“Do you know what the truck looked like?” Evan asked, pulling out a pad of paper and handing it to Creed. “Draw it.”
“I’m no artist but,” his hands moved easily across the paper and before long, he’d drawn a side view of a truck and its twenty-six foot trailer. “It’s all white except for one red stripe down each side that has the phrase in German, ‘Zuverl?ssiger Transport’ imbedded in the line.”
His hands drew what he was saying making the image even more helpful.
“What does that mean?”
“It translates to Reliable Transport. They must be a local company,” Gavil offered
Evan looked to Alik. The brothers’ silent exchange ended with Alik standing abruptly. “I’ll get my laptop. Maybe I can find the company online.”
“Okay,” Margo walked over to them having patted her face dry of tears. “So let’s assume we can sneak onto a truck and get into the compound. Then what?”
Meg watched her mother lift her beautiful human chin with determination. Her sharp eyes and brilliant mind had shifted to soldier mode, and Meg was thankful for it. Truth be told, she envied her mother’s ability to do that. She wished she could compartmentalize her emotions to deal with them when it was appropriate and not feel so ruled by them all the time.
Meg listened to people around her plot and plan. After three hours, several internet searches, one interesting conversation with Greg Burns and a lot of notes, they had a plan. Well, as much a plan as was going to happen that night.
Each of them was assigned specific tasks so they could accomplish all they needed to do in this short period. Meg looked around the room at the people willing to fight to the death alongside her and felt an overwhelming sense of strength in their unity.
This time, they were going to put Williams on the defensive. All of them were sick of running, hiding and living in fear. He crossed too many lines.
And now, Meg thought. He’s holding my unborn children hostage? No. I refuse to let him do that to me or them. It was time to end him.
The tentative plans started to take a more defined shape as they worked. Germany was seven hours ahead of Dallas, Texas time, so it was 7pm Tuesday here, 2am Wednesday there.
They had forty-two hours.
Chapter 36 Filling in the Blanks
The household retired to their rooms after dinner, most with the intent to study their part of the plan—committing it to memory. They were planning to meet again at 9pm to be sure no one had questions that had come up during their study.
For now, the house was still, but Meg’s mind was racing.
Though she was supposed to be committing everyone’s part in the plan to memory right down to the exact minute, all she could think about was Creed. The plan was intricate. It depended on everyone being exactly where they should be at the exact right time—it was almost like a dance.
The assassination of Williams was like an elaborate choreographed dance among the eight meta players and though Meg felt desperate to be exactly where and when the plan dictated, her emotions kept overriding her thoughts and slipping back to the way Creed felt in her arms.
She was sitting on her bed, notes and diagrams spread out, wishing like hell she had her brother’s eidetic memory.
Groaning, she rubbed her stressed eyes and sat up straighter, stretching her back. Maze yawned from his spot beside her. Deciding the stretch felt too good to stop there, she crawled off her bed and stood, arms reaching high above her. She tried to focus on the plan again, forcing her highly distractible brain to walk through every step from memory. She leaned over and put her nose to her knees, wrapping her hands around her calves to revel in the pull of muscles. Standing abruptly, she flipped upside-down into a perfect handstand.
Maze decided at that very moment to hop down off the chair and join in what looked like playtime to him. He started by slobbering all over Meg’s face then jumped up and knocked her backward so he could wrestle properly. “Get off me, you crazy coyote!” Meg giggled only halfheartedly shooing her best friend away.
A firm knock sounded at her door. Still smiling at her goofy canine, she popped up and turned the knob without thinking about who could be on the other side.
Creed stood, hands held behind his back, legs spread slightly in the soldier’s standard ‘at rest’ position. Weird.
“Hi. Is everything okay?” Meg watched him carefully, trying to read his intentions.
He stopped staring straight ahead at nothing and allowed his eyes to look down at her briefly before returning to his soldier’s stare. “I was making rounds, making sure the house was secure, when I heard some suspicious noises coming from your room. I wanted to make sure you were all right.”
Meg tried not to laugh at him. He was so stiff and nervous. Bless his heart!
“You were making rounds?” She bit her lip hoping he wouldn’t hear the smile in her voice, because his eyes still were looking straight ahead a foot above her.