Page 48 of Beaches

“John. John, help me!”

“I don’t think I can, sir. If I move, I’ll be dead.”

“I don’t care! Do as you’re told!” John stared at his boss, realizing there was no way out. He shook his head and then looked at the other men.

“You’re going to kill me too, aren’t you?”

“Yep,” said Ghost.

“Two laptops in his room have everything you’ll want to know on them. I suspect you can get into them. I was a good man once. A good man who did something incredibly stupid, and then I was a prisoner for life. I deserve a slow death.”

“No arguments,” said Gaspar.

“Why did you do it? And don’t give me any bullshit about following in your father’s footsteps,” said Nine. “Why?”

“Money. Opportunity. Dad started with traditional brothels, but they’re expensive to maintain. Whores don’t need the amenities.” Trak rammed his knife into the man’s thigh, twisting as he screamed in pain.

“Careful what you say,” said Ian.

“Men didn’t care what the location looked like. They just wanted to do whatever they wanted. We gave that to them.”

“You gave them children,” growled Alec. Kaplan had the common sense to swallow, staring up at the giant.

“Why the POWs? Why keep those men prisoners?”

“I wanted to kill them,” he said, realizing his mistake immediately as the knife was slammed into his gut with a force he didn’t know existed. “It was a mind game. That’s all. See how long they could last. We never thought they’d live decades. Then, it became a money opportunity. Other countries asked us to handle it, so we did.”

“You imprisoned and tortured Americans and our allies,” said Ghost. “That can’t be forgiven.”

“Time to go,” said Miller, shaking a detonator in the air.

“You heard the man,” said Nine. “Let’s get the hell off this boat. Enjoy the swim, although I doubt you’ll remember it. This one is for all the men that didn’t make it.”

“What are you doing? You can’t leave me like this! I’m dying!” Miller stared at the man, shaking his head.

“Not yet.”

Men scrambled as the invaders left their yacht. Nothing would work. The engines were disabled, the computer systems wouldn’t reboot, nothing worked. As the Gray Wolf and VG team moved further from the yacht, Miller stood and flipped open the trigger. They all stared at the yacht, then nodded at their friend.

“Boom,” he whispered, flipping the switch.

“Did it work?” asked Victoria, seated with Thomas. He smiled at the young girl, laughing.

“Of course, it worked,” said Nine. “It worked beautifully. Well done, both of you. The hologram was foolproof. It looked like the real thing, and the sound-bouncing thing was awesome.”

“Sound-bouncing thing?” frowned Ghost.

“Whatever the fuck it was, it worked,” said Nine. “Great job, you guys. We were able to get close enough to disable everything and give time for Miller to set the charges.”

“Glad we could help,” nodded Thomas. “Safe travels home.”

“You know, I can’t wait to look Vic, Damon, and Calvin in the eyes and let them know that Kaplan is gone. April, too,” said Ian.

“I say we give that news to all the men. We have to go back through San Diego. Let’s do a little hospital visit before we leave.”

All of the men that had been returned to the States were still in San Diego’s medical center. They would need time to contact families, reconnect, and be in a place where they truly felt safe.

When the Gray Wolf team visited each unit delivering the news, there was a sense of ease given to the men that wasn’t there before. Their nightmare was dead.

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