Operation: Endgame (2 page)

Jake was the bigger of the two so quickly found himself sitting on top of the smaller one, pinning his arms to the ground. His jaw dropped when the boy’s hat fell off and a tumble of long red hair had come falling out of the confines of the hat. “Crap! You’re a girl?!?” and immediately started scrambling back off of her.

“No duh.” She said as she stood up quickly and started brushing off her pants. She grabbed her hat and shoved her long hair back inside of it. “I’m Cassie. That’s Chris.” She gestured at the larger boy. “He’s a boy, in case you couldn’t tell.” Cassie smirked at her brother, taking in his blackening eye. “We’re twins. What’s your name?”

“I’m Jake.”

“Nice to meet you, Jake.” She obviously had manners even though her next few words were said with a sneer. “Since you boys seem to have an issue with girls, you better run because this girl just caught your flag.” She grabbed the flag off the ground and took off running.

Chris looked at Jake and sighed. “Hi Jake! Welcome to the team. We need to get you some gear.” He looked him up and down and gestured down the street towards the twin’s house. “Then we’ll see what we can do about capturing her cocky butt.” He smiled.

Jake grinned back at him and decided this move to West Texas wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

20 Years Later

Cassie switched off the blender, stuck in a straw, and moaned in appreciation. “Yum. I’m officially the Queen of Making Margaritas.” She yelled out into the backyard at her best friends, Julie and Penelope, “Refills coming right up! Those glasses better be empty and in the air ready for more of my fabulously perfect margaritas.”

Cassie smiled and laughed as she sauntered through the back door, carrying the pitcher of margaritas and her own glass, already topped off. The semester ended the day before at Texas Tech University and they were spending the day lounging by the pool to celebrate the end of another academic year.

As a military history professor, Cassie would be headed to Europe in two weeks to spend the summer as a guest lecturer. The year before, Cassie acted as a military strategy consultant on a video game, called Endgame. It became a bestseller within three weeks of release and remained there ever since. Cassie’s interview on the video extras made her a celebrity and in high-demand as a guest lecturer. It promised to be a crazy summer, but for now, she was celebrating the freedom from responsibility and drinking accordingly. This was their third pitcher of margaritas and all three of them were pleasantly buzzed.

They were at Cassie’s cozy little bungalow just a couple of blocks from the campus. She adored this house and had lovingly restored it when she had inherited it from her grandfather, while she was still in college. That restoration included the addition of this oasis she now called her backyard. Chris, Jake, and she had spent two whole summers transforming it, but the work had been worth it. There were terraces filled with mood lighting, easy-to-care-for plants, outdoor speakers, and the piece de resistance….the pool which beckoned all of them in from the West Texas heat.

Today, it was Julie and Penelope who were beckoning her to come refill their empty glasses. They sat in the shade of the outdoor umbrella which loomed serenely over the café-style bistro tables. They were her best friends, next to Chris and Jake, but the three girls could not have looked and acted more different from each other.

Julie was the tiniest of the three. She was a physical therapist at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center and also filled in as a physical trainer at the Fitness Center on campus. Her dark black hair was cut into a cute little pixie cut which fit her small frame and many times, she was mistaken for someone in junior high. At least, that was the case until she turned around and said person got a glimpse of her rack which would make any Playboy bunny envious. She was quiet, serious, and they all gave her a hard time about her OCD tendencies.

Penelope owned the local bookstore and taught yoga at the University Fitness Center. She had wavy honey colored long hair, startling jade green eyes, and a free-spirit attitude which made everyone love her from the very first. She was vivacious and outgoing and didn’t meet anyone who wasn’t an immediate friend. She was also flighty and a bit scatter-brained, but most people just learned that was part of her charm and overlooked the fact. Only her best friends knew that, for the most part, it was an act she used to hide her brilliant mind.

Cassie was tall, with a thick cascade of auburn hair. She grew up in Lubbock and had the Texas drawl to match. She’d always been a tomboy and very athletic. Now she channeled her athleticism through her running, which was almost like a religion to her. It was how she kept the margaritas from going to her hips, how she sorted through her lesson plans, and worked out the stresses which came from working at a high-stress University system. Also, it kept her fears about all the boys at bay so she could sleep at night.

They, the boys and her, had all grown up playing those silly neighborhood war games, but those games established a love of the military for all of them, even Colton.

Colt was her older brother by four years. He went to Texas A&M through the Corps and was a Special Ops officer. He flew combat-ready C-130’s and was a Major stationed at RAF Mildenhall in England.

Jake, Chris, and Cassie all attended and graduated from Texas Tech. Jake and Chris went the ROTC route with Jake becoming a PJ- Pararescue Jumper for the Air Force. He spent his career as a military paramedic jumping into enemy territory rescuing downed pilots and Spec Ops guys who had run into trouble. Jake had just been selected for Major although he hadn’t been officially pinned on yet.

Chris was her twin, younger than her by 4 minutes, and a fighter pilot who flew F-22’s. He was a Captain in the Air Force and the consummate flirt of the group.

Colton was her older brother, Chris was her twin brother, and Jake was their best friend. They all three were in the Air Force and constantly in too much danger for her liking.

Cassie re-filled their glasses and then flopped down into one of the empty chairs. Julie asked, “Have you heard from any of the boys lately?”

“Colton called Sunday. He’s doing okay, although I still don’t think he’s dealing well with Dianna’s leaving him.” Cassie’s forehead scrunched up as she considered her older brother’s pending divorce. “Right now, he’s safely ensconced behind a desk playing commander in England. I hate that he lives so far away. I’m looking forward to getting to spend a little bit of time with him over the summer, so I’m hoping the desk duty continues.” She gave a mischievous grin, “No matter how much he hates it.” That grin quickly turned into a scowl as she continued. “He said he didn’t know where Jake and Chris are stationed right now, but he’s lying to me.”

Penelope looked at her questioningly. “Why do you think he was lying?”

Cassie shook her head. “I know my brothers too well. I could tell it from his voice. Besides,” she said, her voice cracking, “I’m having nightmares about Chris. Something’s wrong. I know it.”

Both of her friends suddenly looked worried. As twins, Chris and Cassie always had a unique connection. They simply knew when something was wrong with the other one. Cassie continued, “I’m sure I’ll hear from him soon. He’ll tell me he broke his toe or something and then I’ll feel stupid for getting all worked up about it. But until I hear that, I just don’t have a good feeling.” Her eyes welled with tears at the remembrance of the visions of Chris in her dreams and her voice cracked when she said, “The dreams have been really awful.”

Suddenly, a doorbell rang from inside the house. “Okay, no more unhappy talk. Like I said, I’m sure it doesn’t mean anything. Come on girls, it’s the start of summer. Drink up and I’ll go see if whoever is at the front door wants to join us.” Cassie bounded into the house, while Julie and Penelope shared a look of concern.

As Cassie ran through the house, she swiped at her eyes, smoothed over the top of her ponytail. A glance down at the very miniscule top of her orange polka-dot bikini and the matching sarong confirmed everything was covered. She wasn’t expecting anyone, but with the semester ending the day before, most of their colleagues knew the girls would be hanging out at the pool celebrating. So it was a huge shock to see Jake standing at her front door in his blues when she opened the door.

Cassie flung herself into his arms. “Jake? What are you doing here? When did you get back into the States?” She suddenly realized he was standing very stiffly at the same time she spotted the Chaplain and another high ranking officer both in blues standing behind him. Her gasp came out as the only explanation occurred to her. She yanked back from Jake to look into his tear-filled eyes.

A guttural, “Cassie…” crossed his lips, but she didn’t want to hear what he had to say.

“No, no, NO!” Cassie was shaking her head viciously back and forth while she tried to escape back into the house, but Jake wouldn’t let go of her hand. This couldn’t be happening. She refused to accept this.

“Cassie, sweetheart…” Jake tried to clear his throat. “I’m so sorry, hon.” Cassie watched as a lone tear dripped down Jake’s cheek. “Chris...”

Cassie wailed, “No! Chris is fine! No, you can’t do this to me Jake Madsen! No! He’s fine! Don’t you think I would feel it if he wasn’t? I always know. You know that about us. He may be hurt, but he is NOT GONE! NO!” Cassie was shaking her head wildly back and forth and kept trying to escape from Jake’s grasp, but he refused to let her go.

He reached up, cupped her cheek, kissed her forehead, and looked directly into her eyes. “Cassie, hon, I’m so sorry. He was in a crash and we couldn’t get to him in time. Cassie, Chris is gone.” Jake pulled her into his arms to comfort her, but Cassie didn’t feel it.

Cassie just stood there within Jake’s embrace with her arms hanging to her sides. This couldn’t be right. Chris could not be dead. That is not the way things worked between the two of them. She was his twin and she would know if he’d died. She would feel it in her soul. This simply could not be happening. Cassie looked over Jake’s broad shoulder to the two men looking at her with sympathy in their eyes. They didn’t understand, but she knew better. Chris was not dead.

Numb. That was all Cassie felt…simply numb. Cassie peered into her coffee cup and wondered if she should be feeling something more. Today was Chris’ funeral. She should be feeling more than this overwhelming apathy about everything going on around her. She stood here in the same kitchen where she stood every morning holding her coffee cup wearing the same periwinkle blue plaid robe she wore every morning. Shouldn’t something feel different if Chris was really gone?

That was part of the problem though. She still couldn’t believe Chris was really gone. Colton arrived back in the States about twelve hours after Jake arrived. He verified the same things Jake told her. Chris crashed his jet. No one knew exactly what happened. The PJ’s went in and retrieved his body eighteen hours after it happened. No one would tell her where, how, or why. The only intel she could get was Jake’s crew had something to do with the recovery and Colton had identified what was left of his body. Nobody said so, but she got the feeling there hadn’t been much to identify.

Cassie looked across the island into the living room where Julie and Penelope were milling around handling the details for the funeral and the reception afterwards. Cassie could see Julie checking things off her never-ending lists. Penelope was abnormally subdued today. That alone should convince her this nightmare was real. Pen’s vivacious personality was never what one would consider sedate, but it still didn’t feel real.

Their murmuring voices were so low; she couldn’t hear what they were saying. From the glances they kept giving her, it was probably a good thing. They were obviously discussing her. Could they tell she wasn’t feeling anything? Did they understand this never-ending numbness? Cassie couldn’t, but for now she was okay with it. She didn’t want to feel because, when it happened, Cassie knew the pain was going to shred her. For now Cassie was living life in a fog and that was really okay.

Julie came and joined her in the kitchen. There was a plate of muffins on the island in front of her that someone had brought in this morning. Julie pushed the plate towards her. “Cassie, you need to eat something.” Cassie shook her head no, but Julie wasn’t going to let her off the hook that easily. “Cass, you haven’t touched anything in days. It’s going to be a stressful day today and you don’t want to pass out at the funeral. Just eat half a muffin and I’ll leave you alone.” Julie was looking at her with such concern in her clear green eyes that Cassie couldn’t refuse; besides she had a good point. Cassie didn’t want to pass out at the funeral.

“Okay.” Cassie scooped up a muffin and pointed towards the French doors. “I’m going to go sit outside while I eat it, okay? Just yell if you need me for anything.” She glanced towards where Penelope was still working in the living room and scurried out the doors.

Cassie sat down at the bistro table where just five days before the three of them had been drinking margaritas and celebrating life. How had so much changed in such a short amount of time?

Cassie heard the doorbell ring inside the house. It had been ringing non-stop for days now as friends brought food and flowers. She knew one of the girls would take care of whatever it was. If Cassie was a good person, she would get up and handle some of this herself, rather than leaving it all to the others to handle, but she just couldn’t bring herself to care.