Lucilla--NaNoWriMo2014

Chapter Thirteen

Mark woke and rolled over.  Lucilla was not there.

He got up, looking for signs that she was still in the house.  Her bicycle panniers, which held her clothes, were gone from the bedroom as well.  He looked out and noticed but one bicycle in the landlord's yard. Mark found no notes on the bureau or in the bed.

Mark dressed fast but did not wish to look worried about Lucilla's unexplained absence as he almost hurried downstairs.  Managing to look casual as he stolled into the kitchen where the landlord's wife was preparing breakfast.  She turned to him with a smile.

"Oh, Signore Carabeta.  Your Signora Helena barely took bread and coffee this morning.  She said she loves the morning air and will meet you in the next village to the north.  Here is a note she left for you."  With a smile, she handed Mark a note in an envelope.

Mark for a moment was furious that Lucilla would commit something to writing. He turned it over and found an X over the sealed flap.  If the landlady had opened the note the lines of the X would have failed to line up the way they did.

"My Lovely Guiseppe, I know how to get what we were looking for yesterday.  I will return to you as soon as possible.  Trust me.  This comes first.  I love you."

Helena

Mark's heart sank.  Was Lucilla going to cut her way through the barbed wire and risk death by electrocution?   Was she running out on Mark?  He looked around to the landlady standing there.

"Good news, Signore?"

Mark faked a smile and said, "My Helena is always filled with surprises.  She has a habit of getting out early and riding on her own.  Soon she tires and waits for me along the road.  We will then visit a the local butcher and bakery.  We'll then buy some wine and have a picnic."

"Ciao, Signore."

"Ciao, Signora."

Mark then watched the gravel path to the road for traces of Lucilla's wheels and which way she turned.  They were pointing in the direction they had come from the day before.

Mark was now almost in a panic to find Lucilla.  Somehow he missed her suble look as she made vain efforts to seduce him time after time.  Except for that one night, he had not given in.  At last he admitted to himself that she was growning on him.  Almost every day she was with him.  She was spoiled, had an huge sense of entitlement, was sexually overactive, and had so much to learn and do before there would be anything noble about her.

After all, she was only helping Mark because he promised to return her to Capri and to the time portal. For all that she had learned and would contribute to this Mission Hail, Mary, she was still performing in hopes of a greater gain to herself along the way.

Mark asked himself why he was so anxious to find Lucilla.  He might be better off on this mission without her.  his heart raced with every mile he drew closer to the military base.  Instinct told him to find the very spot where they had found the electronic fence with barbed wire.

There was no sign of Lucilla.

Mark sat down and thought about her message to him.  What deeper meaning did it have?  Was Lucilla angry with Mark because he did not sleep with her?  He was indeed flattered that he was getting all of her attention.

Mark thought of the morning when he woke up next to her.  He said that the mission was the most important thing.  Mark was afraid that a loving relationship between him and Lucilla would endanger their mission.  It might fail if they both let love get in the way.

Mark pushed his bicycle along the electronic fence looking in vain for a break in the wire where Lucilla might have entered.  She would be taking a great risk.  The Italians would very well have the area mined or at least patrolled every hour.

Mark sat down and pulled out his water bottle from his pannier.  He took a drink and returned to the road that led into the military base.  He looked around for signs of Lucilla's bicycle tires.

There were her tire marks in the gravel.  Neither he nor she had been there the day before.  So the marks had to have been made that morning.

Something came to Mark out of the blue.  Something he did not want to think about.  But for the moment he did not think about his safety.  Something made him ride up the winding, gravel road toward the military base.  Someting stabbed at his heart.  Somehow his feelings were heightened.  Somehow he had to find Lucilla.  Somehow he knew that she had been successful in entering that military base.

Lucilla was putting their mission first.  She was putting her life at risk.  Now Mark by his worry for her safety was putting Lucilla before the mission.  He pumped his bicycle pedals harder with each hill he encountered.

How could Lucilla have reached the military base so fast?

At length he came to a hill where he could see the Mediterranean Sea.  In the near distance was a guard gate with two Italian soldiers manning it.

Mark hesitated for a while, content that the guards could not see him. He then decided to throw caution to the wind.  If Lucilla could go where angels feared to tread, then so could he.

 When he rode up to the guard shack, he was surprised to seen them quite pleasant.

When he asked about his wife, they looked at each other with a lustful smile.

"Here, Signore Carabeta, is a visitor's pass like the one we gave to your wife when the truck carried her in here.  Have it with you at all times.  You might try the canteena, but you will not find it very busy at this hour.  But that is where I last saw your wife."

"Ciao, my friends."

Mark rode on toward the Canteena.

When he arrived there, there were but two soldiers, who looked toward each other and smiled at Mark.

"Caio, my friend," one of them said.

Off to his left was a room in which he heard a woman's voice and then moaning that cresendoed and then fell.  The soldiers looked at each other and then toward Mark.

In a few minutes, Lucilla emerged but did not see Mark for the glare comng from the canteena door.  She turned and gave a passionate kiss to the soldier who just was just in the room with her. As she turned toward anothe soldier who just stood up for her, she could not help noticing that they were not looking at her.

The floor creaked under Mark's feet.  Lucilla did not have to ask who it was that she had not seen.

"Helena!" Mark shouted.  As she turned with a sheepish look, he stode with all boldness toward her.  Ignoring the three soldiers, he took her by the arm.  "Come along.  No more for you today."

Turning to the other soldiers with such rage, he startled them.  "Where is her bicycle and her belonings?"

One soldier cowered and pointed toward a side door.

Mark took Lucilla's hand with such force that it almost pulled her arm out of joint.

"Come on, Helena.  Let's go. You have had enough sex for one day."