Consummate Betrayal

by Yungeberg. Mary

  The good doctor leaned back and folded his hands in front of him on the desk. “Please do.”

  Seeing the skepticism in the doctor’s eyes, he decided not to soft soap anything. “The CIA had evidently been planning, for a period of time, to abduct special agent Milani. They took him to an office tucked away in an old warehouse and placed his cuffed wrists over a sturdy meat hook on the wall, near the ceiling. It was high enough that he must have been on tiptoe. They beat him, ostensibly I believe, to obtain a confession. Rowan’s tough and he’d die before confessing to anything, but of course they didn’t know that.”

  Doctor Anderson grimaced, and Ralph noted the revulsion in the man’s eyes with satisfaction. Good, he thought savagely, maybe he was getting through to him. Slowly rubbing the stubble on his jaw, he smirked at the doctor. “I know my special agent extremely well and trust me – he didn’t take what they were doing quietly. I can only imagine what he may have said and as I’m sure you know, he also shot and injured one of their agents earlier at the hotel. It’s a given they’d punish him for that. It’s my opinion that after they beat him, they thought he’d come around to their way of thinking if they let him hang for a while. The floor and the wall behind him were splattered with blood, so I know he must have struggled.”

  Watching the doctor’s face, he finished the gory account. “That’s how we found him, unconscious and covered in blood, hanging by his wrists. It took both me and special agent Cantor to lift his body off the hook. I held him…” He stopped talking and cleared his throat to erase the hoarse emotion from his voice. “I held him in my arms until the paramedics arrived. And that is how I came to be covered with my friend’s blood that morning.” He blinked once to clear the wetness from his eyes and gazed at the doctor, taking petty pleasure in the horror on the other man’s face. Silence filled the office and he could hear the clock on the wall behind the desk ticking away precious seconds.

  Doctor Anderson lifted a hand and let it drop back to the desk. “I’m sorry special agent Johnston. I had no idea. Listen, call me Steve. Let’s forget the last forty-eight hours and start over. What can I do to help you?”

  Relief washed over him in a warm, reviving wave. Thank God he’d gotten through the suspicions and found a reasonable man. “Well, doctor – Steve – I need a reason to insist that my special agent requires care at your medical center, that his condition is too fragile for him to be moved, something I can take to the president to buy me time to figure out what to do,” he finished lamely.

  The doctor shoved his glasses up and rubbed his hands together. “My main area of concern is his wrists. The soft tissue damage is extensive, he sustained significant trauma to the nerves as I mentioned to you before, and each wrist has several fractures. He has at least a couple fractures in his left foot, also.” Ralph watched as his new ally looked at his watch and continued. “One of the most prominent orthopedic trauma surgeons in the country has already looked at his X-rays and is going to be here later this afternoon.

  This doctor is a longtime personal friend. I called him immediately after I evaluated Mr. Milani. I’ve never seen trauma like that and wanted expertise I could count on. He managed to clear his schedule and make travel arrangements. Your friend needs surgery as soon as possible if he’s going to regain the use of his hands, and Byron Williams is the best in the country. If anyone can work a miracle, it’s him.” Steve hesitated and then said, “You can take that to the bank and to the president.”

  He sagged weakly in the chair. “Thank you, and please, call me Ralph. You know, this could make all the difference. It gives me the time I need to make other arrangements.”

  Steve smiled. “Don’t mention it. I decided to personally manage your special agent’s case as soon as I saw him. What you’ve told me is extremely disturbing, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s the importance of absolute discretion and confidence. I’ll help you and Mr. Milani any way I can. We’ll come up to examine his wrists as soon as Dr. Williams arrives.” The doctor gave him a dark look. “It’s hard to believe we could do something like what you described to one of our own citizens. I find that very troubling.”

  * * *

  Ralph stepped off the elevator in a more sanguine frame of mind, with renewed energy and determination. Spotting the deputy guarding the door, he pulled the young man aside and sent him home for the rest of the day. Chad sat in the small waiting area at the end of the hall, poring over Rowan’s laptop. He found Bettina and Danielle conversing quietly in Rowan’s room. They both looked up and smiled as he walked in.

  Stepping next to the bed, he looked down at his friend. Rowan’s head was turned to the right, which seemed to be his preference, and his eyes were closed. The bruises on his face were cast in sharp relief by a shaft of sunlight, but at least the swelling had gone down. Someone, most likely his nurse, had lowered the head of the bed. Reaching down, he smoothed the black hair and spoke softly. “I bought us more time today, but I need your help, so come on back to me.” He turned and left the room, grabbing a cup of coffee from the pot that was always on in the waiting area and snagging the last chocolate chip cookie from the plate food service brought each morning.

  Chad glanced up from the laptop with an incredulous look. “Boss, you are not going to believe all the information Rowan had stored on the flash drive I found hidden in his briefcase.”

  He eyed Chad and munched on the cookie, then took a sip of coffee. “Is there anything we can use to help him or have you gotten into it deeply enough to know?”

  Chad shook his head. “Yeah boss, we need to meet privately somewhere. This is an accumulation of extremely sensitive information. If this flash drive had been found, a great amount of intelligence and covert activity would have been compromised, but you know, Rowan said someone betrayed him. It’s possible that this information has already been gleaned by whoever’s doing this to him, although I can’t think how.”

  Glancing at his watch, Ralph saw that it was four o’clock. “We’ll talk more about this later, special agent.” The doctor Steve had mentioned would be arriving before long, and he wanted to get the two women out of the picture for a while. Bettina and Danielle agreed to grab a pizza and wine, and camp out at Danielle’s house for the evening. They’d only been gone about twenty minutes when the two doctors appeared at the doorway to Rowan’s room. The man with Steve had tightly curled gray hair and bright blue eyes. The renowned Doctor Williams, he presumed.

  Wiping errant cookie crumbs from his sweater, Ralph approached the two men with a smile. “Hello Steve.” Turning to the other man, he held out his hand. “You must be Doctor Williams. I can’t thank you enough, sir, for making this trip. My name is Ralph Johnston, and as far as I know, I am still the FBI Special Agent in Charge of this mess.”

  Doctor Williams gripped his hand and gave it a firm shake. “It’s my pleasure to make the trip, nice to meet you and please, call me Byron. Sorry to hear about your man here. If you don’t mind, I’d like to make my evaluation of Mr. Milani’s injuries and schedule surgery as soon as possible.”

  Relieved, he waved them through the door. “That would suit me to a T, gentlemen. Please, right this way.”

  * * *

  Rowan watched Ralph and the two doctors warily, wondering what they wanted. The one in the white coat with graying hair and kind eyes behind glasses smiled at him. “Mr. Milani, my name is Doctor Anderson. I treated you when you arrived at the hospital. This is my colleague, Doctor Williams. He specializes in orthopedic injuries. With your permission, he would like to evaluate the trauma you sustained to your wrists and schedule surgery to correct the problems.” The doctor turned and fussed with the bed controls. “Let’s raise this up a little more so we can have a conversation. Are you able to talk yet?”

  Swallowing and trying to clear his throat, he could only manage a scratchy whisper. “Can’t move my fingers…because of wrist injuries?” Sweating again, determined not to fall into t
he abyss of fear and despair, he found himself teetering on the edge. Without the use of his hands, life stretched ahead endlessly with no meaning.

  Doctor Williams seemed to sense his distress and spoke soothingly. “Mr. Milani, let’s not jump to any conclusions. I’m anxious to take a look at your injuries and do whatever I can to correct the problems we find. I’d like to proceed immediately with my own examination and evaluation, if you feel up to that.”

  Closing his eyes, he nodded. “Please.” Bettina’s tearful face swam into his thoughts along with Danielle’s strained visage. Opening his eyes, he focused on Ralph and whispered again. “Are Bettina and Danielle gone?”

  Ralph looked proud. “I sent them off for an evening of pizza and wine at Danielle’s home.”

  “Oh great.” He’d have no more secrets. Bettina would tell Danielle the sordid story of his entire life, or at least the parts she knew about.

  Doctor Williams inserted himself back into the conversation. “Mr. Milani, are you in a great deal of pain right now?”

  Gazing at the doctor’s sympathetic countenance, he didn’t know how to describe the depth of the pain, both physical and mental. After a moment of reflection, he whispered. “Some.”

  Doctor Williams frowned and met his eyes. “Why do I get the feeling you’re not telling the whole story? It would probably be best if you were sedated for this evaluation. It will most likely be very painful.” The doctor looked at his colleague. “Steve, if you can get his nurse, I’d like to sedate him, add morphine to the mix and take a look right here.”

  Rowan had to agree with the doctor. Deep sedation was his preferred state of existence. Somehow, surgery on his wrists with no anesthesia didn’t compare to the anguish he’d experienced while hanging from the hook. But how could he explain that to the doctors? Their minds couldn’t grasp that kind of brutality. Well, his mind was having a hell of a time with it too, and he watched with relief as the nurse inserted the needle into the IV. Feeling the burn of the drugs, he closed his eyes. The darkness welcomed him like an old friend and whisked him away, into peaceful unconsciousness.

  * * *

  Ralph remained at his chosen vantage point, the chair at the end of the bed, head in his hands while the doctors unraveled the carefully bandaged wrists and conferred quietly. Steve began. “The major issue we dealt with was an injured spleen and a tear we found in the diaphragm muscle. We were able to repair both and control the hemorrhaging in order to get him hemodynamically stabilized.”

  Byron spoke with appreciation in his voice. “You’ve obviously got a great team here. I can see that the flexor and extensor tendons are involved, unavoidably, I’d say. These nerves received a good deal of pressure, too. It’s going to take some time for them to recover from the shock. You’ve created the best conditions for regeneration, but we need to proceed to surgery right away.”

  The final comment brought Ralph’s head up. With aching sadness he gazed at Rowan again. His tough special agent looked broken and desolate, but at least the anxious tension that inhabited his features had been drugged away. God only knew the nightmares that must occupy his mind, and he wondered if Rowan would ever recover from the wounds left on his battered psyche. He looked from one sober-faced doctor to the other. “Special agent Milani is an honorable man who has sacrificed generously on behalf of his country. I want to be certain he is well cared for and remains safe. I’ll be right outside. This time, when you take him, I’ll be with him.”

  * * *

  CHAPTER NINE

  Ralph gazed tiredly at Chad as they sat in the surgical waiting area for the second time in two days, while Byron Williams turned his phenomenal expertise to saving his special agent’s wrists and hands. He hoped the doctor was as good as Steve had assured him he was, because he’d seen the look in Rowan’s eyes. His friend wasn’t willing to accept a future that didn’t include the use of his hands. A tremor fluttered through his body. Pushing the unruly, frightening thoughts away, he tried to focus on his other special agent. “Tell me about the flash drive, Chad.”

  Chad yawned and blinked at him, fidgeting in the molded plastic chair. “From what I’ve gathered, Rowan’s been living another, completely clandestine life. You know boss, I always joked about his dark personality, but I had no idea he was an assassin. You sure we should be discussing all this stuff here?”

  Yawning because his subordinate had and also because he was exhausted, he wiped burning eyes before looking blearily at Chad. “I know about Rowan’s covert activities. And I don’t know where else to talk. There’s no one besides us in here, and I doubt the waiting room is bugged. I don’t know about you, but I’m not comfortable with both of us leaving the hospital.” He shrugged. “Just give me the essentials of what you found.”

  Chad leaned back and stretched long legs. “The drive provides a detailed description of literally hundreds of Islamic radicals – background, location and terrorist activities, along with the dates of their elimination. I found another list of names that I’ve surmised are Rowan’s contacts. It’s possible, I suppose, that one of those people betrayed him.”

  Ralph gaped at Chad, suddenly remembering what he had called the Denver debacle. “God almighty… I think this whole thing started last month, in Denver.”

  Chad peered through bloodshot eyes, brow furrowed. “You mean when Rowan got kicked off the plane? I thought that was because of his appearance, as usual.”

  The rush of adrenaline fired the synapses in his fatigued mind. “Oh no, he got taken off that plane because of an anonymous phone call made to Fred Ralston, saying Rowan had killed two men on the Mexican side of the border – which he had, as part of a black op. I got him the hell out of there before someone higher up decided to investigate.”

  Chad whistled softly. “I had no idea. Wait – didn’t you tell me that the jerk holding you at gunpoint in the hotel said they were taking Rowan to an Egyptian prison?”

  Eyes wide, he wondered why he hadn’t remembered that. But there’d been no time to sit and contemplate anything. “Yes, he did. The son of a bitch told me Rowan was headed straight to an Egyptian prison. But what does that say about Ainsley, wanting to move Rowan to Quantico? Is he involved in this? I’ll never trust that sucker again.”

  Chad clamped a hand on his arm. “Boss, we’ve got to do something. We’ve got to get Rowan out of here. If you lose custody of him for some trumped up reason, he’ll be gone. We won’t know where he is or what they’ve done with him. For all we know, Ainsley could send him to Quantico, only to have the CIA rendition him from there. We can’t let that happen.”

  Washing a hand over his face, he stared at Chad. “I know. But we can’t do anything until Rowan’s out of the woods. I bought some time today with Doctor Anderson, but we need to be prepared to act as soon as we can. Until then, one of us has to be here – armed and ready for anything. I have no idea how long it’ll be before Rowan’s recovered enough for us to move him. And I have no idea where on God’s green earth we can take him.”

  Wondering if Chad had considered all the angles, he captured the younger man’s gaze. “Son, there is one more thing. If we do this, you know we’re going to be wanted for aiding and abetting. We’ll be hiding right along with Rowan. We’re saying good-bye to our careers if we continue along this path.”

  His subordinate’s response pleased him mightily. “You know that Rowan means more to me than my career ever could.” Chad stretched and yawned again, then gave him a sad smile. “My mother’s been in an Alzheimer’s facility in D.C. for going on seven years and my father spends all his time lobbying. First, it was from Pierre, but he lives in a condo in Georgetown now. I’m not sure why he even keeps the house in Sioux Falls anymore. Maybe for me… In a way it’s still home. But anyway, you and Rowan are as much my family as my parents are. And Bettina’s going to be my family too…eventually.”

  Nonplussed by Chad’s final statement, he scratched his chin. “OK, I guess congratulations are
in order. Does Bettina know this?”

  Color crept up Chad’s neck and stained his cheeks. “She doesn’t know yet, but I fell in love with her the instant I laid eyes on her. Rowan would have my ass if he knew, but one day he’ll understand.”

  Chuckling, he patted Chad’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. Rowan knows. Why do you think he gave you the evil eye and told you to stay away from his sister? You’ve got to understand, Rowan’s trying to protect Bettina from the likes of you, the guy who got the scoop, so to speak, from Mandy and who went out with that crazy bitch from the airport. What was her name? Oh yeah, Marta.”

  Chad stared at him. “Uh…how did you know about Mandy?”

  Still chuckling at his special agent’s discomfiture, he stood up. “You two guys think I’m old and senile, but I get around, son. Not much got by me, until now. I could never, in my worst nightmare, have imagined this scenario.”

  Chad crossed his arms and frowned. “I did get into Marta’s computer like we planned and set it up so I’d receive her emails on my system at home. It might be worthwhile for me to check those out. And for the record, I did not sleep with her. She’s creepy and I’m not into that.”

  In the middle of a stretch, he smiled. “Good for you. If you want to, head home tonight and take a look at her emails. They’re probably worthless to us, but hell, you never know. I don’t want to take anything for granted.”

  Chad exhaled heavily. “Me either. Things spun out of control so fast, I don’t know if we’re coming or going. All I’ve thought about is Rowan – and Bettina.” Chad looked at him, mouth and eyes round. “Boss – we can’t have Bettina and Danielle up here all the time. If something goes down, we can’t be responsible for the two of them and Rowan and ourselves. Now that I think about it, Danielle shouldn’t be here at all. The last thing she needs is to be identified with Rowan.”