PART 12 – Hollowman
Maybe I am broken and I can't be fixed
Misunderstood, Misguided, Misfit
I'm it
Oh is there no way out?
I am, I am, I am
Hollowman
"Hollowman" By: Econoline Crush
Friday
July 30, 2004
0650 Local
CIA Headquarters
Langley, Virginia
Harm's head was pounding again, threatening to burst at any moment. Or so he thought. As his senses slowly started coming to, he heard voices, muffled, frantic and saying something that sounded like, "He's waking up." When he finally focused with his eyes, he glanced around noticing the white sterile room and a machine that looked like an oversized arcade game.
He tried to move, but something kept him from doing so. Looking downwards, despite the sense of vertigo, Harm found his hands bound to the arms of the metal chair he was on. He flexed his hands a few times and then tried, without much success to undo the restraints. Getting a better look, he noticed that he was not wearing his uniform, but a plain white hospital gown. "Where. . . Where am I?" He managed to choke out, his throat dry and non-responsive.
Instead of getting a verbal reply, the one that he received was in the form of a painful jab to the back of his knee. He groaned against the sensitive skin that had received already too many injections. In his blood, he felt the chemical moving, burning through his veins and pumping through his heart. For a moment, he was sure that he was going to die. He screamed in pain and choked back the tears. He decided it was a dream, it had to be. "One, two, three. . .WAKE UP." He screamed but received no reprieve. "One. . . TWO. . . THREE. . . WAKE. . ." Just then the chair started moving forward towards the 'arcade machine.'
It slid into the machine, which encased him like a cocoon. He'd been used to small places, plane cockpits didn't exactly have much room to move. But there was something about the machine that was making him claustrophobic. He sat in there silently, with only his heartbeat sounding off in his ears, telling him that he was still alive. The pain from the injection had subsided. It took only a few moments longer for the machine to come alive and give off a bluish hue from some sort of electrical part inside of it. Harm tried to angle his head to get a better position to see where the light was coming from, but the machine had a different idea. A 'U' shaped mechanical arm came out in front of him. The arm then quickly slid into place over his forehead, slamming the back of his head against the back of the chair. He tried to move his head, but it was bound tightly. "Damnit!!! I am a Commander in the US Navy, whoever you are, you can't do this!! You can not do this! People will come looking for me!" The lights inside the machine turned off and Harm sat there quietly, wondering what was going to happen to him now. Was it some torture device? If so, who captured him and why? Before he had a chance to ponder another question, the machine came to life again. Yet another mechanical arm moved towards his face holding a device similar to those used in the optometrist office. As images started being played before his eyes, the need to resist became less and less pertinent. All he could do was obey. In the images he saw himself and a pretty woman with olive skin and beautiful brown eyes. She was a Marine Lt. Colonel, or so the oak leaves on her uniform told him. There was a file of importance and a gun shot to her chest, over the heart. Harm grinned, this was going to be so easy for him.
0730 Local
CIA Headquarters
Langley, Virginia
Mac had spoken to Kershaw three times since Clay had disappeared from her house. He swore they were doing everything possible to locate him. Agents were put close to her building on the off chance that Clay would show up again. It was finally close to six thirty in the morning when someone from Langley called her to come in. So she did. "Damnit, Harm, where are you?" She said softly after she had dialed his cell phone number for the fifth time that day. Mac was worried about him. What if Clay had indeed gone off the deep end and decided to take Harm with him? She frowned at the thought of losing Harm when they finally had gotten somewhere.
"Colonel, come with me."
The agent that had come to get her looked more like a wrestler. Well, it was definitely an interesting contrast to the bubblegum popping newbie's that were getting their souls sucked out by the agency. But, that was the price paid for serving one's country. Or so they thought.
Mac and the agent walked through a long corridor that ended in front of black doors that belonged to an elevator. She turned and looked at the agent and then back to the doors. Why did she feel like something strange was going to happen? "Agent, what's going on?"
The Agent didn't say a word and only moved foreword, using a key to open up a small panel. He, entered in a code. 0690 Mac noticed and committed it to memory. Something told her she should be on high alert. "After you, Colonel." The agent ushered her into the elevator and Mac stepped in only to be left inside all alone.
"What the hell?" She said out loud as she moved toward the elevator buttons. She tried punching the 'open' button, but the contraption was unresponsive. It's then that she felt the jerk and a motion that told her it was going down. The ride took no more than 30 seconds, Mac deduced and when the doors opened she cautiously stepped out into a white room with a long corridor. At the end of the corridor, she saw a man dressed it what seemed to be black BDU's.
There were two doors, one on the left and one on the right. She tried the one on the left first which would not open, for that matter, neither did the right. The corridor was the only thing left so she took it, walking slowly, cautiously, wishing she had her service weapon. "Hello?" She tried keeping her tone hard and edgy. She tried not to show fear, but there was that feeling she got, that made her believe she was in danger.
The man didn't move, he just stood there, feet shoulder width apart. If it wasn't because she knew better, the man looked like Harm. He had the same build, seemingly the same height, the same dark hair. "Agent, I demand to know what is going on." She said to the man, but he didn't move or talk, so she walked quicker. When she did the man stepped away from the corridor and headed down another one to the right.
She followed him, nearly jogging in order to catch up and when she did, he spun around. "Harm. . ." She gasped. It was him but, why was he there? "Harm? What's going on?" And why wasn't he responding to her? "Harm?" She reached out to touch him, but he grabbed her arm and bent it behind her back, spinning her around with a brutal force. He pulled at her and pinned her against him roughly causing Mac to gasp in pain.
His voice, low and malevolent rasped against her ear. "Harm isn't here anymore, Colonel." He tightened his grip on her, threatening to break her arm if she fought him.
"You're . . . Hurting me." Mac said as her eyes started tearing up from the pain. She tried as best as possible to stay still, so that he wouldn't bend any farther, if he did, she knew he'd snap her arm. "Please. . ."
Harm kept his hold on her arm as he walked her forward and towards a room where two other agents were bringing in a kicking and screaming Clayton Webb.
"Let me go!!" He yelled, but the more he fought against the two men, the more they man handled him. Finally one of the men held him while the other delivered a solid punch to Clay's stomach. He doubled over and then defiantly straightened up only to be hit again.
"Stop it!" Mac yelled as she watched in horror what they were doing to Clay. Turning as much as she could, she looked at Harm. "Tell them to stop." But, he just stared at her, with that look, the one that terrified her. He let her go, but she knew that if she moved a muscle, he'd just grab her again, so she stayed close. "Harm, you need to snap out of this, you need to wake up."
Harm grinned and moved a few paces away from her, coolly leaning against a table in the room. From the holster attached on his leg, he pulled out a pistol and aimed it at her. He pointed it towards her chest, aiming for her heart.
"Harm, don't do this!" Clay yelled from his place on the floor, looking up, he motioned over to Mac. "You'll never be able to live with yourself if you hurt her."
Harm's eyes clouded, he looked unsure, but there was something in his mind that kept telling him to pull the trigger. The woman needed to die.
"Harm. . . I love you." Mac said, causing a struggle within him. His hand, the one holding the gun, shook. He couldn't look at her, couldn't see what he was about to do. "Whatever it is. . . fight it. Please." She pleaded and that was when he closed his eyes. "Listen to me... I love you. Fight this."
He opened his eyes and glared at the woman while trying to maintain his weapon on her. "Shut the fuck up." Harm closed his eyes as the hand holding the gun began to shake.Conflicting images flashed behind his eyes. The first were images of him and the woman in an intimate setting. They'd been lovers, he figured, but it was much more than that. The second set of images were of the two of them in some sort of office setting, he had a uniform on, a white one with gold wings. The last was of him pulling the trigger, ending her life. He felt a severe pain in the center of his chest when the final images played behind his closed eyes.
When he opened them, there she was staring at him, eyes pleading him to stop. His eyes were full of tears which fell for reasons he couldn't explain. He had to put her away, it was his duty, it was what he was programmed to do. All the others had been easier, but her. . .
"Harm. . ." Her voice cracked from her own tears. She hoped that in some way she was getting through to him. Damnit, Harm wasn't a cold blooded killer. And just when she thought she'd won him over, that look in his eyes returned and he raised the weapon once more.
Harm shot twice, one bullet going to the agent on the right and the other to the agent on the left. His body then started feeling heavy and he couldn't keep it up anymore. Reaching his hand up, he wiped his nose, he was bleeding again. His head was pounding, vision clouding. A name came to him, one that had to belong to the woman, "Sarah?"
"Harm." Mac quickly rushed to him as his body slumped to the floor. "Clay, help me."
After stripping the agents of their weapons, Clay did his part, helping Mac stand Harm up. "We have to get out of here."
"Yea, no shit." She said, grunting at having to take on half of Harm's weight. "Which way?"
"Uh, I don't know." He stared at her blankly and shrugged. "It's not like I actually spent time down here. . . well, if I did I don't remember. . . I mean."
"Argh. . Clay, shut up and move!" She started heading back down the corridors that she'd used to follow Harm in. It took a bit longer than she remembered, but, eventually, they were standing in front of the elevator.
Clay stared at it. "Now what?"
"We need a key." Mac said with a frown. It was then that Clay produced one that he had taken off one of the agents. With a grin he gave it over to Mac who used it along with the code that the first agent had used. The elevator opened and she grinned. Once inside, Mac hit the 'up' button.
Clay sighed. "Not to jinx things, but maybe this has been a bit too easy."
"Hey, you worked here, I am sure you know how to get us out of here without incident." Mac started moving forward when the doors opened. "Okay, Clay, where are we?"
Clay looked around. "Building two, east wing. . .There is an emergency exit if you go left." But, when they tried to do just that, they ran into the agent that had put Mac in the elevator to begin with. Swiftly pulling out his weapon, Clay shot the man in chest.
They made it to the emergency exit without any more incidents, but the moment they got there, the alarms starting going off. "Sarah, there are camera's everywhere. . . we aren't going to make it out of here."
"But, we ARE going to try. . . I'll be damned if we busted him out of that room downstairs to be caught because a washed up agent couldn't hack it anymore." She spat at him, as she rammed through the emergency exit.
Clay headed into the stairwell with her. "Ouch, a little harsh, don't you think?"
"Harsh? You haven't' even begun to know what harsh IS." They moved Harm's dead weight down the stairwell, trying not to stop until the reached the bottom. "Besides, You got him into this mess, Clay."
Once they busted out of the stairwell, they wound up on the ground floor of the covered parking garage and headed to the first suv they could find. Clay held up Harm, while Mac wrapped her jacket around her arm and slammed her fist in through the window, surprised that a car alarm did not go off. Shrugging, Mac helped Clay with Harm, who was put in the back seat. "And how the hell are you planning on starting that thing? Did you bring an extra set of keys?"
Mac shrugged, seeing no problem. "I'll just hotwire it." She said diving under the dash, working on finding the correct cables to spark. It took her no more than twenty seconds before the vehicle roared to life. Triumphantly she sat up in the drivers seat and then offered a satisfied grin over to Clay. "Product of a misspent youth."