Chapter 26

Amnon sat silently next to Keetha as he navigated the transport to the outskirts.  The day had been a success as far as his superiors knew.  Lillian’s trial had begun without incident, which was the biggest thing to them, but being transported to and from her prison cell safely was the biggest thing to Amnon.  The more she was held securely, the more it showed that he was in lock-step with Dol.  The moment things went sideways, and Lillian was freed, there would have to be a lot of fast-acting coordinated parts before the jaws of Dol’s military clamp tight around him and all of his hopes.

The thu-thud thu-thud of his pulse drove him forward, focusing his thoughts.  Only when Amnon felt Keetha’s hand on his thigh did his thoughts return to the present.

“Are you okay?” Keetha asked.  Amnon saw calm compassion in her milky blue eyes.  Nothing seemed to rattle her.  His adrenaline was at maximum output, and she looked like they were leaving town for a refreshing getaway.

“Yeah.  I suppose,” he said, tightening his grip on the controls.  “Do I not look okay?”

Keetha smiled and laughed slightly, “You look like we can’t get there fast enough.”

Amnon kept his eyes on the path ahead.  “I suppose the faster we get there, the faster we get back.  The faster we get back, the less chance we look suspicious.”

Keetha arched one eyebrow.  “You don’t look very suspicious to me.”

Amnon allowed himself the smallest of grins before increasing his speed slightly.  He really couldn’t get there fast enough.

When the transport arrived at the safe house, and Amnon had it properly camouflaged, he and Keetha knocked on the door.  Amnon heard some shuffling on the other side of the door before it opened, and he was greeted by a strange man.  The man saw a swarthy and stout figure that appeared to have a “get out of my face” attitude.  Confused by this surprise, Amnon opened his mouth but couldn’t find words.

“Good to see you Drex,” Keetha said.

Drex eyes Amnon before nodding and allowing them inside.

“Drex?” Amnon began, “I’m…”

“Yeah, sorry,” Drex stuck out his hand, “I know who you are.  Just never seen you before.”

Amnon grabbed Drex’s hand and knew instantly that whoever this man was, he was not a stranger to labor.  The hand was thick and solid.  Amnon suspected Drex could have crushed his hand in the right circumstance.

“I asked him to watch the children while we were away,” Keetha said as she surveyed the place as if she were seeing its decorative potential.

Amnon held his hand as stiff as possible as the men shook hands to save himself the pain that was likely to come.  It didn’t and Amnon was grateful.  “Where are the, did you say children?”

Keetha flashed her eyebrows as Drex led them through the entryway, down a short corridor, and into a larger room.  There Amnon saw Katherine Gold seated in a cushioned seat and Evan staring out a window.  The Gold’s turned as one to see the guests.  Katherine saw who it was and resumed her silent vigil.  Evan turned to face any news that might come from the three aliens.

“Glad to see you are getting on alright,” Amnon began, trying to sound easy-going.  “Lillian’s trial has begun, and if anyone suspects what is going on here, I don’t know about it.  Though, I suppose if anyone does know about the two of you, they may not suspect it is connected to Lillian.”  Amnon walked to a table near the room’s center, pulled a viewing device from his tunic, and began to read it.  “Now, if events continue to go smoothly, I suspect the trial will only last three more days.  I can go into that calculation if you want that level of detail, if you – ” Amnon looked up and saw that they did not want that level of detail, so he went back to his notes, “Fine.  Which means her sentencing would happen the next day and the execution the day after that.  I would say that gives us five days to iron out the details.”

“Details?” Evan asked and Amnon looked up.

“Excuse me?”

“What details?”

“I’m just getting to that.”  Amnon turned to Drex, “Does this place have a – “ he pointed to his device and Drex knew what he meant.  Drex walked to a panel near the room’s door, pressed something on it, and the image of Amnon’s device appeared, glowing against the opposite wall.  Even Katherine couldn’t not keep from turning her attention to it.

The image before them looked like a run-of-the-mill floor plan like the one’s the Gold’s could have found easily back home.  “This,” Amnon was able to point with his finger on his device and a corresponding dot appeared on the projected image, “is the Princess’ cell.  It is three layers below ground.  Every day, she is brought through this hallway, up this carrier, which dumps her out into this loading area.  From here, Lillian is secured in a prison transport and taken to the courthouse.  At the end of the day, the course is reversed.  Now,” the map changed to a different floor plan, “on the day of the execution, the path to the loading area is the same, but instead of leaving and heading to the courthouse, she will be taken this way,” the dot veered to the image’s left, “to the prison’s execution center.”

Amnon brought his eyes up to meet his team’s, “My plan is that we, in disguise, assume the duties of the transport and drive her here.  While this is an important part of our larger plan, it is largely to serve as a distraction.  A distraction of what?  Well, at the same time, another part of we, by that I mean you,” he pointed at Evan, “is using the code embedded in your fetterseal to temporarliy shut off the Central Processing Unit, allowing the Coellum safe passage into our realm.  If all goes well, the battle between the Merlain and Coellum forces will be an even bigger distraction that should move all attention off of us.  Should Lillian be actually as powerful as her reputation suggests, Merlain and the other realms should be free and soverign very shortly.”  Amnon’s eyes passed over the room several times.  “Any questions?”

After a silence that seemed much too long for Amnon’s taste.  Then Katherine Gold refocused on the window and Evan Gold spoke.  “You’re not trying to sideline me, are you?”

Amnon set down his device.  “Sideline?

“You know, keep me out of the action.  You know, I’ve not made a very good secret of the fact that I came here to rescue Lillian.  She made me promise to that fact and I am to keep that promise.”

Amnon drew a deep breath.  “Yes.  You have not kept that a secret.  However, you are the one she gave the code to.  If she is freed and the code isn’t used, the whole effort is worthless.  Do you see?”

“And there’s no way to do one then the other?”

“I’ll forgive you for your ignorance, but once the Princess is known to be missing, there will be no safe place for us.  I don’t see how we pull her out and ever get close to the Processing Unit again.”  Amnon heard the emotion in his voice rising and attempted to steady his breathing.  Keetha placed a hand on his arm.

“That’s okay, Evan,” the team turned its attention on Katherine who still faced away from them, “the whole plan is a joke.”

“I wouldn’t say a joke,” Drex said looking sympathetically at Amnon, “but there are some, how should I say, problems with it.”

“Okay,” Amnon placed his hands on his hips, “what?”

“For one, how are we going to get control of the, what did you call it, transport?  I swear I’m living a Buck Rogers flick.”  Katherine walked over to the map.  She touched the image with her finger as she’d seen Amnon do, and just like him a yellow dot appeared on the projected image.  She didn’t know what she was doing, but she couldn’t help but think it was a little bit fun.  “You say she’s under heavy security, or you didn’t say, but she’s in a prision, so I assume as much.  We’re just supposed to, the five of, well, wait, how many of us will be with Evan?”

“I was thinking he and Keetha.  She can get access, and he can…”

“Fine, so three of us are to overwhelm…”

“That’s what I was going to say,” Drex said.  “I agree with you that the fetterseal needs to happen at the same time as the Princess, but the part at the prison alone is a ten person job at best.”

Amnon dragged his hand across his face.  “I can see that, but this is what we have.”

“Here’s a suggestion,” Katherine said, “and I’m only saying this because my understanding is that this is fastest way for me to get back home not because I actually care about this cause.  But what if we, you mentioned disguises, what if we didn’t take the thing from people, but we were the ones driving it the whole time?”

Drex pointed at Katherine and nodded his approval.  Amnon turned his head to Keetha who also gave him a nod.  He focused his attention back at the floor plan.  So,” he thought for a moment. “Yes. If, Drex, can you drive one of the transports?”

“If you can show me a diagram of the controls, I can.”

Amnon turned to Keetha, “Can you get a uniform for…” he pointed at Katherine when he couldn’t come up with her name.

“Katherine Gold, nice to meet you.”

Amnon gave her a curt smile.  Keetha said, “I can.  And I can get her worked into the security detail.”  Keetha turned her attention to Katherine.  “You’ll need to know and follow the protocols, so you don’t make yourself obvious.”

“I don’t know what you just said, but sure.”

Amnon said, “And then what?  We drive her back here like planned?”

“What are the chances a second vehicle could be used?”  Evan asked.  “That is to say, one that goes to the place we want it to go and another to the place Dol expects it to go.”  He turned to Keetha.  “Mr. Saxe here said you know of a group of people like yourselves.  Is Drex here the group or are there others?”

“There are others,” Keetha said, “but they are not as easily accessible at the moment.  Their absence would be too easily noticed.”

Evan rubbed his chin.  “I see.  Well, how about, yes, how about,” he pointed a finger at Amnon, “you get three transports.  You got enough drivers for that?”  They each get a different route, so even they don’t know where they’re headed.”

“Yes!” Amnon said, “and I tell them all eyes will be on the princess, so we want to confuse people who might want to make a name for themself.”

“Just like a game of three-card monte.  Ol’ Eye Patch should enjoy that one.”

The new vision, the better vision, began to crystalize in Amnon’s brain.  “Yes.  Yes.  Yes.” He seaid with increasing confidence.  “This will work.”

“Well, it kind of has to,” Evan said with a chuckle, “or we all get strung up.”

“If that means we all die, yes.” Amnon said.  “Keetha, start getting Katherine,” he emphasized her name, “up on what she needs to know.  I’ll get the other transports ordered.  Drex, if you’ll line out the different routes.  And Evan,” he looked at the most important part in this whole plan and realized there was nothing for him to do, “keep that hand safe,” Amnon said eventually.

Amnon watched as the team got to work.  Keetha took Katherine to a side room to orient her to the ways of the Merlain prison guards, Drex drew out his own device and gave it his full attention, and Evan and Amnon stared at one another.

Amnon opened is mouth to say something, but hadn’t quite figured out what, when his communicator buzzed.  He turned it on.  “Yes?”  He listened for a moment and then roled his eyes.  “I’m not far away.  I’ll be there as soon as I can.  See what you can do to hold them off from making a decision until I get there.”  He turned off the communicator and made his excuses to Evan.

“I must go.  Saw Yatha has been called to testify as a witness at the trial tomorrow.  We need upgraded security because we don’t know what he may surprise us with.  See if you can keep everyone on track.  I know you can’t possibly appreciate the weight of this, but, come what may, I’m glad you came here to fight for us.”

Evan nodded, and Amnon, awkwardly, smiled, nodded, and headed out into the real world.