by Adams,Claire
Suddenly I was standing in the doorway of the concrete building where the hostages had been kept. I had no idea how I'd gotten here, but I could see Opie sitting next to me holding the radio and trying to call command. The air was full of the sound of bullets whizzing by our heads and I was firing my rifle toward the sound, but I couldn't see anyone. It was as if the bullets were coming out of thin air. I yelled at Opie to starting returning fire. When he didn't respond, I looked down to my right and saw him lying in a pool of blood that was slowly spreading out beneath him.
"Opie!" I shouted. "Opie, get up, man! Get up! I need your help here!"
His eyes fluttered and he raised his hand, then dropped it down on his chest and closed his eyes. I dropped my weapon and fell to my knees as I grabbed him by the edges of his flack jacket and shook him as I screamed for him to get up and fight.
Suddenly I felt hands on my head and I let go of Opie and grabbed the stranger by the wrists. He was screaming at me in a language I didn't understand as I yelled, "Speak English! Speak English, you son of a bitch!" I shook him as I yelled.
"Ryan! Ryan Powell! Wake up, Ryan!" a voice yelled as I shook the stranger and I emerged from my nightmare to find myself holding Echo by the wrists as she yelled my name and tried to loosen my grip. "Ryan! Wake up! It's me, Echo!"
"Huh? What the—?" I said as I let go and quickly pushed her away from me. "Oh God, Echo, I'm sorry."
"Ryan, what happened?" she asked her eyes full of concern and worry.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." I chanted as I pulled my knees up and dropped my head down between them as I tried to get my bearings. "Echo, I'm sorry."
"Ryan, it's okay," she said softly as she put a hand on my head. I pushed her away and covered my head with my hands as I folded into myself trying to understand what had just happened. "Are you okay? Can I get you something? Water?"
"I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine," I repeated as if saying it would make it true. I was terrified by the dream, but even more worried that I'd hurt her. It took a few minutes of rocking to return my heart rate to a normal speed, and once I did, I looked up at her. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, you're strong, but not that strong," she smiled as she reached out and rested her hand on my cheek. I looked down, ashamed of my weakness. She continued. "You didn't do anything wrong, Ryan. You had a nightmare, and from what I can tell, it was a pretty rough one. Want to talk about it?"
"Not really," I said shaking my head. I wanted to tell her what had happened, but how do you explain watching your friend die after having been ripped in half by enemy bullets to someone who has never been in a war zone? And why should they have to live with the nightmare that is yours? "Just stuff from a mission that I'd rather forget. Don't worry, I'll clear out in the morning."
"Yeah, well, I'm not so sure you can do that," she said as she sat down next to me on the couch and held out her arms. "C'mere, put your head in my lap and relax. I'll stand watch."
I felt the tears welling up as I looked at her soft warm body and her earnest face offering me a place to hide. I wanted so badly to curl up in her arms and let her watch over me, but to want that felt weak. I was the protector. I was the soldier. How could this small beautiful woman protect me from the memory of my dead friend?
"Ryan," she said again. "It's okay, I'll keep you safe. I promise. I know the monsters."
Wearily, I lay down and rested my head in her lap and closed my eyes as she smoothed my hair and hummed a tune that I recognized but couldn't identify. She smelled like fresh laundry and warm sheets, and the softness of her body both comforted and aroused me. I turned on my side to hide the fact that her touch had made me grow stiff. It was bad enough that she'd witnessed my nightmare. I didn't need to expose myself any more than that.
"I'll pack up in the morning and find somewhere else to crash," I mumbled.
"Nonsense, you'll stay with me," she whispered as I thought I felt her bend forward and kiss my forehead as I drifted into a restless sleep where the nightmares were banished to the outer edges of my consciousness by a warm fire that burned brightly all night long.
CHAPTER TEN
Echo 10
I spent the hours just before dawn watching Ryan sleep, and when I was fairly sure that he wasn't going to have another nightmare, I slid out from underneath him and pushed a soft down pillow under his head. He stirred a little, but didn't wake up as I climbed the stairs to my bedroom and caught the last hour of sleep before I had to get up and get ready for work.
By the time I woke an hour later, the apartment was filled with the smell of fresh coffee brewing and I could hear Ryan moving around down in the kitchen. I grabbed my office clothes and descended the stairs to find him standing in front of the stove making pancakes as he sung to himself.
"Good morning," I said quietly trying not to startle him.
"Well, good morning, sleepyhead!" he replied as he flipped a pancake and set the pan back on the stove. "Did you sleep okay?"
"Not bad, and you?" I asked eyeing the stack of pancakes sitting on a plate next to the stove.
"I did okay the second time around," he said quietly, then added, "Thanks for the assist, Echo."
"My pleasure," I replied as I watched him flip the cooked pancake out of the pan onto the top of the waiting stack next to it. "Do I have time to shower and change?"
"Depends on how long you're going to take," he grinned. "Do a SEAL spit bath and you'll be good to go."
"Uh, no thanks," I laughed. "I'm a civilized girl not a warrior. I need my creature comforts."
"Yeah, go ahead, I'll keep it all warm," he smiled as he scooped up another spoonful of batter and spread it in the pan.
I quickly showered and got ready for work, and when I emerged from the bathroom, Ryan let loose a low wolf whistle that made me blush before he handed me a plate full of more pancakes than I could ever hope to eat.
"I'm heading to an office job, Powell," I laughed. "Not a dessert mission!"
"Oh, give me a break," he grinned. "Who doesn't love pancakes?"
We sat down on the couch and I tucked a napkin into the neck of my dress before tucking into the plate. The pancakes were light and fluffy, and I ate with gusto finishing off my plate before Ryan finished his.
"See, I told you so," he said as he took my plate and headed to the kitchen. "More coffee?"
"Yes, please," I replied. He returned with the pot and filled my cup before sitting back down. "So, I was thinking..."
"Uh huh," he said as his face dropped and he looked at the floor. "I know, I told you I'd find another place to crash today, and I will."
"Well, as a mind reader, you suck, my friend," I said as I sipped the hot coffee. "I was going to say that I was thinking that you should stay with me at least until you can get things settled with your father's estate."
"But what about last night?" he asked. The look on his face was heartbreakingly vulnerable.
"What about it?" I asked.
"I could have really hurt you," he said looking down again.
"Yeah, but you didn't," I replied. "Maybe you need to talk to your commander about getting a therapist to talk to so you can let go of the nightmares. It's just a thought. Anyway, I could use a roommate right now since things at work are going to get dicey."
"How do you know that?"
"I just have a feeling that Mr. Baines is up to something that is going to spell trouble for me," I said. "I'm just not sure what that is yet."
"Yeah, Baines is a wild card all right," he replied. "He's been part of my life since I was small, but I've never felt like I really knew him. I'm not sure my father did either."
"Ryan, I have to ask you something, and I'm sorry if it sounds a little insensitive," I said as I dove into the thoughts that had been twisting around in my brain since Julian told me that Dr. Powell was dead. "Why did Baines not want you in your father's office yesterday? Have you done something that would make him suspect you were going to steal from the company? Did your father tel
l you anything about what he was working on?"
"Not that I know of," he said. "But then we weren't in very close contact the past few years. We had a falling out after he married my stepmother, and we didn't talk much. I can't think of any conversation we'd had that would have crossed a line in terms of classified materials. Hell, you probably know far more about what he was doing in the lab that I ever did."
"No, actually, he never shared his lab work with me," I said. "I took care of his office details, his schedule, his email and his mail, and I did some programming for him when he needed certain computer functions for his research, but I never input any data or worked on any files."
"I wonder what Julian is hiding," Ryan said. "I suppose it's possible that he's just a paranoid guy. My father told me Julian had had a rough upbringing, but he'd never told me exactly what that entailed. I supposed he could be in shock over my father's death and be freaking out about how he's going to manage the company without him."
"Anything is possible, I suppose," I said as I got up and dug my phone out of my purse. "I'll try to dig up more information today and see what's going on. Give me your cell number so we can keep in contact, okay?"
As we exchanged numbers, I looked at the clock and realized I was going to be late if I didn't get going. I gathered my purse and put on my shoes and headed for the door.
"Hey Echo?" Ryan called as I opened the door.
"Yeah?"
"Be safe, okay?" he said. The look on his face was so serious that I had to smile. He shrugged, "I don't know, that's what my father always said to me every time I headed out on a mission."
"It's all going to be fine, I promise," I said, then added with a reassuring smile, "My mission is a boring desk job at TriCorp, so there's no real danger involved."
"You know what I mean," he said.
"Hey, if I leave my keys, can you get an extra set made for the apartment?" I called before I headed out the door.
"I guess you made the decision for me, then?" he grinned.
"Damn right, sailor," I nodded as I slapped the keys down on the bar then headed out the door and off to work.
On the subway, I thought about how terrified Ryan had looked the night before and how scared I'd been when he'd held my wrists as he wrestled with the enemy. I wondered if I'd made the right call letting him stay, and then I thought about how warm and comforting it had felt to let him fall asleep in my lap.
There was no doubt about it, I was attracted to Lieutenant Ryan Powell, and that attraction might be clouding my better judgment.
#
When I walked through the front doors, I knew something was wrong. There were small groups of people clustered around desks talking in hushed tones, but they scattered when the saw me. No one actually spoke to me, so I knew something big was happening.
I walked into my office and saw that someone had pulled apart my desk and left my things in haphazard piles. I shook my head as I set my things down and before I started to clean up the mess, I opened the door to Dr. Powell's office and found that whoever had rifled through my things had done an even deeper search in his office. The space looked like a small tornado had hit it overnight. Files had been removed from drawers, books had been pulled off shelves and even the awards he'd had hanging on his walls had been pulled apart. It was as if someone had been looking for something very specific and had grown frustrated when they hadn't found it.
I called downstairs and let Butch know that the office had been burglarized. He told me he'd be up to take a report, and that I wasn't to touch anything before he got there. I assured him that I would leave everything just as I'd found it, and hung up.
A few minutes later, Ruth called and said that Mr. Baines wanted to see me in his office. I wrote a note for Butch telling him where I'd gone, taped to the door and headed down the hall. Ruth waved me into Mr. Baines's office with a grim smile.
"Good morning, Miss Frost, so good of you to come," he said gesturing to a chair. "Do have a seat."
"Good morning, Mr. Baines," I said eyeing him warily as I sat down. He was wearing a dark grey suit with a crisp white dress shirt that had been pressed with in an inch of its life and a bright red tie that all combined to make him look like the world's sleaziest car sales man. Even in an expensive suit, Julian Baines looked cheap.
"Miss Frost, it has come to my attention that you have been hiding information from the company," he began as he watched to see how I would respond.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," I said truly mystified as to what he thought I could possibly be hiding.
"Oh, I'm fairly certain you do," he said as he rested his elbows on the edge of his desk and leaned forward. "Dr. Powell was working on some top secret research in the lab on seventeen, and I'm sure that you had access to the documents he worked with and that you've been hiding said documents from the company."
"Mr. Baines, I can assure you that Dr. Powell never gave me any research data from the lab nor did he ask me to handle any top secret documents," I said suddenly wondering what Baines was after. I hadn't had access to any of Dr. Powell's research and he'd never involved me in anything beyond his general correspondence regarding funding and grants or business related to TriCorp. "Why don't you talk with the lab assistants? Certainly they would know what he had been doing and where he kept his information."
"Ah, playing coy, I see," he said leaning back as he ran his fingers through his hair. "Well, this isn't going to help you at all."
"I'm not doing anything wrong!" I protested. "I'm an office assistant who is trying to clean up the last of the paperwork for my boss, who is dead."
"Miss Frost, don't get emotional with me," he said in a bored tone. "It's tedious. What I need from you are all of the files that Alan gave you in the past six months."
"They are all on the hard drive on my computer, and obviously someone has hacked into that and recovered them," I said in a frustrated tone. I had no idea what he thought I had, but the fact that he was insinuating that I did, made me wonder whether I had something somewhere that I didn't know about.
"That computer is company property so you have no right to be irritated about the company recovering data from it," he snapped. His fingers were drumming a rhythm on his desk and it was obvious that he was expecting me to break down and confess.
"I'm not irritated," I replied calmly. This seemed to irritate him and he increased the tempo of his finger tapping. "I simply don't know what you're talking about or what you want, Mr. Baines."
"So, you're playing hardball with me, are you?" he said narrowing his eyes. He started at me for a few seconds and then said, "Miss Frost, your services are no longer required. You will pack up your things and be out of Dr. Powell's office within the hour."
"What?" I said stunned that he'd decided to fire me on the spot. "I didn't do anything! Why are you firing me?"
"I'm not firing you at all," he said with a smile that did not reach his cold eyes. "Your position has been eliminated due to the death of your boss. Therefore, your services are no longer needed. I will have HR prepare your severance package and you will be escorted out of the building."
"Dr. Powell would not have approved of this," I said shaking my head.
"Well, Dr. Powell is not here anymore, is he?" Baines replied bitterly. "Please go to your office and collect your things, and do not take any company property off the premises."
"I wouldn't dream of it," I said sarcastically.
"Sarcasm, though probably satisfying, will not help you in this case, Miss Frost," he warned. "I'd be careful about what you do during the next hour."
"This is completely unfair," I said as I got up and headed for the door.
"Yes, well, life is not fair, Miss Frost," he said as he dismissed me.
I walked back to my office and looked around. There was nothing here I wanted, but something was nagging at me. I sat down at my computer and opened my email account. The inbox had two new messages, so I clicked on it and found one from a coll
eague of Dr. Powell's and one from Dr. Powell himself.
I shook my head to make sure I wasn't imagining it, and then doubled clicked to open it. It was addressed to me and there was a file attached. The message read:
Miss Frost,
If you're reading this, it means something has gone wrong with the research and I am not there to tell you this in person. This message was released because I haven't signed into the server in 72-hours and I've set up a series of files that will be released at random intervals until the time that I do return or until the last file has been released. The files I will be sending you contain all of the data that has been generated as I've conducted research on SAI 1. I would like you to store it in a safe place so that when I return, I will be able to continue my research. I can't tell you any more than this right now and I would ask that you not read through the data, but instead find a safe place to store it and wait for me to return.
This information is strictly confidential and should not be shared with anyone at TriCorp under any circumstances. Not anyone. I am counting on you to do what you've always done for me; the best job possible.
Regards,
Dr. Alan Powell
I stared at my screen feeling like I'd seen a ghost, and in a way, I had. I quickly realized that I was going to have to find a way to get this email off the server and put it somewhere safe. Not only that, but I was going to have to find a way to divert my email to a new account so that I could receive the rest of Dr. Powell's messages. He hadn't counted on me getting fired so soon after his death.
I looked up at the clock and realized I didn't have much time before Butch would be coming to escort me out of the building. There was no way I could write enough code to shift my account off the server to another location, so I looked at the email program and began quickly coding a bug that would allow me to sneak past the company's firewall from my laptop and access the data. If I could install the bug now, then I could get the information from Dr. Powell as I worked on writing code that would let me shift everything completely off the server later. The only danger was if the bug was found before I could finish writing and installing the code. If that happened, then access would be completely cut off and I'd have to find another way to enter the system. I told myself not to create problems before they happened and got to work setting up the bug.
