Guilty Until Proven Innocent

by L S Barron

  Becca had two days to set her plan in motion before the rally. She needed to find someone on the streets to be her accomplice. She figured one of the poorer young men in the neighborhood would be perfect for what she needed. Now all she had to do was go out and find the right young man, but looking down on the neighborhood made that idea seem a little more difficult than she had imagined.

  Becca made her way down to the neighborhood square. She decided to hang out on one of the benches and just watch the activities of the day. There were two young men, one she guessed was about eighteen and the other a couple of years younger. They looked enough alike she thought they were probably brothers. They were both slender boys with very worn clothing. They seemed to be asking around for work or handouts from the locals. Becca figured they were possibly on their own. She decided they would be her accomplices.

  She walked over to the boys and asked “Would you two like to join me for a mid afternoon lunch?” They looked at her as if to see if she was just messing with them or if she was serious. So she reaffirmed her offer by asking “I’m one of the new nurses for the clinic across the street. I was hoping some local boys like you two could show me a good place to eat, and I will pay, of course.” She hoped that they spoke english and luckily they did. The older boy said “Yes, Yes, We will show you.”

  The two boys, who introduced themselves as David and Daniel, took Becca to a nice little local restaurant. Once they were seated and given menus, Becca could see that the boys were trying to gage what they could politely order. She smiled at David, the oldest, and said “My French is not very good. I have no idea what these dishes are, why don’t you order for all of us.” So he graciously and proudly ordered the lunch for the three of them. They enjoyed a nice local dish of Boeuf A L’Haitenne, red beans and rice, plantains, and a round of cokes to the boys delight.

  Becca learned a lot about the boys over lunch. They had been left on their own after their parents disappeared several years ago. They were basically homeless, but got some help from an aunt and uncle every once in awhile. David had made sure that Daniel stayed in school while he worked any jobs he could find. He told Becca that sometimes things were okay and sometimes things were tough, with now being one of those tough times. Becca asked the boys if they knew the priest from their neighborhood that was going to run for president. They did and both seemed to like the man. David said “He is a priest from our neighborhood church and he is for the people not the military. I will vote for him.” As Becca listened to the boys stories, she knew they would be the right ones for the job.

  Both boys were interested in making some money working for Becca. She wasn’t sure what to tell them so she gave them part of the truth. She figured no one would believe them if they said anything, but she did convey to them that it was in secret that they work for her. She told them that they would be like unsung heroes, which seemed to really interest them both. She told them that there would be an attempt on the priest’s life at the rally and she needed their help in creating a diversion to thwart off the killer or killers. What she really needed was an excuse for herself not to be able to complete the mission, but the boys didn’t need to know that part.

  Their first task was to buy Becca some items on a list that she needed and deliver it to her by this evening at the square. She knew that with her GPS tracking implant, she herself could never go roaming throughout the town without suspicion. Therefore, she gave David some money to buy the things on the list, and told him “Don’t just take off with the money, the money I pay you when the tasks are completed will be substantially more than what I give you now.” He promised her that they would complete their tasks. She smiled and said “Remember, top secret”. She figured two teenage boys would love a top secret adventure.

  By nine o’clock that evening the boys had returned with everything on the list. David even pulled the extra change out of his pocket to give to Becca. She smiled at the honesty shown by such a poor kid, but waved off the money telling him to keep the change. They were full of questions. “What did she want them to do next? What was she going to do with all these items? Daniel asked, along with a never ending line of questions. Becca laughed and said “Patience my young apprentice, I want you to meet me here in the morning. We will go to breakfast and I will give you the next instructions then.” She turned to David and gave him a Twenty and said “to hold you over until tomorrow.” They both thanked Becca as they turned and walked away. She could only imagine the dreams they would have tonight.

  Becca took the bags back to her room and laid everything out on the bed. To her surprise the boys had found everything on the list. They obviously knew what local stores had fireworks, hardware, and sporting goods. On the bed was everything that she needed to cause a diversion and hopefully the cancellation of the priest’s speech tomorrow night at the rally. There were two canisters of tennis balls, ten packages of commercial smoke bombs, two liter plastic bottles, aluminum foil, toilet cleaner containing hydrochloric acid and bleach, a packet of potassium perchlorate, two lighters, duct tape, and a pocket knife. These were the perfect ingredients to make two loud percussion bombs and six large smoke bombs. Becca spent the rest of the evening making her homemade bombs and praying that it would be enough to disrupt the rally tomorrow night.

  David and Daniel showed up exactly on time and raring to go. Becca carried two bags of her special items and as she approached the boys, she could see that their interest had peaked. She laughed “after Breakfast.” They enjoyed a nice breakfast at a little local restaurant. It was good even if Becca thought eating a spaghetti dish with some kind of hotdog for breakfast was a little strange. Once Becca was sure no one was listening to them she said “Now, lets get down to business.” Becca would go on to explain each of their parts in the plan to disrupt the rally. Daniel would be in charge of lighting and discharging the tennis ball smoke bombs throughout the rally square and David would be in charge of setting off the percussion explosions. She gave both boys specific instructions on how to set off each charge. The tennis balls were harmless, only needing the fuse to be lit. The percussion explosions were a little more dangerous. Becca specifically instructed David that the toilet cleaner could not be added until the very last minute. She made sure that David understood that even though these charges were largely harmless they still shouldn’t be placed right next to someone. After Becca was sure the boys were comfortable in their tasks she said “Remember, no one gets hurt, try not to be seen, and don’t get caught.” David laughed and said “Don’t worry, nobody ever pays attention to us, it’s like we’re invisible.” Becca smiled at the two, even though she found David’s comment kind of sad. She then handed David a sealed envelope and told him it was not to be opened until their tasks were completed and they were safe. She said “It is instructions on where to collect your pay, but it will only be in place once your work is complete,” which wasn’t actually true the money was already in the envelope. She wanted to make sure the boys got paid even if something went wrong. Then on a parting note she said “Good luck and remember this may save your priest’s life.”

  Now all Becca had to do was sit in her hotel room and hope that the boys pulled it off. She hoped it would be enough to scare away the priest from the rally site. A group of people worked all day in the square getting things ready for the rally. They even erected a makeshift stage for the guest speaker. Finally, people were starting to gather in the neighborhood square. Becca had her rifle out and ready to go, just incase, but she prayed that she would not need it. She felt more nervous about this mission than the last two. It was easier to kill corrupt people by blowing up drug labs than it was to look down a barrel and shoot a man directly, especially a priest.

  The crowd had grown to a huge amount of people, when finally three nice black sedans pulled up the street. She knew this was him, no one in this neighborhood would be driving cars like that. She turned off the lights in her room so she could watch out the window without being seen. It was getting fairly
dark out now, but the square was lit up making it easy to see the stage that had been set up. Becca felt nauseous as she thought “I hope the boys are ready and I sure hope they don’t get caught, I kind of liked the two of them.”

  The sound of the crowd arose to an unbelievable level of cheers. Becca knew the time was at hand. As she had her rifle pointed out the open window she thought “What if I have to take this shot, I have no escape planned. Oh shit, maybe I’m suppose to be the fall guy for this one.” As Becca realized her only out now was for the diversion to work.

  As she focused through the scope of the rifle she could see several men in dark suits start to get out and surround one of the three vehicles. She figured that these men were most likely carrying weapons and hoped the boys would be okay. Now her mind started to race “come on, come on.” Then as the back door of the third car was opening up, “Kaboom” the window even rattled a little bit with the loud percussion of the explosion. “Yes! yes, bring it on boys,” she thought while she tried to refocus through the scope. Now at least two of the tennis smoke bomb had been lit into the crowd and boy did they smoke. “Kaboom” the second explosion went off and now Becca laid down the rifle and just watched out the window. She could see people panicking and starting to flee the area. More and more smoke filled the neighborhood square and gave Becca the excuse she needed for a failed mission. “Can’t see a thing now,” Becca chuckled to herself. Finally, she could see the lights of the vehicles turning down the street and away from the square. It had worked.

  All’s Well That Ends Well

  Maybe not for the CIA, but for Becca it ended well. She had got out of the mission and no one was suspect of her actions, except for maybe Jack. He knew Becca had pulled something off, but wasn’t sure how and he wasn’t about to say anything. He was actually kind of proud that she had probably pulled one over on the CIA.

  After the chaos in Haiti and the temporary retreat of the priest from public venues, the CIA had changed their plans for the issues in Haiti at this time. They were not at all pleased with Becca’s mission and one of their agents interviewed her as to what had happened the night of the rally. They even retraced Becca’s whereabouts via her GPS to map out where and at what times she may have been places, but found that she could not have been involved in that night’s event. They finally decided that one of the local Haitian gangs must have been responsible for the incident. Becca was glad that the CIA had changed their plans in Haiti, she definitely didn’t want to go back to complete the task.

  The next day, during training back at the compound, Jack asked her “How did you do it?” She just smiled and said “Do what?” He just smiled and shook his head at her and said “Alright, lets get back to it then.” Officer Brady had walked up to the two of them in the courtyard reporting to Jack that he had the new training site ready. He had been working on two new mock buildings in the explosive training yard. Becca perked up as she said “more explosives training?” Officer Brady and Jack just looked at her as if not knowing what to say and then both of them broke out into laughter. Jack said “I’ve never had a recruit who liked to blow things up as much as you. You sure you weren’t some mad bomber in another life?” Becca laughed “don’t think so, but I could be one in this life.” Jack walked away from Becca and Officer Brady, shaking his head.

  Officer Brady, Becca and James would spend the next several days working on technical explosives work. This was the first demolitions training for James. Becca could tell that James was really nervous about setting explosives. She had seen him on the shooting range and he was extremely good with a handgun, but his skills were limited to that. James asked Becca when he was new to the program “What’s to keep one of us from just shooting everyone during shooting practise?” She laughed and said “Pay attention next time you’re at the gun range to the red laser dot on your chest coming from the guard towers.” She wondered what had made James turn away from a chance at college and go for the gang life instead. He seemed like such a nice guy, other than the fact that shooting everyone had crossed his mind, and she found she felt kind of sorry for the guy.

  The new mock buildings were concrete prison cells with dummies inside and Becca’s task in one building was to blow off the back wall without killing the dummies. In the other building her task was to blow open just a hole in the wall by using linear-shaped cutting charges. Scott was there helping them with the technology aspect of the training. The only bad part was they only had so many tries before the mock buildings were destroyed. So after a couple of days the buildings were all but gone so that part of the training was done for now.

  Becca went on with her regular training as usual, along with everyone else. There had been no missions handed out this week, so the atmosphere was pretty relaxed. However, at the end of the week Jack had been called into the CIA headquarters. Everyone knew what that meant. Neither James nor Levi had been called yet to do a mission so everyone figured one of them would be up next. Even though it made Becca feel a little guilty she hoped that it wasn’t a mission that needed a woman again. She actually wasn’t ready yet to do another mission.

  Jack had made it back by the next day and everyone awaited his news. Everyone was gathered at dinner by the time Jack made his way into the dining room. Jack was not one to beat around the bush so he got right to it, “Scott and James, you guys are up. It’s Afghanistan again. Seems the CIA’s aid to the Mujahideen has caused some split cells of fighters and at least one group is seen as a up and coming threat.” He went on to explain that the military is now concentrating on actions needed to liberate Kuwait from Iraq. It seems the once supported Saddam Hussein has also now become a threat. This meant more help was needed in Afghanistan from our program. Becca knew that the CIA had supported Saddam Hussein in the 80’s with his invasion of Iran. She thought to herself “Good thing for the CIA, or we would be out of a job.” As she chuckled she looked up to see Jack glaring at her once again just like he knew what she was thinking.

  That night was a peaceful night for Becca. While she felt scared for Scott and James, but at the same time she was relieved that she got out of this mission. The next morning when she headed to breakfast, she found only Kai, Levi, and Officer Brady. The others had already left making it kind of eerily quiet.

  Mail Call

  While Scott and James were gone the rest of the group went about training as usual. Within a few days Jack had returned and reported that Scott and James had gotten off with no problems. Becca was glad to see Jack was back. She realized that she had become quite attracted to Jack, but she knew in her heart that she had no chance to be with this man. She wondered if Jenna, the woman she supposedly killed, was still alive at all. “What if she really did kill herself and her son just to set me up? Maybe she is not out there somewhere living a secret life like I had hoped. Maybe the idea that she will be caught someday is just a ruse to give myself hope,” she thought.

  Jack had stopped by the main prison on his way home. He had collected all the mail for us, like he did from time to time. Sad thing was, there usually wasn’t much mail to go around. Becca usually had a letter from her older brother, Thomas who lived in Alaska. Sometimes she had a letter from one or two of her other brothers, but she didn’t expect it on a normal basis. It didn’t upset her though, she knew they weren’t the writing kind of guys and she knew that they were all busy now with their own families and lives. Anyway, Thomas kept her updated on all the family. Sometimes she got something from her father if she hadn’t got to visit with him.

  Kai, as far as Becca knew never got any mail. Becca always wondered what his background story was but was afraid to ask. It seemed Kai had been emotionally messed up since Becca had joined the program so she didn’t want to pry into something that maybe wasn’t good. On the other hand there was Levi. Levi always had a large stack of mail. He either had a lot of good friends or a large family. Jack put the mail for Scott and James in a bin on the kitchen counter. Becca was watching Jack as he set their mail in the
bin and when he turned and saw the look on her face, he said “Don’t worry, they will both be back to get their mail.” She smiled and sat down at the table to open the little bit of mail she had. She had both a letter from Thomas and her father. Their letters were always simple and light hearted. Becca found them to always raise her spirits, even if she did miss being out there with them.

  As Becca put down the two letters, she noticed a third piece of mail. It was a postcard marked West St. Paul, MN. It said only one thing, “Hope you’re living the life you so well deserve. Things are great for me.” Becca could feel anger raging inside and her hand began to shake. She knew exactly who this was from. She knew that Jenna wouldn’t be able to keep from gloating. It was definitely her. Jack could see Becca’s reaction from across the table and asked her “Something wrong? You don’t look so good.” Becca looked up at Jack glaring at him with a fierce look in her eye. “Whoa” He said. “What has you so fired up?”