The Virgin Vagabond

Chapter 9

The trip to Salinas was long. Their flight took off rom Pisa at 4pm. With stops in both London and Chicago, they travelled across four different time zones within 24 hours. The total flight was 19 hours long and when they landen in San Fransisco it was 11pm in their bodies but 2pm according to the sun. Luke had called ahead to set aside a car for them and the first thing they did was to go pick it up when they landed. It was a bigger car this time, some kind of SUV, Kesia didn’t bother to check what kind it was. They got in and drove off. Luke seemed to know where they were going, or his GPS told him, so Kesia leaned back and closed her eyes. When she opened her eyes again they had stopped at a gas station. Luke got out.

”Stay here” he said, ”I’m just gonna get us something to eat.”

Kesia sat in the car and looked around at the new surroundings. Her brain felt like mashed potatoes but she could still register what was around her. Somehow the green color of the trees here was different than it was at home. Dirty somehow. Everything was actually kind of similar to home but yet a little different. Luke came back and threw a couple of power bars and a bottle of water in Kesias lap.

”So, there is something you need to know” he said while unwrapping a power bar for himself. ”When they send us across the pond like this, into a whole new time zone, they usually wait a couple of days with delivering the clue. It’s just to give us a chance to get over the worst jetlag.”

”How nice of them.”

Luke smiled at her sarcastic tone.

”Talk to me Kessie, what’s on your mind?”

”Nothing! I’m just tired out of my mind. Can we go to a hotel already? I need sleep! How are you not as tired and grumpy as I am?”

Luke shrugged.

”I’m sure I will be. Probably just a delayed effect.”

He started the engine and rolled out of the gas station. A car pulled in as they pulled out and Kesia caught a fast glimpse of the people in it. She was suddenly wide awake.

”Did you see that?”

”What?”

”Oh my God! It’s our seekers, Luke, they’re already here!”

”What? How can they be?”

”I don’t know! This is insane!”

”Did they see us?”

Kesia looked over her shoulder as they drove off. Their seekers seemed to stop for gas.

”I don’t think so. They’re just fueling up the car.”

”Wow” said Luke, ”so close! But they must have come here because we were here?”

”Yes, but how would they know exactly where we are?”

”By transmitters they must have planted in our bags when they broke into our hotel room in Cape Town. They have probably been tracking us since then. That would also explain how they knew about the fortress outside of Assisi.”

”Those sneaky bastards! How far is it to the hotel?”

”Like an hour I think.”

”Good. Let’s go there and think of a good strategy for how to continue.”

”And sleep” Luke added. 

At the mention of sleep Kesia thought of the moment they had in the bed in the cozy little hotel room in Siena. Just thinking about made her all warm and her heart raced. 

”Or lay in the bed and do other things” she said and smiled. Luke smiled back without taking his eyes off the road. He reached out and put his hand on her thigh, slowly stroking it.

”I wouldn’t mind that” he said. ”I think there will be time for both.”

As they drove around a cliff they suddenly saw a police officer waving them down with a sign that said ”pull over”. Luke cursed quietly and did what he was told. He stopped the car completely and rolled down the window. 

”Hello, officer. Have I done something wrong?”

”No, this is just a routine control. Can you open the trunk please?”

Luke started sweating but opened the trunk without contradicting. The police officer walked over to the back of the car and started looking around their luggage. 

”Do we need to worry?” asked Kesia who could clearly see that Luke was nervous. 

”I don’t know how he is going to react to the guns” he whispered. ”We don’t really have a license.”

”But we must be able to prove that they aren’t real?”

”Yes, it’s just… technically they are real” Luke looked guilty.

”What!? We’ve been flying around the globe with real guns!?”

”Not so loud!”

”How is that even possible?”

”As participants in the game we sort of fly under the radar.”

Kesia looked chocked.

”Luke, that sound illegal” she whispered.

”It’s definitely a sort of legal grey area.”

Kesia couldn’t believe it. There were so many questions she hadn’t asked. Maybe questions she should have asked. Even though she was angry with Luke she mostly blamed herself. She had ignored the bad feeling in her belly since the start. The police officer came back with the suitcase.

”Do you have a permit for these?”

”Not with me…”

”Ok. If you find it you can come get them at the station in San José. Otherwise you are free to continue your journey” he said and looked weirdly pleased with himself. 

Luke rolled up the window and pulled out from the side of the road. 

”That was inconvenient but they could have ordered us to com with them to the station. That would have been worse.”

Kesia din’t say anything. She was upset with both herself, Luke and Cornelia and she didn’t know what to do now. The bad feeling in her belly grew into something else. A feeling that she wanted out. But how could she even say that to Luke? They were almost a week into the game and she was on the other side of the world. Home was so extremely far away. She glanced at Luke and wondered what else she didn’t know about him. 

”Please say something” said Luke when the silence from Kesia became too deafening.

”I don’t have anything to say right now” she said without looking at him. ”I just want to get to the hotel so that I can sleep in a bed. It’s truly the only thing I want right now.”

”Ok, I’ll get you to a bed as fast as I can.”

He speeded a little more and Kesia closed her eyes. Within seconds, she had drifted off again.

Luke pulled up in the hotel parking lot as Kesia woke again. 

”Wait here, I’ll check us in” he said and left the car. Kesia saw him go into the building and then she saw a car pull up. It was the same car that pulled into the gas station when they drove away from it. The seekers. Kesias heart raced and she ducked down in order not to be seen. Luke had left the phone in the car so there were no way of contacting him. The only thing Kesia could think of was to create a diversion to prevent the seekers from going into the building and see Luke. Quickly she took the cigarette lighter from the car and a piece of paper she found in the back seat. She lit the paper on fire and threw it into a trash can outside of the car. 

”Fire!” she screamed and the seekers turned around to see what was going on.

Luke rushed out of the building, putting on both sunglasses and hood. He walked to the car quickly and got in. He ducked down with Kesia. 

”Did you just start a fire?”

”Yes. I needed to do something and it was the first thing that came to mind.”

”That’s my girl” he said and looked at her with pride. 

”Did we get our room?”

”Yes, we can just wait until the seekers go in to the building, then we can sneak out of the car and into our room.”

”Are they also staying here?”

”I don’t know. I guess we will find out.”

All the excitement and upset feelings seemed so small once Kesia laid her head down on a pillow. In her body it was now about 2am, but their phones told them it was 5pm.

”Just a nap, Kesia,” said Luke, ”don’t sleep for hours, fight the urge to do that, we need to get used to the new time zone.”

”Mhm, sure” said Kesia who was already half way to dreamland. 

The alarm woke her up an hour later. She had to think for a few seconds before she remembered where she was. Luke was nowhere to be seen but she could hear the shower running in the bathroom. She turned over to her back and thought about calling her parents. Just as she was about to, she remembered that they were in a different timezone and it was 3am in Sweden. She decided to call for some food and then unpack her bag. They were going to be here for a while, a few days at least, so she might as well get comfortable. 

”Good, you’re awake” said Luke when he came out of the bathroom.

She turned around and saw his hairy, wet chest. Again, her thoughts travelled back to the nice moment they had under the covers in the bed in Siena. She wanted to walk over to him, kiss him and rip that towel off but she was also angry with him. 

”Yes, your alarm was very effective.”

The knock on the door was timely. Kesia walked over and opened it without taking the same precaution that Luke always did. He looked angrily at her. 

”Oh, calm down, I ordered food” said Kesia and let the valet with the food in.

”Great! I’m starving” said Luke and lifted all the lids to see what she had ordered. 

”Lets eat and talk then” said Kesia and pulled out a chair. 

Luke put on a t-shirt and sat down by the table across from her. 

”Sounds good. What do you want to talk about?”

”Why didn’t you tell me that the guns were real?”

”I thought I did. Sort of.”

”Yes, it’s the ’sort of’ that bothers me. You led me to believe that it was perfectly normal, just for show, only blanks. You chose to be fuzzy about the details.”

”That’s true. I did. I’m sorry but I thought that if I was too straight forward you would get all worried. You can’t blame me for taking your feelings into consideration.”

”I wouldn’t, if you actually knew what my feelings were. Which you don’t, you just assume I will react and think in a certain way and then you act accordingly. It bugs me.”

Luke looked at her for a bit and then poured water into their glasses. 

”I’m sorry. I will stop sugarcoating things and be straightforward from now on.”

”Good, thank you.”

She smiled a little and got a smile back. Kesia thought to herself that Luke was actually pretty easy to talk to, he was an honest man, even though he sometimes needed a little push. 

”Tell me something new about yourself” she said, hoping that he would reveal yet another one of his secrets. He frowned and took a bite of the bread he was holding.

”I’m really good at playing the guitar” he said and Kesia raised her eyebrows.

”I can imagine” she said, relieved that he had for once told her something that wasn’t heartbreaking. 

”Your turn” he said.

Just as Kesia was about to open her mouth to tell him that she had a thing for musicals there was a knock on the door. Luke immediately got up.

”Who is it?” he asked, like always.

”You don’t know us” a female voice said. ”We are the John and Keren team from Europe, the ones that dropped out.”

Luke looked at Kesia.

”Should we let them in?”

”Of course!”

Luke opened the door and in walked two people, a man and a woman. They were about the same age as Kesia and Luke but the woman was very thin and the man was a bit taller. They sat down on the couch and Kesia sat down across from them on one of the chairs. Luke chose to stand.

”So, we’ve heard about you” he said. ”Why do you come to us?”

”Well” John started, ”we have tracked your journey and right now you seem to be the winning team, although it’s really too soon to say. The other teams have less points than you.”

He gave Luke his phone where the display showed all the scores. Luke looked at it for a few seconds and then gave it to Kesia. She looked at it and they were right. At the moment, she and Luke were at the top of the list. 

”Imagine that” she said and smiled. 

”I’ve never heard of anyone dropping out before. What happened?” Luke asked.

John and Keren looked at each other. 

”We can’t really say” Keren said. ”The reason we wanted to talk to you was because we want you to win and we’re gonna make it happen.”

Luke frowned and looked at John.

”Why do you think we need your help? We seem to be doing fine on our own.”

”Yes, but you might need help to keep doing fine. Your seekers are closing in. They live two floors up from you and can monitor all your comings and goings.”

”We know” said Kesia, ”we saw them when we checked in. They didn’t see us though.”

John laughed a little. 

”Yeah, they’re not great at this.”

”Let’s not underestimate them” said Kesia. ”That seems foolish.”

”You’re right” said Keren, ”it is foolish. Have you played before? I don’t recognize you.”

”I haven’t, this is my first time. I didn’t know there were fraternizing between the teams though, you guys know each other?”

”Not really. I’ve seen Lukes picture from the year he won. They release that information along with all the scores when the game is over.”

”So, how do you plan to help us?” asked Luke to get back to the subject at hand.

”Well, we will have to stay in touch” said John and gave Luke a burner phone. ”There is one number in it - mine. Keep us informed of everything.”

”We can’t use our own phones?” asked Kesia, surprised.

”No” John said and shook his head. 

Kesia waited for an explanation but it didn’t come. 

”We should go” said Keren and John nodded.

”Why should we trust you?” asked Luke before they reached the door.

John picked up his phone and called a number.

”Sorry to call you at this hour, Cori, I have him here for you. He doesn’t think he can trust us.”

John gave Luke the phone.

”Hello? Cornelia?”

He looked at Kesia and made the typical phone sounds ’mhm’ and ’uhu’.

”Ok, I’ll talk to you later” he said and hung up.

”Trust us now?” asked John and took his phone back.

”Yes” answered Luke.

When John and Keren had left the room Luke and Kesia exchanged a look before they sat down to finish their meal.

The next few days was all about getting past the jetlag and sleep. Kesia realized that it was a challenge to go from nice Italian cuisine to fast food and burgers. The food in the hotel was alright but as soon as they managed to sneak outside they had a hard time finding anything but fast food. Although, the seekers made it hard for them to leave. Luke created a diversion while Kesia went to the closest store to get some hair dye. It might make it easier to avoid their seekers if she looked different. She also suggested to Luke that he could shave but he just scoffed and changed the subject. One afternoon they went to a mall and got some new clothes in order to blend in better. Kesia was in the fitting room when Luke got a call. She couldn’t make out what it was about since he talked to someone in Italian. When he hung up he seemed upset. 

”Who was it?” Kesia asked while wiggling into a skirt.

”Ricardo. He said he saw my dad the other night. Drunk. I told him that can’t be true but he insisted and I don’t think he would call me to tell me if he wasn’t convinced it was him.”

”I’m sorry.”

”Yeah, so am I. Do you find anything you wanna buy?”

”Maybe this skirt” she said and posed a little bit for him. 

”I like you in skirts” he said and came closer. 

Kesia backed into the booth and Luke followed. He closed the curtain and wrapped his arms around her. Kesia giggled a little before his lips shut her up.