Trapped in the Mayan Tattoo (41 page)

Abbi wondered if by
now Louise and Big Sam had heard of any communication with NM2
members--communication that would establish a time and place for her mother’s
release.

“Hey! I’m back!” she
yelled as soon as she thought they could see her.

Abbi felt both exhilarated
and exhausted.

“I did it!”

“Oh, no! Look at
you!” Louise cried.

“Young lady, let’s
take care of you,” Big Sam said.

“Have you heard
anything?” Abbi asked.

“Operation Shoe
Drop seems to have met with success,” Louise said. “I’ve been monitoring since
you left. It’s really happening, Abbi!”

Abbi could sense
the excitement in Louise’s voice. She felt like she’d accomplished something,
both for this mission and for Louise.

Big Sam said, “Time
will tell. You see why only you could pull this off?”

“The course was a
little strenuous, especially the zipline on the return trip. I got into a
wrestling match with it. I may look bad, but I’m the winner!” Abbi said. “I
suspect this drop was designed to test every fiber of my body.”

“So you had a
workout, did you?” Big Sam said.

“The zipline
actually unraveled. Then I dropped.”

Big Sam looked
worried. The zipline had been left unattended, unprotected.

Louise left the
SUV and ran toward her.

“Oh. My. God. Are
you OK?”

“Don’t pay any
attention to the way I look. Actually, I feel fantabulous!” Abbi said with a happy
smile as she hobbled toward them.

Louise, Big Sam,
and Scott all huddled with Abbi in a jubilant embrace.

Suddenly, Louise
backed off.  Abbi became aware of her skimpy slime-covered leotard, mud-caked
shoes, and her general grungy appearance.

“Oh YUCK!” Louise
said, and tried to brush off slime that had gotten on her suit. “What is this
stuff?”

“So sorry!” Abbi
said. “Woods fairy slime to keep out intruders!”

“It smells
horrible!”

“You should smell
the woods fairies in that culvert.”

Sam said, “Let’s
move away from this area. Then we’ll give you some privacy so that you can get
changed and see about that ankle of yours.”

 “Sounds good. Right
now I’m exhausted.” She removed her harness and threw it on the floor.

“After what you
did, do you feel like you could fly now?” Louise asked.

“If I could have,
I would have. Now, I just feel dirty and tired,” Abbi said. “Will I ruin this
seat?”

Big Sam laughed.

“That’s the least
of our worries. You’re back!”

Scott drove them
to a picnic area where they had access to running water and restrooms. Then he went
to the back of the SUV and produced a fresh towel, some sterile water and a first
aid kit. Louise took them and cleaned Abbi with tenderness and skill before she
cleaned off the grime that had gotten on her own suit.

“Aren’t you the
perfect nurse?!” Abbi said.

Louise offered
Abbi soft drinks and snacks from the cubby. Scott wrapped her ankle and foot,
while Louise looked on and Abbi enjoyed the refreshments.

By the time Abbi
changed clothes in the restroom, she was getting her strength back.

Finally, they
piled back into the SUV for the return trip and listened intently to communications
regarding negotiations.

On the way back to
D.C., with the towel hanging around her neck and her ankle wrapped and elevated,
Abbi drank in the beauty of the drive. Suddenly, her heart seemed elevated too.
A weight had been lifted.

Big Sam and Scott
said they had been tracking her location with their GPS and knew that Abbi had
placed the drop correctly. When the GPS failed to show her movement on the return
trek, they knew she had run into a problem. Waiting, without intervening, had
been difficult. To intervene could mess up the works.

Big Sam said, in a
little speech he’d obviously rehearsed and his best announcer voice, “We waited
with baited breath, elated when you passed the test.”

“Elated? That’s
great!” Abbi said.

Big Sam continued,
“What not an army of men could have accomplished in a week, you have done in
one afternoon. The entire team is very proud of you! HT sends hugs and kisses.”

Abbi drank in the
praise as she admired the mountainous region. Suddenly, she had the strange
sensation that her mother was near.

“Scott, can you
pull over? Louise, I need my binoculars!”

Big Sam nodded at
Scott.

“What are we
looking for?” Louise asked.

Abbi peered the
mountainous terrain.

“I don’t see it
yet, but it’s a dingy white shack, not the kind of place you’d rent for the
week-end. We’re close, Big Sam, really close!”

“Your intuition
never ceases to amaze me. I wasn’t going to say anything, but since you already
feel it, are you also aware that our people are closing in on it at this very minute?
It is very secluded. If it weren’t for the hills and trees in the way, you
could see it from this spot, I believe.”

Abbi swallowed
hard. It was enough to know it was there and that the rescue was underway. She
was also fully aware that her mother wasn’t out of the woods, or in this case
the Killing Forest, yet.

The ride back to
Washington seemed to take a little longer. Maybe because Scott was driving
slower, maybe because Abbi was not asleep. Instead, she worried about how the
rescue was going. She enjoyed the ride and watching the scenery, but her
mother’s release was constantly on her mind. She said a prayer for her safe
return.

Trying to feel
lighter, she decided to pick on Louise for awhile. Abbi’s suit had gotten a
little smudged when she was changing clothes, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as
Louise’s.

“Louise, you look
awful!” Abbi said.

“I wonder why,
Miss Fairy Slime! As awful as I look, you smell worse.”

“I smell divine!”

“You...”

Big Sam’s booming
voice interrupted. “Girls!”

“What?” Abbi
asked. When Big Sam glared at her, she added, “Sorry.”

The ride was quiet
after that.

“Now what do we do?”
Abbi asked as they approached Washington.

“We wait. There
will be a series of talks. Then we’ll find out if Operation Missing Shoe is as
successful as we think. How would you girls like to spend a free hour?”

“Let’s go shopping,”
said Louise.

“Could I see my
dad again?” Abbi asked.

Big Sam instructed
Scott to give them the grand tour on the way to the hospital.

“Just to drive it
or be tour guide?” he asked.

“Let’s treat these
girls to the best! A tour en route to the hospital with a short stop at the
mall!”

They passed many
well-known sights: Lincoln Memorial, the Pentagon, Smithsonian museums, on
their way to the hospital. Scott spoke in his best tour guide voice and seemed
to have a story about each one. He had Big Sam laughing.

“The Pentagon, a
fine architectural design. While so many in Washington strive to appear square,
this building has a design of its own and, therefore, must be taken seriously.
Like a truly remarkable President, not afraid to stand out.”

Louise laughed at
Scott’s tour. Suddenly Big Sam seemed heavy in thought, and Abbi watched for
the hospital to come into sight.

Scott dropped Abbi
and Louise off at the door to the hospital and went to park. Louise acted as a
crutch, but any movement hurt Abbi’s lower right leg.

“Something’s
definitely not right with this,” Abbi said. “It really hurts. We won’t stay
long.”

Within just a few
minutes later, Abbi and Louise returned to the hospital lobby where Big Sam sat
waiting for them.

“Dad doesn’t seem
as strong today,” said Abbi glumly. “He seemed heavily sedated and was barely
conscious. The pain must be worse. And my leg is worse. Any movement and the
pain shoots through me like a dart.”

“I was afraid of
that,” Big Sam said.

Big Sam looked at
the floor, not bothering to get up from his seat. He still seemed deep in thought,
maybe prayer.

Louise started
texting.

“Little lady,
you’ve done all you can do for others, and now it’s time to take care of you,” Big
Sam said when he looked up. “Has your father zinged you again?”

 “No, no zing,”
she said and grinned awkwardly.

 “That would
indicate he’s on the mend, wouldn’t it? Allow me to go see him while you get an
X-ray,” he said. “I’ll just be a few minutes.”

After Abbi’s
X-ray, it was clear that she had a broken bone in her right leg near the ankle
and would need a release form signed. Abbi texted the information to Big Sam
and Louise that it would take a few minutes to get a soft cast for her break
and then she’d be out.

When Abbi hobbled
out to the lobby with a soft cast and a walker, Big Sam was standing there,
waiting to see her.

“Now you LOOK like
you’ve done something!” Big Sam said. He helped her out to the SUV  where Scott
waited at the curb. “Take us to Federal Triangle, Scott. But first, just one
more stop if you don’t mind. I’d like to pick up a few things at a department
store. Louise, I believe you also had some shopping you wanted to do.”

They stopped at a
mall just outside the beltway.

“Changed my mind. I’m
fine here,” Louise said and moved up to the front seat when Big Sam got out.
“I’ll just wait.”

“Abbi, would you
care to shop?”

Abbi thanked Big
Sam but wanted to sleep and rest her foot. She sprawled out in the back of the SUV
and soon fell asleep, aided by the pain pill she was given and lulled even further
into deep sleep by Louise’s chatter and giggles.

Later, Abbi became
only slightly aware of Scott as he resumed his role as tour guide and began pointing
out places of interest again.

Her dreams drifted
in and out of reality, fuzzy. Thoughts of her mother colored the tapestry of
her dream intermittently, changing its texture. Gradually the tapestry changed
color and became a dark, blurry swirl as if it had been picked up in a tornado.
In a fretful sleep, Abbi pictured her mother caught in the awful tapestry of her
nightmare, trapped with no way out.

When Abbi awoke, she
was cramped in the back seat, sweating and fretful, hot and dizzy. She
remembered the awful dream and wondered if it might be another premonition in a
series of dreadful forewarnings.

They were arriving
at the International Spy Museum. The walk up the narrow stairs to headquarters
by way of the back entrance was unfamiliar to Abbi’s fatigued mind besides
being difficult to maneuver with her cast and the walker. Big Sam helped to
steady her and lift her up the steps.

Lowell stood minding
the door as Gate Keeper at Operation Missing Shoe headquarters. Abbi smiled but
felt incredibly tired.

“Miss Kowalski,
glad to see you accomplished your drop,” Lowell said stiffly, but his smile
said so much more. Although he was nicely dressed in khakis, blue shirt and
tie, Abbi noticed a hint of mud on his shoes. “Too bad about your broken leg.”

“Yeah,” Abbi said.
Her head suddenly started to clear. “Any word yet? Like the return of the
missing shoe?”

 “Not yet, but I
can tell you we’ve been holding some food for you. We’ve all been hoping to see
you,” Lowell said.

Food sounded good
but Abbi wanted to clean up first. As grubby as she felt, Abbi poked her head
into headquarters to say hello to the elite group that had gathered, those who made
up the negotiations team and the analysts who studied the data, all working for
her mother’s release.

Everyone talked at
once. Abbi’s head couldn’t take it all in. She heard congratulations, questions
about how she injured her leg, and offers of food and drink.

She thanked everyone and assured
them her leg was just a hairline fracture from a fall, nothing too serious.

“Could I have a
moment to clean up? Then I’ll be over. Save some food for me and I’ll eat like
a horse! Louise, you go ahead.”

Getting into the
tub and, at the same time, keeping her cast dry was tricky. After a quick but
soothing bath, Abbi was happy to see that if she ripped out the lower leg seam,
she could still put on her sweats. She soon joined the others in headquarters
to grab a bite to eat.

When Big Sam met
her at the door, he let her know privately that she and Louise were getting
very special treatment. Protocol forbade children of staff members to be
present, he reminded her. Most of the staffers had not known Abbi’s
relationship to Miss Shoe. Those who did had been guarding the secret, but the
secret had leaked out after Calista’s brutal attack. Analysts suspected Calista
had been hired by NM2 to do harm to Abbi in retaliation for her mother’s lack
of cooperation.

Lowell followed
Abbi into the room.

“You’ll be glad to
know that Calista is still at the police station. She’s standing by her
statement that she thought you were cute, Abbi, and that you responded in a
very aggressive way when she tried to kiss you,” Lowell said. He started
laughing.

When others wanted
to know what Lowell was laughing at, he said, “According to Calista, she
grabbed the knife from Abbi because she was trying to protect herself from
Abbi’s terrifying brutality. And, of course, she maintains that it was Abbi’s
knife.”

The analysts,
especially, laughed. Of course, none of that was true and could be proven by
the video and sound recordings made at the time as well as eye witnesses—those
who observed by way the two-way mirror—and Louise, who saw almost everything
first-hand.

“If Calista knew
the evidence against her,” Big Sam said, “she would sing a different song. In
the meantime, she’s being held without the benefit of making any outside calls.”