CHAPTER 3
Sonya checked her watch. It was noon and no Baxter. Mr. Davis; the boss, had stalled long enough and now she had to deliver a presentation to the clients with or without Baxter.
Sonya let her hair down before she walked into the conference room and began speaking immediately when entering, “Gentlemen, at Sorenson and Lankford, we specialize our services for you; the investors. Now there are many approaches to marketing a product and idea but I hope our attention to customize your advertising needs specific to your audience/customers is why you make the right choice to trust Sorenson and Lankford with your marketing.”
Sonya was a little unprepared for this as she gave everything to Baxter on this account but she opened it up for questions and within an hour to an hour and a half, Sonya had their account. This wouldn’t do much for Baxter’s image and what Mr. Davis thought of him but she had to do her job. At two o’clock, Sonya finally had a chance to eat her lunch. She’d have to make it a quick one today; with Baxter gone, she would have plenty of work left today and wanted to get a head start on traffic to reach the cabin at a decent hour. She thought about the cabin as she put her lunch in the microwave. She loved the quiet and peace this cabin gave her. Of course she had neighbors; Buchanan was populated with cabins like hers, but it was still remote enough for her. She had made plenty of money during her career with the company and the job was beginning to feel less exciting to her. The possibilities at the cabin were endless. She always wanted to write a novel but never had the time or focus to take it on. This was a passion that had quietly been burning in her for years and now she had the means to pursue it wholeheartedly.
The aroma of her pasta dish began to fill the break room. The turntable was still spinning when she turned around and saw Stacy Schmitt staring at her. For a brief second, Sonya saw a strange look on Stacy’s face: like anger. Quickly this was changed as Sonya searched her face for an explanation.
Stacy started talking, “Miss Meyers, have you seen William today?”
Now, with a more quizzical look on Stacy’s face Sonya responded, “I’ve been looking for him too; we had a meeting with clients today, is everything OK Stacy?”
The buzzer for the microwave went off.
“Everything is fine I just had a question on an account he closed earlier this month that accounting wanted me to have him look at.”
Sonya nodded at this; “I would be happy to look at it since William is not here today.”
Sonya never noticed it before but Stacy’s eyes looked black, like an extremely large dilated pupil black.
“Are you sure everything is alright Stacy?”
Stacy responded, “I’m fine: I’ll just show it to him on Monday. It can wait.”
With this, Stacy bolted out the door.
Sonya started to eat. Stacy’s face and eyes kept flashing in Sonya’s head. That look on her face when Sonya turned around, it was creepy. She didn’t really know Stacy yet; William likes her though, as does Miles, the computer guy. The thought of Miles made her smile. Now Miles was someone she could see herself dating. He has the friendliest way about him; God only knows why he chose to work in computers, with his personality and ease with people, he should have chosen sales or even marketing. The only thing with Miles was she could never really get more than five minutes at a time with him to get into personal stuff or at least light conversation about non work related topics. This was mostly her fault though as she kept a busy schedule in the office. No, I’m sure the opportunity will eventually present itself. For now, she was focused on finishing up her day’s work and getting ahead of the drive home rush hour traffic.
The night air felt good to Sonya as she approached her cabin. She smelled wood burning in a fireplace nearby. Her cabin looked deserted but only for another hour or so. Sonya would quickly put life into the log home after she built her own fire. Tonight was the first time she had been here in over a month. The holiday season had kept her busy with end of the year meetings and paperwork. She walked into the cabin and headed straight for the fireplace. As she was gathering wood and setting it into the fireplace, she thought about Devon and his first impression of the cabin.
‘Mom, this place is an absolute dump.’
Those words bit at her. She had come up the weekend before to clean up and prepare the place for Devon’s first night staying in the cabin. Still, the cabin had come a long way since then.
As the fire blazed, Sonya realized her son never really warmed up to the place since that first day. She remembered her thoughts about retiring here earlier that day in the break room and it made her sad. The firelight flickered in her eyes as she thought about this more. A growl from her stomach told her it was time to eat something soon. She went to the kitchen where she put water in a pot to boil and snacked on some crackers while she waited for her tea to be ready. She needed to get her mind off of Devon.
The only other thing that kept popping in her head was Stacy Schmitt. It wasn’t the pleasant handful of other images she had of her but the one she saw as she turned around in the break room earlier that day. That glimpse of something else in Stacy made her uneasy all day and she just couldn’t shake it. Chills went down Sonya’s back and she started hearing every noise and even noises that weren’t present. The lonely old cabin was playing tricks on Sonya.
After eating her dinner and drinking her tea, she curled up on the couch with a heavy comforter over her and started reading the newest detective novel by Sprig Saunders. She was asleep within ten minutes after picking up the book.
When she woke, the fire was out and the cabin was freezing. It was still dark outside. Sonya looked at her watch---3:17. Sonya moved to get another fire going. Sonya looked down by the fireplace and realized she hadn’t gathered any wood from the shed last night on her way in. With her comforter blanket clinched to her, she grabbed a flashlight and went outside. The rickety shed was twenty feet behind the cabin. The night air was ice cold and silent. The flashlight began to flicker a bit then a solid and true beam came from its lens and shone on the shed. The door was cracked a little. She opened it all the way and the creaking noise made from the door cut through the silence of the woods.
Sonya gathered some suitable pieces for her next fire when she heard a noise. It was a sound that didn’t belong during this time of the night but it was unmistakable. There was a car running and it sounded like it was right in front of her cabin. For a minute, Sonya felt paralyzed with fear. She looked at one of the bigger pieces of wood she had gathered and clung to it while dropping the rest. While creeping next to the cabin and making her way inconspicuously to the front she heard the faint sound of music. It sounded like it was coming from inside the car.
Sonya stood still for a minute longer before continuing toward the front of the cabin. She reached the corner facing the front and peaked around it to see that her car was running and there was a person inside it. The wind began to pick up a little but Sonya dropped the comforter at this new sight. She clinched the wood with both hands now and approached the car. The dome light to the car was on and she could see a big mess of blond hair and what looked like a white feminine night gown the stranger was wearing. As she got closer, Sonya took notice of the person’s gaunt, ghostly white arms that connected to hands with ten long bony fingers on her Maserati’s steering wheel. The figure was a woman’s inside her car. The blob of blond hair covered the face that was looking down and resting on the steering wheel. The engine was running but the music could now be heard over everything as Sonya stepped only ten feet from her car. She hesitated and then quickly approached the driver side door where her hand met the window with a couple of forceful knocks.
“Excuse me, Ma’am, is everything OK? Look, if you need a ride somewhere I can take you. How did you get my ke..;” the woman looked up as Sonya was saying keys.
It was Stacy. Sonya reached for the handle and tried to open the door but it was locked.
“What are you doing here Stacy,” Sonya asked while
trying to be heard over the music?
Sonya began beating on the window again but Stacy looked preoccupied with something near the instrument panel of the vehicle. Then Stacy looked around till she seemed to have spotted something on the door. The window came down. The music was still playing; probably waking up everything within a few miles of the cabin. Sonya ducked into the car and turned the ignition off, securing her only set of keys and all was silent again.
Stacy broke the silence saying, “I’m sorry Miss Meyers, I’ve never been in a car before and I thought I’d get into yours before I go back home. You have a really nice car. I bet it’s fast…for a car of course.”
Sonya stared at Stacy like she was insane. In fact, this is exactly what Sonya thought and slowly backed away from the car.
“Stacy, I need you to get out of the car and explain to me what this is all about.”
Stacy looked confused, looking up as if she was considering something and then got out of the car.
“Miss Meyers, please don’t be mad at me but I had to see you; please, I can explain everything but I need you to drive me back to the city.”
Sonya could see that Stacy looked scared. It was a far different impression than the one she gave for that brief second yesterday. Sonya still thought she was creepy but thought about her pistol inside the cabin if there was any trouble and besides; she was getting cold out here.
“OK Stacy, let’s go inside first to warm up and change clothes. Are you hungry?”
“Oh no, I don’t want to trouble you.”
“How about some coffee; I was just getting ready to build a fire.”
“That sounds good Miss Meyers.”
“Stacy, were not at work, you can call me Sonya.”
When they were inside, Sonya’s first question was how Stacy found her at the cabin. Stacy pulled something out of her purse that was the size of a phone but as Sonya examined the object closer it was not a phone. It looked like a flat, rectangular piece of shiny metal. This strange metal seemed to reflect everything in the room though. It was remarkable to look at and curious at the same time.
“What is that?”
“It’s similar to what your people call a tracking device but this is far more powerful.”
“You’ve been tracking me? How did you; I mean how long have you been following me?”
“Since yesterday, I started following you after work.”
“Wait, didn’t you say that you’d never been in a car before?”
“I took the bus here.”
Sonya knew this wasn’t true. The nearest bus station was forty miles from here. That’s impossible, she couldn’t have walked from there but Sonya didn’t press Stacy on it and began building the fire. As both of the women had coffee in hand and were sipping, Stacy said something even stranger than admitting she’d never been in a car before.
“I’m going to miss coffee; when I get back home that is.”
“You don’t have coffee where you’re from? Bye the way, what part of the world did you come from?”
Sonya guessed Scandinavian ancestry with her blond hair and tall build but Stacy didn’t talk with any accent and she was certain they had coffee on the Scandinavian Peninsula.
Stacy shook her head, “no, I’m not from anywhere you’ve heard of.”
Sonya started to feel a bit more at ease as Stacy was talking. She was from another country; that much was certain and maybe her culture might have found it acceptable to track someone and get in their car in the middle of the night. Sonya was trying to rationalize this but it still didn’t sound right. No, Sonya still needed to keep her guard up. This was a strange young woman but she seemed troubled about something, as if she was desperate because she was in danger.
Stacy continued, “We have a drink where I come from called GNOCKTA. It has a stimulating effect like coffee but doesn’t taste good.”
Sonya took a moment to consider this.
“GNOCKTA…can it be purchased in the States?”
Stacy didn’t answer the question but continued; “Your people are good at finding the planets pleasurable things.”
The fire light flickered in her eyes when she said this. Those cold black eyes from yesterday were replaced by a warm and thoughtful stare into the fire this morning. For a few minutes, Sonya weighed all that had happened before she continued questioning Stacy. There was a lot to this that didn’t make sense but Sonya was beginning to feel the challenge of it all and this excited her. She could not have guessed what was really going on but that was what made it so exhilarating to her. There was a problem facing her and she had no idea how to solve it. This had been what she was missing: in her job and maybe in her marriage to Stephen. Life got too easy and mundane for her and she hadn’t even realized it. Sonya just went through the motions and she just happened to be better at it than everyone else. The scope of emotions surrounding Stacy’s arrival at the cabin this morning went from fear to confusion and was now settling into intrigue.
Sonya mused over what this urgent problem was.
Stacy started speaking, “I know all this must seem strange to you Miss Mey….I mean Sonya but someone we both know needs our help. You won’t believe me if I try to explain it here but if you come with me to the city, what I have to tell you will be more believable.”
Sonya thought about this for a moment and then said, “Is William Baxter in trouble?”
She didn’t even need to ask as this might have explained why he had not showed up for work yesterday.
“William Baxter is in great danger and we may be the only ones that can help him.”
“What about the police---FBI? Is it that kind of trouble? Is someone with experience in this sort of thing needed?”
“I assure you that not even your FBI can help William Baxter right now.”
This brought the uneasiness back to Sonya.
Sonya continued, “Why me---I mean---what can I possibly do or can you do for that matter? What kind of trouble is he in?”
Stacy got up and grabbed Sonya’s coat that lay on the chair next to her and offered it, “When we get to the city, I’ll be able to tell you; no, I’ll be able to show you.”
Sonya’s curiosity spiked more than ever at this riddled answer. She had not felt this way ever. It still sounded dangerous though. Sonya told Stacy to wait for her outside while she gathered some things for the trip; one of them being her pistol which she slipped in her coat pocket.
The car ride back to the city was sort of an awkward one for Sonya as she couldn’t really talk about what she wanted to with Stacy. Sonya skirted around this some by asking her some questions about her and William.
Sonya gave a feigned clearing of the throat, “The talk around the office is that you and William have been dating: Have you guys been dating very long?”
“We were supposed to go on a date last night, but uh…well anyway he and I are just friends.”
Sonya tried to make other small talk but it just kept coming back to William. The curiosity was eating at her. It did occur to her that this was Stacy’s first car ride, or so she said, and asked her about that. The whole situation was odd though. There was a proverbial white elephant in the car and Sonya couldn’t wait to get to the city to talk about it. The closer she got to the city, the more it felt like a bad idea to go with Stacy. Should she be taking a risk like this? In the end, the interest in what was going on kept tugging at her. This felt bigger than her and anything she had ever experienced; thus, she wanted to be part of it.
The sun appeared over the horizon. The interstate highway seemed to belong to the two women in the Maserati. Sonya took notice of this and touched 110 mph a few times. Stacy didn’t seem to mind; in fact she just stared out of the window the entire time as if deep in thought. Sonya broke the silence by switching the radio on. This seemed to interest Stacy. In fact, she suggested a station she wanted to listen to and Sonya didn’t object. The two listened to a popular song that they b
oth knew every word to and this greatly eased the tension that filled the car. Sonya could begin to see the city’s skyline now when Stacy spoke her first words since leaving the cabin earlier that morning.
“The thing I will miss most about this planet is the music its people produce.”
The LOMMETRUS Chronicles: Book One: The Abduction of William Baxter Page 3