Scars Of Defiance (11 page)

Martha said. “I spoke with Mrs. Bidell this afternoon, and
she said they didn’t pick anyone up last night because of their remodeling.”

Elsie asked, “An empty house was raided?”

Zachary answered with, “No, Greg said they took in one male
crosser. Both stories cannot be true. The only reason Mrs. Bidell would cover
up taking in a crosser would be for the same reason we would … cover up; we
don’t want to be raided. But for Greg to say they did take one in could just be
his stupidity for divulging too much information. However, he also said they
were raided this morning. That’s the part that bothers me.”

“Why would Greg lie about that?” Elsie asked.

Martha stated confidently, “The Bidell’s were not raided
this morning. We would have known.”

“I agree. It’s most definitely a lie.” Zachary said. “That
leads me to believe that Greg was trying to get Paul to volunteer up information.”

“We’d better evacuate,” Elsie stammered out.

“No,” Zachary said firmly. “Let’s assume for a moment that
the Bidells are spies working for Rawlings. They would be watching for persons
of interest or particular people. Ms. Montgomery would definitely fall into
that category. These other crossers are inconsequential to them. The Bidells
wouldn’t blow their cover for just anybody. Paul told Greg that his crosser was
male. If Greg was digging for info, he didn’t get it. It may be the reason we
haven’t been questioned yet. We can’t evacuate. It would raise red flags.”

Elsie put her face in her hands as if her head hurt. “So we
stay put and pretend nothing is wrong or suspicious?”

“Right. We’ll go ahead and try to find placements for all
seven of our crossers, but no one leaves till the heat subsides.”

“And what if we’re raided?” Martha asked.

“Then we follow protocol. I believe we should all assume the
Bidell family is not to be trusted.”  Zachary said to Martha, “Go update Sam.
Oh and one more thing, we must all refer to Sierra as Sara. Make sure Sam and
Paul both understand this perfectly. One slip-up could cost her her life.”
And
all of ours, too.

Chapter 6

Paul lay still as stone on the bed. The awkwardness of the
situation was far worse than he’d imagined it would be. After being down in the
crawlspace with Sierra and feeling her body pressed close against his, he
couldn’t get his mind off her.

Sierra, on the other hand, slept like a rock. Her exhausting
day had taken its toll on her, and she had crashed after her bath.

Paul didn’t want to fall asleep for fear he would wake up in
an awkward position or worse. He looked over at her sleeping form. The small
amount of light spilling into the room danced across her face, highlighting her
bone structure. Paul hadn’t ever seen a girl as beautiful as she was. It was
easy to see why Victor Rawlings wanted to marry her.

Sierra readjusted in her sleep and turned her head toward
Paul. Their faces were mere inches apart. All he had to do was reach out with his
hand, and he could feel her silky soft skin. It angered him once again to think
about Reginald damaging her perfect body.

The more Paul thought about her injuries, the more he
realized that not once during the whole day had she complained about her back
or legs. Her ankle had her wincing when she tried to walk on it, which she
wasn’t supposed to do, but other than that, if Paul hadn’t actually seen the
injuries, he wouldn’t have believed she had them. How does someone block out
pain like that? Paul was nothing short of amazed at the girl lying next to him.

Paul eventually fell asleep and awoke to the smell of bacon.
Nothing quite like the smell of bacon. It wakes the senses, clears the mind,
and makes the stomach growl. Paul heard the growl. He opened his eyes to see
Sierra staring back at him.

“Good morning, Paul,” she smiled seductively.

Paul reasoned with himself. She probably didn’t mean to send
a seductive signal. He had only read it as such. “Did you sleep well?” he
asked.

“Yes. I’ve been awake for a little while.”

“You have? Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“Sorry. I didn’t think you would want me to.”

Paul sat up and stretched his back. He looked back over his
shoulder at Sierra to see her eyes on him.

“Paul, did I do … anything, or say … anything last night
that made you uncomfortable?”

“No. Did I?”

“No.”

“Well, good. We survived our first real night together.”

“Right, that’s good.” She smiled. Her hair was spread on her
pillow in wavy piles.

Paul stood up and was walking to the bedroom door when he
heard the doorbell ring. Sierra shot straight up and scooted off the bed. He
had the trap door opened and had climbed down the hole before she made it to
him. He helped her down and closed the door.

“Let’s sit over on the blanket.” He whispered and guided her
over to it. He opened the box containing supplies and pulled out another
blanket to wrap around her shoulders. They sat in silence, listening to the
mumbling voices above, and watched as dust drifted to the ground under the
footsteps.

“What a way to start the day,” she whispered.

He turned and looked at her with her beautiful curly bed-head
hair flying this way and that.

She added, “Maybe we should stay down here all day.”

“I like that idea a lot.” They smiled at one another.

Little did they know, they would be scurrying down the hole
several times that day. Zachary started digging on the tunnel to give them an
escape route but had to stop every time the doorbell rang. Paul took turns with
his father, letting him care for Sierra while Paul dug. After eight different
trapdoor false alarms, Sierra demanded she remain down in the crawlspace with
them.

By the end of the day, Zachary and Paul had dug down under
the foundation of the house and supported it with beams. The digging was more
exhausting than Paul thought it would be. There were lots of large rocks in the
ground, and whenever Paul tried to scoop up dirt, he’d hit another rock.

“I’d do better with a pick-axe and a teaspoon, Dad.”

“Hey, you’re not telling me anything I didn’t already know.
I dug out the other tunnel.”

“You have my sympathies.”

“Yes, well, I was much younger and in shape then. I say we
hang it up for the day. We’ll get back on it tomorrow.”

Zachary, Elsie and Martha convened again in the kitchen
after dinner.

“Ah, I’m not as young as I use to be,” Zachary said, rubbing
his shoulder.

“You should let Sam and Paul do all the work,” Elsie
sympathized.

“I’m the engineer. I need to be right there to avoid a cave
in. Tell me about all the visitors we had today,” Zachary directed to his wife.

“It was simply unbelievable. Every time the doorbell rang I
had visions of Sara falling down the hole and hurting herself further. I
suspect many of the people who came today were working for Reginald. None of
them tried to enter the house. They only asked questions. One of them was
supposedly selling vacuum cleaners, and he wanted to come inside, but I turned
him down. He asked many questions that I took to be probes. How many people are
in the home? How old is the home? He even wanted to see our current vacuum. I
still think he was trying to fool me. No doubt about it, they’re trying to find
her. The funny thing is no one is looking for the six men we have downstairs.
If it weren’t for all the fuss they’re making about Sara, we could have shipped
off the others.”

“Mrs. Bidell talked to me over the fence as I put the
garbage out,” Martha said. “We only spoke about the weather and other
commonplace topics. I didn’t feel like she was fishing for information.”

Elsie added hesitantly, “I’ve noticed that she’s taken quite
an interest in Paul.”

“Mrs. Bidell?” Zachary asked.

“No, Sara.”

“Well, that’s to be expected. She’ll soon be on her way, and
things will be back to normal.” Zachary didn’t want to fuel the suspicions of a
blooming romance, but he’d seen the way Paul and Sierra looked at one another
while under the house.

“I hope so, for Paul’s sake. I don’t want his heart to be
broken through all of this.”

“I think you should be more concerned about the future of his
neck. If Reginald gets a hold of him — ”

“I know, Zach. I know,” Elsie said.

“Well, tomorrow will be productive. I’m hoping to reach the
tunnel,” Zachary said, trying to lighten the mood. “The digging is going faster
than I anticipated.”

*****

Paul and Sierra lay in bed that night, silently staring up
at the ceiling.

“Paul, can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Why doesn’t your father just move me out of your home?
Wouldn’t it be better than staying here putting everyone in danger?”

“There’s too much heat on you right now.”

“I know. The heat would go away if I was gone.”

“No, it wouldn’t. It won’t go away till you’re captured. If
we tried to move you, they’d find us. It’s actually better to let them zoom in
on our home and raid us. Then we can escape through the tunnel while all their
eyes are on the home and hopefully get away, a diversion of sorts.”

“It sounds too risky.”

“It is, but we’ve done it before and it works. But Sam is
the one who handles the evacuations, not me.”

“Where does the tunnel lead?”

“Can’t tell you. When you come out of the tunnel, you’ll know
where it leads.”

“What’s that, like some kind of a club or something? The
tunnel club?”

“Yeah. Exactly.” He looked over at her and smiled. The
strained tension that he felt when he looked at her curled his toes. He looked
away back to the ceiling.

“Tomorrow, I plan to stay in the crawlspace all day long,”
she said.

“If it makes you feel safer.”

“I feel safe when I’m with you. If that’s where you’ll be,
it’s where I want to be too.”

He looked at her again and saw she was completely serious.
“Okay. Let’s get some sleep.”

“You don’t think they’ll raid us during the night?”

“Highly unlikely. They can’t track us as easily after dark.
They always raid in the daylight, often at the crack of dawn. Get some rest,
Sara.” He rolled away so he wouldn’t have to look at her, so maybe the knot in
his stomach would relax.

“Goodnight, Paul.” Sierra laid her head down on the pillow
and stared at Paul’s back. He had changed in a matter of hours. In two days’
time she had watched as he matured from boy to man. His sincerity toward her
wasn’t masked or fake. It was genuine. Her father was the only other person she
had ever known who displayed this kind of trait. Paul reminded her of her
father, and she knew without a doubt that her father would’ve liked Paul.

*****

“Sir, may I have a moment with you?”

Reginald looked up from his papers. “Come in.”

General Steinman entered and stood before Reginald with a
nervousness that didn’t go unnoticed by Reginald. “May I ask if you’ve come up
with an explanation about Sierra’s absence?” the general asked.

“No one knows she’s disappeared.”

“Well, assuming she hasn’t been located in time for the
wedding, I’m wondering what you plan to tell the press.”

“No one will ever know she’s disappeared.” Reginald’s anger
began to rise.

“Sir, if I may, I have an idea of how you can explain the
delay of the wedding. Of course it won’t be necessary if she’s found and
returned in time, but if not, I think it would be sufficient for the people.”

“Tell me.”

“The public knows about the attempts on her life from
several months ago, so why not paint the picture that there are current threats
against her, and you don’t want to risk her safety by holding the wedding —
that is, until the threat is nullified, which of course would be once you find
her.”

Reginald rubbed his chin in heavy contemplation. “Yes, that
sounds good. Alert the press. As head of my security, you’ve determined that
there’s a viable threat to Ms. Montgomery’s life, and the wedding is currently
on hold until we can be assured of her safety.”

“Yes sir.” General Steinman saluted and left the room.

Reginald leaned back in his chair and inhaled deeply. Relief
settled over him. What would he do without his trusted personnel? General
Steinman had come up with plausible propaganda. People in general are weak
minded and believe whatever you tell them, but not Reginald. No, he was smarter
than that.

*****

The next day started out fine with no new developments to
report on any level. Sam joined Paul in the crawlspace, and together they
worked removing the dirt and rocks. Sierra joined them but remained over in the
opposite corner curled up in a blanket.

“She’s real cute, Pauly,” Sam teased quietly.

“Shut up,” Paul hissed. He hated it when his older brother
called him that.

“Come on. You know I’m only jealous. I’ve never been in your
situation, you know, sleeping with a crosser.”

“Leave it to you to make it sound scandalous,” Paul said.
“Why are there so many damn rocks?” He reached down and wrapped his fingers
around a rock twelve inches across and heaved it out of the tunnel.

By Zachary’s calculations, they still had about four feet of
earth to move before they would reach the tunnel wall. Every four inches they
progressed forward, they added a two-by-four wood plank to the ceiling with
uprights to support it. The tunnel they were digging was five feet tall and
three feet wide. In the crawlspace, it sloped down ramp style till its height
reached five feet directly under the foundation of the house. It followed the
outer side of the solid cement wall which formed the basement. Soon they would
connect perpendicularly to the existing tunnel.