“I’ll go and talk to this Charles Morris person for you.” Jasmine turns and leave her grandma’s home office.

She goes upstairs to her bedroom and changes out of the clothes she was wearing and put her bulletproof bodysuit on under her clothes. It was going to cause her to feel warmer, but she would rather be safe then sorry. She also puts her motorcycle boots on as well.

Jasmine grabs the keys to her motorcycle and her helmet as she heads back downstairs. She heads out to the barn where her motorcycle was stored. She removes the cover, covering it. A smile appears on her face as she mounts her modified Vincent Black Shadow. It was one of the motorcycles her grandmother had down in the den that Jack himself rode. This one had been modified by Dave Valiant.

It was faster and more stable and could handle rough terrain like it was nothing. She had an unmodified one that had been down in the den. That one and the other one like it was used to fabricate parts for the others. She starts it up and head towards the airport control tower.

Ada and Ayla hear a motorcycle and turn to the nearest window. They move the curtain aside to see who it was. They spot the motorcycle heading down the long driveway.

“I wonder who that was?” Ada was curious, because the person was slim.

Clair heard Ada’s question when she walked into her library. She figured that Ada and Ayla would be in there, since both seemed to be the educated ones.

“That’s Jasmine. She’s running an errand for me.”

“Oh?” Ada turns when she hears Clair’s voice.

“Is there anything we can do?” Ayla looks towards Clair when she asks that question.

“No, but I did hear back from the mechanic about your car, Ayla.”

“What did they learn?” Ayla wonders why her car quit on her.

“Well, there is two things wrong with your car. Something call a crankshaft position sensor needs to be replace. They can do that today.
However, your alternator needs replacing as well and none of the local auto part stores carry it. It must be special order and won’t get here until Monday.”

“Man, I didn’t think it was that serious.” Ayla wonders how much that was going to cost her.

“My offer still stands, Ayla.” Ada didn’t mind giving Ayla a ride.

“You’re welcome to stay here until your car is ready, Ayla. That offer goes for you to, Ada.” Clair knew what Ada was after.

“Thank you. If it’s no problem, Ada. I would like to go home and get a couple of changes of clothes. Ayla looks at Ada when she asks that.

“There’s no need to drive all the way back to Alexandria, girls. There is a small shopping center not far from my place where you can pick up
whatever you need.” Clair has been to it over the years.

“I don’t need much. Just a change of clothes and a few personal items.” Ayla wanted to get out of the clothes she wore at the conference.

“Then its settle. Ada, I think it might be good for you to drive us. My pickup isn’t comfortable enough with three people in it.” Clair figures Ada might want to drive.

“No problem. Let me go and get it.” Ada never did move her car from where she parked it.

“If you go out the back door. You can save yourself some walking. There’s a path from the house that leads to the fire road you parked at.” Clair
had that road put in so the forest rangers could go into the forest behind her.

“Thanks.” Ada turns and walks out of the library.

She grabs her purse and walkout the back door. She spots the path leading towards the woods where her car was parked. She wonders what Clair was up too.

Ayla looks at Clair “you have a huge collection here. Where did you gather so many items?”

“From my journey’s. Most of it is for show and the rest I used to use for research.” Clair walks over to where Ayla was standing.

“What type of research did you do?” Ayla was curious.

“I use to help some friends of mine solve cases that normal police or agency people couldn’t solve. I love solving mysteries and figuring out things that the world has forgotten. Take this for example.” As Clair walks over to a display case and deactivate the security system on it.

She opens the case and carefully take out a smooth rock with symbols on it. She looks towards Ayla while holding it “this was found on an island out in the pacific. The island had never been charted or visited before except by a traveling group of Polynesian sailors. This all that remains of that island now.”

“Wow! What happened to the island?” Ayla was curious.

“Blown up by an ancient weapon of alien design.” Clair lays the rock back in the display case.

“You’re joking, right?” As Ayla watches Clair rearm the security system.

“Nope, I’m very serious. The people I use to work with would track down criminals and people who pose a threat to humanity. It was their job to work outside of the system and make sure the scales were balance. A lot of times, they came across mysteries and things they couldn’t figure out. That was where I specialized. You have heard of Sherlock Holmes, haven’t you?”

“Yes, but he was fictional. He was never real.” Ayla knew he was fake.

“You are right, he was fake. However, there uses to be a person whom he was based off of. That person was my ancestor, and he was rather bright for a person of his times. He helped solve several murders and crimes committed during his time. He also helped concealed things that the public wasn’t ready for yet.”

“So, are you saying that the group you mention before recruited you?” Ayla looks at Clair and wonders if she was crazy or telling the truth.

“Yes, they recruited me for my forensic expertise. I used to help them in a lot cases, that to this day can never be known.” Clair knew humanity
wasn’t ready for all the things her group dealt with or abolished because of dangerous it could become in the wrong hands.

“Did you ever publish any of the things you did or write about it?” Ayla would like to know more about Clair.

“Yes, but it is so old or out of date that it doesn’t matter anymore.” Clair walks over to a section of her library and pull a book from it that she wrote and hand it to Ayla.

Ayla accepted the book and looked at it. It had a different name on it. She looks at Clair “it has a different author named as the writer.”

“That’s my old name. When I retired, I had to change my name and features in order to protect my family.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Ayla was suspicious about Clair’s motive.

“Well, an old medicine man once told me something he once saw in a dream. At the time, I paid no mind to it. I didn’t believe in what he told me. However, there is something about you that has piqued my curiosity. There’s an energy about you, that I haven’t felt in a very long time. You don’t have to tell me your secret, but I thought you should know something about me.” Clair turns and walks out of the library.

Ayla watches Clair as she walks out of the room. She wonders how this woman has figured out the truth about her. She has done nothing to give herself away. She looks down at the book in her hands “who are you really, Clair Williams?”

Last Chance Garage:
Becky leans back in the old-style leather chair in her Great Uncle’s office. She hated that her car went out of control because of the new fuel she used. She thought she fixed her uncle’s miscalculation, but it seemed she didn’t. Now, she was going to have to rebuild her car and try to fix the fuel formula.

She looks at the workorder for Mrs. Williams friend. The alternator would be here first thing Monday morning and the sensor was on its way to the shop. She could hear her uncle and his friend out in the garage working.

She checks her emails to see if any of the parts she put online were selling. She a person that was looking for a rear axle from an old Ford F350. She brings up the list of junk vehicles they had in the yard and noticed they had four of the trucks. Two of the trucks had front end damage and the other had blown motors, but the bodies were in good shape.

She quotes them a price and send the email off. She answers a few other emails and order the parts she needed for her car. Those parts had to come from a high-performance supplier. She couldn’t use off the shelf parts any more on her car.

Becky looks at the photo her uncle kept on the desk. It was the family photo her mother sent to her uncle when she was just fifteen years old. She was so happy back then and so naive. Who would have known that things would had changed so fast for her weeks later and she would end up living with her favorite uncle.

Becky feels tears leaking from her eyes. She wipes them away with the back of her hand. The last thing she wanted to do is start crying over the events of that week. She has put those memories behind her and has moved on with her life.

She manages to get her emotions under control, before leaving the office. Her ribs were hurting her, but it was nothing to the pain she felt when her legs had been broken. The doctors had to rebuild her whole entire legs. That had been the worse pain she felt, beside what she went through.

She walks into the garage area where her uncle was taking apart the top part of an engine, so he could get to the spark plugs under everything. Sometimes car engineers should be forced to service their own creations before designing the damn things.

“Uncle Cecil and Henry, I’m going to order some lunch for us from Stocker’s. Do you want your usual or something different?”

Cecil looks over towards Becky “my normal, Becky.”

“Same here, Becky. Let me know how much it is.” Henry looks over towards Cecil’s great niece. He was glad she was doing better.

“Don’t worry about it, Henry. It’s on me.” Becky turns around and heads back into the shop to place the order.