“Not bad. Once I strangle you, I can fuck your mouth, since your head is at the right angle,” he smiled.
He went to check a knock at the door.
“Yes, what is it? I’m busy here…” he got out, before Michelle slammed him in the face.
He went down hard, hitting his head on the cement floor. Blood immediately began seeping out of a cut on his forehead.
“You are mine!” Michelle said, as she closed the distance to my chair.
She pulled out a knife, and slashed the tape, freeing me.
I rubbed my sore wrists, and looked for an escape.
“This is for the Frenchman, you bitch!” she yelled, and ran at me.
I dodge her, swinging to the side, as she runs past, and I trip her.
She sails headlong into a bunch of crates, and I run out the door, into the aisle.
I see an exit, and just as I am about to go through it, I feel Thumper and Stinger trying to Meld with me!
—————
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
THUMPER
David-Keith and I move to the building where we know Bea is being held captive.
Members of the Alpha Team are firing at Mandarin operatives, and we keep crouched low.
“Keep your heads down, idiots!” shouts Al.
I can see Bea is in a doorway, coming out of the building.
Michelle is in there, I know it!
I hope we’re in time to save Bea.
Because, so far, everything I saw in my vision is coming true…
—————
“Bea’s in that warehouse, there!” I hiss.
Stinger looks at me as though I am retarded.
“Duh. We both had the same vision, dumbass!” he says, and smacks the back of my head.
“Hey! Watch the hair!” I whisper.
We radio the Alpha Team our location, and I see Randy and Travis off to one side.
As I scan past them, I see Bea, running out the door of the warehouse.
“Bea! Get down!” Stinger shouts.
She sees us, and runs right toward our position.
“Get down!” Travis rumbles.
Gunshots ring out, and Randy curses, firing back at the Mandarin operators.
Bullets whiz and ricochet past our heads.
“Stay down, boys!” I hear over Travis’ radio.
It’s the Admiral.
“Om is on the way there!” he says.
Over in the background, behind a fence, I see two men, watching us like hawks.
It’s those State Troopers who don’t exist.
“Hey! Those two guys! Over there! Those are the missing troopers!” I yell, trying to catch the attention of Randy, or anybody.
Suddenly, I notice them aiming a long tube in our direction.
“Incoming!” I shout.
Stinger hugs the ground, and I am just moving to duck when the world explodes.
—————
BEA
Thumper is suddenly enclosed in a huge cloud of fire and smoke.
I run to him, my heart in my throat!
Is he dead?
I run to his prostrate body, all smudged and dark.
Is he breathing?
I can’t feel him, even though I can see him right in front of me!
“Thumper! David Keith! David! Wake up!” I cry.
My tears fall on his face, but he doesn’t move.
I feel my heart breaking, and now I know the choice that I have been avoiding has been made for me.
I weep for my dead love…
Who suddenly coughs and farts and is sitting up, blinking.
“What happened? Did you get those two fuckwads?” he asks.
I kiss him, full on the mouth, and then smack his shoulder, hard.
“Ouch! What the hell, Bea!” he protests.
“That’s for making me think you were dead, you asshole!” I shout, then I kiss him and knock him to the ground hugging him for dear life.
I don’t notice Stinger, who has been watching this the entire time.
When I turn, I see his face.
He smiles, sadly, and so do I, in return.
It was just not meant to be…
—————
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
STINGER
Well, that pretty much wraps it up for my fantasy of being Bea’s forever.
I am glad it’s Thumper, though. He’s definitely better for her than me.
Although, trying to convince my heart and head of that is going to take a while.
Like the rest of my life, probably.
“Where did you say you saw Michelle, Bea?” I ask.
She lifts her mouth from Thumper’s for a moment.
“She’s in the back room. What’s the hurry?” she asks.
“She killed my mom,” I answer.
—————
BEA
If Stinger thinks he’s going to kill Michelle all by his lonesome, he’s got another think coming!
I rise up from Thumper’s ‘corpse’ and run to catch up to Stinger.
That bastard! Pretending to be dead! I’ll get him later on!
“What do you think we should do? Won’t the others…” I start.
“It’s personal, Bea. Stay back if you want, but I’ll be damned if she leaves this place alive. After what she and the Frenchman did to you, to Mom and Dad? Fuck that noise!” he seethed.
I wasn’t going to argue with him.
“Stinger, are you okay? About me and …” I started.
“Look, Bea. I love you. I always will. But, you and Thumper, you deserve the best. You both do. I won’t stand between that!” he said, firmly.
“But, maybe the three of us?” I suggested.
I turned.
“Remember what we promised each other? Truth, honesty? Can you honestly tell me you love me more than him? Or even the same? You know you can’t. So, that’s that! It’s okay! I want you both to be happy, and this settles it,” he said.
“Meld with me,” I begged.
He grabbed my hand. The vision was back. It was the same one.
“Okay. Okay, Stinger. You win. I still see it,” I whispered.
“No, Bea. We all win, this way. You know it. I know it, and Thumper does as well. It just won’t work forever, with three. It will with two, for a while. And, then…” he trailed off.
His eyes sparkled with tears, and my own were flowing down my cheeks.
“I’m sorry, Bea. I really am. But, it’s fate. It’s Destiny. Fuck it, but there’s no more to say about it,” Stinger said, sadly.
Then, he walked over towards the place we both knew Death awaited.
And Death’s name was Michelle…
—————
THUMPER
I see Bea and Stinger walking away from me, towards the warehouse.
I know, like they do, that Michelle is waiting for them. She has grenades, and a machine gun.
Stinger goes first, into the doorway.
Bea follows her closely.
I try to meld, and I find I am with Bea. Stinger is over there, attached but not to me. Only to Bea.
Why?
Suddenly, they come upon Michelle, who is holding the gun. She aims it at Bea, but Stinger tackles her, and yanks the grenades from her hands.
She gives him a roundhouse kick.
Stinger goes flying out of the room, staggered by the blow.
Bea smacks Michelle’s head, hard, with a pipe she found on the ground.
Michelle is bleeding from her lips, and licks the blood from her teeth.
Then, she aims the machine gun at Bea, and pulls the trigger.
But Bea has pulled the pin on a grenade…
I can see the explosion from the inside and outside at the same time!
I run towards it, screaming for Bea!
—————
BEA
Michelle has me in her sights, I can tell. I feel it!
But I pull the
pin on the grenade and toss it in her direction.
I see her eyes get all squinty and angry as she pulls her trigger, and I feel a bunch of little punches in my midsection, and then the grenade goes off, and I am falling, and she is gone…
—————
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
STINGER
What just fucking happened?
My ears are ringing.
I can see blood everywhere on my body, but when I blink it’s gone!
Where’s Bea?
Where’s Thumper?
Why can’t I see straight?
Suddenly, I am no longer Melded with my stepsister, only with Thumper.
“Bea! Bea!” he yells, and I see him cradling her broken body, tears streaming down his cheeks, and that is when I realize that it is not for me that she was crying, but for him.
—————
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
BEA
I am floating in a pool of white milk.
Rose petals are falling from the sky onto my naked body.
I am above myself, looking down.
The petals land on my bare skin, and I feel them burn.
Then, all is silent, and the blackness closes in on me, forever…
—————
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
BEA
I come back to reality, my Dad sipping his tea.
“We thought we’d lost you, Honeybee,” he says.
I groan, some pain in my side, and chest.
“What happened?” I moan.
“Maybe that can wait until later?” he replies, his voice tinged with regret and concern.
“What happened!” I insist.
Thumper and Stinger are sitting next to my bed, and I flashback to that horrible day when Frank and my mother were killed.
Oh, no! Did I pass out and dream all of that Mandarin stuff?
“Bea, you were shot about six times…” Thumper begins.
Stinger hits his shoulder, hard.
“Hey! Ouch! What the hell, man?” he shouts, obviously in pain.
“You big dummy! Dad was going to tell her, just not right now!” Stinger hisses.
—————
No one found Michelle’s body.
I would have sworn the grenade went off in her face – that bitch!
And, it should have blown her head clean off.
But, somehow, she had escaped.
I worried about that for a long while, until my father assured me it was pointless.
I didn’t consider that Om and the rest of the Alpha Team probably knew what had happened to her, but I am sure they had some way to keep tabs on her.
The two ‘troopers’ also disappeared without a trace.
Derek let me know it wasn’t the first time these two had been involved in nefarious goings-on with Mandarin. And, it wasn’t likely to be the last…
—————
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
STINGER
According to Admiral Decker, the Witness Protection Program isn’t the proper department to deal with what he has in mind.
David Keith and I are to be given new identities, and train alongside Alpha Team.
Bea is also going to be assigned a completely new life.
I am going to miss the farm, but with the dangers of the Mandarin Connection, it’s for the best.
For all of us.
And, I have managed to reconcile my feelings about Bea.
It’s obvious she and Thumper, I mean ‘Randall,’ are meant to be.
He’s told me he was offered a commissioned officer position and then be assigned to Alpha Team formally, but he needs to get a degree first.
He said he’s thinking about a major in Anthropology, with a minor in Native American studies.
And then, if all works out, he’s going to law school!
Who could have guessed that?
My brother, an Esquire!
It’s okay.
I will be fine.
Tomorrow, I’ll be starting my training with Alpha Team.
I hear it’s a grueling schedule, with a lot of PT and firearms instruction.
Dad and I were discussing it the other evening, with Admiral Decker.
It’s funny, I never really liked the idea of smoking or drinking.
But, sitting there with him and The Old Man, (as they call Admiral Decker), I was compelled to ‘fit in’.
So, I tried a sip of that Maker’s Mark stuff they were drinking.
I about gagged.
So, I added some Pepsi to it.
It tasted much better, but the two men looked wounded when I diluted their favorite booze with sugar water.
Oh, well…
Fuck ‘em!
Now, I just have to get used to being called ‘Kevin Mitchum.’
—————
EPILOGUE – Thirteen Years Later
I stand by the grave of my sister, Bea.
She and ‘Randall’ had a decent run, I guess. And, after all, it wasn’t like a surprise.
Not really. Not after that day, so very long ago, when the three of us were as one.
David Keith finished his degrees, and got his JD, and passed the bar, and then moved to Wyoming.
They had married shortly after he had been accepted to law school.
Her illness came only a few short months ago, like a thief in the night.
It had robbed her of all of her strength, suddenly.
And then, she was gone.
I know they loved each other totally.
I could still Meld with him, you see?
It was something that Decker and the others hadn’t foreseen.
We never figured out why, either. Om had no ideas…
But, after Bea had passed, David and I rarely bothered to Meld.
It seemed pointless…
Until this past week, when I sensed he was in trouble.
Then, I could see him.
He was in Indian Wells. With this girl, Kim Wilder, and her stepbrother, Brian Cox.
And, I knew there was trouble…
I’m coming, Brother.
Stinger and Thumper are going to run the ball one last time!
—————
EPILOGUE II – Some Time Later
“Well, I see you have made yet another inglorious fuckup, my brother!” said Walter Reighland.
Harlon Carter shook with fear.
His brother was the only person in the world he feared.
And, with good reason.
“We meet at Ocaba Bien in four days, and you bring this to the Mandarins? What use are you to me, now?” Walter Reighland seethed.
Harlon felt the waves of hatred engulf him, once more, and he fought them with all his might. He needed to remain calm. He needed for Walter to see him as a man. As an equal.
“My men, Bruce and Bart, are out at Indian Wells, overseeing the uranium operation!” he whined.
“Pfft! What of it? There are no Alpha Team members there that we have detected!” Walter sneered.
“They are all busy with the DEA out in the Caribbean! Chasing drug dealers! The fools!” he continued.
Your hubris always was your weakest point, thought Harlon.
Thumper (The Mandarin Connection Book 8) Page 7