Chapter 71: Gotta Getaway

“Cálmate, my friend. Cálmate. Please calm down, señor. They’ll call soon,” Jose Martinez, the soft-spoken but firm right-hand of Uncle Justin Jensen said, attempting to soothe the uneasiness of his boss and friend. Whenever Jose got nervous, his speech tended to break into a combination of Spanish and English. Justin Jensen, the long-time proprietor of several popular ‘prepper’ websites and numerous other anti-government leaning businesses, was second-guessing his decision to send two men to retrieve their undercover agent.

After seeing the despair on his boss’s face, Jose had turned off the police scanner after reports of several vehicles causing accidents and chasing each other through the streets of San Antonio just north of downtown. “They will call once it is safe to make contact. Then we will get them here and find out what happened,” Jose announced with feigned and practiced confidence.

The two eagerly awaited news from the men they sent to retrieve their undercover agent. The agent’s mission was to infiltrate a newly-created company. This new company was formed by various government organizations and included members previously involved in the incarceration, torture, and current manhunt of Tim Murphy.

Uncle Justin was brought into all this because his nephew, nicknamed Mikey by his Uncle, was one of the scientists on duty when Tim Murphy appeared out of nowhere deep in the bowels of a specially-guarded and secretive government laboratory. Mikey Jensen never disclosed to his uncle what went on where he worked. Mikey had taken a vow, and his uncle had respected that vow. But it did not stop Uncle Justin from inundating his nephew with requests for any speck of information he may have let out.

Murphy, now on the mission to rescue the undercover agent, claimed to have returned from the past to a world wildly different from the world he had known. When Mikey told his uncle the story of the time traveler being held captive somewhere in the building where he works, Uncle Justin believed it fully and agreed to help the traveler escape his captivity.

Mike Jensen had taken a vow not to disclose what happened at the facility, and his uncle respected that vow, but the senior Justin listened for any speck of information his nephew would accidentally reveal.

Tim’s then-unknown talents proved to be the best chance for the flight to succeed. Following a few days of being in isolation following his appearance, Tim re-introduced himself to his friend and mentor from his previous timeline, George Johnson. George was the head of security for the secret government laboratory. When the Department of Defense brought in a particular unit to take over the prisoner’s security and interrogation, George became the first to want to help Tim escape. He recruited the two scientists present when Tim first appeared.

Once the prisoner escaped and communication between them was established, Tim, George, and Mikey went to Uncle Justin’s compound north of San Antonio in the central Texas Hill Country. The compound surrounded a man-made lake and served as the center of Uncle Justin’s business conglomerate. He was wealthier and more powerful than anyone else knew.

Once there, Tim verified his story to Uncle Justin with an introduction to the nanite robots flowing through his bloodstream and the miraculous works they could do within. Before Tim’s escape, the government had become aware, to some extent, of the powers within their guest.

News came in of a new company created by agents of DARPA. They set up shop in San Antonio, and their primary purpose was to find their former prisoner and get him back under the control of particular government interests.

Uncle Justin sent in a close friend and intelligence expert to go undercover to confirm the new company’s true purpose. Executives of the new company, Socii Ferrum, discovered her, and she called for immediate help. Uncle Justin sent Tim and George to retrieve the agent because they were the closest assets in the area.

On his way to try rescuing the undercover spy Uncle Justin had placed at Socii Ferrum, Tim Murphy had to remind himself not to break the speed limit and get caught by some Johnny Law.”All right, calm down, Tim. You got this. Find her and get the fuck out. Simple,” Tim ordered himself as he drove down the back roads into downtown San Antonio. The end of the work day made the trip a little more complicated with the swarms of workers released onto the streets to go home. Most were trying to leave the downtown area while Tim worked his way into the downtown maze.

“Okay, there it is,” he said as he approached the building housing the karaoke bar where Sarah Kazori was waiting for retrieval. As he passed by the front, he noticed at least five men in suits exiting a Suburban and walking with a purpose toward the karaoke bar. “Shit. That don’t make it any easier.”

Tim pulled his truck into a nearby the club’s parking lot and found a spot near the backdoor. The modest lot was filling, with the spots nearest the karaoke bar filling the fastest. While getting out of the truck, he contemplated whether or not he should try to go in through the back door. After slinging his leather bag full of various weapons over his shoulder, he attempted to open the backdoor but found it closed and locked. After a second thought, he removed the bag and stuffed it partially under the passenger seat.

Sighing, Tim navigated to the front door. “Okay, it’s game time.”

“Hello there, sir. It’s a five-dollar cover,” the attractive woman behind the front door desk declared. Then she accepted the ten Tim pulled from his pocket. “We’ve got weekend specials going all night until close and drink specials every hour, also, until close. Just listen for the host to call ‘em out.”

Tim smiled a thank you as he took his change and stuffed it back into his pocket.

The club had a darkened hallway before reaching the main room. Along the wall were pictures of the club and past nights of celebration – mainly business types cutting up and relaxing for the weekend.

“Well, all right, partiers! Whatta ya say about Miss Shannon here? Not a half-bad Shania Twain, if you ask me! Let’s see who’s up next,” the emcee read off a sheet of paper. “I’m looking for Larry from accounting! Strange last name, Larry, but come on up and let’s hear what you got!”

Tim’s eyes soon readjusted to the darkened room, and he spied the dark-suited men working their way around the club looking for Sarah. He grabbed the first available waitress that walked by.

“Excuse me. Where are the restrooms?” She pointed toward the back. The only lights in that corner were the cigarette vending machine’s lights and the bar’s blinking lights reflecting off the mirrored wall.

Tim quickly moved to the doorway, and when he went for the men’s restroom, he saw the women’s restroom door to the left and promptly ducked into that one. Luckily, the women’s restroom seemed empty. He ventured further into the restroom and glanced underneath the stalls, each open but the last.

The Socii Ferrum boys made themselves more known outside the restroom by breaking up several parties, so Tim took a chance. “Uncle Justin sent me,” he muttered just loud enough to be heard in the restroom and not outside.

A voice from behind the last stall let out a held breath, and a woman exited the stall. She saw his Hawaiian shirt, blue-jean shorts, and simple white tennis shoes. “You’re cutting it kind of close, ain’t ya?” the scared woman joked.

“Well, the guys chasing you are already here, and they are still looking for you. At least I got to you first.”

Just then, the door opened, and one of the black-suited thugs entered the restroom with a disgusting grin. He ordered Sarah to come with him. He did not see Tim on the other side of the wall.

Tim suddenly jumped on top of the thug, gaining a quick choke hold. Then he promptly clenched his grip around the man’s neck with the strength of a boa constrictor. The man at first tried flailing to reach Tim but could not before falling to his knees and hastily passing out completely.

“Come on, let’s go before his friends decide to see if this guy needs help,” Tim recommended, and Sarah had no more complaints.

“I saw the entrance to the kitchen just on the other side of this wall. Can you make it there on your own, or are you hurt in any way?” Tim asked.

“Yeah, I can make it. Not hurt, just scared.”

“Yeah, me too. Let’s try to get out of here in one piece, and let’s hope we don’t have to kill anybody, either.”

She nodded, and they went to the restroom door. Tim opened it slightly and saw no one standing guard outside. He shook his head, thinking if he were on their side, he would have had one person go into the restroom and someone else stand guard outside the door.

They both slid out of the restroom and entered the kitchen area without delay. There was no one else around but the busy kitchen staff, and no one spared even a head turned in their direction. At the end of the hall, Tim saw the exit sign above a door and a rubber foot stop used by the staff to keep the door open when they took out the garbage.

While the two approached the door, Tim knelt and picked up the door stop. The sun just happened to be setting, and when the door opened, a pronounced beam of dying sunlight illuminated the side of the bar.

That garnered the attention of whoever was on stage, “Hey, is that Sarah?” The rest of whatever was said was filtered out as the remaining thugs pushed through any barriers between them and the door and closed in on the two runners.

Tim pulled Sarah, who was right behind him, through the doorway and closed the door, hearing a satisfying click of the automatic lock. Sarah pulled up after exiting and jammed the small, rubber door stop between the bottom of the door and the cement sidewalk. Suddenly, the top of the door pushed out slightly but was stopped by the rubber device. Attempting to block the door, Tim pushed himself against it and felt several attempts from the inside to force it open.

“Fuck! They jammed the door with something. Out the front before we lose them!” The men pushing to open the door gave up, and even from outside, they could be heard rushing to get out of the front.

Tim smiled at Sarah while sneaking a slight glimpse at the rubber stopper. “Nice. Okay, let’s get out of here, shall we?”

Sarah didn’t answer, but she followed Tim to the truck parked several spaces away from the back door. The truck reliably started and pulled from the opposite side of the parking lot from where it entered.

Fridays at this time were a bit more chaotic than usual since people did not lollygag about getting out and away from the city’s center for a jump on the weekend. So traffic was moving at a higher-than-average clip.

Tim mainly spoke to himself as he merged into the early evening traffic of downtown San Antonio. “Okay, all we gotta do now is get you to Uncle Justin’s place, and he can hide you wherever is best.”

“Okay, that sounds like a plan.” Her response forced his right ear to jump when she talked unexpectedly.

“Okay. All right,” Tim answered as he continued working his way out of downtown and onto a highway out of town. He decided the best way out was to turn onto IH-10W to Houston and eventually reach IH-35N toward Austin and Uncle Justin’s compound.

After a few minutes of merging with snail-paced workforce traffic, Tim struck up a conversation with the slightly older woman who had volunteered to work undercover for Justin.

“So, what do you think happened? Do you have any idea how they found out about you?” Tim asked as they slowly inched closer to the highway on-ramp.

“I truly have no idea.” Sarah was much calmer now as the two had a couple of minutes to catch their breath and work to get their adrenaline levels back under control. Tim did this nearly effortlessly, but Sarah had to work much harder.

“I had only sent in a couple of reports to Justin. I never did that at the apartment or on my phone. I followed the protocols we both decided to use,” she answered and bit her bottom lip before looking out her side window to the other cars. No one paid any attention to the couple in the older pickup truck.

“We’ve never had any problems with that before,” she continued with some frustration. “I just can’t think of any way he could have found out about me. I can’t even really figure out how he had so many of those thugs, either.” Sarah turned in her seat to continue. “I mean, we knew the guys from the Army he had brought over to his group, but I had absolutely no idea about any of those other guys,” she emphasized her point with a straight punch to the dashboard above the glove compartment while Tim chose to stay quiet and concentrate on the upcoming on-ramp.

The screech of tires from several directions was the first clue of something out of the ordinary. Tim looked in the rear-view mirror to witness a large, black Suburban crossing a couple of lanes and cutting off several other vehicles just before slamming into the rear of their truck and forcing it into a spin.

The instant shock hit hard, but Tim’s enhanced reflexes helped to right the vehicle before it smashed into a telephone pole. He was able to regain control and jump the curb onto a large patch of grass before a turn into a McDonald’s lot. The truck soon found the parking lot’s pavement, and Tim floored the accelerator to the other side of the parking lot. The flat pavement gave Tim a chance to get their situation in hand.

“I see three of them following. Do you see any others?”

“Negative; just the three closing onto us. How the hell is that thing still driving with its front end jacked up like that?” Sarah pondered as she spun around to look for any other followers. “Wait a second. Scratch that. I see three more coming off the highway up ahead.”

Tim’s answer was a succinct, “Shit!” He hit the call button on his phone to request help.

“Yo,” George answered on the first ring.

“I got her, but I got six Suburbans full of goons chasing me. I didn’t even make it to the on-ramp.”

“Can you get to San Pedro? I can set up a jump-off.” The start of a vehicle could also be heard.

“I’m pretty sure we can get to the college there but not all the way to San Pedro. There are too many places for them to cut us off.” Sarah was nodding in agreement with Tim.

“Okay, get to the college and hot-foot it across campus. Use the buildings to hide, and I’ll be there in three minutes to give you a chance to get on board without them seeing us.” George directed and continued. “Barn pickup. You got it?”

“Affirmative, but give us five. That campus ain’t small.”

“Affirmative. I’ll wait for the lights and give you eight minutes to get to the covered bus stop out front of the college on San Pedro.” George didn’t wait for an answer. He hung up.

“Do me a favor. Grab that backpack for me from under your seat,” Tim charged Sarah. She pulled out the backpack and took a moment to look all around for the followers again, but Tim had successfully put distance between them, apparently.

“So what are we gonna do now? I heard you talkin’, but I’m not crystal on what a barn pickup exactly is.”