The War of the Americas

Author's preface: To this point I have been dual publishing each installment in the series in both the Fiction and Chapters communities on Vocal. That has been a real pain in the butt to keep up with so going forward this series will be published only in the Fiction community, and I will return to using the convention "Part" to refer to each installment in the series. I will also use the shorter version of the title which is officially "The War of the Americas." I have also been trying to include links to each of the earlier installments in every story, but unfortunately it is too much of a pain to do that every time so going forward I will try to include those links on at least every other part.. If you go to my profile page you can find all the parts of the story there. Wish there was a way I could organize them in one place there for easy reference, unfortunately Vocal does not provide that functionality. In any case my profile page can be found here.

"Mrs. Platt, My name is General Enrique Valdez, Commander of the Mexican Second Naval Infantry Fast Reaction Battalions and Special Forces in Baja Norte California, Mexico." Mexican marines, Sylvia immediately thought to herself after hearing his introduction. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing as far as her situation was concerned. On the one hand the marines were known as the least corrupt of all the branches of the Mexican military. They had very close ties to Mexico City where the heart of the Mexican military beat, and thus were generally more loyal to the central government, with fewer ties to the drug cartels than the Army or Air Force. That was probably good as she was likely safer with Mexican patriots than drug cartel loyalists. On the other hand, the United States of America, her country, was now officially at war with the United States of Mexico, and she was a prisoner of that war. The drug cartels may not be fans of the United States or particularly loyal patriots of Mexico but they were big fans of money and power, and a cash bribe or other maneuver which gave them more power was almost always an option when dealing with them. Mexican nationalists on the other hand would have no such weakness. They could not be bribed or enticed with promises of powerful positions or influence. They would be loyal to Mexico and do whatever they could to protect her in a time of war. She was not sure how many of these loyal Mexican patriots actually existed, but she knew there were indeed some and quite possibly, many. General Valdez was probably one of them, though, of course, there was no way to be sure. He continued, "I apologize for your less than first class accommodations and travel however you are fortunate. Our brothers and sisters in your country who have been arrested as prisoners of war like yourself have been treated much more harshly." Sylvia knew the General spoke the truth from the intelligence she had managed to gather by covertly listening in on bits and pieces of conversations in Spanish among her captors since her arrest. Spanish was a language she knew fluently, but of which her captors believed her to be completely ignorant. She had used this false belief to great effect so far and intended to keep up the façade as long as she could. Playing up the ignorant American angle continued to be her best option she judged and so she replied. "I wouldn't know General since I don't really watch the news or pay attention to current events. I find it all much too depressing. The only news I get is from my husband and it is mostly focused on the wins or losses of various sports teams he follows."

The General sighed in exasperation and his body language told her he was buying her acting bit hook line and sinker. Dom had once told Sylvia that anyone could win an academy award for playing to stereotype because everyone believes those doing it are genuine experts in the role. Like many things Dom said, it only vaguely made sense when you first heard it, and made even less sense the more you thought about it, yet sometimes later you would encounter a situation and that seemingly senseless thing suddenly made all the sense in the world. She smiled as she thought of Dom and his strange way of looking at and thinking about the world, and his even stranger ways of talking about it. He was unique to say the least and that uniqueness was one of the many reasons she loved him as much as she did, and she greatly missed his strength now The General continued, "Yes Mrs. Platt I understand. I have two pieces of good news and one piece of very bad news for you. First, the good news. Your two cats are alive and well and apparently thriving under the care of your housekeeper Miss Ramirez." That was very good news indeed and she smiled ear to ear. It was the first genuine smile she had experienced in a long time, and the power of it to uplift her mood generally greatly surprised her. The General noted Mrs. Platt's ecstatic reaction, and braced himself for an even more boisterous response to the second piece of information he had for her. "Our intelligence agencies also tell me that your husband Dr. Platt is alive and back in the United States." Surprisingly, at least to the General, her reaction to that news was much more restrained. He filed away that little nugget for future possible use, and wondered to himself if perhaps things were not as happy in the Platt marriage as his intelligence analysts had led him to believe. Sylvia was of course thrilled to have confirmation that Dom was alive, though in truth she had rarely doubted it, thus her somewhat restrained reaction. He was a survivor. She often compared him to Lieutenant Bill Kilgore, played by a very young Robert Duval in one of her favorite movies, the classic war epic Apocalypse Now. In that movie Martin Sheen as Captain Benjamin Willard described Kilgore partly by saying "He was just one of those guys with that weird light around him. He just knew he wasn't gonna get so much as a scratch here." In a famous scene he stands with his shirt off, megaphone in hand, berating his men on the water for their surfing technique, as bullets and bombs rain down all around him. He shows only annoyance at the inconvenience rather than any concern for his own safety even as his soldiers are being shot and blown to bits only inches from where he stands. Dom was the same way, and his certainty about not getting a scratch, extended to every aspect of his entire life from war to crime to random violence. It also included competitive sports, and the use of every form of transportation, etc. On the crime front he was also absolutely convinced he would never be the victim of any crime, at least not directly. This led him to do some very stupid things in her estimation. For example he had a very bad habit of never locking doors of any places he stayed or visited, including their home, or their cars no matter where in the world they happened to be. He was absolutely convinced that he would be safe no matter the situation, no matter the place. It drove her absolutely bat shit crazy to have to admit this, but for as long as she had known him, he had been correct. The war between the United States and Mexico may have ended his streak and she would be sure to point that out when she saw him again. Never had she looked so forward to saying I told you so to anyone.