4. Leo’s house

Jasmine awoke to a bearded man with a blue turban gently shaking her arm.  "What? Where?" were her first thoughts, but then reality hit her hard.  At least she FELT like she actually slept soundly, even if she was still a bit dreary.  Sometimes, just "hitting the reset button" as her father had always called it, even if only for 15-30 minutes, works wonders.  “We’re here” said the cab driver.

“What time is it?”  She could wake at any time during the night, but she always still had a certain sense of what time it was, usually within 15 minutes or less.  But right now, she was lost.  Was it 10:00PM?  2:00AM?  It could be noon, except for the darkness.

“It’s 10:15.  Traffic was very bad.  But we are here now.” the man with the blue turban said softly in a thick accent.

Jasmine sat up, quickly rubbed her eyes, then realized she just smeared her makeup.  As if the tears earlier hadn’t already.  She looked at her clothing, and realized she was still wearing the construction vest she found in the ladies room in the Tower.  Her miniskirt had a small tear from switching cabs — it had gotten caught on the door somehow.  She could remember it, but it didn’t even register in her thoughts when it happened … in the midst of the chaos.  Now she was calmer.

She reached in her bra … it was still there … the $9000 she had left.  “How much do I owe you?” she asked.

“Your freedom” he replied.  “Get yourself free of this situation you are in and you will have re-payed me.”

Jasmine sat for a second.  “You saved my life.  I owe you!”

“So, someone else saved my life when I was younger.  Now I am here living in New York City, free.  I don’t have to worry about someone trying to kill me or my kids.  I can not pay back the person who saved my life.  So I must pay it back to Allah.  Now I have.  Now I am really free.  If I take your money, I will still have my debt to Allah, and Allah will not be pleased.”  He smiled at her and extended his hand to help her out of the cab.  She took it, stepped out, and embraced him in a hug so warm and real, he felt young again.  That was the hug his grandmother had given him when he left Palestine many years ago.

“Thank you!” she said softly but with such an emphasis on sincerity, she could have screamed it.  He handed her a towel and she wiped her face a bit.  The white towel turned black, rouje, and red.

“I’ll wait for you to get safely inside your friend’s house” he said with his thick accent.

She nodded and walked to the door, and rang the bell.  It was a "middle-class" home, a freestanding two-story building of its own, with those fake shudders that wouldn’t even be big enough to cover the windows if they did work.  The door opened and she looked him in the eye.  “Leo?”  She knew of course it was him.  The question in her voice told him she was asking for help and was more than desperate.  Somehow, they just had that kind of resonance together.

“Jasmine!?!?!  What happened to you!?”  He took in her overall disheveled appearance.  The utter surprise of seeing her at all had shocked him so much he had for the first moment overlooked her clothing, her bare feet, and the bit of makeup still smeared on her face.

She broke again.  “I need help” she managed to say as she started to sob again.  He took her in his arms and held her for 5 minutes as she sobbed on his doorstep.  Leo looked at the cab on the street, and the cabbie, still standing there, leaning against his cab, wearing his blue turban, saluted him.  Finally she pulled her face out of Leo’s chest and looked up at him, and got control of herself.

“Come inside.  It’s starting to get chilly out here in the night air” he said.

She turned and waved at the cabbie.  He waved back, turned, walked to his driver’s seat, and drove away as she walked into Leo’s house.

“Catia!  Please come to the front room!  I have someone here I want you to meet!” Leo yelled toward the back of the house.  There was no reply, but shortly Jasmine heard the quiet sound of an electric motor, and seconds later Catia rode into the room in her wheelchair.  She was a triaplegic.  She could only use her right hand and arm, and with that hand, she could use a joystick to control her wheelchair.  Her head was supported by a brace.  Her right foot was amputated.  Her left leg was amputated at the knee.  Her left hand sat motionless in her lap.

“Catia, this is Jasmine.  Jasmine, this is my wife Catia.”  He only hesitated briefly.  “Catia, Jasmine is the woman I told you about years ago.”  Jasmine’s heart sank and she tried hard not to break the polite smile on her face.

Catia smiled, and wheeled herself over to Jasmine.  Catia took Jasmine’s hand, gently.  She began to speak slowly, deliberately, as if she had to re-learn how since her apparent accident.  “Thank you for taking care of Leo.  I can’t any more.  Leo takes care of me, and I couldn’t live without him.  He got me though some rough times in life, and now things are ... easier for me.  But we all need someone to take care of us from time to time, and I know, I really do know, you took CARE of him.  I think it might be harder to be Leo than to be me!  You gave him the care he needed and the strength he needed to keep on taking care of me!  Thank you!”

Jasmine really didn’t know what to say.  She just gave Catia’s hand a little squeeze, a mini hug.

“Jasmine needs our help now” Leo said.

“Then we help her” Catia said smiling.  “What do you need?”

Jasmine didn’t waste time with details or even a story.  “My baby is in trouble.  I’m in trouble.  They will kill her!  They will kill me!  I need to get her and go somewhere safe.”

The smiles on Leo and Catia’s faces vanished.  “What do you need this moment?” Catia asked again.

“A car.”

“Money?  How will you survive if you plan to hide from these killers?  The police can’t help you?” Leo questioned.

“I have $9000 in cash” she said pulling out her wad of bills.  “The cops are too small.  These are big people.  I mean really big people.”

“What, the F.B.I. can’t help you?  Surely these killers are not bigger than the Federal Government”  Leo opened a door on the side of the end table next to the couch they were sitting on, and pulled out a bong, a tray, and a glass jar full of buds.  He packed a small pinch-hitter bowl and handed it to her as he spoke.  He pointed to the lighter on the table.  “I’m sorry, my bad.  Do you need water or anything to eat?”

Jasmine hadn’t even realized how thirsty and hungry she was.  “Yea, I guess I do need some water.  And, yea, I’m downright ravonous.”  She picked up the lighter and continued, her voice a little shaky “And yea, these people are that big.  They are IN the government, but criminals, if I understand what I got myself into.”  She broke again, and started sobbing, but only for a few seconds.  “Wait!  I don’t have time to eat!  I gotta get Tammy!”  She hit the bong, held the smoke a moment, and blew it into the air at the ceiling fan, where it disappeared.

“You can take my sister’s car.  She’s not doing so well, and it doesn’t look hopeful for her…” his voice began to crack and drifted off…

“Leo is quite a man.  He takes care of me, he takes care of his mother, he takes care of his sister.”  Catia grabbed his hand.  He squeezed a mini hug back.

Leo got up.  “I'll get you a couple bottles of water, and make you a veggie sandwich and send you off with all that and some fruit.  Oh, and we have some vegan potato salad I just made an hour ago that is better that the usual fake stuff.”

“Go wash your face sweetheart.  And go up to Jessica’s room and get some clean clothes.  You’re about her size.  First room, top of the stairs.  The bathroom is down the hall on the right” Catia continued for Leo.

“Well, I guess thank Jessica for me, or is she there?  Is that really O.K. with her?”

“Sweetheart, Leo and I both wish she was here today, or that we could thank her.”  Catia smiled and looked at Leo.  He smiled back, turned and looked down, and walked to the kitchen.

“Sweetheart, Jessica is Leo’s sister.  She has terminal brain cancer.  Docs say if she lives another week…”  Catia hesitated and looked down.  Then she looked back up and smiled.  “She won’t need that car again and neither will we.  Go with it wherever you need to.  Find a safe place for you and your daughter.”

Leo walked back in with drinking water.  “We all quit alcohol 15 years ago after Catia’s accident.  Can’t offer you a glass of wine.  Water is all we drink here.  Or, sometimes herbal teas.  Hope that works for you.”

“Leo, I don’t really even know where I’m at or how to get back home to my daughter.  I found you on Facebook at the last second and the cabbie drove me here, and I fell asleep on the way.  I don't drive much.  I lost my phone.  They have it.  I gotta get to Tammy!… … …!”  Jasmine felt herself begin to panic again.  She stopped and took a deep breath.  Focus on the center … balance … "thank you sensei!"

Leo cut in “I’ll drive you there.  You need a helping hand right now.  We both can see it”  He looked his wife Catia in the eyes, and she held out her hand and smiled back.  He held it and gave her a mini-hug.

They grabbed some food and left.  They still took Jessica’s car.  “You might need to go off on your own and leave me behind.  I’ll get home O.K.”  He avoided bringing his cell phone.  “We shouldn’t even call your daughter ahead of time, if elements in the Government are involved.  Who knows what kind of access they have?”  For a moment, he thought he must be crazy to trust a street-girl from a red-light zone that he had met years earlier and spent 15 hours with, against the will and judgement of the Government.  But something about her … … … he trusted more than most people he met.  He didn’t know WHY, just that it was GOOD to trust her.

Neither said much for the 2.5 hour drive there.  There was no point.  It would all be dirt.  Digging in pigshit.

Jasmine hugged Susan for 2 minutes.  They swayed back and forth almost the whole time.  Jasmine smiled at Tom, who stood watch next to them with his shotgun in hand.  Then she hugged him.  He was a bit stiff at first, especially with his wife standing there, but he hugged her back.  “Thank you both and I’m sorry.  So sorry!”  Jasmine looked at them shaking her head and broke yet again and started sobbing.  They both grabbed her and hugged her.

“Go find a safe place!” Susan said.  And they parted.  Tom closed the door and locked it.  He had watched the street all night so far, and no strange vehicles had driven by.  He hoped he would see none the rest of the night, but he knew it would be a long night.

Leo drove Jasmine and Tammy back to his home.  It was almost 4:20AM when he pulled in the driveway, and yes it was!  Jasmine and Tammy had fallen asleep together in the back seat.  He was beat, and his head was spinning when he stepped out of the car.

Catia came wheeling into the front room within 90 seconds of their arrival inside.  “I called Victoria and asked if she could come in early.  She said she would of course be here shortly”  Catia turned her wheelchair towards Jasmine.  “Victoria is our morning chef.  She gets up at 4:00AM every day.  She always teases us and says we should get up early too so she can go play most of the day instead of working.  She teaches violin.”

As if on cue, Victoria walked in the front door.  She was a vivacious, violin playing redhead with an Aussie accent.  “Hello beautifuls!  Up early today and with guests!?!?”

“Sally and Pam, this is Victoria.  Victoria, this is Sally and Pam, old friends of Jessica.”

Jasmine and Tammy smiled sheepishly.  “Hello, nice to meet you.” they said.

Victoria smiled back.  “A pleasure.  Now, who’s hungry for what?”

“The usual, plus anything these ladies want if we have it” Leo said.

“Pancakes?” Tammy asked quietly.

“We don’t need anything special.  Whatever you eat, we eat” replied Jasmine, as she took Tammy’s hand.

“Of course we have pancakes!  What ever you like miss Pam.” Victoria exclaimed, smiling.

Tammy smiled back, Jasmine smiled, and Leo and Catia smiled at them all, holding hands.

A small knock at the front door broke everyone’s smile except Victoria.  “Well who could that be now?” and before anyone could stop her, she turned around and opened the door.

A woman stood there in dark pants and a dark jacket.  “I'm special agent Maxine Leffleur with the F.B.I.”  She flipped open a wallet with a badge and an I.D. inside.  “May I come in?”

Victoria stepped aside, for once speechless, surprised.  Leo walked over and looked at the badge and I.D.  “What do you want?” he said firmly but politely.

“Your safety, and the safety of this country.” she replied without hesitation.

“Come in and sit down.  Would you like some hot tea or water?  We are about to have breakfast.  Would you like to join us?”

They all sat in the front room together.  Victoria went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast.  “Forgive me” Leo said, as he grabbed his bong out of the cabinet. “It’s after 4:20, and I’m about due.”  He didn’t care what the feds thought at this point.  It had been a long night.

“I don’t care, but I can’t join you, you know.  The job.”  special agent Leffleur said.  She turned to Jasmine.  “I’ll get to the point.  We know you were running for your life from someone in the Tower.  We saw you on the street cameras.  We don’t know why, but frankly, if we guess, we don’t care what you were doing, only that you were in danger.  We know your background, and we know you don’t have anything to do with those guys.  But anything you can tell us about them would help.”

“Who are they?” Jasmine asked.

“"They" are an international band of criminal elements trying to vie for world power and domination.  I hate to scare you, but that is the truth of it that you and your daughter must face.  Together, maybe we can stop them before they hatch their plan.”

“Well, there was some guy, they called him the Crown Prince.  He was supposed to get some kind of helicopter or plane or something.  It was new they said.  He paid a lot for it they said.  Oh, and the Pentagon was supposed to get some too.”

“Did they say what it was he was getting?  What did they call it?”

Jasmine thought for a minute.  “G V T 78-hundred I think…” Her voice trickled off a bit.  Her memory was good, but that conversation was so intense, it was hard to forget anyway.

“Did they say anything else about it?”

“It would be in full production soon?” Jasmine replied, desperate to remember.

“Did they talk about anything else?” special agent Leffleur asked.

“Guantanamo Bay.  Something about people at Guantanamo Bay and flying them out from the open sea.”

“Did they say where they were flying to?”

“No, not that I heard.  It all sounded so creepy, I knew I was in trouble.  Then they tried to jump me when I got back to the kitchen, but I got away…”  She avoided the gruesome details…  This was the F.B.I.  In the ghetto, you don’t trust cops, you don’t talk to cops; this was beyond the ghetto, she knew, but she still wasn’t going to set herself up.

“Anything else?”

Jasmine shrugged and shook her head.  “No”  She almost broke again, almost started to sob again, but held strong.

They all sat there in silence for almost a minute.

Special agent Maxine Leffleur spoke.  She looked grim.  “Look, folks, the F.B.I. does not normally debrief, ah, tell people outside the agency about what it is doing internally.  These are…” she hesitated just moment, cleared the frog from her throat, and continued “These are not normal times.”  She took off her jacket and took the pin out of her hair and let it fall freely.

The F.B.I. began to investigate this criminal gang for defrauding the Government of billions per year, with a capital B, hundreds of billions, over the last 25 years.

“The agency has been infiltrated by this criminal gang we speak of tonight.  They are in the C.I.A. also, if they didn’t actually come from the C.I.A.  They control many, but not all Federal Senators and Representatives in congress.  And we believe the president is their man.

“I believe our, my department is still unaffected.  But right now I’m working off-clock undercover.  I have a trusted friend, and I trust he erased the street video records of the chase from the Tower after I viewed them.  It took our special new high-temporal-res satellites to find you here.  Those records were erased also.  I don’t think anyone else could follow you here … except the Chinese government, but we don’t believe they have been infiltrated.  Rather, we believe these guys on our radar want to start a war and drag the Chinese into it against their will.

“The F.B.I. would normally offer you witness protection in a situation like this, but our department has credible evidence that the W-P department has been compromised by these very criminals.  I can’t offer you much more than a few dollars, or the financial records will expose your probable existence, and my knowledge of it.  As far as I can tell, they are not on to me, YET.  But they’re watching everyone in the bureau.”

Victoria walked in with a trayful of food.  “Breakfast everyone” she said with a cheer.  The mood in the room hardly broke.  She set the tray down and left.  She didn't want to know more than she needed, when the F.B.I. was involved.

“Folks, get your lives together, and prepare for a war.  It likely won’t happen, and we are working hard to prevent it, but all signs are that "they" are trying to start one.”

Leo and Catia looked at each other, and Leo took Catia’s hand.  Jasmine was already holding her daughter Tammy tight.  Tammy was 17, almost a woman, older than she was when she found herself on her own in the world.

“Jasmine, I suggest you head for Mexico; southern Mexico.  A little cash goes a long way there.  I wish I could help you get there, but they will figure that out if I leave town, and that will just endanger you.  I suggest you go to Las Cruces in New Mexico and look for a "coyote" who can get you across the border.  Ah, "rumor" in the department is that Father Thomas may be able to help you find one.

“If we get these guys in the next month as we hope, you will be back home in the U.S.A. with full government protection before you know it.”  She tried to sound cheerful, but it just wouldn’t work.

“How do I find Father Thomas?” Jasmine asked.

“There are several Catholic Churches in Las Cruces.  Go to them and ask.  Here, give him this” and she pulled a business card out of her breast pocket and drew a symbol on the back, and handed it to Jasmine.  Special agent Maxine Leffleur continued, addressing the whole room.  “This criminal gang, we believe is headed by a U.S. based heavy weapons manufaturer.”

“The fat bald guy!?” Jasmine spoke out loud.

“You saw him?  Was he walking or in a wheelchair?”  Special agent Maxine Leffleur became a bit more animated and her eyes showed deep interest.

“He was sitting in a big leather chair.  I didn’t see any wheels on it.  There wasn’t a wheelchair in the room.”

Special agent Maxine Leffleur sat quietly for a moment, looked at Catia, and then began to speak again.

“The rest of the story is that these criminals have been developing cyborg technology using taxpayer dollars.  We believe they started the war in Afghanistan and Iraq 24 years ago for many reasons, but one was for human guinea pigs — U.S. soldiers injured by I.E.D.’s on the battlefield.  They pioneered the human-mechanical-computer interfaces that gave those soldiers back an arm or leg, only an artificial one.  That was the beginning of their project.

“Progress was good, but then they hit a wall, we guess.  They needed more guinea pigs we think, and the war slowed and ended.  That’s when they started kidnapping migrants and their children coming in from Mexico, using the government’s own resources, as far as we can tell.  But what happened to those folks?  We don’t know.  They were sent to privately owned and run prison camps.  We just know that over 6000 children are unaccounted for — lost; and their parents were deported.” {{{per NPR news circa December 2023 or January 2024}}}  “That much we can find in the records.  Many others, men, women, children, are just … missing.  At least that’s what the records show.  And in the last few years, Russia has been abducting children from Ukraine, and every indication is that they are being used as guinea pigs for this project, also.”

“Does the prison camp owner have a birthmark on his cheek?” Jasmine asked with noticeable care.

“Yes.  You saw him too!?!?  All of them in one room?”

A grim air took over the room.  It was oppressive before, but now…  Leo squeezed Catia's hand.  Jasmine wrapped her arms tighter around Tammy.

“What was the room like?”

Jasmine replied “All wood.  With a crystal chandaleer … made of bones?”

“Whale bones” special agent Maxine Leffleur replied matter-of-factly.  “Any metal in the room?”

Jasmine sat quietly a moment, thinking, reflecting the room in her mind.  “You know, I don’t think so.  Except for my corkscrew.  But I can’t even remember a pen on the table.  Nothing but the wine glasses and wine bottle I brought, with a glass tray of snack nuts.  All wood otherwise.  And … whale bones. And crystals on the leather chair, too.”

Special agent Maxine Leffleur continued.  “We worry they are building an army of cyborgs.  They are weapons manufacturers, not doctors.  We worry the upcoming war we keep getting hints about will revolve around these cyborgs.  We just don’t know where their facilities are located.  We can’t find any hint of it anywhere on the surface of the Earth.  Maybe it’s underwater we think?  But you say they are "flying out of Guantanamo"?”

“They did mention submarines.  But then flying them from the open sea” Jasmine replied.

“God, and I thought we had to worry about those drones last year” Leo said.

“Drones, too” replied special agent Maxine Leffleur.  “President Stumpie just ordered the new A.I. quantum computer center in conjunction with A-B-C, ah, Google as we commonly know it.  That was off our radar until the last minute.  This system will be powerful enough to co-ordinate and control a fleet of thousands of drones.  Maybe hundreds of thousands.  The latest quantum technologies developed have also created an unhackable, undetectable, untraceable, and untappable communication system.  Not much can stop these drones except other drones.  They blow the best Air Force pilots out of the sky in simulations, within about 30 seconds or less of contact, every time.  Humans never even get to take a shot.”

“I heard about the latest quantum tech.  I’m a physicist, and I still keep in touch with my friends at the U.  She’s not pulling legs here” Leo said, as he looked around the room, unaware of the bad pun he just spun off.  The mood was too oppressive to think about bad jokes.

No one had much else to say as they finished the breakfast of pancakes, fruit — bananas, strawberries, blueberries, mandarin oranges —, yogurt, oatmeal, and seeds — sunflower seeds, chia seeds, and sesame seeds.  And a side of vegan potato salad.

“Dawn is coming in an hour.  I gotta get back now” special agent Maxine Leffleur said.  She pulled out a wad of cash, and handed it to Jasmine, who slowly lifted her hand to accept it.  “Here is $15,000; it’s all we can get you right now.”  Leo escorted her to the door.  She put on her jacket, pinned up her hair, pulled out a small folding umbrella that she somehow had hidden within her bullet-proof vest, and opened it.

“You think it will rain?  It’s supposed to be clear all week.” Leo asked.

“This protects me from satellites identifying me, and thus protects you.  Everyone has a bio-electric signal that is unique like a fingerprint.  We can read it from space, it’s that strong.  In a car, the metal roof obscures it, and sometimes other structures do also.  But out in the open, it is clear.”

Leo looked outside, and up to the sky.  Then he noticed there wasn’t a car parked on the street or in the driveway.  “How did you get here?”

“I ran 15 miles.” special agent Maxine Leffleur replied matter-of-factly.  “Now I’m gonna run 15 miles back to my car.  Guess I’ll be sleeping till 1:00 this afternoon!” she said with a smile.

Special agent Maxine Leffleur didn’t look back, just headed out the door, and ran down the street.  She turned at the main crossroad, ran a mile, and turned and ran under a train-trestle.  She followed the tracks another ¼ mile, and came to a tunnel opening with a "No Trespassing - City Property" sign posted on the heavy iron gate.  She grabbed a key from her pocket, entered, locked the gate behind her, and folded up her umbrella.  She reached into her collar on her standard-issue button-down uniform shirt and pressed a button, and small LED lights at the collar ends lit up the passage in front of her.  She reached under the back of her collar and pulled out a thin headband, put it on, and lit it up too.  She ran for miles through the maze of tunnels until she found the opening she was looking for, with the sunlight streaming in.