Chapter 55: Night Classes Pay Off

"That was certainly interesting," Jamie said, walking back toward me.

"Very interesting," I said as she merged into me. "I take it you were just as surprised as I was at Walter's little trick?"

"Of course," she said. "Are you wondering if I can do that with someone else?"

"Among other things, I also want to know if merging with someone else can keep you safe if you have to stay away for a while, you know, extend your time limit."

"That would be good to know, but I don't see that it will make much difference. I'd still come back to you if anything went wrong or if I felt weak in any way. It's not like I couldn't get to you if I needed to."

"So far that's been the case, but I'd like to know that I'm not going to lose you if we run into something new and that changes somehow. If that did happen, it would be nice to know that Allison or Lizzy may be able to keep you alive. This is something I'd like to experiment with when we get home."

"Me too, do you think Allison will mind?" She asked.

"Are you kidding, she's going to love it. Like you said, Allison loves to discover new things, especially about us. Come on, class is over, and we've got a quiz in Geometry."

"Angles and planes and lines, oh my!"

The quiz was pretty easy, but if you start getting perfect scores on everything people notice, so I 'missed' two answers just for appearances. PE was a little different. Our regular teacher was out and the substitute broke us up into teams and had us do a round-robin, three-on-three, mini basketball tournament. It was fun enough but I was quickly reminded that I suck at basketball.

"Maybe we should spend some time on the court with Allison and Lizzy," Jamie suggested.

"There's a thought," I answered sarcastically. "That would certainly help us fill up all this free time we have lately."

"There is that. How about we just bridge this year's NBA all-star team and get it that way?"

I was pretty sure she was joking but I answered the question anyway.

"I don't have a problem getting information we need from guys like Wheels and Malloy, that's survival stuff we need to know. Stuff like this, that's just cheating, kind of takes the fun out of playing if you can be the best without even trying."

"Yeah, I guess it would kind of take the fun out of life. Jimmy, when we do find the Sandman, what are we going to do? We can't just tell the FBI where he is without risking him just trying to take as many people with him as he can. At the same time, we can't go with them without exposing ourselves. I don't really like the option that's left."

"Which one's that?" I asked.

"And if we can't sneak in?" she asked.

"Me either," I said. "And I hope we don't end up there. Let me know if you come up with any other options."

Starting this week, Allison, had basketball practice after school so I was picking her up on my way home after cross country practice. Roxy was really bummed that she wouldn't be able to swim after school any more. We were going to try and have her over for dinner at least one night during the week and for an afternoon on the weekends.

"I see our tail is back," I told Jamie. We were only about two miles from the school so obviously they had been waiting for us.

"Yeah, I was just about to point him out," she said. "The beige Pontiac, three cars back in the right lane?"

"That's him, bet they didn't steal this one."

"Probably not, maybe if we get the plate Rod can find out if it was a recent purchase and who the buyer was."

"Good idea. You think he's got a partner?" I asked.

"You naughty boy, you just want to play. Go for it; let's see if we can smoke him out."

As we came up on the next intersection our shadow drifted into the lane behind us, but he was still two cars back. The light changed and I put my foot on the brake as if I were going to stop. Naturally the car behind me slowed down, and as soon as he did I floored it and beat the light, leaving my playmate stuck in the pack waiting for the next green. I made a right at the next corner and went over two blocks before turning left again to head back in the direction of Allison's school. Two blocks later I watched a motorcycle make a right towards me; he was wearing blue racing leathers with a matching helmet. The knowledge I had gained in my night with Wheels told me the bike was a Yamaha or Suzuki, being the only manufactures to use that particular blue in their recent production years. Chances were this was my tail, and verifying it should be pretty simple.

I reversed the process, turning left and then right again, back onto the street I had started on. Unless the tail guessed that I was messing with him he would have turned further back to try and pick me up again. Without a bug on the truck, the only way he should be able to find me again was if there was a second car near enough to put him back on the right track.

"Motorcycle," Jamie said. I glanced in the mirror and blue boy had just turned to follow us. Before the corner he had been coming the other way. When he followed us through the next turn it eliminated the coincidence factor; around the block is a long u-turn for a bike. I pulled into the next gas station and went inside. Sure enough, the beige Pontiac passed by a minute later. I picked up a soda for Allison and I to split and headed back out to the truck. I had lost sight of the Pontiac while I was paying but when I pulled out it was parked about a block up the street. Jamie got the license number as we went by. I couldn't help but wonder where the bike was hiding. It didn't really matter anyway so I let it go. I didn't think there was much chance they were working three people on me just yet so I ignored them and went on to pick up Allison. She was waiting out front chatting with her coach, Lynn Hewitt. I pulled up and got out to open Allison's door.

"Hey, Miss Hewitt," I said. "How's it going?"

"Jimmy, I told you, it's Lynn, you're not my student. Looks like it's going to be a good year. We're going to have to work at it though; we're weak at center, no real height on this year's team. Did you hear about the tournament?"

"Yeah, Mel said we really kicked ass."

"Well, you won, let's leave it at that. I was there and a couple of those games were a lot closer than Mel probably let on. Now if you hadn't lost Shannon, it would have been a different story." She stopped for a second, realizing what she had said.

"It's alright Lynn, I talked to Mel, and we all saw the same thing. I miss her, but I'm okay with it," I put my arm around Allison, "we both are."

She kind of studied Allison's face for a second before nodding. "Yeah, that was some dream. I don't think I'll ever forget it."

"No kidding," I said. "That's one I'll carry with me my whole life." I blew Jamie a kiss as I said it, then turned back to Allison. "Better get going, you're supposed to be making dinner and I think you forgot to take it out of the freezer."

"Oh crap!" Allison said. Once we were in the truck and moving she turned and asked, "Okay, obviously that was to get us out of there because you watched me taking the roast out, so what's up?"

"Several things, actually; one of them is pretty cool, the other two aren't."

"Okay, bad news first, what are the two bad ones."

"That would be the beige Pontiac about four cars back. The other is his partner on the motorcycle. Not sure where he is at the moment, but I'm sure we'll see him somewhere between here and home."

"Jimmy! This is getting scary. Have you called Rod?"

"No, didn't have time and I thought it might be a little too obvious," I handed her my new phone. "Here, you call him. We got the plate on the Pontiac so he can run it. We're betting it was sold recently and we're hoping maybe he can find out who bought it. Maybe get us a lead on who we're dealing with."

"You ready to try this?" I asked Jamie while Allison was giving Rod the latest information.

"Oh yeah!"

"Rod's going to run the plate," Allison said, closing the phone. "So what's the good news?"

"It's a surprise; think you're ready for it?"

"I like surprises; do I need to close my eyes?"

"I don't think so. Actually I'm not sure if it's going to work or not so bear with me." I put my hand on her arm.

"Off you go," I said, and Jamie slid out and across the seat and disappeared. I couldn't see her eyes because I had to watch the road, but I could feel Allison tense up.

"Jamie?" She asked tentatively. Then she practically screamed, "Oh my God! This is sooo cool!"

"Hey, hey, keep it down," I said.

"Jimmy, this is amazing, it's like ... oh my God!"

She was a little excited.

"Yeah, actually it is. Now the fun part starts, we need to see what else we can do with it. Allison, don't answer for her. Jamie, can you answer me?"

"Yes." I had to trust that it was really Jamie talking since it was still Allison's voice.

"Okay," I said. "What about now?"

The answer came in distorted stereo and took me a minute to sort out as Jamie said, "Wow! I can!" and Allison said, "Holy Shit! I can hear you guys talking in my head!"

"Okay, wasn't expecting that. Jamie, say something and concentrate on not letting her hear."

"You are so smart!"

"Allison, did you hear that?" I asked.

"No, nothing. This is so cool! Jimmy, this is big, really big! Gosh, the things you two are going to be able to do."

"First things first, we still have a lot to work out. Jamie, can you get out again without me touching her?" She didn't answer but suddenly she was sitting on the seat between us. "Okay, back in. Now try again, only this time, Allison I want you to concentrate on keeping her there." It was a few seconds before Jamie was out again and I could tell it had been a strain for both of them.

"You two okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay but I felt like I just played a whole quarter," Allison said. I could hear the strain in her voice.

"What about you?"

"I'm okay, but it was a struggle," Jamie answered.

"So there is a chance that someone may be able to keep you from getting out if they tried hard enough?"

"I don't think so," she said. "I was trying not to hurt her at the same time. I could have gotten free sooner if I had tried."

"Good. That's really good to know. I'm going to tell you to come back, when I do I want you to go back into her instead, but try not to let her know you're there. Just see if you can hide and still stay aware of what's going on." Then out loud I said, "Okay, I think we'll save the rest for later when I'm not driving. Jamie I think you should come back for now, just in case." I watched out of the corner of my eye as she slid sideways into Allison and disappeared.

"Can you still hear me?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Cool, I want you to stay there until we get home, but if anything even begins to feel off, you let me know and come back home, okay?"

"Home? Is that how you think of it, like you're my home?"

"Of course," I said. "Home is where you live. You can leave it for a while, but it's the one place you will always belong, and always be welcome, so yeah, I'm your home."

"But what if I do something horrible while I'm out, will you still take me back?"

I knew what she was asking and I had to think carefully about my answer. "Jamie, I can't promise that. Not without lying. I think I would, but I know there are things that you could do that might change that. I can't think of what they might be right at the moment, but like you said before, you're really not a nice person at heart, so I guess the answer is it depends on what you did and why. Is that a fair enough answer?"

"That was a really good answer," she said. "And it was the right one. If you had said yes automatically I would have argued the point, because you're right, if this was Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West wouldn't hold a candle to what I'd do if there was no one to keep an eye on me." Something in her voice told me just how serious she was.

"Then it's a good thing I'll always be here for you. How are you feeling? Everything all right?"

"Yeah, I'm doing good. Don't worry; I'll let you know if anything changes."

Fortunately that whole conversation didn't take nearly as long to have as it did to write down.

"Walter found Kurtz." I said to Allison.

"Already! Wow that was fast, could you get to him?"

"Yeah, walked right in and found him asleep on the cot in his cell."

"So that's step one?" She asked.

"More like step one hundred with who knows how many thousand to go but at least it's a step forward," I said. "I feel like it's taken forever to get even this far and there is still a lot to do."

Allison took my hand in hers and squeezed it. "Don't sound so discouraged, you're making progress, that's all that counts, and this, this was a big step."