Bask at the café

The next day at the café, Linc asked for a couple of small tables to
be put together as some other people would be joining him. The
waitress had just got them together when Jane, Jasper and Lewis came
in. Jane handed him a small box and told him to keep it safe. Linc
took it and said. " excuse me". He got up and went into the restroom,
into a stall, said retreat and when there put the box in the cave too.
Seconds later he went back to the table and told Jane the box was now
in a place where no one would find it. He would explain how some
time, not right now.
They talked about them being kidnapped and what had happened during
the time they were at the lab. Jane told Linc how she and Kenneth had
wondered just exactly what the Chinese were really after by kidnapping
them. They knew Kenneth had been talking to the old man, about his
experiment with the iron ring, and then the arch. They had to know he
had went thru the arch and to the moon and back. Were they interested
in time travel or maybe using the arch for something else? They knew
the old man used the arch for levitation as well as transporting.
After they were kidnapped, they knew from watching them so close that
they had levitated some things, and when their secret camera caught
the rock Lewis found teleported across the room, even though Herm
couldn't duplicate it. Jane told them Kenneth thought the Chinese
were thinking the process might be used as a weapon, that was why he
did the experiment that got him killed. That was why he tried to
destroy everything to do with the experiment, but he didn't know that
she had made the memory chips of the tests he made on her computer and
had hidden the chips from the Chinese. The Chinese had got her
computer after they had escaped, but when Kenneth was killed she put
her computer on destruct, that would have erased everything on it.

They talked about their escape, and what happened after Linc Left the
lab. Linc told them that he hated to leave them like that but he had
to go.
Linc told them about the farm, the cabin and the mine his Grandfather
had. He told them he was a geologist and about the mine that called
him with the strange clay formation that reacted with the sample he
took from the mine there in Colorado. They talked Jane's family and
Kenneth's family. Finally the waitress said she would like to clean
up since it was almost time for the dinner crowd to be coming in.
They all hugged and said they would keep in touch with each other.
Linc said maybe they could get a good security company to check their
places for bugs and all their stuff for tracking devices. Jasper and
Lewis both said they would. Do that and have all locks changed.
Linc went back to the motel and put his suitcase in the trunk of the
rental and went out to the airport. He never gave it a thought that
he might have been followed there. He pulled into the rental lot,
then went and got his bag out of the trunk. Just as he was closing the
trunk, he felt something brush his sleeve as he turned. A man was
trying to grab his arm. Linc pulled away from him just as another man
approached him with a knife in his hand, telling him to stand still.
Linc shoved at him with the bag, knocking him backward and making him
drop the knife. He then ran as fast as he could around a couple of
cars, dropped down, touched the broach and said retreat. Wow! He
landed face first on the beach. He stood up, brushed himself off and
laughed as hard as he could. Let those jerks spend time looking for
him. He picked up his bag, and went up to the house. Yes, yes, he
thought. Might as well fix some supper, get a good nights sleep and
go back to the airport in the next day. He had plenty of time, but
the thugs will have some explaining to do to their boss.. He didn't
think about the fact that when the folks came to the café, without
their own cars the thugs would look for a rental. And follow him. He
was in and out of the motel too fast for them to catch him there..
Well Linc old boy, he thought to himself. You live and learn. He
wondered if the motel would give anybody his address. He made a note
to himself to call the motel when he got back to Denver, and tell the
manager he will sue them if they reveal his address to anyone.

The next morning he took a shower, fixed some breakfast, then went
down to the cave figured he would get the memory chips and take a look
at them. After scanning through them he found them quite scientific,
and didn't get much from them. He figured he may as well make copies
of them, for the professor and Uncle Axel.
As long as he was going to give the thugs plenty of time to look for
him, he washed the clothes that were in his bag, changed the bedding
in the house, then went down and stripped the beds in the cave where
Todd and Uncle Vernon had slept. He didn't remake the beds, but just
put the bedspreads back on them. Got the bedding washed, dried and put
away.
He got to thinking about how he could avoid the thugs if they were
watching the airport still for him. He would leave his bag there at
the retreat, put a few thinks in the back-pack, change of clothes and
wear a hat. He might get by with it ok that way.
He went down to the cave to get the back-pack. He took the rocks out
of it to put in a box, and noticed that one chunk had a hole in it.
Looked funny like there was something in the hole. He took it out and
down to the other cave where the water was and cleaned it up a bit.
By darn, he said to himself, there are some small crystals in that
hole. Hard to see real plain. He was going to have to clean it up
better and get a magnifying glass to see them well.
He got the back-pack emptied then shook it out. While he was there in
the cave he decided take a look in the chiffen-robe and see what
clothing was in there, just for the heck of it. He found an old
beret. Hey cool, he thought. He whacked it up against his leg a
couple of times to see if it was dusty, but it was fine. He opened
the door of the unit farther, and put it on his head, looked in the
mirror on the back of the door. Hey!, that looks ok. The thugs knew
he didn't have a hat on when he got out of the car.
He took the pack, beret and the rock with a hole in it and went back
up to the house. He found a brush and cleaned out the hole with the
crystals in it. Got a magnifying glass in the office and got a better
look at the crystals. They were not quartz crystals he knew because
the shape of them was wrong, They were shaped more like zircon
crystals . Well he would just have to let the professor identify
them. He wrapped the rock in a couple of paper towels so it wouldn't
get dirty or damaged from the other rocks from the pack. He would
have to pack them up in a good sturdy box when he got back from
Denver.

Looking at his watch he could see he had only twenty minutes to catch
his flight. He quickly changed clothes, took his pack and said back.
At the airport, he walked right past a thug that was watching the
doors. He then went to the check in then to the boarding area to wait,
just as the flight he had to board had just landed.
Ten minutes later he boarded the plane to Vegas.


To be continued