Trilogy: The Dawn's Early Light

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"North side secured." said the voice into Todd's earpiece. "I'm listening in." The guy talking had just slit the throat of a rogue CIA agent who was aiming a high-powered rifle at Don. All five perps on the north side had been taken out, replaced by Todd's guys. When Ned's call came, it was Todd's people that trained the lasers on Don's chest, guided by the first man that was 'listening in'.

Todd had his silencer-equipped .22LR pistol in the rogue CIA agent's ear. They were in the A/C balcony on the southwest side. "Get your finger off that trigger, or I'll shoot you."

"Fuck you. Do it then." the agent, a professional 'wet boy', said. He began to squeeze the trigger...

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"Can I just say one thing?" I said, much to Ned's surprise, even as the red dots danced on my chest.

"What's that?" Ned said, his face skeptical. I raised my voice and spoke loudly.

"January..."

"Hey!" said Kathy, quickly realizing something was up.

"Suborbital..."

"What the fuck?" Ned said, still peering at me in skeptical wonder.

"DENOMINATION!"

At the last word, Eleanor reached into her pocket and whipped out the .38 Special revolver I'd placed there before we'd come in, the one she'd had when I'd arrested her. She aimed and began firing rapidly at Ned, who was a foot away from her. The first bullet struck him in the side, getting between the crude front and back plates of armor he was wearing and going into his chest cavity. The second struck him higher in the side, ripping through both lungs and his heart, what little heart the bastard had.

As he fell, Eleanor kept the gun trained on his side and kept firing. The third bullet struck Ned in the neck, ripping blood vessels and smashing through a neck vertebra and his spinal cord. The fourth struck him in the jaw, and the fifth in the temple, just in front of the ear, making liquid of what had once been a great brain.

All of that happened within three seconds. And Ned was dead before his crumpling body even hit the floor.

POW!

At the same time Eleanor was pumping rounds into Ned, a bullet struck me in the back, right in the middle of the "G" logo. The armor held but the impact threw me forward to the ground. And it hurt. God damn! how it hurt! I would find out later that Todd's perp had fired, then Todd had shot the man in the ear, killing him and leaving the body there on the landing.

"NO!!!!" screamed Goth Girl Kathy, lunging for Eleanor. Lying on the floor, I looked up to see Eleanor still firing the gun, hearing the empty clicks, then Kathy tackling the older woman. The gun went clattering across the floor. But it was too late.

"NED!!! Oh God, Ned!!" Kathy screamed as she knelt over the body of my nephew. Seeing that it was too late, she lay her head down on his chest and began sobbing uncontrollably. She looked over at me. "He's dead... you killed him... you killed him, you son of a bitch!" Then her head collapsed on his unmoving chest again.

I painfully picked myself up off the floor and stood watching as police officers poured into the building. The gun was secured and Eleanor Burke was swiftly carried away, out of the building. They were going to grab Kathy, but I stopped them, letting her cry over Ned's lifeless body. I stood inside the rapidly forming circle of police, watching silently, my mind filled wit the words of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle from his novel The Hound of the Baskervilles:

"Evil indeed is the man who has not one woman to mourn him."

Part 14 - The New Threat

After a few minutes, a still-sobbing Goth Girl Kathy was led away by two policewomen. To this day I do not know how it was done, but the five dead snipers' bodies disappeared, along with the living bodies of the secret commandos that had saved my bacon.

EMTs had tried to examine me; I waved them off and ordered them to leave me alone, that I was fine. The EMTs that came to Ned's side found that he was well past the need of their services. Tanya Perlman and her Crime Lab team had shown up, and for the next 30 minutes it was like a disturbed ant bed, with police and other people crawling all over the place.

Bettina Wurtzburg and her camera crew were being held well outside the gates of Ward Harvester. To my great surprise, old man Ward did not show up, nor did any of his people: we'd ordered the plant closed and temporarily abandoned after Ned had sent his video to me with the location of the swap.

The first persons I saw come in along with the police were Daniel and Melina Allgood. They looked very relieved to see me. I just gave them a wry smile, half a wink and a 'thumbs up' sign. I could see by the look on Melina's face that she had just gone through some intensely emotional times.

Then Todd came up, having snuck down off the landing, no one the wiser to his part in this drama. He said that Jeanine had little Jack, and the EMTs were checking out the baby. As I hugged him, I whispered "Thanks, bud. And give your buddies my thanks."

"They were glad to help." Todd said quietly. "And it absolutely was worth it." I looked to see where Todd was looking. He was watching the EMTs place Ned's body on a gurney, to remove it to the morgue.

Then a remarkable event occurred. As the gurney went past us, Todd stopped it. He pulled the body-bag tarp off of his brother's face, exposing it, and he looked down a second at it... and then I heard as well as saw Todd 'hawk and spit' right into Ned's dead face.

"You god-damned bastard!" Todd hissed. "You cost me everything! Everything!!" Todd then turned away, letting the EMTs take Ned's carcass out of the building. I went over and patted Todd on the shoulder, not asking what he meant by those words. Time enough for that later. There was pain still here now, pain that not even Ned's death would take away.

A few minutes later, my greatest worry dissipated. My wife Laura came into the building with Jack Muscone. As she and I saw each other, she began running to me, and we fell into each other's arms. I could feel my wife's body shaking, racked with silent sobs as she held on to me. By no means was I the only one to endure an emotional ordeal this day.

Everyone waited for Laura and I to finish our hug and our emotional moment, then Jack Muscone came up to me and shook my hand as if I were a returning long-lost brother. "It was a near thing." he said, and I knew it was not about Ned's near-success in killing me.

"Thank you, brother." I said, hugging him. Muscone wasn't much for that stuff, so it was a brief hug. He began filling me in on finding the bomb, and his team had brought it back to the County.

Chief Griswold came up and shook my hand, a smile of great relief somewhere under those huge handlebar mustaches of his. He told me that the 'other operation' had been successfully completed, as well, adding to my relief.

Then we heard yelling from outside. Officers began screaming for us to come out.

The truck dock was paved for a good 30 yards, and on the far edge of that the Police Chief's SUV was parked. As I moved towards it I saw what the commotion was about: ten vehicles were approaching, flashing lights in their grilles indicating they were law enforcement.

They hurtled in, almost hitting several officers, and came right up to where the Chief's SUV was parked. The doors to the lead car opened, revealing SBI Agents Richard Ferrell and Steven Ikea. The other cars emptied of agents, all carrying considerable firepower.

SBI Director Jack Lewis was among the agents, in his trenchcoat and hat even in this hot weather. Deputy Director Tom Conlan was not among the group, which did not surprise me. I knew what was going on here, and these bastards could go fuck themselves!

"Surround them!" I ordered my officers. "Shoot them if they move or shoot!" I then began making my way to the front of the groups in their stand-off, right at the back of the Chief's SUV. It was Steven Ikea's face that was full of glee, and I expected him to be the first to speak. I was right. He spoke loudly.

"This is a warrant to search this vehicle... for the rifle that assassinated the Reverend Jonas Oldeeds!"

To be continued.