Missions of the Retrieval Team - Kilts in a Cage

[davedove]

Scene 14

Yucatan Wilderness

Any time a person started to speak, the guards quickly silenced them with a motion of their guns. I needed to talk with Ms. Stork, but couldn’t speak with her. Fortunately, I had another option.

Many years ago, my associate Ms. Starling, had suggested we all learn sign language for situations where speaking was impossible or unwise. Ms. Stork and I would not be able to use the full sign without being seen, but we would be able to use small signs and spell things out.

“Were you able to make contact?” I asked her.

“The call did go through, but I was only able to send the situation code. I didn’t get to speak with anyone.” She answered.

My team had an established practice whereby anytime a call went out, a coded signal was first sent giving the nature of the message. In this case, Ms. Stork sent out the code ‘Team Captured,’ but was unable to further explain our situation.

“Who did you call?” I asked.

“Starling.”

Good, Ms. Starling, as my assistant team leader, would receive the code and begin searching to find out our situation. Once she contacted the rest of the team, they would begin tracking down the location of our phone transmission.

Unfortunately, they would be hours away. For now, we were on our own.

On the plus side, we had several members of X Marks with us, some of them experienced in combat.

Unfortunately, there were many minuses. First of all, as tourists on a cruise ship, we were all unarmed, but our guards were. Secondly, the guards were keeping a close watch on us, so we couldn’t communicate amongst ourselves and there was no way to contact the people on the other busses. Finally, we were stuck in the wilderness of the Yucatan, and many of our members would be unable to communicate with the populace.

“Do you have any plans?” Ms. Stork signed.

“Not right now.”

“So we wait for an opportunity?”

“For now. I just hope one presents itself.”