Washington DC, Walter Reed Army Medical Center. 13/11/2012. 18:35.
In room 112, a thirty nine years old man was sleeping on a medical bed. On his wrist was an ID bracelet naming him as Scott McCornaig. After the messed up mission in South Korea, it was now Ex-Colonel Scott McCornaig. Four weeks after the mission, Scott was still in a hospital bed. He had suffered a lot of serious wounds and almost died in fact. What he did not know was that when the grenades exploded near him and shrapnel pierced his leg, his femoral artery had been cut by one of the shrapnels, he almost bled out while he was unconscious after the explosion.
If not for the quick response of Korea's medical team, Scott would have come back to the states in a body bag. Sadly, his team was not as lucky as him. Of the twenty four Delta force members implicated in the mission, only thirteen survived and of these thirteen, four would never be soldiers again because of serious injuries. They were staggering numbers and it was the reason now that Scott was an ex-Colonel.
A military committee had gathered while Scott was still in a medically induced coma to help treat his wound and had dishonorably discharged him for orders that gave rise to the death of three of his men and injured many more. When he had no choice but to give the order to bomb the building, the blast that had followed had inflicted grievous injury on his men, himself included. On his back he had a second degree burn that was still healing, albeit very slowly.
As of now, the injury that gave him the most pain was still his leg. After the hemorrhage almost took his life, his leg had been hurt badly and now he had a long way to go in physical therapy. The problem was that Scott was feeling guilty and lost about the death of his men and him not being in the military anymore. Since he was eighteen and he had only known military life and now it was over, he did not know who he was anymore. That caused him to neglect his rehabilitation and pass his days upping his morphine dosage to help him forget all of what happened that night.
Waking up slowly and feeling the pain on his back and leg, Scott wanted to up his morphine dosage but could not find the button near his right hand anymore. Moreover, there was an unexplainable weight near his uninjured left leg. Straightening himself from his bed to relieve the pain of his back, he could now see much better in his room. The weight near his left leg was in fact a pair of feet belonging to a blond teenager sitting in a chair near his bed, busy reading through a file. Noticing Scott moving, the blond teenager put the file down and looked at him.
"Oh good, you are finally awake." He said with a happy and youthful voice.
"Who are you and what are you doing in my room?" He grumbled, searching for his morphine button.
"My name is Nathaniel and if the nurse asks, I'm your nephew." He smiled cheekily.
"This is stupid, I don't have any siblings. Where the hell is my morphine button?"
"You are talking about this?" Nathaniel said, dangling a device in front of Scott. "I disconnected it."
"Why did you do that? I need that! Give it to me now!" He shouted angrily making a move to grab it and immediately grimacing in pain from the burn on his back."
"The truth is, Scott, you really don't. Your pain is more psychological than physical."
"I have 27% of my back with second degree burns! Do you have any idea how much it hurts? Of course not! You are a friggin kid who just got out of his mother's womb!" Scott yelled.
"You have no idea of the pain I had in my life! You passed one little month of your life in a hospital bed and you think everyone must respect you for that? You have lived nothing compared to me, boy!" Nathaniel yelled back, his blue eyes turning cold.
Taken aback by the sudden outburst from the teenager in front of him, Scott could feel his anger receding and he took a double take on his interlocutor. Even if the person in front of him was a pretty boy with smooth hands, the danger that Scoot could feel now was nothing like what he experienced in his life. He had fought to the death against other special forces of various countries and none of them made him shiver in his boots like that.
"Okay, I see that you need some tough love. I'm going to tell you something that every nurse and doctor here knows but no one is brave enough to say. You are inches away from throwing the rest of your life away. If you don't stop using morphine and keep refusing to do your physical therapy you will never be able to walk again and be forever addicted to painkillers. You passed the last month feeling sorry for yourself and I'm telling you right now, it's time to stop!" Nathaniel continued calmly.
"I deserved that! Men, good men died because of me! I should be dead right now!" Scott shouted.
Hearing that, Nathaniel could only sigh softly. It was as he had feared. Taking his laptop out of his bag and turning it on, he searched to find a particular video.
"They said your order to bomb the building that cost the lives of your mens, right?"
"This is top secret! You are not even supposed to know about this!"
"I get that a lot. Just tell me, who was it? You know I could have that information either way."
"It was Corporal Barnes, Corporal Maces and Sergeant Martins" Scott said, his voice cracking a little at the end. He knew these men very well as they were his friends and brothers in arms. He had to admit it felt good to say these names out loud as they were on his mind a lot.
Nodding, Nathaniel started to type on his laptop until he put it on the fray usually used to put food on.
"Is this where the three of them were located?" Nathaniel said, showing a freeze infrared video from what looked like a drone where he had encircled three green lifeforms near the white structure.
Looking at the paused video, Scott could not stop himself from leaning forward, his mind going back to the operation a month ago and everything that he had done wrong that day. Focusing on the three encircled green silhouettes, he could feel himself shocked.
"Yes, it is them." Scott answered after a moment to get back under control.
"Good, now look." Nathaniel said, pressing space to launch the video.
On the video, both of them could see an exchange of fire between the two sides and even what was happening on the other side of the building where the Korean team was pinned down. The video was going for almost two minutes when they finally saw the two missiles strike the building and the whole frame turned green.
"Notice something weird Scott?" Nathaniel asked after he had let a few seconds pass for Scott to breath.
"They did not move to take cover. Why did they not take cover? I remember yelling the order before the missiles hit the building."
"Because they could not Scott. I read the entire report of the investigation. The three men they claimed you had killed with your order were already dead or dying before the missiles hit."
"But why? Why did they tell me I was responsible for their death?" Scott asked, angry and lost.
"I don't know for sure but I can guess. Since the mission cost so many American and Korean lives, the government of South Korea wanted answers and someone to be taken accountable. The State Department had no choice but to give them a fall guy and they chose you to be sacrificed. All of that speech about killing your teammates was to only get rid of you. They thought that since they could not use you anymore, they made sure to destroy your mentality and blacklist you to every law enforcement agency and private security company."
"Those bastards!" Scott yelled, punching his bed repeatedly, the pain on his back forgotten.
Nathaniel chose not to speak and just let Scott vent his anger without interrupting him. It was a long moment until Scott was past his anger and opened his eyes. Much more calm now and without the guilt and the sadness in his eyes that was present for the last month, he seemed more light now than ever.
"If what you said is true, what are you doing here?"
"First and foremost, I'm here before you out of respect. You made countless sacrifices for this country and the government treated you like you were nothing. You deserve the truth and moreover you deserve to be treated better. I'm sorry Colonel." Nathaniel said, putting a hand on his shoulder.
Nathaniel could really connect with what happened to Scott. Having Marc's memories inside of him, there was a time when he could feel what Marc felt when he realised the country that he gave his life for, abandoned him and let him die.
"Thanks for that but this is not Colonel anymore. I'm a civilian now." Scott said sadly.
"Who knows, maybe you will be a Colonel again in the future." Nathaniel gave a little smile. "I'm starting a team Scott. Individuals with certain skills to help people, not only America's interest or citizen. You don't have to answer now, don't worry. I just want to be honest with you as I believe you will be a nice addition to the team. Our time together is coming to an end if I can trust my hearing." Nathaniel smiled.
"What do you mean by that?" Scott asked.
At this moment two people arrived in front of the room. Both of them were around thirty years old, brown hair, wearing suits with sunglasses.
"Nathaniel Lyndon, Secret Service. I'm going to ask you to come with us, sir." The taller of the two asked.
Shaking his head, Nathaniel picked up his laptop and put it back in his bag. Noticing the surprise on Scott's face, Nathaniel smiled at him and put a file on the tray near him.
"That will be our first case if you want to accept my offer, read it if you are curious but I'm warning you, places and names have been scratched out of the file for security reasons. Just get better Scott and do your damned physical rehabilitation. I will be back soon to see you." Nathaniel said before walking to the two men in suits. "Let's go guys."
"Wait! How old are you?" Scott asked from his bed.
"I'm sixteen." Nathaniel smiled joyfully before leaving, escorted by the Secret Service.