Chapter 27
During the preceding few weeks, most of Matt's disciples had been released and gone home to wait. On Good Friday Matt had a prayer meeting with one of his Bible study groups. At the conclusion of the meeting, he addressed his flock.
"Well, I'm going to be leaving here today, brothers. I wish all of you were coming with me."
"Amen," someone said. The other inmates laughed.
"We've all accomplished a great deal in the last year since we started studying the Bible. It's been hard but rewarding work. Now it’s time to reap the harvest of our labors. I think it's only fitting to sing one final hymn before I leave."
Matt pointed to one of the inmates and said, "Brother Bob, would you lead us?"
Bob stood up and began to lead the small congregation.
"Onward Christian Soldiers,
Marching as to war,
With the Cross of Jesus,
Going on before."
As they sung Matt smiled at them, waved, and then left the room. As he was leaving, he saw the warden and the chaplain waiting to say goodbye.
"Well, Matt we'll miss you around here," the warden said. "You've done a tremendous job with these men. My superiors wanted me to ask you if you'd like to go to work for the department."
"You're offering me a job?"
"Yes, you could set up programs like you've done here all over the country."
"Matt smiled and replied, "That's mighty tempting, warden, but I've got other plans."
"Well, if you change your mind just let me know."
"There'll always be a place in the seminary for you, Matt," the chaplain said. "You've got a God-given gift to heal men's souls. You should use it in the service of the Lord."
"I'll give that some thought, Reverend. Thank you for the kind words."
"Well, goodbye then," the warden said and extended his hand. Matt smiled and shook it warmly. Then he shook the chaplain's hand and left.
Jason and Cheryl arrived before ten to pick him up. It was a bright but crisp morning in East Texas. The sky was clear and there was a light northerly wind. At precisely nine a door from the main cell block opened and several inmates stepped out as free men. Matt was the last to leave.
"Hello, Jason. Hi, Cheryl."
"Hello, Matt," Cheryl said. “How does it feel to finally be free?"
"Wonderful, but let’s get the hell out of here. I'll feel better when we're a hundred miles away from this place."
"Come on, let’s go then," Jason replied.
The three friends left the building and walked to Jason's car. They got in and as they drove away Matt took one last look at the walls that had surrounded him for eighteen months. He took a deep breath and smiled.
"Now I'm starting to feel good," he said. He raised his hands and yelled, "Hallelujah! Thank you, Jesus!"
Cheryl turned, smiled, and said, "Are you ready to kick Frank Hill’s ass?"
"You betcha," Matt replied.
"Good, because we've processed 3,232 credit cards and all your friends are ready to do some heavy shopping."
"How long do you think it will take them to max them out?" Jason asked.
"Not long, a week or ten days I would imagine. . . . Just enough time for us to get to our hideaway."
"I wish I could be at the weekly board meeting to hear their reaction when they realize they've taken a 16-million-dollar hit."
They all laughed.
“Actually,” Matt said. “The credit card scenario is plan B. I would prefer to have Congress conduct an investigation of MidSouth. If they did, I’m sure Frank Hill would be ousted as chairman and eventually indicted for murder. He would be publicly humiliated and would lose everything.”
“But why not take MidSouth’s money too?” Jason said.
“Once we take a dime from MidSouth, we become fugitives from the law and would have to hide out the rest of our lives. I’m prepared to do that if need be, but I would prefer to get my revenge without destroying the rest of my life.”
Jason nodded. “You’re right. Hopefully your Dad and Bill will be able to convince Congress to go after Hill.”
“I hope so, but if they can’t then Plan B is ready to go.”
“Do you think losing sixteen million dollars is enough to break MidSouth Bank?” Jason asked.
“Actually, no. That’s why I set up eleven more operations just like ours in various other prisons around the country. A hundred and seventy-six million ought to do it, don’t you think?”
"Yeah, I guess so," Jason chuckled.
Finally, they all settled down and Matt leaned back and closed his eyes. He felt more relaxed at that moment than he had felt in eighteen months. Jason looked in his rearview mirror and smiled. Then he noticed a car following them.
"Oh, shit!" Jason mumbled.
Matt sat up and said, "What?"
"Someone's following us."
Matt turned around and looked at the silver Lexus following a hundred yards behind.
"How do you know they're following us?" Cheryl asked.
"I don't for sure, but we can certainly find out."
Jason pulled onto the shoulder and slammed on his brakes. The Lexus slowed down and passed very slowly. A half mile down the road it pulled off the road and stopped.
"See, what did I tell you!" Jason said.
"Frank Hill must be worried about your release," Cheryl said.
"I can understand that. I guess I should have anticipated they'd follow me, but we've got to lose them somehow. They can't know where we're going."
"If I had a gun we could drive by really slow, wave, and then blow out their tires," Jason suggested.
"Right, and they'd blow out our brains," Matt replied.
"Yeah, I guess you're right. Why don't we go to the lumberyard? We can park out front, go inside, and then sneak out the back in a delivery van."
"Good idea. Get moving."
Jason hit the accelerator and sped past the Lexus. Just as soon as they had gone by the Lexus took up pursuit of them. When they got to the Tyler cutoff, they went south to where the Quality One Lumber plant was situated. They parked in front and went inside.
Jason's secretary smiled at them as they walked through.
"I thought you were taking the day off," she said.
"I just forgot to get something out of my office," Jason said. Matt smiled at her as they went into Jason's office. After a minute they came out.
"We're going to borrow a cargo van," he said. "We've got to move some stuff from Cheryl's apartment."
"Oh, okay."
"We'll bring it back tomorrow morning."
"Fine. I'll see you then."
They all left out the back door and hustled over to the cargo van. They got in and Jason drove it out through the back of the lumber yard and onto a surface street. They drove for a while looking back to see if anyone was following them.
"It looks like we lost them," Jason said.
"I wonder how long it will take them to figure out that we ditched them," Cheryl asked.
"Probably ten or fifteen minutes," Matt replied.
Jason pushed the pedal to the floor. "I better step on it then."
"When we get to Canton, let’s take a detour through the countryside. We'll go over to Kaufman and come into Dallas on Highway 175. If we stay on the freeway, they might catch up to us."
"Good thinking," Jason replied.
At Canton they got off the freeway and headed south through the lush countryside. It was so beautiful they nearly forgot they were fleeing the country. When they finally got to Dallas, it was just after lunch. They pulled into a Burger King drive-thru and got some hamburgers. Cheryl dashed inside for a minute to go to the bathroom and Matt and Jason got out to stretch their legs.
It was after two when they got to South Arlington to an office warehouse. They parked the car in the back and went inside. Wally was seated at a desk with three manila envelopes.
"Okay, Matt, you're Martin A. Mon
roe. Cheryl, you're Cathy B. Monroe and Jason, you are now John T. Walls."
"Okay, whatever you say," Matt said.
Wally handed each a packet and said, "Inside you'll find Texas drivers' licenses, passports, two credit cards for identification, a birth certificate and in yours, Matt, a marriage certificate for you and Cheryl."
"Excellent," Matt said.
"We've also provided you with luggage. Inside you'll find clothing, toiletries, etcetera. You should have everything you'll need for the trip to your hideaway."
"Is the place we're going nice?" Cheryl asked.
"Yes, I think you'll find it quite nice. It was purchased from the estate of a drug lord who was assassinated by a rival organization."
"Hmm," Cheryl said. "What about Bill and Paula?"
"They're working Plan A,” Matt said. “If it works out, we won’t have to go in hiding and we’ll be able to come back to Dallas and they’ll join us there. If Plan A doesn’t work out, they’ll join us at our hideaway.”
Wally got up from his chair and indicated it was time to leave. He said, "There's a small private airfield not too far from here. We're going to fly you to Kansas City. Then you'll take a commercial flight to Chicago. From Chicago you'll go to Vancouver and from Vancouver you'll fly to Mexico City. Then you'll disappear."
"Good. When do we leave?" Matt asked.
"Right now if we're going to keep on schedule."
"All right then, let’s go."
"Right this way."
Wally led them to a blue conversion van and opened the door. They got in and took off down the road. After a ten-minute ride, they entered a small airport and drove up to a private hangar. They got out and went inside. Two pilots collected their luggage and loaded it on the plane that was parked inside. When the plane was ready Matt, Cheryl and Jason climbed aboard. They were about to close the hatch when they heard tires screeching. They looked up and saw two men running toward them, and a half dozen cars could be heard surrounding the building.
One of the men began shooting at the plane as they cranked up the engine and tried to taxi out to the runway. Wally was in the line of fire and took a bullet in the leg.
"Ah!" he screamed as he went down on one knee. "Get out of here!" he yelled.
Matt went to him and tried to drag him aboard but he refused. "The plane is full. It won't take off with me aboard. Get out of here! Go!"
Matt reluctantly jumped on the plane. A bullet nearly hit him. He closed the hatch and the plane began to pull out of the hangar. One of the cars pulled up in front of the hangar trying to block the plane but the pilot managed to squeeze by barely missing the front bumper when it went by. Six men began shooting frantically at the plane but they failed to do serious damage as the plane picked up speed.
One of the cars raced down the runway. A man leaned out and took shots at the plane as it was lifting off the runway. One of the bullets pierced a window and narrowly missed the pilot but soon the plane was out of range and Matt and his friends were safe.
Plastic Gods, A Rich Coleman Novel Vol 2 Page 45
