Time Sensitive Target

Part 22 - Unintentional Threat

"Sonny, please," Jase pleaded. 

"You have to make the call Jase, the window's closing. They'll be coming for al-Raheem soon, and if they get him into their custody she's as good as dead," Sonny warned flatly, knowing Jase knew this all already, knowing this was so beyond the scope of their duty. 

"So we kill him," Jase stared at the blood stained concrete. 

"We'd have to make it look like he did it himself," mused Sonny. Jase shook his head in response. 

"No, that's too messy. I'll do it, it'll be exaggerated force- unintentional death, then they can come for me." 

"Jase, you-" 

"I'm done Sonny, I was done in Mogadishu, you know that. I don't want this anymore," Jase gazed at his surroundings; no windows, a large box, shackles on the ceiling and the floor, a bucket... If he never saw another room like this again he'd consider himself a happy man. 

"That's it... really? You're out?" 

"'For Something Greater!' Sonny! That's what we tell ourselves. It's all for something greater. If we were talking about an attack, something Paige was withholding that would save lives... I'd do it. I'd do whatever it took to break her. But this. We've never said it out loud but we both know  what we're talking about here. It's only a threat to national security because they made it so, I won't underestimate the lengths they'll go to to seal this thing up," Jase had no idea what to do with the ball of rage in his stomach. He wanted to kill, he wanted to hurt somebody. But who was there to direct his anger at? None of the people responsible for their entire predicament were present. They were sitting behind mahogany desks clapping each other on the back. 

"It's a conspiracy," Sonny started, half trying to convince himself and half announcing it the way it would be spun.

"Is it?"

Sonny knew little could be done to help Jase in his current state of conflicted emotions. He desperately wanted to know what the right thing to do was, but it was far more complex than that. 

"I'll give you some time," he said hoarsely, taking one glance back at his friend's vacant expression before he left Jase alone.

Jase leaned back against a filthy wall for a moment, breathing in the stagnant air with a faint smell of death. He was done. The last thing he could do was to at least ensure Paige's safety, from his own country. Jase's heart skipped a beat as he froze in paralysed fear for a fraction of a second. His own country... the tapes of al-Raheem... Perry. 

Jase hurtled out of the shack and bolted to the living room his team had commandeered. Perry was studiously glaring at the screen of his laptop, his hand briefly tapping the mousepad. 

"Perry," Jase barked, frowning with irritation as the others looked up in alarm. "Out, everyone- now!" He ordered, holding his breath until they were all safely out of the room and out of earshot. 

"Is everything o-" Perry began.

"How many files have you sent back?" 

"I'm almost done I-" 

"How many files? We had nine, how many have been sent?" Jase growled impatiently.

"S-seven," Perry stammered. Jase sighed heavily with relief, resting his hands against a chair and leaning the weight of his body into it. "Did I do something..." Perry was cautiously confused, still rattled with the insecurity of being the newest member to the team. He was meant to send the recordings of the interrogation back, so surely he hadn't done anything wrong.