Page 37 of Cade

“We found it,” said Cade. “Listen, brother, as Franco told you, we think you were injected with a device that could be causing your headaches. I’ve been instructed by one of our chief medics how to take it out. I hope you’ll trust me to do that.”

“If it will take away the headaches, yea, I’ll trust you,” said Brent. Cade nodded at Cass to hand him the kit. He rolled Brent to his side, wiping the area with alcohol. He hissed, and Cade stopped.

“Does that hurt?” he asked.

“It’s just really tender,” said Brent. “My headaches start there and streak across my fucking head. I’m tired of it, brother.”

“I know, man.” Cade ran his fingers over the man’s neck, then found the small spot beneath the skin. Taking the tiny scalpel, he made a slow, deliberate cut, Cassidy wiping the blood as he did. Careful not to hit a vein or artery, he made another shallow cut and saw the tip of the metal device. Grabbing the tweezers, he gently pulled, the tentacles coming with it.

“Are you okay?” asked Cass, staring at the man.

“Yea, it just feels fucking weird, like you’re pulling something stringy from me.”

“It kind of is,” said Cade, tapping his shoulder. He held up the device for the man to see, and his eyes went wide. “Cass is going to put this in a tube, and I’m going to stitch you up. How’s the headache?”

“It’s gone,” said Brent. “I can’t believe it. It’s fucking gone. What the hell is that thing?”

“Stitches first, then we’ll talk.” Cade had certainly stitched up a few men in his day, mostly his own brother, but he’d never done one on the neck, and it made him incredibly nervous. It wasn’t a large cut, needing only four stitches, but it was dangerously close to his carotid, and that just made Cade all the more nervous.

“All done,” said Cade, tapping his shoulder. Brent slowly sat up, touching the spot at his neck, then looking at the device.

“I should have felt that more. When they injected it into me, I should have felt that. It’s much larger than the tip of a traditional needle.”

“Maybe they used a deadening spray,” said Cass. “I mean, sometimes at the clinic back home, they spray the skin before they start to suture or something. Maybe that’s what they did.” Brent frowned, nodding his head.

“It wasn’t a spray, but it was something they wiped on my neck. I smelled the alcohol, but then they wiped again, and it had a different scent to it.”

“Well, it’s out now, but they’re going to wonder why they can’t get you to do what they want. In the Congo, when they ordered you to go for the rebels, what did you do?”

“I wanted to go after them. I remember that, and thinking back, it was fucking suicide. I don’t know why I would have ever thought about doing that. Franco, he had this wild look in his eyes like he was going to go charging after them, and then one of the other men, McDonough, he shook his head several times and said we couldn’t. There were almost two hundred of them and a dozen of us. It would have been suicide.”

“McDonough? He refused?” asked Cass.

“Yea, he was the first. But it was weird. He kept shaking his head, then he turned and rammed the front of his helmet against the wall of the building. I don’t know. It looked like he was hurting, but everything was happening so fast, I can’t be sure.”

“Has anyone tried to call you?” asked Cade.

“Just this doctor from the VA. He said that we were being ordered to come in for treatment to some special clinic on a farm. Gave some bullshit about it being for our mental well-being. I called the hospital yesterday to verify, but no one has returned my call yet.”

“What was the doctor’s name?” asked Cass.

“Greco. I’ve never heard of the guy,” said Brent. Cade stood to his full height, the kit in his hand. He washed his hands at the kitchen sink and looked out the window toward the street. There were no cars out front and nothing parked anywhere nearby.

“We have another man to check on,” said Cade. “You can either stay here hidden or come with us.”

“If you don’t mind, I’ll come with,” said Brent. “I’m starting to freak myself out. No one has come to the house, but I’m going to guess they will if I don’t show up at the VA.”

“It’s not the VA that wants you. It’s this other doctor, and believe me, he’s not part of the military.” Cade looked around the small house. “Get a change of clothes and come with us. Do you have your service weapon?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. You might need it.”

It was a forty-five-minute drive to get to Tolin Cutler’s small home on the border between Washington and Oregon. A lover of horses, he’d bought the small farm from a retired couple who had no children. Despite that he would be deployed on and off, he always hired someone to take care of the horses and watch the farm.

The big wooden gate was wide open as they drove beneath the steel arches welcoming them to the farm. Cass called Tolin before they left Brent’s home. He sounded disoriented but responded to Brent and assured them he would be fine.

“Tolin’s a weird fucker,” said Brent. “Kind of a loner with his horses and all, but that’s not what makes him weird. The dude is obsessed with death.”

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