Honor Thy Mother & Thy Father Ch. 04

Note: This is a work of Fiction. Although the areas this story takes place in are real; the landscapes depicted, the people described, and everything else this story uses to make it enjoyable reading are NOT REAL. As you read this story, try to remember: "THIS IS A NOVEL."

The author retains all rights to this story.

*

13. Hidden and Found

What are the chances of two graduate students from the University of Massachusetts, in Amherst, running into one another, in a city of over 8 million people, at 8: 30 a.m. on a Wednesday morning? Unfortunately on that Wednesday morning, it happened to Patricia Garrett as she was on her way to the print shop. She was being followed by Janet, who was across the street from her, and Cynthia, who was about 20 yards behind her. The Don told her they were there for her security, because he did not want anyone to attempt to take her, like they had taken Stephano.

She laughed at him, when he said that to her. "What would they do with me, Don Bruno? Of what value am I to them? I have no family who could raise a large ransom. I have no political influence. Taking me would be taking a piece of driftwood and they know it."

Don Bruno laughed. "You may be driftwood, Patricia, but you are my driftwood, and I will allow nothing to happen to you."

"As you wish, Don Bruno, and your driftwood has good news for you. Your driftwood has gained 18 ounces."

"You probably weighed yourself after you drank a glass of water, Patricia."

"No, Don Bruno, I was holding a glass of milk."

Both of them laughed for a moment, but Don Bruno finished by saying, "You will put on some weight young woman; I do not want you getting ill again."

"I am eating better, Sir, and I am taking the vitamins the doctor told me to take. I eat three meals a day. Each evening, I have meat, chicken, or fish, plus a vegetable. I cannot do any better than that."

"All right Patricia, I can see you are trying. Come here for dinner Friday night. I am expecting another message that evening, with pictures of Stephano, from Zabo. I want to see if he slips up again."

"I am at your service, Don Bruno.

As she was thinking about the Friday meeting, she heard someone yell from across the street, "Patty, Patty, it is me, Steve."

She was not sure why she stopped, but she did. All through her college and graduate school years, all her friends called her Patty. She looked across the street and saw a young man running towards her. She recognized him and thought, "Oh shit."

He ran towards her, grabbed her, and kissed her cheek like an old friend. If he stopped there, everything would have been fine, but he didn't. Before she could say anything to him, he said aloud, "We all thought you were dead. We thought you had died in the explosion at school."

Patricia looked across the street to see if Janet had heard him; she did. She had her telephone in her hand, getting ready to make a call. She turned and saw Cynthia reaching into her handbag reaching for her gun.

She grabbed Steve by his jacket, pulled him, and yelled, "Run."

He did not understand why, but when he saw Patricia start to run, he moved like he was on fire.

Cynthia was aiming her gun at Patricia, when a shot rang out from behind her and knocked Cynthia to the floor. Janet was tackled to the ground before her call could be connected to the Dons' house.

By the time Patricia reached the end of the street, a black sedan was there, waiting for them. A man and a woman were standing there, with guns drawn and ID showing, ordering Steve and her into the back seat. Once the door closed, the car screamed across the street and headed across town to a safe house. Patricia was frightened. Steve was white with fear. He had no idea what he had walked into that morning.

Steve asked, "Patty, what the hell is going on?"

An agent in the front seat yelled, "Keep quiet, and do not say a word."

Patricia looked at Steve and shrugged her shoulders.

As they approached the Hudson River, the driver made a hard right turn, into the underground garage of a high-rise building. He brought the car to a screeching halt by the elevator. One agent got out of the car and hit the call button for the elevator. When it arrived, he locked it in position, ordered Patricia and Steve from the car, and into the elevator. They brought them both up and into a fourth floor apartment, where they closed and triple barred the door. From the outside it may have looked like in normal apartment, however, from the inside, it was an armed camp. It took up one third of the entire fourth floor. There were concrete barriers and two large safe rooms, one on each side of the apartment. It had a commercial kitchen, with two huge refrigerators, a grill, and an oven that could fit three turkeys in it. The entire set up looked like it could cook for 30 to 40 people at one time.

They separated Steve and Patricia, so they could interrogate both of them individually. After 15 minutes, they realized the meeting was completely accidental. Blown operations normally happened this way.

In Washington, the Director of the FBI was in the daily presidential briefing, when one of his staff members came in, and handed him an urgent message. He did not realize he verbalized it, when he said, "Fuck."

The president and those around the table, who knew the calm and cool director of the FBI, for many years, turned their heads toward him and laughed.

The president was not going to let Michael off the hook, because it had been a long time since he had something he could razz him on. "Michael, would you like to let us in on your little word problem?"

"Mister President, it is a female problem."

"Are you having an affair, Michael, or would you like to explain that answer."

"Mister President, would you the awful truth, or a gory lie"

"Somehow, Michael, I think the real story is going to be more fascinating than the lie to us this morning."

"Approximately 7 weeks ago, a 22-year-old woman walked in to our building. She handed us material that could help us bring down the five New York crime families. Her only request was that she be allowed to take down the Valentino family by herself. The supervisor she was speaking to said no, because she had no law enforcement experience or training. She stood up, and before she left said, "I am going to shut down all your computers tomorrow at noon. Goodbye." The supervisor laughed at her, because he thought it was not possible for anyone to do that to our computers. She gave him a card with her cell phone number on it. She said the only way to have the computers turned back on, was for me personally to call her, and beg her to turn them back on. The supervisor called the head of our computer security area. He told him about the threat to our computer system, and he was laughed off the phone. The next day, at 11:55 AM this young woman called the supervisor to make sure he had her card available. He said he did. She said, into two minutes, the building would go dark. Mister President, for the first time in FBI history, at 12 PM exactly our computers, our building, and our backups at Fort Meade went off-line for no apparent reason. All of our systems went out at the same exact moment. There was no rational cause for it. Our engineers could not find a reason. The supervisor called me and told me about the previous day's threat, and gave me Patricia's phone number. I called her immediately and told her in no uncertain terms to put our computers back on line. She joked with me for a few minutes, stating that our computers could not possibly be off-line, because it was impossible to do. I had to beg her to put them back on line, because our nationwide police system could not function without them. She taped me offering her complete immunity against state, federal, local, and municipal crimes, and told me in 30 seconds the computers would be back online. Mister President, in 30 seconds everything was back to normal. I hit the panic button, and ordered the building sealed because I did not want this woman to get out of our building after she told me she was in our cafeteria. I went down to the cafeteria and talked with her and her attorney, who I know very well, about what she did, and how she did it. I was so impressed with her; I hid her from the CIA, Homeland Security, and the NSA, when they showed up at my building to try and take her from me. As she was getting ready to leave, she asked if she could use our main frame. I gave her permission to do it at any time she wanted. She said she wanted to use it that day to give the Chinese a cold. When I asked her what she meant, she replied that she wanted to turn off every computer in China. Mister President, she was not kidding. Her program can do it. I got out of it gracefully, by saying that we did not do that stuff out of our building. I told her it was the Treasury Departments job to do it. She said, "Okay, I will go over there tomorrow and introduce myself. I will turn all of their computers off from there. I only wished she was joking, but in my heart I knew she was not."

She wormed her way into the Valentino crime family somehow, and ingratiated herself to both the Don and his son, Stephano. The Don liked her so much that he had her help him find a man that turned out to be Patricia's father. She knew this, before the actual event. She warned her father to be prepared to move and he did right after the event. She helped lead us to their satellite tracking facility in the Florida Everglades, something we were unable to find before. She did this by having herself injected with an extremely high dosage of a radioactive isotope. After she successfully did what Don Valentino needed her to do, she became ill with radioactive poisoning and had to be rushed to a Miami hospital. Her doctor did not know this, but I had a team waiting for her. She barely survived. This morning, quite by accident, a fellow student of hers from Amherst saw her in downtown New York. He crossed the Street and yelled, "We all thought you had died in the blast at school." Two of the Don's people were following her as a protection detail. When they realized she was our mole, one of them went to make a phone call, and the other drew her pistol to kill her. One of my men shot the woman with the gun, and another stopped the woman before she could make a phone call. This young woman will not allow us to keep her cooped up. She is so hardheaded that logic does not work on her. She will still want to take down the family by herself. I cannot put her in jail because she has done nothing illegal. I have no idea what I am going to do with her, Mister President. She is going to cause me the heart attack my two daughters have been trying to give me for the past 16 years. I do not want to lose that girl, I would never forgive myself.

The president looked around the room and asked for suggestions. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff suggested inducting her into the military, because we were at war. The head of the NSA said to give her to him. He would let her play with the Cray 4 computer, when things were slow.

Michael Free said, "Do not do that. It would cause the end of civilization as we know it." The president laughed at him

"Michael," the president said, "I am declaring that girl a 'National Treasure. I want her delivered to Fort Killian, Texas, as soon as possible, and in chains, if necessary. Put a tank battalion around her and protect her at all costs. Give her access to any computer she wants, and if she wants to walk around the perimeter of the base, let her. However, she is not allowed to step 1 inch off of it. If she wants to take any playmates with her, she can; just get her out of here and safe. Go Michael, do it now."

"Thank you, Mister President; I am on my way to New York."

Patricia was thinking the same thing. They are going to put me in a hole in the ground. They will never let me free again. I will not let that happen. Maybe I should get sick again, and escape from the hospital. She liked that idea, but that would only be step one. She needed to get out of New York and the surrounding area; otherwise she would still be trapped like a rat. She needed an airplane. She had the money to rent one, but with the FBI and the mob looking for her to do something like that. Her chances of success were minimal. She needed outside help, and there was one person, on the outside that could help her; her dad.

She opened her computer and went to her website and typed in a question, "Papa, I you are there, I need help. I am in trouble. My cover was blown this morning. Contact me as soon as you can."

"William was online. He was showing his blushing bride the pictures of Laura and Patricia on the ranch in Glen Falls, as part of the preparation for her to have someplace to go, if something were to happen to him. When the icon popped up in the corner of his screen, he clicked on it, and saw the message. He replied immediately.

"Daughter, I am here. Do you have any ideas on how would you like me to handle things, or would you like me to set it up?"

"Papa, they are holding me in a fortress like building. An army could not get me out of here. I am going to get sick, and they are going to have to take me to the nearest hospital. We are close to the Hudson River, between 9th and 10^th Ave. The Greater New York Hospital is at 75 Ninth Avenue. I plan to escape from that hospital. However, I do not know what to do from there. The feds will try to stop me. If the Valentino's find out I am there, the Don will try to kill me. I have to get out of town as quickly as possible; that means an airplane. I have the money for that, thanks to you, but if I try to rent an aircraft, everyone will know it. Do you have any ideas?"

Daughter, I have many ideas. However, I must tell you something first. Please do not be angry with me. I was married a few days ago to a lovely young woman a few years older than yourself. I love her dearly, as I loved your mother. Her memory will always be with me, however, I could not live in the past forever. I hope you understand.

"Papa, I am happy for you. I believe mom would be also. She knew if you could have had the opportunity to be with her, you would have been there. It was never to be. I hope the both of you have a long and happy marriage."

"Thank you very much for your kind words, Patricia. Jemma and I look forward to seeing you very soon. This is my idea, and I believe it will work to your advantage. I have found your hospital on the web. It is very close to 16^th Street. Run as fast as you can, West on 16^th St. towards the Hudson River. I will have a boat there to take you across the river to New Jersey. Run Patricia, your life depends on it. I will have cars there to block the roads from any vehicles trying to catch you. I cannot afford to have you trapped inside one. I will be waiting for you, when you finish your crossing. I love you, my child, and cannot wait to see you once more, Papa."

"Papa, we did not set a date. How soon can you have all of this ready?"

"Patricia, I believe the best time for everything to take place will be 5:30 AM tomorrow morning. Everything will be in place before you get to the river. I will be there, with my bride. Everything will be fine, from that point forward."

Michael Free arrived at the safe house at 8 PM that evening to find Patricia curled up like a ball on her bed. He screamed at the agents in care of her. "Did any of you idiots check on her during the day?"

"No Sir, we thought she was sleeping."

"Where is the closest hospital? We have got to get her there now. The radiation sickness is probably back. Get our doctors on the phone and get them over to that hospital."

"Sir, The greater New York Hospital is the closest hospital to us. It is at 75 9^th Avenue."

"Carry her down to the car, gently, and take her to that hospital. I will be right behind you."

"Yes Sir, everyone is on the move, now." One of the agents grabbed Steve by his collar and dragged him out of the apartment. He saw them carrying Patricia, and wondered what was happening?

While he was in the car racing with the agents to the hospital, he asked what was wrong with his friend.

The agent replied, "Radiation poisoning."

The agent realized his mistake. He turned to Steve and said, "If those words ever leave your mouth, you will be in Fort Leavenworth prison for the rest of your natural life. It will be a breach of the National Security Act of the United States. There will be no trial, and no appeal. You will not pass go, and you will not collect your $200. You will disappear off the face of the earth forever. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir, I understand."

The entourage reached the hospital within minutes. It was not what they expected, but it would do for now. The agent carried Patricia in and lay her down on a gurney. Director Free showed his identification and asked to speak to the highest-ranking Doctor in the facility. When she arrived, he took her aside and told her that Patricia was suffering from radiation poisoning; and what had been done for her already, in Miami.

The Doctor was incredulous. "How the hell did she get radiation poisoning?"

Director Free said, "She did it to herself. She is a strong-headed woman, and when she decides to do something, nothing on God's good earth can stop her. Believe me when I tell you, Doctor, I tried everything I knew to stop her from doing this to herself. She would not listen to my advice. She went behind my back, to a hospital up in the Bronx, to have it done."

The Doctor replied, "There are protocols to be followed. There are forms to be filled out. You have to get permission from the highest authorities in the FDA and the CDC. How did she circumvent those things?"

"I will give you the short answer to your question: MONEY! She bribed her way through the whole procedure. Very few people will say no to $50,000 for a few moments work. It nearly cost to her life the first time, I do not want to lose her, now."

"We do not have a PET SCAN here. The best I can do until tomorrow morning is give her a Mega dose of Immunoglobulin to help ward off the effects of the radiation poisoning. All of the trauma care centers on the east side are closed, because of a commuter train accident. We will have to keep her here overnight and move her first thing tomorrow morning, when they reopen."

"Alright doctor, just do not let her die during the night. Here is my card. If she runs into any problems, call me immediately."

As the director was leaving, Steve intercepted him and asked, "Would it be alright if I stay with Patty for a little while?"

"Yes, go ahead, it may even help her."

When Steve entered her room, the nurses were hanging bags of IV fluids, and the immunoglobulin. They looked at him and asked what he was doing there.

He said "The director said he could stay with her, and it may even help if she had a friend by her side."

The nurse smiled at him and agreed. She told him to go to the lounge, get one of the more comfortable chairs, and bring it back to the room, while they finished hooking Patricia up to the IVs.

When he came back, the guard was posted outside the room, but the inside of the room was empty, except for Patty.

He took her hand in his and held it. He said out loud, "I did not mean to cause you all these problems. If I could take today back, I would have stayed home and put my head in the freezer."

Patricia scanned the room through slits in her eyes and said softly, "Your head would have looked silly as a popsicle. Keep quiet and listen to me, Steve. I am fine. The radiation sickness is gone. I am faking this illness, so I can escape from the hospital early tomorrow morning. I do not want the Feds to lock me away, like a piece of jewelry. I want to complete the task I started, even though I can no longer do it from the inside. I know you meant me no harm. I would have reacted the same way you did, if things were reversed. How were you to know I was working undercover, when you thought I was dead? You could not know I was being followed. If you are willing to stay with me all night, you can help me with my plans to escape."