Chapter 40
The mood was grim as Drex and Katherine eventually entered the safe house. It had been a long, disappointing day, and Katherien’s feet were tired. Not only had the plan, the plan she had never wanted to be involved in, gone badly, but all her known paths of how she would get back to her peaceful life back in Athens were also gone. She and Drex had not said a word from the moment they left the termination center.
Katherine moved her eyes across the faces of Amnon, Keetha, and finally, her husband. All of them looked defeated, at sea, and hopeless. The only obvious thing to do was lick their wounds and live with the endless imaginings of what might have been.
“I’m glad you made it back,” Amnon said, breaking the silence with genuine relief on his face. I was worried Saw would find you out.”
Drex collapsed into a nearby chair and said, “I’ll tell you what I wanted to do. What I wanted to do was to do the plan even with Yatha in the hatch. But there was no way to communicate with Katherine, and every way I worked it out on the drive, I kept coming to a disaster. So, instead, we delivered Lillian to the termination center just like Saw Yatha ordered.
“Why did Eye Patch go along for the ride?” Evan asked. His voice was thin and tense.
“You’re guess is as good as anyone’s,” Drex said.
“Well, that’s that,” Amnon said. “We gave it a good effort, but there isn’t time to develop a new plan.”
“You can’t,” Katherine began, “you’re the head of the prison, right? You can’t go in there and —”
“And what?” Amnon cut her off. “Take her for a walk? Wouldn’t that raise some eyebrows?”
“I wasn’t going to say that,” Katherine said.
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” Evan said. “We’ve been working out plans while we waited for you. Nothing but dead ends. Do you know which cell she’s in?”
Katherine looked at Drex, who shook his head. “Saw and the duty guard walked her in. We had to wait there until Yatha was ready to leave.”
“Mmhmm. Unless you know which cell she’s in, we can’t sneak in. We can’t have someone else go and fetch her. I can’t ask for her cell number without raising questions. We are, in a word, out of ideas.”
“That’s three words,” said Drex.
“That’s fine,” Katherine said, sitting up, “but how do we get home, Evan. We don’t belong here. We belong on earth. We belong in our lives back,” she flung her arms in desperation, “wherever ‘there’ is. I hate that man for shooting me, for getting me involved in this whole thing, and I hate him for easily pulling our plan apart. How did we not think of that?”
“I’ve been beating myself up over that one. How did we not think of it? He must have gotten spooked somehow…”
“Or overly cautious,” said Drex.
“Or didn’t want someone else to get the credit for putting her away,” said Evan.
“Fine,” continued Amnon, “but our communication channels were clean. We had a pristine transfer protocol. We had gone above and beyond in our preparation.” Amnon slapped his hands on his thighs, “And he, with one move, unravels the whole thing.” He rubbed his face and slumped back in his chair.
“This isn’t helpful,” Keetha said, making eye contact with each person as she spoke. “This is a setback, but there is still time to do something. We didn’t start this because we thought it would work. We started this because it is the right thing to do. I think it’s still the right thing to do.”
“She’s in, Keetha, she’s in the, you know this, the most secure place in the realm,” Amnon said.
“I agree things just got more complicated, but until she’s dead, and maybe not even then, will I give up hope that Merlain can be free again.”
“That’s very inspiring, Keetha,” Drex said, “but what’s the plan?”
“Well,” she blew out her cheeks, “maybe we should consider Evan’s plan?”
“The one where we walk in the front and ask for the Princess, please?”
“I don’t hear you offering suggestions, Drex,” Keetha said.
Amnon silenced them with a gesture, “Arguing isn’t going to solve this. I agree with Keetha’s heart, but unless something changes, I think we’re all out of ideas.”
Drex’s device began to chirp. He raised his eyebrows to the group as he reached for it and answered the call.
“Yeah?” he said.
The voice on the other end asked, “Is this secure?”
“Doesn’t much matter at this point, does it?”
“Is this secure?”
“Yes,” said Drex, “what do you have?
The voice on the other end said, “I heard you had a bad day, but I may have some good news.”
“We could use some right about now.”
“I can’t vouch for the purity of this, but I have as good a source on this as I can that Lillian is in cell 2187.”
“Why would you know that?” Drex asked.
“That’s a good question. The Department of Communication was celebrating Lillian’s lock up and someone else got word from a source that she was in 2187.”
“Weird.”
“No, what’s weird is the way it came out made it seem like Yatha wanted everyone to know the number. So, do with that what you want. I just wanted you to have all the same information as I did.”
“Yeah. Thanks,” grunted Drex. The transmission ended. He looked at the group and shrugged. Keetha activated her device and soon projected a schematic of the termination center.
“This is the last official layout of the center. Now that we know the cell, maybe we can figure a way in.”
Katherine said, “You’re still going ahead with this?”
“Like I said, we’re not out of time yet.”
Keetha pulled up Lillian’s cell level. Soon, cell 2187 was located. She scanned the team’s faces, her eyes gleaming.
“What are you smiling about? We still have no way in,” Drex said.
“Maybe we do,” said Amnon. “This isn’t just any cell. I forgot about this till now. Before Lillian escaped the last time, Saw worked on a secret project at the termination center. The most I could discover at the time was that it was a place he hoped to put her in before her execution.”
“What does that mean?” Evan asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t think it was ever used, so I forgot about it. It’s not on a level we typically need. Not since the last realm fell, anyway.”
“So, what are you thinking?” Keetha asked.
“I’m going to say words, and you all can stop me when I go too far.” Amnon started to control the projected floor plan. “I can’t walk in and ask for Lillian, but I can walk in and ask to inspect something. The something I could inspect is this cell.” Amnon pointed to one of any non-descript cube-shaped rooms on the floorplan.
“What’s in that cell?” asked Evan.
“Nothing as far as I know,” Amnon said, “but it sits just above this bit of ductwork. During the inspection, our inspector and I could find our way inside the duct passage, drop into the cell below, cell 2187, and see if we can’t sneak Lillian out in broad daylight, and no one will be the wiser.”
There was a long, contemplative silence. Amnon rested his hands on his hips, wondering how far off into lunacy the idea was.
Moments later, a flood of ideas and questions flowed from the team. If this was to work, who would be the inspector? How would Lillian not be recognized? What if Saw showed up? The team worked through the night, hammering out plans and filling in cracks. Ultimately, it was decided that the cracks were too numerous to fill with the information on hand. It had been a long day and a long night. It would be better to go in with a logical plan than one that required a healthy dose of luck.
Amnon stood and asked for Keetha’s hand. “Now, get what sleep you can,” he said. “We have our work cut out for us in the morning. Drex, can we drop you somewhere?”
Drex stood. “Thanks. I don’t think I could drive back. My brain is shot.”
Amnon nodded, said good night, and led Keetha to his transport.
“You know it’s a trap,” Keetha said once Amnon pulled away from the safe house.
“What is? The sudden knowledge of the cell number? I’m sure it is. What I can’t see is how it is. Not yet, anyway.”
The transport slipped through the night to the city center, where Keetha and Amnon would find sleep but not rest. After dropping Keetha at her place, Amnon lay in his bed and stared at the ceiling. He kept turning the facts in his mind, trying to find the trick to Saw’s game. I just can’t see it, he told himself just before sleep overtook him.
