CHAPTER 1

At-ten-tion!

The roaring sound of hundreds of heels clicking together rangout on the parade ground as the units were called to attention. Theband struck up John Phillip Sousa's famous march, "Stars andStripes Forever," and the color guard stepped off to the beat of themusic. There was a bit of wind on this fine morning and the youngRanger who had been given the honor of carrying the colors hadher hands full. The flag was snapping to and fro as if it had a mindof its own. Brigadier General Carolyn McKenzie Marshall stood asstraight as she ever had as the color guard passed in review beforethe platform. Carrie snapped a salute just as she had some thirtyyears ago when she first entered the Army. After spectacular servicein Viet Nam in which she was awarded the Congressional Medal ofHonor, the President of the United States offered Carrie a choice ofassignment. She chose the Jump School at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky.Carrie was allowed to set up the first women's jump program inthe U.S. Army. She stood there remembering the beginning.Remembering too, the reasons she and so many others had foughtand died for their country as the units passed in review. Chillbumps broke out on her arms. Then she spied the women's unitsshe had trained. She was also thinking of the women who weresharing the platform with her today. Dora and Regina would betaking over from this day forward. Retirement was not somethingshe looked forward to, but she knew that it comes to everyonesooner or later. It was time for her to move out. The Airborne hadchanged over the years. Her girls were now a part of the Rangers.She had trained a great bunch of women during her time, but nonewould ever measure up to Dora and Regina. They were among thefinest soldiers to be found anywhere in the world—Black or White,male or female.

Carrie would be leaving today to take up residence in Hawaii.She had saved quite a bit of money during her stint in the Army.She had decided some years ago that she wanted to live where thewarm breezes blew all year round and live out her remaining daysin comfort. Carrie had bought a beachfront house sitting on an acreof land. It was all paid for, not too close to her neighbors, but nottoo far away as to be isolated. She knew that she would never beone of those so-called homebodies, but she did look forward toa new life just over the horizon. Her heart pounded with pride asthe unit of her first command passed in review. Even those whowere no longer in the service had been given special permission toparticipate in this retirement ceremony.

Eyes Right! All hands of the unit snapped to salute their formerboss. She returned their salute in kind. Many of the women hadtears in their eyes. Carrie was the woman who had sculpted theminto the persons they were today. Words could not express the loveshared by these women for Carrie and for each other. Her firstcommand was very special and probably the best ever turned out.After all, Dora, Regina, Lydia, Elizabeth, Christine, Lola, Lil'Bitsand others were members of that first unit. In her eyes, Dora wasa descendent of the Greek gods, and would never be surpassed byanyone. In truth, Carrie thought of Dora as the daughter she neverhad. Racism between the two had never been a problem. Dorawas one of the reasons Carrie could step down at this time. WhenDora brought down the Cambridge Building against orders tenyears ago, Carrie was certain that Dora would end up in jail. Butthe government had put her family in jeopardy. It was decided thatmorally and legally, they, the government, were at fault and thatDora was, at least morally, if not legally, within her rights to put anend to the people who had tried to murder her entire family.

Dora was reinstated, her record wiped clean. Both she andRegina had earned their present rank of Colonel. Regina was activeduty. Dora would continue in her special ops—called on only whenher special talents were needed.

Carrie's thoughts returned to the present. None other than,General Raymond Anthony, her boss was delivering the partingspeech at her retirement ceremony. She heard him speak glowinglyof her Army career, the unit of women she had formed, and thefact that she had rose through the ranks, through hard work andperseverance to the rank of Brigadier General. What he did notmention was how closely they had worked together in their specialops programs. At one time, the General was one of the most fearedmen in the service. That didn't mean that he carried no weight now,but as a general officer, one had to be more discrete. Carrie hadalways depended on him to help her protect her girls. Unknownto everyone except Carrie—this was a very sad day for GeneralAnthony. He acknowledged her genius without saying exactly whathe was feeling. But Carrie knew him well. She probably was theonly person alive who could read his every mood.

At the conclusion of his speech, Carrie was called front andcenter to receive her final decoration, the Distinguished ServiceMedal from the General. Her command flag was removed fromthe pole, folded and presented to General Anthony who in turnpresented it to Carrie. The flag had flown over the home of the75th Rangers, her last duty station for several years. Applause andcheers rang out across the parade grounds. It was the end of alegend.

The crowd began dispersing, all except the girls in Carrie'scommands. They were all over her—hugs and kisses, hand shakingfrom everyone. This was a very emotional day for Carrie. She justwanted to head for the airport. At last, she was able to work herway over to Dora, who snapped a smart salute—then gathered herin her arms. They both had tears in their eyes.

"I'm going to miss you, you know. Miss all of you. I don'tknow how long it will be before I see you again," said Carrie.

Dora said, "Don't worry about it. I'm just a plane ride away."Dora stepped back so that others could say their good-byes. Finally,Carrie was escorted to the car that was taking her to the airport.She had asked to go alone. She took a last look around the baseand gave a final salute to the folks watching her leave and climbedinto the car. She took a deep breath to hold back the tears as the carswept through the gates. Carrie was on her way to begin a new life.

Dora was staying at Ft. Benning with Regina tonight, but shewould be leaving first thing in the morning to get back to Californiaand her family.

The two of them along with the other `sisters' would spendmost of the night gabbing. The girls were of two minds aboutCarrie retiring. They were happy for her. Happy—that she wasfinally putting the Army behind her and attempting to live a normallife. She had given much to her country and her loyalty had neverbeen questioned. At Regina's house, the girls went over and overthe events of the past years. Finally, Regina turned to Dora and theothers and told them "Don't worry. Carrie will be okay. She will dowell at whatever she decides to do. I wouldn't be a bit surprised ifshe doesn't end up running for public office. You never know."

"Now, let's kick back and enjoy our Margaritas. I offer atoast—to Carrie."

"Hear! Hear!" said the "`sisters'." Dora smiled. "The girl willnever change."

David lay in his empty bed, wishing that Dora were home. Hemissed her terribly when she was away, even if it was only for onenight. He wished fervently that Dora would give up the military,but he knew she wouldn't until she was ready. He had to admit,that in spite of the separations, they'd had a good life. He wasfortunate to have finally gotten Dora to marry him. Then Godsmiled on him again when he gave them their beautiful twin girls.Destiny and Tiffany were very much like their mother and he knewhe was blessed to have captured the heart of this beautiful lady. Healso knew that Dora and her team members would be having a balltonight. And he was right. The girls began challenging each otherto Tequila shots. Regina warned them that they would be sorryin the morning, but they just laughed and kept on going. ThenElizabeth stood and offered a toast to General Carrie Marshall, thebest boss anyone ever had—the `cat's meow.' The girls snapped toattention and yelled, "To the General." This was only one of manytoasts that continued throughout the evening.

Morning came fast. All around were the telltale signs oftoo much tequila on the faces of the `sisters.' But headaches andhangovers notwithstanding, they all had to get back to work. Dorahad a plane to catch. Regina chauffeured Dora to the airport.They hugged each other promising to talk later in the week. Doraboarded the plane for the three and a half-hour flight home and herfamily.

Carrie arrived at her new home on the island of Kauai. Shestill wasn't sure retirement had a place in her life as yet. She hadsalted away a lot of money over the years from both her militarypay and various investments and she was a self-made woman.Using the Airborne as a cover, she had managed to infiltrate whatwas possibly the largest most sophisticated crime syndicate inthe world and help bring it down. Dora and her team had playeda big part in the decimation of the ring. Indeed, Dora had blownup most of the bosses in the Cambridge Building some ten yearsago. Carrie had walked a fine line between good and evil in orderto win the confidence of the bosses. They knew her as a killingmachine; a hard-nosed woman who had trained other women to bejust as hard-nosed as herself. They all believed they had recruitedan extraordinary Army turn coat. Some of the bosses trusted her,some of them didn't. They were the wise ones.

Carrie worked behind the scenes for a few years to get thedirt on this organization. When the time was right, she broughtDora and her `sisters' into the action without them knowing whatit was all about. But the plan went awry when the bosses decidedto involve Dora's family in their plot. Dora was known to herteammates as the `wrath' of Mother Nature. Getting her on yourcase was the last thing you would want to do. However, the deedwas done and many men lost their lives and a whole lot of money.Most of it was spirited out to the world hunger organizations. Thefew remaining bosses were never able to recoup that money andthe hunger organizations never found out where it had come from,nor did they care.

Carrie decided to leave the unpacking until later. She donned abathing suit to go sit in the sun for a while. She made a few phonecalls to let her friends in Hawaii and on the mainland, letting themknow that she had arrived safely. The conversations all followedthe same line. What were her plans now that she had retired?Carrie felt that her retirement would be short-lived. Sitting aroundenjoying the sun day after day was not her style. She thoughtabout opening a jump school. She figured she could get a few ofthe women who were no longer in the service to come in with her.Maybe even a couple of the guys would be interested. However,unknown to her, these plans would have to take a back seat to thewhirlwind that was coming her way.

On the third day of her retirement, Carrie was sitting out onthe lanai in back of her house. She loved her new home. She hadalways enjoyed every moment she could spend here since she hadpurchased it. Which she had thought at one it wasn't often enough.But now she could enjoy it unconditionally, until she decided shewas tired of her own company. It was a shame that the specialdelivery she was about to receive would upset all that peace andtranquility.

The ringing doorbell started Carrie mumbling toherself—wondering who it could be. She wasn't expecting anyone.As she made her way through the sliding door, she saw the deliverytruck in the driveway. It was a FedEx truck so she hurried to thedoor. Smiling, Carrie opened the door and greeted the youngman who told her he had a letter for Brigadier General CarolynMarshall.

"That's me," said Carrie.

The young man smiled and asked her to sign his clipboard,which she did. He handed over the letter, said `goodbye,' got intohis truck and drove away. Carrie headed back to the lanai withthe letter. She noticed it was from Lisbon, Portugal. That set herwondering. Carrie had few friends in Portugal, mostly enemies. Shechecked the outside packaging to make sure it wasn't a letter bomb.Then she slowly opened the outer packaging to get to the letterinside. The envelope was blank. She opened it just as carefully andthe color drained from her face as she read its contents. It read, "Itis time to pay the piper. You betrayed the trust of those who hadtaken you in and given you everything. You will die and so will themembers of the team involved in that ill-fated journey to Mexico.I will see you die a thousand times before I put you out of yourmisery. I suggest you say your prayers and prepare to meet yourmaker. You needn't be too sad; you will have plenty of company.Your girls will not be far behind."

Carrie read and reread the letter. Although it was unsigned, shehad a pretty good idea who had sent it. She had never forgotten thenote that she had found shoved in her pocket all those years ago atLAX when she and the `sisters' were seeing Dora and David offon their honeymoon. The note indicated that the Sheikh was stillalive. She had been extremely worried at the time that he wouldexact his revenge on Dora while she was on her honeymoon. But,after that one threat, the Sheikh just disappeared. He had been quietfor years. Another had supposedly taken his place, but without theclout that the Sheikh had. She was quite certain that this was hiswork. She wondered why he'd taken so long to get back at her.Though, once she had made General, killing her could have causedan even bigger stink. Relations between the Arabic nations and theUnited States would have become more strained then ever. It was atenuous relationship at best.

It was difficult to believe that this curly wolf was, again, backin her life. Would he attempt to make good his threats? Of coursehe would. She would have to watch her step from now on. Carrieknew that he was quite capable of following through on his threats.She would have to be very much on her guard. Life had been goodto Carrie. She intended to die of old age, laying in the sun, anddrinking Margaritas. First, she would have to see if the letter couldbe traced. The origin of the letter would possibly shed some lighton what's going on. Secondly, Carrie was not so `over the hill' thatshe couldn't launch a counter offensive before he or they could getstarted. Carrie had retired from her position in the Army, but notso her killer instinct. She went into the house and pulled out thevarious weapons she had collected over the years as souvenirs ofher wars. Weapons that were always kept in mint condition andready for battle.

She laughed as she went about her arms check. This was themost fun she'd had in years. Being in logistics most of her lateryears in the Army, she didn't get to play very often. She kept herarsenal just because it was a part of her life. Now, here she waspreparing to do battle yet again. Out loud, she said, "Whoever youare, you've got to bring ass to get ass. I intend to take good care ofmine. You better be prepared to take good care of yours."

Carrie stopped in her tracks as a thought flashed throughher mind. The Team. She wondered if any of them had receiveda similar letter. Should she wait to contact the girls until shedetermine if the letter was authentic or just a very bad joke? Panicwas not part of her anatomy. She would think it through first, thanact. She laid the letter on the table next to her bed and went abouther business as if nothing had happened. However, "that ill-fatedtrip to Mexico" stayed uppermost in her mind. She was the onethat set-up the sting operation on that island that included her girls,the Navy Seals, and the 101st Airborne undercover of the US andMexico in training maneuvers. The bosses were able to escape theisland, but all the mercenaries were killed or captured. Troublewas the bosses didn't go far enough. They went back to theirheadquarters, including the Sheikh. Dora blew up the building. Infact she almost blew up her husband-to-be. David, who was beingheld captive, unknown to Dora, just managed to escape as Dorapushed the plunger—demolishing the building. The more Carriethought about it, she became pretty certain that her girls, especiallyDora and Regina, would be at the top of the list behind her. "Yeah",Carrie thought, "I better check this out in a hurry." And she wasright to do so. The man who wanted her dead also knew the type ofwoman he was dealing with so he decided to throw a few spannersinto her downfall. If they worked fine, if not, she would live tosuffer the death of the damned.