Part 1--
David was shocked to receive a call at home from Dan. He had some news for David that would truly surprise him.
The family had just finished dinner, and Julia and Joe were washing up the dishes. Nik had a driving lesson, and Jeremiah was writing college acceptance essays.
This was what David was doing when the call came in.
He looked at the phone, and seeing who the call was from, he excused himself to Jeremiah and went into the study.
"Talk to me, brother," David said. "What's so important that it couldn't wait til tomorrow?"
"Well, it seems that the Rileys were executed earlier this evening," Dan said. "In Washington. By order of Madame President of all people."
"I'm really surprised to hear that, Danny," David said. "I knew they had been taken from our incarceration facility for 'a hearing' out of Region, but I had no idea that it was on orders of Sarah Kathryn Hope."
"It appears that Madame President and our Dr. Corwin were sisters," Dan said. "After you asked Mike to bring you Kim's personal papers, I did some digging. Kim had received letters from the Capitol Region, but since they were official looking, and Kim feared being found out as far as her true identity was concerned, she never opened them. Some go back to the beginning of Sarah Kathryn's presidency. Oh, and another thing," Dan paused, then, "They were addressed to Kathy Riley, not Kim Corwin."
"Where did you find the unopened letters, Dan?" David asked.
"In a wall safe in Kim's home office. We literally took it out of the wall and took it apart to gain entry. Everything that related to 'Kathy Riley' was in there."
David took in this news, and was still surprised that Sarah Kathryn used her executive powers to have her parents executed.
"Thanks for telling me this, Danny," David said. "I'm just surprised that Sarah Kathryn's handlers allowed her to get away with it."
"At least Bill Riley won't be tryin' to fuck any more little girls," Dan said.
----------
David went back into the living room, where Jeremiah was typing up yet another letter to a college he wanted to attend.
"How goes the letter writing campaign, Jere?" David asked.
"This is the last one I'm doing! If I don't get into one of these schools, then there's something seriously wrong with the college admissions system!" the 17 year old exclaimed.
"I don't think you have anything to worry about," David said. "We'll probably have a mailbox full of schools begging you to attend their campus by next week!"
"Good thing I can do all the application stuff on the internet," Jeremiah said, "but they still have to send a letter the old fashioned way to tell me I got in?"
"That 'old fashioned way' was the ONLY way it was done when I was contemplating college," David laughed. "You have no idea what torture it was to wait for those letters to arrive in the mail...IF they arrived! I'd rather have a hard copy of an acceptance letter than an email that could be accidently deleted."
Jeremiah had to concede that David had a point. After finishing off the last letter and hitting "send", he logged out of his account and said he was going to see how Nik was doing with his driving lessons.
David sat on the sofa with the intent of watching the news. Then Jordan came into the room.
"Hello, my angel," David said as she sat next to him. He kissed her cheek and she laid her head on his shoulder. This was their nightly routine. They had been together nearly five years, and their relationship was strong. David couldn't have gotten through the last five years without her love and support. She was the sanity when things in his life got crazy. She knew it wasn't easy being the leader of the most powerful anti-government group in the country, and always having a target on your back, yet she understood him. Perhaps more than any other woman he'd been involved with before her, Jordan knew him better than he knew himself.
"How's your day been?" he now asked her.
"The usual," Jordan said. "Send out press releases, arrange meetings, design campaigns...and make sure Julia went to her counselling sessions."
"She's not wanting to go?" David asked.
"It's not that, David," Jordan said. "Julia is the most confident girl I've ever known, but you have to understand that what Bill Riley tried to do to her makes her question a lot of things about herself. I've been in her shoes, but didn't have the benefit of counselling until I got out of prison..."
Jordan stopped talking suddenly. David knew that she sometimes had flashbacks about what happened to her all those years ago.
"Baby...?"
Within a few moments, whatever it was that Jordan saw in the back of her mind went away. "Sorry. I know I've been blanking out more often lately."
"Do you want to see someone about those blank outs?" David asked.
Jordan looked at David. She was always surprised that he seemed to read her mind.
"I've been thinking about it, David," she said. "I can't be an effective leader if I have to talk about the horrible things the illegitimate government does to its prisoners, and blank out because I've been in those places and can't deal with it."
David just held her closer to him on the sofa. Jordan relaxed as David rubbed her back. She knew that David always had her best interests, and those of the children they took in, at heart.
She should've been happy, and for the most part, she was. But something always nagged in the back of her mind that made her question that.
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Part 2--
Morbus had been keeping to himself a lot in the last year. He did the jobs that had always been required of him, but he had noticed that certain health problems had started to show themselves, and he really didn't know how to handle that.
He was 26 years old when the illegitimate government took over the United States and Jacob was "killed" at the rally that Jordan was arrested at. That was 13 years ago, and at 39, Morbus was, frankly, amazed that he was still alive. Most people who had been what he had been through would have probably died long before age 39. No wonder David always called him the Indestructible Man!
Still, Morbus knew his time had a limit; a limit that he wanted to extend as long as possible. He wanted to tell Julia he was her father and his biggest fear (if Morbus were to allow himself to feel fear) is that he would die before he got that chance.
Currently, he was concerned about some vision loss he'd noticed the last time he accompanied David to speaking engagements in several Regions. This concerned him on many levels: if he couldn't see, he couldn't protect David from those who wished him harm. If he couldn't see, he couldn't be the assassin he was trained to be. If he couldn't see, there was no need to keep on living.
Except for Julia.
----------
Julia had brought in the mail on her way in from school. It was just her and Joe going to the Academy now, as both Jeremiah and Nik had graduated early with high honors. Nik was even asked to speak at the graduation ceremony and gave all the credit for his academic success to Kiera San Marco.
Julia went through the mail. Everyone had a mail basket in the kitchen, and lately, Jeremiah's had been filled with letters from the various colleges he had applied to.
Nik was going to take a "gap" year (something commonly done in British commonwealth countries) and work at a camp for children orphaned by the conflict between the two factions claiming to be the legitimate government. Years ago, Nik was one of those kids. Then he was taken in, and later adopted by, the San Marcos, because he had no living blood relatives. Of the four of them, Nik was the only one with Peter and Kiera's surname. Jeremiah and Joe kept theirs, as did Julia.
As the others came in from their various points in the community, the first place they checked was the letter baskets. Today, everyone got something in their baskets. Jeremiah got the most, even more than David or Jordan.
"All these letters," Jeremiah said, sitting down at the kitchen table, opening them one by one. "Wow! They all want me to tour their campuses and show me what college life is going to be like!"
"David told you that would happen, didn't he?" Julia said, smiling.
"Hey, congrats brother!" Nik said, hugging Jeremiah. "Which one of those fine overpriced institutes of higher learning are you going to choose?"
Jeremiah looked at the letters he'd opened, and the ones that came in the last couple of days, and said, "I have no fucking clue!"
----------
Julia started getting the stuff for dinner ready so that she and Jordan could prepare it when Jordan came home. David walked into the kitchen as Julia was starting the water for the pasta dish that was that night's meal.
"Pasta again?!" David teased when Julia had turned on the burner so the water could begin heating up. "You Italian girls and your pasta!"
Julia smiled, something that David noticed she had been doing more of lately.
"I'm half Jewish too, don't forget," Julia said; "We could be having matzoh balls instead!" She saw David make a face. He apparently did not have a good relationship with matzoh balls, she thought.
"I can handle any pasta dish you and your mom can come up with," David said. "You've become quite the independent one lately, getting dinner started before she gets home."
"Kiera taught me how to cook all of Peter's family's favorite dishes," Julia said; "There isn't an Italian meal I can't fix. I just have trouble sometimes because you don't eat pork, so I have to get creative."
"If your father were here, you probably wouldn't be eating it either," David laughed.
"You're probably right," Julia said, as she checked the progress of the water. Seeing that it was now boiling, she added the large pasta shells that would later be filled with hamburger, ricotta cheese and garlic. She then turned on the timer and set it for seven minutes.
She then turned to continue her conversation with David.
"You do all that without consulting a recipe?" David asked.
"I do it often enough, I have it memorized."
David wanted to take Julia's mind off dinner for a second. He said,
"I've noticed that you've been calling Jordan 'Mom' lately."
"Well, she is." Julia said.
"Just in the last few months I've noticed this. Before that you always called her by her name."
"I know," Julia said. "I thought about it one day, and I think I did that because I felt I was being disloyal to Kiera. Yet, I didn't call Kiera 'Mom', either. It's kinda weird like that."
"I think I understand that, though," David said. Changing the subject, he said,
"I know that I've tried too hard sometimes to be 'Dad' to you. I never expected to have a young girl in the house who already had two fathers. So if I was over the top with you when your mom and I got together, I wanted to apologize."
"I was a brat, David," Julia said. "I know you tried your best to be a father figure to me when I was younger, and I appreciate it more now. I guess we both had to grow up some, huh?"
"Maybe so, Julia," David said, impressed with Julia's thought process; "maybe so."
The timer then went off and Julia went back to work on dinner.
----------
After dinner, while the kids were busy cleaning up in the kitchen, David and Jordan decided to go for a walk in the woods before it got too dark. Even though it was late spring, the sun was starting to set later and later.
With Morbus at a discreet distance, they started out on their walk. David held Jordan's hand as they tramped through the high grass.
But, David wanted to broach a subject with Jordan that he wasn't sure she wanted to talk about: the possibility of their having little ones of their own.
David knew it was possible to have a surrogate carry their child. He already knew that Jordan had some of her eggs removed after she got out of prison and had them frozen for future use. Her thinking, as she told David when they talked about this before was, "Since I'm not going to be using them..."
"Jordan..." David began, "I know we've had this conversation before, but have you thought about my suggestion of in vitro fertilization and surrogacy to have a child together?"
"David," Jordan said, knowing after their last conversation on this subject that David would bring it up again. "I'm kind of scared to. I don't know what kind of mother I'd be. I didn't get to be a mother to Julia until she was nearly eight years old. But," she paused, then, "I'd do it for you, David. You've been such a good father figure to Julia since she came to live with us, and I've seen you with babies and toddlers at the various rallies we've been to. You'd be a wonderful father..."
"And you'll be a wonderful mother, Jordan," David said. "I know you can't carry a child in your own body, but there are women who want to help couples like us become parents."
"I'll do it just to prove myself wrong," Jordan said. "And because I love you, David."
"I love you, too, my sweet angel."
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Part 3--
Now, however, was not the time to be thinking about babies, David thought.
He had received several credible threats to his life in the last several months. There were those out there who wanted David out of the way so that the illegitimate government could once and for all be the only government.
The threat David just received didn't target him specifically, but people around him: his bandmates, Jordan, anyone who had daily contact with the Disturbed Ones leader. That included secretaries, couriers, weapons handlers and the like. Not even the kids were spared.
One threat targeted Jeremiah specifically. He would be in danger no matter what college he chose to attend that fall. And then Jeremiah dropped a bombshell of his own that night at dinner.
David had asked him if he had chosen a school to attend, and Jeremiah answered that he had chosen Yale University over such schools as Harvard, UCLA and the University of Southern California. All had been interested in getting the 17 year old to attend their institutions. But Yale had the Journalism program he wanted, and was one of the schools that offered him a free ride scholarship.
Everyone around the table clapped and cheered, and when that died down, Jeremiah said,
"Thanks everyone! I couldn't have done any of this without your love and support. But, I've come to a decision regarding my future, I mean besides school. And that is that I'm taking Joe with me when I leave in August."
Julia looked at Joe and said, "Did you know about this?"
Joe said that he and Jeremiah had discussed it.
"What made you decide that?" David asked.
Jeremiah cleared his throat. "There's a Disturbed Ones group in New Haven that has been very strong in the last two years. The students are rising up against the illegitimate government, something that both the school administration and the bogus government doesn't like."
"I know of them," David said. "I spoke at a rally there just a few months ago at the invitation of their leader, Amber Carson."
"Amber Carson is our sister," Jeremiah said; "Our biological sister. She and our father were arrested when Joe and I were little kids. It's the reason why the San Marcos took us in. Our father died in prison; Amber escaped when she was 17."
"I thought your sister's name was Emily, though," Jordan said.
"It was," Joe said. "When she escaped from prison, she changed her name and got married."
"She and her husband, Drew, have a little girl named Antonia," Jeremiah said. "Antonia was our mother's name."
"I've received information that you would be in danger wherever you decided to go to school," David said.
"I know, David," Jeremiah said. "Amber was interested in me doing for her and Drew what Morbus does for you; bodyguard and assassin. I've had the training and have kept up with it. I'm not asking for your blessing, David. I'm just telling you what I'm going to be up to."
David thought back to the day years ago he placed two young brothers with Peter and Kiera San Marco. Jeremiah was always the outspoken of the two, even then. He wasn't going anywhere without his little brother.
Now, Jeremiah was going to be a college student and Joe would be fifteen soon. David couldn't have been more proud.
"I know you didn't ask for my blessing, Jere," David said, "but you have it anyway. You've come a long way from the scared seven year old trying to be brave and protecting his younger brother."
"Thank you, David," Jeremiah said. "I appreciate everything you and Jordan have done for all of us."
----------
Julia was behind the house when Nik came looking for her. When he found her, he noticed she'd been crying.
"What's wrong, Jules?" Nik asked. "Aren't you happy for Jeremiah and Joe? They get to be reunited with their sister after a very long time."
"All you guys are leaving!" Julia said, wiping her eyes. "I'll be the only one here. I'm not sure I like that."
Nik put a protective arm around his sister. "It's not going to be as bad as you think, Jules. You still have your mom and David. And Morbus. He's always been fond of you."
"Yeah," Julia said; "but they're not you, and Jere and Joe."
"I know it must suck to be the little sister."
Julia nodded her head in the affirmative.
"And besides," Nik continued, "we're always going to be your big brothers, no matter what; and you'll still be our little sister."
"Thanks," Julia said. "Maybe I should stop being such a baby and deal with it."
"That's the Jules I know and love!" Nik said. "Now let's go back into the house. Isn't there still dessert?"
"You and your sweet tooth, Nik, I swear!" Julia laughed.
----------
Morbus hated doctors of all kinds. All they wanted to do was poke and prod and study him. "Ain't you ever seen a disfigured Jew before?" he growled the first time a doctor wanted to run tests to find out how Morbus survived being set on fire.
But, this thing with his vision really started to piss him off.
When he was beaten after it was discovered that he survived being shot, the New Army damaged some blood vessels that fed the eyeballs, turning the whites permanently red. With his dark brown eyes, it appeared to the casual observer that both his eyeballs were red.
Morbus started seeing things in his field of vision that weren't really there, and he wondered if that was a result of being beaten all those years ago, or to his getting older.
His father was an ophthomologist, so Morbus, in his previous life as Jacob, knew a little about what might be wrong with his vision. He knew he had to see someone, so he asked the nurse who came to tend him who he could see to have his vision checked.
"I'll send someone in, okay?" the young nurse replied.
Within moments, an eye doctor was there to examine Morbus' permanently bloodshot eyes. And what he said was not something that Morbus wanted to hear.
"You're probably suffering from some macular degeneration in both eyes, and that could be a result of either heredity or the beatings you received."
"My vision is kind of important, Doctor," Morbus said. "Can there be anything done to repair any damage?"
"You have the beginnings of it," the doctor said. "But it will get worse as you get older. Usually we see it in healthy people around your age. What are you, about 40?"
"I will be this year, yes," Morbus said.
"You realize I have to tell your employers about your condition."
Morbus looked at the doctor and said, "Yes, I know. I'll let them decide what to do about my continued employment."
"Very good," the doctor said, and he turned and left the room.
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Part 5--
As the day of Jeremiah and Joe's departure for New Haven got closer, Julia was accepting of the fact that her brothers were moving on with their lives. They were young men now, and were looking forward to new adventures. She really wanted all of them to be happy.
The actual day that Jeremiah and Joe left was hard on Julia though. She cried like a baby and pleaded with the both of them to keep in touch.
"You know we will, Jules," Jeremiah said. "How could we not stay in touch with our baby sister?"
"You'll get busy with school, and Disturbed Ones stuff, and getting reacquainted with your sister..." Julia trailed off.
"Nonsense," Jeremiah said. "There'll always be time to get together on the 'net and catch up."
"And phone calls, too," Joe added. He still didn't talk much. Maybe that will change when they get to New Haven, Julia thought.
"Oh, my poor phone bill," David teased as he walked into the room. "Maybe it's time you guys had one of these."
David handed Jeremiah and Joe each a box. Inside was an untraceable satellite phone. "Oh, cool!" Joe exclaimed. "Just like the one you have, isn't it, David?"
"Those are the newest models," David said. "Mine will be upgraded to that soon."
Jeremiah just looked at his. "Thanks, David," he said; "I have no other words to accurately explain our appreciation of your trust in us. I know these phones aren't cheap."
"No, they're not, but nothing's too good for you guys," David said, "and that includes Julia and Nik as well."
"Wow," is all Joe said.
Jordan walked into the room, wondering why David, Jeremiah and Joe were just sitting there. "You boys have a plane to catch! Amber's meeting you at the airport, right?"
"Yes, Jordan," Jeremiah laughed. "She'll be there to fetch us."
The boys said their final goodbyes to everyone, then David drove them to the airport.
Once on the plane, Jeremiah had a sinking feeling that something wasn't right. He shook it off and attributed it to being excited about going to college and seeing the sister he hadn't seen since he was seven years old.
But, as the plane took off from the Chicagoland airport, the feeling just nagged at him. He looked over at Joe, engrossed in the magazine that had been in the pocket of the seat in front of him, and feared for their lives.
----------
As they got out of their car, the couple was attacked by masked men. Once subdued, they were blindfolded, bound, and thrown in the back of a truck or van.
Another couple, looking suspiciously like the couple who had just been kidnapped, took their place in the car. They were on their way to the airport to pick up the woman's younger brothers, who were flying in from the MidWest Region. She hadn't seen them since she was fourteen years old, and she was excited to finally be reaquainted with them.
Or she hoped it appeared to the casual observer that's what was going on.
In fact, she was an imposter. As was her husband.
And their job was to fool the brothers into thinking she was their sister, Amber.
They were spies for the illegal government, and it would be a feather in their caps to kill two of David Draiman's wards.
What they didn't know is that those wards had expert firearms training, survival training, and the older of the two had a sixth sense that would come in handy.
And Dan Donegan's skills at finding out things that not just anyone would know.
Like the fact that Amber Carson wasn't who she says she is.
----------
"You can't do this to us!" the real Amber Carson said as she and her husband, Drew, were taken from the van and placed in a cell.
"Oh, and why not?" Karla Brinson said nastily, "What makes you so fucking priveledged?"
"My brothers aren't stupid, you know," Amber shot back; "they'll figure out that the bitch you replaced me with isn't their sister."
"How do you know?" Karla said. "You haven't seen them since they were little boys!"
"They'll eventually figure it out, just as my daughter will figure out the whore isn't her mother."
"Oh shut the hell up, you Resistance cunt!" Karla said. "It's not your daughter we want, it's your brother Jeremiah! He was David Draiman's ward, and we want to know what he knows."
"He'll never tell you!" Amber said.
"No he won't tell me," Karla said, "but he might tell his sister..."
Not if he thinks his sister isn't who she says she is, Amber thought.
----------
The plane was landing and Jeremiah had something important to tell Joe before they got off the plane.
"Joe," Jeremiah began, "for the first few days, be very careful what you say to Amber. We haven't seen her since we were little boys, so I want to find out where her mind is at before we get too involved. Okay?"
"Jere, I'm not six years old anymore," Joe said. "I wasn't going to say anything anyway. I don't really want to say this, but what if we're walking into a trap?"
"That's why I don't want to give too much away before I know that we're really dealing with Amber and not an Illegals plant," Jeremiah said.
Joe sighed, "There really is no such thing as 'normal' in our lives, is there?"
"Not since we were seven and five years old, Joe," Jeremiah said.
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Part 6--
The reunion with their sister (or who they thought was their sister) went well, though all parties were a little apprehensive at first. When Amber asked about the boys upbrining after she and their father were imprisoned, Jeremiah gave the most sanitized version possible, but did leave in the part about Julia's witnessing the death of their guardians and the fact that she killed 5 New Army troops. He figured that was common knowledge by this time.
Jeremiah started his classes at Yale, and was doing well in them. Joe was going to the local high school, and pretty much hated it, though he, too, was doing well in classes. And because he was so far ahead of the other kids his age, he was booted up from sophomore to senior, so he would graduate when he turned 16 the following spring. Joe couldn't help but wonder that if he had stayed with David, Jordan, and Julia, he would have been happier. Not that he wasn't happy being with Jeremiah, but something was starting to bother him about their sister.
It started a couple weeks after they moved in with Amber and Drew, and their daughter, Antonia, who was five. She had confided in Joe that her parents were acting weird, like they didn't really know her.
Then Joe noticed something about Amber that didn't add up in his head.
He remembered when he was very young, Emily (as she was known then) had a scar that ran up the inside of her left leg. It had been from surgery when she was about six years old to repair damage to nerves and muscles after falling through a pane of glass. Joe remembered that he asked about it shortly before their mother was killed and Emily and their father were arrested.
Amber didn't have that scar!
Joe had mentioned his concerns to Jeremiah one night when he was visiting from the dorms at Yale.
"I remember that scar. She had surgery to fix something before I was born," Jeremiah said. "And Amber wears a lot of dresses that would make it visible."
"Can't you contact David and see if Amber really is who she says she is?" Joe asked.
"I could," Jeremiah said, "and hope we're mistaken. She could have had plastic surgery to have it made less noticeable, I suppose. Why don't you casually ask about the scar the next time the opportunity comes up?"
"I hope I am mistaken, Jere," Joe said. "I really want Amber to be who she says she is."
"I don't think she is," Jeremiah said. "She asks me too many questions about what goes on at the Disturbed Ones compound in Chicagoland. Questions I'm not comfortable answering for anyone. David trusts us with a lot, and I'm not going to betray that trust."
"What are you going to do, Jere?"
"I'm going to contact Dan and see if he'll do some digging for me."
----------
When Joe asked Amber about the scar, Amber became visibly frustrated. She told him that, yes, he was correct, there was a scar, but had plastic surgery to have it removed. When she saw that Joe accepted that explanation, she silently breathed a sigh of relief.
But, in her next report to Karla Brinson, the woman portraying Amber Carson mentioned that Joe had asked about a scar that the real Amber Carson had. And that Jeremiah was not as forthcoming as they had hoped about life on the Disturbed Ones' main complex in Chicagoland.
"Damn!" Karla screamed as she read the Amber imposter's report; "Damn, damn, damn! Why didn't we know about the fucking scar?! Why won't Jeremiah Donovan tell our agent about life as Draiman's ward? Why are we getting fucking stonewalled at every fucking turn?"
In turn, Karla had to report to her superiors, who were higher ups with ties to the committee at the White House. The response she got back was chilling.
Jeremiah and Joseph Donovan had to be eliminated...but not before they got what they wanted from them: a way to bring David Draiman down.
----------
"Holy fucking shit!" Dan exclaimed when he found what he was looking for.
"What's up, brother?" John asked.
"Jeremiah and Joe are in a lot of danger! The bogus government has plans to torture them for information, then kill them!"
"And all Jere wanted was a chance to go to college and be reunited with his sister, then this happens!" Mike said.
"What are you going to tell him to do?" John asked.
"Jere said he didn't want David to know, but I really don't have any choice but to tell him," Dan said. "Jeremiah and Joe's sister and brother in law are imposters, and are reporting to a woman named Karla Brinson. The real Amber and Drew Carson are being held in a secret location, and will probably be killed as well."
"Don't the Carsons have a daughter?" Mike asked.
"Yes," Dan said, "Antonia. And she knows something's fishy with her parents. She told Joe as much. She's only 5 years old, and she'll probably be used as a pawn against her real parents, then killed as well. Jere says Joe is freaking out about Antonia's safety."
"You should tell David," Mike said. "Do it now. I don't care if you interrupt him and Jordan making love, but get word to him that Jere and Joe are in danger."
Dan was dialing David's number as Mike spoke.
----------
There was a special code that Dan dialed along with the number that alerted David that important information was forthcoming. David saw this code, and knew it wasn't from the clinic who, four weeks earlier, had implanted six embryos into a surrogate. He and Jordan were awaiting word on whether they were going to become parents.
Instead, it was Dan. And what he had to tell him was not good news.
----------
"Talk to me, Danny," David said. "You used the code for important information. What's going down?"
"Jeremiah and Joe are in danger, David," Dan said. "Their sister and her husband have been kidnapped and imposters are taking their place. Apparently, this happened just before they arrived in New Haven, and the Committee thought the boys wouldn't notice since it had been so long since they last saw one another. The Carson's daughter did notice, and told Joe that something was weird with her parents. She's five. The imposters report to a woman named Karla Brinson. Brinson got orders to torture the boys for info about you, then they were slated to be eliminated, along with the real Amber and Drew Carson, and possibly their daughter as well."
"FUCK!" David yelled at the top of his lungs with all the power of many of Disturbed's songs. "I thought I was sending a smart kid to Yale, not getting him and his siblings murdered!"
"Dave, calm down, man!" Dan said. "What should I message back to Jeremiah? He knows he, Joe and their niece are in danger, but not to what degree. It's not like we can send Morbus back there."
"No, we can't," David said, regaining his composure. "Jeremiah needs to attempt to take care of this himself. But we can recruit sharpshooters in New Haven if we have to. Fuck! I knew he'd be in danger wherever he chose to go to school, but this is something even I didn't expect."
"I'll tell Jere to be vigilant and use force as a last resort," Dan said.
"Tell him to call me next time, and not you, okay?" David asked. "No offense, Danny, but I feel responsible for those boys, and I should know about shit like this!"
Dan said he would and David ended the call. What am I going to do? he thought. I can't let those boys get killed, not after everything they've been through in life.
"David, let me go to New Haven and kill some of those scumbags."
David turned around and saw Julia standing there. Before he could say anything, he saw the look in her eyes.
It was the same look Morbus had when he was on the hunt. And it wasn't a pretty sight.
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Part 7--
After David got over his shock of not only the request Julia had made, but the look of murder in her eyes, he asked her,
"Girl, have you lost your God damned mind?! You're fourteen years old! I'm not sending you anywhere to kill anyone, got that?!"
Julia continued her staredown, and David became convinced that she could, indeed, be capable of the job. Then she spoke again, and the tone of voice she used could have come straight out of Morbus' mouth,
"I can do it, David, and you know I can. My brothers are in trouble. I won't rest until all of those Bogus government slime are eliminated. They killed my father; they hurt my mother; they killed my guardians; and I'll be God damned if I let them kill my brothers, too, all because I'm 'too young'? I don't think so, Draiman. I'm the best shot you got!"
David had never heard Julia address him by just his last name. What has gotten into this girl? he thought as he struggled to answer her. She seemed possessed by something.
"Julia..." he began, not knowing what would come out of his mouth, let alone hers, "You are the best shooter we have, but, again, you're only fourteen years old. If I sent you to do this, and you failed and got killed, your mother would crucify me!"
"I won't fail, David."
David had no doubt about that.
----------
Morbus had been called to a meeting with David. Morbus thought it might be because of the doctor's report on his eyesight, but turned out to be something different.
David needed the assassin's advice.
David's back was to the door when Morbus arrived. David was so deep in thought that he never heard Morbus enter the office.
"David, I could have very easily killed you just now."
David turned around with a start. He hated it when Morbus snuck up on him like that.
"We had a meeting, David," Morbus said while David recovered. "Did you forget?"
"No, I didn't. And you're right, my being unattentive to my safety could get me killed," David said. "And that's part of what I want to talk to you about."
Morbus stood in his usual place in David's office and closed the door. David knew better than to ask him to sit.
"Your daughter wants to go on an assignment I may have coming up for a sharpshooter," David began.
"NO!" Morbus said angrily. "I will not allow it!"
"I told her she was out of her mind, but she had this look in her eyes, Morbus...it was almost like looking at you when you're stalking one of your targets. She was dead serious. She called me by my surname, instead of 'David'. It was unnerving."
Morbus thought about that for a moment, and the thoughts he was having were not ones that a father would have about his daughter: that she could actually take an assignment and complete it, even at fourteen years old.
"Have you talked to Jordan about this?" he asked.
"Fuck no, Morbus!" David exclaimed. "Jordan would go batshit crazy on me!"
"Julia is not going to assassinate anyone, David," Morbus said, "let me make that very clear. She is too fuckin' young to get involved with that shit."
"You know that, and I know that," David said. "But as far as Julia herself is concerned, it's not going to matter what I think, what her mother thinks, or what you think. Julia is one hard headed girl, just like her mother..."
"Or her father," Morbus said, knowing what David just said was true. Julia had the same killer instinct he did, and no one or nothing was going to get in her way, be it her parents, or her age.
----------
All concerns about Julia aside, David did get some good news: he and Jordan learned that the surrogate was seven weeks pregnant with at least one child, and possibly two. Jordan cried at the news. It really is going to happen, she thought, David and I are having a child together!
Her joy at finding out about a new addition to the family was tempered by the news that David gave her about Julia's intentions.
"Wait a God damned minute!" she exclaimed when David told her that Julia volunteered herself to go on a future mission to eliminate enemies of the Disturbed Ones; "There is no fucking way in HELL that I would let Julia take something like that on. You mean to tell me that my fourteen year old daughter asked to be sent on a mission? Have both of you lost your freakin' MINDS?!"
"Whoa, Jordan," David said, trying to calm her down,"I'm not sending her on any missions. One, she's fourteen. Two, I don't approve, you don't approve, and Morbus doesn't approve."
"You told Morbus about this before TELLING ME?!" Jordan practically screamed at David. "How could you?!"
"Jordan," David said gently, "I didn't mean to upset you, but Morbus would be the one who would train her for any missions, and he flat out refused to consider training her before she's sixteen. But you should have seen the look in Julia's eyes when she asked me if she could do it. It was like looking at a female version of Morbus, with that same bloodlust. Her voice didn't even sound like her..."
"Oh, dear God," Jordan said. "I don't want to think this, but could she really pull off Morbus' job?"
"The thing is, Jordan," David said, "I think she could. And that scares the living shit out of me! I can only imagine what it's doing to you as her mother."
"I'm sure I couldn't walk into the Catholic Church and announce that it's part of my daughter's job description to break the 'thou shall not kill' commandment, could I?" Jordan said sarcastically.
"Jordan..."
"Okay, okay, no jokes..." Jordan said. "Honestly, David, I would be beyond scared. I'm not okay with this."
"And you think I AM?"
----------
Part 8--
Joe had the feeling that whoever they were, be they his sister and brother in law, or imposters, they were on to him.
He had noticed a marked change in Amber's demeanor over the past several weeks, to the point he was now convinced that whoever she was, she wasn't the sister he had very hazy memories of as a child.
Amber's attitude towards her daughter and Jeremiah took a turn for the worse as well. Whatever was going to happen to them, Joe thought, it's going to happen soon.
The report Jeremiah got back from Dan was startling. Yes, the people his brother was living with were imposters, while the real Amber and Drew Carson were being held against their will in a secret location.
"Don't use force unless it is absolutely necessary," Dan had written in the communique to Jeremiah. "Meantime, be aware of yourself and your situation at all times, and never drop your guard. The lives of your niece and brother are at stake, as well as your own."
So, hang tight and hope they don't kill us? Jeremiah thought; Really, Dan? But, more information was coming, and Jeremiah looked at it and thought, what the fuck did we get ourselves into?
Karla Brinson was the contact person for the imposters posing as Amber and Drew reported to? Jeremiah thought. This isn't possible!
Because Karla Brinson was Jeremiah and Joe's aunt. Their mother's sister.
----------
Karla had all the hangups that a younger sister with a talented and studious sibling had, and then some.
She was more than a little pissed off when her "perfect" older sister Antonia married a man who was not only older than her by nearly two decades, but was of mixed race. At least her daughter's father was white, she thought bitterly.
So it was not a problem for her to have her sister eliminated and her husband and daughter imprisoned. Karla didn't care what happened to the two sons her sister's marriage produced, they could die for all she cared.
Then they turn up like a couple of bad pennies a decade later, and Karla learned that they had been wards of the government's most feared opposition: David Draiman and his Disturbed Ones.
She had intel that stated the Donovan boys had extensive weapons and survival training prior to becoming Draiman's wards. That their "sister", the daughter of Draiman's companion, Jordan Terranova, had killed five New Army troops after the deaths of their guardians; that a fourth child, Nikolai San Marco, was in line to be a Disturbed Ones organizer.
Since it became clear that Joe Donovan and Antonia Carson didn't believe that the agents she sent to replace Amber and Drew Carson weren't who they said they were, there were two more people who needed to die. Karla had no trouble killing off her own flesh and blood. They had stained the family bloodline, which in Karla's mind, was unforgivable.
But Karla's main objective was to get information from Jeremiah Donovan. And if she had to threaten to kill his brother and his niece, or anyone else close to him to get it, then she'd do it.
Her goal, and her governments goal, was to eliminate David Draiman.
----------
"Just what is your problem, sweetie?" Karla sneered as the fake Amber reported that she was losing Joe Donovan and Antonia Carson in the believeability department. "You can't convince a couple of snot nosed kids to believe you're their sister/parent?"
"Joe called me out on a damn scar Amber has," the fake Amber replied. "And when Jeremiah comes to visit, he's not confiding in me about what his upbrining was like, especially the years he spend in the Draiman/Terranova household. Because God knows I've asked."
"Just because he's a college student means he's smarter than the whole government?" Karla said; "I don't fucking think so. He's of age so we can't force into the New Army, so the only thing we can do is make it very uncomfortable for him."
Karla was seething inside. She hated being made a fool of, but to be made a fool of by an 18 year old was just too much. Even if that 18 year old was her nephew.
"Bring Joe and Antonia to me!" Karla said. "Jeremiah may come around if his brother and niece have guns to their heads."
----------
The snack that Joe made for Antonia just sat there.
She was an hour late coming home from her all day kindergarten and Joe was worried. Amber had told them both this morning that she would be late and asked Joe to fix a snack for Antonia when she got home from school.
After two hours had passed and still no Antonia, Joe was starting to get alarmed. The illegitimate government kidnapped kids all the time from school, on their way home from school, practically at their front door...just like in Chicagoland. Joe worried that had happened to Antonia and got his phone out to call Jeremiah. Instead of dialing the number, Joe looked up and saw that he was surrounded by New Army guards.
"Joseph Donovan, you have been summoned to Regional headquarters to speak with the Region Director, Karla Brinson," the Guard Leader said.
"Karla Brinson?" Joe asked, recognizing the name from...somewhere.
"Yes. She is in charge in this Region."
"The name sounded familiar, like I'm supposed to know her somehow."
The Guard Leader just looked at him. He obviously hasn't been here long enough to fear Karla Brinson.
"Let's go!" he barked at Joe, "I have orders to bring you in."
"What for?" Joe asked, stalling for time. "And where's my niece?"
"Director Brinson wants to talk to you. Your niece Antonia is already there."
"Am I being charged with anything?" Joe asked, "Because if I'm not, then I demand that you bring Antonia to me."
Joe thought the Guard Leader was going to slap him, but he apparently thought better of it.
Then the Guard Leader covered him mouth with a cloth soaked in chloroform, and Joe collapsed.
But not before he activated the GPS button on his phone.
----------
Part 9--
Unfortunately, when Joe pushed the GPS button, it may have put his brother in more danger than Joe originially thought.
When the GPS function was activated, a signal went not only to David and the other members of the band, but it went to Jeremiah, Julia, and Nik as well. Seven people knew where Joe was being taken, but only one could do anything about getting to Joe in time.
Jeremiah saw the activation on his phone and knew immediately that Joe, and possibly Antonia, were in danger.
Problem was, Jeremiah was in the middle of a statistics class at the time.
After the class ended an hour and a half later, Jeremiah noticed that Joe's location had changed. Jeremiah knew where Joe was.
Under the Carson's house? Jeremiah thought. "Must be a trap Brinson is setting for me," he said under his breath. He couldn't believe that his mother's sister was the Region Director, and that she was doing all this shit to get him to talk. Imposters, his brother and niece getting kidnapped, his aunt a leader in the illegitimate government? Jeremiah wished he'd just gone to Northwestern University instead.
He headed towards the Carson's house. In his bookbag, Jeremiah had two guns with ammo. He hadn't had to use them yet and hoped this wasn't the time for that.
He had to get his family out of trouble, and had no idea that from Chicagoland, there would be help coming.
----------
"What the hell is this all about?" David said when Dan presented him with the GPS reports from Joe's phone, and a message from Jeremiah that his brother and their niece might be in trouble.
"Jere may have to use force after all, and he messaged me to do a background check on his mother," Dan said.
"Hasn't his mother been dead for most of his life?" Mike asked.
"Yes," Dan said, "but wait til you hear what I found out."
"I'm almost afraid to ask," David said.
"Here, I'll let you read it for yourself."
/NAME: DONOVAN, ANTONIA ROSE BRINSON
BIRTHDATE (MM/DD ONLY): 08 09
BIRTHPLACE: BOSTON, MASS
MARRIAGES: DONOVAN, JOSIAH DAVID (DEC'D)
OTHER RELATIONSHIPS: FARLEY, KYLE J.
CHILDREN: FARLEY, EMILY ROSE
DONOVAN, JEREMIAH MATTHEW
DONOVAN, JOSEPH PAUL
CAUSE OF DEATH: BLUNT FORCE TRAUMA (PRIMARY)
STAB WOUNDS (SECONDARY)
PARENTS: BRINSON, ANTHONY JAMES (DEC'D)
BRINSON, KATHERINE ROSE DAVIS (ASSUMED DEC'D)
SIBLINGS: BRINSON, HEARLD JEREMIAH
BRINSON, JOSEPH PETER
BRINSON, KARLA ANNE
BRINSON, TRACY RENEE (DEC'D, AGED 2)/
"Holy fucking shit! Antonia and Karla were sisters!" David said. "Oh, dear God! I sent those two boys right into the hands of the illegitimate government!"
"What's the next move, David?" John asked.
"Do you know how powerful Karla Brinson is?" David asked the other three in the room. "She had her own parents murdered, she possibly killed her sister, and now she's going after Jeremiah and Joe because of their affiliation with us! And Jeremiah is about to walk right into her trap, if this GPS report is current."
"That one isn't," Dan said; "But this one is!"
Jeremiah was about to enter the Carson's house, where Joe and their niece Antonia were being held.
"Jeremiah better be careful, and rely on the training that Peter San Marco gave him, because he's going to need all of that knowledge to get himself out of this mess," David said.
----------
The members of Disturbed weren't the only ones who knew of Jeremiah's predicament. A previous savior was about to defy her parents and save her brothers.
----------
David put a call out to Morbus.
"Yes, David?" the assassin asked when he received the message.
"New Haven. Dan's bringing the coordinates to you now. This is a Code Red."
Morbus knew Code Red was that an agent was in trouble. "Who am I looking for?" he asked David.
"Your daughter's brothers."
"All three of them?"
"No, just Jeremiah and Joe. Nik is safe here on the compound."
Dan knocked at the door to Morbus' living quarters and delievered the coordinates to him. "Good Luck, Morbus, and Godspeed."
"Thank you, brother Dan."
----------
Julia grabbed her bag, her weapons, and made her way to the private airstrip where there was a Disturbed Ones plane waiting.
She didn't see anyone about, so she snuck onboard and hid in a little used conference room. Any passengers would sit in the main cabin.
She saw Morbus board the plane and thought the worst-- that he was looking for her. But he just sat in a seat, dressed in his usual black attire, and went over strategy.
She started to do the same, and hoped that this time, she could beat Morbus at his own game. She had her target in mind, and her eyes became focused on the hunt.
She was, after all, her father's daughter. She just didn't know that her father was also on the plane.
----------
The next morning, Jordan noticed that Julia hadn't come down for breakfast and went to her room to wake her, convinced the girl had simply overslept.
What Jordan found, however, was an empty bed.
Oh, my God, girl, what have you done? was Jordan's last rational thought.
Then she screamed David's name at the top of her lungs.
----------
Part 10--
David tore down the hall as soon as heard Jordan screaming his name. Once in Julia's bedroom, he saw why.
"Julia's missing, David," Jordan said in a hyped up voice. "They've got her, I was afraid something like this would happen!"
"Who's got her? Jordan...talk to me!"
"The fucking bastards, they took my girl from me! They took Jacob, now they're taking our daughter, too!"
"Jordan, calm down!" David said to her, but Jordan seemed to be getting more upset, screaming words he couldn't even understand. She swore that she wouldn't lose Julia a second time, and now she had. She was upset to the point of hysteria. David was at a loss as to what to do. He'd never seen his lover like this, and he was concerned.
Jordan continued to scream insults at anyone she thought had taken Julia from her, and David realized Jordan was having a major flashback, triggered by Julia's disappearance. But he couldn't calm her down. Talking to her didn't seem to help. He rubbed her back because sometimes that helped by forcing her to calm down when she was upset.
Instead of calming down, something in Jordan's brain clicked over to survival mode, and the next thing David knew, she had pushed him against the dresser with such force that everything on top fell to the floor, including a picture of Julia with the San Marcos taken when she was just a few months old.
"Where is my daughter you bastard!" Jordan screamed at David, though David knew she wasn't talking to him, it still upset him.
"Jordan! It's me, David! Please, baby...Jordan!"
When she started pummeling him with her fists, he knew he needed to get the doctor. As far as he knew though, he and Jordan were the only ones in the house.
He was still struggling with her when Nik appeared in the doorway to Julia's room and asked, "What the hell is going on here?!"
"Jordan...needs a doctor, Nik," David said between blows. "Call the Medical Center...now, boy, MOVE!" he yelled when Nik just stood there, not believing what he was seeing.
Within minutes, the doctor was there, giving Jordan a shot to calm her down. When she was calm, she simply fell asleep. David picked her up and carried her to the sofa in the living room and laid her down there.
He told the doctor what had happened, and how Jordan got extremely upset. The doctor said it might be a good idea to have Jordan hospitalized overnight for observation. David reluctantly agreed.
After accompanying Jordan to the Medical Center, David came back home to an empty house. He knew where Julia had gone, and he'd talk to her about it when she returned. If she returned.
He sat on the sofa and put his head in his hands. God, give me a minute to compose myself, he thought.
Then he got on the phone. He needed to warn someone to be on the lookout for a petite brunette fourteen year old with murder on her mind.
----------
"She what?!" Morbus said when David called to ask him to be on the lookout for Julia. "She ran away from home to complete a mission? David, are you nuts?"
"Morbus, I'm pretty sure she's headed to where you're going," David said. "She may have even been on the plane with you."
"She's running on pure emotion because her brothers are in danger," Morbus said. "She could get killed that way."
"Morbus, what was I supposed to do?" David asked; "Lock her in her room until she's 18?"
"David, I'll be looking for her, but I'm still going to complete my mission," Morbus said.
"That's why I sent you there."
After hanging up with David, Morbus continued to concentrate on his target. He didn't like to kill women if he could help it, but this one was hellbent on spilling as much blood as possible, she didn't care if were family, or strangers.
He didn't know that his own flesh and blood would beat him to it. He resigned himself to the fact that he'll have to train Julia properly to be an assassin.
Who else would take over if Morbus lost his eyesight?
----------
Part 11--
A small, dark figure skulked around corners and kept their identity hidden from any New Army troops patrolling the area. They knew that they had been allowed to have been seen full in the face, they might be recognized, and that was something they could not afford to happen.
Finding their way around somewhere they had never been was pretty easy thanks to the technology they possessed. They found the location where Disturbed Ones were being held prisoner and made a strategy to take the enemy by surprise; by doing that, it would not give the enemy time to react. That would make the visitor's job easier.
They knew that if they were running purely on emotion, then innocent people could get hurt. So they put all emotion aside and concentrated on the mission ahead. The mission, they knew, was to eliminate the Region Director of the New England Region, and any other enemy combatants. The objective was to get family members out alive and reunited with their loved ones.
They felt the familiar feeling of revenge and the acrid smell of spilled blood fill their nostrils. There was no place for mistakes in this mission. The hunt was on, and they fed off their own adrealine. They had deadly aim, precision accuracy and skills beyond what trained soldiers get.
And youth. Literally.
They could not fail; they would not fail.
---------->
Jeremiah entered the Carson's house and saw no one about. He could see the peanut butter and jelly sandwich sitting on the counter, waiting for Antonia Carson's return from school. Except it was nearly midnight, long after the five year old, and Joe, would have gone to bed.
Unsheathing his weapon, Jeremiah relied heavily on the training that Peter San Marco had given him, and the additional training that he, his brothers, and Julia received from Morbus.
He heard motion somewhere in the house, so he turned and aimed his weapon in the direction of the sound. As he made his way into the study, he suddenly was surrounded by New Army troops; but before any of them could get a shot off, Jeremiah had shot all but one dead. That one now had his automatic weapon trained on Jeremiah's head.
Jeremiah knew he had one more shot, and that shot needed to count. Moving suddenly to catch the soldier off guard, Jeremiah shot him in the face, and he fell to the floor with a thud.
Checking to see if there were any other people in the house with the automatic rifle that had previously been trained on his head, Jeremiah was satisfied that there appeared to be no one else.
There was always the possibility that there was someone else, Jeremiah thought as he took a second, then a third, tour around the house and its rooms. But something struck Jeremiah wrong.
It was at that second that he felt someone overtake him. Jeremiah fought back, but seemed to be powerless against a stronger foe. Then he felt the cloth soaked in chloroform placed over his nose and mouth and Jeremiah felt weakened suddenly. He had the presence of mind to press the Urgent button on his phone before losing consciousness. He hoped, as he fell into a dark abyss, that would signal someone to send help. Later, when he regained consciousness, a familiar figure held a gun to his chest and said, “Welcome, nephew. So glad you could make it to our family reunion, my dear.”
Help was about to come in the form of a defiant, but deadly, force. And God help anyone who got in her way.
---------->
Morbus made his way to the same place the previous one did. He breached the threshold of the Carson's home and saw dead New Army troops, and wondered if Julia had already been here.
He couldn't take the chance on that so he made his own rounds about the house. He spied a familiar pistol lying at the feet of one of the dead soldiers. It was Jeremiah's gun, Morbus thought with a brief sigh of relief. Maybe Julia hadn't been here; perhaps she saw that this was more than she could handle alone, and headed back to the plane.
The more that Morbus thought about it, the more unlikely that scenario was. Julia just wasn't any fourteen year old girl, she was his daughter, and she knew how to fight her way out of any situation. He'd seen her do just that on many occasions when Peter had staged mock fights between her and her brothers, and he did the same in Peter's absense.
If she was here, or even in the immediate area, she more than likely would be laying low until the right moment, then strike. That was how she'd been taught.
Morbus pushed Julia aside for a moment to concentrate on his target, Karla Brinson. She would kill anyone, family, friend, foe, a total stranger if the occasion called for it, and the Committee would cover up her crimes and protect her back. That she has put Jeremiah, Joe, their sister and her family in harm's way was inexcuseable; that it was her own family members made Morbus sick.
His assignment was still the same: take out the target, any additional enemy combatants, and get the family to safety. He just didn't know that Julia had the same plans. Except to her, it was save her brothers, their sister and her family. She would have no trouble killing anyone who got in her way.
Morbus knew that he'd have to start training Julia the right way to be an assassin. If that meant the moment he got back, so be it.
But now, he was on the hunt.
---------->
Jordan awoke in a hospital bed, and suspected the reason why she was there. She didn't need a doctor to tell her that she'd had a brief break with reality that was triggered by the disappearance of her daughter.
She knew that whatever she said or did while in that state she would not have any memory of. She just wondered who she had taken her rage out on.
Then she saw David sleeping in a chair, and her heart sank.
She saw the cuts and bruises on his exposed skin and knew she had tried to beat him up. A cut above his left eyebrow looked to have been stitched; and another on his chin in the area where his labrets curled under it. He didn't wear them unless he was making an appearance, and he wasn't wearing them now.
“David, please...” she said softly; “Please forgive me for treating you so badly.” She then began to sob. What have I done to this incredible man who did nothing but give me his heart, his soul, his love...
Jordan didn't see David stir in the chair and wake up slowly.
He saw that she was awake and went over to where she lay in the bed. She looked up at him and he saw her tears. “Oh, Jordan...” he said as he wiped them away; “don't cry, baby. It's okay...”
David took Jordan into his arms and held her, all the while she muffled apology after apology into his neck. He stroked her dark hair, her face, her shoulders. “It's okay, angel,” he said to her. “Please don't cry anymore...”
That only made her cry harder, and David's heart absolutely broke.
I will never rest until the people who hurt you so deeply are brought to justice, he thought defiantly. They will fucking pay for the shit they put you and others through.
The Illegals would feel his wrath. This shit has gone on long enough, he said to himself. It's time to end this!
----------
Part 12--
When Jordan was strong enough, she and David talked about Julia's disappearance.
"Why did she leave? Was it something I did wrong?" Jordan asked. Now convinced that no one took Julia, Jordan was having trouble with the idea that Julia would just run off.
"No, Jordan, it was nothing you did," David said gently; "Julia thinks she has something to prove. She is frustrated that she is only a teenager and can't do things to help the cause that would make a difference."
"What does she think she can do?"
David looked at Jordan and wondered what to tell her about where he thought, no, he knew, where Julia had gone.
"She thinks she can use her firearms and survival training to help the cause."
"You mean she wants to kill people? Kill our enemies? Like what Morbus does for you?" Jordan asked, knowing it sounded stupid to her.
"Yes," David said. "She is very good with weapons, and she's small enough that she could hide anywhere."
"I don't want her doing that," Jordan said. "She's the only thing that connects me to Jacob. I can't lose her..."
"Jordan, I don't think you or I will have any say in the matter," David said. "She's a stubborn girl, and in a couple of years, she won't need permission to pursue whatever it is she wants to do. Morbus has offered to train her, but not until she's sixteen."
"She gets that stubborn streak from both me and Jacob," Jordan said. "You're right, she's going to do what she wants whether we like it or not. Jacob and I would have never gotten together if we weren't stubborn." She let out a small laugh, which made David smile.
"That's my girl," he said tenderly.
"Do you have any ideas on where Julia may have gone?" Jordan asked.
"Yes," David said.
"Where?"
David said nothing at first, wondering how much he should tell Jordan about the trouble that Jeremiah and Joe have found themselves in. Then he decided that Jordan was going to find out one way or another, so he said,
"New Haven."
"New Haven?" Jordan asked. "She ran off to see Jeremiah and Joe?"
"It's not that easy, Jordan, though I wish it were," David said. "Jeremiah and Joe found some things out recently that have put them in danger. I've sent Morbus to take care of the problem. I think Julia may have stowed away on the plane that took Morbus there, thinking that she could take care of the problem on her own."
"Oh, dear God," Jordan moaned. "Does Morbus know this?"
"Yes," David said. "I contacted him after you discovered Julia missing."
Jordan sighed. "At least he's aware that she might be there and be looking out for her while she's running around in a strange city alone."
Then it was David's turn to sigh. But deep inside, he was worried.
----------
Julia found her way to the roof of an adjoining building and waited for her opportunity to strike. She was totally focused on her target, and knew who the principles in this mission were.
While she waited, she put the silencer on the high powered rifle she carried. How anyone didn't notice a five-foot-three inch teenager carrying a rifle, she had no idea. She set up the sight to see the people in the building next door. There were several New Army soldiers, a woman about fifty, and a younger couple all carrying weapons of their own. On the other side of the room from where the armed party stood. Julia recognized Jeremiah and Joe, then another young couple she recognized from photographs of Jeremiah and Joe's sister Amber and her husband Drew; and a child about five or six years old.
Julia quickly realized that all five of them would all die at some point.
Her view of the armed individuals was perfect to take them all out. All she needed now was a clear shot.
----------
Morbus made it to the same building and went immediately to the roof. Upon seeing Julia staking out her position, he decided to let her take it. If she got into trouble, he'd help her out.
He was virtually invisible in one corner about 300 yards away from Julia, ready to scramble to her aid if she needed it. He had to somehow let her know that he was there without making any noise to distract her.
He flipped open his satellite phone and typed out a message. It would get sent to Julia's phone, but also to David, Mike, Dan and John as well.
JULIA: I AM APPRX 300 YDS FRM YOU. DONT TURN AROUND TO LOOK. TAKE OUT ANY ARMED COMBATS. IF YOU NEED ASSIST, HIT THE RED BUTTN ON YR PHONE. MORBUS.
Morbus pressed "send" and hoped she looked at her phone at least once.
----------
Julia felt the phone vibrate against her hip. She removed it and read the message and thought, shit, how did he know I was here? Then she realized that he had tracked her through GPS. She didn't like the idea that he found her, but was grateful that he could assist her if she needed it.
What she didn't know is that she wasn't the only one to get the message. That never even crossed her mind. She was intent on taking out the targets, getting her brothers and their family to safety, then going home to explain why she disobeyed her mother and David.
----------
"David," Dan said. "Good news. Morbus made contact with Julia. He's going to let her do the job."
"I saw his message," David said, "but I didn't want to say anything while I was with Jordan. She's been though enough for one day."
"You thinking that Julia could do Morbus' job when she's older?" Mike asked.
"If Morbus' eyesight is as bad as the doctor let on, I may have no other choice. There isn't anyone else who is as good a shot as Julia," David said.
But I hope that I can change things before Julia is old enough to be a professional assassin, he thought.
----------
Part 13--
The reception inside the room that Julia was watching was pretty chilly.
Jeremiah was forced to give up his weapons, and forced into a chair then strapped into it, just as Joe, Amber, Drew, and Antonia were. He realized that they were all going to die at some point.
Karla Brinson, the fake Amber and Drew, and three New Army soldiers stood before him and his family.
"It is so nice to have the family gathered round again, isn't it, Jeremiah?" Karla said with a sneer. "It's been much too long since all that abandonment business when your sister and father went to jail and your mother was murdered. Now you'll tell me the things I need to know."
"And if I refuse," Jeremiah asked.
"Then you'll just have to join your parents in hell, then won't you?"
"He won't tell you jack shit, Karla," Drew said angrily. "Disturbed Ones don't crack!"
"Shut up, won't you Andrew?" Karla said. "We don't really need you anymore or your lovely family. You were just bait to get Jeremiah to come here. And if Jeremiah doesn't tell us what we need to know to bring David Draiman down, then you'll all be meeting in hell."
"I'm not telling you a God damned thing!" Jeremiah said angrily; "We only lived with David a couple of years, and weren't privy to anything you might want to know."
"Oh, you weren't?" Karla asked. "I'll bet you can tell us lots about his relationship with that Resistance whore Jordan Terranova and her half breed daughter Julia."
"I'll never betray the trust they have in us," Jeremiah said. "And Julia is our little sister. Our bond is unbreakable."
"Oh, how touching," Karla said. "Meanwhile..." Karla grabbed one of Antonia's ponytails so hard that some of the hair was pulled from her scalp, which caused the five year old to cry. "You'd risk your niece's life because you have this so called 'unbreakable bond' with that little Jew girl."
"She's your flesh and blood, Karla!" Amber exclaimed. "You'd kill a child for information you're not priviledged to have?"
"Emily, my dear, I've killed people before, some of them were even related to me," Karla said. "It doesn't bother me if I kill all of you, because you're the enemy. Our cause is right, and it's you who are misguided, led into thinking that the way things used to be were the right thing all along? Does Draiman brainwash his followers?"
The fake Amber nodded yes. The fake Drew said nothing.
"So we are brainwashed, huh?" Jeremiah sneered. "You think any one man has that kind of pull? It took a group of men to write the Constitution, a document you now say is irrelevant? It worked for over 235 years, then you people come along and brainwash people into thinking that Communism is just."
"You have that wrong, nephew," Karla said. "We're not Communists. We're realists. The old way wasn't working, so we fixed it."
"By putting innocent people in prison for no reason!" exclaimed Jeremiah.
"Mixed race and mixed faith marriages are illegal. The children who result from these couplings are not pure, therefore are outcasts. We believe in one race, one faith. If you disagree, you deserve to die," Karla said. "Since you and your brother are not pure, you're outcasts. You should be either in prison or dead. Draiman is a Jew, he has a big mouth, and he spreads lies. If we could get to him, this 'war' as he likes to call it would be over."
"It is you who spreads lies, you and your bogus leaders!" Joe said heatedly. "Many innocent people have been hurt, maimed and killed by the New Army on the orders of the fake President and her handlers!"
"Sarah Kathryn Hope is a wise woman. She doesn't need handlers to tell her how to do her job," Karla said. "Her policies are just and fair."
"Bullshit," Jeremiah said. "She couldn't win a fair election, so her handlers stole it for her, assassinated the rightful winner, and was made President for Life. Oh, yeah, real fair and just there, 'Auntie Karla'!"
Karla was losing her patience with this smart mouthed kid. He was just like his mother-- she thought she had all the answers and so did her kid.
"Enough, I'm tired of all this fucking shit!" She looked at Jeremiah and said,
"You tell me what I want to know, or you won't leave here alive. None of you will."
High above on the roof next door, Karla didn't know "that little Jew girl" was about to take her out.
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Julia adjusted her aim now that the fake Amber was in her sights. Once she went down, fake Drew would go to her aid and Julia would get him. Karla would try to make a break for it with the New Army troops, and Julia would get them, too.
Inside, Karla, fake Amber and fake Drew all took turns trying to get Jeremiah to give up any secrets about David. Jeremiah refused and was met with a slap in the face, or a kick to the stomach, or being choked until he nearly passed out.
Just then, fake Amber fell, and Jeremiah noticed a nice, neat blood red entry wound right between the eyes.
Julia squeezed the trigger. Fake Drew fell next to fake Amber with the same wound.
"What the fuck is going on!" Karla said, losing her cool. She got flustered and tried to make a break for it with the New Army guards covering her. Julia picked off all three of them in succession. Karla headed back to the front of the room, grabbed one of fake Drew's guns and started shooting wildly in any direction. One bullet found its way into the real Drew's thigh, just missing a major artery.
Then Karla made the one mistake Julia was hoping she would make. Karla started to panic. When she faced the window where Julia could see her, Julia pulled her trigger once more, the bullet easily finding its target in Karla's neck at the jugular vein. Karla Brinson was dead before she hit the floor.
Those inside never heard the shots that came from outside. Jeremiah wondered who was shooting from the rooftop next door. That question was answered when Julia and Morbus burst into the room.
Morbus cut the restraints on the chairs to free everyone. Julia got everyone together and told them, "We don't have much time. New Army patrols this area every fifteen minutes. They just passed when we were on our way down here. So we have, maybe, less than ten minutes to get out of here."
The group followed Julia and Morbus out to the street. Morbus had broken into a car, and Julia ushered the group inside the vehicle.
Jeremiah went to the driver's side to get in, but Julia told him to get in the front passenger's seat, that she was driving this car to the airstrip. Morbus would meet the group there.
"You can drive?!" Jeremiah asked Julia. "When did you learn to drive?"
"Nik showed me a few things," Julia said. "Now be quiet and let me get us out of here!"
The car started up just the way Morbus said it would, and she headed to the airstrip. Just then, a dark car started following them, and Julia floored it.
"Jules are you trying to get us killed?" Jeremiah yelled at her as she sideswiped other cars and went the wrong way down one way streets. The occupants of the car behind them started shooting at them.
"Jere, take this and return fire!" Julia exclaimed as she handed Jeremiah a gun and kept driving towards the airstrip. "Remember Peter used to play this game with us where we had to shoot from a vehicle. This is real, so start shooting at the sons of bitches, okay?"
Holy fuck, what's gotten into Jules! Jeremiah thought as he shot at the car filled, he could now see, with New Army troops. He took out a couple, but the driver and a couple of other passengers were still with them.
Just then, off in the distance, Julia heard a train.
"Shit!" she said.
"What, what?!" Amber cried out.
"A train! We're not going to make it across the tracks before it reaches the entrance to the airstrip!" Julia said. "I'm going to jump over it!"
"The fuck you will, Jules!" Jeremiah said excitedly.
Just then, Julia broke through a barricade that led to an unfinished highway onramp. The onramp stopped about ten feet above the train tracks, and if she sent the car airborne just right, they'd sail into the entrance to the airstrip.
This was a move the vehicle chasing them wasn't anticipating, and sure enough, the train was blocking the entrance as it went by.
"Here we go!" Julia cried, and Jeremiah screamed, "Jesus fucking Christ, Julia! Are you insane?!"
The car was now airborne, flew over the passing train, and landed hard on the other side at the entrance to the airstrip. The tires deflated immediately on impact, and everyone inside the car was shaken up, but they were alive.
The same couldn't be said about the New Army troops in the car that was chasing them. They crashed into the train and burst into flames.
"Sorry soldier boys," Julia said without a hint of remorse in her voice.
"Jules," Joe said, "that was very cool!"
"Nik DID NOT teach you that," Jeremiah said. "He's scared of heights!"
"I never said he did, Jere," Julia said laughing. "He only showed me how to dtive."
"I have a question," Amber Carson said. "How old are you, Julia?"
"Fourteen, why?"
"You're not even old enough for a license!"
"Shhh," Julia said, "don't tell anyone!"
"We're just glad that you showed up when you did with that other guy," Drew said, holding Antonia. "What was his name?"
"Morbus," Morbus said as he walked up. He shook Drew's hand with an iron grip.
"You're David Draiman's bodyguard, aren't you?"
"Yes, it's one of the many jobs I perform for the Disturbed Ones," Morbus said.
"Did you train this young lady to shoot like that?" Drew asked.
"No, I cannot take the credit for that," Morbus said. "A weapons specialist named Peter San Marco taught her, Jeremiah, Joe, and their brother Nik how to shoot. The New Army killed him and his wife two years ago, and Julia killed the five troops who came back looking for the children."
"You're a pretty impressive young lady, Julia," Amber said. "We are grateful that you saved our lives. Now maybe we can really get reacquainted with my little brothers."
"There are Disturbed Ones here at the airstrip ready to help you get back home," Morbus said; "They'll help you relocate and get settled in another place if you want. I've been told that you can stay in New Haven. I'd lay low on the Disturbed Ones rallies for a bit though."
"Jules, you want us to come home with you?" Jeremiah asked. "Make things with your mom and David easier?"
"No, Jere," Julia said. "I'll go home with Morbus. I ran away to help you, now I have to take my punishment like an adult."
"In case someone hasn't reminded you," Jeremiah said, "you're only fourteen. You're not an adult yet."
"I took on an adult role, Jere, now I have to admit I disobeyed my parent and take my punishment like an adult."
"Your choice of course," Jeremiah said. "We'll be home for Christmas I'm sure."
"Go get reacquainted with your real sister and her family," Julia said. "I'll see ya when I see ya."
"You're always going to be our little sister, Jules," Jeremiah said, giving Julia a hug. "Ain't nothing going to change that!"
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After Jeremiah and Joe went with the Carsons, Julia and Morbus got on the jet to head back to Chicagoland.
"I'm not going to lecture you, Julia, because it's not my place," Morbus said. "But you owe your mother and David an apology. Jordan didn't take finding you missing very well."
"Is she okay?"
"Yes, but it's been a rough couple of days for her."
Julia was silent for a moment, then she said. "Morbus I owe you an apology, too. I could have gotten us both killed. I'm sorry if I made you, and Mom and David worry. I wanted to help Jeremiah and Joe."
"That's admirable, Julia," Morbus said; "But you have to be properly trained to do this job. No more flying off things in cars, okay? You're not James Bond."
"Who?"
Morbus laughed. "Never mind."
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