Wrong Time (11 page)

“Stuck with me all day? Don’t you have
a lot more people to talk to besides me?”

“In case you haven’t noticed, this is
the CIA. Most people here are pretty put together. Sure, I may get someone who
walks in here once in a blue moon, but besides that, I have a pretty good setup
here.”

“So you don’t even like to talk with
people? What kind of shrink are you?”

 
“I’m the kind who doesn’t want perfectly
well people walking into my office and wasting both of our times. Campbell sent
you to me for a reason. Are you here because you woke up on the wrong side of
the bed one day, or do you actually need some help?” James asked.

“You really don’t know anything about
me, do you?” Michael asked.

“Not a thing. For all that I know
,
you’re a Barbara Streisand impersonator who makes model
boats in his parents’ basement.”

“You think that I’m a Barbara Streisand
impersonator?”

“Ah ha! You don’t deny that you make
model boats in your parents’ basement,” James said while laughing.

Michael didn’t know what to think of
this guy. He was kind of all over the place.

“So where do you want me to start?”
Michael asked.

“Well, first of all, why are you here?”

 
Michael explained to him how he had
frozen up in Atlanta, how he felt that he had gotten his squad killed, and how he
had felt on edge ever since the events.

“I see. Is there anything in your past
that would have triggered such a reaction? Have you experienced these sorts of
feelings before?” James asked.

Michael reluctantly told him about his
past and how the feelings of guilt, and ultimately rage, had followed him ever
since his days in the army. James just sat there, saying nothing, even after
Michael finished talking.

“So Doc, do you have any advice for me?
What about meds?” Michael asked.

“I don’t do medicine unless you really
need it, and how can I give you advice? I have never lived your life or been in
your situation. To think that I could even tell you what you should do in such
a situation would just be arrogant. I will tell you this, though. I believe there’s
a lesson here to be learned, but I think that you’re the only one who can teach
it to yourself.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means that there’s more to this
situation than even you can see. When you understand why you react the way you
do in combat situations, you’ll be able to alter your thinking process,” James
said.

“I know exactly why I react in a
negative way in combat. I don’t want to kill people, and I don’t want to see
people die. Even now, I’m only here to prove to myself that I can do something
that I obviously can’t.”

 
“That’s an awful lot of I’s, Michael,”
James said.

“What does that mean?”

“It means that all you’ve told me is
how much things affect
you
and how
you need to prove something to yourself. Let me ask you something. Do you have
a girlfriend or a wife?”

“Kind of.”
 

“I would be willing to bet that your ‘kind
of’ girlfriend does most of the heavy lifting in your relationship because
you’re too inwardly focused.”

Michael was angry at his words, but he
couldn’t deny them. Jess had always been there to comfort and take care of him.
He had never really done a thing for her. Their relationship had always gone
one way.

“Suppress any feelings that you may
have for one night and bring home some roses, cook her dinner, and then talk to
her about her day and not your issues,” James said.

“What good is suppressing my feelings
going to do?”

“It isn’t going to do
you
any good, but it will give her a
night that’s about her and not about you. It’s not my place to tell you how you
should feel, but I can’t help but see a pattern in your behavior. Killing those
people in the army wasn’t all about you. Did you never think of all your
brothers around you that you were protecting by doing what you did? Do you not
think that they too struggled with the same sickness of the mind from the
things that they were forced to do there in the desert? Then in Atlanta, you
felt as if you got your whole squad killed because you didn’t fire. Your squad
was annihilated, and you think that you, one man, could have stopped that. How
self-absorbed or arrogant do you have to be to believe that? Do you really think
you were the only one who froze up that night? Are fear and guilt exclusive to
you?” James asked.
 

By this time, Michael was fed up, and
he stood and began to leave.

“Wait a minute. I’m not saying how you
should feel. I’m simply trying to tell you that life becomes a lot easier when
you stop living for your own expectations and health. Try letting your actions
be motivated by others just for today. If you don’t feel better concentrating
on and living for the loved ones around you, then I’ll sign whatever sheet of
paper you want me to, and you can get out of here.”

“So roses, huh?” Michael asked as he
exited the room.
  

* * * * *

Early that morning, Trish and Lee found
Jason.

“I need to talk to the man who killed
David,” Trish said plainly.

“I don’t know if that’s such a good
idea,” Jason said.

“Look, if you want him to give you the
information you need, then point me in his direction.”

“I’ll show you where he is, but please
try to stay composed. If you do something crazy, I could get in a lot of
trouble,” Jason said as he led the two of them two floors up and into the room
where the man was being held.

“What do we know about this guy?” Lee
asked before they were about to enter the room.

“We know absolutely nothing. He won’t
even tell us his real name,” Jason answered.

“Well, that’s about to change,” Trish
said as she and Lee entered the room.

Lee sat down across from the man, but
Trish stayed standing.

“So who are you exactly?” Lee asked him.

The man stayed silent. Trish, meanwhile,
toyed with an object that she had in her pocket. The object was a small pocket
knife. It wouldn’t do much damage, but a well placed slice to the throat would
be enough to accomplish what she wanted to do.

“When he asks you a question, you will
answer him!” Trish snapped.

“And why is that? I see no reason to
tell you anything,” the man said.

“You do
not
want to find out the answer to that question,” Trish said.

“I won’t answer that question, but I
will answer another one. I’ll tell you why I killed David. David, the man who
you were obviously so soft on, was quite soft himself. He was about to betray
his own comrades for some woman he barely even knew, a woman who betrayed him
by blowing his cover. David was weak, and that’s why I killed him. You could
also argue that you had as much to do with killing him as I did, considering
the fact that you put him into this situation,” the man said.

Trish slipped the blade open and flung herself
across the table onto the man. As she pulled her hand back to deliver a killing
blow, Lee grabbed her arm and pulled her away from him.

“Let me go!” she screamed.

Jason opened the door, and between the
two men, they somehow managed to get her outside the cell. Lee took the knife away
from her and put it in his pocket.

“Why would you stop me? I thought that you
were my friend,” Trish said.

“I stopped you because I am your
friend. If you had killed him, where would you be? In a jail cell. Is that what
David would have wanted?” Lee asked.

“What does it matter? David can’t want
anything because he’s dead!”

Her own words stung. “He’s dead.” She
knew that David was gone, but hearing it out loud made it all too real. She had
to leave. She walked away from Lee and Jason. She wanted to go back home.

“I’m going to take her home,” Lee said
to Jason.

“I think that would probably be for the
best. Is there anything I can do to help?” Jason asked.

“Just don’t ever let her in there
again,” Lee said and chased after Trish.

“Wait! Where are you going?” Lee called
to her.

“Just leave me alone.”

Lee followed her all of the way up to
the roof.

 
“What are we doing here? You’re not
thinking of doing something crazy like jumping, are you?”

“No! I’m not stupid. I just need some
time to clear my head.”

“All right.”

Lee sat on the roof with her in silence
until she stood and started to walk away. After Lee talked to Campbell and
explained that he and Trish needed to go home today, they left. Much of the afternoon
consisted of Trish locking herself in her room, but Lee never left the house.
He knew that Trish didn’t need to be completely alone anytime soon.

That same morning, Campbell called Jess
into his office shortly after she arrived at work.

“I need you to go on a little field
trip with Mr. Jones today,” Campbell said.

“Where are we going?” Jess asked.

“We have a prison a few miles from here
where a certain prisoner has refused to break. I want you and Burt to go reason
with her, and if that doesn’t work, try to buy the information from her.”

 
“Buy the information?”

“Yes, offer her protection from Markus
and a large sum of cash for his location. I’m willing to go up to 250,000 dollars
for that man’s location.”

 
“All right. I’ll see what we can do.”

 
After she exited the room, she found
Burt. The two of them drove to the prison. When they arrived, they were
escorted to Chloe’s cell. As the door opened, Jess saw Chloe. The sight of the
young woman was beyond shocking. Jess hadn’t known that a human being could
look so bad and still be alive. The strange part about all of this was that
Chloe was smiling.

“So have you two come here to have your
fun with me, too?” Chloe asked.

“No. I’ve come here to make you an
offer,” Jess said.

“What kind of offer?”

“We’re willing to offer you a new
identity and fifty thousand dollars for the location of Markus Boyd,” Burt
said.

“No amount of money will be enough for
me to give up the location of Markus.”

“I’m authorized to go up to two hundred
and fifty thousand dollars,” Burt said.

“Like I said, there is no amount of
money.”
 

“If there’s no amount of money, then
what can we offer you? Is there anything in the world that could make you give
up Markus?” Jess asked.

Chloe thought for a second.

“Yes. I want the money, but I also want
the half-eared guard who put me through hell to pay for what he’s done.”

“In what way? What did you have in
mind?” Burt asked.

“I want five minutes alone and
unchained with him.”

“What are you going to do to him?” Jess
asked.

“I won’t kill him, but I’ll make him
wish that he was dead,” Chloe said in a cryptic sort of way.

“Let me make a phone call,” Burt said
as he exited the cell.

Burt called Campbell and informed him
of the prisoner’s request.

“Make sure she doesn’t have any type of
weapon on her, and do it,” Campbell said.

“But, sir, this woman is a psychopath.
She may kill the guard if we leave her alone with him,” Burt said.

“Listen, I want Markus found, and if
one of our guards can’t hold out for five minutes in a cell with a small woman
who has already been beaten senseless, then God help the future of that
prison.”

“We can comply with your request, but
you’re going to have to tell us everything,” Burt said as he walked back into
the cell.

 
“Okay. There are four locations where he
could be. The first is in Moscow, and the second is in Beijing. After those two
places, you might want to try searching Paris and London. I will warn you, though;
the security at all those locations is top notch. If you go to any of them,
you’re not leaving there alive,” Chloe said.

“Thank you. We’ll have your money, some
guards, and a plane ready for you to go anywhere you would like to go this
afternoon,” Burt said.

“What about the other part of our
deal?”

“We’ll locate the guard and give you
five minutes before you leave this afternoon. You have my word,” Burt said.

 
Burt and Jess left the cell.

“Are you sure it was a good idea to
agree to those terms? She’ll probably kill that guard, you know,” Jess said.

“Maybe we can get away with not giving
her that part of the deal. What is she really going to do? She’s a prisoner,”
Burt said.