Stolen Liberty: Behind the Curtain

by Thomas A. Watson

  “I’ll do that. And I’ll be in touch.”

  After that, Joan and Charlie talked more about what had happened, but before they lost the light, Joan needed to get back to her apartment. Charlie walked her out and made sure she buckled her seat belt.

  “Well, that wasn’t much of a first date,” Charlie groused to himself as Joan pulled away. “But now I know why she originally wanted to talk to me. To find out why her brother killed himself.”

  Charlie knew there were as many reasons as there were stars in the nighttime sky. And whatever was coming, his brothers needed to know about it.

  Chapter Nine

  Retreat

  Pulling off the back-country road, Kristi turned onto a small dirt drive. She stopped and looked over at Clark. “Will you open the gate for momma?” she asked with a smile.

  Grabbing the door handle, Clark just pushed the door open while undoing his seatbelt, jumping out and took off running. “It’s my turn, Mom,” Emily whined from the back seat.

  “Sorry, baby,” Kristi said, looking in the rearview mirror. “When we leave, you can do the gate.”

  A smile popped up on Emily’s face. “Okay,” she beamed.

  Dropping her eyes, Kristi saw Clark holding the gate open. She eased her SUV through the gate and stopped. She watched Clark close the gate in the mirror and made sure he pushed the bar all the way, closing the gate. A few years ago, he hadn’t closed it good and everyone had to get on four-wheelers and chase the cows back into the field.

  When Clark was back in, Kristi drove through the pasture while looking at the cows around the old barn that was used to house the hay. She had no idea how big a farm used to be here but from the size of the barn, it must have been colossal. “Mom, can we go fishing?” Emily asked.

  “Baby, let’s see what the others are doing,” Kristi smiled, pulling through the pasture. The dirt drive passed the barn, then passed into a stand of oak and cedar trees. Letting out a sigh, Kristi relaxed in the tranquility the retreat always brought to her. If it did this for her, she knew the boys needed it.

  In the years she had come here, it had only taken once to fall in love with it and she was thankful the boys had brought her down. It had helped her heal as well, and let the kids grow up with a family.

  The property was two hundred and fifty acres with a river running through the west end. Over half was covered in tall trees with the fifty acres near the road as pasture. Her first year to come down, the boys had put a fence up to keep the cows, all eleven of them, from entering the woods. The kids were still toddlers and even then, they’d loved this land.

  The boys had taught them how to fish and hunt here. And of course, shoot. That was one thing that was done every time anyone came to the retreat; shoot. They had built a nice five-hundred-yard range and had put in a skeet range two years ago at the north end of the pasture.

  Frank, her husband, had taught her how to shoot and Kristi had her own weapons that he’d bought her. Her kids had their own arsenal; thanks to Mom, Pop, and the boys. Unlike most people from Chicago, Kristi loved firearms and was happy that the kids were taught right, even if she had to jump through hoops with the state for the right to own or even touch ammunition at an Illinois sporting goods store. She just got upset that the boys kept buying the kids more. The pink AR Randy bought for Emily for her birthday two weeks ago was in its case in the back.

  Emily already had two .22s that Mom and Pop had bought her, a 20ga shotgun Robbie had bought her last year for her birthday, and a rifle Book had bought her to hunt with last Christmas. Kristi knew weapons and knew the ones they’d given Emily weren’t cheap.

  Then there was Clark, and they had bought him more guns than Kristi even owned. The gun safe Frank had was packed now. So packed, Kristi bought another gun safe and put it at the cabin the boys had put up for her here at the retreat.

  Four years ago at Christmas, Randy had bought her another AR. She didn’t understand why, she had two that Frank had owned and the one Frank had built for her. But when Kristi started to complain, Randy went and tattled to Mom and Pop. The complaining from Kristi stopped instantly.

  That was when Charlie and Robbie had both given her new pistols. Robbie, being the lover of oddball guns, went against his normal grain and got her a Colt 1911 that he had tuned and upgraded for her. When Kristi looked at Robbie with a glare, Robbie just shrugged and told her. “Hey, I wanted a project gun to learn on, and I didn’t need another in my safe.” Charlie, being Charlie, gave her a compact Glock in .45 ACP, something useful and light enough for her to carry.

  “We promise, we didn’t plan this,” Charlie had chuckled and held up his damaged hand. “Scout’s honor.”

  Like it was yesterday, Kristi remembered looking at both of them, then over at Mom and Pop. She’d bit her tongue and hugged them both. Like they did for the kids; Mom, Pop, and the boys bought Kristi more than she wanted them to. How they could, she didn’t know. If her house wasn’t paid for, Kristi would be living somewhere else and she still had trouble making ends meet.

  A nurse made good money but for a single mom with two kids, it wasn’t that great. Driving through the trees, Kristi let out a sigh as her mind returned to the here and now. She knew without the boys; her kids would’ve lived a totally different life and wouldn’t have had near the experiences. They were the ones who paid for the kids to do extra activities, a lot of extra activities.

  When Book found out the kids couldn’t swim six years ago, both were enrolled in lessons within a week. Oh no, not at the local Y like Kristi wanted and even looked into. Charlie had found a former U.S. Olympian to teach the kids to swim. Even while he’d been in law school, Charlie had made sure each kid made every lesson. If he couldn’t take them, one of the others did.

  All the improvements made on the house were done by the boys, along with Pop. A smile broke out on Kristi’s face, remembering when her BMW had started acting up. Cody was there that day, tearing it apart. At dark, she’d told Cody to come in and he could continue tomorrow, but Cody had refused.

  When she’d woken up the next morning, she’d found all the boys in her garage working on her car. Stepping out into the garage, Kristi almost passed out to see the entire front end taken apart with Charlie reading a manual. Robbie and Randy were taking apart the engine and Cody was looking at his laptop that was hooked up to her car.

  That was one time, Kristi didn’t protest. She just hoped they could put it back together. Cody threw her his keys, so she could get to work. Holding the keys, Kristi had watched the four working and remembered how none of them slept more than a few hours a day.

  Pulling into the driveway that afternoon, Kristi saw the Suburban she was currently driving, sitting in the driveway. When Kristi got out of Cody’s Camaro, Charlie had walked over and handed her the keys. “You will drive this until we fix your car,” Charlie had told her with his scarred face in a scowl. “Why Wheat wanted a beamer beats the hell out of me, but you have to have one American ride here.” Wisely, Kristi had kept her mouth shut and the boys had her BMW back together the next day.

  When Kristi had tried to give the keys to the Suburban back, Robbie had looked at her with a grin. “Mom and Pop bought that for you. YOU can tell them YOU don’t want it,” Robbie had told her.

  “What are you smiling about, Momma?” Clark asked, looking over and breaking the memory.

  Turning to look at Clark, Kristi’s smile turned into a grin. “Oh, just that I love this weird family we have,” she answered, slowing for a turn. The kids knew what she meant.

  “We have the best family ever!” Emily cheered, throwing up her arms.

  Turning her head back to the front, Kristi nodded and mumbled, “We’re just missing one.”

  Slowing down, Kristi drove around a small knoll and into the camp area. It was twenty acres set in an oxbow. A large double wide that served as a clubhouse sat in the center of eight manufactured buildings, the type seen on construction sites. They all ranged in size with each
person having their own, and Kristi’s being the largest.

  On that, Kristi had thrown a fit and it’d been a good one. So good, the boys almost hauled the large building out just so Kristi would shut the hell up, but luckily, Mom and Pop had showed up. That was the one and only time, Kristi had argued with Mom and Pop. It took an hour, but Kristi had finally let it go because it turned out, Mom had forgotten more about bitching than Kristi would ever know, even if Kristi lived two lifetimes.

  Each building had a small bathroom, living room with a kitchenette, and bedroom. The boys each had an extra room in theirs and used it to store equipment and reloading supplies. Behind each of the buildings everyone called cabins, sat at least one forty-foot shipping container. This was where everyone stored ATVs, ammo, and put their gun safes because the containers were harder to get into than the buildings.

  The retreat had never been bothered, but it just felt safer to leave the expensive stuff more secure. Randy did come down every few days just to check and they had wireless game cameras everywhere that Cody had put up. It wasn’t until last year that Kristi had found out, when Cody was staying with her to take the kids to their ball practice, that he could get on his laptop and check the cameras.

  Pulling around the clubhouse, Kristi sucked in a breath as Emily let out another cheer. Randy, Robbie, Cody, and Charlie were standing around a new four-wheeler that had a big red bow on it. “Is that mine?!” Emily screamed.

  “I’m going to kill them,” Kristi mumbled. Seeing movement out of the corner of her eye, she turned to see Mom and Pop walking over to the boys. “Later, after Mom and Pop go to bed,” Kristi amended.

  The SUV was barely stopped before Emily jumped out in a dead run. Randy kneeled, holding his arms open. “Uncle Randy!” Emily cheered, running at him. She hit him hard, wrapping her arms around his neck.

  “Hope you like it, tadpole,” Randy said, squeezing her tight. “They didn’t have one in pink, so you had to get Mossy Oak like everyone else’s.”

  Emily kissed his cheek and let him go and charged Cody who caught her in a hug. “I love it!” she said and kissed Cody’s cheek. Cody put her down and Emily ran at Charlie. “Uncle Charlie, thank you!”

  Charlie picked her up, hugging her as Clark got out and ran over to hug Randy. “Mom’s mad,” Clark whispered.

  “That’s why Granny and Grandpa are here,” Randy whispered back, letting Clark go. As Clark ran to Cody and Emily charged Robbie, Randy turned to see Kristi get out. Standing up straight and poking his chest out, “I can outrun you, so bring it on,” he challenged.

  Crossing her arms over her chest, Kristi started tapping her foot as Robbie put Emily down. “Which one of you bought it?” Kristi asked with an icy stare. Randy pointed at Cody and Cody pointed at Charlie and Charlie pointed at Robbie who pointed at Randy. Knowing that each had chipped in like they’d done for the swimming pool, Kristi bit her bottom lip to stop the words she wanted to come out.

  Emily stepped back as the four pointed at each other and turned to look at her mom, then at the four-wheeler. “Moooooom, come on. You have one and Clark has one,” Emily moaned.

  “Yeah, that we didn’t buy,” Kristi snapped, staring at the four still pointing at each other.

  “Kristi, you hush now,” Lena said, but all present interpreted it as a command. Walking over, Lena put her arm over Kristi’s shoulders. “The boys think she needs her own. They bought Clark one last year and Emily has driven every person’s four-wheeler out here. She’s safe, so you let the boys pamper those kids.”

  “Pamper?” Kristi cried out, dropping her arms and turning to Lena. “How about spoil?”

  “Hush,” Lena said, smiling. “It won’t be long until Emily starts having boyfriends and stuff-"

  “Boyfriend?!” Robbie, Randy, Charlie, and Cody shouted and charged over at Kristi. Turning to the shouts, Kristi saw each one had a very hostile expression on their face as they stormed over. Not liking the way they were coming over, Kristi moved behind Lena who promptly got the hell out of the way.

  “You let her have a boyfriend?!” Randy barked with his face turning purple.

  “Who the hell is this little butt-wipe?!” Robbie snarled, pulled a knife, and tested the edge with his thumb. “I know how to cure this,” he mumbled.

  Cody got in Kristi’s face. “Where is he planning on going to college?!”

  Shoving Cody out of the way, Charlie got in Kristi’s face. “Who are his parents?!”

  Looking from Charlie’s face to the others, Kristi tried to swallow but her throat was too dry. “She doesn’t have one yet,” Kristi said rather timidly.

  The four glared at her, then turned to Emily. “You have a boyfriend?” Charlie asked.

  “Ewww,” Emily cried out, shaking her hands. “Boys have cooties.”

  “That’s right and don’t you forget it,” Cody said, walking over to her. “Granny and Grandpa got you a helmet.”

  “Granny, Papaw, thank you!” Emily cried out and ran over to them.

  Kristi took a step back and Charlie whipped his head around, looking at her. “We are going to talk about this later,” he almost growled. “Boyfriend, indeed,” he huffed and lifted his chin high, strolling off.

  The others moved over as Emily climbed on her four-wheeler. “I’m sorry, baby, but your future dates are going to have hell, going through four who see you as their daughter,” Kristi said, shaking her head.

  “Oliver sees her as his grandchild, so don’t leave him out,” Lena chuckled.

  “I thought they were about to spank me,” Kristi exhaled with relief.

  Seeing Kristi as her daughter, Lena smiled and patted her back. “If it would’ve been true, I’m sure they would have.”

  Giving a big sigh, “Mom, I don’t like the boys always buying them stuff. Hell, they are always doing something for us,” Kristi moaned as Emily started the engine. “What about Aaron’s kids? They might get jealous.”

  “I doubt it, but they are only six and nine. And the boys buy stuff for them too,” Lena said as Emily took off.

  “Not like they do for Clark and Emily. Hell, or me, for that matter. Do you know Clark’s and Emily’s college is almost paid for?”

  With a sigh, Lena grabbed Kristi’s shoulder and spun Kristi to face her. “They see Clark and Emily as theirs, so you have to deal with that. Yes, I know about the college fund, Oliver and I put in what we could. They see you as a little sister,” Lena explained, with a stern face. “Oliver and I see all of you as ours, so you let the boys and us have our fun. It makes us happy.”

  Wrapping her arms around Lena’s neck, “I love you, Mom,” Kristi wept as tears ran down her cheeks.

  “We love you too, dear,” Lena said, patting her back as she hugged her tight. “Now, don’t be mad at Oliver because he bought the kids new saddles.”

  Feeling her legs go numb, Kristi leaned back and looked at Lena in shock. “He just bought them some last year,” Kristi mumbled.

  “Those were used. Oliver said they needed new ones, and the tack needed to be replaced anyway. Now the saddles and riding gear all match!” Lena claimed, patting Kristi’s cheek. “I’m going to start some supper.”

  As Lena walked away, Kristi looked up. “They aren’t you, Frank, but they are the closest thing, baby. Thank you.”

  Chapter Ten

  Retreat

  “So anyway,” Charlie began, sitting on his four-wheeler and watching the kids cutting back and forth on the trail. “I haven’t heard anything more about what happened at the federal courthouse, but it was weird.”

  “Define ‘weird’ when it comes to the Feds, man. Maybe it has something to do with the President’s immigration reforms. Or some other garbage he’s spouting. This guy makes Obama look like Reagan,” Cody said, leaning back on his four-wheeler.

  Robbie gave Charlie a shrug. He was not really following what his legal eagle friend was talking about today, but he wasn’t exactly a fan of the new guy in the White House. Randy, though, l
ooked perplexed before he spoke up.

  “I don’t know, guys. Doesn’t sound like anything I’ve ever heard of. Maybe some kind of security briefing, about some terrorist threat to the judiciary? Cody, you see anything with your buddies online?” Randy asked.

  Cody looked off in the distance, and for someone who didn’t know him, the younger man might have appeared to have missed the question. All three knew that expression when it came to Babyface. He was checking his memory banks, as Robbie called it.

  “No, nothing legit,” Cody finally said. “A few of the fringe folks are honking their horns about some United Nations school we have going at some of our bases, but heck, we’ve been running some of those classes for years. All it takes is one Belgian paratrooper to wear his blue helmet for a photo op, and metaphorical tongues start wagging. A few years back, a trainload of armored vehicles were loaded on a rail line, and the internet blew up with all sorts of conspiracy theories.”

  They all nodded at that idea. Cody still made fun of the rumor spreading through West Virginia several years ago over social media about how the Federal government was mobilizing to take over their local gas stations. This had come in the wake of a gasoline pipeline breaking, depriving the area of fuel shipments for a few days. It had all begun with some black ‘military vehicles’ being photographed in the parking lot of a Hampton Inn in Beckley, West Virginia.

  The posts had gone viral on Facebook and had gotten hundreds of thousands of views before someone, Cody couldn’t remember who, announced the teams were actually there to attend a three-day course at a nearby military reservation. Happened every year, but this time, they had pictures and a story made up to fit the local concerns, and the rumor mill had done the rest.

  “I don’t know,” Charlie continued. “My friend who was there was pretty upset by what she saw. Said she felt ‘menaced’ by the Men in Black.”

  “Oh,” Robbie piped up. “Now it all makes sense, gentlemen. This is about Book chasing some tail. Is she hot? I’ll bet she’s hot. And dirty, too. Is she a beast in the sheets, my man?”