by Dale Mayer
“I know,” she said. “I know. But, at the same time, I just don’t really want to go through that kind of awakening again.” She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and asked, “And was your mission successful?’
“Yes, the foundation’s damaged, and it’s on fire right now.”
Even in the distance, she heard sirens, hopefully going to the lab but not too soon. “Good,” she said. “At least they won’t refill those basement rooms with more captives so easily.”
“Nope,” Jerricho said. “And we’ve almost got your escape route planned out too.”
She looked at him, smiled, and said, “Now that would be great news. I can’t wait until we get out of here.”
“And it’s happening today. We decided to move the schedule as fast forward as we could,” he said. “It’ll take a little bit of hopping around though.”
“Right,” she said, “but hopefully it won’t be too bad.”
“No.”
She looked around and said, “Should I wake up Marge?”
“We’ll need two hours, and we are planning on leaving, if we get everything okayed, before nine this morning.”
“You don’t want to leave in the dark?”
“No, in this case, we’re better off to leave in broad daylight.” He looked at her, winced, and said, “How do you feel about dyeing your hair?”
She looked at him blankly for a moment, her hand reaching up to her blond locks. “I guess that would make sense, wouldn’t it?”
“Anything we can do to keep you out of the limelight would be good.”
She smiled and nodded. “Did you get any box dyes?”
“They were just delivered,” he said, “along with some sunglasses, skin toner, and a change of clothes.”
“Perfect,” she said. “I’m good with that. What about Marge? Her too?”
“Yeah,” he said, “and it will take us a little bit to get your long hair done, so better we need to get started then if you want a nap afterwards we can make that happen.”
“Perfect.” She was surprised that the men seemed to be quite capable of doing the dyeing, as she thought she would have to do her own hair. They actually did it for her. By the time she was done, her hair dyed jet-black, Marge had woken up, and hers was almost done. Breakfast had also been delivered, and they had eaten. She looked over at the men. “You’re not dyeing your hair?”
“Not yet,” he said. “We’ll change our hats, glasses, clothing.”
“Right. Are we going as tourists?”
“Just being the four of us will already make us a little more visible,” he said, “so we’ll split up and do two and two.”
“As long as all four of us get out of here safely, I don’t mind,” Eva said.
Marge looked over at Jerricho. “You think that’s safe to split up?”
“It is,” he assured her.
She smiled and said, “Fine.”
As they packed up from breakfast, Eva looked around and said, “Do we have to clean this apartment?” she asked. “It’s got our fingerprints and everything.”
“A team will come in,” he assured her.
She looked at him in surprise. “You have teams over here?”
He grinned. “We have teams all over the world.”
“Fine,” she said. “In that case, I’m happy to leave it then.”
And, with that, the women went and got changed. Eva almost smiled when she came back out in jeans and a black T-shirt and, with her black hair, her white skin shone almost too brightly.
Diesel immediately handed her the skin toner, and she understood.
“Right.” And she quickly added a slight tan to her skin. It took the whiteness off and made her blend in a little bit more. And, with a big sun hat and sunglasses completing the look, she laughed as she stepped into flip-flop sandals. “Now this is very touristy,” she murmured.
“It works,” he said.
At that, the two men quickly loaded up on weapons that they could hide on their person, and she watched with interest as handguns went around ankles and into back shoulder holsters.
She said, “What about the rest of it?”
“The team will handle it.”
“Right, the team,” she said, “that nameless team I don’t know anything about.”
“And hopefully you never will. Because, if we have to bring in the team again,” he said, “it means that there are more problems.”
“I’m fine to leave them nameless,” she said immediately.
He grinned at her, then looked at Jerricho and said, “I’ll go out first.”
“Rendezvous is in one hour and forty minutes,” he reminded him.
“We’ll be there. See you on board.” And, with that, he held out a hand and said, “Come on, my dear.”
“Oh, don’t tell me,” she said. “Are we husband and wife?”
“We don’t have any rings for that,” he said, with a grin, “but we’re partnered up anyway.”
She chuckled, tucked her arm into his elbow, and, with more confidence than she actually felt, headed to the front door with him. They disappeared out into the early morning streets. She smiled, lifted her face, and said, “It’s amazing just what freedom can do for your soul.”
“We’re not meant to be locked up,” he said seriously. “Nothing about that is good for any of us.”
Outside, Diesel walked casually, his hand holding hers, tucked up against his body, talking to her in a calm voice, as they moved through the streets in the early hour. The traffic was just starting to pick up. He had no doubt that cameras were all around, but he wore a hat, and so did she, even though that would pinpoint them by looking a little odd. He was also counting on it blurring their features for at least a little bit. As they walked across the street, she asked, “How much farther?”
“We’re taking a roundabout way,” he said, “so it’s a little bit yet.”
“Well, that’s good to know,” she said with a laugh. “I was afraid this was the way that you always walk.”
“Nope,” he said with a gentle smile.
She beamed up at him. “Did I say thank you for the rescue?”
“Many times. If you’re going to do it again, how about you thank me when we’re out of here,” he said drily.
“Yeah, good point,” she said, her smile falling away.
He was sorry about that, but it was important that everybody stayed focused. They weren’t on holiday right now, and they were still in grave danger.
“Did you guys figure out how we’re getting out of here?” she asked, looking around.
“Absolutely, and it’ll be a method that surprises you.”
“I don’t care how we get out,” she said. “A plane would be great though. Fast and simple.”
“There’s nothing fast and simple about this. You’re not in any rush to get back to the US, are you?”
“Well, yes,” she said. “I want to get back to work, but, more than that, I’ll go spend some time visiting my father.”
“I like the sound of that,” he said. “Just what does your dad do?”
“Now? Nothing,” she said with a laugh. “He’s retired, and it’s a good thing too. He was getting burned out. Long ago, after Mother died, he just needed to have a break at the cabin, handed down to each generation in our family. And once he retired and ended up permanently at the cabin, our old famous fishing-hole cabin, I think he just never wanted to get back out into the real world.”
“He lived in the real world long enough,” he said, “and found out that it was shitty at times. You can’t blame him for wanting to stay someplace that makes him happy.”
She looked at him in surprise. “That’s very true. He dedicated a lot of his life to research, medical research. I certainly don’t begrudge him any of his decisions,” she said. “It’s just been a challenge.”
“Of course, and you miss him.”
“I do, and sometimes I bury myself in my own work too long and too hard,” she said. “G
oing to Wisconsin to visit Dad would be a welcome break.”
“And a much-needed stress relief,” he said. “Do you like fishing?”
“You see? I like fishing,” she said, “but my dad is addicted to fishing.”
At that, he burst out laughing. “One of those guys up at five a.m. to go out and catch the early birds, by any chance?”
“Up at five a.m., out on the water by five-fifteen a.m. He’ll take a thermos of coffee, sit there for a few hours, come home, might fuss around the house for a little bit, but then he’ll go back out again, depending on what day, the weather, maybe for an hour, maybe for a few hours.”
“I sure hope he likes to eat fish,” Diesel said. He led her down the boardwalk toward the docks.
“He does like to eat fish, and he eats a fairly simple diet. He’ll have trout and fried potatoes for breakfast, and he’ll have cold trout on a slice of bread for lunch, and, depending on the day, he’ll have grilled trout and maybe some barbecued veggies for dinner.”
He looked down at her and said, “Are you ready for a full diet of fish?”
She wrinkled up her nose at him. “I like to fish as much as the next person. I just want to eat three meals a day of a more diverse menu.”
“Lots of fishermen don’t actually like to eat the stuff,” he said. “It’s all about the sport.”
“That was my mother’s doing. She said, if he would be bringing it home, he would be eating it, or she wouldn’t have anything to do with it.”
“Smart woman,” he said.
“She didn’t like to see waste, refused to let him take home anything that wasn’t the right size because she said that the fish all needed an extra shot at life to get bigger. Yet the rules were just guidelines anyway, he would tell her, but she would continue her argument. In that case, then you make sure you toss back anything that wasn’t at least the guideline level because he didn’t need that fish. And, if he was the one having so much fun, he should do catch and release.”
“And does he?”
“Lots of times, yes,” she said, “but my mother trained him to do that.”
“Good woman,” he said. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
Chapter 6
“Nothing is quite so difficult as losing your mother,” Eva said, with a long sigh. “Especially the way I lost mine.”
“I can only imagine.”
She looked up at him. “Is yours still alive?”
“I never knew mine,” he said with a shrug.
She stared at him in surprise.
“I was raised by my aunt and uncle,” he said. “Story’s a bit sketchy, but it sounds like my mother was a young partier, came home pregnant, had the baby, and walked. They figured it was more because she didn’t want to come home and deal with the fallout of walking away.”
“Were they good to you?”
At that, his face broke into a big smile. “They were the best,” he said. “I can’t imagine what my life would have ended up like without them. They were a very strong guiding force. And, of course, with my biological mother so wild and wooly, they were very much into teaching me responsibility.”
“Particularly personal responsibility, I bet,” she murmured.
He smiled. “As far as they were concerned, that was a huge priority in the world.”
“And it is,” she said, “as long as they were also caring and loving.”
“They were good to me,” he said. “They never had any of their own children, so I filled a gap for them that they never had a chance to experience before.”
“That would have made a difference,” she said. “If they already had a family, then you’d have been the odd man out most likely.”
“Didn’t happen, which is something I’m grateful for,” he said. “It would have been lovely to have had siblings though.”
“Did you ever find your mom and talk to her?”
“No, she never showed up again.”
“So you don’t even know if she’s alive or dead?”
“No, I don’t actually,” he said. “It’s crossed my mind several times that maybe I should check up on her, but then I always figured that, if she’d wanted me in her life, she would have said something about it a long time ago.”
“Or she felt so guilty now that she’s an adult and figured out what she gave up.”
“She did contact my aunt and uncle when I was about eight or nine, wanted an update—which really meant she wanted money.”
“For you?”
“For me or to stay away from them. Something along that line. They were pretty blunt in their response, which was ‘Hell no.’ And, if she tried to extort more money from them, they’d bring in the cops.”
“Well, at least they called a spade a spade,” she murmured.
“After that nobody heard from her again.”
“Sorry. That does make your relationship with your mom really about somebody who’s only looking after herself.”
“That’s how I figured it too,” he said. “I mean, maybe at one point in time, she’ll reach out, but I can’t say anything inside me pushes me to reach out to her.”
“Well, if you ever change your mind,” she said, “you can do so, as long as she’s still alive.”
“Maybe,” he said. “She was also a drug addict and, for all I know, may have passed on from her addiction.”
“I wonder what happens in cases like that? Would they contact anybody?”
“It depends if anybody even knows,” he said. “So many people are out there in this world who don’t have any human connection anymore, and the cops don’t know who the next of kin are. Any number of unnamed, unclaimed bodies have been buried in unmarked graves.”
The trip was calm and peaceful. As Diesel and Eva headed down the boardwalk toward the docks, they heard a sudden loud bang to the side. She gave a slight yelp and jumped toward him. He wrapped her up in his arms and quickly pulled her close. She stood, trembling.
“I think it was nothing,” he said.
“Well, it was definitely something,” she gasped.
His hard gaze studied the area. “I think it’s kids with firecrackers.”
She stared up at him. “Why would anybody let kids have firecrackers?”
He smiled. “It’s different over here.”
She shook her head. “Kids can still get hurt, no matter where they are.”
He nodded and pulled her gently along the boardwalk and said, “Come on. Let’s go.” Only he saw that her calm and peaceful mood was gone. “It’ll be all right,” he murmured.
She nodded but stayed mute.
“Tell me about your work,” he said.
“No,” she said, “I don’t want to.”
“Why is that?”
“Because it’s something definitely …” Her voice nervous, a tremor snaking through it, told him just how she had been putting up a brave front, yet still living in fear inside. She whispered, “How much farther?”
“Five minutes,” he said, leading her past a large group of people talking animatedly. His gaze never stopped searching. His phone buzzed. He pulled it out to see a message from Jerricho. “They’re there.”
“Seriously? We’re behind?” She picked up the pace, trying to drag him forward.
“Yes, but it’s all right,” he said soothingly. “We’re still waiting for a boat to pick us up.”
She looked at him in surprise, her feet automatically slowing to match his pace. “So getting there early won’t help?”
“Not only will it not help but they also won’t be there when we get there either.”
She shook her head at him. “How come everything’s so cryptic?”
“In case we’re being overheard,” he murmured.
At that, she immediately snapped her lips together and stared at him mutely, and then she stepped in closer and walked, not saying a word.
He appreciated that. Brains were behind that beautiful face. And even though she’d been through a traumatic event, sh
e was holding on to her common sense. He just smiled and said, “It will be okay.”
She shook her head. “Not until I’m home.”
“I get that,” he murmured, as they headed down the boardwalk and away from more of the traffic into one of the farthest back alleys.
She stiffened. “Surely this isn’t a good place to be?”
“It’s where we need to be,” he said.
And just as she thought that the alley was getting darker and darker, he pulled her into the back of a store, through the store and out to the front, which was now a completely different walkway. Ahead of her, she saw the docks. “Ah!” she whispered.
“Exactly.” He squeezed her arm and said, “Come on. Let’s go.” And he led the way down one of the piers.
As they approached the water, she asked, “Does that mean that they’re gone and that Marge’s safe now?”
“Not yet, but she’s getting there.”
“How long until we join them?”
He nodded discretely to a Zodiac out in the ocean, going away from them. “They’re on that.”
She stared at it. “I wish we were too,” she said softly.
“No need,” he said. “We’ll be on our own.”
She looked up at him. “I don’t understand how you can command all these resources.”
“You’d be surprised,” he said. “At least Uncle Sam’s money is being put to good use.”
She smiled bravely at that. He continued to walk her toward the water. His gaze searched the harbor, looking for their ride. As she stood stock-still beside him, she asked, “Is that the military behind us?”
“It is,” he said in a low voice.
“Chinese military?” she asked, her nervousness getting to her.
He walked slowly, gripping her fingers gently in his hand, as they walked down the pier. “Doesn’t mean they’re looking for us,” he said.
“Doesn’t mean they aren’t either,” she snapped.
He loved the grit showing up every time her back went up. “You’re right,” he said, “but chances are, they don’t even know anything about us.”