Return of the Phoenix - 01 (28 page)

Piping hot java juice and she would be right as rain.

27

Franklin had no sooner got in the door and his phone stopped ringing. Seventeen messages were left on his answering machine. He tentatively reached out and pressed the button and one by one the recorded messages played out. People he had long called friends, even though they weren’t, left the most horrible messages for him. They told him how he needed to turn in his resignation, quit, save face while he could. He needed to do the right thing for the party, regardless of how forgiving and liberal the party may be, this isn’t the same as ‘coming out’. The only friendly message of support came from an opposing party member who he had come through the ranks with as Freshmen…a damned Republican who extended a hand of friendship and offered to be a sounding board during this obviously difficult time. How many times had Franklin scoffed at the man for being weak because he had offered his friendship in the past? Finally, he heard Damien’s voice. “I warned you, father,” he growled. “Now we will deal with Mitchell our
own
way. We will drown him in a sea of blood…and you will be the first in our path!”

More messages followed, but Franklin didn’t hear any of them. He was shaking too badly. He stumbled to his bedroom and began ripping apart his closet.

*****

Jack approached the main gate at Tinker with his ID in hand. His window was down and the gate guard only gave his vehicle a cursory glance. The inspection sticker on the truck was good, the plates were government, and he knew his ID was good. The only problem he may have was if Mitchell knew he was alive and had alerted the guards to be on the lookout for him. The guard glanced at the ID, glanced at his face and saluted him through. Jack pulled forward, navigated through the co
ncrete barricades and made his way south and west toward the hangar. The rising sun to his left and the oncoming morning traffic felt like any other day of the week.

So why did he have this knot in his gut?

Oh, yeah. He was supposed to be dead. He’d lost track of how long he’d been gone. Surely Mitchell had replaced his squad by now. They may even still be in training. They may have even cut their teeth with some minor incident. Jack knew with the full moon tonight, shit was going to get ugly, fast. He also knew that Mitchell would find a reason to not be there and Laura Youngblood would have to command the operation. Mitchell was
never
there on the roughest night of the month. The rest of the month, you couldn’t pull his ass away from the hangar, but on the full moon, he’d fucking disappear…

Jack hit the brakes so hard that the minivan behind him a
lmost hit his SUV. A horn sounded and he could hear the minivan’s driver cursing him even through the closed window. Jack hurriedly pulled the SUV into the parking lot of the Post Exchange and parked it across two parking spaces while the realization sunk in.
Oh my God. Mitchell is a wolf, too!
“Son-of-a-bitch!” Jack yelled and punched the roof of the SUV leaving a noticeable raised dent in the roof. “Why didn’t I ever put two and two together before?”
Because you didn’t know what you were before, dumbass!

“Fuck me!” Jack yelled. He stepped out of the SUV and paced. This was significant, but he didn’t exactly know how.
Think, Jack. Think!
He stopped and placed both hands on the fender of the SUV. His heart was racing and he was having trouble thinking. Between the energy rushes of the moon’s pull and being separated from Nadia, he was having a lot of trouble focusing. He kept pushing her from his thoughts, but more than anything he wanted to turn the truck around and go home.

Home.

Home? Yes, home. As much as he hated to finally admit it to himself,
she
was home. Home wasn’t a place, it was
her
. It didn’t matter if he lived on the island or if he was working at the hangar, where Nadia was, he would be. He had to be
home
.

But first, he had to complete one last mission.

*****

Laura entered the hangar and found Matt helping the squad pack gear into different crates and go-bags. They separated it into different areas for different threats and although the teams were always ready, in times like these, when threats were imm
inent, they would check and double check that everything was right. No soldier wanted to risk their gear failing them in the field. It was make-work, but it was a necessary evil.

She approached him tentatively, unsure of his reaction. When he noticed her, he stood tall, his face solemn. Matt seemed honestly troubled. He turned to Laura, away from the squads, even though they would eventually hear of Franklin’s ‘exposure’ he hoped to keep their part of it from them. “I truly hoped that he wouldn’t remember. I hoped that he would never use it,” he said softly.

Laura looked away, shaking her head. “We shouldn’t have left the USB drive with him, Matt. He eventually would have, you know it.”

“Laura, we went over this,” Matt sighed. “I had hoped he would have the sense to
check
it first and realize we had something on him. That he would back down…”

“We knew his psych profile suggested that he wouldn’t do that, though. Evan even told us that his personality type would preclude such action,” she argued.

Matt sighed. “You’re right.” He stared off through the open doors. “You’re right. Whatever comes of this will be on my head.”

One of Matt’s butter-bar lieutenants approached him. “Colonel, you have a priority call. You can take it there.” He pointed to a phone near a workbench.

Matt went to the bench and picked up the phone. “Mitchell.”

Senator Franklin spoke quietly into the phone, “You aren’t answering your cell, Mitchell. Is that your way of being insubo
rdinate?”

Matt pulled his cell out and glanced at it. Dead. “Apologies, senator. I forgot to charge it…”

“Doesn’t matter now, does it, asshole?!” he snarled.

“Excuse me, senator?” Matt tried to play stupid, but he knew he had it coming.

“Don’t play coy with me, Mitchell. You may have won the battle, but you’re going to lose the war. There’s a blood bath coming and you will
drown in it
! Mark my words, Mitchell. I was the only thing that could have saved humanity and you just…” Franklin paused and Matt could hear something hit the phone. “You just caused the fucking apocalypse!” There was a blast across the phone line followed by another sound that Matt couldn’t make out. The line didn’t go dead, but he couldn’t quite hear. The full strength of the shotgun blast that took off Senator Franklin’s head wasn’t carried across the line, but Matt knew a gun blast when he heard it.

He set the phone line down. “Trace that call and alert EMS to that address!” he yelled to his lieutenant.

“Matt, what happened?” Laura asked.

“I think Franklin just shot himself,” Matt said.

Laura paled.

This was their doing.

*****

Jack pulled up alongside the hangar and noticed the double doors at the front were standing open.
May as well make a grand entrance,
he thought. He could see what appeared to be two full squads checking and packing gear. Just another day preparing for the muck.

The two guards normally assigned outside the hangar weren’t posted outside the door. Normal when both squads are topside. Jack rolled up and inside the front area of the hangar. He stopped the engine and opened the door. He clipped his P90 back to his vest, grabbed his duffle and shut the door.

*****

“Who the fuck does this clown think he is?” Wallace asked, nudging Spanky. They couldn’t quite make out the figure in the black SUV at the far end of the hangar, but they both knew he had made a huge mistake rolling up on their turf like he owned the place.

Spanky whistled to Apollo and gave a motion to the front doors. Apollo stepped from around the Humvee and instantly his hackles rose. Somebody was about to get an ass-whoopin! Apollo bowed up and started stepping toward the unknown intruder. The other squad members fell in.

Colonel Mitchell stepped out in front of the squads just as the door to the SUV closed and Jack turned around to face the incoming squads with the colonel in front of them. Just as he had figured, all of the contingencies he had planned on the island and during his drive here went right out the window.
The best laid plans of mice and men…and shit.

Jack strode up toward the teams until they noticed who he was and they stopped. The new members had no clue, but he r
ealized that the colonel didn’t seem surprised at all that he was alive.

“Chief Petty Officer Jack Thompson, reporting for duty, colonel.” Jack snapped off a salute.

“Who the fuck
is
this guy?” Lamb asked.

Apollo broke into a toothy grin. “Phoenix, you son-of-a-bitch!” He practically ran up to bear hug him.

Jack grunted as Apollo lifted him from the ground and the original Monster Squad members surrounded him to welcome him back. Colonel Mitchell held his ground. The new members of the Monster Squad surrounded the colonel. “Who is this guy, sir?”

“A dead man.”

When the original clamor was over at Jack’s resurrection from the dead, he approached the colonel. “You’re not happy to see me, sir?”

“Thompson, we have to follow protocol. You know that.” Neither man smiled.

Jack nodded. “I expected as much.”

Mitchell nodded at the guards who quickly approached Jack. “Yeah, yeah. Give me a minute.” He unhooked his P90 and handed it to one of them. “Careful with that. It’s loaded. Might put an eye out.” He pulled his FiveseveN from its holster and handed it to the other one. “Easy there, buster. That’s a real one. No airsofting with that or somebody goes home in a body bag.” He pulled his magazines from the various pouches and pockets and handed them to his squad mates. “Here, you guys can pro
bably use these.”

He looked up at Apollo again. “Damn it’s good to see your ugly mug again, you brute.” He punched him in the arm, “I can’t believe looking at
you
would be refreshing.”

“Believe it,” Sanchez said with a smirk.

“Yours?” Jack asked.

“Damned straight, baby.” Apollo grinned again.

“I’m nobody’s’,” Sanchez reminded him.

“That’s right!” Apollo quickly corrected. “I’m
her
bitch,” he whispered.

Jack laughed. “Sweet, bro.”

“Ahem,” Mitchell interrupted. “Protocol, Jack.”

“Yes, sir,” Jack said, sobering. “Lead the way. I live to serve. Ask and I shall obey. Waggle the carrot and this ass will follow. I’d say some more, but I’ve been driving all night and I really got to pee.”

“Needless to say, we have a lot of questions, son.”

“Oh, we
definitely
have a
lot
to talk about,
sir,
” Jack said, giving the colonel a knowing look. “A lot to discuss.”

“It sounds like there’s a few things on your mind, chief.”

“You don’t know the half of it, skipper.” Jack reverted to his nickname for the colonel from the early days and Matt did a double take. Skipper being the Navy term for most boat captains and Jack being a Navy SEAL, he often called his CO that as a term of affection. This time, Matt knew it wasn’t meant that way.

“Anything I should know offhand before we get started?”

“There’s a war, sir. And we’re stuck in the middle of it. We’re all being
played
, skipper… by both sides.”

“Really?” Matt said disbelievingly.

“Oh, yeah,” Jack said. “There’s a shit-storm coming. A war like we’ve never seen before and God Himself only knows how many people will pay because of it. What you decide today may very well tip the scales of that war.”

The elevator doors opened and Matt dismissed the guards so that he could address Jack alone. “Just what do you know, so
ldier?”

“Everything.”