by Dave Renol
The people that I selected for this mission are both loyal and honorable. Any information that you told me, you can trust to them as well. I suggest that we sit down with the soldiers here and you brief them as you did with me last night. Each is a specialist in his own right, and will add to our little war council.”
Words cannot describe the pride that I felt surging through me at his words. “This is why I became a soldier,” I thought. “Very well,” I said with resolve. “Please gather the men and give them a preliminary briefing. I need a few minutes alone.”
I made my way to my bedroom and closed the door behind me. Spying some candles on the end table, I lit one and turned off the room light. I gathered the rest together and arranged them in the middle of a clear space on the floor. I sat down cross legged and slowly lit them, slowing my breathing as much as I could. Once I had relaxed sufficiently, I quietly began to speak.
Recognizing that I volunteered as a Ranger, fully knowing the hazards of my chosen profession, I will always endeavor to uphold the prestige, honor, and high esprit de corps of my Ranger Regiment.
Acknowledging the fact that a Ranger is a more elite soldier who arrives at the cutting edge of battle by land, sea, or air, I accept the fact that as a Ranger my country expects me to move further, faster, and fight harder than any other soldier.
Never shall I fail my comrades. I will always keep myself mentally alert, physically strong, and morally straight and I will shoulder more than my share of the task whatever it may be, one hundred percent and then some.
Gallantly will I show the world that I am a specially selected and well trained soldier. My courtesy to superior officers, neatness of dress, and care of equipment shall set the example for others to follow.
Energetically will I meet the enemies of my country. I shall defeat them on the field of battle for I am better trained and will fight with all my might. Surrender is not a Ranger word. I will never leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy and under no circumstances will I ever embarrass my country.
Readily will I display the intestinal fortitude required to fight on to the Ranger objective and complete the mission, though I be the lone survivor.
Comforted by my reaffirmation of the Rangers Creed, I rose and tried to decide if I should slaughter my wife or my friends first.
Chapter 15
Mark: The Morning After
I awoke slowly, so as to not disturb the percussion band marching around inside my skull. Crawling out of bed, I made my way to the shower where I stood soaking until I felt partially human again. I didn’t feel like shaving, so I just put on some sweats. I was amazed that the clock said it was almost noon. I haven’t overslept so much since my college days.
Leaving the bedroom, I heard voices coming from the kitchen so I made my way there. I wanted about a gallon of hot strong coffee. Conversation stopped as I rounded the corner and they all turned to look at me.
“Morning,” I mumbled. “Gimme coffee … lots of coffee.”
Linda jumped up to give me a hug, while Carl went to fetch me a mug.
Linda guided me to a chair and said, “After you went to bed last night, we got into an argument with Sid. He got pissed off and left.”
“Gone where,” I asked, taking my first sip of the glorious coffee.
Linda filled me in on the details of what transpired after I crashed, with occasional interjections from Carl and Sara. Carl kept my coffee mug topped up and became a candidate for sainthood as far as I was concerned. When they finished, I leaned back and tried to organize my thoughts.
“So you don’t think he’ll spill the beans?” I asked Sara.
“Nope,” she replied firmly. “He’ll go out and blow off some steam for a day or two, but he’ll be back.”
“Alright, I guess it’s too late to stop him anyway, so we might as well just carry on.”
“What did you have in mind for today?” Carl eagerly asked.
“I want to test the effects of sitting on my ass in the hot sun, while my friends dote over me and bring me food and drink on demand.”
Linda and Sara laughed but Carl looked confused for a few seconds before joining in.
“Ok, I guess we can take a day off and just relax,” he conceded.
Despite the unpleasantness from yesterday, we had a very nice day. I alternated between the patio lounge and the hot tub, with the others joining me off and on. We talked of trivialities, Carl and Sara threw a football around for a while, and Linda played the role of hostess with good grace. It was a good day indeed.
Usually I would be bored by now. I was always one of those people who had to keep busy, but getting a big scare like I did yesterday made me appreciate the little things in life. A wonderful baked chicken dinner crowned the day for me.
Afterward, we sat around the living room watching movies, except for Carl who disappeared into the office once dinner was finished. In between movies we had a bit of a break while Linda went to make some popcorn. I went to see what Carl was up to, thinking that he might like to watch the next one with us.
“Hey hoser,” I said, stepping into the office. “We’re about to put Monty Python and the Holy Grail on. Care to join us?”
“Sure. I was just messing around, hoping that inspiration would strike if I let my mind go fallow.”
He was sitting in Linda’s favorite chair by the window with his laptop on his legs. “Hoping that events might duplicate themselves for you, eh?”
Smiling weakly he replied, “One can always hope, eh!”
“Well take off, eh! Come join us in the living room.”
“Ok, eh! I’ll be right there.”
Smiling, I wandered back to the living room. I always had fun teasing Carl about his Canuck vocabulary, and he usually played along with good grace.
***
The next few days went by about the same, but a little more strained. Nobody spoke of it, but we were all wondering when Sid was going to come back. I felt like I was back to normal after the first day of rest and relaxation, but didn’t do much with my ability. I kept having visions of news trucks pulling up to the house as we were flying around the yard.
On the fourth day, the weather turned foul, and a nasty thunderstorm kept us inside. Carl had become an almost permanent fixture in the office window seat, and with a storm on the horizon for today, he looked hopeful. Or maybe that was desperation.
Sara had taken to joining Carl in the office sometimes, which was a bit surprising since they usually didn’t have much in common to talk about. She even played a few games with Carl, borrowing Linda’s computer since she never brought one of her own down here. Even as we did mundane things around the house, my mind kept working on the problem of how our abilities could be shared with others.
If I thought about it, I could feel the background hum that I associated with the power. With the storm overhead, I tried to reach out to it and see if I could feel anything stronger, but couldn’t notice anything different. Today’s storm felt normal, for lack of a better word. Carl would be disappointed.
I put together a quick lunch for us all and brought it into the office where everyone else had congregated. I had just finished doling out the sandwiches when Sara’s phone rang.
“It’s Sid,” she cried, looking at the number before answering. “Hello?” A pause before, “Where are you?”
“Sid, slow down … wait a minute … calm down a sec and listen. We’re gonna figure it out here, it just takes time. Why don’t you come on back?”
She began pacing in front of the table. “Whoa there, what gives you the right to demand that? … I see … you don’t need to be an asshole about it.”
She threw me an exasperated look. “Fine, I’ll tell them,” she said curtly, hanging up.
“Well, as you know, that was Sid. It appears that he’s gone around the bend over this whole thing and is demanding full disclosure from us.”
“Disclose to whom, the media?” Carl asked.
�
�Not to the media, the military. He wants us to give them everything, and issued us a twenty-four hour deadline to comply. He also warned that there would be consequences to our refusal.”
“I’m not about to give up my freedom and become an experimental lab rat!” Linda replied indignantly.
“He’s bluffing,” Sara said with certainty. “Since he doesn’t like the press any more than we do, what’s the worst that could happen?”
***
We talked about it through the rest of the night, as well as the next morning, but nobody was willing to change plans to accommodate Sid’s presumptuous demands. As near as I can figure, it was twenty-four hours to the second when Sid called back for our answer.
“Hello?” Sara answered. “Yes, we talked about it, and the answer is still no. Come back and I promise that we’ll figure it … Hello? Hello? He hung up,” she told us crossly.
“Now what do we do?” Linda asked.
“I guess we wait,” Sara began. “If we don’t want to play his game then all we can do is see what his next move is, then plan our own.”
“I hate waiting games,” I commented. “By definition, they’re a waste of time.”
“Hey, what’s that?” Carl asked, jumping up and peering out the window. “It looks like some kind of bright flare.”
“GET AWAY FROM THE WINDOW!” Sara screamed as she jumped up from her seat and tackled Carl.
Just as she hit him, I heard the sound of breaking glass, followed by Carl crying out in pain.
“Everybody get down and stay away from the windows,” she continued frantically. “That was a rifle shot.”
“He wouldn’t dare!” I replied indignantly. But as I threw myself down to the ground, I thought, “I guess he does dare, the bastard.”
“My leg,” Carl sputtered, “I think I’ve been shot!”
“Stay back, don’t cross the window. I got this,” Sara said.
I watched Sara drag Carl into the corner away from the window as I tried to think of how I could help. “The first aid kit dummy, reach out for the kit.” As I reached out with my mind to find it, I watched Sara pull out a folding buck knife from her hip pocket. She wasted no time and started to cut away the jeans from around Carl’s wound.
Once I had the kit, I dropped it next to her and turned my attention to the window. A few mental tugs later, and I had the window blinds in place to block the snipers view of us. Feeling slightly safer, I made the move over to Carl to see how badly he was hurt.
“Careful with that knife,” Carl said nervously. “You’re pretty close to some sensitive bits.”
“Shut up and hold still,” Sara ordered curtly. “If my knife ever slips down there it won’t be by accident.” Wiping blood away from the wound she said, “It doesn’t look too bad. It’s a simple graze with a bit of shrapnel from something.”
Grabbing the kit, she quickly cleaned and dressed the wound. Finished, she crawled over to the window and reached out with the tip of her knife to rattle the blinds. Nothing happened, so she crawled closer and peeked out of the lower corner where there was a small opening.
“I can’t see anything. Take care of the other windows, make sure the doors are all locked, and keep out of sight at all times. Move now!”
I was a bit offended by her abrupt orders, but quickly dismissed that thought as childish. Someone had just shot Carl, and with her military background, Sara was the best one of us to take command.
“I’ll take the south side, you go north,” Linda sent to me.
“On my way,” I shot back, already moving. “Take care to wait a sec before moving past any window or door that you touch, and keep low.”
“I’m way ahead of ya. Don’t forget the garage.”
It only took a few minutes to block all of the windows and make sure everything was locked tight. With that done, I tried to think of what else we should do. “We need barricades,” I sent to Linda. Without waiting for a reply, I started moving the heavier furniture pieces around to block off as much as I could.
Hearing the banging of the furniture, Sara rushed out to the living room expecting to find combat in progress. Seeing what we were doing, she skidded to a halt and cheered. “Now that’s quick thinking, securing the access points. Did you build any shields?”
Cursing myself for not thinking of it sooner, I started building up layered shields in front of each window and door. Linda ran back to the bedrooms, presumably to do the same. Once we had the house as safe as we could make it, we all reconvened back into the office.
“The bastard sent me a text message,” Sara said fuming.
HOPE YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND SOON. LOVE YA.
Chapter 16
Linda: Under Siege
I couldn’t believe this was happening. Who in their right mind does this kind of thing? Mark and Sara were both pacing back and forth, one on each side of the office, like twin metronomes. Sara kept pulling out her phone, starting to type, then putting it away again swearing. She suddenly bolted out of the room, returning a few moments later with a hand gun and a couple of clips.
“I just remembered that we had this in the bag from our mountain trip,” she said happily.
Mark looked thoughtful but fairly calm considering what just happened, and that helped calm me down a little bit. I decided to check on how Carl was doing. He looked pretty bummed out, sitting there in the corner still nursing his wound.
“Care for a dance?” I asked, squatting next to him.
“Not funny,” he whined. “I’m dying here and you’re making bad jokes.”
“Can I get you anything?”
“A glass of water would rock, maybe a pillow too.”
“I think you can crawl out of your corner if you want to,” Sara interjected. “What I got out of the assholes last message is that he wants us to change our minds, so he’ll give us some time to stew.”
“How long do you think?” Mark queried.
“I dunno, it could be an hour or it could be a full day. Either way, we need to come up with a plan in a hurry.”
“Son of a bitch,” Carl exclaimed. “The bastard shot my laptop when he got me.”
Glancing over to where it lay abandoned next to the window, I saw that he was right. The bullet had gone right through the keyboard. That must have been the source of the shrapnel that Sara had removed from around his wound.
“That gives me an idea,” Mark said. He started digging through his knapsack. “Here it is, my little travel webcam. Let’s set this up in the window so we can get a view outside without poking our noses into the line of fire.”
“Excellent idea,” Sara proclaimed. Turning her head back and forth between Carl and me she asked “Do either of you have one also?”
“Mine was built into my laptop,” Carl said, shaking his head.
“Same with mine, but I might have an old one that I used with my old machine. Let me check.” I pulled my box of old computer stuff out of the closet and started rifling through it quickly. “Here it is,” I said in triumph. “Where do you want it?”
“Let’s try the patio doors. That’s probably our weakest point, and Mark’s cam should get a good view of the front side from here.”
Agreeing, I grabbed my laptop and followed her over to the patio door. Even though we had the house sealed, Sara was cautious at the corners and I wondered if this was how she acted when in a war zone. “Maybe we are in a war zone,” I thought to myself as we set things up.
It took us about fifteen minutes to get the camera positioned properly so we had a good view of the back deck and the approach to it. Finally Sara was satisfied and started back toward the office, motioning for me to follow.
“Gimme Sid’s number,” Mark asked as we returned. “Maybe I can make him see reason.”
Sara tossed Mark her phone and turned to Carl. “Since you’re just lounging around, why don’t you come with me and help with surveillance. I’ll fix you up a comfy little nest in the corner by Linda’s laptop where you’ll be safe bu
t useful.”
“I’ll help him,” I volunteered. “You stay here so you can keep watch with Mark’s rig and to help plan things.”
Nodding assent, she settled down next to the window and began scanning for any sign of her husband. I went to the linen closet and grabbed up spare pillow and blankets, piling them up next to my laptop for Carl. Satisfied that it would be good enough, I went back and helped him up. I settled him down in the pile, and then got him the glass of water that he asked for earlier.
“Hon, can you bring me the house phone please?” Mark shouted to me.
I grabbed the handset and brought it to him. He hit the button to dial, and held it up to his ear for only a moment before pulling it away in disgust.
“No dial tone. The bastard must have cut the line before he attacked us,” Mark growled.
“The cell-phone didn’t work either?” I inquired.
“Nope, no signal,” he replied.
“That’s weird; I’ve always gotten surprisingly good reception, considering that we’re a bit remote.”
“He has help with him,” Sara said bolting upright. “Someone took over or knocked out the damn cell towers.”
I felt a chill wash over me. If he had help, then this was far more serious than we initially thought. “What do you think he’s going to do next?” I asked.
“That depends,” Sara said, frowning. “If I were in his shoes, I would let us stew for a few hours and let our imaginations work against us. Then another show of force and a demand for surrender.”
“Let him come and make his demands,” Mark said angrily. “I’ll give him a good taste of what he wants and send him on a free trip to visit the international space station.”
“He may be an idiot, but he’s not that stupid. If he shows his face directly, you can guarantee he’ll have someone watching for anything like that. At the first sign of trouble, whatever backup he has in place will go on the attack.”
