Author Notes: This Chapter is focused on Ed and Danny and gives a little info on who is after them and why. I hope you enjoy it. Please let me know what you think. Thanks.

Chapter 16

Danny smiles and walks towards the man with open arms. “Cody Howard! How are ya man?” he says hugging the man quickly.

“Better than you, by the sound of things.” He replies smiling. Ed clears his throat.

“Oh I’m sorry. Cody Howard this is my good friend Ed Deline. Ed this is Cody Howard, we grew up and served together.”

Ed steps forward to shake the young mans hand, tightly.

“Nice to meet you.” Ed says, slightly scowling.

“You too sir.” Howard says with firm handshake. “shall we get going?” Cody says, his hands motioning towards the truck.

“Yeah.” Danny says, loading his bag into the trunk, but keeping his rifle with him. “Ed…” he says, indicating for the older man to give him his bag. Howard gets into the driver’s seat while Ed and Danny continue to put their belongings in the truck.

“Danny, are you sure we can trust him?” Ed whispers.

Danny furrows his brow, “Yes, I’m sure.” He says slightly insulted. “I grew up with this guy, I served with him, we’ve saved each other’s lives. If I were to trust anyone right now it would be him.”

“Ok.” Ed says backing off. The two climb into the truck, Danny letting Ed have the front seat.

“Where to Mr. Deline?” Howard asks. Ed glances back to Danny, who nods his head in approval.

“Langley, there’s a neighborhood on the outskirts of town.”

“Yes sir.” Cody says starting up the SUV and heading towards the exit of the airstrip. Knowing that Ed doesn’t trust him, Cody tries his best to show as much respect as possible. “So McCoy…how have you been?” Cody asks, trying to break the silence.

“Well…it’s been an extremely long six months “ Danny says as he recalls the events of the past half year. His men, Mary, his father, PFC Ryan, his family put in jeopardy, now trying to run from his own government.

“I’m so sorry I couldn’t make it to Mary’s funeral. When I got your letter I was still a month away from being discharged.”

“Believe me, I understand.” Danny says sighing, “Cody grew up with Mary, Greg, and I.” Danny says, now talking to Ed. Ed nods his head as he stares out the window.

“Uh-huh,” He replies, brushing the comment off.

Danny looks behind him, out the back window and his eyes widen. He leans forward and pushes Ed’s head down. “Down!” Danny screams. A bullet comes flying in through the back, shattering the back window, and going right through Ed’s headrest. “Howard step on it!” Danny’s picks up his rifle and fires back. “Faster!”

Ed gets his glock and leans out the window, firing at the two SUV’s behind them. Danny gets one of the tires, causing the first truck to flip. The men continue to shoot at Danny and company. Cody catches a bullet in the right shoulder. He screams out and grabs the wheel again with his left hand. He swerves off the freeway, pulls around the corner, and stops.

They hear a screeching of tires and the SUV tears around the corner. Danny fires at the suburban, taking out the two front tires. The men continue to shoot, but Danny finally takes both of them out. “Howard move!” Danny commands as the sound of police sirens are heard approaching. The truck doesn’t move. “Howard…” Danny says again, now moving to look at him.

“Danny!” Ed shouts, as he leans back in the car. “Howard’s been…”

Danny rushes out of the car and opens Cody’s door. “Cody!” he shouts. Dragging the man out of the front seat and into the back.

“Danny…” Cody mumbles, blood escaping his mouth. “Thank you.”

“Come on Cody! Stay with me!” Danny yells.

“Deerpark 508” Cody says, struggling to get the words out.

“What?” what is that?” Danny asks, Cody closes his eyes. “Cody! Cody!” Danny yells shaking the man furiously. McCoy looks up and wipes his eyes. “Where does this fucker live? I want some answers and I want them right, fucking, now!” he screams. Ed nods his head and moves over to help Danny securely place Howard in the back seat. Danny moves towards the driver side door and places his hand on the handle. Ed puts his hand on the door, holding it shut.

“Maybe I should drive.” Ed says, not so much suggesting as informing.

“I’m going to drive.” Danny states, not dealing with Ed’s forceful ways. Ed opens his mouth to object. “Damn-it Ed, I’m driving!” Danny says with a loud irritated tone.

Ed nods his head, “ok.” He says walking back over to the passenger side. They both, silently, climb into the truck and drive off.

After ten minutes and limited communication they arrive at the man’s house. They sit outside for a moment, Danny with a blank stare on his face.

“Danny…we should go in before he gets home.” Ed says quietly. Danny snaps his head up, startled.

“Yeah, yeah ok.” Danny says looking around a little disoriented.

“Are you ok?”

Danny looks to Cody in the backseat. “yeah, I’m fine.” He says, getting out of the truck. He opens the door to the backseat and grabs his rifle. He then looks around and grabs the windshield protector and covers Cody’s body up with it, in case some nosey neighbors decide to walk by the new car in the neighborhood. He then takes one of Cody’s jackets and covers his rifle up with it.

Ed loads a new clip into his gloc and looks up to Danny. “You ready?” Danny nods his head. They both walk across the street and into the backyard of the house.

“he’s got an alarm…and surveillance.” Danny points out. Ed looks at the alarm sign in the front lawn and the barely visible camera on the side of the house.

“So how do we get in?” Ed asks, more to himself than asking a question.

“Right there.” Danny points out casually, to a small decorative vent to the attic. “Hold this.” Danny commands, giving Ed his rifle, still covered with Cody’s jacket. Danny climbs to the vent, using power boxes and water valves for steps. He holds onto the roof with one arm and punches in the vent with his other elbow. He squeezes through the tiny vent and carefully crawls through the attic. He looks around and crawls towards the black electrical box in the corner. He takes his knife out and forces it open, exposing groups of wires. He looks to the group wrapped in blue and cuts the green and yellow wires. He closes the box back up and lifts the board behind him. He drops down into the house and opens the back door.
“Ed!” He calls. Ed walks over from the side of the house. He hands Danny his rifle. “You sit in here on the couch and I’ll hide up in the attic. Ed nods his head and sighs as Danny walks away. The young man he once knew was gone. The playful ladies man was nowhere to be found. He was replaced by a serious marine, a leader, a war hero, a man.

Danny crawls back up into the attic, crouching with his rifle pointed towards the front door. He has no visual, he has only sound. Sound of the rat scurrying behind him, sound of the cars driving by, sound of the dog barking next door, and then…the sound of the front door opening. He hears the man stop, probably because the alarm didn’t go off. He hears the man take out his pistol and cock it. The man cautiously moves towards the living room and stops.

“Ed.” The man says sighing and lowering his weapon. “Jesus, you scared me.” He says smiling.

“I need answers.” Ed says, still sitting on the couch.

“About what?” the man asks.

Ed laughs, “You know what about.”

“I already told you, I can’t give you any information.” Ron Marleau says.

“I’m not asking you to give me the information, I’m telling you to.” Ed says through gritted teeth.

Danny hears the door to the garage open quietly. He creeps towards the area of sound and lifts up the board, he sticks his head down into the house and sees a man with a 9mm pointed at Ed. Danny takes out his pistol and lets one lose, shooting the man in the face. Ron turns around and sees a man collapse to the floor. Not just any man, his coworker who had been there to watch his back.

“Haven’t you learned by now Marleau? I cover all my bases.” Ed says smiling. “Would you like to give me that information now?”

“How many men to you have watching me?” Marleau asks, looking around a bit paranoid.

“Right now?” Ron nods his head. “Enough.” Ed stands up and walks toward the man. “What’s going on?” Ed asks, more serious now. Ron doesn’t respond. “Don’t make me hurt you.” Ed says, shaking his head. He grabs the man by his shoulder, giving him the Ed Deline death grip.

“Fine!” Ron says squealing. Ed pushes him into the chair and takes a seat on the couch, “Ed, don’t freak out.” He says holding up his hands “but…McCoy…McCoy is alive.” Ed starts to laugh.

“Really?” Ed says, trying not to laugh too hard. “Hey buddy, come on out here.” Ed calls. Danny jumps back down by the garage door and walks into the living room. “Yeah we’re going to need some more information than that.” Ed says smiling. Ron’s eyes widen at the sight of the tall Marine walking into the room.

Ron stands up to move away. “Sit back down!” Danny shouts, putting his hand on Ron’s face, shoving him back into the chair. Danny now walks over and stands beside Ed, “You were right, he does look like a weasel.”

“I told you.” Ed says putting his hand out. Danny sighs and hands him five dollars.

“You owe me five dollars.” Danny says, pointing to Ron. Ron smiles and laughs a little.

“He’s not kidding.” Ed says with a serious face. Ron gets out his wallet. “Make it twenty for pain and suffering.” Ed says smiling at Danny. Ron takes out a twenty dollar bill and hands it to Danny. “Half of that’s mine.” Ed says looking over to Danny.

“Oh come on!”

“What?” Ed says, his voice getting higher.

“Um…excuse me,” Ron says, looking to the men in front of him in disbelief.

“We’ll deal with this later.” Ed says starring at Danny.

“Yeah ok.” Danny says rolling his eyes and pocketing the twenty. “Tell us what the hell is going on!” Danny commands, changing his mood as he turns to Ron.

Ron Marleau sighs “I can’t…”

“You will.” Danny says taking a step toward the man.

“Ok, ok, ok.” Marleau says, putting his hands up and leaning back in his chair. “Jeremy Lucas, he works for the Pentagon. He’s been dealing some of our weapons to the middle east under the table…”

“He’s giving them the weapons they are using to kill U.S. troops!” Danny yells, outraged. He takes another step forward, but Ed puts his hand on the young man’s shoulder and pulls him back.

“Yes, we had some suspicions and that’s why we sent you to Achmed’s office. We need someone we could trust to get some concrete evidence. When you brought back that information we knew we had a problem. It took awhile and we tried to get someone else, but no one could pull off getting anywhere near Achmed. That’s why we came back to you. When we thought you were gone we started to panic, but then you came back and went after him.”

“Then what the hell was with the fucking helicopter blowing up?” Danny yells.

“Lucas, he works for the Pentagon and has a lot of pull. Obviously he has someone over there.”

“Macalester.” Danny says looking over to Ed. Ed nods his head.

“Why haven’t you put us in protective custody if you know Lucas is coming after us?” Ed says with a skeptical look.

“Deniability, we can’t admit that our own government has a traitor.” Marleau says shrugging his shoulders.

“How do we fix it?” Danny says, getting that feeling of insanity, just wanting to kill someone.

“Lucas, you get him and bring him in.”

“Danny laughs, “yeah, bring him in.” he says rolling his eyes. “Where do we find him?”

“He has a beach house down in Georgia. He’s been hiding there for a while.”

“Why haven’t you taken him in then?” Ed asks.

“He’s got friends in high places. No matter what we charge him with he squirms his way out of it.” Ron says sighing. “You’re going to have to take care of this yourself. There are a lot of people who wouldn’t lose any sleep if he went down.” Ron adds.

Ed and Danny look to each other with a look of determination in their eyes. “Ron, always a pleasure.” Ed says, turning to walk out the backdoor. He stops and lets Danny leave first. “Oh and Ron…”

“You were never here.” Ron says finishing Ed’s sentence. Ed nods his head and follows Danny out to the truck. They both get in and sit for a minute.

Ed looks over to Danny, “You ready for this?” Ed asks. Danny looks over to Ed and starts up the truck.

“Let’s go get this fucker.” He says, tearing off out of the quiet neighborhood.