Saffron's Fire

Ouch

Evelyn was bored. The awkward silence had streched the length and bredth of the three and a half hour journey from Dijon to Paris. The only redeeming part had been the music, but they had gone through his playlist three times now. 

She gave a mournful sigh and pouted as the scenery changed to a more urban landscape. 

"We are almost there." Drake said startling her with this abrupt breaking of the silence.   

Evelyn jumped and bumped her head a little bit on the window. Drake let out a chuckle and she shot him a glare. He just shook his head and settled back into their slience and pulled into a beautiful side street and parked. Drake got out of the car and without waiting began walking down another side street called Rue Crémieux. This one had beautiful pastel colored houses one right after another. Evelyn sauntered after him and, ironically caught up quickly because of her long legged advantage. Not long after this, Drake turned towards a royal and light blue house with red and white trim. 

He knocked on the door bruskly and waited. No one answered. Again he knocked this time with a particular pattern to it. Nothing. 

Evelyn rasied her eyebrow at him, thoroughly unimpressed. He paid her no mind and went around through a side gate to the back of the house. Evelyn trotted after him but when she reached the back yard, he was not there. She tensed her body, alert for any danger that might be lurking. 

She assessed her surroundings with blinding speed; gate entry but no exit, no doors to the inside of the house, a neat and unassumingly manicured little garden, a ladder leading up to the second level that was maybe seven feet off the ground. Aha! That must be where he had gone. 

Annoyed she jumped for the bottom rung and levered herself up the ladder to the next level and cautiously lowered herself onto the balcony. She heard no noise and eased herself to sneak a peek inside the window. It was empty and quiet inside the house but Evelyn couldn't ignore the little hairs that were standing up on the nape of her neck. Someone was watching her. From the balcony you could see the windows of the adjoining houses and there at the corner of the house, the drain pipe, it had tell tale scuff marks. 

She grinned and slunk over to the house corner and began to climb the drain pipe all the way to the roof. There, Drake was talking to a man on a roof top two houses over. Both had been watching her progress with great interest. 

Evelyn sighed again and strode towards them. All she could think was Another test? Really?  When she was alomst at Drake's elbow he introduced her to the man waiting. 

"This is Dr. Philipe Renard has agreed to do your procedure."

"Here on the roof?" she asked 

Drake rolled his eyes, or she assumed he did so, he was still wearing his sunglasses. Since he didn't have the courtesy to answer, she asked the doctor directly

"Bonjour Monsieur, Où allons-nous pour la procédure? Ici? Comment va contrarier le traqueur?" (hello, where are we going for the procedure? Here? How will you thwart the tracker?)

"Tres Bien," he responded, "mais, je parle anglais. Je suis Anglais." (Very good, but I speak english, I am English.) 

"show off" muttered Drake under his breath. Evelyn wanted very badly to shoot him a dirty look but decided against it since this was a meeting of professionals. 

Instead she brightly said to Dr. Renard, " Wonderful"

"To answer your question, No we shant do the procedure here on the roof, my plan to thwart the trackers will start here though. Its going to be rather painful I'm afraid." Then he turned to Drake, "Are you ready for your part?" Drake nodded grimly. 

"Jolly Good. Please don't hold this against me." This last Dr. Renard directed at Evelyn before he shot her with a Taser. 

She shuddered with the volts shooting through her body. It was agony for ten seconds. She felt her body lose control and she fell. Drake's arms saved her from actually hitting the rooftop and slipping off the side to the ground. He easily scooped her up into his arms and carried her back to original house that she had scaled. 

Evelyn had felt tasers before. This was a much stonger gun than she had ever experienced. Her insides felt cooked. She imagined steam was coming from her ears. Drake put her down and again the Doctor sent jolts through her. Not quite as long this time.  

Drake again picked her up and they went through a door in the roof that led to an attic, through an ancient hall and down three flights of stairs into the basement. This time Drake set her down on a dolley and she was rolled off to an elevator which led even deeper into the earth. The Doctor removed the barbs and once the elevator stopped pushed her into a room that was prepped for surgery. There were three other nurses there and as soon as she was where she was supposed to be, a waiting nurse gave her a shot. Seconds later her world went black. 

Slowly sounds were ringing in her ear. A long forgotten song, sung by a long forgotten voice. She tried to open her eyes but they refused. 

"Bill Grogans goat was feeling fine, ate three red shirts right off the line..."

She heard a door open and close and another voice join, Katelyns, 

"Bill took a stick gave him a whack and tied that goat to the railraod track"

The voices broke off for a second because of heavy footsteps that were running into the room. 

"How can you sing? They'll be here any minute and then..." The voice was that of a teenaged boy. His voice sounded angry and desperately sad. 

"When will I get a chance to sing with Papa again if not now?" Katelyn answered. She didn't sound sad, but Evelyn knew better. Katelyn was compartmentalizing, enjoying this moment for what it was and detaching any other feelings from it.  She began on the next verse "The whistle blew the train was nigh, Bill Grogan's goat was doomed to die, 

The first voice joined her for the last verse, "He heaved a sigh of awful pain, coughed up the shirts and flagged the train" 

"Papa, They are here. Wake up Evelyn." This voice was Carrigan. 

----

"Wake up Evelyn Saffron." 

The voice had shifted from her sister's to Drakes. This time her eyes didn't feel like locked safes and she opened them to see William Drake, for once without his sunglasses, standing awkwardly by her bedside in a sterile, windowless room.