It was still dark when they arrived at a beat up travel trailer somewhere in the middle of another nowhere in Nevada, and parked the bike in the back between the trailer and a rather nice car. An unusually nice car, she thought, for someone living here.
They both walked around to the door of the trailer, and Stryker knocked followed by two more rapid knocks. She stood behind him, and a little to the side, so he did not see the slight curl of her lip. She thought the use of a secret knock was somewhat silly. Silly, but also a little cute... and a little fun.
It seemed like there were no lights on inside, but someone immediately separated the blinds and peeked through. The blinds were released, and then the door opened. Kira could see some candle light inside the trailer as a woman poked her head out and briefly looked around.
"Oh, thank you for coming, Mr. Goodman," the woman's tone was wary but relieved. "Come in."
Mr. Goodman is it, Kira thought to herself. She followed him inside and looked around the place. The light was dim, but she could easily see that this was obviously not anyone's permanent residence. It looked more like a storage shed with boxes and a variety of clutter shoved to three sides, and she smelled old dust in the stale air along with the invisible smoke from the candle's flame.
"This is Kira," Stryker said in a manner that suggested she had belonged there from the beginning of whatever he had going on.
"Hi," the blonde woman said politely, though looking curiously at Kira's revealing attire. She then extended her hand to Kira. "Dr. Mathis. Helen." Kira nodded and shook her hand, and then Dr. Mathis released and waved back towards a man sitting in a small chair on the other side of the makeshift table supporting the candle. "This is my husband, James."
The man stood and extended his hand as well. Kira shook it and they both quietly said hi to each other.
"Mr. Goodman," Dr. Mathis said, "You said that this close to dawn, we shouldn't go outside." She paused briefly. "I really have to use the bathroom."
"Oh. Absolutely," he said, almost apologetically, "Kira will stay with you." He saw Kira raise her eyebrows, obviously not sure what was going on, but also in acceptance of her appointed task.
"Thank you," Dr. Mathis said, and then squeezed passed them to the door.
Kira followed her outside then around to the back of the trailer, then about another fifteen feet to a medium sized boulder where the doctor proceeded to unfasten her pants, squat down, and relieve herself. It was dark, but it appeared to Kira that the boulder had been chiseled into a laying U shape. Presumably, it sat around a hole dug into the ground.
"Sorry about this," she said with a faint, uncomfortable laugh.
"Hey, don't worry about it," Kira reassured her. "So, what exactly is going on, here," she said, after a time.
"You don't know?" The doctor looked up at Kira, confused. "Mr. Goodman didn't tell you? I thought you were working with him."
"I was a bit of a last minute pick-up." She decided she'd probably better look a little more like she's supposed to be there. She stared out into the dark and began scanning the surroundings.
"Well, I'm a plastic surgeon. I work in Carson City and a month ago I did some reconstructive surgery for a man. It turns out that this man was a major loan shark in Vegas, and the police started catching on to him a little too much. I didn't know any of this. All I was doing was giving someone a new face. Nothing unusual."
The doctor paused, and Kira heard a slight grunting sound, then the doctor continued her tale.
"Apparently, the police were not the only people he had trouble with. A rival loan shark sent someone to sabotage the surgery. I was in the middle of the procedure, when one of the nurses assisting me grabbed a scalpel and sliced it deep into Mr. Tula's opened face a few times, then took off running."
"Let me guess," Kira interrupted. "Serious nerve damage and a permanently messed up face later, the loan shark wants revenge."
"Basically."
They were quiet a moment, then Kira spoke. "So, how did..." in a very brief pause, she thought better of using the name Stryker, but had not heard the woman or her husband call him by a first name. It was possible that he was not Mike to them either, but it was the only other name she had to work with, apart from Mr. Goodman, and she was not quite ready to say that one out loud. Too weird for her. "...Mike get involved in all of this?"
"About a week after the surgery, one of Mr. Tula's people attacked me, and tried to kill me, in my home while I was there alone. I managed to get away, and I went to James' office. We called the police, and they did what they could, but a few days later, we were attacked again. We called the police to tell them, but then we headed out of town, not telling anyone where we were going."
Dr. Mathis used some of a roll of toilet paper, that was left by the rock, and cleaned herself, and then she stood, pulled up her pants, and fastened them as she continued to speak. "This trailer used to belong to James' uncle, but he died, and all his stuff was just packed in it and left. It's in the middle of nowhere and far from Carson City and Vegas, so we decided to hide out here for a while."
They started back towards the trailer. "It had been a long time since James had been out here, so we got a little lost and came across Mr. Goodman's bar. We were a little scared to go in, but we were also very hungry, and we knew there was not going to be any food waiting at the trailer, so we went in to see if we could get something to eat."
Kira stopped her from speaking and walking. "Wait. That rat trap actually serves food?"
"Yeah," the doctor replied, confused by the sudden change of topic.
"Is it any good?"
Having mentally caught up, and understanding Kira's point of view, Dr. Mathis smiled, "It's a lot better than you would expect."
Kira thought a moment, and then came to a conclusion. "I guess it would be. He does own the place after all. And he lives there. One would presume he would eat there, as well." After a short afterthought, she shook her head and returned to the original topic. "So you went in to eat and..." leaving it open for the doctor to complete.
"Mr. Goodman recognized my picture from a newspaper article about the attack during the surgery."
"He reads the newspaper," Kira asked loud enough for the doctor to hear, but quietly enough to indicate that she was talking to herself.
"Basically, he approached us about it and convinced us to let him help." They started walking, again. "It was a good thing, too. After a couple of days, he found out that Mr. Tula had somehow found out where we were staying, and that he was planning another attack for this morning, shortly after dawn."
"Then today should prove to be exciting," Kira said with light intentions, but the doctor did not find it quite as amusing.
They both entered the trailer quietly to find Stryker and James had exchanged clothes, and Stryker was finishing what seemed to be a conversation one or both of the women were not intended to hear. "I know it'll seem strange, but please trust me," he had said to James. Stryker turned quickly to look at Dr. Mathis and Kira and said, in an almost clumsy attempt to explain, "Some last minute planning." He looked at the doctor and spoke directly to her, "He'll fill you in later."
His little cover up was good enough to fool the doctor, but Kira had been around long enough to know better. There was something he did not want her to know. She initially wanted to say something about it, to tactfully probe further, because she generally does not like information being kept from her when it comes to battle, but she thought better of it. Any signs of dissension would not help these peoples' peace of mind, and to be honest, she was actually looking forward to the surprise, a little bit. She trusted Stryker, after all.
"James, you grab that box and help me set up outside," Stryker spoke now as a confident leader. "Doctor," he said then paused, "I'm afraid I will have to ask you to switch clothes with Kira."
Dr. Mathis looked at Kira's outfit again, and seemed a little apprehensive, but said, "Okay." Kira could understand the doctor's feelings. One would expect a late thirties, loafer wearing, plastic surgeon to be a bit hesitant to slip into the almost minimum amount of non-swimwear clothing that would be considered legal to wear in public in this country, and it be black leather to boot. But to be fair, Kira was not exactly eager to don this woman's tan slacks and pale yellow blouse. On the up side, at least they were close to the same size.
Stryker went out first, and then closed the door once James was out. "So, how do you know Mr. Goodman," Dr. Mathis asked to draw some attention from the fact that they were two strangers stripping in an old storage trailer to exchange outfits.
Naturally, Kira had to answer the question carefully. "We met in Venezuela, some years ago, at a cafe. We spent a couple days together, then we both left the country in different directions," she said while taking off the jacket and sat down to start on her boots.
Her shoes already off, the doctor asked, "Why?" as she unbuttoned the last button of her blouse and stopped.
"It's a long, complicated story, actually." Kira unzipped her second boot and pulled it off her otherwise bare foot. "We ran across each other once in a while in later years, mainly here in the states." She unzipped the front of her leather top.
"I guess both of you traveled quite a bit," the doctor slipped her blouse off her shoulders as Kira did the same with her top. "Do you need my bra," the doctor asked as a side note.
