The third volume of Brotherhood of Janus is now available...at Smashwords.
Brotherhood member John Carlson continues to help the Brotherhood Council clean up those Lodges that aren't following the rules of the society.
Excerpt:
Brotherhood member John Carlson continues to help the Brotherhood Council clean up those Lodges that aren't following the rules of the society.
Excerpt:
Sarah was sitting next me, a death grip on the armrests, as
the plane hit turbulence. I chuckled. It'd been two months since she joined the BID
and became a Duchess of the Brotherhood. This was only the second time she needed
to travel. That she was traveling with
me, well that was a promise I made to her, even though we had made one trip
together already. But that was to New York and was not a pleasant trip. We were now flying into Baltimore to
investigate complaints made against the lodge there. Sarah was to be my partner at the gather for
the weekend.
"Why didn't you tell me you were afraid of flying on
our last trip?" I asked gently resting my hand on her arm.
"I didn't realize...oh fuck," Sarah cried as the
plane dropped out of the sky. It stopped about a hundred feet down. I was hoping that didn't happen on approach.
"Anyway I was so mad I don't remember the flight going and I was so happy coming
home, I don't remember it either."
"It's fine dear, really." I chuckled kissing her cheek.
Sarah just looked at me, venom in her eyes. The plane again fell a few feet, then jumped
back up. We would be descending into Baltimore within the next half hour. It would be a bumpy ride. Sarah cried out as
the plane bounced again.
"How can you sit there so calm?" Sarah asked me.
"I have spent my life flying. And this is almost the smoothest ride I have
ever had. The worst was in a C130 flying
into Korea. A downdraft hit the plane just as we were touching down. Landing gear collapsed and we hit the ground
hard. Good thing a 130 is built to take
something like that in stride. It never
flew again, but everyone on board survived.
One hundred and fifty souls lived that day."
"Oh my god, why are you telling me that?" Sarah
said, shock on her face. Her finger
nails now digging into my arm.
"There is nothing to worry about. The quicker you realize that the better you
will be able to cope with flying."
"Aren't you afraid?"
"Of what?
Dying? Of course. But if it's going to happen, there is
absolutely nothing I can do about it."
Sarah looked at me.
She nodded her head, she visibly calmed down. She released my arm and
her seat arm. She moved her hands to her
lap and she took a deep breath, which she slowly let out.
"What do you do to keep from screaming?" she asked
calmly.
"I usually sleep.
I found I can get to sleep much faster the more turbulent the
flight."
Sarah laughed, looked at me and laughed again. I smiled at her nodding. From that point
forward she was never visibly afraid of flying again. She took my hand in hers and held it without
crushing the life out of it.
The pilot announced we were starting our descent to
BWI. The plane turned to the right and
slowed. Sarah looked at me, concern
showing in her eyes. I nodded.
"Here we go," I told her.
"What do you mean, here we go?"
"There, we're through the cloud cover. Look out the window. We will be flying down the valley into
BWI."
"Holy shit," Sarah whispered as she saw how close
we were to the ground. But that dropped
away as we flew on.
Then the plane started to waggle from side to side. Sarah's eyes were once again filled with
fear. I just smiled and enjoyed the
ride. At the very last minute the pilot
straightened the airplane out and touched down.
Sarah sighed in relief.
"Holy shit," she whispered once more.
"Maybe next time we'll fly commercial into here...now
there's a ride." I chuckled at her look.
We were in a Brotherhood Learjet. The Brotherhood had ten jets of various
sizes. One had been allotted to me as a
five hundred and the head of the BID. They
had given me one of the medium sized ones, seating ten. Feldman and seven of his best always flew
with me. Feldman's force had grown as
the BID investigators grew. There were six investigators, three men and three
women not counting me and Sarah. When
each went in the field, an eight man Tac-Team would accompany them. We were
still looking to add more, but that process would be long and arduous.