Sanders, p.4
Sanders, page 4
As they walked away, a young woman walked up to Sanders and asked in a low murmur, “Are you looking for Ania?”
He nodded. “I am,” he replied, keeping his voice low but a smile on his face. “Nobody seems to have seen her.”
“She just left this morning,” the young woman shared, looking around nervously. “She wanted a bus ticket into the city, but her father has already been looking for her. He and his men kept coming to the bus station several times last night, where I work. I bought her a ticket, but then had to tell her it might be too risky to use it. She has to be extremely careful.”
Sanders nodded slowly. “Thank you for that. Do you think she’s still in town?”
She shook her head. “No, I think she will hitch a ride, instead of taking the bus, so that her father wouldn’t know.”
He nodded, then turned to look at Riff, who was searching the area for clues or for those goons. “Does she have a phone now?” he asked her.
Immediately the woman shook her head. “Not that I know of, but she would be very careful with it if she did. Her father would never willingly allow her that much freedom.”
He winced at that. “Nice father.”
“No,” she countered, her tone harsh. “He’s not, and, if he finds out you’re looking for her, you better have a hell of a good reason, or he’ll kill you.”
He stared at her. “That’s the second time we’ve been warned off.”
“I’m warning you off, but I’m hoping you won’t listen. Ania needs a friend who can help her right now.”
“We’re here to help, but I still must find her.”
“That’s the problem because she needed to get away, and she needed to get away fast.” She turned to look back at the aunt’s house. “Her aunt is too scared to do anything, so you should leave her alone. Plus, she is in danger too.”
“I don’t intend to cause her any trouble,” Sanders said, his tone gentle. “I am here for Ania.”
She studied him intently. When she relaxed a little bit, she nodded. “I don’t know where she’ll go, but she doesn’t have much money, so she’ll need a job right away. She won’t take any legitimate job because her father will track her down that way.”
Sanders winced at that.
The woman nodded. “So, look for dives, bars, and even worse, the streets,” she shared. “I hope she doesn’t have to go that route, but she’ll need to eat, and she’ll need to do something under the radar. She has her passport, so, if she can find a way to get out of the country, she needs to.”
“You think her father will keep her locked up?”
“He’s kept her drugged,” she shared. “She didn’t tell me very much, and some of it I could understand without being told, but she was on medication for antibiotics for an injury, and I think the antibiotics were something else. The people looking for her came to my booth at the bus station and told me that she’s off her medications and had a rough reaction to one of them, and they’re looking for her because they’re so concerned about her health and well-being,” she repeated sarcastically.
She shook her head. “The only thing they’re concerned about is themselves. I just don’t know why they care. Her father never gave a crap about her before her mom died, and, now that her mom is gone, he seems to be hunting Ania down, high and low. I don’t like it,” she declared bluntly. “And if you can do something to help, please do.” And, with that, she was gone.
Riff moved closer. “Interesting,” he murmured. “Ania has a few fans, at least.”
“She has a few fans, but nobody’s really capable of helping her.”
“That’s not true,” Riff argued. “We’re here.”
With that, Sanders agreed. “I get it, but it’s still pretty rough. Ania has no way of working properly, if her father will track her ID number.”
“So, she’ll get paid under the counter, but that’s good because we’ll follow her that way.”
“Her friend didn’t have anything helpful to give, did she?”
Riff’s tone was slightly sardonic, as if that were standard. “I wonder if they ever do. Anytime somebody is in trouble, everybody knows they’re in trouble. Still, no one knows how to help them and prefers that somebody else do the job.”
“That’s just typical of people,” Sanders agreed. “Everybody wants to be safe, so they tend to not get involved.” He looked around but still saw no sign of her. “She obviously knew what she was doing because she’s long gone.”
“Anybody who lives here is probably aware of Ania’s plight or aware of what her father represents and what people coming and asking questions means for her,” Riff explained calmly. “So basically everyone won’t get involved, not if they know what’s good for them.”
“Right. In that case it’s a good thing we have a little bit to go on, and, if she’s managed to leave, she’s headed into the city—probably looking for work and a way to get out of the country. So we have some idea where to look.”
“She might want to leave the country, but her father will never let her go on her own. He will already have alerts set up at the airports and the seaports.”
“Damn. I don’t understand that,” he muttered, as they got back into the vehicle. “Why would a father try to keep a grown, educated daughter under so much control?”
“I think that’s the answer right there. … It’s all about control. And, if he thinks that she has any special abilities, anything that’ll make him money or will increase his status or power, you can bet he won’t let her go.”
“So, the biggest thing she has to do then is keep that detail away from him, so he doesn’t know. Whether she can achieve that or not is a whole different story.”
“Exactly. Let’s head into the city and see if we can find her. Did you get a time frame on how far ahead she is?” Riff asked Sanders.
“Sounds like she left early this morning or even late last night, hearing word of her father and his goons watching the bus stop.”
“So, she could be, at most, about fourteen hours ahead of us. That’s long enough to disappear, if you know what you’re doing. If you don’t know what you’re doing, it’ll be a little harder. If she has some money, and she’s not used to roughing it, she’ll have to take some cheap accommodations, I would think.”
“Which isn’t really safe either, especially if she can’t read people or use her telepathy.”
They continued to hash it out as they drove into the city, which wasn’t very far away. However, if Ania didn’t have transportation, it was a far-enough walk to be an obstacle to her progress.
Chapter 3
It was the third place Ania had gone looking for work, and, as she waited nervously for the old man in front of her to answer her request, she shifted uneasily from foot to foot.
Finally he sighed and said, “I shouldn’t.”
She looked at him hopefully. “But you will?”
“It’s bad. You should be home. You should not be here in this world,” he replied, motioning around at the barrels that the employees were busily packing. “It would be day labor, hard work at that, and you’ll be sore at the end of the day.”
“Yeah, but maybe there’ll be money to buy food,” she added.
He winced at that. “The men, they will bug you.”
She smiled. “I’m not worried about the men.”
“You should be,” he declared, glaring at her. “You’re an innocent, and they will take advantage.”
She hesitated and then nodded. “Thank you for the warning,” she murmured, “but I still need to eat.”
“I don’t like it,” he muttered. “You find a better job, you hear me?”
Her heart sank.
“But you can do that after today,” he said, studying her. “You work here today. I’ll pay you at the end of the day, and tomorrow you find something else.”
She nodded slowly. “Thank you.” She knew that he really was protecting her, didn’t want her to be here, but was willing to give her a day’s pay so she could eat. She almost felt bad about that because she did have a little bit of money. Yet she also knew that it wouldn’t last very long.
He nodded and pointed. “I need the inventory on those shelves counted,” he said, handing her a clipboard. “I don’t like doing it anyway.”
And, with that, she got to work. By the end of the day, she was sore, tired, and wondering just what the hell her world would be like from now on. However, that was a worry for another day.
The owner paid her in cash and repeated, “Don’t come back tomorrow.”
She nodded slowly. “Yet I didn’t quite finish the inventory. I did get most of it done,” she said, looking back at the shelving, “but you have those two racks left.”
He stared at her. “Only those two racks?”
She nodded. “Yes, I’ve done the rest. Are you sure I can’t come back just for tomorrow?” He glared at her, and she shrugged. “At least you’re making good use of me,” she shared, with a winning smile. “One more day is not a hard ask.”
He groaned. “One more day, you finish the job, and that’s it.”
“Agreed.” She smiled and thanked him.
He hesitated and then asked, “Where are you going now?”
She winced and shrugged. “To find a place to sleep.” He glared at her again, and she nodded. “I get it, but the world is not kind when you’re alone. And, when you’re in trouble, it is even less hospitable.”
At the word trouble he stiffened and glared at her, but she’d come to recognize the glare as a normal mannerism that didn’t really reflect the person on the inside. “I’ll be fine,” she stated. “You’ve given me enough for food, and, if I can find a place to sleep for the night, I’ll be okay.”
“It’s not safe to sleep on the streets.”
“No, but some places I can go aren’t very expensive.” He again winced at that. “I just might not get too much sleep because of the noisy neighbors,” she added, with a cheeky grin.
He chuckled. “You just be smart and don’t take any clients yourself.”
“I have no intention of that,” she declared, smiling up at him. “Thank you.”
And, with that, she took her leave, knowing that if she stayed a minute longer, she would probably get teary-eyed, and that would make them both uncomfortable. He was doing what he could allow himself to do, and she appreciated that. It was more than anybody else had done up to this point, so she could hardly judge him for not wanting to get involved, or for trying to send her off on her way to do something else. But she also knew that it would really eat at him if he saw her tears, since he was already worried that he was sending her away into a life of prostitution.
Definitely not in her plans. Neither had she wanted to use any of her energy for ill. She could if she needed to, but that wasn’t the way she wanted her energy to work. She would eventually find a job and would work properly, without being afraid of turning around. Yet, if her father was still after her, that would be her life from now on, and anybody who helped her would have the same problem.
She also needed to add minutes to her secret phone but hesitated, as that was another expense. Plus, she’d used that phone to call her aunt, so it was possible her father could track her if she used the phone again. She had nobody to call at this point anyway. If she could call anybody, it would have been Sanders, but he was long gone, and she was grateful for that.
Sanders had been her father’s pet research project, and that would never be easy. She’d spent considerable time trying to figure out how to rescue Sanders, and yet how does one do that when she couldn’t even rescue herself? Thankfully, someone else managed to get Sanders free.
She shook her head and walked to the cheap hotel that she had found while searching for a job this morning. As she walked inside, the clerk eyed her, with a cheeky expression.
“Not going to feed yourself if you don’t come home with clients,” he muttered. “If you need to make a little money later tonight, just let me know.”
“Thanks, but I’ll be fine.”
His eyebrows shot up. “You say that now,” he pointed out a bit somberly. “Yet I’ve seen more than a few people start that way, but, mind you, it’s not a sin to do what you need to do.”
She stopped for a moment, realizing what he meant and nodded. “No, it certainly isn’t. But, as long as I can find other ways to keep myself in food and housing, I’ll try that first.” She paid for one night’s lodging, carefully counting out her cash.
“They all do,” he cried out, as she went up the stairs. “They all do.”
She tried to ignore him, but his words rang in her ears.
“It always ends up the same.”
His warning was a daunting echo in her mind, as she flopped down on her bed. She’d picked up a little bit of takeout, mostly starches because she knew that would fill her the fastest. It wouldn’t be easy being on the run. The clerk had been right. If she didn’t find more work, it would be hard to keep this up. She also didn’t want this as a life for herself. She needed to go to work in her own field, where she could make a real living, do what she had been trained to do. But she had to get out of this nightmare first, and, if she was living in a hotel, she also needed a phone that worked and couldn’t be traced, as well as a laptop to search for jobs. Having neither at the moment, she would have to go to the library.
That was the only way that she could check out what was going on in the world and could find positions to apply for. Although she wasn’t sure what she wanted, needed, or was in any shape to apply for work locally. Her father was likely to find her here, particularly when she had to start filling out the employment paperwork. She wouldn’t put it past him to put a watch on her ID numbers, just to ensure that, if she did try to do something here, he would find out where she was. With a sigh, she realized that she had to move on. She had to leave this country—on foot, if need be.
That didn’t mean he would instantly come in and grab her, but it didn’t mean that he wouldn’t either. Something was very daunting about a man who was prepared to tell people that she was completely incompetent, off her meds, and a danger to herself. His behavior had given her to wonder as to whether he truly was her father. Regardless, most people wouldn’t go against him, and that was unfortunate because she didn’t want to put them in danger. Still, she also didn’t have the means or the wherewithal to get where she needed to go without help from others.
Closing her eyes, she sent out several more telepathic messages, hoping that somebody out there would pick one up. She was still dealing with a clouded memory, but, this time, it seemed that her signal was a little stronger. At least she hoped so. She tried again and then again, realizing that it was getting weaker as she went on. She would try again, as soon as she got a bit better at this.
Thankfully she had a job for tomorrow, which meant that she would stay here tomorrow night. Plus, she would have food tomorrow as well. It was all a matter of making the good things work for her and trying not to get overwhelmed by the ugliness of this life. With that thought, she quickly sat up, grabbed the takeout, and sat down to eat, chewing slowly, not sure when her next meal would be. By the time she was halfway through, she realized she had bought enough for later as well.
She put it off to the side, wondering how to get a new phone and whether she could even afford that. Her father had taken her first phone a long time ago, back when she had been sick. She’d asked for it later, and he’d refused to give it up. At that time, he’d managed to cut her off from her friends completely. She hadn’t been allowed to go out with friends or to even visit the libraries. She did get a burner phone when she’d taken off for her aunt’s, but that was already out of minutes, and Ania was worried about using it anyway. She got up and headed downstairs, where she asked the clerk if a library was around.
He nodded. “Yeah, sure, but it’s not within walking distance. You would have to catch a bus.”
She pondered that and then nodded. “Maybe tomorrow night then.”
“Yes, maybe tomorrow night, but it’s not likely you’ll be any less tired then.”
She glared at him. “No, but I’m trying.”
He nodded again, but there wasn’t any sympathy in his tone or his gaze. He’d seen it all before, and he’d seen too much of it.
She knew that he didn’t expect her to survive this, at least on her current terms. She added, “I’ll see how I feel tomorrow. Maybe I’ll go there first.”
“Maybe,” he repeated. “Just remember you’ll have to pay for another night tomorrow.”
“I know,” she replied steadily. “That’s not the issue.”
“Maybe not now,” he said. “I just don’t want to evict you if I don’t have to.”
She didn’t say anything to that and headed back up to her room and had a shower. She sat on the edge of her bed, wondering what she could do when life had her in such a difficult position right now. She headed back downstairs and asked the clerk, “You know where I can get a cheap phone?”
He pondered that and asked, “How cheap?”
“Very cheap. My father took mine away.”
He glared. “I really hate overbearing parents.” He took a moment and then shook his head. “I’ve got an older one that still works.”
“How much do you want for it?” she asked warily.
He laughed. “Not that much. I don’t know, just a few dollars.”
She nodded. “Then that would be great. Is it the kind I can add minutes to?”
“It is. I think some minutes are still on it. Don’t you have a laptop?”
“I did, but my father took that away too,” she shared. “I’m feeling very cut off from the world.”
“Yeah, that sucks, but I don’t have a laptop for you. Sorry.”
She nodded. “It won’t be that easy to replace either. It’s hardly something that those of us without money can afford.”
“You can get used ones from the pawnshop a block down,” he suggested.
“You mean stolen ones?” she asked, with a half smile.
