by Matt Lincoln
He continued. “As for Agent Castillo, I’m afraid her wounds were a bit more severe. A large piece of metal tore through her leg and cut open her femoral artery. She lost a lot of blood, and the injury is going to be delicate for a while. It is extremely important that she does not do anything to cause her stitches to tear, as doing so could reopen the artery and cause her to bleed out. Because of this, I’m recommending she stay home for at least two weeks, possibly more, depending on how quickly the wound heals. Aside from that, they should be fine to leave in a day or two. A nurse will be by in a few minutes to take you back to see them.” With that, he turned and walked away.
I turned to Naomi to see how she was taking the news about her partner’s injury. Her face was carefully blank, and to someone who didn’t know her well, she might have seemed unaffected. I’d come to recognize her expressions, though. I could tell by the tiny flare of one nostril and the way the tendons in her neck stood out sharply that she was angry.
“We’re going to find whoever did this,” she declared, her voice frighteningly cold and unfeeling. She turned and looked at me and then at Junior, each time staring directly into our eyes. “He attacked us. He hurt our people. This is personal, and we are going to find him.” She turned away slowly and stood up gracefully as a nurse in light pink scrubs approached us. I looked over at Junior. In his expression, I could see fear, sadness, and intense anger. I knew my own expression must look the same.
11
Charlie
The first thing I could remember after that blinding white light was the sound of Gardner’s voice. She was yelling something, and the only thing I could think was that she was so damn loud. I tried to open my eyes, but I found that trying to open them more than an inch took much more effort than I was willing to put in, and it also hurt for some reason. She kept yelling, though, saying my name over and over and asking if I could hear her.
I opened my eyes more, and I could see her hovering over me. She was still talking, but it didn’t really sound like she was yelling anymore. Half of my vision still seemed dark, though, and I realized it was because she was holding her hands over my left eye. I looked past her, and I could see bright white clouds against a blue sky. Looking at them hurt my eyes, though, so I looked away. I started to wonder if I was having a bad trip. I hadn’t done drugs in years, but I couldn’t think of any other explanation for why Gardner would be hovering over me, holding one of my eyes closed, while the clouds seemed to move and shift above us.
I tried to sit up, and I saw Fiona’s eyes widen as I did.
“No, Charlie, don’t move!” She yelled, but it was too late.
All at once, every inch of my skin seemed to erupt into pain. It felt as though every nerve ending in my body had been set on fire. I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came out. The last thing I could remember before blacking out again was Gardner yelling my name again.
When I woke up again, I was in a hospital bed. I felt like I was floating, and I knew whatever they had given me had erased all of my pain and then some. Even though I tried to avoid any kind of drug aside from a normal painkiller, I was grateful for whatever was currently coursing through my veins. The memory of that awful pain I’d felt who knows how long ago was burned into my brain. It was easily the worst physical pain I’d ever felt, and I was certain I wouldn’t wish it even on my worst enemy.
As I tried to look around at all the beeping monitors and machines around me, I realized that half of my vision was still black. I lifted my arm up to my face, shocked at the effort it took just to move. Over my left eye, I could feel something soft beneath a piece of gauze. When I pressed down on it lightly, intense pain shot through my face and all the way down to my teeth.
“What are you doing?” I heard a voice call from the end of the room. I looked up and saw Junior standing in the doorway, along with Gardner and a nurse. He marched over to my bed and yanked my hand away, none too gently.
“Hey!” I tried to bark, although the drugs in my system made my voice sound less threatening than I’d hoped. “Is that how you treat a hospital patient?”
“When they’re stupid, yeah,” Junior retorted. I wanted to laugh but found that I couldn’t quite get enough air in to do so. Patel had made an offhand comment a few weeks ago about how I was a bad influence on Junior. I was beginning to think she was right. The kid never used to talk like that.
“Agent Hills, you really shouldn’t try to touch your injury,” the nurse scolded, coming over to smooth the blankets around my bed and offering me some water. She was pretty. She had warm brown eyes and wispy blonde hair that framed her face in a shortly cropped pixie cut. She had a nice body, too, even wearing scrubs.
“Charlie?” I heard someone say, and I turned to see Gardner looking at me with uncertainty.
“What?” I asked.
“I asked how you were feeling,” she repeated meekly, wringing her hands.
“Oh, sorry, I was distracted,” I apologized. I heard Junior laugh for a second before covering it poorly with a cough. “That’s not what I meant. And anyway, yeah, I’m just peachy. Whatever they gave me is making me feel pretty great, so I’ve got no complaints.”
“That’s good,” Gardner smiled. “The doctor said your eye should be fine. The shrapnel just barely missed it, so you shouldn’t notice any differences in your vision. I think he’ll be coming in here to talk to you soon.”
“Oh, great,” I responded. “Could one of you please tell me how shrapnel ended up in my face?”
Gardner seemed surprised by the question.
“Oh right,” she gasped. “You were unconscious for most of it. And then I guess you must have forgotten the part when you woke up, which is good, honestly. I’d rather you not remember that.”
“I do remember a bit,” I nodded. “I woke up, and you were leaning over me, covering my eye. And I could see the sky above us. What the hell happened?”
Gardner went pale at my question.
“There was an explosion,” Junior answered. “Someone sent a bomb to the office. We think they were targeting Fiona since it was hidden inside a pot of roses sent specifically to her. We also think it might have been the hacker from yesterday.”
For a long moment, I couldn’t say anything. I was flabbergasted. Someone had bombed the office? My heart rate started to increase as I thought about how much danger we’d all been in, and I could hear the beeping on the machine behind me increase in speed.
“Wait, what hacker?” I asked. “The one we set up the fake meet up with?”
“Yes.” It was Fiona who answered this time. “We think maybe I failed to stop him. If he was able to get into my computer and extract my personal information, then he’d be able to figure out who I was and where I worked.”
“And you think they were trying to kill you?” I asked.
“The timing and circumstances add up,” Junior confirmed, crossing his arms.
“Well, then they’re definitely up to something,” I agreed. “And something big, if they were willing to try to kill Gardner over it. Oh, wait, how is everyone else? Did anyone else get hurt in the explosion?”
“Miranda got the worst of it,” Junior replied. “Well, after you, of course, since you took the blast head-on. A piece of shrapnel cut her femoral artery, and she’s going to be out of commission for at least two weeks. Aside from that, the rest of us pretty much got off with just cuts and bruises.”
“Damn,” I sighed as I leaned back in my bed and closed my eyes. I tried to steady my breathing to get my heartbeat to settle down. It was scary to think about how easily someone had managed to slip a bomb into the office. One second, we’d been practically celebrating over getting our investigation approved, and the next, Castillo and I had shards of metal launched into our bodies. I lifted my hand back up to the bandages over my face.
"Well, at least I didn’t lose an eye,” I remarked, thinking about all the ways that losing half my vision would have affected my abilities as an agent.
/> It would affect my balance and coordination, for sure. I’d also lose all peripheral vision on that side, which would cause my reaction time to suffer. My main job as an agent was to investigate by observing, so vision damage would be one of the worst injuries possible.
I looked back up at Junior. “Have you told Wallace or Nelson about your suspicions over who might have planted the bomb?”
“Not yet,” Junior shook his head. “Nelson’s actually in the hospital, too, and Wallace is off trying to sort things out with the cops and trying to find us somewhere to work while the office gets repaired. We can’t exactly go back there.”
“I think this is exactly what that guy wanted,” I surmised. “To throw us off our game, if not outright kill us. As soon as there was a hint that someone was onto him, he went completely nuclear. Honestly, it just makes me want to catch him all the faster.” I was getting tired, and I could feel my eyes drooping as I spoke.
“I think we should get going, then, Charlie,” Junior said as he stood back up. “You look like you could use some rest.”
I wanted to argue about how I’d barely just woken up, but the prospect of closing my eyes was becoming more alluring by the second. In the end, I just nodded.
“Alright. Let me know if there are any updates.” I called. Junior said something in response, but I was already falling asleep.
The next time Junior came to visit was about a day and a half later, and by then, I was feeling significantly better. Whatever drugs they had given me at first had worn off by then, and there was a dull ache in the left side of my head. Even so, I still preferred feeling lucid and level-headed. One of the reasons I’d stopped doing drugs was because I hated how uninhibited and reckless I was when I was on them. I didn’t like not being fully in control or aware of myself and my surroundings.
“Wallace has all our stuff set up in a conference room at a nearby police station,” Junior informed me as he took a seat by my bed. “We’d thought about renting a meeting hall in a hotel or something, but we figured that a police station would have better security. We still don’t know who sent the flowers, so we have to be vigilant. It was the flowers, by the way. We recovered some fragments from the office after the bomb squad cleared it, and Agent Howard is doing some forensic work on them to see what kind of substances were used to make it.”
“Six people sitting in a conference room all day? Sounds fun,” I scoffed sarcastically. “Can’t wait until I’m better so I can join you guys.”
“I’ll admit, it’s not the most glamorous venue,” Junior shrugged. “It’s working out pretty well, though. I think everyone is still shaken up after what happened. It’s kind of nice for everyone to be together in one room. It feels like we’ll all be able to watch each other's backs better. Even Fiona seems to be taking it well, which is surprising considering how picky she is about having her own space.”
Honestly, I shared Gardner’s preference. I didn’t understand how being crammed together in one room made them feel safer, but I didn’t want to sound rude, so I kept my mouth shut. I understood the concept of safety in numbers, but personally, I preferred to be alone when I was upset or scared. Having people fawn and worry over me just made me feel smothered and anxious.
“Anyway, Nelson’s been in contact with the NCP, which is like, Japan’s version of Interpol,” Junior informed me. “Since it’s pretty obvious now that this is an international crime, he’s working with them on a plan. We’re basically just waiting for you to get out of the hospital so we can go.”
“Me?” I asked, surprised that I was even going to be allowed on the mission.
When I’d woken up in the hospital with bandages all over my arms, chest, and face, I was sure Wallace would put me on leave, or light duty, at the very least. It had disappointed me that I wouldn’t get a chance for some action, but I’d already made peace with it.
“Wallace is going to let me go?” I confirmed. “He isn’t going to get all bent out of shape about how I need to rest and recover?”
“I think normally he would have,” Junior nodded. “The thing is that Miranda’s injury is a lot more delicate than yours. She’s not supposed to walk for a while, and if she pops her stitches, she could literally bleed out. I thought that Patel and I would be sent, but Nelson said that our personalities were too similar, or something like that. They don’t want to pair two agents with such similar investigative styles for such a big mission since we might miss something.”
“That makes sense to me,” I agreed with a shrug. “You and Patel are definitely the more calm and rational ones compared to Castillo and me.”
“I don’t know about that,” Junior frowned. “At least not lately. Ever since Miranda got hurt, Patel’s been on the warpath. But she’s still doing it in that diplomatic, regal way that she does, so I guess you’re right. Anyway, that’s basically all that’s happened so far.”
“So, I haven’t missed any of the action. Good,” I chuckled. “I personally want to be the one to catch the asshole that did this to my face.”
“Are you sure you’ll be able to work like that?” Junior asked.
“Eh, it’s not like a little scratch on my face is going to stop me from doing my job,” I shrugged, although I was worried that having a bandage over my eye might impede my ability to see. I might have to talk to the doctor about replacing the bandage with a smaller one.
“Alright, well, I need to head back to the office,” Junior said as he stood up. “Or, the police station, I guess I should say. I’ll see you there tomorrow after you get discharged.”
“See you,” I called, giving him a lazy wave before he turned and left the room.
12
Charlie
They discharged me early the next day and went home to have a shower before heading to the office. I was already late, but considering I’d just gotten out of the hospital, I assumed Wallace wouldn’t mind. I hesitated outside the door to my apartment for a minute as my hand reached for the doorknob. The thought had suddenly struck me that there might be a bomb on the other side of the door, and my entire body went cold.
That was extremely unlikely, I told myself as I slowly placed my hand over the knob. We’d established with almost absolute certainty that the reason they had targeted Gardner was that hers was the only identity they knew. If they’d wanted to attack me, they could have addressed a package to me instead. On top of that, even if they had planted a bomb in my apartment, they’d have no way of knowing when I’d be home from the hospital to set it off. I’d been away from home for three days now, and my apartment was still in one piece.
I pushed the door open and froze, waiting with bated breath for something to happen. I felt both relieved and stupid when nothing did. I stomped into the apartment and slammed the door behind me, rubbing a hand down over my face as I did. I hated feeling this helpless and unsafe in my own home. I knew it was normal to feel this way after a traumatic experience. I’d done the Victimology training and had dealt with traumatized people on several occasions in my line of work. It didn’t make it any easier when you were the victim, though.
After making sure I locked the door, I moved through the apartment and toward the bathroom. I checked my phone for any new messages while I waited for the water to heat up. I had several texts from Harry and Amber, the latter of whom had apparently learned how to send pictures in texts. After the first few messages, there was just an onslaught of random pictures of Amber’s toys, as well as a few of herself, her mom Eliza, and of Harry. I smiled as I scrolled to the bottom of the stream where there was a single text from Harry apologizing. He hadn’t realized Amber had been spamming my phone with pictures all afternoon.
I didn’t mind. After the past couple of days, the silly pictures were just what I needed to boost my mood. I hadn’t called to tell Harry about the explosion, and I was honestly a little surprised that he hadn’t called me after hearing about it on the news or something. I wondered if Wallace had deliberately made it so that there wou
ld be little news coverage of what had happened. I knew that, as an agency, MBLIS preferred to keep what we did and even our very existence as obscure as possible. It was easier to investigate when people didn’t expect us, after all. Regardless, I didn’t want to worry Harry. There was nothing he could do about it and telling him that someone had bombed my office and that I’d almost lost my eye would only cause him stress that he didn’t need.
I stepped into the shower and made sure to keep my head at an angle so that the spray wouldn’t hit the left side of my face. The doctor had told me not to get it wet for at least forty-eight hours and to change the bandages at least once a day. Unfortunately, due to how close the gash was to my eye, it wasn’t possible for him to bandage it without at least partially covering my eye. It was annoying, but in the end, it turned out to be easier and more comfortable to just place a large gauze eyepatch directly over my eye instead of fussing with adhesive pads and gauze strips.
After I finished showering, I contemplated getting something to eat before heading to the office. I ultimately decided against it, though. I ate out more often than not, so I usually didn’t have a lot of food in the apartment, and I didn’t feel like stopping anywhere. I was itching to get back into action, so I decided to head straight to the office after getting dressed.
It wasn’t until I was turning the corner onto the street that our office building was located on that I remembered that we weren’t working there anymore. I pulled my car over to the edge of the curb and climbed out. There was a tall blue plastic barrier around the entire perimeter of the building, and yellow police tape wrapped around that. I could see that there were already construction workers on the other side. I looked up toward the top of the building where the office used to be, and my stomach churned as I took in the site. There was a huge hole in the top, left-hand corner, exactly where Gardner’s office had once been. Even though the construction workers had placed a large tarp over it, I could still see the extent of the damage every time the wind blew it out of place.
