"Lucas is in an open cell at the very end of this corridor. He appears to be sleeping. We're in a basement with cement walls and a ceiling that is bound to shed dust, but I saw no footprints or wheelchair marks on the floor. I should have seen some. Somebody is cleaning up. We'll have to clean up too before we leave. Try not to stand on the floor too much. There's room in Lucas' cell for everybody to see him, but let's give the medical team lots of space."
Lucas was lying flat on his back on a bed that hung out from the wall. A tray of food and a bottle of water were on the floor of his cell, well away from the bed. Lucas' eyes were closed. Doc did a quick check. "He has a big bump on his forehead, his heart is beating properly, and he's breathing naturally. When I opened his eyelids, his eyes were unfocused and his pupils did not respond to light. The bump on his head would have been severe enough to cause a concussion and that's what I believe he has. I have no idea how long it will take for him to come out of his concussion."
Mac had Winnie use her pinky-ring to take a picture of Lucas lying on the bed so that they could always make sure he was back in that position when they left the building. That would be Winnie's job because she would spend the most time with him. Granny and Doc pulled Lucas far enough into a sitting position for Winnie to slip behind him. She wrapped her arms around him so that her hands were touching his forehead and Doc let Lucas fall back against her. "OK?" Granny asked.
"For now," Winnie said.
# # # # # # # #
While the health team was looking after Lucas, Mac gave instructions to the others. Wolf and TG were to search for another way in and out of the basement so that they could use that as an explanation for Lucas disappearing. Hank and William would search all of the rooms that were on the same level as the courtroom for signs of Mavis' drug. If they could get into the courtroom, they'd be able to recover Lucas' sling. They would also look for Lucas' pinky ring in that room. If all the rooms were locked, they'd return tomorrow to unlock and then search them. Mac would search the building's exterior for signs of an alternate entrance/exit. The others could return to the ship for now.
"For those of us staying here," Mac gave final instructions: "We'll pack up and go in an hour. Everybody has to leave at the same time so that we'll remember to disable the elevator and leave it on the ground floor where it was."
"I'll start supper," Yolanda said.
"We don't have much food in the ship," Theo admitted. "Both Lucas and I are broke. I can buy something from the university but we don't have much money left in the account."
# # # # # # # #
The Wilizy had a small supper of sandwiches with fillings from various tin cans and bottles. They all gathered in a group in the living room to eat off plates on their laps. "I've messaged Wizard that we'll need money that Toronto shops will accept," Yolanda said. "He'll express it to us tonight. We can start eating properly tomorrow."
"I've worked in a kitchen," Marie offered. "Nary knows her way around a knife," she added.
That brought everybody's attention to Nary who was the only human sitting on the deck. The food in front of her was untouched. Smelled, yes. Touched, no.
"Are you not hungry, Nary?" Yolanda, probing.
"No meat," Nary said.
Theo explained.
"Nothing but meat for fourteen years?" Yolanda exclaimed in astonishment.
"We ate what was in the stomachs of the animals we killed," Marie explained nonchalantly.
"That's how all large predators in the wild get the full range of nutrition they need," Doc explained. "That's what Winnie's wolves do."
The wolves in question were on the far side of the deck from Nary and polishing off some paste that Yolanda had created for them. Nary got up, ventured towards them, peered, and smelled. "I'll have what they're having," she said.
Marie added Manners to the mental list of lessons she would be giving Nary soon. At the top of the list was Not undressing in front of people other than Marie. The second lesson on the list dealt with using the cold, hard, white open seats that were in the tiny closets in the ship.
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Chapter 5
It's still the evening of December 26. The Wilizy on the rescue team had sorted out their sleeping arrangements and had gone to bed. It wasn't quite bedtime yet back west at Ranch #4. Two people were meeting in the root cellar that night – its normal pitch-black interior lit by a beef tallow candle. They were the same two people who had been whispering in the root cellar after Karita had arrived at the ranch in September.
"Big Momma believes that Karita is dead," the male voice said.
"Good," the female voice replied. "Thank you."
Silence.
"Did you manage to prevent the other bosses from looking in the back of the transport copter?"
"Yes. I told them that I had to fix the bridges to the huts before they could empty the cargo in the copter. Boss #1 took the other bosses away from camp to cut firewood. I poked my head into the front of the transport copter and tried to reassure Karita. I couldn't see her from the front, but you had seen her sneaking into the copter so I knew she was there somewhere."
"Karita," I said. "Pililiani sent me. I won't hurt you or tell on you. I'm going to open the back hatch of the copter. Don't make any noise or try to run away. OK? I'm going to give you some gifts that Pililiani sent."
"Did she say anything?"
"No. I opened the hatch real slowly, ready to nab her if she tried to run. She was squatting down in a tiny space. She looked at me with this hard stare and had the scissors poised to strike."
"I told her that I was a friend and I was going to reach into my backpack to bring out your gifts. She didn't say anything but she didn't try to run either. I pulled out your story and held it out for her to see. The special one. #11. She recognized it. I opened my backpack and showed her the extra food and clothes you had snuck to me. I asked her if she would like the gifts and she nodded. I asked her if I could put your story into her backpack and she nodded. Would she like me to move her things from the onion sack into the backpack? She nodded again. I said that now would be a good time to sneak out of the copter and hide somewhere else. The bosses would return soon. That's when she spoke for the first time."
"I don't know where to hide," she said.
"Would you like to hide in my copter?" I asked. "Nobody will look in it. You'll be able to stretch out on the floor on a blanket. I have more blankets for you if you want."
"OK. Is Pililiani mad at me?"
"No, she's happy for you. She wants you to be free. Would you like to walk with me to my copter now?"
"My legs won't move."
"Would you like me to carry you?"
"She nodded and whimpered a bit when I lifted her out of the crouch she was in."
# # # # # # # #
"I had looked closely at the island and the surrounding area when I flew in, so I knew that there was a good sized community on the Canadian side of the rivulet. I waited for it to get dark, used a thunderstorm as an excuse to go back to Big Daddy's copter, disconnected the tracker, placed it under a tree, and took off. Karita never said anything. She just stared at me with those hard eyes and with the scissors ready in her hand. I landed near the Canadian community and walked her in with me. It was late and the place was deserted. I found the local food store and it had an alley next to it. I wrapped her there in blankets and put her backpack in her lap."
"You'll be safe here tonight," I said. "Tomorrow, when there are people on the street, take your blankets and put them on the sidewalk in front of the food store. Sit there with your backpack behind you so that you won't lose it. When you see a lady that looks nice, ask her if she'd give you some food. If she ignores you, try another lady. Don't ask any man. Don't go away with any man. Only ask the women. Somebody will help you."
"Tell Pililiani that I have to find my mommy and daddy," she said.
"She knows. I have to take those scissors now. People won't
like you holding scissors like that. They'll stay away from you and won't help you."
"She gave me the scissors and I said good bye. She said something strange when I was leaving."
"What did she say?"
"My name is Maddy."
"That was her name before she was kidnapped."
"I did all I could, Pililiani. I had to come back to the ranch and you know the reason why."
# # # # # # # #
"What happened next?"
"I flew the copter back to the island in the dark and set it down. Fortunately, the moon was high and the thunderstorm had blown over. When dawn approached and I could see my hand in front of my face, I took the copter, created a rough camp where Karita could have stayed the night, and made signs that she had been taken by an alligator. Then I flew back to the camp and put the tracker back into the copter. By this time, things were happening in the slave village. I went to explore and you know the rest. Boss #2 found the evidence that I had planted and concluded that Karita was dead."
"So she's in that community in Ontario."
"And she'll tell somebody about her mommy and daddy, and perhaps there's a missing poster about her. And somebody will reunite her with her parents. But we can't be those people, Pililiani."
"I know."
# # # # # # # #
"Do the house and field slaves know what happened to the bosses on the island, Pililiani?"
"That they're dead, yes. Not how. I'll tell them how they died early tomorrow morning. The cattle slaves will find out when one of them comes in for supplies."
"You'll tell them that they were killed by two big beasts?"
"No. I'll tell them that they were killed by Voodoo. That woman standing on the water was Marie. I don't know where those beasts came from, but Marie had her revenge like she said she would. She'll be coming back to the ranches now to kill the other bosses and slave owners that she had cursed. We have to get ready. I'll tell the other housekeepers when I have a chance. Will you be coming to the meeting tomorrow morning?"
"To hear you preach? I heard enough of that as a child, Pililiani. There's no such thing as Voodoo."
"Is that the official word out of the bosses' camp?"
"Yup."
"Good. Keep telling them that, Yuri."
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Chapter 6
It was Friday morning, December 27. Doc and Winnie breakfasted on toast and peanut butter and were off early to help Lucas. Doc took his medical bag which now contained a screwdriver for the elevator panel. Winnie had Momaka's acupuncture needles plus some pads she could place against the concrete wall and lean against. Winnie was planning on being there for the day, except when Snoozer and Mavis came in. Doc would keep a watch for unwelcome visitors entering the building. Granny would spell Doc off later and bring food and drink for Winnie.
The four warriors from the satellite compound also rose and ate early – peanut butter and toast – and were gone. William had a prototype of a door-unlocking filament to try. Mac would explore the building's interior and exterior again for an escape route. Wolf and TG would visit Toronto's current city hall and ask where they might find blueprints on the old city hall.
Hank, Yolanda, Marie, and Nary had risen early as well. Hank was planning to meet William at the courthouse and help test his unlocking mechanism. Yolanda told Marie and Nary that she and Theo would buy some food and would be back soon. Nary offered to help Yolanda butcher the meat which Marie thought was a good sign after the talk she had had with her about manners before they went to bed. Yolanda said that butchering wouldn't be necessary, but thanked her for her offer.
# # # # # # # #
An hour later, Yolanda returned to the Wilizy/Asia to find Nary and Marie in the living room. Both were sitting on the floor and Nary was reading to Marie from a picture book. "I have food," Yolanda announced. "Marie, I also have a sling for you to wear. A sling is the suit of invisible wire that we wear and which allows us to fly and to become invisible. We'll eat some breakfast and then I'll show you how to use it. I was thinking that after that, we should find some other clothes for you and Nary to wear. Nary has very unique clothes and they suit her well. But the Wilizy try not to be too noticeable with the clothes we wear, so she'll need the same kind of clothes that kids her age wear."
"You don't make your own clothes?" Marie asked.
"We can and we do. Deer hide mostly. But we don't have time for that now, so we'll go to a place where we can buy clothes."
"What's buy mean?" Marie asked.
"I'll explain on the way."
But first, they had breakfast to get through. Nary complained that there was no meat and she wasn't interested in what Yolanda had brought. Yolanda explained that wild animals didn't live in Toronto because it was too full of people. Hunting them wasn't possible, but she had other kinds of food that were just as tasty.
Out came the bread and the peanut butter. Marie showed her how to open the jar, how to put peanut butter on a knife, and how to spread it. The ship even had a special knife for that – one that wasn't as big or as sharp as the large blade Nary was accustomed to using. Yolanda and Marie both prepared a sandwich for themselves while Nary watched, sniffing. "You try making one," Marie said after taking a bite out of hers.
Nary did. But she found the knife hard to handle, so she put it down on the floor, stuck her finger in the jar, and used that to spread the peanut butter on some bread.
"Was it good?" Yolanda asked as Nary's finger went peanut butter diving for a second sandwich.
"Mpphhh," Nary replied. She stuck a finger in her mouth, pulled out the paste that was still sticking to the roof of her mouth, looked at it, smelled it, and put it back in.
"Milk?" Yolanda asked Marie.
"Let's try water."
# # # # # # # #
Marie's sling lesson only took an hour because William had restricted the sling's capability to flying slowly, becoming invisible, and mental messaging. He denied her access to weaponry and to time-travel. "Last month, I saw myself flying through the air," Marie confessed. "But I didn't know how I would be able to do that."
"It'll be harder to give Nary a sling," Yolanda warned. "Doc has to install an electronic plug in the back of Nary's head and that will hurt. He will do it as painlessly as he can.
When they returned to the ship after the lessons, they found Nary squatting on the floor in the living room trying to read a picture book. The peanut butter jar was beside her. Empty. A large spoon was sitting in the jar and it had bits of peanut butter residue on its surface. Nary's hands were clean.
"My finger wasn't long enough to dig out all the peanut butter. I found this thing in the galley. It works better because it holds more peanut butter than my finger and I can eat it at the same time as I read."
"That's good," Yolanda said. "All our boys love peanut butter. I thought you might too."
Nary's eyes shifted back to the book. Marie coughed and looked at her.
"Thank you for giving me peanut butter to eat," Nary said.
"You're welcome."
# # # # # # # #
Supper in the Wilizy/Asia was an opportunity for everybody to talk about their day. Lucas' condition was foremost on everybody's minds.
"I'm not having any effect on Lucas, either with my hands or my needles," Winnie warned. "The poison is too strong. I'll continue, but if I'm going to do any good, we have to stop Mavis from dosing him up every day."
Doc took over. "Mavis and Snoozer arrived at 3:30. That will probably be the schedule they'll keep. We'll know better tomorrow. Mavis inserted what we call an I.V. drip into Lucas' arm and attached a leak-proof bag to it. The poison will be in a solution inside that bag. It took thirty minutes for the contents of the bag to drip into Lucas' body. When it was empty, she disconnected the bag and threw it into a corner of the cell. Mavis remained in the cell the whole time the poison was transferring. We will be unable to stop the poison drip once she starts it. However, we
have some good news. She left the needle that carries the poison into his body in place. Granny will tell you why that's good news, of a sort."
"Leaving the needle in place means that Doc can create his own solution that we can feed into Lucas' arm without leaving any new needle marks that might be noticed. Doc's solution will keep Lucas hydrated and will give him some nutrition. This will mean that he won't die of thirst or starvation. We have one problem. With all that liquid coming into Lucas' body, his body will need to expel it. Doc will take care of that, but you don't want to know how. Not at the dinner table, at least."
Hank continued. "William made a filament that allows us to see inside the mechanism of a door lock. The filament allows us to open any locked door and lock it afterwards. We searched all of the locked rooms close to the cell or close to the courtroom. We were hoping to find the place where Mavis had hid her poison. We didn't find that. But Mac, Theo, Wolf, and TG all have their own unlocking filament now and know how to use it. We'll keep looking."
William took over. "We searched the courtroom where Lucas was poisoned and recovered his sling. Mavis kept her court recorder and other supplies like the coffee maker in a closet but not her poison. We did find the fake casts that Slider used to pretend to be injured. Normally they're very hard to take off, but these fakes can be removed easily. That proves that Lucas didn't threaten him and beat him. We took pictures of the fakes, but otherwise left the room the way we found it."
Wolf was next. "TG and I went to city hall hoping to find blueprints for the courthouse building. We had thought that we'd have to sneak into city hall after hours to look at the plans, but an office in the building is in charge of heritage buildings. They gave us access to the plans without asking us why we wanted to see them. We found nothing in those plans that would help us sneak Lucas out of the building. We returned to the courthouse in time to see Snoozer and Mavis coming in. We trailed them back to their homes but weren't able to slip into their places invisibly. We know when they are likely to leave their homes tomorrow and we have William's lock opener. Doc will help William search Mavis' house tomorrow when she's at the courthouse. TG and I will look inside Snoozer's place, but we're not expecting to find the poison there."