Maybe the robot has something sharp?
It must. It has to pick and cut peaches.
Julia examined the metal base, rubber tires, and the modular midsection where different robotic tools could attach or detach as needed. Since this was a platform, its primary components were for moving and attaching to other tools. There were motors, gears, wheels and interlocking parts. Electronics and tiny cameras were mounted in multiple locations.
Some type of picking tool was attached to the top of the platform. Three feet by three feet square, the instrument had four different robotic arms with multiple axes of motion. Each arm had fingers designed specifically for picking peaches. As Julia investigated the fingers, she saw small blades that might cut through the netting which held Thomas captive.
She climbed onto the platform and examined the robotic arm. The blades were locked into place with a small flathead screw. Julia used her fingernail as an impromptu screwdriver and soon held one of the small razors. She touched the edge to make sure that it was sharp.
Seems good enough.
Julia carefully held the tiny knife in one hand and climbed down from the farming equipment. When her feet hit the ground, she turned and prepared to run to Thomas.
“NO-O-O,” she heard him scream loudly.
He’s warning me.
Instinctively, she hid behind the trees and platform. She saw the mystery woman approaching. The woman carried a briefcase with God-knows-what inside. Julia’s eyes locked onto the gun in its holster.
It would be suicide to run to Thomas now. She had no choice but to stay crouched down and wait for an opportunity.
76
“I RECKON WE may need some small town justice,” Sam said, putting her badge in the drawer and sliding it closed.
Leslie was sitting in her living room after the early morning, panic-laden call. It was 7 AM, and Sam had listened patiently as Leslie explained the night’s events over the phone. Sam had then put on the news to understand the official version of the story. She had checked for all reports at her police unit and made sure that none of her staff were visiting the farm.
“If we leave now…” Leslie began.
“We ain’t doin’ nothin’. You git on home and take care of ya business. I’ll do my best to bring ‘em two people to ya house.”
“Thank you, sis.”
“Line ‘a duty.”
“I may be takin’ a long trip with these two, down Florida way,” Leslie said.
“Don’t need to know nothin’ bout that,” Sam replied, checking the magazine of her Glock. It was fully loaded. She checked two more. Also loaded.
“Just sayin’ that I may be gone a week or two. Maybe you can check in on the house while I’m gone?”
“Will if I can. Given this here situation, we’s gonna have a lot of crazy news people up ‘r crawl for awhile.”
Sam pushed one of the magazines into the Glock and put it in her holster.
“Time’s a wastin’,” Sam said.
Leslie stood up and opened the door. They both walked out together but went to different cars. Sam chose her beat-up personal car instead of the town-sponsored Sheriff mobile. This visit to the farm was going to be undercover until she knew more about the female agent.
They waved goodbye and boarded their separate vehicles. Sam’s immediately took off when she closed the door. The destination had been set minutes ago.
“Six minutes away,” the navigation said.
Sam had never been a top student, but she had street smarts and street toughness. Her police squad was made up of like-minded women, who didn’t take crap from nobody, especially the federal government. And this here situation had federal government fingerprints all over it.
Betcha bottom dolla’, whoever that woman is, she’s workin’ with some crooked federales.
Question wasn’t so much who she was or why she was here. Sam had that just about figured out. Somebody in Washington wanted to send a message and they attacked the underground. Some people got away, and this woman was sent in to clean up the mess.
The bigger question was how Sam should deal with it. Whoever this agent was, her people would know where she was. Killing her was likely to bring a Washington army into their little town. The Feds would ride into town and shine lights where lights shouldn’t be shined.
Nah, killing her wasn’t in the cards.
Sam had to rescue the two people and get them outa dodge, and then keep the Washington woman from figuring out who Sam was.
She decided to call a couple of long-time friends on the force. Women that knew about Leslie’s compound and were simpatico. Problem was, there was no time to coordinate anything, so she was really calling as a contingency plan.
“Shirley,” Sam said, when the first person picked up. “Listen, I got a personal situation goin’ on at the old Jones’ peach farm. Could really use your help. You know the place?”
“Sure.”
“If you come, wear street clothes and drive an unmarked car, but come armed.”
“What in blazes?”
“I think it’s Federales. You watchin’ the news? This UR site they blew up? The witch hunt they got going?”
“Nah, hold on. I’ll turn on the TV.”
“No time, just trust me on this. Federales blew up a UR site in Tennessee. Killed nearly a hundred people. Men and women. Two of ‘em got away and they’re tryin’ to pin the whole thing on this foreign girl.”
“Hole-ley shi-i-i-it.”
“Yep. It’s bad. The two that escaped may be at the peach farm, with this federal agent hunting for ‘em. We gotta keep this quiet. I’m going to see what’s happenin’, but I don’ wanna draw any attention to the force. Would love it if you had my back.”
“You know I always do.”
“Great. Can you call Dawn and come together? We may need lots of firepower.”
“May take twenty minutes.”
“The sooner, the better.”
“I’m headin’ out the door now. I’ll call Dawn on the way.”
“Thanks, Shirley.”
“Don’t mention it.”
77
SUSAN WAS WALKING back to the peach trees where she left Thomas, carrying her interrogation briefcase. The phone call with Harriet had taken far too long, but at least she had a plan now. Harriet had found a trusted agent in Atlanta who agreed to help. They would move Thomas to a secure location where they could question him as long as it took. The sun was coming up now, and the farm would start humming with busy robots soon.
She had considered for a nanosecond to call Margaret, but she knew what the command would have been. Kill Thomas and leave.
Susan wasn’t ready to follow that order. Margaret had instructed her to use her own wisdom.
Better to ask forgiveness than permission.
Anyway, there was useful intelligence to be acquired from this guy. He might be the key to multiple doors in the underground railroad movement.
She lost a few more minutes when Sofia called her on the second burner, a number that Susan told her to only use in case of emergency. It was 4 AM in San Diego, so Susan had picked up the call in terror of what kind of emergency might have occurred. Luckily, it was just a scared little girl, staying at home overnight for the first time and waking up from every little noise in the house.
Sofia had been disappointed that Susan wasn’t in the air flying back, as she had promised. Her goal was to celebrate Thanksgiving with Sofia from morning until bedtime. At this point, she would be lucky to get home in time for dinner. But the disappointment of a twelve-year-old was the least of Susan’s worries right now. Getting off this farm and away from its surveillance was the primary concern at the moment.
She walked back briskly, and pulled the ski mask over her head. In her mind, she reviewed the questions for Thomas. Which ones for now and which were best saved for later? The focus had to be on time-critical details, like the woman he was traveling with. Where was she likely to be? Where was she going
?
It didn’t take long for Susan to be back in front of Thomas and the netting that imprisoned him. He had barely moved since she left. As she walked up, he began screaming bloody murder.
“Thomas, please stay quiet,” she said. “Do you see this brief case?”
He stopped screaming for a second and looked at it. He nodded.
“I have tools in here that can mute your screams. I have other instruments that cause unspeakable pain. I prefer to use neither but I’m prepared to use both.”
“Why are you doing this?” he asked.
“I went away for a few minutes, and you forgot the protocol. I thought we established that I’m the one who will ask the questions.”
He didn’t respond, but instead lay there in the netting. Susan looked him over carefully as she opened the briefcase. Attractive man, full head of hair, broad shoulders, muscular biceps - he had been well taken care of by the grid camp. She sat cross-legged on the ground and put the lie detector on her lap. She pulled out a syringe and a tube of white fluid.
“Do you know what this liquid is, Thomas?” she asked.
He looked at the syringe, and she could see a panic in his eyes. His green polo was covered in sweat. This must be his first interrogation.
He’ll be far easier than most.
“This liquid is the result of the finest minds in the US government working with the brightest bulbs in pharmaceuticals. A veritable truth serum - something promised but never delivered for hundreds of years. I’ve seen this little concoction work wonders. It takes effect in just a few minutes and has very few side effects. There is a slight chance of you going into a coma and dying, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take. How about you, Thomas?”
He screamed and began squirming. She walked over toward him with the needle.
“The more you squirm, the more likely that I hit something with this syringe that I shouldn’t. I’m not a nurse, you know. The juice doesn’t have to go in a vein or anything. I can punch you with it anywhere…”
She slammed it into his left thigh through his brown slacks. He screamed in pain. He swung his body to try to get away, but she quickly retracted the needle.
“You could have really hurt yourself with all your moving, Thomas. The needle wouldn’t hurt very much if you just let me slide it into your arm or backside. Why be so difficult?”
He didn’t answer but squirmed on the ground in front of her, grunting and cursing her.
“We’ll just wait a few minutes and then I’ll start over with my questions from before. I have a feeling that you weren’t being honest with me.”
“Just kill me!” he shouted. “I’m not going to tell you anything.”
“You are going to tell me everything, my friend. Which is precisely why I can’t kill you. You are too useful right now.”
“I don’t know anything.”
“You see, I think you do.”
He squirmed and screamed, writhing in mental and physical agony. Susan sat back down on the ground and turned on the lie detector.
“What is your name?” she asked.
He didn’t reply. She looked at the time. It had only been about thirty seconds since she injected him. The normal activation time for a shot in the thigh was about three minutes.
“Did you always live in Tennessee, Thomas?”
After she waited and got no response, she continued. “I looked at your file, really studied it. Files are not always accurate, but if yours is to be believed, you never left the state of Tennessee until a few hours ago, when you drove into Alabama and now Georgia. I think you have a lot more travel plans ahead. Maybe South America? I just don’t get why you wanted to leave the grid and subject yourself to this. Was life so bad online? It seems to me that you thoroughly enjoyed yourself all those years.”
“Go to hell!”
He looked at her with disdain, but she could see a sparkle starting in his eyes, a loosening in the tenseness of his body. The medicine was starting to have an effect. In a few more moments, he would be like a drunk, talkative friend who can’t wait to share every detail of his life.
“Why did you do it, Thomas? Why did you leave the camp?” she asked.
“Maxime was leaving,” he said and then looked surprised that the words had come out.
“Who’s Maxime?”
Thomas started laughing. The drugs were really kicking in.
“He’s my buddy,” his face was shocked with the answers leaving his lips.
“Why do you say he was leaving?”
Thomas smiled at her. His eyes had a look of sincerity any bartender could recognize, the face of a man that is tired of lying and ready to bare his soul.
“Maxime went to DC the same night I left the camp. But you already knew that.”
Susan was recording the conversation to parse through the details later. This little tidbit was completely unexpected. There was another person who escaped?
And this guy went to DC?
How did she not find this before? Probably because she stopped searching once she found Thomas.
“When you left the camp, you had equipment in your room to fool us.”
“Yep,” Thomas slurred his words a little. “To make you think I was still there.”
“Where did you get the equipment?”
“Julia shipped it to me.”
“Who’s Julia?”
“You’re funny. You know who Julia is. She’s my girlfriend.”
“Is she the one you are traveling with? I thought that was Paola.”
“I made that name up.”
“So did Julia also send equipment to Maxime to help him?”
“Nah, he was working with some guy in DC.”
Interesting. The breakout was coordinated? Two different groups working together. Highly unusual.
“Why did the guy in DC help Maxime?”
“I don’t know. He was gonna work for him I think.”
“What kind of work?”
“I have no idea.”
“What about you? Why did Julia help you?”
“Because she loves me,” Thomas said and started laughing. “She loves me, yeah, yeah, yeah!”
He sounded like an obnoxious drunk.
He sang, “And with a love like that, you know I should be glad!”
“You aren’t glad?”
“Of course not.”
“Why?”
“Because you killed all my friends, and you’re trying to kill me.”
“But what about Julia? Does she make you glad?”
“Of course she does. She loves me.”
“Thomas, I’m here to help you. I didn’t kill any of your friends. Let me help you find Julia.”
“You shot me with this net. You aren’t here to help me.”
“I had to detain you. Tell me the truth, if I had walked toward you, wouldn’t you have shot me?”
Thomas thought for a second. “Yeah, probably. Look at you, dressed in black with a ski mask on. You look evil.”
“So I couldn’t just walk up. And if I wanted to kill you, I could have, but I didn’t. I shot you with a retaining netting, non-lethal. I’m trying to help you. You know that you are being blamed for this attack on the site in Jasper? Well, not you precisely, but Julia.”
“What? That’s crazy.”
“Well, the police are searching for you, and if they find you, it’s gonna be trouble. But I can help you both. I can get you to a safe place and get you out of the country.”
“We are already going to a safe place.”
“Oh yeah, where’s…”
Suddenly, Susan heard a rustling of leaves behind her. She turned and saw a tall, broad-shouldered woman wearing camouflage and walking toward her with a gun. She had hunting paint on her face and wore a John Deere baseball cap. Susan quietly reached for her own weapon.
“Don’t try anything. Put your hands up,” the John Deere woman said.
“Who are you?” Susan replied.
“Put you
r hands up or I’ll kill you.”
John Deere didn’t seem like the type to make an idle threat. Susan decided not to risk it. She put her hands up.
“You’re surrounded. We got the license plates on the car and we all got guns. Thay’s two ways this here can go. Way number one, you walk out unhurt and nobody follers you. Everyone walks away happy. Way number two, I’m digging a big hole in an hour to dump your dead carcass.”
Susan looked around. Was there really anybody else here? Probably not. Was this woman the mysterious Julia? The body frame looked different, but maybe she was wearing something under the outfit.
“Thomas, is this Julia?” Susan asked.
“Nope. I don’t know who she is, but I like her,” came the reply.
There goes that theory.
Since it isn’t Julia, maybe there are others. It wasn’t worth the risk. If Susan could get out of here without being seen, it would be a big relief. She considered her response.
Finally, she said, “OK. You keep your mask on, I keep mine on, and I’ll leave right now. We all go our separate ways.”
“A..ight,” John Deere said. “Get up and walk with me back to your car. You can bring your brief case if you want, but leave the gun.”
“How do I put the gun down if my hands are raised?”
“I see the holster. Loosen it without getting your hands near the gun. Let it slide off real easy. One false move and I’ll put a bullet through your skull.”
“OK, no false moves,” Susan slowly complied with the request and a few seconds later, the gun and holster were on the ground.
“Now git up, and start walkin’ back to yer car. I’ll foller behind.”
Susan did as commanded and once they got back to the car, there was a second woman. She also wore hunting gear and paint.
John Deere spoke to her, “D’you bring some cuffs?”
“Yes indeed.”
Escape The Grid: Volume 1 Page 33