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THE NEXT DAY JAMIE is waiting outside the gate for Larry to pick her up in his SUV. The guard who let her out is the same one that let her in a few days ago. Now that she is outside of the walls he smiles at her.
“Decided to cut short your vacation with the Ass-tars huh?”
“No, I forgot some key equipment. I need to go back to the paper and pick it up.”
“Why didn’t you just tell your boss what you needed? He could have brought it to you. I bet you hated it in there didn’t you?”
“It wasn’t so bad.” Jamie tugs at the brim of her large floppy hat and hopes that it still covers up the bandage on her head. “I just didn’t want to give out the code to my locker over the telephone is all. I’ve got some personal stuff in there and I don’t want just anyone knowing the code.”
“I hear that, but I still bet the other side of the wall wasn’t what you thought it would be. Stinks like hell over there. And don’t even get me started about how ugly those bastards are.”
Keep it together Jamie, she tells herself. She has to clench her fists so hard that her nails bite painfully into the palms of her hands to keep from lashing out at the guard and telling him that the reason it stinks in there is because of people like him who insist on keeping the Astara locked up in the first place. He’s an idiot who was too stupid to get a degree and barely smart enough to join the army so they have him guarding a door that doesn’t need guarding. That’s all. Now don’t yell at him.
“I guess it does stink a little.” She agrees with him just to keep on his good side. In the distance she can see a plume of dust rising in the air. Larry’s SUV tops a small rise a few hundred yards away and she breathes a sigh of relief.
“Say. You wouldn’t want to go out some time would you?” the guard asks her.
She stifles a laugh. She doesn’t want to hurt the man’s feelings. “I’m sorry, but I’m married to my work and I don’t cheat.”
“Fair enough. Just thought I’d ask.”
“Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate the compliment, but I just don’t have time for dating right now.”
“Sure I understand. Why don’t I give you my...”
Larry pulls up and Jamie runs toward the SUV without waiting for the guard to finish his sentence. She knows the game he is playing and wants no part of it. Opening the door, she hops in and smiles at Larry. He notices her hat and a frown blooms on his face.
“What the hell happened to you?”
“Not now.” She motions to the guard. “Get out of here first and then I’ll tell you all about it.”
Once they are turned around and heading the right way she explains to Larry all about the incident that happened back when she first entered the camp. She explains about Bol saving her and how he nursed her back to health. When she tells him about the antibiotics and smuggling them back in, he slams on the brakes so hard that she nearly cracks her head on the windshield.
“What!? You have got to be kidding? You’re telling me that you want to smuggle drugs to those aliens. You do know that if you get caught you’ll get life in prison, right?”
“I know Larry. And it’s not drugs. It is medicine that they need. Bol says that he can synthesize enough medicine from one bottle of pills to help all the Astara that are sick in the camp. Besides, I didn’t get your story yet. I spent the last few days getting better after getting cracked in the head. Now I don’t need your help, but this would go a lot smoother with you. What do you say?”
“You’re crazy. You know that?” He pulls away with a shake of his head.
“I know, but you love me.”
“Only because you’re the best damned reporter that I’ve ever had. Alright, let’s get out of here and get you some antibiotics.”
Twenty-four hours later Jamie and Larry pull up in front of the gate again. She breathes a sigh of relief when she sees that the guard is a different one than last time. With a wave to Larry she starts for the gate. The guard steps in front of her and holds up a hand.
“Reason for going into the camp?” He asks.
“I’m a reporter.” Jamie sits the bags in her right hand on the ground and holds up her press ID. “I’m here to document the daily life of the Astara.”
“Sounds like boring work,” the guard says as he turns around and unlocks the gate. “You must have did something bad to get stuck with a horrible job like this.”
“I may have told the boss where he could go when he tried to grope me at a party.”
The guard chuckles and opens the door. “Bet that didn’t go over too good.”
“Not really.” Jamie steps through the door. As it closes behind her she shakes her head and mumbles to herself. “Some people really are pigs.”
A few people are milling around the square. As she looks up it reminds her of the first time she stepped through the gate. Reaching into her purse she touches the butt of her pistol and grins. Let them try something like that again. Last time it all happened so fast that I didn’t have a chance to think, let alone go for a gun. This time it will be different.
She spots Bol standing across the square from her, near the well where Grum was standing last time. Bol raises a hand and rushes over to her. A grin splits Jamie’s lips as she watches him jog to her. She is taken by surprise by how glad she is to see him.
“Are you well?” he asks as he takes the majority of her bags.
“I’m great. How about you?”
“Better now that I have seen your face.”
Jamie’s face grows red hot as she blushes. She hides her blushing face by turning and pointing at the wall. “I was wondering if your people built the wall or if my people did.”
“Your people forced my people to build it from whatever they could find in a hurry. I helped. It was brutal, backbreaking work.”
“I’m sorry Bol.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for Jamie. You did not do these things. Your people did.” He perks up. “Were you able to get your equipment that you left behind?”
“I was. Let’s get back to your home and I will show it to you.”
“Sounds good. Follow me.”
Neither mentions the pills for the fear that the government might have some sort of listening probes or bugs planted around the camp. They know that Bol’s home is safe because he is built a device that allows him to detect bugs and probes at a short distance.
Bol shuts the door behind Jamie and sits down her bags. He disappears into the small back room where he keeps his equipment and returns with a small handheld device that looks a little bit like a television remote. On top of the device are a green light and a red light. As he sweeps it around the room, he explains to her that the red light will only come on if there is a probe, bug, or a hidden camera. The green light stays on the whole time and he nods, satisfied.
“Here.” Jamie digs into her purse and pulls out a box holding six bottles of antibiotics and tosses them to Bol. The box is a tampon box. As he catches it he looks at her with confusion.
“I do not understand.”
“Open it.”
Bol opens the box and a smile splits his face. “You got this many. By the Creator! You risked much to bring this to us.”
He drops the bottles of pills on the table and rushes toward her. She isn’t sure what is about to happen until he wraps her in a hug and lifts her clean off the floor. A giggle of delight escapes her as he spins her around a couple of time. He sits her down and puts a hand on each side of her face. She looks into his eyes and smiles.
“You would have done the same thing for me.”
Bol nods his head down until their foreheads are touching. Jamie gets the feeling that this posture is one of gratitude in Astaran culture and makes a mental note to ask him what it means later on. He straightens up and lets go of her face.
“You are correct. I would have done the same thing for you if asked to do so.”
“I’m not going to lie. I’m still kind of tired and my head hurts a little. I’m sure that you have a lot that you need to do tonight, so if you don’t mind I think I will lie down on the couch and let you get to work.”
“I think that is a good idea, but take the bed. I have the feeling that I will not be getting much sleep this night.”
Jamie stretches out on the bed as Bol disappears into his secret room with his box of pills held to his chest in a protective grip like they were the most important thing in the world. To him and his people right now they probably are the most important things in the world, she thinks. Those pills mean the difference between life and death for a lot of Astara. Maybe even the whole camp in the long run.