The Runners: Chapter 31
Chapter 31
‘Coo–Coo’, ‘Chirrup–Chirrup’, ‘Tweet–Tweet’, as Jacob entered the forest and traveled down the path behind the old man, cries of many species of birds were heard from all directions, above the trees and the grounds. In addition to the birds, Jacob heard vibrant hissing and growling sounds of wild animals from the distance that he had only heard on 3D AV programs from network productions. Having to hear these exotic sounds first hand, Jacob couldn’t help, but wonder as to how glorious and fantastic it must have been in many generations ago when people actually lived with these creatures.
The ground that he was walking on felt firm with the blades of grass reaching about half way up his shins. Giant banyan, wide-leafed umbrella, teak, mahogany along with few other species of trees stood as they surrounded Jacob in grand manner. They provided cool shades and retained moisture within the forest which Jacob felt immediately as he walked deeper into the forest.
The unfamiliar sounds and scenery mesmerized Jacob and they played tricks on his mind. For a short moment, his mind wandered about and lost his concentration. He tripped over a broken branch on the ground as he lost the timing of his footing. He landed one of his feet into a patch of soft ground. As he lifted the other foot in a normal walking motion, his foot dug deeper into the ground, causing a slippage. He tripped over the twig and fell forward. He had managed to break the fall, but had scraped his knees and palms against the rough parts of the ground surface.
“Focus, Jacob,” he told himself as he stood back up on his feet, dusting off his hands and legs. Then, he looked down the passage directly ahead. Suddenly, he noticed that there weren’t any foot prints although he had found the ground to be partially soft.
“That’s strange…,” Jacob murmured to himself.
Turning to his left then to his right in the direction 2 o’ clock from where he stood, Jacob saw slight ricocheting movements of leaves springing backward towards the path several yards down. He changed his direction by getting off the main trail and entered into the part of the forest where there was no longer a distinguishable passage way. There, he found his vision to be hindered by tall vegetation that towered over his height with thicker leaves and branches extending out in every direction. He slowly moved ahead pushing away the branches to his sides with both his hands.
Jacob took cautious steps as he wasn’t sure what kind of footing surface would be waiting for him. He kept his eyes on the movements of the branches that he had just cleared by pushing forward while taking his steps, lest they would recoil and spring backward to crush his head.
It has been challenging five minutes of navigating since he got off the main path when he no longer saw leaves moving up ahead. Everything seemed very still. Jacob stopped in his tracks, placed one knee on the ground, and lowered his head in a manner to conceal his location. He stayed motionless for few seconds. Sensing that he wasn’t being watched by anyone, he slowly cleared away the branches that were within centimeters of him to get better view of what laid ahead.
Peeking through the leaves, Jacob saw the beginning of a cleared area, an open space that was surrounded by heavy and even taller vegetation than he had traveled through. He looked up and saw tall banyan and oak trees rising to the skies, forming a tall roof like enclosure like over the space. The trees were tall and richly branched, limiting the amount of light that could peek through.
In the middle, Jacob found a swamp with dampened vegetation, peaking out of the thick muddy waters and trunks of dead trees that were blackened by uncontrolled growth of large masses of black mushrooms. They sprung out and filled much of the surface area in every which way he looked. The swamp was about half a football field length from the left end to the right end, but somewhat shorter directly to the other side from where he was. Clusters of vines of banyan trees hung down to the swamp, which were still intact at the upper parts of the trees. Some formed loops, causing them to be suspended over the surface of the swamp. The area was dark due to the lack of sun light. There, over the surface of the swamp presided thick mist of fog, which was produced as the rising steam from the swamp collided with the cool air.
He spread the branches wider and looked beyond the swamp at the other side. There, he saw two human figures approaching one another. Due to the visually impairing nature of the surroundings, Jacob wasn’t able to make out for certain who they were. But, he was able to see and relate to the head wear that one of the figures was wearing. It was the same shape of the boater hat that he had been following from the beach. As for the other figure, all that he could tell was that it was a shorter female person’s silhouette.
Hoping to eavesdrop on their conversation, Jacob moved ever so stealthily towards the other end of the swamp. He got as close to the open space as possible. Yet, he was not able to hear the conversation of the two people as it was engulfed by the chirps, tweets, and other magnificent sounds of the forest, which were resonating all around him.
——————————-
“I was thinking that you wouldn’t show up! The director was right about your punctuality. I’ve got to give him that!” Wiping his forehead of perspiration with a handkerchief, the old man continued to make his way towards the woman. He got within an arm’s length of the person when she stood up from the tree trunk that she was sitting on. She did not have a choice, but to be here.
“No need to be patronizing me. I gave the director my word! Just make sure that you, whoever you are, Mr. Johansen and the director keep yours!” She shot back demandingly, not giving into Johansen’s condescending manner.
“You see,” giving her a distrustful look, “young lady, I have been in this business for many years and seen all kinds of things and characters.” Johansen did not trust this girl. In his mind, this girl was the wrong type of person to be recruited. He thought she was too smart and there were no known dints in her character or upbringing. Only thing was that her family was poor and that made her a good candidate as far as the director was concerned. But, the director saw it differently and her DNA profile was a perfect match for this mission due to her genealogy. Besides, the director ensured that he had a backup plan.
Johansen continued, “Some have no business being in this business because they can jeopardize my hard work! But, you know what? They were all managed one way or another as long as the recruiters do not overstep their boundaries!”
“I know what I’m doing and know what I’ve signed up for! You do not need to remind me of what my responsibilities are!” She stared directly into Johansen’s eyes through the dark sunglasses that she was wearing. She kept her teeth nearly clenched and spoke in firm and unshaken tone. She wasn’t about to retreat from this bully.
“You’re different than others. You fight back and you have no fear of what the other person can do to you…, or your loved ones.., you’re too feisty for my liking. The director chose you. However, it doesn’t mean I won’t have my doubts! I will be watching you.” Although he had no choice, but to obey to work with her, Johansen couldn’t get over the fact that the director had chosen a recruit who could outsmart them. He decided to throw a subtle warning in order to keep this recruit in line so that she knew clearly to not deviate from what was told to her.
“I know what I am doing!” Unwavering, the woman kept her composure as she clinched her fists in an attempt to control her emotions. She did not want to display any weakness or concern over what he had just said. But, she knew that they have one thing that they could hurt her with. It was her mother. She could certainly take care of herself when the time came to run or defend her-self from this old man and she wouldn’t fear for what would happen to herself in the process. However, these people also knew where her mother lived. She knew that they would always have people immediately at her mother’s door steps in case she digressed. That was the one weakness that she could not shake off. It has always been on the back of her mind. Regrettably, Johansen succeeded in reminding her that she was their puppet, no more, no less.
Johansen could not tell if he was successful in quivering the woman’s spirit. However, he made his point across and moved to the subject that has been bothering him since breakfast.
“I was informed that you would be accompanied by two of your friends. You’ve added another. Who is the third one?” Looking stern, Johansen waited staring right through Jane’s sunglasses.
“He is a friend from school. He studies creative photography and is very interested in the pre-drought nature sceneries. We thought it would be good for him to see things first hand and what’s better than—”
“To see it in the natural environment. Inside the VTT Dome?” Anticipating what Jane would say, Johansen abruptly cut her off by finishing her sentence.
“What you have done is broken the protocol! We cannot have deviations from pre-planned methods and procedures. It goes for your itinerary, rendezvous locations, timelines and even the number of breaths you will take in the process!” Johansen moved closer to Jane. He looked directly down on her by putting his forehead less than an inch away from Jane’s eyes, “and yes it applies to whom you will spend time with, when and where on these missions!” Johansen obviously did not like being run into Jacob at breakfast. As this mission’s coordinator, the overall success of this particular mission’s outcome was fully set upon his shoulders. Failure will be met with harsh consequences. He needed to ensure that no one and nothing would come between the mission’s objectives.
Johansen’s cautionary approach, cunningness, and capacity to enforce with brutality when called for have allotted him the duration in this business and earned his superior’s trust. But, seeing that Jane could be a risk to it all was one of the reasons that he had resented the director’s decision to bring Jane to him.
“He is harmless. He is just a student of photography, nothing more!” Maintaining the near distance of her face from the intimidating Johansen, Jane responded calmly, but kept her eye contact. She will not succumb to this old man’s intimidating ways. Both stared at each other for few more moments without breaking the silence.
Then, Johansen pulled back from Jane and Jane followed by relaxing her stance and naturally furthering the distance from Johansen. At what appeared to be in a rather normal distance apart for a conversation as far as Jacob could observe from the other side of the swamp, the two continued their clandestine meeting.
“I did not ask you to give me your opinion of your friend. You just need to tell me who he is. I decide what he is and isn’t! What is your relationship with him?” Johansen doubted that they were just friends. But, he did not expect an answer any different than before.
“I told you we’re just friends!” Jane responded in a fashion to brush off silly accusations from a friend.
“What is his name?” Johansen demanded.
“Jacob, Jacob Park. We became acquainted in a Biology class. He was interested in learning more about the rich biological eco-system of the past. I told you that he is an avid photographer of nature!” Jane shot back again in the manner to tell Johansen that these were silly questions. In her heart, Jane dreamed of being more than a friend with Jacob. Unfortunately, under the current circumstances, her head got the better of her decision making process as far as keeping the necessary distance from Jacob.
“I needed to,” she kept telling herself inside.
“Whether you are simply friends or not is irrelevant to me because it will soon be revealed to me. For you and your friend’s sake, neither of you better be a liability to this mission!” Johansen took, yet another opportunity to toss a second warning to Jane.
“The director has the resources to put tails on everyone. Why don’t you ask the director what he has found out about him instead of confronting me?” Jane protested. Johansen knew that that was the case as well. The director has the surveillance capability to find out exactly who Jacob was. The fact that there was no information trickling down from the director has added severity to Johansen’s concerns.
“Is the director in the dark about Jacob?” Johansen asked himself. He will have to request a chat with the director at the end of this mission, he decided.
Finally, Johansen walked few steps away from the swamp. Jane turned to her left and quietly followed him with a puzzled look on her face. Johansen produced a small Swiss army knife from his pocket as he kneeled down on his right knee.
“Damn!” He swore as his knee touched the ground. Then, Jane saw what appeared to be a small garden snake spring out from the wet ground, slithering away around Johansen’s knee. Johansen swung down his knife and pierced the snake on its back end, lifted it up, then threw it away from him in a single motion. It was rather a fluent series of movements for an old man. As the snake flew off into the air, it separated into two parts and blood gushed out from the severed ends. Jane saw the snake fall near the bushes and the piece with the head slither away into the bushes while the tail end just wiggled wildly in circles as blood was spewing out. Mixing with the dust and soil, the ground soon turned black around the headless snake.
It was not a pleasant site to behold for Jane or anyone else for that matter. Jane stood without even the hint of a slightest bother when Johansen took a quick look at Jane’s direction before returning to his task at hand.
Many small stones and twigs rooted the area by his knee. He wiped the blade off the grass then placed the end point into the ground. Then, he began digging and removing the dirt rather gently. He removed several inches of dirt from the surface area of about one sq ft. Suddenly, there appeared a red laser like lines that made a hexagonal shape. It appeared to be formed by connecting few smaller triangles together. There were 4 purple points about 6 inches apart at the center of the figure. Johansen began digging into those 4 points and stopped at the depths of additional few inches until he felt something solid. He turned to Jane with a flick of his head, motioning her to approach him. Jane moved closer to the hexagon, lowering herself on to her knees at the opposite side of Johansen while staring down at the four points.
“Here, you will find a button at the bottom of the perforations that I’ve just dug up!”
Jane held her breath and placed both her index fingers on the respective sides and felt something firm under the freshly dug ground.
“I feel it,” exhaling, Jane confirmed the existence of the buttons.
“Good! Now, on the count of three, you will press both buttons. I will push the two on my side. Got that?” “One, Two…,” Johansen began counting after a short pause.
——————————-
Seeing that both people were kneeling down and focused on some object on the ground, Jacob slowly moved closer to where Johansen and the other person were. Cautiously, he cleared the branches in front of him. Lowering his posture, Jacob ultimately got down onto his abdomen and crawled out of the bushes and headed towards the swamp. In a sudden flashback, he remembered his military training days where he negotiated various obstacles filled courses, some easy and some difficult. This fit the mold of an easy course, he thought.
However, Jacob reduced his breathing rate and stayed alert because this wasn’t a drill. He got down as low to the ground as possible, allowing him to be completely shielded by the low growing grass and twigs around him. The existence of the misty fog also provided additional cover, keeping him undetectable. With extreme silence, yet with fluency, Jacob crawled around the perimeter of the swamp to get closer to his subjects. Jacob needed to get within an ear shot of their conversation or at least close enough to be able to get a good look at the other person.