*****
Cautiously walking around the perimeter, Joshua arrived
at the hideout east of Atlanta. He had a feeling Derek wasn’t there, but he
knew he was close. The intuition he felt with his fellow mutated Marines was
the strongest of the group, but it still only brought him to their general
location. It wasn’t like an internal GPS system, but it was good enough to
allow for little effort to pick up their trail.
He settled in a thicket of woods less than fifty yards
from the front door and waited. The sun would be rising soon, and he didn’t
want to expose himself until he knew it was safe. Whatever Derek had recently
experienced, Joshua knew it was an event powerful enough to elevate his level
of awareness. He knew something was wrong.
*****
The team arrived back at the FBI house with little
conversation during the short trip. Michelle immediately separated herself from
the group and went upstairs to her room. The men entered the kitchen and Tom
grabbed three beers as they each took a seat around the table.
“How are you holding up, Boss?” asked Tom.
“I’m okay,” said Ryan, “But I’m a little concerned about
Michelle. She seems very angry.”
“Would you care to hear my opinion about why?” asked
Tom.
“Please.”
“She’s taking this hard because she lost a friend
tonight,” said Tom. “She’ll probably deny she was getting close to Kristina,
but I could tell. I can’t help but think she may feel somewhat responsible.”
“I’ll talk to her and make sure she knows it wasn’t her
fault,” said Ryan.
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea right now.”
“Why?”
“Because she’s also blaming you.” explained Tom, “When
nobody could reach you, she felt like you left us on our own to deal with some
pretty heavy issues. I know you have a legitimate reason for being gone, but we
needed you here. Dallas did the best he could trying to sort it out, but they
really had us running in circles. He wasn’t sure how to handle orders coming
directly from Donaldson.”
“Don’t make excuses for me, Tom,” said Dallas. “I
screwed it up on my own.”
“Calm down, Dallas. We agreed with the plan. We all
screwed this up.”
“Don’t tell me to calm down.”
“Guys,” interrupted Ryan, “We can’t start coming apart
now. We all took a beating tonight, and it was nobody’s fault but theirs. If we
start doubting ourselves, then we don’t have a prayer against them. We’re all
we have right now. They’ve had us on the defensive since this began, and it’s
time to change that. If we’re going to stop them, we have to stay strong and
stay together.”
“Stop them?” asked Dallas. “Kristina was the only chance
we had to figure this out. How do we prove it now?”
“You couldn’t reach me because my phone was destroyed.”
said Ryan, “It was destroyed when Derek put me through a table.”
“Say again?” asked Tom.
“I had dinner with a friend from high school,” explained
Ryan. “She received a phone call from her security monitoring service that an
alarm was tripped. I went to her house to clear it, and Derek was waiting there
for me. I was set up. But he wasn’t there to kill me. He was there to ask for
our help. And we’re going to give it to him.”
“Just when I thought this couldn’t possibly get any
weirder,” said Dallas.
“You and me both, brother. But we have him now, and
we’re going to use him to find Joshua and expose the Didache Project. I just
have to figure out how.”
“He just let you walk away?” asked Tom.
“Yep,” said Ryan. “He’s a pawn in this game just like we
are. And just like us, he’s had enough.”
Ryan explained the details of his encounter with Derek
and Jennifer. Tom picked up on the situation immediately, but Dallas was having
issues trusting a murderer. But he did trust Ryan, so he was onboard with
coming up with a plan. Ryan told them to brainstorm how they could capture
Joshua instead of letting Derek kill him while he went upstairs to talk to
Michelle. He knocked on her door and she let him in without making eye contact
or saying a word.
“Tom said this would be a bad idea, but I’m out of
time,” pleaded Ryan.
“You’re out of time?” asked Michelle, condescendingly,
“No, you have plenty of time. Kristina is the one out of time, or did you
already forget about her already?”
“Michelle, I’m –”
“Don’t you dare say you’re sorry! Don’t you dare. You’re
the one who dragged her into this. You’re the one who took her away from her
happy life and threw her right in the middle of this shit storm,” said
Michelle, unable to restrain her anger, “You uprooted everything familiar to
her and shoved her into a hole where she couldn’t even see the light of day.
You had me and your watchdogs babysit her while you ran around chasing your
monsters. Well, Ryan, the real monsters got to her. She trusted you. She
believed you’d keep her safe. I believed it, too.”
Michelle stood and walked across the room and looked out
the window. She didn’t want Ryan to see her crying.
“You were bigger than life to her,” said Michelle
quietly. “She talked about you all the time. Christ, it was like a teenage
sleepover whenever I stayed. I’d go out and get us a couple bottles of wine,
and we’d sit for hours talking about how crazy our lives had become. But the
conversation would always turn to you.”
Michelle turned around, not caring anymore if Ryan saw
her tears. She walked back over to him and sat on the corner of her bed.
“It’s no secret I’m a hard ass,” said Michelle, “And I
forgot how to cry years ago. And I sure as shit didn’t want you to be the first
person to see me when I remembered. But she reminded me that it was okay to
still be a woman while trying to do what people consider a man’s job. She
reminded me that it was okay to cry. Maybe not in front of you jerks, but
somewhere where I felt safe and secure. She felt safe and secure with us. She
knew we’d do whatever it took to protect her. She was wrong.”
“I am sorry, Michelle. I didn’t know you two had become
close.”
“We spent almost a solid week together. She made it very
difficult not to become friends, and trust me, I tried. I knew it was a bad
idea, but I couldn’t help it. There’s just something about her that disarmed
me.”
“You weren’t the only one disarmed,” said Ryan. “She did
it to me the moment I met her. I instantly turned into a cliché. You know the
whole at first sight thing.”
“Really? You?”
“Yeah, me. I knew it was a bad idea as well, but like
you said, you couldn’t help it with her. I even thought about how I’d approach
her after this was over. Because you’re right, I did turn her life upside down.
I did drag her all over the country and leave her to be watched by strangers.
And I did let her down, Michelle. I cared about her and I let them kill her.”
“I’ll be damned,” said Michelle. “Dallas was right.”
“About?”
“You having feelings for her.”
“It was that obvious?”
“Apparently, to everyone else but me. I’m sorry, too.
I’m just angry and tired, Ryan.”
“It’s okay, Michelle. You have every right to be angry.
But I don’t think it’d be a good idea to tell Tom and Dallas about our
conversation.”
“Don’t worry, I didn’t plan on it. But you still haven’t
answered my question. Where were you tonight?”
“I was with Derek.”
“Derek Mathews?”
“I’ll explain everything downstairs,” said Ryan, “But
you need to answer a question as well.”
“What is it?”
“Steve will be here in a few hours. He’s going after
everyone who had anything to do with killing his men. I’m going with him,
Michelle. And I’m not going as an FBI agent. Do you understand?”
“I don’t think I want to do this job anymore,” said
Michelle, “but I’m going to finish this one. So if your question has something
to do with me helping, the answer is yes. Hell, yes.”
Ryan opened his eyes and immediately sat up in bed. He
was in an anxious place of waking, unsure of where he was or what he was
supposed to be doing. He looked around becoming more familiar with his
surroundings. For a brief moment, he thought Kristina’s death may have just
been a nightmare, but quickly deflated when he realized it wasn’t. She was
still dead.
He managed to find three hours of sleep, but it wasn’t
nearly enough. He wondered if Steve had already made it into Atlanta, but the
majority of his thoughts were about his meeting with Derek. He had a better
understanding of the Marine’s desire to end the lives of everyone involved.
Ryan’s original plan of convincing Derek to take the high road and try to avoid
bloodshed was nowhere to be found. He headed downstairs for a cup of coffee and
found Tom and Dallas already sitting at the table.
“Did you guys get any rest?” asked Ryan.
“No, we figured we’d hit the sack after you left to meet
Derek,” said Tom, yawning.
“Steve should be here shortly,” said Ryan. “He’s
bringing us some intel on the layout of the Michaels Lab. I want you guys to
figure out the best way to get in undetected. If we’re going to face Alex, it’s
absolutely critical we get the drop on him. When he figures out we’re there, it
has to be too late for him to do anything about it.”
“We can definitely work that out.”
“I knew you could, buddy.”
“So we’re going to Maine?” asked Tom.
“Steve, Dallas, and I are,” said Ryan. “You and Michelle
are going to stay here.”
“Are we done?”
“No, the exact opposite of done. I need you two for the
other half of the operation.”
“I can’t wait to hear it,” said Tom.
“I’ll go over everything with you when I get back.
Seriously, I want you guys to get some sack time. We’re going to be pushing
hard and fast from here on out. No telling when we’re going to find time to
sleep once this ball starts rolling.”
The lead agent downed his first cup of coffee and
grabbed a second for the road. He poured a cup for Derek, not knowing exactly
what kind of fuel a super soldier required. He pulled into Jennifer’s driveway
and walked to the creek bank as instructed the night before. The Marine highly
skilled in camouflage seemed to materialize out of thin air.
“You look like shit,” said Derek.
“I had a rough night,” said Ryan, handing him the cup.
“Are we going to talk out here?”
“No, let’s go inside. Thanks for the coffee.”
“You’re welcome. I take it she doesn’t know you’re
hanging out in the woods behind her house every night?”
“No, she doesn’t,” laughed Derek. “It would be too
distracting for the both of us. Plus, I can see anyone or anything approaching
the house from out here. So what happened?” asked Derek, taking a seat in the
living room.
“Colonel Brown discovered the location of our scientist
last night. He and Alex killed her, the men protecting her, and another
civilian helping our cause.”
“I told you he’d do anything to preserve Didache,” said Derek.
“Are you starting to understand my apprehension about letting them live?”
“Yeah, I am,” said Ryan.
“Was this scientist a friend of yours?” asked Derek,
picking up on the tone and speed of his response.
“Yes, she was,” answered Ryan, confirming Derek’s
suspicion.
“She,” said Derek. “Was she more than a friend?”
“That really doesn’t matter.”
“That answers my question, and yes, it does matter.”
“Are we here to work on a plan or talk about our
feelings?” asked Ryan.
“Wow, you were more than friends.”
“Derek, seriously, drop it,” said Ryan, becoming
irritated.
“Sorry, just trying to –” paused Derek, leaning back
into the couch and raising his hands to his face as if he was in prayer.
“Kristina? Those motherfuckers killed Kristina?”
“Yes, they did,” answered Ryan. “And Scott Wilson.”
Derek leaned forward and sat motionless with his head in
his hands. His eyes were shut tight, and his jaw tightened as he clenched his
teeth. Ryan could see the pain in his face.
“She was a very sweet girl, Ryan,” said Derek, coming
out of his trance. “I take it you knew her well.”
“I didn’t, but we were working on that,” said Ryan,
opening up slightly. “It was a little difficult considering our situation, but
I agree with you. She was a very sweet girl. She certainly didn’t deserve a
bullet in her head.”
“Fuck!” said Derek, standing in anger, “I’m going to
kill Colonel Brown slow. As soon as I take out Joshua, that evil son of a bitch
is next.”
“We need to get to him first,” said Ryan. “If he hasn’t
given the order to destroy every file on Didache and kill the other three
scientists, he’ll do it soon. We need to go get him now and I need you to come
with me.”
“That’s not going to happen,” said Derek. “I told you
the only way I’m leaving Jennifer is if I’m going after Joshua. There’s no
fucking way I’m leaving her behind with him out there. He’s here, Ryan. I think
he came into town last night.”
“What do you mean he’s here? Joshua? You said he’d be
hiding out in the mountains for a few more days.”
“I can’t explain how I know or exactly where he is, but
he’s close. I can feel him.”
“Why is he here?”
“His intuition is much stronger than the rest of ours,”
explained Derek. “He always picked up on our stress, pain or fear better than
we did. I’m not saying he can read minds, but he can feel when something
significant changes. There’s no way I’m leaving her, Ryan. Not now. I’m sorry,
but you’re on your own with that one.”
“I need you to take Alex,” said Ryan, pleading his case.
“I can get us in the lab, but I don’t think I can get us past him. I need you.
As soon as we remove him and the Colonel, we’ll focus every asset on finding
Joshua.”
“That’s not good enough. I’m not leaving her. End of
story.”