Caged Eagles (25 page)

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Trevor sunk down in the back seat to find a more comfortable position. It was dark and the stars were out. He watched the sky as Caden continued to drive them toward their destination. Trevor knew the next day would be momentous. Laney had to get in contact with the leaders of the opposing side. Forrest was supposed to have made sure that the proper people were positioned for the attack by the time Trevor, Cesar, and Caden were ready. Forrest had a little more time but it was a lot of work for him to complete before Trevor met the enemy. Everything rested on Laney's initial contact, though. If the leaders of that side turned their offers down, what would they do then?

Though all these questions should have been the cause of a sleepless night, it was Sarah who was truly on his mind. He looked up at the stars and wondered if she was doing the same thing. He almost felt like slapping himself. How could he be such an idiot-romantic at this time? Of course she wasn't looking at the stars–she'd be sleeping. Trevor closed his eyes, and saw her in the distance. She was in a transparent, ghostly form floating backwards away from him. He didn't move toward her. It began to rain, and the rain hit his face from the heavens. He knew she had disappeared from his sight.

Trevor's body was jolted forward. His head hit the seat in front of him. The next thing he knew all motion had stopped. It almost seemed like time had ceased. The lights of the E.V. went out and the three men sat submerged in darkness. Trevor didn't have to ask if anyone was okay. Cesar cursed a very vulgar word, and loud. Caden laughed.

“Hey, Volkov, there had better be a good reason for this wreck. I'm going to strangle you if you hit a crippled chipmunk and killed this car,” Trevor said, irritated because his neck was beginning to hurt.

“No, we'll strangle him if he swerved to
miss
a crippled chipmunk and killed the car.” Cesar remarked.

“I don't know what happened, I lost all power before I could get us stopped.” Caden shook his head.

Suddenly there was a loud explosive sound. Trevor's heart jumped and forced large amounts of blood through his veins.

“Son of a …” The words became muffled. Cesar tried to shove the defective air bag out of his face. Caden and Trevor burst out laughing, watching the little man struggle.

“You are both a couple of ….”

A voice came out of the Quick Fix box above the radio. “Hello, my name is Myla. I have a report that there was a car wreck. Is everyone okay?”

“Myla, keep speaking, you sound like an angel.” Caden's voice became smooth, almost seductive.

“Could you put
it
away until we get out of this mess?” Cesar was not happy by any means.

“Excuse me?” Myla asked.

“Nothing,” Trevor called out.

“How many are in the car, is anyone passed out? Assistance is on the way.”

“Three, and we are fine.” Trevor knew he had lied; his neck was stiff from hitting the seat.

Cesar snarled. “Speak for yourself. I have an airbag trying to smother me.”

“Sir, you have an object smothering you?” Myla sounded concerned.

“He's fine,” Caden replied. “Now can you tell me if we will personally be able to thank you for being right there for us after our horrible wreck?”

“The wreck is horrible?” Myla sounded even more worried.

“No, but have you ever been in a car wreck, Myla?”

“No.”

“It's scary, makes a person think about their life.”

“Sir, please stay calm, help will be with you in about five minutes.”

“I'm okay, Myla, but I would still like to thank you.”

“Assistance has just notified me they have arrived.”

She was correct, a vehicle stopped on the road to their left. “Please stay in the car until they come to assist you. I'm going to let you go now, good night.”

The light went out on the Quick Fix button before Caden could hit on the young woman anymore. Trevor opened his door. He climbed out to see three stretchers and a team of four people coming down off the road to meet them. Trevor opened Cesar's door to help him. He still struggled to get out from behind the air bag. Trevor felt like laughing. This was the type of luck Forrest would have had.

“Sir, sir, please come with me.” A hand grabbed his arm.

“Why, I'm fine.”

“Sir, I just want to make sure, the others will help your friends.”

The man glanced down at Cesar, who had just been released from the air bag's confinement. Trevor allowed the man to take him back up to the vehicle on the road. Caden was already there. They checked each man over, but insisted on taking them to the hospital. Cesar and Trevor protested but it was a lost cause.

When they arrived, they checked in and were asked to find a seat in the waiting room. Trevor leaned back and closed his eyes. It smelled too clean in the room. It reminded him of when Brandi was pregnant with Faith.

“Are you the three men that were in the car wreck on the Interstate?” A young nurse asked.

“Yes.” Trevor stood.

“Can you follow me, please.”

“Do you have a phone I can use?”

She said over her shoulder. “As soon as we have made sure you are alright.”

Two nurses got off the elevator and came toward them. One was a young man with freckles dotting his arms and face. The second nurse was extremely tanned. Her dark eyes scanned each man.

“Ford, could you please help this gentleman,” she pointed to Caden. “Ella, you can help this man, and I will help you.” She beaconed Trevor with a hand. Caden laughed at the look on Cesar's face. He was stuck with the male nurse and Caden got the sexy twenty year old blonde.

“Please follow me.”

The nurse led him into an examination room down the hall. She checked his heartbeat, reflexes, and sight. For the final test she had him sit down next to her to take his blood pressure. He rolled up his sleeve and she saw the scar on his elbow. She grabbed his arm and rolled it to see the wound better.

“How did you do this?!”

“I was in a fight.”

She moved his arm back and forth to test it's mobility. “Please tell me you had it properly taken care of.”

“Why?”

“Because if not,” she looked up, concerned, “you can get into legal trouble.”

“What?” he thought that sounded crazy and pulled his elbow away from her.

“If the health department knew …” she didn't complete her sentence. Trevor's frustration was evident, his neck hurt, and this woman was threatening to turn him in for something that happened years ago.

“It's fine, lady, and it's none of your business.”

“Please, I'm only looking out for your safety.”

“Yeah, sure you are, butting into my business is keeping me safe.” He stood and yanked the door wide open, hitting the wall behind it. The nurse trailed behind him,

“Sir you must complete your checkout.”

“Or what, you are going to sue me?” He rounded on her so quickly that she stumbled backward. Her mouth opened and closed without a sound. He left her standing alone and found his comrades in the waiting room.

“Hey, there is a guy here wanting to talk about the wreck.” Caden pointed to a man who was seated, watching them, a few feet away. The man rose and came toward them. He had a small frame, so his coat hung on him limply. He smelled strongly of cologne and his head was almost completely bald.

“This way, gentlemen.” He pointed down another corridor. Trevor ignored his nurse and followed the man.

They entered the room and sat down. Trevor put his feet up on the table.

“I will get right to business so you can leave. Who was driving the car?”

Caden answered. “I was.”

“Who was in the passenger side?”

“I was, and the damn air bag is what almost killed me.”

“I see …” he scribbled on his note pad. “Were any of you injured; concussions, abrasions, muscle pulls?”

“No,” Trevor lied.

“Can you tell me why the car was wrecked?” He held his pen stationary over the paper and looked at Caden.

“I was driving; problems occurred with the steering, panel lights flashed, and it went dead. I did my best to keep it on the road. It's good that the only thing that worked was the brakes.”

“You didn't hit anything?”

“No.”

The man began to take notes again. “Then why was the front bumper bent?”

“I don't know. You wreck an E.V. into the ditch. I'm pretty sure it's not going to look too great.”

The man froze, shocked how Caden had responded. Trevor patted his arm. “Caden, deep breaths.”

“I will have to charge you for that because it was a rental car.”

“Are you kidding me?” Trevor stood up, angry.

“I'm sorry, but I have it here in the agreement you all signed, that if the E.V. has any damage the renters will be charged.”

“Fine,” Cesar drummed his fingers on the table. “So where do we get a new one after it's paid?”

“Oh, umm, you can't have another one because you damaged this one.”

“I didn't see that in the contract.” Trevor bent over the table, leaning into the man's face. He gulped twice.

“It's our policy. You should have gone online and read that before renting a car.”

“Okay, buffoon, we need a car and fast. Now I suggest you get us one before my two friends here completely lose it and beat you into a coma.” Caden said.

“Good thing we're in a hospital.” Cesar laughed and cracked his knuckles for dramatic affect. Trevor sat back down and smiled at Cesar's comment.

The man's eyes got large and he squeaked, “I can't, I don't have the authorization to do that.”

Trevor leaned over toward the man. “Then get your boss here.”

“She doesn't either, I'm sorry.”

Trevor stood up and took a deep breath to calm himself. “Of course not.”

“I have to smoke.” Cesar left the room, though the little man watched him go with a look of dissatisfaction on his timid, wrinkled face.

Another man walked through the door. He was in a business suit and had an organizational planner in his hand.

“Is Mr. Wells here?”

“Yeah, what do you want?”

“I would like to speak with you about that scar you have on your elbow.” His eyes rested on Trevor's arm.

“Before I say anything you had better tell me your name.”

“Weiss. Now if you are done here.”

“Well ….” the small man began to protest but Trevor began to walk toward the door.

“Yeah, I'm done. Caden, finish up here.”

Trevor followed the man out to the room next door.

“Mr. Wells,” Weiss punched in the code to his briefcase and pulled out a stack of paperwork. He fanned it out over the table. “We just want to make sure that you have had your injury taken care of properly.”

“That is none of your damn business, just like I told the nurse. Plus, it happened years ago, so what does it matter?”

“It matters for your safety.” The man took a seat and held his hand out, offering the empty one across the table to Trevor. He refused to sit down.

“It's healed up now, it's over with. Anyway, I should have sued for this even being done to me.”

“Now calm down, sir.”

“Oh, guess you're sitting in my chair now. How does it feel, Mr. Wear-a-suit-and-demand-stupid-crap-because-you-have-nothing-better-to-do-but-pick-your-nose?” He shoved the chair away from him and it crashed against the wall.

“There are legal issues here.”

“Yeah, there are.”

“You have no case, Mr. Wells.”

“Oh, but you do, don't you?”

“Yes,” Weiss sat up straight and pushed his chest out. “We could sue you for neglect, for not following regulation sixty-seven of the health bill passed three years ago in legislation.”

Trevor leaned over the table into the man's face. “This country is under attack right now; don't you think you have better things to do than pester me? You could lose the country you live in and all these damn regulations any day.”

“Our national defense won't let that happen. It hasn't so far. Soon it will be like this never happened.”

“The east coast was overtaken so easily because of our weak defenses. Our national defense is garbage because our president didn't see the need to keep it as a priority.”

Trevor marched to the door and left the room, much to the man's protests. He met the other two in the lobby.

“Did you get a new car?” Trevor addressed Caden.

“No, not yet. I think we are going to have to forget about it. These people are a lost cause.”

“And why am I going to die for these ungrateful idiots?” Cesar tossed his pack of cigarettes back and forth in his hand.

“Let's go then.” Trevor walked toward the exit. The others followed him.

The men were lucky to get another rental car. The accident hadn't been input into the large data system yet. Trevor took the keys and drove to a motel across town. Neither of the other two men objected. They had all been up most of the night. It was now six o'clock in the morning and the sun was peeking over the horizon. They fell into their beds the moment they saw them.

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Late that afternoon Trevor awoke to the smell of fresh bread. He rolled over to see Caden eating a large piece. Cesar was at the window. He flicked ashes from his cigarette. They caught in the wind and blew away.

“You'd better eat, Wells, we have a long drive ahead of us.” Trevor crawled out of bed and followed his nose to the desk. He stuck a piece of bread in his mouth and poured a glass of ice water. He then returned to the bed and sat down on the end of it.