Family Honor

Chapter 1: Rebirth of Memory

Kurz crept into the small berth he shared with Sosuke on de Danaan and closed the hatch as quietly as he could, locking it behind him. He didn't want any interruptions today. Silently, he stepped over to his footlocker and opened it. He glanced over his shoulder, afraid his somber bunkmate might walk in on him. He closed his eyes for a moment, lowering his head and allowing one small tear to escape.

With renewed determination, Kurz dug deep, all the way to the bottom of the trunk. After a moment of searching, he found it. A photo album, the only thing he kept with him from his old life. No one on de Danaan even knew he had it. There were memories in the small book he held in his hand. Three years ago today, he thought, swallowing a hard lump in his throat.

He sat heavily on his bunk. Leaning back, he opened the book. He already had the page marked, a relic of the previous two years of performing this ritual. But this is the first time I've had to do this alone.

There they were, exactly as he remembered them. His family. The fifteen-year-old Kurz smiled stupidly back at him. His sister, Angela, who had raised him entirely on her own since she was sixteen. Jack, Angie's husband, who had also been his teacher. His breath caught as his eyes fell on the baby—his little niece, Natalie.

Nattie had been five months old when the picture had been taken. Sniff. Kurz wiped away the tears he was now unable to resist. It had been the worst day of his life. Angela had stumbled through the front door of their house, having only just returned from a mission. He could see that her face, so like his own, was a mask of agony. Thank god, he'd thought, that I don't have to tell her. He watched her sink to her knees, unaware of her surroundings. She sat there in numb shock for a long time.

Kurz stepped across the room. He hesitated a bit before placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. "A-Angela?"

She looked up, seeing him for the first time. "Kurz!" she cried as she clung to him, pouring her grief into his young shoulders. It was the first time he had ever seen his sister cry.

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"Why did you lock the door?" Sosuke asked.

Kurz jumped, dropping the photo album on the floor.

"What's wrong with you?" Mao asked, an annoyingly cheerful grin on her face. How had the two of them managed to get in here without him hearing them?

Before he could react, Melissa snatched up the album and opened it to that page. "What's this?"

Kurz tried to grab it from her, but she was too quick.

"Wow. You were cute. Are these your parents? They look pretty young."

"My sister and brother-in-law. Now give it back!"

"All right, all right," she said, handing him the book. "You don't have to be so crabby about it."

Kurz quickly buried the book at the bottom of his footlocker once more, facing away from his friends to regain his composure.

He heard them settle onto the bunks. "I never knew you had a sister, Kurz," Melissa said after a moment.

Kurz said nothing as he took a seat on top of his trunk and began sharpening a knife.

"So where are they now? I saw your sister was wearing a U.S. Air Force uniform. Is she still in the service?"

"Yes." Why won't she just go away? he thought angrily.

"The baby's your niece, huh?"

He nodded.

"How old is she now? Is she in school yet?"

Kurz scraped harder on the stone. "She's dead."

Melissa gasped softly. "I-I'm sorry. What…How did it happen?"

Kurz put down the knife and stone. "Jack and the baby were killed by a drunk driver two months after that picture was taken."

Mercifully, Mao remained silent.

"If you don't mind, I'd rather not talk about it."

"Okay," she said. "C'mon. We've got work to do anyway."

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Angela sat in cold silence, staring back at the reporter who had come to grill her. "Captain Davis!" the woman began excitedly, her face afire with intense curiosity. "Is it true that you're the daughter of the infamous mob boss Luciano Rizetti?"

She didn't respond.

The woman continued, unperturbed. "Where is your brother now? I'm told that he hasn't been seen on the base for more than a year."

Still nothing.

The reporter tried one more time. "You've been charged with a felony kidnapping. Not to mention lying to the Air Force when you joined up. Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

Angela noticed a guard entering the room off to her left side and slightly behind. She turned her head toward her. "I haven't had my phone call yet."

"Captain Davis' time is up, Ms. Donnelly. You'll have to come back another day." The guard spoke gruffly and shooed the reporter and her camera crew out. "We don't normally let prisoners use their cell phones, Captain," the guard said after clearing the room.

"The number is on my speed dial. I don't have it memorized." It was a lie, of course. Angela Davis had an eidetic memory, but very few people knew that. It was better to let people underestimate her.

The woman nodded. "The warden is allowing it just this one time. We don't get many heroes in here."

Angela nodded in response. "Thank her for me."

The guard opened the handcuffs and handed her the phone. They were allowing this because cell phones weren't normally secure, and they could easily find out who she was calling. What they didn't know was that, among other things, Angela Davis was a much more brilliant engineer than anyone knew. She had modified her cell phone so that if this number were ever dialed, its memory chip would fry itself as soon as she hung up. Please let him answer, she thought desperately as she dialed the number.

"Hello?" she heard almost immediately. She nearly sagged with relief.

"Ciao, little brother," she greeted him in Italian.

"I don't understand. What's happening?" he replied in the same language. "I just heard the news…"

"I don't have much time, kid." She gave him a brief synopsis of what had happened. "I'm okay. I need you to stay where you are."

"But…"

"No buts. I mean it. Where are you now? Are you still with them?"

"Yes."

"Good. Now listen carefully, I don't have much time. I have to get out of here before Father's men come for me."

"I'll come get you myself!"

"No! I already have a plan, but I can't execute it if I have to worry about you. Do you understand?"

He sighed. "Yes. I understand. There's just one thing I need to know, sis. Why now? After all this time, why are they coming after us now?"

She sighed heavily. "They found out something about me. Something I've been keeping from you. I'll explain it all when I see you."

The guard tapped her watch, indicating that she was out of time.

"Look, kiddo, I have to go. Make sure you destroy your phone when you hang up. Be safe."

"I love you."

"I love you, too." She hung up, entering the code that would signal her carrier's computer not to log the call before the guard crossed the room. "Again, my thanks," she said, switching back to English. The guard merely nodded as she escorted Angela back to her cell.

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"Well?" the dour FBI agent demanded when the guard entered the warden's office. "Who did she call?"

"I don't know, agent. She was speaking Italian," she told him as she handed him the phone.

"She must have called the family to rescue her," the agent's young partner offered.

"No," the agent replied. "The break with her family was genuine. She must have called her brother." He handed the phone to his partner. "Find the number."

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Kurz was playing ping pong with some of the guys in the rec room at the base. Melissa had the TV remote and was randomly flipping through channels. He hardly noticed that she had stopped on a news channel until he saw Angela's picture on the screen. "Hey look!" Mao shouted. "It's Angela Davis."

"Davis? The AS pilot?" one of the women asked excitedly.

Without a word, Kurz left his game, grabbed the remote from Mao and turned up the volume.

"A shocking development at Air Force Base in , California this morning. Captain Angela Davis, known by some as the first female AS pilot, was arrested this morning on charges of felony kidnapping. Apparently, Captain Davis is actually Angelina Espinosa, the wife of the late drug lord Carlos Espinosa and the daughter of alleged mafia magnate Luciano Rizetti. Mrs. Espinosa is charged with the abduction of her brother Vincent Rizetti." They showed a picture of Kurz at Angela's first wedding. He felt all eyes on him as the report continued. "Mrs. Espinosa has made no statement other than to say that her brother is safe. Reports from base personnel indicate that Vincent had been living with his sister until fourteen months ago when he suddenly disappeared. A search is currently underway. Mrs. Espinosa is also wanted for questioning in the death of her late husband. We will continue to bring you updates as the story unfolds."

Grimly, Kurz turned off the television. Ignoring the curious faces around him, he shoved his way out of the rec room. Once in the corridor, he launched into a full sprint to his quarters. He locked the door behind him and ruthlessly dug through the cabinet where he kept the phone Angela had given him.

"Take this and keep it hidden," she had told him. "If I ever call you at this number, it will mean that things have gone bad, and I'll have to leave myself. After you hang up the phone, the memory chip will self-destruct, but you'll need to physically destroy the phone just in case."

"I don't understand, Ang. Why aren't you coming with me?"

"My disappearance right now would draw too much attention. I can tell everyone, that I sent you off to college."

"Why can't I stay with you?"

"There's more going on here than I'm allowed to tell you. All I can say is that I can't protect you anymore, so I'm sending you to a place where you can learn to protect yourself. Remember. Let yourself be a mystery. Once you get there, your past won't exist anymore."

"Just like before?"

She nodded sadly. "Yes. Just like before." She hugged him fiercely one last time. "Now go. Be safe."

The memory was banished by a pounding on the door. "Kurz? Open up!" It was Mao.

Not now, he thought, willing her to leave him alone. "Go away!"

"Open up, Sergeant! That's an order!"

Growling under his breath, he crossed the room and opened the door. "I said go away, Mao."

"What's going on, Kurz? Was that you?"

He was saved from having to answer by the ringing of the phone. "Hello?" She spoke to him in Italian, and he answered in the same language. When the conversation was over, he set the phone in the middle of the floor, took out a pistol and blew it into a million pieces.

"A rather dramatic display, Sergeant."

Kurz looked up to see Lieutenant Commander Kalinin standing in the doorway.

Kurz and Melissa immediately came to attention and saluted. "Sir!" they said in unison.

"As you were." They both relaxed.

"Sir. The news…" Kurz began.

"I know, Sergeant. Come with me. We need to talk."

"Yes, sir." Kurz put away the gun and followed Kalinin to the Captain's office.

"Close the door and have a seat, Mr. Weber," Captain Testerossa ordered.

He complied and sat in uncomfortable silence, feeling as though he were waiting for an execution.

Tessa's soft voice broke the silence. "The story you told when you first came to us was obviously incomplete, Mr. Weber. Given the serious nature of the present circumstances, I think we need to hear everything."

Kurz hung his head for a moment, not wanting to remember. Slowly, painfully, he began to tell the tale…