Jack showed her the master bedroom and bath. Kathy shook her fist at him and said, “Don’t tell me we have been living in your crowded apartment when we could have been sleeping in this wonderful room. Your father seems to have had a taste for master bedrooms with luxurious baths attached. I can’t wait to try the tub and the bed.”
“Come with me and I’ll turn on the hot water.”
Kathy said, “Do you really own this?”
“Yes, and all the land as far as you can see from the front porch. The furnishings are a bit Spartan. My father liked simple things. And no woman was ever here to provide a softening touch of color and beauty. There, did I say that right?”
“It’ll do. But how long does it take for the water to get hot?”
“Not too long, but come on back to the bedroom. I have something I want to show you.” Once back in the bedroom Jack asked Kathy to close her eyes. When he told her to open them, the wide door to the hidden portion of the cabin was open. Kathy put her hands over her face and said, “I can’t believe this. It’s either a great dream or a nightmare. Please wake me up.”
“Not yet. I have more things to show you. This is my father’s counter terrorist center. I believe everything we need is here. This is my first time in this hidden room. I never knew it was here. My dad gave me instructions about this place a few weeks before he was killed.”
Kathy walked around the hidden computer/armory room, taking everything in. “Jack, this is unbelievable. Oh! I wish we could stay here for at least a month or maybe until next Christmas. Jack, keep this place secret. Nobody but Anita ever has to know. Okay?”
“I’m happy you like it. I was afraid just maybe you would be spooked at first.”
“Of course I am. Aren’t you a little spooked by this room?”
“More than I want to admit. But get settled and have lunch. I want to see Anita’s reaction to the hidden room of lethal stuff. It will be like another toy store to her.”
Finally, Jack called time for lunch. He set out thawed wheat bread, canned tuna fish, canned tomato soup and peanut butter for those who passed on the tuna fish.
Kathy said, “Well at least this kind of a lunch doesn’t need much of a cleanup, but you can’t keep a growing girl on this kind of nourishment.”
Anita and Shadow came in as Kathy was looking over her choices.
Anita said, “It looks like the counter terrorism business has taken a step back. A snake bites me. A road trip from hell and now half-rations of a questionable background. Where did all the opulence go? I turned my back and it is gone.”
Jack looked hurt and said, “Bitching troops are happy troops. Unless we go shopping, supper may be worse.”
After lunch Shadow pawed at the front door, telling Jack he wanted to go for a walk. Jack said, “Show Anita the special room and get her settled while I take Shadow for a walk.”
Kathy laughed at Anita’s look of puzzlement and said, “Come with me, my warrior friend.”
Walking into the master bedroom, Anita said, “Man, Jack’s father knew how to live. Is this ever a neat retreat?”
Kathy said, “You haven’t seen ‘nothing’ yet. Just watch.”
Kathy walked up to the center bookcase section and reached in back of the books on the fourth shelf. “Okay, close your eyes.”
Turning the receptacle clockwise activated the opening mechanism. As the section swung open, she said, “Okay. You can look.”
Anita, with a shocked look, said, “I don’t believe it. This is something out of an action/adventure movie.”
“Come on. You have to see inside.”
The doors to the gun rooms were open, and Kathy motioned for Anita to go inside. Anita stopped in front of the handgun display and said, “My God! This is an incredible selection. Nines, .38s, .22s, Magnums and 40 Calibers. Is this all Jack’s?”
“Yep. His dad put this collection together for his own use. Now this cabin and the mountain valley as far as you can see is part of his inheritance. Jack wants you to know what is here so you can fit the weapons to the mission. He also wants to move the stuff Frank gave us up here. Oh, and you can treat this as a toy store and take anything you want.”
They spent the next hour and a half going through the weapons section, planning to come back to check out the computer work station and map selection. Jack hadn’t shown Kathy the tunnel exit, and she was as surprised as Anita when they opened the door at the end of the room and found themselves staring down a dimly lit tunnel. Kathy stepped back and said, “Can you believe this? A secret escape from a hidden weapons room! This is spooky stuff.”
While Kathy and Anita explored the secrets of the mountain cabin, Jack and Shadow enjoyed their first real outing together since Shadow was wounded. The spring foliage had made its appearance since then. Other than a few overgrown logging roads, no access roads cut through the area. No great trout streams were nearby. Most of the mountain streams were still suffering the results of runoff from both strip and deep mining for coal. Deer and black bear were common on the mountainside, but this wasn’t hunting season, and with one mountain side resembling another in this stretch of the Alleghenies, little drew urban backpackers.
***
Facts and Fictions 