Game of Dust and Ashes (Book Two in the Covert Operations series)

Twenty-Four

CIA Secure Location, New York, February 7, 2021, 7:01 A.M.

They don't tell you how hard hospital chairs are. I guess it made sense. With how much money it takes to run a hospital, it wasn't entirely surprising that nice chairs weren't at the top of the list in budget meetings. Still, my back would have appreciated a more comfortable seat considering how long I'd been sitting by Cedric's bedside.

He'd been out of surgery for three hours but they said it would still be a while before he woke up.

The injuries had been bad. Worse than bad. But he was alive. That was all that mattered I told myself as I got up for a walk. The little hospital unit didn't have a cafeteria but someone had wheeled downed a coffee cart for us that was nearly as good.

I was standing in the hallway outside of Cedric's room sipping from a cup of stale, burnt coffee when Dai approached.

"Hey," he said.

"Hi. Finished with your debrief?"

"Yes. All of us are. I just spoke with Stefan and the rest of our team. They're holding up at an apartment a few blocks away for now until we can get home."

"Glad to hear it."

Dai looked towards Cedric, lying prone on the hospital bed with wires connecting him to monitors. He looked half-dead. "How's he doing?"

"Stable for now. Which is more than any of us thought he was going to be so it's a win I guess.

"Permanent damage?"

"To his spine. They don't think that he'll ever walk again."

Dai swore. "At least we got the bastard that did it. All of them. It wasn't in vain."

"I really appreciate you taking point when I needed you to. And for handling all of this interdepartmental bullshit with extraditions and charges and everything.

He turned to look me square in the face and dropped his voice so low that there was no chance anyone else could hear. "My pleasure...Briar."

Shit, I thought. "You know."

"I heard your friend call you by your real name. It wasn't hard to piece it together from there. Does he know?" Dai jerked his chin towards Cedric's prone form in the room beyond.

"Yes. He and Helena both do. But that's it."

"I figure it's something you don't want spread around too much, Collins."

And just like that, I knew that Dai had committed to keeping this secret. One day, I hoped to be able to go back to Melanie Briar. If she still existed by then.

But for now...I was Jessie Collins. Agent of the Global Centre for Covert Operations.

"Thank you," I said, and meant it.

Dai smiled at me. "You're welcome. I've been talking with Helena about arranging transport back home. You joining us?"

"I've got some things to tidy up here first."

Including a short trip to Virginia. Not a long one but enough time for me to spend a week with my brother. Trying to make up for the time that we had lost.

"Okay. Now that we know more about Cedric's condition, we should hopefully be able to arrange for transport for him as well to Switzerland. I'll coordinate with the doctors here and our physicians to see what they recommend."