Michel glanced from Jean-Paul’s steady eyes to the body of his friend and copilot on the floor. “What the fuck are you doing, Jean-Paul? I will have you court-martialed for this.” He wrenched at Jean-Paul’s hand once more and called out to his colleague with mounting anger and concern, “Etienne? Etienne, are you all right?”

The other man did not move, and Michel became enraged. Ignoring the extraordinary strength of the hand pinning him against his locker, the pilot’s left hand grabbed Jean-Paul’s shirt and his right fist barreled into Jean-Paul’s face, colliding with it with all the force the burly pilot could muster. But the Agent’s head did not give an inch, and Michel’s fist splintered and cracked against the immovable skull of his assailant, the bones shattering as if he had slammed them into a brick wall. The pilot screamed as the incredible pain tore up his arm, forcing his whole body to spasm.

Michel’s face wrinkled in agony, tears streaked down his face, and Jean-Paul smiled, “Michel, please, let’s not make this more painful than it already is.” He reached out with his free hand and wrapped it gently around Michel’s broken fist. Applying the slightest pressure to the shattered ball of flesh and bone, he saw Michel tense and convulse with the pain, his eyes rolling back into his head as the fractured joints ground together.

Jean-Paul saw that if he applied any more pressure the man would pass out, but that wouldn’t be acceptable. When a pilot was given his flight assignment, he was given a unique, mission specific, six-digit code to call in to air traffic control before take off. Together with the flight plan given to the tower by fighter command, they must have this code to take off, or the tower was under strict orders to shoot them down. There were no exceptions in a hostile war zone like Afghanistan. The base had numerous SAM sites and anti-air cannons ranged around the base and they would shred anything that didn’t have a preapproved code.

Jean-Paul reduced the pressure on Michel’s fist a little and watched the pilot suck a breath in through strained lips, a small sob escaping his mouth as he despaired.

“Michel, if you don’t give me the code, I’ll just have to do this to the mission control sergeant instead. Either way I’m getting that code. Do you want to be responsible for another man going through this as well?”