Commandos (8 page)

* * * * Diana had spent the last few days in the hospital zone. Margaret would accompany her whenever she could.

“Jo’s rescued David,” she informed Diana, who sighed deeply on hearing that.
“You shouldn’t have told Alec about what we did. It was just a tiny bit of her memories…”
Diana’s breathing grew heavy and her body trembled.
“What’s wrong?” Margaret looked worried.
“It’s nothing,” she dismissed her.
“I had to tell him,” the nurse tried to explain herself. “I think you should talk to him.”
The woman could not hold back her tears anymore.
“I didn’t know they were that close… He lied to me, said there was no one in his life!” Her weeping was more uncontrollable now.
“Do stop crying.” Margaret took hold of her hands. “You fell for him, that’s all. You thought you were the only woman in his life. You owe him nothing. He’s the liar, not you.”
Diana lifted a handkerchief, trying to stop the tears rolling down her cheeks.
“You’re right, Meg. I trusted him. The worst thing is that he cheated on Jo, as well. He betrayed her! Do you understand? He cheated on her with me. It means he can just as easily cheat on me!”
Margaret embraced her friend whose mental condition was getting worse with every passing day. She remembered promising Diana’s uncle to take care of his young niece and now she couldn’t even look at herself in the mirror. She despised herself. Instead of protecting her friend she’d only worsened her suffering. She knew the feeling well. She’d been betrayed herself in the past and had also felt defeated. The greatest pain always comes from losing someone you love and, regardless of how many new loves one may find later in life, the scars stay forever.
* * * *

With Leon’s help, the commodore put on his spacesuit to go outside the vessel and check on the engine for damage. As he was making his way to the wing, Leon connected Jo’s plane.

David was calmly sleeping in the pilot’s seat. The woman glanced at him every now and then, studying his face, trying to force her mind to remember something, anything. She followed the line of his arms, looked at his chest, his posture, but try as she might, there was still nothing familiar about this man.

She noticed David’s bag tossed under his seat. She switched on the autopilot and lifted it to her knees. She looked inside. In her resolve to find out something about her future she was ready to step over the line of decency. She impatiently dug through all the maps, binoculars and weapons. Suddenly, she came across a wallet with some pictures inside it. She was surprised to find one of herself with Alec. They were hugging and smiling. She didn’t have time to digest this new astonishing fact as a diode begun to blink indicating an incoming communication. It was Leon.

“We’re in trouble, Jo. The right engine is busted. I’m not sure we can make it back to Atlantis.”
“Send me the coordinates. I’ll be there soon.”
Leon forwarded their position in outer space and glanced at the commodore re-entering the plane. He struggled out of his suit and angrily announced there was nothing he could see outside. The left engine was still operational, but they couldn’t be sure for how long.
“I’ve informed Jo,” said Leon, looking at the angry veins pulsing on the commodore’s face. “But I haven’t contacted the base yet.”
“Good call.”
Levi seated himself in front of the console. He was a little worried. If they didn’t manage to fix the engine within two hours, the emergency power generator would stop and they might die.
It was not the first time he would find himself in this sort of trouble, but he discovered that with age came greater caution. There were still things he wanted to experience, to achieve… to see his daughter again…

* * * *

Boxing gloves on his hands, Alec was pounding a punching bag. Whenever his emotions grew too strong and adrenaline was raging through his veins, he would come to the gym and try to sweat away his worries. Engrossed in the training and overwhelmed with his thoughts, for a moment he didn’t notice another man join him in the gym. It was Victor. Alec finally saw him and studied his face, suddenly recalling the man he’d seen leaving Jo’s room. The memory was enough to double the strength of his punches against the bag.

Perfectly calm, Victor watched him as he put on his kimono. He felt Alec’s eyes fixed on him as well. As the commando studied his posture, his confidence in his skills was beginning to wither. Victor must have been the most athletic man in Atlantis.

Who was he?
“Hi there.” Alec decided to chat with him anyway. “Hello,” the tracker answered. He knew quite a lot

about Alec from his files.
“Alec Ross, Levi’s commando.”
“Victor Berg.”
The men shook hands.
“Any news of Jo?”
The question seemed casual, but Victor could not have missed the fact that Alec was seething with testosterone. As a tracker he knew all there was to know about him. He had a file on everyone in Atlantis.

Alec had no idea that Victor was the person responsible for preventing any outside infiltration by someone posing as a United Nations soldier. As if that wasn’t enough, he and Levi had been friends for years, but that secret was restricted to very few people.

Ever since the day Levi had pulled him out of prison, the friendship between the two men had not faltered. After Victor had ascended to one of the highest military positions there were, quite surprisingly considering his past, he and Levi were able to co-operate even closer.

He was extremely fit and highly intelligent at the same time. As it was not in his nature to make friends and trust people easily, he was not suited for team work. Instead, he found his niche in a truly solitary position. He was perfect tracker material.

“She’s collected David. They’re on their way back,” he answered, eyeing the commando.
“Yeah, I heard… I thought…”
“Thought what?” Victor ostentatiously picked up a stick and prepared for the computer simulated combat training.
“I thought she may have contacted you.” He was trying to worm some information out of the man, to figure out whether the two were still in touch. His intentions were more than obvious to Victor. He gave him an enigmatic look and started his training, ignoring the question.
Had Alec known he was probably wouldn’t even have everyone’s lips. In the National Defence unit there were only four of them, one allegedly answering only to the president himself. Being in conflict with a man like that would inevitably end up in a mess.
talking to a tracker, he tried. Trackers were on
Trackers were sniffer hounds, sombre men with ambiguous pasts, going to places no one else dared even look. A tracker was an assassin in the service of humanity.

* * * *

The space plane piloted by Jo began its careful approach to the commodore’s craft, positioning its right board against the other’s wing.

David was already wearing his spacesuit. He knew well enough he would be the only one capable of solving the problem. He’d been involved in the plane’s design and cowritten the onboard computer’s software.

“Are there any spare parts we can use?” Jo asked Leon.

“No. Unfortunately the planes are too small to carry any bigger elements.”
“Jo,” Levi cut in, “we’ve managed to narrow it down to engine failure. The emergency power backup is still working, but running out as we speak.”
Jo glanced at David in his suit, motioning him to take it off. He was too exhausted to go out into open space.
“There’s no point going out there. They have no repair equipment,” she said firmly, trying to discourage him from taking the risk.
“Mechanics or automatics are not really my specialties anyway, but I do know quite a lot about computers. I helped design them and install them in this model.” David seemed quite confident. “I can re-programme the system to use the backup generator as the regular one and with the extra fuel supply they should be able to reach the base safely.” He put on his headgear and waved at Jo to open the hatch.
“All right, David, get over here.” Leon’s voice sounded in his headphones. “We’ve got to get back to Atlantis. We have direct orders.”
David slowly floated out of the hatch towards the commodore’s plane. Once he was onboard, the cabin got pretty crowded, but they managed and he took off the uncomfortable space suit. Levi welcomed him heartily and shook his hand, but they both knew it was not the time for longer celebrations.
David approached the computer and logged into the system, then he started readjusting the settings.
“And?” Jo enquired in a somewhat changed voice.
Levi glanced at the screen instinctively.
“David is reprogramming the system,” answered Leon with a hopeful smile.
Despite his tiredness, the commando managed to efficiently type in the required data. The auxiliary engine begun to draw power from the main and all the equipment was gradually coming back online.
“You all right, Jo?” David asked on the open channel. “We’re doing fine here… Leon and I…”
But the woman was no longer listening to him. She reached into her pocked and held up the picture with Alec. Once again she gazed in disbelief at herself and the commando, whom she’d so bluntly ditched back at the base.
“Jo. Can you hear me?” demanded David. “I’m coming back.” He was about to close his suit when he heard roaring engines and saw the com-link with Jo disengage on the screen.
“Jo? Are you there?” They nervously tried to readjust the console connection.
They could hear the woman’s plane fly off and the connection came back online for a moment.
“I’m sorry,” she said and switched off for good, her ship disappearing into the distance.
“What the hell is she doing?” David could not get his mind around what he was seeing.
Levi calmed him down. He knew well enough what she was up to. Now he needed to explain it to David somehow.
“Has she mentioned Magdalena?” he asked grimly.
“She has…” David jerked at his beard. “But… But she’s not going down to her? She can’t be… Why would she?” A thousand thoughts were racing through his mind. He looked at Levi and Leon questioningly. “What on earth is going on here?” The situation had quickly become very complicated.
“Listen, a few days ago…” Levi was visibly shattered by the whole thing. “Jo had the last five years of her life erased from memory.”
David covered his eyes with his hands. The commodore lifted a chain from his neck and produced the access codes to Jo’s disc. He handed it to the commando.
“That’s the access code, but I’ll never give it to her. That was the agreement.”
“That explains a lot…” David’s face went pale and the commodore could see bitter reproach in his eyes.
“Jo wants Magdalena to crack the disc’s protection,” Levi concluded while David was closely studying the code key.
“Nicely done,” he said, handing it back to the commodore, “but it’s a fake. Where’s the real one?”
“What?” Leon exclaimed in astonishment.
“Jo doesn’t have it; otherwise, there’d be no need for a hacker.” David stressed the last sentence looking at Levi accusingly.
“Then who does? And why?” Leon expressed the worry they all felt.
They looked at each other in silence as the ship gradually made its way back to the base with a steady hum of the engine. Things were getting out of hand. If there was a duplicate, there must have been someone who would go to all lengths to get to know Jo’s past. All the commandos stationed on the ship knew her well enough not to need that sort of thing. Was there anyone who did not?
“I promised Jo, even if she begged, I wouldn’t give her the key, no matter what. Not after that business with Kaminsky...” Levi reached up to wipe the sweat from his eyebrows. “We both agreed it was necessary, David. Her mental health was at stake.”
But the man stayed silent. He wouldn’t even look at Levi. He had always believed Jo was strong enough to deal with her problems and, if the worst should happen, she still had her friends. But what kind of a friend would decide a memorial wipe was the best solution?
“Poor Jo.” David didn’t turn to them as he spoke. He instead glanced at the screen where only a moment ago he’d seen her face. “I understand her now, this mad chase after her lost past.” He now turned to look them in the eyes. “We build our identity based on our memories. Without them, we are faceless. She’s not really after Magdalena to find her past. She needs her to understand the present, to find out who she is and what she feels.”
As the men sat there, silent, they all realised David was right. Jo was struggling to regain her identity and she would not stop until she’d found out who she was.

* * * *

Looking down at the table he was sitting at, Alec purposefully extended his hands in front of him. Margaret watched him closely. She was afraid to say anything, sensing he was pondering the future that lay ahead of him. Everything was different now, ever since she’d got involved in the whole story with Jo’s memory erasure. Many people’s lives had been changed, most evidently Diana’s. Her friend was now bustling around the room while the baby slept in its cot.
It took Alec a while to realise that Diana was packing.

He jumped up from his seat, went towards her and grabbed her angrily by the arms.

“What the hell are you doing?” He forced her to face him.
“I’m going to stay at Margaret’s now… It’s for the best…” She pushed him away, ignoring the fact that Margaret was right there, watching them fight.
“Will you think about what you’re doing! Your place is here, with me!”
“No!” In her fury, she was shouting ever louder. “You’re a betrayer! Leave me and my child alone!”
Diana handed her packed bag to Margaret. She then picked up her son and they both left the room, ostentatiously not looking at Alec. The doors slammed behind them.
“Betrayer?” Alec banged his head against the wall. “What the fuck is going on here?”
He collapsed on to his bed, exhausted, completely overwhelmed by what had happened. He was facing long hours of meditation, on himself, Diana and Jo. He had to think this all through. Maybe he should have run out and begged his wife to come back, but in all honesty, he was not really sure that was what he wanted. He realised he’d let it escalate through his own negligence, to free himself from Diana. He was painfully aware of the fact that he’d never really loved her. He liked her, true enough and was attracted to her physically, but life itself had put his true feelings to the test. He was now certain what it was he wanted and he was going to get it back.

* * * *