Run into Trouble

CHAPTER 25

Today’s run goes from Cayucos to San Simeon (Hearst Castle) by way of Cambria, a lovely tourist trap. If you’re up to it, we’ll take a tour of Hearst Castle this afternoon. Stay on Route 1 the whole way, but be very careful. In some places there isn’t any shoulder. Run single file on the left side of the road along the narrow stretches and keep a sharp eye out for cars. The good news is that the road is fairly flat. The altitude never gets much above 200 feet. Because it’s Saturday, there will be weekend traffic.

What they didn’t expect to see were hitchhiking hippies, off to commune with nature in the Big Sur where their troubles would vanish in a puff of smoke. The girls, ranging from twenty-something to teenage, wore long hair and long skirts with loose blouses covering bare skin and lugged bedrolls or backpacks. The boys had equally long hair, and except for their dress, it was sometimes difficult to tell one sex from the other from behind.

Most were headed north; they stationed themselves on the right side of the road, trying to grab rides with weekenders who had carloads of children. When a Volkswagen camper with flowers painted on the sides that wasn’t already packed came along, it was like manna from heaven to them.

The runners and the hippies stared at each other as the former flashed by. They came from two different worlds, separated by a narrow strip of asphalt. Drake saw good looking girls and wondered what would happen to them if they were picked up by the wrong man. That made him speculate about free love. Which made him wonder when some of them had last washed, as he got a closer look at straggly hair and dirty clothes.

Melody interrupted his reverie. “If I were the mother of those girls, I’d lock them up until they were thirty-five.”

“You’re too young to be their mother. You’re not even thirty-five, yourself.”

“I’d lock myself up, too. I’m thinking ahead. I might get married some day, you know.”

Married. Drake pictured himself being married once in a while, but never seriously. However, it did have its attractions, abundant sex being one of them. He decided to change the subject before Melody guessed his thoughts. “It looks like we’re going to be running in a posse all day. No chance to excel on this road. We’ll be on it for a long time.”

“There will be other opportunities. We’ve moved up to fifth place. Who would have guessed that when we started out? At least we shouldn’t lose ground to anyone.”

In fact, several of the teams were lagging behind the group with various ailments affecting feet and knees.

Melody spoke again. “What do you think Blade’s up to? Isn’t this a job for the U.S. Army, Navy, and Marines?” She sang, “From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Lion Rock.”

“Blade sees a conspiracy based on the fact that we were present at Malibu and also the ones who found the sub.”

“So we’re working for the Russkies?”

“Not us. Somebody at Giganticorp.”

“Meaning Casey. He’s the top dog. Why would he do that?”

“Who knows? Maybe he’s an idealist.”

“Idealists are fine as long as they don’t actually try to do anything. You said that Slick is going to meet us at our motel, which I understand is in Cambria. At least he’s not going to show up in his Porsche around the bend somewhere.”

“I nixed that idea. This isn’t like the first time when we were so far behind that stopping for a few minutes to chat with Slick didn’t matter.”

They were passing a house on the ocean side of the road with a sign that read, “This place dangerous to dogs, children, and reasonable people.” The yard was strewn with junk.

Drake smiled. At least they were warned.

Drake and Melody were amazed at the magnificent buildings and the Olympian style swimming pool on the barren hillside above the sea. They were even more surprised at what they saw within the buildings.

Melody read the information brochure. “It says that Hearst collected items in hundreds of different categories. Including ceilings. I say, who in their right mind collects ceilings?”

They were gazing up at one of those ceilings at the moment, brought over in pieces from some medieval castle in Europe and reassembled in its current habitat.

“The man thought big. You can’t deny that.”

Drake and Melody jerked their heads down to the horizontal. There was no mistaking that resonant voice. Slick smiled easily at them from behind his dark glasses. They helped him take on the coloring of a tourist, along with a garish sport shirt and white sneakers. Only his powerful-looking arms and flat stomach gave away the fact that he probably wasn’t driving one of those campers with the wide outside mirrors that the runners had to dodge all day, like a matador evading the horns of the bull.

Drake said, “I’m glad to see that you enjoy the finer things in life.”

“Thought I’d absorb a little culture while I was up here. Let’s stroll over to the pool.”

They could talk outdoors without being overheard. There wasn’t anything unusual about tourists chatting with each other. Among the Greco-Roman columns that surrounded the pool, they felt as if they had been carried back to an ancient age.

Melody couldn’t resist asking about the topic that had occupied her thinking all day. “What did they find out about the boat?”

“Ah yes, you’ve been out of touch in your own little world. Well, it’s going to hit the six o’clock news. What is being published is that it is indeed a miniature submarine, equipped to lob shells of the sort that destroyed the homes in Malibu. It appears that several such shells were fired by it.”

Slick paused, prompting Drake to ask, “What isn’t being published?”

“All of the written material in the boat is in Russian, including the signs that say, ‘Watch your head.’”

“Why is that being suppressed?”

“The president doesn’t feel that we have enough information to make it public. There’s no sign of a crew, no sign of any enemy ship that might have come in to pick one up. The Navy and Coast Guard have the coast blanketed. The boat has suffered very little structural damage, and wasn’t in danger of sinking. Too many things don’t make sense.”

“You mean the president doesn’t want to start World War Three? That’s novel. I was young at the time, but as I recall, Roosevelt was aching for an excuse to get into WW Two.”

“Don’t knock it. Wars hot and cold keep folks like you and me in beer and Porsches. Vietnam’s not going to last forever. I know a little bit about your employment history. Both of you had top secret clearances. Which is why Blade authorized me to tell you this stuff. That and he needs your help.”

Melody looked at the columns being reflected off Slick’s dark glasses and wondered, not for the first time, what color his eyes were. “What does he want us to do?”

“You have access to Casey without arousing suspicion. He’s the fair-haired child of the military, because he’s got lots of brass on his board. Also, to give him credit, he’s delivered weapons’ systems on time, within budget, something not all our suppliers do. Of course, he’s always looking for new markets. One thing he’s developing is a mini sub, similar to the one we found.

“For several reasons, including the coincidence of you being present at both Malibu and Lion Rock, we think he’s got a dog in this hunt, but we don’t know what his game is. Anything you can find out would be appreciated.”

Drake had a thought. “Any idea where the sub was manufactured?”

“It was built using the metric system, but the whole world uses metric except us. That’s something we want to find out. Casey’s giving a campaign speech on network television tonight at eight. Give it a listen. Maybe you’ll get some clues.”

Melody said, “We only see Casey when he decides to drop by, and we never know when that will be. He was just here because of Grace’s murder.”

“He likes Running California, and he likes you guys. He’ll show up oftener than you think.”

“Where did they take the sub?”

“It’s being towed to Monterey, even as we speak.”

Drake, newly money conscious, said, “You mentioned beer and Porsches. Is any of that going to filter down to us?”

“To be honest with you, since you’re off the books, you may wind up with Green Stamps.”

“So we’re doing it for our love of humankind. Where are you going from here?”

“Thought I’d take a drive up the coast to Monterey. This rugged beauty turns me on.”

*

Drake and Melody ate together but not with any of the other runners, so that they could discuss their role as spies. Actually, double agents in a way, since they were being paid by Casey. They decided that because of the things that had happened so far in connection with Running California, this duplicity didn’t bother them, but they didn’t come up with any earthshaking plans either.

On their walk back to the motel, they passed a girl sitting on the sidewalk, wrapped in a blanket. She had long, blond, straight hair and a young, pretty face with tears running down her cheeks. She looked at them but didn’t say anything.

Drake made a move to go back to her, but Melody grabbed his hand and pulled him away.

“Don’t get involved. I say this for your own good. I know you want to help her, and I’m not going to question the purity of your motives, even though it’s possible she might offer to thank you in a particularly pleasant way, but she can only bring you trouble. Besides, we’re on a mission tonight.”

The mission being to listen to Casey’s speech. They went to Drake’s room to listen to it together, so they could compare notes. Drake ran a cold bath for himself and even obtained a container of ice cubes from the motel dispenser and poured them into the tub. He had learned to almost tolerate the freezing water. He left the door to the bathroom open, which enabled him to hear the speech. Melody didn’t object, but she also didn’t volunteer to wash his back.

First they listened to news reports about the submarine. These were delivered with an urgency approaching hysteria. It was probably a good thing that no mention was made of the Russian writing found in it.

Somehow, Casey had wangled time on a national network, even though he was running for senator from California. When it was time for him to speak, a network anchor introduced him as the CEO of the company that was instrumental in the nation’s military preparedness.

It was obvious from the start that Casey wasn’t going to waste his time on California issues now that he had a national pulpit. He immediately started talking about the submarine. He said that the participants in Running California had gone past the spot where the boat was found on the same day, something that had not been mentioned in the news reports. He expanded on that.

“What if that submarine had still been manned? With its armament, it could easily have destroyed some of the cream of California citizenry, just as it killed one of our runners at Malibu, as well as destroying several houses. This is just the tip of the iceberg. There’s more-information that has been suppressed by the administration, because it doesn’t want to worry you unduly, but, ladies and gentlemen, this is information you need to know because it’s a threat to national security.”

Casey then told about the Russian writing in the sub. Melody wondered how he knew about that. Of course. His military connection. He was getting feedback on everything the military did. She had originally gripped the arms of her chair to keep herself from running into the bathroom and jumping into the tub with Drake, ice water and all. Now she gripped them harder.

She called to Drake. “Did you hear that?”

“Loud and clear. I think we know who our warmonger is.”

Casey was just getting warmed up. He came close to saying that a president who didn’t defend the country ought to be impeached. Then he talked about creating a buffer zone along the coast-land that would be owned by the government for security, with anti-missile batteries, but would also be a continuous beach during peacetime. Everyone would have complete access to the water everywhere. He was vague about the details.

Drake remembered that Casey had talked about this before. He must be serious about it since he was bringing it up again. Drake ran the water out of the tub and vigorously toweled himself off, trying to bring some circulation back into his frozen limbs. In spite of the discomfort, he had to admit that these baths were helping to keep him going. He threw on some clothes and came back into the main room just as Casey finished speaking.

Melody turned off the television set. “Apparently, he doesn’t know that you were the one who spotted the sub. I’m sure he would have mentioned it if he did. That means what you tell Blade isn’t getting through to him.”

“Blade may be the only person in government who’s not in his pocket. But I’m glad our spymaster isn’t in cahoots with the person we’re supposed to be spying on.”

“His bringing up the Russian business when the president tried to suppress it is going to cause an uproar, or my name isn’t Miss Marple. That’s why I turned off the telly. Flying accusations give me a headache.”

“How about that proposed land grab-taking the beach houses of the rich and famous, as well as the rich and not so famous? He’s definitely trying to appeal to the masses-telling them they’ll have full beach access. They really do now. They just have to work at it in some places.”

“Your masses had better start connecting the dots and realize that if the government can take property from people along the coast, they can take property from people inland, as well. One of the reasons I like the U.S. is your strong private property laws, since property rights are mandatory for a free country.”

“Unfortunately, we’ve also got something called eminent domain, which weakens the laws. If Casey can convince us that we’re being attacked and land grabs are necessary for our defense, he might get away with it.”