Jahnni felt strong hands grab her, pulling on her then shoving her up out of the water, even though she could feel that it made him sink deeper into the dark churning water. She felt the cool air hit her face and gasped for the life-saving breathe that filled her lungs. She opened her eyes and saw that she was approaching another boulder. She grabbed onto the boulder, enough to get a hold from being washed further down the pipe.
In front of her, she watched as Samantha was swirled by the current as it pulled her under the water. She saw that Beau came up for air and reached out with both arms flailing, reaching in all directions for her. Then he was pulled under again, barely able to grab a quick breath. He was back under in the swirling white foam of water.
When he popped up, he had hold of Samantha, and pushed her upward. She grabbed the boulder above her and Beau grabbed the other end. Jahnni felt momentary relief as she watched her friends remain above the water, clutching the firm steadiness of a similar rock that she clung to tightly. The water still swirled around her body like a hurricane wind. Water splashed up around the pipe’s edges and created chaos all around. She watched Beau whip his head all around. He called out, “POPS! POPS!”
There was no return answer.
Jahnni turned to look behind her and saw that Crutch was still clutching a boulder. She called to him, asking if he was okay.
Crutch called forward to Jahnni. “I’m okay. I’m okay! Don’t worry Jahnni!” Then he cried out, “Where is Mr. T?”
She barely made out his words with the noise of the rushing water. But she understood. Jahnni called forward to Samantha a few boulders ahead, “Where is Mr. T.?”
Samantha couldn’t answer just yet through her coughing. Beau appeared behind Samantha and helped her get a better grip, then after glancing at Jahnni and Crutch, he let go and allowed the water to take him away.
“What is he doing?” Jahnni screamed. “Beau! BEAU!”
She hoped the water would recede soon. She was exhausted. She could only assume that the others were as well. She didn’t know what to do or where they were supposed to go next. Where does this water go to? What are we supposed to do now?
Her mind imagined the worst. She thought of the worst possibilities about Beau and Mr. T. Stop it! Stop thinking that. They will be okay. Just believe it.
“Oh, Mr. T,” Jahnni whispered, although no one could hear her. Tears mixed with the water already dripping from her face. Then her breath escaped her lungs to breathe out... Beau.”
Finally, she could feel the rush of the water getting slower and slower, but it was still too fast to let go of the boulders they clung to. The water started receding quite quickly and as fast as it rose, it turned into a slow-moving river. The three of them let go to drop into the calmer water and floated forward with the slow current. Jahnni and Crutch half paddled toward Samantha until their feet touched the pipe floor. They all stood, watching the water finally turn into a trickling stream that eventually turned to splashing puddles as they slogged along holding hands.
Jahnni refused to believe that Beau and Mr. T were gone. She called out their names every few seconds, “Beau! Mr. T... Beau... Mr. T?”
“Did you hear that?” Crutch laughed. “I heard him! I heard Beau! Hurry up! Let’s run faster.”
They ran around a large bend in the pipe and stopped in their tracks, dripping like cats pulled from a bath tub. Jahnni felt happiness flow onto her face and looked at Crutch and Samantha smiling back at her. They began running faster to the cement podium higher up towards the top of the pipe. It had an attached metal stairway leading up to it. They all grabbed the railing to climb the metal stairs at the same time, when Jahnni finally insisted that Crutch go first, then she stepped to the side to send Sam up next. She looked up and noticed that half of the narrow lighting system that ran down the middle of the ceiling of the pipe was out. In fact, every other tubular light was out, like a purposeful choice. The light was dim but useable, and at this point she didn’t care. She was just glad to be alive, and that the others were safe.
When Jahnni got to the top of the staircase, Beau grabbed her and hugged her to him as their wet clothes clung together like Velcro. She let the moment sink in as she wrapped her arms around his waist, leaning into his chest. He rested his chin on the top of her head as he breathed hard. The pounding of his heart and every rising chest movement was like a metronome to her own grateful heart. She only wished that this moment could last longer and under different circumstances. Everyone hugged and cried and hugged some more, elated that they were all safe.
Then Jahnni pulled her head away from Beau and posed the most important question of all to Mr. T. “How did you, when did, how, where... What happened? I was so filled with fear... that you had... not made it!”
Mr. T smiled a large grin that even showed the gold caps at the back of his teeth. They all looked eager, waiting for his paused response. “You have never heard of the saying, hold your breath?” he laughed.
“Pops,” Beau whispered to him. “I thought I had lost you! I searched for you under water and when I couldn’t find you I just knew that I had failed you! I love you so much Pops!” Beau bent and gave him a very long, gentle, loving hug.
Jahnni, Samantha, and Crutch looked at each other, then at Beau and Mr. T.
“Wait, Pops isn’t just a nickname you gave him when you met him at the airport? You already know each other?” Jahnni and Samantha said that last sentence as a choir, then Jahnni added, “How could I have missed that?”
“What? You didn’t know? Pops here is my grandpa. Wait... you really didn’t know that? I didn’t tell you that already?” Then looking at Pops, he said, “You didn’t tell them that either?”
“Well, we have been so busy playing airport that I guess... I... forget!” Mr. T answered in a chuckle.
“Well, there is that. I don’t understand how I didn’t know this though. How I could not have... I don’t know, put the pieces together,” Jahnni said, shaking her head as if scolding herself. “It was so obvious. My mind must have been elsewhere, I guess.”
“Oh! Then that explains the warbling bird language you spoke to each other back in the bagwell,” Crutch said as a shiver started to run up his spine.
After looking around and watching each other begin a chorus of shivering, Mr. T said, “We are all cold... follow me. I know where we get dry clothes.”
Mr. T reached up and took hold of another hatch-like opening that was on the concrete platform wall. They were all shivering at this point so when he opened the nearby hatch door, they seemed to gladly follow him in and waited as he closed the latch behind them. But when they turned around, Jahnni noticed that they were as confused as she was. This was a small room barely large enough for them to fit in. No furniture, no windows, no doors, except for the entry hatch. The floor had moved very slightly as they stepped in, but Jahnni didn’t know what kind of room this was. There were slabs built into the wall of the strange room, obviously for sitting. On the forward wall, a large Red button was above a large green button. What the heck? Jahnni thought. This looks like an elevator of some sort. Or, it reminds me of a windowless cable car.
“What is this place? I thought you said something about clothes?” Jahnni asked as she continued to eye her surroundings while she shivered.
Beau motioned his arms to sit down and motioned for them to sit closely together. Jahnni knew it would preserve what body warmth they still had, so she was more than happy to comply. Beau wiggled between Jahnni and Pops and placed an arm around each of them and pulled them closer to help calm the shivering. Samantha sat on the outside with her arms around Crutch. She leaned both their bodies closer to the other three. Jahnni also draped her arm around Crutch to pull them closer as well. She could still smell Beau’s cologne even after their trip through the human washing machine. If only, she felt her heart sigh. She couldn’t tell the difference between the shivers and the quivers but they were both welcome; they warmed her.
Mr. T broke the n
ew silence, except for the sound of chattering teeth, to proclaim, “Yes. I take you to clothes right now! But you must stay sitting down. It is not safe to stand... when I push that green button.”
“You know, Pops. You could tell me to lay down and take a nap right now and I would, right here, right now!” Beau chuckled.
After a giggle, Pops said back to Beau, “Then why you not do that when you were young boy?”
“You got me there, Pops. I should have trusted and listened to you more back then.” After thinking about it, he added, “I always trusted you. I should have obeyed more. And by the way, thanks for the swimming lessons when I was a kid,” he added as they all laughed... until Mr. T stood up, grabbed hold of the nearby rail, and pushed the big green button.
Chapter 25
It’s Really a Mission
The two people in white jump-suits that had chased after Jahnni and her group, came to a T in their path. They stopped to talk about whether to continue to follow them.
“Olah, if we continue pursuing them, we will miss our window and fail the mission. Too much training and planning has gone into this and we can’t screw this up,” he said before adding, “it’s already been turned upside down, but I think we can salvage it. I can’t believe he was able to sabotage that pipe! No one even knew how to get down to it that I know of.”
“Come on Horvath, the guy’s psychotic,” Olah answered back. “I think our consensus is that he tossed or maneuvered a small explosive device down the fountain drain. Maybe he used a plumbing snake to drive it down far enough before it detonated. Who knows. Once we repair it, we can get out of here the long way and no one will even know we were here. I, for one, will be glad to stop schlepping bags. It’s killing my back! We don’t even have to quit in person. Leave a voicemail and let our boss know that our badges are in the mail. We can call it a, uh, family emergency. Oh, and you know, you can call me Mimi again.”
“Olah, I mean Mimi, sorry. Being back home in Hungary, training for this, and then coming back here... calling everyone by their last names becomes an old habit. Anyway, please, don’t call me Horvath either. It’s so... impersonal.” He chuckled and smiled at her. “Let’s refocus, do our job and get out.”
Mimi answered him, “You’re right Addy. Our first sideways jump from the plan was letting Perry’s goons see us. And what is with the fake gun shots over the intercom? Was he trying to... Oh wait, I get it. He was trying to create a diversion to empty the airport so he could have his goon squad get under the fountain and try to access the original pipe. Or maybe he thought they could guard it? I think their plan was interrupted, if you call it a plan that is. Real cops are guarding it now,” she said then rolled her eyes and shook her head in mock disgust. “Like we would climb backwards against the water flow in that pipe. I mean, I’m not a big person, but even I can’t climb down that pipe. He is such an imbecile. I don’t understand his thinking. If he wanted to expose a water leak so he could send someone down to investigate any concealed pipes, wouldn’t you think he could have just sent plumbers down to the exposed pipe that they already had access to?”
“I know,” Addy said, shaking his head at the simplicity of it all. “He could’ve used slab leak detection. The sound sensors would have not only picked up the leak he caused, but had he known about electromagnetic pipeline locaters and a video feed, he probably could have found all of this. Thankfully, his secrets kept him from reaching out to the professionals.”
Mimi shook her head in agreement. “Like I always say,” she added as she took a bow, “Water issues should be left to the professionals.”
“Well,” Adrian, or Addy as his friends and family called him, said, “Since he made the statement in that one security meeting about pillars and walls concealing secrets, he is either figuring something out, or he is delusional.”
Mimi said, “There’s not enough time to try to analyze him.”
After hearing Jahnni’s and the group’s voices disappear down a corridor, Addy turned back to Mimi and conceded, “You’re probably right. We weren’t hired to give psychoanalysis. Besides, Jahnni and them don’t recognize us in our gear. I’m not even sure they’ve seen us this time. They seem to be running from the sound of our footsteps and voices. Let’s get going. If we keep chasing them, they’ll think we’re doing it to catch ’em or to hurt ’em. I recognize that older man from our earlier briefings. He built all this and knows his way around. He’ll get them out, we’ll finish the mission, and hopefully someone can pin down Perry Prattle and expose him for what he is. And Jahnni, she is smart as heck. I’ve been on the airport security committee with her.”
At his own statement, he laughed heartily. “That’s funny, huh! Me, on an airport security committee. The duplicity of the situation did not go unnoticed by me! At least my motives are sincere, unlike Prattle’s.”
They moved at a measured pace, climbing the rest of the way down the metal stairs to reach the bottom platform. They arrived at the last place they saw Jahnni and the group and turned towards a different corridor than Mr. T had led the others down. Addy set out at a quick jog toward their final assignment. Mimi smiled as she ran, keeping pace next to her partner. She turned to share her thoughts with Addy, “After we weave our way to our destination and complete this task, we can get off the property.”
A few turns through the underground maze, they arrived at their entry point for their mission. They had to wait for the water to recede on the other side of the pipe wall below them before the safety mechanisms allowed them to access the hatch. When they heard the familiar click, Adrian started rolling the circular airlock. Around and around it spun until it opened. They both climbed in and Mimi turned to reverse the door mechanism to relock it before she climbed all the way down the metal stairs. They began to run along the wet floor of the pipe towards the interior.
“We only have 4 more minutes, Addy.” Mimi said with ease even though they were running.
“Yup. It’s only a minute to the next hatch from... right about... here. The water just purged through the outflow pipe, and the intake is due for a new cycle in this pipe,” he answered as they rounded another corner. “You got this. The equipment will be waiting for us at the site and ready to go. Just do what we practiced and we can be in and out. Once we seal the big leak in the pipe that feeds the fountain, we’ll come back and catch the outflow pipe to make it off the property. Finally, we’ll be able to walk away,” he said as he picked up his pace. Then he added for clarity, “I mean, swim away, from life as Ground Service Agents.”
Chapter 26
The Pieces Will Fall Where They May
Well, well. Would you look at that. I think Mr. Perry Prattle has been withholding information from us, Agent Pahlavi thought to herself. “Where is Carolyn? Have her come in here and ID someone for me,” she ordered as she looked at one of her agents. “Take someone with you, preferably female.”
“All of our female agents with the FBI are setting up their posts around the airport Ma’am.” Agent Hartford informed her.
“Then grab that Port Officer over there.” Agent Pahlavi pointed. “You know how I feel about women feeling strong-armed. I’d like her to feel comfortable with us so she’ll share as much information as possible.”
Carolyn was sitting next to the last baggage claim carousel, in the chair where she was told to wait. She was furious over the events that were playing out and was having such a difficult time controlling the rage that wanted to throttle Mr. Prattle. She had explained what information she knew, or suspected, to the officers when they gathered around her earlier.
The FBI agent and a female Port of Portland Police officer went out of the room and soon returned with Carolyn.
“Agent Pahlavi? Is everything okay? Have you found my agents, or our U.M.? Do you know what’s going on?” Carolyn rattled off, not waiting for an answer to any of the questions. Then she said, “I have something else I need to talk to you about. I just remembered something that happened during the Ho
liday party. It is probably nothing, but you might be interested.”
When Agent Pahlavi nodded, and turned to give her, her full attention, Carolyn began telling her about the time that she saw Mr. Prattle in the fountain, late on the night of the airport Holiday party.
Carolyn said, “He told me that he must have had too many drinks and he accidentally fell into one of the ponds. But what was weird and I haven’t been able to shake the mystery of it, was that after ‘falling’ into it, he climbed over the divider between the Koi pond and Salmon pond and then squatted down or bent over in the Salmon pond like he was looking for something. The fountain was turned off, which I thought was strange. He started to climb up the fountain, where the water normally flows down, when he saw me watching him and slid down into the trout pond. He laughed it off of course, saying that his watch fell in the water and he was looking for it. I laughed just because it was a strange encounter, but he seemed to be faking being drunk. I mean, at the time, I thought he was faking it. I was at the same party and I didn’t see him drinking alcohol at all. In fact, alcohol isn’t served at the Port’s Holiday party. Not to mention, that would not be acceptable for the Port Manager to be imbibing.”
“I didn’t think the fountain was ever turned off,” Pahlavi queried.
“Well, it never was, as far as I know,” Carolyn answered. “The entire courtyard was cordoned off and the lights were off. It was very late and there are only a couple flights that come in that late. Everything is closed except for the one or two gates that these late flights come into. So, it wasn’t too odd that the lights were off in the food court. I only saw him as I was walking by the big window and I wondered why everything was cordoned off. I also could see that the fountain lights were not on. I walked around the cones and yellow tape out to the courtyard and called his name. I was confused and thought he might be in some type of trouble or something. It was just so very strange.”
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