Chapter 26

As the sun set over the lake, the remaining members of the Reapers sat on the porch enjoying the evening, while participating in an unofficial brainstorming meeting.

"Look! I think Joey is still a good guy! He did everything he could to warn the women, and protect his family at the same time," said Donna.

"Could be..." said John thoughtfully, as he took another sip of the nasty tea that Mary was insisting he drink.

Unbeknownst to the others, John's age was catching up with him. He had suffered several bouts of vertigo that had prompted a secret flight to see a doctor. He had quietly pulled himself from the flight roster, for fear of crashing. John wasn't desperate, exactly, but his concern at finding the new leader for the group was growing, now that he was ill.

At the moment, Donna was the person that he most favored to pick up the mantle of leadership. To that end, John was having more impromptu meetings where each person was encouraged to toss his 'two-cents' in. Donna was, so far, the most active participant in the meetings. Her comments were well thought out and workable. But John wanted others to become more active in the planning part of things, as well.

"Here's a thought, guys. Do we ever monitor the old team frequencies? If not, Joey could have been trying to get us and we weren't there for him," said Aaron.

"SON OF A BITCH!" said John and Donna at the same time.

Eric said, "Joey was always there for us, when we were in the field. I think that he has earned the benefit of the doubt."

John looked at Donna and asked, "What do you think?"

"I agree with Eric."

"And?" asked John as he stared at Donna.

She looked back at John with concern then said, "Aaron, Eric work out a schedule between you, and monitor the old freq for a week. Let's see what we hear."

The two men, without hesitation, quickly rose and moved off to the communications center.

"Ok, big Bro! Spill it. What's going on here? This isn't like you."

John just quietly stared at Donna for a few minutes, the thoughts of when he had first found the orphaned girl on the streets of DC, so long ago, running through his mind.

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

Even though there was a considerable age difference the two had struck up a friendship and though he was a 'gung ho' CIA operative, and she a streetwise, wisecracking teenaged homeless person the two clicked.

Flint/John would sit and talk to the girl when he brought her food. As time passed he convinced her that she needed to get an education, starting with a GED. Though she was fiercely independent, she did take the books he offered as well as an address to use as a mail drop that she needed to procure a library card. Soon she became a ravenous reader on almost any subject. Her ability to understand and absorb the complex subjects of mathematics, philosophy, history and geography, to name a few, showed her high IQ.

The Library became her favorite place.

The main problem at the time was that she was young and pretty and the pimps wanted to turn her out—Flint's influence had caused the girl to clean up and once the dirt and rags were gone, the young woman's beauty had become obvious. The pimps were around her like flies, as they all wanted her. It was becoming more difficult for her to remain free ... free of the drugs, and free of the oppressive bondage of prostitution.

She had to be very careful of what and where she ate, just to keep the pimps from drugging her.

The friendship between the two was one of those rare platonic relationships. They were more like brother and sister, than anything else. Still, it took a lot of Flint's time and effort to convince her to leave the streets.

In the end an impatient pimp had made the decision for her, when he kidnapped her. However, John rescued her and demolished the pimp's men along the way.

After that experience, Donna agreed to move into John's apartment, attend college, and take self-defense classes.

She eventually made it to the Reapers after acquiescing to John's suggestion that she apply to the CIA. Donna was accepted and moved up the ranks quickly. John had called in a lot of favors to get the young woman assigned to his unit.

Donna could be just as patient as a polar bear, waiting for a seal to come up for air at a breathing hole. So she sat silently looking back at her old friend and mentor as he sat thinking.

Suddenly, John got up, and strode off toward the steps. He said over his shoulder, "Walk with me."

Donna rose and followed, now more worried than concerned. She had known this man for decades and the vibes that were emanating from her old friend were serious.

As she caught up with John she said, "John, you're scaring me!"

"Yeah ... well ... I knew that you'd see something sooner, rather than later," said the big man as he ran his hand through what was left of his hair.

"I know that you're worried about something, but I don't know what."

By now the two had arrived at the beginning of the airstrip. John turned onto the runway and set off at a quick pace, as was his want, when troubled. Donna paused and looked after her friend. The way John was behaving was causing ice water to stream through her veins.

"John! JOHN! STOP THIS AND TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON!"

John took a couple of more steps then stopped, turned and looked at Donna with the saddest expression she had ever seen on his face. He then turned and walked back to Donna.

"Sorry. How 'bout we go to the lake, and sit by the fire pit?"

Donna's fear expanded and ran through her like a snowball rolling down hill, growing with every rotation. It settled in her abdomen with a nauseating bump.

"Ok..." she said in a small weak voice.

John put his arm around Donna's shoulders to comfort her. The two walked slowly to the fire pit, without saying a word.

The night was now near, and the insects began feasting on the two of them. John went to gather wood while Donna set up the tinder and kindling to start the fire. By the time John returned with the larger firewood, Donna had a good starter blaze going.

They stayed silent for a time so that John could gather his thoughts. Finally he said, "You know how we talked about finding out who would make a good leader for the years to come?"

"Of course, but there's plenty of time to do that ... or ... is there?" asked Donna as she looked into John's eyes with grave concern.

"Perhaps not as much as we thought. You remember that trip that Mary and I made last month?"

"Yes, you went on vacation."

"Well, no, we didn't go on vacation like we let on. I went to see a doctor that Ann recommended. That doctor sent me to a specialist. Donna I've had about a half dozen mini-strokes. That's why I pulled myself from the flight rotation. About the only thing that I can fly in is the jet with the pressurized cabin."

Donna sputtered, "But ... When ... I ... I ... I ... There's no permanent damage is there?"

"No, no permanent damage but there is the risk of a greater stroke if I go up to altitude without a pressurized cabin, and the docs don't want me to do even that very often. They gave me meds to thin my blood and Mary is making me drink that nasty tea of hers. Don't know why, but the old girl seems to want to keep me around for a bit longer."

"That's not funny, John!" said Donna in a coldly.

As John stared into the flames he continued, "I know, I know. For some strange reason I'm filled with black humor of late ... Sorry ... Anyway, that's why I'm pushing the group more. I want you to take over command after me, but we need more youngsters to step up to the plate, too. I know that the timing couldn't be worse with the thing at the base and the Joey thing but unless I can reduce the blockages in my brain's blood vessels with the meds and Mary's Native medicine it will mean surgery. I'm not even sure that I should go with you if we have an operation!"

When John didn't hear any remark from Donna he turned to see tears streaming down her cheeks as she wept silently. The woman may have not been making a sound but her emotions were indeed violent, her shoulders were quaking and her fingers were digging into the weathered log, which was used as a bench, so hard that her nails were bleeding.

John moved over to sit closer to his old friend, the girl that he had saved from the streets. He hugged and patted her back as he said,

"Shhhhh ... Shhhhh ... There ... There ... I'm still here and the docs think that there is a good chance that we can beat this without surgery."

Donna suddenly turned and hugged John fiercely, buried her face in his chest and hissed through her teeth, "You better not die on me, you son of a bitch!

"I don't intend to."

After the two thugs had left Joey on the street he had gone down into his basement. There he activated a hidden switch that made the shelves at the end of the cellar pivot, revealing a rounded tunnel made from an old surplus sewer pipe leading to his ultra secret workroom. The room was large and lined with metal mesh—the mesh prevented any type of electronic eavesdropping.

Joey then set up a loop transmission of the Reapers old emergency extraction code. The transmission would repeat every five minutes until an answer was received. While he was just finishing up with the radio an insistent buzzing made itself known. Because the cellar was off limits to all in the family Joey had installed a call buzzer. Janet was frantically poking at the button over and over and over again.

"This is going to be bad, really bad!" muttered Joey as he secured the secret room and went upstairs.

When the cellar door opened a furious Janet grabbed the front of her husband's shirt in her fist and pulled him back downstairs. The woman's eyes were nearly popping out of her head and there was spittle foaming around the corners of her mouth! Joey was so surprised that he almost fell. He, in fact, would have but for the iron like grip that his wife had on his shirtfront.