by L S Barron
She snuck around to the south end of the prisoners cell and placed a breaching charge on the south wall, setting the timer for 4:00 am. She looked around at the front of the cell and noticed there were no guards. “If I only knew where the keys were this would be easy,” but then she thought “Ah, it’s better to blow stuff up,” chuckling a little. She heard a voice whisper from inside the cell “Is that you?” Becca didn’t know if the cell was being watched so from the corner she whispered “Ya, make sure you’re ready. The actions about to start.” As she snuck around the back to get to her next objective she could hear one of the marines say “I think it’s a woman,” in a surprised voice. Becca thought to herself “That’s right, it is a woman who is going to save your butts.”
Becca had made her way to one of the buildings where she had hidden many of her needed items. As she rounded the back corner she ran right into one of the armed men from the camp. He paused for a moment as Becca stood there looking into his eyes. She knew he was going to grab for the gun strapped around his shoulder and she shook her head as if to tell him “No. Don’t!” He then made a move for his gun and Becca not wanting to cause any attention by unwanted gunshots, knew she would have to use her hand to hand combat skills. “It’s him or me,” she thought as she punched the man as hard as she could with an upward blow to his trachea. As the man stepped back stunned by Becca’s actions, she grabbed his wrist and gave it a twist while forcing her other arm down against his elbow as hard as she could muster. She could hear it snap as the man dropped to his knees. Without any hesitation she grabbed his rifle and twisted it behind his back while the strap tightened around his neck. She continued to tighten the strap as her adrenaline took over. She stood there over the man’s body and finally realized he lay there lifeless. She dropped the twisted strap to the ground and stood back to regain her thoughts. She could feel tears run down her face as she knew this man was dead by her hands. She knew that her explosions most likely had and would kill people, but it wasn’t the same as doing it like this.
After dragging the body further around the back side of the building, she took just a moment to remember what she was doing. She then grabbed a bag of fertilizer and a container of fuel that she had hidden and made her way to the building that housed the drug lab. There was a waste drum on the side of the building that she poured the fertilizer into along with the fuel. She placed a charge on the barrel and set the timer for 3:55 am. She wanted this charge to go off first and hopefully draw the attention of the guards to that area. She hoped the extra homemade explosives, along with whatever chemicals were inside the drug lab would make for a bigger blast. She also set a charge on the opposite side of the building.
Next up was the headquarters building. She grabbed her last hidden bag of fertilizer and container of fuel and made her way to building. She needed a confined container for the homemade mixture so she had to make her way back to one of the housing building. She grabbed a laundry tote off of one of the porches and brought it back to the headquarter building. She was amazed at how easily she was sneaking around and told herself “What did Scott call me? Oh ya, SAAS, stealthy as a shadow.”
Becca set up her homemade explosives using the fertilizer and the fuel and scooted it under the raised building, close to one of the supporting stilts. She added some C-4. She then set a one more charge on the opposite side. Both were set for 4:00 am. The next step would be her trickiest yet. She slid herself under the building to the area she thought was the money room. She placed a linear charge in a square along the flooring. She set the charge for 3:59 am. Her hope was that she would drop the floor of the money room to the ground at just one minute before destroying the rest of the building. Her plan was to load up the one duffle bag she had left with money from the site, if it survived the blast.
Becca checked her watch and cut the fence behind the headquarters building. She slipped out into the jungle and walked down along the fence about fifty yards until she could get a clear view of the prison cell. She looked down at her watch and saw that it read 3:50 am. She found a place she could lie flat on the ground as to avoid any debris that might come from the blasts and she waited. The minutes seemed to take forever to pass, until click, 3:55 rolled over. The first blast on the drug lab building was extraordinary and there were several internal blasts to follow that Becca figured were from the chemicals stored in that particular building. Becca thought that it was a tremendous and wonderful sight.
The chaos then began. Becca could hear men scurrying from everywhere. She heard someone say “estamos siendo atacados!” That’s right she though “You are in fact being attacked.” She also could hear several of the men saying “Proteje el dinero!” and that’s what she was hoping for. She wanted to draw the men away from the prison building and hoped they would gather at the headquarters building.
The plan had worked. The drug lab was still putting on a good fireworks show. All of the men and the chaos had been diverted away from the prisoners. Becca threw one of her smoke grenades over the fence hoping to cause a smoke screen between the men and the prison building. She threw it easily hoping it would just roll out into the open area between the buildings, and it did.
Her watch clicked over to 3:59 as she ducked and covered her head, just incase. “Kaboom” the linear charges had gone off, hopefully sending the money to the ground. Then came 4:00. The other explosions went off and as planned the Headquarters building exploded, with the added homemade mixture covering the sound of the small explosion on the prison cell. Becca watched through the smoke until she saw the silhouettes of three men scurrying out the side of the prison building. She watched the men duck behind the southernmost building as they had been instructed.
After feeling the three marines were safely on their way, Becca turned her thoughts to the money. She made her way through the edge of the jungle back up the fence line to the back of headquarters building. As she peered through the foliage she could see that there were indeed bundles of money that had survived and lay amongst the rumble. She went to take a step out of the cover of the jungle, when she heard several voices. There were still a lot of men chaotically running around the area. “What are you doing?” she thought. She did have the money Jack had left her and also just happened to know where some gold was buried in the jungles of Guatemala. She also had a passport and I.D. that would make her new name Ana Maria Alexandria Hernandez. “Thats a nice name for someone living in Panama,” she thought.
As she was debating if that was enough money she remembered that she still had the GPS chip in her pocket. She pulled it out and crushed it the best she could. She looked down at it as if to say goodbye, laughed and threw it over the fence and into the burning rubble. She knew the CIA wouldn’t risk looking for a body, especially one as unimportant as hers. She looked back again at the bundles of money and thought “You know it’s just not worth it. Lots of people have died over the greed of money and I’m not going be one of them.” She turned away from the camp, turned on her GPS to coordinates N8 59.6553 and W79 31.1175 and disappeared into the jungle.
Epilogue
Ana Maria stepped outside the little coffee shop as she opened the door and turned the store sign to read Abierto. She glanced up and down the street as if she was expecting to find someone watching, but there was no one around. The bustle of the morning city traffic had not yet started for the day. It was peaceful early in the morning before the city life started up. Ana could hear some seagulls in the distance and could feel the ocean air against her face. She loved this time of day, the quiet before the city would come to life.
Roberto had already got to work in the kitchen and Ana could smell the wonderful aroma of fresh baked pastries as she turned to go back into the little coffee shop. It was a quaint shop on the corner of Calle 6 and Avenida B. Oro Perdido Coffeeshop was the name on the front window of the shop that was located in the historic Casco Viejo neighborhood in Panama City.
Ana had purchased the shop and the apartment above for what s
he thought was a great price just six months ago. Ana had no problem finding a reliable young baker, Roberto to help with the new shop. Rosa, Roberto’s wife also helped everyday as the barista. The locals accepted Ana quickly as one of their own and of course the local single men were excited to have a new single woman in the neighborhood. However, they seemed to find her very quiet and mysterious. Even though nobody had asked yet about her past, she knew that sooner or later they would ask, but for now she liked being the mysterious one.
The little coffee shop was doing quite well. It seemed as though tourism was picking up for the historic neighborhood and with Ana’s North American touch, the shop was very popular, not only with the locals but with the new tourists as well. Ana, since she was supposedly from Colombia, claimed her North American touch came from her studying at the University in Colorado, which was partially true. She had turned the back area of the coffee shop into a cosy sitting room. It had comfortable leather chairs and a loveseat that surrounded an old antique coffee table. She even left out books on the coffee table for patrons to read if they so wanted. She designed it in away, but not on purpose, that ended up reminding her of the Program’s prison lounge. She didn’t mind though and often wondered if Jack would ever find his way here. It was Jack’s money after all that had allowed her to purchase the shop to begin with. Of course, there was the “lost gold” too, which actually wasn’t lost anymore.
Ana had recovered it as one of her first objectives when she disappeared from The Program. With her GPS coordinates she had no problems locating the area where she had left the buried suitcase full of the gold bullion. When she found the site, she was amazed that no one had been around lately and the old crash site was fully grown over and hardly recognizable. With the money that Jack had left her on her last mission, she didn’t have to cash in any of the gold bullion and it was hidden in a false wall that Ana had built in her apartment closet. To Ana it was her own hidden treasure, holding more of a sentimental value to her.
After the chaos of the morning coffee rush, Ana left Rosa in charge of the shop and went for her usual walk to the local street market. She loved being able to get fresh produce and fish any day of the week. She only bought what she needed each day. Ana liked to keep her life simple and only kept around the bare necessities. She already had got to know all of the local vendors and stopped along her walk to talk to each of them. The short walk down to the market seemed to take Ana several hours by the time each of her new friends got to tell her the days gossip. She found the locals gossip to be a little ridiculous, but it was entertaining if anything.
After her daily stroll and visits she made her way back to her apartment that was located above the shop. The building was a quintessential example of sixteenth century Spanish colonial architecture. The outside was a lemon yellow color with a small balcony off the second floor. Ana thought the balcony doors and iron fence reminded her of buildings she had seen in New Orleans once when she was young. The architecture of the area, even though mainly Spanish had a hint of French influences. Ana’s apartment was a very plain two bedroom apartment, but it was cosy and clean. Ana prided herself on how quaint she had made her little home. It was easy for her to fall in love with the area and make it her home.
At the base of the stairs in the back of the coffee shop was Ana’s laundry room. It was already full of items she now found necessary. Against the far wall was a small one person kayak. It was old and used but was all she needed. Against the same wall was a surfboard. It was also used, but since Ana was still trying to learn this new sport she figured used was good enough. There was also a boogie board and a bin that was full of snorkel gear and fins. Leaning against the opposite wall was an old Town and Country bike. She didn’t own a car and found the bike a great way to get around if going anywhere outside of the neighborhood. These were all of Ana’s recreational items. She had always been a good swimmer and found that the ocean made a great playground and she was bound and determined to enjoy every bit of her time.
Ana threw her fresh fish in the refrigerator and laid the fresh vegetables on the counter. Later she would hopefully make a good dinner out of them, but now she had to head back downstairs to make sure all was good with the coffeeshop. Roberto had already finished for the day and the bakery was cleaned up and ready for tomorrow morning. Rosa was cleaning up the counters as Ana came down to ask her how things went. There were only two patrons left sitting in the lounge area finishing up their coffees and the last of the pastries left from breakfast. Ana helped Rosa finish cleaning up as it was nearing closing time. The shop only stayed open until three in the afternoon because of lack of enough business after those hours. Ana would close even earlier but a lot of the local shopkeepers closed their business after lunch for “siesta” and instead of taking a nap they liked to come for afternoon coffee and dessert. Ana didn’t mind though, it was good for business and she was getting to know all the locals better that way.
Life for Ana was going as good as she could expect. There wasn’t much more she could have wanted with her life except for one thing, not knowing what happened with her family and Jack. She had always wondered what excuse the Colorado governor had used to explain her death. She wondered if Jack would ever try to find her. “Maybe he really didn’t feel the same way about her as she did him,” she often thought. She also felt badly about what her father may have been told. Ana was hopeful that Jack would have secretly insured her father that there could still be hope of Becca’s chance of being alive. This was the only thing still keeping Ana from a truly happy life.
So life would go on for Ana. Many local single men would show interest in courting her, but she would decline each as she still felt no interest in a new love life yet. Each morning she would step out to open the coffee shop’s door and look up and down the street hoping to find someone, someone specific.
It had now been one year since her disappearance. The coffee shop was doing extremely well. Ana had even hired one more employee to help Rosa in the mornings. Cristina was Robert and Rosa’s cousin. She was a young charismatic lady who was just out of highschool. She was a very pretty lady and was popular with the young men in the area. This broadened the coffee shop’s clientele list to include the younger and up and coming crowd from the neighborhood. Ana didn’t mind, though she thought by hiring the popular Cristina she was going to have to hire another employee just to keep up with the new crowd.
Ana liked listening to the group of young adults that now frequented the shop. They talked of changes and new events in the world. They seemed to keep up with the new computer technology that was now flooding the world. The latest talk was of the program on the internet that was allowing them to search just about anything they wanted. They called it “Google”. This caught Ana’s interest. She wondered if she could search for news in Colorado. After talking with one of Cristina’s young friends, she found out that the library had two computers that were connected to the internet and were now using this Google program. Ana was a little leary of the CIA’s potential to spy on such programs, but she decided that if she was careful she could look up some things on the internet without being noticed.
After closing up the shop, Ana decided to head down to the local library. She found one the computers open and decided to give it a go. After a little help from the librarian, Ana was on her way to search for the information she had so longingly been yearning to know. She figured she could look at the Rocky Mountain newspaper archives without the CIA noticing. “This is such a vast amount of information, how could the CIA ever track everything anyway?” she reasoned.
Ana found that her story, or rather Becca’s story had made the Colorado news. Of course, this didn’t contain any news of the Program nor any hint of anything even comparable. However, the story of Jenna being found alive and of the wrongful imprisonment of young Becca had been big news. It seemed very surreal to Ana to read about her own life. As Ana read on she found that Becca had apparently been quarantined, explaining her unavai
lability to the public, and had later died of bacterial meningitis. “How sad,” Ana first thought but then after realizing how funny that really was, she justed cracked up. The librarian finally leaned over her desk and gave Ana a big “shh”. Ana read on and found that Jenna had been convicted and was now the one serving time in prison. Ana wanted to laugh at that too, but kept it to herself this time. After reading the news article at least three times, Ana decided that was enough. She wanted to search for news of her father but decided not to risk it, just incase the CIA was watching somehow. “Maybe another day” she told herself.
It seemed weird to Ana to finally know what had happened back in Colorado. She spent several days distracted from the thoughts of what it must have been like for her family and friends. Her mind wondered how she would have felt to see Jenna brought to justice, but she finally told herself “Enough! You’re going to drive yourself crazy with all these thoughts.” So at that point she decided to let it all go and once and for all get on with her life.
It had been almost two weeks since Ana’s discovery. She had done what she had told herself she would do, and had moved on from the news she had learned. It was a beautiful spring morning when Ana commenced with her daily routine. She stepped out onto the sidewalk after opening the little coffee shop’s doors and looked down the street as usual. This time was different though. There was a man walking her direction about two blocks down the street. It wasn’t unusual to see people out and about sometimes in the morning, but this man was not a local. Ana thought he was probably an American because of his light skin, bigger physical build, and by the fashion of his clothes. For a moment she thought of Jack, but this man had no marine haircut, but had long wavy light brown hair that reached the collars of his shirt. She couldn’t see the details of his face, but thought that he might be pretty cute. He had the same build as Jack, but as the man walked down the sidewalk with his jacket slung over his shoulder he looked like some guy out of GQ magazine and not an ex navy seal. “Maybe he’ll come this way,” she hoped. As she turned to go back inside the shop she tried to sneak in one more glimpse of the stranger. “Nice,” she mumbled as she stepped back into the shop. “Becca!” she heard before the door closed.