Nightfox
Character Introduction
A young boy was moving gracefully and silently in the forested mountains of northern Montana. He moved over dead limbs and dried leaves without a sound. Instinctively, he would pause to listen, then move again watching, looking, and knowing he was close.
Suddenly, he stopped still, frozen in place, not moving for seconds that turned into minutes.
A very large dark brown animal was also being still, as both the boy and the animal were stalking the same prey.
The boy ever so slowly moved his bow from his shoulder, and equally as slowly, drew an arrow and notched it to the string. He watched as a good sized buck deer picked his way through the brush, looking for the owner of the strong scent of the large brown animal. The deer was to his left and the large brown animal was to his right.
The boy surveyed his surroundings to find where he could get to in order to preserve the deer he planned to kill and to get away from the large brown furry animal. He slowly pulled the bow string back feeling the heavy pull of the strong bow exposing his rippling muscles.
The big animal was aware of the deer, but didn't see it yet, and he had not yet sensed the boy. He waited to make his kill.
The boy loosed the arrow and the deer stood perfectly still for three full seconds. The sound of the arrow hitting the deer drew the attention of the large animal. While the big animal was distracted, the boy pulled another arrow back and sent it into the mass of brown and gray fur. This caused a massive roar to come from the big grizzly bear. The second, third, and fourth arrows he shot all hit in the same area of the chest. The last arrow, the boy's last arrow of defense, went high and penetrated the bear's eye.
The bear's howling with anger and pain caused the deer to attempt to flee, but he was dying with every attempted step. The deer lasted about fifty feet before it crumpled.
The boy began edging away from the bear and toward his kill. He wanted to find a tree with low branches so he could climb quickly if he needed to. He didn't know the arrow in the eye had finished the bear.
When the boy heard the crash of the bear falling, he almost bolted to find higher ground, but there was no additional crashing through the brush that should, or would, occur if the bear was chasing the boy.
Instinct said food first, so the boy stepped to the fallen deer, looped a piece of homemade rope around the deer's rear feet, threw the other end of the line over a low branch, and hoisted the deer into the air.
Using practiced skills, the boy removed his precious arrow, dressed the deer, and cut the heavy head off. He left the hide intact to be removed when he had transported the deer home. With the deer hanging in the tree, the boy walked to where the bear had fallen. He looked at the bear, trying to decide what to do with it. It was too big to move alone, but he knew the hide would be valuable. The bear meat was good too, but getting it home would be difficult. He had to try to preserve the meat until he could get back for it later, so he did what he knew how to do.
After removing each of his arrows, the boy began skinning the huge bear. When he had the hide removed in one continuous piece, he tied it to four trees then began cutting large slabs of the meat from the carcass. He placed the meat onto the raised hide and continued until the good fatty meat was mostly cut. Then for his own satisfaction, the boy cut off all of the claws from the bear, then cut the huge eye teeth from the bear's jaws. He smiled as he placed his treasures in a small bag at his waist.
Next, the boy used his store bought, razor sharp, hunting knife to cut two large sapling poles. He used smaller green saplings to weave a basket between the two larger poles. He placed his deer and a large chunk of bear meat on the travois he had created and began dragging the deer meat home at a near jog.
Home was on the edge of the small village on reservation land. His mother was a widow with four children. Because of an unfortunate incident, the mother had a large scar across her face from her eye, across her nose, to the base of her neck. It was difficult for most people to look at her for any length of time. She had been beautiful, but now, she was not attractive to any of the bucks in the tribe. Additionally, she had only one son, Sam. He received his name from his father who had been friends with a white man named Sam. With only one misnamed son, and three daughters, she was not a valued woman. To make it worse, one of her daughters was cursed with a cleft palate and a deformed leg. The woman worked hard to support her children. Her garden was her constant source of food, but some who were lazy would steal from the garden when no one was watching. Sam's dog would attempt to scare people off, but he had to be on a chain or he would kill people that stole from the garden, and that was unacceptable.
Sam made it to his home in a fast forty minutes. When he arrived, he called for his mother to come quick. He showed her the deer and hoisted it up on the skinning bar near the kitchen. Sam showed his mother the bear claws, teeth and large chunk of meat and said, "I have a bear that I must go get. Please forgive me for not helping with the deer, but there is much meat to be brought."
"Did you save the hide, my son?"
"Yes, I will bring it when all the meat is here. I must go before animals steal my kill."
The mother proudly watched her son trot off with the travois poles to bring the unexpected treat of bear meat.
It took most of the night for Sam to bring the bear meat home. His mother was already smoking deer meat, plus she would smoke the bear meat and render the bear fat for its many uses. The fat had medicinal qualities, as well as using it to make soap and candles. She had requested of Sam to try to bring the stomach back, as the intestines made the best bowstrings. Strips of the intestines could be cured and used for sewing moccasins and clothes.
In the early dawn, Sam's mother, served him big pieces of roasted bear meat. He was smiling as he ate the delicious meat. He had salvaged all of the claws and all of the teeth. He could trade the teeth for more arrow shafts and hunting points.
After both had a short nap, the children were sent to some of the less fortunate people with large chunks of bear meat. They would fill their bellies for a change, and remember that young Sam had brought food in once again.
Sam attended the local school and tried hard to learn as much as possible. Because his sister was deformed, she wasn't allowed in school. The village felt it a waste of time to teach a deformed child. Sam and his sisters taught the youngest and she flourished quickly, learning at a fast pace. As fast as Sam and his sisters learned, the youngest would learn.
Then the worst winter that had been seen in many years came. With it came a plague that was called flu, and kept people sick and inside. Sam struggled to hunt in the snow and cold to bring rabbits and any other game he could catch. Deer were scarce this year, but he was able to get a small one.
The flu took his family. The medicine man didn't have a cure. The white man doctor couldn't get to the village because of the heavy snow. Over seventy people of the hundred in the small village died of the flu.
By the time March came, most of the villagers were planning to move to the larger reservation community. The school had closed and the trading post was no longer attended. Sam decided he needed to find a place to go to school and to live. He felt confident that he could support himself with a garden and game, but he needed a place to live.
At the large reservation at the base of a mountain, the resettled villagers were outsiders and not immediately welcomed. The government men didn't help much, and told the newcomers that it would take time to research their claim that they were Oglala Sioux that had settled separately from the other bands of Sioux from Canada and the Dakotas.
Sam had his family's papers that he kept in a waterproof bear skin satchel his mother had made. He had all of the official birth certificates of his family and his father's registry card that used to be required. Among the papers were his father's service record and ribbons from his days in Viet Nam and his grandfather's service record and the ribbons and medals he had been awarded during the Second World War and the Korean War. There had been many stories that Sam had heard about the wars and how the Native Americans had contributed.
Sam used his papers to register for school. He was now in grade eleven and was able to show all of his report cards all the way back to his first grade. No one asked for a specific address for Sam, as he was just an Indian. No one paid attention to his method of dress, as Indians didn't have much, so the fact that they wore anything was a plus.
Sam had found a cave only three miles from the reservation. There was a stream nearby and with a lot of game, so he had plenty to eat. He had a stream to bathe in during warmer weather, and he was able to sell animal pelts for enough money to buy used clothing, salt, and shoes for the winter.
When Sam graduated from high school, there was no one there to applaud for him or to congratulate him. There had been one person that had influenced him while he was in school though, a Marine recruiter. His father and his grandfather had been Marines. Sam wanted to be a Marine. There were Army, Navy, and Air Force recruiters that were promising the white kids great jobs and lots of rank, but the Marine recruiter recognized that Sam was special. He even found out that Sam didn't have an address, but picked up any mail via general delivery at the reservation post office.
The recruiter was going to forget about Sam, as recruits had to have a birth certificate and some form of family history. When he asked Sam if he had a birth certificate, Sam brought his bear skin satchel to the recruiting office, surprising the recruiter with his family history.
The day after Sam graduated; he was given a bus ticket to Great Falls, Montana. From there he was given another bus ticket to San Francisco. He found the right person to give him another bus ticket to San Diego. Sam turned eighteen the day he arrived at the Marine Recruit Training Depot. There, because no one had taken the time, Sam was sworn in and to him, he became a Marine. The drill sergeant kept saying that he would be turned into a Marine when he successfully completed his training.
Basic training was easy for Sam as he was used to walking and running. He didn't care for the heavy boots, but he got used to them. He had to get used to wearing so many clothes in the heat as well. He was used to the northern climates, not hundred degree days. While others complained, Sam was happy to become a Marine and tried hard everyday to learn and do better at the physical training they gave.
Sam initially had trouble learning to shoot. He had never shot a gun because his family didn't have the money for one. He had always hunted with a bow and could throw his hunting knife accurately for up to thirty or forty feet. Guns, however, were new to him.
After the first day of learning about his weapon, he sat on the floor and kept taking it apart and putting it back together. He polished each piece until it shined with an ultra-thin glaze of oil. When they went for live fire, he told the range master that he didn't know how to shoot. The sergeant made fun of Sam, but to Sam's credit, he kept his mouth shut and learned. Because of his knowledge of an arrow's flight, Sam was able to learn how to shoot accurately. Because he had no bad habits, he learned the correct way to fire his weapon and was the best of his group.
Sam loved the PCP, or Physical Conditioning Platoon. There, he excelled. While others fell behind, Sam was always leading, encouraging, pushing men to complete the training.
Sam excelled by immediately learning the eleven General Orders of a sentry. When he had his first barracks guard duty, or firewatch, on the quarterdeck, he was grilled over and over to try to catch him, but Sam had learned the Orders as he wanted to be a Marine. He became notable to his superiors with his knowledge of Marine Corps history and the ease of which he learned and memorized the Code of Conduct. During the infamous Crucible, Sam led his platoon through the two day plus challenge, to finish well ahead of the normal time.
Upon completion of his basic training, Sam was interviewed by a career counselor and was told that since he had such a high score of 125 on the Armed Services Aptitude Battery, he was eligible for just about any school he wanted to attend. Sam said proudly, "I wish to be an infantry scout." This was in honor of his father and grandfather.
Although he was encouraged to try other career fields, Sam's first step was the Infantry Training Battalion. It took Sam over a year to become a scout, as well as a sniper, but during that period, he had been promoted to Lance Corporal.
As luck would have it, Sam's unit was rotated to Iraq. There his unit was mostly assigned to a form of sniper duty guarding an area where infiltrators tried to get to military quarters. It was boring duty. Every time anything came up to go on a mission, Sam was first to volunteer. He led men into the field to find other men, to get men out of situations, and to assist SEALs when they were in trouble. The SEAL units were always pushing hard and not caring whether they had their backsides covered.
It was during Sam's second tour in Iraq that he found his niche. SEALs were boxed in within a rocky area. They were not in any immediate danger, but if their supplies became too low, they could be overrun. Sam's unit was sent to evaluate the enemy, but not to make contact unless necessary.
They were observing the enemy when it appeared an enemy squad was going to be able to sneak into the area held by the SEALs. Sam tried to radio the unit, but there was no answer. Thinking he had to warn the men below of the enemy, he set up two snipers, and using his target acquisition scope, gave the men accurate ranges. He wanted to down the enemy's lead man because the man would drop into the SEALs area, thus warning them of the attack.
Before the shot was fired, Sam set up his squad in a defensive position as he felt they would be attacked as soon as the first shot was fired. As the attacker was ready to go over the side, Sam gave the order to shoot. The sniper made the hit and the attacker fell into the SEAL area. The SEALs fired a barrage back up the rocky area covering the shot that had taken out the lead attacker.
Seeing an opportunity, Sam ordered all of his men to acquire targets and to fire a single round while the SEALs were firing. The ten men killed ten enemy soldiers. The SEALs continued to fire, so Sam decided to do it again. Again they killed ten more. When the enemy finally figured out they were being fired on from the rear, they had lost fifty men and didn't have sufficient men to attack what appeared to be a huge squad of men attacking their rear.
It was during the enemy's flight, that Sam let his men fire at will and accounted for fourteen more. Also during that time, the SEAL team was able to use their radio, and were advised that they would be able to withdraw from their position.
The SEAL team leader put Sam up for recognition, but he declined, recommending his men for the honor. Sam became known as a skilled evaluator of combat situations and was promoted to Staff Sergeant.
When Sam's enlistment was nearing its completion, he was at Camp Pendleton training for urban close combat. It was there a man in a black suit came to visit. Sam still calls the man 'his man in black.'
Sam was encouraged to leave the Marines and become a part of the Secret Service. He would be doing what he was good at, but it would be in direct defense of his country. Sam thought this was a good opportunity so he took it.
This is where Sam's story gets complicated.
Sam's first duty was to head back to Iraq, but he was housed with embassy staff. He didn't wear a uniform anymore, but normally dressed in fatigues with no name or insignia other than an American flag with the word "Embassy" beneath.
Sam's first tour was only exciting when rounds were fired into the compound area where the staff worked and were housed. Sam did nothing to earn his nice salary, and was miffed he could not do anything.
At the end of six months, Sam was rotated to the U.S., but assigned to the US Consulate General in Ciudad Juarez, just across the Rio Grande from El Paso. It was during his second day that a crazed Mexican ran toward the front door, wildly firing an AK-47. Sam knelt on one knee, aimed his Glock, and fired a single shot. The man died fifteen feet from Sam and twenty feet from the front door, fortunately within the limits of the consulate property so that the shooting technically took place on US soil.
A week later, while accompanying some U.S. and Mexican officials to a meeting, shots were fired at the Suburban they were riding in. Sam had the driver park on the sidewalk, under an overhang, then took off to find the shooters. He encountered four men with various rifles working their way closer to the Suburban. Sam shot three before the fourth threw his gun down and raised his hands. The goal of the attackers was kidnapping the officials for ransom. Under the circumstances, since Sam had saved a local Mexican magistrate combined with his diplomatic immunity and the fact that, because of his Native American heritage he looked like a Mexican, Sam had no trouble with the Mexican police.
In a short time, Sam became known as a one-man force. He did have his problems. During two incidents, Sam received minor gunshot wounds. His superiors were horrified that Sam had been injured, shot, and was still on duty.
Sam was sent on a recovery leave. This was the loneliest time in his life since his family had died of the flu. He didn't know what to do or where to go. With nothing else to do, Sam bought his first car and drove north to Montana to find his roots. Sam visited the original village where he had grown up and what was left of the small hut he had grown up in. The graves of his grandfather, his father, his mother, and his three sisters were all there. Sam spent an entire day sitting among the graves, talking to those that were gone.
When Sam went to the large reservation community, he found that not much had changed. Sam even walked back into the hills to the cave he had lived in for the last two years of his schooling. Sam was amazed that some vegetables were still growing where he had his garden years before.
With no one to visit, and no where else to go, Sam drove back to El Paso where he wandered back and forth across the border to see if he could find out how so many illegals gained entrance to the U.S. Sam found out that he wasn't challenged coming into the U.S., but was often challenged going into Mexico. He didn't know how to do anything about it, but did stop by the consulate to tell them what he had found.
That's when Sam was recognized as a potential problem between agencies. Sam was sent to Washington, DC, to work out of the covert activity pool. Sam was sent out to do in the United States what the CIA did outside the country.
In addition, Sam was often sent to South American countries to assist a consulate guard by removing people who were threats to embassies. There were times Sam hesitated doing the nasty jobs he was sent on, but he kept remembering how good the money was and that he was helping his country.
Two years later Sam was told to take his optic equipment and meet an airplane at Santa Anna - John Wayne airport. It was there that Sam met Chuck Johnson. Chuck was a Deputy U.S. Marshal, but also a recruit of the Secret Service's special operations unit. The two men did the job they were assigned, but in the process, the two became more than friends. They became combat friends. They trusted each other and relied on each other. They fed from each other to reach a common goal.
Sam decided that he would become a close friend and working partner with Chuck Johnson, no matter how difficult it might be.
When Sam and Chuck parted in California, Sam had already made plans to be transferred to work closely with Chuck. If he had to, Sam would become a deputy, but he preferred to stay in his present position and work with Chuck.
Their story continues.
Chuck
Sam and I were now penetrating the outer defense of the warehouse complex that contained thousands of pounds of explosives.
My area was dark and I was able to slip up to the outside door and gently ease it open. The warehouse was not brightly lit, so with it being dark outside, opening and closing the door didn't disturb the light within.
After identifying where all of the security cameras were located, I worked my way toward where men were working. I could see at least two men in an upstairs office and four men on forklifts, moving freight off one truck and putting freight on two others. One man was walking between the trucks and some pallets that were staged, checking something off on a clipboard.
I saw Nightfox on the far side of the men on forklifts. Nightfox motioned that he was going to follow one man that was on the forklift into the trailer. I watched as Nightfox slipped into the trailer. The noise of the other forklifts kept anyone from noticing one was missing.
A forklift on my side of the building pulled up to the door marked "Men's" and the driver got down. I had him down, gagged, and tie-wrapped quickly. Nightfox had seen me and motioned that he was going to follow another forklift into a trailer that the driver was unloading. As both drivers moved toward trailers, I took the man with the clipboard down, gagging and tie-wrapping him. Just as the last forklift drove up to place his pallet on top of a stack, I pulled the driver from the forklift, chopping him to keep him silent. Since the forklifts had safety switches in the seats, the forklift automatically shut down.
Nightfox and I split up and went up two separate stairways heading toward the office. From my view, I could see three office workers, but I also had a view into a lunch room where there were at least six guards having coffee before their shift.
I motioned to Nightfox and hand signaled him that there were six enemy out of his sight. He understood and we paused to gather information on the rhythm of what was going on in the office.
One of the men from the office, walked out the door into Nightfox's arms. The man was quickly down and tie-wrapped. A minute or so later, I could see the two men talking and another man came out the door on my side. I disabled the man, gagged, and tie-wrapped him too.
Nightfox was motioning at me, pointing at the doorway on the first level. A trucker had walked into the door with papers in his hand. He began to look around for people and spotted the forklift by the men's room door.
When he went in, I went down to greet him when he came out. I had to gag and tie up a burly trucker, hoping he didn't have a driver's helper.
Back upstairs, the third office man peered out the window into the warehouse, then went out the door by Nightfox. The man was immediately taken down and secured.
Nightfox motioned that he was going into the office. We both entered and slowly made our way to the lunch room area. When we were at the door, we burst in and leveled our silenced MP5s at the eight men and said, "Be very still and keep your hands on the table. I will search and secure you one at a time. If you make a wrong move, we will not hesitate to shoot. Please do not cause us to kill you."
Two of the men acted as if they wanted to be heroes, so I had Sam hold his weapon on the group and tie-wrapped one of them. When I had him secured on the floor in the office, with both hands and feet tie-wrapped, I gagged him with a sleeve of his uniform the same as everyone else so far tonight.
Just as I was standing, I heard the "Puft, puft," of the silenced rifle. The other potential hero was lying over on the table, bleeding out. The other men were about to panic, and I calmly said as I picked up the two shell casings, "Please, do not cause us to fire. We will not harm you if you cooperate."
The rest of the men were secured without incident. Sam went downstairs using his radio to call the drivers. He went to the door to make sure the last man in didn't have a partner. The truck the man had been driving was still idling and was blocking the entrance gate.
While Sam was downstairs, I shut down the video equipment and erased the internal storage drives. When that was done, I checked through the stored items file drawer and hunted under the "Es." Amazing, in a separate folder marked "Confidential" was a folder headed "Eregel." According to the bills in the folder, there was about seventy thousand pounds of the explosive. Marked on the top of the folder was the character and number, C-20.
When I got downstairs, the two drivers were moving the tie-wrapped men out of the way. I showed them the folder and they pointed at letters and numbers overhead that marked the staging areas of the warehouse.
C-20 was near the middle, but behind several stacks of other pallets. One of the two drivers said, "There are four forklifts. You two begin moving those pallets in front of C-20 and we'll finish unloading these two trucks. If we do this quickly, we can be done in a half-hour."
Sam and I were not the world's best forklift drivers, but we got the hang of picking up the top pallet and moving it to a free area and setting it down then getting the next pallet and setting it on top of the first. We were soon back to stacks of large wooden crates with built-in pallets.
The drivers said, "You two should go back to security and we'll load this stuff. If one of you knows how to move that big truck, back it up into the corner or pull it forward until the gate is cleared.
I told Sam, go up and check on those men, and I'll go outside and move the truck. I checked all around the area to make sure there was nothing else stirring, then climbed up into the big truck. I was able to back it up until the nose of the truck cleared the big gate opening. I shut the truck down, locked it, then checked the two trucks that were being loaded. Both tractors were open and empty. Back inside, the truck driver that had come in was waking up, so I softly said, "Don't make a sound. I'm putting your keys into your pocket. Your truck is shut down and locked so it will be safe. Someone will be here after a while to free you."
Nightfox came up to me, "They're done and closing the trucks. We have all of the crates accounted for. We're supposed to shut the bay doors and close the outside gate when they pull out. We'll follow in the car."
The trucks pulled out and Nightfox and I closed the doors. We went out the doors and closed the big gates to the yard. Just as we were about to walk across the street, a Ford Expedition came sliding around the corner heading straight for us.
Nightfox and I went down to lay still by the side of the fence as the Expedition slid to a stop. Six men with rifles came out of the truck and were running toward the gate. I could see Nightfox switch the firing position on his MP5 and begin to rise. I followed him up as he yelled, "Drop your weapons, you are under arrest."
We both knew what was going to happen, and as the men swung their rifles toward us, they all died. They never fired a shot and the loudest noise was the sound of the brass hitting the pavement. Nightfox and I quickly policed our brass and loaded the six bodies into the Expedition. We drove it into the gated yard and closed the gate again. We ran for our car and jumped in. Cautiously, we drove away from the building and followed the two trucks at a long distance.
We felt more comfortable once out on the highway, but kept watching behind and overhead, making sure there was nothing tracking us.
Our radio came alive, "The turnoff is just ahead. We will be going back about five miles. It's rough so we will be going slowly. Wait until our lights are almost out of sight before you follow."
We pulled off the road and hid the car behind some brush. When the lights were almost out of sight, we drove down the same road and caught sight of the last truck as it went over the side of a hill on the way down into the depression.
We pulled up to the two parked trucks that were end to end. The two drivers got out and came to the car. One said, "So far, so good. I have a second frequency I have to call. When we get back to the highway, we'll call in again and then watch the fireworks. Come on, let's go, when you get to the top of the hill, no lights until we get out on the highway."
He radioed a cryptic message while we were climbing out of the depression. I had to drive slowly as we made our way over the rough road in the dark. When we reached the highway, I parked behind the same brush as before and the driver called in again.
Almost as soon as he called in, we saw two aircraft come in very low, racing across the desert. As they neared the depression there were multiple rockets fired from the two jets. The jets pulled straight up and the whole night sky in that direction lit up. When the shock wave hit us, we were astounded that it was so loud and big.
One of the drivers said, "If I didn't know better, I would have sworn that was nuclear. We shouldn't have been so damned close. Hope this car starts. They want us to drive back in."
The car started and we drove back to Las Vegas. The two drivers were let out at a Motel 6, then Sam and I drove back to the airport. Inside the Phenom, we changed clothes and wiped off the face paint.
I asked Sam, "What are your orders from here?"
He said calmly, "I'm going wherever you're going. We'll have a debrief for breakfast, then they will probably cut us loose. I'm reassigned to be your shadow. I'm not sure what else I'm supposed to do, but whatever it is, I'll be leaving from Tampa from now on. I hope you don't mind, but I wanted to be closer to you. You are the first partner I've had since I've been out of the service that I've felt comfortable with. Is that okay?"
I looked at the man and thought I could have worse problems. The man was good and did anticipate what I was going to do. He had the same attitude to get a job done, and was not afraid to act. I guess I had a partner. Now what was I going to do with him?
"Let's trade cars and see if we can make contact for our debrief. Is it normal to have a debrief after a mission? The first one I did was totally different, both before and after. I was like a person they didn't want to know. When we were done, all they wanted was for us to be out of there."
Sam said, "They do that at first. They don't know how you'll react to action and you may have some residual nerves you might take out on the team. You've been cleared for everything now and are part of the team. We'll get some strange stuff, because you and I are probably a little more daring than some. We don't have a rep for being careless or flashy, so we'll be in demand."
We cleaned up our gear and neatly stored it so our aircraft looked like any other business jet.
Sam contacted our support group for another car and a nice dark blue Impala showed up. The driver asked for our brass and trash. We had to dig up the paper towels and Kleenex that we used to clean our faces with, along with the brass we had. I suppose it was understood that we would have brass.
I drove us to the hotel Sam had in his head. We waited in the restaurant until five, when two of the men from the briefing came in. They sat with us and we all ordered breakfast. They asked for a complete report, listening intently as Sam said, "We almost made it without any terminations. One guard got squirrelly, and a group of six came up as we were leaving. Under the circumstances, it worked out pretty well. We watched the explosion and we should have been farther away. That was an amazing blast. The shock wave rocked the car violently five miles away."
When that part of the interview was complete, one of the men reached into his pocket and turned off a recording device. The other man asked me, "Do you have any problem having Nightfox stationed in Tampa? You better watch him though, as you're all he's talked about. If he gets queer on you, you're on your own. We're not responsible for his private time."
I laughed and Nightfox blushed under his darker complexion. I told them, "He might be my answer for so many extra women. I'll give him a few, then he'll be lost and busy from this point forward."
The first man asked, "You know we can make a lot of wishes come true. Is there's a piece of equipment you want or something we could do to make your life easier, or for you to do a better job for us, as well as the Marshal Service?"
With a smile, I said, "You could make me a fast small business jet that will hold eight to ten that I can fly by myself. Something like a Cessna CJ4, with seating like a Lear, but as fast as a Citation X. I need the range, the seating, and the speed. You could fix up a Lear or Citation X and get me some kind of exemption. You could expand a CJ4 a little and speed it up. The easiest would be to exempt a Citation X."
The man said, "We'll ask. You didn't ask for anything for yourself, just a way to get around faster. We can probably do that. You might have to go to a special school for the operation of the aircraft, but we should be able to get an aircraft exempted. Do you have a Citation X now?"
"No, and I don't know of any in the system that can be bid on. I'm sure there will be one that becomes available."
The first man asked, "So what does a Citation X cost new?"
"I'm guessing and probably low, but right around twenty million. A new one would have the new winglets that save on fuel, give a longer range, and a few more miles per hour. Hey, if you think I'm worth twenty mil, go for it."
The other man said, "You may have just saved the destruction of several hundred billion dollars of property and possibly saved the lives of a half million people. Would that be worth what you want?"
I said, "Nightfox did it too, so what does he get? We did what we did because bad guys were going to hurt our country. That's why I'm a deputy, and why I'm willing to work for you guys."
Sam said, "I've saved my money and I'm pretty well fixed. I've had a couple of bucks fall my way and I'm getting everything I want. I'm going to be stationed around Chuck, and that's about the best I could ask for."
When breakfast was over, the two men shook our hands and the one said, "Mike Mahoney said you were both good men. You are. I think the two of you won't be on call for a while. Enjoy getting used to Florida, Sam. See you soon."
As we were drinking coffee, Sam said to me, "Those guys have a budget that must be bottomless. They don't operate under the Justice Department the way other divisions do. We could have White House duty, but it wouldn't be as interesting as what we do. The CIA hears something, and we follow it up. NSA has a snag, and they will ask us to clean it up. Our group does out in the open stuff, like working at embassies and protecting diplomats along with Marines, but many of us work in the dark. Glad to work with you, Chuck."
I said, "Let's go over to the hotel my friend and his wife are at. They should be eating breakfast just about now."
Nightfox said, "You go. I'm going to sack out for an hour or so. Make sure you call me if you are going to leave. Aren't you tired?"
"You know what? I'm going to lie down for a little while too. Mercy's not in my head real big, so they must be all right."
We rented a double and both crashed for four hours. I woke with Mercy screaming in my head. Holy shit, what's going on? I listened and she was telling me she had shot someone. Damn, I should have been there. I wasn't, so I had to get going.
I showered real quick and put on my clothes. I left a note for Nightfox and drove to the new S&S store. As I walked in, I could see anger in Steve's eyes and the fear of having killed in Mercy's. I tried to make them smile with a "Never fear, Chuck is here."
I hugged both, then cornered Bud and Jim to find out what was going on. There were cops, Bureau agents, and deputies everywhere. My guys explained the mess to me and how Mercy ended up having to shoot someone. The plan was simple. Right now, we needed to question anyone alive to get whatever information we could. I told Steve, "We'll see you guys for supper. We'll work on getting some answers and see you later."
I followed the pair of deputies to the station where we double and triple teamed the suspects until they broke. They began spewing information, with video recorders getting every word. The fear of murder charges had them wanting to make deals any way possible.
Bud and Jim wrote up their reports and told me, "How about feeding us tonight, and buying your star deputies a couple of drinks?"
"Come on, if we do this right, we'll meet Steve and Mercy at the bar."
On the way to the hotel, I stopped to pick up Nightfox. He said, "How about I stay in tonight. I've been a little nervous lately, and need to settle down. Don't leave without me and call me later."
That was unusual for a guy like Nightfox, but oh well, he's the one missing a good meal. When we arrived at the hotel, we did find Steve and Mercy in the bar, with the guy named, Ryan, who had the pregnant wife, Michelle. While we were ordering our drinks, another guy came in who was going to be their new manager in Las Vegas. He came in with three women. Jim did a triple take of a dark girl named Rhonda, and even Ray Charles could see that he was hooked.
The evening was pleasant, and I did get to visit with my friends for a while. Steve talked about possibly going home in the morning, and I told him that I needed to get back tomorrow as well, because of the housewarming the girls had planned.
The next morning, I met Steve and Mercy for breakfast, along with Bud and Jim. I had to almost force Nightfox to come with me. I told him, "If you are going to hang out with me, you will need to know my friends, and these are my best friends. You'll need to know my work and this is part of it."
Steve and Mercy were going up to Reno to pick up Tiny, Ruth, and Abe, so I asked him if he would take Bud up there to tie up any loose ends with the escapees they had up there. Jim admitted he and Rhonda had been up all night talking, and he wanted to find a way to remain in Las Vegas, at least for a little while. I told him to work out tying up all the loose ends with the escapees here and then to let me know what he wanted to do.
Nightfox was almost bashful, but I could see Mercy digging into the guy's head. I'm sure he felt it as he kept fidgeting in his chair. I told Steve and Mercy, "I'll see you at the new house tomorrow night. Hopefully, the girls will be calm enough to be good hostesses."
The day was spent working with the local Marshal's station interrogating the prisoners from the explosive removal. The scope of the investigation was also exploding as more and more information came out. This was going to require days and weeks of exhaustive inquiries and investigative interviews. By the end of the day, I was exhausted and very ready to get out of Las Vegas.
After breakfast the next morning, Sam and I went to the airport and prepared to go home. I planned on stopping around Amarillo for fuel and a potty break, but for nothing else. We were setting down at the airpark right at three thirty. I called home and received lots of squeals of happiness because I had made it in time for the party.
Brandy got on the phone and said, "Come home if you can, and you can get a shower and clean up before the wild stuff starts. We're completely moved in, and that even includes everything from we girl's place. Wanda and Ben Phillips handled the sale of your house and some friends of ours are renting our old place. Anyway, come home, we'll talk about everything later."
I asked Nightfox about his clothes and personal belongings and he said, "It's in two big boxes that will be sent when I find a place."
"Well, right now, and until you get the lay of the land, you'll stay with me. I have a ton of room and you can stay in one of the cottages."
Sam looked worried and said, "Can't you just put me in a hotel somewhere? I'm used to hotels and that's where I'm most comfortable. I don't have a lot of stuff, and I've been moving around since I joined the Marines. Actually, I have fewer clothes now than I did as a Marine. I don't need much, especially with the fatigues I wear out at the team's headquarters."
I made Sam look me in the eye, "If you are going to be my shadow and my close friend, you will stay with me. You need to learn about me and this will give you a chance. Stay with me for a couple of weeks, then move away or move in, as you like. Now, let me get the aircraft taken care of and let's get our equipment into the trunk of the beige Impala with the dark brown racing stripe."
DeDe was all over me about using the airplane so much. I told her, "I'll have to get an aircraft just for me that you won't be able to schedule. Have Jimmy do a thorough inspection on the plane, as I have put some hot miles on it."
Sam and I drove home, with me giving him a little tour. I showed him the trailer park, then the business park and ball fields. We stopped at the patio so I could introduce him to everyone, and Kathy came and stopped, staring at Sam. She said, "You're Sam Nightfox, right?"
With a smile, Sam said, "Yes and you are Jake's wife. I met you just before he left for Iraq."
Kathy hung her head, then looked up, "Jake was killed, Sam. Where have you been?"
Sam said, "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know. I was fresh out of training when I met you. I'm sorry, I don't remember your name."
As Bonita came running up to her, she said, "Kathy, Kathy Sharp."
Bonita smiled up at Sam and said, "I'm Bonita Sharp, and almost all these kids are my brothers and sisters."
Kathy looked around at over twenty kids and said, "Not all of them, but they're like brothers and sisters. Come in, Sam, meet our friends. What are you doing with Chuck? Are you a deputy?"
Sam said, "No, not a deputy, at least not yet, but Chuck and I have been working together a little."
A big dark lady looking more svelte every time I see her, came to me and wrapped me up in her arms. Peaches said, "I'm so glad you're home. Lisa said when you're gone that we have to worry, but now you're home and you don't look like you have any new holes. Now, who is this young man you brought?"
I introduced Sam to Peaches, but didn't try to explain our relationship. He would find out on his own. Juanita was there, along with Glenda and Alice. They were trying to give the kids some snacks so they wouldn't be too crazy at the housewarming.
After hugs and introductions, I said, "Come on, Sam, come meet my family. It's a little nutty, but you'll enjoy them. This place, the patio is where we eat most meals and have a drink in the evening. This is where Steve Sharp and his family live. You've met some of them, but you haven't met Sue yet. She is a treat."
Before I drove to the house, I used my cell phone to call John. "Hey, how are you doing in my Central American paradise?"
"Holy smokes, you did it up good down here. The way everyone talks about you, they might even change the name of the town."
I said, "They do go overboard. So what do you think of the yacht club and boat?"
"The boat is wonderful. We all went out on it for a few days and enjoyed the attention. Your crew and hostesses are wonderful. They don't let us lift a finger, and constantly want to please us any way they can."
"That's great. You can tell them I will visit soon. How long do you plan to be down there?"
John said, "The Marshal is coming tonight and we're going to vacation here for the week, then return to the wilds of DC. Is that all right?"
"That's great, John. That's what the place is for. I'm only involved down there as a gesture to the man that is helping me straighten out my finances. So far, it's been a win - win situation."
"Oh yeah," John said, "Beth is his wife, right? She was down here with us for a couple of days, showing us around. Her husband came down and spent a couple of nights with us on the boat, then went back to Tampa. You know, Chuck, you could want to just stay here and the heck with that rat race back in the states."
I said, "It is relaxing down there, isn't it? Well, enjoy. I've been doing some deputy stuff and some work for the other department. I'm back in Tampa now and will probably be a deputy for a while."
John said, "Call me Monday to see if there's anything going on. I'm in contact with DC and the all of the Regional Deputy Marshals everyday. The political climate is smoothing out again, but you never know what will happen next. The new regime is pushing and pulling in directions that the law enforcement branches just aren't used to. Keep your head down, Chuck, and call me Monday."
"Click." He did it again. He hung up on me.
I shrugged my shoulders and put my cell phone away. I told Nightfox, "I have a great boss, but he's caught up in the DC politics. I've been able to stay out of their sight so far and I plan on keeping it that way. Now, let's get home."
We drove over to the new house. As I drove to the back of the big new garage, I could see Sam gawk at the size of the complex. When I parked the car, I said, "Leave everything in the car for right now. We'll come get what we need later. We'll need to clean our weapons later too."
When we rounded the garage, walking toward the rear entrance where a bunch of golf carts were parked, a stream of women came out of the house. Lisa was first, still in her uniform. Tiani followed her, with Big Tina trailing behind her. Lena came out with Judy, Nancy, Frieda, and Brandy. Brandy's mother came out, following the group, along with Lisa's two dark sisters. Tiani's mother then came out of the house with Nancy's mother, so there was a crowd.
Sam stood there with his mouth open, as Lisa hugged me first, then I was lost in hugs and kisses from all the women. Even the mothers gave me hugs and kisses. I held up my hand and said, "Everyone? This gentleman with me is Sam Nightfox, a very good friend of mine. He's moving to Tampa and will be staying with us until he gets settled."
En masse, the group gathered around Sam to make him feel welcome. Everyone was in good cheer and pulled Sam and me into the house to see the preparations for tonight's party.
The first thing that happened was a tall Beefeaters appeared in my hand. Another appeared in Sam's hand and he sipped it a little. He smiled and said, "Indians and firewater don't mix. Do you have beer, or iced tea is even better?"
Brandy had a tall glass of iced tea in his hand before he finished what he had to say. Wanda was there and asked, "Come see our apartment. You're not going to believe how nice it is."
I ended up looking at Wanda's place, then Jan's, and Lena's. Lena told me, "I have it both ways. I have my own apartment that I'll share with my sister, Tina, plus I have a little room with the other ladies." She hugged me and was gone. Big Tina smiled at me and gave me a hug then disappeared after Lena.
I sat in one of the big chairs in the family room, noticing the TV was playing one of the blues tapes from Atlanta. I relaxed as all the women told me about everything that had been going on.
Nightfox was quietly sitting listening to everything, observing, soaking in the feelings and emotions that were so strong in our new home. He had the start of a smile on his face.
I was happy to be home.