Chapter 17: Flight

WE DIDN’T GET OFF THE GROUND until 4:00 a.m. and that was a miracle. The lights at SeaTac had flickered a few times and winds smashed into everything. An hour out of Seattle, the pilot announced over a million people in Seattle were without power and we’d been one of the last flights to leave SeaTac, which was now closed and without power. Taking off was like riding a rollercoaster, only not as much fun.

Where the action is

My original schedule showed a seven-hour layover at DFW but since our flight was five hours late, I had spent most of the layover time in Seattle. I’d managed to stay plugged in so I had a full battery in the little laptop and as long as I was on the ground, I had access to my VPN. The late takeoff gave me plenty of time to dig deeper into what was going on in Belize. Not only is Brenda there, she’s spending a bunch of money at local markets in San Pedro. It looks like she’s settling in for a long winter’s nap.

The emergency UPS system in the vault kept one server running out of the ten Dag set up. At least I can still do research.

So, Brenda owns property under the name of Ashley Lark in San Pedro. I booked a reservation at the Belize Yacht Club, even though I had to commit to a week’s stay at $165 a night. I also had to book a fifteen-minute flight on a local carrier to get from the airport in Belize City to Ambergris Caye. Typical of Brenda to choose the most touristy party of Belize.

I checked my voice mail remotely to see if any message came in from Jordan. Cinnamon had called from my apartment. She said the power was only out for a flicker on Capitol Hill, so I have power and she’s staying in my apartment. She planned to email work and resign since her CEO is also one of the members of the Committee. She planned to stay in my place until I call. I’ll do that after I’m settled in San Pedro.

I keep going back to the list of people who make up the Committee. I can’t believe some of these guys would stoop so low. They each have a shell company selling mobile phone services. One of the other companies subscribes to their service for the company phones. The shell company contracts to buy network time from the actual mobile operator at a base amount. Then they route the calls through privately owned carriers that markup the rates. Those carriers bill the service back to the mobile operator at an inflated cost. The mobile operator is getting five or ten cents a minute for calls and are being billed a dollar or a dollar-fifty. The big gouge is into the pocket of the operator but the shell companies are selling at a huge profit, as well. As a result, each company’s cellular bill is higher than if they just worked out an arrangement with the mobile operator directly.

These guys have sold services, not only to each other, but to eighty percent of the top 500 companies in the world. They’re raking in billions.

Time to board for Belize.

Beach time

Beautiful!

I wish I was here for pleasure. It was eighty-five degrees when I landed and now that the sun has set over the clear blue Caribbean, it is a perfect 72. My room on the second floor looks out over the water with a perfectly wonderful lanai where I can sit and have coffee in the morning. It’s paradise.

I landed right on time at three-thirty this afternoon and caught the shuttle flight to Ambergris Caye, the largest of the islands off the coast of Belize and just inside the Barrier Reef. The sand is perfectly white and so is the hotel. The room is spacious and comfortable. People are running all over everyplace waiting on you.

Once I was settled in, I did some shopping. I hadn’t packed for this kind of adventure but I did toss in extra wigs and my makeup kit. I bought a bikini (much to the surprise of the shop clerk until I told her it was for my girlfriend), a pareu, and sandals. When I got back to my room, I stripped off all my makeup and showered thoroughly. There’s no reason for me to pretend to be a boy here. Even if Jordan didn’t revoke the warrant for my arrest, he can’t enforce it here and he can’t stop me from traveling elsewhere.

On the other hand, Brenda knows me only as a blonde, which is why I also grabbed my short red bob when I was abandoning my apartment last weekend. It’s an easy look and with makeup that plays down my lips and cheekbones, I don’t look anything like I did when Brenda met me in Dag’s office. I’m now Riley Finn. I went to the hotel desk and told them my boyfriend instructed me to register with him and they took down my passport information. Now I could keep James Whitcomb hidden for a while.