Hard to Break by Michael Ledwidge

Author:Michael Ledwidge
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hanover Square Press
Published: 2022-11-16T20:00:43+00:00

49

Gannon looked up to see the morose waiter was back. He had a decanter in his hands. The soft yellow light flickered off its faceted crystal surface as he made an inquisitive gesture with it at Gannon’s glass. Gannon nodded heartily. Boy, could he use a drink.

The filled wineglass was heavier than he expected. He put it to his lips. Holy smokes, he thought, blinking rapidly. It was ridiculously good. It was blackberry fruity yet...something rich and complexly satisfying. Something silky...expensive.

“Wow, this wine is incredible,” he said, looking at it.

“Oh, yes, isn’t it? Bordeaux,” Jimmy said with a proud look. “I had them select something special from my wine cellar to welcome you. For you, Mike. Seulement le meilleur. Only the best.”

“That was nice of you, Jimmy. Thanks,” Gannon said, taking a very long sip.

“You do like it,” Jimmy said, chuckling.

“It’s about the tastiest wine I think I’ve ever had,” Gannon said, wiping his mouth with the back of his only free hand.

The waiter, standing at attention behind him in the corner, took up his empty glass and expertly filled it again. Then he returned to the corner and stood there still as a piece of furniture.

“Oh, you’ll like it here then, Mike. Tasty wine is a priority around here. I have vintages of claret that date back to the turn of the previous century.”

Gannon studied the new Jimmy across the table as he took a dainty sip of his vino.

Things change all right, he thought. The last time they drank together in their FOB hootch in Iraq, he remembered Jimmy shotgunning a full PBR tallboy with a Bic ballpoint pen before letting out a Jurassic belch.

Gannon smiled, already feeling a bit of a buzz.

“Can I ask you a question, Jimmy?” Gannon said.

“Yes, Mike. Sure.”

“How the hell did you get out of Iran?”

Jimmy’s goofy expression evaporated instantly as he stared down.

“They did experiments on me,” he said.

“What?”

He nodded.

“For years,” he said. “One of them screwed me up so bad, I got sepsis. I was on death’s door, so they transferred me to some shithole hospital somewhere. I think it was in Pakistan. When I woke up a few days later, I was in another hospital in Turkey. The Company had negotiated a secret deal where they sent back a top guy from Hamas for me.”

Gannon wondered about that.

“Whoa,” he said. “That had to have been a happy surprise. You just woke up and you were free. A miracle.”

“Yes. That’s exactly what it was. I owe the Company so much. They brought me back. They took me to a hospital in Belarus. It took me a year to fully recover. They said I could just go home or I could get another identity. I would have chosen to go home, of course, but it was almost five years later, and Joyce had remarried by then. She married a doctor. They had just had twin girls. With my two boys that made four. They showed me pictures. They all looked really happy.”

Despite

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