Murphy's Law
"Be kind, rewind. Your father was Clay's General? For real?" Jensen gives a small laugh, continuing to talk though I was unable to keep up with his ramblings. I stare at him a moment longer and open my mouth to try and reply to his questions, but shake my head and look to Clay.
"Is he ADHD?" I ask, listening to Jensen continue on. Clay shrugs with a smile.
"Shut up Jensen!" Pooch yells, though Jensen seems to either ignore him or just doesn't hear him. Jensen continues to ramble and I see Clay become aggravated. Obviously the entire team had a problem with Jensen's motor mouth.
"Jensen shut the hell up!" Clay snaps and then looks back at me, "Who hired you?"
"Some guy named Max, who thinks it's real hot to have a woman doing his dirty work, might I add." I reply and then roll my eyes, mumbling about Max being a creep, "I'm supposed to watch an Al-Fadhil. Know him?"
"That's who we're here for too." I look over at Pooch and knit my eyebrows together.
"You're here to kill him?" I ask, looking back to Clay.
"You have to ask?" Clay returns with, a small smirk making its way to his lips.
"Two contracts; serving two different purposes with a similar mark?" I ask softly and then bite on my bottom lip.
"You're supposed to save him?" Clay asks, his own eyes narrowing in suspicion. I shake my head as I try to work out my thoughts. Why would someone send me to save the children if they were already having their captor taken out? It didn't make sense.
"Oh, oh, oh!" Jensen's outburst catches each of our attention, forcing us to look at him. He gives a holler of a laugh as he stares down at a small screen in his lap, "I've locked on the house."
"Alright, call it in." Clay tells him and looks over at me, "Might as well do this together, Rhos. Especially if we're not contradicting each other here."
"Yeah alright." I agree, seeing no reason not to work with them. I walk closer to the side of the hill by where the sniper was crouching. I pull out my binoculars from my pack and then toss it onto my back, looking down at the village below.
Something just didn't feel right. First off, I had yet to see any children on the premises. Secondly, Clay was here to take out Al-Fadhil. And thirdly, well thirdly was this mysterious Max character that refused to show his face.
"Aerial, coordinates are locked and being sent to you now." Jensen speaks into the walkie as I scan across the ground. I watch several guards walking through the small village and up to the house, little people trailing behind them, guards picking up the back in case of escape.
I quickly do a double take and then pull the binoculars from my eyes, not sure if I was really seeing what I thought I was. I look back at the long line of persons and then tear my eyes from the binoculars again.
"Do you see that?" I ask and then look down at the sniper beside me, pointing in the direction I had been looking in. Cougar looks through his scope again and then lifts his head quickly.
"Si." He replies and then looks over at Clay, "Hay niños ahí abajo!"
"Call off the aerial strike Jensen!" I yell and drop my binoculars to the ground. I run over to the Humvee, "There's children down there! Call off the attack!"
"Are you sure they're children?" Jensen asks and I growl, ripping the walkie from his hands.
"Red light, red light! Children have entered the premises. Cancel your last order!" I let go of the button and an unhealthy static returns my pleas. Jensen pulls the walkie from my hand and clicks the button to talk.
"Repeat. Red light. Children are below. Strike needs to hold." Jensen lets the button go and the static returns. He looks at me and then at Clay, shaking his head, "Some thing's interfering with the signal."
"How very smart you are."
I look at Clay, my eyes narrowing at his silence.
"Who is this?" Clay asks, touching the ear piece in his ear.
'Who is it?' I mouth to him, unaware of what was going on. Clay shakes his head and looks off to the ground as he listens.
"Now now. Formalities are of no use in this situation."
"Who is it?" I ask, looking up at Jensen.
"I don't know, but he's kinda creepy. Got that stalker voice mixed in with the egotistical edge." Jensen replies, shaking his head. I ignore Jensen's little comment and look back over at Clay.
"It's Max." I answer, looking over at him and then up at Jensen.
"So this is Max." Clay speaks up, staring at me.
"Right you are again. This is Max. I bet our little Mother Hen told you that one. She's not supposed to be there, but that's her. Mind of her own and all. She's really something that girl. Strong, intelligent, pretty, and dangerous. Can't forget that one. She's-"
"What's he saying?" I ask, feeling annoyed that I could hear none of the conversation. Clay looks over at me and points to me. I feel slightly taken aback as if I had been hit in the face with a pillow. Why would he talk about me?
I quickly pull on Jensen's arm and make him lean closer to me. I place my ear beside his, trying to listen to the conversation through his ear piece.
"Too bad she's all alone. Real shame that girl has no one left."
"Done confessing your feelings? We have to cancel the last order. There's children down in the village." Clay speaks up, nearly ordering it to Max. I look over at him and notice the strained look on his face. He didn't like children being involved as much as I did.
"Oh I know that already."
I look over at Clay as my eyes narrow. He already knew?
"How?" Clay asks and looks away from me.
"They're there because of me. Did I forget to mention that when I hired all of you? Oops."
I feel my mouth open slightly as my face falls and chest tightens. I get a cold chill over my arms as I take slow and deep breath to steady myself. I feel an array of emotions rushing through me, none of which would help if I were to let them take hold.
"Too bad they all have to die. Rhos will be so tormented with letting them die like her family...but of course you already knew about that. Her brother dieing and all six months ago."
Clay turns back to me and stares, chest moving up and down slowly. I look away from him, his stare burning me as if a conviction of what had happened.
"You have some kind of grudge against Rhos?" Clay asks slowly. I can feel his eyes lingering on me as I try to look anywhere but at him.
"Not really. Her brother was always the pain in the ass. Never followed directions. Did what ever he wanted and his information was always too little too late. That's why I put the hit out on him and not her. She's different. She's better."
My breath hitched in my throat as I stared at Clay. I feel dizzy and sick and my legs feel like they were going to give out. This was him; Max. He was my brother's murderer and I hadn't known. Not even a little. I let go of Jensen and back away.
"So why are you here then?" Jensen asks as he looks over at me. I stare at him and open my mouth to speak, but nothing comes out so I shake my head dumbly. I try to think out every possible answer to the question; why was I here?
"I wasn't supposed to find you." I finally speak up, a realization hitting me in between the eyes. I look over at Clay and shake my head, "I was supposed to be saving the children in the village right now while you sent the aerial strike; killing me and Al-Fadhil."
"Two birds; one very big explosive stone." Jensen gives a small nervous laugh and then quietly apologizes, mumbling some other things under his breath.
"No, you're right Jensen." I reply, looking over at him, "It is two birds; one stone."
"Why does he want to kill you though?" Jensen asks carefully.
"Because I've been looking for him for years. Because I want him dead and I wouldn't stop till he was." I shake my head and then look to Clay, who stares at me. He understood exactly what I did. I was never here to really save the children. I was here because Max was sick of me looking for him, hunting him down like he had hunted my brother down and killed him and my niece.
"Ask him." I growl out, my jaw becoming tight as my teeth clenched together.
"You don't want to hear it." Clay sighs and I knew he was right, but it didn't matter whether or not I wanted to hear it. I needed to.
"Ask him why." I clench my hands into tight fists, "Ask him! Why her! Why Laura!"
"Wait, I thought we were talking about your brother?" Pooch asks, looking from me to Clay.
"We were." I growl out and continue to stare at Clay.
"Who's Laura then?" Jensen asks, looking over at me.
"My dead niece." I spit the phrase out as if it were a curse, "Ask. Him. Why."
"...why did you kill Laura?" Clay asks slowly, almost begrudging me for having him ask at all. I watch him carefully, waiting for an answer.
"Why little Laura?"
"Yeah...why?" Clay speaks and I feel my body tense up more, preparing for what Max's answer would be. Clay slowly looks up at me and stares straight into my eyes.
"Why?" The words sound more like begging then asking as they leave my lips.
"Because I could."
"...because you could." Clay repeats Max's words and I feel myself go numb.
"It's almost show time."
"No, stop the strike." Clay says suddenly and I start to shake my head as I stare at him. I could guess where the conversation was going on between him and Max. Both arguing back and forth; Clay trying to stop the attack while the children sat like ducks in the house below the hill.
Max couldn't do this. They were just innocent children thrown into a situation by a mad man who wanted me dead, who had killed my five year old niece and my brother. I turn towards the tree tops behind me where the hill dipped and where the village sat nestled among the trees. I may be numb, but I was not going to let him get away. This was over.
"Rhos no." Clay orders suddenly, taking a slow step towards me as if I would be startled like a wild animal. I look back at him as his eyes harden, realizing exactly what I was thinking, "No."
I take a step backwards, shaking my head slowly at him. He knew me too well and that was one reason why I had left his squad years ago before my brother. It made it difficult to do what I believed I needed to. He had always stopped me and if I didn't act fast enough now he would stop me again.
"Rhoswen...don't even think about it." Clay says a little lower, "We'll do this together. We will get him back for everything he's done. I promise."
"What's going on? What's she thinkin' Clay? What's she gonna do?" Roque speaks up for the first time as Clay takes another slow step towards me, hands out to me and gently bobbing to tell me to calm down. Roque looks between us again, "What's going on!"
"Hold on a minute!" Clay shouts back at him and the others, his eyes never leaving me, "Rhos we will get them, but we have to do it together."
"Your not part of this Clay. This is personal. You and your team should go, but I'm gonna stay." I reply softly, taking another step back and turning towards the edge of the hill and the village, assessing the slope of the hill, "There's enough time left to save the children. Then I'm going to hunt him down like a dog after this. I swear to God I'll make him suffer."
"We'll do it together."
"Not enough time for that Clay." I give a grim smile, pushing the thoughts of my personal issues into the back of my mind. I needed to concentrate now on what was happening in this point in time, not the past.
"Rhoswen no!" Clay calls out as I spring forward and jump off the side of the hill, landing down in the brush and skidding on the slope of it towards the village. I couldn't let the children get hurt because of me. I just couldn't. I wouldn't.
I run down the rest of the hill, nearly tripping several times because my head was in other places. I could picture her as one of them; one of the captive children. Her little laugh, her little hands, her voice...
Everything had just become so meshed together. The past was the present, the future was my past, present was my future. I couldn't tell what was what anymore. Instinct had just taken over and was thrusting me into the impending danger at the end of the hill.
The one thing I was sure of was that this time Max wouldn't get away with killing someone, especially a child. Not while I was here and more then willing to make a sacrifice to ensure their safety. If I lived through this I was going to find him and kill him like the dog he is.