Ashes in the Darkness

Respite

Eventually he breathed in deeply, and braced himself on the balcony railing, "I am sorry about your co-pilot. It was out of my hands," he said, rubbing the side of his beard with the palm on one of his hands.

I licked my lips and braced on the balcony along with him, I didn't want to think about Jackie right now. She was one of those thoughts I was having, things I wish I could have said or done differently. "She made her choice."

"She was unharmed when we found her," Price said, and I felt a small weight on my shoulders get lifted. "She will go to trial for treason and imprisoned from there."

I nodded and stuck my lips out in an attempt to not let my emotions get the better of me, but instead of sadness I felt only regret. If I had just had one more chance to speak to her, how things would have ended so differently for her. "Is there any chance that I might get to speak to her after all of this?"

"You both were involved with an on-going investigation into a high-profile POW's disappearance," my thoughts flash with the image of Alex Keller, "so it highly likely you'll be seeing each other again."

I huff and remind myself that this missile wasn't the end of my story with Task Force 141, I had a prisoner to find and Russian ultranationalist to put into the ground. "I don't really know what I would say to her at this point, but I know she was only on Graves' side because she didn't know better," I confess.

"Can you prove that in court?" Price asked with a slight twinge of gravel in his voice. I shake my head. "Then I would suggest not saying that at all."

Silence fills the air between us again, and the moon drifts further across the sky before Price opens his mouth once more, "I was unhappy with you becoming a part of this team, I was convinced that you would fail the moment you walked through that glass door with Laswell months ago."

His confession does not surprise me, nor does it unsettle me. I was still here, wasn't I? I had the dog tags around my neck that proved I was an operator for this team. If Price wanted me gone, I would be in an orange jump suit and handcuffs by now. I chose not to look at him, instead opting to lift my eyes upward towards the sky, the moon outshining all but the brightest stars.

"Then Laswell told me something that I thought was impossible," he said. My mind when haywire trying to think about all the things that Laswell could have possibly said about me that weren't possible. "By fate and by fate alone we had found the helicopter pilot that had saved Alex's life before he went missing..." There was that word again, fate. Fate that seemed to make the most unrealistic coincidences oxygen to breath.

"Alex was a good man, good soldier, a freedom fighter," Price said but his eyes were elsewhere, reminding me of my own father when he told his older war stories of his time in the marines. "Fought with a liberation army in Urzikstan, breaking American foreign policy rules. He believed in what he was doing."

"I'm sure he would have made a great member of task force 141," I say nodding. I wish I could have met Alex. I was sure he would have made a better addition than myself into this team.

"We thought he died in 2019, four years later he pops up in some chatter with Russian POW'S right before we find the last person to see him alive..." a soft chuckle left his mouth like he couldn't believe what he was say. "God really does have a sense of humor, doesn't he?"

"I've been contemplating the same," I say with a bit of sarcasm in my voice, "destiny doesn't seem real until its staring directly in the face."

Price nodded, finally looking me in the eyes. Searching. Searching for that little bit of doubt in my eyes. "I'm sorry I almost killed you in that helicopter," the words come out of me unexpectedly. His eyebrows furrow together, confusion skipping across his eyes like candlelight in the darkness.