“Comrade, we are coming up to the border.” The storage compartment we were hiding in was small but it was only a short ride from where we had been staying to get across the border. I looked over at my wife and she was fast asleep. I shook her a little bit to wake her up. “We are about to start crossing the border. We have to be very still and silent.” The loud roar of the truck moving came to a dull rumble as we stopped. “Company paperwork and load inspection.” The border guard sounded like he was stressed and ready to get off work. “It says here that you are taking dirt for the border build project.” They paused and then started some radio chatter. “Alright let him through.” Someone from behind the truck slammed their fist against the back, echoing the loud thunder through this small compartment. We began moving again and then suddenly stopped. “Sir we need you to exit the vehicle.” I heard the door open and the weight shift around, dropping some dirt into the container. “We need you to open the back of this dump truck.” I couldn’t make out much of what my friend was telling them but it ended with a supervisor calling for an excavator. “Fellas there is a lot of dirt in here and if you want to dump it on the road we can.” He spoke louder to let us know that we might be getting tossed around. “GET THAT DUMP TRUCK MOVING!” Someone else had walked up and stopped the orders of the other border guards. The door to the cab opened and he climbed back in. The engine fired up and we started moving again. The seconds felt like hours, I was afraid we were going to be discovered. The steady pace ended and the engine began pushing harder. After what felt like a lifetime the hidden door opened to the compartment. “Aren’t you glad I had that compartment installed for our operation?” The cooler air flowed in and it was finally over. “No kidding, your idea was spot on for your boss.” My wife tapped my arm and whispered to me. “What exactly does his operation move in this?” I shook my head no and her eyes got wide and she nodded. “Get some sleep you two, it is going to be a few hours until we make it to the transfer spot.”
“We are pulling up to San Vicente, get ready guys.” My wife was still asleep, “Come on darling, this is it.” She rubbed her eyes and tried to stretch with the little room we had. “How much longer do we have?” I looked down at my watch to see the timer. “We are getting on a boat to take us down the coast, only about ten hours till our new home.” I saw the upsetting nature in her eyes of the situation that we are now in. “Hey darling, we will figure it out.” She started to tear up a little bit as she spoke, “We always do right?” I gave her a kiss and the truck finally stopped. The side of the compartment slid open and the sun was starting to go down. “Hand me your bags.” I grabbed our three bags and passed them out to him and then climbed out. I reached back inside to grab my wife and pull her out, setting her on her feet. “Are you ok?” She shoved her hair from her face and gave out a huff. “Yes! Just don’t ever shove me inside that thing again.” She smiled and then wrapped her arms around me. “Ok my love, I promise.” I kissed her on the top of the head and she let go. I turned to my friend to see him off. “I hope you get to where you’re going comrade. My boss thanks you for what you did for him and his niece. The deal is settled now.” He leaned back and put each hand on my shoulders. “Uvidimsya, moy drug. ” He gave me a pat on both shoulders and walked away saying something else over his shoulders. “There will be a boat tonight that will finish you for your last length of the journey. They know who you are and will take you to your new home.” He climbed back into the dump truck, gave a horn blow, and drove back from the way we came. “So what now?” My wife looked around the small village that sat on the river. “We need to eat something and get out of the sun.” We saw an open sign on a small shop next to the river. “Hola Amigo.” I walked to the counter and got something to take the edge off our nerves. “Dos Cerveza Por Favor” I set a five dollar bill on the counter and the man behind the bar took it with enthusiasm. “Come on and sit down, the boat will be here just before sun down.” My wife looked around and then looked at me. “Should I even ask how you know Spanish or is this something else that is going to shock me?” The man behind the counter walked up with two beers in their bottles and opened them in front of us. “So sobriety is out the window now huh?” She reached forward and nudged me as she said it. “All things considering, I think it’s time to have a drink again.” She giggled, she knew I wasn’t going back to that person I used to be with drinking. The man behind the bar pointed at me, “Taco?” I nodded my head yes and put up two fingers. “Enjoy this little pit stop my love, we have another leg of this journey left until we are finally home.” I watched as the sadness fell over her face, “What is home anymore, we are on the run.” I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her closer, landing a kiss on her forehead. “I don’t know about you, but home for me is wherever you are darling.” She let out a sigh and pulled away from me. “We will figure it out, we always do, right?” I rubbed my hand on her thigh and gave a gentle squeeze. “We always figure it out my love.” The tacos came to us and hit the spot, along with a few more beers. I reached into my wallet for more money to pay our new friend but he put his hands up and shook his head no. “On house.” “Gracias amigo” He reached for a remote under the counter and clicked on a small TV in the corner. I was blind sided by what was on.
“The investigation around the industrial park explosion just outside of LA has come to a close. The FBI has released a statement regarding their findings.” My wife was watching in horror at the Aerial view of the building we were in just a week ago. The FBI investigator began his statement. “The explosion was caused by high grade explosives that we have recently discovered belonged to an individual that is at the top of our most wanted list now. Along side of the explosives we found, we discovered a large arsenal of weapons and ammunition along with various fake copies of passports, Identification cards and foreign currencies. We have reason to believe he is connected to a larger group of individuals that are involved with a contract killer ring. This news is very disturbing to all of us, Yet I want to assure you that this individual is not armed and our agents are working tirelessly to track him down and bring him to justice.” The man behind the counter clicked the remote to the local station playing the football game. I looked over at him and he gave me a wink, “America’s problem stays in America, everyone is Hispanic here, even you gringo.” He chuckled as he finished his statement. A half hour went by as we watched the game with him until the sound of a loud boat engine roared in the distance. “Here comes our ride.” The man behind the counter motioned for us to follow him. We grabbed our things and walked through the back to a small dock down a few steps. The boat was extremely loud, even at its idle. “Gracias” I shook the man’s hand and he nodded his head, giving us the best English he could muster. “Safe travel friends.” I tossed the bags up to the man on the boat and climbed in, turning to help my wife up into the boat. “I know I said nightfall to our mutual friend, but when they started broadcasting your face on the news, I sped up the time table.” I shook his hand and gave him a hug. “It’s good to see you again my friend, your father would be laughing at this situation.” Again, my wife was confused that I knew this person and he knew who my father was. “We will have plenty of time when we get to Cabo, but now I need you two to sit down and buckle yourselves in.” We did as my friend asked of us and made ready for the ride. “So how long is this going to take?” My wife got to the question before I could. “Only a few hours, this here is the fastest boat my boss has in his fleet.” She looked over at me with disgust in her eyes at the vague answers. “Seriously, what’s the time table. I’m worried about how they knew who I was and how all of that belonged to me, Someone talked from inside the organization.” I could see his face reflecting off the dash, he was worried as well. “My boss has people across the border trying to sort this out for you. His trusted employees will get us the results you need.”
Two hours passed by as the speed boat cut through the water under the cover of darkness. “We are coming up to Cabo, the town never sleeps so I can’t get you in without being noticed.” His phone rang, he picked it up and then hung up after a few seconds without saying a word. “Good news, you have a greeting party waiting for you at the dock. My boss’s son wants to say hello to you again.” The engines slowed down and the boat came to a low idle as it glided across the water. The roof started to open as we approached the dock. “Wow, this place looks amazing.” My wife was excited to finally be to our destination and be able to stop for a while. “This is the edge of the world my love, people come here to be amazed.” The boat crept into the dock that was filled with our greeting party. “Welcome to Cabo friends!” The man on the dock looked a lot older than when I last saw him. “I appreciate the welcoming party.” I gave him a hug and stood back to get a look at him. “Man, you keep growing and you’re going to be bigger than me.” His men kept looking around the area and glancing at my wife. He caught one of his men looking at my wife. “Ahem, eyes on the perimeter, not on his wife.” The guard’s face flushed red and his head snapped back to the surrounding area. “So where am I staying this time?” He motioned for us to walk, his men took our bags, I kept my backpack with me. “My father has purchased a small villa overlooking the water on the edge of town. To this day he still thinks of you and what you did for him, and me.” My wife grabbed my hand and squeezed it a few times, getting my attention as she whispered, “What did you do for them?” Before I could say anything he spoke again. “Long story short, about ten years ago he was given a contract to find and retrieve me when I was kidnapped at only eight years old.” She was thinking for a moment, “It was the first contract in your book wasn’t it?” I shook my head yes and then he spoke again. “His book doesn’t even come close to how many people he killed, everyone that stood between me and him was killed.” She laughed “Nothing surprises me anymore with him. I’ve come to accept that anything he has written is true or very close to the truth.” We climbed into the back of his Mercedes luxury van. “Alright you two, I’m going to take you to the house my father bought for you. He got it furnished and set up so that you two can live a normal life.” He reached into a briefcase on the seat and pulled out two files and handed each one to us. “These are your new lives, live them and never forget that you are now these people.” My wife flipped through hers and then looked up. “I’ve never been a bartender, I don’t know how to do that.” I let out a small laugh, “You are going to learn my love.” She nudged me playfully as I opened mine. “So I’m under your father’s employment now?” He bobbed his head back and forth, “On paper yes, realistically, no. Do what you do and write your stories and keep publishing them online. You use an alias that’s been water tight this long, someone will know something is wrong if you stop now.” He closed his briefcase and the short ride up the hill was coming to an end. “Oh, here is the key to your truck. My father thought it would be odd if you had something flashy so you’re getting my old ford ranger. It’s manual so you will have to get used to that.” He handed the key over to my wife while I put the files away into my backpack. “Tell your father how much we appreciate this. I hope that I can see him during his busy schedule while we are down here.” He gave a nod and the van came to stop. The doors opened and two of the guards helped us out. “One more thing, don’t ever change. You’ve grown into a fine young man. It was a pleasure to see you again.” He blushed and the door was closed. The guards handed us our bags and then got back into their vehicles. “Honey, we are home.” My wife was quick to make her way up the pathway to the door, opening it with one of the keys on the key ring. “Whatever happened in your past that you did for this man, I don’t ever want to know about. But you must get some crazy favors from people.” The house was a gorgeous, open floor plan with window sliders that opened to a balcony that looked over the town and the small marina below. “Let’s get some sleep darling, it has been a long week.” We walked into the bedroom and put our things on the floor at the foot of the bed. “Oh god a hot shower finally.” My wife quickly undressed and made her way into the shower. I reached under my shirt at my lower back and pulled my pistol out, setting it on the nightstand. “Please let this be the end of this.” From the bathroom, I heard my wife holler, “Did you say something hun?” I got undressed and followed behind her to the shower.
Three months after arrival…
The door opened and my wife came inside, the clock read 3:45 a.m., “Darling?” I could hear her fumbling with her purse and the keys as she set them down on the credenza by the door. “Yeah it’s me, I’m going to shower and get a glass of wine.” She made her way into the bedroom and I got up from my chair on the patio to get the wine and two glasses. I walked back outside and put the glasses down, opening the bottle and pouring two glasses. “I got the wine my love, come tell me about your day.” She wrapped her hair in a towel and sat down on the chair next to mine. “Sorry I got off so late, we had a birthday tonight and the ladies decided they were going to get a little too toasted. We stayed until their rides came and picked them up.” I handed her a glass and then picked up the other. “Anything out of the ordinary?” She rolled her eyes as she took a sip. “Hunny, it has been three months. We saw on the news that the FBI has given up on the case and classified it as an isolated incident. We are safe, no one is coming for us, they would have by now.” She downed the rest of her glass and set it on the table with the bottle. “I’m going to bed, don’t stay up too late.” She stood up and walked behind me, wrapping her arms around me and giving me a kiss on the cheek before walking off.
Six months after arrival…
“It smells soooo good in here!” My wife walked in earlier than expected tonight. I glanced back at the clock on the stove, 7:45 p.m. “Hey darling, I wasn’t expecting you in for at least another hour.” She set her things down like always and walked through to the kitchen. “They closed the bar early tonight so everyone can go to the fair.” Before I could say anything she was off to the bedroom to take her shower. I shut the stove off and began making plates. When I finished I poured some more coffee into my cup and made it to my liking. “Can we please go tonight?” I stirred my coffee and picked up the cup to take a drink, looking at her from the corner of my eye. “Are we eating first?” The excitement flooded her face. “NO!” She demanded with her cuteness as she crossed her arms. “I guess fair food is a better option then huh?” She did a little jump as she clapped her hands. “Get dressed! We have to go!” I set my cup down on the counter and made my way into the room. She dressed quickly and walked back into the main room. “I’ll cover these and put them away so we can eat them later if we are hungry.” I nodded my head and mumbled under my breath, “Spend all day slaving over the stove to make a nice meal and you don’t want it.” From the other room, I could hear her. “I heard that!” I laughed a little and finished tying my shoes. I grabbed my wallet and put my watch on, I reached into the nightstand and pulled out my handgun. “Do you think that’s necessary?” I stopped and thought about everything that has happened. “I still can’t shake this feeling, you know that.” She walked up next to me and put her hand over the barrel and lowered it back into the drawer. “I know, but it’s been six months, it’s over and we are safe.” I knew her point of view was right, but she doesn’t know these people. These people never just let anything go. Once you are in this life there is no way out of it. Once something is started, it is not over until someone is dead. I needed to show her that I wasn’t so paranoid anymore, that I was willing to give things a chance and have faith. “You’re right.” I let go of the handgun and closed the drawer. “Ok, let’s go eat bad food.” She pulled me by my shirt to the front door. “I’ll drive.” I took the keys from her, opened the door, and smacked her on the butt. “Move it, princess.” I closed and locked the door, took a deep breath, and tried to let go of my paranoia. I climbed into the truck and we started our way down the road.
“Perfect spot right in front!” My wife was extremely excited, she hasn’t really had fun in the past six months, and going to work is the only interaction she has with people. I put the truck in park and climbed out, “Alright let’s go.” She came around and grabbed my hand and started pulling. “I want to play some of the games too!” The smell of the food, the noise of people laughing and screaming on rides brought me back to when we were younger. We walked through the gates and a few of the ladies she worked with came running up to us with their husbands. “I see you have brought your mystery husband out finally?” I could feel my face flush red, “Hey, it’s good to see you all again.” Hugs and handshakes were passed around and our larger party started making its way through the fair. The husbands and I watched as our wives played a game of skeeball, fishbowl, and then the balloon darts. We walked through eating the plethora of foods and drinking the various drinks that were offered by the vendors. One of the ladies leaned over to my wife and I heard what she whispered. “Hey, that guy from the bar is here. He is looking over here at you.” I figured it was just someone that was a frequent visitor until my wife asked, “Which one this time?” My ears began to ring, my heart started pounding and my adrenaline spiked as I saw him in the distance watching. “The one with the scar on his cheek.” My wife looked over at him and then me. “What’s wrong, why are you staring at him?” I grabbed my wife by the arm and started to pull her close to me for a hug. “We need to leave now.” She put her hand on my chest and looked up at me. “Why is your heart beating so fast? Are you ok?” The other husbands stood shoulder with me and pulled their wives close. “You guys need to leave.” I looked down at my wife. “Go home, lock the door, and don’t open it for anyone.” I looked across the field and two other men came to his side. My wife grabbed my hand and tried to pull me. “Let it go, let’s just leave, it is just some creep from the bar.” I pulled her close once more and gave her a kiss. “That’s the Judge.” Her face went pale and her eyes got wide. “Oh my god.” The other wives grabbed her and started pulling her to go with them. “He has this, come on lets get you out of here.” I watched my wife start crying as she pointed behind me. The judge began moving towards me with his two other men. As they got closer, one of them pulled a knife from his pocket and switched it open, getting his stance in front of me before striking. He lunged forward as I stepped left, grabbing his arm. Before the man knew what happened, I had twisted his arm and shoved the knife blade into his neck, dropping his body to the ground. The area erupted with screams as people began running away. The second man pulled a handgun and pressed it against my head. “Turn around!” I put my hands up and slowly turned to face him. The handgun shook in his hand as he held it firmly. “Drop the gun.” The man laughed and turned his head. At that moment I reached with both hands for the gun. Pulling the slide back with one hand, preventing it from going off as my other hand grabbed his hand and twisted it down. He let go and fell to the ground as I turned the gun around, pulled the slide back, and fired a single bullet into his head. The judge drew his pistol and pointed it at me as I leveled mine on his shoulder. “You can’t hide fore-” As he spoke I shot him in the shoulder, causing his pistol to fall from his hand as his other hand grabbed his shoulder. “Who sent you?” I got closer to him as he sat on one knee holding himself. “F**k you!” I fired another bullet into his upright knee, his body collapsing backward. “I should have just killed you the first time.” I leaned over his body as his face was getting more red and he started to cry. “Now, who sent you?” He tried to get another F-bomb out but not before I fired another bullet into his stomach. “GIVE ME A NAME!” I watched as his body and mind began to give out and accept his fate, he mumbled one word as the blood began pooling from his mouth. “S-Spe-Specter…” I stood up and fired one last bullet into his head to put him out of his misery.
“DROP THE GUN!” I turned and dropped the gun on the ground as the local police swarmed around me. The officers rushed me, getting me to the ground and putting me into handcuffs. “Get up and walk.” The officers walked me to the entrance of the fair where I was met with my old friend and his security detail. “Release him, he is under the employment of my father.” The officers looked at each other, shrugged and then unlocked the handcuffs. I was passed off to my friend and the officers went back into the fair. “Thanks for that, I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to get out of it.” My wife and her friends stood in the parking lot by their cars watching from a distance. “Well, I heard through the grapevine that there was some stranger in town. I figured I would come down to the fair during the most excitement our town has to see who he was. By my guess, this guy was the reason you and your wife ended up here?” I looked back into the fair and then back at him. “He was just another contractor, like me, he was hired by someone.” I was pulled into his SUV and my wife was brought over from her friends. “Come with me, I have some information for you.” We drove up the road and back to our small house. “How much does your wife know about what you used to do and the organization you belong to?” I looked over to her with fear in my heart, there were things I didn’t want her to know. Things that would make her change how she looked at me. “I think it’s fair to say that she knows I’m involved with some seriously bad people.” My wife caught the fear in my eyes and knew that I didn’t want to hurt her. “Let me know everything, I want to know everything that has led up to this. I want to know why my husband was targeted and why I was used as bait.” I lowered my head into my hands and ran my fingers through my hair. “Ok, what do you have for us?” The SUV stopped and we climbed out, walking inside the house before continuing the conversation. “Close the door, this is going to be disturbing.” We walked into the living room and stood around the island. “I already know who it is, I got it from the man that found us.” He reached into his briefcase and pulled out another file. “An employee of my fathers has recently been relieved of his position. We discovered that one of the security guards knew someone that belonged to the same organization you do. There were messages sent about you being here, where you lived and how your schedules worked.” I knew that the network ran far and wide but I was never sure that it ran this deep. “Where did these messages end up at?” He pulled a satellite photo from the file and slid it in front of me. “You’re old hunting grounds.” My heart sank, it confirmed my biggest fear. The one place I swore I was never going to return to once we left. “So then Florida it is.” My wife began to cry a little, “We can’t go back there, not after what happened when we were younger.” I was going to Florida, she wasn’t. “You aren’t coming with me this time darling.” Confusion fell over her and the crying stopped. “So you’re just going to leave me here then?” I walked away and went to the bedroom to start packing our things. She walked in behind me with my friend following her. “No. Absolutely not! You are not sending me there!” I had no choice, “You won’t be safe anywhere else. You know it’s the safest place. My mother isn’t going to turn away my wife, the mother of her granddaughter.” She was shocked, she didn’t know that I knew. “How did you know? How long have you known?” I stood up straight and put my arms around her. “I told you once, I know everything.” I kissed her on the top of the head and walked back into the living room. “We need to get on a plane tonight, non stop to Oregon.” My friend pulled a phone from his pocket and began making calls while we finished packing.
Inside of two hours my wife and I were boarding a private jet. “Tell your father I will repay him when this is all over, I promise.” My friend shook my hand and put his other on my arm. “My father says the debt is settled, friend. I hope our paths cross again but on more pleasant terms.” He pushed me off to get me moving and stepped back as the door closed. “This is your pilot, please have a seat and buckle up. The flight will only be a few hours. Once we are in the air the seatbelt light will shut off and you will be free to get up and move.” We set our bags on the floor in the storage compartment and took our seats. Within minutes the plane was climbing high and reaching its cruising altitude. “We have achieved cruising altitude, the weather is clear and the flight will be smooth.” The seatbelt light went off and we undid them. “When did you plan on telling me you were pregnant?” She adjusted herself and got comfortable in the seat. “I wasn’t sure when to tell you honestly. I wanted to make sure that we were safe first and that this was going to be the rest of our life.” I reached across the aisle for her hand. “Well after this is handled, we won’t have to worry about this anymore.” Her hand squeezed tighter, “How do I know that this will be the end of it now?” I squeezed her hand back and looked over to meet her eyes. “I have a plan.” She smiled and a single tear fell from her eyes. “I hope it works.” I leaned across and planted a kiss on her lips. “Get some sleep, we will be landing in a few hours.” She reclined her seat back and closed her eyes. I opened the window and stared into the darkness below us. I knew what I was doing was the right thing, especially for her and our child. I dug through my backpack and pulled out the file that was contracted to me at the start of this. I took one more look at it to see if anything stood out. Flipping through the pages I noticed something that I hadn’t seen before, the stamp of approval. Not on any of the pages anywhere or on the authorization page was there a stamp of approval that this contract was to be issued and carried out. I closed the file and put it back into my backpack. This was an unauthorized contract that the organization knew nothing about. The name the man said, Specter, I knew who he was. I knew more than just who he was, I knew everything about him, every detail, every trait, every habit. The only problem with this, he knew the same about me. Including where I would run to if I needed to disappear. I knew that the place he would stay was close to where we grew up at, he always called it his town and told everyone that he was the one who ran the town. I got lost in my thoughts and before I knew it the seatbelt light clicked on and the pilot came over the speaker in the cab. “The weather in Portland is clear and the runway is free of any traffic. We are beginning our descent, we will be parked momentarily.” The plan began to land and it was a smooth transition from flight to ground. The plane pulled alongside a small hanger and stopped. The cabin door opened and the pilot stepped out, “My friends, across the hanger there is a helicopter waiting to take you to your destination.” We grabbed our bags, thanked the pilot and made our way off the plane. The hanger was lit up and no one else was around except for the helicopter waiting out on the other side. “Does your family own many helicopters?” We got closer to the end of the hanger and the pilot got out to open the side door for us. “When I last talked to any of them, they owned three.” I watched her head nod in an unbelievable motion. “I didn’t know your family was so wealthy.” We climbed into the back of the helicopter and put the headsets on. “Would you have loved me more if I told you from the beginning?” She tossed her head side to side and then laughed. “You always told me you weren’t in it for the money. Now I’m telling you that it isn’t about the money.” I looked at her with a curious face, “That doesn’t answer my question.” She laughed and finally gave her answer. “No, I love the writer that I married.”
It was a short flight from the airport to the backside of the family estate, where there was three separate landing pads. “I thought you said your family owned a small manor?” I chuckled and looked at what my family had done with the place. “I may have downplayed it a little bit.” She looked back at me, “Downplayed? Your family owns a castle!” The helicopter circled the property and made its way to landing pad three. “The doors are opening from across the walkway.” My wife pointed down across the landing pad. I looked to see my mother walking out with grace. “Let me do the talking, we haven’t spoken in a very long time.” The helicopter landed and the pilot opened the door to let us out. The rotor slowed down and finally stopped, leaving us to the sound of the ocean wind and the waves crashing on the rocks below. “I was wondering when you would come home.” She opened her arms to give me a hug. “I need help, I know what happened in the past tore the family apart but I have nowhere else to turn to.” She let go of me and looked around me to my wife. “How far along are you?” I heard my wife stutter and try to get something out. “I raised three children, I know what early pregnancy looks like.” My mother walked past me and grabbed her by the arm gently, pulling her along to go inside. “Lets get you looked at and find out why you two have come.” As my mother walked past me she gave me a look that would turn anyone else to stone. I grabbed our bags from the pilot and followed them inside. My mother knew I was coming, if not for her intuition it would be for the many people she knew, someone saw us coming and told her.
After we settled in, one of the butlers came to our room to let us know that we had been requested in the dining hall for dinner. As we walked into the room, the table that sat over fifty people was empty, except for the head and two seats to the right of it. “Sit and dinner will come out, the lady of the house will be in shortly.” My wife was still in awe that this belonged to my family, but i think she understood that none of it belongs to me by now. “So since you two decided to pay a visit on such short notice, I must assume it has something to do with the explosion in the industrial park earlier this year.” I knew it wasn’t a question, she knew that I was involved with it. “No sense in sugar coating it mother, I took a job after a while and it was a set up.” I hit a nerve, my father was involved with this as well and she never liked any part of it. “So, I see your father managed to rope you into the business before he passed away. How long after he passed did you take your first job? Assuming that your book is recounting your jobs and what you did.” She read the book, she knows that I was working when I was nineteen, but not how much earlier it really went. “Two months after he passed away I was given my first job.” The food came and she picked up her utensils, put her napkin in her lap and began to eat. “So, everything in the book was real then?” I took a drink from the wine glass on the table that had water in it. She at least knew that I was trying to stay somewhat sober these days. “Everything was real, and even more that wasn’t in the book. I did what I was trained to do.” She nodded her head and continued to eat. “Dinner is very good, thank you for having us.” My wife tried to break the tension. My mother swallowed her food, pressed her napkin to her lips and then looked at me. “You’re just like your father, but you at least had the sense to get out before it was too late.” Her words cut deep into me, my father didn’t die on a job, but many years later from the many injuries he sustained. “Do you still have fathers things locked away?” Her eyes looked through me and her face got pale, like she was looking at the ghost of my father. “Before you say another word about him, you need to tell me what happened.” This was going to be hard for her to hear but she wanted to know. “I took a job, I wanted to get a little more money put away and get started on my second book and needed a motive for it. The job was easier than any others I had taken in the past. Long story short, my wife was used as bait by the contract issuer to draw me out of hiding. Someone wanted me dead and was willing to kill her to achieve it. The problem is, the only person that would know who I was, worked for the same company. The one person I walked away from when I walked away from the company.” My mother knew exactly who I was talking about. “I don’t know the code to your fathers locker, so if you can open it, take whatever you need. Just make sure you put this behind you once this is done.” The dinner was quiet after that, we finished and she went to her chamber and we went back to our room.
The next morning I made my way downstairs into the caves below the property to the room my fathers office was in. I looked at the keypad and noticed it was a six digit code panel. I tried a few different codes and finally got it open. I haven’t been here since he passed away, everything was still in the same place he left it. I saw the large locker on the wall, it was much larger than I anticipated. The dial on the locker was complex, but I remembered a series of numbers my father used all the time. I spun the lock three times to clear it and then dialed in the code, “Click”, I spun the handle and it opened. Before me was the entire history of my father. Every contract copy, weapon, trophy and his mask. A mask that I had only ever seen once before when I was younger, a mask that changed history. “You know, your father would be doing the same thing if it had been him.” I didn’t hear my mother step into the room behind me. I reached for one of his duffel bags at the bottom and started loading weapons, ammo and explosives. “Once I close this, it won’t open until I come back, and then it will remain closed forever.” I heard her sniffle and she started to cry silently. “Why would you need to open it again?” I stood up and grabbed his mask, putting it in the bag. “To return his mask to where it belongs.” I closed the safe and she backed up to the door, stopping me from walking out. “You take his mask, you take his ways. You become the ghost. You come back with that mask or don’t come back at all.” I didn’t know how long it had been since she saw this mask. “If I don’t make it back…” she put her hand on my face and pulled it down to look at her. “ The child will never want for anything, neither will your wife.” I moved forward forcing her to step out of the room as I pulled the door closed behind me, locking it once more. I stepped past her and took a few steps, she wasn’t following. I turned to see her hand on the door, she missed him and everything in that room is all she has left of him. “Come on mom, you need to get to know her while I’m gone. You will really like her, I think you two have a lot in common.” She let go of the door and grabbed my arm as we walked out of the caves and back inside. My wife was standing at the front door waiting to see me off. “What are you going to do?” I could see that her heart was terrified that I wasn’t going to come home. “I’m going to do what I’ve always done.” I pulled her head close and gave her a kiss like it was the first time. “ I love you so much. I will see you in a few days.” A tear fell from her eye as she let out a deep breath. “ I love you too, please be safe.” She stepped aside and opened the door for me. “Always my love.” I walked outside to the car waiting to take me to the airport. I heard my wife ask my mother a question.
“What is he going to do?”
“What he has always done.”
“What is that?”
“He will kill everyone”
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© Trenton Stalnaker and Around the block and on the bus, 2014-20–. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Trenton Stalnaker and Around the block and on the bus with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Around the block and on the bus. 