Border Alert- Terrorist Penetration

by Glenn Ball

  Alicia tried to answer, but even after downing the whole glass of water her throat felt parched like a shriveled lemon.

  “Here, eat this. It will help you to start feeling better.” He handed her an apple. She took a large bite. “You need to take it slow at first. Eat just in little nibbles for now. After you down that and give your tummy a little time to work on it I’ll give you a banana. I’ll keep giving more bit by bit. By tomorrow I’ll have your tummy ready for a big meal.”

  After getting the bite down she began to take it in nibbles as he had recommended to her.

  He stepped away for a moment to fill the glass with more water. He came back and set it down on the table in front of her.

  After a minute she spoke hoarsely. “Who are you, and where am I?”

  “I am Pastor Arcenaux,” he said, holding his hand out to shake hers. “But you can call me Artie if you like. All my friends do. And you; what’s your name my dear?”

  Taking his hand lightly in hers, she shook it and answered, “Alicia.” Her voice sounded coarse, but at least the sound was coming out after some bites of apple.

  “Well, pleased to meet you Alicia.”

  After shaking hands, he stood more erect. “As for the other question…. We’re a ways from town here. I suppose that Pumpkin Center may not ring a bell for you, but it’s the big town in this neck of the woods.”

  She swallowed a little water to wash down another nibble. “Thank you….” There was so much more she wanted to say, and to ask, but it would have to wait.

  “Oh, no need to thank me. Any ole body would’ve done the same, at least any Christian being. After all, what kind of pastor would I be if I didn’t act the Good Samaritan?” There was a twinkle in his eye, as if a light bulb had just been turned on in his head. Turning about to go get something he told her “I’ll be right back. You just take your time and enjoy that apple, okay.”

  When he returned, he seemed like a boy planning to spring a surprise on his mom; he just couldn’t keep from grinning. To tell the truth, it made Alicia a tad uncomfortable. She had no idea what he was up to.

  He sat down, and in a soft tone said, “I want to tell you a little story. Now maybe you’ve heard it, or maybe you haven’t, but I suspect it’s going to be new and special to you this time.” He paused for effect. “It goes like this….”

  Briefly recounting the story of the Prodigal Son, he told of the father’s love for his son, how he waited patiently and ran to him when the son returned. How the father forgave the son for all his foolishness, for leaving home and wasting all his inheritance on pleasure.

  “I’ve got this buddy of mine…Tom is his name. Now he’s got a nice little herd of cattle. And they’s always nosing about the fence, looking for grass that’s greener on the other side. Well one day one of them there cows found a way through the fence. I’m telling you, he looked high and low for the girl, tracking her for hours till he finally came upon her. It took him hours to get her back too, with them all muddy and all. He looked a sight. But he was happy Tom was. So happy he had got her back that he threw a party that night. Didn’t even wait to wash up, heh, heh,” He chuckled a moment thinking about it.

  “Now I got this other friend named Sue. She’s got a set of pearls that her husband gave her on their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. Hmmm, and I don’t think I have to tell you how much she missed her pearls when they done disappeared?” He paused again for effect.

  Alicia raised her right hand to the nape of her neck in surprise. She felt the back of her neck too, looking uncomfortable.

  It was just the response Artie was waiting for. He stood up and began walking around behind her. “She gave a party too when they were found and returned to her.”

  Alicia started, seeing his hands reaching around her neck. She reached up to grab a wrist with both hands to attempt flipping him over her, but she was still weak and slow.

  She felt something cold and hard sliding down her collar bone. She was sure it was a knife. Her skin turned prickly with terror.

  But then she realized it was her pearls. She broke down, sobbing. The sense of relief after her terror, after so much stress of the past few days, had finally broken her nerves.

  Artie seemed to understand her reaction. He gave her a couple of minutes. During that time, her sobbing somehow changed into laughter, she did not know how. After a minute of that they were both laughing. She felt a bond of friendship, knowing now that she really could trust this man. He only wanted her well-being. He was the first person since her grandmother to treat her like she was valuable.

  He sat back down in front of her and looked gently into her eyes. “I’m sorry if I startled you. I was going to hitch the pearls around your neck for you, but you might feel a might more comfy if I let you do it yourself.” Holding the pearls up above the table, his hands halted.

  “Before you put these on, there is just one quick story I want you to hear.” His eyes held hers. She could tell that this was to be the most important thing he had said till now.

  Jesus told about a shop owner who had found a pearl. That pearl was worth a fortune. The owner sold all that he had to get that pearl, he wanted it so bad.” Tapping the page of the Bible where he had read to her about the Prodigal Son, he went on… “Like this here father prized his son above all else, that shop owner wanted that pearl. And just like the both of them, your Heavenly Father gave everything he had, including his precious Son to get you back. You, Alicia are that lost pearl.”

  At that he handed the pearls to Alicia, and she strung them around her neck, fastening them from behind. She could not know that by doing so she sent the signal that alerted Antonio to her whereabouts.

  CHAPTER 18

  Off the Grid

  Sky Van Horn and Skip Winkler were outside the large tent they’d erected, having just settled into their lawn chairs to enjoy the peaceful night and the starry sky.

  A grating electronic alarm jarred the silence. “We interrupt our regularly scheduled broadcast to bring you this urgent report: The zika outbreak in Florida has been upgraded to an epidemic. Both Florida victims that had been in intensive care have now died. Two more victims have died in Texas, as well as one in Atlanta. There are now forty known cases of infection from the virus along the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts. If this keeps up…”

  “Turn that radio off.” Van Horn’s deep voice boomed. He was never content hearing sounds of civilization infringing on the wilderness. Winker, equally perturbed by the alarm, immediately responded. Eager to change the mood, he turned his chair to face Sky’s ruddy face, and speaking in a quiet tone asked him, “What can you tell me about yourself?”

  Sky Van Horn scratched his light brown hair. He understood that if Winkler’s team was going to agree to take his rugged survival course, they would need to know all that they could about him. After all, their lives would literally be in his hands. It would not be like this plush trip out on a raft that could carry plenty of gear and a tent. The plan was for them to paraglide from a nearby mountain and land on this spot to set up camp with the little they could carry on their backs. The weight of the decision rested mostly on Skip’s shoulders, so Sky was expecting this question to be asked at some point.

  The fire popped and crackled, as if it wanted to be in on the conversation.

  “First, why don’t you tell me what you already know about me.” From the glow of the fire Skip could discern a sparkle in Sky’s deep blue eyes.

  “Fair enough. I read your files from the military and did some asking around about you before coming out here.

  “You’ve been at this survival school teaching gig for a little over ten years. You initially got your training from the Special Forces as a paratrooper. Your service record shows commendations coming out the yin-yang.

  “Maybe it’s a coincidence, but your reputation for your survival skills first began when you cross trained with the British at Skye Island. You are now considered one of the best in the world.

 
“Tell me: why did you retire so early from the military? They were looking to move you up to Delta Force.”

  The chorus of crickets provided an appropriate soundtrack for Van Horn’s story: that of a man who had spent the better part of his life in the woods.

  “As much as I loved military life, it was time to settle down. My wife was pregnant, and I couldn’t see trying to start a family while serving in Special Forces.”

  “I’d heard that you have a daughter and wondered about your wife. Where is she?”

  “My wife and two of my kids died in a head-on collision.”

  “Oh wow. I’m sorry.” There was an awkward silence.

  Sky clammed up. He always tried to shut that part of his life out of his mind. It had been too painful. Images assaulted his mind. A gray day in a cemetery burying his family; a boss of fifteen years having to “let him go”; a beautiful house with its well-kept yard having turned into an abandoned dump; an eleven-year-old daughter sobbing in her room at the loss not only of her mother and two siblings, but now that of a father so withdrawn he might as well be on another planet. Grief had put his life in a tailspin.

  Sparks floated upward from the fire like souls sent heavenward.

  With a grunt, Sky gathered his courage to open up.

  “My life was a mess after they died, until I sold our house and brought my daughter Perle here to Montana to live off the grid. It was tough at first, but it brought us together and got our minds off our grief. I taught her all I could about survival, and she turned it into a business for me. She’s a whiz on a computer. She made a webpage and blogged about our experiences. Ever since I saved her from that bear that time, I was a hero to her. I think that was the blog that began to draw in some clients.”

  Skip’s face showed no surprise at the mention of the bear escapade. No doubt he’d read that blog for himself.

  The sky flickered faintly on the horizon.

  “So where is your daughter now?” There was a low rumble, hardly audible.

  “She has settled down to a quiet and uneventful life. She is married to a great guy named Adam. He is a captain in the army. He used to be a Ranger. He still works for the government, but I understand he is in a safer capacity now.”

  CHAPTER 19

  The Vow

  Adam grimaced as he fell hard to his knees on the cement rooftop. The butt of the rifle had struck him full in his spinal column numbing his legs while firing pain up his back incapacitating him. The two enemy soldiers now grabbed his arms from behind and hauled him to his feet, dragging him toward some hideout.

  The pain in his back was excruciating as his body was dragged much like a rag doll from the rooftop to an adjoining roof. Three times his severely bruised knees were slammed into walls as the savage escort thrust him along. The sudden change of his circumstance left Adam’s mind spinning. Where were they taking him? Where had they come from? What would they do to him when they got him to their destination? Would they torture him? Demand enemy troop positions and other information? Would they kill him? Visions of them recording his making confessions for his supposed “war crimes” against Allah and the beheading that followed on film repulsed and terrified him. It wasn’t the death or the pain…it was the thought of his wife Perle watching the horrid video on the nightly news. He could not bear the image that flashed through his brain.

  Something snapped inside of him as his body flopped around that Iraqi rooftop. It was a deep-seated resolution…so deep it was unspoken, not even to himself in his own mind. He determined with unshakable resolve that Susanna would never have to suffer the knowledge of this event, of his capture. She would never ever know. She would never see the horrors of war, not even in her imagination. He would tell her nothing! He just would not talk about it.

  Five of the Royal Guard surrounded him as he collapsed; one of them kicked him. They were three rooftops over from where he had been taken and he was about to be shoved inside the enemy’s den. As he lay prostrate, they could not see his face, nor hear his wild and desperate plea. “Save Me God!” It was not a well-formed prayer. As a matter of fact, he could not remember the last time he had prayed, or if he ever had. But the words slipped out none the less.

  In that instant there were five nearly simultaneous thuds. The five Iraqi soldiers fell lifelessly all around him. He had the strange sensation of waking from a dream while yet moving in slow motion playback.

  He forgot all about his aching back and knees for the moment and ran back to the roof from which he had been abducted, rapidly descended the stairs and within a few moments was back with his troop in a neighboring building.

  ********

  Looking out at the clouds of the Mediterranean, that whole event years ago still seemed like a dream to Adam. Yet it was the single most life-impacting event he had experienced; he had come to know his Creator that day in Iraq.

  The uncanny and remarkable way his prayer had been answered had impacted his life forever. He owed his life to God, and to his buddies. Never leave one of yours behind. It was an unshakable code of conduct. They had lived by it, and as a result he was still alive. “Never leave your own behind.” He mouthed the words, always grateful, always determined to follow that principle.

  But then as his mind drifted back to Perle, as it so often did, he was struck by the realization that he had violated the very principle he as a soldier tried to live by: he had left her on the other side of the planet. Not only that, he had ceased to discuss any part of his military life with her since that day that his life had been saved. She had been given nothing by him that she could relate to that would allow her to understand his life and to feel connected to him. He always said it was all classified, but the truth is some things weren’t. He’d thought he was protecting her, but maybe it was something else.

  And now the whole thing had come to a head. He had shut her out for so long that she no longer felt that she was part of his life. Worse, she never knew the reason for his emotional distance. She probably blamed herself.

  In his guilt he almost felt like packing up and heading home to her side to explain everything to her. He wanted to unload all those years of the burden he had felt to protect her. He wanted to reconnect with her and be intimate like they used to be till that incident ten years earlier.

  But he could not…at least not yet. The lives of millions of Americans depended upon his success in completing his mission.

  In a matter of hours, he would be back in Iraq, the land of his nightmares.

  CHAPTER 20

  Stashed Away on a Rainy Day

  Susanna Perle was heading up the stairs to the attic when she heard a rattling of the patio door-handle below. Curious as to the cause she started to turn around when there was a loud crash. Something had bashed in the glass. She took one step when she heard their voices.

  “Buscate para allá y yo buscaré para aquí.”

  Immediately she was leaping up the stairs. In a matter of seconds, she was in the closet leading to the attic, knowing that attic would be her refuge till the intruders were gone. In all likelihood it had something to do with Adam, which also indicated they would probably kidnap or kill her if they found her.

  All this was going through her mind when she ran smack into his arms.

  Pedro Romero del Mar was as startled as she was. They both let out a muffled scream, both frantic to not be heard yet scared out of their wits.

  She began swinging at him blindly in the dark. Fortunately for him his eyes were better adjusted, and he was able to dodge her punches till he could pin her arms to her side. In doing so he whispered in her ear, “Shhh! They find me, they kill me! And you too!”

  Funny, it had not occurred to her that they might not be after her till that moment. The thought calmed her down some. At least she no longer tried to fight him.

  “Who are they, and what do they want in my house?” She demanded in harshly whispered tones.

  “They look me. I escape. They kill everybody in truck.”


  “So, they are after you?”

  “Yes, and they kill many peoples. They shoot me. They miss. I run and hide. I think they no look for me in house. I wrong. Sorry. You now danger.”

  His apology was the very thing she needed to hear to understand that at least with him she should be safe. “Well there is no time to waste. We will hide in the attic. They will not find us there.”

  Quickly she opened the door at the back of the closet, letting him go through first. Once inside, he noticed that she took a few moments extra to do something before she entered. He did not know what. As she entered the attic, she locked the door behind them.

  ********

  “Nothing!” David was fed up.

  “I found nothing too,” said Oscar. Nodding his head in the direction of the stairs he said, “Let’s look upstairs.”

  It took them several more minutes to make a careful search of the second floor. They scoured the bedrooms, bathrooms, closets and the entire hallway. David had opened the closet where Pedro and Perle had entered but did not see the door at the backside. Mrs. Valencia had cleverly hung a long dress over it, covering up the doorknob.

  Once again, they met up in the middle. They had come up empty-handed. Oscar had a puzzled look on his face. “This makes no sense. There is a car in the driveway, the lights are on, and there is a coffee cup that someone had been drinking out of. I don’t believe that there is nobody at home. And I think our escapee is here too. There must be somewhere that we have missed.”

  “Well I don’t know. I looked everywhere on this side of the house,” David was quick to reply.