Leonard had dozed off and awakened now from his motion induced nap to the metronome rhythm of the Escalade's windshield wipers synchronized with the light patter of rain. This time he experienced no dreams or visions, none that he could remember, though he remained intermittently disturbed by the haunting memory and mysterious meaning of the dream he had back at the motel. This time, however, was the most restful sleep he'd had in weeks, maybe even months or years. He felt as if he had been asleep for hours. His body and mind purified from the short but wholesome slumber, his five senses were, for the moment, acutely attuned to his environment. He immediately took in the characteristic smell of the ozone charged air, which reminded him of freshly cleaned bed sheets. The smooth motion and drive of the Escalade felt as if it glided on air as opposed to jaunting over asphalt concrete. Beyond the windows on either side of the vehicle, mile after mile along the I-80 corridor, passing as if on movie reels, was a seemingly infinite agglomeration of trees: eastern hemlock, table mountain pine, eastern white pine, American larch, catalpa, red maple, silver maple, big-tooth aspen, quaking aspen, paper birch, black cherry, and many other varieties adorning the wooded slopes, ridge tops, rocky ridges and open woods of the Appalachian mountain range. Leonard stretched and yawned and felt famished.
Gabriel looked over at him with not a clue of tiredness in his deep-brown, smiling eyes. "Welcome back to the world," he greeted.
"Jeez," Leonard said. "We're still on the road? How long was I sleep?"
"About two days."
"Two days?"
"Kidding," Gabriel admitted. "Around forty five minutes thereabouts."
"That's it? Felt longer."
"That's a good thing," Gabriel said. "Means you had a restful sleep."
"Where the hell do you live?" Gabriel inquired. "How much longer we got before we get there?"
"About another half hour."
"I hope you got something to eat," Leonard said. "And I ain't talking potato chips."
"There's a pizza shop ten minutes before we get to my house. Best pizza in the Poconos far as I'm concerned."
"Sounds righteous."
"Tell you what," Gabriel said, "There's a menu in the glove compartment. Carino's Pizzeria. Use my cell phone to call and place a order so we don't have to wait when we get there."
Leonard wasted no time opening the glove compartment and retrieving the menu. "Meanwhile," he said, "Could you pick up a little more speed. My body's about to go into autophagia."
Gabriel laughed as his foot pressed down on the accelerator, increasing the wet-whirl of tires against the rain soaked blacktop and advancing the motion of the passing trees. "No eating in the vehicle," he joked.
Leonard joined him in laughter. Gabriel pulled onto a paved driveway that forked towards a separate three car garage as well as to the front entrance of a two and a half story A-frame house. Using a remote control the middle garage door angled open, not with a clamor, but as silent as a stealth bomber. An overhead light within the station came to life, as Gabriel eased the Escalade into the garage's welcoming mouth.
"Quietest garage door I ever didn't hear," Leonard commented.
"Yeah," Gabriel agreed. "Environmentally friendly and blends perfectly with the surroundings. Designed it myself."
"Impressive," Leonard said. "All three garages are occupied I see."
"Garage number one to my left is an F-250. Great for the rough Alaskan winters out here and door number three houses my baby-girl: Mercedes S600."
Gabriel and Leonard exited the vehicle, closing both doors creating a binary thud that seemed to be swallowed by the triple walls surrounding them.
"You live out here by yourself?" Leonard asked.
"Just me."
"You crazy, man?" Leonard said, as he opened the back door of the Escalade to remove a large pizza box and grocery bag. He shut the door with his hip. "Leaving an S600 up here all by herself? Man, somebody could boost all three of your vehicles while your home and you wouldn't know it with those Ninja-quiet garage doors, much less you not being here."
Gabriel smiled as they walked toward the entrance and out into the cloudy, crisp, late afternoon. "Never happen," he said with a confidence Leonard felt to be naively over-brazen.
The garage door folded shut quietly behind them. The rain had stopped and for the most part the sky had cleared. Only intermittent patches of asphalt colored clouds would occasionally sail across the moonlit sky, like wind driven ghost ships on a night ocean toward destinations unknown. Leonard and Gabriel headed toward the house.
"And why's that?" Leonard requested. "I mean look at this – I don't see another house in sight. That one way down there… is that a house?"
"Abandoned barn," Gabriel said. "My nearest neighbor's three miles away and I don't have a clue who they are and I like it that way. You'll find that this entire place is a very special, elaborate set-up. The garages as well as the house have built-in sensors."
Though it was the first week in March the temperature felt more like late fall, though not particularly cold, rather refreshingly chilled with a promise of spring in the air.
"What good is that if nobody's here?" Leonard said. "Besides, by the time the cops get here the robbers will be long gone."
Three feet before they approached the front door a light came on in one of the rooms on the second floor and a dog started barking and growling, viciously.
"Whoa," Leonard said, halting. "Thought you said you live by yourself. You said nothing about a dog. I ain't keen on dogs. Always licking or biting something or someone."
"Bad experience?" Gabriel probed.
Leonard paused a minute, then said, "When I was a kid one bit me in a park. Had
rabies the mutt."
"Ouch."
"Yeah. Ouch."
"That's a bit harsh don't you think to take your prejudice out on all dogs?"
"Like they walk around with signs or ID cards indicating they're not rabid. And I'm not being prejudice. I'm being cautious. You ever had to get rabies shots?"
"Point taken. Well, stay Zen, my friend.," Gabriel urged, as he placed a key into the front door lock. "It's a deterrent. The lights are programmed to come on randomly and so is the dog's bark." Gabriel opened the door. "Rabidless."
On entering the house an array of lights sparkled to life throughout the foyer, living room, and a vestibule leading into the kitchen. Gabriel hurried to a wall panel located in the foyer that resembled a small wall-safe with its combination lock. He quickly entered the combination, pulled open the little door to the panel, exposing a key pad, like those supplied on home security systems, which is exactly what it was, and tapped in a four digit code, extinguishing the lights on the second floor along with the dog's barking.
"Cool," Leonard said. "But again…"
"I know," Gabriel intercepted, "I'm out here in the boondocks. Not home and the cops are too far away to possibly get here in time. You can place the food in the kitchen."
Leonard walked into the kitchen and upon doing so the lights there greeted his presence. "Okay," he said, impressed. "Nice." He placed the packages on the center island.
"Now," Gabriel began, walking into the kitchen, "if said intruder is not deterred by the lights and fake dog barking and enters the house and the alarm is not deactivated within sixty seconds, no alert is sent to the police." He approached and opened one of the doors to a double door stainless steel refrigerator. "There's grape juice, orange, pineapple, apple, Pepsi, Coke, 7-Up and Bud light. Your wish is my command."
"Water," said Leonard, opening the bag and removing a chicken Parmesan sandwich. Steam released from it when it was freed of its aluminum wrapping.
"Water it is," Gabriel said, removing a pitcher of water from the fridge. He opened a cabinet and took out a drinking glass, carried both items over to Leonard. "Help yourself." He opened another cabinet removing a plate on which he placed three slices of pizza and stuck them into the microwave oven, programming it for fifteen seconds.
"So if not the police," Leonard prompted with a morsel of sandwich in his mouth, "then who?"
"Me," Gabriel said, returning to the refrigerator and getting a bottle of beer. The bottle hissed when he twisted off the top. He then guzzled down a few swallows as he headed back to the microwave. Pizza warmed he removed it and joined Leonard at the center island on a stool.
"You." Leonard said, disbelievingly. "You're kidding, right? What's the point if your nowhere near here?"
Gabriel bit off a large slice of pizza and chewed it down before he said, "Not kidding. I take my protection and privacy very seriously. That's why I don't involve cops, if I can I avoid it." He gulped down more beer. "I'm alerted via-my cell phone while said perp is trapped in the house when steel doors and bars cover the windows and a nasty little nerve gas is released rendering the intruder… incapacitated for a few hours with a nasty migraine upon awakening."
"Shit," Leonard let out. "Then what? You kill him and bury the evidence in the surrounding woods?"
"Hasn't happened thus far," Gabriel informed, "But… no, I won't kill anybody, if I don't have to. The gas puts you in sought of suspended animation. Once I get here, I inject the unfortunate one with an anecdote. Now, the whole time their fully aware of their surroundings. Hey can hear, feel, think, just can't move."
"Damn," Leonard said. "That's a living nightmare."
"That's the point," Gabriel said. "Hopefully it scares them straight. At least I'm sure they would make it their last uninvited visit to this house. I would then give them a little lecture about changing their ways, scare the Moses out of them a little more, then bring them back to animation and send them on their way."
Leonard drank the entire glass of water he had filled and helped himself to more. "Remind me not to sneak into your house," Leonard said. "A set up like this must've cost a lot of cheddar. CIA pays like that?" He bit off a big chunk of sandwich."
"Not even," Gabriel said. "Inheritance – my father was an international arms dealer. Left us – meaning my mother and myself – a large fortune when he disappeared twelve years ago and the government finally determined he was dead, causes unknown."
"Sorry for your lost," Leonard said.
"Don't be. He was a bastard. Only good thing came out of him was the inheritance and even that's tainted with blood far as I'm concerned. However, I'm not about to allow my Jewish guilt to get the better of my common sense. I do give to charities and causes but not before I investigate their legitimacy." Gabriel took a first bite of his second pizza.
"The CIA knows about your inheritance?" Leonard asked.
"Oh, yeah," Gabriel said. "I wasn't about to try and hide it. That would've made me look highly suspicious and they'd have never stopped following me around. Besides, they knew of my father and his dealings. They even used him on occasion to do some spying for them."
"Think they may have had something to do with his disappearance?" Leonard probed.
"I don't know," Gabriel said with an inkling of sadness of which Leonard detected. "Could've been anybody. My father was such a shady character. He made more enemies than friends. I did love him. Love hate. You know?"
"I know. This place must really impress the ladies," Leonard said, veering off the subject, chewing the final morsel of his sandwich as he looked the place over.
"Believe it or not," Gabriel said, "Your brother when he was alive, and the people that built the place are the only ones that have ever been here. This is my getaway – figuratively, physically and socially speaking. This will be my retreat when and if the worst case scenario for this society's demise jumps off. Downstairs in the basement is a shelter with enough food to last seven years for a single person, three and a half years for two – and enough weapons and ammo for an all out war."
"You're hardcore," Leonard said.
"I mean it, brother of my friend," Gabriel said. "Some serious shit's going to go down, if the elite have their way and so far they have. And whether or not they push through their agenda, their attempts have already started an avalanche of rebellion, not just from the common people, but Mother Nature as well."
"I hear you," Leonard said. "Way things are happening lately it might go down sooner than we expect."
"Like I said, it's already in motion." Gabriel finished the third slice of pizza and washed it down with the remainder of the beer. "Now," he said, wiping his mouth with his hand, "about this… holy grail you found in Lawrence's house."
"Oh – damn! I left the duffle bag in the car."
Gabriel went into his pant pocket and removed the fob, slid it across the island top toward Leonard. "The top button's for the garage door, bottom one's for the SUV."
Leonard got off the chair and headed to the door. Before he opened it he turned to Gabriel. "I won't get accidentally gassed will I?" he humored.
"Not if you hit the correct buttons," Gabriel said, smiling.
"Yeah," Leonard said, "right. Very funny." And he went out the door.