Intervention | NaNoWriMo 2018

Chapter 4 - An Unexpected Encounter

Lincoln woke with a start as he started coughing. His body convulsed as he coughed for what seemed like an eternity, hacking up phlegm almost as quickly as he could get rid of it. Once the coughing ceased, he let out a groan and collapsed back onto his pillow. His abdomen ached, and the dull pain from the gunshot wound throbbed with every heartbeat. Where am I?

After catching his breath, he struggled to an upright position as he strained to see beyond the confines of his bed. On both, various medical instruments beeped at regular intervals, displaying his vital signs. There was a faint smell of cleaning products in the dimly lit room. Is this a hospital?

A cough from a corner of the room caught his attention.

"Who's there?" he croaked.

A dark figure, seated in a visitor's chair, stood up and approached Lincoln. The heart rate monitor's beeping increased in frequency as Lincoln grabbed the railing of the bed and pushed himself upright, straining to identify the shadow.

"Who are you? Where am I?" Lincoln said, this time louder.

The figure touched the light controls on the wall as it approached, and as the shadows dispersed, Lincoln let out a sigh of relief.

"Commander Hamil. I wasn't expecting you," Lincoln said, relaxed and leaned back onto the pillow.

Hamil smiled and nodded as his bright blue eyes held Lincoln's with an unyielding determination. He ran a hand over his bald head and sighed.

"I could say the same about you, Lincoln."

"Sir?"

Hamil gestured towards Lincoln and the medical instruments around him. "I don't recall the mission parameters calling for any injuries on your part."

Lincoln sighed. "It didn't quite go according to plan."

Hamil stared at Lincoln, his face expressionless. "The mission failed?"

Lincoln looked down on his hands for a moment and swallowed hard. This was a conversation he had not expected to have with his commander, nor was it a conversation anyone had ever told him how to handle. He looked up at Hamil and nodded.

"Yes, sir, the mission failed. The primary target was not eliminated."

Hamil grunted and ran his hand over his head again, followed by a deep sigh. He pulled up a chair next to the bed and sat down.

"I knew something was wrong when we had to retrieve you," he said as his eyes locked with Lincoln's again. "What happened?"

Lincoln hesitated, then walked Hamil through the events that led up to him waking up in the apartment and his rush to get to the extraction point.

"When I saw the headline we used to calculate the insertion point, I thought I was dead," he said and looked up at Hamil. "I thought maybe I would be able to make a difference because I was there, you know."

Hamil shook his head. "That's not how it works. Besides, that wasn't your mission. Take out the primary target and extract. That was it. I warned you not to get involved with any other parts of society to avoid risking unexpected changes in the timeline."

Lincoln nodded. "Yes, yes, I remember. I did nothing that affected the outcome of the impact."

Hamil remained quiet for a moment. "That's not quite true, Lincoln."

"I don't understand," Lincoln said and cocked his head.

"Well, you're here, aren't you?"

"Yes?"