12 Minutes (#2 in Military series)

Chapter 38

She wanted to argue but after she thought about it for a moment she realised that everything else about this was unconventional so why not this as well? It would hardly be the worst thing that had happened. "Very well," MacAndrew nodded, "I came to tell you two things, the first being that MI5 has dropped its investigation into you."

"They didn't have anything anyway," Carlos told her defensively to which she simply arched an eyebrow.

"I am not going to disclose the information we have but we know that you were involved in a special joint task force under Ridgeway's command which, let's say, bypassed a lot of red tape where targets and missions were concerned."

"You were in black ops?" Twitch gasped, his eyes lighting up, "I knew it!"

"Not exactly," Carlos held his hand out to Twitch, stopping his train of thought before it got out of control.

"Anyway I just came to tell you that and. . ."MacAndrew stopped and took a deep breath as she leaned back on the heel of her boot. It was harder to break the rules than she thought it would be. If she carried on speaking then she would be committing treason but as she looked out of the corner of her eye at Marc she knew that something had to be done. Maybe this was it, the spark that ignited the fire which would eventually bring Ridgeway to justice. And if it wasn't then at least she could live with herself knowing she hadn't helped cover it up.

"And?" Carlos frowned.

"Okay," She collected herself, "The other thing I wanted to warn you about is that you weren't the only ones under Ridgeway's command- or at least you aren't any longer."

"What do you mean?" Carlos took a step closer.

"He's got the green light to set up another joint task force. The team he was with the other week are the potential new members. Muhammad Abbas was the trial run."

"But he can't!" Carlos exclaimed as he looked at Jules in shock, "Evans and Jackson they-" He shouted "Ridgeway should be put on trial for their deaths! He called in the air strike!"

"That may be but after recent events he has the Prime Minister's and the President's blessing. He'll have access to more funds and resources making him ten times more dangerous," Samantha sighed.

Jules blinked slowly as she tried to let everything she was telling her sink in, "He'll be untouchable." She really had sold her soul to the devil.

"We can't let this happen," Twitch reached for his crutch and struggled to his feet, "How do we stop him?"

"We don't," Samantha told him.

"What?"

"He's already on a plane back to America," Samantha waved her arm out to the side, "And none of you are even supposed to know about this. I told you because I thought you ought to know and because I probably owed you but that is as far as it goes. If they found out I told you I would lose my job or worse. Now, my advice would be to get as far away from Ridgeway as possible."

"Easy for you to say," Jules scoffed softly, running the pad of her thumb over the back of Marc's hand.

"I should go," Samantha licked her lips, "I doubt we'll meet again so I hope everything works out."

"Yeah, thanks," Twitch muttered because his manners were far too ingrained in him not to but he wasn't sure what he was thanking her for. It probably would have been better if she hadn't told them about Ridgeway. There was some truth in the phrase 'ignorance is bliss'. Carlos was stood with one hand on his hip and the other over his mouth and Twitch could almost see the gears working in his head. Jules just continued to stare at Marc's face and the way his eyes flickered beneath his eyelids. Twitch had seen and felt the love that both of them shared for each other so he could not imagine the pain she was going through so the best he could do was be there for her and Marc.