True Lies - Redux Ch. 07

Then I drove off to my secondary apartment, not the condo. It was just possible my enemies did not know of it, yet. They certainly knew of my condo, my official home address - and once Rachel's.

I started manhandling the cabbie inside with me - he was still stunned and almost unconscious - and suddenly a woman was there helping me. Jennifer!

I just nodded at her.

"Hi, Jim, who is this? A drunk cabbie?"

"I'm not exactly sure but I need to find out. I'm pretty sure he was sent to fetch me and take me someplace else I probably don't want to go to as his prisoner."

"Ah, but you might want to go there under your own volition?"

"Yeah."

He started to come to and briefly struggled right as we got to the apartment's door. Another Aikido lock and nerve pressure convinced him otherwise and soon he was in the spare bedroom and zip tied and gagged.

I let him ponder his situation a bit.

"Why were you here, Jenn?"

"Elaine and I both got a just in time warning from "Cowboy" - someone high up was really clamping down on the agency, as much as they could. They didn't have all the names but enough to really shut us all down, for now. I figured this would be a good place for me to stay under the radar. Our phones still work but we need to be real careful keeping them on. We think NSA still can't break the encrypted comms - talk, email, or messaging - but they can still locate us physically quite well! Is your phone on?"

"Nope, the battery was conveniently run down while I was in jail. And I turned it ALL the way off, as soon as they released me and gave it back."

"Jail?"

"DHS holding cell - suspected of espionage/foreign terrorism, or some such BS. Pretty sure someone high up in the admin decided to turn me over to Grayson, or maybe just our Iranian friends. Did you hear about Rachel?"

"Oh, no, Jim - Rachel?"

"She's missing, presumed kidnapped. Her Mom is dead and her Dad almost - last I heard - in a coma and critical. Someone also made a very clumsy attempt on my Mom and Dad as well. They're still OK, though, last I heard."

"How do we contact Elaine? Any way other than these phones?"

"In person. Food court at a shopping mall every other day, different malls on a schedule, if we both decide it all looks clear."

"OK. Let's talk to the cabbie."

He looked pretty alert and I took the gag off of him.

"Where were you taking me?"

"You're crazy, buddy. I was going to take you wherever you wanted to go. That's what us cabbies do!"

I took my little .22 short revolver out and shot him in the right knee through a pillow. Then used the pillow over his mouth until he stopped screaming.

"You had two guns on you. Both expensive quality weapons. We already checked the cab and neither back seat door will open from the inside and that bulletproof window between the front and back seats is even stronger than normal. Now, answer my questions or the torture really starts. If you answer quickly and truthfully we'll actually take you with us as we go there. And we'll leave you alive. The longer you delay the less reason we have to hurry, eh? Now, what was that address again?"

He gave us the address and we were on the way....