Author: Schubach, Erik
Date: 2014-12-18
Publisher: Erik Schubach

Dead Shot

By Erik Schubach

Copyright © 2014 by Erik Schubach

Self publishing

P.O. Box 523

Nine Mile Falls, WA 99026

Cover Photo © 2014 Tatonka / ShutterStock.com license

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties.  Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited.  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, blog, or broadcast.

This is a work of fiction.  Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Manufactured in the United States of America

FIRST EDITION

ISBN 978-0-9909806-2-9

Chapter 1 – Camp Guinevere

I looked downrange at the various tin cans and bottles arranged on the rocks and crumbling low walls at the base of the sandy hill.  They were arranged randomly anywhere from twenty to thirty yards out.  One was half hidden by a loose mud brick.  I kicked some clumped sandy loam from the treads on my ACBs.

I unholstered my sidearm and cleared it.  I liked the balance of my M9 Beretta.  I preferred it to the M1911 that some soldiers still preferred for the stopping power.  My hands were smaller so the nine mil was a better fit for me.  I underwent all kinds of razzing about women and smaller weapons until the first time I hit the range in Basic.  That shut the men up.  This “girl” as they put it, got her expert marksmanship qualification medal without breaking a sweat.

I slid a magazine partially into the magazine well and looked back over my shoulder with a grin, “You sure you want this Chief?”  I asked Chief Warrant Officer Danes.  Come on McKenzie, don't get cocky.

He just rolled his eyes and harrumphed. “Stop stalling Meyers.  Remember, constant motion.”  My grin increased as I looked around at my fireteam, the Bugbats, who were just grinning like a bunch of fool meerkats.

They have been with me the last five years of my dubious military career, funny how we all seem to keep getting stationed together.  The big brass knows not to break up a good thing.  I'm good at what I do, good at being a soldier.  It's probably why I've gotten away with being busted back to Specialist five times in my eighteen years in the army.  I don't need the added responsibility of higher rank.  Besides, Specialist Meyers sounds so much better than Corporal Meyers anyway.

It just struck me that I have been in the military for exactly half my life.  Just two more years before  I retire.  I thought about home again.

I hadn't been back to the Vancouver/Seattle area since my old girlfriend, Monica, sent me that dear Jane letter while I was in Basic.  Dad is always traveling the world with his Wild West trick shooting show.  So we always make a point of meeting up when he is anywhere remotely close to one of my duty stations.  I smiled internally at the thought, that's where I learned to trick shoot, I played a young Annie Oakley in the show.

Dante prompted, “Come on Dead Shot, show him the shit.”  Larson chimed in, “You got this DS.”

I sighed. “If you're sure Chief.  Liberty passes for my whole team right?”

He grinned. “Ain't gonna happen Meyers.  You're all gonna be servicing all of the sidearms for the entire camp in the armory tonight.”

Danes was new to Camp Guinevere here in Africa, in the Ennedi Region of Chad.  My personal opinion is that the big man pushes too hard.  We do things a little different in the Joint Peacekeeping Taskforce, assigned to the United Nations to help stop human trafficking.  But you can't begrudge the man, he was a Chief Warrant Officer and my new immediate superior. The intermediary channel to God himself, the camp CO.  I grinned... that was going to make this all the sweeter.

I shrugged and turned, and cataloged all the targets in my head as I took a slow calming breath like my father had taught me, committing each to memory.  I slammed the magazine home, and disengaged the safety as I started pacing toward the makeshift mess hall in the old crumbling schoolhouse on the edge of the camp.

I racked the slide and chambered a round.  More grunts were coming out to watch, this was turnin' into a goddamn spectacle.  I took one last look at the targets then my path and started briskly walking parallel to the makeshift range as I fired.  I took in each target and exhaled as I squeezed the trigger gently as I caught the targets in my sights.  Step, step, squeeze.  Glass exploding and cans being knocked from their perches.

I dove over the crate of MREs and started my barrel rolling.  Always leading the roll with my eyes, firing as I hit my belly each time, and each time a target falling.  Then I rolled up onto a knee as I fired the last shot.  I grinned and stood and ejected the empty magazine into my hand, cleared my weapon and holstered it and slid the empty magazine into one of the slots on my beltpack.

I turned with a grin and said, “Fifteen for fifteen.”  The crowd that had gathered was cheering and some were laughing.  They'd seen this often enough.

Chief Danes slid his cover off his head and wiped some sweat from his brow in this ungodly heat.  His silvering buzzcut fit the big man to a T.  “Well that is the damnedest thing I ever did see Specialist, but you missed one.”  He nudged his head toward the one that was still only half exposed.

I grinned. “No, sir, as you know there are only fifteen rounds in an M9 magazine and you set up sixteen targets.  No doubt purely just an oversight.”  I narrowed my eyes knowing damn well it hadn't been.  “But if that bitty can is a problem...”  I crouched and rolled, pulling my ka-bar from my leg sheath and released it with all the force I could muster.  It was a thing of beauty watching it tumble end over end and slice almost cleanly through the tin can, sending it tumbling to the ground.

The crowd of men cheered again as I shrugged and said, “Sixteen for sixteen.  Now pay up Master Chief...” I added, “Sir.”  I wiggled my fingers and he narrowed his eyes, clearly not amused.

Then he shook his head slowly as he started smiling and saying, “Well I'll be goddamned.  I thought all this Dead Shot horseshit was exaggerated,”  He pulled some liberty passes from his belt and handed them over.  Oh... I didn't expect him to have them on him, I was just pushing his buttons.  Then I cocked an eyebrow as I took the passes from him.  He had expected to lose!  He was evaluating me... I nodded in approval, sneaky bastard.  Maybe he wouldn't be that bad of an SO after all.

He shook his head.  “With skills like that I can't understand why they never sent you through sniper training.”  I blanched at that, I swore to myself and to the Army when I enlisted that I'd never pick up a sniper rifle.  It just didn't sit well with me taking out a target that didn't see me coming.  If I was going to kill a man, it was going to be face to face, defending myself, my allies or my country.

I played it off like I always did. “I make a better grunt than I would just lazing around layin' on my belly all day.”

He nodded and grunted something that sounded like approval, then said, “I hear tell you can do that with just about any weapon.”  I shrugged.

Larson chimed in, “It's how she got saddled with the Dead Shot callsign Chief.”

The fourth one of our team, Kid, ran off to police my brass and retrieve my ka-bar.  He was the youngest of our fire team and I'm pretty sure he may be sweet on me.  His name was really Specialist Emanuel Ortega, he got saddled with Kid when he was first assigned to the Bugbats.  At twenty-five, he looked like some snot nosed kid with a baby face and not old enough to shave.  He had a knack with equipment and was a first-class grenadier.  Now he's thirty-one and still looks a might young.

The Master Chief said with a smirk, “Be back on base before zero six hundred.”  Larson, Dante, and I straightened and saluted the man chiming out, “Yes sir!”

Then he dismissed us as Ortega returned with my knife.  I winked at him, “Thanks, Kid.” Then I looked around at my team as I handed out the passes.

I grinned ear to ear as I removed my cover, and wiped the sweat from my shaved head with it.  I typically kept my brunette hair longer, at regulation length until I was assigned to Guinevere.  It's like living in a sauna, 'cept it's sweat we're all percolating in, not steam.  I had to shave my hair off a week into my station assignment just to keep it from matting with sweat and dripping into my eyes all the time.  I tried a buzzcut first, but it felt prickly and uncomfortable to me.

I said loudly and belligerently as we headed toward the barracks and the motor pool, “Bugbats saddle up!”  My team yelled in excitement, “Hooah!”

Chapter 2 – Liberty

We hopped a transport heading into town and before long we found ourselves in Fada.  The capital of the Ennedi Ouest department of Chad.  It is a smallish city of just over twenty thousand people.  Much of it held older buildings weathered by the ravages of the desert, but a significant percentage consists of huts and tents, especially in the market district.

I looked back at the sunset in its brilliant oranges and reds, shimmering through heat mirages in the desert on the horizon.  I sighed, knowing the heat of the day would bleed off over the next couple hours, the welcoming cool in the mid fifties was going to settle in.  I craved the evenings here, I have never been a fan of the heat.

The guys went ahead, I wanted to wander the market for a minute to find something for Nana back home, her seventy-sixth birthday was comin' up soon.  I wandered through the crowded street with merchants all shoving their wares in front of me, vying for my money.  My fatigues marking me as a potential buyer since soldiers and foreigners spread more money about in the marketplaces than the locals.

I stopped at a street vendor who's wagon caught my eye.  It was an elderly lady in some traditional head-to-toe robes in modest colors.  She had an old spoke wheel vendor push cart with various hand woven necklaces and colorful scarves.  The color made your eyes just snap to them since everything seemed to be painted in bland shades of tan here in the desert.

I took a close look at the weave pattern of the delicate looking materials, they showed slight irregularities indicating they were most likely handwoven fabric.  I loved this kind of thing, I wasn't gifted with any artistic abilities so I have always been amazed by people who could create beautiful things with their hands.

I glanced down at my hands.  There was too much proverbial blood on my hands to do anything constructive.  I was a soldier through and through.  I took a sharp breath and clenched my fists then turned my attention back to the scarves.  I looked at one that looked just like the sunset on the horizon I had just watched, and ran the material through my fingers. It was more coarse and sturdy than it looked.

I took a quick sniff of the orange and red fabric that bled into the tannish cream colored base material at the ends, that reminded me of the sun bleeding into the sand on the horizon.  There was a tang to the scarf, indicating organic dyes. It solidifying to me that this was handmade and I looked over at the woman, cocking an eyebrow and asking the price in Arabic “Masa' al-khayr?”.  She held up three fingers then one.

Thirty-one hundred Central African francs.  I did some quick math... about six dollars.  That was a little steep for here, but I never pushed the prices, I'd never find something like this in the States for this price.  The people here needed the money more than I did.  It isn't like I used my money for anything anyway, being career Army.  I handed over thirty-five hundred francs and thanked her and bid her goodnight with a tip of my head, “Shukran jazilan.  Laylah sa'idah.”

She quickly tucked away the money, either noticing I didn't want the change or hoping I didn't realize that she didn't offer.  She bid me good night as I walked off, “Laylah sa'idah.”

I wound the scarf up into a ball and stuffed it into a zippered pocket then turned toward the bar to meet up with the guys.  I skirted into the back alleys to avoid the other vendors as they got progressively more insistent.  The tents and huts slowly bled away into some of the brown mud brick walls of the city and a couple blocks later I emerged on a heavily trafficked road.

There was a couple 700MV Troop transports and an M1152A1 Humvee parked there along with a few vehicles from other armies tasked to the UN joint task force.  Off to one side there was, hand to God, three camels.  First time I saw the stinky beasts on my first assignment here, I thought it had to be a novelty catering to the tourists.  I quickly found out that around Fada, they were actually more common than I would have believed.

I rolled my eyes as I looked around, just like any port of call, there was always a street just like this one.  More bars and eateries per square foot than you can shake a stick at, all catering to the foreign soldiers stationed nearby.  Then I added sardonically, possibly more street walkers and illicit gambling dens per capita than any other location in the city too.  I knew we'd be losing Dante to one of those ladies later that night.  Which always struck me as absurd.

He had the ruggedly handsome looks to pick up about any woman he wanted to, but never seemed to want to put the effort into it. Or maybe he just really didn't want to put himself out there in a real relationship.  He had the sturdy jaw of the Italian heritage his name eluded to.  Carlo was a consummate grunt and his beefy muscled physique was well suited to be the automatic rifelman of our fireteam.  There wasn't anyone better at slinging fire than him, which earned him his callsign Ripper.

I looked at our regular dive across the road and smirked.  I don't think the place even had a name, but it is one of the few open front bars that served chilled brews.  The small building basically had three walls and the front was just a huge tented awning to give protection for the various tables from the sun during the day.  Uniforms of all types with flags of about a dozen allied nations swarmed the place and packed it in.

Up front, on the walk under the awning, were the Bugbats, lounging at a table that I thought might be an old huge wooden cable spool with a cloth thrown over it.  My men draped over the chairs like they owned the place.  By the looks of it, they were already a round in on me with the three empties sitting in the middle of the table.

I pushed past Kid, forcing him to sit up in his chair and giving my team a “Hooah!” in greeting as I made my way to the bar.  There was a new bartender.  I held up four fingers and said, “ 'arba a tun.”

The man stopped and squinted at me then said something about me being a woman.  Well, no shit Sherlock.  Then asked something about nation or home, my Arabic was for shit and he was speaking too fast. I knew just enough to be dangerous.  I held up a hand and asked him to speak French instead so I could follow him, “Mon arabe est fragile, se il vous plait francais.”  I had to snort at myself, I sucked at French in high school, I always thought it was a waste of time.  When would I actually use it in life?  Well, welcome to Chad, McKenzie you fool.

The past two years my French had improved exponentially, and now I feel like I owe my old instructor, Mrs. Dean, an apology.  It has been invaluable here.  Ah, he wanted to know where I was from that they let women fight.  I just pointed at the American flag on my uniform in answer, slightly perturbed about his attitude.  There were plenty of nations with female soldiers.  He slid four bottles of beers to me that had beads of sweat dripping down them from the condensation on the chilled glass. I threw down some cash and asked for some food for our table as I turned away to push through the crowd.

I flopped down into the saved chair and slammed the beers on the table.  My men each grabbed one as I twisted the cap off of mine and took a few deep swallows then settled back into my chair as they saluted me with the beers murmuring, “Hooah.”

Yeah, this was the life.  I slouched a bit and let the cooling breeze wash over me as I slipped into people watching mode, my favorite pastime hobby.  It was fascinating to watch all the personalities and try to pick out cultures without looking at the flags on the uniforms.  I've gotten real good at reading people.  Words are cheap, you can get the real story about someone by the subtle shifts in their body language and their eyes.  You can sling all the horseshit you want, but the eyes never lie.

As Dante and Larson bragged about their sexual prowess to each other, Kid engaged himself in his usual nervous habit of peelin' all the labels from the beer bottles on the table and joked with the guys.  Allowing me to do my people watching undisturbed for a few minutes. Then I noticed the tragedy of my bottle bein' empty.  That needs to be rectified!

I clomped it down in front of Shorty, Specialist Elrod Larson, as it was his turn to buy a round. He grinned and the short man headed off to solve our problem of low liquidity.

As I watched him go, I wondered just what kind of parents go and name their son Elrod?  I mean that's just beggin' for a beating growing up.  At barely five foot two, and maybe one hundred thirty pounds sopping wet, the term I would apply to our rifleman is 'scrappy'.  He may present a small target for the enemy, but he can sure as hell put a hurting on them as our second best shot in the fireteam.

He's the only one of the team that is married, and happily so.  To a lovely lady named Sally.  From the pictures of her, I would have to wonder what a pretty young thing like that saw in the guy, but I knew him, and knew his character.  He was dedicated to his family and serving his country and our unit, and that elevated him in my view.  I could easily see a woman falling for him, no matter how much we may tease him.

I bestowed the Shorty moniker on him on day one.  He's the shortest on our squad, then Kid at around five foot eight and Ripper and I top out at six foot even.

When he returned, he was balancing a tray that looked almost like an old cookie sheet that had our beers and four bowls of what looked like some kind of stew.  Lots of vegetables and some sort of mystery meat.  They didn't have a menu here and you ate what they served you since the primary focus of the place was drinkin'.

I twisted the cap off my offered beer and tipped it to the guys, “The best job I ever had.” They grunted and drank then I dug into the stew with one of the large wooden spoons.  It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad, I've had worse in our own mess line in camp.  If you squinted just right as you ate, you might mistake it for some of our MREs.

The other guys just dipped a spoon in, to look at what they pulled out of the bowl, or gave experimental sniffs then pushed the dishes toward me.  Fine by me, I grinned, more for me.

As the night progressed, Ripper started chatting up a lady of the evening, he offered to pay for a gal for Kid, who just blushed and refused.  And then there were three.

Somehow we wound up with an Aussie and a Canuck ground pounder at our table.  William and Fred.  Yes, Canada actually has soldiers, go figure.  We got into debating the virtues of our services, well fine whatever, strongly verbal and colorful profanity laced banter.

Now, the stereotype of people from different services getting into bar brawls over their disagreements is a fallacy. Unless, of course, some Jarheads start spouting off at the mouth at us, then you just gotta show them the error of their ways.  Or if someone goes badmouthing those same Marines when none is present to defend their honor, then you just gotta show people they don't denigrate your brother's in arms.

No, things are much more civil in real life.  That's how I wound up in the arm wrestling match with William.  It had been going on for over five minutes in a stalemate.  Money was being slung all over as bets were made.  I was feeling the burn and knew I was done for, but this was for the honor of our country, right?  I looked at the Aussie and said, “Damn, we better finish this up soon, my breasts are sweatin'.”

His grip loosened and eyes automatically shot to my chest and he spluttered, “Wha...?” I used the distraction to bring the man's arm down with a thump.  People cheered and William looked at me rubbing his arm and saying with a charming smile and an Aussie accent, “Now that was cheatin', usin' yer feminine wiles like that.”

I gave him a toothy grin and said, “Pay up man.”  He chuckled and stood to get the next round for the table.  Things were ramping down and I figured I should get back to hit the rack, this carousing all night gets harder and more difficult for me to do as I get older. Thirty-six isn't twenty-six after all.

William returned with the bottles and scooted Kid out of his seat beside me, and to the next chair.  We all clinked bottle necks and took a swig.  Ol' Bill started leanin' in a bit, crossing the invisible personal space barrier asking, “So what say you and I go someplace to work on international relations?”

I grinned and put a finger on his chest and eased him back into the safe zone and tilted my head like I was thinking about it.  Then I said, “As charming as you are, and as temptin' as the offer is.  I'm going to have to respectfully decline.  I've never been much into men.”

He took it with grace and didn't seem surprised and clinked bottlenecks with me again and said, “Fair enough I s'pose.”  Then we all drank.

Shorty added in, “She's got a hardon for someone back at HQ with 'the voice of an angel' as she puts it.  Doesn't even know her name.”

A round of suggestive ooooohs circulated as I blushed and threw a bottle cap at the man, growlin', “Thanks fer that Shorty.”  He grinned and I flicked another bottle cap at him to everyone's chuckling.

I settled back comfortably as I nursed that last bottle for a while while the boys bantered.  When I could see the bottom of the bottle again, I placed it on the table and stood and stretched.  “That's about all for me boys.  I'm gonna get some rack time in.”

I said my goodnights and started humping it back to camp three miles away.  I noticed an M1152A1 starting back to camp and flagged them down and hitched a ride.

I checked the time as I slid into my bunk in the barracks tent.  Zero one hundred, in the morning, god, why did I do this to myself, I'd get only four hours of sleep.  I laid on top of the blanket and started to doze off.  Thinking about Valkyrie One thanks to that ass Shorty.

Chapter 3 – Nightmare

I had one of my nightmares that night, reliving the firefight in Sudan ten years back.  After my mid-career re-up.  The first time I heard Valkyrie One's voice.  My original fireteam, the Armadillos, had been assigned a scouting mission a hundred clicks northwest of Al Fashir in the village of Katum.

We had been tracking a group of human traffickers with ties to the Red Castle rebels.  First time I heard their name I thought it sounded like some punk rocker wannabes.  But after the briefing I was seething.

The bastards would kidnap women and children and pack them into ships on the red sea and sell them to the highest bidder.  Hasn't the world moved past slavery yet?  They made a habit of killing any men that got in their way. Any boys, from ages twelve to seventeen, they would conscript into their own rebel group, usually by making them execute men from their own villages.  It was this exact thing that the UN Joint Taskforce was formed to combat.

There was intelligence that a camp was spotted just outside of Katum by the dry riverbed.  Aerial reconnaissance showed that there did seem to be some activity, with some vehicles under camo-netting just north of Katum.  This was a big concern because of the schoolhouse on the north end of the village that was the type of target Red Castle went after.

My fire team was assigned to scout the location and confirm Red Castle's presence before a strike team and strike package would be deployed to deal with them.

We had been dropped on the south end of town by our friendly neighborhood Puma chopper courtesy of the UK.  As we started humping it north, HQ came online for our tactical.  I gotta tell you, the woman's voice just cut right through me and caused an involuntary smile.  I hadn't heard anything like it before, it was really raspy and low but sweet all at once and it set my heart racing.

She apparently didn't follow protocol too closely, but they wouldn't have her in operations unless she was good, and the UN taskforce was a little more lax than mainstream military operations.

The first words I heard her say over my earpiece sounded almost like a radio DJ with a silver tongue.  “Good morning Armadillos.  This is Valkyrie One coming to you from Guardian One.  I'll be watchin' over you and SandBadger today.  It's a balmy eighty-one degrees in the sandy resort town of Katum.  Time check Zero Eight Twenty Juliet.”

I had glanced at my watch and responded, “Check.”  The mission was code named SandBadger, and Guardian One was aerial reconnaissance intelligence HQ.  They had the resources of the drones, spy-planes, and satellites of all the allied nations in the area.  Juliet indicated she would be using local time instead of Zulu or whatever timezone she was currently sitting in the world.  I didn't know it then, but she was about to save my life.

She continued, “Asset check.”  I responded, “Armadillo one.”  My team, Jenkins, Larousse, and Jones telemetry checked, “Armadillo Two.”  “Armadillo Three” “Armadillo Four.”

Valkyrie One responded with her smoky silk tones, “I read you all five by five.  I have eyes on you now.  You are currently five clicks from target.  For your listening pleasure before we go to operational silence, how about a little classic rock.”  And Slapped by Leather and Heels started playing quietly through our earpieces.  I had to grin at this woman's style.  We normally get an HQ monitor that stick up their ass all regulation like.

I loved older rock like this.  Mandy Fay Harris, Satin Thunder, and Leather and Heels were some of my favorites.  Mandy Fay for more reasons than just her music.  She was married to Congresswoman Anabella West now, who is my personal hero.  'Slapped' was a little harder rock, with a biting edge to it, almost inspirational and I figured that's why she chose it for us.

I exchanged grins with my team and we started double timing it, getting looks from the people going about their business as we jogged through town armed for bear.  Jenkins slapped his neck and looked at us, “Did you see that one?  It was as big as a flippin bugbat!”  We chuckled.  He was always saying that and we'd tease him about it, and he'd always get a cheesy grin and say, “Well that bug was as big as a bat.”

We were just passing the schoolhouse when the music stopped and then she was back but with a more serious tone in her voice.  “Armadillo One, Valkyrie One.”

I put a fist in the air and we all came to a stop as I responded, “Armadillo One.”

She was quick to respond, “Please be advised, we have movement at point Delta.”  Delta was our destination.  “Satellite shows three vehicles and what looks to be approximately twenty men inbound.  ETA ninety seconds.”

We still didn't know if these were Red Castle, but we didn't need to take any chances.  We were too close to the schoolhouse.  Dammit!  I replied, “Roger that Valkyrie One, digging in until we confirm hostiles.”

I motioned for the men to take positions near the schoolhouse by a low crumbling wall while I ran into the building.  There was a headmistress and maybe twenty children ranging from about five years old to maybe fifteen or so. The woman's eyes went wide seeing a soldier with an M4 Carbine standing there, some of the children made distressed sounds.  In my broken Arabic I prompted her, “Danger is coming, get the children to safety in the village.”

I hoped that the message had gotten through.  She nodded to me and gathered the children into a bunch and told them they were going to play a game that they all needed to follow her as quietly as they could.

I nodded at her but then the sound of automatic gunfire erupted outside and Jenkins was in my earpiece. “Hostiles confirmed.  We have contact and are under fire.”  My blood ran cold as the children started panicking.  My God, it was too late.  I was yelling in broken Arabic as we heard the bratatat of automatic weapons fire; they sounded like old kalashnikovs; punctuated by single and triple shots of controlled bursts from my fire-team in response.  “Down!  Get the children under the desks.”  Like that would help.  Thank god the building had those thick mud bricks, they might provide a measure of cover for them.

When the teacher started getting the children down, I nodded at her and went to the door, cleared it and exited to join my team.  “Sitrep,” I was yelling at Jenkins over the sound of incoming fire as I slid behind the low wall my team was hiding behind.  A shot burying itself in the ground just behind me.

Larousse would pop up at random points along the wall to fire a single round with his M4 then duck down. Then Jones would then pop up firing his bulky M249 from his waist in short three round bursts to give the enemy something to think about.  It was asinine to shoot like that, he wouldn't hit anything unless he went full spray that way.  I figured he was just buying time for me to give orders.

Jenkins said quickly, voice full of adrenaline and stress, “They popped up over the rise already firing, I think someone in the village tipped them off.  There is no cover, except this wall and that tree over there, I guess the schoolhouse is a no go?”

I shook my head, there was no way we were risking those children.  I called in, “Valkyrie One, Armadillo One.  Hostiles confirmed, we are pinned down.  Civilians are on site.  Request strike team and air cover.”  I glanced behind us, damn, they had eyes on us somewhere.

She was responding instantly, “Strike team en route, ETA twelve minutes.”  Twelve minutes!  Twelve minutes was a lifetime in a firefight.  Goddamn it.  Fine, we just needed to even the odds a bit.

I nodded and gave the hand signals for Jones to give cover fire and for Larousse to make for the tree to the west.  We all spread out as much as we could, I folded my stock and gave a three count with my fingers and we all popped up firing.  I opted for single shot and fired four shots as I stepped to the side two steps to provide a moving target while Larousse headed for the trees.

I had been in combat before in Afghanistan and have traded fire with human traffickers here in Africa a couple times,  I wounded five combatants but had never taken a life.  We always had the superior numbers and firepower until today.

They had us outgunned and had the high ground.  If we fell, they would take those children and I could not live with that, it was not going to happen.  I joined up because I wanted to make a difference, to fight for what's right.

I can still see the men's faces as I killed them.  I see them every night in my dreams.  I fired four shots and two men went down with head shots before I ducked back down with my team.  I use the term men lightly, they were little more than kids, maybe nineteen or twenty and I ended their lives.

They were chewing away at the wall with a constant barrage of automatic fire.  Good, they can't have an unlimited ammo supply, but I didn't know what they had in the three Russian army transport trucks.  We'd have to do something about that.  Over our coms I said, “Armadillo Four.”

He nodded from behind a tree and the team shuffled over from our previous locations and popped up to fire a couple shots to draw fire.  While their eyes were on us, Larousse, pumped out a grenade from the M320 grenade launcher.  A moment later we had one less transport to worry about and it took at least one man with it.  The Kid was good.  I had also killed another man.

I got sick to my stomach, but there wasn't time for that.  Less than a minute had passed, the strike team may as well have been on the other side of the world.

That's when everything went all FUBAR.  My earbud clicked and Valkyrie One was calmly saying, “Armadillo One, we have movement on your six, possible hostiles. Five bogeys.”  A moment later bullets were hitting the ground all around us and the wall from behind us as the bratatat of  kalashnikovs rattled out.

I glanced over and the tree was plastered with blood as Larousse fell.  Son of a bitch!  I was firing at the five men approaching from behind as Jones opened up on them with the SAW.  They must have been the lookouts in town.  I took out one man with a shot through his left eye socket and Jones made short work of the other four, they were untrained and weren't expecting that volume of return fire.

I snapped out on coms, “Armadillo Four?”  There was a delay then a moaning sound from the tree, he was still alive.  I signaled Jenkins to have him and Jones give cover fire while I went to pull Larousse to safety behind the wall with us.  Then I did throw up.  Jenkins was slumped forward with a bullet hole in the back of his helmet.  The enemy was using armor piercing rounds.  He never saw it coming.

I closed my eyes tight and calmed myself then was on the coms, “Valkyrie One, Armadillo One.  We have a man down and one dead.  Where's the goddamn strike team?”

Instantly she was replying, “Armadillo One, strike team ETA seven minutes.”  Shit!  Ok, I got this.  I looked at Jones and motioned for cover fire and he checked the ammo belt feeding his weapon and nodded.  A moment later he popped up on full auto and sprayed the area. I darted out across the ten yards and grabbed Larousse's rucksack with both hands and yanked back as I dragged him across the open space.  It seemed to take hours and I felt so exposed but it was just a few seconds.

Then Jones dropped down and we sat breathing hard for a moment.  I checked Larousse, he was breathing but unconscious.  I raised my carbine over the wall and fired three random shots then tore into Larousse's pack and pulled out the med kit.  I applied a field dressing to his chest and back where two shots had gone through and through.  He had lost so much blood, I felt like getting sick again.

Shots from the west told me that they were starting to flank us and we'd be in a crossfire any moment.  Shit!  I glanced at the schoolhouse, goddamn it, I didn't want to do that.  I looked at my men.  I was responsible for them.  I said, “Jones, get Larousse and Jenkins into the schoolhouse, I'll give cover fire.”  He looked hard at me for a moment, then nodded.  I popped up on the run, along the wall, as I exhaled and took in all the targets and categorized them in my head. This is no different than shooting the bottles in dad's Wild West Extravaganza, except these bottles were firing back.  I'd have to concentrate on the flankers.

I centered myself as I moved.  Step, step, squeeze.  I repeated that six times before I ran out of wall and dropped for cover.  Six shots, four more lives to add to my tally in hell.  Jones had made it into the school with Larousse and was standing in the cover of the doorway waiting for me.  I shot randomly over the end of the wall and he ran back to me firing the SAW from his hip the whole way.

The big man grabbed Jenkin's body and I stood first, drawing fire, I felt a bee sting in my right leg as we charged to the schoolhouse.  Another man was added to my chains of sin.  We fell through the door panting.  Children were screaming now as the headmistress was trying to calm them.

I looked at Jones as he sat against the wall looking pale.  I looked at him and his flack jacket was red.  I reached over and tore it away from his chest, he had been gutshot.  The man chuckled as he started to fade. “It seems that my insides are trying to become my outsides.”

I felt like curling up and dying on the spot, but I played it flippantly. “You don't follow orders too well so why should your innards?”

He laughed and coughed and winced in pain.  I applied a field dressing while he passed out.  I hit my ear bud again, I was feeling a little light headed, “Valkyrie One, Armadillo One.  I have three down.  I'm in the schoolhouse with the civilians.  I need eyes.  ETA on the strike team?”

She was there instantly again. “Armadillo One, strike team ETA four minutes.  Just sit tight and let me see what I can see.”  A second later she calmly said, “Ok sugar, I have two hostiles circling east and three west.  The rest are holding at the vehicles, looks like your team has narrowed the odds.”  I caught a hint of a southern accent when she let 'sugar' slip.

I took a ragged breath and looked around the schoolhouse.  There were two high windows in the front with the main door, to the east and west there were high windows with a low window halfway down the east wall beside a second door.  The rear wall had no openings as was the most secure.

I looked at the woman and told her the best I could to get the children against the back wall.  She nodded and complied as I made my way to the low window on the East side.  I shook off some dizziness and took a stance, extending my collapsible stock and taking careful aim at the dirty window.

I tapped my coms. “Valkyrie One, give me a count on the east side midpoint.”

She replied smoothly, “Contact in four, three, two...”  I didn't hear the 'one' as I saw a shadow move across the window and I rapid fired.  The sound of crashing glass, screaming children, and my gunshots drowning out her voice.

I limped to the window and looked down.  One dead and the other was down but reaching for his rifle.  I aimed, closed my eyes, and squeezed the trigger once.

I was slapping my ear as I limped toward the front door.  “South entrance, speak to me Valkyrie One.”  I could hear a chopper rapidly approaching.  It sounded like heaven, but I wasn't in the clear yet.

She was on. “I suggest you stand clear of the door, they are taking firing positions.”  I looked back at the children and made an ushering movement with my hand toward the west wall and they all huddled in over toward the corner.

When the enemy started shooting, it seemed like they fired forever before the hellfire spray of bullets tearing through the door. Chewing it to kindling over my men on the floor, dwindled down to sporadic fire.  I grinned, they were almost out of ammo and the chopper sounded close.  I stepped to the center to quickly peek out the opening when the firing stopped.

I saw movement and Valkyrie One was online, “Armadillo One, be advised, one hostile approaching schoolhouse.”

I tapped my coms. “Roger that.”  I stumbled for some odd reason and my vision blurred.  I shook my head and took a deep breath and took careful aim.  A man pushed through the splintered remains of the door and he stood stock still when he saw me.  The click and silence of an empty magazine filled the air as my heart almost stopped.  I was out of ammo.

The muzzle of his rifle started to raise toward me and I dropped the M4 and dove to the floor in a roll, snagging my ka-bar from my leg sheath and flicked it at the man.  He fired a single shot as the blade buried almost to the hilt into his chest.  I stared at the hole in the plank floor just two feet to my left as his body fell.  I swallowed and staggered.

Then the most beautiful sound I could imagine came to my ears, the sound of a chain gun firing and the whump whump whump of helicopter blades slicing through the air.  I panicked for a moment and looked back at the children... but they were ok.  I heard Valkyrie One in my ear. “Armadillo One, the Calvary has arrived.”

I limped over to my men and started pulling wood splinters off of them,  Larousse and Jones were still breathing.  I wanted to cry and to laugh all at once.  Men burst into the schoolhouse and they took quick stock of everything in the room then lowered their weapons and I choked out, “My men.  They need a medic!”

The man grabbed my arm as I swayed.  He looked down at my leg. “You're hit.”

I followed his gaze down to my bloody leg, it looked like an awful lot of blood was soaking my uniform.  I mumbled, “Huh, isn't that the damnedest thing?” My vision tunneled then faded to black.  I'd like to say it was a peaceful blackness being unconscious, but I dreamed of the faces of each of the men I had killed that day and it made me feel so small.  With thirty shots, I had robbed twelve men of their lives.

That was the first time I ever heard the voice of an angel, Valkyrie One, but certainly not the last.  It was also the first of the dumbass Purple Heart medals the Army insisted on giving me.  A man died under my command.  Jenkins was my responsibility and they gave me a fucking medal for getting him killed.  How backward is that?  I doubt that gave his widow and kids any comfort at all.  I keep all the medals and commendations they give me with my underwear in my dufflebag.

Chapter 4 – Leave

I woke up in a cold sweat, my hand on my leg where my ka-bar usually rests.  I took three deep breaths, counting to ten, then looked around.  My men were in their racks, good.

I checked the time, zero five hundred, my body knew it like clockwork.  I took one last deep breath and started to gear up for my morning PT.  They always teased me about it, but keeping in top shape is the only way I can keep up with some of the men as I get older.  I'd use the bag shower to cool down afterward before I'm officially back on duty.

Once I was geared up I dropped and did one hundred push-ups and sit-ups.  Ripper groaned at the noise I was making and rolled over, pulling his pillow over his head.  I grinned and hoped he had a raging hangover for abandoning his team for a piece of tail.

Then I stepped out into the already warming day.  I put forty pounds of rocks into my rucksack and started jogging around the camp perimeter, inside the fences.  It was a half mile around the perimeter and I usually did eight circuits.  A couple other men, and a female soldier from the UK, Burns I think her name was; nice butt by the way; joined in before long.

I was on my sixth lap when Chief Danes came walking out to meet me.  He called out, “Meyers.” He motioned for me to join him.  I saluted and stood at attention as I panted and tried to slow my breathing. “Yes sir?”

He made a dismissive gesture and I came to rest.  His face may as well have been made of stone, I couldn't read it but there was something in his eyes that made me hesitate.  He took a quick breath and exhaled.  “Get cleaned up, CO wants to see you in fifteen.”

I nodded and then he turned and walked off.  The CO?  What did old man Tanner want with me?  We didn't have another scouting mission for another five days.  Captain Randall Tanner of the British Army was in charge of this particular United Nations duty station.  Besides mission briefings, I think the man had said maybe a total of two words to me since I was assigned here five years back to form the Bugbats.

He was about a thousand years old in military terms.  So maybe fifty-five or so in civilian years.  With a balding white buzzcut and far too many large teeth to fit a normal human's mouth.  But he had more experience in battle than any man or woman here and he had a commanding presence.  You just had to respect the man.

I hit the shower, which was a five gallon bag of water with a pull chain, suspended by a board attached to a tent post.  I washed the previous night and my morning sweat off quickly.  I had years ago stopped feeling self-conscious showering in plain view of the other soldiers.

My fingers traced my various scars then I put on my underwear and went to the barracks and dressed quickly.  I double timed it to the camp HQ near the generators.  It was the only building that was built on site.  It housed the modest sized meeting room that doubled as the CO's office.  A small room in the back housed his personal quarters.  The structure was constructed of prefabricated wood framed panels.

I paused at the door and raised a hand.  I took a calming breath and knocked lightly.  “Enter.” Tanner's deep British accent rang out and I removed my cover and stepped through the door.  He and the Chief were standing in front of his desk.  Shit, what had I done now?  Had the Bugbats gotten into some mischief last night?

I stepped up to them then stood at attention and saluted.  They both saluted back.  Captain Tanner had the same stone expression on his face as the Chief.  His steel grey eyes held something I didn't recognize.  The CO said in a quieter tone than I was used to from the man.  “At ease soldier.  Have a seat.”  He sat on the edge of his big desk, I reached back and grabbed a folding chair from the conference table behind me and sat.

He held up some papers in his hand and took a deep breath and gave them to me but didn't let go.  He locked eyes with me, “We received a message from stateside an hour ago.”  Wait I knew the look in their eyes now, it was sorrow.  Stateside?  Oh God, Nana?  I pulled the papers from him and started looking at them as he continued.  “You father passed away suddenly last night.  A blood clot in his leg broke loose and caused a massive stroke.”

My blood was rushing in my ears and I felt faint.  He wasn't making any sense, dad was the strongest man I knew.  Strong as an ox and healthy as one too.  This was a mistake.  Why was it so hard to breathe?  I looked at the papers that said the same thing as the CO.  I was breathing in quick shallow breaths.

I felt like I wasn't in the room, just observing it from above as Chief Warrant Officer Danes was talking some nonsense about emergency leave and two weeks.  I looked up at him blankly and almost wheezed out, “I don't take leave.”

It was true.  In eighteen years, I didn't use my leave unless an SO forced the issue, even then I'd usually stay on base and relax.  Brass was always on me about it.  I had voluntarily used maybe three days total on occasions dad was near a duty station and I couldn't get liberty.  Why was I thinking about this when...

The SO growled at me, snapping me out of my haze, “Goddamn it Meyers.  You're going and that's a goddamn order!”

I took three deep breaths, counted to ten, and wondered why I wasn't breaking down.  Had being a soldier for so long poisoned me?  Was I so callous now that I didn't have feelings anymore?  I looked up and met his eyes, there was pain in them.  I just nodded once and he said, “Your paperwork is all there.  There's a supply transport, at the airstrip outside of Fada, heading up to Europe at ten hundred hours be on it soldier.  Dismissed!”

I stood and awkwardly saluted and walked out of HQ toward the barracks, it didn't even feel like my feet were hitting the ground, I was just numb.  I didn't feel anything at all.  My hearing was deadened and it felt like the world was closing in on me.  Nothing made sense anymore.  I quickly grabbed my duffle, stuffed a couple things that were sitting out and then stood and hesitated.  I reached over and grabbed the garment bag hanging on the rope that I used to dry my socks, that was slung above my rack.

I looked around at my still sleeping Bugbats and then trudged off toward the motor pool.  The small voice of a frightened child cracking through my psyche, “Daddy?”

***

I don't remember much about the ride in the C-17 cargo transport up to the Ramstein Airbase in Germany.  I called back home to the only person left in my family now, I didn't know what to do.  “Nana?  I'm heading home, I'll call when I know my flight number.”

She seemed so far away in my haze, telling me to be safe and that she loved me.  I murmured, “Love you too,” as I hung up.  Then I had to rush back out to another C-17 that was heading to DC.  I hoped I could catch transport heading to the west coast as a Space-A after that, or I'd have to fly civilian.

Nana was my grandmother on my mother's side.  Possibly the sweetest person God saw fit to place on this planet.  I don't remember Mom, I was too young when cancer took her.  Dad made sure to keep Nana in my life, some nonsense about him not knowin' how to teach me to be a woman, but I know he loved her too.  He did a damn fine job of raisin' me.

We lived in Vancouver, Washington, and Nana lived in Seattle so it was an easy drive most weekends to visit her when we weren't out traveling the world with Dad's Wild West Extravaganza.

A couple years back, Dad had moved up to the Seattle area so he could help her out at her little eatery called the Pike, at Pike Place Market.  She was starting to get up there in years and things were beginning to get a little harder for her but she refused to retire.  I smiled at that, it must be in the genes.

I couldn't sleep at all over the Atlantic.  I munched on a granola bar from my pocket and accepted a bottle of water from one of the crew.  My mind drifted back to my recovery after Operation SandBadger at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.

I was confined to the hospital for two weeks then ordered to take some leave to recuperate.  So I took some leave but just remained on base back down in Africa.  But the day after I was flown to Landstuhl, and debriefed, I heard that Jenkins wife, Teresa had arrived to fly back to the States with Jerry's body.

I fought with a corpsman to let me out of the damn bed.  I tracked her down.  I had talked to her a time or two over video conference when Jerry would talk to her while on base.  One thing she did was make me promise to take care of him in the field.  I failed her.  I had got him killed and my entire team shot up.

I heard the docs saying that if Larousse survived he'd be getting a medical discharge, there was no way he'd ever be able to return to service.  I didn't know about Jones, he was sent to an Australian medical ship in the Red Sea.

I had made my way to administration, clanking on the crutches, when I saw her signing some papers at a window.  I stopped not knowing what to say or do, so I turned and went to leave like a coward when she looked up.

She put a hand over her mouth and her eyes welled up with tears and the woman ran up and hugged me.  I got her husband killed an she had hugged me.  I said the only thing I could think of.  I had choked out, “I'm sorry.”

She shook her head and said, “He'd be glad you survived.  He loved you.  Something about being tough as nails with the spit to back it up.  Whatever in the hell that means.  He looked up to you.”

I couldn't say anything, the lump in my throat was too big.  I finally rasped out, “He was a good man.  A brave man.”  She nodded at me when the goddamn corpsman showed up with a couple orderlies and pulled me off to my bed.

When I was finally assigned a new team almost a year later, I chose the Bugbats as our fire team callsign to honor Jenkins.  I found out later that Jones was reassigned to logistics in the states.  A desk job, that was a goddamn shame, he was a good soldier.

I've run twelve successful missions since then and each one we always seemed to win the coin toss and the voice of Valkyrie One provided aerial surveillance and tactical coverage.  Again, I don't believe it was a coincidence, when big brass sees something that works, they tend not to break it up.  So Valkyrie One is sort of the honorary Bugbat Five of our team.

The sudden jarring and sound of wheels hitting tarmac broke me out of my musings.  It was daylight outside, I checked my watch and added six hours to the time difference, Zero Eight Thirty.  I spent twenty-five minutes trying to score an A-Space.  Everything military was full up so I resigned myself to heading to Dulles International Airport to catch a civilian flight.

I signed up for a nonstop standby to SeaTac and called Nana to let her know I'd be wheels down in just over six hours.  I freshened up a little in the airport restroom and bought an egg-salad sandwich and a bottle of water from a vending machine and waited for the boarding call as I ate.

I lucked out and was able to score a standby seat.  I numbly stared out the window keeping Dad out of my thoughts and nodded off.  I've come to dislike sleeping lately because they are always there, the faces of all of the men I have killed.  Guaranteeing my place beside Satan one day.

I awoke in a cold sweat reaching for the ka-bar that wasn't there, with a flight attendant shaking me gently.  “Ma'am the plane has landed.”

I brought my breathing back under control and gave her a polite smile and nod and she moved along.  I pulled my garment bag from the overhead as I saw the last passenger exiting.  I took one last calming breath and headed out and to baggage claim.

I snagged my duffle as it moved past and slung it over my shoulder and was about to head out to the taxis when a familiar voice behind me said, “Kenz?”

I turned and looked down at my Nana.  Damn she looked old now.  I felt guilty for not visiting.  I dropped my bags and bent down and scooped her up off her feet in a hug.  I stood there like that holding her, making sure she was real, not knowing what to say so I just said in a shaky voice, “Hi Nana.”

When I set her down and let her go, she held both my hands and looked me up and down.  She released one hand, reached up to stroke it over my shaved head, and smiled that same warm smile that I swear to God is reserved for me.  She said, “You look good.  Strong.”

I just nodded and she tilted her head toward the door.  “Come on, let's get you home baby.”

I followed her out to the parking structure and out to an SUV with a woman, whom I didn't know, waiting in the driver's seat.  She was sort of breathtaking with one startling blue eye and one green with wavy chestnut hair.  Maybe a year or two older than me.  Nana introduced her as Crystal McKay, she was giving us a ride since my grandma didn't have a license anymore.

When we arrived at Nana Zatta's house, another SUV was waiting, with another woman in the driver's seat.  Crystal jumped out with us and offered her hand to me  I shook it and she said with a firmness of purpose in her voice, “Thank you for your service.  I'm sorry for the reason for your visit.”  She locked eyes with me and I could see her genuine sincerity. Then she handed me her car keys.  “Use my car as long as you need, leave it with Mrs. Z when you are done and we'll come get it.”

Then before I could say a word in protest, she hopped into the passenger seat of the other SUV and they pulled away from the house.  I turned around and stared at the familiar little Bavarian style house.  There were so many good memories here.

I hugged Nana again and followed her into the house.  We spent some time catching up and avoiding the reason I had finally come home.  Until it was inevitable and we started discussing funeral arrangements.  It was all so surreal.  I still couldn't accept that Dad wasn't here anymore.

I knew he wanted cremation.  He was retired US Army Reserve so we decided on the internment of his remains at the VA Tahoma National Cemetery down in Kent.  I called his lawyer who was the executor of his will before it got too late in the afternoon and set up a meeting for the next day.

Then my eyes widened at a sudden thought and I looked at Nana.  “Starfire?”

She smiled.  “Your girl is fine, Crystal has some of her friends from Valentine's looking after all the horses.”  I exhaled in relief and kicked myself for showing more emotion over a goddamn horse than the death of my father.

It was my junior year, I had been begging Dad for a horse of my own.  I rode his Strider for years, he was a good horse but he was just one of the horses from the show and he was getting older and slower.  He always said it wasn't in the budget.  But one day had me go out to muck the stalls.  In the empty stall at the end, I found a beautiful Paint filly. With a star of white across her face.

Starfire was my best friend through my junior and senior year... and smart.  She learned all the tricks for the show fast.  It was the best gift my father had ever given me.  He didn't give me a horse, he gave me a friend.  I still remember the amazed look on his face... no, in his eyes, as he watched me with her.

He had pulled me out of the show except in the summer and I stayed with Nana for school.  He said that forging friendships with people my own age and graduating with those friends was more important than some silly Wild West show.  Little things he did like that instilled a sense of worth and belonging in me.

I met my Monica there.  She helped me realize why I always felt like an outsider and understand my feelings.  I felt out of place because I was attracted to girls and thought I was supposed to hide it.  It was all so confusing to me until she opened my eyes.  She was my first true love.  I really thought we'd be together forever.

That is until I enlisted and she dumped me with a letter while I was in Basic Training.  I'm not sure I ever got over that, and that's why I've never come home since then.  I can't be too mad at her though, since she helped me realize who I was and be proud of the person I had become.

I cleaned up and got into some clean fatigues.  I'd have to drop by Dad's and dig up some civvies to wear, besides a couple t-shirts I didn't have much that wasn't Army issue.  It wasn't too late so I said, “I'm going to go check on Starfire and Dad's place.  I might be out late.”  The sad look on her face as she nodded made me stutter step.  I took a deep breath and hustled out.

I looked around for a map in Crystal's car and harrumphed in defeat.  I didn't own a cell, I'd have to hit a gas station for a map.  I powered the car up and almost chuckled.  A big ol' map popped up on the console.  Civilian cars have on-board GPS like military vehicles now?  Buck Rogers here we come.  I remember only BMW and the other high-end car manufacturers had them back in the day.

I entered my Dad's address and started on the route displayed.  He had ten acres just past Bellevue and Eastgate, not quite to Issaquah.  I found it in fifteen minutes.  I sat there in the driveway looking at the little single story rancher and the stables behind it.  It looked an awful lot like our old place in Vancouver and I smiled at that fact.

I parked and looked at the place.  Porch light and driveway lights on made it look like someone lived here.  A sharp pain hit my chest.  Nobody lived here now.  I sighed and got out and walked up to the door, it was locked so I fished out my old keychain, there was a key Dad had sent me to replace my old house key.  I unlocked the door and stepped in.  I looked around.  It smelled like old leather and oil.  That was what Dad used to call a real man's cologne...  Sweat and hard work.

I couldn't do it.  I stepped back out and re-locked the door, then I stepped around back and went into the stable as I normalized my breathing.  The four trick horses for the show were there and at the end, my heart sped up as I looked into the stall.  A brown muzzle with a white star pattern leaned over the rail and nuzzled me, then she nuzzled my pocket.  She remembered me!

I leaned my forehead against hers as I stroked her neck.  “Hi girl.  Sorry, I don't have any sugar for you.  Next time, I promise.”  I took a minute to brush out her mane.  She looked to be in great shape, I wondered if Dad had her rode while I was gone.  I put a scoop of oats in her feed bag for her, for a treat, then went back to the SUV.

Why did it feel like a car was parked on my chest and why couldn't I let myself feel Dad's loss?  Because McKenzie, you're nothing but a killing machine.  God I needed a drink.  I started the car and headed back into Seattle.  I saw some neon, a bar, a club.  They'd have alcohol.  I stopped the motor in the parking lot of a joint called the Steam Plant Club and hopped out.

I started to turn away from the door at the sign that proclaimed a ten dollar cover charge.  God dammit that's just stupid.  I'll just find a little tavern somewhere.  I was stopped by a deep voice.  “Infantry?”  I looked back at the huge bouncer, the guy must have been three hundred pounds of solid muscle, a real mountain of a man.  He had a military bearing.

I looked down at my BDUs and nodded with a “Forty-second, Hooah!”  He just opened the door with a smirk as he said, “Thought something smelled bad.  Marines, first division.”

I nodded at the man with a smirk and switched to the “Oorah!” of the Marines.

He chuckled and smiled as I walked in as he said, “Watch it ground pounder.”

Holy shit on a puma was that not my kind of place.  Maybe back before I graduated, not that I was old enough back then.  This was some sort of pop dance club wonderland.  I felt old suddenly, all these twenty somethings strutting around.  Ah, but wait, a bar!

I slid into a seat in the shadows at the corner of the bar and I dropped a couple twenties in front of me.  The bartender made his way over and I nodded at him and said, “Something strong, keep 'em coming until I'm tapped.”  He nodded and took the cash and poured me a shot of jack.  I tossed it back and felt the smooth burn of it down my throat.  He refilled it and I sat back and nursed that one a little, waiting for the buzz to kick in.

Huh, now there's something you don't expect to see.  I grinned at the dance floor where couples of all types danced, male couples, female couples, male and female couples.  I read about the progress in gay equality in the states in my absence over the years.  It is one thing to read about it and another to actually see it.  And no haters around.  I had to smile.  Hell I was just happy I enrolled after Don't Ask Don't Tell was abolished.

I turned down a few offers to dance with a couple guys and one gal who didn't look old enough to be drinking.  I was nursing a good buzz on my third shot.  I switched to beer.

I just sat back to people watch, trying to keep my thoughts off of why I was back in the States.  Most of these people were just having the time of their lives except a few, you could see things like loneliness, insecurity, or sorrow in their eyes.  The eyes never lie.

I had slowed way down as the night progressed, and switched to water, letting the alcohol work itself out of my system slowly, drinking and driving just isn't a smart thing.  It was twenty-two hundred hours, I'd give it two hours more before I headed back to Nana's.

I made a phone with my fingers and shook it at the bartender.  He slid a cell to me.  I grinned, why was I expecting a land line?  I called Nana to let her know I'd be home just after midnight then slid the phone back and nodded a thanks to the man.

I looked around for the latrine and saw it past some tables at the other end of the bar.  I mumbled, “Time to make a liquid deposit.”

I started making my way through the crowd and as I passed some tables I froze as I heard the voice of an angel complaining, “Nah, I think I'll just go home Betts.  This just really isn't my scene.”

My heart sped up.  No way in hell.  But there was no mistaking that rich and raspy voice that just seeped sweet honey.  I looked in the direction it came from.  There were two tables one with three guys the other with a couple of women.  I stepped near the table and as quietly as I could, but still be heard over the music, I said, “Valkyrie One, Bugbat One.”

The redhead with her back to me spun around fast enough to give herself whiplash, with eyes as wide as saucers.  She stared at me in shock looking me up and down with a small smile quirking on her lips, “Dead Shot?”

Now, you could have knocked me over with a feather right then and there.  She looked every inch an avenging angel.  She had that wavy dark red hair, a generous helping of freckles and some of the greenest eyes I had ever laid my own on.  I saw excitement in her eyes.  Eyes don't lie.  She reminded me of that girl with a bow and arrow in that cartoon movie... Brave?  Hey, don't judge, we got iTunes and steaming video in camp.

I saluted and confirmed,  “Ma'am.”

She giggled and grabbed my hand that was saluting and pulled it down.  “Put that silly thing away sugar, you might put someone's eye out with it.  I'm civilian.”  Then she looked around quickly, taking stock of where we were, who was around, and then glanced me up and down again.

She dragged me to a chair at their table.  I didn't miss that she was with a stunning blonde, which put a damper on my pounding heart for some reason.  “Sit, sit.  What are you doing here?”

I opened my mouth but before I could answer she looked over at her friend and said, “Betts, this is...”  She paused then looked at me with a silly half smile.  “My God, I don't know your name.”

I grinned oh yeah.  I was just an asset to her, I just figured they knew our real names, I guess not.  I was simply Bugbat One and Dead Shot to her.  Just like she was Valkyrie One to me.  I offered, “Specialist McKenzie Meyers.”

Her smile got bigger and she only turned half way back to her friend, but keeping her eyes on me, causing my pulse to quicken again.  How was my angel here?  “McKenzie.”  She said it softly almost like she was tasting testing it, she nodded almost imperceptibly and said louder, “This is McKenzie.  We work together.”  Then she broke eye contact and added, “Kenzie girl, this is my cousin Betty.”  Her southern accent was a little more pronounced now.

This caused me to grin.  Her cousin.  Why the hell did that matter to me?  Because you are a jealous idiot McKenzie, that's why.

I looked at Betty and offered my hand across the table. “A pleasure.”

She let go of my hand and said, “Likewise.  You're strong.”  She rubbed her hand, but had a genuine smile as she looked between Valkyrie One and me.

I felt self-conscious and sat on my hands.  “Sorry.”

She shook her head. “Don't be.”

I turned back to the grinning redhead and tilted my head, raising an eyebrow in question.  She got the hint and barked out a smoky laugh then offered her hand.  “Katie, Katie DeLong.”  I shook her hand a little more carefully, but she wasn't having any of that and tightened her grip.  Fair enough.  I shook with my regular grip and this seemed to please her.  I repeated her name a few times in my head, she did look like a Katie.

Then without letting go of my hand she tilted her head and squinted an eye.  “I'm not sure we're supposed to know each other outside of operations.”

My heart sank but I admitted, “I was wondering that too.  It just shocked the bejesus out of me when I heard your voice as I walked past.”

She held up a finger to Betty and me and stepped away from the table with her cellphone to her ear.  I don't know why but I found it endearing that she was just a bitsy gal, maybe five foot one if she stretched.

I fidgeted nervously and nodded at Betty, who was grinning like a fool now.  I noticed that they had honest to God sugar cubes for the coffee at the tables there instead of a little sugar or sweetener packets and I reached out and pocketed a couple of cubes.

Katie closed her phone and sat, pulling her chair closer to mine.  “That's that.  So long as we do not discuss operations we are free to fraternize.”

My donkey sounding laugh slipped out and I asked, “Is that what we're doing?  Fraternizing?” She rolled her eyes at me playfully, she was a firecracker.  I grinned.

Betty stood suddenly. “McKenzie, Katie here was just wanting to leave the club, but I wanted to dance some more.  Would it be inconvenient if I asked you to drive her home?”

Katie looked at her and blushed, it looked really good on her face.  “Betts, you are about as subtle as a bull moose in a chandelier factory.”

I just kept looking back and forth between the two not knowing what to say.  Betty just started walking off saying, “Good, now that that's settled.  Don't wait up girl.”

We both watched her walk off then we turned to each other with shocked and confused looks on our faces.  Then she barked out her smoky laugh again.  She leaned on the table with her elbows, putting her head cutely on her balled up fists.  “I guess that means you're my ride tonight Kenz.”

I smirked. “There are far worse things in this world.”

A shadow passed over her sparkling eyes as she nodded.  “Yes.  Yes there are.”  Then she brightened up.  “Just what are you doing in Seattle?  Last time I saw the top of your head last week, you were in the middle of Africa.”

Suddenly I remembered why I was here and my smile disappeared.  “Personal business.”

She hopped up suddenly and looped an arm in mine and pulled me off the chair.  “You can tell me all about it as we go then.”  She stopped a second and looked up as an almost predatory smile appeared on her plump lips.  “You are a tall one aren't you?”

I let her drag me out of the club and the sound pressure decreased almost exponentially.  My ears had a slight buzz going on from the absence of the loud music.  The jarhead at the door gave an appreciative nod as we walked past.  I just rolled my eyes at him and he raised his hands up in surrender.  That's right Marine, Army all the way!  Then I gave him a slight nod of thanks.

I looked down at her, she seemed a happy sort.  I brought her to the car and paused.  “I really shouldn't be driving for a couple hours.  Let me call a cab.”

She tightened her grip on my arm possessively and said,  “No.  Then let's walk a while until you are ok to drive.  It will give us time to talk.” God God, I'd go anywhere she wanted so long as she kept speaking with that heavenly voice!

Chapter 5 – Breakdown

We somehow wound up down near Pike's Place, sitting on some grass by the parking structure, looking down across the Sound. Katie was so easy to talk to, I felt I already knew her.  Probably because she has watched over me for over five years.  We have exchanged short banter during slow portions of patrols over the com channel.  This felt more like two old friends catching up.  But I don't generally feel so warm around friends, her closeness was definitely affecting me in pleasant ways.

She had weaseled out of me the reason for my visit and I said, “I think I'm broken though.  I can't bring myself to cry.  Maybe I've shed too much blood to feel anymore.”

She tilted her head as she looked up at me, like she was taking me in all over again.  Then she got a cute little crease between her eyes like she was thinking really hard and leaned up and gently kissed me on the lips.  Then she shook her head and said with surety,  “No that's not it.  Did you feel that?”

Good God McKenzie you're a soldier, stop blushing like a damn schoolgirl!  I squeaked out a “Yes.”  As I looked down at my feet shyly and nodded.  Woman up Kenz!  It was that moment that I realized that I had only ever dated one person in my life.  Why is my mind bringing that up now at all times?  I just got even more nervous.

She smiled. “Good.”  And then hugged tighter onto my arm and just laid her head on my shoulder.  I relaxed a little and she added, “It will come when it is supposed to sugar.  Grief is an odd thing like that.”  I chanced laying my head on top of hers as we watched the lights of the ships reflectrd in the water.  Her hair smelled faintly of lilacs.

I checked my watch, it was almost midnight so I said, “Want to meet someone?”

She pulled away to regard me and nodded with a smile.  So I stood and helped her up, she weighed next to nothing.  She looped her hands around my biceps again, stroking it with her thumbs.  I grinned, realizing that she liked my muscles.

We got back to the Steam Plant and got in the SUV.  I drove her back to my Dad's and we walked into the stable.  The night lights there cast long shadows as we peeked into the stalls.  She was grinning like a child.  Then we got to Starfire.

She had her head immediately hanging over the stall door, seeking my pocket.  I laughed and pulled out the sugar cubes that I had pilfered from the Steam Plant for her, then stroked her between her eyes as she munched them.  I said, “Starfire, let me introduce you to the voice of an angel, Katie.  Katie, this is my oldest friend, Starfire.  Dad's been taking care of her for me while I've been deployed.”

That struck me hard suddenly and I started hyperventilating.  Starfire had lost dad too.  She was his ultimate expression of love to me and he wasn't here anymore.  I put my back against the stable wall and slid down it.  Katie knelt beside me and asked with concern lacing her voice, “Kenzie girl?”

And I broke.  I couldn't hold it.  I started sobbing so hard my chest hurt.  I couldn't breathe.  I felt Katie pull me to her shoulder and I cried for my father.  I kept whispering, “He's gone.  Oh God, he's gone.” As Valkyrie One once again watched over me.

***

I'm not sure how long I cried but eventually I could breathe again.  I brought myself under control and wiped my eyes and pushed away from Katie gently.  Ashamed of my outburst.  I said in a strained voice, “I'm sorry.”  I pushed all my emotions aside and stood.

She shook her head and looked angry, and chastised me with a definite southern accent, “Don't you dare go all soldier on me lady!  You needed that.  Don't go all stone cold now!”

I blinked at her and she reached up and cupped my cheek with a hand and smirked as she said wryly,  “It's nice to know that the unstoppable Dead Shot is human too.  Means I got a chance.”

Huh, wha?  I blinked at her.  She smiled back, taking charge. “How long you here for?”

I shrugged. “Less than two weeks before I ship off to Chad again.”

She nodded. “Then I'd like to hang around a bit with you.  Get to know you a little better.  Give you someone to talk this through with.  I have some vacation time I've saved up over the past five years.”

She didn't take leave either?  Was Guardian One in the Seattle area?  I thought about it, she had watched over the Bugbats since we were formed after SandBadger.  Was she requesting my team's missions?  I'd have to ask later.  I wiped my eyes one last time and mumbled, “Bawling like a fucking girl.”

She narrowed her eyes when I cursed.  I'm so used to being around other soldiers, profanity is just part of the way we speak.  I made a mental note to curb the impulse around her.  She bumped my hip with hers.  “And, you are a girl sugar.”  She glanced back at my butt and bit her lower lip and almost purred in that raspy voice,  “All girl.”  Damn!

I took a deep cleansing breath and I said, “Let's get you home before the pumpkin police go searching.”  She snorted and looped an arm in mine again.

We hopped in the car and she put her hand out wiggling her fingers. “Cell.”

I shrugged. “Not much use for one in Chad.”

She rolled her eyes and pulled a pen and paper from her purse, then wrote something as she said, “We're gonna have to do something about that.”  Then she handed me the paper.  It had her name and phone number.  There was a cute little heart over the I in Katie.  I pocketed it with an excited smile.

She leaned in and hugged my arm and then said regally, “Home James.”  I glanced at my watch, crap, my breakdown lasted almost an hour.  She just held me the whole time?

Before long she had me navigate to an apartment complex close to the 833rd Transportation Battalion headquarters.  I wondered again if Guardian One was located there, or nearby.  Bad questions to be having in my head.  Better for operational security that I never know the answer.

We sat in the car a minute then I exhaled and hopped out and ran around to open her door.  I walked her to her door to make sure she was safe then said, “Goodnight Valkyrie One.  Nice to know a real angel is behind the voice.”

She grinned up at me like a pleased kitten at the comment then stood on her tip toes and once again laid a feather light kiss on my lips. Lingering for three heartbeats, I know because I counted them.  Then she blushed and said.  “Call me, Kenz.”  I nodded and she disappeared through her door.  I stood there a moment, just grinning like a fool, twirled in place with a smile, then made my way back to the car.  Damn, it was going to be almost zero two hundred when I got back, I hope Nana didn't stay up.

Chapter 6 – Will

The alarm on my watch chimed once and my eyes snapped open.  As usual, I was in a cold sweat as the nightmares faded.  I hit the button on it and the clock face glowed dimly red, illuminating the hands. Zero Five Hundred.  I blinked for a moment wondering why I hadn't woke up before the chime before I remembered where I was.  My biological clock was set to Camp Guinevere time.

I took a deep breath then sat up.  Nana had waited up for me last night and I felt like crap about it.  It was an oddly surreal feeling when I retired to my old bedroom.  It was just like it was when I finished high school.  I looked at the posters on the wall and my old collection of music CDs stacked on the top of the dresser.  It was like another life, back when I was young and innocent.  I grinned at the huge poster of Penny from Leather and Heels on the back of the door.  I had a megga schoolgirl crush on her back then, she was such a bad girl.

I rolled out of bed and onto the floor and started my push-ups.  I kept glancing at the colorful cover of my scrapbook on the nightstand as I did my workout.  Once I finished my sit-ups, I looked in the drawers and grabbed a t-shirt to go running in.  I held it in front of me, now that was a hell of a thing.  How did I ever fit that tiny thing?

I remember the rail thin girl I had been, five foot eleven and still growing in my senior year.  Which brought to mind all the Beanpole and Long Lezzie jokes the other girls threw at me back then.  Long before I bulked up with muscle.  I was really proud of my body now.

I tossed the shirt back into the drawer with the others and sighed as I again put on my BDUs.  I'd have to pick up com civvies in town today.  Can't be wandering around all GI Jane all the time.  I tried to leave quietly so I didn't wake up Nana, but before I got half way to the front door, she poked her head out of her bedroom in a fluffy pink robe.  She had concern on her face and I just smiled. “Just getting in my morning run.  Be back in thirty.”  She nodded and smiled and withdrew back into her room.

I took off running the familiar neighborhood, and kicked past the Woodland Park Zoo and up onto  Aurora Avenue.  I was both amazed and relived how little had actually changed in twenty years as I ran south, crossing the Aurora Avenue bridge into Downtown.  I had heard stories from some career Army like me, who had gone home after years in the service to find their towns almost unrecognizable.

I paused on the bridge, soaring so far above the waters of Lake Union, it was an inspiring sight.  To the west, the Fremont Drawbridge was up, allowing a cargo vessel to pass  through.  I inhaled the familiar smell of a coastside city and resumed my run, kicking up the pace to make up for the time I spent on the bridge lollygagging.

I turned and went back the way I came. I had promised Nana I'd be back in thirty minutes, so I'd get just over four and a half miles in, that was ok, I'd just extend my run the next morning. When I got back, the almost orgasmic smell of Nana's cooking assaulted me and my mouth started watering.  I waved at her as I passed through to the bathroom to shower.

I thought about how I missed this place without even realizing it while I cleaned up.  With so many familiar things around me, it almost felt like home.  I went back to my room and put on my last clean set of fatigues.  I stepped into the hall and pulled aside the little accordion door at the end of it and started a load with all of my laundry.

Then I joined Nana in the kitchen.  She had a huge breakfast for two waiting on a little kitchen table.  I was salivating as I stepped up to her as she was sliding some sort of heavenly smelling omelet creation onto a plate, and gave her a kiss on the cheek.  “Morning Nana.”

She smiled at me as she slid the skillet into the sink. “Morning Kenz, did you have a good run?”  I shrugged and helped her bring the last of the food to the table.

We started chatting about nonsensical things as I ate possibly the best meal I have had in decades.  I had forgotten just how good Nana Z's cooking was.  There is a reason she owns one of the most celebrated eateries in Seattle.  The Pike Bakery has won more awards than even Alessandro's Italian Kitchen here.  I kept up with it through the newspaper clippings dad would send.

Before I enlisted, she used to travel around the city with her van with “Mama Z's” painted on the side. It pulled a portable oven that she would bake fresh bread, scones, and pastries in.  She was always in demand.  It wasn't until years after I had enlisted that she somehow stumbled into the most amazingly affordable lease option on a place at the busiest location in Seattle, Pike Place Market.

I smiled as I ate possibly the fluffiest omelet I had ever had, with a perfect mix of cheese and ham, the onions and peppers gave a perfect balance of texture and taste.  I grinned because she had also made a huge helping of those shredded hash browns that I love that always make her roll her eyes at my unsophisticated palette.

When I was washing down the last bite of a wonderful meal, I realized something. “Shouldn't you be at the Pike prepping for the day?”

She paused and looked at me almost sadly, then said dismissively, “Oh pish posh.  I'm taking the week off  so that we can lay poor George to rest.  Crystal has a five-star chef coming in to keep the Pike running for me.  He owes her a favor.”

Crystal?  Again?  I asked, “Who is this Crystal woman anyway?”

She smiled as we cleared the table and started washing the dishes.  I automatically grabbed the dish towel and dried as she washed, almost like it were muscle memory form the two years I lived with her so long ago.  She said, “She is just a sweet woman who likes to take care of her friends.  She reminds me a lot of your mother, Trina.”  I saw a flicker of loss in her eyes when she mentioned Mom.

I just smiled reassuringly at her as I took the last pot and hung it on the baker's rack hanging above the range on the central island in the kitchen.  “Well, I have to thank her for that as well.”

I inhaled deeply. Not able to push the topic off and I said a little hoarsely, “I have to call the funeral home to convey our wishes. Then at nine thirty to discuss his will with Dad's lawyer.  He'd like you and Dad's crew there.  I don't have any way to contact them...”

She pulled out her cell and held it up.  “I'll handle them, and of course I'll be there, there is no other place I'd be baby.”  She paused taking a breath then looking up into my eyes.  “He was like a son to me you know.  He was a good man who took care of my daughter, and then after...”  She left mom's death unspoken.  “He took care of me, not many men would do that for a mother-in-law.”  She reached her hand out and I grabbed it.  “He took good care of you.  You were his shining star and he did the best he could.”

My vision was getting a little watery and I just nodded, he was the best dad a girl could ask for.  The best he could, was far better than most girl's fathers.  He helped me grow into a strong woman who knows who she is.

She made her calls, but I had to wait until nine to make my calls.  I finished my laundry and retired to my bedroom and sat on my bed, looking around while I waited.  I kept glancing at my scrapbook on the nightstand.  Finally, I reached over and grabbed it.  Monica and I had started it right after I had come to live with Nana in my Junior year.  I worked on that thing all the way up to the day I shipped out to Basic.

I opened the cover and ran my fingers over the pictures, concert and movie tickets, and a letter from Monica swearing on our friendship.  Reading it now, I could see she was interested in me as more than a friend, I was just dense back then and it took me far too long to realize it and move on it.

I smiled in spite of myself.  I still couldn't bring myself to be angry at the girl for dumping me in a letter.  She had helped me realize who I am.  I traced her face with a touch of melancholy.  She looked so young there, I snorted as I looked at the tall, gangly girl towering over her, but so did I.

I turned the page and stopped at one picture that made me smile.  There was an image of one of the first people to inspire me besides my Dad.  There was this badass senior that had transferred from another school.  Rumor has it that she was kicked out of her other school for fighting.

You'd think she was a bully after seeing her and hearing that talk, but she was the exact opposite.  I mean she had the badass look down, with some ever present army boots that she said were her father's.  But she was one of the friendliest girls, who had a huge hate on for bullies.  She would champion everyone and come down on anybody that picked on anyone who was different.  Her name was Vee Taylor.

She was one of the three people in my life that inspired me.  She showed me that by stepping up and standing up for others, one person can make a difference.  She wasn't afraid of who she was and that sort of inspired me to finally accept who I was, and admit to myself that I was attracted to women.

She made it half way to the end of the year before she was expelled for fighting a bully who was picking on an autistic student.  I hear she made a name for herself later, in poetry or something like that.  Good for her.

I kept flipping the pages and found myself smiling.  It basically chronicled my relationship with Monica as it grew.  I covered my mouth with the picture of us in our dresses, going to our senior prom as a couple.  I swear to God, dad had a happy tear in his eye when he took that picture.

Monica never flinched at all the bigots we had to face at the dance, we only had eyes for each other, and my dad had taught me to be strong.  The school board had a conniption fit when they heard what we had done.  But I hear same sex dates are not that uncommon at school functions anymore in most of the states.

My heart sped up when I turned the page and there were dozens of clippings of news articles about my personal hero.  Anabella West.  She was a deaf woman from my hometown of Vancouver just a couple years older than me at the time.

She fought the city council for removing her from volunteer positions with the city when they discovered she was gay and in a relationship with none other than Mandy Fay Harris if you can believe it.  The bad girl of rock herself.

She fought them and won.  Not only that but she championed several worthy causes, like the teen suicide hotline and more facilities for the homeless.  She was a force unto herself and I had marveled that a young woman could take on all of that, walk through the fires of hate and ignorance and come out stronger.  She reinforced for me that we should always fight for others, no matter the cost.  She was the inspiration for me joining the military.  I wanted to make a difference and fight for what was right.

I grinned at the thought that she was now a congresswoman, shaking up the foundations of the government and causing change.  Still fighting for what is right.

The three people that shaped the soldier I would become were my dad, Vee Taylor, and Anabella West.  That reminded me of something and I dug in my duffle bag and pulled out an old tattered magazine with an article about Anabella in it titled, “The Unstoppable Force”.  I slid the magazine into the scrapbook and closed it.  I ran my fingers over the book then put it back on the nightstand.

I noticed the time on the little alarm clock there and blinked, it was already nine, where had the time gone?  I walked out to the living room and grabbed the landline and called the funeral home.  The person sounded almost mechanical to me, the way they expressed their sympathies while also trying to upsell their services to “honor” my father.  Dad and I had discussed this once, and I knew what he wanted, cremation and a simple urn.  But I couldn't leave it at that, I opted for a military urn for his time in the National Guard Reserves.

The funeral director would contact the VA Tahoma National Cemetery to arrange internment for Friday and handle the obituary and notification of the service.  When I got off the phone with him, I was cold and felt that surreal feeling again knowing that Dad just wasn't with us anymore.  That's when I realized Nana was sitting beside me on the couch.

I looked at her with my lips pressed firmly in a line then laid my head on top of hers.  We just sat there silently for a minute before I took a deep breath and sat up.  “Let's get this over with?”  She nodded and we stood together.  I looked down at myself.  “I'll need to pick up some civvies today so I don't stand out so much in public.”

She chuckled with a smile only a grandmother could give.  “You were born to stand out baby girl.”

I shook my head at her with a little smile and we stood and made our way to the car.  I punched in the address for Dad's lawyer, Kincade Stenson, and we were off.

Dad always had a knack for finding the right person for any given job.  Sometimes his choices were unorthodox but it never took long to determine that they were inspired.  When we arrived at the strip mall, I turned to Nana and arched an eyebrow.  She shrugged and gave me a crooked smile, letting me know she was a little confused too.  I mean... a strip mall?

We looked beside a dry cleaners and there was a small door with lettering that read  Kincade L. Stenson, Esquire.  I snorted and pulled the door open for my grandmother.  My father's lawyer is in a strip mall... it was sort of fitting in an ironic way.

We passed a restroom in the entry hall and stepped into a one room office that looked like it belonged in a supermarket manager's backroom or something.  I smiled at Dad's crew, Ren, Iris, and Joseph, who were sitting in mismatched chairs in front of the little Formica-covered desk that was virtually surrounded by overstuffed filing cabinets.

They stood and greeted Nana, then Iris froze when she looked at me.  “Oh my god!  McKenzie!?  Wow!  I almost didn't recognize you.  You filled out well!”

I bent down and engulfed the little woman in a hug, dangling her feet off the ground.  I set her down and grinned. “Hi Aunt Iris, you haven't changed a bit.”  Though it was odd seeing her graying  hair that used to be shiny black.  Well, I guess she is in her fifties now.

She chuckled. “No need to be diplomatic Kenz.  But thank you.”  I grinned at her.  She was the knife thrower in the show.  She taught me how, and that skill has saved my life on a couple occasions.

I turned to the two men who were now standing beside me, I shook their hands heartily.  “Uncle Ren, Uncle Joe.”  They weren't really my aunt and uncles, but they had raised me just as much as Dad did in the Wild West Extravaganza.  It was like having a whole troop of parents.

Joe nodded. “You look good girl.  You do us all proud.”  The rest nodded agreement.  He made a show of running his hand across his shiny bald dome, grinned, and tilted his head toward mine and said, “We're almost twins now.”

I rolled my eyes at the man.  Even back in the day he had a rapidly receding hairline.  I thought the new look made him look more distinguished.  I said, “It's more convenient like this in the desert.”

I turned to the Man who had been standing behind the desk who had moved around to greet us.  He put a hand out and I gave it a firm shake as I sized the man up.  The man was a mix of ambulance chaser cliches.  He looked like a used car salesman slash cowboy wannabe.

He wore a God awful green plaid suit with a bright green shirt and a red bow tie.  Not a clip-on, but a honest to goodness bow tie.  A belt with a huge silver horseshoe belt buckle held up his pants and he wore ostrich skin cowboy boots to complete his ensemble.

His thick hair was so grey it was almost white, all slicked back and hanging down to his shoulders in the back.  His well weathered face was a road map of wrinkles.  But he did have a genuine smile under the walrus style mustache.

I would have thought the man was a bottom-feeder type lawyer if not for three facts.  The first being that Dad had chosen the man and Dad had an uncanny knack for picking the diamonds in the rough and he was almost never wrong. The man had a firm handshake, not the type where they try to overpower you, but the type that conveys confidence.  And finally, his eyes.  They had a spark of sharp intelligence as he met my eyes, I could tell he was peripherally taking in my appearance and bearing, and categorizing me.  This man was not who he projected with his most likely practiced appearance... the eyes never lie.

I knew he was aware of my mirrored scrutiny and his smile widened slightly as he said, “Miss Meyers. Kincade L. Stenson, Esquire. It is a pleasure to finally meet you.”  Then his voice and demeanor softened almost imperceptibly.  “I just wish it were under different circumstances.”

I nodded and released his hand and turned to Nana. “And this is my grandmother...”

He interrupted, “Of course, Mrs. Zatta.  George thought of you like his mother.”  He took her hand in both hands and shook lightly.  Then he looked around and darted over to the far wall and grabbed an old plastic lawn-chair and a folding chair that were leaning up against it. He unfolded them and put them in front of the desk, completing a semi-circle with the others.  “Pleas ladies, have a seat.”

We sat and he rushed around his desk and sat.  His eyes seemed to momentarily rest on each of us, like he was evaluating us.  He nodded, almost imperceptibly again then slid one of two stacks of papers on his desk forward slightly. He grabbed the second stack and turned and put it on top of an industrial grade paper shredder in front of the floor to ceiling window behind him.

He turned and said, “Before we start, does anyone need anything to drink? Coffee, water?”  Nobody spoke up and he pursed his lips and said, “So you all know, George was not just my client, he was a friend, and I am terribly sorry for your loss.  The man gave me a chance years back when nobody was giving me a second look.  Most of my clients were referred to me by him or by the people he referred to me.  He was a good, honest, and hardworking man and father.”

I tilted my head.  I had never known the business end of the show.  Dad kept that side of it in the office and never spoke much about it at home.  The times he did mention legal things, he did say that he had a wizard for a lawyer that could get things done.  So Stenson was that wizard?  I squinted a little, still assessing the man behind the desk.

My eyes darted around the office again.  No pictures, no personal nick knacks. Nothing to tie a man to the space.  The corner of my mouth threatened to twitch up in a smile.  It was a set, just like in Dad's Wild West show.  This was just set dressing so that people would come to a predetermined conclusion about the man. I caught him seeing this on my face and he winked.  I fought off a snort.

Then he turned to the group and slid a single sheet of paper from a manila envelope.  He took a deep breath as he looked down at it then up at us. “I'll start with the reading of his last will and testament.”

I think all of us stopped breathing, this was making his death real, and final.  Nobody moved a muscle as Stenson started, “George was a man of little words, but when he did speak he spoke plainly and it was always important.”

I nodded, not able to keep my eyes off the old lawyer.  Then he looked down at the paper and started reading, and I could hear my Dad's voice in his words.  “I've never been good with words, I always figured you only said something if it were worth saying.  So here goes.  First off, since you're reading this, I guess it means I'm dead now.  Sorry, 'bout that.” I smiled through tears that were threatening.

I could hear a slight waver in Stenson's strong voice. “I love you all.  So here's the legal mumbo jumbo that Kincade says I gotta say.  I George McKenzie Meyers, being of sound mind and body, hereby...”

I zoned out a bit on the legal stuff.  Dad wanted the ownership of the Wild West Extravaganza to be spit four ways, between myself, Iris, Renford, and Joseph.  He set up a couple trust accounts, one for Nana and one for me.  Some stuff was to go to a local charity, the Callahan Foundation, and the house and the rest of his worldly possessions he left to me.

The last of the will got the tears to silently break loose and roll down my cheeks.  “And Kenz, surround yourself with good people. You have a knack for reading people, it's a gift from your mother.  It's all in the eyes baby, the eyes never lie.” I wiped my tears on my sleeve.  Everyone was kind enough not to notice.

Then Stenson slid the will back into the envelope and it looked like he took a second to compose himself and went about the business of transferring the ownership of the Wild West Extravaganza.  I interrupted and told him just to sign it over to Iris, Ren, and Joe.  They argued with me for a bit but then finally they agreed when they saw I wouldn't budge.  That show was their lives, they had all dedicated everything to it.  It was only right.  I had just one stipulation, that they took care of Starfire for me when I returned to duty.  Iris said sadly, “Of course Kenz.”

With that, Stenson pulled back the paperwork and put it on the stack on the shredder. He produced another set of papers from the stack in front of him for the three to sign and another for me to sign away my interest in the show.  I squinted my eyes at the man.  He had anticipated that.

The rest of the meeting went that way as we signed various papers and as we made changes, he would miraculously have the proper paperwork, like he had thought of every contingency and was ready.  Now I saw clearly what Dad saw in the man.  No matter what he projected to the world, he was fiercely intelligent and a consummate professional.

When we finished, he looked over at the lone piece of paper from his stack and squished up face in consternation and picked it up then shrugged and put it back on the shredder.  I noticed it was just a takeout menu and he was just silly.

Then we all stood and said our goodbyes to Stenson, he told me, “Call me Kincade, please.”  Then he handed me a thick envelope to go with my copies of the paperwork.  “I'm supposed to give this to you.”

I nodded and stuffed the envelope into a pocket, the top hanging out, then we exited to the parking lot of the strip mall. Ren, a man of few words like my father spoke up for almost the first time since I arrived.  “More to that man than meets the eye.”  We all chuckled in agreement.  We said our goodbyes, saying that we would all see each other on Friday unless I needed any help.

I brought Nana by the Pike to check on things, the chef Crystal had brought in had things running efficiently.  He had pulled Nana aside to ask if he could use some of her recipes that he found them as inspired.  She politely denied the poor man who just smiled in understanding.  Some of her recipes were the signature of her bakery.

Then I dropped Nana at home, she was getting a little tired.  I said, “I have to go pick up some civvies and I thought I'd drop by Dad's to check on Starfire.  I might stop for a drink.”

She nodded and replied, “Ok Kenzie girl.  Let me know so I know if I need to have dinner ready for you.”  I just grinned at her, she was always feeding me back in high school too.

I gave her a hug.  “I love you Nana.”  This put a sparkle in her eyes and a smile on her face as I left.

Chapter 7 – Jack's Tavern

I hit a big box store and got a few t-shirts, a blouse, a couple pairs of jeans, and some sneakers.  I figured that would be enough so that I didn't stick out like a sore thumb in public before I shipped back out.  I thought that I'd slip into the civilian garb the next morning after my run.

I dropped past Dad's... well I guess it is my place now.  I walked up to the front door and took a deep breath, steeling my nerves.  It didn't look so intimidating and daunting in the daylight.  I pulled out the key and let myself in again.

I stepped in and stood in the little entry hall and inhaled, it still smelled like Dad.  I glanced to the side and hanging on a peg were his denim lined jacket with its leather shoulders and elbow pads. His old red baseball cap that he always wore when working outside at our old house in Vancouver hung there as well.  I took the coat off the hook and buried my face in it.  There was that combination of old leather, oil, and sweat.

I put it on and wandered through the house.  It was small, but had two bedrooms, one was empty except for a bed, chest of drawers and a few boxes marked Kenzie.  It was my room if I had ever moved back to the States.  Dad always said he had a room for me.

I looked around.  There was a living room that sort of flowed into the dining slash kitchen area, a bathroom, and the two bedrooms, simple, but all you would ever need.  There were pictures all over the walls everywhere, of me, Mom, Nana, and the Wild West Extravaganza, most featuring a young, but tall for her age, Annie Oakley.  I grinned at my old costume.

I stopped in the kitchen and popped a few sugar cubes into my pocket, then I finally worked up the nerve and opened Dad's door.  It was neat and tidy like everything else, but had a nice comfortable lived in feel to it.  His closet door was open and I saw some of his shirts hanging there.  There was a second bathroom attached.

I looked around a bit in reverence then stepped up to the closet and grabbed a couple of his flannel shirts and then stepped back out of the room, closing the door behind me.  I grabbed a picture off the wall of him standing beside me at the show.  I must have been fifteen, tall and gangly, as tall as he was.  He was in his Wild Bill costume and I was Annie Oakley, it was one of my favorite pictures.

I sat on the familiar couch and smiled at the picture, running a hand across it lost in the memory.  I just sat there listening to the silence for a few minutes until I heard a vehicle in the drive.  I stood and made my way to the door, sliding on the base-ball cap.

I stepped out with the shirts and the picture and stood on a little wood porch as a huge black Ram pickup with duallys pulled up towing a horse trailer.  Valentine's Cascade Experience was emblazoned on both the truck and trailer.  That would be the people Crystal had taking care of the horses for us.  I waved and the lady in the truck waved a work gloved hand at me and smiled as she pulled back to the stable.

I hopped off the porch to join her.  She was already out and grabbing some supplies from the trailer.  As I approached I said, “Howdy.”

The woman grinned at me as she hauled her stuff into the stables with the practiced ease of a pro. “Howdy.  You must be McKenzie.  I'm Fran, I work with Silent Bob.  Just here to take care of your horses.  Bobbie owed Crystal a favor or something.”  The mirth in her eyes told me that apparently a lot of people owed Crystal a favor.  It wasn't the first time I had heard it.

I smiled at her and helped her muck the stalls and feed the horses as we chatted.  When the chores were done and we were brushing out the horses manes, she said, “I'll be back tomorrow with Steve to exercise our four legged friends here.”

I smiled and thanked her as I stroked Starfire's muzzle and fed her the sugar cubes in my pocket.  I looked at my horse. “I'll get back here to ride you myself before I ship out, I promise girl.”  Then I helped Fran load up her gear and waved as she drove off.

I was feeling really good after some good honest work.  My muscles were humming and I caught myself almost smiling in satisfaction.

I went back into Dad's and washed up then headed back out. Then I used the landline to call Nana to let her know I'd be home in a couple hours since I had decided to stop at a roadside bar somewhere on my way back to her place for a quick drink.

About half way back home, on Mercer Island, I found a tavern named Jack's and pulled in.  It was a little, red weathered building that had the homey feel of a hometown bar, lots of neon.  Exactly what I needed to unwind and relax from a hectic day.

There were a lot of good ol' boys doing the same, and a few women.  None really caught my eye though.  That though caused me to think about Valkyrie One and I found myself grinning in spite of myself.  I was still shaking my head at just how small this world really was that I ran into her.  Her fiery looks and attitude fit what I had imagined from her voice.

I won a few bucks from a couple locals who challenged me to play some darts.  It was almost unfair to the men.  Almost... but it paid for my beer.  They were good natured and one, Brent, had chuckled out after I had decimated them for the third time, “Our tax money hard at work ladies and gentlemen.”  I winked at the man wryly and accepted a beer from him.

I looked at the time and hissed.  I needed to get back to Nana's, but I hadn't allowed any cool-down time.  I'd needed a cab, I wasn't about to drive buzzed like that, it was going to cost a mint.  I saw a payphone in the corner.  Holy shit!  A dollar for a phone call now?  And for only ten minutes at that? The damn phone even took debit cards.  I sighed.  What is this world coming to?  I looked around for a phonebook, there wasn’t one by the phone and the bartender was busy so I sighed again, but then remembered something.

I smiled warmly as I pulled Katie's phone number out of my pocket.  I hadn't intended on calling her while I was here.  The way she heated me up when she was around could make things complicated when I went back on duty.  But I needed a ride, I reasoned to myself.  Lame me, really lame, just admit you like the woman.

I dialed the number and her gravelly sweet voice answered in a teasing manner, “Vodka shot straight up, please.”

I grunted out a “Huh?”

Then her voice was filled with restrained excitement. “Oh Kenzie!  It's you sugar!  I just saw Jack's Tavern on the caller ID.”

I snorted still feeling the buzz from alcohol now mixed with warmth in my belly from hearing her voice.  I said, “Hi Katie, I don't mean to be a bother.  But I seem to be a little bit tipsy and didn't think it would be safe for me to drive to my grandmother's.  I don't suppose I could bother you for...”

She interrupted quickly. “By all means.  I'll be right there.  I didn't think you were ever going to call to tell you the truth.”

I smiled crookedly.  “Well... I... ummm, you need directions?”  What the hell is wrong with my mouth?

She chuckled, and it made my smile widen at the sound.  She chirped out, “I'm a tactical and logistics battlefield analyst, I think I can find Jack's Tavern.”

I chuckled back and she paused then said, “It's good to hear you laugh Kenz.  I'll be there in ten.”  Then just like that, she was gone.  I looked at the receiver in my hand then hung up with a smile and a little anticipation fluttering in my belly.

I sidled up to the bar and sat back at my stool.  Looking at the red baseball cap in front of my beer mug.  I nursed my beer for ten or fifteen minutes, taking smaller sips when a man behind me started spouting off at the mouth.  “Well, lookie here, we got one of them war mongerin' baby killers.”

I turned a bored gaze back at the young man, mostly to determine if he were a threat or not.  He was of average height, a little overweight, mostly from the beer gut.  He was fairly well dressed.  I pegged him as an office worker, possibly in insurance or something.  He and his preppy looking buddies had arrived while I was on the phone.

He looked surprised when he saw my face, then turned to his friends.  “It's not even a real soldier, she's a GI Jane.”  I tagged him as just a harmless blowhard trying to impress his friends.  I was ready to leave anyway, just as soon as Katie arrived.

I turned away, bored, and kept sipping my beer.  The man continued his verbal abuse.  It was nothing new.  For every asshat out there who hated the people who kept them safe that spoke out against us soldiers, there were hundreds of others that appreciated our service.

I just ignored him.  The bartender looked hesitant, I could tell he was weighing the fact that they were paying customers against kicking them out.  Can't blame the man for the need to make a living, times are tough from what I hear.

Brent stood from his table and stepped close. He looked to be the type to back me in a fight if he was pushed, though he wouldn't fare too well, judging by the way he held himself.  I respected the man, he'd try to have my back.  He said nervously, “You gonna take that from him?  You going to do something?”

I glanced up at him with that and then back over my shoulder with a half grin before looking back at my now empty beer mug that I had clasped in both hands.  Then shook my head.  “Nah, it's a free country.  Me and the rest of the military fight and die so he can have the freedom to voice his opinions like this, no matter how much of a dumbass it makes him look.  No water off my back.”

I heard the guy take a step closer as he snapped out, “You calling me a dumbass?”

I ignored him and checked my watch.  He postured for his buddies. “Yeah, that's what I thought.  Nothing but a coward, just like the rest of the military.”

Ok, I tried to do this the nice way, I don't give a shit what he says about me, words are just words, but nobody disparages the US Military.  One of my hands bunched into a solid fist, I could hear my knuckles cracking and feel my tendons straining as I started to turn to lay this guy flat.  But a soft hand rested on my fist and I jerked my head up just to be captured by Katie's sparkling eyes and smiling face.  “It isn't worth it Dead Shot.  Let's get you home.”

I relaxed and smiled back at the woman, I mean how could you not smile back at a warrior angel?  I nodded once and grabbed my Dad's hat and turned to go with her.  As we brushed past the blowhard, he had to add, “That's right run away.”

Katie was suddenly in the guy's personal space and her voice was cold enough to freeze molten lava as she hissed at the man.  “You fucking dumbass, I just saved your life and you don't even know it.  Every soldier in the military is trained to do one thing and do it well... kill.  And you want to push her?  Do you make a habit of poking hungry bears in the woods too?”

Then she turned and looped her arm in mine and grasped my biceps as she dragged me toward the door.  She was just muttering, “Dumbass douchebag, waste of space,” I snorted and chuckled in pure amusement at her.  She disliked cussing, but damn was she good at it!  One glance back showed me the idiot's pale face as he thought about what she had just said, not that he seemed to be that much of a thinker to me.

When the door closed behind us, we looked at each other and cracked up.  Damn but she was fun.  She grinned and said, “Well that was bracing.”

I said, “I wasn't going to kill him... much.  Just put the fear of God into him for disparaging the military of the U S of A.”  Then I giggled. “I think I may be drunk Valkyrie One.”  Yes, soldiers giggle... in an intimidating manner.

She was having fun squeezing my arm, she really liked my muscles.  This heated me up again and I leaned down as she led me to her car, then I captured her lips with mine for a moment.  Then grinned happily that she didn't pull back.  I walked tall to her vehicle and got in.  Our other kisses, she had instigated, I was beyond thrilled that she let me return the favor.

She started the car and we sat there for a few seconds before she turned to me with a grin.  “Ummm... where's grandma's Kenzie?”

Oh!  I felt like a fool.  “Umm... sorry, I guess directions might help huh?”  She nodded with a silly look on her face.  I rolled my eyes and said, “Just get us to Seattle over the Hadley and I'll guide us in.”

She gave a mock salute that I had the urge to return, after so many years in the service it was ingrained into me.  I just smiled at the imp and said, “Smartass.” She rewarded me with one of her warm chuckles and a self-satisfied smirk as she pulled the car out and headed us toward I-90.

We got into a discussion about what got her into her position.  It was pretty straight forward.  She was good at analyzing situations and her entire family was military in one way or another.  She found that a support role for the troops suited her better.  I listened intently, or was I just focusing on her lips?

Then she started asking about role models.  I shrugged and said, “My Dad.”  Then I took a deep breath to clear my thoughts and shared with her the story about Vee Taylor.  Then I grinned. “Then there's my personal hero.  The biggest badass on the planet, Anaballa West.”

She grinned. “Congresswoman West?  She's an ity bity woman with a smile to die for.  A badass?”

I smiled back. “Yup.  That little redhead took on the city government and won, fighting for what was right.  She never stopped and has never flinched in her battle to institute change, and champion so many good causes.  Like LGBT awareness, teen suicide hotlines, anti-discrimination laws, and the like. And she's done it all with kindness and respect.  Look at where it has landed her, Congress, and I don't believe for one second that she's going to stop there.  In my hometown, they called her the Unstoppable Force.  Watching the fire that she had as she fought for what was right and showing me that one person really can make a difference, were what helped me make the final decision to enlist.”

She tilted her head at me with an assessing look and a cute grin before turning her eyes back to the road. “Yeah, she is pretty awesome.”

I leaned over to her and spoke in a low tone like I was sharing a secret with her.  I don't know why, it just seemed appropriate.  “I met her once you know.”  I smiled hugely, “It was like fate or something, telling me I had made the right decision.  It was on a plane flying to the East Coast for Basic Training.  My girlfriend from back then, Monica, was accompanying me for the moral support when we saw Anabella West and Mandy Fay Harris on the flight.  We ran over and got our magazines with Anabella's picture on the cover signed by her.  It was surreal, like my personal hero was shepherding me into the next chapter of my life.”

She smiled an almost sad smile that I couldn't interpret, then turned into a convenience store parking lot and said, “Be right back.”  I sat there and watched her hips sway into the store.  About five minutes later she came back out and hopped back in.  “Miss me?”

I smiled in spite of myself. “More than you'll ever know.”  I winked and she chuckled cutely, then she tossed a box to me.  I caught it and looked at it, I raised an eyebrow. “A cellphone.”

She got an imperious look and spoke in a regal tone that made her voice sound that much more like ambrosia to me, “I prefer to think of it as a burner phone.”  She crinkled her nose and stuck her tongue out at me then said, “Just one of those prepaid jobbies.  So we can contact each other while you are here.  I programmed in my number in the store.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “Burner phone huh?”  Then grinned at the fact that she wanted to contact me again.  Then I softened.  “Thanks, Katie.”  Then I tilted my head.  “Katie, short for Kathrine?”

She looked appalled. “Eww... no, Katie, short for Katie.   Katie Althea DeLong.”

I pursed my lips. “Althea?”

She cocked an eyebrow as we pulled back onto the road. “Watch it soldier girl, about face.”

I held my hands up in surrender then slid the phone out of the box and looked at it then slipped it into a pocket.  When I relaxed back into the seat and laid my hand on the center console, I stopped breathing when a warm, soft hand rested gently on top of mine.

Come on Kenz, you can stare down the barrel of a gun while under enemy fire.  Woman up here.  I almost timidly moved my hand so that I was gently engulfing her fingers.  I was suddenly acutely aware of the thick callouses on my hands, hoping it wasn't a turn off for her.  When she gave a reassuring squeeze, I relaxed a bit and started breathing again.

She glanced down at one of my pockets. “What's that?”

I followed her gaze down to the thick envelope sticking out.  I tugged it out and stared at it. “I don't really know.  Still working up the nerve to open it.  Dad instructed his lawyer to give it to me.  I exhaled and stuffed it back into my pocket.  Katie just looked at my pocket for a long moment then turned her attention back to the road.

When we pulled into Nana's we just sat there a minute in a comfortable silence.  “Come in?  Meet my grandmother?”

She looked happy and sad all in the same instant.  “I really wish I could but I promised my parents I'd have dinner with them tonight.  Mom has been harping on me for days about it.”

I smiled at her.  I could see it wasn't as tedious as she was portraying it, she had love in her voice for her parents.  A piece of my heart twinged.  Then she added, “I can give you a ride in the morning to get your car.”

I smiled again, I seem to do that a lot around her. “That would be nice.  I do my run at Zero Five Hundred.  So anytime after Zero Six Thirty.”

She was rolling her eyes.  “It will definitely be after Zero Six Thirty soldier girl.  Way after, like when normal people are awake.”  She gave my hand one last playful squeeze then grasped the steering wheel.

I gathered up my courage, then almost like we had choreographed it, we both leaned in and shared a long delicate kiss.  Her tongue gently tracing my lips and mine doing the same.  Oh, good God I was getting aroused.  I hadn't felt that way in damn near twenty years.  I wondered if I should be getting involved with someone I work with like this?  Oh, shut up and kiss her idiot!  Always one to follow orders... mostly... I followed my own instructions.

We finally broke the teasing make-out session and we both chuckled.  She was blushing profusely and it looked awesome on her face.  She mouthed, “Wow.”

I cleared my throat and said, “Well... I guess I'll call then.”

She called out after me as I got out of the car, “You better soldier girl.”  Which made me chuckle as I almost skipped to the door, turning back when I reached it to give her one last longing look.  She smiled back and pulled away.  I sighed and opened the door and walked in.

Nana was sitting on the couch with a grin on her face, reading a magazine, apparently upside down.  At her giggling, I paused and shook my head saying, “Oh shut up you,”

Chapter 8 – Funeral Service

The next day I called her after my run and I had got ready for the day in my civvies, jeans and a t-shirt.  I was trying to be funny, waking her up early like that, but she had just laughed out that she was already on her way with a “Just hold your horses soldier girl.”  I don't know why, but I liked it when she called me that.

I got her to come in to meet Nana Zatta, who fawned over the woman.  I mean, who wouldn't with her looking all sexy all the time.  She had blinked at me a couple times when I had opened the door.  “You civilian up real nice.”  She had said to my eye-rolls.  She kept glancing over at me, mostly at my stomach and my arms.  I grinned and flexed for her almost subconsciously.

I introduced her awkwardly, “Nana, this is Katie, she's umm... I...”

She slapped my shoulder lightly and said, “I'm a big bad wolf who is sniffing around miss Red Riding Hood here.”  This got a good chuckle from my grandmother.

Nana insisted, “Now you girls aren't going anywhere before you have a good breakfast.”

I knew it was futile to argue so I said what any sane person would, “Yes Nana.”

Katie gave me a teasing look and I defended myself with, “What?  You try saying no to her.”

She smiled and leaned in chest to chest with me and gave me a quick peck on the lips.  “I withdraw my judgment sugar.”  Good God almighty, this woman was going to have me walking funny before the morning was over.

After breakfast, where I thought for sure Katie was going to have a foodgasm, and we helped with the cleanup, we went through the process of retrieving Crystal's car.

When we got back to Nana's, we leaned against Katie's car, not wanting to say goodbye.  She finally broke the tension by turning to me.  “Hang out with a girl?  I took the time off and don't know what to do with myself.”

Her hands were at my sides by my waist, lightly brushing.  The smile that she got as her fingers started tracing my obliques was mesmerizing.  I was full of heat and desire as she moved to my belly and started tracing my well-defined abs. I just nodded dumbly as she looked down at her hands as she placed her palms against my stomach, feeling the contours of my abs.  Then she whispered,  “I knew it,” She bit her lower lip in want.

I almost panted. “You like your muscles don't you?”

She giggled and walked away toward the driver's seat leaving me panting.  She corrected me, “No.  I like YOUR muscles.”

I closed my eyes and chuckled and she called out the window, “Coming soldier girl?”

I thought, “Really close to it,”  but was smart enough not to voice it.  I took a shuddering breath and ran around and got into the car.  She made no hesitation to grab my hand as she pulled out into traffic and we were on our way.

We wound up in Issaquah, at the Cougar Mountain Zoo.  She liked the animals and it was a fun time.  I had never even knew there was a zoo there, I thought the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle was the only one in the area.  She teased and flirted with me the whole time.  We wound up at her place that afternoon.

Now, don't judge us.  We were two consenting adults who technically had just met each other officially.  And I hadn't been intimate with anyone for eighteen years.  I do believe she tore my shirt a bit while ripping it off of me.  A short time later she had me mewling like a kitten as she licked, kissed, and nipped at my abdomen muscles on her way down to her target.

I realized something after my brain started working again a couple hours later, as we lay in a tangle of sweaty limbs on her living room floor with my arms around her and our fingers intertwined.  Being with a woman was entirely different than being with a girl like Monica.  Katie did things to me I wouldn't have believed possible, and it made me feel... sexy.

I leaned in and whispered hotly in her ear from behind, “Valkyrie One, Bugbat One.”

She grinned and replied, “Valkyrie One.”

I smirked. “Holy Shit!  I mean crap... mission complete.”  I curled my toes into little balls.

She leaned back with a smile and captured my lips with hers.  I inhaled her hot scent.  Then she laid her head on my chest and said almost in embarrassment in a whisper, “Please, don't think that I always...”  She stopped then started again, “I mean I don't normally...”  Then it turned into a satisfied smile and she almost purred. “But have you seen you?  I mean, it almost isn't fair to my self-restraint sugar.”  Her fingernails lightly brushed along my biceps before they drifted down to my abs, leaving goose-flesh in their wake.

We showered together, which was another new experience for me.  I could almost feel all the sins of my life being washed away as we scrubbed each other's backs.  I marveled at the soft curves of her body.  Then we got dressed and headed back to Nana's.  When we arrived, I didn't want to get out of the car.

We exchanged grins and finally I leaned over to give her a goodbye kiss.  She had called out before I shut the door.  “Umm... you... do you want to do something tomorrow?”

I paused, holding the door and the reality of my situation and the reason I was back in Seattle struck me again.  All my euphoria of being with Katie was swallowed up into a black pit in my stomach.  I shook my head.  “I can't tomorrow.  My father's funeral service is in the morning.”

I don't know why I did it, but the look of empathy she was giving me made my mouth work on its own.  “Come with me?”  She nodded once with a sad smile that told me I didn't need to ask.  I closed my eyes and said, “Zero nine hundred?” Then opened them again.  She nodded again and I shut the door and watched her drive off.

Nana had a shit-eating grin on her face when I got to the door and she opened it for me before I could grab the handle.  I looked down at the woman who met my eyes with humor glittering around in hers.  I got flustered. “What?  She's gorgeous Nana, I can't help myself around her.”

She chuckled and bobbled her head and tutted, “Of course not Kenzie girl.”  I shook my head with a smile on my face as I watched her totter off to the kitchen where the divine smell of fresh coffee was wafting from.  I tilted my head as I realized just how accepting Nana has always been about my sexuality.  For someone her age that was quite rare and I loved her so much more because of it.  I followed her for a cup of that mouth watering coffee and no doubt another helping of teasing.

We made dinner then chatted in the living room as we ate and watched the news.  There was a news report on yet another successful iFork children's festival.  It had been an annual event for underprivileged children for darn near twenty years now.  This year it was a Viking theme.  Then my slow brain put two and two together and I looked quickly at my grandmother.  “Crystal, as in Crystal McKay of iFork?”

She nodded with a proud smile. “The very same.”

I shook my head. “You know some famous people Nana.”

She waved it off. “They're all my girls.”  I smiled back at her.  In this world now, without Dad, all we had was each other as family.  I was so happy that she was surrounding herself with other people and forming her own pseudo-family.  I understood, I did the same with the men in my unit.

After a bit, we bid each other goodnight and I hit the rack with anxiety over what was happening in the morning.  The nightmares came to punish me with a vengeance that night.

I woke with a yelp with someone calling my name, my hand grasping for my ka-bar in the non-existent leg sheath.  Nana was standing there a couple steps back from the bed, concern in her eyes and coloring voice as she said, “Kenz, you were having a nightmare.”

My skin felt cold and clammy from the sweat.  My eyes caught the time on the alarm clock on the nightstand, just a couple minutes from zero five hundred.  I looked down in embarrassment. “Sorry.”  Then I took a deep breath. “I have to get up and do my PT anyway.”  She stepped up to me as I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and prepared to stand.

She laid a hand on my shoulder and gave it a single reassuring squeeze and she smiled.  “I'll have breakfast ready when you get back.”  I nodded once and she left the room.  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath and re-centered myself, then dropped to the floor for push-ups.

When I returned from my run and cleaned up, we ate.  She didn't say anything though I could see the questions circling around in her mind.  Questions I didn't want to answer.  I promised myself that I would keep her insulated from the awful things I have had to do in the line of duty, doing what was right.

We had cleaned up the table and moved to the living room to watch the news in that awkward silence when a soft knock on the door saved me.  I grinned, she was early.  I hopped up and walked quickly to the door then calmed myself down and reached for the door, Nana was grinning again at my excitement.

I opened the door and stopped breathing.  Standing there in a plain knee length black dress, low black heels, holding a small black clutch purse, was a goddess.  She looked embarrassed.  I tilted my head and said quietly, “Wow.”

She blushed and swung side to side shyly as I smiled at her.  I started when my grandmother's voice chimed out from behind me.  “For goodness sake, invite her in already Kenzie girl.”

I blurted, “Oh!  Sorry, come on in Katie.”  Then added quickly, “You look great!”

This caused her to return the smile and her shyness was replaced with playfulness as she pushed past me, stopping long enough to show my lips why they missed hers so much.  Then she left me there grinning, holding the door while she stepped up to give Nana a greeting hug.  “Hi Mrs. Z.”

Nana responded with a smile. “Good morning Katie.  Have a seat.  Kenzie and I have to get ready.”

She took a seat and I watched her sit and cross her legs at the ankle.  She winked at me. “You gonna shut that thing and get ready or what sugar?”

Oh!  I blushed and closed the door and just rushed off to my room.  Come on McKenzie, she's just a girl.  Yeah, a girl that get's your heart beating double time.  I took a deep breath and grabbed the garment bag that was hanging off of one of the hooks mounted on the back of my door, beside my father's coat.  I laid the bag on the bed and reached for the zipper and paused, then unzipped it to reveal my Class A dress uniform.

I hated this thing, and I hated the reason for me donning it now.  Everything had to be prefect for Dad.  I made sure all the service ribbons and qualification bars and badges were in order.  Straightened the nameplate and ran my fingers across the distinctive unit insignia.

Then I looked at my duffle bag.  Hesitated, then dug out my shame from it, the medals I have been awarded for my time in the service.  I fastened them in the appropriate places, making sure everything was straight.

Then I stared at the skirt and low heel shoes that were part of the uniform.  They were always so uncomfortable to me.  I took another deep breath and then started stripping.

When I was dressed, I looked at myself in the mirror.  I felt like a charlatan with the medals on my chest.  That and I was a soldier, why did the dress uniform include a skirt?  I shrugged, I guess I looked ok.  I opened the door and walked out into the living room feeling extremely self-conscious.  I was looking down at my feet in the silence.

Then I hear that wonderfully raspy, syrupy voice grind out, “Oh... my... God!”

I looked up, blushing.  Nana, now in a black dress, had a proud look on her face and Katie had a decidedly hungry look on her's as she looked me up and down.  She smirked and said, “I think my new favorite thing in the world is a woman in uniform.”

She stepped up to me and placed her hands on my chest as she tilted her head and smiled at me.  Then she pulled back a bit to inspect the uniform.  She reached out and ran her fingers along the Silver Star and the two Purple Hearts.

She tilted her head back to Nana and said in a cheeky manner, “I guess she'll do.”

My evil, evil grandmother just sighed and expressed in a bored manner, “I guess.”  Then she broke into a grin.

I chuckled out. “I hate you both.”

They shared a laugh with each other and Nana said, “No... no you don't.”

I did what any good soldier would do and stuck my tongue out at her and said, “No, I don't.”  We all laughed and I checked my watch.  “Shall we?”

I went to usher them out the door, but Katie beat me to it and opened it for us and she said to me with a sparkle in her eyes, “Ladies first.”  In a manner that just heated me up in an inappropriate but pleasant manner.

A moment later Katie was pushing past me growling under her breath so my grandmother couldn't hear.  “Damn, soldier girl.”  I grinned and put on my cover as she spoke up in a normal tone.  “Let's take my vehicle.”

I helped Nana up into the passenger seat then hopped in the back seat.  I'm embarrassed to say I sat in the middle so that I could see Katie's profile and watch her eyes in the rear-view mirror.  Then we headed off to the south in a somber silence.

We arrived at the VA Tahoma National Cemetery down in Kent, I looked at the directions, and had Katie navigate to the in-ground cremation garden.  It was hard to find a place to park along the lanes.  When we stopped, I took two deep breaths then stepped out.  I put my cover on my head and opened the door for Nama and helped her out.

I had to pause when I looked over to the gardens.  There were over a hundred people there.  My God.  Dad had touched so many lives.  Nana took my right arm and Katie took my left and I ushered the women to the a small row of chairs that was set up in the front of the gathered people that were reserved for family.

I stared at them, all empty.  Nana and I were it.  No, Dad had a bigger family than this, they didn't need to be related by blood.  I sat the girls down then excused myself and located Iris, Ren, and Joe.  “What the hell are you people doing?”

They blinked at my terse greeting.  I pointed back at the chairs.  “Family up front.”  Then I spun and walked off grinning at the looks on their faces.  I realized my mistake as soon as I turned.  People started gathering around me, talking to me about Dad and giving condolences.  I felt obligated to circulate through the crowd.

I had this odd cold, dead space inside me where my heart was supposed to be.  I knew what I was supposed to be feeling at my father's funeral, but I couldn't feel anything.  Again I wondered if I had lost any humanity I had left when the man I most respected had died.

I rejoined my... family, at the chairs.  I shared a smile with my pseudo aunt and uncles then sat stock still when I felt Katie's hands on my arm as I tried to process the reason we were here.  I knew that he was dead, but it was as if a tiny part of me was expecting this all to be some sort of sick joke, and Dad would step out at any minute.

The honor guard started walking and we stood.  I stood at attention as they marched up to the recessed cylinder in the ground.  My eyes darted around, there should only be two... were too many.  I stopped breathing as I realized that this was a full honor guard.  My mind raced but then realized that the Chief must have called ahead and pulled some strings.

I saluted as the guns fired the volley. I don't think I was breathing or able to take a breath as a bugler played taps.  I fought hard to stop them, when something inside of me finally snapped, but silent tears flowed down my cheeks as I stood in salute.

I stood numbly as the flag was folded and presented to me.  I swallowed hard but then Katie put her hands in the crook of my arm and I allowed myself to try to breathe normally.  The canister of my father's ashes was slid into the marble grave marker with Dad's name on it.  My eyes just stayed on the  born and died dates engraved there.  I tuned and held Nana as her tears came.  There seemed to be some sort of finality there.  Now I couldn't deny the fact that Dad was no longer with us.

When it was over and we were on the road again, nobody spoke.  When we hit Seattle and pulled into her driveway, my grandmother seemed to exhale then said without looking at us, “I think I need a drink Kenzie girl.”  I smiled sadly.  So did I.  I remembered Dad talking about a place he was fond of whenever he was in Seattle between tours of the show.  It was a country bar he and the crew enjoyed.  I never understood Dad's like of country music, but then again, modern country music sounds more pop than pop music lately.  I asked to nobody in particular, “The Bucking Chute?”

Katie nodded and mumbled, “I know the place,”  She pulled back out into traffic and turned us toward downtown.  Our somber mood was interrupted when we stepped into the huge bar.  It was like stepping into a giant party.  People were cheering and laughing as a live country band played on a stage by a dance-floor.  Some people by the bar turned toward the door and then a cheer sounded out.

I blinked, it was Iris, Ren, and Joe with a group of people in more denim and flannel than I have seen in one place.  Iris motored over as more cheers circulated around the bar.  “What a surprise, you're all just in time for the celebration!” She put an arm around Nana's shoulder and started ushering her to a table by the bar.  My almost-uncles stood and joined us and people packed around the table as we all sat.

I looked around and then at Iris, “What celebration?”  She grinned and pulled an envelope out of her pocket that was wrinkled and worn, and slid it over to me.  I stopped breathing as I realized it was the same kind of envelope that Kincade handed me.

She grinned. “Just following orders.  Your father demanded that if he ever passed that we do not mourn, he wanted a party, a celebration of his life.  That's who he is... was. I'll be damned if I don't follow boss' last order.”

I looked at the envelope and just grinned, that sounded like Dad alright.  I handed it back to her without looking inside as she waved her hands at the crowd around us.  “All of these people are here for the party.  George touched each of their lives in some way.”  She paused.  “We weren't sure if you were up to it so we didn't let you know.”  Then she added a squint eyed, “Sorry?”

Then she grinned, stood, and whistled a shrill whistle that almost made my ears bleed like only aunt Iris could do.  The bar quieted down and the band stopped playing.  She pointed down at me as she yelled, “George's little girl everyone!  And a bon-o-fied American hero to boot!”

Everyone cheered and the party started back up as the band kicked in again.  We spent hours listening to story after story being told about the amazing things, and stupid things, and possibly exaggerated antics that Dad was involved with.  To my surprise, I was having a great time and caught myself laughing at some of the stories.

I learned some valuable information that night about my grandmother.  Man could she drink, and dance!  She had been with grandpa for almost thirty years before he died when I was really young. It still shocked me when she walked up to us after a dance on the arm of a man about twenty years younger than her, and she cupped a hand to my ear. “I'll find my own way home Kenz.”  She winked at the sixty-year-old rugged cowboy looking man and added, “Don't wait up.”  Then she grinned and was gone.

I couldn't stop my shocked smile as I uttered a disbelieving, “Oh my god, Nana!”  I blushed for her and then realized the sad fact that my seventy-five year old Nana had more game than me.  Just then, Katie almost yanked my arm out of its socket yelling, “Dance with me soldier girl!”  I paled.  Dance?  Shit.

I must have looked like a God damned moose in a skirt the way I clomped around to the music with an angel floating gracefully around me.  She had me mesmerized and I found myself having a great time in spite of my seven left feet.  The lead singer caught my eye and he had a wicked gleam in his eye.  The next song was a slow one.  Katie didn't let me retreat, she just laid her head on my chest with her arms draped over my hips.  I just held her and swayed to the music and melted into her.  I think I owe that singer a beer.

I was a little tipsy when last call rang out, and we were on the dance floor again.  Katie had a warm blush going on.  “You ok to drive?”  I asked.  She just grinned up at me and tilted her head way too cutely then shook it.  I leaned down and gave her a feather light kiss then said, “A cab it is then.”

She held her hand above her head, clasping my hand, and dragged me off the dance floor toward the doors.  She looked back over her shoulder demurely. “My place sugar?”  Causing warmth to spread though me and I had to bite my lower lip as I nodded.

There whoops, hollers and clapping from over where the remnants of our group was.  I looked back in an embarrassed apology to Iris and the crew as they cheered us.  They were all grins and raised their bottles to us as I was pulled through the doors out into the crisp night air.  I was debating on whether I was more embarrassed or turned on at the time.  Katie on her tip toes laying a passionate kiss on me decided it for me.

The cab ride was a blur, I only had eyes for her.  I treasured her giggle when I pinned her to her door after we got into her apartment and whispered as I stared hungrily at her inviting lips, “Valkyrie One, target in sight.”

Chapter 9 – Return to Base

There is nothing like the walk of shame when it is shared by two.  When I got home the next morning with my dress uniform in disarray and walking a little funny Nana Z just shuffled over to me from the kitchen in a similar state of disarray and handed me a cup of coffee.  We didn't meet each other's eyes, but we shared a grin and sat to watch the morning news as we drank our hot caffeine in a silent agreement to never speak of this.

At one point, Nana giggled and I threw a pillow at her.  I grinned and finally looked at her and stood. “I have to get cleaned up and into some real clothes.”  She just nodded and headed for her own room.

I swear that Katie and I spent every moment of my leave together after that.  I felt seventeen again, like I was in my first relationship.  It was so exciting and scary.  She helped me get Dad's estate in order.  I was debating on whether to sell the house or not.  I couldn't bring myself to do it.  It was my Dad's.  So I arranged for a maintenance company to see to the upkeep for the last two years of my service, and Katie said she'd help out.

I couldn't believe how much fun she was to be around, and her sarcastic humor always had me grinning.  She dragged me to one of her family meals and her mother was a hoot of a southern belle.  Her father had his evil eye on me the whole time, I was expecting the “What are your intentions with my daughter,” speech at any moment, in his pronounced southern drawl.  Or that he'd pull out his guns and start cleaning them in the living room to intimidate me.  No doubt the man loved his daughter.  My toes kept curling the whole meal as Katie's southern accent was let out to play like a kitten with a ball of yarn.

We had gone out riding, I had to give Starfire at least one good workout while I was there.  Katie was giggly and impressed with all the tricks that my filly could do and with our trick riding.  Even though I was a little rusty, it brought back so many happy memories of the Wild West Extravaganza.  I had contacted Fran with Valentine's and got them to board her while I was deployed so I didn't burden Iris with it.  They wouldn't take any money from me for her upkeep.

Then before I knew it, I had to ship back out.  I had never taken leave willingly before, and when it was forced on me I usually stayed on base, but for the first time ever, I was sad it was over.  Katie sat on my bed cross legged, thumbing through my scrapbook as I packed my duffle and took the plastic bag off my dry-cleaned dress uniform and stuffed it back into its garment bag.

Katie raised a disapproving eyebrow when I took off the medals and callously threw them into my duffle bag with my underwear.  “Why do you do that?  They mean something you know.”

I paused and looked at her.  “Yeah, they mean I fucked... ummm sorry... I screwed up and got people hurt or worse and was lucky enough to survive my own mistakes.  Then the Army goes and gives me medals for my stupidity?”

She grinned at my attempt at not cussing, she's made progress there, but then frowned and sighed.  She reached out and lightly backhanded my gut.  “They are a symbol to inspire others.  And what did I tell you about the negative Nancy crap soldier girl?  It puts frown lines on my girlfriend.”  She stood and stopped me from packing, grabbing both of may hands and placing them on her hips.

I grinned at her, and she raised a hand to my head, and brushed her fingers over the chocolate brownish stubble.  Hmmm... I'd have to shave it off when I got back to base.  She said almost wistfully, “Brunette?  It's such a pretty color.  Shame you don't grow it out.”  Ok, so shaving it is out.  Hey!  Don't look at me like that, I'm not whipped.  I just like making her smile.

Wait!  I shook myself out of my thoughts.  Did she just call me her girlfriend?  A wave of heat spread out through me from my core.  I leaned down and kissed her.  Then scooped her up like a rag-doll and deposited her unceremoniously on the bed as I turned back to packing.  Her smoky chuckle kept the grin on my face.

She picked up the scrapbook again and turned to a page near the end then asked, “Do you ever think about her.  I mean, like, wonder what she's doing now or what kind of woman she became?”

I looked at the photo of Monica and me in our graduation gowns then shrugged.  “I dunno, sometimes I guess.  She was my first love.  I don't blame her or hold any malice over her decision to dump my ass... umm, butt.  I just wish it hadn't of been in a letter.  But she's not a bad person so I'm sure she's done just fine for herself.”

She closed the book and put it back on the nightstand then hopped up and wrapped her arms around me.  I dropped my duffel, she was much more fun to hold than it was.  She looked up into my eyes, hers were sparkling and she smiled and kissed me gently and said, “She'd be kickin' herself soundly now, seeing the spectacular woman you have become.  Her loss is my gain.”

I grinned at her and she looked down to where the envelope in the pocket of my BDUs crinkled.  She turned us and maneuvered me back and pushed me down on the bed and disengaged to sit beside me.  She nudged her eyes down.  “You gotta open it sometime.”

I looked at her long and hard then down at the envelope.  I took a breath and held it then closed my eyes and exhaled and pulled the envelope out.  I opened my eyes and looked at it for a moment.  The only thing written on the envelope was simply, “Kenzie Girl” in my father's clumsy block handwriting.

I carefully opened it so I didn't damage the envelope too much and pulled out a letter.  It was wrapped around a small parcel of papers or something wrapped in a large handkerchief that I recognized.  I had seen the flowery thing, with its embroidered lilacs, once when I was younger.  Dad had said it was Mom's.

I looked at the letter, again in Dad's handwriting.  “God's greatest gift to me.  I love you so much McKenzie and am so very proud to have had you as my daughter.  I've always watched over you and always will, now my vantage point is just going to be from a lot higher up.  Dad”  I was tearing up.  I folded the letter and stuffed it back in the envelope and just sat there breathing.  Katie looked at me then the handkerchief and reached over and took it from me and unfolded it.

Inside was a stack of news clippings.  She smiled up at me as she sifted through them.  All news articles about me, and the things I had accomplished as a soldier, and some of my shame.  I had no clue  that so much had been written about me.  Why was the media following me?  I'm just a soldier.  The last article was two years ago.  That's about when Dad's will had been revised.  He must have put this letter in with it then.

I took two shuddering breaths and steeled myself.  I took the oversize handkerchief and stuffed it into my pocket, then took the clippings from Katie, who was just watching me.  I stuffed them into the envelope then leaned over and put the envelope in the back of the scrapbook.

I wiped my wet cheeks on my sleeve then smiled at my girl.  “Well, there's no time like the present I s'pose.”  We stood and I grabbed the garment bag then Katie bent to grab my duffel before I could.  She strained a bit with both hands and grinned.  I rolled my eyes at her and grabbed the sling on it and just threw it over my shoulder with one hand.

She bit her lower lip and grabbed my arm around my right biceps as I led her out to the living room.  She gave a little squeeze and I tried to hide my grin.  She had confirmed my suspicions about having a thing about my muscles a few days back.  She had said, “Normally I don't like the look of muscles on a woman, but on you...”  She fanned her face.  “...oh mah God sugar!”

We stopped in front of Nana.  I dug some keys out of my pocket.  “These are for Crystal's car.  Tell her the loan was much appreciated.”  She nodded.  I remembered something.  I squatted as I said, “Oh!  This is for you, I know it is a couple days early but, happy birthday Nana.  Love you.”  I unzipped my duffel and pulled out a small wrapped box that contained the scarf I had bought for her in Chad.

She looked at the box and gave me a hug.  “Love you too Kenzie girl.  Thank you.”   Then she added, “I am so glad you came home after so long.  I wish it were under happier circumstances.  You should come home more often.”

Katie chimed in, “Oh I'm hoping I can entice soldier girl here to visit often.”

I blushed in embarrassment, but she was probably right.  I couldn't get enough of the woman, and her eyes always showed me she always means what she says, the eyes never lie.

I engulfed my grandmother in a bear hug and dangled her feet off the ground.  “I'm going to miss you Nana.”  I set her down and she grinned, “I'll miss you too.  Now you better get going or you will miss your flight.”  I nodded with a sad smile.  She chuckled and said, “And I have to get to the Pike to see what that young boy has done to my eatery in my absence.”  We all chuckled and I shook my head.  She was calling a fifty-year-old man a young boy.

I hoisted my bag over my shoulder and Katie led me out to her car.  Nana stood in the doorway and waved as we drove off.  There was a long silence before I noticed I was getting a sidelong expectant glare from my sexy chauffeur.  “Whaaaat?”  I whined.

This got a half smile from her she tried to hide.  Then she said, “I'm serious lady.  You are going to spend you next leave here right?”

I shrugged, fighting off a smile of my own. “Dunno.”

She backhanded my arm.  “Kenz!”

I grasped her hand and laced our fingers as I turned back to look out the windshield while trying to suppress a chuckle.  “No place I'd rather be Valkyrie One.” A self-satisfied smiled spread across her face and we drove the forty miles south of Seattle to Joint Base Lewis–McChord in a comfortable silence, just soaking each other's presence in, holding hands.

I had procured a Space-A seat on a C-17 to DC for the first leg of my journey back to base.  They had a group of Marines hitching a ride but had a seat open in the cargo hold.  I guess I can suffer through sharing with some jarheads.  I grinned at my inner voice.

We showed our ID at the gates and we drove onto the huge air wing base.  She parked us at the passenger terminal and we got out.  I collected my gear and set it on the asphalt as she stepped up to me.  God, why did this feel like the day I said goodbye to Monica when I went into Basic?

Katie reached up and removed my cover and ran a hand across the stubble on my head then replaced the hat.  There was something exciting and joyful and sad bouncing around in her eyes as she smiled.  “I guess this is goodbye for now huh Kenz?”  I placed a hand on her cheek and nodded once.  She tilted her head.  “I never thought I'd say these words to someone, but, I love you soldier girl.”

I blinked once as heat filled every corner of my being.  I smiled down at her then bent and picked her up around the waist and stood.  “I'm damn... umm, darn sure I love you too.”  She grinned and took advantage of the close proximity of our lips and kissed me passionately.  I got a little weak in the knees.  She did things to me nobody ever had.

I set her back down then her eyes almost pleaded when she asked, “Come home soon?”

I grabbed my bags and nodded, then smiled.  “Sure thing Valkyrie One.”

She giggled then said as she got back in her car, “See you from above next week Dead Shot.”  Then I stood there watching her drive off.  Next week?  Did she know something I didn't?  Then I snorted at myself.  Of course she did, and it is best not to ask.  It made me grin knowing my angel would have eyes on me.

***

Before long I was in the air.  Packed into the cargo hold with various supplies and what felt like a platoon of Marines.

One looked over, his name tag read Martinez, and he asked, “Infantry?”

I put a bored look on my face and replied blandly, “Forty-second.”

He made a bitter face and made a fanning gesture with his hand.  “You're stinkin' the place up ground pounder.  You know the US Marine Corps are first to fight.  We make things safe for you soft soles to follow.”

I smirked at the familiar banter. “Yuck it up leathernecks.  We clean up the messes you boys leave behind.  I had a dog like that once.”  Gaining me some “Oooooo”s and some chuckles.

He offered a fist and a smirk and I bumped it with mine.  Then the man beside him squinted at me and sat up a little straighter then looked away and whispered something to Martinez.  The man looked at me like he was appraising a new car, his eyes lingers on my name tag.  He mutterd, “No shit?”

Now what? Then the man asked, “Meyers... as in THE Meyers?  Dead Shot?  Eighteen confirmed kills?”

I blinked, they knew me?  I nodded once, then he looked around. “Well, shoot men, we have ourselves a gen-u-ine hero here.”  I sighed, then he added, “If you ever want a real job, the Marines can always use a good soldier.”

I snorted at the man and said, “No thanks Martinez.  Doesn't Marine stand for Muscles Are Required Intelligence Not Essential?  I'm afraid I'd just be too brainy for you.”  This got a chuckle from him and a few of the others to offer an “Oorah!”

I just laid my head back and closed my eyes.  I listened to the men banter to each other and tell tales of battle or sexual conquests and the like with each other until I fell asleep, lulled by the sound of the massive engines pulling us through the sky.

By Zero Seven Hundred the next day and two plane hops later, I found myself in the back of a M1152A1 rumbling down the road to Camp Guinevere in the ungodly heat.  Once I checked in at base, I drug my weary arse to the barracks.  I stepped up to my rack and almost snorted at my Bugbats strewn about their bunks.  I raised my duffel to shoulder height then dropped it on the ground with a thud.

Besides some disgruntled mumbling from other sleeping soldiers around us, Ortega shot straight up,  “I'm up!”  Dante groaned, and Larson started snoring louder.  I grinned.  Then Ortega blinked.  “Dead Shot, you're back!”

I grinned. “Hey Kid.”  The others were awake now and swinging their legs out of their racks and putting their feet on the ground.  Taylor rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and yawned.  “Hey DS.  Welcome home.”  I snorted, but I guess this was home.  This or some base just like it for two more years.

I said, “Hooah,” I bumped fists with each of them.  Since I had already awakened them, we all just got ready for the day.  I absently mentioned, “We're up in a couple days so make sure you got your shit together, I don't want to be dragging any of your lazy asses through a mission.”

Dante looked over as he was lacing up his boots while sitting on the edge of his bunk.  “Orders?”

I grinned. “Nah, just a feeling.”

After hitting the mess for chow, we went to check with the duty officer to see what mundane tasks we’d be assigned that day.  Before we could, the Chief stepped into the mess.  He looked around and caught my eye and nodded once then said loudly, “Bugbats!”  Then motioned his head out and then stepped out.

I grinned as we followed. Well, I'll be damned, Katie did know something.  Larson comically raised an eyebrow at me as we walked.  “You called it DS.”

I shrugged and said, “Yeah but admit it, life has been getting a little boring around here for you without me.  Let's see what fresh hell they have dreamed up for us now.”

Chapter 10 – Taking Fire

Looking back, I know I should have knocked on wood with that comment about hell two days back as dirt and rock chips hit my shoulder hard from a near miss.  I was on coms in VOX mode as I twisted out from behind the rocks and squeezed off a couple rounds of my own to stop the slavers advance on our position.  “Guardian One, where the hell is our air support?”

The voice of an angel returned, she sounded almost amused. “Bugbat One, sixty seconds for Predator, and a gunship is inbound, two minutes.”  I grinned and looked skyward toward a drone that had been shadowing us and shook my head, knowing she was watching.  I could just barely pick it out high in the sky.

Then I looked over at the Kid. “Do something about the bastards dug in at our two o'clock, thirty yards.”  He nodded once and I turned to Shorty and motioned with my head.  He rolled over to take shelter by Dante, behind another rock outcrop, drawing fire.  Kid popped up and pumped off a 'nade.  Enemy fire thinned after an explosion.  Damn the Kid is good, but he always looks like he's gonna shit his pants when we are under fire.

I signaled Dante and we all returned fire.  Dante mowing down three that had almost got to my location with full automatic suppressing fire.  I took out another.

Damn, how had they known we were scouting their base?  I had an itchy feeling between my shoulder-blades like a scope was on me.  I looked back, scanning the high ground for snipers.  There was probably a nest up there somewhere and he saw us reconnoitering the camp and signaled them.  The closest point with cover back there was maybe five hundred yards, with our backs exposed to it.

If there were a gun trained on us, I could only assume we were out of the sniper's range with any accuracy that's why he wasn't firing.  Hell maybe he had fired on us and we just couldn't tell in the chaos going on around us.  This was a damn big camp, perhaps fifty men.  Our orders were to scout the camp, identify hostiles and the presence of any prisoners from their human trafficking activities.  We weren't supposed to engage.

The best we could figure before all hell broke loose was that this was actually a training camp of sorts for them.  Which made me sick to my stomach as some of the slavers shooting at us were barely more than kids.  We had reported in that no friendlies were present.

I heard the familiar buzz of a prop and sighed in relief as I saw a Predator drone doing its slow motion traverse of the sky toward us.  It always seemed like they were just barely moving through the sky when we needed them though I knew logically they were moving like a bat out of hell in their own terms.

No sooner had I finished that thought when I saw two plumes from it.  I yelled, “Incoming!”  We all ducked and covered ourselves behind our rocks.  Moments later there were two explosions and shrapnel flew over our rocks.  We capitalized on it and popped up firing.  They were backing down the hill toward their base now with their eyes to the sky as the drone banked for another pass.  I grinned, at whatever video game jockey was piloting the thing, most likely from half a world away.  The Predator only carried two Hellfire missiles and he already expended them.  He was keeping the attention on him and not us acting like he was going to strike again.

Then my earbud went static for a moment then a raspy sweet voice said, “Bugbat One, how's that sugar?  Gunship in thirty seconds.”

I grinned between shots; damn another body to add to my chains. Then I replied, “That'll do Valkyrie One.”

Then her voice got harder, “Bugbat One, be advised, thermal has a bogey at your nine.  Five yards and closing.”  I turned left then motioned my head and Kid switched places with me.  I heard the countdown as I shouldered my weapon and pulled my ka-bar from its sheath on my leg.  I pressed my back against the rock as I listened to the smooth countdown.  “Four, three, two...”

Then I grabbed the barrel of the Kalashnikov as it came slowly around the rock, and yanked.  The man came stumbling out and I arm hooked him, slamming him to the ground as I came down on him, my knees pinning his arms down.  I was barely able to stop my knife thrust as I gazed into the terrified eyes of a boy who couldn't have been more than thirteen.  My God!

I pulled back again, my mind reeling with indecision.  He was just trying to kill me a moment before.  Then I swung down and struck him soundly on the head with the butt of the knife, rendering him unconscious.  I couldn't kill him.  I exhaled a breath I had held too long as I looked at the boy.  Then I resheathed my knife, kicked his weapon away, then pulled my M4 from my shoulder and returned my attention to the battle.  A small portion of my mind telling me that I hope this didn't come back to bite us.

What kind of men steal young boys from their families and train them to become killers?  My anger was rising and the adrenaline pumping through my veins fueled the anger.  I started side stepping between my cover toward Dante's as they gave me cover.  I looked at a few that were not retreating, categorizing them in my head, picking out the men from the teens and fire three shots before I made it to cover.  Two more men dead at my hands.

I was furious, but it all bled away to relief as I heard the familiar whump whump whump of a gunship approaching the horizon behind us.  The chain gun started firing as they passed the ridge.  I saw sand and rock blasting skyward from there.  I exhaled shakily.  There must have been a sniper there like I had thought.

Then the chopper roared over us and that chain gun spat fire again, mowing down anything moving as it swooped toward the camp below.  I could barely hear on my coms, “Bugbat One.  Air support on site.  Extraction team inbound.”

I nodded to myself and said in a faraway voice, “Roger Valkyrie one, the Cavalry has arrived.”  I looked at my men and on a three count we all raised our weapons and strode out from behind our cover. We made our way down into the base where the gunship had already made three passes and was landing nearby for their fireteam to help us mop up what was left.

When it was over, I stared at the carnage around us.  Ten enemy combatants who had surrendered were under guard, five wounded were being evaluated by the medic from the extraction team including the boy I had almost killed.  I kept shrugging off a medic who was trying to look at my bleeding shoulder  I pushed the man toward Larson, who had a leg wound that he apparently didn't notice.  When they pointed it out to him, he said, “Huh.  How bout that.”

I was lost in thought as we rode the chopper from the extraction point with the wounded.  I don't even remember hearing the chopper's turbine or blades as we flew.  I made sure Shorty was ok.  It was a through and through and he was in good spirits.  I relaxed a bit and let the medic bandage my shoulder where he pulled a couple rock chips out of the muscle.  Nothing serious at all.

I argued until I was ordered to stand down, they were shipping Shorty and me off to an Australian medical ship to be checked out.  The Chief met us at the airfield to debrief each of us before we left.  When he got around to me ha said simply, “Ortega says you hesitated.”

I closed my eyes and took a breath then looked at the man.  “I wasn't going to kill a child.”  He took a long look into my eyes with a steely gaze, then he nodded once in satisfaction.  Slapped my good shoulder and said, “See you on the flip side Specialist.”  He saluted and I returned the salute then they led me to a transport helicopter for the journey to the ship in the Red Sea.

Chapter 11 – Surprise

After it had been determined my injury was minor and didn't impede my ability to do my job, I was cleared for duty.  Shorty was sent to Germany for recovery.  The chief wasn't sure if he'd return to us or be reassigned after he recovered.  Until then, the Bugbats were grounded.  He came at me with both barrels loaded, insisting I take some after action leave.

Hand to God, I swear to you that you could have knocked Chief Danes over with a feather when I grinned at him and said, “Ok.”  It took him at least a five count before he could speak again.  But then to be an asshole and ruin my gloating, he had to go mention that I was up for another goddamn purple heart as was Ortega.  Danes had a pleased look on his face at the frustration of my own.

I was on the horn right after that to ask Valkyrie One what she was doing for the next week.  It brought a grin to my face at how excited she was at the proposition of spending a few days with me.  With the travel time, I'd only get three or four days with her.

That became the norm for the next two years.  Every opportunity I had to take leave, I would be in Seattle, in my Katie's arms... or her bed.  Hey, like you wouldn't make love to a beautiful woman any chance you got!  I was falling for her, and falling hard.  I hoped to God it was the same for her.

Starfire got a good workout every time I visited home, and I was even getting Katie good enough on a horse to try out a little trick riding with her.

Nana was enjoying my more frequent visits and I loved seeing her too.  I felt guilty that my own neurosis had kept me away for so long.

Shorty had been transferred stateside and we were finally getting into a rhythm with our new rifleman, Pete Johnson, or Tin-Man now.  The man couldn't live with the fact that I was a better shot than him.  He practiced almost every day shooting tin cans.  I showed him a trick to sighting while in motion and I have to admit he's starting to get good at it.  In a few months, I'd think he'd be qualified to be hired for the Wild West Extravaganza.

The man is one of those rakishly handsome fellows, with dark hair and eyes that I can imagine other girls clamoring for.

One thing for sure, he wasn't a fan of my daily nightmares.  He traded bunks with Dante to get as far from me as possible at night.

The Bugbats have only had seven scouting missions since we lost Shorty.  I'm thinking that Big Brass is trying to ease us back into things with a new member of the squad.

I looked out the window of the plane as we touched down at the SeaTac Airport in Seattle.  This was another first for me.  Leave over the holidays.  I usually volunteered for duty station on the holidays so my men could go home to be with their families for Christmas.  But I never passed up a chance to see my Katie.  Valkyrie One held a permanent part of my heart and soul now.

I couldn't believe that I had only forty-five days before I retired with twenty years in the Military.  Anxiety was already eating at me, wondering what I was going to do with myself when I got out.  I have already been approached by a half dozen security firms.  I sighed sadly at that, I guess they like their killers.

When we hit the terminal, the flight attendants asked everyone to remain seated, then got a man in a wheelchair off the plane and announced, “Would everyone please allow our service members to depart first? We with Republic Airlines want to thank you and let you know how much we appreciate what you do for us.  Happy Holidays.”

A Jarhead and a couple squids moved into the aisle as the people in the cabin applauded.  I just shrank against the window but the motherly woman that shared my row, I had learned her name was Lacy on the flight, said, “Come on dear, that is you.  Let the people celebrate you.”

I gave a heavy sigh then stood and made my way past her to the aisle.  I smiled down at her and rolled my eyes, but she was nothing but smiles.  How can you be upset with someone like that?  I took the embarrassing cheers and followed the squids out.  They seemed to be eating up all the attention, typical Navy.

I made my way to the baggage carousels. Then I'd have to get a cab.  Katie thought I was still in Africa, I wanted to surprise her for the holidays.  I had something really important to ask her, I subconsciously patted the pocket on my BDUs that held the small box.

I grinned, watching the antics of a small blonde woman at the carousel trying to pull some large suitcases that had to weigh as much as her off of the belt.  She was having problems with the last one.  She had a smile on her face that just made you want to smile too.  I saw my duffel coming around and she looked to be getting a determined look on her face to attempt a second try at her last suitcase that was a few bags before mine.

I gotta tell you, that look of determination on her face was adorable.  I grinned and stepped next to her, and when her suitcase went past I snagged it with one hand and pulled it off the belt for her.  Good God!  It must have weighed close to sixty pounds, what did she have in it?  All of her worldly belongings?  The baggage tag on the handle read Victoria Davenport.

I smiled at her as I put the suitcase in front of her, and she bit her lower lip as she locked eyes with me.  It was almost frightening, the intelligence I saw in her eyes, mixed in with excitement and almost profound sadness.  The eyes never lie.

Then her blue eyes widened in some sort of recognition. Then they seemed to flicker back and forth like she was recalling a memory.  The tiny lady offered her hand and she said softly with a hint of reverence in her voice, “Thank you Miss Meyers.  And thank you for your service.”  I caught the slightest hint of a British accent.  She was looking at me like she could see inside of me, and that unnerved me.  My throat tightened and I just gave her a nod. I quickly turned away and snagged my duffel bag from the conveyor, slung it over my shoulder, and made my way through the crowd.

I was able to snag a cab in short order, I glanced at my watch, it was just after Nineteen Hundred.  She'd be home for the night.  I wondered if I should go there first, Dad's, or Nana's.  My fool mouth didn't wait for me to make a decision as I heard myself giving the cabbie Katie's address.  I think it is because my fool mouth missed Katie's sweet kisses.  I grinned at my logic.

I watched all the Christmas lights adorning the city as we went, tomorrow would be Christmas Eve.  It seemed like there should be fewer people on the road to me, though I knew intellectually that tonight and tomorrow would be crazy busy with all the last minute shoppers.

When we pulled into the parking lot at her apartment complex, I saw a familiar yellow ribbon across her door.  She always put it there when I was deployed.  I stopped a sudden sob in my throat as my eyes welled up.  What the hell Kenzie?  I took a deep breath as the cabbie looked back at me, his face tinged with concern.

I wiped my face on my sleeve and smiled at the man.  “Sorry.”  He just gave a genuine smile of compassion and shook his head.  I paid the man and he hopped out and popped the trunk and pulled my duffel out for me using both hands, a little strain on his face.  I smiled at him and said, “Thanks. Happy Holidays,” I slung the bag over my shoulder with one hand and started toward Katie's door as he hopped back into the cab and pulled away.

I saw her through her living room window as I went to her door.  She was already in her lounge around sweatpants and one of my t-shirts.  Sitting on the couch and eating her dinner as she watched the television.  I couldn't stop my grin.

I pulled out my “burner” phone and called her.  She set her fork on her plate and just idlly looked over at her phone on the coffee table.  I almost snorted as she suddenly sat bolt upright with a huge smile on her face, almost spilling her meal on her lap as she snagged the phone.  With our standard humor she said, “Well as I live and breathe.  What a pleasant surprise Bugbat One.”

I said, “Just thought I'd wish you a Merry Christmas Valkyrie One.”

She kicked back on the couch and propped her feet cutely on the armrest as she twirled her finger in her hair.  Damn but that was cute.  She kicked into deep south mode, she knew how it got my motor running.  “Ah, do declare.  You are about the sweetest girl.  I was just thinkin' bout' you shugah.”

I said through my smile as I spied on her, “How do you feel about taking in strays?”

She squinted an eye and crinkled her nose in confusion as she pulled the phone from her ear and looked at it accusingly.  I saw realization dawning as she jumped to her feet as she slapped the phone to her ear.  “This is your cell number you are calling from Kenzie girl, where are you that you have service?”

I smiled and hung up and knocked on her door.  The squeal from inside as she ran to the door warmed my soul knowing that I made her just as excited to see me as I was her.  She flung the door open still sqeeing and dove into my arms.  I spun her around and just let her feet dangle off the porch as I took advantage of our faces being inches apart and kissed her as passionately as I could bring to bear.

We had to break for air and she giggled.  I set her down and my face ached from the huge smile on it.  She was grinning from ear to ear and she grabbed my left hand in both of hers and dragged me with her as she backed through her door and into her apartment.

She shut the door and the look on her face could only be described as hungry.  I shrugged sheepishly, “Ummm... surprise?”

She pushed me back against the door and said in a husky voice full of emotion, “Oh shut up and kiss me soldier girl!”  I'm one to follow orders from an angel.  As our lips reacquainted themselves with each other, her hands desperately clawed at my uniform.

I giggled out between kisses.  “Slow down Katie, you have me for two entire weeks.”

She stopped unbuttoning my shirt and grabbed my collar with both hands and pulled me back down to her lips.  She mumbled while in mid kiss, “Didn't I tell you to shut up soldier?  I need to unwrap my present!”

I bent and picked her up in my arms.  She wrapped her arms around my neck as I stated walking toward her bedroom as I replied, “Yes ma'am!”

What followed is a little too hot and too carnal for me to share here. But a few hours later I was stretching and purring like a cat, with an angel curled into me as she dozed off with a wistful smile on her face.  I stared at her face, memorizing it once again.  Damn do I love this woman.  I made sure she had plenty of blankets then dozed off with her in my arms.

***

The next morning I sat bolt upright, covered in a sheen of cold sweat, desperately grasping for my knife that wasn't there.  Katie was sitting up facing me with a hand on the arm searching for my knife.  “Shhh shhh... it's ok Kenze.  You're here with me.  Shhhh...”

I blinked away my sleep and focused on her, the nightmares still fresh.  Then I closed my eyes and silently sobbed as she pulled me to her shoulder.  She stroked my now regulation collar length hair that she loved so much, while I took a few seconds to compose myself.  Once I was fully awake, I gently pushed away from her and smiled fondly at her.  “Sorry, I'm ok.  Just a bad dream.”

She grinned and rolled her eyes and let the blanket fall off of her naked form, causing me to drool, then she said quietly,  “If you ever want to talk about it, I'm here baby.”  Then she waved it all away and just grinned, “Why didn't you tell me you were coming for Christmas, you silly woman?”

I shrugged with a crooked grin on my face. “I wanted to surprise you.”

She leaned down to me on the bed and gave me a featherlight kiss and pulled back.  “Well, you succeeded.”  Then she added as she tilted her head cutely, “I love your soldier-y ass.”

I hugged her to me and spoke into her shoulder. “Well, there's more to me than just my ass.”  This got a snort from her, and I added, “And I'm completely, one hundred percent, head over heels in love with you Valkyrie One.”

She pulled back with a smile. “Well that statement goes both ways Bugbat One.”  Then she suddenly hopped up, revealing her feminine curves in all their glory, and whapped me across the face with a pillow.  Then ran squealing with me in hot pursuit to the shower.  Damn but she was fun!

After getting ready for the day, with me in some of my civvies which we kept at her place “in case of emergency”, we hopped in her car to go surprise Nana.  Dad's coat was in the passenger seat where I had left it four months back.  I slipped it on to combat the December chill in the air.

It was opening time at the market so she would be there prepping to opening The Pike.  The smell of fresh bread from her ovens would be permeating the street level of Pike Place Market about now, making merchants, and tourists waiting for the market to open, drool.

It was still a few minutes early so we lucked out and found a parking meter near the main entrance.  We held hands and strolled toward the Post Street Alley buildings.  I just couldn't get close enough to those startling green eyes and her dusting of freckles that existed solely to tease me.  The market bell went off just as we reached the building that The Pike was in, and all the merchants were in motion, unlocking their doors as the gathering crowds started perusing their wares.

We followed our noses down the hall to the end and pushed open the glass doors of The Pike and almost food-gasmed on the spot.  The shocked and smiling face of my grandmother when she looked up and saw us was well worth the trip alone.

I gacked as she pulled me into a tight hug. “Kenzie girl!  I didn't know you were coming!  Are you here for Christmas?  What a fantastic surprise!”

I giggled and hugged her back and kissed the top of her head.  “Yes Nana, I'm here for the holidays.  I thought it would be a fun surprise for my two favorite girls.”

She disconnected from me and gave Katie a warm, welcoming hug as well. “Katie.”

My girl grinned and replied, “Emily.”

Then my grandmother prompted us, “Sit, sit girls.  Let me get you some breakfast.  When did you get in?”

I blushed profusely as I admitted, “Last night.”

She looked at me, then Katie, then a crooked, sly smile spread on her lips.  She walked back to the kitchen shaking her head with that same smile.  Good God, could I feel any more embarrassed?

The other tables filled up quickly as we waited.  They were three other expanded metal tables and chairs like you would find on someone's patio.

Nana appeared quickly with a platter full of offerings.  The savory smells were threatening to kill me.  She grinned at us and held up a finger then darted off to take orders from the other people.  We watched her for a minute with grins on our faces then couldn't wait any longer and dug into the gravy slathered eggs.  The peppers and onion mixed in gave them some texture and just enhanced all of the flavors without having to add any seasoning.  Plain sliced bread was on the side, still warm from the oven, the perfect vessel to sop up the extra gravy and get it to our mouths.  I've said it before and I'll say it again.  Damn can Nana cook!

She visited with us between orders and we all caught up.  They shared that Katie was becoming a regular here as she and Nana shared gossip about a younger me.  The evil women!  When we finished, we bid Nana goodbye with a promise to be “home” when she finished for the day.  The Pike would be closed the next day, Christmas.

As we walked back to the car, Katie huddled in and hugged my arm as we walked.  I suspected it was as much to battle the crisp breeze as it was to cop a free feel of my muscles.  I was happy either way.  She looked up at me. “What mischief would you like to get into this fine Christmas Eve sugar?”

I tilted my head in thought then said, “Someplace I can find some decent wrapping supplies, I have a couple gifts that need obscuring in my duffel.”

She shook her head. “But love, you can barely carry a tune, I doubt you can rap.”  She gave me a confusing three count as her humor went right over my head before she giggled in glee at me missing her sarcasm, then dragged me to her car.

Chapter 12 - Errands

The next thing I knew, we were at an old warehouse that was being used as some sort of Victorian artisan fair.  When we parked and stepped inside to see rows upon rows of tables that were piled with countless handmade crafts, she spread her arms wide.  “Taa daa!  I'm sure we can find what you need here.”

I started looking at some of the tables.  People were dressed in Victorian clothing and everything on the tables was either antique or made to look antique.  I shook my head.  “This is amazing, I never knew it was here.”

She shrugged as she looked at some hand woven fabric.  “Every year, between Thanksgiving and Christmas the past ten years.”  Ah, during my enlistment when I was avoiding the city, that explains it.

We just kicked back into an exploratory mode.  We spent almost two hours perusing the tables.  She kept prompting me to purchase things other than the cute little handmade boxes and hand printed paper sheets I was going to use as wrapping paper.

“Not much space in my duffel for personal effects.” I told her

She chastised me, “Nonsense woman.  You have just over a month before you retire.  You know you can keep anything over at mah place or Emily's.  Stop being afraid of being something other than a soldier.”  I grinned, I knew she was upset with me a bit since her southern belle accent always came through when she was.  Her “my” came out like “mah”, and with that raspy sweet tone of her's, it was my Kryptonite.

I couldn't help it, I leaned down and gave her a gentle kiss and said, “I'm trying... I'm trying.”

She winked at me with a grin and said, “One more stop before lunch.”  I shook my head in disbelief, I was still full from breakfast.  This little lady could pack food away like a trucker and still keep her alluring figure.

We wound up at the MAC.  The two things I have found to be her weaknesses were music and art.  I had never been one to be big into art, but on my visits, she has been slowly pounding some culture into me.  Hey I've got culture, I sometimes order imported beer!  I've found that I'm starting to enjoy some artists.

She was a woman on a mission as soon as we got in and paid our admission.  She was not ashamed at all to get the military discount for me that I always feel uneasy taking.  She was dragging me by the hand to the central display area.  She had taught me that that is where they display the featured exhibits.

She stopped us in front of the exhibit with a satisfied chipmunk style grin on her face and motioned to it palm up like she was pleased with herself.  I grinned as I looked at the pieces.  It was from one of the few artists she knew that I liked, Mia Jacobs.  There was something about her work that I found extremely compelling and fascinating.

I have always felt like my life has been a mess that lacked focus, but Katie brought focus into it for me.  That's just like Mia Jacobs' work.  If you looked at it carefully, it was a seemingly random jumble, with an odd organized structure that I could almost grasp, but not quite.  Then when you took a step back, it would magically snap into focus and the most beautiful pictures would be right there in front of you.  They were there all along, but you just couldn't see it through all the static until you took that step back, to take the piece in as a whole.

It was a Mia Jacobs piece that finally broke through to me on the art front.  I figure that if her stuff can make a connection with me, then there must be others out there that can as well.  Don't get me wrong, I'll never be an art snob or anything, but I can finally appreciate some types of art.  But impressionistic, or some of the stuff that just looks like junk from a back alley all welded together, I'll never understand, it looks like trash to me.

I smiled at my redheaded obsession, she brought me here because there was a new Jacobs Effect exhibit here.  I quickly looked at the ground for the little marks they place near any Jacobs Effect piece... the optimal place to stand to get the full effect.

It looked as though I were looking at a huge photograph of a familiar woman.  I have grown to almost know the woman that was pictured in most of Mia Jacob's work.  A healthy looking woman with flowing brunette hair and amber eyes which looked almost orange to me.  Something in her eyes always belied the gentle smile on her face.  There was a pain there that reached down into her soul.  The eyes never lie, and that Ms. Jacobs could pick that up and reflect it in her art was incredible to me.  I often wondered who this woman was to her.  Then I paused as I looked at the second person in the scene.

I tilted my head.  There was no mistaking it, she was much younger in this picture, but it was the exact same smile... it was that small blonde woman from the airport that I had helped with her luggage.  There was that small world thing again, hitting me right between the eyes.

I blinked off my shock then moved to the next mark with Katie attached to my arm.  She was laying her head on my shoulder and was gently massaging my biceps.  She had told me on more than a few occasions that they were “her's”.  Who am I to argue?

The next piece had that same brunette looking sickly, laying on a beach towel playing with a smiling baby.  The look in her eyes... it was... I...  A tear rolled down my cheek with the joy and pain reflected in her eyes.  I just knew that something happened to this woman that was Mia Jacobs' obsession, some tragedy.  These pieces were like a chronicle of her memories, they had to be, there is no way that emotion like that could be imagined.

I just hugged Katie tighter into me.  After I looked at the third piece, I then stepped up close and had to smile in wonder.  All of these pictures were created with little triangles of fabric that were glued to the canvas.  It looked almost random, but again, my eyes were trying to tell me there was some sort of pattern to it that was just beyond my grasp.

I kissed Katie on the top of the head.  “You brought me here for this.”  It was a statement not a question.  She grinned and reached up and wiped the wetness off my cheek with her thumb.  Then continued upward to run her fingers through my hair.  It was a hassle in the desert, nothing but a sweat trap that made me hot and sticky and uncomfortable, but she liked it so the hair stayed.

She shrugged as her hand dropped back to my arm. “I know how much you like her work.  This exhibit went live after Halloween.  What is it you are seeing that I am not?  I think the stuff is beyond amazing, but you seem to connect on an emotional level.”

It was my turn to shrug and I just answered cryptically. “It's all in the eyes.”

Her smile grew larger, she knew I had a thing about eyes, and that fascinated her.  She loved that I could read a person just by making eye contact.  Then she almost purred, “What are my eyes telling you now soldier girl?”

I snorted.  “That it is lunch time, and something else that is heating me up in some inappropriate places.”  She giggled, slapped my shoulder, and the next thing I knew, she was dragging me out to the car by our clasped hands.

We got into the vehicle and she asked, “Where to for lunch?”  I must have subconsciously looked back at the snow covered mountains because she was suddenly chirping out, “The cafe at Valentine's it is.  I know how you miss Starfire.”

I tilted my head to regard the redhead.  In two short years, with less than ninety days spent in each other's company, she has become a fixture in my life that I can't live without.  She already knew me as well as I knew myself.  She was like the other half of me and I felt sure that I knew her as well as she knew me.  Then the dark voice in the recesses of my mind prompted me, “Yeah, she knows you're a killer and she loves you anyway.”

I shook that thought away and turned on the radio as she navigated the streets to the freeway on-ramp.  An upbeat song started, ‘The Beat of My Heart’, by Elise Tran was playing. We both grinned at each other and bobbed our heads to the beat.  The playfulness of it had reminded me of some of Amber LaLanie's older stuff before she started coming out with more sophisticated and emotional music.

We got off the freeway in Issaquah, at the base of the mountains, the streets were covered with packed snow and the place looked like a winter wonderland.  It is amazing the difference a short twenty minute drive can make.  Before long we were parking at the gorgeous timber lodge that houses Valentines Cascade Experience.  It is an outdoor outfitters shop that also offers mountain tours, hiking and camping experiences and the like.

They have stables that offer horseback riding on the trails through the forest.  That's where they are boarding Starfire for me.

We went up the outdoor stairs to a huge wrap around veranda style porch and went into the main lobby.   I bounded up them two at a time just to make Katie hustle a bit.  I reached the top and turned around to wait for her to scramble up the last couple steps with a silly grin on her face, “I thought soldiers were supposed to be gallant and chivalrous.  Two thing you need to work on sugar.”

I gave her a quick peck on her cheek and murmured, “But then I wouldn't get to fluster you like this.”

She shook her head with a pleased grin on her face which she couldn't hide.  “No, I suppose you wouldn't.”

I opened the door for her to enter.  It was buzzing with people even in the middle of winter like this, a testament to how popular the place was.

We walked over to where the little cafe was and ordered from a woman at the counter, Sandra her name-tag proudly proclaimed. She was here from time to time when we ate here and she was always chipper and smiling like she didn't have a care in the world, and I sorta liked that, it relaxed me.

Her looks kind of fascinated me. Her hair was platinum blonde, almost white, but her roots weren't dark, indicating to me that this was her real hair color unless she bleached the roots every day.  She had steel grey eyes that were always taking things in, she was always sure to make eye contact, and she seemed to be reading me while I read her.  Her complexion was ghostly pale.  She almost looked albino, though I have met a couple albino people in the past and Sandra has a lot more color than them so I knew she wasn't.

She had our turkey sandwiches and coffee for us in no time and we sat to eat and catch up some more.  We were almost done when I heard a creak clackity clank sound and looked back at another table where two women had just finished eating and started making their way to the office that was beside the cafe counter.

The taller one was creaking along with a leg brace and the other had two leg braces and a cuff crutch, one of her legs seemed to spasm a little to the side as she walked.  The way they were laughing and bumping shoulders made me grin.  Those two were together and happy, there was no hiding that fact.  I exchanged a little smile with Katie then we finished our meal.

I slid my hand into the pocket of my father's coat and grinned.  Katie had restocked me with sugar cubes for Starfire while I was away.  I caught her grin and wink at my realization.  I sighed, damn do I love that woman.

I gathered our plates and started to stand. “Let's go see my 'other' girl shall we?”  She blushed, just like every time I called her my girl... score!  I dumped our scraps in the trash and stacked the plates then was dragged bodily to the glass elevator.  I seriously don't know her fascination with it.  We rode it down into the retail space while she looked around the lodge on the ride down with an almost childlike fascination.

We walked through the place, I was a little distracted by some of the camping gear we passed.  I have always enjoyed the outdoors.  Then we popped back outside on the ground level and she looped her arm through mine and laid her head on me as we walked down the little hill past the small groundskeeper cabin to the stables.

I had to suppress a grin, Fran was there arguing with a huge Clydesdale that she was hooking up to the sleigh, “Stop being so stubborn Rainbow, you know that it's your turn.  And it isn't ladylike to try to crap on my foot.  The sleigh isn't gonna pull itself.”  The draft horse seemed to snort in reply then side stepped once toward the harness rig to allow Fran to strap her up.  I took a moment to take in Fran's garb, it was worthy of the Wild West Extravaganza.  She looked like an old time cowgirl, complete with an amazingly authentic looking cowboy hat.

Fran was just shaking her head. “Why do you always gotta be so bullheaded?  Here eat your carrot before I change my mind little miss ungrateful.”  She was grinning the whole time and pulled a carrot out of her pocket and fed the horse as she stroked her muzzle between her eyes before placing the bit in the horse's mouth.

She glanced over and did a double-take.  “McKenzie!  You here for the holidays?”  As she rushed over, taking one glove off to shake my hand.

I nodded as we shook while Katie said, “She came home for Christmas to surprise me.”

Fran and Katie grinned at each other and the teasing commenced as I rolled my eyes.  They had apparently spent time together while I have been away.  Fran was all, “Ooooo the soldier is a softie.”  While Katie was looking at me adoringly.  “Yes she is, and she's all mine.”  I blushed as she stood on her tiptoes and gave me a quick peck on the lips.

I pried myself away from the two evil wenches and said indignantly, “If you two are through, there's a filly I need to see.”  They shared a victorious chuckle and Katie followed me as Fran went to retrieve another Clydesdale.

Starfire had heard my voice and she hung her head over the stall door before I got there.  She snorted and bobbed her head.  I patted her neck and ran my other hand through her mane. “Hi girl, how's it going?”  I chuckled as she snuffled at my pocket.  “Yes you greedy gut, I have a treat for ya.”  I pulled out a sugar cube and she grabbed it with her lips.  I held up a finger. “Ut ut... wait!”

She took her performance stance standing tall with her head up, her lips on the sugar cube.  Her eyes were looking down trying to see it.  She wanted it bad. I held up my hand so she could see.  Counting down my fingers, three, two, one.  And she snapped the sugar cube into her mouth and crunched.  I chuckled and rubbed her between the eyes.  “Good girl!”

Katie leaned her back against the wall and looked at both of us with a smile as she shook her head. “You spoil her.”

I shrugged.  “Not really, just have to make it up to her for not being around enough.  I gotta do the same for you.”  I winked.

She regarded me for a long moment then tilted her head to rest against the wall.  She reached out a hand and rested it on my arm for a second as we just maintained eye contact.  I liked what I saw in her eyes though there was always some shadow hanging over her, they held nothing but compassion in them.

Once we were done visiting with Starfire and I promised to ride her in the snow before I shipped back out, we started back to the car.  A shrill whistle stopped us in our tracks.  I looked back and Fran was hopping up in the driver's bench of the sleigh.  “You two lovebirds want to help me test drive this new sleigh before we start hauling around the customers?”

I grinned and Katie was just nodding her head as she pulled me toward the fairy-tale looking sled.  I grabbed her from behind at the waist and easily hoisted her up into the back seat so she didn't have to climb the two wrung ladder that was welded to the runner.  This got a surprised squeak and a giggle from her.  I hopped in beside her.

Fran motioned her head back. “There's a couple heavy blankets back there in case the wind gets chilly ladies.”

I automatically retrieved one of the red and green plaid wool blankets and covered Katie and left a bit across my lap.  My girl rolled her eyes. “I'm not fragile you know sugar.”

I shrugged and grinned.  “You are to me.”  Then I changed the subject and looked up to Fran.  “This looks like something from a Hans Christian Anderson book.”

She nodded and said with a proud smile. “Yes it does.  Our handyman, Vernon, built it, he can build just about anything.”  I reappraised the sleigh, it was incredible craftsmanship.

A moment later she was gently moving the reins and the mammoth horses started forward, the sled gliding behind them.  I noted the subtle commands she was giving with barely a finger twitch, those Clydes were almost as well trained as Starfire.

Katie leaned against me and laid her head on my shoulder as we rode in the sleigh on its maiden run.  It was almost magical as we rode through a real winter wonderland.  Fran glanced back once then smiled at us cuddled together and I swear she gave us an extra long tour of the mountains trails.

At one point, we were on a ridge overlooking the valley below.  The view was spectacular, like we were looking down upon creation itself, the world blanketed in a gleaming white and looking brand new.  Then the first snowflakes of the forecasted winter storm started to fall, lending to the ambiance of the moment.  I kept getting lost in Katie's eyes.

Then Fran turned back to us.  “Sorry to cut this short ladies, but I have to start hauling customers around in a bit.”

Katie grinned at her. “Thank you, this was amazing.”

Fran tipped her cowboy hat at us and winked with a grin. “Ma'ams.”  We all shared a chuckle and then she brought us back to Valentine's.  I don't know if that mountain is living in the belly of a Tardis or not, but it seemed the trail she took to get back, took less than a third the time it took to get us to the ridge.

We could hear Christmas carolers as we approached the lodge.  I checked my watch, it was already past fifteen hundred hours, time was flying.  She dropped us at the door of the lodge.

In the hour and a half we were gone, it had transformed from a retail storefront into a holiday village.  I saw a huge mountain of a man setting up the last gingerbread house by the main doors.  There were people in line for free sleigh rides.  The carolers wound up being a group of teenagers that  the sign by a donation bucket proclaimed as “The Dandelions” and that all donations went to the Callahan Foundation.

We thanked Fran one last time then listened to the kids for a couple songs.  I dropped all the cash I had on me into the bucket.  I had heard of the Callahan Foundation and thought it was a worthy cause.  I looked closer at the children all of them seemed to have either burn scars or their heads were shaved, some I couldn't tell because of the warm hats they wore.  I realized that the group must be composed of the kids from one of the children hospitals that the Callahan Foundation benefits.

I had to laugh at the sign just below it.  “Thank you for your donation and, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyful Kwanzaa, Happy Holidays, Righteous Spaghetti Monster in the Sky Week, Joyous Platypus Day, or whatever other holiday you celebrate this season.  Oh, and may the Force be with you.”

My laugh got me a grin from one of the girls dressed in a Victorian Christmas dress.  It must have been her idea.  I smiled at her then looked at my red haired obsession.  “Shall we?  I have some stuff to wrap before we go to Nana's.  We doing your parents place tomorrow too?”

She nodded as we walked to her car. “Mom made me promise so that I wouldn't be 'all alone' on Christmas.  She invited Emily too.”  I got nervous suddenly, crap, that means I'd be asking in front of her parents.  The same anxiety hit me which I got just before a scouting mission into areas with known hostiles.  The thought almost made me burst out in nervous laughter.

Before I knew it, we were back at her place.  I had to lock myself in her bedroom to keep the minx from peeking.  I was rewarded with rich giggling from the other side of the door and I smiled in spite of myself.

I spent the time wrapping my meager offerings.  A handwoven, bright red shawl for Nana.  A hand carved wooden picture frame with a picture of Katie in it for the DeLongs.  Then finally a hand dyed handkerchief with the box containing my mother's wedding ring in it for the woman I seriously believe I can't live without.  I put them in the boxes I had procured and wrapped them in the hand decorated papers.

I was a little embarrassed, I had always been a terrible wrapper, I use more tape than wrapping paper.  I rolled my eyes as the packages that looked like a four-year-old wrapped them then unlocked the door.  Katie humorously fell through the doorway like she had been leaning against the door.

I caught her and she grinned like an imp, so I proceeded to kiss the silly smile off her face.  Which was almost a mistake as it turned into a heated, toe curling, arousal spiking, make-out session.  I broke our kiss before I lost control and grinned at her.  “If we keep this up, we'll never get to Nana's.”

She cocked an eyebrow seductively and ran a finger along my collarbone as she walked off with a wicked, wicked grin saying, “Your loss soldier girl,” I watched her saunter away and exhaled sharply.  Damn...  Oh!  I followed after her as she grabbed her purse and car keys as she chuckled.

Chapter 13 – I Could Do Worse

After a pleasant dinner and chat with Nana, we all kicked back to watch a Christmas music special and to my eternal embarrassment, Santa Clause is Coming to Town.  Hey, there is still a little girl hiding deep down inside me, so zip it!

We said our good nights and told her we would pick her up in the morning to head out to Christmas with the DeLongs.  Katie said she needed to dress nicely, she was closed lipped about it beyond that, which I am sure didn't bode well for me.

Then we retired to her place.  We wound up in bed right away, but we just held each other, sharing our closeness until she snuggled in and nodded off.  I looked down at her as I stroked her hair.  How had I gotten so lucky to have someone like her love me?

I don't even remember going to sleep, then next thing I knew Katie was gently shaking me awake, I sat up so quickly I almost knocked her off the bed.  I was in a cold sweat and I could feel the panic quickly receding.  I looked over at her quickly to make sure I hadn't hurt her... my greatest fear.  She just reached over and laid a hand on my cheek.  I leaned into the warmth and closed my eyes.  Her syrupy voice soothed me, “Just a bad dream sugar.  I'm here for you.”

I opened my eyes and smiled and nodded reassuringly to her as I laid my hand on hers on my cheek.  I took a deep breath then grinned cheesily. “Merry Christmas love.”

She returned the grin and hopped out of bed.  “Merry Christmas Kenz.”  She sauntered toward the bathroom, pulling off her night shirt and looking demurely over her shoulder.  I may be dense at times, but I knew and invitation when I saw one.  I quickly followed.

About an hour later we were picking Nana up with satisfied looks on our faces.  Though I think, Katie had used the shower trap to make me more agreeable to wearing my dress uniform.  She still wouldn't tell us why we needed to dress nicely, but I didn't complain if it got her into a knee length dress like she was wearing.  Katie had fussed over making sure I wore the stupid God damn medals.  Unfortunately, I had to wear them if I were going out in this stupid-ass skirt.

We arrived at her family home that looked like Christmas had vomited all over it.  I don't think I had ever seen a more decked out yard.  She just idled the car and honked her horn.  What was going on?  A minute later her parents were walking out the door dressed in their Sunday finest.  My eyes snapped wide at that thought.  Katie was looking at me apologetically.  Good lord no!

I stepped out and opened the door for the DeLongs to slide into the back seat with Nana.  Mrs. DeLong squealed and hugged me.  “McKenzie!  What a nice surprise.”

I smiled back at her as she slid in to greet Nana and replied, “Ma'am,”

Then Mr. DeLong shook my hand firmly. “I'm glad you could make it.”  I nodded at him once as he joined his wife and I closed the door then hopped back in the front seat shooting the reason my heart beats, an accusing look.  She dutifully ignored me and started driving us to the church with a slight smirk on her face.

I've never been a deeply religious sort.  I mean, I believe in something, I'm not sure what, but this can't be all there is right?  I've always thought I'd burst into flame if I stepped into a church with all the sin I have committed.  I mean isn't like 'thou shalt not kill' one of the biggies?  Katie knew this. Her family was a religious lot, coming from the South, though she herself wasn't so much.

I was knocked out of my musings as Mrs. DeLong said, “I'm happy you are joining us for Christmas Service sugar.”

I shot an accusatory look at Katie again before turning with a smile. “My pleasure ma'am.  I believe your daughter is a tricky woman.”  This got a snort from Nana.

I was nervous when we entered the church, but no flames, so that was a plus right?  It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  The preacher dude or whatever he was called didn't try to force scripture down our throats or anything.  He had a nice speech about love, family, and the significance of the day. Then there was some singing and it was basically all over.

Mrs. DeLong asked if I wanted to go to the confessional with her.  I replied, “The good lord doesn't want to be hearing anything I have to say.  You go ahead, I'll keep the others company here.”  She gave me a sad, compassionate look before heading off to the side.

Katie hugged onto my arm, laying her head on my shoulder as we waited.  I felt a little nervous, not wanting people to think badly of her.  I hear overseas all the time about how some churches in the US are still gay bashing and the like, but nobody here seemed to mind that we were showing affection toward each other.  I relaxed and enjoyed our contact.

Mr. DeLong... Samuel, noted all of this on my face and reassured me.  “People aren't like that here.”  I nodded understanding and thanks to him.  Was he finally warming up to me?

Then we headed to their house when Katie's mom rejoined us.  The witty banter between Nana and the DeLongs kept us all grinning a long the way.

I walked Nana to the door and then Katie and I went back for all of the packages we had in the back of the car.  My girl grinned at me as she hoisted a couple bags.  “Now see sugar?  You didn't burst into flames afterall.”  In her deeper southern accent which she usually reserved for seduction.

I chuckled at her and shook my head. “That was a dirty trick, love.”

She scrunched up her nose cutely and then shrugged.  “We already had it planned, you showing up in Seattle was just a pleasant surprise.”  Again I found myself hustling to catch up with her.

Nana and Mrs. DeLong, Clara, banned us all from the kitchen as they made us a savory brunch.  Then after the meal, we all settled into the living room couches around the huge Christmas tree.  Katie passed out the presents from under the tree.  I ended up with three to my surprise.  One from Katie, Nana, and even one from the DeLongs.  They must have been planning on giving it to Katie to send to me.

I watched gleefully as everyone opened their gifts.  The DeLongs loved the picture, Clara kept running her fingers over the hand carvings on the frame.  I relaxed a bit after that.  Katie growled at me until I opened my gifts.

I chuckled and thanked her parents.  They had given me a pack of thick socks.  I remember a conversation I had with them last year where I had complained that the only two thing I had to complain about in Africa was sweat matted hair and holey socks.  I snorted when I realized they were monogrammed MM.  I gave them each a hug.

Nana had given me a well worn journal.  I closed the cover quickly and had to fight off tears when I saw the name written inside the cover.  Her daughter... my mother.  This was her journal.  I hugged her and then opened the present from Katie.

I opened the box and there was an exquisite punching knife.  It was a very small, one piece, polished stainless steel blade with a t-handle and a boot sheath that I had been looking at the last time I was on leave.  She had remembered me talking about how I liked it and how valuable little blades like that were in hand to hand.  This one was engraved.  “Come home safe to me.  K”

I grinned at her and she shrugged.  I leaned over and gave her a quick kiss.  I didn't normally kiss her in front of her parents, I always felt self-conscious.  I mean, they are her parents and I always felt like a kid around them.

I looked around and everything was opened and Clara had started clearing away the wrapping paper scraps.  Then I grinned and reached into my uniform pocket and pulled out my gift for Katie and handed it to her.  The smile I got was priceless, she hadn't thought I forgot about her had she?  I rolled my eyes playfully at her.

Everyone watched as she pulled out the hand dyed handkerchief with it's bright colors.  She unfurled it and a little box fell out of it.  She sat unmoving, just staring down at the small box.  She wasn't breathing at all.  Had I just fucked up?

I knelt and picked up the box and opened it for her to see.  I said hoarsely, “Katie Althea DeLong, you make me happier than anything in my life.  I'd be the proudest woman alive if you would marry me  after I'm discharged.  I promise I'd dedicate my life to you.”

She covered her mouth for an instant, no emotion on her face.  Then she dropped her hand and a slight smirk appeared as she said in her delightful southern drawl, “Eh, I could do worse.”  I finally exhaled the breath I was holding.

Then I was engulfed in a tight hug as the old-ones clapped.  She was saying hotly in my ear.  “Of course I say yes you silly woman.  There's nobody I'd rather share my life with.  I love you McKenzie Meyers.”

I pulled back and locked eyes with her, there was nothing but joy there, the eyes never lie.  I kissed her and then she pulled back with a silly grin and started wiggling her fingers at me.  I snorted and slid my mother's ring on her finger.

She was instantly up and showing off her finger to her parents and Nana, who was just sitting back with the biggest grin on her face.

I don't remember much of that day, my girl and I spent most of it lost in each others eyes.  Stealing glances, touches, kisses whenever we could.

That night I wound up on the back porch of the DeLongs watching the snow fall.  It had started around twenty hundred hours.  It never stuck long in Seattle, so it was a treat to see.  I knew it would be gone by noon the next day, or at least be an ugly slush.

I watched my breath fog the air as I heard the sliding glass door behind me.  I didn't look back, I could smell her lilac scent.  Katie's arms circled my waist as she laid her head against my shoulder from behind.  “What you thinking about sugar?”

I shrugged.  She could read me so well.  I turned and dusted the light snow off the freestanding wicker porch swing. And I turned and sat with her. “Just wondering what I'm going to do after I'm discharged.  I've spent over half my life in the military now.”

She laid against me, sharing our warmth.  “And?”

I shrugged. “And I really don't know.  Not much need for soldiers in the civilian world.  I don't really have many skills beyond that.”

She snorted.  “You are kidding right baby?  I mean, you are a whiz with horses, you could work a stable or own one.  You love children, there are tons of things you can do, even volunteer for that can help out kids.  And unless I'm mistaken, you're good at that volunteer thing.  You know security and self-defense, there is a huge need for those types of services.  Nobody knows more about weapons than you.  Or you can just sit on your butt and make out with me... I mean, you will have your full pension after twenty years of service sugar.  The possibilities are endless.”

Then she waggled her eyebrows with a cute grin, “Ah'd be more than happy with the last one, but sitting around all day would drive you plum nuts.”

I leaned in and kissed her gently, lingering a few seconds then sat back with her and watched the snow fall.  I mumbled, “You're pretty damn... ummm darn smart for a Southern Belle you know.”

She nodded in agreement. “Yes ah am sugar.  Don't you forget it.”  I grinned and hugged her in closer to me to keep her warm.

Then I whispered,  “I have a fiance you know.”  She nodded cutely and added, “Me too.”  She looked at her ring then we stood and rejoined the festivities inside.

Chapter 14 – Operation Sand Fox

It was shocking how fast my leave was over.  It felt like I had just arrived when I was bidding my girl goodbye at SeaTac since I wasn't able to secure any Space-A, it was busy around the holidays.  By the time I made it back to my new base, Camp Lancaster, which was near the Sudan border, to meet up with the rest of the Bugbats, I was exhausted.

We spent a week on rotating duties for general grunt work around the base before our new Chief Warrant Officer, Witter, called us over to the CO's office.  Finally, a mission.  I was getting bored.  I mused that whatever this was going to be was likely to be my final mission before out-processing and discharge from the service that had been my home for two decades.  I smiled at the thought of the woman I had waiting for me back in the States when it was all over.

The CO was an Austrian man with a thick accent.  Major Tobias Bauer was all business and expected everyone to comport themselves in a professional manner.  The Bugbats have found ourselves on the mess duty end of things a time or two with our behavior.

We all saluted then stood at rigid attention when we entered his office.  He saluted and told us to stand at ease.  Then he had his Corporal hand out some folders labeled Operation Sand Fox to us and he fired up the big screen at the makeshift conference table.  “Sit,” he said and we all complied and sat around the folding tables that were placed together to form a large surface.  There was a large map of the region taped to the table.

The Chief stood in the corner in a relaxed manner.  He was obviously familiar with what was about to be shared.  Major Bauer ground out, “As you know when you were transferred to this unit four months back, this area is a hotbed for the Red Castle human traffickers.”  This got me shifting in my seat, these Red Castle bastards were pure evil.  I caught my hand dropping toward the scar on my leg and stopped myself.

They have been able to keep their main camp hidden from discovery for the better part of twenty-three years.  But intelligence suggests they have learned to use the caves in this area to avoid thermal detection from our overflights and satellites.  For whatever reason, the powers that be believe that you Bugbats are our best bet to flush them out because they have a price on your heads.  Apparently...”  He locked eyes with me.  “...Meyers took out the son of their leader with a goddamn knife during Operation SandBadger.”

I blinked, this was news to me.  He continued, “So information has been leaked that the Bugbats would be out on scout recon over by the Blackstone Cliff region  this coming week.”  He let that sink in as he motioned to the display then at our folders which we opened.  I quickly scanned the info as he pulled up a map of the rocky area in the desert a hundred miles northeast of the base.

I snorted as I read before he could continue.  “So we're just bait in this.  The fox for the hounds to chase.”  It was a statement, not a question.

He had a predatory grin on his face as he nodded.  “Yes, bait.  We will be covering the area as much as we can in aerial and satellite surveillance.  There will be only two three hour windows that we won't have thermal coverage on the caves.  As you recon the area, we will be determining what cave system the human traffickers emerge from if they take the bait.  Then we can send in a full strike package and can get rid of Red Castle for good.”

I nodded as my men went through the intelligence we had.  We went over the mission in detail with the CO and the Corporal.  The Chief was silent in the corner, his keen eyes watching.  For our part, it was just a standard scouting mission.  However, instead of a systematic grid search pattern, we would be moving more or less in a straight line directly into hostile territory.

If we made contact, we were to withdraw immediately, drawing out the enemy in pursuit and strike teams would be airlifted in for support.  I cringed at the response time.  Almost ten minutes, more than a lifetime if we come under fire.  I shrugged, this is what we all signed up for when we joined the military.  I murmured, “Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke.”

My outburst got chuckles and a “Hooah!” from my men and the Chief, and a reprimanding look from the CO.  I lowered my eyes to my folder and hid a grin deep down inside me.

They'd be dumping us out in the middle of the Sahara with full packs and supplies for the four-day mission.  I started studying the maps of the rocky region that jutted from the sands.  It followed what was possibly an ancient riverbed that flowed thousands of years ago before the desert swallowed it.  Lots of overhangs, ravines, and box canyons.  Shit, it was ambush central at every turn.

I didn't like it, but I had my orders.  And I was chomping at the bit to have a chance to end the Red Castle bastards once and for all.  They were my personal ghost, a specter that hung over me.  All these years that I have been on this UN joint task force, all we have been is a thorn in Red Castle's side.  We haven't been able to shut them down.  This could be our chance.  My chance to finally find peace with my nightmares before I retire.

We'd ship out at zero eight hundred the next morning.  Until then, we had latrine duty that afternoon for my outburst.  I just grinned at my men in apology to which they just rolled their eyes and grinned back.  I idly wondered what was to become of the Bugbats after I was discharged.  Would Big Brass keep them intact or fold them into other squads?

I just put my back into my work, digging in with my shovel as I helped dig a trench.  Good honest work keeps a person honest, Dad would always say.

***

The next morning my fire team joined me for my run after I had done my sit-ups and push-ups.  I raised an eyebrow at the guys.  Dante just shrugged as we ran and said, “We figure this is probably our last mission together before you go and get yourself all civilian-ized and shit.”  I smiled, the sentimental bastards, I poured on some speed, making them work for it.

After the run and we all cleaned up and geared up for Sand Fox.  On our way out to the motor-pool, we each kissed a hand and placed it on Katie's picture on my footlocker as we passed by in our ritual for the past two years.  She was our lucky charm, and none of my men knew she was Valkyrie One.  They just knew she was my girlfriend, well fiance now, Katie, and that was all.  I told myself I would share who she with them after our last mission together.  They were gonna shit bricks.  I grinned as we loaded up in the waiting Hummer.

We were driven to the makeshift airfield and hopped on our Puma transport chopper.  Full packs are not much fun.  Sixty pounds of dead weight on our backs.  But it held everything we'd need for a four-day patrol.  MREs and water took up most of the space.  Poor Dante's was upward near ninety pounds.

Forty-five minutes later we were on the ground covering our eyes as our ride took to the air in a swirling vortex of sand.  I wrapped my face with a scarf and then we went about our inventory check.  We all chimed out our gear and then I did a radio check.  “Base, Sand Fox has feet down.”  The communications officer back at Camp Lancaster.  “Roger that, Sand Fox feet down.”

Then I looked up into the sky and grinned, she was up there somewhere watching us.  I keyed my mic. “Guardian One, Bugbat One.  You got our six?”

I grinned when my angel responded in her raspy, honey coated tones, “Bugbat One, Valkyrie One.  We have eyes on you now.”  I grinned and stood, hefting my pack and settling it in, cradled my M4 in my arm and looked at my men who were following suit.  “Bugbats, let's move out.”

They gave me a “Hooah!” and we all spread out into our scout formation on force of habit formed from years of training.  We started moving forward in the slow trudging manner that conserved as much energy as possible in this hostile environment.  Something learned over time in the desert.  Our eyes scanning the area all around us for any indication of current or past activity.

Valkyrie One came over the radio to us,  “For the listening pleasure of my little Bugbats today, I thought we'd go for something classic.”  Kid laughed off to my left before I could snort.  Her music selections for us were almost exclusively classic rock.  She played ‘Mother Mother’ from the Veronicas, one of their more edgy songs.  I grinned at the consternation I imagined Major Bauer must have had on his face just then.  Valkyrie One breaking protocol with us and playing music while we did our sweeps.

We stopped frequently to check the printed maps and the tablet computer as we entered the rocky outcrops.  They looked like the blackened bones of some long dead giants, just sticking up out of the sand.  We made sure not to go into any of the box canyons.  We'd go high on the ravine ridges fifteen meters above on our return sweep to reconnoiter them, they were nothing but kill boxes that we had no intention of stumbling into, bait or not.

We stopped mid-day under the shade of an outcropping to fuel up.  We needed water and calories.  We ate some MREs and drank our ration of water, did another inventory check then hoisted our packs.  I re-wrapped my face and the others followed suit and we started our scouting again.  The whole time, Valkyrie One playing music or sending us to one rock outcropping or another that her satellites or drones couldn't see under.

We did stop at a cave that had the coals of an old campfire from weeks ago if the sand covering the coals was any indication.  We cleared the cave but found no sign of more recent activity or boobytraps as the sun was setting.  I said, “Looks like as good a place as any.”

I motioned to the rock overhang at the cave entrance, a great vantage point, and said, “I've got first watch.”  The men grunted and slung their packs off their backs.  I dropped mine next to theirs, grabbed an MRE and my canteen then cradled my M4. I started climbing to the top of the cave entrance while Kid started a small fire, with a busted up old crate we found in the cave, which he shielded behind a rock.

I keyed my mic as I sat eating and looking up at the stars as I listened to my men below and scanned the area for movement.  “Valkyrie One, Bugbat One.  Sand Fox dug in for the night.”

She responded tiredly, “Roger that.  Sand Fox dug in.”  Then she cued up a mellow, emotional song, after a few beats I recognized it as ‘Brown Eyes’, by Mandy Fay Harris.

I just kicked back and scanned the perimeter as I listened and really understood what the words were trying to convey.  Is it possible that Mandy was as broken as I feel at times?  I just silently sat watch, with subtle music playing at a whisper quiet volume, until Johnson came scrambling up the rocks to my location to relive me.

I gave him a smile and a nod then headed down for some shuteye.

Chapter 15 – The Fall of Dead Shot

That pretty much sums up the next couple days.  We found a lot of evidence of recent activity, but Red Castle was good at hiding if they were around.  We cleared three more caves, one had an abandoned cage that had broken hinges and the body of a young woman, both of which the human traffickers had no use for anymore.

It made me sick to my stomach and almost wretched at the inhumanity of those bastards.  At least now we knew for certain that Red Castle was using the area.  We tagged the location for recovery of the body.  Valkyrie One let us know that a recovery team would be at the site at the end of the day.  I nodded to myself, that would give us plenty of time to distance ourselves from the area.

I called out, “Alright Bugbats, let's hump it double time!”

They ground out a tired “Hooah!” in response and we made our way toward the more rocky area near the end of our patrol.

We hadn't gone more than a couple clicks when the music stopped and Katie was on, in her no-nonsense professional voice.  “Bugbat One, Valkyrie One.”

I switched my mic to VOX mode and responded, “Bugbat One.”

She was quick to reply, “Dead Shot, I have movement north-northeast of your position, one click.  Two bogeys using the terrain to obscure their motion.”

All of our eyes automatically swept in that direction.  It was the vast maze of gullies and ravines that we were heading toward.  I raised my M4 and popped the cap from my scope and sighted along the ridges, Johnson followed suit.  I looked at the gap between two outcroppings about a half kilometer away.

Damn, that would be the perfect ambush point.  I didn't like it.  I said, “Ok, that looks like a hamburger grinder there.  If I were them, that's where I'd set up a kill box.”  I pointed and then swept my hand north. “We'll swing up and around and come down on it from the East and see if they are thinking the same thing about the gap.”

We hydrated ourselves and called out inventory and checked our weapons, then humped it double-time to the north.  I radioed in my intentions to base and to Guardian One.  They had a satellite with thermal overlay tasked to us for the next sixty minutes before it crossed over the horizon.  They tasked a Predator to the area to pick up the coverage, it would arrive shortly after.

When we had circled around and were heading West, back toward the gap from behind I murmured, “Talk to us Valkyrie One.  Sand Fox in position.”

There was a pause.  “I don't like this Bugbat One.  They are standing almost in the open, you should be able to see them from your location.  Hold position until we can get a better look at the area.”

I nodded to myself. “Roger that.”  I raised my rifle again and peered through the scope.  Sure enough, there was one of the men, armed with a Kalashnikov gazing west, anticipating our arrival from that direction.  But he was partially exposed.  I got the same uneasy feeling that Valkyrie One had.

I sat back against the rocks we were crouched behind, thinking.  I looked at my men. “Something doesn't smell right here.  They would be blowing any hope of an ambush exposing themselves like that.”

“Unless...” Then almost as one our eyes snapped wide and our weapons snapped up scanning the area when the first shots rang out.  The men at the gap weren't the ambush, they were the bait to get us exactly where we were.

I stared in horror as the Kid fell to the ground. His bloody helmet spinning across the ground as his lifeless body fell in front of me, the scarf around his head soaking up blood as his dead eyes open and staring at me.  Dante was spraying random cover fire as we all moved for better protection, Johnson and I snapping our rifles around trying to determine the locations of the enemy as bullets struck around us.

We tucked under an overhang as I was yelling out, “Valkyrie One we are under fire, we have a man down!”

She was instantly there with a calm voice, “Bugbat One, roger.  Air support ETA ten minutes.  I have the two bogey's taking position behind rocks at their locations, I have a possible bogey at your ten.  They are using the rocks to shield themselves from detection.”

I did a quick glance at our ten o'clock.  I saw the muzzle flash of a weapon.  Good girl Katie.  Now where are the others?  At that thought, she was on again, “Bugbat one we have three bogies coming in at your twelve.”  I saw them picking their way toward us firing Kalashnikovs.  One was unslinging an RPG.

I motioned my fingers to my eyes then down at the three approaching through the rocks.  They were a bigger concern than the snipers at this time with that damn grenade launcher.  I counted down from three to one and the men popped up and gave supressing fire in controlled bursts.  I stood and took a calming breath as I raised my rifle.  The man had the launcher pointed our way.  Bullets were ricocheting around me. I exhaled and gently squeezed the trigger.

The man went down, but his finger spasmed as my bullet went through his eye socket.  I screamed “Down!” to Dante and Johnson as I dove onto them, knocking them down as the errant rocket propelled grenade raced toward us.  I was stunned and deaf for a few moments as the grenade exploded above us as it struck the overhang.

Shrapnel and rock fragments showered down on us.  Through the ringing, my hearing slowly returned as I shook off the disorientation.  Johnson wasn't moving under me.  I rolled off of my men and Dante instantly rolled then started spraying a hail of bullets at the other two men who had to move to cover.  I checked Johnson.  Though unconscious, he was breathing but his shoulder was pretty mangled, he was losing a lot of blood.

I yelled into my mic, “Where's that God damn air support!?  Two men down!”  As I pulled a med pack from Johnson's pack and applied a field dressing.  When I did all I could, I motioned to Dante to keep up the suppressing fire as I took a knee and looked through my scope while Valkyrie One said in her calm tones, “Air support ETA, eight minutes.  We have intermittent heat signatures heading your way at your twelve, bogey count indeterminate.”

I nodded to myself as I said, “Copy.”  Then I murmured to myself, “There you are you bastard.”  I picked out the rifle barrel and arm of the bait man at the gap who was taking pot shots at us from behind a rock.  Then I said, “Let's see a little bit more of you shall we?”  I fired a single round at the other side of the rock and the man scrambled to the side a bit, exposing his shoulder and part of his torso.  “Thank you,” I said as I exhaled and squeezed, a moment later I saw his shoulder explode into a bloody mess and his weapon tumbled down the rock face.

It would take his buddy on the other side of the gap a few minutes to move into position.  Now we only had the foot soldiers heading in and that sniper to deal with.  Narrowing the cone of engagement.  I cued the mic, “Two bogies down.”

“Reload!”  Dante yelled as he sat behind a rock and threaded another belt of ammo into his weapon as I gave cover fire.

He slapped his weapon then nodded and I slid to the side, firing as he rolled out and started to open up on full auto.  The last two from the first group didn't know what hit them as he tore them in half.

But then he went spinning to the ground.  He scrambled for his dropped weapon as I turned and fired a couple shots toward the sniper.  Dante propped himself against the rock breathing hard.  I was tearing his fatigues from his chest.  There was a broken ceramic plate from his body armor.  I smiled at him and slapped his shoulder.  Good man, he was wearing his armor, but his breathing was ragged, he probably lost a rib there.  I ticked off, “Four bogies down.” I got confirmation from Guardian One.

There was a slow but steady bullet impact in the sand or ricochet off the rocks followed by a report moments later. Ok about three hundred yards.  That's a start.  There was about a seven second delay between each shot.  That was the window as he chambered another round and he reacquired us.

I looked over at the Kid just laying out there.  I know it isn't logical nor smart, but I just couldn't leave his body out in the open like that.  He was like a little brother to me.  I got Dante's attention and pointed at my eyes with two fingers and swung them toward Ortega's body five yards away.  Then I indicated three hundred yards and pointed toward the sniper.  He pulled his weapon up and winced but nodded once.  I counted the seconds after a shot to the next one to confirm my timing then as another shot ricocheted past us I started running as Dante popped up and fired toward our ten.

I slid up to Ortega's body and grabbed his rucksack straps and started dragging him back to cover.  A shot hit just to my right as I got behind the only rock shielding us from the sniper under our overhang.  I was panting trying to catch my breath.  I said out loud, “We need to take out that sniper!”  Dante nodded agreement.  I spoke into the mic, “Valkyrie One, status on incoming bogies?”

She was there instantly and in her calm voice stated, “Four hundred yards downrange sugar.  We estimate six bogies.”

I spat out, “Shit!”  Then calmed, “Air support?”

Her honey tones soothed the ragged edges of my mind, my body full of adrenaline.  “ETA, five minutes.”  I closed my eyes, the new group of slavers would be here in three.  Then she added.  “We have visual on a mass movement from a cave system a kilometer south, southeast of your location.  They have vehicles mobilizing toward you Bugbat One.  Looks like we have the location of Red Castle's home base.  Ordering missile strike and air suppression package.”

She had a pleased tone in her voice and I smiled in spite of myself.  Looks like it worked, dangling us out here as bait.  We could finally put an end to these god damn bastards once and for all.  I'm going to celebrate the hell out of this.  A bullet whizzed past my head.  I swallowed and amended my thought.  If I survive this.

I was sick of this shit, that guy had to go. I told Dante, “Snipe hunt.”  He smiled and pulled his scarf off his face and threw it off to the side into the open and a shot rang out.  I belly-crawled west and around the side of the overhang, then scrambled up under its cover.

It took me a couple minutes to get into position.  I lay on my belly and slid the barrel of my M4 between the gap in two rocks and watched and listened as Dante continued to draw fire without returning fire.  The echos on the rocks confused the sound.

Then I saw the muzzle flash.  Got ya you prick!  I tapped my earpiece sending static and then I heard Dante returning fire again.  The sniper only had eyes for him.  I couldn't get a clear solution.  But then I looked at the rock beside the muzzle of the sniper rifle. Ok Kenz, it's just like the Wild West show.  You did this a thousand times as Annie Oakley.

I took three calming breaths then held one.  Stilling my entire form.  Then I exhaled slowly as I gently squeezed the trigger, compensating for the recoil I followed up with two more shots.  There was a motion after the first shot.  The guy must have about shit his pants.  But then I saw fabric on the third shot and the weapon's barrel was off at an extreme angle, but it was slowly swinging back down.

I must have hit him with one of my three ricochet shots.  I whispered, “But I can see you now asswipe.”  I fired again and there was a plume of red and all motion ceased.  I said into the mic, “Splash five.”  I got an almost pleased, “Roger that.” From Valkyrie One.

I got back down to Dante in a rush.  Ejected my empty magazine and slapped another home but it jammed, I must have gotten sand or debris in the magazine well.  I didn't have time for that, so I slung it over my shoulder and drew my sidearm, chambering a round.  We stood and looked toward the sniper's nest with grins on our faces when all hell broke loose.  The other squad had arrived.  God damn it!  Can't we get a single moment to breathe?

I went down hard as a bowling ball hit my chest while I was diving for cover.  I pressed a hand against my chest and pulled it away, no blood, good, my armor did its job.  Hooah!  I looked over, but Dante was sitting with his back against the rock holding his belly and blood covered his hands.  I scrambled over to him, ignoring the piercing pain in my chest.  That was going to leave a huge bruise.  I almost laughed maniacally at such an inane thought.

The reality of my situation was starting to sink in and fear began to creep in.  Come on Kenzie, don't go locking up now.  As we took full automatic fire, I helped Dante get a pressure bandage and field dressing on his wound.  He was in and out of consciousness.  How much blood had he already lost?  He tried to focus on me but his face was screwed up in pain.  I jammed a morphine injector into his leg and he chuckled before he lost consciousness again whispering, “Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke.”

I laid a hand on his shoulder, “Hooah.”  Then I grabbed his  M249 SAW.  Damn that beast was heavy.  I took two breaths then rolled out the belt of ammo dragging behind me and I opened up side stepping as I went to present a moving target.  That gas operated beast had kick!  I had to muscle the barrel down to control the recoil, but tore through the approaching enemy until the dreaded click as I dove behind some rocks that would give me poor cover.

I was yelling, “Valkyrie One!  Bugbat four is down.  Air cover?”

Katie sounded a little strained as she replied, “Seventy seconds Kenz.  We're about to go dark as we lose satellite to horizon.  I'll be with you again when my Predator arrives in one hundred and twenty seconds.”

I hesitated, I knew the shit I was in was deep when she broke protocol and accidentally used my name.  I had never heard her afraid before.  I just said in a resigned tone, devoid of any animation, “Roger that.”

I didn't have seventy seconds let alone one hundred and twenty unless I could buy some time.  I looked back at the overhang where my men were... And the two functional M4s.  Shit.  I was twelve yards away.  Out in the open that was as good as a mile away.  I pulled my M9 Beretta again.  I sighed in defeat and whispered to the pistol, “Looks like it's all up to you darlin'.”

These guys were poorly trained.  They were spraying in full automatic the entire engagement.  The rate of fire had dropped in half since they arrived, they were going though their ammo too fast.  I had taken at least three down with my stupid John Wayne move.  But then I shrugged, they did have dozens of men coming in support behind them so I guess ammo wasn't a factor in their minds.  I looked around the right of the rock and cataloged and memorized the approaching men.  Six, four with Kalashnikovs and two with sidearms, they must have used up their magazines for their rifles.

I ducked back as fire rained down around where I had been.  Ok, the pistols weren't the threat the auto rifles were.  The way the guys were holding them in front of them without aiming or a proper stance meant they were inexperienced.  Actually hitting something with a pistol without aiming at more than ten or twelve feet is a hell of a lot harder than it may sound.  And hitting a moving target is exponentially harder.

The riflemen wouldn't be any more accurate the way they were spraying their fire, but the sheer volume of rounds upped the probability of a hit.  So I knew my targets.  I took three deep breaths and drew on everything my father had taught me.  I calmed myself and stilled my hands.  Then I said into the mic, “Sorry Katie.” I stood, raised my weapon in both hands to stabilize it, and started rapidly walking to my left, keeping my sights in my vision.

I exhaled as I squeezed the trigger gently as I caught the targets in my sights.  Step, step, squeeze. Step, step, squeeze.  My ear was ringing and blood had spattered my face as my helmet was ripped off along with my earbud.  I ignored it and the new pain in the side of my face as I kept firing.  Two men down... three.

My left arm was ripped from my pistol and a white hot pain shot through me.  I caught bone jutting up from my forearm in my peripheral vision.  I re-raised my pistol and fired again.  Four men down.  One of the two was shouldering his weapon and pulling a knife, he must be out of ammo.  The last two charged my position.  I kept squeezing the trigger though I was out of ammo.  I was so close... so close.

I glanced quickly at the M4 at Johnson's feet, eight feet away.  There's no way I could reach it in time.  Then I was spinning and falling as my right leg was torn out from under me and I went spinning down to the ground under the overhang, beside my men.

I saw the smile on the bastard's face and the look in his eyes that told me he was going to kill me.  These were my last seconds on Earth.  The eyes never lie.  I thought, “I'm so sorry Katie... I love you,” as I closed my eyes as the barrel of his weapon swung up.

Chapter 16 – Valkyrie One

It is a hell of a thing watching helplessly as you watch the person you love die.  As I sat in operations at the 833rd Transportation Battalion headquarters, watching McKenzie and her Bugbats being picked off one at a time, I watched more of the enemy approaching with time estimates less than the ETA of the damn gunships and strike teams.

Watching her time after time, defy the odds and almost level the playing field.  It helped to push away the terror that was threatening to immobilize me.  I had to help.  I contacted the lead airship again.  “Raptor Flight One, Valkyrie One.  You have to double-time it Captain!  They are getting shredded down there!”

I could hear his own concern in his response.  “I've got the throttle wide open Valkyrie One.”

My supervisor, Kendrick, was standing from his chair looking at me.  “Can you handle this DeLong, or do I need to take this?”

I shook my head violently. “No I got this.”

He squinted at me. “Well then calm the fuck down and do your job!”  I almost snorted in derision, I could almost hear the word that almost followed that...  “Soldier.”  Almost everyone in Apophis Security Contractors was ex military except me and a couple other analysts.  They all snapped at each other like they were barking orders all the time.

I took a deep breath and nodded.  I was no good to my Kenzie girl if I couldn't keep mah head.  She was online again shouting, “Valkyrie One!  Bugbat Four is down.  Air cover?”

I glanced at the screens and tried to keep a calm tone as I replied, “Seventy seconds Kenz.  We're about to go dark as we lose satellite to horizon.  I'll be with you again when my Predator arrives in one hundred and twenty seconds.”

Her emotionless, “Roger that,” told me she wasn't pleased.  And neither was I.  Some of the other bogies were about to arrive in vehicles from the Red Castle base at approximately that same time.

I watched the countdown on our thermal imaging from the Overguard Sixteen spy satellite.  Ten seconds until we would go dark until the air support arrived on scene.  Then I heard a voice from a million miles away over the speakers, “Sorry Katie.”

As I watched her stand and start firing her pistol at the group that had her pinned, she was moving slowly and methodically back toward the overhang.  I couldn't pick up the heat signatures of her team under the rocks.  I wasn't breathing and I wasn't sure my heart was beating either as I saw her helmet go spinning away from her.  But she was still on her feet firing.  More enemies were falling.

Then her left arm was ripped away from her gun.  She was staggering and still firing.  She was almost to cover.  My lungs were on fire in need of air.  Then Kenzie... the woman I loved more than life itself went spinning to the ground under the overhang where I lost sight of her. Then the screen went to static as “Sattelite out of range,” blinked on the screen.

I fell to my knees as tears streamed down my cheeks.  My mouth was open in a silent scream, but I had no air left in my lungs to make a sound.  I inhaled roughly and sobbed once, stopping myself as I stared at the static on the screen.

Kendrick was walking down to my station and calling to my second, “Porter, take ops.”

I wiped my eyes and hissed at him savagely,  “I got this!”  I calmed myself and said much calmer, “I got this.”  I dared him to take my vengeance away from me.  He just nodded once as I pulled up tactical screens from the airships and the incoming missiles at Red Castle's base.

I couldn't hear any emotion in my voice as I said, “Raptor Flight One, this is Valkyrie One, Sand Fox is down.  Repeat, Sand Fox is down.  Re-task to recovery.”

The grim voice that returned sounded full of anger, “Roger that Valkyrie One, re-tasking to recovery.”

I took a breath then said in that same detached voice, “Raptor Flight One, be advised, enemy vehicles on site at point zero, zero, thirty seconds.”

I could hear the tone of a predator showing his fangs at the opportunity to rain hellfire down on an enemy that had harmed one of his own as he said, “Roger that Valkyrie One, weapons hot.”

I snarled at the screen as I watched the flight through the forward and weapons cameras on the lead gunship.  They were hugging the desert as they flew like a bat out of hell toward the rocks that jutted up out of the desert.

They swooped through the gap where the diversionary enemies had been positioned.  Then just as the enemy caravan came into view, the fires of hell were unleashed as the chainguns and missiles from two gunships opened fire.  Then I had my eyes back to another screen as my drone arrived on site, I sent the order to have the operator stay on station and give me overviews of the battle and the suspected Red Castle base.

I watched as cruise missiles pummeled the enemy and F15E strike eagles arrived with a couple bunker busters.  A tear rolled down my cheek and I whispered, “We got 'em for you Kenz.  You flushed them out finally, and we got 'em for you.”

Ten minutes later the fighting was over at McKenzie's location and the gunships were landing and soldiers poured out of them.  I led them in and watched as men rushed up to the overhang. The rage and horror and fear all struck me like a hammer when the lead man, Raptor Seven's mic picked up his voice as he skidded to a stop and recoiled a bit.  The tears came unbidden to me again as he murmured, “Mary mother of God!”  And I knew my life was over at that moment.  I just knew it.

Chapter 17 – Anabella West

That day a year ago can be put down as the worst day of my entire life.  I couldn't ever do that again and I quit my job just after.  I led Emily to her seat at the ceremony in DC. “Please call me Nana, Katie.”  I nodded my head sadly.  These award ceremonies seemed so pointless to me.  It was sad that almost every person awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor did so posthumously.  What good did it do if they were already dead.  I shrugged to myself, maybe to help the families mourn and give soldiers an ideal to live up to?

I smiled at the woman, she was stronger than me.  I knew why McKenzie loved her so much.  I smiled when I found out that Kenzie's personal hero, Congresswoman Anabella West was awarding the medals today.  It was fitting, like her life had gone full circle.  She shared with me once that she felt as if her life had just started when Anabella had inspired her to join the military.  I'd like to think that McKenzie did her proud.

I looked around the crowd, there were almost as many reporters and politicians as there were reporters.  Figures, the politicians wanting to capitalize on so much heartache.  Nana held onto my arm as military representatives took the stage.  She looked beautiful in her finest dress, and I felt uncomfortable in my Sunday's finest.  The endless speeches were threatening to put me into a coma.  My mind wandered a bit and I realized that after this, I'd need to go take a long horseback ride to clear my thoughts.  Kenzie girl had got me addicted to riding back when we were dating.

Then finally a tiny redheaded woman who had to be as short as me took the stage.  She looked almost regal and moved with a graceful surety.  Her hair was streaked with the beginning signs of gray, which gave her even more presence.  The crowd applauded and this woman, which McKenzie had raved about, looked a hundred feet tall to me as the most musical voice I had ever heard spoke with authority.

I was shocked really, usually the people I know that are deaf or hard of hearing have a flatter, and rounded tone to their voices.  But hers rang true like silver bells as her hands gracefully signed what she was saying.

“There are few people who hear the calling to protect the people and ideals that they love in the military of our great nation.  That have the strength and fortitude to stand against those who would do harm to their people, their family, their loved ones, and their country.  And these people, our soldiers, are called upon every day to stand against tyranny, to protect the ideals of our nation and our people.  They do so unflinchingly.  To them I send my pride, my appreciation, and my love.”

“I feel small when measured against their accomplishments, knowing that they give everything and sometimes come home to people who do not appreciate their sacrifice.  To take on the darkness so that we can live in the light.  But this is something that we can do to honor them, the best of the best.  The people who gave everything so that we might enjoy our freedoms.”  I blinked... Was she crying?

She smiled and looked around and continued, “Today we honor these soldiers.  It is with a mix of joy, pride, sorrow, and melancholy that we award the Congressional Medal of Honor to the men and women who performed personal acts of valor, above and beyond the call of duty.”

The applause was almost deafening.  Crap.  I wiped a tear away that was threatening to fall then looked at Nana and we shared a sad smile.  Then Anabella began, “Lieutenant Harold L. Adams.  Accepting for him is his mother, Jenell Adams.”  A middle aged African American woman stepped up to accept the case as Anabella described his act of valor.  Then she shook the woman's hand and gave her a hug and passed her down the line to the military representatives who each shook her hand.  She stood at the end of the stage.

There were a total of four medals being given in this ceremony.  After the second person, Master Sergeant Jose H. Marino's parents accepted his medal and we heard of his valor, I grabbed Nana's hand and held my breath as Anabella then said, “Specialist McKenzie A. Meyers.”

We stood and started screaming and applauding as McKenzie stepped up to Anabella West, her personal hero.  And stood on her good leg and the advanced prosthetic leg donated by Phearson Prosthetics and Robotics, as Anabella pinned the medal to my girl's dress uniform.

Kenzie took her hand in both her good hand and her prosthetic left hand and shook her hand.  Kenz looked like she was going to blush herself to death.  Anabella held her there for a moment and tilted her head then she reached her hand up to trace the ragged scar across Kenzie's face with amazement on her own face.  “I know you... from the airplane, all those years ago.”

My girl was just nodding and I could see her fighting back tears.  Then Anabella's face bloomed into a huge smile as she said, “Well McKenzie, you're my hero and I couldn't be prouder.”  Then before the dam burst on her tears, Kenz moved along.  Snapping salutes to each of the military representatives then shaking their hands as Anabella recounted my girl's acts of valor.

I had nothing but eyes for her as she locked my gaze from the stage while my heart threatened to beat out of my chest, I was so proud of my wife.  I tuned out the rest of the ceremony as my mind drifted back to that terrible day.

I could still hear the words of a soldier on the scene. “Mary mother of God!”  I had believed that my life had ended at that moment.  It confirmed what I saw with my own eyes, the woman I loved was dead.  But then my head snapped up as he was yelling, “Medic!  I need a medic over here now!”

Another soldier with a shoulder cam caught up with him and there on the screen was a horrific scene.  Four soldiers lay dead or dying under that overhang.  And there, breathing raggedly with wild eyes almost bereft of sanity was McKenzie.  She had her belt wrapped tightly around her heavily bloodstained leg and a bloodstained handkerchief with embroidered lilacs was around her arm just above the elbow and she was straining backwards, biting the end of the cloth to maintain pressure on it.

The man looked around and I saw the two enemy combatants lying on the ground.  One had a Ka-bar knife sticking out of his chest and the other had the t-handle of a punching knife sticking out of his temple.

I was hyperventilating.  McKenzie was alive!  I took a moment to realize she had used my knife, then I was diving on my mic and snapping orders, relaying information, studying overflight and strike information.  I kept tabs on the extraction mission and followed the surviving Bugbats the entire way to medical triage with our renewed satellite coverage.  I shot a death glare at  Kendrick, daring him to say anything.

They stabilized her the best they could at the field hospital and transferred her to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.

I wasn't able to see her until they had her stabilized in Germany then transferred over to DC, to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda.  They couldn't save her arm or leg, she had lost circulation in them for too long before the medics got to her.  But they said the tourniquets she applied to herself saved her life.  That's my girl.

I almost snorted when I finally was allowed to see her.  She was all drugged up and glassy eyed. Her first concern wasn't about the loss of her limbs, her only fear was losing me as she slurred out, “Do you still want me Valkyrie One?”

I kissed her soundly and ignored her “Ow!” as I cupped her bandaged face.  She deserved to hurt for thinking I'd ever leave her.

I released her then kissed her more gently and chastised her, “Wild horses couldn't keep me away from your side sugar.”

I cried by her side as she dozed off saying, “Good, cuz I love you Katie.”

I just held her hand as I sat there, repeating in a whisper, “I love you too soldier girl.  I love you too.”

Her physical therapy was and is exhausting for her.  Tim Pherason, the owner of Phearson Prosthetics and Robotics had insisted on fitting Kenzie with the most advanced, third generation, servo and microprocessor controlled prosthetics.  We found out that his father is the handyman at Valentine's.  As mah girl is so fond of saying, there's that small world thing at work again.

Her discharge paperwork came in while she was still confined to bed at Walter Reed.  She had stared at the orders for a long time, unspeaking after she shook the hand of the clerk that delivered them.  She finally turned her gaze up at me, looking lost.  “What do I do now?  I'm... a civilian?”

I chuckled at her.  “Anything you want now sugar.  Anything you want.  And I hope you do it with me.”

She grinned at me with such a loving look, I could see it in her eyes, and Kenzie says that the eyes never lie.  “There is no place I would rather be, love.”

The doctors were happy to inform us that Johnson would make a full recovery.  Dante would eventually and was given a medical discharge.  She choked up that she missed Ortega's funeral, with full military honors.  But his mother flew to DC with Johnson's wife to speak with her.  They let her know that their son and husband thought highly of her and they were thankful and wished her to recover soon.

She was in a bad place for a week after that.  Wondering why they were thanking her for getting their men killed or shot.  I tried to explain it, but it seemed to enrage her.  The doctors said it was normal and that they recommended counseling.  I was able to talk her into it.  That counseling has helped her with her acceptance of everything that happened, and even helped some with her more violent nightmares the past few months.

Her CO in Africa sent her personal effects and we were surprised to find her ka-bar and punching knife in the box.  Someone had retrieved them for her.  We had regular visits scheduled for the PT and counseling at the local VA.

It took a few days before she would allow me to see her without long sleeved pajamas and pants in bed.  I finally convinced her that she was the most beautiful woman in the world to me and her injuries didn't matter to me.  In truth, I didn't really see them.

I stripped her slowly, leaving a trail of kisses in the wake of my fingers as they brushed her skin as I peeled the clothing away.  She wouldn't make eye contact.  I reached for her arm and she pushed my hands away gently then reached down and removed her leg, exposing the stump just below her knee.  Then she undid the strap on her arm and shrugged out of it.

I smirked at her and pushed her slowly back onto the bed as I slinked toward her like a jungle cat on the prowl.  I may have growled, I'm not sure, as I licked and nipped at her six pack abs.  Then I looked up into her tear filled eyes and said, “Mine.”  God I love her muscles, they do so many naughty things to me and warm me up in some delightful places, and they were all mine!

I was knocked out of my lust filled memories when the crowd erupted into applauds snapping me back to the present.  I glanced around and clapped, not wanting to look stupid.  Oh, the ceremony was over.  I blushed then looked through the milling crowd as a tall brunette strode toward me.  Damn, that uniform got my motor running too.

We met at the lips.  I giggled out into her lips, “Hey soldier girl.”

She pulled back, then gave me a quick peck and grinned as she said, “Hey love.”  Then she turned and hugged her grandmother.  “Hi Nana.”

We chatted for a moment then Emily excused herself, “I'll see you ladies at the hotel later.  I have to go catch up with an old friend.”  We watched as she made her way through the crowd, then blinked in shock when she and Anabella West hugged.

Kenzie snorted and just said, “Huh... isn't that just the damnedest thing?”  Then she shrugged and locked eyes with me.  She started tickle prodding me toward the exit.  “Now my dear wife, it has been entirely too long since I properly ravaged that succulent body of yours.”

I let my southern accent out to play between giggles, I know how it drives her wild.  “But sugah, it was just this morning.”

She put on that genuine confident Kenzie smirk that just makes me melt, and said, “As I said... entirely too long.”

I melted more at the look she gave me and hustled toward the rental car saluting at her playfully and saying, “Ma'am, yes ma'am!”

Epilogue

I woke up to my Katie snoring with her head on my chest.  It sounded more like a chipmunk purring than actual snoring.  I could watch her like this forever.  I reached over with my one hand and ran my fingers through her luscious red hair.  I caught her little smiling smirk as she cuddled in betraying her sleeping act.  I grinned at her as she peeked out one eye.  She grinned then closed her eye again and cuddled in even more if possible.

I absently stroked her hair.  “Come on love, the horses aren't going to feed themselves.”

She shook her head with her eyes still shut.  “Nuh uh.  Five more minutes sugar.”

I rolled my eyes playfully as I wrapped my stump with my good hand and shrugged into the harness to attach my arm.  I shook my head as I slid her off my chest and onto the pillow.  “Time waits for no woman.”  I reached to the side of the bed and retrieved my leg.  I fastened it in place and checked to make sure the onboard batteries had a full charge.  I flexed it and my hand. Then I rolled out of bed onto the floor and started my sit-ups.

She raised her head to watch, I almost lost it when she licked her lower lip hungrily.  She propped herself on an elbow to watch better.  “I'll have breakfast ready when you get back from your run.  THEN we can go do our chores soldier girl.”

I grinned, we sounded like an old married couple.  I flipped over then did my push-ups which were much more difficult for me to do now, but I wouldn't use my injuries as an excuse.  I made a show of getting into my sweats with a US Army emblem on them.  Covering up my naked flesh.

She said, “Boooooooo.”  Then rolled out of bed and stretched like a cat, showing me all her curves and tasty flesh.  “Fine, now that the show is over, shoo.  I need a cold shower now and then I'll start breakfast.”

I grinned as I put my shoes on then I stood and we kissed hotly as she passed by into the bathroom.  I grinned at the heat she ignited inside me even now that I feel I'm just half a woman.  But she doesn't see me that way, I can see it in her eyes, there is nothing but love and desire there.  The eyes never lie.

I stepped out of the room and made my way to the front door.  I grabbed my father's red cap and put it on then stepped out of his house.  Well, my house now, mine and Katie's.  I'm starting to see it as ours  now, after we moved in when they released me from the hospital a year and a half ago.

I took a deep breath of fresh air.  It was odd not living in blistering heat anymore.  I felt more alive, more full of energy in the cool air of the Pacific Northwest.  I see this as a home again.  No... home is Katie.  Wherever she is is where I can hang my hat.

I put in my earbuds and cued up some edgier rock/pop fusion, my little Katie had gotten me addicted to the stuff while she watched over my team for all those years.  Then I started to run down the long gravel drive toward the road, I was feeling good so decided I'd do six miles.

It took me a couple months after I was cleared nine months back to learn to run efficiently on this hunk of alloy and plastic I call my bionic leg.  But it feels natural enough with my stride.  I was so out of shape I could barely make it a half mile on my first attempt.  But I stuck with it and I feel as good now as when I was enlisted.

I closed my eyes and let the wind blow through my hair.  I was alive.  I had Katie.  I had everything  then.  I picked up the pace as I chastised myself with a grin. “Come on Kenzie, stop your slacking!”  I followed Squibbs Creek to Lake Sammamish and ran along the Parkway for a while.  The area was becoming more familiar every day, it was beautiful here, I can see why dad chose to live in the area when he moved up from Vancouver.

I let my mind wander back to the award ceremony in DC a few months back.  Just another piece of fabric and metal to remind me of my stupidity in getting people I cared about injured or killed.  But I had the opportunity to finally meet Anabella West again.  She had hardly changed and her presence has grown more formidable.  She remembered me!  I can't believe she remembered, and she said I was her hero.  That is worth more to me than all the medals in the world.

I was in such a good mood when I arrived back home, the smell of bacon and eggs drifted on the air as I opened the side door and stepped into the kitchen.  Katie was already dressed in her work clothes, heavy denim jeans and one of my flannel shirts that she wore with the bottoms tied at her belly and the sleeves rolled up so it didn't drape on her like a tent.

I grabbed her at the waist and hoisted her, and spun her around once before setting her down and stepping in so our bodies were touching.  I could feel her warmth through our clothes, and I looked at her in wonder and lowered my head to capture her soft lips with mine.  Then I just ginned as she giggled.  “What's gotten into you?”

I shrugged and slid into a chair at the table without losing eye contact with her. “I dunno, just in a good mood.”

She scrunched her nose, kicked into Southern Belle mode, and I melted a little as she said flirtily, “Well ah definitely approve sugah!”  Then we dished up and ate.  The minx kept taking seductive bites simply to torture me.  Damn.

I said huskily, “I won't be responsible for what happens here on the kitchen table if you don't stop that love.”

She grabbed the table top and made a show of testing it for strength as she cocked an eyebrow and said with a grin, “Hmmm the kitchen table huh?  That's one place we haven't christened yet.”

My jaw dropped in surprise and I threw a little piece of bacon at her. “Katie!”

She grinned back and started eating the bacon projectile.  “What?  Just statin' facts.”

We finished up and she started cleaning up as she shooed me off to get cleaned up and into my work clothes.  I showered quickly then got into my denim jeans and a heavy flannel shirt, put on my shit kickers and grabbed the three gloves from the dresser.

I walked out, handing her her gloves as I put my glove on and headed for the door.  She grabbed my right arm squeezing my muscles as we made our way back to the newly remodeled and enlarged stable and exercise yard.  I grinned at the sign hanging in the eaves.  Meyers Trick Riding Stable.  The indoor arena would be finished before I turn forty next month.

It didn't take long for me to go stir crazy when I got back home.  It still felt so surreal to me that I wasn't in the military anymore.  I needed to do something, anything, or I would go nutso.  When I wasn't active, and keeping my mind on other things, the faces of all the men I have killed tend to slip into my thoughts and I would dwell on them.  The shrink that Katie had me promise to see has helped a lot.  I don't worry so much about hurting Katie in bed if I have a nightmare anymore... mostly.

I had confided in her yet again that I didn't know what I could do as a civilian, I wasn't qualified for much.  She laughed it off and asked me what I loved.  I said, “You.”  That got me a grin and a slap to the gut.  We determined that my love of horses was almost as great as my love for my smartass wife.

We contracted with the Valentines to provide overflow services, in the heavy tourist seasons where they needed more horses than their stables could provide. We started improvements to the facilities here at home so that I could start a trick riding school and board other people's horses.  My savings were more than adequate to fund it since I never spent money on anything in the past two decades.

Before we started mucking stalls, we went up to the first one.  Starfire hung her head over the rail and snuffled at my pockets.  I smiled at her and stroked her between the eyes as I fished out a sugar cube.  I said, “There you go old girl, I'd never forget.”  Then added, “Maybe we can go out for a ride today.”

She was getting old, she didn't have her stamina anymore, but I still enjoyed riding with her once or twice a month, so we could commiserate old times.  I hated seeing her slowing down, it just reminded me of how much of her life I had missed.  So I made a point of giving her quality one on one time.  She would show the younger horses how to perform and I swear she would laugh at them when they had problems with simple tricks.

I brushed her mane out then went to work, cleaning stalls with Katie.  She looked over at me as she put some fresh steaming fertilizer in the wheelbarrow.  “You know, I can't wait until we open our doors next month.  Then we can hire a couple hands to do this sugar.”

I snorted. “Good honest work will make a good honest woman out of you love.”

She shot me a cockeyed look and sauntered past me seductively and almost purred, “That's not all that'll make a woman out of me soldier girl.”  Then proceeded to grab my left butt cheek, smearing horse crap on it, before she took off running and giggling with me in hot pursuit.

My cheeks hurt from smiling so big as I chased after her as I licked my lips in hunger, calling out, “Valkyrie One, target in sight!”

Books in the Music of the Soul universe...

(All books are standalone and can be read in any order)

Music of the Soul

A Deafening Whisper

Dating Game

Karaoke Queen

Silent Bob

Five Feet or Less

Broken Song

Syncopated Rhythm

Progeny

Girl Next Door

Lightning Strikes Twice

June

Dead Shot

Short Stories in the Music of the Soul universe...

Misadventures of Victoria Davenport: Operation Matchmaker

Books in the Valkyrie Chronicles series...

Return of the Asgard

Bloodlines

Folkvangr

Seventy Two Hours

Titans

Books in the Fracture series...

Divergence

Books in the Drakon series...

Awakening

Dragonfall

Books in the Bridge series...

Trolls

Sample Chapter from Red Hood: The Hunt

Chapter 1 - Breach

Victor was yelling at me over the automatic weapons fire and the flame throwers at the gates of the city, “McQueen!  Daria!  Did you hear me?”

I wiped the sweat away from my face then lowered my riot shield again and nodded as I yelled back.  “Yeah, I heard you, you old blowhard!  I got the perimeter sweep, switching to coms.”  I took a moment to look at the tide of snapping fangs and razor sharp claws slamming into the main city gate.

The wolves looked rabid, foaming at their mouths.  But I knew it was just the burns from the silver strands in the steel bars of the gate burning and foaming their flesh as they threw themselves against it.  Damn, every full moon it seems there are more and more of them.  Where are they coming from, and why does it seem like they are all converging here at Seattle?  The other major cities are reporting their usual numbers.

I glanced up at the full moon hanging over the horizon.  We only had to hold for another hour until the sun was up and we were in the clear.  I checked the magazine of my assault shotgun to be sure I had silver rounds loaded, then hopped off the ladder down to the ground.  A claw came slashing through the bars, I could hear the sizzle and the putrid smell of burning flesh as an unusually large wolf strained to try to get to me.  Like I'd be stupid enough to step close.

I rolled my eyes and raised my shotgun and fired, reducing its head to burning and sizzling hamburger.  “Bad dog,”  I mumbled as its body slumped to the ground, as the acrid sulfur smell that marked the transformation filled the air as the body melted back into its human form.  Fuckin' werewolves.

I started walking the thirty foot tall perimeter wall that was around the entire city.  This portion was the oldest in the city, built in the beginning, when the European werewolves had somehow made it to the United States back in 1899.  It was made of silver ore rocks.  It reminded me a lot of medieval castle walls with the silver veins sparkling in the moonlight.

I saw the guards on the top, pacing the narrow walkway, shining their lights down on the sea of wolves.  They were Seattle PD like me.  We all dreaded these three nights a month, during the full moon, when the wolves would come.  Pretty sad when we longed for a good mugging or robbery.

Not many women join the police force, I'm one of the exceptions.  I have my reasons... when I was ten, wolves had breached the Ballard gates somehow. They went on a killing spree in my neighborhood.  They avoided our silver infused FMBs or Full Moon Bars that we used to shutter the doors and windows every full moon night just in case of a breach just like that.  The animals had instead actually dug through our roof and dropped into the house.

My dad had just got me into the panic cage and was reaching for my older sister, when they attacked.  Right before my eyes they tore my parents apart. Then one played with my sister, batting her around the room as she and I screamed.  Then when I heard the gunfire and police outside raising our FMBs the wolf started to head toward the collapsed ceiling.

Now I know what we are taught.  That they are just stupid, unthinking killing machines when they transform.That they have no humanity left in them and they don't remember what they did during a full moon when they returned to their human state.  I'm not so sure. I swear to you that wolf seemed to smile with a wicked gleam in its eye when it paused. It looked at me in the cage with its silver plating, then back at my sister who was curled against the wall in fear.  Then it snapped once at her, biting her arm, infecting her, then looked back at me for a long moment with a look of satisfaction before it ran.

My sister, just barely seventeen was given The Choice all the infected had before they turned on the next full moon.  A merciful death of suicide by silver nitrate pill or banishment to the wilds.  No infected are allowed to live in the cities even though they are human during the day and all nights not a full moon.

My eyes watered at the memory as I checked the base of the wall and the FMBs of the buildings I passed in my sector.  The last person in my family, my sister Prue, chose banishment.  I still hesitate today whenever I kill a smaller wolf, a female wolf, wondering if it is Prue.

I found a defective track on an FMB at a duplex.  I made a note of it to have the city engineers come in and fix it tomorrow during the daylight.

I wonder if she is still alive out there somewhere.  I know there are at least five lupine settlements in the area, where the people cage themselves on full moons, and live their lives as normally as possible.  But the Ferals are the men who have been driven mad knowing they are nothing but cursed beasts from hell on those nights and not knowing if they had killed.

They are barely rational in human form and have, for some reason, started converging in the area the past few months.  Like it is a coordinated effort.  Ferals try to spread the curse by not locking themselves down on full moons, so the National Guard has units to keep them pacified.  But there are not enough men brave enough to go beyond the gates of the cities on a full moon, so the platoons move across the nation.  There are Wolf Hunters, who are sanctioned to kill any Feral wandering on a full moon.  They are paid by the head.

But once a werewolf returns to human, it is illegal to kill them as they have most of the rights of a Clean Blood, a human free of the infection.  I just see Wolf Hunters as animals themselves, they are out there just for the thrill, little more than animals themselves.  We haven't seen one in Seattle for over a decade.

I paused, moving my thoughts to the side as I heard something over the battle receding in the distance. The barking and growling of the wolves on the other side of the wall, faint and deadened by the mass of the stones.  It was a splashing sound and a rumble that was so low it was more felt than heard that caught my attention.

The hairs stood up on the back of my arms and at the small of my neck.  I knew the sound almost intimately, the low growl of a wolf on the hunt.  My shotgun was up as I swept the area.  I glanced at my riot gear then scanned the alley the sound was coming from.

I was whispering into my coms, “This is officer McQueen, sector 1A.  I have a breech situation.  Alley at North 145th and Stone.”

Headquarters was on instantly. “All units, lupine incursion North 145th and Stone.  Officer on scene.”

Then Victor was on the tac channel, I could hear him breathing hard, he was running.  “Talk to me McQueen, are they contained?  Numbers?”

I responded in a whisper, “I don't know.  I'm heading into the alley to check.”

He was almost growling. “Don't do anything stupid kid!  Wait for backup!”

I paused at the alley entrance and did a quick glance before pulling back.  I had definitely seen one tail and more shadows milling.  I didn't know if that alley was a dead end or if they could escape from the other side.

I was about to report in when I heard a snarling then a yelp and the burning smell of flesh wafted out of the alley.  I grinned, the FMBs were doing their job.  Then there was more snarling, snapping, and scratching, followed by the sound of siding tearing.  Shit!  They were going to go through the wall.  I could hear people screaming inside the apartment building.

I growled out a “Son of a bitch!”  I raised my weapon and ran into the alley.  I almost tripped over a manhole cover leading into the sewers.  That's how they got in, there was a breach somewhere down there.

I inadvertently kicked a discarded soda can when I dodged the open hole in the ground.  The one wolf I could see snapped its head toward me and snarled and leaped.  A normal wolf can jump about fifteen feet and almost twelve feet straight up, but a werewolf can do twice that.  Whatever supernatural curse makes them these demon spawns, gives them enhanced speed and strength, even in human form.

This one covered most of the forty feet between us in that single leap.  He was big, even for a werewolf, and his pelt was a mangy grey and black.  There was no intelligence in his yellow eyes, just savage intent.  I fired and tore half of his skull off as the silver shot burned his flesh and brain alike.  He had so much momentum that his body slammed into me sending me to the ground and my shotgun skidding and spinning across the ground.

I scrambled out from under him as two other wolves turned from their attempt to enter the building and flung themselves at me, snarling and snapping.  It felt like about two hundred pounds of wolf transforming to human that I had to move. I rolled across the ground and over my shotgun coming up and pumping off two shots, winging the closest one as it yipped and skittered away.

The third one was in the air and I couldn't swing the barrel of my rifle to it fast enough.  I paused, it was smaller, a female...  I brought up the shutgun between it and me as it landed, knocking the wind out of me.

It's jaws were snapping trying to get to me, but I kept the shotgun held out.  It's claws were ripping at me and I could hear my riot armor cracking under the assault.  I wasn't going out like this God Damn it!  I yelled, “Get back mutt!” and dropped the shotgun and punched the she-wolf in the muzzle with all my strength.

I think it surprised her more than hurt as she moved back slightly.  I saw the other wolf moving to my side with a limp.  The bitch curled her lips up revealing killing fangs and started to lunge just as something landed soundlessly by my side.  Almost faster than I could follow, wolf fast, a fist shot out from a billowing red cloak.

I heard the crack of bone as the wolf went tumbling, paws over tail, and crashed into the opposite wall of the alley with bone-jarring force.  A woman's voice came out from under a thick red hood, smoky and smooth as she said, “She said get back.”  It scrambled to it's paws and the two wolves dove on my savior.

The woman dove right back toward them and they clashed.  Jaws snapping and claws ripping.  The bitch was hanging off her arm.  I blanched, they had infected her... she came to my rescue and paid the price.

She caught the male by the throat in mid-leap, he had to have weighed around one-fifty or so, and he just dangled off the ground, thrashing.  Then she swung her arm with so much force I could hear the snapping of bones as she slammed the bitch into the side of a dumpster.  The wolf slumped to the ground then limped off, circling us.

She turned her attention to the male and slammed him against the wall, still grasping its throat.  It struggled and thrashed as the woman did something insane... she put her face just inches from the wolf, its fangs snapping, trying to get at her.  She seemed to be looking into its eyes. Then she shook her head almost sadly,  I caught her saying under her breath, “Not him.”  In a blur, she looked to punch the wolf in the chest, but then I saw the hilt of the knife in her hand.  Where had she pulled that from?

The wolf stopped moving and I could smell the burning flesh, it was a silver blade.  She dropped the body as it started changing back to human.  I regained my wits and reached for my shotgun just as the she-wolf dove on her back.  Jaw snapping, teeth sinking into the back of her neck as her claws raked the woman's back.

I couldn't shoot or I'd hit the woman too.  I stood and took two steps and struck the wolf at the base of the skull with the butt of the shotgun.  It released her and dropped to the ground, snapping at me.  There was a swishing sound and an arrow was suddenly embedded into the wolf's skull.  The flesh around it steaming and burning.  A silver arrow?

The woman pulled the arrow out and locked it to the back of the crossbow which had two others like it in place.  She must have had the weapon hanging under her red cloak.  She watched in morbid fascination as the wolf turned into a middle aged woman.  A part of me sighed in relief that it wasn't Prue.

Then the woman turned in a flourish, the cape of the crimson cloak billowing out, and she started walking away.  I could hear the sirens approaching.  I called out to her,  “Miss, thank you for saving me, that was amazing.  But you can't go...”  I hated myself for my next words, “You were bitten... infected.  I need to detain you until you make The Choice.”

She turned and regarded me for a moment, then stepped back up to me so smoothly and gracefully, I almost didn't see her move.  She pulled her hood back and her ice blue eyes stood out in sharp contrast to her dark locks of straight hair.

She must have been five foot ten, a couple inches taller than me.  And she had an amused look on her face, her lips curled up in a smile.  “Bitten?  I think not, I would have noticed.”  She pulled her hair back and turned her head slightly so I could see the back of her long neck.  There was nothing there but pristine, un-punctured skin.  Then she moved her cloak to the side and pulled up the sleeve of her white ruffled shirt to show me a similarly undamaged arm.

Then she turned to leave again. “You fought bravely.  Have a pleasant morning officer, the sun is rising.”  She pointed to the east as the first rays of the sun started poking out above the Cascades.

I called out to her, “But how?  I saw...”

She looked back over her shoulder and flippin' winked at me.  I swear, she winked.  She said, “There isn't a lycanthrope who's claws or teeth can puncture the fabric of my cloak.”  I blinked, but, it was just fabric, it looked like wool.

I tried to stop her again as I heard patrol cars coming to a quick stop at the alley entrance. “But your bounties!”

She shrugged. “They weren't the wolf I was looking for.  Keep the bounties for yourself or if you insist have them put on The Red Hood's account.” Then she leaped up over eight feet and snagged a fire escape ladder ten feet up and effortlessly pulled herself up, gliding up the steps then disappeared over the roof.

What!?  No way, The Red Hood is just an urban myth, she wasn't real... was she?

I was just staring after her like a fool as some officers came running down the alley and Victor came huffing and puffing in his riot gear behind them.  They all looked around at the bodies and stench of flesh burning, and my partner just stared at me bug-eyed. “Jesus kid!”