I adjusted my tie for what felt like the forty-seventh time as we walked up to the entrance to Sal's and took a deep breath. I had so rarely worn anything beyond my dress uniform for formal settings that the suit, while well-tailored, made me feel like something was off. Still, I tried to push it out of my mind and focus on the evening ahead. With a long exhalation to clear my mind, I pulled open the door and held it for Rose, who smiled up at me.
"Still a gentleman after all these years," she playfully said as she strode inside. I quickly followed her in, and if I'm being honest, I was a bit underwhelmed. The decor, the waitstaff, they all looked like they belonged in the kind of high-end restaurant Sal's had touted itself as, but I was surprised at how few people were actually seated in the modest dining area.
Rose sidled up next to me and she wrapped her arm around mine. "So, what do you think?"
"It looks beautiful," I began, still taking in the decor. "Love the art deco style, but…I was expecting this place to be packed."
"Normally, they are, but apparently they had a special event booked tonight." She looked around and shrugged. "Guess some people really like their privacy."
It took me a second before it dawned on me. "Wait, you mean to say they booked nearly the entire restaurant just so they'd be able to eat without it being filled to capacity?"
She nodded as we walked up to the reception desk. "That'd be my guess," she said to me before flashing a charming smile at the maitre'd. "Table for Bogan."
The tall, well-dressed man's eyes glanced down at the book to confirm the appointment before smiling broadly. "Ah, yes, welcome to Sal's. Right this way, please." We dutifully followed as he showed us to our table, tucked away in a quiet corner of the restaurant and I helped Rose into her seat before I took the chair opposite her. Once he was certain we were situated comfortably, he smiled again and nodded to us. "Your waiter will be by with your dishes shortly."
I balked for a moment, as I didn't recall ordering anything, but Rose smiled happily over at me, so I simply smiled and nodded back to the maitre'd. As soon as he'd gotten out of earshot, I leaned over and softly asked Rose, "Do they serve only one thing here or something?"
She laughed softly and shook her head. "No, they've got a menu, but when I managed to snag the reservation, the head chef wanted to make your favorite meal, so that's what you'll have."
I leaned back, feeling a tad overwhelmed as I processed this information. "All that…just for me?"
"He said he wanted to show his gratitude," she shrugged before she leaned forward and held out her hands. "And if those are his terms to be able to share a delicious meal with the man of my life, who am I to say no?"
I reached out and took her hands in mine, giving them a gentle squeeze. "I love you."
"Damn right you do," she grinned, earning a chuckle from me. "But I love you, too."
Without breaking eye contact, I lifted her hand to mine and kissed it softly. "So, aside from your support group and gardening, anything else of interest happened lately?"
"Well, I managed to finish that novel you got me for Christmas, along with a few others and…"
"...and that's when I realized that the butler was really the blackmailer the entire time and he forced his butler to pretend to be the blackmailer!"
"That's one hell of a twist," I chuckled. "So…who did it?"
Before she could answer, our waiter appeared, with a plate in each hand and another waiter behind him carrying a bottle of wine and two glasses. "Your dinner, sir and madame, compliments of the chef," he smiled as he set the plates in front of us. "Filet mignon, rare, with a side of scalloped potatoes and sauteed mushrooms for the gentleman and veal piccata for the lady."
Both of us let out quiet gasps of awe and admiration as we looked over our meals. It was practically a work of art, and the aroma of the filet was almost intoxicating. I didn't know whether to take a picture or just dig in, but I suddenly remembered our waiter was still there, with the bottle of wine now in his hand. "We've taken the liberty of selecting a wine from our private reserve that pairs well with both veal and filet mignon, a Pinot Noir '44." Again, Rose and I were all smiles as we watched him pour the burgundy liquid into our glasses and set the bottle down on the table. "We bid you good eating," he stated, bowed slightly, then left us to our meal.
"Can you believe this?" Rose beamed at me. "This is incredible!"
"Right?" I smiled back as I fished my phone out of my pocket to take a quick picture for Juustagram before I slipped it back into my jacket pocket. Posting it could wait, all I wanted at that moment was to enjoy this delicious meal with my wife. "I feel almost guilty cutting something this beautiful. Almost."
She grinned as she took a bite of her veal piccata, her grin melting away into a look of pure bliss. "Oh my god," she practically moaned, "That is veal perfected."
Not wanting to wait any longer, I cut into my steak, noting how the knife cut through the filet as if it were butter. Inside, I could see the deep red of a perfectly cooked rare, and I lifted the fork to my lips. The bite of filet mignon practically melted in my mouth, the savory flavors coating my tongue, and I let out a contented sigh. "You aren't kidding," I agreed wholeheartedly. "I think this is the best thing I've ever eaten, hands down. Hell, this may be the best thing I'll ever eat."
Rose grinned over at me and simply said, "You're welcome."
"Thank you," I laughed as I shook my head. "At least you're so humble about it."
"I think I've earned the right to toot my own horn here," she shot back with a playful grin. "I'm giving you a night you'll never forget. Downright life-changing."
I raised my glass to her in salute as I nodded. "Fair point. To a life-changing evening."
"To a life-changing evening," she agreed, with a rather cryptic smile on her face. She raised her glass, gently tapping it against mine before she took a small, almost imperceptible sip of her wine. I followed suit with a much larger sip, swishing it around in my mouth to get the full flavors. It was full-bodied, but I found it just a touch too bitter. I would find out why very shortly.
For the moment, however, I simply returned to my meal, enjoying each and every bite. Rose did much the same, but I found her staring intently at me every now and again. I didn't think much of it at the time, just that she wanted to see how happy I was with the meal. And I was very happy, possibly the happiest I'd ever been. I was at an amazing restaurant, eating the best dish I'd ever had, with my beautiful wife who I loved so very very much. What happened next was truly a tragedy.
It began as a slightly dizzying sensation as if I'd held my breath for too long. I shook my head to clear it and mistakenly took another sip of wine. The dizziness intensified, and I began to realize this wasn't simply a buzz from the wine or something minor. I was in trouble.
By this point, Rose had noticed something was wrong and peered worryingly at me. "Honey? What's the matter?"
"I dunno," I tried to say, the words coming out slurred. My vision was now swimming, and I suddenly realized what was going on: I'd been poisoned. The fear that raced through me also brought with it a sudden surge of adrenaline, burning off some of the venom in my veins. I grabbed her hand as I got to my feet, trying to pull her up. "Poisoned, we…we gotta go…safety…" I mumbled.
To my horror, my beloved Rose simply smiled up at me, placed her hand atop mine, and softly soothed, "Shhhhh, just let it happen, honey."
She was in on it. She set me up. My heart shattered into a thousand pieces, but I couldn't dwell on that right then and there. I needed to call for help, escape, and get as far away as I could before the poison claimed me. With rapidly numbing fingers, I grabbed my phone and began sending out a desperate message for help. And then it happened.
The worst part about fainting is that right before you lose consciousness, you lose all muscle control, but you remain aware of your surroundings. I could feel the phone slip from my fingers, watching helplessly as I tried in vain to will myself to catch it. Now fully truly trapped inside a prison of meat and bone, I could only watch and scream internally as my legs began to lurch forward, trying to keep me upright. I took a few steps before they gave out, and I right before I hit the floor, my consciousness was swallowed up by darkness.
The next thing I remember is hearing muffled voices as if I were underwater. I vaguely remembered panic, running, some sort of danger, but I couldn't quite place it, my brain still fogged by the effects of the…I didn't remember what. Gradually, the voices became clearer and clearer as the fog began to lift from my mind. And then I remembered, I'd been poisoned! I lunged forward, trying to flee to safety, only to feel the sudden bite of my restraints digging into my arms and legs. My eyes flew open, but I still couldn't see anything as I struggled in vain against my bonds.
Almost as soon as my struggling began, I felt a hand on my shoulder and a familiar, albeit muffled, voice. "It's okay, honey," Rose soothed, "I'm here."
"R-Rose?" I stammered, still trying to piece together what had happened. "Where am I? I can't see!"
"You're safe now," she whispered, her hand gently caressing my shoulder and chest. "It's alright."
"Doesn't feel safe," I grumble, still tugging on whatever was holding me down. Zip ties were my guess, based on how they felt around my wrists.
There was a moment of silence, and I thought I heard whispering before Rose spoke up again. "Would you feel better if we took the hood off?"
I made a mental note of "we", but didn't comment on it, instead slowly nodding my head. When I realized she might not be able to see the gesture clearly, I added an audible, "It's a start."
Blinding light stung my eyes and I quickly shut them until they'd become accustomed to the light again. As I blinked the tears away, things swam into focus and I saw Rose standing before me with a sad smile on her face and a black hood clenched in her hand. She was surrounded by a group of men and women, all of them staring implacably at me. At first, I didn't recognize any of them, and then I caught a glimpse of our waiter at Sal's. What the hell was he doing here? Where even was here? I continued to look around for another moment. It seemed like I was in someone's living room, although I couldn't be certain since I couldn't see any windows from where I was seated. A furnished basement, perhaps.
"Rose," I begged her, "What's going on and why am I tied to a chair?"
She gave me a sweet smile, but I could see the unhinged look in her eye. "Honey, you said you wanted to meet my support group," she turned and gestured to the people packing the room, "Well, here they are."
I gave her an incredulous look. "...and that's why you had to drug me? If people want to keep their privacy, we could have just met at a public place or something."
Rose giggled as she shook her head. "It's not that, silly. We need to tell you something, something important that other people cannot hear."
"...the hell are you talking about?"
Her smile faded and her expression became deadly serious. "It's about your kansen, Paul. They're dangerous."
It was all I could do to avoid rolling my eyes and sighing at her. I'd heard this before, and I knew exactly where this was going. I just never imagined I would be hearing it from my wife of all people.
"I know what you're thinking," she continued as she placed her hand on my shoulder. "That nobody knows them like you do, that they're people, et cetera, et cetera, but deep down, you know they aren't. They're not human, not really. Just weapons meant to look like people, act like people. And what have they done for us, hm? They're supposed to defeat the Sirens, but it's been years now. You know better than most, so tell me: are the Sirens defeated? Are the oceans safe again?"
For the first time in my life, I found myself truly frustrated by my inability to disclose classified information. I wanted to tell her all that we'd accomplished, especially as of late, but I somehow doubted I could get retroactive clearances for everyone in the room. Or anyone in the room. "Safer than before," I diplomatically answered. "We've made progress."
"And that's the thing," Rose quickly countered, a mad fire in her eyes. "You're going to make progress. But it's always going to be incremental, just enough to keep them useful. And do you know why? Because they know once this is over, we're going to scrap them."
"The hell we are!" I angrily shot back. "I'm not letting any member of my command go to the chopping block because the war is over. Not on my watch."
"And what happens when it isn't your watch anymore?" she snarled. "What are we going to do with weapons so powerful they can wipe out an entire fleet of ships without breaking a sweat? Just let them do whatever they want? And what if they decide what they want is to destroy humanity? We can't let that happen, Paul."
Her naked anger and contempt for kansen was shocking, and I was taken aback by the sheer level of vitriol. Still, she was my wife, I loved her, and I wanted to save her from herself. I took a deep breath and calmed myself as best I could before I replied. "Rose, that is never going to be what they want. Humanity is part of who they are, it's encoded into their very soul. They may not be the same biologically speaking, but they are human. Besides, without them, what would we fight the Sirens with?"
She didn't answer, and I saw a look on her face that was mirrored on everyone else's. "Oh my god," I muttered, horrified by the realization, "You want them to win. You want to give humanity over to the Sirens."
She could see she was losing me, and she tried to preempt any argument. "Paul," she soothed, "Paul, I know this seems like a bad idea, but…has anyone tried communicating with the Sirens? Asked for their side of the story? Besides," she smiled seductively, "you're the one who's always telling me in your letters how much you want this war to be over…"
I wasn't having any of it. "Yeah, when we win!" I practically yelled. "And yes, we have communicated with the Sirens, and no, they've repeatedly declined to give their side of the story. They see us as experiments, that's all. You're worried about what the kansen might do twenty or thirty years down the road. Lemme tell you what's going to happen in two or three if the Sirens win: we're all going to be dead. Or enslaved in one of their Reenactments or experiments. We're lab rats to them, nothing more."
Rose and several of the other group members exchanged uncertain glances before one of them, a tall man with dark brown hair and a mustache, shook his head and declared. "He's too far gone. He's either part of it or he's too blind to see the truth."
That seemed to alarm Rose, not to mention me, as I could come up with a good idea of what was going to happen to me if they decided I wasn't going to join them. She gave them that charming smile she would give me when she was trying to be convincing as she tried to smooth things over. "He's been part of the system for years, he's not going to just join us after one little exchange. This is going to take time."
"We don't have time," the man countered. "They're going to be expecting him back-"
"-in two weeks," she cut him off with a harsh glare. "That is my husband, and I'm not going to give up on him after just five minutes." Honestly, I would have been touched if she wasn't trying to convince me to condemn the entire world to death and destruction.
The tall man stared her down before he sighed and shook his head ruefully. "Fine," he conceded. "I'll give you one week. If he's not on board with us by then, we're going to go with one of the alternatives." I didn't ask about what "alternatives" they had in mind, but I had a pretty good feeling none of them would be conducive to my health and well-being.
"He'll be on board," Rose reassured the man, who gave me one last look before he shook his head and walked away. As if on cue, the rest of the group dispersed, with one or two attempting to casually hang around the exits to the room. Clearly, I had minders who didn't trust my wife's promises. Or me.
Rose watched them disperse and sighed before she turned back to me. "I'm…I'm sorry, honey, for all of this." For a second, hope fluttered in my heart. Maybe she was just playing along, maybe she had a plan to get us both out of this, get to safety. But I should have heeded the ancient saying, "Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment." She smiled softly as she reached down to brush an errant lock of hair out of my eyes. "They opened my eyes, and I only want you to see what I see."
My heart shattered into a million pieces. In spite of the zip ties that were biting into my wrists, the most pain I was feeling at that moment was in my chest. I almost couldn't believe what I was hearing, that this woman that I had known and loved for over a decade would betray me like this. "Rose, please" I begged, trying to hold back tears as the words tumbled out of my mouth. "You don't have to do this, it's not too late, we can fix this…just…please don't do this."
My pleas fell on deaf ears, however, as she simply smiled sweetly as she straddled me. "Shhh, it's okay," she softly reassured, "I'm sure it feels scary right now, but I know a way to help calm your nerves…"
I didn't know what she meant until I felt her lips on my neck, gently kissing me as her hands began to caress my chest. "R-Rose, what are you doing? S-stop it," I protested, trying again to get free, or failing that, to shake her loose.
Her response was to squeeze me tightly with her thighs, her hands caressing my shoulders as her lips brushed against my ear. "Just take it easy and enjoy it, honey," she whispered. "It'll help take the edge off."
They say when it comes to trauma, our brain is hard-wired to remember every single detail and burn it into our memory for as long as possible. The theory is that it's done this way so we can learn from it and avoid it in future. I don't know if it has ever helped me in that way, but in either case, what came next I can still recall with perfect clarity. What happened only took a few seconds, but in my mind, it felt like it went on for hours, everything playing back in some kind of horrific slow motion.
There's the distinct sound of glass shattering, followed by the noise of something hitting the carpeted floor. I can't see what it is, but it causes Rose to stop and lean back to take a closer look. Her eyes go wide and I immediately shut mine in preparation for what I think is coming next.
There's an impossibly loud bang! and my ears begin to ring, muffling any other sounds. When I open my eyes, acrid smoke fills the air and Rose is fumbling for something at her waist. I couldn't see what it was, and before I could glance down, something behind and to my right drew my attention. Through the ringing, I heard another loud crash or bang, followed swiftly by voices. I couldn't make out what they were saying, but they were barking out orders. Those orders must not have been followed because they were quickly followed up by the unmistakable sound of gunfire, along with a cry of pain. I tore my eyes away from Rose just in time to see two men in full combat gear enter the room, automatic rifles up and at the ready. They barked orders again, and this time I could hear them clearly.
"Drop the knife! Drop it!"
I glanced over to see Rose with a knife in her hand and I screamed at her to drop it, but it was already too late. The roar of gunfire coincides with twin fountains of blood that erupted from her left shoulder, the red droplets suspended in the air for what seemed like hours before time caught up and she was thrown off me, clutching her wounds and sobbing uncontrollably. The two agents moved swiftly, advancing past me, one of them kicking the knife away from Rose before he zip-tied her bloody hands behind her back while the other secured the man who'd been guarding the left side of the room. When I looked to see the man on the right, he was on the floor, gun in his hand, and very clearly dead. I guess he didn't follow orders either.
I felt a heavy hand come down on my shoulder and I jumped, my head whipping around to find myself face-to-face with one of my rescuers. Or, as face-to-face as one can get to someone in a helmet and facemask. Only his eyes were visible. Bright, vibrant green eyes that seemed to bore into me. He was saying something to me, but in my shocked state, I didn't initially make out the words.
"Admiral Bogan, are you okay?" he repeated. "Are you injured, sir?"
"No, I'm fine," I automatically answered, even though my head was spinning trying to take it all in.
He nodded, then pressed his finger to his headset. "This is Bravo Two, package is secure, are we clear to extract?"
I couldn't hear the answer, but it was punctuated by two gunshots somewhere else in the building, followed up by a burst of automatic fire. As soon as the noise faded away, Bravo Two nodded to his partner, who began cutting me free of my restraints. As he worked, Bravo Two leaned down and explained what was going to happen next.
"Alright, sir, once you're out of those, what we're gonna get you out of here. Now what I want you to do is stay low and stay with me no matter what happens, no matter what you hear, you stay low, and stay with me and we'll get you to safety, understood?"
I nodded as I lifted my arms, rubbing where the zip ties had cut off circulation a bit. "What about her?" I asked, gesturing towards Rose. "Can you help her?" In hindsight, I know it looks crazy, but she was still my wife, and in the insanity of it all, I still loved her. Or thought I did. I don't know, it was all a jumbled mess emotionally speaking and thirty seconds isn't enough time to sort them out.
Bravo Two followed my gaze, then looked back at me. To his credit, if he had any judgment or opinions about my state of mind to ask such a question, I never saw or heard it. He was a consummate professional. "Once we've got you to safety and we've secured the building, we'll make sure she gets the medical attention she needs," he answered. "You good to go?"
I stood from the chair, uneasy at first, but as I stretched my legs, I felt confident enough to run to safety. "Good to go," I confirmed with a thumbs up and a solemn nod.
He put a gloved hand on my back as his partner raised his weapon and began to sweep ahead. "We go on three. Remember, stay low. One, two…three!"
And with that, I ran out of the room, out of the house, and out of my old life, never to return…
A/N-Oof. Well, at least it's over with no lasting psychological consequences, right? …right? *looks at tags* …oh, yeah. Bonus points Until next time, fair winds and following seas!
