October, in the Bay Area, does not disappoint. The transition on the year might not bring the change of leaves and the first dusting of snow - as it does in other states and cities - but it does bring a respite from the fog pushing in through the gate. Past Alcatraz, where the girls had spent a night watching two of their group tied expertly as a film crew got in a scene at “The Rock.” A sequel to an 80s flick where, again, tourists would be put in peril and Nick Cage would rush to the rescue.
The fog would, only rarely, push all the way through the bay - in October - to kiss the shores of Berkeley - where the girls met and formed their bonds of fun and friendship.
And, speaking of fog, Kyla was waking at Natalie’s fortress-like home in Sausalito feeling more than a little foggy. It was as if there was something important she had to do. Kyla just couldn’t seem to remember it ….
“Ladies ….” Comes a voice from the kitchen. “Rise and shine!”
The molecules of coffee drifted through the home which clung to the hills above Sausalito like a swallow’s nest that is affixed to the underside of a bridge. Along the street, that attracts tourists and joggers to enjoy a shoreline jaunt and views of the San Francisco skyline, there are - occasional - stairs and ramps that access the homes above the hamlet.
Sausalito has the feel of a small town, removed from the frenetic Bay Area. Mt. Tamalpias keeps the fog around the corner, most days. Ships dock offshore, kayaks circumnavigate Angel Island and house-boats mingle with yachts along the north side of the point where there always seem to be a collection of people barbecuing or sipping wine who have no real hurry to get somewhere.
Small buoys move with the tides just offshore. Most are empty but, occasionally, a small, private boat will be tied up to a buoy. Perhaps someone visiting from one of the several yacht clubs around the bay - Redwood City, Richmond, Oyster Point. They drift up … tie up …. Stay for a bit … and move on.
That “tie up” part was going to take on a new meaning for several old friends on this October Sunday.
Kyla had been up earlier than Natalie … who was now on her second call to her friends to gather for breakfast. She’d watched the first hint of orange in the sky as the darkness gave way to a brilliant sun rising just south of Mt. Diablo … the East Bay sentinel that rises to over 3500 feet above the Bay Area.
Kyla could use some coffee. She stepped over her bags and headed downstairs the the pastries and fruit Natalie had delivered.
“Bags?” She thought, for a moment. “Why did I pack two giant duffle bags for a weekend?” … came a small voice in her head. That voice was quickly drowned out by the laughter of her friends …
“Quite a place here, Nat!” Said Lisa … “A private elevator the only entrance?”
Natalie had been living in her nest above the town long enough to have installed a private, street side elevator. A four-digit code and a button … viola … you’re in.
“Just that and the service elevator used for moving things … “
“A little ….. isolating, isn’t it?” said Heather …
Natalie looked away … thought for a moment. “Private … The way I like it.”
An extra moment of silence was broken. Everyone knew why Natalie preferred the isolation. How were they going to get her to join the world again?
No one knew … but Kyla chimed in … “It’s beautiful. Great view! Let’s hit the coffee and cake!”
Diets be damned this weekend. Natalie had a spread of pastries, fruit, small muffins, and waiting coffee framed by a bay view window with views that took in half of San Francisco Bay.
The ladies chatted … caught up on old times … tried to decide what to do.
‘Sunday … free day!” Said Natalie. “I always ride, today, and so … I was thinking … we’ve dozens of adventures from which to choose. We head out and check out the sights … come back here for lunch … compare notes … then it’s nothing but relaxing and enjoying the afternoon until dinner?”
Everyone know that Natalie loved her “riding time.” Ever since she’d been dealing with her anxieties it was her escape. Her way of finding her center and relaxing. Everyone had their own agenda’s anyway. Natalie just HAD to swim every day. No days off there. Heather had more than a few antique and book stores she wanted to see in town. Kyla; hiking and bouldering at the headlands. Mira … Mira was a bit enigmatic.
“Mira … why don’t you tag along with me…” asked Heather. There’s tons of great places to hit just down the street.
Mira seemed pre-occupied but said “yes” and the ladies planned their adventures while Natalie took a call.
“Is it Mike?” Someone asked?
Natalie staved off the question and talked on her cell phone out of earshot. That was, until everyone gathered close to her and gave her a hard time about Mike Briar calling.
“He just wanted to check on us after last night …” said Natalie after she was done with the conversation.
“Oh … I’m sure …” said Lisa.
“So ….” Continued Lisa … “point me towards the Marin Club.”
Lisa was a member of the famous “Olympic Club” in San Francisco. That gave her access to other pools in the Bay Area and she’d never, before, tried out the Marin Club’s salt-water pool that lay adjacent to the port.
It was settled …
Natalie was off to ride … Lisa would change into her one-piece suit and swim … Mira and Heather were off to the shops in town …. And a somewhat foggy Kyla was going to hike and climb the Headlands serpentine outcrops to clear her head.
Retreating to their rooms … Natalie to her master bedroom, which also looked out on the bay, and her friends to their own bedrooms …. One by one each emerged with clothes ready for their day.
Lisa in her blue, swimsuit … covered - of course - with her tight jeans and a white blouse. ‘Can’t be walking through town in a swimsuit, after all.
Mira and Heather in short skirts and comfortable walking shoes … with lose-fitting silk blouses, ready for a day of strolling through the town.
Natalie emerged in her full riding regalia … tight riding pants, black blouse, gloves, leather boots. She’d have looked right at home in an English manor as at her fortress / home in Sausalito.
Kyla was getting ready to head out as well. She went straight for her own bag. One of the duffels in her room. Not even thinking about the other bag which lay next to hers.
Then …. Her phone rang.
Kyla had forgotten she’d even packer her cell phone. Did she even own a cell phone with that sound?
The ringing was coming from the other bag. The bag that looked almost identical to her own … slightly larger …. Much heavier …. “when did I pack that?” She thought.
Unzipping the bag there was a vibrating phone with a quiet chime buzzing in a side pocket … before Kyla reader for the phone she reached inside the back and grabbed a handful of the contents. Rope, leather straps, CUFFS!, Ball gags? (Assorted colors of ball gags!)
“What the HELL?” Kyla said, out loud, as she reached for the phone. A phone she didn’t recognize. She was about the yell out to her friends that she must’ve picked up someone else’s bag when she took the ferry over … but, when Kyla answer the phone there was a woman’s voice.
“Kyla? Kyla Mirdad?” Came the voice.
“Yes …” began a very confused Kyla.
“Listen very carefully, dear …” continued the unidentified voice on the flip phone, “…Ransom.”
“Ransom” replied Kyla … in a soft monotone.
“Yes, dear …” continued the voice from the phone. “I’ll be going now but you know what to do.”
Kyla, slowly, placed the small, grey, cell phone back in the large duffel containing a myriad of binding supplies ….
As the ladies gathered in the foyer, ready to descend the elevator and begin their North-Bay adventures, Kyla called down.
“I’ll be hiking from here after a shower. Catch you all this afternoon!”
Natalie had given Lisa, Kyla, Heather, and Mira the code to get in. The only other person who knew the four-digit key was Mike; but he did not figure into the ladies weekend.
From out in the cove a lady with binoculars watched the upper window of Natalie’s home. As her yacht moved, slowly up and down with the gentle waves, she, too, hung up her phone and she watched as Kyla returned to her room, opened a sliding glass door, waved in the direction of the gleaming white yacht, and returned to the nest-like fortress on the hill.
Her minion was in motion. All she had to do … was sip a bit of wine on the deck, and wait. She changed into a sleek, one-piece, black swimsuit … felt the morning sun on her legs … and waited.
Kyla waited until the door closed, “Goodbyes” were said, and her friends scattered to the city and stable. Natalie would be off, over the hill riding near the coast. Mia and Heather would be a bit trickier. Being together they’d take some extra thought. Lisa, though, would be on her own - at the Marin Club pool by the bay. Being by the bay made it perfect. That was her first target.
Lisa was wearing her blue, UC Berkeley Speedo one-piece under her jeans and blouse when she left Natalie’s. The ladies reached the street level … punched in the code and existed to tourists and sun.
Mira and Heather branched off towards the shops while Natalie waited for her Uber to take her on the two mile ride over the hill to Gerbode Valley … which opened to the ocean and gave riders a spectacular view of one of the last untouched places in the north bay. It had been slated to be turned into houses and shopping malls, but a group of dedicated residents saved it and now it housed only stables and nature centers.
The shadows were still long and the ladies had no need for the tourist dance. Dodging and weaving before the crowds that would soon fill the streets and curio shops. Heather and Mia mapped their excursion … clothing stores, a small gallery with stoic statues watching from behind glass. All the things the rich spend on. There were some great, everyday, shops in downtown Suasalito … The Italian Deli on the corder of First and Main had been there for thirty years. Great coffee and sandwiches that were out of this world. That was where Mike Briar was when the ladies passed. “Mira! … : he shouted … just after getting his coffee and fumbling for his bag … Actually, Mira was the only name he remembered off the top of his head. It took him a little while longer to go through his mental flashcards and recall Heather and Lisa. His focus was always on Natalie. He’d been trying to make inroads there for years … no luck,
“Is Nat with you?” Mike asked
“She riding today …”. Mike knew, right away, where she was. Her refuge. Her “safe place.” Riding in the small valley, over the hill, was the one place where she didn’t seem to be stressed. The rest of the time she was like a gopher … only popping her head out of her home to check for danger. Anxiety’s a weird thing.
Kyla unzipped the larger duffel and pulled from it several, long, blue yoga straps. Some climbing rope, a leather blindfold, and a blue ball gag that dangled down revealing a chin strap to help insure the wearer kept it in place. She, finally, picked up a small container with four vials filled with some kind of green liquid. Kyle knew she’d have to silence her friend effectively. Why? She wasn’t sure. Things were more like a dream now, for Kyla. She was on a mission …. Instructions given and carried out like a well-written computer program.
Descending the lift to street level, Kyla existed and went right instead of joining the current taking tourists and residents to the downtown. A quarter mile down the promenade, where she knew it would be - how did she know? Kyla wasn’t sure - at one of the public piers for tying up small boats and fishing, there was a launch waiting. About half the size of a coast guard shallow water boat … only twenty feet long, it had a covered area for the pilot and a few seats around the back edge. Perfect for fishing the shallows of the bay. Or for carrying off, say, a kidnapped friend.
Kyla reached under the seat … the keys were there. Her destination … the salt-water pool at the Marin Club …. Built right on the water - it gave members all the excitement of swimming the bay without the possibility of getting nipped by a seal … or something bigger.
Lisa checked in …. Went down to the locker rooms and stripped down to her one-piece swimsuit. A cold, morning swim in the salt water pool was going to be SO amazing. A bit more amazing, this particular Sunday than she would have guessed. But, amazing nonetheless.
Lisa reached the pool deck. Most of the other members were content with the heated, chlorinated, pool upstairs but Lisa was no stranger to cold, salt water. She actually sought out open-water swim challenges. The pool was built like the old Sutro Bathes of San Francisco …. A very large, tiled, salt water area that slowly gave way to a grate that filtered sea water from San Francisco Bay.
Shark attacks were, virtually, unheard of within the confines of the Golden Gate. But seals … they were another thing altogether. Seals act like big dogs and their personalities, like dogs, range from meek to aggressive. Every once in a while a seal would come up on a swimmer and take a little nip. Nothing life-threatening, mind you. But enough to drive you out of the water and question why the hell you woke up at six in the morning just to freeze your ass off in some cold bay-water only to be bit by a pinniped.
Kyla piloted her launch to the gate that separated the Marin Club’s salt pool - “The Tides” the members called it - from the open bay water. The gate was routinely opened but, today, it resembled something out of a medieval castle moat. Letting none through.
Kyla moved as if she was a skilled spy. True … she’d left Berkeley with a Bachelors in chemistry … but her confidence, certainty of purpose, and plan were calculated, efficient, and soon would be opening the gate and Kyla would be leaving with her quary.
Parking her launch she received another call on her “new” cell phone. A few last-minute instructions.
Walking up the side steps to the Marin Club … she saw a boy of, about, eighteen standing by a service entrance. Kyla’s face sported a wide smile … her voice went up about an octave, she approached and said … “Oh ….Hi. would you be a dear and let me zip on down to the pool deck? I was swimming here thins morning and seemed to have left my phone.”
“Uh, …” he stammered. “Uhm, ma’am … Uhm …. You have to go through the main entrance ….”
“Oh, PLEASE, …” continued Kyla … “A handsome young man such as yourself can surely make a quick decision that will save me all the time of going up ALL those stairs and around through the front.”
He stammered again … then, he blushed. “Ok … but please make it quick ….”
“Thank you … handsome.” She said as she bounded past him and her face returned to the expressionless woman-on-a-mission it was a few moments before.
Kyla reached the stands above the pool deck … and saw only Lisa below, doing laps in the salt water enclosure.
Across the pool was a spine board … used to secure swimmers who may have injured a vertebrae while diving.
Almost as if Kyla was going through a script …. She went to the the room marked “Filter Room.” Levers were thrown and Kyla reached down and picked up one the many bottles of chemicals the pool maintenance crew had scattered about. …. Kyla poured a bleach / chlorine mixture into an obscure section of the humming machine … Closed the door behind her … and waited.
Outside, on the pool deck, a smell wafted through the open air enclosure …. It was, indeed, wafting through the entire facility. Not enough chlorine to be dangerous. After all; chlorine in high enough concentrations can inflict permanent damage on lungs. No … this was just enough to trigger alarms.
A few minutes later, flashing strobe lights and a fire alarm, blared through the Marin Club. Lisa looked up and saw the blinking strobes on the walls.
Lisa swam to the nearest side of the pool and lifted herself out. Standing straight, dripping with the salt water in her blue speedo, she took off her swim cap and her blonde hair splayed out behind her.
“Kyla!” Lisa, hauling herself out, found herself face to face with her friend.
“Did you change your mind and come for a workout here? You picked a hell of a day! Looks like there’s a fire or something.”
“Or, something …: Kyla said.
As Lisa looked to the pool and the lights blinking on the wall Kyla reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out one of the small vials.
By the time Lisa looked back at Kyla … Kyla took the vial and snapped it open under Lisa’s nose. Lisa … still breathing hard from her swim, inhaled a deep whiff of … something. It was enough. Lisa felt wobbly … disoriented … Kyla helped her down as her knees gave way and her strong arms tried to support her weight.
“whaa … what the ….”
Lisa tried to get some coherent words out … Kyla, meanwhile, went about her task.
The spine board was next to her on the pool deck. Kyla positioned Lisa’s frame length wise along the board.
Reaching over Lisa she pulled tight each strap … securing Lisa as if she was a swimmer in need of immobilization from a spinal injury.
Normally, if a person was strapped into a spine board - and completely lucid - they could easily remove the straps themselves. This is where Kyla used some of her new equipment from her well-supplied duffel.
Using the blue yoga straps she encircled Lisa’s wrists several times, then cinched them tight to the side of the board.
Next, two more straps … one for each ankle. Lisa was immobilized further with straps added above her elbows and knees. A bit overkill, considering the board, itself, had six thick straps at regular intervals along the length of her body.
Lisa’s head was cushioned, on each side, by foam pads. Usually meant to secure a swimmer’s neck in case of injury.
Kyla looked around the pool deck. The young man who’d helped her was rushing down the stairs.
“We gotta get outta here! What’s going on?”
Kyla went into character seamlessly.
“Oh, thank goodness you’re here!”
Kyla knew she had only a few more minutes before the gas would wear off.
“My friend slipped on the pool deck when the alarm went off. Help me carry her to the side exit.”
Lifting a dazed Lisa, who was more than a little immobile on the spine board, they carried her to the exit that was just beyond the gate where the sea water went in and where Kyla left her launch …
Lisa’s eyes began to clear a bit. The fog began to lift. Kyla saw this and knew.
“You’d better go and make sure there’s no one else in there …” said Kyla to the young man who’d just done half her work for her.
“Are you going to be OK? I’ll get the paramedics down here right away when they arrive….” Said the handsome, heroic, and so-very gullible young man.
Lisa’s head was clearing now and she attempted to raise herself. Attempted being the key word. Lisa was strapped and secured to the spine board far more than was necessary ….
“Kyla! KYLA!!! What the mmmmmmph ….” Was all Lisa managed to get out, before a blue ball gag stopped her vocalizations.
MMMMphhhn. Mmmmm MMMPH!”
Kyla raised Lisa’s head, just enough, to secure the buckle behind her long, blonde hair …. Lisa began struggling in earnest now. Trying to arch and twist. Trying for some hint of freedom. But Kyla had cinched the straps beyond tight. Lisa was immobilized and pulled over to the launch after Kyla buckled the chin strap on her blue ball gag. A gag that, by amazing coincidence, perfectly matcher her Cal speedo.
By the time paramedics reacher the place where a confused young man was directing them, a small launch was speeding towards a yahoo off the shore of Sausalito.
Kyla, piloting the launch while a straining, struggling, tall blond swimmer lay wiggling behind her.
On the yacht, a lady set down her wine glass … walked, leisurely, to the stern and waited.
As Kyla pulled along side and the launch was secure to the yacht, Kyla and a dark-haired lady in a one-pice, black swimsuit, lifted the spine board with the struggling and “mmmmphing” Lisa aboard.
“You’ve done quite well, Kyla …” began the lady in black. Lisa’s struggles stopped as she tried to comprehend what was happening.
As they carried Lisa inside the lady in black said; “Three more small chores for you this morning, my dear …. The next is, currently, on horseback.”
“Yes, mi-lady.” Was all Kyla said.
Lisa watched this entire exchange, tried to figure out what the hell was happening. Twenty minuted ago she was swimming in a pool in Sausalito … Now, she was straining against velcro and yoga straps while wearing her swimsuit on yacht off the coast.
Lisa’s board was placed on top of a bed in a stateroom below deck.
“OFF, now, dear Kyla. I can secure our guest from here.”
With that, Kyla went back to the main deck and headed for her launch, while the lady in black looked down at her “guest.”
“Welcome, my dear. Now … how do you like to be …… restrained?”
To Be Continued...