Chapter 7: Confessions

Having spent the last half an hour or so in the back of the van with Angel's goon, Murdock had no idea where he was. After finally reaching their destination, he was pulled out of the van and found himself standing in front of what looked like a giant bunker nestled deep inside the hillside. Two 25-ton blast doors stood ominously at the entrance. Angel, who had been driving the van, jumped out and joined them at the gates.

"What is this place?" enquired Murdock.

"This is Greenbrier's Bunker - one of American's closest-kept secrets," said Angel. "It was built to serve as an emergency shelter for the United States Congress during the Cold War. But the project was abandoned half way through construction. It does make a nice little hideaway for – shall we say – unofficial business!"

Murdock gave Angel a contemptuous grimace. He didn't like to think what the Authorities had given this turncoat permission to do, in order to find out the information they needed. Before he had a chance to voice his disapproval, the giant doors suddenly opened and two armed guards appeared. Murdock couldn't help noticing they were of Vietnamese appearance. Angel's henchmen pushed him towards the door.

Once inside the bunker, Angel led the way down a long corridor, whilst his men remained by the entrance. Murdock followed behind Angel and the two guards took up the rear. He looked up in open-mouthed wonder at all the names above the other passageways that branched off from the main corridor. The bunker appeared to be pretty well set out, with dormitories, recreation areas, cafeteria, a hospital and even a decontamination chamber. Eventually Angel stopped outside a room bearing the name "Storage Facility".

"I'll let the guards take it from here," he said to Murdock. "See ya later, Flyboy!"

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Face wasn't sure how long he had laid sprawled out on the floor. After awakening from his clout around the head and given himself a few moments to get himself together, he had surveyed his surroundings carefully. Most of the room seemed to be filled with huge, putrid water tanks and oil drums that were still filled to capacity. Apart from that, the room was pretty much empty.

He took off his jacket and brushed it down vigorously, looking around for somewhere to lay it down. Using his handkerchief, he meticulously wiped away the dust and dirt from the only chair in the room, before placing his jacket over the back of it and sat down, waiting for something to happen.

After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, he finally heard the rattling of keys and voices outside the door. He jumped up with an air of trepidation, bracing himself in readiness for whatever fate was going to throw at him. What he wasn't expecting, was to see Murdock being flung roughly into the room by the two guards, tripping over his feet as he collided into Face. The guards then retreated from the room without saying a word, clanging and locking the metal door shut behind them.

"Murdock!" exclaimed Face, steadying the pilot as he came crashing towards him. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Thought you might be lonely without me!" grinned back Murdock, managing to stop himself – and Face - from falling over. Face let go his grip once Murdock had steadied himself.

The pilot looked round the store room in disgust. "I say old bean," he further commented, in a crisp, English accent. "I don't think much of your current abode!"

"Cut it out, Murdock!" groaned Face. "Any ideas what's going on?"

"I was just about to ask you the same thing," said Murdock.

"Sorry pal, but I've been out cold for the past few hours," informed Face, rubbing the back of his throbbing head in a pained manner.

"Well," began Murdock, wondering how he was going to explain all this to Face. "I've just had the unfortunate misfortune of running into Tommy "the Angel" Anderson!"

"Really!" said Face, in a puzzled voice. "Where did you bump into him?"

Murdock slouched uncomfortably against one of the water tanks, trying to find the words that had been sticking in his throat for the past month or so. Face, recognising the sudden edginess in Murdock's manner, glared at him suspiciously.

"You were at the motel, weren't you?" he pressed further. "You saw her, didn't you? You saw Samantha? What was she like? Is she ok? Has anyone hurt her?"

Murdock tried desperately to stop Face's barrage of questions.

"Yes … I mean no, ...," he stammered. "I mean … I didn't see her at the motel because they moved her."

"So did you see her or not?" demanded Face, slightly confused by Murdock's answer.

"I didn't see her because … because … she wasn't your momma," blurted out Murdock. "This has all been a set-up."

The hurt and disappointment in Face's eyes cut through Murdock like a knife. He held his breath, expecting Face to explode like a volcano. But instead the Lieutenant just flopped to the floor, as if all the hope and expectation had drained out of him. He sat against the wall, legs sprawled out in front of him, shaking his head in disbelief. Murdock took off his jacket and came and sat down next to Face. He laid it down on the floor beside him and hugged his knees as he brought them up to his chest.

"You keeping secrets from me, buddy?" murmured Face finally, in a quiet voice, his blue-grey eyes probing deep into Murdock's chocolate brown eyes.

"I've wanted to tell you," confessed Murdock, apprehensively. "I guess I was just waiting for the right time, with you bein' beat up an' all."

"Well, now seems like as good a time as any," said Face, his voice suddenly cold and distant. "Spill it, Murdock!"

"Samantha had a sister," revealed Murdock, with a heavy sigh. "She's the one who was on the Witness Protection Program. Her and her parents. They were being terrorised by the same dirtballs who were after your momma. They thought they could get to her through them."

"How did you know Samantha had a sister?" grilled Face further, his eyes now matching his icy manner.

"I went to see Ellen," said Murdock, hugging his legs even harder as he saw a rare glint of anger swelling up on the Lieutenant's face.

"You haven't got Ellen involved in all of this, have you?" barked back Face. "Murdock, for God's sake! If you've put her in any danger …!"

"Oh no, Face!" interrupted Murdock quickly. "Ellen is fine, I swear to you. It's just, that, well, I had my suspicions that this Samantha Bancroft wasn't your mom. But I just wanted to be sure. Then I remembered you telling me that Ellen had a trunk full of AJ's possessions, so I just thought I'd see what I could find out. That's when we came across Samantha's wedding license and saw that one of the witnesses was a girl called Joanne Robinson. And there was lots of family photos of her with Samantha and her parents and … well we just kind of put two and two together."

Murdock's words came gushing out in one big non-stop torrent of information. Face listened intently, somehow managing to make sense of the pilot's erratic rambling.

"Okay, okay, Murdock!" he said. "I get the picture. But why would Joanne pretend to be Samantha? What would she get to gain from it?"

"Money!" came back Murdock's rapid reply. "She's on her own now. Her parents died shortly after they were put on the Program. She said some CID official approached her about making a deal to bring you out in the open. It could have been any of us, I suppose. But I'm thinkin' that they knew about AJ Bancroft dying and saw Joanne as a way to get to you."

"Do you think this has anything to do with Decker?" asked Face. "He may be in cahoots with the CID over this."

"Naw!" replied Murdock, firmly. "Maybe at first, but then when I saw Angel, I changed my mind. I think it's someone bigger than that. And did you notice those guards were Vietnamese? I think we're talking about something and someone a bit more sinister!"

Face sat in a stony silence, whilst he mulled over Murdock's information. He pulled up his legs, leaning his elbows on his knees as he rested his face in his hands. He didn't know what unnerved him the most. The fact that he had been used by his so-called aunt for her own personal gain or the fact that someone had gone to an awful lot of trouble to set him up for a reason that was still unexplained.

Murdock watched him in concern, knowing that Face would eventually ask him that all important question. His eyes were ready to meet Face's, when his buddy finally looked up.

"Why were you suspicious about Samantha being my momma?" challenged Face.

"Because ….," hesitated Murdock. "Because Luciano told me she was dead."

Face gulped back a big lump that had formed in his throat. However, always the expert at covering up his own feelings, he blinked back unemotionally at Murdock before responding.

"Did his father kill her?" he asked, in a calm but ominous voice.

"No," replied Murdock. "She was already dead when he found her. She died of a heroin overdose."

Face didn't flinch at this shocking news, but deep inside his stomach churned over. "Got any proof of that?" he asked.

"Remember the photograph Luciano gave you?" replied Murdock. "Well he said his father found it on your momma just after she died. I'm sorry muchacho, but she was down on her luck and had got into bad ways – if you know what I mean?"

"No!" yelled Face, suddenly jumping up. "He's lying! My momma would never … she wouldn't lead that sort of life!"

"Joanne confirmed it," said Murdock, also standing up as he anxiously watched Face pace up and down the limited floor space. "Her parents knew the sort of life she was leading and were desperately trying to find you and your mom. They even hired an FBI agent to help them gather evidence about the Luciano family and try and find out where she was. It was the FBI agent who found her and informed the Authorities. But the Mob must have known he was on their trail, coz he ended up dead a few hours later."

"So - this Joanne," said Face. "Didn't she want to meet me?"

The pained expression on the pilot's face answered his own question.

"I guess, she was just after the money, huh?" he said.

Murdock shrugged his shoulders, obviously embarrassed to tell Face the truth. Face stopped pacing up and down the room and leaned on one of the water tanks, with his back to Murdock.

"It's funny," he muttered, more to himself than Murdock. "I've got family crawling out of the woodwork and yet nobody wants to know me. I must have been a really bad kid when I was little."

"Oh no, Facey!" contradicted Murdock, walking over to stand by Face. "That's not true. Joanne is scared, is all. And your momma just got dealt a bad hand in life. But she cared enough about you to put you in the orphanage to keep you safe. She didn't want the Mob to find you. I bet she would have come back for you if things had been different. She probably sacrificed more for you than you'll ever know. And Ellen is really concerned about you. I think even AJ cared for you in his own way."

"Oh, stop with the jibber-jabber!" scowled back Face. "This is the real world we're talking about now, Murdock. Not your candyfloss version of it."

Face immediately regretted his choice of words as a haunted look appeared in Murdock's eyes. Before the pilot could reply, the door suddenly swung open and Angel entered with the two armed guards, who were carrying automatic rifles. They immediately began to usher Murdock and Face further back into the room, separating them as they trained their weapons on them.

A fourth person stepped into the room and like the guards, he was of Vietnamese appearance and wore a Vietnamese Guard uniform. Hideous scarring and what looked like charred, burned skin, defiled the right-side of his face.

But despite his appearance, there was no mistaking who the mysterious stranger was.

"Colonel Sieu!" exclaimed Murdock and Face in unison.