Chapter 16

"You're going to be heading off to college soon," William said looking across the fire at Eddie. He added another small log to the fire and sat back to watch it catch.

"I've got another two years of high school," Eddie said poking a stick into the fire and watching the end start to burn. He pulled the stick out of the fire. The weak flame flickered and died. The small glowing bud at the end of the stick slowly faded.

"Enjoy them while you can," William said.

Everyone was telling Eddie the same thing. Enjoy his time now while he could. He wanted to grow up and do more adult things. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "You talk like you speak from experience."

"Not really. My life has been a lot different than yours," William replied. He looked into the small fire and stared at the shimmering red coals. He sighed and said, "You're lucky."

"I'm not blessed by the Powers that Be like you are," Eddie said. He looked across the fire to see his brother's reaction.

"You've been blessed by the Powers that Be. It is just that you've gotten a different blessing than I," William said. He thought about how much he knew and how little he could do. It seemed to him at times like every move he made was dictated. Knowing what was about to happen two miles from where he was seated, he sighed and said, "I think you have gotten the better blessing."

The comment surprised Eddie. There were times when he was in awe of his brother and what he could do. If he was a less balanced person he might even have been jealous of his brother. He said, "You're just saying that to make me feel better."

William laughed and said, "I am saying that to make you feel better. That doesn't mean it isn't true."

"I don't understand. You're special and everyone knows it. You know all kinds of things. You know what is going to happen before it happens. I'm just a regular person. There's nothing special about me," Eddie said.

William reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He took one out and handed the pack over to Eddie. Seeing the cigarettes come out, Eddie knew that William was about to cover some very serious subjects. He took the pack and pulled out a cigarette. He lit it with the stick he had been poking into the fire. He held up the stick for William who used it to light his cigarette.

William took a long drag off his cigarette and exhaled to the sky. He said, "One of the hardest things about becoming an adult is learning to accept responsibility for your actions."

"I know that. The moms and dads are always talking about responsibility," Eddie said. He took a drag off his cigarette and watched William study the stars overhead.

"If I were to push you into the fire, would I be responsible for your injuries?" William asked after a minute.

"Of course you would," Eddie said nodding his head vigorously.

"If you were to trip over that stone and fall into the fire, would I be responsible for that?" William asked pointing to a small stone near the fire. The coffee pot filled with hot water was resting on the stone.

"No. It would be an accident," Eddie said looking at the stone. He had put the stone there earlier.

"How about if I were to know that you would trip over it and didn't warn you or move it out of the way?" William asked raising an eyebrow.

"I guess you would be partly to blame, but you couldn't know it for a fact," Eddie said with a frown. He had a feeling that he knew where his brother was going to take the discussion.

Looking at his brother, William said, "That's the problem. I can know it for a fact."

Feeling that his brother was taking too much responsibility, Eddie said, "It would be partly my fault. I should have been looking where I was going."

"That's true, but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't have moved the rock to prevent you from falling into the fire," William said with a slight nod of his head. He looked up at the sky for a second and then said, "There are a lot of little partial responsibilities like that in my life. You don't have them because you can't know all of the consequences of your actions."

"I think that you take too much of the world's problems on your shoulders," Eddie said. He took another drag off his cigarette and watched the fire. A little blue jet of flame escaped out the side of the log William had put on the fire earlier. With a hiss, it flickered and then went out.

"I don't take the world's problems on my shoulders. My service forces them upon my shoulders. I have to watch everything I do with great care because I know the long-term consequences of each and every act I perform," William said.

"I guess I never thought about it like that," Eddie said. He wondered how anyone could live like that. He said, "You must be miserable."

William thought about it and said, "I'm happy enough. I have a very supportive family."

"I guess," Eddie said wondering how he contributed to William's life. He took a drag off the cigarette and blew the smoke up to the sky. He said, "We don't do that much for you. It is not that we don't want to, but that you don't seem to need much from us."

William laughed and said, "You're doing a lot for me at the moment by sitting here and listening to me."

"It is very little," Eddie said. He looked at William and noticed that his face looked like he had just bitten into a very sour lemon. William was looking off to the side as if there was something very ugly happening over there.

Shaking his head, William returned to the moment and said, "Enjoy your time now. One day you'll take over for Daddy Ed and you'll be in charge of his businesses."

"Don't forget the town," Eddie said knowing how his father felt responsible for the town.

"Never," William said.

There was the sound of a large explosion in the distance. Eddie looked around and asked, "What was that?"

"The attack on the house has started," William answered. He waved a hand as if it was nothing.

Worried, Eddie asked, "Shouldn't we get back to the house?"

"No. Momma Ling, Momma Claire, and my security are there. Let them take care of it," William answered.

"You're sure that they can handle it?" Eddie asked.

"Quite sure," William said tossing his cigarette into the fire. He turned and rummaged through his pack. He pulled out a plastic bag and asked, "Would you like to toast a marshmallow or two?"

"Sure," Eddie said surprised to see the bag of marshmallows. He had a brought a little treat of his own. He asked, "Would you like some hot chocolate to go with that? I've got a couple of packages of instant cocoa here."

"That would be perfect," William said reaching over to his pack to get out a cup.

At the house, Ling was watching the security monitor when an explosion took out a section of the fence surrounding William's property. Three black SUVs were driving down the road toward the hole in the fence. A small infrared signature showed up in the desert on the property across the road. She said, "I've found the guy who placed the explosives."

Claire commented, "The SUVs are going to enter through the breach. We should get some people there."

"I've got the industrial laser ready. I'll just cut them in half as soon as they enter William's property," Ling said running her fingers over the controls. She raised the laser so that it would sweep out at forty inches above the ground. That would cut through any vehicles at a height that would correspond to the height of the waists of the occupants.

"That's not an industrial laser. It is a military laser," Rock said glancing over at Ling.

Colt was in charge of the defenses. Looking over at Ling, he said, "Just take out the tires. Let them get fifty yards in before you use the laser."

"Half measures," Ling grumbled despite being impressed that William had military lasers. She lowered the lasers so that they'd sweep out seven inches from the ground.

Colt spoke into the microphone, "Teams one and two, move through the trench so that you're in front of the break. I'll tell you when it is safe to raise your head. Team three, the guy who set the explosives is in sector A-5."

Claire had driven through William's ranch without noticing any kind of trench. She asked, "Trench?"

"What trench?" Ling asked.

"We've got trenches dug seventy-five and a hundred yards inside the property line," Rock answered watching the monitors. A line marking the trench appeared as the camouflage cover retracted. He could see the two teams moving through the trench. He added, "We'll send them out to take control of the occupants of the vehicles once they've been stopped."

"The bad guys aren't going to give up," Ling said. The three vehicles burst through the fence. Impatient, she waited for them to reach the fifty yard mark so that she could press the fire button on the laser.

Rock looked over at Ling and then turned to face Nicole. He said, "Get the LRADs ready."

Nicole said, "They are ready."

"What LRADs?" Claire asked. She had thought she had seen all of the defensive systems that had been arranged around the property.

"William had some Long Range Acoustical Devices installed around the property," Rock answered. The devices sent a focused beam of sound that could cause nausea or unconsciousness in a person who stood in the way of the beam. It was actually a phased array of speakers arranged such that the propagation of sound to the sides was negated while the propagation of sound to the front was reinforced. The effect on a person standing in front of it was devastating, but a person standing behind it or off to the side was unaffected.

Ling fired the laser so that it swept out a short arc during the few milliseconds that it fired. The high intensity light cut through the three cars at a height of seven inches. All tires and half of the rims were cut off almost instantaneously. The result was an explosion of dust when the SUVs stopped being supported by their tires. The vehicles slid to a stop in less than fifteen yards. Colt chuckled and said, "I bet they weren't expecting that."

Ling watched the monitor and said, "The laser is recharging. I can give them another shot in ten seconds."