Transporter (an Ell Donsaii story #16), page 17
“Or maybe… not influence, something else,” Shan said.
“Shannie, if the CIA can’t bring Rob home, no one can.”
“Aunt Molly, no one could’ve stopped that comet, or saved the ISS, or…” Shan broke off.
“Shan, those things were different. This… this is a people problem, not something ports can solve.”
“You’d be surprised at the kinds of things Ell can solve, Aunty,” Shan said in a voice suddenly gone hoarse.
“Well,” Molly said, “of course I don’t mind if she tries, but… I really don’t think anybody can do anything, Shan.”
“Aunt Molly, she can’t try if you don’t give me permission.”
“Permission?”
“Permission to tell Ell that Uncle Rob works undercover for the CIA. Remember? He swore all of us to the gravest of secrecy.”
“Oh,” Molly said, thinking back on that day long ago when the true nature of Rob’s “civil service” job had accidentally been divulged to the Kinrais family. “Sure. Tell her, just swear her to secrecy too, okay?”
“You’ve got it,” Shan said, sudden resolve in his voice. “We’ll need that link to Rob’s AI.”
***
“Ell,” Shan said, “you remember I once told you my Uncle Rob had a secret.”
She nodded, “One you wouldn’t share with me.”
“He works for the CIA.”
“Oh… and I’m not supposed to know this?”
Shan slowly shook his head.
She tilted her head curiously, “Why not?”
Shan shrugged, “He does undercover foreign missions.”
“Is that his secret? Or is it the CIA’s secret?”
“That’s not clear to me. Might be his, you know, because he doesn’t want people to know he works for the CIA. A lot of people are suspicious of and strongly dislike the Agency. But, I’m also pretty sure the Agency doesn’t want anyone to know who their field assets are. He probably doesn’t want friends or relatives wondering if he’s done some… Well, you can imagine what they might think. I suspect all those factors come into play.”
“But you’re telling me now… why?”
“He’s been captured.”
There was a sudden transformation in Ell. Intense, taut, alert, she asked, “Where?”
Resisting a sudden impulse to lean away from his wife’s piercing, brilliantly-green eyes, Shan said, “Isfahan, Iran.”
“You know this how?”
“He sent his wife a link to his personal AI. He had it holding a record of everything he did.”
“That’s allowed?”
Shan shook his head.
“Can you send me the link? Wait, I’m assuming you want me to try to do something about this. Is that right?”
Shan felt his eyes welling, “Very much so.” He spoke to his AI, telling it to forward the link to Ell.
Her eyes flicked up, then focused on things her AI, Allan, was displaying on the HUD in her contacts.
Shan waited a few moments, then decided Ell was going to be in her own world for a while. He started making dinner.
And hoping she could extract something more useful from Rob’s AI than Shan had been able to.
***
Molly’s doorbell rang in the evening. At first, she assumed it was a late package delivery, but after a while, the bell rang again. Assuming it was a proselytizer, she ignored it again. Her AI said, “You have a call from Ell Donsaii.”
Oh, Shan, Molly thought, you have her wasting time on this? Even after I pointed out there’d be nothing anyone could do?
But it’d be rude to refuse a call from Donsaii, so Molly said, “I’ll take it… Ms…. er… Dr. Donsaii, thank you for calling. I’m sure there’s nothing you can do, but I appreciate the fact you’ve taken the time to call.”
The instantly recognizable voice said, “I’m sorry, I should’ve called ahead, but I’m on your porch. Is there any chance we can talk face-to-face?”
“Oh, my goodness,” Molly said, bolting to her feet. “I’ll be right there.”
It was Donsaii all right. On Molly’s porch wearing a dark bodysuit and some kind of harness. She had a helmet in one hand and a cardboard box in the other. Her slender form was a little bit thicker around the middle than it used to be, but she still looked stunning. Giving her a little hug, Molly said, “Come in, come in. I’m so sorry. You didn’t need to come all this way. Can I offer you something to drink? Beer, wine, sparkling water?”
“Water’d be nice, but can you show me to Rob’s AI first?”
“His AI?” Molly asked, puzzled. “Didn’t Shan give you a link to it?”
“Uh-huh,” Donsaii said, distractedly, “but I need physical access to the ports.”
“The ports?” Molly asked as she started leading the woman to Rob’s office. “Physical access?”
***
A woman’s voice woke Rob from a sound sleep. “Huh?” he grunted. It hadn’t sounded like Molly but of course it had to be her. She’d called him quite a few times. Several times while he was being questioned and once while they were actively beating him. She’d offered supportive words but, since the Iranians had found and pulled his teeth with the microphone ports, he hadn’t been able to reply. He wondered if he’d spoken loudly—and they’d hooked the port in his ear up as a microphone for them to listen through, as well as a speaker for him to hear through—either Molly or the CIA might’ve been able to hear him, but apparently no one back home had thought of it. Since he hadn’t considered it as an option until he’d suddenly found himself hearing but unable to transmit, he couldn’t blame them.
In any case, since Molly couldn’t hear Rob she had no idea what was going on with him. Her calls had been agonizing, filled with the sounds of her sobbing. The only thing of import she’d told him had been that—as he’d expected—the CIA hadn’t told her he’d been captured. Which seemed crazy on the Agency’s part since, via PGR or port, an agent in the field could easily call home, no matter where they were. Though they weren’t supposed to, most of them did. When such communications vanished, the family members had to know something had happened.
Jim, his controller, had called too. He’d said the CIA had no idea where Rob was at present. They’d had some local Iranian assets check around the area where he’d been captured but the GPS antennas and their PGR links in his clothing and backpack had been destroyed.
There was no way for his handlers to figure out where he was without the antennas, though Jim said the local assets were still keeping an eye out for him.
The voice came again, “Rob Shannon? Uncle Rob? Scratch your ear once if you hear me.”
Someone’s listening—not just talking—through the port in my ear! Rob thought as he reached up and scratched his ear canal. Despite his excitement, he managed to resist an overwhelming impulse to scratch repeatedly.
“Good, I heard that. Sorry to call in the middle of the night, but I figured 2 AM in Iran was the most likely time to catch you alone. Scratch your ear once if you’re alone, twice if someone’s there or you can’t talk for some other reason.”
Rob carefully scratched once.
“Good. This is Ell, Shan’s wife.”
What the hell? Rob thought in confusion. He’d only met Shan’s wife once. I thought her name was… Raquel? I think? I don’t remember her name for sure, but if it’d been Ell, like Donsaii, surely I’d have remembered that!
The woman had continued talking while Rob mentally floundered. When he got his attention back on the conversation she was saying, “… so I’d like to send you another port. That way you can talk to me. Scratch once if that’d be okay.”
There’s no way to do that, is there? Nonetheless, Rob scratched once.
“Okay, Molly’s already let me dismantle your AI to get access to this side of the port. Once I’ve gathered some equipment I’ll push a needle through your ear port and into the skin inside your ear canal. I’ll inject a little bit of anesthetic there to numb up the skin. Then I’ll put the needle a little deeper and squirt some anesthetic into the canal itself. Once the skin inside your ear’s numb, then I’ll put through some fine nylon line. It’ll probably hit your eardrum and that could be uncomfortable, but I’m hoping the anesthetic in the canal will keep it from being too irritating. After I feed enough through, I’m counting on a coil or two of the line spilling out of your ear canal so you can grab it and pull it out to you. That’ll let you pull through some heavier line. You’ll use the heavy stuff to pull through a port that’ll be deflated. Once you’ve got it, I’ll inflate it and use it to feed you a bigger port… Scratch once if you followed all that?”
Since parts of what she’d described sounded impossible, Rob was pretty sure he didn’t follow, but he couldn’t possibly ask questions so he scratched anyway.
“Okay, I’ve got to talk Molly into letting me further disassemble your AI. I’ll get back to you when I’m ready to try this stuff.”
~~~
The injection of anesthetic into his ear canal hurt less than when Rob’d had the port implanted in the first place—probably because the needle was coming through the port beneath the skin, rather than entering through the skin and its nerve endings. Having the liquid anesthetic in the canal felt much like getting an ear full of water while swimming.
After the anesthetic had been pooled in his ear canal for several minutes Shan’s wife said, “Now turn on your side so that ear’s down. In that position gravity’ll help the line come out. This ‘nylon line’ is actually monofilament suture. I’m using sterile suture to keep from contaminating the wound in your ear as it passes through your tissue on its way out into the canal. I’m going to start pushing it in there now. I expect it’ll feel weird but I hope it won’t hurt. If it starts hurting too much, scratch your ear twice.”
The suture coiling in his ear canal and bumping his eardrum did feel odd and made a lot of “noise,” but with everything kind of numb, it didn’t hurt. It was harder to hear through that ear because of the anesthetic and blood in the canal. But he could still understand through the other ear. He soon felt some of the suture come out of his ear canal to tickle his external ear. Per instructions, he started gently pulling on it. Soon he’d pulled out a knot followed by a slightly heavier, stiffer suture. The woman said, “Okay, next you’ll need to tug a little harder to pull the port through your tissue.”
Rob pulled, meeting resistance. More resistance than he’d hoped but not as much as he’d feared. After all, he was pulling a port out of his ear. When it finally came free, he was surprised by how small the lump on the end of the suture was, though on reflection he realized it was pretty big for something that’d passed through a port small enough to fit inside his ear.
As he was feeling the little lump and wishing he had his contacts so he could see it better, the faint voice in his ear said, “Okay, I assume you’ve got it unless the suture broke before you got it out of your ear. Scratch once if you have it?”
Rob scratched once. He felt a pop and the little lump suddenly sprang into the shape of a thin disc about 5mm in diameter. Or, maybe it’s a ring? He couldn’t tell in the near-complete darkness.
“Okay,” the voice in his ear said with satisfaction. “Assuming you’ve got it in your fingers you can hold it up to your mouth and talk to me. Is there anything you need urgently?”
Rob held it to dry lips and rasped, “Water… then food.”
“Okay, Molly’s working on that. We’ll have water in a minute. She’ll have to puree some food. While we’re waiting I’d like to send a bigger port through the one you’re holding. Are you up for that?”
He said yes and another, somewhat bigger lump came through the 5mm port. Shortly after he’d confirmed he had it, it popped open into a 10mm ring. A straw poked through it and Rob sucked out some wonderfully-refreshing, cold, clean water. He’d been having to drink from a muddy depression in the back corner of his cell. His captors filled it by tossing a bucket of water through the bars at Rob once a day. He tried to dodge the splash of water, not because he didn’t want it to wash him clean, but so the water wouldn’t soak his clothes and evaporate rather than run across the floor to pool in the depression he drank out of.
The voice said, “Molly’s making you a milkshake. I assume that’s okay? We’ll need to get some ingredients before we can make you something more substantial that you can still pull through a straw.”
“Sure.”
“While we’re waiting for the milkshake, I’m going to pop through a capsule of glue so you can glue that 5mm port to the back of a tooth. What happened to the ones you had?”
“They pulled the teeth the ports were mounted on.”
“Ouch. Sorry.” There was a little pause. “I’d suggest you take the chance and glue this one to another tooth. The back of a rear molar seems best. That way we can hear you, feed you, or get you water, even if your hands are tied, okay?”
He barely had time to say yes before a tiny capsule came through. She said, “Break it open, dab some glue on the back of the port, dry the back of your tooth with a bit of clothing, and then hold the port in place for sixty seconds. While you’re doing that, I’m going to feed an antenna through this 10mm port and see if I can pick up a GPS fix on your location.”
“Um… okay,” Rob said, feeling astonished by how fast things were moving. “Uh, did you say you were Shan’s wife?”
“Yes. Ell.”
“I thought your name was Raquel?”
“Oh, you were probably already in Iran when my real identity got outed. I’m Ell Donsaii. I was living in disguise as Raquel.”
“Really?!” Rob reacted, flabbergasted, thinking about how he’d given Shan’s new wife a hug when he met her. I’ve hugged Ell Donsaii?!
“Um-hmm,” Donsaii murmured distractedly. He realized that, unsurprised by her own identity, she was focused on more consequential things.
~~~
When Molly came back from the kitchen with Rob’s milkshake Donsaii was packing his AI into a box. The woman took the milkshake, slid a port over the straw and said, “Rob, Molly’s made you some milkshake. Hope it hits the spot.” Donsaii watched the milkshake until they saw the level drop a little, then she turned to Molly and said, “I see from the way Rob’s AI’s equipped that he’s got a HUD-contact setup. Do you know where he keeps the contacts?”
“I… I’m pretty sure they’re in his medicine cabinet.”
“Can you get them? I’ve got his location and we’re going after him. It’d help if we could send him some contacts so we can feed him info through them.”
Wide-eyed, Molly repeated, “Going after him?” Her eyes went to Rob’s AI, “Wait…? How…?”
Distractedly, Donsaii said, “You can come most of the way with us if you like, but we need to go now.”
~~~
They were in a small private jet.
Molly thought, I wonder who this plane belongs to? Ell and the flight attendant were in the galley porting foodstuffs from an online grocery and blending them into a liquid Rob could suck through a straw.
Four men and two women, all very fit looking, were crowded around a desktop screen discussing Rob’s location. Ell had introduced them as “the security team” though she hadn’t specified who they worked for.
Before they left the house, Molly’d packed a small bag and found Rob’s contacts. When she’d come back out Ell had finished packing up Rob’s AI. They’d left through Molly’s back door where Molly’d been shocked to find a couple of small ducted-fan flying machines in the yard. Ell had gotten on one and directed Molly to climb on behind the man astride the other. With a whoosh, they’d lifted into the air and flown to a small airfield where they’d boarded the little jet.
Molly’d gotten to talk to Rob a couple of times while Ell wasn’t talking to him for planning purposes. During one of those conversations, Ell came back and crouched next to Molly’s seat. “The sun’s going to be rising in Iran in a couple of hours. We’re planning to pick Rob up tomorrow night and we’ll want him to have a lot of energy then. So, he needs to get some sleep now, okay?”
Molly stared at Donsaii a moment. The very idea seemed crazy. Rather than argue while Rob could hear, she said good night to him, then had her AI cut the connection. Feeling a little hysterical, she turned to Donsaii, “Pick him up?! What do you mean? Surely you don’t think you can just waltz into some Iranian prison and snatch him?”
Ell studied her, just long enough to make Molly uncomfortable that she’d questioned the woman. Then Ell said, “Not exactly waltz, no, but I’m pretty sure we can do it. We have some… advantages.”
“But… but, I’m sure you can’t even get permission to land in Iran, can you? And Isfahan’s a long way from the border. You won’t even be able to get there by tomorrow night!”
Calmly, Donsaii said, “We’ll land in Turkey, then take our flyers from there.”
“The flyers we rode on earlier?! They’ll see you on radar!”
Looking Molly steadily in the eye, Donsaii said, “The flyers are stealthy.”
Molly drew back, “Surely you don’t expect to fly past their radar without any notice do you?”
“I do,” Donsaii said, sounding completely serious.
“How can you be so sure?”
“I’ve flown older, less-stealthy versions past US radar systems.”
Molly shook her head, “Even if you get past their radar, you’ll still have to find him!”
“I dipped a GPS antenna through his new port. We’ve got his exact location.”
“You got a GPS signal from inside a building?”
Donsaii nodded, “I slid through a long, highly-sensitive wire antenna.”
“But… but, surely you don’t think you’re going to be able to break into the prison, or whatever kind of place they’re keeping him?”
“I have some ideas.” Donsaii patted her shoulder in a fashion Molly thought was meant to be reassuring, but instead made her feel as if she were being treated like a child. Donsaii said, “You should get some sleep. Can I show you how to fully recline your seat?”
