Chapter 12

Fuming, Raven burst in on Jack as he was on the phone with one of the teams.

"They're going to run!"

"Wait one, please," Jack said into the radio, then turned toward Raven. He was immediately aware that something serious was happening.

"What did you say?"

"I said that they are going to run!"

"Raven? Who is manning the coms, right now?"

Raven stopped yelling, went white, turned, and rushed back out the door.

"Keep on them. Act only if you are attacked. However, if attacked respond with extreme prejudice! HQ out," said Jack to the leader of team one, as he rose to follow Raven.

As Jack entered the com station, what he saw disturbed him greatly! Raven was alternating between screaming at the console and muttering death threats spiced with torture.

"If you keep up like this... they have won, and you might as well just lie down and die."

Raven glared at Jack with pure unadulterated hatred and said with an evil malice that chilled her friend, and mentor to the very soul! "I will not let these people escape unscathed!"

Jack knew without a doubt that the blackness in the spirit of the child, that was once so free of evil thoughts and actions, was growing exponentially. Camilla and Raven were almost gone, what/who was left he didn't know, but it wasn't good.

"I see the path that you have chosen Girl, it is not a good one. Self defense mixed with some revenge is acceptable but this... this evil, is soul eating. I don't approve! I can only pray that there is a spark of good left that will stop you from this self-destruction. I have spoken and will say no more! You must decide, on your own!"

Jack turned and left the room, not even bothering to ask what the problem with the targets was.

"So you are leaving me, too! Well I don't need you, or anyone else!" said Raven softly, with venom dripping from every word.

She was not speaking softly enough, though. Without missing a step, Jack turned and swiftly covered the distance between he and Raven. The slap across her face shocked the young woman so much that she didn't even move in response. She just stood, dumbfounded. Then slowly she raised her hand to cover her wounded face.

As she did this, Jack spoke so softly in his rage, that Camilla, for that was whom she was at this moment in time, had to strain to hear what Jack was saying.

"I have never abandoned you! I will never abandon you! However, it seems to me that you are hell bent on abandoning me, to your own detriment! Don't you ever accuse me of such a failure again, you spoiled brat! You are leaving 'The Way'. I have taught you to consider things and yet without even considering what you are doing to those around you, you accuse such a thing?

"How can you behave in such a stupid manner for a person with such a high IQ, I ask you that?

"We all love you child! How could... How could you do such a thing to me?"

Jack sputtered to a stop and sat weakly down on the chair next to him. Camilla just remained standing there, her hand on her cheek and tears streaming from her eyes.

Jack just sat with his head in his hands as he said, "You are breaking my heart... if I thought that it would work, I would just close everything down and take you into the north woods, never to return. But I know that will not work with this situation."

"In my entire life, you never struck me. Not once..." said the young girl.

"Of course not! You always behaved as a good student and... and a good daughter..." Jack said as his voice faded.

"This person that you have become... I don't know. You are a stranger to me. Do you think that any of these actions will help bring your family back? Will violence for its own sake do any thing good? No! No! And again I say: NO!"

Jack was absolutely filled with despair and it was so very evident that Camilla just collapsed to the floor, weeping.

"What am I supposed to do with all of the hate and anger that is in me?" wailed the miserable child.

"My child, for the first time in my life I am unable to give you a good answer. I can only say that I am trying to do this job... this mission without destroying myself. I loved your mother, father, and sister too, just as much as I love you, Girl. And that does not even mention my wonderful Mika and Frank. I too, grieve, Child. Don't make me grieve for the loss of you, too. These people have caused us to change, but 'how much' is the real question? If you change so much that you become the evil person that you seem determined to, then all is lost. If you give in then I will stop the fight and help everyone concerned to get a new life somewhere else."

"You would give up?"

"If it is the only way to save you."

"You can't let them get away with killing my family!"

"It is all up to you! You and you alone, Camilla, are the one that will make this decision. Continue to follow this path of evil, and I will have no choice but to stop this and take you away. If you would come."

"But..."

"No buts! We are not doing this for revenge! No, we're doing this to stop these evil people! To stop having to look over our shoulder all of the time, wondering when the bullet or bomb will come, or even worse, torture for the system codes."

Jack's look softened and he added, "We will probably have to kill all of them, anyway, but it is your attitude that worries me."

Taking a deep breath the young woman looked Jack straight in the eye, trying to probe the depths of his resolve to stop the mission because of her behavior. What she saw was a sad resolve that truly frightened her.

"I wish I were a little kid again, so that I could just let you take care of everything. It was so much easier back then, now...

"Is this what it is like to be a grown up?"

Jack nodded and said, "It isn't how smart you are but how responsible, sweetheart. The tests of life just get more difficult as one grows older. Remember what I taught you about character?"

"Yes."

"Well, tell me what it means to have character, Camilla."

The woman/child, for both were now engaged in a battle for supremacy of spirit, shook. She took a deep breath and began to recite as a small child would.

"Character is knowing what is right and then doing the right thing, no matter what the consequences are."

"Ok you have the phrase memorized. Now, explain how that principle applies to this situation."

Camilla scrubbed her face, looked around the room and tried to think of anything that could or would delay what she had to say, just as a student that must answer a question aurally and doesn't know the answer. In this case she did know the answer, she just didn't like the answer.