1
Tearing into the apartment, she left the door open as she ran to her bedroom. If they followed, she’d rather face them in a room than in the cramped hallway, a place guaranteed to allow them to corner her. The pounding of blood in her ears was almost deafening. Keep it together. Just breathe. You know what to do. He prepared you for this. She sucked a breath into lungs that felt locked with fear. She had to calm down. She needed a clear head. Her life depended on it.
Dashing to the closet, she flung the door open and then opened the safe, overriding her shaking fingers. She extracted a large envelope, containing two sets of temporary identities and a sizeable wad of cash. After ramming it into the duffel bag she pulled down from the top shelf, she haphazardly yanked clothes off hangers and stuffed them in the bag. Hurrying to the dresser, she then deposited undergarments into it and zipped it up. It bulged with its contents, considering it had already held toiletries, makeup and wigs, items prepared well in advance in case she needed to flee. She never thought the need would arise, especially not in the manner it had, yet here she was, forced to run.
She pulled her cellphone from her pocket, dropped it on the floor, and then ran from the apartment. After racing down the stairs, unwilling to chance an enclosed elevator, she emerged in the underground parking of the building. Her eyes darted around, scouring the many shadowed areas, looking for any sign of someone waiting for her. The darkness seemed more sinister at this late hour, holding imagined threats in every inky corner, but her intense scrutiny revealed no actual dangers. Breathing easier at the empty space before her, she hurried to her car, using her key fob to unlock it as she approached. She tossed the bag onto the passenger’s seat, locked the door, and started the car. Her heart hammered, almost painfully, and she drew another deep breath. Keep it together. Follow his instructions, and everything will be okay. She still had to get somewhere safe, someplace secluded, and wait for him to find her. That part scared her. There were so many unknown factors laying on her path to safety. She started the car and roared out of the parking lot, but then reduced her speed on the street, eager to avoid police detection.
After parking the car in the lot at Union Station, she tossed her car keys in a trash bin, and then entered the station. She’d never been in the building at night and its emptiness was unnerving. A few people milled about, the odd one rushing through the space, the minimal action a marked contrast to the bustling and crowded daytime hours she was used to seeing. She detected the placement of cameras and, certain she was picked up by them, made her way to a ticket counter. Using her credit card, she purchased three train tickets, to Sarnia, Niagara Falls, and Windsor, all cities bordering the US. The plan was to have them searching those cities, and their US counterparts, while she disappeared. She ensured a camera caught her on a train platform, and then ducked out of the range of it, utilizing a door marked ‘employees only’. It led to a hallway where she found a small bathroom. After locking the door, she discarded her wallet, containing her current ID and credit cards, into the trash. Her chef uniform soon followed. She dressed, applied much more makeup than she would normally consider wearing, and tucked her long hair up under a short, blunt-style black wig. Her reflected self showed her a different woman from the one they’d be looking for and, pleased with her efforts, she left the bathroom. She spotted a door to the outside and kicked it open. A siren blared as she made her way around the building but she paid little mind to it. After all, it wasn’t her fault she hadn’t had a keycard to open the door properly. At the front of the building, she slid into a cab and instructed the driver to take her to the bus station on Bay Street.
Upon arriving at the station, she purchased a bus ticket to Winnipeg with cash and then moved out to the platform to wait. The bus didn’t depart until seven in the morning and it was just past three now. She purchased a coffee from a kiosk and then sat on a bench. While she projected an outwardly casual appearance, she remained vigilant and visually inspected anyone she saw. When the time came, she boarded the bus, apprehensive over the long journey. A bus would never be her preferred method of transportation, but she had little choice. Bus tickets couldn’t be traced the way plane or train tickets could. In fact, she hadn’t even needed to provide a name in order to buy the ticket.
As the bus meandered along the highway, the awakening cityscape of Toronto passed by her window. She’d miss her job, but that was all. She had no deep connections to anyone in the city. Roughly eight hours later, she arrived in Winnipeg. After securing a hotel room for the night, she bought a train ticket with one of the temporary identities. The train didn’t depart until eleven o’clock the next morning, which left her plenty of time to do all she wished to accomplish before departing. Using cash, she purchased boxes of hair dye, a burner phone, and then finally entered a restaurant to eat for the first time since her ordeal had begun. While waiting for her order, she activated the phone and texted a simple message to a number she’d memorized long ago. ‘DAR’, an acronym to inform him she was on the run. Once finished her meal, she paid the bill, and then used the restaurant’s washroom where she discarded the phone.
At the hotel, she ensured everything was ready for her to leave upon awakening, and then requested a wake up call. Rising at nine would give her plenty of time to have a shower, eat, check-out, and arrive at the train station in time. She’d booked a sleeper cabin for privacy and a bed to sleep in, necessities on the almost two-and-a-half-day trip. Edmonton wasn’t her true destination—and in fact was much farther away than her intended target of Lethbridge—but she had to travel there first in order to establish an identity with her remaining temporary ID. They would probably never be able to track that ID but he would, for he’d provided it. She need only stay safe and wait for him to arrive.
Viewing a light at the end of the stressful tunnel she’d been sucked into, she slid into bed. She hated the feel of the hotel sheets, and bemoaned the upcoming tedious rail trip. Exhaustion soon gripped her, an anticipated response to the adrenaline she’d operated on for hours now, and she closed her eyes. Attempting to picture what kind of life might await her in Lethbridge, she descended into a much-needed sleep.