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:

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.