The Cin Fin-Lathen Mysteries 1-3 (69 page)

"And
you don't know how to drive a manual.  Slow down, the turn's right up
here," he cautioned.

Harry was
right.  I almost didn't slow in time, and things looked so different in the
dark.  We hung a right and headed for the airport.  My phone rang, and I handed
it to Harry.

"Hello?"
Harry answered. "Luke, Cin's driving right now.  Can she call you back?
No, Luke, Cin's driving really fast right now.  Okay." Harry handed me the
phone.

"Hi,
what's up?" I said.

"I
called home first and there was another man there."  Luke didn't seem in a
good mood at the moment.  He didn't really like talking through Harry. It
tended to piss him off.

"That
would be Father Michael."

"I
know who it was, but
why
he was is the question."

"Okay,
let me bring you up to speed.  Can you talk or are you on your way to
something?"  I pulled into the airport and parked next to the jeep.  I got
out while motioning Harry to park the BMW out of sight but someplace safe.  

"I'm
all ears." 

"Well,
we went back to the airport and Dave followed.  Dave Buslowski followed us and
then decided to follow..."

"This
is going to take a long time.  Let's skip to why you're out driving, driving
fast, with Harry."

"Oh,
we went to get his jeep. He left it at the airport."

"Does
it still have all its tires?"

I walked
around the vehicle.  "One, two, three, four and five.  Yes, and they've
all got air."

"Did
you resolve the air show problem?"

"Sixty
percent." I stammered,  "Ah, let me ask you something?"

"Go
ahead."

"How
low do you have to fly to stay under radar?"

"Low.
And it’s pretty tough to go around power lines and palm trees, water towers.  You
would have to be experienced and know the area."

"How
about a crop-duster?"

I heard
him sigh.  "No problem, but I thought you thought that the terrorists were
going to jump out of a plane?"

"I
was wrong."

"Tell
me the feds know what's going on."

"Oh,
they know, they’re just slow.  The bastards already moved the planes.  They're
ready for tomorrow, and the feds are still working on today."

"Cin,
if they’re going to spray the crowd then you better make sure you’re nowhere
near any of those planes."

"We
can't find the planes, Luke."

"So,
you and Harry are out looking for them?"

"I
promise if we find them, we aren't going to do anything but run away and call
in the cavalry."

"Is
this an ex-husband-placating promise?"

"More
or less."

"Thought
so.  Tell you what.  I'm due in tomorrow morning.  If you haven't found them by
then I'll take you up, and we'll search together."

"It's
a deal."  I pressed end and wondered if I’d actually promised anything.

Harry ran
up, and we got in the jeep and headed off to check out the two farms Michael
hadn't sent the priests to.

“Are
you sure this is a road?" Harry asked as we hit an enormous car-swallowing
pothole.

"Yes,
unfortunately the cane trucks travel it also."

"And
how do you know about cane trucks?"

"I
told you I used to work for the USDA/NRCS.  That stands for..."

"I
know what it stands for.  But you were an office manager.  Doesn't that mean
you stayed in the office?"

"The
office was boring and so..."

"Say
no more, you took every opportunity to get away from it."

"Even
if it meant slogging through muck fields.  I learned so much from guys like
Sugar Booger and the others.  We had this range expert... gorgeous.  And don't
let me mislead you, being in the office was fine when the boss was there. 
Southern boy that could recite Tennyson, now that was interesting."

"Okay
enough memory lane.  Where the hell are we?"

"We’re
coming to a T, and according to the map we need to turn left," I
instructed.

"You
want to remind me why we picked this farm?"

"It's
the closest," I said.  "The other one is on the southwest side of the
Lake.  The fathers are supposedly heading for the one by the MacGregar sugar
mill.  We'll check this one out first.  I betcha they're lost.  There's no way
OnStar has half these roads."

Harry
turned left, and soon we passed an abandoned filling station.  There were as
many abandoned filling stations here in this part of Florida as Sandhill
cranes.  It's was almost impossible for a small business to make it out there.

"Take
the next right and kill your lights."

"Are
you trying to kill us?" Harry asked but obeyed.

He
slowed his speed, and we cruised by the opening to Metts Sod Farm.  Hopefully,
no one was outside because even though we had the lights out, you could still
hear engine noise.  I put my hand on Harry's arm and pointed to the vast
openness of the grass field.  It was so large that you could see the faint
lights of Wellington in the distance. The half moon wasn't the light one would
wish for, but I could just make out two shapes in the far east field. In the
middle of that field sat two small aircraft.

"Keep
going, don't stop," I whispered as if my voice would carry from the road
over several acres to the office.  I looked down at my cell and thanked God
that I had several bars.  I waited until we were a mile down the road before I
called.

Michael
picked up on the first ring.  "Hello?"

"Michael,
it's Cin.  Harry and I found the planes.  They’re at Metts Sod Farm.  They're
just sitting out in the open in one of his sod fields.  I think you better call
the big boys."

"Did
you see anyone there?"

"No,
but it doesn't mean there isn't anyone there."

"Where
are you now?"

"A
mile north of the farm.  I don't want to spook them.  Hang on.  Harry, put on
your lights, we're coming to an intersection.  Shit!"

"What's
going on?" Michael all but shouted into the phone.

"Michael,
we just passed a landscape truck.  I hope they didn't recognize Harry's jeep,
bad enough that we were driving without lights."  I turned around in my
seat and saw the truck doing a U turn.  "Listen, get someone out here
now!  Harry and I will do our best not to blow our cover."

Harry
reached over and pulled me close to him.  "Lean in and pretend you're my
girlfriend."

I
did as he suggested, and I thought I did an amazing job of suppressing my gag
reflex as the truck closed in on us.  They pulled over in the other lane and
passed us slowly.  Harry's hand was on my knee, and I almost melded my body
into his, no easy trick considering the bucket seat and shift stick on the
floor.

Harry
looked over at the truck and someone hooted and said something derogatory that
I didn't catch.  I heard a low, "just some kids," and the truck
slowed behind us.  In the mirror I saw them slow to a stop and turn around and
head back towards the farm.

My
phone vibrated on the floor where I dropped it. I picked it up.  "Yeah."

"What's
going on?"

"I
think we did okay.  But I can say that the Sod Farm's the place.  How long till
help arrives?"

"Dave
is calling it in now.  This isn't the movies.  It takes time."

"We
can't let them take off," I said to both Harry and Michael.

"You
and Harry stay put. Father Paul and Father Peter are three minutes from you. 
They’re airborne."

"They'll
hear a plane or helicopter."

“Don’t
worry, they’re too high up.”

"What's
going on?" Harry asked as he pulled over.

"Evidently
Father Peter and Paul are airborne," I explained.  I thought I heard a
distant droning of an engine.

A
soft flapping sound caught my attention.  I looked up in time to see two
enormous black shapes crossing the night sky.  I tugged on Harry's sleeve and
he looked up.

"Black
Para-Wings! Cool!"

"I
see them," I told Michael.  "They just went overhead."

"They'll
do their best to keep the planes from taking off. I suggest you and Harry find
a place upwind from there just as a precaution."

I
stuck my finger up and tried to figure out the wind.  I was never good at stuff
like this.  "Where are Father Thomas and David?"

"Lost."

"Dead?"
I barely croaked out.

"No,
lost.  They’re so lost that they lost cell reception when I was talking to
them."

"I'd
say that was lost."  I turned to Harry.  "We’re supposed to stay
upwind from the farm.  Which way is upwind?"

Harry
stepped down from the jeep and looked at the waving cane across the road.
"Winds coming from the south, so we’re downwind at the moment."

Michael
must have heard him because he barked in the phone.  "Get out of
there!"

"Harry..."I
started when the sky exploded with lights and sound.

"What's
going on?" Michael asked.  I handed the phone to Harry and got out of the
jeep and walked into the center of the road where I could see.  Harry and I
were still a mile and a half away, but with Florida's flat topography I could
see the silhouette of the farm’s larger buildings.  However, a cane field
blocked not only the sod fields but also what was happening on them.  I heard
gunfire and the sound of a small plane start up. I walked back to the jeep and
got in.

"Harry,
I think we better move," I said as an explosion racked the air.

Harry
jumped in and tossed me the phone.  I just stuck it in my pocket as Harry
started up the jeep, and we started driving.  Overhead we heard one of the crop
dusters pass, and right behind it I heard an uncomfortable whizzing sound and
the plane exploded and fell not a half mile north of the jeep.  Harry turned
the jeep around.  We had no other choice but to try making the intersection as
the dry cane field in front of us, fueled by the falling pieces of plane, burst
into flames.

We
just made the intersection and turned west to give the burning fields and the
activity on the farm a wide berth when we were almost run off the road by a
retreating landscaping truck.

"Harry,
that's..." I didn't have to tell Harry.  What I had to do was tell
Michael.  I dug him out of my pocket.  He was still frantically calling my
name.  "Michael, one of the trucks from the farm just passed us going west
on, hell, what's its name... Shit. I don't know.  It's the first intersection
north of the farm.  We are following it, but I don't know how wise..."

A
bullet cracked the windscreen of the jeep.  Harry looked at me and me at him.  He
stopped the jeep, and we watched the taillights of the truck fade into the
night.

"We
aren't going anywhere near that truck, Michael.  They’re firing on us."

"Good
stay there."  He was gone.  I could hear him relaying information to
someone.  All the while I was thinking, did he think it was good that we
stopped or good that they were firing on us?

"Cin!
 A Sheriff's car has the road blocked.  They said the truck has turned back
your way.  Can you do anything to stop it?"

"Aside
from throwing sticks at it.  Shit, Harry!"

Harry
had pulled the jeep across the road and grabbed me, and we started running into
the sugar cane field.  We no sooner got clear of the area when the sky lit up
as the truck, that must have been carrying explosives, hit the jeep.  I found
myself flying forward once again, but this time there wasn't any water to break
my fall.  I hit the ground and Harry landed on top of me.

I
pushed Harry off me and got to my knees.  I lost my cell phone in the blast.
Harry groaned, and I ran my hands over him to first check if he was in one
piece and also to find his phone.

"What
the hell happened?" Harry moaned.

"Can
you hear me?" I asked, searching his face.

"Yes."

"Where's
your phone?" I said as a wall of fire appeared in front of me. I turned
and saw that the cane not flattened by the explosion had caught fire.

"In
the jeep, why?"  Harry's eyes opened real wide as he got to his feet and
surveyed our position.  "No, I see why."

"Come
on.  We don't have much time."  I pulled him after me.  We took off
running west because I knew that the smoke from the field in the south would
kill us long before the flames from the north got to us.  "This is going
to hurt!"  I screamed as we plunged into the dry sugarcane whose leaves
sliced at us.  Fortunately, we came across a break in the cane.  Unfortunately,
it was a small access road boarding a canal.  I looked south towards the road. 
The smoke blocked our exit.

I
looked at Harry and said, "If we go into the canal there's no telling how
deep it is or whether or not there are any gators or snakes in it."  I
pointed north.  "We may be able to make the north access break and get
across the canal before the flames get there.  We have the south wind to our
advantage."

"I
say run until we have to jump in and become people MacNuggets."  Harry
smiled weakly.

That's
what we did.  We ran north on the sand and gravel road towards the burning
field.  The sky overhead was just starting to lighten with dawn, and I spied
what I had been praying would be there.  A small bridge consisting of a few
rotten boards and a large culvert crossed the canal, and a small clear path led
away from the canal westward.  I was feeling a strong wind gust coming from the
southeast behind me, and I feared that fate was giving us more problems.  If
the wind gusted and fanned this fire, it might jump the canal.

We
made the bridge and made our way carefully across it.  I stopped on the other
side, and my fear was confirmed as the smoke, not the fire, would impede our
just taking the west side of the canal south to the road.  I didn't have enough
air to talk, so I just flung my hand in the direction of the westward path, and
Harry and I started down it.

"You
know when we get out of this.  I'm moving to a state where the wind only comes
from one friggin direction," I said, clutching my side as another cramp
stabbed through me.

Harry
stopped and waited for me.  "Me, I'm giving up sugar."

That
made me laugh so hard that I couldn't run for awhile, so we plodded on down the
path, looking over our shoulders hoping not to see smoke or fire. 

"Do
you know where we are?" Harry asked as the path led out into a nice paved
road.

"Somewhere
in Florida."  I looked up and down the deserted two-way potholed road.  "I
guess we go south?"

"Sounds
good," Harry said, dabbing a cut on his face with his t-shirt.  "Do
you ever get used to being blown up?"

"I
don't know.  I don't mind the flying through the air, but I’m sick of the
landings."  I looked at my feet as I walked.  "Hey, hey, I still have
my shoes!"

"And
a big rip in your shirt," Harry said, looking me over.

"Where?"
I asked feeling around.

"The
back."

He
was right.  It was nearly in tatters in the back.  No wonder I was feeling the
heat.

"Do
you think we're going to have to walk all the way back?" Harry said as we
heard the sirens in the distance.  "Aren't we heroes or something?"  He
waved at a helicopter that cruised overhead.  The copter kept going.  Harry
flipped it off.

"Do
you think it's wise to flip off Homeland Security?" I asked as I recounted
my fingers.  Harry's digits seemed to work, but mine were a bit, well, two of
them were broken.  Ouch.  "I think I broke my fingers."  I lifted him
my hand to check out.

"Really?"
 We stopped walking and he examined my hand.  "Yep, they look broken
alright, but what do I know, just a hero walking down the street ignored by the
world."