"Valentine, you're like a bad twenty that keeps showing up in my till", Thunderbird said. "Handley said you were here, but I had to see it for myself. You've done yourself in this time".
"Tell me something, Colonel. How did my father get all this started?"
"You've got more important worries".
Valentine found the courage to beg. "Please".
He clucked his tongue. "Oh, it wasn't here, not in Pacific Command. Kubishev told me about it, actually, never gave me any details. Don't know that you'll get the opportunity to look him up".
"Going to shoot me with the rest of the folks you're murdering?" "God bless 'em, every one", Thunderbird said. "We'll pick this up
in a few hours, Valentine. You'll be traveling, a lot farther than a trip
to the nearest brick wall".
* * *
They threw him in a truck with a hood over his head, chained hand and foot and nudged by what felt like a shotgun barrel every time he rolled too far away from the side of the bay. But he could still hear. There were babies crying all around.
They traveled at a good speed for what he guessed was a little over two hours. To occupy his mind, he counted minutes and scored them off into hours. Routine soaked up fear like a sponge.
Then they parked and quiet women's voices talked as the babies were passed out of the truck, soothing and cooing over the "poor little things". He was the last to leave.
They kept him blindfolded as someone, a woman by the smell of her, fed him, stripped him out of his uniform, and gave him a quick sponge bath. They let him use the toilet. Then they sat him in a room with a ticking fan, hands and legs cuffed to brackets in an electric-chair-like frame. Valentine kept waiting for them to wire his genitals or fillings, but the silent workers left him alone.
Finally he heard someone enter. "Major Valentine?" a precisely clipped voice asked.
"Yes".
"Do you know my voice?"
"Can't say that I do".
"I'm Adler".
"Now I see why I'm tied down", Valentine said.
"Why's that?"
"So I don't go for your throat".
Adler chuckled. "Three experienced Bears with me".
"Okay, I can't kill you. Are you going to kill me?" Valentine wanted it out in the open, to know.
"Me? No. Another? Quite likely. Unless".
"Unless?"
"You see reason".
"I can't see much in this mask", Valentine said, trying to work it off with his jaw muscles and his cheeks.
"I don't want you to identify this place to the Kurians. We're turning you over to them".
Valentine felt his pulse quicken. "What does 'seeing reason' involve?"
"Forgetting all this ever happened. Rejoining Delta Group. I'll put you in a position where you can fight the good fight. As you see it. You'll hardly even know the Action Groups exist. You can fight the old-fashioned way, the useless way, wading into the enemy with banner unfurled. I have need of skilled officers who can keep the Kurian forces busy. You might be of use with the Big Mouths. They've been destructive as they've grown in familiarity with the waterways around Seattle".