Without reacting, Karl said, “Right. I haven’t really slept in days.” He had to guess that Maya had already briefed Roddy on that incident.
They went around and around, both literally in the SUV and with the debriefing. Roddy was good at his job, Karl discovered.
“Now what?” Karl asked.
“Now, you take a week off to decompress,” Roddy said.
“I mean after that.”
Roddy shrugged. “The Director has something special planned for you.”
“Such as?”
By now the SUV had pulled back around to the arrivals area of the Charlotte airport, nudging up against the curb and stopping.
“You’ll get your orders directly from the Director,” Roddy assured Karl.
“I need to stay away from Langley,” Karl said.
“We agree. Bradford will call you on your SAT phone and explain what he has for you.”
Karl nodded and took that as his que to get out. He stepped out onto the curb and leaned back into the SUV. “Will we be working together again?”
“That’s up to the Director,” Roddy said.
“Right.”
“Take it easy, Karl.”
He closed the door and watched the SUV pull away. Karl was too tired to contemplate what he had just been told. He didn’t even want to guess what the Director had planned for his young ass. But if it was anything like the past week, he was in for an interesting life.
After resting at a hotel by the Charlotte airport until the next day, Karl rented a Jeep and drove northwest toward the location his father had given him. His father had also given Karl a four-digit code to get past an outer perimeter gate along a remote trail. To anyone traveling by this area on the remote highway, this entrance would look like nothing more than an overgrown entrance to a lumber operation. The driveway itself was starting to get overrun by brush on both sides.
As Karl drove along the ridge toward the cabin, he could easily see why his mother had chosen the place. The cabin ahead sat on the precipice of a finger ridge with a view in nearly every direction. Karl guessed that what he was seeing of the Blue Ridge Mountains included a view of Tennessee.
The view was stunning.
He parked out front, got out, and took in the vista for a moment. The cabin itself wasn’t overly impressive from the outside, but once he found the hidden key and got inside, he became more impressed. The log structure was broken up in the living room by the river rock fireplace. A modest kitchen looked out the back, with a view of the mountains through overgrown trees.
A chill ran through Karl when he thought of his real mother coming here from her stressful life to find solace. He imagined her sitting on the leather sofa sipping a glass of red wine, or reading a book. There would be no distractions here.
His phone suddenly buzzed, and he realized immediately that even this isolated location could not hide from satellites overhead.
Seeing who was calling, Karl clicked on and said, “Yeah.”
“You made it,” his father said.
“Are you going to keep on tracking my SAT phone? I thought these things were supposed to be encrypted and untraceable?”
Jake Adams laughed. “They are for most people. But it’s not like I’m watching you have sex with your girlfriend. Trust me, you might need my help someday.”
Karl was almost certain of that fact.
“What do you think of the place?”
“It’s pretty cool,” Karl said.
“The only electric is the generator, but you can go all green and add solar if you like. The roof could use an overhaul, so you could add the solar roof with a power wall.”
“Look at you,” Karl said. “Keeping up with technology.”
“You’re not too old for me to slap the shit out of you,” Jake said.
Karl understood that, as well. His father could be a scary guy.
“Anyway,” Jake said, “To the side of the kitchen there are two doors. Check them out.”
He went and looked into the first one and found a pantry, which was stocked with food in sealed bins.
“A pantry,” Karl said.
“The other one.”
Karl opened the next door and it went nowhere. Instead, he was faced with a massive gun safe with a keypad.
As if he knew what Karl was thinking, his father said, “The code is the same as the one for the outer gate. Go ahead and open it.”
Punching in the code, Karl heard an audible click, so he turned the large handle. Inside was a large selection of guns, from submachine guns to scoped rifles. On the inside of the door was a bunch of handguns. There were also stacks of documents and passports. These were her mother’s old personas. He opened a few of the passports and saw an image of Toni Contardo at various ages in her life. She had been a beautiful woman, he realized.
Now he found an envelope addressed to him.
“You still there, kid?” his father asked.
“Yeah. My mom left me a letter.”
“What else did she leave you?”
“Mostly guns and passports.” Then Karl opened a small box on one of the shelves and added, “And cash.”
“Makes sense,” Jake said. “You’ll need to maintain this stash. And tell no one about this place.”
“Do you have a place like this?” Karl asked.
Jake laughed. “I’ve got crap stashed all over the world.”
“Paranoid much?”
“Prepared, son.” Jake hesitated. “I’ve got to go. Heading out fishing.”
“Thanks, dad.”
“Thank your mother.”
The line went blank and Karl looked at the envelope his mother had addressed to him. He wandered back to the living room area and sat down on the leather sofa. Then he opened the envelope and started to read his mother’s letter to him.