Kate stirred as the box-car slowed...
In the middle of bad dream, she pushed herself forward, wanting to stand up to protect herself from the man in her dream of terror but the crisscross restraints of the belts fastened to the body-hugging seat held her fast. With her eyes still shut, she flailed her hands around in the air.
Bending and picking up a canteen of water, Diana pulled out the cork and splashed cold water on Kate's face.
"Arghh!" Kate yelled, opening her eyes. Wiping the water from her face with the rug, she felt around her body before she unclipped the four buckle-locks to release herself. The speed at which Kate did this, took Dianna's breath away.
"No-na-no!" Diana struggled with her own belt clips so instead, grabbed Kate's arm, saying, "You mustn't stand up. There's nowhere to go. It can't be very far now..."
Kate sat and reconnected the straps.
"Let's calm down and share things about our lives, Kate, but keep it down. You likely woke everyone."
"Sorry guys," Kate called in a loud voice.
Turning to Diana, she said, "I don't want to play that game. I just had a bad memory, one so bad I can't speak of it."
"Okay. Let's just share one thing at a time about our lives. I'll go first. I was married to Joe when I was sixteen."
"How old was he?"
"It's your turn, Kate, tell me something about your life..."
"I'd rather share with Richard as we have so much to talk about, don't you think?"
"You were, how old, when you met Richard, was it..." Diana stopped, remembering that Kate wouldn't know that she had listened to her personal conversation.
"I was ten and he was twelve, and if you need to know, we met, no —he saw me and I saw him —in church in my home town..."
"Now, that's something I didn't know. My Joe was also my age, sixteen. We have our birthday in the same month, June. We've been married ten years now."
"What's your favorite color?
"It's my turn, to ask you, but, it's green, like my eyes, that's the eyes I usually wear everywhere except when I'm sleeping at nights. I didn't have my contacts in, so that's why you see me as I am and why I can't see very well, only long-sight things are clear.
"Mine's Red."
Kate laughed at this as, to her, Diana seemed more of a quieter color-liker, like pastel pink.
Their sharing time came to a halt as the box-car, having continued to slow for a mile or more, reached its destination.
They emerged underground in much the same kind of 'station stop' as the one from where they had started.
Faced with a long corridor that went in both directions from here, much wider than in the previous bunker, Kate looked to Diana for directions as to which way to go.
"Anika here will show you the way to your quarters. I'll catch up with you in the dining hall," Diana said.
"Wait, Diana; I have something of the most importance to tell you."
"Can't it wait?"
"No, it can't; but I remember you saying the Richard employed you so I think he should hear what I have to say as well."
Drawing her aside and leading her into a chamber, Kate looked around in great surprise, exclaiming, "A library. How wonderful; my favorite things are real books, not computers!"
"Firstly, tell me what it is that can't wait."
Glancing around the many bookshelves, Kate felt somewhat confident that the chamber was empty of people.
"I have a location chip inside me," she said, watching for Diana's reaction.
Without blinking, Diana asked, "Is it just an ID code or is it an actual GPS type of locater?"
"Definitely the latter. It's been there since I was fourteen, or was it before my fifteenth birthday? —I'm still remember things." She closed her eyes, then said, "I needed to be fully grown."
"So, you're saying that the air strike was because of your GPS? You can be located here as well, then?" Not waiting for a reply, she asked, "Why didn't you say so before now?"
"I dreamed of it, that nightmare I just had in the box-car... that's what woke me in a rush, remember, you threw water over me..."
"When will it have to be replaced, as in when it is out of power?"
"It's not like that, it's perpetual and continues even if my heart stops beating."
"Come then, yes we have to inform Richard and the powers that be here, at once, or we might have trackers on us already. Am I right? Can be tracked anywhere and everywhere?"
"I was told it does have a cloak under certain conditions but I can't remember what they were. I need time to think to recall..."
"Can it be removed?"
"I hope so, Diana, even if they have to pry it out of me, but I don't remember where they put it in me. But, after that horrible attack... I would rather die than go though that again... worst of all, everyone here is in danger because of me..."
"Come, hurry. I'm sure there are doctors here who would be able to pry it out."
Within a few minutes, Kate was led to a surgical chamber where a specialist also arrived. Diana introduced her, saying, "Professor Kindly is a top expert in the field of artificial devices of detection, among many other things.
With Kate sitting on a stool, the professor moved a locator gadget connected to a small screen, over her limbs, her arms, hands and legs. "No locator," he said, frowning, keying numbers into the small-screen device. He moved the device all around the top part of her body, her spine and back, shoulders, neck, her face, each side around her ears. "This is a GPS locator and if there is a device there, this will locate it...
"Turn around and sit the other side of the stool," he ordered. He moved it over areas he missed before, the bottom sides of her arms, her palms, across her collar-bones. The locator instrument didn't respond but he keyed words and numbers into the screen attached. "Where else?" he looked around at the watchers, then asked, "Where would you think it might be, Kate?"
She shook her head, saying, "I don't know, or, rather, I can't remember. I didn't even know about it until I had that ugly dream. All I remember is that he can find me anywhere and he said that in the dream, but then, I do remember..." she closed her eyes and was silent for some seconds, then said, "I remember talking with someone about it... she told me that if I was a long way away, like ten thousand miles or more, it couldn't find me, and..."
"Who put it there? —Who can find you?" Diana interrupted.
Turning to stare at Diana with daggers in his eyes, the professor snapped, "Time is of the essence here! We will discuss that later!"
Other people with hi-tech knowledge in the field of search and location had been summoned and were arriving one by one in the chamber, standing around the walls, watching and waiting to share their opinions on how such a device could be removed from Kate's body. She heard such words as, "We need to get it out and destroy it as soon as it is located."
Richard entered the chamber, asking, "I heard there is a dilemma here; fill me in." His eyes flickered across at Kate and she felt swamped with feelings of insecurity. He wasn't impressed, she felt sure his disdain for her had increased. He hates me, she concluded, I am just a dilemma to him...
Diana explained that Kate had regained another memory and recounted her disclosure.
Looking at Kate, Richard asked, "Do you know if it has any kind of cloak? —As in, if you were in a lead-lined chamber like a vault, would it be cloaked or still detectable?"
Kate didn't reply, but closed her eyes. Silence ruled for some minutes.
"We need an answer!"
Kate heard his voice, and hated his tone, the lack of use of her name. She fought to concentrate; to propel her mind back to the time her father had told her about it... what did he say?
"Kate!" Richard interrupted her memory...
"Please, Richard! I'm really trying to remember. I have to think, deeply, and you're not helping. It's like going down a dark well and not knowing what's at the bottom..." She squeezed her eyes tightly and bowed her head, saying, "I must relax...
"I... think... I have two." She looked up at Richard.
"Two? Two locators?" He folded his arms and avoiding her eyes, her face, he moved to the back wall where they made a space for him.
Kate turned and stepped across to the opposite side of the room from him, to a space on the wall there by the open door. Sliding down the wall with her head in her hands, knowing that her answer would save an attack on this location, she remembered her father's words and said, "He told me..." She was quiet for a whole minute and the professor, now near Kate, waved his hands at Richard who moved closer to Kate, one step at a time...
She spoke aloud, her father's words, "If ever you're under threat, Kate, find a water source and immerse your feet in the water; a bath, a pool, a lake the sea, or even a bowl." She opened her eyes, saying, "That's what he told me but I've never had any reason to test it... or did I? —I think they are in my feet!" She stood up, and with her voice tone a pitch higher, she said, "Pry them out. I didn't want them there and I don't want anyone to die because of me. Do it now... or find a bowl of water and if they're searching from the air, they'll fly right over." Those in the room looked to one another then to Richard who had his eyes on Professor Kindly.
"I've done it before," Kate said, "I won't take time to explain it all, but, it was a helicopter with the ensign on it of my hunter, it flew right over where I'd hidden..."
"Why were they looking for you, hunting you, Kate? —What ensign are you talking about?" Diana asked.
"Not now!" The professor snapped.
"So, there's two of them, and they're in her feet?" Richard asked, adding, "Is there a bowl here large enough for her feet? —This is a nightmare!"
"Fetch the bowl of water right now!" the professor commanded.