Ch 14

Deliver Us From Evil…

Mike glanced in his rearview mirror one last time before making the turn onto the road that led up to Ed's house. After taking several detours he was pretty sure he had not been followed. When the two men claiming to be from the Department of Defense had showed up at the Montecito looking for Danny, Mike's spidey senses had gone on full alert. While they claimed that they only needed Danny for some further debriefing after his tour, something did not seem right about the whole situation. Mike told them that Danny was out of town due to the death of one of his fellow soldiers and the knowing glance the two men shared had only served to confirm his suspicions. As soon as the men were off the property he had called Ed, but when there was no answer he dialed Mary and learned that he wasn't the only one who had received an unexpected visit.

Pulling through the gate, Mike parked his car behind Mary's and let himself in–the occupants of the house were probably in full crisis mode and had no time to answer the door. Making his way through the foyer, Ed's voice let Mike know that they were in the living room and he moved to join them. Letting his presence be known, but keeping his mouth shut as he joined his friends on the couch watching their boss pace the length of the room.

"I know these guys and I know what they're capable of. This thing has gotten way out of their control and they're doing clean up, Danny, and until we have a better idea of what that means, you need to lay low."

"I'm not going to just sit back and let the CIA or anyone else destroy my life–kill my friends."

"I know that, but I need you to trust me on this." Realizing the significance of what Ed was asking after the events of the evening Mary turned her gaze to Danny. When he didn't respond right away, seemingly lost in an internal battle, Ed pleaded with him, "Danny, I know that your head is screaming at you that I'm the enemy, but it's not real. I'm begging you to trust me, Danny. Let me help you."

Mary held Danny's hand in both of hers as she listened to Ed. She had been trying to shake off the dread that seemed to have consumed her the moment she'd realized what Danny was going to do. She was trying so hard to be strong–to hold it together for his sake. He needed her now more than ever, but the fear for his safety had been joined by a horrible sense of doubt that she could not seem to overcome. They knew now that so many of the thoughts and feelings he'd experienced since his return had been false–implanted as part of this horrid experiment to try to emotionally isolate these men from their family and friends. As she considered this Mary couldn't help but wonder how many of his feelings since he'd been back were actually his own and how many were an effect of what had been done to him.

She was brought back to the conversation when Danny spoke, his decision finally made, "What's your plan?"

"Even without the chip they've still managed to control you," Ed continued. "I want to get you somewhere the signal can't reach–give your head a break while I try to talk to these guys--try to find a way out of this mess."

"Are you sure that's wise? Letting me go off on my own?" Danny asked–his tone quiet and almost defeated as he thought about what could have happened if Ed had not been able to stop him.

"You won't be on your own," Mary replied, her voice resonating a quiet hysteria. Trying to push her uncertainties to the back of her mind, she gripped Danny's hand tighter. At that moment, his hand in hers seemed to be the only thing keeping her tethered to sanity, but as the doubt continued to bubble to the surface Mary feared she would not be able to hold on to him forever. Regardless, she refused to let him out of her sight again until she was sure that he was truly safe.

Concerned by her tone, the men in the room exchanged nervous glances before Danny leaned closer to place a lingering kiss at her temple. "Okay," he whispered, recognizing that she needed some form of reassurance, but not quite knowing the extent of her fears.

"If we're careful I think you'll be okay," Ed went on. "Assuming Mary's right about what's causing this…"

"I think she is," Mike interrupted. "There's definitely some sort of stray signal being broadcast through the monitors at the casino. It's too scrambled for me to determine its content, but it's too big of a coincidence not to have something to do with Danny."

"So where do we go?" Danny asked. "Do you have some underground bunker I don't know about?"

"No, I'm not really sure yet. I was thinking somewhere remote–away from the trappings of modern technology."

The room fell quiet for a moment, the group considering their options, before Mary responded, "I know a place."

---

"I can't believe you remembered this place," Danny said as he unloaded another bag from the borrowed old truck. He and Mary had quietly hitched a ride with one of Sam's whales to Reno and then driven the rest of the way to this remote cabin outside of Truckee, California–nestled deep in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

"How could I forget?" Mary grabbed an armful of Wal-Mart sacks, a sad smile tugging at her lips as she remembered the summer before her fifteenth birthday. The cabin belonged to an old friend of Larry–the same friend who had loaned them the truck in Reno. That summer he had invited Larry and Danny to use the cabin for a couple of weeks to fish. Danny was allowed to bring one friend and had of course immediately chosen Greg, but when he was grounded for skipping school Mary had begged to come along. By that time, her father was abusing her on a regular basis and while she had yet to tell Danny what was happening she could not bear the thought of him not being close by. It had taken a lot of whining and the promise to do a couple of his book reports, but eventually Danny agreed and told his father that he wanted Mary to be his guest. Her father was reluctant to let her go, but he had finally relented--unable to form a convincing argument when Larry McCoy petitioned him in person.

During the short time they spent here Mary had been able to forget the horror that her life had become and she was hoping it would provide that same solace and security to them now. "That was one of the best summers of my life," Mary said quietly before shaking herself from the memory and making her way towards the cabin.

Danny watched her go, a nagging sense in the back of his mind that there was more bothering Mary than he realized. "Mine too," he said softly to himself before shouldering their bags and following her inside.

The one room structure was well built, but definitely showing its age. The two sets of bunk beds Mary remembered from their last visit had been replaced by a lone double bed which opened the room up for a small sitting area next to the fire as well as a small table and four chairs in the corner next to the tiny kitchen. Mary tossed the sacks containing the new bed linens they'd bought onto the bare mattress and set the rest of the items in the kitchen. Danny followed closely behind–dropping their suitcases on the bed before joining Mary in the kitchen to help put things away. The fridge had been unplugged for quite some time so Danny gave it a quick once over to make sure it was working properly, while Mary put the dry goods they'd bought in one of the cabinets.

The plan was for them to stay at the cabin for a few days and then travel back into Truckee to make contact with Ed. They had left their cell phones in Vegas and purchased a couple of prepaid ones so they would be harder to trace–just in case anyone was listening. During that time Ed was going to seek out some of the contacts he still had in the CIA and try to figure out a way to reverse whatever they had done to Danny and his friends.

Once Danny had unloaded everything from the truck and collected enough wood to supply the roaring fire he'd started to ward off the early winter chill he wrapped his arms around Mary from behind and settled his head on her shoulder. "You okay?" He asked; glad when she seemed to relax against him. She had been so tense since they'd left Vegas and he worried that the stress was finally getting to her. It was so like Mary to hold everything inside–to try to be strong for everyone around her–but Danny knew that only lasted for so long.

"It's been a long night," she replied quietly, running her hands up and Danny's arms where they rested across her stomach.

Danny turned Mary in his arms so he could look into her eyes, but his efforts were thwarted when she quickly buried her head in his chest. Not having the energy at the moment to question her avoidance, Danny kissed the top of her head. "I'll make the bed if you want to shower first."

Pulling herself from his embrace, she kissed him lightly on the cheek in appreciation and moved towards the bathroom–grabbing her duffel bag on the way.

Half an hour later as they crawled into bed Danny was surprised when Mary reached her hand inside his pajama bottoms. Despite his exhaustion, his body instantly reacted to her touch and he found himself removing her clothes as she pulled him on top of her–their bodies joining in a frenzied rush. When it was over Danny lay breathless, Mary's arms and legs wrapped tightly around his body as he remained buried inside of her. It was an intimate lovers' embrace, but to Danny it felt as if they were miles apart.

When he tried to move his body away from hers she held him tighter, "Please don't go. Please don't leave me yet." He could hear her quiet sobs against his shoulder, her hot tears on his skin and his heart ached.

"Mary, honey, everything's going to be alright. Ed is going to find a way to help me and we're going to get through this." When she didn't stop crying, he tried again, lifting his head slightly so he could see her face. "Talk to me…," he pleaded, nuzzling the side of her face.

"I just want you to be better," she finally answered. "…for your thoughts and feelings to be your own. No matter what happens to us…," she trailed off, her voice heavy with tears. "No matter what happens…that's what I want more than anything, Danny."

"Baby, I promise you I won't let anything happen," Danny told her. "My head is getting clearer every minute we're up here and Ed's going to find a way to make it stay that way." Danny moved their bodies so he was spooned behind her, neither of them bothering to redress since the fire had heated the room to within a couple degrees of toasty. "You'll see…," he muttered, exhaustion finally winning its battle. "Everything will be back to normal soon."

As his breathing evened out and he drifted into slumber he barely heard Mary whisper, "That's what I'm afraid of."

---

Ed stood against his car as it sat on a dusty back road outside of Henderson. Unlike his inquiries over the past few months, the message he had sent last night was intended to go straight through official channels. He needed to get their attention and to let them know that he wasn't going to back down on this. Ed had been hesitant to take this approach previously for fear that the Agency would block his investigations, but now that they had a good idea of what was happening there was no more time to waste.

As he watched the dust cloud approach from the east he kept his arms folded–his body language conveying a cool demeanor and masking the rage that was simmering just below the surface. When the non-descript, gray sedan pulled up across from him he was not surprised to see John Kitz step out. The CIA was doing damage control and Kitz was one of the best.

"Ed Deline…fancy meeting you here," Kitz drawled as he assumed a similar stance against his own car–keeping his distance from Ed.

"Cut the crap, Kitz. This isn't a social call. I want you to tell me how to help Danny and the other Marines in his unit."

The other man chuckled a bit at Ed's audacity before replying in an almost chastising tone, "You're not with the Agency anymore, Ed, and the information you're requesting–should it even exist–is highly classified."

"I'm here to make a deal, Kitz. Tell me what I have to do."

"We don't make deals."

"That's bullshit and you know it," Ed fumed, taking a few steps closer until he was standing in the middle of the road. "If you want to keep this thing quiet then you'll make a deal."

"You should know better than to play hardball with us, Ed," Kitz said pushing himself off the car and trying to intimidate Ed with his taller stature. "Besides, at this point it's just coincidence, supposition and some Marines who had a rough time readjusting after being over seas."

"You forget who you're dealing with, Kitz," Ed responded in kind, unfazed by the other man's tactics. "Do you think I'd really make an empty threat? Do you think I'd stake Danny's life on supposition and coincidence?"

"So what? You've got a couple of inconclusive medical tests and a generic microchip?"

The younger man's voice was dripping with sarcasm, but Ed showed no reaction. "Actually, we've managed to isolate a really strange signal going through the Montecito security monitors and we've picked up the same signal at Danny's house and I'm guessing we'll find the same signal within close proximity of all the other men."

"We're not generating that signal. There's nothing to tie it or anything else to us because we're not running this thing."

"Oh, that's right," Ed responded, his tone mocking as he got right in Kitz's face. "You let it get away from you, didn't you? The Agency certainly is slipping under this new leadership."

Kitz rolled his eyes and took a few steps to the side, restoring some space between himself and the older man.

"So, if you guys aren't involved then I've just got one question."

"What?" He asked, annoyed.

"How did a contractor with no ties to any government agency manage to infiltrate a highly trained Marine division and completely brainwash them?"

Suddenly, Kitz did something Ed never thought would happen–he flinched. The movement in his eyes was almost undetectable, but Ed saw it and that was the only signal he needed to go in for the kill.

"I know the Agency authorized the use of the night vision goggles, Kitz, and I've got a pair of them to prove it so what do you say we work together. I don't want to expose this anymore than you want it to be exposed, but I do want you to help those boys. Now, was there a viable exit strategy assembled before this whole mess got started?"

Ed watched closely as Kitz walked a short distance away, putting his hands in his pockets and sighing dramatically. To anyone else it seemed as if he was about to relieve his conscience of a tremendous burden, but Ed knew it was all an act. This man could care less if Danny and his friends died, but he had decided that it would serve his interests and the interests of the Agency to come clean with Ed and solicit his help.

"There is a way, but we haven't been able to test it extensively. We tried the procedure on Danny while he was at Landstuhl, but his head injury posed significant problems."

"Damnit, Kitz, if you knew back then SVI was doing all this, why did you wait so long to take action?"

Kitz finally turned around and moved closer to Ed before responding, "We didn't know the extent of their plans. We pulled the goggles as soon as we realized there were design flaws and thought that would be the end of it until we were ready to proceed again. We monitored all of the participants' medical conditions–obtaining copies of their records–but we really had no idea that SVI still planned to use them as assassins. We didn't realize until Arnie Siegel started making inquiries that something more was going on. Then when he turned up dead…"

"And SVI? Tell me you've at least done something about them."

"I'm sure they were hoping to impress us, but I think they got the message that we don't take kindly to our orders or protocol being circumvented. The SVI offices are closed and as far as we can tell the main players are operating underground."

"If they know you're trying to stop them, then why are they still trying to carry out the assassinations?"

"Because the guy that runs this thing, Jeff Tucker, is an ego maniac and a borderline psychopath. Personally, looking at this guy's dossier I can't believe the Agency even agreed to work with him, but he was the one with the technology. And if we don't use it then I'm guessing he'll find someone else who will which is why it's become priority one to neutralize this entire situation."

Ed shook his head, considering the possibilities of that scenario before responding, "If I find Tucker and bring him in I want your word that you'll do whatever it takes to help Danny and the others–really help them and not just leave them sitting in a mental hospital somewhere with their brains scrambled beyond repair."

"We'll do whatever we can, but we don't want Tucker brought in, Ed. We want him eliminated."

"I can do that too."