27: Café Encounters of the Strange Kind

Derek was still sleeping when Alex woke around eight, cursing at the lateness of the hour. He grabbed a quick shower and headed into town, figuring he’d get some breakfast at the café. He resented Farrell’s high-handedness in summoning him, as if he were some truant kid called into the principal’s office. He had seriously thought to call Glorfindel and ask for back up, but decided at the end that he didn’t need it. Or rather, he didn’t want to tip his hand to Farrell. The Elves were Alex’s ace in the hole. He grinned at that thought as he searched for a parking space, finding one in the public parking lot. He reached the Gold Nugget Café and Emporium with maybe ten minutes to spare, and in spite of the early hour, the place was bustling with business.

"I’m expecting a friend," Alex told the waitress who greeted him. "We planned to meet at nine, so he should be here pretty soon."

"All I have left is that corner booth," she said, pointing to the farthest corner.

"That will be fine," Alex said. "I’ll order for myself." He took a quick look at the blackboard on which were scrawled the day’s specials. "I’ll have the number three with coffee and grapefruit juice."

"I’ll bring the coffee and juice right over," the waitress said as Alex made his way past other tables to the booth, sitting so he was facing the front. He’d just removed his jacket and was settling down when Farrell showed up. Raising his hand to get the man’s attention, he smiled at the scowl Farrell gave him. Apparently the man had hoped to be there first just so he could castigate Alex for being late.

Farrell came over and removed his own coat and hat, placing them beside him as he sidled into the booth. "I’ve already ordered," Alex said, "but the waitress will be back with my coffee in a moment."

"We’re not here for a breakfast out with friends," Farrell said in a harsh whisper.

Alex shrugged. "It would look odd not ordering anything, and I missed breakfast at the college. Ah... thank you." He smiled at the waitress who had brought over his coffee and glass of juice.

"What can I get you?" she asked Farrell.

"Just coffee for now, thanks," he replied with a smile that never reached his eyes and she sauntered off. He turned back to Alex, the smile fading. "I meant what I said in my email: no more games. You are playing with fire here, boy, and I don’t appreciate it."

"First of all, I’m not your boy, and second of all, you don’t call the shots," Alex retorted, keeping his voice low and even, as if he were discussing the latest stock market report or the weather. "I’m the agent in the field. You have no control over me."

"Your controllers back east think otherwise."

"My controllers are delusional. I was given a specific assignment and I’m fulfilling it even now. You insisting on barging in is putting me at risk and I resent the hell out of it."

"Elwood needs to be taken out," Farrell said. "He..."

"Here you are," the waitress said, plunking down the coffee mug in front of Farrell. "Your breakfast will be out in a jiffy," she said to Alex.

"Great. Thanks, Esther," he replied with a warm smile, reading the name off the name tag pinned to her uniform. "And could I get extra syrup with that?"

"Sure, honey, no problem," Esther said, turning to Farrell. "Sure you don’t want anything else? I can recommend the frittata."

"No, thanks," Farrell said and Alex was amused to see the man gritting his teeth.

"Suit yourself," Esther said as she went to another table to check on how the patrons there were doing.

"Relax, Farrell," Alex said with a smile. "You’re blowing your cover."

Farrell’s answer was a growled curse. "Elwood needs to be taken out," he repeated. "The D.D. gave the order."

"Not to me, she didn’t," Alex shot back, "and until I hear from her directly, my original orders stand: to assess the situation, find out what Ambrose is up to and then report back. I may indeed have to take him out, but not on your say-so. As it is, I’m not entirely convinced that Ryan McKinley really is Ambrose." Let Farrell chew on that.

Farrell gave him a disbelieving look. "You spent three days over the weekend with him at that mansion where he lives," he said. "You should have come to some conclusions by now."

Alex forced himself to stillness. "Keeping tabs on me, are you?" he asked nonchalantly, all the while wondering just who Farrell had keeping a watch on him.

"You almost got yourself killed with that stupid stunt of yours," Farrell said with a snarl. "I was... concerned." He flashed him a cold smile.

"Stupid stunt? I was saving a little kid from drowning." Alex said with a snort of disgust.

"And thereby blowing your cover."

"My cover wasn’t blown and I..."

Esther showed up with Alex’s breakfast and the two men remained silent while she placed the plate of pancakes and sausages before him. "Anything else?" she asked. "More coffee?"

"Please," Alex said but Farrell just shook his head, clearly frustrated at the interruptions.

Esther gave them a shrewd look. "I’ll bring over a thermos. Then you can help yourself." She left and for a few minutes Alex busied himself with eating, ignoring Farrell glaring at him. Esther returned with a thermos. "Holler if you need anything," she said, then walked away. Alex continued eating but picked up the conversation where they had left it.

"As far as everyone is concerned, I’m a hero trying to rescue the kid."

"Why were you invited to spend the weekend at the mansion?"

"I was released from the hospital when I was because Loren DelaFiore promised that I would not be left alone, since my roommate would be gone for the weekend. If it hadn’t been for my near drowning, I would’ve been on that camping trip as well. So it really worked out for the best because I was able to get inside the mansion legitimately."

"And Elwood never suspected who you really were?" Farrell asked, looking less than convinced.

"McKinley gave no indication," Alex said with a nonchalant shrug, stressing the surname. The lie came easily to him, for he was an expert at lying, but he hid a smile behind his coffee mug thinking that in one sense he was telling the truth: at that time, neither Ambrose nor anyone else knew the truth about who he really was, a descendant of Beren and Lúthien, as well as Tuor and Idril through Elros. Not that Farrell would understand or care about the significance of it all, but it still amused Alex to be able to speak the truth and lie at the same time.

"So, why didn’t you take him out when you had him right there?" Farrell demanded. "Why continue with this charade of being an eager student learning to be an elf of all things."

"There are worse occupations," Alex said with a smile, "and I told you I’m not entirely sure if McKinley is Ambrose." Then he sat back, giving Farrell a shrewd look. "Have you ever had to take one of our people out?"

"No," Farrell replied.

"Well, I have, twice and one was a friend." He smiled grimly at Farrell’s unbelieving look. "You can check my file, if you don’t believe me. Two years ago, that business in Santiago? Who do you think took Rodriguez out?"

"Rodriguez was slime," Farrell admitted grudgingly.

Alex nodded. "Undoubtedly. He was a rabid dog that needed to be put down and the Agency sent me to do it. And then there was Brussels."

"That was you?" Farrell asked in genuine surprise.

"Yes, and Jackson was a friend of mine. We trained together. But it seemed he was sleeping with everyone but the Chinese and selling everyone’s secrets to everyone else. He wasn’t just a leak, he was a damn sieve and he needed to be plugged. Permanantly."

"So you really took him out?"

"Only because he was doing his level best to push me out of the plane at thirty thousand feet when I was bringing him back to stand trial." Alex replied with grim amusement. "We never recovered his body; the Atlantic is too big for that." Then he allowed his expression to darken and as he leaned over his voice became cold as ice as he whispered, "So you see, Farrell, I’ve been playing in the big leagues for quite some time now and I know the score, perhaps better than you, certainly better than those damn pencil pushers in D.C. who think they control me. They don’t, and neither do you. In the field, I’m God, and don’t ever make the mistake of thinking otherwise."

He went back to his pancakes and sausages, finishing the plate, ignoring the other agent sitting across from him. He pushed the plate away, taking a long drink of his juice. Esther came by to clear the table, asking if they wanted anything more.

"At the moment, we’re good. Thanks, Esther," Alex said with a ready smile. Esther just nodded and left them alone again.

"What have you learned?" Farrell asked.

"Only that the Academy is legit and McKinley teaches budding Elf Guides how to protect themselves from predators of the two-legged variety and helping out on occasion with the camping expeditions. I think he also teaches one of the wilderness survival courses." Alex shrugged, pretending indifference. "Other than that and the fact that he married his high school sweetheart, nothing much." And even as he said it, he wondered if Amroth had ever been to high school.

"He’s married?" Farrell asked, lifting an eyebrow. "Hmm... that presents some interesting possibilities."

Alex felt his blood turn to ice at Farrell’s implications. "Back off, Farrell. If McKinley is Ambrose then he may be fair game, but everyone else is off limits. We don’t involve innocents in this, and his wife has given no indication that she’s aware of anything out of the ordinary about her husband."

"Even so...."

"Even so, she’s still off limits," Alex hissed, letting his anger show. "I’ve been very careful to keep collateral damage to zero whenever I’ve been in the field. I won’t have you messing up my record with your half-baked schemes. You leave McKinley to me and keep everyone else out, or so help me..."

"Don’t threaten me, boy!" Farrell snarled.

"Just remember this, Farrell," Alex said with cold equanimity, "the last thing I want to do is hurt you... but it's still on my list."

Farrell sat there for a long moment and when Alex refused to blink or look away, he snarled. "If McKinley is Elwood, he is to be eliminated by Thanksgiving, which is when your classes end, from what I understand. If he’s not dead by then, I’ll take him out myself, and you along with him, and I don’t give a damn who else gets caught in the crossfire. In the meantime, we need more intelligence. For some reason we can’t get a fix on anything that’s said inside the mansion or the Academy. It’s like there’s a force-field or something blocking our reception and the one attempt to grab the guy failed, though I don’t know why."

Alex narrowed his eyes. "When did you try to grab him?"

"While you were lying in a hospital bed hovering between life and death," Farrell replied with a smirk. "Only thing, when we went to make the grab, he eluded us somehow. Man’s as slippery as an eel."

Alex gave him a grim smile. "Maybe he was just lucky," he said. "I don’t appreciate you interfering with my assignment, Farrell. I’m not sure what bug got up Maddy’s nose to send you to make my life miserable, but I’m telling you what I told her: back off and let me do my job."

"Just so long as you do it," Farrell shot back. "Anyway, Elwood is only part of the problem. We need to find out about the people running this Academy. Something doesn’t add up about them. There are too many unanswered questions where they’re concerned. Most don’t even seem to have proper records of births and marriage and the like."

"I’m still looking into that as well," Alex told him. "If I find anything incriminating I’ll let you know, but so far I’ve come up with a big fat zero. These people are a little strange but they’re harmless enough. I wouldn’t worry too much about them."

"Your problem, kid, is that you don’t worry enough," Farrell said with a sneer, grabbing his hat and coat and standing up. "Keep in touch and send me real reports from now on. I’ll let you get my coffee." Without giving Alex a chance to respond, he walked away.

Esther came over, giving him a shrewd look. "Your friend doesn’t seem to be very happy," she said.

Alex gave her a grin. "He’s a Type A personality. He’s never happy unless he’s unhappy."

Esther sniggered at that. "You need anything else?"

Alex started to shake his head, but then realized he was still feeling hungry in spite of the pancakes. "You have anything sweet?"

"There’s a peach pie that just came out of the oven," she replied.

"I’ll have a slice of that then and the check."

"I’ll be right back with both."

Left alone, Alex poured himself another cup of coffee, thinking back over the conversation with Farrell. He and Amroth really needed to get Farrell out of the picture and all the other agents as well. Somehow they needed to discover who else was there. It was the not knowing that left Alex feeling cold. He didn’t like Farrell’s attitude. Too many innocent people could get hurt and Alex would blame himself if they did. Of course, he could well be dead and beyond blame, but it didn’t matter. If Farrell made a move and others got hurt, Alex would never be able to forgive himself.

Esther showed up with the pie and the check. "Enjoy!"

"Thanks, Esther," he said, but he did not immediately dig into the pie, still pondering over his options. Not coming up with any ideas immediately, he sighed and shook his head, picking up his fork. He only managed a bite or two before someone slid into the booth opposite him. He looked up with a frown to find a complete stranger sitting there. He had dark hair and wore a red and black plaid shirt and a black baseball cap with a skull and crossbones emblem embroidered on it.

"Hello, Alex. I’m glad to see you’re looking more... um... alive," the stranger said, giving him a wide grin.

"Do I know you?" Alex demanded with a frown, mentally cataloguing the many ways he could take the man out if necessary without anyone else in the café being the wiser.

"You can call me Nate," the stranger said, "though, Glorfindel knows me by another name."

Alex felt his eyebrows leaving his forehead. "Glor... wait! You... you were there... when I... when I died."

Námo’s grin widened. "Ah... you remember," sounding very pleased for some reason.

"Who are you? What do you want with me?" Alex demanded, staring in horror at the pie before him, wondering if Farrell had somehow managed to poison him or something. He didn’t feel as if he were about to die, though.

"Don’t worry," Námo said soothingly, "the pie’s not poisoned. I’m not here because you’re about to keel over from an excess of carbohydrates. We decided to introduce ourselves to you."

"We?" Alex asked, feeling suddenly faint. He’d managed to push his meeting with Fionwë out of his mind while confronting Farrell, but now the memory of what happened the night before came rushing back and he glanced nervously around, as if half-expecting to see Maiar popping up all over the place.

Námo laughed, obviously amused by Alex’s reaction. "We, as in me and one other." He raised his hand, giving it a wave without even looking around and to Alex’s complete surprise, Esther came over, giving them a warm smile.

"Hello, Artemus. I’m Estë."

"Oh, sorry. I thought your name tag said ‘Esther’," he muttered apologetically, feeling too stunned to say anything more coherent.

Both Valar laughed. "It does, child," Estë said. "But it’s no more my real name than Alex is yours."

Alex looked at Námo. "So you’re not really Nate."

The Lord of Mandos shook his head. "My name is Námo."

Alex swallowed nervously, calling to mind what he’d learned about these two in the history class. He felt himself blushing at the thought of how he’d been so sure these people didn’t exist. As if reading his thoughts, Námo gave him a bright smile. "We do not blame you, child, for not believing in us, but now that you know that there are such things as Elves, and you’ve met Fionwë, we felt it time to show ourselves to you as well."

"Why?"

"To let you know that you’re not alone," Estë answered. "You’re very important to our plans, Artemus. We just wanted you to know that."

"Why, though?" Alex insisted, glancing between the two Valar. "I don’t understand."

"I told you when we first met that you were on a cusp," Námo said, his mien becoming more sober, "that you could go either way and that still holds true even now."

"So you showing yourselves to me is supposed to make me go in the direction you want me to?"

"No, Artemus," Estë assured him. "We are not here to manipulate you. What you ultimately decide is your choice, not ours, but we felt you needed to know who all the players were before you made a decision that will affect the lives of many, not just you and Amroth. What happens in the next few weeks will have a major impact on the future, on all our futures."

"Gee, thanks. That really makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside," Alex retorted with heavy sarcasm.

The Valar ignored it. "When you speak with Glorfindel again," Námo said, "ask him what Elf Academy is really all about."

"And you’re not going to tell me?" Alex asked.

"No, child. That task we leave to others," Námo said. "Now, finish your pie before it goes cold." And with that, he simply wasn’t there. Alex gripped the edge of the table, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and jerked when Estë laid a hand on his head, stroking his hair.

"It’s all right, child," she said soothingly. "Take a deep breath and let it out slowly. That’s it. All is well. Now, I wouldn’t worry too much about us at the moment. It’s enough that you know that we truly do exist and that we have nothing but your best interest at heart, yours and everyone else’s. Take comfort in that. Now, finish the pie. I didn’t slave over it for all of five seconds just for you to turn your nose up at it."

Alex raised an eyebrow at that, but the innocent looking smile that the Valië gave him was too much and he burst out laughing, suddenly feeling less frightened. "Yes, ma’am," he said, picking up his fork. He took another bite, surprised to find the pie was as warm as when he’d first tasted it and grinned at Estë who winked and sauntered off, somehow fading out of reality without anyone else noticing.

Ten minutes later, Alex paid the check and left the café. His first thought was to hunt down Glorfindel, but he knew the Elf was teaching and would not be available for another couple of hours. Standing outside, huddling against the cold wind that had picked up, he hesitated for a minute before pulling out his cell phone and speed dialing a certain number even as he headed for his car.

"McKinley," he heard Amroth say after two rings.

"It’s Alex. We need to talk. Now. Where are you?"

There was a slight hesitation before the Elf answered. "I’m at the Academy but I can meet you at Edhellond in fifteen minutes. Where are you?"

"I’m in town, myself. I’ll see you in fifteen minutes." He closed down the cell phone and climbed into his car. "Now to get some real answers," he said to himself as he turned the key and pulled out of the parking space.