THEN

"Time to get in, we're coming up to the gate." Desi said as she slowed the ambulance. She wore the black tac suit of a Phoenix agent. Riley was likewise dressed in the passenger's seat. Mac grimaced at the cart he sat on.

"It'll only be until you get into the building." Jack soothed. He was dressed in the head-to-toe white of an orderly. Mac nodded. He wore the standard patient uniform of brown scrubs with reflective tape along the seams. He knew that the tape acted as a sensor to let his captors know where he was at all times. Mac stood and with Jack's help managed to lie back down. Jack belted him into the restraints. Mac gritted his teeth and closed his eyes forcing himself to relax. He twitched when Jack put a hand on his shoulder.

"Remember these are quick-release-"

"Got it!" Mac cleared his throat. He nodded at Jack, "I got it. Let's get this done."

"I'll be with you the whole time, ok?" Mac smiled, a little reassured. Jack looked through the windshield. The early morning mist hung like cobwebs across the thick pine trees. In the distance, Jack could make out the distant profiles of the badland's jutted buttes. The entire landscape looked like sharp spikes aiming up. Jack leaned back as they approached a yellow and black painted gate. Jack patted Mac's arm and offered him a smile.

"Night, night, kiddo." Mac glared at him. He settled his head back and closed his eyes. He let his body relax.

"Here we go." Desi said softly. She stopped the ambulance and handed a packet of papers to the guards approaching the gate. They flipped through them. Jack squinted his eyes closed when the back door opened. Two TAC soldiers scanned the inside. One jumped up and leaned over Mac. She patted the blonde down and checked under and around the cart. She nodded. Jack followed her out and hopped down. He was padded down by the other soldier while she finished searching the ambulance.

She hopped down and nodded for Jack to return to Mac's side.

"Alright," The Lieutenant said to Desi, "the orderly's to go with him?"

"Yes, we're-"

"Go through lock A, Gate c. That'll bring you to the round. You can drop him and his orderly off at the door then return the way you came in, clear?"

"Yes, sir." Desi rolled up her window and glanced back at Jack.

"All set?"

"Yes."
"No." Mac and Jack said simultaneously. They glared at each other and spoke again in unison.

"No."
"Yes."

"You boys should give up while you're ahead." Riley said. She opened her laptop and scanned the contents.

"No alarms, but it's hard to tell with the dampers. I have limited range communications."
"How limited?" Jack asked as he stuffed a comm in his ear.

"Basically inside the building."

"We'll make it work." Mac said letting Jack put one in his ear. They listened to each other breathing as they passed the next two checkpoints.

Red House 4972 was actually red, bright rust colored red. Jack stared at it. It was naturally red, the color of the dirt and rocks in the area. Locally made bricks? It sat on the top of a steep hill. The dirt track they were on circled around and up the hill. The house had the cold indifferent look of a traditional asylum, but had a turret and gothic curves of dracula's castle.

"This place is creepy." Jack mumbled.

"You got that right. Who built this thing, Frankenstein?" Riley replied. Desi slowed the ambulance.

"Game faces on, boys." She said softly as she hopped out and opened the back of the ambulance.

Jack squeezed Mac's arm as the rear doors opened and two people in medical garb waited to help pull Mac's gurney out. Jack nodded at Riley and Desi and hopped out and walked into the building with them. He rattled off all the stuff Sally made him remember.

One was an orderly or aid. He was a tall, wide man with a man bun and tortoiseshell glasses that made him look cross eyed.

"Is he a danger to himself or others?" The man's voice was dry, almost bored.

"No, he...uh...just the anxiety and panic attacks. He froze on mission." Mac didn't move a muscle, but Jack felt guilty for the words anyway. The orderly nodded and led them to an underground garage and elevator. The other medic bent over Mac doing an assessment on the fly. According to her tag she was Marvella Ingra, the head doctor of this Red House. She was as tall as Mac, but curvy. The biggest curve was in her abdomen. She looked to be about five months pregnant although Jack sucked at guessing these things. Her hair was back in a long ponytail. It looked like a horse's tail made of hay. She wore a red patch over her left eye. It had a white cross on it. Her remaining eye was a weird light gray. Jack felt like a cold diamond dagger was staring out at him as she eyeballed him.

Her voice was low and silky. Marvella could have easily pulled off phone porn; it was distracting as she asked questions. Both appeared to be buying the story Doc Carl and Matty had come up with. He followed them into the elevator.

"He should be out for another two hours or so." Jack finished.

"Tonight we are the only ones here," Ingra said frowning, "The new staff will be here first thing tomorrow."
"I've been transferred here too." Jack tried to keep the smug out of his voice. Of course they had planned the mission to start tonight. Their motto may be improvise, but they did like to start out with a plan-usually. The doctor nodded and looked at the orderly.

"We'll bring him up to third. Those are private rooms, and much less upsetting to patients with heightened anxiety. I'll get him settled in and stay with him for the first shift. Xander will take you for a tour. I'm afraid you're going to have to find your own food. We'll have to split the rest of the night looking after all our patients. We have 75 now, but most of them are regulars." Jack frowned. Regulars? Xander could see his confusion. He grinned showing a wide toothy smile with a gold tooth in the middle of his bottom front teeth.

"She means our old crazy folks. They're kinda fun once you figure out what world they're in. The hard core folks are on the east wing of the first floor. I'll stay down there." Xander's face darkened. He shared a look with Marvella that Jack didn't like. He turned back and smiled, "They're our hardest cases. Very hard to handle." Jack nodded making a note to check out these hardcore cases.

They parked Mac in a room, well more of a stall made with wings of white material that looked either like thick canvas or plastic. Jack handed the pair the wad of papers.

"Ok, I'll admit him, Xander you get him settled for the night. And...what's your name again?" Jack fought not to pose.

"Frank, Frank Castle." He was disappointed when the medics accepted it without a blink. Jack huffed as he made a show of pulling out Mac's bag and stowing his clothes and gear in the small set of drawers by the bed.

"You had to do it didn't you?" Mac whispered. Jack grinned at him. Mac looked at him from cracked lids, the tiniest smirk on his face.

"Shut up, Max Born."

"He's not a comic character." Mac hissed.

"The Punisher is not a comic, it's a...nevermind, you'll never get it you're a pacifist." Mac rolled his eyes and raised up to his elbows. They could hear the soft conversation of the medics.

"I mean you couldn't go Jason Bourne?"

"Max Born is a physicist, he helped create quantum mechanics-"

"Yeah, whatever. Desi's going to find a hidey hole somewhere on the grounds, Riley will get the techy junk going-"

"Techy junk?" Jack put his hand on Mac's chest and shoved him back flat.

"I'm going to check out the patients, and you make nice with the staff-" Mac shoved Jack's arm away. He straightened.

"Then I'm going to wander around and figure out how they are stealing secrets from these people's heads." Jack held out a fist. Mac bumped it then closed his eyes. Jack patted his arm then went to get into trouble.