CHAPTER 46
Somewhere off the Java Sea
Kate couldn’t tell if she was awake or asleep. For a moment, she simply floated there in total darkness and dead silence. The only sensation was the soft cloth at her back. She leaned to the side and heard the crackle of the cheap mattress. She must have fallen asleep on the cot in the bomb shelter. She had lost track of time as she and David had waited in the bomb shelter while their pursuers marched back and forth, searching the cottage for what seemed like hours.
Was it safe to get up?
She felt another sensation now: hunger. How long had she slept?
She swung her legs off the tiny bed and planted them on—
“Awww, Jesus!” David’s voice filled the tiny space as he did a sit-up into her legs, then curled up and writhed on the floor.
Kate shifted her weight back to the bed, pawing the floor for a firm foot hold — one that wasn’t somewhere on David’s person. She finally planted her left foot and stood, swatting the air for the string that activated the dangling single-bulb light. Her hand connected with the cord, and she jerked the light on, sending a flash of yellow like lightning into the small space. She squinted and waited, standing on one foot. When she could see, she moved to the corner of the room, away from David who was lying still in a fetal position in the middle of the room.
She had hit him there. God. Why was he in the floor? “We’re not in middle school, you know. You could have shared the bed.”
David grunted as he rolled onto his hands and knees. “Apparently chivalry doesn’t pay.”
“Hey—”
“Forget it. We need to get out of here,” David said as he sat up.
“Are the men—”
“No, left 90 minutes ago, but they may be waiting outside.”
“It’s not safe here. I’m coming—”
“I know. I know.” David held up his hand. He was getting his breath back. “But I have one condition, and it’s non-negotiable.”
Kate stared at him.
“You do what I say, when I say. No questions, no discussion.”
Kate straightened. “I can take orders.”
“Yeah, I’ll believe it when I see it. When we’re out there, seconds could matter. If I tell you to leave me or to run, you have to do it. You could be scared and disoriented, but you will have to focus on what I tell you to do.”
“I’m not afraid,” she lied.
“Well, that makes one of us.” David opened a set of double steel doors built into the concrete. “There’s something else.”
“I’m listening,” Kate said, a little defensively.
David looked her up and down. “You can’t wear those clothes. You look almost homeless.” He tossed her some clothes. “Might be a little big.”
Kate perused her new attire — some old blue jeans and a black v-neck t-shirt.
David threw her a gray sweater. “You’ll need this too. It will be cold where we’re going.”
“Which is?”
“I’ll explain on the way.”
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?”