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  Shan took a nap and at about ten they headed back up into Virginia. They pulled off the road at the Woodway stone quarry, parking far enough inside the rock works that their truck couldn’t be seen. Two of the hoverbikes had already dropped harnesses onto the dirt road there and they flashed the LEDs so they could find them. Ell gave Shan a tripod to carry and a couple of minutes later they were swinging through the air. They crossed the two miles to the penitentiary in a leisurely eight minutes.

  Coming down in a small gap in the trees off the south east corner of the prison, they kept their harnesses attached to the graphene cables as they peered at the prison walls. From where they stood, Ell couldn’t see the lowest windows. “Damn!” she said, tugging at an ear.

  “What’s the problem?”

  “I told Steve I’d shine a laser in his window to make sure it was the right window, but we don’t have line of sight to it.”

  “Let me have the laser. I’ll climb a tree.”

  “If you fall out of a tree out here, it’ll be problematic to call you an ambulance.”

  “Let me rephrase my plan. I’ll have the hoverbike lift me while I guide myself up holding onto tree limbs.”

  “Oh, I should have thought of that. I think being this pregnant is muddling my brain.”

  A few minutes later Shan had ascended to a level slightly higher than the prison grounds. Working his way a little into the tree until he had a good sturdy limb to steady himself he said, “Ready.”

  “OK, it’s the second window from the west corner, bottom floor. Do you see that window?”

  “Got it.”

  “Try to align the laser with the window by eye. We don’t want that red dot dancing all over the side of the prison while you’re trying to hit the window. The guards in the tower might notice.”

  “OK, should I shine it in there now?”

  “No. Let me talk to Steve first. Steve… can you talk?”

  Allan kept Shan in the connection so he heard Steve whisper, “Yes, I hear you. What’s up?”

  “We’re about to shine a laser in your window to be sure we know which one is yours. Is your bed positioned so you can see the wall across from the window?”

  “Yeah, but I can’t talk to you with my head out from under the pillow.”

  “OK, one cough if you see it. Cough twice if you don’t.”

  Steve coughed twice.

  “Just a minute, we haven’t tried to shine it in yet. Shan can you shine it?”

  “Shining now,” Shan said. The beam had missed the window for a moment, but now he had it going through.

  Steve coughed once.

  “OK Steve, is that window centered in your room, or off to one side?”

  “It’s to the west side of the room. How are you planning to get us out?”

  “Through the floor.”

  “What, you’re going to dig a tunnel? That’ll take forever, and they’ll hear you!”

  Shan broke into the conversation, “Steve, you’re talking to Ell. She’s got a few tricks up her sleeve.”

  Steve gave a muffled snort. “Of course she does.”

  Ell backed off down the slope into the trees until she could barely see the upper windows of the prison through a small gap in the foliage. She set up the tripod and pointed the laser on top of it at the window, then tilted it down to horizontal. Stepping to the spot the laser made on the ground she took off her back pack and got out the twelve inch single port she’d made for this. Pointing it at the area of the dot she turned it on at a six foot distance and a twelve inch ball of dirt vanished with a loud sucking sound. “Whoops, I’d better turn down the vacuum so it doesn’t make so much noise.”

  Shan frowned, “How do you adjust it? I thought it was connecting to some port out in the asteroid belt.”

  “It is, but Allan can just cycle the port on and off. If it’s only open part of each second it doesn’t make so much noise. The opening and closing made noise too, until I increased the frequency into the ultrasonic range.” She started the port again and this time it made a gentle whooshing sound. Ell waved it around a little and soon had a hole about three feet in diameter going back into the dirt of the hillside.

  She knelt and crawled back into it. Shan leaned down and said, “Why don’t you make it taller? Surely you don’t want to crawl all the way back there.”

  “Yeah, I’m planning to make it taller once we get past the entrance. Can you gather some brush to cover the opening?”

  Using the low light feature on his HUD Shan gathered some sticks and leaves. Once he had quite a pile he leaned down into the opening. Ell was surprisingly far away. “Hey, if I cover the entrance, it’ll block the laser beam.”

  Ell stopped cutting and stood with her hands on her hips. “I need to be able to turn on some light in here though. Tell you what, I’ll mark the spot the beam’s hitting on the wall here. Then you put a stick in the beam at your end. Then we can move the tripod in here and align it with those two spots.”

  Once they’d done that, Shan pulled his pile of brush and sticks over the opening and said “Try turning on your light.”

  Ell said, “It’s on, can you see it out there?”

  “Nope. Turn it off and I’ll climb inside, cover the opening and then come hold the light for you.”

  By the time Shan got inside with the hole covered, it was quite a walk back to where Ell was working. Only the first few feet of the tunnel were dirt. The rest of it was some kind of layered rock. He watched her moving the blue glowing ball of the port around to disintegrate the rock and create a tunnel seven feet tall by three feet wide. To his surprise the laser beam fell along the right edge of the tunnel. Then he realized that, if it were in the center, her body would block the beam much of the time. Taking the light from her he asked, “How are you going to know when you’re deep enough?”

  “The laser has a range finder. We’ve got another thirty feet to go.”

  Shan walked slowly along behind Ell until she stopped and said, “According to the laser rangefinder and a little trig, we’re twenty feet back and twenty feet under Steve’s room.” She started tunneling upward at a forty five degree angle through the rock, cutting stairs in the floor. “Hey, there’s concrete.”

  She looked up at the concrete, then back down the tunnel. “I thought we’d have to go a little farther before we reached the concrete.” She set the big tunneling port down. “Let’s find out if we’re in the right place.” She pointed a finger at the roof of the tunnel. “Steve… I need you to look for glowing lights in your room. Cough if you’re able to do it.”

  Steve coughed once.

  “OK. Keep your feet off the floor and look for a little blue light moving around just above the surface. Cough if you see it.” Ell began gently waving her upward pointing finger in circles.

  Shan tilted his head, “What are you doing?”

  “I’ve got the little one ended port in my finger opening twice a second at about eighteen inches above me. I’m increasing the distance two inches at a time. If we’re in the right place it should be visible to Steve because of the little flash of blue light when the port opens.” After a moment she stopped, “Damn!”

  “What’s the matter?”

  “I think we missed.”

  “Why don’t you just keep going higher and wider? If one of the prisoners in another room sees some lights, they’ll just think they’re seeing things.”

  “Mmm,” Ell said distractedly, “if the port opens inside of one of them, it could do some serious harm.” She glanced back down the tunnel, then back up at the concrete above her. Picking up the big tunneler she cut away a little to the front and back of it. Suddenly, on the far side Shan saw rock again just as Ell said, “Aha!” She turned to grin back at Shan, “This is just a deeper part of the foundation, probably under the outer wall.”

  She slowly cut rock away until she encountered concrete again, then set the big tunneler down. She said “Steve, I’m going to try again. Be on the lookout for
the little blue lights.”

  Steve coughed and Ell started waving her finger around again.

  When Steve coughed once more, Ell said, “Alright! I need you to put your head back under the pillow and tell me where you saw it.”

  It turned out that Steve had seen the light under Randy and Barrett’s bunk. “That’s perfect!” Ell said, “I think we’ll be back the night after next to take you guys out of here. Will you be able to gag and restrain the other two guys in the room with you?”

  “Uh, sure. We’ll just have to tear up a sheet. I sure wish we had a way to drug them.”

  “Don’t tear up a sheet. I’ll bring you some duct tape. Actually, I’ll bring some drug too, but you’ll still have to tape them up until the drug starts working. See you in a couple of nights if it all works out.”

  After Ell signed off with Steve she spent some time cutting a chamber right under Barrett’s bunk, complete with stairs leading down into the rest of the tunnel, then she and Shan headed back to their motel room in Kingsport.

  The next day Shan and Ell drove to the Greenbrier resort in White Sulfur Springs going a little out of their way to go past FPC Alderson on their way. Though West Virginia 12 followed the Greenbrier River which looped around the prison, they couldn’t actually see the prison because of all the trees on both sides of the river. They debated actually driving over to the prison but decided not to, instead just picking out a likely small side road where they could park their car later on than night.

  As their car drove up to the resort Shan looked around, “Whoa, this is a step up from the motel we stayed in last night!”

  Ell grinned at him. “I’d heard of this place and when I realized it was only about thirty miles from the prison I figured we’d just as well spend a little of that pile of money and see what it’s like staying in someplace fancy.”

  At the entrance the valet frowned at their old Toyota pickup but nonetheless sent its AI parking directions. Shan and Ell walked into the main building with their heads on swivels, neither of them having stayed in an expensive resort like the Greenbrier before. Ell’s eyebrows went up, “This place is pretty hoity-toity isn’t it?”

  “I don’t think it’s really our style do you?”

  Ell grinned, “We’ll never know if we don’t try it out.” Taking his hand she headed for the registration desk.

  Shan expected the clerk at the registration desk to be dubious of a couple their age and dress checking in to an expensive resort, but the clerk was as unflappable as clerks at expensive hotels usually are. Once she’d tapped “Daniel’s” new credit line to confirm that they could pay for the room she gave them a chip that would guide their truck to their assigned cottage near the back of the Greenbrier grounds. Shan took a nap again in preparation for a possible long night checking out the Alderson Prison Camp. When he woke, they went back to the main building to eat in the Greenbrier’s elegant Prime 44 West restaurant.

  At two in the morning they drove back to Alderson, parking on a little side road across the river from the actual prison. The thousand foot ride across the river swinging from their hoverbike harnesses felt peaceful in the cool early morning. Ell said, “Shan, you watch for guards that might be looking up and could see us, I’ll be focused on figuring out where the girls are.”

  Once Shan had agreed, Ell called Amy, “Rise and shine girl. We’re going to shine a laser in the window that we think belongs to you. You need to tell us if you see a red dot on your floor.”

  Once Amy had awakened enough to get the muzzy out, Ell talked her through the process of coughing when she saw the laser. Then they swung over the big dorms of the prison and Ell shone her laser in the window she thought Amy had specified. “Amy, are you seeing the laser?”

  Amy didn’t cough. “If you’re not seeing it, cough twice.”

  Amy coughed twice. “Hmm, we’re going to try the next window, do you see it now?”

  Still two coughs.

  “OK, another window.”

  Two coughs again.

  “You’re on the third floor right?”

  One cough.

  “And you’re on the southeast side of the northeast dorm?”

  Two coughs. Then Amy spoke, evidently having put her head back under the covers. “We’re on the northeast side of the northeast dorm. Mary and I are at the third window from the north corner and Lisa is at the fifth.”

  “Oops. Just a minute until we move to the other side of the dorm.”

  This time, when Ell shone her laser pointer Amy coughed once, then evidently went back under the covers. “Ell, where are you that you can shine a laser down on our floor?”

  “Hanging outside your window. I told you that you wouldn’t hear our helicopter.”

  “Oh.” After a pause Amy said, “I didn’t think to tell you the other night, the windows here have wire imbedded in the glass. You won’t be able to just break them to get us out.”

  “That’s OK, we have a way to cut the windows. It would be nice if Lisa would be able to come to your window? What I’ve seen about your facility says you aren’t locked into individual cells, can she come to yours?”

  “Yeah, as long as you give us a few minutes warning and none of the guards are making their rounds right then. Are you taking us out right now?” she asked hopefully.

  “No, tomorrow night, but I’m going to put some harnesses in through your window tonight so you can have them on when we actually come to get you tomorrow.”

  “There’ll be all kinds of questions tomorrow if you cut the window tonight!”

  “No holes in the windows. I ported them into your room and they’re already on your floor. There’re directions with each harness. Put them on under whatever you sleep in, preferably dark clothing. Then you’ll be able to snap your hooks onto the D-rings of the cables when we come to get you and quickly swing out and away.”

  “OK,” Amy said, sounding dubious.

  “And, uh, the cables will be graphene, so they’re hard to see, but trust me, they’re plenty strong enough to lift you.”

  “OK, tomorrow night. I expect well after midnight again?”

  “Yep. I’ve got some homework for you too. I’ve set up some new identities for you and sent the information to your AIs. Start learning who you are so if you get stopped you’ll be able to answer questions.”

  “If we’re stopped? I thought we were flying.”

  “We’ll fly you across the river where we’ll have a rental car waiting. You’ll change rental cars a couple of times on your way to a car we bought in Mary’s new name. We didn’t want you driving Mary’s car in this area in case they have video monitoring of the roads near the prison.”

  “I guess we’ll all be wearing disguises like you’ve been doing for so long?”

  “You can still change your mind, stay in prison, and fight the legal battle if you want. But if you choose to escape I can’t see any way around a false identity.”

  Amy sighed, “Neither can I.” After another pause she said disconsolately, “I can’t stay here. I’ll be ready to go tomorrow night.”

  Chapter Nine

  Lights out was at 10:30 and Steve had intended to stay awake, but he woke to the sound of Ell’s voice in his implant. “Steve, Barrett, Randy, Dan, cough once when you’re awake enough for me to talk to you.”

  Steve got out of bed and coughed while he was on the way to the sink to splash a little water in his dry eyes. He could hear the other guys coughing too.

  “OK,” Ell said, “Unless you guys have changed your minds, we’re getting you out of here tonight.” She paused for a moment until all of them had mumbled their assent to escaping.

  “All right then, I’ve just turned on a port under Randy and Barrett’s bunk and it’s releasing nitrous oxide gas. You guys start breathing through the ports on the backs of your teeth. Cough twice if you have trouble breathing through them or they’re damaged or something.”

  No one coughed so Steve assumed that Ell kept the nitrous goin
g for a bit. “OK,” she said, “By my calculations the concentration of nitrous in your cell should be high enough to make anyone breathing it pretty drunk. In a minute or two we’re going to open a hole in the floor under Barrett’s bunk. You guys’ll need to slide the bunk out into the room and then climb down into the tunnel under the hole.”

  Steve rolled out of bed, still sucking his air in through the ports on the back of his front teeth and blowing it out through his nose. He and Dan helped Randy and Barrett actually pick up their bunk and move it quietly away from the wall so as not to make noise. To their amazement they saw an irregular piece of the concrete floor had lifted and tilted a little in its opening. It lifted a little more and Barrett grabbed the edge, lifting it up to reveal a grinning Ell below. They slid it to one side and Ell climbed further down some steps in the opening below. One by one the guys climbed down into the narrow hole. Ell said, “Whoever’s last, pull the bunk back over the hole if you can. Then I’ve got a tube of quick setting concrete adhesive to put around the edge of the hole before you drop that chunk of floor back into its hole.”

  Steve, being last, found he could grab the frame of the bunk and with a strong heave, pull it back up against the wall from underneath. Randy climbed up behind him in the narrow little stairway in the rock, flipped on a little flashlight and handed him the tube of adhesive. In the dim light provided Steve squeezed a little of the goop around the inside of the hole, noting that the hole had been cut with an outward slant so that the piece of concrete couldn’t fall through. He also noticed that whatever had cut noiselessly through the concrete had also cut right through the rebar imbedded into it! He grabbed the edge of the concrete slab and pulled it back into place. A little jiggling and it seemed to fit back in place almost perfectly. He hoped that this meant that the floor above had been left with a smooth surface. “Let’s go,” he said.

  He felt amazement as he followed the others down some steps into a man sized tunnel cut right through the rock out away from under the prison walls. How did she do this without a jackhammer? For that matter, how did she cut that perfect hole through the floor, rebar and all? A dark skinned man with a crew cut waited in a slightly wider area of the tunnel. Belatedly recognizing Ell’s husband, Steve said, “Hey Shan.”