Chapter 117: Pieces

With Tyler dead, all that was left was to take down the rest of the regular BOW still roaming around. Leon may have been out of bullets but Rick still had his Magnum and a few more clips with him. By the time he was done, he still had enough for two full reloads. It didn’t even take a minute.

“Hey!” Rachel was leaning over a rail and looking right at the men. “Status?”

Rick gave her a thumbs up to signal everything was good. Instead he voiced a question that had been bothering him. “Where did you get a rocket launcher?”

“Inside the Control Room. There was a ‘small’,” she made air quotes with her fingers, “Armory there. That’s also where the Bitch found an M82.”

Claire came in sight next to the big tiddied blonde. The frown on her face told everything about how unhappy she was at being called the b-word. “I have a name.”

“Should have known from the golf ball size hole it was a .50CAL.” Rick grunted.

“What now?” Claire inquired.

“Now…” Leon started. “We find any data or evidence to make sure Wilson can’t get out of this.”

Rachel pulled a long black stick from one of the front pockets of her tactical vest. “I found those on the ground. They’re probably the inhibitors.”

“The computers were on the lower levels.” Claire revealed. “They’re under the acid now.”

“And how do you know that? Why are you even here?” Rachel asked aggressively.

“I was kidnapped!”

Rick sighed, his shoulders slumping. One cat fight between the two a couple days earlier had been already tiring, he didn’t want another, especially after the fights he just had.

“You sure know how to choose them.” Leon chuckled.

“Oh, shut up Mister ‘If it’s ain’t Wong, it’s Wrong.” Rick shot back in annoyance.

“Touché.”

With no reason left to be inside the underground facility, they regrouped and left through the entrance they came in earlier. Leon made a detour to check on Shen Mei. Not to see if she was still alive; with a soccer ball size hole in her chest there was zero chance of that, but it was to get back a small chip. All members of Alpha Two units had been given one under their skin to monitor and record their vitals and combat abilities on the field. Sun Ji had in fact not died in the trek back to the US base in Penamstan but there. Tyler and Shen Mei, realizing what Wilson had done, decided then to declare her little brother dead while in reality, she used her connections to secretly exfiltrate him back to China where their family would take care of him. The chip had been there all those years until recently.

“How mad do you think she’s going to be because I lost her weapons?” Rick asked Rachel as he picked up the crates they had left to the side of the elevator.

The blonde was trying her very best not to laugh at his predicament. “With Wilson in the wind? Very.”

Holding back a whine and maintaining his stoic expression, Rick was the last to get on the elevator. Rachel pressed the 1F button and they began going up. She and Claire stayed as far away from each other as possible. The former cosied up to Rick on purpose to piss off the latter. A successful endeavor from the barely concealed murderous look on Claire’s face.

When the elevator stopped and its doors opened, the group was surprised to see Teresa, assault rifle in hand with a small squad of soldiers behind her. To the side, was a tied up and gagged Secretary of Defense who was loudly making noise of protest.

The woman gave one look at Rick. One. His pants were almost all gone making it look like he was wearing booty shorts and he had a substantial hole in his tactical vest and shirt, showing his bare white skin. The cherry on the cake was that he was bare footed. She knew then, things had been more than hectic and he got himself injured a lot.

““Ma’am.”” Rachel and Rick spoke at the same time, the latter taking more space to hide Claire as much as possible from sight with his body.

“I was about to go down to offer back up but I presume you’ve dealt with the situation?” Teresa inquired.

““Yes, ma’am.””

“Although this little rat was nowhere to be seen.” Rachel looked down at Wilson.

Rick reported a bit more. “We did get evidence of his activities.”

“Good.” Teresa turned around and dismissed the squad with her. She then grabbed Wilson and pulled him up to his feet. “The President gave a beautiful speech about the Penamstan and its people’s resilience, offering US humanitarian aid to rebuild their country.”

Leon immediately jumped on the topic. “So my message got through and we avoided war with China. That’s good.”

“It is, Agent Kennedy. The peace talks will end soon enough and the President expects your report by the end of the day back at the White House.”

“Mine?” Rick wondered.

Teresa’s reply was short. “I’ll take care of it.”

“Wha—” Claire came out from behind Rick and was about to ask about Wilson’s deed being made public and his fate but Rick elbowed her in the stomach. Not hard but enough to make her stop talking.

He positioned himself in front of his ex again and took the brunch of Teresa’s gaze. After a beat of silence, she turned around and kept walking. She didn’t do so without parting words. “Have a talk with your ex, Roach.”

Rick’s grunt and the Major’s words were music to Rachel’s ears who was smiling like she had won the jackpot. The group silently exited the base and went to the parking lot where she had parked their stolen car earlier in the morning. Once Rick loaded the crates inside the trunk, they didn’t immediately get inside the car but watched as the crowd was celebrating the peace talks ending well.

With her one good arm, Claire grabbed Rick and dragged him a few feet away from the other. She wanted to have a talk and knew that if it wasn’t now, it would never happen and she couldn’t have that.

“I’m sorry.” She whispered while looking him straight in the eyes.

Maintaining his composure when all he wanted to do was sweep her off her feet and into his arm, Rick replied as monotonously as he could. “You’re going to be specific, Claire.”

She looked down for a moment, as if in shame, then back up. “The note.”

“Ah, that.” He said non-chalantly. “I’ll be honest, Claire… You shot me through the heart with a .50bmg.”

“I’m—”

He raised his hand to stop her from interrupting. “And yet it felt like pricking my finger on a needle in comparison to that note.”

This time she had the decency to stay silent.

“Everything I wanted to hear… That I wanted to know… You wrote. Then you took it all away in the next sentence. I would have prefered if you had just left without doing anything. I wouldn’t have liked it but… It would have been better. I would have thought you truly were done and with time I would have moved on. Now… Now, I can’t.” Rick felt so much bitterness in it that it bled a bit in his voice which had been unemotional so far.

She grabbed his hand once more and squeezed it. “I’m truly sorry. When you told me you loved me… After all these years… You don’t know how happy I felt. But… I just can’t… be with you. The way you deal with things, your outlook on life… It goes against everything I believe in.”

“I think I got it in Antarctica, no need to—”

“Please, let me finish.” Her hand squeezed harder. “I meant every word and I still do. Why I left that note was because…” She sighed in resignation. “I was a coward. I didn’t want to leave without telling you that I reciprocated your feelings but I knew… I knew that it would hurt you and I couldn’t bear to see you make that face again. It hurt too much to witness it that one time. So I wrote this note instead. It was… wrong and callous and… and…” The words to express herself and explain her actions properly were now coming to her with difficulty, her emotions getting the best of her. “If I could do it again, I’ll… just leave without a word.”

“You know what I hate the most about it?” Rick asked her. When Claired gave him a silent shake of her head, he answered his own question. “That I don’t hate you for it.” The confession surprised her. “I was… still am, upset, but I can’t bring myself to do anything but love you.”

What Claire felt right this instant was a powerful mix of emotion. Her heart fluttered and butterflies flew in her stomach at the knowledge that despite breaking his heart twice, he still loved her. At the same time however, she resented it. She deserved his hatred for the way she left him back in Harvardville and not having it made her feel even more guilty. That note had been more than wrong and there was no consequence for it. It didn’t sit well with her.

Once again her heart took control and her body found itself on the tip of her toes to kiss the man she loved. It wasn’t meant to be. Rick was pulled away from her by a very irate Rachel.

“Stay. Away. From him.”

Rick sighed and called out to his partner. “Rach—”

“No.” The blonde didn’t look away from Claire. “I’m done picking up the pieces of you that bitch is leaving behind every time you meet her. So say goodbye because we’re going home. If this is sex you want—”

“Rachel, enough.”

His tone quieted her on the spot. Giving one last nasty glare at Claire, she huffed and walked away. Rick gave an apologetic smile to his ex. “I’m sorry about her. She’s… protective of me.”

Calire’s eyes, fixed on the big tiddied blonde, shifted to the side to look at Rick. “I… get it. Kinda? Are you and her…—” She did want to finish her question, not trusting herself to handle saying the words.

“A couple? No. We’re… partners. We’ve been together ever since we met in the Black ops and… Well… What we got through together, you and I, was our everyday life for five years. She’s my best friend.”

“So the sex…”

“With benefits.” He shrugged. “The only way I have of coping, you know that.”

She did know and absolutely hated it. Especially when she should be the one helping him because she loved him and him, her. Her jealousy was stomped down however. If it bothered that much then it was up to her to change their relationship. She wasn’t his girlfriend, they weren’t even dating and in consequence had no right to say anything about who he was seeing, casually or not.

“Come on, let’s get you to the hospital to have your shoulder and wrist looked at.”

Seizing the opportunity to put to rest the conversation, Claire switched topics flawlessly. “What even was that gun? The recoil was insane!”

They walked towards the car still hand in hand and not paying attention to it.

“From the look of it, I’d say a Barrett M82. It’s the kind of weapon mounted securely on top of a car, a tank or the ground. The bullets are 5.5 inches long.”

“God damn!” She was shocked beyond belief. “No wonder it dislocated my shoulder.”

“Yeah and you shot me with it.”

His flat tone sounded reproachful in her ears. “I said I was sorry! I didn’t think it would—”

While they let go of each other to get inside the car while arguing. Teresa Walker was on the other side of the base, sitting soundly inside Cadillac One. Lieutenant Colonel Hunt was by her side and both were facing President Graham.

“Any good news Major?”

Immediately, Teresa was in report mode. “Former secretary Wilson has been apprehended, sir. He’s currently in custody of a trustworthy agent and being transferred to a black site for interrogation. He’s been infected by his own modification of the T-virus.”

“So he was really behind everything.” Graham didn’t sound happy about it.

“Yes, sir.” Teresa nodded. “Operative Liquid gave—”

Rachel’s code name being brought forward surprised the President. “She’s here? I thought she was out of the country.”

“She returned two days ago, not long after your meeting with Operative Roach. He recruited her for the investigation."

“But I thought he left for China to investigate?” A frown of confusion was on his face.

“He didn’t, sir. Among the documents and files he received he found a lead that made him believe China was just a distraction. His findings led to Secretary of Defense Wilson.”

“How? Wilson wasn’t mentioned in any of the dossiers he had asked.”

“It wasn’t but agent Shen Mei and Tyler were. He found it very suspicious they were involved in the current affair but also with the mission in Penamstan back in 2000.”

Graham frowned, it was his predecessor, Braden’s administration. “I’m not familiar with that operation.”

This time, Hunt made the report. “President Braden ordered a covert operation in Penamstan before the UN could decide on acting or not. A team of two squads was deployed. What I know, sir, is that Team Catharsis was called to action and cleaned up an outbreak of T-virus there and the mess the squads found themselves into.”

The president finally understood the link between the two operations. He was aware of Team Catharsis going to Penamstan to deal with an outbreak but he hadn’t read the whole file about it. He had no idea that American boots, albeit black, were already on the ground there.

“The Commander of the operation was none other than Secretary Wilson, simple Major General at the time.” Teresa finished.

“And Wilson recruited them in my secret service…” Graham nodded pensively. “That still doesn’t explain how Roach and Liquid had access to these files and information. He made no request for them.”

Teresa, who already stood straight, straightened a bit more. “He made the request to me, sir.” The revelation made one of Graham’s eyebrows rise and arched in silent surprise. “Roach didn’t trust the people you trusted and wanted to be as under the radar as possible if the mole was still active.”

The president sighed but made no comment. While Wilson had not been in his very inner circle, it was trusted enough for this information. “Good call from him. And from you, Major. You agreed with him after all since it’s the first time I heard about this.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Alright, go on.”

“The whole files on every mission of the Mad Dogs was what made us sure Secretary Wilson was behind everything. Most notably using American soldiers as test subjects for creating super soldiers through the use of a modified T-Virus. We knew you would want proof and since the peace talks were a few hours away, we had to improvise a clandestine black operation.”

That made the President chuckle. “A ‘Clandestine’, Clandestine Operation in other words. What a beautiful way to say you technically became insubordinates. Do I have to worry about what you did during those hours?”

“No, sir. Although, I strongly advise to ramp up the security of the White House, especially the Treasury building’s roof. It is free access from the Hilton Hotel’s own roof.”

Even Ethan joined the President in looking totally dumbfounded at Teresa’s words. Both men were well aware that infiltrating the White House that way was impossible. Not because it was unfeasible but because anyone trying it would be seen crossing the street before they could reach the other side. It had been tried many times in exercises and all ended in failure. Graham didn’t doubt Teresa’s truthfulness and could only see one reason why her team had been successful.”

“Major, are you telling me… That Roach…”

“Jumped over, sir.”

“.... That’s…”

“A hundred feet gap, sir. He nearly didn’t make it.”

The only word which escaped the president’s mouth was a simple: “God,” of both awe and fear. Had Rick been an enemy agent, he would have been able to infiltrate his quarters and assassinate him without anyone the wiser. “Is that why I was warned your credentials were used early in the morning? I was told it might have been a bug.”

“I’m ashamed to say, I lost my access card yesterday, sir. I intend to report it as soon as I’m in the White House.” Once again the way she said things seemed inconspicuous but the ones in the know understood the truth behind it.

“Nevermind, that. Why the infiltration?”

“We needed the GPS data of Secretary Wilson’s movements, sir. It led us straight to Andrews Air Force base.”

The revelation and its implication made Graham scowl. “Major, there is a clandestine lab bio-engineering BOW from our own men under an American base?”

“Was, sir. I have no doubt Operative Roach, Liquid and Agent Kennedy destroyed it. Kennedy will report to you within the day I believe. I suggest a full investigation of all the personnel at the base.”

“Who knows who was working in concert with Wilson or perhaps unaware but loyal to him.” Hunt pointed out.

“That will be up to the both of you.” Graham decided. “I want no stone unturned.”

““Yes, sir.””

“Major, contact Liquid and tell her she’d receive the same rewards as Roach. You are promoted too.”

“I respectfully decline, sir.” Teresa’s answer flew right out of her mouth the nano second Graham told her she would go from Major to Lieutenant Colonel.

“Oh, you don’t have to worry. I know how much you like to serve under Hunt. That’s why I’m promoting him too.”

That took the man aback. “Sir? I don’t deserve—”

“No but it is the prerogative of the President of the United States, my prerogative, to give any rank I want to any person I believe is suited for the rank and its duties. My term ends soon and I may not be reelected, especially after incidents like Harvardville and Terragrigia. I need you to be allowed to make independent decisions and actions for the best interest of our country against bio-terrorism regardless of my stay in office or not. Your promotion to Colonel will give you all the powers you need for this and legitimacy.”

No more words were said and Graham’s mind focused on a story to cover up Wilson’s treason. He didn’t yet have all the details and the whole picture but he urgently needed a new Secretary of Defense and it couldn’t wait.