The Spook House (The Spook Series Book 1) (21 page)

 Dad’s arms moved and I could tell he felt the bulge of my gun. He slowly withdrew from me and said, “Jacob, is that a …”

“Yes,” I said, quickly cutting him off. “I’m licensed to carry it at all times.”

“I see,” my dad murmured in awe. Years ago, he got arrested for carrying a concealed weapon in the city and went to jail for it. He received a harsh sentence from Tubb, the biased judge, but that’s all ancient history. Now, Dad felt the gun that I had been authorized to carry on an airplane. He looked at me as if I were some type of god.

I didn’t want the good mood to disappear. “You know what?” I said, “I’m starving! You want to get something to eat?”

“Sure!” Dad said. We were instantly just father and son again. “Anywhere you want to go! I’m buying!”

“That sounds good.”

“So where do you want to go?”

“Anywhere where I can get a hamburger and a beer!” I said.

“You got it!”

–––––

Lunch with Dad was awesome. I couldn’t remember the last time I was so happy. Obviously, I couldn’t tell him anything about what I had experienced in the military. Even if I could, would I want to? Could I tell him about Gunner’s arm getting blown off? Could I ever talk about the rape and assault in boot? Could I tell him about my transfer to the Rock? About the Spook House? About Pan’s Horn? About my revenge? About the unexpected promotion and my induction into Black Ops?

No, I couldn’t tell him. It would be illegal and dangerous for me to do so. Fortunately, I had a cover story. It was simple. When asked, I was ordered to tell people only that I worked in “computer security.”

That was good. It sounded complicated. That usually shut down the conversation about work completely, and people wanted to talk about something else.

After lunch, Dad drove us home. It look exactly the way I remembered it. Sampson was on the front porch. I could see him perk up when he saw Dad and “a strange man” walking next to him. He stood his ground, ready to defend his home and family if necessary.

“Sampson!”

He looked startled by the sound of my voice. I could almost read this thoughts. Is that him? he wondered, Is that him?

“Sampson! Come here, you!”

Sampson heard me again. His nostrils caught my scent.

It is! It’s him!

Sampson barked and came charging down. He jumped on me and knocked me off my feet. He was licking me, then he jumped off, barking.

Dad looked at me on the ground.

“Are you OK?” he asked.

I sat up and threw my arms around my dog. “I’ve never been better,” I said.

–––––

Days later, after settling in and enjoying my time off, I went with Dad to the supermarket. Spanky, my friend from high school, still worked there. I looked at him as we talked, thinking about how different our lives were, and how different my life could have been if I had never joined the Service or had never left here.

That night, I had a beer with Spanky at the local bar.

“Dude! You’ve got to tell me how it was!”

I told him I worked in computer security.

“No, dude! Not that shit. I mean, like, the cool stuff!”

“The cool stuff?” I said.

“Yeah, you know. The cool stuff.”

I didn’t know.

“Well,” he elaborated, “did you travel any place exciting?”

“No.”

“Did you have any fun at all? Dude! You’re in the Army! Any time off? Any women? Any hookers?”

I thought about Ashira, my dark savior in the basement of that house, looking sinister and sexy as always. In my mind, I watched her leading me out of the darkness with her fingers on fire.

“No,” I said. “No women.”

“Dude, that sucks. Well, did you see any action? Anything exciting at all? You had to have seen some scary shit.”

“Well, yes,” I said quietly. “There was some ‘scary shit.’”

“Dude, I knew it,” Spanky said, relaxing back on his barstool and having another sip of beer. He gave me a smug, satisfied smile, as if he had elicited a confession. That was all he wanted, which was good, because that was all he was getting.

Spanky said, “Next time we see each other, I want to hear about action with women.”

“I’ll drink to that,” I said. We clinked beer glasses.

–––––

My time at home was way too short. Dad got that glazed look in his eyes again as he watched me leave. I missed Sampson already. He’s going to wonder where I am.

Why did he leave? Is he ever coming back? Did he die? I imagined these were the questions that will be going through his brain. But I don’t know. Sampson and my dad have each other, and that’s good. The family isn’t complete without me, but I’ll be back, I hope.

I arrived at “The Facility” to begin my formal training in Black Ops. I felt both fear and pride – fear, that I wouldn’t cut it, and pride that I’d been given this opportunity. I was going to be protecting our country at the highest level. I would be exposed to some of our nation’s deepest secrets. Apparently, the Spook House Project was only one of many black-flagged cases. Makes you wonder.

I had to swear an oath to protect my country at all costs. I had to sign secrecy agreements that granted me power (like carrying the concealed weapon, and in some cases, a license to kill) not afforded to most citizens, but at the same time gagged me and stripped me of fundamental rights. If I broke the rules, I would not be tried publicly. I could be incarcerated in secret prisons (like what I thought the Rock was at first) or worse.

I looked at the contract in front of me. I would gain power in exchange for the loss of something intangible but incredibly valuable. I would be owned by the government, even more so than when I was in the regular Army. I felt like I was about to sign a deal with the Devil. But then again, I had experience with that type of thing. I picked up the pen and signed the contract.

In my mind, I signed a second, secret contract. There were no witnesses to the signing besides God and myself. Plus, we were the only ones who could read the fine print. In the promise I made to myself, to God, and to my country, I vowed to protect my homeland from evil, even if that evil comes from the U.S. government itself.

I answer to a higher authority. I have God on my side, and sometimes, the Devil as well. If I ever come across anything even remotely as wrong as what went on at the Rock, I will do everything in my power to end that evil. I’m in a better position to do so now. I’m on the inside.

As a member of Black Ops (and the military in general), I swore I would protect my country. But I didn’t swear I would protect my government.

My bosses asked me if I was ready to fight evil. I said yes without hesitation. But what they don’t realize is that one day, they might be the evil I fight. If they cross the line, I’ll take them out as surely as I destroyed the twisted psychopaths behind the Spook House. But they don’t know that. Right now, I’m a new recruit, and I’m eager to learn everything I can.

Maybe everything will work out fine. Maybe the government isn’t up to anything else as twisted as the testing of experimental drugs on unsuspecting human subjects. Maybe the whole Spook House/Pan’s Horn project is the most dangerous and depraved top-secret thing they’re involved in. Somehow, I doubt it.

So that’s it. I’m moving on to the next phase of my life. The government’s full of bad men. I experienced that first hand. God is watching them, and now, so am I. They better beware the Almighty’s terrible swift sword. That sword could be me.