Off The Grid (23 page)

Chapter 49

A man behind the wheel of a dark blue SUV watched as his targets talked behind the glass doors of the terminal lobby. The man left momentarily, but they finally exited the building after he returned. Instead of climbing in a waiting luxury town car as planned, they each got into sedans parked by the door. Time to adjust.

The woman he only knew as Ms. Tate carefully placed her single bag in the trunk, adjusted her mirrors and exited the lot. Mr. Kincaid did the same, but placed a backpack on the passenger seat. He must want to keep it near. With that simple decision, Mr. Kincaid just sealed his fate.

The freeway from the airport was always congested, despite the abundance of commuter trains in and around Portland. The rush hour traffic helped the blue SUV blend in. The man stayed two car lengths back in the bumper-to-bumper jumble of cars. The route from the airport to
MassEnergy was fairly obvious, with only one main artery as a reasonable route. The man played the percentages that Mr. Kincaid would follow conventional wisdom.

The exit from the freeway led to Linwood Drive, a winding road along the Willamette River. Linwood allowed one lane of travel in both directions. On the left side of the road was a mammoth wall of reinforced concrete. On the other side was a small shoulder just a few feet from a tree-lined slope down to the bank of the river. Traffic was thinning. It was time.

***

Luke couldn’t wait to get on a fresh set of clothes. He’d only packed for a two-day trip to Tucson and was now returning after seven days in the blazing dessert of Arizona and thick humidity of the Caribbean. He was ripe. His apartment was only a couple of miles past
MassEnergy. He’d probably only lose about 25 minutes. It was a little price to pay for his sanity and odor.

He turned down Linwood Drive, which would take him all the way down to his block. He was going about 45 miles per hour in the 35 mile per hour zone. The flashing red and blue lights of the blue SUV lit up behind him, quickly reminding him of the appropriate speed limit. Knowing he was about to get a speeding ticket, he flipped on his signal and took his foot off the gas and began coasting to the shoulder.

The SUV didn’t use a siren, just the lights. It stayed within one car length and then accelerated to pass his car in the oncoming lane. Maybe the cop was responding to a call and just needed to pass. That’d be a relief. He wasn’t in the mood for a ticket. Luke continued to pull onto the shoulder toward the river as the SUV pulled even with the rental.

Luke could hear the SUV’s engine rev as the man floored it and bolted along side Luke’s smaller rental car. The oversized front bumper was now even with the rental’s front tires. In one powerful nudge, the SUV jerked to the right and slammed directly into the driver’s side of the rental car. Luke tried to keep a grip on the wheel as the car bounced into the loose gravel on the shoulder. He overcorrected. The smaller car plunged back onto the roadway at a 45-degree angle. Without the gravel from the shoulder to help ease the skid, Luke’s tires caught abruptly and started to flip.

He felt the immediate sensation of flying through the air and flipping upside down. Everything went black as the car rolled four more times away from the road and down the slope toward the river. The car finally stopped when it wrapped around a thick Ponderosa Pine.

***

The man pulled his baseball cap low over his face and as he jogged about 30 feet from the roadway to the destroyed car. He kept the lights of the SUV flashing on the side of the road. He used a small pick to shatter the passenger side window. Mr. Kincaid’s airbag had deployed and he was slumped motionless over the steering wheel with blood running down the side of his face. His arm was at an awkward angle, clearly broken. Grabbing the backpack, the man returned to his SUV and drove off before any other cars came across the scene.

Chapter 50

Three Days Later

The rhythmic beep of the machines droned as Luke lay in the hospital bed at Portland Sacred Heart Hospital. The EMTs had arrived on scene quickly after a driver saw the accident and called 911. He was treated for a neck injury and placed on a backboard. His left arm was broken and he had suffered head trauma. The doctors were concerned about swelling in his brain and believed it would be aggravated if he were awake. He’d been given medication to keep him sedated. The doctors felt two days of monitoring his breathing and brain activity were enough. They slowly decreased the strength of the drugs and waited for him to wake up. That was yesterday.

Rachel sat alone in the corner of the room, just as she had for the last two days. She was still listed as Luke’s emergency contact and got a voicemail from a nurse on the day of the accident. Her plane from Europe had just landed in Seattle and they were taxiing to the terminal. She never left the airport and took the first flight down to Portland.

She didn’t even have time to question whether she should go see him. He needed her and that was enough. She wondered who else would be in the room with him. Would that woman, Kathryn, from the photo be there? But no one else came.

The staff didn’t know much about the accident other than the condition of the car. It had rolled several times and he was lucky to be alive. His seatbelt and airbag had done their jobs. Rachel didn’t have any authority to direct his medical care, but the doctors had kept her updated on his condition as if she did.

They wouldn’t know the extent of his injuries until he woke up.
If he woke up.

Other than the swelling around a dozen stitches on his face, and the broken arm, Luke looked remarkably well. She
spend the hours in his room going over that she would say to him if she got the chance. Her mind spun out of control as she waited for him to come to. She hadn’t seen him in more than a year. Seeing him again brought back all the feelings she had for him - the good ones and the bad ones. He looked so helpless lying in the bed. She missed him dearly and she’d promised herself that she would forgive him for whatever he had done with that Kathryn woman if he would just wake up and be with her again. They had to be together now. She wouldn’t let him go back to this fictitious world of corporate espionage. He didn’t need to do it. Things were different now. It had to be different.

***

The bright lights of the room were a rude awakening back into the real world. Then the pain in Luke’s arm and back set in. He blinked open his eyes and then closed them just as quick. Keep the light out. It was so bright. He hurt everywhere. Why? Then he remembered. He had been in a car accident. No, it wasn’t an accident. The lights were so bright. He lifted his arm over his eyes to block out the light and was smacked in the face with what had to be a brick. There was a cast on his arm. It was broken? It smelled like . . . vanilla.

There was someone else in the room. A flicker, then suddenly it got dark. He put his arm back down to his side. The plastic rings on the hospital room’s curtains scraped against the rail and the last bits of light disappeared. He opened his eyes. As they adjusted to the light, the smell of more vanilla brought him awake. He turned his head to the left and saw who had shut the curtains. It smelled like her. She always wore the same perfume. He knew it well. Tears welled up in his eyes as she touched his hand.

Rachel leaned down and kissed him on the forehead.

“Hi,” was all he managed to say. His throat was so dry no sound came out.

“Don’t talk, just rest. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

Luke closed his eyes and didn’t wake up for another eight hours.

***

It felt like a weight had been lifted to Rachel. Things could finally get back the way they were. Luke could come back with her to
StuTech. Or he could do something else. She didn’t care. They could finally get married and have a normal life. Things were looking up.

She had relaxed a bit since she knew Luke was resting and that he knew she was there waiting for him. He’d be awake soon enough. She sipped her coffee as she finished working on her fourth crossword puzzle book. It was the last one the hospital gift shop had. She was afraid she’d have to switch to that infuriating game Sudoku. She just couldn’t sit idle in his room.

A nurse came in and checked his vital signs.

“The doctor wants him up now. If he isn’t awake, I’ll have to give him some wake-up juice to get him up and running,” she said. “You don’t want that. Maybe you can give him a little prodding, so we don’t have to?”

Rachel sat down on the bed and put her hand on his chest. She’d always liked to feel his heartbeat at night after they made love. The rhythm helped her go to sleep.

“Luke, honey, it’s time to wake up,” she said softly, as she gently rubbed his chest.

He blinked his eyes open and tried to clear his throat.

“Here, drink this,” Rachel repositioned the head of the bed and helped him take a sip of water. He drained the cup and looked around the room.

He wanted to ask her why she was there in the hospital with him. Hadn’t she dumped him and left the country? Wasn’t it over between them? But he knew those questions would have to wait.

“Where’s my backpack?” he said in a rough voice.

“What?”

“My backpack. It was in the car.”

“That doesn’t matter now, you need to rest.”

“No. I need my backpack, there was something very valuable in it.”

His voice was getting stronger as he became fully awake.

“What could be so important that you need it in the hospital?”

“I can’t exactly say. Well, I’m not sure,” Luke wasn’t sure what Rachel knew about the StuTech’s proprietary materials or what lies her father might have told her about him. Could it be that he didn’t trust her anymore?

“What day is it?” he asked.

“You’ve been in the hospital for almost four days,” she said.

“Did they bring my things here?”

“No one brought you anything,” Rachel said. “It’s just been you and me here at the hospital. Your clothes are in the cabinet. That’s it.”

“No one else came?”

“Expecting your girlfriend?” She couldn’t help herself, it just came out.

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing. Never mind.”

Rachel regretted saying it. This wasn’t the time.

“If I don’t get that backpack back, well, that’s not good.”

“It’s that important?” She looked into his eyes, searching for a reason.

“Yes it is.”

“The doctors aren’t going to release you.”

Luke sat up on the bed. A wave of lightheadedness washed over him, but it quickly passed. He swung his legs over the side of the bed.

“I’m OK, just a little sore, that’s all.”

“And you got a concussion, 12 stitches in your face and broke your arm. So, you’re right. No big deal. How about we go for a little five-mile jog? Feeling up for that?”

“Not quite.”

“Didn’t think so.”

“If I can prove to you that I’m OK, will you help me?”

“If I don’t help you, you’re going to do it anyway aren’t you?”

“Probably.”

“Then I guess I’ll help, but you need to tell me what we’re doing.”

“OK, first we need to find my rental car.”

***

The car was at a service center a few minutes outside of town. After several phone calls to local towing services, Rachel had found the company that hauled the rental car away. While she tried to locate the car, Luke gingerly got dressed. Luckily the clothes he wore during the accident escaped nearly unscathed.
Just a few bloodstains.

Knowing the doctors would not allow him to be discharged from the hospital, they simply walked out without calling any attention to themselves. He was still weak and pale, but determined to leave. He’d have to fill out their paperwork some other time.

At the towing company counter Rachel talked their way past the manager and his six-foot high perimeter fence to gain access to the car.

Luke tried to hide his sweating. He was dizzy when they finally got to the car. He was astonished at the damage. His injuries seemed inconsequential compared to skeletal remains of the car. He was lucky to be alive and he knew it.

Luke couldn’t help but be reminded of his parents’ deaths. He felt a wave of guilt for surviving not one, but two car crashes with just minor injuries. The rental car was in much worse shape than his parents’ old sedan had been. The windows were shattered and peeling away from the damaged frame. The rear passenger side door was caved in from the impact with the tree. The trunk was the only area of the car still intact.

The backpack was supposed to be on the front seat. They searched the inside of the car as best they could
given the extent of the damage. It was gone. Luke had been worried that thieves might have stolen it, but his suitcase was still in the trunk, so that was out.

“I should have thought about this – it must have been ejected from one of the broken windows as the car rolled,” he said, bracing himself against the hood of the car. “We’ve got to get to the crash scene to find it.”

“Luke it’s not here and you’re in no condition to go hiking around the side of the road – let alone the cliffs overlooking the river where you crashed,” Rachel said. “It’s getting dark. Let’s get back to the hospital and we can look in the morning.”

“There’s no harm in looking now. It’s not that far from here.”

“If the backpack is anywhere in the open, its probably been picked up by someone by now anyway. The only way we’ll find it is if it’s hidden in the overgrowth. That can wait till morning.”

Luke looked reluctant, but knew she was right.

“OK, but we’re not going back to the hospital.”