Later that afternoon, after Paco and Kashmira had sauntered arm in arm up the walk to her front door, and after Kashmira had bequeathed Paco a long lingering kiss on his lips, and after the four guards had appeared panting in front of the house thirty seconds later.... After all of that, Kashmira looked at her father opening his mouth to protest and beat him to the first word. "I go where I want to go. It's up to the guards to keep up with me!"
# # # # # # # #
Kashmira and Paco spent Wednesday and Thursday evening, browsing through the central market. This was an area of stalls scattered willy-nilly through the very large central square. [Coming soon for my readers' pleasure - a sentence that combines willy-nilly with blinkedy-blinkedy.] With no organized aisles, shoppers and browsers moved from one stall to the next in whatever sequence and direction that they wanted.
Each of the temporary stalls had an established location; in some cases, that location had been gained through a generation of family members setting up in the same place day after day, month after month, year after year. Everybody knew which stalls were located where. For them, they could walk unerringly to the stalls that they had to visit on their way home. For them, this was not chaos. It was just crowded. Life in the Philippines was crowded. The people scarcely noticed it. However for the guards trying to follow a pair of browsers who might go anywhere at any moment, their duty had become impossible.
During the early evening, market chaos was at its worst. The head guard did his best to follow Kashmira at a distance, but depending on the size of the crowd around her, plus her mood, he could easily lose her in the melee. The market place had a limited number of natural exits/entrances. The head guard placed a guard at each location and warned El Patrón that he'd need a dozen more men to cover all the possible exits.
In fact, he'd need more than a dozen. The businesses at the edges of the marketplace were solid shacks, solid in that they had walls and doors and customers came inside to shop. They were not solid from the perspective of surviving a brisk breeze. Mathias found four such businesses that had back doors opening out to the back doors of other businesses that had front doors that led out of the market completely. Kashmira and Paco found four unobservable escape routes out of the plaza and used them routinely.
As their disappearances from sight became more common, the guards' concern about those disappearances diminished. Kashmira and Paco would always show up sooner or later and Paco would be sporting a new hat, or a new jacket, or new shoes, or a new electronic game, or.... Naturally, this news made it back to El Patrón nightly.
Matters came to a head when Kashmira had shed her guards for a full three hours that Friday evening.
"You will not go to the market any more. It is too dangerous. The guards cannot protect you there."
"I will go where I want."
"You will not go to the market unless you give the head guard a week's notice. He will remain within touching distance of you the whole time."
"You would allow a guard to touch me? What's next? Sex with the guards too? Three times each?"
"You will tolerate an accidental touch. Why do you go to the market anyway? You have no need for anything that is sold there. Everything you might want can be brought from Manila."
"I like to shop."
"For Paco."
"Yes. I buy things for Paco."
"You must stop. It is too dangerous."
"I won't stop. He is my lover. I will buy my lover little gifts if I want to."
"No you won't. You must bring him here to the house where the guards can protect you. Satisfy him here."
"I do that already. But I want to give him gifts too."
The reader can imagine how this exchange of pleasantries between a loving father and a respectful daughter would end. Volume and anger were ratcheting up steadily.
Finally....
"I will tolerate your disobedience no longer! You will do as you are told! It is for your own safety!"
"I am not your prisoner! I will do as I wish!"
"No you won't! Until you learn obedience, you are confined to the house and you will have no allowance!"
# # # # # # # #
El Patrón thought that he had handled that week quite well. He had given Kashmira lots of opportunity to act disgracefully. He had then goaded her into defiance, not that she ever needed much goading. Now he had achieved what he wanted. His daughter was confined behind a wall of security and she had no source of money to buy the music table that she wanted. It was only a matter of time before Ramón discovered the big plane and destroyed it. All the time the guards were looking for Kashmira? They were also looking for a foreigner with a long womanly braid.
For her part, Kashmira thought that she had handled that week quite well. She had followed the plan that Winnie had explained to her. However as much as she looked, she couldn't find Mathias in the crowds around her. She knew that he was close though, because he was able to talk to her. Mathias' older brother, William, had given her a new set of earrings that were actually voice receivers. Plus he had changed her brain plug so that it would work with those earrings. Mathias' words came through her earrings so perfectly that they almost sounded like they were inside her head. She couldn't speak to him in the same way, but Mathias was able to tell her where all the guards were so that she and Paco could continue to play their version of Hide and Seek which consisted essentially of running willy-nilly through the market place while Kashmira faced the sky and went blinkedy-blinkedy at Mathias. [Don't look at me that way. I did warn you.] The reason they were doing that? To goad her father into confining her to her house.
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Chapter 24
In the last week of July, Lucas reported to General MacLatchie that he had finished reviewing most of the documents they had recovered from Safe Haven's Minneapolis office building. Much of it was mundane communications between the ranches and the Safe Haven managers. Some of it could be useful but further analysis would be needed.
"Give me the high points," the general instructed.
Lucas reported as below.
• Safe Haven tracked of all of their slaves by code. No slave was given a name at birth. Slave children were shipped out of their birth ranch when they reached the age of 10. The boys were sent to various cities where they became gang members. Their lives were harsh. They were left on their own to steal what they needed to live. Many died from mistreatment or neglect. I do not know where they sent the slave girls. I do know that some were returned to the Safe Haven ranches at ages 13 or 14. I assume that these became the new slave mothers.
• Safe Haven established gangs in eight cities. Each ranch sent its boys to the same city over the years. Ranch #4's slaves went to Chicago, for example. The purpose for sending young boys to the gangs was to toughen them up so that the survivors could be brutal guards back in the ranches. Some were returned to their home ranch; some were not. I don't know how this was decided. Safe Haven kept an eye on the gangs from their Minneapolis headquarters, but there's no record of them interfering with their "survival of the cruelest" program.
• I found many references in the files to a SHSL entity. I assume that the first two letters stand for Safe Haven. I don't know what the last two letters represent. The managers in Minneapolis reported to this entity and sent large sums of money to SHSL monthly under the heading of fees. There is no reference in the files to where SHSL is located or what its function was. I believe that the Safe Haven Ranches were only one small offshoot of the larger SHSL organization. If this is true, our battle with Safe Haven has not been won yet.
• I found references to little blonde girls that Safe Haven was preparing for shipment to Scandinavia. I found no description of what this preparation involved. I did discover a list of twelve girls with code names. In alphabetical order, they were: Astrid, Elin, Elsa, Filippa, Freja, Gretta, Hedda, Marta, Karita, Lykke, Thea, and Tilde. The place where they were living was identified by a code. In abou
t September of 2085, all twelve girls were relocated to various Safe Haven ranches.
• As you know, when we searched the ranches after our battles, we found no little blonde girls. We assumed that kindly slaves took them to safety. I see no way that we can find them short of TiTr'ng each one. I don't know if we should be investigating this further.
• I found an obscure reference to another program that Scandinavia had contracted with Safe Haven. This one involved young girls too but I have no other information on it. This might be part of the program where all young girls were taken from the ranches at the age of 10 and returned about three years later.
# # # # # # # #
That evening, General MacLatchie briefed the directors on what Lucas had found. He summarized that they had three possible operations to pursue but the Wilizy had resources to conduct only one at a time. No director backed the option of finding the SHSL entity first. They figured they wouldn't be going anywhere soon. The directors could not reach a decision on the other two possible operations. Granny and Yolanda pushed for an immediate operation to find the missing slave girls and rescue them. Doc and Hank pushed for an immediate operation to rescue the slave boys who were currently in gangs. The men's rationale was not based on the gender of the slaves, but strictly on the fact that the Wilizy knew where the gangs were and could rescue them quickly. In the end, the decision was made by the general who was asked to break the tie.
"Which option is the best to pursue from a military perspective, Jock?" Granny asked.
Jock gave his answer without hesitation. "Militarily, when you have two enemies and you cannot attack both of them simultaneously, you attack the one that you know the most about first. If you delay, they may relocate to where you can't find them or they may take the opportunity of a delay to make themselves harder to defeat. In this case, you know where the gangs are and you can plan accordingly. You don't know where the girls are, and by the time you find them, they could be dead. Safe Haven is not known for its respect for living people."
Lucas received his orders from the general that evening. "Find all of the boys, rescue them as simultaneously as can be achieved and do not leave them free to wander away on their own. We need to place them in care properly after they are rescued." [Narrator: The Wilizy directors felt guilty that they hadn't kept the adult slaves close to their ranch until they could provide them with help re-establishing a normal life.]
"Any further instructions, General?"
"The Saskatchewan army can't be involved in this, Lieutenant. The government of Saskatchewan would not put Saskatchewan soldiers at risk for non-sanctioned operations. You are now on an indefinite leave of absence. Find a place to operate on your own. Check in with me from time to time."
# # # # # # # #
Bean had decided that the best way to avoid talking shower or beer heads was to never be alone in public. She now showered with teammates regularly and had been on two outings to pubs with volleyballers recently. The strategy seemed to be working. No talking heads appeared.
This Friday night, she was at a discrete pub six blocks away from her apartment with three volleyballers who had been friendly to her. They had enjoyed a meal and a drink in a dimly lit alcove of the small pub. She left the table to go into the washroom and was washing her hands in a sink of soapy water when Jak's face looked back at her from the sink.
"You didn't need to kill me, Bean," she chided.
By this time, Bean wasn't all that surprised that an inanimate collection of fluids could talk. She responded immediately. "You deserved it, Jak. You were in charge of all those operations against my people."
"I didn't kill them. I only made sure they wouldn't have any babies. I was following orders, which is what you were doing when you killed those Finns. According to your logic, I could kill you quite justifiably."
"You were going to kill me anyway."
"Because of your hobby."
"Why are you here, Jak?"
"Thought I'd drop in on you. I'm in Heaven, you know. I'm in charge of a military unit that goes out on undercover missions. I'm working my way up their Sniping Kill Wall of Fame. We're allowed to torture captives for information."
"Heaven has a military that kills from the shadows and tortures? That's ridiculous."
"My Heaven does. I should thank you for getting me into Heaven."
"Me?"
"Yeah. I was scheduled to go to Hell because of all those assassinations, but when you killed me without warning, they pardoned me. Your religion has rules about killing without warning. Apparently you were supposed to shoot an arrow over my head first. You didn't follow the rule."
"An old out-of date rule."
"Still a rule. One you knew about. So now I've been pardoned and my assassinations are part of your file. You'll have to pay for my sins. They have files here, you know. Yours is very thick. You'll be going to Hell. A pick up has been scheduled. I thought you should know. The captain is here too. You killed him before he actually had coerced sex with him, so you have his sins in your file too. He sends his regards."
"Jak, you aren't in Heaven," Bean insisted and then yanked the plug. She was staring into the swirling water when a woman entered the washroom and started working on her make-up in front of the next sink. Jak saw her staring at her through the mirror.
"What's your problem?" she charged.
"Pardon me for staring at you, but I recognize you. I thought it was you when I saw you leave your table. Now I'm sure."
Bean stared back. She saw a middle-aged woman, brown hair with magenta dye streaks, face with two deep frown lines, dark blue pantsuit, and a flash of light blue around her neck. "You're mistaken. We haven't met."
"No, we haven't met, but I saw you in another pub. The one where you took out the guy who was pestering you with drinks and desserts. I was there."
"I wasn't there. You're mistaken."
"I wanted to say how much I admired you for putting him on the ground. I've often wished I could do the same thing but I don't know any martial arts moves. If some guy bothers me, I show him this and he leaves me alone." The lady pulled the coat of her pantsuit aside to reveal a gun in a holster. "With this, they know I'm serious. I've never had to use it, but I could, I think."
"That wasn't me."
"OK. It wasn't you. Could I buy you a drink? I'm not a guy hitting on you. I'm only an admirer of a young girl who wasn't in a certain pub."
When they returned to the main floor of the pub, Bean's friends were leaving.
"My table is over here," the middle-aged woman said. "I'm on my own tonight. No man will pester you. My name is Livy, by the way."
"Stay if you want, Bean," one of the volleyballers offered. "She's right about no man pestering you."
Bean looked more closely at the pub's clientele. All were women.
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Chapter 25
The first day of Kashmira's incarceration within El Patrón's compound worked well. Sort of. More accurately, the first ten minutes of Kashmira's incarceration within the compound worked well. At 8:11, Kashmira's schoolteacher appeared at the front gate and insisted on speaking to El Patrón.
"Kashmira emailed me that you won't let her come to school in September."
"A minor discipline issue. She'll be back in school when it opens."
"She told me that you won't let her leave the property."
"She'll be able to leave once she learns to obey."
"She told me to donate all of her school supplies to the other pupils. She swore that she would never return to the school."
"Kashmira can be overly dramatic at times. She will be back."
"Paco told me that he's leaving school. Other boys are as well."
"She will be back."
# # # # # # # #
At 9:00, Paco appeared at the front gate and delivered his food into the kitchen. He stayed for an hour. By the time Kashmira walked Paco to the front gate, four other sch
ool-aged boys were loitering in the street. When they saw Kashmira, they crowded the gate, waving at her to attract her attention. Each of them pulled one of her school possessions out of a pocket and held them out for her to take.
"Let the boys into the front yard," she instructed the guard.
"I have no orders on that," he replied.
"Yes, you do. I just gave them to you," she replied. Then she opened the gate and motioned the boys in. What was the guard supposed to do? Pull her bodily away from the gate?
Kashmira, Paco, and the four boys sat in a circle on the ground and began to talk. Whenever the guard edged closer in an attempt to eavesdrop, Kashmira would stop the discussion with a raised hand, stare at the guard, and wait for him to go back to his post. The discussion huddle became tighter and tighter, heads became closer and closer. Some of the boys even worked up the courage to place their hands close to Kashmira's. They were rewarded with a quick pat on the hand and a brilliant smile. It was almost like they had been planning something and the hand pat was a thank you. Paco knew which boys in the class had the hugest crushes on Kashmira. Besides himself, that is. He had selected these boys for that reason.
# # # # # # # #
The next morning, Paco arrived at 9:00 and spent an hour in Kashmira's bedroom. At 10:00, she walked him to the gate where one of the boys from yesterday was waiting. Kashmira gave Paco a scalding kiss, opened the gate, and ushered him out. She took the hand of the waiting boy, pulled him into the yard, and into the house. The guard had no idea what to do. By the time he was able to react, she and the boy were down the hall and turning the corner to her bedroom. Guards were not allowed in the house unless Kashmira called for help.
The scene was repeated at 11:00 except this time the departing boy received only a kiss on the cheek. The incoming guest was taken by the hand and accompanied into the bedroom. By this time, the guard had reported to the head guard. Neither wanted to be the corpse who had told El Patrón that his daughter had had sex with two, soon to be three teenage boys that morning. Besides, El Patrón was in an important meeting away from Maasin City. That may have been a coincidence, or perhaps somebody inside an invisible sling had peeked at an open calendar lying on a certain desk.