Chapter 27
(Gale POV)
"What's the news?" I ask the split second I enter Haymitch's office. All his note had said was that he had some news for me.
"Come on, let's take this to the meeting room. Everyone else should be here soon."
"Everyone else?" I ask, my hopes rising dangerously high.
"What? You thought just the two of us would handle this mission? Takes a few more folks than that."
I follow behind him, adrenaline gushing through my veins. We're doing it. We're really about to formulate a plan to save Madge's father. I just know it.
In the meeting room I find almost everyone is already here and waiting for us. And not looking too thrilled about either.
"Anyone care to explain why we were dragged down here again?" Someone grumbles followed by a chorus of agreement.
"It'll be worth it people. Just sit tight for a minute." Haymitch shushes the group as he sorts through papers in his hands.
I sit anxiously in my seat as I wait for the rest of the department to arrive. All I want is to get started. To find out what our plan is and to learn just how soon we can make it happen.
"Alright, here's the deal. We have a new plan for Mr. Undersee. Development will begin immediately. Execution needs to happen in the next week. And it's gonna be a multi-rescue plan so we'll be splitting into mission teams."
"What do you mean multi-rescue?"
"One team will rescue , one will rescue the Underee's housekeeper, and the third team will rescue Mrs. Undersee. Our goal is to have the rescues go off simultaneously. We'll need to be spot on with every detail or risk all of us failing."
"Three rescues?"
"How are we going to rescue him from a prison?"
"Have you lost your mind? Just how much have you been drinking old man?"
The questions and commentary fly from all around me but I don't care. All I care is that we're going to do this. We're going to try and rescue Madge's family.
"Settle down. Let's split into teams and then your team leaders can advise you of how this will all play out." Haymitch says rubbing his forehead. His annoyance obvious with the group before him.
I'm on Haymitch's team of course. Our focus is on the mission of getting Madge's father out. Counting myself and Haymitch, we're a team of 5. It's small but maybe that's better than having too many people involved. Once we're all sorted, seated and giving Haymitch our full attention, I finally get to hear the details of the plan.
"Kiddo here had the bright idea of faking Undersee's death and saving him as they dispose of the body. It's far reaching but it is possible. Sal here is from Apothecary. He'll get us started by explaining how the whole fake death will work." Haymitch explains, turning it over to the scrawny looking man with the lab coat on.
Sal clears his throat and begins speaking. "We're creating a faux-lethal medication that will be provided in pill form. One small tablet which can be dissolved under the tongue in a matter of seconds. Once it hits the bloodstream, it slows all the functions of the body to a nearly undetectable levels. The heartbeat, the breathing, the body temperature will all mimic that of someone who is deceased."
"Just how long will this medication be effective?"
"We hope to give it a half life of 12 hours. We need it to have at least 9 for it to be successful."
"What's half life?" I ask, not understanding his terms.
"When the effects of the drug peak and then begin to wear off."
"What happens then?" A man on the team whose name I can't remember asks. Sawyer I think.
"He'll begin to wake up slowly. His vitals will become detecable and he'll eventually wake feeling groggy and perhaps with a bit of a headache but should be fine otherwise."
"So we'll have only 9-12 hours to pull this off?" I ask.
"If we're lucky, yes." Haymitch interjects.
"Is the pill ready yet? Did you already have something like this on hand?" I ask Sal.
"We've compounded a few things and are proceeding with tests right now. We'll know by morning exactly how much time the pill will allow us. We already know the pill will work. The testing is to identify the timeline we're working with."
"And how do we get the pill to Mayor Undersee?" I ask.
"Our undercover Peacekeeper will slip it to him as they take him in for his round of daily torture. We hope this will make it appear that he's died from the torture itself, therefore making the whole thing look less suspicious than if they found him dead in his cell."
"How can we be certain that they'll dispose of the body right away? What if they just leave it there for awhile? What happens then?"
"We fail." Haymitch says somberly. "There are several key points that of they fail to occur precisely as we anticipate them, the whole mission fails. We need the pill to work on cue, the body to be picked up and transported, the route the transport vehicle travels even. Everything has to be damn near perfect."
"And what do we get for it?" Argan, a guy I've not really talked with much before, asks with a raised eyebrow.
"The satisfaction of pissing of Snow. The joy of doing a good deed. The thrill of pulling off a tough mission. Take your pick, doesn't matter to me what your motives are, just need your cooperation."
"Point taken." Argan says, settling back into his seat a little.
"Now that we have the medical part out of the way, let's move on too discuss the part where we move in." Haymitch begins. "The transport vehicle will have two drivers. We're trying to arrange for at least one of those guys to be our insiders. If that happens, we'll have to take him with us too. Can't leave him behind to take the fall for a missing body. We'll wait for the vehicle to hit the rendezvous point and then we stop the vehicle, take the body and insider if necessary and then haul ass back here to 13 where I suppose we'll then all live happily ever after."
"Who gets to do what?" I ask, anxious to know what role I can play in this whole thing.
"Don't go getting to eager on us kiddo, you'll have plenty to do but it won't be on that hovercraft if that's what you're asking."
"Oh come on, I can do this. This whole thing was my idea!" I begin to argue.
"You can be just as important to the mission here in 13. Your face is too recognizable, having you out there would make the whole thing riskier than it already is."
"So what, I get stuck on research and paperwork?" I ask, anger not the least bit hidden in my voice. I want to be a bigger part of this.
"Who said anything about research and paperwork?" Haymitch asks, his own voice bordering anger.
"I just want to be as involved as I can be. It's personal for me you know." I try to explain.
"I think we've covered all we can tonight. We'll reconvene after breakfast in the morning and get the roles assigned and start prep work." Haymitch says as the group stands to leave. When I stand to follow, Haymitch stops me.
"Hold up a sec there kiddo." He says as he puts a hand on my shoulder. Once the rest of the group is gone, he turns to me and gives me a look that tells me to keep my mouth shut.
"I'll make this fast. Let's get one thing straight. You have a role in this mission. It may not be the one you want, but that doesn't make it any less crucial."
"What's that role exactly?" I interrupt even though I know he only wants silence from me right now.
"I was planning on using you here, in the control room, with communications."
"Aww, come on! Communications? That's what you think I'd be good at? We both know that's a crock!"
"You can't be seen. Plain and simple. This aint a mission into any old district. It's a mission into the Capitol. Snow's playground if you will. One citizen getting one look at that face of yours and our whole plan will be in shambles. And you won't make it back outta there alive, I promise you that."
"I can't stay behind. I just can't This is way too important." I insist.
He glares at me.
"Come on Haymitch. There has to be something better I can do. Let me stay on the hovercraft. I won't get off. I'll be like back up or something. Please, you have to let me be a part of this."
"Let me think about it."
"Seriously, you have to let me…"
"In the morning. End of discussion." He says as he walks out of the room.
There's no way I can go to sleep right now. No freaking way. I'm too riled up. To ready to get going on this. To ready to bring Madge's family home to her. I'm halfway home to our place ready to share every detail of all this with Madge when I realize it still may not be a good idea to tell her about this. Something could still go wrong. But how can I not share this with her? How on earth can I keep it a secret? It'd been all I could do to not spill to her earlier when Haymitch sent for me. And she knows very well that something's up. I can't go back home yet. Not now. Not until I'm sure I should either keep it all a big secret or go ahead and tell her. I've gotta think this out for a bit first.
I head over to Medical to see Katniss. I haven't seen her at all today and I figure she probably isn't asleep. I peek through her room window and see that she's flipping through a book, not looking all that interested in it. I knock once as I enter the room without waiting for her to invite me inside.
"What the hell are you doing here at this hour?" She asks as I plop down in the chair next to her and kick my feet up on the bed.
"What? I can't come visit?"
"You can visit. Course most people do that during the daytime."
"Am I keeping you from some reading?" I tease, gesturing at the book she's already tossed aside.
"This isn't mine. I was just bored and thought I'd give it a try."
"Any good?"
"Incredibly difficult to understand and doesn't make a lick of sense to me." She admits.
"Who's is it?"
"Peeta left it here earlier. Said he borrowed it from Rory."
"Rory? Lemme see that." I say as I reach over and grab the book off her bed. "I've seen this before. It's not Rory's really. He borrowed it from Madge back in 12." I tell her as I run my finger over the cover of the book. A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. It's the one I took the quote from. The one that made me think of Madge. Find though she be but little she is fierce.
"It's not that terrible. Got some good stuff in it."
"You read this book?" She asks skeptically.
I shrug. "Skimmed it a little while Madge was in the games. Rory left it at my house one night. I wonder how he got it here though."
"Must've had it on him when he came in."
"Must have." I say as I look at the book. Why did he hold on to this for so long and not tell me? I had no clue he'd made it out of 12 with anything other than the clothes on his back.
"So what are you really doing here Gale? Kinda late for a visit."
"Just left work. Didn't want to go home yet because I wasn't sure if I want to tell Madge about the new mission or not."
"New mission? Do tell. I need a little excitement in my life right now." She says leaning forward.
"Just a little plan to rescue Mayor Undersee. Oh and Mrs. Undersee and Mabel too." I divulge with a grin. If anyone can understand the feeling you get before a mission, it's Katniss.
Her mouth falls open and she cocks her head to the side a bit. "You seriously sat her chatting about some stupid book for five minutes when you held that kind of information? Geez."
I shrug and give her a guilty grin.
"Well now you have to give me details. Real details!"
"We're gonna slip Mayor Undersee a pill to make him appear dead only he'll really just be incredibly knocked out. We're gonna get him when they transfer the body for disposal."
"Wow." She says, stunned. Neither of us thought this mission was possible. Neither of us expected him to be rescued.
"And they're gonna get Mabel and Mrs. Undersee too so that Snow can't turn his torture on them. Madge is getting her whole family back!"
"That's incredible Gale. It really, really is." She tells me. Her voice is genuine but I see a hint of something else in her eyes. Sadness maybe. And then it hits me. It's sadness not for herself but for Peeta. Peeta who wasn't lucky enough to have his family rescued.
"I'm sorry about Peeta's family. I didn't know until today what had happened to them."
"He didn't exactly want everyone to know about it. Makes it that much harder when you feel like everyone's looking at you with pity. He wanted to be able to grieve in private."
"How long have you known?"
"Since it happened. I was the one who told him about it." She says quietly.
"Is he okay?"
"He's handled it better than most people would. He's like that though. Tougher than he appears."
"Yeah, he must be." I agree. And I mean it. There's no way I'd ever be able to go about my day as if I was fine with that kind of thing weighing me down on the inside. He's definitely tougher than I would've guessed.
"I took your advice and finally told him that I love him." She confesses quietly.
I look up at her in surprise. "You did?"
She smiles a little and nods. "Mmhmm."
"So Catnip went and fell in love with a townie, just like me." I tease lightheartedly.
"That she did." She says with a roll of her eyes. "He's really something and it's hard for me to admit how I feel and get all mushy about it but after I thought about what you said and I thought about how happy you are with loving Madge, I figured I'd just go for it."
"And are you glad you did?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"Well good."
"You should tell Madge about the mission. She'll be mad if you don't. And she might want some time to gather her thoughts before she comes face to face with her family after being away from them for so long. Just tell her."
"Yeah, you're probably right. I really want too. Just wasn't sure if it was a good idea or not."
"If it were me, I'd want to know, even if it was going to be a long shot. Having hope is good thing, you know?"
"Yeah. Hey, mind if I borrow this book? Let Madge see it again?"
"Be my guest. I have no intentions of reading it." She says shoving the book towards me.
"Thanks. Get some sleep Catnip, I'll see ya later."
"You'd better bring me mission details tomorrow!" She calls after me as I exit her room.
I head up home, book in hand, ready to give the love of my life back hope she'd thought was forever lost. And I can only hope I'm making the right decision. When I enter our place I expect to find her pacing the room but instead she's asleep. From the looks of it though, she did wait up for me quite awhile. She's not under the covers but rather on top of them and she's propped up on pillows as if she fell asleep while waiting. I hate to wake her because she looks so peaceful but I promised I would as soon as I got home so I do.
"Hey beautiful, I'm home. Wake up." I whisper in her ear as I kiss her temple.
"What time is it?" She asks through a yawn as she wakes up, rubbing her eyes.
"Really late. If you're tired we can just go to sleep. Talk in the morning if you want." I say softly, kissing her face again.
"No. I'm up. I want to know what's going on." She tells me shaking her head and sitting up to face me.
I pull her close to me and kiss the tip of her nose. "Okay, first, I have something for you though." I tell her as I hold up the book between us for her to see. She stares at it for a few moments, her lips slightly parted. And then she reaches for it, gingerly taking it out of my hands as if it were a delicate treasure. I watch as she silently turns the pages of it, looking it over, touching it, staring at it.
"This is my book...the one I lent Rory." She says at whisper level. Her eyes close and a single tear slips down her cheek. "It's the one you quoted from the night before the games started."
It takes a second for it to sink in. The words she just spoke. And when they do register, I find myself at a complete loss for words. I've waited so long for this moment that I'd almost given up on thinking it would ever happen. I grab her, pulling her to me, kissing her with maddening passion. Madge remembers.