along. They agreed to meet at eight.
When she hung up she said, 'He sounds horny and he's not my type. If you don't want to go we can cancel.'
'Did he say what kind of information he has?'
'No, he just said that we'd find it very interesting.'
We drove our car to Jock's flat. Jock had offered to pick us up, but Arrow had said we'd drive and got very specific instructions from him. He said it was only five minutes from the hotel.
His instructions turned out to be good and we arrived at his place without mishap. Jock let us into the first floor flat. Another man was there who Jock introduced as his roommate. I didn't catch his name. He was big, larger than Jock, and he had what seemed to be a permanent, slightly stupid grin pasted on his face. He couldn't take his eyes off Arrow.
The room we entered gave me an uncomfortable feeling, the kind you get when you stumble on a slice of life that makes you think, 'This could have been me.' It wasn't just the messiness of the room and disrepair of the sparse furniture but a feeling that the occupants either had lost hope or didn't care.
The ancient telly showed a British sitcom; Jock turned it off and offered us beer. We both turned him down. He and his roommate had mugs. I decided that we should get out of there as soon as possible and I knew Arrow felt the same way. She just barely perched on the edge of one of the few chairs. I stood.
'Well, Jock, tell us what you found out,' I said, hoping to make this short and sweet.
'I have a friend with some connections,' Jock said, relishing the word 'connections.' 'He knows everything that goes on here.'
I felt like saying that couldn't be much of a job, but I held my tongue.
'I ran the names of your three friends past him,' Jock continued. 'He recognized one of them.'
'Which one?' Arrow asked.
Jock disappeared into the next room. Arrow tried to converse with the roommate, who was sitting opposite her and still grinning at her, but he only grunted in reply.
Jock returned with two more bottles of beer and gave one to his roommate. He said, 'Are you sure you won't have a beer?'
Arrow and I shook our heads in unison.
He took his time opening a bottle and pouring some beer into his mug, carefully, so as not to have any of the foam spill over the edge. My arms itched to shake his information out of him.
Finally satisfied, Jock took a sip, set down his mug and said, 'It was James Buchanan my friend recognized. He has been here in Wick within the past year.'
'What was he doing here?' I asked.
'Before you kicked me out, yesterday, I heard Michael McTavish say that he had not seen any of them for 30 years. But Michael saw James Buchanan when he was here. In fact, they met at Mackays Hotel. So Michael is playing some sort of a game with you.'
'Are you sure?' Arrow asked.
'Are you doubting my word?'
I was inclined to trust Michael over Jock, but on the other hand I couldn't think of any reason why Jock would lie to us. We asked him some more questions, but he stuck by his story. He wouldn't tell us the name of his contact. He also didn't seem to have any more information.
Arrow stood up and said, 'Thank you very much, Jock. We appreciate you telling us this. We don't want to intrude on you any more so we'll leave now.'
She edged toward the outside door and I started to follow her. Jock's roommate stood, still grinning, and moved between Arrow and the door.
'You're not intrudin', Dearie,' Jock said. 'But you are,' he said, turning to me. 'You may leave now.'
I didn't say anything. I thought I could handle Jock, one on one, but his roommate was a different story. Arrow made a quick movement to go by him. He grabbed her from behind and wrapped his arms around her. He lifted her as if she were a pile of laundry and turned to face Jock and me while she ineffectively kicked at his legs. As he set her down he momentarily squeezed the breath out of her and she became limp.
I wanted to wipe the grin off his face, but knew I couldn't. Think fast. 'I'm not supposed to tell you this,' I started, 'because it's classified information, but Arrow and I are here on a special mission.' I looked at the roommate. 'I'll tell you about it if you let her go.'
He had slid his hands under her sweater and he was very deliberately feeling her up. At least she could breathe, but if anything, the grin on his face had broadened. Arrow's look was one of pure terror. Jock had a sneer on his face.
The roommate had given no indication that he understood me, but I had no choice but to continue. Looking mostly at the roommate I said, 'You've heard of the CIA. Arrow and I are members of the CIA. If anything happens to her others will come looking for you. I don't want to scare you, but you will be eliminated and your bodies will never be found.'
Roommate was looking at me, still grinning, but there was a hint of something else there too-perhaps fear? His hands had stopped moving although he still held one of Arrow's breasts firmly in each hand.
'If you're CIA, show us some identification,' Jock sneered.
I slowly reached into my pocket and pulled out my wallet. All I had was a California driver's license and I wasn't going to show that to Jock because he would see through it immediately.
I unfolded my wallet; my driver's license was visible through a plastic window. With my thumb and forefinger I slid the license up slightly so that the large-print word 'CALIFORNIA' was hidden by a leather strip at the top of the window.
While I did this I took several steps toward Arrow and the roommate. I flashed the driver's license at him, long enough for him to see my photo but not long enough for him to read any of the smaller print still showing. He grunted, but didn't move to free Arrow.
I refolded my wallet and stuck it back in my pocket. I pulled my hand out of my pocket and in the same motion grabbed a small appliance sitting on a table, probably a CD player. The cord tightened as I picked it up; I jerked the machine, yanking the cord out of the socket, and then smashed the machine against the roommate's head.
He tried to put his hands up to defend himself, but they were impeded by Arrow's sweater. By the time he ripped her sweater open it was too late and the blow had landed. Freed from his grip, Arrow twisted away from him and ran to the door.
Roommate stood holding his head, stunned, giving me the opportunity to hit him a second time. The machine cracked open. As Arrow opened the door Jock grabbed me from behind. In one of those super-strength moments you read about I whirled around, breaking his grip and hit him with the remains of the machine.
I followed Arrow out the door and to the car, which was fortunately only a few steps away. She ran around it to the passenger side. I dropped the last piece of the machine and fumbled for the keys as I came up to it.
I looked back to see Jock standing in the doorway, trying to decide whether to follow us. He evidently thought better of it because by the time I got the door open he still hadn't moved. Arrow and I got in and locked the doors before I started the car. Then I drove off.
Arrow was still shivering when we got to her room, even though I had given her my jacket to wear. I went inside to make sure she was all right. As soon as I closed the door she fell in to my arms, put her head on my shoulder and sobbed. I patted her on the back and made what I hoped were soothing noises. I eased us over to the bed and sat us down on it.
Her shaking abated after a while. When she had calmed down enough to talk she said, 'Don't leave me.'
I persuaded Arrow to wash her face and hands and even clean her teeth while I went back to my room and
