Family of Spies, page 10
“Britain’s secret service. So, we could have a 007 after us?” Ellie asked. Ford could hear a thrill of excitement in her voice.
Marie-Claire smiled at Ellie. Her lips trembled. “Yes, and they often share information with their partners in America. Which means, those operatives could also be CIA.”
“What about Canadian secret service? Our great-grandfather was Canadian after all,” Gavin asked.
Marie-Claire tilted her head, her shoulders lifted. “Yes, perhaps. There are many unseen alliances between the military and the secret service and amongst nations, so I suppose anything is possible.”
Ellie looked at Ford. “Okay, fearless leader. Now what?”
Good question. When Mme. Bellerose said he was going to be a great clairvoyant, she never mentioned he’d also have to dodge spies as they retraced Great-Granddad’s footsteps. It would have been nice for her to have given them a bit of a warning. “I…I guess we just…keep our eyes open for spies and get to the café to see if my next vision gets us closer to unravelling Great-Granddad’s past.”
“That is your plan? A real-life game of I Spy?” Ellie asked.
What did she expect from him? A step-by-step user’s guide to outrunning spies?
“Do you have a better plan?”
“Sadly, no.”
Marie-Claire’s phone pinged. She tapped open a message, her face glowing in the screen’s light. “I must go. Monsieur Bouchard has noticed my absence. You can safely depart through that exit door. I will make my way through the hidden hallways and return to the library on the opposite side, in case my supervisor is watching for me.”
“Thank you, Marie-Claire, and thank you for warning us,” Ellie said.
“And sorry we got you involved…in whatever it is we are involved in,” Ford said.
“You must not return. I know I gave you my business card yesterday, but if you do need to contact me, it may be safer if you text me on my mobile.” Marie-Claire scrawled a long number on the back of another card and passed it to Ford. “Be careful. Trust no one.”
“Except you,” Ford said, blushing.
Marie-Claire smiled. “Yes, except for me. I shall always keep your secret.” Her phone pinged again, echoing around them. “Now go.”
Ellie snatched the card from his hand and slipped it into a side pocket of her backpack. “For safekeeping,” she explained.
Silently the cousins tiptoed towards the sortie—exit—sign.
Trust no one. Mme. Bellerose’s exact same warning.
Ellie darted through the back doors of the library with Gavin close behind. Ford stopped at the top of a small, metal staircase as Ellie and Gavin clanked down the steps. “You guys! I didn’t get my power cord!”
Ellie moaned as she reached the pavement.
“Do you think I should go back?” Ford asked.
“No!” Gavin and Ellie said in unison.
“You can always borrow mine,” Gavin offered.
“Right.” Ford hesitated before continuing. “Do you think Marie-Claire will be okay?”
“Yeah, she’s pretty tough,” Gavin said.
“Gavin’s right. I was actually really impressed by her. She is a warrior woman,” Ellie said.
“That’s true, I—” Ford’s neck bristled with a sense that someone was watching them. He turned quickly, looking out across the parking lot for a set of prying eyes. “Just a bunch of empty cars,” he murmured. Then his gaze stopped on a black sedan, two rows back. A man with sunglasses sat behind the wheel. A woman sat next to him. She had a camera with a long telephoto lens and she was taking pictures—of Ford.
They were being followed! A shiver snaked across his shoulders and rippled down his spine.
“Hey, you coming?” Gavin called from the sidewalk below.
Ford’s mouth dried, making talking difficult. He pointed towards the car. “Someone’s spying on us.”
Ellie spun in the direction Ford pointed. “Spying? Where?”
Ford nodded to the dark car and tore down the stairs. “There are two people over there taking pictures of us. Wh-what are we going to do?”
Gavin shoved Ford behind him. “You stay out of sight.”
Ellie stepped next to Gavin, standing in her mock-karate pose. “We have to lose them.”
“How?” Ford asked, fear leached into every cell of his body. What would happen if they caught him? No. He couldn’t think like that. They simply couldn’t get caught. He took a deep breath and exhaled. He’d have to channel some of Great-Granddad’s courage and start to think like a spy.
“We have to give them multiple targets to track. We need to separate,” Ellie said.
“Right,” said Gavin. “But one of us has to stay with Ford. He can’t be left alone.”
“Agreed,” said Ellie.
Ford pushed through Ellie and Gavin. “Separate? No way. That is always when things go bad in the movies. As soon as the lead characters split up, the bad guys take them out—one by one.”
“I know you’re scared, but we aren’t in the movies. This is our best chance to try and lose them and then meet up at the café,” Gavin explained.
Ford looked over at the car. Why hadn’t they gotten out? What were they up to? Ford shook his head. “I dunno—”
“Gavin’s right. It might not be ideal, but it is our best chance of ditching those two. You guys stick together. I’ll go on my own. The café isn’t very far from here.” Ellie pulled out her phone and began typing. “Gavin, I’m sending you the café address, so you can find your way.”
Ford gulped. He didn’t have a better plan. “I sure hope you guys are right.”
Gavin’s phone pinged. “Let me just set the address into Google maps…” Gavin typed quickly, “…and…we’ll be…good…to go!”
“Good. Now, on the count of three, you two head around the building to the left. I’m going to take a different route. One, two, three—RUN!”
“Waaaahhhaaahhhaaaaaaa,” Ellie shrieked and sprinted straight into the parking lot, weaving between cars, heading towards the spies.
“What is she doing?” Ford said to Gavin.
“I think she is providing a distraction. Let’s go, Ford.”
The brothers ran. Hard. They peeled around the corner and across a stretch of grass to the front parking lot. Dodging between cars, Ford quickly outpaced Gavin, fear fueling his stride.
“Hey, wait up!” called Gavin, struggling to keep pace.
“Sorry.” Ford slowed to a jog as they approached the front street.
“This—way,” Gavin said, his phone held tightly in his hand, his face beet red. He looked as if he might pass out. “Follow—me.” He sounded like he might pass out too.
They continued for a good 200 metres before Gavin led them down a narrow alleyway. Ford looked over his shoulder. They were alone. Memories of his dream and running from Nazis flashed in his mind. At least there weren’t any Nazis chasing them. And they weren’t being shot at.
“How much further?” Ford asked.
Gavin glanced at his phone. “Ten—minutes, but at this—pace,—maybe five or—six.”
“Gav…can you run for another five or six minutes?”
“I—will—try.”
Gavin led them onto a smaller side street crammed with shoppers and market stalls, forcing them to slow to a fast walk.
“I wonder how Ellie’s doing,” Ford said. “I hope we didn’t make a mistake leaving her behind.”
Gavin shrugged and swallowed. “Can’t—really—talk.”
“Right.” Ford stopped walking to allow his brother a moment to catch his breath. He laughed. “I am pretty sure you need to join the gym when you get back to Winnipeg.”
Gavin smiled, but it looked more like a grimace. He clutched his side. “Cramp.”
Ford stifled another laugh. Gavin glared and pointed to another alley across the street. “There.”
The brothers waited for a car to pass, then crossed over and ducked into the narrow alley. “You know, you are sounding more and more like a caveman. Cramp. There. Me out of shape.”
“Ha—ha,” Gavin said, now massaging his side.
“Me laugh. Ha—ha—ha.”
Gavin grabbed Ford and wrapped his arm around Ford’s neck, pinning him in a head lock. “Me—nuggie,” Gavin said, grinding his knuckles into Ford’s skull.
Ford twisted free as they approached another street. “Okay, okay. I’ll stop.”
Gavin stood tall and breathed deeply. “Not much farther,” he managed to say with much less gasping. “And you’re right. I am out of shape.”
Ford looked back down the alley. “I think we lost them. Ellie’s plan worked.”
Gavin smiled. “Yup, so far, so good.”
Chapter 20
The wind pushed Ford gently along the boulevard. Cigarette butts and litter swirled in frantic circles along the sidewalk—just like a dust devil at home.
Gavin looked at Ford and then pointed at the miniature tornado, laughing. “Are you doing that with you mind powers?”
“Ah, no” Ford laughed with him. “I can’t move things with my mind. I am not a superhero, I’m just—” Ford lowered his voice. “Psychic.” Saying it out loud gave him a bit of a nervous thrill.
They stopped to check Gavin’s phone. “We should be close.”
A hand rested on Ford’s shoulder. “Gah!” He said and jumped high.
“Sorry!” Ellie said. “Didn’t mean to frighten you.”
“You lost them,” Gavin said. “You had us worried. You kind of went all kamikaze back there.”
She laughed. “Yup and it worked. They saw me coming straight for them and they just took off. Sped away so fast, they left tire marks on the pavement. I guess they don’t want to be caught just as much as we don’t want to be caught.”
“Huh,” Ford said, as they kept walking. “I guess not, but isn’t that the whole point of spying on someone? Aren’t you supposed to want to catch them?”
“Maybe or maybe they are just waiting for the perfect time to pounce,” Ellie said. “And it was a man and a woman, maybe the same pair Marie-Claire met.”
Gavin stuffed his phone in his back pocket. “We’re here.”
Ellie looked across the street at Les Deux Magots. “It sure doesn’t look like anything special. I mean it’s full of history and all that, but it’s exactly like every other old restaurant we’ve seen in Paris. Tables jam-packed along the sidewalk with all the chairs facing outward toward the street.”
“Parisians like to see and be seen—it is sort of their thing,” Gavin explained.
Ford smiled. “Thank you, Documentary King.” He looked over his shoulder and down the street. “I can’t shake this creepy feeling that we’re being watched.”
Gavin stared down the street, too. “I don’t see anything that looks suspicious, but we should still do this as quickly as possible. I’ll stay on the lookout for undercover agents and Ellie will take copious notes. You just tell us everything you see. Hopefully that will be enough.”
Ellie shook her head. “No way! With Ford waving his arms around, jogging on the spot, and giving us a running commentary on what only he can see, we’ll look a bunch of lunatics. We need to get a table out of the way and try to blend in with the locals.”
Ford looked at the café. There were a few empty tables off to one side. “She’s right. If we want to outsmart spies, we need to think like spies.”
“Time to go undercover and, since we’re living in an actual spy movie, we need code names.” Ellie tapped her chin with one finger as she thought. “Got it! Ford, you are The Wizard, like the all-powerful Wizard of Oz, because what you do is sort of like magic and Gavin, your code name is The Professor, because you are a walking textbook.”
“And what is your code name?” Ford asked.
“I have saved the best for last.” Ellie stood like Superwoman with her hands on her hips and her chest puffed out. “I am…The Mastermind!”
Ford laughed. “Mastermind? Is that because your head is swollen from your massive ego?”
Ellie grinned. Her eyes sparkled. “Nope.” She whipped her phone out from her back pocket. “It’s because I keep all the critical details of our mission plotted and organized! I am the lynchpin.”
Gavin laughed. “I am so glad I ditched school. This is way better than advanced neurobiology class with boring old Professor Van Hussen.”
Ellie’s smile vanished. “Ditched school?”
“Oh, yeah. I wasn’t quite sure how to tell you about that…” Gavin and Ellie walked ahead as he filled her in on his university misadventures.
Ford followed, scanning everyone he passed for possible spies. Somewhere out there, others were watching. He could sense it, even if he couldn’t see anyone. Ford’s instincts weren’t whispering cautious warnings. They were blazing up every nerve in his body, screaming: “Caution! Caution! Caution!” At the same time, he could feel his great-grandfather’s memories pulling at him, begging him to solve his mysterious past. Ford squared his shoulders and let out a long breath.
“I’ll do it for you, Great-Grandpappy,” he murmured. “But this sure better be worth it.”
Ford zipped in front of Ellie and Gavin. “Professor, Mastermind, follow my lead. Time for Mission Great-Granddad Mystery to begin.”
Ellie smiled. “I like how you think, Wizard.”
Ford led them to an empty table as far from the restaurant’s entrance as possible. “This should be good.” Ford sat behind the table with his back to the outside wall of the café. “You guys sit on either side of me and try to block me from view. That way, if I go nuts, no one will be able to see. And we should order in French so we don’t stand out and if the secret service agents ask about English-speaking North Americans, the waiter won’t think of us. Oh, and one more thing. Let’s order something that doesn’t take long to cook so we can eat fast and then be left alone long enough to have my vision!”
“All good ideas. Very spy-like,” Ellie said. She slipped off her baseball cap and set it on the table. “I don’t want to stand out and so far, I haven’t seen one other girl in Paris with a cap on, let alone a very distinctive Baltimore Orioles cap.” She removed her scrunchie, freeing her locks from the ponytail, and ran her hands through her long, curly, black hair, smoothing down the poof.
“I was—” Ford began, but immediately went silent as a waiter approached. He looked at Ellie’s hat and smiled. Ellie grabbed it and stuffed it in her backpack.
“Je suis désolée!” Ellie apologized and continued in rapid-fire French. Ford couldn’t understand one single word. When she finished speaking, the waiter frowned. Ford thought he might be confused, but Ellie said something about being in a hurry.
“Ah, la jeunesse,” he said, chuckling and moving along to another table.
Gavin grinned. “You really are good at French, Ellie.”
“Yeah, I couldn’t follow you at all,” Ford added.
Ellie beamed. “You will both be happy to know that in addition to ordering us the soup of the day, we each are getting a large café au lait and a piece of chocolate cake for desert. I asked him to bring everything at once, which he found pretty amusing.”
“I hope we weren’t too amusing. We don’t want him to remember us,” Ford said.
“Let’s hope not,” Ellie said, glancing at her phone. “It’s now one o’clock. As soon as we get our food, I say you go on your blast from the past, Ford.”
“Wait, wait, wait. First, I am eating my lunch. Breakfast was forever ago and I am starving.”
“You are always starving.”
“Yes. And your point is?”
“Ford does need to eat, Ellie. Surely we have time to eat? And I’ve noticed the visions sap his strength. Plus, wouldn’t the waiter find it strange if we ordered a bunch of food but never ate even one bite? We would stand out in his mind. Remember, we don’t want to be memorable. We want to blend in with our surroundings.”
“Right. Act like a local,” Ellie said. She looked at the people sitting around them. “Does anyone look suspicious to you two?”
Gavin scanned the other patrons. “Not really. They all look like normal people. Some are obviously tourists, like that family over there with the mounds of Notre Dame Cathedral shopping bags. But no one looks dark and sinister.”
“Speaking of dark and sinister, I am pretty sure someone was following us yesterday too,” Ford said.
“What?! When?” Ellie asked.
“When we arrived home from the library. I thought a car was following us.”
Gavin frowned. “Why didn’t you say something?”
“I assumed I was imagining things, but with the agents questioning Marie-Claire today and then the parking lot—”
“Now you know it wasn’t simply your imagination,” Ellie finished for him.
“Exactly.”
“Shhh!” Gavin said, whispering. “The waiter is coming.”
Gavin and Ford sat silently as steaming bowls of soup were placed in front of them. A robust mixture of tomatoes, carrots, and zucchini wafted across their table, making Ford’s mouth water. He was just about to comment when he remembered. No English.
“Merci,” Ellie said as the waiter crammed the coffees and cakes onto the small table.
“Bon appétit,” he said and smiled. He tucked his tray under his arm and circulated amongst the other tables.
Ellie took a spoonful of soup. “Holy moly! This is amazing.” She sipped three more spoonfuls in rapid succession. “So gooood.”
Ford sliced into his chocolate cake, spearing a large wedge with his fork. He stuffed it in his mouth, crumbs falling to his plate. His eyes grew wide as he chewed. “That,” he said, swallowing, “is the best cake I have ever tasted.”
