Authors: Bernard Lee DeLeo
“Will the little girl be okay,” one dark complexioned young man asked. “She did not look so good.”
“It will take a while, and she will never get over some of what happened; but because of what we did today, she will be back home getting well. It don’t get no better than that.”
There were a chorus of grunts and affirmations. “What’s your name?” Connor asked the young man.
“Ruiz Sir, Luis Ruiz, Lieutenant USMC.”
“We have a long road ahead of us Lieutenant,” Connor replied. “Tomorrow I go into Basrah to get another little girl named Jenny Atkins. She will be thirteen next month. Pierre gave her to a military official in Basrah, to keep one of his drug supply lines open. He has had her for over a year, since she was eleven. I will need a way out from North of the Kuwait border. By then, I will probably have many pissed off people on my back.”
“How in the hell will you ever get her away from this guy, and all the way to the border Sir?” another man asked.
“That will be my problem,” Connor informed him. “Control will let us all know tomorrow the route you will need to keep open, and the place I will need to shoot for.”
“But what about the border guards, and.”
“Did I say this would be easy,” Connor broke in. “We may start a war if things go badly, but one thing you can count on: I am going to bring little Jenny out to a predetermined place, where you guys will have made the rest
of her journey a safe one. By the time we are done, everyone who ever touched her or got into the way of her exit from Iraq will be dead. Any more questions?”
Karen waited outside of customs. She looked at her watch. Lieutenant Ruiz should have been passed through already. As she decided to find out what the hold up was, a commotion came from inside the closed off portion of the custom’s office. Karen rushed into the room in time to see Ruiz leg whip one security guard to the floor. Ruiz took his gun, and turned to trap the second guard who had grabbed him from behind. The guard dropped the gun as Ruiz tightened the lock hold he had around both of the man’s arms with his left. Ruiz backed up calmly, with the first guard’s gun under the second one’s chin, to where a little girl huddled in the corner. She grabbed Ruiz around the waist as he backed towards her, and held him tightly. Ruiz looked down and smiled.
“I told you I wouldn’t let them take you honey.” He looked up at the stunned custom’s officers, and security guards, with their weapons drawn.
Karen walked right in between them with her NSA credentials out. “Hold it right there, all of you. Put those guns away now. I said now, God Damn it!”
The security guards holstered their guns, and Karen turned to Ruiz. “What happened Lieutenant? I expected you a half hour ago.”
Ruiz recognized Karen from his orders. “Hello Dr. Blakely.”
“Stand down Lieutenant.”
Ruiz released the guard he held. He released the clip from the 9mm automatic, and jacked the shell out of the chamber. He put his arm around the little girl next to him, who stared up at Karen curiously. He handed the weapon to the guard.
“Okay, what happened?” Karen asked.
“Mr. Connor told me to put Jenny here in your care, and not to let her out of my sight until then. I tried to explain this to these people, but they insisted on separating us.”
Karen spun around angrily. “Who the hell tried to separate this girl and her bodyguard?”
One of the custom’s officers standing in the background walked up. Her auburn hair was tied tightly away from her face. She looked into Karen’s eyes with a smug look, but what she saw there made her back up a step.
“I am in charge of customs at.”
“Shut up. You were told to release Lieutenant Ruiz and his charge immediately into my care. Is English your second language, you sanctimonious twit?” Karen said through clenched teeth.
“Who do you think you are? I am going…”
“Get out of our way. You have your orders. Now step aside.” Karen turned back to Ruiz. “Follow me Lieutenant.”
As Karen stepped past the woman, she grabbed hold of Karen’s arm. “This girl must remain with us pending.”
Karen reached up and grabbed hold of the woman’s left ear. The woman screamed out as Karen pulled her head close. She tried to pull away, but Karen tightened her grip, and twisted so the woman’s head bowed even more.
“Listen close, you arrogant bitch,” Karen whispered fiercely. “I can have you on the phone with the head of the NSA and Director of the CIA in ten seconds, but if you make me do that, I will make it so you won’t be able to find a job cleaning toilets. What’ll it be?”
“You.You can go. I.I.”
Karen released her, and pushed her back. “Listen up, all of you. There will be others coming through here in much the same way, and I will not have them harassed like this. The next time, I come in with a squad of special agents. You are all lucky I got here when I did. What were your orders Lieutenant?”
“Get Jenny into your custody, and kill everything that gets in the way of that objective,” Ruiz answered.
Karen walked over to where the auburn haired woman held the side of her head. She handed her a card. “Call this number. They will explain things to you again. I hope for your sake, you will keep all of this quiet.”
Karen led Ruiz and Jenny out through La Guardia airport to a waiting limousine. Jenny curled up next to Ruiz. Karen reached into the small refrigerator and took out two sodas.
“Would you two like a soda?”
Jenny sat up, took both sodas, and after opening one, she handed it to Ruiz. He smiled his thanks, and took a big swallow.
“You’re leaking Lieutenant,” Karen observed.
Ruiz glanced down at his left shoulder. Blood had begun to stain through his tunic. He drank some more of the soda. “I’ll be okay Dr. Blakely. Jenny and I are pretty tough, aren’t we Jenny?”
Jenny nodded solemnly and took another sip.
Karen held out her hand to Jenny, “I’m Karen Blakely. I am really sorry about the mess in there.”
Jenny shook her hand. “I’m Jenny Atkins. Mr. Connor told me to say hi for him.”
“I heard a lot of what happened, but Mr. Connor did not have his com unit on until he had you on the road from Basrah. If you don’t want to talk about it, just say so Jenny, but I really would like to know how he got you out.”
“I don’t mind. I like Mr. Connor. He can change himself. Did you know that?”
“Yes honey, he can do a lot of strange things.”
“They kept me locked up in a room. I hated it. I was sleeping, because it was real late. I felt a hand on my face, and I opened my eyes, and Mr. Connor was sitting next to me. He whispered for me to be very quiet, because he was going to take me to my parents. He asked me if I had a favorite person I liked, and I told him I loved Tom Cruise. He got this real funny look on his face, and he sighed.”
Karen laughed, “I’ll bet he did.”
Jenny reached out, and put her hand on Karen’s. “But wait, then he just changed into Tom Cruise. He even sounded like him. I had a little lamp they let me have. I could see him real good. Then he told me to get dressed in the robes they made me wear all the time. After I got dressed, we went over by the locked door. Mr. Connor told me to close my eyes and wait for him. I closed my eyes, but then I peaked, and he was gone. At first I couldn’t hear anything; but then there were shots, and people screaming. I thought they caught Mr. Connor. After ten minutes, it got real quiet.
My door opened, and Mr. Connor was there. He was bleeding real bad. He didn’t look like Tom Cruise anymore. He knelt down next to me. Mr. Connor said he would have to disguise himself to look like Ahmed Hassam, the man who bought me, and not to be scared. I said okay, and then he changed to look exactly like him. I was scared at first, but when he smiled, I could see Mr. Connor. He picked me up like I did not weigh anything and carried me. Outside the room, there were bodies everywhere. Sirens were going off, and military cars were coming.
Mr. Connor met the soldiers, and spoke to them just like Ahmed Hassam. They even saluted him. Then they ran into the house. Mr. Connor put me in one of their cars after he walked right up to the driver, and did something to his head. He picked him right out of the jeep, and threw him in the air like a ball. We left then. He put something in his ear, and started talking to someone. I guess you know the rest.”
Karen had gripped the little girl’s hand in hers throughout the story. It took a moment to realize she had stopped talking. She looked at Ruiz, who had sat back in his seat. He nodded at her when Jenny finished.
“Mr. Connor came on line when he reached the road going to the Kuwait border. He told us to get ready, because he would have targets on his tail. He told us what he and Jenny were in, and to take out everything following. We set up three separate ambushes, which I imagine you were in on from there Dr. Blakely.”
“Yes,” Karen confirmed. “We monitored things pretty closely after he started communicating. Thomas had to leave Jenny with Johnny Loo after he reached the Kuwait border, and then he went back towards Basrah. We lost communication for a while at that time. In fact we did not regain it until the operation was over.”
Ruiz nodded his agreement. “Yea, they sprung the first ambush after Mr. Connor got by, and then the first team began retreating back to the border. He had a small army following him. They did not give up pursuit, even when they were hit at the second ambush site. I was on the third site, and we were to hold until everyone was out. Just as word came in to retreat back to the border, our communications went down. We hustled back, but I took a round in the shoulder. The rest of my team lost track of me, because we didn’t know we were no longer in contact. The bullet had just grazed the top of my shoulder, but I was bleeding heavily. I knew they wouldn’t leave me, so I hunched down to wait for the enemy. I lost consciousness, and the next thing I knew they were kicking me awake, and screaming at me. There had to be about ten of them. I felt pretty good, because I knew everyone else must have made it out. Someone kicked me in the side of the head here.” Ruiz pointed to a lacerated area above his right ear.
“When I came to, Mr. Connor was picking me up like I was a baby, and all of the soldiers were dead.” Ruiz stopped for a moment, smiling grimly. “He had literally torn them apart. It looked like he had blown them up. I tried to get him to let me walk, but he just shook his head, and headed back for the border at a dead run. I am six feet two inches tall, and weigh two hundred pounds. Our way back was over mostly sand. We could hear the sound of some heavy armor moving up the road. Mr. Connor got me back to the border, where Mr. Loo had everyone dug in. They started patching me up, and Mr. Connor took Jenny. Mr. Loo told him to take off, because the pursuit was not going over the border. Mr. Connor laughed, and headed out in one of our vehicles with Jenny. Just as the armored carriers showed up on the road, racing towards us, two helicopter gunships came from inside Kuwait. They rocketed the carriers, and that was the end of it.
We all hooked up later in Kuwait City. They had my little wound patched up. Mr. Connor arrived with Jenny once we got settled in at the safe house. He didn’t look like Tom Cruise by then. He looked like hell; but he joked around with us, and introduced Jenny. He took me aside, and asked me if I would make sure Jenny reached the States safely. I told him I would be honored to. He smiled at me, and told me exactly what I told you back at customs. Me and Jenny have been together ever since.”
Karen sat enthralled, as the story had progressed. They had not regained contact until after the incident at the border. Nate and Derek had worked damage control, explaining the circumstances to the Kuwaiti officials about the rescue mission. The President had been informed of the rescue after its successful conclusion, and the need for complete secrecy. He had two daughters himself. He in effect told the Iraqi representatives, who came to protest at the White House, to make sure they did not kidnap any other little American girls out of their homes, or a border incident would be their least concern. He seemed to relish the opportunity. She filled Ruiz in on some of the details.
“Thank you for filling me in on all of this Jenny. It will help us later. We can stop at the hospital if you want Lieutenant,” Karen told him.
“I want to be on hand when Jenny gets to meet back up with her parents,” Ruiz replied. “I promised her I would be there.”
Karen smiled in agreement. “I think that will be just fine. Nate flew them out here, and put them up at the New York Palace hotel. We have a room for you there too Lieutenant.”
“Will I ever see Mr. Connor again?” Jenny asked.
“I hope so Jenny,” Karen replied. “I hope so.”
Nate walked into the living room of the small house in East Germany. Johnny Loo stood up from within the group of men resting in the main room. He shook hands with his old friend, and motioned for Nate to follow him out into the kitchen. Johnny opened each of them a soda from the refrigerator, and sat down at the small table. Nate pulled up a chair opposite of him.
“Thanks for coming Nate, I know you must be frazzled.”
“After all you guys have done over the last three weeks, you think I’m frazzled?” Nate gestured towards the room. “How are your guys holding up?”
“Fantastic,” Johnny stated without hesitation. “Thirteen missions in just over three weeks with only five guys wounded. I would not have thought it possible, at least until I met up with Thomas again.”
“The replacements I sent worked out okay then?”
“They fit like a glove. With you and Ruiz training them, they came prepared to do what we needed. I don’t know how you have been keeping all of this quiet, but we came this far only because you did.”
“I must admit we were doing pretty well with the President being on board one hundred percent. I am tapped out on favors for exclusives to the media once this shit ends. We cannot keep a lid on this much longer, especially with what the mutant menace did in the Sudan.”
Nate watched Johnny Loo get a far away look on his face for a moment, and then he stood up again, and went to the cupboard. He came back with two shot glasses and a bottle of Wild Turkey. After pouring two shots, he held his out. Nate touched his into Johnny’s. Johnny and Nate threw down their shots, and Johnny poured another for both of them to sip.
“You would have had to have seen what Thomas saw there Nate, to know why he did what he did. This Abdul Badri, who had purchased Carolyn Mowry from Pierre, had his own slaves for sale. They were black slaves of all ages. Carolyn had been mutilated as you have heard goes on with women in these areas.”
“I know the first part went smoothly,” Nate acknowledged. “He came on line as soon as he located her. Thomas really outdid himself, meeting up with the local military official, and then borrowing his identity. Badri took him right in to see Carolyn. It should have been an in and out mission. You had the encampment set up beautifully. All Thomas had to do was grab Carolyn, get in the vehicle he came in, and leave. You had the door open. The screaming began shortly after, and then all hell broke loose.”