Part 1--
Once the band got back to the Chicagoland compound, there was much work to do to plan for the next rally, tentatively scheduled for August in Lowell, in the New England Region. Lowell was a college town located about forty miles north of Boston. It was one of Disturbed's Northeast strongholds, as many college students supported the cause; cities and towns from Boston to the Canadian border were havens for those who had been declared Undesirables. Provincetown, at the tip of Cape Cod, was historically known as safe haven for the GLBT community.
Family-wise, there was much work to be done in the Draiman household to ready the house for the arrival of Jordan and David's twin sons in mid November.
David, in particular, wanted to do some work in the babies' room. Paint the walls, decorate it, put the cribs together (when they were purchased). He even wanted to help Jordan pick out the layettes. Anything to quit thinking about the skeletal remains of his friend that he found in his house in Austin.
He didn't even talk to Jordan about what he found, but she knew him well enough that she knew he had something weighing on his mind. She also knew that if he wanted to talk about what was bothering him, he'd tell her in his own time, on his terms.
Or not.
About three weeks after he'd returned from Austin, and shortly before Julia's 17th birthday, David had one of the worst nightmares he'd ever had. Even worse than the ones that plagued him for years after a girlfriend took her life because of him.
These were even worse because they were so vivid. Like he had been a fly on the wall...
----------
The prisoner had been marched into the center of the palatial living room and forced to disrobe. She fought the bigger and stronger men who literally ripped her clothes from her body. One backhanded her hard enough to make her pass out. But she stayed conscious out of sheer will.
When she was naked, she thought that her captors would try to rape her. Not that would matter, as she had been repeatedly assaulted during the nearly two years she was under house arrest in her home in Guthrie. Her crime, as she had been told: when she was stopped for a burned out taillight on her car, and when she handed over her driver's license, the police officer saw that she had not changed it over to a SouthWest Region license. She had refused out of principle to give up her Oklahoma driver's license, as it had not yet expired.
The officer forced her out of her car and threw her against the hood of his cruiser. He roughly cuffed her hands behind her back and ordered her to get in the back of the car.
"Why am I being arrested?" she asked.
"You had ninety days from the day the SouthWest Region was incorporated to change your license over, and you have not done so," the officer told her with a hint of satisfaction in his voice. "It's been five years, Ms. Travetti."
"My license hasn't expired," she said. "What I understood from the notice I had been sent is that I was to change it over once it expired. It doesn't expire for two years yet."
"That was changed last year, by order of the Committee in the Capitol Sector."
"I was never notified."
"Get in the car, Ms. Travetti, and you can tell the Captain your tale of woe."
She got in the back of the cruiser, her wrists burning because the cuffs were too tight. She could feel the metal digging into her skin.
"Can you loosen these cuffs, officer?" she asked. "They're hurting me."
"No, Ms. Travetti, I cannot."
It was a painful ride to the police station.
Once at the station, the officer removed the cuffs. The metal had indeed cut into her skin, and the cuts were bleeding. When she asked for a napkin or a bandage or something, the officer's response was to pour rubbing alcohol on both wrists. She screamed in pain as the liquid stung the fresh cuts.
"You fucking sadistic bastard!" she screamed at the officer. The officer said nothing, just smirked. Resistance whore, he thought; you deserved that and more!
Once she had calmed down, she was taken into an office to speak with the Captain, a man she knew socially.
She explained that she had not been informed that the rules had changed about how long she had to change her license over, and that she would do so once she was allowed to go.
The Captain asked the officer to leave. Once he was gone, the Captain said,
"I'm sorry, Stefanie, I can't allow that."
"Allow what? To let me go?" she asked.
"Yes," he said. "You're going to be charged with 'willful disobedience of a Federal order'. I think you know why this is."
She was puzzled. She had no idea, and told the Captain so.
"Come on, Stefanie, you know damn well you're on an Undesirable list."
"No, I did not, Robert," Stefanie said. "Am I, or have I, been declared Undesirable?"
"You have three strikes against you," the Captain said. "One, your daughter is a journalist who opposes the New Government; two, you yourself are a broadcaster, and your views are well known; and three, you are friends with one of the New Government's top enemies."
"Oh, so free speech and freedom of the press are no longer allowed?"
"You can say whatever you like on the radio, my dear," the Captain said; "as long as it's within the new guidelines published by the New Government."
"That's bullshit, Robert!" she exclaimed. "You know it and I know it."
"I'm sorry, Stefanie, my hands are tied. You're to be placed on house arrest immediately. Your sons will be sent to a juvenile detention facility... unless their sister wants to take them in."
"No trial? Are you kidding me?!" Stefanie protested. "You call Kathryn, Robert. I'm certain she'll take in her brothers."
"Your lawyer will have to do that," the Captain said. "As a favor, I'll call him. But the rest is up to him."
The Captain called the officer back into the room. "Please take Ms. Travetti to the monitoring station to be fitted with a monitoring cuff."
"But..." Stefanie said as she was led away.
"Goodbye, Stefanie," the Captain said.
The next several hours were torture for her. She had been fitted with a monitoring cuff, which fit around her left ankle. Then she was driven home, where they were met by armed guards. The officer handed Stefanie over to them and left.
"Ms. Travetti," the larger of the three guard said sarcastically; "looks like we're going to be roomies for a while, or until they've decided what to do with your pathetic Resistance ass."
"Where are my boys?" she asked.
"They'll be met at their schools by a runner for the Facility they'll be going to," the big guard said. "Too bad for them that their mother couldn't keep her fucking trap shut."
"Unless your famous daughter can get them out," said another guard. "But that will be hard, since she's wanted by the New Government, too."
"So you'll be watching everything I do in my own home for the next year?" asked Stefanie.
"No," the big guard said. "That what the ankle bracelet is for. If you fuck up, then we come and correct your abberant behavior."
Stefanie sighed. She'd been talking against the New Government since that fake female President took office. Her radio partner had already been arrested, and she feared he was dead. Now her boys were going to be housed with hardened juvenile deliquents? What the hell did they do to deserve that?
Her house arrested lasted twenty-one long months. The guards, whom she'd taken to calling Manny, Moe and Jack, corrected her "abberant" behavior in some of the most sadistic ways-- rape, torture, beatings, starvation. She refused to submit and they would take turns assaulting her until she bled. She'd never crack, never break. She didn't survive cancer, domestic abuse and teen motherhood to give up anything to these animals who forced themselves upon her when she "misbehaved".
One night, she was taken from her home, blindfolded, thrown into the back of a windowless van and driven to God knew where. One the way to wherever she was going, she was asked about her friendship with David Draiman, the leader of the Resistance group known as The Disturbed Ones.
"When did you meet?" she was asked.
"I interviewed him during their first appearance at Ozzfest in 2000," she said. "He liked the questions I asked, and asked for my phone number. We'd see each other socially whenever we were in the same location."
"Did you date?"
"We'd have dinner on occasion, maybe hang out in Chicago when he still lived there, I'd join the band on tour, but we didn't have what you'd call a romantic relationship. I refused to be one of many females he 'dated'."
"You're lying. We know you were intimate with him for some time."
Stefanie said nothing. That part of her relationship with David was none of their business.
"Tell us how he was in bed, Ms. Travetti."
More silence.
"The more you refuse to answer our questions, the worse off you'll be."
Silence.
"You've dug your own grave, Ms. Travetti."
Much later, the van stopped and she was pulled out, the blinfold removed. When she saw where she was, she thought, Oh, God, I'm in Austin. This is David's house!
She was marched into the living room, where she recognized the vase on the end table that she had given him as a housewarming gift.
"Stefanie Travetti," a voice from nowhere said. It was a voice that sounded very familiar to her, but that was impossible. He wouldn't change sides like that, she thought. "You have been charged with being an Undesirable, willful disobedience, and refusal to provide pertinent information. How do you plead?"
"I refuse to answer on the grounds that any information I give would incriminate me," she said in a firm, determined voice.
"That Fifth Amendment shit doesn't work here, Ms. Travetti," the disembodied voice said. "How do you plead?"
"Not guilty."
"You have already been found guilty, Ms. Travetti, and your punishment is death."
"Then why did you ask me how I pled if you've already decided I was guilty?"
"For shits and giggles." Then the voice said,
"Guards, strip the prisoner!"
Before the guards could put their hands on her, Stefanie fought back. She had enough fighting skills to defend herself, and fought with all she had to keep the guards from forcing themselves upon her. Then she felt her clothing being torn and cut away. Before she knew it, she stood naked before a roomful of men.
"Kneel on the floor!" she was ordered from the still unseen person giving the orders.
Before she thought about refusing, a guard forced her to kneel.
"Now, pledge allegiance to the New Government."
"Never!" Stefanie cried out. "I'll never support this bogus, illegal government!"
A guard slapped her. Hard. She did not falter.
"Guards, please prepare to execute the prisoner."
The guards stood behind Stefanie, and when she heard their guns cock, she screamed,
"Noooooooooooo!!!!!"
----------
"NO!" David screamed out of a deep sleep. "Oh, God, NO!"
"David!" Jordan said, alarmed and awakened from sleep by his cries; "David, what's wrong?"
"Oh, God...Jordan," David stammered. "My relationship with a woman I knew at the beginning of my career got her killed! I found her body in the living room of my house in Austin. Her identifcation was found in her mouth...I got her killed, Jordan!"
Jordan saw David trembling uncontrollably, and she knew this is what had been bothering him since he returned from Austin.
"I thought you weren't allowed to go inside the house," she said. "So how do you know it was her?"
David got up and retrieved the jacket he had worn that morning he discovered the body in the living room. He took the two ID cards out of the interior pocket and brought them back to the bed to show Jordan.
"Stefanie Travetti?" asked Jordan. "The radio talk show host?"
"Yes," David said, calming down a little. "I've been trying to find her for years, and now I know what happened to her. That's what my dream was about. It was like being there, watching everything that happened to her. The only thing I didn't see was her execution..."
"You had a physical relationship with her?" Jordan asked.
"It was more like a series of one night stands," David said. "Whenever we got together, we ended up sleeping together. She had young children still at home, so our relationship didn't really go anywhere. I was too young to be tied down and she didn't want to be one of many women I dated then. She was nearly ten years older than me, and she was one of the most patient people I know, but even her patience with me wore thin. She once told me to grow up, and when I told her I was grown, she said, 'No you're not, David. You'll be grown up when you commit to one woman, and not a harem of them.' She was right, but I was too stubborn to see it at the time."
"What happened to her?"
"She was arrested for some stupid thing, I think it was not having the proper driver's license or some such," said David. "And because she spoke out against the New Government on the air. Her daughter being a journalist didn't help."
"Is the daughter anyone I've heard of?" asked Jordan.
"Kit Crowley. She's gone underground now."
"She did 'Kit's Corner' for years," Jordan said. "I had no idea that she and Stefanie Travetti were related. Stefanie seemed too young to have a grown daughter."
"She was," David said. "She had Kit when she was sixteen."
"Ahh, I see," Jordan said. "So why do you think you got her killed? Because the Illegals found out about your relationship with her?"
"I think that's a big part of it," David said. "Several of my friends from the early days of the Disturbed Ones were executed. I shouldn't have been so surprised that Stefanie was among them, but I was."
"This is what you've been so agitated about," Jordan said. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
"I didn't want to give you something else to fret over," David said.
"David," said Jordan softly, "we've been together for nearly ten years; you know you can come to me with anything."
"I know, Jordan, and I'm sorry," David said. "I know you don't like hearing about my past with other women, and I don't like dwelling on it."
"You should tell her family about what you found," Jordan said. "They've probably been wondering what happened to her just like you were."
"Maybe I will," David said. "Might take a while, since I no longer have current contact information for Kit. I even had Danny look, and he found nothing. It's like she and her family fell off the face of the earth."
Jordan hugged her husband. "Let's go back to sleep. I need to be fresh to do shopping for Julia's birthday. I can't believe she's almost an adult!"
"If you think about it, Jord," David said; "Julia's been an 'adult' since she ran off to New Haven at fourteen to save Jeremiah and Joe from the Illegals trap that was set for them. Nothing about that girl surprises me anymore."
"Oh, I'm sure she's got something up her sleeve that will surprise you yet," Jordan said. "I'm not betting against her, that's for sure!"
----------
"What do you want for your birthday, Julia?" Ryan asked her the Saturday morning before her seventeenth birthday the following Thursday.
"I don't know, Ryan," she said. "For the war to be over?"
Ryan laughed. "I wish I could do that for you, Jules, but since I can't... think of something else."
"A couple of new guns, perhaps?"
"How about something special?" asked Ryan.
"You mean like a surprise?" asked Julia. "Something I'm not expecting?"
"Yeah, something like that," Ryan said.
Ryan had bought Julia's engagement ring months ago, when he realized that he wanted to marry her. It has been sitting in a locked box in David's office since then.
He knew where he wanted to ask her to marry him. In the back of the San Marcos house, which had been sitting empty since the couple's deaths five years before. Sometimes, when Julia needed time to think, she hiked over there just to sit on the back stoop, just as she had when she was a little girl. Ryan often found her there when she was upset about something.
Ryan wanted to make it a happy place again for her. He knew that she owned a share of the house along with her brothers as per Peter and Kiera's wills. He even toyed with the idea of buying out Nik, Jeremiah and Joe's shares and fixing it up so that he and Julia could live there.
But for now, he wanted more than anything in the world for Julia to say yes when he asked for her hand in marriage on Thursday.
----------
Sometimes, it took only the pull on the wrong thread to make years worth of lies unravel before one's eyes. Carl Parks was about to find that out from a not so surprising source.
His own daughter.
Lucyn had been gathering information about her father for as long as the New Government had been in power. She had talked to countless women who claimed to have been roughed up by him; two women who had each had a child with him; and dozens of police photos of the condition Parks left them in when he was through with them.
The billboard thing didn't work, except it got her father to pay to have his secrets kept off billboards and got him in trouble with the President. And even she brushed it off, Lucyn thought bitterly. That bitch has to go.
She hatched a new plan. One so evil and twisted that when her father stepped into the trap, there would be no escape. The whole world would know of Carl Parks' failings as a human being. Lucyn knew that it would take a while to implement, but it would be worth it if it worked the way she hoped it would.
Lucyn needed some help, and knew just who to call. She dialed the number of someone she knew well, someone who had helped her with the billboard deal.
When the line on the other end was picked up, Lucyn said,
"Valerie Cooper, please?"
----------
Part 2--
Rick Sasser, meantime, was hatching devious plans of his own.
He wanted to bring the Committee down and see it disbanded for good. He felt that Jed McClayne and Neil Hope took the easy way out by dying or having a nervous breakdown.
It had to be done so that Parks and Sizemore wouldn't realize what was happening until it was too late to stop it. Sasser wanted it to look like he has nothing to do with it. With the Committee out of the way, the President would fall next, as she still depended on the Committee to make her Presidency work, no matter how much she insisted that she was in total control of her office. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together knew she wasn't and never had been. An effective leader would have shown Parks and Sizemore the door when their exploits came to light.
I'd have fired their asses so fast, Sasser thought, that they'd never knew what hit them. Maybe some time in the prisons they helped create would change their minds about all out total control over people they deemed inferior to themselves.
Sasser hated that the leadership of a once great nation was using Hitler-esque methods of controling those who disagreed with them. He hated the fact that he was part of such a government. At least they haven't done mass killings, Sasser thought; Plenty of people have died in the prisons though.
It was because of Parks' and Sizemore's inability to control their lustful desires and violent natures that Sasser sought help from an unlikely source. He offered to be a spy for the most powerful anti-government group in the country shortly after he was named as Neil Hope's replacement. Sasser could see why Hope had a nervous breakdown: not only was he married to the ineffective President, but the direction the country was taking in dealing with dissenters was probably the last straw in his fragile mind.
Sasser had been taken up on his offer to be a spy, and as such, he filed reports to his new employers after each meeting of the Committee. Thank God for secure, untraceable and unhackable internet connections, he thought; This wouldn't work otherwise.
If sex was the only way to bring down the Committee, then it could be done. Let's get Parks, Sizemore and the President all at once, Sasser said to himself. The sooner, the better. I hate being something I'm not.
He then got on his secure phone and called the man who handled all the intel for his employers.
----------
There was something about that house that was unnerving to the teenage boy who passed it every day on his way to work in town.
The sign leading to the driveway said "The House of Hope". But there was something decidedly hopeless about the house he knew lay about a mile beyond the sign.
One day he decided to call someone to check it out. There's something going on there that he was not aware of. Maybe it's a crack house, or someone's doing something illegal there, he thought.
He knew that the old couple who had lived there had died long before he was born. He'd seen a man in his sixties there in the last few months, but he probably isn't there anymore, either, the boy thought. Maybe he was just getting ready to sell the place.
The boy got to work and forgot all about having someone call the authorities to check the place out. When he remembered a few weeks later, it would be because the secret of The House of Hope could no longer be ignored.
And what he found there would shake him to his core.
----------
"Danny, could you try and find info on someone for me?" asked David the Monday after his nightmare about Stefanie Travetti.
"About what, brother?"
"If I gave you a list of aliases, could you find out who they belong to?"
"I can do that, David," Dan said. "Are they all for one person, or a series of people?"
"Right now, just two people." David said, and handed Dan a list of aliases he wanted the guitarist to try.
"This isn't Kit Crowley again, is it?" asked Dan.
"She's one of them, yes," said David. "I have information for her and I need current contact info. Try under her given name, Kathryn, first. Then try the aliases in the left column. Those are just the ones I know."
"Whose aliases are in the right column?" Dan asked. "A sister, an aunt?"
"Her mother."
"And her mother's name is..."
"Stefanie Travetti."
"That talk radio chick that disappeared a few years ago? She's not old enough to be Kit Crowley's mother," Dan said. "That would have made her, what, sixteen, seventeen years old?"
"Exactly," David said. "Stefanie was sixteen when her daughter was born. She then married Kit's father and had three more kids before they divorced when the youngest was still an infant."
"I see," Dan said. "So I'm supposed to find someone who doesn't want to be found. I've tried to find Kit Crowley before, remember, and came up with nothing."
"That's why I'm having you check aliases," David said. "She could be using any of those. That first one is her legal name."
Dan looked at the first name on the list: Kathryn Leigh Oxley. Why did that name sound so familiar, Dan wondered.
"Who is Crowley?" Dan asked. "And who is Oxley?"
"Crowley was her late first husband," David said. "He died eight years ago. Oxley is her current husband. He's in prison in the SouthEast Region. The New Government have been trying to send him back to his native Australia for two years. They don't recognize Oxley's naturalization as an American citizen prior to the New Government taking over."
"The Illegals pretty much cancelled the citizenship of thousands of people who had been naturalized US citizens before they took over," Dan said.
"That's why Kit and her children are in hiding," David said; "The New Government wants to send them with her husband when they finally succeed in deporting him; even though she and all of her children were born in the United States."
"I'll see what I can do, David," Dan said. "And I'll see what happened to Stefanie Travetti. I remember her from the early days of the band. You had a thing for her."
"Indeed I did," David said. "But I was too young and stupid to appreciate her when I had the chance."
"She did rock radio then," Dan said. "I wonder why she became a talk radio host."
"If you saw your country going down in flames, wouldn't you tell the world?" David asked. "That's what she tried to do. Tell the world. And it may have gotten her killed."
Dan noticed the catch in David's voice, but didn't say anything.
He remembered Stefanie Travetti. She was a stunning woman closer in age to Dan that she was to David. She and David just clicked. Dan was certain that their friendship was more than either of them let on. This was before the cancer she contracted nearly killed her. By that time, she and David had moved on, but still kept in touch. Until that one day about ten years before when David got word that Stefanie had gone missing. He'd been looking for her ever since.
I'm kind of curious myself, Dan thought.
----------
Asking Dan to find out where Kit was hiding, and any information about Stefanie he could find, made David wondered if he was about to open up a Pandora's Box that should stay closed.
He thought briefly about calling Dan and just getting contact info for Kit, and not look into what really happened to Stefanie, but decided not to.
David's curiosity was getting the better of him, and he knew it; but as Stefanie herself was fond of saying, "We met on a journey through life. We had to travel this road to get to where we are now."
Stefanie knew she was just a stop along David's road through life. He wanted more than that from her, but she knew that's all she would be to him. A friend. A memory. He had to take that road to get to where he was now.
With Jordan and their children.
But he had to know the truth about what happened to her.
----------
Rebekah was called into David's office one afternoon. When she got there, she saw that Morbus and Director Collins were also present.
This can't be good, Rebekah thought as her suspicious nature took over.
She wondered if it was about her family; her twin sister, her older brother and her father. Why else would Christine be here? she asked herself.
"Rebekah," David started out, "you have done an excellent job since you've been with us, and I wanted you to know that up front. However, we have an assignment for you that you may want to think about for a few days before you give us an answer."
"What's the assignment?" she asked.
"Before we tell you," Madame Director said, "I have to tell you that I had to tell David who you really are. This assignment involves your family."
"What about them?" asked Rebekah. "Are they okay?"
"If we don't intervene," David said, "they won't be. Your brother, Luke, has received a threat to his life because of the jailbreak he helped pull off several months ago. The Illegals want to not only kill him, but your sister and father as well. We know who they're going to send to do the assassination, and your job would be to kill the assassin."
"If it's to save my family, I don't have to think about it, David," Rebekah said. "I'll do it!"
"Wait, though," Madame Director said. "There's a catch. You cannot under any circumstances make your presence known to your family. There will be time for that later. For now, just kill the person the Illegals are going to send to kill Luke."
"David said that you know who they're going to send," Rebekah said. "Who is it?"
Christine cleared her throat before she spoke. Either Rebekah was going to like or hate the person intel indicated was the intended New Government assassin.
"Rebekah," Madame Director began, "the man's name is Paul Francesco. He's been recruited specifically to carry out the hit on Luke."
Rebekah couldn't say she was surprised. Paul Francesco was a dangerous man. She knew that for a fact.
"I'll do it," she said in a firm voice. "It would be my pleasure to bring that motherfucker down! When do I leave?"
Morbus and David looked at each other. Their expressions said to each other sound familiar?
"Tomorrow morning," Morbus said. "Francesco won't be doing the hit for three more days, but you'll need to be in place in Montpelier before he even arrives."
"I will not let you down," said Rebekah. "I've wanted to kill that bastard ever since he got me hooked on smack and got me pregnant."
David's eyesbrows shot up in surprise. He knew all the details about Rebekah's former life as Angela, but not that she held so much anger. Sounds took much like Julia to be a coincidence, except for the drugs and the pregnancy.
"No emotions, Rebekah," Madame Director cautioned. "That can get you killed."
"Yes, Madame Director, I know."
Rebekah was dismissed to prepare for her assignment. Prepare to die, motherfucker, she thought. Because that stupid teenage girl you hooked on smack and knocked up is back for revenge.
----------
"Holy shit!" David said after Rebekah left; "If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I'd have sworn that was Julia about to off an Illegals assassin."
"They are very similar," Morbus said. "They don't even realize their similarities yet. It's a good thing they don't realize they're related."
Morbus paused, then said to Christine,
"You're familiar with this scum that we're sending Rebekah to eliminate, aren't you, Madame Director."
"Unfortunately, I am," Christine said. "He's caused her a lot of pain. She had to give up the child she had with him in order to come work for me. Rebekah knew she was in no condition to take care of a child. She could barely take care of herself then."
"Because of the drugs?" asked David.
"Yes," Christine said. "I suspected that Francesco was pimping Rebekah out, too, but I've never been able to prove it, and Rebekah won't tell me."
"So he deserves to die," Morbus said. "Hell, I'll kill him myself!"
"Looks like you'll have to stand in line, old friend," David said. "Rebekah's pissed off enough for everyone in this room, I suspect."
"Damn right," Christine said.
----------
Part 3--
Dan's job monitoring the intel that came into the compound's offices was one of the most gratifying, yet frustrating, things he's ever done outside of music.
Finding contact information for Kit Crowley was like looking for a needle in a haystack. There simply wasn't anything out there that indicated that Crowley and her family were even still alive, much less have any way to contact them.
Dan had an easier time finding information about Stefanie Travetti. Just the basics of the New Government's case against her and her broadcating partner Dale Laramie. Some info about her early life; the names and birthdates of her children; that she was divorced; that she had been on house arrest until seven years prior; then, nothing. No indication that she had been killed or was in hiding.
He then found something. An article she had written about Disturbed during their first tour after they signed their record deal. This was when she and David began what they both had said was a friendship. Dan and the others suspected there was more going on, but neither David nor Stefanie said a thing.
The article led to something else. A series of videos of Kit Crowley reporting on various events. She was still in her twenties then, and was very good at what she did.
In one video, there was something that caught Dan's eye. A name.
He checked the list of aliases that David wanted him to try. The name that was on the video was also on the list of aliases.
Dan typed the name into the search field on the program that helped him find phone numbers. Within seconds, that name came back with a phone number.
He wrote it down quickly and got David on the phone.
----------
That night, as Christine prepared for her trip back to the Arlington Sector in the Capitol Region the following morning, there was a knock on the door to her room in the compound lodge. She had a feeling she knew who it was; other than that, no one other than David and Morbus knew she was here. Not even her sister, who was watching her son, knew exactly where Christine was.
Still she was surprised that it was Morbus on the other side of the door.
Christine opened it slightly. "May I come in, Madame Director?" asked Morbus.
She opened the door enough for him to enter, then closed and locked it behind him.
"What can I do for you, this evening, Morbus?" she asked.
"I'm beginning to feel that sending Rebekah on this mission could be dangerous for her," he said.
"She's killed people before, Morbus," Christine said. "I have complete faith in her abilities. You've taught her well."
"Thank you, Christine," he said. "The fact remains that this assignment is an emotional trigger for her on a couple of fronts. First, it's her brother she's trying to protect; secondly, the assassin is someone she knew in her previous life."
"Then who better to send to take care of this problem, Jacob?"
"One of the other girls, perhaps?"
"Unless Rebekah has to seduce Francesco, then I'd agree," Christine said. "But all she's going to do is kill him. She doesn't have to have any contact with him at all."
"I just don't want to put her in anymore danger," Morbus said. "You'd never forgive me if something happened to her."
"Rebekah knows the risks," Christine said. "She's always told me she has nothing to lose. Her family believes she's dead, so they won't miss her."
"But you would," Morbus said. "She's like a daughter to you."
Christine had to admit to herself that Morbus has a point. She was too close to Rebekah. Even JT thought of her as a big sister.
"True," Christine said.
"It's okay, you know," Morbus said. "How do you think I felt knowing that Julia was my daughter and not being able to tell her? And when I finally did, even the way I thought about her changed. But, the girl is stubborn, as I've always said."
"So is Rebekah," said Christine. "I often wondered if her twin sister is the same way."
"I don't know, I only met her briefly when she, her brother and father came to visit Jordan earlier this year."
"Maybe I am too involved, like a mother," Christine said. "I took this poor, broken girl in. Now she's one of the elite female assassins in the country. In some ways I'm proud; and in others, I'm still her boss."
"Chris, I won't let anything happen to that girl, I promise you," Morbus said.
He walked towards her and put his arms around her. He stroked Christine's thick copper hair, and knew he wouldn't be leaving that night. He felt her relax in his embrace.
"Jacob..." she said, but never finished her thought.
Morbus picked her up, carried her over to the bed and laid her on it.
"You made love to me so beautifully when I came to visit you a few weeks ago, Chris," Morbus said. "Please... let me return the favor."
"Please, Jacob," Christine said; "Please..."
She felt him begin to undress her. His hands felt so good on her skin. She heard him whisper endearments to her in a language she didn't understand. She didn't have to understand to get the meaning. It was all in the way it was said.
"My beautiful, delicate Christine..." he whispered to her. "What do you see in me? You see beyond my scars, beyond my disfigurements... what do you see, my beautiful butterfly?"
"Oh, Jacob, you don't know after all this time," she cried out as he began to make love to her; "Your soul, my darling. Your beautiful, perfect soul. The part of you that nothing can touch. No scars, no disfigurements, no stains...your love is pure and true. It's never been about what your body looks like, Jacob. It's always been about your soul."
His lovemaking always brought Christine so much joy, so much love; yet, she had never told him how much she loved him. Not even when she learned she was carrying his child. She was afraid of his rejection.
Their son looked just like the pictures of Jacob before his disfigurement, and he was a happy and joyous little boy. Jacob Taylor was the name she gave him, but almost from birth called him JT.
But, as Jacob made love to her, she was determined to tell him at some point that she truly did love him.
Because she did.
----------
He awoke early to prepare to return to his living quarters, but he watched as Christine slept. He pushed a lock of her long red hair out of her eyes.
You are so beautiful, and deserve more than me, he thought as she slept unaware. Yet, you continue to give me your love, your affection, your desire. I would marry you tomorrow if I wasn't an assassin. I would have married you when you told me you were carrying my child. I thought I couldn't love another the way I love you, my butterfly. You proved me wrong. I know somewhere in your heart, in your soul, you love me as well. Your actions tell me all I need to know.
Morbus got out of the bed and began to dress. He looked over at the beauty laying in the bed known as Christine Collins. Her perfect curves; her creamy, soft skin kissed with freckles; the sea blue eyes that looked upon him with unconditional love. Oh, my darling Christine, he said to himself; I know I can't be everything you deserve, but I want to try...
He turned away from her and finished dressing. It would be daylight soon, and he wanted to be back in his own quarters before the sun came up.
It was his boots that roused Christine from her slumber. He was at the door, about to open it when he heard her say,
"Jacob, don't go."
He turned toward her, seeing that she was sitting up in bed, still naked from their lovemaking; she had an anguished look upon her lovely face.
"I must, Chris," Morbus said. "It will be light soon. I don't want to put you in danger if I should be seen here."
"I know, Jacob," she said sadly. "But there's something I need to tell you..."
Morbus looked at her. The last time she said that phrase, it was followed by the news that she was pregnant with his child.
"What is it, my dearest?" he asked.
Christine knew she had to tell him. After all these years, she had to tell him her real feelings for him. No more being tough about it, no more saying it to the door after he's left her. It had to be now.
"Jacob," she began; "you and I have a lot of history together, and there's one thing I've never said to you."
"And that would be?"
"I don't care about the danger anymore!" she said softly. "I just want you. I love you, Jacob, with all I am or ever could be."
Morbus was in shock. A happy shock. He walked over to the bed and knelt before where she sat. He took both her hands in his.
"I've waited nearly ten years to hear those words come from your lips, Christine," he said. "But I already knew. Your actions gave everything away."
Christine felt tears falling down her face. With a quick motion, Morbus wiped them away. It seemed impossible that this woman would shed tears over him.
"Chris, it's okay," Morbus said to her. "I'm not angry. Is that why you hadn't said anything til now? Because you thought I'd be angry?"
"You've always said emotion is a sign of weakness," Christine said. "You've only displayed your emotions to me. Except when we're making love, you've never seen me get emotional. I can't hold it inside anymore."
"You don't have to," Morbus said. "I was wrong. Women can be strong and still show emotion when it's needed. My daughter taught me that."
"Don't go, Jacob. Please? Please stay with me for a little while?" Christine asked.
"Don't you have to get back to the Capitol Region office?"
"I do, but this is a little more important right now," she said, leaning in to kiss him.
He met her part way. He pulled her to the floor with him. She made love to him. It was the most freeing thing she'd ever done with him.
----------
Dan handed David the contact information he'd found for Kit Crowley.
David looked at the name and smiled. He suspected the name and her location were linked somehow.
"Who the fuck is Marie Laveau?" Dan asked.
"I think she's a voodoo priestess in New Orleans," David said. "Kit covered Hurricane Katrina and became fond of the city and its history."
"So it doesn't surprise you that she may have chosen that name to hide under?" Dan asked.
"There are still people in New Orleans who believe in voodoo," David said. "They'd be afraid of crossing Marie Laveau. Pretty ingenious on Kit's part to use that name."
"They'd be afraid of telling strangers where Marie Laveau was hiding out," Dan said. "And there have been a lot of New Government people looking for Kit and her family."
"Hmmm," David mused aloud, "I wonder if I should chance incurring Marie Laveau's wrath by calling her?"
"You're going to do it, David," Dan said. "Don't give me no bullshit story you're not!"
David only smiled.
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They were in charge of all the surveillance equipment that the Disturbed Ones used to watch people who don't want their activities watched.
Setting a trap was the easy part, Vince Cooper thought. It's getting the target to take the bait is something else. We'll just have to make the bait more enticing, he thought.
He would be leaving to start setting the trap in the Capitol Region, while his sister, Valerie, monitored everything from an abandoned warehouse on the Portsmouth waterfront. This operation would be the one to bring down a powerful man with an attitude of superiority. Months and months of planning would go into this one operation, and more months after that to bring the target down. Everything had to work perfectly the first time. Vince knew there was no room for mistakes, no room for miscalculations, no room for less than perfect intel.
The only thing he worried about was the source of the information he was getting. Disgruntled family members often made bad contacts, but in this case, all the T's had been crossed and all the I's had been dotted. Everything checked out.
Now, it was time to put the pieces together and get cover stories memorized. This would be the biggest catch in the siblings young surveillance careers. They did not intent to fuck it up.
Their superiors didn't call them the "Killer V's" for nothing.
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Seventeen.
Jordan woke up on her oldest daughter's birthday, not believing that it had been that long since she was expecting her child with Jacob. Now, that child was a young woman, with a lucrative career, a man who adored her, and family she still confounded on a daily basis.
Jordan had planned a small family party for Julia, which Niki and Kimber wanted to help do stuff for. So David had cut colorful strips of construction paper and taught his daughters how to make chains. It was a messy process, but David and the girls had fun with it.
What Jordan and David didn't know was that by the time Julia showed up to the party, a major event in her young life would have its beginnings in a very familiar place.
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Part 4--
Ryan didn't think he couldn't keep his secret from Julia much longer. He was beyond excited that in just few hours, he would ask her the most important question he's ever asked her.
For once, Julia was unaware of anything different about Ryan from any other day. This day just happened to be her birthday, but she didn't pay it much mind. She really stopped thinking of June tenth as anything special. If she had her way, she'd not celebrate her birthday. That ceased to be anything to celebrate since Peter and Kiera died five years before.
At some point, she would go back to the house she grew up in until she was twelve years old. Mostly, it would be to sit on the back porch steps and reflect on the last year of her life. She'd then light two candles and leave them on the concrete steps. They were usually extinguished by the time she came back for them the next day.
Julia knew of the party her mother was planning, and she kind of looked forward to that. Last year, Niki and Kimber were really too little to understand what was going on, but if they got excited about birthday cake and presents, who was Julia to deny them some fun? She adored her little sisters, and she was sure she'd adore the baby brothers who were coming in the fall just as much.
It was just her own birthday that didn't have that much meaning for her anymore. She just didn't know yet that Ryan was going to change that forever.
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"This is Valerie Cooper."
"Valerie, it's Lucyn Avery."
"What can I do for you, Lucyn?" Valerie asked.
"Help me bring that bastard who fathered me down once and for all," Lucyn said.
"We're still working on that," Valerie said. "I told you that it would take a while to implement everything we agreed upon. If we're going to bring him down, we have to have perfect execution of all parts of the plan."
"I realize that," Lucyn said; "and I know I sound like I'm impatient, but the longer it takes, the more sick laws he pushes the President to sign; and God only knows how many women he's going to fuck up between now and then."
"Lucyn," Valerie said; "we're working as quickly as possible. Vince is in the Capitol Region as we speak, gathering information. He's working out the logistics. Once that's done, and I caution you it may take a while, we can get people in place to pull it off."
"I wish someone could just assassinate his pathetic ass," Lucyn said. "But that's too easy, and I'd be the first person they'd talk to. My feelings towards Carl Parks are well known."
"We are working with someone who has inside knowledge of the workings of the Committee," Valerie said. "That makes our job much easier."
"There's a spy on the Committee?" Lucyn asked.
"Yes, and no," Valerie said. "They're not on the Committee, but they are familiar with the inner workings of it."
It was a lie, but Valerie had never met Lucyn Avery in person, and didn't know how far to trust her. That was information Valerie, and her brother, Vince, kept to themselves.
"The Committee is a rather small group," Lucyn mused; "so a spy on the Committee would peobably not be a secret for long."
"Exactly," agreed Valerie.
Soon, apparently being satisfied with the progress of the plan, Lucyn hung up.
God, I hate talking to that woman! Valerie said to herself. She's so damn impatient! But she'll be thanking us in the end when Carl Parks' career is so damaged he couldn't get elected dogcatcher.
----------
For two days after finding out a possible contact number for Kit Crowley, David hesitated. He knew that Dan's research skills were impeccible, but this was a professional journalist they're dealing with. She knew more ways to get people to tell her things they didn't want the world to know than David had relatives in Israel.
Finally, he just decided to go for it. He dialed the number and listened to it ring. Finally, on the fifth ring, someone picked up.
"Marie Laveau, please?" David asked. What he got in response shocked him.
"Oh, my God! It's 'Chicago Dave'!" the female teenage voice on the phone exclaimed. "Mom, it's David from Chicago!"
There was then silence. Then David heard the phone get passed from the teenage girl to her mother.
"Well, David Draiman!" Kit Crowley said. "I'd ask how you figured out where I was and what alias I was using, but I think I already know. How is Danny?"
"Danny's fine, Kit," David said; "He and Nicole and the kids are all doing quite well."
"That's good," Kit said. "And you and Jordan? Good as well?"
"Yes," said David. "Who was the excited teenager who answered the phone?"
"That was Nico, believe it or not," Kit said, referring to her oldest daughter Nicoletta.
"Really? Wow! She's what about eighteen now?"
"She's seventeen. She and your stepdaughter have the same birthdate," Kit said.
"That's right," David said. Changing the subject, he said,
"Kit, the reason I called is not to catch up on family. I think I have bad news to give you."
"You think?" Kit said. "You're not sure the news is bad or not? Look, the Illegal government is trying to deport my husband, even though he was a naturalized citizen... so any bad news I can handle."
"Okay," David said. "I think your mother was murdered several years ago. I found her body with her driver's license and school ID stuffed in her mouth in my house in Austin when we did the rally there almost a month ago."
"I don't understand, David," Kit said. "You found my mother's body?"
"Yes. I'm assuming that the ID I found and the skeletal remains in the living room of my Austin house are for the same person," David said.
"David, that's impossible," Kit said. "Mom's been living in the Tidewater Region since she escaped her execution years ago. She's using a new name, and she's not in radio anymore, but she's still alive."
David was speechless.
----------
When he had found his voice, he said,
"She's still alive?"
"Yes, David," Kit said. "Very much so. She's made herself hard to track down on purpose."
"Then who's the poor bastard who got Stefanie's identification stuffed in their mouth?" asked David.
"Damned if I know," Kit said. "I have contact info for Mom if you want it. I'm sure she'd be thrilled to hear from you. She's been following your career since you two lost touch. She's always regretted not giving you a fair chance."
"I was young, stupid, and cocky then," David said with a hint of sadness in his voice. "She did both of us a favor by telling me to grow up. I did grow up, and the lessons she taught me are with me still to this day."
"I'm sure she'd love to get back in touch," Kit said. "Even if to only say hi."
David took down the contact information for Stefanie, including the name she was using, and ended his call with Kit.
He then sat at his desk, thinking about the early days and the woman he wanted more than anything. And she denied him because he was a first class jerk.
---------
"David, I can't do this anymore," she'd said just weeks before she walked out of his life.
"Do what?"
"Play these frat boy games with you," Stefanie said. "I'm not some stupid little groupie wannabe. I'm a grown woman with a lot more to offer than a one night stand. If we're going to be together, then let's be together. I don't want to share you with every little hottie that crosses your path. I've been down that road, being cheated on. I hate it. And I won't tolerate it. Especially from you. You're better than that!"
"What if I'm not better than that, Stefanie?" asked David; "What if I am someone who wants everything."
"You can't have everything! You have to make choices, David," Stefanie said. "I'm not going to make you choose. I'd rather leave right now and take my memories of our time together with me."
"I don't want you to leave," David said. "I need you. You're good for me!"
"Sometimes I act more like your mother than your lover," said Stefanie. "Is that how I'm good for you?"
"You keep me honest," said David. "Please, Stefanie, don't go!"
She stayed because she wanted to believe him. She knew it was a losing proposition, because he and his band had just gotten well known, there were lots of women around who wanted a piece of him and his bandmates, and she felt more like a den mother than a rock radio chick. If she wanted to deal with little boys, she'd just go home to her family. She had three of them who needed to be picked up after, and reminded to do things, and given more supervision than her ex was giving them. But, because they shared custody, and he watched the children while she travelled for her job, those things weren't getting done.
Then, there was David. He was young, handsome, talented, and he wanted to be with her even though there was a ten year age difference. The way he made her feel was almost like being reborn. Everything was possible when David loved her.
Then reality kicked in and he was off being what she had called a "rock god in training". The women. The booze. The money. And somewhere in there, was Stefanie. She started to feel like an afterthought in David's life.
And David had no clue.
But now, Stefanie decided, their relationship either had to progress or end. And she made the hardest decision in her post divorce life.
She ended it.
After one of the last shows on the Believe touring cycle, she told him of her decision. He pleaded with her to stay, but her mind was made up. She was going home, reclaiming her family, and going to do airshifts for a local rock station instead of be a roving reporter.
"What can I do to change your mind, Stefanie?" David asked as Stefanie got ready to fly back to Oklahoma City.
"Grow up," she said. "And since that doesn't appear to be happening anytime soon, I have no other alternative. When you can commit to one woman, and not a harem of them, then you'll be grown up."
"Stefanie..." David said; "I love you. Please stay."
"You love the life, David," Stefanie said; "everything comes easy when you're the new kid on the rock block. You don't know how to love another person the way they deserve. I can't be one of many. I have to be the only one. That's the way relationships work. You don't love me. You think you do, but you don't."
"What am I going to do without you?"
"You'll figure it out, David. You're an intelligent man. Maybe men like you aren't meant to be tied down by women like me," Stefanie said.
She saw the look on his face and knew her words hit their mark. She prayed that he saw the lesson in them. Maybe not now, or next year, but someday.
Soon, she was gone.
----------
David picked up the phone and started to dial the number that Kit had given him for Stefanie. Then put the receiver back in its cradle without completing the call.
He leaned back in his chair and thought about that last night he saw her.
Even after fifteen years, her words still stung. But he got the lesson she was trying to get across to him then.
If anything, he wanted to thank her for being part of his life for a little while.
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