S7: Holy War

Teddy gave me an odd look. "Tell me, Pete, how well do you like Josef and Tatiana?"

I didn't understand the question. "Well, I didn't get to spend that much time with Tati because she was always off with the girls, but Maddy adored her, they even went to lunch a couple of times alone, for "Girl Talk", as Maddy put it. Josef and I bonded, because he was without a Dad and I was missing Josh. He's a good kid, and smart as a whip. Why?"

"This stays between us. Sasha came to see us about a month after you left, asking if we could watch the kids for a couple of weeks while she went home to tie up loose ends, according to her. She never came back. We kept them for awhile, but when it became apparent she wasn't coming back we put them in boarding school and had ourselves appointed temporary guardians."

All I could say is "Wow."

"Indeed. It gets worse. I called in a favor, and they tracked her from her home town to China, and then she showed up in Turkey. We fear she's been radicalized, her fingerprints were found on a bomb that didn't detonate during an attack."

Sasha? I realize I didn't know her that well, but she seemed sweet, and seemed to enjoy watching the kids interact with us. Then again, I'd caught her staring at one or the other of us several times, with a blank look on her face.

Then I thought about the attack. Her place had been hit with a grenade, but almost no fire was directed into it. The next two were the girls and Moshe, both high value targets, Arabic lesbians and Jews, and then mine, also mostly bullets and no grenades. Sasha was out of town with the kids that weekend, a lucky coincidence, I thought.

"Do you think the kids..."

"I don't think so," Teddy sighed. "I've had them watched closely, from a man we planted as a teacher and from the two security men I assigned to them, telling them it was for their protection."

I was still a bit confused. "What does all this have to do with Maddy and me?"

"Well, I was hoping you could take them to America with you, at least for awhile. They would be safe, and they'd make great cover. Who's going to be looking for an older couple with two kids, one a retired government clerk, the other a history teacher? Think about it, run it by Maddy. It would be good for everyone."

I did think about it for a day or two before I talked with Maddy. At first she wasn't sure, then she was afraid she would be able to handle it. I laughed."

"You've faced and overcome some of the most dangerous men in the world, lived through things that would kill most humans, and you're afraid of two teenagers? What's the worse thing they can do, scream 'I hate you' and storm off to their rooms?"

"YES!," she said through tears. I snuggled her until she calmed down. When she was quiet I told her the truth.

"They're going to say things like that to you, knowing deep down you know they don't really mean it. But there will also be a lot of 'I love you Mom', and 'You're the best mother ever!' in there too. Be careful, honey. If we take them, even for just a while, they'll work their way into your heart. Then they'll do something terrible to you. They'll grow up, and you'll watch them leave and wonder where the time went. But they'll always be your kids, even if they're thirty."

She was pretty quiet for two days. That night, as we snuggled, she pulled me as tight as she could. "I want them. Can I have them?"

I kissed her, feeling the tears. "You'll never have them, but they'll always have you. Yes. Let's see if this thing works."

I don't think she slept a wink. I woke to find the bed empty, and could hear her at the table, talking to herself and making notes. She woke me in the morning with an intense bout of loving, leaving me drained while she seemed to be bouncing off the walls.

"That was great, honey."

She kissed me, grinning. I was surprised to notice how much softer the lines on her face appeared. "That was to hold you until you get to England. I have somewhere to be."

I got a horrible feeling. I thought her past was behind her. "Where do you have to be?"

"At Dorset. I have to pick our children up, it's a school holiday. Two weeks. I'm going to explain about their mother, honey, and hope they don't hate me. Then I'm going to shower them with all the love I've been saving up, even if I didn't know for who until now. I don't pray, Pete, but today I'll offer prayers to every known deity on the planet for this opportunity."

She made plans to take them straight to America, if they wanted to go. Maddy could be pretty persuasive if she wanted something, so I had no doubt they would be with her when I returned. She left her team, telling them that if anything happened to me past a hangnail it would be very, very bad for them. They believed her.

...

It was finally over. Despite the high profile, no one offered to touch us. I have a feeling Sherry's family had a lot to do with it.

We all sat together as we approached Heathrow, exchanging rememberances and swearing to keep in touch. We'd survived a lot, gave a lot of knowledge and more than a little speculation about the world's past. It was time to let a new team shine. Teddy had already lined up Trevor, and Ian. Moshe recommended a bright young woman he'd once mentored, and Sherry suggested Teddy let a couple of her cousins join, both well qualified. They were all in their thirties, and the enthusiasm would be almost immeasurable.

In a move that surprised the Church and most of the world, the Pope did a short video for broadcast, thanking our team and me in particular, for bringing the information about the Apostles to light.

"Of course." he said, as he drew the message to a close. "we can never know if what they brought us was true, but I'd like to think there was a feisty woman in the mix, showing us their humanity while they served the greatest of causes. I've had the Achivists examine the scrolls we have in our possession, and they are strikingly similar. Perhaps the Church made a mistake in not giving women a more active role. Nevertheless, we can't change the past, but it is my intention to bring women deeper into the folds of the Church, and expand their roles in the Catholic community."

Wow. He more or less just validated everything we found. There would be a buzz in the upper echelons for quite a while.

Teddy grinned as we deplaned, telling us he had arranged a small surprise. We cleared the airport with a minimum of hassle, diplomatic papers go a long way in making people more agreeable. The SAS and my team remained vigilant as we walked to the parking lot.

There, standing at the edge, were Ian, Trevor, and a priest I didn't recognize, along with my whole family. Jo, and the kids were waving and clapping, beside Ruth and her two children. On the other side of Ruth stood Maddy, flanked by Josef and Tati, smiling and waving. Boy, I thought, my Christmas list was going to kill me in years to come.

Jo , Ruth, and and all the children were rushing towards us, while Maddy held back a little. My smile was a mile wide as I opened my arms, knowing She'd get the last and absolutely best hug.

There was a cleaning crew sweeping the lot, pulling those huge wheeled garbage cans along.

There was a group of three Muslim women, in robes and burkas, chattering happily as they walked towards us. The wind was blowing pretty good, and the women were having trouble with their headscarves.

One blew open, and from twenty feet away I recognized Sasha. At the same time she saw her kids, and started running away from us, screaming in Russian. "GET DOWN!"

I immediately looked around, and the workers were throwing the lids off their bins.

"GET DOWN! ATTACK!"

I no more than got the words out when one of the women pushed the button, blowing herself and everyone in a twenty foot circle up. She was more or less directly behind Jo, and the force blew her into me, hard. I felt something in my face break as she slammed into me. The SAS and my team reacted, but by then the garbage men had AK 47's spraying in all directions. I saw Maddy fall after she pushed the children to the ground.

Jo was trying to say something, but the blast had deafened me. I held her as the light went out of her eyes. There was chaos, and bodies everywhere.

Teddy was down, Sherry was down and Fatima was holding her. Moshe was bleeding from the face, the blood gushing.

I looked around wildly and saw my guards, two with pistols drawn. I surged out from under Jo, rage consuming me, grabbing the pistols and staggering towards the shooters. I was screaming but didn't know it, shooting with a calmness borne of rage. Three of the shooters went down, but two more were still standing. I was just about to shoot one in the head when something hit me and I fell.

I lay there, letting the rage seep out of me. I was very tired, and couldn't remember why. I shut my eyes, ready for a nice rest, when something wet hit my face. I managed to get one eye open to see Maddy, crying hard and cradling my head on her lap. "This sure feels good," I thought, as I drifted off.

...

I thought I was done with this story after the first chapter, but it kept calling me back.

Here's an excerpt from Chapter three, and judging by this one, it will take me about a month to write unless some free time becomes available in the near future, and I don't see that happening.

...

S7:Jihad

I sat on the comfortable cushion, inside the huge room, in a castle built centuries ago, and waited.

I wasn't upset at the wait, it had taken me 37 months to get to this place, a few more minutes or hours wouldn't kill me. I idly hefted the bag they had allowed me to carry in, after they inspected it. The man who handed it back gave me a wolfish grin, recognizing a kindred spirit.

I looked back at the journey that brought me here. In the blasts and gunfire that erupted that afternoon in England, many things had changed.

Jo was dead. Josh was dead. Teddy died, as did Sherry. Polly will carry the scars on her shoulder and in her heart for the rest of her life. Jack was injured so badly he was given a medical discharge, ending a promising career. He was healthy enough now to work, but he'd never wear a uniform again.

Maddy was wounded twice, the first from the blast and the second from a bullet, but made a full recovery. She had managed to push Josef and Tati down and they didn't have a scratch. Tati was still in therapy after watching her mother blow herself and people she thought of as family up.

She had them now, in the cabin by the lake, waiting for my return. She knew I had it to do, and she didn't argue, just kissed me and told me to get it done. I hadn't seen her in almost a year.

And me? I was dead too, shot down as I fought to defend my family. Maddy showed me the video, my face a mask of blood as I staggered forward, screaming in rage, with eighteen inches of my intestine hanging out of my stomach. It showed the shot that put me down, an AK 47 round that ripped through my chest, puncturing my lung, and showed Maddy cradling me as she cradled my head.

And me? Well, I died too, officially. The force of the blast had thrown Jo into me so violently that her head smashed my face. Broken nose, broken cheek, fourteen teeth knocked out and a jawbone shattered in three different places. There wasn't enough left to rebuild, so they replaced.

My jaw was a lot squarer now thanks to the implants they had to put in, my nose was a totally different shape, my cheekbones more pronounced. If you looked at me now you would never know who it was. My voice was even different now, thanks to a damaged voice box.

And my hair had gone white, which no one could explain. I roused from my reverie as three men entered the room, dressed in traditional garb, down to the scimitars strapped to their backs.

One took a seat opposite me, while a woman came in, served us tea, and left. We saluted each other with our bowls, and sipped in silence.

When he spoke, it was softly, but carried well, especially as he had his face covered.

"You know who I am?"

"Of course, Eminence. You are the Old Man Of The Mountain. You know who I am?"

"Naturally. You were Pete Trammel, leader of S7, although now you're know only as The Ghost."

We eyed each other for a second. "So then, what may I do for a ghost?"

"What your group has done for over a thousand years. Kill a man for me."

He nodded. "Ah. Just so. But you could easily kill this man yourself, why would you need us?"

"Because I want him to know it's coming, and he can do nothing to prevent it. I have a gift for you, Eminence."

I looked into my bag, pulled out a head and gently rolled it towards him. "An enemy. I would have brought him to you alive, but he didn't want to cooperate."

He picjed the head up, inspecting it. I could feel his grin through the mask. "Just so, Ghost. You know I offered a handsome bounty for anyone who could bring me his head."

I waved my hand. "It is a gift, just as you give me a gift by allowing me to live, knowing how much I could bring from my enemies."

He laughed. "A Ghost has no enemies. It would be almost impossible for me to get them to accept you at face value. Besides, I think life will be much more interesting with you alive. So, what is this job you would ask us to do?"

I pulled the other two heads out. "Recognize them?"

"One. The other is without a doubt his brother. How did you acquire them?"

"The old fashioned way. I took them. What I want from you is to deliver these, while he sleeps, with a message. The rest of his family is next, and when they're gone, only then will I come for him. Pin it to his pillow with this dagger."

I pulled out the dagger I had given Josh. His guards stiffened and put their hands on their weapons. Their leader said something to them and they relaxed. I lay the dagger undrawn in front of him.

"Put in the note that this is one of a matched set, and I'll be along directly to get it back, and enjoy it when both are wet with his blood."

"This intrigues me. You can pay the fee?"

I handed him a card, which one of the guards ran through a computer sitting in an alcove, returning it and nodding.

"It is done. Are you sure you wouldn't like us to handle this for you You know one look at his sons and he will know who's coming."

"Some things, Eminence, you have to do yourself."

He nodded, and made a hand gesture. The audience was over. I rose, and bowed with respect, bringing my face close to one of the heads. There still seemed to be a surprised look on his face, The one thing I regretted as I looked at it was not putting the brand that was in the middle of his forehead on while he was still alive. Oh, well, maybe next time.

I followed my guide out, ready to be blindfolded as I left. The head looked out blankly, the large S7 plain on his forehead.

It was the opening thrust of my personal Jihad.