The Circle: Rain's Story

by Blue, Treasure E.

  Once outside his office, she headed for the elevator, heart still knocking inside her chest. Growing increasingly claustrophobic, she opted to take the fire exit down the steps, stumbling. Still in shock when she finally reached the lobby corridor, Rain rushed through the outside door, swallowing the much needed fresh air down her lungs.

  She staggered back to her car in a daze. It was as if she was in a horror movie or living in a real life nightmare. Almost all at once, the reality of what was happening seemed to overwhelm her.

  America’s Most Wanted Fugitive, Rain Porter? She cringed. Her brother and her sisters locked up, facing years in the hundreds. Someone horribly killed her first and only love, and she was the prime suspect? The world that she once knew was over, and she had nothing else to lose. She from that moment on knew that someone will have hell to pay. Since they forced her hand, and backed her into a corner, since they wanted rage, she knew that she would make front page and go out in a blaze of glory to get her family free.

  Her mind shifted to what she was reading earlier in the Art of War that she took to memory: CHAPTER 2 – WAGING WAR.

  CHAPTER 11

  It made no sense, Rain thought, to continue to do the proverbial “crying over spilt milk,” because what’s done is done. Burdening herself with guilt and blame wasn’t helping her. She needed to be sharper and stronger than ever before in order to help her brother and sisters. Yes, she was certain it was going to take a miracle. From that moment on, Rain vowed to never cry again until each and every one of the Porter clan was home, or die trying.

  Since she was now a fugitive, Rain had to be stealth. With access to close to two million dollars, not including the access she had to Dayvid’s money, brought her an umbrella of security and flexibility to stay at different locations each night. Giving her ample time to formulate concrete plans for her mission. The FBI was nothing like Maryland State Police Department; once they’re on you they are relentless. They didn’t wait for you to get caught speeding— no, they actively pursued you, and every known family member or associates you ever were connected with. They definitely meant business.

  Opting to stay clear of Maryland for a few days, especially the city of Baltimore, she rented a modest hotel room, at the Ritz-Carlton. Thanks to her counterfeit connect; she had enough fake ID’s and driver licenses, to stave off her real identity to do commercial business.

  Her room was spacious, plush and comfortable. She couldn’t resist taking a hot, long bath in the oversized tub, that double as a whirl spa. For the first time since the beginning of her tragic events, was she able to close her eyes, absence of morbid thoughts and worry. However, a nagging afterthought kept tugging at her soul. Something was amiss and out of place. A name that would not relent and continued swirling around in her mind, over and over again— that name was Smitty…and something just didn’t sit right with her.

  Nestled down in the hotel room’s oversized, pillow top, luxury bed, Rain mulled over and studied her brother and sisters charges that Mr. Morganstein made copies and had given her. Rain’s brown eyes remained wide with anger, as she read every grim charge after the next.

  “This is some bullshit.” she shouted, shaking her head.

  They didn’t have one chance in hell of getting out on bail or otherwise, so why get her hopes up high. She searched through the mounds of legal documents until she found what she was looking for—the dates and times of all their court appearances. Her youngest sister, Autumn, was on the docket in four days. Perfect, she plotted. Right then she knew she would have to go Al-Qaeda in order to break her out.

  Fear was no longer an option because she now knew exactly where she stands. For the next few hours, she made a rough plan to at the very least, be semi organized. She kept reminding herself, as difficult as it was, she was willing to sacrifice everything, even her life to get her baby sister out, but needed some help and had to call on some favors.

  CHAPTER 12

  THE BREAK-OUT

  RAIN’S POINT OF VEIW

  Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster. —The Art of War

  During the years, Rain proved to become a Master Strategist. She treated it and strategized it like she did for each and every bank robbery she and her family pulled off over the past ten years. Rain and Dayvid were critically detailed, methodical and systematic. She studied and applied with unwavering diligence to perfection by these rules:

  A) The Master Strategist Must: Prepare and treat every battle, every threat, every enemy the same, no matter how small or big the person, group or army is.

  B) The Master Strategist Must: Determine how to take whole and thereby minimize waste and destruction.

  C) The Master Strategist Must: Know their enemy and strike when they are least expected by causing chaos and mass confusion.

  But for the first time ever, with the exception of her siblings and their mentor and co-conspirator Smitty, did Rain allow an outsider apart of her scheme. They simply were too much of a risk. The least amount of people the better, but under the present circumstance, she had no other alternative. In fact, she was to the point that she welcomed it, due to high risk, dire calamity, and a sure probable death, she recruited the help of an old friend – Miss Jackie.

  If it wasn’t for the war wounds of her dope fiend days, scar ridden arms and worn face, Miss Jackie would have looked like your typical grandmother or retiree. But beneath the surface she was one, if not thee, most connected person in the underworld of Baltimore. That had been her hustle for nearly twenty years, and she never failed to deliver. Her rules were simple – If she don’t know you, she won’t fuck with you.

  Miss Jackie kept her eyes forward at all times in the streets, but she heard and saw everything. She rarely, if not ever, dealt with anyone new, because the rules of the game changed drastically over the years, but she had more than her share of connects. Her old school gangsta and clientele that still had one foot in and one foot out of the criminal world that made them wealthy. So if she knew you, and you had the money, she pretty much could deliver.

  Coupled by the fact that she was her mother’s closest and dearest friend since they were younger, Rain knew that she needed Ms. Jackie more than ever and asked her to not only provide her with a number of favors, but to also put her life on the line to break her siblings out— she did. Three days prior, on Friday, 7 o’clock on the dot, Rain was in Baltimore, at a local church to meet with her longtime friend, Miss Jackie. Miss Jackie attended Bingo every Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening and called in a favor.

  She made the hours’ drive back to the church’s bingo hall in forty-five minutes, took the stairs down in the basement and strode into the bingo hall in search of her friend.

  The 100 x 100 foot open space was lit with bright florescent overhead tubing, making it perfect for thinning vision senior citizens to read their numbers on the bingo cards. It was then did she spot her old reliable friend.

  Handing her sixty thousand dollars in cash in a brown shopping bag, she spoke to her very briefly and left her instructions. The message was simple, put the word out on the street. Tell every dope fiend, bum, drunk, hood rat, homeless person, and anybody else looking to make an easy hundred bucks, just to show up in the downtown court district. Drivers with cars will receive two hundred that showed up in the downtown area, by the courts, to be used as a diversion – at their own risk. Word spread fast, and by Monday morning, a legion of over five hundred souls, flooded the area.

  ****

  - Initiate Plan 1: Reconnaissance - a preliminary survey to gain information, observation of a region to locate an enemy or ascertain strategic features, especially to increase the odds when unmatched and unmanned particularly in the enemy territory

  Over the cause course of three days, Rain spent hours on end, watching and taking notes of incoming and outgoing of the exterior operation of the Federal Court House building, including the Department of Prisoners buses, number of officers on duty,
and on the bus, buses route, average number of prisoners on the bus, male and female, and time.

  ****

  - Initiate Plan 2: Execute – The Breakout

  As expected, the day it was going down, and because of the high-profiled case of the captured Porters, the court house was buzzing with anticipation and had extra measure and officers on duty of the outside exterior. It was only a small set back to her plan, because in every event where in the midst of a robbery, they always had an alternate plan A, B and C. She did nothing different in planning her sibling’s breakout.

  ****

  Rain got there extra early at 5 a.m and a mixture of city workers and law enforcement officials were already setting up barricades securing the courthouse perimeters. She was sure to dress appropriately to blend in. As time passed, she hovered in the shadow wells, Roman-Gothic like tall columns of the downtown Baltimore’s U.S. District Court Building.

  Blending easily amongst the crowd, she was completely inconspicuous even to the most guarded law enforcement officers and agent, changing her appearance so drastically that she was positive that her own sisters and brother would not recognize her. Her everyday urban wear— gone, replaced with standard business attire to make her look like a law clerk, secretary, stenographers, or even a young lawyer.

  Chanel shades covered her vigilant, dilating darting eyes that scanned the entire landscape of the surroundings of the courthouse, and no one had the slightest idea of who she was.

  * * *

  Rain already knew the time and the number on the bus her sister, Autumn, would be riding on. She was America’s most wanted and was sitting right in the pit of the fire. As she held a cigarette between her fingers, she clutched a large black Gucci bag in her hand. Inpatient and nervous, she was ready to get it over with. There were only two ways that the situation could play out; in glory or gunfire and she was prepared for both.

  * * *

  Fifteen minutes later, a cool chill whispered down her back at the sight of the Federal Bureau of Prisons buses. She dropped her gaze, closed her eyes, as her flaring nose took in air. When she opened her eyes, the buses were closer, less than a block away, three of them in a convoy.

  The buses slowed to snail’s pace, as law enforcement officials made efforts to clear the mass of the civilian presence that clogged the middle of the courthouse streets. There was a combination of people with the media milling around, anxiously anticipating the arrival of the Porters for the first photo op of them in custody. Miss Jackie came through for her with flying colors. Plus, to the north of the courthouse, directly behind them, Rain had help. Miss Jackie strategically stood by in a telephone booth with two flash grenades in her purse. Rain needed a minute of mass confusion, to divert law enforcement attention for her primary target. Every extra second could make the difference of success or failure, or life or death.

  334, was the nomenclature stenciled in big bold letters on the top sides of the Department of Prisoners bus that held the female prisoners, Fallon and Autumn. 913 would be the bus that held the males, her brother Dayvid.

  When they got into view, her face turned solemn, when she only saw number 334. Her mouth dropped to the ground when she didn’t see number 913… Where was her brother’s bus? Gnawing on the inside of her mouth to keep from panicking, she wondered if maybe her inside connect had been wrong. It was nothing else she could do but play it by ear. She tossed the cigarette to the ground that she was smoking because of her nerves, clutched the large black Gucci bag she had dangling precariously over her shoulder, and headed towards the pit of the crowd, ready.

  Rain moved like a panther through the crowd, with each calculated step she took as she walked. She was in tunnel vision, and spotted her sister Autumn, in the rear of the bus immediately. She reached in her bag for her cell phone and pressed SEND. She tossed the phone to the ground and paced herself as she positioned herself towards the front of the bus, while reaching back in her bag and pulled out two grenades…………….one smoke grenade and one live.

  Rain watched Autumn sit straight up in her seat when she spotted her and locked eyes. Rain noticed the worried look on her sister’s face and nodded her head in reassurance. How many cops? she asked in sign language. She was thankful for the little bit that she had learned from their years of doing bank robberies, and proved to have come in handy and she needed it now more than ever. She watched Autumn turn her head to count the guards and then signed back; three. With her fingers, Rain lowered her hand and arm, signaling to her to get to the ground. In an instant, Rain saw her sister Autumn grip the neck of the female prisoner that sat handcuffed next to her disappear from her window.

  Seconds later, Rain heard two loud explosions behind her. It was perfect timing that was pre-planned and staged exactly sixty seconds after receiving the call. Miss Jackie tossed one flash grenade and a smoke grenade in the middle of the street, causing mass confusion and anarchy, diverting law enforcement officer’s attention away from the buses. Dozens of heavily armed policemen poured in the direction of the blasts, as she watched their backs disappear between the white smokes. It was now or never.

  She unclipped the smoke grenade and tossed it ten feet in front of her into the screaming crowd. Rain then kicked off her heels and with breakneck speed, she raced towards the front of the bus, unclipped the live grenade and tossed it at the undercarriage of the bus. She only had six seconds to run for her life for cover. As soon as she heard the blast she took flight. She backpedaled towards the now smoking bus while clutching the small automatic machine gun she had in her hand, fingering the trigger, hell bent and ready to pop anything in a uniform that stood in her way. She yelled like a banshee, squeezing off shots as she ran towards the burning vehicle when two guards appeared from off the bus. Chaos erupted as bystanders ran for cover and the law enforcement on the scene ran towards the blaze. Only the front of the vehicle had exploded, killing the escorting officers instantly. Inmates ran for their lives as they emerged from the smoking bus, all fleeing as they each took advantage of the blaze in an attempt to escape.

  When Rain boarded the bus, she was ready to pop the third guard, but noticed he was slumped over in his seat, apparently dead from the impact of the first grenade. She suddenly heard a familiar voice call out her name.

  “Rain,” Autumn screamed, from the rear of the bus.

  “Bitch get your ass off the bus and let’s go!” Rain barked as her head spun in rapid circular motions, ready to fire on anyone she saw in a uniform that was coming her direction.

  Autumn sprang to her feet and the handcuffed girl that was attached to her was shaking her head in protest. Autumn gave the girl a swift punch to the throat to let her know she meant business.

  Rain heard her sister arguing. “Get up!” Autumn demanded.

  No time for bullshit. Rain reached into her bag and retrieved a 9 millimeter pistol and handed it off to Autumn.

  “Where is Dayvid and Fallon?!” Rain yelled, as she frantically searched the terrorized faces of the remaining female inmates.

  “I don’t know. They separated us right after the arrest,” Autumn screamed over the thunderous roars of her cannon as she shot at the police.

  Rain started firing back and yelled, “Let’s go and stay real low.

  Off the bus, the girl chained to Autumn started protesting. “Nah, I’m not getting killed because of y’all.”

  Rain turned around with fire in her eyes and threatened through gritted teeth. “Die with a bullet in your head right here, right now, or take a chance by shutting the fuck up and move your fucking ass!” Rain didn’t wait for an answer and took off running.

  The three of them kept low and blended into the crowd, dropping smoke grenades along the way. Finally, she spotted the car that was in its designated place, as she watched Miss Jackie ahead of them, hop out of the driver’s seat while the car was still running, then blend subversively into the crowd.

  Rain hopped into the front seat, Autumn and the other girl dived into the rea
r of the car.

  “Lie down on the floor and don’t sit up.” Rain ordered, as she frantically jumped in the car and drove off in haste. Watching in the rearview mirror as cars, clogged the street behind her, ensuring no one could follow.

  Adrenaline rushing through her veins, Rain smiled cynically and thought, money well spent.

  CHAPTER 13

  After a clean getaway, Rain drove west on I-76, towards Ohio. They drove the 250 plus miles and stopped at the borderline of the states that separated the two near Pittsburgh to get a motel room to plan their next move.

  The whole five hours, Autumn and the girl, who they come to know as Erin, were still on the floor of the back seat— fought and argued the whole way there. Rain had to bark at them a number of times reminding them that they were on the run and to shut their mouths.

  “But, this bitch is fuckin annoying with all this complaining. I’m getting real tired of hearing her mouth, yo. I’m gonna fuck around and choke this bitch, Rain. You better tell her what’s up.” Autumn spat, at the end of her rope.

  “What the fuck you expect me to do?” said Erin. “I didn’t ask for this shit. Y’all put my life in danger. Bullets flying over my head, you punch me in my throat, this chick threatening to blow my brains out.” The girl huffed, “I got just as much to lose as y’all if the po-po catches up with us. They are going to shoot first and ask questions later because I saw y’all cut down a couple of their own. You think they really gonna give a fuck about my black, felony ass if I caught a bullet, trying to get at y’all?”

  This silenced both of them as they knew she had a valid point. Autumn couldn’t resist and mocked.

  “Well, shit happens. Deal with it!”

  Rain offered her relief and said, “Don’t worry. As soon as we get straight, we’ll get the handcuffs off, and you can walk away with twenty thousand dollars for your troubles.”