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Cross him on the legal side and he'll bury you in lawsuits. On the other side of the line, he'll just bury you.", "count": "39", "submission_left_submission_id": "1202439", "submission_left_file_name": "1676915_daveb63_downintheweeds-ep2.doc", "submission_right_submission_id": "1209086", "submission_right_file_name": "1686676_daveb63_downintheweeds-ep4.doc" }, { "pool_id": "40326", "name": "Down in the Weeds", "description": "Dafydd is swept into a case that has implications beyond what he's used to. It's not JUST a missing person.", "count": "6", "submission_left_submission_id": "1202439", "submission_left_file_name": "1676915_daveb63_downintheweeds-ep2.doc", "submission_right_submission_id": "1209086", "submission_right_file_name": "1686676_daveb63_downintheweeds-ep4.doc" }, { "pool_id": "22303", "name": "Sarah Marshall", "description": "Ex-MP, ex-Cop. Now a PI in partnership with Dafydd Owen and also his mate. When working, she's hard as nails. Relaxing and not on the job she expresses her softer side.", "count": "34", "submission_left_submission_id": "1202439", "submission_left_file_name": "1676915_daveb63_downintheweeds-ep2.doc", "submission_right_submission_id": "1209086", "submission_right_file_name": "1686676_daveb63_downintheweeds-ep4.doc" } ], "description": "Dafydd and Sarah are in a pretty foul mood when they discover their investigation has been compromised. Of course, they do something about that. Tagged adult for one little piece of violence resulting in mutilation.", "description_bbcode_parsed": "Dafydd and Sarah are in a pretty foul mood when they discover their investigation has been compromised. Of course, they do something about that. Tagged adult for one little piece of violence resulting in mutilation.", "writing": "[b]Down in the Weeds Episode 3[/b] – A Dafydd Owen Story.\n\nRelaxing in the chairs by our local HQ, watching the sunset, I wasn’t. Relaxed, that is. How much of what I had confirmed and had suspected should I reveal to my client at this point? From what I could see, it was pretty obvious to me that the maybe-not-so-good Dr. Daniels had been using his kids in a weird mind control experiment. Implanting subliminal conditioning, linked to visual triggers that would prompt specific emotional or behavioral responses. One kid had fled, one had defied him and seemed to be doing ok but the third… He was in the funny farm after getting into all sorts of bad shit and then freaking out in the middle of a bog-standard inkblot test that left him in a really confused state, something that neither he nor his brother were known for – both of them being known in the local schools for being bright and focused. Personally, all I was concerned with was finding out what my client had wanted me to, but this was getting more tangled than I wanted to present to the moose lady until I had it straight in my own skull.\n\n \n\nIf I laid it all out in front of her, she could easily go ballistic. She wanted him found and brought back now, was it going to change into “hunt his ass down and end it” if I told her what I suspected? Given WHAT I suspected, I’m not sure I would have a problem with that but everyone I’ve killed on the job since leaving the military has been necessary to finish the job, and the job was never “kill this guy” I’m not a hit man. Well, back when I wore a primary colored suit to work I kinda was but I’m a civilian now. Yeah, I’ve got a fair number of bones in my closet but so far I’ve never had a problem with putting any of them there. They all had it coming, either because they were doing shit I couldn’t leave alone or because I had a mission and they were in the way. On the face of it, it wouldn’t be hard to tell myself that this guy had it coming too, but I really didn’t like believing anything that obvious.\n\n \n\nWhile I was turning it over in my mind I pulled out the latest dispatch from Jason I’d pulled from the drop box. I opened the envelope and looked over the message. Then tossed the remainder of my drink over my shoulder and stood, picking up my chair and throwing it into the door of the 5th wheel hooked to our truck. Sarah looked at me in surprise and I read off the message to her.\n\n \n\n“FLASH BUNKER”\n\n \n\nShe was in movement immediately. We had the hookups disconnected, the entire rig back in traveling condition within five minutes and were on the road northbound. Before we cleared the campsite I was on the phone to my client.\n\n \n\n“Mrs.Daniels. We’ve got a lead that is heading out of state. We’re going to follow that up and will keep in touch and let you know.”\n\n \n[i]\n“Out of state?” the moose matriarch said, her voice full of confusion. “Where the hell… this isn’t making any sense at all.”[/i]\n\n“We’re not sure yet, but it’s north of here and we’re going to trace it down. If it’s a red herring we’ll be back but we’re going to follow it wherever it leads. Wherever he’s gone, we’ll find him.”\n\nI looked over at Sarah and shrugged “I hate telling a client lies, but I can’t tell her all the truth yet.” She nodded, concentrating on driving to the parking lot where my rental was stashed.\n\nWe met at the exit from the airport rental lot and were walking back to the truck before she voiced any kind of concern.\n\n“Dafydd, what if he really is what he looks like?”\n\n“We dig a fucking grave. I don’t think it’s that simple though. It’s too obvious, too clean. The gear I found in the warehouse said he was reporting to somebody. This wasn’t some sick fucks personal project. It had backup that is trying to cover their tails right now. I’d give it even odds we find a corpse, not a living moose. But.. if he is what this has been set up to look like… well, we tell his good lady we found a corpse.”\n\nShe bristled and hissed. I knew how she was feeling.\n\n-----------------------------------\n\nMy rental was disposed of, we were heading back north. Anyone tracking us would assume we were heading home. We had one other task to take care of. We gave it enough time to be plausible and then pulled into a rest stop. Sarah walked around the parking lot, looking like she was just walking out the kinks from time on the road, but she was really mentally tagging license plates - particularly any that had arrived after us.\n\nMeanwhile, I was sitting there by the truck and its tow, sweeping it as thoroughly as the gear we had packed could do. I was looking for GPS frequencies, audio recorders, any kind of bug. I found nothing. I headed for the bathroom in the rest stop and remotely triggered the cameras mounted to the 5th wheel. They’d catch anything before Sarah got back.\n\nSarah arrived back at the truck about the same time I did. I showed her the footage on my tablet and she wandered around the back of the tow before climbing into the right side of the cab. \n\n“Freezer truck, penguin logo.”\n\n“Got it.”\n\nWe waited until the 18-wheeler pulled out and followed it back onto the freeway. We paced the truck for a few miles and then pulled past it. Whoever wanted to track us could follow a load of frozen goods for a while. It was time for us to leave this road.\n\n-----------------------------------\n\nJust north of Des Moines, in Iowa, we left the highway and drove about five miles to an isolated set of farm buildings. They’d been empty for years after two farms merged when I’d bought them. They looked from the outside as dilapidated and run down as when I had acquired them through a trusted proxy. Actually the main house and barn were quite sound. I used the place as a safe house and as a potential bug-out location. Stored in the house was preserved food, various pieces of equipment and weaponry, pretty much everything two people would need to vanish into the wilderness for a couple of weeks. In the barn was a SUV with an extra large fuel tank and in the glove box were a couple of false IDs and prepaid cards with names to match. None of the telltales we’d left had been disturbed, there was no sign that anyone had been here, so we parked the truck and 5th wheel in the barn, went inside and were able to relax for the night.\n\nAfter breakfast we transferred most of our gear from the truck to the SUV and hit the road, aiming to cross the river into Wisconsin at MacGregor, then head north to meet up with Jason at a no-tell motel in a one-stoplight town east of La Crosse.\n\n------------------------\n\n We checked in and hit a local diner. The food wasn’t bad. I always preferred eating at these small-town places when I was on the road. Good honest cooking where not everything on the menu has seen the inside of a microwave or a fryer. Made enough casual conversation with the young skunk lass that brought our food to learn that her name was Bethany, her dad was the chef and that her family had owned the diner since before she was born, her Grandpa had opened the place. This wasn’t entirely pointless. We had a few hours to “fit in” and be unremarkable in a way that Jason and anyone following him wouldn’t be. Jason because he’d be making no effort to - in fact to do the opposite as much as possible without offending anyone - and his tail because Jason would be drawing the attention. I smiled up at Bethany when she brought round the coffee pot again.\n\n“So where’s a good place in town for a beer?”\n\n“Only place, more like,” she chuckled. “George’s Bar, couple of blocks down that way and across the street.”\n\nI’d spotted the place when we’d arrived in town, was hoping it was the only bar reachable without leaving town and was glad to have my hopes confirmed. A few minutes later we settled the check and made our way back to the motel. Once inside, Sarah looked at me and flicked an ear curiously. \n\n“You or me, Dafydd?”\n\n“I don’t know, love. Benefits either way, problems either way too. I can probably ‘disappear’ in a local bar a little more easily than a pretty lass can, but if I don’t vanish well enough it’s a lot easier to make you hard to recognize than it is me.”\n\n“You do it. I’ll take this end.”\n\n--------------------------------\n\nLate afternoon, I pulled on a pair of jeans and a comfortable shirt and headed out to the bar. I felt a little underdressed without a sidearm but there was no way to conceal one the way I was dressed. If anything popped before I got back to the motel I’d have to make do with what nature had given me. I’d timed it about right, the small place was rapidly filling up for their happy hour and there were few open seats. Looking across the polished bar I saw the usual suspects on tap, along with a couple of more local brews. Picking one of the latter I leaned on the bar while the bartender poured my beer and scanned the room. I struck the jackpot. There in the corner booth was an open seat, the other three being occupied by three guys, all of ‘em canines. One older guy and two younger but the best of all was that I could see two of ‘em had buzz-cuts and the third was wearing a National Guard ball-cap. Picking up my beer I wandered over.\n\n“If you guys don’t mind me using the spare seat, the next round’s on me…”\n\nAll three of them looked up at me, sizing me up, but it was the older one who spoke.\n\n“Any particular reason you picked this one?”\n\n“Yeah, I want to rest my paws and I never saw a soldier turn down free beer in my life.” All three of ‘em grinned at that, but the old one was looking at my face and ear. He knew a shrapnel scar when he saw one.\n\n“I take it you’ve seen enough of ‘em to know?”\n\n“Royal Navy, until I got one too many pieces shot off and they sent me home.”\n\nHe nodded and indicated the seat with his free paw. \n\n“Take the weight off. Maybe we can swap some lies to pass the time.”\n\n“You know the difference between a sea story and a fairy tale, right?” \n\n“Yeah, a fairy tale starts ‘Once upon a time..’ and the sea story starts ‘No shit, there I was...’”\n\nThey all grinned as I sat down. I’d achieved my aim. I was inconspicuous, clearly part of a bunch of locals and I had a good view of the entire place. Besides that, I didn’t know how long I’d have to wait and the conversation might be entertaining. Well worth buying these lads a few beers for.\n\n----------------------------\n\nAfter a few rounds of beer and some truly outrageous stories from both sides my phone buzzed in my shirt pocket. I fished it out to see a message from Sarah.\n\n[i]“J checked in 20 minutes ago. Watching parking lot. No sign of anyone. J just left for the bar.”[/i]\n\n“Wife checking up on ya?”\n\n“Nah, just a message from the guy I got to meet tomorrow. No big deal.”\n\nJason wandered through the door a few minutes later. He didn’t try and look for me and I was watching for anyone seeming to watch him. Nobody was. He had one beer, paid a little attention to the hockey game on the bar TV, visited the restroom and left.\n\n“Excuse me a moment, guys. I gotta hit the head.”\n\nThankfully the restroom was empty. I walked into the single stall, shut the door and looked it over. Took me a second look before I spotted the edge of the small piece of paper poking out from behind the TP dispenser. I memorized the number on it, shredded the paper, flushed the pieces and then I went back to my beer. One more round and it was time to return to the motel.\n\n----------------------------\n\nBack at the motel I used my keycard to let myself in through a side door. The hallway was deserted so I quickly headed down to room 17 and knocked lightly on the door. Jason opened it and stepped out without saying a word, following me upstairs to our door.\n\nIn our room, Sarah was waiting. She had the lights out and was watching the parking lot through a set of our NVGs.\n\n“No activity other than Jason’s arrival.”\n\n“Hi Sarah. There probably won’t be. I’m afraid I had to call in one of your favors to lose them, Boss.”\n\n“Not too large a one, I hope?”\n\n“Remember trooper Callahan? You helped him out of some trouble about eight months back. I made sure they were just a little over the speed limit to keep up with me when we went past where I knew he’d be sitting on I94. They lost me when he pulled them over.”\n\n“No chance of a backup vehicle?”\n\n“Don’t think so, There may have been but I only made one.”\n\nI nodded, making plans.\n\n“They had tags on us down in Colorado. We made ‘em when we got your message and bugged out. Tried to put a GPS tracker on us but we transferred it and lost them.”\n\n“How long do we want to stay ‘lost’, Boss? Hannah is on her own at home with the kid and that makes me a little nervous.”\n\n“Only until tomorrow. You’re going to go home after breakfast as if you had never made them at all, let them pick you up again. Lead ‘em to the old warehouse in the northeast. Then Sarah and I will see if we can acquire them and have a little chat.”\n\n“Ok.”\n\n \n\n“Right. Secure comms only now. Jason, once you’re across the river you can turn your regular phone back on, make a call to my voicemail - leave a message suggesting you’re expecting me back in three days. Then go home, let the tail pick you up again. Give us until the afternoon before you head out, let us get set up ahead of you.”\n\nJason just nodded and headed back to his room. Sarah and I settled down for the night. \n\n---------------------------------\n\nRight after breakfast we all left. Jason crossed the river at the first chance he got, heading north to the cities on the Minnesota side. Sarah and I headed north while staying in Wisconsin, planning on avoiding the interstates, crossing the St Croix back into Minnesota at Stillwater then coming into town along highway 36. Anyone picking up one of our vehicles wouldn’t see the other.\n\nThe warehouse that was our destination was owned by a seriously crooked property developer. There was supposedly a plan to remodel it into condos but the fact that half the financing for the scheme relied on laundering drug money ended up with the developer going away for an extended vacation at government expense, all his company assets frozen and the place continuing to stand empty. It would probably remain that way until it crumbled under the weight of its own age. I made it my business to keep an eye on places like that. They came in very handy when I needed a place I could “work” uninterrupted and that couldn’t be traced to anyone remotely associated with me. So, once the fuss had died down and I knew nobody would be coming back there for a time, if ever, I’d quietly wandered up there one weekend and spent a few hours breaking in and then changing the locks. \n\nAs soon as we arrived we began working on setting our scene. We got our vehicle out of sight inside and opened up the door and gate of the loading dock. We placed a few discreet cameras and lugged around some old crates to make sure that anyone coming in would take a predictable path. We had to work fast because at this point there was no real way to coordinate with Jason. We’d been using burner phones but the problem with those is if you use ‘em too long, particularly if you’re doing it from a known location, somebody who knew what they were doing could eventually compromise them. So far, every indication was that the furs we wished to talk to did indeed know what they were doing, so we’d treat them as trained pros. \n\n“Tasers only on this one, Sarah, unless we have absolutely no choice. We are either dealing with something official but black or with mercs. Either way, they are pros and offing them unnecessarily might bring down more hassle than we want. Better to just quietly vanish ‘em and keep ‘em safe.”\n\n“Got it.”\n\nWe settled into our chosen positions, concealed but with good views and fields of fire covering the whole accessible area of the loading dock, set up our tablets to view the camera feeds. Now there was nothing to do but wait.\n\n----------------------------\n\nFortunately the wait wasn’t long enough to be uncomfortable.\n\n[i]“Dafydd, that’s Jason’s car… and there’s his company.”[/i]\n\n“Got them.”\n\nJason’s car turned into the loading dock and stopped. A little way down the street, outside the fence, a green Chevy came to a halt. I smiled as I saw Jason get out of his car in full view of the supposed watchers, then reach in and pull out several file folders. He placed them into a large envelope and strolled into the loading dock. As soon as he was out of view from the road he hurried to the back of the loading dock, placed the envelope into an old toolbox and walked to the front of the dock again, fiddling with his phone. \n\nOnce he was out front again I saw him hit a speed-dial and heard him leave a message. What I heard made it obvious that he’d dialed my voicemail.\n\n“Boss, just letting you know I dropped off the stuff you wanted Barry to look into on your missing person. It’s in the toolbox. I’ll wait around the corner to meet him and pay him, let him know where to collect. He should be here within half an hour.”\n\nNice touch. If the opposition had penetrated my voicemail or had a parabolic mic on Jason then whoever was in that car outside had a problem. They couldn’t keep eyes on Jason and the apparent dead-drop. My guess would be that they would move to a place where they could watch Jason’s car and then send somebody in for a look at whatever he left. \n\n[i]“Here he comes, Dafydd…”[/i]\n\nThis guy was pretty good. He walked in quietly, warily, his eyes scanning for places where trouble could lurk. Unfortunately for him, this trouble was patient and pretty good at lurking and we’d made sure that our hiding places were masked until one had walked past them. We remained totally silent, this guy was a hare, and his ears were constantly scanning for anything trying to sneak up on him. With a mental sigh, I pulled my taser and let the hunting instinct partially take over.\n\nAs he approached the toolbox I was pacing him in a full-blown stalk, moving without a sound, timing my steps to his so that our paws touched the ground at the same time. I was just within range as he arrived at the rear of the dock and reached for the toolbox.\n\nI took the shot before he touched it. A perfect hit.\n\nAs he collapsed, the sight of that movement triggered something that went straight down my spine into my leg muscles without stopping to say hello to the brain. I leaped, practically landing on the guy. I froze, realizing I’d dropped my taser and my claws were fully unsheathed. I heard Sarah coming up behind me and turned.\n\n“Tape him, please, Sarah. I have to get this back under control before I touch him.” She bent over to deal with that task and I closed my eyes, sucking deep breaths of air until the twitching of my claws stopped and I could open my eyes without tending to get that predatory tunnel vision.\n\nBy the time I was done, Sarah was dragging him through the door at the back of the loading dock leaving behind a nine millimeter automatic and a small pile of whatever else he’d been carrying. Wallet, phone and a small radio with an earpiece. I gathered up all his gear and got it out of the way into my hiding place, turning off the phone and pulling the battery. I could worry about anything to be recovered from that later. For now some more tactical intel was required. I couldn’t wear his earpiece, it was made for his species and my ears were the wrong shape, so I grabbed a spare one of my own and replaced his with one that I could wear. Thank God for standardized plugs. Then I set about sweeping up all the ‘taser confetti’ making sure there was no trace of him or us ever having been there. Sarah was returning as I finished.\n\n“He’s secure and he’s fine. He’s starting to come out of it already. I put a bag over his head and attached him to one of the pipes.”\n\n“Unless I’ve underestimated Jason, we’ve about ten minutes before his partner comes looking for him.”\n\n-----------------------------\n\nBack in hiding, we settled down to wait again. It was just over five minutes before our first visitor’s comms came to life.\n\n[i]“Bob, get back out here. He just placed another call to his boss saying this ‘Barry’ guy is a no-show and he’s heading home.... Bob? Bob! Do you read me? Shit..”[/i]\n\nThe mic on the far end picked up the sound of a cellphone dialing. A few seconds later I heard a car door and faint curses about old buildings full of dead zones. Sarah and I watched through our cameras as the stocky fox hurried around the corner and came towards our position.\n\nSeeing the empty loading dock, he froze. Then he drew a weapon and began advancing very carefully. He didn’t call out to his partner. That made me even more certain that these guys were well trained. If they weren’t he might have done just that, giving away his position if he hadn’t already been spotted by our cameras or if we weren’t already waiting in ambush. He was sticking closer to Sarah’s side than his partner had, hugging the crates for cover. I wasn’t going to have a shot at him without exposing myself to return fire but suddenly, without warning he twitched and collapsed. I could just make out the wires from the taser darts running back through a gap between two crates.\n\nBy the time I’d finished taping and searching this one, Sarah had pulled their vehicle around and inside, next to ours. We set about closing the place up, leaving no visible sign from the outside that any of the four of us were here.\n\n----------------------------\n\n \n\n “Ok, gentlemen. I think it’s time we had a little chat, because you have started to become inconvenient. You’re obviously professionals, as you have no doubt discovered I am, so I’d rather keep this an amicable discussion. However, if you were from around here you’d also be aware that I have a certain intolerance for being fucked around with. I also tend to express that intolerance a little emphatically from time to time. I would like to be able to return you to your employer and to your families alive and undamaged when this mess is over.”\n\nI started to reach for the tape on their muzzles but paused before removing it…\n\n“I also think we need to change plans a little. Sarah, help me load these guys in our trunk, would you? They undoubtedly have a tracker on their vehicle so let’s make sure it isn’t found here and that these guys are a long way from anywhere it’s been before we settle down to discuss matters with them, shall we?”\n\nWe searched their car for all gear and documents it contained then left it in a place where I was sure it would be stolen pretty quickly, particularly since we left the keys in it. Both of us had been careful to leave no prints. We took our two guests to an alternative place.\n\n---------------------\n\nWe had them stripped down to their boxers and strapped to chairs. I saw them experimentally test the stability of the chairs but they were bolted to the floor. I looked over at Sarah and she left the room. Two seconds later the tape was pulled from both their muzzles and I held my finger to mine as I saw them each draw breath\n\n“Shush!”\n\nThey thought better of it and watched me warily. Time to make my sales pitch. I hoped they took it.\n\n“You know how much deep shit you’re in. What can you tell me?” It was the hare spoke up first.\n\n“Not a damn thing. If you’re a pro you know that.”\n\n“The problem with that position, my friends, is that I have all I need right here to do a deep chemical debrief or shred your bodies an inch at a time until you do tell me. If you force me to go either of those ways you know as well as I do that I’ll know everything about you before I’m done. Your names, your mission, where every member of your family within three generations lives, who is paying you and what they are paying you to do… With that information what more can you tell me within your orders?”\n\nThe fox looked up at me. I knew the hare believed me but I wasn’t sure about Reynard there. His next words settled that question.\n\n“A little more. We’re commercial. All we were engaged to do was to follow the moose boy and find out who else was looking for the other moose.”\n\n“Arnold Daniels”\n\n“Yeah”\n\n“Well the moose you were following is my employee and I’m the one hunting the other bull, because his wife asked me to. Tell me, was it you guys that has had his house bugged for the last few years?”\n\n“No, man, we’ve been on this for two weeks. We got the word that a geek was poking where he shouldn’t and were told to find out who was behind it.”\n\n“Who is your boss?”\n\n“Sorry, can’t go there.”\n\n“I don’t mean Arnold any harm... Yet. If he did what I think he did to his family that might change, but he’s safe from me for now. He’s got a good woman that is totally freaking out about his safety and that’s why I am involved.”\n\nI was surprised when the hare answered instead of the fox. “Our job is to keep him safe! You don’t know what kind of shit is after him!” \n\nThe fox responded immediately. “Shut up, Bob! You know our orders don’t let you say that shit.”\n\n“Shut up both of you. I’m going to try and resolve this without needing more on you than I can get within the terms of your contract. Can you give me your parole?”\n\n“What do you mean?”\n\n“I mean you give me your word to stay where I put you and not try to return to your employer or customer until this is done or I give you leave to.”\n\n“What’s in that for us?”\n\n“A lot more comfortable surroundings. But a dirt nap if you try and violate the rules.”\n\n“If we don’t take it?”\n\n“I keep you here where nobody will ever find you, you spend who knows how long eating defrosted airline food and I’ll shred your brain - or your body - to find out what I need, fox-boy. And a real good chance that nobody will ever hear from you again.”\n\n“Bullshit. You can’t…” His voice trailed off as I picked up the bolt cutters from the table, then positioned them on his left pinkie toe-claw,\n\n“Do I need to add medical attention to the incentives for agreeing to my terms?”\n\n“I’m not giving you shit, you bastard! Go piss up a… “\n\nI didn’t wait for him to complete the gravitationally impossible epithet. I leaned on the bolt cutter and when he stopped screaming looked over at his partner.\n\n“What about you? Am I collecting a paw for luck or are you going to help your partner out by earning that medical attention?”\n\n“That’s rabbits, dude.”\n\nI picked up the bolt cutters and wandered towards him, grinning to show my teeth.\n\n“All you fucking lepidorae look the same to me. I’m willing to give it a shot.”\n\n“Fuck! Stop! OK! MKUltra are after him. If they find him they’ll kill him. He used to work for them, we’re supposed to keep them off his ass because he works for our boss now. We can tell him you’re no threat!”\n\n“What boss?”\n\n“Passcode to my phone is 2739”\n\n-----------------------\n\nIn my safe-house’s basement, the medics were finishing up patching up the foxes hindpaw. They couldn’t reattach the toe of course, but he’d walk normally without pain when their work healed. I looked over at the hare sitting in the armchair watching me warily. \n\n“When they are gone I’ll give you the rest of the details, but for the moment, this place down here has everything you need for reasonable comforts. Two beds through that door, toilet and shower through that one. You got satellite TV, fridge and freezer full of food and you can cook over there. You can live in reasonable comfort down here for months if need be. You may be out in the middle of nowhere and cut off from everybody but I’m betting some of these field missions have had you living in worse conditions.” I stopped talking as the medics stood up and came over.\n\n“We left supplies and care instructions. He should be awake in about twenty minutes. Marko said to tell you he’ll add it to your tab.” I nodded and the medics quietly left.\n\n“Ok now, the other stuff… This basement is shielded. Even if you could MacGuyver a transmitter out of what you got down here, it wouldn’t do you much good so don’t bother trashing the gear. That door is a lot more solid than it looks. I can think of at least three ways to blow it down using stuff you could cook up with what’s down here but I strongly urge you not to do it if you wish to remain unharmed. There is a lot of very bad news wired up against that eventuality. I did not build this place to be escape-proof. That would be impossible unless I wanted you to starve to death in a heap of your own shit in a bare concrete box. I did, however, sit down here for hours looking at how I might escape from it and then made certain that none of the ways I came up with could have anything other than a very bad result. If you do make it out intact you’ll have other problems getting off this property without wandering into other unpleasantness, most of which can ruin your whole day. Even with good intel and a decent recon, I wouldn’t like to try it myself when everything is armed and for as long as you are my guests here they will be. Do I make myself clear?”\n\n“Crystal. We’re perfectly safe as long as we stay down here and behave ourselves, then when you’ve wrapped this thing up you let us go. But what happens to us if something happens to you?”\n\n“That’s covered. An otherwise uninvolved associate will release you. Two other things - If I can make an accord with your boss, you get out before it’s wrapped up. Also, releasing you is not a matter of just dumping you somewhere. You’ll be given a ride to the airport with a ticket to any destination you choose.”\n\n“That’s fair, I guess. How come a PI or lawyer has a place like this all ready?”\n\n“You’d be surprised.” I grinned. “It’s amazing how often I need to hide somebody out in relative comfort, either upstairs if they agree or down here if they don’t, with somewhat ‘emphatic’ security devices to ensure only the people that are supposed to come in or go out. I’ve put a certain amount of effort in getting and keeping a reputation in the places where I usually operate as somebody you do not mess with, but if somebody doesn’t get the message and tries to get in or out of this place uninvited, well it’s in the middle of nowhere so nobody will hear the noise and I’ll just clean up the mess next time I come by.”\n\nWith that, I turned and left. \n\n[u][i]To be continued...[/i][/u]\n\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "Down in the Weeds Episode 3 – A Dafydd Owen Story.

Relaxing in the chairs by our local HQ, watching the sunset, I wasn’t. Relaxed, that is. How much of what I had confirmed and had suspected should I reveal to my client at this point? From what I could see, it was pretty obvious to me that the maybe-not-so-good Dr. Daniels had been using his kids in a weird mind control experiment. Implanting subliminal conditioning, linked to visual triggers that would prompt specific emotional or behavioral responses. One kid had fled, one had defied him and seemed to be doing ok but the third…  He was in the funny farm after getting into all sorts of bad shit and then freaking out in the middle of a bog-standard inkblot test that left him in a really confused state, something that neither he nor his brother were known for – both of them being known in the local schools for being bright and focused. Personally, all I was concerned with was finding out what my client had wanted me to, but this was getting more tangled than I wanted to present to the moose lady until I had it straight in my own skull.

 

If I laid it all out in front of her, she could easily go ballistic. She wanted him found and brought back now, was it going to change into “hunt his ass down and end it” if I told her what I suspected? Given WHAT I suspected, I’m not sure I would have a problem with that but everyone I’ve killed on the job since leaving the military has been necessary to finish the job, and the job was never “kill this guy” I’m not a hit man. Well, back when I wore a primary colored suit to work I kinda was but I’m a civilian now. Yeah, I’ve got a fair number of bones in my closet but so far I’ve never had a problem with putting any of them there. They all had it coming, either because they were doing shit I couldn’t leave alone or because I had a mission and they were in the way. On the face of it, it wouldn’t be hard to tell myself that this guy had it coming too, but I really didn’t like believing anything that obvious.

 

While I was turning it over in my mind I pulled out the latest dispatch from Jason I’d pulled from the drop box. I opened the envelope and looked over the message. Then tossed the remainder of my drink over my shoulder and stood, picking up my chair and throwing it into the door of the 5th wheel hooked to our truck. Sarah looked at me in surprise and I read off the message to her.

 

“FLASH BUNKER”

 

She was in movement immediately. We had the hookups disconnected, the entire rig back in traveling condition within five minutes and were on the road northbound. Before we cleared the campsite I was on the phone to my client.

 

“Mrs.Daniels. We’ve got a lead that is heading out of state. We’re going to follow that up and will keep in touch and let you know.”

 

“Out of state?” the moose matriarch said, her voice full of confusion. “Where the hell… this isn’t making any sense at all.”

“We’re not sure yet, but it’s north of here and we’re going to trace it down. If it’s a red herring we’ll be back but we’re going to follow it wherever it leads. Wherever he’s gone, we’ll find him.”

I looked over at Sarah and shrugged “I hate telling a client lies, but I can’t tell her all the truth yet.” She nodded, concentrating on driving to the parking lot where my rental was stashed.

We met at the exit from the airport rental lot and were walking back to the truck before she voiced any kind of concern.

“Dafydd, what if he really is what he looks like?”

“We dig a fucking grave. I don’t think it’s that simple though. It’s too obvious, too clean. The gear I found in the warehouse said he was reporting to somebody. This wasn’t some sick fucks personal project. It had backup that is trying to cover their tails right now. I’d give it even odds we find a corpse, not a living moose. But.. if he is what this has been set up to look like… well, we tell his good lady we found a corpse.”

She bristled and hissed. I knew how she was feeling.

-----------------------------------

My rental was disposed of, we were heading back north. Anyone tracking us would assume we were heading home. We had one other task to take care of. We gave it enough time to be plausible and then pulled into a rest stop. Sarah walked around the parking lot, looking like she was just walking out the kinks from time on the road, but she was really mentally tagging license plates - particularly any that had arrived after us.

Meanwhile, I was sitting there by the truck and its tow, sweeping it as thoroughly as the gear we had packed could do. I was looking for GPS frequencies, audio recorders, any kind of bug. I found nothing. I headed for the bathroom in the rest stop and remotely triggered the cameras mounted to the 5th wheel. They’d catch anything before Sarah got back.

Sarah arrived back at the truck about the same time I did. I showed her the footage on my tablet and she wandered around the back of the tow before climbing into the right side of the cab.

“Freezer truck, penguin logo.”

“Got it.”

We waited until the 18-wheeler pulled out and followed it back onto the freeway. We paced the truck for a few miles and then pulled past it. Whoever wanted to track us could follow a load of frozen goods for a while. It was time for us to leave this road.

-----------------------------------

Just north of Des Moines, in Iowa, we left the highway and drove about five miles to an isolated set of farm buildings. They’d been empty for years after two farms merged when I’d bought them. They looked from the outside as dilapidated and run down as when I had acquired them through a trusted proxy. Actually the main house and barn were quite sound. I used the place as a safe house and as a potential bug-out location. Stored in the house was preserved food, various pieces of equipment and weaponry, pretty much everything two people would need to vanish into the wilderness for a couple of weeks. In the barn was a SUV with an extra large fuel tank and in the glove box were a couple of false IDs and prepaid cards with names to match. None of the telltales we’d left had been disturbed, there was no sign that anyone had been here, so we parked the truck and 5th wheel in the barn, went inside and were able to relax for the night.

After breakfast we transferred most of our gear from the truck to the SUV and hit the road, aiming to cross the river into Wisconsin at MacGregor, then head north to meet up with Jason at a no-tell motel in a one-stoplight town east of La Crosse.

------------------------

 We checked in and hit a local diner. The food wasn’t bad. I always preferred eating at these small-town places when I was on the road. Good honest cooking where not everything on the menu has seen the inside of a microwave or a fryer. Made enough casual conversation with the young skunk lass that brought our food to learn that her name was Bethany, her dad was the chef and that her family had owned the diner since before she was born, her Grandpa had opened the place. This wasn’t entirely pointless. We had a few hours to “fit in” and be unremarkable in a way that Jason and anyone following him wouldn’t be. Jason because he’d be making no effort to - in fact to do the opposite as much as possible without offending anyone - and his tail because Jason would be drawing the attention. I smiled up at Bethany when she brought round the coffee pot again.

“So where’s a good place in town for a beer?”

“Only place, more like,” she chuckled. “George’s Bar, couple of blocks down that way and across the street.”

I’d spotted the place when we’d arrived in town, was hoping it was the only bar reachable without leaving town and was glad to have my hopes confirmed. A few minutes later we settled the check and made our way back to the motel. Once inside, Sarah looked at me and flicked an ear curiously.

“You or me, Dafydd?”

“I don’t know, love. Benefits either way, problems either way too. I can probably ‘disappear’ in a local bar a little more easily than a pretty lass can, but if I don’t vanish well enough it’s a lot easier to make you hard to recognize than it is me.”

“You do it. I’ll take this end.”

--------------------------------

Late afternoon, I pulled on a pair of jeans and a comfortable shirt and headed out to the bar. I felt a little underdressed without a sidearm but there was no way to conceal one the way I was dressed. If anything popped before I got back to the motel I’d have to make do with what nature had given me. I’d timed it about right, the small place was rapidly filling up for their happy hour and there were few open seats. Looking across the polished bar I saw the usual suspects on tap, along with a couple of more local brews. Picking one of the latter I leaned on the bar while the bartender poured my beer and scanned the room. I struck the jackpot. There in the corner booth was an open seat, the other three being occupied by three guys, all of ‘em canines. One older guy and two younger but the best of all was that I could see two of ‘em had buzz-cuts and the third was wearing a National Guard ball-cap. Picking up my beer I wandered over.

“If you guys don’t mind me using the spare seat, the next round’s on me…”

All three of them looked up at me, sizing me up, but it was the older one who spoke.

“Any particular reason you picked this one?”

“Yeah, I want to rest my paws and I never saw a soldier turn down free beer in my life.” All three of ‘em grinned at that, but the old one was looking at my face and ear. He knew a shrapnel scar when he saw one.

“I take it you’ve seen enough of ‘em to know?”

“Royal Navy, until I got one too many pieces shot off and they sent me home.”

He nodded and indicated the seat with his free paw.

“Take the weight off. Maybe we can swap some lies to pass the time.”

“You know the difference between a sea story and a fairy tale, right?”

“Yeah, a fairy tale starts ‘Once upon a time..’ and the sea story starts ‘No shit, there I was...’”

They all grinned as I sat down. I’d achieved my aim. I was inconspicuous, clearly part of a bunch of locals and I had a good view of the entire place. Besides that, I didn’t know how long I’d have to wait and the conversation might be entertaining. Well worth buying these lads a few beers for.

----------------------------

After a few rounds of beer and some truly outrageous stories from both sides my phone buzzed in my shirt pocket. I fished it out to see a message from Sarah.

“J checked in 20 minutes ago. Watching parking lot. No sign of anyone. J just left for the bar.”

“Wife checking up on ya?”

“Nah, just a message from the guy I got to meet tomorrow. No big deal.”

Jason wandered through the door a few minutes later. He didn’t try and look for me and I was watching for anyone seeming to watch him. Nobody was. He had one beer, paid a little attention to the hockey game on the bar TV, visited the restroom and left.

“Excuse me a moment, guys. I gotta hit the head.”

Thankfully the restroom was empty. I walked into the single stall, shut the door and looked it over. Took me a second look before I spotted the edge of the small piece of paper poking out from behind the TP dispenser. I memorized the number on it, shredded the paper, flushed the pieces and then I went back to my beer. One more round and it was time to return to the motel.

----------------------------

Back at the motel I used my keycard to let myself in through a side door. The hallway was deserted so I quickly headed down to room 17 and knocked lightly on the door. Jason opened it and stepped out without saying a word, following me upstairs to our door.

In our room, Sarah was waiting. She had the lights out and was watching the parking lot through a set of our NVGs.

“No activity other than Jason’s arrival.”

“Hi Sarah. There probably won’t be. I’m afraid I had to call in one of your favors to lose them, Boss.”

“Not too large a one, I hope?”

“Remember trooper Callahan? You helped him out of some trouble about eight months back. I made sure they were just a little over the speed limit to keep up with me when we went past where I knew he’d be sitting on I94. They lost me when he pulled them over.”

“No chance of a backup vehicle?”

“Don’t think so, There may have been but I only made one.”

I nodded, making plans.

“They had tags on us down in Colorado. We made ‘em when we got your message and bugged out. Tried to put a GPS tracker on us but we transferred it and lost them.”

“How long do we want to stay ‘lost’, Boss? Hannah is on her own at home with the kid and that makes me a little nervous.”

“Only until tomorrow. You’re going to go home after breakfast as if you had never made them at all, let them pick you up again. Lead ‘em to the old warehouse in the northeast. Then Sarah and I will see if we can acquire them and have a little chat.”

“Ok.”

 

“Right. Secure comms only now. Jason, once you’re across the river you can turn your regular phone back on, make a call to my voicemail - leave a message suggesting you’re expecting me back in three days. Then go home, let the tail pick you up again. Give us until the afternoon before you head out, let us get set up ahead of you.”

Jason just nodded and headed back to his room. Sarah and I settled down for the night.

---------------------------------

Right after breakfast we all left. Jason crossed the river at the first chance he got, heading north to the cities on the Minnesota side. Sarah and I headed north while staying in Wisconsin, planning on avoiding the interstates, crossing the St Croix back into Minnesota at Stillwater then coming into town along highway 36. Anyone picking up one of our vehicles wouldn’t see the other.

The warehouse that was our destination was owned by a seriously crooked property developer. There was supposedly a plan to remodel it into condos but the fact that half the financing for the scheme relied on laundering drug money ended up with the developer going away for an extended vacation at government expense, all his company assets frozen and the place continuing to stand empty. It would probably remain that way until it crumbled under the weight of its own age. I made it my business to keep an eye on places like that. They came in very handy when I needed a place I could “work” uninterrupted and that couldn’t be traced to anyone remotely associated with me. So, once the fuss had died down and I knew nobody would be coming back there for a time, if ever, I’d quietly wandered up there one weekend and spent a few hours breaking in and then changing the locks.

As soon as we arrived we began working on setting our scene. We got our vehicle out of sight inside and opened up the door and gate of the loading dock. We placed a few discreet cameras and lugged around some old crates to make sure that anyone coming in would take a predictable path. We had to work fast because at this point there was no real way to coordinate with Jason. We’d been using burner phones but the problem with those is if you use ‘em too long, particularly if you’re doing it from a known location, somebody who knew what they were doing could eventually compromise them. So far, every indication was that the furs we wished to talk to did indeed know what they were doing, so we’d treat them as trained pros.

“Tasers only on this one, Sarah, unless we have absolutely no choice. We are either dealing with something official but black or with mercs. Either way, they are pros and offing them unnecessarily might bring down more hassle than we want. Better to just quietly vanish ‘em and keep ‘em safe.”

“Got it.”

We settled into our chosen positions, concealed but with good views and fields of fire covering the whole accessible area of the loading dock, set up our tablets to view the camera feeds. Now there was nothing to do but wait.

----------------------------

Fortunately the wait wasn’t long enough to be uncomfortable.

“Dafydd, that’s Jason’s car… and there’s his company.”

“Got them.”

Jason’s car turned into the loading dock and stopped. A little way down the street, outside the fence, a green Chevy came to a halt. I smiled as I saw Jason get out of his car in full view of the supposed watchers, then reach in and pull out several file folders. He placed them into a large envelope and strolled into the loading dock. As soon as he was out of view from the road he hurried to the back of the loading dock, placed the envelope into an old toolbox and walked to the front of the dock again, fiddling with his phone.

Once he was out front again I saw him hit a speed-dial and heard him leave a message. What I heard made it obvious that he’d dialed my voicemail.

“Boss, just letting you know I dropped off the stuff you wanted Barry to look into on your missing person. It’s in the toolbox. I’ll wait around the corner to meet him and pay him, let him know where to collect. He should be here within half an hour.”

Nice touch. If the opposition had penetrated my voicemail or had a parabolic mic on Jason then whoever was in that car outside had a problem. They couldn’t keep eyes on Jason and the apparent dead-drop. My guess would be that they would move to a place where they could watch Jason’s car and then send somebody in for a look at whatever he left.

“Here he comes, Dafydd…”

This guy was pretty good. He walked in quietly, warily, his eyes scanning for places where trouble could lurk. Unfortunately for him, this trouble was patient and pretty good at lurking and we’d made sure that our hiding places were masked until one had walked past them. We remained totally silent, this guy was a hare, and his ears were constantly scanning for anything trying to sneak up on him. With a mental sigh, I pulled my taser and let the hunting instinct partially take over.

As he approached the toolbox I was pacing him in a full-blown stalk, moving without a sound, timing my steps to his so that our paws touched the ground at the same time. I was just within range as he arrived at the rear of the dock and reached for the toolbox.

I took the shot before he touched it. A perfect hit.

As he collapsed, the sight of that movement triggered something that went straight down my spine into my leg muscles without stopping to say hello to the brain. I leaped, practically landing on the guy. I froze, realizing I’d dropped my taser and my claws were fully unsheathed. I heard Sarah coming up behind me and turned.

“Tape him, please, Sarah. I have to get this back under control before I touch him.” She bent over to deal with that task and I closed my eyes, sucking deep breaths of air until the twitching of my claws stopped and I could open my eyes without tending to get that predatory tunnel vision.

By the time I was done, Sarah was dragging him through the door at the back of the loading dock leaving behind a nine millimeter automatic and a small pile of whatever else he’d been carrying. Wallet, phone and a small radio with an earpiece. I gathered up all his gear and got it out of the way into my hiding place, turning off the phone and pulling the battery. I could worry about anything to be recovered from that later. For now some more tactical intel was required. I couldn’t wear his earpiece, it was made for his species and my ears were the wrong shape, so I grabbed a spare one of my own and replaced his with one that I could wear. Thank God for standardized plugs. Then I set about sweeping up all the ‘taser confetti’ making sure there was no trace of him or us ever having been there. Sarah was returning as I finished.

“He’s secure and he’s fine. He’s starting to come out of it already. I put a bag over his head and attached him to one of the pipes.”

“Unless I’ve underestimated Jason, we’ve about ten minutes before his partner comes looking for him.”

-----------------------------

Back in hiding, we settled down to wait again. It was just over five minutes before our first visitor’s comms came to life.

“Bob, get back out here. He just placed another call to his boss saying this ‘Barry’ guy is a no-show and he’s heading home.... Bob? Bob! Do you read me? Shit..”

The mic on the far end picked up the sound of a cellphone dialing. A few seconds later I heard a car door and faint curses about old buildings full of dead zones. Sarah and I watched through our cameras as the stocky fox hurried around the corner and came towards our position.

Seeing the empty loading dock, he froze. Then he drew a weapon and began advancing very carefully. He didn’t call out to his partner. That made me even more certain that these guys were well trained. If they weren’t he might have done just that, giving away his position if he hadn’t already been spotted by our cameras or if we weren’t already waiting in ambush. He was sticking closer to Sarah’s side than his partner had, hugging the crates for cover. I wasn’t going to have a shot at him without exposing myself to return fire but suddenly, without warning he twitched and collapsed. I could just make out the wires from the taser darts running back through a gap between two crates.

By the time I’d finished taping and searching this one, Sarah had pulled their vehicle around and inside, next to ours. We set about closing the place up, leaving no visible sign from the outside that any of the four of us were here.

----------------------------

 

 “Ok, gentlemen. I think it’s time we had a little chat, because you have started to become inconvenient. You’re obviously professionals, as you have no doubt discovered I am, so I’d rather keep this an amicable discussion. However, if you were from around here you’d also be aware that I have a certain intolerance for being fucked around with. I also tend to express that intolerance a little emphatically from time to time. I would like to be able to return you to your employer and to your families alive and undamaged when this mess is over.”

I started to reach for the tape on their muzzles but paused before removing it…

“I also think we need to change plans a little. Sarah, help me load these guys in our trunk, would you? They undoubtedly have a tracker on their vehicle so let’s make sure it isn’t found here and that these guys are a long way from anywhere it’s been before we settle down to discuss matters with them, shall we?”

We searched their car for all gear and documents it contained then left it in a place where I was sure it would be stolen pretty quickly, particularly since we left the keys in it. Both of us had been careful to leave no prints. We took our two guests to an alternative place.

---------------------

We had them stripped down to their boxers and strapped to chairs. I saw them experimentally test the stability of the chairs but they were bolted to the floor. I looked over at Sarah and she left the room. Two seconds later the tape was pulled from both their muzzles and I held my finger to mine as I saw them each draw breath

“Shush!”

They thought better of it and watched me warily. Time to make my sales pitch. I hoped they took it.

“You know how much deep shit you’re in. What can you tell me?” It was the hare spoke up first.

“Not a damn thing. If you’re a pro you know that.”

“The problem with that position, my friends, is that I have all I need right here to do a deep chemical debrief or shred your bodies an inch at a time until you do tell me. If you force me to go either of those ways you know as well as I do that I’ll know everything about you before I’m done. Your names, your mission, where every member of your family within three generations lives, who is paying you and what they are paying you to do… With that information what more can you tell me within your orders?”

The fox looked up at me. I knew the hare believed me but I wasn’t sure about Reynard there. His next words settled that question.

“A little more. We’re commercial. All we were engaged to do was to follow the moose boy and find out who else was looking for the other moose.”

“Arnold Daniels”

“Yeah”

“Well the moose you were following is my employee and I’m the one hunting the other bull, because his wife asked me to. Tell me, was it you guys that has had his house bugged for the last few years?”

“No, man, we’ve been on this for two weeks. We got the word that a geek was poking where he shouldn’t and were told to find out who was behind it.”

“Who is your boss?”

“Sorry, can’t go there.”

“I don’t mean Arnold any harm... Yet. If he did what I think he did to his family that might change, but he’s safe from me for now. He’s got a good woman that is totally freaking out about his safety and that’s why I am involved.”

I was surprised when the hare answered instead of the fox. “Our job is to keep him safe! You don’t know what kind of shit is after him!”

The fox responded immediately. “Shut up, Bob! You know our orders don’t let you say that shit.”

“Shut up both of you. I’m going to try and resolve this without needing more on you than I can get within the terms of your contract. Can you give me your parole?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean you give me your word to stay where I put you and not try to return to your employer or customer until this is done or I give you leave to.”

“What’s in that for us?”

“A lot more comfortable surroundings. But a dirt nap if you try and violate the rules.”

“If we don’t take it?”

“I keep you here where nobody will ever find you, you spend who knows how long eating defrosted airline food and I’ll shred your brain - or your body - to find out what I need, fox-boy. And a real good chance that nobody will ever hear from you again.”

“Bullshit. You can’t…” His voice trailed off as I picked up the bolt cutters from the table, then positioned them on his left pinkie toe-claw,

“Do I need to add medical attention to the incentives for agreeing to my terms?”

“I’m not giving you shit, you bastard! Go piss up a… “

I didn’t wait for him to complete the gravitationally impossible epithet. I leaned on the bolt cutter and when he stopped screaming looked over at his partner.

“What about you? Am I collecting a paw for luck or are you going to help your partner out by earning that medical attention?”

“That’s rabbits, dude.”

I picked up the bolt cutters and wandered towards him, grinning to show my teeth.

“All you fucking lepidorae look the same to me. I’m willing to give it a shot.”

“Fuck! Stop! OK! MKUltra are after him. If they find him they’ll kill him. He used to work for them, we’re supposed to keep them off his ass because he works for our boss now. We can tell him you’re no threat!”

“What boss?”

“Passcode to my phone is 2739”

-----------------------

In my safe-house’s basement, the medics were finishing up patching up the foxes hindpaw. They couldn’t reattach the toe of course, but he’d walk normally without pain when their work healed. I looked over at the hare sitting in the armchair watching me warily.

“When they are gone I’ll give you the rest of the details, but for the moment, this place down here has everything you need for reasonable comforts. Two beds through that door, toilet and shower through that one. You got satellite TV, fridge and freezer full of food and you can cook over there. You can live in reasonable comfort down here for months if need be. You may be out in the middle of nowhere and cut off from everybody but I’m betting some of these field missions have had you living in worse conditions.” I stopped talking as the medics stood up and came over.

“We left supplies and care instructions. He should be awake in about twenty minutes. Marko said to tell you he’ll add it to your tab.” I nodded and the medics quietly left.

“Ok now, the other stuff… This basement is shielded. Even if you could MacGuyver a transmitter out of what you got down here, it wouldn’t do you much good so don’t bother trashing the gear. That door is a lot more solid than it looks. I can think of at least three ways to blow it down using stuff you could cook up with what’s down here but I strongly urge you not to do it if you wish to remain unharmed. There is a lot of very bad news wired up against that eventuality. I did not build this place to be escape-proof. That would be impossible unless I wanted you to starve to death in a heap of your own shit in a bare concrete box. I did, however, sit down here for hours looking at how I might escape from it and then made certain that none of the ways I came up with could have anything other than a very bad result. If you do make it out intact you’ll have other problems getting off this property without wandering into other unpleasantness, most of which can ruin your whole day. Even with good intel and a decent recon, I wouldn’t like to try it myself when everything is armed and for as long as you are my guests here they will be. Do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal. We’re perfectly safe as long as we stay down here and behave ourselves, then when you’ve wrapped this thing up you let us go. But what happens to us if something happens to you?”

“That’s covered. An otherwise uninvolved associate will release you. Two other things - If I can make an accord with your boss, you get out before it’s wrapped up. Also, releasing you is not a matter of just dumping you somewhere. You’ll be given a ride to the airport with a ticket to any destination you choose.”

“That’s fair, I guess. How come a PI or lawyer has a place like this all ready?”

“You’d be surprised.” I grinned. “It’s amazing how often I need to hide somebody out in relative comfort, either upstairs if they agree or down here if they don’t, with somewhat ‘emphatic’ security devices to ensure only the people that are supposed to come in or go out. I’ve put a certain amount of effort in getting and keeping a reputation in the places where I usually operate as somebody you do not mess with, but if somebody doesn’t get the message and tries to get in or out of this place uninvited, well it’s in the middle of nowhere so nobody will hear the noise and I’ll just clean up the mess next time I come by.”

With that, I turned and left.

To be continued...

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