The air force’s introduction to this latest affair has been a godsend. Without them, we’d have been roasted alive by the Ares Project and their stupid dragon planes. It’s clear to me that whatever money they had left in their coffers was enough for the planes but not enough to equip them properly. Had they, then this battle and the war itself would’ve ended days ago. Their stealth bombers with no offensive means against enemy warplanes, were no match for either air force. The Ares Project was quite adequate with their defensive tactics so rather than one or two of the good guys chasing down an enemy, we just swarmed them. One by one, they were blown out of the sky.
Once the dragons were downed, we steadily carpet bombed the minefield. It took several hours and dozens and dozens of bombs, but nothing stands between us and the Ares Project now but a patch of desert and opportunity. What remained of their troops outdoors, were either killed in the bombings or retreated back inside the vault door, which, by the way, is the only way inside the underground building that I’m aware of.
”Tritter,” I say, flipping my comms unit on. ”We have no back up copies of the blueprints for this place?” I ask of my Intelligence Chief.
”Sorry boss,” he replies. ”They were stored in your office at the Compound. When it was destroyed, the blueprints went with it.”
That’s unfortunate.
”Fuck,” I mumble under my breath. We’ve recently been dropping a series of bunker busters on to the mound of dirt covering the facility, but all we’ve accomplished is exposing the steel plating atop the structure.
”There’s only one person boss, that knows this facility,” Tritter informs me.
”Theo,” I agree, referring to the man that had this facility constructed and from whom we acquired it in the first place.
”Not Theo,” he corrects me. ”The building was fortified after purchase. By your father.”
What the actual fuck.
”Baby we have him on the line,” Lauren informs me.
I lay out a moment, in thought. The man has been locked up since January for his trial. The last thing I want is for him to do something for the good of me or my family before his trial ends, before his sentencing. I don’t need anymore distractions. Him doing something good might hamper my ability to deliver a fair and impartial sentence when the time comes. That will be hard enough as it is.
”Patch him through,” I say dejectedly. ”And y’all jump off the line too. Let me talk to him one on one.”
”Yes sir,” Dick agrees. ”Sebastian, you’re on line with Thaddeus.”
A series of clicks are heard before my fathers voice comes through loud and clear.
”Thaddeus,” he cuts through the silence. His voice is like nails on a chalkboard. The man has very few redeeming qualities and so many things that cause me to hate him with every fiber of my being. A huge part of me wishes I could overlook his flaws, but I never could.
”Sebastian,” I say back to him. He and I haven’t spoken since that day in his cell right after Fire & Ice. All these months, I’ve had no intention of speaking to him again until his sentence was handed out.
”We’re alone on this line?” he asks.
”As far as I know,” I tell him. ”I’m not in New York so I can’t see what’s going on in the Situation Room.”
”How the hell did they get in there?” he asks, which throws me off a little.
”I don’t know the answer to that question,” I admit to him. ”When I found out they were here, I mobilized the military.”
”There’s no way they could have gotten inside,” he informs me. ”Not without help.”
”Well they have hackers and everything else. I don’t know what to tell you.”
”Thad,” he interrupts. ”It’s not just an entry code.”
To be honest, I don’t know a lot about this facility save for its existence. I spent like two weeks here at most when I was 15 years old and none of us have been back here since. Our world changed forever when we left here all those years ago and we’ve never looked back. I guess it’s almost poetic, ending the wars where the started.
”There’s seven vault locks on the entry point,” he continues. ”Each lock requires a different code, a different sequence. That place is impenetrable Thad.”
”Well they did it,” I remind him while shrugging off his accusatory tones.
”No, you don’t understand,” he says. ”Without prior knowledge of the sequencing, there’s no way they hack through it. None.”
”Why are you telling me this?” I ask of him as I start to lose my patience.
”Aside from myself, there’s only one man left alive that knew how to get in there,” he informs me. ”Not even you knew how.”
”Tritter,” I say quietly. From the outside looking in, it might seems like a sudden jump. It isn’t. Lincoln Tritter is the only man left alive that played a role in both my fathers regime and my own.
”And from where did we find Lincoln Tritter, Thaddeus?”
I emit a deep sigh. Not one of relief, but one of disgust. ”The Church,” I answer him.
Fun fact, after Jake, my fathers right hand man and closest adviser was killed, after the Church temporarily abandoned Vatican City, while I was ambassador, in an effort to fight back against the terrorists, His Holiness offered up one of his best intelligence assets: Lincoln Tritter.
”After all these years man,” I say to no one in particular. ”Wars, battles, countless lives lost. Never mind the Illuminatus being built on lies, all roads still lead to the fucking Catholic Church.”
”What’s that mean?” Lauren chimes in.
”Who the hell is that?” my father asks.
”What the fuck! Lauren!” I shout out. ”No one was supposed to be on the line. Has Tritter heard all of this?”
”No, I threw everyone out of the room,” she answers. ”They all seemed happy to leave and I don’t know why.”
”Thaddeus, who the hell is Lauren?”
”My wife, your Queen,” I answer him.
”When did you get married?” he asks, sounding a little hurt by the revelation. ”Why didn’t I know?”
”There’s a lot of things you don’t know about Dad. But when things don’t directly affect you, you’ve never cared, so why start now?”
Silence.
”So how the hell do we get into this building?” I ask him.
”Why would I help you?” he asks. ”You have me on death row.”
”I don’t have you anywhere but behind bars,” I remind him. ”Your trial has not yet concluded.”
”We both know that’s where I’m goin’,” he replies quickly. To be honest, I’m sure it’s a manipulation tactic. He thinks I’m determined to be against his line of thinking no matter what it is.
I’m not.
Probably.
”Can I say something baby?”
”Of course.”
”Does she know you fuck anything with a pulse?” he interrupts.
Dual sighs from both Lauren and myself.
”She’s aware of who I’m with before I’m with them,” I reply to his futile attempt to drive a wedge between my wife and I.
”We know you’re not inclined to help Thaddeus,” she quickly puts us back on topic. ”But what about the kids?”
”What about them?” he asks coldly. ”I’ve barely seen them and odds are I’ll never see them again.”
”Bet on it,” I fire back.
”Your blood still runs through their veins Sebastian,” Lauren chimes in. Surprisingly, she of all people, is being the voice of reason. Or at least attempting to be. ”No matter what happens to you after your trial, would you not want your grandchildren to grow up happy? Healthy? Free of the danger of being targeted just because of who their father and grandfather are?”
Her line of questioning is greeted by complete silence for several moments from the three of us.
”Sebastian, I don’t know what’s going to happen after your trial,” she continues on. ”But I can assure you that if what you think is happening does, then, I’ll make it a point to help him raise them, knowing that there was good in you too. Knowing that you played a pivotal role in protecting their lives.”
More silence for several moments.
”I assume you’ve already tried bunker busting?” he asks, breaking the silence.
”Yeah,” I answer him quietly.
”It’s covered with a twelve inch thick, solid steel shell,” he informs me. ”Nothing is getting through it. The only way in, is through the vault doors. But you need to be ready for traps and everything else.
“I don’t imagine McGovern has many troops left. Once you sunk their Navy, I’d assume a lot of his soldiers saw the writing on the wall and abandoned them to save themselves. He’ll try to outsmart you because he doesn’t have the numbers or the fire power, so don’t let that happen anymore.
“Put the final nail in his fucking coffin, Thaddeus.”
”Easier said than done,” I admit to him. ”We’ll be going in blind once we do get in.”
”You nearly lost this damn war because you were impatient,” he reminds me. ”If you have one flaw in your military game Thaddeus, it’s your brashness. You react rather than act. That’s something you got from me.”
”About the only thing,” I say under my breath. ”And these fucking ears.”
”The start of the sequence can’t be changed Thad,” he redirects back to the problem of getting inside. ”I’d say get Tritter’s team on hacking the building but...”
”I’m already on it,” Lauren interrupts.
”On what?”
”Tritter,” she replies.
To which, I stay quiet. Normally, I don’t deal well with betrayal. Or even perceived betrayal. See Corey Smith for the latter. If I was home right now, I’m not sure what I’d do about Lincoln Tritter. I’m not though. She is, and so are my children.
”What’d you do?” I ask of her.
”He knows nothing but I’m sure he suspects,” she answers. ”I had the security detail detain him.”
”Has he been...”
”Yes Thad. He was searched thoroughly for weapons and communication devices,” she interrupts me, knowing full well what I was going to be concerned about. ”If he’s guilty or not, there’s nothing he can do about anything. He’s been cut off from the rest of the world.”
”Maybe I can help,” comes a voice I don’t recognize from a person I don’t know.
”Who is that?” ”Who the hell are you?” ”Who is he? Sounds hot.”
”Awww, thank you,” the man reacts to Lauren’s comment.
”Guys shut up,” I yell into my mic.
”Sorry.” ”Sorry.” ”Sorry.”
”Not you, guy I don’t know!”
”Oh my bad,” he says quickly. ”I’m um… I’m Cypher.”
”Your parents named you Cypher?” Lauren laughs. ”That’s a stupid name.”
”Well I mean..”
”Lauren, shut up,” I interrupt them.
“Do I know you Cypher?”
”Kinda? But also mostly not,” he answers.
”How are you talking to me?” I ask of the man.
”Through my headset,” he answers back.
”No, I mean how are you in my comms system?”
”Oh that! I hacked it.”
”Thad, how the...”
”Lauren, end the call with my dad,” I instruct her and with an audible click in my ear, Sebastian Duke is gone. ”Okay Cypher, how might I know you?”
”Twitter,” he answers. ”I’ve been interacting with you and Sahara… Lauren… whatever.”
Falling quiet for a moment, I consider what it is I’m hearing.
”You’re the dude that’s been subtly hitting on my wife?” I ask of him.
”He what? He’s been hitting on me?”
”Yeah but he comes across as...”
”I wouldn’t say I was hitting on her,” Cypher pauses for a beat. ”Yeah, I was hitting on her,” he says with a sigh.
”I don’t really blame you,” I say with a growing smile. ”She’s fuckin’ hot.”
”You know, she really is.”
”Cypher are you stalking us?” I ask the man.
”No?” he even questions himself. ”You guys are just, more interesting than most.”
”Hard to disagree with that,” says, causing me to chuckle a little.
”I was following along and just thought you could use some help,” Cypher suggests.
”Alright Cypher, you have my attention,” I say to him. Having never met the man in person, I’m equal parts intrigued and hesitant. ”What do you think you can help me with?”
”Well for starters,” he begins. ”All of it.”
Hopping off the call with my husband and Caliphet or whatever the fuck his name is about twenty minutes ago, I have a different sort of situation on my plate. Lincoln Tritter, one of Thad’s closest allies is suspected of betraying him… me… our family. I’ve been in way over my head these last couple weeks while Thad is out playing live action Call of Duty, but I’ve managed well enough. This is different.
If he’s guilty… I don’t even want to think about it. Instead, I retreated to Thad’s formal office. The one with the big comfy chair and the big heavy desk and the flags. The one with the walls adorned with framed pictures of his past battles, both in the ring and out. Instead of dealing with the situation head on like I probably should, I’ve gone to my usual place of solitude. This time, in a place to feel closer to my husband with a drink in my hand.
”Mrs. Duke,” Dick says from the doorway before entering. Closing the door behind him, he takes a seat in the chair across the desk.
”You’re the only one to call me out,” I say to him before taking a sip.
”I shouldn’t have done that,” he says to me. ”Not in front of the others.”
”But you were right,” I remind him.
”You made the call that needed made Lauren,” he says in an attempt to soothe me. ”If you hadn’t, then...”
”I don’t want to think about that,” I interrupt him.
”Noted,” he says with a smile. ”I’ll deny I ever said this, but… you’re a truly impressive woman when you put your mind to it.”
”It wasn’t my mind I was using,” I willfully admit to him. ”It was my heart.”
”Well it usually doesn’t work,” he says. ”Using your heart to make wartime decisions usually leads to a lot of people getting killed.”
”This Tritter thing,” I change the subject.
”Brandon’s on it now,” he informs me. ”He and my team are pulling and dissecting all of Tritter’s files from his laptop, his PC, his phone… all of it.”
”Do we know anything yet?”
Dick stands to his feet and stretches out a little before answering. ”From what I’ve seen so far it’s pretty damning,” he informs me. ”There’s direct links from him to the Ares Project, to General McGovern himself, and to...” He cuts himself off.
”To what?”
”The Church,” he sighs before making his way out of the office.
Death Valley
I like this Cypher guy. Beneath it all, he’s just a regular dude, like I want to be but never have been. A little sarcastic, a little funny, but evidently talented in his chosen… hobby? Whatever else he is, right now he’s my only hope of getting my men and women inside that facility to root out and finish off the Ares Project once and for all.
”So we have a plan then?” I ask of my new friend.
”Seems so, Thad,” he replies. ”It’ll be pretty simple once you enter the first code. From there, it’s dominoes.”
”What I don’t get, and maybe it’s because I don’t understand how hacking works,” I begin my line of questioning. ”My dad says without the initial code, it’s impenetrable. They got in, you can get in...”
”It’s definitely because you don’t understand hacking,” he laughs. ”Without getting too technical, the initial code leads to the rest. My equipment will have it cracked in seconds.”
”Okay, so you’re already in the system, right?” I ask of him.
”Yep.”
”Is it possible to leave the cameras on, but cut their feed?”
”Easy,” he replies quickly. ”Once the locks are open, I’ll kill the power, the internal defense system, and their feed of the cameras.”
”How long will that take?” I ask as my anxiety starts to increase. To be clear, I have a special helmet that has a monitor over my right eye. What that means is, I can monitor any Ares Project troop movements within the facility. Together, with a night vision visor, it should be a cake walk.
The plan, if successful, is to rig the facility in as many major support beams as we can find. Our goal is to turn this facility into four stories of Ares Project tomb in the Mojave Desert.
”Seconds only,” he answers.
”Good,” I reply as me and eleven of my best killers start down the ramp toward the vault door.
On the other side of the door lies a half mile of ramp to the bottom of the facility. At the vault door, I stop and look at my men and women on either side of me. They look back and nod.
”Alright Cypher,” I tell him as I punch in the initial code. ”Help us end this bullshit once and for all.”
”Happy to,” he replies. Just a moment later, the locks can be heard slamming open. The warning siren sounds its alarm as the door swings inward.
”Leave it open Cypher,” I tell him. ”If anyone escapes, we got people outside for that.”
”You got it,” he answers back as me and my fellow soldiers start inside the facility.
New York City
Sitting by myself again, the way I prefer it right now, I start to browse the different pictures that grace the wall of his office. A lot may look at this pictures as a source of pride. You know, Thad’s so proud of things he’s done in his life and in his career. He may have some flaws, but pride isn’t any of them. He’s the kind of man that doesn’t back down from a challenge. He’s the kind of man that doesn’t make excuses for his failures or his shortcomings despite someone’s attempt to paint him otherwise.
He takes his defeats like a real man and stands back up to try again.
The pictures on this wall, winning this title or that. With this wrestler or that one. With this soldier or that one. None of it is pride. Every bit of it is of sentimental value because that is how Thad is. He’s a man with a big heart and an even bigger capacity for love. Physical or otherwise.
The man is a hero to millions of kids all over the world. He’d tell you himself, that he isn’t a hero. Yet I know three children and one woman in particular that absolutely adore him. And we should.
”Hey,” Berta says from the doorway.
Instantly I roll my eyes. Berta and I have not had the best of relationships. When I first moved in here, she gave me a real hard time and we never were able to get off on the right foot. Truth be told, I think she’s way overpaid for what little she does around here. Thad always said that it’s not what she does, it’s who she is and I never really understood it. Still don’t, actually.
”What the hell do you want?” I greet her in probably a much colder tone than I meant to.
In response, she chuckles and her entire huge body trembles along with it as she passes through the office. Gross. I fucking hate when she laughs at me.
”I already know how stupid I am,” I try to cut her off at the knees before she can start in on me. ”I’m a fuck up, I screw up everything I touch, I know it and I don’t need the lecture from you. Not tonight.”
”Honey,” she says through bated breath as she plops her big ass down in the chair that Dick vacated just moments ago. ”That’s not why I’m here.”
”Then what?” I ask coldly.
”I thought maybe you could use an ear,” she says and it throws me off. ”You’re in a world you know so little about and you’re making the best of a bad situation.”
”I almost started a war with the United States in order to save my husband,” I remind her.
”Lauren listen to me,” she begins. Admittedly, her calling me by my name also throws me off. Usually, she just calls me ‘Hey You.’ Before that, it was ‘Blonde Girl.’ ”If the situation was reversed, and it was you stuck between a rock and a hard place and using his air force was the only way to protect you, what do you think he’d do?”
I haven’t really thought about it.
”I really don’t know,” I say to her.
”Honey, yes you do,” she says with a smile. ”He’s preparing to take on the mob because you fucked up and they kicked your ass. What do you think he’d do if your life was in imminent danger?
“Not a damn person would be safe. Ain’t a law on the planet he wouldn’t break just to get to you.”
He loves me, I think to myself. For a moment, I crack a smile.
Shut up, it was a heartwarming thought.
”You made the right call, Lauren. It’s exactly what he’d have done for you.”
I really don’t know how to respond to any of this. We don’t talk like this. Ever. More often than not, we go days at a time without saying so much as ‘good morning’ to one another.
”I’m in it now Berta,” I say to her.
Wait.
Where the fuck did my wall of ice go?
It was just here!
”I’m an addict, Berta,” I admit to her. ”It was pills, but now it’s… Thad.”
”There’s worse people to be addicted to,” she says with a smile.
”If I said it once, I said it a million times,” I continue on. ”He’s the absolute best thing to ever happen to me. Before Thad, I felt worthless. I felt unlovable. I only ever thought of myself.
“With Thad, it’s...” my voice trails off as I can’t find the words.
”That’s love, honey,” she interrupts my scattered thoughts. ”It’s he most powerful, most toxic drug you’ll ever do.”
”I just want him home,” I say with a deep sigh. ”Without him home, I don’t feel whole. Without him, I’ve been trying to find the bottom of every bottle. Without him home, I lost my job. Without him home… I don’t feel like me.”
”It’s almost over,” she says in an attempt to get me to look on the bright side.
I think I’m starting to get it.
”You heard about Tritter?” I shift gears, trying not to remember how much I miss him.
”A little,” she answers. ”I know he’s in some shit.”
”What if I don’t want Thad to have to deal with this too when he is home?” I ask her. Genuinely, I’m seeking advice from someone that barely likes me.
”Then step up, girl,” she replies. ”You have the power that you’ve chosen to wield in his absence. Why stop now?”
Because I don’t know what to do!
”Can I ask what he did?”
I know things are confidential. Classified even. Yet at the same time, I’ve never felt more at ease talking to her.
”By the looks of it,” I begin. ”He’s been conspiring with both the Ares Project and the Church.”
”For how long?” she asks with a worried expression crossing her face.
”I don’t know,” I answer her honestly.
”Honey, you gotta put yourself in Thad’s shoes,” she says, but that’s a lot easier said than done. I’ve never known anyone that’s been in his shoes. ”A little over a year ago, did you know his plane was hijacked by those assholes?”
”I’ve heard bout it. Thad doesn’t like to talk about it.”
”Why do you think that is?” she asks. An hour ago I’d have been thoroughly pissed off that she’s posing me riddles.
I shrug in response.
”Frankie was on that plane Lauren,” she informs me. ”Barely six months after that boy lost his mother to murder and his father to prison, he and Thad were targeted.
“If Lincoln is shown to have been working with them all the way last year, what do you think Thad’s reaction would be to that?”
”I can’t imagine a very good one,” I reply as accurately as possible. ”Thad is very protective of Frankie. Of everyone he loves really, but him especially.”
”If you don’t want him to have to deal with that too,” she says as she stands up. ”Then I guess you have your answer.”
Without another word she departs the office. Once again, I feel alone. Being alone used to be a comfort to me. Now it’s the scariest feeling in the world. I understand her better now. More over, I think I get what he’s been saying about her all these months.
Berta Williams is the mother he never had.
Death Valley
It’s oddly quiet. After entering the facility, we’ve been slowly canvassing it from the bottom up. The bottom of the facility is almost entirely devoid of anything. Remembering back, it’s where all the planes, tanks and other equipment were stored. Even still, there was no sign of anyone from the Ares Project. Even though we’ve physically seen them enter the facility and there is no other way out, it still put the thought in the back of my mind that this was all a decoy. That we were walking into a trap. That I’d lead my men in here – and of course they’d think I’d be in the thick of it, because I’ve never asked anything of my soldiers that I didn’t stand beside them in order to do – and they’d do what we’re planning, and just blow the building.
After placing on several of the support pillars, we slowly made our way to the second floor in teams of three using a stairwell on either end, either side with the intent of meeting in the middle. Quiet as mice, we make our way through. The orders being: no one left alive. Shoot on sight… with silenced weapons as to not draw even more attention to where we are and what we’re doing. The less resistance, the better. All I want to do is kill McGovern and go the fuck home.
Exiting one room and into the next, I hold up my fist. The signal to stop. Inside the room is a sleeping man. Unfortunately, it’s not General McGovern. Even still, I draw my silenced pistol, ready to shoot and backhand the man in the face. He stirs instantly and his eyes grow wide just a split second before I pull the trigger.
”Is there no one left?” I ask quietly into my mic.
”Few on this side,” one of my soldiers replies. ”But not anymore.”
”McGovern’s big ass probably on the fourth floor,” I say as I reach the steel grated walk way.
Just as I reach the railing, I feel a shove at my back so hard it nearly knocks the wind out of me. Locked in a bearhug, the attacker forces both of us over the railing and crashing into some crates on the ground floor below us. Crashing through the crates does knock the wind out of me.
Above my head, I hear footsteps running along the walk way. Laying almost motionless in the busted up crates, I try quickly to regain my air. I need them to stay on task. Whomever attacked me came over the railing with me and I’ll handle it on my own.
Hopefully.
New York City
The car slows to a stop inside our hangar at JFK. The mission: to escort Lincoln Tritter to Illuminatus One for his one way trip to Berlin where he’ll sit behind bars like my husbands father to await his trial. The question is, do I want him to.
”You’re sure you want to do this?” Dick asks as I stare out the rain soaked window.
Inside the hangar, handcuffed and sitting in a chair is Lincoln Tritter. Stoic and aimless as always. I never really ‘got’ him. He was always quiet. Hardly ever said anything unless it was a meeting of the chiefs.
”You’re sure our information is right?” I ask Dick without taking my eyes from Tritter.
By now, guards and security detail have flanked him from behind and the sides.
”It’s pretty damning proof,” he tells me. Still, I don’t remove my eyes from Lincoln Tritter. ”It’s hard to ignore the direct links, let alone the circumstantial ones.”
”Any chance he’d be acquitted at trial?” I ask of Thad’s best advisor. Only now do I break my gaze from the middle aged, built like a tank, former intelligence chief.
Dick raises his eyes to meet my stare. ”When this is over, if you think he’ll walk… you’re fooling yourself,” he answers.
Shifting my eyes back to Tritter, I sit quietly a moment. ”Dick, if he was here,” I begin to ask. ”What would Thaddeus do?”
”Do you really need to ask me that question?”
”I need to hear it,” I reply quickly. ”From someone that knows. From someone that’s seen him in situations like this in the past.”
”Lauren,” he begins. ”What did he do to your tormentor?”
I look at him once more, but I don’t answer. Looking back, I see it all as clear as day. That night he meant to kill Frankie’s biological father and changed his mind. It just so happened that he was being attacked by some bad men. What they didn’t know is that he can be even worse. Just as cold, just as callous. The man that attacked me not long after he and I got together when Thad was in Paris for work… Thaddeus killed that man and didn’t think twice about it.
Even now, I don’t know whether it turns me on or if it scares me half to death.
”Lincoln Tritter,” he pauses, I assume to gather the right words. ”Was aiding the people that targeted Frankie. Lincoln Tritter was aiding the Ares Project in making Thaddeus and his children targets.
“We both know what he would do.”
Without another word, I throw open the door of the car and start marching toward Lincoln Tritter. He looks up at me as I come toward him, not once showing any sort of emotion.
”Uncuff him,” I say to the guard behind him as Dick catches up beside me. The man looks to Dick for approval. ”Don’t look at him, I’m the one that told you to do it. No one here outranks now uncuff Lincoln Tritter.”
The man nods his acknowledgment before unshackling Tritter. Lincoln pulls his hands out in front of him, rubbing the ache from his wrists.
”Why’d you do it?” I ask him, but he just stares at me blankly. ”He trusted you implicitly.”
”I’m not tellin’ you anythin’,” he says back in his thick Southern dialect. ”You can go back to your fairy tale land of make believe. Stay there, Lauren Duke. And keep pretendin’ that he loves you.”
”Pretending,” I clue in on the word. ”He’s a lot of things Tritter. Fake isn’t one of them.
“The way I see it, you can either take your secrets with you when yo go… or you can tell your truth now. Either way, we both know what happens when he gets back.”
”If he kills me, he kills me,” he says coldly with the slightest smirk.
”You might as well go with a clear conscience when you get wherever it is you’re going,” I say in an attempt to convince him to talk. ”Why would you betray him?”
Tritter sighs. ”He’s a menace,” he finally relents. ”Peace can never be as long as he lives. If it’s not the Church, it’s the Ares Project. If it’s not the Ares Project, someone else.
“I’ve known him a lot longer than you.”
”You’re wrong,” I state as a matter of fact.
”Am I?” he scoffs. ”He’s a hard man, there’s no doubt about that. But to eliminate his life from this Earth, darlin’ we’d be doin’ the world a favor.”
”How do you sleep at night knowing you helped those sons of bitches hijack his plane?” I ask of him. I’m fuming. I’m boiling. I’m red hot inside and I’m trying like hell not to lash out like I want to.
”Like a baby,” he answers with a grin.
”Lincoln Tritter,” I begin as I organize my next line in my head. ”As second in command to Thaddeus Duke of the Illuminatus State, I sentence you to death.”
”What of it?” he shrugs.
”It really doesn’t bother you that when they attacked him they also attacked a ten year old boy?” I ask in a futile attempt to rationalize the way he thinks in my head.
”They should’ve crashed that plane straight into the fuckin’ ground,” he says coldly. ”He’s raisin’ that boy in his own image. After Thad, Frankie is next in line to wage countless wars and needlessly kill thousands of people.”
”A ten year old boy!” I shout out in anger. Frankie, I’ve fallen for that kid and I wish he was my own.
”They could’ve brought it down and killed them both Mrs. Duke,” he begins. ”And I wouldn’t have lost a seconds sleep over it.”
”Is that right?” I ask of him.
He nods.
”Then neither will I,” I say to him. Reaching into my jacket, I pull out the snub nosed pistol Thad gave me months ago. Without thinking about it, I release the safety, pull back the hammer, then squeeze the trigger.
I hit him right between they eyes. The light leaves his face in a matter of just a few seconds as he slumps to his side and falls lifeless and bleeding onto the concrete floor of the hangar.
Death Valley
Coughing the air back into my lungs, I roll off the pile of busted up crates and fall to the concrete floor. My connections to the facility cameras has been lost and my visor is cracked, distorting my night vision. Hoping my comms until still works I flip it on while coughing and choking the air back into me.
”Stay on mission,” I say before a couple of coughs. ”I’ll handles this one myself.”
Above me, the running footstep slow then stop, then head back from where they came. Climbing to my feet, I start to survey my surroundings for my attacker. Rolling off the crates on the opposite, is a large man. Clutching my ribs and chest, I make my way around the stacks of crates but he’s gone.
Turning to head back around the other side, the man stands about three feet from me.
”General McGovern,” I say to him. ”It’s nice to finally meet you in battle… in person.”
”I can’t say I share the same sentiment,” he replies back. ”Are you hurt?”
”I’ll live.”
”Not if I can help it,” he replies and charges forward toward me.
Gripping my throat with a one handed death grip, his awesome strength reminds me of my father. He forces me backward until I collide with the crates. Reaching for my sidearm, I only now realize it was in my hand when we went over the railing and it no longer is. I have others, but I can’t get to them at the moment. My neck muscles resist his grip as I rack my brain for a way out.
So I use my head.
Driving my helmeted head forward into his skull, the General grunts. So I do it again, staggering the larger man backward and forcing him to release his grip. Diving forward, I tackle McGovern to the floor and in the process, the strap on my helmet breaks and it flies off my head leaving he and I with the same level without night vision in the darkened facility. The only light, that of which spilling through the vault doorway and stopping short of the bottom of the ramp.
Throwing fist after fist into McGovern’s face, I get frustrated quickly when he blocks most of them. Struggling to my feet, I thought I felt my gun under my foot. As I reach down for it, McGovern leg trips me and I fall chest first to the floor with my silenced pistol pinned beneath me. To be clear, I don’t want the dramatics. I want him dead as quick as possible, and then I want to go home to my wife and my children.
Behind me, McGovern starts to get to his feet.
”Ya got fight,” he says to me, but I don’t pay him any attention as I spin over onto my back and send my boot into his face before he can get upright. He stumbles backward and rolls onto his back and then his stomach as he starts trying to get back up again. With my eyes adjusting to the lack of light, I find my gun. Quickly I get back to my feet. Standing just a foot or two away, I quickly doubt whether my shot will hit him in the darkness. Instead, I kneel next to him and grab a handful of his short crew cut and rip backward. With my gun to his head and the hammer pulled, I squeeze the trigger.
Nothing.
The trigger is jammed from the fall over the railing.
Amid the distraction of trying quickly to fix the jam, he elbows me in the face. I stagger to my feet but I’m a little dazed. That affords him the opportunity to punch me square in the balls, dropping me to my knees instantly. Knelt over with my head against the floor, I try to fight off the excruciating pain radiating from my groin up through my lower back. With the pistol still in my right hand, McGovern steps on my wrist, causing me to help as he leans the majority of his weight against it. Reaching down, he easily wrestles the pistol from my fingers. After slamming the gun against the floor, he pulls the trigger, clearing the jam harmlessly in another direction.
”Stand up, boy,” he says to me as he takes a step back.
”For what?” I ask him. ”Just pull the trigger and get it over with.”
”I want to watch the light leave your eyes,” he replies.
Giving him what he wants, I struggle to my feet.
”The head or the chest?” he asks.
”Head,” I reply without hesitation. ”I’m ready.”
”You’re really not afraid to die, are you?” he asks with a bit of a laugh.
”I’ve survived all of your attempts so far McGovern,” I remind him. ”Fear wears off eventually.”
The irony is not lost on me. A year and a half ago, I shot a young man point blank with his own gun. Here I am all this time later, staring down the barrel of my own gun. Private First Class Harold Jenkins. Even today, I still wear his dog tags around my neck as a constant reminder of what brashness in wartime brings.
I don’t always listen.
”Not this time Thaddeus,” he says to me. It might be the first time he’s ever used my given name.
”No,” I agree. ”Not this time.”
McGovern pulls the trigger, sending a bullet into my Kevlar vest. It simultaneously pisses me off and confuses me. The bullet might not be life threatening when it hits a vest, but it hurts just as bad, if not worse. I grunt as I stagger backward and fall to my knees, again leaning my head against the floor.
”You… missed,” I inform him.
”Did I miss?” he asks. ”Or do I just wanna watch you suffer first?”
”You’re such a fucking dick,” I say to him with my left arm clenched over my heart.
I can see him take a step forward, and that’s when I act. Just as he pulls back the hammer on my gun, I reach for my combat knife attached to my right thigh. In the hunched over position I’m in, it’s just a finger tip away. Pulling it out, I sit up on my knees and drive the blade into his thigh. He yelps out in pain and squeezes the trigger on reflex.
The shot is errant though.
Clutching his thigh and almost frozen for a moment, I pull the blade out then drive it in again and twist. He hits his knees instantly with his left side to my front. Wrapping my left arm around him in almost a rear chin lock, he tries to fight off my left arm with his free right arm.
”This is for Frankie,” I tell the old General. ”And all the terror and nightmares you gave him.”
With my right hand, I drag the combat knife across his throat, gashing it open across his jugular. Instinctively, he reaches up to stop the blood from spraying out of him like a water hose. It’s futile. Releasing him, he drops to the pavement and I grab my helmet that flew off earlier, intent on watching him die. Putting it on my head, I watch him gasp for air while sucking his own blood down his throat. Gasping and gasping but to no avail as soon enough, the blood free flowing from the gaping wound in the side of his neck slows to trickle.
”Cypher, you read me?” I call into my comms unit, hoping it still works.
”Loud and clear,” he replies.
”Initiate the timers on the charges,” I say to him. Seconds later, multiple beeps can be heard as the explosive charges are activated.
Taking a moment for myself as I stay kneeling on the pavement, I’m not sure if, or when it’ll sink in that the Ares Project is finally defeated.
”Ladies and gentlemen of the Illuminatus State,” I begin. “And also Cypher...”
I pause and pull the cigar from inside my shirt that I’ve been waiting three years to light. Lighting it up and taking a few puffs in celebration, I go back to my comms unit.
”Abandon the facility. Mission accomplished,” I say as tears escape my eyes. ”General McGovern is dead.”
With my chest aching and almost throbbing, I struggle to my feet in order to start making my way to the ramp. After taking a couple steps forward, I stumble. It’s only then that I realize how light headed and dizzy I am. For a second I look at the cigar, thinking maybe it was one of Chris Page’s variety.
”Hey,” I say into my mic. A moment later I throw up probably three MRE’s. Those things aren’t that great going down so you can imagine what they’re like coming back up.
”Thad?” Cypher radios back.
Stepping forward, I go to speak but nothing comes out. A second later, I collapse to the pavement below me with the bombs ticking around me.
83-31-1
1x XWF Universal Champion || 3x XWF Xtreme Champion || 1x XWF Supercontinental Champion (First)
1x XWF Hart Champion (Last) || 2x XWF Television Champion || 1x XWF Tag Team Champion
1x OCW Savage Champion || 1x IIW Tag Team Champion || 1x AAW United States Champion
2x SOTM (9/20, 7/21) || 2021 Male Wrestler of the Year || XWF Hall of Legends
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