Note: This is a work of
Fiction.
Although the areas this story takes place in are real; the landscapes depicted, the people described, and everything else this story uses to make it enjoyable reading are
NOT REAL.
As you read this story, try to remember:
"THIS IS A NOVEL."
The author retains all rights to this story.
*
13. Hidden and Found
What are the chances of two graduate students from the University of Massachusetts, in Amherst, running into one another, in a city of over 8 million people, at 8: 30 a.m. on a Wednesday morning? Unfortunately on that Wednesday morning, it happened to Patricia Garrett as she was on her way to the print shop. She was being followed by Janet, who was across the street from her, and Cynthia, who was about 20 yards behind her. The Don told her they were there for her security, because he did not want anyone to attempt to take her, like they had taken Stephano.
She laughed at him, when he said that to her. "What would they do with me, Don Bruno? Of what value am I to them? I have no family who could raise a large ransom. I have no political influence. Taking me would be taking a piece of driftwood and they know it."
Don Bruno laughed. "You may be driftwood, Patricia, but you are my driftwood, and I will allow nothing to happen to you."
"As you wish, Don Bruno, and your driftwood has good news for you. Your driftwood has gained 18 ounces."
"You probably weighed yourself after you drank a glass of water, Patricia."
"No, Don Bruno, I was holding a glass of milk."
Both of them laughed for a moment, but Don Bruno finished by saying, "You will put on some weight young woman; I do not want you getting ill again."
"I am eating better, Sir, and I am taking the vitamins the doctor told me to take. I eat three meals a day. Each evening, I have meat, chicken, or fish, plus a vegetable. I cannot do any better than that."
"All right Patricia, I can see you are trying. Come here for dinner Friday night. I am expecting another message that evening, with pictures of Stephano, from Zabo. I want to see if he slips up again."
"I am at your service, Don Bruno.
As she was thinking about the Friday meeting, she heard someone yell from across the street, "Patty, Patty, it is me, Steve."
She was not sure why she stopped, but she did. All through her college and graduate school years, all her friends called her Patty. She looked across the street and saw a young man running towards her. She recognized him and thought, "Oh shit."
He ran towards her, grabbed her, and kissed her cheek like an old friend. If he stopped there, everything would have been fine, but he didn't. Before she could say anything to him, he said aloud, "We all thought you were dead. We thought you had died in the explosion at school."
Patricia looked across the street to see if Janet had heard him; she did. She had her telephone in her hand, getting ready to make a call. She turned and saw Cynthia reaching into her handbag reaching for her gun.
She grabbed Steve by his jacket, pulled him, and yelled, "Run."
He did not understand why, but when he saw Patricia start to run, he moved like he was on fire.
Cynthia was aiming her gun at Patricia, when a shot rang out from behind her and knocked Cynthia to the floor. Janet was tackled to the ground before her call could be connected to the Dons' house.
By the time Patricia reached the end of the street, a black sedan was there, waiting for them. A man and a woman were standing there, with guns drawn and ID showing, ordering Steve and her into the back seat. Once the door closed, the car screamed across the street and headed across town to a safe house. Patricia was frightened. Steve was white with fear. He had no idea what he had walked into that morning.
Steve asked, "Patty, what the hell is going on?"
An agent in the front seat yelled, "Keep quiet, and do not say a word."
Patricia looked at Steve and shrugged her shoulders.
As they approached the Hudson River, the driver made a hard right turn, into the underground garage of a high-rise building. He brought the car to a screeching halt by the elevator. One agent got out of the car and hit the call button for the elevator. When it arrived, he locked it in position, ordered Patricia and Steve from the car, and into the elevator. They brought them both up and into a fourth floor apartment, where they closed and triple barred the door. From the outside it may have looked like in normal apartment, however, from the inside, it was an armed camp. It took up one third of the entire fourth floor. There were concrete barriers and two large safe rooms, one on each side of the apartment. It had a commercial kitchen, with two huge refrigerators, a grill, and an oven that could fit three turkeys in it. The entire set up looked like it could cook for 30 to 40 people at one time.
They separated Steve and Patricia, so they could interrogate both of them individually. After 15 minutes, they realized the meeting was completely accidental. Blown operations normally happened this way.
In Washington, the Director of the FBI was in the daily presidential briefing, when one of his staff members came in, and handed him an urgent message. He did not realize he verbalized it, when he said, "Fuck."
The president and those around the table, who knew the calm and cool director of the FBI, for many years, turned their heads toward him and laughed.
The president was not going to let Michael off the hook, because it had been a long time since he had something he could razz him on. "Michael, would you like to let us in on your little word problem?"
"Mister President, it is a female problem."
"Are you having an affair, Michael, or would you like to explain that answer."
"Mister President, would you the awful truth, or a gory lie"
"Somehow, Michael, I think the real story is going to be more fascinating than the lie to us this morning."
"Approximately 7 weeks ago, a 22-year-old woman walked in to our building. She handed us material that could help us bring down the five New York crime families. Her only request was that she be allowed to take down the Valentino family by herself. The supervisor she was speaking to said no, because she had no law enforcement experience or training. She stood up, and before she left said, "I am going to shut down all your computers tomorrow at noon. Goodbye." The supervisor laughed at her, because he thought it was not possible for anyone to do that to our computers. She gave him a card with her cell phone number on it. She said the only way to have the computers turned back on, was for me personally to call her, and beg her to turn them back on. The supervisor called the head of our computer security area. He told him about the threat to our computer system, and he was laughed off the phone. The next day, at 11:55 AM this young woman called the supervisor to make sure he had her card available. He said he did. She said, into two minutes, the building would go dark. Mister President, for the first time in FBI history, at 12 PM exactly our computers, our building, and our backups at Fort Meade went off-line for no apparent reason. All of our systems went out at the same exact moment. There was no rational cause for it. Our engineers could not find a reason. The supervisor called me and told me about the previous day's threat, and gave me Patricia's phone number. I called her immediately and told her in no uncertain terms to put our computers back on line. She joked with me for a few minutes, stating that our computers could not possibly be off-line, because it was impossible to do. I had to beg her to put them back on line, because our nationwide police system could not function without them. She taped me offering her complete immunity against state, federal, local, and municipal crimes, and told me in 30 seconds the computers would be back online. Mister President, in 30 seconds everything was back to normal. I hit the panic button, and ordered the building sealed because I did not want this woman to get out of our building after she told me she was in our cafeteria. I went down to the cafeteria and talked with her and her attorney, who I know very well, about what she did, and how she did it. I was so impressed with her; I hid her from the CIA, Homeland Security, and the NSA, when they showed up at my building to try and take her from me. As she was getting ready to leave, she asked if she could use our main frame. I gave her permission to do it at any time she wanted. She said she wanted to use it that day to give the Chinese a cold. When I asked her what she meant, she replied that she wanted to turn off every computer in China. Mister President, she was not kidding. Her program can do it. I got out of it gracefully, by saying that we did not do that stuff out of our building. I told her it was the Treasury Departments job to do it. She said, "Okay, I will go over there tomorrow and introduce myself. I will turn all of their computers off from there. I only wished she was joking, but in my heart I knew she was not."
She wormed her way into the Valentino crime family somehow, and ingratiated herself to both the Don and his son, Stephano. The Don liked her so much that he had her help him find a man that turned out to be Patricia's father. She knew this, before the actual event. She warned her father to be prepared to move and he did right after the event. She helped lead us to their satellite tracking facility in the Florida Everglades, something we were unable to find before. She did this by having herself injected with an extremely high dosage of a radioactive isotope. After she successfully did what Don Valentino needed her to do, she became ill with radioactive poisoning and had to be rushed to a Miami hospital. Her doctor did not know this, but I had a team waiting for her. She barely survived. This morning, quite by accident, a fellow student of hers from Amherst saw her in downtown New York. He crossed the Street and yelled, "We all thought you had died in the blast at school." Two of the Don's people were following her as a protection detail. When they realized she was our mole, one of them went to make a phone call, and the other drew her pistol to kill her. One of my men shot the woman with the gun, and another stopped the woman before she could make a phone call. This young woman will not allow us to keep her cooped up. She is so hardheaded that logic does not work on her. She will still want to take down the family by herself. I cannot put her in jail because she has done nothing illegal. I have no idea what I am going to do with her, Mister President. She is going to cause me the heart attack my two daughters have been trying to give me for the past 16 years. I do not want to lose that girl, I would never forgive myself.
The president looked around the room and asked for suggestions. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff suggested inducting her into the military, because we were at war. The head of the NSA said to give her to him. He would let her play with the Cray 4 computer, when things were slow.
Michael Free said, "Do not do that. It would cause the end of civilization as we know it." The president laughed at him
"Michael," the president said, "I am declaring that girl a 'National Treasure. I want her delivered to Fort Killian, Texas, as soon as possible, and in chains, if necessary. Put a tank battalion around her and protect her at all costs. Give her access to any computer she wants, and if she wants to walk around the perimeter of the base, let her. However, she is not allowed to step 1 inch off of it. If she wants to take any playmates with her, she can; just get her out of here and safe. Go Michael, do it now."
