Chapter 35 #2
“I’m retiring. From the field work,” he quickly reassured them.
“Kubrick and I talked it over, and it’s not safe for me, or anyone else, to put myself out there when I’m not as healthy as I once was.
The damage to my organs after my vacation in Bariloche is bad enough to keep me at a desk.
I spoke with God just before we met here, and, effective immediately, I’ll be taking over his position, while he’ll be working exclusively with Mythos.
Our worlds will still intersect, but the groups will remain separate—with us as the moneymakers and Mythos continuing their missions against the Salieri.
“That means, however, that we’re going to need to make a few changes here.
It’s no surprise to most of us that we’ve been training Midas to one day take over my spot as team leader.
” He looked over at Nemo’s twin. “Because of your importance with the IT piece, I’ll still handle the client and project vetting, but I’ll do it with your input.
You will run all the projects, your choice of on-site or off-site. You’re ready.”
Midas absentmindedly grabbed one of his squishy cats and began working it in his fist. “I don’t like how this came about, but I get it. I won’t let you down.”
“I know you won’t,” Waters said with a grin. “You’ve never let anyone down in your life. Wouldn’t expect that to suddenly change now.”
“We gonna be taking on anybody new?” TB asked. His tone was wary.
“Yes and no. God asked me to put together a new team,” he admitted.
“Not to replace us. Just a group of individuals who will work solo and bridge the gap between our work and the traditional guys who work the legitimate jobs as a front for Tribe Corporation.” He looked around the room.
“There’s still work that needs our particular skills, but less of it.
These solo contractors will take on the heavy lifting.
I’m guessing most of us would prefer to step back some. There are women involved now. Kids.”
They all looked at the side screen, where the women were still gathered around the remains of their luncheon, their books, three dogs, and a madhouse of kids who appeared to be involved in some sort of milk-pong battle for the universe.
He cleared his throat. “Having said that, the stakes are now higher than they ever were before. If there’s anyone who doesn’t wish to stay, you’re free to leave. The final edict is no longer a factor.”
The men all looked around the room at each other.
“Well, don’t look at me,” Nemo said, his hands in the air. “I have to report to work tomorrow. I think there’s still a dartboard somewhere in one of God’s offices with my picture on it from when I got mixed up with Gem the third time. Final edict is probably still in effect for me.”
“I’m still under contract with Mythos, but I’m going to be one of your new solo contractors,” Ka-Bar growled. “I’ve got a score to settle.”
“I’m with Ka-Bar,” Demon said. “It’s going to be a long time before I forget St. Lucia.” The look on his face more than provided proof for his nickname.
Midas tossed the squishy cat in his hand to him. “Well, I just got promoted, so I’m not going anywhere.”
TB worked his jaw as he looked at the screen. “A year ago, with Axel about to be born, I might have taken you up on that offer. But this is my home now. You guys are the family I lost all those years ago. I’m here to stay.”
Steel looked back at the screen again. Daleyza sat pulled up tight in the high-backed chair at the conference room table, her feet folded underneath her. She was smiling. Laughing even.
Then he looked closer.
It felt like everything stopped. Time. His heart. His breath.
In her lap, she held Paris, the little girl TB and Flame had adopted after rescuing her, Mouse, and four other little girls from a Mythos school in Cairo earlier this year.
A ray of sunshine cast its way through the L.A. smog and the tinted windows of Tribe’s conference room, rolling across the room to her. For just a second, he swore he saw a shadowy form of a six-year-old boy standing next to her chair, looking down into the sleeping face. Then it was gone.
“Steel?” Waters’ voice came from behind him.
He turned his head toward his boss. “It’s up to Daleyza, but… I know what she’d say. We’re staying.”
Waters smiled. “The offer is always open-ended. And that goes for all of you,” he said, turning in a half circle around the room, his finger pointed at each man in turn. “You change your mind, all you have to do is say.”
“We’re not going anywhere, boss man.”
There was a long pause, then Nemo clapped his hands together. “Alrighty then. Would you rather…?”
A collective groan rose from every man in the room.
“Midas, please tell me Ka-Bar can push him out of the helicopter tomorrow, and that I get to pack his parachute. Pretty please? With NikNaks on top?” TB whined, his head leaning back on the couch.
Laughter rang out across the room.
“NikNaks on ice cream? That’s disgusting. Are you two pregnant again?”
TB grabbed Nemo, who was sitting next to him, and put him in a headlock.
“Seriously, gang. This might be our last chance to play for a while,” Nemo reminded them from TB’s grip.
Instantly, the mood turned sober. TB let go of his nemesis, and they all turned their focus on Nemo.
Midas nodded. “Ask your question, brother.”
“Would you rather…?” Nemo looked around at his fellow deadmen. “Live a finite number of years with your blood family, or an infinite life with your friends?”
There was a pause before TB spoke. “You know, I think I liked you more when you weren’t so philosophical.”
The blond smiled at him, but with none of his usual cockiness. “Your answer?”
The giant shook his head. “It’s an impossible question.”
“Nothing’s impossible.”
“Well, it’s not fair, then.”
Steel interjected, “Why do we always have to pick one answer or the other?”
“Because… duh! Those are the rules of the game,” Nemo reminded him.
“Look around this space.” The men looked at each other, a question in their eyes. “Since when have any of us ever followed the rules?”
There was a pause as they all ruminated on the question.
“Each one of us has been a rule breaker our entire lives. Waters constantly circumvented orders as a SEAL. TB deserted the Israeli Army. Nemo and Midas stole from anyone and everyone. Demon ran races with anything meant to kill someone. I led two lives that were secret from one another. Ka-Bar was also leading a double life within the United States Navy, for fuck’s sake.
None of that is exactly synonymous with following the rules. So why would we start now?”
All of them were nodding their heads.
Waters nodded. “I want forever with my found family. Kubrick. The girls. All of you.” He looked up.
“I miss Sarah every goddamn day,” he admitted.
“I still feel guilty that she’s gone and I’m not.
I want her, as part of my blood family, with me infinitely as well, but I know she’d tell me to make that same decision in Afghanistan all those years ago that cost me my kidney and my career.
“She’d remind me that opening that folder may have played a part in costing me a sister, but it brought me the love of my life and two little girls who are the very embodiment of why I lost that kidney in the first place.
When Liliana and Catalina came into our lives, I realized I didn’t lose anything when that knife plunged into me.
I gained everything from that day forward.
Now I get to watch them become whatever they want to be, to have the lives their blood families seemed so determined to keep from them.
In the end, what destroyed me brought me full circle and made me whole. ”
Ka-Bar cleared his throat. “Know I’m not part of the group, but I’ll play.
I lost my blood family long ago. I was left with Kai.
Kubrick,” he corrected. “She’s all the family I ever needed.
However, my son will be the start of a new generation, and a new bloodline.
Whatever time I have with my sister and my son is good enough for me. ”
TB was next. There was a tightness to his voice when he said, “If I had to choose between the two, I’d have to give up either my son, my flesh and blood, or the daughter we chose to love.
I could never make that choice. Every time I leave Axel and Paris, it destroys me because I wonder if that’s the last time I’ll see them.
I don’t ever want them to know the pain I felt at losing a parent.
” He cleared his throat. “But every time we win, I get to come back home to them. To my kids. There’s nothing better than that.
That makes it better. I want forever with both. And Flame, of course.”
Nemo looked out into nothing, a devilish smile on his face.
“All my life, I was a fuckup. Sometimes on purpose, sometimes not. I couldn’t wait to get older.
For things to get easier. Fuck of it is, the older I got, the harder things got.
Suddenly, I had to make choices I never wanted to make.
I gained wealth, but I lost my freedom. I found my calling, but I had to lose my found family to respond.
I gained the best life partner a man could ever want, but I had to lose a brother to do it. ”
Midas threw a squishy cat at him, hitting him in the chest. “You didn’t lose me. We just cut the cord, is all.”
Nemo threw the cat back, a smile on his face.
“I already feel like I’ve achieved immortality.
I’ve lived too many lives when I should have lost all of them,” Demon said.
“When I hit rock bottom, that should have been the end. Instead, I cheated death so many times, I think I stole lives from cats. Tribe saved my life. Literally. The saying goes that hindsight is twenty-twenty. I’d like to think I would have made the same choice at any point in my life if it were offered to me.
The beginning is written, and so is the end.
It’s the middle that changes because we make choices.
As much as I love you all, I’m good with a finite end when the time comes. ”
“Me too,” Midas agreed. “Almost dying will do that to you, I think. People probably expect it would be the opposite, but I’m not afraid of it anymore.
Mouse, me, our two girls, you guys and your families.
Whatever time we all have together is what we’re supposed to have. I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
They all looked at Steel.
“It was your choice to break the rules, Steel,” Nemo reminded him. “What’s your answer?”
He sat there, thoughtfully, looking out the window at the rooftops. He didn’t really have an answer. Not a solid one.
“I guess…” He stopped, then tried again.
“My family was… is… the worst of the worst. When people didn’t play by their rules, they destroyed them.
I’d like to think that Tobias would have seen the truth when he got older, but…
I’ll never know. You all might think I’m awful for saying this, but while I miss Tobias as if I’m missing a part of me, I prefer that he was taken from me rather than have my family get their hooks into him.
The finite number of years I had with him when he still loved me as purely as a son can love a father?
That’s how I want to remember him. That the years we had were good. Not tainted by evil.”
A chorus of “Amen” washed through the seating area.
One by one, the men all drifted away to go about their daily business, but Steel stood there watching the monitor.
At some point, even Midas left when he noticed his teammate’s center of focus.
The sight of Daleyza holding the baby was giving him pangs.
He wanted them under control before he went downstairs and saw her, but so far, they just seemed to get worse. No, not worse. Stronger.
“She looks like she made a beautiful mother,” Ka-Bar said from behind him.
“She did,” he replied softly. He turned to his friend. “Ka-Bar—” he false-started. “Kent.” He held out his hand. “Thank you. For everything you did for Daleyza and me. We never had a chance to tell you.”
“No thanks needed. You came and pulled me out of that shithole in Bariloche. You protected my wife and my son. I wish I could have—”
“Stop. You better not be blaming yourself for Tobias. That’s no one’s fault but the man who pulled the trigger. I’ll never know which of my family it was. It doesn’t matter, really. But they are the ones who should pay for the act.”
Ka-Bar’s eyes burned with a fire of righteous anger. “Their day is coming, Steel. They don’t get to do what they did to him, to you, to anyone, and not pay for their crimes.”
Steel nodded and glanced back at his wife with Paris. Mierda, they made a pretty picture.