by Vincent King
FREEBIRD
The Service
Vincent King
Copyright © 2018 Vincent King
All rights reserved.
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Edited by Danielle M Raver
Front Cover by Pages Graphica
Ebook formatting by www.ebooklaunch.com
For Miguel.
We had a dream once.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Epilogue
Note from the Author
Chapter 1
“Boothe.”
“Boothe wake up,” a voice rang outside my window.
I woke up from falling asleep in my driver’s seat, almost spilling my coffee on myself.
“You sleep good princess?” the guard said as he was tapping on my window with his flashlight. “The line is moving now, you should probably go on in. You’re blocking up traffic.”
I nodded in agreement without saying a word as I started the ignition in my old pick up truck. I slowly began to catch up with the car ahead of me.
“Just need to breathe Boothe,” I said to myself. My truck grunted while I tried to shift the stick into the next gear.
The morning came at me fast, didn’t even get to enjoy my frozen biscuit and barely had time to make it out the door with my coffee. I didn’t like being late and if I ever was, I had a good excuse. Waking up at 4am every morning to start my 30 minute ride to work every day can take a toll on you, but the pay isn’t so bad so I tolerate it.
I rolled my truck into the parking deck and found a spot on the second floor. I sat in the truck for a few minutes with the engine running and heater trying its best to keep my windows thawed out, along with my hands so I can enjoy what was left of my coffee. I just stared at it in my foam cup that I have used for the past couple of days, shaking it around smelling the dying aroma before swallowing the rest of it.
I spat the coffee grounds out of my mouth as I stepped out of the truck and shut the door.
“Shit,” I said to myself as I remembered what I was forgetting. “You done it again Boothe.”
I opened the door again to pull my jacket, gun and badge out.
After wiping off my coffee stain, putting the gun in its holster and throwing my jacket on, I made my way to the elevator. The parking deck was nearly empty on this level, no surprise there. I don’t park here for the social hour, I park here to have peace as I walk to work each day.
Being a secret service agent doesn’t get you a discount, even if I did want to wear a suit one day. The parking deck attendant would still charge me the five dollars that it took for his grandmother’s prius to get him to work everyday. I handed him the bill as I walked out the exit and passed his heat filled building he calls his HQ.
I rounded the corner and made my way down the street toward the big white building. I stopped at the edge of the street and threw a couple coins into the local bum’s hat that was laid out by his bed. He was a nice man, though I don’t try to talk to him too much. He laid asleep on the edge of the sidewalk on his makeshift cardboard bed, he had too many jackets on for me to get a look at his body but I am sure he has missed a meal or two.
“I’ll be joining you one day Fred,” I whispered to him. The crosswalk turned green and I joined the other busy bodies making their way to work.
I made my way to the guard house at the side entrance and showed my badge.
Johnson, the morning shift guard, squeezed out of the hut and walked toward me.
“No suit today Ethan?” she asked as she pulled out her hand held metal detector and began going down my body.
“It’s Boothe,” I replied. “You know that, been telling you that for years Linda.”
“And you would think that one day of these years would have made you decide to wear a suit for me,” Johnson said as she brought the scanner down to my legs and held it there longer than scan itself.
“You done?”
“Yes, yes, I know you don’t want to be late. You got your gun?”
“Yes, and three extra clips.”
“I won’t ask to look at it today, not on a Monday like this.”
“Shame, it’s the only time I get to pull it out.”
She motioned for me to begin my walk to the house and muttered a flirty comment behind me.
I approached the employee entrance door below the garden and slid my ID card. After a few moments the door chimed and slowly began to open and I made my way in.
As I opened the door to the locker room, the lights came on. My friend Rico was already putting on his gear from his locker.
“You’re late,” he said.
“You know I hate that,” I replied as I opened my locker next to his. I made sure my lunch was still in there that I didn’t finish from the previous day.
“Did Linda pat you down again?”
“Everyday,” I said.
“Just go ahead and give her some of that Ethan Boothe,” he joked.
“Only if you pay for the room.”
Rico laughed as he put his small revolver into it’s holster on his leg.
“Want to get a beer tonight?” he asked as he shut his locker.
“Your wife gonna call you home after your first beer again?”
“If she does, I will make her wait until the end of my second one this time. Scouts honor.”
“San Jose’s after our shift?”
“You bet man.”
Our conversation ended and we made our way upstairs into the main hall.
“Gentlemen,” the Vice President said as he walked by us with his guards.
“Is it me or Harold gaining five pounds everytime I see him?” Rico asked in my ear.
“I think it’s his ego,” I said. “Not his belly.”
The White House was big when I was a kid just visiting but it wasn’t until I began working here that I realized exactly how big it really was. Just one of the living rooms to the place was the size of my apartment.
“I know are paid to protect these guys and all but man, their design choice is shit,” Rico said.
“Coming from the one with with more flags in his yard than the United Nations,” I said as we turned a corner.
“Hey man, when you find a woman that has a family as big as my wife’s then we’ll talk.”
We finally arrived at the door to the oval office.
“Speaking of which, your girl is waiting on you,” Rico said.
We approached the desk that was sitting outside the door. Behind that desk was Sara, she looked up at us from filling out a report. She wore a dark blue dress skirt and matching button down shirt to go with it. Her diamond necklace was almost blinding but her smile was brighter.
“You guys ready to start your shift?” she asked as she noticed us walking up.
“Yes ma’am,” Rico said.
“As you can see, he took Landstar and James into the office with him. From their shifts outside his door, as usual. I swear, that old man is gonna get in trouble one day for not following procedures,” she joked as she stood up and adjusted her skirt then walked to unlock the door.
“Well when you are the President of the U
nited States, I don’t think anyone would mind if you took care of the men who protected you.”
“It’s not him I am worried about,” she sighed as she opened the door and let us in.
Chapter 2
“Rico! Boothe!” President Mackey said with excitement as Sara let us in. She closed the door behind us.
The president dressed in an elegant black suit. With a grin was sitting behind his desk, his arms propped behind his head and chair leaned back. James and Landstar sat opposite of each other on the couches. They looked like they had been laughing at a joke for the past fifteen minutes. Besides the fact that James and Landstar wore matching suits, you could almost say they were twins.
“I was just telling your fellow mates here about the five stages of asking a woman to give you pleasure.”
“Yeah one of them starts with not falling asleep while they talk,” Rico added in while taking his place next to Landstar.
Everyone shared a laugh. Then the silence set in and I took a seat next to James.
President Samuel Mackey was the man in charge now. This was his second year in office. He’s not a bad guy in my opinion, but then again I didn’t vote for him. I didn’t even have to either, he won in a landslide.
“Alright everyone, I know it’s time for shift change so I won’t keep you anymore than I have to,” he said as he began to turn his chair to see the sunrise come out the front lawn.
“Boothe,” he said as we all began to stand up and exit the room. “I need a word with you, the rest can leave.”
I took a seat in one of the leather chairs in front of his desk as the other three agents left the room, leaving me alone with the President and the coming sunrise.
We sat in silence for a while as the sun was now well in our eyes. Mackey slowly turned his chair around and leaned to his right so he could get into a desk drawer.
“Ethan,” he said.
“Yes sir?”
“Do you know how much whiskey it takes to make take the stress off my shoulders?”
“Takes me a whole bottle,” I replied.
He chuckled and pulled out a whiskey bottle with two glasses.
“My wife always hated when I drank, she said I reminded her of her father. She didn’t like him so much.”
“Must have been quite a man,” I replied
“Doesn’t matter now, he is dead and so is she.”
“I’m sorry for your loss sir.”
“You have known me too long to say sorry for that.”
I kept quiet, unsure of what to say next. He began pouring his poison into a glass.
“Ethan, why didn’t you do it?”
“Do what sir?”
“Join the military, be a firefighter, a cop or a god damn FBI agent.”
“The pay.”
“Bullshit Boothe. I have seen your file many times. Best of class in everything, and top agent in every test. You got brains, skill and guts. Why are you wasting your time protecting an old man such as myself?”
I was stunned. In the last two years he has never asked me a question like this, or drank in front of me this early in the morning.
“My mom,” I replied honestly. “She admired the president before you. No offense.”
He held his hand up as he filled his other glass.
“None taken,” he chuckled. “Mark Lamberg was great man.”
“You’re not too bad yourself,” I replied as he put the lid back on his bottle. “Sometimes though, I swore my mom loved him better more than me, sometimes”
He slid his glass over to me and held his up.
“Here is to mothers then,” he said as he motioned me to toast him. “May they never be forgotten.”
I wasn’t a day drinker but when the president asks for a toast, you toast. So I did and it was one of the best drinks I ever had.
“Not to be blunt sir,” I said as I set the glass down before him. “But why am I sitting here right now?”
“Well because I asked you to,” he said as he put his drinking glasses away.
“Fair enough.”
President Mackey then fumbled through the files on his desk.
“You been following the news any?” he asked as he pulled one from his stack.
“Not too much. Always makes me hate the world we live in.”
“Well,” he said as he pulled the cord and began opening the file. “A couple months back, there was this soldier in Iraq. Actually a unit, under the name Freebird.”
Mackey began laying photos out on his desk.
“This one particular soldier; Charlie Packe. Charlie decides to jump in front of a bullet for his only other brother who happened to also be in Iraq.”
“Isn’t there a rule against both sons being in service at one time?”
“There is supposed to be but just like their mission itself, there was corruption. Things that weren’t supposed to happen. Hell they weren’t even supposed to be there, but then again, that is different story.”
The pictures were the bodies of the soldiers that didn’t make it home, most were brutal kills. This is exactly why I didn’t watch the news.
“This is why I drink so early sometimes Boothe and this is why I want to be in this office. I never want this to happen again.”
Chapter 3
“How did it go in there?” Rico asked as I stepped out of the office so Mackey could make a private phone call.
“Well,” I replied. “I think.”
“You getting a raise?” he asked.
“If I did, doesn’t mean I am paying for your drinks tonight.”
Rico chuckled and we took a stand on opposite sides of the door, waiting for the president to do something besides talk on the phone.
After what felt like forever, Rico finally killed the silence.
“Pst,” he whispered to Sara who was across from us, scribbling notes.
“What?” Sara replied as she set down her pen, looking like Rico had ruined her focus.
“Boothe ask you on a date yet?” he asked.
“Rico,” I said real quick.
Sara blushed and responded before I could shoot Rico myself. “I think he is scared to honestly.”
Before anyone of us could put more into that conversation, the president called for Sara over her speaker.
“Sara, can you tell Boothe and his compadre to please come in, I am done with my phone calls now.”
“Why does he always to call me that!” Rico said as the door unlocked and we walked in.
Rico began talking in Spanish as if he was trying to run a boat with his mouth.
“Easy pepper taco,” the president said.
“That is a new one,” I managed to say through the laughter.
“Seriously you two,” Mackey said. “I need you two to be on your toes today. I just got a call saying they caught two trespassers on the rear yard trying to sneak in with firecrackers and lighter fluid.”
“How come nothing was said over mic?” I asked.
“Well I heard it,” Rico said. “Yours must not be working or you forgot to turn it on again”
“We need to look into getting you a new one,” Mackey said.
“Hey what is that in the yard?” Rico said. He walked around the desk to the window to get a better a view of a light glare coming from around the statue.
“No, Rico!” I said as I pulled out my gun “It’s a-”
Before I could finish my sentence, a shot rang out and through the window. A bullet lodged into Rico’s neck and his body began to fall.
That’s when everything went to shit, just as I got my radio turned on.
“Sniper!” I yelled and pulled Mackey over his desk, almost slamming him to the floor with me.
Mackey and I were leaning against the front of the desk with more shots coming behind us through the window.
I held Mackey against the desk with one arm and finally pulled my gun out with my other.
“How can this happen?” Mackey yelled over the gunshots.
/> “I don’t know sir but it was planned for sure.”
After a while, the gunshots stopped. All was silent for a moment.
“Was Rico hit?” Mackey asked calmly.
That was the last thing I wanted to hear or think about but I knew the answer, neither of us wanted to even believe it though.
“Taco,” Mackey yelled out behind us.
Rico didn’t answer, nor was he going to.
Chapter 4
Sara began screaming outside the door. Mackey tried to scramble up but I held him back down.
“Let me go Boothe!” he yelled back “That is an order!”
“I can’t sir, it’s my job.”
“And Sara is a friend!”
“Sara,” I yelled without turning my attention away from his stare.
She didn’t answer.
“What do we do?” he asked.
I couldn’t make out anything on the radio besides the dozens of pancing commands. I snatched the mic out of my ear and took a deep breath.
“I don’t know if that sniper is still in sight of the window or not. If you stand up, he will kill you sir.”
He took a deep breath with me and leaned back against the table.
“What do you say we do then Boothe?”
“I am thinking, give me a minute.”
Sara gave a scream outside the door again, then silence followed by scuffling and whispering.
“Shit,” I said. “They’re coming in.”
“Who is?” Mackey asked.
The door was then broken open and standing outside of it was two men dressed in various dark colored robes. The only thing we could see on them was their eyes. One of the men held a massive ramming tool they must have built in their garage somewhere.
I aimed my gun at the one man closest to the door entrance. He still had his hand on their ram but I could see his assault rifle strapped to his back.
His friend that he came with had stuck the barrel of his rifle around the door and aimed it at Mackey.
“Put the gun down,” he yelled at me with a heavy accent that sounded somewhat middle eastern had a county slang to it.
“You first,” I said.
“I will kill your president”