JC: William Redman Carter
Noble Savage
Chapter 27
By
Lazlo Zalezac
Copyright (C) Lazlo Zalezac, 2005

"Would you mind telling me why we have driven across the 
country rather than taking a plane?"

William looked over at Colt with a wry smile and answered, 
"Tradition."

"Tradition?"

"Yes. This whole practice of staying away from home for several 
months to write a dissertation is a tradition in our family. My 
father, John Carter, started it when he left everything behind so 
that he could focus on writing. Ed Biggers was the first to continue 
the tradition. Then, in turn, each family member who was ready to 
write their dissertation left for some isolated place to work without 
distraction.  Leroy Jones, John Carter, Jr., and Beth Carter have 
carried on the tradition," William answered. He was silent for a 
minute and then added, "In a way, I'm breaking tradition by 
having you and Rock come with me."

From the back seat, a sleepy Rock said, "Nothing is going to keep 
us from fulfilling our contract with Ling."

"And what does that contract say?"

"You're to be protected from all threats to your well being," 
answered Colt.

"Even when I do something stupid?"

"Especially when you do something stupid," said Rock.

William nodded and then said, "Good, because I'm planning on 
doing something very stupid."

Colt nearly drove off the road. Rock sat up and asked, "What?"

Chuckling at the frantic reactions of the two bodyguards, William 
replied, "Just seeing if you were paying attention."

Rock didn't take the dismissal at face value. He asked, "You aren't 
planning on running off on us."

"You bet," William answered with a grin. He got the reaction he 
was expecting.

"You might get away for a bit, but you won't be able to hide," Colt 
said. He looked in the mirror at Rock. The men exchanged 
knowing glances. They had taken some special precautions so that 
they could track him down. 

Shaking his head, William said, "You both know that I'm not real 
happy about having the two of you around while I'm trying to 
write my dissertation. The whole idea is for me to be able to 
concentrate without any kind of interruption. I'm worried that 
having the two of you hovering around will represent an 
interruption."

"You are going to give it a chance to work," Colt said. There was a 
degree of hope in his voice that suggested he didn't believe it for a 
minute. 

Rock shifted nervously in his seat. He recalled the episode with the 
bullets and knew that he wasn't dealing with a normal person. It 
wouldn't surprise him if William had already set up everything 
necessary to escape before they had been hired. Even Ling had said 
that the young man would slip away at the first opportunity. The 
fact that even Ling didn't think they'd manage to keep William 
under wraps was enough to depress him. He muttered, "There are 
times when you are scary."

Colt pulled onto the dirt road leading to the property that William 
had rented and said, "It'll be hard to take us by surprise during the 
day. This car is kicking up so much dust you can see it coming 
from a mile away."

Turning to look out the back of the Hugger, William said, "This is 
nothing. You should see it on the reservation."

Colt didn't feel comfortable with the idea of spending time on the 
reservation. He knew that he and Rock would stand out like sore 
thumbs as the only Whites within ten miles of William. The 
inability to blend into the background would only make their jobs 
more difficult. At least at this place, the two bodyguards could 
dress like the locals and be discreet in their service. He grunted, 
"We're almost there."

Looking out the window at the green grass and trees, William said, 
"I think you'll like it here. It's very peaceful. The river is right 
down the hill behind the house. I understand that it is full of bass 
and the fishing is very good."

Colt didn't bother to answer. He was on the job and it didn't matter 
to him where he was staying. At least this area was open enough 
that they would be able to see anyone coming for at least one full 
minute before they could arrive. Rock just grunted as he wondered 
just how much fun they would have there. Rock stared at William 
for a moment and then mumbled, "wonder how long it will be 
before he dumps us."

Parking the Hugger thirty yards from the house, the two 
bodyguards got out to investigate the surroundings before letting 
William out of the car. Arriving at an unsecured location was 
always one of the most dangerous times as a bodyguard. They 
would have preferred to have an additional bodyguard, but they 
were stuck with it just being the two of them. Knowing that 
William was well trained in operating a car in an offensive fashion, 
they would leave him in the car while they scouted around. 
Following their standard procedure on arriving at a new location, 
Colt said, "Stay in the car until we've cleared the premises. If you 
hear us declare an emergency over the radio, get the hell out of 
here."

William watched as they went around to the back of the house. 
Once they were out of sight, he slid over in the seat and engaged 
the motor. Before either bodyguard had a chance to realize what 
was going on, William was headed back towards the town and the 
storage locker that held a second car with a new cell phone. He 
smiled at the two cell phones on the seat beside him and wondered 
how long it would take Rock and Colt to realize that he had taken 
their phones. 

From inside the house, Rock and Colt heard the unmistakable 
sound of the Hugger driving off. Colt couldn't believe that they 
had been so stupid to leave William alone in the car. He swore, 
"We're not even here two minutes and he's run off."

Rock reached for his cell phone to let Ling know that it was time to 
start tracking William's Hugger. The clip on his hip was empty. He 
swore, "Damn, he's got my phone."

"Mine too."

"Should we call him on the radio?"

Colt shook his head as he answered, "You know what he's going 
to say."

Rock keyed the radio and said, "William. Get back here."

Maneuvering the Hugger down the country road, William 
answered, "Sorry, guys. Don't worry about Ling. She'll understand 
you didn't have a chance. Enjoy your vacation and catch some fish 
for me."

Colt shook his head and looked at his partner. He asked, "What do 
you want to do?"

"We've got to go through the motions," Rock said as he pointed 
down the road. He broke out into a slow distance eating jog. He 
knew they only had to reach the nearest house and get a ride into 
town. Both of them had pocketed enough cash to entice even the 
most reticent neighbor into giving them a ride.

"Ling was right. We couldn't keep him here a day," said Colt as he 
jogged beside his partner. He hoped that they would be proved 
correct in being able to locate William. 

"At least she expected it."

It was the next day when William pulled into the driveway of a 
house in Texas. He waved to the middle aged man standing by the 
front door. Getting out of the car, he said, "Hello Dave. Thanks for 
taking care of the arrangements for me."

"My pleasure, William. It's been a long time since a Carter was in 
this house. I don't think your brother has been here once since he 
inherited it from your grandparents."

"I know. He was pleased that I chose to come here. How're your 
mother and father?"

"They're fine," Dave answered. His father had retired the previous 
year from managing the accounts for the Carter Clan and was 
working part-time on the Soup Shoppe chain with his mother, 
Jenny. The Soup Shoppe chain had grown to over a hundred little 
shops, most of which were in strip malls. 

"How's Karla?"

"She's fine. She'll be back tomorrow from a show in New York. 
Her work is selling like hotcakes," Dave said with more than a 
little pride in his voice. 

"I know she's been very successful. You might say that my family 
has followed her career ever since the very beginning. In fact, I 
own one of her first works, a small watercolor of my father. I think 
she painted it when she was about fourteen," William said. 

The information surprised Dave. He had not known that William 
had taken one of the early watercolors done by Karla or that he 
would be so proud of owning it. Amazed, he said, "Wow, I didn't 
know that."

"I've made it a point to purchase one of her paintings every year."

Dave didn't know what to make of that information. Rather than 
continue the discussion, he asked, "Do you want to go in the 
house?"

"Sure," William answered. He retrieved his suitcase from the car 
and followed Dave into the house. It was a small house, just three 
bedrooms in a lower middle class neighborhood. Inside, the 
furniture owned by his grandparents was still arranged like it had 
been on the day they had passed away. William remembered one 
of his early visits to the house and how quaint it had seemed, but it 
had also been very homey and filled with love. 

"I had to replace the water heater, washer and drier. I had them run 
fiber to the house. You've got a brand new entertainment center. I 
hope that is okay with you," Dave said.

"It is very nice," William replied. He wouldn't have noticed the 
minor changes to the house that Dave had made.  

Pointing to some boxes on the dining room table, Dave said, "Your 
computer is over there. I would have set it up for you, but you had 
mentioned that you had wanted to do that."

"You're right."

William wandered down the hall. He reached his father's bedroom 
and looked in. Ansel Adam's prints hung on the walls. The closet 
still held some of his original camping equipment. Turning to look 
at Dave over his shoulder, he said, "My brother could open this 
house as a museum and make a ton of money."

"I doubt it. No one would believe that John Carter led such a 
simple life. Visitors would believe that most of his possessions 
were removed," Dave said pointing to the nearly empty room. The 
bed, the bookcase filled with books, and closet of old camping gear 
was all that was left of John's childhood. 

William smiled at the comment about his father's simple life and 
said, "His room at the house in Phoenix was the same way."

"Which room will you sleep in?"

"I'll use the guest room," William said as he turned around and 
went to the guestroom. At one time it had been the bedroom of 
John's older brother, but almost all traces of that older brother 
were gone. William dropped his luggage at the foot of the bed.

The pair walked around the house with William checking the 
refrigerator and pantry. Everything was fully loaded. Amazed at 
the effort Dave had put into fixing up the house, he said, "You 
really went all out. This is great."

"Thanks. I'll let you get settled in. Give me a call if you need 
anything," Dave said as he went to the front door. He had 
considered volunteering to help William unload his car, but 
thought better of it. 

"Thanks," William said. He noticed the hesitation at the door and 
said, "There are some things that I have to do. Part of it is moving 
my stuff in here. I'll see you later."

"Alright." Dave left the house and walked out to his car. 

William followed him and waved as the man drove off. He turned 
to the back of his car and started carrying his boxes of papers and 
books to the house. It took well over ten trips to get all of the 
material in the house. He spent the evening setting up a study in 
the dining room. 

It was close to dinner time when his cell phone rang. He picked it 
up and answered, "Hello, Lucy."

"Hello, William."

"How are things?"

Lucy, in a very serious voice, said, "Things are a little tense around 
here."

"Really? What happened?"

"You disappeared and no one can find you."

William looked down at his body and said, "That's strange. I can 
still see myself. I'm not invisible."

She couldn't maintain the pretense any further and started 
laughing. The past twenty-four hours had been an amazing 
experience for her. She hadn't believed that all of the actions he 
had taken would be necessary when he had told her his plans. She 
said, "You're horrible. Ling was pulling her hair out."

"I warned her that I wasn't going to put up with the bodyguards 
while I was writing my dissertation. So how long did it take them 
to get out the news that I was gone?"

"Well, it took Rock and Colt thirty minutes to find a neighbor who 
would allow them to make a telephone call. Less than forty 
minutes after you had left, Ling had used the GPS tracer she had 
installed in your Hugger and located it in the storage facility. It 
took Rock and Colt thirty minutes to get there and search it. They 
found your cell phone the same way about twenty minutes later. 
Ling claims that you had just a little more than an hour head-start," 
Lucy answered. She hadn't believed him when he had said that it 
would take Ling about an hour to locate him if he didn't take the 
extreme measures that he had taken.

"I bet the first thing she did was try to call me," William said.

"Yes. She's still fuming that you call forwarded your regular cell 
phone to her," Lucy replied with a giggle. She had felt that was the 
worst thing that William could have done to Ling. "That really 
seemed to puzzle her. Each time she called you, she got a call on 
her call waiting."

"How did she figure it out?"

"When your bodyguards found your cell phone, they saw what you 
had done. I think they found it rather humorous. She is really 
something else when she's mad."

William laughed and said, "Let's see. She was stomping around 
while cursing in Chinese."

"Oh yes. She can be a very intense woman. I don't think I've ever 
seen anyone quite so angry."

"I'm sure she expected me to escape," William said.

"She was firmly convinced that you would run off, so she wasn't 
upset about that. She was upset that her attempts to locate you 
were unsuccessful."

"So what happened with Rock and Colt?" William asked. He knew 
that Ling wouldn't be angry at them. Even if she was, she would 
calm down once she saw the degree of planning that had gone into 
this operation. She would understand they didn't stand a chance.

"They demanded a raise saying that they had never had such a 
difficult client and Ling had to agree."

William grinned at the characterization of him being a difficult 
client. He knew the term they used to refer to the person they were 
protecting was the Principal. Ling was the client since she was the 
one paying their bills. He asked, "Where are they now?"

"They are still in Arkansas. Natalie and Nicole are down there too. 
Ling didn't say anything, but I guess your note explaining that they 
needed a vacation was taken to heart."

"I knew that would happen. Did you talk with them?"

"No, but Natalie was furious. I think it was because of some side 
bet she had with Nicole, but I'm not positive. Nicole had expected 
it and had bet Ling that you would disappear before getting to the 
place. Rock and Colt had figured the same thing, but hoped that 
they would be able to find you before Ling. How did you know 
they put a locator in your computer?"

The question made William smile. He hadn't opened the computer 
to verify his suspicion, but he was pleased to learn that it had been 
valid. He answered, "Where else could they put one that they 
would be sure would go with me no matter where I went? They 
suspected that I'd dump the car and leave behind everything else, 
but they were positive that I'd take my computer with me."

"That makes sense," Lucy said. She had been surprised that he had 
left his computer in the back of the car. It was only after they 
discovered the machine that she realized that he had made 
arrangements for another computer to be delivered where he was 
working. Ling had been shocked at the completeness of his plans.

"I guess I had better call her."

"Ling?" Lucy asked just to verify that she was following his 
thoughts. 

"Yes."

After a few minutes of the kind of sickening sweet talk in which 
young lovers often engage, William hung up the phone. Smiling, 
he dialed the number to the spare line to the house. Once that call 
went through, he dialed another number. When that call went 
through, he was greeted with, "That was a very nasty thing you 
did."

"Which of the many things that I've done the past few days was 
nasty?" William asked truly curious as to her answer. He was sure 
that it wasn't his disappearance since she had to know he would 
leave.

"Call forwarding your phone to me when you disappeared."

William laughed and said, "I thought you would appreciate it."

There was a long moment of silence and then Ling, in a reluctant 
voice, said, "Yeah, I did. I was pretty impressed that you thought 
to do that."

"I'm glad you appreciated my little joke."

Ling laughed and said, "Well, I have to admit that I was surprised 
that you actually made it to Arkansas. So when did you set up your 
great escape?"

"At the beginning of summer when Lucy and I went out there to 
check it out," William answered. That trip had been an adventure 
with a lot of firsts. It was the first time that he had been with Lucy 
without a chaperone. More importantly, that was when he and 
Lucy had made love for the first time. 

There was a very long moment of silence. Finally, Ling asked, 
"Where are you?"

The puzzlement in her voice was enough to let William know what 
she had discovered. He asked, "Where do you think?"

There was a low growl as she answered, "According to the trace, 
you are somewhere in this house."

"Really?" William asked with a grin. He was lucky that Ling 
couldn't see him as that particular grin usually sent her into an 
hour long tirade about not smarting off to his mother. He teased, "I 
wonder if that's where I am. Nope, it doesn't look like home."

"Alright, how did you do that?" Ling said with just a hint of a 
growl in her voice. The resourcefulness of her errant son continued 
to surprise her. She was going to have to search the house to find 
the call bridge he was using. It had to be in the house somewhere. 
She glanced at Lucy and took in the innocent smile the young 
woman was giving her. William had found a real jewel in Lucy. 

"Not gonna tell you."

After giving forth an evil laugh worthy of a late fifties Grade B 
Sci-Fi movie, Ling said, "You can run, but you can't hide. I'll 
track you down little boy."

"Oh no! It's the evil Ling Manchu, the even more evil sister of the 
evil Doctor Fu Manchu!" His voice conveyed exactly the mock 
horror he intended. This was not the first time he had called her 
Ling Manchu. 

"Nayland Smith, you are not! When I catch you, I'll punish you 
with all of the deviousness of my brother Dr. Fu," retorted Ling. 
She followed her comment with another evil laugh. She hadn't 
understood the reference to the evil Dr. Fu Manchu until she had 
seen the Peter Sellers' movie. Her first reaction was to get angry, 
but by the end of the movie she had enjoyed the character so much 
that she had adopted him as her make-believe brother. She asked, 
"By the way, what time is it?"

William had to catch himself before he answered with the time. It 
was an attempt to narrow down the part of the country in which he 
was staying. After a second, he answered, "Well, the clock on the 
VCR here keeps flashing twelve o'clock. I'd set the time if I knew 
it, but it is not really necessary. After all, it's right twice a day. 
Based on what I know, it's either before or after twelve - give or 
take about six hours."

Ling said, "You're hopeless. Are you answering your e-mail?"

"Yes."

"Keep in touch with us. Enjoy your time alone and get your 
dissertation finished," Ling said.

"I will. Watch over my girl."

"I will. Goodnight."

"I'll talk to you later," said William relieved that his mother wasn't 
really upset about his disappearance. He put the phone in his 
pocket after she hung up and looked around the living room. His 
papers and books were in piles by the kitchen table. 

He went over to the table and started to unpack the computer. It 
would take about two hours to set it up and install his software. He 
paused and looked around for a telephone book to call out for a 
delivery pizza. Not finding one, he stared at the computer and 
decided that he'd eat first. Talking to no one in particular, he said, 
"Maybe they have a Burger Burner around here."

William left the house in search of a fast food burger place. He 
wasn't disappointed, finding several of them within a four block 
stretch along the main street of the town. Looking at them with a 
smile, he said, "I think I'm going to like it here."