at his side while he smirked at Karl.
'Shut the fuck up,' Karl said. 'It's over. I got you this time. You're going to get what's coming to you.' Karl paused and looked to me. 'Duff, take his gun.'
I walked toward Newstrom, who spied me from the corner of his eye.
'Karl, Karl, Karl, I know you're nuts, but you've never been stupid.'
'Look asshole, it's over, you and your security company assholes are done. I'm going public.'
I walked toward Newstrom deliberately. I was hyper aware of what went on, but it almost didn't seem real.
'Get the gun, Duffy.'
'Karl, don't be a fool. You've got nothing on me. I'm an old football hero and class president here to visit the alma mater. You're the one who brought the troopers and threatened the school. You even beat up this poor high school junior.'
'Poor high schooler with a gun.'
'No one will ever know that part,' Newstrom smiled. 'In fact no one will know much about this at all. We've got too much behind us, Karl. I'm just going to drift away and no one will ever know any of this. You'll go to prison and I'll be on to the next thing.'
'Not this time,' Karl said.
'Oh yeah, Karl you should've killed yourself when you had a chance. You were stupid enough to let those dead towel-head kids bother you-surely this shit will have you even crazier. And when you get to prison you'll find out the kind of connections I have there.'
'Get his gun Duff.'
I moved closer to Newstrom.
'You're a fool Karl. You could've been living my life and you pissed it away. There's no way you can stop me. You may have stopped me here, but I'll be on to the next mission and nothing will stop me.' Newstrom's tone showed no sign of stress.
'Get the gun, Duff.'
I stepped to Newstrom's side and reached for the gun very carefully.
In a split second Newstrom caught me under the chin with the barrel, which forced the gun from his hand and knocked me down. I rolled over and sprang up a bit wobbly from the blow. Newstrom was in front of me. He went to kick me in the face, but I caught his foot and twisted it until he went down hard on his back. My mind went dark and something went through me. It was like a waking nightmare-a panic attack in real time.
Now kneeling on Newstrom's chest, throwing piston punches on his face, my shirt splattered with blood with each and every shot. His face was almost purple with blood; I noticed part of his nose had separated from the rest of his face. I wasn't in control, something else was. It came up through the center of me and wouldn't stop.
'Duffy, No! No! No!' I heard in the distance. 'No! No! You can't'
Something hit me hard like a halfback running into me. I came off Newstrom onto my back. Karl stood over me panting. My vision kept going in and out. Newstrom didn't move.
'I think you killed him, Duff,' Karl said, looking down at the motionless body of Newstrom.
I was barely lucid as I got up on my knees to look. Karl knelt beside Newstrom doing chest compressions.
'C'mon, Chip, C'mon you motherfucker.' Newstrom spit up blood and moaned loudly. He rolled to his side and puked a mixture of blood and vomit. Karl started to shake and he looked terrified.
'Freeze! Hold it right there!' A voice from behind us interrupted whatever the hell was going on in Karl's and my head.
It was one of the troopers, all in black, and he had three soldiers with him. I knew immediately they were the three guys who jumped me in the hospital parking lot. The four of them had their assault rifles fixed on us. From between them stopped a guy in a turtleneck and corduroy slacks.
It was Dr. Theodore Martin, Karl's psychiatrist in Germany, and now the trauma/grief shrink who showed up on television after each bit of terrorism.
40
'Karl, can't you just take your medicine and leave well enough alone?' The doctor said as he paced a few feet in front of his armed guards.
'That's what you would've wanted isn't it? Well fuck you, Doc,' Karl said.
'Your friend nearly beat your old buddy Chippy to death. Corporal, attend to the Lieutenant.' Two of the soldiers rushed to Newstrom's side, lifted him, and carried him back to where they had been standing.
'Get him in the Hummer. We'll need medical back up,' Martin said. Behind them, parked in the woods was a jet black Hummer. It must've been how they got in here in the first place.
'He's going to jail-you're all going to jail, you scumbags,' Karl said.
'Karl, Karl, Karl, you really are insane. There will be no jail. There will be no media coverage. We don't exist, we don't answer to the usual sources. You watch; the papers tomorrow will report on the drill at VHS. There will be no mention of us or you or the stupid teenagers we trained. It all goes away. Just like it always does. It all goes away.'
'I stopped you this time, you asshole, and I'll keep stopping you,' Karl yelled at them.
'I'll give you this, Karl, you did indeed get in the way of this operation, there's no doubt. I'd have you killed if we hadn't already succeeded at well, how do I say this…keeping people from taking you seriously. Your friend there, he made it a bit more complicated, but after the debacle at Notre Dame, not many see him as credible.'
'So it's on to the next project isn't it, you fucking scum,' Karl said.
'Karl, there's work to be done here and where we are needed around the world. You don't see that. '
'What I see are kids dying while scumbags like you line their pockets. You go to hell. I should've let Duffy finish Newstrom.'
'Karl, forget it. You can't win. Nothing has changed. You have made no difference in this entire thing. It disappears, it vanishes.' He smiled and paused. 'You'll especially like our next…uh…event. It will have an explosive effect on the military.' He looked briefly at the soldiers. 'Let's go.' The four of them headed to the Hummer, to who knows where.
'You want to tell me what the hell just happened,' I said to Karl who still stared at the Hummer as it pulled away. He didn't answer me. He looked to the sky and let out a bloodcurdling scream.
He sat on the ground and started to cry. When he sniffed away enough of the tears, he looked at me and said, 'C'mon, Duff you get it by now. There's too many making too much to want to find peace. The money is in war. That's it, plain and simple.'
I had no idea what to say. I just looked at Karl.
'People have too much at stake and as long as the machine has a way to make them fearful, the cash cow will get fatter and fatter. Martin's right. They're just on to the next project. Fuck!' Karl stood and kicked at the dirt.
'Karl, why did you pull me off him?'
'I've killed Duff. It takes its toll. I didn't want you to have to live it. Your nightmares are bad enough now.' Karl looked up right at me. I didn't have a clue what to say. Karl kicked the dirt again and continued to curse.
Martin was right. The kids were back in school, the troopers had gone back to their barracks, and I'm sure the papers would have nothing to say about anything.
'Karl, you were right all along and you saved a bunch of lives today.' I put an arm around his shoulder. 'C'mon, buddy let's get out of here.'
We headed back through the woods to the fields, toward the parking lot. The drill over, the sirens silent, and there was no longer any sight of troopers. I had no doubt the media would report a drill or a false alarm the next day. We walked along the edge of the woods by the soccer and softball fields to get back to the car.
Outside of one of the double doors there a single teacher stood there looking at us. A couple of hundred feet away, but she kept looking at us. I began to wonder if she would call another alarm and start this whole mess
