When dad and I moved to Briar County, for dad’s new job, we continued with our visits to hospitals, churches and soup kitchens, searching for any hint of mom. A new area, especially being so close to Charlotte, gave us plenty of new places to visit.
Some places we visited every few weeks and we got to know the people working there pretty well. Pierce Foreman was an orderly at the Briar County General Hospital when we first met him. He was one of the first people that dad handed the photo of mom to. Pierce had lost his mother the previous year to a drunk driver. He told my dad how helpless he felt about his own mother and he assured dad that he would do what he could. As the years went by, he studied to become a nurse and was now the head OR nurse at the hospital and through it all he always made sure that mom’s picture was up on the bulletin board. He was the reason that I started volunteering at the hospital.
Another person that entered my life because of mom’s abduction was Mary O’Reilly. She runs the soup kitchen on McDonnel Avenue. She looked at mom’s photo and said, “I know her! That’s Hannah Smith. She works at the community center in Dell County. She helped my Robbie when he was having his troubles. He was angry all the time and wanted to take it out on everyone around him. I thought that I’d lose him to the gangs or to drugs, but she talked to him and set him straight. She helped him see his own potential and she got him a job. He’s a new man now. Anything I can do for Hannah, you just let me know!” Mary’s been showing mom’s picture to every new ‘customer’ ever since and she gets customers from her kitchen from all over the state.
Mary was the one who sat me down, when I got old enough to really understand, and told me all about the horrible effects of human trafficking. She saw it often enough in her kitchen. She explained about the families ripped apart, about the young girls sold into sexual slavery, about the psychological problems that those that escaped from it had later on, and about the suicides of those that couldn’t escape.
Through her soup kitchen, Mary had met and helped tens of thousands of people over the years and she’s made some interesting contacts. Anytime someone needed something, Mary’s army of contacts could get it. That’s what I was counting on when I called her.
“Hi Mary! It’s Abby. Did I catch you at a good time?” I’d called Mary on her cellphone while she was preparing dinner at the kitchen. I’d helped out there often enough to know that at this time, she was mostly done with all the preparations and the food was just keeping warm. In about 20 minutes her first customers would be making their way in.
“You did indeed, Abby. You don’t call often. Just usually stop by. This must be important.”
“It is. Someone left me with a cash donation to give to the kitchen, but they want to remain anonymous. I was hoping to stop by tonight or tomorrow sometime and drop it off.”
“Oh Sweetie, you don’t have to set up a time to drop off a donation. You can do that anytime.”
“Yeah, but I was hoping to speak with Howie at the same time.”
There was a long pause on the other end of the line and finally Mary said, “You said that this was an anonymous donation?”
“Yes.” As I knew she would, Mary had caught on. This wasn’t to be mentioned to dad.
“Ok then, Abby. I’ll try to get a hold of Howie and see when he’s available. I’ll put in a good word for you.”
“Thanks Mary. I’ll see you soon.”
Mary would have arranged the meeting with Howie without the donation, but she was getting me access to one of her best contacts and saving me a bunch of time and trouble, so she deserved to get paid for it. I’m sure that Len would be happy to know that his money was being used to help feed those less fortunate.
Mary called back in less than ten minutes. “Come on by after dinner, around 9pm. I’ll buzz you in through the office door.”
I thanked her and said goodbye before shifting to R3 to get some more money from the duffel bag. A 9pm meeting gave me just enough time to get in a Kung Fu class and a quick shower. I let dad know where I’d be, for the next few hours at least, and I rode my bike to class.
With my new discovery and finally moving forward with my plans, I was all keyed up and full of energy. Kung Fu was perfect for burning some of that off, but not as an instructor. Tonight, I wanted to be doing, not teaching. I let Uncle Magnum know before class and he had Charlie lead the beginner students. Charlie was Uncle Magnum’s first student to reach master level and he was his usual assistant. He’s been away this past summer, and I’d filled in for him.
Bobby arrived two minutes before class started and I nodded to him as he joined the class for the salute. I did the warmups with the rest of the class and once those were finished I moved off to the side of the classroom to work on my forms. After the forms, I was surprised to see Charlie join me.
“Sifu Magnum took over the class and sent me here to work with you. Twenty more minutes of forms, then sparring.”, he explained.
“Do you call him Sifu Magnum to his face?”, I asked him.
“Do I look that stupid?” We laughed and continued with the forms.
Sparring with Charlie was always a pleasure. He was an excellent fighter. Although I was technically only one level below him, he was a few years ahead of me and at 6’1”, he had a longer reach that I did. With all the other students, sparring was about making sure that I kept my fighting down to one level above theirs. This taught me control and let them feel challenged so they could improve. However, when Charlie and I sparred, I didn’t have to hold back.
Charlie was a more aggressive fighter and he started off attacking. I defended and watched for an opening to take advantage of before I attacked. We kept that up for several three-minute rounds and on the fourth I tried something new. I wrapped him in a field and concentrated on feeling every shift in his body as he prepared to attack. I wanted to close my eyes to restrict the flow of information to just my field sense, but this was new to me and I needed the visual cues to help me keep up.
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Although I was getting more information, it was taking me a fraction of a second longer to assimilate it and understand how to use it. I was getting hit more often, and harder, as my reaction time lagged behind the information. I kept it up regardless, as every few seconds, the field did allow me to see what move Charlie was about to make and I had an extra split second to counter it.
I knew that if I could master this technique, Charlie wouldn’t ever get a hit on me again. Once I mastered it though, I wouldn’t use the field with Charlie anymore. I needed to learn to use the field, but if I used it on him once I mastered its use, I wouldn’t grow as a martial artist anymore. It was also cheating.
I got tired of just barely keeping up with Charlie and I took off the field. Now things evened out again, except that I found that I had a better understanding of his body language. I was reading his movements as if the field was still surrounding him. My eyes had learned what to look for, which muscles tensed up before a kick, how his shoulders moved slightly before a hit. I’d always used these visual cues before to anticipate what an opponent was about to do, but now I understood them at a deeper level. These tiny movements were telegraphing his actions and I had more time to react and plan. Now I was getting in more hits on him, harder ones too.
Sparring time ended and Charlie and I saluted each other. “What the hell just happened, Abby? We started off like we usually do, then you seemed distracted and then you kicked my ass.”, Charlie sounded more impressed than upset.
I scrambled for something to say, and ended up with the mostly the truth, “I think that all the times that Uncle Magnum has been yelling at me to watch my opponent’s movements, has finally sunk in. When I was distracted, as you called it, I was trying to read your body to see what each movement resulted in. Once I figured it out, I was able to read your attacks better.”
“Damn! Now I’ve got to up my game again. You’re not making my life easy, Abby. I’m going to have to make my movements smaller and more efficient, to give you less time to react.” That’s one of the things that Uncle Magnum and I really like about Charlie. He sees all obstacles as a challenge and he’s always up for a challenge.
As I was heading off upstairs to shower and change, I passed by Bobby. He had an odd expression on his face.
“What up Bobby? You ok?”
“You weren’t joking when you said that you’ve have dropped me like a rock, if I’d taken the playbook without holding up my end of the bargain, were you?”, Bobby asked. He’d obviously watched some of my sparring with Charlie. I think that was the first time that he saw me spar with anyone.
“No. I wasn’t.”
“I didn’t believe you when you said it, but I do now. I’ve never been so glad that my dad always insisted that I hold to my word.”
“Me too. Although, your condescending expression when I told you that almost got you a round-house to the head anyways.” I gave him a wink to show that I was kidding and went to shower.
With a few minutes to spare, I reached the office entrance to the soup kitchen and Mary buzzed me in. I brought my bike in, left in by the entrance and made my way to her office next to the actual kitchen. Mary was very hands on and she either cooked or oversaw every meal that the kitchen served.
I entered her office and Mary came over to give me a hug. “It’s good to see you, Abby. How’s your dad?”
“He’s good. He’s still teaching at the university. He loves it there.”
“Is he getting out much?” That was Mary’s way of asking if he was seeing anyone.
“Not really. I think he went out on two dates last year. Uncle Magnum set him up once and one of the teachers from the university tried to set him up with his sister. Neither worked out beyond a first date.”
Mary looked sad at the news. She thought that dad needed to get out more and move on with his life. I couldn’t agree with her more.
“Oh well. Give him my best when you get the chance. Now, Howie will be here in just a few minutes. I don’t know why you need to see him, but I’m sure that it’s important, so I vouched for you. Do you want me to be in on the meeting?” Mary was the soul of discretion, but the less she was involved, the better.
“The less you know, the more believable you’ll be if you’re ever asked about it.”, I replied.
“Is someone going to come ask about it?”, she asked with raised eyebrows and a smirk on her face.
I gave it some thought and answered, “No. I can’t see how they would, but this isn’t playtime and you never know. I’m just looking for some equipment. Oh, and before Howie gets here, I have that donation for you.” I pulled out an envelope from the inside pocket of my jacket and handed it over to her. She counted out the money, placed it in her drawer, and gave me a measuring look.
“Five thousand dollars is not playtime. Abby, are you sure that you’re not in over your head? I know people that can help you if you’re in trouble.” She thought that I was involved in something drug related like her boy, Robbie.
“Don’t worry, Mary.”, I tried to reassure her, “I’m not in trouble, but other people are. If I can’t handle it, I’ll be sure to ask you for help.”
“That’s all I can ask, I suppose.”
Howie came in shortly after and Mary stayed with us long enough to make introductions, first names only, and then left us alone.
“I know you.”, Howie said. “You used to come to the kitchen and help out. You were with your dad and he showed your mother’s picture around to everyone.”
“I remember you too. You had long hair back then and always came in wearing an army jacket. Dad used to show mom’s picture everywhere we went. We never found anyone who’d seen her though.
“I’m sorry to hear that.” He sounded very sincere. “Mary called me and said that there was someone that needed my help. She didn’t tell me who or why, just that you were good people. What can I help you with?”
I pulled out my shopping list of wants and started to read them off for him. “I need a smartphone that can’t be traced back to me. When it’s tracked, I need it to show that I’m somewhere else than where I actually am. I need to be able to use in anywhere in the world and have a strong cellular and data connection. Dual sim cards would be a bonus, so I’d only need to carry one phone. Ideally, there should be a way to completely wipe the phones’ memory in seconds, without anyone being able to recover anything.”
“That’s it?”
“Not quite. I also need a laptop with similar characteristics and an external drive that I can use to quickly download all the files from a computer, like they do in the movies.” I stopped here and asked, “Is that even real?”
“Yes, but it’s not as easy as it is in the movies. People tend to encrypt their data these days and it’s getting harder to decrypt the files.”
“I’ll have all the passwords I need to get into the files. I just need to copy the files, without anyone knowing. Oh, if it’s possible, I’ll need a program that can forward emails to a specific address and erase all traces that the emails were sent out. Assuming that I can get an administrator login, I’ll need way to log on to the server remotely and erase all traces that I ever logged on.”
I turned back to the list and kept on reading, “A woman’s medium sized Kevlar vest, a voice changer, and some way to copy everything on a cellphone.” I handed him the list.
“That’s a tall order. I should be able to fill most or all of it, but even with the discount I’ll be giving you because Mary vouched for you, it’s not going to be cheap.”
“I’m not looking for cheap. I’m going to be pissing off some very resourceful people. I need top quality and I can pay for it.”
“Depending on my sources, you’re looking at thirty to forty thousand dollars for the high-grade gear and software. I could do it for a lot less if you just needed medium grade.”
I pulled out two envelopes from the other inner coat pocket and handed them to Howie. “Is this deposit sufficient?”
He looked in each envelope and nodded his head.
“How fast do you need this?”, he asked.
“I’ll need time to learn to use the equipment and then to practice with it. Is a month enough time to get it?”
“More than enough, but I’ll use the extra time to make sure that you’re getting the best.”
With that said, we exchanged contact information, burner emails from both of us, and he left. I hung around long enough to thank Mary again before heading home.