Chapter 7 - Alive
They did not have to look for him.
He found them.
Three days later, Erin's phone buzzed with a text from an unknown number: "Route 40, mile marker 9, southbound shoulder, 9pm. Come alone."
She went. Miriam followed at a distance in her own car and parked a half mile back.
At 9:11 pm, a gray sedan pulled onto the shoulder in front of Erin's car and a man got out. He was in civilian clothes — a plain jacket and slacks — and he stood in the glare of her headlights and held up both hands.
"You're Walsh's sister," he said.
"I am."
"My name is Thomas Regan. I'm a contractor. I used to work with your brother." He dropped his hands. "He's alive. He's not okay. And I'm risking my life and my pension to tell you that because if I don't, he's going to die in a room somewhere and it's going to be on my hands."
"Where is he?"
"He's at a facility in Maryland. Civilian, private, not on any base." Regan looked at her. "The Air Force doesn't officially know he's there. But the Air Force is paying the bill. Through a contractor. Through a program that doesn't exist on paper."
"Why?"
"Because three years ago your brother saw something he shouldn't have seen." Regan's voice was flat. "He was on a mission in Syria with a joint task force. His team was supposed to extract a high-value detainee. The detainee was killed on-site, and your brother saw who killed him. It was a U.S. contractor, not a hostile. It was an execution, and your brother reported it."
Erin closed her eyes.
"The wrong person saw the report," Regan said. "And your brother was pulled off his post a few weeks later and put into a hole and told that if he ever came back into the world, he would be charged with desertion and his family would be ruined. Then they waited to see if he would die."
"He didn't die."
"No. He's tougher than they thought." Regan shrugged. "And now he's sitting in a room in Maryland with a catheter and a feeding tube and no left hand and no way to call for help. And the only reason I'm here is that someone in the chain got nervous four months ago and called me in to babysit his records. I found a file with a Walsh in it and I recognized the name."
Erin was silent for a long moment.
"Are you going to help me?" she asked.
May you like
Regan hesitated. Then he nodded, once.
"I can get you into the facility," he said. "I cannot get you out. That part is yours."
