Operation Holiday Cheer - A Spy School Story

Chapter 28: Day VIII (Sins)

Georgetown

Washington, DC

Oakwood Apartments

December 25th, 2015

0800 hours

Alexander POV

Two weeks ago, all I wanted was a white Christmas with my family. And then Murphy's Law struck. Now, I was still having that, but with five kids in tow because... that's what we needed to do. Mission complete, right?

I wasn't sure. The fact of the matter was that there were too many thoughts swirling in my head for me to appreciate the moment. I was sitting on the doorstep outside, a mug of coffee in hand. It was cold, like every other Washington winter, with dull skies and a blanket of snow. A typical morning, one that almost certainly helped to boost the Christmas spirit. But all that ran through my mind were the memories.

Memories of the tensions during this trip, the struggles of Ben, the suffering in Mexico. In the one-and-a-half years since, I had been keeping tabs on the kids. As expected, all—from the fresh Mike to the hardened Chip—were scarred by the incident. But what concerned me were the wounds we couldn't see.

From what my contacts told me, all showed signs of insufficient sleep, paranoia, and anxiety. They may have ultimately cleared their psychological evaluations, but I had my concerns. Though, they adapted and overcame, except for Ben—who only seemed to do so. How we failed to notice, I still don't know. But the night of his attempted suicide will be with me til the day I die.

Speaking of, you may be wondering why I'm still alive, especially after my ranting and raving in Mexico. Well, there is a simple explanation.

And her name is Erica Hale.

ONE-AND-A-QUARTER YEARS AGO...

I sat in the park at a bench, sipping my black coffee. It was bitter, far from my usual two creams-two sugars combination, but for some odd reason, I was drinking it. Grounding was a weird description, and yet it fit.

It had been three months since Operation Fox Hunt. Adrien Dubois was extradited to the UK, the captured SPYDER persons had been shipped off to Gitmo, and the IC had worked their way through the intel we gathered, enabling the DOD and DOJ to carry out missions against SPYDER targets. The FBI and USMS had dispatched threats internally, while JSOC (occasionally with HRT tag-alongs) struck out against external threats. They were still at work mopping up, with some units even discovering intel against other threats.

For instance, in Azerbaijan (because SPYDER apparently had a safehouse there), a team of CAG and ISA operators discovered links to al-Qaeda in Afghanistan—primarily in regards to intel and arms to use against Coalition forces. The info was sent up the chain and decisions were made. What decisions, I have no idea, apart from the fact that an SAS-led operation put a high-ranking AQ operative in the ground a few days ago.

Speaking of Brits, Catherine had left around nine weeks ago to assist with the Dubois trial in the UK. Upon conclusion of the trial, he had been sentenced to life without parole in a maximum security penitentiary... cliche, I know. Meanwhile, Interpol and Europol were cracking down on his network and, based on recent reports, law enforcement entities worldwide had successfully killed or captured a good chunk of the major players.

Interestingly, she didn't leave with the commandos, who departed with Dubois and a security team earlier. Over the course of two weeks, she and I had several talks... there may or may not have been some "activities" in between, so to speak. She wanted to start over, and I did too.