Free Holding Their Own IV: The Ascent by Joe Nobody

mind.
    On the balls of his feet, Bishop opened the door and moved inside, crouch ing in a full combat stance and ready to fight. He was greeted by the sight of Samantha, David and Terri bouncing on the bed, hammering each other with government-issued pillows. Bishop exhaled and relaxed his shoulders, almost laughing at his overreaction. The relief was short-lived as Terri squealed and rocketed a pillow toward his head. Bishop ducked the projectile and dove at the three sets of unsteady legs hopping on the mattress. With arms spread wide, he managed to entangle at least one leg each, and the entire heap of pillow fighters collapsed onto each other, laughing.
    Samantha landed almost squarely on Bishop’s back and immediately protested, “Ewwwwww … you’re all sweaty, Bishop,” while madly scrambling to get away.
    Bishop rolled over and pinned Terri, privately whispering in her ear, “This wasn’t the type of bed action I had in mind.” His statement resulted in a sharp elbow to his ribs, quickly followed with a high velocity feather bomb to the ear. It was on!

    Twenty minutes and tw o busted pillows later, the warriors had retired, panting to their respective corners, exhausted smiles all around. Bishop was trying to figure out how he was going to explain the damaged room to Mother Green. By his inventory, one lamp had been busted and two large sections of paint were missing from one wall. It had been one heck of a battle.
    Samantha, being the smallest, had sided with either Bishop or David, resorting to sneak attacks while one of the bigger combatants was otherwise engaged. She was also the first to recover. “Bishop, are you going to visit Grandpa today?”
    Bishop nodded, trying to gather the energy to head for the shower. “Yup, I sure am, Sam. How’s the colonel doing this morning anyway?”
    David answered for his sister, “He’s doing okay, but still can’t walk. He was teasing me about my flying skills, which I think is a good sign.”
    Bishop had to agree. “You’ll never live that down, David. For the rest of your life, the colonel is going to repeat stories about how you almost killed him by crashing an airplane.” Bishop noticed the boy’s serious look, and added, “What you should also know is that as soon as you leave the room, he’ll tell the listener what a spectacular job you did landing that aircraft without any fuel on a makeshift landing strip. You don’t get to hear that part.”
    David seemed to get it and smiled at Bishop. “I did okay, ya think?”
    His sister joined in, “David, you did great! An airplane that you had never flown before, and we all survived the crash . . . errrrrr . . . I mean landing. If Grandpa gets too mean, you tell him to come talk to Samantha. I’ll set the record straight.”
    To Bishop, that day seemed like a lifetime ago, even though it had been less than two weeks. So much had happened so fast. He glanced at his watch and announced it was time to get going, he had a busy day ahead of him. Samantha and David said their goodbyes and left arguing over who won “The Great Feather War of 2015.”
    Terri managed a stretch and balanced on the edge of the bed, watching Bishop get ready for his shower. “I can’t believe you would attack a pregnant girl, Bishop. I thought you were an honorable man.”
    “All’s fair in love and war, my sweets. Never forget that. As I recall, however, you started it.”
    Terri winked, and in her most sultry Mae West voice commanded, “Hurry up and get out of that shower big boy, and I’ll start something else.”
    Chapter 3
     
    Fort Meade, Maryland
    December 22, 2015
     
    Sophia pushed her chair back from the green metal desk, glanced at the computer screen one last time, and then placed her hands in her lap. That’s it , she thought, he’s the guy. Since she had been rescued from her Washington, DC apartment a few days ago, she had worked almost nonstop, trying to ascertain who was next in line of succession for the