Chapter 5
The throbbing in his head was fierce but bearable. Reed opened his eyes and shifted them around to look to find that he was still in the same cell. Like that was going to change. He closed his eyes and opened them again as he tried to recall what had happened. He recalled the first time and then… "Garrison."
He sat up quickly and groaned from the headache. As soon as hands touched him his fist flew and he made contact with flesh. He twisted and saw that he had hit the tech guy and pretty hard in the face. "Sorry about that."
"No problem," the tech said as he rubbed his jaw and scooted back to give Reed some room. "Knew you were a hitter. Just…" He rubbed his jaw again.
Reed made a slight face as he straightened up. He looked around and found the driver hovering over Garrison. It was instinct to want to rush over and shove the driver aside since he was in the mind not to trust anyone but the members of his unit but he resisted. Instead he shifted over and peered at his friend.
The driver looked up at him and said, "He is fine for now."
Reed looked at Garrison and then the driver, "Thanks. You okay?"
"I'm fine."
Reed sat back and leaned on his elbows. He took deep breaths as he looked around and tried to get over the throbbing in his head. He arched his back slightly and stretched. It helped work out the dull throb that was coursing throughout his body. It was all he could do since they had no ways and means out and his right hand man was down and he'd be fucked if he was going to leave a man behind.
"They injected us with some sort of device."
Reed shifted to look in the direction of the voice and found it was the tech talking. He narrowed his eyes slightly to get a good look. He found that the tech was not like the geeks he had seen, meaning the skinny ones that were classic images of nerds. This one was in fairly good shape. He would have made a decent squad member. "What?"
"Devices." The tech rubbed his neck and revealed redness. "That's why we were down and the assholes weren't."
Reed was impressed with the language use. He would be even more impressed if the tech could do something like fight. "Really?"
"They are controlled by this facility. Or at least from there." The tech pointed at the window that was shaded glass. "Maybe watching."
Reed shifted to look at where the tech pointed. He saw the window and stared at it. It made sense why when he attacked he went down like he did. He looked at the tech and asked, "And you just figured this all out yourself?"
The tech stared at Reed with a nervous look. It was interrupted by the driver saying, "Don't try talking to him. He only cares about his team."
Reed looked at the driver, "Hey, I got you out of a firefight didn't I?"
The driver said nothing but made a scoffing remark. He moved to sit against the other wall. He propped his forearms against his knees and looked at his hands. He had wiped them but there was still blood from helping the shot soldier and that was without medical supplies. He figured that they weren't going to bother with a medic. Probably use it to make a point.
Reed made a face at the driver. Fine with that. He wasn't going to make a fuss with it. He turned back to the tech and watched as he sat against the wall. One arm was resting on his knee, the other was rubbing the same spot on his next like he was trying to rub out the device. He was staring at nothing in particular and he was muttering something.
Reed thought he was a crazy one but he had to admit he held up well. He thought he would break with that first round. He figured it wasn't too bad. He asked, "What's your name?"
The tech looked up at Reed and studied him. Reed thought he was going to be stubborn about the whole thing like the driver. He didn't realize that the tech was looking past him. It was a long silence before the tech replied, "Jackson."
Reed nodded, "Reed."
"Valles," the driver said.
Reed turned to look at the driver. He was getting a nasty look from him but that wasn't going to matter in the long run. He shifted to sit up and moved to another wall to lean against. His head was still throbbing but he could work with that. His limbs felt a little heavy from whatever it was that they did to him. He could take a guess and say that it was electric shock but then again what did he know. At least he had some answers from the tech Jackson. Sighing he looked around. It was probably pointless but at least it was something to do.
"The only windows are those up near top and too small to fit through," Jackson commented more like a nervous geek than a soldier. "And even if we did manage to fit, more likely they are watching us and/or the window is booby trapped." He leaned against the wall looking like he was just going to give up.
"More likely that is the case," Valles replied. "They are probably listening to us right now."
Reed didn't make a sound but looked around. He was looking for anything other than the window that indicated that they were being watched. True cameras could be made small enough so that they weren't seen if you didn't know where to look. He just didn't want to give himself away and made small movements like he was trying to get back feeling in his body. It was plausible since his head did still ache and he probably looked worse than he felt.
Running a hand through his hair, Reed managed to see that there was nothing else. At least nothing he could see. However, it could be that they had something new that they didn't know. So they would have to be careful about what they said and did if they were going to figure out a way to escape. He lowered his head and cradled it in his hand as his elbow rested on his knee.
Like you could find yourself out of a latrine, Reed.
Reed snorted to himself. Yeah, fuck you Echo bitch.
Who's the bitch? I'm not the one who abandoned one of their own. Wouldn't surprise me if you let some of your men get killed to achieve your objective.
Reed stiffened at that memory. He hadn't forgotten that since he first met her, the one he called Echo bitch. It was a fated day that he left a wounded man and his medic behind to finish a job and her team came along and ended up saving his team's ass. Afterwards, it wasn't pretty and he was certain that his team heard everything. And yet they stayed. They trusted him to get them through to the other side. Yet he always felt that they were watching him, waiting to see if he was what she accused him of and the proverbial shoe drop.
But did I deserve it?
Reed snorted a little at his thoughts. In a way though, she was right. Since that day, he had tried harder to be a better team leader. It was especially difficult when the stories circulated about her team's exploits. He heard the admiration from the men and some saying that they wished they were on her team. It fueled his dislike of her to actively hating her and he never missed a point to make it known that he didn't like her.
Truth was, he was jealous. He was jealous that she was better at leading than he was. Hell, she was like the poster girl for ops team leader. She went in, got the mission done and it always came with a shower of praise and accolades from the men. Yet she never let it in. She was polite about it but didn't grow cocky with it at all. Rather… It fed his bitterness and made him determined to show her up. He became a better team leader but for the wrong reasons.
He tried to convince himself that he was what a soldier was supposed to be. He wasn't a woman meaning that he was into the touchy feely crap and making sure that his men's feelings weren't hurt. He ended up earning the reputation that he was a drill sergeant that was harder than a hardass. So he had a reputation but in retrospect, it wasn't what he wanted to be known as. His superiors couldn't fault him since he followed orders and completed his missions.
You really are something Echo bitch.
He had jumped on the opportunity to bring her in when it was demonstrated that she might be working for the enemy. It was an opportunity to bring her down a few pegs and make people see that she wasn't the hero everyone made her out to be. Then he had to find out that she was a Ghost and that really fucked up his day. In the end though… He brought her in but all it ended up doing was getting him pegged as the guy that brought a Ghost in like a prisoner.
It was no wonder that Charlie Team had been busted down in terms of the assignments. Reed looked up and looked around before leaning the back of his head against the wall. He really had no one to blame but himself on this. Hell if he had done better, they could have made it to Kranz and he would still have his team. Instead, he fucked up and now most of his team had been executed except for him and Garrison and he was stuck with two people that were probably going to be caught in the crossfire if that bastard came back to interrogate them.
"It is no use trying to blame yourself," Valles said as he looked across at Reed. When he caught the soldier's eye, he continued, "I was the one that overcorrected and we got hit. So it would be easier to blame me."
Reed raised his brow at Valles, "Think so?"
"Might as well blame me too since I didn't scrub the cargo," Jackson added with a shrug as he sighed tiredly.
"Plenty of blame to go around," Valles said. He looked at Reed in the eye. "The question is: what are you going to do about it?"
Reed knew what was being asked of him. He could sit and mope but then that would get them nothing. Besides, it was like a cardinal rule that POWs did everything in their power to escape and RTB. Or you held out as long as you can until someone came or the end of the war came. In this case, the most likely scenario was torture and for information on their cargo. So escape was it.
Aware that the enemy could be listening in, Reed adjusted his body and starting doing hand signals in a slow and covert way while he said, "Ever play baseball, Valles?"
Valles looked at Reed with a look of confusion until he noticed what the lieutenant was doing. He stuttered slightly in replied, "Y-yeah. High school. Pitcher."
Reed nodded with a grin in approval. This was probably the stupidest thing but at least they could put some confusion on the enemy. "Good at the fastball?"
"Never saw it coming. No-hitter game senior year," Valles replied with a slight smile.
"Nice. Always wanted to play," Reed nodded as he adjusted to a more casual and comfortable as it could get position. "Never was good enough. Football was more my thing. And I don't mean soccer." He shook his head like it was stupid that soccer was referred to that.
"Well soccer is one of the older sports known…" Jackson started in on the conversation and shrank back slightly when Reed and Valles looked at him.
Reed watched Jackson's reaction and thought that he really had a nerd in the ranks. It made him think that the army was desperate for recruits and only signed him up because of his brains. He raised his brow at Jackson and said, "Soccer is a sissy game. Football you at least hit someone."
"All sports have contact," Jackson countered firmly.
Reed smirked at the reaction. This was going to work out better than he thought. "Sometimes you have to hit hard if you really want to win. It's why I like football." He looked Jackson in the eye and nodded slightly before looking over at Valles and getting a nod from the man as well. He sat back and grinned. It seemed that they might have a means of escape or at least a plan to resist.
"I thought we were looking for an asset?"
"We are. This is just another part of what the drop off was," Sequoia said as she put the drive into the computer she had borrowed. She knew that it was hardly relevant for her to be looking at it but she had a hunch on this one. She tapped a few keys and entered coding that she suspected might work. When the screen changed she gave a quiet, "Hooah."
The screen showed a set of file folders. Sequoia didn't need to open them to know what they were, at least the idea of what they were. She knew that this was the information that the asset had collected and hidden. He knew that he was going to be part of a convoy and hid it in plain sight. She grinned, "Nice."
Harris had been watching her while Logan, Keegan and Hesh were checking out FOB Kranz and determining what had happened to make it so that they didn't hear the call for help from the convoy. It was more like an order from Hesh that he stay with her even though the devil MWD she had was there along with Riley. She was covered in his opinion but he wasn't going to question orders even if it was from a superior that he had a beef with.
Peering at the screen, he looked at what she was looking at and asked, "What is that?"
"What the asset was ordered to bring in," Sequoia replied as she ran a quick scan on the files. "The intel Command was waiting for from Freefall."
Harris nodded and then asked, "Okay, so then why was it left behind? Why did they take the asset?"
"Not sure. Intel is valuable and the Federation certainly would want it to be recovered," Sequoia replied as she went through the files. She couldn't resist and had to glimpse at them.
"Then they did a lousy job."
Sequoia made a slight sound at that. At face value it seemed like that. Typically if they caught a spy with intel, they would have apprehended it and destroyed it. And that was after they determined there wasn't anything else on it like a virus or whatever. This play the Federation did was most unusual but she suspected that it had more to do with the asset or just an opportunity to show them that they had something of theirs and they wanted them to chase them. Who knew the motivation but the bottom line was that they had an asset and they had a spec ops team leader. Those two things were a dangerous combination in of itself. A spy and a team leader had access to information that couldn't be gotten by just any grunt so they were in some deep shit.
Sequoia knew the concern about the asset and Charlie Leader. As much as she had a dislike of Reed, he was still a soldier and he had information about their side. She was worried that he might break. The asset was different since he went through the same shit she did. It took herculean efforts and then some; it went beyond the whole above and beyond the call of duty thing to break a Freefall asset. It wasn't to say that it couldn't be done because they were human. It was just that it was a lot harder to do so since the imagination was pitched at them.
Most of the files on the drive were standard intel about various things. Sequoia didn't bother with them since that was the analysts' job and then the missions were assigned. She just wanted to see if there was anything that the asset might have left behind that would affect the outcome of what they were eventually going to have to do aka rescue mission. She just had to find it and look for it in places that were not readily apparent.
Freefall operatives were all trained in the secret stealthy shit, as she called it. The ones that went on to the equivalent of CIA type of shit learned a few more tricks and she learned them herself. It was a game meant for no friends and trust no one but that was not practical in her mind. As a hunter, if you were taking out several of your prey, it was best to work with a party or partner. Taking that advice, she made friendships and within that came with the means of talking to one another when official channels were dangers; a back door to ward off disaster kind of thing. She was looking for this one.
It was expected to find a message but what Sequoia found was a file. It was heavily encrypted and from what she could tell, it was a video/audio file. It was what she was looking for since she recognized the coding signature of the encryption. "Got it."
Harris had been looking around and feeling bored. He kept a respectable distance from Bear since that mutt was actually watching him and everything that came within inches of Sequoia. He had heard her comment and walked over asking, "Found something?"
"Pretty much," Sequoia replied as she tapped the keys. "Looks like the asset had more than what Command was asking for."
"Can you open it?"
"Negative."
Harris made a slight sound at that. "Computer crap."
"Don't knock it. It's what keeps us in the fight after all," Sequoia replied with a slight grin. She shifted and looked at Harris. Maybe it wasn't the time to ask but then again whenever was there a good time in this line of work? Besides if there was dissention in the ranks, then that meant that what Rorke wanted was coming to pass. The thought sent a shiver up her spine since she couldn't forget the way he crooned at her and tried to get her to turn traitor. He was gone now but that had failed to set her at ease. There was that nagging doubt from her gut and it bothered her.
Deciding that it was time to bite the bullet, she turned to look at Harris full on. She addressed her weapons specialist, "Shotgun, answer me something."
Harris heard the request and snapped to. It was born out of his time with Echo Team and it was an automatic response. All of their team members knew that when she started to speak like that, she meant business. He looked at her and replied, "What do you need?"
"What is going on between you and Hesh?"
Harris felt like he wanted to squirm. He knew that he had been close to borderline insubordinate with Hesh and this mission he had done the same to her. He knew that she wouldn't have missed it and was only being silent out of respect for Hesh's command. He could brush it off but he knew from experience that it was a bad idea. She wouldn't run and tattle but she had her ways of making you talk that wasn't physical torture. He knew this and yet replied, "Nothing."
"Nothing my ass. You've been like this since you guys found me." Sequoia sat up straight and crossed her arms over her chest. "Spill."
Harris swallowed slightly as he took in her appearance. They were still wearing their camo paint and she looked like she was ready to go in for the kill. She was scary even without the war paint. Taking a breath he replied, "Um… just… just that…" He couldn't say anything and he looked at her with a look that begged for a reprieve but he didn't get it. Finally he said, "Just that you guys are good with each other after what he and his brother did to you. To us."
"You mean…"
"The whole thing when we took down LOKI," Harris continued. Now that she had gotten him to spill, he couldn't shut up. It just poured out. "He tied you up and left you there. His brother put me in a sleeper hold."
Sequoia stared at Harris. It was a surprise that he was still sore about that. She had long forgiven Hesh and Logan for that. She understood where they were coming from and while she had been pissed, she had seen how much it bothered them and how much it hurt Hesh in particular. Hesh still had this belief that any malice towards him was well deserved that lingered. Logan was cheerful as usual but occasionally he lapsed into thoughtfulness too. "And I forgave them for that. I knew where they were going with it."
"Still doesn't make it right. And I know he has feelings for you." Harris leaned in to whisper the latter half of that statement. "Sheer nerve of it."
"And it was because of those feelings that he did what he did. He regrets it." She looked at Harris with a firm look. She could mention that she was Elias' goddaughter but decided against it. Only the Walker boys, Keegan, Merrick and Kick knew of that and it was a silent consensus between them not to mention it. "You need to let it go. Don't think I haven't noticed you borderline insubordination. I have and if I have than means Hesh and Merrick have. Do you want to be kicked off?"
Harris sucked in the air. He honestly did like being part of the team. He was just angry. "No," he replied in a low voice.
"I don't want to see you gone either. And I don't think Merrick wants that. He considered my recommendation but ultimately he picked you for his reasons and not to fill in a slot." Sequoia knew she was laying it on thick and while it would be Hesh's and Merrick's job, she felt that maybe she should step in since she knew the man better. "Hell, they threw us together because of your skill set."
Harris let out a small grin. He remembered that. "I remember. I'm sorry." He shuffled a bit on his feet. "I was and still am angry. I'll work on it."
Sequoia stared at Harris. She knew he was a man of his word. She sensed though that there was more to it. It was something she hadn't really noticed before and if she had been in the role of interrogator, she would have gone in for the kill. Now though it seemed that he had enough. She could only hope that Hesh wouldn't mind her interference. "Okay then. But if I do see the crap again…"
"I know. You'll put in the word and I would have earned it."
"Damn straight." It was firm but Sequoia gave a slight smile to show that she was trusting him to keep his word.
Harris knew that she was giving him the leash. It was up to him not to strangle or hang himself with it. He owed her that much and then some. And she was right. He was being a little unfair but he had reasons that were not just the ones he gave. They were private and maybe he could talk it out with Hesh. He nodded in agreement, "Okay."
Sequoia nodded and turned back to the computer just as Hesh and the other Ghosts came in. She glanced at them and said, "Just in time." She gestured at the screen.
"What is that, Hawk?"
"The reason we need to get the asset back. Looks like he found something that is super important and only he can unlock it."
"Pretty hard to do with little leads," Keegan voiced.
Sequoia figured that as she looked at the encrypted file. She leaned back in her seat before swiveling to look at the others. She had an idea and it might work. "Do we have access to eyes in the sky and around Kranz?"
A/N: Reed decides to make friends with his fellow captors and plans escape. Hawk has a talking to with Harris and looking for leads. Stay tuned for next time on Freefall...