Sacrifice:The Shenkar War (13 page)

             
“
Good point, Colin; it would be inappropriate and an injustice to continue referring to these men and women in such an insignificant manner. Does anyone have any ideas?”

             
“
Actually, I have been thinking it over for a while now, and I believe I have an idea,” said Colin.

Hanscom Air Force Base

             
Liam watched his opponent as they both circled the mat. Second after second ticked by, but neither made a move to close the space in between. Suddenly, his opponent lunged at him, swinging his blade upward. Liam sidestepped narrowly, avoiding the blade that came to occupy the area his head had just left. His opponent stepped back as he gathered himself for another attack. Three times his opponent had tried this maneuver, and every time Liam had simply sidestepped away from him.

             
Weeks of this type of training had worked his body, speed, and hand-eye coordination into a finely tuned organic machine. True, he hadn’t really been out of shape before, but he couldn’t think of ever being in better shape than he was now, including his days on the police force. Along with packing on twenty pounds of muscle, he also noticed how he appeared so much younger. Yesterday, he had been looking in the mirror when for the first time in many weeks he had taken a closer look at himself. If he were to guess, he would say that he now looked twenty-one.

             
Again, his opponent attacked, and again, Liam sidestepped, but this time as he stepped aside, he brought his blade up, knocking the blade farther to the side, and stepped inward toward his opponent. Once in close, Liam spun, bringing the back of his elbow around, arcing it upward. With a satisfying thud, Liam felt his elbow connect hard with the head of his opponent. His opponent crumpled to the mat, unconscious from the looks of it.

             
“
ENOUGH!” commanded the voice of Major Yasakai.

             
              Liam stepped back, shutting down his blade as he looked at the crumpled form of his opponent. Cheers rose from behind him from his fellow squad mates, as well as the cheers of several other squadrons who had been watching. Many had been waiting to see this matchup for the past few weeks. All had been cheering for Liam--well, all except his opponent’s squadron. Pierre Petiot lay in a crumpled heap, still not moving. Liam began to fear he might have killed him. But before long, paramedics managed to revive him with smelling salts. Once he was sure Pierre was okay, he then turned to the congratulations of his fellow pilots.

             
“
YEAH! That was incredible; I knew you could best him,” said Steve as he clapped Liam on the back.

             
“
You were incredible, mate; you moved faster than I thought anyone possibly could,” agreed Callen.

             
“
Well, that should shut up that French asshole about who is the best,” said Evan as he shook Liam’s hand.

             
“
Lieutenant Brennan and the rest of Necro Squadron . . .              
ATTENTION!” came a voice from behind them.

             
“
Hey, I didn’t know Samuel L. Jackson was here!” whispered Evan.

             
Turning, Liam saw General Kelvin walking toward him. He had never formally met the man, but from what he had heard, he was not someone to cross--although he had to admit that Evan was right, Kelvin did look like Samuel L. Jackson. The General was one of very few African Americans in the armed forces who had risen to the rank of General, and he was known to be harder on other African Americans under his command than any other race.

             
Liam snapped to attention, saluting the General once he came closer. Barely sparing a glance to the moaning form of Pierre, Kelvin returned the salute. Looking first at Liam with a measuring gaze, he then surveyed the men and women arrayed behind him who were similarly standing at attention and saluting. Kelvin then once again looked at Liam before he spoke.

             
“
It has come to my attention that you and your squadron are the best. I have a need for the best in a little demonstration we have prepared. Tomorrow, we will announce to the world what is coming. With that, we will introduce you all and the sacrifice that you are all prepared to make. You will be happy to know that tomorrow you will finally get to fly a real Scorpion fighter. Please don’t crash it--it would be very embarrassing if we told the world you are our only hope between life and destruction, and then you went and crashed your fighters doing something stupid.”

             
That last part seemed to be aimed at Evan as the General focused his gaze directly at him.

Carl’s Electronics

              Leah scanned in the returns, oblivious to those around her, her mind lost in thoughts of Liam. It had been just over two months since Liam had disappeared with the FBI. Where could he have gone? She regretted their last time together, how she had lashed out at him that way. She had been angry, but more with herself. She was aware she cared very much for Liam, but she severely doubted she was in love with him. If she was in love with him, what would her friends and family think? He was sixteen years older than she was; when she was thirty-four, he would be fifty.

             
Yet she knew that those arguments held no weight. If you loved someone, then age didn’t matter, so what was she so afraid of? She missed him terribly. He had always been there to make her smile, and she liked the way he looked at her. Lately, when he looked at her, she could see the love in his eyes. She knew he would never let her down and that he would go to the ends of the Earth to protect her. His looks filled her with a warmth she had never experienced with anyone else. Sitting there, deep in thought, Leah became aware of someone speaking to her.

             
“
Leah? Hello, Leah? Anyone home in there?” said Erica, a friend and coworker.

             
“
Oh, sorry, I was just thinking,” said Leah.

             
“
Yes, I noticed--what is with you lately? Ever since Liam disappeared, you have been in your own world,” asked Erica.

             
“
Yeah, I am just worried about him. He’s had a tough past couple of years with his wife, son, and most of his family dying.” She paused for a few seconds, then said, “We have become good friends, and I would hate for anything to have happened to him.”

             
Erica looked at Leah, searching Leah’s face, and then smiled.
              “
You love him! I can’t believe I never saw it before. I knew he cared very much for you--it’s evident by the way he looks at you--but I never dreamed you felt the same way,” she said excitedly.

             
“
Love him? Get serious. I care very much for him, sure, but I am not in love with him. I mean, just look how much difference in age we are! My family would have a fit, never mind the harassment friends would give me about dating such an older guy,” said Leah.

             
“
You get serious . . . since when do you care what your family thinks? And speaking as one of your friends, I can tell you that I sure wouldn’t harass you about Liam. He is a great guy, and I have seen how he looks at you . . . he loves you. I remember when he first started here. He had such a lonely hollow look to him, but you changed all that. You breathed new life into his dead soul.”

             
“
You and your soul stuff,” Leah said with a snort, then continued more seriously with a touch of sadness. “Well, none of this matters anyway, seeing as he disappeared over two months ago and hasn’t deemed it necessary to contact me . . .”

             
Leah trailed off as a man, roughly in his sixties, stood a few feet away, looking at her. Annoyed that it seemed he had been listening to their conversation, she turned to him.

             
“
Excuse me, but hasn’t anyone told you that it’s rude to listen to other people’s private conversations?” she asked angrily.

             
“
Oh, I apologize. My name is Milton Johansin. I didn’t mean to appear to listen in on your conversation. It is just I am looking for someone, and I believe you are that someone,” explained the older man.

             
Taken aback, Leah was unsure what to say next. She was angry, yet now her curiosity had kicked in and she was curious about this gentleman.

             
“
Okay, what makes you think I am who you are looking for?” asked Leah questioningly.

             
“
Your name is Leah Aecrin? The only Leah who works at this establishment? You are acquainted with a Liam Brennan?” asked Milton.

             
Shocked at the mention of Liam’s name, Leah shot to her feet.
              “
Liam? You know where Liam is? Tell me where he is . . . is he all right? Can I talk to him?” said Leah in a high voice, attracting the attention of customers around them.

             
“
Calm down, young lady. Yes, I know where Liam is. He is quite all right, but I am afraid you cannot speak with him. However, Liam has asked that I deliver you a message from him,” said Milton.

             
“
What message?” asked a frowning Leah.

             
But Milton didn’t speak; he simply reached into his jacket, withdrew a thumb drive and held it out to Leah. Leah looked from the thumb drive to Milton and back again before reaching out and taking it. Without a word, the man turned and walked toward the door, but before he exited from the store, he turned back and said in a loud voice,
“
I suggest you watch the news today at 2:00 p.m. It will answer a lot of questions.” Then he turned back to the door, exited, and got into a waiting car that drove off once he was inside.

             
Looking at the thumb drive, Leah wondered what was on it. Walking out back to the office, she sat down at the store’s computer. Locating a free USB port, she inserted the thumb drive into the computer. The computer automatically recognized the thumb drive and an options menu appeared on the screen. Grabbing the mouse, she moved the cursor over the file and quickly depressed the left mouse button to activate it. No sound played for the first few seconds. Then, right as Leah was about to give up, Liam’s voice filled her ears:

Hello, Leah,

I am sorry I couldn’t deliver this message to you in person. I am part of something very big
. I am again sorry, but I cannot tell you what it is--only that I hope you understand why I do this and I hope you will be proud of me. I also hope you know that I am sorry about the last time we spoke and hope you can forgive me. I wish we had more time together so I could make up for the way I acted toward you, but unfortunately, that cannot be.

I do have to tell you that you saved my life the day you and I met. I was in a bad place before that. I wanted so much to die. I felt there was nothing left to live for after I lost my wife
. I thought that my one chance at love was gone with Sarah’s death, but I was wrong. I know you don’t feel the same about me, but please know this: I love you with all my heart. For a long time, I thought I would be betraying my wife by falling in love with you, but it was foolish of me to think that. As I know, she would want me to find love again. You are who I found that love with, even if you don’t see me in the same light.

I just needed to tell you this, for you to know
that you are an incredible person who saved the life of someone who felt he had nothing left to live for. Now it is my turn to save a life: yours and hopefully many others. I love you, Leah, with all my heart. {end}

              Leah sat there for a long time after the message ended before she noticed the salty taste on her lips. She hadn’t even realized she had been crying, but now that she did, she started to cry harder. What did the message mean? What was he doing that he wouldn’t ever be able to see her again?

FedEx Field, Washington, DC

              President Adam Sheehan looked over his shoulder at the gathering of the world leaders seated behind him on the stage that had been erected at one end of the stadium. A large black curtain hung behind the dignitaries for those people they wished to remain hidden from the media for the moment. Taking a deep breath, he thought of how he had reached this point and of what was to come. He had never been much of a religious man, but he had been praying ever since he had heard the dire news. Looking around, he watched for the signal that they were about to go live around the world. Ten seconds later it came, and he still wasn’t sure he was ready for this. Standing, he walked to the podium, looked over all of the major media crews from around the world gathered in front of him, and began the speech he had rehearsed a hundred times over.