by Kim Hornsby
He shook his head. “They didn’t.”
Tina closed her eyes and nodded. “Thanks.”
He moved in to whisper into her ear. “This room could be bugged. Milton will be here soon.” He stroked her face and kissed her. “I have to pat you down, Darlin’. Are you okay with that?”
She grinned. “Really?”
“No kidding. What are you wearing under that thing?”
“Some woman found me Army pants and I had a clean T-shirt in my backpack.”
“Let me check your pockets. They might have planted a bug,” he whispered as he lifted up her robe.
Once satisfied she wasn’t wired, he spoke softly against her ear. “That was fun, but we need to get our stories straight. Ready?”
She nodded.
“I pulled you into two separate dreams twice. I got you in to my Kandahar dream and you saw I was stuck, but I couldn’t leave with you. You thought about the other snowstorm dream where I couldn’t leave and things added up. In the snowstorm dream you came back in to help me jump out, so when this Kandahar dream kept me, you thought it would work again. You got on a plane to Afghanistan. Once you were closer to the base, I was able to pull you in to the dream, Atash disappeared, and when we tried to jump out where you came in, we woke up. The rest is as you know it. You woke up at AMTEX, the insurgents came and took you. We connected psychically twice while you were in the Taliban house and you gave me information.”
Tina nodded.
“The only thing I don’t want Milton to know is that you can jump without me. Got it?”
She nodded.
“Or that you’re an intelligent human being.” He kissed her nose. “You can plead the fifth on anything you like. You’re not enlisted. Above all, and I’m not really worried about you doing this, don’t brag about dream jumping.”
Her eyes widened. “I would never do that,” she mouthed to him, then moved in to whisper. “But you know what? For once I’m appreciative that I have this ability. Without me, Big Guy, you might still be stuck in that dream.” She kissed his lips lightly.
“I’ll show my appreciation later. Right now we need to leave as soon as they’re done.” He grinned for the first time in days and secured her veil and his beard.
The door opened and Guard #3 spoke. “You’re both invited for breakfast with the lieutenant.”
Jamey nodded to Tina and they headed out the door. This was it. Tina needed to play as dumb as an MBA graduate could.
Milton wasn’t there, but breakfast was. Pancakes, bacon, bagels, coffee, fried eggs, and orange juice was set up on a table, and Tina dug in as soon as she saw the food. After heaping her plate with pancakes and eggs, she chewed on a piece of bacon and poured a cup of coffee. Jamey watched her.
“Come on, eat,” she said to his smiling face.
“I will. I’m watching you and thanking the powers that be that they didn’t hurt you.”
“I was tied up tight,” she looked at her bruised wrists, “and shoved around a bit, but for some reason, they left me alone. How are the journalists?”
“Not sure. Probably grateful they’re out.” Jamey grabbed a plate. “You have an angel on your shoulder.”
After breakfast, Milton arrived. He only wanted to interrogate, not eat or celebrate. Once he settled across the table, Tina spoke.
“I have to warn you guys, I haven’t really slept in five days, I just ate a huge meal, and I’m not long for it.”
Milton actually smiled at her. “I understand.”
Jamey looked at Milton. What was his angle? Butter her up, and then ask her to tell him how she got into Freud’s dreams? Milton never smiled, and warming to a female didn’t seem like his MO. Tina’s eyes looked heavy. Jamey almost chuckled, imagining her falling asleep during this interrogation.
When two soldiers arrived from Delta Force to tape the debriefing, Jamey knew this wouldn’t be about dream jumping. This conversation would involve the abduction and rescue. They were going to get details first, let her sleep, and then interrogate her about getting into Jamey’s dreams later.
After an hour of questions, Milton looked satisfied and told Jamey and Tina to get some shut eye. The plane would leave at 0800 for Germany where they’d decompress for several days and eventually head back to the good old USA.
There was an element of trickery in Milton’s words but Jamey wasn’t sure how deep it went. Not much he could do about it except keep sharp and wait for the moment to reveal itself.
***
They’d given Tina time to shower before she saw Jamey, and, for that, she was grateful after two days of sweating on a dirty floor. She’d been a mess. Those jeans that Jamey loved had to go. Along with the T-shirt, the memories, and the fear for her life. How she’d escaped being tortured was a miracle. And how the SEALs and Delta Force found the house and swooped in to get them out of there was nothing short of heaven-sent.
When Milton let them leave the breakfast room, a driver led her and Jamey to a jeep. She jumped in the backseat and Jamey followed.
While driving over to what they were told was married quarters, Jamey hugged her to his warm body, kissing her hair every few minutes. He must’ve been frantic when he woke up from the dream and found out she’d been abducted. Fighting to stay awake on the drive, Tina eventually lost the battle and only woke when the jeep stopped.
“We’re here,” Jamey said softly, stroking her hair.
Her favorite way to wake up. A makeshift cardboard sign called the building The No Tell Motel.
“Married quarters,” Jamey said.
They were given a key to a room and as they walked inside the building, Tina was blinded by the lack of tormenting sunshine. “Close your eyes for a minute. It’ll speed up getting used to the light,” Jamey said, as they waited just inside the door.
It did help. Tina couldn’t wait to get the stifling burqa off. She needed another shower after wearing that thing around all day. Inside the room, Jamey helped her take off the yards of dark material. “Is it kind of sexy to have me all covered up like this?” she asked wearily.
“Sweetheart, there’s nothing sexy about a burqa when you know it’s used to suppress a whole gender. Jamey removed his fake teeth and beard, glasses and hat. When she’d seen him at the interrogation room door earlier, she hadn’t remembered that Jamey wore a disguise in Afghanistan. He’d looked goofy. But now he looked like Jamey. So handsome.
After a shower together, they sank down on the double bed. Tina was ready to drop. “I’m exhausted, even though I want to ravage you.” She simply wanted to fall asleep in his arms. Within the minute.
“I know.”
They got under the covers and she mumbled. “I’m falling asleep.”
“S’okay.” His voice was quiet, content.
“When do you think we’ll be home?”
“Carnation or Maui?” he asked.
She was too tired to smile. “Carnation.”
“Carnation in a few days.” He pulled her in closer, and Tina had never felt so safe in her life. “Then we need to get back to the beach and get normal again.”
Someone knocked on the door. Tina’s eyes opened. She was curled around Jamey.
“Yes?” Jamey’s voice was husky.
“Oh seven hundred, sir. Time to go,” a man called through the door.
Tina lifted Jamey’s arm to check his watch. They’d slept for sixteen hours. Dream free. The room was dark except for a sliver of light coming from under the door.
“Okay.” Jamey called.
Tina reached over and turned on the light.
When he lifted her hand and placed it over his erection, she shook her head.
“No time…or is there?” Didn’t they have to catch a plane? There was something so powerful in knowing you could do this to a man.
“They’ll wait. Trust me. You interested? We can be quick.” He drew back to gauge her interest.
“I didn’t come to Afghanistan just to dream about you.” Tina moved on
top of Jamey to show him exactly how interested.
Chapter 35
There were twelve of them from Sixth Force on the plane. At least, Jamey guessed they were from the Force, all going to Germany on the same flight. Professor, Ranger, Sweep, Bingo, and others were strapped in to the seats. The guards too. Milton sat two rows behind everyone, by himself. Jamey supposed that others had been in on this rescue besides him and Special Ops. Others had helped rescue the hostages and Jamey imagined the Force had some R & R time coming to them.
Tina slept most of the way against his shoulder, still wearing the burqa to keep her identity secret. On the flight, Jamey thought about their future life on Maui to keep from thinking about the debriefing they’d have in Germany. As long as Tina played dumb about dream jumping and Milton didn’t suspect, the life they wanted away from the army was within reach.
About an hour in to the flight, Jamey felt the pull into Tina’s dream, but wouldn’t allow it. He resisted, pinching himself hard on the arm to keep from getting sucked in. He couldn’t jump here on the plane. Especially because there might be frickin’ psychics sitting only a few seats away, and he didn’t want anyone to know more than they should about Tina.
Once on European asphalt, Jamey put his arm around Tina’s shoulders. “If they separate us for questioning, remember to say very little.” He squeezed her to his side and kissed her hair. “Two and two. You got pulled in twice to dreams I couldn’t get out of and twice we exchanged information while you were a prisoner. Other than that, play dumb. If you can.”
“Oh, I can,” she said. “But I need to tell you something before we get questioned.”
Her expression was dead serious. They stopped walking.
“I remembered jumping into Jade’s dream at Pops’ house, the night she screamed and you ran upstairs. I was in there with the skeletons when you arrived. I forgot to tell you last night. I was in that dream first.”
What? This meant he hadn’t jumped on his own. Jamey hugged her to him to make it look like they weren’t having a serious conversation on the tarmac, but taking a moment for themselves. “So it was your jump’”
“And I jumped another dream. I was swimming with you and Jasmine.”
So now it was clear. He hadn’t been jumping on his own at all. Jamey didn’t know if he was happy that he couldn’t jump or disappointed. “Those were the only two jumps I thought I initiated, except for where I got stuck.” He kissed her tenderly, in case anyone was watching them. “Any more dream jumps of mine you went into first?”
“No.”
This changed everything. He wasn’t jumping without her.
Once they were ushered into the debriefing office, and seated, Tina knotted her hair, stuck a pencil through it and asked for food. “I need to make up for some meals. A hamburger. With everything on it but onions. Fries too. Also a milkshake. Chocolate. Big, with whipped cream.”
Jamey smiled at her spunk. They’d had only granola bars and apples on the plane.
Milton nodded to Guard #2. “Get some food please.”
If Tina was going to eat, Milton decided to start the questioning with him. Tina left the room for this. Jamey hoped the food had arrived and she was eating while he answered questions about jumping with Atash, then being able to pull Tina in to his dreams. In the windowless office, Jamey told Milton, Ranger and Bingo that he’d only jumped twice since he’d left Afghanistan months ago, and in those two dreams he couldn’t get out, or wake up. “I have no theory on how or why,” he said. Telling Milton that he suspected the problem to be entering another jumper’s dream, and the dreamer wanting to leave him there, was out of the question. He had to pretend that Tina wasn’t a jumper--that simply entering a dream was his problem.
“The dreamer woke up shortly after I jumped in that first day, right?” That would explain him not seeing Atash for a few days.
Milton took a drag on his cigarette and blew a smoke ring into the air while Jamey waited. “The sedative wore off. The prisoner opened his eyes,” Milton finally said. “We kept him awake to question him about what happened. We couldn’t figure out why you hadn’t woken with him.”
“Did you sedate him again, send him back in? Because he found his way back to the dream and stayed there for a long time.”
Milton nodded. “We brought him out several times to try to get you to wake up.”
Then, it became clear to Jamey. Something in Milton’s eyes, the angle of his jaw. The set of his shoulders told him. In order for the coast to be clear for Tina and him to jump out, Atash must’ve died up top. “He’s dead, isn’t he?”
Ranger looked over at Milton. Bingo looked at his shoes. Milton stared straight ahead. The man across the table from him didn’t have to verify. “No comment.”
“That’s why the sniper disappeared from the dream. He died. The dreamer could’ve woken up but he didn’t, did he? And you thought I was going to die too.” Pieces fell into place as Jamey realized how close he’d come to death. “You don’t need to comment. I know he died. And not like last time you told me this. He’s dead and you regret something. The way you handled it probably, because that man could’ve been a gold mine of information if he was communicating with the Taliban in his dreams.”
Milton’s jaw twitched.
An hour later, they brought in Tina. Jamey insisted on staying, and Milton shrugged like he didn’t care. But Jamey knew he did care. What was going on? The questions were logistical, to start with. “How do you get into Freud’s dreams?”
“I don’t know. One minute I’m sound asleep and the next minute, I’m in front of him in a dream. It only happened twice.”
“Do you experience any physical changes when you come out of a dream with him? Can you control things in the dream? What is the journey in like?”
Jamey sat quietly watching Tina answer the questions like a pro. She’d brought her food in with her and swiped a cluster of fries through a wad of ketchup and stuck it all in her mouth.
“No, I’ve never shared anyone else’s dream. No! How terrible would that be?” When Milton prodded, she simply said, “I’m as clueless as you are. I just end up in this place with him.” She looked at Jamey. “He might have the ability to pull me in to his dream, but I don’t know how.” She took a noisy slurp of the last of what Jamey guessed was a chocolate milkshake. This was Tina playing a loose cannon, a personality that would not impress Milton as a good candidate for Sixth Force.
Milton saw his chance. “Would you like to learn how to do it on your own?”
Jamey held his breath. Come on, Tina.
She made a face. “I’m sure I can’t do it on my own, and to answer your question, definitely not. I don’t want to learn.” She shook her head at Milton and looked him square in the eyes. “I am very opposed to all of this mumbo jumbo, and I wish Freud here wouldn’t do it. It’s stupid and creepy and freaky. The first time, I had no idea what was going on. The second time I was completely freaked out.”
Atta girl.
Her apologetic expression and shrug made him proud of her acting skills. Dumb beach girl with no skills.
Tina looked at him. “My last dream with you, I wasn’t able to stay, even though I did try, because I knew how important it was.” She wiped her mouth with a napkin, leaving a spot of ketchup on her chin. “That’s why I think you can’t pull me in anymore. Sub-consciously I don’t want to go.”
When Jamey looked from Tina to Milton, something became so clear to him that he almost stood up and grabbed Milton by the collar in anger. Jamey struggled to hold back, not blurt out what he just realized. A thread between them told him something that was hard to believe. Even for a scheming man like Lieutenant Milton.
After getting the note from Tina to say she could help Freud, Milton had given Tina to the Taliban. He’d leaked her whereabouts to the insurgents in order to plant her inside, hoping Jamey would jump her dreams to get her out. Jamey didn’t know how, but Milton staged the abduction, using Tina as an informant on th
e inside. Milton committed an act so despicable that at the end of all this when Jamey threw his winning card into the mix, he’d be happy to see Milton’s astonished face and leave the Force without a jumper.
The lieutenant continued with no idea that Jamey knew of his betrayal. “If you knew more about dream jumping and what we do here, you might not be opposed to the ability. Knowledge, they say, is power.” Milton kept his friendly gaze on Tina. “We would train you to do this--with Freud, of course. He’s still ours. Your boyfriend will stay here after this. He’ll come back to KAF with us. Hopefully you’ll come too. You’d be serving your country in a way that no one else can.” He glanced at Jamey. “No one else.”
“No.” Tina sounded sure of herself. “I don’t want to dream share, not for you, not with him.” She looked at Jamey. “I’m sorry, but I don’t want to help the army. I can’t run through Afghani streets looking for bombs. I’m afraid of spiders, for goodness sake. I just want to go home and lead a normal life. I hate it here. This is hell. I want to go home.” She started to cry.
Dang, Tina was a good actress. Some parts were true. She was afraid of spiders. A cane spider had pretty much sent her flying out the bedroom window one day.
“But we’ll be keeping Freud in Afghanistan. How else will you see him?” Milton uncrossed his legs and pulled a piece of paper from a folder on the table. “We want you on our team, Duck.”
Jamey cringed to hear they’d given her a code name.
“The innocent people in this war, the children of Afghanistan, could use you on their side. Think of them. The lives you would save.”
God damned him.
“Together you and Freud could accomplish so much. Maybe even help us find the people who orchestrated nine eleven” He paused, thumbing through the file in front of him.
The man across from him had no morals. The longer Jamey watched Milton talk with Tina, the clearer it all became. He was pushing all Tina’s hot buttons with talk of innocent children and 9/11. This, coming from a man who’d sacrificed Tina to get inside the hostage house, given her to someone who offered her up to the insurgents, hoping Jamey could find her. He’d gambled with her life. She’d been their stool pigeon. The thought made Jamey’s blood curdle. The last thing he wanted right now was to tell Tina that she’d been used by Sixth Force--working for them for the last two days without her knowledge or consent. Feeling used for someone else’s gain was something Tina was trying to put behind her.