by Margaret Kay
“You are amazing,” Shepherd said, allowing himself to speak his thoughts about her. “Most people would be satisfied with med school and passing the state medical licensing tests or completing their program to be a physical therapist.”
Diana laughed. “I love learning as much as I love treating patients. And the more ways I can help my patients, the better.”
“Well, I certainly think you are helping me.” He held his glass up. “To trying different treatments.”
Diana tapped her glass to his. “To different treatments.”
She couldn’t help but gaze over his face as she took a sip of the wine. This man was not what she expected. She was never impressed by power or position, but Sam Shepherd exuded a confidence and a presence that was very attractive. In this moment he was so normal and seemed almost relaxed. But he was an enigma. He was an intense and mysterious man, a security agency owner who was locked in this super-secure building most of the time, insisting he couldn’t take even an hour away from work. What exactly they did here, she didn’t know. And that group of people who were armed that she saw going into his office on her last visit here, still made her wonder.
“You look deep in thought,” Shepherd said, watching her closely.
“I’m sorry,” she said and forced a smile. “I was running through some things in my mind. I did a lot of research over the past few days on spinal cord injuries. I don’t want to give you any false hope, but given the sensations you’ve been having, and the movement you are capable of, I don’t think you are really paralyzed, but I’m not sure what else is going on.”
Shepherd was stunned. “Of course, I’m paralyzed.”
“Sam, hear me out.” She laid her hand on top of his. “If a spinal injury doesn’t resolve itself with feeling returning in a month or two after the injury, it doesn’t heal, it doesn’t reverse itself, ever. Nearly five years later, you just don’t start having feeling again. That doesn’t happen. Something has been going on, but I’m not sure what. The fact that you had moments with no pain, numbness or sensations of pins and needles after having them for so long after I adjusted you, tells me your spine and nervous system are active in what’s going on. The biggest sign was you feeling my hand pushing on the back of your legs. Real feeling like that doesn’t happen if your spine is irreversibly damaged.”
Shepherd felt like a Mac truck had just run him over. “Well, bullets are known to majorly fuck up bone, cause breaks, you name it.” He paused and looked into her eyes, realizing he’d just cursed. “Sorry for my language.”
Diana laughed. “Sam, I have two older brothers, one of them in the Army. Trust me when I tell you I do not have virgin ears.”
From the dossier that Smith ran, he knew about her family, about her brother, Mark, who currently served in the Army. He had a high security clearance. He was assigned to the Sixth Cavalry, Combat Aviation Brigade at Marshall Army Airfield, Fort Riley, Kansas. He flew Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopters. He smiled. “I still try to converse politely.”
“Back to your point, yes, bullets can break bones, do all sorts of damage. And what they do to soft tissue is even worse. Let me ask you this. Going back to after you were first shot, and I mean like the first few weeks, did you have any pain or any sensation in your legs at all?”
“No, it was the damnedest thing. No feeling at all. No pain. No numbness. I had a lot of pain in my abdomen, but my legs, my hips, even my backside, I didn’t feel a thing.”
“I’ll do more research and we’ll proceed on the course we’re on. It can take weeks, even months, for chiropractic care to resolve issues. You need to be in for the long haul.”
Shepherd felt bad that he couldn’t commit to that. He decided against telling her about the planned trip to Walter Reed. “Let’s see how the next two weeks go.”
“Is it really that disruptive to your schedule to come to my office a few days a week? You’ve come twice, has the change of scenery and getting some fresh air not been a good thing at all?”
Shepherd gazed over her beautiful face before his eyes settled on her soft blues. Damn, if she didn’t have the prettiest color eyes! “We’ll see how it goes to judge how disruptive it is or isn’t. A few members of my team think it’s a good thing,” he admitted, which brought a smile to her face. “And, I will also admit that the massage room at your office is very relaxing. It’s a different type of massage than Vic gave me.”
Diana was happy he noticed, and that he acknowledged it. “It is. But the important thing is, does it give you the same or better results?”
Shepherd nodded. “I believe so, but I haven’t been in horrendous pain yet, either.”
“True,” Diana said.
“And I am concerned that if I do have a day that the pain is bad, having to wait for my appointment time will not be good.”
“If you are ever in that much pain, you can call into my office and get squeezed in. If it’s outside of normal hours, I will give you my cell phone number and you can call me directly.”
“Thank you,” he said, though he wouldn’t tell her that he already had her cell number, knew her address, license plate and driver’s license number too. Every detail of her life was included in the dossier the Digital Team prepared.
“Get your phone,” she said, pointing to it on the counter. “I’ll give you my cell number right now.”
She dictated the number to him, and he programmed it into his phone. “I would only disturb you outside of your clinic’s regular hours if it was an emergency.”
“I know that,” she said.
He plated the fish and brought the plates to the table.
“Wow, this looks very good. Thank you, Sam.”
Later that evening, as Shepherd thought back on the dinner and conversation with Diana, her words that he might not actually be paralyzed replayed in his head. No, he didn’t want any false hope. He’d accepted his condition years ago, but if there was even the slightest chance that he could walk again, he had to pursue it. Maybe he should have Doc push the appointment at Walter Reed back a week or two to give her treatments a few more weeks to work.
Indigo
On Tuesday morning, the lift for his office arrived. The convertible standup desk was delivered just days after it was ordered the week before, and it was set up on the top of his desk. Shepherd watched Angel fuss about his office directing the installation of the lift, which required his desk to be moved out several feet from its normal location and be angled more into the corner. He sat at his conference table with his laptop, checking email, as the heavy lifting was done by “Requisition” Ryan Grant, Jackson, and Garcia. Diana’s words from the previous evening replayed through his head. If he truly was not paralyzed, the lift would not be needed. If only.
“You look deep in thought,” Angel’s voice cut in on his thoughts as he felt her hand come to rest on his shoulder.
He glanced up at her. He still thought she looked tired. He would always worry about her. “Just a little.” He flashed her a grin. “Trying to figure out how to rearrange my schedule to make my appointment at Dr. Diana’s clinic work today.”
“Shep, if you ask me, you have had the appointment on your calendar for nearly a week, so it takes priority. You need to put yourself first once in a while, regardless of the work.”
Shepherd wished he could. The Secretary of the Navy’s office scheduled an emergency video meeting with him during the time he was to be at Dr. Diana’s office. This case in Norfolk was becoming big. It was looking like there was substance to the allegations, substance that the SecNav didn’t want to discuss with either NCIS or the DEA on the line. It was requested that he keep the call confidential, which he agreed to, but he would have Cooper in his office during it. And the remainder of his day was packed, no available space for three hours out of the office. He considered that for a moment. He could possibly squeeze in an hour.
“This is one of those times that I can’t, Angel. But thank you.”
After everyone left hi
s office, he dialed Peggy’s line at Dr. Diana’s clinic. He recognized her voice and cheerful greeting when she answered. After laying out the problem with his schedule in very general terms, Peggy replied. “Let me make a few calls and see what patients I can move around. I know there are a few who have pretty open schedules. If you can only get in here for one of the three treatments, which do you feel you need most?”
Shepherd thought about that for a moment. Doc had only observed and been instructed on the physical therapy portion twice, but he could probably help him to stretch and keep his range of motion from slipping. He wasn’t in too much pain, so if the massage was omitted it wouldn’t be too detrimental. “I think the chiropractic care.” Or was it because he just wanted to spend time with Diana? “If there is anytime available for a short massage during that time too, that would be beneficial. I can be away from the office for just over an hour.”
“Okay, Colonel, let me see what I can do. I’ll call you back in under an hour,” Peggy promised.
“Thank you. I appreciate the effort to reschedule things for me.”
He spent the rest of the morning in the lift, trying out standing at the convertible desk. He had to admit, he liked it a lot. And more importantly, he had very little pain in his back and legs. The lift and harness system held him from below. He was not cradled from above. There were no straps or anything dangling that would be seen in the camera from his monitor. No one on the other end of a video call would have a clue that he was “standing” at his desk with assistance.
At thirteen hundred, right on schedule, the video call came through. Cooper was in his office, seated in one of his guest chairs. Shepherd kept the camera on himself and the presence of Cooper undisclosed. “Hello, Mister Secretary.”
Secretary Chamberlin nodded; his pale blue eyes intently focused on the camera. “Thank you for taking my call at this specific time. I’m sure you had to rearrange a few meetings to accommodate me.”
“Certainly, sir,” Shepherd replied. “What can I do for you?”
The corners of Chamberlin’s lips tipped into a grin. “Careful with the offer, Shepherd, you may not like what I’m going to ask.”
Shepherd chuckled. “You already have six of my men in Norfolk. You’ll have to present a hell of a case to get more of them.”
“I want to bust one of your men for selling drugs, very publicly, and see who approaches him in the brig and for what. If one arm of the operation is taken down, I need to see who is acting to repair it. I have a real problem in Norfolk, and I have to believe that there are some high-ranking people involved in it. I want to catch the bastards red-handed.”
Shepherd ran his hand through his hair. He let out a stream of air. “A public burning could hamper one of my men from operating in any Op on any military base or transport again. And I’m not just talking sting operations. As you know, we catch rides with regular military and have a presence on bases around the world often. That could be a problem if someone remembers my man.”
“Rarely are your men as clean-cut to regs as they are right now. Not sure who will look close enough in the future at the group of Operators coming onboard one of their vessels or aircraft, and let’s face it, everyone knows your men are Operators when they get shuttled by our fleet.” He smirked as he spoke.
Shepherd’s eyes went to Cooper. He could tell in his return stare that he too was surprised by the request. “I would have to leave it up to my men on the ground, voluntary basis only.”
“Good enough,” Chamberlin said. “I would not be able to do a public retraction after the fact, but there would be a commendation added to their service jacket for participating in the sting, just in case he ever wanted to return to active duty with the Navy.”
“Put in a rank and salary increase to be funneled to my organization, and I’m sure at least one of the men will agree to your deal. Without it, I’m not sure you will get any takers,” Shepherd said.
“I can make the recommendation, but you will need to renegotiate the financial contract you have with the Secretary of Defense. You get a healthy stipend as it is. If that will be increased is up to SecDef. I think it’s worth it, would want the pay increase if I was letting my reputation be decimated.” He shrugged.
“I’ll contact my men and let you know if I have any takers. We have a check in scheduled at twenty-two hundred. But if I were you, I’d come up with a Plan B just in case none of my men want to commit character suicide.”
“I had to ask,” Chamberlin said. “By the way, I understand you have had a falling out with Manning and the DEA?”
Shepherd laughed. “The honeymoon is over, but I’m not sure if we’re just separated or filing for divorce.”
Now Chamberlin laughed. “Word is he has some housecleaning to do, no-load bureaucrats that have no business running field missions need to go. Just a head’s up. The powers that be are in favor of you running things in that partnership. Push harder if it’s a relationship you want to hold on to.”
Shepherd was intrigued why Chamberlin brought it up, and from where his intel was coming from. “Should I be worried on this current mission?”
“You should always be worried. You’ve been around the game long enough to know that, but on this current Op, yeah, I’d push to be calling the shots if I were you and I will back you up on it. Manning’s bureau chief in Norfolk is too close to retirement for my liking. That was why I insisted your group be brought in on this mission when I was approached about it.”
Ah, so that was why Manning contacted him. It was at Chamberlin’s direction. Good to know. “Roger that, sir. Anything else?”
“You are up to five field teams now,” he remarked, a bit too casually for Shepherd’s liking.
“That’s correct.”
“I hear Mason is courting you, wants a regular agreement much the same as you have with Manning.”
“You hear a lot.” Shepherd watched Cooper come to his feet. He motioned to him to sit back down. Cooper was noticeably agitated.
“That’s my job, to have my ear to the ground.”
“And?” Shepherd prompted.
Russell Chamberlin leaned into the camera. “And that asshole will goat-fuck your team six ways from Sunday with little remorse. If you are seriously considering the agreement, my advice is to keep it limited and cover your six. I’m not saying there isn’t a need for your team to follow up on shit he isn’t supposed to touch domestically, and by God, your team is probably the only one I would trust to preserve the rights of U.S. citizens, but keep a third party in the loop to cover your ass. I have too much respect for you and what your people do to not stay quiet about this.”
“Could you be that third party?”
Chamberlin looked away from the camera and then back. Shepherd wondered who else was in Chamberlin’s office, off camera. “Let me ask you, are you considering this because of a revenue need or because of your patriotism?”
Shepherd’s eyes flickered to Cooper again. “Mister Secretary, you said a lot in that statement. First off, I know damned well who Mason is and what I have to do to protect myself and my team.”
“Never thought you didn’t.”
Shepherd’s lips pulled into a smirk. “And, I am worried who he will offer the job to next if I decline. I’m even more worried about what tactics they will use. The rights of American Citizens while his intel is being followed up on is a top priority, but the added revenue would help my bottom line.”
“Understood,” Chamberlin said. “Your team has done good work. You’ve got good people,” he paused and chuckled. “I should know. You poached the best from my Teams.”
Shepherd smiled. Yes, he did.
“I know you are capable of playing 3-D chess with the best of them. You have politics, diplomacy, and warfare mastered, but with Mason you have to worry you’re not even playing the same game as him.”
“The CIA is in a league of its own. I’ve made it very clear that if we even entertain this union, we will not set
foot on foreign soil for him.”
“Unless an American life is in jeopardy,” Chamberlin said, his facial expression now serious. “I have the transcript, Sam. My advice is to commit to one engagement at a time. Keelhaul the bastard to make it the most lucrative for you and blind copy me on everything to cover your ass. And Sam, thank you for your work on this Op. If several UPCs and Observers on these ships are compromised, that puts our men and women at risk. An impaired sailor is a dangerous sailor and we cannot afford to have them on duty.”
“No, sir, you can’t. I’ll get back in touch with you after I have talked with my men.”
The call was disconnected. Shepherd sighed out before turning his attention to Cooper. “SecNav knew a lot more about our operation than I would have liked.”
