Parkers Island Ch. 03

"That will change in the morning, since one of my colleagues will be here as well."

Martha sat and listened. The girls waited while Martha pondered what had been said.

"Aiden has lived on this island for well over a year now, and I have yet to see any of you people watching out for him. Why now?"

Madison went to great lengths to point out that Aiden was unique. People had left the Department before: all had had their past life within the Department expunged from all records, and even had paperwork provided to cover those now lost years. Those that left now lived out their lives, forever knowing they had a secret that they could never tell. But Aiden was different; he still worked for the Department as an independent.

This was new ground for those in the Department and, now that Tessa had come home, it brought into light the failure of the system they had in place.

"I hate to state the obvious, Martha, but you live on an island. Other than stealing a boat to get the hell out of Dodge, you now have two assets stuck on this island if something goes wrong. I may take my orders from Shelby, but I work for Bingham Securities and I know exactly what they would say. Aiden has more secrets in his head than Tessa does, and always will."

"Very well; I agree that there could be a problem. So what is the solution?"

Madison pointed to Amelia. "She is."

To Madison it was a simple solution, but selling it to both of these women was slightly harder. Amelia was already part of law enforcement so, when Aiden went on his trips, Bingham would take in Amelia and train her. Martha seemed intrigued by the idea. Amelia was still in shock, even more so when Martha asked how long this would take.

The conversation on that bench went on for well over an hour. Madison still had to run this situation past her boss, but with Shelby on board, and now Martha, it was all down to Amelia.

"Look, Amelia, awhile back you told both Martha and Aiden that, in order to protect him, you had to know what he is capable of. Well, this is the moment of truth time; you now know full well what the answer is. The question is that, if push came to shove, could you protect him?"

As her own mind sped through many scenarios, and as worst case scenarios got worse, she answered the only way she could.

*******

At the end of the week a man turned up at the Sheriff's office. Martha had forewarned the Sheriff, and he was invited in after a few minutes' wait. Jacob Edwards introduced himself and handed the Sheriff his card. The Sheriff did nothing more than pick up the phone and call a friend of his at the FBI, describing the man sitting in front of him and giving the name on the card. It only took a minute to confirm who Jacob Edwards was, and he thanked his friend, hanging up the phone and feeling rather uncomfortable in this man's presence.

"Sheriff, I'm going to offer you a deal that you're going to be stupid to refuse. My company is willing to train Deputy Thompson to a far greater standard than any of you have at the moment. Some of that training will filter down through her to your other Deputies, when she herself brings back that training to your own people."

Martha's own conversations with the Sheriff told him that the offer was only for Amelia. Even he admitted the deal was an interesting one, but that didn't stop him feeling protective of her.

"Why just Deputy Thompson?"

Jacob Edwards' features hardened just for a moment, before returning to their normal bland expression. "Sheriff, that's on a need to know basis. However, let's just say that we believe her to be the best fit for what we're offering."

And something told the Sheriff that he would never know the real reason. All he had to go on was the outline of the conversation he had had with Martha. He certainly trusted Martha a heck of a lot more than the man sitting across from him, and it was on her recommendation that he agreed.

The first time Amelia went away was for three months. The course she ran for the other Deputies at the shooting range a week after her return increased the proficiency of all his other Deputies by twenty percent. Over the next two years Amelia went away twice more, each for four months, and always with more courses for her colleagues after her return.

It got to the point that the other Deputies started taking bets on what course she would run on her return when it was noticed that she had disappeared again.

*******

"Madison, get your ass down here right now."

The phone went silent, and Madison didn't bother to ring back. She knew where Lauren was, and the fact that she added no information simply meant that to do so would take too long. She checked with Martha to make sure that Tessa wasn't going anywhere, and certainly not to Aiden's. As her car came to a stop, both Lauren and Aiden got up from the porch. It was when they opened the door and Lauren pointed to the porch support post that she noticed the Arabic writing.

Ignoring it, she joined the others in the day room. A glance around the room showed that Amelia was at work.

"Call the Sheriff; get your wife here now."

As luck would have it, Amelia was already on the ferry home. Madison sent Lauren to swing by Martha's and grab Tessa. She was to stuff her in the back and keep her out of sight. Both girls went outside and pulled two bulky hold-alls from the trunk before Lauren sped away. Madison dragged both into the house and slammed the door shut. Every couple of minutes she would look at the clock and shake her head at the delay.

When all went quiet she looked around to find Aiden unlocking his office and jamming the door open.

"Any of this any good?"

By the time Madison had walked over, Aiden had opened the cabinet by the far wall of his office. Four Sig Sauer 9mm pistols sat in a rack, with a box of loaded magazines and more ammunition alongside. Two smaller boxes held shoulder and hip holsters. Four Heckler and Koch MP5s sat in another rack underneath four ammunition cans full of loaded magazines, with more ammo cans placed neatly next to the guns. The straps for the MP5s hung from hooks on the inside of the cabinet.

"Oh, my goodness, Aiden! When you party, you sure like to party."

Between them both they emptied the cabinet of its contents; well, all but a box at the bottom of the cabinet. Madison was curious why such a battered old-looking box would be there. She looked at Aiden, who was obviously expecting her to ask. He smiled and nodded; she opened the top of the box and caught her breath.

"Fucking hell! This is so classified I've only ever seen one of these: it's next generation stuff! Hell, Aiden, officially they're still only testing this."

Concern grew across Madison's face, for a moment even forgetting why they were here. She pulled it from the box and was surprised at just how light it was. The shape was loosely based on binoculars, but the back had a visor shape rather than two lenses to look through. When she turned the front towards her all she saw was a tinted lens.

The specifications came back to Madison: the night sight combines with body heat. When used properly they could effectively look through walls as far away as four hundred yards, seeing a person behind a door or in the room beyond. Placing the night scope gently down again, she looked at Aiden.

"OK, you had better tell me right now what dead body you got this from, and where."

Aiden's boyish manner once again came to the fore as he just stood and took a long, long moment to answer.

"As a matter of fact, Madison, he is still alive. I once had the honor of meeting a very great man; a General in fact. You could say we have stayed in touch ever since."

Both heard the car pull into the garage, yet Madison was still staring at Aiden, her thought process still in shock from so many revelations. This one totally blindsided her.

"Fitzpatrick? My God, Aiden, we never knew! Does Lauren know you still talk to her old boss?"

The grin came back with a vengeance.

"No one knows, and never will, Madison. When General Fitzpatrick allowed me to see Carol one last time I told him to his face that I owed him. He told me to find the bastard that killed one of his Marines and we would call it even. I lived up to my promise to so many people when I watched that man die."

General Fitzpatrick knew I had lived up to my promise; he also knew that a week later I simply disappeared. His Marines had relative peace while the tribes fought amongst themselves to install a new leader.

Lauren came in through the connecting door, Tessa in hot pursuit. The standoff between the two in that room quickly became apparent. The hardware spread across the floor was also self-evident.

"What the fuck?"

Her eyes then found the night vision unit on the arm of the couch.

"Madison, whatever you two have fallen out over can wait. Get upstairs and take that with you."

With a final glare, Madison grabbed the night vision unit and bolted up the stairs two at a time. Lauren turned to Tessa and told her that she was to let the Department know that there was a Fatwa sign painted on Aiden's house and they were locking the house down until both could be extracted. Tessa paled as she listened, but quickly nodded her head and warmed up the computer in the office.

Amelia came through the front door a few minutes later, her hand already on her own service weapon, to find two guns pointing at her.

"What? No welcome home, honey?"

It took Lauren a few minutes to bring Amelia up to speed, while I went into the office to hear Shelby telling Tessa that the closest unit to us was a Hostage Rescue Team. The head of the Department was already on the phone to the FBI, and we were to stay in the house until they arrived. The line from the office was to stay open for the duration. Tessa confirmed her orders and the screen went blank; it would only take the touch of any key for the screen to come back to life.

Tessa watched as I tapped a number into a keypad on the side of the office wall. The back of the keypad lit up, and a click could be heard as the panel next to it slid away, revealing a flat-screen television. It came to life and instantly divided itself into four squares, with four below that and finally four more filling the bottom of the screen.

Familiar features began filling each small screen as the hidden cameras came to life, both inside and outside the house. We both watched the girls on one of the small screens for a moment; the infra-red cameras took a second or so longer, but soon all the screens came to life. Now that all the house and surrounding area could be seen on some part of the flat-screen television, I grabbed Tessa as she stood trying to watch all the screens at once.

"Phone your mother. She needs to get word out across the island. If all this goes south I don't want the innocent to either get hurt or taken hostage."

Tessa nodded and reached for her own cell. By the time I had gone back into the day room, Amelia and Lauren had already stripped down, inspected and rebuilt all the weapons, and were already in the process of loading additional magazines. I helped for a minute before Madison almost ran down the stairs.

"You're not going to believe this! The fuckheads are in the summer house across the road. They seem to have realized that something is up, because they are packing up to leave."

"How many?"

"I counted five."

Just as the girls were going into a huddle church bells rang out. A moment later another set of bells joined them. A third set, although fainter, could also be heard joining in. Amelia's head turned and tilted slightly, and then she turned to the women in front of her.

"This whole island is about to go into lock-down. The bar in town will close with everyone in it; those that are around friends will stay the night. Those living alone will go to a neighbor."

Madison smiled and then turned to Lauren, "The only thing missing is someone on a horse riding through, shouting 'The British are coming'."

For a moment anger flashed in my wife's eyes. "We embrace technology, Madison, but sometimes the old ways are still quicker. We are an island and have sometimes had to fend for ourselves. Don't mock our ways unless you can think of a quicker way to do this, otherwise leave us be."

Both the girls realized they may have stomped on tradition, apologized and went back to work. It still took a moment for my wife to calm down before she explained.

"Had Matriarch used her cell phone, then the rest of the population would have joined in. The network would have overloaded in an instant; the phone lines would have also collapsed under the sudden usage. Two vital communications lines would have been impossible for us to use."

Other than nod, neither girl did anything, yet it was clear that a new found respect and understanding of the island came to them just then.

*******

Lauren grabbed one of the hold-alls and pulled out vests, handing one to each of the girls and putting the last one on herself. It became obvious to me that my wife was one of the team, her self-assurance and the way she moved around both these girls making it clearer by the minute.

Tessa walked into the room, paused for a moment to watch what the girls were doing, and apparently came to the same conclusion I had before turning to me.

"Matriarch just phoned. Everyone is phoning in either on her line or texting on dad's cell. Lock-down is almost complete."

It still amused me, even at times like this, how Tessa could differentiate between her mom and the Matriarch, and yet she could do so seamlessly. She went back into the office and sat waiting. Madison came over while the other girls suited up and tightened the straps of the MP5s to their bodies, her Sig now holstered and tight to her leg. She, like the other two, looked like a walking armory, with magazines peeking out of slots in the Kevlar vests.

"We can't let them leave, Aiden. They know where you are now and, with that knowledge, you or those on this island can never be safe."

"How long has my wife been associated with Bingham?"

"Just over two years. She was trained to protect you, Aiden. None of us envisioned this. I'm sorry, Aiden, but we need her now."

The sound of Tessa's voice covered the distance between us. "Aiden!"

I looked through the open door and into the office towards Tessa first, but her concentration was on something she had seen on one of the monitors. I counted four men approaching the back of the house.

Tessa looked towards me a smile on her lips. "That's Henry. I recognize the slight limp."

By the time one of them had reached the back door Lauren had already taken up position on one side of it. I opened the door. Henry stood watching me for a moment before his hand came out and we shook on it. His own gaze stayed on the girls, still fiddling around with bits of equipment from either my office or from one of the two hold-alls Madison had pulled into the house.

"You shouldn't even be here, Henry. I told Martha to get word out that people were to lock themselves in their houses until all this was done."

He chuckled at that.

"Oh, word got out, Aiden, and most are hunkered down for the night in basements. But it's been left to me and the boys to look out for you and Tessa."

The sound of running caused me to take a sidestep as Amelia rushed into Henry's arms.

"Did you bring the boys, Henry?"

He chuckled, and blushed a bit as well when my wife kissed his cheek.

"Do you honestly think they were going to sit at home and miss all this, angel?"

Still confused, I just waited for someone to explain what was going on. Finally Amelia let go of Henry. When I looked beyond him the other three guys had disappeared.

"Madison, Lauren: I would like you to meet Sergeant Henry Michelson. He and the three out there all did two tours in Vietnam. Now THESE are heroes."

Henry blushed again. By now Lauren had joined in, and the conversation drifted back and forth. Martha knew from Tessa what was going on and, when Henry called to acknowledge lock-down, she had asked him to take his friends along in case the girls needed backup. Lauren quickly explained what the girls were about to do; she could see he was about to intervene, so she got in first.

"All three of us are trained in Close Quarter Combat, Henry. Our worry was these two."

Lauren was talking, but still managed to point to Tessa and me.

"We need to stop those across the road from leaving. If even one gets away the lives of the people on this island will change forever. You and your friends have to protect these two above all else, understood?"

Something in Henry changed then. He eyed up Lauren even harder.

"Let me guess: need to know, and my pay grade means I know nuthin."

Lauren nodded her head; Madison did as well. When his eyes settled on Amelia a single tear made its journey down her cheek. Henry placed his palm on her cheek and his thumb gently chased the tear away.

"I'm sorry, Henry."

"Don't be, angel. The boys and I will look after both of them."

Henry headed back outside and went into a huddle with his three friends. After a moment the three went in different directions as Henry came back in. Tessa watched as one by one all three again disappeared into the night, leaving no sign, even on the infrared cameras. Madison pulled what looked like a sat phone from one of the hold alls and then she and Henry went into a huddle. The sat phone changed hands, and then Madison went and joined the girls.

She could tell I was watching her, and yet she ignored me. I guess it wasn't only Henry that was on a need to know basis. With all the last minute preparations taken care of, all three women headed for the door. Madison looked towards me and tilted her head. I moved in close as her eyes wandered over to the open door of my office and Tessa typing something on the keyboard.

"We have a job to do now, Aiden. You have as well."

I looked over my shoulder and nodded.

"She won't get out; I'm not going to be responsible for another Burnett dying. My office can take a hit from anything except an RPG, so you girls keep that in mind."

Madison leaned in and kissed me on the cheek, nodded, and walked towards the door. Amelia came over and kissed me on the lips. It was clear she wanted to say so much more, but I hugged her to remove the moment from her; it was simply causing her too much pain. Lauren even came over and hugged me before all three girls went out into the night.

"Aiden! Two helicopters are inbound and will be here in twelve minutes."

That's all I heard before I removed the wedge from the door and shut Tessa in the office, key-coded an emergency lock and shed a tear of my own.

She was safe and that's all that counted. The line to the Department kept her in touch with those looking out for her there. I thought I was alone until I felt Henry standing next to me. His pump action shotgun across his chest and my gun in my hand kept her safe in here, and three women on a mission kept her safe out there.

*******

Tessa ran at the door just as the last of the light from the day room vanished; the click was almost instant. Even the impact of her shoulder and the thumping of her fists, interspersed with her screams, didn't get Aiden to open the door. Tessa wasn't claustrophobic, and yet the sealing of that door scared her; she knew that when that door opened once again so many things would have changed.

Her last scream at the door was her defiance. The one constant thought that held back her tears was that she was a Burnett.

"Tessa?"

She spun around. Shelby was watching her through the screen.

"Aiden has locked me in! Give me the release code for the door."

Shelby's head shook. "I can't do that. He locked you in for a reason."