by G. R. Cody
“Well, Eve,” Felix said nonchalantly, “We can’t just go around announcing ourselves…”
“To everyone!” Eve blurted out, finishing his thought in a hushed, but forceful tone. “Felix, I am not talking about just anyone! I am talking about ME. Arthur and I are dating! We have been for months now! Every time I think about Arthur now I am incensed! And I think I have every right to be!”
Felix was now beginning to look a bit sheepish under the weight of Eve’s barrage.
“Eve I understand,” Felix started, but Eve cut across him.
“Do you really?!? Have you ever been in my shoes?!? Had feelings for someone who you found out was keeping themselves, or a large part of themselves, in the shadows?!?” At this point, Eve was holding back tears.
“Actually, Eve, yes I have,” Felix answered somberly. “And, in fact, I met her right here, at this hotel years ago.”
This revelation brought Eve to a dead stop. She glared at Felix for a moment in silence and could tell he was telling the truth.
Just then, their waiter appeared with their entrees. He removed the bowls, but before he could set Eve’s salad down in the table, she waived him away.
“Sorry, I’m not hungry,” she managed to say with some effort.
“The bisque was enough for me as well,” Felix said. “Why don’t you box these up for us for later?”
The waiter, who seemed a bit confused, smiled and responded with a hurried, “Yes, of course. Very good,” and he shuffled back to the kitchen.
Eve was still fuming, but she kept silent and stared into her lap. This wasn’t Felix’s fault, and she had no right to be doing this to him. This was meant for Arthur, and he would be here tomorrow.
Before Eve could apologize for her outburst, Felix spoke.
“Look, Eve, you have been through a great deal over the past week, and especially the last day or so. And I have been a bit too flippant about how this must feel for you. You have seen a tragedy in your hometown, been hurried across the ocean to a foreign place by a man who you don’t know, and I am sure you don’t fully trust, and I am sorry.”
Eve, still holding back tears, nodded at Felix slightly.
“You have been very helpful and patient with me,” Felix continued. “Thank you very much. I think it would be best for us to both get a good night sleep.”
Eve looked at her watch. It was now 7 o’clock, and she was meeting Robert in 7 hours. It would be nice to get a few hours of sleep before that, she thought to herself.
“I agree,” Eve said as they waited for the waiter to return. “Also, were you able to get word to my father?”
“Oh, yes,” Felix said, a bit embarrassed that he had forgotten to mention it before now. “I had our Miami office reach out to him. In order to keep our cover, I had them hack into your cell phone account and text him that you were on a plane on an unexpected assignment. He texted back to be careful, and call when you could.”
Although Eve was not happy with the deception, or the fact that it seemed so easy to hack into her cell phone, she was at least glad that her father wasn’t worrying.
The waiter returned with their meals, and they both rose to leave.
“I’m sorry for getting emotional, Felix,” Eve said as they walked out. She noticed that Robert was no longer at the bar.
“It’s alright,” Felix responded as they entered the elevator. “I really do understand, and it must make it worse that you didn’t ask for any of this. I promise, once Arthur gets here tomorrow, we will figure out the best way to get you back to London safely.”
“Thank you.”
The elevator lighted on the 5th floor.
“Just knock tomorrow morning when you have woken up and are ready for breakfast,” Felix said. “And no hurry. We are safe here, and Arthur won’t arrive until early afternoon.”
“Alright,” said Eve, “and thanks again, Felix.”
No sooner had Eve closed her bedroom door, hot tears began to pour down her cheeks. She put her hand to her mouth to keep the noise from her sobs at bay. For a moment, she felt as if she were about to have a nervous breakdown, but she thought of Robert, and suddenly the sobs stopped, her stomach calmed, and the tears began to subside.
Eve grabbed a washcloth from the bathroom, dabbed her face dry, and took a deep breath. She turned her iPhone back on, set the alarm for 1AM and switched it to vibrate so that there was no way for Felix to hear it from across the hall.
Eve went to the window and opened it just enough so that she could hear the surf gently crashing against the beach. The smell of sea air filled her lungs again. Then, she kicked off the sandals, climbed under the sheets, placed her iPhone on a pillow next to her head, and closed her eyes. She focused on the rhythm of the waves, and was asleep in minutes.
CHAPTER 8
Eve awoke for what felt like the tenth time. She had had every intention of sleeping the full six hours until 1AM, but her mind wouldn’t calm. She glanced at her iPhone; it was only 12:45AM. So many questions were running through her mind, questions that she couldn’t fully answer, that as soon as she dozed off, she would wake herself. She had slept the most this last time, about an hour. She was turned so that she was facing the open window, and she recalled waking several times while it was still light outside.
Surprisingly, however, Eve felt awake and alert. She remembered some training she had received at a seminar a couple of years ago. She recalled that they had mentioned that one was much more alert after a 45 minute nap than with three hours of sleep, but that eventually both the body and mind needed at least seven hours of sleep for real balance and circadian rhythm. So, at least her mind was taking its best course given the circumstances.
Eve turned the alarm off, and then the phone itself. She slowly rose to a sitting position and rubbed her eyes, which were stinging from her contact lenses not being cleaned in days. She was starting to miss London terribly. But then she remembered why she was up at 1AM.
“Robert!” she whispered to herself.
Eve rose from the bed and searched through her camera bag. Luckily, she found the small bottle of eye drops she thought she remembered putting there weeks ago. She wet her contacts, and freshened up in the bathroom. Her face looked ashen in the mirror, so she pinched her cheeks slightly to bring forward a bit of color.
Eve brushed her teeth again, and rubbed the dry soap bar under her arms just in case.
It was only now just before 1:30AM, and she was afraid of nodding off. So, Eve grabbed her camera and scanned the shoreline outside her window, occasionally snapping a picture. She zoomed in on a small fishing boat in the marina under a light gently swaying with the tides, while the faint light of a distant lighthouse swept across the black sea.
Eve zoomed back out, still focused on the marina. A second later the blaze of a flame caught her attention in the bottom right of the frame. Eve moved her camera to center the spot and zoomed back in, and she noticed a red ember glowing in the darkness about halfway up the wooden stairway. She tightened the exposure a bit, and now could make out someone in a white suit sitting on the steps smoking. It was Felix.
Eve watched him for the several minutes it took him to smoke, periodically checking his phone, but otherwise just staring off into the expanse of the sea. Felix seemed to be a lonely man, not just now, in this moment, but since she had met him the night before. It had not escaped Eve’s attention that he had mentioned being hurt before, assumedly by a woman, here in Puerto Rico, or that every time Eve thanked him or expressed anything near emotion, Felix seemed to put up defenses. He seemed to be a bit too emotional for his line of work. Or maybe it just was the locale, and what had happened in the past, whatever that may have been, with whomever it was with.
Eve saw Felix put out the cigarette and begin to rise, and Eve ducked back into the room to avoid his seeing her through the window. Eve turned her camera off and placed it back into her camera bag. She checked her iPhone. It was 1:50AM now. Eve now had to wait to hear if Felix wo
uld return back to his room or risk getting found leaving her room. She was glad she had awoken early and decided to take some pictures. It would have been awkward explaining herself if she had bumped into him on her way to Robert’s room.
Eve heard the elevator door ding five minutes later. She looked through the peep hole and saw Felix empty into the small corridor, turn to his room and enter it. Eve kept looking through the peep hole for at least two more minutes just to make sure she didn’t see Felix come back out, then grabbed her iPhone and key card, tucked her Chelsea cap on her head, and quietly opened and shut her door. Thankfully, the door to the stairs was just outside her room door. She silently opened it, entered the stairwell, and closed the door. She tiptoed barefoot down the two flights to the third floor, and entered into a much longer corridor, with perhaps twenty rooms.
She reached room 308 and raised her hand to knock, but the door swung open before she could. Robert grabbed her by the hand and tugged her gently in. The room was lit only by a lamp on the table on the far side of the queen bed, which was unkempt. A laptop was open on the table across from the foot of the bed, and a cell phone was plugged into it. A small suitcase was open on the large armchair.
Robert was still wearing the same khaki Bermuda shorts, but he had changed into a white polo shirt which was tight on his chest and muscular arms. He had added some muscle in the four years since she had seen him last. Although Barbara had mentioned he would be in Atlanta for the wedding, Eve had not seen him at the wedding or the reception, and honestly had not given his absence any thought over the weekend. He had a shadow of a burgeoning beard from lack of shaving, and his short brown hair was damp, but brushed back, revealing a widow’s peak, and smelled like hers did, of the hotel shampoo and conditioner.
Robert’s serious countenance suddenly broke into a smile, and he laughed out loud as he looked her up and down.
“What in the world are you wearing!?!” Robert exclaimed.
Eve looked at herself, and realized that she must look a sight, barefoot, wearing a cheap yellow dress from the gift shop downstairs, and a royal blue cap.
“Hey!” Eve exclaimed, half pissed off and half laughing to herself, and slapped him hard on the chest, “I didn’t exactly have time to pack a bag, you ass! Now, do you mind telling me what is going on, and what the fuck you are doing here!?! And, if you know, what the fuck I am doing here!?!”
“Boy, is that a long story!” Robert responded, still smiling at her. “I’m not even completely up to speed yet. All I know is your father asked me to fly here and find you. He got a text that he said he was sure wasn’t from you…Man, it is good to see you, Eve.”
Robert went to hug her, but Eve pushed him away.
“What do you mean ‘your father asked me’?” Eve snapped. “And how did my father know where I was? And who I am with?”
Seeing the seriousness in Eve’s face, Robert’s smile faded.
“Let me back up,” Robert said, holding his hands up in front of him. “First off, you’ve been through a lot, and I want to acknowledge that.”
Robert paused, and Eve crossed her arms. She recognized the “comfort phrase” from their days in grief therapy, and it worked in calming her a bit. “Yes, go on.”
“Your Dad came over to my parents and showed me the text he got,” Robert said.
Eve cut across him, “But why would my Dad come to you? And what clued him in to the fact that the text wasn’t from me?”
“Your Dad came to me because he knows I have access to jets at Peachtree Dekalb airport,” Robert answered. “He thought, and rightfully so, that that would be the quickest way to you here in Puerto Rico. I have a hanger rented there for Universal Exports, my employer. Luckily, we’ve been slow lately and we had a jet available. Have to get it back by Friday, though.
“Plus, you know your Dad,” Robert continued calmly. “Ex-military, all that time in the Middle East after Desert storm trying to root out the remaining Taliban leadership. And he was right, wasn’t he? That text wasn’t from you, was it now?”
Eve didn’t answer. Instead, she kept on asking questions.
“And how did he know where I am?”
“He muttered something about your iPhone and triangulating,” Robert said. “He said Felix should have known better than to let you even take it with you. He gave me the coordinates, and I flew down here. I was lucky PDK had a tower operator.”
“But, then why didn’t he come himself with you? And what did you mean you ‘think we can trust Felix?’ And how do you and Dad even know him anyway?”
“Eve, you don’t think that Homeland Security hasn’t already been to see your Dad, do you? They arrived not five minutes after he left my parents’ house. He knew he would have to stay put. There were about a half dozen black SUVs in front of your house when I left for the airport.
“And I don’t know Felix at all. But your Dad seemed to know him. Said he was ex-CIA, but he thought he was retired. Said he was a good man, at least when he worked with him 25 years ago. Still, there was something about how he talked about him…”
“So, are you here to take me home and turn me in,” Eve interrupted, “or does the Major have other ideas? Because I have no idea what to do, Robert. All I was doing was my job, and here I am, days later, wanted by one branch of the federal government, and spirited away by another…”
“Or, from an alternate point of view,” Robert interjected, “you have evaded Homeland Security, who merely wanted to ask you some questions, and have evaded them by hopping on a private jet across the Caribbean with a retired CIA agent whose motives are unknown and, given the circumstances, suspect. You’re probably lucky he kept you on U.S. soil, honestly.”
Eve hesitated for a moment. She suddenly felt foolish for trusting Arthur, and Felix as well. With the rapid succession of events that had unfolded, and the path she had chosen, to follow Arthur’s instructions blindly, going against another bureau chief in Jerry and the explicit concurrence of the Chairman and CEO of her employer, placing in Arthur unquestioned trust like a love starved school girl, she had just assumed that her perception of the situation was the correct one, even the only one. Now, with the benefit of someone else with a different frame of reference, doubt began to creep in to Eve’s psyche, and the potential consequences of her decisions made her heart race.
And although she was excited to see Robert, possibly a bit more excited than she was comfortable with, she had to weigh her trust dispassionately. There was no reason to distrust Robert or her father, but there was also no reason to distrust Arthur and Felix, either. Felix made no secret that he was trying to get her cleared with HSA and back to London as soon as he could, but now she was wondering whether her father would be a better way to smooth things over with the feds. And given her father seemed to still hold some trust in Felix, by extension she guessed that her father was suspicious of HSA as well.
“Your Dad just wanted me to come here and make sure you were safe with Felix, first and foremost,” Robert continued, answering her original question. “But on top of that, he wanted me to find out what you wanted us to do, if anything. Whether you trusted Felix or not. And also how Felix ever got involved in this mess in the first place.”
Eve wished she could call her father, or Skype him, but she knew she couldn’t. He was most assuredly being monitored now, and calling him could both tip HSA on to her whereabouts plus put her father under greater suspicion. And she knew now that she had to get rid of her iPhone. If her father had been able to track her location with it, she knew that Homeland Security would not be too far behind employing the same tactics. She did, however, appreciate his allowing this to be her decision, and not try to impose his opinions on her.
Eve backed away from Robert and sat on the edge of the bed. She stared down at the floor and ran everything over in her head. Until now, she had just been reacting to what was happening to her. But now, with Robert there and the knowledge that her father was also privy to some of what was happenin
g, she hoped that she could think of a way out of this mess, and that included leaving with Robert. But she knew her father too well. Yes, she was sure that he was concerned about her. But in the end, she knew that if she returned to Atlanta, he would insist on her going to Homeland Security and trusting in “the system.” In fact, he would be duty bound to advocate this, if not for her sake but his as well. But she had other responsibilities to consider.
Furthermore, if Eve was able to convince Robert to fly her anywhere else, she would no doubt be uncovered at the next airport she set foot in. Even though Robert was an accomplished pilot and had some familiarity with airport personnel through his export business, even he would have to go through NTSB screenings and customs.
Felix, on the other hand, did not. He had the advantage of being able to travel without questions from the normal channels given his position with Treasury and MI6. As long as she was able to convince Felix, they could travel just about anywhere in the western world without scrutiny. Eve wasn’t about to turn herself into HSA without some explanation of why she had done what she had done. She had made the choice to pursue this path, and she needed to see it through. Plus, now Felix was now under suspicion of Homeland Security because of her.