The contracts had all been signed. Everything regarding business had been taken care of. They were due to fly back the next day, and finally be out of Dallas, Texas, and the United States as a whole. While Ethan couldn't wait for it, there was something he did need to do before he left. Something extremely important. Which was why he was sitting in his father's office, across from his parents, while his sister sat next to him.

He took a deep breath as that sat there silently. He, even though he was there, didn't know what to say to them. The other three people in the room remained silent, waiting for him to start speaking. The atmosphere was, tense.

"I leave tomorrow. I felt like I should talk to you again before I did," he finally said.

"I see. We, appreciate it," his mother said.

"I don't know If I will see ya'll again," he was really having a hard time with what he was wanting to say.

"You won't, why," Jennifer asked when he said that.

Ethan took a deep breath, "I don't exactly live a life that would make it easy. This was a very unique case. I, I'm sorry."

"Caleb, you don't have anything to be sorry about. Me and your mother do. We made you into this, we take the responsibility of that. I," his father started, but Ethan cut him off.

"Dad, you, all this started when you came back from Vietnam. I, started to realize what war could do to a person as I grew up jumping between warzones. I don't know what the fuck happened to you in particular, I don't care, that belongs to you. The guy that took me under his wing, Manuel Escoberas, he was training insurgents during the war, uh, and he got back to Mexico and just, kept doing what he had been doing. Cartels paid him, he worked for them. The government paid him to hunt cartels, he hunted cartels," he stopped for a second to gather his thoughts.

"What happened to him, I would love to meet him if possible," his mother said to fill the silence.

"A couple years after I ran away, we were doing escort for an NGO convoy, Médecins sans Frontières. We were running through Columbia, when we stopped suddenly. There was a girl laying half naked and dead looking in the middle of the road. He went up to check the situation, and she turned over and put two rounds in his chest. Turns out it was a F.A.R.C. ambush. I barely got away, and he died right there. He tried to make me better than I turned out, and I miss him everyday. I know it probably hurts hearing, but he was my father for a little over a year," Ethan couldn't stop a small tear from running down his cheek.

"I'm glad you had someone. What happened after that? Were you hurt," his mother continued.

"I somehow managed to drive through and ended up wrecking the truck on an estate in Venezuela. I have no clue how I ended up there, because I wasn't near the border when they hit us. It was one of the noble families. They got me healed up, and I just managed to continue working. The early eighties had a lot of conflict in Central and South America. Eighty three came around, and I managed to hop on a ship headed to South Africa, and they put me to work in the engine room. I turned out pretty good at it. Was a pretty decent way to get around the globe, ended up getting me where I am now."

Robert looked at his son, "I, what should I really call my new client?"

"Sofiya, she prefers to be called Balalaika. I get away calling her by her name since I knew her before then," he said.

"That is actually what I wanted to know. How did you end up meeting her?"

Ethan just shrugged, "Fate I guess you could say. Langley got a hold of me at some point and offered me a contract to train Mujaheddin forces. I would embed in a cell for a few weeks, teach a couple of them that had some sense tactics and logistics, and move on. Eighty four or five, the cell I was with captured, pretty good looking blonde woman. Most of them spoke English, because most of them weren't even from the same countries. Half of them seemed to be upper crust Suadis. So I was able to understand them, and they planned to torture her for information, gang rape her, and then kill her and bury her out in the desert. I was maybe nineteen. They never paid attention to my instruction to leave a guard, so they all went to sleep that night, and I cut all of their throats. I helped her get back to her lines, and left Afghanistan. She tried to do the whole, damsel sleeps with her rescuer deal, but I turned her down on it. Think she has been disappointed by that fact for years now."

"Well, I can kind of see why. Those scars, are a bit of a turn off. I can only imagine how far they go," his mother said.

"According to her, all the way down. I honestly think that the scars make her more beautiful, but this was before she acquired those. I just thought that she deserved better than me. That she still does. I count her as a friend these days, but I can keep it in my pants. Anyways, it was a big fucking surprise when we go to her office for a job, and low and behold, I had seen this woman naked in the desert over a decade ago," he was a little offended by how his mother spoke about Sofiya.

"Honestly Delilah, I agree with him. Those scars, they do something for her. I also don't know whether to say I am proud of you, or if I should start wondering if you are queer or something. Do you, get those, dreams," his father asked,

"Robert, why would you ask th-," his mother turned on his father angrily.

Ethan held up a hand, "I used to most nights. It was like that for years, but the last few months, I started having a lot more, restful nights. There aren't many soldiers or mercs that saw real combat that don't that I've met. It's just hard to forget, the kind of shit you see. The things that you do. It stays with you. I don't know names, and there are so many I didn't see, but every person that I looked into their eyes when I killed them, I still have, their, their face burned into my head."

His father nodded, "Yeah, it definitely sticks with you. I remember being in the POW camp, what I had to do to survive. They, would sometimes stage fights, to entertain the guards. Sometimes they would even pit a POW against a guard who felt up to it. Between POWs, it was always to the death, against the guard, well if they died they weren't worth living. If the guard died, you were punished, but they didn't execute you, they made you watch as another inmate was."

Ethan looked at the man, "So, I guess, that is, what did it?"

He kinda remembered his father going away for a few years. He left in seventy, and came back in seventy five. It hadn't been so bad just after, but a couple of years later, it was just a one eighty. He had never known what caused it, never cared. He just knew that his father just became a violent worthless drunk. It also explained why his grandfather was always able to do something, because he knew what was doing it.

"It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what that fucked up place did to me. I should never have become that. When you left, before the chaplain started helping me, I went off into the woods with my pistol. I literally sat on the tailgate of my truck, off in a holler that your grandfather used to take me hunting in, for a couple of days, trying to get myself ready to put a bullet in my head. When I finally got up the nerve, I had the gun pressed to my head. When I pulled the trigger, the mainspring broke and it wouldn't fire. The hammer just flipped back and forth without doing anything," Robert Coffey at that moment, looked so tired and sad at that moment.

"Dad, I, I never knew. I never thought that I should ask if something was wrong. I was old enough when I ran away that I should have," he could hear that his voice was getting a little shaky, "I am so sorry that I put you in that position."

"Father, you never talked about any of this before. I know what Vietnam was, but I don't really know much yet. You were a prisoner of war," it sounded like it wasn't only Ethan's first time hearing this.

"I don't like talking about it. I don't want you to ever ask me about it again. I was supposed to come home in early seventy two, but, my patrol got caught in a mortar attack while out in the jungle. I think it was the only reason none of us died. The rounds were striking up in the trees and the canopy was keeping the shrapnel from being worse than it was. I don't even know if it was NVA, VC, or even if it could have been American. We got turned around, shrapnel injured a few of us, and damaged our supplies. We ended up wandering into an entire NVA battalion. We didn't go to one of the main camps, rather, one of the hidden ones over in Laos, or it may have been Cambodia. It wasn't right in Vietnam. We never got moved, but we didn't know where we were, and anyone that tried to get away, they brought their mangled corpses back, so we stopped trying. Like I said, they liked making us fight. I think, the guards were actually VC, getting trained up to be sadistic fucks when they got out to the real war. They don't really tell you in the movies, but they don't train you to just give your name, rank, and serial number. You will talk, they already know that, you aren't trained to resist it unless you are intelligence. The interrogators, they only ever asked things they already knew the answer to. Why the fuck would some corporal who had the bad luck to be so damn big that he carried the fucking pig, know anything of value," Ethan could see that his father was starting to get twitchy.

"It's ok. I don't need to hear anymore. I see where it is going. I, forgive you for everything. I already know I wouldn't have ended up any better if I had to go through the same. Jennifer, trust me, you don't want to hear anymore of what he has to say about it. I, never was taken prisoner, by anyone. I came close to dying more times than I would like to think of. It, more than fucks with your head. I can only imagine that having to beat people that were supposed to be your friends to death, I am amazed that you didn't end it when you got back. I don't know If I could have done it," Ethan felt a little relieved when he said that he forgave his father.

"Caleb, I don't want, I don't deserve, I can't be forgiven for what I was. I threatened to murder you, all over stupid shit. I pushed your mother into what she was. I nearly destroyed our family, because I couldn't deal with this shit. My old man was the only one who understood, and he tried to find a way to help me. He tried to get the church to help me, all they did was make money off of me from it. When he died, I tried to drink myself to death. Because I didn't know where to turn at that point. I had made things so bad, that your mother didn't even care to come see me while they pumped my stomach. She was at home getting her brains fucked out, and I can't blame her even now. Not all sins are meant to be forgiven. I know mine aren't," these were the words of a man who tortured himself because of what he had done.

His mother had tears streaming down her cheeks, "Caleb, I know I was more neglectful than, what your father was. We, weren't necessarily the greatest people anyways. I know I didn't treat you like that while he was gone. I wasn't chaste, by any means, but then again he had told me he didn't care, as long as I still loved him when he came back. I did, I even loved him, with everything that happened back then. He just, he couldn't bring himself to touch me, and I let that go to my head, and I should not have. I, never tried to kill myself. I never got mean, or anything like that when you ran away. I had a mental breakdown, and spent a while in an institute. I haven't ever fully recovered, but I was worried when you first walked through the door, that I was falling back into it. I, wish you could stay."

Ethan took a deep breath, "Mom, I don't know that any of us, really deserves forgiveness. Maybe that is only in our heads, but I do forgive you. I never thought I would, nor did I ever intend to see you again. I don't know how things came about like this, and I," he trailed off unable to think of anything else to say.

"Caleb, are you ok? Do you want me to leave you three alone." Jennifer wasn't sure how to read the moment any more.

"No, you, you can stay. I still don't know how to react to having a little sister. Revy is kinda close, but not quite there. I don't even know where to start asking about you," he said to the girl.

"I don't know what to say. I was born after you left. I grew up around the company, and I am home schooled. I always wanted to meet you. I, just don't know what else there is to say," she was as clueless as how to actually be a little sister herself.

"How did the info brokering come around," a big question for everyone.

She got a little shy when the question was asked, "I, am really good at talking to people. I used to go to regular school, and people would tell me things. I started to notice that people would often ask people about things I knew about, and would offer to tell them. Eventually people came to me asking if I could find out things on bullies that they could take to the principal. Eventually I started getting little gifts and such. I soon setup a dead drop, and got together a group of informants. Before I knew it I had everything from cheerleaders to drug dealers giving me information."

"That explains why it seems that you have more clothes than you should with your allowance. At least you have the sense to deliver through a dead drop, but then why don't you do the same with your former informants," Robert asked.

"It is, harder for them to lie, when they are looking me in the eyes. Take someone like Skat, if he only had contact with me through a dead drop, he would tell me whatever just to get a little cash to get high. If he has to look me in the eyes, I can start walking away, and he even will give up things I don't need anything on right then for free. Thankfully, I don't have to deal with him very often. He is, disgusting, and likes to touch places that he really shouldn't. I have an agreement with the Pole though, so nobody messes with me as far as trying to attack me, or rape me, anything like that. The Pole is also a really good informant, but, he is a little more specific on what he gives up."

Ethan was surprised that this teenager was better at such a business, than many of the people he had worked with that were in the business for decades, "Anyways, it does end. That isn't a business for a young girl like yourself. I've seen what happen to brokers, when they outlive their usefulness, or are too useful to the wrong person."

"Wait, what? What do you mean," she suddenly started to pick up on why they were against her side hustle.

"What do you think is the most important thing in a conflict? It is always information. How many men, kind of material, and even how many of them fart at once can fetch a price to an enemy. If you know that info about both sides, what would be the best option for one side or the other," her father said.

"I don't know."

"Torture the broker for the info on the enemy, and then execute them to keep your own secrets. Trust me, I have pulled the trigger on more than one. And don't think that a dead drop protects you. Even if you don't pick up the drop yourself, someone has to. There is always a trail, and it always leads to the beginning. I don't want to ever find out that happened to you. I want the chance to see you again, if it ever comes. Ok," he explained to her.

"Ok, I didn't know that kind of risk even existed. I just, I have so many customers, I can't just stop. I have a very wide network that I have to deal with, and nobody to take over for me. Not only that, what about my informants, won't they start to have a problem if I stop paying them for what they have," she did bring up good points.

"Jennifer, we will help you dismantle it safely. Right now, we should go somewhere and have a family dinner, as a whole family, we may never get this chance again. I wish you could come back, and stay permanently," Delilah Coffey said confidently, hoping that it would make it true.

Ethan smiled, "I, am glad that if I ever have to leave where I live now, I do have someplace to go.

"Mr. Haines. You seem different, than what I am used to seeing you like," Boris said as they returned to the hotel.

"I just had almost twenty years of weight taken off my chest. Do you have contact with any of your family anymore," Ethan asked the man.

"Net, my roditeli have been gone for a few years now. I don't have a wife, or any children," he replied.

"No siblings," the American asked

"I had a brat, he was in another VDV unit. His Hind was shot down during Afghanistan, he didn't make it. I didn't have anyone else when my roditeli passed, so I am all that is left of my family," he said, thinking about him for the first time in years.

"I don't even want to think about losing my sister, now that I even know that I have one."

Boris was a little hesitant to broach the next subject, but he knew it needed to be, "Mr. Haines."

Ethan looked to the man in the driver seat, "Just call me Ethan. I hate being referred to formally by people I work with."

"Ethan. Thank you for being there for the Kapitan. I know what happened a few days ago. Things like that occur, at times, even among us below her. That was the first time she ever had anyone there to comfort her. We, all of the Vysotniki, worry about her. She led us through many hells, and returned to lead us when we were at our lowest. Yet, we will always be her soldiers, never her friends, we will never be in the same position that you were. Thank you," he did it fast, not sure if he had done it right.

"Sofiya is a good friend, even with how we met. She offered herself to me when I rescued her in Afghanistan, but I refused because she deserved better. Even if she doesn't have that kind of relationship with all you, I am glad that she has always had people who cared for her to watch out for her. Were you able to achieve your mission," he suddenly changed the subject.

"Da, the Russian Federation does not have the same standards that the Red Army had. Even the spetsnaz are not the same as a decade ago. There are several more bodies that will litter the ocean floor when we leave," Boris looked at the man in the rearview mirror, and saw him give a curt nod.

"Good, their fight was supposed to be with me, and while I asked for her help, taking her was stupid beyond belief. Lets hope we leave enough for the sharks after we are done with them."