Once I’d made it to the front, I had to work to the side of the bed. I had to anticipate that the American would be carrying. This guy was definitely ex-military, most likely Special Forces, but even that didn’t sit right. Those guys are trained to rely on their weapons, close-quarters only when mission critical. This guy would have pulled on me several times, but he didn’t. He used non-lethal moves when he should have pulled a knife, but he didn’t. This guy had my attention, but his face looked familiar. I thought I saw these guys on the news somewhere, CNN most likely, but it may have been back when my dad and I watched Glenn Beck. No, finally started to remember, but too late.
Right when I had backed up enough to get a clean shot at Irish, I heard a familiar clicking of the safety on a rifle. Crap. Again, I dropped my gun. Heh, not a single round had been fired. I took a rifle butt to the head, and I started to fade just as Irish came over and started kicking me, steel-toed boots by the way, until soldier boy tore him off, thank God
When I finally came to, I was tied up to the rear axle of my truck, in somebody’s garage. I can think of worse, so I wasn’t too worked up. After a minute, I heard footsteps and saw soldier boy walking over. He just grinned. All that, and he grins?! I’m thinking to myself, what the fuck is this guy on? I just stabbed his friend, another one of his buddies knocks me out, I’m tied to my own truck, and he’s grinning?! I am so thoroughly boned…
“That was awesome. It’s been a while since we had a fight like that, and I never would have bet that Cathy would get the finishing blow.” Naturally, you can expect my response
“Wait, I got knocked out by a chick?!”
“Yeah, but I wouldn’t mess with her. I could take her and I still wouldn’t.”
“Why?”
“Her name’s Cathy Ryan. Her husband, Jack, prevented a war between the US and Russia when there was that nuclear attack in Baltimore. She ran the immediate trauma clinic at the time.”
“How in the hell did her husband prevent a war?”
“He was an analyst for the CIA. He specialized in the former Soviet Bloc, so he was able to convince his superiors that it was an independent terrorist attack. I never worked with him, but that’s pretty kick ass.”
It all made sense! He didn’t go for non-lethal strikes because the CIA preferred human intelligence over digital, and this guy was old enough that he would have worked for them in the 90’s.
“Wait, you were CIA?”
“Yeah, though the news would’ve told you I was a terrorist. They hunted me when I lost my memory, so I returned the favor. Took down the entire program.”
“I knew it! You’re Jason Bourne!”
“David Webb, actually, but that was a different life. None of that matters anymore.”
“Still! You took down a CIA assassination program all by yourself, causing a huge scandal in the process! It was all anybody talked about until the Saints came back!” I was impressed- this guy was as big a hero as they came.
He started laughing when I mentioned the Saints. I looked at him puzzlingly. Without even looking, he said “I freed them from prison after the dead came back.”
THIS blew my mind completely. Jason Bourne and the MacManus brothers working together?! I just couldn’t believe it.
“Okay, now it’s my turn to get some information. What’s your name?”
“James Franklin. I was a college student when shit hit the fan.”
“Okay, James, where’d you learn to fight like that?”
“I took Krav Maga for a few months, Kajukembo at the school, and I just mimicked Bruce Lee movies and Power Rangers reruns.”
He started laughing at that last bit, but he got what he wanted.
“Okay, obviously you’re a Scout. You’re not living on your own, you’re part of a larger group. Where are you guys at?”
“BOURNE, GIMME A MINUTE WITH THAT COCKSUCKER!!” Jason dropped his head at that.
“Murphy, I’m working here! You already beat him so bad that Cathy could barely stitch him up! There is no way in hell that I’m letting you torture this kid!”
“Where’d you find that guy?” When I asked, he just looked at me.
“You said that I was all anybody talked about until the Saints came back to Boston. Well, there’s one of them.” And that clicked too. It was Murphy MacManus, the younger of the two.
“Wait, where’s Connor? The two never acted independent.”
“Zombies. I was getting them out of the prison when Connor tried to hold back the horde.”
“And that’s why he’s so angry.” It made sense. These two guys loved each other more than most brothers ever do. They took a bullet for each other on multiple occasions, so if one of them had to watch the other one die, knowing there was nothing he could do about it; it’d make him into an inherently angry person.
“Yeah, just don’t ask him to talk about it. Like I asked before, where’s your base?”
“I can take you there, or at least navigate your way there. I’m warning you now, the place is has plenty of guns and ammo to go around, but the guy at the sentry post is older’n God and meaner than all of you combined. If you put me at the front, he won’t hesitate to shoot all of us.”
“What’s he using?”
“A laser-sighted M14. I’m telling you, this is a bad idea. You might as well be walking right into a heavily armed fort. He’ll hear you coming, and even if he doesn’t, he’ll kill us all.”
“Odds are that I’ve worked with him. Who is he?”
“Harry Callahan.”
“Wait, Dirty Harry Callahan?!”
“Yeah. Now you see what I’m talking about.”
“Murphy’ll love this… YO! MURPH! THIS KID SAYS HE WAS SCOUTING FOR DIRTY HARRY!”
Murphy walks in, grinning.
“No fuckin’ way! There is no way that you’ve been shackin’ up with Harry Callahan, there’s just no way. How’d you find him?”
“Simple. When he was forced to retire, he came up here to get away from San Francisco, and he had family nearby. When he did, he started collecting guns, ammo, hunting equipment, just prepping in general.”
Bourne nodded in approval, then started with “Smart man. What kind of sentry post does he have?”
“It’s a hunting stand that we’ve rigged onto the roof. You can rig up just about anything with enough duct tape.” They laughed at that, but knew it was true.
He bowed his head, like he was thinking. Without looking up, he gave us his plan. “Okay, the only one of us with a ranged weapon is Cathy, so I’ll have her drive while James and I are in the back. He’ll navigate, I’ll get Harry in my crosshairs, and we’ll talk him down. Sound good?”
Murphy and I nodded, so he had to go explain it to Cathy. When he tried to grab her rifle, she freaked out at him, like he was taking her kid away. It occurred to me that it may have belonged to her husband, so I decided to ask Murphy.
“Hey, you mind if I ask a few questions?”
He didn’t look at me. “Shoot.”
“I’m sorry about stabbing you in the arm, I was just trying to survive. In all fairness, you tried to kill me, so we cool?”
“Yeah, we’re cool. Next question.” Still focusing on the argument in the next room.
“What happened to Cathy’s husband?”
“Did Jason tell you about Connor?” This time, he started shaking his head, as if to refresh his memory.
“Yeah…”
