My tools for saving the world...100 sheets of Ampad paper, a 0.5 mm Pentel P205 pencil, and a Staedtler gum eraser. It's also how I planned this story.
**Grieve My Mind, Furry Lewis**
It was nearly 2 AM and Kara's limbs felt like lead weights sinking into the bed but somehow her eyelids were perfectly buoyant. The darkened ceiling still contained the same sprinkler node, smoke detector, and HVAC vent as five minutes ago. She could hear a few people coming and going out in the hallway from the overnight watch, but mostly it had been dead silent for at least two hours. Her best friend outside of Danny might have just died a horrible death today and here she was irritated over a little lost sleep.
Kara, probably more than anyone, understood how evil Amy Granderson's regime had been. And Alisha was a bone fide hero in her book. She'd stood up for what was right in Baltimore, against her own mother. It wasn't fair that she should now fall to another case of treachery. She and Danny had planned to make Alisha Flutter's godmother but really, she was family already.
She had made it through dinner, picking at her beans and rice, and then she had come home and cried herself to sleep. But since she had woken around 11, she had been just laying there trying to come up with plausible scenarios where they had not died some horrible death involving bullet wounds, explosions, and drowning. She hadn't been successful. Every possibility she imagined had a flaw. They were almost certainly gone.
Her stomach had been growling for a while so she gave up on sleep, at least for the time being. She padded to the small kitchen and examined the fridge. She had bought a few snacks down at the trading market but the granola bars and packets of nuts on hand didn't appeal to her in the slightest. She needed something crunchy and salty but also gooey and satisfying, something a little messy. Nachos, that's what she really wanted. She eyed the door. This wasn't a ship. There were no rules about casual wear in the dinning room. Then she glanced back at the bed. The rumpled sheets hinted at hours more tossing and turning. Before she could change her mind she slipped into her sneakers, tied her hair into a messy knot, and buttoned Danny's shirt over her Fleet Week 2012 tee shirt.
She took the stairs and exited without going through the lobby. The guard there was leaning against the building but he straightened up when he saw her. "Ma'am"!
She acknowledged him with a faint "At ease." But she didn't stop to talk. The news of the attack hadn't gone around yet but she didn't want to talk to anyone until there was confirmation. It was going to be too great a blow to morale all around.
The dining area was nearly empty except for a few enlisted men refilling coffees. She could hear the clink-clink of dishes from the midnight meal being stacked so she marched right on in the swinging doors to the kitchen. A young man in a red Nathan James galley tee shirt looked up from where he was sorting clean silverware into cannisters for the breakfast line. "Ma'am! What can we get you?"
She suddenly felt a little embarrassed. Although officers weren't restricted to scheduled mealtimes on the ship, they usually stuck to what was left out between meals rather than trouble the already hard working kitchen staff. "Uh, I am sorry to bother you but I couldn't sleep. Is there any chance I can get something like nachos or chips for a snack?"
The young man eyed her pregnant belly, much more obvious without her uniform jacket to disguise her roundness. "Well, I don't know what we have to put on them, but come on back and the prep guys can help you." To her surprise, the kitchen staff were able to round up a pretty respectable plate of nachos from things they had on hand.
"I really appreciate it guys. I won't make this a habit." She took the metal pan they had heated them on and headed for a table by the outside windows. As she picked at the cheesy pile she tried to draw deep breaths and release her tension. It was hard to believe that just this morning she'd been sitting here laughing with Val and Kat about cell phones and babysitting.
She pulled a cheesy chip off the stack and munched. Something about cell phones stuck in her head. Val had said it wasn't likely that they would get reception unless they happened to be in an area that had restored their service. Still, she had tried calling all their phones this afternoon. And after Danny had described the gunfight and explosion she'd forgotten about the phones. She was lifting another chip to her mouth when it occurred to her that Val never really denied putting trackers on more than the radio.
A tiny sliver of hope crept into the back of her mind. If they were able to move, surely they would still have their phones. Alisha kept hers in her thigh pocket of her utility uniform and she took it every where. Excited, Kara pushed back from the table and headed toward Val's room.
Five minutes later, she huffed and puffed as she climbed the last flight of stairs. Even though Flutter was still just the size of a lemon, he or she already seemed to be taking up some of her lung space. She had meant to come over to this building several times since they arrived in St. Louis. Most of the enlisted were staying here as well as some of the civilians working with them. She'd never made it over though so when she entered the lobby she was glad to find that a room off the mail hall had been designated as a goat locker. A petty officer standing guard outside was able to direct her toward Val's room on the fourth floor. Unfortunately, the elevator hadn't been restored like it had in her building.
She paused outside the door to catch her breath. She had no idea if Val had a private room or not but at least there was a light on under the door. Squaring her shoulders, she stepped closer to knock.
She never got the chance because the door was flung open. Val looked her up and down. "Foster-Green! You'll have to excuse the mess, I wasn't expecting company tonight." She waved Kara through the door. Kara was hit with an unmistakable musty smell as soon as she stepped over the threshold. She took in Val's ripped heather gray capri sweats, pineapple bun, and knee length toe socks featuring a different rainbow color for each toe and concluded that she wasn't sleeping, but she hadn't been working either.
"How did you know I was out there?"
Val shrugged. "Pressure sensor." Kara turned back toward the door. From this side she could see a thin wire emerging under the door frame and attached to a small device that looked like an old cell phone.
She shook her head. "Has anyone ever told you you're crazy?" Val just grinned as if that was a compliment. Her hotel room was older than Kara and Danny's but it appeared to be a similar design with a small kitchenette on the front wall and the bedroom near the windows on the outer wall. Val didn't appear to have much interest in cooking though. Every surface was covered in electronics and every outlet had a power strip or charger attached to it. How had she acquired so much hardware so quickly, Kara wondered. Just a few weeks ago she'd left the oil platform with only her laptop bag and the clothes on her back.
"So, I suppose you've come to ask me if I might have illegally lojacked anything other than the radio today, like say a certain lieutenant's cell phone?"
Kara's eyes shot to her's. "That is exactly why I came here. Did you?"
"Now that we had our little meeting with Judge Siskin this afternoon, I feel I ought to remind you that any information gathered from such an operation would be illegal. You have to promise me you will not implicate me. You cannot divulge how you learned what you might learn."
As she was talking she led Kara into the center of what was supposed to be the living room. It was practically unrecognizable now. There was a workbench and stool where a coffee table had probably resided before. The top of the workbench was cluttered with tools and bits of wire. A bright orange extension cord was duct taped to one side and a soldering iron was plugged into it. Several computer monitors were hung on the wall opposite the stool and Val pulled over a keyboard, turning down the vaguely Bollywood music she had been playing. She looked expectantly at Kara, her fingers suspended over the keyboard. "So, Do you still want me to break the law for you?" She smirked.
Kara looked at the electronics clutter all around the room. "You probably have this on camera or something so I can take the fall as the ranking person if you're ever caught, don't you?" Val shrugged one shoulder but her eyes stayed fixed on Kara. "I'm surprised you haven't checked your trackers already. I was under the impression you were quite interested in the health and wellbeing of a certain member of the group."
Val didn't fall for it. "Officially, I know nothing." Kara wondered if she was being cautious because of this afternoon's stern warning by Judge Siskin, because she had been duped so thoroughly by the Ramseys, or because she was feeling a little paranoid edge."
She nodded, without saying anything aloud. Val's eyebrow ring twinkled in the harsh verhead light as she raised a brow and waited. "I simply cannot proceed unless I am under orders." And then she sat patiently blinking at Kara, her expression neutral.
After a moment of staring at her in disbelief, Kara threw up her hands. "Fine, I want you to show me your magic map so I can go to bed not so worried that my friend has died!"
"There, that wasn't so hard, was it?" Val's fingers flew over the keys and the orange map from this afternoon appeared on one of the monitors. Kare instantly recognized, with a sickening rise of acid in her throat, that the blue dots representing the locations of the comm kit hadn't changed from that morning. A few seconds later a new series of white dots appeared on the screen. They were much more widely spaced than the blue ones, but they followed the same trail, except there were three at a location on the Detroit side of the river that were nowhere near the blue dots.
Val sat back on her stool, spinning the seat idly side to side, waiting for Kara to comment. "These three here, can you display the timestamps?" Behind her, she heard the click of the keys and then the times were there on the screen, 1700, 2100, and 0100 hours. Her breath caught. They were alive! Kara fisted her hand over her mouth as a half a sob escaped her.
"Now I want to warn you, there are all sorts of reasons why her phone might not be on her person anymore. It doesn't mean she's al.."
"Shut up Val." Kara turned toward her, her face a mix of smile and tears. Val was grinning back at her from ear to ear but as soon as she saw Kara's tears she hoped off her stool and came and put her arms around her.
"You're right. I'll shut up." Her hug was warm and genuine. And even though Val's hair stank and neither one of them was a hugger in the first place, Kara was so unbelievably grateful in that moment, she gave her a tight squeeze back.
"Thank you Val. Thank you so much."
Val nodded, a faint blush stunning her cheeks. "I won't say it was nothing, but of course, this kind of thing has to be invisible so that's practically the same." They shared a nervous giggle.
"Ok then. I am so relieved." Kara looked at the map more closely. Can we pinpoint where they are? It's somewhere close to the tunnel entrance, isn't it?"
Val stepped back to her keyboard. "Not exactly. It's in the general area of a casino, a few hotels, the federal buildings, the courthouse and a bunch of other possibly secure locations. And with the timing what it is, I really can't say much about their condition, only that her phone moved. So there's hope."
Kara swallowed past a lump in her throat. Hope would have to be enough for tonight.
"I was fixing to get out some oreos when you showed up. Want a late night snack?"
Kara smiled. "Thanks, but I better get home and let my baby rest. I have to figure out how to direct help their way tomorrow without ever letting on that I know."
Val nodded and led her to the door. "If there's any changes at 4 or 9 you'll be the first to know." Opening the door, she leaned heavily on the knob for a moment. "I've been wracking my brain all day and night for some way to communicate with them. If you get any ideas, message me right away. I doubt I'll be sleeping."
Kara could see that it was the truth. Val always looked a little disheveled, but tonight she also looked worn down in a way Kara hadn't seen since the first few days after she arrived from the oil platform. The bed Kara had seen from the living room was perfectly made up and the couch area had been littered with sheets of light green graph paper, bearing labels like "Communication Plan #1" and "Rescue Contingency #2".
"Get some sleep yourself Val. We can't do anything tonight and we'll need our wits tomorrow. The best thing we can do is be ready for anything."
