Paul Hodges spent more than forty years doing what he loved. Intelligence work that began with a military career and ended in private consulting. Work at the Pentagon was challenging and rewarding, but he figured he got out at just the right time and certainly didn't miss the frequent travel and late night conference calls. He had carved out a nice little niche in the world of espionage even if nepotism did him no favors. He had a brother who was a powerful US Senator yet that connection only seemed to make his job more difficult.
Now was Paul and Stella's time to enjoy life at a much slower pace.
He thought it might be tough adapting to this new freedom, but almost immediately jumped into a new project that kept him fully occupied. One that, as it turned out, would take years to complete. He and his wife Stella bought a cottage on their favorite lake a few hundred miles north of their hometown. The idea being to fix it up and use it as a summer getaway. But as work on the place stretched into a third year, Paul was beginning to have thoughts about selling their primary home and moving permanently to the lake. Something Stella would never agree to given the current proximity of their kids and grandchildren.
Still, Lake Life was a good life and he was certain she would see it his way. Eventually. They had completely re-built the cottage and it looked nothing like it had when they closed on it three years earlier. New foundation, roof, walls, flooring, wiring, plumbing, all new windows, doors, and a heavy application of spray foam insulation. They had even hired a company to build a bunkhouse behind the cottage that could sleep six to eight people so the kids would have a place of their own whenever they visited. A pole barn was still on the "to-do" list for the following year. He first told Stella that doing everything they wanted would take a year. Then two. Now that it had been three years he began saying the entire project would probably take about five years to complete to perfection.
He was a tech enthusiast and it showed in all the little touches crafted into the place. Including a series of wireless cameras that allowed him to keep a close eye on the cottage and property even when he was back home. Everything was networked and his internet connection delivered via satellite. He could remotely control the HVAC system, turn the water supply off and on, arm and disarm the alarm system as well as a dozen other anti-intruder traps that might not be completely legal. He also installed an automatic weather station that fed its data online. On top of all that, there was his ham radio station. Paul had been a radio ham since his high school days and was always an active operator. He installed a state of the art amateur radio station and antennas capable of covering from shortwaves to microwaves at the lake shack.
All that technology requires power. And one of the things they had learned over the first few years at the cabin was just how unreliable the electric service was from the rural co-op. This week Paul was at the cabin to work with installers who were connecting his new natural gas generator. This unit would automatically come online seconds after detecting a power outage and switch to generator power. It ran on natural gas, which never failed, unlike the frequent electrical outages and he thought this the best way for them to maintain power through almost anything.
But just to be safe, he had also installed a solar array and a small utility building that housed a large bank of batteries that were continuously charged by solar. He had to have several trees removed to provide a clear path to sunlight, but he deemed it worthwhile to have this power option available. It couldn't power the appliances, but all the lighting in the cottage was powered by 24 volts and could be switched to this battery supply. There was also a battery feed available to power his ham radio station.
A natural gas furnace was installed in the cottage, but they didn't use it preferring to heat the place with a multi-fuel stove that was capable of keeping the whole place warm. It could burn wood pellets, grain, or firewood though the pellets were the most efficient and didn't create nearly as much ash to be removed. It had an electric feeder so pellets poured into a large storage hopper would be delivered as needed to the fire. One hundred pounds of pellets was enough for three or four days even during the coldest weather.
Once the generator installation work was finished and the crew had left, Paul walked down the steps to the landing in front of the cottage that led to the pier. He stepped onto their pontoon boat tied off there and, lifting his phone, he initiated a video call with Stella. He wanted to take every opportunity to show her what she was missing by not coming to the lake with him this trip.
"Hello stranger", she answered with a smile.
They chatted a few minutes, him updating her on the generator work and how it had worked perfectly when tested.
"I plan to spend the night here and will head for home first thing in the morning. Is everything okay there?" he asked.
"Everything is okay, except Hector didn't come home and I'm a little worried about him", she said.
He told her not to worry. "Hector was a smart cat and a crafty fellow at that. He will get himself home as soon as he gets hungry enough. No need to worry about him, that's for sure", Paul tried to reassure her. But he was concerned too. Hector had never stayed away all night before. But there was nothing he could do about it from the cottage and they would just have to hope for a happy reunion.
He drove into town that evening and enjoyed a nice dinner afterwards filling his gas tank for the return journey. He was headed back to the cottage but decided to first stop at a coffee shop to get a fresh cup. He had a feeling he would be up late tonight working on his notes and that eternal "to-do" list.
Back at the cabin, he plopped into an easy chair with his notepad and pencil and began to check a few things off the list while adding a dozen more. One of the added items was having the gravel driveway paved. Their cabin sat nearly a half-mile off the hard-surfaced road. Stella complained about that long gravel driveway though he tried to placate her by saying, "it's a perfectly beautiful drive six months of the year". She never failed to counter with, "yeah, but what about the other six months?"
It was getting late now. The coffee was long gone along with the caffeine jolt it had provided. He was tired and ready for bed, but suddenly remembered his phone charger was in the duffel bag he brought along for the trip. He had placed it in the bunkhouse upon his arrival because the generator installation crew was waiting for him when he pulled in the driveway and the bunkhouse was the closest place to stow it. Now he was kicking himself for having forgotten that until just this minute as he would have to put his shoes back on and go outside in the dark to retrieve it. When he walked into the bunkhouse there sat the duffel bag, right where he put it on one of the bunk beds nearest the door.
Sitting alongside it was Hector.