"Okay then, if it's important, get on with it."
Hatch eyed him carefully. The last time they had spoken to each other, she nearly knocked him unconscious. It had been the last time they had faced each other, and it was a heated and physical altercation. But did he assume that she called him out of the blue to set up round two, or was he just awkward around her since that encounter?
"Listen, Chris, I've got a lead on what happened to my father, and I wanted to see if you knew anything that might be able to help me out--point me in the right direction--give me a heads up before I head off to my next destination," Hatch said bluntly.
“And that would be where exactly?”
She thought for a moment about keeping her next stop to herself, but if information was to be exchanged, holding back would most likely result in the same from Bennett. “Africa. I’m heading to Kenya.”
"Your father’s death has something to do with Africa? That’s a dangerous place lately. Not sure you want to be poking about over there right now.”
“Let me worry about that,” Hatch muttered.
“I still don’t really understand what you're getting at," he said. "I remember you saying something about a hunting accident when you were a kid. How would I be able to help with that?”
Hatch sighed. "I've come into some new information. My sister died, well, she was murdered recently, and it set in motion some things when I went home. One of which was I found out a little more about the circumstances around my father's death, and I've been tracking those leads since then," she said.
"Sorry to be so cold, but what does this have to do with me?" Bennett asked. His face was contorted in a look of confusion.
"Nothing, not directly, but I know that you're still in the special operations community, and you have access to things that I don't anymore," she said.
"Wait a minute, Rachel. No way am I going to go pulling black ops folders or digging deep. I'm not losing my job and my career over some wild goose chase you may be on," he said.
"I didn't ask you to do that," Hatch snapped. "I didn't ask you to dig anything up. I wanted to ask you what you know about the Gibson Consortium," she said.
"The Gibson Consortium? I don't know. Well, I know of them. There was a unit of private contractors called that, but that was a long time ago. They changed names and I think ownership. They're known as Talon Executive Services now, TES. I only had a few dealings with them overseas, after you left the unit," he said.
"It's funny that you choose those words,” Hatch said. “Left the unit. If I recall, I didn't leave anything. My decision was made for me.”
"So, you're here to bring that up? We're getting into that now? I thought this was about your father, or are you here to beg to come back? You're a civilian now, Hatch. You're not one of us anymore. I'm sorry that was such a hard pill for you to swallow, but that ended over a year ago," he said.
Hatch took another sip from her drink, this one just a little bit longer than the last. “I’m not looking to get back into the unit, Chris. I know it's over. Trust me. I've already gone down that path. I did what I could to prove my worth to you and it didn't matter. I'm not here to push that issue. Let's drop it for now. I'm sorry I even brought it up," she said.
Bennett threw down the second shot of whiskey as Wenk set the Miller Lite down,, collected the two empty shot glasses, and disappeared back behind the bar. He immediately took a pull. The reverse order, whiskey to beer chaser, had been complete. "Okay, so what is it you want to know?" Bennett said.
Hatch evaluated him. She remembered the good times they’d had when the team was whole, when they were out there doing it, getting the job done. They were an unstoppable force, and she had carried her weight and then some. Then, that day happened, and as if the blast wasn't bad enough, the emotional destruction from that moment, for both the team and her, was something that would never be erased. Seeing him sitting here before her now made it hard for her to adjust to the fact that their friendship and comradery had burned up in that blast, leaving invisible scars that both of them carried from that day forward.
"So, what do you know about Talon Executive? What's their deal?" she asked.
"They're like any government contractors. They fill some voids and do some private security work. It's like the former Blackwater. They handle details that aren't tasked to military personnel, but they are all ex-military. I haven't heard anything crazy about them, but I will say this, of all the private contractors that I have worked with, they are the most secretive. They rarely are at any of the combined functions on bases. They keep to themselves and operate exclusively with members of their own unit. They never task out, and never ask for support from us," he said.
"You've never had any negative dealings? You've never heard of anything going wrong outside the wire?" she asked.
"Look, Hatch, I know we've got history so I'm just going to say this. Most of the guys in that unit, in that contractor service, are ex-Delta. These are next-level guys. I knew a few of them, but when they went in, we lost contact. So, really, what I know is limited," he said with a shrug.
“You don't have any point of contact there? Somebody I could reach out to and speak with?" she asked.
Bennett took a sip of his beer and shook his head, and then he leaned forward just a bit. He cast a quick glance, barely noticeable toward where Wenk was at the bar. He was drying a rinsed mug and tending the bar back duties in between orders. "Listen," he said in a whisper. "I do know this, and what I'm going to tell you is just grumblings. You don't have the clearance anymore for the real stuff, but I'll tell you this, they're not a group to mess with. I've heard stories, guys go missing, ops go bad, nothing happens. There's no press, no paper, nothing. Even in our circles, limited details. So, whatever you think you're digging up, you might be crossing swords with the wrong people."
Hatch leaned forward slightly because of his need for secrecy and said, "Why are you whispering? What are you worried about?" she asked.
"Listen, they've got eyes and ears everywhere. They're connected to the military. There's big money in this stuff, you know that. Man, they do some of the stuff that nobody, not even the bigger contractors can handle. So yeah, I don't like talking about it, especially to you, who's obviously come here on some half-cocked idea that it's linked to your father's death. I don't even want to know why you think that. The less I know about what you're doing, the better off I am," he said, and then pushed back in his seat and folded his arms.
Hatch eyed him. "So that's it? There's nothing else you can tell me? Okay, well I'm not going to tell you where I'm going next, but I've got a long journey ahead of me, and hopefully that next step won't get me killed. Seeing as how I know almost as little as I did when I walked in here, you're definitely not setting me up for success," she said.
Bennett sighed and rubbed his temples, took another long pull from his beer, and kept it in his hand instead of setting it back on the table. He looked over at Hatch. "Listen, Wenk might know something more," he said.