Chapter 2. Goodbye Brother, Until Tomorrow
“Ding,” the elevator door opens to James staring at the ceiling with a pensive look and suddenly facing forward as the sound of the door opening registered in his mind.
A man with a shocked expression appears in front of him, “What the fuck….”
“Hey Roger, it’s been a while sorry I have been a little busy getting ready to leave. In fact I am just about to head to the airport”
“Why? Why on god’s green Earth would you ever want to go to the hell hole of Syria? You are literally the whitest guy I know and I have a feeling they don’t like us too much. You know moms a wreck and crying about you leaving,” Roger having gotten really close to James face as if trying to read his mind all the while holding the door open with his left hand preventing it from closing and allowing James any escape.
James took a moment to breathe as he bent down to grab his two large duffle bags. Internally he wasn’t sure what to say even after playing this scenario out a thousand times in his head. He never expected his brother to show up at his apartment at the very moment he was about to leave. The world it seems is full of serendipity like events. A coincidence considering as the elevator was opening he had been thinking of his brother and whether to call him before he left.
“Brother, a man has got to do what a man has got to do, or so I have been told by movies and mass media,” with a smirk and a head nod to the exit they both proceeded to the front of the apartment on a small side street outside Boston. His brother grabbed one of the bags without even asking. Roger was always too nice and putting others before himself. He put on a brave persona, but always wore his heart on his sleeve.
“I won’t rehash the previous arguments we and the whole family have had over the past 7 days with you over the pros and mostly cons of not going to be a humanitarian hero. I still have to ask why though and be serious this time,” as Roger tried to pry the pained expression his younger brother had he noticed the black SUV pull up a few feet away from them, “this your uber?”
“Something like that,” two people dressed in black came out of the car and gave Roger a methodical up and down assessment, “Roger I may not talk to you or family for a while and I am sorry I won’t be there for the Boston marathon that we have been training for. I know you like your shiny medals. Please tell the family I love them and will do what I can to come back as soon as the work is done.”
Roger grabbed his younger brother in one last bear hug and with great deliberation, “You know I love my shiny medals and anything that is shiny, so when you get back we will do the race together alright. Make sure to keep the promise we made and wherever you are I am sure Samantha will keep you safe.”
When the McMasters brothers were just kids they promised to finish a marathon together as part of a bucket list both of them kept in their pockets. The list contained a number of outlandish tasks only a 13 and 15 year old would come up with. They still have checked a few off the list including a trip to Iceland and Antarctica. The boys grew up in the woods of New Hampshire. One bucket list item they managed to cross off their list, only two years ago was to complete the Appalachian Trail a journey from Georgia to Maine. They accomplished that at 19 and 21 years of age. Unlike many others of their generation they stayed in shape and competed in racing competitions.
“We need to get going, the others are already there,” the amazingly attractive female agent said as the brothers separated from their embrace.
At that moment, Roger saw the gleam of a gun on the agents’ suit jacket and the badge on the right and an American Flag lapel on the front shirt. These were not uber drivers and they certainly did not look like aid workers. The thought like a forest fire caught Roger by surprise and realized that there was more going on here that James had been hiding from them. He knew his brother was not a genius, but was smartest guy he knew and that his activities online may not have been so legal, but what did he do to get the authorities involved. If his brother was in trouble he needed to know and to do that he needed to stall this government escort. As he raced through ways to do it he spotted the dumpster that had a whole bunch of construction material in it from apartment next to James that apparently was being renovated. There was his answer and made his way over to it and throw away his still half full cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee., which broke his heart a little.
“Who are the other people you are meeting up with, I don’t remember you telling me you were going with other people,” Roger in his attempt to deflect made the perfect opportunity to grab the shiny object that laid right next to the dumpster.
“Ummm….welll….”
“They are other people that are also going as part of the humanitarian effort. We have a few specialists that are great at communications, logistics and construction, and a cultural attaché as well as a few others with various skills,” agent Green seemed to be on her a game in cover ups 101 thought James and made a mental note to learn to lie better.
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“We will be going now,” the other agent loaded the bags and everything James had into the back of the SUV very forcibly and proceeded to get in the drivers seat. This was followed by agent Green and a somber James who waved goodbye to Roger.
“Goodbye bro,” James said at the same time Roger quickly hurried in front of the car and said, “Sorry looks like my shoe came untied one moment,” and he proceeded to place the shiny nail right where the front tire was of the drivers side. Once in place he got up and said his good bye with a wave.
Not even going a block and the SUV was pulling to the side of the road. The tire was inspected and looked back at where Roger was. At that moment, Roger went pale, until he looked behind himself and realized that the agent was looking at the construction debris. Once he realized this he ran to the SUV and asked them if they needed help.
“Why don’t you guys get some coffee and if possible get me a decaf black coffee if you can, it looks like we have a flat tire no doubt from a stray nail or something from that apartment over there. It may take a few minutes for “macho man” over here to change it,” Agent Green pointing to the coffee shop not a block away from where they pulled over. James not wasting a moment got our and walked over to Roger and went to the coffee shop.
Roger was turning red by the time they made it into the store, “What the fuck….., what did you do to get involved with the fuzz out there and what are you wrapped up in?”
As James was about to start talking a bear of a man ran into him and spilled coffee all over him. At this moment, everything was boiling to the surface and James was going to explode at this unsuspecting person who accidently ran into him. It all dissipated as soon as he realized it was Vlad the janitor and landlord of the apartment he stayed at.
“Mr. James so sorry, I have no idea what happened. I was lost in my thoughts. Although I am very upset that you are leaving, now who is going to fix my computer and give me rent for that apartment?”
Vlad was a good guy a little too stereotypical for James as he was indeed a Russian with a drinking problem whom loved his vodka a little too much, but was friendly as can be. He also a bit paranoid only a few weeks ago he was telling James how he thought someone was following him and heard trash cans crashing outside his apartment when he was supposedly watching, ‘American football.’
“It’s alright Vlad, sorry to be leaving you so abruptly, but it’s just something I thought I needed to do. I have been watching what was going on in Syria and thought it was time to go help out with humanitarian aid.”
“You a good man, Jimmy, if I may call you Jimmy, we friends now that you no longer tenant. I really hope you stay safe over there and stop by. Let me buy you a coffee before you go.”
“No thanks, but greatly appreciated, take care and thanks for fixing all that stuff around my place,” truthfully James did most of it, but the sentiment was there.
After that they exchanged good byes and Vlad was on his way, until he stopped dead in his tracks on noticing the black SUV down the street. He slowly pulled up his coat and made his way opposite the black SUV, while looking over his shoulder occasionally.
“So…..What the fuck?” Roger back to the original question before being interrupted by Vlad.
“What to tell you other than I am working on something and the cover story is that I am going to Syria, no sense lying to you as you will be able to read me pretty easily, that is the reason I have been avoiding you and the family so much this past week at least in person.” James had been trying to limit the chances of him messing up his story. He was a terrible liar and the family would know if something was up.
“Can you at least tell me is it safe and are you ok and such?”
“Truthfully, I do not know, but I might be gone for a while brother, that is why I need you to take care of things with the family for me. Can you do that?” Roger may be the older brother, but sometimes he needed to be pushed to action.
“Yeah, don’t worry I will let the folks. So you’re not in trouble? Why do they want you anyways?”
“They want me because the professor at MIT I use to work with has gone MIA and he apparently came across something big that used some of the stuff I designed and setup for him, no big deal, but could change the world forever.” Brushing his shoulders off James attempted to act cool, but Roger just laughed. So the wacky hair brained professor actually did something. ‘Professor drinks a lot’ was a well-known figure in the local pubs around Boston. He would drink and spot nonsense of multiple realities and quantum entanglement as well as his experiments to show a connection between them could be made. His nickname was ‘professor drinks a lot’ on account of his excessive drinking and tendency to ramble on about esoteric sciences.
The two brothers talked some more, but ultimately James kept diverting the conversation on what it was he would be doing. His brother would never believe him and until James saw the machine work he wouldn’t believe it either.
Agent Green, came in through the door to coffee shop and looked around the table the two McMaster brothers were sitting at and frowned, “don’t suppose you remembered my drink there Jimmy, anyway, we are rolling out say good bye to your brother, the tires been fixed, damn construction crew must not have cleaned up the nails from the construction project next door to your place as we thought.”
After loading up and saying their final farewells, and one last bear hug, the SUV drove off to the facility housing the bridge where they would meet up with the team going across to the other side. Meanwhile, in a coffee shop a certain brother was laughing manically, “MUAHAHAHAHA,” as he looked down at his smart phone to see the tracking chip he place on his brother he kept on his key chain was working. He slipped it on his coat collar while giving a hug goodbye. If this was a spy novel he would be killing it, he thought in his head. When he looked around the coffee shop everyone gave him a questioning look as though he was a crazed homeless man. The manager kindly asked him to leave.
“Beep…….beep……beep...beep…beep.beep.beep…..beep…beep,” the smartphone made noise as it was displaying a red dot and latched onto the handle bars of a white old looking vespa that has seen its best days behind it.
“Ok, so this way my fine stead, yah” as Roger made his way to find where they were taking his brother, looking and feeling a little like a modern day Don Quixote, only he didn’t have a sidekick.