Page 198 of The 6:20 Man

“I was suspicious and there seemed to be things hitting too close to that town house. I wanted to find out if we had enemies in our own camp.” She reached down and stroked his cheek, and it felt so good.

Devine nodded and closed his eyes as the morphine flowed into him, engaging in a pitched battle with the pain ebbing just below the surface of his punctured shoulder.

When he awoke again, he was feeling better, and time apparently had marched on. It had been dark when Campbell and Speers had been there. It was daylight now, and he sensed that multiple days had passed. Nurses walked in and walked out after checking on him. Doctors and specialists examined him constantly.

He eyed his vitals on the monitor. They looked closer to normal than he probably deserved.

Campbell visited him regularly, and then walked in one morning and sat down next to him. “You look much better today,” he said.

Devine managed to inch up a bit on his pillow before hitting the bed control to raise himself up more. “I think I’ve rounded the corner.”

“Good.”

“Jill Tapshaw?”

“Her mother came to claim her body. We gave her a full briefing. Well, as full as we could.”

“How did you know what to tell her about Jill? I haven’t been able to tell you anything.”

“She left a full written confession in her room,” said Campbell. “I think when she went to her office that night, she intended to kill herself using your gun. But she found you there instead. Worse luck for you. If she had killed you, she probably would have turned the gun on herself. Her poor mother was . . . devastated. She’s lost both her children.”

“Jill was a brilliant person. She did a lot to help people. And could have done a lot more.”

“She did a lot to hurt people, too,” countered Campbell.

“What about Cowl and Comely?”

“Shut down. The people behind Area 51 are still out there. But you disrupted their operations to a considerable extent.”

“But how much damage have they already done?”

“We reviewed the report your friend Valentine cobbled together. That was hardly all of it, and we’re working on finding out more. From what we can make out, foreign interests who are no friend of the United States own more of this country than most people, myself included, can even comprehend. And a lot of politicians across the country have received dark money from these same groups.”

“What will happen to them?”

“Probably nothing. They’ll shout to the heavens that they didn’t know, or it’s all fake, or entrapment, or a political hit job. And they’ll keep their positions and go on doing exactly what they were doing and sucking on the same dark-money teat.”

“That is some sick shit,” Devine said wearily.

“But we have to keep this on the QT, Devine.”

“What, why?”

“International relations, key alliances, not wanting to rock the boat too much, disrupt political arenas and financial markets, that sort of thing.”

“That is total bullshit.”

“I agree, it is,” Campbell conceded.

Devine looked out the window at the sunny day. “So, I didn’t really complete my mission, then. And you don’t give out participation trophies. Am I headed to USDB?”

“I think you’re well on your way to a second chance, Devine. If you want it.”

The two former soldiers stared at each other.

“I want it,” Devine finally said.

“And that’s a good reason to get out of bed every day.”