Getting back to the airport wasn’t hard and I had about an hour until takeoff as I pulled up to the rental agency. I changed a few settings on my phone and used the time to call Eva from a secluded section of the airport, to give her an update on my date with Bobby. She was a bit miffed that I’d waited so long to call her but I made up for it by recounting the date in detail and all was forgiven.
“Wow. That sounds so nice. I’m starting to think that James had been neglecting me. He hasn’t taken me anywhere like that in awhile. I’m going to have words with that boy.”, Eva sighed.
“Take it easy on James. It’s not his fault. He’s taken you out plenty of times. It’s just that you guys have been together for so long and all the magic is gone by now. You fit each other like an old cozy sock and a worn in shoe. Nice, snug, comfortable. There’s no reason to put in any effort anymore. It’s almost like you’re married already and the kids have gone off to college.” I smiled inwardly because I knew she was not taking kindly to my words.
“The magic is gone? Sock and shoe? Married couple? Abby Smith, you are going to pay for each and every one of those words. I think I just signed you up for a few private fitness training courses with me. The first one starts in one hour.” Hah! She sounded just like me. I wonder if I’d learned to be so vengeful from her or she from me.
“Oops. Sorry, I’m a little busy right now. I’ll be home late tonight though. Maybe we can do that tomorrow. Oh no, I’m teaching in the morning and I have to be at Hannah’s Home in the afternoon. I also have Kung Fu at night. Hmmmm, I seem to be full up. Have your people call my people and we’ll do lunch sometime!”
I was about to hang up and revel in the win, when Eva replied, “Yeah, I’ve got to get off anyways. Bobby is calling me. I’m sure he wants to tell me all about your date. I’ll let you know what he had to say during our private training session. Bye Abby!”
Damn. She’s good. She was probably making up that stuff about Bobby calling. Wasn’t she? Probably.
I decided not to return my ‘rental’ car just yet. Having to borrow another car would waste time when I came back for the rescue, so I left the car in L2 at the rental place with the doors unlocked and the keys on the seat. I felt a little bad for the rental company, but then again, I had brought the car back to their lot. I’d even parked it in the exact spot that I’d taken it from. Was it my fault if they couldn’t find it?
On the flight back my mind raced with different options for the rescue. I’d decided that it had to be next week. There was another direct flight next Saturday afternoon and I could catch a return flight on Sunday night. How was I going to explain an overnight absence to dad? Ugh! I was going to have to ask Eva to cover for me again. That meant a training session. I had done the fun thing in teasing her, but my timing was lousy.
This time when the plane landed I didn’t wait for the other passengers. I raced off through them and to my car. Since it was in L2, I’d left it inside the terminal. No sense in having to park it outside. The large revolving doors didn’t exist in L2 and the car could easily pass through the opening. Fifteen minutes after the plane landed, I was racing down the highway towards home.
As usual, I found dad in his workshop. He was so completely focused on the piece that he was working on that he had lost track of the time. Since neither of us had eaten, we cooked up a bunch of noodles and prepared a simple salad for dinner. I drew dad out to talk about the piece he was working on. It took his mind off of asking me about my day and I was always interested to hear him talk about his new art pieces. Tonight though, as he spoke my mind kept flashing to those families in the prison. The father had probably been speaking out against those in power and their families had been taken away in retaliation. Whatever the reason for their imprisonment, at least some of them were together. The parents wouldn’t see that. I was sure that they’re rather know that their children were safe somewhere else. I knew better though. Families weren’t safe even when they were free. That was life. My mother was out there somewhere, probably dead, and I’d give almost anything to be with her, even if it meant being imprisoned. I guess that was the difference between fearing that you’d lose someone you loved and having already lost them.
My somber mood continued into the night and I slept poorly. I don’t remember what I dreamed about, but my twisted covers and the sheen of sweat on me as I jerked awake told me that it wasn’t something good. There was no way that I was getting back to sleep, so I got up, showered, and got ready for the day. Unfortunately, it was still a quarter to six in the morning and it was too early to call anyone. I kept busy by cleaning my room and getting breakfast ready for dad. It was still too early so I sat down and worked on a list of all the things that I’d need to get ready for Saturday.
* Prepare outfit
* Talk to Howie about Exosuit
* Learn to use Exosuit
* Bus transportation from the prison
* Find out who I’m rescuing
* Arrange for food and money for the prisoners
* Find a safe place to hide the prisoners
* Get Eva to agree to be an excuse again.
* Bring Samuel back to Hannah’s Home
* Prepare a story with Shauna about his return
That last item was important. Once Samuel was back, he would be questioned thoroughly by the army about his escape from the prison and he wouldn’t have any answers for them. We needed to give them something.
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I did some stretching exercises until I heard dad start to stumble around and it was finally late enough to call Howie. He didn’t sound like a morning person so I kept it quick and pushed him for the exosuit. He mumbled something about Tuesday afternoon and I thanked him and hung up before he could. Finally, I beat him to it. I didn’t even say goodbye. The next call was going to be fun.
“Hi Shauna. I hope I didn’t wake you.”
“Hey Abby. No, my body is stuck on army time. I get up every morning at five am. It’s actually something that I enjoyed in the army. That line in the old commercial about ‘we do more before nine am than most people do all day’ is very true. This isn’t normal for you though. What’s up?”
“I had a delivery from Roger this morning. Three hard drives from the prison in Venezuela. Lots of Spanish on them and he doesn’t speak Spanish. He figured that you’d like to take a look and see what you can find out about the prisoners there.”
“How did he get them? Are they really from the prison?” Shauna was a bit shellshocked and I could tell that she trying to keep her excitement in check.
“He said that he broke in, got the passwords to their system and copied the data. One drive is from their main server, one is from the warden’s office and the last is full of security footage. He’s thinks that your brother is there, but said you’d need to watch the videos to be sure. Anyways, he said to tell you that he can get whoever we want out of there this coming weekend, but once they’re out, he doesn’t have a way to keep them safe. That’s our part, I guess. I thought you’d like to come pick up the drives this morning and you can get a start on them before I join you this afternoon.”
Silence on the line. I could hear her breathing, but she wasn’t saying anything.
“Shauna? Are you ok?”
“Yeah. I’m just trying to take in what you’re saying. You’ve just told me several things that I though were impossible. I need to see these drives. I’ll be by to get them in fifteen minutes.”
She was there in ten minutes, just as dad and I were sitting down for breakfast. I realized that dad had never met Shauna and so I introduced her to him as the head administrator for the Hannah Foundation. They made small talk while I got the drives and then she was off. I didn’t think that anyone else could tell, but I could see that she was almost in a panic to watch the security videos.
The next five hours passed by slowly. I enjoyed helping dad work with his students, but my mind was on those drives and on what information the team could get from them. Again, I was appreciating that these were not beginner students and that I didn’t have to keep them from burning themselves or others. I merely had to offer advice or help correct a technique. They didn’t need my full attention today.
Usually Shauna picked me up after class, but I suspected that today would be different. I figured that she’d be poring over the data. To my surprise, she was parked right outside the building waiting for me like always. I got in and was shocked to see Shauna in tears. She hugged me and said, “He’s there! I saw him on the video. He’s looks tired and he’s lost a lot of weight, but he’s alive. Abby, thank you!”
I hugged her back and said, “I’m so happy for you Shauna, but what are you thanking me for? Roger’s the real hero here.”
“Yes, he is, but you’re the one who asked him to find Samuel. So thank you!”
“In that case, you’re welcome, Shauna. Now tell me what else you’ve learned. I take it that we have a lot of work to do, if Roger’s going to be breaking Samuel out this weekend.”
The rest of the week was full of planning our support for Roger. The team had found the files for all the prisoners and determined who needed to be rescued. The four families were the wives and children of four political opponents to the current Venezuelan government. They were being held hostage to ensure the support of their husbands to the existing socialist regime. Of the eleven foreigners, one was Samuel, two were US soldiers, three were South American tourists, one was a diplomat from Germany, two were an oil executive from France and his assistant, and two were undercover CIA operatives. They’d all been swept up over the last three years by the Venezuelan intelligence agency and were being used as political pawns in one way or another. Of the eleven, we’d only needed to rescue eight of them. The files showed that the three ‘tourists’ were prison informers and ‘Roger’ was going to leave them behind.
Next was finding a place for ‘Roger’ to drop off the families where they’d be safe. From her intensive search for her brother, Shauna had developed a list of solid contacts in Venezuela and through them she’d made arrangements for the families to be taken to a safe location. However, safe was a relative term in Venezuela. In this case, safe meant a village under the control of a crime boss that hated the current government. Being so short on time, we didn’t really have any other option and at least the government couldn’t get their hands back on the families and the families would be well fed and cared for. One drawback to the deal was that we’d have to free two other inmates as a down payment for their safety. Two of the crime boss’s nephews were being held in the prison and as our prison records showed that they were in there for ‘theft of government property’, I had no issues in releasing them. Had they been locked up for a violent crime, I’d have told Shauna to find another way to get the families to safety. There was no way that I’d let murderers or rapists go free.
Transportation from the prison turned out have an unexpected problem. Shauna arranged for a bus to be waiting for ‘Roger’ near the prison. He was supposed to drive the families to a secluded area where someone would be waiting to drive them the rest of the way to the village. From there, a pickup truck would be waiting for Roger to use to take the ‘foreigners’ to the airport. It was a great plan. Simple and straightforward. Only I didn’t know how to drive a bus. I’d only just learned to drive a car, and only in R2 so far. I couldn’t even tell Shauna about my worries, since it was expected that ‘Roger’, who was an extremely resourceful person who could break into and out just about anywhere, would know how to drive a bus! Ugh. I didn’t even know if the bus would have automatic transmission. If it was manual transmission, then I was totally screwed.