CHAPTER SIX
With a last glance back down the road where the British soldiers had gone, Brad and Kristen started out in the opposite direction. They were silent, each lost in thought. Her earlier reference to CTU hadn’t been an accident; this whole day so far had been like a colonial version of the TV show 24. Spies, turncoats, danger, plans that never quite worked out the way they were supposed to without some unexpected wrinkle. Luckily, in this case, it was pretty clear who the major players were: the colonials, or Americans, led by General Washington, and the British Royal Army, under General Sir William Howe. So there wasn’t much chance of there being a secret ‘mole’ in Washington’s camp, or a senior officer under Howe working in cahoots with the colonials on the sly. For this reason, she didn’t expect to see Major Clark grab another person by the collar and yell “Who are you working for?” in his best Jack Bauer voice.
She glanced over at Brad. So far the two of them had done a pretty decent job of surviving this whole bizarre day. She wouldn’t admit it out loud—at least not to him, not today—but they actually made a pretty good team. And they’d done a darn good job of helping to keep history intact. Secret military information to be delivered? Check. Potential spies to throw off track? Check.
The Everhearts had done the job. It was ‘Jack Bauer: the Teen Years.’ She bet the long-suffering counter-intelligence agent could not have done better than she and Brad had done.
Obviously they weren’t the only heroes of the day; they weren’t even the main characters in this little drama. Rebecca was the one who took the big risk in delivering the information on the British attack. And Jacob had been instrumental in getting them all where they need to be safely and quickly.
And their work wasn’t over yet.
The siblings had walked at least a mile when they saw Jacob and Rebecca heading toward them. Brad and Kris stopped and waited for the other two to catch up.
“Did you miss us?” Rebecca asked teasingly. “We were on our way back to where we’d left you. There was no need for you to come this way.”
“What’s wrong?” Jacob asked. Not surprisingly, he could tell something was up.
Okay, maybe he’s part Jack Bauer, too. He can hunt and track—and he’s armed.
“It’s the Brits. General Howe suspects he has a leak somewhere, and he’s watching the roads around Philadelphia.”
Rebecca smiled. “That doesn’t concern us. I already delivered my message, and I have a pass, remember? To get flour.” She indicated the flour bag, now full, which Jacob was carrying.
“You don’t get it,” Brad said, just as he’d said to Kristen earlier. “He’s looking at everyone—anyone who goes in or out of the city.”
Clearly, Rebecca didn’t understand, just as Kristen hadn’t at first, as her brow wrinkled prettily in confusion. “But I’ve got my flour. That proves that—”
“Brad is right,” Jacob cut in. “The bag of flour proves only that you went to the mill. It doesn’t prove that’s the only place you went, or that that’s all you did.”
“You’ve been gone all day,” Kristen put in. “It can’t take ten, twelve hours to go a few miles to a mill for flour. Even if you tell them what Mr. Tyson said, about the river being flooded.”
“Then I’ll go back to town by another road.”
“That won’t help. They’ll be watching all the roads. If you show up now, even with flour, they’ll know you’ve been gone all day. And that’s a big red flag.”
“A red flag for what? I don’t see how my coming back with a sack of flour—even at this hour of the day—how that could affect anything, or make them suspicious. All it means is that I dawdle or that I’m not very efficient. You think they’d try to put me in jail? For that?”
“No,” Jacob said, and he put a hand on her arm. “Chances are the British may say or do nothing to you—today. But they would no longer trust your family. At the very least, they could confine your parents to their house, or not allow them to have visitors, that sort of thing.”
“And you can forget Howe having meetings in your dining room,” Brad added. “You told me your mother sometimes sells baked goods to some of the officers; that would probably stop, too.”
Rebecca looked scared. “No, that can’t happen! My mother depends on that extra money. I can’t let that happen. I can’t allow Howe and his men to become suspicious of her. But—you say I can’t go back now, when the patrols are there. So what am I going to do? I can’t stay gone. I have to go back.”
“Don’t worry,” Brad said. “We’ll get you back. Somehow.”
They were all silent for a moment. This day—this long, interminable day—had looked like it was just about over. The secret spy message had been delivered. Rebecca had gotten her flour. They were literally within two miles of getting her home to Philadelphia.
And now this.
Jacob led them into the trees so they weren’t standing in the middle of the road.
“Let’s think about this,” he said. “Rebecca has to get back into the city. But all the roads are being watched, and people are being stopped as they return.”
“Is there a way to get her into the city by some way other than the roads?” Brad asked.
“I’m sure there is,” Jacob said, “but we don’t have time to make a scouting expedition and check every road into and out of the entire city.”
“What about by water?” Kristen asked. “Didn’t there used to be—er, I mean, isn’t there a river that goes through the town? I don’t know what it was called—er, is called. Or, what about the Schuykill?”
Jacob shook his head. “Most likely there will be guards along any river or stream large enough to carry a boat.”
“Not to mention, we don’t have a boat,” Rebecca added.
“Yes, there is that,” Kristen acknowledged sheepishly.
They were each silent again, thinking.
“Okay, let’s go back to Jacob’s idea of using simple logic,” Brad said finally. “Here’s what we know: Rebecca has to get back to the city. But we have to avoid guards. There are guards on the road at each entry point. And we can’t use water or any way in other than the roads.”
Jacob nodded, and snapped his fingers. “The problem isn’t the road. It’s the guards. We need to find out how they’re doing their job, so we can do ours.”
“How do you propose we do that?” Rebecca asked. “Walk up and ask them?”
Jacob smiled. “Something like that.”