Shadow in the Mountain by KaLyn Cooper
Epilogue
“First,thank you all for coming to Indiana. Mom is thrilled to be feeding all these men.” Ryker looked down the long butcherblock table that had been used for decades to feed dozens of foster children, including himself. Moments ago, it had been piled nearly a foot deep with the remnants of another fabulous supper cooked by the woman he thought of as Mom.
“I know we’ve talked about this over the past two months, and I think we’re ready to move forward with it…if you are. Any questions before I ask for your commitment?”
“You said we don’t have to live here in Indiana?” Larson Aldrich, a.k.a. Keebler, scratched under the cast that would be removed from his leg next month.
“I’ll take this one,” Serena folded her hands on the table, her sparkling diamond and shiny gold band glimmering under the lights. “Since I’m going to be the back office coordinating everything for your missions, it doesn’t make any difference to me where you live. If there are no cell towers on your mountaintop, we’ll get you a satellite phone. You will need, though, a reliable Internet connection, one stable enough to handle our encryption programs.”
“But what if we want to live here?” Keene Soto, better known to everyone at the table as Gramps, gestured with both hands. “This is a beautiful place. You and Xena are building a new house on the property. So are Serena and Ajax. Is it possible that Frank and Nancy might sell us a patch of dirt, too, or is it limited to married couples?”
“I can’t speak for them, but you can always ask. They’ve told all of us who grew up here that we are to consider this home and are welcome to buy land from them. The money goes toward their retirement fund. When we’re finished here, we can go hunt down Mom and Dad.”
“I’m interested in their answer, too.” Kenner Lane added. Ryker was pleased that Viper might end up living so close.
“You were kind of vague before about the startup money. I’ve seen a lot of other guys get out of the military and try to do this kind of work. They failed miserably because they ran out of money before the high-paying jobs started to come in.” Heath Kubiak wasn’t called Pitbull for nothing.
Ryker had to smile. He reached over and took his wife’s hand. “We haven’t talked a lot about the rescue, but it was multidimensional and complicated. The bottom line is that the rebels were being funded by gold stolen from the Neberu Mining Company. A few weeks ago, I got a call from its owner, Zesaro Neberu. He paid Xena and me five million dollars as a finder’s fee for discovering the thief and redirecting their attention to a mine they thought was barren. Turns out it has one of the deepest veins of gold in all of Ethiopia.”
Whistles came from everyone around the table.
“Okay, that gets us started, but what about missions? I guess at this point they’re really jobs?” Tavis Neade pushed the conversation in the direction Ryker had hoped. Bones had always been astute.
Ryker continued to smile. “Neberu also offered us a job, but we told him about the Holt Agency. He promised to recommend us for jobs to his billionaire friends. And you know Charley offered the same when she called for our answer about staying in or retiring.” His entire team had chosen the medical retirement with full benefits and retired pay. Although that offer made them reasonably comfortable, they were all still young and wanted to work.
He looked at Xena and nodded for her to continue. “The vice president called yesterday. Charley must have threatened him or something. He admitted that an apology was not good enough for what his cover-up cost everyone at this table.”
“Are you telling me that the fucking vice president of the United States was in on this?” Holden Billings seethed through clenched teeth. Loki was usually the joker on the team, but he’d been so much more serious since the rescue. He awkwardly picked up his still-healing arm and thunked the partial cast on the table.
“Yes,” Xena and Ryker said at the same time.
“He offered us a renewable marker. His exact words were, ‘Whatever you need, anytime you need it, I’ll do my best to make it happen.’ He knows we have him by the balls. If this cover-up were ever to come out, especially if he decides to run for the big office, every extended military family would be on the six o’clock news.”
“Does that mean he’s gonna throw jobs our way?” Bones asked.
“He did promise exactly that.” Ryker nodded. His gaze swept the table waiting for more questions. When no one spoke up, Ryker decided it was time to vote. “Everybody who wants to go to work for the Holt Agency, raise your hand.”
With nine hands in the air, Ryker raised his.
“Consider this your official welcome to the Holt Agency.”
The End.