My Life In Ruins

29. Can't Catch Me...Oh, Crap!

Chapter 29

Can’t Catch Me…Oh, Crap!

“Do we have any idea who we’re looking for?” I asked as we walked through the busy marketplace in Mexico City the next day.  There had to be hundreds of people running around with different things in their hands, carrying them through the streets to either buy or sell them.

“Maybe some sort of tour guide,” Brielle said, smiling at a group of young kids bouncing a soccer ball off their heads back and forth to each other.  “All we need is for someone to take us as far as the fence.  We’ll go from there.”

We walked around for a few more minutes without seeing anything.  I had my hand in Max’s as we did and he’d look over at me every few moments, smiling.  I smiled back.

“Maybe it would be better if we split up,” Dad suggested.  “Callie, you’ve got your phone, don’t you?” 

I nodded, pulling it out of my pocket. 

“Okay,” he continued.  “You and Max go around the north side of the market and call us if you’ve found someone.  Brielle and I will do the same in the south.”

“Sounds good,” I said, nodding. 

Max and I went off, fighting through the crowd of people.  We looked everywhere for someone who was a tour guide, asking a few people if they knew anyone who was.  Well, I was asking them since I knew how to speak Spanish. 

“You would think that someone would know who could help us,” Max said about an hour later. 

I’d just hung up with Dad, who said that they hadn’t found anyone either. 

“I don’t know what we need to do,” I said, shaking my head as I put my phone back into my pocket. 

After a few more minutes, we decided to get something to eat at a little cantina we found just across the street from the marketplace.  It was packed with people and the music was so loud that you could barely hear yourself think.  After ordering our food, Max and I just people watched as we waited. 

“Everyone seems so happy here,” Max said, watching a couple of men laughing at the bar and watching a soccer game on the television. 

I nodded, watching them also.  But then when I looked back toward the front door, I saw someone that I never thought I’d see here.

Edmund.

He wasn’t alone.  The two guys that had been with him when he kidnapped me in D.C. were with him also.  How he got away from police custody in Spain after what happened at the museum, I have no clue, but here he was.

“Edmund,” I whispered to Max as I turned back around slowly, trying not to attract any attention to myself. 

“What are you…?” Max started, but then he looked over his shoulder and saw him.  “How…?”

I don’t know,” I said, ducking as a group of people stopped in front of our table, blocking Edmund’s view of us.  “We’ve got to get out of here, though.”

Max pulled out some money and put it on the table for the food that we hadn’t even gotten yet and we slowly got up, trying not to let them notice us.  He took my hand then and we made our way toward the back doors where the kitchen was.  It was the only way out we could go. 

Once we ducked inside, we stood behind the door. 

“Hopefully they leave in a few moments,” Max whispered close to my ear.  It was the only way I could have heard him over the yelling of the kitchen staff.  A few of them were looking at us weird, but didn’t say anything.  “How are they even here?”