Forty Leap (16 page)

For the next four hours, leading up to the
last shift change for the night, we discussed the escape plan. You
would think that such a thing would have had to be wildly
complicated. You would think that every person involved would have
a vital part of the plan. But it wasn’t the case. All a really good
escape plan needed was information and a route. At least, that’s
all this one needed. Carlos had not spent years working out the
details. Despite the constant murmurs of the development of the
plan and their huddled meetings during the socialization periods,
the plan had been developed in its entirety early on.

In sealing off the city, the United Arab
Nation had done a poor job of it. While the bridges were guarded,
the tunnels were sealed off. Here, Doreen was the key. During the
early days of the reconstruction, she had been assigned to fortify
the barriers on the tunnels. Since these operations had been
performed mostly by American citizens, each of the barriers had
been sabotaged. Though she had not been as skilled as some of the
others, the sabotage had been explained to her and she was fairly
certain that she could find the weak spots that would collapse the
whole thing. I wasn’t very comfortable with the phrase
fairly
certain
, but I kept my mouth shut.

The trick to the whole thing was stealing a
car. Actually, we really needed a bus because there were seven of
us including Lydia and Jonah Jones. Jonah Jones made it onto the
roster because of Jesse. There must have been an earlier argument
about it because it seemed to be a sore point with Carlos. Jesse
was the one pushing to have Jonah included, which was ironic
because she was often mean to him. So we needed a bus. While there
was a bus that took us to and from the work site, that bus was only
available at those times. Carlos explained that they had considered
trying to steal the bus just before the work day, but then it would
be a high speed chase to the tunnel and we would likely be caught
while taking down the barrier. The operation required stealth,
which meant getting out during the night and finding a bus.

The buses were kept in depots and the depots
were nowhere near our apartment complex. We could have conceivably
walked to a depot but it would have taken valuable time. There were
also police vans. Sometimes, American prisoners did not cooperate
and needed to be formally jailed. There were police vans at the
jails. Carlos suggested that one or two of us get ourselves jailed
and then steal a police van. I remarked that that was hardly
inconspicuous and he gave me a sour look. Carlos was not a man
given to subtlety. But subtlety was required here.

“What about an ambulance?” Jesse suggested as
the hour and the arguments dragged on close to three o’clock.
“Getting out of a hospital has to be a lot easier than getting out
of jail.” She pointed at me. “Just break his stupid nose and
they’ll put him right in.”

I took two steps back in spite of myself.
While the hospital plan had merit, or was at least worth looking
into, I wasn’t exactly delighted with the part of the plan where my
nose was broken.

Igor came to my rescue. “It’s not as easy as
all that. I’ve been to the hospital. The security there is tighter
than the jail because they’ve got stuff to protect. You can’t just
wander the halls and you definitely aren’t getting out of there
without someone noticing you.”

“Which brings us right back to square one,”
Carlos said through gritted teeth. “There’s no way to get a
bus.”

Doreen made a huffy noise.

“I don’t want to hear it, Doreen,” Carlos
shot at her.

“Hear what?” Igor asked.

“Forget it,” Carlos ordered definitively.
“It’s a dumb idea.”

I looked at their faces. Clearly this was
something that had come up between them before Igor and I had been
invited in. Doreen seemed to be trying to garner support for a plan
that had long since been discarded by the others. This political
ploy had not escaped Carlos’ notice and he certainly did not
appreciate the subterfuge. Jesse, on the other hand, just looked
put out, as if she were just angry about having to rehash this same
subject yet again.

I felt spiteful. “I’d like to hear it.”

I had expected a reaction from Carlos, but
his reaction was so angry that it still took me by surprise.
Instead of wheeling on me, he pounced on Igor, balling his hands
into fists and getting right into his face. Another thing that
surprised me was that, though there was tremendous emotion in his
voice, he did not raise it above a whisper. Apparently, even when
Carlos lost his head, he did not lose his head.

“You take responsibility for this son of a
bitch. You’re here because you can get information we can’t and
he’s here because you want him here so shut him the hell up.”

Igor looked positively terrified and I can’t
say I blame him. But my read on Carlos was that he wouldn’t do
anything dangerous or violent in that small room for fear of
alerting the guards. When four o’clock came we would all have to
get back to our rooms in a hurry anyway.

“I’d still like to hear it,” I said.

“I think we should just walk,” said Doreen
before Carlos could interrupt again.

I thought about it a moment. Escape on foot
rather than by bus. Admittedly, it didn’t seem practical. We had
dismissed walking to a depot because of the time issue. There was
also the problem of seven people walking down the street in the
middle of the night. Not very subtle.

“See?” said Carlos. “Stupid.”

She stared daggers at him. “I’m not
finished.”

“You’re finished,” he said.

Have you ever been in a situation where you
become an unexpected witness to an event that is going to have
great impact on the lives people who are not you. It’s almost like
being a part of the show and a spectator at the same time. It is an
awkward and uncomfortable feeling. That was how I felt just then.
With the notion of escape becoming a reality in the eyes of Carlos
and Doreen, she was suddenly asserting herself in a way that I
presumed she had never done before. The outcome of the argument
would change their dynamic. To make matters worse, I had
precipitated the argument by expressing my interest in Doreen’s
idea, a sincere interest to be sure. Carlos glared at me before
sitting himself on the bed in sullen silence.

Doreen turned back to Igor and me. “We could
use the subway tunnels,” she said.

“You can’t go down there,” Carlos told her.
“You don’t know what it’s like down there.”

And that’s where I saw it. There was a quaver
to his voice and a widening of his pupils. Carlos was, for the
first time, showing fear.

“They’ve cleaned out the subway tunnels,”
Igor said.

“They did not,” Carlos shot back. “They
blocked ‘em all off and left the people down there to die.”

But Igor shook his head. “I spent enough time
in Samud’s office to get a look at the entire reconstruction plan.
You don’t just fill in an entire subway system. Especially not one
as complex and useful as New York’s.”

“They didn’t do any work down there,” Carlos
maintained. “There aren’t any work crews that go into the
subways.”

“Not any
American
work crews. It’s too
hard to keep track of people down there so they only send
Arabs.”

Jesse made the noise again. “Then we can’t go
down there anyway.”

“We can if we have a map with all of the work
areas marked up. If we need to, we can hide out down there for a
few days until they stop looking for us.”

“And how are we going to get a map?” Carlos
asked.

Igor looked at me.

“What am I supposed to do?”

Igor said, “Samud keeps that map in the file
cabinet in his office. Go and see him.”

“I don’t see Samud anymore,” I said shortly.
“And even if I did, I doubt he’d just give me a map of the
subway.”

That miserly smile returned to Igor’s face
and I was sickened. I knew then that he, of course, had information
that I did not. Whatever it was, though, I knew it would feel like
slime on my hands when I heard it.

“He will see you. And he will give you the
map.”

“Quit being an asshole and tell him what he
needs to do,” Jesse complained.

He looked at her sourly, unhappy that she had
wrecked his moment. But time was running out and he did as he was
told. “Samud will give you the map because you are going to
blackmail him. You are going to threaten to expose him as a
homosexual if he doesn’t.”

“What?!” This came from all four of us.

Igor giggled. “Did you think he invited you
back to his country just so he would have someone to play chess
with?” He looked around the room, pleased by the stunned silence. I
doubted the others even had any inkling that I had been offered UAN
citizenship and I was once again impressed with Igor’s ability to
gain information even in his state of disgrace.

“He’s in love with you,” he continued. “And
even if he isn’t, if you make allegations of a homosexual
relationship between the two of you, he will be ruined.”

“There is no such relationship between us,” I
replied through gritted teeth.

“Of course not,” Igor said as much to mollify
me as anything else. “Otherwise you wouldn’t be pining away for the
girl in the picture day after day. But if you say there is one,
then everyone will believe you. He took you out of here enough
nights to do God knows what.”

“You mean
you
don’t know why?”

“No,” he admitted. “I could never find
out.”

This small victory brought me a bit of
satisfaction. But it wasn’t enough. “I won’t do it.”

“You’ll do it,” said Carlos, who had been
listening with rapt attention.

“It’s disgusting,” I said, looking directly
at him. I turned back to Igor. “Think of something else.”

Igor thought a moment. “If you can get him to
leave the room, you can steal it. I doubt it would go noticed right
away.”

“No,” Jesse said. “Blackmail him. Turn him as
white as the towel he wears on his head.”

“Samud doesn’t wear a turban,” I said.

“Shut up!”

“She’s right,” Carlos said. “If we can buy
Samud, that’ll give us a huge advantage. Maybe he can even get us
out of New York
without
having to escape.”

Igor shrugged. “I hadn’t thought of
that.”

“It’s settled then,” said Carlos, looking at
the clock on his table.

“It’s not settled,” I cried and I knew that
my voice had risen too high. We sat for a moment in silence,
waiting for a guard to knock on the door.

We were lucky.

“Even if it’s all true, I won’t do it. It’s a
horrible thing to do to someone.”

Igor laughed. “He’s your friend, is he?” I
hadn’t said it, but I suppose it had been plain on my face. I had
considered Samud a friend. I had always looked forward to meeting
with him. I never suspected him of feeling anything more and I
wasn’t sure I believed it now. But Igor was determined. “Look where
you live and what you do? At the end of the day, you’re a prisoner
the same as all of us. Don’t let your loyalties get all screwed up
because of a few nice games of chess.”

I looked at each of them. Aside from Doreen,
they all made me sick. Personally I would choose Samud over any one
of them.

“I won’t do it,” I said, and then we were out
of time.

I had hoped that Lydia would back me up, but
she took their side. In fact, she had a better idea than actually
going into the Lincoln Tunnel. When she had been running refugees
out of the city with Warren Li, they had used an access corridor
that was attached to the Lincoln Tunnel. Since Warren had been
killed in Manhattan during a rescue, she was sure that the corridor
had never been discovered. It would be much safer and much less
conspicuous than using the actual tunnel. Once on the Jersey side,
we would be able to easily blend into the scenery while we made the
long journey to Pennsylvania.

“Listen to me,” she said over dinner and she
took one of my hands into both of hers. “I know that this violates
everything that you think is decent, but there isn’t any other way.
We have to get out. You need to get to your family as much as I
need to get to Daniel.”

I took my hand away from hers and continued
to eat. I felt very much alone and began to wonder if it was still
possible to just have Carlos break my nose.

As the days continued to pass, I stayed away
from my group of co-conspirators. I was told to meet in Carlos’
room at midnight and refused to show. Igor came to collect me once
but I sent him away. They sent Lydia the next night and Carlos the
night after that. Carlos threatened to drag me by force, but it was
a bluff. We would have both been caught.

On the evening of the sixteenth of December,
during the socialization period, Jonah Jones came and sat across
from me. I was just looking at the picture of Jennie and thinking
how much I just wanted to see her. Jonah, quite out of character,
waited for me to acknowledge him before speaking.

“Mathew,” he said to me. “We’ve been
collecting supplies for two weeks. We’ve got enough food and water
and lights for all of us and we’re ready to go. We even pulled
enough for you. Please help us to get home.”

He didn’t wait for a reply. He just got up
and walked away. I sat there, looking at the picture of Jennie,
thinking only of Jennie. What they were asking me to do made me
feel vile. But I looked at the face of Jennie and then I looked up
at the six of them, all sitting together. They turned away quickly,
even Jesse, who normally wouldn’t. Of all of them, it was Jonah
Jones who was the person I thought most deserved to get out. Jonah
Jones, who had entered my life as a gibbering pest, was the one of
them whose heart was golden. I wondered if they had even told him
what it was they expected me to do.