Annie and Auggie went from a deep sleep to being wide awake with the sound of pounding on the door.
"Who is it?" Auggie shouted.
"Is Walker in there?" Cheryl's voice came through.
Auggie rested his head back on the pillow. "I feel like I'm back in middle school." He said while Annie slid out of the bed.
"I'm here." Annie said through the door.
"Just checking." Cheryl replied. "I don't need you to come out or anything. Just wanted to let you know that breakfast is in a half-hour."
"Thanks!" Annie said, sitting up next to Auggie on the glorified cot.
"How long were we out?" Auggie asked. The deep sleep, combined with the lack of his watch and phone, left him disoriented.
"Well, it's seven am, and I joined you around five yesterday, so fourteen hours?"
"Wow."
"Yeah. You feeling okay?"
"Stiff and sore. You?"
"Pretty much the same. That bruise on your arm is looking spectacular."
"Spectacular how?" Auggie asked.
"Purple, green, yellow, and everything in between." Annie ran her fingers over the edge of the color. "It has to be sore."
"Yeah. A little." He ran his own fingers over the area where their captor had fiercely grabbed him. The skin was very tender. "Anything else I should know about?"
"Nothing significant."
Auggie nodded. The amount of time they spent in the rainforest, they both had a fair share of scratches. "Do you want to freak them out by showing up to breakfast early?" He asked.
"Sure. I need to go to my room real quick. Meet me there?"
Fifteen minutes later Annie and Auggie walked into the barn together. The picnic table was piled with bagels, muffins, and (of course) juice. There wasn't anybody else around at the moment, so Annie went straight for the food. "Muffin or bagel?" She asked.
"Both." Auggie replied. "Do we have bananas?"
"Yep. Oh, here's some yogurt." She didn't have to ask before pushing the small plastic cup into Auggie's hand. They sat by the food and slowly stuffed their faces.
They were full of carbs and yogurt when their interrogator arrived. "I see you found breakfast. Did you sleep well?"
"Yeah." Annie responded. "Let's get this over with."
"I know that's what you want, Agent Walker. But like I told you yesterday, we are going to take a few days with this. In fact, I'd like you to help Cheryl with some of the morning chores while I have a talk with Captain Anderson."
Annie got up and gave Auggie a pat on the shoulder as she walked away.
"Captain Anderson, welcome back to Bluebonnet."
"Didn't like you the first time, Gary. I'm definitely not excited to be here now." Auggie responded with a steely glare.
"If anybody was excited to be here, they wouldn't need to be here. Do you really think your distaste for relaxation is rare in your line of work?"
Auggie pinched his lips and tilted his head.
"So, let's get to it." Gary continued.
"No, I do not want more juice." Auggie responded.
"Why were you in Nicaragua?"
"Told you yesterday, I got lost."
"So on your way back from lunch, with your sighted girlfriend, you stumbled into a Nicaraguan Rain Forest where you ended up captured by guerrilla rebels?"
"That sounds right. I would never go there willingly. Monkeys freak me out. Hey - let's talk about that, doc."
"You are a seasoned agent, August. You know why protocol is important, you know why it is important to go on missions with the Agency's blessing. You know exactly why these off-book adventures are not only dangerous to you, but to the intelligence gathering efforts of the United States Government. Are you so love-sick that you are forgetting all of this?"
"My relationship has not clouded my decision making skills in the slightest." Auggie responded, coolly.
"You never went rogue before Walker was around."
"I never had to."
"Do you not feel you are getting the support you need in your current position?"
Auggie turned his head and took a deep breath. "There's a lot going on at Langley right now. My instincts have served me well in the past, and I'm sticking with them on this. I've done dark ops, Gary. I know how to work without the Agency's support. I'm comfortable with what Walker and I have been doing."
"I'm not worried about your comfort, August. I'm worried about the bigger picture."
"So am I."
"Then we have the same goal. Share your reasoning with me."
Auggie leaned forward. "My reasoning is that until I know who I can trust, I'm not trusting anybody. That includes you."
"I see." Gary replied.
Auggie started to make a snarky reply, but was silent.
"After Iraq - "
"I was forced to see a therapist. I didn't need it then, and I'm definitely not spilling my soul to you now." Auggie interrupted.
"I was going to say, that after Iraq, you really took to your new position in the CIA as well as your old one. It was impressive."
Auggie sighed and sat back.
"You've proven that you are a valuable member of the Agency, even with field value. You realize that going off-book and getting captured in Nicaragua decreases that value, rather than adding to it?"
"My vacation wasn't meant to be a resume-builder." Auggie replied.
"Did you gain whatever intelligence you were seeking?"
Auggie shrugged. "I realized monkeys aren't so creepy when you can't see them."
The interrogator took an exaggerated sigh. "I see. I think we are done for this morning, Captain Anderson. There are some chores you need to help with around here, and then you will start the polygraph."
"Can I drive the tractor?" Auggie asked.
The only answer he got was a brush of his arm and a lead out of the barn.
Auggie didn't hear any sign of Annie when he was passed off to Cheryl.
"Hello Captain Anderson."
"Hey Cheryl. If we are going to be working together, call me August."
"Thanks August. But you are going to be on your own today."
"Sounds good." Auggie replied. "Peeling potatoes?"
Cheryl laughed. "I think you are a bit over-qualified for that. You are inspecting the fencing."
"Oh am I?" Auggie asked with wide eyes.
"Yep. Just the electric fencing. Here." She led him to the fence and put his hand on the top rail. "It's wooden fencing, but some of the horses like to chew on it, so we have one string of electric wire in front of the wood - here." She moved his hand to a thin wire, and he jumped back after touching it. "I turned the power off, August. You can trust me."
"If you say so." He replied as he put his hand back on the wire, slowly.
"There's a good twenty acres surrounded by this fence, and somewhere there is interference with the wire.
"So I need to find what's interfering."
"Exactly. Just follow the wire, if you find a branch on top, move it out of the way or tag it with this surveying ribbon." She handed Auggie a spool of plastic ribbon. "If you have any problems, just shout. If you don't make it all the way around when it's time for lunch, I'll come pick you up in the 4-Wheeler."
"Is this the only gate?" Auggie asked.
"One of three."
Auggie nodded and turned away, getting right to work. Cheryl watched him navigate the first hundred feet, then went into the barn where Annie was cleaning out a stall.
"There's a reason I didn't enjoy horses as a little girl." Annie said when Cheryl arrived.
"This is the easy job." Cheryl replied. "You have a reprieve to go to the main barn."
"I'd hardly call that a reprieve." Annie replied as she leaned the pitchfork against the wall.
The polygraph machine was set up when Annie walked in, and she sat in front of the computer.
When Annie was finally finished with the polygraph, Auggie came in from the field. They finally got some time together over a lunch of cold cut sandwiches.
"Do they ever serve warm food around here?" Annie asked Auggie.
"Hopefully at dinner." Auggie replied. "Though with what we escaped earlier this week, I have no doubt we could make a run to McDonalds if we really put our minds to it."
"I'm tired of running." Annie replied.
Auggie took her hand in his and squeezed. "Then let's just enjoy our sandwiches, and save our energy for whatever chores and polygraphs await."
"I'm done with my polygraph, Anderson. You are next."
"Ugh." Auggie responded. "Maybe we should have stayed in Nicaragua."