LONDON TOWNE
BY: TOPHAT
Chapter Four
The State of the World Today

         Patrick O’ Hara was sleeping soundly in his bedroom in Atlanta, Georgia, secure in the knowledge that all his children and their families were doing well and were safe. All that is about to change. “Ring, Ring, Ring..” the insistent ringing would not go away no matter how Patrick tried to hide from it. If he ignored it the phone rang on. When the machine picked up, the caller would hang up and immediately call back. If Patrick rolled over and hide his head under his pillow, the phone still rang on. Eventually Patrick decided that the caller was not going to be satisfied until he picked up the phone. “It’s 2 am on a Saturday, for crying out loud, what’s the emergency?!”

         “Daddy?” a familiar voice came over the line

         “Shauna? Baby is that you?” she laughed softly, “I’m not exactly a baby anymore, daddy.”

         “What’s wrong sweetie? Where are you?” Patrick began to worry; his daughter was generally straightforward and self-sufficient, as much as he’d like to think otherwise, she wouldn’t call at this hour unless it was important.

         “Do you have a pencil, daddy?”

         “Hold on sweetie and I’ll get one.”

         “It doesn’t matter, you don’t need to write this down anyways. Just listen, that’s all you have to do, listen and remember.”

         “All right.” Patrick waited

         “I’m going to give you a telephone number and I need you to remember it without writing it down.  Can you do that?”

         “This is important, you’re in trouble, aren’t’ you?”

         “Daddy, it’s nothing you can help me with, just remember this number and promise only to call in extreme emergency. If Bill’s daughter breaks her arm, that’s not an emergency. An emergency is you having a heart attack, or someone threatens the dojo. Understand?”

         “What kind of trouble are you in, baby?”

         She rattled off a number and made him repeat it back; “Don’t give it out; not to my brothers, not to their wives, not to any of my friends, especially not to the government or the army. People will call daddy, and once they realize they can’t get information that way they’ll come to Atlanta and find you. If they hurt you, or threaten you, call this number. It’s an answering service. I’ll check it regularly. It’s the only way anyone can find me, daddy, and you have to promise me you won’t give it out.”

         “I promise, baby, but isn’t there something I can do to help?”

         “Yeah, take care of yourself daddy, be strong, be fast, and be careful. Don’t take on any new students for a while, no children, especially no adults, and, take a long vacation daddy. I’ll be watching you. I love you daddy, be safe.”

         “Shauna, baby, are you there?” but his only daughter had disconnected and now he was left alone with his thoughts. “Well, I’m not going to get any more sleep tonight.” He got up and pulled an old sweatshirt on over his pajamas, but instead of going downstairs, he simply gathered his wife’s rosary, and a bible. He kneeled and began to pray. “Michaela, you may be in a better position to watch over our little girl for now. I still need her down here with me, so look after her, and if she gets any ideas, you send her back here to me, please.”

         Across the continent, another man was lying awake, thinking of Shauna. For Duke, it was nearly time to get up and meet Flint and Lady Jaye for breakfast. After that they had a meeting to attend. There was little more the team had learned since Scarlett’s disappearance. Jaye would leave again today for Atlanta, hoping that this time she could locate Patrick O’ Hara and get some answers.  She was confident that the man was purposely avoiding her. The rest of them would carry on as they had for all these weeks. They would monitor communications, Hawk would continue to look for General Peters, and they would all try to avoid Duke, if at all possible.  There was nothing else they could do, really. The team’s security hadn’t been breached in any way, except for the unknown helicopter. Breaker had done every check in the book twice just to make sure. He hadn’t called Scarlett, and he was on duty that night so he knew no phone calls had come in for her, so that left someone outside the team responsible for her disappearance. If no one had turned up any information he was going to start seriously knocking heads. He had already decked Leatherneck for accusing Scarlett of turning traitor.  He couldn’t say that encounter had gone well, but it had shut the idiot up.  “And now to get up and go to breakfast, and then that damn meeting.” He dreaded it-the eyes that wouldn’t quite meet his, other eyes that when they did, looked like they were afraid he was going to knock their lights out. That he supposed was only reasonable considering his actions the moment he heard Bill’s version of Scarlett’s disappearance.

         Flint and Lady Jaye were sitting at their usual table eating breakfast. They had gotten a plate for Duke. Lately he would settle for coffee but not food. Duke walked in the cafeteria and they waved him over.

         “Jaye got you a plate.”

         Duke raised an eyebrow, “Am I that bad?” seeing Jaye cringe he added, “Never mind. I am and I know it. I just haven’t found a way to snap out of it yet.”

         “There isn’t a way buddy. We just have to find her.”

         “Bill is taking me to Atlanta again, I’m leaving right after the meeting.”

         “Her father isn’t going to talk to you.”

         “I wasn’t aware that you’d met the man.”

“I haven’t, Jaye, I just know that he’s extremely protective of his daughter. Unless you can convince him that she needs your help he’ll just tell you whatever Shauna has told him to say.”

         Jaye didn’t know what to say. She had gone to Atlanta twice before and each time her family seemed to magically disappear just as she arrived.

         The three friends finished their breakfast and walked down to the meeting. None of them were looking forward to it.

         Hawk called the meeting to order “Well people, let’s get started.”

         They muddled their way through daily business and finally got to the point Duke had been dreading. It was time once again to go over Scarlett’s disappearance.

         “Lady Jaye, you are leaving for Atlanta when this meeting is adjourned, correct?”

         “Yes, sir.”

         “Any new developments to report? No? Well, I have one.” His voice was grim “I’ve tracked down every General Peters in the United States military, I’ve spoken directly to several of them, the one’s I haven’t spoken to myself, Colonel Sharp or General Flag have spoken to.  No one by the name of General Peters has requested, or transferred, Scarlett to their staff, period. No one knows of anyone who has ever shown extreme interest in her, no one knows anything about her prior to her joining the Joe force. I’ve tapped my old colleagues from the intelligence department. They have not heard of Scarlett either. It’s highly unlikely that anyone in the United States military had anything to do with Scarlett’s disappearance.  General Flag has suggested that we try Britain. He has worked with several people from the British military and has contacted them searching for this General Peters. It makes me extremely ill at ease to know that we cannot find this man. He is either involved in something so top secret that I don’t have clearance for it or he simply never existed outside Scarlett’s imagination.”

         Duke jumped in, “Sir, you do realize that what your saying could be understood as an accusation against Scarlett?”

         “I’m well aware of it, I don’t like the idea that she’d turn traitor any more than you do, but we’ve seen it happen. She may not be acting of her own free will.  We’ve looked into possible threats against her family and found none but it is entirely possible that there is another hold over her that we haven’t found yet.” He eyed them all individually, “I want you all to keep digging. Keep your ears open and follow any lead, however unlikely. Dismissed.”

         While the Joes were having their meeting Angel and Stevens were walking over the site where Mr. McCullough was shot.

         They had ridden over on horseback, attempting to imitate, as much as possible the exact events. They dismounted, “This is where it happened. He was ridding along here when he was shot.”

         “Did you check the ground to see if there were any other bullets?”

         “Yes. I even thought that perhaps one had been buried in the dirt with all the people milling about, but no, I didn’t find a single bullet or casing.”

         “This is so frustrating! How can we protect him if we don’t know what we’re up against? This is a little too like a Phantom Menace for my taste. No one, not even snipers can disappear without a trace.”

         “I beg to disagree with you Angel, you’ve done many a time. If those ridiculous Generals who run the Joe team knew half your capabilities they would laugh with glee, before they decided you were too dangerous to keep around, even on a leash.”

         Angel glared at him, “Let’s not talk about them or me. Let’s concentrate on finding a clue. Something, anything to tell us who would want to hurt grandfather and why.”

         As Angel and Stevens walked around, circling the ground they were being watched.  Their shooter was close at hand, waiting patiently for the moment when he could continue his work. This was only the beginning.