Walker (Cordell Walker x Female!Reader)

The Deserters

James and Cassie are seated at a table in the safe house, watching the drone footage they got from the flash drive the other day. "So, what? Clay Cooper's been hiding for 20 years?" James asked.

"Maybe he wasn't hiding. Maybe he was captured and turned." Cassie suggested, right before Cordell enters with a file in hand. "Hey." He said, swiftly looking around like he was expecting the bogeyman to pop out at him.

"So I know we've gone down a dozen dead ends the last few days, but I found something, okay? I found something that connects the dots from the Clay Cooper I thought I knew to the Clay Cooper who very well might be the head of Grey Flag." He explains quickly, not giving himself a chance to take a breath.

"Yeah, it's just, it's a lot of dots to connect. Maybe we should look at other theories, not force it." James told him. "All the evidence points to this. I mean, every single Marine in our unit was targeted and murdered."

"So, you're still working from the premise that Coop went all Winter Soldier after he thought you guys left him for dead in Afghanistan?" Cassie asked. "I stopped trying to understand the why, and started trying to figure out the how." Cordell proclaimed, sternly.

"Walker, we've got two teams of FBI agents working day and night on this." James said. "I know that. I know. But they don't have the history with Coop that I do."

Flashback
A young, twenty-one year old Cordell is in a bar with his unit and few other soldiers, playing darts and completely dominating them. "There's no way he hit that." A drunk man said after Cordell hits the bullseye and walk up to the dart board to retrieve the darts.

"Wow. I don't know how, but you cheated." One of the men said, pointing at Cordell. "Fellas, if I'd known you threw darts as bad as you shoot an M..." Cordell said with a cocky grin.

Before a fight could break out, Cooper comes over to intervene. "What've you done now, Duke?" He asked, coming up beside the man. "Gentlemen, I apologize for whatever sort of antics Corporal Culpepper here's been up to, but I hope you boys will let him atone by buying y'all a round."

"Oorah!" The men cheer, very pleased to hear this. "PFC J.B. Hardage. Thank you for setting things right." The man said, shaking Cooper's hand. "No. Sergeant Fred Frausto. Don't mention it."

Present Day
"I heard Coop use that alias before... Fred Frausto. And when (Name) and I looked into it, we learned that a certain Fred Frausto booked a room in Kandahar four months after Coop's so-called death." Cordell explains.

"Okay. Beyond the possibility that he may have survived a few months after he was declared KIA, I'm not sure I see the relevance." James said and Cordell held up his index finger as he chuckles.

"(Name) and I connected that alias to a different one. One that rented a car here in Austin, last week." He announced. "Wait, wait, wait. A different alias?" Cassie asked, raising up from her chair.

"Yeah." Cordell replied, handing her the file he was holding. "So, Fred Frausto didn't rent a car in Austin?" Cassie asked, sounding a bit skeptical.

"No. But an alias connected to that one did. Okay, look, Coop kept his assets liquid, and he never used an alias for more than six months. But he still had to move his assets from one alias to the next." Cordell explains.

"So... you used forensic accounting to connect the aliases, followed the money every time he moved it to a new identity?" James said, standing up as well and walking around the table.

"Exactly. So once we established the connection, (Name) and I tracked down the names until we got a hit. That rental. Here in Austin." Cordell said, pointing down at the ground. "Okay. It's not bulletproof, but it's definitely actionable." James said.