A taste of freedom

Chapter 12

In case of emergency…

 Dad:   “Morning Craig, hope I’m not intruding. Maybe I should ask your secretary to find me an appointment when you have a minute spare…”

Craig   “Sorry dad, I meant to call, it’s just we have been so busy. You’ll never guess where we’re going today… How’s mum?”

Dad:   “Nice try at deflection. But seriously, if you have a minute in amongst all your business wheelings and dealings. It is those I actually want to ask you about. Your friend Will is chasing for me to agree to sign off on a buy of almost $100,000 worth of equipment for your company. Chasing Nat’s advisers too. I wanted to make sure you agree with him.”

Craig:   “Yeah, course I do dad. It’s really Will’s company, he’s just asking me to be polite. That’s how he wants to run things, by consensus, even if he can just over-rule me and Nat on voting power. We talked it over. He’s spending the money on a radio frequency analyser. It was actually sort of my idea with just a couple of mobiles and a laptop but you know Will, got the bit between his teeth, decided we needed the biggest and best kit.”

Dad:   “And two top end GPUs for a workstation? And a handful of the latest multi-core xeon processors, a fibre optic data splitter and a portable RAID storage bank with uninterruptable power supply…?”

Craig   “Err, not sure. We didn’t go into detail. Will just said he’d need a few other bits of kit to handle the radio traffic he’s hoping we’ll collect when we fly the analyser on Travis’s dad’s plane…”

Dad:   “Yup, you sure will, Autolycus. Those analysers hoover up data at a tremendous rate. Looks like Will grasps that too and has prepared for it.”

Craig:   “I told you he’s smart at technology dad, if he says we need it, I’ll go with it. We’ve got the money. It’s our operating fund. Nat showed me the accounts.”

Dad:   “Okay, I’ll let the signatories know you agree to the purchase and they can sign for you. To be honest, I’d have been more worried if you three were planning to buy the analyser and not the ancillary support kit it will need. That would just have been wasting money.”

Craig   “Will knows his stuff, dad. And if he doesn’t know something, he studies it and makes sure he soon does…”

Dad:   “I’m getting that impression, but I’m just watching out for your interests.”

Craig:   “I know, dad. It seems weird though, spending $100,000 like that. Even if it’s not my money…”

Dad:   “Figure how weird it feels for me to be agreeing to allow you to spend $100,000 of someone else’s money…”

Craig   “Just think about that Porsche I promised to buy you if ever I get to be a zillionaire…”

Dad:   “Yes, about that. I might want a Mustang instead now I’ve had a play in Nat’s…”

Craig   “Hmm, maybe…”

Dad:   “Now, if business is out of the way, what did you get up to over the last few days? Everything going well? Did you get to Noah’s?”

Craig:   “Yes, we’re here right now, just finished breakfast and about to load up the car to move on. Had a brilliant time yesterday and the day before. Noah showed us round Philadelphia and arranged for us to stay overnight on a battleship. A BATTLESHIP dad! Then we visited a cruiser and had lunch on a sailing ship converted to a restaurant by the Clangers. Noah’s going to do some limited edition prints of the cruiser. It needs money raising to stop it being scrapped. Nat will sell them for him, then they’ll donate the profits to the cruiser.”

Dad:   “The Clangers?”

Craig   “Well, almost. The Soup Dragon probably...”

Dad:   “I’m not going to ask…”

Craig:   “Then we went to the Philly museum. Noah planned that bit for Nat. Nat’s really into history and archaeology. Oh, and we went to see a wooden street too. Seems they had wooden streets back in Philadelphia for a while. Not long though. The horses ruined them. Not the hooves, either. Do you know how much a horse pees in a day? They soon ripped them up to get rid of the smell and went back to dirt roads, apart from a tiny street near the museum. Just for show. No horses allowed. Speaking of history and stuff, did Nat tell you he’s getting his mum to use her influence with the other trustees at the Carnegie Museum back in Pittsburgh to get him a couple of weeks helping out on a dig later this summer? He loved it in York when gran let us both help out and he found that Viking silver stuff so now he thinks he can dig up treasure back home too. Did you know the Vikings probably got to America centuries before Columbus? Had the sense to leave it alone though. Anyway, there’s some dig going on up near the border with Canada where they think they might have found traces of a Viking settlement. Nat wants in on it before he goes back to college in September.”

Dad:   “I’m sure your gran will be thrilled to know she managed to enthuse him, you should tell her !”

Craig   “Nat was going to ask her for a reference to try and get him on the dig…”

Dad:   “Speaking of digging holes, you two nearly fell into one a few days ago…”

Craig:   “What?”

Dad:   “There’s been some press interest in a bit of grainy video of you and Nat from up in Erie. Seems the two of you did a Good Samaritan act, bought some homeless guy a meal. Somehow the press got onto it, then Nat’s dad’s campaign team wanted to push the story. He vetoed it of course; said he didn’t want Nat and you used in his campaign. I think the press have lost interest, the film was poor and it needed confirmation it really was Nat in it. When they got nothing from Paul to confirm it, they seemed to lose interest. Makes you wonder how they originally picked up on the story though…”

Craig   “Hmmm…”

Dad:   “Uh-uh?”

Craig:   “Oh, just thinking, dad. Yes, it was us, but we kept it quiet. Specifically asked the people at the restaurant not to let on.”

Dad:   “There’s no problem with it, just thought you ought to know…”

Craig   “Oh, I nearly forgot to tell you. We’re bringing you and mom a present from Noah’s parents. They make wine, real good stuff. They are sending you a bottle. We have to keep it in a sealed bag and in the boot of Lemon Steroids though, not inside the car with us. Something to do with us being under 21, but you need to know we have it and that it’s for you and not us.”

Dad:   “That’s nice of them. Thank them for us. And presumably the bottle still has to be full when it gets here?”

* * *

I was just heading along the corridor towards the stairs to catch up with Nat when Noah popped out of his bedroom.

“Can you spare a minute, Boots? I have something for you.”

“Sure, Noah. I was just about to go thank your mom and dad again, then check Nat has loaded our bags into Lemon Steroids. He disappeared with them ages ago. It’s been great to meet up with you again.”

Noah led the way back into his bedroom and over to his desk. Laid out on it, almost totally covering it, was his picture, the one he’d started the day me and Nat arrived. Around the central image of me and Nat working on the vines, and the smaller one of us standing by Lemon Steroids and his own Beetle, Noah’d pencilled several more pictures to fill out the paper, all incredibly detailed and lifelike.

“Wow, Noah, that’s ace! It kind of tells the whole story of our visit here! Us all serving food on the battleship! Lunch with the Yawkers on the sailing ship. And even me and Nat on the brig at Lake Erie. How did you draw that, you weren’t even there, but it’s so realistic the way we’re hauling up that sail. I can almost feel the sun on my back again and hear the canvas whipping in the breeze…”

Noah’s looking at me again, just like he does.

“I don’t need to be there, Boots. I’ve seen the brig. I know what you and Nat look like. So what’s hard to draw?”

“Ella-Marie’s going to love this, Noah!”

“It’s for you, Boots.”

For a moment I was lost for words. It’s such an amazing picture. I mean, all of Noah’s pictures are good but this one was special. Way better than any photo. Noah kind of really captures the spirit of stuff, not just record events like a photo does. While I was still thinking of how to thank him, Noah reached for a big cardboard tube from a stack of several of them propped up against a cupboard, deftly rolled up the picture and dropped it in the tube.

“It’ll keep it from getting damaged on your travels, Boots.”

“But what about Ella-Marie, Noah? Won’t she be expecting a picture?”

That look again. Stop looking at me like I am a bloody idiot, Noah. Why does he always make me feel like that without saying a word?

“No problem, Boots. I can do another one, exactly the same. I’ll have it done by lunch time. It’s just drawing.”

Just drawing? My scribbles are ‘just drawing’. Noah does a scribble and it looks like Da Vinci has been set loose with a 2B. I’m having that picture framed when we get home.  Why’s Noah suddenly looking furtive?

“We need to swap watches, Boots. Before Nat comes looking for you.”

Noah opened his desk drawer and took out a bright red Vostok Komandirske watch just like mine. Just like the one I bought Nat for Christmas too. We’re both wearing them on this trip.

“We all got one, Boots. When Nat came in to college wearing his and said how it was bombproof and was ideal for wearing in our Military Skills, Will ordered us one each online. We all got red ones, even though Shane thought about a bright yellow one until Travis said it’d look better if we all had the same. For uniformity.”

Noah’s holding out his watch, clearly expecting to swap it with mine.

“Why do we need to swap, Noah? They’re the same. Except that mine is probably way more battered and scratched, You should keep yours, it’s better.”

“It’s not the same, Boots.”

I took the watch from Noah, slipped mine off my wrist and held them side by side. They’re identical. Apart from the scratches and the nick in the strap where mine once got caught up in a fence I was climbing.

“The back, Boots.”

I flipped them both over, glanced at the stainless-steel backs.

“Your’s has some extra serial numbers, Noah, but that’s it. Nothing different.”

Noah smiled. “I knew you’d spot the difference. Those aren’t watch serial numbers though.”

“They look like it to me. Like it’s from a different batch perhaps.”

“It’s a code, Boots. We had it engraved. You need to know it. We all decided on it. You’re one of us.”

Noah didn’t even bother giving me his ‘you’re an idiot’ look. He’s just going to sigh and explain it like I’m a five-year-old. At least he’s going to explain it though. With most people he’d just pop into his own little world and ignore them.

“When we flew to Travis’s place last Thanksgiving, we spotted an interesting place from the air. A diner shaped like a boat on the beachfront at Chicago. Shane thought it was boat run aground at first until we got closer. We all remember it.”

Noah paused to make sure I was keeping up. I am, but I have no idea where this is going.

“We said it would make a good place for a dorm re-union in exactly ten years’ time. To the same exact time and day.”

“I can see that, Noah. It’s kind of neat. You all get together and catch up. But why the need for a code and…”

“I’m getting to that bit, Boots. Wait.”

Well that told me! Noah’s definitely not the same timid kid that arrived at Allegheny almost this time last year. Well, not timid, exactly. Just that he didn’t want to talk to anyone. Like they weren’t worth his effort most of the time.

“Then Travis had an idea. You remember that film we all watched together one night, Boots? About Jason Bourne, the assassin that got fished out of the sea and had to go on the run from the CIA? Travis said the diner should be our Emergency Rendezvous, just like you taught us. If ever we get in trouble and need to go on the run, we go there. Nobody else knows about it, not even Nat. We never need to write it down. Any of us that gets in trouble, we just go there. Throw away our phones first – so they don’t get tracked - and head there. The others meet up to help. Clear your name if you are accused of stuff you didn’t do. Or make sure you can give yourself up safe if you did do something, get lawyers arranged and stuff like that.”

“That’s a great idea, Noah, I like it. But say if it did happen, how will you know somebody has gone there and needs help? You can’t phone them…”

“Will sorted that. It’s why you need the watch. He set up a bank account. Created it from his pc in a false name. He’s good at that stuff. It’s kind of partly why he got put at Allegheny. We all put in a thousand dollars each from our allowances. No traceability. Those numbers on the back of the watch let you access it from an ATM. The first set of digits are an engineer’s access code. You don’t need a bank card or anything. You type those on the keypad and it gives access to special menus bank customers don’t get. The other sets of digits activate those menus. Will says they are easy enough to follow and let you send pre-arranged 18 digit messages he’s set up that will appear as payments on other accounts. Most important though, they have a configurable date and a time stamp – so you can set up a meeting time. Got that?”

“Got that, Noah. Smart…”

“Most important though, Boots, if you withdraw any money, a funds withdrawal message gets sent automatically to each of us. Then we know somebody has activated the emergency fund. If you withdraw all the money at once, it’s a signal that you don’t need any help and are running on your own.”

Noah paused and listened for a second, then, hearing nothing, carried on.

“Everybody that gets the message tops up the account again and waits for another funds withdrawal notice. We keep on doing that every time all the money goes out. But if the withdrawal notice says just $100 dollars has been withdrawn, that’s our signal that we are to come and help you. We head to the diner.  Sit inside near a window for an hour at 12:00 and again at 19:00, every day for a week after we get the $100 withdrawal notice with the time stamp on it. If more than one of us gets there, we take it in turns to be inside on different days.”

“I get it, Noah. That’s genius! Nobody knows where the rendezvous is, and even if somebody follows you, by sitting inside in clear view, whoever is on the run can see them, check if they are alone, for days if necessary, then choose when and how to make contact. I like it. Good thinking.”

“And whoever is on the run still has access to the rest of the fund after triggering the rendezvous so he has money to live on until help arrives.”

“But if we swap watches, Noah, I’ll know the access code and you won’t…”

“Boots…”

“Oh, yeah, Noah” I smiled, handing him my watch and strapping his on my wrist. “As if you wouldn’t remember it…”

* * *