The Shift: Book II of the Wildfire Saga (69 page)

Barron stared at her. He was wrong—she wasn’t trapped by Reginald—she was just like him.
 

She laughed. "Get him out of here.” The two agents grabbed the President and dragged him from the room. Barron saw the open door into his office as the very gate of Hell itself. He tried to dig in his heels and struggle. Once he left his office, he knew he was doomed.
 

“You can’t do this to me. I'm the President of the United States!”
 

“We made you dear. We can unmake you,” replied Jayne in a sweet voice.
 

“Your plan won’t work!” argued Barron. His desperate mind envisioned millions of Americans rising up in anger—
 

Something hard and cylindrical pressed firmly against his lower back. He heard the soft metallic click of a hammer being cocked. Jayne appeared at his side and whispered into his ear: "Do be a dear and stop struggling," she said. “I’d hate to have to shoot you myself.”

C
HAPTER
35

Denver, Colorado.

Emergency National Reserve Operations Center.

The Cave.

C
OOPER
SAT
AT
THE
table in the empty briefing room. His fists opened and closed of their own volition. His mind was utterly blank—he didn't know what to think, what to do, or what to feel. The rage that roiled inside him blocked out the entire world.
 

General Rykker’s debriefing had lasted over an hour—fairly short as far as after-action reports went. Everything had gone about as well as expected—he’d relayed exactly what had happened, what had gone wrong and when, who died and how. General Rykker explained he’d discovered how they’d been sold out.
 
A traitor, some SIGINT analyst on Admiral Bennet’s staff—a decorated veteran, no less—had delivered bogus intel and set the whole mission up for failure.
 

Admiral Bennet decided it would be best to review the team’s helmet video feeds—they were classified as evidence now that a court martial had been ordered. General Rykker pushed for a ruling of summary judgment but so far the best he could do was lock the traitor in the brig under heavy guard. Rykker declared he’d interrogate the man himself.
 

Cooper found out the real reason for the shortened debriefing when Bennet asked everyone else to leave and then gave him the news of Brenda's death. He had done so in private and for that, Cooper was grateful. However, courtesy didn't quell the grief that threatened to consume him.
 

Brenda’s dead.
 

He clenched his fists again until he felt the pain in his palms. He looked down at his right hand and saw a small trickle of blood on the spartan metal desk.
 

Bennet had announced they’d discovered a lead on the location of the organization that called the shots on the invasion and the flu. The people who worked for that organization had infiltrated the base and ultimately had taken Brenda's life. Rykker believed the SIGINT captain who compromised the San Diego mission worked for them as well.
 

The fact that their agent—Brenda’s own assistant—had successfully absconded with priceless blood samples from the Source and all Boatner's research had no effect on Cooper whatsoever.
 

Brenda’s dead.
 

He knew the mission to San Diego had been a trap from the get-go. He knew the information mission planners had been given about the value of that NKor base in San Diego had been a distraction to lure the SEALs and Marines away from Denver. It had all been an attempt to weaken President Harris and kidnap the Source.
 

Bennet had revealed that a mysterious call had come in from Washington, from a Secret Service Agent close to Barron. The man had relayed authentication codes from Barron himself that helped Harris’ command staff reestablish digital control across the Armed Forces networks.
 

He’d seen the war room down the hall lit up like a Christmas tree on the way to the debriefing. Two days ago, it had been dark.
 

Cooper closed his eyes—none of that helped. After that bit of good news, Bennet had gone on to say that the flu had gotten worse. It had shifted—pulled off some kind of medical trick that Brenda would know how to explain…
 

Brenda’s dead.
 

"
I'm sorry, son,
" Bennet had said quietly. "
There was nothing anyone could do. You should take pride in her sacrifice, though—it’s only through her actions that the Source is alive and we can still beat this virus.
 
She died fighting—she's a hero, son. President Harris is going to award her the Medal of Honor.
”
 

Cooper stared at the whiteboard in the empty briefing room. Bennet had left some time ago—he didn’t know when, and cared less.
 

Brenda’s dead
, he told himself for the hundredth time.
I’m the one who signed up for death and combat. I'm the goddamn SEAL. She’s a doctor—was a doctor
. His dry, bloodshot eyes roamed the empty walls of the briefing room.
She was supposed be safe here.
 

"I'm sorry bro," said Charlie's voice from the left. Cooper blinked and turned to see his XO standing next to the table. He hadn’t heard him enter the room.
 

Charlie sat down heavily and sighed. "I don't know what else to say," he muttered. “If you need anything, let me know, okay? You've helped me with Aliana and CJ—I don't think I could've made it this far if you hadn't…"
 

Cooper nodded stiffly.
Brenda’s dead.
 

Thoughts of his last few moments with her peppered his mind. He relished the simple happiness they’d shared, wrapped in each other's arm in the darkened lab before the mission. He closed his eyes and tried to burn the memories into his soul. He never wanted to forget the way she felt in his arms or the way her hair smelled.
 

The two men sat in silence for a few moments. The constant
tick-tick-tick
of the cheap clock on the wall behind them provided a dreary backdrop.
 

Cooper replayed their last moments together again.
 
His mouth twitched in a sad smile as he remembered how her green eyes sparkled like emeralds in her lab’s dim light. He remembered the mischievous way her nose crinkled when she smiled and threw her arms around his neck that last time. He remembered the way her hair smelled, how silky soft it was, and the sweet, half-hidden scent of her perfume. He remembered the shapely curves of her body, the round, fullness of—
 

Cooper closed his eyes and lowered his forehead to the desk. Thinking like this would get him nowhere—he knew that. Rest—that's what his body and mind craved.
 

Vengeance
, whispered his soul.
 

He wished for peace, but a faceless enemy emerged from the shadows and snatched away the tiny, bright light in his life. Cowards—too afraid to face him on the battlefield—snuck in and stabbed him in the heart. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
 

He looked up and stared at the whiteboard where one name had been written in neat block letters. Reginald—the one responsible.
 

Reginald was responsible for the death of President Denton, the deaths of all the people who had been sickened with the flu, and the deaths of all those hundreds of thousands in Atlanta. The deaths of all of his brothers in arms—the entire SEAL cadre—all of those deaths stained Reginald’s bloodied hands.
 

Charlie shifted in his seat, the rustle of fabric loud in the quiet room. "You know," he said after clearing his throat, "Brenda's a hero."
 

Cooper stared at the name on the whiteboard until the letters were seared into his mind. “So I've heard," he said in a hoarse voice.
 

Charlie cracked his knuckles and rested his hands on the polished metal surface of the desk. “If she hadn't fought back the way she did—against three of them…"
 

"Wait.
Three?
" asked Cooper. He turned and looked at Charlie. “Admiral Bennet…they said…I thought there were only two agents—"
 

Charlie frowned. “Some woman called 13. What the hell kind of name is that? Anyway, Jax heard she was in there with the Source and Brenda when it all went down," Charlie added hastily. “Rykker confirmed it.”
 

The details from Admiral Bennet’s debriefing flittered into focus. Cooper remembered—13, the woman a squad of Rangers had brought back from South Carolina when they recaptured the Source.
 

“—told me how Brenda fought and disabled one of the agents before she was shot. Then 13 shot the bastard who shot Brenda.”
 

Cooper frowned. "So she had a gun the entire time?"
 

Charlie shrugged. "Looks like it—I heard it from one of the lab geeks down in the Cave that Brenda didn't like this 13 chick.”
 

Brenda didn’t like her.
The words echoed through Cooper's mind like thunder over the open plains. Circumstantial evidence began to coalesce into something akin to a target in Cooper's mind. Brenda didn't like this woman—she’d been close to the Source, part of a secret experiment during The Pandemic. She had a weapon in the lab, unknown to Brenda or anyone else.
 

The entire time. She didn't take down the two terrorists who’d attacked the lab until Brenda had been shot. She’d waited until…
 

Cooper’s mind imagined Brenda on the floor—gut shot—knowing she was dying. Only then did this 13 woman step in and take action.
 

Cooper's eyes narrowed, and his vision constricted into a tunnel. The conclusion that appeared, soft as a whisper, pointed to 13 being at least involved in Brenda's death, if not wholly responsible.
 

"Oh shit—I know that look…" Charlie said. Cooper felt a hand on his shoulder. “Look, man, Bennet said—"
 

Cooper turned and stared at Charlie. His XO fell silent. "I know what the Admiral said—he gave me most of the same details you just did. But he was hiding something from me—why?"
 

Charlie looked away and shrugged again. "I don't know, man. Admirals are weird.” He laughed. “Who the fuck knows what they think?"
 

Cooper didn’t laugh. “I’ll tell you why he didn't tell me everything,” he said, clenching his fists again, “because he knew she was involved. He knew this 13 bitch had something to do with Brenda's death."
 

Charlie nodded his head slowly. “Okay, if that's the case, then he also probably knew what your reaction would be…"

Cooper stood. The knee brace squeaked loudly in the empty briefing room.
 

"Hey, look, bro—this 13 chick… I did some checking around, and she's a serious, Class-A VIP, you know?" Charlie stood and tried to put a hand on Cooper's shoulder. “I think she’s almost as important as the Source.”
 

Cooper brushed the gesture aside and shouldered past his XO. He stalked out of the room, ignoring Charlie’s pleas and met Jax in the hallway.
 

"Hey Coop, I just heard—whoa, where you think you’re going?” Jax asked, stepping in front of him.
 
He quickly stepped back. "All good," he said raising his hands, “just trying to make sure you don’t do something to earn a court martial, Hoss.”
 

As Cooper walked past him, he heard Charlie explain, “He thinks the woman those Rangers brought in had something to do with Brenda's death."
 

Without hesitation, Jax replied, “I guess we need to go have a sit-down with her then, huh?”
 

Jax was nothing if not loyal. The two men fell into step behind Cooper as he marched down the hallway toward the security wing of the underground complex.
 

They reached the brig and found three Marines standing guard outside the door in full battle rattle. Cooper walked up between them and looked through a two inch-thick window set into the door. He saw a tall, attractive blonde leaning against the side of the cell. Her left shoulder was bandaged and her arm rested in a bloodied sling. Her right hand covered her face as she sobbed.
 

"I need you to step back, sir,” said one of the Marines, a Gunnery Sergeant. His eyes darted between Cooper, Jax and Charlie. “Now.”
 

Cooper watched the man’s eyes. He was not going to back down. The other two closed ranks.
 

Jax shouldered his way forward and looked down at the first Marine. "You know who we are, Gunny?”
 

The wary eyes of the Marine went from Jax to Cooper to Charlie. He stared back at Cooper. “Sir, I have my orders direct from Admiral Bennet.” His hand dropped to the sidearm holstered on his right hip. Determination replaced anxiety in the Marine’s eyes. “We will defend this post.”