Tom Brand Escapes

28 - Escapes Canada, Eh

Brand opted to spend the in the night in the oak game room close to the hallway that lead to the front door and kitchen, rather than sleep in one of the upper bedrooms Charles had prepared. Charles had been a little pouty about it but then happily fussed over Jenn, who agreed to the accommodations.

Tomorrow, Charles would fly them out from Sault Ste. Marie Airport at eight o'clock in the morning. They would arrive before noon at a tiny airport in British Columbia, two thousand miles away. Charles had managed their cover story well. Accustomed to his travels with his niece, he was not questioned about transporting some friends of hers to such a remote location. The climbing and belaying equipment were more than a ruse for them to be in the Cascades, however, they were a critical part of the mission. They had supplies for three days and on the fourth day, if all went according to plan would rendezvous with Petras. But Brand's mind was unsettled and sleep would not come. The leather sofa crunched each time he moved on it.

It was Charles' niece that still concerned him. Charles seemed to be a kind, affable man, but kind, affable men were not always discreet and often naive.

Jenn entered the room and Brand swung his legs off the sofa and onto the floor. She was in flannel pajamas and her hair was braided back flat on her head in two plaits that swung above her shoulders. She looked more like a teenager on winter break than a fledging agent on the run. She settled opposite him in a wingback dark leather chair and pulled her legs up underneath her.

"What's bothering you?" she asked.

Brand stood and picked up a poker. He stabbed at the logs in the fireplace. A shower of sparks fell through the andiron.

"I'm not sure. This seems too easy," he said.

"Really? Driving across half the country, swimming through freezing water in an illegal border crossing, putting trust in people we don't know, and eluding what has probably now become a multi-nation search for us as fugitives involved in the disappearance and apparent murder of a high-ranking government official seems to easy to you?"

Brand grinned and rubbed his knuckles against his chin.

"There are a lot of things that need to go right on a mission. Even when you put it that way, it's going well."

"Okay. But something seems off?"

Brand placed the poker in the rack and leaned his back against the mantel.

"What do you think about Charles' niece, Ashley?"

Jenn crossed the room and retrieved a framed photo of Charles with a young woman with short auburn hair. She handed it to Brand.

"I don't know, Brand. She seems harmless enough if we take her at face value."

Brand looked at the photo and frowned. It was a print of a selfie taken outside. Charles in reflective sunglasses, smiling; Ashley squinting against the sun, her freckled nose and eyes crinkled, her mouth partially opened in a laugh. Mountains and a bright blue sky were just visible behind the pair. Brand placed it on the mantel face down.

"Everything Charles said about her screams operative."

"Really?" Jenn asked.

"Charles said she was a drug sales rep. It's a great cover job to explain long trips, even outside of the county. She's 'adventurous' so her rich uncle supplies her with all kinds of survivalist equipment and can fly her or take her almost anywhere she wants to go. No mother, and he didn't mention any siblings, or a father, or even a boyfriend."

"Hmm," Jenn said, "You think she might be a threat?"

"Possibly," Brand said, "If she is an agent she definitely knows what her uncle does to 'help' people. Perhaps she even steers him into doing some of it."

"What should we do?"

"Nothing for now unless we have to." If Ashley was an operative, she was playing it cool, waiting to see what was going down. He would do the same under similar circumstances. One didn't step into the middle of someone else's mission unless there was good reason. And she probably did have great affection for her uncle. If she thought he was safe, yes, she would wait. "Besides, we have other things to deal with."

"Russom and the weapons diversion," Jenn said, "BANTER, the bombs."

"And there's more," Brand said, "Those women at the motel."

"But I thought you weren't worried about them," Jenn said. "And even so, you said Petras could handle them."

"He can. But his guard is down." Brand had thought about it over and over since they had left him. The way Irma was so cool when they burst through the door, the way Anna dove for cover. Maybe they were used to that sort of thing.