“One of my shoes has a bug in the sole,” I said. “I figured Zzyk had something in the conferencing equipment, and managed to remove the back of the unit, but I didn’t know what to do next.”
Will asked me to put the end of the filament inside the back of the unit, which I did. Then, I told him that I’d meet him back in the bathroom; didn’t tell him that I had been naked the whole time I was talking to him and needed to put some clothes on. I was dressed when I heard the filament scratching on the bathroom door and let it back in. I shut the door and reconnected.
“I saw visual, sound, motion, heart beat, skin temperature, breath rate, plus other sensors that I’d need to test more carefully to determine what they were.”
No wonder Zzyk had been one step ahead of me all the time – he was reading my biometrics! Realized Will was waiting for me to answer a question. “Sorry. Repeat.”
“I can disable these sensors, but that will alert him immediately. Can you leave the sensors in place and still escape?”
“Yes! I’m ready now.” A computer-computer exchange couldn’t convey the excitement I was feeling. “Meet me on the roof!”
“No place to land,” Will replied and my excitement was instantly gone. “At least fifty soldiers are on the roof – all on high alert waiting for me to approach the building. They have what appears to be a giant net. I'm not sure what else they have. Also, Zzyk has soldiers surrounding the building, not only immediately outside, but in three concentric rings as well. That doesn’t count the copters they have patrolling outside the rings – looking for a missile launching site, I assume.”
I didn’t know what to say. I hadn’t given any thought to what Zzyk would be doing to catch Will; had been focused entirely on my situation; felt guilty about that.
“Izzy, are you still there?”
“Sorry. Yes. I had wanted to leave tonight because bad things will be happening tomorrow.” I told him what I would be seeing tomorrow at 6:00.
“Wait. Probably thirty-minutes.”
# # # # # # # #
Will was back more quickly than that. Told me that advancing his own plan to tonight was impossible. Also, trying to start both plans earlier tomorrow in order to avoid the 6:00 meeting with Zzyk would have me trying to escape in daylight which I had told him had to be avoided. Doc thinks that there’s a way to deceive Zzyk into abandoning your mother’s torture, but you won’t be able to avoid watching it altogether. He ended with, “How much can you tolerate?”
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Chapter 23
Izzy's words: Day 11 of imprisonment.
I spent most of the morning practicing with the weapon Will had given me. Will’s explorations of Stanford University had led him to a laser lab and knowledge about light that the DPS had kept from him. While I was in New York filching chocolate bars, Will had been working on some new powers that could be added to the filament. He had intended to surprise me with a working prototype when the masked ball in Surrey interrupted his plans. I had two of the prototypes on my thumbs now – they were the braided wire rings that he had sent with the crate. Will just needed to transfer the software's operating program to them and that had taken five minutes last night.
I could fire one of three types of beams out of the braided rings: a gravitational beam that would either attract or repel; a magnetic beam that would also attract or repel; and a laser beam that, depending on the intensity, could do anything from carrying a communication signal to cutting through heavy steel. Will had used that laser beam at the airport to slice through the copter's gas tank and that had produced the giant fireball.
I could create a short, narrow magnetic, gravitational or light beam if I wanted a lot of close-in power, or I could have a long, wide beam for broader effect. The gravitational and magnetic beams were invisible to the naked eye; the laser beam appeared as a bright light. All of these functions were activated by thought or voice messages to the braided-ring. The light saber of Star Wars meets the 21st century.
I was doing my martial arts exercises, pretending to use a laser beam. I couldn’t practice with the real beam since Zzyk’s sensors in the video conferencing unit might pick up some trace of them from inside the shroud of the tent. I set up the most likely scenarios in my mind and practiced swinging my light saber in a pretend battle. Princess Leia in moccasins, white shorts, an emerald green short-sleeved shirt, and an invisible sky-sling. I'd be wearing that special touch to my fashion statement throughout the day just in case Zzyk had a surprise up his sleeve.
Exactly at 11:00, Zzyk started bombarding the room with a throbbing base beat of some musical instrument. I expect that it would become quite aggravating in time. I took the tent shroud away from the video conferencing console, grabbed two of my paintbrushes, and started drumming an accompaniment on my wooden crate. About half an hour into my drumming practice, I started making up songs to go along with the beat. I was making up songs about Zzyk when the sound suddenly stopped. Unfortunately, not too many words rhyme with Zzyk. He might say that he doesn’t care what people think about him, but I bet’cha that Zzyk does care about inferiors calling him thick as a brick.
# # # # # # # #
At 5:30, I checked that the room was ready. Everything I wanted to take with me was stored in the large cloth bag that I could sling over my shoulder. That bag was in a corner by the window. The glass of the window had four small holes through them that were unnoticeable unless you were right in front of them. Four clothes hangers, the shower curtain, some of the metal band from the crate, two soggy towels, and half of the tent pole were thrown together in a big mess in front of the window. I had laid the tent out flat in the center of the room next to the empty crate. I had also thrown a couple of my unopened plastic water bottles around the room and had scattered some art supplies and the last remaining metal band in the vicinity as well. Except for an obvious clear space in the middle of the room where the kidnapping squad would stop to threaten me, the room was a complete mess. The bathroom was a similar pigsty with all of my art gear thrown into the bath tub to keep it out of the way. Guess I’m not a very neat hostage.
# # # # # # # #
Will's words April 30, 5:30 p.m.
The copter that I had borrowed from the DPS was on the ground and safely out of sight in the northern forests of Alberta. Hank, Yolanda, Wolf, and Yollie were hovering invisibly in the air a few kilometers away from me and that copter. They were all fully proficient in operating their slings – had been for over a week now. We had completed some dry runs with the weapons and the communication network this morning. Right now, the five of us were close enough to be able to communicate directly with each other through the communication channel on the wide-band laser beam that we were using; plus, we all had pre-programmed laser-comm links back to the Wilizy which was hovering invisibly over the infant care facility in Edmonton, hundreds of kilometers away. Granny was in charge of communications – she had just notified us that Izzy had opened up her commlink. From now on, Granny would know everything that Izzy said and would hear everything that came out of the video conferencing unit. She’d pass the important stuff to us, as necessary.
Doc was operating the long-range telescope in the Wilizy right now; later he would make the necessary pickups from the roof of the care facility. The last time he reported in, fifty-six DPS guards were on that roof. Doc was proficient with the computer ring weapon as well. Winnie was in the Wilizy too – Yolanda had said that she was too young to be left by herself so she had taught Winnie how to use the Wilizy’s telescope. Later, Winnie would take over Doc’s job on the scope. All of us were waiting for Izzy’s Proceed signal.
# # # # # # # #
Izzy's words: Day 11, 6:00 p.m.
Zzyk looked at me sitting on the crate and smiled. I was wearing my moccasins, white slacks, emerald green turtle neck, and the white vest with the feathers. The emerald green mask from the ball was around my eyes. He probably thought that I was going to use it to bl
ock out the sight of my mother being tortured. That’s not what it was there for. I was wearing the mask because I was going to escape in Melissa style. I was going to leave them with something to remember.
“Have you asked Zurt to come in, Melissa” he asked.
“Nope.”
The camera panned to show my mother slouched in a chair with black leather restraints preventing her from sliding to the ground. The brain-band was attached to her bald skull; she had bruises on her face, a swollen lip, and one closed eye. Hugo’s apprentice stepped up to her side and shook her. “Your daughter is watching now; talk to her.”
I didn’t pay much attention to what she was said; watched her though. She was having difficulty getting the words out. The camera panned back to Zzyk.
“Are you sure I can’t convince you to bring Zurt in? Perhaps you’ve asked, but he’s refused? If you just told us where Zurt was, or where he would be at some point in the future, your mother would be spared.”
I didn’t see the point in telling Zzyk where Will was going to be – he’d find out soon enough. I did want to say something, though. “Zzyk, you do realize that what you’re about to do crosses the line. You understand that the Wilizy will respond.”
“Threats from a fifteen-year old slut mean nothing to me.”
“Show me my mother again.”
The camera panned.
“Can the guards hear me?” I asked.
“They can,” Zzyk replied.
“I want to be sure that the three of you understand that what you’re about to do crosses the line. I want you to know that the Wilizy will respond.”
Hugo sneered, showed me a little control box in his hand, and tapped it a few times. Each time he did, my mother shuddered. The guard next to my mother slapped her again when I looked directly at him. I couldn’t see the face of the third – he was in a shadow.
“Well, Melissa. Will you promise to bring Zurt in or do we go ahead?”
“Proceed,” I said.
# # # # # # # #
Will's words: 6:05 p.m.
“Izzy says Proceed,” Granny said into my brain. I lifted the DPS helicopter off the ground and began flying west. A pumping station for Zzyk’s oil pipeline quickly came into view. I circled it, instructed my braided ring to create a long, narrow laser beam and the pumping station disintegrated.
Sensors on the line would report a loss of pressure and fail-safe measures would be employed to shut down this segment of the pipeline system. This oil was precious. Alberta’s oil sands were probably the last remaining source of oil in the world. Alberta didn’t use what they produced for itself. Instead, Zzyk traded the oil to other countries. The oil sands were the source of Zzyk’s wealth and power.
Zzyk had placed a heavy military presence around the Fort McMurray oil sands facilities to deter foreign forces from trying to take his oil away. I had also seen small mobile military units throughout the area – ready to counter attack the flanks of any enemy force. "Got’cha, Zzyk," I sent. It was the signal to everyone that Target #1 had been destroyed. I turned the copter northwest towards the next pumping station and away from Fort McMurray.
# # # # # # # #
Izzy's words: 6:25 p.m.
“She’s enjoying it!”
A uniformed man I had never seen before approached Zzyk’s desk and repeated his comment. “I tell you, she’s enjoying it!” He put a sheaf of paper on Zzyk’s desk and pointed to things as Zzyk quickly leafed through the pages.
I saw Hugo step back in apparent hesitation – looking at his boss for instructions.
“Don’t stop, Hugo,” I said. “Zap her again.”
“See, she’s enjoying it. This reading is off the chart. She’s not angry, she’s not afraid. She’s enjoying this!”
They all looked at me.
I had moved my crate so that I was closer to the screen, and was leaning forward to get a good view, a big smile on my face. “You didn’t know that I hated my mother?” I asked as innocently as I could manage in spite of the turmoil in my gut. Will had changed the polarity of a number of sensors so that they’d show the exact opposite reading of whatever emotion I was feeling at the time; what the uniformed man thought was me enjoying my mother’s torture was actually me wanting to dig out Hugo’s eyes with the sharp end of a rusty crow bar.
Zzyk held up a hand to Hugo. “Wait. I have to rethink this.” He looked at me steadily. Assessing the new information. A Z assesses new information slowly; I decided to help him out.
“My mother shunned me for eleven years – refusing to talk to me or have anything to do with me that entire time. She never had a kind word for me; she never cared if I was sick; she never comforted me when the other kids in the camp turned against me. I grew up with a mother who hated me and showed me that hatred every chance she could. So, you tell me. Why would I care what happens to her?” I knew my mother was conscious; I knew that she heard my words. I couldn’t tell her that I didn’t want her tortured.
Zzyk motioned to someone behind the camera and another uniform appeared carrying a thick binder. “There are hints of that,” the man said. We all waited while Zzyk read the pertinent pages that had just been flagged.
Another uniform entered the camera shot. The cluster around Zzyk dissolved as he approached. He whispered something in the Zzyk’s ear.
“Well, well, Melissa. Zurt just blew something up.”
“I told you we could communicate.”
“So, do you know what Zurt blew up?”
“A pumping station.”
“Ahhh. That changes things now, doesn’t it.”
I let him stew.
“The message being – pumping station now, oil storage facilities if I don’t agree to your demands.”
I shrugged and smiled.
He turned to the waiting Hugo. “Take Melissa’s mother back; see that she receives what medical treatment she needs. You return here, afterwards.” Then, he looked back at me.
“I’ll tell Will at our next scheduled communication,” I said as though I didn’t care. In my mind, I messaged Granny that the guards would be leaving Zzyk’s office and taking my mother with them soon.
“You can’t tell Zurt now?”
“Will’s very angry at you. Said he’s going to blow up enough pumping stations for you to see that he’s serious. He has deliberately shut down our communications system so you can’t pressure me or deceive me into stopping him.”
“Looks like we’re going to be working together, after all,” the evil gnome conceded.
“We thought you’d see it that way. Will usually burns off his anger in about an hour and a half, perhaps two. Most of your pumping stations should be safe so long as you don’t provoke him any further.”
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Chapter 24
Izzy's words: 6:30 p.m.
"Pumping station #2 has disappeared," Granny's voice murmured in my brain. I immediately instructed my pinky ring to begin timing. I was pretending to work on my sketchpad, but was actually keeping a close eye on what was happening in Zzyk’s office through the live feed that still connected me. Zzyk had disappeared after his presumed concession speech and had just returned.
Granny’s voice came into my mind again. "Izzy, Doc reports that almost all of the security forces surrounding the Edmonton infant care facility have redeployed at high speed to the nearby military airbase. I’ve already told the team up north."
That was why Zzyk left his office, I concluded. I watched him working through a big stack of papers on his desk. The aide reappeared and whispered in his ear. I stopped the timer. Zzyk had received the message about the second destroyed pumping station fifteen-minutes after the fact. I waited and watched Zzyk’s office while making meaningless scribbles on my sketchpad.
The aid returned and I looked at the time. Pumping station #3 had disappeared at 6:45 and the aide reappeared nine-minutes afterwards. "The pursuit is getting closer to Will," I messaged to Granny. "T
hey’re less than ten-minutes behind him now."
She replied, "Doc says that two troop transports are heading north out of Edmonton."
We had made it easy for Zzyk to go after Will. I had worried that we were making it too obvious – but Will said we weren't. Said that Z’s are used to thinking in straight lines, not curved ones. They’re used to being logical, not sneaky. I knew he was right. That description fit Will perfectly – at least when we had first met. I just hoped that it fit Zzyk perfectly too.
Will was traveling in a straight line from one pumping station to the next and at what appeared to be the fastest possible speed his aged helicopter could manage. After the second strike, Zzyk knew exactly where he was headed. My comment about how long Will would take to lose his anger told them how long they could expect Will to continue blasting pumping stations. It was easy for them to calculate the optimal location for their trap. The troop transports would arrive at the trap well before nightfall – Will had planned it that way deliberately.
Granny’s voice came back into my head. "Doc says that he has Hugo’s copter in view and will turn the telescope over to Winnie now."
# # # # # # # #
Will's words: 7:15 p.m.
“Pumping station #6 is gone,” I sent to Granny. “Any change, Yollie?” Yollie was at high altitude – watching the southeast corner of the sky. I was flying northwest at treetop level – far too low to see any impending threats.
“The DPS copters behind are still keeping pace with you,” she replied. “They can be on you in five-minutes if they choose to increase speed. Fort McMurray’s two troop transports are holding position two-minutes behind the copters.”
“Any sign yet, Hank?” I sent. He was keeping an eye out to the southwest for the two troop transports from Edmonton.
“Nothing yet.”
“Wolf?” Wolf was watching the northeast. The nearest base in that direction was small and quite distant. I wasn’t expecting them to respond, but wanted to be sure.
“The northeast is clear.”