Page 29 of Cade

“Yes, sir,” said Cade. He looked up at the big man, shaking his head.

“What the hell happened to you?” he smirked.

“He likes cookies,” smiled Cassidy. The older man laughed, nodding his head.

“I like a good peanut butter cookie myself every now and then. Too much of a good thing makes a man fat and lazy, or at least that’s what my wife says.” He looked at each of them, giving a curt nod. “Good luck to you all, and thank you for what you’re doing.”

Armed with their scan and the toxicology report, they convinced Miretti to stay with them and headed back into Seattle. The entire way, in the dim light of the car, Ashley and Bree continued to review the toxicology study. Beyond the metal and mercury, there were trace amounts of scopolamine.

“The devil’s breath,” whispered Doc. “It’s often given to people, and they wake up never remembering that they’d killed someone or robbed a bank. I read an article once about a woman that withdrew her entire life savings and gave it to someone and remembered none of it.”

“That explains my memory lapses,” said Miretti. “I felt like I lost entire days, and I guess I did.”

It was early morning by the time they got settled back in their hotel rooms. Exhausted but desperate for answers, they circled the table to review the disc that contained the information on the scan.

Each person took a section of the body, reviewing it with a fine-tooth comb. Cassidy wasn’t sure of what she was looking for, but she knew the difference between bone and muscle. Everything else would be questioned. She was reviewing the right side of the body and got no further than the shoulder.

“Did he have surgery or an injury to his right shoulder?” she asked.

“No,” said Miretti, shaking his head. “Not that I’m aware of.”

“Look,” she said to Doc and the others. “There’s something there, right above his clavicle.” Doc looked at the scan, enhancing the image to make it larger.

“There,” he said, pointing to the tiny object, “there are wires leading from it. They’re thin, but they’re there.”

“They put something in us?” asked Miretti.

“I don’t know. I wish we had McDonough’s body, and we could find out. We need to do a scan on you, or at the very least, let one of us look at your body to see if we can find any new scars.” Miretti nodded, then looked down at his legs.

“My thigh,” he said quietly. “I have these intense pains in my thigh, and, well, I’m embarrassed to say this, but twice I’ve pissed my pants.”

“What the fuck?” frowned Doc. “In the other room, let’s go.” Miretti followed the big man into the room, lowering his jeans to the floor. He stood completely still as Doc sat in front of him.

“So, how long have you been with RP?” asked Miretti.

“A while. I was a Steel Patriot first, but we realized that pooling our resources was smart.” He pressed on a thin white line on his thigh, and Miretti hissed.

“Fuck, that hurts,” he frowned.

“I need to cut that open. There’s something under there,” he said. Miretti nodded as Doc instructed him to lie back on the bed. He called Cade in to hold him down since he didn’t have any anesthesia with him.

“I won’t move,” he said.

“You may not have a choice. Let me do this for Doc,” said Cade. Miretti looked up at him and grinned.

“No offense, sir, but I don’t think I could move you if I tried.”

Doc took the scalpel from his small medical kit and opened the skin superficially first. When he didn’t see anything, he cut into the fat and then had to go deeper into the muscle. To Miretti’s credit, he didn’t move but hissed and let a few expletives fly.

“I see it,” said Doc. Cade looked over and frowned.

“What in the fucking hell is that?”

“I’m not sure, but it looks exactly like what was in Gardner. It’s very small, and it’s got tiny wires feeding into your muscles.” Doc pulled the incision open further. “I’m sorry, brother, this is gonna hurt.”

Digging into his muscle, he gently grabbed the tiny round metal disc and tugged. The tentacles seemed embedded into the muscles, and he had to pull harder than he thought. As it finally emerged, he knew why. Small, round anchors were at the ends of the wires, holding it in place in the leg.

“Fuck! I won’t lie. That hurt like a bitch,” said Miretti, his upper lip sweating.

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