Recovery

Previous Chapter: Search and Rescue

The sun is well above the horizon when I feel her sit up in bed. She looks a whole lot less bad now that she’s had a good night’s rest.

“I really have to pee, where’s the bathroom?”

Not the romantic first thoughts I was having, but I suppose that stuff is only in the movies. I direct her to the appropriate location.

She’s in there a while. Just as I’m starting to get concerned, I hear a flush. She’s moving around the sink. I hear her brushing her teeth, then hear the shower running. I guess she wasn’t content with my attempt at grooming. She’s in the shower for a while. I look in and check on her from time to time. She just seems to be scrubbing extra thoroughly. When she finally comes out, I’m surprised that I’m not even thinking about how sexy she looks. My focus is on the myriad bruises I see everywhere.

She asks, “I’m starving, what’s to eat?”

I’d anticipated this and laid out some food on the table in the living room. Tessa had earlier brought some of Isabel’s clothes in hopes we would find her. I’d laid them out on the bed. Looking much better than that poor bedraggled rat I found the night before, she joins me at the table after getting dressed. She eats in silence for a while, though the looks she gives me are eloquent. With the edge of her hunger assuaged, she gets up out of her chair and comes around to mine and gives me a long hug.

“While I was in there, I had several dreams where you or Tessa would burst in and rescue me. Yet every time I woke up I was still tied up and trapped. When you showed up last night, I really couldn’t see it as real until I woke up here this morning. Thank you!”

“Tessa wanted to get me involved because she was worried if she took an active interest, her contacts that had been leaking information would clam up. I was winding up a job, so unfortunately didn’t get here until three days ago. It took me until last evening to find you. Tessa is convinced that there are more involved. She left this morning to do some interrogating.”

Isabel smiles, clearly knowing a thing or two about Tessa’s interrogation methods, “I wish I could be there, but I trust Tessa will do a better job than I would. She’s much better suited for field work, I’m better suited for management.” She frowned, “Or was. I had a lot of time to think over the last few days. I’ve a pretty good idea of who is ultimately behind all this; I’m not sure I can go back to the agency. Remember when we talked before, how I said I was a career woman dedicated to my agency? Well, no longer. Even though it’s clear these guys did this independently and came up with some sort of smokescreen that I left in a huff, I’ve worked with those people for a couple of decades. No one – other than Tessa, of course – seemed to find my disappearance unusual or alarming in any way. To me that speaks volumes about my place in that organization.”

Isabel starts into a second meal. She may need to eat extra for a few days to make up for her adventures. It seems all they did was occasionally give her water. As Isabel is winding up, Tessa arrives. She goes straight to Isabel and gives her a long hug. I guess women need that, though I admit it sure felt good when Isabel and I hugged.

They talk quickly in their language, discussing names and what appear to be organizations. I can follow the language, but it’s too many names without context for me to keep up. After about ten minutes, Tessa says she’ll be back late tonight or early tomorrow. As she leaves, she gives us an enigmatic smile and suggests we watch the news. We tune the small TV to a local news channel. We’re just in time for the sports round up, so have to wait to get the topical news. I sit on the couch and pull Isabel onto my lap, then wrap my arms around her. She seems to like that and leans her head against mine, letting her now dry hair cascade down my neck and chest. Eventually the show cycles around to actual news (unless, I guess, you’re a rabid footballer). There’s this interesting report about a warehouse where two men were discovered. They had their throats slit, their genitals cut off and stuffed in their mouths. Though there’s no official confirmation, the reporter says that unofficial sources indicate the genitals were not their own. We smile at that. Surely Tessa has done a better job than we could have. No mention, of course, of their membership in the agency. It’s just two anonymous guys. I have to imagine that there are people sweating in the agency now. No question they know who those guys were. None of the people involved can speak about the subject. To do so is to admit they kidnapped and raped Isabel.

We spend the day talking about small things. I rarely let her get out of arm’s reach and try to remain in physical contact the whole day. We watch the news off and on. It seems there is an epidemic of guys getting their throats slit and genitals stuffed in their mouths. The news is speculating that it’s some sort of drug turf war. We’re sure the agency is on high alert and hope Tessa is careful. As the sun goes down, Isabel starts to get groggy.

“I want to go to bed, but not alone. I’m not ready for any sort of sexual contact, but I really want to hold you and be held by you.”

“I’m fine with that. I won’t go any faster any sooner than you want. Whenever you’re ready, I’ll be.”

We head to the bedroom. She puts on her pajamas. They seem the same as those she wore when we were on the Venezuelan gig all those years ago. Surely those would have disintegrated by now. I take off my pants and shirt, but stop at the underwear. She looks at me like she’s considering her feelings, then just reaches out a hand to take me as I am. We slide into bed and snuggle very close together. I wrap both arms around her and hold her tight. She climbs half on top of me and puts her head on my chest. Now I’m sure: the smell I love so much is her own. The soap in the shower is for hand washing and has no perfumes. Somehow that makes her even more special to me. I absently caress her back, but avoid her butt. Time enough for that when she’s ready. She seems to settle down to sleep fairly quickly, though every now and again she twitches strongly and whimpers quietly. Whenever that happens, I tighten my grip around her body. That seems to reassure her and she slips back into a deeper sleep.

I’m not that tired, so lay there thinking, enjoying the heat of her body and the scent of her hair. Though I lack the experience to be sure, I feel strongly that I love her. I’ve exhibited all the clinical signs. Now that I have her in my arms, I have no intention of letting go. The idea that another five, or even three or one-and-a-half years going by without her causes me anxiety. I’m not sure how we'll manage it, but as long as she’s willing, we’ll be together.

Eventually I fall asleep, though long after my arm has. Isabel stirs a few times. I wake up and readjust, pulling her tighter against me, then we drift back to sleep. After the sun wakes us, she looks at me very seriously.

“Seacay, I love you.”

I look at her just as seriously and reply, “And I love you.”

I think we both feel better having got that out in the open, but the urges of nature are calling, so we have to separate. She gets up first. My arm is barely functional. As she does her morning toilet, I do some exercises to get the blood flowing. Naturally, my arm goes from numb to incredibly painful, but I know it’ll be over in another minute or two. Tessa, it seems, got in sometime during the night. I hear her talking with Isabel at the bathroom. Finally getting control over my arm and hand, I give a pitiful look to the both of them so I can get past to the bathroom.

When I’m done, I meet them in the living room. They’re sitting on the couch next to each other, holding hands. Tessa has a naughty look on her face and Isabel is a bit flushed. I raise my eyebrows in the question.

“I told Isabel I put on my avenging angel suit and went on a rampage. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get the definitive information I needed to make any of it official, so I went about doing it unofficially.”

Isabel says: “Remember long ago when I mentioned that we weren’t cold blooded killers? Well Tessa is a hot blooded killer. When she gets mad she gets vengeful and goes on a killing spree. I’m not even effective as a hot blooded killer. I keep seeing wives, girlfriends and children whenever I think of killing these guys. We were co-workers for decades. Tessa is much more focused, like you in that regard. She doesn’t let those sorts of emotions get in her way.”

I say, “I feel I have to ask this so I can understand things better: why didn’t they just kill you? I get the raping and beating. That’s pathetic typical insecure adolescent male behavior. But I doubt that would last more than a day. I found you after five days and it seems clear they were going to keep you a while longer.”

Isabel says, “It comes down to how the agency manages internal affairs. Because there’ve been repeated problems in the past, the IA systems are on isolated networks with three factor authentication. Even other IA people can’t access someone else’s work. It’s completely compartmentalized. However, and this is the key, just because someone stops working in IA doesn’t mean their material gets lost. After a certain waiting period, all the incomplete cases get automatically promoted to their next senior in rank. While they could get my ID and my fingerprints, they still needed my password. I imagine their goal was to delete or rewrite my case files against them, then allow for the promotion process to happen. Then there would be ‘proof’ that I was crazy, so all the previous cases would be dismissed.”

“They didn’t resort to physical torture, though.”

“Well, they did beat me a lot. That rubber hose thing. They did some waterboarding, starved me and though I got some water, I was dehydrated most of the time. I suppose they were intending to use me somehow to make it look like I voluntarily left the country, so they didn’t want to cripple me. It sure wasn’t any sort of picnic. But I knew there wasn’t any point in giving them my password. One way or another they were going to have to kill me. Besides, I knew that Tessa was looking for me and likely would get you involved. I hoped if I just held out long enough I would be rescued by my knights in shining armor.”

Tessa follows with “I knew it was a race against time. I’m really glad we won. I’m not sure where my vengeance would end if they’d killed you or done worse than they did. They should consider themselves lucky. I was able to persuade several of them to give me a fuller picture of their network before they met their untimely end. Interestingly, they wouldn’t reveal the person at the top, said that doing so would be worse than what I’d planned. That person must be very well connected in the agency, yet I can’t think of anyone at that level who has expressed the slightest hint that they’re against you.”

“I’m pretty sure I know who it is. I’ve been working on an IA file for a couple of years now that implicates one person near the top. She’s even been a mentor of mine.” Tessa inhales at that, “I know you know who I’m talking about. She’s been skimming millions over the years and continues to do so today. I’m also very sure she’s been blackmailing others. I’ve had few sources, even those wound up dead. I had nothing I could take to the director, particularly against someone this highly placed. I feel sure she set these guys up to take the fall in the event things went south for some reason. Even now there’ll be nothing definitive we could take to him. Besides, I can’t be sure he’s totally clean. The two of them worked together when they were first getting started. I’m not sure what to do about the agency stuff, but I’ve convinced myself there’s no point in going back. I don’t think I can trust anyone there anymore.”

“For my part,” Tessa says, “I won’t be going back either. Though I did my best to make sure nothing could be traced back to me, I’m not sure I could remain objective working with them again. Besides, I put together a complete dossier with all the information I had and sent it to a couple of people I trust. No doubt word will gradually seep out that I was the one that went on the killing spree. Sooner or later that’ll catch up to me.

“With that in mind, I stopped by your apartment last night and collected a few things I thought you’d find difficult to replace or where I was sure you’d rather have it destroyed than fall into anyone else’s hands. It’s in that duffle bag next to the door. I also cleaned out my important stuff, so I’m ready to go. What shall we do now?”

I say, “I thought about that last night. We don’t want to travel together. That’ll attract too much attention. While it’s possible Isabel’s ‘nemesis’ will be content with her disappearing, no doubt there’ll be people who’ll want to know what happened to the both of you. We should give them as much of a dead end as possible. Ideally a series of dead ends.”

Tessa: “I can make my own way out. I just need to know where to go. I’ve had covert travel plans in place for decades; knowing myself the way I do, I’ve always felt that a situation like this would arise at some point.”

I continue, “I don’t want to leave Isabel alone. However, I put together a plan I think can get her out without there being any sort of connection. I’ll contact my smuggler friend who spirited me into the country and arrange for him to take me back out. Waiting at the end of the runway, as we turn for take off, Isabel can hop on the plane. Even if they track my smuggler friend, they shouldn’t associate his activities with ours, so we should be fine going forward.

“We can meet at my primary residence. I keep it quite secure. It’s rather secluded. There we can take our time discussing next steps.”

Isabel says, “Tessa, you should be happy: Seacay and I finally professed our love for each other this morning.”

Tessa smiles and claps, “Finally! It’s sad that it had to come to this point before you realized it, but I’m glad you finally did.”

With the immediate future planned, I contact Jim. A bit surprising to me, he’s still in-country. Evidently he suspected that I might need more help. I discuss my plan for getting Isabel out. He refines it, and we set a time. Jim is an expert at moving people around without leaving any trace. I feel better after his refinements. We finish up the food we have and decide we’ll just have to go hungry for a while. Mid-afternoon, Tessa gets her stuff, gives us both hugs and kisses, then heads out. We have no idea how she’ll travel, but neither of us are the slightest bit worried. As the sun starts to set, we begin our travels. They’ll be long; the airstrip Jim selected is even more remote than the one where he dropped me off. Our travel process is convoluted. We know that at some point people with massive resources will begin looking for us (we figure right now Tessa has them terrorized in a hole somewhere). We want to leave a series of false trails and misdirections. I worry every time Isabel is out of my sight. More of that love thing, I guess. I only relax when we’re close enough to touch.

Eventually, around three in the morning, we reach the airstrip. We follow Jim’s instructions to the letter. Within another half hour we’re in the air and heading out of the country. Because secrecy is critical, it’ll be a day and a half or so before we’re back in the States, due to all the misdirection. Fortunately, Jim laid in some food for us. Since Isabel’s never been in a jet like this, she sits in the co-pilot seat off and on and gets a checkout. I’m sure Jim doesn’t mind having her there. Despite being battered, bruised and starved, she’s still gorgeous.