Three days later, Alex and Nelly drove the food truck to the Todd Mountain scenic area. Lately, folk activities were held there, which attracted many tourists. She had thought that it would be a good business place.
Nelly, like the other sellers, first had to apply for a temporary business license. She then drove into the area with the food truck and stopped at a small square.
Since people had started arriving at eight in the morning, her business was doing very well. By ten o'clock, she had not stopped making pancakes.
While Alex and Nelly were busy with the food truck, a Mercedes pulled up at the gate of the scenic area. Several people stepped out of the car. One of them was Hunter, who had been scared to death by Alex in Tillie square a few days earlier.
Hunter was followed by two young girls. One of the girls was Lindsey Marvel, who had been assaulted by Philip Geller at her Lawrence Heights apartment in New York.
Lindsey looked lovely in a khaki one-piece suit with a pair of pale pink sandals.
The other girl looked like she was two or three years older. She was wearing a copper-green dress and a pair of white mesh shoes. With her shoulder-length hair, her style looked different from Lindsey's, but she was just as beautiful.
"Sister, this is Todd Mountain. The scenery here is very nice. When I was a child, I especially liked it when my father brought me here. It's even more wonderful to hear that there are folk performances today. Let's go and have a look together." Lindsey smiled and took the other girl by the hand.
The girl in green nodded and said that Hunter had already bought tickets. Lindsey took the girl past the ticket office and entered through the gates to the scenic area. Hunter and his wife followed them. They were their bodyguards.
"Can you see how high Todd Mountain is? There are streams, waterfalls, and all kinds of flowers on the mountain. It's very beautiful." Lindsey said to the girl in green as she pointed to the distant mountain.
"Oh, it smells good! It smells like pancakes," Lindsey said as she sniffed the air. She looked around and saw a lot of tourists in front of a food truck. There seemed to be two people running the truck. One was making pancakes and the other was taking drink orders from the tourists. But she couldn't see much of anything, as she was still quite far away, and there were many people around the front of the truck.
"Ah, I'd like to buy one too, but there are too many people." Lindsey sighed and put her arm around the girl in green. "Let's go on ahead." The two girls walked forward.
Alex handed a soft drink to a tourist. He looked at the people around him, as he had a feeling that something was wrong.
"Hey, don't you see that someone's asking for pancakes?" Nelly reminded him, which brought his attention back.
**
After two hours of touring the mountain, Lindsey and the girl in green were tired. They sat on a rock beside the mountain path to rest. Hunter took out the food that had been prepared for the two girls, which consisted of sandwiches and other snacks.
"I don't want to eat this." Lindsey took the sandwich, but she didn't have much of an appetite. She set it down, looked at Hunter, and asked, "Can you help me buy a pancake? I'd like a pancake instead."
"Okay, I'll go right now. You wait here," he agreed. He had been hired by the Marvel family to protect the two sisters, and he had to take on the responsibility of assisting them. When someone from the family asked him for something, how could he refuse?
He said to the other bodyguard, Shania, "Look after the two girls. I'm going to go buy pancakes." He turned to the girl in green and asked her, "Do you want one too?"
"I'll just have my sandwich," she said with a smile, as she shook her head.
With that, Hunter walked to the scenic area by himself. They were almost a mile away from the entrance.
There was a large platform where folk activities were carried out. It attracted a lot of tourists. It also had more security personnel to maintain order.
When he arrived, Hunter spotted a man in uniform who looked familiar. He smiled and walked over to him.
"Felix!" he called out.
"Hunter, what are you doing here?" Felix recognized Hunter right away.
Felix and Hunter were old acquaintances. Now in their thirties, they both worked in security. When they were young, they had met through gambling. They had engaged in fraud, whoring, fighting, and robbery together. It could be said that they shared a dark past. Later, they realized that this kind of illegal activity wasn't a long-term business. They had signed up for a fight club together, but, after the semester was over, they went their separate ways and lost contact. They hadn't expected to meet again at Todd Mountain after one had become a bodyguard for the Marvel family, and the other had become the chief of the security section for the Todd Mountain scenic area.
"You've done well for yourself! You've become the chief of the security section. You're much more important than I am with my little bodyguard role!" Hunter patted Felix on the shoulder.
"Damn it, Hunter, you don't need to use sarcasm. Everybody knows that the Marvel family is one of the top five families in Washington, D.C. You serve as a bodyguard for Miss Marvel's family. Your status is much better than mine. If you want to change positions, I'll give you my small section-chief role, and you give me the bodyguard position with the Marvels," said Felix.
Felix wondered if he could also work as a bodyguard for the Marvels. His friend's salary must be at least eighty thousand dollars a year. As a small section chief, all he earned was twenty-five thousand dollars a year, which was far less than Hunter. He considered himself quite poor.
After Felix mentioned swapping positions, Hunter just laughed obscenely.
"You're buying pancakes for Miss Marvel, right? Let's go. I'll go with you, and we'll talk about our old friendship," Felix volunteered. He wanted to ask Hunter whether he could work for the Marvel family. "Let's take a patrol car to save you from walking."
Felix called a security guard to drive the patrol car. The two old friends got into the vehicle and headed for the entrance.
In the car, Felix inquired about the Marvel family's news. Although Hunter listened to Felix's intention of getting employment with the Marvels, he pretended to be confused and gave his friend a slap in the face.
"Okay, I'll buy pancakes for my young lady, and we'll talk later." The patrol car quickly arrived at the square's gate. Hunter got out and walked toward the food truck.
Alex and Nelly were busy working.
There were only three or four people standing in front of the food truck. Hunter saw the small crowd, and, when he arrived, he looked at the truck. Washington was full of such food trucks, so he didn't expect that the people inside it would be Alex and Nelly.
When he spotted them, he remembered that a few days ago in Tillie square, Alex had a flying blade that had cut off some of his hair. He quickly turned around and walked stiffly back to the patrol car, with a sigh of relief.
"What's the matter with you? Why did you walk partway there, turn around, and come back again?" Felix was puzzled.
"You don't have to worry about it. By the way, aren't you the chief of security around here?" Hunter asked.
"Except for the administrative affairs, I manage all the affairs in the scenic area, but my life around here is quite carefree. The other day, my team members found a cell phone that a female tourist had lost. I handed it back to her in the office, but I couldn't speak her language. So, I just said hello to her and fooled her into having an in-depth communication with me in the office—on the desk." Felix didn't want to be looked down upon by Hunter, so he tried to boast about himself.
"Right on!" Hunter gave Felix a thumbs up and then pointed in the direction of the food truck. "Don't you want to work in the Marvel house? Now, here's your chance to get in. I think those two people over there are no good, so you can teach them a lesson. If I'm satisfied, I'll go back and talk to the Marvels. I'll let you know if a job opportunity comes up."
"Okay, if that's what you say." Felix was very happy to hear about this opportunity. He looked at Alex and Nelly in the nearby food truck, and his eyes showed a trace of ruthlessness. "I'm the boss around here, and it's not a trivial thing to have two people here who might be up to no good."
Felix got out of the car.
"Hello, can I have a pancake?" As soon as Nelly was ready to have a rest, another customer walked up. She saw that he was a small security guard, so she stood up again, scooped up some dough, and began to spread out the pancake.
Soon, she had made it. When the security guard paid for it, Nelly handed him the pancake, and he walked away.
"Alex, I'm tired. Rub my shoulders," Nelly called out as she sat on the chair.
"Well, my goodness!" He sighed. The more familiar their relationship became, the less polite she was to him. She often asked for a massage when she was tired. However, Alex recognized that she did have a hard life making pancakes every day, and she had been washing his clothes, so he was willing to give her a massage.
Just then, the security guard came back. He put his hand in front of Nelly and said angrily, "Hey, look at what's in my pancake… flies! How did you make these pancakes?"
Alex and Nelly were surprised as they looked at the greenfly in his hand that was still moving around.
"Are you talking nonsense? I made the pancake. There were no flies in it when I gave it to you. Don't be so angry with me," Nelly said aloud.
"Damn, there are flies in the pancakes, and you're so arrogant! Let's have a look and see how hygienic your food truck is. I just ate flies out of this pancake, and now you say that I'm talking nonsense?" The security guard began to shout, and a lot of tourists quickly gathered around the truck. Other security guards also went over.
Naturally, the tourists were on the security guard's side and began to accuse Alex and Nelly of being unsanitary.
"How do you make the pancakes? If you can't do it right, you shouldn't do it at all."
"This isn't good enough to eat… it could make us sick."
Alex and Nelly said nothing to the tourists.
"What's the matter?" The security guard, who had gone away for a moment, returned leading a tall man with a serious face.
After listening to the security guard, Felix looked at Alex and said, "The pancakes you made are not up to standard. Now we have to impound your food truck temporarily to check whether the other products in the truck are safe. You step out, so we can drive the truck away."