Chapter 5

The common breakfast was a strange event. The good thing about it was I got confirmation of the number of the people who formed ‘The Group’ and lived on this ranch. There were about ten men present, which equaled a total of twelve. All of them were in their mid-thirties or older, and they all seemed to be in good physical shape. What surprised me was the number of women. There were more than twenty women; the youngest of them were barely in their teens, and even the oldest were probably under twenty. There was one older woman, she was probably in her mid-forties and clearly responsible for the kitchen. I did my best for not to look, but I could see all that even from the corners of my eyes. However, none of them had any problems staring at me. In my overalls, I certainly stuck out like a sore thumb.

Before anything else happened, the man I met last night started to speak to all of us. Considering how all the people reacted, this was something that happened quite often, maybe every morning. His voice was deep and soothing and the way he spoke was how a loving father might speak to his children or how a good shepherd would speak to his followers. He would take care of us, protect us from evil. He did not directly say that the state or governmental authorities were the evil he referred to, but everyone surely could connect the dots. I did not dare to look around but I made sure that my mouth was hanging open a bit and my eyes were big when I listened to him. If someone was watching me - and I was sure someone was - I certainly did not look like the sharpest pencil in the box.

While listening to the leader speaking, I rehearsed what I knew about him. First of all, he was an only child and he came from a rich family. He had been married once but while he had been in the middle of a very nasty divorce, his wife and son had died in a questionable traffic accident and the police had kept him locked up for two weeks until some of his friends confirmed his alibi. The end result was that he became even richer, and his hatred of the the police force became astronomical. After that, he almost disappeared from the radar and the only time he surfaced was when his parents died, he sold their business and disappeared again.

The next time he was heard of was when he bought this ranch and started gathering people who shared his beliefs. As he had some serious money, buying this property in the middle of nowhere was not an issue and neither was organizing meetings where he could meet and recruit more people. As he was a good and a charismatic speaker, finding followers certainly was not a problem, but he seemed quite picky: there only were a dozen men here. As he had always professed to be a good Christian, and we had information that he had helped some local people in trouble, I had assumed that he’d help me.

I guess that I had not been totally wrong. At the end of his speech, and just before the prayer, he mentioned lost souls and how they can find help and peace if they knock at the correct gate. At that time, I could feel the gaze of almost all the people, and I did not need to fake blushing when I made sure to keep looking at the table. In a way, that was a nice move. Now everybody knew who I was and that I shouldn’t be fully trusted. A clever bastard, he was.

After the prayer, it was time for breakfast and it was clear that the women - or girls - served the men. Nothing extraordinary, but they poured the coffee and offered oatmeal and bread - even to me. I made sure that I kept my gaze on the table even though I was polite and thanked them for everything. Still, I managed to notice things from the corner of my eyes. It seemed that at least a few of those young girls would be having babies later this year, but the girl I had come to rescue didn’t seem to be one of them. Which, of course, proved absolutely nothing.

I enjoyed my breakfast which was not hard at all, since I was really hungry. I could almost feel people looking at me but nobody spoke to me or asked me about anything - but neither was anyone impolite towards me. Once the breakfast was over and all the cups and plates collected, I was asked to return to the building in which I slept last night. Once there, I decided to use the toilet and then wash and freshen myself a bit more. When I was finished, I did not have to wait long before the leader appeared again. Someone with a suspicious mind might have taken that as more evidence that I was being monitored.

“Feeling better now, John?”

“Thank you Sir, much better. The breakfast was better than ... I mean, it was excellent, Sir.”

“I guess you hadn’t eaten for a while, John.”

I looked down and tried to look ashamed.

“No Sir, I haven’t.”

“Please, John, stop, calling me Sir. All the people here call me Matthew.”

“Yes Sir - I mean Matthew.”

He paused, and I could feel those eyes checking me.

“Tell me, John, what are you running away from? “ “I can’t, Si... - Matthew.”

“Why can’t you?”

“I promised her that I’d never talk about it. I mean, I shouldn’t even tell about her.”

I did not look at him, but I noticed that when I said that, his hands stopped playing with the pen he had been holding.

“Oh, I guess you must have liked her.”

“Yes, she was very nice to me. Not at all like her husband.”

I tried to pour all the my infatuation into the first part of my response while I did not hide my disgust while talking about ‘him’. I was quite sure that he suppressed a chuckle.

“I see. Please tell me, John, what kind of work have you been doing?”

“Nothing much, Si... - Matthew. Since school ended, I’ve been helping in a supermarket. Then they did not need me anymore, and I started helping people with their gardens - and stuff.”

“What kind of stuff?”

“Some small renovations inside a house, helping moving furniture and ... just some other stuff.”

At that point, I did my best to look embarrassed and I hoped I managed to blush a bit.

“That’s fine John. There is nothing wrong in helping with people in need.”

“That’s what she said, too!”

Then I shut my mouth, like I had just understood that I had already said too much. I clasped my mouth shut and started looking at my hands that were resting in my lap. Matthew waited for a while for me to continue, but then he put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed me reassuringly.

“John, everything you say here is strictly confidential, and it remains between you and me. You can trust me on that.”

Despite his soothing words, I kept my keyed up pose and refused to respond. I had been thinking about this, and according to what I had seen here, I was almost certain that being too eager would work against me. I knew that I could really use some outside help with that, but I was not sure when I’d able to connect with Noelle and Twila. So, I just shook my head.

“I can’t. I promised.”

After a moment, he patted my back a few times and pulled his hand away.

“That’s okay, John. But can you please tell me what are you planning to do now?”

Now, this was the moment - and the question - I had been preparing myself for. Somehow, I was quite certain that all his friendly gestures had only been there to make me more responsive to this moment. Instead of hiding my nervousness and distress, I allowed it all to surface. My hands were almost shaking in my lap and I did not know where to look. I did not really have to pretend much, since I knew that getting my client’s daughter out of this ranch and from the hands of the Group would be much more difficult than I had initially thought.

“I don’t ... I don’t know. Can’t I stay here? I don’t have any money, but I could work ... I’m a good worker ... At least, she said that I’m a good worker...”

Even though I kept my gaze on the table in front of me, I could follow him a bit from the corner of my eye. I could not see his face, but from his body language, I could tell that he did not see me as any kind of potential threat. For half a second I considered the possibility of taking him down, finding the girl and rushing away - and I immediately forgot the idea. It was quite obvious that we were being monitored, and taking their leader down would certainly raise an alarm. Another thing was that almost all the other men here were armed most of the time. So, taking him down would leave me unarmed while they would be armed - and very pissed. So, I just tried to look desperate - and waited.

“Tell me John, what can you do?”

“I can mow the lawn and clean the pool, real good!”

Even without looking at him I could tell that he was struggling not to laugh at my enthusiasm. Even though I felt a sense of relief, I could not be sure that nothing was shown in my face and neither could I let my body language show anything. Instead, I forced myself to tense a bit more, as though I had just realized that I had just said something stupid.

“Why couldn’t you just go back home, John?”

“But he’ll find me there. Besides, I haven’t paid my rent.”

While responding to him, I allowed my desperation to turn into submission, as though I had accepted that they wouldn’t let me stay. Indeed, he patted my back a few times before speaking to me again.

“Don’t worry John, I’m sure that you can stay here for a while. We have no pool and not much lawn to mow. But there surely are some other jobs - if you don’t mind cleaning and helping in the kitchen.”

“No Sir! I mean I’ll do anything Si... - I mean, Matthew.”

“Okay John, why don’t you finish your morning duties then, and come outside in half an hour.”

“Yes, Matthew! Thank you!”

Once I was left alone, I made sure that my behavior matched my enthusiasm. Based on to what I had seen, I was quite sure that these quarters were being monitored.

I rushed through my morning duties and I was outside waiting in fifteen minutes, feeling quite happy with myself. After all, I was inside now, and it seemed that I’d be able to stay. I had no doubts that it might take a few days before I had enough information to do anything, but I now I felt that I had got things rolling and under control.

In the evening, when I was finally able to put my head on the pillow, I wasn’t at all sure anymore. I had thought I kept myself in good physical shape, but after ten hours of cleaning and helping in the kitchen and at the storage room, I was dead tired. During the day, I had become so exhausted that I had really had to concentrate on living my role, instead of acting it. I was quite certain that I hadn’t blown my cover, but I hadn’t made any progress, either. There had been absolutely no opportunity to assemble he phone and contact Noelle and Twila. Since I had visited the backyard several times carrying something, I was quite sure that they had seen me and were not worried about me - yet. My last thought before falling asleep was that at least I had had no time to sulk over Jennifer.

The next morning, I woke up with someone shaking me and asking me to get up, since help would be needed in the kitchen. My back hurt and my hands were sore from all the scrubbing, wiping and cleaning I had done the previous day. I muttered some kind of response, and I was back in the kitchen and working in twenty minutes. My day was more or less the same as the previous one, and I had occasionally been able notice there always seemed to be someone nearby - no matter where I was. Someone with a handgun. Maybe they were just cautious - or maybe they were just playing with me. If I hadn’t been so exhausted, I would have really worried about it.

During my third day there, things started to change a bit, beginning in the late afternoon. I was not sure if they decided to trust me a bit more - or that they were just running out of things that I could be doing. I suspected the latter. Suddenly, there were moments during which I was able to sit down for a moment, or take a look at my surroundings. However, since I did not want look like I was someone just waiting the chance to slack, I asked the woman responsible for the kitchen if I could do something to prepare for the following morning. She actually smiled at me for the first time, and gave me a list of the few things that I could pick from the store room.

I had my own reasons to be helpful. After these two days, I was certain that the cold store was the only room where I could be certain I was not being monitored. If I wanted to assemble the phone that was stored inside the heels of my shoes, I needed to do it somewhere without being seen. I also needed a place to store that self-made mobile phone, since I certainly could not hide it in my room, at least not yet. This room, with its shelves, was just the place for hiding the phone - even if it certainly could not be used from here.

It probably took me less than a minute to take off my shoes and pick out the parts under the insoles and put the shoes on again. After that, it was only a matter of seconds to hide the parts inside the vertical bars of the shelves. The amount of dirt in them had convinced me that nobody ever looked down inside them from the top. The phone itself was nothing special, a small GSM phone those only special feature was that it it could be broken into a few pieces and reassembled again. The only modification had been the battery that could not be recharged but instead, should be able to keep its charge for months, if not years. As I was not willing to push my luck quite yet, I was soon back on my way carrying some eggs and other breakfast stuff.

The kitchen window was slightly ajar when I was there, organizing the contents of the huge fridge. The woman responsible for the kitchen and cooking was a moderate cook but she wasn’t a very organized person. I, on the other hand, had adopted the role of a simple-minded but organized person who wanted to do things as he had been taught. While adopting that role, I had already thrown away some spoiled items. Now, I would be spending some time checking and organizing the rest of the stored, contents wich would make the following days much easier. The job was easy and it also gave me time to plan my next move.

“ ... caught those transmissions again. I checked that it’s some satellite phone frequency, but there is no government agency that should be using it.”

Someone was talking outside the window, and when I understood what he was talking about, I suddenly felt cold.

“No, they don’t come on regular intervals. Because the signal is weak, I’m almost sure that it comes from a distance, and we catch only reflections every now and then...”

After that, I heard some movement as the person outside walked away from the window. I had to concentrate hard to keep my hands from shaking as I organized the rest of the contents of that huge fridge.

Somehow, I managed to handle the rest of my duties without raising suspicion, but I also noticed I was still being followed. It was not as obvious as it had been, and there probably were some gaps, but it was clear that I wasn’t yet trusted. When I lay awake in my bed in the darkness, I knew that I had some serious problems and I needed outside help. I had a phone, but I could not use it. If they were monitoring those satellite phone frequencies, they certainly had mobile phone ones covered, as well. I was sure that Noelle and Twila were monitoring the camera feed. If I just could write my message on a poster they could read it. I just didn’t have any paper or a suitable pen - and while being followed, the whole idea of writing down messages was just silly. So, there had to be another way.

I must have dozed off, since it was pitch dark when I woke up. Smiling, since I was sure that I had figured out the way to deliver a message to them. It was not without risks, but I had to do something because I was quite sure that they would not tolerate me here forever if they were not sure if I could be trusted. While lying awake, I started preparing the message I wanted to deliver in my mind. The more I thought about it, the surer I became that I might even succeed. Some time later, I must have fallen asleep again, but this time with a smile on my face.