Two Evils (25 page)

“Thank you, John,” she said sincerely. Then she saw that Wayne was no longer struggling and said, “All right, let’s get him up.” Billie stepped closer as John rose, pulling Wayne up and onto his knees. She stood in front of her former team leader and looked into his eyes. His gaze was wild, frightened, and angry. He almost looked as if he hated her and was desperate for her help in equal measure.

Desperation apparently won out, as he seemed to melt, sinking down to sit on his feet with a sob. “Make it stop,” he cried. “Billie, please… Make it stop.”

Billie drop
ped to her knees, taking his head in her hands and forcing him to look at her. “Wayne, look at me. I’m here, do you see? I’m really here. I know I was gone for a while, stuck inside my own personal hell, and for that I am so,
so
sorry.”

“Then you know! You know what it’s like to fight the demons!” he said, his tone bordering on manic. “They get inside your head, and they fuck with your mind. They keep taking my kids, Billie. I can’t let them have my kids. I have to stop them!”

Her heart was breaking, seeing his suffering. He really didn’t seem to understand that his children weren’t in any danger. Was that where he’d thought he was going, back to the kids? To save them from perceived harm?

“Will and Jenna are safe, Wayne, I promise you,” she assured him.

Wayne blinked rapidly. Then he started to struggle, pulling at the handcuffs. “Let me out! You have to let me out! My babies need me, they’re going to die!”

John clamped his hand on Wayne’s shoulder to keep him on his knees as Billie hung onto his head, pleading with him to calm down. “Hey!” she shouted. “The demons are
not
real! It’s the drug, Wayne. It’s IQ-56—that shit’s addled your brain so you can’t think straight.”

His breath coming in shallow gasps, he asked her, “Are you sure? No one’s going to hurt the kids?”

“Your children will get hurt over my dead body,” Billie said resolutely. “Now listen to me. You agreed to participate in an experiment, Wayne. Do you remember? General Sterling Wainright recruited you and the guys to test a serum called IQ-56. It was supposed to make you stronger, faster, and smarter. Do you remember?”

“I remember…” His eyes took on a far off look, and he seemed no longer to see her. “I remember we were working out a lot. We came into Virginia to…to test the serum. And Eddie…he lost it after about a month. Wildchild just went nuts.”

His eyes then regained their focus and he looked at her with a horrified expression. “It’s happening to me too, isn’t it? I’m losing it like Eddie did. And… Oh my God… Oh my God—I shot Darren! I can’t believe… Please—for the love of God, Billie—
please
tell me I didn’t kill him.”

She shook her head. “No, buddy, you didn’t,” she assured him with a smile. “You shot him in the shoulder—he’s lost a lot of blood, but he’s going to be all right. The Spin Doctor will live to tell another tall tale.”

Tears fell from his eyes in rivulets and he seemed to sag even closer to the ground. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Darren…” he sobbed.

“It’s okay, Wayne,” Billie tried to assure him. She hated seeing the man their team had looked up to as a leader and mentor reduced to little more than a blubbering mess, his strength of will and his sanity decimated by chemicals she knew deep down he hadn’t really wanted to take. But like any good father, he had done something he didn’t want to because what he
did
want was to provide for his children.

With the living proof right in front of her displaying what IQ-56 was capable of in all its horrible glory, Billie began to understand why Gabe had gotten so angry. He had inferred she was placing blame on the Professor when such was not her intention at all. No, Wayne was not responsible for what had happened today, but she couldn’t help thinking if only he hadn’t said yes to Wainright…

But then, if Wainright had only picked some other team for his little project, Wayne would never have put into the position to say yes or no in the first place.

“I’m sorry to you too, Billie,” Wayne said then, lifting his eyes in a pleading gaze. “I didn’t mean what I said. You’re not a traitor—you’re here. You came back because the team needed you. That means you still care about us right? You’re still one of us?”

Billie threw her arms around him and held him tightly to her. “I will always be one of you, Wayne. And I more than care about you—I love you. You and the guys are family.”

Then she sat back on her heels, looked him in the eyes, and said, “
Semper fidelis
, Professor.”

Wayne nodded slowly. Though his eyes still seemed just this side of manic, for the moment he appeared to be in control of himself. Billie stood then, and with a nod to John, they each took an arm in hand and helped Wayne to his feet.

Making their way back to the cabin took time. It took a lot of coaxing on Billie’s part, more convincing Wayne that everything was going to be all right—that his children were safe, that Darren was going to live, that Gabe was doing fine. He noticed her tension when she spoke of Gabe, and when he asked her about it, she could only say that he’d said something that upset her and that she’d punched him in return. Wayne then said that if they let him out of the handcuffs when they got back, he’d punch Gabe too. Billie laughed and said she was satisfied with having given him a split lip.

“I’ve been wondering something,” John spoke up as they were reaching the Upper Gorge. “You guys call each other by your codenames a lot, and you told me why Wayne’s called Professor. I know why you’re called She-Devil fr
om your service record, that it’s due in part to your being the team’s marksman. But what about the other three?”

“Thunderhead brings the rain,” Wayne told him.

John looked around him and raised an eyebrow at Billie, so she elaborated. “Gabe is the team’s ordinance specialist. In the military there’s a saying: Bring the rain. It’s a reference to raining bombs down on a target and basically a fancy way of giving the order to blow shit up.”

“Oh yeah. I remember a guy saying that in the first
Transformers
movie just before the jets dropped the first round of bombs on Scorpinok,” John said.

“So, being that blowing shit up was his specialty—and ‘thunderhead’ is another name for the kinds of
rain clouds that produce thunder—Gabe got the name Thunderhead as a sort of in-joke,” Billie went on. “Eddie was called Wildchild because he was our team brawler, always the first of us to get physical and the best at taking a bad guy down with his hands.”

“I bet I know how Darren got the name Spin Doctor—he’s a fast talker, am I right?” John queried.

“He isn’t just a fast talker, man!” Wayne said brightly. “He can get the most skeptical motherfucker to believe he shits gold, that’s how good he is!”

Billie laughed. “He’s right. Darren’s proclivity for paltering is legendary in the Recon units—half a dozen or more team leaders wanted him on their squads, but we’re the lucky ones who got him. His smooth-talking got us out of more than one sticky situation in the past.”

Before she knew it, they were back in the center of the lodge grounds. Guests were milling about, and anyone paying them attention stared openly at the way she and John were escorting Wayne like he was a prisoner—no doubt they all looked a little worse for wear, each of them having gotten pretty much soaked in the creek.  The ogling eyes made Wayne nervous and fidgety, and she rubbed his back in the hope of keeping him calm as they turned down the path that would lead to A-frame #6.

Gabe was stepping out the front door as they approached the cabin, though seeing the condition each of them were in brought him up short. His eyes swung back and forth between Billie and Wayne, lingering on the former. Billie felt her hackles rise as she remembered his words to John, but she knew she had to put her anger aside. Right now, they had to concentrate on getting Wayne and Darren back to the safe house in Virginia
, so they could be seen by a doctor.

“Hey there, Professor,” Gabe said slowly. “I see the She-Devil kicked your ass—again. How’s it feel to be taken down by a girl?”

“Fuck you, Thunderhead,” Wayne retorted. “Besides, from what I heard I’m not the only one she knocked around today. What the fuck did you say to her that she had to give you a split lip for?”

Gabe’s eyes flicked to her, and she only stared. “I, uh, said something I shouldn’t have,” he said after a moment.

“Damn straight you shouldn’t have, kid,” Wayne snapped. “She’s our sister, Gabriel. She’s our family. Doesn’t matter where she’s been or what she’s done, she came back for us because we’re
her
family. Better fucking keep that in mind, Major, next time you decide to put your head up your ass.”

Swallowing, Gabe nodded once. “Yes, sir.”

He then looked to Billie. “I really am sorry for being such an ignorant prick. I hope you’ll forgive me.”

Billie knew she should just accept his apology and let it go. She knew why he had been angry—even understood it. But that didn’t excuse his cruelty.

“You were out of line,” she told him. “What you said was completely uncalled for.”

Gabe nodded. “I know it was.”

“I’m also not the only one you should be apologizing to,” Billie added. “John is here because his help was requested, and because he is my friend. You insulted him as much as you did me.”

He looked as if he didn’t want to admit she was right, but nevertheless turned his eyes to John and said, “I’m sorry. I was out of line.”

“Don’t worry about it,” John replied. “It’s been a rough couple of days for all of us. Only a matter of time before someone lost their cool.”

“Okay, now that we’ve kissed and made up, will you please take me in to see Darren?” Wayne said then. “I want to make sure Spin is all right. I’m… I’m feeling that twitchy feeling again—I think if I see him
, I’ll feel better.”

“Of course, Wayne,” Billie said, taking him by the arm again and leading him into the cabin.

Darren was still laid out on the couch, and still looked pale. But his color had improved since her departure and he’d woken up. There was a half-empty glass of water on the floor within easy reach, and Billie noted that Gabe hadn’t been idle in their absence: the mess caused by Darren and Wayne’s scuffle had been mostly cleaned up. The only remnants she could see were the broken window, a pile of broken furniture, and the bloodstains.

Wayne pulled away from her to drop to his knees beside the couch. He lowered his head so that his brow touched Darren’s
, and said in a voice thick with emotion, “I’m so sorry, man. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. It was the demons, Spin. The demons in my head—they’re still in there, I can hear them…”

Darren brought his right hand up to cradle the side of Wayne’s head. “You have nothing to be sorry for, Colonel. I know you weren’t yourself.”

Wayne began to sob. “The demons…” he moaned. “They’re still… I can still hear them.” He sat back and looked up at the three standing around the couch. “They’re clawing at the door. I keep… It’s so hard to keep the voices from taking over. You don’t understand how hard it is, even now.”

“Professor, look at me,” Darren said, waiting until he had done so to place his hand on W
ayne’s shoulder and giving it a firm squeeze. “You
are
going to be all right. Gabe and Billie and me? We’re going to help you through this. You are not alone, brother.”



Langley had never looked so good.

After making a call to get the cabin cleaned up
, John, Billie, and Gabe got Wayne and Darren into the Explorer. Wayne they secured in the third-row seat, where he would be joined by Gabe in case he started having another episode. For everyone’s safety, it was agreed that he should remain handcuffed. Darren laid as comfortably as possible on his right side on the middle seat. Billie, of course, took the front passenger seat as he climbed in behind the wheel.

Checking the gas gauge as he put the key into the ignition, he said, “I think we’ve actually got enough fuel to drive straight through to the safe house if we don’t stop. What do you say?”

Billie nodded. “Sounds like a plan,” she said.

“Probably a good idea,” Gabe agreed from the back seat.

“What safe house?” Darren asked.

“John has arranged for you three to be taken to a CIA safe house, Spin,” Billie replied as he was turning the car around to head away from the cabin. “We have some reasons to suspect that Wainright isn’t completely above board, and so I asked him to arrange a safe location away from the general’s prying eyes. You’ll be seen by a doctor there.”

“What reasons?” Wayne asked. “The general trip your bullshit radar, She-Devil?”

She looked back over her shoulder at him. “Indeed he did. To be honest, I’m surprised he didn’t trip yours, Professor, but I know why you said yes.”

“My kids need me, Billie,” he said. “I know they’re not in danger from demons, though God knows my head is still full of those. God, it’s awful… My head hurts so much…”

Wayne shook his head as though to clear it. “Regardless of what’s real and what’s not, they need me. Will and Jenna need their father a hell of a lot more than they need that whore of a mother of theirs.”