***
The nurse rolled Todd to his side and checked the bandages on his back. He could feel the tape peeling off his skin and the air brush across the punctures from the hooks. The nurse gave a few approving groans, while he heard Emma gasp, and then the nurse taped the bandages back in place.
“So far so good, Mr. Penn,” the nurse said. “We’ll probably only keep you here another day, and you should be free to go.”
Emma, who hadn’t left his side, gave him a kiss on the cheek as the nurse disappeared. Free to go. It was a simple phrase, one Todd hadn’t heard in a long time.
“How are you feeling?” Emma asked.
“I’m good.”
Todd forced a smile and then kissed Emma’s hand. All of it seemed too surreal. The Coalition was gone, he was alive, his wife was alive, and now they could continue their work, finish what they started and begin the process of rebuilding what they’d lost.
But Todd knew that, unlike the cuts on his back, there were some wounds that would never heal. He was alive, but his daughter wasn’t. Of all his failures, of all his fallacies, that was the one that haunted him most.
“What’s wrong?” Emma asked.
“Nothing. I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not fine. What is it?”
He looked into the face of his wife, searching for the life raft in the endless ocean he was struggling to stay afloat in. In those eyes he’d always found solace.
“It took me too long,” Todd said, his lips quivering and his face twitching in anticipation of the tears trying to make their way down his cheeks.
“What did?”
“To save our daughter.”
Emma wrapped her arms around Todd, and he buried his face into her shoulder. His hands dug into her back and hung on for dear life as wave after wave of sobs escaped him. Three years of grief poured out of him, anguish-filled moments he’d kept to himself in private filled the small hospital room, where the one person who understood and felt the same type of pain was with him.
It wasn’t fair. That was a phrase he hadn’t let himself utter in all the time since the beginning of the journey he set himself on. With everything he needed to accomplish, there wasn’t any room for self-pity. But now, sitting at the end of the road, his resolve had finally broken.
It wasn’t fair that their daughter died. It wasn’t fair that they couldn’t mourn properly. It wasn’t fair that all of their work had been taken from them. It wasn’t fair that they had suffered so much. It wasn’t fair that they had to experience so much pain.
Todd cried into Emma’s shoulder until the well ran dry. Once he was done, he wiped his tears until the red, puffy eyes were the only pieces of evidence that remained of his sobbing.
Emma placed one hand on each of his cheeks and looked him dead in the eyes to make sure he heard her. “You did not fail.”
Todd grabbed hold of that life raft, and he felt his body relax. That’s how the two of them had made it this far. Whenever one of them needed the pillar of strength to grab hold of, the stronger partner allowed them to hang on. Neither of them would have survived if they didn’t have each other. He didn’t have to struggle against the ocean currents alone.
A knock at the door broke their embrace, and Todd gave a smile as Nelson, and Luis walked into the room. “Hey, guys.”
“How are you feeling?” Nelson asked.
“Better. I’m glad you guys made it out all right. How’s everyone else back at the community doing?”
“Good,” Nelson said. “It was only another day before Luis showed up after you were taken. Ray’s still in surgery, but the doctors say he’ll make it out all right.”
“It’s good to see you alive and well, Todd,” Luis said, shaking Todd’s hand.
“I can’t thank you enough, Luis. We couldn’t have done this without you.”
“Hey, I’m just the muscle. You’re the brains. You just tell me where to show up, and I’m there.”
Another knock at the door turned the rest of their heads, and Admiral Frizen filled the doorframe. Luis immediately saluted, and Frizen waved him off. “At ease, Commander.” Frizen walked over to Todd’s bed and extended his hand. “It’s nice to finally meet you in person, Professor Penn.”
“I suppose it’s you I have to thank for all of this,” Todd said, gesturing around the private hospital room.
“Well, I wanted to make sure the greatest mind in the country had plenty of time to rest. And I see you’re making good use of it,” Frizen replied, smiling to the others in the room. “But I’m afraid this isn’t a social call, Professor. I had something I needed to discuss with you. We didn’t capture Gordon Reath during the raid in Topeka. We have people working on locating him now. But he did manage to erase all of your data, and he took a scientist with him who had been working on recreating your solution.”
“Where does he think he can go?” Luis asked.
“Our intelligence informed us that he has had several meetings with the Chinese president. We believe he’s going to exchange the professor’s work for amnesty in their country. Professor, I need to know the likelihood that the Chinese will be able to replicate your data into a viable solution.”
“Gordon has everything he needs. All it would take would be someone who had a solid background in biochemistry, and they’ll have what they want,” Todd answered.
“What’s the timeline we’re looking at?” Luis asked.
“NORAD is tracking any flights around the country, so we think he’s driving to the West Coast, where he’ll rendezvous with a Chinese group in twenty-four hours.”
“The West Coast is a big place,” Alex said. The entire room turned to look at him, and Luis had to grab Emma before she punched Alex in the face. “I think you’ll need all the help you can get.”