Page 5 of Avenging Kelly

Finally, the day arrived when I was to be released from the disciplinary barracks in Leavenworth. The red tape seemed endless, and sometimes I thought maybe I never was getting out of there.

As I was being moved to a small room for processing out, I’d seen The Gambler in the hallway chatting with The Cooler. The Gambler had winked at me and pointed to her cell phone, though I didn’t know what she meant by the gesture.

Later, as I sorted through the documents I’d been told to sign, I found an envelope with my name on it and the word Confidential written across the front. I quickly stashed it in my pocket before anyone saw it, and I signed the papers to get the fuck out of there.

I was hoping and praying I’d be able to figure out what my next steps should be, but the idea I’d be on the outside soon gave me the will to continue. So many times before, that bit of hope had been impossible to muster, but it was blossoming inside of me for the first time in years.

Once I was released, I headed straight to my mother’s house in Queens so I could meet my niece, Daisy. When I arrived home, I was told that a hit-and-run driver had run down my best friend, Mathis Sinclair, on Christmas Eve.

According to my mother, who had heard from Mathis’ parents on Christmas Day, they had initially reported it as an unknown assailant. I felt deep in my bones that there was a hell of a lot more to it than random bad luck on Mathis’ part.

I’d confided once to Mathis about being offered a spot in Operation Jackpot because I was worried about what might happen to me if I turned them down. The guy was rock solid, and I’d thought he could give me some advice.

My deepest concern had been that if I signed up for some top-secret military experiment, would I ever be able to get out of it and live a normal life? Mathis hadn’t been optimistic about my chances.

* * *

October 2021

I walked into the visitor’s room to see Mathis sitting at a round table wearing that big smile that was the only good thing in my world at the moment. I’d refused to allow him to bring my mother. She shouldn’t see me behind bars. Plus, I needed to talk to Mathis about something important because I needed his advice.

Mathis stood and reached out as if he were going to hug me, but I gave him a shake of my head—no contact or my visiting privileges would be suspended. He sighed and sat down.

“How’s Mom? Any word on Mia?” I asked. I’d last seen him in September when he’d come to Kansas, and there had been no word on my sister’s whereabouts then. I was hoping he had something new to tell me.

“Amy’s fine. She sends her love, and she asked again if she could come see you at Christmas. You really should let her, Kelly. It would do both of you good,” he’d insisted for the millionth time since he’d started coming to see me.

“Nope. I need to talk to you about something that has to stay just between the two of us. They offered me a chance for an early release if I join what they called an experimental trial. I’ll train to go on covert missions for the government—some black ops shit, I think—and in return, they’ll shorten my time. I’m seriously thinking about it. I can be of more help in finding Mia on the outside, Mathis,” I whispered to him as I scanned the visiting room to be sure nobody was focusing on us.

Mathis reached to touch my hand, but I pulled back from him. He seemed like a compassionate guy, and I hated to be rude, but I couldn’t afford to even bend their rules.

“Kelly, don’t sign up for it yet. Let me get a friend to look into it,” Mathis insisted.

I chuckled. “You won’t find shit about it, I promise. This is the kind of thing the government doesn’t advertise.”

For another twelve minutes, Mathis tried to change my mind, but it was too late—I was willing to do anything to get myself out of prison, even if it killed me.

* * *

I’d lied to Mathis after that, telling him I’d declined the invitation, which I hadn’t. I’d been stupid enough to sign up and begin their strict regimen to make me into a super soldier, a killing machine, and now I was on the hook for the rest of my fucking life.

Mom told me about Mathis’ death, which was shocking. She and I had an argument about me going to talk to Gabby about it. She was really upset that I wouldn’t let it go, and I couldn’t understand why, so I went to bed instead of continuing to hear her say I should stay out of it, that it was too late to do anything about it.

The next morning, I went to GEA-A to meet with Gabe Torrente, the man I’d met a few years earlier when I’d been assigned to Forward Operating Base Lyndon in Mosul, about an hour from the Syrian border. That was also when I’d met Shep Colson and Giuseppe Torrente.

The three of them had arrived at Lyndon with an Italian feast for the soldiers assigned there, and I’d been one of them. They’d been asking a lot of questions about an incident that had happened to a female pilot who had been assigned to move equipment out of the country and had become the target of a rogue group of Rangers.

I’d witnessed what those guys had done to Captain Christa Drummond, and I’d known in my gut they needed to be brought to justice, regardless of how it was dispatched, but I hadn’t been sure I should be the one to do it.

My boss in the motor pool, Chief Blankenship, had taken me aside and told me if I testified against those black ops guys, there’d be hell to pay. Gabe and Shep had assured me I’d be okay, so I did what any good soldier would do. I testified to what I’d seen that dark night when they beat the fuck out of the female pilot and left her there to die.

I’d been too much of a coward to intercede when the attack had occurred, but I’d finally manned up and told the story of what I’d witnessed to a military jury. The last remaining ranger of the foursome, Brian Coffey, was sentenced to hard time at Camp Humphreys in South Korea because his father was the Vice President of the United States at the time.

The third ranger, Jeremy Orr, was already in the brig for not passing a drug test while he was in Mosul, so he got additional time added to his previous sentence and was transferred to a facility in Germany.

Of course, after I fulfilled my responsibility to testify, my sister got kidnapped and wasn’t found until almost three years later. My gut told me it had everything to do with my testimony, but how would I ever prove it?

* * *

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