The helicopter landed at Fallon Air Force Base about two hours later after the battle. Lincoln, Jefferson and I got out covered with dirt and grime. They pulled my boxes out of the luggage bin and followed behind me. Harv was standing there with his sunglasses on in his tweed jacket, sweating profusely.
"Can’t just show up like normal people can we Dr. Humphrey? Have to make the grand dramatic entrance to the sound of a twenty-one gun salute? I thought we might sneak you onto the base and have you here for a day or two, before we made you a public figure to your co-workers, but noooo! You have to black out half of Nevada just to let everyone know you’re coming. ” Harv started to laugh. "Can’t say I’ve ever heard of that stunt being pulled before, or at least by nobody who lived to tell about it. All in all, I would say it was a nice piece of handiwork, Ted. ”
"The aliens killed my truck! ”
"I’ll buy you a new one Ted. ” Harv chuckled. "Are you okay, after all of this? ”
"My back hurts like hell, I have a murderous headache and I don’t want somebody around me to blow my brains out, just in case. ” I hooked a thumb at Lincoln standing right there.
"Oh. That. Well... ” Harv grimaced.
"Don’t 'Well’ me! That little item on the second page of today’s agenda caught me just a bit off guard. I don’t need this shit anymore, Harv! And as soon as I can get a new truck, I am out of here and back home and doing my own thing! ” I wanted to see the re-action to this twist that I planned to put in the big cat’s tail.
"I don’t think that is called for. You just made page one of the Daily Bulletin and now you want to go back to Bar-Stool? ” Harv looked questioningly at me while using Irina’s new pronunciation of my hometown.
"Yup. I want to see Irina, make some plans of my own and I am gone. I don’t really need this kind of aggravation, from the folks that are supposed to be with me in all of this. ” I felt the anger working up in me again. I had almost been fried once more and having someone more concerned with offing me than protecting me, was not my flavor of the month at all.
"How about coming inside, getting cleaned up and then we can talk about it. Holy heck, laddie buck, no one expected this to happen! Lincoln was just following orders. He doesn’t have a lot of latitude when it comes to making decisions about the Group leaders, you of all people should understand that. ” Harv motioned to the facility. "Come on. At least get a shower and then we’ll see Irina. ” I followed him reluctantly with my two new friends following us, lugging my boxes.
I still had Lincoln’s spare gun in my belt and I took it out and handed it back to him. I made sure he heard the whole conversation and wasn’t at all pleased with any of it. I think he thought if I walked he was going to be blamed for it. I didn’t really care.
# # # # #
The shower felt good and the clean clothes were just a little too big for me because of the weight I had lost in the hospital. But after the medic checked me out and gave me a clean bill of health, I walked out into the corridor to find Jefferson standing there.
"I was asked to show you to conference room C. If that is alright. ” He was even more quiet than he had been all week, which had been like a Sphinx.
"Lead on MacDuff. Lead on. ” I waved to him like an actor and followed behind him. The facility was completed and looked great. I noted the maps on the hallway walls that showed the movement of people around the facility, exactly as it had been in my "dream” two years before.
"It’s shorter if we go this way. ” I stopped at a cross corridor. "Isn’t it? ”
"That is a non-public area. ” Jefferson caught himself and then turned down the corridor. When we got to the glass entrance he stopped and turned to me.
"There is a procedure... ”
I stepped around him and onto the spot on the floor raising my arms and spoke my name. The light came on and the doors slid open. I walked into conference room C. He followed me a minute later.
"How did you know that? ” He asked in bewilderment.
"I designed the systems for this place. ” I knew that wasn’t exactly true, but Bellamy had taken my notes and it looked like he had incorporated every one of them into the final construction. All a self-fulling prophecy in stone.
Harv was sitting in one of the chairs and Bellamy was on the big screen on the wall. I walked in and looked around. No Irina. I hesitated for a moment, clenched my jaw and shot Bellamy and Harv angry looks and turned to leave.
"Teddy. Hold on just a minute. Please. ” Bellamy said from out of the TV. "I know there is a lot of ass kissing I should be doing right now. I hope it will suffice to say I was totally wrong and you were absolutely right. I am sorry for my actions and everything that happened and I deeply and humbly apologize and ask for your forgiveness. Jesus, Teddy! You don’t know how sorry I am! ”
I turned and faced the screen ready to launch into this mangled scar-faced bastard. Just who did he think...?
"Ted! ” Harv pleaded. "Sit down, kiddo! It won’t hurt you to give us a few minutes. After that, if you want to go I’ll have you flown back home to think things over. Nothing is going to change. Nobody is going to fire you or pull your clearances or. ”
"Or kill me? ” I barked.
"Or. kill you. We just need some time to sort all of this out. ” Harv was actually being nice for a change. I had a hard time with the sudden twist in demeanor.
I sat down and folded my hands on the table. Waiting.
"You have got to be a lot closer to the truth than we are, if they would attempt a daylight run at you like today. ” Bellamy said grimly. "That was a suicide mission. That craft was never getting back out of the atmosphere. It was using all of its energy in one desperate act, like a kamikaze. ” Bellamy waited a moment for the affect of his words to sink in. "If they are that desperate to get to you, that means someone told them you hold the key to all of this that we’ve spent so long working on. I say this to you, with no hidden agenda and no deceit, as the God’s honest truth: your life would not be worth a plug nickel if you went home now. Harv told me about Lincoln and his comment. I think he took his instructions a little. too literally. But that’s not the point. We both know that. I think you are just pissed to be back on the job and on day one they have you in their crosshairs. But I also think it just proves how dangerous you are, what a major threat you are to them and. ” he paused with a long breath, "just how badly we... need... you. ”
Bellamy rubbed his hand through his hair and looked back into the camera.
"What do you need me to do? To get you to stay? ”
Bingo! I had just drawn the card I was looking for and it was an ace high.
"Full disclosure. Everything. Not the stuff in the vault or some dripping here and dapple there. Everything. The whole game with all the players. The ones you are talking to privately, the ones Harv works with and whoever’s been talking to Irina. All the cards on the table and I will offer up mine as well. Then we can see who’s been playing us all for fools against each other. Then maybe, just maybe, I will stick around and finish the gadget for you. No ifs, ands, or buts. ” I wanted it all. It would give me parity with anyone in the Black Ops community. I would have the files that made them powerful and where all the bodies were buried.
Bellamy looked at me. He knew exactly what I had said and what the implications were. There would be no one over me, no controls. No one could pull the pin unless they were ready to kill me, outright. Knowing that everyone builds a safe structure with enough valuable information hidden away in case of their untimely demise, that would all be leaked to the public, and having that kind of information, being the kind that can bring down governments, would make me untouchable, by any of them, including Bellamy, and he knew it.
"I won’t play if there is the slightest chance of a repeat of that little number you did on me eighteen months ago. ” I emphasized my point by hitting the table with my index finger.
"And in return? Besides making the gadget in the basement work? ” Bellamy wanted something and I think I knew what it was.
"Oh, how about something simple, like, say, a man portable Time Runner system with a space/time locator and distance calculator. ” I said off hand.
"You got it already? ” Bellamy couldn’t believe it.
"All but the power supply. ” I sat back and waited.
"Harv? Did you know this? ” He looked angrily over at Harvey who was drawing something on the palm of his hand with an ink pen.
"Yes I did. ” He never looked up, but extended his arm, admiring his artwork.
Bellamy sat back and sighed. "Done deal in my book then. Harvey, give Dr. Humphrey the keys to the kingdom. ”
Harv pulled up a briefcase from the floor and unlocked it. He took out a thin white card and slid it across the table. I picked it up. It didn’t have any writing on it, only a key code strip on the back.
"Don’t lose that. ” Harv said. "Third floor, off limits to everyone. The key will get through the special elevator and into the room. It also opens all of the file cabinets. It’s all there. ”
"Here is the deal. I want a week to use this. ” I held up the key and looked at Bellamy. "Then we will talk again. I want unlimited access to Irina and my daughter without any bugs or intercoms in their living area. I want two guys of my choosing to be with me. I tell you who they are after I have reviewed personnel files. I won’t leave the base, but I don’t want to be bothered either, until I am ready. ”
I waited and Bellamy threw up his hands in capitulation. "We will live with it. ” He leaned forward and the screen went blank. He was angry, I knew that, but he needed me and I wanted to know a lot more right now than ever before.
"You know, kiddo, you have turned into a good poker player and a royal pain in the ass. ” Harv got up and walked out, waving at me. "Good boy! ”
I sat there for a few moments and took in two or three deep breaths. It was good to be home. I desperately wanted to see Irina, but that, for the moment, needed to wait. Right now I had an appointment on the third floor of the Jacob’s Research Center.