Thanks to all the people who reviewed, its clichéd, but whatever, its also appreciated and even tho they were all basically saying "don't type shorthand" there were some good plot ideas, so thanks
Ok, I know its been a while, so excuses…again whatever
Apologies for typing in short hand, ill try not to do that in the actual story but otherwise I'm sorry
Even though I'm from Oz I speak to people from other countries all the time on msn so I don't necessarily type "Auzzie"
And the whole cell phone/mobile/moby/phone thing, if you pay attention to the setting of the story then you'll realise that there are some places that's it's almost impossible to have a land line, eg, in the desert! So pay attention and you'll figure it out, but if you're like me and you use a mobile for EVEYTHING then it doesn't really matter
I'll try and work on the dialogue a bit; I know how I HATE reading long descriptions and monologues so I'll try not to do that
Hope you enjoy this chapter!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything….
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Previously on The Long Hard Road
"Les, you don't understand, I love him and I never told him, I thought that I would have forever and now…"
Lester scoped Steph up and carried her through the control room to the lift. He punched in the number for Steph's apartment and just held her while she cried.
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Steph was bought back to awareness with the ping of the lift doors opening.
"Sorry, Les, I don't usually cry or sleep this much."
Lester chuckled and let Steph out of his arms and they walked to her apartment. Inside she went to her bedroom and had a shower. 10 minutes later she was getting them both juices before sitting down at the table.
"Steph, you know that idea of yours was…" he trailed off, unable to find the words he wanted.
"Unconventional?" Lester nodded and Steph continued, "Yeh, I know, but if it gets Ranger out then it'll be worth it," Steph looked at Lester, her eyes asking for him to understand, "There's a lot I would do for him, I cannot rationalise this decision, I can only give it my all and hope it works."
"You sure you want to go through with this?"
She looked at him, hard, "Yes, I do."
"Right then, I think we need to get our shit together, 'cause Ranger's been away for long enough." The mention of Ranger's time away made Steph's breath catch and Lester realised that it probably wasn't the best thing to say.
"Ok, so… now what?" Steph didn't know where to go from here; she hadn't the training that the boys did.
"Now we tell Tank and Bobby, work out a plan and tell the Commander"
"Commander? Who?"
"Guy who trained Ranger, we don't officially work for him but he asks and we provide, mutual benefit and all that shit," Steph smiled, it was all going to work out.
"I guess we better have a meeting with Tank and Bobby then?"
"Sure better, I'll meeting you in the conference room in 2 hours, that will give me enough time to put together a brief for them, prepare a file for you and tell Rangeman's informants that we need info on this situation asap," he smiled at her, "It'll be ok, go and do some more searches and meet me in the conference room in 2 hours, yer?"
"Sure, Les, thank you, you didn't have to help me, I expected to have to fight you guys on this one," Lester smiled gently at Steph.
"Bomber, you can do this, we never doubted that for a second," he gave her a hug and let himself out of her apartment, leaving Steph to do her searches before the meeting.
Once Lester left Steph called her mother, not exactly what she wanted to do, but she hadn't been to dinner for a while, that pretty much constituted being a shitty daughter in the Burg.
"Hello?"
"Mum, its Steph—"
"Stephanie! Are you coming to dinner soon?"
"Gee mum, sarcastic much? No, I called to tell you that I'm going to be away for a while—"
"And then come to dinner? And just how long is 'a while'?"
"Well, I'll be away until I come back and 'a while' is however long it takes—"
"So you're going to just up and go? Why did do I have to have the only daughter who just ups and goes?"
"Can you put Daddy on?" Steph was rewarded with a 'harrumph' but heard the phone being handed over.
"Frank, your daughter wants to speak to you, why she can't be like Valerie I'll never know—"
"MUM! I can hear you!" Steph shouted down the phone, wanting to speak to her Dad but hoping that he wouldn't ask too many tricky questions.
"Stephie?"
"Yer, Daddy, it's me"
"What's your mother saying about you going away?"
"I'm going to have to go away for a while…work got complicated." Steph knew that with her Dad's military background, he could sort of understand having to leave on short notice.
"Would you like me to look after Rex, sweet?"
"Please, Daddy? And it looks like I'm going to have to go soon so do you reckon you can tell Vinnie and Connie and Lula?"
"Stephie? You know that your mother loves you? She just wonders where you came from sometimes…but I think you're your grandmother's granddaughter."
"Thanks, Daddy, I'll leave letters and stuff, and I'll be around sometime tomorrow, I'm not just leaving, there are reasons," Steph some how felt the need to explain her actions, to justify them to those who she loved and loved her back.
"I know, just be safe"
"Ok, bye, I'll see you tomorrow."
"Wait- Stephie, your mother and I both love you, ok?"
"I love you both as well Daddy"
"Bye sweet"
"Bye Daddy"
Steph hung up feeling better but also feeling worse; she was guilt-free where her mother and that she was leaving with a clean slate, but then she was leaving to face she worst fear, a possible life without Ranger, and that scared her breathless.
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Lester is putting the file together (his POV)
I read the package Ranger had gotten to Tank, it clearly stated that Ranger was stationed in South America, just north of Rio de Janeiro, not exactly third world jungle land, but close enough to it.
I decided to call in a favour.
"Go"
"Amra, its Lester," silence, "I'm calling in my favour," more silence, "you from when—"
"I know from when," shit, talking to this woman always made Lester uneasy.
"I have a friend who wants to join your girls, it's a Fed thing"
"Manoso's girl? You sure you wanna call in your favour for his girl"
"Well…you know who she is, god knows how, and you probably already know about her plan"
"Les, everybody knows about the girl, every woman in the underground cried when she came along and stole Manoso's heart. And I do know but it's only because I have girls working with your Feds, damn men can't keep their mouths shut when a pretty lady wants info for sex"
"So you'll help?
"Yer, when will she arrive?"
"In three weeks tops, less if it all goes down proper"
"I'll email you details, I assume you want to operate out of Bosnia again"
"Got it in one, considering that Ranger's being held in Middle Eastern desert"
"Keep an eye on your email, maybe something interesting will turn up, have to go"
Disconnect. Her phone manners were almost as bad as Ranger's, it was a good thing she was hot, sex on a stick hot.
Another interesting thing to note about the case was that this militant group who held Ranger now didn't appear to have any networks outside the Middle East. Granted that was a large enough area already, but it didn't explain how Ranger got to where he was from his South American post.
BREIFING: 2/10/06
SUBJECT: CARLOS 'RANGER' MANOSO- RESCUE
PRESENT: 7463-69828326-9733
8463-29476384-0283
5394-62837329-9274
GIVEN INTEL:
Origin: South America: Chile
Team Origin: Special Forces
Member Alpha
Current: Middle East:
Status: Held by آلهات مطرقة
This was followed by several pages of maps, a possible plan of action, contact lists, backgrounds of Ranger's team members and the histories of both the mission he was on and the group that he was currently being held by.
"Lady and gentlemen, as you can see, this mission is not a simple case of in-out-get away fast. We must infiltrate this group before hand to investigate the way they work and so that when Steph arrives she can be um…"
"Lester, we all know that this plan is going to be shot to shit if I end up doing the guard and not the prisoner"
"Yes, that was my point," Steph smiled at Lester it wasn't often that he got so embarrassed and was taking in every minute of it. "So if you've all read your files, I think that we need to talk about training."
"She's not trained for this situation; in fact, her background shows that she had no training at all!" This particular Fed, a Mr Segno, was getting on Stephanie's nerves, but she let Bobby handle it.
"Mr Segno, Steph has all the training she needs, if you would like she can do a four day course, but we plan on having her in Bosnia within three weeks"
"Three weeks? Mr Brown, this is suicide! You expect that she can be made into a whore in three weeks? I guess that means she must be one already—"
He was cut off as both Bobby and Lester threw themselves at him, bring them crashing to the floor, rolling around, knocking over chairs bumping into walls.
The Tank, having made his way round that table dragged Lester off while the other Fed present, Mr Wealden, restrained Bobby.
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Stephs POV (patching up Lester and Bobby)
"God guys, he was just getting you heated up!"
"But he called you a whore!"
"Les, every second skip calls me that! It doesn't make it true. If I was a whore then wouldn't I be sleep with all of you?"
"Well…"
"Exactly. And you Bobby! What will I do with both of you?"
"Aww Steph, he only managed to land a few between us. If you ask me he's the one that needs training!"
Both Stephanie and Lester laughed at Bobby's dig at Segno, "But I really should have defended my own honour!"
"But you shouldn't be fighting in a conference room, it's not dignified!"
"Bobby… then what were you doing?"
Just then Tank walked in, "He was ruining relationships, as it is Segno has been admitted to Trenton General with a broken nose and was have to bring another Fed in on the action"
"Sorry"
"Sorry"
"Sorry"
"Don't you be sorry Steph, you're not the one beating up someone trying to help you. As for you, Lester and Bobby, you can each have surveillance for then next three skips"
"Can we—"
"No, you cannot spit them between yourselves! Nor can you swap them for intel or control room duty"
Stephanie laughed again, god these guys made her laugh. The group convened back to the conference room were Mr Wealden was waiting to finish the meeting.
"Mr Wealden—"
"Call me Scott, and I'm awfully sorry about Segno, he had no right to accuse Miss Plum of being a whore, I know that we all take different aliases to complete jobs
"Soctt, there was no harm done, Steph knows that the accusation does not reflect your opinions"
"Well, gentlemen, if we have that sorted I would like to discuss how on Earth you planned on getting me in there, I didn't get time to read that part of your briefing because of your little stunt. I love you for defending my honour and everything but I was more interested in the plan then my reputation."
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آلهات مطرقة: Gods Hammer
Ok, first, asap is pronounced ay-sap, not ay-ess-ay-pee.
Second, military stuff isn't really my thing so if y'all know anything about that I would appreciate it if u emailed me
third, I sort of know were I'm going thanks to Mems (love you long time) and a few other people, but again, email me if u want a specific plot direction and ill probably take most of it on board!
Izi xx