Cally's War

They’re not going to extract me. They probably won’t even try. I’ll die in here, under torture. The recuperative powers are great… usually. The only thing I can control is how long it takes — at least, so long as they’re stupid enough to let me loose in here. Eventually, my body’s reserves will give out and I’ll die. The less reserves, the sooner that will be. Sooner is good. So here we are back to Sister Dorcas in SERE. Damn, I hated that sadistic bitch. Find an anchor. He’s alive, whatever he turned out to be, he’s alive. That’s one. The last song we made love to. That’s a good anchor. I know it by heart. I could dance forever to it, and no matter what they do to me, it reminds me of anchor number one. He’s alive. Okay, something to hold onto, and a plan. Check.

And I really could dance forever to this. How could she have known, singing so long ago. Just like this. But he took the numbness away. And until now I never even realized it. How ironic. Only really alive now, when I’m about to die.

They won’t be playing patty-cake with me forever. Best get as much done as I can, before they get wise. And I was frozen in my heart. So cold. At least… at least I had him for a little while.

Oop. Here come the bastards, and with a gurney and Fleet pukes, they mean business. Darhel goons instead of honest soldiers, would be my guess. It would take their manipulations to get Fleet involved. No reason not to take on a few just on general principles. Maybe I’ll get lucky and rush somebody into killing me.

The transmission time lag between Earth and Titan Base, especially when the signal was getting encrypted, hidden underneath another transmission as static, and bounced around six ways from Sunday to hide both sender and recipient, was a pain in the ass even under normal circumstances.

As it was, Papa O’Neal was twisting a finger in his ear as if he couldn’t believe what he had just heard, and Tommy was afraid he was about to be treated to the legendary temper attributed to redheads.

“Are you sitting there and telling me that this organization I just devoted thirty plus years of my considerable professional expertise to is actually refusing to even consider the practical feasibility of an extraction for my granddaughter, who has also just devoted thirty plus years of her considerable expertise to said organization? Please tell me that that is not what you’re saying, O’Reilly.” His teammate and mentor’s eyes were cold, colder than Tommy had ever seen them. On the other hand, the way he felt right now, his own probably looked very similar.

The lag was interminable. Unfortunately, it gave both of them ample time to build up a fine head of steam. Fortunately, it also gave plenty of time to think of potential responses and counter responses and choose the ones most likely to be effective and least likely to be inflammatory and counterproductive. Every second was necessary.

“Mike, for what it’s worth, and it may be worth a lot, I agree with you. This is not over. By no means. I’ll be meeting with Aelool tomorrow and will see what I can do. Mike, you and Sunday are top notch operatives. None better. I’ll tell you what — while discussions are still pending, run up some analyses and contingency plans. There’s no sense wasting your valuable time while we work through the process from this end.” Father Nathan’s eyes seemed to plead for understanding and time. Tommy could feel a cold, numb rage begin to radiate out from his center. This was Iron Mike’s daughter for God’s sake.

“Nathan, I would strongly suggest that you remind our little green friends that humans are not Indowy, and that we’re not inclined to be their water-boys anymore than we are for the Darhel. I would suggest that you put that reminder in the strongest terms possible. Loyalty down the chain to the memories of deceased agents is one thing. Loyalty down the chain to live and breathing agents had better be high on their list of priorities. And that particular principle has nothing to do with my relationship to this agent. If they’re even considering that it’s going to be acceptable to the human side of the organization to use denying an extraction, without even considering feasibility, as a way to get permanently rid of loyal agents they may have a problem with, then they need to know that they probably don’t have two human operatives in North America who will agree to work under those conditions. Make sure they know that. From me.” His tone was clipped and precise, enunciating each word carefully.

“Mike, all I can do at this point is to authorize you to work on those contingency plans and ask you to trust me. I would hope that I’ve earned that much over the years,” he said.

“For now, Nathan, I can deal with that. You need to get back to us with an update on this. Soon. Sir. O’Neal out.” As he spat into a coffee cup he’d bought on base for the purpose, his face had a bitter tinge that Tommy couldn’t recall ever seeing before.