Sabrina
Copyright© 2026 by The Outsider
Chapter 9: Para Bellum
24 June 2014 – Hilltop Road, Lancaster, Massachusetts
” ... Happy birthday to yoooouuuu!”
Sabrina suppressed her smile long enough to blow out the candles on her birthday cake. Sixteen! She couldn’t believe it. In eight short months, her application to the Air Force Academy would be due. If all went according to plan, she’d be in Colorado Springs as a member of the USAFA Class of 2020 a few days after turning eighteen.
Everyone present at her party clapped and cheered once all the candles went out. After three days of rain, the skies over the region were clear, except for a few puffy clouds. The backyard was swampy, so Sabrina and her friends sought refuge downstairs in the family room while the parents and the family’s adult friends hung out upstairs.
“Sabrina, what’s with the cue stuck in the wall?” Pete asked while they played pool.
“Dad got angry with my Aunt Heather after he came back from Afghanistan in 2004. She ignored him for over two years because he reenlisted in October of 2001, and then she showed up out of the blue one night in 2004. She kept trying to talk to him like nothing was wrong, and he snapped. In his anger, he spiked that cue through the drywall with just his hand. He says he leaves it there as a reminder of what anger can do to a person.”
“It’ll remind me not to make anyone in this family angry with me...” Pete said sotto voce. Sabrina shouldered him out of the way with a smile before lining up her next shot.
“So, what are your plans this summer? Are you and your mom still headed to Seattle?”
“Yeah. We’ll leave mid-July and come back two weeks later.” Pete checked how close their other friends were. “How are you doing? With what happened here this spring, I mean.”
She shrugged.
“Okay, I guess. Counseling’s helping. There’s a part of me – a small part – which still has trouble with what I had to do.”
Pete bit off his reply when another of their friends walked past. Sabrina said she wanted to talk rather than play pool, so when Naomi and Ruby came over to play, Pete and Sabrina wandered over to a pair of beanbags in the corner.
“So, tell me more about your trip, Pete.”
“We’ll spend the first week and part of the second exploring the area outside Seattle, then we’ll finish up in the city before we fly home. What about you? What will you be doing now that we’re out of school?”
“Working full-time at the dojo and taking my flying lessons. Dad asked if I wanted to go out to my Uncle Chris’s hockey camp again, but I’d rather teach this summer.”
“Your Uncle Chris runs a hockey camp? That sounds cool.”
“Yeah. He’ll retire once his contract’s up, though, so I don’t know if he’ll keep running the camp past that.”
“‘Contract?’ Is he a professional player or something?”
“Uncle Chris is Chris Micklicz, Pete. Dad played hockey with him in high school and dated his older sister.”
“No way! That’s cool! Um...” Pete blushed and looked away. “Sabrina, speaking of dating, when I get back from the west coast or when we start school again ... would, um ... would you like to go out?”
“I think I would, Pete,” she smiled back at her friend and took his hand. “I enjoyed getting to know you before Prom this year, and I’d like to get to know you more this year.”
“Cool.”
“Dad, why did Mr. Abernathy want to meet with us?” Sabrina asked as her father drove to Abernathy and Associates. “I’d rather be getting ready for my CFA.”
“You’ll still have plenty of time to get ready for the Academy’s Candidate Fitness Assessment, Sabrina. It’s only July – you’ve got seven months! Anyway, Josh said the DA wanted to talk to either your mother or me, or both of us together, about where the home invasion investigation stands. I told Josh that if the DA wanted to talk to us about the slavers, the DA had to include you in the meeting. The DA agreed that it was fine, but there might be others at this meeting who aren’t too happy about that. They can learn to get over it.”
Keiko glanced back from the front passenger’s seat.
“As with the interviews at the police station following the incident, Sabrina, follow our attorney’s lead at this meeting. Your father and I will also allow Joshua to speak for us. You have your father’s temper, so please keep that in check.”
Jeff nodded to his daughter, acknowledging the truth of his wife’s statement.
“Okay, Mom.”
Josh Abernathy’s receptionist smiled and greeted the family, directing them to the firm’s largest meeting room. When they entered, Josh rose from his seat at the conference table.
“Hi, guys. Thanks for giving up a nice summer’s morning for this meeting.”
“Why don’t we wait until we see how this meeting goes before you thank us, Josh?” Jeff cautioned. “Anyone else besides the folks you told me about coming?
“When Ted set up the meeting, he said Lancaster’s police chief and an FBI agent would join him. I understand the Massachusetts Attorney General decided she needed to be here, too.”
“Why is the Attorney General involved?”
“No idea there, Keiko, sorry. We’ll have to wait and see. Ted and his bunch should be here in fifteen minutes, so let’s sit down and review where we are from my standpoint.”
It was closer to twenty minutes later when the receptionist knocked and ushered Ted Brewington and his party into the room.
“Hi, Ted,” Josh offered as he shook hands with his former boss.
“Josh. Thanks for arranging this meeting.”
“Let me introduce you to my client and her parents.”
Ted nodded as Josh did so.
“Allow me to introduce my party, as well,” Ted Brewington said before handling his part of the introductions.
Everyone on the Knox’s side of the table nodded to the Lancaster police chief and the FBI agent from their Boston office. Sabrina and her family stared at the Massachusetts Attorney General. The AG didn’t offer her hand, which suited the Knox family just fine.
Law-abiding gun owners, such as the Knox family, classified the AG as a ‘virulent anti-gunner,’ someone who wanted to confiscate all privately owned firearms in the Commonwealth. True or not, since her election, she had earned no friends among law-abiding gun owners. Her attempts to use consumer protection arguments against gun manufacturers hadn’t helped, either. In a state where the population outside the cities was ambivalent about guns, she sounded strident.
“Why don’t we all have a seat?” Josh suggested after seeing the looks on the family’s faces. Once settled, Josh asked, “Where do we stand with the investigation, Ted?”
“We have made little progress, Josh,” Ted admitted. “We think we’ve identified the larger group responsible, but we can’t be sure. Special Agent Best can correct me if I’m wrong.”
“Mr. Abernathy, District Attorney Brewington is correct,” the clean-cut agent admitted. “We believe this group operates out of the North Jersey area, just outside of New York City, but we can’t pinpoint them. They’re using some sophisticated methods to mask the origin of their phone calls, and with the local group destroyed, we can’t monitor communications to and from this area.”
SA Best glanced at Sabrina, but there was no accusation in that glance. The look the AG gave the teen was full of contempt at Sabrina’s actions on the night in question. Sabrina couldn’t hold her tongue.
“Do you have a problem with me, lady?” Sabrina expected one of her parents to place a hand on her arm to cut her off, but it never happened, so she kept speaking. “If you have a problem with something I did, then you will have a problem with everyone on this side of the table.”
Josh glared down the table at Jeff and Keiko, willing them to keep Sabrina silent, but they didn’t care.
“You should have waited for the police to arrive and take care of the intruders,” the AG stated.
Sabrina’s glare grew even more hostile.
“Chief Hogan, what was the elapsed time from when I initiated the silent alarm to when your first two officers arrived at my residence?” the teen asked the Lancaster police chief without taking her eyes off the AG.
“Five minutes, Miss Knox. Four minutes from the time we received notification from the alarm company.”
“Did they report any gunfire upon their arrival?”
“No.”
“Did they have to engage any targets with their weapons?”
“No.”
“Did they arrest me?”
“No. My officers detained you until they could determine the reason for the silent alarm and investigate what they found, but at no time were you considered under arrest. You had preliminary counsel present within moments, and we did not question you until you and Mr. Abernathy arrived at our station.”
“So, the incident in question was over by the time your officers arrived, Chief?”
“Yes, it was.”
“Thank you, Chief.” Sabrina kept her gaze fixed on the AG. “Mister District Attorney, was I charged with a crime?”
“No.”
“Why not, Sir?”
“You acted in self-defense that night,” Ted replied with a shrug.
He understood Sabrina’s line of questioning and her formality. He tried not to grin. He didn’t like the AG much, but he had to work with her, or at least deal with her office. He enjoyed seeing Sabrina take the older woman down more than a few notches. The young woman across the table from him used a cool voice to eviscerate the lawyer-turned-politician who had become her target.
“She killed four men that night...” the AG grumbled.
“I’ve already had to school one lawyer on the relevant chapter and section of Massachusetts General Law pertaining to this incident,” Josh butted in, trying to take control of the meeting again. “Would you like to be the second, Madam Attorney General?”
AG Philips glared at him but didn’t respond otherwise.
“Josh, as you likely know, neither Lancaster Police nor the State Police has the manpower to watch over your client and her family twenty-four-seven,” Ted admitted. “All we can do is suggest hiring private security for the moment.”
“And make ourselves look like the First Family?” Jeff exclaimed. “Don’t give me that look, Josh! Mr. Brewington just admitted that the police can’t protect us, and I doubt our friends at the FBI will cough up a platoon or two of agents to protect us, either. Am I right on that, Special Agent Best?”
“I’m sorry to say you’re correct there also, Sir.”
“So now we have to surround ourselves with armed guards?” Jeff shook his head in frustration and sighed. “I thank you and the district attorney for your honesty, Special Agent.” Jeff looked like he wanted to say more but held his tongue this time.
“Unless you and your team have anything else for us, Ted, I believe this meeting is over.”
The Attorney General rose and walked out while the other three men in her party lingered to offer their apologies.
“Thank God her car’s here and not back at the Lancaster Police Department, where mine is,” Ted mumbled to Josh. “I won’t have to listen to her for long, or at all, if I drag my feet leaving here.”
“Unless she asks you for a private meeting, Ted.”
“I haven’t had enough coffee yet today for that...” Ted sighed.
“Ted, you said in your written determination that Sabrina acted correctly that night, and we thank you for that. As long as my clients stay within the legal definitions of self-defense, would they be in the clear with your office if something like this were to happen again?”
“Unless they hunt down someone who is no longer a threat, yes. They can subdue such a non-threatening person, but eliminating one could get them in hot water.”
“So, my clients could restrain someone once they no longer pose a danger, but they can’t go any further, right?”
“Right. And I hope they never need to.”
A week after returning home, Pete met Sabrina at the ice cream stand in South Lancaster for their first official date.
“Are you sure Prom wasn’t our first date, Sabrina?” Pete asked while they waited in line.
“No, we went as friends, remember?”
“I doubt I’ll forget that night, Sabrina, but you kissed me. That didn’t change it to a date?”
“Why are you arguing semantics with me, Pete?”
“It’d be nice to know what day you count as the start of our relationship, that’s why. I need to make sure my list of important dates is complete.”
“How about my birthday, then? The day you asked me out?”
“Great,” he grumbled. “So, you’ll blame me for forgetting your birthday and our anniversary?”
“You’re a guy, so you were doomed from the start,” she laughed back.
“How are the flying lessons going?” Pete asked once seated at a table.
“Great! By the time I get my private license next summer, my instrument training should be finished. Uncle Hamish will sign me off on both, and I can work on some other qualifications.”
“Like what?”
“Night VFR or over-water VFR flights. Depends on how much time I have between school, hanging out with you and our friends, and hockey season. After New Year’s, I’ll be taking driving lessons, too.”
Pete laughed.
“It’s weird that you already know how to fly but don’t have any time behind the wheel of a car yet.”
“I know! Strange, isn’t it?”
They walked over to a barrel and threw their trash away.
“How are your workouts for that CBA going?”
“The C-F-A? Meh,” she shrugged. “I’m improving on each part, but overall improvement is slow, especially when I do all of them in succession like the real CFA. You ready to ride up to my house?”
“That hill’s gonna be a killer! I hope you won’t be waiting for me very long if I have to walk.”
Sabrina gave her boyfriend a coy smile.
“If you get too far behind, you won’t be able to check me out!”
She gave Pete an extra little wiggle to watch as they walked to their bikes. Pete found he was kind of looking forward to falling behind Sabrina in a few moments.
Summer vacation ended, and school resumed at the end of August. After Sabrina’s brothers had been driving for six months, the state allowed them to carry non-sibling passengers. In mid-September, Tommy Jones would once again ride to school with them in the mornings. Sabrina learned that Tommy’s relationship with Erica Thorisson was still strong. Naomi and Ruby, Shawn and Desiree, and Pete held hands as they walked to classes or sat together.
Apart from her friends, anyone not playing hockey with Sabrina ignored her unless they had to speak to her as part of a class. The events of the spring still bothered them. Sabrina noticed their treatment right away and ignored them right back. If she had to partner with someone for an assignment, one of her friends was always in a class with her, so they would pair off.
The families who signed their children up for classes at the dojo had already reconsidered their opinions of the junior instructor. If they still had questions, a few spoke to Keiko on their own. Sabrina’s students couldn’t care less. The few younger kids who heard about Sabrina’s experiences received frank answers from their instructor and then forgot their concerns.
After the first week of classes, members of the Fitchburg Shockers hockey team attending Devens Regional joined Sabrina in unofficial preschool workouts. With no team at DRHS again this year, the athletic director saw no reason not to allow the players access to the underused rink. The fact that the athletic department also received a semi-anonymous donation to offset rink-related expenses didn’t hurt, either.
Sabrina pushed her fellow teammates hard with conditioning. During suicide skating drills, she even yelled, “Again!” and blew a whistle at the start of each one like Kurt Russell’s character in the movie Miracle. Her teammates found that it was hard to skate while laughing.
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