_____
Simone sucked a sharp breath through her teeth as Michaela carefully unlaced Simone's right boot and slipped it off.
Gripping the sides of the exam table, Simone let her head fall back, teeth clenched and breath held. The stabbing pain in her foot sent waves of nausea cascading through her.
Michaela cut off Simone's sweat-drenched sock with surgical scissors, revealing a badly bruised and swollen foot.
"How did you walk in here?"
Simone let her breath go. "One foot in front of the other?" she joked to give some levity to a situation turning out to be every bit as bad as she'd feared.
"Legitimately, what happened?"
"I fell."
"I'm going to need more than that." Michaela rose to stand. "Let me see your shoulder."
Gingerly, and with Michaela's assistance, Simone peeled off the tank top that was stuck to her by a grimy layer of perspiration and filth. "I tried to stop something from spilling over the edge of a waterfall."
"Keyword: tried?"
"Pretty much."
Michaela stared at the contusion on Simone's shoulder. "Lift your arm like this." She demonstrated.
Simone lifted her left arm as Michaela had done, but only to half the height.
"Can you go higher?"
Simone shook her head.
"Lift it like this." She demonstrated a different angle.
Simone lifted better at this angle, but not quite to the same degree as Michaela.
"Can you extend it straight out?"
Simone extended her arm straight out in front of her.
"Now to the side."
Simone started and then stopped abruptly, wincing from the uncomfortable sensation the movement had brought.
Michaela sat to jot down some notes. She spoke without looking back. "We need to get you in for X-rays and an MRI right away."
"Then what?"
"Then you rest."
"There's still another artifact out there," Simone said emphatically. "Lincoln can't do everything by himself."
Michaela spun around in her chair. "And you can't do anything if you're not medically cleared to return to the field. Do you understand?"
Simone wanted to say more. A lot more. But she held her tongue and prayed the X-rays came back negative, inconclusive, or whatever it would take to get her back into action.
The one saving grace, in her mind, was that she had time until the next fragment's location was pinpointed. Whether that would be a day or a month, she couldn't say. She simply hoped it would be enough time to heal up for medical clearance.
Simone hopped down from the exam table, hopping on her good foot -- which itself did not feel 100%. A fact she kept to herself.
Michael jumped up from her seat. "Where do you think you're going? Sit back down!"
Simone shrugged. "X-rays."
"You're not walking anywhere. Sit down."
Simone sat back down as Michaela left the room and returned shortly with a pair of crutches.
With a nervous laugh, Simone bit her lip and just looked at the crutches held out for her to take. "Don't you think that's a little much?"
”Would you prefer a wheelchair?”
With great reluctance, Simone took the crutches and followed Michaela to medical imaging, feeling the haunting specter of disappointment and failure tagging along.
_____
Following a seemingly endless battery of medical imaging at the AFB's primary hospital, Simone was shown to an outpatient room where clean clothes were laid out on the bed for her.
Casual summer attire. Not the gear she was hoping for, gear necessary to go back out in search of the third and final meteor fragment.
As she stood and hobbled her way toward the shower, refusing the crutches, she prayed that the selection of clothes put out for her was indicative of the team not knowing where to begin searching, and not a choice based on the medical imaging.
Simone peeled the rest of her clothes off and left them in a pile on the floor as she ran the water. She stepped into the shower and let the hot, clean water rush over her.
Breathing in the steam, she felt cleansed. Looking down at herself, at all the scratches and bruises she'd endured, all the sweaty filth and dirt stuck to her, that cleansing sensation faded and reality sank in deep.
She tried to wash herself but her left shoulder limited her mobility significantly. She leaned against the shower wall, taking pressure off her right foot. Five minutes into the shower and she felt like she had accomplished nothing.
Simone lowered her head, letting the hot water run through her hair. She stared at the muddy puddle swirling toward the drain at her bruised feet.
Emotion swelled, nearly knocking her over. Her jaw quivered and tears mingled with the water dripping down her face. She brought a hand to her mouth and sobbed.
Realization that her mission to Peru had resulted in failure struck harder than she expected. She’d come back with a broken body and empty hands. The team had fallen apart at the seams, and the chances she'd be able to go back out felt completely out of her favor.
Simone stood there crying until the water ran cold. She wiped her face, steadied herself, and did the best job she could at washing her hair and body, the dirt coming off doing little to erase the sting of failure and regret. In a way, it felt worse than the sting of the warrior wasp.
She dried off and dressed herself. Sitting on the edge of the bed, she wondered what the next step would be. It had always seemed to be defined before. Uncertainty felt like a stranger to her.
Before long, she heard a knock on her door.
"Come in."
Clark Bannicheck entered.
Simone stared down at her hands folded in her lap. "I'm sorry," she said.
"Sorry for what?"
Her eyes met his. "For failing."
Clark approached the bed and sat beside Simone. "You didn't fail me, Simone. I failed you."
Simone's silence asked the question, how?
"The agreement to work with Briony Black should never have been made," Clark said. "That was a mistake. But in spite of that, you succeeded in preventing anyone else from recovering the meteor fragment."
"What's going to happen now?" Simone asked.
"I spoke with Lincoln. He believes it is safe. What do you believe?"
Simone only needed a brief moment to consider her answer. "It will be safe for a while, but we shouldn't leave it there forever."
"My thoughts exactly," Clark said as the door opened and Michaela walked in with a folder in hand.
"Just the two I was looking for," she said, handing the folder to Clark.
Simone's heart sank as the folder was opened, showing the results of her examination.
"Non-displaced fracture of the fourth metatarsal and cuboid in the right foot," Michaela said. "The left was only sprained. As for the left shoulder, you see a tear of the subscapularis and supraspinatus, as well as significant contusions that you don't need an MRI to be aware of. Add to that symptoms of a mild to severe concussion, too many abrasions to count, blood loss, dehydration, the list goes on."
Michaela paused as Clark studied the results.
With a breath, she said, "Mr. Bannicheck, at this time, I cannot provide medical clearance for Simone Cassidy to return to the field."
Simone went numb. "What?"
Michaela leveled a firm glare at Simone. "You are injured. You need to rest and heal."
"I can still – "
"You can't do anything but injure yourself further."
"Don't tell me what I can and can't do," Simone said.
"It's my job to tell you that, Simone."
"Okay then," Clark said and closed the folder, handing it back to Michaela. "Simone, you have to rest. As we have no further confirmed lead on where to proceed from here, that's all that any of us can do."
Simone sighed out her frustration.
Michaela said, "For the pain, I recommend – "
"No," Simo
ne said. "I don't want anything."
"Simone, that is not advised, especially if you keep walking around without your crutches." Michaela took the crutches from where they rested against the wall and brought them to Simone. "By the end of the day, you'll be begging me for painkillers."
"I don't want anything." Simone took the crutches and dropped them onto the bed.
Clark looked at her. "Simone, are you sure?"
She met his eyes. "Nothing."
"Thank you, Michaela," Clark said to her. "If anything changes, you will be notified."
Michaela opened the door to leave just as a party unknown to Simone was about to enter.
"Mr. Bannicheck," the individual said. "Do you know anything about a prisoner transport scheduled to arrive?"
Clark shifted to face the door. "Prisoner transport?"
"The flight was rerouted by Homeland Security."
Clark stood. "Who is the prisoner?"
"A man traveling under the name of Vincent Crowden."
18.
Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, USA
Simone watched as Vincent was taken from the small plane in handcuffs and escorted at gunpoint to what she guessed was a holding facility.
Wincing from the effort of using her crutches with a bad shoulder, she turned to Clark Bannicheck, who stood beside her, also watching. "I want to speak with him."
"Not yet," Clark said.
"If you come at him hard and interrogate him, he'll feel like we can't be trusted," Simone argued. "Let me be the first to speak with him."
"Simone -- "
"We have a rapport. He trusts me."
"No," Clark said with finality.
Simone almost cursed out loud but bit her lip instead. "Clark, please."
He turned to her. "I know you want to help, Simone -- "
"Then let me," she interjected. "I can't go anywhere or do anything else, so just let me do this. I'm here to help, and this is the only thing I can do right now."
"Simone, listen carefully," Clark said as calmly as he could. "We have one agent captured, possibly dead, I don't know. This man is allied with the group responsible for that capture. Now he is here, possibly to gather information. There is a reason he is here, Simone. That must be taken into consideration before anyone says anything to him."
"Then I should be the first," she said, matching his calm demeanor. "Nobody knows less about what's going on here than me. I don't even know where you're shipping us off to, or when we're leaving. There's nothing I can tell him that he doesn't already know, except for where Lincoln and I buried the fragment in Peru -- and you can be damn sure I'm not letting anyone know that."
Clark considered this approach. His uncertain look spoke of reservations, which had Simone's stomach tying itself in knots.
Lincoln arrived beside them just then. "I just heard. He's here?"
Simone nodded toward the building behind her. "In cuffs, over there."
Lincoln shifted his eyes to Clark. "Why?"
Clark didn't understand.
"SWANN betrayed Vincent," Lincoln continued. "And he was pissed off about it."
Clark leveled his gaze at Simone. "Is that true?"
She shook her head. "I was lagging behind. It all happened before I got there. The fragment was going over the waterfall and I went for it. It all happened in seconds."
"You're damn right, it's true," Lincoln said. "April was taken by force and she yelled for me to split. There was nothing I could do, so I did. Last thing I heard was Solomon shouting for his team to grab Vincent."
"Did they?" Clark asked.
"I was already gone."
A moment of quiet fell between the trio as Clark weighed this new information.
Lincoln noticed Simone's crutches. "How're you holding up?"
"Still in one piece," she said. "For the most part."
Clark turned his head toward the holding facility where Vincent was being detained. "Simone, Lincoln, you may speak with Vincent together and only together. I will monitor from the adjacent room. The conversation will be recorded, both video and audio. You will hand him nothing. You will receive nothing. You will remain seated opposite from him until the door is opened. I may request for you to be removed from the room at any time, and there will be no room for debate. Is this understood?"
"Yes," they both said.
"Time is short." He started toward the building. Simone and Lincoln followed.
_____
Two armed military personnel waited by the door to the holding cell as Simone and Lincoln approached. One guard unlocked the door, the other held it open for the duo to enter.
They stepped into a cold, uninviting space. One naked bulb spilled light from above the table situated in the center of the room. At one end of the table, Vincent sat in a folding chair with his hands chained to that table.
Simone leaned the crutches against the wall and limped into the light.
Vincent's jaw hit the floor. "My god … you're truly alive?"
"Cracked, but not quite broken." She pulled a chair out and sat.
Lincoln approached and sat beside Simone. "How did you get back?"
"First flight I could get," Vincent said.
Simone's eyes narrowed. "Solomon let you go?"
"That's right. To deliver a message." He looked to Lincoln. "SWANN has April. You have the Peruvian fragment. Solomon proposes a trade."
"What assurance do we have that she's alive and unharmed?" Lincoln asked.
Vincent shrugged. "I'm just the messenger."
"Where will this meeting take place?" Simone asked.
"At the location of the third fragment," Vincent said. "And only there."
Lincoln sat back, unhappy. "That's not happening."
"Vincent," Simone said, "What happened? Where are Iris and Warren?"
Vincent's face twisted into a scowl. "Gone. With that bastard Solomon, and his new – " Using air quotes, "Partner".
Simone exchanged a look with Lincoln.
"Briony Black," Lincoln said.
Simone shook her head in confusion. "Who's that?"
"I'll tell you who that is." Vincent leaned forward. "She's a snake. Two-headed with a forked tongue. Sends me out under false pretenses to look like a damn fool when I'm the only one made unaware of the purpose of the engagement. I'm kept alive only as a little messenger boy, a man without a country. My credentials were deleted, so I can't return home. Judging by this ‘southern hospitality‘, I don't appear very welcome here, either."
He showed his cuffs and chains and then let his hands drop back to the table.
Vincent continued, "Let me be frank. I know you don't trust me, because if the roles were reversed and you sat before me in chains, I'd question your story just the same. If you let me go free, that's all well and good. If you don't, that's just the same as far as I'm concerned. I've got no place to return to, so I'd at least have a roof over my head and three hot meals daily under your ... supervision. But ... If you find yourselves in need of more hands – or feet," he said, motioning to Simone's crutches, "I'd be more than willing to do whatever it takes to deprive Briony Black of the pleasure of getting her hands on the third meteor fragment. Whether that means taking down Solomon, rescuing your ginger-haired companion, or both, you can consider me a friend."
Simone met Lincoln's look.
A knock came on the heavy metal door and it groaned open. The armed guards motioned for Simone and Lincoln to exit.
Simone grabbed her crutches and followed Lincoln into the hallway where Clark was waiting for them.
"What do you make of this?" Clark said to them both.
Simone spoke first. "We need all the hands and feet we can get."
"Simone's right," Lincoln said. "We can't go into the field with a team of one and a half at most, not while Briony Black is allied with SWANN."
Clark scratched his chin, staring at the floor in deep thought. "Briony is cunning. This could all be part of a long game she's playing. Whom cou
ld she better trust to play the mole than her lover?"
The logic of Clark's statement began to make sense to Simone. She exhaled. "Crap."
"We can use the second fragment as a decoy," Lincoln said. "Pretend it's the third and we already found it. Offer it in exchange for April."
"Too obvious," Clark said. "Plus, they'd ask for the second fragment as well."
Simone shook her head. "This is ... This is all B.S. That's why he's here, Vincent. Solomon sent him as a way to screw with us, make us work against each other while they make headway on the last fragment. That's his game. Forget Briony Black or whoever the heck that is. I don't know her, but I know Solomon. He kept me alive last year because he knew he could use me. He had every chance in the world to take me out, but he didn't. And now he's doing the same with Vincent. Killing him would have been a waste of resources. That's how Solomon thinks, so that's how we have to think if we want to stay one step ahead. He's the one down on the ground calling the shots, not Briony Black or anyone else. It's Solomon."
After a long pause, Clark said, "Okay. How do we think like Solomon?"
"If he kept Vincent and Simone alive," Lincoln said, "Then he won't be in a hurry to get rid of April, so we have that in our favor."
"True," Simone agreed. "She should be safe at least until we have the third fragment."
"Suppose we find it," Clark said. "He wants to make the exchange there and only there. How do we make sure we leave safely with the meteor fragment and April?"
Simone and Lincoln exchanged a look, but neither spoke. Simone had no clue how a hostage situation like that unfolded in the real world, but she could envision it going wrong in every conceivable way -- much like the mission to Peru.
Clark's cell rang in the silence between the trio.
"Yes," he said.
Three seconds later, he hung up.
"We have a lead on the third fragment."
19.
Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, USA
Clark stood between Simone and the door to the briefing room. "This is as far as you go."
Buried in the Sky Page 12