Chapter 33

Mary sat by John's bed, quietly weeping as she held his hand, as he lay unconscious. The blindingly sharp, starched whiteness of the bedding, magnified the increasingly dull gray pallor of his deeply lined face. The doctor, now on good behavior, had contacted a host of experts all over the country in an effort to understand and treat John's condition. All, without exception, were stumped. No treatment could be found!

Simply stated, John was dying!

"Any change?" asked Rianna in a whisper as she entered the room.

Mary just shook her head no, then asked.

"Where's the baby?"

Rianna waved vaguely in the general direction of John's bed and said, "With all of this my milk has dried up and we decided to wean the little guy now. He's so cranky that I didn't want him here disturbing others, so Lena has him."

"I see," said Mary flatly and then with more feeling—almost desperately—she continued, "Can't you do anything? You're so powerful!"

Rianna went and hugged the old woman with true love and concern, "Mary we've talked about this before. My powers are only on the mind, not on the body. Don't you think I want to go in there and patch up every leak? Don't you?"

In answer Mary just wept more, her shoulders shaking violently and her silent weeping changing to audible wailing.

"Shhhh, Mary, shhhh. You can't do that. They will ask you to leave. Shhhh, shhhh. I'll tell you what, I'll try to go in, and see what I can do. Ok?"

Mary's head snapped around and she looked up at Rianna with the beseeching eyes of the truly despairing and wailed, "Pleeese!"

"Ok then, go stand guard by the door and warn me if someone comes."

"Yes, ok," said Mary as she rushed toward the door and took up her guard post.

Rianna sat down in Mary's vacated chair, then bent her head in concentration. After a few seconds, she entered John's mind.

It was like entering a room of curtains. Everything was draped with cloths just like one of those old closed up mansions in the old black and white films. Rianna went from room to room searching for the essence of her beloved grandfather. Finally, on the third level, she found him, much as he was in real life, lying unconscious on a bed in one of the bedrooms.

"Grandfather?" she called tentatively.

John opened his eyes and motioned with a weak wave of his hand for her to come close to him.

"This doesn't look good," she muttered to herself as she moved to the bedside.

"My darling child, I was hoping that you would come before I died. Come here and sit with me."

Rianna sat on the edge of the bed, as icicles of great fear stabbed repeatedly at her heart. She feared losing the man that had rescued and raised her. When John took her hand she felt death in the cold parchment like texture of his skin.

"I've been fighting the old bastard off for so long, waiting for you. I'm so tired!"

Confused, Rianna asked, "Who have you been fighting grandfather?"

"Why, Death, of course."

Rianna gave a shudder as she heard those words, for it was at that very moment that she knew, without a doubt, that this man, the man that she loved above all others was definitely going to die soon, very soon.

"Why aren't you fighting to get better grandfather," wailed Rianna as great hot tears of grief streamed down her cheeks.

"Dear little one, didn't I just say that I was fighting just to keep Death at bay? There is no more that I can do, sweetheart. I'm spent! Now listen to me, there is much that you need to know."

For the next hour John spoke of his feelings for each and every person on his team, new and old. There was a specific 'good-bye' to each person that Rianna was to convey. Then he told her of the false bottom of the safe, and how to operate the secret catch.

"Honey there is a packet of papers in that space that will destroy some very big people—politicians, officials in all levels of our government and big business types. On top of that stuff is a letter that will explain what to do with that information. Ok?"

"Yes grandfather."

"Now, on to the important things. Foremost is that I don't want you to be sad, Honey. I'm an old man and I have cheated that old bastard, Death, many times. My time is just about up. Teach the baby the stories that I taught you, and keep me alive by instilling in him the right values that I taught you. If you do those things, I will be immortal. Now you better hurry so you don't get caught in here. I can't hold out much longer. I love you my little Fain (using her real name with such tenderness that it broke her heart.)

"I love you all. NOW GO. HURRY!"

Rianna pulled out as fast as she could. As she moved she could feel death at her heels. Just as she exited John's mind she felt his life force flicker and then go out.

"No! No! No! No!" Rianna screamed, wailed and cried in paroxysms of grief as she beat the bed with her fists!

It only took Mary a second to understand what was going on. She slumped to the flood with heartrending screams of grief as she rocked back and forth.

Those screams then changed to chants, songs, and the spoken word. All were in Mary's native tongue. The others that were standing vigil outside in the waiting room rushed in, but turned to stone in the doorway at the sight that met their eyes. The two women were grieving, each in her own way, over the still body of the leader of the Reapers.

A great man had passed on into history, and they all knew it!

The funeral was remarkable in its simplicity. Granted that there were a few Native American elements but, all in all, it was a very understated ceremony.

The only people in attendance were those that were part of John's adoptive extended 'family'—those that resided at the base—along with Jacob and Odin's Own.

John was interred on a small rise beside the airstrip—near to the airplanes that he loved.

On the way back to the main house Rianna gave the baby to her husband saying, "Here, take him. I need to do some things with Donna."

"Ok. Will you be long?"

"I don't know honey. That all depends on what grandfather wants us to do. And before you ask, don't. Just take care of the little guy. Ok?"

"Yeah, ok."

Rianna kissed both of her guys and scurried off to catch Donna. The two women then walked slowly back to the house and into John's office, neither one really wanting to be there. They stopped just inside of the door, and looked at the desk as tears ran down their cheeks. They both just wanted to see John sitting in his usual place, behind his desk, smiling and sipping on his coffee as he had always greeted them.

"Well, I guess we had better get started," said Donna with a long sigh while she wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

"Yeah, I guess," agreed Rianna as she, in turn, wiped her own eyes with the heel of her hand.

The two walked to the far side of the room, where a large old-fashioned safe squatted in its heavy grandeur. Somehow, John had managed to keep that safe with him all during his long career. For what it was, all dinged up, it was still a thing of beauty. Despite the chips in the paint, John had kept the safe—black with gold leaf pin striping—polished to a high gloss.

The only convention to modern times, was the addition of a second combination dial, six inches below the original dial. A self-destruct system would be activated if the right sequence was not used to manipulate the dials when opening the locks.

"Rianna? Why didn't the big guy tell me about the hidden compartment, do you know? I mean, you were in his head, after all."

"It was to protect you, Donna. He loved you a lot, and didn't want you running around taking revenge on the bastards that are in these files. He said that it would eat you alive."

"That's bull! How would he know, anyway?"

"Because it happened to him," said Rianna softly.

"What? When?"

"He told me not to tell you everything but ... It happened before he found you. A gang carjacked, gang raped, tortured, and murdered his girlfriend.

"It took him six months to find the gang. They were mostly in their late teens and early twenties. At that time, they really didn't care about anything ... life, death, family, friends or anything. That bugged grandfather a lot because it made him feel impotent. So ... he waited until they started to get married, or some other thing gave them a reason to live. Then he ... he ... he took away what they cared about.

"Donna? He killed innocents! He did it so that the gang members would feel some of the pain that he did. He even killed little kids! It ate him up. Then he found you, and he let all that go. You saved him, Donna! He put all his pain into loving and caring for you. He didn't want what happened to him, to happen to you."