text: "ISABELLE CARTIER, THE HOUSE IS SURROUNDED. COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!" Jolene bolts awake beside me. She stares at me in disbelief. "You're still here." I nod. "I'm not going to leave you behind again." "WE KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE MS. CARTIER. COME OUT NOW OR WE'LL BE COMING IN." "We'll see about that," I mutter as I pick up my phone and press the self-destruct button for the house. "What did you just do?" Jolene asks. "This building will self-destruct in five minutes," says a computer voice. "They can't catch us if they think we're dead." We get up and calmly make our way to the living room. I have an emergency bag packed already in the basement and I stored all the jewels I have stolen in a case near it. I didn't want to leave so soon, but I wasn't going to let the cops catch me because I wasn't prepared. Where's the fun in that? Jolene grabs her clothes and follows me as I lead her into the basement. The basement is attached to a network of caves and tunnels I constructed in case of an emergency like this one. When the house self-destructs, the rubble from the explosion will cover the caves. I also set up explosives near the entrance of the caves to make sure no one would find anything. I rigged the self-destruct sequence to cover up my coverup on purpose. "This building will self-destruct in three minutes," says my cousin, the computer voice. It's a little joke I like to tell myself since I am a very realistic android. The real Isabelle Cartier built me before she died. She gave me her name and all of her memories in the hopes that I could steal jewels for her while she went back to Jolene. She died before she ever saw Jolene again. I grab my emergency bag and the jewels and I urge Jolene to go into the caves. Once she's inside, I follow and blow the entrance up behind me so the police can't find our escape route. We walk until the blast from my house self-destructing shakes the ground beneath our feet. The real Isabelle built stabilizers into my legs, so I don't fall but Jolene does. I help her up. She says nothing about my ability to balance while things are exploding. It seems she's more concerned with other matters. "How did they figure out it was you who stole the gems from the museum?" she asks. "I'm not sure. But now they think we're dead. We can slip away unnoticed." "They'll comb the rubble looking for you." I shrug, "by the time they finish digging we'll be long gone." She stops dead in her tracks. "Long gone? To where? Don't I get a say?" "Not if they find out you slept over last night." She checks her pockets, then she frantically checks them again. "My phone..." "It's okay." I start walking again so she has no choice but to keep following me. It's not like she'd have much of a choice anyway since this is now a tunnel with only one true exit. I built a myriad of fake tunnels and fake exits to throw people off my scent. Every other exit I built will explode when someone tries to use it. A little bit heavy on the murder, sure, but that's what it takes to for a jewel thief be safe these days. "They'll know I was with you." "We're getting out of the city today." "Where will we go?" "I bought and island in the Caribbean using an alias. We can get there undetected." "What about the border?" "Let me worry about that. Let's get to the end of the tunnel, get some breakfast, and make our escape." I take Jolene through a series of twists and turns as we head towards the only real exit to this maze. The exit of my tunnel is on the PATH near Toronto's Union Station. There are parts of the PATH that are close to Lake Ontario. We can slip away unnoticed while the cops are still digging through the rubble of my house. I'm about to exit when I notice that the only clothes Jolene brought with her are impractical for an escape. She's wearing my shirt, which she slept in. And she's holding her dress and a pair of high heels. She'll need something more comfortable if she's going to move around. "Men's seven, right?" "What?" "Your shoe size." "You remembered?" "Yes. And... women's medium for everything else?" She nods. I change into the clothes I brought with me. Since the clothes I'm wearing are the only clothes I brought with me, Jolene will need something else. Fortunately, I'm not far from a Winners. I zip in, grab what I need, and zip back out. The clothes are basic but they should be comfortable and easy to move in. I can pick some more clothing up when we stop in the States in a week or so. Jolene changes into the new clothes. We go to the Tim Hortons next to the Hockey Hall of Fame and grab breakfast. We carry a conversation in whispers that are easily drowned out by the noises of the other customers. "So... what's the plan?" she asks. "Board my boat, take the St. Lawrence River out to sea and ride all the way down to the island." "You make it sound easy. What about supplies?" "Already covered. There's enough food and water to last us for a month. And we can always catch fish if we want some variety. And we'll be stopping in the States in about a week." "What kind of food did you pack?" "Dried beans, pasta, canned goods, I also picked up a few dehydrated things the last time I went to an outdoors store. I'm not sure how dehydrated crème brûlée tastes, but we're about to find out." "This is insane even for you. You know that, right?" "What is? The preparedness?" "The leaving like it's not even an inconvenience." "I'm taking you with me this time." "But you were prepared to leave at the drop of a hat." "Because we're jewel thieves. Would you rather go to prison?" She sighs. When we're finished our breakfast, we put our trash in the proper receptacles. After that, we take the PATH to the waterfront. My boat is moored near the Beaver Tails place. We get Beaver Tails, then we board my boat. I drive us out into Lake Ontario, which is surprisingly calm for this time of year. Jolene is out on deck watching the waves. When we're in the middle of the lake heading towards Kingston, I go out to her with a warm blanket and a cup of hot tea. I wrap the blanket around her, kiss her shoulder, and hand her the tea. "You'll freeze out here," I say. "I can't believe we're leaving just like that." "If the authorities catch us, you can call it a kidnapping." She gives me a look. "What do you want me to say?" I ask. She shakes her head and looks away. "I don't know if there was another option that would have kept us out of jail." "I need some time alone," she says. "Okay... I'll just be... you know... steering the boat. I'll... be up there if you need me. Uh... the kitchen is downstairs if you're hungry. The bathroom and bedroom are on that floor as well. If you don't want to share the bed, you can take it and I'll set something up at the helm." She says nothing. I go back to steering the boat. I access the original Isabelle's memories to try to help me figure out why she might be upset. I did kidnap Jolene. But... I never forced her to come with me. At any point during our travels to the waterfront, she could have run off or told me she didn't want to go. But here she is. And she's with me. Yes, I was prepared to leave at the drop of a hat but I took her with me this time. I mull it over as I drive. I suppose us escaping might bring up the memory of me leaving her the last time the cops came. After that realization, I try to think of something else. Something that won't distract me while I focus on getting us to the St. Lawrence River safely.