Blown for Good - Marc Morgan Headley [161]
Maybe she really is serious. This could be it. Maybe I will get Claire out and then we really can be happy and start our lives over again.
“How many people are in Systems now, huh?” I ask, already knowing the answer.
“Okay, you were right. No one has been put in the systems area since you left. It has gotten even worse here over the past few weeks. I have not been home once since you left three weeks ago. All of CMO INT is restricted to the base and has to sleep under their desks. It has been crazy. I am leaving and I want to be there with you.”
“Be where?” I ask.
“In Kansas City where your dad lives,” she says. “I know that is where you are. I even told Security that is where you were and told them that COB said to get you back and if that is where you were, then why didn’t they send someone to get you? They have not done anything. There have been other flaps since you left and no one is even thinking about it anymore,” Claire is really starting to make me think about busting her out of there.
“Well, maybe you can leave during cleaning time on Sunday morning,” I say.
“No you don’t get it, we can’t leave! No one is even going home at all for anything. We are all restricted to the base. No one is allowed to leave for any reason at all.” As she says this, I realize getting her out will be harder than I had realized.
“Well, you know how just about every person has ever blown, what’s the best way to get out of there?” I ask, thinking about the people I knew that had blown.
“I think the Jan Sims method will work the best,” she says
“What is the Jan Sims method?” I ask, wondering who the hell Jan Sims was. “Wasn’t that the chick that was in RTC back in the 1990s?”
“Yeah. She blew after Dave broke his leg in 1992. She had a doctor’s appointment that she had to go to and never came back,” Claire says.
“Can you get a doctor’s appointment?” I ask.
“I already have one to renew my prescription for contacts. I can’t do anything without being able to see. There is no way they can tell me not to go get new contacts. I will get them in a few days at Wal-Mart in town.”
“You know they are going to be watching you like a hawk,” I warn. “The spouses almost always end up trying to blow after the first one leaves.”
“Yeah, I have already had a lot of RTC staff come up and tell me not to worry, that Dave ordered that you be gotten back and to keep going and it will all get worked out. Meanwhile, nothing was done to get you back.”
“When is your appointment? We have to work this out,” I say, now convinced that I can get her out.
“It is 10:15 on Monday morning.”
“Dave will be gone for four days at the Fort Harrison anniversary event in Clearwater, so that will hopefully make it just a little bit easier for me to make it to the appointment.”
“Good. So what you do is call a cab for that exact time and have it wait for you at Wal-Mart. Get it under another name. Have it take you to the Riverside Greyhound bus station. I will get you a ticket for whatever bus that leaves there, as close to that time as possible no matter where it is going. That will get you moving fast so that they cannot find you. You will have at least an hour or so head start before they discover you have made a break for it. Don’t call the cab until the night before so that if they are watching your phone traffic, they will not see it until the next day after you are gone.
“When you get to the bus station, call me from a pay phone and I will tell you your ticket info so you can get on the bus. I will have already paid for your ticket and it will be waiting there for you.”
“Okay. Why don’t I just call you on my Nextel?” she asks.
“No you cannot use the Nextel! They will use the GPS in it to track you. I have seen my sister do this in HCO. You turn it on and they can find you no matter where you are. They will see that you are at the Greyhound station. They will send someone there and they will find you in a matter of minutes. Meanwhile, they will call the bus station and pretend to be your sick mother and ask