Noble Beginnings (19 page)

Keller laughed.
“Didn’t you think I was a bit too forthcoming with my confession, Jack?”

I felt Mike’s
hands touch my shoulders and then proceed to pat down my sides and my legs. He
reached around my stomach. My Beretta pushed into my ribs when his hands
discovered it.

“He’s armed,”
Mike said.

Keller nodded.
“Would have been surprised if he wasn’t, though. Nice and slow, Jack. Put it on
the floor.”

I took a deep
breath. I didn’t know if Mike was armed or not. Martinez was and he aimed his
gun at me. His partner probably was, but his weapon wasn’t drawn. Keller didn’t
appear to be, but most likely had a weapon hidden somewhere in the room. The
moment I pulled my weapon, Martinez would be on high alert and would shoot me
if I made any movements that didn’t lead to me putting my gun on the ground. I
could try and take him out first. Two problems with that, though. One, he’d get
his shot off at the same time, if not sooner. Two, his partner had Jessie and
might kill her before I could manage a shot in his direction.

The next option
was to take out the partner. There was nothing to stop a clean shot. Martinez
would have the same clean shot on me, though. And then after he had killed me,
he would kill Jessie.

“Jack,” Keller
said. “Remove the gun and place it on the floor. This is the last time I’ll
ask.”

I held my hands
out in front of me and then reached into my jacket. I froze in position. I had
to stall as long as possible.

“Now,” Keller
said.

“I’m just
moving nice and slow, just like you asked.”

I pulled the
gun from my jacket and held it out, extending my fingers so they weren’t near
the trigger. Martinez watched every move. He tensed. I sensed his urge to pull
the trigger. He had probably dreamed of it since that night in Iraq, hell,
maybe even before then. I held one arm out and gestured with the other for
everyone to remain calm.

“Nice and easy,”
I said.

The door behind
me crashed open. I didn’t have to turn my head to know that Bear had kicked it
in. The crash was enough to distract Martinez. I fired a shot at him. He
collapsed where he stood. His partner took aim at me and I dove behind the couch
and crawled toward the end. Bullets tore through the leather and thudded into
the wall behind me.

Jessie’s
screams were silenced with a thud. I peeked over the couch and saw the man
hovering over her. Then I checked over my shoulder and saw that Mike had
charged Bear. The big man seemed to be handling him on his own. Keller had run
upstairs. I’d deal with him in a minute.

I leapt up and
fired at the man standing over Jessie. My shots missed. He dove into the hall.
His footsteps echoed through the room as he ran down it. I hurried to where
Jessie lay on the floor and pulled her by her feet so she no longer an easy
target. She had been knocked unconscious by the man. I moved her further away
from the hall and then backed up to the wall. I peeked around the corner and
was met with a hail of gunfire.

“Christ,” I
said. “Bear, finish him and get Jessie out of here.”

The big man
delivered a heavy blow to Mike’s head and dropped him on the floor. He ran
toward me. Dove over the couch as a shotgun blast ripped through the air from
above.

“Guess Keller’s
weapon wasn’t as close by as I thought,” I said.

Bear said
nothing.

I pointed
toward a hall that led to the kitchen. “There’s a door leading out back through
there.”

He nodded,
scooped up Jessie and started toward the hall.

I peeked around
the corner again. Empty. I moved slowly down the hall. Each side had two doors.
Three of the doors were closed. The last one on the right was open. I stopped a
few feet from the door and listened. Complete silence. I checked over my
shoulder to make sure Keller wasn’t standing behind me. He wasn’t.

I grabbed the
TracFone from inside my jacket and threw it into the room. The man bumped the
door as he turned to see what I threw. I exploded around the corner. He stood
closer than I anticipated, and I had to strike him. I moved in sideways and
hooked his right arm with my left. I applied pressure and bent his elbow in the
wrong direction. He let out a roar and dropped his gun to the floor. I brought
my right arm up to smack him across the face with my gun, but he managed to get
his arm in between and the sudden jarring stop caused me to drop my gun too.

He continued
bringing his arm forward and wrapped it around my head and took out my leg with
a quick kick. A moment later he had positioned himself behind me and had me in
a choke hold.

I fought for
position. I fought to loosen his grip. I was losing on both counts.

“General,” he
yelled.

I heard
Keller’s footsteps as he walked down the hall. The barrel of his rifle appeared
in the doorway. I knew he wouldn’t be far behind.

I reached
behind me and found the man’s head. I jammed my thumb in his eye. That was
enough to loosen his grip. I shifted my body weight and broke free from his
grasp. Then I ducked and slipped behind him. I held his arm behind his back and
pushed him toward the doorway.

Keller spun
around and fired blindly. The bullet hit the man in the front of his chest and
tore through the back, leaving an opening the size of a melon.

I lunged
forward, using the wounded man as a body shield. We crashed into Keller and he
fell backwards. He landed against the door across the hall. It broke from the
latch and he continued his fall to the floor. He dropped the rifle. I tossed my
human shield to the side and grabbed the rifle off of the floor and lifted it
and aimed it at Keller.

“Jack,” he said
as he wiped blood from his mouth. “You don’t have to do this.”

“Do what?”

I fired into
the back of the room.

He covered his
head and cowered close to the floor.

I aimed the
rifle at his head. “Get up.”

He did.

“Down the
hall.” I backed up and let him slip by me. “Nice and easy, Keller. Arms up,
hands behind your head.”

He complied and
walked slowly down the hall. When he reached the end he stopped.

“Keep going,” I
said.

He took a few
more steps and stopped again. I stuck the end of the rifle into his back and
pushed. He took a few more steps forward. Mike was sitting on one of the
couches, holding his arm to his chest. The arm was bent at an odd angle halfway
between his wrist and his elbow. It had been a rough week for Mike.

“Go sit next to
your son,” I said.

Keller did as
he was told and walked to the couch. He stopped and turned toward me.

I kept the
rifle steady and aimed at his chest.

“You won’t get
away with this, Noble.”

“Why’s that?”

“You broke into
my house. Attacked me and my son. Christ, look at his arm.” He swung his arm to
the side dramatically and pointed at his son’s twisted arm. “Then you killed my
guests, two government employees, Jack. You killed them in cold blood.”

“Who’s going to
believe that story?”

He laughed.
“Who wouldn’t? A General versus the word of a Sergeant?” He stepped toward me.
“Put the gun down, Jack. You won’t get away with this. Even if you kill me, you
won’t get away with it.”

I circled
around the front of the couches, toward the front door. Kept the gun aimed at
Keller.

Keller
continued. “They will hunt you down, Jack. The Marines, CIA, local authorities.
Hell, even the FBI will get in on the action. Everyone will want a piece of
you.”

“Yeah, to take
the fall for the murders you committed.”

“In a
round-about way, yeah, Jack. The murders are all on me. I ordered them all. But
it was for a reason, Jack. A damn good reason. We have to take this fight to
them, Jack. Don’t you see?”

He stood ten
feet from me. His head cocked to the side. The smile had left his face. He held
his arms outstretched to the side.

I shifted the
gun to one arm and reached inside my jacket. “Only problem, Keller,” I pulled
my hand out and showed him the digital recorder that had been running the entire
time, “is that I got you admitting it on tape.”

I stopped the
recorder, hit rewind for a second and then hit play.
“The murders are all on
me.”
I clicked the stop button.

“Without a
doubt, one hundred percent your voice, sir.”

His face went
pale and he backed into the wall. He shook his head and muttered something
indecipherable under his breath.

I pulled the
magazine from the rifle and dropped the gun on the floor. Looked around the
room and soaked in the carnage. I turned and opened the door. Bear and Jessie
had pulled the car to the curb and were waiting for me. I cut across the yard
and got in the front seat. Bear pulled away without saying a word.

We drove north
on I-95. Washington, D.C. was our destination. I’d wait for Marlowe by his house.
Turn over the evidence and find out what he had planned for Keller. We stopped
and picked up the cheapest laptop we could find. Jessie transferred the audio
file to the computer and burned it onto a CD.

It turned out
to be a good thing she had been held hostage by Martinez, notwithstanding the
emotional scarring and baggage the ordeal would leave her with. She kept her
spirits up, though, and regularly made jokes at my expense from the back seat.

We crossed the
state line into Virginia. The topic of what her next steps were hadn’t been
discussed yet. I turned in the passenger seat and looked back at her.

“Do you want to
go back home, Jess?”

“Do you think
it’s safe now?”

I shook my
head. “Probably not.”

“Yeah, I didn’t
think so.”

“I can take you
with me to New—”

“Dulles, Jack.”
She looked out the window to her side. “Take me to Dulles when we get to D.C.”

“Where do you
plan to go?”

“I don’t know.”
She shook her head slightly. “I don’t know.”

I cleared my
throat and turned back to the front and stared out the window for a moment.

“What about
you, Bear?”

“What do you
mean?”

“Pretty sure
with everything that’s happened we can convince Marlowe to give you an
honorable discharge.”

He shrugged and
didn’t say anything.

I waited a
moment and then continued. “You’re thinking about staying in?” The thought
hadn’t occurred to me. I figured he was as antsy to get out as I was.

“What else am I
going to do, Jack?” He placed both his hands on the steering wheel. Gripped it
so tight his knuckles turned white. “I’ve got two years left. I’m going to
finish out those two years.”

Bear had
principles, and the commitment he made meant a lot to him. I knew that. But
what about the commitment they made to us and the fact that they broke that
commitment? I don’t recall reading anything on my contract that stated
permission to terminate at will. I brushed the thought aside.

“You know, even
if they don’t scrap the program, there’s no way you’re going back to it.”

He shrugged and
looked at me for a second, then back toward the road. He quickly scanned the
cars. “That’s fine with me. I’ll take a desk job for a couple years.”

I laughed. Bear
behind a desk? The big man would go crazy.

“Where the hell
are they going to find a chair and desk big enough for you?”

A few seconds
passed and then Bear broke out into laughter.

“I know, right.
What the hell am I thinking?”

“Why don’t you
leave? We’ll go into business together.”

“Doing what?
Crime scene creation?”

Doing what?

The words hung
in the air above me. I hadn’t given any thought to it. I had a few hopes. I
hoped that Jessie would be part of my own “doing what.” I hoped that I could
travel for a couple months before my official retirement while using up my
accrued leave pay. I hoped that something would just turn up. I’d only known
the Marines, and more specifically, the joint program with the CIA. The actual
Marines were a mystery to me. Before that, my future had been planned by my
father and high school football coach. I tried not to think about either of
them, nor the future I had left behind.

“What about
you, Jack?” Bear said, interrupting my thoughts.

“I’ve got three
months leave built up.”

“So you’re
done?”

“Yeah, Bear,” I
said. “I’m done. This is it. I’m giving this tape to Marlowe and getting him to
put my honorable discharge in writing, effective the last day of my leave. Then
I’m going to do—” I leaned back and stared at the ceiling. “Then I don’t know
what I’m going to do. I’ll figure it out at some point in the next three
months.”

He opened his
mouth to say something and must have thought better of it. His grip had
loosened on the steering wheel. A smile crept up on his face. He seemed
relaxed. At peace. I hadn’t even thought about the possibility that our
partnership stressed him out.

“Bear, does
being around—” I stopped mid-sentence, deciding not to go down that road.
“Never mind.”

“Never minded.”

*
* *

We drove
straight into the city. Bear dropped me off a couple blocks from Marlowe’s
place. He wanted to wait with me. I insisted that he take Jessie and find
somewhere else to be in case something happened. I still didn’t know if I could
trust Marlowe. Sure, he gave up Keller, but he might have done it to protect
himself. The fact that I returned might spur him into additional action. He
might decide to get rid of me. I had no doubt that he had that power. If that
happened, I didn’t want Bear and Jessie in the middle. Plus, they had the
backup files on the computer and the audio CD that implicated Keller behind
everything.

Keller’s
confession was one reason I trusted Marlowe. Keller didn’t mention him. Maybe
he did it on purpose, though, in the event that I walked out of his house
alive.

For a moment I
doubted my decision to just leave Keller’s house. My rational side told me he
knew he was beaten. Despite his recent horrible decision making, he had once
been an honorable man. I’d only known him for eight years. He had been a good
man most of those years. Those who knew him longer than that held him in high
esteem. Maybe I was reaching. Maybe I was letting the fact that he had known and
served with my father influence me.

I crossed the
street and stood in front of Marlowe’s house. I walked up the six steps to his
front porch and rang the doorbell. Nobody answered. I took a seat on the third
step and enjoyed the warm breeze.

The upscale neighborhood
was quiet. That made it easy to hear Marlowe and his assigned agents
approaching before they realized I was there. I thought about hiding on the
other side of the stairwell. Instead, I sat still and kept my hands in plain
view.

The agent who
stared me down outside the pizzeria my first day in D.C. was the first to
notice me. He drew his gun and barked orders at me. I looked past him. The
second agent stood in front of Marlowe. Marlowe peered around the agent and
nodded at me.

“I’m unarmed,”
I said. I had left my gun with Bear. Risky move, but I was over it at this
point. The recording held the truth. The police could arrest me. Secret Service
or the DoD could detain me. CIA and FBI could fight over who would detain me.
In the end, I’d be set free by Keller’s words.

“Hands up,” the
agent said.

“They’re in
plain view,” I said. “Get your damn gun out of my face. OK?”

“It’s OK,
Gerard,” Marlowe said.

The two agents
relaxed a bit. Well, relaxed as much as uptight Defense Department agents
could. Those guys were hard wired for action. They found it in everything they
did. I bet even brushing their teeth turned into an anxiety inducing event. I
wondered what the heart attack rate was for guys in their line of work within
their first five years of retirement.

Marlowe pushed
past the men entrusted with his life and stood on the sidewalk a few feet in
front of me.

“Jack, let’s go
inside and talk.”

I looked
between him and the two men in dark suits behind him. “They have to come in
with us?”

“Yes,
unfortunately they have to go with me everywhere during working hours.” He
climbed a single step. “But they’ll be well behaved. Won’t you boys?” He turned
and smiled at the men.

They didn’t
smile back.

I stood and
followed Marlowe inside. It was nice going in through the front door. He led
the way to the kitchen where he started a pot of coffee and pulled two beers
from the refrigerator. The Defense Department agents tried to follow us in.
Marlowe sent one outside out through the back door, and made the other wait in the
living room, telling him to stay at least ten feet from the swinging door.

He cracked open
a beer and handed it to me. I took it and put it to my lips without checking
the label. A few sips later I was exhaling with contentment at the refreshing
beverage.

He smiled, his
eyebrows rising into his forehead as he poured his beer into a tall glass.

“It’s local, a
craft beer. Excellent stuff. Brewer is a friend of mine.”

I nodded and
took another pull from the brown bottle. Still hadn’t checked the label.

“Anyway, Mr.
Noble,” he said, “I’m sure you didn’t come here to discuss local breweries.”

I shook my head
and didn’t correct him for calling me Mister instead of Sergeant.

“I take it you
confronted Keller?”

“I did.”

“How did it
go?”

I reached into
my inside pocket and noticed Marlowe tense for a second, the smile fading from
his face.

“Relax,” I said
as I pulled the small digital recorder from my pocket. “It’s all on here.”

He smiled and
walked in front of me and took a seat at the table. He crossed his legs and
took a long pull on his beer, then set the bottle down on the table.

“Play it.”

I hit play and
placed the digital recorder on the table. Marlowe listened intently, nodding
and making eye contact with me occasionally.

“That’s some
pretty damning evidence,” he said.

“I’ve got
copies.”

He smiled and
reached for the recorder. “Don’t worry, Jack. I’ll handle this.”

I grabbed the
recorder and pulled it closer. “What will happen to Keller?”

He took another
pull from his bottle of beer and stared at me for a moment. “Worst case is a
dishonorable discharge.”

“No jail time?”

“I hope so, but
you know there are many parties involved in this. It’s up to them how they want
to pursue the matter. Implicating Keller might implicate them.”

I shook my
head. “He’s responsible for the deaths of at least ten people.”

“I know that
and you know that. Hell, the person responsible for making this decision will
know it.” He got up and went to the fridge and came back with two more beers,
already opened. “This is the dark side of these operations, Jack.”

I nodded. I
knew. I knew when I was in his house that it might end up like this. I wanted
to kick myself for not taking him out when I had the chance.

“What about
me?” I said.

“What about
you?” he said.

“I want out.”

“Jack, I’m
pretty sure that even if the program is continued, you won’t be invited back
in.”

“Not just the
program. I want out of the Marines. My enlistment is up in September. I’ve got
three months leave accrued. I’m taking my leave and I want my official
retirement to be the last day of my leave.”

“I don’t have
the power to—”

“Bullshit,
Marlowe.”

He shifted in
his seat. Crossed his arms over his chest and looked me over.

“Ok, Jack.”

He pulled a
cell phone from his coat and placed a call. Five minutes later I had my
freedom. He also instructed whoever he spoke with to remove me and Bear from
any federal, state and local suspect lists.

“You’re free,
Mr. Noble.”

I slid the
digital recorder across the table. Marlowe picked it up, studied it and then
dropped it into his glass of beer.

“Why?” I tried
to appear angry, but felt confused. He knew I had a backup. Did he expect me to
push this further or in a different direction? Was this his way of telling me
he wasn’t going to do anything?

“Political
suicide, Jack. On top of that, imagine when the media gets a hold of this
information. A Marine General ordering the deaths of his own men and another
commanding officer? It’s best to leave it be, Jack. I’ll take care of Keller in
my own way.”

So that was it.
He was going to take the political route. He could squeeze anyone I presented
the evidence to. I felt like reaching out and striking him. I didn’t. I’d still
present the CD to a few contacts and see where we could take it.

I nodded and
stood and grabbed the bottle of beer off the table and finished it one pull. I
spun the bottle in my hand and the label caught my eye, a coat of arms with two
broadswords crossing one another.
Double Crossed Breweries.
Perfect.

“You did the
right thing, Jack. No matter what happens to Keller. Who knows how many lives
you saved?”

“Not enough,” I
said. “One question, though. If you knew, why didn’t you come down on Keller?”

“I didn’t know.
Not one hundred percent. It made sense. Evidence pointed that way. But I would
have never got the confession that you did.”

“Not that the
confession matters.” I turned and pushed through the door without saying
another word.

*
* *

Two hours later
I stood outside Dulles airport with Bear and Jessie. Bear leaned against a
glass wall ten yards away while I talked to Jessie. The sound of planes taking
off and landing roared through the air with a rhythmic beat.

“Don’t go,
Jess.”

She smiled and
leaned forward. “It won’t work, Jack, at least not now.”

“Why?”

“You need time.
I need time. We both need—”

“Time,” I said.
“Yeah, I got it.”

I turned my
head and tried to think of something to say, anything to stop her from leaving.

“What about the
other night? I thought that we made, you know, a connection.”

“I think that
was just the surprise of seeing you after so long. It’s true I haven’t stopped
loving you, Jack. But that doesn’t mean we’re meant to be together.”

“I’m taking
three months and getting away. Doing some traveling. I’m going to get my head
straight. Back to who I was.”

“You are who
you were. And you can’t change who you are now.”

She glanced at
her watch.

“Let’s give it
a month or so, then. What do you say, Jess?”