“You too. When this is over, get home to your daughter and take some days off. You’ve earned them.”
69
TITO WAS WAITING for Vanessa to call him back when he saw another call from Joey. He answered immediately and was back in the conference room with the 3D map on the table.
“I have good news for ya,” Joey’s avatar said. “Ya see this area here?”
Tito looked down on the table. It was a topographical map of the same northern Georgia area from before, but Joey was pointing at a specific region. Tito’s avatar got up from the table and walked around next to Joey to see it better. Joey used hand gestures to zoom in on the map, and the whole table was covered with a 3D realistic rural area that looked like a farm.
“This is where I saw them both get out. It’s some kind of farm. Not a bad idea,” Joey said.
“OK. The car is gone?” Tito asked.
“Yeah, the car is long gone. Now, here’s the thing. I know for a fact that the authorities saw one of them get out of the car. But that is the key. I heard them talking about going after one of them in this area and the other one in the car. So, there’s your chance. You can save one. Probably not both, though.”
Tito looked at the area. “Do you know where they are now?”
“No idea. Here is where they got out of the car. They were walking this way when the car drove off. That’s the last I saw. But you can contact them, right?”
“Yeah,” Tito said. “Can you send me these coordinates so I can look at the map in more detail?”
“Sure.”
“How much time do we have?”
“I don’t know. Maybe a half hour. Maybe more, but I wouldn’t gamble. I’m sorry about the car, but I’m trying to help you out here.”
“Yes, I know. Thank you so much.”
“I’ve got to handle some other things now and get some sleep. You understand?”
“Sure. Thank you.”
The call ended and Tito was back in his platform. A screen popped up with the GPS coordinates from Joey. Tito jumped into a 360 degree view of the map and began looking around. He looked at all of the places on the farm that might be good hiding locations. Of course, if the authorities knew they were there, the good hiding locations would be the first places searched.
It was imperative to get Julia as far from Thomas as possible, but she would never leave his side. How could he do it? Maybe if Julia thought that Thomas was in danger? She would leave his side if she thought that doing so would save him.
He looked at the map for a while longer and made some difficult decisions. Then he called Vanessa with the instructions.
70
JULIA HAD FOLLOWED Thomas through the farm to a place under a group of large Holly trees. It was a ten minute walk from the road where they left the car. The November air was chilly but bearable. Using blankets and pillows from the car, Thomas was making a bed for them on the ground.
“Let’s try and sleep for a few hours,” he said. “We’ll need it.”
“Should one of us keep watch?” she asked.
“I don’t think so. If they know we’re here, it’s game over anyway, whether one of us is watching or not. It’s better if we get a few hours rest.”
“Yeah,” she said, lying down on the ground. It was more comfortable than she had imagined. Julia realized that she was completely exhausted, physically and mentally. The adrenaline rush had been constant for several hours and she was finally able to relax. Thomas lay down next to her and got under the blanket. He snuggled up behind her and kissed her neck.
“I love you,” he said. “We are going to get through this.”
She put her fingers into his hand and replied, “I love you too.”
Just as Julia was about to fade into sleep, the phone vibrated. She had turned off the sound and light from her phone to prevent giving up their position. She re-positioned her body to get the phone out.
“It’s Vanessa,” she whispered to Thomas.
“I’ll be quiet,” he smiled back.
“Hola,” Julia answered.
“The police are after you,” Vanessa said, startling Julia into an upright position.
“What are you talking about?” Julia asked. “I thought we were all right?”
“What’s wrong,” Thomas asked.
Vanessa answered. “Maybe you should put me on speaker so your friend can hear this too.”
Vanessa was talking in code on the assumption that someone was spying on their conversation. Julia would have to be extra careful of her wording. She looked at Thomas, who was also sitting up. “OK,” she said and hit the speaker button. She muted the phone and said to him, “If you need to talk, whisper it in my ear.”
Vanessa continued where they could both hear. “Our friend called again and said that authorities saw Julia’s friend get out of the car.”
“Not me, but my friend?” Julia asked.
“Yes, they think your friend is no longer in the car. They know you are still in the car.”
“Anything else?” Julia asked.
“I’ve said enough for now,” Vanessa said. “You two should get out of the car immediately. Get to Atlanta as soon as possible by some other means.”
Then the call was over. Julia looked at Thomas.
Thomas said, “If they think it’s just me, we should probably split up.”
“No way I’m splitting up,” Julia replied.
“Baby, let’s think about the smartest thing to do here,” Thomas said.
Just then, Julia got an encrypted message from Vanessa. She ran it through some software she had on her phone and used her fingerprint as the private key for decryption.
“Vanessa says that Leslie’s sister who is the police chief may be able to help us later, but that they haven’t gotten ahold of her yet. For now, she says we should split up. Thomas should go to this location,” Julia showed him a map on the screen. “Do you know where this is?” she asked.
“Yeah. It’s not far. I can be there in five minutes. What about you?”
“She said I should go here,” and showed him the phone again with a map.
“That’s about twenty minutes from here walking,” he said. “You’ll have to stay under the cover of trees, but you can make it. What do you think?”
“I don’t want to be separated.”
“Me either, but Vanessa is right. It is better if one of us escapes than if both of us get caught.”
“Don’t talk like that,” she said. “Nobody is getting caught.”
“Do you want me to walk you to your place?” he asked.
“No, that would make it more risky for you. Please just go and be careful. Stay near there, and we’ll be able to find you later.”
“Listen, if you can’t find me there, remember this place, these trees. I’ll meet you here.”
“What about your phone? You can message me if something happens,” she said.
“I don’t have my phone. Debbie took it.”
“Then we shouldn’t split up.”
“We have to, Julia. I’ll be OK. Listen, there is a charging station on this farm where all of the robots, tractors and drones go for recharging. Next to it are some large trees. If you don’t find me in the first two places, look for me there. Can you remember all three places? I promise that I’ll be in one of them. I can survive on this farm for a long time, eating the fruit and staying away from the surveillance paths. Nobody will suspect that I would stay here after the authorities come.”
She hugged him with a passion. “Be careful.”
“You too. We’ll get through this. We’ll get to Cuba.”
He pulled her away from him and smiled at her. “We don’t have much time. Can you follow the map Vanessa gave you?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Then let’s go. We have the rest of our lives to be together. You take the police car gun. I’ll take the drone gun. We can do this.”
She nodded and grabbed the gun. He stuffed the blankets
and pillows into their backpacks.
“I love you,” he said.
“Te quiero,” she said and turned and started walking.
71
IT WAS 11 AM in Vatican City and Cardinal Mark arrived at an urgent meeting. When he walked into the conference room, Lidia was sitting down at the table with a sad look on her face.
“Please close the door and have a seat,” Cardinal Davide said to him.
Mark closed the door and sat across from Lidia.
“As you know,” Davide began. “I wanted to end this mission you are doing with Cuba several months ago. However, Lidia convinced me that the team you were working with was non-violent and there was a very low risk of exposure for the Vatican.”
“That’s true,” Mark replied.
Davide slammed his fists on the table and both Mark and Lidia jumped in their seats. “Have you not seen the news? This is a catastrophe!”
Mark looked at Lidia, who looked down at the table somberly.
“What news?” he asked.
“Dear God in heaven, you don’t know what’s happening?” Davide yelled. “Cardinal Lidia, will you please tell fill him in?”
Lidia nodded somberly and looked at Mark. “The woman, Maria Garcia, Vice President of the Venezuela Petroleum Consortium, is the one I found linked to our accounts. She entered the US through DC over three months ago for a two week work visa. As I told you, she disappeared shortly after entering the country, taking with her all of the funding that the Vatican had recently sent to Cuba. She left behind a money trail that will be easy to uncover for anyone looking.”
“I remember,” Mark said. “Has something new happened?”
“She’s all over the news,” Davide screamed, waving his fist in the air.
“There is a national woman-hunt for her,” Lidia said calmly. “She is being called a foreign terrorist and is suspected of killing nearly a hundred people, including a police chief.”
Mark was astonished and felt punched in the gut with the shock. “That’s impossible,” he said.
“You didn’t see this on the news?” Davide asked angrily. “Your people in Cuba didn’t inform you of this?”
“They are a non-violent, Catholic group. She wouldn’t kill anyone. What do you mean, a hundred people?”
“Most of them seem to be men at an underground site. But there were lots of women too, including the chief of police of Nashville. It’s all over the national news. It’s the biggest story of the day in the US,” Lidia answered.
“Oh, my God. Debbie,” Mark gasped.
“You really haven’t heard?” Lidia asked. “Your friend Debbie is dead.”
Mark tried to collect himself. He looked at Davide. “I can call the group in Cuba right now and find out what’s going on.”
“You will do no such thing,” Davide replied. “What you will do today is take responsibility for your actions and resign from your post.”
Mark was taken aback. “You are asking me to resign?”
Lidia nodded. “I’m sorry, Mark, but there is no choice. We need to work with the US government to help right this wrong.”
“I can’t believe what I’m hearing. No way, man! The US government is evil. I don’t believe that this woman from Cuba killed anyone. Why would she kill people who are helping her? The Catholic church has to stand up for good against evil.”
“You contributed to this evil,” Davide told him. “You got the Catholic Church in the middle of this evil.”
“That is bullshit, Davide!” Mark replied. “The US government is doing this. I don’t know why, but I know for sure that my team in Cuba would never kill people. This is a setup of some kind. If I help the US government, I am aiding and abetting the devil. Don’t you see that, man? The pastor protects his sheep from the wolves. He doesn’t lead the wolves to the sheep.”
“Cardinal Mark, this has taken you by surprise as it has all of us,” Lidia said. “Let us have some time for reflection on these matters, to pray and ask God for his guidance.”
Davide looked at them both. “God forgive us,” he said. “I will give you both time to reflect. But there can be no mistake about the consequences. You must resign your post today and we must come clean to the press about what we have done. There is no other way.”
Davide left the room and closed the door behind him. Mark looked at Lidia.
“I know you never thought this could happen,” she said.
“What do we know for sure?”
She turned and talked to the wall screen, turning it on with her voice and selecting one of multiple news channels which had the story airing live.
“If you haven’t seen it, then here it is. Maybe we can piece together what has happened,” she said.
72
MAXIME WAS SITTING in his room, watching the same news channels at the same time as Cardinal Mark.
It had been well over two hours since he left Joey’s room and he was jittery on coffee. When he first started watching the news, there had been nothing about the drone strike. But for the last hour, starting about 4 AM EST, it was the only story on all of the news feeds.
The original story broke on the CNN feed and all of the other channels had been piping the same footage. A reporter named Melissa Harrison was standing in a house where nearly forty dead bodies had been found. The one they kept showing was a police chief from Nashville named Stephanie Williams. Maxime heard the same question and answer session repeated numerous times for viewers just joining the news feed.
“Chief Williams was allegedly shot by a group of people running an underground site for criminals and terrorists,” the news reporter was saying again.
“What more can you tell us Melissa?” another reporter asked.
Melissa replied, “When the police chief came to inspect the site, it is assumed that she was shot and killed by a member of the criminal group. The combat drones that were guarding the police chief then went into action and killed many of the criminals. However, some of the criminals escaped. There is a nationwide woman-hunt currently in pursuit for this woman, Maria Garcia, and a man named Thomas who is an illegal recently escaped from a grid camp in Nashville.”
The photo of the two of them came on the screen again. Every time Maxime saw it, he got sick to his stomach. He wanted to call the authorities and tell them the truth, but he knew it would be dangerous.
Where was Joey?
He needed to get some word from Joey. Joey would know what to do in this situation.
The reporter continued, “The two were last seen in northern Georgia and authorities are in hot pursuit.”
A picture flashed on the screen of an exploded vehicle which still had burning embers. “This car,” the reporter said, “is the suspected getaway vehicle, but it exploded on a road in northern Georgia, apparently on the way towards Atlanta. The illegals are expected to be traveling on foot somewhere near this town. If anyone has any information or sees anything suspicious, please report it through the 911 app immediately.”
The screen showed a map of the area and several towns nearby. Maxime hoped that Thomas was OK. He couldn’t believe how this story was being told on the news.
If they only knew the truth.
KNOCK, KNOCK.
It was his door. Thank God. Joey finally had some news for him. Maybe they could leave for South America tonight. Maxime was too jolted to get any sleep anytime soon. He went to the door and opened it.
“Good news, kid,” Joey said, smiling at him. “Here, I brought us some Champagne.”
Maxime took the glass and closed the door. “I don’t feel up for celebrating, sir.”
“Perk up, Maxime. The money was all there. After taxes, it was nearly 850 thousand dollars. I extracted it all cleanly and have it in the bank account. Consider your debt to me completely paid in full.”
Maxime tried to smile. “That’s good news,” he said.
“Good news? Ya kiddin’ me? It’s great news. But here’s the kicker. I like you, kid. And Lord
knows there is gonna be a lotta heat now with this news on TV.”
Joey saw the news in the background. “You watchin’ it too?”
“I can’t sleep,” Maxime replied.
“I’m sure. Listen, they are definitely gonna go through the Nashville camp with a fine tooth comb and they’re gonna find that you’re missing. Then you’ll be on the news just like this other guy, and Margaret won’t wanna have anything to do witcha.”
“That sounds bad.”
“Nah, it’s great for ya. Cause your good buddy Joey is gonna give ya the gift of a lifetime. I’m gonna pay your way down to Peru. I need somebody there that I can trust. You do some work for me there and we’ll call it even. Sound fair?”
Maxime took a deep breath. It was real. He was going to get out of this. “Are you serious?”
“Am I serious? Of course I’m serious. You just made me a lot of money, my friend. And Joey takes care of his friends, I can promise you that. So, drink up. A toast, to Peru. How’s your Spanish, kid? Habla espanol?”
“Not very good.”
“Well, it’s about to get a lot better. A toast, to your improvin’ Spanish in Peru,” Joey clinked his glass against Maxime’s and drank his Champagne.
“Drink up, kid. It’s a celebration.”
Maxime smiled and shrugged. “Thank you,” he said and drank the glass. “Bottoms up. That’s good Champagne.”
“Yeah, it’s an Asti. Italian. Has a sweet taste to it. I like it better than the crap from France, but that’s just me. Listen, mind if I sit down? We need to plan the details.”
“Sure. Of course, Joey,” Maxime said, waving his hand toward the seats in his little kitchen.
Joey looked at the news feed. “This news, it’s bad. I know you’re hurtin’ over this here thing.”
Maxime nodded. “Yeah.”
“Listen, you gotta trust me. It’s gonna be all right. Once you get down to Peru, you’ll meet some nice women down there. Beautiful women down there. And you’ll slowly forget about all of this. Like it never happened.” He snapped his fingers and waved his hands.
Escape The Grid: Volume 1 Page 30