They sat outside Fribourg, hoping this wasn't going to be a foolish failure. Venessa had managed to reach KingKong, who had agreed to meet them on the terms specified. A large man who was several pounds overweight was hiking along the edge of the road, a backpack on his back.
Several feet past them, he abruptly turned right and walked directly into the woods, quickly disappearing from site of the road. Venessa went forward to meet him, a slight smile on her face. It didn't take long before Hokulani and Aoloa could hear their voices chatting happily. That was their cue to move in more cautiously.
They both traveled through the upper branches until they could see and hear everything. The two were smiling amiable at each other, chatting in a mixture of French and German. After a bit, he stopped and looked around cautiously while switching to English.
"Okay, it's nice to catch up with you, but where are these friends you promised I could meet?"
Venessa looked up into the trees, scanning until she spotted Hokulani's orange above them, and pointed her out. The man's jaw dropped as the two of them landed softly on either side. Finally, he managed to stammer out, "You, you're real!"
Aoloa grinned, which caused the man to blanch a bit. "We're real. A pleasure to meet you..."
He swallowed before replying, "Franck. KingKong."
"Hokulani," he gestured to her, "and Aoloa," and to himself. "A pleasure to meet you. Also, a pleasure to get Miss Eder out of jail for you."
"We're grateful to you for that. But why are you two even here?"
"Because letting the world know we're real, without ending up on a table being cut open, is tricky. I can assure you, I speak from experience."
"Somebody cut you open?"
"We had some trouble getting through Germany."
The man looked confused for a moment, then got a shrewd expression on his face. "That was you, wasn't it?" It was Aoloa's turn to look confused. "Something happened in the German military a few weeks ago. Immediately after that, they handed something off to the Swiss Army, which promptly lost it. That was you."
"That was me."
"And if they catch you again,"
"they'll be more careful, and try very hard not to let me escape alive. I'd rather avoid that."
"But you want to reveal yourselves to the world."
Aoloa nodded. "You can appreciate the problem."
"How are you surviving?"
At this, Venessa groaned. When he looked at her she supplied, "They're efficient hunters. I've had more rabbit in the last few days than in the previous month. And squirrel. And a few other things. All they seem to eat is meat. Raw."
"And that's what you've had as well." She nodded slightly. "Don't worry, we'll get you a decent meal soon." He turned his attention back to the two creatures before him. "We need a game plan, and to proceed carefully with this."
Hokulani spoke up. "It gets worse. My mentor is on the forums. I'm sure it's him. That means he's going to be able to trace us electronically, as well as anyone else who gets involved."
"With all due respect, we're extremely good at what we do."
"His posts have no IP address associated with them. I know for a fact he can trace me unless I keep connections extremely short." Franck frowned slightly. "Military, top-of-the-line hardware connected directly to his brain. He was made to be a hacker, and trained to be the best. He helped us get out, but I don't know his situation now."
"So you're saying if he's working purely for the UPS, anything you do could be compromised."
Hokulani nodded.