Antonio and Jorge had seen the Galleti and Ramirez families loading suitcases into their car the night before they left for Miami. Early the next morning, the spies were waiting on a side street, ready to follow them. Now they sped down the highway after them, keeping a safe distance so as not to arouse suspicion. It was a good thing they had borrowed someone else’s car.
“You know, Jorge, that old woman, Maria Elena Jemot, is a sneaky old lady,” said Antonio, laughing. “You’ve got to hand it to her.”
“She is slick, all right,” Jorge said cynically. “I don’t know how she does it. Maybe it’s all that praying she does. She has some superior being protecting her.”
“What do you think she asked her relatives to do?” Antonio said.
“I don’t know, but I have a feeling that we’ll find our answers in Miami,” Jorge said. “Look, they’re stopping in this rest area.”
Antonio swerved into the side lane to go into the rest stop.
“Let’s get more coffee,” Antonio said. “I am beat.”
“I should be sleeping while you drive so we can switch later,” Jorge said.
“Okay, stay in the car. I will get coffee for myself,” he said, putting on his sunglasses and pulling the hood of his jacket over his head so no one would recognize him.
Only ten miles away Agent Stewart was talking again with Agent Loynaz.
“We found a lead to some interesting information,” Agent Loynaz said. “The grandmother, Maria Elena Jemot, was in favor of the revolution right at the beginning, like many others. But as soon as the government declared themselves socialist she started peacefully working underground with the Catholic Church.”
“Interesting,” Stewart said. “I knew there was something more to this lady.”
“She helped seminarians and people trying to get off the island, and was instrumental in the Pedro Pan movement,” she said.
“Hmm, Operation Pedro Pan,” Stewart said, “when 14,000 Cuban children were smuggled out of Cuba to escape communism and were taken care of in this country by the Catholic Church . . .”
“I will keep researching and let you know of any new developments,” Loynaz said.
“All right, thanks,” Stewart said and continued driving.