Chuck vs. the Unknown Soldier
Chapter 7
Alex… Her voice sounded in Alexander Coburns head, awakening him from a dream. For a brief instant he didn't know where he was. Then he remembered…
He was being held in a place underground, and the only thing keeping him from total terror was the realization that the people holding him here were the Right People; the people who would keep him safe from the Wrong People.
I'm not sure this isn't a mistake…
Alex could sense Her reservations about this.
What if you're wrong about these people? What if they're the Wrong People?
"They're not," Alex murmured softly, taking care to whisper lest anyone should be listening in. He lay back on the bed, looked around the plain little room they'd left him in. No doubt it was securely locked, a simple security precaution.
She was still worried…
What if they put you into a bunker? You do realize you might never see Lexi again?
There was that possibility, Coburn knew, a very real one, and cold fear touched his spine at the thought of it. But there had only ever been these two choices…
Either go to the man with a computer in his brain, or let the Wrong People take me…
There were far worse fates out there than being put into a bunker for the rest of one's life…
There was a clicking sound, and as Coburn sat up, the door slid open and four men entered the small room; and Coburn recognized all four of them…
First there was the man with a computer-the Intersect-in his brain and he looked like he wasn't happy at all.
Next was Morgan Grimes-of all people!-and there was anguish in his eyes; no doubt over what grief Lexi was going to be put through.
The third man Coburn was slow in remembering, but finally he remembered the scientist he had tracked down back in '98; the man he had warned about wearing body armor.
Looks like he took my advice…
The fourth man, however, brought old memories back, from before Honduras, from when Alex Coburn had been a hale, healthy young man, fully capable of protecting himself…
"Sensei? Captain Bennet?"
Bennet smiled at that.
"It's good to see you Alex."
Now it was time to see which way the wind was blowing…
So, Coburn took a deep breath, and asked the all-important question…
"Have they decided which Bunker they're going to put me in?"
The man with the Intersect in his head flinched, and Morgan just…exploded.
"Don't say that, Alex! We're not going to let you get put into a bunker, and that's final!"
"Morgan, buddy?" the first man spoke up. "I've got this, okay?"
"All right, Chuck," Morgan nodded, let out a shaky breath. "I just don't want Lexi to lose her Dad…"
The first man-Chuck?-nodded.
"We'll do what we can," he promised.
But, what could they do?
Coburn didn't want to live out the rest of his days in a bunker, but what else was there?
He brought his gaze to Bennet, knowing he could trust his old teacher; first his Drill Instructor, then his Sensei, Bennet had taught Coburn so much about himself, and the capabilities he had…
He could trust Bennet to do the right thing here, whatever the right thing was…
Bennet cleared his throat now, bring all eyes to him.
"The General has been informed," he said. "She wants to see Mr. Coburn."
Coburn nodded uncertainly as Her voice hissed in his mind.
Be careful Alex! There are things she must not know!
It took a few minutes, but eventually everyone was in what looked like a Control Center, with banks of computers and monitors; the largest of which showing the NSA Logo. Ty Bennet settled Coburn in a chair, and then tapped a key on the keyboard in front of the giant monitor.
When the woman's stern features appeared on the monitor, Coburn felt his breath catch. She, too was one of the Right People, and that was just as well, because he just knew she held his fate in her hands.
"Ah… Colonel Bennet, Agents Bartowski and Agent Grimes…"
Then her eyes focused on him...
"Mr. Alexander Coburn," she said. "You have provided us with quite the quandary. I see from looking at your files that you are the only survivor of Project Neurostim, and-"
"Excuse me," Coburn felt as if he had been punched in the chest. "Project Neurostim? What the hell-pardon General-is that?"
Beckman frowned.
"You weren't told?"
Coburn laughed bitterly.
"They told me I had been shot in the head by an American gun at close questers, and that I had a long recovery ahead of me; and that was all they told me."
"So you don't know what they did?"
Feeling chills creeping up his spine-he had seen far too many late movies for the Insomniac Crowd-Coburn struggled to keep a calm tone in his voice.
"No, Ma'am, they didn't tell me anything."
Beckman sighed at that.
"I suppose it falls to me then…"
So, she told him the whole story, and finally Coburn had an explanation for all those baffling abilities he had received upon awakening from the coma back in '94…
He sat there, trying to wrap his mind around the fact that his ability to see the future was real, not a hallucination, like so many of the docs had insisted; that there was an explanation for why he knew things the way he did; and there had been others…people just like him…
"Where are the others?" he asked. "What happened to them? Are they okay?"
Beckman sighed again, and he could feel the sadness in that exhalation.
"Please understand," she said. "This was born out of the very highest motives. Too many of our young people were coming home with traumatic brain injuries, hundreds of young men and women condemned to live out their lives in vegetative states; living, but not truly alive…"
Coburn shivered…
I was one of those…
Beckman continued.
"Some of our medical specialists decided to work with other scientists…"
Here, her eyes went to the scientist that seemed to be related to Chuck somehow, and that man took up the tale…
"Working together, we developed sort of a mini-intersect. Its sole purpose was to remap designated areas of the brain. It was hoped that this would…reboot the brain, and make it possible to bring all these young people out of their comas, and Project Neurostim was completely successful in its stated objective. But no good deed ever goes unpunished…"
"What happened?"
Coburn really didn't want to know. But it was always the thing you didn't want to know that would bite you in the ass later on…
The scientist sighed too…
"They all went insane," he said. "They all reported altered states of mind, prescience, clairvoyance, even some remote-viewing; and they all died, either by their own hands, or by other hands. And you're the only one left out of one hundred young men and women. Tell me, is it true you predicted 9/11?"
Coburn bowed his head, remembering all the nightmares all through the Nineties…
"Yeah," he said. "I just kept on dreaming of the planes hitting the Towers. If only people had listened to me instead of dismissing me as a loony…"
"What's done is done," Beckman spoke crisply. "We can't change the past, but we can look to the future, which brings us to you, Mr. Coburn, and how we may best keep you safe…"
"Uh…General?" Chuck raised a hand. "I'd like to make a suggestion here, if I may…"
"Certainly, Agent Bartowski."
Here, Chuck rubbed his hands together, a touch nervously.
"You know," he began. "It wasn't all that long ago when you were trying to get me into that bunker, and I think we all know how much of a mistake that would've been…"
"Your case is a far different one from that of Mr. Coburn," Beckman said. "You don't have any physical disabilities, and the latest Intersect has given you a plethora of abilities with which to defend yourself. Mr. Coburn here can barely walk, and running is completely out of the question for him. Further, there are the seizures and fugues states that he must contend with. The Home he currently resides in is also far too vulnerable a place should he be discovered there."
"You could have him live with Ty Bennet" Morgan Grimes spoke up.
"Don't you live there?" Beckman asked.
"Well…ah…" Morgan cleared his throat, looking just a little uncomfortable as he swung his gaze to Coburn…
"I was going to ask your permission," the young man said. "But you ran off again, and ended up here. Lexi and I have been talking about moving in together. We were going to take the apartment next to Ty Bennet, the one Mrs. Tracy had before she left to live with her grand-daughter. Is it all right? I mean I would totally understand if you said no…"
Coburn felt torn, he really did. On the one hand, Lexi was his little girl. But the Knowing that sometimes filled him told him that Morgan was Lexi's One-and-only…
"Do you love her?"
"Yes, sir," Morgan affirmed. "With every fiber of my being."
So Coburn guessed it was decided…
But one more question remained; one that left him feeling positively dizzy…
After all these years of living life as a cripple, unable to do anything…
"Will I be allowed to serve my country?"
Beckman raised an eyebrow.
"Of course you will, Mr. Coburn. You shall share Colonel Bennet's living quarters as soon as our people have made the apartment Handicap-Compliant. That should take about six hours, so you and the Colonel can wait here until everything is made ready."
Everything happened according to schedule, much to Morgan Grimes' surprise. The cover story for Coburn's change of residence had taken a little work, but it was clear to Morgan that Lexi accepted the explanation of Ty Bennet as an old Marine buddy of Alex's. Further, she was heartened to see that somehow-rather mysteriously in fact-her father had qualified for a little-known program that gave gravely handicapped vets like her father a live-in nurse to look after him 24/7…
Of course, she couldn't know that that particular nurse also knew how to strip and clean guns, and held multiple black belts in all sorts of Martial Arts. But she knew her father was happier-looking than he had been in some time, and that met with her approval.
When everyone had gotten moved into their new digs, Chuck decided to throw a house-warming party, and there was pizza and soda; and Morgan and Lexi had a gift for Alex Coburn.
Coburn looked at the little thing suspiciously.
"What the hell is it?" he bounced the thing in his hand.
"It's an IPOD, Alex," Morgan said. "It's high time you moved into the Twenty-First Century."
He put the ear buds into Coburn's ears, turned the thing on, and saw Coburn's eyes widen.
"We found all your favorite songs-All the Yes, and Pink Floyd, and some others Lexi says you like, and put them all on your IPOD, so you can have your music any time you want."
"What about my cassette deck and my tapes?"
Morgan sighed…
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink…
"They're all in your bedroom if you insist on living in the Stone Age. But all your songs are also here on the IPOD too…"
"As long as I can still play them in my room," Coburn grumbled his thanks, then settled down to listen to Close to the Edge, by Yes as the party got started…