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The security line at the airport was long, and Dr. Tatum was ahead of Seth. The TSA man checked her ticket and then motioned for her to step forward to the x-ray machines. The doctor sat her items on the bench, removed her laptop from its case, took off her shoes, and emptied her pockets of their contents. The last thing that she did before going through the scanner was remove the necklace from around her neck, and she hesitated before placing it into the plastic bowl by itself. This was not her first trip to the airport, and she wanted to make sure the jewelry came out of the other side of the conveyor. Her change had been stolen from the scanner bowl on her last journey, and no one had admitted to the petty larceny. Perhaps if she placed the necklace alone in its own bowl, it would have a better chance of not disappearing. An empty bowl would be hard for an airport security agent to explain. The body scan was quick for both of them as neither of them had shrapnel or metal implants from medical procedures, but the conveyor scanner went off immediately when Dr. Tatum’s items passed through the line. The alarm drew the attention of everyone in the area, and the TSA agents stared at the x-ray screen as if it were something magical. The operator let the items all go through, and he paused when the bowl with the necklace came out the other side. With a blank expression, he picked it up out of the bowl, and then ran the empty bowl through by itself to see the results. So much for the empty bowl theory. Then he placed the necklace back inside of the empty bowl and ran it through the machine again with the same resulting alarm. A crowd of agents had gathered by this time, and they were uncertain about what to make of the necklace.
“What? A girl can’t wear pretty things,” Dr. Tatum said with her hands raised in question to the surprise obstacle the artifact had presented.
“Ma’am, what’s in this necklace?” the operator asked her in a stern voice.
“It’s a family heirloom,” she replied as she reached out and touched it with one finger. “See the design?”
“Really? Because all I’m getting on the x-ray is a black hole where the necklace should be,” he replied. “Something’s fishy here.”
“Nonsense,” Dr. Tatum reassured him. “It’s a necklace, and I wouldn’t be caught dead with a trout around my neck,” she jested him at his previous comment. His eyes shot over to her, and then his eyebrows raised as if he were open to her suggestion. The operator turned the necklace over several times in his hands, and then he put it back into the bowl for one last check. When the necklace went through this time, the outline of the metal was highly visible as it should be.
“My bad,” he admitted, and when the bowl passed through the other side, Dr. Tatum snatched the necklace out and put it back around her neck.
“Third time’s the charm,” she joked with a smile, and she walked out of the security area with no further complications. Seth acted as if the event was all part of the normal process, and he waited until they had moved on into the terminal area to bring up his concerns.
“What happened back there?” he asked her, and she shrugged her shoulders.
“I’m not really sure, but the necklace functions like a magical sponge. It has been known to absorb energy of certain types around it,” she explained. “Maybe it absorbs x-rays??”
“In which case, the video would show a black screen where the necklace was located,” Seth theorized.
“Exactly,” Dr. Tatum agreed. “It’s a good thing I know how to disengage it, or we would never have gotten through.”
“Wait a minute. Do you think that it will affect the plane?” he asked with a serious look on his face.
“Like I said before, it’s in airplane mode,” she added with a thumbs up, and he nodded though there was still some lingering doubt in his mind as he followed her to the terminal. They sat back to back in the airport seating as they waited for boarding time to arrive, and Seth whipped out a copy of the area map to study their destination a little more with the free time. He noticed that Three Rivers was just outside of the Sequoia National Park, and this fact piqued his interest. He had always wanted to see the giant sequoia trees in their natural habitat (as if you could see them anywhere else), and he turned his head around to talk to Dr. Tatum when he noticed an odd looking fellow sit down directly across from her. The man was dressed in an all-black suit, and the bulges of his muscles beneath the coat were strikingly evident. Seth thought he projected the presence of a bouncer, and he averted his eyes to the intended conversation with Dr. Tatum before the fellow noticed him staring.
“Doc, do you think we could make a trip out to Sequoia National Park while we’re in Three Rivers? It’s just outside the town about fifteen to twenty miles,” he explained.
“Sure, let’s go for it one evening if we get a chance,” Dr. Tatum replied. She might as well see the world if her career was going down the toilet anyways. Seth caught a quick glance at the bouncer who was now hiding behind a newspaper, and he thought it might be worth mentioning to his partner.
“Ebony suburban, twelve o’ clock,” he whispered, and her eyebrows crinkled as if she did not understand his meaning. He pointed with his eyes and a nod, and she flicked her eyes over toward the bouncer without moving her head. Then she gave an affirmative sigh. She understood Seth’s coded language, and she was on her guard from there on. When Seth turned around in his seat, he discovered a similar character seated in the chair directly across from him. He had the same black suit and even the same newspaper. What a coincidence! They had not even made it out of Baltimore before the fun began! Surely, they would not try anything violent inside of an airport or an airplane. The repercussions would be too great for them, but once they left the safety of the airport, Seth and Dr. Tatum would have to be on the defensive. It was no secret where they were flying, but they could alter their path out of the airport if they were being followed from Fresno to Three Rivers.
Still, if they were being tailed by the government, then their destination in Three Rivers was a foregone conclusion to their followers. Seth turned around to let Dr. Tatum know about the other suspicious character that sat across from him, and he realized that she was not there. She was now standing in front of the first suspicious character with only the newspaper separating her unhappy frown from his spying eyes. When she stuck out her hand and lowered his newspaper with one finger, Seth gulped down a mouthful of fear and anticipation. He both admired her and felt the need to scold her all at one time, but Dr. Tatum was a strong-willed lady who did not like to be toyed with. The black-suited man looked up at her in silence, and she decided to continue with her face-to-face confrontation.
“Can I do something for you, agent?” she asked with a fake smile. The agent gently closed the newspaper and sat it down in the seat next to him.
“I might ask the same, miss,” the mysterious agent replied and reached into his jacket with one hand to retrieve something. Dr. Tatum waited patiently for him to pull out a gun in the busy airport, but she was thankfully let down when he brought out a business card. “Call me if you need me, ma’am. I won’t be far away,” he said, and Seth could not tell if it was a threat or a promise of help. Dr. Tatum accepted the card and read the heading and name.
“’Superior Tactical Universal Negotiators - Mike Heavy Treble, Master Combatant’,” the words read, and she placed it into her pocket for future reference.
“Have a nice flight,” she added and came back to sit down peacefully behind Seth so that she could keep her eye on her new friend. Seth could not help but ask her what was going on.
“I don’t know,” she replied, and she handed him the card for his inspection. Seth examined it, and then handed it back to her.
“STUN,” he said. “I’m familiar with the organization from my time in the Middle East. They perform reconnaissance missions for hire, and there are usually casualties associated wherever they go,” he continued as he handed the card back to her.
“I haven’t heard of them before,” Dr. T
atum countered, and she returned the card to her pocket.
“Count yourself lucky. Most civilians that have heard of them haven’t lived long afterward, and that worries me somewhat,” he said as he turned to look at the other ‘Master Combatant’ that sat across from him. Seth considered the implications, and he could only think of two reasons that STUN was involved. They were either interested in stopping Seth and Dr. Tatum from completing their assignment, or they wanted to acquire the fruits of their labor at the end of the assignment. In either case, their own safety was in question, and he knew that they would have to be careful every step along the way. “Doc, with these guys around, we can’t afford to get out of sight of one another.” Dr. Tatum thought about that for a minute, and she leaned back to share her thoughts.
“I need to use the restroom, and there’s no way that you’re going in with me,” she answered, and he could not argue with her logic.
“The same goes for you, but we can take turns. I’ll wait outside the door for you, and you can wait outside for me,” he explained. “That much is allowed.”
“Having to plan pee breaks. This is pathetic, you know it,” she grumbled.
“Yeah. What are we going to do about the hotel rooms?” he asked with an uncertain tone. She thought on that question as well, and she shook her head.
“I don’t know. Let me think about that,” she decided. “We should ditch these guys if we can.”
“We can try, but they know where we’re going,” Seth countered.
“It doesn’t mean that we can’t delay them, though,” she advised. “Follow me.” With that, they took their bags and walked down the terminal to the women’s restroom, and of course, the two goons in black suits followed. Dr. Tatum went around the corner and into the restroom while Seth waited on the outside for her to return, and the STUN operatives hovered nearby. A few minutes later, Seth felt a hand reach around the corner and grip his wrist. As soon as he felt the touch and pressure of the fingers, he sensed the blink of an instantaneous energy transfer, and then the world around him seemed to go dark though he could still see.
“Don’t be alarmed,” Dr. Tatum whispered, and he felt reassured that this was somehow a part of her plan. She tugged on his arm, and though he could not see her, he reluctantly followed her pull into the women’s restroom.
“You’re going to get me arrested for going into a women’s room,” he told her before they could get around the next bend.
“You’ll just have to live on the edge for a while,” Dr. Tatum reassured him, and she pulled him back behind the trash can near the exit. “Now squat down and be quiet,” she told him before he could complain anymore. Together they waited in the short exit corridor of the restroom, and within a few minutes, one of the STUN operatives peeked around the corner to see if he could get a look at where they had gone. Seth peered around, and he was slightly disoriented about how they were hiding in plain sight, but in the end, he waited patiently to see how things would turn out. He was pleased when the STUN operative tiptoed past them without noticing them behind the trash can, and he was even more surprised when Dr. Tatum quickly stood up and whacked him in the back of the head with her bag. The man in the suit lost his balance, stumbled headfirst into the edge of the sink, and fell unconscious to the floor. Dr. Tatum was standing out in the open, but to Seth, she appeared to be no more than a shadow at best.
“How did you do that?” Seth whispered to her, but the shadow waved for him to come over and help her drag the unconscious man into an unoccupied stall. They dragged him by his feet into the stall, and then propped him up on the toilet to rest. Seth reached in his suit jacket and removed the man’s wallet and cell phone for his trouble.
“He’ll be okay in a little while, but I don’t think he’ll make the flight,” Dr. Tatum noted as she touched the necklace on her chest and changed from a mere shadow to a person again. “That’s one down though I don’t know if we will have as much luck with the other one,” she said, and she closed the stall door behind them. No one else had bothered to enter the restroom during this ordeal, and they believed they might get away without discovery until they rounded the corner to leave the restroom and bumped into the second STUN agent in the short corridor going out. Dr. Tatum quickly touched the necklace and instantly turned into a shadow before the goon in the black suit, and when his face showed surprise at the bit of magic, she gave him a quick uppercut to the jaw followed by a sweep of her foot that brought him to the tiled floor. Before he could react, she struck a nerve in his neck at just the right angle, and he passed out in a pile on the floor. They quickly dragged him into the next stall in the women’s room and propped him up the same way as the first. Seth took his wallet and phone as well, and he wrapped all of the stolen items into a length of paper towel and tossed all of their belongings into the trash. They heard a groan come from the first stall, and Dr. Tatum’s shadow passed into the stall where the sound of a thud was the only thing that followed. When the shadow came out, Dr. Tatum touched the necklace again and became visible just as the first boarding call was announced for their flight. She grabbed Seth’s hand, and they walked out together with their bags as if nothing had ever happened. When they reached the terminal, they showed their boarding passes to the airline attendant, and they silently boarded the plane.
“You know, I never did get to use the restroom,” Seth said with a grin as they boarded. The line of passengers had been short, and they all piled in the front of the plane. Dr. Tatum and Seth’s tickets were in the back, and she pointed to the vacant stall behind their seats.
“Now’s your chance,” she said, and Seth wasted no time placing his baggage in the tiny storage bins above their heads and rushed to the restroom. The attendant flagged him down before he could go inside, and she lost no time in telling him that the restroom was closed until after they were in the air.
“Whatever is flushed goes outside, and no one wants to clean up the parking lot,” she said with a grin. “Do you think that you can hold it just a wee bit longer?”
“I guess I have to,” Seth replied with a hint of disappointment as he went back to his seat and snapped the safety belt on, but not too tight around his waist. He had the aisle seat, and he looked up ahead to see a man in a black suit coming down the aisle toward them. The man had the look of a STUN agent, and he did not shy away from eye contact with Seth until he took his seat in the middle of the plane. Another agent followed that one across the aisle, and then another, and another. Very shortly, the plane had filled with STUN agents all the way to the back seats with Seth and Dr. Tatum. Seth became nervous with the anticipation of a fight, and Dr. Tatum placed a calm hand on his wrist. He turned his head to look at her, and she returned an expression of solitude. Whatever was going on, they were in this together.
Within a few short minutes that seemed an eternity, the plane was taxiing down the runway, and they were in the air on their way to the first stop in Dallas. Seth laid his head back in the seat, and he waited as patiently as he could for the seat belt sign to disengage. It had been difficult enough to hold his bladder before the plane filled with STUN agents; now, his situation seemed untenable as his bladder ached from the strain. The light flicked off while a blast of muscle strain passed his midsection, and Seth unstrapped his seat belt and bolted into the empty restroom nearby. His muscles had seized up from the strain, and he stood there for the longest time until he was finally able to take care of business. With a sigh of relief, he washed his hands and unlocked the door to get out of the restroom, and he found himself face-to-face with one of the goons from STUN. The goon was built with a large stature, but Seth was taller and wider. He sized him up quickly, and he knew that if it came down to a fight, he could take this STUN agent down in twenty seconds. The trouble with doing that on a commercial jet was the time in jail that he would have to spend for the offense. He concluded that there was no sense in provoking an incident when it could be avoided.
Seth broke eye contact and walked past him cautiously to his seat as Dr. Tatum relaxed with an airport magazine in her lap. The STUN agent entered the restroom and locked the door behind him.
“Aren’t you nervous?” he whispered, and she nodded her silent agreement. Whatever his own past experiences had been with STUN, it did not seem to bother his partner. Dr. Tatum was as calm as a basset hound on valium. It bothered him that she showed no more concern for their safety, but Seth had learned over their time together not to underestimate her ability to squeeze out of a tight spot. After he realized that there was nothing that he could do to remedy their situation on the tightly packed plane, he finally relaxed his own shoulders and nodded off to sleep for a few minutes while Dr. Tatum kept watch on their belongings.
The beverage cart rubbed his leg when the flight attendant pushed it to the back of the plane, and Seth woke up to the bright smile of the attendant who had delayed his bathroom break earlier.
“Would you like something to drink?” she asked, and Seth sat up in his seat and wiped the bubbles of drool from the side of his mouth as he stretched.
“Sure. I’ll take some water,” he answered, and she poured a cup full of ice water and handed it to him. He started to guzzle it, and Dr. Tatum gently placed her hand on his forearm.
“You might want to sip that slowly since we don’t have much time between flights in Dallas,” she advised, and he sat the cup down after a tiny sip that was just enough to wet his lips. He then turned to her and whispered.
“Has anything happened?” he asked, and she shook her head and leaned next to his ear to whisper.
“I’ve been thinking different scenarios through in my head, and I have an idea about how to handle these guys,” she said quietly. “We’ll have to play along with their game and try to lose them in Three Rivers.”
“That’s a long way from here,” he suggested. “Don’t you want to do something now?”
“What are we going to do? Parachute out?” she answered rhetorically. She had a point, but Seth did not like feeling cornered. She handed him an airline gift magazine and then leaned back in the seat as she closed her eyes. “Read through it. You might find some new invention to take on a camping trip.”
“Yeah, like a stun gun,” he answered in a loud voice. Several of the black suits turned around as if they heard his comment, and Seth smiled and saluted them.
Chapter 3
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Stranded