It was ten o'clock at night, and James had just put Alex and Angel to bed. I filled two tumblers full of Mother's special Russian Vodka. James sauntered into the living room and sat in the chair directly across from me. "So, you wanna explain what happened with the plane today?"
"Not particularly. Have a sip of the Vodka first."
"Okay. Then you start talking."
"Okay. Will do." We both took a long draught of our drinks.
"What happened to the plane? What exactly did you mean by 'Commandeered'?" he asked.
"We got off the runway without a hitch. An hour and a quarter into the flight path we got hijacked. I was able to elimanate the door guards without much trouble, but the silence was all for nothing. The Pilots were dead when I entered the cockpit. I shot the hijackers, who appeared to be Islamic extremists (because they were both wearing a man dress and spoke limited english). After that, I had to face the issue of landing the plane myself. I contacted emergency control, and we landed at the Oceana Naval Base without a hitch."
"Good job sis, you don't know how proud I am of you."
"Thanks James. So, how was your journey home from whatever third world country you were last in?"
"Not nearly as eventful as yours. The only eventful thing was that I sat behind a baby who started crying halfway home and wouldn't shut up till we hit Denmark."
"You got lucky, then." He looked at me, fully looked at me, as if truly seeing me for the first time.
"You've changed a lot, sis."
"Yeah. BUD/S training does that to you. You go in with the Macho attitude of believing that you are the best of the best already, but you realize by the end that there is always more to be learned."
"Wise words for one so young."
"Wisdom was forced upon us both at an early age, James."
"Truer words have never been spoken, sis."
"Any new missions that you want to talk over, James?"
"Only one. I need your help planning a raid. It's on a house in South Western Pakistan, near the capitol city."
"What's the target? We talking someone with high security, a government official, international terrorist, anything like that?"
"The target is the current head of the Taliban."
"Okay. What type of intel do you have on him?"
"We know he's planning a major attack, the equivalent of the 9/11 attacks times two. We also know that his house is a bit of a maze, and just blocks away from Pakistans most prized millitary academy in Abbotabod."
"Kinda like Bin Laden, Huh?"
"Exactly like Bin Laden. Same type of compound, too. Intel reports that he goes for daily walks around the compound, but never leaves the compound. Food is delivered directly to the compound, all trash is burned, and he has at least twenty armed guards around him at all times."
"Okay, you say the compound is like a replica of Bin Ladens, correct?"
"Correct."
"What I might suggest is that you try to get authorization from JSOC to take at least four teams with you. It may seem impractical, but in this case, numbers and night vision should make a pretty big advantage. I might also consider sending in a few of those specially modified Black Hawks, you know, the Chinooks, so you can have one team fast rope down to the roof of the main compound and fight their way down from the inside. another thing is you should have Rockie-" (the bomb sniffing drug detecting search and rescue or arrest German Shepard mix (Exact breeding classified)) "- with you."
"Good plan, sis. One thing. We need to decide what to do with Angel and Alex before either of us leaves." A very sobering thought.
"I know we do, James. I may be able to get one of the wives from my Seal team to take them when you and I are both away, but I don't want to put any more pressure on them than I do by going out on these missions."
"Same here."
"Maybe we could leave them with Jackie." We both grimaced at that.
"No! we'd be better off leaving them with Grandma Mazur from the Stephanie Plum series. It's not that Jackie would be a bad parent or anything like that, but she attracts trouble like there's no tomorrow."
"Yeah I know. She's like a gigantic trouble magnet, but right now, she's our only option. Neither of us has to like it, it just has to work. Like it or not, she's our only option if we even want the two of them to both have a parent and grow up knowing us." He seemed to mull this over for a bit.
"Yet again you're right. It's most important for them to grow up with someone they've known their whole lives raising them and for them to know that whatever they choose they'll always have us than it is that we like who raised them."
"James, Jackie'll raise them right. Now on to another, less depressing topic. The Twins' birthdays are coming up, and we haven't even begun to plan how best we can give them something good out of all this mess."
"You do realize that this is the first time in three years that the both of us were even on the same continent on their birthday, right?"
"Thats why we need to make it as good as we can while it lasts."
