Suddenly, the doors burst open and armed troops poured into the base.
“U.S. Army Rangers!” came a shout. “Everyone stand where you are.”
“Glad you made it, boys,” Tom said with a smile, as he wiped the tears from his eyes. “Because we could use a ride home.”
Chapter 24
Washington, D.C.
It was a beautiful summer morning as Dawn sat at a black iron table outside of a small cafe, sipping coffee from white cup. She was doing better, her ribs still hurt, but she was able to sit at a desk now. And that is where she spent much of her time these days. Behind a desk.
“Good morning,” came a familiar voice and Dawn glanced up to see Tom strolling toward her, wearing a light gray business suit and dark sunglasses. A white fedora sat perched atop his head and he carried a black umbrella—tapping it on the ground like a walking cane—just in case.
“Good morning yourself, Professor,” she replied with a warm smile. Tom chuckled at the title as he sat down. “How is life lecturing at Georgetown?”
Tom nodded as he removed a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. “Safer than my last job,” he joked as he pulled a cigarette from the pack placing it between his lips. He offered one to Dawn, but she declined. “But more boring, too.” He removed his lighter, flipped it open and lit the tip of the cigarette.
Tom blew a stream of smoke from his lips.
“How’s Ian?” Dawn asked.
“Fine, I suppose,” Tom replied. “He retired from service after the President shut down CSOS.”
“Well, you can’t blame the President for that one,” she smiled.
“No,” Tom said. “I suppose not, but what is really troubling is that they are acting as if all of the infiltration by the International was contained there.”
Dawn’s eyebrows rose. “Really?” she asked.
Tom nodded as he drew more smoke into his lungs. “Yet you and I both know the conspiracy goes much much deeper than that,” he said.
Dawn nodded.
“So, how are things at CIA?” Tom asked.
Dawn shrugged. “Fine I suppose,” she said.
“Not as exciting as you are used to?” Tom asked.
Dawn shook her head. “Not even close, but that’s a good thing,” she smiled. “I’m still recovering from our last little adventure.”
Tom laughed as he blew smoke from his mouth. “Aren’t we all, my dear.”
“So what about Rolf?” Dawn asked. “If there is no CSOS…” she said letting the words trail off.
Tom sighed. “That one is kind of complicated,” he said. “As is the Sickle situation.”
“Oh?” Dawn asked. “What situation?”
“Well, we have a Soviet agent who is not especially keen to go back to Russia after the KGB murdered her brother and adopted mother, but does not trust us enough to defect.”
“That is a problem,” Dawn agreed.
“Meanwhile the Soviets want her back and they want her back now,” Tom said. “As you might imagine.”
“Indeed.”
“Well,” Tom waved his hands. “That is no longer my concern.”
Dawn frowned. “It will always be your concern Tom,” Dawn said.
“What does CIA have you doing these days?” he asked.
Dawn shook her head and smiled. “You know I can’t discuss that with you.”
Tom stamped out his cigarette. “That’s alright, love,” he said with a wry smile. “So, how is your personal life?”
Dawn threw back her head and laughed. “That’s a little forward Professor Flemming!”
“Well you won’t talk about your professional life, so…” he said with a boyish grin. “Seeing anyone?”
Dawn narrowed her eyes. “No,” she replied. “You gonna ask me out on a date?”
Tom shook his head. “No, love. You’re a beautiful woman, and I’m sure you’ll make some boy very happy one day, but you’re about twenty years too young for me.”
Dawn laughed.
“But I do have a date this weekend,” Tom said. “The first one in years.”
“Oh really?” Dawn asked, suddenly interested.
“Yes,” Tom replied and turned to glanced at her sideways. “And it is with a woman.”
Dawn bit her bottom lip as she stared down at the ground trying not to laugh out loud.
“Anyway, I should be going,” he said.
“Me too,” she replied. “Gotta get to work.”
They both stood. Tom held out his hand. “It was nice seeing you Dawn,” he smiled.
“You too, Tom,” she replied as she accepted his hand and shook it.
“I hope we can do this again soon,” Tom said.
“Yeah, of course.”
“Well, have a nice day, love,” he said and then turned and strolled away. Dawn watched him for a bit and then sighed. She knew that a chapter in her life had closed. But she just didn’t feel like the story was over yet.
She picked up her purse, pulled the strap over her shoulder, grabbed her briefcase, and walked away from the table to hail a cab, thinking about Rolf and Alena, remembering Axel and Brygida and trying as hard as she could, not to cry.
Epilogue
Dr. Elizabeth Silver stared at her watch before turning her attention back to the paperback romance she was reading. She hoped it wouldn’t be much longer. She was exhausted and wanted desperately to go to bed. She had been up all night waiting on her patient to wake up, but now the sunlight was peeking through the curtains on the windows.
Suddenly, there was a beeping sound coming from the nurses console and Dr. Silver turned to peer at the monitor. The patient was awake. The doctor leapt to her feet with an excited smile and rushed down the hall to a nondescript door. She yanked it open and stepped inside of the patient’s room. Her patient laid on a hospital bed, the back slightly inclined.
“Good morning,” Dr. Silver said. The patient tried to move, jerking her arms against the restraints that held her down. “It’s alright, don’t be scared,” the doctor said.
“Where am I?” the patient asked as Dr. Silver walked around the bed and glanced at a monitor displaying the patients vital stats.
“A medical facility in upstate New York,” Dr. Silver replied.
“New York?” the patient asked, slightly confused as Dr. Silver shined a small pin light into her eyes, checking her pupils.
“How do you feel?” Dr. Silver asked.
The patient ignored the question. “Who are you?” she asked.
“My name is Dr. Elizabeth Silver,” the doctor smiled.
“What do you want with me?” The woman demanded. “Why am I here?”
“We want to help you, Mrs. Dubenski,” a male voice said, causing her to turn and see a man in a blue blazer, khaki pants and a New York Mets baseball cap, standing in front of the door. The man stepped forward.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Victor. And you are Brygida Dubenski.”
Brygida stared at him. “If you want to help me why am I a prisoner?”
“You are not a prisoner, Brygida,” he said. “May I call you Brygida?” She did not answer, but Victor continued as if she had said yes. “Brygida, you are strapped down so that you wouldn’t kill any of us when you woke up,” he explained. He sat down in a chair and leaned forward toward the bed. “Do you remember what happened to you?” he asked.
Brygida nodded. “I was fighting this man in Siberia, then he…he froze me I guess. I was so cold and…” She shook her head. I don’t remember anything past that.
“Yes, you were frozen. You’ve been in a kind of suspended animation for a number of years.”
Brygida turned to him. “How many?” she asked. Victor glanced at the doctor and then back at Brygida. “Almost thirty,” he said. Brygida simply stared at him. “It’s 1995, Brygida.”
“1995…” she trailed off.
“I’ve been looking for you for a long time,” Victor said. “I bought all of the Russian inf
ormation on the prime after the collapse of the Soviet Union when they were desperate for money.”
She turned to him wide-eyed in shock.
“Oh, yeah,” he cleared his throat. “The U.S.S.R. fell a few years ago. I know we all expected to die in a fiery nuclear war, but fortunately, that didn’t happen. It was their economy that finally got’em. Socialism just doesn’t work as anyone with half a brain understands.”
He stared at her for a long time, but she didn’t say a word. “Well anyway, in their paperwork was a note that you were still alive. Apparently the GRU had been in charge of you for a while, but then in the eighties you were given to an American scientist who had defected named Willem Kruger. He was working on bringing people back from the dead or something crazy like that, and they hoped he could revive you. Apparently they did not have the technology to do it safely. When we discovered this we asked our friends in Moscow if they could get you for us. They sent some soldiers out there and all hell broke loose apparently. (For the full story read The Zomtastic Six). Anyway, you’re here now. Cost us a fortune to get you though.”
“You bought me?” she asked as she narrowed her eyes.
“It’s not as nefarious as it sounds,” he said as he raised his hands defensively.
“What do you want from me?” Brygida demanded.
Victor swallowed and then sighed. “In the last thirty years, the bad guys have developed a whole lot more prime-er-enhanced super humans. We call them prime humans or just prime for short. There is this plan to…” he began but thought better of it. “It doesn’t matter right now. We are developing our own prime to combat them. We call it Project Eclipse. We need you to help us.”
“Help you?” she asked indignantly. “You sound as though you’re doing the same thing as the scum that took my babies.”
“Wait now, that’s not fair. I’m not a Nazi,” he said defensively.
“How would I know?”
Suddenly the phone in the room rang and Victor grabbed it and held it to his ear. “She’s here?” he asked the person on the other end. “Yes, please, by all means send her in.”
Victor hung up the phone and smiled at Brygida. “I know this is hard to wrap your head around, so maybe a familiar face will help.”
Brygida stared past him as the door to her room opened and she watched Dawn step inside. She was older. Unlike Brygida and the others, Dawn clearly kept aging. A small bit of gray waved across her bangs. But it was clearly Dawn.
Dawn rushed to her. “Oh Brygida you’re alright,” she said, relief in her voice. She noticed the wrist and ankle straps. “Can we remove these?” she asked.
“Of course,” Victor said and he and Dr. Silver helped Dawn take off the restraining straps. Dawn helped Brygida sit up and then threw her arms around her. The emotions suddenly hit Brygida hard and she broke down, weeping on Dawn’s shoulder. “It’s okay,” Dawn whispered as she stroked Brygida’s back. After a few minutes she pulled away and Dawn stared at her. “You look so young,” Dawn laughed causing Brygida to laugh as well.
“Where are my boys?” Brygida asked. “And Alena?”
Dawn looked away briefly, but then her eyes rose to meet Brygida’s. “I don’t know. Alena and Rolf are somewhere in hiding. Things went bad. We saved the world again,” she forced a smile at that. “But it wasn’t safe for them anymore.”
“Well, where is Axel?” Brygida asked. “Why isn’t he in hiding?”
“Brygida,” Dawn said. “Axel is dead.”
Brygida simply stared at her and then her face contorted as her hand flew to her mouth. “Dead?” she asked. “How?”
“He died saving us all,” Dawn said not wanting to attempt greater detail at the moment.
“No,” Brygida cried and Dawn flung her arms around her once more as both women wept on each others shoulder.
“But we need you Brygida,” Dawn said. “We’re still fighting.”
Brygida pulled away and looked at her. This was good. She needed something. Anything to take her mind off of her son.
“What do you need from me?”
“To help us protect the babies,” Dawn said.
This perked Brygida up immediately. “Babies?” she asked.
“Yes,” Dawn said. “The babies.”
“Would you like to see them?” Victor asked. Brygida nodded. Dawn and Dr. Silver helped her to her feet and Victor led her out of the room and down the hall to the nursery. They all stared through the glass at a room full of beautiful healthy looking babies, lying wrapped in swaddling blankets in individual beds.
“Welcome to Project Eclipse,” Victor said.
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You can get a FREE ebook, keep up with new releases, special offers, etc., by joining Christopher Vale’s email subscriber list, or following him on Twitter @AuthorChrisVale. You can also “like” his Facebook page.
Christopher Vale is the author of the following books:
Blitzkrieg:
Origins of the Prime
Blitzkrieg:
Flight of the Valkyrie
Blitzkrieg:
The International
The Forgotten Knight:
A Chinese Warrior in King Arthur’s Court
Dragon’s Keep:
The Complete Dracengard Series
The International Page 18