FlakJacket (24 page)

Madison reached back to squeeze Jordan’s hand, and the questioning began. Kai sat quietly in his father’s lap, his eyes taking in each senator as he/she spoke. Madison answered question after question, her voice ringing out for the needs of the people of the lands. She spoke of her time with them and of their problems. She was asked about the attempts on her life, and she spoke movingly of her fear for her husband and her son.

The committee took a break two hours in, and many of the senators came over to see the child. He said hello to each of them politely from his mother’s arms and answered their questions about how old he was and what he liked. Jordan took him outside the conference room to let him down to run around under the watchful eyes of six of his men.

When the Senate reconvened, Senator Hauser was missing. Kai turned his father’s face to his with his little hands holding his cheeks and said earnestly: “He’s waiting for you outside. Did you bring your flat jacket?” Unbeknownst to his wife, the two of them had played soldier in the trees behind their house, and Jordan had let him put on the vest, explaining how it worked to protect him. At his father’s rebuke and his mother’s angry eyes, Kai lowered his voice: “Your holes are almost healed, Daddy. We don’t want any more.”

Jordan shushed him and hugged him closer. But the boy was right; Neville would be waiting for him if this went the way he thought it would.

Kai slept in his father’s arms through the last part of the committee hearing, unaware of the change in the committee’s approach to the refugee problem. There was a call for an investigation of the facts; all treaties were halted until the investigations were complete. The press stopped both of them on their way out of the hearing. Tim took the sleeping child from Jordan’s arms as they answered questions together.

They had just started down the stairs inside the building when a gunshot ran out. A burning sensation engulfed his left arm. Jordan pulled Madison down and covered her with his body to protect her, his eyes looking for the shooter; Tim did the same with the little boy. Jordan’s arm was bleeding. His protective detail moved closer to Madison and the boy as instructed, as Jordan moved to meet the danger.

The Capitol police had been called and were now running up the hallway to the bottom of the stairs, but they wouldn’t arrive in time. Jordan saw Malik running down the steps, coming to finish him off, a small handgun pointing right at him. He moved to the right to tackle Neville taking him down at the knees, negating any shot that Malik might have had. The gunshots from Neville’s gun went wild as the two men wrestled. Water erupted in a downpour possibly from a shot valve in the sprinkler system, causing Malik to lose sight of his target, as his eyes met those of the small child who had managed to crawl out from underneath his guard and whose hands were raised to the ceiling; Kai’s eyes were centered on him, then he was pulled down by his guard. One of the wild bullets from Neville’s gun struck Malik in the chest, and he fell, his eyes still reeling from that intense blue stare.

In the melee, Jordan managed to get Neville’s gun, and his men got Neville. Jordan went immediately to Malik, but the gray pallor of his face said there was little hope.  Madison rushed over and reached down to Malik, touching his forehead and face with her hands; He watched the intense look on her face as a glow radiated from her. Her voice whispered: “You will not die, Malik, but you will leave me and mine alone. If you strike at me again, you will not escape unscathed. I will see to it. And your death will be memorable.” Her hands swept over his wound once again, and the bleeding slowed. The water continued to douse them all.

Malik’s tortured voice came to her: “You are the White Witch, and you are Jordan’s. If I had any doubt before, it is gone. Thank you for saving me.”

“Thank my husband; he is the only reason you live. He is my world.” She stood and turned to Jordan, whose bleeding arm hung loosely at his side. Her hands also swept over it, her eyes locked with his. Tim came over holding Kai, as the little boy reached out his arms for his mother. She took him and crushed him to her, tears wetting her already wet face. A medic rushed up and put a pressure bandage on Jordan’s wound, wrapping it securely until a doctor could see it. Police and EMT personnel were everywhere.

Kai piped up. “Don’t cry, Mommy. Daddy forgot his flap jacket. But you need to forgive him.”

“Oh I do, do I?” she said softly between her tears as she kissed his cheeks over and over, hugging him. “And how did you know about the flap—-jacket?”

His little face lit up. “I got to wear it one day when I played with Daddy. We had lots of fun.” He got a funny expression on his face. “I wasn’t supposed to tell you. It was between us men. He’s not in trouble, is he?”

Madison gave her husband a withering look. “No, he’s not in trouble,” and under her breath she said, “
yet
.”

“Get this water turned off, “ Jordan told one of his men.

“The man returned with a puzzled look on his face. “The sprinkler system isn’t on, sir.” The water stopped just as suddenly as it had begun as the child looked to the ceiling. “Jordan turned to his wife with a
‘help me’
expression.

Then he turned to Kai, as the little boy sighed. “I know. I know. No inside rains. Do I have to clean this up, too, Daddy?”

Jordan looked down at his son and ruffled his hair with his good hand. “I think we can let this one pass, Kai.” He kissed his wife’s forehead, and he put his one good arm around his Witch, as the three of them walked slowly from the building.

“Hospital for you, Jordan.” Madison would not give in on this, so he gave in graciously.

Tim drove; it had been a hell of a day. “All in a day’s work, right Flak Jacket?”

“All in a day’s work,” the small boy solemnly repeated. Then he climbed into his dad’s lap and went to sleep, his mother sweeping his dark hair from his face.

K
ai Lassiter closed the car door as his little sister jumped out of the other side. She opened the door to the back seat and pulled out her luggage. She was home from her overseas trip to Jordan—visiting many of the clinics that had been set up for the tribal people who worked the land; she was repeating her mother’s role in caring for the people. Her vibrant red hair, pale skin and slim form reminded him that she was only 24 and filled with passion for her work. She was completing her training to become a physician. He thought it strange that she also was completing her father’s goal; he had, at one time, wanted to enter medicine.

“Let me get that for you.” He rounded the car and picked up her case and backpack, heading towards the house. He glanced up at it. It hadn’t changed much, thank God. So many memories were held here for him—his visions of his childhood, his schooling, his first loves, holidays, and times with his dad.

He looked back at Sari. His sister was hurting; he could sense that, and his powers told him that a man was responsible. His vision showed a man of power, arrogant and demanding and demeaning of women in general; yet, Sara loved him. The flashes continued, and he could see them kissing passionately.

His mother was at the door, welcoming Sara home, throwing her arms around her and pulling her in, happy tears on her face. His father was on his way home, the vision coming to Kai clearly. He was looking forward to seeing his
old man
, the grounding force in his telepathic life.

Kai walked up the steps and onto the porch, into his mother’s arms, her eyes peering up at him as if asking him if he were OK. He smiled at her to reassure her, but she would not be happy to hear his news.

Madison held Kai to her, her son of 27. He was taller than his dad and just as handsome as his dark haired father with piercing green eyes that saw—
everything
. Clairvoyant didn’t begin to describe him. She worried that his intellectual side would suppress the hidden human side of him. He had begun manipulating the elements at age 3 and having visions at age 4; they increased in intensity and accuracy through his formative years; and then in his late teens, he began to harness the images and to deal with what he saw. Information was at his fingertips; emotions were within his grasp; and there was little he feared.

“Hey, Witch. I missed you.” He hugged his mom hard. “Dad’s on his way home, and he thinks you’re going to be pissed at him for being late. E.T.A.—five minutes if he doesn’t get a ticket for driving too fast.” Kai laughed. “And he won’t—get a ticket, that is.”

“Well, your father knows me well. He should have been here.”

Sari broke in, laughing. “And what held him up at the office, Mom?”

Madison rolled her eyes. “More work! The one thing he doesn’t need.” She turned to her son. “You need to make him slow down.”

“No. YOU need to make him slow down.”

Kai had grown to be a very attractive man, powerful, yet soft-spoken; women were constantly trailing after him; this, too, he took in stride. Madison had Jordan to thank for his manners and his sense of self. Her husband had single-handedly made the boy into a man, giving him discipline with love when he needed it. Jordan had never given in to his childish tantrums or his teenage rebellions. Kai’s love could run deep, but his anger could be over the top—Jordan would have none of that from him. He taught Kai to use his brain, to consider all angles, to forgive rather than to hold someone accountable with no mercy. Kai was a man’s man. And now he was home, but who knew for how long.

The three entered the house together, chatting amicably. It only caused tremors in Madison; there would be news this day, and she wasn’t sure she was ready for it.

The front door opened and Jordan came hurrying in, a wide smile on his face. His daughter ran into his arms laughing as she kissed him over and over. “I’m so glad to be home, Dad.” He held her to him. And then he turned to his son, who waited patiently.

“Dad.” Their eyes connected.

“What brings you home, Kai?’