“Fine. Go on then…get your revenge. Take it if you must. As I’ve said before to you, child…do your worst.”
Lauren gritted her teeth. She was gripping the Beretta with such force that she could feel the sweat of her palms wring out between her fingers. “The worst is coming. I lost friends today because of you.”
The bald man laughed through his nostrils. “I am sorry to hear that, child. But it appears…so have I.”
“You should’ve picked better friends.” Lauren paused for a second. “I know why you chose to call me Cordelia. You had me imprisoned and wanted to hang me. And had things gone the way you’d intended, you would’ve been right. Prophesy fulfilled.”
“Oh? Quite the confession, child. Yet the clock still ticks.”
Lauren shuffle stepped to the side, making sure to keep a safe distance. “Cordelia and I have something else in common. There’s a part in the play where she admits being deliberate with her actions, but not so much with her words. I take it you know the part.”
“Heh—act one, scene one, page ten. So many similarities—both your lives being so tragic in essence. It must pain you to quantify that,” he hissed. “I myself have been primarily the opposite for the majority of my life. My words have always held more clout than my actions, until recently, ever since my absolution.”
“I get it,” Lauren said. “Not everyone is capable of standing alone. Some of us need to hide behind other people and use them to fight our battles for us. Like you, for instance. You relied on Gus’s small brainpan…his size and inclination to hurt people and take lives without exclusion.” A pause. “That interdependence is finished, as of today.”
“Oh? And why is that?”
“Gus is no longer with us. I had him put to sleep. For good.”
A long pause. “Is…that so? Well, wicked one, if such is the case, you leave me with little options left over from which to choose.” His body began to tremble. “I warned you…I warned you, before…that I wasn’t in my…perfect mind.”
In a flash, the baldheaded man turned, shouted, and charged at Lauren while screaming improprieties in prose.
Lauren gasped and reacted, backing away at the onset of his advance. She fired two succinct shots, one striking him in the clavicle, the other hitting him dead center mass. He shrieked in agony upon feeling the impact of the blazing hot copper-jacketed rounds piercing his skin, but the slugs failed to stop him.
Lauren fired several more times, and the shots went wild just as he ran into her. His strength, fueled by uninhibited rage, was enough to force her to the concrete floor beneath him. In seconds, his wiry hands found their way to Lauren’s neck, and he began choking her.
She tried angling the Beretta between his body and hers for a point-blank shot to his midsection, but the suppressor’s added length was preventing her from getting a clean shot. Lauren soon tossed the M9 away and shoved both her hands upward into Sir William’s chin, attempting to force him off her, but it was no use. He was latched on to her now with the ferocity and crushing pressure of a snapping turtle, and he had no intention of letting loose.
“And never lose track of this blade,” Woo Tang had said.
Lauren felt for the KA-BAR, relieved to find it was still there. Her helmet and NVDs now only a hindrance to her, she had been forced into a position where she needed to fight her attacker off without seeing him, and she could feel time was quickly running out for her. The leader’s grip was so strong now, she couldn’t utter a sound even if she tried.
As she extracted the knife and maneuvered it in her hand, preparing to shove it deep within her attacker’s midsection, his grip on her neck went loose, and his body was jerked off her and violently away into the shadows.
Lauren gulped air, now able to inhale a breath. She reached for her helmet’s chin strap and removed it, tossing it free from her head, then sat up and slid herself backward on her rear to gain distance from the attack. She could hear a vicious scuffle between two combatants occurring directly in front of her, but the room was completely devoid of light, preventing her from seeing anything.
She traded hands with the knife and reached for her flashlight, clicking it on with a button press. The beam projected outward, casting a shadow of both men on the adjacent wall, in time to see Woo Tang draw back his jingum and run it through the leader’s chest. He pushed hard, forcing it in all the way to the handguard, then twisted it, perforating the bald man’s heart and lungs.
The man winced and squealed in pain while trying to fight off Woo Tang’s unyielding strength, attempting to extricate the sword from his body. But his struggles were fruitless. As blood seeped from his wounds, the leader, his face glazed with agony, turned to face Lauren. He smiled at her grimly, then uttered several inaudible words with what little breath he had left. Then, dramatically, he closed his eyes, let out a final breath, and slithered to the concrete.
Woo Tang held both hands tightly on his jingum’s handle and allowed it to glide from the man’s chest. He snapped his NVDs upright while keeping his eyes fixed on his most recently cancelled enemy, then removed the glove from his right hand, sliding the blade between his thumb and index finger to expunge the blood and polish the blade. He wiped his fingers on his pants before returning the jingum gracefully to its scabbard.
He turned to Lauren. “Sorry I am late. I promise it will not happen again.” He bolted to her, reaching for her hand, and pulled her to her feet. “Are you hurt in any way?”
Lauren shook her head and started rubbing the soreness in her neck and throat. “No, I’m good. You got here just in time. I was about ready to kill him myself.” She held the KA-BAR knife aloft as proof that she had only been seconds away from using it.
Woo Tang smirked at her. “That is…comforting.” He gestured to the bald man bleeding out on the floor. “If it makes you feel better, you can kill him again, if you prefer. I promise I will not tell anyone.”
Lauren hung her head a moment and shook it in the negative. “I think you killed him enough for today.” She sheathed the KA-BAR and reached for Woo Tang, embracing him. “I owe you.”
“Call us even. This battle is over now, Lauren Russell. Same as many others before it. As such, you and I should take our leave of this place.”
Lauren pulled away from him and smiled, taking one last look around before retrieving her helmet and the Beretta M9 from the floor. “I’m right behind you.”
Chapter 30
When Daniel and Lily saw Lauren drawing closer, they abandoned the other children and sprinted to her with arms wide open.
Lauren barely had time to prepare herself for the tackle, much less the hugs. She knelt just as Lily ran into her and nuzzled her face into Lauren’s chest. Overlapping his sister, Daniel put his arms as far as they would go around Lauren’s neck while his sister simpered and cried out in joy.
“I knew you’d come back,” Daniel said, pulling away with an enquiring look on his face. “Did you…”
Lauren nodded. “We got him,” she said, and gave Lily a squeeze. She palmed Daniel’s shoulder. “You don’t have to worry about him anymore.”
Lily bounced up and down with excitement. Reaching for her brother, she mouthed something into his ear again.
“Okay, I’ll tell her,” Daniel said, gently pushing her away. “Lily says it’s okay that you’re not really a superhero, because you still look like one.”
Lauren smiled graciously. “Thank you, Lily. After the day I’ve had, that means a lot to me.”
Lily pressed her lips to her brother’s ear again.
“Why can’t you just tell her? Sheesh,” Daniel griped, then pushed her off his ear, rolling his eyes. “She says she knows what superheroes look like. She says she’s seen them in real life before.”
Lauren beamed. “I’ll try my best to live up to the crusader standard. No guarantees, though.” She reached for the siblings, pulling them in for another round of hugs just in time to see Dave Graham on the approach. “Listen, do me a favo
r and run along for a little while. I think my boss wants to have a chat with me.”
Once Daniel and Lily moved out of earshot, Dave didn’t waste any time. He moved in and glared at Lauren while rocking on his heels and giving her the most choleric look she’d ever seen. Then he muttered her name, “Janey…”
“Dave…”
A brief pause while he scanned her with sour eyes. “It’s a shame about Tang’s men. It goes without saying, they’ll be sorely missed. But it also goes without saying, I’m pleased to see the two of you made it out of the suck.” Another pause. “I take it your hostile was dealt with appropriately?”
Lauren nodded, pushing her hair away from her face.
“Very well. I heard some radio chatter ’bout a minute into the second wave…some lunatic friendly was hightailing it through the middle of the kill zone with an IR ChemLight flopping around on her back,” he griped, his tone flooded with torment. “A couple of the men said they thought it looked an awful lot like you. I didn’t want to believe it at first, so I had a chitchat with your spotter. It’s since been confirmed.” Dave positioned himself toe-to-toe with her. “Listen, I can’t have any rogue elements in my unit. Everyone here has a job and a responsibility to themselves and to each other, meaning we work together or not at all, do you copy? What you did was idiotic and could’ve easily gotten you killed.”
“I know, and I’m sorry, but—”
“No buts, no excuses,” he interrupted. “You’re one of the smartest young people I’ve ever met. Damn intelligent. I’ve always known you to be very bold and deliberate, capable of amazing things…but also capable of making some very imprudent decisions. The one you made today almost won you the gold medal in that category.” Dave crossed his arms and leaned in. “It’s probably the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen or heard anyone do. But in all fairness, it was also one of the bravest.”
Lauren went slack-jawed. “What?”
Dave backed away with a strange contented smirk stretching across his face. “You heard me,” he said. “I suppose it’s pointless to be miffed with you. Had I been in your position, I would’ve been conflicted…and had a real hard time holding back from doing the same.” He pointed to the children being cared for by his men. “This is what it’s all about, Janey. This generation. Back before the world fell to pieces, they were already a posterity of lost souls and broken homes with no sense of family. Many of them impoverished, most of them undereducated, with parents too busy to worry about them, raise them properly, or even show them the love they deserve. Too much work to do, too many bills to pay, and too much of life’s complications to deal with…and far too little time at home. It’s a misplaced generation of forsaken young hearts left to fend for themselves. If they were lucky enough to make it out of their mother’s womb, they were raised by the state, not by the two loving parental units who should’ve been there.” He paused. “And now whatever semblance of the life they once had is gone, torn to shreds. It’s a shame.”
Lauren watched the children contemplatively. After a moment, and grasping just how much she had in common with them, she nodded. “You’re right, it is.”
Dave put all his weight on one heel and settled back into his stance. He folded his arms, his expression softening as he fell into a rare state of reflection. Lowering his head, he tilted the brim of his boonie hat in parallel with the ground. “I never really knew either of my parents. My father died when I was little, and my mother left us not long before that. They got married too young…about a year before my dad left for war. Vietnam was primed and ready to shift into high gear, and when he signed his enlistment papers, my mother couldn’t hack it. She loved the partying life too much and ran off on him, only to come back when he got sent home, hoping he had some sort of bankroll to offer her. A few years, a couple of separations, and about a thousand fights later, she left him. But not after making a couple of babies, both of whom were left for my grandmother to raise.”
“I never knew that,” Lauren said.
“It’s not common knowledge. And Kim might not want you knowing all this, so kindly exercise some statutory OPSEC,” Dave said, then continued. “Our grandmother was a tough old gal. Hard as nails. A real survivor. And my grandfather was a West Point grad. I remember seeing the framed black-and-white pictures of him in uniform on the wall in their hallway. He got his captain’s bars not long after he graduated, and he served in the Second World War and portions of Korea before he retired. He died not long after of some nasty disease, and I never got a chance to know him, but I’ve heard plenty of stories. I was told he was an honorable man. He loved his country and always made an effort to do right by others. He lived by a code, you see, and my dad wanted to be just like him.” Dave peered over. “You can stop me anytime if I’m boring you.”
“You’ve never told me anything about your past before,” Lauren said. “You’re not boring me at all.”
Dave nodded approval. “My father nose-dived into the infantry just in time to experience the battle of Khe Sanh under Westmoreland in sixty-eight. Over seventy-seven days of complete fuckery just to protect some half-destroyed munitions base. Tet came about ten days later after Keh Sanh was hit, and the Viet Cong coordinated attacks on a hundred cities in South Vietnam, catching us with our pants down around our ankles.” Dave paused. “Anyway, his platoon got pinned down pretty bad, and he had to fight his way out of a losing battle, but he rescued two fellow infantrymen in the process. He was christened a hero, sent home with a Purple Heart and a MOH, but it cost him…both of his legs. My mother didn’t exactly provide him much support when he got back. She was always coming and going, and she vanished into thin air not long after Kim was born.
“Coming home from the war wasn’t easy for any soldier back then, wounded or otherwise, and my dad was no different. My grandma used to tell me he’d cry a lot and talk to her sometimes about the things he’d seen and heard, the atrocities and such. She told me that saving those men was the only force keeping his pride intact. They were his brothers, and a selfless act tends to benefit a man’s sense of dignity.
“Things changed rather drastically for him…when one of them died as a result of a malignant brain tumor. About a year later, the other got killed in a car crash, hit head-on by a drunk driver. After that, my dad just sort of lost himself. He hung on for as long as he could, came home to a disjointed country that hated him and despised what we were doing in southeast Asia, mostly due to misunderstandings and the war’s overall lack of popularity. He got shit on by so-called peaceful protestors and labeled a baby killer, amongst other things. You’ve probably seen movies or documentaries about it, so you can imagine what it looked like. I know I have, only, I just can’t imagine…how it must’ve felt.
“When my mother left, he found comfort in drugs and the bottle and wound up drinking himself to death. I don’t know for certain, but he must’ve felt completely abandoned, by his wife, and by his country. And I imagine that was pretty damn hard to swallow. He was a man of honor, like my grandfather before him, regardless of his faults.”
Dave took in a deep breath. “Sure as I stand here today, my father was a hero. He saved two men’s lives in spite of himself, and he always tried to do what was right, even when he didn’t know what the right move was. When in doubt, he followed that little voice inside him. He followed his heart, Janey. The same way you do.” He paused, smiling at her. “Take some pride. You did good today, and I think you found your fight. You found something worth fighting for…like this country, and the republic for which it stands. Or maybe it’s just for the ones who can’t fight, like those children over there.”
Lauren smiled and nodded as her eyes welled up. “Or maybe it’s all of the above.”
“Could be,” Dave said. “I heard someone say before that every man in this world has to die, but not every man ever truly lives. Take a good look around you…this is why we bleed. This is why we fight. Without these kids and this generation, there is no country, there’s no repu
blic—no future worth fighting for. This is our future, and I’m investing in it with my life.” Dave stepped closer to her and lifted Lauren’s chin with his hand. “Seems to me you’ve made the decision to do the same.”
Lauren nodded her head shamefully. “I’ve been so selfish,” she said. “Ever since all this started, all I’ve been concerning myself with has been me…my family, and my world. I never gave any thought to anyone else or how others were being affected outside those boundaries, much less these kids. But now I know why I had to go with you. I know why I’m here, and I know why this had to happen. This…is what’s left of my world. I have to do whatever I can to rebuild it.”
Dave nodded. “It’s our world—yours, mine, and theirs. You’re not alone, kid. I know you were there for a while, and you probably still feel like it sometimes, but you’re not anymore. You have a new, very well-armed, well-trained extended family now.”
“It feels so good to hear you say that.”
Dave moved several steps away, digging the toes of his boots into the ground as he walked. “Just don’t go forgetting it anytime soon.” He paused. “So…any idea where you want to go from here? Think it’s time to head home?”
Without hesitation, Lauren shook her head and glared at him. “No way. We still have a lot of work to do.”
Dave smiled. “Roger that. My back hurts just thinking about it.”
Lauren ruminated a moment, then gestured to the children. “What happens to them? If my world is broken, theirs is in shambles. I know we have a place to go when we leave, but where do they go from here?”
“We do what we can for them, Janey. There’s been some happy endings, and as you can imagine, we’ve also seen our share of sad ones. We make every attempt to reunite these kids with their parents, but this isn’t the same world we used to live in, and circumstances have made that an impossibility for quite a lot of them. We reunite the ones we can. And the rest, we find…other options.” Dave paused a moment. “There’s some folks we know, an older couple. Met them when we liberated a small camp over near Franklin. They’re two of the most generous folks I’ve ever met, and they own a large farm out in Pendleton County, right along the Potomac River. It’s a ton of land out there, mostly field, but some forest too. They’ve got livestock, gardens, orchards, you name it.
Divided We Stand (What's Left of My World Book 4) Page 31