by Jet MacLeod
She closed the hatch and got in the driver’s seat. She started the SUV and backed out of the space. She headed for the Jersey border with no specific destination in mind. She had to get Angie out of her comfort zone and out of the City. It had been too long since Del was Stateside and she didn’t know where to go. She didn’t want a major city because it would be too easy to trace. She needed somewhere backwoods and rural. It needed to be somewhere that people wouldn’t question Del when she gave them their story, once she thought one up. She decided to just drive and decide on the way.
She reasoned that she thought better on the fly anyway.
“Where are we going?”
“I don’t know, yet.”
“Do you have an idea?”
“I have some thoughts, but I need to get an atlas.”
“What about Canada?”
“I don’t have jurisdiction there. If we did jump borders, then things would get really dicey. I am not taking you out of the country. I mean we could go to Alaska or Hawaii, but even that is stretching things. I don’t want to give any of the Alphabets a reason to think that I’ve kidnapped you. I need them to believe that you went under like you were supposed to and that I have you protected,” Del stated.
“I understand.”
“Listen, Angie, I know that this is going to be difficult for you. You cannot have contact with anyone back in New York. As far as they are concerned, you will die tonight. Once you are dead. The Alphabets will do what they can to protect your assets and things. After tonight, Angela March will be dead. I am sorry. You can’t even tell your mother,” Del told her.
“This will destroy her, you know,” Angie said wistfully.
“Unfortunately, it can’t be helped. I am sorry for that, but we can’t tell her. I know that it will be hard. But, your health and welfare are more important than your mother knowing that you are actually alive. I am sorry that sounds crass, but it is the truth.”
“Your mother doesn’t know that you are still alive does she?”
“I don’t know. I don’t even know if she is still alive. It is better for me that way.”
“That is a cold way to view things,” Angie told her.
“It has kept me alive.”
“True, but I’m sure that it is lonely.”
“I’ve learned to deal with it.”
“But, you do have friends, right?” Angie asked, noticing that they were leaving the City.
“I have people that I care for and that help me, yes. Are we friends? I cannot answer that. I have learned not to get close to people. I don’t stay in one place for very long.”
“But, what about me? How will you be able to deal with me? Who are the people you go to when you need something? Do they help you when you call?” Angie asked.
“Yes, they do. As for you, each day will prove to be an adventure for me. There is someone that I will take us to see first. Hopefully he will have another vehicle waiting for us. He’ll take care of this one and get it back to me when we finally get somewhere more permanent.”
“What is his name?”
“His name is Cole Jackson.”
“Where are we meeting him?”
“Somewhere outside of Amish Country in Pennsylvania.”
“Pennsylvania?”
“Yeah, he likes to stay hidden. It is better for us in our line of work. We know who we can trust and where we go when we need to hide. We have a network that even the Alphabets don’t even know about. We have to find our way on our own. We have a way of dealing with each other that keeps us all alive and hidden at the same time,” Del told her.
“So, Pennsylvania, then. How long are we going to be there? Are we going to stay there?”
“We’ll probably be there for a few days. It will be just long enough for me to get your new identity worked out. Have you thought about a name, yet, Emily?” Del asked her.
“What about Emily Sullivan?”
“Sounds good. When we stop for some gas, I’ll call Jackson and let him know. You will be officially Emily Sullivan as soon as we get to Jackson’s farm. Get comfortable and take a nap. I’ll wake you when we stop,” Del told her.
Chapter 3
The drive was uneventful just as Del had hoped. She was amazed at how quickly they had made time to Pennsylvania. It would only be an hour or so before they found themselves at Jackson’s farm. Del sat back and looked at the sky. She was still debating if she should wake Angie, but decided to wait. She looked peaceful considering the situation and Del knew that the next few months were going to be anything but peaceful for them.
The trip down I-80 thru the main part of the state of Pennsylvania was nice. It reminded Del of some of her more delightful missions in Europe. She shook her head and looked around. She was making sure that no one was following them. She doubted that the Alphabets even knew that they were gone…yet. She knew that she would have call in once they got to Jackson’s but, right now she was just worried about getting there. She glanced at GPS and realized that they needed to take highway 310 soon to get to Jackson’s farm.
It only took about thirty minutes once she got out of the town of Anita to make it to Jackson’s farm. Del still didn’t know why the old man had picked Pennsylvania, but he was far enough out of civilization that no one would bother him. She wondered what Angie would think of him. He wondered what he would think of Angie and this mission.
She pulled into the drive and woke up Angie. She looked at the small two story, white clap board farm house and turned to Del to make sure they were at the right place. Del just smiled and got out of the SUV. She didn’t wait for Angie to follow her. She knew that were safe here.
“Delia Montgomery, I do declare,” he said meeting them both on the porch.
“Hello, Cole,” Del replied.
“And, who do we have here?” he asked turning his attention to Angie.
She regarded the older, grizzled man for a moment, before she extended her hand to him. He looked at Del and then at Angie, before he stuck his hand out to her. She shook his hand before she said anything to him.
“Hello, Mister Jackson, I am Emily,” she replied.
He laughed, a deep and good natured laugh. He held his belly while he did it. He turned back to Del and smiled. He motioned for them to follow him inside the house. He laughed the entire way to the kitchen, where he bid them to sit down at the table, as he poured them some tea.
“Where in God’s name did you find her, Del?”
“New York,” Del replied.
He turned and stared at the blonde a little harder. There was something off about the way she was dressed. Her manners were too good to be with the likes of Montgomery. Something was definitely wrong with the situation in his mind, but he couldn’t figure out what it was.
“You didn’t tell me you were bringing friends,” he stated.
“Sorry, it was a spur of the moment thing.”
“Spur of the moment, huh? Guess she was the spur? What’s going on here, Lieutenant?”
“Well, Sarge, she is in trouble and I’ve been tasked to make sure she stays safe.”
“What?” he asked flatly.
“That is about what I said when I got the mission,” she told him.
“Someone after her?”
“You could say that,” Del replied.
“Emily ain’t her real name,” he stated.
Angie looked at them. She couldn’t believe that they were talking about her like she wasn’t even there. She couldn’t believe that they were discussing her like she was some kind of black op.
“I’m right here,” she piped up.
No, you ain’t. Get yourself upstairs. Take the bedroom to the left of the stairs,” he instructed.
Angie looked over at Del. She just nodded for Angie to comply. Angie opened her mouth to protest, but shut it just as quickly. She had agreed to listen to Del. She made a face at her, but she left the kitchen and went upstairs.
“I cannot believe you brought her here,
” he told Del once she was gone.
“I need papers.”
“For who?”
“Her,” Del replied.
“You want me to get her papers?”
“Yes, Jackson, I do. I know you already got me a car in the back barn. I’m leaving the SUV here. I’ll call you when I get somewhere safe. I’ll expect it back and better than I left it.”
“You want the usual? New paint and VIN? Anything else?”
“She’s already loaded from the last mission in Kosovo. She’s got plating because they thought I was going to sneak in from the north into Afghanistan. SEALs got that mission instead.”
“I’ll take care of her.”
“I know you will, Sarge. I am counting on it. I’m going to leave my M82 here with you as well. I don’t think that I am going to need it.”
“You still got the Forty?”
“Yes.”
“And, the rest?”
“All still your designs, all still working, and all still going with me,” she told him.
“Good girl, you had me worried there for a minute. So, how in the Hell did Alphabet Soup manage to saddle you with…with…with her? What the Hell did you do, Lieutenant?”
“I asked to retire.”
“She is your retirement package?”
“In a manner of speaking, yes.”
“Well, damn, I guess there could be worse things. At least she is something to look at. Do me a favor with her, though?”
“Yeah and what is that?”
“Don’t fall for her. That girl has got ice on her heart and she’ll just break yours, Del. She ain’t made for love. She’s made to make a name for herself. That’s likely what got her into this mess to begin with, ain’t it?”
“It is.”
“Well, shit, Lewy, where ya going go?”
“I need a map.”
“You ain’t decided yet.”
“Like I said on the phone, I need papers and a few days to get my head together.”
“You left the City without a plan?”
“It wasn’t my finest hour, no. She is in danger and the Alphabets gave her to me. She is handful. She doesn’t listen for her own good.”
“You scared her, didn’t you? You pulled Cologne on her, didn’t you? That is why you were in such a hurry, isn’t it?”
“I cannot say if…”
“How long did it take for her to piss you off?”
“I hadn’t even met her yet.”
“You set ground rules for her.”
“Some.”
“Do you think that she’ll follow them?”
“I hope that she will. I think that she actually understands now that it isn’t just her name, but her life that is on the line. She finally understands that all the Alphabets were trying to do was keep her alive. It seems like three agents lost their lives in the line of duty for her. I think she just figured that she would get a protective detail. I don’t think she understood the importance of a clean break for protection. Today, she did.”
“You sly dog, you did pull Cologne on her,” he stated.
“I did what had to be done.”
“I’ll get the ol’ computer fired up. I am sure that I can have your Emily up and functional by tomorrow. Do I need to make you a new identity, too?”
“Not yet. Just get me a backup, just in case we have to leave the country. I’m going to try to convince her to dye her hair again. Then, I’ll sit down with one of our maps and pick a place that won’t question us just showing up.”
“I’ll call Sanchez. I think that he has a place that will work for you in Illinois. You could stay there for a while. I am sure that he wouldn’t mind letting you lone the place. It would be a small town outside of Chicago, but it would give you enough small town charm that you could hide her without too much question,” he explained.
“That sounds ideal, plus Chicago would be right there. I could let her out once and awhile once she understands what to do if she feels threatened again. We would be near enough to an FBI site if I needed them,” she told them.
“True. Del, are you sure that you can handle this one? She ain’t exactly the norm for you.”
“Meaning that she is still breathing? I know that, Sarge. We’ve already discussed that is why I was chosen for this assignment. I only have to deal with her for six months. As long as I get her back to New York for her court date to testify, everything else will be okay. I can handle her for a few months. There is nothing to worry about,” Del told him.
“If you say so, Del. But, I’m telling you that one is going to be trouble for you. And, not the kind of trouble that you know how to deal with. She might break you.”
“I doubt that she’ll break me.”
“Ten says she will.”
“Double it and you’re on,” Del stated.
They slapped the table in agreement. Del stood to go upstairs to see about Angie, but shook Cole’s hand before she went upstairs. She swore that she could hear the old man chuckle as she left. She shook her head. He knew that Del would always put the mission first, especially after the fiasco in Kiev. He knew that Del had a penchant for blondes, but her heart had been harden to almost stone because of Kiev.
He went into his office to begin to create Emily’s identity. He wished that Del would actually tell him what happened in Kiev. He’d read the records, what parts he could get his hands on, and some of the parts he couldn’t. So much of the mission had been redacted from the official record that he wasn’t even sure that Del knew the whole story and she was the one who lived it.
He sighed and turned back to the computer. The wars had changed her. The wars had changed them all. She had grown colder and more distant after that mission. He’d tried to ask her what happened, but she gave him the same “company” lies. He had worried about the darkness that surrounded her, but the CO gave her another mission two weeks later. She’d been cleared for duty, but anyone in the unit could have told you that she faked her psyche screening. They all had. They knew how. It was part of their training. Del had excelled at faking out everyone.
He wondered if she had succeeded in lying to herself. Maybe she came to believe the story that had been told to her about the mission. Maybe she really couldn’t believe what had happened had actually happened. She had been really beaten up and the bombs hadn’t helped her. He knew that rattled brain didn’t remember things clearly from his own time in Beirut. He hoped that once Del was free she would find something or someone that would make her happy again. He would help her as much as he could, but she would have to help herself, too.
He would hide her if need be. She’d saved him in Iraq. Found him after the barrage in Kosovo when no one else would look for him. He owed her and he never forgot that. He got to come home and have a life, kids and the rest. He couldn’t help that his PTSD drove them all away. She was the one that came when Jessa called her asking for help. She was the one who got him out of the bottle and out of D.C. She was the one who helped him move on and fight the demons that his memories conjured up. He knew all too well what their line of work did to the brain.
“Find something soon, Del, but the Devil eats your brain, too,” he said to no one as he began the faked identity of Emily. He created a Texas driver’s license and birth certificate. Next, he doctored school records and even produced a University of Mississippi diploma in Liberal Arts. He decided that he would let Emily pick a field later. He would manufacture a work experience and a resume for her. She would be a built woman.
Del would need some things, too. But, first they would have to come up with a cover story. Developing a new background was easy, it was going to be remembering it and making a new life that was going to be the problem. That was going to be their challenge together, now.
Chapter 4
She made her way upstairs. She was only slightly starting to feel guilty for what she did in New York, but she knew that Angie wouldn’t cooperate if they stayed there any longer. She would apologize for
her actions later. Right now, they needed to get on the same page.
Del made her way upstairs and into the bedroom next to Angie’s. She was tired, but she knew that she needed to talk to her. She dropped her bag on the bed. She pulled a small side arm out and put it in her pants’ waistband. It was habit and she knew it. She couldn’t go anywhere without a weapon on her, even in a safe house. She dropped her leather jacket on the bed. She raked her hands through her hair and caught her reflection in the mirror over the bureau across the room.
“Stop worrying about it, Del,” she told herself. “It will all work out. Just keep her safe and retire.”
She made her way down the small hallway to the room that Angie was staying in. She knocked on the door and waited. She was going to give her some privacy and some semblance of normal, well as much as she could consider their situation.
“What do you want?” Angie asked her, still drying her hair with a towel.
“I thought that we should talk.”
“About what? I figured that you and the good ‘Sarge’ were doing a good enough job without me. Is there really something that I can help you with? I am tired and need to figure out who I am.” Angie said.
“I’m sorry,” Del stated before she could stop herself.
“For what?”
“I know that this is hard for you. I know that you had to leave everything, again. I understand that you will be going somewhere you don’t know, with no real friends, and no real hope of ever seeing home and knowing that you can’t go back to it again. I have an idea what that is like, but you have only had to start over once. It’s hard becoming someone new, sometimes someone you would never be, but it is a survival skill that you are going to have to learn. You’re a lawyer. You know how to lie or bend the truth enough to make people believe what you need them to believe. This is just going to be a very large and gross exercise of that ability,” Del told her.