Four Weeks Later...

Operations at Tareq's base had gone on-schedule during the near-month that Elizabeth, Matthew, Stephanie, the doctor, and Hot Plate had spent at the airport. No member of the Libyan army even suspected that the government was secretly giving refuge to American spies. Tareq knew that if word got out, it would be the end of his career with the Libyan military. It may even cost him his life.

So Tareq spent his time trying to find more places that his friends could stay at. He found extra rooms in his single terminal that he didn't even know were there. He looked over every nook and cranny to find whatever he could to make comfortable bedding. He even filled a 50-gallon bag with soil to make comfortable bedding. He provided full meals, and made sure everyone was grateful for his hospitality. Tareq ran a tight operation.

Elizabeth, in the three weeks time learned about the inner-workings of the coporation, and picked up computer skills as well. Stephanie put Elizabeth in charge of hacking American government computer netowrks, in order to throw off any lead the Americans may have. Elizabeth had only been able to hack to correct site once, but she did find that they were searching for the gang in Moscow. She led them further away, by placing a false lead to Kyoto. Everyone was very proud of her.

Hot Plate had to sever all his connections back to the US. He destroyed his old government-issued cell phone, which could have been traced at any minute. Hot Plate threw away his old clothes, and began disguising himself as a real Libyan citizen. He spoke perfect Arabic, which came to his advantage. Hot Plate was a master of disguise, and was, at one time or another, able to get information from the local village, located about 5 miles away from the base. Though Tareq was apprehensive of Hot Plate's disguise ability, or his Arabic accent, nobody ever knew they were talking to a former American agent.

Stephanie spent most of her time acquiring weapons. She was afraid they would be found at any point during their stay in Libya. Stephanie scrounged together as many guns as she could. She made deals with a local armorer, and was able to secure a good number of grenades, automatic rifles, body armor, and any number of handguns. She continued to make her stash, in case she had to fight the war against the gamma falcons by herself. She would not settle for anything less than total preparedness.

The doctor began running blood tests on Matthew, to see what was going on inside of him. Indeed, his blood remained very thick and black. His heart rate was elevated, mostly because of the thickness of his blood. The doctor discovered a new hormone flating around in Matthew's blood that had not been present before. Only, this hormone was in extreme quantities in his blood. It was some organic compound, that hadn't been discovered or named yet. The doctor set out to figure out the hormone. he tried to keep Matthew alive as long as he could, although with every passing moment Matthew grew more tolerant to what was happening to him.

Although, in reality, he was only getting sicker. Though he had a high resistance to what the pregnancy was doing to him, he would normally have been dead in an instant with that level of hormone in him. Matthew was still strong, although he was beginning to weaken. Often, his left leg would lose feeling, and he would lose the ability to walk. His skin began changing color on his back. A few dark patches began appearing all over his skin. At first, these appeared to be dark bruises, but then the doctor realized that these were here to stay. Something sinister was going on inside Matthew.

On the outside, Matthew had reached full capacity. he was only two weeks away from his supposed "Due date", and he was as full as he could be. Everyone knew that Matthew was losing the ability to walk, partially because he couldn't support his weight anymore. A normal pregnant mother would gain anywhere from twenty-five to thirty-five pounds during pregnancy, Matthew had gained that much weight in his stomach alone. In his whole body, he had gained nearly twice that. This was no ordinary pregnancy. Partly because, this was male. This was serious.

"You know," Elizabeth began, "I was thinking."

"I thought you never did." Matthew said in between bites on his banana.

"Will you let me finish?" Elizabeth shouted, "I was thinking I could get us to a company facility sometime soon. Maybe I could arrange for transport. They'd have to pick you up."

"Oh really?" Matthew asked, "What Libyan Army Commander is going to let a civillian American plane land on his base?"

"It'll be quick." Elizabeth said, "We'll get one of the company's Blackbirds to take us somewhere else."

"Where do you propose we go?" Matthew asked.

"That's just it." Elizabeth said, "I was scrolling up a list of company labs that are state-of-the-art. Just good enough for someone... say you... to give birth in."

"Wait." Matthew finished his banana. "Is this what this is about? Finding someplace where I can have this baby?"

"Matthew," Elizabeth began, "Visit your options-"

"No!" Matthew said, "I refuse to go someplace else. If I have to give birth in Libya, that's fine! I don't care where I die!"

"You don't have to die!" Elizabeth said.

"Really?" Matthew snapped at her, "Really? Take a good look at me, will you? Take a good look!" Elizabeth turned to look at Matthew. "I'm almost thirty-three years old. I'm fully pregnant with a fetus that excretes toxic waste. I have no biological method of giving birth, and I cannot maintain a pregnancy for much longer. The longer I wait, the more my body gets poisoned. I've become dependent on the hormones it feeds me, so much so that I won't be able to revert to my previous state after birth!" Matthew paused, and Elizabeth could hear a lump forming in his throat, "I'm going to die, Liz." Matthew shed a tear, "I'm going to die."

"It doesn't have to be." Elizabeth stood up to comfort him, "Look, I'm just as scared for you as the next guy, but we're all depending on you. We all need you. We know you're strong. We know you can pull through. And you know all that stuff Doc is telling you? You know that? Well, he even told me he doesn't even know what he's dealing with. This unknown territory for all of us. We're doing the best we can.

Elizabeth went over and patted Matthew on the shoulder. He was crying at this point. "Oh God!" Matthew whispered in between intermittent breaths, "What's happening to me?"

"It's something that most people would consider wonderful." Elizabeth said, "You know... deep down, I always wanted a baby. I've never been pregnant, and no man I've ever been with has even consdered going that far. You've been given something most women strive for years to acheive."

"It's not my baby!" Matthew said, "It's some mindless, soulless piece of organs and flesh!"

"What if it isn't?" Elizabeth asked, "What if it turns into a beautiful human baby? What if you give birth to it, survive, and become a mother?"

"Father." Matthew corrected.

"Not from where I'm sitting." Elizabeth said, "What if that were to happen?"

Matthew paused for a minute as he tried to catch his breath, "I don't know what would happen."

"Just let this happen to you." Elizabeth said, "And if you let me take you to a company lab, you can have your baby, and then we'll make plans. Got it?"

"Fine." Matthew sniffed.

"We lost him." Stephanie said, "Do you think he'll come back?"

"I don't know." Elizabeth said.

"Dammit!" Matthew said, "We had a good lead! We just completely messed it up."

Suddenly another message appeared on the computer.Elizabeth replied, "He's still there." Elizabeth read the message.

"Why did you do that?" he asked, "That was out of nowhere."

"What did we do?" Elizabeth asked.

"You spied on me." it said, Are you playing dumb on purpose?"

"We did not spy." Elizabeth typed.

"You hacked my computer!" it said, "You made my solitaire game crash! I was winning too!"

"I'm sorry about that." Elizabeth typed, "But we really need facts."

"Don't you trust me?" it asked, "You'll get your facts."

"Fine." Elizabeth typed, "What do you have to show us?"

"This." the message read. It showed the same picture of the specimen pill. Elizabeth was unimpressed.

"You showed this to me five minutes ago." she wrote.

Look closer." the mystery hacker said.

The image on the computer screen zoomed in closer onto the pill. What looked like a grey area soon turned out to be little black and white dots. As the image zoomed in closer and the resolution grew clearer, the little dots turned out to be numbers. Elizabeth was fascinated by this.

"What does this mean?" she asked.

"It's a code." the hacker wrote back, "The four of you should figure it out."

"Four of us?" Matthew questioned, "How did he know there four-" Matthew stopped himself when he saw the security camera near the corner of the room. The camera was pointed idrectly at the four of them. Matthew waslked up to it and looked. Every time he tried to move out of the frame, the camera followed him. "Amazing." he said, "He's hacked the camera circuit too."

"Nice to see you, Matthew." the hacker wrote back.

"He knows your name too." Stephanie said.

"The camera gives me audio too, Stephanie." he wrote back, "I am in complete control."

"What does the code mean?" Elizabeth asked.

"It's basic math.", the hacker wrote back, "Look at the numbers I've sent you. One... two... three... five...seven... eleven... thirteen, they're all primes. That si, thyey're numbers whose only interger-factors are themselves and one. Now, Hot Plate should be able to tell you why I've done this."

"He's right." Hot Plate said, "Top secret government security networks use a programmed code pack which keeps intruders out through the random generation of prime numbers. That's how the system checks itself."

"Very good. Now, find a way to put those numbers into the network. Don't give them any pattern. Don't let them trace you."

"Let me handle this." Hot Plate said as he sat down in front of the computer ready to make his magic.

Matthew entered the lane with a little stair-car, which was the only one Tareq had at his disposal. Matthew marched up the stairs of the plane to find the doctor already sitting in the front seat in the cabin. He stared nervously out the window, with his feet tapping on the floor. "Hey." Matthew said, "It'll be alright."

"Sure." the doctor said not even bothering to not look out the window, "Isn't it always?"

"Do you not believe me?" Matthew asked.

"I don't know." the doctor said, "Personally I hope she drives this plane straight into the Mediterranean and kills us all so this whole thing can be over."

"What?" Matthew was surprised, "You don't mean that."

"No, I do." the doctor said, "I'm tired of hopping around from place to place. I'm tired of being a fugitive. I'm tired of this, this-"

"Modern Transition." Matthew said, "That's what Stephanie calls it."

"Yes." the doctor said, "All of it."

"I'm more than happy to leave you here." Matthew said, "Should you prefer."

"No." the doctor said, "The only reason I'm doing this is because it is the option with the greatest chance of my getting home safe."

"Suit yourself." Matthew said, "But there is no 'safe' for us at home."

"I'm sorry I spoke." the doctor said. Matthew offered no rebuttal, but just walked up to the flight deck, where Elizabeth was sitting. She was preparing for takeoff.

"It's a good evening for this isn't it?" Matthew asked, "Not too hot, not too cold, not too windy. I think things are in our favor."

"You'd think so." Elizabeth said, "But I have no idea of the weather to Athens. I fear we may have to land in a storm."

"I checked it." Matthew said, "Greece is having calm right now."

"That's there." Elizabeth said, "What about in between? How's the weather over the sea?"

"No idea." Matthew said.

"Exactly." Elizabeth warned, "This plane isn't meant to climb over 20,000 feet, and that's not high enough to take us over a storm. I don't think we have the fuel to go around it, and we don't have the hull integrity to fly under it. Do you know what that means?"

"If we encounter a storm, we have to fly through it." Matthew said.

"Yes." Elizabeth returned to the switches, "This may be the worst flight of our lives."

"I have faith." Matthew said, "Just get us through tonight."

"I'll try." Elizabeth said.

Stephanie walked up the plane to the flight deck and announced, "Everything's fine down there. This baby's got enough fuel to get us to Athens with a half-hour to spare."

"Half-hour?" Elizabeth asked, "Is that all you could give us?"

"That's as much as she can hold." Stephanie said, "The tank's full."

"If we had more time, we might be able to avoid a major storm." Elizabeth griped.

"What?" Stephanie asked.

"She's convinced we're going to hit a major storm system sometime along this flight."

"It could happen!" Elizabeth said, "I'm not convinced, I just like to imagine we prepared for the possibility!"

"Fine." Stephanie said, "Maybe we can use the extra fuel to round a storm system. As long as we have some when we get to Athens, we're okay."

"Fine." Elizabeth said, "It'll probably be enough anyway."

"What about Hot Plate?" Matthew asked, "Is he coming?"

"Yeah." Stephanie said, "He told me that he's going to try and smuggle the weapons I've stocked through security at the airport. He says he knows how, and he's really going to try it. He's loading the stuff onto our plane now."

"Great!" Elizabeth said, "More weight! I have a plane stocked with weapons, and six individuals!"

"Six?" Matthew asked.

"Your baby." Elizabeth said, "It's heavy enough to count as an individual."

"It's about eight pounds now." Matthew said, "Eight pounds of semi-organic, semi-fabricated life does not count as an individual."

"Fine!" Elizabeth said, "I wasn't preparing for this!"

"Calm down." Stephanie said, "The estimates for the fuel mileage are for a plane stocked with half a ton of cargo. We're slightly under that. In any case, we probably have more fuel left than we initially thought."

"Fine." Elizabeth said, "Tell me when we're all ready to go."

"Hello my friends!" Tareq's voice crackled over the radio, "Can you hear me?"

"We read you good, Tareq." Matthew said, "How are we looking from your tower?"

"Okay by me!" Tareq said, "You're already on the runway, so you're all set to go!"

"Great." Matthew said, "And how's that phone call looking for us?"

"The minute you're in the air, I'll make the call to Tripoli to let you go." Tareq said, "You won't have to worry about their defenses."

"Thanks." Matthew said, "So, are we going to survive this flight?"

"My sources say yes." Tareq said, "everything's looking a-okay for your run. Of course, after you get past the border, there's nothing I can help you with."

"We appreciate all you've already done." Matthew said, "and I'll meet up with you in the future, Tareq. I promise."

"Thank you." he replied, "I am grateful that you were able to return to the land of your triumph. I am grateful that you could see an old friend again. And I am grateful for your presence, for your child, and for your opportunity. Thank you for everything."

"I should be thanking you." Matthew said, "Just turn on the lights for us, and make that call, and we can say 'Godspeed' to each other once more."

"Godspeed." Tareq's voice crackled on the radio one last time, before Elizabeth changed the frequency.

"I'm in." Hot Plate entered and spoke, "I'm closing the door. We're ready to fly."

"Cool." Elizabeth said, "The runway lights are on. I'm turning her on."

"That's what he said." Matthew said.

"Shut up." Stephanie said as she left the flight deck, "Stupid puns are the last thing I need on this trek."

About a half-hour later, their plane was still up in the air. They were flying high over the Libyan desert at night. However, their GPS was working fine, and Elizabeth could see where they were. She looked at the map and smiled. "The coast is less than fifty miles away now." she said, "I think we can call ourselves in." she nodded to Matthew who was in the other seat.

Matthew nodded back. He reached for the radio, which he had mounted on the board of the plane. "This is Agent Martinson calling in." Matthew said, "Do I have any replies?"

The radio remained dead silent. Only the crackling of static could be heard. Elizabeth shrugged. "Maybe they're not there yet." she said, "They're waiting for us, for sure."

"I know." Matthew said, "I would just prefer it if they knew who we were, and why not to shoot missiles at us."

"Too right." Elizabeth said, "We're about fifty miles away from the coast now."

"I'll try again when we're closer." Matthew said.

At the moment, Stephanie came up from the cabin to the flight deck. "We need a status update back here. Some passengers are getting restless."

"You mean just Doc?" Matthew asked.

"Yes." Stephanie said, "Doc is the only restless passenger. but he needs a status update."

"Fifty miles from the coast." Elizabeth said, "We're almost out of this hellhole."

"I'll tell him." Stephanie said, "How long until we're out?"

"Ten minutes, given our current speed." Elizabeth said, "We're making great time."

"Good." Stephanie said, "Let's just keep it that way."

The radio crackled again. No voices were heard. Matthew and Elizabeth just focused on the clouds outside the window. The crackling continued and became omnipresent to them. Suddenly, a voice tuned in on the other side. It was some man speaking in Arabic. He was shouting at them. "This is agent Martinson, Commander Tareq Abdullah should have called ahead for us."

Matthew set down the radio, but the man's shouting continued. Matthew and Elizabeth both looked at each other with looks of vague worry. "'Tareq called ahead'?" Elizabeth mocked him, "You sound like you're making dinner reservations."

Matthew glared at her, and took the radio again. "Repeat. This is Agent Martinson requesting clearance to leave."

The shouting continued. "Commander Tareq Abdullah should have alerted you to our presence."

The radio went dead again after that. Matthew couldn't hear the voices anymore. "How about those damn CB's huh? Every Libyan teen has got them."

"No, be quiet." Matthew said.The radio crackled a bit more, and then Matthew heard one more voice. He turned the radio so that Elizabeth could hear him too.

"Americans." the distinctively middle-eastern voice said, "What brings you here?"

"We are American refugees from the airport of Tareq Adbullah." Matthew said, "He should have called ahead to alert you of our presence."

"Tareq Abdullah... he would not share with imperialist cowards!" the voice shouted.

"What a greeting, indeed." Elizabeth said, "So cheery here."

"I don't understand." Matthew said, "Did he call?"

"No." the man said, "Tareq Abdullah is a servant of the great leader! Not a western pig such as yourself!"

"You're making a mistake. We're refugees." Matthew said.

"You cause refugees!" the man shouted, "Day after day, the Americans rape another country with their bombs and rockets, kill children and bury the world! We live for the destruction of the US of A!"

"Yeah." Elizabeth said, "this is not going to go over well."

"Will you let us by?" Matthew asked.

"You shall never leave these borders!" the man shouted, "You imperialist murderer! You shall all rot away deep under the Earth! We shall kill you before you leave! Turn back now, or face our great leader's wrath!"

"We have clearance to get through!" Matthew shouted back.

"Face our missiles, agent Martinson! Fear Libya!" the man shouted once more before hanging up.

"Yeah." Elizabeth said, "That was not good."

"No." Matthew said, "Not at all."

"I've never had a rendezvous with a terrorist before." Elizabeth said feigning calm, "And now they're going to nuke our plane!" Elizabeth was now shouting.

"Calm down, calm down!" Matthew said, "No need to panic!"

"Perfect time to panic!" Elizabeth screamed from the top of her voice, "We're all going to die! They're shooting cruise missiles at us!"

"We can avoid them!" Matthew said, "Cruise missiles are for hitting big stationary targets anyway!"

"We're still going to die!" Elizabeth screamed, "Why didn't Tareq call?!"

"Calm down, calm down!"

Stephanie, who had heard the screaming, came rushing up to the flight deck. "What's going on?" she commanded.

"They're shooting missiles at us, and we're dead!" Elizabeth was screaming and crying.

"Not necessarily." Matthew said.

"Yes necessarily." Stephanie said, "We're boned."

Cool!  Are you planning on picking up the story where it left off?