CONQUERED
Chapter 11
Alexis and Michael really didn't have any trouble finding a 93-foot boat with those colors anchored just off of the peninsula that Rick had pointed out to them before they had even left.
Michael was doing the sailing, and Alexis was standing there waving.
"Hello, Alexis!" Anderson knew her from the pictures he had taken of her in the past. Not to mention, those long orange locks of hers were hard to miss.
"Can you follow us? It's about an hour back," Alexis yelled to him.
"Right behind you!" Anderson headed for the bow to activate the motor to lift the anchor. Then he had to get the mainsail up and get the boat turned the right direction.
Anderson learned quickly that his big boat was slower than theirs. Still, he only had the one sail out. He was betting if he could get all the sails out, all five of them, he could leave them in his wake. As it was, he was losing ground little by little. At least he could still see them, so he wasn't going to lose them.
O~O~O
Alexis and Michael had slowed way down and let him catch up. "It might be best if you anchor out here. The turns inside are a little tight for you." Alexis was thinking 93 feet was a bit much for where they were going.
"I have a tender. We'll be right behind you." Anderson lowered his lone sail and went far forward to drop anchor, then he had to roll up his sail into a tight bundle in case of a storm.
"You get to keep your vest on," Anderson told Libby. He put her in the tender and lowered her and it at the same time. Then he climbed down and unhooked it, started the motor, and headed into the bay. He quickly caught up to Alexis and Michael. They had to go slowly since they were using all of their sails, trying to save on gas.
"WOW! Would you look at that!" Their destination came into view. He knew Richard was rich, but this was something else. None of the buildings were overly tall. He spotted at least two greenhouses right off. He finally looked to see where Alexis and Michael were going. They appeared to be headed for a boathouse, so he followed them.
He found his own place to tie off and immediately saw they had a welcoming committee.
Anderson lifted Libby onto the dock, but she stood right where he put her and then hid behind his legs when he joined her.
"Hello, Richard, Katherine, Martha." Of the three he was betting Martha was going to give him the most trouble.
"Chris?" Martha stood there, thunderstruck. She hadn't seen or heard from him since that single encounter. The day he had given her Richard. She had Richard, so she wasn't sorry.
"Chris? I thought your name was Anderson?" Rick didn't understand, and how did his mother know him?
"It is. Anderson Christopher Cross. It's my real name."
"Hi, sweetie." Kate got down on her knees. "You want to come see me?" She was hiding behind his legs and she looked so cute. She had olive-toned skin, bright green eyes, and dark red curly hair. She was also very thin. Like she wasn't eating enough.
Kate saw her shake her head. "I promise I won't hurt you. I would never do that. I just want to hug you." Kate watched as she looked up at Anderson like she was asking for permission or if it was safe.
"Go ahead. Maybe she can feed you something we don't have." Anderson gave her a little push.
"How about strawberries? I think we still have a few." Kate looked at Laura who nodded. "Come on. I promise you can have all of them." Libby walked to her, and Kate reached out to embrace her and hug her to her body.
That seemed to break the damn, and Libby began crying. "You're okay, sweetie. You're okay." Kate got up, picked Libby up, and carried her with her. She might be six, but she felt like she weighed almost nothing. Laura was right behind Kate.
Anderson watched Martha walk up to him. "It's been a long time, Martha." He was both happy to get to talk to her and a little scared. Him scared? Nothing really scared him except her, it seemed.
Martha reached back and slapped him as hard as she could.
"Mother!" Rick was shocked. His mother had never done anything like that before.
Anderson rubbed his cheek. "I suppose I deserve that. I've been watching to make sure the three of you were all right. That what I did do for a living didn't reach you, and if it had, I would have been there."
"Why did you hit him, Grams?" Alexis was just as shocked as her dad. Her grandmother didn't do things like that.
Martha glared at Chris. "Richard, meet your father. The man who loved and left me, leaving me to raise a son alone."
"MY FATHER?" Rick gaped at the two of them.
Alexis questioned whether she had just heard correctly. "GRAMS?"
Anderson cleared his throat and tried to explain. "I worked for the CIA. I cleaned up the messes people – agents, usually – got our country involved in. Mostly that meant killing people, and I'm really good at it. I spent time recovering the stolen items and making sure whoever it was didn't steal them again. You wouldn't believe the trouble our country's agents could get themselves in.
"I have a lot of enemies, and if they ever found out about you three, they would use you against me. Perhaps kill all three of you. I did help when I could, but I didn't spend a lot of time in the States."
"You're a hired killer?" Dean was listening while everyone else was just standing there, mostly in shock.
"For the United States Government, yes. But I'm not the hired killer you're thinking of. I've killed more than my fair share of those, them and the people that hired them. I'm retired now, thanks to the aliens. Hell, all of the CIA and even the FBI are pretty much retired." Based on what he knew, there almost was no government at all.
"Richard, you were ten or twelve years old and you were in a book store. And someone bought you a copy of Casino Royale. Do you remember that?" Anderson could see the moment when Richard did remember.
"You! That was you?" He hadn't really looked at him all that hard, but he did look a little familiar now. "I got into writing because of that book." Rick saw him nod once.
Anderson tried to refresh Martha's memory. "Martha, there was a time when you hadn't had a play in almost two weeks and were running low on money and food. A person showed up at your door, and told you she was from the Kershaw Food Bank, and that what she had was for you."
"There was enough food in that package to last us two weeks. I even found money in it. Except I couldn't find them to give the money back." Martha stared at him, not sure she could believe it. "That was you?" Martha looked at him with new eyes.
"Indirectly. I couldn't let it lead back to me. I tried to do what I could, when I could," Anderson told all of them.
Dean knew these three or four had a lot to talk about, but he was curious about something. "So tell us about Libby."
"I'll give you the short version. About Libby. After the aliens showed up and started broadcasting their laws, I knew that things were going to change. I was in Mexico at the time and had a CIA jet at my disposal, and yes, I do know how to fly. So I flew to the Northwest and gave the CIA my termination notice.
"There was a family who wanted to get rid of their boat, so I bought it and began buying all the food I could lay my hands on. I still have entire crates of canned food sitting nearly everywhere on the boat. What I don't have is a lot of fresh fruit. Anyway, while I was out, I ran into her. She was all alone, trying to hide, and scared to death. Believe it or not, I had chocolate on me and used that to entice her to come out.
"Eventually I got her to talk about her parents, sort of. She didn't really talk, but she took me to them. Or rather, their clothes. From that, I was able to get pictures, money, and hotel keys. She knew where the building was, but not their hotel room.
"That was where I got a suitcase full of her clothes for her along with every picture I could find. Her mother was a young Latina. She had olive skin, dark hair that curled in ringlets, and what looked like amber-colored eyes. Her father was a redhead. He had a dark red beard and pale skin. Based on that, I think she got her mother's skin color and curly hair, and her father's hair color and green eyes.
"I try to get her to eat, but it's like pulling teeth. I have a large supply of canned vegetables but I can't get her to eat any of them." Anderson shook his head. "I have lots of room, and she seems to like me and trusts me. I bathe her, change her clothes, and try and keep her occupied. Then you called."
"That sounds like Richard." Martha glared at her son.
Anderson smiled at her. "It's so good to see you, Martha. You're still one of the loveliest women I've ever met."
"Still trying to be sweet." Martha was conflicted. She didn't know how she felt about seeing him again. Over the years she had searched for his replacement and had always come up short.
"Alright, everyone to the kitchen." He wanted to catch up to Kate and Libby. He was the one that knew how to raise a little girl around here, and that didn't include Kate.
"So, are you truly my grandfather?" Alexis needed to be sure.
"Yes, Alexis, I am. I even have a few pictures of you that I took myself. I watched without trying to interfere. I really do have enemies, assuming that they're still alive."
"The aliens killed her parents?" Dean shook his head, feeling bad for the little girl.
"I believe so. I'm concerned that she may have seen it happen. That might explain why she doesn't sleep well and doesn't eat well."
"Poor dear." Martha could feel her heart reaching out to the little girl. "We can fix that." To Martha's thinking, they had come to the right place.
O~O~O
They all entered the dining room and saw Libby sitting between Kate and Laura, eating what might be all the fresh fruit they had. One after the other, like she was starved to death.
"She doesn't eat like that for me," Anderson mentioned.
"You're not a woman, Chris." Martha used the only name she really had for him.
Anderson sat directly across from Libby. "Do you like fruit?" He watched as she got shy again and stopped eating.
"You eat all you want, sweetie. I can grow more eventually." Laura was able to coax her into eating again.
"She's sweet. She's been crying a little while she eats," Kate said quietly.
"She has someone who is the same age as her mother that's looking after her," Martha pointed out.
Kate began to panic. She had done that automatically, and suddenly Martha was saying the magic word, Mother. She wasn't anyone's mother. She couldn't even get Rick to make love to her, to even risk getting pregnant.
But Kate fought it down. "Where does she sleep? We're fresh out of beds." Kate would give up her side if she had somewhere else to sleep, but she didn't.
"With me. I have four bedrooms, and one of them is hers. All of her clothes are there. I may not have fruit, but I do have more than enough food for the two of us." Anderson wasn't ready to let go of her. He might not be a father, but he was willing to give it a try.
"I guess that can work. Please bring her over as often as you can," Kate urged him. "We have a lot more space than a boat does."
"It's a big boat, Kate. It looks a little weird. Kinda reminds me of a Chinese Junk or something," Alexis said.
"A Phinisi Schooner is Indonesian, and most of them are built there. How it got all the way over here, I have no idea. I didn't ask them. I was just happy to get it. I had planned to do a lot of fishing and catch wild salmon," Anderson told them. "You like fish, don't you?" he asked the little girl in a soft, quiet voice. Libby smiled, nodded, and snatched another strawberry to eat slowly.
O~O~O
Anderson was talking to Rick, Martha, and Alexis. Kate was just joining them after coaxing Libby to lie down for a nap in hers and Rick's bed. Dean and Laura left to give them some privacy.
"She's asleep. She asked me to sing to her." Kate sat down next to Rick so she could be close to him.
"You seem to be taken with her," Rick mentioned since he hadn't ever seen Kate act like that.
"She lost her parents, and I can relate to that. If I can prevent what happened to me from happening to her, then I'm going to try. I've made enough mistakes with my life, I'm not adding her to that list."
"We're out of beds, Kate. None of our bedrooms are all that big. They simply happen to be separated from each other by a lot." Hell, she and Michael had to walk just to get to one of the bathrooms. Granted, it was covered but they still had to go outside to reach it.
"Maybe not." Martha thought perhaps Libby could have hers if she moved to Chris's boat.
Rick looked at her and wondered what she was thinking.
Anderson was somewhat surprised, given Martha's welcome. "We can talk." It didn't have to be today or even tomorrow.
"Where are your two friends?" Anderson inquired. "They should be here for what I have to say."
"I'll find them." Michael got up and left.
"He's a good kid," Anderson declared since he had just volunteered himself instead of ordering Alexis to do it.
"I like him." Alexis smiled, knowing that she more than liked him. She also loved all the sex they were having.
Dean and Laura walked in behind Michael. "You wanted us?"
"This is mostly for Kate, but it concerns Richard and the rest of you as well." Anderson needed to figure out just where to start.
"I know for a fact that certain US Senators were visiting the Mexican border to discuss the fence between us. They wanted to talk to Border Security about the number of illegal drugs passing across the border.
"We all know that a lot of the illegal drug trade crosses that border, if not actually starts from there. The senators were still there when all this started. Since the aliens killed all communications by sending out those laws of theirs, they ended up trapped there."
"And we need to know this why?" Rick queried.
"I'm getting to that. One of them was William H. Bracken, which in itself is something of a joke. Inspecting the drug trade across the border. How ironic can you get?" Anderson shook his head.
"Bracken is one of the US Senators for New York State. He also happens to run the single largest drug distribution network in the entire country."
"WHAT!" Kate stared at him.
"He runs the single largest heroin distribution network in the entire United States. He uses the money to fund his senatorial campaign and had plans to use that money to buy his way into being elected president," Anderson told them. "Pretty ironic, huh?"
"You know this for a fact?" Kate asked him.
"I do indeed, Kate. Don't forget the CIA learns all kinds of things that are taking place outside of the States. Our challenge is to get the FBI to listen to us. The two agencies simply do not get along," Anderson pointed out.
"You said had plans?" Rick asked him.
"Before I answer that, I have one more thing to tell you," Anderson began to say. He looked at Johanna Beckett's daughter. "Pay attention, Kate. I don't know for a fact, but I have good reason to suspect this. Let's activate our Wayback Machine."
"Yes, Mr. Peabody." Dean smiled at him and saw the look his wife gave him. "What? I watched cartoons when I was little. Stuck my nose right in front of the TV, no less."
"I still love you." Laura kissed him.
"Bracken started out as an assistant DA for New York City. He was still there in early 1999." Anderson looked at Kate since this was her clue. "Now he didn't have that massive drug ring back then; that came later. But he still needed money to advance politically. It takes a lot of money to be a senator, let alone president.
"This is where your Captain Montgomery comes into play." This time he focused on Kate.
"Roy." Kate needed to think. "BRACKEN!" Kate thought she had two plus two and it equaled Roy and her mother.
"Bracken, as he rose in power, needed to get rid of people that got in his way. I'm still not sure just how he was able to do it, but he gained access to a number of hired killers. Both lowlifes and highly skilled ones. Military trained ones, no less. People that learned from the Gulf War that they liked killing.
"How he was going to keep them silent after he made president is a good question, but I'm sure he had a plan."
"My mother." Kate needed to know, she really did. This was her life. She had dedicated it to finding out who had killed her mother.
Kate felt Rick take her hand. That had her looking at him and squeezing his. She was still here and listening, and she still loved him and trusted him.
"Now this is where I don't know things for a fact. However, Coonan was one of those killers amongst others, as I'm sure you know by now." Anderson watched both her and Richard nod.
"Why did your mother have to die? That I don't know. Why you had to die was because you wouldn't give it up. He couldn't let you find out and stop him, so you had to die, too." Anderson told her, told them.
Martha reached out to touch her. "Are you alright, Katherine?"
"I'm fine, Martha, I'm fine. So where is he now?" Of course she couldn't really do much about it. If she was hostile toward him, she would die. "Wait, have the aliens killed him? He has to have violated one of their laws."
"Technically, the aliens didn't kill him directly, though they did have something to do with it. This is a question for Dean. How did you get here from New York City?"
Dean gave Anderson the short version. "I own a Global Bombardier. Leaving was easy, but landing here was more of a challenge. Since I had the fuel, I overflew Victoria International several times and had everyone looking out windows to attempt to see if there was any free runway.
"There was, but it was going to be close. I think I landed on the very edge of the runway, burned the brakes, and had a flat tire trying to stop. There was communication since we waited till after those 30 days, but no one was in the tower."
"Lucky you. To answer your question, Kate, Bracken, and the other senators, left the border and boarded their military Cessna jet. And much like you, they ran into a problem: Where to land and could they land?
"Long story short, they crashed, killing everyone onboard. I was able to watch the airport video of the landing. It was spectacular." Anderson used his hands to show an enormous explosion. "So, you could say the aliens killed him, but he is most assuredly dead.
"Provided, of course, that he and the other senators were onboard. Still, there's no reason to think that they weren't. To know for sure, you would need to search the entire fenced area where they were, in addition to the region between there and the plane.
"Could they have driven it? Senators that are full of themselves?" Anderson shook his head. "Far too privileged to put up with that shit. Imagine senators with a rental car and no food, buying what food they could find all the way from Mexico to New York City? Don't make me laugh.
"On second thought, make me laugh. I could use a good laugh." Anderson chuckled since to him it was funny.
"You okay?" Rick squeezed her hand to get her attention.
"I don't know. I honestly don't know. I wanted justice for Mom, but is this justice?" For her, justice was having her mom's killer living out the rest of his miserable life in prison.
"Vengeance, Detective, and justice can be a fine line. He has paid for his crimes. Keep in mind that I don't know for a fact that he ordered your mother to be killed. Just that he had an association with hired killers like Coonan.
"However, I find great irony in that the single largest distributor of illegal drugs died because he was feinting caring about illegal drugs to the voters. Playing at trying to save them from drugs, while at the same time doing all he could to kill them." Anderson loved that part of it.
"Karma," Rick offered and watched his father nod. "For money."