Jake was not looking forward to getting up at four in the morning, but he knew that he needed to get a workout and a little bit of breakfast before he headed out to the shooting range to practice his aim. Once everyone else was up to Morbus’s par, Morbus would begin teaching them tactics. They would be learning from the last person to learn the advanced things from their late Uncle. Jacob was excited. He’d always wanted to learn from his Uncle. Too bad his uncle passed away before he had to opportunity.
First thing he did was hit the weight bench after his warm up. He worked on his biceps and triceps while he waited to see if one of his brothers were going to join him. He knew that Malachai had been considering getting a workout that morning. It was only a matter of time before he actually came down to start his work out.
He wasn’t surprised to see that not only did Malachai join him, but all of his brothers, his brothers in law, and his two nephews and one niece that were training were down as well. His wife and sisters would work out later. Jake knew that they were going to have to set up a workout schedule with as many people as they had in the house. “Hey, ‘Chai, why doesn’t Miranda work out with the women later?”
“Oh, she will be, I’m just showing her around the gym”, his older brother asked.
“Dad just wants to make sure that I know where everything is and which machines do what”, Miranda told her Uncle.
Jake nodded. “Gotcha. Well, this is the weight bench and I’m about to work on my bench press.” He looked for one of his younger siblings. “Jay, you mind spotting me after you’re done warming up?”
“No problem, Jake”, James replied. James was almost finished with his warm up to begin with. After he was finished, he approached the bench. “Do you have it at the weight you need?”
“I actually have less weight on there than usual. Today, I’m working on tone rather than strength.”
James nodded. “Good idea.” He looked at his older brother. “Alright Jake, let’s do this.”
“I’m doing five sets of thirty, James”, Jake said as he laid back on the bench.
“Ok then, I’ll help you keep track too.”
Jake grabbed the bar and started doing his reps as everyone gathered around and watched. Jake didn’t mind the audience. The first four sets were a breeze. He got through the first half and the final set and he started to struggle. He could feel his arms start to shake, his muscles complaining that he was doing too much. He knew that he had to push himself to get through it. He was almost done. He needed something to push him through. “You’re going to want to keep an eye on you little princess. She’s going to scare the hell out of you soon”, the words of the Shaman rang in his ears. That’s all the fuel he needed. He pushed through the last few reps in his final set. James helped him put the bar back on the rack because his arms were shaking. Jake sat up and looked around the room. “Are you guys going to work out too, or are you all going to stand around and watch me? If that’s the case then everyone should go back to their rooms and get ready to head out to the range to practice.”
Everyone stared at Jake. Jeremiah was the one the step up and encourage action. “I don’t think he stuttered guys. Let’s get to moving in one direction or another. Either way, we need to do something other than stand around.
Everyone dispersed, moving to different machines throughout the rather large gym. The only thing left was the pull up bar that hadn’t really ever been used for pull ups. Jake planned to use it the same way he’d seen his parents use it. He grabbed ahold of the bar and did a front flip, hooking his legs over the bar and hanging there for a few moments. He could feel his spine realigning and the discs in his back decompressing. Finally, he crossed his arms over his chest and started doing sit up and oblique crunches. He closed his eyes and ignored the staring he knew he was getting from everyone other than the brother that lived on the property with him. No one knew that Jake worked out just as intensely as their parents had.
Jake had started to become more health conscious in his thirties because he knew that he had keep better tabs on his diabetes. He’d started voluntarily testing his blood sugar, rather than being ordered to by an endocrinologist like his mother had to be. He had an insulin pen on hand if he needed it that had been prescribed for him. No one questioned him. His wife only wanted him to do what was best for him and that’s what he did.
No one but his wife and parents knew, but not long after their parents had left the country Jake had a scare with his sugar. Working the way he had been when he was the Chief of Medicine at two different hospitals had started to take its toll. He never really had a night off. If he wasn’t at one hospital overnight, he was at the other. At least one night a week, he was bouncing between the two. It was a night like that when it happened. He had just arrived at CSMC where he was doing his rounds in Neurology and he’d started feeling very ill. He knew that when he started feeling dizzy, he needed to eat something substantial but he just didn’t have the time. He’d grabbed several small snacks throughout the night, but they weren’t getting his sugar up high enough to sustain him. He was leaving the room or one of his MS patients that was staying for testing and had just grabbed another chart from the nurses’ station. He was already feeling unsteady on his feet, so he stopped and leaned against the counter of the nurses’ station to let the wave of vertigo pass. Once he felt well enough to walk, he managed to get five steps away from where he’d stopped before the world went black and he hit the deck. The next thing he knew he was waking up to see his wife’s face. He asked about the children, because he knew that if Delilah was at his side, then Miri and Ira had to be somewhere else. He learned that he had been out long enough for his parents to return to take care of the kids so that she could be with him until he came around and was released. From that point on, he was a health freak. He was militant about it. Now, his brothers were learning to what extent.
Jake finished his work out as his brother’s all sat and stared. He decided not to pay any attention to them. Once he was done, he grabbed a towel and wiped his face before heading up from the basement- where the studio and game room where also located- to get a bite to eat. “I’ll see you slackers upstairs. I’m gonna get a bite to eat and head out to the range. See you all when you finally get your heads out of your asses.” And he was gone and had shut the door behind him.
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The guys all exchanged a look, then looked at Jeremiah. “How long has he been working out like that?” Marc asked.
“It’s been a couple years at least. I know a few years ago Mom and Dad came back for a week or two and Delilah was never really here. Jona and Maddie said she wasn’t really ever at work either. No one knows where either of them were. But, when they both came back, Mom ran everyone off and she said something to Jake that struck him because he’s been working out like a mad man ever since. He keeps track of his sugar, eats a lot better than he had been, and he opened a private practice rather than working as Chief of Medicine at the hospitals he did. No one really knows that happened but Mom, Dad, Jake and Delilah.”
“Really?” James said. “Whoa. Something must have put the fear of God in him.”
“No kidding, but no one knows what could have happened to make him resign as Chief of Medicine at BOTH hospitals. It had to be serious though. Now, why don’t we all get to our asses into gear and get our work outs before the women are demanding the gym from us?” Jeremiah situated himself on the leg press machine and had Marc spotting him. Jeremiah had never been on that could gain a lot of muscle. He didn’t have the frame for it. He was too tall and thinly built. He’d accepted that long ago.
Everyone else followed suit. It wasn’t long before they all started trickling out of the gym and to eat and head out to the range. But, when they got upstairs Jake was gone.
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He was lying on his belly on the ground. The night vision scope of his rifle was perfectly adjusted to the distance of his target. In his mind, he made the necessary calculations to adjust for wind, humidity and lighting. He had a mind made for calculating things like that. Hell, he had to do it all the time when he worked at the hospitals. Calculus was one of his favorite subjects in high school and college.
The wind shifted and he made the adjustment as he took a deep breath. His scope was lined up perfectly. When he exhaled, he put a round in the target’s head. Always squeeze the trigger, Jacob, never pull, he heard his father say over and over again when he would practice. He would be sure to follow the instruction. Fire on the exhale. Don’t hold your breath. Tuck the butt of the rifle in tight against your shoulder so that you don’t dislocate it. That’s all he heard when he practiced. He heard his father’s voice over and over again.
On his feet, he followed the check list. Feet apart, left foot ahead of the right, butt of the rifle tight against his shoulder, proper calculations made and he took his aim. Deep breath in as he put his finger in the trigger and on the exhale he fired. His bullet made the hole in the head of the target just a little bigger. I need to have Morbus set up a moving target somehow, he thought to himself. I’m a little rusty with moving targets. Or, maybe I can convince one of my younger brothers to let me play William Tell. He had to laugh at the thought.
He brought the target in and changed it out, sending it out further. He planned on putting more whole in this one, so the further out it was the better.
He didn’t much care for killing. Maybe it was because he was a doctor and had taken an oath not to do harm. But, if his family was in danger, he wouldn’t hesitate. He was a dangerous man when he had to be. He didn’t care who you were, if you put his wife and children in danger you would feel his wrath. The man who T- bones his wife when she was pregnant with their oldest child found that out the hard way. And the cops would never find the body. Knowing the most dangerous man in the country had its advantages- especially when you were doing something that was highly illegal and needed to dispose of the evidence. And that was a secret that he and Morbus would keep to themselves until the day they were both dead.
He’d fired all of the rounds he’d planned on for the morning. He didn’t want to spend too much time out on the range when he had to be in the house to greet the tutors and make sure that the children were well taken care of as far as schooling went. He broke down the rifle and put it back in its case. As he headed back toward the house on the four wheeler he’d ridden out to the range, he passed his brothers. “Hey, Jake, aren’t you going to practice, brother?” James called out.
“I did”, he said, pulling to a stop. “Policed my brass and everything. You’d all be smart to do the same thing. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get the tutors settled in for the kids.” And he roared off into the distance. He’d go back out later while it was daylight and shoot some more. He’d needed to test his night vision and he knew it. It hadn’t shot at dusk or dawn in a very long time. Now he knew he could still do it. It was a comforting thought that he took with him all the way back to the house.
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Morbus was true to his word, as always. He started getting in touch with everyone that he needed to and called David with the details he would need. The only thing Morbus really needed was David’s credit card number so that the things David wanted done could be done.
After taking care of all of the little details, Morbus and his two boys- Will and Travis- went out and scouted a place on the property to put what would amount to being a command post if they needed it. Everything would be connected in real time. There would be no time lag, it would be accurate to the millisecond. David and Brie would have a state of the art command post.
Will and Travis from that point would alternate watches, each taking four hours apiece. Morbus had high expectations of his sons and if they were to take his place as Reckless Disregard’s only armed bodyguards then he had to have high expectations. David wouldn’t have trusted his oldest children’s safety to just anyone and neither would Morbus.
The Utopians think that they’re going to be able to make a comeback? Not on my watch. They won’t know what hit them. Maybe I’ll finally get to use those old RPG’s I have stored in my shed. I should be so lucky. But, after this run, I’m done. I think Karyn and I are going to move away like David and Brie did. Maybe not to Israel, but away somewhere. No more after this. I’m too damn old.
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