“We still have the smoke bombs we made a few nights back that we never got to use because of the rain,” Evan added.
“I have a hunting rifle,” Paulie said with a shrug. “I never was very good at using it, but in one of your hands, it could be useful.”
“I have a couple large duffle bags full of weapons in the guesthouse,” Creed started counting them aloud. “There’s a Beretta 92FS Inox handgun, an AKM assault rifle, a Colt Model 723, one SVD Dragunov sniper rifle, a Micro Uzi, loads of ammunition for all of them and, oh, yeah…a dozen or so M67 hand grenades.”
Everyone stared at Creed wide-eyed.
“What?” Creed asked the room.
“What the heck are you doing with all that stuff?” Evan squeaked.
Creed blushed deeply, realizing the sudden change in the room was because of him. “I couldn’t decide what to bring when I came from Germany, so I brought everything. I was supposed to be an assassin, remember?”
“Dude, you have a freaking arsenal! I’m damn glad you’re on our side now,” Alik breathed.
Creed continued blushing, so he did what came naturally to him and redirected the conversation to less embarrassing topics: battle tactics and guerrilla warfare.
“First objective is to disengage the enemy, to hit them hard so they retreat long enough for us to evacuate. I still have the number to the pilots we used the other day: Jacobi and Trainer. I’ll contact them and see if they can drop what they’re doing to fly our asses out of here. We’ll need to get the cars ready for a fast getaway. Bring only what you can carry in one small bag. We need to go underground for a while to regroup.” Creed stopped to look around the room for any signs of agreement.
“There are so many holes with that plan, but we don’t really have time to deliberate and draw schematics,” Alik spoke up. “What I’m saying is: I’m in.”
“It could work,” Margo added thoughtfully. “Get on the phone now to call those pilots. They’re going to need time to ready an aircraft for us. Tell them money is not an issue.”
Creed nodded and pulled his phone out of his back pocket, already searching through its address book for Jacobi.
“Alik, can you run out to the guesthouse and get Creed’s duffel bags? Evan, you gather the other weapons we have around here and everyone meet back here in three minutes,” Margo ordered.
“Meg, you keep tabs on Williams while packing a bag. Be sure to throw in some extra clothing for Farrow,” Mom called to Meg’s back as she was already headed to her room. Meg’s shoulders shivered in physical rebellion at what her mom so casually threw into her lap. She kept her mouth shut, though. There was nothing she could do. Her family needed her like this.
“I know, I know—go pack,” Theo said to Margo as he hurried out of the room stopping to kiss her lips briefly as he passed her.
“Paulie,” Margo sighed deeply. “This isn’t your fight. You can take a car and get out of here. We’ll try our best not to leave too much damage on our way out, but you don’t need to be here for any of what’s about to happen.”
The old scientist raised his white brows and scoffed, “Are you kidding, Margo? Having you and the kids and Theo with me over these months has been the happiest, most fulfilling time in an otherwise uninvolved life. This is my fight because you are all like family to me now. Anyone who wants to hurt you, has to go through me,” he said the last with a slight puffing of his aged chest.
In that moment, Margo understood this man’s attachment to her family was real. He never thought of them as a charity case, or friends going through hardships. Paulie, the doctor who was always too busy with his own research and science to settle down and have a family, had adopted hers as his own.
She walked up to the gentleman, who stood proudly in his floral shorts, black socks and sandals with a striped button-up shirt and wrapped her arms around him. “Thank you, Paulie. You are absolutely family to all of us.”
“Oh, geez, lady,” Alik teased as he walked back into the room carrying two giant black bags weighted with firepower. “Enough of the love fest!”
Paulie coughed emotion out of his throat before shrugging. “Women! They’re always needing reassurance during the worse times.” He winked affectionately at Margo before turning to leave the room, presumably to pack his bag, and maybe even dry the mist from his eyes.
As ordered, everyone was back in the living room inside of three minutes.
“Mom, are we really going to shoot to kill?” Meg blurted the question she knew weighed heavily on everyone’s mind.