Department of Student Loans, Kidnap & Ransom

Chapter 6

Ally sat uncomfortably at the table, not being used to the type of humidity that North Carolina had to offer in the dead of summer. The first of the three Blue Team representatives at the table, and the only man present, spoke: "Is this your first time in Asheville?"

"No. I stayed here once when I was a kid," answered Ally. "My family was going up to the Great Smokey Mountains. It was soon after we were forced to move east. But I remember it being nice and cool."

"Well, this is our first time here as well. And this is far less humid and hot than where I live. Anyways, locals are telling us that it's unseasonably hot right now... So, now that we've narrowed down the regions that we may or may not be from, let's get to discussing a few things," said the man.

The first woman spoke to Ally, in a friendly but business-like manner, "Can you update us on the situation with the Larson guy?"

"Sure, Mick...or rather Michael Larson, he's cooperating, but possibly only out of fear. He's not unsympathetic to our cause, but he's not anywhere near being supportive in any significant way. He's quite cynical and accepting of his fate within the system. That sort of thing..."

"Your plan?" asked the woman.

Ally pushed her chair away from the lunch table slightly and spoke, "We think that The Executioner feels at home in Indonesia. He has done a lot of work there – everybody knows that. He may even be based there. If not, then he must live nearby. My plan is to take Larson to Indonesia and then lure The Executioner there. I have a well developed plan for that."

"Will that look too much like a trap to The Executioner? Going straight to a country that may be home for him?"

"Lots of foreigners go to Indonesia. It's friendly to Americans, and it tolerates runners and debtors. It's actually a really good choice for a runner. I'm betting that The Executioner won't be too suspicious that Mick has chosen Indonesia as a place to flee to. Anyways, his greed will blind him. Greed blinds most people, in our experience," said Ally, hoping she didn't sound like she was trying to sell a product.

The second woman cut in and said "We agreed before you arrived that we would give you lots of leeway. You've made many aggressive decisions, and they've always been on mark. It's a thin line between a calculated risk and a reckless move. But you've proven yourself plenty of times. There was no way we were going to reject your plan, unless you lost your mind and proposed something insane. But this is fine. We don't need the exact details."

"Of course," said the man, "we didn't invite you here to interrogate you about a proposed operation. You've been approving most of your own work for quite a while now with no oversight."

The man paused briefly and then continued, "We were told that you lost your partner. I'm sorry. I was also told that you paid for a service to recover and repatriate her remains. Is that right?"

"Yes, I paid from my own pocket while I was in Cuba. The service I contracted had to pay off the local coroner in Mexico for her body. And then they flew it to her family in Arizona," added Ally, matter-of-factly.

"Did it cost more than $100,000?" asked the first woman.

"No. Commercial flights often carry remains between countries, so it wasn't too expensive."

"OK," said the first woman. "Withdraw from whatever account you want and pay yourself back."

The second woman leaned back in her chair and said, with no small amount of sympathy, "Listen, we are not supposed to know these sorts of small details, but we do. It's obvious that you've been working with the same person for quite some time now. We don't know her; we don't know her name. But we know that you two were close. We are truly sorry. Do you want to take some time off?"