by Chris Lowry
24
The dog nose diesel had a rubber duck clamped to the front as a hood ornament, and a string of lights that ran along the outline of the cab and trailer.
It pulled into the last row of pumps at the truck stop and hissed to a stop.
Rob climbed out of the cab and helped Jodi down. They both waved thanks to the driver.
Rob went to the payphone set up beside the showers for rent inside while Jodi made a beeline for the bathroom.
When she came out, he was gone.
She rushed out of the door and found him sitting at the far end of the curb, legs crossed as he stared into the sky.
“Who did you call?” she asked as she plopped down beside him.
He shrugged.
“No one,” he pointed. “My third abduction was a few hundred miles that way. I know this place. I've been here before.”
“We're driving past your abduction sites?”
“I think it's coincidence.”
“I don't believe in coincidence.”
“Nevertheless, they occur,” he said. “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”
“Freud?”
“It fit.”
“That's what she said.”
“At least that's what she told Freud,” he sighed. “I made my way across the country and back again. I wasn't really sure why. That's common in abductees you know. All of us searching.”
“To get abducted again?”
“Maybe.”
“I thought it was painful and horrible,” she said. “Experiments. Probes. How many times have you been abducted?”
“Fifteen, twenty times. I can't remember them all.”
“If I hadn't seen what I have seen, I'd call you a kook.”
“I've heard it all before. That's why it's easier to talk on the boards. People know what I'm talking about.”
Jodi glanced up at the sky as it slowly grows lighter.
“Are we here to get abducted?”
“If it were only that easy.”
“Then what are we waiting on?”
A giant 1971 convertible Cadillac wheeled into the parking lot.
The huge boat of a car slowly rolled to a stop in front of Rob and Jodi.
A tiny voluptuous brunette in a straw cowboy hat hopped up to sit on the headrest.
“Howdy Sugar,” she smiled.
Rob waved at her.
“You know her?” Jodi said out of the side of her mouth.
Rob shook his head no.
“But I'd like to.”
“Pig.”
The pretty woman leaned up against the windshield and rested her chin on her arms.
“You don't recognize me Sugar?”
Rob stood up and dusted off the butt of his pants as he moved closer to the car.
“Sorry Miss. Should I?”
She held out her hand for him to shake.
When he took it, she jerked him into an embrace and squealed.
Jodi jumped up and pulled her gun, rushed between them.
“Back off sister,” she said as she almost aimed the gun at the stranger.
Rob pushed the pistol up and away.
“Easy Jodi, easy.”
Jodi moves out of his reach and points the gun at the woman's' face.
“We don't know her,” she warned. “She could be one of them.”
Sam giggled.
“Do I look like one of them?”
She put her hands on her hips and thrust her very nice and bountiful chest out.
“Besides,” she said. “Robbo knows me. We trained together in his fifth abduction.”
Rob tilted his head to one side and scrunched up his face, as if he could force the memory.
“You asked her for help?” Jodi said.
The woman held out her hand.
“Sam,” she said. “Captain Sam Michaels.”
“You're a woman,” Rob stated.
“I'm reminded of that every time I go to the bathroom Sugar. You don't remember me?”
Rob studied her for a moment. Cutoff jeans, tight V-neck tee, hiking boots.
“I'm pretty sure I wouldn't forget you,” he said.
“Well you did Sugar.”
Sam dropped behind the wheel and fired up the Caddy.
“Hop on, let's get rolling.
Jodi kept her gun out but now it was pointed down instead of at Sam.
“Are you sure about this?”
“I did send an email for help.”
“This is not what you expected?”
“This is not what I expected.”
“You thought this she was a he?”
Rob shrugged and hung his head.
“You know, Captain Sam Michaels. I didn't expect it to be a woman.”
“A woman can't be a Captain?
“That's not what I meant-” he blurted.
“Alright, yeah that's exactly what I meant. It never crossed my mind that he was a she.”
Sam watched the exchange with a bemused smile.
“Sugars, I'm pretty thirsty after my drive. Think you could get me a soda to wet my whistle while you two debate?”
Rob leaned against the driver's door and tried not to stare.
It was a tough battle between her kewpie doll eyes and shadowy recesses in the V neck.
“If we were abducted together, why didn't you mention it all this time we were exchanging messages.”
“I thought it was a given. You never mentioned it to me, so I thought you didn't want to talk about it.”
Jodi shot Rob a glance.
“Well?” she asked.
Rob rolled over the side of the car and into the back seat.
“It makes sense,” he said.
Jodi nodded.
She walked around the car, opened the door and settled into the seat.
She kept her pistol in her lap, aimed in the general direction of the driver.
“No soda then?” said Sam.
She dropped the Caddy in gear and peeled out of the parking lot.
They fishtailed across the highway and rocketed up the road.
“Better to move anyway,” she shouted over the wind. “You never know who may be coming.”
Two black helicopters topped the horizon behind them and raced toward the gas station.
25
A scream echoed up the corridor and something crashed against the wall.
“Baker!”
Baker stepped through the door and cowered against the wall, ready to bolt.
He stared at a smashed computer monitor on the floor, and the broken cracked plasterboard above it.
“You bellowed?”
“How did this happen?” Harris screamed.
This time he chunked his cell phone against the wall.
Baker ducked left.
It cracked into the wall in a small explosion of plastic.
“Did you speak with both of them?”
“Riggs blames Freddy, vice versa,” shouted Harries. He bit down on a cigar and chomped it in half.
“Can you explain to me how I got saddled with such incompetents?”
Baker slowly bent down and picked up the shattered cell phone.
He crossed the room in a few steps and set it on the desk next to Harris.
“I have learned that Agent Johnson shot a manager of an electronics store in Arizona,” he said.
“What in Hell's name did they want with electronics?”
“Crow is a computer aficionado,” answered Baker. “Perhaps he wanted to communicate with the rest of the world.”
“I want him cut off,” snarled Harris. “These two are traipsing along some back road on the way to DC.”
“We could bring in the CIA.”
Harris waved him off.
“We can't get approval for them to operate stateside and if we do it we run the risk of being discovered. I won't take that chance.”
Baker nodded.
“But,” Harris broke out with a huge grin.
“Shoot a cop along the
Interstate, put out their descriptions. Kill two or three if you have to.”
“Yes sir,” said Baker.
He turned to rush from the room.
“Send me Riggs and Freddy,” Harris called after him.
“As soon as they arrive.”
“And bring me a new monitor!”
26
Sam raced along the four-lane rural highway that cut through the woodlands.
She had the top on the Caddy up, but her window was rolled down and she sang along to a country song in a high pitched alto voice that was pretty good.
Rob leaned against the back window and watched the world as it passed by.
The trees were a blur at this speed, just an impression of trees really, too fast to make out individual details.
Jodi watched him over her shoulder.
“Let me see that phone.”
“Why?” he asked.
“I need to check in with my superiors.”
He sat up but held on to the phone.
“I don't like it,” he said. “Every time you call in someone shows up and tries to kill me.”
“What am I supposed to do?” she asked. “The people I'm taking you to meet expect me to update them. They don't want you killed.”
“Someone does. Could be a mole. Could be NSA monitoring communications and tasked with tracking us. I don't know. Until I find out who's tipping them off, we go dark.”
“Right on Sugar,” Sam added. “Let's get us a cheap motel on the outskirts of St. Louis and hide out until this all blows over.”
“We can't do that,” said Jodi. “We have to get to DC.”
Sam watched Rob in the rear-view mirror.
“She's not my boss,” she said. “You make the call.”
Rob chewed on his lip and blew out a huge breath.
“We go to DC. How fast can we drive?”
Sam hooted.
“Drive? I'm not putting that many miles on my old Bess. We'll fly.”
“We can't fly. They're going to monitor airports,” said Jodi.
“Not my airport.”
“You own an airport?”
“I own a plane at an airport. Small little airfield. We're almost there,” Sam smiled at them.
“You have a plane?” asked Rob.
“They don't call me Captain for my looks Sugar.”
Rob leaned back against the door and stared out again.
“Until we know more, I don't want you to call DC,” he told Jodi.
She nodded, but watched Sam out of the corner of her eye.
Sam cranked the wheel of the Caddy and backed it into a hangar at the edge of a deserted tarmac.
They had waited until dark to cruise up to the airport and spent the time eating and resting.
Sam flashed a smile at the night guard and leaned over really far while he checked her in.
He hardly glanced at the passengers and waved them through.
Jodi and Rob helped her wheel the four passenger Cessna out of the hanger and into the light pooled in front of the door.
Rob and Jodi pulled the door closed.
The plane looked a little battered, but the wings were solid.
“We're gonna fly in that?” Rob asked.
Sam ran a hand along the wing as she walked around to inspect the plane.
“Watch your cracks Sugar. It's a long walk to our nation's capital.”
Jodi stood next to Rob.
“It might be safer to walk.”
Sam opened the door and climbed in.
She pulled a clipboard from the cockpit and started going over her pre-flight checklist.
“How is it you have a plane in St. Louis?” Rob asked as he peered into the plane.
“You know about the network. It's part of our readiness plan.”
“Yeah, but I never heard about this.”
Sam stuck her head out of the door and blew a strand of hair out of her eyes.
“That's cause you're on the research side. You're an egghead, not a soldier.”
She leaned down and kissed him on the cheek.
“I mean that in the best possible way Sugar.”
Jodi stuck her head up beside them.
“I've seen him fight the Nordes. I think he's a soldier.”
Sam nodded and ducked back to the clipboard to check against the gauges.
“He's been trained, yeah, to fight, but how is he against people? That's why I'm here,” said Sam.
“No, that's what I'm here for,” countered Jodi.
Sam winked at her as she hopped out of the plane to inspect the wings and struts.
“Don't be jealous Hon. He probably needs us both.”
Rob cleared his throat.
“I am not jealous,” Jodi fumed.
“Could have fooled me Sugar,” Sam trilled in her giggle filled voice. “I have to file the flight plan. Care to escort me?”
She hooked her arm through Rob's elbow.
He stumbled as she dragged him along.
She led him across the asphalt to the office and small tower, while Jodi watched them, a confused look on her face.
27
The office consisted of a lobby with a sofa and three chairs, a small table with a coffee maker and selection of prepackaged snacks beside a soda machine, and a long counter that doubled as a desk.
It was manned by a mousy looking college student with a name tag that read Jeff. Jeff was reading a book, BATTLEFIELD Z with a half smile on his face.
He glanced up as the door opened.
“I saw you drive in,” he said and sat down the book. “I wondered if you were just gonna take off.”
“I can't do that Hon,” Sam gushed. “That would be against the law.”
“I know,” said Jeff.
He took the proffered flight plan from her hand. “I'd have to call the police.”
“We're just gonna hop over to DC,” Sam said as he reviewed her handwriting and made notes on his log.
“Clear night for flying,” he said absently.
Jeff glanced up at Rob as he handed back the paper.
“Anything else?”
“That's it, Sugar,” Sam took the paper and led Rob back through the door.
Jeff quirked up one eyebrow and frowned.
He thumbed through the scattered papers on his desk, searching.
He found what he was looking for and held it up.
It was a photocopy BOLO for Rob, a notice from the police to Be On the Lookout. His eyes popped open like saucers and he fumbled for the phone under the papers.
28
Baker walked into Harris' office with a phone pressed to his ear.
Harris was about to yell, removed the cigar from his mouth to take a deep breath, but Baker held up one finger.
It shut him up.
No one had ever told him to be quiet, hold on, not in this career.
Harris wondered if he was going to have to shoot Baker too.
That type of impertinence couldn't be tolerated.
Baker clicked the phone shut and set it on the desk.
“The State Police in St. Louis got a call from a small airport. Our man just took off in Cessna.”
“Do we know where they're headed?”
“They filed a flight plan for DC.”
Harris nodded and shoved the cigar in the corner of his mouth.
“That is outstanding, Baker. Outstanding. Scramble a jet and shoot them down.”