Authors: Mitchel Grace
“What about the rest of us?” Sam asked.
“Well, given the fact that we now know
that Markus has a private place in Paris, I want you two to leave tonight and
go check the place out. Who knows? Maybe we’ll get lucky and find him right off
the bat.”
A free vacation to Paris. God, I love
my new job, Nathan thought and smiled.
“Michael, you’ll continue to go to your
therapy sessions. The only change will be the fact that you’ll meet Dr. Harper
at his house instead of at his main office,” Campbell said.
“What about me?” Jess asked.
“You and Ms. Morris will continue to do
what you do best. You will both analyze the situation and plan our next move.
Jason, you’ll resume your job as a handler to Sam and now Nathan. Burt, you’ll
go to Atlanta and fill in Mr. Driver and Mr. Green on the situation here. I
need those two back here as soon as Zane recovers. So are there any questions?”
Campbell asked.
“Yes, sir. In light of the situation,
shouldn’t I be doing more? I feel that I should at least be helping someone
out,” Michael said.
“You can return to duty as soon as
Harper clears you to return.”
Michael was a little aggravated, but he
accepted Campbell’s answer.
“What about me?” Lee asked.
“You’re a tech specialist, and since
we’re going to be working from home for a short while, I would say that you can
just take a short vacation like Michael.”
Lee wasn’t happy with that answer at
all, and the look on his face showed his displeasure.
“Can he help us out some?” Trish asked.
“That really isn’t his area, but if
that’s what you two want, then I suppose it would be fine.”
Trish didn’t really care about whether
or not Lee would be helpful with their work. She was in a fragile state of mind,
and somehow having him around was comforting to her.
“All right, let’s get to it then,
people,” Campbell said.
Chapter 13
As the group departed, Campbell had his
own secret worries. He had addressed every important piece of information with
the group except one. What were they supposed to do about Markus’s son? Campbell
didn’t feel comfortable using a little boy as bait to get to his father, and he
didn’t even know if the information that Jess got out of Chloe was true. If it
was true, it could definitely help them take down Markus in a much more efficient
manner. Ultimately, for lack of a better option, Campbell let the newfound
information fall by the wayside, and he decided that exploring the option of potentially
using Markus’s son should only be used as a last resort. He got into his car
and drove away from the restaurant. I just hope my own conscience won’t cost
thousands of more people their lives, he thought as he was driving away.
* * * * *
Michael drove Jess, Trish, and Lee back
to their home and then drove to the address that he had been given by Campbell.
Once he arrived, he rang the doorbell. He expected James to let him in and for
them to have a regular session, but he was in for quite a surprise. James
opened the door and stepped outside with him.
“Where are you going?” Michael asked.
“We’re taking a little field trip.
Follow me,” James said.
The two men walked to James’s truck and
got in. As they were leaving, Michael couldn’t help but ask the most obvious
question.
“Where exactly are we going? I thought
that you were going to help me out with my issues and stuff,” Michael said.
“I am. Last night, I finally got around
to reading your profile. It seems that you were quite the shot in the army. You
were the best in your class.”
“Yes, I was,” Michael said proudly.
“Why exactly did you have a problem
with shooting on the battlefield then?”
“It’s different when you’re shooting at
a person instead of a target.”
“That’s understandable, but let me ask
you something. Why are you so proud that you can shoot a target better than
most people?”
“Shooting is the only thing that I’ve
ever been naturally good at. It’s not that I didn’t work at it to get better,
but unlike the rest of my squad, I just seemed to be naturally gifted at it. If
I had never even tried to be good at it, I would still be well above average.”
“I see. So you’re proud that you have a
skill that no one else you’ve ever met has. Let me ask you a question then.
What good does that skill do you if you can’t help or protect anyone with it?”
“Are you saying that the only thing I
have ever been good at is worthless?” Michael asked in offense.
“Not at all. I’m simply saying that
maybe, just like you were letting your girlfriend help you with her own gifts,
you may have also been allowing your fellow soldiers to help you with their
gifts, without ever thinking to use your one talent to protect them. You have
to know that God gives us our talents, and He gives them to us for a reason.
Mine occasionally allows me to help people fix things that were once broken
inside of them. Your gift is even greater than mine. You can protect people in
life or death situations.”
“I understand what you’re saying, but
it’s never right to kill someone, and I can barely live with what I’ve done in
the past, so I don’t know if I can do the same types of things in the future
and still keep some small thread of sanity alive in myself. At the same time, I
cannot stand that all my friends are working on these important things that I
should be helping them with, but instead, I’m sitting in this truck with you
and talking about myself.”
James paused for a second to think.
“Let me ask you something. How did last
night go?” James asked.
“Well, I had never cooked before, so
everything that I cooked was pretty much terrible. You gave me really bad
advice,” Michael said.
“I’m sorry, but how did your friend react
to the dinner?”
“Well, she didn’t like it. I suppose that
her eyes really did light up when she saw how much effort I put into it,
though.”
“Then it doesn’t really matter how it
tasted. You made an effort. That’s all I wanted you to do, and truthfully,
that’s probably all she wanted to see out of you, too.”
“All right. I see your point, but you
never did answer my question. Where are we going?”
“Oh, I guess that I didn’t answer you.
We’re going to a gun range just outside of town.”
Michael was shocked and a little bit
scared. The last thing he wanted to see was a gun after he had frozen up back
in Atlanta.
“What kind of shrink are you? Do you
actually think that’s a good idea?”
“We aren’t going to be shooting at
anything that’s living, and besides, I thought I should see if you really are
this big time sharp shooter.”
Michael only laid his head back on the
seat. Aren’t you supposed to try to keep the gun out of the crazy person’s
hands? This guy is crazier than I am, Michael thought.
* * * * *
Back at the house, Jess, Trish, and Lee
were hard at work on the computer.
“What are we looking for?” Lee asked.
“We’re looking at everything that we
know about the facility in Atlanta. Zane and Dan may have failed at capturing
the place, but that doesn’t mean that we aren’t going to have to strike there
again at some point in the future,” Jess said.
“Nathan and Sam’s strategy of just
trapping everyone in the basement and burning the whole place down worked out
pretty well. Why can’t we just use the same strategy?” Trish asked.
“Well, from what I’m reading here about
the facility, it doesn’t have a one way elevator exit. Instead, it has a large
stairwell in the back of the building. I don’t think that we could trap them
underground,” Lee said.
“You’re right, but the question we
should be asking ourselves is, even if we did have a plan, who would lead a
group of men into that place? Zane is a little incapacitated at the moment, and
I don’t think it would be fair to send Dan in there twice,” Jess said.
“I could go if we had a reasonable
plan,” Trish said.
“First of all, no you couldn’t. You
just got through with a very traumatic situation, and I don’t think that it
would be a good idea for you to go stomping straight into another one,” Lee
said.
Jess quickly agreed with him.
“I’m fine, and as Lee can testify, I’m
a great shot,” Trish said.
The truth was that Trish still wasn’t
fine, and she wouldn’t be for a long time, but she just felt like she had to
throw herself into something fast or she was going to sink in the sadness that
was enveloping her.
“Yeah, you are a great shot, but you
aren’t going in there alone,” Lee said.
“Who said that I was going in there
alone?” Trish asked while looking at Lee.
“I know you aren’t thinking that I’m going
into that war zone. No, thank you.”
“Fine. I guess that I am going in there
alone then.”
“Stop arguing, you two. We haven’t come
up with anything yet, so what does it matter?” Jess asked.
“What is this place posing as anyway?”
Lee asked.
“It’s a distribution center,” Jess
answered.
“A distribution center?” Lee asked in
confusion.
“You know, a place where they stock pretty
much anything. It could be anything from simple groceries to high-end
electronics,” Jess answered.
“How about we make a delivery?” Trish
suggested.
“What do you mean?” Lee asked.
“I think that someone should deliver a
load of fake cargo, and we should place enough explosives within the truck to
blow the whole place sky high,” Trish said.
“It would be a little loud, and I’m
pretty sure that it would get the attention of the local authorities,” Jess
said.
“We could put the explosives in crates
that looked ordinary and set them on a timer to go off late in the night. The
explosion would never come back to us or the CIA. The authorities are so
focused on terrorism that it will just be assumed that this was another act of
terrorism,” Trish said.
“I like it, but who’s going to run
point on this one? All of our faces have already been exposed to the enemy, and
no offense, but I don’t think that you look like a very convincing truck driver,
Trish,” Jess said and smiled.
They all thought for a second. After a
minute, it finally came to Lee.
“Burt! He’s going to be in Atlanta
anyway,” Lee said.
“It actually sounds like a good plan.
I’ll give Campbell a call,” Jess said as she grabbed the phone.
* * * * *
As Nathan and Sam left the restaurant,
Nathan asked a question.
“So we don’t have to leave for Paris
until tonight. What are we going to do all day?”
“I think that we should go pack for the
trip right now, and after that, I really don’t care. It’s up to you,” Sam said.
“How about we drop by and see how Lee
and the others are doing?”
“Sure, that sounds good to me.”
When the two of them made it back to
their house, they went straight in and began to pack. A few things that Nathan
was packing caught Sam’s eye.
“Are you actually bringing that
camera?” Sam asked him.
“All we have on this camera so far is
each other sleeping. If we’re going to Paris, then I’m definitely going to take
that opportunity to get some pictures. In our downtime, we can go to the Eiffel
Tower and Notre Dame . . .” Nathan said before being cut off.
“You know that this isn’t a vacation,
right? We aren’t going to the Eiffel Tower. We aren’t tourists,” Sam said
harshly.
“Well, you may not be going to the
Eiffel Tower, but that’s where I’ll be,” Nathan mumbled.
“I heard that, and why are you packing
beef jerky?”
“I don’t know what kind of food they
have in Paris,” Nathan said while showing a slight hint of a smile.
Sam chuckled slightly and shook her
head.
“You are so strange, Nathan,” Sam said
as she took the jerky out of his bag.
“They serve a lot of the same foods
that we eat here, and if worse comes to worst, we can just eat fast food while
we’re there,” Sam said.
“Wait, how do you know that? You knew
absolutely nothing about the culture in Memphis. How do you know so much about
Paris?”
“Back when I was learning French, I
studied up on the culture in France, and I fell in love with it to an extent.”
“Oh, so you know French? I’m glad to
hear that I’ll have an interpreter on this trip.”
“Hey, I’m going to be more than an
interpreter when we get there,” Sam said cryptically.
In her own mind, she had meant for her
words to imply that she was going to be Markus’s executioner, but Nathan didn’t
get what she was saying. He just stood there looking a bit confused by her
comment until he felt that he should say something.
“I know. You’ll be my date to the
Eiffel Tower,” Nathan said and smiled.
“We are
not
going to the Eiffel Tower,” Sam said as they walked out the
door to load their car and drive to their friend’s house.
The truth was that she was just as excited
to go to the supposed most romantic place on earth as he was, but someone had
to be the adult and focus on their goal in this situation. I wish he was more
serious . . . but maybe we can make time for a few things, she thought as they
drove away from their home.
* * * * *
Once Michael and James arrived at the
shooting range and exited their car, James grabbed a weapon and some binoculars
from his back seat, and the two men walked inside. After James paid the man for
the use of their range, he and Michael walked outside and set a target up a
couple hundred yards away. Back at the shooting area, Michael was a little
bothered and even insulted by something.
“Why did you set the target up so
close? That will be an easy shot for someone like me,” Michael said.
“The goal here isn’t to wow me with
your shooting skills,” James said.
“Well, then why are we here?”
“How have you reacted to guns ever since you’ve
been out of the army?”
“I’ve hated them. Truthfully, I haven’t
been able to fire a single weapon since I got out of the army.”
“I know this was something that you
used to be good at, and when I commented on that earlier, your face lit up.
You’re not going to have to hurt anyone here. Just fire off a couple of rounds,
and see how shooting feels to you in a non-threatening environment. If you hate
it, we can leave.”