Chapter 30-- Haunted

Part 1--


Julia awoke the next morning feeling like she hadn't slept at all.

She had been thinking all night about the ridiculous idea that Rebekah was somehow related to her.

It's just a coincidence, Julia thought. It has to be.

She couldn't get out of her mind that Rebekah and Jordana had the same birthdate, the same build, the same coloration. But Rebekah is blonde, thought Julia. So they couldn't be identical twins.

Could they?

Julia got up and showered, got dressed, and joined her uncle and Jordana for breakfast.

"Wow!" she exclaimed when she saw a breakfast bar setup in the dining room; "Do you guys always serve breakfast like this?"

Luke laughed; "Heaven's no, Julia! Just when we have company. Jordana got up early to set this up."

"See, Julia," said Jordana, "I even work on my days off! Dad would have just handed you a bowl of oatmeal or corn flakes. Me, I do this every weekend at work, so doing it at home was no trouble, so dig in, cousin!"

Julia had to admit it was probably the best breakfast she'd had in a long time, and wondered briefly if she could duplicate it at home for Ryan.

Something interrupted her thoughts.

Julia got a feeling that she was being watched, and not from her uncle or her cousin.

Someone else is out there in the forest, she thought.

She played it cool as she got up and took her breakfast dishes to the kitchen, where Jordana said to just put them in the sink and she'll make sure they got washed.

The feeling that she was being stalked wouldn't go away.

Usually, when she felt this way, she was right and someone had to be taken care of before they caused harm.

This was no exception. The threat against her family had not been neutralized.

"Uncle Luke, Jordana," she said, "please sit down at the table and listen to me closely. We are being watched by someone intent on doing any one of us, or all of us, harm. I'm going to scout the perimeter of the house and hope I'm wrong, and I'll need back up. Do either of you have any experience with weapons at all?"

"I taught my children to use guns when they were young," Luke said. "and I regularly shoot at a gun range. I don't know about Jordana."

"I have a small calibur gun I keep on me at all times," said Jordana, "but I don't use it much."

Julia thought about that for a moment, then said,

"Uncle Luke, you'll need to be my backup; Jordana, call the Commander immediately."

Then both Luke and his daughter saw Julia's demeanor change right before their eyes. Jordana felt a little frightened that her cousin could go from being a normal girl to a deadly killer in the blink of an eye.

Julia slipped out of the house and did a perimeter check. Just when she thought she hadn't seen anyone skulking around, she saw a man not much taller than David dart behind a clump of trees.

Don't you Illegals get it yet? she thought angrily; Don't mess with me, my family or my way of life. You will not win.

She slipped back into the house and asked her uncle to cover her while she confonted the man in the woods.

"Stay out of sight, and don't shoot until I signal you," Julia said, showing Luke the signal she planned to use.

"Got it, Julia," Luke said.

Julia went back outside, where she discovered that the man who was watching the house had his back to her. Before he realized what was happening, he heard Julia's voice behind him,

"I'll blow your fucking brains out if you even think about turning around."

"Who are you?" he asked.

"A girl with a gun pointed at your skull," said Julia. "Drop your weapons. All of them."

The man did as he was told. Then he turned around to face her.

"Oh, you had to do that, didn't you asshole?"

"You're Julia Terranova," he said. "I have orders to arrest you."

"On what charges? Made up ones?"

"Multiple counts of murder, treason, civil disobedience, being an Undesirable..."

"Big deal, pal; so I killed a few people who threatened our rightful way of life, protesting the New Government's Nazi and Communist like laws, refusing to live in fear of a puppet president and her so-called 'Committee'," Julia said, taunting the man to his face. "I'm not scared of motherfuckers like you."

"You should be very afraid," the stalker said. "You'll either spend the rest of your life in prison, or you'll be executed."

"I am not afraid," Julia said. "Of you, certainly not. Of the New Government? Please, they're a joke. Your failures are laughable."

The man then got out a set of handcuffs and tried to arrest Julia, and she was having none of it.

"Julia Rachel Terranova, you are under arrest for crimes against the Government of the Republic of America," he said, struggling with the much younger and more agile Julia.

"I think not, you piece of shit," Julia said. She then surprised him by kicking him square in the chest. He fell backwards onto the ground, and Julia put her foot on his throat and started to apply pressure to his windpipe.

Within moments, Luke was by her side, pointing his weapon at the intruder.

"Who...the fuck...are you?" the man gasped.

Luke said nothing, just kept pointing his weapon at the intruder's head.

"Jordana's called the Commander to come get this scumsucking douchebag," said Luke.

He no sooner got the words out of his mouth when members of the Security Forces flooded the wooded area around the Terranova home. The intruder was handcuffed and led away to be questioned by Security Forces interrogators.

Once the commotion had died down, Luke asked Julia,

"How in Heaven's name did you know we were being watched?"

"It's kind of a sixth sense," Julia said. "Somewhere down the line, I picked up the ability to sense when something isn't quite right in my environment."

"I see," Luke said, but it was apparent to Julia that he didn't.

"I have a price on my head, Uncle Luke, that much is clear," Julia said. "There is a warrant out for my arrest. That's why that creep was here. To arrest me on bogus charges, just like they did to my mother before I was born."

"Jordana and I thank you for protecting us," Luke said. "Your reputation is certainly well earned."

"I think that maybe I should head back to Chicagoland right now, so that you and Jordana can stay safe," said Julia.

The Commander walked up to Luke and Julia at that moment and suggested the same thing that Julia had told her uncle.

"Way ahead of you, Commander," Julia said; "Let me get my gear and say my goodbyes, then we can be on our way."

After Julia was on the jet heading back to Chicagoland, she wondered who else would come and try to arrest her. She knew that she wasn't the only one that had a warrant out for their arrest. David and the band, her mother, her brothers, and her sisters-in-arms were probably at the top of the New Army's list of "enemies" to be arrested and thrown into prison without so much as a trial.

But the question that initially nagged at her as she awoke that morning was still in the back of her mind;

Was Rebekah related to me, and if so, how? she thought.

----------

Julia knew she couldn't say anything to Rebekah about it. If it were true, Rebekah would have probably been ordered not to say anything.

She could ask David, but she doubted that he could tell her anything.

Why does everyone have to keep secrets like that from me, thought Julia as she got into the car to be driven back to her apartment.

Julia kind of hoped it was true that Rebekah was related to her, and kind of hoped she wasn't. Julia liked Rebekah. The girl had been through some tough shit in her life, and came out a champ. Julia wondered if Rebekah were related to her, would she feel any differently about Rebekah?

Oh that's silly, she thought. I'd think of her like I think of my brothers. Julia already considered the four girls she worked and trained with as sisters in arms, so why would she think any differently if Rebekah was related to her by blood.

Sooner than she expected, Julia was home, and Ryan came out of the apartment to greet her.

"Mission accomplished?" asked Ryan as he hugged Julia.

"And thensome," said Julia. "The Illegals have a warrant out for my arrest for treason against the New Government and a bunch of other bullshit."

Ryan carried Julia's bags inside, then they both sat on the couch.

"Can you tell me anything about why they want to arrest you?"

"They want to arrest me so they can throw me in prison or execute me for the things I've done that they don't like," Julia said. "Murder, treason, being an Undesirable, civil disobdience, crap like that. I told the guy who attempted to arrest me that I wasn't afraid of him or the Illegal Government."

"Are you?" asked Ryan.

"Personally, no," said Julia; "But if the Illegals threaten my family, it's my duty to protect them. I worry about my little sisters, and the baby brothers due in the fall. They've done nothing wrong other than having Mom and David as parents. And, Ryan, I worry about you. You knew the risks of getting involved with me from the start; that's why I gave you an out when we first got serious."

"I'm behind you all the way, Jules," Ryan said. "I'm not going anywhere. It's your job to protect your family. It's my job to protect you."

Julia laid her head against Ryan's chest. "Thank you, baby," she said. "Sometimes I forget that I need to be protected, too."

"Isn't that what a man does for his wife?" Ryan asked.

"Yes, it is," Julia said. "I'm so glad I have you to protect me."

Ryan's only response was to hold Julia closer to him.

----------

"Well, what do you know? After nearly eighteen years of this shit, the Illegals have finally have orders to arrest us," Dan said sarcastically during the twice weekly meetings that the band had.

"Not kill us, but arrest us?" John asked.

"That's what my intel says," Dan said. "The four of us, our wives, Julia, Nik, Jeremiah, and anyone else they can get their hands on."

"Great," David said. "All Jordan needs is something else to worry about."

"Then, brother, you aren't going to like this part either," said Dan; "There's also an order to arrest anyone who has your daughters with them. The Illegals are thinking that you and/or Jordan would come down and get them, but arrest you instead. What happens to the girls after that is anyone's guess."

"You're right, Danny, I don't like that. The Illegals are essentially going to use Niki and Kimber as pawns to get to me and Jordan," David said, trying (and failing) to keep his anger in check.

"Sounds like they're a tad desperate," Mike said. "And if there are orders like that to get to David, then there are probably similar orders for the rest of us as well."

"And that's what really sucks," John said. "The rest of us have kids in school. And they stopped taking kids from schools years ago. They just want our kids. As David said, to use as pawns to get to us."

"There isn't anything about Nik or Joe's kids, is there?" asked David.

"Not that I've found out," Dan said. "But that's a good idea, to see if such orders have been issued. And with Joe, Tracy and their daughter here this weekend, they'll all have to be really careful and keep their eyes on their kids."

"They've pretty much left Joe alone, I've noticed," David said. "Jeremiah tells me that Joe and Tracy haven't been harassed by the New Army in months. Guess Joe's being a lobster fisherman isn't a threat to them."

"Oh, if they only knew what that simple lobster fisherman was capable of," John said.

"He's part of a Disturbed Ones squad up there in Kittery," David said. "Maybe the Illegals forget that the NewEngland Region exists sometimes."

"Well, with the recent news of Neil Hope's unfortunate passing," Mike said; "the President has other things on her mind besides the NewEngland Region."

----------

Part 2--

Sarah Kathryn was livid. More crap to bog her down. Sign this, approve that, schedule this, confirm that.

"Madame President, you have a news conference about the recent troubles in the WestCoast Region on Friday," her secretary said.

"Friday?" asked Sarah Kathryn; "What time?"

"Four in the afternoon."

"I suppose I can't reschedule it for Thrusday, can I?"

"No ma'am, I'm sorry," the secretary said. "Chairman Parks is not available on Thursday and this is a joint news conference."

"Friday at three-thirty is my husband's funeral," Sarah Kathryn said. "So you're telling me I can't attend the funeral of the man I'd been married to for thirty-eight years?"

"I don't know what to say, Madame President," the secretary offered. "I'd take it up with Chairman Parks."

Sarah Kathryn let out a disgusted sigh. The last thing she wanted to do is talk to Carl Parks.

"Can you get him on the phone for me?" she asked the secretary.

"Yes, ma'am, I'll try," the secretary said as she left the room.

He's probably out screwing some whore, Sarah Kathryn thought blackly. He doesn't care that my husband is dead. It was his idea to oust him from the Committee. Hell, he probably had Neil killed and has someone covering up the real cause of death.

"Madame President," the secretary said, "Carl Parks is not answering his phone. I left a message for him to call you when he's free."

Figures, thought Sarah Kathryn; "Thank you for trying," she told the secretary.

She looked out of her office window, desperately wishing she could go to bed that night and not wake up in the morning.

----------

She was almost eight months old, and there was a lot to the world she wanted to see, much to the pleasure of her parents. Today, however, her parents wanted her to take a nap for the entire flight to Chicagoland.

"Danica, please child, take a nap?" asked Tracy, knowing that her daughter wouldn't have any of it.

"A nap doesn't sound like such a bad idea," Joe said. "But I'm too excited to sleep."

"I know," Tracy said. "I'm excited that Jasmine is expecting a little of her own. Jeremiah must be over the moon!"

"I got that feeling when he called me to tell me," said Joe, trying to keep Danica from climbing down from the seats where the family sat.

"You don't want to crawl around down there, Danica," Joe said. "It's dirty and gross."

"Dada?" babbled Danica.

"I wonder if she realizes that word is a real word and not one she made up," Tracy said.

"I'll take that word any way I can get it," Joe laughed. "Jere gets to experience that soon."

"Yeah," sighed Tracy. "Danica will have more cousins to play with besides Matthias and Sandrina. But not for a while. Jasmine's only three months along, isn't she?"

"I think so," said Joe. "I don't really remember."

Tracy laid her head on Joe's shoulder and sighed. Danica seemed to take that as meaning it was time to sleep and crawled into her mother's lap. Within a few moments, she was asleep.

"Well, will ya look at that?" Tracy said softly to Joe. Then she noticed that he, too, was asleep.

----------

When the plane later landed at the airport in Chicago, Danica was wide awake and ready to get off the plane.

"Someone's excited to be here," Joe said as he took the squirmy little girl from her mother.

"She doesn't remember ever being here, so this is new to her," said Tracy. "Wait til she sees there are other little ones to play with! She'll be really excited then."

They managed to deplane without much effort and walked into the gate area. Danica was trying to "talk" to everyone she saw, including the dour man who stood at the gate with a metal detector wand.

"You'll have to put the baby down so I can wave the wand over you," the man said grumpily to Tracy.

"I'll just hand her over to my husband, then," Tracy said. The man then waved the wand around Tracy, and not hearing any sounds indicating any metal, allowed her to go through. Joe handed Danica to Tracy and went through the routine himself.

"I'll have to wand the baby, too," the man said. "You'll have to put her down."

I'll keep a hold of my daughter, thanks," said Tracy. "You'll just have to 'wand' both of us."

The man sighed. Why were these Undesirable families so difficult? he thought and he wanded both Danica and her mother. He was almost disappointed that the indicator didn't go off and had to allow the family to go through.

When Joe and Tracy were out of earshot of anyone who could overhear them, Joe said,

"Racial profiling at its finest. Notice that he only wanded certain people?"

"Don't, Joey," Tracy said. "It's not worth getting upset over. We're here to see family and friends, not worry about airline security policies."

"You're right," Joe said. "I don't know why I am so overly sensitive about it."

"You've been trained to use deadly force, and maybe that mindset takes over sometimes," Tracy offered.

Before Joe could respond, he saw Jeremiah and Jasmine up ahead. Whatever he was going to say to Tracy was forgotten as they greeted each other. Danica babbled happily upon seeing her uncle and aunt.

"Well, hello yourself," Jasmine said to Danica as the baby reached out for her. "Aren't you getting to be a big girl!"

"Well, brother, looks like life as a lobster fisherman agrees with you," Jeremiah said. "I think you might have more impressive muscles than I do."

"That wouldn't surprise me at all, considering that I spend a lot of time pulling on ropes to get the traps back on the boat," said Joe. "I'll challenge you to an arm wrestling match while I'm here."

"You had to say that, didn't you?" asked Jeremiah.

"You know it," Joe shot back.

Jasmine and Tracy just shook their heads, and Danica was laughing at her daddy and uncle.

"I think we better get out of here before this becomes a smackdown," Jasmine said to Tracy. "Besides, everyone can't wait to see you guys! Julia just got back from an assignment, but she can't wait to see the baby."

"We've been looking forward to this trip for weeks," Tracy said. "We've missed our Chicagoland family."

----------

Noah was bored. When he wasn't in physical therapy getting his shoulder back into shape, he was in his room, in bed, with nothing to do.

It was on one of these days that David came to see him. Noah wasn't as surprised as the first time that David just showed up with Dan, but surprised nonetheless. Don't these guys call ahead to warn people they're coming? he asked himself.

"Hello, Noah," David said pleasantly. "How are you doing with your rehabilitation?"

"It's coming along," said Noah. "Nothing to write home about."

"You're probably wondering why I'm here," said David.

"The thought did cross my mind, yes," said Noah.

"We got back the results of your DNA test, and you are who you say you are," David said. "I know that sounds trite, but we can never be too careful."

"I understand," Noah said. "I'd probably be overcautious, too, if I were in your shoes."

"I guess my next question is," asked David, "is what you want to be known by. You had mentioned that you have been going by Noah Paul for years. Did you still want to be addressed as such?"

"Yes," said Noah. "As far as I'm concerned, Steve 'Fuzz' Kmak is dead."

"I see," David said. "You still playing bass?"

"I haven't picked up a bass in nearly fifteen years, David," Noah said. "I know I can still play, but surviving was much more important to me."

"I can certainly understand that," said David. "So, if I were to find you a safe house for you to live in while you continue to recover, it would be under the name you use now, correct?"

"Yes, but that's not necessary," Noah said. "I kind of wanted to go home and see my family."

"I'd feel better if you stayed here a while and be safe," David said. "You got shot because the New Army knows who you really are. Next time, they might not miss."

Noah thought about that for a moment, then,

"I think I see your point. I just don't want to cause any problems."

"I'll introduce you as Noah Paul to everyone else," said David. "Only me and the other guys know the truth. Not even our bodyguards will know who you really are."

"Can I think about it?"

"I don't see a problem with that, Noah," David said. "You're going to be here in the hospital at least until the end of August, so you'll have plenty of time."

"I can't thank you enough for allowing me to stay," Noah said. "I thought you would all hate me because I abandoned you."

"When the reason why you disappeared was beyond your control," David said; "I don't think anyone could hate you. It's this stupid Illegals shit, they caused all this turmoil we've been fighting for nearly twenty years."

David took his leave shortly after that, and Noah was alone again.

He wondered if he did search for his family, what kind of reception he would get. He'd missed his children growing up, missed family milestones, missed life for fourteen years.

I hope they think I'm dead, he thought. I'm not the same man I was before.

----------


The Captain was not happy to learn that one of his agents failed to arrest Julia Terranova in the Montpelier Sector.

"She's just one stubborn girl!" he fumed; "How hard would have been to just cuff her?"

He'd keep trying to arrest her until she was under his control, even if that took years. She can't run from me forever, he thought. I'd go to Chicagoland myself and arrest her if that's what it takes.

Captain John Christopher "Jack" Coltrane IV was not a patient man by nature. He always wanted results now, and would rather do things himself if he had the time to do so.

For the last four years, his patience was severely tested when his wife, Mirielle, was diagnosed with dementia. She lived in the past most of the time. At this point in time, she was living in the mid 1970's, shortly after she married her junior high school sweetheart. Jack hated to see her suffer so, and badgered her doctors for some kind of treatment that would fix her memories and bring her back to him.

When he was told there was nothing more they could do for his girl, he brought her home. Sometimes the memories she lived in were good ones, and sometimes, they were bad.

We have so much to live for, Jack thought on more than one occasion, and some disease is stealing my Miri from me in bits and pieces.

So he went into his loyal soldier mode more and more often. While he had patience with Mirielle as she struggled through life, he often had no patience with anyone who failed at tasks he assigned them.

The bastard dies as soon as he comes back, thought Jack; it should not be that difficult to arrest a seventeen year old girl.

But it would be once he got that girl under his control, she would turn his world upside down. And by that time, he wouldn't care.

----------

Part 3--

Friday came much too soon for Rebekah and Chris.

Their goodbyes were hard, because they were finally getting to the point in their brief relationship that they could tell each other anything. Rebekah was starting to trust Chris more and more, but she knew that this day was coming.

"I'd like to see you when I'm done with my training, Bekah," Chris told her; "Even if I have to come to Chicagoland to do it."

"Your mind has to be totally on your training," Rebekah said. "You have to forget for those six weeks that I even exist. That's what will be expected of you."

"I am ready for that, Bekah," said Chris. "It's really the only kind of life I've known since I was twenty one."

When Chris and Miranda left to return to Tidewater, Christine noticed a change in Rebekah that she found hopeful.

She's found something that she thought she had to deny herself of, thought Christine; something more powerful that heroin, more powerful that the lure of easy and anonymous sex.

Christine thought she'd never see this change in Rebekah, and it made her feel good that Rebekah was truly moving forward with her life, instead of living in the past.

Rebekah would remain with Christine for a few more weeks, then head back to Chicagoland. Whatever it is that Rebekah has found, Christine thought, it was good to see her smile.

But, Christine had to deal with a goodbye of her own. Morbus would be returning to Chicagoland the next morning, and she wanted to spend some time with him before he left.

JT was sleeping and Rebekah went back to the apartment that had been reserved for Chris' stay, so Morbus and Christine were more or less alone. Morbus was hesitant at first to be in the house while JT was there, but he decided that it was more important to see Christine now, because he didn't know when, or if, he'd see her again anytime soon.

They lay together in bed that night, and Morbus held Christine close to him. She was his heart, the balm that made the pain of losing Jordan easier to bear. She was the mother of his son, the beautiful butterfly who graced a monster's life. He hated to have to leave her, but he felt he had no choice. In order to keep her and their son safe, he couldn't be part of their lives on a regular basis.

"What are you thinking about, Jacob?" asked Christine.

"What makes you think I'm thinking about anything?" he asked.

"Because you're not asleep," she said.

"You got me, Christine," he said. "I've been thinking about you, actually."

"Me? What about me?"

"How I want you and me and JT to be a real family, and not this fractured state we're in now," he said.

"You know that while this damned war is going on, that's not possible," said Christine.

Morbus sighed; "I know," he said. "But when it's over, would you consider marrying me?"

Christine's eyes widened in the darkness of the room.

"You just didn't propose marriage to me, did you?" she asked.

"I think I did," Morbus said; "I've wanted to ask you for years, but it never seemed to be the right time. Then you confessed your love for me that one night, and I knew I wanted nothing more than to make you my wife."

"You're sure about this, Jacob?" asked Christine; "Absolutely sure?"

Morbus turned on his side to face her. How could she even question it, he thought.

"I'm very sure," he said. "When the war is over, I want to marry you and be a real father to our son. I couldn't be Julia's father in a real sense, but you've given me a second chance."

"Jacob..." Christine said, getting emotional. "I'd like nothing more than to be your wife."

"Ah, my beautiful butterfly..." Morbus said, taking Christine into his arms; the very arms where she felt the most safe; "I will do my best to be everything you and JT need."

"I know you will, Jacob," said Christine. "But in the morning, you'll be gone before I awake."

"It must be like that, Chris," he said. "I cannot be seen coming or leaving here. It would put you in danger. If anything happened to you because I wasn't careful, I could never forgive myself."

Christine knew he was right. She accepted it because she had no other choice.

And in the morning, she would wake up alone.

----------

A couple of hikers came upon a wrecked car in a ditch. They called the emergency service to see if there was anyone alive inside the wereckage.

When the EMTs arrived, they knew immediately there was nothing they could do. Inside the car was a uniformed man. He had been the sheriff of the county fifteen miles up the road. It appeared that he had survived the initial crash, but his injuries were too serious to survive for a long period of time.

On the seat next to him, he'd written out a note. All it said was,

I don't believe in ghosts. But a little girl named Collett sat in the seat next to me and asked me to leave Joshua alone. I may die here. I may never see my family again. But that little girl haunted me all the way to this point. As I lay here, she is laughing at me.

"Whack job?" asked one EMT to another.

"This man puts innocent people in prisons for no reason," the other EMT replied. "He probably got what he deserved."

"Perhaps you're right," the first EMT replied.

----------

The reception at the San Marcos was a cacophony of baby sounds and Matty talking to everyone present.

"It's so good to see you, Joe!" Nik said, giving his brother a hug. "You guys look like you're doing well."

"We manage," Joe said. "Hey, thanks for the pictures of the kids. Sandrina is just about as big as Danica is. And they're babbling at each other, so that's a good sign."

"Wait til they find out they have the same birthday," said Nik. "That will be fun!"

Indeed, sitting on their mothers' laps, Sandrina San Marco and Danica Donovan were babbling at each other, as if they really knew what they were saying.

"Maybe they're just surprised that there's other little girls like them," Tracy said. "Danica is my father's only granddaughter, and the grandsons are much older than she is, so it must be a treat to meet another little girl like herself."

"Sandrina tries to talk to Julia's little sisters, but they just look at each other and shrug, to which Julia is telling them, 'See, that's what you sounded like to me when you were that little.'" KateLynn said, laughing.

"I'll be they're a handful for David and Jordan," Tracy said.

"Just wait til the little brothers get here in Novemeber," KateLynn said. "They're going to turn into doting big sisters in nothing flat!"

Jeremiah was telling Joe, "There's going to be a little get together at our place tomorrow night, and there's plenty of rooms for the little ones to sleep. So if Jasmine gets tired, she can just go lay down. She was having a hell of a time with morning sickness."

"Tracy did too," said Joe. "I wanted to ask you; does Ryan Summers really want to buy out our shares in Peter and Kiera's house? I know I'm not going to be needing mine, and I'll gladly give it up so he can remodel it."

"He still does, and I think he has plans to talk to you, me, and Nik about that very thing," said Jeremiah. "He wants it to be a safe place again, just like when we were kids. He wants fill the place with babies and new memories."

"Julia wants to settle down long enough to have kids?" asked Joe, surprised.

"Julia is good with kids," Jeremiah said. "Her sisters adore her. Matty still calls her 'Annie Jules'. She'll make a great mother. But she also realized that means giving up her assassin work for up to two years."

"Why two years?" asked Joe.

"She wants to be a hands on mom, and not have nannies raise her child," Jeremiah said. "Two years is the timeframe she set for herself, so you'd have to ask her that."

Joe pondered that for a while.

----------

Sarah Kathryn wouldn't be attending Neil's funeral after all. Work, such as it was, came first. She did get it across to the funeral home handling Neil's remains that it was to be a closed casket funeral.

"Begging Madame President's pardon," said the funeral director, "but he's in no condition to have an open casket. He's much too decomposed for that."

"I didn't think of that, sorry," Sarah Kathryn said. "For some reason, I thought he'd be mummified."

"His remains are some of the worst I've seen in my twenty five years as a funeral director," the man said. "I'll be seeing him in my dreams for years to come. Halloween is nothing compared to what your husband looks like. It's some pretty scary shit."

The funeral director wrote off Sarah Kathryn's comments as her grief talking and dropped the subject.

Sarah Kathryn thought that members of her husband's law firm would be attending, and could get information about the service from one of them after the fact.

She knew her son wouldn't tell her anything. After all, Mother, he was divorcing you.

She'd have her news conference that day with Carl Parks, whom she wished was in that coffin instead of Neil. Even if he was divorcing her. Carl Parks had Presidential aspirations. Sarah Kathryn would not allow that to happen. She'd kill him herself if she could get away with it.

I wonder, she thought, going into her fantasy about her own demise, if the SpineSplitter could be hired to do that one job... killing Carl Parks, Lane Sizemore, and me.

Sarah Kathryn would have no idea that would be the scenario for her demise until it was too late. But by that time, she'd be ready to go.

----------

Part 4--

"You wanted to see me, Captain?" asked the agent who had been tasked with arresting Julia Terranova.

"Yes, I did," Jack Coltrane said. "I want to know why in the fuck you couldn't arrest Julia Terranova."

"She made it difficult for me," the agent said. "She just too quick for me to pin her down long enough to get cuffs on her."

"You let a seventeen year old girl outsmart you, is that what you're saying?" asked Jack angrily. "She's seventeen! She's still a minor in the eyes of our government."

"Yet she's been doing adult jobs since she was, what, twelve?"

"No matter," Jack said; "You will report to the interrogation room as soon as you leave here, and take your punishment like a man."

The agent didn't have to be told what happened in the interrogation room. He knew his life had just about run its course. All because he couldn't arrest a seventeen year old assassin.

"Damn you, Julia Terranova!" he said under his breath; "Damn you to hell and back!"

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Vixen finally got an appointment to have blood drawn for a DNA sample to compare against that of Nik San Marco. Hopefully, she thought, this will clear up part of the puzzle of her hazy memories of her life before being kidnapped.

She sat and allowed a nurse to withdraw four vials of her blood. Vixen was afraid of needles, and always had been. being poked by needles was part of her torture when she was a preadolescent, developed enough to start turning tricks. There were plenty of men who paid for the pleasure of essentially raping a little girl.

But if this will answer the questions I have about who I really am, Vixen thought, then it will all be worth it.

The memories nagged at her; the ones she thought she remembered did anyway. Being with her parents and baby brother; being taken from them against her will because she was pretty and blonde; her mother cursing in a foreign language at the men who were stealing her daughter; being placed in a home with abusive people who had no business being around children.

She had managed to block out a lot of the bad memories. She remembered when she first started dying her blonde hair black. It was a pain in the ass, but she didn't care. It hid her from her abusive pimp after she beat him into unconsciousness, stole his money, and handcuffed him to a hot radiator.

When she got into the car with Morbus that first time, she had decided that she would call herself "Vixen". Her new surname came from a sign she saw once she got to Chicagoland: Vincent Realty.

"What do you want to call yourself, Amanda?" Morbus had asked her.

"Vixen. Vixen Vincent."

"Then that's how your name will be recorded in our files. I do have to include your former name as part of the file," he said.

"That's fine," the newly self-christened Vixen Vincent said; "I don't care if I ever hear the name Amanda Amador again as long as I live!"

"Then that is how you will be addressed, Vixen," Morbus said.

"Miss Vincent," the nurse said; "I'm done with your samples. You'll get the results in six weeks."

Vixen nodded and took her leave.

She was looking forward to going to the get together for Joe and Tracy Donovan and their daughter, Danica, the next day.

Anything to keep thinking about who I used to be, who I was, and who I am now, she thought.

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"Captain, the agent you sent to the interrogation room is now deceased," a sergeant reported in Jack's office.

"Very good," Jack said as he turned from the window behind his desk. "You know what to do with the body, correct?"

"It's been done, sir."

"Good," said Jack; "Any word from the agents trailing the others we've put out arrest warrants for?"

"They're all kind of boring, sir," the sergeant said. "We can probably get to them at that big rally they're planning for the Lowell Sector in August."

"Are you sure it's Lowell, and not Provincetown?"

"Yes, sir," said the sergeant; "But no location there as of yet. All communications about the rally are in some kind of code."

"Are you working to break the code?" asked Jack.

"Yes, sir."

"Good," Jack said; "You're dismissed, sergeant."

When the sergeant was gone and Jack was alone, he turned back towards the window. Outside, it was a beautiful summer day. In Mirielle's world, it's winter, he thought sadly.

She had talked about buying the children winter coats, because it was getting colder, and they had outgrown the ones they had the previous two winters. Jack only nodded as she spoke, because she thought he was a doctor. She always talked about Jack in the third person, like he wasn't even in the room.

"Jack doesn't want to buy the coats yet, because money is tight," Mirielle had said that morning. "I don't want to ask my folks to send us money for coats."

Oh, my Miri, Jack thought as he stared out the window; why must fate be so cruel and take you away from me?

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