Mother’s Daze – Part 3

He couldn’t believe how much stronger he was feeling after such a short time. His mother was a big part of that, using her previous medical training to help him heal and strengthen quickly. Not to mention the medication, which made him feel damn near invincible.

Within another day, he was able to go outside. Lenny saw that he was staying in a cabin near the top of a remote mesa in an all-but-desert area just outside a small town. There were four other men staying there, quiet types in dark clothes with bulges under their shirts – government agents assigned to protect her, his mother had explained. They nodded to him when he passed but other than one burly fellow with a similar accent to his mother’s, the guards never spoke in his presence. They gave Len the creeps, good guys or no.

“It is beautiful in its way, yes?” His mother gestured to take in their surroundings as they walked around the large, empty space outside the cabin.

“I guess.” He looked down at the town, with its neatly arranged white and pale pink houses. “What’s that place?”

“Zion,” she replied. “Just a little community where we get our groceries and other necessities.” She looked at him out of the side of her eye. “Perhaps when you are completely healed, we will visit there together.”

“That’d be nice.” Lenny stretched cautiously, and a glint of sunlight against his finger distracted him. He drew his left hand closer, studying the gold band there. “I’m married.”

His mother hesitated. “You were. Your wife left you some time ago.”

He continued to stare at the ring. “I wonder why I’m still wearing this then.”

“Perhaps sentiment? It is not important now. What is important is that we are together again. And that we punish those who have kept us apart, and who would kill us if given the chance.”

Sounded fair to him. They paused about a hundred feet from a tall cactus. His mother reached into her handbag and withdrew a gun. She held it out to him, butt-first. “Here you go, darling.”

He took the gun. It felt kind of good in his hand – heavy, solid, and powerful. “Do I know how to use this?”

“Not yet. But don’t worry.” She stepped beside him, took his arm, and helped him aim at the cactus. “Mother will teach you everything you need to know.”

***

“Over there!” Sarah jabbed a finger at two figures in the distance.

“Are you sure? They’re kind of far away.” Carmine squinted through the dim morning light at the pair. They were standing in front of a small, isolated trailer just outside of the town of Zion.

“I’m sure. Stanley’s favored his right leg after long walks since he injured his knee skiing. Back when I was a nurse – and home – I used to give him shots of cortisone for it whenever it acted up.”

Carmine strained and sure enough, he saw the figure on the right had the slightest limp. He’d never noticed Stan limping before. “You got quite a pair of peepers, there, Sarah.”

She gave him a half-smile. “Leading my life, one learns a few things along the way. About staying alert, and staying ahead.”

No doubt. Carmine remembered the way she’d gotten the jump on him, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. She crept forward, staying close to the ground behind a low line of bushes and he crawled after her. Soon they were close enough to Stan and his big buddy to make out what they were saying.

“I thought you said this was her place!” Stan snapped.

“It is.”

“Then where the hell is she?”

“Probably crouching down, staying low. She don’t want to be found, remember?”

Carmine glanced over at Sarah and whispered, “Is this your place?” She shook her head and his heart sank. It was a trap, and Stan was about to walk into it.

“First you tell me it’s ten minutes away. Then you tell me you meant ten minutes by car. A half hour later, and we’re in front of an empty trailer.” Stan reached under his jacket and pulled out his gun. “I think I’m done playing games for tonight, Mr. Velez.”

Velez, the big guy, put up his hands and backed up. “Hey, Kosnowski, I took you where I thought she was. If she’s already split, that ain’t my fault.”

“If you think I believe…!”

Whatever Stan was going to say was lost as the door to the trailer flung open. As the older man spun around, Velez jumped him, knocking him to the ground. They wrestled for a couple of minutes, but Velez soon stood up, the gun in his hand. He gestured to his two equally large buddies, who came out of the trailer like clowns rammed into a tiny car. “C’mon over, boys. Looky what I drug in.”

Stan glared up at Velez from the desert floor. “You double-crossing, lying, son-of-a-bitch!”

“Yeah, yeah.” Velez aimed a kick that caught Stan in the ribs. The older man clenched his teeth and clutched his side.

“So,” drawled a large black man, folding his beefy arms across his chest. “This is the guy who’s been looking for Sarah Jones? He tell you why she’s worth so much dough all of a sudden?”

“Not yet, but he will. He sure will.” Velez pointed the gun at Stan’s head.

Carmine started to his feet, but Sarah grabbed his arm and yanked him back down. “They’re gonna kill him!” he hissed.

“So you want to die, too?” she retorted. “What do you think you’re going to accomplish, running out there all by yourself?”

“I have a gun, too, remember?” He pulled it out of his pocket.

“There’s still one of you and three of them. Think!”

He did, and she was right. Still, he couldn’t leave poor Stan at the mercy of those goons. “Fine, what do you suggest?”

She held out her hand. “Give me the gun. We’ll take them by surprise, pick them off from here.” He just stared at her. She sighed. “I told you, you don’t live my life without being prepared. Now give me the gun, unless you have some until-now unmentioned marksmanship ability!”

He shook his head. “No I don’t. And even if you do, that won’t work. You might nail one, but the others will scatter and even I know how hard it is to hit moving targets. Besides, they’ll just turn around and kill Stan on the spot.”

She bit her lower lip. “They might not all be armed.” But she didn’t sound certain. “Okay, what do you suggest, tough guy?”

“A distraction.” He thought fast. “Only what can we do…?” Before he could finish the thought, she was crawling around to the side of the trailer. “Wait!” Damn, what is she up to?

He got his answer when Sarah stood up and walked around the side of the trailer toward the gathering. “Were you boys looking for me?”

The three big bruisers swung their heads around to face her, including Velez, who grinned. “Well, now ain’t this convenient?”

“Celia?” said Stan, looking up at her with wide, blue eyes. “Celia, is it really you?”

She glanced down at him, taking a few more steps. Carmine leveled the gun at Velez, but couldn’t get a clean shot. Meanwhile, the other two goons had scurried over to Sarah and grabbed her arms. She gave them each a withering look. “Really, boys, am I that terrifying?”

The goons looked at each other. Velez chuckled. “Leave her be, boys. She ain’t going nowhere. Besides, all that money flying around from folk looking for her will disappear if she’s…damaged.” He grinned, a gold front tooth glittering in the early morning sunlight.

“Celia, what do you think you’re doing?” Stan demanded.

“Hello, Stanley. Nice to see you again.” Her tone was detached but even from where he was crouching, Carmine could see the look on her face was anything but. She stared down at her husband and added, “Sorry about all the dust in your eyes, but we live in a dry, dry spot.”

Stan simply nodded. Carmine saw his right hand clench around a handful of sand. Geeze, they’re sure in synch. Even after all these years!

Sarah returned her attention to Velez, shrugging away from the other big men and sauntering over to him. She poked him playfully in the chest and looked up into his eyes. “So, Eddie, you going to sell me out for a few bucks? I ought to tell your mamma on you!”

Velez looked downright embarrassed. “Hey, it’s more than a few bucks, Sarah!”

“That’s Ms. Jones to you, young man.”

He blustered then pointed his gun at her. “Just you come with me, Ms. Jones, and we’ll let the old guy go, ‘kay?”

She shrugged. “Fair enough. But as you pointed out, I’m not going to be worth much if I’m dead.” She smiled broadly. “Come on, Eddie. Surely a big man like you can handle a little lady like me.”

She’s a tough one, Carmine noted in admiration. She and her daughter-in-law would get along great.

Velez’s men chuckled and he turned to glare at them before tucking his gun into his waistband. “Fine. Let’s go.”

“Wait a minute,” said Sarah, pointing to Stan. “What about him? You said you’d let him go.”

“Soon as I get back,” said Velez, nodding to his friends. They took positions on either side of Stan, who slowly got to his feet. “Until then, think of him as insurance.” Velez sniffed. “Who is he to you anyway?”

Sarah stood toe-to-toe with the big man, looking up into his face. “Mr. Jones,” she replied. Then she kneed Velez in the groin.

Velez let out a sound like a teakettle announcing full boil. His entire face flushed red as he sank to his knees. But Sarah didn’t stop there. As he dropped down to a convenient height, she drew back her fist and punched him square in the nose. Carmine winced in sympathy at the loud cracking sound that followed. She finished him off with a front kick under the chin that knocked Velez over backward like a toppling redwood. He hit the dirt and lay twitching, but not much else.

Before either of his stunned friends could react, Stan threw a double handful of sand into their eyes. As they cried out and clawed at their faces, he socked the large black man right in the kisser, snapping his head back. Stan followed up with a combination that sent the blinded man sprawling next to Velez.

But the third guy managed to clear his vision and with a roar he dove onto Stan’s back, sending him crashing to the dirt. Carmine decided that was his cue to join in, so he leapt to his feet and ran into the clearing. “Get off him!” he ordered, coming up behind the third bruiser, jabbing the gun into the back of his crew-cut covered head.

The guy ignored him, intent on ramming Stan’s face into the earth. Aggravated, Carmine added, “Hello, I’ve got a gun here! Get off him!”

“Bite me, pal!” the guy snarled. “I’ll snap this old guy’s neck like a twig before you…!”

Carmine didn’t wait for him to finish. He tossed the gun in the air, caught it by the barrel, and slammed the butt into the base of Crewcut’s skull. The guy dropped like a stone on top of Stan and fell silent.

“Could you get this dumbass off me?” came Stan’s muffled voice. “It’s hard to breathe!”

“Sure, sorry.” Carmine dragged the guy off Stan, who sat up, gasping for air. “Better?”

“Much. Thanks.”

Sarah had Velez’s gun in her hand. She strode over and extended her free hand to Stan. He looked at it, followed it up her arm to her face. Carmine saw moisture in his eyes. “Thanks, Celia. You look as beautiful as I remember.”

She tugged him to his feet and they stood there, staring at one another for several, pregnant moments. Then she reached for him and he embraced her. Their lips met and Carmine felt like he had wandered into their bedroom.

“I’ll…um…I’ll just be here…you know…guarding the bad guys. Okay?” They continued to ignore him. “Yeah, all right.” He aimed the gun at each of the men on the ground, but none of them were conscious enough to pose a threat. He sighed and sat down on a nearby pile of rocks, waiting for either the next attack or for Lenny’s parents to finish making out. Either would be a welcome relief.

***

“You are a fast learner,” his mother complimented him that night over dinner.

“Yeah, well, you’re a good teacher.” He grinned. She was his one and only connection to the world. He may not have remembered enough to love her as a son should, but certainly the bond he felt was nearly as strong. He had to protect her, keep those heartless bastards from finding her and taking her away from him. Whatever it took, he knew he would do.

He took a bite of chicken and paused in mid-chew as a strange flash distracted him. He’d been getting bits and pieces of what he could only assume were memories throughout the day, but none of them made sense. They were just images – a woman’s green eyes, a baby’s hand wrapped around his finger. Or they were strong feelings – anger, betrayal, loss. Now it was something different: a bit of conversation.

A woman was saying, “Len, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Ever since the baby was born…I don’t know. Sometimes I feel like I’m going crazy or something.” He felt a rush of affection that almost made him gasp. Then she was crying, ““Lenny, please! I’m sorry! Don’t go!” The feelings immediately shifted to hurt and rage.

“Leonard? Are you all right?” It was his mother now, and the mystery woman’s voice faded out. He finished chewing and forced himself to swallow.

“Yeah, fine. Just…I don’t know.”

She looked at him closely. “Did you remember something? What was it? It is very important that you tell me anything you remember. Son.”

Lenny shook his head. “Snippets of old conversations, but I don’t know who with or when or anything. Never mind, it isn’t important now.”

His mother opened her mouth to say something, but seemed to change her mind. She smiled. “You’re right. Our timetable is being accelerated anyway. We should focus on the mission at hand.”

That was a weird way to put it. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, my guards received a call today from a contact in town. They have located an assassin, sent to find me and finish me off once and for all.”

Lenny banged down his fork and stood up. “Where is he? Don’t worry, I’ll take care of him! I won’t let anyone hurt you, Mother!”

She ran a hand through her hair, loosening the tight bun and letting it spill down around her shoulders. “You are very brave, Leonard. We are safe for now, although the best defense is a good offense.”

“Which means we should get rid of this assassin before he comes nosing around here!”

“Indeed. But first, you need a bit more practice. Tomorrow, Leonard, you will practice some more. Perhaps the day after that, you will be ready to remove the threat.”

Lenny’s fingers itched to clutch the gun again, but he settled for a chicken leg. “Tomorrow then. I’ll be ready for him, Mother. He’ll never get close to you.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” his mother murmured. “But the assassin isn’t a he, Leonard. It’s a she.” He hesitated and she saw it. “Is that a problem, dear?”

He gave his head a brisk shake. “No. It doesn’t matter. Man, woman…no one’s gonna take you away from me!”

She smiled and caressed his cheek. “Good boy.”

***

Stan caught his wife up on all their exploits over tacos at a small restaurant that night. Carmine waited patiently until he was finished before demanding, “Why did you sneak out on me back at the hotel, anyway?”

Stan shrugged. “I’m sorry, but I knew Velez was a risky contact at best. I didn’t want you to get hurt.”

“Well that’s real nice, except you almost got yourself killed. I’m pretty decent backup, as I think I showed today.” Carmine glared at him across the table.

The older man sighed. “You’re right. I won’t ditch you again.”

“So now that you’ve found me,” said Sarah. “What’s your next step, Stanley? How are we going to find our son?”

“I’m hoping you can shed some light on who might’ve taken him. The most my contacts have gotten are hazy reports about Russian operatives sneaking in from Cuba in recent weeks.”

Sarah nodded. “I received a warning from my contact in the Program as well, but it was all just rumors until now. It doesn’t make sense, though…the information I turned over years ago is today nothing but eye-opening comments on history. Its strategic significance is all but lost.”

“Was that it, then? The reason you had to leave, it was because of what you used to get us into the US back in the day?” Stan’s blue eyes darkened. “We should have stayed in Switzerland! At least there, our family would have stayed together!”

She sighed heavily. “Don’t waste your time dwelling on what ifs, Stanley. Trust me, it only makes it all worse and nothing changes. I did what I did and the outcome…well, it wasn’t great, but at least our children were born and raised in a good place, without having to spend their lives dodging Russian agents.”

“Until now,” said Stan. “That’s who has our son, isn’t it?”

“Why, though?” Carmine chimed in. “If your information is all out of date, Sarah, then what’s the point of grabbing Lenny or hunting you down?”

She shook her head. “I can only think that they believed Lenny knew how to contact me. The accident of his moving to California, combined with whatever intelligence they already had, must have convinced them of this.”

“Plus my poking and prodding into your case.” Stan pounded his forehead with his fist. “Stupid! I must’ve attracted the attention of every mole and double-agent in the vicinity!”

Sarah patted his forearm. “You wanted answers, Stanley. I can’t blame you for that. Besides, what’s done is done. We need to focus on finding our son.”

“So what do we know so far?” asked Stan.

Carmine held up one finger. “We know Russian agents have Lenny.” He raised another finger. “We know they’re here, or at least real close.” He raised a third. “And we know they know that your wife is here. That leaves us with a couple of possibilities.” He gave Stan a hesitant look. “None of which you’re gonna like.”

“Carmine….” Stan began, frowning.

Sarah grinned ruefully. “He’s right. They have what we want, but you have their target. Me.”

“Celia, no!”

“Bait,” she continued. “If you offer me in exchange for our son, they may just let Lenny go.”

“Bullshit!” exclaimed Stan, pounding the table. “I’m not trading my family members like Go Fish cards! Besides, you know as well as I do that they won’t simply let Len, or any of us, walk away from an exchange.”

“You don’t know that,” she countered. “If for whatever reason they still want the information, which only exists in my head, then we’ll have leverage! Stanley, there’s no other way!”

Her husband looked over at Carmine for support, but he could only offer a shrug. “She’s right, Stan.”

“Would you do it if it were Shirley?”

He hesitated. Then: “If it was to save our child? Even then, only if I knew for sure I could protect her and get her back. But you can arrange that, right? I mean, our government’s protected Sarah all these years. Surely they’ll help us now.”

Stanley glared at him for another moment, but then blinked and looked off into the distance. “I guess it could work, so long as it was handled covertly. We could pick a place, make sure agents were positioned….”

“So.” Sarah settled back in her seat as though it were all settled. “The question is, how do we let the Russians know we are ready to deal?”

“Those goons back at the trailer seemed to know how to get in contact with them,” offered Carmine. “Why not hand one of ‘em a phone in jail and let him make a call?”

Stan pressed his lips tightly together. Finally, he said, “I guess that’ll have to do.”

***

When Lenny awoke the next morning, his mother was standing over him, smiling. He saw excitement in her eyes, like a child anticipating Christmas. “Leonard, good news!” she exclaimed. “The assassin has been located. She had her cohorts contact us this morning, with some cover story to lure me into the open.”

“How is this good news?” Lenny sat up and rubbed his eyes. He’d been dreaming of the woman with the green eyes again, only this time other people had been with her. He vaguely remembered a little guy with greasy hair and a grating speaking voice, another small woman who looked like a pixie, and a man with dark curls. For some reason, the latter piqued his rage, but he couldn’t put his finger on why now. Shaking off the confusing images, he climbed out of bed and stood in front of his mother.

“Grab something to eat and here, here are your pills.” She gave him a glass of water and his medicine.

“Mother, I really don’t think I need those anymore.”

“Of course you do!” she snapped. “You are still not one hundred percent well.”

“But they make me feel…” He tried to isolate the right word. “Irritable.”

She thrust the pills and water into his unwilling hands. “Nonsense. That is just the strain you’ve been under, from not having your memory and from the trauma of the accident.”

“But….”

“Do you want an infection?” she demanded. “I told you, I was a nurse for years. I know about these things, Leonard!”

He sighed and took his medicine. “There. Okay?”

She smiled, patting his cheek. “There’s my good boy. Come, get dressed, get ready. And here.” She handed him a gun in a holster. “Put this on under your jacket.”

“What for?” He took it carefully; staring at the weapon like it was a rattlesnake.

“Today, Leonard, you are going to free me from this exile. Today you are going to make it possible for us to leave here and reunite with your sister and father!”

“I have a sister?” He closed his eyes briefly, reminded of how much he’d lost. Those bastards had taken his family, his memory, and nearly his life. An ember of rage began to burn in the pit of his stomach. His fingers convulsed around the gun holster.

“Don’t worry, my son,” his mother whispered, caressing his face with her fingertips. Her eyes glistened. “After today, you and I will be together, forever. We will make her…them…pay!”

To Part Two

To Part Four