Suzie Elliot, Evil Genius?

Chapter 20

The steady drone of the jet's engines was trying to lull Joe to sleep, but he had slept all the way from New York to Rome, and now was wide awake. The same couldn't be said for Susan, as she was sleeping peacefully beside him, her head on his shoulder. She had been awake for the first few hours on the way to Rome, being too excited to sleep then. But now the tedium of the trip had taken over and she was sound asleep.

He didn't know her parents at all, but he knew the kind of people they were. In his years of service he had run into several special operations teams, and he knew they were serious customers. But if Susan had been his daughter, he would hang up his gun and stay home. Even during the previous night's planning session, she had amazed him even more with her abilities. Considering she was only eleven years old, she had done a masterful job getting pieces in place to arrange the freedom of her parents, if they were lucky.

The previous night had started with Joe talking to Yilin and explaining that they were taking a field trip to a private advanced school for Susan, and that he was her sponsor for the trip. Susan had all of the forms filled out and looking official so that Yilin was nothing but excited about her being gone for an extended weekend in order to get into a prestigious school.

Joe had called in to work for the first time all year. He told them he had to be out for a few days to help a sick aunt. Nobody complained, and they could easily get a substitute for a few days. Susan had sent a letter into the school with her mother's signature excusing her for several days to go overseas on a family trip. Evidently Susan had been signing her mother's name for several years, since nobody batted an eye when they got the note in the office.

After that, Susan had shown him more secrets than he could believe. He had read the paper, and knew that it was all true, but to see her tap into security systems, e-mail servers and financial institutions was simply amazing. It seemed to be right out of a movie. She was sending out e-mails and texts and creating identities faster than he had realized was possible. After she was done, he really thought they had a great chance of pulling it off, if they caught a few breaks.

Maybe she was young enough to have thought this was all a game before, but now with her parents in trouble he knew she was realizing that things like this could hurt or kill people. She had grown up a lot in the last week. With the right training and guidance, he thought she could run a country within a year.

Joe checked his watch once more. They would be landing in two more hours. Off the left side of the plane he saw some distant lights that might be the Indian mainland. They were getting close.

Suzie was woken up with a gentle nudge on her shoulder, and Joe whispering in her ear. "Susan, we're almost there, time to wake up!"

She rubbed her eyes and looked around. The cabin was still dark, and most of the other passengers were asleep or, like her, just being woken up. "How much longer till we land?" She asked, stretching to get the kinks out of her back. This plane's seats were certainly not as comfortable as the ones on her parent's jet.

"Another hour, maybe less."

"Good. We'll have plenty of time to get everything ready before we have to meet Helmut."

"You really set this up well. I'm proud of you," Joe smiled at her and Suzie couldn't help smiling back.

"If it works, we will both be proud."

"So what will you do if you get your parents back? Just turn them over to the government?"

"I'm not sure what the government would do with them. Would they let them go back to work? Hide them? Make them retire?"

"I'm not sure. Odds are they are thought of as terrorists, and there will be records of them in India, and maybe elsewhere if they were distributed to security forces in other countries. They may not be safe operating in the field anymore."