More Than a Ghost
by Philippe de la Matraque
Chapter Twelve
Logan wore his father's mask. He retold himself the story that his father had told about the Ghosts' creation. Sixty men against five hundred. Then just fifteen. And they had won. He prayed like Estelle had. He asked God to keep him free. He had left her in a thicket in amongst the thorns. She tucked herself in there and he pulled vines and brush over her. And then he forgot her.
He saw a soldier moving toward him. He was lying down in the brush and the shadows. The soldier walked within a foot of him. He rose up behind him and shot him in the head. Then he disappeared in the brush again.
A group of three approached from the west. He waited for them to pass then took out the last of the three with his knife. The other two, he shot with the silenced MTAR-X. They dropped. He moved on. He stayed in the shadows and never crossed under light if he could manage it. He used what he had done in Yucatan. He could avoid being seen. When he had the time, he covered the bodies with brush. But he kept moving, never staying in one place for more than a few minutes. He would be a moving target. When there were too many getting too close, he let them pass, then tossed a grenade and moved the opposite direction. The sound of the explosion drew others but he was at the other side of the canyon by then. He was able to sight one of the snipers on the old bridge. It was a long distance, but the man dropped down and thudded into the canyon floor. He moved on. Four were standing and talking to one other. Probably officers. Logan mowed them down.
He lost track of time. He ran out of ammo in his M-TARX and switched to the customized P226. He just kept fighting, determined to stay free. Every Fed he faced wanted to take him into torture again. He forgot about being hungry or thirsty. He forgot to be afraid. He was angry. Each enemy was a replacement for the men who had hurt him in Colombia. Especially Rorke.
There was a firefight to the north. Airplanes flew overhead, strafed the bridges. Another section of the old one fell, taking a sniper with it. The Federation soldiers were getting jumpier. Careless. Logan pulled the pin from a grenade on one man's hip and slipped behind a large tree. The man kept walking then exploded. Logan disappeared in the smoke from the blast. He reloaded his P226. He was running out of ammo. He'd need a new weapon. He was closer now to the fallen section of the bridge. The sniper was pinned but alive. He struggled to aim and Logan shot him. That section was in sunlight. Not enough trees or shadows. He moved on, circling it wide. He was in the shadow of the new bridge then, Campo Street. Gunships up there were smoking. Logan couldn't go past it. He could get caught in the crossfire. He took up a position behind the old bridge and waited for the patrols to pass. He picked off the nearer ones. He needed ammo.
He crawled forward toward the nearest body. It was dappled in shade but the overhead sun shone down on it through the leaves. Logan turned the body over. Then he saw the laser sight on he chest. He tried to roll away but the man had him. Told him to get to his knees. Logan did, but put his pistol to his chin as he did so. "No cause for that, Walker," the man said in heavily accented English. He kept his gun trained on Logan while he pulled out his radio. "Tengo él." Another soldier moved in from behind. Logan cocked the gun. The first man waved off the second. A third joined him.
"We will not kill you, Sergeant," the man said. "The Director has big plans for you."
Logan didn't move. He stared at that man with all the hatred he could muster. He tried his damnedest to be still while his heart pounded in his chest. He would not show them fear. Not this time.
Everything happened at once. There was a flash of brown and the first man began screaming. Someone shouted, "Logan, down!" and Logan fell forward as bullets flew over him. Then something began licking his mask. Logan started to push himself up and someone grabbed his collar, yanking him back. They dragged him backwards as he scrambled with his feet to keep from chocking. Finally, they dropped him in the cover of the wreckage of the bridge. Riley barreled into him, and he fell back as relief washed over him. Keegan pushed the dog off and offered a hand. Logan took it but as soon as he stood his legs turned to jelly and he fell back down. Hesh rushed up then. He helped Logan back further into the wreckage. Keegan left them to continue the fighting. "Ghost Six-Four recovered," Logan heard through Hesh's radio.
Logan was having a hard time breathing. He peeled off the mask. "It's okay, Logan. You can drop the gun." Logan looked at his hand. He still had the P226. His hand, well, his whole arm thanks to the cast, was shaking. He was shaking. Hesh took the gun. "God, Logan, it was empty? No wonder you're shaky." He wrapped Logan in a tight hug. "Logan, where's Estelle?"
Estelle. Logan didn't know. Was she far? She was in the thicket. Had they killed her? Hesh handed him a thick tablet. "Logan, sync on Riley. Lead him to her."
Logan looked at Riley. He was wearing the vest. He synced and the display from Riley's camera came into focus. Logan saw himself. He turned the dog around. "Merrick, Riley will find Sawyer."
"Copy. I'll follow the dog." Hesh nodded and Logan sent Riley around the wreckage. He led him southwest, scanning the trees. Riley stepped over bodies. Enemies were outlined on the screen. He zigzagged back through the canyon. Finally he saw the thicket up ahead. Three trees, growing together. He also saw the outline of an enemy approaching from the opposite side. Logan moved Riley around the thicket, kept him low and slow. He got Riley behind the man then sent the order to kill. Riley was efficient. The man was down.
Logan sent him into the thicket. He had him bark. "Estelle," Merrick said. "It's Riley. Come out." A hand appeared. A woman's hand. Merrick worked to clear the brush. Logan turned Riley around to keep guard.
"Riley, let's go," Merrick ordered. Logan spun Riley around and led him back to the broken section of bridge. Estelle ran to him. She dropped a bag and then dropped to her knees beside him. "You did it!" She laughed as she held him. "God is good!"
Merrick dropped the other bag. He switched off his radio and motioned that Hesh should do the same. "This has got to stop," Merrick said. "We can't risk the men this guy can every time he hunts for Logan." He picked up Logan's mask. "Logan, you need to be less of a target. You need to die here today."
Logan was confused. Hesh was, too. "What do you mean?" He stood up to face Merrick.
"Relax, Hesh." Merrick held up a hand. "We're gonna fake it." He looked to Logan. "Do you think you can stay limp, play dead? Your brother will carry you out."
"He can be a very good actor," Estelle said. She squeezed his hand. "Just pray for God's protection and comfort. Don't be afraid."
Logan nodded. He was afraid. But Hesh was there. Riley was there. The Ghosts were there.
Merrick switched his radio back on. Hesh did likewise. "Kick, we need immediate exfil, can you get the chopper down between the edges of the old Steele Canyon bridge?"
"Just barely," Kick's voice came back on the radio. "Give me cover."
"You got it." That was Keegan's deep voice.
"You'll take Estelle and the Walker boys. Get them back to base."
"Copy," Kick said. "Then I'll come back for you."
The wind picked up as the sound of the helicopter drew nearer. Ghosts sat in the open doors with machine guns firing at the enemies on the bridges. Merrick nodded and Hesh lifted Logan in a fireman's carry. Estelle picked up the mask and Logan willed himself to be limp. I'm dead, he told himself. Just one letter different than deaf.
Hesh laid him into the chopper and Estelle helped to pull him inside. "What the-" Kick started. Then he stopped and just flew. They left the ground and the sounds of the fighting began to recede into the distance. Hesh tapped him on the shoulder and helped Logan to sit up.
They flew over the ruins of the city and on north. Finally, they dropped as they neared a small two story building with a steeple and solar panels on the roof. The church. He was finally home.
Later that night, the three of them waited in the sanctuary. Logan was quiet beside him and Estelle was fidgety. She told Hesh how they had been put off the train by his father. But without their shoes. They had gone south, shadowing the tracks until they came to the border crossing. They'd taken shoes from the dead there. Logan had stolen a radio and keys. One of the guards spotted her and Logan killed him before he had a chance to hurt her. They pushed a jeep down into the canyons and then drove until the gas ran out. They'd worn their civies and pretended to be a deaf couple as they walked through Phoenix. They stopped at a cafe for lunch and the waitress helped Estelle get a wig to blend in better. She was in the resistance and they arranged for them to take a car and get away. They got out and drove. But once they left the car behind, the enemy had shown up very quickly. They'd encircled them. Estelle had hidden in the thicket. Merrick and Keegan entered at that point. Hesh was relieved to see them back.
"We left some survivors on the bridge," he said. "Some who might have seen you carry your brother. We left a radio where they could find it, heard us talking about him being killed. Let's just hope it's enough for whoever it is to buy it." He handed Logan's mask to Hesh. "It's yours now. You'll wear it in honor of your father and brother."
"Logan will get a new mask," Keegan stated. "And a new name."
Merrick leaned back on the pew in front of Logan. "I've been thinking about it. How's 'Phantom' sound to you?"
Logan shook his head. He lifted his left hand and spelled out a word. Estelle smiled beside him. "Gideon," she said.
Merrick nodded. "That works, too."
Logan wanted to believe that being home with Hesh was the end to his issues, the fear, the shaking. But it wasn't the case. He felt a thousand times better but the fear remained. Estelle told him about a man who had attacked her in her bedroom as a teenager. He'd held a knife to her throat at three in the morning. She said three things had saved her. 3am. She wasn't thinking quite right. He never made it to her bed because she met him at the door. God. She stayed calm in spite of the knife poised to stab her in the neck. And finally, the man's stupidity. When they agreed to go outside and talk, he'd walked out first and she'd locked the doors behind him. She said she went to school the next day. Her hands shook when she told the story. They shook for possibly ten years. Logan hoped it wouldn't take him ten years.
That night, he'd gotten cleaned up then Hesh showed him to his room. As soon as Logan sat on the bed he felt exhausted. Riley jumped up on the bed and Logan curled up with him to sleep. When he woke up, Riley was gone. Hesh was waiting for him. "Get dressed," he said. "I'll give the tour." After a tour of the church, they'd gone to breakfast. Everyone else had already eaten. Hesh put some waffles in the toaster. When they popped, he brought out the peanut butter and syrup. "Just like you like 'em." Logan ate them without any feeling of being sick.
He got to see the wider military base when Hesh drove him over to the hospital. The doctors there checked him over, rebandaged his ribs and reset his cast. They set him a nutrition plan and exercise regimen to get stronger. He stayed behind with Estelle when the Ghosts went out on missions. And the fear always rose when his brother was gone. Sometimes Logan woke from nightmares. They were always about Hesh getting captured or dying. Hesh was always there to calm him those nights. He'd sit on the bed with him and remind him that it was just a dream. One night, after a particularly horrid dream where he'd seen Hesh skinned alive, Logan had apologized to Hesh for being such a burden. Hesh had just put his forehead to Logan's and told him. "You will never be a burden to me. You're my brother."
While he stayed behind, he walked with Estelle, met her for reading hour when she'd continue their journey through Middle Earth. He worked out the muscles he was allowed to and ate more and more without feeling sick. Four months later, he'd reached his previous weight. The cast and the bandages were gone, and he was physically strong enough for field work. Merrick didn't push him, but asked if he wanted it. He did. He wanted his life back, all of it. He wanted to not be afraid when he went back out. Merrick started him slow. He kept Gideon on exfil duty with Kick or had him man the remote sniper or control an Osprey. Merrick handed him a sniper rifle and told him to hang back, keep in cover and aim his shots. Gideon found he had a knack for it. Little by little, the shaking had eased. The panic that had inhabited his chest for so long subsided. He was a Ghost again.
He never saw his father again, awake or in dreams. Hesh left that battery on the bedside table for months. Estelle told him his Dad had probably moved on to his reward. Logan liked the sound of that. Merrick and NORAD had worked on the intel that the man who wanted Logan was Director of something. He'd be a man with military power to order such assaults. They finally narrowed it down two years later. Gideon's last mission was to put him down. The shot was over 600 meters in wind and rain.
****** Three years later ******
Hesh stood in front of him. He straightened Logan's collar and pinned his boutonniere. "You look good, Logan Walker."
Logan turned to look in the mirror. He wore a dress uniform for the first time. And finally, the badge on his breast showed his real name, 'L. Walker.' He had a blue ribbon around his neck with a new medal. Hesh had one just like his. Hesh had more battle ribbons on his chest. But Logan also had the Purple Heart for those months he'd missed. But now the war was over. The Federation was defeated by a coalition of North American and European allies. The world was starting to turn right again, and Logan realized that panic in his chest was nowhere to be found. He felt good. Keegan entered the room. He was in dress uniform, too.
"You ready, Hesh?"
Hesh straightened his own uniform and patted Logan on the shoulder. "See ya soon."
He left and Logan was left with just the ring-bearer, Estelle's nephew. She had, it turned out, lots of sisters. She was the second oldest of six. Logan asked the boy if he was nervous. The boy signed back that he wasn't. He'd done this twice before with two of his aunts. Came with being the only nephew.
Logan held the door open for him and they went out into the hall. The music started playing in the sanctuary. It wasn't the usual wedding music. It was Mozart, because, "Well, Mozart." Estelle had a thing for Mozart. She walked out of the waiting room toward him. She looked beautiful in a long white gown, full of lace and sequins. She wore a long veil that hung down her back. One of her sisters arranged the train behind her. Logan signed to Estelle, 'You look beautiful.'
"I'm so nervous," she admitted, signing with one hand while she held her bouquet with the other. "I've officiated weddings, of course. Just my first time being the bride."
'Only time,' Logan reminded her. He kissed her cheek then offered his elbow. The doors in front of them opened, and they walked slowly down the aisle as the people in the pews stood and gawked. Thomas Merrick, down front, looked like he'd seen angel. Hesh just grinned. He was standing beside the best man, Keegan Russ.
Logan passed her to Merrick then stepped back and sat beside Estelle's mother. She took his arm and signed, 'I wish her father was here to see this.'
Logan looked up then replied, 'Maybe he can.'
The End