Beyond the Sea

EPILOGUE CHANGING OF THE GUARD

The gathering of the departmental heads and other members of the Event Group, who had never been in one place off complex before, was something that Niles Compton had wanted to do ever since the conclusion of the Overlord operation. The Group needed to be reset, and this was the best way to accomplish that.

The expansive ranch, owned by Compton, was a property that had belonged to his family for generations and placed on display the beauty of Montana. The activity outside the large ranch house was festive as men and women doted over the guests of honor — the six children rescued from Compton’s Reef.

The gathering was far more than just a send-off of the children to one of the most expensive private schools in the country, where they would be assimilated into modern society; it was a get-together to celebrate each other and the recent achievements of the Group. To not take for granted the friendships they had developed and to take time to remember those no longer with them but who would forever be on the active rolls of Department 5656.

The large white tent housed the food and drink, and the orphaned children were wide-eyed at the activity. It had been Master Chief Jenks, the brutish bully of a man, who had fallen hard for the children. He was sad to be seeing them leave to start their new lives under the protection of the Group, but it was a necessary one, as explained to him by an eye-rolling Virginia Pollock. He and Virginia were spending the last few hours they had with the kids and looked to be having the time of their lives. The master chief had been transformed by his new charges and would be forever following their progress while they were away.

“Who would have thought, huh?”

Niles Compton turned and saw Alice Hamilton as she strolled up to the small hill that overlooked the expansive backyard of the ranch.

“Thought?” he asked as he sipped his drink.

“That something as small and breakable as children could melt that old, mean bastard’s heart.”

“The master chief, yes, it is an amazing transformation.” Niles took a deep breath and then watched the activity below him. “But you do learn as you get older that the small things are what change you.”

She saw the sad look come into Niles’s countenance.

“Okay, what’s wrong?” Alice said as she stepped closer to the director.

“It’s been five days since we returned from the North Atlantic, and there hasn’t been one iota of information coming out of Russia. Nothing.”

“What does the president say?”

“That’s what is so frustrating. The Russians are acting as if the Simbirsk incident never happened. No word from Putin on the disposition of his missing crews of three ships.” He turned and faced Alice. “The president says it’s nothing out of the ordinary when it comes to getting information out of that particular government, but I’m not convinced it’s business as usual with our former communist friends.”

Alice patted him on the arm. “Go with your instincts. If you think it’s not kosher, prove it. You’re good at that.”

Niles smiled and then faced the party, and the Group down below once more. “I think I’ll let it lie for now. The Group needs time to get their heads on straight again. We have to rebuild what it was that was taken from us. I think I’ll let the president and the politicians wrestle with this one.”

“Well, then, that means you have the time to buy an old woman a drink.”

Niles held his arm out, and Alice took it. She smiled, and they both rejoined the party.

Jack, Carl, Charlie, Jason, and Will stood and talked. Jack had never once believed he could become so close to those he served with. After so many years of wars fought and lives lost, he thought he had forced himself to stop caring so much. In the end, he learned that to be a good soldier means to never stop caring. After Operation Overlord had taken so many friends, he found out that these brilliant people needed him; they needed Carl and Will and Jason. These men and women were the best of them, and with Niles leading the Group, he knew that the department, as well as the country, was in the hands of men and women who had one goal — to be the best human beings possible. It was that simple.

Xavier Morales rolled over with a tray of drinks placed in his lap. Jack saw him weaving in and around people, and then he smiled as he ran over Master Jenks’s foot with one of his wheels. Xavier sped away before Jenks could yell and blubber. The children around him laughed and thought it was the funniest thing they had ever seen in their young lives as Jenks hopped around on one foot, cursing.

Xavier was relieved of the tray of drinks by Charlie Ellenshaw. Charlie passed out the drinks and then smiled at Collins.

“With your permission, Colonel?” he said to Jack, who accepted his drink, as did the others.

The others went silent as Ellenshaw raised his glass. “For those we left in paradise, Russian, British, and American.”

They all nodded as they raised their glasses and drank the toast.

“Good job, Charlie,” Jack said as he lowered his glass. “Oh, shit,” he said, and the others turned to see what had caught his attention.

Sarah and Anya were heading straight at the group of men, and all wanted to turn and flee.

“I’ve been expecting this.”

“What?” Xavier asked, confused as the women streaked toward them.

“We have both gotten the silent treatment since we came home. I think that grace period is over. They think we go out of our way to get into trouble,” Carl said as he set his empty glass down and turned to face the wrath of the former Mossad agent.

Jack’s jaw dropped when Will, Jason, Charlie, and even Xavier turned and wandered away.

“Thanks for the backup!” Collins said to their retreating forms.

“We didn’t sign on for that kind of danger, Colonel.”

Jack and Carl sneered at the four men as they left them high and dry.

“We need to talk,” Sarah said as the two women cut off their own retreat.

Most of the Group had left for hotels in town, and the ones remaining said good-bye to the children as the private foundation financed by Niles Compton took the children to their new home in Billings, where they would receive the education and guidance in living in a far more complicated world than the one they had left.

The remaining members stood around the front yard just talking and getting to know each other once more. Sarah, Jack, Carl, and Anya stood by each other with the women laughing and the men staring off into nothingness as Will and Jason watched on laughing at the two cowed men.

“What is this?” Alice asked Niles as she watched the UPS truck enter through the gate.

“I don’t know.”

Jack walked over with Carl, and they too watched the delivery truck come up the long drive.

“You expecting a package?” Jack asked.

“No,” Niles said as the brown truck pulled up and stopped in front of the group of men and women.

The driver popped out of the sliding door with his electronic tracker in his hand.

“Dr. Niles Compton?”

“Yes?” he said as he stepped forward.

“Sign here, please.”

Niles took the plastic pen and then signed.

The man smiled and turned to his truck and slid open the back door, and he and his assistant pulled a rather large and heavy box from the back. They struggled with it but managed to get it over to Niles. The director looked at the keypad he had just signed his name to and frowned.

“It doesn’t say who it’s from.”

Jack’s hackles rose, as did Carl’s. Even the others became curious and turned to see what was being delivered in the large cardboard box. Collins took the keypad and then walked up to the driver and his assistant.

“When did you receive this?”

“It was in the warehouse when we arrived this afternoon. It’s the only delivery out this way today, so we made it our last.”

“Okay, thank you,” Jack said, and he handed the keypad back.

As the driver left, Carl gestured for everyone to step back as Jack and himself approached the large box. Stamped in red on the side was the bold lettering that warned them that the container contained dry ice.

Not only were Jack and Carl worried, Jason and Will also moved everyone away from the box. Xavier and Charlie stayed with Ryan and Mendenhall as Jack cut the straps and then sliced open the front.

“Probably just a gift for the children,” Alice said, not really believing her own words.

“Colonel?” Xavier said before Jack could open the box. He rolled over, and Carl stopped him from getting closer. “This is all I have on me,” Morales said as he produced a small sensor that resembled a cell phone. He rolled closer to the box and held out the device. It flashed green, and then he faced the colonel.

“It’s not a bomb. At least there are no nitrates of any kind.”

“That doesn’t mean there is no chemical explosive inside!” Jason called out.

“Why is everyone so suspicious?” Charlie asked in a hushed tone.

“Doc,” Will said as he watched on, “who in the hell would know where the director’s private compound is? Hell, we didn’t even know about this place.”

“Oh.”

Jack looked at Carl, and then he pulled open the front of the box and then reached in and separated the thick plastic with his bare hands. Fifteen pounds of dry ice spilled out onto the drive, and Collins stepped back.

“Oh, my God,” Alice said as she took Niles by the arm.

“Damn them,” Jack said as the others drew around him and the gift that had been specially delivered.

All were stunned at the sight before them.

In the box, curled up in a sitting position and in full dress uniform, was Second Captain Dishlakov. The skin was gray in color, and they could see he had been dead for some time. In his arms was a folded newspaper, and Carl reached in and took it. He unfolded it and then stared at the headline. It was in Russian, so he handed the paper over to Alice, who was fluent in the language. She swallowed and looked it over. She lowered the paper and looked at the others.

“It’s dated three days ago from the Moscow rag they call a newspaper.”

They looked at the paper as Alice passed it around. The one photo on the front page was a black-and-white picture of the missile cruiser Peter the Great, seen at her launching three years before.

“It says that the Peter the Great was lost with all hands in the North Atlantic due to the effects of Hurricane Tildy. It is sadly reported that two other vessels were lost at the same time.”

“How many men on board?” Mendenhall asked.

“We brought home four hundred and twelve survivors,” Jason said as his anger at what was just dawning in his mind started to overwhelm him.

“Jesus, Jack, they killed them all. The entire crew.” Carl stood aghast as he remembered the Russian sailors who had given the villagers gifts and happiness only a few days before.

Collins said nothing as he reached in and removed a small envelope that was pinned to Dishlakov’s uniform jacket. He handed it over to Niles, who stood and stared at the box for the longest time. Instead of reading the message — because at the moment, he could not trust his voice — he handed the letter to Alice, who didn’t want to but tore it open nonetheless.

Alice handed the note and envelope to Jack as Jason, Will, and Jenks eased the body of Second Captain Dishlakov from the box. They laid him on the grass by the drive as Sarah, who had slipped inside the house, covered the former naval officer in a bedsheet.

“What do we do now?” Virginia asked, angered at the development coming at the end of such a happy occasion.

Niles looked up at the anxious faces looking his way. “Let’s ask the men who had served with Second Captain Dishlakov and his crew. Jack?”

Collins pulled the sheet back and reached down and removed the topmost medal from the breast jacket of the second captain. He looked at the overly large citation and then placed it in his pocket and walked away as the others watched on.

“What was that?” Charlie asked.

Carl turned and started to follow Collins when he heard the question.

“That was the Russian naval commendation awarded by the politburo. It’s their version of the medal of honor.”

“What’s Jack going to do with it?” Xavier asked, not believing what was happening.

Carl Everett looked at the men and women watching Jack enter the house, and then they waited for an answer that all but the naïve already knew.

“It may not be now, next year, or five years down the road, but Jack just promised himself he would pin that medal to Comrade Vassick’s liver.”

Niles Compton turned also and followed Collins.

“And that man’s going to help him do it.”

Things had changed for Department 5656, known to a select few as the Event Group. A new element had been silently added to their federal charter, and the world to them and the country would never be the same again.