Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1999 21:22:54 -0600 (MDT) From: "Katherine R. Freymuth" Subject: Vengeance - Chapter 15 Message-ID: Chapter 15 Al once again found himself at the New Mexico State Penitentary, this time with a Marine guard standing watchful near him. They were waiting in the same room Al had waited in before. Several minutes passed as Al waited. Then the door to the room opened to allow Harry Stark to enter. "Well, well," Harry commented. "Look who's back? And with a little muscle this time." "Sit down, Harry," Al instructed. "We have to talk." Harry didn't move. "Where are those cigars you owe me?" Al smiled slightly. "I haven't forgotten them. Next time," Al promised. "But right now, I need answers. Otherwise, there might not be a next time for either of us." Harry frowned. "What are you talking about?" "I'm talking about Burke," Al told him. He leaned forward in his seat. "Genine's dead, Harry. Burke killed her." Harry sat down, stunned by Al's words. "He's alive he whispered in fear and sorrow. Al nodded. "And he's out for revenge." Harry looked absolutely terrified. "Oh, gawd!" he said quietly. "I need your help, Harry. I need to stop Burke before everyone who came out alive from that raid is murdered by him, including you and me." Harry nodded. "That's why you brought the muscle with you - for protection." Al didn't reply at the comment. He took a deep breath. "Tell me everything you know about Burke's relationship with Genine, about Burke himself, and about Genine herself. Tell me everything you know about everyone." Harry raised his eyebrows. "Any my telling you is supposed to save my life?" "It could," Al told him. "It will certainly give me better insight to Burke and his methods. It also could help us prevent Burke from killing anyone else." Harry thought about Al's words. "What the hell," he finally said. "She saved my life once. I owe her at least my helping you stop the bastard." He took a breath. "Burke is the most cold-blooded bastard I've met. I met him in New York in 1997. I wasn't exactly an angel then either." He laughed cynically. "I'd made some very bad associations in New York, slept with a few women I shouldn't have, cheated a few people who, I found out later, had connections. Burke agreed to help me out of my jam but only if I agreed to return the favor when he asked me to." He exhaled. "I'm a man of my word, Admiral. I agreed to his stipulations. So, when he called me to do a mercenary gig, I agreed." Al frowned at him with question and reprimand. Harry shook his head. "I know I told you it was an answer to an advertisement. A few of us actually did come in answer to one, including Genine. I was afraid that, if you knew the truth... Well, to put it plainly, I was just plain afraid of my name being associated with Burke's, especially with the ways he was using my own problems to blackmail me into staying in his group. It was the same with all the officers in his army. All of us were being blackmailed by him to stay and keep quiet. All but Stewart and Genine, that is. Stewart was an old army buddy of Burke's. He would have followed the General to hell and would have obeyed any order Burke gave." He paused. "Genine was different. There were three reasons Burke let her onto his team: her military attitude, her reckless record, and her looks. The top category was her looks, though. He constantly harassed her, even during drills. He would say sexual innuendoes to her and invade her privacy when she was changing clothes." "How do you know?" Al asked. Harry huffed. "Everyone knew. All it took was one person to find out and it spread all over the estate. We usually found out about them from the General's servant staff. The big shots stayed up at the main house whereas anyone under the rank of Captain stayed in the barracks on the other side of the estate." "So he harassed her a lot," Al said to get the conversation back on track. "Day and night," Harry told him. "But that didn't stop her from being hard on us and from doing her job as our drill sergeant." He smiled slightly. "Can't say I was very disappointed in her being over us." Al lowered his eyelids at his comment, giving him a rebuking glare which told Harry to focus on the issue. "What about Genine? How did she react to Burke's... attention?" Al asked. Harry shrugged. "I never could tell. She seemed to try to avoid Burke in the first few weeks but, after that Christmas, she seemed to enjoy his sexual advances." Al exhaled. "She probably did. They married on Christmas Eve." Harry looked genuinely shocked. "Married? Those two? She hated him! She was desperate to get away from him! They can't have married!" Al nodded. "They did." He looked at Harry carefully. The man seemed more than just shocked. Harry seemed almost devastated by the news of Burke's and Genine's marriage. He lowered his eyes with realization before he looked at Harry again. "You loved her," Al surmised. "You loved Genine." Harry looked at Al with a little surprise. He nodded slowly. "I adored her, Admiral," he stated firmly. "The moment she came into the group, the moment I saw her, I knew she was special. She was a woman of honor. She didn't do anything that would ruin that image of her. The more I saw Burke harass her, the more I hated him. I never told her how I felt about her because she was my commanding officer." He took a breath. "I know my feelings for Genine have clouded my memory. I can't think of her as having anything to do with Burke." He paused for a moment. He looked at Al. "I have to admit I was extremely jealous, not only because of the way Burke was treating her but also because I could see that Genine was falling in love with him. I didn't want to accept her loving anyone other than me, especially when that anyone was General Albert Whitefeather Burke. I saw Burke's actions as harassment. I guess Genine didn't." His voice dropped with the last sentence. Al was quiet for a moment before he took a breath. "Genine needed to get close to Burke to do her job as a Naval Intelligence officer. She never counted on falling for him. I don't think she knew what real love was." "How did she die?" Harry asked quietly. Al paused. "I'm not sure you really want to know, Harry, especially if you really loved her." "I want to know," Harry told him. "I have to know because I love her." Al took a slow breath, noting Harry's use of the present tense. "Burke broke every bone in her body, except her skull, before he shot her fourteen times in non-vital areas and then twice in her temple." Harry looked at Al with pained eyes. "You get the bastard, Admiral," he told Al passionately. "You make him pay for what he did to her." Al stood up slowly and looked firmly at the grieving man before him. "You have my word on that, Mr. Stark."