“Dad, I’m almost a teenager. I can help with this. They won’t suspect me.”
“We need Jaxson to lay down on the ground in a few days, making it easier to replace him with the dumb dummy,” I said.
Amber giggled, quietly, to herself.
“Okay. Not a bad idea. I will meet with my computer guy tomorrow to see if he has learned a way to shut these suckers down. But if we could drive many of them away, that will definitely be easier. Here’s the only thing…It may prove that Saige doesn’t care about Jaxson and that they are wasting their time. Keep in mind, if they figure you don’t care, then they won’t have any need for him. We have to work quickly because if he is no longer useful to them, then they may just drag him back to jail.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Meryk wanted to move us closer to the downtown courtyard and I had suggested that we use the apartment that I had prepared. I convinced him that if he had a leak in the network, they might know where all their safehouses were and that my place had not been used in a long time. Eventually, he agreed.
I was proud of my place. Swept and dusted. Food. Sky-Guy seemed to have gotten used to moving when we did and was more relaxed than a cat should have been.
The last thing this plan required was a lot of my clothes drenched in sweat to be placed in campsites across many miles in every direction.
Sweat dripped from my nose and Amber wiped articles of my clothing, sealing them in bags and tying them tightly. Ruby organized them into piles in another room to hand out to the campers.
“Won’t it be… obvious… that the items… are staged?” I panted. I repeated the circuit. One minute of Jumping Jacks. I breathed heavily, grunted and groaned.
“Nah, we will make it look like you are camping by leaving stuff behind. Always on the move. Clotheslines left behind. Fire pits gone cold. Remnants of a tent staked to the ground.” Amber had been listening well. She likely wanted to be a part of the plan, running to the north, leaving my sweat-scented clothing on a trail.
“Take these little containers and try to collect a little sweat,” Ruby said.
I stopped my Jumping Jacks and looked between Amber and Ruby. I panted.
“Why?”
“To wipe along leaves,” Ruby said, as she took another bag.
“Gross,” I said, blasting an exhale and taking a moment to catch my breath.
“It’s for Jaxson, remember.” Amber winked at me.
That intrigued me to continue to run on the spot. I smelled so bad that I could smell it emanating with each wave of my arm.
Then I thought about the amount I would need to fill containers of sweat. That made me think of the number of jumping jacks, mountain climbers and butt kicks I would need to do to make it happen. I grumbled at the idea.
“Mom always has good ideas, doesn’t she, Saige?” She winked at me.
“Oh yes! Such…brilliant…ideas.”
“Keep running. Get sweaty.” She laughed, mocking me.
I switched to high knees and jumping. Then lunges. Amber collected small containers.
“I will take those shoes you are wearing. I can drop them somewhere,” Ruby said, as she came in to grab a new article of clothing. “I mean, when you are done.” She giggled as she left the room. Pure evil.
“Who is…feeding Jaxson today?”
“Lindsey. She’s taken him some rice. Nice and small. The insects won’t smell it. Too bland. But fills the belly. And Alyssa is supposed to spray water on him as she walks about. She’s gonna try to squirt some into his mouth.” I didn’t know these names, but I guessed that they were friends of hers. Her eyes sparkled as she spoke of them.
“Is that dangerous?” I asked. “What if they get caught?”
“She said that she will pretend to read near him. Spray the water. Those things won’t notice.”
“It worries me,” I added. “I won’t handle it well if someone gets hurt because of me.”
“It’s okay. It’s not fair how they are treating him. They are trying to draw you out. And at least he knows that you are trying to help him.”
“I’m not going to be drawn out.” I had to stop for a moment.
Amber got me a chair. “You aren’t done, you know.”
“I know. I will never be done.”
“That’s the spirit.”
I nodded at her. I wiped my forehead with another sock.
“But when we get him out of there…I mean, if you go straight to him…” Amber chose her words carefully.
Ruby had come up behind me and added, “I wouldn’t put it past them to set this up as a rescue mission, simply allowing us to take him and then track him back to you.” Ruby sighed. “We will have to be very careful.”
“Yes. He’s probably got a tracker on his clothes,” I said.
“Or in him.” Amber stuck her tongue out and made a gagging sound.
Ruby nodded. “We will check for cuts where they may have implanted trackers before you ever come close to him.”
“You know what was funny, too?!” Amber, suddenly, exploded into laughter. “We have sent a few other people to throw putrid garbage on him to distract. Right now, he’s covered in crapadoodle.” She belly-laughed, thinking that this was the funniest thought she had ever encountered.
“Crapadoodle?”
“My mom says ‘crap’ is a bad word,” she whispered. “I learned if you add ‘adoodle’ to it, she doesn’t mind it so much.” She laughed again.
“Don’t get the hiccups,” I said.
“I won’t.”
“Are the videos still recording? Will we be able to see what the guards are doing?” I started another round of sweating.
“Yep!”
I tried to speak but now I jogged on a spot again and my breath caught in my chest, my muscles burned. I slowed down and allowed myself another break. Then I asked again. “Who will be listening in on the guards? Where is that happening?”
“After we collect enough scent from you…”
“That sounds disgusting when you put it that way.” I imitated Amber and stuck my tongue out and made a gagging sound. Amber made the motion for me to keep going.
“After you are done, I can take you down to listen. We have it being set up as we speak in the tunnels beneath the deepest basement. Just in case. And there are those who will guard the two ways in. We will listen with headphones. Anything that we hear, we will be scribing. So, you can read it through, too.”
“Okay.” I didn’t like this idea. I would be too far away to help if things went sour. I couldn’t be tucked away in a tunnel somewhere in the dark. I needed to be sure that I saw him with my own two eyes.
Amber studied my face. “Stop that hamster wheel from turning. We have this thing figured out.”
“You do, do you?”
“Well, no, but my Dad does. Right Momma?” she called out to Ruby.
“What’s that?”
“Daddy. He has this all planned out, right?”
“Yes. Lure the guards and insects away from here. Let them think you don’t care about Jaxson. We get Jaxson out of there and you are safe beneath the streets. We will check him out for trackers and we will only let you see him if we think it is safe. If it isn’t safe, we will not be allowing you to see him. You let us decide.”
“Her hamster wheel is spinning, Momma. I can see it.”
“Stop trying to figure this out yourself. Meryk has this covered.”
“Yes. Fine.”
“Still turning…” Amber said in a high-pitched, mocking tone.
“I mean it, Saige.” Ruby lectured. “Just let us run this. You are not to be involved. You are to be safe. We need you to help us stop the chaos. Not save Jaxson. That’s the easy part.” It didn’t sound easy and I wanted to be an integral part of saving him since he had saved me.
A knock on the door startled me and I jumped up. “Who knows we are here?” I said.
“Only one person but hide in the closet anyway. Just in case. Go.�
�� We weren’t taking any chances after seeing that creature come through the wall.
“We have blocked all the cracks in this place. Now they were knocking on the door!” Amber joked.
I didn’t dare to even look out of the space between the door and the jam of the closet. I got low and hid to the far left, covering myself with an old, musty towel. It barely covered me. I felt ridiculous.
A man’s voice boomed into the room.
Ruby didn’t act worried and said “There are only a few. We have been working on this all day.” This was the man collecting my sweat. Lucky guy.
“It’ll be enough. I will pass them out to the scouts and have them go in all directions, leaving fake campsites behind.”
“Use drops of this to drip onto leaves.”
“What is this?”
“Sweat.” Amber made a pretend gagging sound and giggled.
“Okay. Good idea. There are a lot of guards hovering about down there today,” he said. “A lot of insects. Something’s up. We have people scanning the place, watching. We will let you know. We may have to postpone if there are too many humans watching. I mean, our whole plan is based on the strangest premise.”
“Well, if we switch him, the dummy will lay there with the garbage on top of it. Jaxson will be long gone before anyone goes to check. I don’t know what else will work. Do you have a better plan?”
“I guess not. I saw tons of garbage on him.” I heard his feet slide across the floor. “Is that the dummy? That’s one hell of a scary-ass dummy. That’s felt for his hair?”
I looked through the closet space to see him. Big fellow with full shaggy head of hair and a long beard.
Ruby nodded.
“My favourite are the creepy googly eyes.” Amber poked the dummy in the eyes.
“I don’t know. Just doesn’t look like a man, does he?” Ruby chuckled.
“It won’t matter as long as humans are not the ones watching. The Pack will never know. Did you guys find any scent to match Jaxson’s?”
“They have Jaxson’s house surrounded. Couldn’t get anything. We have to take his shirt off and lay it on the dummy.”
“It’ll work, right, Mamma?”
“I think the plan will work,” she assured her daughter. Her eyes suggested that this was likely not true.
“Well, if there are guards hanging about, they aren’t going to fall for the switcharoo you are trying to make here.” Switcharoo? Such a strange word for such a burly sounding man.
“Well, if we have to postpone until there are just the insects there, then we wait.”
“We might have to. Any rain in the forecast?”
“I don’t know. Why?”
Because the rain will wash away my scent, I thought.
“Rain will wash that sweat right off the camps. Check the weather. I will check on the guards. The two have to play nice or they’ll ruin the show. Got it?”
“We will be in touch.”
The man let himself out and then Amber let me out.
“How do we know if it’ll rain.”
“Internet. Meryk will have to check.”
The computer guy hadn’t figured out a way to shut down the insects in time. We had to lure the last two away using my scent in carefully placed bike baskets.
Before the scouts had begun to lure the insects away, Amber had sent the drone to watch the area and she wrote down details about what was happening. Then she compared the details to what was happening after we implemented the ‘spot and drop’ plan. Sure enough, the number of insects had decreased as they were rerouted to check out the trail we had left.
Only two insects remained.
“Where is Meryk? We have to get the show on the road,” I said. It was a situation of life or death.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I heard steps on the pavement outside the door just a moment before Meryk walked into the building with bread, eggs and ham. Ruby kissed him on the cheek.
“Ham and eggs for dinner?” Amber cheered.
“The first sightings are being reported and scouts are leaving your scent away from the area.”
“Did I sweat enough for everyone?”
Amber laughed and said, “You’ll be in better shape to run from those insects.”
“She won’t be anywhere near those insects,” he said, flatly. “There should be no need for her to run from anything.”
That wiped Amber’s grin away.
Ruby warmed a frying pan, with a teaspoon of butter dolloped in the centre.
“So, you need to pack to go down into the tunnels. I have men organizing as we speak so that you and Saige can watch what is happening from down there. I have a man who will be filming from a rooftop. Another on the ground. We will watch for the cue and then we will have a truck drive up, a few boys on bikes will lure the last two insects with rags with Saige’s scent. Once they are gone, the two men on the truck will grab Jaxson. We will have one shot. Switch the dummy for another dummy,” Meryk explain. He winked at me.
I bopped my head up and down to show a light humoured response. “Don’t forget to leave his shirt for scent.”
“Yep. Got that covered. Then we drive away and check him for trackers. We will change his clothes and get something new. Douse him in cologne…”
“Got a favourite kind, Saige?”
“Hmmm, not really…”
“We may have to shave his head to check for stitches.”
I tugged at my hair and clenched my jaw.
“Don’t worry, they will sedate him if they have to dig any trackers out. The clothes will be taken by another vehicle to lead anyone away just in case there is a tracker sewn in. They will drop it off the bridge an hour away and let the tracker drift in the current. Just in case…”
The ham made a sizzling sound as it hit the pan. The sweet smell filled the room.
“So, you think the guards will be following Saige and Jaxson’s scents?” Amber asked.
“The guards will likely take the insects and have them searching the grounds for Saige. The scouts are on bikes and they will not stop until hours in all directions is completed. Then they douse themselves with a cleanser and come back. They’ve been taught to dump the bag with the clothes after cutting it open; they will avoid touching the fabrics.”
I nodded.
“And as for Jaxson, the best we can do is douse him. Watch for vehicles following. Dump his clothes in the river.”
My mouth watered; the ham smelled so good.
“What else have I missed telling you?” He rubbed at his chin.
Ruby popped a few eggs into the pan.
“Meryk, thank you for keeping the girls in the tunnels.”
“Well, I know Saige will be tempted to be involved.” To me, he said, “You keep Amber safe. That’s your job.”
“I know.”
“Oh,” Ruby said. “Did you find the time to check the weather?”
“Sunshine. No rain.”
“Good.”
“Do you know how many guards?”
Amber piped in, “I haven’t seen any with the drones. They have just the two insects for now.”
“That’s what we have seen, too. They have been keeping a few of the robotic insects on watch in the courtyard. I don’t see any reason they will waste the guards’ energy to watch a man tied to the tree.”
“Unless they want to capture Saige,” Amber said.
“They just haven’t been there. I think we are okay.”
“I need to give you a new face, Saige,” Amber offered.
“Nope, she won’t need it. She won’t be near the insects and she won’t be near the action. Watching safely from a screen.”
Ruby began to put the food onto plates and Amber gathered forks.
I sat in the tunnel, freezing when Amber pulled a yellow and orange shawl from her bag. “Here.”
“Thanks. I hate the damp air. It chills me right to the bones.”
We watched the screen and we could see four ar
eas. One of them was focused on Jaxson as he lay helpless on the ground.”
“You’d think the authorities would stop with this plan. As far as they are concerned, you aren’t coming. You don’t care about the guard that hurt you. So why would they keep him there.”
“Maybe it’s not to lure me out. Maybe it’s just to teach other’s what will happen if you break the law. I guess they want it to be public.”
“Maybe.” Amber leaned in to examine the quarter of the monitor that showed Jaxson. “Jaxson just hasn’t moved. At all.”
“Ever?”
“He’s in the same…Same position.”
“Is the camera working?”
“I don’t know. The guys set it up and then left to help.”
“So, there’s no one here? We need someone to check it?”
“No one. There are men way down the tunnel if we need anything but I’m not bothering them. Are you?” Amber bit her lip.
I shook my head. “Maybe Jaxson is sleeping.”
“Well, he hasn’t moved.”
“Has anyone approached him?”
“I don’t know. How would I know? He’s been there for days. Lots of people walk around. And there’s lots of time that we weren’t watching. Times when no one was likely watching.”
“When no one was likely watching? Is it still him?”
“I’m sure it’s still him.” But she leaned in. So much garbage was on him that you couldn’t see his features.
“Is he…alive?” That word caught in my throat.
“I don’t know.” Then Amber pointed at another screen. “There are guards just there…see them?”
“What are they doing? Can everyone see them?”
“If we can see it, they can, too. That’s the point.”
“But where’s the truck that’s supposed to be coming? Where’s the dummy?” Then I had doubts. “The dummy idea is stupid.”
“It’s not stupid. It’ll give them more time to get away. The insects will be lured away and the men will move quickly. When the insects return, hopefully Jaxson’s scent will remain in the courtyard.”
“When the insects come back, they could catch wind that the scent is moving. They will send some to chase the truck.”
Switched and Fears Page 20
