Kate started to pull her shirt off but stopped. “Can you, um.”
David smiled. “We’re not in middle school.”
Kate turned her head, trying to decide what to say.
David seemed to remember something. “Oh, right. The scar.” He spun around, knelt, and began sorting through some boxes in the bottom of the cabinet.
“How did you—”
David took out a gun and a few boxes of ammo. “The drugs.”
Kate flushed. What had she said? Done? For some reason the idea terrified her, and she wished desperately that she could remember. “Did I, or we—”
“Relax, outside the gratuitous violence, it was a very PG evening. Is it safe for kids again?”
Kate pulled the shirt on. “And immature soldiers.”
David seemed to ignore the jab. He rose and held a box out to her — another carton meal. Kate read the letters MRE: Meals Ready to Eat. “Hungry?”
Kate eyed the box — bbq chicken with black beans and potatoes. “Not that hungry.”
“Suit yourself.” He peeled the plastic film back, plopped down at the metal desk, and began devouring the cold food with the included spork. He must have only heated the meal yesterday for her sake.
Kate sat on the cot opposite him and pulled on the sneakers he had laid out for her. “Hey, I don’t know if I’ve said it before, but I wanted to… say thank you for…”
David stopped shuffling the papers and forced down the bite he’d been chewing. He didn’t glance back at Kate. “Don’t mention it. Just doing my job.”
Kate tied her shoes. Just doing his job. Why did the answer seem so… unfulfilling?
David shoved the last of the papers in a folder and handed it to her. “This is all I have on the people who took your children. You’ll have time to read it on the way.”
Kate opened the folder and began reading the papers. There must be 50 pages. “On the way to where?”
David wolfed down a few more bites. “Check out the top page. It’s the latest cryptic communication from a source inside Immari. Someone I’ve been communicating with for about a week now.”
Kate took out the paper and read the message.
—————
30,88. 81,86.
03-12-2013
10:45:00
#44
33-23-15
Cut the Power. Save my kids.
—————
Kate put the paper back in the folder. “I don’t understand.”
“The first part is a set of GPS coordinates; looks like an abandoned train station in Western China. The second part is obviously a time, probably a departure time for a train. Not sure about the middle part, but my guess is it’s a locker in the station with the combination. I’m assuming it will have some kind of further message. It’s unclear whether the kids will be at this train station or if it’s just another clue. Or I could be misreading it. It could be another code or mean something different. I had a partner who decoded all the earlier messages.”
“Can you consult him?”
David finished the last bite, tossed the spork in the tray, and gathered up the items he’d pulled from the cabinet. “No, unfortunately I can’t. I assume the time is Jakarta local; if so, we have about four hours to get there.”
Kate closed the folder. “Western China? No way.”
“We’ll see. One step at a time. First we find out if they left any troops upstairs. Ready?”
Kate nodded, then followed him up the stairs, where he told her to wait while he swept the cottage.
“It’s clear. Hopefully they moved on. Stay close to me.”
They jogged from the cottage, in the thin underbrush along a dirt road that showed no signs of use. The road ended in a cul-de-sac with four large blue warehouses, also clearly abandoned years ago. David led Kate to the second warehouse, where he pulled a piece of the corrugated sheet metal wall out, exposing a triangular hole just big enough for Kate.
“Crawl in.”
Kate started to protest but, remembering his one demand, she complied without a word. For reasons she couldn’t understand, she tried not to get her knees in the mud, but she couldn’t quite fit. David seemed to sense her dilemma, and he strained harder at the metal flange, giving Kate enough space to squeeze through comfortably.
David followed her inside, then unlocked and rolled the building’s doors open, revealing the warehouse’s hidden “treasure”.
It was a plane, but just barely. And an odd one — a sea plane, the type Kate imagined people used to get to remote areas in Alaska… in the 1950s. It probably wasn’t that old, but it was old. It had four seats inside and two large propellers on each wing. She would probably have to turn one, like Amelia Earhart. If it would even turn on and — if he could fly it. She watched as David took the tarp off the tail and kicked the blocks from beneath the wheels.
Back at the cottage, he had said “no questions,” but she had to. “You can fly this thing, right?” Kate asked.
He stopped, shrugged slowly and looked at her as if he had been caught trying to get away with something. “Ah, well, generally.”
“Generally?”
CHAPTER 47
Immari Corporate Jet
Somewhere over the Southern Atlantic Ocean
Dorian watched Naomi finish the last of her martini, then stretch out on the long couch on the opposite side of the plane. The white terry cloth robe fell to her side, revealing her plump br**sts, which rose and receded at a dwindling rate as her breathing slowed like a contented cat who had just gorged itself on some prey. She licked the last drops of the martini off her fingers and ran her right hand down her chest and then the rest of the length of her olive torso, finally coming to rest at her white lace panties — her only article of clothing. She fingered the small strip of lace that joined the small patches of cloth at her front and rear. Dorian thought she would continue, but instead, she sat up and propped herself up on her elbow. “Are you ready again?”
She was insatiable. And coming from him, that was saying something. Dorian picked up the phone, “Not just yet.”
Naomi made a half pout and flopped back onto the couch.
Dorian held his hand over the receiver. “But wait on me.”
Naomi threw her head back against the leather couch but said nothing.
On the line, Dorian heard the communications officer on the plane say, “Yes sir?”
“Connect me to the China Facility.”
“Immari Shanghai?”