Chapter 9: Outed

They rode to the slaughterhouse and Wally expertly backed the trailer almost a city block backwards, using only his mirrors to guide him. They came to a hissing stop and sat. "As soon as we are unhooked we're out of here."

"Can't we unhook it ourselves?" Jim asked.

"You can, if you want to wade in the muck out there," Wally told him. "As for me, I am much too fastidious to do that. I would rather wait for some guy in rubber boots to come out here. He let out a blast on his air horn, which echoed inside the building. He did it again.

On the third blast of the air horn a scruffy looking individual in rubber boots came out holding a sandwich. "Hey. Let me eat my lunch, okay?" Wally started to hit the horn again. The sandwich disappeared into the man's mouth and he clambered up and disconnected the lines and hopped back down and cranked the levelers.

Wally nodded and pulled away. "Now we go to the truck wash and then we find a load of fertilizer going to Sacramento. Maybe a HAZMAT job.

"Let's get something to eat. Then I think it is time for a different strategy. Get the tractor washed at the truck stop. We'll eat and plan. I think we better split up."

At the truck stop, the Peterbilt was run through and shined by young women in bikinis. Wally looked longingly at them and followed everybody inside. Jim hurried to the men's room, Wally followed at a slower pace. Will James was further back. They all met back at the entrance. Dana and Billie hurried into the women's room and freshened up as best they could.

The met again at the entrance and Wally looked out and saw two strange men walking slowly around his rig. He hurried out and yelled, "Hey, what are you doing around my rig?"

When they showed him FBI credentials, Wally decided to delay. "I'm going to call the FBI here in town and ask them to ID you two. You look fishy to me." He whipped out his cell phone and started to dial information.

"That's all right, we're done here," one of the suits said. The other nodded and they left. Wally walked around the rig. Finally, under the front bumper he found a small block of black plastic.

Dana came up and took one look. "It's a locater. With that thing on your bumper they would know exactly where you are at all times.

"Not if I put it on another bumper," Wally said. He ambled through the back parking lot and located a Peterbilt quite similar to his own. He stuck it on the front bumper.

He came back and asked, "How did they find us? The two chicken coops we stopped at they never looked at our plates."

"Your trailer in San Diego. They ran a make on it and worked their way out to here, checking all Maroon Peterbilt trucks. They have your plates now, you better just go home."

"What would it be worth to deliver you right to the governor?" Wally was grinning very hard.

"Twenty thousand extra the second we reach a phone in the governor's mansion." She said it without hesitation. "That's on top of the gold coins," she added.

"Hell, I'm goin' to stop driving for a living and just hang around you. I'll be rich in a week at this rate."

"Or dead," Dana told him seriously. Those people don't care who they kill to get their way.

"You go on in and eat. I'll be in after I talk to some people. Order me up steak and eggs, well done on both. Tell them you want the Purple Cow special. They all know me in there." He wandered over to the showers.

Dana found Will, Dian, the chauffeur and Billie all huddled in a corner booth. She handed Will the file folder Billie had given her. "Take this and your driver and Billie and rent a car and go to the governor. We'll be along by a different route. I have a couple of ideas and Wally has something brewing."

She sat and a waitress appeared, "Ready to order, folks?"

"Nothing for us, young lady. We have to leave."

Jimmy called, "Wait. We aren't leaving. I'm hungry. I want a steak and eggs."

Dana ordered a sweet roll and coffee. Then she told the waitress, "Wally wants a Purple Cow special."

She laughed, "That Wally. He's going to turn into a Purple Cow."

Wally came in and sat down. "Where's the others?"

"They are going on ahead. Nobody is looking for them. Jim and I are casting our fates with you."

"Well, after we eat you better buy a fur coat. I found someone who will be delivering a load of ice to a party the governor is having. We are delivering the ice and you two will be part of the load. It's costing you a cool grand to do this. He's following in my tractor and we'll meet and switch after you and the ice get delivered."

Dana shook her head. "Wally, you are something else." The food came and Dana gasped as she saw Wally's plate. There was a steak and eggs and the largest pile of mashed potatoes she had ever seen. He also received a grape milk shake. He dug in.

Jim ate his food more slowly, almost savoring it, rather than combating a starvation that could return at any moment. As he finished his last bite, he looked up and smiled as he saw Dana studying his face. "I sure wish we could be alone together. It seems something is always keeping us apart. I hate it."

Wally looked first at Jim and then at Dana and back at Jim again as he suddenly became aware of the relationship. The surprise showed on his face. "We're getting married," Jim said simply.

"We're the odd couple," Dana said in a self-disparaging way.

"Dana. Please stop putting yourself down. I hate it." the anger on his face was almost palpable. "I was a whore for six years. I accept it. Why can't you accept that you are a very attractive woman with so much beauty in your soul? Isn't my love for you enough? What more do you want? Tell me and I'll be it because I love you."

Wally's presence was completely forgotten. "Jimmy, when Billie was prancing around almost naked and I saw her beautiful body, I wanted to crawl inside my clothes like a turtle crawls into its shell. She is gorgeous and when you looked at her with that grin on your face, I almost wished we would be caught. I was so jealous I wanted to go out there and punch her in the boobs."

"Why? I grinned because I thought the show was funny. All those idiots so busy staring at a piece of meat they couldn't do their jobs. All they saw was a piece of meat. They were pathetic. Billie is a good-looking girl, no doubt about it. But you have so much more. You communicate with me when you look at me. I bathe in your love. I melt inside when you smile at me and I want you and only you. Oh, Dana, why can't my love be enough?"

"Because she is a lezzy." a harsh voice said. They looked up and saw one of the FBI agents from San Diego. He stood there with his gun drawn, a sneer on his face. "Get out of the booth very slow and very careful. One funny move and you will be a dead lesbian." He backed up a step, gun at the ready.

"Not till I've been paid." Wally roared and threw Jim's coffee cup, striking the gun hand. Coffee splashed upward into the agent's eyes.

Dana exploded into action. "I'll lezzy you." she screeched as she slipped out of the booth, grabbed the gun hand and twisted. The sound of wrist joints cracking and a head slammed into a table top could be heard all over the dining room.

Jimmy came out of the booth with a three pronged steak fork and stabbed the agent in the crotch as hard as he could. The scream was loud. Wally picked up the gun and all three slipped out the back way, leaving the FBI man writhing in agony on the floor.

"To hell with it all." Dana yelled. She stepped in front of a taxi. The driver slammed on his breaks and screeched to a halt. "Get out or die." she screamed at the passenger.

"Sure, lady, just calm down. This is where I was going." He got ready to exit out the other side from the crazed woman.

"Get in." she ordered Jim and Wally." They got in.

"Hey, lady, I don't want you in my cab." the driver yelled.

"Yes you do." She handed the driver her last hundred-dollar bill.

"Will you behave?" the driver asked as he snatched at the hundred.

"No, not if you make me mad. Take us to the nearest Bank of America." She opened the door and slid in beside the driver.

"Jimmy and I promise to behave, Dana. Now calm down and think." Wally was trying to placate her and knew he was doing a poor job of it.

"Shut up unless you have something to say," she told him. "I have an account with the B of A that will replenish our funds.

"Jimmy, give Wally the gold. Wally, if you want to leave now, you can. I am wiring the money to your account as soon as we get to the bank. You come in with us."

"What is going on here, you a movie star or something?" the driver asked.

"Or something," Dana agreed. "Get going. This cab is ours for the rest of the day. Do you own it?"

"Well yeah. I own it and I am not going to get it wrecked or something." The driver sounded firm.

"The hundred was to take us to the bank. You call the dispatcher and tell her you are sick and going to the doctor. I am going to give you five thousand dollars for your services for the rest of today. You'll get half after we get to the bank. The other half at sun down and if we need you all night, the price doubles."

The driver turned and looked at Jim and Wally. "Is this for real?"

"I guess so, She gave me three thousand dollars and put another twenty thousand in my bank account. I don't care if she's crazy or not, her money is good." Wally shrugged and Dana gave him a look that promised, "I'll get you later for that."

"Let's go," said the driver, pulled out of the truck stop parking lot and across the street to the waiting Bank of America. He parked and they entered. Dana felt foolish that she hadn't noticed the bank across the street from the truck stop.

Back across the street three government Issue plain Ford sedans came tearing into the parking lot they had just left. Men with guns began to run every which way, opening trucks and tractors, breaking windows to get in and creating havoc. Television cameras soon arrived on the scene and recorded the damage done by the nations "finest" as they searched for the three fugitives who were now across the street withdrawing money from the bank.

"Take us to the manager, please," Dana told the bank guard who was watching the chaos across the street.

"That way," he gestured vaguely as he continued to stare at the pandemonium created by the FBI.

Dana snorted and walked through the bank till she found a door marked "MANAGER." She walked in and told the man sitting behind the desk. "I have a special corporate account. Here is my bankcard. Please verify it. I want thirty thousand dollars in hundreds. Place the money in an attaché case. Any old one will do."

"Uh yes, you do have identification? I mean I need proof you have a legitimate right to the account."

"Sir, I do not have time to bother with you. Verify the account then type in the initials "DF." Both must be capitals, the identifier is case sensitive. I am in a hurry."

"I'm sorry, I cannot be hurried on a transaction of this magnitude." His face turned toward her and displayed a stubbornness that came from years of bureaucratic infighting and turf protecting.

"Get your district manager on the phone. I do not have time for this." Her low voice was filled with menace. All at once the turf warrior was uncertain.

He dialed and asked to speak to his superior. He explained the problem. He handed the phone to Dana. She repeated the account number to the man on the telephone, added the "DF" instructions and added the order, "Verify now." She handed the phone back to the manager. He paled as he listened to the barking voice on the other end. He was quiet as he hung up and told her plaintively, "We don't have thirty thousand dollars in hundreds."

"Get it," she ordered. She had another inspiration. "I want to rent the armored car the money comes in. Tell them we need three uniforms that match the guards coming with the money. My size, and their sizes." She pointed to Wally and Jim.

"Give this man five thousand dollars in anything spendable." She pointed to the cab driver.

"My account is in this branch. Put it in there." He quickly whipped out his bankcard and eagerly offered it to the bank manager. He declined.

"I have tellers to do that." He called a name and a young man entered. He ordered the wire transfer to the happy driver's account.

"Put twenty thousand dollars in this man's account," She recited the number from memory. Wally looked at her in astonishment and Jim looked at her with loving pride.

"You will follow us with your cab. "We will be in the armored car."

"Arrange for the armored car to be in our service till sometime tomorrow. Make it two full days and take the money out of this transaction. We will wait in your office here. Call the armored car people now. Make certain they bring the money with them. I want all transactions made at once. The account number changes with each transaction. You will not have access to that account once we are finished.