AZOTUSLAND Chapter Ninety Four

Hart took Maugham to the airport at 5 in the morning, gave him a bear hug at the gate and said "That was rough, but it had to be done."

Maugham smiled but as he turned to go through the security check his face became grim. He was at war within himself and feared the ramifications when he got back.

**********

Back in California, four hours later, Roo opened up the Big Room with Martine and Manfred. It was now moving into Summer so they left the windows open at night to cool the place off. They had air conditioning, but rarely needed to use it. Roo was still pondering a move across the country to a city that actually had season...real ones. She found that exciting as well as being on the Atlantic.

Since their dinner, Roo spemt the mid-afternoons down in the IC with Andy who was excited for her.

"Look here Roo," he said. "I have a great history of mechanical enginering that covers the whole Boston area up through Essex and down to Barnstable. Oh, and I have a new file of available buildings with pictures and on Station Four their are bookmarks for properties that have virtual tours."

"I'm impressed," Roo said. "Maybe when I go you should come with me."

"Oh, I couldn't do that," Andy said. "But I wanna see pictures when you get back."

Roo settled in and started clacking away. She wanted to find an area that would be a true melting pot and not dominated exclusivel;y by a university or a business district. It wasn't going to be easy but she just kept at it.

*********

Ian, Thomas and Ben had taken a roadtrip to Santa Cruz, or rather Capitola which is just to the South. They met the property manager, an affable man named Mr. Thompson and they toured the building. It was at the North end of the street on the main drag along the beach with windows that faced out onto the inlet waterway. The outside was brown stucco. They walked around the oputside and there was a tall seawall about 30 feet from the back of the building and plebty of patio space. Ian looked at Ben who smiled. Then Thomason took them inside and Ian looked at the L-shape of it and started to do the math on the various areas. The long large room to the right could be walled off and soundproofed for the larger benue. Where he was standing would be the Library area opening back toward the front door where the main cafe would be and the front doors from the street. He liked that it had lots of windows and an open airy feel. The ceilings were also a good twelve feet high.

"Okay Mr. Thompson, can we see upstairs?"

***************

Jim and Martine had argued a bit about who would pick Maugham up from the airport but Jim had prevailed.

"I don't like the sound in his voice," she said sternly.

"Well this is our business Martine."

"Oh, really. I just sleep with him and love him..what do you do?"

"Fair point, but I love him too. "

"Which is why you send him to do your dirty work?"

"You know darn well he wouldn;t let me go and he sees it as his job, and frankly, that is part of it. You may have noticed that Maug pretty much does whatever Maug wants around here. Security is his show and he's damned good at it."

Martine frowned.

"I just want to debrief with him on the way back, then you can have him as long as you want. Take a few days off with pay. Please."

*************

The upstaits was just empty space with pipes for plumbing in the center and back against the far Northern wall. But iot was enough space for an apartment with three small rooms, a kitchen and a nice open area, On the south side they would have to dual purpose the IC with Ops. There would be no Batcave and the Theater would have to be part of the Big Room downstairs.

As Thompson talked about a contractor he knew Ian, Ben and Thomas walked over to the windows on the North end that looked out to the West on the Pacific and on the quiet inlet in front of them. They were stoic but exhanged silent glances in a long established communication. It was good, very,very good.