Page 66 of Skin In the Game (The BlackWater)

When she got back to the Incident Room Becky and Douglas both asked what had taken so long and she muttered about there not being any coffee and needing to go find some fresh beans but it felt like a shit lie and it felt like they weren’t convinced. Fucking Cole, she thought, it was alright for him, he could do what he liked but she didn’t want everyone knowing she was fucking him, that she was fucking the boss or rather the boss was fucking her.

She caught Brandon’s eye and he was smirking and she looked away quickly, knowing then that he knew. Of course he knew, she thought and she gritted her teeth.

“Anything happen while I was gone?” She asked.

“Didn’t miss a thing.” Douglas said.

They waited another hour and then suddenly there was movement. There was action. Brandon gave the order and Maddie leaned further over the bar watching, seeing the action and half wishing she was there.

This was the one thing she didn’t like about BlackWater, it felt like she’d never get her hands dirty, that because they had dedicated teams, highly trained specialised field teams the likelihood of her ever being out in the action like this was minimal. And that thought annoyed her because she liked the action, she liked the drama of it, the intensity, the adrenaline when it was rushing through you and all you had between you and disaster was the control over yourself, over your reactions.

She didn’t notice when Cole had walked in but she felt his eyes on her, or more particular her arse as he stood beside Brandon and she shot him a filthy look that made him smirk.

“Alpha Team approaching target site.” The voice came over the radio and Maddie wondered suddenly if this was how it had been back at the warehouse when they’d all been monitoring it. Had they all watched as she walked right on in?

She glanced at one of the side feeds seeing the lead agent as he approached the door. He crouched down and placed a small explosive on the lock before they all stood back as it detonated.

“GO GO GO.” Someone said on the radio and then they all filed in, she saw them clearing the first room, then the second, logically, methodically, just like she would have done she realised when she was back in Blackops. It made her shiver, the weird memory, the weird Deja Vu of it. Every room was empty, cold with just the concrete walls and floor staring back at them.

She glanced at the side feed again and frowned. The man had walked into a larger room, more like a bunker right at the back and there was something there, all over the walls. She screwed her face trying to make it out.

“What the fuck?” Becky gasped next to her and she looked at her because obviously she’d seen it and could tell what it was.

“What is it?” She asked.

“Look.” She said nodding her head to the big screen and Maddie felt her eyes widen.

It was her. Maddie. All over the walls. Pictures of her, cut outs. Pictures from her army days. One from when she’d been on patrol in Afghan. One of her exercising on base at Basra. One of her out running in London from only months ago. One of her sleeping in her apartment that she knew Grant must have taken. Ones of her in China too. She swallowed and stepped back slightly. She could feel herself shaking and mentally she calmed herself, changed her headspace, switched down the shield. The camera continued to spin around slowly. There were duplicates she realised but there were also countless of individual photos.

She saw one and it made her breath catch in her throat. They had it, one from the cave, from the Ali case. Someone had taken a picture of it. Of that moment. No one else would know what it meant, what it was showing but she knew, she could see it, could see herself and exactly what was happening.

“What the fuck is this?” She said. She could feel everyone glancing at her then and she clenched her fists wanting to punch something, wanting to truly lash out.

A muffle came over the radio and then it cut out before coming back on. One of the team below them started fiddling with the system but then a high pitched noise echoed and they all were forced to cover their ears.

Maddie looked up staring at the screen and saw the flash that lit up on all the cameras and the Incident Room as well and then the feed went dead. The videos showed nothing but snowflakes.

The team below reacted instantly, switching the feeds, switching the cameras and then they saw it, the one feed still working now on the big screen. The building was gone, collapsed, they’d blown the whole thing up.

“Get Recovery in their now, and bomb disposal.” Brandon yelled as they all stared at the screen.

“What the hell is going on?” Becky muttered and Maddie shook her head.

“It was a trap.” Maddie said. “The whole thing. It was a set up.”

She met Brandon’s eyes as he and Cole both looked at her. She didn’t want to look at Cole in that moment, she didn’t want to see his face because she was afraid of how he’d react.

“But how could they have done it? That intel…” Becky replied.

“I’d place my life on it being planted. They wanted us to go there to see that.” Brandon said.

“Why?” Becky asked.

“To waste our time.” He replied.

“Not just to waste our time.” Maddie said leaning back over the barrier again looking at the destruction. “They wanted me to see it, to know.” She muttered before she could stop herself.

“Know what?” Cole asked.

She gritted her teeth and shook her head slightly. She wasn’t going to answer that, no way was she going to tell them what she thought because no matter how much she trusted them, how much of a team they were she didn’t want to bear every secret, every god damn skeleton, every moment of what she had managed to bury for so long.

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