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Gil woke up, but it took a few seconds for him to realize that he was in a motel room. He got up and put on jeans, since he’d be headed into cooler weather. He packed his suitcase and left a tip for the cleaner. He was feeling a little weary, partly due to lack of sleep caused by the concave mattress. After bringing his bag to the car, he went into the office to look for his continental breakfast. A middle-aged man behind the counter wished him good morning and Gil wished him one back.
On a small table in the corner stood an industrial coffee maker with pots of regular and decaf coffee. There was also an urn of hot water for tea and a selection of teabags. Gil poured himself some decaf into a to-go cup with cream and sugar. He put on a sippy-lid and a cardboard sleeve. Gil only drank decaf because of his recent struggles with insomnia. The continental breakfast consisted of a disappointing assortment of factory-made mini-danishes in plastic wrappers. Gil grabbed a couple and checked out at the front desk.
“How was your stay, sir?” asked the proprietor in a cheerful Indian accent.
“My room was very clean, but it didn’t smell very good. Also, the bed needs a new mattress.”
“I have emailed you your receipt. Have a wonderful day, sir.”
At the car, Gil wolfed down the two pastries which had way too much sugar in them. The coffee was surprisingly excellent. He did a quick check of the weather and headlines to make sure there weren’t any existential threats, then he got going. The sky was overcast, but it seemed like just some morning haze that would probably dissipate in an hour or so. He got back on I-77 and headed north.
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RIGHT AT NINE A.M., the doorbell rang at Martha’s house. Lili peeked outside and saw the police officer chatting with a workman who apparently belonged to the security van parked out front. The technician introduced himself as Pappy. Lili introduced him to Martha, then walked him around the house, the cellar, and the garage. Pappy said, “I think we should put in a master alarm panel near the front door, an auxiliary panel near the back door, and sensors on all the doors and windows. Ms. Eames, do you have a smart cellphone?”
She nodded.
“That’s good. If you agree, I can put in video cameras looking out at the front and back porches. When someone approaches, you’ll be alerted on your phone and you’ll be able to see who’s there before you answer the door. I’ll show you how to work everything. If there’s an intruder, it’ll automatically call for help. I’ll also give you a necklace with a panic button on it, so if you have any kind of emergency, including medical or fire, you can get help. It’s at a very low cost to you because the police department is subsidizing it. They won’t pay for the video-cameras, though because they’re not strictly allowed in New Hampshire. But the police love them.” Pappy showed Martha and Lili the work order on his tablet and had Martha sign it with her finger.
Lili called Gil for a brief chat to make sure he was okay. When she hung up, Martha handed her the information she got from the DNA-testing company. Martha wrote, “Since I was adopted as a very young child, I’ve always been curious about my ancestry. But when the results came back, they were confusing to me. So, I never did anything with them.”
Lili looked through the report and got excited. “This is fascinating! Based on what you said, I expected that you would be mainly English, but your not English at all. Your ethnicity come from the regions around Germany and Eastern Europe. It says you’re mostly Jewish and Bavarian German, with a little from Holland.”
Martha wrote, “But what does Ashkenazi mean? It sounds like Nazis.”
“Hold on a minute, let me look it up.” Lili found the Wikipedia article on Ashkenazi Jews on her phone. “It has nothing to do with Nazis. It’s just the opposite. When the Romans conquered Israel about two thousand years ago, most of the Jewish people left. They dispersed in different directions. Ashkenazi Jews are the ones that ended up in Central and Eastern Europe—Germany, Russia, Poland, places like that. Did you know that you had Jewish ancestry?”
Martha wrote, “No, I’m not sure I even believe it. Why is Jewish even an ancestry? It’s a religion. Why doesn’t it say that I’m 50% Christian?”
“Those are good questions. It’s true that Jewish is a religion, but I think it’s also an ethnic group. Jewish people tended to live in close-knit communities for thousands of years. Christianity spans a lot of different ethnic groups. So, in this report they aren’t referring to being Jewish as a religion, it’s more of a common set of identifiable DNA features. Let’s look at your identified relatives. You have quite a few here. The closest ones say they’re in South America, but there aren’t any in North America, and only distant ones in Germany or Holland. Did any of them contact you?”
Martha shook her head.
“Would you like to contact them?”
Martha thought a bit, then wrote, “I feel like I need to know more about these people before I contact anyone. This report doesn’t really tell me anything about who these people are.”
“I know a lot about genetics from my work catching criminals, but not a lot about genealogy. If you make me a copy of this report, I can bring it to a friend of mine who’s a forensic genealogist. She usually works on legal cases, but I’ll see if she can help you. It may cost a few hundred dollars, though. Are you interested?” Martha nodded. “Is it okay if Gil helps me on this? He’s clever about a lot of things.” Martha agreed.
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LATER THAT DAY, PAPPY trained Martha how to operate her new security system. He had her pretend she was leaving the house to go somewhere, then returning to the house, and what to do if the alarm goes off by mistake. He had her set the alarm for when she was going to bed for the evening. He showed her how to use her phone and tablet to view the video cameras. Martha paid him with her credit card on a gizmo he carried. After he left, the police officers spoke to her to make sure she was going to keep all of her doors locked while she was alone in the house. They were finished guarding her house.
Lili said she would be leaving in the morning, after breakfast. Martha wrote, “I feel like everyone’s abandoning me! I liked having all these people around.”
“Well, Barbara’s still here, and you can video-chat with me anytime. Do you know how to do that?”
Martha shook her head. Lili showed her how to call her with video, and that she could text along with the video until her voice was back. Martha wrote, “Can I do this with the other people in my address book?”
“Sure, as long as they have a smartphone, a tablet, or a computer. If you need help, just call me.”
Martha’s eyes lit up and she wrote, “I can chat with my friends from all over, almost like they’re here! This is wonderful!”
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LILI WOKE WITH A START. Did she hear something? She checked her phone on the bedside table, twelve-thirty a.m. Someone was knocking on the back door. She got her gun and ran into Martha in the hallway. “Stay here and get ready to press your emergency button. I’ll go see who’s knocking.” Martha shook her head emphatically. She motioned for Lili to calm down.
They went downstairs and peered out the window. It was a young woman and what looked like three teen-aged kids. Martha carefully disabled the alarm and Lili opened the door. “Who are you? Where’s Martha?”
Martha nodded and Lili let them in. “Martha, what’s going on?” the woman asked.
“I’m Lili, Martha’s friend. Martha can’t speak due to a neck injury. Who are you? What’s this all about?”
The woman hesitated. Martha got her pad and pen. “This is Vera. She’s part of our underground railroad. I’ll let her explain. Vera, Lili is okay. She’s an agent with the Mass. State Police. She saved my life a few weeks ago in Florida.”
Vera’s eyes went wide. “Whoa! Can we get these kids to bed first? Then we’ll talk.”
Martha led the kids upstairs and showed them the bedrooms and the bathroom.
“Would you like some coffee, Vera?” asked Lili.
“No, thanks. I plan to go to sleep soon. So what’s this all about?”
Martha came back down. Lili explained what had happened to Martha in Florida, with Martha contributing in writing. “So, Vera, what’s this underground railroad?”
“We’re called SafeUR, for Safe Underground Railroad. We started up about a year and a half ago because the conservative states started passing laws against gay and trans kids, and against abortion. The gay and trans kids are at risk because they get abused at home or they run away and get trafficked as sex workers, hooked on drugs, or even abused and killed. Pregnant girls often seek illegal abortions and die, or they’re subject to criminal prosecution, or they run away, unprotected. Our lawyers forbid us from transporting these kids over state lines, which could be a federal offense. So, they are driven to the state borders where they walk across to the next state and another car picks them up.”
“Where do they go?”
“We tap into a large network of supervised housing, churches, and foster homes. Every kid is assigned to a professional social worker who helps them develop a plan. We make sure their families know they’re safe. Some will go back home after an abortion or childbirth. Most of them won’t go home until they’re adults, if ever. We find them jobs, on farms, in restaurants, or at resorts. We enroll them in school, get them health care. We’ve already moved thousands of kids into the network.”
“Wow, thousands of kids, already?” Lili considered this for a moment and said, “So Martha, you didn’t think to tell me or the FBI about this? You don’t think this could be related to why somebody is trying to kill you?” Martha shrugged. “Unbelievable!”
Vera said, “Since we started, we haven’t had any cases of violence, that I know of. Martha’s just a SAW house, a Stop Along the Way. I’ll have to feed this attack situation up the chain. Are these kids safe here?”
Lili said, “Well, now we have an alarm system, so I think they’ll be alright for tonight. When will somebody be picking them up?”
Martha wrote, “The pickup will be between 9:30 and 10:00 am”