Faking It(57)

The octagon had been the only place where I knew I was doing exactly what I was born for. Or so I had thought. This was different. This was doing what I was born for, but it came with a sense of honor and duty that fighting didn’t.

My agent hadn’t been happy about my decision. But as soon as he saw that I was serious, he went into spin mode. “If your tour is only three years, you’re going to be a young, young man when you come back. And if you’re still training other guys in fighting, you’ll still be sharp. We’re going to make this work. If you can go do your thing and stay safe, we’ll be able to bank on it later.”

I liked the thought of that, but it wasn’t my priority.

When the car dropped me off at my house I had a lump in my throat. This was the house where I had been raised. Where my brothers and I had teased each other and fought and slept and taken care of my mom. Most of the days of my life had been spent beneath its roof.

My thoughts were interrupted by mom opening the door and holding her arms out. I could see the outline of one of Janie’s wheels behind her.

When mom hugged me, she was strong and sure. “I’ve got a surprise for you, baby,” she said. “Come on in.”

Janie was so thrilled to see me that I thought she might start to float. She kept trying to spoil some surprise, but my mom hushed her over and over as we walked through the house.

“All right, the mystery has got to stop,” I said with a laugh. “You two are driving me nuts.”

Mom stopped in the living room and made a grand gesture at the coffee table. An open laptop was on it, its back to me. “Have a seat, Braden,” she said.

“Yeah Braden, have a seat,” said a voice from the laptop. Then another.

When I sat down in front of the laptop that lump in my throat broke apart and the dam burst.

Ryan and Sean, my two brothers, looked back at me from inside of what looked like the ugliest beige tent in existence. As soon as they saw me crying they burst into wild laughter.

“You two stop it!” said my mom. “You can’t laugh at him like that, he was worried just like I was!”

“Yeah!” said Janie. “Braden is very sensitive! Leave him alone!”

Needless to say, that did not get that to back off, nor would I have wanted them to. They were still the brothers I had known. I was so happy they were alive and whole that I could barely speak, so they did the talking for a while.

During a covert operation on an outpost in the mountains, where it was suspected that an enemy target was hiding, they had been taken prisoner. Of course they had lost all ways to communicate, and this explained why no one had been willing to tell us anything about them. At first, no one had known where they were, and had feared the worst. But soon the enemy had sent a ransom demand. It turned out that they had been taken by run of the mill kidnappers, not by the Afghan armed forces. Their demands had been simple: money.

Unfortunately, there were complications. The leadership of Sean and Ryan’s unit could not convince the administration that the kidnappers were not in league with the enemy. Therefore, paying them would have meant cooperating with hostile forces.

“So what the hell happened?” I said.

“We’re going to be able to tell you more about that in person,” said Sean. “I don’t want to be coy, but it’s really not something we can talk about on an unsecured channel.”

“But the short part is,” said Ryan, “We escaped. They couldn’t hold us. Not the most, uh...vigilant captors, you might say.”

My mom crossed herself and Sean and Ryan laughed.

“Wait,” I said. “What did you mean I’ll be able to tell you in person?”

They looked at each other. “Oh, hadn’t you heard? You’re coming over to take charge of a unit adjacent to us. We’re going to be able to show you the ropes and watch your back. Just like you’ll watch ours.”

It was all too much. “I can’t wait,” I said. “To tie you in knots. I haven’t been getting kidnapped but you guys have no idea what you’re in for when I get my hands on you. Next time you’ll be tough enough so that no one will be able to kidnap you.”

We joked and made fun of each other for another half hour before they had to go. When mom closed the laptop I hugged her and Janie and thought about how lucky we all were. The day was almost perfect.

Alyssa would have loved seeing that. I think. For that matter, it would have made a hell of an episode for her podcast.

Thinking about her, about what I had cost us both, was definitely going to bring down the mood, so I did what I could to put it, and her, out of my head.

A car’s horn started honking outside, driving all thoughts out of anyone’s head. “Good grief,” I said after it had gone on for at least a minute. “Is that someone’s alarm?” I got up to go check.

“No,” said Janie, “Alarms are consistent. That sounds like someone just messing around.”

“Well it’s driving me crazy and I’m going to go make them stop,” I said. “Don’t worry, mom, I’ll be nice. Firm but fair, that’s me.”

The last person in the world I expected to see when I opened that door was Vlad. The killer from another continent, there on my mom’s doorstep. I was even more surprised when he embraced me. “I served my country for years before I began fighting,” he said. “Service was compulsory for us so I had no choice. The fact that you are making the choice tells me everything I need to know about you. One day, maybe we fight. But every man who serves his country is a brother. All respect, Braden.”