Chapter 17

Rianna sat in the coffee shop just off the NMU campus. John was sitting across the street in one of three rental cars, while Donna sat in another car just up the street. Scott was in the third rental, in the parking lot outside the back of the shop. This was a walk through kind of shop with two parking lots and an entrance/exit at each end of the shop.

It had been many years since the team had been disbanded, but John was not going to take a chance that their old bosses might still be looking for the members of his unit.

As he sat sipping his coffee, John thought back to the day that the group decided to disappear.

They had been on assignment in Africa. Suddenly the political climate had changed, and the members of the unit simply become a liability. Their commanders abandoned them, giving the team's position to the enemy, assuming that their new 'friends' would terminate the team. The situation was almost a mirror image of the Tom Clancy novel: A Clear and Present Danger.

The only exception to the comparison of Clancy's story was that John had a premonition that something was not right. That premonition had saved the lives of most of the team.

Joey died during the backup extraction, and four others were seriously wounded but nine of the ten made it out alive.

Once out of country they had gone their separate ways, going deep undercover. John had not heard from any of the other members since then, except for Donna that is. Now they sat waiting to see who, if any, still carried their recall devices. Who would answer the call?

Rianna scanned each person that came into the shop, searching for the old team or enemies.

Getting on toward evening, as the shop filled with college students, a scruffy street person shambled in, ordered a coffee and took a seat. Once settled, he placed a copy of War and Peace on the table. The word 'War' was crossed out with a red line. This was the team's identifying signal.

Rianna sent a telepathic message to her Grandfather that one member had arrived and was not a Judas. Within the hour three more members arrived and did the same.

"Gramps the last guy that came is not clean! He is working for the Government and there is a hit squad surrounding the shop! What do I do?"

"Get up and go out the back and get in the car with Scott. I'll take things from here. Ok?"

"Yes, ok."

John picked up his cell phone and dialed. The number that he called was the triggering device to a small incendiary device that started a fire in the coffee shop. Soon the patrons ran from the shop screaming as the place filled with smoke and flames. Amongst the throng, the team members moved out too.

The traitor was surrounded by a small group of panicky college students. Rianna had monitored his movements and decided to act. She caused the panic to increase in the students and had them force the traitor into the doorframe with such force that he became disoriented. He stumbled and fell. The escaping patrons trampled him in their haste to exit the café.

Sirens wailed as the Police and Fire Departments responded to the fire. Rianna scanned the perimeter and found the leader of the hit squad. He was ordering his team to stand down and leave because of the arrival of the local authorities.

The traitor would never bother them again. His neck had been broken during his trampling. If his minders allowed him to live he would be a paraplegic for the rest of his life.

"Gramps the hit squad has left and the traitor is down and out!"

"Thanks, Honey. If any of the others come your way, give the call sign that I gave you and pick them up. Ok?"

"Yes."

As it happened the scruffy homeless man was walking toward them. Rianna rolled down the window.

Just as the man came abreast of her she said softly, "Papa Bear needs you."

The man stiffened but didn't look at her. Instead, he dropped the book he was carrying. As he bent to pick it up he said, "I need Papa Bear, too."

"Get in the car. We need to get out of here fast."

With a quick surreptitious look around the man jumped in the back seat and slumped down out of sight.

Before the car door had closed, Scott had the car moving away from the parking lot.

The same scenario played itself out with the other two members of the old team, and all were back at the appointed rendezvous in minutes. The three rentals were left for the rental agency to retrieve as the group switched into two blacked out SUVs for the trip to the airfield outside of town.

Thirty minutes later the group was winging its way back to Alaska.

Their joy of reunion was tainted, somewhat, by the news that one of their number had tried to betray them, there was still a great joy at coming together again, after all of the years.

The old friends caught up on past adventures and misadventures.

Over time the members had hooked up again. It was with great sadness that Donna and John learned that Abbey had succumbed to a virulent breast cancer, and Paul to prostate cancer. Butch was still alive but suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

As the stories were told and retold the one question remained; why had Steve turned against them?

Eric, Aaron and Tony, the three other members, had joined a mercenary group, but had hated it. The mercenaries had no honor, as their only concern was money. They were no more than paramilitary thugs.

The secure phone rang in Senator Malcolm Woodridge's home office.

"The hit didn't go off as planned Senator. There was a fire at the meeting place and our agent was incapacitated during the scramble to exit."

"Did he get to identify any other members of the 'Reapers'? That team is a risk to national security."

"Look Senator, don't insult my intelligence. We both know that they are only a risk to you, personally. It was you that gave their position to the enemy in exchange for all of those 'Blood' diamonds, and now you're afraid that they will ruin your run for the White House."

"If I go down, so do you, General!"

"Ohhhh noooo, my old friend! I have completed my move out of the country. I have no interests left in the USA that can be compromised. I doubt that I will ever set foot on American soil again. So don't pull that shit! Got it?"

"What do you mean? I just called you at your office in the Pentagon this afternoon, that means you're in Washington."

"Wrong! The number that you have been using, has always been a trunk line to a computer that reroutes my calls via satellite to my private base. I resigned my commission last year."

There was silence on the line as the Senator realized he stood alone now.

"So are you just going to leave me standing naked here?"

"Oh hell no! I want you to win office and get me plenty of lucrative contracts. I need you and you minions to make me very rich."

Another long silence followed, then the Senator said coldly, "You intend to blackmail me, don't you?"

"That's such a nasty word, Senator. Let's just say that we are forming a stronger alliance here."

"You're a bastard. You know that don't you?"

"Be that as it may I'm still the bastard that has you by the short and curlies, Senator, and don't you forget it. I can bring you down whenever I want, so it would behoove you to do what I tell you from now on. Do you understand?"

After a long silence, the Senator answered in the affirmative.

At the Lodge, propinquity being what it is, the remaining unpaired people began to sort themselves into couples over time.

One evening as a few of the old warriors sat on the porch looking at the sunset over the lake, Tony held his glass of beer up to the light.

As he looked through the bubbles he said, "John I've never been this happy and relaxed in my life. The thing is..."

Tony trailed off and looked pensive.

All the others just waited for Tony to finish since they understood his slow way of talking. He always had been a deep thinker and the philosopher of the group.

"The thing is that the bastards that betrayed us, and turned Steve, are still out there. It sort of sticks in my craw, ya know?"

"Yeah, mine too," said John. "And then there is General Vezza."

Aaron sat up and looked interested, "What's that bastard got to do with anything?"

"He killed Rianna's parents, my kids."

"Oh, man!" came the united exclamation.

"I know that we could be risking all of this if we decide to actually do something. It's just that I wonder if doing nothing could turn into a cancer that, over time, would eat at us, and eventually destroy everything anyway. Do you see what I'm getting at?" asked Tony.

There was a deadly silence around the group as each person mulled over what Tony had said.

"If - and it's a big if - we decide to do anything, we need to be fully committed," continued Tony. "If even one of us is not into the plan, then we should do nothing. It's all, or nothing!"