54 At the Safe House
"Jane. Jane. I think they're gonna make it this time. They're gonna get off the island."
Jane looked up from the Saturday morning paper laid out on the kitchen table towards the TV where Tom was sitting up looking back at her. She sipped some of her coffee.
"Come see."
She stood up and went over to humor him. Within a minute maybe two, Gilligan had screwed up the rescue plan. He always did. Tom never understood the larger pattern that even an eight year old would have understood by now, and after how many episodes?
"Wow. They almost got off. Maybe the next one." And on to the next episode he went.
She returned to the table. Saturday's paper had no more about the Wednesday shooting in the local park. She pulled Friday's paper. In the local news section she reread the article about a man shot by an off duty police officer in the park down by the waterfront. From the description, and the fact Dick had not returned since his Wednesday walk to that very park, she just knew it was him. She had reported through their code system Thursday to the Employer that he had not returned to the house. She would now report this morning that she believed Dick was dead and reference the Friday news article. Their kill order was still open for the boy. That might have induced Dick to risk something like this. Dick was smart and disciplined. He might go after the girl, if he had the opportunity, but she was still under guard in the hospital. So that left those two soul collectors. Jane had no idea what they did when they weren't collecting souls, but she knew she sure didn't have the kid. And she knew the cops didn't have him since the papers consistently referred to him being missing, kidnapped. So that left those two women. Could they have been walking with him, in public, and Dick happened upon them? And he tried to finish the job? And whatever mandated those two to protect the boy and the babysitter might still be in force. She didn't understand how it worked, but this situation made her uneasy. If the Employer came through with a new order to try again, what would she do? The kid had supernatural protection. If she tried to explain the supernatural angle, she could die, or the Employer might decide she was past prime and kill her. If she refused, the Employer likely would finish her and Tom off. She was between the rock and the hard place. Dead either way.
"Jane, come see. This is going to be good."
She wondered how many episodes of that show were out there. She had a shadow of a memory chasing her that she once overheard there was a movie made years after. That could only be worse. No way was she going to tell Tom. He would get depressed at the thought they were still on the island.
