Do What You Have To
Penn O'Hara         2004

 

Frank answers Cody's challenge and another insight into Frank's past prompted by the little guy still determined to get the big guy to bite.

Post 'Teddy-C' Episode.

Usual UC Disclaimers apply.

PG-13

******************

Part One

Cody lifted his head from the keyboard, the blank monitor screen mirroring his haggard face.  It was more pinched than usual, his mouth down-turned and his usually tight curls were flattened on his head.  That last assignment had been a tough one.  

When Jake and Alex had been ordered to strip, effectively removing not only the primary 'Cody-bugs' in their underwear, but also the secondary units in Alex's jewelry, he'd gone blind in what was one of their most challenging undercover stings.  He, Monica and Donovan had sweated in the van for three hours feeling useless, wondering what their agents were enduring, before Frank had ordered them back to the Nest.  

Bad scenario in any book.  Harrowing one to live through.  Cody had forgone any further prodding of Donovan's stone exterior, even going so far as to regret his earlier sniping in the van, before they went blind.

But now the assignment was over.  The great Teddy C, UC extraordinaire, was behind bars; put there by Donovan, who had watched and rewatched the surveillance video of the explosion until Cody had lost count and almost told Donovan to freakin' rewind and play the damned thing himself.  But Donovan had finally seen what everyone else had missed.  When the car had exploded, it had been empty.  Teddy C's death staged by the man himself; another cop gone bad.

Cody pushed his keyboard away and swung round to touch base with the others.  He was sure they'd be feeling as drained as he, maybe worse.  Jake and Alex were drinking coffee, leaning against the rack of screens in the Briefing Area where they pored over surveillance and orientation tapes daily and took their orders from Frank.  Alex looked like she could do with a cigarette – a whole packet of them.  Jake appeared shell-shocked too.  They both had stared down the wrong end of a gun barrel several times during this coup in order to beat the master at his game. 

And Frank hadn't even suspected.

The big guy was sitting at the long table with Monica, who was typing on her lap-top, probably case notes.  Frank was sitting forward on his castored chair, one hand dangling across a knee, the other stroking his chin, shoulders hunched, deep in thought.  

Cody wondered if Frank had feared for Alex and Jake that night.  He sent them into difficult situations every time, but that night they had been particularly exposed.  They were up against the best of the best, the pro that had beaten Teddy C.  Or so they had thought.  And the agents had been vulnerable throughout, stripped of their tracking and monitoring devices along with their clothes.  It had been a lot to ask.  Did Donovan expect more of his agents then he himself was prepared to give?

"Hey, boss!  Ever had to walk naked into the lion's den like Alex and Jake did?" asked Cody, needing to know the answer.  

Donovan's head came up in that hawk-like way he had, pinning his prey to the ground in fright, before swooping. 

"If this is your way of starting the conversation ball rolling..."  began Monica.

"Hey!  I just wanna know that our fearless leader knows what it's like to do what we do every day... if he's been there, done that... sort of thing."

"When was the last time you stripped for the job, Cody?"  scoffed Jake.

"Well, I mean, you guys did.  You know what I mean.  Well, Frank?"  Cody wasn't going to let it go, not now that he had his teeth in the idea.

"This is important?"  asked Frank.

"It's all about what I explained earlier," said Cody, feeling he had something on him at last.  "Communication.  Sharing.  Showing us what's inside; what made the man."

"You want to swap war stories?"  Donovan pulled his chin back in disbelief.

"We want to know if you went through what you put us through."  Cody looked around at the others for support.  "Don't we, guys?"

Monica shrugged, pursing her lips.  Jake fidgeted and gave a half-laugh as if not sure of the advisability of Cody's pushing buttons, but Alex was watching Frank carefully, her ice-blue gaze interested in the response.  They were all curious about their boss, but the others didn't bother to push him like Cody dared, as if they were afraid of what they'd stir.  Alex wasn't afraid of him though.  In fact, Cody suspected the two were developing a bond.  Not sexual or anything like that.  Just kindred spirits finding each other.

"Yes," said Alex, standing up straighter.  "I think we do.  Did you ever have to subject yourself to the uneasiness of being in a position like we were the other night?  Vulnerable, physically and mentally, ignorant of your fate and wondering if you could pull yourself through it alive."

Donovan turned his gaze on Alex and Cody frowned at the compassion he thought he saw there.  Could it be possible?  The ice-man had feelings and showed them, even briefly, maybe unguardedly?

Frank raised his chin as if testing the air, then shrugging, stretched himself back into the chair, crossing his ankles and folding his arms.

"In '92," he began, "in San Vicente del Caguan, I was working with the Columbian military, collecting data on guerrilla movements in the demilitarized zone for the CIA with the Columbian Government's approval.  There was a skirmish, one of many, and I was separated from the main army garrison.  I had to make my own way but I was captured by the very guerrillas I was observing – not hard to do, considering they knew the area around San Vicente like their back yard.  It was their back yard."

Cody was impressed.  This was the first time Donovan had ever strung more than three sentences together, let alone given them insight into his work.  Monica had closed her laptop and Jake and Alex had moved to the end of the table and taken seats.  They were hoping for more too.

"My hastily devised cover as a wandering tradesman, seeking work wherever I could get it, was perceived with suspicion.  There was no way for them to verify I was who I said I was and so they had no option but to kill me or take me prisoner.  Around that time, the FARC was already twenty percent female; it's now up to forty percent.  I had no value to them dead or alive and so was given to the women for sport; stripped so that my clothes could be added to their store, then given a loin-cloth to cover myself and a branch yoke to wear on my shoulders.  I was chained to a tree by day while the women trained with the men, and then I was harassed at night for amusement."

Cody swallowed the lump in this throat.  He didn't want to ask what form the harassment took.  He didn't need to.  

"I had no sense of how long I was with them until I'd escaped.  Days became weeks and weeks melded into months.  I had nothing to occupy my mind except planning ways to escape; all of which were thwarted."  He leaned forward in his chair and hunched his back.  "I was beaten for my efforts more times than I can remember, but I still kept trying."  Donovan looked at each one in turn, his mouth set in a grim line.  "Shall I go on?"

"You eventually succeeded," said Monica quietly, nodding encouragement.

"Only with help."

"One of the women took pity on you and let you go," ventured Alex.

"That would make it a nice ending, Alex," he said, voice clipped and Cody heard bitterness punch through.  "No part of my experience there was nice."

"What happened?"  asked Jake.

"One of the field commanders became jealous; considered his woman was getting too attached to me, or not giving him enough.  Either way, he blamed me and wanted me killed."  

Cody snorted and then could have hit himself.  He didn't want to stop Frank's flow, but the big guy was watching Jake.  

"Like in all hierarchy," Donovan continued, "the dirty work gets handed down the line.  He gave the job to one of his lower combatants, who, fortunately for me, was not as loyal as he should have been."

Jake squirmed in his seat and Cody knew he was remembering an earlier balling out.

"Resenting being given the job of eliminating the vermin, he in turn delegated it to one of the women."   Donovan looked to Alex and smiled, but there was no amusement in it.  She stared back, unblinking.

"Her orders were to execute me in the jungle – they didn't believe in soiling their own yards – but she let her guard down and I was able to overpower her."  

Alex's coffee cup clattered on the table, catching Cody's attention.  She was blushing.  Alex, blushing?  But why?  And Frank was avoiding her gaze now.  All their gazes.  Oh, jeez!  Cody shrank into his seat.  What had Frank been enduring for his captor to let her guard down?  

Donovan closed his eyes.  "I'm not proud of what happened."  

Cody felt a sense of terrible expectation and Frank's voice had gone so quiet, he had to strain to hear the rest.

"It was a fight to the death.  I was weakened by my months of captivity and had to fight dirty.  It was kill or be killed."  His hands flexed in his lap.  "I buried her, fired one shot from the rifle into the air so that her superior would think she had fulfilled the order and then plunged into the undergrowth and disappeared, finding my way back to the Columbian army three days later."  

Donovan stretched back in his chair and Monica, eyes wide, moved her hand toward him, then changed her mind and pulled back.

Donovan looked around at each of them in turn.  "Does that make me qualified to send my agents into the field with a clear conscience?"  

Cody nodded vigorously, his mouth open, eyes staring.  He'd got a lot more than he bargained for.  Jake and Alex had stirred and were going through the motions of making more coffee while Monica carefully opened her laptop to stare at the screen.  

Donovan swiped his face with the palms of his hands as if in weariness. 

Cody recognized that the last couple of days had been hard on him.  Teddy C and Frank had been close.  So close, Frank had been the one to give the eulogy at Teddy's funeral.   A sham of a funeral for a man who hadn't been dead.  But now, might as well be.

And to make matters worse, Cody had sniped at him in the ops van.  The whole thing felt trivial now.  

"We have communication issues," Cody had said, getting up from the chair that fronted the surveillance screens.  He'd walked over to Donovan, confronting the man while his agents were waiting for Dubinsky's henchmen to arrive.  "Our relationship consists of... 'Cody, do this...', 'Cody, patch me into that...’  I think you've got more inside of you than that.  You know what I'm after?"  Cody had poked Frank in the chest.  "The guy in here.  Second.  I feel  unchallenged.  I can use a worthy adversary.  I'm like Magic Johnson, without Larry Bird."

Frank had been distracted by the arrival of Dubinsky's goons; perhaps fortunately for Cody.  He had barely reacted except to look at Cody as if he were a fly hovering in front of him.  And then they'd gone blind and Jake's and Alex's safety was the only item on the agenda.

"This assignment was hell," Donovan added, dropping his head to stare at his linked fingers.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Do What You Have To – Part 2