A Message From Pluto

CHAPTER 5: Jeremy Jordan

Gordon adjusted the scarf around his neck, lifted his head and gathered the thick cardigan to himself. The taxi he had boarded was speeding up a dusty path with deciduous trees on both sides of the road. It was a quiet day with no other vehicles in sight and just a few pedestrians going about their businesses.

He had been sent to bring Jordan and was given two days to find him. So he got to work. He flew to Washington and met up with a man the people who knew Jordan called his friend. He worked alone, and had contact with very few. Tyler Caldin was now relegated to a desk job at headquarters, much to his chagrin. After the intervention of the US in what was the Libyan Takeover and the disarmament of the warring militia factions, an exercise Caldin had been entrusted to lead an elite group of top covert operative.

There was an incident that till today begged for an explanation. A Libyan who was an informant of the right-wing Fajr Libya Militia was found dead in a delivery truck carrying weapons under the guise of supplying food and first aid to IDPs. Osmain Auwal Al Kareem was not an ordinary person but a top secret participant in the US- Fajr alliance. Investigations had been carried out but the culprit remained unknown. It was a clean job, by somebody who knew his onions. His throat had been slit cleanl, a single strike that didn't need a second one for assurance of no mistakes. It was a perfect job, a simple one but not easy, like the famed Leonardo da Vinci drawing a perfect circle with one practiced swing.

There were not many in the field who could execute to perfection such an assassination. Of the two who could and were connected to the current situation in Libya was a man named Jeremy Jordan.

When Jordan was thirteen years old, he was recruited by an old instructor who was approaching retirement and specifically handed over to the regiment's physio and combat instructor, Mr Collin Brown to take care of.

" I find him such a passionate child." He had said, rubbing the boy's head affectionately like he had known him for years. Then he added, " The structure of his bone and the light in his eyes make him such a potentially fine comrade to stand with." Mr Brown had looked at the little boy's head and then looked at the old instructor who continued to look intently at him. There was a message he was trying to pass on without voicing it, and Brown nodded.

So Jordan was taken in by the old man and trained to become a powerful soldier. His education was the best the military could provide He studied the sciences, physics, life from it's basic to the complexities of life. So he mastered the art of killing and of saving a life. He took to sports and learnt the intricacies of self development and restraint. He tried every day to be better than his yesterday's accomplishments. He played indoor games and

mastered the art of mind games.

In combat he was taught to cause pain to his enemy and to ignore his own. Brown taught him that in combat, when you concentrate on the opponent, you give him, mentally, the advantage of being superior. Let your enemy try to think of ways to disarm you while you concentrate on testing your different options. For some time, for a very long time, Jordan was happy. Everything seemed to be like a game to him, and because it was a game he flourished, besting himself and every other of his comrades. Nobody could touch him, even in battle, he felt like he was at home with the same light in his eyes that the old instructor had seen in him.

And he was only twenty nine.

Brown was getting worried. Since Jordan had formally enlisted in the army, he had moved up a notch and never really cared about most things that mattered to most people. He was becoming a beast. So he drafted in a woman who could teach him poetry and music. He explained, " You are very much close to being heartless, a beast. "

Jordan didn't think much of this idea but when he met his teacher, his whole life took an unexpectedly wild turn.

She was beautifully enchanting, and captured his heart without intending to. Music and the arts were supposed to soften him a bit. He fell helplessly in love with her. Then he started valuing peace. He envisaged a society without war, without strife and the endless taking of lives.

When he shared his worries with her, she just smiled and assured him that she liked him the way he was, she will have him anyway he offered himself. This was different from what he had always known. He vowed to clear his mind and space, and take her to where they will live happily ever after.

The changes in Jordan were not unnoticed by the superiors in the regiment. A plan was quickly deviced. She had to be eliminated, and the person to take the fall was also set up.

He was sent to Yemen to rescue a scientist held hostage by a group of extremists demanding the withdrawal of US troops from the country. The assignment was supposed to be simple. " Enter, rescue this scientist, kill the leader of the group and get out." But a week and two days later when he returned, he visited his" teacher" and found her apartment turned upside down, like someone was looking for something in it. He found her in the kitchen, in a daze, unable to comprehend why anyone would want to target her. He held her up close and took her to her bedroom, and made love to her, trying to dispel her fears.

Jordan asked her to report the incident to the police, himself preferring to stay out of the issue. She went to the Philadelphia police department and reported to a desk officer on night shift. She took some notes, asked a few questions and told her a couple of officers will be at the scene of the crime in a few minutes. Did she have transport back to be on the scene when they arrived? She replied there was no problem, she had a car, thanked the officer and walked out of the station.

She called Jordan and told him how it went at the station. Jordan said he will be with her to meet the officers.

She met the two police men at the door when she heard the doorbell ring. There was the PhillyPD car parked a few meters away from her front door. They showed their badges with the older and more scrawny man introducing them both. She ushered them into the house, offered them seats and drinks. They declined to accept both and demanded they looked at the scene of crime. The sitting room was still in order but every other room had been taken apart. The two police men made reports, took some pictures of the rooms, the passageways, torn wallpapers, the bedroom- the mattress had been done with a knife, the wool for the pillows strew all over the place. There was a broken plaster of paris in the ceiling, the wardrobe's door hanging at an unusual angle.

They did the kitchen too and came back out onto the terrace.

" Does anyone come to your mind when you think of a reason why somebody will do this?." The scrawny faced man asked, giving Jordan a second look. " Anyone at all. Even yourself." He added. The girl seemed to think for a while and shook his head.

" No, no one. I am really from out of town and should not have a problem with anybody here." She said with wave of her hand.

" How long have you stayed here?" The officer asked.

" A couple of weeks or more but less than a month." She didn't think it mattered.

" And what is your work?"

" Sorry, that's classified. Military business."

The police looked at her closely, this time more carefully. "Are you a soldier?."

" Yes."

He turned his eyes to Jordan. " You too?"

" Yes." He replied, leaning against the middle pillar.

The policeman looked at his partner as if looking at him for inspiration.

" I will have someone from the forensic department come over and dust the place for fingerprints in case...." He turned around towards the parked car. So you don't touch anything in the affected rooms yet for a few minutes more." As he spoke he took out his phone and called the office.

"Hi, Detective Shawn here. " Scrawny said into the phone. " I will need someone from the forensic department to come over and get a place dusted. There's been a break-in." He gave an address and looked at his watch then glanced at his partner. " Okay we'll hang around a little while longer." He then thanked whoever was on the other side of the line and hung up. turning to her he assured that they people from forensic will not be long and smiled awkwardly.

" So maybe we will have that drink if it is no trouble for..."

She cut him short. " No problem, please take a sit and try to feel comfortable while I make something warm." She quickly left the room. They turned to him and struck up a conversation.

Twenty minutes later, another police car from the department stopped outside and honked once. Two more people stepped out equipment and some notepads. They came in quickly and got to work after receiving a brief overview of what they needed to know. The four waited for some time before it was finally over.

"Jordan?, Sinclair, we will get back to you in the next twenty four hours. Call me if any other information comes up. And I will want to have your contact info in case I need to talk to you." scrawny Shawn said, holding out a card to Barbara Sinclair, he had taken from his jacket.

Jordan took it from him. "That will be me." He glanced at the card to catch the name and put it in his shirt pocket. He thanked them and led the way out.

They stood on the front doors and watched them leave while they held hands, Jordan squeezing hers reassuringly. As the car disappeared around the corner in the distance Jordan said to her, " Don't worry, I will get to the bottom of this. Nobody is going to harm you."

She laughed. " Somehow I know." She looked at him and laughed again. Jordan felt a lump in his throat. He swallowed hard. God, she was beautiful, so beautiful he always tried to find a fault from her to assure himself that she was human without success. Everybody was supposed to have some shortcoming. He lifted her up into his arms and kissed her, carrying her into the house as she screamed and protested, hitting him playfully on the back.

" Shush, you will alarm the whole neighborhood." He scolded her.

" Then put me down, put me down right now. I'm ordering you." She continued shouting.

At the door, Jordan put her down to open the door and stared at her face in the dim light.

" I love you and you know it. I am going to take you inside and into that baby-making room, take off these clothes of yours and make love to...." She turned away as he spoke but he held her hand and tugged her back. Her eyes were shining, showing all her happiness and her love.

" I am talking to you and you walk out on me.? Where's your respect for your man?" His voice was stern but his eyes betrayed him.

" I am not going to stand here and let you corrupt me the way you want to, Captain J." She said and pulled her hand away. They got inside and headed for the bedroom.

" Don't come near me, or I will shout." She said.

He chuckled softly. " I want you to make some noise. So don't worry, shouting is just fine."

Inside the bedroom she suddenly turned around and wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him feverishly. The kiss was long and deep. She explored his mouth with her tongue, feeling for every space she could touch and taste. A groan escaped from his throat, a deep sound coming from an untamed beast that was about to feed. Jordan lost his head and he was hungry. He pulled her close to feel his rising desire as she lifted her right leg and rubbed on his man. With a final groan that showed he had lost all sanity, he lifted her onto the large bed and got in himself.

He wanted to say something, there was a message that was coming out of him but refusing to form cohorently. He stopped what he was doing and stood up, not taking his eyes off her. She stared at him, a bit confused and tried to move closer to him.

"What?" She asked.

"I don't know, I don't know." He spread his hands feeling weak. " I don't know, I think I love you and I can't show it." He looked helpless, like a kid who wanted to tell something and didn't know if he would be understood. She smiled then, a tear glistening in her eyes. She stood up and came to him, taking very slow steps to eat up the space between them.

" I know, I understand. Just hold me and I will be fine." She whispered.

" How can you, when I can't even find the right words to say how I feel?" He asked, overwhelmed.

" Because I feel the same way. If you can't tell me then show me." She said as she reached him and started undoing his buttons. " That is why God created you with hands." He carried her back to the bed and made love to her, releasing the primitive animal inside of him as she also felt unchained and loved him back with careless abandon. They reached out for heights they had never imagined possible and touched emotions that didn't have names in any language. As they peaked at the crescendo of ultimate bliss they gave up themselves to each other and, finding support in each other as they clawed back breathlessly to reality.

They laid in bed quietly, holding hands, each one satisfied and happy. She drifted off to sleep as he continued to hold her hand and think.

His mind was made.