The Bathrobe Knight: Volume 2 (15 page)

              "Yes, thank you." Robert chose to simply go along with it for now, despite the little alarms going off inside his head getting slightly louder.

              His first impressions were immediately confirmed as soon as he took a seat in the car, removing his laptop case from over his shoulder and setting it on the seat beside him as he did so. The vehicle was definitely designed with luxury in mind. Everything from the spacious interior, the copious amounts of leg and head room, the soft tan leather seats with their fine black stitching, and the wood-grained paneling on the door exuded accommodation and comfort. The vehicle even
smelled
right--that perfect combination of new car smell and clean, fresh leather that was only possible to achieve, usually by complete accident, within a few months of the vehicle being used.

              The facts became even more obvious as the linebacker of a man who had initially greeted him in his kitchen opened the adjacent rear door and took a seat next to him. Robert realized quite happily that, even with his laptop separating the two of them, both he and the bear of a man fit more than comfortably together in the back seat of the car.  

              "Very good, sir," the older gentleman said as he entered the car and took his position in the driver's seat. "I trust you will be comfortable during our ride." It's like the man had read Robert's mind and was trying to drive the point home. 

             
Was I staring so obviously?
Robert wondered. 

              "Yes, it's very nice," Robert answered. "But if you could perhaps just tell me where we will be meeting with Charles? I thought that we were supposed to have the meeting at the office, but now I get the impression that has changed."

              The driver glanced into the rearview mirror as he shifted the car into drive and began pulling away from the curb long enough for Robert to catch a glimpse of his smile. The man, however, never answered as they began driving away. 

             
I didn't even realize that the car was already running,
Robert thought to himself. The sedan had been so quiet and smooth while idling that it had never even occurred to him it had already been started. 

              His initial suspicions were confirmed almost as soon as the car began moving. If they were going to meet Charles at the office, the man would have had to either pull a u-turn in the middle of the street, which was as unlikely a thing as he could imagine a chauffeur ever doing, or turn at the end of the block and make his way back towards where the office was located within the city. Instead, the man simply continued making his way along the same route, eventually exiting off onto the loop and making his way towards the highway.

              Robert decided to just settle in and go along for the ride. There wasn't much else he could do, anyway. He knew that if they were exiting out onto the highway, they were going to be in for a bit of a journey. The city had grown quite significantly within the past decade as more and more companies began moving into the area, and its population was somewhat bolstered by the local military base, but it was far from reaching the monolithic proportions of the true metropolises of the country. 

              As more and more people flocked to the city seeking to fill jobs the emerging businesses created, the suburbs in the surrounding areas had grown in response. Although it was one of the older of such areas that Robert lived in, it had still been, at one time, a pop-up subdivision. Neatly spaced homes with clean-cut lawns and ornamental shrubbery was the name of the game in areas like his. 

              By taking the highway, Robert knew they were leaving all that behind. As the suburbs began fading away behind them, they were left on long stretches of road only occasionally marked by the infrequent billboard, highway marker, or intermittent connecting road. The highway was flanked on either side by either alternating periods of untouched, natural woodland or long stretches of pasture where herds of cattle and the occasional group of horses could be seen grazing. 

             
I feel like I just stepped into the lyrics of a country song
, Robert mused to himself as he watched it all roll by through the heavily-tinted windows. Even though it was unseasonably warm outside, and the sun was shining brightly, the inside of the car was dim, comfortable and cool. The driver never changed speed, the ride was smooth and pleasant, and he actually found that he was starting to relax a bit and enjoy himself as it wore on. 

              Robert lost track of how long they had been traveling by the time the car finally began to slow down. He had a vague sense of how long he had been in the vehicle, but it had been blurred into a hazy memory of nondescript, indistinctive pastures and woodlands. Snapping back into focus, he immediately began taking stock of his surroundings. For some time now, they had been passing a long wooden fence made from interlocked wooden beams. It had the look of being better maintained than some of the others they had passed during the trip, but was otherwise unremarkable from any of the rest. As they began slowing, however, Robert's attention was immediately drawn to the fact that the wooden fence had instead been replaced with a series of tightly-spaced black iron bars. 

              The car finally came to almost a complete stop before turning off onto what appeared to be the start of a private driveway. As the driver negotiated the turn from the roadway, Robert noticed him, from the corner of his eye, reach up and press a button just underneath the rearview mirror. Almost instantly, two huge wrought iron gates that would have otherwise barred their path began swinging inwards, opening up the way before them. Massive trees were interspersed in lines framing each side of the roadway, their trunks reaching skyward until their branches eventually interlocked, creating a sort of canopy over the road. As far as he could see in either direction behind the trees, there was nothing but grass until it gave way and turned back into woods. Unlike the pastures they had passed during the drive, however, this field had the look of a massive, well-manicured lawn rather than unkempt pasture turned over to animals and livestock for grazing. Robert was also dimly aware of the fact that the surface of the road had changed, although he couldn't noticeably tell the difference in the way it felt from inside the car. 

             
I feel like I'm being escorted onto a college campus with a tour group,
Robert thought, amused at the comparison. Before accepting his position as a programmer with the company he worked at now developing the game, he had toyed with the idea of teaching a few college classes. He was certainly more than qualified and had tons of experience in the field. He had taken a tour of more than a few colleges across the country while he was interviewing for possible teaching positions, and for some reason, they always wanted to approach the school from the most scenic route. The university could be ultra high-tech and extremely modern in design, but, without fail, there was always at least one place on campus they could show off as 'scenic’ and 'having a view.'

              The car rolled along for some time until the lines of trees escorting them on either side of the roadway suddenly came to an end, and Robert was greeted with his first view of where they might actually be headed. The long driveway finally came to an end in a long, looping circle before doubling back on itself. The house, or mansion, was large enough in size to have been appropriately called a small compound without the sinister undertones. Long, sprawling flower beds bordered the driveway as it approached the manor, which was surrounded, at least on the front structure, by a long porch. Huge white columns supported the roof over the porch, vaguely reminding Robert of antebellum houses he had seen while visiting old plantations during his time in the South. What caught his attention, however, was the fountain in the center of the roundabout where the roadway turned back on itself. From this distance he couldn't be certain, but rather than the standard design he would have expected--dolphins, angels, or cherubs--Robert was almost certain the fountain was designed to look like a multi-headed serpent spewing water forth from all of its heads.

              Robert was still staring at the design trying to make out the details when the car came to a stop, and his attention was immediately turned instead to the chauffeur exiting the car and walking around to open the door for him. 

              "This way, if you please, sir," the man said with a smile as he held the door open for him. 

              Robert couldn't be certain, but he fairly sure the man was trying to stifle a laugh.
I must look like a wide-eyed schoolgirl,
he admonished himself.  

              Grabbing his laptop case from the seat beside him, Robert exited the car and stood up, pleasantly surprised to find he wasn't nearly as stiff from the ride as he had anticipated. He heard a door click shut and noticed that the silent mountain of a man that had been his traveling companion had exited the car as well and was coming around the rear of it to accompany him into the building. 

              "Thank you," Robert said to the older gentleman who had driven him all this time. "That was actually quite enjoyable."

              The man's smile never wavered as he nodded knowingly in response. He shut the car door behind Robert before walking around, entering the vehicle and then driving away.

              Robert follow his escort up the stairs and onto the porch, glancing around and trying to take in everything he could. The mansion was simply-designed on the outside, but the sheer scale of the place and the beauty of the surrounding countryside made it stand out as opulent and lavish. The large wooden door swung open to receive them as they crossed the porch, and it wasn't until Robert had crossed the threshold and his eyes adjusted to the slight difference in lighting that he noticed a slenderly-framed woman who had been holding it open for them. She was clad head to toe in a strange black uniform that Robert had never seen before. His best guess was that she was some type of maid, but he never had the chance to ask as she stealthily slipped behind him and away through an adjoining door and disappeared before he had the opportunity to even say 'thank you.' 

              Robert barely had time to take in the entranceway around the hulking figure of his guide before he was ushered away in the opposite direct from where the lithe, uniformed woman had gone. 

              "This way," the man said, his deep, bass voice resonating throughout the room. Robert thought he could almost hear a faint echo.

              "Alright. Lead on then," Robert responded as he took a quick step to keep up with his companion, who was now lumbering away through an adjoining room and heading towards a connecting hallway. 

              Try as though he might to take it all in, the man was moving far too quickly for Robert to get a good look at everything as he passed by. The first room appeared to have been designed as a sitting room, directly off the entrance. Lightly colored hardwood floors led across the room to a massive fireplace that dominated the far wall. Filling the room between the doorway and the fireplace were various couches, sofas, and recliners sitting facing each other as if they were intended for entertaining.  Several small end tables were positioned so that they would always be at arm's reach from any of the other furniture, and Robert quickly spied what he guessed was a square glass decanter of scotch. 

              Rooms led off in various directions from the left of the hallway, but all the doors were closed, and Robert could only guess what they may have contained. To his right, however, the wall quickly gave way to glass paneling which was letting sunlight stream in from an atrium. Several small flower beds, all looking carefully nurtured, surrounded various different types of trees that appeared to have been randomly placed throughout the area to create shade for a handful of stone benches. He had just enough time to catch sight of what may have been a coy pond and a small stream on the far side of the atrium before he passed the scene entirely and was born on further into the mansion.

              The long stretch of tiled hallway ended and was replaced once again by the hardwood floors, and Robert could only look around him in amazement. The room they had entered was, if nothing else,  remarkable for its sheer size. It wasn't just the size of the room, however, that caused Robert's mouth to hang openly slightly and his eyes to grow rounder by the minute.

              They had entered into what appeared to be a home library--only on a much larger scale than anything Robert had ever imagined actually existed. Rows of books lined the walls, stacked so high on shelves he was certain he would need a ladder to reach the highest ones. Eventually, on what would have been the third story, there was a catwalk that framed the outside of the room, giving access to even more shelves of books. They were so high up, Robert had to tilt his head back to even get a good look at them. The room was filled with several long wooden tables on the ground level, each with several small reading lamps placed along them. In various different places there even were large, overstuffed leather chairs with small tables placed next to them, each also containing a small lamp to give light for reading.

              "Alright," Robert said quietly, afraid of breaking the aura of reverence in the room. "I'm impressed now."

              The man he was following chuckled before answering in his deep voice. "Only just now?"

              Robert was surprised to see any sign of an actual reaction from the fellow, much less receive a reply however sarcastic it may have been.

              After they crossed through the library and exited into a second smaller hallway on the far end, his companion abruptly came to a stop outside a dark wooden door.

              "Dr. Charles is expecting you," he said as he quickly rapped his knuckles on the door before swinging it open. The walking tower then took a step back and stood facing Robert, blocking his view so that it was impossible to catch a glimpse of anything else further past him. 

              Robert glanced around the partially-opened door into the room. Charles was seated behind a heavy wooden desk at the far end, head bent down over his work in front of him, his pen quickly scratching across the top sheet on a rather large stack of papers. He was still wearing the same patterned, yellow tie he had on early at the meeting, but his jacket had been taken off and draped across the plush leather office chair he was sitting in. 

              Stepping through the doorway, Robert found himself unsure of how he was supposed to react.  On one hand, he was sure that it would be rude to interrupt someone while he was working. There was no telling what those documents might contain. Charles was the acting CEO of numerous multi-million dollar corporations. Even the smallest distraction that resulted in a mistake or something as simple as a misplaced comma could result in a potential catastrophe for everyone involved. Like a medical doctor writing directions to nurses or prescriptions, even the smallest error could result in disaster. A clipped, forgotten, or hastily scribbled 'm' for milligrams suddenly became a lazy 'g' for grams, and the patient was dead, not on the road  to recovery. On the other hand, Robert had been invited here--or brought here, anyway, presumably by invitation. It was rude for Charles to ignore him and keep him waiting as well, especially with him standing there awkwardly watching the man work.