Code Name: Buffy and Buddy
Chapter Five
Willow sank onto the bench as soon as she touched down. She was one tired camper.
“Sorry to drag you all over hell and gone,” I said.
She smiled in a weak sort of way. “I understand in a guy sort of way. That was scary back at the first stop. Did you know that would happen?”
“No clue, but I’ve watched too many spy movies to not take precautions.”
“I get it.”
I looked at Xander. “So do you know where Buffy is? Way more people are interested in finding her than makes sense.”
Xander shook his head. “No clue. We hoped that you could help us find her.”
“Has anyone told you anything about why someone would want to take her?”
They shook their heads. “We assumed it was some pervert or rapist or something.”
“It’s much worse than that,” I said.
“How can it be worse than that?” Willow asked.
“How about blowing up nuclear-powered satellites during launch?”
“That is worse,” Xander said. “We need to gather the troops. Willow?”
“See you at the meeting place.” She levitated off the bench and headed west.
“You need to call home,” Xander said. “People are probably worried about you. Put it on speaker.”
Dad answered the phone. “Hey son, are you safe? Where are you?”
“I’m safe, and I met some of the people I hoped to find. They don’t even know as much as we do. We’re kind of on our own here.”
“Will they be able to help the search?”
“Hard to tell.”
“We may have some news. Let me put Chief Johnson on.”
Xander whispered, “Who is he?”
“A friend,” I whispered back.
“Hey big guy, how are you holding out? You must be exhausted.”
“I’m a little toasted, but not too bad. What news do you have?”
“Buffy called her parents, the rocket owners and the satellite company from her cell phone. She gave her parents proof of life and repeated the extortion threats.”
“That’s actually good news,” I said.
“I agree. She initiated the ‘find my phone’ feature for a few minutes, and we located her in Titusville.”
“Where in Titusville?”
“In the coverage area between two cell towers three miles apart. As close as we can figure she’s likely in an area bounded by State Road 407, State Road 50, Interstate-95 and the Intracoastal.”
“That’s still a large area.”
“Yes, it is.”
“Who else knows this?”
“Probably everyone.”
“That’s encouraging. I am going now. By the time you track this phone, I will be gone. I am pulling the battery just in case. Is Beth Anne there?”
“She’s asleep on the sofa.”
“Tell her I’m thinking of her and where we had that first kiss. Bye.”
Xander raised an eyebrow as I disassembled my phone. “Who is Beth Anne?”
“An ex-girlfriend. She knows I can fly. So does her father and he’s chief of police. That’s who I was talking to.”
“You haven’t been very careful have you?”
“Not as careful as I thought. So, where do we go from here?”
“Go to the I-75 northbound rest area at the north end of Paynes Prairie. Use the facilities. Someone will be watching for your arrival. There will be real people there, so you have to be careful how you arrive and how you leave. Three miles southeast from there is an observation platform. Spike will meet you on the platform.”
“How will I know it’s not a trap?”
“If Spike is not alone, it’s a trap.”
“Fair enough.”
Xander left. I debated stopping by the house for a fresh change of clothes but decided against it. I knew that if I flew northwest, I would fly over mostly open wooded territory and would find I-75 somewhere Ocala and Gainesville. The flight took an hour. The drive would have taken three or more depending on traffic. I found I-75 without difficulty and hitched a ride on a lumber truck headed north. Getting on the truck was easy. I climbed up the back of a highway sign and dropped onto the load as it passed underneath me. Getting off the truck proved to be a little more difficult. I had to pass the rest area and wait until we approached the next exit before I could jump off the truck to catch the back side of a road sign. During a momentary gap in the traffic, I flew across the fence into the tree line beyond. I walked the side street that paralleled the highway back to the rest area, hopped the fence and strolled to the restroom building.
After using the facilities, I walked back to the fence and, shielded by the same group of trees that had shielded me in the other direction, I jumped into the air and headed southeast. I found the platform. One person with white hair stood on the top deck with a set of binoculars. He watched me approach with the binoculars although I was less than a few feet above the vegetation.
“You must be Spike,” I said.
“Hello, Buddy. Follow me.”
We headed back south again. Fifteen minutes later we flew through the open door at the end of a long, empty horse barn. While it was evident that no horses had lived in this barn for years, the building still held their scent. The door closed behind us, and Spike landed in the center of the long center aisle between the stalls.
As soon as I touched down, a dozen people emerged from the stalls. Many of them carried pitchforks, shovels or sticks. None of them looked glad to see me. I held my arms out to my side and sighed. “This animosity is completely uncalled for. I wish you no harm. As you can see, I am unarmed. I have no way to hurt you.”
“Tell that to the Marines you left on the beach.” A woman stepped forward.
Although she appeared to be in her forties, she was in excellent shape. I assumed she must be Cordelia. “I did not harm them,” I responded and stepped forward.
Xander held out his hand to stop me. “Cordelia is our medic. She carries a backpack full of medicinal herbs, salves and some of modern medicine’s best curatives.”
Cordelia snarled at me. “Covering them with fire ants most certainly was harming them. They were in pain when I found them and treated them,” Cordelia said through gritted teeth having lost none of her anger for Xander’s interruption.
“Would you have preferred they shot me?”
“Frankly, yes after what you did to them.”
“Were you able to reduce their pain?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Did you untie them?”
“No.”
“Did you talk to them while you were treating them? Why were they there?”
“They were there to protect you, not shoot you.”
“Really, you believed that?”
“They work for a private security company hired by the rocket company. They hoped you would draw out the extortionists so they could be killed.”
“Cordelia, sweetheart...”
Spike interrupted me. “Don’t get cocky. She has a son your age that would kill to protect her, a daughter with a mean streak a mile wide and a very jealous husband. Chill.”
I looked at Spike and then back to Cordelia. “The extortionists would not send anyone they were not willing to lose. They would send thugs. The best your ex-Marine mercenaries friends could hope for was that I was captured by the extortionists and the extortionists could be followed to wherever they held Buffy. Once that location was known, the mercenaries could close in, burn the place down, thwart the plan and kill all the occupants including Buffy and me. That’s a no-win for me.”
Xander said, “I see your point.”
“Thank you,” I said. “Look, I’m tired. Can I sit down? I think we will have a better conversation if we’re seated.”
I sat on the floor. The others sat but did not relinquish their weapons.
Spike said, “Tell us who you are, how you got involved with this and what you know.”
I started my recitation with my discovery at six that I could fly. I talked about discovering that my vision was off the charts, comparable to that of an eagle’s vision. I talked about my troubles at school. I wanted them to understand who I was and not just how I happened to be thrust into their lives. I explained the events of the last few days in as much detail as I could while carefully avoiding the fact that I could move things without touching them.
When I finished, Cordelia asked, “How do we know we can trust you?”
“You don’t. You can’t trust me any more than I can trust you.”
I had heard a side door open while I was talking, but did not pay attention to it. A man stepped out from the space between two stalls. I turned to face him. “You would be Giles,” I said.
“Yes, I am, and you are who you say you are. We can trust you, and you can trust us.”
“How do I know that?”
“Because I bring you the bad news that few people could know. Beth Anne has been taken captive and brought to Titusville. It seems that the kidnappers do not want either Buffy or Beth Anne, they want you and are prepared to do whatever they can to draw you out. They have offered to swap both women for a meeting with you.”
“Why would they want you?” Cordelia sneered.
“Because I can do this.” In rapid succession, I snatched the weapons from their hands and flung them to the far end of the barn. “How do you know they have Beth Anne?”
“Because I watched them haul her away at gunpoint in front of her father. I was watching your house when it happened.”
“That is one guy you do not piss off,” I said.
“There was not much he could do. It took four guys to hold him down and two to carry her off.”
“Did you follow them? What were they driving?”
“Black Chevy Suburbans.”
“How far did you track them?”
“I lost them in the traffic on Route 50.”
“Route 50 would be the southern border of the area Chief Johnson told me about. The area is probably crawling with cops right now.”
“Actually not,” Giles said. “His car was disabled, and he could not follow. They had hit I-95 before he could reach dispatch.”
“And we can’t call him and tell him where to look because that will tip him off as to where we are,” I said.
Giles thought for a moment and said, “I agree.”
“But someone could post on Buffy’s timeline,” I said.
“Yes,” Giles said as he looked at me askance.
“Post that I will be on Bird Island in Lake Kissimmee at moonrise. Tell J2 to expect company.”
“Who is J2?” Giles asked.
“My beer-drinking, redneck cousin. My mother will understand the reference.”
“Really?”
“Oh, yeah. All the men will come with me. All the women will go to Titusville and search for the captives.”
“Why Bird Island?” Xander asked.
“The island is isolated well away from populated areas. It is overgrown which will make landing a helicopter difficult, and there is only one boat ramp on that part of the lake. It’s the perfect place for an ambush. There are only a few places you can land a conventional boat on the island, and we will hear an airboat coming miles away. The best part is that it is not far from my cousin’s house.”
“But we don’t have any weapons,” Xander said.
“We will,” I replied.
“What do we do if we find them?” Cordelia asked.
“Nothing. Keep watch and have one person meet Xander at Platform Eight at Playalinda at dawn.”
Giles said, “We leave in five minutes. One backpack per person.”