“Yolanda?” Yolanda was watching the northwestern skies – the direction I was heading. The place where the trap would be set. There was a large military base in that direction and we were expecting their copters and troops to cut me off at some point.
“Some copters are coming into view now. Can’t determine numbers yet. No sign of troop transports yet. You’ll be able to destroy pumping station #7 for sure. Not sure after that.”
“Granny – what’s happening in Edmonton?”
“Izzy is pretending to do yoga; Zzyk is pretending to do paperwork. The guards have returned from taking her mother away.”
“Did Doc find out where they went?”
“Yes. Doc told Izzy that her mother is being kept with other captured dissidents inside a large compound with twelve buildings – mostly dormitories as well as a cook shack, latrines, and so on. The prison is in the middle of nowhere with a double set of electrified wire fences around the compound and security guards who appeared to be very lax – at least the few minutes that Doc was overhead. That’s probably because the area between the fences is mined, just like at the borders.”
“Did Doc follow Hugo back to Zzyk’s office?”
“Yes. We now know where Zzyk is hiding.”
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Chapter 25
Izzy's words: 7:30 p.m.
"Will’s copter is down," Granny’s voice echoed in my brain. "He's safe but on foot. Forest cover is good."
Zzyk's aide appeared one minute later. He had a spring in his step and he spoke animatedly albeit quietly to his boss. Zzyk pushed aside the paper on his desk, opened a drawer, and took out a nail file. I watched him attend to his nails from underneath my eyelids.
# # # # # # # #
"Pursuing copters have established an initial perimeter with Will's downed copter as the center," Granny announced. "Hank says at least forty copters are dropping soldiers to the ground. The circle is approximately two-kilometers in diameter. They have Will surrounded but there are large gaps in the perimeter line."
The aide reappeared, whispered and disappeared. I heard a thunderclap way off in the distance. Bad weather coming. Great!
# # # # # # # #
Will's words: 7:45 p.m.
“Troop transports have dropped their soldiers into the defensive perimeter,” Yolanda said from her guarding position high above us. “The perimeter is still being filled. I'm guessing a thousand soldiers are in position and waiting. How’s it going down there? You're running out of time.”
I heard Hank reply, “We’re almost done.”
“Me too,” I said from inside a dead tree. I had chosen to have mechanical difficulty sooner than planned after I saw the huge downed cedar. Pretending that my engine had failed, I had veered off course, crashed the copter in a visible area, and hightailed it on foot north. I made sure that I left visible signs of my passage until I had reached a creek where they would expect to have difficulty following my trail. From there, I had sky-slinged it back to the fallen cedar.
Hank had used the cutting tool on the light sabre to hollow out a space inside the fallen tree big enough for me to hide in. Now, he was slicing up the dark rotten wood that he had already dug out into unidentifiable little pieces. Wolf was scooping these up into his jacket and dispersing them. I had climbed into the cavity and was roughing up the smooth sides of the cavity with two little digging tools I had made out of the light sabers on my thumbs. I rotated in a complete circle to get all sides of the cavity looking like I had carved them out with a knife.
“All empty troop transports have left the area and most appear to be returning to their bases,” Yolanda reported. “Looks like the two Edmonton transports are going back to Fort McMurray and not back to Edmonton. The soldiers in the perimeter are now advancing. You have ten minutes at best before soldiers could have a visual sighting. You need to get out of there soon!”
I made a little nick in a finger, left a blood smear, and climbed out of the hollowed out trunk. Hank and I pushed the mud/root plug Yollie had made into the end of the log and we checked that it was undetectable. Then, we all hovered in place, sweeping the ground clean of our tracks with some cedar boughs before joining Yolanda in the sky. Yollie would return to the site later and pull out the plug so that they’d eventually find out how I had supposedly hidden from them. The five of us banked off into our assigned directions and we all accelerated to just under the speed of sound.
# # # # # # # #
Izzy's words: 8:40 p.m.
Zzyk waited until it was dark before giving me the bad news that Zurt’s copter had crashed; bragged that he had over a thousand troops in a small circle around Zurt and the circle was closing as the troops walked forward a few feet at a time. They were so close together now that they were almost holding hands. Their portable lights meant that nighttime would not give Will any chance to escape.
I told him that I didn’t believe him.
Zzyk described what Zurt had left behind in the copter after it crashed; chocolate bars wrapped in plain white paper; also blood smears.
I didn’t say anything; turned around so he couldn’t see my face; started thinking happy thoughts. In case they still had someone monitoring the sensors, they would see my despair.
“Hugo, I believe you have been looking forward to meeting Miss Stanley?”
I turned around at that.
“Take your team. Feel free to use a great deal of force but I want her alive.”
“I know where Will buried all of the gold coins that we took from the DPS. I’ll trade you…” I wasn’t allowed to continue.
“I’ll know the location soon enough, Melissa,” he snickered and broke the connection.
# # # # # # # #
I moved to the window and began making wracking sobs to cover any noises I might make. I saw a lightning flash in the distance and paused, counted the time to the thunderclap, and returned my attention to the window. I inserted the modified metal hooks of the four hangers into the tiny holes I had previously melted through the windowpane and turned the hangers so that they were securely fastened to the windowpane. Two shower curtain rings were hanging from each of the hangers. Since the shower curtain was still attached to the rings, the curtain dangled from the windowpane and trailed away on the floor. I wrapped the loose end of the shower curtain around my waist and began to rotate in place – gradually tightening the curtain in the process and, in turn, fastening me securely to the part of the windowpane that I was going to cut out.
The other gear I needed was nearby. I had already formed the wooden crate's metal strapping into a circle big enough for me to climb through and had positioned that metal circle against the glass window. Now, I began heating the metal with one of Will's trip wires that was now connected to my pinky computer. With both of my hands free, I was able to hold the wooden tent pole tight against the hot metal strapping and keep the pressure on it while it melted through the windowpane. The soggy towels kept the wooden pole cool to the touch. The shower curtain kept the circle of glass in place until I was ready to pull it into the room. The hot metal strapping pushed through the glass in seconds.
While I was melting my escape hatch, Doc was landing on the roof and disabling the six guards who had been left behind. Then, he lifted the four baskets containing the crying children to the roof one at a time. The empty baskets returned at about the same time as I was manhandling the cut-out circle away from the remaining windowpane and onto the floor. The glass was still too hot to touch directly but I had the damp towels to take care of that.
I was messaging Granny that I was ready to escape when a rolling thunderclap put an exclamation point on my excitement. Granny gave me Winnie’s countdown on Hugo’s copter. It was 8 blocks away, then 7, then 6… At four blocks away, there was a bright flash and a huge clap of thunder. Everything in the apartment went dark, including Zzyk’s videoconference unit and its sensors. The guards would have to land and walk up eight floors in the da
rk. That would give me plenty of time. Using the light from my pinky-ring, I spilled hair shampoo and bubble bath all over the floor between the hallway door and the center of the apartment and then made sure that everything I’d need was where it should be.
Back to the window. The lightning strike had taken out the power to the whole neighbourhood. I pulled one of the empty baskets through the hole in the glass and into the room. A quick climb up that rope and I’d be gone. I turned my green mask so that the thick fabric covered my eyes and assumed a position with one foot in the basket. When I heard the sound of splintering wood, I sent a mental communication to the Wilizy that resulted in a brilliant lightning flash outside the window that would allow Hugo to see that I was escaping.
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Chapter 26
The Narrator: Evening of April 30.
This is one of those times when I, as your narrator, must intrude into the story. Neither Will nor Izzy knew what happened in Zzyk's office after Hugo and his team had been given the pleasant duty of capturing her and bringing her back to Zzyk's office complex. But, from records recovered from DPS offices decades after Will and Izzy's final battle, I am able to fill in the holes of what happened that evening of April 30, 2082.
At 8:40, the mood in Zzyk's office was one of elation. Well, as much elation as a Z might be able to conjure up. Zurt was surrounded, on the ground without transport, and at least slightly wounded. The cowardly slut Izzy had tried to cut a deal at the last minute to save herself from some pain. Zzyk had ignored her and had dispatched three men to use whatever force they wanted to subdue her and bring her in. While some of the platoon guarding her room had been pulled out to search for Zurt, Zzyk was confident that he'd have the pleasure of her pained company by 9:30 at the latest. After all, he still had guards above her, below her, in the rooms to either side of her, and outside her door. A thunderstorm had disrupted the electrical power to that part of the city, but that would not alter what was going to happen to her.
It was 10:00 now, and the platoon of guards that had been sent to determine why Hugo's team wasn't responding had returned to head quarters. They brought with them only one person – Hugo’s apprentice. The cowardly slut, Hugo, and the third guard were nowhere to be found. Also missing were the four babies and their baskets.
The platoon leader described what he had found in the apartment – the film of liquid soap on the floor, the metal cutting band, the circle of glass lying on the floor, and the ropes hanging outside the window. It was clear how she had escaped. The platoon leader gave Zzyk the poster that he had found pinned against one of the walls by her emerald green, high heel shoe - the one with the bug in it. The poster had a sketch of a young girl on the top and the following words below:
FREE BABY
FOR EVERY IOF HUSBAND AND WIFE
WHO JOIN THE WILIZY
Zzyk ripped the poster into bits and turned his attention to Hugo's apprentice sitting in the chair previously occupied by Melissa’s mother. The apprentice was still in the plastic DPS restraints that the rescue team had found him in. The blood on his face had dried so, what Melissa had carved into his cheeks was quite clear.
“How did she disable you?” Zzyk asked.
The apprentice didn’t know. He had been blinded by the lightning and had slipped and fallen on the floor. He had woken up to find himself in restraints.
“Probably a filled plastic water bottle,” the platoon leader said. “Several other water bottles were scattered around and he has a swelling behind his ear.”
“Do you know what she carved on your cheeks?”
The apprentice nodded, wondering how much longer he had to live. “Two letters – a W and a Z,” he said.
“Did she say why?”
“As a warning to others who abuse defenseless citizens.”
The timing couldn’t have been better for the apprentice. Rick entered the office at that point. “Everyone out,” he ordered and Zzyk’s office quickly emptied.
“Everyone's too frightened to give you the news,” he explained to Zzyk.
“What news?”
“Every troop transport that was used in the operation was destroyed ten-minutes ago. From all accounts, they were all blown up simultaneously. They were parked, empty, at three different military bases at the time. We don’t know how they were destroyed.” Rick paused. “That’s not all.”
Zzyk nodded for him to proceed.
“Three of our reserve troop transports in Edmonton and all four of our transports in Calgary were destroyed at the exact same time.”
“The southern chapter,” Zzyk said to himself. “And Zurt?” he asked Rick.
“He’s not inside the circle. “ We’re still looking, but in the darkness…”
Zzyk and Rick sat without talking. Digesting the news. Understanding the implications.
The plans for the B.C. assault were useless now. Instead, they themselves were now vulnerable to attack. The bulk of their forces would have to remain in the north to protect the oil.
Buying replacement planes for the destroyed transports was impossible – they weren’t manufactured any longer. With most of their troop transports destroyed, the DPS would have to deploy their forces in small units around the IOF. No longer could they respond quickly to threats by amassing and transporting overwhelming force.
“What happened to Hugo?” Zzyk asked Rick at one point in the long evening.
“No idea,” Rick replied.
Zzyk would never learn that Izzy had dropped a heavy tent onto the roof of one of the buildings in the dissident prison compound at about 9:30. She had watched from her sky-sling as some dissidents came out, climbed onto the roof, and undid the gift-wrapping. Hugo and his tent restraints disappeared into the building. Shortly afterwards, that building was full of guests. All of the dissidents had been tortured upon their capture as a matter of routine. Hugo’s victims would decide what justice he deserved.
Meanwhile, the third DPS guard – the technician who had distributed Izzy’s cartoons of Zzyk – was sitting all by himself on an Aboriginal Nation mountainside. Safe. Unharmed. Cold. For some reason, Zzyk never asked Rick what had happened to him. But, a good executive assistant would be expected to know, and Rick did.
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Chapter 27
Will's words: About 10:30 p.m., April 30.
By the time I returned from Calgary, the rest of the transport demolition team had already arrived at the Wilizy. Granny had turned off the black cloud chemical making machine and so the ship was making slow but steady invisible progress towards the Aboriginal Nation border in the clear, moonlight sky. Winnie was drawing pictures of herself on the galley table – she had seen Izzy’s collection of Winnie portraits and was keen to try some of her own.
Doc arrived shortly after I did. Doc warned me that he hadn’t told Izzy yet that he had married Granny while we were being tourists. He didn’t want to distract her while she was dealing with Hugo. We were all just sitting around the galley waiting for Izzy when she messaged that all had gone well at the prison and she was on her way to the ship. We were all on deck to greet her when she appeared through the sail portal. Yollie pushed me forward so I was the first to be hugged. Only it wasn’t just a hug. Izzy was trembling at first and then we were kissing a bit, and then I sort of forgot about the others being there until Wolf said something about dousing us with a fire hose which made every one laugh except Izzy and me. Granny said that there was “nothing wrong with a little passion” and she had been watching us closely so that she could learn a few things to try out on Doc. Izzy looked at Doc and he gave her the wink, and so he and Granny were next in line for the hugs. I think Izzy likes Granny and Doc certainly has been happy the whole time we were working together.
Izzy went around the whole group – was introduced to Wolf who gave her a much longer hug than he had to. The greeting with Yollie was much shorter – I don’t think Izzy like
s her that much. Then, we all trooped back into the galley where Winnie was waiting with hot chocolate that she had cooked all by herself and we all finally got to relax in the galley where we sat around the big heavy table on folding wooden chairs that Hank had provided. He had also brought in a sofa so that Doc and Granny would have a comfortable place to sit when they were in the ship.
We decided to take turns recounting what we had done and how well it had gone – part of making sure that we hadn’t forgotten anything and part so that Izzy would know everything that had happened while she was a hostage. We let Winnie go first – so she told us how she had used the telescope to follow the copter from the building with no windows to the building with ropes hanging off the roof, counting down the blocks as the helicopter flew just like Doc had told her to. Granny said that she had done a very good job, which made Winnie smile and she curled up on Granny’s lap.
Doc had his turn next. He cautioned that just because we knew where Zzyk’s office was – that didn’t mean that he would be there in the future, or that was where he lived. He could live in the building deep underground, or he could have tunnels from that building to others. The office’s location was useful information, but its importance should not be exaggerated. Doc also told us that he was late because he had transported a DPS technician into A.N. territory. Since it was her idea, he’d let Izzy tell us about it.
Granny asked Izzy to tell us about her eleven days in the apartment and we all stared at her and waited.
# # # # # # # #
Izzy's words:
I didn’t want to say much about the time I spent in the apartment. Some things had happened there that I wasn’t particularly proud of. I was happy about the escape plan though, so I described that up to the point where Doc and I had loaded everyone aboard the copter.
I thought I should explain what I had done about the two torturers; I didn’t have the opportunity to talk it over with Will ahead of time. I told everybody where I had dropped Hugo and they all thought that Hugo had received justice. I also told them about using the light saber to put a W and a Z on the cheeks of Hugo's apprentice. I had first thought of the idea while I was practicing with the light saber this morning. I had remembered Will carving Zs into the air and that had made me wonder how the people in the IOF would respond to a Zorro-like person fighting against the DPS. I hadn’t intended to actually do anything – Will was the one who had the costume; he was the one who thought Zorro was so cool. I had daydreamed through most of the movies he had been glued to.