Wizard: Equally interesting is the fact that he always makes a trip to his safety deposit box on the Monday morning following his restaurant reservation with an unknown friend. The frequency that this has occurred is beyond coincidence. He's receiving cash in that restaurant for some service and that cash has been funding his secret life.
Wizard: Final point: He has been accessing his safety deposit box a lot in the last month. No money has made it into his bank account after those visits. Plus he's not going to the safety deposit box after a meeting at the restaurant. I believe that he's been emptying the box.
Mac: Can you access that safety deposit box?
Wizard: It would have to be drilled which means that if Franklin comes back to make one more withdrawal, he'll know that we're on to him.
Mac: OK folks. Let's take some time to digest this news. It's about 12:30. We'll meet electronically at 1:00 and hope to get back into the field by 2:00. Have your thoughts ready.
# # # # # # # #
Communication log: Message to all Warriors: 2:00 p.m.
Hank: OK everyone, we're in Franklin's building. The manager gave us a nice tour and we're in the manager's suite now. Yolanda is discussing what we'd want if a three-bedroom in the building opens up in the near future. He's assuring her that a nice family like us would fit right in. She's asking him about schools in the area now. Winnie just left to use the washroom; she'll open the manager's key compartment on the way and take the spare key to FF's suite. Wizard is supposedly looking at their recreation room but is actually searching for security cameras and consulting with TG by video as necessary. Patella is stashed invisibly outside; we'll bring her with us when we sneak back in. Yolanda is wrapping up now. I'll update you when we're alone and in Franklin's suite.
[A few minutes later]
Hank: First impressions of Franklin's suite: very much like Surrey. Sterile; lived in, but no sense of the owner's personality. No sign whatsoever of what he does with his time. Is it possible that when he's not at work, Franklin just sits at home and stares at four empty walls? It's possible that Franklin is still using this suite so we've searched as carefully as we can without disturbing anything. Wizard is on guard duty outside in case Franklin shows up. Winnie is going to put Patella to work now.
[A few minutes later]
Hank: Patella found a stash in the ceiling. She made a few noises and was staring up, so Winnie activated her sling and floated up with her. We now know that Franklin kept records of money that he received. They are very healthy amounts. No mention of what currency was used; possibly gold coins, but that's my gut talking. If Franklin has been liquidating all of his assets, he has some heavy duty storage bags around somewhere. It would be nice to know where they are because that's the one place he’s bound to return to. I expect that he's keeping Will and Izzy in the same place. Mac may have some idea of how we might be able to track them, but I don't. Patella has found another stash. Hang on. This is going to take more than just lifting some ceiling tiles.
[A few minutes later]
Hank: This is disturbing. We found some injection needles along with a bottle of heavy duty sedation liquid hidden behind a vent. The source was a government clinic. No hint as to where or how he had obtained it. This raises the possibility that he had help on the inside. Also, Franklin had a pack of Alberta brain-bands and controllers hidden in the same place. From the packaging, it's clear that two brain-bands and one controller have been removed. It's not hard to guess where those brain-bands are right now. Mac, you need to know this. Those controllers are usually set at low levels. A brain-band controller set at high levels can do permanent if not fatal damage if the activator is pressed for too long. I don't know how close the control wand has to be to the brain-band to be fatal or how easy it is to adjust the settings. I believe we've found everything that we can find here. We're leaving now before Franklin can catch us in his suite.
# # # # # # # #
Communication log: Message to all Warriors: 5:00 p.m.
Mac to all Warriors: I've been waiting to hear from the B.C. government on their search for Bubba Franklin's job records. I called them just now. They did manage to find a personnel folder with his name on it. At the very least, there should have been a job application form, plus the results of an interview, plus a personal goals statement from the candidate, and a job placement recommendation. The folder didn't contain a single scrap of paper. It was kept in a secure area, but one to which Franklin had access. They will continue to search through the night, but I am not optimistic. I believe that we've accomplished enough for the day. If you're still in the field, return to the Wilizy. Wolf has anchored the ship over Lynn Valley. We'll have a rest, eat, and have a planning meeting.
# # # # # # # #
At about the same time that Mac was bringing everyone back for some rest, Izzy was thinking that she should take a break too.
For most of the afternoon, she had been sitting in a lotus position on her pad and contemplating a small collection of items in front of her. Those items were: one locket; a silver chain still attached to that locket; a large collection of empty water bottles plus a half-dozen full bottles; a similar number of food bars in paper wrapping; a pile of paper that had once been wrapped around food bars; the sleeping pad; the blanket; the clothes that she was wearing including a set of boots that had a heavy heel.
A full water bottle could be used as a weapon if she were able to get close enough to deliver a disabling blow, as could the heel of her boots. She had mentally discarded everything else.
Also on display on the cell's floor were six foil packets, each containing a birth control device. Izzy had opened all six packets in the hope that one might contain a key to her cell door. Surprisingly, none did. The foil might have some value through its ability to transmit electricity, but what she needed right now was a key to the cell door.
The rubbery contents of the packets might have some value. At one point in the afternoon, she had mimed the act of placing a rubbery slingshot around her thumb and forefinger and with a full water bottle as the weapon. This was not likely to work. She could probably propel her silver locket through the air, but it could only distract, not disable. And, even if she were to somehow disable Franklin, he would be outside the cell and she would be inside. She needed a key. The one that Franklin undoubtedly had somewhere in his clothes.
She spent some time trying to answer this question. "What would Franklin have thought about her when he found the foiled six pack in the pocket of her satin pants?" She remembered quite clearly what he had said as he left. As the face of our God, I can absolve you of those sins. Together, you and I will replenish an arm of the family that has been dormant too long. With that religious overtone, what would he think about a teenager that carried a full 6-pack with her on a trip to a dance contest? The answer was easy to guess. Namely, that she had planned to use them all that afternoon. Seeing only one birth control device, one might guess that the condom was for an unexpected need for safety. But six? Franklin would never believe the truth. That she had thrown them into her purse after her meeting with Yolanda, never intending to use them, and had forgotten all about them. When she went to empty her purse before the contest, she was afraid that someone might find her purse and discover these inside. She had slipped the whole six-pack into her pants pocket out of a fear of somebody accidentally seeing them.
Izzy spent some time trying to answer this question: "Franklin is convinced that I'm a slut. How can I use that to get out of this cell?"
Next up was this question: "Why did he leave the packets in my pocket?" The phrase replenish an arm of the family gave a disturbing answer. Namely that Franklin did expect her to use them, but with him. But she couldn't replenish his family unless ... Izzy rolled one condom over her finger and took a close look. It had a tiny pin-prick at the tip. After close examination, she saw tiny pin pricks in all of the packages. He believes that I'm a slut who could give him a disease?
Izzy thought t
hat she might be able to drive some sort of bargain for Will's life. She unbuttoned her white shirt, put it on the floor, tried standing at the cell door with a smile on her face and her body arranged fetchingly just so. That must have triggered what would have been an embarrassing memory because she flushed red and picked up her shirt. She had some difficulty buttoning it back on and then realized why. The condom was still rolled onto her finger and it interfered with her grip. She returned it to its packaging and re-assumed her lotus position, her eyes fixed squarely on the six-pack. She could save her own life easily enough. But at a cost. Would that cost be worth it without Will?
# # # # # # # #
Mac warned the Wilizy that a battle was near but was not likely tomorrow. Franklin was meeting with somebody tomorrow night. That might be the meeting where he'd listen to offers for Will and Izzy. If so, Franklin would deliver his captives on Sunday.
TG suggested that they'd be able to rescue Will and Izzy quite easily on Sunday by simply following Franklin to where he was holding them, ambushing Franklin and whoever else was there, and then just bringing Will and Izzy home. The mood of the family picked up considerably at that point. Mac couldn't let them go into battle on such a naive hope, but she gave them the news as gently as she could.
"What would happen if the winning bid came from someone that we didn't know? What if they had some weaponry that we hadn't seen before? What if they brought overwhelming force to the hand-over point? Think Alaska, for example. We would have scant minutes to prepare ourselves for battle."
Yollie countered. "But we don't know for sure that there are going to be multiple bidders. Even if that's the case, Franklin has a long history with Zzyk. He's going to accept his bid, right? We know what armaments Zzyk can bring to the hand-over point. We can defeat him."
Mac countered. "Franklin has been planning this for some time. If he had only one interested party, he would have sold them the day after they were captured. He has more than one interested bidder and he's been giving the bidders time to arrive."
Mac continued when nobody disputed her logic. "But the presence of single or multiple bidders could be irrelevant. You're assuming that at some point, Franklin is going to bring Izzy and Will out of the hiding place to turn them over. But what if the point of the bidding is to determine who gets to kill them? For Will to become Zzyk's pliant tool again, his memories of the last two years would have to be removed or suppressed. That would be difficult to accomplish. Zzyk is more likely to kill him because that would make the Wilizy impotent. Izzy would suffer the same fate. So while we're waiting outside the hiding place, what's to stop Rick from going inside that hiding place and killing them? If we ambush them before they arrive at the hand-over point, what if the hand-over point is not where Will and Izzy are being held?"
Nobody had anything to say. The energy in the room had just been sucked out. Mac was quick to step back in.
"It won't matter if the winning bid comes from a country with overwhelming force, of if the intent of the winning bidder is to kill one or both of them. We need to find where Franklin stashed Will and Izzy and take them away before the winner arrives. That's what our focus will be on tomorrow. We have one more day to find out where they are being held and we have one solid lead to pursue."
# # # # # # # #
A subdued Granny made her regular call to Lucas at 8 p.m., or 12 noon North Korean time. Trying not to let her despondency show, she told Lucas that they were very close to finding Will and Izzy. When Lucas asked if that meant that Granny would be coming back to command the ship's attack on the North Korean freighter, she was less optimistic. According to TG's information, she said that that ship was due to leave port either tomorrow or the next day, Saturday or Sunday, Alberta time. The actual departure time was not given. Granny suggested that Lucas prepare himself to be the captain. "What's happening below you right now," she asked.
"The freighter has docked and is just sitting there. Lots of crew, but they're all lounging around. No sign of any cargo yet."
"OK, keep an eye on the ship and let me know when it's ready to leave. I'll try to be in constant contact with you during the battle."
"It should be alright, Granny. I'm going to use Wolf's strategy to sneak up on the freighter. We'll surprise them, scare the crew away, and empty the hold. We've practiced this a lot."
Lucas had been careful to avoid telling his granny a direct lie. He had told her what had been happening right now below the Wilizy, which he was sure was what she actually wanted to know. He hadn't told her what was happening below his pressurized sling right now. He'd tell her what was below him when he knew himself. Perhaps he'd tell his dad instead. This was going to be a dad problem, not a granny problem.
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Chapter 33
Saturday morning, March 10, 5 a.m.
The call to Hank came a few minutes past 5 a.m., which would make it 9 p.m. in North Korea. "Lucas, are you and your brothers safe?" Hank asked.
"Yes, for now. But we could be in a lot of trouble tomorrow. Dad, I don't know what to do."
"Tell me what happened."
Lucas told Hank about their long range sensors picking up a big mass of metal way off in the Pacific. The boys watched it for an hour. It was a huge blob on the edge of the screen but it seemed to be on a direct heading from B.C. to North Korea. Lucas decided to check it out. He had elevated his sling to a high altitude and traveled subsonic speed the whole way. As he flew closer, he could see a bright light on the surface of the ocean. Although this was in broad daylight, he could still see the light. He edged forward some more but took his sling even higher.
"Good sense of caution, son. Go on."
Lucas told his dad that he could see smaller bright lights buzzing at very high speed around the big light. The big light was sending what appeared to be bubbles into the air. Long streams of bubbles that went up very high. He could see that the bubbles were going higher in the air than he was, so Lucas took his sling even higher.
"Sling handle alright?"
"Yes Dad, but it was getting cold so I shut the baffles down completely."
"Good idea. Go on."
"When a stream of bubbles hit the fast little flying lights, the little light would go out and I could see something falling to the ocean."
"You must have been pretty close?"
"Not really, Dad. I had one of the ship's long range telescopes with me, so I was able to see the blobs falling."
"All of the lights kept flying round and round the big light, but the bubbles caught them sooner or later. It seemed like the entire area around the big light was full of bubbles at one point. Eventually, the last little light was hit and the blob fell into the ocean. By this time, I was almost directly above the big light."
"How high were you, Lucas?"
"Way high, Dad. I was higher than any of the bubble things could reach."
"What's way high in parent terms, Lucas?"
"I was so high that I had to be on oxygen, Dad. I had grabbed some tanks when I left the ship. You knew that Will had put some aboard. I thought it would be a good idea to have a tank with the crew whenever we were away from the ship, just in case. So whenever the crew was on a training exercise, I made sure that all four of us had a full oxygen tank and a breathing mask in the sling."
Hank knew that this wasn't quite the truth. When Lucas had something that he wanted to hide, he'd go into long explanations. But, this was not the time to talk about that.
"Sounds like you were safe."
"Yes, I was Dad. I really was. And I was in constant contact with Theo too."
"What happened next?"
"The big light went out, and I could see a ship on the ocean's surface. But, I couldn't see any wake behind it. It was just sitting there. I took some pictures, Dad, but I don't know if they'll show you much. The ship was a huge amount of shiny metal in all different sizes, and all angled in different directions. Really big ship. Then, all of the little blobs
of metal came to life, and they had lights on, and they flew up off the ocean, and landed on the big ship. I couldn't see them very well. I was too far away, and I wasn't going to get closer in case they started blowing bubbles into the air."
"Smart."
"But I think they had the same kind of design – lots of shiny metal at different angles. I bet'cha those flying things could blow bubbles into the air too. Those were guns of some kind. Why would only a big ship have the guns? And then the little lights started zipping around the big light again and I thought about what could happen if a little light came high in the air and shot bubbles at me, so I scrammed."
"Theo and I have been watching the big ship on scanner since. Dad, this thing is still on the same heading. The freighter isn't even loaded yet. If it doesn't leave port soon, that big light and those little lights are going to be close enough to interfere. A wooden Wilizy ship wouldn't stand a chance, Dad."
"Then we don't attack. You can always turn around and get out of there."
"But Dad, that's not right! We're aboriginals. We fight to the death. We don't run away. It's the Aboriginal Nation's motto. We don't want to be called cowards, Dad. The other boys are frightened. That's one big mutha of a ship, Dad."
Again, Hank declined to make a comment. Boys of this age were all about making fart noises, flashing obscene gestures at each other when they thought nobody was watching, and exploring the large number of expressive words available to them. He had been that way himself.
"And you, the Captain? Are you scared too? You have to be honest when you talk to your Commander-in-Chief, you know."
"A little, Dad."
At that point, the Commander-in-Chief explained what a strategic retreat was – a decision to move back to a previously determined location so that a better opportunity to attack might present itself. That was a lot different than running away. Together Hank and Lucas worked out the location where the Wilizy would take up its new position, and under what conditions it would make that strategic retreat.