Chapter 13 New Beginning

On any normal day I could easily kick the handgun out of his hand even with my hands secured behind my back, but I had been observing and tracking through the Rocky Mountains for a week, fought a cougar, still had shrapnel in my ass, and eaten just one power bar and a bit of dried fruit in the last...oh, who knows how many days. My kick was a little low and slow. The gun fired and I flew back several feet after taking the bullet in the chest. My foot knocked Stinson in the ribs throwing him off balance, as he pulled the trigger.

Before the HLS guys thought to raise their weapons at General Gleason, Manoso pushed the general to the ground and covered his body with his own. An Army gunner sent down a ribbon of bullets at the HLS's feet. They dropped their weapons and put their hands up. Carson with his hands still secured behind his back ran towards Stinson plowed him into the ground. Stinson stayed down.

Jack Gleason came running to me. He ripped apart what was left of my camo jacket hoping to find a ballistic vest. It was there. I had left it on when I transferred the jacket to the top for camouflage. Fired near point blank, the .45 had penetrated the vest but was slowed. The expanded slug missed the heart and major blood vessels, nicked the subclavicle artery, shredded the top of the left lung and crashed through the scapula and out the back.

"She needs to be in Denver hospital...now," yelled the doctor.

The general looked at the airship with the medic emerging with supplies, "It's yours."

When I woke up 5 days later in the Denver hospital, Bob was at my side. "Welcome back." I could barely move my eyes.

"You look like hell but you are alive. The bullet missed everything major but still did plenty of damage. Good thing one of the Army helicopters was a med evac with supplies. General Gleason said it was the least he could do for a national hero."

I thought about saying Stinson's favorite phrase, "Bull Shit" but couldn't get the words out.

You found a major weapon and explosives cache, plus enough radioactive stuff for a medium size dirty bomb. There was also a metal working shop and what some think may have been a basic biological laboratory. Add to all 6 Middle East terrorists and the American go between. I shudder to think what we'd be facing it if wasn't for you. Half of Denver might be uninhabitable."

"Marc's toys," I whispered. If it hadn't been for Marc and his gadgets we might have been killed. My brain spun; WMDs, weapons of mass destruction.

"Judging from the vaults and camouflage, there have been people working on the site for well over a year. Nobody noticed." He shook his head in dismay. "This has been a real wake up call for a lot of people. Fortunately it's being kept from the media."

I was wondering how it could be kept secret but realized there were not that many people living in the area. I didn't think cattle talked among themselves.

"General Gleason says when you recover he'd like to offer you a job back with the Army. He said something about special ops and contracts."

What the hell did that mean? Mercenary? I scrunched up my nose. I wanted to say, "Like Carlos" but thought best kept quiet. Bob didn't know about Carlos' extra activities. Bob chuckled, "Yeah I thought so." Bob turned towards the door and spoke to someone, "A few more minutes, please."

"I can't remember how much blood you've been given and many stitches it took to put you back together. The under garment company appreciates you fully testing their product," he joked. "Unfortunately it failed the cougar test." I was still groggy but couldn't remember if animal attack was mentioned in the testing criteria.

"Just a heads up, the doctors urge you to stop getting blown up or shredded. They are running out of ways to sew you back together. They are calling you quilt lady." Bob got up, squeezed my hand and said, "Take the rest of week off."

It was a joke of course. I had no use of my right arm and probably wouldn't for some time. He also knew I'd be chomping on the bit to get back to work faster than I should.

Bob was replaced by Fernando Manoso. "Dios mio, my dear you are alive."

I couldn't have been more surprised. "Just barely" I squeaked back. "How, who?"

"Carlos called and said I needed to get here pronto. I've been here 4 1/2 days waiting with Bob for you to come back to us. We've been trading off sitting next to you."

I managed a smile, "You have my heart."

"But, you almost gave it to El Gato. My dear, I've come close to losing you several times now. You are not getting away from me anymore. "

I didn't understand what he meant, but soon would.

There was still much to be straightened out. The fugitive died before I was shot. Out of the six men, only two remained alive, the two Ben and I captured on the trail. All were later identified as major Middle Eastern terrorists. Four lived in the country having arrived on visas. There is no vetting process that can detect terrorists. Simply asking questions is ridiculous. People lie all the time. The two tied to the trees admitted they entered the US from Canada. With a four thousand mile mostly unprotected border with the US, entry is as easy as driving across.

Stinson was fired from HLS initially for gross incompetence for freeing the two suspected terrorists in the cabin allowing one to detonate the explosive devices on the table and injuring an HLS agent. In addition, he was arrested for hijacking a HLS helicopter, commandeering 7 HLS agents, kidnapping a US Army general and four civilians, and of course the attempted murder of me. I don't know if there will ever be a trial. I'm not sure he's competent...or ever was competent.

Ranger Manoso returned to Trenton. HLS wanted to talk to him but call from Washington stopped it. Whether it was General Gleason or somebody else, like his missions handler, I don't know.

Carson quit HLS even though he was offered the Denver field office. He now works for Rangeman Denver as second in command and in charge of field operations. I gladly gave up both positions to stay back in the design center.

Yes, Rangeman Denver, Bob and I agreed on the name change. Several Rangeman employees from the Trenton and Atlanta offices guys have transferred to help with our expansion and new recruits are coming in from Special Forces and Delta, SEALS, and the various military criminal investigative services, military police as well other government agencies.

We have field offices throughout the mountain communities as suddenly the mountains seem like ideal terrorists hide outs. Of course there are all the rich skiers who need their homes protected which help pays for our other work. The super-secret stuff Rangeman Trenton had is now also part of our equipment. Our guys do some other stuff that the government pays for, but I can't talk about that.

My work is now strictly security design. I have no desire to hunt down FTAs or to go around in camo anything anymore. Holding and firing a rifle or handgun still causes pain.

Marc Manoso, several security and design experts from other offices and I are working at producing our own security and detection devices. Maybe someday there will be a Rangeman Industries.

Me personally, I'm now in regular communication with my financial advisor, tango and bachata partner Fernando Manoso. We married six months after I left the hospital. He maintains an office in Denver as well as in New York.

It was during one of our periods in New York I met the woman that has captured Carlos' heart. She is a lovely, natural beauty with incredible blue eyes, white skin and curly long brown hair. This evening her hair looked a little frayed and damaged like she had been too close to a fire or explosion.

Turning to Stephanie I asked, "Care to join me?" Indicating it was women's huddle time in the ladies' room. Carlos raised an eyebrow, "I think Aunt Catherine wants to speak to you alone," he whispered in her ear.

When we excused ourselves from our men and adjourned to the Ladies Room, I reached into my purse and pulled out a small jar. Handing it to her, "I use this on my hair in Colordao to fight the intense sun and drying, let's rub some on your hair now." She looked at me like I was nuts.

"Stephanie, you have lovely curly hair, but it looks a bit fried in spots."

"My car blew up."

"Yeah, they'll it do that."

"Aren't you going to ask why it blew up?"

"No, you work with Carlos; your life is probably filled with adventure."

"You don't know half of it," she muttered.

"Someday we'll have to compare notes. I've known him since he was a 20 year old drugged-out SOB. In fact Carlos' decision to enlist was the result of Fernando threatening to kill him."

Stephanie looked at me, not quite believing what I just said.

"Carlos and I served together in Iraq. We met again when I was with US Marshals and now we are business partners. I know what he gets himself and those around him into."

"But they aren't my fault or his."

"I suspect when it comes to you, they are in part. You expect someone to save you instead of you saving yourself through training and education. That's where we vary, I take care of myself. I don't want someone else constantly looking after me. I share my life, I am not someone else's problem."

She looked at me as if I was a psychic. I expected her to storm out, instead she asked, "What did you and he do in Iraq?"

I bet she is good at distractions, I laughed to myself. "We walked a lot."

"That's it?"

"Yeah, it took up most of our time."

She was frustrated; I wasn't giving her any information on Carlos. I was sorry but only Bob and Fernando know what happened in Iraq and Kuwait.

"Ranger looks like Fernando," she said as she rubbed the cream into her hair."

"Oh yeah, you see Fernando, see Ranger in 15 years."

"I can only hope so," she sighed.

"Aren't you two an item?"

"No, not really. He's my best friend but…"

I wanted to argue with her because he looked at her with adoring eyes. "Why," I asked.

"He's not into commitment," she answered.

I rolled my eyes. "Is he still doing missions?"

She jumped. "You know about those?"

I nodded. "He's not doing them for the money, I'm sure. The idiot does them for the ego and fear he can't stop. Does he say how much time is left on the current contract?"

"No.

"Only way to get him out of them is to make him ineligible through health or mental. Want me to shoot him or otherwise disable him?"

She looked at me like I was nuts.

"There was a time that would have been easy but I'm not the shot I once was. I could take out a knee though. I'll talk to him…...again," I said. "There is another way, you know."

She looked at me confused.

"Pregnancy."

She shook her head and giggled, "He already has a daughter, Julie. She's 13 now. He gave up his parental rights to her because of his work."

"It was his work in the service. Now he's a business owner, he's not playing Rambo all the time. It might be enough to force either him or his handlers to end the contracts."

"Something to consider….."

"But what about you? Can you commit to him?"

"I don't know," she said sadly.

"Are you two waiting for the other to make a move?" I sighed.

She shook her head, "If he were more open..…"

I nodded, "Been there, done that. Took a cougar shredding me to and losing a portion of a lung to make me realize life is too short to be playing that game. You two may not be that lucky. He could end up dead…

….Or me blown to pieces. He says his life is too dangerous."

"Bull Shit." Did I just use a Stinsonism? "That's absurd. You have enemies, he has enemies; does that mean you two are not entitled to happiness? Is there any less pain for the other if one of you is gone tomorrow? Carpe diem. Stephanie."

I stormed back to the table. "You'd better run Carlos, I recognize that look. Thankfully it is not coming for me," Fernando spoke quietly.

I scooted in next to Carlos forcing Stephanie to sit next to Fernando. Taking Carlos' hand gently I immediately put his finger into a strong lock.

He didn't flinch but I knew he was uncomfortable.

I lowered my voice, "Listen asshole, you are to quit this bull shit between you two. You do not renew. You continue watching your back, but move forward together or so help me Mister I will break both of your knees so you can't run away from her again. Do you understand?"

He nodded

"And if you dare call me Aunt Catherine again I will castrate you and pull your balls up through your nose. Understand?"

He nodded.

"Now tell her how nice her hair looks and I'll resent your dislocated finger."

"You hair looks lovely, Babe."

With that I gave his finer a full jerk, heard the pop and eased it back into place. "Sorry I didn't mean to dislocate it, I just wanted your attention."

"You got it."

I had a little first aid package in my purse and fished out the adhesive tape. "You want me to bind your fingers together or not?"

"I'll do it," he mumbled.

"Then I'll get ice and a napkin for the swelling." I signaled the waiter.

Stephanie wasn't sure what went on between Carlos and me. Fernando chuckled and turned to Stephanie, "He's never met anyone quite like her and is always under estimating her."

I stood up and was exchanging places with Stephanie when Fernando's eyes grew brighter. He was listening to the band. "My dear, they are playing our song."

He was right. It was time to tango.