Chapter Twenty-Six - Depression
"Give me another one Rick."
Dave sat up and gently slammed his empty scotch glass on the wooden bar, demanding another round of the alcoholic beverage. He'd been at the sleazy bar for hours, tossing back various drinks the bartender would serve him. He began to feel slightly impaired from the liquid drug he'd been consuming for the better half of the day.
"Here ya go Dave." The rough-looking barkeep gave the depressed agent a refill of the drink he'd been sporadically sipping on for the past hour. Dave particularly enjoyed scotch. It was strong and bitter, just like he liked it. He went to the bank earlier and withdrew $100 from his dwindling savings, his only source of money at the moment. He'd spent about a quarter of it already on booze. By night's end he'd expected to have spent it all in the small, deserted bar.
"Thanks." Dave grunted.
"You know Dave? I think you should slow down. Your chugging down those drinks like there's no tomorrow."
"Don't fucking lecture me Rick." Dave replied coldly.
"I'm not. I'm just giving you advice. Stop while you're ahead."
Dave rolled his eyes. "Whatever."
Dave began to play with his glass, swirling it around, spilling tiny bits of scotch on the bar. He and 3 other patrons were inside the freezing bar. 2 of them were playing pool while the 3rd sat contently in one of the booths against the window. One of the men playing pool asked Dave to join them but he declined frostily.
Dave looked at his watch. It was 7:34PM this Wednesday night.
"Ugh fuck Wednesdays" He said to himself. Dave always hated Wednesdays. The association developed when Dave was a child. His mother made him attend a special math class after school on Wednesdays. He hated it.
Dave put his glass down and begin to think about The Unit.
'A covert group of psychic operatives and law enforcement agents investigating the strange and paranormal...that's Insane.'
He didn't quite understand what the goal or purpose of the clandestine group was but he didn't care as much.
Dave had to debrief tomorrow before he would be officially discharged. He was worried that the blonde French-Canadian Maryse would be the one to debrief him. He didn't want anything to do with her as his experiences with her were less than pleasant.
He also thought about Kelencine, their company and the founders, the little bits of info he knew about them and what they ultimately were up to.
'It's just all too weird. I mean c'mon...'
Dave continued to sip on his scotch when he heard the bar door open behind him. He paid no attention to the person walking inside, instead keeping his focus on the glass cup before him. He kept his head down and managed to flood his mind yet again with extreme guilt and anguish.
"Mind if I join you?" The newest patron of the bar asked.
'That voice...'
Dave swirled around and saw Priya standing behind him.
"Priya..." Dave managed to choke out. His eyes were wide with surprise and confusion.
'What's she doing here?'
"Well, may I join you?"
"Oh um sure...yeah."
The tall and slender woman gracefully sat in the high-up bar stool next to Dave.
"Can I get a club soda please?" She kindly asked the bartender.
"Club soda, coming up." Rick replied.
Priya turned her attention back to Dave, who hung his head low.
"How are you doing Dave?" She asked quietly.
"Fine." Dave answered.
"Are you sure? You don't look OK to me."
"Everything is just peachy."
"I wish I could believe that but unfortunately I can't. Dave...Why did you leave our organization, the Unit?"
Dave kept silent for a while and then sighed.
"Because I'm not a good fit for it. It's just not me OK?"
"Try again." She said coldly.
"What?" Dave asked, taken aback at the tone of the woman.
"That's not the real reason is it? Well, at least not the deciding factor. I believe you left because you still feel guilt, guilt about your partner?"
"Listen Priya. I don't want to talk to you about—"
"Dave you should come back. Having someone like you on the team would be beneficial. Besides it's what you love doing right? Putting the bad guys away?"
"But that's not all you guys do is it?" Dave growled. "I've been thinking. There's no way a group like yours doesn't do any side projects or experiments or whatnot. I mean look at that torture chair that Topher has. There's more going on than you guys are letting on. I don't like secrets. Tell me what the hell is up with 'your organization'. What are you guys really doing?"
"You're right Dave. You're absolutely right. We do more than just solve crimes of a normal nature. We also...we investigate strange and paranormal events..."
Dave swallowed hard and looked intensely into Priya's eyes.
"What do you mean?"
"Well—" Priya stopped short as Rick delivered her drink. "Thank you." She said to the smiling man.
"You're welcome. We don't get too many pretty ladies in here like you hehe." Rick winked at Priya and walked to the back."
"Gross..." Priya replied as soon as the filthy barkeep was out of sight.
"You were saying?" Dave added.
"Have you ever heard of 'Fringe Science'?"
Dave looked puzzled. "What?"
"Fringe Science. It's the study of 'unusual things', science fiction type stuff."
"You mean like mind control, doppelgangers, and the singularity?" Dave was a big science fiction fanatic as a child.
"Yeah, those things."
"This just keeps getting weirder by the minute..."
"Yes I know but it's the tru-"
"Wait a minute!" Dave interrupted. He jumped out of his seat and startled Priya "How the hell did you know where I was?"
"This." Priya reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a series of sketches on large beige paper. She handed them to Dave. He began to look at them and gasped at what he saw.
On one of the sketches showed a large, muscular man appearing sad and upset. The man appeared to be Dave. He looked at the other sketches. He showed the man walking into a bar and drinking large amounts of drinks.
"Is this supposed to be me?" Dave asked nervously.
"Yes Dave, it's you. I drew these this morning. I didn't know what they meant until Lincoln told me what happened earlier today."
"You talked to Lincoln?" Dave asked concerned. Priya nodded. He turned his attention back to the sketches.
Dave continued to stare at the drawings. They were very good and life-like. The details were amazing.
"The GPS tracker Division installed in your vehicle lead me here."
"What? They put a tracker on me?"
"They do that to new recruits for a few months. We are a very secretive group Dave. They will remove it tomorrow."
Dave grunted and handed the sketches back to the psychic artist.
"So what? You have these drawings of me. You do you want from me?"
"I want you to come back."
"No. That's not gonna happen. You might as well just leave right now."
"I'm not going anywhere Dave. Not until you hear me out."
Dave sighed and shot Priya an irritated glance.
"Fine."
"Listen Dave, There's something you should know about Lincoln."
Dave began to stir. He was eager to know what Priya wanted to tell him about Lincoln.
"What about him? Is something wrong?"
"No, nothing's wrong. He's fine."
Dave breathed a sigh of relief.
"Lincoln likes you."
Dave's heart skipped a beat.
"He what?"
"He likes you Dave. There's something about you that he likes. A few months ago Lincoln and his then handler were involved in a car accident. His handler died. They were close. Since then he's been depressed and refuses to have another handler assigned to him. Then one day out of the blue you come around and...well he likes you. He wants you to be his new handler. You should have heard the way he talked about you after you two met yesterday. He was beaming."
Dave was at a loss for words. Did Lincoln really feel that way? Did he really like him?
"He never told me any of this." Dave replied.
"How could he? You guys only met just yesterday."
"Yeah you right..."
"Listen. Lincoln is a great guy to get to know. He's my best friend and I want to see him happy. Apparently being paired with you makes him happy. And I like you also. Please reconsider coming back."
Dave thought for a long time before answering Priya
"I can't."
"You're not a liability Dave if that's what you think."
"You don't know what I think."
"Then tell me. Please."
"I can't put Lincoln's life in danger OK? If I'm his handler, I might do something reckless like last time and..."
Priya placed her hands gently on top of Dave's.
"I can't think of no one better to protect Lincoln than you Dave. Besides he's a handful. He'll need someone like you to balance him out."
Priya pulled out another sketched from her purse and handed it to Dave. He looked at it and smiled.
"You two look very happy in that drawing."
The sketched showed Lincoln and Dave hugging and laughing together in a park.
Dave felt himself about to tear up before Priya's phone ranged.
"Hello?"
"Priya its Topher. We got a serious emergency."
"OK OK Topher. Calm down. Hold on a minute OK?"
Priya got up from her barstool and headed towards the door. Dave went after her.
"What's going on?" Dave asked as they got outside.
"Let me put him on speaker." Priya put her phone on speaker mode so Dave could here Topher.
"Topher what's up?" Dave asked.
"DAVE? Is that you?"
"Yes dumbass now what's going on?"
"Oh yes. Its Lincoln. He might be in dancer."
"What do you mean?" Dave inquired.
"OK well I found out something today. I learned that both victims had severe headaches before being murdered. This was after the fact though."
"After what fact?" Priya asked.
Topher fell silent.
"TOPHER!" Dave yelled.
"After Lincoln went home early. After complaining of severe headaches."
...