by Piper Dow
Her phone pinged. She glanced at the message then grabbed her bag and left the room. She remembered to pull her baseball cap out of the pack and pull it on before the elevator doors slid open. She was alone on the elevator, but she kept the hat on anyway and pulled her backpack over her shoulders. She hunched her shoulders forward and stuck her hands in her front pockets, doing her best to disguise her posture. If anyone did get on the elevator, she couldn’t take a chance of being recognized.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
“It went okay,” she said again. “David is going to send the photos to him in an hour, and then head back to Bridgeville. We just have to stick to the plan until tonight.”
Kelly sat across from her mother in Sam’s room at the hospital, exhausted. Her father paced the room in front of the bed. The curtains had been pulled across the windows, darkening the room but making sure no one could see in. Her parents had rushed into the hospital shortly after Kelly had reached Sam’s room, distraught. They had been met by a nurse in scrubs who walked them into a back hallway, where she had hugged Kelly’s mother before showing her one of the less frequented stairways to take to the third floor. While in the stairwell they had put on baggy sweatshirts, clear glasses, and Kelly’s mother had clipped on a ponytail hair extension while her dad had pulled on a baseball cap. Her mother still wore the hairpiece, but the rest of the accessories now lay cluttering the table, having served their purpose of disguise to get them into Sam’s room, unrecognized by anyone Mark might have lurking to report back to him.
“How are we supposed to know when this is over?” Her father was a tightly wound ball of energy radiating frustration. It had taken a lot of convincing to get him to go along with the ruse. He’d only finally agreed to do so when Sam had gotten hysterical and threatened to leave the hospital and go back to Bridgeville to find Jill herself.
“I’m not sure, exactly. David said that one of his teammates would be here by supper time,” Kelly said. “She's going to move us to the safe spot.”
“Dad, come sit down,” Sam urged, patting the bed next to her.
He crossed the room and sat, putting his arm around her too-thin shoulders and pulling her close for a hug. Sam was dressed in jeans and a faded blue sweatshirt, her hair combed to the wrong side. She wore foundation makeup with no blush or mascara, giving her a plain, unflattering appearance. None of them had argued with Kelly when she instructed them on their simple disguises. “The easiest way to disappear is just to blend in,” she had told them. “We wear plain, average clothes; nothing to draw attention because it’s too nice, or too blah,” she’d explained. “We change the details in subtle ways: hair, glasses, style. We don’t make eye contact if we can manage it. We just try to move under the radar.”
They had copied the notebook pages with an app on Kelly’s cell phone, which allowed them to take images of the book exactly as it was, including any folded pages or inserted bookmarks, just in case they proved to be important in deciphering the code Mark had used. David had used Kelly’s cell phone to send the pages to Amy, one of the agents on his team.
“I can’t risk it being on my phone, but I need the other agents to have the information as soon as possible so they can start working on this right away,” he had explained. “Plus, this gives you another contact to the team, in case it proves necessary.”
The plans had taken a while to hash out last night, even after they had finally convinced Kelly’s parents. David had given the agent a pass-phrase to use when she came to pick them up as an added layer of protection. He was capable and competent, and his efficient manner helped to sway Kelly’s parents, but Kelly caught his eye and held it. She had seen Mark shift in minutes, had seen the cruel gleam in his eye when he knew he had terrified her. She was sure that David was in far more danger than he was letting them understand. She dropped her gaze. She agreed with his decision to keep some of the details from them - her parents wouldn’t knowingly consent to someone else being put in danger for them, even if it was a trained agent.
Now, her mind wandered back to that thought. How much training had David had? What sort of training? How, exactly, would they train agents for work against were-creatures? Who would first have approached him with that suggestion, and how would they have put it? “Hey, don’t think I’m insane, but those stories about werewolves and vampires and all - they aren’t just stories. They are real, and we need help controlling them without freaking out the rest of the world. You in?”
Kelly wondered how Wayne was faring, sitting in a class at school knowing that all of this was going on. He hadn't wanted to go to school. David had insisted that it would be less suspicious, especially if Mark had someone else watching the family. As close as David was to the mainstream of Mark’s organization, even he didn't know everyone that Mark had working for him. The plan was for Wayne to drive their mother's car to the library after school and wait there until he was picked up.
“I don’t want him alone! He could take the bus here,” Kelly’s mother had suggested, but David had vetoed the idea quickly.
“It’s too easy to pick someone up from the bus - if he is being watched and Mark suspects anything, they’ll get him before anyone even thinks to call and check in with him,” he had said. “If he goes to school and leaves with the rest of the students, he should be safe getting into the car. The library is still in the center of town so they wouldn’t have a chance to force him off the road between there and the school, and they won’t get suspicious - he’s a student, it’s the library. They’ll likely sit on the car and won’t realize he’s safe until the library closes.”
Kelly knew that Wayne wasn't happy about being kept out of the way, but her parents had been adamant. She and Sam were both legally adults, but Wayne was still in high school, as they had stressed at least three times during the conversation with him the night before.
They all jumped at the sound of a knock just before the door opened. A wiry, middle-aged woman stepped into the room. Her glance swept the room before she spoke into the silence. “David said to say, ‘Proverbs 27:12, the prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty,’” she said, and held out a leather wallet opened to reveal a badge and ID. “I’m Amy. I’ve come to take you to the safe house.”
Kelly's father strode to the woman, peering at the ID. He looked into her face, comparing it to the image on the ID, then reached to shake her hand. “Can you tell us what's going on? Have you heard from David?”
Amy nodded but gestured instead of answering his questions. “I can fill you in on the way, but it’s best if we move quickly. Do you have everything ready to go?”
Kelly grabbed her backpack and helped Sam gather the bags she had packed with her clothes and cards while their father explained about Wayne. Amy nodded. “Yes, David explained,” she said. “It was a good decision. We will swing by the library to pick him up before we head out of town.”
They moved into the hall and walked to the elevator. Kelly kept her eyes down, and her shoulders rounded. Sam walked between their parents, her father’s arm around her shoulders. Amy stepped next to Kelly. She carried one of Sam’s bags loosely in her arm. Glancing at her face, Kelly noticed that her eyes moved around the corridor, darting quick peeks past each open door they passed. Though her body language belied it to a casual observer, her sharp eyes demonstrated her heightened vigilance.
“Wait,” Amy glanced around as she breathed out the quiet word. She pushed the button for the elevator when she saw a nurse’s aide turn the corner. As the aide pushed a door open and left the hall, Amy turned to face them. “You three,” she indicated Sam and their parents, “take the elevator downstairs. Kelly and I will take the stairs down. There is a shuttle van outside - don’t get in until you see me. We’ll reach it at the same time, but it will look accidental to anyone else.”
The elevator door slid open. The cab was empty. Nodding quickly to Sam and her parents, Amy pushed the door to the stairwell open and urged Kelly
through before following her. The door swung shut behind them as they descended the stairs. “Five people is too many to hide easily,” Amy explained, cocking her head to listen and peering up the staircase at the same time. “An overabundance of caution is better than not.”
They reached the lobby with no issues. Kelly saw a few people standing in line for the coffee shop, but the large crowd they had encountered on their first foray from Sam’s room was nowhere to be found. She glanced at the clock on the wall - it was nearly six. Getting late for casual visitors, she guessed. She followed Amy out the door, keeping her eyes trained on the floor, and almost bumped into her when she stopped. Looking up quickly, Kelly saw that they had reached the shuttle van. Amy indicated to stow the bags in the back of the vehicle, then crossed behind and opened the rear drivers’ side door. Kelly climbed in and moved to the rear as her parents and Sam reached the side closest to the building. They jumped in as Amy spoke with the driver, then climbed in through the door behind his seat. Kelly wasn’t sure anyone paying attention would have been fooled, but she didn’t see anyone paying attention, either.
The ride to the library was uneventful. Kelly texted Wayne when they pulled up to the side staircase. Wayne had parked the car in the main parking lot across the street from the front entrance, so it was unlikely that anyone would be staking out the side doors. He jogged down the stairs and hurried to the van, sliding into the seat as his father opened the door from the inside.
“What happened? Did it work?” The questions tumbled out of him even as he reached for the door and slid it shut. “I was going crazy in there - you could have texted me!” He twisted in his seat to look at Kelly searchingly. “You okay?”
Kelly nodded. “It went okay. He left and told David to make sure I’m dead.” Kelly paused, her mouth pulling into a curious frown as she realized how that sounded. Her eyes flicked to her mother, sitting next to Sam, and she quickly went on, “so we took a couple of pictures for proof, and now David is going back, too.” She met Wayne’s eyes. “I’m sorry, but I didn’t dare text you. Just in case.”
Wayne grimaced but nodded his understanding.
Amy cleared her throat. “Okay, here’s what I can fill you in on. We were able to figure out at least some of the code Mark has been using - enough to know his delivery schedule for the next couple of shipments.” She looked at Kelly. “That was good thinking, to shoot pictures of all the bookmarks, too. Some of those figured into his cipher.”
When she did not immediately speak again, Dad broke the silence. “And? What does all of this mean for us? When can we go back home?” His mouth opened for another question but Sam put her hand on his arm and leaned forward, interrupting his flow.
“Does it say what happened to Jill?”
Amy eyes slanted toward Sam’s face and away. “We haven’t been able to translate the whole thing, yet. We aren’t sure what that says about Jill. What this does mean for your family is that you aren’t safe until Mark is stopped. We’ll be better able to give you a timetable after tonight.” She looked back and forth between Mom and Dad. “David said you had family in another state? It might mean going for a visit. It might mean more than that - we really don’t know, yet. We should be at the safe house in about an hour.”
She moved to sit in the front passenger seat, leaving the family to sit in stunned silence.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
It had been two days since the scene of the accident, two days since they had had any contact with “the real world,” as Wayne had started to call the rest of their lives. Mom and Dad had both called into work and taken leave for a family emergency, saying they were not sure how long it would take. Mom had called in to excuse Wayne from classes, too. Mom had tried to get him to agree to work on his assignments since he had his books with him, but Wayne had rolled his eyes.
The safe house turned out to be a condo in a large 55 and older mobile home park. Amy had turned them over to Gladys and Richard, the older couple who rented the home.
“Remember, appearances can be deceiving,” she said before they got out of the van.
Gladys was just over five feet tall, with plump features and a warm smile. She had made them all turn over their cell phones before walking through the door.
“You cannot be serious!” Dad had argued, but she smiled sweetly, hand outstretched and toes tapping as she blocked his entrance. His frown deepened the lines on his forehead as he finally handed his over.
“This wouldn’t be a safe house if we allowed unskilled access to the web,” she said, still smiling.
It turned out that her smile hid a backbone of steel. Even Richard, who towered over her at almost six feet, rolled his eyes on occasion but meekly did as she directed.
“Doesn’t do any good to argue,” he said. “I’ve been on the receiving end of her quills once, and I never want to be again. Best to just do as she says.”
“What do you mean, quills?” Kelly has asked. “As in, porcupine?”
Richard just lifted one corner of his mouth. Kelly wasn’t sure if that was agreement, or laughing at her. They didn’t give much away.
Because they weren’t allowed to use their phones, and there wasn’t a computer available to use, they spent hours in front of the television. Kelly quickly tired of the courtroom drama that Gladys favored, and the second television in the guest bedroom was not connected to cable. She found herself perusing the couple’s bookshelves for a diversion. She ran a finger along the spines of a row of romances, finally pulling out a book with a female pirate on the cover.
“Richard thinks he can learn about the female mind by reading those,” Gladys said, coming up to stand beside Kelly. “I’ve tried explaining that they set unreal expectations for women, but he thinks that if it’s in writing, it must be real.”
Kelly smiled, sliding the pirate book back into its space on the shelf. “What do you like to read?” She asked.
Gladys reached up to the top shelf, where Kelly hadn’t even looked yet, and pulled down a book of fairy tales. “This isn’t your Grimm Brothers’ book,” she said. She sized Kelly up. “I’d say start with this one, and if you’re still interested, I’ve got one on therianthropes. I have a feeling you might need it.”
Kelly took the offered book and made her way to the couch with mixed emotions. She was part way through the first story - a version of Sleeping Beauty where a king assaulted the sleeping woman and impregnated her - when the front door opened.
“Jilly!”
Sam bounded from the chair she had been curled up watching Judge Judy in and wrapped her arms around the slender girl who had followed the agents into the house. Jill returned the hug, tears streaming their way down her face. Her wrists, exposed beyond the sleeves of her coat, bore dark bruises. Her hair was stringy and hung limply around her face.
“Oh, honey,” Mom cried, and gathered them both in her arms.
David walked over to Kelly, avoiding the knot of weeping women in the center of the room, and sat in the seat her mother had just vacated. His smile was tired.
“We got him,” he said. “We didn’t get as far up the chain as we hoped, but we got Mark, his crew, and the guy he was making his delivery to.”
“But, I thought it was about catching the bigger fish,” Kelly said. “What changed?”
David gazed at the women in the center of the room. His forearms were resting on his knees, his hands clasping and unclasping.
“The ledger you gave us. We were able to decipher it. It turns out that the drugs - the cactus juice, the peyote, even the bear parts - those were actually the low hanging fruit. Mark’s big payout was actually from trafficking people,” he said. He stared down at his hands.
Kelly stared at Jill, Sam, and her mom for a long minute. She turned to search David’s face. “Trafficked for what?” She asked quietly. She had more questions, a lot more, but she stopped herself.
David shook his head, indicating the women with a quick nod of his head. They were separating and lo
oking around for seats. Sam dragged a straight chair over to the side of the armchair she had been sitting in, then drew Jill over to the armchair. Sam perched on the straight chair, holding Jill’s hand with both of her own.
“I am so, so sorry,” Sam said, emotion making her voice raw.
Jill shook her head vehemently, tears continuing their silent streams over her cheeks. She pulled Sam’s hand up to her face and leaned against it, eyes closing.
Sam looked at David and the other agent. Her eyes asked the question she didn’t voice.
David cleared his throat, but the other agent stepped forward and spoke first.
“I’m Agent Moore. I work with Agents Bryant and Bupo. We were able to use the information gathered from the ledger you had appropriated to intercept a vehicle heading to the delivery point. The vehicle held 17 people who had been held captive for various lengths of time,” he said, keeping his eyes averted from Jill’s tear-stained face as he delivered his summary. “The vehicle waiting at the rendezvous spot had been modified to add separate compartments for each of the victims. It quickly became apparent that this was not the first such transaction these operatives had been engaged in. Your intervention was timely, and of great importance.” He nodded at Sam and Kelly, as though bestowing honor on each of them. He turned toward Dad, who had moved to sit on the arm of the chair so that Mom could have the seat. “We have processed the ledger and the warehouse, and believe that all the ends of this side of the chain have been accounted for. It should be safe for you to return to your home and your lives now.”
Dad turned his face toward the ceiling, eyes closed, and squeezed Mom’s hand. “What about this Mark, the one who threatened our family - what’s going to happen to him?”
Agent Moore cleared his throat. “Mr. Jacobs attempted to escape the area and fought against our agents with an armed show of force, which ultimately resulted in Mr. Jacobs sustaining life-threatening injuries that he has succumbed to. Your family is safe.”