Search and Rescue

Previous Chapter: Damsel in Distress

I wake up as we come in for the landing. It’s the middle of the night. All my things are gathered and ready to go when the plane stops moving. Tessa is there with a car. I thank Jim, putting my bags in the trunk as he makes arrangements to refuel and head off to wherever smugglers go when they aren’t smuggling.

Tessa is behind the wheel. I join her on the passenger side. She initially focuses on driving, so I have a chance to observe her. She has an unusual set to her face. She’s clearly upset. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that look. I’m glad it's not directed toward me. I know how good she is with her hands and have a wee bit of pity for the people who’ve taken Isabel.

Once we’re on the main paved road, she starts to fill me in.

“I can give you the names and addresses of the people I think may be involved, but don’t believe they’re the only ones. I think I’ve narrowed her location to one part of the city, but naturally it’s a warren of small shops and warehouses. She could be very hard to find.”

She grits her teeth at that last part, leans forward in the seat and stares fixedly out the windshield. All the sudden she slams a fist into the dash. There’s a snap as parts of the plastic crack. I now notice a few other cracks in the dash, then realize there are knuckle prints in the headliner. With that, the observation my brain made as I got in the car comes together. There were several upward dents in the roof of the car. I could see the starlight distorted because of them.

Another sign of how upset she is, not a single curse word, in Portuguese or any other language. Hoping to try and calm her down, I ask for some background.

“Explain how you’re so certain it’s these guys.”

“I told you that she’d been making waves in the agency, right?” I nod, “Within the agency, Isabel and I have given appearances that we aren’t close. When we first worked together, I already knew some people didn’t like her. Beautiful women who use sex as a weapon rub some guys the wrong way. Even though she was just doing her job, several guys already started to break bad on her. I’m more of a ‘just one of the guys’ than Isabel will ever be, though I know that a number of them are sexist and really hate that I can beat them in hand-to-hand combat. Anyway, even before she and I worked together, I heard some guys complaining about her do-gooder attitude and insistence on sticking to the rules. When we became friends, I suggested we keep it distant and professional at work, to increase the chance for me to overhear loose talk. That approach has proven quite successful in this case. Unfortunately, that means if I move openly against these guys they’ll know I’m no longer impartial. Any information I might get would come to a screeching halt.”

She starts to tense up again, but quickly continues.

“As I mentioned earlier, I’d been keeping track of the more vociferous of the group, expecting any move would come from them. However, I feel they’re more bark than bite, and strongly suspect that the orders for this came from someone who isn’t yet on my radar. There are lots of back stabbers in our agency, in any such agency I suppose, and many of them are quite capable of being polite to your face while they reach around to jab in the knife.”

She pauses, takes a deep breath and slowly lets it out. I can see some of the tension in her shoulders relax as she does so.

“Officially, Isabel has stormed off in a huff about some nonsense or other. Thus, the agency doesn’t think she’s been kidnapped. My worry is that they’ll do something to her, forcing me to don my avenging angel suit and go on a rampage. Naturally that would end my career, if not my life. Hopefully these morons haven’t gone that far and you can find them so we can rescue her.”

Her shoulders are tense again. She has a tight grip on the steering wheel, twisting her hands back and forth. I try to reassure her.

“I’ve had a couple of jobs in Rio over the years so the city isn’t that foreign to me. It shouldn’t take me that long to get back into the culture. I presume you have a safe house set up somewhere. The sooner I can start investigating the better.”

The airstrip is a few hours outside of the city. It’s a while before we get to the safe house. In the meantime, she gives me an information dump. Because of my prior time here, we’re able to discuss some geographic considerations. She seems to be relaxing somewhat as I get involved in the discussion and planning.

I ask, “So where have Eric and Jeff been in all this?”

She turns to look at me, pausing.

“They just left for a long mission abroad.”

I snort, “What an amazing coincidence.”

“Coincidence, my ass!”

At least she’s relaxed enough to get back into salty mode.

“Everyone knows how close they are. No question they’d search for her. I was interested to note that their mission specifically requires ‘radio silence,’ meaning little to no communication back home. Naturally, everything about it is compartmented. I can’t even contact them and get them to sneak back.

“It’s just you and me, partner.”

The safe house (apartment, really) is set up adjacent to the part of the city Tessa thinks Isabel is being held. I can probably get by on foot for the most part. Though I didn’t get really good rest when I was traveling, I had enough sleep that I’m able to get started immediately. Since I know the city, I’m able to develop an effective disguise right away. Heading out, I start immersing myself and updating my encyclopedia of the area.

I switch disguises several times as I travel about the city, getting familiar with the locations of the people on Tessa’s list. I’m assuming these guys are professionals like Tessa, so figure they’d notice if they saw the same person twice. I brought a bunch of bugs with me and begin to place them when I can be sure they won’t be noticed. My recorder will start as soon as I activate it. Later I can go over what it captures. I was shown pictures of all of Tessa’s prime suspects and see several of them in my wanderings. Two of the suspects gave me a chance to put a bug on their vehicles. If I get really lucky, one of them will take me right to Isabel. By the time dawn rolls around I have about half of them bugged and know the cars and families of about a third. I head back to the safe house to listen to the recordings and see where my bugged cars have gone, but nothing seems useful.

My sleep is again full of discomfort. Over and over I see Isabel tied up on a bed, so move forward to release her. Once again, as I get closer she moves further away. I start running toward her, but my legs feel like they’re set in concrete. It takes all my effort just to shuffle forward. The harder I try to move, the faster she moves away. The night feels a million years long. When I finally give up, I’m sandy eyed and exhausted.

Tessa and I meet the next morning. Isabel has been “gone” now for about four days. I outline what I’ve done. She nods her head at first, but then starts to shake it. I look at her with raised eyebrows, but she isn’t looking at me. She’s agitated. Pacing the room. Making fists and rolling her wrists around. Suddenly, she gets very still. She turns toward me, staring with hard, piercing eyes.

“Why are you taking so long? You _must_ find her, _now_!”

I need to be careful here. She looks very much like a Terminator. As she slowly leans toward me, to get within striking distance, I hold very still. With my arms at my side and hands open.

“I _can’t save_ her if you kill me.”

That seems to work. She loses that tenseness and glint in her eye.

“Sorry,” she says, looking down at the ground.

Tessa hasn’t been sleeping or eating well and her cheeks are getting hollow. I suggest she needs to go back to her normal routine as much as possible. People might note her change in behavior and appearance. That it’ll put some distance between me and the terminatrix is just a bonus. I check my bugs to see if they provide anything useful and get one small hint: one of the guys says something in such a way that makes me think he knows Isabel isn’t off in a snit somewhere. I decide to focus on this guy. Unfortunately, he isn’t one that has a bug on his car. I’m going to get a very close look at how he does business.

Interestingly, he seems to be off from regular work. Quite a coincidence. I trace some of his activities and his behavior seems somewhat furtive. Of course, being a professional spy, this might be his normal way of spending his day. However, I know most spies relax when they’re off the job. He seems like he’s on. I manage to get a bug on his car, but that just leads me to where he switches vehicles. I’m getting more convinced now. This is really unexpected behavior from anyone, even a spy, when they’re relaxing, taking time off. Plus, I would expect he would spend time with his family and this is clearly not the case.

I totally understand Tessa’s frustration. I guess my mind is too compartmented. I can think logically and rationally while some locked up portion howls in frustration. It started to slip out once, though, as I followed my prime suspect. He went into an alley. As I waited for him to come back, I felt my own tenseness get the better of me. I know torturing someone for information is a very poor interrogation method. Even against ordinary people with ordinary secrets. Against someone trained, it’s entirely useless. However, part of me, that part I’d been keeping walled off up to that point, really didn’t care about the information. It just wanted to crunch bones, pulp organs and cause pain. When I saw him start back out the alley, I was forced to block that part of me off. It became one of the hardest things I’ve ever done: to simply hold still as he walked by, just out of arm’s reach. Fortunately, he didn’t look at me. If he had, I strongly suspect my arms would’ve reached out on their own accord and I’d have lost my link to Isabel.

The day ends without any breakthroughs, but I do have the solid lead. Tessa and I communicate and I tell her about my theories. She mentions this is one of the quieter guys, though he has complained about Isabel off and on over the years. Tessa isn’t surprised he may be involved. She cautions me that he has good craft and is well known for spotting tails. In her experience, he isn’t that great in hand-to-hand and feels confident I would have the upper hand in any personal encounter. Based on her feedback, I decide to put some additional bugs where he switched cars to see if I can get further.

The next day I get lucky. He chooses one of the cars I’d bugged at the transfer location. Now I can follow him remotely. He’s visiting the part of the city that Tessa felt was likely to be where they’re holding her. I begin to do walkabouts there. There’s a large warehouse. I note the car is parked outside. I stay well back from the building and assume there are cameras and motion detectors all around it. I do wide circuits around the area, memorizing the streets, buildings, etc., prepping for tonight’s visit.

I return about two-thirty in the morning. The place is very poorly lit and, except for a few stray dogs, deserted. That in itself is interesting. The population pressure in Rio is so high I would expect squatters. I silently climb the roof of a building a block or so away. Using my scanners, I look for motion detectors and cameras. I see a number at that building, but am not seeing any on adjacent buildings. Perhaps they’re so confident they’re in control they’re not setting a wider perimeter. Thinking back, when Isabel and I first worked together, that team we took on also lacked defense in depth. Not to say that they were incompetent. Just not at a level that’s much of a challenge for me with my tools and experience.

I work my way over the adjacent roofs until I can extend my sensors over the edge to survey the area directly around the building. There doesn’t seem to be any effort to look above the ground. It seems I’m in the clear, as long as I’m on the roof. I work around until I can transfer to the roof of my suspicious building. After rechecking with my scanners, I slide over. With a sensitive microphone, I check the roof from time to time for sounds. All I’m finding so far is the usual creaks and groans of an old building. Slithering around, I start to get some sounds of human activity (there have been occasional sounds of animal activity) and start to zero in on the focal point. A skylight is nearby, so I go check it out. Not surprisingly, there’s a small hole in it. I have to imagine the inside is full of damp smells from the regular rain. Carefully sliding some scanners into the building, I use a thermal camera to look around. I see some heat signatures back toward where I heard the sounds. It looks like several people. Scanning the rest of the area, I don’t see anything interesting. I check for motion detectors and cameras. There are a couple, but they’re haphazardly placed and I can easily get between them.

Because I’m developing a strong conviction that this is the place, I decide to get Tessa involved as backup. I fill her in as she travels, while making a hole in the roof over a blind spot between the detectors. I tell Tessa where to wait and that I’ll call her as soon as I know one way or another. I slip down into the warehouse and carefully make my way toward the room where I expect them to be. Using the thermal goggles, I can make out what appears to be three bodies. One seems to be sitting, two others standing nearby. Sometimes thermal cameras can provide details through walls, but it depends on the materials. In this case, all I get are blobs that I’m assuming are human because of the size. Once at the room, I place my listening device directly on the wall. I hear movements, but no talking. A phone rings. I had the gain turned up too high and it’s quite painful. Now I have a ringing sound in that ear. I switch ears and lower the gain. They’re talking in Portuguese. I can tell immediately that I’m in the right spot. It’s a sitrep and is brief. I send the coded message to Tessa telling her this is the right spot. Then start analyzing the room to decide how to breach it.

The mic is picking up more movement. Using the thermal scanner I can see two of the blobs moving about. The one that appeared to be sitting is still sitting. I imagine it’s Isabel, so make my plans accordingly. My scanners aren’t indicating any active alarms on the door. I test to see if the door is locked. It isn’t. I ready myself, get my needler in my hand. Turning the knob, I burst in. The two guys do react quickly. But they’ve got dopey from the lack of stimulus and I’m easily able to take them down. I flip up the goggles and see that my supposition was correct. It’s Isabel tied to the chair. It doesn’t appear she’s noted my arrival. Her head is slumped forward and her once beautiful hair is matted and greasy. I can see that her clothes have been ripped and probably not-nice things have been done to her. I’m starting to regret bringing a needler instead of a gun.

I look around the room and note the alarm and camera controls. I put the cameras on a loop and turn the alarms off. Then tell Tessa to come in and how to reach us. I do a quick tour of the room, collecting weapons into one location and securing the two guys. I approach Isabel and gently reach down to lift her head up. She doesn’t open her eyes, but seems to be awake. I murmur in southern American English, the language from our first job together, that she’s all right now. She opens her eyes and then asks if she’s really awake. I assure her that she is, and gently touch her face noticing the bruises and small cuts. I go over and kick both men in the ribs until I hear cracks. At least they’ll be in agony when they wake up.

I return to Isabel and cut off the bindings. She can’t stand up. Indeed, can’t even grasp with her hands. I carry her over to the bed and lay her down. Tessa arrives shortly thereafter and immediately goes to the two guys and examines their faces. I can tell from the look on hers that they’re in for more discomfort than I provided. She joins us and sits on the bed next to Isabel. As she starts to massage Isabel’s arms and legs to get the blood flowing again, I find some water for Isabel to drink and for Tessa to wipe off some of the grime. Looking around more closely, I see some notes that appear to be written in code. I suggest Tessa look at that while I tend to Isabel, who’s starting to work her hands and stretch her legs. She’s in obvious pain. I imagine it’ll be awhile before she can move around normally.

I decide it’s best if I just carry her. She’ll be better off out of this dismal place. Tessa agrees. I leave with Isabel and head to the vehicle I’d earlier stashed nearby in the hopes this would be the right spot. Isabel’s lost some weight, so I’m having no problems carrying her, even though it’s a goodly distance away. She rests her head on my shoulder and puts her arms around me. I get to the car, gently place her in the back and head to the safe house via a roundabout way, closely looking for tails the whole time. I ask her if she can stand and walk. She sits up in the back and says she thinks she can, but not very far. I want to quickly drop her off in an alley near the safe house and ditch the car some distance away, in case it’s been bugged or recognized. Will she be OK with the wait? With the affirmative, I pause very briefly as she gets out of the car.

It takes me about twenty-five minutes to get back. I find her leaning against the wall. I help her in the back way. She’s clearly exhausted but follows directions. Finally, we’re in. I direct her toward the bed and she flops down. I grab some towels, warm them in water and gently start to remove the tatters of remaining clothes and clean her off. She tries to help, but is ineffectual. I’m seeing lots of bruising and a few more cuts. It seems clear she had a bad several days. There isn’t a whole lot I can do with her hair, but I do get the worst of the grime. After I’m done, I pull the blankets over her, turn the lights off and sit next to the bed, holding her hand. She murmurs and twitches from time to time, but seems to be dropping into deeper sleep. She should finally be able to get some rest. A couple of hours later, Tessa arrives. She motions me to join her in the living room. I have a few pangs about leaving Isabel. Must be that love thing again.

“I believe I know the people behind this now. They were careless with their notes. I’ll want to confirm with Isabel when she wakes up, but I know for certain the people who are immediately responsible. I’m going to pay a few a visit and do some questioning.”

I think to myself that these guys are probably in for a bad time. I wish I could add to it. I head back into the room with Isabel as Tessa leaves. This time I decide to lie down next to her and see if I can relax enough to sleep.