7. August 20, 2024
Steel
The room exploded, with the exception of Waters, who sat stoic at the foot of the table.
“What the fuck?”
“How the hell did I not find this in your dossier?”
“You walked away from your wife for this job?”
“Did you see her when you went to see your mother?”
Sensing the tension in the men, Scheherazade added her own yips from under the table.
A piercing whistle cut off their questions. It was Waters, as usual, reining the team in. “Everybody breathe!”
From his position at the foot of the table, God growled, “You’re fucking married?”
Steel walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows and looked down into the street.
“Yes, I’m married. Marrying her was one of the things I had to do to prove my loyalty to my father and the cartel.
No, she doesn’t know I’m alive, and no, she didn’t see me when I visited my mother.
And I didn’t walk away from her when I took this job.
The time after our extraction was… exceptionally difficult.
We were basically two strangers living in the same house by the time the Navy took me. ”
He turned back to the room. “After a couple weeks of questioning, they finally believed they’d exhausted all we could give them.
That was when they made the plan that labeled me a ‘domestic terrorist threat’ and sent me to my first black site assignment.
A few weeks after that, they reported me to my wife as a casualty of a prison fight.
To the world at large, I was a criminal.
At least they kept their promises to her by keeping her and my mother in the witness protection program. ”
“Unbelievable,” God said with an exhale.
“Pardon the invasive question,” Nemo began. “But why were you and your wife living together like strangers? She obviously knew what was going on prior to Ka-Bar’s shooting. I mean, you were married.”
He took a deep breath. “It wasn’t anything prior to that driving us apart.
” He let it out. “During those seven years back with my family was when I was married to Daleyza. Two years into the marriage, we had a son, who was killed during our flight from my father’s estate.
That was what destroyed my marriage. Ultimately, we couldn’t survive the loss.
I put our child in danger by trying to escape my family’s reach, and he paid for my choices. ”
The room erupted again, making Waters work much harder to calm everyone down.
Memories of losing his wife and child swamped him with guilt every time they floated to the surface.
He struggled with it daily now because all the children were underfoot.
The laughter of the little ones ringing through the halls of Tribe and seeing his friends head over heart made him happy, but it also made him long for his own family.
When the room finally calmed down, it was TB’s tremulous voice that rose first. “What happened to your son?”
Gunfire. Screams calling for Tobias. Ka-Bar falling to the ground, his back spattered with dark dots. His own yells for the guns to stop.
Mentally, he shook himself free of the flashback.
“My brothers and father caught us leaving. They opened fire. Ka-Bar…” His voice cracked, and he swallowed before trying again.
“Ka-Bar tried to protect him, but it wasn’t enough.
Several of the bullets passed through him and hit Tobias.
In order to cover their asses, the Navy falsified the report on where the shooting happened. All for ‘the greater good.’”
After a brief silence, God asked, “You knew about all of this, Waters?” He was pissed, and Steel figured he had every right to be.
“Yes. Cherry and I have been keeping an eye on them over the years, making sure she and Livia were safe.”
“Any other secrets you’re keeping from me? And I warn you, Waters, you’d better offer them up right fucking now.”
“No. This is the only thing I’ve ever kept out of reports.
Since they were in WITSEC, they were the US government’s responsibility.
And since his wife and mother already believed he was dead, it didn’t seem necessary to share it.
All Cherry and I did was check on them periodically to make sure they were okay, and we did it from a distance.
There was no actual contact with them.” He looked at Steel.
He cleared his throat. “Up until last week.”
God dropped into a chair, closed his eyes, and rubbed his forehead. “For the love of fuck, please tell me this is the end of this fuckery. Let me guess. This is why Cherry needed that day off last week.”
“Yes. She met with Daleyza, got the paperwork signed, and arranged for Livia’s movement into the memory care facility.”
“I’m sorry,” Steel apologized. “I kept them a secret to protect them, not to make our lives difficult. Daleyza believes I'm dead. My mother doesn’t know the difference. I’ve accepted that my family was lost to me long ago, but I cannot allow them to be harmed while there’s breath in my body.
I know in my heart that if I go back to my family, the cartel will not keep its promise to leave them alone, nor will they spare Ka-Bar.
Instead, they will use them to get me home, and then they will kill them. ”
“We do nothing on our own,” Waters reminded him. “We have my fuckup years ago to prove that solo is never an option, no matter what the cost might be. You did the right thing coming to us. We’re tribe. By extension, so is your family, as is Ka-Bar because he’s Kubrick’s brother.”
“We’re going to need far more help than just us if we’re going into Colonel territory,” TB said. He looked down the table at God. “Will you give us Mythos?”
Another sucker wrapper joined the others on the table.
This time, God simply yanked the candy off with his teeth and threw the stick in with the rest of the trash.
“Eventually. I’ll recall them once we know what our plan is.
Do we have other resources? We may need them, depending on what information Steel gets from his uncle. ”
“Tripoli,” TB offered. “One of the owners of The Library, where I met Flame. He’s a retired Navy medic who was assigned to the Raiders. He’ll have connections. Most of his unit is scattered now that they’re all retired or discharged, but if I called him, I bet they’d come to help.”
God drummed his fingers on the conference room table.
“I am not happy, Steel. This is completely unacceptable.” He paused, then sighed.
It was as if he had released all his anger and deflated.
“Although I understand why you did it. I probably would have made the same decision myself. Now, though, we have to go collect your wife and move her somewhere safe. I don’t suppose Daleyza is likely to go if I send someone else to move her? ”
“Unlikely. She wouldn’t have back then, and I doubt she’s gotten better with time. If anything, she’s probably gotten worse.”
“So what should we expect?” Nemo asked. “If she married your ass, she’s gotta be a spitfire.”
He contemplated how to warn them. “She’s strong. Opinionated. When her emotions are at their highest, she screams a lot in Spanish. If you survive that, then her next step is probably to start shooting.”
“She’s armed?”
“She better be,” he grumbled. “I taught her how to protect herself. Beware, though. She’s as dangerous as I am. Her aim is definitely more precise.”
The bubble Nemo had been blowing popped like a gunshot in the room. “Better than you? You’ve never missed.”
“Daleyza is…” He considered his words carefully. “Unique. We didn’t exactly meet under normal circumstances.”
“I can’t wait to hear this story.”
“Well, story time will have to wait until this shit show is finished and under control,” God grumbled. “All of you, out of here. I need to talk with Steel. We’ll meet again in three hours.”
All the men filed out of the room, with Waters at the tail end. “Do you want me—”
“Out,” God ordered.
Waters flashed a look at Steel, called to the dog, then they left the two men alone in the conference room.
They sat there in silence. What could he possibly say? Nothing at all, so he sat and waited for God to show his hand.
“How freaked out is she going to be when you show up alive?”
That was not what he’d thought his boss’ first question would be.
Shrugging, he replied, “Daleyza was always untrusting. If someone didn’t show her the proof—let her see it, touch it—she tended not to believe what she was told.”
“You mentioned screaming and shooting a minute ago. Why do I get the feeling you’ve experienced both ends of that?”
A memory popped up.
“I swear to God, Fanso, you try my patience! I should shoot you where you stand.”
“All I was trying to do was point out something to improve what you were doing. What you were doing was fine, but this would have made you even better!”
“If it’s fine—”
Bang!
“Oh my god, Fanso! Fanso! Are you okay?”
Shock. Laughter, born of relief, but also a little humor. “You shot at me!”
A grumpy reply. “I missed. You’re lucky.”
The tiniest of smiles turned up one corner of his mouth. “She’s only shot at me once. I’m pretty sure it was an accident.”
“Hot-blooded, I take it?”
“Hellfire level.” It was one of the things he’d always loved most about her.
With a sigh, God stood and limped to the coffee maker along the counter on the inside wall.
As he poured himself a cup, he said, “Things have changed so much in the past two years. Not at all what we’d envisioned when Tribe came into existence.
There were rules. Things were clear-cut.
Then the rules were broken through one video call from your best friend, and now there are women and children in the mix. ”
“Rules are made to be broken. Look at who you hired. A Navy SEAL who wouldn’t follow direct orders.
A dark web contractor without a conscience.
Two thieves who hold nothing sacred. A medic on a path to self-destruction.
Another Navy SEAL who rubbed elbows with one of the worst cartels in the world. ”