R.E.D. Tiger Ch. 03

"I must look a mess."she said to me.

"No, not at all."I assured her,"It's just that I never really got a chance to look at you. You're beautiful." I stated as I ruffled her hair. I never really did it to her but she saw me do it to Rose a lot and hopefully she had grasped the meaning of love behind it. Even though me and Angela weren't close I did still love her, she was my sister after all. I also knew she was a great person to be around. She had always been very popular even before I left for the military so I knew she had a ton of friends.

"Um Alan? Do you mind if I hug you again?"she asked. I held out my arms and told her she could have as many as she wanted and she rushed to embrace me. Her head coming just a little below my shoulder. I looked over Angie's head and I could see Rose standing there misty eyed. This was probably one of her life's wishes to see me and Angela get along, after all we were pretty much her only family besides her mom. Making eye contact with her I motioned her to join in on the hug and before we knew what happened we were all having a group hug in the middle of the living room. I'm pretty sure we must have looked stupid but I didn't really care. I was at home, with family, and we were happy, it doesn't get any better than that.

When we pulled apart I could see that Angie's make-up had started to run. When I pointed it out she quickly went upstairs to reapply it. Rose asked me had I checked the mail so I showed her where I had sat it. She picked it up then came over to me.

"Here this one's for you."she said as she passed me and envelope."I'm going upstairs to help Angie and then I'm gonna change. Be back down in a sec." Looking at the envelope I couldn't tell who it was from but the post address was somewhere in Roanoke, Virginia. Opening the letter I sat back and read it. It stated:

This letter is intended for Alan Thorton. If you are reading this and you're not Mr.Thorton then reading any further will result in a federal offense.

To Mr.Thorton,

Your presence is requested at 4031 Eagle Street, Virginia at approximately 9:30 a.m. the day after receiving this notice. Thank you for your cooperation.

As I sat the letter down I could tell that something was up. This was obviously a letter from the U.S. government or one of it's agencies. It was too short and nondescript to be from a regular company and plus the whole federal offense thing would be kinda weird if it wasn't from the government. On top of that who ever sent it assumed I would automatically show up.

I knew Eagle Street was a part of Roanoke so that meant it was probably a good three hour drive from here. I would probably have to wake up around five. When the government wants to see you it's hardly ever for anything good so I was more then a little apprehensive but it didn't sound like I had a choice of going or not.

I had just put the letter away when Rose and Angie came back downstairs.

"So bro what's for dinner?"Rose asked me.

"I don't know. Don't you usually cook?"I asked. Rose looked at me bewildered then I finally realized what was going on. I had promised to take the both of them out for dinner to celebrate me getting back home. With all that had happened I had completely forgot about it."Um I don't really have anything planned but I can find us something."

"No don't worry about it."Angie spoke up,"I kind of want to have dinner here if that's okay with you guys." We didn't have a problem with it so Rose went into the kitchen to see what she could scrounge up. Luckily we had some ground beef as well as noodles and spaghetti sauce so Rose made a quick spaghetti and meat sauce while I made us some garlic bread and Angie put together a salad. It was good to sit down at the table as a family. The last few nights me and Rose had just been eating wherever we felt like, but there was always something special about sitting at a table as a group.

Dinner was surprisingly routine seeing as how Angela and I had never really gotten along. But I made it through the whole thing without putting my foot in my mouth so it wasn't so bad. I think that we were still to new to each other to have a full crying session but it would probably happen sooner or later. Most likely when we got to now each other better.

"That was great you guys."Angie said as she was preparing to leave." It was good catching up with you Alan and I really missed your cooking sis."

"Hey Rose why don't you go and spend a night or two with Angela?"I asked her. They both looked at me like I was crazy. I mean I had just thrown it out there but now that I thought about it it was a good idea. The lycans probably won't put together what happened to their buddy until tomorrow and I don't want Rose here alone when they do. I don't know what the government wanted but if it turned into an extended trip it would be dangerous for Rose to be home by herself.

"No offense Sis."Rose said," But why?"she asked me.

"Well I have to take a trip tomorrow to handle some things. I don't know how long I'll be gone and I don't feel comfortable with you here by yourself. I would invite Angela to stay over here but I haven't had a chance to upgrade the house security. And plus I'm pretty sure Angela would enjoy a home cooked meal instead of whatever there serving at her school or fast food."I told them. After much reluctance the girls agreed and Rose went to pack an overnight bag.

I waived to them from the door as they pulled out the driveway talking. No doubt about how weird I was acting. I didn't care though they'll probably be more safe elsewhere. The lycan code of ethics might protect them from being hurt but it was better safe than sorry.

After heading back in and washing the dishes. I sat and watched a little t.v. before heading to bed. I was just about to lay down when my cellphone rung. I checked the caller ID but didn't recognize the number. After it rung a couple of more times I cautiously answered.

"Hello?"I said through the phone.

"ALAN ARE YOU ALRIGHT?"a voice yelled in my ear that I recognized as Molina's.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"I responded

"Oh."she said a little more calmly now,"It's just that Rodrigo was just here and was asking a lot of questions about you. He wanted to know who you are and how I knew you. Things like that so I was worried that maybe something had happened." I could tell she had heard about what happened to the werewolf I was fighting. They probably told her I got in a lucky shot and had killed one of their companions. Now she was calling to see if I was seriously injured. I couldn't tell if she was playing a role or genuinely concerned about me. I didn't care either way because I still was going to help her out. But still the lycans had moved much quicker than I thought they would. I had expected them to take a day or two to uncover my past but they may have already knew about my military history before they attacked given their quick response time. I was glad that I had sent Rose away for a day or two, I needed to hurry and conclude this thing with the the government so I could get back and take care of this before things got out of hand.

After spending a little more time on the phone with Molina and repeatedly assuring her that I was fine she finally hung up. She probably doubted I was okay but didn't push any further which I was grateful for.

_______

The next morning I sat out to drive to Roanoke. After map-questing my destination I found out that I could make the trip in a little over two hours in current traffic which allowed me to leave a little later and also have a good breakfast. As I got on US-460 I thought about what this could possibly be about. I mean I hadn't done anything since I had been out of the service. Okay that ONE thing but it was no way possible that they knew about that.

As I pulled into the parking lot at 4031 Eagle Street I was greeted by a large plain building. Yup definitely military. Big, inconspicuous and intimidating. I walked into the building and saw a small desk with one person sitting there. When I walked in he raised his head to look at me. Watching me closely and sizing me up to see if I was a threat. When I stepped closer I told him my name and he nodded and pressed a button. Next thing I know two guys came and told me to please follow them. When we reached the elevator I was surprised to see a lot of buttons for lower floors even though this place was so big. The building had eleven floors above ground and almost twice that underground. The man next to me hit the button marked "B17" and then hit a couple of more buttons in sequence. I'm guessing it was some type of code. After he was finished the elevator lurched and then we started to descend.

"Please follow us this way."One of the men said as we excited the elevator. I don't know why he said it, it wasn't like I could go anywhere else. They walked me to some room that I could only describe as a hybrid interrogation and briefing room. It was a plain room with one table and three chairs. There was also a big glass window that I'd bet was two way. The people who called me here were probably sitting on the other side. Stretching out my senses I felt there were five cameras in the room. Three regular ones and two infrareds. I decided to play nice and sat in the one chair that was across from the other two and waited. A good ten minutes passed and I was starting to get bored when I heard the door open.

"I bet you're wondering what you're doing here huh, Tiger."I heard a familiar voice say.

"Shark you old bastard, what's going on?"I asked him. Shark was the leader of the Thirteens back when I was a member. As far as I knew he was still there so I wondered what he was doing here. Of all the members of the squad me and him got along the best. He was maybe around fifty but you wouldn't know it from looking at him. He was remarkably fit and had no signs of graying hair whatsoever. In the Thirteens we always worked together on our joint missions and the team "Tiger-Shark" was in high demand.

Behind Shark was what I could best describe as a Hollywood movie briefing man. You know the tall slender guy with the slicked back hair in the suit, who spent all his career behind a desk but was somehow given the right to command others. The two sat in the seats opposite me and Shark started talking while the other guy organized some papers.

"Before we get started I want to make sure you haven't gotten rusty. So how many cameras are in this room Alan?"he asked me.

"There's ten in total. Five in the room. Three electrical, two infrareds, you have two on you; one on your shirt, the other on your tie which is the same as the gentleman beside you and there's one more in the pen he just sat on the table."I answered him. The man sitting beside Shark sputtered when I gave my answer and I'm pretty sure he was surprised that I got them all. The pen was an obvious one because he had sat it so that it was facing me and the ones on their shirts were both the same color even though they were wearing different suits. They probably expected me to get those three but didn't expect me to know about the one's on their ties and in the room itself.

"I told you he was good." Shark said to the guy sitting next to him. The he turned to me. "Well it's about time I tell you what you're doing here. As you may or may not know I had always planned for you to take my spot when I retired but seeing as how you were decommissioned before that it kind of put a damper on my plans. I decided to hang it up about a couple of months ago and about a week ago I got a call from the C.I.A. saying they wanted me to come work for them."

"I was given my own department where we handle different missions as they come up. They told me I could have anyone I wanted as my right-hand despite of their background or any other obstacles. Guess who I picked?"he asked smiling. Well I was wondering what I was doing here and I had pretty much gotten an answer. I knew that they wanted an answer right then to Shark's informal request because the papers the guy was holding were probably my first assignment. It didn't really take me long to come up with a decision seeing as how I was currently doing nothing in my personal life and was looking for something to occupy my time.

"Alright I'm in." I told him and he smiled. I could see the other guy preparing to talk so I made a point to cut in before he started." But I do have some conditions though. First of all as I'm sure you know my father named me the owner of some of his companies before he died. Now that I'm officially out of the military I'm expected to be able to attend meetings from time to time so I'll need to be able to visit the various places when needed. That being said I also have a family so I would like to be able to have an unlimited amount of leave time. Also I want to be able to pick and choose my own assignments. Even back in the Thirteens we were allowed that option. Basically I would be a freelance operative for you guys. If you all can agree to those terms then I would be happy to work for you guys."

"Well I don't know if I could authorize that I would have to talk to my superiors first."The man said. When he finished talking a double knock was made on the two-way glass where I assuming his superiors were sitting. I could hear Shark's low laugh as the man turned to look at the glass in shock.

"Okay I guess that's been approved. Now that you work freelance for us you'll be still listed as retired. You'll have to be officially marked as retired and extremely dangerous in our database or R.E.D. to avoid suspicion. From now on you're codename will be R.E.D. Tiger "he said when he turned back to me.

"Well looks like you've got yourself an operative then."I replied. With that out the way he proceeded to spread out the contents of the folder in his hand.

"For your first mission we need you to take out a crime lord in London for us. He has amassed a huge following of criminals and one of our informants said the target had been approached by different terrorist groups wanting him to supply them with nuclear weapons. Now the auction isn't supposed to go down for another month but we need him neutralized as quick as possible. It should be a quick get in, get out job for you. Will you accept it?"

I had been listening intently when he started talking and I almost gasped when he said the operation was in London. For some reason everything was conspiring for me to end up there. I already had business to attend to over there and this sounded like a big threat to the country. I didn't see any problem with taking care of this while I was over there, besides I already had an alibi in place for my visit if anyone asked. If fate was working so hard to get me in London then it would be rude of me to not play along. I could handle this rather quickly but first I needed to wrap things up with Molina's lycans back home.

"I don't see why I can't handle it but can I ask a question first? Just why did you guys pick this for my first assignment?"I asked trying to figure out just what was going on.

"Well when we brought the mission to Shark he said he knew the perfect guy for it so we setup the meeting. Why he chose you though we don't know."The man told me truthfully. I looked over at Shark and he just shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know."he said," When they brought it to me something just told me that you were right for this job and you know I always trust my first instinct."Well that officially clears it up. Something was definitely up here. Shark's instincts were always dead on but he at least always had an inkling of where it was coming from. For him not to know where it was coming from was weird in itself. Not enough so to set off any alarms with him but when you pair it together with everything else it seemed out of place. I'm not claiming divine intervention but something was definitely on the horizon and I could only sit back and wait for the storm. With that out of the way they asked me if I needed them to setup anything for the operation and asked me about my timeframe for completion.

"I can have this cleared up in a couple of days. Coincidentally I have some things to take care of in London so I won't need any transport or anything like that."I told the briefer.

"Well if there's anything that you need from us just let us know."he replied.

"Well now that you mention it there is this one thing,"I said," I'm probably going to need access to your weapons room before I leave today." I wasn't stupid. I knew that if I was going to have this thing with the lycans wrapped up anytime soon then I was going to need some military grade weapons. I was already formulating a ruff plan and I had a slight guess as to what I would need.

"Whatever for!!?"I was asked by the man. It was kind of weird to ask for weapons from a government store room without giving an explanation so I knew they weren't going to just hand them to me.

"Well let's just say that I have a problem with a few overgrown, rabid, dogs back home and they need a reminder of where there place on the food-chain is."I replied with a laugh as I walked out the door. One way or the other I was finishing this thing with the lycans tonight. It was fixing to be an eventful week.

_____

Okay you guys I want to take this time to say thanks for all the support and love you have shown all my submissions. The thing about Tiger is that it's really far out of my sphere of knowledge. I've only just graduated a year or so ago so it's very easy for me to write stories about kids in highschool and stuff like that because I know about it.

I don't know anything about being in the military or even how older people think so it takes a lot more planning when writing. Also I put in little hints in each chapter to help out the readers in guessing where the story is going and I have to make sure I'm not giving away too much. So that's why the Tiger chapters are a little slow in coming out. BUt it's still my main project and I have a lot more things planned for our hero so please bear with me.

Also I'll be updating my other stories somewhat regularly(I hope) so don't worry about them not getting the proper attention.

This chapter was really a bit short but with all the things slated for the next chapter all the developments and drama of this chapter would have taken away from it more than added so I let this part out first.

As always leave your comments and responses.

-TNWTBOD