Who did Gabe think he was to waste his time-their time on such nonsense? The man planned on being happy-content at the very least, Vale believed.. He thought to gain sympathy over his near loss of life, followed by a measure of acceptance from those he now deemed more worthy of his consideration.
Vale went for his phone. It vibrated to signal a call before he could engage it. “Flores?” he greeted his assistant who was on the other end of the line.
“Yes Sir, your-”
“Make the jet ready. I’m going to pay a visit to my brother.”
“Oh...well Sir, your brother-”
“Just handle it, Flo.”
The call ended and Vale studied his phone with simmering approval. The doorbell rang seconds later. Flores, he noted with a grimace. The man was far too thorough for his own good. Dane Flores would need to confirm and re-confirm Vale’s instructions face to face before a single plan was made.
Vale decided that upon his return, it’d be time to help his assistant relocate to his own digs. He had locked himself inside his bedroom wing as he often did when he was strategizing or on phone conference with Shannon. The staff knew not to bother him there. Flores had not yet gotten that message despite the fact that he had been part of Vale’s personal travel staff the longest.
It wasn’t Flores he found on the other side of the bedroom door however. Vale’s plan was to visit one ailing brother, instead he found another outside his door.
“Ari?”
Aaron Tesano looked far from ailing as he stood eyeing his youngest brother with the unreadable potency that was his trademark.
“Ari.” Vale felt the beginnings of a smile tug his mouth. In spite of his anger and sense of family betrayal, the sight of the man stirred the insurmountable security inspired by the comforts of home and unconditional love. He was actually happy to see the bastard. Then Vale saw the knife he carried.
Curiosity melded into disbelief and then shock as the knife pushed home and Vale sensed his skin being split.
Curiosity, disbelief and shock welled in Aaron’s rich brown eyes as well. This man- this man before him whose life was ebbing by his own hand...this man was his brother. The shock deadened with coldness almost as quickly as it’d flared.
Aaron twisted the knife when he heard Vale’s
grunt. He moved in and spoke close to Vale’s ear. “This is for the
woman I loved,” he said. “This is for Guiya.”
***
Medora, North Dakota~
Around 3am, the sound of truck engines livened the landscape. Medora had an untouched feel to it as though man’s dominance had not fully been realized. Located along the southwest portion of the state, Medora boasted a population of little more than 100 following the previous census.
It was home to the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park and the birthplace of one Jacob Jackson Shelanon whose residence lay somewhere at or below the vast terrain. The truck convoy had plotted its course as designated by the coordinates provided by contractor Malloy Lincoln.
When asked why he’d helped them to such an extent, Malloy simply stated that he wasn’t afraid anymore. For years, he’d lived in the shadow of what he’d helped to build and with the knowledge of what it was to be used for. He had paid dearly for what little he’d shared with the author who’d come to research the family. That questions were now resurfacing, he took that as a sign. No longer would he allow fear to stop him from doing the right things again.
The trucks stopped three miles away from
their destination. Under the cover of dark, the group put their
final preparations in place.
~~~
Bashir Cannon along with his partner Dreck Eamon and their hand-picked crew held court along one end of the expansive area the convoy travelers had claimed.
Caiphus and SyBilla along with Carlos, Dena and Persephone met to review strategies and other contingencies. Joining them for that talk, was fellow Vestige operative Sandawe Webb and her team. The discussion of whether the women would be involved in the mission was tabled when Bill and Dena refused to even discuss the matter with their husbands. Carlos and Caiphus knew when to accept defeat.
Jasper Stone had asked to be kept in the loop as well. When he’d received word that a plan was in place, he arrived along with his own hand-picked team.
“Never thought you’d fall victim to texting, Cap.”
Jasper grinned, but didn’t look away from his phone as he typed. “I’m actually emailing,” he told Hill.
“And on your phone,” Hill nodded, “pretty twenty-first century, Sir.”
Chuckling then, Jasper finished with his message and looked up at Hill from the passenger seat of the small tank-like vehicle he and his men had travelled in. “I’ve kept a log for many years- never know when a previous strategy might serve well for a new mission.”
Hill winced, turned his gaze toward the dark expanse of land and sky. “I don’t know about anybody else, but I pray there’ll never be another mission like this.”
“Agreed,” Jasper studied the darkened terrain as well, “I pray this’ll be the end of an era. Regardless of what this all became, it started from a pure place. As a kid, I wanted to know if goodness or evil resided in the blood. If so, could it be corrected?
It was the same with Jake. He was a good man an intuitive scientist with a compassion rarely seen,” Jasper explained. “It was his love, that compassion for his wife and children that led him to the obsession that ruined him. I promised he’d have whatever he needed to find a way to help, but when his experiments resulted in death to many of the island’s residents… I knew I had to shut him down. I knew he’d lost sight of the purity.”
“Lost sight of the purity and had it replaced by insanity.” Hill was thinking of his uncle Humphrey. “If purity ever even existed for my uncle,” he added.
Jasper smiled, understanding. “Humphrey’s insanity came from a place of innocence- a child’s innocence lost-destroyed by a parent’s selfishness,” Jasper sighed. “I know what that’s like. Your grandfather’s inability to remain faithful and then compounding his betrayal by bringing to his bed women deemed lesser because of their skin color...it made him who he was.”
“I can’t feel sorry for the asshole, Sir.”
“You shouldn’t,” Jasper turned on his seat to study Hill more fully, “but you should understand that our boldest and sometimes most unforgivable actions often come from places of hurt and confusion. Some of us manage to outrun those places. Others succumb and return.”
Hill turned his gaze toward the camp. “Let’s
hope when we’re done here, there won’t be anything left to return
to.”
~~~
Hill led the first wave that was to be responsible for planting the explosives near where the blueprints designated entrance.
“You do realize we could only be about to scare a few gophers out of their homes, right?”
