For the next couple of days, they managed to bring the old house back to life and make it suitable enough for them to live in. A lot of work went into it, from cleaning the stone yard and the surrounding areas of the ivy and overgrown grass, to restoring the whole electricity network in the house, which was extremely old and dangerous. The water pipes were also ancient and there was only one tap, but that was more than enough for them. There was water to drink and wash, and electricity for heat and light. Most of the glass on the windows had been broken so that also needed to be replaced, while both the main door and the back door on the ground level needed to be reinforced, as a single kick could bring them down easily.
While Sam took care of setting up and arranging the living conditions inside the house, the boys dealt with the more physically challenging chores around it. Firewood was going to be needed in the weeks to come. Autumn was now well into its second half and the nights were growing chillier. They were told that cutting down healthy trees was not permitted, so they set out to gather dead wood in the forest nearby, or cut down dying trees. In the course of two days, they got enough firewood to last them for more than a month. To help with the transportation, they hired a mule from someone in the village, an old man who ran a little shop near the school with essential groceries and other goods. Anything else they could not find there, they would have to get it in town. By the end of the second week, the once vacant and lifeless house had been given new life and was transformed into a fairly habitable place.
Having taken care of their essential needs in the house, Sam insisted on setting up a protective grid around it, just in case someone followed their trail there and decided to attack. Upon hearing details of her plan, Daniel tried to talk her out of it, fearing someone innocent might end up getting hurt, but to no avail. Freddie was completely supportive of her decision and even gave a few pointers of his own.
The plan was to set up traps all around the house with a twofold purpose; to alert them of anyone approaching, and to slow the intruders down as much as they could. Communicating with the locals would have been near impossible, if it wasn’t for the little Greek that Freddie had picked up in his travels and studies. Thus they managed to explain to the shopkeeper what they needed through his son, an immigrant in Greece, who was currently spending holidays with the family. The villagers had plenty of traps they used for catching foxes that would come to prey on their chickens at night. Sam bought about a dozen of them and set them up in key points where she thought any intruders might show up.
But she wasn’t done yet. If they came in large numbers, even if any of them got caught in a trap, the rest would be warned and eventually find a way into the house, unharmed. So she went completely Rambo on them and built a whole network of man-traps, from the simplest ones like covered holes in the ground, to the most sophisticated ones, like laser guns connected to her laptop, alerting her 24/7 of any breach of perimeter. Daniel was amazed at how well prepared she seemed to have arrived in the village, given the short time they’d had to prepare.
And yet, she still wasn’t satisfied. By now Daniel thought that she had gone completely mental and taken this thing way too far, but Sam ignored him and proceeded with devising an escape strategy, in case things came to the worst.
About a yard west of the old house, high up the river stream, a dry canal branched and ran a foot deep and wide, previously used to carry water to the houses nearby. Sam discovered this while scouting the surrounding areas, trying to familiarize herself with the village. The villagers had used its water for many different needs in the early years, but clearly the canal had not been used for ages and was now barely visible. With a couple of days work however, they could get the water flowing again. Sam figured they could release the torrent back into the river about five hundred feet below their house, just where the canal ran alongside it, before turning a corner to continue north-east again towards the village center. All they would have to do, was to build a small dam and change the direction of the water back towards the river.
It took them exactly three whole days and several long breaks to dig the canal back open from the start-up point, along the back of their house, and all the way down to where it joined the river again. At places, the earth proved harder to work, but in the end they were satisfied with the results. Plenty of water came through the canal, and what was more important, since from their house to the river was practically a straight downward line, the water ran really fast. This was perfect for a canoe sized raft to transport up to two people down to the river, which could then take them faster and farther down, even as far as Gramsh if they wanted to.
Daniel had to admit that the idea was brilliant. However, he didn’t know if he should hope for a chance to prove that Sam’s strategy worked and make her feel proud of herself, or that they would never have to find out.
Yet, even after all this, Sam still felt that something was missing. Being a true American at heart, she would not feel completely safe in the house without a gun. Thinking of Winter’s cunning gifts to the three queens, Daniel did not feel particularly fond of guns, or any other type of weapon, so she went behind his back and convinced Freddie to help her purchase a gun.
Before leaving London, a quick research on the recent history of Albania informed them that during the collapse of the government in 1997, the general public had broken into all military bases and robbed them of anything of value, mainly weapons. These were then sold for little money to opportunist businessmen, who in turn sold them to organizations in and out of the country that used them for their own purposes. It just so happened that Gramsh had been host to a big weapons factory and had maintained at least two major warehouses in the region. Needless to say that everything was now either sold, or hidden in people’s basements. After the government was re-established, many people gave the weapons back, but not all. Sam was counting on this to secure the level of protection she was after.
Very discretely and promising good money, which by the way was running out real fast, she asked if the shopkeeper or someone else in the village could help them. The old man at first pretended to be offended by the offer, but the business was too good to be ignored. That very evening his son took Sam and Freddie into their house and presented them with a small collection of guns and ammunition. They had two semi-automatic rifles, one K57 machine gun, several grenades and a small handgun, which Sam recognized as a very rare Beretta.
Having already decided on getting the smaller piece, especially since she could not hide a rifle or K57 from Daniel, she pretended she wasn’t too happy with the choices so as to drive the price down a bit. It was a struggle for Freddie to suppress his smile while the “businesswoman” conducted the trade in such a professional manner, but he managed. Sam had made a habit out of surprising him on a daily basis.
They eventually settled on 200.000 Lek for the Beretta, two extra magazines and a box of bullets, thus closing shop for the day. On their way back to the house, Sam didn’t even try to hide her excitement at the purchase of her new toy.
‘Oh my god, do you know what this is?’ she almost screamed in excitement. ‘This is a Beretta 93R. It fires triple-round bursts with each pull of the trigger at a cyclic rate of 1100 rounds per minute. It’s got a 20-round magazine and it’s perfect for lefties.’ Here she raised her own left hand in the air. ‘I cannot believe they’ve had this gun here; this is a very rare piece of work and they’ve stopped making it a long time ago. How lucky am I?’
Freddie rolled his eyes at her, but Sam ignored him.
‘How is it you know so much about guns anyway?’
‘Well, when you have as much time to kill as I do,’ she made a gesture with the pistol, aiming somewhere in front of them, ‘you find, Wikipedia is your best friend. That, and I’ve always been attracted to guns; I just never really had need of one, ‘till now.’
‘Just promise me you’ll be careful with it. Please?’
Sam gave him a brazen look.
‘What’s the matter, Fred; am
I starting to scare you?’ She waved the Beretta in front of him playfully. Freddie did not seem amused.
‘Ok, ok,’ she caved and lowered the gun, hiding it underneath her clothes. Then turning serious again, she said. ‘I know what I’m doing Freddie. Those traps are not going to keep us safe; they’re only there to warn us and hopefully buy us some time. And this is only as a last resort anyway. I don’t like to have to use it, but I would hate to be caught in need without it. Can you honestly promise me that it will never come to that? That they will not look for us and find us here? And if that happens, would they not do anything to get to him?’
It was the first time she called him Freddie, and not Fred. Thoughtful, he looked at her, then ahead at the horizon, and did not answer. It was clear that he had the same fears as she did; he wouldn’t have agreed to help her otherwise. He also knew that it wasn’t just Daniel they were protecting. If they ever came for him, whether they wanted him alive or dead, one thing was for sure; they had no use for the two of them.
‘You cannot, can you?’ Sam continued her argument. ‘Well, I will stop at nothing to protect him for as long as I can. They’re in for the fight of their life if they ever get this far.’
Freddie looked at her with newfound admiration. She was one of the toughest young girls he’d ever met, and she reminded him so much of someone he had known a long time ago. Beautiful and smart, yet usually quite arrogant and full of pride, there was something new about her in these last few days; something that maybe even she wasn’t aware of. He’d seen it too often not to recognize it, however. It was there, in almost every little thing she did. The subtle way she cared about Daniel; the way she looked at him and spoke to and about him. The way she’d played with his hair as he slept with his head on her lap during the long bus ride from Athens to Korça. The way she would touch him seemingly casually, but with unmistakable affection. The way she took care of him, making sure he always had plenty to eat and his clothes were always clean. All the little excuses she made just to do things with him and spend as much time as they could together. Freddie had noticed all of these, but said nothing; he knew better than to interfere. Secretly though, he was rooting for the girl. She had been through a lot in her short young life and deserved a good break.
Sam however, had gone through one or two crushes in her life, and was not entirely oblivious to the fact that she was beginning to have feelings for Daniel. She was mature enough to grasp that whenever she thought someone was great, like she felt about Daniel at the moment, this meant that she was infatuated with them.
But it wasn’t like she could help herself; Daniel seemed to tick all the right boxes in her checklist. Dark black longish hair? Check. Gorgeous face with just the right amount of stubble? Check. A sizzling hot trunk, and a nice pair of legs curtesy of long hours of gym and swimming? Do you even have to ask? Check, check, check. A smile that infuriated her every time, because she could feel how gooey it actually made her on the inside. Yup, check that too. And that wasn’t even the best part. He was always kind and gentle in the way he spoke to both her and Freddie. He listened well, without judging or jumping into conclusions, and he never made things personal, even though sometimes she wished he did. He was helpful and caring, looking after her just as much as she looked after him. But most importantly, when he was present, she always felt calm and in peace, never losing her cool or getting frustrated. He seemed to have the power to not only still the beast inside her, but also bring out the angel she’d kept well-hidden for years. If this wasn’t enough to make a girl fall for a guy, then nothing ever is.
Sam was becoming more aware of this with each day, but instead of growing concerned or depressed about it, like no doubt she would have normally done, she felt happy and hopeful, despite the fact that she had practically just met the guy.
Her insomnia had not only put a strain on her daily life, it had practically destroyed every single relationship she’d tried to have before. None of the boys she had been with had managed to cope with her mood swings and bad temper; they had all abandoned her at some point. This had made her feel even lonelier, and caused her to resent practically everyone and everything. But that all had changed when Daniel had come into her life; he was nothing like anyone she’d ever dated before. And she could not help but suspect that he might be feeling something towards her, too. He was just so nice with her, smiling every time he saw her, and even laughing at her lame jokes. He even noticed whenever she did something different with her hair now, or wore something nice and pretty. Didn’t that mean something? God knew she didn’t want to read anything into it, but she could not ignore any of the signs either. She just hoped that they would have enough time for her to eventually find out the truth. Hopefully, sometime soon.