As Mike rubbed my back slowly in a circle, I did my best to breathe.
“I was tired after walking from school that day, my bag was heavy and I had a project due with extra library books. The flowers were so bright, the leaves were so vivid green. I remember I wanted to gather some for mom but I didn’t, I knew I had very little time to do my project before school ended, and I had a lot of reading to do.
“I went through the bushes and came to dad’s back door. It was reserved just for the President of the Global Embassy, in case the press was hounding him. That day it was quiet. I made it up to his floor and heard men talking in the kitchenette. I slowed down, thinking something was odd.”
“What was odd?”
“Their voices, the way they spoke, it seemed like they were hiding something.”
“So you slowed down?”
“Yes. I stopped just shy of the door. Now I realize I heard Rembrandt. That’s whose voice I heard.”
“What did he say?”
I closed my eyes tighter, “He had the weapons ready for their trip.” I opened my eyes slowly, “That’s all I can remember.”
Mike leveled his gaze on me, “Close your eyes and think past what you saw. What else happened?”
I closed them, “Okay, I remember Jimmy, dad’s bodyguard came out of the kitchenette and led me toward dad’s office.”
“Do you remember hearing anything in the background?”
I slowly played through the moments, “Rembrandt said he had the weapons, and that his team was in position.” My eyes shot open, “His team? I don’t remember hearing that. What team?”
“What else?”
“His team was in position. I remember looking back behind Jimmy and seeing-” I opened my eyes, but closed them again, “No.”
“Who?” Mike followed me the few steps I took to the couch, “Who was it, Sara?”
“Delgado and Mr. Glenn.”
He stood and scratched the back of his head, “Wait, the guys that helped us out were planning this?”
My phone dinged with an email. “It’s from Delgado!” I opened it and let Mike see. He got his notebook off the lighted table and began writing down the letters I dictated off the copy of Delgado’s map quadrant.
“Wait, it spells my dad’s name. They threw us on a wild goose chase.” My chest began to feel heavy. “If this was nothing more than a circle, a game, then what was the point?”
“To keep us busy?”
My throat closed up, “Oh God.” I couldn’t get the words out in time before there was a crash through the office window. I pulled my gun out and got ready to shoot when Mike grabbed my waist and pulled me behind the couch.
“This was their security system!” Mike bellowed over the sound of gunfire. “They knew we were onto them when we asked for their maps!”
I watched with pride as Mike checked his magazine and loaded his gun. He looked up to me with an expression that said his goodbye and his resolution all at once. “If we don’t make it?”
“Don’t talk that way, look at this as target practice! You can’t-”
His lips crushed over mine and pulled my skittish soul out of hiding. Before I could react, he was gone.
I was left with burning lips while he leaned his upper torso out from behind the couch and fired off several shots.
My mind finally reached my body again and I leaned out the opposite side of the couch. There were three men. Two. Mike shot one! I was so proud! He’d never practiced prone positions or supine positions before. He adapted fast. I aimed at one’s leg, then shot his head as he leaned down. Then before I could get off another shot, Mike dropped the third and final man.
We huddled together and made a plan to get the bullets off my dad’s desk. “If there’s anyone else on my parent’s compound, we need to be ready.”
“I’ll get the bullets, you check those guys out, see if you recognize them. If we can get a handle on who’s behind this attack, we can get a handle on who’s in charge.”
I nodded, feeling a bit strange hearing orders from Mike. I actually liked the way he was taking charge. “Dad has an armored car, if we can create a diversion, we can make it out.”
“Maybe we need to start with the media since we don’t know what part of government to start with.”
“Sounds good.” Each man proved to be unfamiliar to me, until I reached the final face mask. “Oh God, Mike.” Before someone could come cover this up as well, I took pictures. “Well, we have enough evidence to take it to the media.”
“What’s up?” He carried the bullets and mom’s revolver, but when he neared me, he froze. “Rembrandt.”
“Call someone, anyone, your mom and dad, the media, everyone. I have the pictures of the genocide, and we have Rembrandt’s body. Call them now.”
~~~~
Sirens and news vans covered my parent’s compound. The news anchors asked questions of myself and Mike after the officers got finished taking our statements. I made a point to say, on national, live television that my father was innocent, and that it was his journal that led us to the truth.
Mike sat beside me on the fountain’s edge in the front drive. “How are you feeling?”
“Better now.”
“I heard the chief say his apologies to you, and also, I heard him say there were more mass graves? He also wanted you to be in charge of finding out who they were and notifying their families?”
I nodded, “And they want me to organize a mass funeral. It’s long overdue.”
“I’ll be right beside you.”
He leaned in and kissed me slowly this time.
“You’d better be.”
“Such a bossy zombie.”
via Daily Prompt: Create
Faith Love Creative 