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“You encouraged him to go with Winston?” Matt exploded. “Thanks a lot, Trinity. We were trying to keep him here.”
“Look, guys.” I held up my hand as Trinity opened her mouth to reply angrily. “We don’t need to be fighting among each other. It’s been a bad enough day already.”
“But she could have sent him back here, Scott.” Matt waved a hand at her in frustration.
“Matt’s right.” Trinity stared down at her hands. “I could have encouraged him to come back to the dorm instead. If I had, he would still be here.”
“If I had called Chris right away, he might still be here.” I gestured at the closed door. “And if SATURN hadn’t allowed a pair of juniors outsmart them, he’d still be here. Fighting among ourselves about who should have done what won’t help anything. I just have one question. Why?” We’d all messed up, but Trinity’s actions seemed like a personal betrayal. “You can’t stand Winston, why help him?”
“Winston came to me with a plan to get us involved, too.” She looked back up at me, her eyes pleading for me to understand. “I wanted to help so badly.”
“I know, but we had already discussed that this morning.” It hurt that she had gone behind my back, especially to Winston. “I thought we had it settled.”
“We did, but Winston’s idea seemed like it might work. I certainly didn’t think it would do any harm.” Her eyes filled with tears again. “Winston promised they would go to a public part of the reserve. I just wanted to be involved. I guess I blew it.”
The room fell silent. Everyone appeared to be thinking about their part in this disaster. I know I was. I shook my head to clear my thoughts and turned back to Trinity.
“You still want to help?”
Matt flashed me a warning glance.
“Sure!” Trinity’s face brightened. “How?”
“You’re not grounded to campus, right?” I was pretty sure of the answer, but wanted to confirm it first.
“No, Superintendent Hinkly didn’t think it was needed since I live with Dad,” Trinity answered. “I’m not really the Academy’s responsibility, and SATURN’s content with watching my house.”
“We are,” I continued. “Which means we can’t go back to the site of Winston’s picnic to look for clues. You can.”
“That sounds great!” Trinity stood excitedly and turned to go. “I’ll show you guys I can do this.”
“Only, there’s few rules.” I raised a hand to stop her. She was cutting it close on time, but the only way I felt she could investigate safely was to follow some guidelines. “Go during the day, tell your dad where you’re going, and absolutely don’t go alone. Maybe your dad will go along.”
“You can count on me, Scott.” Trinity swung open the door and headed to the hall. “I’ll let you know right away if I find something.”
With that, she slammed the door behind her and ran down the hall.
“SATURN will have gone over that whole site.” Matt folded his arms skeptically. “She won’t find anything.”
“Maybe not, but it gives her something to do.” I began to change for bed. “You never know, they might have missed something. They have before. Besides, that’s what we would be doing if we weren’t grounded.”
“You’re right.” Matt made a face. “I kinda understand how she felt. We’re stuck here while she gets to help out.”
I placed my clothes in the hamper and pulled the covers down off my bed. “If Chris is successful, we’ll have plenty to do Monday morning. Right now, I’m just glad to sleep.”
The next morning, Matt and I held a mini church service in our room together. At least then we didn’t feel like we totally missed our time with God. It still didn’t feel the same, though, and we ended the service with a prayer that SATURN could get security sorted out quickly.
Monday morning, we both awoke eager for the day. We felt rested and ready to leave the confines of our room. We were also ready to finally be doing something to help, even if it wasn’t bringing us directly closer to finding Gene.
After preparing for class quickly, we went down for breakfast and morning formation. Chris hadn’t seemed entirely confident he’d be able to get us permission to go, so we decided to follow our regular routine until we heard either way.
We finally saw him in the hall as we made our way to Chapel.
“Great, now I don’t have to go look for you. We’re set to go.” His eyes twinkled as if he’d enjoyed the challenge of persuading his boss and Superintendent Hinkly to see things his way. “It was hard, but I finally got everyone to allow you to come along when I explained the rules you were going to follow.”
“What rules?” I had already figured on some tight rules. There was no way Superintendent Hinkly, Mr. Jackson, or especially Chris would ever consider this trip without them.
“I’ll explain in the car.” Chris turned back down the hall toward the front exit and began walking briskly. “We’ve got over an hour to drive.”
Matt and I followed Chris to his car. It was a dark blue Ford Taurus, nothing like what I had expected a spy’s car to look like. I had never really noticed Chris’s car before. I guess I must have looked a little disappointed, because Chris laughed.
“Sorry, Scott, no fancy sports car for me.” He patted the hood of his very average car. “Too flashy. Wouldn’t you notice if a bright red convertible were following you?”
“I guess so.” I grinned sheepishly as I climbed into the back seat. “I’d never really thought about that.”
“Don’t worry, Scott.” Matt turned and winked at me from the front passenger’s seat. “He sometimes rents the hot cars when he’s on assignment.”
“Right,” Chris teased as he took his place behind the wheel. “It helps when I need to pick up hot chicks, like James Bond.”
I rolled my eyes. Chris didn’t date, not since his fiancée had been killed, and I knew him well enough to know that he didn’t just “pick up” girls either.
“So what are these rules we have to follow?” I changed the subject.
“First, I have some good news for you.” Chris started the car and headed off campus. “Superintendent Hinkly, Mr. Jackson, and I have decided to give you guys a little freedom.”
“You mean we’re not going to be grounded anymore?” Matt asked excitedly.
“At least not as strictly,” Chris answered. “You will be allowed to leave campus as usual, such as church, as long as you get the appropriate passes and never go alone. Superintendent Hinkly agreed to be responsible for checking your passes carefully.”
“But why?” I appreciated the freedom, but the timing seemed strange. Gene had just been kidnapped on Saturday.
Chris glanced back at me in the rear view mirror. “We could just wait for things to calm down, but it may be a very, very long time before they do. Even if we get Gene back soon, odds are good Kestler will escape again. Just like he does every time. We can’t keep you confined forever. You guys have obeyed the rules of your grounding very well and we think you deserve a break.”
“What about what happened to Gene?” Matt voiced the question I was afraid to ask.
“We’re pretty sure Kestler would have found a way to get him, whether he went off campus or not. Gene and Winston just made things easier for him.” Chris shook his head. “We’re counting on you guys being smarter than that. You will have to be very careful. You’ve made an extremely dangerous enemy. You’ll still have to get the appropriate passes and you might notice an agent or two following you around, but we figured giving you a little controlled freedom might keep you from trying something desperate just to get away.”
The car was quiet as we thought about what Chris had said. I was excited to be free, but I was a little awed by the responsibility of trying to stay out of the Snake’s grasp. Lord, help us to be wise and careful.
“As far as today is concerned,” Chris said as he merged onto the freeway. “There are only three simple rules. One, if anything goes wrong, call SATURN.” He handed me a slim smart phone. “This is a special SATURN communicator. Hold down ‘one’ for Mr. Jackson, ‘two’ for my cell phone. Two, never get out of the car, no matter what happens. Three, which shouldn’t be a problem if you obey the first two, leave all the tough stuff to me.”
“Do you expect any trouble?” Matt raised a questioning eyebrow.
“Not until after we pick up Dr. Rogers and leave the jail.” Chris shrugged. “After that, we have to be prepared for anything. Once we’re back on the road, we will be joined by two back up vehicles, so there should be no problem.”
He nodded at Matt. “You’ll drive on the way back, since you’re familiar with my car.”
“And we’ve seen what Scott does to cars,” Matt ribbed.
“Correction, what other people do to my car,” I pointed out good-naturedly.
“Well, we wouldn’t want to tempt those ‘other people’ to try anything on my car.” Chris grinned at me. “You’ll be navigating. Once we meet the back up, all you’ll need to do is help Matt keep an eye on the lead car.”
“What will you be doing?” I asked.
“I’ll be in the back with Dr. Rogers.” Chris merged off the highway as we neared the jail. “That way I’ll be in the best position to protect him if anything should happen.”
“And, of course, you’ll have your gun.” Matt dropped his eyes to the Sig holstered at Chris’s side. “So at least someone is armed.”
Chris adjusted his suit coat to cover the semi-automatic. “Right. I’ll probably have to check it at the entrance to the jail, but I’ll have it back when we leave. Hopefully, I won’t have to use it at all.”
Please let Chris’s rules be unnecessary. I could see the barbed-wire fence surrounding the jail in the distance and the conviction that God’s protection would be our most important weapon gave urgency to my prayer.