Draft

Kim and Sofie were attentive to the tighter security arrangements Tolson mentioned, but the only real change seemed to be how their tormentors would look at a scrap of paper from their pocket before punching the buttons that would let them out, which meant a daily code change. Sofie almost despaired but Kim explained (via Dory to maintain secrecy) that the change did not make their task any harder at all. They just had to pick a range and try all the combos in it night after night until the daily shifting combo happened to fall into that range.

Next to the door leaving the clinic was a square keypad with the digits 0 through 9, and the letters A through F, and Kim knew from listening that the combo was only four keystrokes. But as soon as she started trying a very vivid daydream of time appeared in her mind. To Kim her future was like a self-assembling house of cards. She could see the top, ten nights later, when doing the range from 7000 to 7FFF she punched 7BC6 and the door clicked open. i

But Kim wanted out that very night, so she started trying the range from 1000 to 1FFF. The house of cards collapsed and assembled itself again. This time the answer was four days away. Kim began trying higher ranges, and got jackpots ranging from two days to two weeks. Then in her mind she saw the number that was their ticket home that very night: D1FC.

But it was November and they were wearing nothing but slippers and hospital gowns. That itself was part of Tolson’s security. Kim told Sofie to gather blankets and towels and whatever else she could find to create makeshift extra clothing to shield them from the cold. “This is going to frighten Agent Tolson to no end,” said Kim as they both bundled up. “This, and especially what we do after this.” She could see the events leading to their escape from the camp stacking in her mind.

Sofie said she was fine with Tolson being scared shitless. They stepped out into Wyoming on a cold November night. The girls could see the clinic was one of hundreds of long single-story sixplexes with tarpaper walls, each one surrounded by drainage ditches crossed by gangplanks. Some had their interiors lit. Sofie wanted to knock on a door begging for help but Kim shook her head. Instead Kim chose a greenhouse that was empty but locked. She quietly told her friend, “We have special talents now just like Gabriel and Dory do. I know you can break anything you touch. So break that padlock.”

Sofie didn’t believe her, but the lock broke in her hands anyway. “How do you like them apples?” Sofie husked. “If I knew I could do that we’d a left that hellhole any time we wanted.” Kim shook her head again and explained it was an electric lock, so if Sofie broke it, they’d still be in the clinic. “So how did you get us out of there?”

“I’ll explain when we get inside,” Kim said.

Sofie was disappointed that the greenhouse was cold. There was a vegetable garden inside, but the glass only kept away the snow and wind.

In just one half hour they were discovered by the fellow who maintained this greenhouse. Kim bowed deeply and said, "Hello, Mr. Kaneko, please forgive the intrusion. We were held in another part of the camp and we escaped, but as you can see we are not dressed for the cold so we came here by necessity."

Mr. Kaneko’s initial anger at finding Kim and Sofie hiding in his garden began to faded to pity when Kim went on to tell him they had been held prisoner in the clinic since June. Not even the first wartime internees arrived until August. Still, he had questions. "Who are you? And how did you know my name?"

"I am Kimberly Zinter," she said, "and this is my friend Sofie Krause." As for his second question she chose a falsehood, since the truth would make no sense to him. "The place were we were held had records and we saw them. I know you are George Kaneko, and I know that you and your family, through simple hard work, had made a good life on your Washington State strawberry farm. But after the internment was announced you were tricked into selling you land for pennies on the dollar. Now you and family, American citizens every one of you, are forced to crowd into a single-room in barracks, lit by a single bulb. You have to shit, shower and shave with other families in community facilities with no partitions for privacy, and eat in a common mess hall that serves the whole block. And all this happened out of the fear that descended on the country in the wake of Pearl Harbor."

"Home of the brave," Sofie added, with a sneer. "And Tolson bragged of making it all come to be."

"I'm very sorry," said Kaneko, "but you cannot stay here. When they find you they will punish me."

"I understand," said Kim. "Please, Mr. Kaneko, do your daughters have any clothing to spare?"

"They are too young to have anything that would fit you. But I will give you spare garments of my own, even shoes and jackets, and when you are captured, as you certainly will be, you can say you stole them from my greenhouse."

"You are very kind."

The only gap in the fence was along the west side of the camp away from the train station. It was guarded by two towers with high-power searchlights while seven lesser-equipped towers guarded the rest.

Kim and Sofie made for the fence along the train tracks, choosing a section equidistant between two guard towers.

They were spotted but none of the guards shot right away. Sofie, by simply touching a lamp post, took out the light overhead by remotely pulling the wires. After that, she merely touched a fence post to snap it off at the base. The fence dangled suspended by the two nearest posts, permitting the girls to roll under. The guards began firing, but none scored hits in the darkness as the girls ran for the tracks. The guards couldn’t leave their posts and reported the fence breach by telephone.

There they found the manual turnout switch used to move trains onto the siding to unload new internees for the camp and Sofie broke the metal left/right sign. With the reflective sign no longer indicating the position of the switch Sofie threw a lever to divert traffic to the siding just before the next train arrived in a ridiculously opportune coincidence that would said more about Kim’s new sense of timing than luck. The train veered onto the side track as expected, and the engineer applied the brakes with a will, causing an empty gondola car to stop right in front of the girls just long enough for them to climb inside and get out of sight. Then the train went into reverse.

When it was was entirely on the main line the engineer manually moved the shunt from left to right. The train resumed operation before anyone running the camp knew it had stopped.