CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-TWO

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-TWO
MELO
I wake up to bright overhead lights. I lift my hands to shield my eyes from the light and I hear voices and movement in the background. The light dims and Travis and Rogue are by my side.
"Great. You're back to the land of the living." Rogue says.
"Yeah, you're a hard man to get rid off." Travis adds with a laugh.
"How long was I out?" I ask.
"A little over twenty hours. A doctor patched you up on the plane."
Patched up is the right word. I feel like all my bones have been broken and glued back together.
"Find me a phone. I have to talk to Isabella."
The door opens and everything in the room shifts. An older man walks in, leather jacket on, controlled expression, and a tooth pick.
"I'm afraid that's not going to be possible just yet, Mr. Rossi."
I stare at him. I don’t like him already. He reminds me of the DA. There's just something about him.
"Why not?"
"I'm afraid we can't let you talk to anyone on the outside until we're done with debriefing you. I'm Phoenix," he says, extending his hand. “I’m in charge of your case.”
"When are we starting the debrief? I want to talk to my wife."
Today is the day I usually check in with Isabella. I don't want her worrying about me more than she's worrying.
“We’ll get to that,” he says. “We'll just have our physician take a look at you and ask you a few questions to determine your mental capacity.”
Silence settles over the room. Mental capacity? I laugh once. Dry. Humorless.
“No. Either get the debrief started or let me see my wife. I'm fine."
"Mr. Rossi, I didn't see you before the mission but I'm familiar with your work. Let me assure you that your brand of stubbornness will not work here. We will not move an inch untill a physician has taken a look at you."
From the corner of my eye, I see Rogue shaking his head slightly at me. A signal to not engage the Agent.
I try to sit up. The back of my shoulder, where I was shot, hurts so sitting up is a bit hard but I do it without groaning in pain.
"Well, we'll just have to see. Won't we?"
The agent watches me silently for a few seconds before he turns to Rogue. "Convince your friend, Mr. Knightly. The more time he wastes, the more time you spend here."
Rogue stands straighter and looks him in the eye. "The man said he's fine. Let's do the debrief and then we can all leave."
Agent Phoenix looks from Rogue to me then back to Rogue. He finally turns to Travis who shrugs. He grits his teeth and sighs.
"Alright. I'll allow it. If you can stand, please make your way outside, somebody will bring you to the conference room."
He walks out and Rogue shakes his head at me. "That was stupid. Now he's going to make torturing you his new favourite pastime."
"I don't want doctors. I just want to do this shit and leave."
"Hopefully, you didn't fuck up your chance of leaving soon." Travis says.

I fucked up my chance of leaving soon. Travis and Rogue went in separate rooms to be debriefed and I was made to wait outside for them to finish. At first I thought it was because all the agents on hand are with them, but when Agent Phoenix passed by me twice with a donut in hand, I realized it was on purpose.
Shit, the agent is fucking with me on purpose. He didn't like the way I spoke to him. After Travis and Rogue come out, I wait two more hours before I'm finally summoned.
The debriefing feels like a slow kind of torture. Questions. Details. Timelines. What do I remember? Who was with me? What happened before the ambush? What part did I play in taking down the Rebellion?
I answer carefully and calmly, making sure to provide details of everything. Just when I think that we are done, Agent Phoenix walks in and starts the debrief from the beginning.
I know he expects me to get angry but I force myself to stay calm. Getting into it with him here will be foolish. After the second round of questions, Agent Phoenix yawns and scratches his beard.
"I think we should do it once more. So we're sure he's sure if the facts that he's presenting."
All the other agents agree and I bite down hard on my tongue to keep quiet.
We start again and I keep my voice level, making sure not to show my frustration. I get it, he's in charge and I should fall in line. We finally finish and everyone leaves.
"Can I speak to my wife now?" I ask.
"Sure. Just as soon as those physicians take a look at you."
I exhale slowly. "I'm fine. I walked here from the room. I've had two hours to be fine."
"It's not my fault. It's just standard procedure. You can only talk to your wife once you get off this ship and you can only get off this ship once you have been cleared by our physicians."
How big is the ship that I didn't realise that we're on a ship? If we're on a ship this big, it means that we're alone at sea. I really can't leave here without his say so.
"That's fine. How soon can the physician see me?" I ask.
"Well, since you were so stubborn earlier, the physicians went home. You'll have to stay here until tomorrow when they return."
I nod and turn to return to the room I was in earlier. I need to put distance between the both of us. If he breaths too much right now, I might put him in the ground.
"So you really won't open your mouth to apologise?" He asks behind me.
"Goodbye, agent Phoenix." I say, still walking away.
I hear him nutter "it's just Phoenix and I smile."
In the room, Travis and Rogue are seated on the bed talking.
"What the fuck took you so long? You're the one who said you wanted to leave soon." Travis says as soon as I come in.
"Agent Phoenix wanted to chat."
"It's just Phoenix. I hope you didn't call him Agent Phoenix." Rogue says and I shrug.
"We're not leaving today, that's for sure. He outrightly asked for an apology and I couldn't get myself to say it. He now claims that all the doctors in this ship have left and will be back tomorrow."
Rogue groans and falls back on the bed.
"You're a good partner to have on a mission, Rossi, but you're a terrible person to be trapped with."
Travis dry heaves and we turn to him. "You shouldn't have told me we're on a ship. I don't do well on ships."
I sigh and shake my head. The man can climb the tallest buildings and shoot a feather three miles away but he can't be on a ship. That's just unfair.