Chapter 11

The flight to Fairbanks was uneventful, and Flint managed to rent hangar space in which to hide the Beech from sight.

The charter jet arrived on time, and the trip to Portland was peaceful enough that Amelia slept. Flint, on the other hand, was plagued with memories from his old life. He and his team had done some nasty things back then.

His mind drifted from one assignment to another, randomly. Jackie played an important role in most.

He remembered when he first found the orphaned girl on the streets of DC.

She was panhandling outside of his favorite restaurant. She was dirty, and painfully thin; but he saw, or rather sensed, that there was something special about her.

Though he was ten years her senior, a 'gung ho' CIA operative, and she a streetwise, wisecracking teenaged homeless person; the two struck up a friendship, of sorts.

In time, Flint had been able to talk the young woman into going for her GED. Oh, she had been way too independent to do any more than take the books he offered her, but she soon became a ravenous reader on almost any subject.

The Library became her favorite place.

Then the pimps found her and tried to turn her out. It was becoming more difficult for her to remain independent. Flint's influence caused her to bathe, and wear clean clothes. Once the dirt and rags were gone the young woman's beauty became self-evident.

All of the Pimps wanted her, and tried to get her hooked on one drug or another. She had to be very careful what and where she ate, just to stay clean and drug free.

Jackie and Flint's friendship was one of those rare things that develop between some people where sex doesn't come into play. They were more like brother and sister, than anything else.

However, it took a lot of time and effort to convince her to leave the streets.

The final straw came one day as she was leaving the Library. One of the more aggressive Pimps had decided to just snatch her. She was just too beautiful to pass up.

They took her while she was waiting for Flint to pick her up. Unfortunately for them, Flint was just arriving, and saw the snatch. He followed their van to the brothel, getting angrier by the minute.

His was not a blind rage. It was the calculating rage of a trained killer.

As the two were struggling to remove the unconscious girl from their van, Flint struck!

The first man went down with a destroyed knee, dragging Jackie with him but breaking her fall as she landed on top of him. The second man, though surprised, manage to drop Jackie's feet and pull his weapon.

It was the last thing that he ever did! Flint was on him like a whirlwind, breaking wrist, nose and larynx. The last blow to his larynx shut his air off and he died writhing on the ground, trying to breathe.

By this time the first kidnapper had struggled out from under the unconscious girl and was trying to bring his weapon to bear. Flint kicked the gun from the man's hand. Still moving, Flint continued to spin around in the classic round kick.

The force of the kick ruined the pretty-boy's face! He lay unconscious with a broken cheek, eye socket, and jaw. Not a few of his teeth were scattered on the ground, too.

Flint quickly picked Jackie up, and ran to his car, hoping that there were no witnesses.

After that experience, three things happened. Jackie agreed to move into Flint's apartment, attend college, and take self-defense classes.

At Flint's urging, the CIA recruited Jackie. She eventually made it to Flint's team — he had called in a lot of favors.

The two became the most effective Black-ops team in the Company.

The announcement, "Please buckle your seat belts for landing," brought Flint out of his musings, and he woke Amelia.

No sooner had they deplaned at the charter terminal, than the jet began to taxi back out to the runway.

Flint looked around for one of Jackie's boys. Not having seen them for years, he didn't recognize the tall lanky fellow that stood leaning against a golf cart. Realizing that Flint didn't know him the young man pushed off from the cart and walked over to greet the new arrivals.

"Hello, Uncle," he said with a broad smile.

Flint turned toward the young man with a surprised smile, "Is it Martin or Mathew?"

"Mathew, Unc."

The two embraced in an energetic bear hug, with backslapping, and shouts of joy.

"I didn't recognize you, boy!"

"You look pretty much the same as I remember you, only grayer. Who's this with you? Mom said you were coming alone."

"This is my Granddaughter, Amelia." Then he said in a much lower voice, "You knew her as Faine."

Mathew turned and offered his hand saying with a huge smile, "Boy you sure filled out nicely. The last time that I saw you, you were a toddler. Who knew that you'd grow up to be so beautiful?"

Amelia just stared at this young 'Adonis' with openmouthed awe, unable to speak.

Flint raised his eyebrows at the effect Mathew was having on Amelia. She had been pretty melancholic, since her transformation.

"At least she is showing some form of normal behavior for a girl her age," he thought.

"Does she talk, Uncle?" asked Mathew with an amused smile.

"She's usually quite articulate."

Amelia finally regained her voice and said in an awed manner, "You're so beautiful! I mean handsome..."

"Amelia, wake up, or he will think you're dimwitted," said Flint.

"What?" she asked as she turned dreamily toward her Grandfather.

Then she regained her senses.

"Oh shit! I'm acting like some star struck preteen. SHIT! I'm sorry. Mathew is it? It's a pleasure to meet you."

The poor girl was bright red, all the way to her toes, as she took the proffered hand and shook it firmly.

"Not as pleased as I am," said Mathew.

Though it seemed impossible, her blush deepened.

Mathew took pity on her and said, "Let's head over to the plane and get out of here. I feel a bit exposed under the circumstances."

They all hopped aboard the golf cart, and zipped along to the private aircraft section of the airfield.

"HOLY SHIT! Gramps look! There's a Helio, just like the one you used to tell me about! Oh it's so cool."

"Not only does it look like my old horse, it is!" Flint answered with pride.

"But ... How?"

"Well, Sweetheart, unbeknownst to me Jackie has kept it all of these years."

"LOOK at it! It looks brand new!"

"That old girl has a special place in Mom's heart. She takes good care of her. She has installed all new electronics, and an improved fuel system, along with a brand new engine. She was good before. Now she is great!" said Mathew.

Amelia was so excited that she could hardly contain herself. She jumped from the cart and ran to the sleek little aircraft, caressing it and exploring her lines.

Suddenly, she grabbed her head and slumped to the ground, with a wailing screech.

The two men ran to her aid calling her name.

"What happened, honey? What's the matter?"

"Too many people! Too many people!"

Then, as if a curtain descended, the bubbly girl disappeared. The stoic, melancholic Amelia returned.

"I'm ok now, Gramps," she said as Mathew and Flint each took a hand and helped her to her feet.

"What happened, Amelia?" asked Flint with great concern.

"I let myself get excited, and lost my concentration. All of the people got through. There are so many more, here, than at home. It was horrible!"

"So that's why you seem so sad all of the time? You're keeping up a barrier?"

"Yes."

"You're like your mother and father then?" asked Mathew.

Amelia gaped at him.

"How do you know about them?" asked Amelia.

"I remember them. We used to bring in their supplies with our chopper. They were really nice people. It was always great fun to visit for the day."

"I had forgotten about that," said Flint. "That will make things easier, now. We won't have to hide anything."

"To answer your question, yes I am," said Amelia.

"I'm sorry about your folks. I know it was a long time ago but..."

"Thank you. Now shouldn't we be going?"

"Yes, yes," said Mathew feeling a little chastened.

"You sit up front with Mathew, Honey. You'll get a better feel for the old girl."

Then, laughing, he said, "I shouldn't call this thing a 'her', should I? It is a Helio Stallion after all. Hahahaha."

Amelia was amazed at the characteristics of the plane. She knew that it had excellent STOL abilities, but to actually experience them, was eye opening. She watched every move that Mathew made at the controls, and knew that it would be a joy to fly this aircraft.

The flight was little more than a hop to Flint's old airfield.

The greetings at their arrival were even heartier, as Flint and Jackie hugged for a long time. Tears streamed down the woman's face as she sobbed.

"I'm so glad you're here, big brother! I've missed you so, and with all of the shit that worthless drunk of a husband of mine has brought down on me, I thought I was going lose it."

Amelia was again dumbstruck. She kept looking from one brother to the other, not believing her eyes.

"This is too much! There are two of you! Two beautiful, beautiful men!"

"We're twins," said Martin brightly.

Suddenly Amelia put her hand to her head and winced.

Mathew noticed the move and put an arm around Amelia as he asked, "Does it hurt a lot. Your mother said it was indescribable."

"Yes, oh yes it hurts terribly."

"Would you like to lie down for a bit? We won't be eating until six-ish."

"Could I please?" Amelia pleaded.

"Mom, I'm going to show Amelia where the cots are. She needs to lie down for a bit."

"Of course," Jackie called back.

"My gosh, big Bro! She looks just like her mother!" said Jackie as she watched Mathew guide the young woman away.

"Yes. Yes she does," said Flint as he too watched the young couple.

Later that evening the little group gathered around Chinese take-out, catching up.

"Any news about the fire?" asked Flint.

"According to the papers and TV news casts, we all died in the fire. I doubt that that is what the cops think though. You know how they are, never letting on how much they know until they have a case."

"Yep. That I do. How is it that the glider people aren't coming round?"

"The lease had an addendum that gave me the right to close the field to them if I needed the place for my business."

"But you're supposed to be dead. How is that possible without tipping your hat?"

"I took a page out of your book big Bro. The people here don't know my real name, and a shell company owns this place. No real paper trail."

"That's my girl," said the big man.

"Now start at the beginning and tell me everything. We don't have much time to handle this before it spirals out of our control. If we do this right the Mob will get the blame for everything."

Jackie began. She and Flint talked late into the night. Amelia slept fitfully as Mathew sat awake all night, watching the strange woman that had suddenly entered his life. For some reason she was very important to him. His desire to protect her was growing by leaps and bounds, and he didn't understand why.

"She really is something," he thought with a huge yawn.

Just as the sun was rising Mathew sagged into dreamland.

"Ok guys, you stay here while Amelia and I go into town for a little intel work."

As they flew toward Boston, Flint looked at his Granddaughter.

"Honey, up to now I haven't asked you anything about your abilities. What you do with them is up to you. I mean that! I will not ask you to do anything that you don't want.

"But are you willing to tell me what you can do?"

"No, it would take too long, and besides, it would put you at greater risk. However, I will tell you if I can do something that you need, within limits."

"Fair enough. I hate to even bring you into this but time is so short, both here and back at the compound. I have the feeling that something is wrong back home, too. I have tried calling on the sat phone several times but something is disrupting service.

"Look, Gramps, I know that you're worried. But here's the thing. You taught me to always focus on what I can do, and not on what I can't do anything about. We came here to help Aunt Jackie, and that's what we need to be doing, for now. After all we can't do anything about what's going on back at home, can we?"

"Well look at this! The student becomes the teacher. Haha. You're right of course. Haha. Ok, ok answer me this, can you do remote viewing?"

"You need to be more specific. What do you want to see?'

"What I want is to find Jackie's husband and bring him back to base to answer some questions."

"Ok. That's better. Do you have a picture of him?"

"Yes, in the flight bag."

Amelia retrieved the picture and studied it for a few minutes then said, "Ok Gramps, I need you to be quiet until I tell you otherwise."

"Oh? Right! Fine."

Amelia concentrated on the image. Suddenly she felt pain, a lot of pain.

She broke the contact, shook her head, and regrouped her thoughts. Shutting off that part of her senses she returned to her task. It was if she were Jimmy. She pulled out of her target and turned to Flint.

"Jimmy is being worked over by a couple of thugs. I don't think he's going to last much longer. Exactly what do you want from him?"

"We need the names of the people that threatened Jackie, and as much intel as you can get on their operation. What I want to do is let the law handle things and stay out of the picture as much as possible."

"Ok."

Once Amelia was back in Jimmy's head, she dug out everything he knew that would be useful. Then, for good measure she expanded into the minds of the two men beating him, one at a time.

What she found was troubling.

The men doing the beating were DEA agents, and they weren't working alone. They were members of an elite squad, which had decided the pay would be better if they went into business for themselves.

The good thing was that there was no mob involvement, but ... Jackie had killed two of their members and that put them in a worse place.