"Cornwallus vanished last night," General Davis told the Deputy Director for Operations. "Well, that's not entirely accurate," General Davis corrected with a humorless smile. "They found a black spot on the ground we believe may be what's left of him."
"Shit," Garrison growled in annoyance. "He was supposed to keep the Armed Services Committee off my ass." There were large circles under his eyes, and his left eyelid had a nervous tick.
"You have trouble sleeping last night too?" General Davis asked with a raised eyebrow.
Garrison frowned at him. "Yes, why?"
"Apparently, everyone in our little committee had a similar dream," General Davis informed him, feeling a chill as he remembered his own vivid dream. "Some woman showed up and said we could either cease and desist or follow the Senator into oblivion. This was before any of us knew he was missing." He didn't need to mention that the mere presence of the woman had filled him with more terror than he had ever experienced in his life. There had been something so powerful about her presence that he knew she could erase him with a thought. When he had learned of the Senator's demise after waking up, he had nearly had a heart attack.
Garrison was staring at him in shock. "You all had this dream?"
"Yep," General Davis nodded. "I don't know about you, but I'm not keen on becoming a black spot on the floor any time soon. Whatever we are dealing with has us way outclassed here. Somehow she knew exactly who was behind the operation."
"What did the surveillance at the Senator's residence show?" Garrison asked, his face white.
"Just a bright orb of light floating through the house for a split second before the screen went to fuzz," General Davis replied with a shake of his head. "Some kind of noncorporeal entity."
"So what, you want to just leave her alone?" Garrison asked with a frown.
"Does it look like we have a choice?" General Davis asked with another humorless smile. "She's holding all the cards in this deck."
Garrison nodded slowly, his eyes filled with the same haunted look General Davis knew was mirrored in his own. "Okay, we'll suspend this project for now. We can revisit it at a later date. Let's work on getting more intel. We need to know what we're dealing with here."
General Davis nodded his agreement. "Agreed. I'll try and work through military channels to find out what Colonel Rockwell knows, if anything. As you'll recall, I suggested a non-combative approach to begin with."
Garrison snorted at him contemptuously. "Loyalty in the brotherhood and all that jazz, eh?"
"Come back and tell me about trust after you've been out in the field in enemy territory," General Garrison retorted angrily. "You might think of your own assets as disposable, but that's not how we do things over here."
"Fine, fine," Garrison said placatingly, rolling his eyes. "Whatever. I have to get back and brief ops on what happened."
Garrison watched him go with a sneer. He hated that the CIA enrolled civilians. If it were up to him, they would be required to serve time on the front lines and get a little perspective before being in charge of operations where lives were at stake.