"One of whom was your mother," Rashid spoke with outrageous calm.
"Am I right, Miss Elderbrock?"
His word
cut deep, piercing Reese's already heated heart. The knife twisted mercilessly
through the wounds she'd been trying many months to heal.
Keep
your head, Reese. The voice whispered; apparently she had not scared
it away far enough. God'll deal with him. You mustn't...
Yes, I must! Reese's anger and hate turned
white-hot now and she drove her knee into Rashid's ribcage. Her gun stay
targeted on his head as he crumpled to his feet. "You really think you
could look into any of those innocent faces you murdered and tell me they
had... no other choice?!?"
"Violence is the only thing this world understands anymore, Miss
Elderbrock," Rashid grunted, clutching at her point of impact.
"America sees it as little more then a toy, playing mindlessly with it
across their computer screens. How else are we to communicate? And you
obviously see violent means as the only end to find your brother."
"Don't!" Reese warned him, spooking back his words from nesting
in her brain. Not just his, but the One that had been inside her head since
she'd snipped the first strand of her hair. "Don't act like you have all
the answers, to my truth or yours. One last time; where's Spencer?"
Rashid smiled arrogantly at her. "My soul is prepared for the next life.
I'm not afraid of death."
BHT!
Reese sent he along-awaited bullet into Rashid's calf. With its release, her
head began to clear, her blood simmering in the gratifying pleasure at the
spill of her enemy's. Rashid's face was pale with shock, then red and wrenched
with pain. He tried to bit back any verbal discomfort, but couldn't stop a
distorted groan. Reese's own lip curled in what she knew to be an ugly smirk.
But she hardly cared as she cocked the gun again.
Reese!
"My religion..." Reese blew her breath out. "My God may have
mercies regarding scum like you; or maybe He just doesn't have the
guts..."
Reese,
that's enough!
Reese shoved the voice- His voice- back. She was going to finish this, without
His help or not! She stepped closer to Rashid. "But what you better
realize, is that I do have the guts to keep my family together. At any
costs!"
"And... you're certain this is the cost..." Rashid coughed, trying to
speak past the pain. "Both you and God are willing to take?"
He
wasn't done with his mind maze yet, making Reese want to shot him all the more.
The minute she had stepped through the threshold of the mosque, she had wanted
to shoot him. To shoot anyone who crossed her path, to empty tyne chamber and
every other mag she had stashed. She would't act like mutilating Rashid's leg
hadn't felt good, refreshing even...
Reese,
listen please! You must calm down.
The trigger itched the fleshy ridges of Reese's fingertip. How she wanted to
react to it. With every fiber of her being.
You
know that you mustn't shoot. If I know you, then I know that you can't.
I
have to, Lord! Reese quivered within herself. I
can't show mercy like You! Not to him or anyone in this scorched war zone.
How
can you say that when you don't know their hearts?
I
know his! Reese insisted. Just let me kill him. For Mom.
And
how many more, Daughter, in the name of her blood? Is that what she would
want to be remembered for? And I do not want this remembrance for you.
It's what I WANT!!!
The voice persisted. And what did Moses want when the
Israelites demanded water? What did that get him?
Her gun was faltering off its path to Rashid's head. Reese fought to hold it
steady.
There's
a plan for everything, Reese. For both My mercy and My wrath.
Her weapon remained, hot and powerful in her hand, anticipating its next
release. Yet something more powerful stayed her finger from pressing against
the trigger. It felt to be massaging the knuckles of their tension; and working
to do the same on her heart.
It
was the same power that had been nagging her since she and her brothers, Justin
and Spencer, had first touched Iraqi soil. The days before their enlistment and
the days since, Reese's blood had been running hotter then the sun in newfound
hates and prejudices. Spencer had felt the same way, maybe even more so. Mom's
death still managed to be so tender and sore for them all.
Justin was the only one of them who had traveled across the Atlantic with a
cleaner heart. He was the middle child, the thinker... and the forgiver. Even
while Mom's face, laugh, her very walk haunted them. Reminded them- reminded
Reese of how close she now breathed to the people who had helped to kill her.
"Miss Elderbrock?" Rashid's voice drug out back into the present
moment, where his eyes challenged her. Eyes as heavy and weighted as Reese's.
The similarity struck her and she worked her lips to speak. "I came for my
brother, Rashid. So please... where is he?"
Rashid's lips lifted smuggly at the corners. "You won't kill me?"
"I won't send you to Hell. " Reese confirmed to them both. "I
can't."
Rashid laughed, but Reese caught the stumble in it. She had struck a nerve. She
waited, the gun's weight nudging her leg. When had she lowered it? It begged to
be returned to its proper use, and Reese still longed to fulfill it. The urge
may have been divinely subsided, but it was still there. Reese squeezed her
free hand closed, viewing it as her literal hold on God's strength, as she
continued to stare off with Rashid.
Another moment passed, until Rashid finally shrugged. Both hands compressed the
blood-soaked robes that covered his calf, but he lifted his chin back toward
the alter. "A staircase. Hidden behind the tapestries of my prayer room.
Your brother- what is left of him- is waiting behind the door at the end of
it."
Reese bit her lip at the images of what Rashid meant by that, forcing her gun
still. Without a word, she moved past him, starting toward the small, sacred
room. She thought of how many times she had stood just outside its curtain.
Spencer and Justin too; the countless meetings they had had with Rashid.
Meetings they had believed to be private, for the same cause...
"Reese!"
*To Be Continued*
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