant” Peter said to himself as he ended the call and laid the phone down on the passenger seat. Now getting nervous about what could happen to him if things don’t go as planned, he went through the drive back to the office with his mind just running and running about the thought of Jacob coming after him.