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Elf Academy 3: The Enemy Within  by Fiondil

61: After the Concert

“I was wondering how long it would take you to find me,” Glorfindel said with a smirk before Alex could speak.

“What are you doing here?” Alex demanded angrily.

“Keeping you and everyone else safe,” Glorfindel replied calmly.

“You… alone?” Alex said, giving him a skeptical look.

“No. I had help,” Glorfindel replied.

“I saw no one. I mean, no one from Edhellond. Finlay was at the restaurant, he and Sakari. That was pretty cheap, by the way.”

“What do you mean?”

“Using Sakari that way. Finlay, yes. He’s an agent, or was, so keeping tabs on someone is second nature to him and I’m sure he didn’t mind being your eyes and ears at the restaurant, but dragging Sakari into our little cat-and-mouse game that we have going here is really low, even for you.”

“She agreed to it once we explained what we wanted,” Glorfindel said.

“Oh, really?” Alex shot him a disgusted look, not at all convinced. Then deciding not to pursue the matter further, he changed the subject. “You said you had help keeping watch. I’m assuming you mean Maiar, because I saw no one.”

“No. He means me.”

Alex actually leapt back, giving a slight gasp of shock, his heart racing, as Finrod seemed to materialize from midair. “How—? Where—?” He looked around the room as if expecting to find a secret entrance or something to explain how Finrod had not been there and then was.

Both Finrod and Glorfindel gave him amused looks and that angered him, their sense of superiority grating on his nerves. “What the hell is going on?” he demanded, automatically reaching for the gun that wasn’t there, catching himself when he realized what he was doing.

“You saw no one because we did not allow you to,” Finrod said with preternatural calmness. “I have been standing in that corner there while you and Glorfindel conversed and though you looked, you did not see me.”

“That Jedi mind trick you pulled on the cops,” Alex said.

“If you wish,” Finrod replied, though Alex suspected that there was more to it than that. He decided not to pursue that subject further either. “I’ve been feeling uneasy for most of the time I’ve been here. I couldn’t pinpoint my unease. In fact, it’s still there, like an itch that can’t be scratched.”

Glorfindel gave him a concerned look, as did Finrod. Before either one could comment, the door leading to the stage opened and Elladan entered. “All clear,” he announced. “Ron called and said Felicity made it home safely.”

“Felicity?” Alex exclaimed in alarm. “What do you mean? Ron actually followed her home? How many of you are here? Where have you been? I saw no one. Finlay was so obvious, but he and Sakari never followed us to here.”

“That’s because their job was done,” Glorfindel said. “Once you left the restaurant others took over. Finlay and Sakari went back to Edhellond.”

Alex felt himself getting angrier by the minute. The whole evening had been orchestrated by the Elves. He and Felicity…. “Damn you! Damn you all!” he shouted. He flung open the door leading into the hall and stalked away, in sudden need of air. The hall was dark, everyone else having left in the meantime, but he could see the exit sign and headed for it. He never reached it.

Someone grabbed him from behind, putting him into a choke hold and placing a hand over his mouth. “Shh… be quiet, Meriwether,” Finlay whispered as he dragged Alex to the right of the exit and into deep shadow.

Alex went completely still and the pressure on his throat eased as Finlay removed his hand from his mouth. “What’s going on?” Alex whispered back as he saw Glorfindel, Finrod and Elladan exit the green room, turning off the light and heading unerringly toward them in the almost total darkness with only light from outside providing illumination. Alex could barely see his hand in front of him.

“Finlay, what are you doing here?” Glorfindel asked quietly.

“Well, I couldn’t let my good friend Meriwether have all the fun, could I?” He released Alex completely.

“It’s Grant, not Meriwether,” Alex rejoined.

“Whatever. You guys may want to be careful leaving this place. I think all the exits are being targeted.”

“If that’s true, how did you get in?” Elladan demanded. “None of our people would have allowed that.”

Alex could almost hear the smirk in Finlay’s voice. “Everyone’s so busy watching the doors, they ignore the windows. Found one that wasn’t locked.”

“Which one?” Glorfindel asked, sounding more curious than angry.

The smirk became more obvious in Finlay’s tone. “The ladies’ room. I think someone went in to sneak a cigarette during the performance. I could sort of smell the tobacco. They must’ve opened the window but forgot to lock it properly afterwards.”

Alex turned to look at Finlay, only a shadow in the darkness. “You sneaked in from the ladies’ room?”

“Don’t sound so shocked, Meriwether,” Finlay said with a chuckle. “I kept my eyes closed the whole way to the door.”

“Yeah, right,” Alex snorted in disbelief.

“Let’s take this conversation elsewhere,” Glorfindel said, then issued orders in Sindarin to Elladan who sprinted away, apparently unconcerned that the place was in near total darkness.

Alex felt Finrod take him by an arm and lead him back to the green room, while Glorfindel led Finlay. Once inside and the door shut, Glorfindel warned everyone just before he flipped the switch and the lights came on. Alex winced with momentary pain even with his eyes closed and then opened them slowly to allow them to adjust. Finlay was standing nearby blinking as well. The two Elves were quietly conversing in Quenya. Glorfindel pulled out his phone from a pocket and spoke into it for a few minutes before shutting it down.

“So what brings you here, Edward?” he asked. “Where’s Sakari?”

“Back at your place,” Finlay replied. “As for me, I got… suspicious or nervous or something and decided to see what was going on. Took me a bit to find this place or I would’ve been here earlier.”

“How do you know the exits are being targeted?” Finrod asked.

Finlay shrugged. “Not sure, but…”

“I told you I’ve been feeling uneasy since I got here,” Alex reminded the Elves, “but there was no sense of unease at the restaurant.” He turned to Finlay. “By the way, how was your dinner?”

“Excellent. A little heavy on the garlic, but otherwise, the best Italian I’ve had outside of Italy. Sakari wants to go back tomorrow night and the night after that and the night after that.” He rolled his eyes.

“If they have ravioli again, I highly recommend the lobster,” Alex said with a straight face.

“You two can discuss the menu later,” Glorfindel interjected. “Let’s concentrate on getting Alex out of here alive. We’ve been going in and out of this place all evening and have felt nothing untoward, or at least I haven’t.”

Elladan came in just then and with him were Elrohir, Prince Legolas, Valandur and Thandir.

“Mr. Finlay is correct,” Valandur said before anyone could speak. “All the exits are being watched. Thaddeus, tell them what you found.”

Thandir shrugged. “One is across the street from the parking lot, another is in the trees overlooking the exit to the north and a third is on the roof of the building to the south. The kitchen exit is being watched from the other end of the alley to the left as you leave.”

“Are they armed?” Glorfindel asked and Thandir nodded.

“So four watchers and we must assume one of them is Farrell,” Finrod said.

“Not necessarily,” Finlay said. “We don’t know how many people were involved in Farrell’s escape and Farrell likes to watch from a distance. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s not even near here.”

“So how did he know where we would be?” Alex asked, perplexed. “Is there a leak somewhere?”

“Not with us,” Glorfindel said categorically.

“Yet, he somehow knew where to find me,” Alex said. “Not at the restaurant, but here, and I felt uneasy almost from the moment I parked, which means he was in place before I got here. How?”

“Have you checked your car lately?” Finlay asked.

Alex blinked at the import of Finlay’s words. “Damn! I am getting sloppy, but even if he’s planted a tracer, he can’t know ahead of time where I’m going.”

“No, but he doesn’t have to,” Finlay pointed out. “All he has to do is tap into your phone conversations if you’re using your cell phone.”

“Blast! I’d forgotten about that and I called Felicity this morning to confirm our getting together.”

“If Farrell has the ability to tap into phone conversations, he’s getting help from someone with access to the technology that allows it,” Elladan pointed out.

“You mean the Agency,” Alex said.

“Or some element within it,” Elladan said with a nod.

Silence fell as they contemplated Elladan’s words. Finally, Glorfindel stirred. “Well, if he’s tapping into our phones, he’ll get no joy from us. We’ll speak only in Sindarin or Quenya from now on.”

“That’s fine for you, but what about me or Finlay or anyone else?” Alex demanded.

“Most of our friends speak Sindarin so that won’t be a problem,” Glorfindel replied. “My suggestion is that you be circumspect in your conversations and speak only in generalities so that Farrell has no way of knowing what your plans are.”

“We need to bring him down,” Alex snarled.

“That goes without saying,” Finrod retorted.  “However, at the moment, we must deal with getting you and Mr. Finlay out of here safely.”

“Some of us could go out and neutralize them,” Thandir suggested. “They will never know we are there until it is too late.”

“That would certainly solve a lot of problems,” Glorfindel said, his brow creased with a frown as he thought things through. He turned to Finrod. “What do you think, gwador? Should we risk it?”

“And in what manner would we neutralize these people?” Finrod asked.

“Well, whatever you do with them, just don’t send them to Sakari’s village,” Finlay retorted.

“No, but if we can incapacitate them in some way so Farrell no longer has any backup…” Glorfindel said, his words trailing off into silence.

Just then, Barahir came in the room. “They’ve pulled out,” he said. “They all got in a van that was parked right next to your car, Alex.” He flashed the Mortal an ironic look.

“Cute,” Glorfindel muttered. “Okay, I guess the excitement is over. Barry, you want to ride with Alex? Edward, I assume you have your jeep. Okay, Val, go with Ed. I want Alex to be in the middle of our little convoy.”

“Ron came back here and is waiting for us with his car,” Barahir said.

“Even better,” Glorfindel said with a nod. “He can bring up the rear. Shall we go?”

Barahir led the way with Glorfindel last, turning off the light. No one bothered with flashlights if they even had them. Alex felt one of the Elves taking him by the arm and leading him directly to the exit. He had to assume someone was helping Finlay who was muttering something too low for him to hear, though from the chuckles coming from the Elves, they apparently had no trouble and found whatever the Man was saying amusing. When they reached the doors, they stopped.

“Okay, let’s keep Alex and Ed in the middle. Ed, where are you parked?”

“To the right as you exit.”

“We’ll head that way first. You and Val get into the jeep and bring it over to where Alex is parked. Roy, here are the keys to the van.” He handed a set of keys to the ellon and as they all exited, Elrohir headed away from them, keeping to the shadows. Finlay’s jeep was about twenty yards away. Alex felt every inch of it and was half-expecting to hear bullets flying, but the night was quiet. They reached the jeep and as soon as Finlay and Val got in the others headed directly to Alex’s car, parked in the opposite direction and closer to the street. Another vehicle came toward them showing no lights and then it stopped a couple of feet away. Alex realized it was Glorfindel’s van. Vorondur’s car was parked beside Alex’s. Vorondur was kneeling in the snow flashing a light under the carriage.

“I have not found anything suspicious yet,” he said, not even looking up as he continued to examine the underside of the car. “Ah, yes!” He reached under and pulled something out, rising to shine his flashlight on whatever was in his hand. Alex leaned closer and recognized it as a tracer.

“Nasty little buggers,” Vorondur said with a grin and then dropped it onto the ground and stomped on it.

By now Finlay was there with his jeep, his window rolled down. “Okay, let’s roll,” Glorfindel said. “Alex, follow the van. Ed, you follow Alex. Ron, bring up the rear. You have the walkie-talkie? Good. Holler if you notice a tail. Stay on Orion and go straight over to Aurora rather than taking Morningside, then take North Wingate and come onto Sycamore from there.” With that, he headed for the van with the others, leaving Alex and Barahir to get into Alex’s car. A minute later, with headlights on, the van rolled out of the parking lot with Alex directly behind. He glanced into his rearview mirror and saw the jeep and then Vorondur’s car pulling out onto the street.

Traffic at that hour was relatively light and the route Glorfindel had mapped out avoided traffic lights, so no one was forced to stop for a red light and be left behind. Alex kept his focus on the van and he was grateful that Barahir remained silent. It took them about five minutes longer to reach Edhellond than normally, but eventually they all pulled into the drive and Alex breathed a sigh of relief as he parked the car and climbed out. The front door opened to reveal Daeron waiting for them. Barahir grabbed Alex and pushed him down.

“Don’t make yourself a target,” the Elf said and Alex walked in a crouched position with Barahir keeping a hand on his shoulder to help him maintain balance. All the other Elves surrounded them and Daeron stepped back as Alex and Barahir entered. Alex stayed crouched but moved to sit on the stairs out of the way as the others came in and only when Glorfindel and Finrod, bringing up the rear, entered and the door was closed did he get up and doff his coat.

“This is getting ridiculous,” he said as he handed his coat to Barahir who hung it up for him.

“Perhaps, but you made it home alive and that is all that matters, is it not?” Finrod asked and Alex could only nod in agreement.

“I have some hot chocolate on the stove if anyone is interested,” Daeron said and several people, including Alex, voiced their thanks to the suggestion.

“Where’s Sakari?” Finlay asked, sounding worried.

Daeron smiled at him. “She is in your bedroom waiting for you. Why don’t you bring her up some hot chocolate? I’m sure she would appreciate it.”

”Yeah, sure,” Finlay said, looking slightly embarrassed.

“Come on, then, and you can tell me all about the concert, Alex.”

“Don’t you want to hear about how we foiled Farrell’s plans?” Glorfindel asked.

“Bah! I’m sure you pulled it off with your usual aplomb, Loren,” Daeron said dismissively. “I’m more interested in hearing about the concert.”

“Spoken like a true bard,” Valandur said with a grin and everyone else chuckled as they headed down the hall to the kitchen with Alex describing the program.

“Wagner, huh?” Daeron said as they entered the kitchen. “The second half of the program sounds… significant.” He went to the stove and began ladling hot chocolate into mugs. Elrohir helped him.

“I wondered about that myself, but really, that’s getting a bit paranoid, isn’t it?” Alex exclaimed as he accepted a mug from Elrohir, liberally topped with homemade whipped cream and sprinkled with cinnamon and nutmeg.

Daeron shrugged. “Perhaps. If you were to assign any significance to the program, what would it be?”

“Well, let’s see, the first piece reminded me of the Valar sitting safely on their thrones in Valinor, while the second one obviously represents the coming war. Not sure about the Magic Fire music, though. Brunnhilde becomes Mortal afterwards, right? And she’s the one who deliberately rides her horse into Siegfried’s funeral pyre with that ring everyone was all hot after, thereby cleansing it of its curse. So does that mean it’s going to take Mortals to win this War and we’ll have to sacrifice everything, including our lives, to do it?” He shrugged, taking a sip of his drink. No one commented. “But the last piece is real obvious. Apparently, no one gets out alive and like all good opera, everyone dies at the end.”

“Except, if that is so, who’s lit the funeral pyre?” Daeron asked with a lift of an eyebrow.

“Maybe the Valar sitting pretty in Valinor,” Alex retorted.

“You sound very bitter,” Vorondur commented, his eyes narrowing.

“Shouldn’t I be? I can’t turn around without one of you lot or the Maiar in my face. And we all know you take your orders from the Valar.”

“As do you,” Glorfindel pointed out.

“No. I take my orders from me.”

“You are not a lone wolf, Alex,” Valandur said. “You are a part of this team and under my and Amroth’s command.”

“I agreed to help you, I said nothing about taking orders from you,” Alex exclaimed hotly.

“Man, Meriwether, you are one obnoxious little twit, aren’t you?” Finlay said with a shake of his head. “Don’t glower at me boy. I don’t know half of what you-all are going on about, but I know this much and it’s as plain as the nose on your face: you’ve been recruited to their cause and while you’re all for it, you resent the hell out of it and them.”

“What do you know about it, Ed?” Alex demanded.

“I know this much, kid. You were a big fish in a little pond when you were with the Agency. Everyone thought you were a regular hero and you knew it. I even overheard a couple of women wondering if you stood in front of your bathroom mirror going, ‘Bond, James Bond’ before you left on an assignment.” He grinned and some of the Elves, understanding the reference, grinned as well. Alex started to protest but Finlay raised his hand. “Look, all I’m saying is that you’ve started to believe your own propaganda but now you find yourself in a bigger pond and you’re no longer king and that rankles. Well, welcome to my world, Meriwether. Oh, thanks.” This last was directed at Elrohir handing him a couple of mugs. “If you gentlemen will excuse me, I have a lady waiting and that’s never a good thing to do.”

All the Elves chuckled and wished the Mortal a good night as he headed up the back stairs. Alex just stood there glaring at them all. The Elves effectively ignored him, all of them concentrating on their hot chocolates, though Alex had the feeling they were all watching him. He drained his mug and set it on the kitchen island.

“I’m going to bed,” he muttered. “Good night.”

“Good night,” they all said.

Alex hesitated. “You’re not going to insist we talk about this?” he asked.

Vorondur shrugged. “Only if you want to, Alex. We’re not your masters. We can’t force you to do anything you don’t want to, including being a team player. If you insist on going your own way, then you effectively lose all support from us and the Valar. You might want to keep that in mind. Now, why don’t you go and get a good night’s sleep? Perhaps you’ll feel differently about things in the morning. And, as far as the concert is concerned, I wouldn’t worry about its significance, because there is none.”

“How do you know?” Alex asked.

“Because, as Sigmund would say, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Now, good night.”

Alex nodded and headed up the stairs, thinking over what Vorondur had said. He went through his nightly routine and was soon climbing into bed, turning off the light. He lay there staring up at the ceiling for some time, going over the night’s events and all that had been said and done. Eventually, he fell asleep, his last thoughts centered around Felicity Cohen.





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