Eyes Of Danger (8 page)

* * * *

F. J. Franklin

Just when Franklin thought things couldn’t get any worse, they did. He was in a small town in Georgia. He saw no hotels, just single story motels, facing the highway with paint-peeling signs. Every other vehicle had a shotgun rack, filled, and a Confederate Flag decal on the rear bumper.

Most houses had vicious dogs in the yards. Not the pure bred
Rottweilers
used in New York dog fights. No, these half-starved mutts would attack in packs, the fighter and his owner, and when the fighting was over, they would eat both before they slink back under the front porches.

He had come in with a small team to meet a man who was reputed to be the power behind the Governor. The man was the epitome of white southern trash, but from what Franklin’s men had researched, it was all an act.

The man had a college degree, but played up the
good ole’ boy
routine for his elections. He had gotten his first money to invest from his own family. Somewhere along the way, he had changed his name, managed to put on a lot of weight, then surrounded himself with a group of down-home trailer trash, and probably some white supremacists. He threw in a couple of black lawyers just to make the mix laughable and give the media something to talk about.

Franklin and his men had come in, driving a couple of civilian
Hummers,
which he found no more comfortable than the military ones, both with room for only one passenger in front. Evidently one of the men thought they would fit in with the guys who went hunting every other day, but they stood out as bad if they had driven up in bright red VW beetles. Next to all the mud-covered pick-ups, including the four-door that the brain stepped out of, now, the
Hummers
looked like show offs.

They followed the cavalcade of trucks accompanied by yelping, shooting-torn jeans-wearing men onto the red, dusty, unpaved roads deep into the high pine forests to a rolling log hunting cabin that had been added onto, complete with wraparound porch and rockers. He put up with the
good ole boy
jokes and ate the bar-b-q pig or whatever it was. Actually the meal was pretty good.

But there were the mangy dogs, flies in droves, and ants in the barren yard if you stood still very long. On top of it all was the heat that melted everything. As the evening moved in, the heat didn’t let up, but the humidity increased. Finally, the so-called Colonel suggested they move inside where, God Bless, he had an air-conditioned office.

Franklin watched through an unwashed window as his right hand man talked on his satellite phone pacing with a frown. That was a bad call. This was a bad meeting. The so-called Colonel was willing to cooperate on helping them locate a group that the US Marshals had hired them to find, but the cost was prohibitive.

Finally, he decided to call it quits with a bluff to find out what the call had been about, so he agreed to the Colonel’s price, made their excuses, shook hands, and got his men loaded up.

His man asked him if everything was agreeable. “Just keep smiling. Act like everything is wonderful. Get me out of this fucking hellhole. I agreed to his price to make sure that the whole thing was quits tonight, but that asshole will wait for another ice age before he gets any of our money. In fact, I want to put a hit on him. Let’s blow his ass off this planet and we will deal with his
next in line
.”

They finally reached the paved road. “You going to give me the bad news from that phone call?”

The aide looked out the side window for a moment and then just jumped into it. “Myers and the woman, Michelle Tompson, are off the radar.”

Franklin sat in quiet shock. As he thought, things got worse. Right now, he wanted to go back to take one of the bazookas in the back. He wanted to blow the shit out of the cabin in the woods. He wanted to inflict serious damage to anything and anyone. He saw nothing but red. He had been told that his blood pressure was pushing behind his eyes. He literally did see red because the veins were swelling. He also knew it was dangerous to his health—but, fuck, he really needed to kill someone.

“Take me directly to the airport. I will take the Jetstream back, myself. Have the team gather up my stuff. Everyone can bring it with them either in the
Hummers
or rentals.”

There was silence except for the driver, who called the airport to warn them that the Commander would be there for takeoff in about an hour and half. At the airport, he stood in the damp heat of night at the drop down steps to give his orders.

“Wipe out that southern bastard in a horrid manner that sends a message. Take out as many of his men as you can at the same time in one hit. Then, bring in everyone who is on this continent to find Myers and that woman. I don’t want to hear that there was any hesitation or worry about cost.” He turned, entered the plane, and they heard him give the order for his favorite whiskey.

The media around the world carried the headlines. One of the largest contributors to his elections had almost killed the Governor of Georgia. Due to some miscalculation and the fact that the Governor was delayed, a huge bomb was set off too early. It took out, not its intended target, but the so-called Colonel who headed up the plan along with several of his cohorts who were in the vehicle, planted on the route the Governor would take on entering the city. “The entire plan was later unfolded to State Police from several followers of the Colonel who were hunted down and arrested after a gun battle at a sequestered camp in the deep words of Georgia. Unfortunately, the camp was entirely destroyed by hidden explosives being stored at the sight. Although no police or Marshals were killed, several were injured and many of the camp’s residents died in the damage.”

* * * *

Michelle

I gathered up my things and got on the road. It didn’t take me long to get a ride going north with a trucker. The talk was pleasant, but best of all, he didn’t hit on me. I got almost half a day’s ride before we stopped at a truck stop. I decided it was time to cut out.

My next ride was with a salesman who
did
try to hit on me. He took me back to Ohio where I headed to Cleveland. I let the salesman think we were going to get into something important for him when we stopped at a
Denny’s
. I took my backpack with the excuse I needed to get refreshed, and with a wink, went to the women’s restroom.

Unfortunately, he was sitting where he could see me come out. I looked around, looked at the ceiling, and had an idea. I went into a stall, and locked the door. I climbed up on the stool so I could carefully lift up one of the ceiling panels. It was a drop ceiling, with a rough metal stud holding up the roof about four feet above the wires holding the panels. I stepped up on the tissue dispenser, then to the top of the stall. I hung onto the metal beams until I slid the ceiling panel back in place.

I worked my way to the back of the building to where I figured was the storage area. I carefully pulled up a panel and found out I was right. I was over a small dark room with metal shelves full of items. I did one of those acrobat hangs that I never could pull off, but this time it worked. I was on top of one of the shelves. Of course, I knocked over all kinds of jars and things that made a lot of noise. I climbed down just as a kid opened the door to see what was going on. I gave him a smile, said
thanks
and ducked around him to go out the back door, leaving him looking at the mess on the floor he was going to have to clean.

I went over a couple of blocks to avoid running into my disappointed salesman. I stopped at a
Shell
station to inquire about the bus station. I was in luck as it was close.

I also slept on the bus to Cleveland. I would always wonder what drew me to Cleveland. If I knew then what I know now, I would have gone to Florida, or Kentucky or anywhere else. However, at the time, I thought the area a safe destination that wouldn’t show up on the Feds’ radar since I thought they would be looking for me in Washington, or somewhere close to the Capital. Who goes to Cleveland, Ohio?

When I got to Cleveland, I did find it was not a grim a place as I pictured. I remember hearing about the river catching on fire and I pictured it looking like the City in Batman movies. Actually, it was like most mid country cities. Construction had halted due to the economy and there was a lot of unemployment. But the streets were clean and there were a lot of areas where I felt the crime was not too high. I found a couple of street kids who were walking and watching around them for anything that they could get in trouble or a fight with. I crossed over to them and finally decided to see if they would talk to me.

“Hey, kids, I need some help.”

The guy looked at me, but the girl still wanted to move on. “We don’t have any drugs.” He held out his hand, palm up, and open.

“No, I’m looking for a safe place to sleep.” They looked at each other for a moment, then seemed to reach an agreement.

“Follow us.” They took off, ignoring me.

I thought, okay, I am either going to get mugged or I am going to find a safe place to sleep. After a couple of blocks, we turned down an alley and went through a gate of a fenced-in yard. I looked up at the brick wall that was the back of some large building hidden by the dark. I didn’t see a lot of lights back here, but there was one over the door.

The kids knocked on the door and it opened immediately. They went in and I followed, finding myself in some type of large community kitchen that was clean, but closed down for the evening. We walked through, following a man who was dressed for sleeping. He told us to keep quiet. Finally, we entered a dim room filled with cots, most of which were full. The man told us to pick one and be quiet. He whispered we were to be up at seven in the morning to help with chores.

I cautiously watched the kids, who seemed to know the ropes as they found a couple of cots together. I found one not too far away. Theytook off their shoes, tied them together and placed the looped ties over their necks. They then used their back packs as pillows, throwing the flat pillow on top and lying down, fully dressed. They pulled the threadbare blanket over their heads to block out the light and noise to settle down to sleep.

It seemed like a smart way to protect everything, and still get some downtime, so I carefully repeated every move they had made. I was surprised to find that I did sleep. The noise level was a low murmur and the blanket blocked out the light.

The next morning, I carefully peaked around my blanket as loud noises woke me up. My two guides from the night before were already gone from their bunks. I got up, gathered my stuff and followed the line to the bathrooms, taking my turn with several other women in using the very clean toilets. Oh, there were no doors for privacy, which also meant no hidden drug use. I brushed my teeth at one of the sinks in the row. These also were clean, so I made a point of taking a paper towel to wipe up after myself. I went out to pay for my night of sleep.

I found out we were in a building attached to a very large Catholic Church. This church was generous. It was famous, so in this time of so many out of work and out of their homes, it was serving a great community purpose. Unfortunately, it was almost overwhelmed.

I helped out in the morning, then stayed around to help in the kitchen for the large numbers of homeless that would be served for the supper crowd. After that I settled down again to sleep. Then, one of the priests who ran the whole
HELP Center
offered me a job. It didn’t pay much, but it gave me a purpose. The kitchen area was a safe center where no one asked a lot of questions. The faces of those coming and going didn’t want to exchange a lot of information. They kept conversations down to the weather, or where to get handouts. There was information on clothes, free condoms, and health care.

I actually enjoyed working at the
HELP Center
. The people who came here for help were not the usual street people or drug bums. They were nice people in trouble. Businesses either cutting back or closed down had heavily hit this community. These families couldn’t find enough money to move. Every other house had either a
For Sale
sign or a
Repossess
sign.

I even helped in the little office tucked behind all the boxes with large jars of mustard and pickles. They had an old donated computer. I did what I could to update the accounting system to make it easier to keep up with their supplies. I got a lot of praise from everyone, because, now, they were able to find things and know when they ran out of sugar. I wasn’t stupid, so I didn’t do any surfing even when a couple of kids asked me to look for some sites they were interested in on the Internet.

I was working with Kathy Hellman, a volunteer of about fifty who spent a lot of time at the church in the kitchen. I used my real name as I didn’t think anyone would be looking for me in a church kitchen. I knew Kathy had another full time job. I understood she did not have any life outside of her church work. This was okay with me. To each his own. She could have chosen worse. There were lots of fifty-year-old single women sitting on bar stools every night.

Kathy made her friends at the church in the kitchen. She decided I was a new friend so that was why she greeted me. She found excuses to work near me when shecame in on evening duty. One evening she was helping me with the final cleaning in the kitchen and she started talking.

“Michelle, I work in the FEMA office and I told them about what you did on the old computer here. We have a job for you. How about coming in tomorrow.”

I was shocked. I looked at her as I put the large pans away in the open cabinets. I just stood there looking at her. My going to work in a Government office was the very last thing that I wanted to do. I couldn’t believe that she had even told someone about me. “Gee, Kathy, that is real sweet of you, but I am just not the office type. In fact, I was just thinking of hitting the road again. I think I was born too late. I was meant to be a hippy.” I ended this with a big laugh and finished stacking the pans.