Wrong Time (5 page)

“Drop it!” Sam called out to the
wounded woman lying on the floor.

Chloe complied and dropped her gun.

“Are you okay, Nathan?” Sam screamed
out to him.

“I’m all right, or at least I think
that I am,” Nathan called back to her.

“Okay. Do you have a radio to
communicate with the people outside?” Sam asked Chloe.

“Yes, but why?” Chloe asked.

“I want you to tell them to go on
without you and Brad. Tell them that you have other transportation coming.”

 
Chloe did as she was told, and soon enough,
all of the trucks and soldiers were gone from outside.

“What are you going to do with me?”
Chloe asked.

“First, we’re going to take you to a
hospital, and then you’re going to answer a lot of questions for us,” Nathan
said while walking out of a cell.

Chapter 5

Earlier that morning, Jason and the
others had finished sorting through all the files, and everyone was exhausted.
 

“I think that we should get some sleep
and come back this afternoon,” Jason said.

“Okay, but where do we sleep?” Michael
asked.

“You can all stay with me until the
agency works out a place for you to stay.”

 
They then drove with Jason to his house.
Upon arriving, one simple truth became apparent.

“It’s a little small. It’s only a two
bedroom place, so I don’t know how sleeping arrangements will work, but you can
all decide amongst yourselves where to sleep,” Jason said as he walked into his
bedroom.

Lee immediately flopped down on the
couch.

“Oh, don’t tell me that I’m going to
have to sleep on the floor again!” Michael exclaimed.

Trish knew that something was growing
between Michael and Jess, and she didn’t want to get in the way of that, so she
did the only thing that she could think to do.

“No, you and Jess can take the bed.
I’ll take the floor,” Trish said.

Michael looked extremely surprised, but
it was Jess’s desperate expression that was the most comical. She shot Trish a
rare angry look. Michael, on the other hand, had broken into a full blown
smile. Well, that was certainly a turn around. I went from sleeping on the
floor to in the bed with Jess, Michael thought and then walked into the
bedroom. Jess followed him very hesitantly. She didn’t quite trust Michael.
Sure, they were good friends, but they had never slept in the same bed before.
She was a little worried about what Michael might try when they were alone in
the bedroom. Trish found a spot close to the couch, grabbed a small blanket
that was lying over the back of the couch, and sat down.

“Oh, come on. I’m not going to let you
sleep on the floor. You can have the couch,” Lee said.

“No, you’re still sick,” Trish said.

“Look, you’re either going to take the
couch or we’re both going to be sleeping side by side on the floor.”

 
Trish appreciated the offer, but the
truth was that he didn’t have to trade places with her. As tired as she was,
she could have slept anywhere.

“You aren’t all that bad, you know,”
Trish said as she flopped down on the couch.

“You must be losing your ability to
read people,” Lee joked.

“Well, I don’t know what it is, but you
seem a little different since we were imprisoned.”

“There’s something about thinking you’re
going to die that kind of changes you.”

“How so?”

 
“It puts things into perspective. You
think back over your whole life and see how much time you’ve wasted. I don’t want
to waste any more of my time.”

“I can relate to that. Sometimes I
wonder if I’ve actually done any good in my life at all.”

“You bought everyone some time back at
the prison. If you didn’t have
good
in you, you would
have just stuck to your kidnapping story and gone back to your old job. Thank
you for sticking with us, by the way. If you hadn’t bought us that time, I
doubt we would even be here right now,” Lee said.

“You’re welcome, and thanks for trying
to make me feel better. Anyway, you know all about my past, so I just have to
ask. What do you regret so much? Do tech guys really have such troubled pasts?”
Trish asked while laughing.

“I don’t really have a troubled past. I
just want to find someone to spend my life with. I’ve spent my entire life
surrounded by people who make me feel somehow different, or even broken in some
way. I want to find someone who’s like me so neither of us has to feel that way
ever again.”

The living room was silent for a moment
as Trish searched for the words to say to such an unexpected and deep thing
from Lee.

“Can I give you some advice?” Trish
asked.

“Yeah, sure.”

“Don’t search for someone who is the
same as you. You should search for someone who can accept everything about you.”

“I really don’t think that the majority
of women are going to be very accepting of me. In case you haven’t noticed, I
don’t exactly click with most women.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that. You
have a lot more good qualities than you know.”

 
“Really?”

“Yes, and you can trust me. I can read
people, remember? Just keep being you, and good things are going to happen for
you really soon.”
 

“I hope you’re right,” Lee said and
laid his head back.

Where did that come from, Trish
wondered. Lee was an okay guy, but six months ago she wouldn’t have had a clue
of how to give relationship advice and would have cared to give the advice even
less. These guys are making me soft, she thought as she turned over and drifted
off.
 

In Michael and Jess’s room, there was
total silence. Neither of them knew what to say, but Michael knew that he
needed to say something soon.

“So this is a little more awkward than
I imagined it would be,” Michael said.

“Look, this doesn’t have to be awkward.
You just stay on your side of the bed, and I’ll stay on mine,” Jess said.

Michael was confused. The two of them
had a moment back at the hospital, and he thought that things would just come
naturally like they did with Nathan and Sam, but so far, it seemed like that
spark back at the hospital had only made things awkward between the two of
them.

“You don’t need to worry. I’m dead
tired, and it’s not like I would try anything anyway.”

“Well, good.”

Silence enveloped the room again, and
when Michael felt as if he couldn’t stand it anymore, he spoke.

“I don’t want things to be weird
between us. I have always liked you, and I still like you, so nothing has
really changed. I’m still your friend, no matter what changes or doesn’t
change. There’s nothing for you to worry about right now. I would never try
anything, and it kind of offends me that you think I would.”

“I know, and I’m sorry. This situation
is just a little weird for me.”

“I understand,” Michael said while
turning to face her.

Jess then reached out and took his
hand. There was clearly a spark between the two of them, but Jess still wasn’t
sure what to do with it, and Michael was just satisfied holding the hand of the
girl he had loved for so long. There, with their hands on an imaginary midline,
the two of them slept hand in hand.

* * * * *

Early that afternoon in Houston, Nathan
and Sam were sitting next to Chloe, who was handcuffed to a hospital bed.

“Okay. First of all, where did the crew
who broke all of your friends out of the prison come from, and where are they
going?” Nathan asked.

“Why would I tell you anything?” Chloe asked.

 
“We can make life rather difficult for
you in the future if you don’t tell us what we want to hear. Let’s try another
question. Where has Markus Boyd gone to?” Sam asked.

“Okay. If I didn’t answer your last
question, then you can certainly bet that I’m never going to answer this one.
Anything you guys could ever do to me, Markus could do tenfold. I won’t betray
a man who holds my life in his hands, and you two should really rethink what
you’re doing. If I were you, I would be running as far away from this situation
as possible because I can promise you one thing. None of you are getting out of
this alive if you keep pursuing him.”

Sam motioned for Nathan to walk out of
the room with her.

“It’s not going to do any good for us
to talk to her here. We need to get her to Washington as soon as possible. The
guys there will get anything that we could ever need out of her,” Sam said.

“How exactly will they do that?” Nathan
asked.

Nathan really didn’t like the tone of
voice that Sam took. He thought that Chloe may be tortured if they brought her
back to Washington, and despite the fact that she probably deserved it, Nathan
didn’t find it acceptable. He had seen the results of torture, and he wasn’t
going to be a part of it, directly or indirectly.

“Sometimes they offer a new life for
information. You know, cash and a new identity.”
 

“And at other times?”

“They use means that I personally don’t
like to ask questions about.”

“You see, that’s what I was afraid of.
I can’t be a part of that, and I don’t see how you can.”

“You won’t be a part of it, and hopefully,
it won’t even come to that.”

“Let me talk to her alone,” Nathan said
and walked back into the room and sat down.
 

“Look, I’m going to be real honest with
you. We’re going to take you to Washington where they’ll probably offer you
some cash and a new life,” Nathan said.

“There’s no such thing as a new life
for me. If I flipped on Markus, he would find me just like he’ll find you,”
Chloe said.

“After you decline their offer for a new
life, they’re going to try to get the information out of you through more
barbaric means. I want to avoid that, so just give us something. If it’s
possible, I would really like to spare you that pain.”

“What is this? Are you playing good cop
with me or something?”

“No. I’ve seen the effects of torture,
and I don’t want to be a part of it. I’m asking you, if not for me, then for
yourself. Give us something so I don’t have to be a part of something so
inhumane.”

Chloe searched his eyes. There was no
sign that he was lying. He didn’t even have the eyes of a battle hardened
soldier. He looked more like some sympathetic civilian. Either this guy is the
best actor I have ever seen, or he’s actually telling me the truth, Chloe
thought.

“I won’t tell you where Markus is.
That’s just too much of a risk for me. I can tell you that those guys came from
Atlanta, and that’s where they’re going back to.”

 
“Thank you,” Nathan said and got up to go
tell Sam what he had just found out.

When he walked into the hall, he found
that Sam was just getting off the phone with someone.

“What’s going on?” Nathan asked.

“I was just arranging transport for
Chloe,” Sam said.

Nathan explained what he had learned
from talking to Chloe.

“I need to call Campbell back and tell
him about this. Zane should probably know that the Atlanta facility is going to
be doubly hard to take over, too,” Sam said as she pulled her phone out of her
pocket.

“Hello,” Campbell said.

Sam then explained the whole situation
to him.

After Campbell was off the phone, he called
Zane and Dan into his office and explained everything to them.

“I think that we should step back from
this temporarily, sir. I had previously feared that we were walking into a
death trap, but now I’m sure of it,” Zane said.

“I need this op to continue. We can’t
just sit idly by after the attack in Texas. We have to strike, and we have to
strike now,” Campbell said.

“Are you sure that we can’t be given a
little more time to come up with a viable plan?” Dan asked.

“No, I have faith that the two of you
can lead my men to victory. You did it in Tampa, and I have no reason to believe
that you won’t do it again.”

Dan started to say something else to Campbell,
but Zane laid a hand on his shoulder to calm him. Zane knew that Campbell’s
mind was made up and that arguing over it would only lessen the time they had
to prepare.

“We’ll get it done,” Zane said.

Zane and Dan exited the room.

“So do you have a plan?” Dan asked.

“No, not at all. We’re just going to
have to hope for the best on this one.”

The two men walked back to their
makeshift office and continued to make phone calls while both knowing that what
was just over the horizon was going to be deadly.

* * * * *

By three, Jason and the others had
woken up and gone back to the office in Washington.

“I’m still tired,” Lee said while
yawning.

“Get used to it if you’re going to help
us out here at the CIA. Everyone seems to always be working strange hours,
especially me,” Jason said.

They walked to John Campbell’s office
and went inside.

“I think that all of you have a lot of
things to talk about,” Jason said before exiting the office.

“I hear that you have all had a large
role in helping out Agent Fisher over the last few days. If you could elaborate
on what each one of you did and how much you know about our situation, I would
be grateful,” Campbell said.

They explained the events of the last
few days and how they were involved in them.