Chapter 8
By 11:15 Pepper had started to pace up and down the floor next to her table. Tony's signal was overdue and Pepper was starting to panic. Hansel and Gretel woke up from their nap under Pepper's desk to watch her walk back and forth.
The house was quiet. Pepper's silent tension had infected her whole family. They were all worried. But they tried their best to stay busy, so Pepper wouldn't notice. Charlotte and Anna were preparing sandwiches for lunch. The boys were reading while Debbie stood over them to make sure they stayed on task. The Dachshunds were lined up watching Charlotte and Anna work each waiting for their turn for a tasty treat to be thrown their way. Eddie and Ronald were marinating briskets for Eddie's birthday bar-b-que on Saturday.
"Are you OK, Pepper?" Debbie quietly asked as the boys looked up from their books.
Pepper shook her head sadly. "Tony's signal is way overdue now". She knew that Debbie had no idea what she was talking about.
Debbie walked over to Pepper and put her arm around her. The boys got up and went to stand by their Aunt also.
"Don't worry Aunt Pepper" Arliss said taking Pepper's hand in his "Iron Man would never let you down."
Pepper smiled sadly at Arliss. "You're right Arliss, not if he could help it."
Suddenly, Pepper's Blackberry vibrated. Pepper grabbed the device and put it up to her ear quickly recognizing the caller. "Jarvis?" she answered quietly.
"Mrs. Stark" Jarvis began "I am pleased to report that I have detected Mr. Stark's coded signal. We must begin executing Phase 2 of the rescue at once."
"Thank you Jarvis" Pepper said a few tears falling from her eyes "I will start making calls."
Debbie pulled the boys back away from Pepper to sit back down again at the table and she sat down beside them. Charlotte and Anna moved to sit at the table alongside the boys and Debbie. Eddie and Ronald stopped what they were doing and also came and sat down.
Pepper stood up straight and cleared her throat as she dialed a number from her contacts list. "Rhody?" she began "I know it's the middle of the night there." She listened for a few seconds and then answered. "I need you to get up now and get on board with General Duncan's Marines who will be leaving to pick up Tony and the captive Marines and SI folks. Tony needs help getting them out and back to base." She intently listened again and rolled her eyes at the phone. "No, this is not a dream. I will be calling General Duncan personally as soon as I get off the phone with you to wake his sorry ass up too." She turned around and stared out the window with a smile on her face. "Are you ready for his coordinates?" She gave him the cave's location coordinates after waiting a few seconds. "I would hurry up over to General Duncan's office, because I am about to piss him off so badly, the choppers may leave without you on board." Pepper smiled. "Bye Rhody, love you too."
Pepper hung up on Rhody and immediately dialed a second number turning to face her family to smile a reassuring smile at them. "General Duncan, this is Pepper Potts of Stark Industries." Pepper pulled the phone away from her ear as a string of obscenities floated out of the earpiece of her cell phone. "Nice to hear your voice again too, General. I am calling to see if you are interested in getting some credit for the rescue of your Marines and two of my employees that are being held prisoner by the bad guys. Perhaps you have heard about this kidnapping." Pepper held the phone even further away from her ear. "I glad to hear you are up on your current events, General. Now, do you want in on this rescue or not? Because the next call I will be making is to my President and YOUR Commander-In-Chief. And last time I checked he owes me at least two personal favors." The voice on the other end suddenly became much quieter. "I am glad we are working together too, General." Pepper rolled her eyes to the ceiling. "Yes, you will need to send at least two medical teams. I don't have confirmation on what type of injuries the hostages have sustained, but it never hurts to be prepared." Pepper glared at the cell phone "Oh I forgot that being prepared is the motto of the Boy Scouts and not the US Marine Corps. So you now have 10 choppers ready to leave immediately? You do have Colonel Rhodes on board one of them, right?" She nodded her head and raised her fist into the air in a victory salute as she rattled off the coordinates to the now quiet and intently listening General.
"They're not out of the woods yet. But Rhody being there with them will give Tony some back up." Pepper said to her family after hanging up on General Duncan. "Tony's signal indicates that he has freed the Americans and he is moving them from where they were being held deep underground back up to the surface to the mouth of the cave. There are still lots of things that can go wrong, but now that the cavalry is on the way to pick them up, their chances for making it back home safely have gone up tremendously."
"Who's Rhody? Travis asked.
"Rhody's real name is James Rhodes. He is a Colonel in the US Air Force and is Tony's best friend. He is currently stationed in Afghanistan as Air Force adviser for General Duncan. Tony and Rhody were in college together. Rhody will take care of Tony."
"Wow, Aunt Pepper" Arliss started "do you really know President Obama?
"Yes I do" Pepper answered "Tony and I support the charity Healthy Child Healthy World which both the President and his wife, Michelle support. My company is a corporate sponsor of this charity. I have helped secure other corporations' donations to this charity for which the President and the First Lady are grateful."
"What's President Obama like?" Arliss questioned further.
"The times I have interacted with him he was very serious but very polite. However, Michelle is loud and a lot of fun to be around. Their daughters are both adorable and are big fans of Iron Man, so Tony and I get invited to a lot of White House family functions. We have only been able to go to one of them, though. It was the Easter Egg Roll at the White House. It was a lot of fun. Tony actually brought Iron Man Easter Eggs for the Roll. Tony was absolutely wonderful with all of the kids there. He's really just a big kid at heart."
"Uncle Tony sounds like a fun guy." Little Eddie commented.
Pepper moved over to Little Eddie and hugged him, her eyes tearing up. "Yes, he is a lot of fun. He is a very spontaneous guy which sometimes gets him into a lot of trouble. Sound like anyone we know?" she said reaching over and gently tickling Arliss in the ribs.
"Owwee, Aunt Pepper" Arliss squealed "Don't be that way to me, after all I am your favorite nephew." With that Pepper started tickling him in earnest.
