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Kidd, I hope you aren’t too busy because I am arranging this meeting. Outside the window Lexi heard a strange noise. It sounded like branches cracking. She looked out and felt panicked. There on a branch was an owl. It looked like the same kind that had been outside of her window at home. Her response to overcome fear was anger. She threw open the window and shouted at the owl, “Get the fuck out of here bird! Leave me alone!”
    She closed the window and turned back into the room. The day’s events played heavily in her mind. Physically and emotionally exhausted and unable to keep her eyes open much longer, she decided to sleep in Kate’s bed. Her plan for the morning was to gather up some of the cash, the coin and then make her flight. She knew that she needed a good night’s rest.
    The following morning she rose early, packed the coin and a few personal items in her backpack. She also packed a few days’ worth of clothes into a small suitcase. Marcie had returned her call and reported that everything was fine. Lexi pursued the adventure with a renewed vigor and with a sense that she had finally gained some control of her fate.
    She made the flight to Miami along with her connection to Colombia. Her plane landed uneventfully in Medellin. The customs officers grilled her on her reason for arrival, to which Lexi simply responded for tourism. One of the men made Lexi uneasy as he kept looking at her as if he were trying to identify her. She hastily walked out of the airport to the lines of taxi’s, which were all taken. All she wanted was to just get a hotel room and then figure out how to meet Kidd. Lexi looked around and felt excited to be in Colombia. It was like nothing she had ever seen or imagined.
    The open space in front of the airport was packed with people and the different language made it seem as if Lexi had found herself in the midst of a swarm of bees. A middle aged man dressed in shades of khaki and white approached her. He wiped the sweat from his brow and spoke English with a strong accent “Señorita, instead of a taxi, I have a car for hire. I will be your guide and I can take you anyplace you like in town.”
    “Right now, I’m looking for a nice hotel. If you can take me to a four or five star hotel in a good and safe part of town, I’ll gladly take your offer. Can you do that?”
    “Si Señorita. Certainly, my car is right over there. She walked across the street with him to the large black sedan and opened the back door. As soon as she climbed in she knew she was in trouble. Two men were in the back of the car. A thick sweaty hand covered her mouth and she could feel that the skin was rough and rasp-like. Another man held her tight by pulling her arms back behind her. She could smell the stench of alcohol and tobacco on them. The hand on her mouth had a bitter and salty taste that seeped into her mouth. She tried kicking wildly to get the door to stay open, but it was too late. She felt the car moving and was panicked by the realization that they were now speeding away out of the city.

Chapter Three
     
    There isn’t anything that can prepare a person for actually getting shot at. No, getting shot at was not like the movies. There, among the cacophony that accompanies the battlefield of fiction a single shot rings out. The hero ducks behind a handy obstacle just in the nick of time. Somehow, among the mass of confusion he miraculously maintains complete focus and intuition of knowing just which shot is aimed at him.
    For Kidd it was nothing like the old movies on TV. Those were the days, long ago. The faded old couch with fabric that couldn’t be described as quite tannish, or greenish, or brownish.
    It was more like a hideous mixture of all of them. As if some blind and drunken upholsterer had stretched something that resembled a soft burlap, over cushions that were rejected by the cushion factory because of their odd and lumpy shapes. In fact, these were the scars only achieved after a