The Soldier
Chapter 31

“What’s the plan.”

Caitlin and Jon sat in a booth at the dance hall where Caitlin and the others had first found each other.

“Larry is fairly confident he can create a false order in the computer system for Logan’s transfer to a Federal prison facility,” Caitlin said. “He’ll probably be escorted by one or two men on horseback to the facility near Orlando. I’m assuming you can arrange for a team to extract him some point along the route.”

“Easy enough, but what about you?”

“We will have some time to get away, “Caitlin said. “But that depends on how long we have before someone at Kennedy decides they need to question him again. My plan is for us to get away the same day Logan is taken from Kennedy.”

“Us?”

“Us,” Caitlin said firmly. “Larry is coming with me. He is taking a big risk planting false orders in the computer network. Once our little scheme is discovered, they will most certainly trace it back to him. If he stays he will be arrested and probably killed, so he is coming with us.

“Tell me you can’t use someone who is a bit of a computer whiz.”

“He would probably be useful. Can you trust him?”

“Completely,” Caitlin said.

Jon nodded. “All right, then. I’ll need to know exactly when they leave and the route they will be taking. We can’t just hope to stumble up them out there.”

“Understood,” Caitlin said. “I’ll try to get you that information. But we may have to get lucky.”

“I don’t make a habit of relying on luck,” Jon said. “I’ve always found it much better to be smart and prepared than lucky.”

Jon stood and stretched.

“I’m going to head out of town to get to somewhere we can use the radio to set this plan of yours in motion. I’ll leave two men camped due north of town. When you and your beau get out, you’ll have to replace them. Then the four of you will start North and we will hook back up at some point after we’ve rescued Logan.”

“Sounds good,” Caitlin said. “See you in a few days.”

Jon nodded, put on his hat and walked outside. Caitlin continued to sit at the table, sipping her drink until she judged that reasonable amount of time had passed. Then she got up and headed back to her apartment.

“Why did they see we’re taking this idiot to Orlando?”

“As usual they didn’t say,” said Jesse Carver, one of two guards riding on horseback. Logan rode between the two, his hands handcuffed and tied to the saddle horn. “The order came over this morning in the batch transmission.

“A little odd if you ask me. Supply lists, requisitions, and oh, by the way, transfer your newest and most unusual prisoner to Orlando immediately.”

“Could it be bogus?” Frank Jasper asked.

“Doubt it,” Jesse said. “All the authorizations were correct. But still . .”

Jesse eyed Logan suspiciously.

“Brits don’t show up every day,” he said. “He’s probably one of the group that busted through the North Carolina port a few months back. That would be a good reason for the higher-ups to be so hot to get their hands on him.”

“Makes sense to me,” Frank said. “What sucks is having to ride all the way to Orlando and back.”

“Maybe we can help you with that,” a voice drawled from the shadows of the trees. ” Oh, and don’t so much as twitch as I have a dozen men out here and some of them have real itchy trigger fingers.”

“Shit,” Jesse said. “Is this a robbery or what.”

“You’ve got something we want alright, but it’s not your money. Drop your weapons, then turn your horses and head on back to Kennedy. We’re taking your prisoner.”

Jesse glanced at Logan.

“I don’t care what you did or why the Feds want you, you’re just not worth dying for.”

“Trust me, I’m not,” Logan said as he peered past his guards trying to decide who was rescuing him, and for that matter if he really wanted to be rescued. He assumed it was Jon’s people, but from what he’d seen of America so far, he just couldn’t 100 percent confident that his ‘rescuers’ were looking out for his best interests.

The two Americans tossed their rifles into the brush, turned their horses and moved off at a slow walk. As they moved away they heard the sound of horses coming onto the path. Jesse stopped his horse and turned to see two men untying Logan. When the Minuteman saw Jesse had stopped he raised his rifle slightly.

“Keep moving,” he said.

“Thought you said there were 12 of you?”

“So, I lied. But tell you what -- tell your people there really were 12 of us. It’ll make it sound better than the truth that just two guys, of which only one was armed, relieved you of your very important prisoner.”

“Whatever.”

Jesse turned back. “Let’s go, Frank.”

Logan waited until the two Americans were out of sight.

“So, who do I have to thank for my liberation?”

“I’m Bill and this is Stanly, but of course were here under Jon’s orders,” Bill said. “But who you really have to thank is that hacker from your team and her boyfriend for getting you outside.”

“Boyfriend?” Logan asked, his voice tinted with a mixture of puzzlement and disappointment.

“Explanations will have to wait,” Bill said. “It’s possible they had a radio and are calling for backup. We need to put some distance between us and them. We’re supposed to meet up with Jon and then head back home pronto.”

Chapter 32

“We can’t leave yet,” Logan said.

“And why not?”

Jon was clearly bothered by the idea of staying in the general area after relieving the Federals of one of their prisoners.

“Because we have to stop that launch.”

“Even after Caitlin told you the chip is bogus and won’t do what they think it will?”

“Especially considering that,” Logan said.

“Why?”

“Because if they know it doesn’t work they may move on to what you Yanks call ‘Plan B,’ “Logan said. “And I’m very worried about what Plan B might be.

“But if the rocket fails and they don’t’ know they will keep working on it, and that will keep them distracted while I figure out what to do next.”

“What do you mean ‘next?’ “Caitlin asked. “We found the chip, and we know it’s going to do the Americans no good at all.

“And we will all testify that you didn’t steal it. Wasn’t that the goal, to clear your name?”

“Partly. The main goal was to recover the chip, which we have failed to do. And while I appreciate your willingness to testify, if we are able to get back to England we will all still be in violation of maritime law in that we stowed away on and caused the destruction of a multi-billion-pound freighter. As convicted co-conspirators on this venture, I don’t think your testimony will carry much weight. We need that chip.”

Caitlin sighed. “OK, assuming there was some way to sabotage the launch, the chip would still end up on the bottom of the Atlantic.”

“Probably not,” Larry said. “I’m sure by now they’ve reverse engineered it so they can build a duplicate to test. They wouldn’t risk the original.”

“But if they did that wouldn’t they discover the redundant circuitry and realize that the chip isn’t what they thought it was?” Logan asked, looking at Caitlin.

“Perhaps. And it’s just as likely that they’d miss the redundancy all together and just end up with your run of the mill navigation chip.”

“It’s that well-hidden?”

" Oh yes, the chaps at Heuristics were quite clever,” Caitlin said. “It’s almost as if they expected it to be stolen and hid the new circuitry within decoy circuits.”

“Then how did you replace it?” Logan asked.

“I’m just a wee bit cleverer, and a whole lot more stubborn. I knew there was something in there and there was no way in hell that I wasn’t going to replace it.”

Logan thought. “But could they replace it? You worked there for a while, do they have anyone who is as clever as you?”

“No.” Caitlin smiled. “Especially since Larry’s with us now. There’s no way they will replace it. And before you asked I put a little subroutine in the computer systems for seek out and delete every file and backup that contains any of my replaceings. They will never know.”

“So, you’re saying actually getting the chip is not necessary?” Logan asked.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Caitlin said.

“Well, if they can’t figure out what the original does, there’s no real point in taking the risk to go back for it, is there?”

“No, there isn’t,” Caitlin said. “Wait. You think I’m clever?”

" Of course I do, that’s why I asked you to be on the team in the first place.”

Logan heard Larry clear his throat.

“And of course, that’s a completely professional assessment,” he said quickly.

“Sorry,” Larry said. “But I’ve always been a bit of the jealous type.”

“No worries, mate,” Logan said.

“So, the question is, what do we do now?”

“Well I see two objectives,” Logan said.

“And they are?”

“One, I still plan to figure out a way to get us all home.”

Which may be a bit easier now that we know they have working rockets around,” Caitlin said. “That might make your satellite plan feasible.”

“Plus, the fact that we know where we can replace some satellite dishes that might be salvageable,” Willlie added.

“That it might,” Logan said.

Caitlin nodded. “And the other thing?

“If Jon doesn’t think it would be too risky, I’d like to circle back and see that rocket go off. I’ve never seen a rocket launch and it would be silly for us to come all the way to Florida and not see a rocket launch, don’t you think?”