It was an extremely overcast day when we arrived in the park in Providence. The clouds and cool weather gave an overall gloom to the day and as a whole Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta Squads were reasonably anxious. I hate to say it, but most of us were pretty nervous. Nervousness was a feeling we didn’t often find within ourselves when going out to missions that would scare most people to death.

        We decided to transport onto the back side of a small restaurant in the middle of a park with a nice wooded covering, so as to not be seen appearing by any bystanders. The restaurant was a nice little place that served mostly Greek food and had only outdoor, covered seating. Around the outer perimeter of the restaurant was a small brick wall that had openings on each corner of the seating area. Each opening was attached to sidewalks that snaked out to different parts of the large wooded park.

        There weren’t many patrons at the restaurant that day. A family of four sat at a table in the front corner closest to the ordering window and an elderly couple sat on the opposite side of the square gazebo-type covered area.

        In the park itself, I didn’t notice anyone wandering about except one older gentleman feeding pigeons about 400 yards from the restaurant. It was a beautiful place. On an average day people would surely have picnics and play with their dogs, but that day the overall mood in the park seemed dark and un-wanting.

        The 32 of us in The Redeemers walked into the seating area and took up every free table. Each squad had eight members except Alpha Squad who had just lost JoJo. A few of the members of Delta Squad were speaking to each other in French.

        Samuel ordered us to push the square tables together so that we could all sit together and hastily the other six patrons left the restaurant. The elderly couple sitting in one corner of the gazebo looked at us warily, as we moved tables around, and left in a haste that I was surprised to see out of someone of their age. The other family took their leave immediately afterward, so we were left at our tables with no one else around, other than the two Greek women working in the restaurant.

        No one ordered food so we all just sat quietly at the large pushed-together table, drinking water. Aside from when Sylpheny showed up at our underground compound, I hadn’t seen Samuel since he first brought me to Alpha Squad. Looking at him now, I could tell the weight of all that was stirring really did a number on him. His once peppery beard was now mostly  white and the little hair he had had on the top of his head was gone, leaving him completely bald. When I met him, I would have guessed his age to be in the early 40's, but now he looked closer to 60 with the amount of wrinkles that had appeared on his brow and around his eyes and mouth.