An hour later, the Banana returned to the parking lot, Em7 piling out accompanied by their trademark explosion of voices.

"Such an accusation is unfounded and liable," Ezra insisted, straightening his jacket.

"Unfounded. Hell, Ezra, if the shoe fits, wear it."

"I wear only Italian leather shoes imported directly from Italy and I’ll have you know that is the only shoe that fits."

The boys headed for the entrance of the tavern playfully trading verbal blows.

Eli Joe watched with interest. If they were here, no doubt Tanner would be appearing out of his apartment at some stage. The traitor realized this could be his chance. When Tanner stepped out of his front door, he would take him out with two or three noiseless shots and then make his getaway. No one would hear the silenced bullets. Larabee and his men may go looking for Tanner when he failed to turn up, but Eli would be long gone and Tanner dead.

The CIA agent lifted his rifle and sighted Tanner’s door.

Soon. 

Very soon.

**

Below and out of Joe’s line of sight, Chris paused at the entrance of the Saloon and waved the others on. He wanted to discuss a few things alone with his Lieutenant and decided to head out to the sharpshooter’s apartment to deal with it before turning off for the evening and enjoying a night of relaxation.

Chris stopped as he entered the alley. Vin had exited his apartment and was locking the door. Larabee sighed. It could wait until tomorrow.

There was a click.

A distinctive click.

The sort of click that caused Larabee’s blood to freeze.

He raised his eyes in the direction of the sound... and spotted the barrel of a rifle protruding from the curtain above him -- protruding and aimed directly at Vin!

"VIN! GET DOWN!"

Tanner hit the ground on his leader’s signal. Bullets ripped up the spot his head had been. Vin shot a look toward the window. His and Eli’s eyes met for the briefest moment.

Chris returned fire. The boys spewed out of the building and began peppering the windows with bullets.

"Hold your fire! Hold your fire! Don’t kill him! It’s Eli Joe." Tanner shouted, withdrawing his holstered revolver and dashing for the back door of The Saloon that led to the stairs.

"Fan out and surround the place.  Cover all of the doors and windows. Don’t let him get away!" Larabee shouted, following Vin. "We need him alive."

"You heard ONE. Fan out," Buck shouted. "THREE and FIVE, take the back.  SIX, the front.  FOUR, take the parking lot. I’ll go around the other side. LET’S GET THIS BASTARD."

Vin powered up the stairs and down the hallway toward the end room. The door was gaping open. He dived into the centre, rolling and coming up with his revolver sweeping the empty space on the right. Chris’ back was against his own, Larabee covering the left. They had moved simultaneously, dived simultaneously and come up back to back. There had been no communication. No hesitation. Twenty-four lost months and the partners still moved as one. In Katinda, it had been a matter of survival.

The pair leaped to their feet and separated.

"I’ll take the roof," Vin shouted, racing for the fire escape. Larabee spun around and began searching the upstairs rooms.

Vin raced up the stairs. He heard J.D. shout, "There he is. Up there!"

As Vin burst up onto the roof, Eli Joe swung a long piece of debris. Vin raised his arm to protect himself. The piece of timber was old and rotted and splintered easily, but Vin’s weapon was jolted out of his hand and fell back down the stairs. Tanner knew he didn’t have time to retrieve it. He had to capture Eli Joe.  He wanted to belt the living crap out of the other man... and he had to get the cancellation code for the contract. Only then, would it be over.

Eli dropped the shattered piece of timber and took off with Vin half a step behind him. The determined sharpshooter tackled the CIA agent, but Eli was well-trained and was able to wriggle free.

Below, the men could hear sounds of the struggle. They spotted Eli Joe running across the roof and heading for the edge. The men below raced along watching. Stunned, they saw the traitorous assassin leap across the four foot gap between The Saloon and the next building. Half a second later, Vin took flight.

The roof of the second building wasn’t flat like The Saloon’s. It was peaked and landing was difficult. Eli Joe stumbled and began to claw his way up the slope to the peak. Vin dived on him. The two began to wrestle, trading blows and rolling over and over. In the end, it was their training that separated them. Eli Joe was a CIA agent. He had been educated to protect himself should he ever be attacked. Vin Tanner was a soldier. He had been instructed in hand to hand combat and had practiced those skills in Katinda where such training had been the difference between life and death. Eli was on top and foolishly believed he was winning. Vin Tanner lifted his leg and threw the agent over the top of him. Unfortunately, he sent Joe sliding down the steep slope out of control. Eli Joe tumbled off the roof, his arms flailing wildly. At the last possible moment, his fingers caught the gutter. He started to slip. Vin appeared above and grabbed his arm. Eli looked up at his rescuer. Their eyes locked together.

"We got some unfinished business," Tanner ground out. With effort, Vin dragged the larger man up onto the steeply sloping roof. As Eli Joe’s feet came to rest on the safety of the tiles, he withdrew a knife.

Vin’s momentum left him off balance, his eyes widening.  He had nowhere to go.

Eli’s arm arced above his head.

Caught on his haunches and falling backwards, Vin thrust his arm up in a futile attempt to protect himself against the deadly blade.

**

Chris Larabee heard the pounding on the roof above him. He raced upstairs, headed along the roof, leapt to the second building and climbed the peak. Just as he arrived, he saw Vin pull Eli Joe back up onto the roof.

He saw the knife.

Chris reacted. He didn’t act, he re-acted. Under normal conditions, even the fastest action he performed was only executed after careful consideration of all of the options and repercussions. Today, Colonel Larabee responded to the nightmare that met his eyes without any conscious thought.

A knife.

Vin.

A knife ready to be plunged into Vin!

Chris Larabee fired.

The bullet struck Eli Joe in the middle of the chest as the knife in his hand descended toward the defenceless man who had just saved him from falling to his death. Had Chris paused but a split second, the blade would have plunged into Vin’s chest.

Startled, Vin snapped his head around to his leader.  Then he spun back to stare at Eli Joe.  Joe blinked wide-eyed, teetered on the edge and then toppled backwards.

Nooooooooo! The word was screamed inside Vin’s head.  Tanner scrambled forward.  Forty feet below, J.D. and Nathan were leaning over Joe’s still form. Vin knew Eli Joe was dead. He had seen life leave the other man’s face before he had disappeared over the edge.

Vin struggled to catch his breath.  It was over and yet... now it would never be over. Vin felt the energy leave his body. He sank back against the wall for support.

Now, it could never be over.

**********

Dawn.

A sunrise that would leave even the most barren person gaping, lit the valley.

Vin sighed. He glanced across at his best friend. They’d been here together all night - eight hours. After what had happened late yesterday afternoon, Em7 had returned to Four Corners. It hadn’t been discussed, but there seemed to be a silent understanding this was where they needed to be.

Chris and Vin had stepped off the chopper, headed for the livery and ridden out to Bentley ridge alone. The pair hadn’t exchanged a single word since Chris had shot Eli Joe. Larabee had dealt with the red tape and handed the situation over to the local police.  The entire scene had been captured on J.D.’s camera phone so the detectives in charge had few questions.  It had been a righteous killing.

Birds began to announce the new day.

Chris sensed it was time. He turned to face his friend who had glanced at him a split second before.

"I know we needed him alive." Chris couldn’t explain his actions. Why hadn’t he shot the arm holding the knife, or hit Eli Joe’s shoulder or... but his bullet had struck the bastard in the heart. Eli Joe died instantly taking the contract stop-code to this grave.

"You did what you had to. Ain’t much sense cancelling the contract if I’m already dead."

Logic. Chris grunted. He could always depend on Vin to come up with two short sentences to sum up an entire situation. Of course, logic didn’t change the fact they had no way of cancelling the bounty on Vin’s head.

"I should have..."  He should have shot to wound, but wounding may not have been enough.  The knife may still have fallen.  The only way to save Vin’s life had been a bullet to the heart to stop Eli Joe cold.  Thank God he shot him in the heart!

"Weren’t nothing else you could do, Chris." A smile touched Vin’s serious face. "He was really pissed with me and nothing was going to stop him getting me one way or another."

Larabee just couldn’t see anything light about this situation. "There’s no way to cancel the contract," he repeated.

"Nope, there isn’t. We’re just gonna have to learn to live with it. All of us." The contract was a life-time sentence for his whole team. While future assassins’ bullets may only be aimed at Vin, but a rifle shot may not be everyone’s first choice. A bomb, wiring the brakes of a car, trying to run Vin down... there were a thousand and one ways the contract could be fulfilled by those who didn’t read the fine print and at least half of the methods placed everyone around him in an equal amount of danger. "The others need to be told what this is going to mean."

"They know." Chris stared at Vin. They’ll stand with you.

Reckon I know that.  “They could take a bullet meant for me.”

Chris nodded. "Yeah, they know. The Hawks have left the country and the notice J.D. put out for us should have scared a large percentage away. So that just leaves the crackpots who don’t have the sense to heed the warning and a few professionals who’ll see it as a personal challenge."

Vin snorted and then smiled. "So just what did you have J.D. put out there? According to Eli Joe, it involved you personally promising assassins a very slow and painful death?"

Larabee grinned. "I recollect saying something like that. Of course, I was a little grumpy at the time. I could get J.D. to change it if you like. Get Ezra to word something a little more tactful. Something with finesse."

Vin burst out laughing. "What? Something like, ladies and gentlemen, please let it be known that if anyone decides to collect the bounty on Vin Tanner’s head, it would upset Colonel Larabee most earnestly and thus it would be prudent to abstain from such temptation?"

Chris erupted into laugher - laugher that released the tension he felt.  He clapped Vin’s shoulder."You sure have Ezra down pat. Though, I think he probably would use much larger words that eighty percent of the population wouldn’t understand."

"Go on then," Vin prompted.

"Ummm, something like, Hear ye, Hear ye. It is hereby proclaimed by the great Colonel Larabee..."

"The great?" Vin snorted.

Chris winked at him. "Okay, the ‘renowned’ Colonel Larabee that miscreants who have the audacity to contemplate pursuing said contract on one Lieutenant Vin Tanner..."

"Don’t I get an adjective?"

"Okay, the ‘annoying’ Lieutenant Vin Tanner, will inspire an unfortunate retrogression that will be detrimental to their health and result in a premature and untimely demise."

"Reckon mine would be closer to what he’d say," Vin insisted.

"You’re on."

**********

In response to his leader’s request to compose an appropriate message to deter would be assassins, Ezra stated... in his very cultured voice... "&*%@ with Vin Tanner and you &*%@ with his whole team. There won’t be enough left of you for a cockroach to piss on."

Both Vin and Chris glanced at each other and tried to smother their stunned smiles but ended up gasping with laughter.

"I fail to see the humour," Standish stated. "I think that should get the miscreants’ attention."

Chris pointed at Vin. Miscreant! I said he’d say miscreant! I win!

"Shut-up, Larabee."

"Why do I get the feeling there is something I have missed?" Ezra asked curiously.

**********

Em7 returned to the office where the Eli Joe situation was only just beginning to unfold. They had discovered the traitor had been active not only as a double agent in Katinda - a man the Kat Cong hierarchy had hired to take out the STF1. - but he’d continued his traitorous behaviour in his present position. Many good men and women had lost their lives as a result of Eli Joe.

Mary Travis appeared out of the elevator. "Good morning, Mrs. Travis," J.D. called. The other men looked up and smiled.

"I was hoping to speak to Vin."

"He’s in the office with Chris."

Mary nodded and made her way over. Just as she was about to enter, she heard Vin explode, "I don’t need to do no self-defence training."

"You’ve got a contract on your head," Larabee insisted in a lethal voice.

"Oh, right. They got a self defence course called dodging sniper shots and surviving explosions?"

Chris rose to his feet. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Mary.

"I’m sorry, I hope I’m not interrupting," the woman stated pleasantly.

Vin smiled. "No, Ma’am. Chris and I were just voicing differing opinions."

Larabee glanced at his friend. This isn’t finished.

Is as far as I’m concerned.

"I can come back," Mary stated, noting the intense glares the two men were giving each other.

Chris shook his head and his face relaxed. "Come in, Mary. You want some information on the shooting yesterday?"

Mary smiled. "Inside scoop?"

"Sure," Vin stated. "Chris here shot the miscreant because he knew I wasn’t wearing the body armour he’s ordered and is insisting I wear everywhere, including when I’m taking a shower."

Chris shot the infamous Larabee glare at the younger man. Vin grinned.

Mary had to smile. No one got away with talking to Colonel Christopher Larabee like that, but she realized Vin wasn’t speaking to Colonel Larabee but to Chris who was over-reacting to protect his friend.

"You’ll wear the vest."

"Over my dead body."

"Exactly."

"Gentlemen?" The two glanced back at her and smiled apologetically. "So what happened?"

**********

"Chris," Travis greeted, entering his office.

"General."

"I have your new badges and I.D. tags. Chris extended his hand and accepted the offered sample. His eyes narrowed. Not only had Travis changed the name of the group, which Chris had been expecting, he’d added engraved motifs and other words.

Travis smiled. "What do you think?"

"I don’t remember us discussing pictures or words."

"Mary helped."

Chris glanced up and then returned to studying the badge. "Care to explain?”

“Em7 or Executive Mediation Seven - so that’s in the centre. Extreme Measures, because that’s what your job entails. And you said that unofficially you wanted to be ‘The Magnificent Seven’ or M 7 but that left the E unused so Mary created a list of ‘e’ words she felt described your team. Explicit, exceptional, eccentric, earnest, energetic, expert and extraordinary. I inserted a motif to represent each of you and applied the most appropriate word under each motif."

Chris was nodding and then shrugged. "Okay. I’ll hand them out later."

"So you like it?"

Chris smirked. "Can’t wait to see Ezra’s face when he sees you allocated him the word ‘eccentric’."

**********

Vin stormed into his leader’s office and dropped into the chair across from Larabee. Chris glanced up and eyed his friend curiously. It had been almost a week since Chris had sent Eli Joe to hell.

"Something bothering you, Lieutenant?"

"Buck killed my bike."

"What?" Chris asked curiously, closing the file on his desk.

"Buck.” Vin shook his head forlornly. “He took my bike apart and now he can’t get it back together."

Chris tried not to smile. "I see."

"Damn thing was a classic."

"It was a piece of shit," Larabee corrected.

Vin screwed up his face in disgust. "You just don’t appreciate things that are a little out of the mainstream."

Chris sat back in his chair and grinned. "I’d have to disagree with that. I’ve got Buck, Josiah and Ezra working for me. You think they fit into anyone’s mainstream?"

Vin allowed a smile to invade his face. "Good point." He paused. "What the hell am I going to do for wheels now?"

"Share a taxi with J.D."

"Share a taxi with J.D? Hey, don’t get me wrong, I love the kid, but he uses up oxygen so fast he causes a vacuum."

"Come on, it’s time to go. I’ll drive you home. Can’t have my sharpshooter suffocating."

Chris and Vin joined the rest of the boys standing waiting for the elevator. Buck glanced at Vin out of the corner of his eye.

"Ya killed my bike," Vin muttered.

"He landed a plane on my car," J.D. pointed out.

"A man makes one... okay, two little mistakes and he’s labelled for life."

"Little mistakes?" J.D. demanded.

The banter continued throughout the trip to the basement garage.

Larabee shook his head. "General Travis actually said to me, ‘Colonel, you can have your pick of any man in the country’. How the hell did I end up with you lot?"

"My sentiments exactly," Ezra agreed.

"He meant you," Buck stated, sliding his arm across Ezra’s shoulders.

"I think you will find you are mistaken. The colonel was most certainly referring to you, my peculiar friend."

"Peculiar. You’re calling me, peculiar?"

"Are you insinuating that there is something unusual about me?"

"I ain’t insinuating, I’m coming right out and saying it... Mr. Eccentric. You’ll notice that I am ‘exceptional!’

"Exceptional!"

"It says so on our official badge."

"Yes, and they label children who can’t learn as ‘exceptional learners’."

"Children," Josiah laughed.

"Yep," Chris agreed. That about summed it up.

The elevator doors opened. The men headed for their cars. Vin stopped walking. Off the right, some twenty feet from the men’s vehicles was a bike - no, not a bike, a man’s passion. The others slowed and glanced back.

"What?" Chris asked.

"Will you look at that?" Vin asked, wandering over to the bike. "It’s a Harley. Hell, it’s a God damn original. This ain’t no copy. Look at the condition of it. This is a collector’s piece."

The other men crowded around the motorcycle. They watched as their teammate ran his eyes over every inch of it, providing them with the statistics of the machine. Everything from its name and the year it was made, to bits of unrelated information that was apparently important.

"So this is another classic like yours?" Chris asked.

Vin’s face shadowed like he had just heard Chris swear at the Pope. "Chris, ain’t you been listenin’ to a word I’ve been sayin’? There were only six of these ever made. I’ve never seen one except in books. This baby has been completely restored. God, it’s a work of art."

"It’s just a bike," Chris stated.

"JUST A BIKE? Hell, Chris, that’s like saying the Mona Lisa is just a painting!" Despite having an entire conversation with his friend, Vin’s eyes never left the machine in front of him. "I know men who’d sell their soul just to sit on this baby."

"Hi." The members of Em7 turned to the man approaching them. "She’s a beauty, isn’t she?"

Vin nodded. "She is that."

"One of you Vin Tanner?" the man asked.

Vin eyed the other curiously. "That’d be me."

"Well, you’re one lucky fella mister. I’d sell my wife just for a chance to ride it." Vin’s eyebrows drew down. "Here, sign on the dotted line and she’s all yours."

"What?"

"You said you’re Vin Tanner?" the deliveryman inquired slowly.

"He’s Vin Tanner," Josiah stated, helpfully.

"But..." Vin stared at the other man, at the bike and then back at the notepad. "There’s been a mistake."

"Not if you’re Vin Tanner. You show me some identification, sign on the line and I’ll give you the keys." Vin couldn’t comprehend what was being said. He turned to Chris who had a knowing smile on his face.

What the hell is goin’ on? Chris flicked his eyes to the rest of the boys.

Vin’s mouth dropped open and then he sighed as he put two and two together. "Ezra, I can’t accept a gift like this."

The picture of innocence claimed, "I have no idea of what you are talking about."

Vin turned to the deliveryman. "Like I was sayin’, there’s been a mistake. This isn’t mine. I couldn’t pay for something like this if I lived to be a hundred."

Josiah glanced at the delivery slip. "Says it’s a gift from Eli Joe."

"WHAT?"

"Yes, Lieutenant Tanner. It seems Eli Joe was paid a considerable amount of money to double cross you in Katinda and as he is now spending eternity in Hell, he is no longer in need of that money. I am sure his spirit will rest far easier knowing the money he earned from harming you and countless others and which he was going to use to pay any assassin to assassinate you, has been spent on something you will grace with your ass. I feel justice has been done," Ezra stated.

"Now sign the damn paper and sit on your new bike."

Vin licked his lips and looked to Chris. "You all did this?"

"Ezra arranged most of it."

"But the money?"

“Was to be used to pay off the contract.  It was in a Swiss bank account the number for which I found while searching Eli Joe’s home. We may not be able to cancel the contract, my friend, but the fifty million the assassins are after is now in our hands. We declared the money and the government decided it should be handed over to the armed forces. General Collins decided that as we had found it, we should do with it what we saw fit. We donated a considerable amount to charity, but felt this was a fitting way to spend what was left."

"I..."

"Come on, Vin!" J.D. yelped with excitement. "We’ve been waiting all day to see you on it."

Chris stepped up to his friend, aware Vin was floundering. "Ezra found the account. General Collins and General Travis authorized us to use the money in whatever way we saw fit. We donated 90% to the Returned Serviceman’s League. Then we outfitted the team with those new rifles you assessed, stocked up on a few odds and ends and had some spare cash left over. Josiah remembered the Harley model you said you always wanted. J.D found one for us on the net by offering twice what it was worth. Nathan arranged to have it flown here. I had Buck ‘kill’ your bike and Ezra made up the difference in cost so we could buy it. It’s yours. We want you to have it."

Vin was completely overwhelmed. "But..."

Chris smiled. "Sign the paper already, or J.D.’s going to explode."

Dunne was leaping from one foot to the other like a child on Christmas morning. Anyone would think he’d just been given the vehicle of his dreams.

Vin took the pen and signed his name on the bottom of the sheet just as Mary had recently taught him. The lettering was jagged but it was his name.

"Well, good luck, mister." The deliveryman stated, dropping the keys in Vin’s hand before turning, walking back to his truck and driving away.

Vin turned back to the bike. His friends smiled with satisfaction.

"Go on, Vin."

Tanner swallowed and turned to them. "I don’t know what..."

"Don’t say anything. You don’t need to," Nathan assured, his face coloured with true affection.

Vin touched the leather of the seat.

"For the sake of all that is Holy!" Josiah exclaimed, bodily picking up the smaller man and depositing him onto the bike.

Vin grinned. "This is amazing." He turned the key and the motor sprang to life. A smile that started at Vin’s lips and went all of the way down to his toes radiated out of him.

Buck pursed his lips. "Yep, the Mona Lisa ain’t got nothing on that smile." Wilmington threw his arm across J.D.’s shoulders and bodily spun him to the left.

"What?" the younger man demanded.

Buck smiled and inclined his head. Parked nearby was a brand new Nissan Rodeo Four Wheel Drive - according to the television commercial, the car Wild Bill Hickok would have been proud to drive. J.D. had talked of nothing else since he’d first seen the advertisement.

"Mine?" the boy gasped.

"We were able to scrape together a little more money than we thought."

Chris flicked his eyes to Ezra and nodded his thanks. Ezra smiled. The old saying was definitely true. Giving truly was far more rewarding than receiving.

**********

General Orin Travis burst into Em7’s office with long purposeful strides. "We have a situation."

All of the men rose to their feet. Chris Larabee appeared out of his office and walked straight into the conference room. His team took seats around the table. Travis handed a disk to J.D. who uploaded the file on his laptop. The table in front of the men sprang to life.

"This fortress is just over the Mexican border. We have information the nuclear warhead stolen from the Wentworth Facility was smuggled into this place. Purchased by a player in the drug syndicate. We must get that warhead back before it can be used."

"Enhance the compound," Larabee ordered. J.D.’s fingers danced across the keyboard.

"The drug baron protects himself with an army of two dozen men. All armed," General Travis stated.

"They’ll have men right along this wall," Larabee muttered. The Em7 leader turned to his new sharpshooter. This would be Vin’s first mission since the war. "Can you take them?" The question hung in the air. Breathing stopped. All eyes turned to the young man.

Vin studied the map. "Like lickin’ butter off a knife." The Lieutenant flicked his eyes to Chris and then around at the rest of his team who were smiling at him.

"Okay," Larabee announced, bringing everyone back on track. "Josiah, I’m going to need charges here, here, here, here, here and here."

"No, problem."

General Travis watched the group with great contentment. They had started as five of the world’s best... dropped to a devastating four... became six and now... well, now they were seven. Seven men. One destiny.

Josiah’s words echoed in the General’s ears and Travis smiled. Officially, they may well be ‘Executive Mediation Seven’, but unofficially and in reality, they were "The Magnificent Seven."

So ends this tale.  Another has just begun.

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