Read #2 Shades of Gray: From Moscow, With Love Page 21

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  Hellenistic Sector, Unknown Vicinage...

  The Sanctum...

  The medical facility...

  The hum and beep of machines filled a room as Argus slept in a bed. The machines monitored his vitals as he recovered from a few cracked ribs, a black eye, a bullet through the leg, and numerous bruises. Two men walked in to visit him.

  "Is he still sleeping?" Maxwell the older of the two asked.

  Peters leaned over the bed, peered into Argus' battered face, and straightened. "Yeah, maybe we should come back later. He looks like he could use the rest."

  "No, stay." Argus slowly opened his eyes. "I've been wanting to talk with you two."

  Maxwell said, "You're awake." He moved to his side and sat in one of two chairs.

  "You wanted to talk to us? About what?" Peters asked and also sat.

  Argus tried to sit up, made a face for the pain, put a hand to his side, lay back, and waved the two men closer. They leaned in. "Pandora," Argus whispered. "What have you told the Council? Did you tell them she helped us escape from the T-3s?"

  Maxwell turned to Peters and nodded and then both men sat back. Peters removed his H.H.C., pulled up a program, ran the software, turned the volume up on the device, and nodded to Maxwell. Argus didn't hear any noise coming from the H.H.C.

  "If anyone is monitoring this room–" Maxwell started. "–they'll hear nothing but interference for the next few minutes, so we can talk freely."

  "As to your question..." Peters replied. "We never mentioned Pandora. We told them Maxwell managed to loosen his restraints enough to free himself, he set me free, and we helped you out of the Factory."

  "We did tell them about the Un-Man and the magnet," Maxwell added. "Mostly we were vague about the whole ordeal."

  "Good." Argus moved his hand back to his cracked ribs. "There's something I'd like you to do for me."

  "What?" both techs asked.

  "Go to the armory." Argus gritted his teeth as the pain killers started to wear off. "There's a gun I need you to requisition and after you receive it, there's something I want you two to do. You'll need to..."

  "Hades!" Peters started to protest, "We don't do that kind of..."

  "No, it's nothing like that," Argus interrupted. "What I want you to do is very simple." He looked over their clothes consisting of a white lab coat, blue jeans, and tennis shoes. "You'll both need to wear a black suit and tie."

  Puzzled, they glanced at one another, turned back to Argus, and asked, "What do we have to do?"