Chapter 13

Pov Calla

I tell the driver to stop just before the bus station. If the J.A.T.F. is trying to catch me I should probably do something about my clothes. Before stepping out of the cab, I look around the street to see where the security cameras are and where are they pointed.

There are few of them but if I walk right, they won’t see my face at least. That way whatever recognition software they are using won’t alarm them of my presence. They might recognize my clothes but they’d have to look at the feed personally to do that.

I throw a yellow bill to the driver and leave the cab. I head straight forward to a clothing store in front of me. There are different kinds of clothes for girls on its windows and I eye them, trying to see if there is anything nice.

Entering the shop, the shop assistant spot’s me but looks sour. She checks me from head to toes, and turns around. How rude. I was under the impression that they needed to help the customers.

Well no matter. I check the shop. It is fairly big shop with four counters for paying. There was one camera on top of the door but I slipped past it by looking down. There are more cameras but most of them are pointed towards the counters. That’s good for me. I start walking between the different racks of clothes, trying to find something that catches my fancy.

I pick some normal black walking shoes made of leather. I try to find pants that wouldn’t restrict my movement too much and I find them in the sporting section. Similar to my current pants, they are black, semi loose pants. Except now the cloth isn’t the same but more softer and elastic. But I decide against them as they are too similar. I take the pair next to the one I was looking.

They are dark grey semi loose pants of the same elastic cloth, but they are shorter. They end halfway from my knees to my ankles. The sign above the rack says they are something called capris.

I decide to keep the black tank top on me, as I head for the jackets. I like the parka I’m wearing now and I’m used to wear that kind of jackets from my time in the forest. I choose a light beige parka that is more stylish than the one I’m wearing now. It has something called jersey lining whatever that is. Maybe it’s a good thing. Though one of my trainers used to say that nothing good comes out of new jersey… I wonder if the two things are related?

I spot a grey shoulder bag and grab it too.

Now I want a hat. And sunglasses. Then my perfect escape is ready be realized.

I spot what I’m looking for. I take the black hat from the rack and try it on. It says on the sign that it’s boy cap for women. How illogical. I survey the other customers for a few seconds so I know what to do. I don’t want any unnecessary attention now.

Confident enough I head for the counters. I’m carrying the clothes on my hands expect for the cap which I’m wearing. I drop the items on the counter and pluck the paper thingy from the cap so the clerk can beep it. I have tucked my hair under the cap and I tilt my head so that the small visor prevents the cameras to see my face clearly. I take sunglasses from the rack next to the counter, rip the paper thingy off of them and put them on. I hand the paper thingy to the counter.

The clerk scans the papers from the clothes and takes some white plastic things off of them.

“That’ll be 447,58€” The clerk says to me. I hand her the violet bill that says 500€ to which she looks surprised.

She thanks me and starts rummaging with the cashier but I don’t wait for her to finish as I head for the changing stalls and enter one of them.

After changing my clothes I look at my mirror image. I have black leather walking shoes on and the dark grey semi loose capris. The light beige parka I’m now wearing is long enough to cover half of my thighs. My old training shirt is seen under it but it blends in nicely. I’m wearing the sunglasses from the counter which are black also, with totally round lenses. The ‘boy cap for women’ is on my head and it hides my hair under it.

I take all my money, weapons, phones and ID’s from the old bag and put them in to my new stylish grey shoulder bag.

I leave all my old clothes in the stall and close the door so people think it’s occupied and leave the store.

That took a lot more time that it felt like. Almost two hours.

Not bothered how much time it took I head for the bus station. Now that it is visible, I can see that there is a police car parked in front of it. Are they looking for me or is it just a regular patrol, I wonder.

Deciding that my new clothes are enough to fool those who have not seen me I head there anyway. I don’t think the J.A.T.F. has showed them my photo but only a description. And also now that I’m wearing the cap that hides my hair and the glasses that hides my eyes I think I can fool them.

Confidence is the key, is what my trainers told me about situations like this.

I walk by the police car and head for the door. Once inside I can see multiple counters and I choose the one which is empty. Before I go there I check where the cameras are and figure out which way I need to tilt my head for them to miss my face. I will not make the same mistake I did in the photograph shop.

I walk to the counter and greet the old lady behind it.

“When does the next bus for the sea leaves?” I ask. She looks confused but after some clarifying questions from her I got my ticket. I go outside from a different door this time. There is multiple people waiting for their busses here, and I head for the group of people that are boarding one of the many busses.

There reads 44A on the bus, so that should be it.

While waiting in line I can see police officer walking around, surveying the people. I guess they are looking for me. One of the officers walks right by me, but he only spares a glance for me before continuing.

I am the master of disguise.

Feeling good about myself I board the bus and take an empty seat by the window where the emergency exit is.

Now all I have to do is wait.

Pov Linda

I’m back to the J.A.T.F. HQ. As I sit in my office I ponder about Calla’s situation. It’s been hours since the last sign of Calla came to our attention from the taxi driver. I think she has already left Paris but to where, I wonder.

It’s a big world and she knows little about it so where she could be headed. Maybe she has some information to go by from her time with the Al-Aman. I just hope that if she ever needs help she would call me.

*knock knock*

“Come in”

Brian enters my office with a sullen face. I guess he didn’t have much luck after I came here.

“There are no signs of her.” He says.

“I think she’ll be fine without us.” I say. I can’t know that for sure but it is what I believe. I stealthily sneak a peak of her photo that is in my wallet.

I’d still like to find her, but now that I have had time to think I can understand her reasoning. Doesn’t stop me worrying though.

“Do you think Dr. Lenz was right? That she would go into hiding?” I ask him.

“Partly. I believe she would be trained to these kinds of situations and even if she doesn’t realize it, she would stick to her training.” He says. Trained for something like this, hmm.

“So she got off the grid and she will start counter surveillance?” I confirm if he thinks the same way.

“Yep. She is the kind of girl who thinks attack is the best defense.”

Heh, I guess she is.

“I think we lost our chance to find her for now. She is trained to blend in even if she sucks at it at the moment. If she has left Paris we can only wait for her to do something that puts her in our radar. And I’m certain she will do something at some point.” I voice my thoughts.

“I think the same way. The other way of finding her would be to go after the same people she is going after.”

I think about what Brian said but we aren’t even sure who they are.

“I know what you are thinking, but remember that neither does Calla. I think she presumes that the people after her have something to do with Al-Aman.” Brian says.

“Well yeah, that’s what I think also but we don’t have anything to go by.” I say

“That is not necessarily true. Remember when the group of people tried to get to the VAULT?” He asks me.

“I do. Calla played a big part in that incident. But you think they were after information about her?” I say. There is a lot of vital information in the VAULT and we cannot be sure they were after. The survivors didn’t talk much in interrogation.

“It’s a theory. If they were after the cover identities of our operators or something other they would have needed some kind of memory storage but they didn’t have any. That suggests they were after some small information that they could remember without any external memory.”

I ponder about what he says. It’s reaching, but there is some logic to his theory.

“I guess it’s worth to investigate it a bit deeper. But how, the interrogations hasn’t yielded any results.”

“I have few ideas…” Brian smilingly says. I didn’t expect for him to work so hard on finding Calla. Maybe he’s doing this for me, but for whatever reason, I am grateful for him.

I stand up and start following Brian as we head out of my office.

Pov Calla

I’ve been on the bus for hours now. The bus is filled with people but it isn’t that uncomfortable. The smell is bad though. The day has turned into night. I watch from the window as the yellowish street lights flashes by. It was an eventful day to say the least. It was my first decision to join the J.A.T.F. and now it’s my decision to leave it. I didn’t want to do that but I felt like I had no choice in the matter. It’s better this way.

“Something troubling you young lady?” The old woman that took the seat next to me asks.

“Just a bit nervous” I answer while turning my face to look at her.

“First time traveling alone?”

“Not exactly…” I say, while thinking about the times when I was stuffed in to shipping containers when sent to a mission.

“I’m going to go and visit my son. He barely ever calls me now days. You keep in mind that your parents worry. Be sure to call them every now and then” She informs me. Is this the legendary ‘small talk’ that people do in elevators and public transports?

I have no parents to call but Linda comes to my mind again.

“I’ll be sure to do that” When I figure out a way to call her without being traced.

“Good, good. It took me weeks to get a place for my dog so I could be away from home for a few days.”

I’m a bit tired but I think it is rude to sleep now that she is trying to make conversation.

“I had a dog once” I say to her, as I remember the puppy my trainer brought me one day.

“Oh, that’s nice. What was his name”

“A Dog”

“…”

She goes silent. I never really thought about names back then and it was the only dog around so I just called him that.

“You don’t have it anymore?” She tries to continue the conversation.

“I shot it” I simply say. That’s actually a bit of a sore spot for me.

“…”

After a moment of silence she speaks again:

“Why?” And that’s the question. Why I did anything in those days. The reason behind my every action at those times was the orders of my trainers.

“I was told to do so” I say. I still remember it fairly well. Something about to lose affection, and not to get attached to anybody or anything. And that is what I did, until I met Linda that is.

“I’ll think I’ll get some sleep” I say to her before she can ask any more questions that are hard to answer.

…

I wake up. It’s early morning, and the sun is about to rise. I think we are closing the sea as I can smell the salt in the air. I’m a bit surprised that I got any sleep in a bus filled with people. Every time there was a noise louder than the background noise I woke up. When someone coughed, when we hit a bump in the road, when another car honked.

“Where are we?” I ask the old woman who apparently is awake.

“Ten or so kilometers from the port city of La Rochelle.” She says. That is good.

I look out of the window and I see large fields of grass to our left with old looking stone houses and farms. I’m pretty sure that I see an old church also. It has a grey brick walls and a steep, pointed roof adorned by a cross of Christianity.

To the right, the side I’m sitting on is a forest. There is light morning dew covering the trees, and it seems very peaceful. I miss my forest town. Before I return to J.A.T.F. if I return, I’m going to visit it. There isn’t much left of it after the airstrike but still I want to visit.

Few minutes later the bus comes to a stop in the local bus station and all the passengers get off. I walk a few meters away from the bus and do some light stretching. I can feel how the tension is released on my extremities.

I yawn as I look around. The streets are not so filled with people as Paris. There is a train station on the other side of the street which has a clock tower. It is 0714 in the morning. To my side of the street there are a lot of parking space and few six storey buildings with white walls. At the ground level of those building are some shops and a restaurant.

The restaurant looks good right about now, as the last meal I had was three squirrels, and that was two days ago.

I survey the restaurant from the street to see how I’m supposed to act in there. I see a couple that just got there are talking to a waiter. The waiter apologies that all the tables next to the windows are reserved. That’s when the man slips a bill to the waiter and magically one of the reservations is no longer, as he shows the couple to their seats and gives them menus.

Impressed by the act, I’ll be sure to remember that. The bribe works it seems. People like money. That is good to know.

I walk to the restaurant and ask a table for one. The waiter shows me to my table and hands me a menu. I quickly choose something with meat and water to drink as the waiter takes my order.

I eat with relish as my hunger is subdued. After the meal I leave a green bill on the table and leave. The food reminded me that I need food for the ship also. I intent to sneak in to one of the cargo ships as the J.A.T.F. is surely monitoring those who leave the country.

I spot a store down the road and head there. From the store I buy food enough to fill my shoulder bag and a stick of glue that I can attach my photo to one of the ID’s. I also buy water bottles and a backbag so I could carry more. Before leaving the store I spot real earplugs and take them also. There is something morbid to keep bullets in my ears, even if they are rubber bullets.

I leave the store and start looking for a cab. I remove the rubber bullets from my ear and drop them on the street. I notice that this place is not nearly as loud as Paris so I don’t put the earplugs on. I hope to grow accustomed to the noise a little better before I get to Washington.

I see a cab and start waving my arms to it.

“Where does the cargo ships leave?” I ask.

He looks a little suspicious of me. Is it because I’m young and asking that? I throw an orange bill to him and that works fine. Bribery is handy if that counts as one.

The cab took me to a docking area filled with shipping containers. There are trucks and forklifts driving around. I watch the area from outside the fence, wondering how to get in and to which ship I should go. I see a small office building, the size of a room near the gate and walk towards it. Once inside, there is a small desk filled with papers and a computer with a man behind it.

“Is there any ships headed for Washington?” I ask, smiling to the man while slipping a grey bill to him.

“…” He looks at the bill and then me.

“pffftt hahaha. Little girl. You think I’ll commit a felony for five euros?” He answers me.

It was too little?

I raise my shoulder bag to the desk and start digging through the food to get to the money. It’s too full so I take some of the food out with my second pistol and put them on the desk. Then I see the bill I was going for. It’s the violet one. I take it and hand it to the man who’s getting a cold sweat. I guess he hasn’t seen this much money ever as he seems so nervous.

I decide to be generous and give the poor man two of them before I pack my stuff to the bag again.

“The red one is headed there. B 452. It leaves in few hours. But you know, they won't take passangers.” He says. Bribery is the best.

I thank the man as I head out. I never intented to be a real passanger but a stowaway. I still need to get through the fence so I walk alongside it for a few moments before climbing over it. At the top of the fence there is barbed wire but with an agile bounce I fling myself over it, without ever touching the barbs.

I move in between the high stacks of containers to look for the ship. I see it being loaded by the dock. A truck drives pass me towards the ship. The trucks speed isn’t that much so I jump on the back of it, gaining a ride. It stops in front of the ship I’m aiming for and the driver steps out and goes to talk with a crane operator.

I take the chance and climb on the container that has been brought near the ship just as another crane is starting to lift it. At its zenith I take the chance to admire the ocean and the vast horizon that opens up before me.

The container is lowered on to the ship and I decide to slip to the narrow corridors of the ship before someone spots me. I’m headed to the below decks. My plan is to find some small space near the engines to hide for the length of the journey.

I could’ve broken into one of the containers but that leaves the chance of getting locked inside of it. There isn’t anybody expecting me in my destination so I rather avoid that possibility.

Just as I’m about to turn a corner I hear steps from behind it. I take a few steps back and hide in a small closet. I listen as the footsteps go farther and farther before getting out.

The corridors are so narrow that it would be hard to walk side by side with someone. I carefully move ahead, jumping behind corners when I hear steps. I find a straircase and head down. Near the engine room the air is a lot hotter but I don’t let it bother me. I find a small room, used for storage of the smaller spare parts and tools of the engine. I take off my jacket and start my waiting.

I’ll probably have to change locations sometimes during the journey but I don’t let it bother me. The engines are already running and now the ship is starting to leave the port. I put my newly bought earplugs on as the engine’s sounds are growing stronger.

Now I’ll just have to wait. It should take about ten days to reach the states.