Suicide Mission

Hunter couldn't help that Ryan's words made him feel good. Whether it was just because she needed this right now or not, at least in the moment he was wanted... just for being himself. Her kiss to his arm sent tingles clear up to his shoulder, and he leaned back, just closing his eyes. Her next words made him chuckle though. 

"Can't be any thicker than mine," he mused. "But I can tell you at least a billion and one more times if that's what it takes." He sighed deeply. He was so tired. 

It was probably only a few seconds, but it felt like it had been ten minutes when he realized he'd fallen asleep. Scooting down so he was more lying down than sitting, he let Ryan just lie on him however she wanted. He didn't mind, and just kept an arm around her. "Sleep," he mumbled. "Things'll look better in the morning."


Hal listened to Sam as they ate, nodding as he thought about Aaron. Interesting. He leaned back in his chair and chewed a bite of chicken thoughtfully. "Wonder what JT would think about Aaron's self-therapy. I mean, if it's really helping or harming." He shook his head. "Gotta admit I'm just a little impressed by Aaron's stubbornness though. I can see why Garret liked him as an agent. If we could just... funnel that our direction instead."

He paused just to eat for a few moments. He did have a bit of a headache, and this room felt smaller than usual today but he'd try to stay for the afternoon at least. It was only for a few hours. 


"There." Garret pointed to Sapphire's screen, guiding her deeper into the system in search of Agency intel on Aaron. He didn't know how to do this kind of thing, but at least he could recognize just enough to help steer her in the right direction.

He leaned in closer from his chair next to hers and squinted. "Nah... go back one." He pointed again. "Try that." As he scanned the information, he sighed. "I know this isn't what anyone wants to hear but... your brother probably has what we're looking for." After that little scene with Justin though, he knew it was out of the question to ask for Scott's help.

"There." He put a hand on her arm to stop her typing as he read. "Okay so that's where he's marked as dead..." He kept reading, going back to earlier information. Then his eyes widened. "What..." He leaned in even closer. "Scheduled for Mission 263? But that... was a suicide mission." He finally leaned back a little and looked at Sapphire. "It woulda happened by now of course, this is old, but they had him scheduled to head up a mission meant to start a war between two powerful people. I knew about it, but didn't know they had wanted Aaron to lead it. Medridge was going to tell the men a lie - that they were supposed to extract some documents. But in reality, they were just being sent there to die. Easier than execution, and accomplishes a task."

Garret paused and cringed a little. "Medridge does things like this to agents he wants to get rid of. He uses them for one last task. No one ever really knows what they're getting into... They just follow blindly, and, like Aaron, believe they're actually valued. No one ever thinks they're being prepped to be killed until it's too late." His eyes suddenly grew dark. "Happened to me when I was twenty. Medridge just wanted to see if I was smart enough to survive. If I hadn't, he would have moved on to his next robot soldier. But he was so impressed that he rewarded me instead." He shook his head. "I was angry he'd almost had me killed but at that point there was no more thoughts of escape. It was just... life."

He blinked and brought his mind back around to their task at hand. "So really... If Aaron had stayed there, he'd be dead right now. He could look at this two ways though... One, he could see the point that the Agency didn't value him. Or two, he could take pride that he'd been chosen for one last mission to accomplish starting a mini war. Hopefully... he'd see the first point."