Department of Student Loans, Kidnap & Ransom
Page 8
*****
Mick walked out of the bathroom after showering and found Ally wide awake. She was sitting up in the bed, staring at the painting again. She took one long breath and then exhaled slowly. Only glancing briefly at Mick she asked “Can you be ready to go in ten minutes?”
It wasn’t a question or a request. So Mick answered in the affirmative.
Ally grabbed the paper notepad on the table and wrote ‘You can keep this’ in Spanish. She placed it next to her gun and her phone.
“Mick, scrub your phone and leave it here.”
Mick went into his phone settings and, after confirming several voice recognition passphrases, deleted all his data. Slightly bemused, he asked “You think the cleaning lady will appreciate the gun?”
“Probably. I paid $1200 for it.”
Ally then wrote a second note and placed it under her gun. It read ‘I paid $1200 for this. You can get at least $600 for it.’
“So you are now some sort of weaponized humanitarian hand-out organization for oppressed Central American cleaning ladies?” Mick asked with a smile and a joking tone.
Ally smiled back, but only a little. She found Mick somewhat less annoying. But Mick had another, more serious, question.
“Your gun is empty. What happened to all the bullets?”
“I put them all in the guy that shot Liz.”
Ally didn’t add any details, leaving Mick to wonder how she tracked him down in only a few hours. He also thought about how that scenario would have played out: Ally going straight to a guy who, when last seen, was carrying a Kalashnikov, and then killing him. The guy was, as far as Mick could figure, some sort of kidnap or hit team specialist. And Ally’s first thought was to immediately chase the guy down in an unfamiliar town. She was continually rising in his estimation. He was now confident that she knew what she was doing and that she was his best chance for survival.