Rollie awoke to the feeling of a warm pressure against his body.  He opened his eyes and looked down at Angie.  In her sleep, she had turned completely around and was now facing him.  Her head was lying on his arm and her body was curled close to his.  The minutes ticked by as he lay watching her sleeping, never wanting the moment to end.  How could he have been so blind all those years?  How could he not have seen that Angie was meant to be more than just a friend?  He’d always kind of laughed at the term soul mates, yet that is what they were.  There was no other word that could describe it.

An hour slid by in joyful silence.  Rollie watched as Angie’s eyelids fluttered and opened.  He leaned forward and whispered against her lips, “I love you.”  Then he kissed her, slowly and tenderly.  Angie returned the kiss, wrapping her arms tightly about him.

“And I love you,” Angie murmured as their lips separated.  “More every day.”

Rollie smiled and kissed the tip of her nose.  “Come on.  I’m hungry.”  He got up.

They took their turns in the shower.  Breakfast was being fixed when Mangela came in.  Dingo entered a few minutes later.  They all sat down to the meal and began discussing the details of the day.

“Jimmy said that there would be no trouble with us going over to the estate this morning.  I guess this friend of his has a pretty open schedule,” Rollie said.

“Who is this friend?” asked Angie.

“I haven’t a clue.  I asked, but he said that he wanted it to be a surprise.”

“Will you be going there first?” asked Mangela.

Rollie nodded.  “The locations of the ceremony and the reception are the two things that it is most important Loubar not find out.  That and the real date we’re having the wedding.  We need to do this as soon as possible while we know that Loubar can’t follow us.”

“Are we going to take Mira and Francis along?”

“I don’t think we really need them, but they may want to check out the security of the place and see where it would be best to place guards.”

“What about all the setting up before the wedding?” Angie asked.  “Someone is going to have to be there to organize everything.”

“Well, obviously, we can’t be involved in that, so we’re going to need help.  Mira and Frank will be busy with us.  Do you think that Joyce could take charge over there?”

“I can call and find out.”  Angie called her friend, who said that she’d be happy to take charge of the preparations on Friday and Saturday morning.

“We should have Luce there, too.  She’d be good at that,” Rollie commented.

“Good idea.  When we see her, I’ll suggest it.”  Angie had a sudden thought.  “If we haven’t caught Loubar by then, how are we going to get to the estate on the wedding day without him following us?”

The Aussie smiled.  “Well, I’ve arranged a little helicopter trip for all of us.  Unless, Loubar can sprout wings, he’s going to have a pretty tough time following us in one of those.  Jimmy told me that his friend has a pad right on his estate.”

After breakfast, Rollie called Mira and Francis, telling them when they would be leaving for the estate.  The detectives agreed that they wanted to come along to check out the security.

They arrived about an hour later and the four headed out.  Jimmy had given Rollie instructions on how to get to the estate.  It was quite a drive.

An hour and a half later, they were pulling up to a black wrought iron gate.  A security monitor sat perched on top of the wall, watching them closely.

“Can I help you?” asked a female voice.

Rollie looked up into the camera lens.  “I’m Rollie Tyler and this is my fiancée, Angela Ramirez.  The people in front are Detectives Sanchez and Gatti with the NYPD.  I believe that we are expected.”

“Ah yes, Mister Tyler.  Come right in.  Please follow the main driveway to the house.  You will be met there.”

The gate swung open and they passed through it.  Now that they were beyond the high wall, they could really see the estate grounds.  It was as if they’d suddenly driven into a national forest.  Towering pine and spruce trees surrounded them, swallowing up the sounds of civilization beyond.  Rollie spied a pair of deer watching them curiously and caught a glimpse of an eagle perched in a tree.  They passed over a bridge spanning a stream.  It was as if they’d crossed over into another world.  The greenness and silence of the place imparted such a wondrous feeling of peace and tranquility.  Rollie felt all his worries and cares slip away.  He took in a deep breath, taking the scent of pine and rich earth into his nostrils.  Amazed, Rollie turned to Angie.  Her eyes were wide, drinking in the sights.

“This is incredible.  I had no idea this even existed.”  His voice was hushed with awe.

“Me neither.  It’s beautiful,” Angie said, her tone matching Rollie’s.

It took nearly twenty minutes to reach the house.  All four of them gasped as they came upon it.  Rollie had seen many unusual houses over the years, but this was beyond unusual--it was unbelievable.  For one thing, it was the biggest log house he’d ever seen in his life.  The logs from which it had been constructed had been finished with a clear varnish that brought out the richness of the red and gold wood, making it glow with a soft luster.  The house had a left and right wing, each of which was one story tall.  Wisteria vines grew across the covered terrace that ran the entire length of the left wing.  Between the two wings, the center section of the house rose to a height of well over two stories.  Enormous bay windows rose all the way up to the A-frame roof of the center section.

But, as amazing as all this was, they were not the things that made the house so utterly incredible.  For, growing right in the middle of the house’s right wing, which was almost entirely made of glass, was a banyan tree.  The tree filled two-thirds of the wing, its branches rising some thirty feet above the walls.  The roof had been constructed with an open lattice design, allowing the branches of the tree to go where they pleased.  Hidden among the pines to the right of the tree room, Rollie thought he saw another structure of some kind.

They’re mouths hanging open, they all got out of the car.  Jimmy Chu came down the stairs leading to the front door.

“Rollie!  Angie!  Great to see you.”  Rollie shook hands with the movie star.

“Who owns this place?” Angie asked.

“An old friend of the family.  He and my father go way back.  They met in Hong Kong years ago and became friends.  Come on, I’ll introduce you.  I think you’ll like him.”  There was a smile on Jimmy’s face that made Rollie suspect there was something more to this whole thing.

They followed Jimmy into the house.  The walls of the entry area were decorated with paintings of nature scenes.  Rollie recognized some of the paintings as works of the Masters.  The floor was constructed of a whitish stone that Rollie could not identify.  At the other end of the room, an enormous curved staircase rose to the second floor.

“Do you like my little sanctuary?” asked a voice behind them.  Surprised, Rollie turned around.  The voice had an Australian accent.

Rollie studied the man before them.  The owner of the house was perhaps sixty-five years old.  He was of medium height and build, with pure white hair and clear blue eyes.  There was a warmth to the eyes that immediately made Rollie feel at home.

The man walked forward and extended his hand to Rollie.  “I’m Harlan Grenway.  It is a pleasure to finally meet you.”  He shook the hands of the others.

“Your place is incredible, Mister Grenway,” said Angie.

“Thank you very much, but please, call me Harlan, all of you.”  He looked around at the house.  “I built this place some thirty-odd years ago.  I have other places around the world, but this is the one I always return to.  Like Superman, this is my Fortress of Solitude.  But come, you must be thirsty after your long trip.”  He led them into a large sitting room.  He pressed a button and a soft chime echoed throughout the house.  A moment later, a man came in.  Harlan asked everyone what they wanted.  The servant nodded and left to get the beverages.

Harlan turned to Rollie.  “I have a confession to make.  You may not know me, but I am very familiar with you.  I’ve kept tabs on your career almost from the start.  You’ve done very well for yourself, especially for someone who has kept his company a small, independent entity.  I like that.  There are too many big corporations in the world.  It’s nice to see someone who remains close to their work and keeps their company small and personal.  You don’t relegate jobs to employees, then just sit back and watch them work.  You and Ms. Ramirez do the work yourselves, though I know you have the means to hire help.  I don’t think you realize how admirable that is.”

Embarrassed by the compliment, Rollie thanked the man.  Just then, the servant returned with the beverages.  There was silence for a while as everyone sipped their drinks.

“Why have you taken such an interest in my work?” asked Rollie.

“Oh, partly it is a touch of pride in the achievements of a fellow countryman.”  The man looked more closely at Rollie.  “But there’s something more than that.  Though I am not certain, there is a good chance that you and I are related.”

Rollie choked on his drink.  Coughing for a moment, he stared at the man.  “Related?” he finally managed.

“Yes.  As I said before, I cannot be certain.  I would need to ask you and your father some questions.  It would be on your mother’s side, some four generations back for you.”

“What makes you think that we’re related?”

“Your mother’s name, for one.  Her maiden name was Harrison, correct?”

“Yeah, but that is a pretty common name.”

“Yes, but her first name was not.  Alcinia is a very rare name, unless you happen to be Greek.”

Rollie nodded.  “She was named after her great grandmother, who came over to Australia from Greece as a child.”

“Well, as it happens, my maternal grandmother’s name was also Alcinia.  She too came over from Greece when she was small.  The man she married was named Carl Harrison.”

Amazed, Rollie said, “Then you think that my great great grandmother was your grandmother?”

“The possibilities are good.  I attempted to trace the lineage, but most of my family’s birth records were destroyed many years ago.  I know that my grandmother had two children, a son and a daughter.  I am descended from the daughter, Helena.  I believe the son’s name was Alexander, but I cannot be certain.  My mother never talked about her brother, didn’t even mention his name.  I got the impression that they had a falling out of some kind.  My grandparents died long before I was born, and my father when I was ten, so I could never ask any of them.  The only reason I have to suspect that my uncle’s name was Alexander is because I saw a brief glimpse of a letter once.  All I managed to see before my mother snatched it away was the name at the bottom of the page.  She destroyed the letter immediately afterwards.  Of course, for all I know, it could have been a love letter from an old boyfriend.  But, when I asked her who he was, she just said that it was no one I’d want to know.  She had used that term once before when referring to her brother.”

Rollie had a thoughtful look on his face.  “My mother’s grandfather on her dad’s side wasn’t named Alexander.  His name was Alessandro.”

“Rollie, those two names are awfully close,” Angie commented, a note of excitement in her voice.

“I know.  Alessandro is actually a variation of Alexander.”

“It was only a quick look,” mused Harlan.  There was a tone of excitement in his voice, too.  “It is possible that I read the signature wrong.”

Rollie was stunned.  “This is incredible.  How long have you suspected this relationship?”

“About five years.  There was an article about you in Inside the Magic.  It mentioned the names of your parents.  I was struck by the coincidence of your mother’s first name and dug enough to find out her maiden name.  Considering it an invasion of privacy, I went no further.”

“Five years.  Why didn’t you ever contact me?”

“I am a very private man, Mister Tyler.”

“Call me Rollie.”

Harlan smiled, then again grew serious.  “I’ve spent the better part of my life away from other people.  It is one of the main reasons why I built this place.  The reasons for my wish for privacy are many.  One of them is my obvious wealth.  I earned everything that I have, and I’ve had many unfortunate experiences over the years with people wanting something from me.  I got sick of all the greed and laziness, all the people who were continually looking for a way to get rich off the hard work of others.”  There was a look of pain in the man’s eyes that spoke of a deep hurt long suffered.  “When I first came to suspect that we were related, I knew very little about you, except what you did for a living.  If this relationship exists, it would make you my only known living relative.  I think you can understand why I was hesitant to come forward.”

Rollie nodded.  “You were afraid that I would become one of those pesky relatives constantly with their hand out.”

Harlan gave him a warm smile.  “A charming way of putting it, but very true.  I couldn’t take that chance.  So, instead, I started watching you.  As time went on, I came to see that you were a man of honor who takes pride in earning his own money.  Then I found out about your, uh, extracurricular activities with the police, and that strengthened my admiration for you even more.”  The man became very serious.  “When you were shot some six months ago, I was devastated.  Though I did not know for sure if we were related, I had already come to think of you as family.  I called the hospital every day to check on your progress and searched for specialists who could help in your recovery.  I was the one who brought the neurologist, Doctor Ridenhour, in on your case.”

“You did?  I had no idea.  I knew he was a big name in the field, but I thought that Mark Langford had a connection with him and asked for his help.  I did find it kind of funny when his fees didn’t show up on the bill to the insurance company, though.”  Rollie studied Harlan Grenway.  “You paid them, didn’t you.”

Harlan nodded.  “And most of the other things not covered by your insurance, except for your deductible, of course.  If I’d paid that, you would have known something was up, and I wasn’t ready to say anything at the time.”

“I wondered why the amount of what I had to pay was so much smaller than what I thought it would be.”  Rollie studied his secret benefactor.  “I owe you a lot, Harlan.  It might take some time, but I’ll pay you back the money.”

“Absolutely not, Rollie.  I wouldn’t accept a dime, so don’t even try.  I am now more certain than ever that you and I are kin.  A few thousand dollars to cover a hospital bill is a small thing for family.”  His eyes narrowed at the look on Rollie’s face.  “We won’t talk of this anymore.  That’s final.  When you’ve come to know me, you’ll realize that, once I make up my mind about something, you might as well just accept it.  And you will come to know me.  I would like to leave an open invitation for you and Angie--and your father, of course--to come here and visit any time you like.  I’ve lived alone long enough.”

This was all just too incredible to believe.  Rollie had come to this place to arrange a wedding ceremony and had ended up finding family.  Thinking of the wedding brought another question to his mind.

“Why did you pick now to come forward?”

“Why, the wedding, of course.  I had been trying to think of the best way to approach you for months.  When I found out that you were getting married, I realized that it was the perfect opportunity.  I called Jimmy here, whose father I’ve know for years, and told him to contact you.”

Rollie turned to the actor with a smile.  “You sure are a sneaky little bugger, leading us to believe that this was all your idea.”

Jimmy grinned.  “Hey, I am an actor, aren’t I?”  He turned to Harlan.  “I’ve got to get going, Harl.  My agent has set up a meeting with the producer of that new movie.”

Everyone stood and said goodbye to the actor.

Harlan turned to the rest of them.  “Well, how about a tour of the place?  I don’t get many chances to show it off.”

The tour began with the kitchen and dining room, moved through the den, the study, which was off of a rather large private library, and an office, then it went on to a rec room, a gym, which was equipped with an indoor pool, and a music room.  Huge sliding doors in the music room led to a small ballroom.  They went up the stairs and Harlan showed them every one of the five bedrooms, each with its own bathroom.  The last place they visited was the room with the tree.

“And, last but not least, there is my solarium.”

Rollie, Angie, Mira and Francis all wandered in awe around the place.  To call it a sunroom seemed almost an insult.  Floor to ceiling glass panels covered three of the walls.  The floor was carpeted completely with grass.  Flowers, sprouted up here and there, adding their delicate fragrance to the air.  On the left wall, an artificial waterfall cascaded down to a small pond, which was filled with koi.   As was the nature of all banyan trees, the one in the solarium had sent down thick, trunk-like roots from its limbs for support.  The dense growth of its leaves shaded the better part of the room almost as effectively as if there had been a solid roof.  The tree was still quite young by the size of it, but banyans were very fast-growing.  Though the room was enormous, in another ten years or so, the tree would be too big to fit in it.

Apparently also thinking of this, Angie asked, “What are you going to do when it gets too big?”

“I have an expert pruning it to limit its growth.  It’s actually a lot older than you might think it is.  We probably won’t let it get much bigger that this.”

“I had no idea banyans would grow in this climate,” commented Rollie.

“It was tough getting it to take hold.  In the winter, when it snows, we have to resort to modern technology to keep it from freezing.  Let me show you.”  He moved over to a recessed control panel on a wall and pressed a button.  There was the sound of large motors whirling to life someplace on the other side of the solarium.  Then came a noise, like something sliding through a track.  They all watched as an enormous glass-paneled roof slid over the sunroom.  The roof was shaped like two-thirds of a hexagon set sideways.  The left and right walls rose straight up for about twenty feet, then angled inward to meet in the center.  The section of the solarium’s roof that butted up against the house was shaped to fit perfectly against the A-frame roof.  Rollie noticed that there were large tracks on the house’s roof that the sunroom’s roof would slide into.  As the roof finished sliding into place, Harlan pressed another button on the control panel.  There was a low hum as narrow heating panels in the roof and walls came to life.  The entire solarium was now a huge greenhouse.  It must have cost a staggering amount of money to construct the thing.

Harlan turned off the heaters and sent the roof back to where it came from.  Rollie now knew what the structure he’d seen among the trees was for.

Smiling slightly, Harlan looked at his guests.  “You’re all probably wondering why I would do all this just to grow a banyan tree in my house.  Well, many years ago, when my father’s father first came to Australia as a boy, he brought with him a young banyan from his home in East India.  By the time I was born, the tree was enormous.  It was a full hundred feet high and had spread to cover nearly half an acre.  To me, it was like a whole other world, my own personal forest.  One very dry summer, a brush fire swept across our property and everything was destroyed.  My father died in the blaze, and my mother and I just barely made it out with our lives.  All these years, the image that stuck in my mind the most was the sight of that huge, wonderful tree burning like a giant torch.  Things were very hard for us after that, and I had to go to work at an early age to help support us.  I suppose that this is an attempt to regain a portion of my lost childhood.”

Harlan’s mood lightened.  A bright smile came to his face.  “But enough about that.  This is a time for celebration.  Would you like to see where you wedding will take place?”

He led them out of a door in the sunroom and down a path behind the house.  As they passed around the other side of a group of trees, Rollie and Angie came to an abrupt halt.  Spread out before them, covering at least two and a half acres of ground, was the most beautiful garden either of them had ever seen.  Winding paths meandered through beds of flowers, flowering and nonflowering shrubs, and grass.  Oak, maple, birch, Japanese cherry, and dogwood trees rose among the plants.  A stream cut its way through the garden.  The entire garden was designed to have an almost natural appearance, as if it had grown up that way on its own.  As they walked through it, they could hear a roaring sound in this distance that they were growing progressively closer to.  At last, they came to the source of the noise.  The waterfall was fully twenty-five feet high.  It cascaded down a rocky cliff into a crystal clear pond that, in turn, fed the stream they had seen winding through the garden.  The most amazing thing about the cliff, the waterfall, the pond, and the stream was that they were entirely manmade.  They had been so cleverly built, though, that, from within the garden, the only thing that marked them as not naturally occurring was the fact that the miniature mountain rose up too abruptly from the otherwise flat terrain.

“Rollie, this is like paradise,” breathed Angie.

Rollie merely nodded, too overwhelmed to say anything.

Harlan continued up the path as it curved to the right and away from the waterfall.  About thirty feet further on they came to another bridge spanning the stream.  This one, however, was much larger than the rest.  Spread out on the other side of the bridge was the largest grassy area they’d seen in the garden.  Harlan stopped in the middle of the bridge.

“Here,” he said simply.

“Here?” Angie repeated.  They all looked at their surroundings.  Behind them, the waterfall sparkled in the early afternoon sun, its sound a muted roar.  The branches of the trees swayed in the wind, whispering in their mysterious voices.  The stream bubbled beneath their feet, adding its own soft music to the natural symphony.  Before them, the emerald carpet of grass sat waiting for the guests to arrive.

Joy sprang up into Angie’s eyes.  “Rollie, this is more incredible then I ever imagined.”

Rollie put his arms around her and held her close.  He turned to Harlan.  “I don’t know what to say.  This is beyond anything we could have possibly hoped for.”

Clearly pleased, the older man continued across the bridge.  The path across the grass took a sharp turn to the right.  That’s when Rollie saw the little cottage.  It sat nestled amongst the trees, its white walls covered with wisteria.

“This is where you and your attendants can change.  There are two small bedrooms, one for the ladies and the other for the gentlemen.”

“This is so perfect.”  Angie’s eyes were glowing with happiness.  She turned to Rollie.  “Rol, if I’m dreaming, please don’t wake me.”

“I wouldn’t think of it.  I like this dream, too.”

At last, they came back down to earth.  Rollie turned to Harlan.

“We didn’t mention this before, but we’re not getting married on the twenty-seventh.  That was the original date we had planned on, but we have to have it sooner.  It’s going to be on the twentieth.  But no one must know that.  Only the few guests we’ve invited and some members of the NYPD know.  As far as everyone else is concerned, the wedding is going on as originally scheduled.”

Harlan looked at the serious expressions on everyone’s faces.  “Something is wrong.”

Starting at the beginning, Rollie told him about Victor Loubar.  Skipping over the details of the attack on Angie, he concluded with the trap they’d sprung the previous day.

Harlan Grenway’s expression had grown hard, and there was an angry light in his eyes.

“And you don’t know where this man is now?”

“No.  If we did, the NYPD would have half the police force surrounding the place,” commented Mira.

“I have a great deal of resources at my control.  Any aid that I can give you in capturing this Victor Loubar is yours for the asking.  I employ several private investigators.  I will set them to work on finding him.”

“This man is very dangerous, Harlan, and extremely smart.  If he finds out about your investigators, he may trace them back to you,” Rollie said.

Harlan smiled.  “Don’t worry, Rollie.  It would be impossible for that to happen.  Haven’t you wondered yet why you’ve never heard of me?  A man who has acquired this much wealth can never do it in secret, unless it’s by illegal means.”

“Well, I had wondered, but it wasn’t my business to ask,” Rollie admitted.

The smile on the older man’s face grew.  “Well, let me appease your curiosity.  To the world, I am known as Robert Melbourne.”

Four jaws promptly dropped open.  Rollie, Angie, and the two detectives stared at the man.

“Robert Melbourne?  But he’s one of the richest men in the world,” said Mira.  “He made it big in the . . . oh!”  Mira’s voice ended with an exclamation.

Harlan nodded.  “In the Australian diamond mines,” he finished.  “It took a lot of hard work, years of sweat and blood, but it eventually paid off.”  Harlan looked at Angie.  “That ring you’re wearing, by the way, is magnificent.  Your fiancé has a very good eye.”  He returned to the previous subject.  “Anyway, the diamonds were just the beginning.  Some wise investments helped things along as well.  The Melbourne Corporation now spans several industries, including some small dealings with the movie industry.”

Rollie nodded.  “Which would explain why you get Inside the Magic, a magazine that is generally sent only to people in the business.”

“I’ve heard about Robert Melbourne,” said Angie.  “He’s a recluse, very rarely goes out in public.  But I don’t understand.  He’s supposed to live full-time in Australia, and I’ve seen pictures of him.  There’s a resemblance, but it’s clearly not you.”

“That’s because those pictures are of a man who poses as me for all public appearances.  He is also the one who lives in Australia.  Actually, there are only about thirty people on the planet who know the truth.  Most of them are on the board of directors of my company or are employees who have been with me from the start.  All of my other employees believe that the other man is the real Robert Melbourne.”

“But why all the secrecy?” asked Francis.

Harlan looked at them all one by one, then took a deep breath.  “What I am about to tell you is known by only a handful of people.  When I was eighteen years old, a man came to rob our house.  I was gone at the time and my mother was alone.  He struggled with her and she fell, hitting her head on a table.  She died instantly.  The man then went right on and sacked the place.  I came home to find my mother’s body on the floor and him in her bedroom stealing her jewelry.  I lost control and killed him.  Then I panicked.  I thought that the police would throw me in prison for murder.  I ran.  I changed my name and started a new life.  Years later, as I began to make some money, I realized that I needed to put to rest the ghosts of the past.  I turned myself into the police.  That’s when I found out that I wasn’t wanted for any crime.  The investigators had figured out what happened, and I’d been cleared of wrongdoing.  I was free to resume my life as Harlan Grenway.  But, after all those years, I’d grown accustomed to the name Robert Melbourne.  Under that name, I’d begun to earn respect and a position in life, whereas Harlan Grenway was just a troubled youth nobody knew, who had a juvenile record for petty theft.  So, I had my name legally changed and continued as Robert Melbourne.  As my wealth increased, I became concerned that someone would find out about my past and use it against me.  So, I decided to fabricate a past for Robert Melbourne.  I had enough money and connections by then to have documents and records faked.  And so, Harlan Grenway ceased to exist.  As the years passed, though, I began to grow weary of the unpleasant things that come with great wealth: the false friends, the people continually trying to get a piece of the pie, the constant danger of kidnapping, never knowing if the woman whom you are dating is interested in you or just your money.”  There was a look of pain in the man’s eyes as he said this last thing.  “One day, I decided that it was time for Harlan Grenway to return from the dead, and that’s when this whole charade began.”

Everyone remained silent for a long time, amazed at the story.  It had hit Rollie the hardest.  He was finding it hard to grasp the fact that this man before them was not only Robert Melbourne, but was also family, however far removed.

“I think I need something stronger to drink,” he muttered.

Harlan laughed.  “That can be arranged, my boy.  I believe I have a small stash of something in the cottage and some food, too.”

Rollie’s stomach promptly growled.

They all went into the little house.  As the others admired the interior, Harlan went to the kitchen.  He returned fifteen minutes later with some bread, cheeses and meat laid out on a large tray.  He also had a bottle of red wine and a decanter of liquid that looked like brandy.

“This, I’m afraid, is all I have in the way of alcoholic beverages here.  You’d better eat something first before you drink anything, though.”

They all settled down to lunch.  The conversation stayed light, focusing mainly on their careers.  Harlan wanted to know more details on the work Rollie and Angie did.  He listened in fascination as they told him about their present project.  Rollie then asked some questions about Harlan’s business.  An hour passed pleasantly.

“Mister Grenway, we’d like to check out your security systems, if that’s all right,” Mira said.  “With Victor Loubar involved, we can never be too cautious.”

“Certainly.  There are a couple of golf carts behind the cottage.  Take one of them and head back up to the main house.  I’ll call the estate’s chief of security and tell him you’re on your way back there.  He’ll meet you and show you anything you need to see.”

After the detectives were gone and the call had been made, Harlan turned to Rollie and Angie.  “Well, shall we get started on planning this wedding?”

Another hour passed as the couple got busy planning a wedding that would be taking place in only a week.  Harlan stood aside and just watched.  An observant man, he noticed how smoothly and efficiently they worked together and how, quite often, they each seemed to know what the other was thinking.  Even their disagreements were quicky ironed out.  He recognized the signs of a couple who were not only friends and lovers, but were also true partners, each one willing to listen to and take advice from the other.  Their marriage would be the kind that lasted a lifetime.

Jotting down a final note, Rollie looked up and caught Harlan staring at him.  The older man had a look of admiration on his face, but there was also a shadow of sadness there.  Rollie wondered what the reason for it was.  The man had said that he had no other living relatives.  This meant that Harlan had either never had children or had lost them.  The Aussie recalled that one of the few bits of personal information on Robert Melbourne he’d seen had said that the man was a bachelor.  Was that true for the alter ego of Harlan Grenway as well?  Perhaps, someday, he would ask.

Once they were finished, Harlan drove them back to the main house in the second golf cart.  They met Mira and Francis there, who both reported that the estate’s security was excellent.  There would be no need to bring in more people.

“If you’d like, you are more than welcome to have the reception here as well.  You can see that we have plenty of room.”

Rollie looked at Angie, who smiled.  “We’d love to, Harlan, and it will make one less thing for us to worry about,” he said.

After making the final arrangements with Harlan for the wedding day, they all bid him farewell.  Just before they lost sight of the house, Rollie looked back to see the man standing alone at the head of the driveway watching as they drove away.
 

CHAPTER TWELVE -- CONFESSIONS

After saying goodbye to Frank and Mira, Rollie and Angie went to the jewelers to see about their wedding rings.  It was the same place where Rollie had ordered the engagement ring.  The jeweler was pleased to meet the woman who had received the work of art he had crafted.  He showed them his selection of wedding bands.  It did not take long for Rollie and Angie to find the ones they liked.

“Is there any way that you could engrave these with the same message you put on the engagement ring and still get them done in time?” asked Rollie.

“I don’t see why not,” replied the jeweler.  “As luck would have it, we’re not really busy right now.  I’ll get to work on them right away.”

While they were at the jeweler’s, Dingo and Mangela went to see about getting tuxedos, something that neither man was very happy about.  It had taken a lot for Rollie to convince them to get the tuxes.  Since Frank still had the tuxedo he wore to his own wedding, it had not been necessary for him to get one.  In the beginning, Rollie had toyed with the idea of wearing the tux he already had, but had decided that he wanted a better one for this special day.

Back at the loft, Rollie and Angie did some work on the post production stuff for White Light.  They hadn’t been at it for long when Mangela and Dingo returned, tuxedos in hand.

“They didn’t need to do any alterations,” Rollie’s father said, looking none too happy.

“What’s wrong, Dad?  Were you hoping that they wouldn’t have a tux your size so that you could get out of wearing one?” Rollie asked with a grin.

“Rollie, you know I don’t like to wear fancy stuff like this.  Your mom had to threaten me with bodily injury to get me to wear one for our wedding.”

“You’ll survive.  And you won’t ever have to worry about wearing one again--unless you get remarried.”

“Not a chance!  Once was enough!”

Rollie chuckled.  “Just as well.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Dingo asked, frowning.

“Just that you’d be hard-pressed to find a woman who would be willing to put up with you.”  There was a twinkle in Rollie’s eyes as he made the remark.

“Boy, you got that right,” Angie agreed, getting in on the fun.

“Hey!” Dingo exclaimed, his face halfway between a glare and a pout.  “I’ll have you know that lots of women find me attractive.”

Rollie began to laugh, Angie and Mangela joining in.  Angie walked up to Dingo and took his arm.

“Come on, you gorgeous hunk.  It’s your turn to cook dinner tonight.”

After dinner, Rollie approached his father about Harlan Grenway.  “Dad, did Mum ever talk about her family much, about the family history?”

“A little.  Why?”

“Oh, it’s about something someone told me.  I’ll explain in a moment.  The person I really want to know about is her grandfather on her dad’s side.  I know his name was Alessandro, but that’s all.”

Still clearly curious about the reason for Rollie’s questions, Dingo said, “Well, she didn’t really say a lot about him.  I gathered that he had kind of a dark past, broke the law a few times.  He spent a few years in prison, then spent the rest of his life trying to make up for his mistakes.”

“Do you know if he had a sister named Helena?”

“I don’t know what her name was, but I do know that he had a sister.  He once told me that his biggest regret in life was the pain he caused his parents and his sister.  He died just a few months after that.  Okay, Rollie, what is this all about?”

Rollie didn’t answer.  He was too busy thinking.  It all fit--what Harlan had said about his mother’s attitude toward her brother, what Dingo had just said about Alessandro Harrison.  It all made sense.  It couldn’t possibly be just a coincidence.

“It’s really true,” Rollie murmured.

“What’s true?  Come on, Son.  What are you talking about?”

Rollie first told his father what Harlan Grenway had said, then who Harlan really was.  The first piece of news was met with surprise, the second with complete shock.

“You mean that you’re related to a multimillionaire?”  A light came on in his eyes, along with a big smile.  “Well, what do you know.  You’ve really hit the big time, my boy.  We could go a long way with this.”

“Oh, no we can’t.”  Rollie’s anger was clear in his voice.  “You just stop what you’re thinking right now.  I am not going to take advantage of that man, and I won’t let you either.  Damn it, Dad, I really thought you were finally changing.”

Rollie spun around and strode out of the loft.  Angie turned on Dingo and glared at him.

“When are you going to grow up?” she asked angrily.  “Don’t you know how much you hurt him when you do things like this?  You really take the cake.  Even knowing how close you came to losing him forever, your first thought is still how you can cash in on an opportunity.”  She turned her back to him and stormed upstairs.

Dingo looked at Mangela, who was shaking his head.

“You still don’t see your son,” the Aborigine said.  “Open your eyes and look at him, man.  Look at the kind of man he is.  Until you do that you’ll never truly be his father.”

Breathing hard, Rollie strode to the back end of Brewery Lane.  Stopping suddenly, he hit the wall with his fist, scraping and bruising the knuckles.  He then put his back against the wall and leaned his head back, closing his eyes.  His dad was never going to change, never.  No matter how much he might want it to be different, Dingo was always going to be looking for the shortcuts.  There would always be a scheme running through the man’s mind.

“Rollie?”  The voice was soft and hesitant.

Rollie didn’t look at his father.  He didn’t want him to see the tears in his eyes.  He heard Dingo draw closer.

“Rollie, I’m sorry.  I’m just a stupid old fool.  I’ve lived like this for so long that it’s become a habit to jump at every opportunity to make money.  It’s become my nature.”  Dingo’s voice was beginning to tremble.  “But I can change, Son.  I swear I’ll try.”

Rollie turned to Dingo, his bitterness over a life without his father finally coming to a head.  “Can you, Dad?  All my life I’ve been waiting for you to change.  When I was little, I used to think that if I did everything perfect, if I was the best that I could possibly be, then you would stay home with us.  But no matter how good I was, you still kept going off.  Even after Mum died, you didn’t stay.  You just left me with the Aborgines.  It wasn’t until Cale almost killed me that you finally decided to start being a father.  But even then, you were always more interested in your gambling, and scams, and dealing-making than you were in me.  And I hated it!  I hated the way you’d scam people and make me to do it, too.  Even if they did deserve it because they were crooked or greedy, it still wasn’t right.  But you didn’t care how I felt.  You didn’t care that for the first few months I’d cry in my bed at night because I felt dirty over what I’d done.  Then, after I decided to stay in New York and make a life of my own, you lost interest in me.  Four times, Dad.  In almost fifteen years, you came to see me only four times.  And every one of those times, you were in trouble or in the middle of some scam.  I just . . . I just can’t take it anymore.”  Rollie turned away, the tears he’d been holding back starting to fall.

Dingo stared at his son’s back, feeling like Rollie’s words had torn a gaping hole in his chest.  How had he not seen how much he’d been hurting his son all these years?  The thought that Rollie believed he was less important to Dingo than his “business” made him feel sick.

For the first time in his life, Dingo took a good, long, hard look at his life through his son’s eyes.  Throughout Rollie’s early childhood, he had been more focused on his constant pursuit of the next score, the next big deal, than he had on his own family.  To him, it had been his business, his ‘career’, the only thing he did well.  But all Rollie would have known was that his father wasn’t there for him.  After Rollie began traveling with him, Dingo had gotten even more absorbed in “the life”.  He had used his son’s innocent face and youth to his own advantage.  People were far more willing to part with their money when Rollie was the one trying to get it.  They had always done a lot better at the flea markets when Rollie was doing the buying and selling.  Dingo had known that his son didn’t like what they did, but he had been blind to how much it had bothered Rollie.

Dingo took a step toward his son.  “I’m so sorry, Rollie.  The last thing I ever wanted to do was hurt you.  I love you.  All those times I left, it wasn’t because I didn’t care enough about you to stay.  This is the only thing I know how to do, the only thing I’m good at.”  Receiving only silence, he took another step forward.  “Rollie, there’s something you need to know.  You have always been what kept me from going over the edge.  There were times when I could have become the worse kind of con man, the kind who would con an ice cream cone from a child.  But I never went that far.  Part of it was me, but a bigger part of it was because of you.  You were what kept me as close to a straight path as someone like me could walk.  Right from the start, even when you were a tiny little nipper, you had a good heart and a giving soul.  You are a far better person than I have ever been or could ever hope to be.”  Crying now, Dingo took a final step toward his son.  “You are more important to me than anything in the world, Rollie.  You’ve got to believe that.  If I had lost you, if I had come back from Australia to find that you were dead, it would have killed me.  Please don’t turn away from me now.  Please.”

For a long moment, there was silence, then Dingo heard a sound that tore his heart open anew, the sound of Rollie’s sobs.  Instantly, he pulled his son into his arms.  Rollie’s arms came around him, clinging to him like a brokenhearted child, deep sobs shaking his body.  Dingo held onto his son with all his strength, crying as he hadn’t since his wife’s death.

“I’m sorry.  I am so sorry,” he whispered.  “I should have listened to your mother right from the start.  Please forgive me.”

Gradually, Rollie’s crying ceased.  Feeling drained, he drew slightly away from Dingo.  His eyes were downcast, not meeting his father’s gaze.  Dingo put his hands on Rollie’s face and lifted it.  Their eyes met.

“You are the best thing in my life, Rollie, and I am so damn proud of you.”

Rollie gave a shuddering sigh.  A weak smile came to his lips.  He had waited to hear those words for most of his life.

“I love you, Dad,” he murmured.

“I love you, too.”  Dingo gave him a smile.  “Come on, Son.  Let’s go back inside before your fiancée comes out here and removes my skin inch by inch.”

Slowly, they walked back, each one with an arm about the other.  As they entered the loft, Angie looked at them, seeing the wetness on their faces and the expression in their eyes.  She didn’t say anything.  Then she saw the blood on Rollie’s hand.

“Rollie, your hand!  What did you do to it?”

Shamefaced, Rollie replied, “I smacked the wall.”

“Well, that was really stupid.  Come on, let me bandage it.”

Rollie submitted himself to her ministrations, wincing as she cleaned the wounds.  Shaking her head, Angie wrapped the hand.  “You’re lucky you didn’t break it.  Do me a favor, Rol.  Try to keep yourself all in one piece for the wedding, all right?”

“Yes, ma’am,” the Aussie said meekly.

Angie’s face soften and she planted a kiss on his forehead.  “Are you okay?” she whispered, so low that only he could hear it.

“Yeah,” he whispered back with a small, reassuring smile.

The mood was subdued for the rest of the evening.  Nobody was really in the mood for small talk, but the silence was worse.  Dingo went off to his trailer a lot earlier than usual.  Rollie watched him go, quietly wishing him goodnight.  He turned back to see Mangela looking at him.  Rollie’s eyes shifted away from the Aborigine, and he continued into the kitchen area.  He busied himself with cleaning up.

“His spirit is laying heavy within him, Rollie,” Mangela said softly, “just as yours is.”

Rollie’s eyes met the Aborigine’s for a moment, then dropped to the towel in his hands.  “You always understood me so much better than he did, and you never tried to force me to be what I wasn’t.”

“That’s because I could see your true songline from the moment I met you.”  Mangela smiled fondly.  “You were just a little joey, not even up to my belt, but I saw the strength and steadiness of your spirit right away.  You surprised me.”

Rollie looked up at him.  “I surprised you?  How?”

“For several reasons, one being that most children at that age are still wandering.  They don’t really know who they are.  They haven’t found their songlines yet.  That usually comes later.  But you had already found yours, and it was not the same one as your father.  Neither was it your mother’s, though it was much closer to hers.  You had chosen your own songline, your own path to follow.  Even if your mother had lived, that would not have changed.”

Rollie sat down slowly.  “I still miss her.  My life would have been so different if she hadn’t died.”

“Yes, it would have been different, but would it have been better?”

“My childhood would have.”  Rollie looked over at Angie, who had moved over to the other side of the loft quite some time ago so that he and Mangela could talk in private.  “But, if she had lived, I would probably still be in Australia.  I wouldn’t have met Angie, or Manny, or Leo, or any of the friends I have here.  I wouldn’t have gotten into this business, and. . . .”

“You wouldn’t have been here to help the police all of the times that you did,” Mangela concluded.

“I’ve never thought of it this way before.”

Mangela nodded slowly.  “It is something to think about, isn’t it.”  Saying goodnight, he slipped out the door.

Angie came over to Rollie.  She noticed the expression on his face.  Fishing into her pocket, she pulled out a quarter and tossed it onto the counter beside him.

“I won’t even try to bargain this time,” she said.

Rollie looked in puzzlement at the quarter, then his face cleared as he remembered the conversation they’d had a while back about the price of his thoughts.

“I was just thinking about how one incident can completely change how a person’s life goes and, in turn, affect so many other people, and that, sometimes, the worse things that happen to you can help you find a part of yourself that might have stayed hidden forever.”  He smiled.  “So, was that worth the quarter?”

Angie returned the smile.  “Every cent.”  The smile faded.  “Rollie, are you sure you’re all right?  I mean, you and Dingo. . . .”

Rollie sighed.  “Things just finally came to a head.  I couldn’t take it anymore.  But we talked, and I think that things will be better now.  I hope they will.  I guess that only time will tell.”  Rollie gave his fiancée a kiss.  “Are you going to go home tonight?  I’d feel better if you stayed here.  Loubar may be too sick to go anywhere, but he could still call you or send you something by e-mail.”

“I’ll stay.  I don’t think I’ll be comfortable sleeping alone in my apartment until Loubar is caught.”

The Aussie smiled.  “Well, in exactly one week, your nights of sleeping alone will be permanently in the past.”

Angie put her arms around Rollie’s neck.  “That night can’t get here soon enough for me.”  She gave him a long kiss, thinking of the moment when they would no longer stop at kissing and caressing.

“I feel the same way,” Rollie said as their lips separated.  He sighed softly.  “I guess we’d better get to bed.  We’re going to have a lot to do tomorrow.”

They both rose and ascended the stairs.  The Aussie paused in the doorway of his bedroom and turned around to look at Angie, who was going into the bathroom.  “Ange?”

“Hmm?”

“Have you ever thought about the fact that the lives we have, this relationship that we’ve found, all came about because of two completely unrelated tragedies?  If either of those things hadn’t happened, it’s likely that we would never have met.”

“No, I’ve never thought of that.  But now that I am, there’s one thing I do know.”

“What’s that?”

“That if my mother had known that her sacrifice would enable me to meet the love of my life, she’d have made it gladly.  That’s the kind of person she was.”

“Yeah.  My mum, too.”  He gave Angie a gentle smile.  “G’night, Angel.”

“Night, Rol.”

The next morning, Dingo remained in his trailer, appearing only for a short time to grab a quick bite to eat.  He’d had the morning newspaper with him.  Usually, when Dingo had a newspaper, it was for the purpose of picking a horse to place a bet on.  Rollie wanted to believe that the paper was being used for another purpose this time, but both it and the way his father was acting were pressing heavily on his mind.

The morning was spent running around town doing whatever they could for the wedding.  Rollie and Angie met with Lucinda for lunch and asked her if she would like to help set things up at the estate.  The actress was delighted to help, but had insisted again that she also wanted to help them catch Loubar.

After returning home, the Aussie called Harlan Grenway to tell him about what Dingo had said regarding Rollie’s great great uncle, Alessandro.

“This confirms it, then,” Harlan said, sounding happy.  “It cannot be just a coincidence.  I can’t tell you how pleased this makes me.”

“It’s still all a bit hard for me to believe.  I know that I have distant relatives here and there, but Dad has been my only blood family since Mum died.  It’s nice to know someone else who is family, even if the connection is so far back.”

“I know how you feel, my boy.  It is a lonely life when you don’t have any family.”  Rollie heard the man give a small sigh.  Harlan then turned the conversation to the wedding.  Arrangements were made for Joyce and Lucinda to be at the estate on Friday to help set things up.

The afternoon was spent working.  The deadline for the post production work was drawing rapidly near, and they still had a lot to do.  Neither Mangela nor Dingo showed up throughout the afternoon.  Rollie figured that the Aborigine was off in the park, but he didn’t know where his father was.  The Cadillac had been gone when they got back to the loft.

Rollie had come up with a plan to catch Loubar, but it was going to be very dangerous, especially for Dingo and Mangela.  He needed to discuss it with them before going any further.

The Aussie was in the middle of a project when he suddenly remembered something he had intended to do.  He reached for the phone to make a call.

“Who’re you calling,” Angie asked curiously.

“Sammy.  I got an e-mail from him the same night that Loubar sent those pictures.  I could tell by what he said that he hadn’t heard about the engagement.”

“Well, this is going to be a shock for him.  He’s known me as long as you have.”

“Yeah.”  Rollie thought about his friend, Sam Turner.  Sam was a stuntman who took Rollie under his wing when the Aussie first got into stunt work.  He’d watched out for Rollie like a big brother for over two years.  Sam had been there working on Gangster Alley with Rollie when the Aussie was hired by Manny Ramirez and left his life as a stuntman behind.

Thinking about those days, Rollie picked up the phone and made the call.  A woman answered the phone.

“Hey, Terri, how’s it going?” Rollie asked Sam’s wife.

“Rollie!  How great to hear from you.  It’s been forever.”

“Yeah, I know.  But you know how things are in this business.”

“Don’t I ever.  Oh, Sam is going to be so upset that he missed your call.  He just left on Friday for a big shoot in Mazatlán.  He’ll be gone for two months.”

“Yeah, he did say something about that in his last e-mail.  I didn’t realize that he was leaving so soon.  I’m sorry I missed him.”

“How are you doing, Rollie?” Terri asked.  “Are you all recovered?  Sam would kill me if he found out I told you, but he cried when he heard what happened to you.  It just tore him up.  He was going to fly out on the next plane, but he was in the middle of a job, and we couldn’t afford to have him lose it.  A few days later, we learned that you were going to live.”

“I’m doing great, Terri, better than great.  I have some news, which was the reason for the call.”

“Oh?  What news?”

“Angie and I are getting married.”

“What?!  Oh my Lord!  Sam is going to flip!  He won’t believe it.  When’s the wedding?”

“Well, that’s another shocker.  It’s on Saturday,” Rollie told her.

“This Saturday?  Wow, you’re moving fast.  Sam’s going to be disappointed that he won’t be able to be there.”

“Yeah.  I’m really sorry about that.  The wedding was going to be a week later.  We planned on sending you an invitation, but . . . something happened.”

“Is this ‘something’ like what you’ve gotten involved in before?”

“I’m afraid it is.  We ended up having to change our plans suddenly.  I wish it could have been different.  I’d have loved for Sammy to be there.  Um, Terri, could you do me a favor?”

“Of course.”

“Could you not tell Sam about the wedding?  Don’t even tell him that I called.  I’d like to surprise him when he gets back.”

Terri chuckled.  “Sure, I can do that.  But you have to promise me that you won’t tell him unless I’m in the room to watch his reaction.  That is going to be a sight.”

The Aussie laughed.  “It’s a deal.”  He chatted for a while longer, then said goodbye.  Hanging up the phone, he then got back to work, reminiscing about years long past.

It was shortly before dinnertime when Mangela and Dingo returned.  They had apparently been together at least part of the time.

Rollie studied his father, trying to read the expression on the man’s face.  He could tell that something was up.

“All right, Dad.  Spit it out.”

Dingo raised his eyebrows.  “Spit what out, Rollie?”

“Whatever it is that you’re planning.  I know you’ve got something in that head of yours.”

Dingo looked at him in surprise.  “I can’t keep anything from you, can I.  Well, all right.  I wanted to wait to tell you this, but I guess I can’t.  I started looking for a job today.”

“You. . . .”  Rollie just stared at Dingo, unable to believe what he had heard.  In Rollie’s entire lifetime, his father had never held a real, legitimate job.  “I don’t believe it.”

“It’s true.  I checked the want ads and began making calls this morning to the places that are open on Sunday.  Haven’t found anything yet, but something will come through.”

Rollie sat down kind of hard.  “I . . . don’t know what to say.”  A grin came to his face.  “That’s great, Dad.  I never thought you would actually do it.”

“Hey, I promised you that I would change, didn’t I?  I meant what I said.”

Rollie gazed at his father.  “Thank you,” he murmured.  He then looked at both men.  “I’ve come up with a plan for nabbing Loubar.  It involves you two, and it could get pretty dangerous.  If you don’t want to do it, I’ll understand.”

“You’re my son, Rollie,” Dingo said.  “You know I’d do anything for you.  Just tell me what you want me to do.”

Mangela meaningfully touched Rollie’s chest where the scar over his heart lay.  “The words I spoke to you the day I came here are still true.  Tell us what you want us to do.”

Rollie nodded, swallowing the lump in his throat.  He told them what he had in mind and how they could pull it off.  As he finished, Dingo and Mangela both smiled.

“It should work great, Rollie, if Loubar takes the bait, and that’s a big if,” Angie said.

“Oh, he’ll take it all right,” Rollie responded confidently.  “There’s not a doubt in my mind.”

The Aussie invited Mira, Frank, David, and Lucinda over for dinner.  Over the meal he told them the plan, ironing out the details as they talked.  By the time everyone left that evening, it was with the hope that, very soon, Victor Loubar would no longer be a problem.

Monday dawned bright and clear, but the thought that Loubar would almost be well enough to strike back now dimmed the morning for everyone.  The police guard was not only back, but had doubled in size, thanks to Mira.

Because of the plan, it would be necessary for Dingo to venture out for a short while, something that worried Rollie greatly, even though he was pretty sure that Loubar would still be too sick to do much of anything.  Only the fact that he was going to be with his father the entire time eased his concern.

With Dingo behind the wheel, they got into the Cadillac and pulled away from the loft.  As the car left Brewery Lane, the engine suddenly started making a terrible racket, then promptly died.  They quickly pulled it over, and the two men took a look under the hood.  Rollie bent over to examine the engine.

“I hate to tell you this, Dad, but I think you just threw a rod.  This car isn’t going anywhere.”

“Bloody hell.  That’s all I need,” Dingo cursed.  “So, what do I do now?”

“Well, you can use the truck when we don’t need it or you can drive the Acura.”

“That tiny thing?  No thanks.  I’ll just rent something, maybe a van.”

“Why bother?  You won’t be able to go anywhere on your own after tomorrow.  In fact, I don’t even want you going anywhere tomorrow.  Loubar won’t be up and about for another couple of days, but I don’t want to take the chance.”

“We need to talk about that, Son.  I don’t like the idea of being cooped up here indefinitely.”  Dingo glanced at his watch.  “We’re going to have to get going.”

“Let’s just take the truck.  Let’s go get Angie, and we can push the Caddy back to the loft.”

The two men walked back up Brewery Lane and got Angie.  With her behind the wheel, Rollie and Dingo pushed the car to the loft.  A few minutes later, they left in Rollie’s pickup.  They returned an hour later, Rollie in the truck and Dingo driving a van.  Safely back in the loft, Rollie let himself relax.

“Everything go all right?” Angie asked.

“Perfectly.  We got the van, and it’ll work out great.  Not only that, but if Loubar was listening in, which I’m sure he was, he now thinks that we believe we’re safe from him for another two days.  That will make him feel that he’s got the big advantage of surprise on his side.”

“I gotta tell you, Rollie.  When my car made that horrible racket, I thought for sure it was done for, despite the fact that you rigged it to do that,” Dingo confessed.

“Well, that was the whole idea, Dad.  I wanted Loubar to believe that the engine trouble was real.  We couldn’t have him get suspicious about the van.”

“So, my baby is okay then?  No damage?”

Rollie laughed.  “The car’s fine.  All I have to do is remove that device I installed, and it’ll run perfectly.”

Rollie and Angie spent the rest of that day dealing with work and stuff for the wedding.  Dingo had wanted to go out job hunting, but Rollie told him that it was too risky.

The bridal shop, the tuxedo shop, and the jewelers all called that afternoon to say that the orders were ready.  Rollie and Frank went to pick up the tuxedo and the rings, while Angie, Lucinda, Mira, and Joyce went to the bridal shop.  The women all tried on their dresses to make sure they fit, then, packages in hand, Angie, Mira, and Lucinda returned to the loft.  The men had already gotten back.

“Did you get everything set for tomorrow?” Rollie asked Mira shortly after they arrived.

“Yeah.  It wasn’t easy, though.  With something like this, there’s always a chance that some innocent bystander is going to get caught in the middle of it.  It took a lot of talking to convince the chief that we’d have everything under control.”

Rollie looked over at his father and the Aborigine.  “I hope I’m not making a mistake with this, Mira.  If something happened, I’d never forgive myself.”

“Everything will work out, Rollie.  We’re gonna get Loubar this time.”

“I really hope you’re right.”

That night, Rollie went up onto the roof of the loft.  Looking up into the sky, he tried to see the stars.  They were only faintly visible, the lights from the city muting them.  As a child, he used to lie on the ground and stare up at the stars for hours, his mother often joining him.

The Aussie had been out there for perhaps ten minutes when he heard a sound and saw his father reaching the top of the ladder.  Dingo joined him where he stood at the low safety wall.

“Is it, um . . . you know?”  Dingo made a gesture with his hands.

“Safe to talk here?  Yeah, it is.  That building there next to us is taller than this one, so the wall would make it impossible for Loubar to listen in on us with a parabolic microphone from that direction. This building is as tall as or taller than the ones on the cross street on the other end of the lane, so the only way that Loubar could pick up our voices from one of them is if he was on the roof, which I seriously doubt.”

Dingo turned and looked away into the night.  “Mangela and I had a long talk on Sunday.  He told me a lot of things that I didn’t know, about your time with the Aborgines, especially during the months you were with them after Cini died.”  His gaze went back to his son.  “When I left you there, it wasn’t because I didn’t want to be with you, Rollie.  It was never that.  Your mother was . . . she was the only person who really understood me.  She never liked what I did for a living, but she knew why I did it.  Even so, I think that she hoped I’d eventually change, get a real job, especially after you were born.  I know that I disappointed her many times, but she always forgave me.”  He paused.  “When she died, the way that she died, I felt as if I’d let her down.  I’d always thought that there would be plenty of time. . . .”  Dingo’s voice trembled faintly, making him stop for a moment to compose himself.  “After the funeral, I got to thinking about the promises I’d made her that I never kept.  I thought about it constantly.  And then there was the money situation.  The funeral expenses took virtually everything.  I’d borrowed heavily against the house throughout the years, and I knew that the bank would take it away in a second if I didn’t keep up the payments.”

“I never knew this.  Why didn’t you tell me?” Rollie asked.

“You were an eleven-year-old who’d just lost his mother.  How could I tell you that we were in danger of losing the house you grew up in, the only place that held memories of your mother for you?  A week after Alcinia died, I decided that I needed to get money, lots of money, not just enough to keep making the house payments, but enough that I could take care of you properly.  I was going to do all I could to score big, then I was going to come back and live with you in that house permanently, never go out on the road again.”

Dumbfounded, Rollie stared at his father.  “You . . . you were?”

“Yeah.”  Dingo sighed.  “But things didn’t work out as I planned.  Oh, I tried, but the big score never happened.  Whenever I came back to visit you, I got that same feeling of letting you down that I’d felt about your mother.  Because of that, I never hung around for long.  I wanted to hurry back out and try some new scheme or deal.  And then. . . .  When I came back that one day, the Aborigines told me that you’d been missing for three days.  Mangela and a lot of the other men were out looking for you.  I was getting ready to start looking myself when I saw Mangela walking toward the village with you lying so still in his arms.”  His voice caught.  “I thought you were dead.  I thought that I’d lost the only thing I had left worth living for.  I think I went a little crazy for a while.  I barely remember the drive to the clinic in Docker River.  When I found out that you were going to be all right, I knew that I couldn’t leave you again.  Even before you begged me to take you away, I had already made up my mind to do so.”

Rollie stared at his father, shocked beyond words.  He had never known these things, what his father had gone through, the reasons why Dingo had left him with the People.  Knowing those things changed the way he looked at his father and eased the pain that had been inside him for so many years.

“I’m sorry, Rollie,” Dingo said, his voice low.  “Even after everything that happened and the promise I made to myself that I would be a good father, I still failed you.  As the months passed with us out on the road together, I forgot about all my plans and intentions.  My love for the life took over again.  And it was even better with you there with me.  You really were a natural, you know.  Though I knew that you didn’t share my love for it, I was blind to how much you hated it.  When you chose to stay in New York and be a stuntman, I didn’t understand.  And . . . I was a little hurt, too.  And so, like the idiot I was, I went right back out, continuing without you. I should have stayed in New York.  I should have settled down and gotten a job so that I could be where you were.”

Dingo looked into his son’s eyes intently. “I can never give back the years that I wasted, Rollie, but I can give you the rest of my life.  I swear to you on your mother’s grave that, this time, I’ll keep my promise.”

Blinking back tears, Rollie pulled his father into a tight embrace.  “Thank you, Dad.  Thank you for telling me this,” he whispered.

They drew apart and left the roof, both of them thinking about what the future would bring.
 

CHAPTER THIRTEEN -- PLANS AND DECEPTIONS

It was 11 a.m., and they were ready to begin.  Rollie looked at Mangela and his father.  Despite all the careful planning, he was still worried that things might go wrong and something would happen to them.

“Now, you’re sure you know what to do, right?”  His concern was reflected in his voice.

“Stop worrying, Rollie.  We know what we’re doing,” replied Dingo.

Rollie looked at them a while longer.  “All right, then let’s get this thing started.”  He turned to Angie.  “Turn off the sensors.”

Dingo and Mangela walked out to the van.  They started the engine and pulled away.  Rollie counted to five, then ran after them, catching them as they got to the end of Brewery Lane.

“What do you think you’re doing, Dad?” he asked loudly.

“Me and Mangela are going to go shopping for your wedding presents.”

“Dad, I thought we agreed that you would take a police officer along with you if you went anywhere.  You know that you’re at risk from Loubar.”

“I thought you said that he wouldn’t be well enough to do anything for another day or two,” Mangela said.

“Well, yeah, but I can’t be sure of that.  That’s only an estimate.”  Rollie lowered his voice slightly.  “Look, we shouldn’t be talking about this out here.  He could be listening in on us.”

“Rollie, I love you, Son, but this Loubar’s made you paranoid.  We’re only going to be gone two or three hours.  We’ll be fine.  We don’t need a babysitter.”

“Damn it, Dad.  Why do you two have to be so stubborn?  Can you at least tell me where you’ll be?  I’ll have Mira send a squad car over there to meet you.  They can follow you back home.  Please, Dad.”

Dingo sighed.  “All right.  We’re going to that place over on . . . Mangela, what’s that address?”

The Aborigine looked at a piece of paper.  He read off the address.

“Okay, I’ll go call Mira and have her send a car over.  I’ll have them pick me up first, so if you see a cop that claims to be your escort and I’m not with him, get away from him.  Like I told you before, Loubar has the ability to pose as almost anyone.  You got that?”

“We got it.  We’ll wait for you there.  How long will you be?”

“I don’t know.  It depends on how quickly Mira can get someone out here.  Wait inside the store until we get there.  You should be safe with all those people around.”

The two men drove off.  Rollie turned, jogged back over to the door, and went inside.  As he shut the door, Angie came up to him.

“So, do you think he’ll take the bait?”

“Well, if he doesn’t, we’ve wasted a lot of time and energy.”

“How long are you going to give him?”

“No more than half an hour.  Any longer than that and he’d start to get suspicious.”  He studied Angie.  “You’re going to be okay here alone, aren’t you?”

“Sure.  I’ve got my miniature army out there to keep me safe.  I wish I was going to be there with you.”

“Me too, but that would be way too dangerous.”

Rollie waited almost the full half hour before calling Mira and Francis, who were waiting with a squad car a few blocks away.  They sent the police car over to the loft, then headed on over to the store where Dingo and Mangela had gone.  They would have to stay well out of sight so that there was no chance Loubar would see them.  David was already there, keeping a lookout from the roof of the store.

As the squad car pulled up to the loft, Rollie gave Angie a kiss.  She held onto him tightly.

“Be careful, Rollie.  Please don’t take any chances you don’t have to.”

The Aussie kissed her again.  He then looked deeply into her eyes.  “Don’t forget the gun, Angie.”

“I won’t.”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

Rollie went outside and got in the squad car.  On the way over to the store, he tried to relax.  There were so many things that could go wrong.  What if Loubar didn’t do what Rollie figured he would?  What if he tried something else?  Rollie had set up contingency plans for several different scenarios, but there was no way that he could cover everything.  All he could do was pray that he knew Victor Loubar as well as he thought he did.

As they pulled into the parking lot, Rollie looked around, wondering if any of the people he saw was Loubar.  He had a feeling that the man was there.  Rollie had the driver drop him off in front of the store.  The cop then pulled the car over to wait.  With a second officer at his side, Rollie went in and waited near the door for Dingo and Mangela.  About fifteen minutes later, he saw them coming toward him.  Dingo had a large package in his hand.

“Are you ready to go?” asked Rollie.

“All set,” replied Dingo.

The four of them walked over to the van.  Dingo and Mangela climbed in.

“All right, we’ll be right behind you, so don’t lose us, okay?  If we get caught by a light that you make, just pull over and wait for us.  And if a car gets between us, change lanes or do something else that will allow the car to go by you.”

“Don’t worry, Rollie.  We’ll keep you in sight.” Dingo’s voice had a slightly irritated tone.

About seventy feet away, a lone figure sat in a car, watching.  Victor Loubar smiled as Rollie Tyler turned and walked with the officer away toward the squad car.  He saw Dingo and Mangela in the cab of the van.  The engine started and the van slowly began backing up.  Tyler and the cop were about thirty feet away by then.  That was far enough.  Loubar pressed a button on the item he held in his hand.

A tremendous explosion ripped the van apart, flipping it over like a child’s toy.  Rollie and the cop were thrown to the ground by the concussion.  Loubar watched as the Aussie rolled over and looked at the van.

“Nooo!” he screamed.  He scrambled to his feet and ran toward the burning wreckage.  As he did, he reached into his pocket and pulled something out.  Suddenly, the mask Loubar was wearing deactivated.  Ripping it off, Loubar stared down at it in surprise.  Then he looked back up--and met the gaze of Rollie Tyler.  The two men stared at each other for a frozen moment.  Shocked, Loubar realized that he’d been had.

With a feeling of savage pleasure, Rollie watched as an expression of shocked realization spread over Loubar’s face.

An unmarked police car was speeding up the aisle.  Loubar saw this and scrambled out of his car.  He took off across the parking lot, with Rollie in hot pursuit.  Plainclothes cops suddenly appeared out of nowhere and converged on Loubar.  Seeing that he was surrounded, Loubar stopped in the middle of an aisle.

And that’s when the unexpected happened.  A teenaged girl was just getting out of a truck a few yards away from Loubar.  Seeing a chance for escape, Loubar ran for her and grabbed her.  The girl shrieked as he put a gun to her head.  Using her as a shield, Loubar put his back against the truck.  Rollie and the police all came to a halt.

“All right, Tyler, I don’t know how you managed to pull this off, but I’m back in control now.  This young lady and I are going to drive out of here, and no one’s going to stop us.  If I see anyone following us, she’s going to pay the price.”

“No way, Loubar.  I know you.  If we let you out of here with her, she’s as good as dead.  And don’t bother telling me that isn’t true.”

A faint smile curved Victor Loubar’s mouth.  He nodded slightly.  “Then I guess we are at an impasse.  You will not let me leave with her, and I cannot let her go.  What shall we do about that?”  There was a note of taunting in his voice.

“I can take her place,” Rollie said.

“Not a chance, Rollie,” declared Mira, who had walked up beside him.  “There is no way I’m going to let you go with him.”

“Mira, we have no choice.  We can’t let him take her.  You know what will happen.”

“So I’m to trade your life for hers?  No, Rollie.  I can’t do that.  Even if I wanted to, the department would have my head.”  Mira turned to Loubar.  “I’ll take her place.”

Loubar’s smile grew.  “How touching.  I am surrounded by self-sacrificing heros.  Sorry, Detective Sanchez.  I’ll take Tyler, but not you, nor any other cop.”

“Then it’s no deal, Loubar.  We’ll all just stand here until hell freezes over or until you decide to give up, whichever comes first.”

Loubar tightened his grip on the girl, making her cry out in pain.

Rollie turned to Mira and grasped her shoulder.  In a voice just loud enough so that Loubar could hear, he said, “For God’s sake, Mira, please.  Loubar won’t give up.  If he thinks that there’s no way out, he’ll kill her first, then try to take me out and anybody else he can.  You have to let me go with him.  I’ll be okay.”  He nodded slightly and gave her a wink.

Mira looked at him closely.  Apparently understanding the silent message he was trying to send to her, she nodded.  “All right, Rollie.”

“Splendid!” said Loubar.  “First off, I want you to get rid of that little PDA of yours, Tyler.  I am well aware of how proficient you are with it.”

Blocking Loubar’s view for a moment, Rollie handed the PDA to Mira, pressing an area on the screen as he did.  Mira looked at the screen, trying to keep her face straight.  There was a blip blinking steadily on the screen with distance and coordinates beside it.  By the readings that it showed, she could see that the PDA was registering Rollie’s location.  There was also a message at the bottom of the screen.  Mira read it, then her eyes rose to Rollie’s.

Just then, Rollie saw Dingo and Mangela.  They were standing about twenty-five feet away.  Across the distance, Rollie’s gaze met his father’s.  An unspoken message passed between them.  Rollie then looked at the Aborigine.  Mangela nodded, understanding the look Rollie gave him.

Rollie turned to Victor Loubar, who was also looking at the two men.  “All right, now what?”

Loubar held his hand in front of the girl.  “Give me the keys to the truck.”

Her hands trembling, the girl reached into her purse and got the keys.

“Come here and stand right in front of me, Tyler, then turn your back to me.”

Rollie did as he was told.  Loubar quickly shoved the girl away, then wrapped his arm around Rollie’s throat, pulling him back against him.  The gun was pressed to his temple.

“Now, reach back and open the door of the truck.  Slowly!”

Again, Rollie did as he was instructed.  Loubar pulled Rollie into the truck, having Rollie sit in the driver’s seat.  He kept the gun trained on Rollie the entire time.

“Start it up, drive slowly out of the parking lot, and head south.  I’ll tell you where to go from there.”  Loubar looked back at Mira.  “Remember, Detective, if I see one car I think is the police, Tyler’s dead.”

Once they’d pulled away from the parking lot, Rollie glanced at Loubar.  There was still evidence of the swelling and hives that the chemicals would have caused, and his skin looked red and irritated.  He was also pale and haggard.  In addition, his hair looked decidedly thinner than the last time Rollie had seen him.  The Aussie knew that some of the other effects the chemical must have had on the man would not have gone away yet either.  That would take several more days.

As they drove, Loubar studied Rollie.  “You surprise me, Tyler.  You’ve gotten better since the last time we met.  That little stunt in the gardens was an unexpected move.”  His hand tightened on the gun, and a touch of anger came into his voice.  “I really owe you for that one.  I’ll have to think up something particularly nasty to pay you back for that.  This setup today was also well done.  How did you do it?  I saw your father and your Aborigine friend in the cab of the van as I detonated the bomb.”

“What you saw was a holographic projection.  It was activated the moment they got into the van.  While I was ‘talking’ to them, they were busy escaping out of a trap door in the bottom of the van.  They then crawled forward into the truck that was parked in front of theirs, which also had a trap door.”

“Your father’s voice was on tape, then?”

Rollie nodded.  “The van was started and driven by remote control.”

“Then you guessed that I would use a bomb.”

“I knew that was one possibility.  Considering the circumstances, it seemed the most likely one.”

“You took a big chance, didn’t you?  What if someone going back to their car had gotten caught in the blast.”

“All of the cars in that aisle and the next one over were police cars.  Also, just as my father, Mangela, and I came out of the store, the police blocked the beginning of the aisle with a ‘stalled’ car so that no one could come up it.”

“I see.  Well, it almost worked, Tyler.  That girl was not something you had planned for, though, was she.  Such a shame.  But then, the best laid plans often fail because of the unexpected.  You have accomplished one thing, though.  You’ve made it necessary for me to change my plans.  I had intended to eliminate the people you love first and let you suffer the pain of their deaths before killing you.  But, now, I’ll just have to be content with you.”  He smiled.  “But perhaps before I kill you, I’ll become Rollie Tyler one more time and visit Angela again to have a little more fun, just before I kill her, of course.”

Rollie’s grip tightened on the wheel.  It took all of his self-control not to make a dive for Loubar’s throat.  Fighting to keep his voice calm, Rollie said, “That isn’t going to happen, Loubar.”  He looked at the man for a moment, deciding it was time to really give Loubar something to think about.  “More has changed than you realize.  I’m no longer afraid of you.  I know you.  I know how you think.  I know what your plans are or, rather, were.  You were going to strike at the wedding, kill my dad, Mangela, Frank, and Mira, as well as anyone else you could manage.  It would have been a bomb placed where we had the reception.  You would have been there, disguised as a caterer or something else.  You’d have lured Angie and me away somehow, maybe said that there was an important phone call for us, then set off the bomb, watching in satisfaction as I witnessed the deaths of the people I love.  Then you would have taken Angie at gun point, making me feel the helplessness of not being able to stop you.  You’d have kept her for a while, letting me sweat.  Then you would have forced me to come to you.”  The Aussie grip tightened on the wheel again.  “Once you had me, you would have tortured Angie before my eyes, and then killed her.  After that, you would have tortured me, finally killing me.”  He looked at the man, who was staring at him with shock in his eyes.  He could tell by the assassin’s expression that he’d hit the nail right on the head.  “How am I doing so far, hmm?”

Loubar just stared at him for several seconds, then his eyes grew cold.  “You’re guessing.  This isn’t going to help you.”

“Am I?  Well, then how’s this for a guess?  Throughout your career, you’ve been in control.  Nothing ever phased you.  If someone got in your way, you either killed them or ignored them as not being worth worrying about.  But then I came along.  To you, I was just another face and identity to be used to get what you wanted.  You expected Devillon to get rid of me.  What you didn’t expect was that I’d join forces with the feds to nail you.  You didn’t expect me to be able to stop you from stealing the smart grenade.  Was it a case of you not doing all your homework on me or did you think that you were too good for me to stop you despite all the times I’ve helped the cops?”

Not getting a response from Loubar, Rollie continued.  “After you healed from the gunshot wound, you probably toyed with the idea of going back and killing me, but you decided that it wasn’t worth the risk, I wasn’t worth the risk.  So, you just moved on to the next job.  But then, suddenly, there I was again just a few months later.  A second time you came up against me, and a second time I beat you.  Your ego just couldn’t accept that.  You had to prove that you were better than me.  You had to make me suffer for getting in your way not once but twice.  As long as I was alive and well, I was a reminder to you that you got beaten by someone who wasn’t even a cop.  And so, you laid your plans.  You didn’t want me dead, not right away.  That wouldn’t give you what you need.  You wanted me to be crushed, defeated.  But, again, things didn’t work out as you planned.  I was too good for you to beat.  Angie was too good.  We both proved to be stronger and smarter than you thought we were.  So, now you’re trying again to prove that you’re better than me.”  Rollie turned and looked at him penetratingly.  “Well, I’ve got news for you.  You’re not better than me.  You will never beat me.  In the end, I’ll be the winner.”

Loubar had been staring at him fixedly, his expression a cross between shock and anger.  But after Rollie’s last sentence, a cold smile came to his lips.

“In case you haven’t noticed, Tyler, I am the one with the gun.  All I have to do is pull the trigger, and you will be dead.”

“That would be the stupidest thing you ever did.”

“How’s that?”

Rollie pulled up to a red light.  He held his left arm up.  With his right hand, he pulled back the band of his watch to reveal a thin black object stuck to his wrist.

“This is a tracking device.  As we speak, it is sending a signal to the PDA I gave Mira.  I would guess that at least half a dozen police cars are following us at this very moment.”

The light turned green and Rollie resumed driving.

“Clever, Tyler, but by telling me about it, you just made it useless.  Give it to me.”

“I really don’t think you want me to do that.  You see, this is more than just a locator.  It also monitors my pulse.  If I remove it, or if you kill me, it will send an alarm to the PDA, and you will have a dozen or so cops on you faster than you can say Rollie Tyler.”  The Aussie allowed a satisfied smile to curve his lips for a moment.

Loubar sat in silence.  Rollie glanced at him and saw a look of rage on the man’s face.

“So, what shall it be, Loubar?” Rollie asked.

There was another minute of silence, then, “Pull over.”

Rollie pulled up to the curb.

“Get out and step away from the truck.”

Rollie climbed out of the cab, reaching into his pocket as he did.  He watched as Loubar slid over into the driver’s seat.  Their eyes met.

“You’ve won this round, Tyler, but the game isn’t over yet.  Your police friends, sensors, and quartet of guards won’t stop me, and neither will you or your futile plans to catch me.  In the end, I’ll be the winner, not you.” Loubar shoved the truck into gear and pealed away from the curb.

Rollie quickly threw the item he had palmed.  It landed in the bed of the truck.

“Don’t count on it,” Rollie murmured.  He reached for the locator and pulled it off his wrist.  About five seconds later, three unmarked police cars screeched to a halt beside him.  Mira, Frank, and David got out of one of them.

“Are you okay, Rollie?” asked Frank.  His face looked slightly pale.

“I’m fine, Francis.  Come on, we’ve got to hurry.”  Rollie got into the car.

The two detectives and the agent got in as well.  “Why?  What’s going on?” David asked.

“You see that new blip on the PDA?  It’s from another tracker I just put in the truck.”

Without another word, they turned on the siren and took off in the direction the PDA indicated.  Mira handed the pad back to Rollie.

“Turn right up here,” Rollie instructed.  He studied the readings on the screen.  It showed that they were gaining on Loubar.  The problem was that they were closing the distance far too quickly.  This could mean only one thing.  “Damn!” Rollie cursed.  “He’s dumped the truck.”

Sure enough, they found the truck sitting empty in an alley.  Rollie looked around, not really expecting to see Loubar.  The man was long gone.  Loubar had gotten away yet again, and it was going to be harder to catch him next time.

On their way back to where they had set up the trap, Mira glanced at Rollie.  “I have to tell you, it wasn’t easy keeping the expression off my face when I read that message on the PDA’s screen.”

“What exactly did it say?” Francis asked.

“This locator is monitoring my pulse.  If the alarm goes off, it means I’m dead.  Nail the bastard,” Mira quoted.  “I’ll tell you, when that alarm went off, I thought I was going to have heart failure.”

When they arrived at the store, Rollie found Dingo and Mangela still there.  Both looked faint with relief when they saw him.  Then they noticed the expression on his face.

“He got away,” said the Aborigine.

Rollie nodded and leaned his back against a car.  He was trying very hard not to show the depths of his disappointment.

Dingo laid a hand on Rollie’s arm.  “We’ll get him next time, Son.  You’d better call Angie and let her know you’re okay.  When I told her what happened, she just about went buggy.  It took a lot of talking to keep her from rushing down here.”

Rollie dialed the number for the loft.  It didn’t even make it through the first ring before Angie picked up.  Her voice as she answered was stressed to the breaking point.

“I’m okay, Ange.”

Angie made a small sound, like a cross between a sob and a sigh.  “Thank God.  Rollie, I’ve been so worried.”  There was a long pause.  “Did you get him?”

“No.  I’m so sorry, Ange.  I really thought we’d get him this time.”

There was an even longer pause, then, “How long will you be?”

“A while, I’d say.  I’m probably going to have to answer a lot of questions, and there’ll be a lot of explaining to do about what went wrong.”  Rollie saw someone pull up.  “Yeah, just as I figured.  VanDuran's here.  Wish me luck, Ange.”

As he hung up, Rollie studied the expression on the captain’s face.  Even with the distance separating them, he could tell that the man was far from pleased.

“Dad, why don’t you and Mangela go on home.  I’ll probably be a while.”

“Actually, we want to go shopping for your wedding presents for real.”

“You don’t have a car.”

Dingo turned to Mira, smiling.  “Maybe Mira will lend us one of her fellow officers of the law and his car.  We’re going to need a bodyguard, anyway, right?”

Mira shrugged.  “Sure, why not?  I can’t get into any more trouble than I already am.”  She called to one of the plainclothes cops, telling him to take Dingo and Mangela wherever they wanted to go, within reason.

VanDuran came up to them just as Rollie’s father and Mangela left.  “All right, I want explanations,” he said, focusing his gaze on Mira.  “What happened?  I thought you sealed off the parking lot after Tyler arrived.”

“We did.  No cars were allowed in, only out.  We picked this location because there’s only one entrance and exit, or so we had thought.  We found out that there’s a narrow access road between this place and the store next door.  The girl must have come in that way.”

The captain shook his head.  “This almost blew up in our faces, people.  I’ve got a lot of explaining to do to the chief, not the least of which is why a detective in my precinct allowed a civilian to trade himself for another civilian as a hostage.”

“That was my doing, Captain,” sand Rollie.  “Loubar wasn’t going to accept a cop as a hostage.  Besides, if anyone else had gone in my place, there would have been no way to track them.  This is my screw up.  I’m the one who should take responsibility.”

“There’s plenty of blame to go around, Tyler.  I’ll try to keep everybody’s heads on their shoulders, but I don’t know what the chief will decide to do.”  He looked at David.  “Are you going to bring the bureau in on this now?  They’re going to hear about this little fiasco sooner or later.”

David shook his head.  “I’m on vacation, Captain VanDuran.  I’m doing this on my own time.  I promised Rollie not to alert the bureau, and I will stick by that until he tells me to do otherwise.”

VanDuran searched the agent’s face closely, then nodded.

Someone cried out behind Rollie.  He turned to see the teenaged girl who had been Loubar’s captive running toward him.  She threw herself into his arms, nearly knocking him over.

Hugging his neck tightly, she whispered, “Thank you, thank you.”

Rollie held her at arm's length and looked down into her tear-stained face.  “Are you all right?”

“Yeah.”  There was just the slightest tremor in her voice.  “I was really scared for a while, but when I saw you look at me, I knew that you wouldn’t let him hurt me.  When you went with him, I was so afraid that he was going to kill you.  I wouldn’t let them take me home until I knew you were okay.  I’m so glad you got away.”

Rollie smiled tenderly at the girl, touched by her concern.  “What’s your name?”

“Tina Winters.”

“Well, Tina, one of these police officers will take you home now.  We got your truck back, but it might be a few days before it can be returned to you.”

“Oh, that’s okay.  It’s my dad’s truck, and he almost never drives it.”  She stood up on tippy toes and gave Rollie’s cheek a kiss.  “You’re terrific,” she murmured.  She then turned and walked away, a policewoman by her side.

Francis shook his head, smiling.  “Another female admirer to add to the list.”

“Well, right now, there is one particular female that I want to be with very much.  Captain, there really isn’t anything more I can tell you.  If the chief decides he wants my head, you know where I am.”

“All right.  Detectives Sanchez and Gatti can fill me in on the details.”

“Rollie, there is one thing I want to know,” David asked.  “How did you know that you were going to need that tracking device?”

“You could call it instinct or maybe extreme cautiousness.  It was a last minute idea.  I began to think about what would happen if things really went wrong and Loubar decided to grab me.”

“Well, it’s a good thing you thought of it,” commented Mira.

“Tell me about it.”  Rollie smiled faintly.  “Well, I gave Loubar a whole lot to think about while he had me.”

“What do you mean?” Francis asked.

“I let Loubar know that I had him all figured out, and by the way he reacted, I was dead right about everything.”  The Aussie chuckled.  “I put on a pretty good act of being the cocky, confident, fearless nemesis--even though I was scared half to death.”

“How do you think Loubar will respond to that?” David asked.

“It’ll piss him off.  He won’t like it one bit that I’ve managed to get inside his head, especially since he has failed to anticipate what I’m going to do time and time again.  His need to prove himself to be better than me is going to be stronger than ever now.  He’s going to get even more reckless, take even more chances.”  Rollie turned to Mira.  “Do you think you could spare a car for me?  I don’t need a driver.  Loubar’s long gone, and I know you need all the people you have here.”

Agreeing that it was safe for Rollie to go back to the loft alone, Mira had someone give him the keys to an unmarked police car.  Rollie headed out of the parking lot, anxious to get home to Angie.

Angie heard the alarm warning that someone was coming up Brewery Lane.  She looked at the monitor and saw Rollie driving up the road.  She turned off the sensors and waited for him.  She wanted to rush right out and throw her arms around him the moment he stepped out of the car, but caution told her that she needed to wait until it was confirmed that it really was Rollie.  Not wanting it to get between them, Angie pulled the gun out of her belt and set it on the counter.

Rollie parked the car and got out.  He nodded at the officers on duty and gave them the password.  The moment he stepped in the door, Angie was in his arms.  Hugging him close, she felt his body stiffen, then relax.  Sensing that something was not quite right, she pulled slightly away and looked up into his face.

“Are you okay?”

Rollie smiled.  “Yeah, I’m fine.  I’m just tired and frustrated.  We were so close this time.”

Angie squeezed his arm.  “I know.  Come on.  I’ll fix you a nice hot cup of tea.  I’m surprised you got back this soon.”

“So am I.  I expected to be dragged down to the station for about two hours of grilling.”

Blue walked toward them, whining.  He gave a hesitant bark.

“Hey, Bluey.  How are you doing?” Rollie asked.

The electronic dog barked again, then let out another whine.

Rollie laughed.  “I guess he knows I’m unhappy, too.”  He reached out and put an arm around Angie’s waist.  “Forget the tea.  I’d rather have you.”  He pulled Angie into his arms, and his lips came down on hers.

The moment their lips touched, some instinct inside Angie blared a warning.  With all her strength, she shoved him away from her.

Stumbling back against the couch, he stared at her.  “Angie, why did you do that?”  He took a step toward her.

“You stay right there!” Angie yelled.  She glared at the man before her.  “You’re not Rollie,” she declared with absolute conviction.

The man who looked like Rollie stared at her, then a slow smile spread across his face.  He reached into his pocket.  Angie heard a muffled beep.  The man’s features blurred and shifted, revealing the mask he wore.  He reached up and removed it.  With utter hatred, Angie glared into the face of Victor Loubar.
 

CHAPTER FOURTEEN -- FIGHTING BACK

As Rollie drove home, he began to think about something that Loubar had said.  There were two explanations for what the man had revealed with his words.  If it was the first one, then all was well.  If it was the second. . . .  Suddenly, Rollie got scared, realizing what it would mean if the second explanation was the right one.  He pushed his foot down harder on the accelerator, a feeling of dread filling him.  Minutes later, the dread abruptly escalated to terror as he was overcome with a horrible feeling that Angie was in terrible, mortal danger.

“Angie!” he cried as he slammed the accelerator to the floorboard, terror burning its way into his brain.

Blue growled menacingly at Loubar.  Ignoring him, the man sneered at Angie.  “Well, well.  I guess you’ve gotten to know Tyler a lot better since we were together last.  Oh, well, I don’t really have the time to dawdle, anyway.”

“How did you get the passwords?”

“That is my little secret.”  Loubar took a step toward Angie.  “Tyler screwed up my plans to kill his father and friends, but he’s not around to stop me now.  I won’t kill you, not right away.  I want him to watch as I do that.”

Angie took a step backward.  “You can’t get out of here, not with me.  Those four cops outside will stop you.”

“I’m afraid not.  You see, as I came in, I left behind a little present for them.  They’re sleeping quite soundly now.”  He pulled his gun out and aimed it at Angie.

“Blue, attack!” Angie screamed as she dove away from Loubar.

Loubar laughed.  The laugh was cut short as the seemingly helpless robot dog launched a dart-like object at him.  The dart stuck in his leg.  Suddenly, an electric shock coursed through his body, stunning him.  And that’s when Angie acted.  With an animal-like scream of hatred, she swung her foot up into Loubar’s crotch.  Loubar went to his knees, clutching himself.  The gun went flying as Angie kicked it out of Loubar’s hand.  She kicked again with all her strength, and Loubar went to the floor.  Yet again, her foot slammed into him.

Seeing the gun a few feet away, Angie made a dive for it.  A hand snaked out and grabbed her ankle, yanking her to the floor.  Screaming again, Angie kicked out with her free leg, but Loubar deflected the blow with his other arm.  He grabbed Angie’s arm and pulled her toward him.  Fighting like a wildcat, Angie clawed, kicked and swung at him, but Loubar’s superior strength was winning out.  Pinning her to the floor, he smashed a fist into her jaw.  Stunned, Angie almost missed what happened next.

Barking and snarling like a rabid dog, Bluey attacked Loubar’s leg with another weapon, a dart full of a chemical that instantly made the assassin’s leg feel like it was on fire.  Yelling from the pain, he kicked out at the robot.  Bluey was knocked onto his back.  But the distraction had been enough.  Angie punched Loubar’s throat.  Gagging, he loosened his grip.  Angie’s fists swung up and exploded against the man’s temple, knocking him back.  She scrambled out from underneath him.  Loubar, on his knees, grasped her ankle again and tried pulling her back.

At that moment, Rollie burst into the loft and saw Loubar struggling with Angie.  A white-hot fury blazed into his mind.  Screaming like a madman, he rushed at Loubar.  His fist lashed out and smashed into the killer’s jaw.  Loubar’s body flipped backwards, and he fell to the floor.  Rollie then swung his foot into the man’s face.  Blood poured from Loubar’s broken nose.  Again and again, Rollie’s fists descended, rocking the man’s head violently.  Then his knee came down hard on the assassin’s chest, pinning him to the floor.  He reached out and grabbed Loubar’s throat.  His hands began to squeeze.  Tighter and tighter they squeezed, the fingers pressing deep into the skin.  Loubar clawed at Rollie’s arms desperately, fighting for air.  Then his eyes started rolling back into his head.

At the last second, some other part of Rollie took control, and he released his grip.  Loubar’s breath wheezed back into his lungs.  He gasped and choked, coughing repeatedly.  Rollie got up and walked over to Angie, helping her up.  His arms came around her.

“Oh, God, Angie!  Are you all right?”  The Aussie’s voice was shaking.

“I’m okay, Rol, I’m okay.”  She clung to him tightly.

Loubar tried to rise.  Glaring at him, Rollie said, “Don’t you move, Loubar, or I swear I’ll kill you.”

The man looked at the expression in Rollie’s eyes and stayed where he was.

“Bluey, speakerphone.  Dial Mira’s number.”  The call connected on the second ring.  “Mira, get over here now!  Loubar’s here.  We’ve got him.”

“What?!  We’re on our way.”

“Oh, and Mira?  You’d better send a couple of ambulances, too.  Loubar’s going to need one, and the cops outside might also.”

Angie got Loubar’s gun and handed it to Rollie.  With a steady hand, he kept the weapon trained on Loubar until the police arrived.  Angie let them in.

Mira and Frank both stopped cold as they saw the scene laid out before them.  As both the policewoman and Rollie covered him, Francis handcuffed Loubar, being none too gentle about it.  The detective looked up at his partner.

“Do you want the honors or shall I?”

“Oh, please, let me,” Mira replied.  She proceeded to read Loubar his rights.  The ambulances pulled up as she finished.

The EMT’s examined Loubar.  “We’ll need to take him to the hospital.  He’s got at least two broken ribs, a possible concussion, and a broken nose.  There may also be some internal bleeding,” said one of the EMT’s.  He looked down at the handcuffs.  “You’ll need to remove those.”

Loubar was placed on the stretcher, and Francis cuffed him to the railing.  He told one of the uniformed cops who had just arrived to join him in escorting the prisoner to the hospital.  Angie noticed that the cop was Officer Karns, and that he looked extremely pleased to be given the duty.  They all went outside.  The cops who had been on guard duty were conscious and were being given oxygen.  Loubar was loaded into the ambulance.  Frank and Karns climbed in after him.  As they pulled away, Mira turned to Rollie and Angie.  There was a delighted smile on her face.

“You did it!  You got him!”

Rollie smiled back.  “Yeah, we got him, all right.”  Then he started to laugh.  He hugged Angie.  “We got him, Ange.  We got Loubar.”

Angie laughed, too.

“Well, I’d better go over to the hospital,” said Mira.  “There’s going to be a lot of questions for you two later.”

After she was gone, Rollie searched for and found the device that was used to knock the guards out.  The small canister was stuck to the wall beside the door.  Loubar must have put it there as he entered the loft.

Back inside, Angie went over to Blue and put him back on his feet.  She bent down and placed a kiss on the little robot’s head.

“Blue, you good, brave boy.”  She looked up at her fiancé.  “He saved me, Rol.  Those defenses you installed in him worked perfectly.  If it hadn’t been for them and Bluey, I wouldn’t have had a chance.”

The Aussie swooped down and picked up the electronic dog.  “Hey, Bluey, what a good boy you are, what a very, very good boy!”  He petted the robot like a live dog.  Blue’s tail wagged enthusiastically, a happy bark issuing forth from his speaker.

Putting Blue back down, Rollie looked at Angie’s face.  Seeing the mark on it, his jaw tightened.  “Let me put some ice on that, Ange.”

He led her into the kitchen and put some ice in a damp cloth.  Angie winced as he gently placed the ice against her jaw.

“I’m sorry,” Rollie said, his voice low.

“It’s okay, just a little sore.”

“No, Ange, I mean I’m sorry.  This should never have happened.  He almost killed you because I failed to catch him and because I didn’t think about the possibility that he’d come after you until it was too late.”

“Hey.  It wasn’t your fault.  It was just some stupid chance thing.  And I’m partially to blame for Loubar getting in here.  I didn’t think about the fact that you didn’t call before you arrived.  It just didn’t occur to me.  I was too excited when I saw you . . . I mean him.  I also failed to notice the hives and that his clothes weren’t exactly like what you were wearing.”

“He’d covered the hives with makeup, except for what was on his face.  You wouldn’t have seen them on his arms and neck unless you were really looking.  As for the clothes, well, you know me.  Black is my color of choice, and one black T-shirt and pair of jeans pretty much looks like another.”  He smiled faintly.  “I’m going to have to do something about my wardrobe.”  The smiled disappeared.  “It’s obvious that Loubar already had the mask of my face completed and had clothing like what I wear in the event that he would need to pose as me.  He may have already planned to come get you after he killed Dad and Mangela with that bomb in the van.  It would make sense.  It was always his intention to kill them first, then take you.  I can’t believe that I didn’t think about that.  It wasn’t until I was on my way home that it dawned on me.  I’m sorry.”

“Hey, stop beating yourself up, Rol.  You couldn’t have known that he’d found out the passwords and could get in here.  If it hadn’t been for that, he might not have come after me here.  He would have had to take care of the guards without alerting me, and that wouldn’t have been possible.  I was watching on the monitor.   If I saw him attack the cops, I’d have known that he wasn’t you.  Loubar must have realized that and known that it was possible we’d set up defenses in the loft on the off chance that he got in here.”

“Which is something I should have done.”  Rollie sighed.  “But you’re right.  If Loubar hadn’t known the passwords, it’s likely that he wouldn’t have come after you here.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter now.  We got him.  We don’t ever have to worry about Loubar again.”  Angie smiled, then winced again as the movement brought a lance of pain to her jaw.  “This is going to look just great as I walk down the aisle.”

“You’ve never looked more beautiful to me,” Rollie declared.  He led Angie over to the couch and pulled her close, closing his eyes for a moment.  It scared him to think how close he’d come to losing her.

“What now?  Do we have the wedding this weekend or do we change it back to the twenty-seventh?” she asked.

“We’ve got everything set up for Saturday.  I say we go ahead and have it.  Besides, I don’t think I could wait another week.”

Angie snuggled closer.  “Neither do I.”  She became serious.  “I knew, Rollie.  When he first came in disguised as you, I felt that something was wrong, but I thought it was just that you were angry about not catching Loubar.  Then, when he kissed me, I just knew.  I think Bluey knew something wasn’t right, too.  He was acting funny.”

“That was probably because of the enhancements I did on his audio recognition software.  To you, Loubar might have sounded like me, but Blue would have been able to tell the difference in the vocal pattern.  I can imagine it confused him a bit.”

“Yeah, he was acting confused.”  She looked at Rollie.  “I’m just glad you got here when you did.”

Rollie held her more tightly. “On my way home, it dawned on me that Loubar might come after you, and I picked up speed.  I was a couple of miles away when I suddenly sensed that you were in terrible danger.  God only knows how I managed to avoid an accident with the way I was driving.  Then, when I saw him with his hands on you, I just lost it.  I came that close to killing him.”

“Well, it’s over now, and we can get back to our lives.”

“Our lives together,” Rollie agreed as his lips came down to hers.

Mira, Francis, and David showed up an hour and a half later.  Dingo and Mangela had returned a while earlier, Lucinda arriving shortly after that.

“Well, you guys did a pretty good job on Loubar,” Mira told them.  “Broken ribs and nose, a mild concussion, and a bruised larynx.  One of the broken ribs perforated his liver, and they had to take him to surgery to patch him up.  He’ll be in the hospital for a few days, under heavy guard, of course.”

“Perhaps you can arrange a visit for us.  I think that both of us would like very much to say hi to him.”  There was a nasty smile on Rollie’s face.

Mira also smiled.  “I think we can arrange that.  Oh, by the way, that car Loubar was driving was stolen.  He swiped it about a block from where he left the truck.”

Rollie and Angie told the detectives and David about their decision to go ahead and have the wedding that Saturday.

“We’ve still got lots of things to do then, don’t we,” Mira remarked.  “I know it’s awfully short notice, but I do believe that we still have to have a bridal shower.”

Angie’s eyes lit up.  “How could we?  There’s so little time left.”

“You leave that to Mira and me, Angie,” Luce said.  “Just give us the list of wedding guests and their phone numbers.”

Angie smiled at the detective.  “Thanks, you two.  This is really nice of you.”

Rollie smiled at seeing Angie so happy after her near miss.  The smile didn’t last long.  “We’ve got a job ahead of us, I’m afraid.”

“What’s that?”

“One of the last things Loubar said to me was that all the sensors and our quartet of guards wouldn’t stop him from getting me.  It’s conceivable that he would know there were four cops on duty here by watching everyone’s comings and goings, but how did he know about the sensors?  If he was watching us when we installed the equipment near the head of Brewery Lane, all he would have seen were the cameras.  The motion sensors are hidden inside the cameras.  But, more importantly, how did he find out the passwords?  There’s only one way he could have known, and that’s if he was listening in.”

“In here?  But he couldn’t have.  He’d have known all about the plans,” Mira objected.

“No, not in here, out there, from somewhere on Brewery Lane.”

“But we checked all the buildings on the street, Rollie.  They were clean,” Frank said.

“Yeah, I know.  That’s why I thought that the area was safe.  But I was wrong.  Loubar has a listening device and probably video equipment out there, and I’m pretty sure I know where.”

“Where?” David asked.

“The building next door has overhead tunnels that connected it to buildings on the other side of the street.  Decades ago, everything on this street was owned by one company, and the tunnels were used for workers to easily travel from one side to the other.  The tunnels were closed off years ago, but that doesn’t mean that Loubar couldn’t have managed to get in one of them and set something up.”

“Well, I guess there’s only one way to find out,” Mira said.

Rollie got a pair of binoculars and some flashlights, and they all went outside.  He glanced at the tunnel closest to the loft.  “I don’t think it’s this one.  There would be a risk that I’d spot the equipment, and it would have been harder for him to work in it since I’d probably have been able to hear him from the loft.”  His gaze went to the next tunnel, which went across the street at an angle to a building farther down the way.  Using the binoculars, he began scanning the outer wall of the tunnel.  About fifteen feet from the building, he spotted something.

“I see something.  Yeah, it looks like a camera lens . . . and there’s the microphone.  I bet there’s one on the other side as well.”  Rollie went to the building next door to the loft, which was vacant.  He picked the lock, and they all went in.

“You do realize that we’re breaking and entering, don’t you?” David remarked mildly.

“Yeah,” Rollie replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Just wanted to mention it.”

They went to the second floor.  Immediately, they saw that a hole had been knocked into the brick wall that had been built to seal the entrance to the tunnel.  Crawling though the hole, flashlights in hand, they went down the tunnel.  Two cameras and two microphones had been set up, one set on each side of the tunnel.  Loubar would have been able to keep an eye on almost the entire street.

“But if Loubar could see everything that went on down there, then he would have seen you rig Dingo’s car,” Angie said.  “And what about when we loaded the boxes with the sprayers into Frank’s car?”

Rollie shook his head.  “Where he has this camera set up, there would be a blind spot right in front of the loft because of the fact that this building sticks out further into the street.”  Rollie noticed a peephole that Loubar had drilled into the wall.  He looked out of it.  “I was right.  The front of the loft can’t be seen.  Fortunately, both Dad’s car and Frank’s car were pulled up near the door, so, though Loubar could no doubt hear something going on, he couldn’t see anything.”

Angie was studying the transmitter attached to the camera and microphone.  “Rol, this is a short range transmitter.”

“Yeah.  There’s no doubt that Loubar was holed up in a building on one of the two streets on either side of us.  But with this equipment, it would have been possible for him to be in a building a little farther down the line since he wouldn’t have to be in direct line of sight of Brewery Lane.”

They all went back outside.  Rollie walked to the head of the lane, the others following him.  He looked up and down the street.

“My guess is that it’s this street.  This is the way that we usually enter and leave.  We rarely go out the other way.”  His expression grew thoughtful.  “I’m thinking about that rat.”

“Rat?  What rat?” Lucinda asked.

“A sound I isolated from a tape Loubar sent,” Angie explained, careful to keep her voice neutral.

The Aussie turned to the cops.  “Frank, can you find out which of these buildings are vacant, particularly the ones that have been empty for a few months?”

“No problem.  I’ll get on it right away.”  The detective walked away a few feet, then got on his cell phone.

“Loubar’s been caught.  Why do you want to find out what building he was in?” Lucinda asked.

“Because, to be on the safe side, we need to find out what his exact plans were, if we can,” Rollie explained.  “I don’t want to take the chance that he arranged a few little ‘surprises’ that might still be active.”

Frank rejoined them.  “They’re going to fax us the info.”

They all returned to the loft.  A while later, the information came through.

“This one’s a good possibility,” Mira said, pointing to an address.  “It’s been empty for two years.”

“And this one’s been vacant for over one year,” Rollie said as he laid his finger next to another address.

They found one more likely candidate on the list.

“Time for a couple of search warrants, I’d say,” David remarked.

Mira nodded and got on the phone.  An hour later, search warrants in hand, Rollie, Mira, Frank, David, and Angie headed off to search the buildings.  They’d split up to do the searching.  Angie was with Mira at one building, Frank was at the second with a uniformed cop, and Rollie was with David at the third.  Mangela, Dingo, and Lucinda were all waiting back at the loft.  Rollie had been tempted to ask Angie to stay behind as well, but he preferred to keep all his body parts intact.

The first to enter their building was Frank and the uniformed cop.  Rollie listened over his headset as the detective cautiously checked the door for booby traps, then opened it and went inside.

“Okay, we’re in,” Frank told everyone.  “We’ll start checking around.”

“Be careful, Francis,” the Aussie warned.

“Will do, Rollie.”

Angie and Mira came next.  Rollie tensely listened as they went through the same procedure as Frank had.  He didn’t relax even after the two women were inside.

“Ange, you know what Loubar did with the house.  Make sure you check everything.”

“I will, Rol,” she assured him.

Now, it was their turn.  Rollie studied the door of the building that he and David were going to search.  He ran a scanner over it, searching for electronic devices.

“It’s clean,” he said.  “Mira, we’re going in,” he then announced.  He picked the lock, then, with both him and David standing behind the wall for protection, he turned the knob and let the door swing open.  When nothing catastrophic happened, Rollie stuck his head around into the doorway.  He looked carefully for trip wires, laser beams, and other detection devices, but found nothing.  He was about to step inside when David stopped him.

“I’ll go first,” the agent quietly told him.

Rollie looked at the man, then nodded.  Gun drawn, David cautiously stepped through the doorway.  His eyes scanned the area near the entrance, seeing nothing suspicious.

“It’s clear,” he announced.

Rollie came in, looking around.  The place was covered in cobwebs and dust.  The Aussie looked down at the floor.

“Well, what do we have here?”

“What is it?” David asked.  Then he saw the footprints in the dust.  “We’ve had recent activity in here,” he told everyone.

“Yeah, in here, too,” Angie said.  “The question is, which one was Loubar and which one was just the owner or a potential buyer?”

“Well, there’s no sign of activity in here at all,” Frank said.  “There hasn’t been anybody in this place in at least six months.  I’m going to check it just to be safe, though.”

Rollie turned to David.  “So, shall we follow the footprints and see where they lead?”

Smiling, David nodded and, again taking the lead, he followed the trail of the footprints with the Aussie.

“They’re going up the stairs,” he said.

“Well, lead on, Lewis,” Rollie responded, grinning.

“Onward we go, Clark,” David replied, not missing a beat.

They ascended the staircase cautiously, checking each step before they put a foot on it.  Reaching the second floor, they followed the footprints to where they disappeared behind a closed door.

“Okay, everyone.  Whoever was here went into a room on the second floor,” Rollie said into the headset microphone.  “We’re checking it out now.”  He did a scan of the door with both the scanner and his eyes and found nothing.

This time, it was David who opened the door while they stayed behind the wall.  Again, nothing happened.  The agent peeked into what he could see of the room.

“I don’t see. . . .  Wait, I think there’s something in the room off this one.”  David checked for detection devices and trip wires.  Seeing nothing, he stepped over the threshold.

“David, don’t move!” Rollie cried.  The agent instantly froze in place.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know.”

The agent looked back over his shoulder at him.  “Care to explain, then, why I can’t move?”

“I can’t explain.  Just don’t move.”  Rollie searched with his eyes, but saw nothing to warrant the sudden feeling he’d gotten that something was wrong.  His gaze went to the floor.  The room was covered with carpeting.  That’s when he noticed that the metal carpet strip across the doorway had been removed.

The Aussie got down on his knees and very carefully lifted the carpet up a few inches.  “Uh oh.”

“That is not a sound that inspires peace of mind, Rollie,” David said.

“Um, guys, we’ve found Loubar’s hideout,” the Aussie announced.  “David is standing on a pressure plate.  I’d say the chances are good that it’s hooked up to a bomb.”

“I knew I shouldn’t have gotten out of bed this morning,” the agent muttered.

“I’m on the phone to the bomb squad,” Mira said.  “They’ll get there as soon as they can.  We’ll clear the area.”

“Unfortunately, they may not get here in time,” Rollie told her.  He pulled out his pocketknife and carefully began cutting away the carpet.

“Do you think you should be doing that?” David asked, his voice amazingly calm.

“I need to see how big the plate is.”  He cut the carpet as far as he could without leaning on the floor.  Pulling it back, he saw where the plate ended.  “Good.  It’s only a couple of feet wide and maybe three feet long.”

“And how is that good?”

“David, can you scoot over without taking your feet off the plate?  Don’t go more than a foot over.”

Very slowly, the agent slid his feet across the carpet one at a time, moving a foot to the left.  “What are you going to do?” he asked.

Not answering, Rollie turned sideways and stepped into the room, stepping over the pressure plate.  “Long legs come in handy sometimes,” he remarked once he was clear of the plate.

“You shouldn’t be doing this,” David told him.  “You need to leave.”

“But the party’s only just started.”  Rollie turned and went in search of the bomb.

“Rollie, listen to me.  Around a year ago, I went into a house where two fellow agents were being held prisoner.  The place was full of booby traps.  The agent who was with me stepped into one of the traps.  He lost both of his legs and was horribly burned.  I can still see the image of it happening in my mind.  I can’t let that happen again.”

The Aussie turned to him.  “I’m not leaving, David, so just save your breath.”  He returned to the task of looking for the bomb.  He soon found it.  What he saw sent a chill through him.

“Mira, do not let anyone in this building.  There’s a timer, and it’s counting down.”

“How much time?” Mira asked.

“Four minutes.”  Rollie met David’s eyes.

“Damn it, Rollie.  Get out of here now!” the agent yelled.

“No.”

“Rollie, please!” David pleaded.  “Think of Angie.”

“David, if I left without trying to help you, I could never live with myself.”  He turned back to the bomb, quickly scanning it.  “There’s no way I can figure out how to disarm this in the time that’s left.”  His eyes desperately searched the room and fell upon an old, broken desk in the corner.  As quickly as possible, he dragged it over to David.

“Okay, that plate probably doesn’t care how much weight is on it.  All it cares about is if the weight is removed.  So, if I set this desk on it, theoretically, you should be able to step off.”

“Theoretically?” David said.

“What?  You want guarantees?”

“Rollie, please don’t get yourself killed,” Angie’s terrified voice said over the headset.

The Aussie paused.  “I love you, Ange,” he murmured.

“I love you too, more than anything.”

Rollie closed his eyes and took a deep breath.  He then lifted the desk and set the corner very slowly onto the pressure plate.

“Okay, carefully step off the plate, David.”

The agent lifted one foot off the plate and stepped back, then removed the other one.  Letting out the breath he had been holding, Rollie smiled at him.

“Let’s get the hell out of here,” David said.  He turned away.

“Wait!”  Rollie dashed over to where a laptop computer sat on a table along with a plethora of other equipment and devices.  Snatching it up, he went back to the door and stepped over the plate.  “Run!” he cried.

The two men streaked down the hallway and down the stairs, leaping the steps three at a time.

“Open the door, Mira.  We’re coming out!” the Aussie yelled.

The door swung open just as David reached it.  He and Rollie hurled themselves through the opening.  Everyone fled away from the building.

An ear-splitting roar made Rollie throw himself to the ground.  Flames erupted outward, shattering windows as the second floor exploded.  Rollie lifted his head and looked at the decimation.  Then his eyes searched for his fiancée.

“Angie?” he called.

“I’m here, Rol.”

The Aussie turned to see Angie get up off the ground and come toward him.  He scrambled to his feet and met her halfway.  They hugged tightly.

“You scared me half to death,” Angie said.  Her hands moved over his body, checking for injuries.  “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.  And look what I picked up.”  He handed the computer to her.

Angie smiled.  “It will be interesting to see what this tells us.”

The next half-hour was spent with the police, giving reports and their accounts of what happened.  Having heard the explosion, Dingo, Mangela, and Luce had come running over.  Finally, everyone was back at the loft.  As Angie set about the task of seeing what was on the laptop, David pulled Rollie aside.

“I don’t know how to thank you,” the agent said, gazing at the Aussie earnestly.  “You shouldn’t have stayed in there and done what you did, but I owe you my life.”

“That’s what friends are for, David,” Rollie said softly.

“No, not all friends, but that is the kind of friend you are.”

Rollie smiled.  “Well, maybe you’ll return the favor someday.”

“I hope I never have to.  You know, that was quick thinking on your part getting the idea to weigh the plate down with that desk.”

The Aussie grinned.  “Don’t thank me, thank MacGyver.  I saw something similar in an episode years ago.”

David laughed.  His gaze then turned penetrating.  “Rollie, how did you know about the pressure plate?”

“I didn’t, not specifically.”

“But you knew that there was something wrong.”

The Aussie paused.  “Yeah.”  He knew what was coming next.

“How?”

“I . . . don’t know how.  I just did.”  He was saved from further explanation by Angie.

“Rol, take a look at this,” she called.  The two men walked over.  “Loubar had the computer rigged to destroy all the data if the right code wasn’t entered, but it didn’t take me long to get around that.  And look what I’ve found.  This is information on Loubar’s next contract.  It doesn’t say who the target is, but we know where he planned to make the hit and when.”

“We can probably figure out who the target is from that,” Mira said.  “And we might even be able to figure out who ordered the hit.”  She got on the phone.

“Is there anything about us in there?” Rollie asked.

“Yeah, but not much.  You were right, Rol.  He was going to hit us at the wedding.”

“A bomb at the reception, right?”

“Yeah, how did you know?”

“I figured it out a while ago.”

Angie continued to search through the files.  “Well, look at this.  I think we’ve hit pay dirt, boys and girls.  This is a list of Loubar’s contacts and suppliers.  Wait!  Look at this.  These are clients.  He’s got dates of sales and contract completions, amounts he got for the hits or weapons sales, even contact phone numbers for them.”

Mira, Frank, and David all grinned ear to ear, thinking of all the arrests this was going to result in.  “This is the jackpot!” Mira said.  “With this evidence, we can prove that these people were involved in assassinations or the sale of illegal weapons.”

An evil smile curved Angie’s mouth.  “Well, lookie here.  Loubar’s bank account records.”

“It’s a Swiss bank account.  We can’t touch it, not without going through a lot of red tape,” David pointed out.

Rollie exchanged a grin with Angie that was equally as wicked as the one she wore.  “There is no red tape for Angie,” the Aussie said.  “She can make Loubar a pauper inside ten minutes.”

“Ten?  Five, tops,” Angie responded.

“Do I want to know how you can do that?” the agent asked.

“Probably not,” Rollie replied.

David shook his head, chuckling.  “I can’t make up my mind if you guys are really good for my career or really bad for it.  All right.  Give us some time to try freezing Loubar’s account through regular channels before you do anything on your own, okay?”

“No worries, mate.  So, are you going to bring the bureau in now?”

“I don’t think I have a choice.  There’s no way that they aren’t going to hear about what happened.”  He turned to Mira and Frank.  “You’d better get a copy of that information and start working on the arrests of the people here in New York as quickly as possible, because, once the bureau steps in, they’ll want to take over.”

Mira looked at the agent quizzically.  “Are you sure that you’re a fed?”

David laughed.  “To the core.  But I also believe that local law enforcement shouldn’t be cheated out of their right to arrest the bad guys just because the bureau gets involved in a case.  You guys have worked hard on this and should get the arrests.”  His smile grew.  “Besides, from what I can see on this list, the bureau's going to be pretty busy making arrests in rest of the country.  We can let you have New York.”

“Thanks.  We appreciate you giving us this little corner of the world,” Mira responded, giving the agent a warm smile.  “If you play your cards right, I might even let you tag along when we arrest some of these guys.”

The agent gave a slight bow, his eyes twinkling.

“David, are you going to get into trouble for working with us on your own?” Frank asked.  He had really come to like the agent and hated the thought that the man could be severely reprimanded for what he did.  The younger man reminded him of Leo.  Like Leo, David wasn’t afraid to bend the rules and would go out on a limb a mile long for a friend.  There was also the passion for justice that he displayed and his unswerving commitment to getting a job done.

“Well, my superiors aren’t going to be happy with me, that’s for sure,” David said.  “I’ll probably get a good tongue-lashing, but I think I’ll be all right.  I am technically off duty, so what I do in my free time is my business.  However, as of tomorrow, I’m back on duty, so I won’t be able to play anymore.”  He took a sip from his can of diet Dr Pepper, a beverage he seemed to drink a lot of.

“Then we caught Loubar in the nick of time,” Rollie said.  “We wouldn’t have wanted you to miss out on that fun.”

“No way, man.  After all, it’s not every day that I step on a pressure plate attached to a bomb and get my butt saved by an Australian special effects artist.”  He clapped Rollie on the back.

“Well, if you hang around Rollie for long, David, things like that will become commonplace,” Frank said with laughter in his eyes.

“Thanks a lot, Francis,” Rollie responded, his voice laced with sarcasm.

“Hey, the truth sometimes hurts, Rol,” Angie remarked, keeping her face straight.

Rollie turned to his fiancée, smiling sarcastically.  “Thanks.  And I love you too, Angela.”

“Yes, I know you do,” she said, standing on tippytoe and giving him a brief kiss.

“So, what now?” Dingo asked.

“Right now, I’m going to do absolutely nothing for about an hour, then Angie and I are going to pay a visit to Loubar,” Rollie replied.  “After that, we need to get some work done.”

“Rol, since Loubar is in custody, maybe we can have a wedding rehearsal,” Angie suggested.

“Good idea.  We can call the minister and see if he’d be free for Wednesday or Thursday.  I’m sure that Harlan won’t have a problem with us having a rehearsal.”  The minister was called.  It turned out that he had a free slot in his schedule tomorrow, so Rollie arranged with him and Harlan to have the rehearsal then.  Angie then called Joyce to see if she’d be able to make it.  The woman’s answer was yes.

Everyone left, leaving Rollie and Angie alone.  The Aussie was stretched out on the couch with Angie in his arms.

“Are you going to stay at your apartment tonight?” he asked.

“Yeah.  I need to start packing, you know.”

“Packing.  With everything that’s been going on, I didn’t even think about that.”  Rollie smiled down at her.  “I suppose you’re going to make me clean out half my closet to make room for your stuff.”

“That’s usually the way it works.”  A mischievous smile curved her lips.  “Though I don’t think half will be nearly enough.  You’ll have to give me more.”

“Not even married yet, and she’s already bossing me around,” Rollie murmured as he leaned over and kissed his fiancée.
 

CHAPTER FIFTEEN -- FACING THE MONSTER

Rollie walked down the hospital corridor with Angie and Mira.  As they approached the room where Victor Loubar lay, each of them was thinking about all that had come before.  Rollie was also thinking about how strange it was to be there now.  The last time he was there, it had been he who was the patient.  Now, he was there to visit the last person in the world he ever thought that he would go to a hospital to see.

The Aussie noticed that the guard at the door had a closed circuit monitor on a table beside him.  The picture on the screen was of Loubar in his room.

Mira stayed outside in the hall as Angie and Rollie went into the room.  Loubar was sitting up against some pillows.  He was handcuffed to the bed’s railing.  Anything that could conceivably be used as a weapon or to pick the lock had been removed.  The police weren’t taking any chances.  Rollie saw the camera that was feeding the picture to the monitor outside.

“Well, well.  The dynamic duo has arrived.”  Loubar sneered at them.  “Have you come to gloat?”

“Not at all.  We just wanted to express our regrets that you won’t be able to attend our wedding on Saturday.”  Rollie couldn’t keep the smile off his face.

Loubar’s eyes narrowed.  “This Saturday?”

“That’s right.  You see, while we were telling everyone else that the wedding was going to be on the twenty-seventh, making sure that you heard, we were busy setting it up for the twentieth.  As I mentioned before, we knew that you were planning something nasty for the ceremony, and we really wanted to surprise you.  If we hadn’t caught you by then, we were going to set up a little trap for you on the twenty-seventh.”

“Oh, we also came to show you a little something we managed to retrieve,” Angie said.  She revealed Loubar’s laptop computer, which she had been holding behind her back.  “There were so many interesting things on it.”

“Yeah, if you were free, you’d find it a little hard to work with your suppliers and contacts now since they’re all being arrested,” Rollie told the arms dealer.  “Oh, and I don’t think your past clients will be in the market for any more jobs for a very, very long time.”

Loubar glared at them angrily.  “I’m going to enjoy making you both suffer.”

“You won’t be making any more people suffer, Loubar,” Rollie said, all joviality gone.  “You’re finished.”

“Don’t be so sure about that, Tyler.  As long as I’m alive, I’m going to keep coming after you.  You should have killed me when you had the chance.  That’s your biggest weakness, Tyler.  You’re too soft.  You don’t have what it takes to ‘pull the trigger’.  It will be your undoing in the end.”

Loubar’s words haunted Rollie as he and Angie left the hospital.

“He’s right, Ange.  I should have killed him.”

“And how would you have felt if you had?  I know you, Rollie.  It would have torn you up inside.  It’s one thing to kill someone when you have no choice, but to do it like that. . . .  If you had killed him, nothing would have been the same.  No.  I’d rather have him alive than have you suffer that kind of guilt.  Besides, he’ll no doubt get the death penalty.”

Rollie pulled her into his arms.  “You are so good for me.”

“You bet I am, and don’t you forget it.”

“Never.”

Rollie walked down the garden path with his arm around Angie, listening to the awed comments from the people who had never been to Harlan’s estate before.  It was hard to believe that in only three days, he would be a married man.  On top of that, his mortal enemy was now in custody and would spend the rest of his life in prison, and a short life it would be if the District Attorney had his way.  He was pushing for the death penalty.  Unfortunately, there was also a battle going on over Loubar.  Half the countries on the planet were out for his blood, not to mention that at least twenty states in the U.S. wanted him for crimes committed in them.  Victor Loubar had become a very popular man, and it was going to take quite a while to determine who was going to have the privilege of putting him to death.

David had emerged virtually unscathed from his confrontation with his superiors.  Though they were not happy that he didn’t contact the bureau, they were extremely pleased about all the arrests that were in progress across the country.  David had been right that the bureau would step in and try to take over with the cases in New York.  But, by the time they showed up, nearly all the arrests had been made.  The feds wanted Loubar to be turned over to them, but the police commissioner had flat out refused.  It had been their arrest, and Loubar was going to stay in their custody.  That battle was also still being waged.  Rollie was glad that he wasn’t involved in that mess.

As the future wedding party reached the area where the ceremony would be held, Rollie noticed that Harlan had had a temporary bridge built across the stream a few yards from the one where the ceremony would take place.  Its purpose was so that late arrivals could reach the seating area.

The rehearsal went smoothly.  Afterwards, everyone--except the minister, who had other commitments--enjoyed beverages and snacks on the terrace.  After that, Mira and Francis returned to work, Lucinda, Joyce, and Mangela went off to explore, and Rollie and Angie went for a walk.  That left Dingo and Harlan sitting alone on the terrace.

Dingo gazed around at the house and the grounds.  “You’ve done right well for yourself, mate,” he said to Harlan.

“Materially, yes.  I have everything I could want.”  He looked over at Rollie and Angie, who could be seen in the distance, their arms about each other.  “But I would give every last dime I have in exchange for a love like that.  All this doesn’t mean much when you have no one to share it with.”

“You were never married?”

Harlan’s eyes dropped for a moment.  He sighed deeply.  “No.  I once had someone whom I thought was the right one for me, but I found out that all she really wanted was my money.  But that was a very long time ago, a ghost that is best left where it lay.”  He smiled.  “So, what do you do for a living, Mister Tyler?”

“Call me Dingo.  Actually, I’m looking for work right now.”

“Oh?  What is your profession?”

“Well, I don’t know if you’d call it a profession, and you’ll probably be shocked, but most of my life I’ve been a gambler and a bit of a con man.”

“I’m not shocked at all, Dingo.  I’m not a saint, you know.  So, what kind of cons did you run?”

“Now, I’m not the kind who would con old ladies out of their life savings.  I just want to make that clear right off.”  His eyes went to his son.  “There have been times, though, when I bent the law more than a bit.”  He returned his gaze to Harlan.  “Mostly, though, it is stuff like convincing somebody they need something when they really don’t or getting somebody to give me something when they’d rather not.  A lot of it is bartering, where I’ll talk someone out of something by promising to get them something else, then taking the thing I got from them and giving it to someone in exchange for a third item.”

“Which would be given to yet another person,” Harlan finished, smiling.  “It sounds like a fascinating life, but rather unstable.”

“I’ve gotten by all right.  It’s been a great life for me.  I’ve had the freedom to go where I want when I want and not be tied down.  It’s what I’ve always done.”

“But now you’re looking for a regular job.”

“It’s for Rollie.  He’s always hated what I do, even when I had him with me.  He was a natural at it, though.  He could charm the toupee off a bald man.  But I’ve promised him that I’d give it up, so that’s what I’m going to do.”

“I think it’s very admirable that you’re willing to make that sacrifice for your son.  I’ll tell you what, Dingo.  Let me do some checking around.  I may be able to find something for you that fits your rather unique qualifications.”

“Really?  Well, that’s nice of you, Harlan.”  He looked over at Rollie again.  “But don’t tell Rollie, okay?  I wouldn’t want him to get his hopes up, then have things not work out.”

“Consider it our little secret.”

“This, uh, relationship you have with Rollie took us both by surprise.”

“I can imagine it did.”  Harlan studied the expression on Dingo’s face.  “And now you’re probably wondering what I plan to do about it.”

“The thought had crossed my mind.”

“I’m really not going to do much of anything.  I’d like Rollie and Angie to visit on occasion, and any time that they’d like to come just to enjoy the place is fine with me.  I’m often gone for weeks or even months at a time, and I’d be happy to have them stay here during those times.  In fact, I’d be happy to have them stay here when I’m not gone as well.  I’ve been alone for far too long.  It would be nice to have people around besides my employees.  Other than that, nothing will change for Rollie.  He is an independent, strong-minded man and isn’t one who would want a rich relative suddenly giving him handouts.  But if he ever needs my help, with money or anything else, he’ll have it.”

After they returned from the estate, Angie went out shopping for Rollie’s wedding present, delighted to be able to do so without a police escort.

Mira and Lucinda had managed to perform a miracle and got a bridal shower set up for the following afternoon.  Dingo had also wanted to set up a bachelor party for Rollie, but the groom-to-be had refused, not wanting to be hung over on the day of his wedding.

While Angie was out shopping for Rollie’s present, the Aussie was doing the same for her.  He went from store to store, searching for the perfect gift without success.  Then, suddenly, it dawned on him.  Almost anything he bought at a store would be something that had also been purchased by or for hundreds of other women.  For something truly unique, the gift would have to be created by him.  With a smile on his face Rollie went shopping for the materials he would need to craft his gift.  Fortunately, Angie would again be spending the night in her apartment, so Rollie would have the entire night to devote to the gift’s creation.

He had been lonely the previous night, knowing that she wasn’t in the loft, even though Dingo and Mangela had been right outside the door.  He had grown accustomed to her being there.  The place felt empty without her.  Soon, though, she would be there every night for the rest of their lives.  That thought made Rollie smile with contentment.

The sky was just beginning to lighten as Rollie finished his work.  Hiding the gift and clearing away all of the evidence, Rollie went upstairs to grab a little bit of sleep.

The morning passed uneventfully.  Rollie and Angie both worked on projects for White Light, while Lucinda got things set up for the bridal shower with the help of Joyce, who had volunteered not only her services, but also her house.  Mira had wanted to take the day off so that she could help with the shower, but she had only been able to manage to get the afternoon off.

While they worked, Rollie and Angie got a call from the florist who was doing the wedding arrangements.  They explained that they needed to examine the wedding location and take some measurements.  Rollie made arrangements to meet them at the estate while Angie was at the shower.

Just before they went off their separate ways that afternoon, Rollie took Angie in his arms and whispered in her ear, “Day after tomorrow, Ange, and our nights of sleeping alone will be at an end.”

Angie, who had also felt lonely the previous two nights, replied with a smile, “I really doubt that we’ll be getting much sleep that first night, Rol.”  To demonstrate the meaning of her words, she captured Rollie’s lips in a passionate kiss.  Holding on tightly, Rollie returned the kiss with equal fervor.  At last, they drew apart, both slightly breathless.  “Just a small sample of what you have to look forward to,” Angie murmured.

Rollie groaned.  “Tomorrow is going to be the longest day of my life.”

Laughing, Angie kissed his cheek and left for the bridal shower.  Rollie left a few minutes later for his meeting with the florist.

The shower turned out great, especially considering how quickly it had been put together.  The women spent the afternoon with girl talk and discussions about the “male of the species”, as one woman put it.  Hours later, Angie returned home with an armload of gifts and a big smile.  There was a box sitting in front of her door.  It was the size that flowers were often sent in, and there was a big bow around it.  Angie had no doubt about who sent it.  She took her shower presents inside, then retrieved the box.  She sat the box on the table and removed the bow.  Just then, the phone rang.  Answering it, Angie heard Rollie’s voice on the other end.

“Hi, Rol.  So, how did things go with the florist?”

“Just fine.  Everything’s been taken care of.  I got back a little while ago, and I had this sudden urge to call you.”

“Oh, and could it be because of this present you sent me?  I was just about to open it.”

There was a moment of silence on the other end, then, “I didn’t send you any present.”

There was a note in Rollie’s voice that made Angie draw her hands away from the package.  “Then who did?”

“Angie, don’t touch it.  In fact, get out of the apartment right now.  I’m calling Mira.  I’ll be there right away.”

As soon as she hung up, Angie left her apartment.  She waited outside for Rollie.  He arrived in the F/X van in record time.  They both waited for Mira, who arrived about five minutes later.  The bomb squad wasn’t far behind.  Rollie, Mira, and Angie remained outside while the bomb squad went up to the apartment with a dog trained to sniff out various kinds of explosives.  They came down a while later carefully carrying the package.  One of the team came over to them.

“Well, it’s definitely a bomb.  We don’t know yet what type or how powerful.  We’ll x-ray the contents, then we’ll know more about what we’re dealing with.”

“Are you going to do that here?” Rollie asked, his hand clenching Angie’s tightly.

“Yes, it’s safer if we move the bomb as little as possible.  We have all the equipment we need with us in the van.”

“Well, if there’s anything you need, just let me know.  I have a lot of high tech equipment in my van there.”

“Thanks.  We’ll keep that in mind.”

Rollie, Angie, and Mira waited as the bomb squad examined the package.  Francis showed up after a few minutes and waited with them.  Finally, the man who had spoken to them before returned.

“Well, we got the package open.  It had been rigged to detonate when the box was opened.  It was a small incendiary device designed to flash outward, then burn itself out.  If it had gone off, anyone who was in the path of the flames wouldn’t have been killed by the blast, but they would have been severely burned.  This device was designed not to kill, but to maim.”

A terrible rage was building inside of Rollie.  An almost uncontrollable urge to go to the hospital and kill Loubar took possession of him.  Seeing the look on his face, both Angie and Frank put their hands on his arms.

“Have you seen this type of device before?” Mira asked, her voice tight with anger.

“As a matter of fact, I immediately recognized the work.  The signature was unmistakable.  It belongs to a man named Reginald Harper.  He spent ten years in prison for building a bomb that critically injured three people.  He got out a little over a year ago.  He apparently didn’t learn anything while he was inside.”

Mira looked at Frank.

“I’m on it,” Francis said.  He walked a few feet away and called the precinct.  He returned a couple of minutes later with the man’s last known address.

“I’m going, Mira,” Rollie said emphatically.

“Rollie, I don’t--”

“I’m going,” he repeated, interrupting her.

The detective looked at the expression on Rollie’s face.  Short of arresting him, she could see that there was no way she would be able to stop him from coming.

“I’m going, too,” said Angie.  Rollie, Francis, and Mira all turned to her.  “And don’t bother trying to talk me out of it either.”

“All right then, let’s go,” said Rollie.

The four of them headed for Reginald Harper’s address.  They pulled up about half a block from the house.  The bomb squad would be standing by a few blocks away to deal with any explosives that might be found on the premises.

Mira and Frank walked back to the F/X van.

“All right, we don’t want to spook this guy.  There’s no telling what he may have in there.  We’ll have to take him by surprise,” Mira said.

“I have a pair of inline skates in the van.  I could pretend to be a delivery person,” Angie suggested.

“No good.  He may know what you look like.  The same goes for Rollie.”

“Well, there isn’t enough time to put together a disguise, so that means Angie and I will have to stay out of sight until you catch him.”

“First of all, we have to confirm he’s there,” Mira said.  “Frank, did you get his phone number?”

Francis nodded.

“You’d better make the call from the van, Mira.  He may have caller ID.  With the computer, we can make it look like the call is coming from almost anyone,” Angie said.  They all climbed into the van.

“So, who do we have the call look like it’s coming from?” Francis asked.  “We want to make sure he picks up if he’s there.”

“How about making it look like it’s coming from his parole officer,” Angie suggested.  “He’d definitely pick that one up.”

Mira called to find out the name and number of Harper’s parole officer.  Angie entered the data into the computer, then made the call.  The phone was picked up on the third ring.

“Mister Harper?”

“Yes?”

“This is the parole office.  We suffered a computer systems failure here and some of our records were damaged.  Could you please confirm the date of your next appointment?”

“It’s on the fifth, like it is every month.”

“Thank you, Mister Harper.  We’ll see you then.”  As she hung up, Angie smiled.  “I don’t think he’s going to be making that appointment.”

“All right, we know he’s there.  I suppose that Frank or I could walk up to the door and pretend to be salespeople,” Mira said.

“But that wouldn’t guarantee that he’d open the door,” Rollie replied.  “We have to do something to attract his attention.  Can we find out some personal information on him?”

“Sure, no problem.”  Mira made a couple of phone calls, jotting down the things she learned.  “Okay, this is what I got.  He’s forty-eight, divorced, no children.  While he was inside, he took some courses in computer programming and robotics.  He has--”

“Wait,” interrupted Rollie.  “Did you say robotics?”

“Yeah.”

Rollie smiled.  “Come here, Blue,” he called.  The electronic dog came out of a corner, barking.

“You brought Blue!  I didn’t know that,” said Angie.

“I thought that we might need him at your apartment.  Now, I think he may come in handy here.”

“How?” asked Frank.

“Robotics usually isn’t something you’d take a course in unless you had to or were very interested in the subject.  I can’t think of any reason why he would have to have that knowledge, which means that the subject is of great interest to him.  Now, if you were Reginald Harper, what would you do if a robot like Bluey suddenly came up to your door?”

“I’d have to get a closer look.”  Mira smiled.  “This is perfect.  All right, we’ll get into position, then you send in Bluey.”

Being careful to stay out of sight, the four of them approached Harper’s house.  Mira and Frank took up position on either end of the small house, while Rollie and Angie stayed hidden around the other side.

Rollie gave Blue his instructions, and the little robot made his way up to the front steps, where he began barking.  After about two minutes of barking, Mira saw the curtains in the front window move.  Around four or five seconds later, the door opened.  A short, balding man stepped out and stared down at Bluey.

“Well, what--”

That was as far as he got.  Both Mira and Francis sprang out, their guns draw.  Taken completely by surprise, Harper could do nothing but raise his hands.  As Frank cuffed him and read him his rights, Rollie and Angie came around the corner.  There was no sign of recognition in Harper’s eyes.

Rollie picked up Blue.  “Good boy, Blue.  You were perfect.”  Bluey barked and wagged his tail happily.

Harper was staring at the robot.  “Is that yours?  Did you design it?”

“Yes.”

“Amazing.  What kind of programming methods did you use?  What are its memory and learning capabilities?”

Rollie stared at the man.  The guy was being arrested, yet he seemed more interested in Blue than he did that.  This might be to their advantage.

“I’ll tell you what.  If you tell us who hired you to put the bomb at that apartment this afternoon, I’ll tell you whatever you want to know about Bluey here, within reason, that is.”  Rollie gave the man the address of Angie’s apartment.

Harper looked at Rollie, then at Blue, then back at Rollie.  The Aussie could see desire in the man’s eyes.

“Did the bomb go off?” Harper asked finally.

“No, it was discovered before the package was opened.  We have solid evidence that it was your handiwork,” said Mira.

Harper again looked at Blue.  “All right, you have a deal, but I also want you to put a word in for me with the DA.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

“It was a man named Victor Loubar.  I’ve done some business with him in the past.”

Rollie’s jaw tighten at the confirmation that the arms dealer was behind this.  Harper saw the look on his face.

“You know him?”

“Oh, yeah, we know him.  He’s in custody now after trying to kill my fiancée and several other people.”  Rollie pointed to Angie.  “It was her apartment that you put the bomb at.”

Harper’s eyes widened, and he looked at Angie.  “Well, I’m sorry now that I had anything to do with this.  It would have been a terrible shame what that device would have done to you.”

“How and when were you contacted by Loubar?” Mira asked.

“He called Tuesday afternoon at around three o'clock, telling me what he wanted and saying that it had to be delivered within the next three days.”

“That would have been shortly after we went there to see him, Rol,” Angie said.

“Yeah.  Apparently, he decided to strike back at us from the hospital.  What I’d like to know is how he managed to make the phone call.  The phone had been removed from his room.”

“Well, I’ll certainly find out,” Mira declared.

Frank called in the bomb squad, who came and searched the place.  They came out a while later carrying boxes full of parts used to create explosive devices.

“Why did you go back to it, Harper?  You did your time.  You could have started a new life,” Mira asked.

The man shrugged.  “This is all I really know,” he said simply.

Mira did some checking and found out that Loubar had exercised his right to make one phone call the previous morning.  The phone had been returned to his room for five minutes.  Those minutes had been all he needed to make arrangements for the bomb.

“I’m going over there to see him, Mira.  I want to see the look on that S.O.B.’s face when I tell him he failed,” Rollie said.

Mira smiled.  “I think I’d like to see that, too.”

“Well, you’re not going without me,” Angie stated.

The three of them went to the hospital.

“It didn’t work, Loubar,” Rollie said the moment they came into Loubar’s room.  “We found your little bomb before it went off.  You won’t get another chance to do something like that.”

Loubar just stared at him.  Rollie could see, though, that the man was not happy his plan had failed.

“Face it, Loubar.  You’ve been beat,” Mira said.  “You met your match.  You should have just left Rollie Tyler and Angie Ramirez alone.  Taking them on was your biggest mistake.”

All three of them turned their backs on Loubar and walked out the door.

“This isn’t over yet, Tyler!” the man called after them.  “It won’t be over until one of us is dead!”

The incident with the bomb had dimmed everyone's mood.  Angie spent the evening with Rollie, Mangela, and Dingo, keeping the conversation on pleasant things.  As the night drew to a close, Rollie pulled her aside.

“Are you going to be all right at your place tonight?  You can stay here, you know.”

“I’ll be fine, Rol.  You know me.  I’m a big girl.  Besides, I have only two nights left as a single woman with a bed all to myself.  After that, I’ll be sharing a bed every night.”

“And you probably want to spend those last two nights thinking about all the reasons why you’re making a huge mistake.”  There was a grin on Rollie’s face.

“Well, it would take a lot more than two nights to think up all those,” Angie replied, her eyes twinkling.

“Oh, is that so!”  Rollie reached out and grabbed her, tickling her.  Then his lips came down on hers.

As they drew apart, Angie murmured, “Well, maybe I could manage to think of them all in two nights.”  Rollie kissed her again, even more passionately.  “Okay, one night,” she breathed.

Rollie smiled down at her.  “That’s more like it.”

Dingo was out in his trailer and Angie was preparing to leave when Mangela came up to her and Rollie.  “Tomorrow, we must do the Ceremony of Preparation.”

A look of shock filled Rollie’s face.  “Mangela, that wouldn’t be right, and you know it.  I’m not . . . I’m not one of them.”

“Yes, you are, Rollie.  You just refuse to believe it.”

Rollie stared at the Aborigine.  “Even if I was, that ceremony is for Aborigines only.  You told me so yourself.  No White has ever even witnessed one.  In fact, no one but the People even know of it.”

“You are a part of the People, Rollie, have been since you were a child.  The color of your skin doesn’t matter.”

“And Angie?”

“She will soon be joined with you and will then also be one of the People.”

Rollie turned away.  He knew that what Mangela wanted to do would be considered a high honor to an Aboriginal man, but he also knew what accepting would mean he was admitting to.  Rollie decided that if he was to accept, it would have to be under one condition.  He turned back to Mangela.  “If I accept, you have to agree to limit the ceremony to the marital preparation, nothing more.”

Mangela studied the Aussie’s face for a while, then sighed, nodding.  “I agree.”

“Then I would be honored to do it, Mangela, we both would,” Rollie said gently.  “But where would we have it?  It’s supposed to be done on a mountain.”

“I don’t know what all this is about, but what about the estate?” Angie suggested.  “That hill he built the waterfall on may not be a real mountain, but it’s the closest thing I can think of around here.”

“I really don’t think Harlan would care to have us traipsing through his property in the middle of the night.”

“If you told him what it was for, I think that he would be happy to have us do it there.”

“I guess I could call him in the morning.”

Mangela left the two alone, going out to his bed on the roof of Dingo’s trailer.  Angie turned to Rollie.

“What is this Ceremony of Preparation?”

The Aussie hesitated before speaking.  “Part of it is a ritual that is performed the night before a man and woman get married.  It is only done under . . . certain circumstances.  That part of the ceremony is meant to help prepare the man and woman for marriage and their lives together.  It is a very old custom, going back thousands of years.  I know of it, but I have never seen one.  It is performed by a man of high degree on a mountain where no one else can watch.”

“And Mangela wants us to do this?”

Rollie nodded.  “It’s very important to him.”

“What must I do?”

“Not much.  I’ll explain what you need to do tomorrow.”

“What time would we leave?”

“Just after sunset.”

Angie watched Rollie for a moment.  “What’s the other part of the ceremony, the part that you don’t want to perform?”

Rollie’s pause was a lot longer this time.  “It’s a special ritual, something that would be done with only Mangela and me at sunset.  It has to do with . . . with a belief of the Aborigines regarding some individuals.  Regardless of what Mangela says, it isn’t something that should be done with me.”

Angie just nodded, not bothering to ask anything else.  This was obviously connected in some way to whatever it is in Rollie’s past that he didn’t want to talk about.

They kissed each other goodnight, then Angie went home.  Rollie watched her car disappear into the darkness.   He then headed up to bed.

As he lay alone in his bed, his mind became filled with all the things that would soon change forever.  He was about to commit the rest of his life to one person.  From that day on, it would always be the two of them, Mister and Mrs. Tyler.  It was all a bit overwhelming and more than a little frightening.  Yet, if he could go back to before he began experiencing a change in his feelings for her and make it so that he would continue to see her as just a friend, he wouldn’t.  In discovering his love for Angie, he’d found a part of himself that he’d never known existed.  He was a better person for it, and, no matter what the future brought, he would always know that loving her was the greatest thing that could ever happen to him.

Mira and Lucinda watched as Angie paced back and forth in her apartment.  She’d been at it most of the morning.  Angie was suffering from a major case of pre-wedding jitters, thinking of all the things that could go catastrophically wrong.

“This is good, though, right?” she said.  “I’ll get all the nervousness out of my system today, then I’ll be just fine tomorrow.”

Mira laughed, then smothered it at a look from Angie.  “Sorry, Angie, but it doesn’t work that way.  You may be as calm as can be tomorrow, but you could also be a basket case.  I was so nervous at my wedding that I completely forgot what I was supposed to say.  For about ten agonizing seconds, I just stood there like an idiot.”

“Oh, thank you so very much, Mira.  I really needed to hear that.”  Angie’s voice was a full octave higher than normal.

Lucinda looked at this woman who was about ready to crawl out of her own skin and said, “Come on, we’re taking you to the salon.  You’re going to get the works: hair, nails, facial.  If that doesn’t calm you down, nothing will.  I could stand a little calming myself.”

Grateful for something to do that would relieve her nerves, Angie headed off with her friends.

While the women were at the salon, Rollie was bouncing off the walls at home.  Amazed that a single human being could contain so much energy without bursting into flames from spontaneous combustion, Mangela and Dingo watched him.

“I really think he needs to get plastered,” Dingo commented.

“I think he needs to go home,” Mangela replied.

“So, we throw him on a rocket, blast him to Australia, then catch another rocket back?”

“No rocket.  He only has to walk a few feet.”  Mangela pointed to the chamber upstairs.  Unnoticed by Rollie, he and Dingo went up the stairs and into the chamber.  During Mangela’s last visit to New York, Rollie had shown him the Australia program and how to activate it.  The Aborigine did this now, and Australia in all its splendor appeared around them.  Dingo, who had never been in the chamber, gaped in awe.

“This is amazing.”

Mangela nodded.  “And it’s just what Rollie needs.”

The two men went downstairs.  They each took one of Rollie’s arms and pulled him toward the staircase.

“What are you doing?”

They did not reply as they pushed him up the stairs.  As they drew up to the chamber, Rollie said, “I don’t have time for this.”

“Make time,” Mangela replied firmly.

Rollie was shoved into the chamber, and the door was closed behind him.  Seeing what was on the screens, he smiled and shook his head.  Then the calming quality of the outback took hold of him, and he sat down.  With a sigh, Rollie let Australia work its magic.

Later that day, feeling more relaxed, Rollie and Angie each took care of some final things for the wedding.  As part of the ritual, they were to spend the day completely separated from each other, not even calling each other.

Before Rollie knew it, the sun had disappeared behind the horizon.

“Are you ready?” Mangela asked.

“Yes,” the Aussie replied quietly.

“Then the time has come.”

Next Chapters