CHAPTER ONE

January, 2044


The weather had cleared up enough for the Danica Antonia to make its run that morning.

Joe Donovan was securing the pots, the cages that held the lobsters the boat caught that day, to the deck in preparation to sail out into the deep waters where their catch would be waiting. His father in law, Frank Pembrooke, was accompanying Joe and his crew that morning, as he had every morning for the last six months. Joe found it strange at first that after being retired for the last ten years, that Frank wanted to get back on the boat. "It's in my blood, son," was all Frank offered for explanation at the time. But Frank had an ulterior motive for accompanying the Danica Antonia and her crew.

It was to keep his son in law safe from the people he was sure wanted to kill Joey.

It's not that Joe couldn't take care of himself. In his teenage years, he had been a highly trained marksman. He still knew his way around any weapon he laid his hands on, but having been a lobster fisherman since he was 17 years old, Joe had no real chance to use the skills he still practised, and was teaching his adopted teenage sons, Winter, who was 16 and his younger brother, Wyatt, 14. They were good skills to have, and on this day, that knowledge would be needed by the now 44 year old captain of the Danica Antonia.

Joe always kept a gun in his quarters on the boat. Today was no exception. Frank knew this and approved. Knowing the younger man's background, it was a wise decision.

To Frank, Joe was a good lobsterman; he had brute strength and could handle anything that came his way. But, Joe was also gentle and soft spoken. He had no trouble speaking his mind, especially where his family and his beliefs were concerned. Frank didn't have any problem with Joe being younger than his daughter, Tracy Kay. He was mature and wise beyond his years. Becoming a father shortly before his 18th birthday showed everyone who ever doubted the young mixed race man that he was unlike most men that age.

After a period of working, Joe decided after his daughter, Danica, was born that he wanted to go on to college. He got his Bachelor's in Oceanography in three years, and had the opportunity to obtain a Master's, but by that time, there was another daughter to take care of, so Joe shelved his plans for graduate school and got back on the boat.

Frank didn't know that there were plans he was unaware of to try and eliminate Joe by the people who had been making the constant calls threatening extermination of all those deemed "Undesirable". One of the two men would not make it back to shore that afternoon.

Neither would the would-be assassin.

===


Danica Donovan-Costner just rolled her eyes while listening to the mother of the bride on the phone. This woman is fuckin' insane, she thought as Mrs. Gabel complained about everything Danica and her cousin and business partner Sandy San Marco-Springer were trying to do for her daughter's wedding. It didn't help that Danica was eight months pregnant with her second child and her patience with Mrs. Gabel was wearing seriously thin.

"Danica, Ginger Gabel is in Sandy's office and she is totally frustrated with her mother's interference," said Vixen Vincent, Danica and Sandy's 22 year old cousin. "And Nikky is at the florists changing back the flowers that Mrs. Gabel changed without Ginger's okay."

By this time, Mrs. Gabel was on hold, and Danica only sighed. She said, "This is why we called our business 'It's Your Day' and not 'It's Your Mom's Day', Vix. Mrs. Gabel doesn't seem to grasp the concept of your daughter hired us to plan her wedding, not you. I've been listening to her bitch for half an hour now, mostly about how Sandy won't call her back the moment she calls in. I think she thinks I'm the hired help."

"I'm the hired help until I go into training in June," Vixen said, laughing.

"You'll be taking over my job until after my maternity leave, Vix. I trust you with the business just as I trust Sandy," Danica said. "And if I were not as big as a house, I'd go kick Mrs. Gabel's ass."

"Are you sure you're having another girl, and not a boy, Danica?"

"Positive," Danica said. "Bryan is thrilled to have another girl! I wanted a boy. Sometimes I feel like I got one with Briana."

"About Mrs. Gabel, Danica," Vixen said, getting back on track with the original subject, "I'll take over the call. She needs to be slapped down a little and Nikky is too blunt. I can do it so she won't realize it until after she hangs up."

"If you wouldn't mind, Vix, I'd appreciate it," Danica said. "That woman makes my blood pressure go up. I feel so bad for Ginger Gabel. It must've been hell growing up with that bitch of a mother. I hope she and her groom move as far away as possible, or Mom will be telling them how to have sex."

"Ew, Danica," Vixen said. "That visual is not a pleasant one." Vixen said, making a face. "Let me get the call and you go lay down in the back room with all the flowers. If Mrs. Gabel calls me 'Viki' again, I may just go kick her ass."

Vixen then  pressed the button on the phone and took over the call saying, "Mrs. Gabel, this is Viktoria Vincent, Mrs. Costner's assistant... you're aware that she's pregnant and tires easily...I am more than qualified to handle your questions ma'am. Yes, ma'am, I understand your concerns, but your daughter hired us to take care of her wedding plans. We answer to her, and not you... no, I'm not being snotty, I'm just telling you the facts. Your daughter is here, very upset that you're taking over everything. Please let us do the job SHE hired us to do. Yes, I'll pass along your concerns to Mrs. Springer, but she is going to be out most of the day on business..."

Danica headed to the back room and lay down on the futon that Nikky, Vixen's twin brother, rescued from the thrift store. Lord, I'm going to miss Vixen when she goes to CIA training in June, she thought, but she'll make one hell of an assassin.

Just then, she heard Vixen groan, and knew that Mrs. Gabel had called her Viki again.

===

"Liyah, I am soooo bored!" Rachel Summers complained to her cousin, Aaliyah Donovan. "School is stupid. All this crap I already know!"

"No one told you to go to the Academy, Rach," Aaliyah said; "You could have just gotten a full time job until Cole graduates from high school in May."

"I'd be even more bored at a traditional job," Rachel said; "I want to do what you're doing."

"Being a paramedic?" asked Aaliyah.

"No, the other thing. I know I'm good at that."

"You wanted to wait for Cole, Rach," said Aaliyah. "You got the same offer I did. You turned it down."

"I wish I hadn't now," Rachel said. "Not to change the subject, but how's your love life? You still dating that guy at school?"

"Robby?" Aaliyah asked; "Yeah, I am. I know it's not easy being my boyfriend, with my father being a Senator and all. Robby gets ribbed about it constantly. Now that Dad's running for President, I have to deal with the Secret Service, too. Kinda hard to date, work, go to school, do anything really with all those suits around. And you know what? I don't need them. I can defend myself with force if necessary."

"How does Robby feel about that?" asked Rachel.

"Well he hasn't run yet, so I guess he's okay with it," said Aaliyah. "I really should ask him about that. Maybe he's just doing it to make me happy."

"Doing what? Dating a Senator's daughter, or you being an assassin for the CIA?"

Aaliyah thought about that; Rachel had a valid point. She really didn't know how Robert Crandall thought about who her father was, or her side job with the CIA.

"I think I may have to give Robby an out if he wants it," Aaliyah said sadly. "I don't know how he feels about my side project for your Uncle JT."

"Maybe you should talk to him," Rachel suggested. "Mom said she had to do that with Dad when they first met. She gave Dad an out, and he didn't take it."

"I hope Robby cares about me enough to do the same," Aaliyah said. 


===

Robert Crandall knew exactly what he had gotten into when he got involved with Aaliyah Donovan.

And he didn't care.

She was smart, funny, took her studies and her job as a paramedic seriously, and just happened to be the daughter of a man running for President of the United States.

He didn't even care about that side job of hers that she rarely talked about, but suspected it had to do with the weapons training she had while growing up. She definitely could take care of herself if the need arose.

But Robby wanted to take care of Aaliyah. She needed someone to talk to about her unique life, and Robby thought he was man enough to keep up with her.

Robby Crandall knew he was hopelessly in love with the caramel colored girl he'd met in Basic Anatomy II back in the fall.

When he brought Aaliyah home at Thanksgiving to meet his family, their reaction was mixed; his parents knew who Jeremiah Donovan was, and had voted for him when he ran for the Senate seat that had been vacated by the death of the previous occupant of that office.

They were concerned because though Aaliyah was a nice girl from a good family who was part of the Resistance during the Occupation, they didn't think she was right for their youngest son.

Robby and his parents argued about it after Aaliyah went home to Chicago to spend some time with her own family.

"Robert," his father had said, "Aaliyah is a nice girl, but do you really want to get mixed up with one of the daughters of Jeremiah Donovan? One of the Triad?"

"She's not her father," Robby said; "She's a completely different person who just happens to be the man's daughter. I think you and Mom have a problem with her make up and not who her family is."

"Robert! That's not fair!" his mother said;  "We don't care if Aaliyah is Mixed or not. You know what her father and his siblings did during the Occupation; if there's another one,  God forbid, she might do the same with her siblings and cousins."

"And the problem lies where?" Robby asked. He had tired quickly of this conversation. "Aaliyah is everything I ever wanted in a girlfriend, and you have a problem with something her family did before she and I were born? That's pretty shallow of both of you, if you ask me."


Now, though, Robby had to deal with "the Suits", as Aaliyah called them. The Secret Service detail that all Presidential candidates are provided with had two agents following Robby around, undoubtedly to get background information about the boyfriend of one of Donovan's daughters.

"Why don't you just ask me yourselves, instead of following me around?" he asked aloud. "Or is following me your way of trying to find out if I'm suitable to be involved with her?"

He couldn't worry about them right now. He had an Anatomy test to study for while Liyah was doing her paramedic thing. He was almost jealous of the live lessons she got on the job.

Maybe I should ask her to move in, he thought as he got out his books and notes. I wonder if her family would approve?


===


"Dad, I can't find my green and yellow socks," Lexie Springer said as her father, Alex, was trying to get the six year old ready for soccer practice.

"They're in your sock drawer where they belong, Alexandra," her father said; "They don't belong on the floor, under your bed, or in the box with your cleats."

"But if they're in the box with my cleats, I know where they are," Lexie said.

"And they don't get washed, do they?"

Lexie knew her dad was right. She sighed as only a first grader could sigh.

"Lexie, I need to pick up your brothers from daycare, and you're holding things up," Alex said. "Mom will be home soon and I still have more errands to run after I drop you off at practice. Briana's dad will bring you home, okay?"

Lexie had found her socks where her father said they would be and put them on. She loved soccer, and wanted to do well at it. That's why she went to winter practices at the high school on Monday and Tuesday afternoons.

"Dad, what's for dinner?"

"I think Mom said that chicken and rice was on the menu, Lexie," Alex said; "Now go hop in the car so we can get you to practice on time."

As his daughter get into the family's All-Purpose Utility Vehile, Alex Springer thought that he wouldn't give up this time with his kids for anything. All too soon, it would be back to training and the life that made his family possible.

He and Sandy had a beautiful family. I am blessed, he thought. If only Sandy didn't work such long hours.

Sandy Springer had been running a wedding planner service with her cousin Danica Costner since they were 18 years old. Business was good, and the income from it made Alex's decision to stay in the Army easier. Sandy often made more money on one wedding than he did in an entire month. He knew the long hours are what made the business so successful. And with Danica going on maternity leave soon, the long hours will pay off.

They always did. The girls always took care of each other, their families, and their business.

When one of them went on maternity leave (so far, twice for each of them; Sandy for Lexie and their twin sons;  Danica for her oldest daughter, now seven, and the baby due within the month), they took on no new clients. They worked the clients they had, which often were 30-40 brides to be at any given time, and when all those weddings were done, they closed up shop until the maternity leave period was over. That happened all of the three previous times, and expected it this fourth time as well.

Alex was proud of his wife and how she and Danica ran their business. It was the envy of the entire D.C. Metro.

"All strapped in, Lexie?" Alex asked now.

"Yep!" replied Lexie.

"Then let's get you to practice, okay, princess?"

And off to the high school they went.


===

The boat went out at dawn. They knew their target had been on the water since four, and wouldn't return until nearly four that afternoon.

The occupants of the boat knew their assignment: to kill one Joseph Donovan. He was  their enemy. His brother was their enemy, and hoped that by eliminating Joseph Donovan, it would force his brother to drop out of the race for President of the United States.

Neither occupant knew that they would not make it back to shore alive. They either didn't know, or were not told, that Joseph Donovan, despite being a lobsterman for nearly three decades, had deadly aim when it came to firearms.

They didn't know that the old man who was on the boat with Donovan would sacrifice himself to save his son in law.

When they spotted the Danica Antonia in the distance, they knew their time had come to eliminate an Undesirable.

===