Pilot

  Chapter 24

  For the first time in a long while Elena woke without a headache. She dressed quickly and headed out to her store, taking her notebook with her. She was earlier than usual and the street still had the hushed feel of the early morning hours that made her think the rest of the world was still asleep. She resisted the urge to tip toe so she didn't wake it. Elena unlocked the door and re-locked it behind her.

  Deciding to take care of Guild business first, she went straight back to her little office and typed up the proposal she intended to sent to her grandfather and Peter. She tweaked a few details and saved it when she was happy with it. Later, she would call Peter and ask what to do with it.

  That little task out of the way she left the office and circled through the store. There were many gaps left in the displays and she smiled happily at them. Apparently, they had a very good couple of days. She began to hum to herself as she pulled merchandise from the stock room and filled in the displays. When TJ and Max arrived she unlocked the door and let them in.

  "You seem to be in a good mood," Max commented as he tugged off his coat.

  "I am in a good mood," she commented, realizing it was true. She wondered if it was the thought of once again piloting or the adventure of a new enterprise that lightened her mood. Max went to put his coat in the break room and then he and TJ helped with the displays. Emily arrived a few minutes later followed by the two seasonal workers, Janine and Michael. Once the displays were complete Emily filled Elena in on the local gossip she had missed while she was gone. Apparently Rick, the man who owned the sandwich shop on the corner had broken up with his long time girlfriend and Eric from the hair salon had been in an accident.

  "He's perfectly fine," Emily reassured her. "Just a little shaken up. The car was completely totaled though." Emily shook her head. "The other car just ran straight through that red light. I don't know what some people are thinking." While the misfortunes of others were never cheering, Elena liked listening to the normal gossip from the world around her. She thought about Peter's comments on her fellow pilots, but dismissed them. There were ways to cover up the piloting and still allow herself to mix and mingle with the everyday world. After all she often went on buying trips. Channel riding was no different; she would just have to leave out a few of the details.

  "So how is that business venture with the hottie going?" Emily asked. All of the ears in the room perked up at the question and Elena found herself the center of attention.

  "It went pretty well," she said. "I'm going to be sending a business proposal today. So we will see how things go from there." The news was greeted with nods and smiles. A few minutes later the bell over the door jingled and Elena's first corporate buyer meeting of the morning began. The morning rolled past quickly and between the scheduled appointments and everyday shoppers she didn't have much time to think about Peter. It wasn't until mid-afternoon when she found a lull in which to call him. Elena ducked back into the office and pulled the business card from the notebook. She dialed the first of the listed numbers. Luck was with her and he picked up on the third ring.

  "Hello?" he said cautiously into the phone and Elena realized he must not have her business phone number.

  "Hi, it's Elena."

  "Oh, Good afternoon," he said, his voice warming considerably. "Has something come up?"

  "Oh, not really," Elena said, trying not to be charmed by the warmth in his voice. "Or at least not with the military. I put together a preliminary business plan and I wanted to send it to you and grandfather and I was unsure the method you preferred."

  "Of course. I think that e-mail would be best. Alexandro is of course here with me so you can send it once and have both of us receive it."

  "Okay," Elena responded. The computer was already on so she clicked to open her e-mail. "There are two e-mails on this card do you want me to send it to both or do you have a preference?"

  "Both will be fine." She typed the two addresses on the e-mail, attached the proposal and clicked send.

  "There you go," she said. "Let me know when you have had a chance to look over it." Elena resisted the urge to ask about Ian. If Peter wanted to tell her he would.

  "I will, thank you." Apparently he did not feel the need to share information about Ian. She said good-bye and hung up the phone. There was a slight nervousness in her belly as if she had just set into motion events she could not control. She shook the thought away and went back out to the front to assist with customers.

  The last customer of the day left and Elena shooed her staff out of the door while she locked up. She set the alarms, locked the door and turned towards the street. She had to stifle a scream when a man carrying a mailing tube stepped out of the shadows.

  "I'm sorry I didn't mean to startle you," the man said. He stepped into the light and Elena identified Jonathan.

  "Then you probably shouldn't lurk in the shadows." She told him crossly. He smiled his toothy grin.

  "I just came by to drop off the schematics and papers for Ian's work so you could look over them before the meeting."

  "I see," she said and held out her hand. He placed the tube in her hand and held out a fat file folder. She took that from him as well. "Thank you."

  "You are welcome. Would you care to join me for some coffee?"

  "No thank you," she said politely.

  "Perhaps another time then."

  "Perhaps," she said non-committally, wondering if he was under orders to try and make friends with her. "Have a good evening." Elena began walking towards her apartment and Jonathan fell into step beside her. She sighed inwardly. They moved in silence for the first few steps and Elena found herself thinking she was very glad she didn't live too far away.

  "It is a nice evening," Jonathan began.

  "It is," she replied. He paused as if uncertain how to make small talk. Elena felt vaguely sorry for him but was not interested in helping him out.

  "Looks like we are in for a cold winter. We might even get snow this weekend."

  "Really?"

  "Yes, I heard it on the weather report this morning."

  "I see," she said. They turned the corner and she could see her apartment building. She was on the home stretch.

  "Do you like snow?"

  "Sometimes." Thirty feet left to go.

  "I like snow. Except to drive in on my way to work. I guess you don't have that problem."

  "Not really." Elena actually liked walking in the snow to work on mornings when big fat flakes drifted down from the sky. A snow like that was good for business too. The first snow, if it was a pretty one, put people in mind of the holidays. She always set up a hot beverage station for customers in weather like that. Hot cider worked well. It also served to slow the customers down. They would walk around sipping their cider and take a little more time to look at things as they thawed out. She would have to get giant stainless steel coffee pot out of storage in the morning.

  'Damn I was going to pick up coffee on my way home.' She glanced at Jonathan and resigned herself to another coffee-less morning. At this rate she was going to kick her caffeine addiction in no time. Finally, she arrived at her building door.

  "Have a nice evening," she told him. She shuffled her mailing tube and folder around so she could open the door.

  "Yeah, you too," he replied. He turned and walked away as Elena entered the building and went upstairs. She let herself into the apartment and walked to the kitchen. She placed the folder on the table and tugged open the mailing tube. She pulled out the rolled up papers and flattened them out.

  They were the schematics for the autopilot Ian had created. She paged through them, the diagrams meaning very little to her. As far as she was concerned the drawings could be of the autopilot or the inside of an ATM and she wouldn't know the difference. She used equipment; she didn't design it. That was Mateo's specialty. Under the first set of schematics were ship diagrams. Here she was on a lit
tle better footing, but not by much. These were not the small schooners she was used to dealing with; these were all out military vessels.

  "And all far too heavy for the channels." Elena shook her head and placed them to the side. She pulled the file folder to her and opened it. Much of the information contained inside was similar to Ian's speech. She slowly turned the pages as she scanned the words. Very little of it was of practical use. It seemed more like the beginnings of a manifesto rather than a practical lecture.

  "A lot of anger though," she said. "Ian must have really wanted to be a pilot." She wondered if he actually wanted to be a pilot or if he just wanted it because he was told he couldn't have it. She flopped another page over and came to a map. Four channels were marked on the map. The locations were off for this time of year, but the general locations gave her an indication of which channels they were.

  'After all,' she thought, carefully keeping her thoughts inside her head incase her apartment was bugged, 'There are only twenty seven channels and a lot of water on our planet. Few of the channels are anywhere near each other.' She had to admit it was a bit of a relief to find only four of the channels marked.

  'I wonder if he didn't know the others?' The four channels marked were the Marta, the Evangeline, the Amalie and the Blood. The Marta was a general channel used by most of the families near the Atlantic Ocean and above the equator, while the Blood was a channel of legend every child had heard of, pilot or not. Elena didn't often travel the Evangeline or the Amalie but she was more than willing to believe Ian's families did. Elena set the map aside and continued looking through the folder. There wasn't much to be found. No other maps surfaced and all of Ian's so called technical information she heard before. She closed the folder.

  'Either the military removed some documents or this is truly all they had.' While she wouldn't put it past Smith to remove documents, it was somewhat of a relief to see how sketchy their information was.

  "Should make our little lecture series interesting," she said. Elena rubbed her eyes and stood up. 'When we take the trip through I'll have to use the Marta to avoid giving them more information.' She walked over to the refrigerator and tugged open the door. The contents were not promising.

  "Apparently I am out of more than coffee." She closed the refrigerator door and reached for the stack of takeout menus she kept for occasions such as this. Elena was debating between pizza and Chinese when the phone rang. Since she hadn't yet determined a preference, she put off the weighty concerns of dinner and answered it.

  "Hello?"

  "Elena, how have you been?" The familiar voice made her smile.

  "Mateo," she said happily.