Broken Promises
Chapter Ten
Laura curled up in her favorite rocker on the back porch and stared blankly out at the yard. She'd just spent the better part of two hours trying to coax her two upset children to sleep, and she was now physically, as well as mentally, exhausted. Alicia had cried almost incessantly for her father until she finally wore herself out, and Christopher….well Christopher still insisted on being pissed at the entire world, and unfortunately she and Alicia existed in that world at the moment, which meant everything that they did or said angered him even further, if that were possible.
Laura, herself, still felt like she was walking around in some sort of fog. From the moment she woke up this morning until this very second, she felt like her whole world had been turned upside down. She knew that Frank was going to be leaving, and she thought that she'd been doing pretty well in preparing herself for that. But when she woke in the morning and found that he'd left with only a note explaining his actions, she felt like she'd just had the wind knocked out of her. She closed her eyes and leaned her head against the back of the rocker. She wanted so much to give into an almost overwhelming desire to break down and cry again, but she knew that now, more than ever, she needed to find a way to hold it all together. She was a firm believer that children fed off of the feelings that surrounded them. If she allowed herself to wallow in the heartbreak then they would more than likely do the same. But still……..
The screen door opened slowly and a figure moved toward her cautiously. Laura opened her eyes then and turned to look at who approached her. A small smile graced her lips when she realized that it was Frank's mother, Maria.
"Are they still asleep?" Laura asked quietly.
Maria crossed to one of the other chairs and sat down. "I think they'll both sleep through the night. It's been an exhausting day for them."
Laura nodded sadly, and was genuinely glad that her mother-in-law was there to help out. When she called her earlier that morning, Maria had dropped everything to come to Laura's aid, just as Laura knew she would.
"How do you do it?" Laura asked her.
Maria smiled. "Do you mean, how do I keep from worrying myself to death?"
"Uh huh. All these years…..everything that Frank's been through……and here you sit, looking as if you don't have a care in the world," she told her with a hint of awe in her voice.
Maria sighed and looked at the woman who had become a daughter to her not only in name but in her heart as well. "Laura……all I can say is that I trust Frank. I know that he'll do the best that he can to come back to us in one piece. That doesn't mean that I don't worry. It just means that I decide to put my faith in the good man I know my son to be."
Laura shook her head. "I have faith too, but this time……this time there are different forces at work. In the past, he chose to become a part of the missions presented to him, but now he's being forced back into a life he left behind a long time ago." She paused to look out at the tranquil back yard, her eyes losing focus as she was caught up in the whirlwind of emotion inside of her. She was angry…..heartbroken….. and scared beyond belief. "It was different before. He only had himself to worry about….to answer to. What if he's forced into a situation that compromises the man that he is now?"
Maria looked thoughtfully at the woman who sat across from her. "You have to trust him to do the right thing, Laura."
Laura turned to look at her mother-in-law. "I do trust Frank……implicitly. The problem is Luis Mendoza. I remember him all too well. He's ruthless, cold-hearted, manipulative…..all of the things that Frank isn't. What if……what if while he's there, he does something……" Laura couldn't finish as the tears began to form in her eyes once more.
Maria leaned forward and took Laura's hand in her own. "I wish that I could tell you not to worry. I wish that I could tell you that everything will be all right. All I know is that in order to get through this, I choose to believe that Frank will always do what's right. I believe that, Laura. I always have."
Laura held Maria's hand a little tighter and gave her a sad smile in return. Maybe it was a blind spot that all mothers had that made them refuse to believe that their children would ever be capable of committing heinous crimes. She didn't have the heart to fill Maria in on all of the questionable activities that her son had been involved in over the years. "I know…..I know. You have no idea how much I want to believe that too." Still holding Maria's hand, Laura laid her back against the rocker and stared up at the stars that had just become visible.
"Why don't you go inside and try to get some rest. I'll wait up a while to make sure the kids are settled in," Maria told her, sensing her fatigue.
"You're sure you don't mind?" Laura asked tiredly.
"That's why I'm here, sweetheart."
Laura smiled at Maria once more and then slowly stood in order to make her way to her bedroom, pausing briefly to place a gentle kiss on her mother-in-law's cheek. "I'm so glad that you're here," she whispered to her.
"Sleep well, and don't worry about the children. If they wake up in the middle of the night, I'll take care of them. You need to get some rest."
"Thank you," Laura replied one final time before entering the house.
Maria waited until she heard the door shut soundly behind her, before letting out a disturbed sigh. She wasn't quite as naïve as she led Laura to believe. Although she hadn't been privy to many of the details of Frank's past CIA endeavors, she still had a fairly good idea what her son had been up to so many years ago. Please Frank…..come home soon. If you could only see how this is ripping your family apart. Sighing once more, she rose from her chair and entered the house to check on the children before heading to bed herself.
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Frank woke sometime right before dawn. His first thought upon awakening was that he was glad that no other "dreams" had interrupted his sleep. After the brief flashes of memory that he'd had the previous afternoon, he was a bit apprehensive about what that experience would bring. When nothing occurred, he felt somewhat more relaxed about the upcoming day's activities. Today, he was scheduled to begin his reorientation in earnest.
Rising from the bed, he walked to the closet across the room, and just as he had suspected, he found all of the clothing that he would need. Choosing what he would wear that day, he laid the clothes out on the bed and entered the adjoining bathroom to shower.
Twenty minutes or so later, he emerged from the still steamy room with only a towel wrapped around his waist. As he towel dried his hair, he took the opportunity to peruse the case file once more, attempting to retain as many of the facts that he found there as he could.
Before dressing, he heard a faint knock on the door. Without turning around, he called for whoever was there to enter.
He heard the door open and nothing else. He looked over his shoulder expecting to see one of Marsh's minions standing there, but instead he was faced with a girl of no more than 20 years, timidly holding a tray full of food.
When Frank turned more fully in her direction, she quickly averted her eyes, clearly embarrassed at having found him in such a state of undress.
He took a moment to study her. She was young, of some sort of Spanish heritage with long, straight, almost black hair, and, as he first surmised, rather timid.
"Hello?" he began carefully, bending slightly in order to get a better look at her eyes.
With her head still hung, she returned in a shy voice, "Hola, señor. El señor Marsh me pidió que le trajese el desayuno." [Hello, sir. Mr. Marsh asked that I bring your breakfast to you.]
"Gracias," he answered her, more than a little confused by her presence there. Why would Marsh have some young girl serve him a meal? Clearly she was not an agent, so what explanation could there be? "Por favor... puede poner la bandeja en la mesa que hay junto a la cama." [Please……you can put the tray on the table next to the bed.]
She nodded her head slightly and then moved to deposit the tray where she had been instructed. As she did so, Frank still stared after her. Her being there was an enigma…..a puzzle of sorts.
"¿Qué es su nombre?" [What is your name?]
At first she seemed puzzled by his question, almost as if the answer mattered very little. Then with a quick glance up at his face, careful to avoid looking at any other part of his nearly naked body, she replied quietly, "Nina."
"Gracias, Nina, por traerme el desayuno. Mi nombre es... Luis," [Thank you, Nina, for bringing my breakfast to me. May name is……Luis], he told her, almost forgetting to go by his new given name.
Again she nodded, but this time she looked into his eyes for at least 2 seconds before dropping her eyes to the floor once more.
"¿Necesita algo más?" [Do you require anything else?] she inquired, obviously not comfortable in his presence.
Although he had a thousand questions he would have liked to ask her, he sensed her anxiety and decided to let her go. "No... gracias, Nina." [No….thank you, Nina.]
Without another word or sound, she quickly made her exit, closing the door almost silently behind her.
Frank stared after her, puzzled by her presence there. After a few more moments, he finally returned his attention to the work at hand, momentarily forgetting the young woman.
After eating and dressing, Frank made his way toward the common area of the building. He was as ready for the events of the day as he'd ever be. So now he went in search of where it would all begin. Before he even made it halfway through the room, the main door opened. Marsh and another man that Frank had never seen before entered.
Frank took a few seconds to study the new person. Military….his whole personae screamed military, from the shine on his boots to the severe crew cut he wore. The only thing missing was the fatigues.
"Luis….this is Steven Varner. He'll be in charge of the exercises that you'll be going through in the next week or so."
Frank nodded his head in acknowledgement, but said nothing.
"I trust you slept well," Marsh asked him.
Frank frowned slightly at the half-asked question. Was Marsh faking concern over his well-being because of this stranger's presence? Again, he merely nodded.
The two men exchanged a quick look before Varner stepped forward. " A man of few words, eh?" Again he received no verbal response, so he continued. "Good. That can be handy out in the field."
"Mr. Varner," Frank finally spoke up, "I don't know how much of my past you're familiar with, but this isn't my first assignment. I've been, as you say, out in the field, dozens of times. So if you don't mind, let's cut the crap and get down to work."
Varner turned once again to look at Marsh before responding, "Fine…..but let's get one thing straight……you follow my orders implicitly. You wanna play bad ass? Fine, as long as you do what I say when I say to do it."
Frank glared at the man before him, but chose once again to say nothing. He knew that whatever he would be subjected to in the next week or two was necessary and if he had to put up with Steven Varner in order to get through it, then so be it.
"This afternoon you report to me in the field to the south of here. You'll find all the gear you'll need……weapon, Kevlar vest, etc…..in the cabinet to your left." Varner turned to leave then, but paused briefly before doing so. "May I suggest that you leave your attitude here before then." And with that he turned heal and left.
"That went well," Marsh piped in, secretly rejoicing in the exchange between the two men. Steven Varner had been picked for the exact reason that he'd just witnessed. Marsh knew that Varner would push Frank to his limits, and possibly beyond, which is exactly where Marsh needed him to be.
"I meant it, Marsh. Let's cut the crap and get down to business. I don't want to be here, but I'm here just the same. So if you don't mind, I'd like to get started so that I can get out of here as soon as possible."
Marsh had started to head for the door, but when Frank's recitation began he stopped and turned to look at his agent. "Are you finished? Or do you want to whine a little more before we get started?" Marsh asked snidely.
Frank clenched his teeth tightly, but kept his mouth shut. There were ten thousand things he could think to say in reply, but they would only waste time in the process.
Marsh couldn't help but appreciate the amazing self control that Frank was currently exhibiting, but didn't dare comment on it. So without another word he turned to once again head for the door with Frank reluctantly following. When he reached the entryway and opened the door, he suddenly asked a question from out of the blue.
"So, Luis….what did you find on my desk yesterday?"
Frank stopped short of following and stared at the man's back. He should have known there was some sort of surveillance in the room, as there probably was throughout the whole compound, but he was still caught off guard by the question.
Marsh didn't stop, but continued through the door and into the open air. When he finally heard Frank open the door and follow, he once again asked, "So….what did you find?"
Without commenting on how he'd been found out, Frank simply answered. "Papers, files, a computer."
"Don't be an ass, Luis. I'm asking what you found there. As in, what information," Marsh commented without losing stride.
Frank sighed heavily, again trying to keep his temper, and reluctantly answered. "I didn't find much. Training schedules…..flight manifests to Colombia and Bolivia……names of personnel."
"And?"
"It was all fake," Frank answered simply.
It was Marsh's turn to stop. "What makes you so sure about that?" he asked curiously.
"First off, if it was anything important, I'm sure that you wouldn't have left it out in plain sight. Second, the schedules overlapped….times didn't coincide. And lastly, the names on the papers……most were names of individuals who died years ago and as per CIA policy, personnel names are never printed out on paper where they could be easily snatched up."
Marsh gave Frank a smug grin. "So…..maybe you haven't been out of the loop too long. This may not take as long as anticipated."
"My first test, I'm assuming," Frank commented.
"Something like that," Marsh answered simply before turning and continuing his way to the main building. Frank took a deep breath and followed.
After several hours with Marsh going over detail after tedious detail of Luis Mendoza's life and recent activities, Frank was finally allowed some free time to eat and prepare himself for what the afternoon would bring. As he sat alone in the kitchen area of the barracks, finishing off the sandwich that he'd made himself, his thoughts began to stray. He wondered briefly how Laura and the children were doing, but he refused to let himself linger in that direction. He missed them….terribly, but he needed to keep his mind focused on the work at hand. No, instead his thoughts turned to other details of this odd incarceration of sorts. He was still puzzled by the presence of the girl who had brought his breakfast earlier that morning. What part did she play in all of this? Since she left his room earlier that morning, he hadn't seen her. Was she just another pawn in Raymond Marsh's twisted game? That thought alone disturbed him. The girl seemed so young, so innocent, and the thought that she was somehow being manipulated into something she couldn't even fathom, upset him.
However, he had very little time to dwell on thoughts such as that. Soon after lunch, he found Varner exactly where he said he would be, and for the next 8 hours he was subjected to drill after drill. Some involved weapons, others were simply elaborate games of cat and mouse. And although Frank performed admirably through out it all, he still felt that he had a lot to improve upon.
It was well after 9:00 before he was allowed to head back to the room he'd been assigned to. He was hot and sweaty after an afternoon of exercises in the muggy Florida sunshine, and he could think of nothing better than taking a refreshing shower and relaxing for the rest of the evening. His body ached, and his mind was swimming in all of the details of Luis Mendoza's life.
As he reached his room, he stopped suddenly when he saw that Marsh was waiting there for him.
"What the hell do you want?" Frank asked tiredly.
Marsh smiled thinly. "I was just curious how your first day in training went."
Frank brushed past the man. "As if you don't know," Frank responded coldly. "Don't tell me your surveillance cameras all failed."
Marsh suppressed a chuckle. "Point taken."
"So tell me why you're really here," Frank instructed while he peeled off first the vest and then the shirt he wore underneath.
"Always to the point, Luis……an admirable quality. Actually, I thought you might be interested in reacquainting yourself with an old friend."
Frank stopped his movements and turned his head to stare at the man. "Old friend? Who the hell are you talking about?" Frank asked confused.
"I think he's talking about me," a silky voice responded from the still open doorway.
Frank had been standing with his back to the entry, but when he heard a sultry woman's voice, the hair stood up on the back of his neck and he froze. Trying desperately to remain calm, he slowly turned around to see the object of his recent dreams/visions standing in the doorway. Lucia. He'd been silently praying that she wasn't real….that somehow his warped, stress-filled mind had conjured her up, but there she stood, in all her sexually charged, voluptuous glory, and Frank's blood ran cold at the sight of her.
When he didn't immediately respond to her, she sashayed into the room and approached him, noting that his eyes roamed her body as if of their own free will. "What? No words of welcome, Luis?" she pouted for effect.
No words would come to him, his throat suddenly dry and parched. He felt helpless to do little more than stare at her wide-eyed.
She stopped only when she was standing no more than a foot away from him. "Have you missed me?" she asked in a low, intimate voice, a slight smile tilting her full lips.
"Who….who the hell are you?" Frank finally managed to ask. Even though she was familiar to him, he still had no idea how she fit into all of this.
"Ohhhh…..I'm so disappointed, Luis. How could you forget me?" she asked in a sickeningly hurt voice. "We made such a great team, you and I….." She paused to step even closer to him. Laying a well-manicured hand upon his bare chest, she rose up on her toes and added in an intimate whisper, "……in and out of bed."
That seemed to snap Frank out of his hormone induced rapture. He snatched her hand away from his chest and stepped away from her. "Get the hell away from me," he nearly hissed at her.
"Luis…." she began as she attempted to approach him once again.
"NO! I said get the hell away from me!" he ordered as he took even more steps in the opposite direction.
Marsh witnessed the exchange and knew that tonight was not the night for any further….engagement……between the two. "That's enough, Lucia. Luis has had a hard day. I think it's time for him to get some rest."
Lucia shot Marsh an evil glance, but quickly calmed when she saw that he meant business. She would just have to bide her time till a more opportune moment presented itself.
"Perhaps another time would be better," she offered. Smiling at Frank once more, mustering up all of the sex appeal that she could, she added. "I look forward to spending more time together, Luis. Perhaps without other prying eyes about. After all, we have so much to catch up on."
Frank stared at her with a look akin to disgust. He wanted nothing more to do with her, and yet……. He watched her leave and felt an overwhelming sense of relief when she was no longer in sight. He turned then to look at Marsh, trying to gauge the man's reaction to what had just transpired, but was having difficulty reading what he saw in the other man's eyes. Amusement? Keen interest?
"What the hell was that all about?" Frank finally asked, although part of him really didn't want to know.
Marsh looked down at the floor before answering. "You'll know soon enough," was all he said.
Before Frank had a chance to say anything further, two men in lab coats walked into the room carrying some sort of equipment.
Knowing what Frank's next question would be, Marsh quickly jumped in with the answer. "This," he indicated, pointing to the items that the men were carrying, "is part of an experiment we'd like to conduct."
"I'm not your God damned guinea pig, Marsh!"
"I know that. Let me explain. It's a documented fact that people who have multiple personalities have different brain wave patterns depending on which personality is dominate at the moment. What we'd like to find out, is if the same holds true for agents undergoing indoctrination. Obviously we can't hook these sensors up to you during the day when you're active, but with your permission, we'd like to do so at night while you sleep."
Frank looked at Marsh like he'd just grown two heads. "You've gotta be kidding me."
"No…..it's very true. If these sensors are applied correctly, you'll never know that they're there."
Frank shook his head in exasperation and walked away from the three men. It was bad enough that he'd been yanked away from his life and forced into a mission he didn't want to do, but now they wanted to subject him to some sort of weird science experiment. Tired…..flustered by the encounter with Lucia just moments earlier, Frank relented. "Fine…whatever…..but at least let me get a shower first and then you can hook me up to whatever."
"Wonderful," Marsh said, before walking toward the door. "I'll see you in the morning." Frank waved him away as if dismissing him and stepped into the bathroom closing the door noisily behind him.
When Marsh heard the water of the shower turn on, he turned to the two technicians. "Do you understand your orders?"
"Yes, sir," the one answered. "We're to monitor Agent Donovan's sleep patterns and apply a low level of electric current whenever he shows signs of slipping into REM sleep."
"Exactly. It's extreme, but necessary in this case. We don't have the time necessary to go through all of the programming necessary, and the sooner he breaks, the sooner we'll have Luis Mendoza back.
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