Trapped in the Mayan Tattoo (43 page)

Tina started
crying. Just when she thought her father had changed, he reverted back to
himself.

“Dad,” she yelled.
“Mrs. Hightower sent them. It’s OK.”

So much for
privacy, she thought. Better to find a hobby she could really throw herself
into and not worry so much about her father and things he said.

He returned to the
room, still red-faced.

“Someone should
have asked me,” he said.

Tina smiled at
him.

“I’m really glad
you care, Daddy, and you know what? You’re not the only one. There are some
good people out there! It’s OK to relax.”

Tina was very
proud of herself for being ready to believe that.

Not long afterwards,
Mrs. Hightower called to check on Tina. She talked to Officer Benson and asked
if Tina could get clearance to go to a little celebration later that evening.

Her father told
Mrs. Hightower that they’d ask the doctor. Tina wouldn’t be doing anything
without the doctor’s approval.

“Dad, let me!”
Tina pleaded. “I’m getting better fast!”

            At the sight of Miss
Shoe everyone in the room cheered.  Pushing away their monitors and their chairs,
they stood up to applaud. Following Miss Shoe into the room were Big Sam, and
Mr. and Mrs. Pelletier.

            “Mom!” Abbi yelled, who
understood by now how unlikely the odds were of such a quick release.

            Abbi’s mother looked at
her with love and admiration. She didn’t take her eyes off Abbi as Abbi made her
way awkwardly, relying on her walker, to get through the crowded room toward her.

They hugged. Abbi
didn’t want to let her go. When she finally released her mother, she stood back
and looked at her mother all over. She saw how haggard-looking her mother had
become over just the recent weeks, but what a beautiful smile!

Abbi whispered
into her mother’s ear, “Are you OK? They didn’t hurt you?”

“I haven’t had a
complete physical yet and, I understand, they’re going to do my debriefing here
later tonight,” her mother said.  “But I’m doing fine, I think. Are you OK?”
She indicated Abbi’s cast.

“Oh this? This is
nothing!”

“Nothing, huh? Thank
God you used the reports! I’m so very proud of my daughter. I don’t know how
you did it, but they tell me you’re the reason I’m free.” Then she raised her
voice. “Hey, everyone, in case no one told you, this is my baby girl!”

            Abbi laughed,
incredibly happy in the moment.

            Someone said, “I
thought so!” but others sneered at him.

“Oh, is it OK that
they know she’s my mother?” Abbi asked Big Sam.

“If not, it’s a
little late now, given the collective deductive reasoning skills in this room,”
Big Sam said.

Miss Shoe laughed.

Abbi turned away
to smile at the room full of people. Everyone seemed happy. Louise beamed at
Abbi, and Abbi mouthed, ‘Thank you!’ Scott sat nearby, looking pleased. Lowell
looked triumphant, no longer sulking about Calista, and he still had his
trumpet in hand, still had what appeared to be very kissable lips, although
Abbi tried to dismiss that thought. Mr. Pelletier smiled a real smile, for
once, and looked satisfied that the CIA had a hand in the success. Mrs.
Pelletier had the ability to be invisible but was standing behind her husband.

Then something
caught Abbi’s eye, something cold and sinister. It was as if she fell into slow
motion. She remembered the vision, the man standing behind her mother. Her
mother’s head limp. Suddenly Abbi knew what the vision had meant.

When attention to
her and her mother died down a little, she had the opportunity to hug her
mother again, this time with the added intention of taking a better look. Her
worst premonitions returned to haunt her as her hand brushed aside her mother’s
dark hair and revealed an inked-in leopard that peered viciously at her from
behind loose strands on her mother’s honey-colored neck. The flames of the
tattoo seemed to consume her mother’s skin. And there, inside that leopard’s
mouth was the pathetic illustration of a girl screaming for help. This was the
dreaded tattoo specifically used by NM2 to brand their victims. Their brand of
ownership for their sex slaves!

For a moment,
Abbi’s knees felt weak.

“Let’s sit down,
Mom. Everyone wants to see you but you have to be tired.”

“This is
heavenly,” her mother said. “I’m still amazed that you found me!”

“Smart Shoes! And
you had all the information right there in your reports. The pieces eventually
came into focus. Then, in a vision, I saw you and knew you were in trouble. I had
to do something!”

“That’s it. You
SAW.  It wasn’t all in my notes. You pieced it together,”

her mother whispered back. “And it
wasn’t just the shoes. Thank you.”

Abbi stepped back
and looked at her mother’s face deeply. Her mother’s eyes would tell more than
words would reveal. Her mother, usually so beautiful, so good-hearted—what had
they done to her? Abbi instantly recalled visions she had seen. When they
embraced again, Abbi closed her eyes and took in the full smell of her mother’s
skin. Thank God she was back! Now her healing could begin.

When others in the
room started asking questions, Abbi opened her eyes and released herself from
her mother’s embrace.

 Abbi hobbled over
to the Pelletiers, and told them how amazing both Louise and Lowell had been.
Mr. Pelletier seemed especially happy to hear it. Mrs. Pelletier simply nodded,
as if surprised but not really believing.

Then Abbi tried to
get her mother a drink, listening hard to hear the questions people were asking.

“Let’s just say
they didn’t want me to leave, ever, and I’m so indescribably happy to be away
from there!” her mother said hurriedly in answer to a staffer’s question. “But
we’re not going into the debriefing just yet, are we? I want Mrs. Hightower
here and there are others here who don’t need to be present.”

Abbi knew her
mother meant her. She returned with Shoe Clerk, who carried a drink and a plate
of refreshents for Abbi’s mother. Although she wanted to protect her mother
from the interrogations, the nosy interviewers, and the gossip mongers, that
wasn’t her role. Abbi would learn more on an “as-needed basis”, as always. And
debriefing would go according to protocol, Big Sam had said.

Her mother changed
the topic and turned to Abbi.

“Abbi, have you
seen your dad? How is he?”

Abbi jolted
herself back to her mother’s inquiry. She sat down. What could she say? She had
been told to say that he was improving, but was it true? What she and her
mother both needed was honesty, openness, and no more avoiding the truth.

 “Abbi? Your
father, is he doing alright?” her mother rephrased.

“I saw him twice,”
Abbi said, trying to sound cheerful but avoiding her mother’s eyes and her
questions. “It was great to see him, to get to talk to him again! He knew me!
And he could talk!”

She didn’t say
that the hospital staff had him hooked up to a respirator or that he had
trouble breathing on his own. She didn’t say that he had apparently worsened
from one day to the next, that he might be dying in spite of what Big Sam said.

“I’m told he will
be dismissed in a couple of days,” Abbi’s mother said happily, but she sounded
more reserved. Quietly, she asked, “From what you can sense, what do you think,
Abbi?”

Abbi knew they
were not telling her mother the truth. As Big Sam came near them, Abbi quickly
whispered to her mother, “Mom, you need to see Dad. While you can. ASAP.”

Apparently, Big
Sam didn’t hear the conversation.

“Miss Shoe needs
nourishment and some rest,” Big Sam said and held out

another plate of food for her.

“Oh, my, Sam! How
can I eat all this? You have been so good to us!” Abbi’s mother said. “Thank
you for having my daughter here!”

“My pleasure! She
is strong and assertive, but every bit the lady you are, Miss Shoe. She is
largely the one to thank for executing your release, tirelessly explaining your
reports to people.”

“Some of their
ideas were off the mark. I knew your work was thorough and first-hand,” Abbi
said.

“As you probably
guessed, Miss Shoe, Miss Kowalski risked a lot doing that stunt in the woods.
We knew people were watching her. With her training and her size, I believed that
she could handle this mission. From the moment I mentioned it, there was no
talking her out of it. She’s more like her mother than even you know,” Big Sam
said.

Abbi’s mother sat
silently for a moment, looking at Abbi, beaming.

“I’m so very proud
of you!” her mother said in a whispery voice.

Abbi blushed. Her
mother looked at her with tremendous admiration.

“It was great just
to be able to do SOMETHING! Your filing system helped.”

“Our secret code,
Fred’s Boots. I knew you’d pick up on it,” her mother whispered. Then, louder
for others, she said, “Everyone, listen up! The work we did was not in vain. We’ve
made progress in our fight against human trafficking. Unfortunately, NM2 wanted
to keep me and weren’t making it easy for me to leave. Thank you all for the
roles you played in arranging my release!”

“Basically, NM2
abandoned you in that cottage in the woods, thinking no one could find you,”
Big Sam said. “Were they coming back to get you? Why they didn’t sell you to
their Brazilian business man, I just couldn’t figure out.” He literally
scratched his head.

“I told them I was
dying of AIDS, that I’d be dead before they could get me to Brazil. But that
meant I had to vomit a lot, a trick I learned from an anorexic friend in high
school. This food is wonderful, by the way!”

The group laughed.

“That must have
done the trick. The information in your reports let us know exactly who we were
dealing with,” Big Sam said. “It helped us form our strategy to pull together a
multi-jurisdictional task force that went to Texas to finish the job you and
Mr. Schumann set out to do. You’ll be happy to know that even your friends, Mr.
Pelletier here and others at the CIA, were quite involved. You gave us quite a
scare.”

“I should have
known that someday my work would catch up with me and bite me in the ass,”
Abbi’s mother said. “But I have real mixed feelings about pulling Abbi into it.
All of us in this line of work seem to think that risking our own lives is
worth it. But going after Abbi was not something I thought they would do. I
didn’t protect her as well as I thought.”

“But, Mom, don’t
you see? You and Dad taught me important skills. You are my mentors! You,
especially, are my role model. Lowell helped out in lots of ways and showed me some
great self-defense moves.”

Lowell smiled. Mr.
Pelletier looked over at him with different eyes.

“Thanks, but I
always figured that being your mother was the most important job I’d ever do,”
her mother said, looking happy. She leaned forward on the couch beside Abbi. “When
they found out my identity, they got angry. Calista had been staying in touch
with her boyfriend in NM2. Word travels fast. They used Calista to go after
you.”

“Yeah,” Lowell said.
“And she used me!”

“That’s what she
does, Lowell. Now, Abbi, you see why I’ve needed to protect you. There are some
very unscrupulous people out there.”

Lowell went out
into the hall. Abbi wondered if he felt betrayed by Calista. Well, of course! But
how badly had he been taken in by her? As it all rolled out, he also eventually
betrayed Calista. Full circle.

“You’re making
this world a safer place, Mom. When I was younger, for a short time, I believed
the whole Fred’s Boots Incorporated thing. You did what you had to do. So will
I. Just like you.”

“No, not just like
me. Choose another line of work.”

“You still want to
do this, don’t you?” Abbi asked cautiously, challenging her mother to focus on
the future.

“Yes, but…” her
mother said. “Of course. I started something I can’t let go of, but right now I
just want to be home.”

“Do what you have
to do. We’ll make time to hang out.”

“Thanks,” her
mother said, patting her on the knee. “I like the way you think! I do love the
work but this last round shook me. We’ll see.”

Abbi slid over a
little on the couch, indicating to Big Sam that she wanted him to sit beside
her too. She looked to see if Lowell had come back in. But no.

“There were lots
of people working on this! Big Sam was wonderful. And so many others! What a
great team! I met Shoe Clerk finally,” Abbi said, and waved to him. She gave
her mother a hug. “I’m so glad you’re back!”

“So, you girls
having a nice reunion?” Big Sam asked when he sat down.

“Yes, we are, and
I understand someone else is going to join us tonight,” Abbi’s mother said.

“Yes, we have
other guests lined up for this glorious occasion,” Big Sam said.

He left them to get
a few champagne bottles out of the refrigerator, placed some champagne flutes
and plastic cups on the counter, and then returned to Abbi and her mother, looking
pleased. He banged two champagne flutes together so that it became apparent
that he wanted to talk.

“Quiet, please! Everyone!
It’s important that you know that many others will benefit from your fine work,”
Big Sam said with a nod. “Not only were you able to secure Miss Shoe’s release
through the aid of cutting-edge technology but also with the gifted vision of a
certain young lady here, AND it is also my pleasure to announce that we are
meeting success in another related mission.”

Just then, Abbi
heard Gate Keeper’s trumpet and knew Lowell was right outside the door. This
time Lowell played “Charge!” right before he came in and made his announcement.