2026 - The War of the Americas

Author's preface: Parts 1 and 2 of this story can be found here and here.

Sylvia was an intellectual and athletic prodigy. She had skipped high school and gone straight to college at age 14, graduating at age 18 with honors. In addition to her academic prowess Sylvia excelled in athletics competing at a high level in track and diving and winning a Georgia state women's championship in archery. After graduation, she went on to law school and medical school although she finished neither, instead opting to pursue her passion for laboratory research and animals, quickly completing a Ph.D. in veterinary science and animal health. Since then she had become a 2nd degree black belt in Krav Maga, the fighting style pioneered by the Israeli secret police, and one of the most dangerous forms of martial arts on the planet. She was just as deadly with weapons as her hands, and, in addition to her archery skills was a near Olympic level marksmen with the rifle, handgun, and the weapon she favored most, the crossbow. Her shooting skills were not all that surprising as she had grown up in the backwoods of Georgia and was shooting and hunting since almost before she could walk. She was also proficient or expert level with a variety of stabbing and stick based weapons. In his mind Dom pictured her as a cross between Linda Hamilton from the Terminator movies and Mad Max. Since they had moved to Mexico the association with Linda Hamilton in T2 had grown. In short, she was exactly the type of woman you wanted around for the post apocalypse, and their current predicament had him thinking along those lines.

Her resume was indeed impressive, but what really set Sylvia apart, at least in Dom's mind, was what she had to overcome to accomplish all of it. Most prodigies he had ever heard about were raised in loving homes where their talents were nurtured by caring parents. They went to the best schools and had every advantage. Sylvia, in contrast, had grown up in a completely dysfunctional family environment, with a mostly absent uncaring mother and a truly evil malignant narcissist for a father. Her father had subjected her to years of mental and physical abuse of the most heinous kind. That abuse had only ended within the last year when her dad was linked to a series of missing persons. An investigation uncovered a string of eight murders and maybe more over the past 15 years. He was found guilty at trial and sentenced to spend the remainder of his life in prison. The press had dubbed him the Grandpa killer as he was 72 years old at the time of his sentencing and the last killing (that they knew about) had taken place when he was 70. It was surely a relief for Sylvia to be free from the fear of her father, but it brought additional significant complications to both Dom and Sylvia's life, since her father had been the custodial parent of Sylvia's only daughter, Sarah, from a previous marriage. How Sarah had ended up living with her grandfather was a thing Sylvia did not like to talk about and Dom had only heard bits and pieces of the story. He never pressed her about it, knowing it was off limits, but he was curious and had done a little digging on his own. He could not find much and had only managed to uncover a copy of the custody order which surprisingly showed that Sylvia legally shared joint custody of her daughter with her grandfather and her ex-husband. Since he had known her, close to five years now, he had never once seen her have a conversation with her daughter or a visit or any interaction at all. He very badly wanted to ask about this, but could never work up the guts. He knew how painful the situation was for his wife, and did not want to make things worse, so held his tongue. He had managed to work up the courage to ask what the CIA had thought of her father and daughter. Sylvia frowned at the mention of her father but she answered "Of course it was one of the first questions I asked them. I wanted to make sure they knew about what he had done, and of course they did. I asked how they could even consider hiring me, knowing that my own father was a convicted serial killer. My interviewer on that particular occasion replied very matter of factly. 'Dr. Platt, it may surprise you to learn, that the majority of CIA agents and analysts have families. All families have secrets and none are perfect. If we disqualified candidates based on their families activities we would have almost no employees left.' He paused for just a moment before continuing 'And if you are wondering if we can help you with your daughter, the answer is no.' That revelation hurt, as she had secretly harbored hopes that her new CIA role would give her the ability to somehow magically fix things with her daughter. To help Sarah see the truth of what kind of person she actually was, and the awfulness of her grandfather, who had raised her was. There was no doubt in Sylvia's mind that Sarah had ben brainwashed by her grandfather, exactly as Sylvia had been as a child and adolescent. She would likely blame her mother for what had happened to her beloved grandpa, and might seek revenge. If she did, Sylvia knew now she could not count on the CIA for help. The interviewer seeing her confusion and distress continued "We know you are a fan of the television show Star Trek. So, you are no doubt aware of the prime directive which prohibits interference in the development of alien civilizations. The CIA has a prime directive too. It prohibits us from becoming involved in the family lives of our agents. We must at all time treat agents families no different than any other citizen of America or the world. We can show no favoritism and harbor no ill will unless it is earned." In truth Sylvia was surprised to hear that and she had pressed "And that includes my husband I assume." The interviewer removed his dark glasses, looked down and rubbed his brow, pausing for a moment before slowly replacing his glasses and looking back directly at her from across the table. "Dominic Platt is a special case doctor. You must know that. How you two ended up meeting and falling in love, and then getting married is a mystery even we do not understand. The odds of it are so astronomical that at first we were sure a foreign power had arranged it. But we could find no evidence of that. It seems you two meeting was a random act of fate. Only you and he can say if that was a blessing or a curse." She had sighed and then smiled and said. "Yes, of course, I know. And it has been a blessing. A great blessing." Sylvia did not mention that last part of her discussion with the CIA to Dom but he guessed from the look on her face that she had left something out. Not wanting to upset her even more, he had not pressed any further.