Chapter 4: David

Over an hour later, Tyler pulled up in front of a small concrete building at the far end of Amherst.

“Is this it?” Jay asked incredulously.

“Doesn't look like much, does it? Pull around behind that tree.”

They got out of the car and went to the back door of the building.

“What is this place?” Tyler wondered, peering in through a foggy window.”

“We call it 'center point'.” Will grunted, pulling a key from a chain around his neck and unlocking the door. “This is where NASA used to store a lot of their outdated equipment. It's not on the map, so my bosses took advantage of the location about ten years ago, and it's been used as a halfway point ever since.” Will explained.

"Why this place? Why not a normal building?"

"Because we want to avoid being discovered by civilians or enemies. If someone stumbles across this building, they won't find anything linking us to it. We don't keep any equipment or anything here."

Tyler walked through the door and stared in interest. “This is all?”

“Yep.” Will said, pushing a wooden sheet over one of the windows.

Tyler was interested by the building they had just entered. It was a single room, about 2000 square feet of concrete floor and walls. Shelves, covered in plastic sheeting, stood as high as the ceiling and stretched from the front wall to the back. Wooden sheets were pulled over a few of the windows, concealing its walls from the outside world.

“We'll just wait until David gets here.”

“I'm here.” A voice said quietly from one of the shelves.

Will put his hand on his gun and turned around.

“Relax, it's me.”

A young, dark haired man put his hands up and grinned, stepping around the corner. Will put his hand down and nodded towards his friends.

“David. Good to see you. This is Tyler Fogg and Jay Burchell.”

The young, dark haired man nodded curtly and shook Tyler's hand.

Will leaned against a wall and pressed his hand on his side; he'd been on his feet too long already. Jay stepped towards David and shook his hand.

“David Crubell. Nice to meet you.” David said.

Tyler nodded a little as he shook David's hand, but said nothing.

David's dark eyes were soft and thoughtful as he seemed to peer straight into Tyler Fogg's soul. He stood a couple inches above Tyler, but his thick curls seemed to add at least another inch to his height; his behavior expressed care and power at the same time.

He turned to Will, who straightened and shook his hand with an air of familiarity.

“It's been a while.” Will said.

He swayed and stumbled forward, and David caught him gently.

"Hey, Will! Woah." 

Will shook his head blearily and straightened. 

"Sorry. I'm fine."

"No he's not!" Jay protested.

"What's going on?" David inquired.

“He got shot two days ago, hasn't stopped fainting since.” Tyler muttered disdainfully, sticking his hands in his pockets.

“We need to get you to my place quickly, Will."

"Jay's hurt too.” Will revealed.

“I'm fine.” Jay protested. “I just got hit in the head.”

“We'll take a look. Come with me.”

---

David unlocked the door to the large country home and pushed it wide open.

“Go on in.” he told Jay and Tyler. “I'm can bring Will.”

The house had a pleasant, homey air to it. The walls were painted in beautifully matched shades of spring green, yellow, and tan. Comfortable looking furniture filled the house. Paintings resembling the style of Vangouh were scattered on the walls, but not a single photograph of friends or family. David hadn't taken anything for granted.

The room that David led them into looked more like the room of a spy. It was the size of two or three bedrooms- a few walls had obviously been removed to expand it- and it was filled with important-looking file cabinets and computers. About a third of the space was empty, and the back wall was a simple metal panel.

David walked to a computer that stood next to the doorway.

“Watch this.” he said smugly.

He typed a series of commands into the system, and the metal panel moved away from the wall. It was a whole room in itself. Inside, it looked like a hospital room. Two folded beds were in the corner, and plenty of supplies were stacked up in inner shelves; shelves built into the walls of the room.

“Cool.” Jay said.

“I know, right?” David said. “Best part of my job's all the technology.”

The beds were pulled away from the walls, Will was laid in one; Jay sat on the edge of the other.

David tended to Will's wound while Tyler found a damp cloth and washed the blood out of Jay's hair.

“Ow."

"Good grief, Jay, hold still." Tyler said angrily.

“Are you alright, Mr. Burchell?” David asked as we walked across the room.

Jay nodded, glancing behind David at Will, who was already asleep...or unconscious."

“I'm fine.” he winced. “Is Will going to be okay?”

“Here, let me help you with that.” David took the roll of bandages from Tyler and started

wrapping it around Jay's head.

“I hope so. He's lost a lot of blood.”

Jay yelped as Tyler helped him out of his jacket.

“Let me look.” David requested.

His dark eyes clouded as Jay removed his shirt.

“Ugh.” Tyler grimaced. "That looks awful."

David bent and looked closer at the series of bruises covering Jay's chest.

“Well?” Tyler watched anxiously.

“Hang on.” David muttered.

“Yeah, those ribs are broken. At least three, I'm guessing.” David said. “Let's get you some padding and ice.”

“What about Will?” Jay asked.

“I'm keeping him sedated. He needs it.”

“How well do you know each other?” Jay asked.

“Well,” David opened a drawer. “we met almost 7 years ago right after I was enlisted. We've kept in contact, but since I rarely am on the field, we didn't see each other very often.”

“Yeah, Jay. Don't you remember Will telling us that? Are you feeling okay?” Tyler bent down and looked at Jay's eyes.

“I'm in pain, and I'm dizzy, but I'm not crazy. I remember...I've also gotten pretty good at telling when people are lying.”

“Don't our stories match? What makes you think I'm lying?” David wondered calmly as he strapped the pads to Jay's ribcage.

“I don't know, you both just got this different look in your eyes when you greeted each other.”

“We're friends. Plus, if we were lying, our stories wouldn't match.” David shrugged.

"Jay, that's a little ridiculous, don't you think? Thinking that someone is lying by the look in their eyes?"

"It's not ridiculous. It's why I went to school to become a lawyer. It's an important part of the job, I think."

"We're not lying." David said.

“Unless you're actually good spies and you made sure that the lie you each told matched.” Jay stared at him. “What are you two hiding?”

“Well, I'd love to enlighten you, but we're not hiding anything.”

Jay closed his eyes.

“Jay?” Tyler put his hand on his friend's shoulder, then jumped back as Jay vomited across the room.

“Concussion.” David said, going to a drawer and pulling out a syringe. “This willl make you feel better.”

Jay wiped his mouth and moaned.

“Sorry.”

“Not your fault.” David injected the syringe into the iv tube.

Jay watched blearily as David wiped the mess off the floor and put away the syringes, and soon his eyes closed and he relaxed against the pillow.

“I still think you're lying about you and Will.” Tyler said, as they went out of the room.