CHAPTER 14

There was an almost unanimous gasp that came from everyone who was standing around watching the computer monitor on Calvin’s little desk in the commissary. Danni was the one who finally got out, “oh my god, they just shot him!”

Jake had not bothered to gasp or even flinch from what was just broadcast live over the net. He was too busy studying the aftermath. Then he looked at the reaction of his own people. Most of them were about what Jake might have expected. They were surprised and upset. The really notable exception was Kent. He simply took a sip of his coffee, looked slightly angered, and then calmly began the climb up the stairs to operations. Jake wanted to say something about that, but then, Amy stole the show.

The red head was not only in shock, she cupped her hand over her mouth and then bent over at the waste. Her body jerked in an obvious heave and then she took off running for the barracks hallway door. When she vanished from sight, Jake picked the first person his eyes met, Danni, and asked, “did she know this guy?”

Danni was still numb and slightly confused. It took her a second to answer, “I don’t think so… I mean…”

Jake told her, “spit it out Danni.”

Tony answered for the girl, “I don’t think Amy could have known him. He went to high school with Danni and they…”

Jake nodded and waived it off, “yeah I get it. Who was he?”

Danni stood up and a tear rolled down her cheek, “just a geek.” She also fled to the back hallway.

It was then that Jake noticed Barbara’s reaction but, curiously, it was not to the video broadcast. Her eyes went straight for Danni and she was about to say something when Norm spoke up, “the German’s didn’t shoot him.”

This shifted all of the attention to Norm and some of it was quite hostile. Calvin even snapped, “we just saw them do it on live television Norm!”

Jake realized that Norm had noticed the exact same thing that he had. He decided to let Norm explain it. The man pointed at the video screen, “look at them Cal. They were just as surprised as the civilians. Now they’re taking cover and getting in defense mode. Why would they do that if it was their bullet?”

Barbara spoke up in a commanding tone, “which doesn’t matter any more people. This situation just went critical.”

Jake mumbled, “like it wasn’t to start with?”

Barbara pushed her way through the little crowd and stood next to Calvin’s desk. She addressed Jake with no small amount of anger, “well Barton, our plans just got blown to hell.”

Jake replied with an equally subdued mumble, “not to mention that kids head.”

Barbara ignored him and continued, “I don’t have time to fence with you Barton.” She sucked up a lot of air and then admitted, “and I am afraid that right now, I need you. I don’t have a clue what comes next. I hope the hell that you do.”

All eyes were on Jake now and he found it curious that they were no longer the hostile glares he had gotten used too over the past couple of weeks. Right now, what he was seeing was a lost kind of gaze that you got from people who would grasp at any straw. Jake found that acceptable. He spoke louder and said, “nothing’s changed. Horst wants something and it wasn’t that kid’s head.”

Bob Johnson just shrugged and asked, “how does that help us?”

Norm remained his usual cynical self when he replied, “it don’t.”

Jake ignored the quips and harshly replied, “because what we have to do is make sure he gets it.”

“Guys,” Cal told everyone as he pointed back to the video screen, “I think that’s exactly what he’s about to tell us here.”

Horst’s face stepped right up to the camera. It dominated everything else on the screen. He spoke in plain and unaccented English when he told the audience, “if you harbor terrorists then you will suffer the same fate. The people of this complex are being taken in to custody under section four of the articles of the Treaty of Beta Canaan. This is for the protection of my men. Your government will be given the conditions for their release but, any more violent acts against my men and I promise you that we will receive justice.”

Cal mumbled, “I don’t need to speak German to understand that.”

Barbara sighed in pain, “he’s got hostages now.”

Leslie had remained very quiet up till this point. She now said, “I don’t think the bozo’s that set off that bomb are going to care.”

Jake looked away from the video when he noticed the screen door opening. He saw who was standing there in a daze and then he said, “fortunately, I think we got one of them standing right in front of us.”

Now Barbara noticed the person in the door and she quickly became angered. She snapped, “Chuck! My room! Now!”

Everyone watched in confusion as Chuck followed Barbara into the bowels of the building. Jake also joined them despite the fact that Norm mentioned that his actions were not a good idea. This proved to be the case when everyone heard Jake and Barbara shouting at each other, from somewhere down the hallway, only moments after Jake caught up with them.

Calvin cringed in pain as he listened to the heated exchange and he asked, “think we should go stop them before we hear gunfire?”

With his arms crossed and his eyes on the empty door, that led to the barracks, Norm quietly said, “I ain’t getting in the middle of that shit.”

It was a surprise to everyone when Leslie spoke up and said, “let them get it out of their system. I swear, those two need to get a room.” All eyes suddenly shifted to Leslie. The almost universal stare spelled out complete and total disbelief. Leslie rolled her eyes at these people and then told them, “I’m just saying.”

When the attention shifted back to the arguing it seemed to be almost over with. The voices were getting more distant and, finally, the shouting became far more muted once they all heard Barbara’s door slam. Then Danni showed up in the door and, with a confused look, she asked, “hey guys, what’s going on?”

The voice that responded to that came from behind Danni, way down the hall. It was Barbara who was yelling out, “CALVIN! Get down here, now!”

Cal almost fell out of his chair. He showed the appropriate amount of fear as he stood up and wondered, “me? What the hell did I do?”

As Calvin fearfully side stepped Danni and vanished down the hall, Garcia sneered and told everyone, “they going to go and get all of us killed guys.”

That quickly drew Norm’s attention. He could not rightly say that he was mad at the boy. How could he be? Norm had harbored the exact same thought but, he was also thinking something else. Norm was now, mentally recalling, the conversation with Jake, at the water pump. Norm almost felt like Jake’s words were bearing down on his soul.

Ever since it became clear that there were some new and dangerous people in town, Norm had hoped he could minimize their presence and get about most of his life like it was absolutely normal. One glance at the video screen told Norm that this was no longer possible. Norm did not even know if that crew of murdering thugs were behind this latest crisis but, did it really matter? Norm realized that even if their new bad guys were not directly responsible, their actions had most certainly been responsible for the chain of events that kicked this ant hill over. In other words, Norm realized, there was no ignoring this and it was not going to go away.

There was an even worse thought that went through Norm’s mind. He did not want to admit that it was true but, he knew that it was. That’s why he got hostile with Garcia even if he silently agreed with the boy, “why don’t you just give the fuck up now, Alvarez. If you really believe that then why don’t all of you just quit, walk out that door, and never come back here.”

Bob Johnson had been deep in his own thoughts, although, it was quite clear they were not too different from Norm’s. He quickly jumped to Garcia’s defense, “now wait a minute Norm. That’s not fair. He’s…”

“I know what you thinking,” Norm growled as he cut Bob off. “You thinking something like, ‘I got kids,’ and guess what?” Bob did not know what to say and his expression obviously told Norm that he had hit the nail on the head. He used it, “them kids ain’t going to be safe unless somebody does something. Nobody is and, like it or not, that’s what we’re supposed to be here doing. Anybody got any doubts about that? Cause if you do,” Norm pointed to the screen door.

Danni was still just standing in the door. She still looked a bit dazed and overwhelmed but she did manage, “you know I’m with you.”

Leslie actually had a smirk, “hell yeah, me too.”

Norm suddenly noticed Danni and he snapped at her next, “and as for you young lady. Pull your goddamn head out of your ass. I know everybody’s been cutting you slack cause you got shot. That’s over with now. Get your head in the game unless you want to get shot again.”

Tony had been remarkably quiet up till this point. He had obviously been lost in his own thoughts but, now, he jumped back into reality and said, “that’s not fair Norm.”

“Shut the fuck up Tony,” Norm wasted not a breath in telling him. It was clear that Tony wanted to argue but Norm would not let him. He stepped into the center of the little group and told them, “that’s goes for all of you too.”

Bob meekly asked, “um, which part?”

“All of it dumb ass,” Norm snapped.

Garcia was far more subdued but, no less hostile, when he mumbled, “when did you go and join the Special Forces?”

“I didn’t,” Norm snapped back loud clear. “I joined the Rangers and I did it with the understanding that we’re supposed to be law enforcement. We’re supposed to be here to help people. We’re supposed to be this colony’s first line of defense. When did you all forget that shit?”

When nobody replied, Norm went on, “you’re all mad at Jake and me, cause we pulled a fast one on you. Who you should really be mad at is your own damn self. You all got lazy. You let somebody get the drop on you and now you want to blame us for pointing out how easy it is? The people we dealing with ain’t going to be so forgiving.” Norm looked back to where it started, “Bob, you want to get back to them kids alive. You had best pay attention to Jake. He might be a lot of things but, one thing I do know, he knows how to handle the likes of what we’re dealing with.” As Norm stewed a little more he added as an after thought, “and if we don’t handle it, ain’t nobody else gonna.”

It was a good thing that Barbara called for Norm right then. Norm realized he had run out of things to say and it was painfully obvious that no one else was going to talk. He told the kids, “I got work to do. If you here, when I get back, you will too. Get used too it.”

When Norm left the room, Garcia was still a little bit shocked, “man, what’s got up his ass?”

Leslie sneered at Garcia, “oh I don’t know, maybe he had a reality check? He’s right guys.”

Garcia came off his ass for the first time and pointed at Leslie when he replied, “listen new girl. You ain’t got a clue of what’s really been going on around here.”

“Oh really,” Leslie blew the guy off and showed that she did not think much of anything about his hostile attitude, “well when you figure it out then let me know.” She rolled her eyes at him, turned, and walked back up the stairs to Ops.

This only served to infuriate Garcia even more. Bob tried to calm him down but was ignored. It was Tony, who remained calm even if he was stewing too, who finally got Garcia’s attention with a, “back off Gar.”

Garcia exploded, “man, why you taking her side.”

“I’m not taking anybody’s side Garcia,” Tony replied. He remained as calm as he could when he pointed, “look at what we’re all wearing, Garcia. We’re as armed as we’ve ever been and do you really think any of this stuff,” he gestured to the body armor he had on, “is going to impress the Wehrmacht?”

Garcia backed off and tried to say something, He could never get any words out even if he remained hot and jumpy. Finally, Tony continued, “like it or not, our best hope of living through this is yelling at each other back in Barbara’s room right now. Course you can play it safe and go home. That’s up to you but, I can’t do it. There’s too much riding on this for me to cut and run now.”

Garcia did manage to blurt out, “man, ain’t nobody talking about running, ok?”

Bob quietly, in a subdued tone, told Tony, “we’re just scared man. That’s all.”

Tony huffed, “you don’t think I’m not? I’m just saying this isn’t the time to be turning on each other.” When silence descended on the room, Tony was a little surprised to find a warm body rapping herself around his arm. He looked down and found Danni was that person and she had a satisfied little smile on her face. Tony was confused, “what’s wrong with you?”

She quietly told him, “I’m so proud of you right now.”

“Um,” Tony had no idea what to say, “ok.”