Chapter Six is Definitely Where It's At

Friday, June Tenth, Eight O’clock A.M.

The office Darcy Custom Brokers kept was in a historic building in Minneapolis’s warehouse district.  The hallway leading to the office had a tile floor, and the few other offices on the same floor all had green doors with frosted glass windows.  The name of whoever was behind each door was painted on the window in black block letters. Every time Alex went in, he felt like he was going to pass a hard-boiled detective in a trench coat and fedora who was on his way to a meeting with a mysterious femme fatale.

Alex reached the door that was simply numbered 310, and let himself in. 

“Good morning, Mr. Minor,” Megan said.

“Good morning, Megan,” Alex said.

He had tried to convince Megan to just call him Alex since very shortly after he’d started working for Mr. Darcy.  And she had insisted on continuing to call him Mr. Minor.  Megan was, in fact, her last name.  She preferred to simply be called Megan rather than Ms. Megan. 

Alex was happy to call her whatever she wanted to be called.  She had saved his bacon on several occasions, and was absolutely not to be messed with.  It was true that she sat behind a desk and greeted people who entered the office, but she was far more than a receptionist.

“Mr. Darcy is on an international phone call at the moment.  He’ll be with you shortly,” Megan said.

“Great, thanks,” Alex said.  He sat down on one of the leather chairs in the reception area, and let himself sink into it.  He hadn’t slept for close to twenty four hours now, and he was starting to feel pretty wiped out.

Now that he’d wrapped up recovering the funny little tiki man statue, Alex hoped that Mr. Darcy was going to have another assignment for him.  Sometimes it was a week or two between assignments, and he tended to get very, very bored if he wasn’t working.  And Alex tended to get himself into trouble if he was bored.

It was his need for high stimulation levels that had gotten him the opportunity to work for Mr. Darcy, in fact.  Alex had worked in a succession of office jobs after he’d gotten out of the military, and he’d gotten himself promptly fired from all of them.  Typically for falling asleep on the job.  Luckily, his recruiter was one of Mr. Darcy’s many connections.

“Mr. Minor,” Megan said sharply, startling Alex awake.

“Oops,” Alex said.  “Sorry Megan.  What’s up?”

“Mr. Darcy is ready to see you now.  You can go in,” Megan said.

“Great, thanks Megan,” Alex said. 

He got up from the chair he’d been dozing in, and glanced at his watch.  It was now a quarter to nine, which meant he’d probably been asleep for half an hour. 

The door to Mr. Darcy’s office was open, and Alex went in.  Mr. Darcy greeted him immediately, as usual.

“Good morning, Mr. Minor!” Mr. Darcy said, “Did everything go well with your latest recovery?”

Mr. Darcy sat behind an enormous dark wooden desk that was bare except for his pen and notepad.  His office was lined with bookshelves, and it would be easy to think that he was an attorney.

“Overall, yes, thanks.  I was able to get the statue without too much difficulty once I’d tracked it down.  I had a little more adventure than I was expecting getting it back here, but that’s OK,” Alex said.

“Ah, yes, I heard about your run in with the law while you were en route,” Mr. Darcy said.

“Really?” Alex said.  “How did you hear about that?”

“Why do you think the state trooper let you off with a simple warning, Mr. Minor,” Mr. Darcy said.

“You got me out of that ticket?” Alex said.

“Of course,” Mr. Darcy said.  “Although, not giving you a ticket was still up to the state trooper.  I just asked that you be allowed to continue on your way without more delay, since you were needed here.”

“Wow,” Alex said.  “Well, thanks for that.  I had the craziest experience at a truck stop after that, too.  

A couple of guys tried to rob them, but the employees all went full commando on them.  There was a cashier in particular that seemed completely unaffected by the whole thing, you might want to consider recruiting her to work with us.”

“You must mean Sarah.  She’s quite a force to be reckoned with, isn’t she?” Mr. Darcy said, chuckling.

“You mean you know her already?” Alex said.

“Of course.  She and the others that work there are all associates of ours already.  But thank you anyway, I’m always looking for new talent,” Mr. Darcy said.

Jeez, of course they already work for him, Alex thought.  He wondered again, briefly, just how big Mr. Darcy’s network was, exactly.

“But back to the matter at hand,” Mr. Darcy said.  “Did you bring the statue with you?”

“Yes, it’s down in the Impala,” Alex said.

“Excellent,” Mr. Darcy said.  “I’m glad you’ve got it with you.  I’m going to need you to deliver it to its rightful owner for me.”

“Sure thing, I can do that,” Alex said.

“I knew you could,” Mr. Darcy said.  “I suggest you go home and get some rest, you’ve got a couple of big travel days coming up.”

He took a manila folder out of one of the drawers in his desk and handed it to Alex.

“You’ll find all the details you need in here.  Tomorrow morning you’ll be meeting one of my pilots and flying to a little island called Walli-Wo,” Mr. Darcy said.

“I’ve never heard of it,” Alex said. 

“I wouldn’t expect you to have heard of it before.  It’s a small island in the middle of a great big ocean, and they prefer to keep their main source of income under the radar,” Mr. Darcy said.

“Drugs?” Alex said.

“Of course not,” Mr. Darcy said.  “I’ve told you before, Mr. Minor, we are the good guys.”

“Right, sorry,” Alex said.

“Anyway, you’ll be flying there, giving the statue back to its rightful owner, and then flying back here,” Mr. Darcy said.

“OK, who’s the rightful owner?  How am I going to find him?” Alex said.

“You’ll have a hard time missing him.  I assure you that he’ll find you.  He is the king of the people of Walli-Wo, and you will be treated with all the hospitality fitting a guest of the royal family while you’re there.  I think you’ll quite like him, and the people of Walli-Wo adore him,” Mr. Darcy said.

“The king?  For real?  Like, crown and throne, issuing decrees, off-with-their-head, king?  Or is he just a figurehead?”  Alex said.  He didn’t realize there were still actual monarchies, however small, anywhere in the world.

“For real, Mr. Minor.  Please treat him with all the respect he’s due.  And he’s not really the off-with-your-head type.  I believe most of the time, his way of resolving matters is to hug it out,” Mr. Darcy said.

Alex started laughing, “Hug it out?”

He was about to continue, but he realized that Mr. Darcy was not laughing along with him.

“Yes, Mr. Minor,” Mr. Darcy said.  “His methods may seem unorthodox, but consider that he is beloved by his subjects, and has no enemies among the other islands in his vicinity.  The world would be much better off if everyone followed his lead, in my opinion.”

“Well, now that you point it out, I guess that’s true,” Alex said.  “I guess I didn’t realize you were being serious.  Probably because I need some more sleep.”

“It’s fine, Mr. Minor.  Just be sure you don’t laugh in our client’s face if something seems amusing to you while you’re there,” Mr. Darcy said.

“You’ve got it,” Alex said.

“Thank you,” Mr. Darcy said.  “Well, I imagine you’ll want to get home, get some rest, and review the information in that folder.  Have you got your passport handy?”

“Always,” Alex said.  “It’s all shined up and ready to go at a moment’s notice.”

“Good,” Mr. Darcy said.  “You won’t need it on Walli-Wo, but if you need to stop anywhere else on your way there, or on the way back, you’ll definitely need it.  Anyway, I won’t keep you any longer.  Have a good day, and a good trip, Mr. Minor.”

Hang on, Alex thought.  Something seems a little off here.

“Thanks, Mr. Darcy, I hope you have a good day too.  Say, uh, when do I get paid for recovering the statue?” Alex said.  He’d been expecting to get paid that morning.   He wasn’t in dire straits, financially, but he didn’t work for free, either.

“Thank you, Mr. Minor.  You get paid after you’ve delivered the statue to our client, of course.  Is there anything else?”

“No, that’s it,” Alex said.  He wasn’t sure if the fact that he was expected to deliver the items he’d recovered to Mr. Darcy’s clients meant he was getting more responsibility, or less.  He did know better than to argue too hard though.  Working for Mr. Darcy was, generally speaking, the most fun he’d ever had.

“OK, good day, Mr. Minor,” Mr. Darcy said.

“See you,” Alex said.

He left Mr. Darcy’s office. 

“Have a good flight, Mr. Minor.  I think you’ll enjoy flying with Mr. Evans, he’s an excellent pilot,” Megan said as he walked by.

“Thanks Megan.  Have you flown with this guy before?” Alex said.

“Several times.  We haven’t had a landing we couldn’t walk away from yet,” Megan said.

“Out of sight,” Alex said.

The Impala was where he’d left it, parked just down the street a short distance from the building.  Alex debated swapping cars again and getting his Mustang back, and then decided that he didn’t really feel like carrying that statue around any more than he had to.  It had to weigh close to eighty pounds, if not even more, and besides, every time he moved it, he risked damaging it.  It was definitely best to just leave it in the Impala until the following morning. 

Alex hopped back in the Impala, and drove back to his apartment to get some sleep.