Jacob

by Kris Michaels

  What did he see in that woman? Tori shook her head and looked at the ceiling. That answer was way too obvious. Long red hair, smoking hot body, and oh hey…let’s not forget she is petite and beautiful. Designer clothes, shoes, luggage and purse. Impeccable make-up. First class all the way. Not a jean and t-shirt wearing ranch hand, not a damaged intel analyst who still suffered from nightmares and had anxiety attacks. No! God forbid! In a nutshell, Karla oozed everything that Tori wasn’t. He liked Karla. That was obvious. Well…duhhh! He’d given her a key to the house and the code to the alarm.

  Her mind’s whirling stopped with that thought. But when? Earl said she had been with Jacob six months ago. Her first and only date with Jacob was just over four months ago. Okay, so Karla existed before she and Jacob had started a relationship. She chuckled, a sad sounding huff. Well, it would have to be wouldn’t it? Jacob was with her each night since that first evening. Every night and every day, sometimes several times a day. Her face blushed at the memories. Okay. Exes she could deal with. She didn’t like it, but Jacob had never said he was a virgin.

  The door to the exam room opened and a middle-aged woman walked in. Her brown hair was sprinkled with grey, but her pudgy face was smooth. The woman’s personality lit up the room when she smiled radiantly and extended her hand to Tori. “Hi. I’m Doctor Carter.” She held up a metal clipboard and chuckled. “I understand you had a run in with…a key?”

  Tori giggled and nodded her head. “Yep, a key attached to a weighted crystal and silver fob. My husband’s ex-girlfriend decided she wasn’t happy when I asked her to give it back.”

  Doctor Carter’s face went slack as she stared at Tori. “Excuse me?”

  “It’s a long story. I’m newly married. My husband is working overseas, old girlfriend shows up, lets herself into my house. So I asked her to leave. She didn’t like the idea. At all. I think the silver charm attached to the heavy crystal fob was what did the damage. The key itself would’ve been too dull, the cut’s wider, more ragged.”

  Shaking her head in disbelief the doctor sighed. “What are you, a detective?”

  Tori shook her head. “Former federal experience. I currently work for Guardian Security.”

  “And the girlfriend decided to make you an enemy? Well, alright then. Just when I think I’ve heard it all.” Walking to the sink she lathered and scrubbed her hands. “Please take off your shirt and bra. There is a sheet you can cover yourself with. I need to clean the area and see if you need any stitches.”

  Tori complied and wrapped the sheet around her exposing the cut.

  “Go ahead and lay back.” Tori lay back and watched as the doctor thoroughly examined the cut. A frown appeared on the woman’s face.

  “I didn’t think it was that deep. I shouldn’t need stitches should it?” Tori craned her neck to watch the doctor.

  Doctor Carter glanced at Tori and flashed a smile. “No. You don’t need stitches. Two or three butterfly bandages and some antibiotic cream will fix you right up. I am, however, concerned about the lump I palpated when I was examining your cut.”

  Muscles clenched tightly, her breath caught and her stomach dropped as ice cold fear wrapped around her. “A lump? In my breast?”

  The doctor nodded. “Give me your hand.” Tori’s hand shook violently as she lifted it. The doctor placed her finger on the spot and Tori pushed down. A tear trickled down her cheek and ran into her ear. A hard, small, round lump.

  “This wasn’t there last month. I always do self-exams. What does this mean?” Her voice sounded calm, yet her mind was overwhelming her with fear.

  “It is probably a small hematoma from the force of the injury. The trauma could have easily caused a subdural bleed. Of course, it could be a fatty tumor or even a calcium deposit, but it doesn’t have a thick or hard density that would lead me to believe the later. I think we need to be safe and run a few tests. I want you to watch it and if it doesn’t diminish or color as a bruise, call immediately and we’ll do a mammogram and if it’s a concern—a biopsy. As a precaution, I want to do a full blood work-up and a urinalysis. We can get those done tonight and processed over the weekend.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Monday morning’s satellite run and the weekend’s information provided no reliable intelligence. There was something in two of the terrain views, but until the satellite passed again, Tori couldn’t be sure. Knowing she was grasping for anything that could lead her to Jacob she evaluated the pictures. The rocks formed an obscenely large J. Her heart leapt at the possibility, yet the next satellite pass-over of the same location…the rocks could’ve been aligned to make a T, but the shadow of the sun prevented any confirmation. Would Jacob actually use the satellite feed to communicate? To hope for such a miracle would be setting her and everyone else up for major disappointment. The photos were not enough to go on. Not yet. So she waited, and did nothing.

  Tori felt guilty for not going down the hall to see if Jewel needed any help, but she couldn’t find didn’t have the energy to face those problems too. The weight of her life consumed her. Jacob and the rest of the men seemed to have vanished without a trace. All Guardian’s vaunted intelligence gathering resources had produced nothing. Guardian’s inability to find how the original mission data was compromised, or if it actually had been compromised, was a problem of epic proportions. Add on Drake and Dixon and Jason? Well, it was too much. Oh yeah, let’s not forget Jacob’s ex or the lump in her breast. God knew her stress meter was pegged.

  Tori shrugged her shoulders and tried to relax. Relax? Everything stacked on top of her pressed down until she couldn’t breathe. The twisting of fate took the love and joy she had enjoyed briefly and turned it into the hell she lived in now. Relax? Yeah…no.

  The past weekend was a blur. Tori had remained in a stupor for the majority of the day Saturday and didn’t even get dressed on Sunday. Her father had called to let her know he and the twins had arrived home safely. Other than that, she had not spoken to a soul. Nightmares prevented her from sleeping and daily nausea from the inordinate amount of stress had taken its toll. Her clothes were hanging on her—not that she cared.

  The shrill of the phone finally dented her mental vacuum. Tori picked it up, realizing it might have been ringing for some time.

  “Mrs. King?” The woman on the other end of the line sounded familiar, but Tori could not place the voice or the number on the caller ID.

  “Yes.”

  “This is Doctor Carter. I was wondering if you could meet with me? I’ve some results that I need to go over with you, and I’d like to schedule some follow-up appointments.” The doctor’s professional voice was pleasant, but that didn’t help the fear that punched her gut. The lump.

  Tori swallowed to moisten a throat suddenly gone dry. “Is there something wrong? I thought you just needed me to watch the lump. It has a bruise developing around it.”

  “That’s good. No, no…we need to discuss something else entirely. Mrs. King, I’m not calling to cause you any more concern, but I do need you to come down to the hospital to give you the results of your tests. I had a cancellation this afternoon. Could you be here at three?”

  Victoria looked at the satellite schedule. They wouldn’t be over the area of interest until four and the intel wouldn’t be available for analysis until after five. “Yes, yes, I can make it.”

  Now she sat in the physician’s waiting room with the same thirty-minute news run droning in the corner TV. Her eyes slipped closed in exhaustion. A voice broke through the background of the television newscast. “Mrs. King? Doctor Carter will see you now.”

  The rotund Dr. Carter sat behind a white metal desk in an office that looked like a tornado had blown through it. Stacks of paper, books, medical magazines and endless medical samples fell from the tops of the countless paper towers surrounding the chair the doctor sat in. Peering over her huge 1980’s style computer monitor the older woman smiled happily at Victoria and waved towards a chair beside the desk.


  “Oh, Mrs. King! Thank you so much for coming in. I needed to talk to you about your blood tests. Now where is that chart?” The woman shifted several stacks of paper and mumbled to herself.

  Victoria balanced on the edge of the chair clutching the straps of her purse so tight her fingernails dug painfully into her palms. The doctor pulled a metal file out of a stack beside her and flipped the chart open. Adjusting her glasses on her nose, she thumped her pen on the desk reading the results silently. After several minutes, she cleared her throat and looked over the chart as she spoke to Tori. “When we ran the blood panels your quantitative human chorionic gonadotropin or HCG test came back with unusually high levels. Exceptionally high. Quiet a significant indicator especially with the information you gave in your medical history. However, I double checked the results against your urinalysis and the test results were confirmed.”

  Victoria sat motionlessly. Panic wrapped her with staggering force. Her heart rate accelerated abruptly. She had cancer, was going to die, or had some incurable disease. Air failed to fill her lungs. Impossible! No escape! Trapped! Oh God, not an anxiety attack now, please! Get out! Hide! Her gut seized tightly. Blood rushed through her ears in a deafening roar. Black edges slid into her field of vision. The doctor funneled into a pinpoint. She heard, “…measures the specific level of HCG in the blood. HCG is a hormone produced during pregnancy. Congratula…”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Fifty-six days in country. Fifty-four of them had been focused on getting his men healthy enough to move. Chief could make it. His injuries didn’t prevent the exit strategy. But movement wasn’t an option. Doc’s trauma was too damn extensive. Jacob’s eyes searched the rock and shrub covered terrain. Where he lay in the darkness, the craggy, mountainous path provided him cover but blurred and partially obstructed his field of vision. The sounds of the night played soft and gentle, the serene sounds at odds with their dire circumstances. Doc moaned behind him. He was getting worse. He would die if they didn’t get out of this God-forsaken land. All of them were in poor shape. Five men living off the emergency rations intended for one had left them weakened. The damned patrols that scoured the area hunted with a tenaciousness that was eerily unsettling. Jacob knew his enemy. This search was not orchestrated by the local militia. ISIS was funding and directing this search and destroy effort.

  A small sound, a rock shifting, brought his attention back to the terrain. Chief low-crawled next to him and focused on the landscape.

  “Any sign?” The whispered question was so silent Jacob was unsure the man had actually spoken.

  He shook his head slowly and signed. Last signal. Joseph left two markers. When third hits satellites should get a response. No response, we get out of here. Doc won’t last.

  Chief’s hands answered. The movement almost indistinguishable in the moonlight. His eye… gone. Infection killing him. I carry him out. You get brothers safe.

  Jacob looked at his friend. I carry Doc. We all brothers.

  Chief huffed, the indignant sound the only thing disturbing the night.

  Fucked up. You shouldn’t be here. Be home with wife.

  Bullshit. You did what trained to do. Jacob knew how the man felt, but he couldn’t allow any of them to wallow in regret.

  Jacob worried the most about Adam. Initially, Doc responded to rest and the small amounts of antibiotics they had in the emergency packs. Holing up until he became stronger had been the best option. Now? They had to get out. The trauma to the man’s head and face were beyond their field expertise. They had tried. God knew they had tried. His left eye? Gone. The human eye shouldn’t be opaque white. The man languished in and out of consciousness. When coherent he didn’t speak. Twice he had signed, Let me die.Fuck that. Jacob glanced to his left watching as Joseph dropped down an embankment and disappeared against the rocks.

  Jacob sensed more than knew his brother sat perfectly still. He considered the chances they took with the signal. The patrols were tenacious now. They weren’t the run of the mill lackey’s from some religious extremist’s camp. These scouts were trained, highly organized and well-funded zealots. The satellite arrays would pass in the next three to seven hours. If Tori had half the expertise he thought, she would recognize Jacob’s call for help. Three days, three different letters. J.T.K. His initials. Hell, it was every one of the King siblings initials.

  Jacob’s body tightened as he heard rock against rock that was not the shift of the earth through erosion or nature. His eyes flashed towards his brother. Both he and Chief were flattened and should be indistinguishable in the night landscape. The grey-white glow from the moon reflected off the bare granite of the trail and showed the un-level surface that stood between him and his brother. Another scraping. Closer. Louder. Boot? Yes, a boot against sand and granite.

  The source of the sounds appeared from the darkness and walked slowly past Joseph from the right. Two men, heavily armed, stopped and carefully examined the area. The men were edgy. The night sounds stilled. Not even the sound of crickets penetrated the tension. The patrol searched the terrain. Not operatives or local boys. These men were inexperienced and had no idea how to accurately read the night landscape. The large one looked right past Jacob and Chief, and neither realized Joseph was crouched within three feet of them. They moved slowly, as if tracking something or someone.

  The enemy worked up the path to just before the rock hiding the opening of the cave. Jacob watched as Joseph drew his knife in deadly silence. Jacob had complete faith in his brother’s lethal skill with a blade. It had been Joseph’s primary weapon on each of his assigned assassinations.

  When the men passed him and Chief, Jacob moved forward; the sole of his boot testing the ground under him careful not to make a sound. The whisper of cloth from his movement was indistinguishable from the patrol’s own clothing. Closer. As each carefully calculated action moved him forward, his persona changed. He moved silently, positioning himself to kill; his focus on nothing but the men, the targets. With gruesome experience, Jacob knew Joseph worked as he did, blending into the environment. Joseph became one with the shadows keeping to the darkness. Jacob crept ever closer.

  Doc’s low moan was the catalyst that launched the attack. Jacob’s hand covered one man’s mouth. His razor sharp blade sliced through skin, muscle, tendons and arteries. Joseph’s simultaneous attack nearly severed his enemy’s head from his body. Tonight this kill meant their survival and both Jacob and his brother were survivors. Jacob felt, rather than saw, the bodies drop at his feet. Silently, he and Joseph coordinated the removal of the bodies—the dead weight too much to carry far in their diminished condition. When they finished camouflaging the bodies, nothing in the area would lead a patrol back to the cave entrance.

  Jacob watched as Joseph backed away, once again becoming a part of the landscape. The patrol had carried no communications equipment, which meant they camped close by. The weapons were old but in good condition, and the extra ammunition they recovered would come in handy. Someone would come looking for the men. The only question was when. Jacob gazed into lightening sky. See the signal, babe. Please see the sign.

  Jacob walked back into the depths of the cave. Jared’s gun leveled at his chest as he entered the area draped off with blankets. The small smokeless fire in the corner took the frosty chill off the ten-by-ten foot enclosure.

  Jacob squatted down and fished the last of the pain-killers out of the medical pack and flicked it towards his brother. “Give him another half tablet of morphine.”

  “What do we do when it’s gone?” Jared caught the bottle in midair and popped the top. He split the narcotic tablet with his knife blade. “We have two and one-half pills left.” He put the small pill in Doc’s mouth and carefully lifted the man’s head, encouraging him to drink water from a canteen.

  “Not going to be an issue soon.”

  Jacob felt Jared’s gaze sweep him, examining him. Jacob saw when Jared took in the blood that covered his uniform. “Whose blood?”


  “An ISIS patrol that got too close.”

  “Joseph? Chief?”

  “Holding the perimeter. We found no comms, so the pair weren’t far from reinforcements. Others will come looking for them when they don’t report back. Could be in a couple minutes, could be a couple hours.”

  Jared rubbed his ankle. Jacob noticed. “You going to be able to hang if we have to bug out?”

  “Yeah…but I’ll slow you down.” Nodding, Jared’s gaze lingered on the man lying at his feet. Lifting a wet rag, he wiped the sweat from the medic’s brow. “He won’t make it.”

  “Tori will figure it out. The satellite barrage passes soon. The images will take two hours to get to her. We could have a team here in less than eight hours. If nothing happens by the morning, we pull up stakes and carry our man out. No other choice.”

  “Leave me here with Adam. We are the limiting factors. I’ll stay with him until he passes and then work myself out.” Jared sat back against the wall and put his hand on the dying man’s shoulder.

  “Not happening.”

  “But…”

  “No!” Jacob hissed. “You are my brother. He is my best friend. Neither of you is staying. End of discussion.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Tori opened her eyes to white acoustic ceiling tiles. Oh, shit. A bright light flashed in her eyes.

  “Hello there. I have to be honest. That is the first time someone passed out on me when I told them they were pregnant.” The chubby face of Dr. Carter leaned over Tori and smiled.

  Struggling to sit up, Tori blinked rapidly. “Pregnant? But I can’t be. I didn’t go off the pill until a couple days before he left. Doesn’t the medicine have to leave my system or something?”

  The doctor helped Tori to the chair she had recently vacated. “Huh? Is that so? Well, Mrs. King, your physician should’ve told you birth control pills aren’t a one hundred percent guarantee.”