Fallen
#20
I had just finished up at the hospital when my phone began to ring. "Hello?" "You wanted my guys? I got some demands." The voice said. "Do you really think you're in a position to be demanding anything?" I asked, the man who I could only identify as one Benjamin "C-Note" Franklin by the topic of conversation. "If you want to get a hold of my guys I am." He answered. "Fair enough, how do I get a hold of them?" I inquired. "First my demands." He said before listing off a number of things that I was sure would be nearly impossible to find in such a short amount of time. "I'll see what I can do, but I'm not promising anything. That shits gonna be hard to come by, y'know." I said after making a mental list of the things he wanted. "You'll get it. Now about my guys; meet them at Viking Square in forty five minutes, look for a black Escalade." "Viking Square, black Escalade. Got it." "Good." And with that the line went dead. I guess he's not one for good-byes huh? I sighed; I had no idea what I had just gotten myself into. For all I knew I could be walking into a trap. That was a risk I was willing to take, I had to be willing to do so, and there was no other option. I decided that it would be a good idea to call my sister and let her know that I wouldn't be home like I had told L.J.
"Hello?" she answered. "Hey!" "You still at the hospital?" she asked. I could tell by her tone that she was less than pleased with me, and I couldn't blame her. I chose a bad time to pull my disappearing act. "I'm heading to meet some people actually. I just wanted to call and let you know that I wouldn't be home as soon as I told L.J. I would." I replied. "These people you're meeting, do they have info on what Michael is planning?" Veronica asked. "Yeah. Well, hopefully they do… Listen, I'm sorry about last night. I should have come home and shouldn't have gotten all worked up." "It's okay. We're all stressed, but you have to believe me when I say that I had no idea that Michael had gotten married. If I had I would have told you. I know that you don't like talking about him, but sooner or later, you're going to have to talk about what happened between the two of you. It's not good for you to keep all of that bottled up inside." "I know, Veronica. It's just that there are more pressing matters at hand here. I'll make you a deal, when we get Lincoln cleared, you and I will sit down and we'll talk about it. Okay?" "Promise?" she asked. "I promise." "Okay, Cal. be careful meeting these people alright?" "I always am. I'll see you soon." "Okay, bye." "Bye." She was right, I needed to talk about Scofield and I. I just preferred to pretend that it never happened and hoped that in doing so it would make it go away. I don't need to tell you that that didn't work.
It was a thirty minute drive to Viking Square if the traffic was reasonable. I was lucky enough to make it in forty. The black escalade wasn't too hard to spot, considering that it was probably the most expensive car in the lot. Viking Square consisted mostly of small family businesses that seemed to really flourish only during the holiday season, so there were few patrons there, which also made it easy for me to spot the car.
I parked a few cars away and made my way toward the Escalade. As I neared it I could see that the occupants were two African American men, who seemed to be looking for something, or someone. They couldn't have been anymore than a year or two older than I. Both men continued to look away from me as I approached the open passenger window. "Nice ride." I said visibly startling them both, as I leaned on the door. They looked at me like I was crazy. I mean who just walks up to a stranger's car and acts like they have known the owners their whole life. Apparently I do! "Sorry," I said "I didn't mean to scare you." "You didn't." The man in the passenger side said. I smirked and gave him an "uh-huh" look. "You Lyndi Deacon?" The driver asked. "More or less." I replied. "And you are?" I asked. "I'm Darius," the driver said "and this here's James." I smiled at them both and nodded. "Nice to meet you both. You guys hungry? I'm buyin'" I knew I had them there. How many people do you know who would pass up a free meal?
We sat in a little Italian restaurant in a moment of silence after placing our order. "So why are you so interested in helping these cons out?" Darius asked. "Same reason you are. A couple of them are family." I answered truthfully. "How exacticaly are you going to help us?" James asked. "The man who was handling their post escape plans is no longer in the picture. So I have a place where they can stay, for a while at least. Plus, I'm sure you guys could use an extra set of hands." We spent about an hour at the restaurant eating and talking about life in general. I learned a lot about C-Note from them, he seemed to be a good guy who just got caught up in some bad things. Just like Lincoln.
We had made plans to meet back at Viking Place at 8:00p.m. on the night of the escape and then we would set our plan into action. The hard part was going to be keeping all of this from Veronica. I couldn't tell her that I knew what Scofields plan was, or that I had willingly become a part of it. Veronica would not approve of any of it, but I was willing to do whatever I needed to. We didn't have time to do things the "right" way. The next hardest thing would be making sure that we all made it out of this alive. To be honest, I wasn't sure if that was possible.