“Come with me, Anna,” he told her over the cheers and applause of the Parliament. “Be with me.”
She nodded, tears welling in her eyes, then returned his kiss. Firmly but politely, she pushed the Minister of Defense away from the handlebars of the wheelchair and pushed Palcikas out of the Parliament chamber and into the warm Lithuanian spring sunshine.
“I think,” Dr. Virkutis said to President Kapocius over the whistles and cheering of the members of Parliament, “that boy finally decided to listen to me.”
“This really sucks,” Hal Briggs said bitterly.
Briggs, along with Brad Elliott, John Ormack, Patrick McLanahan, Wendy Tork, Angelina Pereira, Paul White, Kelvin Carter, and other senior officers and engineers at the High Technology Aerospace Weapons Center research center and the Intelligence Support Agency group MADCAP MAGICIAN were standing outside of the small base-operations building on the flight line one cold, overcast morning — even Lieutenant Fryderyk Litwy, the young Lithuanian security officer MADCAP MAGICIAN had rescued months before, was there.
Parked in front of the building was a C-22B transport plane — a modified Boeing 727 commercial jetliner with all of its Air Force markings erased, it looked like any other commercial or corporate jet ready to depart.
Deputy Director John Markwright, chief investigations officer for the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, turned with an angry glance toward Briggs and said, “What was that, Captain Briggs?”
“I said, this sucks, man!”
“Listen, you—”
“That’s enough, both of you,” Elliott said. “Hal, keep it buttoned.”
Briggs turned and walked a few paces away, muttering something under this breath.
“You know, part of the problem around here,” Markwright said with aggravation, “is a noticeable lack of discipline, General. I’m a deputy director of the National Security Agency and a direct Presidential appointee, and ever since I’ve arrived I’ve been treated like shit by your snot-nosed officers.”
“Maybe we don’t like what you’re doing,” McLanahan said evenly. “Maybe what we think you’re doing is wrong.”
“The President disagrees with you, Colonel,” Markwright said dismissively. “I’m doing this under his authority.”
“But as part of your recommendations,” Ormack added. “I don’t think you considered one goddamn proposal of ours or of the Pentagon for dealing with Dave Luger.”
“My staff and I read and reviewed every recommendation on dealing with this situation, including your half-baked ideas about leaving him here,” Markwright said. “The consensus was to get him out of the country and into isolative custody until the security review has been completed and the Old Dog mission has been fully declassified — and until my investigations have been concluded.” He affixed every one of them with a cold stare. “And while I’m conducting my investigation, it would behoove all of you to cooperate instead of jerking me around with all your damned clearances and security checks. I’m sick of it. I’ve got clearance to see and ask anything around here, and the sooner you all realize that, the better it’ll be for all of us.” He lowered his voice slightly and said to Elliott, “And if I get full cooperation from you, General—full cooperation — it might make Lieutenant Luger’s life a bit more bearable as well. Where he’s going, he could be a bit uncomfortable.”
“Get away from me, you arrogant son of a bitch,” Elliott snapped. “And if I find out that you’ve mistreated Major Luger, after all this group has been through, I’ll personally wring your scrawny little neck.”
Markwright stepped away from Elliott as if the three-star general had kicked him in the groin; then a mischievous grin spread across his face. “Where he’s going, General, you won’t hear or find out diddly,” Markwright said smugly. “Luger belongs to me now, got that? And if you think he had it tough at the Fisikous Institute, you haven’t seen anything yet. Whatever we need to find out from Luger, we will find out.”
Elliott shoved Markwright away from him, but Markwright only straightened his suit jacket, smiled, and walked briskly away from the group toward the C-22B.
“I don’t understand, General,” Wendy Tork told Elliott. “We’re all here, and we’ve got full freedom to move around — why does Dave have to be taken into isolative custody?”
“I’m not sure, Wendy,” Elliott replied. “He’s under investigation, and I think they’re afraid of the brainwashing he’s undergone. There’s a very real possibility that he’s been turned into a double agent. The difference, of course, is that we pronounced him dead after the Old Dog mission was over. We can’t explain his reappearance without revealing everything— the Old Dog mission, everything about what we do here at HAWC, and everything we did over in Lithuania.”
“But we have the capability to keep him isolated and secure here at Dreamland,” Angelina Pereira argued. “We’ve had Russian defectors and Chinese scientists here for years without anyone knowing about it. Why not the same for Dave?”
“Because Markwright can see a career-enhancing step in this investigation,” Ormack said angrily. “That geek is going to push his way to NSA director on the back of Dave Luger.”
At that moment an ambulance drove up to the base operations building. The rear doors opened up and two plainclothes security guards stepped outside and stationed themselves nearby. A physician from HAWC’s medical staff remained in the back of the ambulance, sitting on a long, wide, enclosed cargo bench that doubled as storage space for rescue equipment. He looked restless and wary, as if unsure about some action that he’d been asked to perform. He visually sought out Brad Elliott, but he said nothing to the three-star general when they locked eyes.
Dave Luger, wearing a plain white shirt, blue jeans, and tennis shoes, stepped onto the back step of the ambulance. The group of well-wishers pushed forward. The security officers told everyone to step back away from the ambulance, but they realized the group’s emotions at the moment were very intense, so they weren’t too insistent. Finally they decided to wait in the front of the ambulance to at least let them say their good-byes in private.
“I guess this is it,” Luger said. Angelina and Wendy were the first ones to embrace him. “I never thought I’d ever see you guys again,” Luger said. “I’m glad I could.”
“You’ll be okay, Dave,” Wendy reassured him. “They’ll take good care of you — we’ll see to that.”
“We’ll never forget you, Dave,” Angelina said, tears welling up in her eyes. “We still owe you a party. When you come back, we’ll throw you a real doozy.”
“I can’t wait,” Luger smiled halfheartedly. “But seeing you two again is the best celebration I could have.”
General Elliott was the next one in line. “Hey, thanks for the promotion, sir,” Dave said.
“You deserved it, Major, and much more,” Elliott replied. “God, I’m going to miss you. I’m glad you’re ad right.”
“What are you going to do with the Fisikous-170?”