John went out to the kitchen and was surprised to see Sara already up and sitting at the kitchen island having cereal.
“Oh, I didn’t know you were up.”
Sara stared at him for a second and then grinned. “Yeah, I could tell from Yvonne’s moans and curses.”
“Oh, sorry.”
Yvonne came out at that point, having heard the discussion, just finishing tying her robe. “He’s so good with his tongue.”
John rolled his eyes. “That may be more information than she needed.”
Sara laughed. “Well, it does change my viewpoint of you, John.”
John sighed. “Okay, if we are done discussing my sex life, does anyone want me to cook something for breakfast?”
Yvonne looked at Sara’s cereal. “I think I’ll just have cereal, too. I need to watch my girlish figure.” She made a model’s pose and shook her hips.
John chuckled. “I’m watching enough for both of us.”
Yvonne stuck her tongue out at him. “Pervert.”
John shrugged, Sara laughed, and John got out some eggs for an over easy breakfast. Yvonne had cereal. They managed to stay off the sex topic and then Sara’s phone rang.
“It’s Dani,” she said, looking at the screen and putting it on speaker.
Dani came on and said that she was working hard to get the new person settled, but she couldn’t get up there for a few days. She didn’t want to leave the new transplant alone until she was better trained in how to stay under the radar.
The discussion led to the possibility that John and his work mates would drive Sara most of the way and then Dani would meet them. She didn’t want to say which town she was in, but she discussed possibly settling Sara in Ames, Iowa. Sara still wanted to get a degree and Dani had a decent identification available that could be used to place her in Iowa. They discussed the options and finally agreed that that would happen. John and his buddies would work to get Sara to Ames, Iowa the following Wednesday. Dani would text them a location to meet the night before.
John called the others and they all sat down to discuss the arrangements.
—————- Monday, March 6, 2023, Seattle, WA ———–
By Monday evening, the gang had worked out the details. John and Sara would travel in the first car. They would stick to the Interstates. Marty and George would follow. George had managed to procure three drones that were modified. Evidently, he and a guy at the FBI, who was another techie, had managed to make modifications to extend the life of how the battery was used and increase the speed just a little. Now, each could fly for up to four hours, depending on the usage and wind. Their top speed was about 90mph, which meant they would be slower if facing a heavy headwind, but still keep up with highway speeds. The batteries could be recharged using a battery charger he had in the trunk. It would be able to recharge two drones before it would have to be plugged in to a 110v socket and recharged itself. This would give them a lot of air time. The three drones, even if they only lasted three hours each, could be recharged and this would provide them 9 initial hours and an addition 6 with the charging. Once they stopped, they could charge them from the rooms. This would ensure they could surveil John and Sara in case something happened without using cell phones or GPS.
They planned to have Marty and George leapfrog them as they went at exactly the speed limit. That way the drone wouldn’t be overtaxed, they would be able to pass them to pick up one drone and put another one up for when John and Sara passed them, and they could keep an eye out for common cars being around them.
The plan was to leave at 0630 and get to Buffalo, Wyoming for their stop for the night. It was supposed to be around 14 hours at speed limit, just under the drone capacity, but they also discussed George charging the big drone battery charger for an hour while they stopped for lunch. John and Sara were not planning on stopping that long, but George and Marty could go far enough ahead to stop for lunch, have a drone still up watching John and Sara catch up, while they also plugged the charger in. John didn’t want to stop too long and he didn’t want to get to Buffalo too late. It would also leave the shorter trip for the second day.
—————- Tuesday, March 7, 2023, Seattle, WA ———–
They got up and out pretty early. Marty and George left a little before John and Sara. They were driving a U-Haul truck of decent size, which John estimated at a 16-footer, due to the wingspan of the drones. They were on their side, three of them, so that they could all fit, along with the stand-alone battery charger. Craig and Carl were there to see them off and hand out the burner phones. They had been pre-loaded and charged.
John and Sara left at precisely 6:30am and started the drive. It was pretty uneventful and the day progressed quickly. Marty and George passed them as they got to the end of each drone’s battery life and John and Sara had a decent lunch while they re-charged the battery charger.
They finally got to Buffalo at about 8pm. It had been a long day and they had mostly stuck to the speed limit. Craig had called ahead and found a place that had vacancies and would take cash. They didn’t want to advertise themselves with credit cards, since they didn’t know the capabilities of the bad guys, and John and his buddies didn’t have any cards in other identities.
After a quick dinner of take-out Chinese, they all went to get some shuteye. George and Marty in one room with John and Sara in another with a connecting door.
John had just hit the sack when Sara came over. “Can I sleep next to you?”
John hesitated. But when he thought about it, after when she had been through, she was probably not talking about sex. “Sure.” He moved over.
She crawled under the covers. “I’m not trying to have sex with you. I just want to feel safe and sleeping next to you will help with that.”
“Okay.”
She put her head down and John heard her sniffle a little. She was emotional.
“You want to talk about it?”
“I just wasn’t expecting to be in this situation at this point in my life. I thought by this point I might be almost done with college, maybe have had a boyfriend, even one I might have had to throw out for being a jerk.” She tried to chuckle, but it was choked off. “I just want to be somewhere where I can be myself, whoever that is going to be. I was hoping it was a working woman with a husband and maybe, if possible, a couple of children. Maybe that is all lost at this point.”
“I can’t say I understand what you are going through. But you appear to be a strong woman, one with conviction and character. Whatever happens, you will soon be past this and be able to have a life.”
“I hope so.” She turned and snuggled up to John and took deep breaths, trying to calm down. Eventually, she did.
She dropped off to sleep pretty quickly after that. John figured she had to be exhausted. He finally slept, and pretty well, until there was a knock at the connecting door.
—————- Wednesday, March 8, 2023, Seattle, WA ———–
It was Marty and that was the notification that he and George were leaving and that John and Sara should try to leave in thirty minutes. They did and the drive looked like it was going to be inconsequential.