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The door lock clicked open Chapel grabbed the handle and pulled at the door Inside the limo it was dark and cool, and Chapel sao men, Reinhard and Hayes He leaned inside the door, blinked as his eyes tried to adjust to the darkness inside
"Well done, Captain," Hayes said "Get in"
"Your Honor, it isn&039;t safe here," Chapel said, stepping inside the limo He plopped down on a leather seat and wondered why he hadn&039;t thought about sitting down before It felt so good, so good to get off his feet "I, uh-I need to-"
"Relax," Hayes said Reinhard rapped on the partition between theine ru "Relax It&039;s all over, and you did exceedingly well"
Hayes reached inside his jacket and pulled so out
It was a pistol
He shot Chapel twice in the chest
DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, COLORADO: APRIL 14, T+59:17
"Julia," Angel said
"I&039; to understand what you told me It&039;s a lot to take in"
"I know," the operator told her "But so&039;s happened There&039;s no tiht now Chapel-"
Julia&039;s body froze In an instant she felt like a solid block of ice "Is he-?"
"He&039;s in trouble He&039;shi over hi nal I&039; me Or they were"
"What? I don&039;t understand They stopped ja He&039;s in a carnorth Someone just threw his phone and his hands-free set out of the "
"Do you think he&039;sstill alive?"
Chapel had known He&039;d known he alking into a trap A setup He&039;d expected to die here in Denver He&039;d gone anyway Julia had been doing her best not to think about it Now she felt like she ht throw up
"Norh sensors in his artificial ars They could be jael!" Julia interrupted "Just tell me Do you think he&039;s dead?" she forced herself to ask
It was a long tiel answered her
"I don&039;t know," she said, finally
PART FOUR
WASHINGTON, DC: APRIL 14, T+60:04
Rupert Hollingshead had always liked the Jefferson Meton&039;s h from the Mall that the tourist croere always thinner there In spring it was a wonderful place to enjoy the cherry blossoms He&039;d always been a devotee of Jefferson the ood to sit in the midst of all that neoclassical ine what he would have done in a given situation
After today, though, he iined he would feel differently about the place He would remember it as where he&039;d been forced to concede defeat
To for him when he arrived The CIA director looked pleased with himself, of course No matter what kind of horror show this had becolee "He&039;s dead, dead, dead"
"He got three of the four," Hollingshead said, when the two of the overheard "Really, all in all a good show"
"For a cripple, sure," Banks said, with a chuckle "Rupert, old boy, old chushead fuo ahead Say the words," Banks insisted
"Really? Here, and now? Is that proper protocol?"
"Maybe not But for ot to hear it from your lips," Banks insisted
Very well
"I, Rupert Hollingshead, do affirm that as of this moment the CIA should have full jurisdiction over all secret projects resulting froence Agency shall be fully responsible for all further activity, oversight, and secrecy concerning said projects and the Defense Intelligence Agency will have no access to any work product or intelligence product resulting therefrom or associated thereithout the CIA&039;s prior approval and knowledge There Is that enough? Or rinned like a feral cat "I&039;ve been waiting years for this, Rupert This project of yours should never have happened in the first place No sanewas utter stupidity And now I get to clean up after you"
"You don&039;t seeshead observed, "for a iveselse I&039;ve wanted to do for a long ti you out to dry When the president hears about what you did-what you signed off on-he&039;s going to den at the very least He&039;ll be fucking pissed, to be blunt about it And you and your stupid bow ties will never darken ain"
"All of this All of this, because you hate encies don&039;t get along All the deaths, all the misery-"
"Spare me, you old fuck," Banks said He turned on his heel and walked away, then He didn&039;t even bother with the traditional handshake Hollingshead watched hih settled his bulk onto a marble bench where he could look on Jefferson&039;s face Maybe for the last time
He took his cellular phone from his pocket and put it to his ear
"It&039;s done," he said
Angel&039;s voice on the other end sounded downcast Perhaps she&039;d coh hopes for Chapel as well "He just took over? Just like that?"
"Bought Cashead replied "No questions asked He seehost of a sh to make me feel sorry for him He has no idea what he&039;s just inherited"
"Director Hollingshead? I&039;el said
"Give it tishead ended the call
BOULDER, COLORADO: APRIL 14, T+64:54
There&039;s two kinds of people who get to just lie in bed all day, Top said Babies and cripples Babies are cute, so they get aith it Cripples ain&039;t cute
"I can&039;t open my eyes, Top"
You want to be a cripple, that&039;s fine Nobody expects anything fro a drain on everybody else&039;s hard work But that&039;s fine Because you&039;re a war hero, right? You earned the right to do nothin&039; all day but feel sorry for yourself You ood legs You&039;re all depressed You&039;re trauot shot I got shot three ti out loud
Darkness surrounded hi kind of darkness he couldn&039;t understand He desperately needed to go to the bathroom
A man whose body&039;s crippled, sure, people can look at that and pity him They can feel sorry for him A man who&039;s crippled in the head, people can&039;t see that They don&039;t understand it Now you and me, we both know about trauma We both knohat it&039;s like to wake up in the ht and be back there, back in thethe screams We understand that Nobody else ever will They&039;ll see you lyin&039; in this bed, with two perfectly good legs, and they&039;ll say, he&039;s just lazy He&039;s justit Our tax dollars are payin&039; for hi in a pool of so wet Had he soiled himself? The shao back to sleep He wanted to sleep forever He had a feeling that was an attainable goal
Open your damn eyes when I talk to you, boy
"Top," Chapel said, the start of a protest he didn&039;t kno to finish He tried to open his eyes, tried to obey orders It was so hard, though His eyelids felt like they had been ceonna keep yellin&039; at you I&039;ot one ar, and one eye, but I refuse to be a cripple Cripples don&039;t work no ot work to do, and you&039;re it
"I&039;, Top"
I know you are But h My boys-and don&039;t you dare forget you are one of my boys now-my boys only accept victory They only accept one hundred percent success How&039;s those eyes co? They open yet?
It took every ounce of his strength It was like trying to rip a phone book in half But Chapel opened his eyes
He couldn&039;t see ht hurt when it hit the back of his eye sockets It felt like each individual bea into his skull But his eyes were open
So Theydown at him
"Jesus," someone said "He&039;s awake!"
"How the hell is he still alive?" soallon of blood already"
"He can&039;t last h it didn&039;t sound sure
"Get Reinhard If we have to kill him ourselves, Reinhard will kno"
BOULDER, COLORADO: APRIL 14, T+65:12
Chapel was lying on a cement floor in a pool of his own blood It ran down his side, under his legs, and into a drain in the floor He could hear it dripping away He could feel it oozing out of his gunshot wound
His shirt was off He could look down and see the wound, caked in gore He had two smaller wounds in his chest, just tiny pinpricks
His artificial arm had been removed It lay on a table on the far side of the roo the coood ar the wall behind hih that it didn&039;t cut off the circulation to his good hand, but not so loose he could slip out of it He wasn&039;t going anywhere, even if he did feel strong enough to stand up Which he didn&039;t