Tuck's Revenge (4 page)

“I tried to re-enlist, but they wouldn't
allow me to because they said they were scaling back and Vietnam
was coming to an end. So instead of them sending me back out with
my unit, I got myself reassigned to the records keeping department
until my discharge came through. From there, I had access to a lot
of people’s files, and it gave me more to pick and choose from.
When you came in looking for info on Steven, I got a little
curious.

“After I'd been stateside for a while, a
friend of mine still in theater inside Vietnam got word to me you’d
gotten out. I came here and played the hunch that you'd show up
here, and I was right. Truth is, Jack, I actively search for and
need people like you with your skills. To show my good faith, and
what kind of people I have with me, I took the liberty of putting a
couple of people out there to find your sister and her husband,
after I heard what happened to your mom and dad. We know where they
are.”

All of a sudden, Jack Jr. leaped up and said,
"Where are they, Bill? Take me to them.”

Bill then told Jack Jr., "Take it easy,
they're not going anywhere that we can't find them. We’ll go there
soon enough if you want to go. First, I need your assurance that
you won't do anything stupid. I don't need you in prison; I need
you with me. So I just want you to go in with a clear mind and do
this where nothing can come back on you.”

Jack was sitting there listening, but then
again not listening because of the hate clouding his mind.

Bill said, "Jack, listen to me. Remember when
you were in the jungle of Vietnam? You survived out there for
years, doing what you were supposed to. That took common sense to
stay alive anyway you had to. That was something very few people
could go through and then come out alive, and sane. You're special,
Jack, with a special talent, and I need you. What do you say?”

Jack Jr. didn't have to think about it long,
he could feel the rage building in him, he was going to set this
right, so he said, "Count me in, Bill, I'm with you.”

Bill asked when he wanted to take care of the
problem.

"I'm ready to go right now.”

Bill agreed that it needed to be dealt with
as soon as possible, so he'd make a phone call and get updated on
the status of the situation. When he came back, he told Jack Jr.,
they were staying in an RV park outside of a small town called
Hope, Arkansas.

"How did you know to look for my sister and
her husband? And how did you manage to find them so fast?”

Bill simply said, "When I heard what
happened, like everything else in life, all you have to do is put
two and two together, and that'll be your answer. I have a
helicopter coming to take us to meet up with some of my guys.”

Jack looked at Bill and said, "A helicopter?
Really?”

Bill explained, "I have quite a few guys with
me, Jack, and we are all different kinds of people, skilled in all
different kinds of things. We are like a machine in the sense that
we all have a job to do. And when we do it, and do it correctly, it
enables the rest of us to do our jobs and perform our skills more
efficiently.”

Bill then led Jack Jr. out to a golf cart,
they drove out to the back of Bill’s pasture. About the same time
they arrived there, Jack Jr. heard the sound of a helicopter
closing in from the distance. Both men walked out into the pasture
where the copter landed, and boarded it, then it quickly lifted up
and headed northeast.

After about an hour later, the pilot set the
helicopter down in a stand of trees and cut the engine. Bill
instructed the pilot to sit tight until they came back, and told
him they should be no longer than a couple of hours. At the instant
the helicopter sat down, a pickup pulled alongside and two doors
opened, as if an invite for Jack and Bill to enter. After they got
in, the driver started talking to Bill in a familiar form Jack Jr.
recognized as military lingo.

Bill introduced everybody to Jack Jr., and
that's when the pickup driver said, "Hello, Jack, heard a lot about
you, and it'll be good working with you.”

A little confused, Jack Jr. simply said,
"Thanks, nice to meet you too.”

Bill got a radio call, and the person on the
other end informed Bill the male had bolted and left the premises
in a late model car, but the female was still inside, and they were
awaiting instructions. Bill said to follow the car with the male,
and see where he landed but reminded them not to engage with him or
allow him to see them.

The voice on the other end said, "Roger that,
we'll let you know where he lands.”

After driving a few miles further, the pickup
pulled off the paved road and followed a dirt trail just big enough
for the truck until they came to where another pickup was parked in
a thicket of brush.

Everyone got out and Jack Jr. followed close
behind. Everybody introduced themselves to Jack Jr. and led him and
Bill to where they had a spot setup to keep an eye on a camping
trailer in an RV park about sixty yards away. One of the men
confirmed the male was still gone, so Bill and Jack Jr. agreed this
would be a good time to go in to confront Elizabeth.

Jack Jr. told Bill he wanted to go in by
himself, and Bill agreed. Jack Jr. asked Bill if he had an extra
radio to take with him, just in case. Bill reached in the front of
the truck, pulled out a radio, and handed it to him.

“I'm going to work my way around and see
what's going on inside. If I need you, I'll call, and if you see
her husband coming back, just key up the radio twice and I'll hear
it.”

“Okay,” Bill said, “and be careful, Jack
Jr.”

Jack Jr. walked around the vehicles and into
the woods for thirty yards or so, then disappeared out of sight.
Smiling and amazed at Jack Jr.’s ability to do such things, they
were keeping watch on the woods and also on the trailer where
Elizabeth was.

After several minutes, Bill heard Jack on the
radio, telling him to come on in. Bill, thinking he might be in
trouble, jumped in the truck and sped to the trailer. Bill jumped
out and ran inside with gun in hand, he saw Jack Jr. sitting on the
floor with Elizabeth’s body in his lap. Never looking up, instead
keeping his eyes focused on the body of sister he spoke.

“She's dead. Looks like she's been dead for a
couple of hours.”

Betrayal:
to
deliver or expose to an enemy by treachery or
disloyalty

"Are you okay?” Bill asked

"Yeah, I'll be alright. Do we know where Roy
is?” No, he was not all right, but Jack was not going to get in his
head, he had a mission, and that was one of vengeance. This was the
only path he could take.

"Let me make a call and see.”

After the call, Bill told Jack Jr., "This
sonofabitch has a boatload of balls. My guys said he just pulled
into a casino about thirty minutes from here.”

"I hope he wins before I get there, because
when I see him, he's going to lose.”

"Are you sure you're up to this now?”

"Oh yeah, I want this fresh in his mind when
he looks into my eyes and sees his life coming to an end.”

Bill started to say something when Jack Jr.
said, "Don't worry, Bill, I'll wait until I have him in the right
place. He'll be dead and in hell before he realizes he's not
breathing anymore.”

Bill smiled and said, "Okay, just remember
those places have cameras everywhere.” Jack Jr. just smiled, and
didn't say a word.

As they pulled into the parking lot, Jack Jr.
told Bill to drop him off in the back and pick him up in the front.
As Bill was turned the corner and was coming to a stop at the back
of the building, he looked over and saw Jack Jr. was gone. Looking
in the rearview, he couldn’t see him and he wasn’t sure which way
he’d gone. All he could do was turn around and drive to the front,
and wait for him.

Inside the casino, Roy was playing the cheap
slots, and had no idea he was being watched. Jack Jr. was back in
the shadows watching, evaluating what his next move would be, and
making a mental note of all the cameras inside the casino.

Jack knew once he was finished, his main
problem would be getting out without being recognized. He decided
to pay a visit to the equipment room to see what he could find.
Once there, he found a worker’s smock, slipped it on, and on his
way out the door, he picked up a wet floor cone, and two orange
street cones. Then he walked to the closest bathroom near where Roy
was playing, knowing eventually he’d have to piss.

He stepped into one of the stalls, locked the
door and waited, but he didn't have to wait long. When Roy stepped
up to the urinal, Jack Jr. walked up behind him, slit his throat,
then pulled him over in front of the sinks so he could see Jack
Jr.’s reflection in the mirror. But his throat was slashed so deep,
he was unable to scream or make any noise. Then Jack Jr. let him
go, and he collapsed to the floor.

Jack Jr. picked up the wet floor sign and set
it at the front door, and put the two orange street cones on his
shoulder, to hide his face from the cameras as he made his way to
the front door. Once he was outside, he carried the street cones
until he spotted Bill, then walked in front of the pickup where
Bill could see him, and passed on by. Bill started the pickup and
followed in the same direction as Jack Jr. At the street corner, he
stopped while Jack Jr. put the cones at the curb and climbed into
the truck.

Once they were a good distance away, Jack
told Bill the pickup may have been seen and they needed to ditch
it.

Bill laughed. "If we can make it another ten
miles, this truck will disappear for a while, and when it's seen
again, it will be a different pickup.

Jack Jr. thought he knew what he meant by
that, and figured he'd just sit back and see what happened. During
the trip to wherever they were headed, Bill laughed and asked,
"What in the hell is it with you and this disappearing act you do
all the time?”

"Why do you think they called me the ghost in
the military?” Jack said seriously.

Bill laughed, "Now I can see why. Back at the
trailer, when we were walking out the door you turned around and
looked at your sister and said, ‘thank you’, what did you mean by
that?”

Jack solemnly answered, "Elizabeth was a lost
soul, but regardless of that, she was still my sister, saying that
was like goodbye.”

Bill was silent for a second, and then told
Jack Jr., "Well, while you were in there taking care of business, I
took the liberty of getting Elizabeth taken care of. She’ll be
picked up and buried beside your parents. Is that okay with
you?”

Jack Jr. looked at Bill, smiled, and said,
"That'll be fine. Thanks.”

Bill replied, "Not a problem, we take care of
each other.” Then Bill came up with an unexpected question. "Jack,
in our line of work, we all go by nicknames or call signs, and we
need to figure out what we’re going to call you, because we don't
need to be using your real name. We don't want anybody else adding
two and two, then figuring out who you are.”

Jack thought for a minute, and then told Bill
about the times back when he was a young man and went to the
jobsites with his dad. All the guys called his dad ‘Big Tuck’, and
they called him ‘Little Tuck’. Since his dad was dead now, he liked
the name ‘Tuck’.

Bill smiled and said, "Well, ‘Tuck’ it is.
From this point forward we will refer to you as Tuck.”

Pulling into an alley, Bill rolled up to a
door and honked the horn. The door slid up and Bill drove inside. A
man came to Bill’s side of the truck, smiled, and greeted Bill with
a handshake. Bill told him he needed this pickup to morph into a
new one before it hit the street again, and the guy said, "No
problem.” Bill then got on the phone and about ten minutes later,
the helicopter picked them up and flew them back home.

*****

It took weeks to sort out the mess in his
fucking head, and the whole damn time he was being played. The
whole thing was a goddamn lie. Bill didn’t want to help him, he set
the whole thing up in order to make Jack beholden to him, he used
his scum of a brother-in-law to take the fall, but it was Bill who
had played the whole thing.

Tuck went along with everything the man
planned, because truthfully, he had nowhere else to go. However,
this decision would lead to the biggest change in his life,
sometimes he didn’t know whether to thank the man or kill him.

For the average person, when everything in
life they've known and loved since birth is gone, they have a
choice to make. They either continue to function and exist until
their time comes, or they make the conscious choice to carry on
with a new life wherever they find it. That's what Jack Jr./Tuck
decided to do.

Bill seemed to be a wise man, and had a
definite sense of organization about him. But Tuck wasn't quite
sure Bill was the top rung of this ladder. And he intended to find
out if he wasn't the top, who was. Tuck was smart, and he was
certainly smart enough to know no matter where you go, or what
you're into, there’s always somebody at the very top either
collecting the money or signing the checks, and sometimes both.

Tuck wasn't convinced Bill was that man, at
least not yet. Bill used the term, "Add two plus two" in Tuck’s
presence several times, and it’s what Tuck was doing in assessing
or measuring up Bill. Tuck was thinking about the assistance Bill
just provided him in finding and solving the situation with his
parents’ deaths, and the involvement of his sister. But Tuck
couldn't get past the questions gnawing at his mind.

Questions like, how did Bill know his sister
was involved? And how did Bill manage to find them so quickly after
it happened? The first thing Tuck thought of was CIA, or maybe
something even deeper than the CIA, which equated to a quagmire of
confusion that probably nobody was qualified or intelligent enough
to wade through and figure out.