The debriefing was a litany of questions from Duke and Mainframe. The answers were carefully documented and cataloged. Hawk sat at the head of the long table, listening and observing. His silence was more disconcerting than the probing Duke was doing into the whole incident.
The questions were difficult to answer. Flint heard echoes of Suarez's warnings in his mind of revealing too much of the future. To withhold information would have been wrong, but to tell the truth would have been much worse. Twice, he had tried the amnesia defense, but Duke was not biting. There was a chunk of time missing between when Scarlett and Leatherneck left Flint and Suarez and when they once again saw each other. He tried to forget the inner details of the egg so that he would have no answers when he was asked for them. Everything had been so vivid, though, he doubted he could forget it all in a lifetime or more.
His mind drifted to the helicopter ride off the mountain. The beer tally was racking up for Wild Bill. Flint decided it would be easier to buy three cases of thanks and call it even. Bill had picked them up on the mountain, flying into the unknown one more time. A small contingent of troopers had dragged Flint's team aboard and airlifted them out of the danger zone and back to the base. Mountain troopers arrived on the scene a short while later to round up the Cobra stragglers who had managed to escape the base's destruction. The base from which the enemy had escaped was no more. The land returned to its natural state, unaltered except for the imprint of boots in the snow.
Flint cooperated in the briefing as best he could without betraying too much information. He was eager to get out of the meeting and see how Jaye was doing. He also wanted to see how Suarez was faring. Doc had given a decent prognosis for both but one dependent on time and expert care. Flint was coherent enough when they chopper landed to fill Doc in on some of the sordid details of what happened inside the mountain, such as the fact that Suarez had stopped breathing and had been revived. Through the haze of muscle ache and general shock, he was able to convey how long she had been down and what Scarlett had done to bring her back. That was sixteen hours earlier. Suarez was holding strong.
He looked over at Scarlett and Leatherneck. Both had dragged themselves to the debriefing, looking as bad as Flint felt. They were battling exhaustion and soreness from the ordeal. Leatherneck was sporting a butterfly bandage in the center of his forehead where the skin had split. The skin was beginning to bruise, forming a large blue disc in the center of an otherwise pasty white forehead.
Scarlett showed no visible signs of injury, but her eyes told a different story. She looked exhausted and sore. Her posture was lazy, an attempt to assuage aching muscles and a weary spirit.
The mission had been successful by all accounts. Mop troops had apprehended seventeen Cobra troopers who would be summarily interrogated for information by Joe handlers and perhaps by some operatives from outside agencies. The outside agents were a dark breed. They did not socialize, not even for a cup of coffee and small talk.
Words in the form of questions droned about the room. Flint realized his mind had been drifting. His thoughts were bouncing through a million points of concern. It did not help that he was so tired his skin ached. It prickled painfully when the air vent above him kicked on and pushed a wave of cool air into the room. Leatherneck and Scarlett dutifully answered the questions Duke posed to them, giving up information as they knew it. Duke was asking, and Mainframe was writing. Hawk, though, was studying Flint.
Flint caught the stare, and it was disconcerting. Something was wrong. He felt the distinct sensation that there was a shoe waiting to drop heavily in the room, only he had no idea what it was. He had been a dutiful officer under Hawk's leadership, and he had come to know the man well enough to know when the whole story was not being told by the commander of the Joe team.
The door to the room opened. A man in a dark blue suit, finely tailored, stepped inside with a cup of coffee and a folder under his arm.
"Sorry I'm late," the man said, pulling out of a chair and sitting down in it, as though he was a regular part of such meetings. He put the mug on the table in front of him and placed the folder carefully next to it, making himself at home.
The man had a youthful look, with close-cropped brown hair that smacked of regular military interaction. He was regulation issue all the way. His jaw was regal and smooth but strong. Large shoulders and a broad neck suggested he favored weightlifting on a regular basis. Flint placed his age at no more than forty.
The room fell silent at his entrance. All heads turned toward him in curiosity. That is, all heads but Hawk's. He simply looked down at the table with his eyes and said nothing. His face was hard, refusing to look at the man or any of those at the table.
"Well," the man said cheerfully, "looks like our little Joes have had a busy night."
Duke was not impressed. "And you are?" he asked sharply, upset that his line of questioning had been interrupted by the rude intrusion.
The man gently smacked his own forehead in feigned regret. "My apologies, Sergeant. I'm Elwood." Then he added, "CIA."
"Odd," Flint said. "Usually it's the NSA that has a stake in our operations."
Elwood shrugged. "CIA, NSA – pick a three-letter agency. They're all signing my paycheck. In the end, it's just your tax dollars at work."
Whereas Flint had been drifting off in thought before, he was now consumed with Elwood and his sudden appearance in the meeting. Once again, he looked at Hawk who was intently playing with the handle on his coffee mug, tracing its contour with his index finger.
"What do you want?" Flint asked pointedly. His patience drained quickly from his control.
Elwood smiled contritely. "Eager is probably not something you want to be," he admonished. "Not when you're part of the package."
Duke became upset. "What does the CIA want with Flint?"
"Just a few details," Elwood said. "He'll be free to go after a debriefing with our agency."
"What else?" Flint prompted.
Elwood took a sip of his coffee and gave an agreeable nod of his head. "Doctor Suarez, of course."
Flint should have known, but it still hit his mind broadside. "What's your interest in her?"
Elwood ticked off the points on his fingers. "Let's see – time travel, weapons transport, oh, and that little thing about knowing the future." He smiled in mocked innocence. "We'd like to know what she knows."
"You're wasting your time," Flint said. "She won't tell you a damned thing." The words escaped his mouth with an unintentional air of pride.
"Well," Elwood said patronizingly, "we ask questions without those nasty rules to hold us back. When I want an answer, I get an answer, and I don't lose sleep over how I get it."
Duke's posture tightened. "That information was strictly confined to this room. Exactly how did you and your three-letter agency find out about it?"
The government man sat back in his chair. "We make it our job to know these things, Sergeant. Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to maintain our mystique so well."
Hawk was still transfixed on the table's surface, letting the conversation unfold between the others in the conference room without so much as a grunt or a nod. Flint's attention kept flitting back and forth between Elwood and the general.
"Gentlemen," Elwood continued, addressing Flint and Duke, "this is a done deal. The only reason I'm in here is that I was ordered to be courteous to the nation's golden children. I guess it pays to have fans in Washington. Otherwise, I would just go do my job and not give a damn how upset it made you."
Scarlett responded for the first time. "I don't think she's in a position to be moved. She was seriously wounded."
"We have our own doctors," Elwood said. "I assure you, she'll receive the utmost care."
The words were eerie to Flint. He could only imagine the doctors employed by the most secretive agency in the country and quite possibly the world. The CIA called the shots when it wanted, and there were few entities that could overrule it. Even though the Joes were separated from traditional ranks of military operations, they were still subject to the commands of the government. The CIA was one of the few entities that might even overrule the government because it felt it to be in its best interest.
"Care, my ass," Leatherneck groused. "You're going to dissect her like a bug."
Elwood said nothing. His silence was more aggravating than if he had fought back with the marine.
Scarlett was not about to let it go. She appealed to a higher power. "General," she said.
Finally, Hawk looked up from his coffee cup. "The Joint Chiefs have given direct orders on this matter, people." He looked at Elwood. "Mr. Elwood takes custody of Doctor Suarez as of this moment."
Elwood smiled. "Thank you, General."
"Don't thank me," Hawk said icily. "I'm under orders. It doesn't mean I like you."
"Few people do," Elwood said. "Now," he said, standing, "if you'll excuse me, I have a prisoner to transport."
He closed the folder and tucked it under his arm again. His coffee cup was empty. He carelessly took it from the table and carried it low. They watched him walk out the door, following his progress through the glass that lined the hallway until he was out of sight.
"General," Scarlett said again, "you can't let him take her."
Hawk's frustration overflowed. His voice was stern. "And what do you suggest I do, Sergeant? We all have bosses, and my boss says she goes with Elwood. He's taking her into custody, and there's nothing any of us can do about that."
"With all due respect, General," Scarlett argued, "she saved this command. For all we know, she saved us from a lot of things that would have turned out very bad had they gone the other way. And we're going to repay her by letting someone like that make her a science project?"
"The discussion is closed," Hawk said to all in the conference room. "Flint, you're ordered to debrief with Elwood's people when requested. Don't give them a hard time. It will only make it worse."
Before anyone could make further comment, Hawk dismissed them. He exited the room quickly and returned to his office off the main situation room.
They sat at the table, looking at one another in disbelief. Time, the very thing that Suarez had come to give them, was running quickly vanishing. Flint found himself truly believing what she had come to do was true. He had watched a man dissolve into non-existence before his very eyes. Flint's only consolation was that Scarlett and Leatherneck had seen it. It was not something of his imagination. They had seen things that could only be explained by the doctor's explanation. She had been telling them the truth, and her intentions had been right.
Flint rose from his chair and turned to leave the room. He had no idea where he was going, but he knew he could not just sit back idly while Nancy Suarez was made a lab rat.
"Flint," Scarlett called.
He stopped and turned to her. "I don't want to hear it, Shana. They're not taking her."
"Go against Hawk's orders, and you'll be pushing pencils for the rest of your career."
Duke chimed in on the warning. "That's if you have any career left."
Flint was surprised to hear Leatherneck speak in his defense.
"Since when did all of you start rolling over and dying so easy?" Leatherneck challenged, picking off the butterfly bandage and tossing it on the floor.
"I'm all for her staying out of Elwood's hands," Scarlett explained, "but there's not much to be done. They're going to take her because that's what they want. You don't tell the CIA it can't have something or someone."
"Then I'd say it's about time," Leatherneck said. "And besides, I just don't like that little weasel."
Scarlett looked at Leatherneck. "Neither do I, but we don't have a whole lot of options."
"I don't have time for this," Flint said. "I at least want to see her before that vulture takes her."
Leatherneck stood from the table. "I think I'll join you."
He met up with Flint at the door. They entered the hallway. The door to the conference room opened behind them. Scarlett stepped out into hall and fell in step with them.
She looked at them and shrugged. "Hell, we've been this far. May as well see it through to the end."
He saw the look in her eyes that told him she understood his plight. What was happening was not fair. Though she felt nothing could be done, she would be there for her friends, her comrades. Flint nodded at her with approval and appreciation.
They left the command center and stepped out into the waning hours of the afternoon. The sun was losing its intensity in the beginning of twilight hours. Activity on the base compound was slowing as night crews prepared to take over the duties of the day shift. International operations were a twenty-four hour affair. Two transport trucks meandered down the road to the east, loaded with fresh supplies.
Leatherneck put his cap on, effectively shading the wound on his forehead. Flint did not bother with his beret. In that moment, he shunned all that he had dedicated his life to and fought for, for it had betrayed his innermost sense of loyalty and righteousness. He realized he was an integral part of the machine that did such things as spirit away a woman who had done nothing wrong and now faced being the subject of experimentation and interrogation for whatever remained of her life. If he had had the chance, he would have removed his uniform and traded it in for civilian duds as a final statement of defiance.
They entered the hospital and took the elevator to the fourth floor where Suarez was recuperating. Allison was on the same floor, recovering hour by hour from her own sacrifice. When the trio rounded the corner, they found Doc at the nurse's station, reading over a chart. He looked up at them, greeting them with a nod.
"Flint," he said quietly.
Flint looked to the right and saw Suarez laying in one of the rooms. She was sleeping or at least resting soundly. He could see the lump of a bandage under her hospital gown. Bags of fluid were suspended over the bed, sustaining her life for the moment.
"How is she doing?" Flint asked, studying the floor's newest patient.
"All things considered, not bad. The bullet missed her lung, clipped a bone, but nothing catastrophic. Barring complications, she should make a full recovery."
"Can I see her?"
"She's in and out, in a lot of pain. They just gave her morphine, so I don't know what you'll get from her."
Flint was not sure he wanted her to be awake at all. He did not want to face her, knowing what was coming.
"Thanks," he said to Doc.
The room was quiet, all but the sound of the constant hiss of oxygen from a port in the wall. It was pushed through a line to the cannula that fed it into Suarez's nose. She was resting quietly. The twitch of her eyelids told him she was not sleeping soundly, just barely below the fully conscious level.
He approached the bed and sat down on the stool. For the first time, he noticed her hands were cuffed to the bed. Doc walked in and joined him at the bedside vigil. He saw Flint take notice of the restraints.
"Not my doing," Doc said quietly in his own defense.
Flint did not look up at him. "Elwood?"
"Is that his name?"
"So he says." Flint fell silent again, studying Suarez, regretting he was seeing another victim of the war against Cobra.
"I'll be back," Doc said quietly. He left the room without another word.
Flint reached through the steel rails of the bed where her hands were shackled. He tentatively took hold of her fingers. They were slender yet strong. He wondered how much she had seen in her lifetime. She was an enigma to him. He had learned so much from her yet raised more questions. He found it ironic how just days before he had pinned her to a wall in anger. Now, he looked at her with regret.
Her eyes fluttered open, desperately trying to focus. When she succeeded, she saw Flint sitting at her side. Her usual in-control demeanor was gone, replaced by that of a little girl caught in a situation in which there was no escape. She fought to control her fear and emotions.
"Should have let me die," she said in a thick voice.
He shook his head. "I couldn't," he said in a whisper. "I'm sorry."
"Wasn't supposed to be this way," she said, closing her eyes again. Her breathing was labored and quick, a combination of pain, medication and the result of Doc's surgical excursion into her shoulder wound. Most of all, she was trying to control her fear.
There was a commotion in the hall. Flint heard Leatherneck's voice become loud, the result of some sort of altercation. Then he heard Elwood's voice telling the marine to get out of the way.
Suarez heard it, too. She opened her eyes again and looked at Flint. "You know what you have to do," she breathed.
In an instant, he knew what she was asking. "I can't," he said, denying her.
"You did it before. You can do it again."
"No," he said, glancing furtively into the hall again.
Her hand tightened around his. "I can't go through this, Flint. They'll make me talk, and you know that's something I can't allow. I need you to help me." She was desperate. "Please, Flint. They can't know the future."
A scuffle broke out in the hall. It ended abruptly with the cocking of weapons that brought total silence from the participants. The sound flashed through Flint like cold lightning. He looked out into the hall again and saw an armed contingent standing behind Elwood, weapons raised.
"That about handles the fisticuffs," he heard Elwood say. He presumed it was to Leatherneck and Scarlett.
Elwood stepped into the room and stood at the foot of Suarez's bed. "About time you and I take a trip, little lady," he said.
Two of the armed guards in the hall stepped into the doorway of the room.
"Mr. Faireborn, if you'll just step away, we'll get this show on the road."
"She doesn't want to go with you," Flint said, feeling her fingers tighten even more around his.
"She doesn't have a choice," Elwood said, not backing down to Flint's admonishment. He turned to the guards. "Sergeant, take Warrant Officer Faireborn down the hall."
The sergeant moved forward and placed a strong hand around Flint's upper arm, pulling him upward off the stool. The feel of being forced triggered rage in him that exploded in a roundhouse punch that landed squarely on the sergeant's jaw. Elwood was immediately calling for backup from the other guards, who poured into the room and subdued Flint on the floor. He felt a knee slam down squarely in the center of his back as his arm was pulled sharply up his back, trapping him. The guard's knee ground sharply into his back, keeping him from fighting back and giving Suarez a chance.
"Get him out of here!" Elwood hollered.
Flint scrambled to his feet when the guard released his hold. The guard misinterpreted the move and rewarded him with a violent push backward against the wall. Leatherneck and Scarlett were held at bay in the hall, unable to come to the aid of their comrade. Flint held his ground, not willing to leave the room.
Suarez's collection of medical equipment was being quickly dismantled from the hooks above the bed. Two technicians, not of the Joe staff, arrived with portable monitoring equipment. They transferred her readings to their watchful eye as Elwood stood to the side, observing the whole affair with annoying satisfaction that grated to Flint's core. Suarez did not say a word, but her eyes pleaded with Flint in desperate flashes of fear and anger. She was a helpless hostage of the secret part of the government, on her way to a fate that was wrong, one she had never planned.
She was in no position to put up a fight with them. She was weak and in pain. Her bravado was gone. There were no snappy comebacks for Elwood or the guards taking her into custody. Flint saw the tiny quiver of fear in her chin, the quick blinking of her eyes as she processed what was happening to her, knowing there was nothing she could do to stop it, at a loss for knowing her future.
"You can't do this," Flint said to Elwood again.
Elwood seemed to soften a bit in his smugness. He looked at Flint like a man who gave him credit for knowing how the game was played.
"It's out of my hands," he said plainly. "I'm just the delivery man."
"That must make you feel really good."
"Depends on who I'm pissing off at the moment."
The transport team worked quickly. A gurney was wheeled into the room and brought to the side of the bed. In one smooth motion, Suarez was dragged onto it. She tried to stifle a yelp of pain but failed.
"Easy with the merchandise," Elwood warned, annoyed.
Suarez was covered with a blanket and strapped on to the gurney. They began wheeling her out of the room. Flint lurched forward in one final attempt to stop them but was met with a hard shove to his chest with the length of an assault rifle.
Elwood stepped over to Flint and stood in front of him. "It's over, Flint. Don't make this harder for her than it has to be. It's not going to endear either one of you to what's coming."
Flint stared him down, his eyes drilling through the government man like daggers. His struggled to control his rage as Elwood blocked his way to the door.
"This isn't over," Flint said low.
Elwood was not fazed. "Whatever you say, Chief," he said with a flip of his head.
Suarez was wheeled out of sight. Elwood turned to check the progress of the transport team. When he saw they were gone, he nodded to the trooper holding Flint at bay.
"Let him go," he ordered.
The guard carefully backed away from Flint, cautious and prepared to stop him once more if needed. Elwood moved to the door, too.
"See you around, Flint," he said, as if it were a warning. "Oh, and by the way," he said like an afterthought, "you're confined to this base until I come calling for you. Don't try to leave."
The procession down the hall was guarded. Flint watched as Elwood finally turned his back on the trio of Joes in the hall and joined up with the gurney as it was brought to the elevator. The medical staff for the floor watched, as well, mouths agape at the whole scene. It was then Flint realized they had a vested stake in the entire incident. They had come to know Suarez and like her. She had been a part of their team, just as Scarlett and Leatherneck were a part of his. They felt helpless to save someone they knew, and it was not because of a medical malady. It was something they had no cure for, no remedy in a bottle or procedure.
Elwood gave one last glance back at Flint as the gurney was loaded on to the elevator. Suarez was swallowed up and was gone from sight. Soon, Elwood joined her. Then they were gone.
Flint stood there, shocked and angry. He heard tiny sniffles of the staff from beyond the nurse's station. They had all been witness to the unthinkable. An outside source had intervened with one of the Joe's own. At least to these people, she belonged, Flint conceded. She had done her part to save Allison's life and countless others. While Flint did not feel personal gratitude for her efforts, the medical staff obviously did. Violence had directly invaded their field of operations and had touched someone they knew.
Scarlett made her way to Flint's side. "What do we do?" she asked quietly.
Flint had no idea, but he was not willing to give up so easily. "Nothing . . . for now," he vowed.
Leatherneck shared his sentiment. "For now," he reiterated and clapped Flint on the shoulder.
Flint turned around, heading for Allison's room. He looked inside and found that she had been asleep for the entire ordeal. He was silently grateful that she had not had to see it at all. All he wanted was for her to rest and recover, not be riled with anxiety by witnessing Elwood's spiriting Suarez away to God knew where.
Just as he was about to enter her room, Joanne, Allison's day nurse, stopped him.
"Sir?" she said quietly.
Flint could see she had been one of the ones who had been crying. "Yeah?" he asked gently.
She led Flint behind the station. She reached under the counter and pulled out a small cardboard box from the shelf and presented it to Flint.
"These are Doctor Suarez's personal affects. I don't know what to do with them." She struggled with the last words.
He accepted the box, giving her a sympathetic nod. "Thank you," he said quietly, regretting he could not stop Elwood all the more. "I'll take care of it."
Her face fell apart as he took the box from her. He put a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly.
There was nothing he could say that would have comforted them all in that moment. They were looking to him for words of encouragement, but there were none. He was powerless to take the fight to the ones who had absconded with Suarez. There was no way he could go after Elwood with guns blazing, no matter how much he wanted.
His only solace came when he entered Allison's room and sat down next to her. He reached out and took her hand in his, feeling its blessed warmth as he cradled it in his. She was sleeping soundly, her color better than it had been. She was improving, breathing on her own, her body healing at its own pace. She no longer looked so deathly weak, though he knew the road ahead was still long and barely traveled. She was alive. That was the only thing he could take comfort in at the moment. She would be safe. The likes of Elwood would have no interest in her. She knew nothing of value. Allison had not been privy to the events of the last few days. She had only been a part of the initial birth of it all.
Allison stirred but remained asleep. He sat back in the chair. The box on the floor caught his eye. He stared down at the only remnants of Nancy Suarez that remained in his possession. He rifled through the contents. A watch, earrings, a pack of cigarettes – then his hand closed around the lighter. He pulled it out and looked at it in the dim light of the room. Parts of the worn surface still glinted up at him. He turned it over in his palm, his mind turning its gears in the same manner. A slight tremor played on his fingers as he grasped the inner strike mechanism and the housing and pulled. His heart pounded as he disassembled it.
The tiny blue lights inside were like a beacon of hope as he held the two parts in his hands. Flint did not know what the device could do, but he was thoroughly convinced that if it could give Suarez a chance, she had certainly earned it.