Chapter 11 - WALTER'S MISSING YEAR
Walter insisted he had never made the recording.
Margaret disagreed.
"You don't remember 1984."
Walter became angry.
"I remember enough."
"No. You remember what they let you keep."
After Night Glass, Walter underwent treatment for blast injuries, sleep deprivation, and what military doctors called acute stress.
He spent months in a classified recovery program.
Margaret claimed experimental memory-interview techniques were used.
Not science-fiction mind erasure.
Drugs.
Repeated questioning.
Sleep disruption.
Suggestion.
Walter remembered pieces.
White rooms.
A tape recorder.
Raymond Cole visiting once.
Walter hated how melodramatic it sounded.
Margaret hated it too.
"Ugly things are often boring while they're happening."
The newer recording was dated 1984.
Walter's voice warned himself about Cole.
Then said:
"If I start trusting him again, it means they got what they wanted."
Walter sat perfectly still.
Daniel asked:
"What did they want?"
The tape answered.
"For me to forget that Raymond was the one who ordered us to leave Thomas behind."
Walter stood.
"No."
Margaret said nothing.
"No. Raymond was a lieutenant."
"He carried an order from higher command."
Walter remembered a young man shouting over helicopter rotors.
Go.
Go now.
He had thought Raymond was saving the team.
Maybe he had been.
Maybe not.
Then Walter's phone rang.
Raymond Cole.
Walter stared at the name.
Forty-four years of silence.
Now a call.
He answered.
Raymond said:
"Walter, whatever Thomas left you, don't listen to Margaret Shaw."
Walter looked at Margaret.
"Why?"
Raymond's voice cracked.
May you like
"Because Margaret is the reason Thomas never came home."
