Carter's Fortress - 5. Chapter 5

Brody was up and rattling dishes early as Will walked into the kitchen doing up his tie and turning down his collar. "Morning, honey," he said with a grin as Brody began to make coffee.

Brody turned back to Will with a surprised look on his face. "Morning," he said, flipping on the coffee maker and returning to his omelet sizzling happily in the pan.

Will chuckled as he found a seat at the breakfast bar, turning his attention to the small 13 inch TV sitting on the far end of the counter. Breakfast television, a happy blend of news, features and general mayhem designed to make you perky on your way to work in the morning. Right now they were interviewing Delia Anders about her new album, which apparently had gone double platinum.

"Not bad," Will said aloud.

Brody turned to the screen and grinned, "I know, and her music isn't bad either..."

Will looked up at Brody and rolled his eyes, "You know you're a pig."

"Dude," Brody protested looking hurt. "Just because I can admire the aesthetics of the female form..."

"Morning, Brody." A woman entered the kitchen and wrapped her long arms around him, her back leg curling up as she leaned forward to kiss him tenderly on the cheek. "Thanks for this morning."

Brody smiled at her, "No problem, Candice, I'll call you."

"You better," she tittered before she walked out of the front door, pausing to wave cheerily back at him.

Will watched her leave. "Speaking of the aesthetics of the female form," he mused, accepting the mug of coffee Brody slid across the bar to him.

"Candice is really talented," Brody said, returning his attention to the omelet.

Will shook his head as he looked back at the small television, turning it up as he realized they were onto the news.

The announcer standing in front of a large window overlooking the city shuffled his papers, and began to talk about various headlines. Will listened with half interest to the various tidbits that would be explored in more detail on the news broadcast. Earthquakes, scandal in the States, and the Federal governments proposed culture exhibition that was delayed again due to budget mismanagement.

"That's one of yours, isn't it?" Brody asked, leaning on the bar.

Will frowned. "Well, yes and no," he said, remembering the brief the former chief of staff had given him. "The exhibition is ours, and once the building is built and the facilities completed we take over, but right now it's the Department of Public Works that's handling construction."

"Ahh," Brody mused. "Big project?"

"It's supposed to be a showcase of everything Canadian," Will shrugged. "It was commissioned by the last government and we inherited the project."

"So it's like the Canadian Ex?" Brody asked.

"Yeah, like a permanent worlds fair down on the waterfront in Toronto. Big, glitzy and..." Will shrugged.

"A tremendous waste of money," Brody summed up in that effortless way of his.

"Yeah, essentially," Will agreed. "We have a meeting with the Minister of Public Works about it later this week, maybe they can make some sense out of what the last government was thinking when they started to sink money into this thing."

"How much?" Brody asked.

"Officially?" Will asked. "It was supposed to cost 200 million."

"How much does it actually cost?" Brody knew full well that when the government projected the cost of something it was always woefully underestimated.

Will shrugged, "It's sitting at close to five right now."

"Five Hundred Million?" Brody whistled, "Go, liberal spending."

"Morning, Brody," a second young woman said, coming into the kitchen, and Will did a double take, as she gave Brody a big hug, stole a bite of the omelet and headed for the door.

Brody smiled at her, "I'll call you."

She giggled happily at the prospect and left. As the door closed Will gave Brody a long slow look, his eyebrow arching questioningly. "Sandra?"

"Yes," Brody said, resting on the countertop and gesturing with a forkful of omelet. "So this exhibition--who's promoting it?"

Will shrugged, "I can find out for you. Why, are you interested?"

"Maybe," Brody said looking thoughtful. "I have a few acts that could use the exposure."

"Acts?" Will asked; he turned to Brody, looking thoughtful. Brody's occupation was a source of great mystery to everyone. He just seemed to have money, and everyone thought better than to ask him about it.

Lisa was convinced Brody was an international drug dealer, but then she had an overactive imagination. The only one that had any idea was Jared, still living in Toronto, the investment banker who handled most of Brody's portfolio. Though even he didn't know exactly where the money came from, he just invested it wisely for Brody.

Brody looked at Will, a twinkle in his eyes, "Yeah I know a couple of bands that could use a gig like this." He knew full well that he had aroused Will's curiosity, but he wasn't about to confirm or deny anything. As if he enjoyed the mystery about as much as his friends enjoyed guessing.

"Well, I'll get the guy down in events to give you a call," Will said, sipping the coffee.

"And who said cronyism was dead?" Brody grinned.

Will chuckled, "Okay, then I won't get them to call you."

Marc stumbled into the kitchen sleepily, walking to the coffee pot and pouring himself a mug. He looked like he had literally crawled out of bed, his hair sticking up in mad directions and his eyes half-closed.

"Looks like someone had a rough night," Brody remarked. "Will, you really should let the boy sleep."

Marc looked up at Brody and grinned, clutching the mug in both hands; he turned and stumbled across to his jacket hanging on the back of the chair and fished out a packet of cigarettes, making his way out to the front steps for his morning smoke.

Will chuckled. Marc wasn't used to mornings yet, but the fact that he was up, without Will having to get him up, said that Marc was enjoying school. That was a relief to Will. He didn't want to push Marc into anything, but the guy needed to set his sights on something, he couldn't keep drifting.

The front door banged open and little Peter dashed inside, skidding to a halt in the middle of the kitchen to kick off his sneakers as he dashed to the living room. Will leaned his head around to see the young eighteen-year-old sliding across the hardwood floor of the living room to plug in a video game.

"Hey," Will called out, "don't you have school?"

"Not for an hour," Peter fired back, already settling in to play. "Besides, it's gym first period so I can be late..."

Will frowned. "Not on my watch, you don't," he said, sounding very much like a Dad, "Your mother finds out you're skipping class to come over here and play video games and she'll have both our hides."

"Aw, but Will..." Peter protested.

"No 'but Will's'," Will replied firmly. "I'm leaving for work in half an hour, you have till then and I'll drop you off at school."

Peter grinned his thanks as he returned to button mashing.

"I swear, it's like having kids," Will muttered.

"You love it," Brody countered.

"Morning, Brody," a third lovely young lady said, entering the kitchen to give Brody a kiss, and Will nearly dropped his mug of coffee. "Same time tomorrow?" she asked in a sultry voice.

"Sure," Brody replied, as he watched her walk out the front door. Smiling to himself until he realized Will was staring at him, "What'd I do?" he asked innocently.

Will gestured upstairs, "Are you manufacturing them or something? Three girls?"

"What?" Brody chuckled. "I didn't do nutin'; I just sat there with my cup of tea, smoking my cigarette and watched."

Will blinked, "You watched?"

"Yeah," Brody said as if it was a perfectly natural thing to say. "It was quite a performance."

"I bet," Will replied dryly, draining his mug.

"No," Brody rolled his eyes, "I'm thinking about getting into films."

Will choked on the coffee. "You are not turning this house into a porn studio!" He exclaimed, having images of his name plastered across the front cover of every newspaper in the country, 'Top aide to Minister of Heritage lives in a porn studio'.

"Who said anything about porn?" Brody replied. "I was thinking a remake of Little Women. They were doing a scene for me this morning."

Will gave Brody a look. And he simply shook his head and chuckled. Just when you had the man figured out, he did something completely random to throw you off the scent again.

"Wow, looks like you're busy today," Lisa said, as she walked through the door and set her briefcase down on an empty chair, taking the stool next to Will.

Will smiled at her, "You know us, all go at the Hotel Brody." He glanced at the door, "I think we should just give up and install a rotating door."

Lisa laughed, "Well it might make things easier for you boys." She gave a knowing look at Brody, "But Jeff had to run Aiden to daycare this morning so he needed the minivan. I was wondering if it was alright to ride in with you, Will?"

Will chuckled, "The more, the merrier." He looked at the TV, "We were just talking about the Exhibition Center."

"Oh, that," Lisa screwed up her nose. "It should be called the Exhibition of Boondoggle," she sighed. "It's a money pit and for some reason people keep throwing money at it in the hopes it will go away."

Will nodded, "Problem is, we're committed to it; it passed the point of no return before the minister came into office." He sighed, refilling his mug, "Best we can hope for is that it opens on time and it lives up to peoples' expectations."

Lisa shrugged, helping herself to a banana in the fruit bowl, "It opens on Canada Day. I can keep referring people over to Public Works for the time being, but we need to start announcing acts."

Will nodded, stirring in some sugar to his coffee, "Well, I'll make sure we're on top of it, see if we can book a couple of big names." He paused, "I just need to be sure the work is going to be done on time."

"Public Works," Lisa shrugged. "They're the only ones that know what's going on."

"Right," Will acknowledged. "We have a meeting with them next week, I'd like you to sit in on that." He downed the coffee and set the mug into the sink, "All right, all those happy campers coming with me better get to the jeep. I'm leaving."

Marc stumbled back in from outside, grabbing a bright yellow ball cap from the hall closet and sticking it on his head. It was surprising how little he had to do to be ready to go. Peter on the other hand was still on the xbox when Will grabbed his keys.

"Hey, short stuff," he called out. "Move or you're walking."

He shook his head, finally appreciating what Lisa went through each morning; she for her part was smiling at him from the front hall as he sheparded his flock out to the Jeep. Brody stood in the window, still in his pajamas, waving to all the schmucks who had real jobs.