The Uvalde Raider by Ben English (great books for teens TXT) 📕

He was thinking of where he had been and where might he be going next. Not far away, just over the horizon to the southwest was home, the area of Texas where he has spent his years growing up. He thought of hot, lazy days along the Nueces and the Frio, of weekend trips into Uvalde and of breaking horses that summer below Chalk Bluff with his brother Jeremiah. Those had been shining times and to a young boy in search of adventure it seemed as if they would never end.

In his mind the snapshots of time continued on with his years in the Air Force, of friends no longer around whom he missed so dearly. He thought again of Max and of their unlikely friendship that had spanned languages, nations, continents and wars. Sorry about your baby here, Max, but I just don’t know any other way.

Then his memories turned to his only son, Jacob, lost in a sudden fireball that had been an F4 Phantom on a mission in a controversial war that had ripped a nation in two. It had not only done so with his country, but it had also wounded his own family in a way that never healed.

Through it all, he thought of Sue. Oh, how much he had loved that woman. Why did you have to take her away from me, too, God? For as far back as he could remember, Sue had been there. She had been the little girl in pigtails and freckles, grinning at him in first grade class. It was his first day in school and the first time he had gotten in trouble, though hardly the last. She had grinned at that, too.

Then she had been the stunning young woman, dressed for their high school prom. It had taken him nearly a week to work up enough nerve to ask her. She had said yes, and then asked him what had taken him so long. She said the same thing when he proposed and was the most beautiful bride he ever laid eyes on.

Sue had literally glowed when Jake was born, even if she was much worse for the wear. The delivery was so difficult they never tried again. Their only child had grown into such an extraordinary young man, so full of so much potential that in the end was never realized.

When they had gotten the word about Jake, all they could do was hold each other tight and hope the hurt would go away. Nights found them talking, trying to reassure each other as they cried themselves into a troubled sleep. It had been during the peak of the moon program, and he had turned to his work with a vengeance to try to fill the deep feeling of emptiness inside. Sue did not have that luxury, all she had was he and Jake.

It hadn’t been that much longer when he held her hand for the last time, in that hospital room in Houston. He had taken her to the finest doctors he could find but was told there was nothing they could do. “Her heart is just played out, Mr. Templar,” yet Ezekiel knew better. The love of his life did not die from a bad heart, she died from a broken one.

In the world he hoped to find next they would all be there, waiting for him. Ezekiel Templar had tried to live the best and most honorable life he could, though there were times he made his mistakes.

Sometimes they had been big ones. He had also made more than his fair share of hard decisions, then went on and tried to make peace with them.

Ezekiel wondered if Sue would be asking him what took so long this time, too. ‘It’s all right, Sweetheart, I’m here now and we have the rest of eternity together.’

His last thought was a final appeal to the All Mighty as well as a closing affirmation for what was to come. ‘Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned…many times.’

The mottled gray Messerschmitt impacted The Uvalde Raider, slamming into the flight deck of the bomber with a combined speed of nearly 600 miles an hour. A terrifying clap of man-made thunder echoed through the nearby hills and valleys, as the two aircraft welded themselves together in a deathly embrace. The Flying Fortress paused in mid-air, as if a giant unseen hand had reached up from the ground and stopped it. Then the nose portion of the Boeing, sawed asunder by the hurtling Me109, drooped sharply and dropped away.

The rest of the big Flying Fortress stalled and simply fell over on itself. The fall steepened, the four-engine craft going into an inverted flat spin. Down it fluttered and spun like the last, large leaf of late autumn following the first freeze. It continued falling in such a fashion until the Boeing and what was left of the Messerschmitt exploded on the rock-strewn pasture below. The impact sent up an ugly, tell-tale column of fire and black smoke, and searing flames fed by hundreds of gallons of aviation gas greedily consumed any and all things within their reach.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Micah had patched up Blue Shirt as best he could, working fast to stop the bleeding and repositioning the Shi’a to rest more comfortably. It was a matter of precious seconds, but he couldn’t in good conscience let the man lay there and bleed to death. He also took the precaution of making certain the Hezbollah terrorist was securely restrained, just in case he had enough remaining resolve to try to wander off.

During his first aid work, the former Marine found the keys to the Suburban in the man’s front pants pocket. He