Chapter 30

"It was nice owning this place," thought the Senator as he sat on the steps of the back veranda looking out over the river. "I wish I had appreciated it more when I was healthy."

He was exhausted and his head was pounding, but still ... it was a beautiful view, and he appreciated it. All day, people had traipsed through his home. First it was the previewing of the articles that were to be auctioned off, and then it was the auctioneer's runners, fetching items out for the actual sale. The house stood very nearly empty now, just a chair here or a lamp there, the things that no one wanted, standing forlornly scattered throughout the house.

Walter sat with a bottle of Brandy between his feet and a snifter at his side. Sweat dripped from his chin and ran into his eyes, and his clothes were soaked through—he was covered in sweat because of the pain. The pain was ever present, almost normal in its constancy, and it now took both the pills and the booze to just smooth some of the edge off of the pain.

"It won't be long now, I just have a few ends to tie up and then ... then I can empty this," he thought as he was fingering a full bottle of morphine. As he looked around his yard and the view he realized that it was for the last time. Tomorrow the Goodwill people would finish emptying the house and his Realtor would complete the sale the following Monday.

"Damn it! I need to last at least 'till next week to get things finished," he said as he rose shakily to his feet. The action caused his head to bang ferociously and he almost fell down the steps.

Small delicate hands grabbed and steadied him just in the nick of time, and he turned to see the concerned face of his Realtor, Margaret. The two had known each other for years. Originally Margaret had been his wife's good friend, not her best friend mind you, but close. Then Walter's wife had divorced him—only to be killed in a commuter airplane crash the same week the divorce was finalized. The irony of it was that she hadn't changed her will or life insurance yet and everything that she had fought tooth and nail to take from Walter reverted back to him; in fact there had been a net gain in the process. Life was strange sometime. It was not long after that, that Margaret divorced her philandering husband of twenty years.

Over the following years the two had bonded as friends, friends with benefits; both wanting to concentrate on their respective careers without further distractions.

It had been a very cordial relationship.

"What are you doing here Margaret?"

"I wanted to see you Walter."

"Well here I am," he said with a weak smile as he spread his arms wide in a vain attempt at humor.

"Where are you staying tonight?"

"You know? I haven't even given it a thought," he said with a surprised expression and the shake of his head. THAT WAS THE WRONG THING TO DO!

Walter gave out a great moan and sagged to the floor holding his head as a firestorm of pain crisscrossed through his brain. The diminutive Margaret tried vainly to support him, but he was—at six foot six inches—simply too big. The only thing that she could do was to guide him to a soft landing on the floor.

Walter said nothing, he just groaned/howled in that deep way that creatures of all kinds do when in terrible pain! He curled into the fetal position and tried to squeeze the pain from his head with his fists, and he wept!

"WALTER? WALTER? WHAT CAN I DO? HOW CAN I HELP YOU?"

"p ... pp ... pills ... p ... pocket..." he managed to hiss out through the pain.

Margaret fished around until she found the little bottle. She then read the dosage and poured out two pills into Water's hand. He gulped them down and then violently grabbed the bottle from the startled woman's hand and poured out four more pills. He consumed them too.

"Walter that's MORPHINE and you just took SIX pills! Are you trying to kill yourself?"

The man just lay on the floor sweating and panting. Five minutes later he crawled over to the Brandy bottle and took several long swallows of the amber liquid. He then moved a short distance more to one of the support pillars and sat leaning against it.

"That's better," he said softly.

Margaret simply stared at the man that she had known for decades. Until that minute she had only seen the strong vital man, this new weak, sick man brought out the nurturing side of her and she said, "That's it big boy! You're staying with me from now on! I had no idea..."

"I can't do that! I'll just stay at the office, the couch is a foldout."

"WALTER! YOU'LL DO NO SUCH THING! THAT'S FINAL!"

She had stood up while saying this and Walter looked up at a very determined woman standing with feet apart and hands on hips. He knew it was useless to argue and with a sad nod he acquiesced and let her help him to his feet.

"Perhaps it's best this way," he thought. "She could help me with some of the things that need doing before I die. After all, I won't be ambulatory much longer."

The four men sat before Jacob silently, their faces as if cut from stone, showing no emotion or the suspicion that flooded their minds. They had been held as prisoners for months and now, suddenly they were sitting in Jacob's office as if they were being interviewed.

"All of this could have been avoided if you had simply told me who you are."

The men still sat immobile.

"Damn it! I know that you're members of Odin's Own and I know that your women, Valkyrie, are out there somewhere in the forest waiting for I don't know what.

"Here is the thing ... the Reapers say that you people are Ok and I respect the Reapers more than you can know. Therefore I'm letting you go," said Jacob.

He leaned toward the open door and yelled, "Jack?"

Jack Wright, Jacob's aid-de-camp, entered the room and said in a flat droll manner, "Sir, there is a perfectly good intercom on your desk. Why must you keep bellowing like a wounded ox?"

It was a perfect imitation of Jeeves the butler. In spite of their stoic expressions the lips of the four "guests" twitched into smiles for just a nanosecond before resuming the neutral look that had covered their faces. Jacob went red with embarrassment.

"How may I assist you, Sir?"

"Ah ... Oh! Yes ... Our guests will be leaving us. Fill whatever requests they have, food, weapons, whatever, and then let them go."

One of the four, a tall black man, spoke up, "You may as well kill us here and now. We will not be bait to bring the women out of the bush."

"What the hell are you talking about? AW ... SHIT! We're not intending to do any such thing. We are about to go into a fight that doesn't concern you and, frankly, I've wasted way too much time on the four of you. You're free to go! No strings, no baiting, no traps, just free to go."

"I repeat. We will not be used to draw the women out."

"Sir? May I interject a suggestion?" asked Jack.

"WHAT?" snapped Jacob. He was now highly agitated and moving toward rage!

"Perhaps if you let our guest talk to one of the Reapers, Sir."

Jacob looked over at the tall black man and raised an eyebrow in question.

The big black man, Evan, just nodded.

"They must think that I'm as dumb as a stump to think that this ploy is going to work, but let's let this thing play itself out," he thought.

Jacob turned to Jack and said, "Make the call."

Jack left the office to have the Com center make the call. Those in Jacob's office could hear the entire conversation and Evan thought, "Well they're going the extra distance to make this whole charade sound real."

The next minute the phone on Jacob's desk rang as Jack announced that the connection was made.

"Hello? May I speak with Donna please? It's Jacob." There was a pause and then Jacob continued, "Hey girl, how is John doing? Oh! Sorry to hear that. Look Donna, the reason that I called is that the members of Thor's Hammer refuse to believe me. They think that I have ulterior motives for setting them free. Will you talk to them? Sure, sure. Thanks Donna. Hold on..."

As Jacob handed the phone to Even he said, "This is Donna, you knew her as Jackie back in the day."

"Yeah right," thought Evan as he took the phone and said, "Hello..."

"Well hello to you too, you big black tower of love," said Donna with a loud laugh.

Evan was so shocked at the sound of that voice, an echo from the past, that he dropped the phone. He hastily picked it up again. The remaining members of his team turned in unison, surprised to see the flustered look on their team leader's face. Evan was seldom rattled and it was very evident that he was quite beyond rattled. The fact that the man was totally flabbergasted was obvious.

"Jackie? Is that you?"

"Well yes and no. Hehe, I don't use that name any longer. The name that I use now is Donna. Now what is this that I hear about you giving poor Jacob a hard time?"

"It's true then?"

"It sure is, big guy! But now that I have you on the phone an idea has popped into my head. We will soon be going into battle and we have innocents here that are very dear to us. How would Odin's Own like to baby sit for my step daughter and my grandbaby while the rest of us go after Vezza?"

"You're going after that crazy bastard Vezza? You must be as nuts as he is!"

"Yeah ... well ... he keeps coming after us and we thought that we'd change things up a bit. We're tired of passive resistance. The man just will not quit. It's time that we end it one way or the other. But we need to keep the kids safe and there are no others that I trust more than the eight of you. You're sort of family to us you know."

Evan sat stunned and the other three members of Thor's Hammer became agitated at the sound of Vezza's name.

"Hello? Are you still there? Evan?"

"Oh! Yes! Sorry, you just stunned me there for a minute. I'm game but I need to talk to the others. Do we have a couple of days to decide? I mean, we have to find the girls first and all."

"Of course. But Evan ... Don't take too long. Ok?"

"Yes, ok. Good-bye Jac ... er, Donna."

"Bye Evan."

The line went dead but Evan still held the receiver to his ear. This turn of events totally boggled his mind. Finally after several minutes he handed the phone back to Jacob and said, "I'm sorry that I doubted you, Sir. May I have some time with my men before we kit up?"

"Sure, you have free run of the base." Jacob turned toward the door and bellowed, "Jack! Put out the word that these men are cleared for any part of the base."