Page 47 of Radar (Iniquus Certified Cerberus Tactical K9 #2)

Elyssa

Monday

Paris, France

Xander must have developed a plan while he was on his jog earlier.

Thank the Heavens she wasn’t alone, blow drying her hair when those men had shown up and attacked Xander.

She had been terrified in the aftermath of the snowmobile. But seeing someone point a gun at Xander was an out-of-body, otherworldly experience.

With a bag slung over each shoulder, his roller bag in one hand and her hand in his other. They walked half a block to the hospital supply store.

He lifted his hand when he walked in, and Elyssa noticed his bruised and swollen knuckles.

Typing an amount into the computer, the cashier read the total, and Xander paid in cash.

The cashier rounded the counter with a wheelchair. It had a nicely padded seat, and in the back, there was a large enough basket. Xander could easily slide his roller bag into it.

Still holding Radar’s lead, Elyssa sat. “Xander, my condition isn’t usually this bad. Just all the travel, and cold, and chaos.”

“You’re a super star and I’m in awe. I hoped this would take some pressure off.”

“Thank you,” Elyssa said as the cashier ran around them to the door and held it wide, Elyssa wondered what story Xander had offered this person.

Their next stop was three doors down at a women’s clothing store. He walked to the shelf, pulled down a t-shirt, sweatpants, and a fleece jacket, and placed them in her lap.

Pushing the chair back to the area to try things on, Elyssa simply sat there with the clothes in her lap. This had to be some kind of ploy.

Xander was busy on the floor, pulling out a wand-like piece of equipment. Then, piece by piece, he meticulously went through every item in their bags, the clothes he wore, and then the clothes she wore.

Her boot lit up the wand.

Silently, Xander removed it from her foot and looked it over. Then, with a penknife, he worked on the liner. Elyssa wasn’t great with the idea that he was digging into her sweaty boot. After a moment, he pulled up a flat disk that must have been in the heel cavity.

Cold washed through Elyssa.

She had brought those attackers to their room. She had put Radar and Xander in deadly peril.

She felt like she was cosplaying. It was like being in a movie without being given a script. None of this seemed real, despite the sights, sounds, and smells.

Meanwhile, there was Xander acting like this was his normal, everyday life.

And for all she knew, it was. Yup, he was just going about his business with no evident emotion about this at all.

He retrieved a piece of gum from his kit, chewed it, and then pressed the tracker into the glob.

Leaving Radar to guard her, he left the dressing area.

There was the tinkle as the bell jingled at the front door. A moment later, the bell tinkled again.

When Xander walked back into the curtained area, he was grinning as he said, “Now they’re tracking a public bus, that should be fun for them.”

After Xander performed a final sweep of every item they had with them and repacked, he wheeled Elyssa to the cashier and paid for her new outfit.

As they moved through the front door with the paper bag on her lap, she asked, “Did you buy me the outfit because you don’t like me to wear your shirts?”

“The outfit was subterfuge,” Xander said. “I love that you’re wearing my shirt.”

Their next stop was onto the Metro, heading toward Victor and the boat.

Neither of them had anything to say as they lightly swayed with a car filled with Parisians and tourists.

Elyssa was conserving what energy she could as she snacked on her pickle-flavored chips.

“Elyssa, we’re the next stop.” Xander released the brake on her chair and pushed it forward.

The subway lights blinked, then faded. They were in pitch black until Xander swiped his phone flashlight on.

Rolling to a stop, Xander said loudly enough for the car to hear, first in French, then in English, “Looks like the electrical outage made it to Paris.” Xander reached for the door and pried it open.

He jumped down. People around him were calling out to him, and Elyssa had no idea what they were saying, but Xander’s reply was in a reasonable tone.

He seemed to be giving them information and explanations.

Heads were nodding. Xander reached for Elyssa and held her in his arms while two men got down and moved the wheelchair and their bags to the sidewalk that ran along the tunnel. Passengers held out their phone flashlights to provide light.

Radar jumped down from the car to the rails and then leaped up onto the sidewalk next to the wheelchair.

Xander set Elyssa down in her seat again.

Xander turned to see the men helping other passengers out. Once Xander got her chair rolling forward, Elyssa asked. “What’s happening?”

“The electrical outages have been spreading across France, and my app showed them creeping closer to the city. I thought we had enough time to get to our stop and then some. There must have been a surge of outages.”

“Damned sunspots.”

“I told them that I wasn’t willing to sit in a Metro for hours until some official came to get me off. As long as I was on the walkway, nothing could happen, even if they had a backup generator that would kick in.”

“Well, as people see us leaving, they’re getting the idea, too,” Elyssa said.

“Good. I prefer to be lost in the crowd.”

Xander and two other men from their same subway car carried Elyssa’s wheelchair up the steep steps.

Elyssa was both grateful and wanted to roll her eyes at the preposterousness of it all.

It wasn’t preposterous. If she were at home, she would have been in bed sleeping all day.

Honestly, it had been two weeks of overexertion.

And two days in a row, her brain had turned to big orange letters of insistence that she act to stay alive.

And keep Xander alive. Who knew that was a thing her brain could do?

Xander was standing at a crossroads. “The boat is two blocks that way. Believe it or not, we’re still on time. We have about thirty minutes until we need to meet our helper. You need to eat.”

“You need to eat,” Elyssa said.

He pushed her up the road to a café where they read over the menu.

“English?” Xander asked the server.

“Yes.”

“We’d like sandwiches and drinks to go, please.” He turned to Elyssa. “Do you know what you’d like?”

“The Mediterranean, please. And the largest bottle of sparkling water you have. Two. No, three. Three of your largest bottles.”

The server used his hands to indicate their size and a face that asked if she was sure.

“Yes, thank you.”

Xander ordered his lunch and pulled out a chair to sit and hold her hand.

The eye of the storm, Elyssa thought, enjoying the calming sensation of Xander’s thumb brushing over the top of her hand.

A pop dropped Xander out of his chair onto the ground as he reached out and pressed Elyssa’s head down.

Was that gunfire?

Pop. Pop. Pop.

It sure sounded like gunfire. Had someone found them again?

Xander twisted to look around him, and Elyssa looked too. There wasn’t really anywhere to go that didn’t look easily shot up.

In one fluid motion, Xander released Radar from his lead and signaled him to his side. “Elyssa, hang on, this is going to be bumpy.”

Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop.

They were moving.

Xander had the bags over his shoulders and was pressing her chair forward, running full tilt across the street, then over the sidewalk into the row of hedges and trees. He didn’t stop. He didn’t slow. It was like being on a wild amusement park ride through the branches.

Arriving at the ticket building outside the tourist boats’ wharf, Xander burst through the door.

The man peeked up when the bell tinkled.

Now the strafing sound of gunfire was a constant ratatatat. It sounded like a war had broken out along the shores of the Seine.

Xander turned the sign to closed and locked the door.

“Get back down.” He pulled the blinds, so they had a couple of inches to see out, but mostly the interior was shielded from view.

“If the glass breaks, this will protect the room from flying shards.” He paused as he pulled down the next one.

“It can’t stop a bullet.” He said it in English for Elyssa, then in French for everyone else.

“Has the world gone mad?” the head-looking guy said in heavily-accented English.

Banging at the door. “Jean Michel! It’s me, Victor. Let me in.”

“Let him in. He works here.”

“Look first.” Xander raised the shade.

“Yes. Yes. For sure, this is Victor.”

Xander opened the door, and the guy stumbled in, dropping his hands to his knees and panting. “ Ca va .” He raised a hand. “ Tout va bien .”

Even from Elyssa’s pitiful French, she recognized the words telling her everything was okay.

“What’s happening out there?” The cashier asked in English. “Are you hurt?”

Victor looked at Xander and asked, “American?”

“My wife and I were vacationing.” He made his voice sound defeated. “Paris in the springtime.”

“So romantic,” Elyssa added wryly.

“I am Victor,” he sent a significant look to Xander. “This is Jean-Michel.” He indicated the man behind the cash register.

Jean-Michel focused on Victor. “What did you see?”

“It’s the adhesive factory. The popping is the sound of explosions contained inside the building. I saw firefighters there. They are running their hoses.”

“Good thing the fire station is within hearing of the factory,” Jean Michel held up his cell phone. “There is nothing. What could have happened to our cell connections?”

“Too many people touching base with loved ones all at once,” Xander said.

“It’s best to text.” He turned to Victor.

“My wife,” Xander said, “has a disorder that is exacerbated by big noises, public distress, all the things that are happening now. It’s her heart.

I’d like to get her out of town to Le Havre.

Victor nodded. “I can do it. I don’t have a fancy boat, but I live on it. So, it has a couch for sitting.” He looked at Elyssa. “You can lie down. I have a bed. I changed the sheets this morning.”

Elyssa was numb and woozy. Just anywhere she could put her head in peace and quiet, without the need to fend off another assailant, would be amazing.

“Is it near here?” Xander asked.

“Yes. Yes. Just there.” He pointed toward a covered window.

Victor walked with them as they made their way to the wharf and onto the boat.

Xander lifted Elyssa into his arms and carried her into the cabin, laying her gently on the couch.

“Seven hours from Paris to Le Havre.” Victor put the two backpacks near the cabinet. “I will have you there by dinner. On board, I have just gone shopping. I can make sandwiches, and I have fruit.”

“Perfect, thank you.” Xander turned to Elyssa. “I’m taking Radar to potty. I’m within hearing range just on the shore.”

Victor had finished bringing the folded wheelchair and roller case on board when Radar trotted into the cabin, then jumped on top of Elyssa, covering her legs, pushing some much-needed blood to her heart.