Chapter 71

I

Julia heard the knock on the door. She wasn’t expecting anyone, so she was surprised when she opened the door and Nik and Jeremiah stood there waiting to be let inside.

Once inside, Nik asked, “This is between the three of us, Jules. Where are the kids?”

“Upstairs studying. Why?”

“We have something to ask you,” Jeremiah said.

“It’s not ‘what do you remember about the time you were away?’ again, is it? Because I don’t remember any of that,” Julia said.

Nik could see that she was getting tired of that question. But, that’s not what he and Jeremiah came to ask her.

“No, Jules,” Nik said; “It’s not that.”

“Then what the hell is it?”

Nik looked at Jeremiah. Jeremiah looked back at Nik as if to say, coming over here was your idea, brother.

Nik’s look said, you’re the one with the information, brother.

“What we want to know is,” Jeremiah said simply because he was tired of the staredown with Nik over who was going to ask what, “where in the hell did Ryan get a rocket launcher that could wipe a small town off the map?”

Julia looked at both her brothers like they’d lost their minds. Is that all? she thought.

“Jacob gave him access to the weapons shed after the Occupation ended,” Julia explained, “told Ryan he could take whatever he could carry. Ry took the rocket launcher, some powerful sniper rifles, and a shitload of ammo. We then took all this stuff and hid it in the basement of the house where he lived before coming to Chicagoland. His mother was living there when she got sick and eventually died.”

“Ryan hid military grade weapons in the basement of a little house in the middle of freakin’ Minnesota?!” Jeremiah asked, shocked. “Whatever possessed him to do that, Julia?!”

“The house was our safe haven in case the shit hit the fan in the government again,” Julia said matter of factly, which bugged the shit out of Nik. How can she be so cavalier about having a weapon’s cache in her dying mother in law’s house? he asked himself. He honestly didn’t have an answer for that.

“The house in Riley, which Ryan and I inherited when Rusty passed, was built in the 1950’s when the Cold War was going on. It was a ‘fallout shelter’ for the entire neighborhood. That underground basement was three times bigger than the house above it. The only entrance was through the garage.”

“Julia,” Nik said; “That rocket launcher was in the trunk of the car you were driving when you were picked up. If you had been hit by another car, there wouldn’t have been anything left of you to bury, much less the driver of the other car.”

“I know how powerful it was,” Julia said, “But that sucker weighs more than I do. I could have never gotten it into the trunk of that car alone. The ammo alone, just one crate of it, was well over one hundred pounds. I can bench press twice my current weight, but to lift that weapon and its ammo into the trunk of a Camaro alone? Either someone would have had to have helped me, or it was already in the trunk when I gained possession of the car. And I honestly don’t remember if I was even there. My last memory there was cleaning out the house after Rusty’s funeral. We though we would sell it, but decided not to.”

Nik just shook his head. If he didn’t know better, he’d swear he was talking to someone else, and not his little sister.

Jeremiah had another question for Julia, however. “Jules, don’t take this wrong, but is there anyone who could have preloaded the car before you got to Riley?”

The look in Julia’s eyes could have burned a hole through Jeremiah’s skull. “Jeremiah, I don’t remember being in Riley, or Virginia Beach, or Portsmouth Naval Hospital before I woke up in Walter Reed. My last memory was walking down the hallway upstairs to ask Miri to change out of her street clothes.”

Jeremiah just sighed. She really doesn’t remember anything about those three weeks, he thought. And who would have helped her? Unless she temporarily had superhuman strength in order to even lift a one hundred pound crate of military grade ordinance, there is no way she could have done all that alone.

Was there?

“You done interrogating me, gentlemen? Because if so, I have things to do,” Julia said, and left the room with Nik and Jeremiah staring, first at her back as she climbed the stairs, then at each other.

“That went well,” Nik said sarcastically.

“Fuck you, brother,” Jeremiah replied.

===

Sandrina, Danica and the twins searched the house from top to bottom, and found all kinds of “electronic doodads” as Nikky called them. Video and audio bugs infested the house. Vixen found spyware and computer logging bugs on all of the family’s computers.

This started to make Danica angry. She was convinced that Bryan was just using her to get to Aunt Natasha and Darren. But then, what Darren told her and Sandy came to mind; that Bryan and his partner could be in danger.

What do I believe? she asked herself. I really do like Bryan, and if he’s in danger, I want to help him and his friend get out of it. But what about all this electronic garbage we found all over the house.

She sat down on the couch and put her head in her hands. Danica willed herself not to cry, because crying didn’t solve the immediate problem. Who was spying on them, and if it wasn’t Bryan and his friend, then who the hell was it?

“What’s wrong, Danica?” Nikky asked.

She looked up into the face of her 13 year old cousin, who was starting to look an awful lot like their Uncle Nik and a little like the man whose donated sperm made Nikky and his twin possible.  

“Just tired, I guess,” Danica lied. “All kinds of weird stuff happening that I’m just tired of. I just want to live a normal college girl’s life.”

“Mom always says that none of us will be a normal anyone,” Nikky said; “It’s just who we are and what our history dictates. We all got badasses for parents, Danica. We can’t help that.”

“Your mom’s pretty smart,” Danica said; “I’m glad she’s passing on her wisdom to you and Vixen.”

Nikky didn’t know how to take that, so instead he asked, “Is there anything else we should be looking for? Maybe bugs in the phones?”

“In the landlines, yes,” Danica said; “But Sandy already took care of those.”

“What about our secure phones?”

“Unless whoever has bugged the house has also bugged the secure satellite up in space, I think the secure phones are fine,” Danica replied; “But we should always be careful of what we say. Those phones aren’t infallible you know.”

“Oh, I know,” Nikky said; “Sometimes, when conditions are perfect, I can hear Vixen on her phone through my handset.”

That got Danica’s attention. Anyone with a radio signal (the way old cellphones used to work) could still pick up a secure phone signal. Usually it was scrambled, but as Nikky had said, when conditions were right, bits and pieces of conversation could still be heard.

And living in Washington, D.C., there was lots of chatter to overhear.

But first, Danica decided that she needed Bryan and his friend to come over so that she and Sandy could talk to them. We should get Alex in on this, too, she thought.

She got up from the couch so abruptly that she startled Nikky, then ran down the hall calling for her cousin.

===

“What do you mean Hilton Nicholas is dead?” the man on the phone practically screamed at the person who had called him.

“Exactly that. Shot right between the eyes with a firearm so powerful that it blew out the back of his skull.”

“How did anyone find out the reason we were really on board that ship?” the man asked his caller.

“Someone talked. That’s all I know. I don’t know who, or why or how it came about. But someone had to have talked.”

“You know all those people who think they’re working for DeepCon are going to die as soon as the ship docks in Norfolk, right?”

“Yes, sir. And we’ll have proof of their activities to use against their families.”

“And what of Director Dixon and his wife?” the man asked.

“Once they get back to Washington, they, along with two of Mrs. Dixon’s nieces and twin teenagers, will have only days left to live. Nikolai and Viktoria Vincent will never make it to their freshman year of high school.”

“And of the Undesirables who think they’re working for us?”

“They will be dealt with.”

“And nothing will go wrong, will it?” the man asked sternly; “Because if it does, you’ll be taking one for the team.”

“Yes sir.”

===

Bryan just looked at the phone after speaking with Danica. He couldn’t believe what she asked him.

“What’s wrong, Bry,” Richards asked; “Miss Donovan shoot you down?”

“No, Coby,” Bryan said; “She asked us to come to the house. That it was a matter that she and her cousin needed to speak with us about.”

“I hope she’s not setting us up to be murdered,” Richards said; “What if she and her cousin are working for the people who want DeepCon to stay a secret?”

“I’m pretty sure she’s not,” Bryan said; “She actually sounded scared.”

“I had heard something about an assassination plot targeting the CIA Director and his new wife,” Richards said; “I thought that’s why we’re watching their house.”

“I’d heard that too,” Bryan said; “But we can’t verify that if we tell Danica and her cousin, Sandy, about it.”

“I know, hearsay,” Richards said. “But we should tell them to expect some nastiness from whoever it is whose trying to kill the Director and his wife. Maybe Danica and her cousins are targets as well.”

“Knowing something about who trained them, they may be targets,” Bryan said; “You know who trained Danica’s father, uncles and aunts, don’t you?”

“I know that the Donovan brothers, Nikolai San Marco and Julia Terranova were trained by Peter San Marco until his death in 2012,” Richards said; “After that, they were trained by that disfigured bodyguard of David Draiman’s...Morbus, I think is what he was called.”

“Morbus is correct,” Bryan said; “He also trained Natasha Vincent. She was the first female in the Disturbed Ones’ BlackOps.”

Richards sat for a moment and thought, then asked, “When do they want us over there?”

“Two hours,” Bryan said; “And Danica said, and I quote, ‘Don’t be late’.”

Richards shook his head. The shit was getting deeper by the second.

===

After her brothers left the house, and she got the kids settled into their school work, Julia told Jaime that she was going to lay down for a while; if they were going up to Belvidere later, to please let her know.

“Okay, Mom,” Jaime had said; “Should I call Uncle Nik?”

“If Uncle Nik has time this afternoon, he’ll probably take you,” Julia said; “So, yes, call him first. He and Uncle Jere have been pretty busy lately.”

“How long are you going to be laying down for, Mom?” asked Jaime.

“Just an hour or so. If I go past two hours, come wake me up.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Jaime said and went back to her room to work on her homework.

Julia went to lay down on the bed. Lady Marmalade was on the right side, where Ryan used to sleep; Tripod was on the floor, already asleep, chasing rabbits (that’s what Jack always thought, anyway) in his sleep.

After Julia got comfortable, the cat got up and snuggled against her, then settled into a contented purr. “You’re a good cat, Marm,” Julia said sleepily.

Soon, she was out like a light.

===

Christine was on her way home, yet Jacob stayed on at the beach house on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

It had been hard to let Christine go, but Jacob knew she had a lot to think about on the ride back Arlington.

If Todd wanted you to come home, would you go?


“Don’t you love me, Jacob?” she had asked.

With everything I have, my sweet Christine, but you are not mine to have as long as you’re still married to Todd.

“He was supposed to end the marriage after a year if he hadn’t heard from me,” she protested. “I don’t know why he didn’t. We agreed!”

He still loves you, Christine. Simple as that. I envy you.

“Why?”

Because to have someone that dedicated to you, even after all the years that have gone by, is a gift, Christine. Your ex is dead, so he can’t hurt you or Todd or your family anymore.

Now, however, Jacob had a meeting to look forward to. He was going to talk to someone about not completing an assignment that Jacob didn’t want to give.

The possible elimination of his own daughter.

Julia had come out of her amnesia more or less intact, with only memory loss and a bump on the head to her credit. Jacob prayed that Julia never remembered those three weeks she was gone, chasing Lincoln Marsh to a standstill. Jacob had no idea where Marsh was, or if he was even still alive.

I guess I’ll find out soon enough, he thought. It was the one thing he didn’t tell Christine, knowing that as a nurse, she’d try to save him. He’d already been alive much longer than anyone thought he’d be. Including Jacob himself.

Soon, it will be time to join my beautiful butterfly, he thought. He could hear her voice in his head, assuring him that it would be soon.

But, Todd Travis awaited.

There was a knock on the door. Jacob looked at the clock on the wall; the one JT made in high school not so long ago.

“Right on time,” he said as he walked to the door.

===

She got out of the truck and ran under the cover of darkness to the house.

She used the key she had taken from the safe in her bedroom and let herself inside. She headed straight to the garage.

Opening the door to the basement, she let herself be enveloped by the darkness. That’s exactly how she felt, if she had allowed herself to feel anything other than revenge.

In a locked wooden box, there was a bedroll. She unlocked the box and removed it, then lay it on the ground in a corner. Folding up a spare blanket, she used it as a pillow. She then laid her secure phone down on the ground, setting the search feature to find her target.

She had no idea that there were two men looking for her. One didn’t want to harm her.

The other had orders to kill her.

The orders came from someone she trusted with her life.

Her own father. The one she thought was dead until she was 15 years old.

She fell asleep in the bedroll, the phone would wake her when her target was found.


Julia awoke with a start. Keys? she thought. Keys to where? She tried to remember the dream, but nothing was coming back to her.

All the keys that weren’t being used were in the bedroom safe. Julia got up from the bed suddenly, startling the cat. Tripod still slept unaware at the foot of the bed. He was still “chasing rabbits”.

Her hand shook as she tried to dial the combination to the safe: 07 right- 18 left- 07 right-06 right.

Once it was open, Julia removed the strong box that held the keys to, among other things, Jack’s house in Riverton; Ryan’s parents house in Riley; and the keys to her father’s house in Arlington.

The Riley keys were missing!

“Oh my God!” Julia exclaimed under her breath; “I was in Riley! But how did I get there?”

===

Todd Travis walked into the house and handed Jacob a manila envelope.

“What in here?” the older man asked.

“Some of the stuff that your son did not get from the car that Julia was driving,” Travis said.

“He was only supposed to get Julia,” Jacob said. “CIA was to get anything she left behind. The weapons, any personal effects, clothing...”

“Everything I got was able to be placed in this envelope, Jacob,” Travis said; “There are some keys that have a tag that said ‘Riley House’ on them. Who or what was Riley House?”

“Julia and Ryan inherited Ryan’s childhood home in Riley, Minnesota,” Jacob said; “She must have been there at some point, but of course, she doesn’t remember anything about those weeks she was gone.”

“How could she not?” asked Travis.

“She was diagnosed with something called Lacunar Amnesia while at Walter Reed. She may never remember anything about that time she was gone,” Jacob said.

Travis sensed something familiar about the house, though he had never been there.

“Bethanie was here, wasn’t she?” he asked.

Jacob looked at the younger man and said only one thing, “Yes.”

“You’re fucking my wife, Morbus?”

“She thought until just recently that you had lived up to your end of your bargain with her that you had your marriage annulled,” Jacob said; “She honestly thought she was unattached. I found out that you were still married, and though I care very deeply for the woman who now calls herself Christine Travis, I cannot in good faith continue a relationship with her if you want her back.”

“So now you’re going to dump her, too? Shit, Jacob, you’re one cold motherfucker.”

“I didn’t ‘dump’ her, Travis,” Jacob said, feeling anger rising and keeping it in check; “I only asked if she would go back to you if you asked her to. Her answer was that she didn’t know. She was confused by the fact that you didn’t annul the marriage after you had agreed to do so.”

“I’d take Bethanie back in a heartbeat if she’ll have me,” Travis said; “But I’d have to talk to her. So you know how I can find her?”

“I don’t even have an address for her, Todd,” Jacob said; “She usually came to my house. This was supposed to be a relaxing vacation while she was on leave. I’m afraid that relaxing was not on the agenda.”

“Is she still on leave?”

“She should be, but again, I don’t have any way for you to contact her,” said Jacob. “She’s not listed. She’s still trying to protect you and her family. She didn’t even know her ex was dead until I told her.”

“I just don’t want her to run again before I have a chance to talk with her,” Travis said. “Do you what town she lives in?”

“She lives in Arlington, same as I do.”

“But you don’t know where? Shit, Jacob, even I could find that out with a little digging.”

“You can understand why I didn’t want to make a big deal out of our relationship,” Jacob said; “I’m old enough to be her father. She’s not much younger than my daughter is.”

Travis just shook his head. “Look, Jacob, keep the envelope. I’m going to find my wife and ask her to come home.”

“Good luck to you, then, Todd,” Jacob said.

Travis looked at Jacob with coldness, then said through clenched teeth, “Is that all you have to say?”

“Yes, it is.”

Travis then took his leave. Jacob thought, good, he’s pissed off. But if he takes it out on Christine, I will kill him.

===

“We probably should get going, Cobain,” Bryan said, packing up his stuff into his backpack. “It’s not nice to keep the ladies waiting.”

Richards packed a 9mm Beretta and placed it in a shoulder holster under his jacket. It had been raining and was a bit chilly.

“You’re not going to need that gun, Coby, shit!” said Bryan; “Overkill, don’t you think?”

“Bryan, we don’t know what we’re walking into, I don’t care how incredible you think Danica Donovan is.”

“You have a point, and I am armed,” Bryan said; “but I don’t anticipate having to use it.”

“Now you’re talking sense,” Richards said.

They got into the late model car and drove over to the Vincent residence. What they were going to learn there would shock both of them, and new alliances would be formed.

===