2009 EST
UNDISCLOSED LOCATION

A steady shower fell as the bodies of the three agents were carried from the ambulance into the hospital’s morgue. One by one they were carefully moved onto a stretcher and wheeled into the hospital through the back entrance. This began the last leg of the journey for the three men who had died doing their job and serving their country.

She stood in the lobby waiting. Waiting for them to take her back home; waiting for some answers; waiting for herself to wake up from the hellish dream she seemed to have stumbled in to. The two men in black suits walked over to her once again and motioned for her to follow them. They had come to her house and escorted them both to the hospital earlier in the evening. They gave no reasons, but being used to this sort of secrecy, she gave them no argument and willfully accepted their intrusion.
Slowly the men led them down a dark, damp corridor into yet another lobby. This one, however, was not as pleasant and inviting as the former one had been. The walls had been painted a light gray and the light overhead provided not much light at all while it buzzed continually and annoyingly in her head. She felt a small, cold hand slip into her own as the men halted them to stop. She grasped the hand firmly, determined to keep her fear hidden behind the stern expression she had pasted onto her face.
Cautiously she looked around the gloomy room. Only four other people, besides the two of them and the men that had escorted her, stood in the room. Two of the four were men. Their distinction was not their attire, for their black suits matched exactly, but their age. One was a younger man of about 30 while the other was an elderly gentleman with white hair. The other two people in the room were women. Both were middle- aged, she guessed, but both had very different looks on their faces. One of them, the blond one, wore a confused, tired expression like she had been dragged out of bed against her will.
The other woman, however, wore a sad expression. She looked as though she had been to hell and back again within the past few days. The woman pushed a strand of her long, dark hair behind her ear, uncovering her pale face. Her lips never quivered, and the strength behind her eyes was evident, but the tear stains on her face revealed the obvious pain and sorrow she was feeling. The woman looked up and glanced around the room, her eyes coming to rest on the two of them. She obviously thought they seemed out of place, and she was right. They shouldn’t have been there, but it had been his wishes and they were really the only ones who had been close enough to him to perform this act.

One of the men who had escorted them had disappeared behind a doorway and emerged seconds later, motioning to both her and the dark haired woman. As they began to walk forward, the man stopped her and motioned downward. “Better leave the little one here,” he said, gruffly.
She nodded and stooped down to whisper a few muffled words to the owner of the hand that was clinging to her so desperately. The little hand reluctantly let go and she proceeded through the door, allowing it to slam shut behind her.
After the door had shut, the man in black flipped a switch on the other side of the room and a yellowish glow slowly illuminated the space. A desk appeared at the back of the room and the man moved to sit behind it, motioning for the two of them to sit also. They obediently sat, the woman on the left and she on the right. The man reached into the desk, pulled out a folder, and began flipping through its contents.
“If you don’t mind,” she began, trying desperately to keep her voice steady. “I would like an explanation.”
The man looked up at her, an annoyed expression crossing his face. He sighed deeply, then spoke. “You both are familiar with Mr. Webb’s line of work, correct?”
A lump formed in her throat and the dark haired woman turned to look at her. This one question had answered her’s completely. This had to do with him. Slowly she looked up at the man seated across from her, immediately realizing he was waiting for an answer. She nodded once, signifying that she knew.
The man shook his head and re- adjusted the glasses that were perched on his nose. “This is just standard procedure,” he mumbled and rose from his seat, once again motioning them to follow. He led them to another section of the room and for the first time, she realized there was another person in the room. This man, also clad in black, slowly rolled a stretcher out under the overhead light.
She managed to suppress the scream that was threatening to burst from her mouth. “Oh, God, no,” she said, shaking her head back and forth.
“Miss,” the man said. “We just need you to try to identify the body,” he added, unzipping the body bag and revealing a man’s corpse.
Her pulse quickened as she stepped closer to the stretcher. A loud gasp escaped her as she bent over the body. The face was decayed beyond recognition, but she knew, felt rather, that it was him. “Oh my God Dad, no!” she screamed and fell to her knees, taking short, deep, and painful breaths. “Oh, Daddy...” she whispered as tears streamed down her face.