“Get ready to turn... now!” Dolores tried navigating Jodi through their third loop of a roundabout.
“Rats!” Jodi hissed missing their cut-off again… beginning their fourth loop through her nightmare roundabout. She glared at Dolores who was snorting as she tried holding back her laughter. “I wish we could just fly out of this trap.”
Dolores had let Jodi drive their last leg of their journey to Washington DC. Their plan was to catch Sheldon before his meeting, but they had neglected to compensate for their eastward travel. Not only did they lose an hour switching time zones, travelling towards the morning sun forced them to descend to the roads sooner than they wanted as they flew out of the darkness. Now they were just hoping to catch him as he came out of his meeting... never thinking that finding Sheldon would be so much of an adventure.
“Got it!” Jodi exclaimed finally exiting the roundabout. They were now only blocks away.
“Turn right at the stop sign.” Dolores said looking at the GPS. “Then we need to find a place to park.”
“There, in front of that blue car.” Dolores pointed as Jodi sped up.
“It looks like everyone in this city dresses like a secret service agents.” Jodi observed seeing a man in a dark gray suit and sunglasses jog across the street in front of them. More men and women, all in grey suits walked along the sidewalks as she slowed near the parking spot. As she was about to stop, a large man jumped into the back of the car, slamming the door behind him. He ducked down below the seat.
Jodi froze, not knowing what to do.
“Hey!” Dolores yelled. “Get out, now!”
Jodi thought that maybe they should have taken the creeps gun before they left Sheldon’s house as it never occurred to them that they might need it.
“Please, keep driving. I’ll introduce myself later, just drive, please.” He said urgently.
Jodi continued driving, giving up her parking spot. “Do you know how lucky we were to find that spot?” Jodi grumbled. “It’ll take hours to find another.”
A man in a gray suit behind them yelled. When they turned to look, more gray suits were converging on him.
“Don't let them catch us, they're bad guys.” the man in the back seat sat up, apparently not needing to hide anymore. Jodi accelerated leaving the crowd of gray suits behind. As she relaxed thinking they were safe, a black sedan pulled out in front of them; blocking the road. Reflexively, Jodi flew the car over it dropping back down on the other side. The man in the back seat who had braced for the collision stared back at the car they just leapfrogged.
“They're following us, what should I do?” Jodi looked in the rear view mirror seeing more black sedans pulling out from the intersection they just flew over.
“Head straight, I'll tell you when to turn.” Dolores said grabbing the GPS. Before she could say another word, a third black sedan pulled out in front causing Jodi to make a hard right without slowing down, into an alley. The two chasing cars skidded past the alley entrance. By the time they recovered, Jodi had already turned right out of the alley. They were now on the tree lined lane they had passed earlier. The sound of screeching tires caught their attention. A car turned on the street behind them while another sped on the parallel road on a course to cut them off at the end of the street. They were going to be trapped.
With Dolores still trying to work the GPS, Jodi made a quick turn into an alley behind the Federal Building. Slamming her brakes, she switched on their cloaking and ascended to just below the canopy of a large shade tree, out of the sunlight.
“Sweet.” said Dolores as she turned off the GPS and set it back on the dash. “I didn't think you had it in you.” A black sedan passed below them.
Jodi had forgotten about the man in the back seat until he spoke. “I know of only one car that can do this, and it was built by Alec McCoughe, except it looked a lot better than this one.” He said looking down at the traffic passing by. “But I don't remember it being invisible.”
Jodi and Dolores turned and stared at him. “So, you might know who we are. But who are you?” Dolores asked.
He smiled. “I'm Ernie Simpson. I work for, or should I say, once worked for Big Sky. I’m a friend of Sheldon Moon.”
Jodi’s instinct took over as she determined he was telling the truth. “We’re looking for Sheldon.”
‘Yes, you need a pilot. Did Eugene get hold of you?” He asked.
Now Dolores was convinced he was on their side. “Yes, but he neglected to tell us how we could get in touch.”
“Oh, yea, that would have been a good idea. I assumed Sheldon had thought of that. I guess I was wrong.” He said.
“I take it he’s in his meeting, so we haven’t missed him.” Jodi said.
Dolores stared at her in astonishment. “Have you thought about why these black sedans are after us?”
“They’re after Ernie.” Jodi replied. Then her eyes widened. “Oh... if they’re after him, that means they’ve already got Sheldon.”
“I would believe that they’re also after Alec.” Dolores concluded.
“I'm afraid Sheldon may have gotten himself into a bit of trouble. I don't think those agents were planning on taking us out to lunch.” said Ernie. “I’m guessing that those limousines carrying that group of rock stars had something to with it.”
“What rock stars?” asked Jodi. “What did they look like?”
“They were tall and dressed like pirates.” His description sounded corny, even to him. “They were only in there about 15 minutes. I'm surprised you didn't see the limos, they left in the direction you came from.”
“We were stuck in a roundabout.” Dolores answered holding back a giggle. Jodi was getting good at glaring at her.
“I started seeing the troops after that, talking on their radios while trying not to look at me.” Ernie added. “That's when I decided to take a little walk. It didn’t look like I was going to get very far when you guys showed up and saved the day.”
“Must have been the Kan-ji… we’ve been seeing enough of their pictures in the news.” Dolores sounded a little worried. “That means we need to hurry.”
Jodi felt a chill run up her spine. “So what do we do now? Should we report this to the police?” No one answered the obvious.
“We need to get Sheldon out of there. But before we can do that, we'll need to figure out where he's being held…” Ernie said as they began planning Sheldon’s rescue… all the while, floating 20 feet above an alley.
Alec's Dream Page 45