Chapter 11: Counter Attack

"Here let me help you." The mellow rich voice sounded familiar, yet Rachel couldn't quite match it with the speaker's face.

"Thank you." Rachel took hold of the proffered hand to steady her as she stepped down.

As soon as Rachel had stepped back down onto the floor, she looked at the stranger. He had the round always friendly and self satisfied, bland looking face she associated in her mind with a successful television evangelist or a fundamentalist Baptist preacher. To Rachel the newcomer appeared to be not fat exactly. It was more he was round faced and well fed.

His suit looked straight from Seville Row or Barney's perhaps and personally tailored, from the overall fit. His eyes told the world at large he owned the planet and everything on it and knew it.

Then the voice kicked in. "Del James," I presume. She looked him up and down and smiled.

"Guilty as charged," he told her. "Now tell me what all the excitement is about. Why was that man attacked and almost murdered?"

Rachel answered in general terms, "I just had the manager of this branch arrested for possession of child pornography. Then I assumed his place long enough to get the employees back to work again." She looked at his cocked eyebrow and added, "Well someone had to do it or it wouldn't get done. After all, as you are aware, or should be, this is a bank."

"Are you an employee of this bank, or an officer?"

"Not any more, Mister James. I am a lowly ex-assistant manager who did what was necessary to keep things from falling apart here. It is in my..." She paused and corrected herself. "It is in our best interests that this branch of the bank stays open for a while longer." She smiled at his bemused expression.

"Here, meet my boss, your new client." Del James looked at the baby-faced teenager who sat behind the desk Rachel had just climbed down from. Mark saw the lack of enthusiasm on the lawyer's face.

"Rachel, would you please get back up on the desk so I can look up your dress some more?" His eyes looked clearer and a hint of a smile hovered around the edges of his lips.

"Mark, I see you're feeling better." Rachel felt a wave of relief when she saw he seemed more in control of his body.

"Yeah, I'm not twitching as much as I have been. My head isn't as foggy." Mark drew a deep breath and let it out.

He continued, "Okay, the order of business is to first to bring charges against Warren Talbert and start the process to sue the hell out of the Sheriff's department. Rachel, I want you to order three new Explorers right away. Also order a special needs van for yourself tricked out so Cole can ride with you."

Del James interrupted, "The FBI arrested Talbert on civil rights charges. When that big deputy gets out of the hospital, he will probably face brutality and assault charges at the very least. Man, from what I hear you did a number on him."

"He needed it," Mark grunted and turned back to Rachel. "I want complete twenty-four hour protection for you, me and Cole. That protection includes the house and our office, plus our staff."

Rachel gave him a very unprofessional smirk, "Oh Mark, it feels so good to be ahead of you just this once. I already ordered additional guards. I assigned Margaret's people to us personally and six more will soon be hired to watch the offices here. The bank will eventually pay for them, either directly or indirectly. They're not quite aware of it just yet."

"Call over where we got me those suits and tell them to send me a pants and shirt over here immediately. Buy anything else you think I need at the same time.

Del James looked at Mark with more a little more respect. "First impressions are certainly misleading where you're concerned. At first glance, you look like a skateboarding kid."

Mark looked uncomfortable. "It's at the house."

"What's at the house?" Del looked at Mark and waited for an answer.

Mark gave him an embarrassed grin. "My skateboard. It's at the house."

Rachel laughed. "We better get you in a suit. Pants and shirt just won't cut it where you're concerned."

"Let's get back to the immediate problem." The lawyer's voice cut through everyone's attention. "Will Brand should be here with the files you left at the Willows any minute now. The FBI tried to hang on to everything under the guise it was all evidence of a crime."

Rachel nodded and told them, "Let's all go up to our new offices." She noticed the undue attention they drew from the bank employees. "We need Gina in on this. Also, we had best plan on a visit from the bank's management."

Del's lawyer instincts took over. "Explain please. What visit?" He looked straight at Rachel.

"Let's go upstairs where we can be more private."

Mark interrupted, "Margaret, go with Rachel and Del to retrieve Harold's desk top computer and also Roger's. Bring them up to the offices."

Del started to look at Rachel for verification. Mark became angry. "Look at me, Mister Lawyer. I am the man who gives the orders and pays your salary. Remember that."

"You go on ahead, Mark. Margaret will ask Greg and Dolores to help me." Rachel saw the beginnings of an angry look appear on Mark's face. Del was about to be fired before he was fully hired, unless Mark's anger was redirected. She watched Mark shuffle toward the elevators under his own power. Rachel called the clothing store in the hotel mall where they purchased his first changes of clothing.

Mark entered the elevator under his own power and leaned against the back wall of the elevator for support. "Mister James, I want you to hear me."

Del James turned to face Mark. He had just about decided he would not work for this snot nosed, baby faced kid. Rachel Jones was someone he could relate to. She was a professional, from her good quality business dress to her business-first attitude.

"I am well aware you look at me and see a snot nosed, baby faced kid." Mark smiled at the startled look on the lawyers face.

"Ugh," Del grunted. He wondered if Mark had read his mind.

"You already wondered where I parked my skateboard."

Del jerked back in surprise. "You read minds too, Kid?" he asked.

"One more smart remark and you will be gone and out of here. My name is Mark Hunter, not kid. Rachel runs things at my convenience. For the most part, I stay out of her way.

"However, the ultimate authority where Hunter interests are concerned resides in me."

The lawyer nodded. "Okay, I understand."

"No you don't understand. You have acquiesced to my orders. However you do not understand.

"I am in a fight for my life. At stake are the lives of Rachel, her son Cole and me. Also at stake are well over thirty million dollars, perhaps much more. The way the bank and my ex-lawyer have changed things around, perhaps I'll never know the full extent of my holdings. Rachel will fill you in on the particulars of my inheritance and the forces arrayed against us. Now you are either with us all the way, or you are history."

Del shook his head and looked at Mark in amazement. "Are you certain you're a teenager? You just handed me my ass on a platter in a way no one ever has before. Please lead me to my new office."

When they got off the elevator, Mark stumbled and Del caught him. "Easy," he told Mark, "Let me help you."

Mark was reluctant to acknowledge he needed help. His first impulse was to snap a "no thanks" back at the lawyer. Then he realized he did need help and stopped. "Yes please," he answered in a shamed voice. He leaned on Del as they walked toward the new office.

Rachel came out of the second elevator a few seconds later and reached them just as the office door swung open. "Sit on the couch over there, Mark. We need to take these two computers into Gina's office and fire them up. Hunter International Manufacturing and Hunter Domestic Wood Products International have a new attack plan by now. We need to learn to know the enemy, at least one of them for right now. I'll be right back."

"Good," Mark whispered and leaned back. In seconds he was asleep again.

While the others followed the computers into Gina's office, Rachel sat on the couch next to Mark. "Oh my poor darling," she whispered and sighed.

Del watched from the door to the inner office and smiled. He estimated Rachel's age to be at least five years older than Mark's. "Interesting," he said to himself and smiled. He thought to himself the boss-lady was binding herself tighter to Mark for job security. He looked again at the care she showed her young employer and changed his mind. She really cared!

"Damn," Mark moaned and opened his eyes. "Something's wrong. Take me to the hospital." His eyes closed and he seemed to shrink inside and become smaller.

"Call Emergency," Rachel yelled...

Ten minutes later Rachel demanded she be allowed to ride to the hospital with Mark. One of the emergency team argued. She yelled, "Then you take a damned cab back to the ER. My place is beside this man and there is where I'll be."

Maggie interrupted, "Don't argue. She gets to ride along with the boss."

The driver recognized Maggie. He told his partner, "Don't argue. This woman is someone you do not wish get pissed at you." Rachel rode with Mark and the two paramedics while Maggie followed along in her old Jeep.

The trip to the hospital paid unexpected dividends. Rachel recognized a bank customer who owned a security company. He was an ex-Special Forces veteran who took his hard earned battlefield experiences to the market place and prospered, where few white men did. He was Black, competent and ruthless.

Josh White was a long time customer of Cheswick Bank. "Rachel Jones," what a surprise. "Don't tell me that bank you work for actually trusts you, a mere woman, to go out during business hours all by yourself." He looked at her and laughed at her sour expression.

"Hello Mister White," she greeted him.

"Josh, call me Josh. Mister sounds way too formal."

"Very well, Josh it is. I no longer work for Cheswick. I'm now COO for Hunter International, all divisions."

He gave her an honest smile. "I'm glad for you. If I can ever be of service, well let me know."

Maggie came into the emergency room. "I had a hell of a time trying to find a parking place. How's Mark? I like that arrogant young snot. He certainly knows how to bring out the worst in me."

Rachel realized an answer to one of her problems. "Maggie, meet Josh White. He is head of White Security and White Financial Investigations. His company is what Black Thorn wishes they could be."

"Josh, Maggie here is the head of our new corporate security department. Please talk to her about the added guards we need plus an updated security system. I've taken over the fifth floor of the Cheswick Building for Hunter offices. Come see me when you get a chance. We need all you have to offer."

"Ah yes." Josh looked at her in wonder. "Rachel, you've changed."

"More than you'll ever know," she told him. "Please excuse me. I need to find out where Mark has been taken."

Rachel looked at Maggie, "Get someone over here to baby sit Mark while we find out what's the matter with him. I don't want him left alone for even a minute."

Rachel caught up with Mark as he was brought out of an examining cubicle. She took over his possessions and asked the doctor, "Do you have any idea what has happened to him?"

"And you are?" the intern asked. He looked down his nose at Rachel.

"I am the person who will bury this place in attorneys if you try to jack me around. The person I am asking about is Mark Hunter, CEO and majority stockholder of Hunter International. Now whom do I talk to in order to get some information about this man?"

"Ah," the young doctor knew when to retreat. "I thought this was some kid who had been in a skateboard accident like the other three we treated just ahead of him."

"My skateboard is at home," Mark half whispered. What is it that people look at me and think skateboards? He wondered to himself.

"Oh my god, Mark I was afraid you were dying. Do you feel any better?"

"Jesus Rachel, My chest hurts and I can't breathe." He began to choke and cough.