Chapter 15

As soon as they landed at the lodge, Martin was placed in the plain pine casket that Joseph had prepared. The body was then taken up the hill to the small, but growing, cemetery and interned without delay.

There was no crying, as the emotional guards that Amelia had set in the minds of Jackie and Mathew, were still in place.

That is not to say there wasn't sorrow, of course. The loss of the Bergstums, and Martin, was just muted.

Flint was relieved to find out that the reason for the communication problem was the fact that Ed Bergstum had smashed the SAT phone.

Amelia waited for a few weeks then went to Jackie and Mathew. He happened to be with his mother at the time. The two were sitting before the huge fireplace in what served as the living room. It was actually the lobby of the lodge. The firelight flickered across the unlit room and their faces creating a kaleidoscopic tableau of light and shadow.

Amelia kissed her man, and then knelt in front of Jackie.

"It is time, you know. The emotional guards will not hold much longer. It will be far, far better for me to let them off slowly, than for you and Mathew to just crash."

Jackie stared at Amelia with eyes that were filled with melancholy.

"Yes, I know. I've felt things slipping of late."

Jackie sat up abruptly and scrubbed her face roughly. She then asked, "Ok, how do we do this thing?"

"Come outside in a few minutes. You will need loving support. I will go and gather the others," said Amelia.

As she rose, she kissed Mathew again, and left the room.

Mathew assisted his mother to her feet. The two went out onto the veranda of the west-facing lodge. The sun was setting over the lake turning both lake and sky pink. It was a very beautiful, uplifting sight.

All of the others came to the courtyard from different directions, and gathered in a circle. Amelia beckoned to the reluctant pair.

Amelia explained what she was about to do, and what was needed from everyone. Once she had received acknowledgments to her directions, she began her unhappy task.

Of course, Jackie's reaction was far worse than Mathew's. The guilt at having taken the life of her son was beyond the pale and just crushed the woman. Amelia let the grief wash over the two for several days, then she slowly let it ebb, draining it away forever.

It took a week for the whole process to be completed. Once finished, Jackie and Mathew were sad, but whole, again.

Everyone in the group had suffered, in one way or another, so Amelia helped all of them, too.

The changing of one's identity is a tedious task. It is just as tedious to do a good job to change the identification of aircraft.

One month after Martin's funeral each person, and plane, had a new identity.

Sara Mills>>>>>>>Ann Miles

Flint Drow>>>>>>>John Philips

Amelia Drow>>>>>Rianna Philips

Emma Utek>>>>>>Mary Philips

Katie Utek>>>>>>>Sophie Philips

Jackie Stans>>>>>Donna Leonard

Mathew Stans>>>>Scott Leonard

(Joseph and Lena Atti did not have a need for new identities.)

"Ok, big Bro. Now that we're all settled in and we all have new identities, what's the plan? We can't live on what's in our secret accounts the rest of our lives. Well ... I suppose we actually could, couldn't we, but..." asked Donna.

"Yeah, I know what you mean! We may need to move again, and we can't be splurging our nest egg, now can we?"

"Well then, big Bro, I ask again. What's the plan?"

John said that he did have some ideas, but felt that something like this should be a group decision.

Donna glared at him and said, "You can't be serious, a unit must have a leader and you are it. Like it or not!"

"You don't understand what I'm getting at, Girl! Yes! I'm the leader. But there is another facet to this situation here that you're not seeing. You and I are not getting any younger. We will need to pass the mantle of leadership on, in the future. There has to be someone to take up that mantle.

"I expect that boy of yours is going to get my girl pregnant fairly soon, and you know it."

"Yeah, well..."

"Exactly! We need to train the next generation, here," said John.

"Ok. I'll give you that. But I still think you and I should have a plan in place, first. That is just in case things go to hell sooner, rather than later. I think that we should run this just like we did our unit, back in the day, that's all I'm saying," said Donna as she grumpily slumped into a chair across from John.

John winked at her, and pulled a sheaf of papers from his coat pocket. He handed them to Donna.

"You mean, like this?"

"You old bastard!" she said as she tossed a pillow at her old friend.

"Come on, Girl, let's get some Irish coffee and go to my office. I need you to tell me what you think about this plan."

Far off in one of the Boroughs of NYC the head of one of the Mafia families was holding 'court'.

"We need to get that pencil pushing geek back! I need to find out what he's told the Feds," growled the Don (the Boss of the family) at his Capo Bastone (the second to the Boss.) "Of all of the people for the Feds to turn, it had to be that sniveling weasel of an accountant! SHIT!

"Take the 'Fist' (an exceptionally ruthless group of thugs) and go get him, ALIVE! And, Gino, if you fail, don't come back."

The sweating Capo Bastone nodded, and bowed himself out of the room. Once the door closed on the angry Don, Gino wiped the sweat from his face. He turned and hurried off, barking orders to his subordinates.

"Gramps, where did you and Aunt Donna get all of the money? I mean it must be an awful lot."

"A lot of it came from your parents, the rest our unit sort of picked up along the way. Why Sweetheart?"

"But my folks didn't have money, we lived like church mice."

"Oh they had loads of money, they just didn't flaunt it. Besides you didn't need much money living in the woods like you did."

"Really? I don't remember, but ... I was little," Rianna said thoughtfully. "Ok, so they had money, too. So how did you all get it, anyway?"

"They used their powers to take it away from criminals, drug dealers and such. Then, we invested it. There are special numbered accounts and pieces of property all over the world. The IRS hasn't got a clue, either."

"CRIMINALS?"

"Yep."

"But..."

"Look, Honey, we took the resources of people that caused harm to others. Then we used those resources for good ... or, at least, we warehoused the stuff for a later date. Either way, the bad guys can't use the money to hurt people."

"Oh, ok. I guess I need to think about this," she said as she walked away holding her head with both hands.

"I hope her idealism doesn't come back to bite me in the ass," said John with a huge sigh, as he returned to the task of draining the oil from one of the planes.

"Hey, Gino! Our guy in the AG's office came through. We got the address of the place where the cops are keeping Tony and his family."

"Great! How many cops are guarding them?"

"The guy says three teams of four, on eight hour shifts."

Gino frowned. "That doesn't sound right. How come there are so few guards?"

"Dunno. And get this! It's just a ranch house up the Island, near Port Washington. The place is an easy hit!"

"That's what I'm afraid of. It sounds too easy. Hmm."

Gino took a bite out of his biscotti and then a sip of his espresso as he thought. Good food always helped him think. That was probably the reason that he weighed over three hundred and fifty pounds. Gino was a huge pig of a man, almost as wide as he was tall.

"Ok! Here's what I want you to do. Use all of the 'Fist' crew. Go in hot and heavy but with silencers. And Joey, I want him and his family alive! All of them! GOT IT?"

"Yeah, Boss, I got it."

"I'm sorry, Tony, but the AG wants us to move again," said the head Marshal. He then continued in a whisper, "We may have been compromised so we're going to split you up. Marge and the girls are going out west to a safe house in New Mexico or Arizona and you're going up state."

"Look I don't care what happens to me, but you better keep my family safe or the deal is off. Understand?" said a frightened Tony.

One hour later as they were moving to their vehicles, four blacked out vans pulled up and disgorged the Mafia crew, firing automatic weapons. The Marshals returned fire. Unbeknownst to the thugs, there were extra Marshals in the houses on either side of the safe house.

The firefight became so furious that one of the thugs used a grenade to even the odds. Unfortunately the explosion killed Marge and the girls instantly, and severely wounded Tony.