Introduction: In a sense there is a connection to this story and several other non-magic stories I’ve written. Two characters from Mike and Ashley show up briefly. They would be Mike and Ashley. This story, Like “Mike and Ashley”, “Discovery”, and “Cynthia and the Queen of Knight” takes its storyline from the work of someone else. In this case, a production by an Italian fellow named Joseph Green. The story is 16 chapters in length plus an epilogue. I’ve done as much tweaking as I can. Any errors are mine and I will gladly accept constructive criticism; as long as you’re nice.

Anita and Alexa have moved into their new home just off Fox Mill Rd. Things are going very well; however, there is this guy named Tommaso Costa, and he is not a happy camper. He has located Anita and her companion whom he has no idea about. Costa wants all of them dead, and the sooner the better. Someone else is watching costa and they seem to have as much interest in taking him down as the agency does. Costa is on the move, and the Agency may have found out too late.

Alexa’s dream had been to be a mother. Well she would be to their first child; however, she was also her father in biological terms. She’d often thought about nursing her babies, and what a wonderful experience it would be. She asked her doctor about it, and she explained it in very simple terms. Alexa was not nearly far enough along in her development to even consider it. As she matured as a woman, it might be possible. But that was something she shouldn’t really consider for a while. They would know more as her development continued.

Alexa was putting on her makeup under the watchful eye of her wife. “You are doing very well. I like that shade on you. It brings out your beautiful eyes.” They were going to have dinner at the Okoye’s home that evening. Their dinners together had become a weekly routine. The two relatively young mothers were able to compare notes about some very important things. Leslie had seen pictures from the agency files as well as pictures Robert and Anita had taken before Alexa had started her transition. She probably provided as much support as Anita did. She found that Alexa was very easy to love. She was part of the family, and had escaped a horrible fate. She had also helped bring her first grandchild into the world; a grandchild who was less than a year younger than her first born who was starting to walk. It wouldn’t be long before the two would be playing together.

“Are you nervous about your appointment with the doctors next month,” Leslie asked, knowing full well that Alexa was probably not exactly at ease about it.

“No, I’m looking forward to it. What I had done here,” she pointed to her face, “scared me. What if it was botched, and I was stuck looking like a troll or some drag queen. As far as what’s happening next, I just want to appear natural. I don’t think there’s ever been a beauty contest for vaginas. I just want to look at myself in a mirror and say ‘At last, I am a woman’.”

“I don’t think you have anything to worry about,” Leslie responded.

Alexa may have been hiding some fears went she went in for surgery, but her support group was there the entire time she was in recovery, and when she was back in her private room. The surgery went very well, and the doctors were very optimistic. They probably said the same thing to every one of their GRS patients. She was up and about, albeit very tentatively, walking the hall dragging her IV and her catheter bag the next day. One was draining fluid into her and the other was collecting the processed fluids. The doctors gave her a mirror so she could see what they’d done, and watch as they gave her instructions on what she was to do. Her wife took notes.

She went home in ten days, and discovered she wasn’t nearly as peppy as she thought she was. There was a huge difference, though. When she was Peter, she had to fight bouts of depression. When Anita showed up, it started to disappear. When she and Anita escaped, the depression just about disappeared. After her facial surgery she never looked back.

“I want them dead, and the sooner the better. What have you found out?” There was no question that Tommaso Costa was pissed off, and that was putting it mildly.

“Thanks to those newspaper articles, we know who she is. Her name is Anita Okoye. The origin of the name is Ethiopian. If you look carefully at this picture, she was getting a medal for heroism, you can see a man who looks a bit like the fellow who was here to fix the generator. That is a bit strange, because they actually did fix it.

“Any information on Anita Okoye stops shortly after a military trial where some soldiers were convicted of raping her,” Paolo Medini said. “She left the service and disappeared. We found information on a number of Okoyes including an obituary for a Robelia Okoye who died a while ago. Her husband was a Robert Okoye, and her daughter was Anita Okoye. I think that’s a definite hit. We found a Robert Okoye who closed on a house in Reston, Virginia several years ago. There is also a marriage record of a Robert Okoye, age 51, marrying a Leslie Baumgarten in Reston a bit more than two years ago. We went into the Fairfax County records and found the house he’d purchased. We had a private detective take a picture of the man who lived there. There’s no question this is the man,” he said as he handed Tommaso a picture.

“Notice the woman is considerably younger than he is. She’s also carrying a small child.”

“I will personally kill him. It will give me great pleasure,” Tommaso said, not hiding his anger.

“Now this is getting interesting,” Paolo said. “Our man took this picture a couple of weeks ago

“Merda! That’s the bitch. Who’s the woman with her?”

“We don’t have any idea. She’s holding a baby. We know the bitch is a lesbica. Maybe she is her lover. The baby looks to be white.”

“We need to find her. I will personally kill her. Maybe I will kill the baby first. I’ll make her watch.

“Make arrangements for me to get to the US. We can’t take the jet.”

“Do you think that is wise? It would not be good if you were recognized.”

“Luigi will come with me. We will kill all of them,” Tommaso said while gritting his teeth.

“Where is my coffee? That new girl is useless. Where is Maria? This is Wednesday. Isn’t she supposed to be back?”

“She did not return. Her husband and children are gone, too. I told you it was a mistake to let those who married the concubines to take the same days off. There is nothing to hold them here.” Paolo was beginning to show his frustration.

“They’re watching us like a hawk does. How do you plan on getting to America?” Paolo asked, trying to get the conversation back on track.

“We’ll use our other Italian passports and fly from Kingston to Miami. We will rent a car and drive north. I want to meet with that detective. Have him find out where that bitch lives. We’ll take care of all of them. It’s past time. They have cost me billions.”

“We’re being watched,” Robert Okoye said as they sat down to dinner at Anita and Alexa’s new home. “I have him on camera, and we know who he is. He’s a private dick who will do work for anyone for money. He showed up at our place a little while ago. I imagine he will be watching here soon. I’m glad the cameras are in and working.

“We can see each other’s video, and headquarters gets both feeds.”

“Who would be doing this?” Anita asked. She knew damn well who it was.

“I always thought he would,” Alexa said quietly.

“So what do we do?” Anita asked. It was more or less a rhetorical question.

“Right now, we wait. He’s still at the compound. We have a lot of resources watching them.

“I think both of you will like this news. We got Maria Vasquez, her two children, and her husband. We took them to Costa Rica. They’ve been very cooperative. We found a nice job for Antonio. He no longer has to worry about taking care of his family. We’re trying to get some of the others you told us about out of there. It’s not going to be easy. Costa has a hair trigger, and they’ve murdered at least two more of the prisoners for who knows what offenses.

“We know this, the money’s getting tighter and tighter. He’s probably down to a few hundred million. Our intercepts have really hurt him. That’s good news and bad news. He will come after us. It may be personally, or it may be some other killer. We’re going to have to be very careful, but we have the best people in the business watching things. On the other hand, we can’t see everything. Costa didn’t get to where he was by being stupid.”

“I can vouch for that,” Alexa said. “Other than my time at school, I was close to that figlio di puttana for twenty years. Regardless of that box of newspaper articles, he would have eventually come after us. He has contacts everywhere. I will be ready for him when he comes. Our family, our children will be secure.”

“Speaking of children, I guess this is as good a time as any to announce that Alexa and I are expecting,” Anita said. “We confirmed it earlier today,”

“Drat, you stole my thunder,” Leslie said in a bit of a put off tone, “We’re expecting, too.”

Based on the camera images at Robert and Leslie’s home, they were pretty sure that Costa would know that Anita was close by. Because Alexa’s appearance had changed so much, they probably wouldn’t know who she was. That certainly didn’t make her any safer.

Anita realized that she missed the action she’d had in the Army and earlier with the agency. The fact they were in danger from a known opponent got her mental juices flowing. She’d been static too long. In a way, she was sorry things were coming to a head, but in other ways, she felt excited. Their mission to Haiti had not been completed. Maybe they would finally be able to put an end to it. Maybe then they would be able to concentrate on raising their family.

“I just received a message from Ruggierio. Costa has left the compound. He flew into Kingston this morning. Two hours later he boarded a flight to Miami. Luigi is with him.”

“Why in the hell would he go to the US?”

“I think you know that answer. He has found out who got to him. It took him and his people a while to figure out who did it. We know they killed Adolpho, and they rescued some people who were trapped there. The US military had been watching, but had been strictly hands off until they were needed to affect a rescue. They dropped at least 20 Special Forces people in there, and caught Costa totally off guard. And, that was after the first rescue effort that was only partially successful.”

“What about that black woman?” her companion asked.

“Yes, Anita Okoye, she really pulled the wool over Costa’s eyes. That took us a while to figure out who she was, but our research people are very good. She is a very talented warrior. I think she may be the reason Peter disappeared; if he did disappear, if he was not murdered by that pig.

“Business has not been going well for Costa since then. They’ve been having trouble making deliveries, and Costa has had to make good to the tune of several hundred million dollar. That means someone has gotten inside their system. Serves the son of a bitch right.”

“What else do you know about this Anita person?”

“Well, she’s obviously with the agency.

“Now here’s something very interesting. She got married a while ago to a woman named Alexandra da Rimini and she took her name. That’s very interesting.

“I think it’s time we took a vacation.”

“Where did you have in mind?”

“Ruggierio says his man in Miami says Costa just rented a car and is heading north on I-95. I feel lucky. Let’s go to Dulles. There’s a supplier near there who can get us everything we need.

“I hear the cherry blossoms are going to be spectacular this year.”

The pair flew their own plane from Valletta to Paris where they boarded an Air France Air Bus to Dulles International. Of course, they flew first class.

“Robert, I don’t like this,” Jake Axelroth said looking at the memo Robert had sent him a few minutes before. “Where is he now?”

“We don’t have an idea, other than most likely he headed in this direction. He rented a Chevy Impala in a champagne color. There are probably only ten million similar cars out there. I wouldn’t be surprised if they switched plates.

“TSA notified me a while ago a while ago they had a hit on their digital ID system. He’s traveling as Giuseppe Rodrigo. His hit man, Luigi Bottardi, is now Cesare Siepi. They entered as olive oil salesmen from Genoa. The trouble is, they entered yesterday. They’ve probably been here for hours, and they know exactly where we are. I notified Leslie immediately. She has locked everything up, and is well armed. Little Robby’s in the safe room. The cameras are working.

“I tried to get hold of the girls with no success. They’d been at Anita’s doctor for her three month checkup. Let’s do a fast run through of the video of their house and see if we can pick anything up.”

They went through the rapid replays trying to see if anything unusual had been going on. The mail truck did its usual thing. There were some of the neighbors’ cars coming and going, a FedEx van, a laundry truck, etc.

“Wait, go back. Didn’t that BMW pass through there previously?”

Jake reversed the recording. “Yes, there it is.” He zoomed in. “That looks like a man and a woman. I can’t tell if there’s anyone else in the car. That couldn’t be his wife. The detail is pretty shitty with light reflecting off the windshield. They are definitely checking the house out.”

The BMW went out of the picture and they were back in the real time video. “Oh shit,” was the simultaneous response from both of them. Anita’s Toyota Prius pulled into the driveway followed by a light colored Impala. The Toyota entered the garage, and Luigi got out of the Impala. His gun was drawn. He entered the garage, and the door closed.

“What the hell are we going to do?” Jake asked.

“I don’t think we want to call out the troops. If they realize we know who they are there, they might kill them. I think they will be contacting us.

“Cancel that thought. They want to kill them, and they want to kill me. I suspect they will want to kill Leslie and our son. Regardless of whether or not they figure out who Alexa is, she’s as good as dead, too. I think we do this with as few people as possible. This not going to be good.”

Time for the big showdown. Costa has Anita, Alexa, and their child. Robert and Jake are on the way, but it may be too late. Costa had a big head start.