Stormy Seas

by Ali Vali

  “Send our ride, but tell them we’ll be headed in the opposite direction. If we can hopscotch a few times, we can keep up.”

  “Ma’am.” A young man interrupted again. “Command says it’s important.”

  Like an action-packed reality show, Washington could now watch covert missions from the Situation Room, so they were well aware of what she was facing. “Hold on for your ride, and I’ll get back to you shortly,” she told Wiley. “Yes, sir,” she said to General Carl Greenwald.

  “We’ll cut to it, Captain,” Carl said as a satellite image of what appeared to be a training facility or military grounds appeared on her screen in the small bridge office. “We were able to narrow the location after some questioning of new detainees. You have people in the field, but that’s not enough, so we’re sending more backup. If this turns out to be our hard target, we need Vader and Killer to lead a raid to make it a fair fight.”

  “Do you have exact coordinates? Like you said, I have people in the field and don’t want to take them out with friendly fire.” She split the screen with Command and the three moving blips that hadn’t been there before. Maybe Berkley was okay. “Also, I have a new development.” She shared the split screen with them and sat back in her chair. The exhaustion that tension could bring was at times overwhelming, but she couldn’t sleep now, no matter how tired she was.

  “Is that Cletus and her group?” Preston asked. Her father had to be going through the same torment she was feeling. She could see it etched on his face. The worst part of it for him, aside from Berkley being missing, was most likely seeing the Levines every night and not being able to tell them about the situation.

  “It has to be,” she said as the transponders continued to move closer to the coast. “You know Cletus. She’s like half Eagle Scout and half MacGyver.” The dots represented life and her love, but they were far from being free of all this. “If it’s Chandler, what’s he going to do when he figures out it’s her?” she asked her father, but the others in the room simply stared at her.

  “We need to get her before that,” Preston said gently. “We all know Cletus represents everything he detests in what he sees as the new America, but he doesn’t know what she’s capable of. Cletus won’t ever give up, and he’ll never break her. He’s going to try, though, because he needs to make her admit she doesn’t belong.”

  “Aidan, we’ve got to do this without leaving any fingerprints,” Carl said. “We need to use the troops you’ve got close by, but not give Chandler the fight he wants.”

  “What exactly are you asking me?”

  “Our best strategy is you,” Carl said, then explained what he meant. “We’ll wait to hear from Baylor and Wiley before we move, but you need to prepare to finish this once the president gives us a go.”

  “If Cletus, Junior, and Jin can be rescued, trust Baylor and Wiley to do it,” Drew said. “Those two are the best people for the job, and Baylor’s guys are the tops in the business.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Vice President, but know I won’t give up on them. We leave no one behind.”

  “Of that I have no doubt, and I’ll tell the president the same thing.”

  “We’ll be ready to go, sir, and we can get the job done with everyone who started it—everyone.”

  Chapter Twenty-four

  The truck stopped, and all the engines cut off. Jin stared at her and shook her head. This was clearly different from the other stops. “If we get separated, be ready to move at the first opportunity. We’re all walking out of here together, or we’re not going at all.”

  “At the other stops, not all the people got out,” Jin said, leaning in so Berkley could hear her. “I think we are at the place they want us.”

  “Cletus,” Harvey said, putting his hand on her back. “Do you have any kind of plan?”

  “Let’s see what we’re up against, and you can take notes for the story of our dramatic escape later. It’ll be so good our grandkids will get tired of listening to it,” she said as someone lowered the back of the truck, grabbed Jin by the shoulders, and dragged her out.

  She heard something drop to the ground and figured it was Jin when more than one man laughed. She didn’t have time to guess as she and Junior came out together, and she saw Jin on her knees spitting out a mouthful of blood. The clearing they were in was full of equipment and vehicles, and all of them seemed to be American-made.

  That small glimpse was all she got as a man in front of her brought the butt of his gun down, pulling the blow at the last minute but enough to knock her head back. The pain seemed to reach the center of her skull, and she closed her eyes but refused to go down. Harvey copied her and stayed on his feet when the man repeated the action.

  “Finally, men.” A redheaded man stood before her, and all she could think of was that the black uniform clashed with his hair. “We finally got someone who can take a punch and not whine about it.” He punched her in the mouth, and she didn’t make a sound, which made the men around them laugh again.

  “Lapry,” someone else yelled. “Is this what you were ordered to do?” The newcomer scattered the crowd, and Berkley tried to guess why. Whoever he was obviously outranked them, but he didn’t carry himself like a soldier since he seemed to be out of place in the uniform. “Bring the prisoners. The general wants to talk to them when he returns, and they’ll actually have to be able to do that.”

  “Where is he?” the guy named Lapry asked.

  “Are you keeping his schedule now?” The small, pudgy man looked familiar to Berkley, but she couldn’t place him.

  “It’s just a question, Robyn.”

  “It sounds like disrespect, and you should think before you do it again. You’re not in as much favor as you think, and instead of acting macho out here, you should go watch the news. You aren’t going to like it.”

  This had to be Homer Lapry’s kid, but Carl hadn’t given them any information about the rest of the family. She watched Lapry stalk away, the anger making each step stiff and savage. Her attention refocused when she heard a gun cock and saw Robyn holding the same kind of shiny pistol Dale Whitner had tried to kill Aidan with.

  “Try anything, and I’ll put a bullet in your head,” Robyn said and pointed to his right. “Start walking.”

  The camp was full of men in the same black uniforms they’d seen so far, and Berkley was a bit disheartened when she realized that five full battalions might be exactly right. You didn’t easily escape from that many people. Their walk ended in the center square that held a cage, and they were locked inside it like rabid dogs.

  “Sit, and forget about leaving. I don’t know who you are, but you don’t belong here, and my father won’t allow you to return.”

  This had to be Robyn Chandler, and it made sense that the men took orders from him. She looked at Harvey and Jin and shook her head, then pointed to her ears, then all around them. They might’ve been in an open cage slightly larger than those used by Al Qaeda, but their captors had to be listening in.

  “Remember the horizon always promises blue skies, even if you have to sail through stormy seas to get there,” she said, repeating something her father had told her.

  It had been Corbin’s advice when she finally admitted what had happened with Aidan and the pain she was in because of it. He had explained that for everything that was hard enough to break you, all you had to do was keep your eyes and mind on that one thing you had to look forward to that would make you happy. Those wise words would hopefully serve her well in the coming days.

  Robyn reappeared, with three other men carrying fire hoses. “Huddle up,” Harvey said, and they all faced each other as the men turned the powerful streams of water on them.

  “It will cool us off, so we should thank them,” Jin said, and they all couldn’t help but laugh since their heads were so close together.

  Berkley kept her head down and hung onto Harvey and Jin, thinking this was only a warm-up for things to come. Once Dick Chandler returned and figured out exactly
who his men had managed to capture, the real torture would begin. He’d do his best to break her and Jin to prove women didn’t belong in a man’s world.

  “Remember, too, the joy,” Jin said as the water stopped. They looked at each other, and she figured Jin had reached the same conclusion. “If you do, it will steal away their satisfaction.”

  She nodded and closed her eyes, thinking of Aidan. That was her joy, and nothing Chandler could come up with could take it away from her.

  * * *

  The chance to get first crack at Berkley Levine was too good to pass up, so Robyn had started with the cage his father had confiscated during the Gulf War and the fire hoses. That had been the first part of his training, and the pounding of the water’s pressure had made him raise his hands in surrender after ten minutes. The trio he had locked up had stood in one place for an hour and not said a word. The Lapry brothers didn’t realize who they’d managed to stumble across, but he’d recognized the tall aviator right off.

  “Think before you do anything else,” his mother Ruby said when she joined him on the porch. “If you deprive the master of his chance to prove himself, you’ll be in that cage next.”

  He stopped staring at Berkley and glanced at his mother. The latest black eye from a few weeks ago was starting to fade, but the bruised and split lip were new. Ruby had never learned to back down and give his father the total control he craved in all things, and Dick had never learned to leave the bruises where no one would see them. It was one of the main reasons Ruby had very seldom appeared in public when his father was in office. In Robyn’s opinion, his parents had a sick, codependent relationship that would be severed only in death.

  “I couldn’t help myself,” he said, kissing his mom’s forehead. “This all started when he was elected with George and saw an opening to get everything he’s ever wanted. He couldn’t resist finding an excuse to get it. That tall bitch is one of the main reasons we’re stuck here. He keeps preaching about how he’s doing all this for us, but I know better, and I know there’s no going back to the life we had before.”

  “Who is it?” Ruby asked, turning from him to stare at the tall woman in the cage.

  “There’s no name on the uniform, but I bet my life that it’s Commander Berkley Kaplan Levine.”

  “It’s true he uses people like her as an excuse, but don’t kid yourself. Your father is the type of man who’ll do anything to get what he wants.” Ruby touched her lip before placing her hands on the porch rail and gazing out at the yard. “Her being here, though, signals the end of all this. Before that comes to pass, let me tell you what I’ll never be able to admit to Jeffery and Rachel.”

  “What is it, Mom?” The sadness his mom carried like a heavy boulder on her shoulders was at times contagious.

  “I’m sorry I wasn’t strong enough to keep you away from all this,” Ruby said as the tears rolled down her cheeks and fell on their hands. It was like she cried so much she didn’t bother to wipe them away anymore. “He told me we had to sacrifice to get what we wanted, but I didn’t think he meant my children.”

  “You think there’s no way to win?”

  “The people who love your father are here.” She waved her hand in a semicircle. “They love him because he’s given them permission to be cruel to those who aren’t like them—the people they think are lesser than.”

  “I get that, but exactly what do you mean?” They should’ve had this conversation months ago.

  “There was a reason your father was one of the most hated men ever to serve in higher office. These men love him, but they don’t make up the whole of America. He could kill everyone in Congress, the White House, and in the Pentagon, and the people will still hate him. With all this, they’ll hate him even more.”

  “But we have so many more than this helping us.” He’d resigned himself to not being able to return to a normal life, but he hadn’t considered death. “We captured someone important in our fight, which means we’re making headway.”

  “You’re going to have to kill a million Berkley Levines, and it still won’t make a difference,” Ruby said, placing her hands on his cheeks. “If you want to gain favor, tell him what I said, and with any luck he’ll finally put me out of my misery. I didn’t share that with you to make you feel less about your dad, but to be honest with you.”

  “You always talked to Jeffery more, so thanks. I didn’t realize you cared as much about me—like I wasn’t the son you wanted.” Dick had always told him there wasn’t any room in his life for children. That had been Ruby’s job. But his mother had never doted on him like she had his siblings.

  “I’m sorry you think that, and I spent more time with Jeffery because he wasn’t as independent as you and Rachel were when he was a boy. You, though, flew from our nest and soared, doing what you loved, and I was proud that you never looked back. I’m still proud of you, but try to regain some of that freedom you enjoyed for so long. You might need it.”

  She went back inside, but he signaled for the men to turn the hoses back on before he did. He loved his mother, but she was wrong about their chances. For once in his life he wouldn’t be overlooked, and every win wouldn’t take so much effort since he was his father’s heir—the only one now that Jeffery and Rachel were gone.

  “What?” Dick said when he answered his call. He had been summoned to the capital of North Korea to meet with Pom Su Gil, and his presence hadn’t been voluntary.

  “Mark and Tyler Lapry brought back three prisoners from Min’s house,” he said, smiling even though Dick couldn’t see him.

  “Anyone of value?”

  Dick had obviously missed the news coverage of Jeffery’s trial. Without consideration from the president or any government agency, Jeffery was a dead man. “One of the women is Berkley Levine.”

  “Call Gil’s office and tell them I had to go back, and have Waspit pick me up. I should be at the helipad in an hour. Don’t let anything happen to Levine. I’m going to enjoy taking pieces of her until I reach her heart.” Dick was talking fast and more animatedly than he had in months.

  “We can do it together,” he said, but Dick had already hung up. “Stop,” he yelled, to get the water turned off. “Stand guard and keep everyone away from them. The general’s on his way back.”

  Dick was definitely on his way, and their short conversation had opened his eyes to one thing; perhaps his mother was right. This was all about his father and what he wanted. He didn’t give a shit about anything but that. “Fuck me. What do I do about it now?”

  * * *

  Wiley was set up three hundred yards from what appeared to be the perimeter of a massive compound full of guys dressed in black. None of them were Korean, and judging by just the equipment visible from where she was, these fools could start a war and put up a good fight for a while anyway. She sat in a tree under a leaf canopy, temporarily using only a powerful scope. But she couldn’t help but swing back to the three people in the cage.

  The area below her was clear except for Baylor and his full team, who were making their way slowly toward the compound. She was there to see that there were no casualties on their end. “These assholes look like the type to booby-trap around the perimeter as an added layer of security, so slow down and be vigilant,” she said into her radio.

  “Do you have eyes on our targets?” Baylor asked.

  “Yes.” She watched the fire hoses aimed at her friends. “For someone who said he hated Al Qaeda, Dick sure lifted a lot of pages from their playbook.”

  “Why?” someone who sounded like Tito asked.

  “They’re being held in a small cage, and they’re getting high-pressure-water treatment like they’re at a spa.” The low whirl of a helicopter stopped her description.

  “Report when you see something,” Baylor said.

  “Affirmative.” She watched the water being cut off again and Berkley and the others sit down. It took twenty minutes for the aircraft to circle twice before landing close to where the motor pool
was.

  The first man out surprised her because the man was definitely North Korean, down to the uniform, and from the way he pointed and men ran to do things for him, he was an important figure. He was followed by someone she recognized, and he was wearing the black of his troops, but his outfit made him appear ridiculous instead of regal, which she figured he was aiming for.

  “I have eyes on our hard target,” she said as Dick and his friend rode from the landing spot to the wide yard as if the distance was too much for them.

  “Are you sure?” Baylor asked.

  “He hasn’t changed much except for his wardrobe. It’s like he went for an SS paratrooper look,” she said as a Korean man’s face transformed to one of glee at the sight of Jin. “Someone should’ve given them the good news that those guys lost, and our target has company who seems very happy to see his old air-force buddy who’s native to this place.”

  “Can you ID him?” Baylor asked.

  “Negative. He’s a mystery to us.” The man slammed his hands on the bars and put his face close to say something to Jin, but she barely looked at him. Whatever he was threatening, Dick was doing the same to Cletus and Junior, but they too appeared oblivious to the attention.

  “As much as I don’t want to, we have to ignore that for now and concentrate on why we’re here,” Tito said. “We can’t do anything until it gets dark.”

  “He’s right, so hold your positions and report if anything changes, eye in the sky,” Baylor said to Wiley.

  “We have to wait for dark, but this shit isn’t going to be fun to watch,” she said as the cage was opened and Berkley was pulled out, along with Jin. “The fun’s about to begin—for Dickie anyway.”

  “Fuck,” Baylor and Tito said.

  “Exactly.”

  Chapter Twenty-five

  “Dad,” Robyn said as Dick walked around Berkley with a bounce in his step. Nothing in his life lately had brought this much anticipation. That was huge since his ultimate plan was to take over the government—permanently. “You might want to wait until I’ve had a chance to talk to you.”