Jase felt sick with conflicted anticipation. What the hell was he meant to do now? It was a given that Paige would fail the polygraph. They were by no means an accurate determination of what was true and what was a lie, but a lot could be learned through the right questions.
"What do we do when she fails it?" Sonny echoed Jase's thoughts aloud.
"I'm really banking on her being scared enough to blab. I only need to know when," Jase murmured despondently.
Sonny's walkie emitted a loud crackle. He immediately adjusted the volume and received Perry's message dejectedly. Jase took advantage of Sonny's distracted conversation and stared hard at a large wooden box for too long. How many had been stuffed into there before?
"Perry about the tapes," Sonny tapped the walkie by way of explanation and returned to Jase. "And if Paige doesn't spill? What then?"
"Then Sonny we are fucked. It will be out of our control. The CIA will take over, take al-Raheem, and take Paige. Then you and I will go home, you'll debrief, have some down time and pray the next mission is just kill or be killed," Jase had never felt so troubled by an assignment in his life. Despite suspecting her, and needing to interrogate her, he still desperately wanted to protect Paige. He was the least of all evils to her at the moment, not that she had any concept of that.
The door to the small windowless shack rattled with a hard knock. Sonny paced towards the entrance, prizing the door open with a scream of resistance from the rusted hinges. Ant's features were hard and grim, he said nothing as Sonny wordlessly stepped aside.
"It's a little late for negotiation," Jase shook off his anguished expression and stood impassively.
"Do the CIA know you're questioning her?" Ant asked, his harsh ego dissolved by worry.
"They know we're speaking with her, yes," Jase responded honestly. It only made sense to catch up with Paige and see if she could provide them with any intel.
"Did they give you permission to use the polygraph?"
"I don't need permission to conduct a polygraph test, Ant. Let me remind you that I could have her next to al-Raheem if that's how I wanted to play it," Jase resisted the urge to jab a finger in the air towards his British counterpart.
"I don't want to play at all, this is her life," Ant stated slowly and deliberately, tension running through his body.
"If she doesn't want to play games, teach her not to tell lies," Sonny interjected.
"Why do the CIA not know?" Ant pressed, banking everything on this current vein of information.
"I told you, they know we're talking to her," Jase bit back.
"You haven't told them everything. Why?" Ant insisted, his tone intensifying.
"You don't-"
"Why?" Ant growled.
"That's it-" Sonny shoved Ant's shoulder to muscle him out the door. Ant resisted, throwing all his weight back at the Southerner.
"You know why, Jase!" Ant yelled. "You know whatever she might have seen is dangerous. You know she's in trouble if you send this higher up!" He stopped resisting, and allowed Sonny to shunt him through the doorway.
Jase kicked a bucket and sent it flying to the other side of the small building, rolling to a halt against a wall.
"Do you realise what we're contemplating here," Sonny rubbed his forehead with a meaty palm, sweat licking the back of his head from the scuffle. He'd known Jase for nearly ten years, they were like brothers. He knew this predicament would be tearing his friend apart.
"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.
"No, no," Jase breathed throatily. "So the last two files; eight and nine, they haven't been sent yet?" Jase wanted to laugh now the panic was subsiding.
"Well two haven't gone yet, bu-" Perry stalled as Jase rose ceremoniously and shook his head with utter relief. "...But eight and nine went."
"What?" Jase slowly turned around, facing Perry's anxious figure.
"Well they... they go in reverse order Master Chief. They always have the most recent recordings first, and review the oldest last..." Perry trailed off as he watched his leader's expression turn to dread.
For a millisecond Jase couldn't think, every cognitive thought left his head. And then, with the resolute decision making of an elite soldier, he knew exactly what he had to do.
*
"So this is out of our hands now," Sonny grimaced in the glinting sunrise. He'd only had a quick cat nap on a hard floor, Jase had had no sleep whatsoever. He wondered for a moment if Paige had managed to get any rest, and then realised it didn't really matter anymore.
"No," Jase bit his lip and shook his head, hands on his hips with tensed arms. He was the figure of a man who wouldn't give up. He'd taken the step of reaching out to his commander before they could review all the footage. The only possible way to keep Paige in their custody would be for Jase himself to be free from all scrutiny, if he appeared to be hiding something he was sure to invite intrigue.
"What do you mean... how?"
"They don't have the resources to send anyone to us within the next couple of days. As of now Paige is our prisoner," Jase cast his eyes to the dirt.
"Prisoner..."
"They know now that she's been exposed to this. The only way to get a handle on it is to interrogate her ourselves, and do it well enough to stop them coming for her any more. They want it recorded, and sent back. They gave me the green light for every tactic," Jase smirked in disgust.
"And her guys- the SAS, they won't just-"
"They'll be issued with a notice to stand down. She's now a threat to national security. They can't put up a fight, even though they'll want to. We have to take her into our custody. This is the safest way for her," Jase reassured his comrade emotionlessly, trying to reassure himself.
*
There was a horrible fizzy blocked sensation in my nose, no doubt the beginnings of a cold from spending what must have been a day in this one room. I began to itch at the edges of the bandages on my left wrist, before Rob stretched a hand across the table and placed it on top of mine in silent command. I sat straight, stretching my back and wearily judging the time from the new day's light outside. Rob was still laying the top half of his body across the table, attempting to rest after a night mostly spent pacing up and down the small room.
I had wrestled in my mind for a way to resolve the mess I was now in... but there was nothing. My one hope was to plead with Jase to let me go, I had to make him understand I posed no danger to anyone; I'd never breathe the words aloud, let alone tell another soul. I nearly made myself laugh with my own naïve optimism. They didn't care whether or not I promised not to say anything, only that I could say something. Doing a polygraph was... ridiculous. It wouldn't prove anything that Jase didn't already know, it was just to formalise the process. I had to beg him, and pray he took pity.
A sudden glare of sunlight filled the room as the door swung open, Sonny's bulky frame commanding attention.
"Rob, a word?" He issued curtly. Rob frowned and lazily rose from the chair, looking down to me for a moment with a raised brow before following Sonny out of the building. A muffled yell had me reach for the door.
Rob was held back by one of the DEVGRU team, Sonny standing firm in front of him. Across the courtyard Ant prowled beside Jase, both of their expressions grim.
"Rob- enough!" Ant bellowed and Rob instantly followed the command of his captain, shrinking his body back.
"You know what they-" Rob started off with a yell before the conversation evaporated in the air out of earshot. I began to make my way across the dirt to them, knowing there was likely to only be one topic they were arguing about. I'd barely taken three steps before two of Jase's men blocked my path.
"Wait inside, please," one said, avoiding eye contact. I didn't even know their names. I knew all of the SAS team, but most of the Americans never bothered to engage. There were a couple I knew only because I'd overhead others calling them, but these two were relative strangers to me. The impromptu blockade stayed menacingly still, and with a juddering in my chest I reluctantly made my feet move my body back to the cell block.
What the hell was going on? The two Americans followed and stood outside the door. I was being guarded. Had al-Raheem escaped? Bile churned in my stomach at the thought, though I knew, I knew it wasn't anything to do with him. Without warning the door crashed open and Ant stormed through, closely accompanied by Sonny and their medic- Matt, maybe? Something was wrong.
"What's going on?" I looked nervously at the men, willing my hands not to tremble and wondering which one would deliver the news. Whatever it was, it apparently held my fate. None of them spoke; they were clearly consumed with all the words they could use to form their sentences, but just couldn't select the right ones.
"Are they going t- are you going to kill me?" I shook slightly as I spoke, my voice hoarse. I looked at Sonny, and for a moment it seemed he was going to avoid eye contact until his pupils locked on to mine.
"I have to detain you, as a threat to US national security and a person of interest in a leak of sensitive information," Sonny stated blankly, his mouth in a hard determined grimace. I started to feel the room swirl around me as Ant stepped forward, clamping his hand on my arm in much the same way he had done out of frustration before.
"Paige, listen to me. It's going to be okay. They're not going to kill you, this is just... the process. I'm not going anywhere, ok? I'm going to be right here," Ant's fiercely blue eyes pierced into my own, but nothing he said made anything better. His words had been chosen carefully, I knew that. They're not going to kill you. That was the best he could promise. They wouldn't kill me, but there was a whole lot of territory left unspoken there.
"I have to ask you to come with us," Sonny insisted, pressing a boot forward. Ant turned as though he might collide a fist into his face and then his fingers dropped from my skin, the imprint still warm on my flesh. I watched as he stepped back, it felt like my mind was floating upwards looking down at the sorry state of affairs.
I was aware I'd obediently started walking behind Sonny, but it didn't feel like me. I was aware streams of the scorching morning sun were on me, but I couldn't feel it. The numbness returned again as I succumbed to my fate and traipsed towards another of the cell block's doors, not daring to wonder what would lay behind.