Albatross (16 page)

Burns interpreted David’s assessment. Was this bad news for him?
Maybe
, Burns thought. But Burns had to admit that he liked the fact that he was sitting and talking to someone about something important other than trying to complete a mission. That was another reason Burns enjoyed his sessions with David before all the shit went down.
This talking was nice
, Burns thought. It was new to him; he had no prior memory of anything similar.

Burns reflected on how he watched his first target pick up flowers and wine for a date and his inability to remember doing anything similar in the past. Past missions, he could recall a myriad of details. Friends? Family? Burns felt embarrassed, another new feeling, when he stumbled over himself trying to describe his relationship with Eric I. Daniels to Samantha and he couldn’t come up with any other descriptor than “colleague.” Burns couldn’t tell if he just couldn’t remember anything personal about his life or if there was anything personal to remember at all.
Colleague? Was that all I had? Was there anything more? Anybody?
Burns thought. Burns experienced an emotion that seemed familiar, but now he had the word to identify it:
sad
. He felt sad. He shifted his focus to David and realized that he had more to say.

Burns waited for David to continue.

With some noticeable pain, David continued, “In addition, you voluntarily chose prayers of humility and forgiveness, which speaks to someone who may have been wanting to get out of the business of death and destruction but never had an opportunity until the crash and head injury. Kind of a ‘Saul transforms to Paul’ conversion. Are you still praying?”

Burns hated to admit it. “Yes. Every day. Morning, midday, and night. When I try not to pray, I obsess about it until I do. After I pray, I can’t tell if I feel better as a result of completing my routine or if I just love the words. I just can’t tell anymore.” Burns realized that admitting that he did not have this answer had not been as painful as Burns had first thought it might have been.

“Love the words,” Burns speculated. He never thought he would love anything, let alone words or concepts. But then Burns had another question: “But I had no problem killing the two targets?”

Burns could tell that David was processing a bunch of data and was thoughtful in considering a possible reason. “From what you mentioned, it sounds like you had no choice. It was either let them kill you or someone else or kill them. Kind of an Ecclesiastic thing … you know, a time to plant and a time to pluck.”

The words jumped into Burns’s head as if he were tied into a monitor that was showing him the words directly to his brain: “Pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to break down and a time to build up. Ecclesiastes 3:2–2, King James Version.”

Burns could tell David was astounded by the way his mouth slackened. With bandages covering his eyes, Burns could see David looking at him with his inner eye. Finally, David spoke, “Well … at least your memories are back. I’m glad some good came out of this.”

There was no sarcasm. There was no guilt or cynicism. Just sadness. The words and tone were just “sad.” The feeling was palpable.
I can feel it
, Burns realized.

Burns watched David drift off and could see him jump subjects. Burns saw the pain on the man’s face as thoughts of the explosion flooded back into David’s mind. Burns knew he could never help David the same way David had helped him.

“So do you know what this is all about? The people after you, me, and anyone connected to you?” David asked.

Burns responded immediately, “Yes.” He was glad to move onto this topic; this was something he could address.

Burns continued, “In my prior life, I did the logistics, planning, and implementation of domestic and foreign counterterrorism operations. All of my work was top secret, and most did not comply with the articles of war, military code of conduct, and the Geneva Convention. I operated outside of the law with full knowledge of key officials, and all missions were fully sanctioned by our government but carried out by a private agency. They were also well documented.” Burns thought more and then added, “Prior my last mission, I obtained more information than I was supposed to get. It was well beyond my security clearance. I shipped out though and was in the middle of an operation when my access was discovered. There was the accident, and then it must have gotten complicated.”

“Okay, not to be heartless here, but in all the movies, don’t they just kill the person they are worried will talk?” David asked.

This conversation sounds familiar
, Burns thought. Burns decided he would be as brief as possible. He was not sure if David in his drug-induced, grieving condition was ready or needed details.

At least David will let me talk
, Burns thought, remembering how Samantha relentlessly pulled information from him. Burns didn’t like that at all.

“Typically, yes. But they really wanted to know a couple of things I know before they killed me. With me under constant surveillance and your treatment, they were hoping that maybe they could get the information first. Then kill me.” Burns knew that the way he spoke of conspiracy, murder, treason, and violation of rights must have sounded like he was simply ordering a pizza. Burns went back to the story. “Problem is … I don’t have really any hard evidence. I have something, but I need to first locate the new location of the operation center, or I have to get more information from the very director of that agency who wants me dead, which is kind of a problem.”

“You don’t know where your base is?” David was confused.

Burns smiled.
Base? So cute.
It was genuine humor over David’s naivety. Burns was happy David did not see that he was smiling because it might have been construed as patronizing. That was yet another new thing for Burns. He cared about his companion’s feelings.

Burns answered, “When an operative like me goes rogue, the operation center’s location, servers, codes, everything is shut down and relocated. The data I actually have is the possible locations of where the operation center might be. The new location could be in one of three cities. Problem one is finding it and then figuring out how to either breach its security or get the director to talk or both. Once I get what I need, I might be able to steal enough compromising information to negotiate for our lives or be allowed to live in obscurity without the constant threat of being hunted down and killed. Or another possibility might be to compromise the actual operations center and force them to use their backup operation center, auxiliary control, which may have significantly less security but a short window of operation.” Burns was clearly thinking out loud.

Burns noticed that David was listening intently before he posed another question.

“So why didn’t they just kill you back at the hospital?” David asked.

Burns looked at him and wondered if David was still foggy or if it was too much data or if Burns wasn’t clear enough. Burns decided to be as clear as possible.

“Before I shipped out for my last mission, I was able to penetrate my agencies computer server’s defenses. I know of a way to sneak something into their computers. I think I’ve found a design flaw in the defenses of many of the federal intelligence’s agencies. In addition to that, I was able to access the code that randomly sets locations for my agency once it is compromised. As a result, I am now able to narrow the locations to three possible locations,” Burns concluded.

“Why did you do this?” David asked as he felt his eyes through his bandages.

It’s got to be rough for him. His wife and eyesight are gone. His life is now gone,
Burns thought.

Burns tried to answer the question.
Maybe this is distracting him
, Burns wondered.

“Why did I do it? Partly because it was part of my job to test its defenses. My boss was good at thinking ahead, and he wanted to prepare for any eventualities. Secondly, I like challenges. Anything can be breached. Daniels knew that I found not just one but two areas of weakness. This was after two years of their reconfiguring their security. Daniels wants to know what I know.”

David yawned for a moment, and Burns thought maybe the questions might be over and David wanted to rest.
He’s got to be exhausted.

“Can’t they just figure it out?” David pressed on.

“Maybe, but the program’s error and corresponding flawed software is so elementary, it would be very difficult for them to recreate my search parameters to find it,” Burns answered.

“Are you sure your base has already shut down?” David asked innocently.

“Yes. You see,” Burns elaborated, “right now, my old team is missing one of their own—me, a high-value asset who has a lot of classified information, including the possible location of its next place of business. The support team that was watching him is presently out of contact with their handlers, and when they find the entire team is dead at various locations, the asset, me, moves from a security leak to a security threat. Now add the missing ‘peripheral contacts,’ you and your colleague, no bodies, just missing, then we are all threats to national security on par with terrorists. While they can’t openly involve a full-blown manhunt with local authorities or other federal branches, they will have every overt and covert operation just under the public’s attention monitoring all federal and local law enforcement channels. They need to find us and make sure we don’t talk.”

Burns looked back over at David. He knew that was a lot for David to think about. Burns realized that David seemed to have a hard time with the knowledge that Samantha had killed someone. Burns couldn’t tell which thought bothered David more—how another person he knew had almost been killed or that the person he had thought he had known could kill. All this on top of watching his wife murdered.
That’s quite a lot,
Burns thought.

“That support team you mentioned before when I was still woozy … is that part of your old team?”

“No,” Burns answered. “A support team is usually either private security for more ‘legal’ duties, or we employ professionals who are connected to organized crime or independent contractors who will kill, kidnap, torture, or anything outside of the law. Due to limited resources, we would typically have a second-level operative work with two individual contractors to ensure clear communication and make sure mission objectives were successfully completed. I killed the contractor who was sent to kill you. Our nurse killed the other one, and I killed the team leader when he was going to kill me.”

The air was still after the last description of the procedural operation of killing US citizens.

Much to David’s credit, Burns was impressed by how well David was taking in all the information … as crazy as it sounded.

“So what’s next?” David asked.

“For them? I’m sure Daniels has a death notice on our heads. He’s no longer interested in what I know. I’m a liability.” Burns stopped there. He really didn’t want to say the rest.

David said the obvious.

“So are we. Samantha, me … Jenny—” David’s voice trailed off. He cleared his voice, trying to focus on something else, Burns guessed.

“So what do we do? What’s next for us?” David asked.

Burns opened his mouth, but he said nothing. He had no answer. Now, based on Burns’s last communication with his former nurse, there was another woman and a child he had to consider. It all had gotten so complicated so fast. Then a phrase popped into Burns’s head.

Burns finally said, “A time of war—”

Both men fell silent. Burns was figuring out a plan. As he had explained things to David, he had reviewed things, which in turn gave him some new ideas. He could actually use his knowledge to effectively predict his former employer’s next step. While simple, a course of action that could tip the balance became very clear. It would, however, require time, patience, and the assistance of his “new team,” which was composed of civilians. It was not lost on Burns that he was definitely thinking more outside of the box than he had ever done in the past. Maybe the fact he was working with civilians wasn’t too bad. He was trained to keep things professional and never take anything personal. If you enjoyed your work like he used to, that was a bonus. Now Burns saw the power of having a vested interest in the mission. These civilians were now his personal responsibility. He wasn’t exactly comfortable with that, but there was nothing he could do with that feeling anymore. His new team could be perfect because it was personal to them and they had a great deal invested in the results. Burns tried to get in his old head to second-guess what his old boss, now new adversary, might be thinking.
Daniels knows I can’t go to my contacts or our enemies. He has to figure I will go underground and do it alone.
More to ponder
, Burns thought.

Becky missed Samantha very much. Whenever she didn’t hear from Samantha for a long time, she worried. Worry typically translated to stress. Becky had always been a stress eater. And Becky was really stressed these past few days. She was alone—except for the baby, whom she had only been asked to watch for a few hours. She had to find diapers and had to ask someone what infants typically ate when they were a couple of weeks old. Becky found that she was craving bread, noodles, and rice in large quantities. By the time Samantha was supposed to be there, she had finished nearly two bottles of antacid. As Becky embraced Samantha, a feeling of comfort and safety filled her heart. Samantha let go of the hug first, of course. She always did. The fact that Samantha let her continue hugging her sister was a testament to how much Samantha actually trusted her. Even in the crowded hotel lobby of the Marriott, Becky only saw Samantha. Once she cleared her eyes and really looked at her, she knew there was more than her little sister coming to help her.