Tanks For the Memories
It’s hard to hate someone when you don’t even remember why it was that you hated them.
Even now, Faye Gentry wasn’t sure she hated anyone. She thought of them as the Others but even so, she wasn’t sure they even existed. It was just that ... it was just that she had a feeling they did.
A feeling wasn’t much to go on, she told herself, but in her case, it was about all she had.
Faye sighed as she shut down her computer. She liked her job and she wanted to come back here again tomorrow, but she had the feeling that this wasn’t the first job she’d had. She just couldn’t remember what the other ones might have been.
But you couldn’t spend your time worrying about what might happen. It was just that she didn’t want to lose this job. She liked this job and she wanted to keep it.
The building was nearly dark as Faye made her way out. Most everyone had gone home, she noted. It was just the die hards like her that were still left around.
She’d pick up a few things on the way home. Milk, eggs, and oh crap, she needed more tomatoes, and oh yeah, some mushrooms, and maybe a little chocolate. Not too much, she told herself. After all, a girl had to watch her figure, but sometimes chocolate was a nice, little treat.
She pulled her car into the store’s parking lot and she hopped on out. She’d only be a minute, she told herself even as she grabbed a basket. No need for a cart when all you needed was a few items.
By the time she left the store, she saw a Black man standing beside her car. He was a big man, but he wasn’t a fat man or at least his body didn’t look as if it had any fat at all.
He was a big man and he was standing beside her car. No, not standing beside it, she told herself. He was leaning against her car, and he wasn’t just leaning against it, he was waiting for someone and Faye had the distinct impression that he was waiting for her.
Faye couldn’t help herself. She pulled up short and she looked at the man and he looked back at her. She didn’t know the man. She was sure of that and the parking lot was dark. Should she go back inside, she wondered. That would be the prudent thing and yet, she didn’t want to go inside. All she really wanted was to go home.
She approached the man slowly. “That’s my car,” she told him.
“I know.”
She’d hoped maybe he’d move away but it seemed as if he wasn’t willing to give her an inch. “I need to get in,” she said.
“I know that, too.”
“Are you going to let me get in?” she asked.
“I suppose that’s all up to you,” the man said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means what happens next is up to you.”
“I just want to get in my car and drive home, okay?”
“It’s okay with me,” and with that, the man pulled himself up off of her car.
Faye watched the man warily as she edged closer to her car. She already had her keys in her hand but she realized it really wasn’t worth a damned thing. Sooner or later, she was going to have to turn her back on the man and when she did, she knew she’d be vulnerable.
“Are you going to let me get in my car?” she asked as she stepped closer.
“Of course.”
Faye still wasn’t sure she trusted the man but what was she going to do. She pressed the button that would open the car’s door locks.
Still the man did nothing and she edged closer and that’s when she realized she was going to ave to switch the hands that held the groceries. She looked at the man. Should she trust him, she wondered. Maybe she should go back inside.
But she already knew she wasn’t going to do that. She already knew she wasn’t going to go back inside. Her hand opened the door latch, and ...
“Lieutenant.”
Faye couldn’t help but squawk at that. “What’d you call me?” she asked.
“I called you lieutenant.”
“That’s what I thought you said. Listen, I think you’ve got me confused with someone else.”
The man shook his head. “No confusion here,” he said.
Faye laughed somewhat nervously. She was sure the man was wrong. “Look, I’m just going to go, okay?”
The man nodded and Faye opened her car door and she put her groceries inside the car and that’s when she turned back towards the man. “Listen,” she said. “I hope you don’t take this wrong, but you know you’re just a little bit scary, you know.”
The man said nothing and Faye sighed.
“Okay, well, I just thought you should know,” she said.
Still, the man said nothing and Faye couldn’t help but sigh again. She’d tried to be helpful.
“I’m just going to get in my car,” she said. “I’m just going to get in my car and drive away, okay?”
Still, the man said nothing.
Faye gritted her teeth. She hated it when he said nothing. If at least he said something, at least then she’d know if she was getting through to him.
“Okay then, good bye.”
She turned around but she didn’t even have time to get in the car. Something hit her. Not a painful something. Not hit her like in a blow, but just something and the last thought she had, the only thought she had in fact, was that she was passing out.
When she came to, it was with a start.
She was in a room, but not a bedroom. It looked more like a ... like a barracks or something, and the more she looked around, the more it looked like that was exactly what it was. She was in a barracks but apparently, the bed she’d been occupying was the only one in use. In fact, there wasn’t any other person besides her in the barracks.
Even if she didn’t know where she was, she was still clothed at least. That had to count for something.
The guy outside the mini-mart. It had to be him. He’d done this to her. He’d knocked her out and he’d brought her here, but why?
Well, wherever here was, it didn’t really matter. She was going to get herself out as fast as she possibly could.
She could see a door at the end of the row of beds. That was where she was going. She raced to the door and she gave it a tug.
She halfway expected it to be locked. Maybe that was why it flew open as hard as it did but when it did, she found herself staring into a large room. There were tables in this room. There were lots of tables and seated at one of these tables were three men and standing off to the side was the same Black man that she’d met in the parking lot. All of the men were dressed in paramilitary garb.
“Glad to see you’re up, Lieutenant,” said one of the men at the tables.
Faye shook her head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said. “I’m not a lieutenant. I’m not anything at all. My name’s Faye. Faye Gentry.”
“One of the other men looked at the one who’d spoken. “You’re sure of this?” the man asked.
“I’m sure,” said the first man. “She just doesn’t know who she is ... yet.”
“Look,” Faye said. “I don’t know who you guys are, but really, you guys have the wrong girl. I’m not this lieutenant person you’re looking for. I’ve never even been in the military.”
“You don’t remember being in the military,” the first man said. “There is a difference.”
“I think I would remember that,” Faye said but even as she said it, she had to ask herself if that was true. There was the Others. What if they ...
No, she was sure. She would have remembered that. She would have remembered if she’d been in the military. They would have had to have taken too much from her. They couldn’t make her forget everything ... could they?
Or could they?
Hell, there were some people who didn’t even believe in the Others. Those people looked at people like her and those people called her crazy, but she wasn’t crazy. She knew what she was talking about. There were web sites out there, web sites that talked about the Others. They never lasted for long and then someone took them down, but they were out there if you knew where to look.
But as bad as the Others were, they couldn’t wipe out whole sections of a person’s life ... could they?
“I see you’re confused,” the man said.
Faye nodded.
“Would you like me to prove it to you? Would you like me to show you what you are?”
Did she, Faye wondered. She thought about her job. She liked her job. She didn’t want to leave it, but if they showed her something, something that made her have to leave it ...
But if she didn’t see what they had to show her, how would she know if she really knew the truth. What if she really was this lieutenant person that they were looking for? If she was, shouldn’t she want to know?
In the end, that was what decided it for her. She wasn’t this lieutenant person. She knew that but she’d let them show her their evidence and then when she discovered something that showed she wasn’t what they claimed her to be, then she’d point that out to them and they’d realize they’d made a mistake. Or maybe she wouldn’t point that out to them? Maybe they’d hurt her if they realized they’d made a mistake. Maybe the better course of action was just to go along with their game and then look for a chance to escape. Either way, she’d let them show her what it was they wanted her to see. “I’ll look at what you have,” she said.
“Excellent. The sergeant here can get you started.”
Faye looked at the Black man who’d obviously knocked her out. She still didn’t trust the man. “Can you have someone else help me?”
“Why?”
“I think perhaps she doesn’t trust me, sir.”
“Why not?”
The man shrugged. “Well, I was the one who brought her in.”
“Ah yes. I can see where that might be a problem. Is that it,” the obviously more superior officer said. “Are you afraid of Sergeant Nicholls?”
Faye nodded.
“I see. Well, how about Corporal Nash here. Are you afraid of him?”
Faye looked at the slender built man and she shook her head.
“Well all right then. Let’s get this show on the road, and Lieutenant?”
“Yes?”
“It’s good to have you back.”
Faye nodded although for the life of her, she didn’t know why. She wasn’t a lieutenant. She knew that, and yet this man seemed intent on calling her one.
Corporal Nash led her to a small room. “You can view the stuff here,” he told her.
“What exactly am I supposed to be viewing?”
“It’s something new,” the corporal said. “You wear this headset,” he said, “and it’s supposed to help you get your memories back.”
“Back from where.”
“Back from them.”
“Back from who?”
“Back from the Others.”
Faye could feel her muscles suddenly tighten. She wasn’t sure anyone else even knew about the Others. In fact, there were times she was sure she was the only one, and yet here was this man, telling her that he knew about the Others, too. How many other people knew, she wondered. “What do I do?” she asked.
“You sit here,” the man said. “You put this headset on and then you watch this screen. You’ll see some pictures and the pictures are supposed to help you remember.”
“Remember what?”
“It’s supposed to help you remember what you forgot.”
“Oh.”
“You all set,” the man asked.
“I guess I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”
“All right then. Put these on and just watch the screen.”
Faye did as she was told. She barely noticed when the corporal turned down the lights because her eyes were glued to the screen.
It turned out it was a progression of pictures that flashed across the screen. Sometimes, the pictures moved. Sometimes, they stayed in place, but always the pictures were there.
It took Faye a while to realize that the woman in the pictures looked like her and the more she looked, the more she realized, the woman didn’t just look like her. The woman in the pictures looked exactly like her, and the more she looked, the more she realized, the woman in the pictures didn’t just look like her. The woman in the pictures actually was her.
But how could that be? The woman in the pictures was wearing a uniform. The woman in the pictures was on a military base of some sort or the other. The woman in the pictures was hanging out with soldiers and it was obvious that the woman in the pictures was one of them. She was the woman in the pictures. Faye was sure of that and yet how could that be. She wasn’t a soldier. She was sure of that, too.
But the pictures. The pictures didn’t lie. The pictures were real. She was sure of that, and yet how could they be?
Slowly at first, the thought came to her. The pictures were real. She was a soldier. The pictures were real. This was really her.
She started to remember.
There were still gaps, of course, places where the memories had been ripped from her, but it was starting to come back now. She was a soldier. She was a lieutenant. She’d been on a mission to find the Others. She’d been on a mission and something had gone horribly wrong.
Whatever it was, whatever had gone wrong, whatever that was, that memory remained elusively out of reach.
The show had come to an end and Faye was left staring at a blank screen. She wished that there was more, more that could be recovered. She wished that maybe they could do it again and yet she had the feeling that that would not yield anything new. She’d gotten all that there was for her to get.
She took off the headset and she exited the room where the corporal was waiting for her. “All done?” he asked.
Faye nodded.
“All right then. Let’s go back and see the colonel.”
The colonel, Faye realized. That was the man who’d been talking to her. Colonel Hickerson. Of course!
“So, Lieutenant,” the colonel said when Faye was back in the room. “I take it all went as expected.”
“If you mean that I got some of my memories back,” Faye said, “then yes, sir, all went as expected.”
“Do you have enough to do another mission?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You understand what happened to you?”
“Yes, sir. I think I do. I’m assuming the Others got to me. I’m assuming the Others got to me and I’m assuming they erased my memories.”
“They did indeed.”
“Permission to speak freely, sir?”
“Of course.”
“What happened, sir?”
“Happened?”
“Why was I left on my own?”
“We didn’t leave you,” the colonel said quietly.
“Sir?”
“We didn’t leave you. We pulled you off the battlefield and we took you home with us but your mind was pretty much gone. What the Others had done to you—”
“What did they do to me?”
“They pretty much wiped you clean. There was nothing we could do for you so the decision was made to turn you loose.”
“By you, sir?”
“No. I told the brass we owed it to you, but the brass thought there was nothing to be done so they ordered me to turn you loose.”
“And you did it?”
“Of course.”
Faye thought that over. It made sense to her even if she didn’t want to admit it. If the colonel had been ordered to turn her loose, well, he would have had to do it. She understood that, but that left something else. “So why’d you bring me back?” she asked.
“It’s that machine we had you try.”
“What about it?”
“It’s something new that the tech boys cooked up. They said it could restore some memories, but not all.”
“Not all?”
“No, not all. There’s only one way to get that back.”
“How’s that, sir?”
“When the Others take a memory, they actually take it. They don’t erase it as some have suggested.”
“Yes, sir. What do they do with it, sir?”
“They keep the memories so that apparently they can use them for their own purposes.”
“I see.”
“We want to attack the facility where they keep these memories and we want you to lead the attack.”
“Me, sir? Why me?”
“Because we believe you’ve already been there.”
“Me, sir?”
The colonel nodded. “You.”
“I think you’ve got me confused with someone else,” Faye said. “I don’t think I’ve ever been to such a place.”
“You don’t remember being there.”
“Isn’t that the same thing, sir?”
“Not at all. You may not remember being there on a conscious level, but you were there. It’s not your conscious mind that we want. It’s the subconscious mind. That’s what we want.”
“I don’t know, sir. I’m not sure I can help.”
“Lieutenant, you have to understand. This is why we brought you back. We could have left you where you were, happy and unaware.”
“I wasn’t unaware, sir.”
“What’s that?”
“I wasn’t unaware. I knew about them, sir. I knew about the Others.”
“Even after all they’d taken from you, you still knew?”
Faye nodded.
“So you see why we need you?”
Faye shook her head. She didn’t really see, but she knew she was going to do it, even if she didn’t see. After all, it was her duty to do it, even if she couldn’t exactly remember signing up for this duty.
“So will you do it?” the colonel asked.
“What can I say?” Faye said. “Of course, I will.”
“Excellent. Sergeant Nicholls and Corporal Nash will tell you everything you need to know.”
“Sir. Yes, sir.”
They had a mission for her. That was the gist of it. They had a mission for her and they wanted her to lead it.
The Others, it turned out, didn’t really erase memories as had been first thought. The Others, it seemed, had a a way of not only extracting those memories, but also of holding them and somehow replaying them. In other words, the Others could know what a person knew or felt even if the person they’d taken the memory from no longer knew or felt it, or at least that was what High Command believed.
For some time, High Command had had this knowledge but they were powerless to act on it. The person who had delivered the information to them had suddenly become unreliable, his own memory wiped clean so that he knew absolutely nothing. That presented problems to High Command. If the Others had done it, and there was no reason to believe they hadn’t, it meant that the Others knew what the man knew, including the names of his contacts and who he was working for and what he had told them. There had been many operatives who had been burned in that one night.
But High Command still had the information and they set themselves the task of trying to verify the information and in the end, they had not only verified it, but they’d found the place where the memories were actually stored.
But more importantly, High Command had discovered something else. It was now believed that if the facility were destroyed, that the memories would be set free and that they would return to their rightful owners.
But should they do it?
Suppose a man had a wife. Suppose the Others had made him forget that. Suppose he had then gone out and married someone else. If he suddenly got his memory back, he would suddenly find he was married to two women.
But was that reason enough not to do it? High Command felt it wasn’t enough of a reason so the mission had been authorized and a team had been put together for the mission and she had been picked to lead the team.
Why her, Faye wanted to know.
It was clear that Sergeant Nicholls seemed to be thinking pretty much the very same thing but he answered her anyway. She’d been one of the top field commanders, the man told her, at least she’d been that way until the Others had gotten a hold of her. In the blink of an eye, she’d gone from being a trusted asset to a useless cog.
So why her, Faye had asked again.
High Command thought she could still be of use. She still had the skills that had made her valuable before. It was believed that those skills would surface once again.
“You don’t believe that?” Faye had asked.
“It’s not for me to believe of disbelieve anything,” the sergeant had answered. “I just do what I’m told.”
Faye shook her head. “You know that’s not true.”
The Black man had remained silent.
“If we’re going to work together—”
“I don’t know you,” the man had said.
“What do you mean by that?”
“They tell me to trust you then fine, I’ll trust you, but I don’t know you. You still haven’t proven yourself to me.”
Faye nodded. She supposed she could see that. “You need me to earn your trust.”
Nicholls nodded.
“That’s fair enough,” Faye had said. “Trust must be earned but promise me something.”
“What’s that?”
“You’ve been honest with me so far. Promise me you’ll continue to be honest with me as we go forward.”
The Sergeant gave her a curt nod. “I can do that,” he said.
The team consisted of six people. In addition to Sergeant Nicholls and Corporal Nash, there were Privates Jim Gordon, Abel Winters and Mark Fielder. Nash and Gordon were the demolition experts. It was their job to blow the tanks once they got inside. It was the rest of the team’s job to make sure those two got their shot.
Their objective was a farm out in the boonies. It was hardly the type of place where one might have expected the Others to be, Faye thought, but as she looked over the outline of the objective, she began to realize why it was where it was.
The farm was out in the middle of nowhere. It would be nearly impossible to approach the place without being observed and the Others were very good at watching out for themselves. It was almost certain, the mission planners thought, that at least one of their team would be captured. That’s why there were two demolition experts on the team. It was hoped that at least one of them would make it in.
The rest of us are expendable, Faye thought. She didn’t want to be expendable. That’s what she’d been before. When the Others had taken her memories before, she’d been turned loose like so much garbage. She understood why. It wasn’t until recently that they’d come up with a way of giving her some of her memories back, and it wasn’t like there weren’t still huge gaps in her memories, but she didn’t ever want to be treated like garbage again.
Of course, it wasn’t like that decision was really up to her. She was what she was and that was all she was.
The decision had been made to attack the farm during a wet, drizzly day. It was thought that the wet, damp day and the low clouds would provide the best cover for the team but it was damp and wet and cold and as Faye looked down from the low rise where her team was situated, she couldn’t help thinking that the farmhouse below looked awfully warm and inviting.
“Gordon, move forward.”
That was Nicholls voice that she heard over her headset. Not for the first time, she almost wondered why she was there. The man seemed to be able to handle everything on his own.
She moved forward. Winters was off to her left covering the team’s left flank. Nash was twenty yards off to her right. She looked down at the farmhouse. It sure did look cozy.
“Fielder,” Nicholls said, “move forward man.”
Somewhere off to her right, Faye was doing sure that the man was doing exactly what he’d been told to do and that was when she noticed it. The man off to her left suddenly stood up.
“Winters?” she hised into her headset. “Winters? What the hell’s the matter with you?”
The man looked at her blankly. “Who are you?” he asked.
“Winters?”
“Why am I here?”
It took Faye a moment to realize the import of what she was seeing but then she was on the comm unit. “We got a problem here.”
“What’s the problem?” That was Nash.
“Winters is down. It looks like they sucked out his memories.”
“How bad is it?”
“It’s bad. He doesn’t even know who he is.”
“Fuck.”
“We gotta pull back.”
“We’re not going to get another chance at this.”
“We’re not going to get a chance at this anymore,” Faye said. “The mission’s blown. They know we’re here.”
“Sarge?”
“We stay on mission.”
“That’s not your call to make,” Faye reminded him.
“We’re not going to get another chance.”
“We need to pull back.”
Faye waited but there wasn’t an answer.
What the hell. Where was ... where was ... who had she been talking to?
Okay, Faye told herself. This was silly. She had to have been talking to someone, but for the life of her, she just couldn’t remember who that person was and now that she was thinking about it, she couldn’t even remember why she was out here in the middle of this field when she could just walk up to that house in front of her and ...
And do what? It seemed like there was something she needed to do.
She needed to get warm and that house looked rather cozy.
Why was she out here?
She needed to stand up. That’s what she needed to do.
Wait a minute. She had all this stuff on. What was this stuff? It looked like equipment of some sort. What did she need this stuff for?
The answer was obvious. She didn’t need it for anything.
She dropped the gear she’d been carrying even though she had this nagging feeling in the back of her mind that it had to be good for something. It was just that she couldn’t remember what, and with that, she started down towards the farmhouse below.
With each step she took, she felt less and less encumbered, as if some giant weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She was now in front of the farmhouse and she boldly walked right up to the front door and she knocked.
She shivered in the cool, dank air but it wasn’t the air that made her shiver. It was something else. It was the feeling that something was wrong. It was the feeling that she was doing something stupid but she just didn’t know what.
The door opened and a man stood there.
The Others. That was it. He looked just like any other man but somehow she knew. How could she have forgotten her mission.
Of course, the fact that she knew the answer to that hardly did her any good and moments later, she wouldn’t even know even that.
“Can I help you?” the man asked.
“No,” Faye stammered. She knew now. This was wrong. She had to get away. “No, my mistake.”
“Oh, I don’t think it’s a mistake at all. Why don’t you come in?”
“No, no. I ... I have to go.”
“And why is that?”
Why was that, Faye wondered. She’d been so sure of herself before, and now she couldn’t even remember why it was she needed to get away.
“You look like you’re freezing out there. Why don’t you come inside.”
“Okay.”
She stepped into the house.
From the outside, the farmhouse had looked rustic, almost old fashioned but here on the inside, it was different. There were mirrors with beveled edges and big, fluffy couches and wood floors that looked like they were more for show than for function and there in the center, almost as if it were there just waiting for her, there in the center was a fireplace with a raging fire.
“You look cold,” the man said.
Now that he’d said it, Faye shivered just a little. “I am cold,” she said.
“I figured. Why don’t you come in and warm yourself by the fire.”
No, she wasn’t supposed to, only she couldn’t remember why.
“Why don’t you take your jacket off,” the man said.
Take her jacket off. Of course. That was an excellent idea.
“Oh my,” the man said. “This is wet. Why don’t I put it in the bathroom where it can dry out.”
Nothing wrong with that, of course.
“And now the shirt.”
“What about it?”
“You need to take it off.”
No. No, that was wrong. She shouldn’t do that, only ... only she couldn’t remember why not.
“Come on,” the man said. “Off with it or you’re going to catch your death of cold.”
It was wet, Faye told herself, and she didn’t really want to catch cold. Maybe she should take her shirt off.
“There you go,” the man said. “We’re almost done now.”
Almost done, Faye thought. What did that mean?
“Your pants,” the man said. “You need to take those off.”
“My pants? No. There was definitely something wrong with that.”
“Come on. We haven’t got all day.”
Faye opened her pants and she pushed them down her legs.
“Very good. And now the panties.”
Faye didn’t even bother to put up a fight. She’d already come this far. She just pushed her panties down around her knees.
“And now one more thing. Those shoes.”
What was wrong with her shoes?
“Whatever possessed you to go out in something like that?”
Faye looked down at her boots. They were standard issue boots. What was wrong with her boots.
“A woman like you should like something a little more ladylike, don’t you think?”
Again, Faye looked at her boots. What was wrong with her boots? No wait. That wasn’t it. She looked again. What was right with her boots. Why had she worn these ugly things? What had possessed her to put these stupid things on? She didn’t have an answer for that and more to the point, she couldn’t even remember where she’d got them.
“You’d look much better in heels,” the man said, “that is when you’re not going barefoot instead.”
Yes, that made sense.
“You should take them off.”
That made sense.
“And while you’re at it, you should take your pants and your panties, all the way off, too.
Faye took the boots off and then the pants and the panties.
“Now, go lie by the fire.”
She went and laid on the rug in front of the fire even though she had an inkling that there was something wrong with that but when she asked herself what was wrong, she couldn’t seem to remember what it was.
The man was taking off his clothes and Faye knew there had to be something wrong with that but again, she couldn’t remember what. “Do you know what I’m going to do?” the man asked.
Faye shook her head.
“I’m going to fuck you.”
This was wrong, Faye told herself, and yet every time she tried to tell herself that, whatever it was she thought she’d known suddenly just disappeared.
“I’m going to fuck you,” the man said again.
Faye nodded and why shouldn’t she. After all, this man fucking her seemed to be the only thought she could keep in her head.
“I’m going to fuck you.”
“I know. I want you to.”
“Up on your hands and knees.”
Yes, of course. On her hands and knees. Of course, she was going to do that.
The man came up behind her and even though Faye wasn’t looking at him, she knew he’d taken his clothes off.
“I’m going to fuck you.”
She knew that, Faye wanted to say, but instead she held her tongue. Just do it, she wanted to say. Just do it now.
And that’s when she felt it, the feel of the man’s cock as he entered her from behind.
Faye gasped. She told herself the only response that had been left to her. “Yes,” she moaned.
The man grinned although Faye couldn’t see him do it. It was one of the perks of his position and being stuck out here in the middle of nowhere, one did need a few perks every now and then.
Damn, the girl was just so right. Nice round ass, hips wide enough to take your hands, and when you got rid of all those reasons why a girl might want to say no, that left you with ...
“Oh geez, fuck me,” the girl moaned. “Fuck me.”
Yeah, it left you with that.
“Oh my God,” the girl moaned. “Oh my God.”
There was a loud boom and a the ground shook but the man stayed rooted between the girl’s legs.
In the deepest recesses of Faye’s mind, something stirred. An explosion. She wasn’t sure why she’d thought of that. She hadn’t seen a blast and yet she was sure that was what it was and for a moment, she felt elation.
“What was that?” the girl asked.
“What was what?”
“Was that a blast?”
“Was what a blast?”
Faye tried to remember what it was she’d felt but she couldn’t seem to remember. She was sure there’d been something, but now that she thought about it, she wasn’t even sure about that.
“Oh fuck,” the man groaned. “Oh fuck. I’m going to cum.”
There was only one thought that the man wanted and any thought that didn’t match the desired result was quickly culled from Faye’s mind which in the end left her with only one inevitable response.
“I want you to do it.”
“You want me to cum?”
“Yes. I want you to do it.”
“Oh yeah,” the man groaned. “Oh yeah. Here it comes.”
Faye couldn’t help herself. She loved it, too, and when the man came inside her, she came right along with him. It was, after all, the only course of action that had been left open to her.
“Sir?”
The general looked up at his aide. “Yes, major.”
“Word from the mission.”
“Yes?”
“It was a complete success, sir.”
“Was it now?”
“Yes, sir.”
“How many’d we lose?”
“You mean in addition to the girl?”
“Yes, of course. I mean in addition to the girl.”
“Just one, sir. Private Winters.”
The general nodded. “Excellent,” the man said. “Excellent.”
“Yes, sir.”
“By now, they will have started to process her memories.”
“Yes, sir.”
“They’ll think that we have the ability to restore a person’s memories.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Which, of course, we do not.”
“No, sir.”
“Something else?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Something bothering you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You don’t like using the civilian.”
“I never did, sir,” the major said.
The general sighed. “It had to be done.”
“I understand, sir. I just wish there’d been another way.”
The general sighed. “Yes, I know, but there wasn’t. We knew the tanks were a decoy. We knew they wanted us to attack them so we did, but we needed a way to deliver false information of our own to the enemy and the only way to do that was to implant that information in someone and make her believe she was someone else.”
“Yes, sir. I understand, sir.”
“And besides, she fit the profile. It was known that their type liked girls like her.”
“I understand that, sir.”
“I imagine she’ll be well kept and looked after if that’s any consolation to you.”
It wasn’t but the major didn’t say that.
“Anything else then?”
“No, sir.”
“All right then. I’d like some time o myself.”
“Yes, sir.” and with that, the major withdrew leaving his commanding officer alone with his thoughts.