The Alberta Connection (6 page)

At 9:00 PM, a new window popped up on Ryce’s
laptop display. Doug announced that it was time for bed, and the
laptops would shut down and not restart for eight hours. Ryce and
Tanya were not inclined to argue about the issue.

Chapter 7

Ryce reached over,
shut off the alarm on his cell phone, and then attempted to focus
on the time. Was it actually 5:30 AM? What day was it? Ryce
remembered it was Saturday, and he and Tanya were not expected to
spend all day on their laptops. He had no doubt they would be on
the laptops all day, but this was supposed to be a weekend.

The previous two days of training had
revealed one important fact: He knew nothing about computers. And
he knew even less about the Internet. He thought it was possible to
follow someone around the Internet, but didn’t know where to start.
Forty-eight hours had changed all that.

He looked across the bed and discovered that
Tanya was missing. He could not hear water running in the shower.
Where was she?

Ryce slowly slid off the bed, grabbed a
bathrobe, and walked out of the bedroom. Tanya was sitting at the
dining table with her laptop open in front of her. It took several
moments for Ryce to realize she was naked. She looked up and
smiled.

“I was getting in the shower and remembered
the answer to one of the test questions. I hope you don’t mind that
I just rushed out here to play with my laptop.”

Ryce grinned. “Well, having no clothes on
could save a little time.”

Ryce turned and walked back to the bedroom.
He was trying to decide if he should shower or go back to bed when
he felt two arms wrap around him.

“We don’t have to be at the family table in
the chow hall until 7:00 AM, and I got 100% on the quiz. It’s time
to celebrate.”

Not long after John moved his software
company to Idaho, he heard someone in his family was having a
birthday party. He checked his email, but found nothing telling him
of the event. He checked the fireplace mantel where he kept
important papers. There was nothing to tell him about the party.
When John asked about the party, he was told that he was out of
town when the invitations were handed out.

John’s solution to the problem was to
establish the “Family Table” at the Ranch chow hall. It was not
always only one table, but John hoped that at some point during one
of the three meals of the day, the members of his family would
actually talk to each other.

Tanya and Ryce arrived at the chow hall a
little after 7:00 AM. Ryce looked around, but did not see anything
that said “the Pendergast family eats here”. He and Tanya walked
toward the serving line.

As he completed the transaction with the
cashier, Ryce heard a very small voice.

“Mr. Dalton, my mommy asked me to come show
you where we eat.”

He turned to see a young girl.

“My name is Annette Pendergast. My mommy is
Danielle and my daddy is AP. Please follow me.”

Annette led Tanya and Ryce across the chow
hall to a separate room. Ryce noticed a sign reading “Pendergast
Family Dining Center” was attached to the wall beside the door.
Ryce and Tanya had been to the chow hall the first evening they had
arrived at the Ranch, thanks to the reception organized by Ramona
and Marge. However, since that night, they had eaten in their
apartment. Ryce was not willing to share Tanya with anyone, at
least not yet.

As they walked into the room, Doug stood and
began to applaud. He was soon joined by the other ten diners. Doug
looked around the room.

“Ryce and Tanya have been attempting to
conquer the Cyber Crimes course.”

Ryce heard a chuckle from somewhere in the
room. “No wonder they haven’t been here for any of the meals. That
course would make an alligator lose its appetite.”

When the laughter died down, Doug pointed in
the direction of the voice. “That is Mark. He wrote most of the
course. He will be your tour guide starting Monday.”

Karen began laughing. “Now that they know
about Mark, I am surprised Tanya and Ryce are not running back to
Montana.”

John looked around the room, and then at
Ryce. “As you can see, we have a very close-knit group here. And
some of them actually like each other.”

Ryce and Tanya found two open seats at one of
the tables, sat down and began to eat. Soon after Ryce finally
placed his napkin on the tray, Doug walked over and sat across from
Ryce.

“You did a lot better than I
anticipated.”

The look on Ryce’s face was more than Doug
could handle. He started laughing.

“We have everything connected here, by either
Wi-Fi or Ethernet. The two laptops you are using have been
reporting your progress since the first log in.

“Ryce bogged down in module 5.6 and 5.9.
Tanya had a hiccup in module 3.7 and 5.9. I had predicted that you
would each have problems in at least five modules. John, Marge and
Karen all bet against me. They are now each $20.00 richer.

“There will be no classes today or tomorrow,
unless you can’t keep your hands off the laptops. On Monday, we
will throw you into the cavern of lost hope.”

John walked over and sat next to Doug. “You
have been taking the standard entry course for the Cyber Crimes
division of The Washington State Patrol. It has been adopted by
almost every law enforcement organization in the country. Anyone
who wants to work in Cyber must pass this course before they are
even considered.

“Doug says you have done very well. If you do
not make any more errors, you will finish with a better grade than
the developers did. Mark wrote most of the course and missed four
modules. Doug, by the way, missed five modules. That is the same
number he thought you would miss. It’s like taking candy from a
baby.”

John laughed, stood, and walked back to sit
with Marge.

Ramona caught up to Ryce and Tanya before
they could leave the chow hall. “I will stop by your apartment at
1:00 PM and take you over to the Sanctuary. This is the anniversary
of Jill’s death. John has a special memorial at her gravesite.”

After Tanya and Ryce returned to their
apartment, Ryce fought a valiant fight, and stayed away from his
laptop for almost forty-five minutes. When Tanya reminded him that
Doug said they didn’t have to work all weekend, Ryce just
smiled.

“I don’t think this is considered working. I
am not playing with any of the cyber programming. I am writing an
email to a friend of mine from the Army. I think I told you about
Jason Marsh. He is a county Mountie in New Mexico. I would like to
get him to move to the JBTF.”

Ryce focused on his laptop again, typed for
several moments, and then looked at Tanya.

“OK, the email is on the way to Jason. What
would you like to do now?”

Tanya looked at her smart phone and then
smiled. “If Ramona wasn’t supposed to be here in less than an hour,
I think you know what I would like to do.”

Tanya was only off by thirty minutes; Ramona
arrived a half hour early. As they were walking to the parking lot,
Ramona explained that she wanted to stop at a florist to pick up
some flowers for Jill’s grave.

Fabian was standing beside the Hummer when
Ramona, Ryce, and Tanya walked up. After Tanya and Ryce climbed
into the limo, Ramona started the introductions.

“O2 is at work, but our twin sons, O3 and
John2, are riding with me to the Sanctuary. I think you met AP and
Danielle in Research 1. You met Annette at breakfast, so all that
are left of that family are Lucy and Cory. You met Fabian’s wife,
Hollie, in Coeur D’Alene. She is keeping another Cory, Anna, and
Justin under control. The lady holding the flowers is John’s little
sister, Mattie. Sitting beside Mattie is her husband, Dale
Farnsworth. Dale is Doug’s younger brother. The boy on Mattie’s lap
is Andrew, and the girl on Dale’s lap is Jill.”

Ramona pushed the intercom button.

“Fabian, what’s the capacity of this limo? We
have eighteen in here right now.”

Everyone heard a chuckle. “The license says
we can carry twenty passengers, but I think we had twenty-six in
here last winter. Please remain seated while the vehicle is in
motion.”

The drive to the Sanctuary took almost thirty
minutes. A hay wagon was waiting to transport everyone to the
Sanctuary Hotel. After they were all loaded on the wagon, the first
stop was at a large hand-carved wooden sign.

“
This Sanctuary is dedicated to
the memory of Jill Pendergast, the beloved wife of John
Pendergast.”

“
Jill was a champion in the
preservation of a simpler life. She was never able to see the
Sanctuary, but those who knew her are confident she would have
loved it.

“
Thank you, Jill, for being who
you were, and enriching all of those who loved you. You are
missed.
”

Ryce looked over at Ramona while the
dedication was being read and saw that she had a few tears running
down her cheeks.

The ride to the hotel was over in fifteen
minutes. After Ryce helped Tanya off the hay wagon, he looked
around.

He was standing in front of a magnificent
three-story structure built of hand-felled and hand-sawn lumber. A
placard near the main entrance stated it had taken more than fifty
craftsmen three years to complete the hotel. That did not include a
year required for the trees to dry sufficiently to be worked.

Ryce heard John’s voice behind him.

“I am really proud of this place. The hotel
has ten three-bedroom suites on all three floors, five on each side
of the grand staircase. On the third floor, the stairs end at the
Jill Memorial Suite, which has four bedrooms and a sitting room.
The kitchen, dining hall, and personal facilities are housed in
their own building behind the hotel. We had to do some
modifications to the back of the hotel. All the guests were running
around in their bathrobes, so we added a private hallway from each
floor to the showers. Some of the bathrobes were really
interesting. Marge still has nightmares about one guest.

“We have a three thousand gallon wooden water
tank perched on the roof of the kitchen for showers and cleaning.
That is sometimes a sore point around here. The tank has to be
filled by hand from fifty-gallon barrels filled by hand at the
lake, and then brought here on a horse-drawn wagon. The guests love
it but the staff hates it. Two or three times a day, we put out a
call for help. We often have thirty guests rushing to grab a wooden
pail.

“We salvaged an industrial water boiler from
1824 that heats all of our water. And all the water pipes are
actually made of cast and fired clay from England. How AP found the
plumbing, I have no idea. And he isn’t telling.”

John paused and then continued. “I know that
Jill would have loved this place.”

John checked the time on his cell phone and
then turned back to Ryce. “The memorial starts in thirty minutes in
the Pavilion. That’s the really big covered structure behind me
with all the artisan booths.”

As Tanya and Ryce slowly walked hand-in-hand
through the Sanctuary, he marveled at what John had created. On the
right of the Pavilion were several Army-style wall tents set on
wood floors. Ryce could see a sign hanging from the ridgepole of
each tent. The people crafting the signs had a wonderful time. The
permitted occupants for one tent included seven humans, six dogs,
three cats, and one horse. Ryce wondered where the horse was going
to sleep.

On the opposite end of the Pavilion, Ryce
could see more than a dozen wood-frame cottages. According to the
map painted on the wall of the hotel, these were three and four
bedroom family cottages. Ryce made a mental note to find out if
they had any vacancies in any of the housing areas of the
Sanctuary. Tanya had a birthday coming soon.

Ryce grimaced. How soon? He flipped open his
smart phone, and checked a file labeled “Things I’d Better Not
Forget.” He was safe. Tanya’s birthday was in two months. A
reservation for even a weekend at the Sanctuary would be an
excellent birthday gift.

Precisely at 2:16 PM, John led the group down
a wandering path to the cemetery. Ramona walked next to Ryce and
Tanya.

“Jill was killed at 2:16 PM. Each year on the
anniversary of her death, John celebrates her life.”

Tanya started to ask how Jill had died, but
they had arrived at the cemetery.

Jill had been laid to rest in a small grove
of trees overlooking the lake. She had a simple, hand-carved wooden
marker with her name, the date she was born, and the time and date
she died. The closing line on the marker read, “A loving wife and
friend. You are missed.”

After the Sanctuary was opened for business,
someone had asked why a shrine had been built to Jill when she was
still in Monroe, WA. A week later, John moved Jill’s coffin to what
had soon become known as Jill’s Grove.

Seventeen additional grave markers now dotted
the clearing, and more than fifty urns were attached to trees
nearby. Ryce smiled when he saw that most of the urns were the
ashes of beloved pets. However, two urns contained a couple who
wanted to be remembered together. Ryce scribbled a mental note.
This was where he wanted to be remembered.

The ceremony was simple. After several family
members recalled what Jill had meant to them, John walked to the
marker. He was holding the hand of a young girl who was carrying a
bouquet of flowers almost as big as she was.

“All of you who knew Jill also know that her
best friend was Marge. When Jill died, I took a three-year vacation
from reality. Marge was the one who brought me back. The beautiful
young lady at my side is also named Jill. She is our daughter. She
will allow the name to continue. Jill, you are missed.”

When John completed his part of the ceremony,
Jill stepped over to the marker. She gently placed the flowers in a
wooden vase, blew a kiss at the marker, and rushed to her mother’s
arms. Ryce looked around. There was not a dry eye in the group.
Ryce poked Tanya and asked for a tissue.