The Monroe Decision

by Patrick Clark

  “Now that you mention it, yeah, I am pretty hungry,” replied Sarah.

  They crossed the road and, at Aaron’s request, were seated outdoors under a canopy and behind a waist-high cinderblock wall. This is good. I’ll see anyone on this road before I can be seen.

  Over dinner, Aaron continued to scan Earl’s Court Road in both directions in search of a possible surveillance team while he explained to Sarah what he saw on the BBC broadcast earlier. “I don’t know who else the senator would be talking about except me,” Aaron concluded.

  They sat quietly for a few minutes. As Sarah sipped her wine, Aaron admired her allure and elegance while he contemplated their situation. One thing is for certain. I won’t put her in any more danger. Maybe it’s time to resign from the Council and just live happily ever after with her. “Tomorrow I’m going to call Stafford and announce my intent to resign.”

  They walked slowly, hand in hand, up Earl’s Court Road, through a small park and then up Harcourt Terrace toward Sarah’s flat.

  “Maybe you could just take a leave of absence and then think about this before you resign,” offered Sarah as she leaned against him. “I don’t want to be responsible for you making a decision you might regret.”

  “I think what I would regret is not spending every day of the rest of my life with you,” Aaron replied as they reached the flat.

  Aaron couldn’t shake the nagging feeling they had been followed. As Sarah inserted the key in the common door and pushed it open, Aaron scanned both directions of Harcourt Terrace and didn’t see anything unusual. Sarah reached the inner door that led to her flat and as she inserted her key, Aaron stepped next to her, pulled a Sig Sauer out of his backpack and slowly pushed the door open. “Stay right here.”

  He slowly and quietly crept through the six rooms in the flat with the weapon held in front of him. He stepped outside on the deck and cleared the backyard area as well. “It’s alright, baby. Come on in,” he called out.

  While Sarah showered, Aaron walked through the flat and staged loaded weapons with chambered rounds in places where he could easily reach them. One handgun in the kitchen next to the refrigerator, another on a chair at the dining table, and one on the floor next to the couch. Next, he verified all the motion sensors he had placed outside were still there and functioning. Finally, he locked all the doors and windows and activated the motion sensors with his iPhone.

  Aaron entered the bedroom as Sarah was folding back the bedspread. She wore a flowered silk halter chemise and her shoulder length brown hair was highlighted by the track lights above the bed. “Jesus, you are beautiful,” Aaron exclaimed as he stood in the doorway.

  She lifted her face toward Aaron and she wore a wide, genuinely happy smile.

  Aaron tossed his backpack on the bed and sat next to it. He pulled out a Sig Sauer and chambered a round, then reached over and placed it on the nightstand on the side of the bed next to where Sarah slept. He took Sarah by the hand. “This is the same type of pistol I taught you to shoot. If the motion alarm sounds, or if anything else happens and I have to leave you in this room, I want you to be ready to use this.” Aaron looked into her eyes and asked, “This is real. Do you understand?”

  Her eyes widened and she nodded.

  Aaron pulled his last weapon out of the backpack and chambered a round, then placed it on the nightstand next to him. He then took off his shoes and jeans, turned off the lights, and crawled into bed next to Sarah. She was shivering a little so Aaron put his arms around her and held her tight until he felt her drift off to sleep.

  CHAPTER FORTY

  LONDON, GREAT BRITAIN

  WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29THs

  2:45 A.M.

  Just before midnight, Aaron slipped out of bed without waking Sarah, picked up his weapon and iPhone, and quietly walked on his toes to the living area and lay on the couch. For the next few hours he drifted between a light sleep and being awake. Just as he yawned and rolled onto his side, his iPhone buzzed. Aaron quickly silenced the chime and rolled onto the floor. The alert was from the motion sensors.

  This is not good! Someone is in the garden.

  Aaron crawled behind the couch and lay prone with his finger on the trigger. He focused on the deck window and the darkness outside and looked for anything that looked out of place.

  Then he saw it. A black mass moving rapidly toward the glass window followed by the loud crash of breaking glass. Aaron aimed and double tapped the trigger.

  A second figure ran across the deck past the broken window and tossed an object in the room.

  “Fuck!” Aaron exclaimed as he rolled away from the object and nuzzled close to the back of the couch. Aaron closed his eyes and covered his ears. He then saw the flash through the lids of his closed eyes, felt the concussion and heard the loud bang.

  Aaron opened his eyes and hopped up to his knees. Through the smoke he saw someone in black running down the hall toward the back bedroom. Aaron lifted his weapon and double tapped.

  He sensed motion to his right and as the smoke was sucked to the outside through the broken window Aaron saw another black-clad human lift an object toward him. Aaron dove to the floor as he heard the rat-tat-tat of an automatic weapon. The wall behind him exploded. Aaron jumped up from behind the couch and grabbed the arm of the man holding the automatic. As they wrestled for control of the weapon a fourth man entered through the broken window. Aaron turned his gaze toward him, and with his arm around the man he was occupied with, he raised the Sig Sauer and fired three times. He saw the man’s head jerk back before he fell in the darkness.

  Then he saw Sarah standing in the hallway. Aaron wrestled the man with the automatic weapon to the ground and eventually wrapped his arm around the assailant’s neck, then twisted with a quick stroke.

  Aaron picked up his Sig Sauer, then stood and dashed to the broken window to confront any other assailants. He took a quick look outside, then turned back toward Sarah. The intruder that had initially ran down the hallway stood behind her. Aaron lifted his weapon and pulled the trigger. Sarah jumped as the man fell next to her.

  She ran toward Aaron and he raised his hand and shouted, “Stay there!”

  She stopped at the edge of the kitchen.

  “Stay there,” Aaron cautioned. “I need to make sure we’re clear.”

  Aaron checked the pulse of the intruder with the broken neck to ensure he was dead. Then he checked the first man that came through the window. Dead also. He found the same result when he checked intruders number three and four. He walked to Sarah and took her in his arms.

  “Jesus, Aaron, all those men are dead.”

  “I know baby, stay calm. This isn’t over.”

  Sarah backed her head away from Aaron, but he didn’t let go. A tear trickled down her cheek.

  “Who are they?” she asked. “Why did they do this?”

  “I’m not sure who they are. We can try and figure that out later. Right now, we have to get out of here. Go grab some things. We have to leave now!”

  While Aaron checked for identification on the intruders, he told Sarah to run back into the bedroom and throw some clothes for both of them in a bag. When she returned she had put on a light jacket and slipped into a pair of jeans.

  “Who are they?” she asked again.

  “I’m not sure. They don’t have any IDs, but I think the Council sent them.”

  “Oh god, Aaron. What are you going to do?”

  “Figure it out, but first things first. Let’s get the hell out of here. The police will be here any minute.”

  Aaron ran back into the bedroom and yelled for Sarah to get her cell phone and place it on the kitchen counter. He pulled on the pair of jeans he had tossed on the side of the bed earlier and picked up his backpack. Then he ran to the kitchen, picked up his weapons along the way and tossed them into his backpack. In the kitchen, he placed his cell phone on the counter next to Sarah’s and with the handle of his pistol he destroyed the phones. He then pulled the keys to the Jaguar
off a pegboard near the coffee maker and said, “Let’s go!”

  They heard police sirens as Aaron pulled the Jaguar out of the garage and accelerated down the alley in the opposite direction.

  * * *

  Aaron slipped out of Harcourt Terrace by staying in alleyways. The usual tranquility of the neighborhood was disturbed by the number of police vehicles crisscrossing the streets and aiming search beams between the parked cars and into the basement entrances to the terraces. He drove with the headlamps turned off until he cautiously entered the A4 highway and took the Great West Road out of London.

  Thirty minutes into the drive, Sarah had said very little. Her hands were still shaking and her arms were crossed over her chest. Once he was on the highway, Aaron relaxed his vigilance slightly.

  “They tried to kill us. Why did they try to kill us?” asked Sarah.

  “I don’t know.” Aaron shook his head and exhaled. As he approached the area around Heathrow Airport he had to slow because of nighttime improvement construction to the airport access road. He winced as he downshifted and Sarah leaned forward slightly and turned his way with her head cocked. “What’s wrong,” she asked. “Did you get hurt?”

  “It’s nothing. I probably pulled a muscle in my shoulder.”

  They drove for another ten minutes without speaking. Sarah sat with her hands folded in her lap except for the occasional swipe of her cheek with the back of her hand.

  “We need to get low. Disappear. I’m heading to Folkestone and the Eurotunnel.”

  * * *

  An hour later, the sun rose in front of them over the flat horizon as they exited the M20 into the small town of Ashford and found an American style diner and stopped. Aaron put on a shoulder holster and a Sig Sauer, then pulled on a light coat.

  They walked into the diner that resembled a railcar and were seated at a worn red vinyl booth near the window where Aaron could maintain a watch on the Jaguar. He also sat facing the entrance so he could see anyone that came in. There were two other patrons in the diner and Aaron assumed they were drivers of the two delivery trucks in the parking lot.

  The waitress was a slim woman in her mid-forties and she wore a khaki uniform dress with a white apron. She approached their booth and Aaron ordered coffee for both of them as well as juice, ham omelets, and hash browns. “Hope you’re hungry,” he said as the waitress walked away. Then he reached across the table and touched Sarah’s hand.

  “Actually, I’m famished,” she replied.

  Aaron leaned over the table and spoke to Sarah in a low voice, “I’ve been thinking. I don’t really know who those men were. They could have been sent by the Council or they could have come from the cell in London you made contact with. They knew your cell number, so it’s very possible they would also have known your address. I know a place where we can hide. No one will find us there. Let’s just get safe, and then I can figure out what I need to do to un-fuck this mess.”

  Sarah didn’t speak much over breakfast, but Aaron noted she devoured the food on her plate. “I guess you were hungry,” he observed.

  She nodded but seemed distracted.

  Aaron touched her arm and said, “Sarah, it’ll be alright. I promise you.”

  She stared out the window as early morning clouds rolled in from the channel. Her gaze returned to Aaron and she placed her hand on top of his and said, “I believe you, Aaron. But I was just thinking, less than a month ago, I was in Venice with the man I loved more than anything in the world, and even though I didn’t know everything about you, I knew you were the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.” Her eyes blinked and glistened. “Now here we are running for our lives.”

  Aaron felt his heart pound and his eyes moisten.

  * * *

  The drive from the diner to the Eurotunnel ticket office lasted fifteen minutes. The large, semi-circular parking area was about a quarter full and Aaron found a space a few rows away from the terminal entrance.

  Aaron turned off the ignition and said, “I’ve never done this before so I’ll see what I have to do. I’ll be back shortly.”

  “I’ll come with you,” replied Sarah. “I want to use the ladies room before we get on the train.”

  They got out of the car and walked into the brightly lit terminal. The lobby had floor-to-ceiling windows and highly polished laminate floors. With bright white interior walls the lobby had a sterile, hospital like appearance. Aaron saw a row of six blue and silver automatic ticket dispensers near a Burger King restaurant that seemed to be blowing the kitchen exhaust into the terminal because the aromatic smell of grilled burgers was pervasive.

  There were water closets next to the Burger King so Sarah walked off in that direction.

  One woman in jeans and a green shawl was conducting a transaction at one of ticket dispensers. The rest were open so Aaron stepped up and inserted four twenty British pound notes in the machine. After he selected his desired departure time of twenty minutes after eight, he purchased a one-way pass. The machine returned a one pound coin with a clink and printed the ticket.

  Next to the lobby door was a display with brochures that provided directions so Aaron picked one up and read some of it as he waited for Sarah to return. She came out of the water closet, and as she walked in his direction, he noticed her head was on a swivel. Her confident, sexy sashay was now a nervous plod.

  When she arrived, Aaron took her hand and they returned to the Jaguar. He began to read the brochure to Sarah. “It says that since we are traveling within Eurozone countries we do not need to show our passport. Well, that’s good. Our passports won’t be traced.” He continued to read. “Crap, we may be told to pull over for a security inspection of the vehicle. I’ll have to explain the weapons in the trunk and a smart cop will see they have been fired recently.” He reached back and scratched his head. “We’re going to have to chance that.”

  A large LED screen over the entrance to the loading area illuminated and Aaron read the eight-twenty was open for loading. He started the engine, then turned his gaze toward Sarah and reached over to hold her hand. She turned toward him and he arched his eyebrows and said, “Let’s go.”

  He drove up to the loading area and got in a queue behind a blue Volkswagen Polo with Euro plates from the Netherlands that was occupied by a young couple and a frisky golden retriever. The loading process took twelve minutes, and Aaron noted that as he drove over the ramp onto to the rear door of the enclosed railcar, a digital scanner read the plate number.

  Shit, that can easily be traced. He turned toward Sarah and gave her a reassuring smile.

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  CALAIS, FRANCE

  WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29TH

  8:55 A.M.

  They stayed seated in the Jaguar during the thirty-five-minute ride under the English Channel. Sarah slept while Aaron tried to piece together the chain of events that led to their current status as renegade outlaws. Are they only after me? Can Sarah walk into a US Embassy and identify herself and ask for protection? Or is the Council after her as well? What if we both turn ourselves in? What will happen to me and what will happen to her? Sarah’s head leaned against the headrest and her eyes were closed. She wore a smile that reminded Aaron of when she slept in her bath on their last day in Venice. That seems like a lifetime ago.

  Aaron felt the train decelerate and through the windows on the side of the railcar saw the light ahead change from the dull blue fluorescent light of the tunnel to bright sunlight. The train slowly rolled out of the tunnel and Aaron saw the green hills of the French northwest coast and the distinctive white wind turbines that dotted the landscape.

  The train lurched to a stop and Sarah awoke. Within seconds a claxon sounded and the railcar doors opened.

  “Good morning, beautiful,” Aaron said. “You were sound asleep.”

  “How long was I out?” asked Sarah languorously. She wiped her eyes and sat up.

  “Not too long. About thirty minutes.”

  “Jeez, it
feels a lot longer than that.”

  The door to the off-load ramp was located at the front of the railcar so the vehicles unloaded in the same procession as when they loaded. Aaron followed the blue Volkswagen Polo across the ramp and joined the queue to exit the terminal.

  They entered one of four lanes dedicated to European Union residents and after a quick check of the Jaguar’s plates, they were waved through to the terminal exit. Aaron drove out of the terminal and pulled off on a side road and into a Eurorail parking lot reserved for passengers that took the Eurotunnel train to England and left their vehicles at Calais. He found a black, late model Mercedes E-class sedan that had a fair amount of bird droppings and dirt. The car had French Europlates. This should do. He stopped and removed the plates from the Mercedes and affixed them to the Jaguar.

  Aaron returned to the driver’s seat and set the Jaguar’s GPS to their destination in Italy. “Highway A4 to A1 looks like the best route,” he said. “It looks like it will take a little longer to get there but there doesn’t appear to be any toll stops and it’s probably the road least traveled.” He accelerated and followed the directions to the highway.

  “Mind if I ask where we’re going?”

  Aaron kept his gaze focused on the road ahead as he merged into traffic and answered, “It’s a little hilltop town in Tuscany named Città della Pieve. It’s a safe place nobody at the Council knows about.”

  * * *

  The winding road from the A1 Autostrada into the hilltop town was a steep, narrow, and unlit climb. Aaron drove slowly as he followed the beam of the headlamps around every tight corner and switchback. At the top of the hill, after a sharp right turn, they saw the floodlight-illuminated church tower and the medieval east wall of the city that dated back to the 1300’s.

  Sarah was asleep and had been for the last couple of hours. Aaron tapped her knee lightly and she gradually opened her eyes and sat up. “We’re here,” Aaron said. “This is a good place to hide.”