Escape The Grid: Volume 1

by Patrick F. Kelly

  Julia laughed. “Our calls are encrypted. Plus we talk in code and in Spanish. The name of the town and the name Leslie were never said.”

  “Hmm, OK. Maybe you can teach me the code?” Thomas asked.

  “Maybe I will, but not today. Listen to this story. Tito told Leslie about what happened to us. Turns out that Leslie is the sister of the local police chief in this town. So Leslie is going to talk to her sister about what happened and we’ll see if we can’t find out whose drones those were.”

  “Police chief, huh?”

  “Good news, right?”

  “Definitely.”

  Julia went back to the gun’s scope and began looking out the window again, using the infrared scanners. “We may get out of this disaster.”

  “Of course we will, baby. We’ve come too far to fail,” he said.

  65

  JOEY WAS IN a rhythm. Laundering money digitally was one of his biggest strengths, and it was how he had moved up in the mafia so many years ago. After a half hour of work, he was at a stopping point with the million dollar prize. Maxime had been right about everything in terms of the account and the gamer and the prize money. AlabamaGetErDone had been awarded $1.2 million to his standard bank account, which was in his real name of Tucker Ledbetter.

  Many years ago, Linda and Joey had invested in a small town bank in Dixieville. Linda held thirty percent of the bank’s shares under her sister’s name. As a side benefit, she and Joey made sure that any bank CEO was a friend of their operations, which meant that Joey had IT access to set up bank accounts. The CEO never asked any questions, and Joey always made sure that the accounts were set up to insulate the bank. Joey had set up numerous corporate and personal accounts there, including one for Mr. Tucker Ledbetter created in the last hour.

  Once the new account was in place, Joey had logged in to Soldier World and reversed the original deposit. Instead of Tucker’s real account, Joey transferred the money to Tucker’s new account in Dixieville. The grand total of 840 thousand dollars was left after the ridiculous taxes that Soldier World insisted on withholding. Unfortunately, there was no way to hack around the withholding. Once the money was in the Dixieville bank under Tucker’s name, Joey transferred the entire amount into a corporate account called Banana Works.

  Banana Works had long ago been a front company for the CIA, used for funding covert ops in South America. Joey had found out about it through a client who liked to talk shop with her dates. Since the CIA didn’t use the company any more, Joey figured that it was a perfect account name to use for laundering. His assumption was, if an authority discovered the money trail, they would put the microscope on the CIA and would never suspect Joey.

  Within five minutes of being transferred to Banana Works’ corporate account in the Dixieville bank, Joey had scheduled a transfer to an account he had in the Cayman Islands. That account was also in a fictitious business name and the bank manager in the Caymans would let him convert it into digital gold or any world currency.

  Tomorrow, or whenever the money got to the Cayman’s account, Joey would move the funds into 84 distinct digital gold accounts, each holding around $10,000. He could then print out 84 smart cards with the private keys for each digital gold account. The smart cards would be secured by Linda’s retina scan, which Joey had on file. Whenever she needed money to fund operations, she could use the digital gold at most stores or with trading partners. Her eyeball scan would unlock the smart card, and the private key on the card would then unlock the gold. They had funded many of their smaller purchases this way for the last twenty years.

  “Not too shabby,” Joey thought, smiling at the confirmed bank transfer in front of his eyes. But now there is a bigger payday to collect.

  He had decided to call Tito about the car. It was the least he could do before he blew it up and told Margaret the GPS coordinates.

  But what Joey needed to contemplate now was bigger than all of that. Bigger than a million dollars or the Secretary of Defense helping him become a citizen again. What he needed to contemplate was the connection between Maxime’s story and Margaret’s desire to catch Thomas and Julia.

  Margaret hadn’t told him her name. Only that it was a woman traveling with a man, and that the man had escaped from the Nashville grid camp. She had sent him the pictures showing very clearly the car and the two of them. Joey was sure that she could look up Julia’s face in her facial recognition databases and find something. It wouldn’t be her real identity, but it would be enough to know that she was foreign. Julia was definitely the target that Margaret wanted most, and the person that Tito would least want to lose.

  The photos and video Margaret had sent were taken from a drone, which went to Maxime’s story. Maxime told him he was controlling drones in a video game. That the drones were killing people and that he saw Thomas. So, somehow Margaret was involved in something with Soldier World where they duped idiot gamers into killing real people.

  This was explosive information. The kind of information that Joey might use to his advantage. Or alternatively, might be killed over. He definitely preferred the former to the latter.

  Had the real gamer, Tucker Alabama-whatever, been playing, no one would have known. But luckily for Joey, it was Maxime playing. Now he was a million dollars richer, and he had discovered a top secret conspiracy that goes all the way to the Secretary of Defense, maybe higher.

  There must be some way to profit from this.

  Only two people in the world knew about this conspiracy: Maxime and Joey. But with Maxime’s current state of mind, that wouldn’t be the case for long. He might slip up and say something to one of the guys in Dixieville.

  Or, God forbid, to Margaret.

  If she had any inkling of what Maxime and Joey knew, they would both be dead within hours. Which would be a real shame. Joey had to resolve the situation. Maxime seemed like a really good kid.

  Wrong place at the wrong time.

  Joey put his goggles back on and put on three news channels in front of him. No mention of the massacre. No mention of a man hunt. Maxime talked like he had killed a hundred people, and the news isn’t talking about it. How in the world can they keep something like this quiet? The mere fact that they are trying to keep it quiet means that it is really big and really secret. The fact that Margaret is contacting him to help her…

  What does that mean?

  With her satellite technology, combined with the drones, how would they have lost Thomas and Julia? Joey knew the capabilities of the car, and invisibility wasn’t one of them.

  The only thing that made sense was that it was a small team doing the job. Why dupe a gamer into killing if the mission is sanctioned and you can use a real soldier?

  So it was a small team. Maybe so small that they couldn’t use sat surveillance.

  Whatever the reason, all signs pointed to a small covert team working on something that wasn’t officially sanctioned. Definitely something big going on.

  Could be profitable if I play my cards right.

  66

  TITO WAS TALKING to Vanessa with his goggles on when he saw a call from Joey.

  “I need to take this. I’ll call you right back,” he told Vanessa as he left the call.

  “Hello,” Tito answered Joey’s call and was transported to a small room where both his avatar and Joey’s avatar sat at a conference table. On the table was a 3D model of the border between northern Georgia and northern Alabama with a car driving on the road. The car was a scaled version of Julia and Thomas’ car, and the map and locations were all being updated in real time.

  “Tito, I have bad news,” Joey said. “The authorities know about the car. I have to blow it up.”

  “What? What authorities?” Tito yelled, startled.

  “Alls I know is, they’ll pick up your girl and the runaway guy in less than an hour if I don’t do something. I can’t let them have the car. I’m warning you just like I told you I would. They’ve got ten minutes. You probably can’t save them both
, but maybe one of them can escape the authorities. I wish you the best of luck.”

  “Wait,” Tito pleaded. “Surely there is something we can do. I don’t have any intelligence of the authorities coming. How are you so sure?”

  “Tito, this is my business. I’m sure, bud. I suggest you don’t waste more time. You’re closer to nine minutes than ten now. Take the appropriate actions. I’m sorry it came to this but we knew the risks going in.”

  “Please, just give her an hour. Can’t she have an hour?”

  “I’ll give you one more minute. You’ve got ten minutes as of right now. Make the most of it. One thing I can tell you: I don’t think they have sat surveillance on them right now, so if they do something smart in the next few minutes, they might have a chance.”

  Joey disappeared from his seat, and the table and 3D view of the maps evaporated in front of Tito. He was standing back at his black platform, and his video call with Vanessa was still on hold in front of him. Before jumping back into it, he considered Joey’s warning. Maybe they can’t save them both.

  It was a no-brainer for Tito. He had to save Julia. He had to protect her. He would try to save Thomas too, but not if it meant jeopardizing Julia’s chances. He jumped back into the call with Vanessa, having no idea what to do next.

  “That was quick,” Vanessa said.

  “Something terrible has happened. The authorities know about the car. The guy in DC we bought it from can detonate it remotely. Julia only has ten minutes before it explodes.”

  “Oh no,” Vanessa replied. “I will warn her right now. What else do I need to know?”

  “Tell her that we don’t think they have sat surveillance on them now. Maybe they can leave the car and have it continue driving somewhere. If they hang out someplace safe, maybe we can get the Leslie woman to them. If Leslie can find them safely, they might have a chance.”

  67

  THOMAS WAS LOOKING at the navigation on the screen when a red blinking light appeared.

  “Julia, what is this? It looks bad.”

  Julia pulled back from the scope and turned to him.

  “Oh no,” she said. “This is what Linda warned me about. Something must have happened. The car is set to self detonate. No, no, no, no, no.”

  “What? Why would that happen?”

  “I bought the car from this woman in DC and she told me that they would be monitoring us. If we ran into a scanner or something where the police were after us, they might have to blow up the car.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. They don’t want the police to see the technology they have in the car. We have to focus on next steps. We have less than ten minutes. What are we going to do?”

  Thomas looked at the screen and saw it counting down from ten minutes. It was on 9:35. He looked behind the red blinking light and saw the peach farm.

  “There is no time to make the UR site. But, we could be on that peach farm in a few minutes,” he said.

  Julia looked on the screen and then heard her phone ring. “It’s Vanessa.” She answered. “Vanessa, we have a problem.”

  Julia listened to Vanessa as Thomas updated the navigation. “I’m taking us toward the farm,” he said.

  Julia covered the phone’s microphone and looked at Thomas. “Vanessa says that Joey called Tito and that we are not under satellite surveillance right now.”

  “Did you say are or are not?”

  “Are not under surveillance. They won’t see us if we get out of the car. Let’s go to the farm. Maybe we can survive there for a while. What are the coordinates?”

  Thomas touched the screen and read off the GPS coordinates to Julia, who told them to Vanessa in coded language.

  “What should we do with the car?” Thomas asked. “It should be as far from us as possible.”

  “What address should we use for the nav system,” Julia asked Vanessa. She waited, and then said, “OK. And you’ll tell our friends about our situation?” She waited again and then said, “OK. Thanks again. Call me back when you know something.”

  Julia hung up and looked at Thomas with a face of desperation. Thomas hugged her. “We’ll get through this. Thank God we have Tito and Vanessa looking out for us,” he said.

  It took less than a minute for the car to arrive near the peach farm. Thomas had it navigate to an area that he knew from experience got very little surveillance. Julia cleared all of the navigation history from the car’s computer and set it on a course toward Atlanta. She overrode the settings and put it on maximum speed. It wouldn’t get close to Atlanta, but hopefully it could get far enough away to buy them some time.

  They both got out with their backpacks and the guns. It was dark outside, but the light from the moon provided some visibility. The car took off behind them as they looked toward the peach farm.

  “This way,” Thomas said. “This farm is fully automated, and the place we’re going probably hasn’t had a human on it in ten years.”

  “What about overhead surveillance?”

  “We’ll be shielded by trees,” he replied. His wig waved from side to side. They walked down a small hill into the darkness.

  After a few minutes, Julia grabbed his hand with hers. “This reminds me of when we walked on the beach together in Resort World,” she said.

  He looked at her and smiled. The light from the moon was just enough to see her eyes. “I think I know a place where we can stretch out and get some sleep. I’m guessing we’ll need it.”

  68

  MARGARET WAS PACING the floor of the entertainment room in her large home. Behind her, the kitchen stored boxes of food for Thanksgiving. In a few hours, the catering staff would arrive with guests following shortly after. She didn’t have a lot time left to button up this situation, get some much-needed rest, and then put on a good face as part of her Thanksgiving alibi. Later in the afternoon, she would visit a retirement community and a prison for brief Thanksgiving moments and photo opportunities. It was a long day ahead, and the complexities since midnight were unwelcome.

  Amazingly enough, the little rat Joey had come through for her. She had just gotten off a call with him where he gave her the car’s coordinates, speed and direction. He also told her that one of the two illegals had gotten out of the car and gave her the GPS coordinates where that occurred.

  It was more than enough information, and Joey may have saved the operation. Margaret had limited ability to view satellite surveillance without bringing in a large DOD team and leaving a signature trail. The two illegals had stayed off main roads and hadn’t tripped any scanners, so her road surveillance feeds weren’t much use. If it hadn’t been for Joey, the mission would certainly have ended badly. As unseemly a character as he was, Margaret decided to help him with the legislation. He might be useful to her again in the future.

  Margaret had one more call to make. Hopefully only one more. She paced back upstairs to her master bedroom and told her wall screen to call the burner phone Susan was using.

  SUSAN WAS SLEEPING on the reclined seat in her rental car, which was parked just outside the small airport. A blue blanket covered her clothed body. The goggles lay in the other seat.

  Her phone, which was on the floor, began ringing. It took several seconds for Susan to wake up and remember where she was. She picked up the phone and answered.

  “Hello,” Susan said, with a raspy voice.

  “Catching up on sleep?” Margaret’s voice was on the other line. “That’s good. You may be up the rest of the night.”

  “I’m awake now,” Susan said, sitting up and pressing a button to convert her seat from recliner to chair. “Did you find something?”

  “I think so. I have a destination for you. Feel free to pass this on to your media person too. I’m messaging it now. Get your car going in that direction and I’ll fill you in on the rest. It’s quite a distance, so you may be able to get a little more sleep.”

  Susan followed the instructions and the car began moving toward Georgia. “OK. I
’m ready,” Susan said.

  “The car they are in is different from the one we saw on the drone video. I have the scanners looking for its license now, but they are doing a good job of staying on old roads. I have intelligence that they probably split up. One of them is in the car still and the other got out at the location I just gave you. Looks like a pretty rural area. Lots of farms around there, so it may be hard to find them.”

  “What do you want me to do?” Susan asked.

  “Has your press contact been to the UR site yet?” Margaret asked.

  Susan checked the time and made a quick calculation. “Unlikely. It’s only been an hour or so since I spoke to her. She should get there soon, though, maybe in the next half hour.”

  “Good. Tell her that you have more information. That a foreign national who is a suspected terrorist was staying at the UR site and that she escaped. Give out the car details and location. See if she can start a national woman-hunt but keep the NSA out of it for now.”

  “I can try, but who will be the authority leading the hunt?”

  “What about those agents from Nashville that were doing the training exercise?”

  “What about them?”

  “Do you know their profiles? Find the highest ranking one and give her contact info to your press person.”

  “That might work.”

  “Make sure it works. Susan, I have to hand this off to you now. I have obligations tomorrow with people that need to see me. If I look like I’ve been up all night, it will raise suspicions. Can I trust you to run with this?”

  “Yes, ma’am. I’ll work with the local police in Georgia to apprehend the suspects for questioning. With the woman-hunt all over the news, it should make it easier for me to wave my NSA badge.”

  “I trust your instincts. Please clean up this mess. Thank you.”

  “Happy Thanksgiving,” Susan managed to say.