In the Shadow of Meth Valley

By Don Knighthouse

Part Five of the ‘Patriot Black’ series: After seriously crippling the Central Trust’s ‘Great Offensive,’ the team members of Patriot Black have earned a well-deserved time of R&R. Murphy goes home to try and rebuild his life on his family’s farm. But the local drug dealers have taken notice of him and his efforts to re-build the Murphy farm. In a thrilling and deeply personal adventure, Murphy must fight to keep his family’s heritage and enduring legacy alive as he confronts enemies and villains from his past. A battle of honor turns into a fight for survival in this next installment of the Patriot Black series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Don Knighthouse
• Release date: Jan 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9780463682500

Don Knighthouse

Marine Veteran, Author, Martial Artist, history enthusiast, competitive & recreational shooter.

Book preview

In the Shadow of Meth Valley

By Don Knighthouse

Published by Don Knighthouse

Copyright 2020 by Don Knighthouse

Smashwords Edition

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite e-book retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Chapter 50

Chapter 51

Chapter 52

Chapter 53

Chapter 54

Chapter 55

Chapter 56

Chapter 57

Chapter 58

Chapter 59

Chapter 60

Chapter 61

Chapter 62

Chapter 63

Chapter 64

Chapter 65

Chapter 66

Chapter 67

Chapter 68

Chapter 69

Chapter 70

Chapter 71

Chapter 72

Chapter 73

Chapter 74

Chapter 75

Chapter 76

BONUS: Excerpt from Pirates of the Horn

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Chapter 1

Mr. Murphy? Are you awake? came a gentle, distant female voice.

BEEP BEEP…BEEP BEEP…BEEP BEEP!

An excruciating, misty, fog-of-a-dream still engulfed him as he writhed painfully in his bed. With every twist, every move, every lurching movement of his extremities he groaned in pain.

BEEP BEEP…BEEP BEEP…BEEP BEEP!

Jacob? You have company… cooed a soft, friendly voice.

A ray of sunshine began to burn through the gray-lit clouds of his subconscious, forcing more and more light into his weary brain. That voice…her voice…

BEEP BEEP…BEEP BEEP…BEEP BEEP!

Jake? Can you wake up for me? asked the angelic, sweet voice.

Suzie? murmured the pained Murphy, fighting to awaken out of his painful night’s ‘rest.’ Susan, darling… he muttered as he laboriously rolled in the direction of the voice…and that…that…What is that ANNOYING sound?

BEEP BEEP…BEEP BEEP…BEEP BEEP!

Come on, sunshine, I need you to wake up! demanded the soft voice importunately.

Arduously his eyes cracked open and a face—a woman’s face—began to materialize through the waves of dull pain and the murky post-dream fantasia that reluctantly loosed its grip on his ever-dawning consciousness. He also sensed…movement…in the room around him…someone was moving nearby.

Suzie? he said weakly as he blinked away the sleepy sand of the evening’s slumber.

What? asked the woman. Suzie? No, my name is Tiffany, your nurse from overnight. Don’t you remember? We talked last night after your supper?

Murphy tried to pull himself up and face the voice, the woman who was now hovering near the head of his bed. His head…felt so…foggy and distant…What…is…wrong?

BEEP BEEP…BEEP BEEP…BEEP BEEP!

Looks like your IV meds are done so we can just turn this off for now. The young nurse began to manipulate controls on the intravenous pump in order to silence the irritating alarm. Mercifully, the miserable beeping stopped as the nurse shut off the pump’s alarm.

I will be back in with some more fluids and antibiotics in a bit, OK? said Tiffany.

Murphy slumped back onto the bed, his futile and furtive attempts to sit up resulting in a surging, pounding wave of confusion and nausea that left him limp and befuddled. What is wrong with me? He forcefully blinked and moved his eyes left and right, trying to focus, trying to get his bearings. He breathed in several deep breaths, hoping that he could, somehow, some way, shake off the cobwebs.

Hey! Look at me, cowboy! demanded the young nurse. She stooped down close to his face. How are you doing this morning? Are you alright? Are you still in pain?

Murphy looked up at her soft, pretty face. She was attractive, but…she wasn’t Suzie… There will never be another Suze…

Uh…Yeah, I kinda, remem… T… Tiff… he stammered as he forced his eyes fully open, allowing them to focus on the girl’s face directly over his. You…uh…are a…nurse…uh… My nurse.

She chuckled, You really are rough this morning, aren’t you cowboy? Must be those pain meds the doctor ordered for you so you could sleep through the night.

Medicine? he replied weakly. I don’t remem…remember too much.

Yeah, you were in quite a bit of pain so the doc prescribed you some dilaudid. It is probably what’s got you pretty groggy and foggy right now, explained the helpful nurse.

Murphy breathed out forcefully, Whew! Well, if that is what its for, it sure does its job then.

She checked his vitals on the monitor mounted to the wall behind his bed. She logged into the computer, itself mounted to the wall via an articulating metal arm, and began to input his vitals into his electronic chart. She hummed a familiar tune as she pecked away at the keyboard

Murphy struggled to try to get his bearings. He tried to focus on the tune the pleasant nurse was humming. It sounded like…

Looks like your fever has finally broke, she stated as she clacked away on the keyboard. Your infection was pretty bad. Hopefully you’ve turned the corner.

The nurse moved toward the foot of the bed, Here, let’s take a look at those dressings, shall we?

Carefully pulling away the loose cover sheet, she exposed his gauze-encased legs. She began to carefully manipulate his legs to get a better view of the wrappings. Murphy winced in pain with every movement, no matter how slight.

So, who is Suzie? asked the nurse, trying to both distract him from what she was doing as well as trying to get his brain to spin back up. She your girlfriend?

Murphy breathed in deeply: Who is Suzie?

He closed his eyes and swallowed hard, thinking carefully about how to respond, how to answer such a question:

Who was Suzie?

She was… Everything.

Not wanting to embark on that conversation with this effervescent nurse, he simply held up his left hand to show her his wedding band. She noted it with barely a glance.

Oh, your wife! You must really love her because she was all you talked about in your sleep last night.

He wasn’t sure how to take that. Should he be alarmed that he, according to Nurse Bubbly, he talks in his sleep? Or, should he explain his undying love for the love of his life that was no longer a part of his life? Thankfully, she wasn’t really paying attention and bustling along busily taking care of her business.

Hmmm. Looks like we’ll need to change them out this morning, she stated as-a-matter-of-factly. Doctor Singhwarsi will be by around 10, so we’ll wait until after his assessment.

He exhaled in relief when she stopped touching the loosely fitted bandages and replaced the top cover of his sheets.

Need some more pain meds, cowboy? Tiffany asked with a sly little smirk.

No! I’m good, exclaimed Murphy. I don’t like my head feeling like this. I’m still trying to shake off the cobwebs as it is.

Very well then, she replied. But if the pain overrides your pride, just let me know and I will let the doctor know, deal?

Deal, he said, smiling weakly.

Tiffany added a few extra progress notes into his chart and then logged out, closing out the program. She folded the monitor and keyboard back up against the wall so it would be out of the way.

Oh, I nearly forgot, she said as she strolled to the door. You have a visitor waiting for you, if you are up for it.

Who…who is it? he said, continuing to blink and trying to focus on the young nurse standing at the doorway.

He says he’s a friend, but from the looks of him, I’d say he’s a cop.

Sure, send him in, sighed the beleaguered Marine.

By the way, Mr. Murphy, said the nurse, smiling broadly—

Merry Christmas.

Chapter 2

Hey, Murphy! How ya feeling? asked the smiling federal agent as he strode into the room.

I don’t know yet, Kip, he replied. I’m kinda out of it from the meds they gave me.

Ward chuckled, Yeah, the nurse told me you were a bit loopy. But, cheer up! Soon enough, life will get back to normal and it will be back to fighting bad guys, just like before.

That’s the new normal, but I want the old normal, Murphy sighed. He wanted to go back to life with Susan at his side. Life in the Marine Corps, surrounded by his buddies. That was what he considered ‘normal.’

Ward looked out of the hospital window, off in the distance. Well, my friend; I am afraid that we can’t go back there, much as we all would like to.

Silence filled the room as Murphy stared at the ceiling, blinking forcefully, rolling his eyes left and right, trying to clear the fogginess from his cranium. Ward just looked out of the window at the falling snow.

Well, its good to see that you are doing better, kid, said Ward, breaking the silence, trying to change the topic, to get back on task.

"I guess I am still not remembering exactly all that…happened. What…happened… exactly?" Murphy’s voice trailed away as a mental black hole ate him up. There was a gap in his memory. What did happen to him? How did I end up here in the first place? Where is…‘here’?

You really don’t remember? replied Ward looking at the young man in disbelief.

Murphy shook his head to the negative.

Well, you stubborn jarhead, you nearly died, that’s what happened. Don’t you remember anything?

Again, Murphy demurred.

Ward leaned up against the wall with his shoulder, crossed his arms and continued, Well, after your last op—where Arnold Fairbanks blew himself up—you got some pretty bad second and third degree burns on your legs.

Murphy glanced down at the sheet covering his legs. He tried to move them under the sheet and, as if on cue, lightning bolts of pain shot up into his brain, causing him to wince and hiss through gritted teeth. Yeah…Got that part…

"So, even though everyone on the Team asked you, ordered you, begged you to go to the hospital to get your burns taken care of, you thought you could just press on through the pain and keep on going."

Murphy opened his eyes. He could feel the pain go from intense screaming waves to more of a dull throbbing agony. He breathed out heavily, his voice quivered as he spoke, "Well, I guess…I showed…me, huh? How…bad…am…I doing?"

Ward smirked, truly relishing in the lesson that the young Marine was learning, and what a costly lesson it was, too.

Well, kid, the burns that you refused to get treated had charred and melted fabric, dirt, grass, and all kinds of crap in them. They got infected real bad, but you still wouldn’t go to…

I got that part, Ward! winced Murphy angrily. Now can we get to the punch line: How bad is it?

Ward, sensing that the young man was not in any mood for levity, walked over to the edge of the bed. Suddenly feeling very much like a father, his heart filled with compassion and genuine concern for Murphy, despite his hard-headedness.

Doc says that they were able to remove the gangrenous flesh and burned tissue and, through administering strong IV antibiotics, they were able to stem the infection that was spreading rapidly. You were becoming septic, and it was touch and go for a bit.

But, why do I seem to hurt all over? asked the weary, pain-soaked Marine.

The door flew open and the effervescent Tiffany whisked into the room and right on past by Ward. She began to hang a bag of IV fluid and a smaller bag of antibiotics. As she began to run the hoses through the intravenous control pump and adjust the settings, she said, without stopping or slowing her work, You are probably feeling the sites where the skin grafts were harvested to attach over your burns. You are going to be hurtin’-for-certain for a while, mister cowboy.

The two men looked at each other and back at the young nurse. She performed her tasks with aplomb and, when she finished, she was gone, off to help other patients.

Ward tipped his head toward the door, Well! She’s cute, and kinda feisty, too. Ward’s tone and cocked eyebrow gave away the agent’s suggestive intention. Murphy looked away in disgust and didn’t even honor Ward’s hint with a reply. Ward sensed the young Marine’s umbrage, and instantly realized he had crossed a line.

Too soon…

Susan.

Again, there was an awkward silence that engulfed them. Ward struggled for words that would make up for what he had just done. He kicked himself for raising Murphy’s ire. Clearly, Murphy hadn’t come to grips with her passing and, axiomatically, he wasn’t ready to even begin discussing a relationship with a woman of any sort. Ward had been there, in Murphy’s shoes…Shoot! Who was he kidding? He was still there himself.

So, I almost…died? said Murphy quietly, breaking the silence.

Yeah, you almost… But Robbie found you out at the ‘bat cave.’ You had been UA for almost a week, you know? You were pretty out of it. He called me when he found you and we got you to the hospital, Ward stated. What were you doing out there anyway?

Well, I am not really s…

Like with one of his vivid and graphic nightmares he suddenly had a fresh recollection of what he was doing before he blacked out:

He killed Abdul Muhammad Al Yasser, the director of the Hyattsville jihadist training facility.

Murphy reached up and rubbed his forehead. There was more. Something…else… Something…really important… What was it?

You OK, Murph? asked Ward, his concern clearly etched across his furrowed brow and the somber tones in his voice.

Murphy shook his head, Yeah, I whacked one of the head honchos at the Hyattsville camp. No… No, he was the main ringleader—Yasser—I think it was Yasser.

He was the main guy out there alright, Ward said. We sort of had a feeling something had happened because the camp was abandoned not long after you and Olivia staged your rescue mission to save her father. We just felt that the Central Trust closed it down because it had been compromised. But whacking their leader would certainly be a good reason to close up shop.

Murphy rubbed his eyes and flipped his head back, looking up at the ceiling in his tiny little room. There was something else…something…more. What?

Suddenly, he remembered: The video!

Ward! Where is my phone? Murphy exclaimed, almost in a shout.

Ward hunched his shoulders, I am not sure. Why?

That Yasser clown was on a video conference call with some of the Central Trust leaders when I dropped in on him. I took a video of his plasma screen. I have their faces on that video!

Are you sure that they were Central Trust leaders?

Murphy nodded his head, Absolutely! The way that Yasser spoke to them, his body language…everything! Those were clearly his bosses!

Ward stood bolt upright, Which means we can identify some of these mysterious leaders of the biggest terrorist outfit in the world! Good work, Marine!

Chapter 3

Ward donned his heavy trench coat, his mind racing on his next steps that he needed to perform to try and get the intel off of Murphy’s burner phone.

Murphy leaned back down onto the pillow, sheer exhaustion etched across his face. Even that little bit of exertion had wore him out. He sighed heavily as he continued to force his brain to clear out the last of the cloudy cobwebs that clung persistently to his mind. He looked at the dry erase board posted to the wall opposite his bed and noted Tiffany’s name. And, he struggled to grasp…that…tune that she was humming.

Suddenly, like a burst of sunlight, he remembered…

Ward grabbed the door handle and prepared to leave, Take care of yourself, Murph. I’ll be in touch.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas, Murphy said, half-towards the ceiling, half-towards the departing agent.

What? asked Ward, stopping in his tracks.

Murphy said, "The song that the nurse was humming…it was a Christmas carol: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas."

Oh, yeah! Merry Christmas, Murphy! Whoops! I nearly forgot—your present! exclaimed Ward cheerily.

What?

I brought your Christmas present, beamed Ward. You up for unwrapping your gift?

Sure, Murphy said, wincing as he wiggled slowly and cautiously into a more upright position. Finding the bed adjustment button on the inside of the bed’s rails, he mashed the button that brought the head of the bed up.

Ward reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope—a Christmas card—that had Murphy’s name on it. Murphy took it from him and noted that the envelope had a bulge of a solid item in it.

I’m sorry, Kip but I don’t have a gift for—

Just shut up kid and open it! demanded Ward gently.

Murphy tore the flap of the envelope open and pulled out the card, its front artwork depicting a warm Christmas tree next to a fireplace, gifts all around. He smiled as he recalled the many Christmas celebrations at home with his mom and dad, his grandparents. He read the card and, most especially, he read the well wishes of each of the Team members. He noted that Olivia simply signed her name, nothing more.

Well, go ahead, there’s more, encouraged the impatient federal agent.

Murphy tipped the envelope upside down and out fell a flash drive stick. He held it up and looked quizzically at Ward.

So, the FBI found and retrieved a personal computer at your parent’s house, explained Ward. And, by some small miracle the hard drive was still intact. Of course, the Bureau went over it with a fine-toothed comb.

Murphy looked at him in bewilderment, wondering where this was going.

And?

And they found some things on the computer that you may want to hang on to, explained Ward.

What kind of things? asked Murphy cautiously.

Ward replied, It seems that either your dad, or your grandfather, were quite diligent in digitizing the Murphy family photo album…

What?!?! You’re kidding! exclaimed the surprised Marine.

Yup! All of your family photos, portraits, vacations, graduations—all of it—was on that hard drive.

Ward…how did you get this?

Ward, again beaming, said, I called in a favor and I was able to get the digital copies of the photographs, and even a few little surprises, too. Like, home movies and videos. Videos of events like…

The wedding??? blurted