Suzie Elliot, Evil Genius?

Chapter 5

Suzie awoke the next morning to the sound of Pink Floyd playing on her iPod alarm clock. Beside her, Nessa and Rose stretched as her movements roused them from their own cat dreams. Suzie lay still for a moment, thinking about last night. It had taken several hours to make sure that all of her precautions were still in place, and that she was as secure as ever. Not feeling better though, Suzie had made three new false identities with which to make deals so that there was yet another layer of security. She was only safe as long as she was invisible.

Once her thoughts were in order, she quickly checked her phone to see if Jonathan had finally gotten back to her.

[Text: Petra, Same deal as before, I assume your money is still good. Wire account to follow. Will deliver to your same man in Riyadh]

He had indeed. A second text contained the account number that she would wire the money to, and then the tanks would be transported to a freight company in Riyadh, where they would be loaded as ordinary cargo into shipping crates on a train for Bahrain. Once there they would be loaded onto a cargo ship for shipment out to India, where she would 'lose' them on several rail lines before they made it to her base. All of this took up three more of her identities, but it was the safest way to do it. It was hard to hide eight tanks, but she had hidden more than that before and she had no doubt she would again.

Quickly, Suzie logged onto her laptop and then transferred the money to Jonathan's account, then sent an encrypted e-mail to the freight company to arrange for the shipping containers and space aboard the ship. Once that was done, she quickly found a cute flower print sun dress that would let her blend in with the other girls at school and headed down for breakfast. Suzie was generally impatient on Fridays, and today was no different. She wanted school to be done so she could monitor the deal with the tanks.

Some girls liked dolls and pretty ponies; Suzie was interested in the main gun barrel size on her new state of the art tanks. She snickered a bit to herself as she imagined them painted pink with flowers on them to suit her friends' tastes.

She entered the kitchen to the smell of tea and the sight of a toasted sesame seed bagel with a generous dollop cream cheese spread over it waiting on the counter. Yilin was just pouring a cup of the delicious tea into a cup.

"Good morning Yilin, thank you for breakfast!" said Suzie brightly. "Would you believe I have a fever and can't go to school today?"

Yilin smiled at the joke, "No, I don't think I would believe that Miss Suzie."

"I know, but I had to ask. Maybe I'll get sick some time so I can stay home and relax."

"Maybe you will be. You're certainly due to be. I can't remember the last time you were really sick," said Yilin thoughtfully.

"Well, maybe I'll get sick after Spring Break. I certainly don't want to get sick right before I have a whole week to relax here at home!" said Suzie enthusiastically. She was actually looking forward to spring break so that she could finish more projects, acquire more equipment and in general tend to her growing empire.

The odd thing though, was she was looking forward to school again. She had always thought Mr. Kelly's class had finally made school bearable, but now she found that she actually wanted to go. It was very odd, since she hadn't wanted to go to school since kindergarten, when she realized what it would be like.

Today she actually entered the school with a real smile instead of the fake one she had perfected over the years. She actually walked to class thinking the entire way about history and wondering what they would learn that day.

"Hi Suzie!"

"Hey Suzie!"

"Suzie, how are ya?"