Captain Richard Northon was having a bad night. Two o’clock in the morning and Rick couldn’t get to sleep no matter how hard he tried.

  He’d gone the entire day seeing almost no one, other than the nurse that brought him three regular meals and who three times told him she knew nothing about Susan or the guard that was posted outside his door. That guy seemed to be taking his job very seriously, so much so that he didn’t even let Rick out of his room to stretch his legs a bit in the hallway, claiming time and again in a very professional manner that he was only following orders. Rick resorted to anything he could think of to make a chink in his watchdog’s unbreakable will—from threats to the most humiliating pleas to finally making a couple of not-well-thought-out attempts at blackmail. It was all in vain. The big oaf would have let himself be riddled with bullets before consenting to let Rick step foot out of the room. In the end, the captain ceased and desisted, and instead just walked in circles in his room.

  The pains in his chest had let up somewhat, considerably reducing the number of wincing, painful faces he was making, but his head seemed to have become quite fond of its state of dizziness. A general weakness had taken over his body. Though it didn’t seem to be localized anywhere in particular, all it took was two trips around the room to put him on the verge of exhaustion.

  Rick’s mood was worsening with the passing of the hours. The main reason was that Susan hadn’t come to see him all day, and there was no explanation for it. He couldn’t begin to guess the reason for her absence. The previous day she had stayed there with him, keeping him company well into the night. They’d had an enjoyable talk and Rick had managed to find out that Susan was single and unattached. When she retired for the night she promised him she would be back in the morning. While trying to fall asleep, he’d gone through in his head the conversation he’d have with Susan in the morning from all possible angles, trying to put together a repertoire of things he could say that would show him in a good light.

  He was still somewhat confused about what he felt for her, but he was very clear that, when they were together, he forgot about all the shady circumstances of his current situation. The fact was that, without her company, the vivid horrors of the preceding days made themselves at home in his mind all over again. He needed desperately to see her.

  At nightfall, his highly dedicated security guard finally retired from his post at the door when his relief arrived. Rick asked his new guard dog about Susan, but this one didn’t even bother answering. He had black, curly hair that fell down over his forehead and covered it completely. Too long for him to be in the army. Rick considered trying his luck with this new guy to see if he could get out of the room, but he was tired now. So instead he gave up and got into bed.

  He was getting fed up with of tossing and turning under the covers, chasing the ever-elusive sleep. He opened his eyes and all he could see were blurry patches. The hallway light came on and he heard the short and rhythmic sound of footsteps approaching —footsteps in high-heeled shoes—that stopped outside his door.

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  “I’ve come to see Captain Northon,” came a woman’s voice from the other side of the door. Rick wasn't sure he could hear clearly enough to identify the voice or be sure of what was being said. Even so, his heart began to race. “I’m his doctor.”

  “Kind of an odd time to be visiting patients,” stated the guard.

  The woman said something else Rick didn’t hear.

  The door opened and a blurry figure entered the room. Rick rubbed his eyes and looked again. It was definitely a woman judging by the slender figure. When she came over to his bed, he recognized her face. Rick was surprised by the giddiness he was feeling and was determined to mask it.

  “Susan?” Rick sat up in bed. “I expected to see you in the mor—”

  Susan covered his mouth with her hand.

  “Quiet,” she ordered.

  Rick heard the severity in her voice and alarms went off in his head.

  “Gordon has announced to the press that ninety-two soldiers and eight civilians died fending off an attack on a town in the North.” Susan carefully took her hand off Rick’s mouth. “Does that number mean anything to you? I see from the look on your face it does. And yes, your name was on the list of the fallen.”

  “That bastard! I knew he was up to something. What are they planning to do to me?”

  “They don’t want you to tell anyone anything about the portal. They want you silenced for good.”

  She forcefully pushed her hand against his chest, causing him to fall back. Pain coursed through his torso; he couldn’t believe this was happening. In what way could she be connected to Gordon? And why was she attacking him? He fought to get her arm off him, but he was still weak, and his reflexes were dulled by the disorienting effects of the medications.

  “Damn it!” thought Rick. “And you’re supposedly some great soldier? Shut out the pain and concentrate.”

  Susan lifted her right hand and Rick saw a syringe coming directly at him. She stuck it in his neck and Rick felt a cold liquid shooting into his bloodstream. The icy fluid flowed quickly throughout his body. A spasm shot up his spine and he saw his chest rise as his spinal cord arched involuntarily. He could feel his heart beating so forcefully that it hurt.

  Something moved quickly beside him. A sheet was thrown over his body and he felt his hand hitting against the metal bars on the side of the bed.

  The room spun around him and he saw the door approaching his feet. He felt and heard a thud and the bed vibrated; the door opened and Rick saw his feet crossing through the doorway.

  “What’s going on here, Doctor?” questioned the guard. “I clearly told you this man cannot leave the room.”

  “He’s in distress,” Susan explained, her voice full of urgency. “He’s convulsing and he’s going to suffer a heart attack. I need to take him to the third floor. Inform them to have unit three open when we get there.”

  Rick was following the conversation as if it were getting to him with a two second delay. The idea of alerting the guard that Susan had injected him with something struck him but his mouth remained tightly closed due to the convulsions.

  “I don’t care what time it is!” shouted the security guard into the mouthpiece of the phone hanging on the wall. “Open unit three right now. It’s an emergency.”

  The fluorescent lights on the ceiling flew by over Rick’s eyes. Two people were running on either side of him. He raised his head up a little and caught sight of the elevator door which was getting bigger by the second. A thud shook the bed again. He heard the sound of the metal doors sliding closed behind him and saw the worried expressions of Susan and the guard reflected in the mirror in the back of the elevator. The guard reached out his hand and pressed a button. Rick felt like his body was being crushed against the bed.