her breasts. She moved the car out of the way and the gates began to close. The first truck hit the gates and stopped. The gates were too heavy for the truck to force open. Men were pouring out of the back of the trucks, and a furious gun battle was going on. Lynda had her semi-automatic forty-caliber sidearm, but she just ducked down in the car. Bullets were smashing through the windows.
The battle slowed down, and she got out of the car, and ran toward the house. Two more bullets hit her vest, knocking her down. She rolled over in the dust and could taste blood in her mouth. She had been shot in either the jaw or the cheek. The other bullet had hit her in the side, just missing her arm.
She got up and made it to the front door. It opened. Miguel jerked her inside. He said, “Are you responsible for all this?”
Lynda said, “Miguel, I am a US Federal Agent. I need to get to Michael and keep him out of danger.”
They both looked at the stairs; Michael was standing there with a .22 rifle and was aiming it at Lynda.
Both Lynda and Miguel yelled, “No!” But he shot Lynda squarely in the chest.
The door burst open and ATF agents burst in. Lynda threw herself in front of them but they fired anyway. Bullets tore into Michael. He was dead before he hit the floor. Lynda was up and running to the stairs. She took them three at a time, but she was too late. His eyes had already glazed over. He was dead. Miguel was right behind Lynda. At the top of the stairs he turned and shot at the agents. They returned fire, ripping his body to pieces.
It was quiet outside. All Miguel’s men were dead or had surrendered. Lynda walked to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. She had blood running down her face. It looked like a bullet had just grazed the side of her face. It would leave a nasty scar, she thought.
A medic came through the door. He said, “Are you hurt, ma’am?”
She turned to face him, and he grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her face and head. He led her to the sofa. She sat down. She could see the little old man. He was lying in the kitchen on the floor. He had a butcher knife in his hand. He was dead too. She was sad; she did not even know the little old man’s name.
Lynda began to cry. The medic said, “Here, let me give you something for pain.” He had a needle out and injected something into her arm. She immediately felt flushed. Her body pain was gone and her head was spinning. She would never get the images of Miguel, the old man and Michael out of her head. She was giving a lot of thought to quitting her job. It had been her job to keep Michael safe, and she had not done it. He was about the same age as Tasha.
Lynda, and all the injured soldiers and agents, were loaded into the back of a truck and taken to the hospital. The doctor did a hurried or lousy job of sewing up her face. He had others that were injured much worse. Lynda would need plastic surgery. Her face was bandaged up and she was put on a commercial jet back to Dallas.
The man sitting next to her asked her, “What had happened to you?”
She told him, “I cut myself shaving.”
He did not know what to believe, so he left her alone after that.
Lynda slept the rest of the way to Dallas. She had bad dreams about Michael.
Ted and Tasha picked her up at the airport and argued over who would sit by Lynda.
Lynda sat in the backseat with Tasha.
While she was gone, the adoption had been completed and signed off. Tasha was legally theirs.
Lynda told Ted how she had tried to get to Michael and how he had shot her, and that she had failed to save him. She cried over and over.
A week went by and Lynda was having trouble getting back into her job. She was no longer wearing a bandage. There was a two-inch scar along her right jaw line.
That Saturday morning, she and Tasha went to the grocery store. Tasha was pushing the basket. A man came up and said, “My, you are a pretty little girl.” Tasha beamed.
She said, “My mommy is a hero. She got shot.”
The man looked at Lynda; she turned her face so that he could see the scar. He looked closely and took out his wallet. He handed Lynda a card. It said. “John Rodgers, MD, Plastic Surgery.” He said, “I can fix it like new!”
Lynda said, “Thank you, Doctor Rodgers. I will call you next week.”
Lynda whispered to Tasha, “Stop telling people that; you are embarrassing me.”
They got to the checkout counter and Tasha loudly pronounced, “My mommy is a hero. She shoots people.” It seemed that everyone turned and looked at Lynda. Lynda blushed.
Lynda whispered to Tasha, “Be quiet. This is the last time that I take you out into public!”
Tasha was not finished yet. She announced, “My mommy is a spy for the government.”
Lynda’s patience had run out. “Tasha, be quiet. I am not. Mind your manners!”
Now everyone was really looking at her. She fingered the scar. The checkout girl was now pulling stuff out of Lynda’s basket. She looked at Lynda and asked, “Is she your daughter?”
It was obvious that Lynda was not old enough to have a nine-year-old daughter. Lynda said, “Yes, but I am about to un-adopt her, if she doesn’t learn to control her mouth.” When she saw the look on Tasha’s face she immediately regretted what she had said. She grabbed Tasha and picked her up and hugged her. “I am not going to un-adopt you. I am sorry I said that.” She set Tasha down and Tasha stood right beside her leg. Aat least she was quiet now.
Tasha was quiet on the drive home.
When they got home, she ran to Ted and held her hands up. He picked her up and said, “What’s wrong, baby?” Tasha had tears in her eyes.
Tasha said, “Mommy said that she was going to un-adopt me!”
Ted glared at Lynda. He carried Tasha into the back of the house. Lynda had to carry all the groceries in by herself. Then Tasha ran by Lynda and was headed out to play in the backyard.
Ted came in and said, “Let’s hear your side of the story!”
Lynda continued putting up the groceries while she told Ted the story. She handed him the doctor’s card. Ted nodded his head and said, “That’s what I thought.” They watched Tasha play on the swing set through the kitchen window.
Lynda said, “I think that she is a little stinker. She seems to think that she can do whatever she wants to. I don’t know what to do with her.”
They took Tasha to church the next morning. It was her first time being in a Christian church. Tasha really seemed to like it. They were trying to break her of her Muslim ties. She came out talking about “Jesus.” She had lots of questions. Patiently, Ted answered them.
Lynda fixed dinner and Ted called Tasha in. She would only stand by Ted.
After dinner, Lynda took Tasha into her bedroom, and asked her, “Okay, what is going on? I apologized. You are supposed to forgive me.”
Tasha said, “Mommy, you were teasing, I know that, but you should not tease me about that!”
Lynda said, “You are correct. I will never say that again. But you have to also promise to stop telling people that I am a hero or that I kill people or that I am a secret agent. It hurts my feelings too. Besides, it is supposed to be a secret.”
Tasha hugged Lynda’s neck and said, “Okay, Mommy!”
Lynda and Ted both went back to work Monday. Early in the morning Lynda called Dr. Rodgers and set up an appointment for a consultation. He could see her Wednesday. She filed the paperwork for an on-the-job injury. The US government was going to pay for this procedure.
Wednesday morning rolled around and Lynda was at the doctor’s office at eight-fifteen for the eight-thirty appointment. She filled out all the paperwork. She came to the place where it said, “employment:” She responded “US government.” She finished the forms and turned them in. The nurse called her back up to the counter. Pointed at employment and asked, “Can you be more specific?”
Lynda smiled and said, “No, sorry.”
The nurse looked a
t her like she must be a secret agent and said, “Okay!”
Another nurse called Lynda in, and they took an X-ray of her jaw. About twenty minutes later, Doctor Rodgers came in. He looked at her face closely, pulled at the skin, and said, “Mrs. Pointer, I can make a drastic improvement on your face. What we will do is remove layers of skin until the skin is all even. It will be slightly discolored and will be very sensitive to sunlight. But over a short period of time it will darken and match the rest of your face.”
Lynda replied, “When can you do this procedure?”
He said, “Set it up with the girl out front. We will put you under for the procedure. But you can go home as soon as you are wide awake. You will need someone to drive you is all.”
The girl at the front desk set everything up at one time. It would be in exactly two weeks.
The next two weeks went by quickly. Tasha did not embarrass Lynda when they went shopping anymore.
Tasha wanted to stay out of school when her mother went to the hospital, so Lynda let her miss a day.
The day of the surgery came, and the family went to the hospital. Tasha got to see her mother just before the doctor put her under, and the doctor explained to Tasha what he was going to do. After the procedure he came out and told Tasha that everything had gone perfectly.
About one o’clock Lynda was ready to go. Tasha and Ted loaded her up in the car and they went home. Ted helped Lynda to bed and she slept the rest of the day. She had scheduled to be off for two weeks, and Ted had taken two
CIA - The Slave Traders Page 18
