17 July 2013 – Crawford Street, Fitchburg, Massachusetts

“An’ how goes the job, lassie?” Hamish asked while they fueled the Cessna before Sabrina’s lesson.

“It’s been really fun! The kids are great!”

“Are ye sorry ye’re næ working for yer father at all?”

“Other than not getting to see him while I’m at work, no. I know that filing paperwork and cleaning the training aids at DMD needs to be done but teaching the little kids karate is a blast.”

“Is he upset, then?”

“Maybe a little?” she admitted. “It’s not like he’s working three jobs or anything, so I never see him, but I’ll be off to college in three years. Part of me feels that spending as much time with him as I can before I leave wouldn’t bother either of us.”

“An’ Ryan? Still human?”

“Well, he’s still acting human; whether or not he’s been replaced by a pod person or will revert to type remains to be seen.”

Sabrina went through the start-up checklist and took off with practiced ease.

“Here, lassie.” Hamish extended a wrapped package to her. “My aircraft.”

“Your aircraft,” she acknowledged while holding the present with both hands. “Mr. Hamish, what’s this?”

“Just a wee something tæ celebrate both yer birthday an’ yer achievement last week.”

“Mr. Hamish!”

Hamish waved off her protest.

Sabrina opened the present and found an ornate, carved music box. When she opened the top, sounds of light, airy music echoed through the plane as a ballerina inside twirled along with the tune. She gave Hamish a watery smile before unbuckling so she could hug the burly Scotsman.

“It’s beautiful, thank you!” she said while wrapped around him.

“T’is nothing, lass,” he said with an embarrassed blush. “I couldnæ let either event pass unnoticed. Is næ every day someone turns fifteen or gets their black belt in a martial art, ye know?”

“It’s not an adult black belt,” she pointed out, now buckled back in her seat.

“Ye næ think t’is a ‘real’ black belt then, lassie? Yer sensei is næ one to hand those belts out lightly, nor yer mother. Not many people have the dedication tæ reach the milestone, young er auld, let alone be taking flying lessons at the same time. What’s it taken? Ten years fer ye? I’ll wager once ye turn eighteen that’ll be a ‘real’ black belt. Oh, and yer father tells me ye made the honor roll – again. Ye have what yer fellow Yanks call ‘the drive,’ lass.”

Sabrina looked at the music box in her hands again. “What’s the song?” she asked.

“Part of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Swan Lake.’” The sad smile Sabrina first saw in the spring crossed Hamish’s face again.

“She likes this song, doesn’t she?”

The question startled Hamish. “Who, lass?”

“Mr. Hamish,” she answered, giving him a stern look. “To use a saying my Uncle Tom Pelley is fond of: ‘Boy, that dog won’t hunt!’ Your niece, the one you haven’t seen in years, likes this song, doesn’t she?”

“Aye,” he whispered, just barely audible over the sound of the Cessna’s engine. “She did from the moment she started ballet and heard it for the first time.” Hamish sighed and looked over. “I’m sorry, lass. Ye remind me so much of the wee bairn.”

“Why would you be sorry about that? It sounds like a compliment to me.”

“Och aye, t’is, lass,” Hamish said with tears in his eyes. “Kenna… Kenna was beautiful, a happy little lass.”

“‘Was,’ Mr. Hamish?”

“Aye, Sabrina, ‘was.’” Hamish’s use of her name rather than calling her ‘lass’ was very unusual and caught her attention. “Kenna was six when she… died, along with her mother and father. A lively, redheaded sprite was she. Her hair was as bright red as yer hair is black, lassie; compared to how hers was, mine is vurry dark.”

Sabrina snorted because Hamish’s was very red.

“Yer drive and yer fire are so like Kenna’s, lass. Ah,” Hamish sighed, “what a force she would have been.”

The following week a heavy package arrived at the Knox residence addressed to Sabrina; the return address was from some ‘foundation’ in Texas.

“Mom? Dad? Have you ever heard of ‘The Youth Citizenship Foundation?’” Sabrina asked while reading the shipping label.

“I have,” Jeff said with his brows lifting in surprise. Keiko shook her head in the negative. “Tell you in a minute,” he muttered to Keiko. “Go ahead, Sabrina, open it.”

Sabrina made short work of the tough packing tape and pulled two envelopes off the top of the bubble wrap inside. Sabrina opened the top envelope and read the enclosed letter aloud to her parents.

Dear Miss Knox,

The Youth Citizenship Foundation takes great pleasure in recognizing you as the recipient of our national Integrity Award for the 2012-2013 school year. Every year the Foundation presents this award to the high school student who exemplifies dedication to, and perseverance in defending your rights and the rights of others in the face of overwhelming odds and pressures.

Your consistent belief in those rights was evident over the past school year when you stood up to your school’s administration in the fall while fighting for proper treatment of another classmate, and in standing up for yourself when discriminated against in two separate incidents this spring. In addition to the crystal statue enclosed with this award letter, a certified check made out to you in the amount of ten thousand dollars is also enclosed; this tax-free award is to be used to defray costs of attendance at whatever post-secondary school you choose to matriculate to.

Again, on behalf of the Foundation and its board, I congratulate you.

Yours in admiration,

Charles C. Oldham
Chairman, The Youth Citizenship Foundation

Sabrina looked up from the letter and blinked at her beaming parents. Jeff hugged her while kissing the top of her head and telling her how proud of her he was; Keiko added her own silent hug. As her mother released her, Sabrina saw her father carefully lift the large, heavy, crystal spread eagle out of the box and set it down on the counter.

“Winning this award is wonderful recognition for you, Sabrina. They’ll write you a recommendation to whatever college you want to go to, also; from what I understand their letters carry some serious weight.”

“How do they even know about what happened?” she asked. “I’m a minor and I don’t think school records are public records.”

“No, they’re not; court records are, though I’m not clear about cases involving minors,” Jeff mentioned. “I don’t know how they connected your name with those records since you’re a minor like we both just said, but it’s clear they did. I’ll ask Josh to make some quiet inquiries. If they aren’t using your name for some other purpose your mom and I will be okay with leaving things alone. It’d be unusual if they are, though; they shoot pretty straight.”

“All the same, Sabrina,” Keiko cut in, “you should already have been proud of your actions this past year. It could not have been easy for you to be the focus of things such as that, yet you comported yourself very well.”

Keiko took Sabrina shopping for new clothes before Sabrina’s sophomore year began. Since about a month before her fifteenth birthday at the beginning of the summer, Sabrina’s attitude toward young ladies’ fashion – and boys – had shifted. While she was still comfortable knocking around the house and rink in workout gear festooned with hockey equipment company logos, Sabrina now felt that she should present a better image at other times – meaning ‘prettier.’ She laughed at her mother’s description of how her father grimaced when told of her new attitudes.

Sabrina’s new clothes were conservative by current teenage standards, but positively shocking when compared to her previous sartorial style. Along with the piles of track pants, gym shorts, and sneakers, Sabrina’s closet now also boasted sundresses, skirts, and blouses on hangars; flats and low heels now took space on the closet’s floor.

Jeff hated to admit it but the new clothes looked great on his little girl. A light touch of makeup did wonderful things to her already pretty face, and new shampoo and conditioner made her hair shine. Jeff felt a migraine coming on. Alex patted his father on the shoulder in a gesture of support.

“Better let me do the wet-work, Dad,” he muttered, guessing at his father’s current thoughts anticipating an onslaught of boyfriends. “As a minor, I might get off with a lighter sentence.”

Indeed, Sabrina drew many surprised and appreciative glances on their first day of school. Tommy Jones’ eyes bulged seeing the change in his childhood friend. Lucky for him Erica Thorisson, his girlfriend since the end of freshman year, didn’t notice; her wheelchair put her down where a back-fist or elbow could have been very painful for him.

Sabrina’s skill in Spanish advanced her to the junior Spanish III class, much as her father’s language ability saw him in accelerated classes through high school. Moose Smolinski sat down at his desk next to her and complimented her sundress and how nice she looked. She noticed people watching her since she arrived at school, but to have someone say something to her gave her a rush of feelings she wasn’t used to.

Something else she wasn’t used to was not having her mother at the high school. Even though she’d only been a student there for one year, Sabrina still equated this place with her mother. The replacement junior English teacher seemed nice enough from the brief greeting with him in the hall this morning, but she’d wait for her brothers’ report; they’d both have him for English.

Sabrina could get very used to not seeing Principal Atwood and Mrs. Haversham lurking in the shadows. Mr. Lanier replaced Atwood after the latter was ousted that summer. Mrs. Haversham took a teaching job with a school district in Worcester County. Sabrina wouldn’t mourn their departures. On the other hand, Mr. Lanier’s promotion to principal was welcome news.

Mr. Lanier embarrassed Sabrina when he announced her national citizenship award at an assembly that first morning. He simply grinned at Sabrina’s displeasure when she cornered him afterward. He laughed louder when his grinning had caused Sabrina to stomp her foot in frustration.

“You won’t be so upset when colleges see the recommendation letter from that foundation, Sabrina,” he said. “Those schools won’t be able to say yes to you fast enough!”

“Hey, Sabrina!” Ruby Sepulveda said in greeting after Spanish class. Naomi Taggert blushed when Sabrina noticed her holding Ruby’s hand.

“Hey, guys! I’d ask how your summer was, but I’m guessing it was good if you two are holding hands?” Naomi blushed scarlet again. Ruby squeezed her hand in response.

“Yeah,” her former preschool classmate replied with a lopsided grin and shrugged.

“Well, congratulations. Your families okay with things?”

“Mom doesn’t have an issue with it,” Naomi said.

“Nor mine. She and Ms. Taggert hit it off, too. They sit around in either our kitchen or Naomi’s chatting while we’re off on our dates. It’s pretty cool. You look great this year, too!”

“Thanks.” Now it was Sabrina’s turn to blush. “I finally decided I couldn’t live my life in a hockey commercial. Time to live a little.”

Moose Smolinski seemed to agree. He asked Sabrina to be his girlfriend a few days later.

Sabrina’s happiness at reconnecting with her school friends was dampened by an undercurrent of snide comments about Ruby and Naomi; they weren’t the only gay couple at the school, but they were the newest target. The start of the school year delayed the spread, but it went from a trickle to a torrent overnight in mid-September. Comments became even worse by the last week of the month.

“Effing people,” Sabrina growled to herself as she slammed her locker shut; she’d just ripped someone a new asshole for making lesbian jokes about her two friends. “What is this? The frikken 1950s?” Someone poking her leg startled her.

“You look like you’re about to blow your stack,” Erica commented as she rolled into view. “Take a breath! Think before you act, Sabrina. Isn’t that what you’re always saying?”

“Look, there are plenty of people who’d like to hoist me on my petard around here and I don’t need my friends doing it, too.”

“It keeps you humble. ‘Pride goeth before the fall,’ and all that.”

“Have you been talking to my mother? God, you sound just like her!”

“You need all the reminders you can get. How are things going with Moose?”

“Great! He’s been patient with me, not rushing me at all. I’m a little late to the dating game; I’ve been a bit too focused on hockey and school up till now. He even admitted he would have asked me out last year but wasn’t sure I wasn’t gay at that point.”

“So he waited until your wardrobe changed? What you wear doesn’t have anything to do with your sexual orientation!”

“I think it was more that he saw I was too focused on hockey, Erica. Moose doesn’t strike me as that shallow. He probably saw me as just another teammate until now.”

“So, any rumors that you guys are doing it are incorrect, then? I’ve been hearing those rumors a lot.”

Sabrina spun around and stared at her friend. “What did you say?”

“Shit are you clueless. You haven’t heard that? It’s all over the school!”

“No, we’re not ‘doing it!’ It’s come up, sure, but he made it clear that it’s my decision. He isn’t pressuring me at all!”

“Yeah, but he’s never been sixteen and hormonal before, either. Does your dad have a shotgun he can be cleaning the first time Moose comes to your house to pick you up for a date?”

“Christ, Erica, don’t give the man any ideas! He’s already been talking about getting his old Ranger platoon back together to follow my boyfriends around when I start dating! I – OH SHIT! Come on!”

Sabrina darted away from Erica, toward a pack of boys further down the hall. The pack had surrounded two girls and were taunting them. Sabrina stepped between two of the boys, smashing her foot down on one’s instep and elbowing the other in the solar plexus.

“You creeps back the hell off before I knock you all into next week!”

“Brave words, Knox,” Jon Aaltonen sneered.

“You’re suddenly brave yourself since Lonergan ran away, Aaltonen. When did you grow a set? You idiots obviously didn’t learn anything from last year if you think I’m gonna sit back and let anyone treat my friends this way!”

Sabrina was flush with anger. Some of the things she heard them say to Ruby and Naomi were plain vile.

“What are you going to do? Fight all of us at once?”

“That would be pretty dumb, wouldn’t it? No, hypothetically I could just catch you each alone later and lay some hurt on you one at a time. Of course, that would just be me. Don’t think the rest of our friends are just gonna sit around and let me have all the fun!”

Erica ‘accidentally’ crashed her wheelchair into the boys. Tommy and Shawn each shoved some from behind, then stood nose-to-nose with them, staring them down. Moose came out of nowhere and stood among them like a menacing mountain.

“Those people frikken suck,” Tommy growled as he watched them scatter.

“No argument on that, babe,” Erica agreed while holding his hand.

The friends formed a protective ring around Ruby and Naomi and escorted them to lunch.

“Did we skip fall and jump right into winter?” Sabrina asked, shivering in the breeze as she stood by the avgas pump. She should get her coat out of the airplane.

“Aye, lass, I think we did.”

The temperature was only in the mid-40s, but after a summer of 80s and 90s it sure felt like winter already. From the hordes of squirrels she noticed already stashing food and fattening themselves, Sabrina suspected they were in for an early and difficult winter. Early-fallen leaves swirled in a steady cold wind. From the air last week Sabrina saw that much of the forest canopy was already gone, exposing the smaller back roads under the bare branches.

“How did yer father take the announcement ye want ta go to the Air Force Academy, lass?”

“About as well as you’d expect, being a former Army guy.”

“Remind him that yer Air Force used ta be part of the Army.”

“I told him that,” she groused. “Didn’t make a difference. The fact remains military pilots are almost always the ones selected as pilots for the space program. With being an astronaut pilot as my ultimate goal, it seems like an obvious choice to me.”

“Yer tryin’ to use logic when it comes ta a father’s feelins about his daughter? Luck ta ye.”

Sabrina chuckled and concentrated on getting the aircraft in the air. Once aloft the constant wind blowing over the uneven terrain produced currents and eddies that were difficult to predict. Maintaining constant attitude and altitude while flying was easier for her now that she had amassed more flight hours, but today it wasn’t so easy. It was bouncy in the small Cessna, with a few hard jolts.

Seen from above, their flight track would have looked like a series of lazy, looping circles as they drifted west over Worcester County. Sabrina sometimes asked Hamish to take the controls so she could take some pictures. Alex had loaned her his new digital camera two weeks ago. The early cold caused the leaves to turn in their part of New England; Alex asked her for some images from the sky before the colors lost their brilliance. Today he asked if Sabrina would take some more pictures to show the difference in the forest canopy.

The windows of the Cessna produced some glare when she tried to take pictures; still, Sabrina was able to get better-looking pictures despite the glare than when trying to shoot through the small opening when the pop-out was opened. The opening was barely wide enough for Alex’s telephoto lens, and the wing strut kept getting in the way unless she aimed the camera straight down.

“If ye’re gonna be swearin’, lass, at least let me teach ye some good swearin’. I’m guessin’ ye learned from your father, but ye Yanks are amateurs when it comes to it.” She ignored him, handed the camera back to him, and took back the controls.

A flash from below caught Sabrina’s eye. Sunlight had glinted off the aluminum top of a police cruiser’s lightbar as an officer tried to stop the car in front of him. The lightbar’s blue lights flashed in a steady pattern until the car in front slowed.

“Someone’s about to have a bad day,” Sabrina muttered.

“Hmm?” Hamish couldn’t see the cruiser from his side of the plane.

“Town cop down there pulling someone over.” The Cessna passed over the now-stopped cars. Sabrina swung the plane into a tight circle above them.

“What are ye doin’, lass?”

“Just setting up a pylon turn. I need the practice and they’ll provide a good reference point.”

“Okay, then.” Hamish didn’t provide any instruction on setting up the orbit; he didn’t think Sabrina needed much in the way of basic instruction any longer. She could handle this.

Sabrina watched as the officer below conducted his traffic stop. The uniformed figure approached the other car and paused there for a minute before heading back to the cruiser; the officer glanced up quickly but didn’t wave, remaining focused on the traffic stop. After another few orbits of the aircraft, Sabrina saw the officer emerge and approach the other car again. Someone quickly poked their head out of the front window of the vehicle and extended their arm. Sabrina saw the officer fall to lay unmoving in the road.

“Son of BITCH!” she yelled, startling Hamish.

“WHAT?”

“I think they just shot that cop! I saw someone from the front car extend their arm and now he’s down! Where the hell are we?” she asked as she started looking around for landmarks. A glance back at the ground showed the officer laying on the ground in a puddle as the other car peeled away with a cloud of smoke.

“Stay with them, lass! Slew around so I can see them!” Hamish ordered. He punched some buttons and the Cessna’s GPS display lit up. Normally off during lessons so his students learned other navigation methods, the GPS was no cheap unit. It powered up quickly; with a few button presses it brought up their current position and he saved it. He gave Sabrina occasional course corrections to keep the car in sight now that she was the one who couldn’t see it.

He popped open his window. Picking up Alex’s camera, he stuck the lens out of the plane; he began taking pictures while zoomed in as far as he could and captured the license plate of the fleeing car. Hamish pulled out his cell phone next and powered it on. Once it was on Hamish wirelessly connected it to his headset via a menu on his avionics.

“State Police 9-1-1. What city is the emergency in?” the slightly bored male voice asked.

“Petersham.”

“What is the emergency in Petersham?”

“I just witnessed someone shoot an officer on Route 101. Standby for coordinates.”

“I’m sorry? Could you repeat that?” The voice sounded much less bored now.

“Officer down, Route 101, Petersham. I am in a small plane overhead and I am following the suspect vehicle. Coordinates of the downed officer are as follows.” Sabrina noted that Hamish’s accent disappeared during his conversation with the State Police. “Suspect vehicle just turned into the driveway of a large house with a barn.” He turned to Sabrina and had her orbit again, this time so he could keep an eye on the house and report those coordinates. Keying the radio mic he spoke with the 9-1-1 center again. “Two subjects are exiting the vehicle at this time.” He began snapping pictures again, too.

“Bloody bawbags!” Hamish hissed. “Subjects are now pulling two others out of the back seat of the vehicle. New subjects have hoods over their heads and appear to have their hands tied behind their backs.”

The silence which greeted Hamish’s pronouncement was deafening.

“Say that again?”

“Aye, laddie, ye best call everyone in on this. Coordinates of the target structure are as follows.”

“Sir, one of our helicopters is headed your way from the Erving area. Switch to the following VHF radio frequency and await transmission from Air Two.” The operator read off the frequency information and Hamish read it back.

“Roger.”

Minutes later Hamish heard, “State Police Air Two to the aircraft orbiting an incident near Dana, please identify.”

“Air Two, Cessna Six Two Six Bravo Hotel is in orbit over Dana.” They both had deliberately misidentified what town they were over to keep the news from spreading through what first responders refer to as ‘Scannerland.’

“Six Two Six Bravo Hotel, we are approaching the area from your three-one-five and have you in sight. What is your point of origin?”

“Fitchburg Municipal, Air Two.”

“Roger, sir. Thank you for your assistance, but we must now ask you to clear the area and return. Personnel from C-Four will meet you there.”

“Roger, Air Two. Six Two Six Bravo Hotel is RTB.” Hamish had Sabrina turn back to the east. When the aircraft started shaking, Hamish looked over at his student.

Sabrina’s face was white and her eyes unfocused as her hands shook. Hamish announced he had control of the plane; her hands came off the control yoke and her feet off the rudder pedals. Hamish reached behind him and pulled a soda from a soft-sided cooler; he handed it to her and told her to drink it all down.

“Ye need the sugar, lass,” he said gently in response to her grimace. “Ye be going into shock.”

“Shit, Mr. Hamish,” she croaked, “what the HELL was that?”

“Slavers,” he growled back. “Goddamn slavers. They be callin’ it ‘human trafficking’ now, but t’is still slavery. Seen it before I have, but not fer some time and I’d hoped ta never see the likes a that scum again.”

Sabrina continued to stare out the windscreen.

“Sabrina, do ye have yer phone?” She blinked and looked over at him before nodding. “Would ye connect to the Bluetooth in the plane and call yer father, please? I need ta talk to him before we land at Fitchburg.” She wordlessly did what he asked.

“Hi, Princess!” Hamish heard through his headset.

“I dinnæ think ye’ll be callin’ me that vurry often, lad.”

“Hamish? What’s going on?”

“We’ve had ta cut the lesson short, Sabrina and I. Ye need to call yer lawyers before we land, lad, as do I.”

“What could you possibly get involved in while flying a plane where we need our lawyers involved, Hamish?”

“I næ want to tell ye on a cell phone, lad. The lass will need her mother to meet her at the airport when we land. Troopers from the Leominster State Police barracks will be there, too.”

“Lawyers and troopers? Shit. Do I need to send guns and money, too?”

“Always been a fan of Mr. Zevon’s music,” Hamish mused. “Næ, lad,” he sighed. “If I’m right about this yer family will need those yerselves.”

Sabrina’s color returned by the time they landed; she no longer looked like she was about to throw up. When they taxied up to the flight school’s hangar Hamish could see a small crowd inside. Keiko and Jeff came rushing over to hug their daughter while the others trailed behind them. Hamish was glad to see his lawyer was part of the group.

“Joshua.”

“Sounds like the haggis is in the fire for sure, Hamish.” Hamish had given him more information over the phone than Jeff received.

“Ye been watching too many of those Star Trek reruns again, lad. Where’s their lawyer, then?” he asked while waving at Sabrina and her family.

“You’re looking at ’im!”

“Och…” Hamish rubbed at his forehead. “Well, that’ll make this a wee bit easier, then.”

“State Police!” a trooper barked while marching over.

“Really? I couldnæ tell.” Hamish answered while looking the man up and down. “Still, the fancy uniform should have clued me in.”

“Not another word, Hamish,” Josh Abernathy muttered after elbowing his client; Hamish gave him an innocent look and a mock look of surprise over the rebuke as well. Addressing the trooper, Josh said, “Now that we’ve established that rather obvious fact, Trooper, how may my clients help you?”

“I need a statement!”

“The sky is blue,” the Scotsman growled.

“Hamish!”

“T’were a statement, no?”

“God save me from pedantic Hibernians!” Josh sighed as he looked skyward. “You’re getting charged double!”

“These people are coming to the barracks! Now!”

“I presume you mean you’re asking if they would come over to the barracks once they’ve wrapped things up here, Trooper? I doubt you meant you were going to drag them there, correct?”

Purple doesn’t go very well with a French Blue uniform shirt, at least not that shade of purple.

“Are you okay, Trooper? You seem upset. It’s probably a good thing your sergeant is here to take over,” Josh mentioned while pointing behind the trooper.

Trooper Morgan scowled at the man in front of him before a voice startled him from his dark thoughts.

“Morgan, why don’t you go take the South Patrol?” a State Police sergeant asked as she stepped over from the door; the question was an order, of course. The younger man stomped away after another glare at the civilians in front of him.

Josh watched the other trooper leave before turning back to the newly arrived one. “Sergeant Vüsala Dadashova, lovely to see you again, as always. Welcome back to C Troop.”

“Joshua Abernathy, Esquire. You’re lucky I like you; there aren’t many people I let use my legal, given name. Still a smooth-talker, I see?”

“Sally, I’m a lawyer, remember?”

“That you are, and I’m guessing these folks are your clients?” she asked, indicating she meant Hamish and the Knox family.

“Yes, all of them. Sally, I know you’ll need statements from Hamish and Sabrina, but can I have a few minutes with them? Your boy Morgan was all over them and me as soon as they stepped out of the plane; I haven’t had a chance to talk to them yet.”

“If you ever refer to Morgan as ‘my boy’ again, Josh, I’m gonna taze you.” Dadashova looked over to the teen girl with her parents, and up at the large refugee from the Highland Games. “I’ll be out in my cruiser when you’re ready and I’ll escort you over to the barracks.”

“Thanks, Sally. Might be close to half an hour before we’re ready.” Dadashova shrugged in disinterest meaning she’d wait as long as necessary and turned to leave. Josh took more of an interest in watching Sally Dadashova walking away than he had with Trooper Morgan; the scenery was better.

“Hamish, do you need to bring that little toy of yours inside the hangar before we sit down to chat?”

“Is næ a ‘little toy,’ lad!”

“If it doesn’t come with wide, leather seats and someone serving me adult beverages, it’s a little toy, Hamish,” Josh grinned. Hamish stomped away muttering to himself and Josh turned back to Sabrina and her parents. “Why don’t we see if Hamish has somewhere to sit that doesn’t smell like aviation gasoline?”

Four of the five people in the small conference room at Burgh-to-Burg Flight School looked like they were going to throw up; the other looked like he was going to tear someone’s head off.

“Slavers? Are you shitting me?” Jeff asked.

“Lad,” Hamish said to Jeff while giving him a hard look, “does it sound like I be ‘shitting’ ye?”

“No, but… shit…”

“Aye. No one wants t’admit such a thing might exist.”

Sabrina turned and curled up against her mother.

“What of this ‘Sergeant Dadashova,’ Josh? Can we trust her?” Hamish asked.

“Yes,” he replied without hesitation. “I’ll vouch for Sally Dadashova in the strongest possible terms; some of her colleagues…” Josh left what he thought of some of her colleagues unsaid.

“We keep that in mind, then,” Hamish counseled Sabrina and her family. “Is næ anyone looking out fer us in this besides us. Other than young Joshua here, that is.”

“Thank you for calling me ‘young,’ Hamish. I am only thirty-seven. It’s not like I’m old, or anything.”

“Ye start going on aboot Excalibur and t’will be a bad day fer ye, lad.”

“No worries. Nobody lobbing scimitars at me from a lake, anyway.” Hamish gave Josh a serious dose of the Stink-eye. “I’m done! I promise!” Josh dropped the smile and looked at his oldest client. “I think you need to tell them, Hamish.”

“Aye,” the big man sighed.

Hamish rose and walked out of the room. He returned a moment later carrying an object which he placed gently on the tabletop. Sabrina’s eyes filled with tears when she saw the picture the silver frame held. She looked up at her instructor, her friend.

“Aye,” Hamish whispered. “Is næ a good story, lass. No one should have tæ hear such, especially not a young lass like yerself.” He watched Sabrina sit up straight, gather herself, and look him dead in the eye, daring him not to tell her. Jeff glanced at his daughter, and then his wife; he and Keiko nodded to Hamish. Hamish took a deep breath, nodded back, and started his story.

“I was næ born Hamish MacDougall; Hamish MacDougall næ existed till I arrived in this country over ten years ago. I was born in Edinburgh, Scotland an’ given a different name by me parents. A few years later, they had me brother, Rory. Growing up we were the average Scots family, though maybe a wee more involved than most in local heritage presentations with me uncle bein’ a piper.

“When I finished secondary school, I joined the Army; I was næ going to university. When me time was up, I joined the Fife Constabulary and was posted to Saint Andrews. I cannæ stand golf but learned to smile at the drunk duffers from all countries yelling in me face and let their comments roll off me back. T’was good practice for the regular drunks from the pubs, too. Th’ability to remain calm got me noticed, and in time I was posted to the Special Crimes unit.

“Special Crimes got the nod fer nasty calls all across Fife, and the investigations which sometimes led tæ them or resulted from them. One such call was an investigation stemming from an incident like today’s; someone saw something similar and called the police. It took two years, but Special Crimes finally cracked a slavery ring operating through Hound Point, a major shipping port in Fife.

“A major part of th’investigation was me working undercover. The unit always protected th’identities of undercover constables well, but not well enough in this case. Aboot a month after the arrests I drove down tæ visit Rory, his wife Sophie, and daughter Kenna at their place; with Ma and Da gone and me never having married, they were all the family I had. I got tæ the house and it was dark. When I stepped inside…” Hamish stopped telling the story as tears began rolling down his cheeks. He shook his head and took deep breaths. “What they did to my family…”

A sobbing Sabrina came around the table and sat in Hamish’s lap, clinging to him as they cried together. Keiko and Jeff hugged each other also. Josh had heard the story before, but it still affected him every time he saw Hamish’s reaction; Josh didn’t have children, but that didn’t mean he didn’t want them, nor did it mean that he didn’t care about them. Hamish had never given him the full story of what he found inside his brother’s house and Josh doubted Hamish would ever tell him. Given Hamish’s reaction, Josh was okay with that. He walked outside to tell Sally Dadashova that they would be a few more minutes.

“Thank ye, lass,” Hamish finally whispered to the young lady in his arms. “Ye best rejoin yer family, though, before yer father gets angry with me.”

“Uncle Hamish,” Sabrina chastised. Hearing someone call him ‘Uncle Hamish’ again made his breath catch.

“Lass…”

“No arguments from you!”

“Aye,” Hamish agreed with a smile, more tears, and another hug.

In the meantime, Jeff had stood and walked over to the window overlooking the parking lot. Keiko joined him and put an arm around her husband.

“Motherfu…” Jeff began to say in reaction to Hamish’s story before he was able to stop himself. “I mean, goddamn…”

“Yes, husband.”

“What happens next? Do you think they will come for us now, too?”

“And if they do? Do you remember your answer when I asked that question on September 11th?”

Jeff smiled down at his wife. “Aye…” Back then Jeff had answered that he would rain lead down upon anyone trying to harm his family, that he would make Hell appear on Earth. His answer wasn’t any different now.

Sabrina appeared and burrowed into her mother’s embrace. Jeff turned to find Hamish standing behind them; he put a hand on the Scotsman’s shoulder and squeezed.

“I’m sorry, lad. T’is something I wish we’d næ seen up there. If this group is like the other, they’ll be comin’.”

“As I’ve said more than a few times in the past, Hamish: ‘If wishes and buts were candy and nuts, oh, what a Christmas we would have.’ The world is a horrible place sometimes, Hamish, a constant example of man’s inhumanity to man. Worrying about this bunch coming after us won’t do us any good. Only preparing for it will.”

“These are a vurry bad sort, Jeff.”

“Hamish, this is the sort that needs to be taken care of, correct?”

“And yer family?”

“Despite what I just told Keiko, part of me wants to send them away – far away. But part of me also wants to help them get ready to take these assholes apart if they do come for us. No, this is my home, our home. If we run, whose little girl will they target for abduction next? Would anyone eventually stand up to them, or would everyone else turn a blind eye as well? I don’t want to go out as the one who could have stopped them but chose not to.”

Josh walked in from the parking lot, still visibly shaken. He walked over and looked at the other two men. “What do you gentlemen want to do?”

“About this?” Jeff asked and Josh nodded. “We go talk to your sergeant and whoever else they’ve got waiting for us at the barracks. There’s no other choice; we can’t turn our backs.”

“This could end very badly, Jeff.”

“Josh, there’s a saying that goes, ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’ I’m sure you’ve heard that one. Well, we’re not going to stand by and do nothing.”