On Loyalty (repost from the old site)

Nace Bilby

ACME
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(Note: This journal entry initially appeared on the old site)

"Loyalty, all we truly have." - Senior Chief Warrant Officer Jason Bilby, South African National Defense Force.



Five very simple words that Nace Bilby always kept in mind. Layered with his understanding of Dante's The Divine Comedy the two influenced much of his thinking and feelings. As he walked in a London rain, through a cemetery he reflected on those five words. Those words were simple words, but life was rarely simple.

He approached a headstone. It was a simple granite headstone, beside two headstones in the shape of hearts. He stood by the first headstone which had an angel engraved into it. The name read:

Evey Hammond
September 22, 1981 - 22 June 2012
Rest in Peace, My Love


Nace looked over the headstone's simple dedication which spoke volumes of the grave's occupant. In his hand was the Distinguished Service Cross he earned for an act of valor in Afghanistan with 21 Special Air Service. The rain fell and he placed the award atop the gravestone.

"I miss you so much." Nace said. Thirty one is not an age one should die. Having to say goodbye to Evey far too soon. A memory he would not soon forget, from a London hospice several blocks distant.

Ironic that in the traditional sense Evey would be considered a traitor. A former IT worker at ACME, she betrayed the organization by defecting to VILE five years ago. He knew her motives for it very well, as her letter explaining why was currently in a ziploc evidence bag underneath his jacket.

The two headstones to the right of Evey's grave gave much of the answer. They were the gravestones of Liam and Sarah Hammond, Evey's parents. They had died horribly when she was but twelve. Two schoolteachers who learned of the Russian Mafia's involvement in the United Kingdom. Two schoolteachers under the protection of ACME. Two schoolteachers betrayed and taken away and tortured to death by the Russian Mafia. When Evey learned of this she defected to VILE, angered by the betrayal by ACME.

"You could have told me more, love." Nace said, to no one in particular.

Nace had lit many a candle, asked and prayed many a prayer for Evey's soul. That she was reunited with her parents in Paradiso, or at the worse, made to work off her sins in Purgatorio. He prayed that she wasn't sent to the Inferno, to Cocytus, the icy lake where traitors were punished for all eternity.

The traitor hadn't been revealed, the man or woman who betrayed Evey's parents. If anyone is deserving an eternity in Cocytus it would be this vermin. Nace thought.

"I've asked the Abbot to pray for you yet again, for your soul and that you find the peace that eluded you in life." Nace said, "Were you living now my latest commendation would be yours to keep."

He looked at the ribbon and medal of the Distinguished Service Cross that lay atop Evey's grave. "It took my fullest measures of courage to go on after you died."

He looked up and said, "I miss you so much. There's something I've got to do, Evey, something that I must do now that you are gone. I'll find the one who betrayed your parents. And when I do so, they will pay."



(Couldn't resist the V for Vendetta reference which inspired this aspect of Nace's life)
 

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