While Danforth and Trautman were elsewhere, there was a gloomy silence surrounding the rest of the team as they were changing in the special equipment tent.
Only a few of the members on the six man Baker Team B had begun to change while the others continued to unload their weapons. Ortega however, was still missing.
Ortega was coming back from the Map Room where he’d just finished arranging some notes for the debriefing to take place. He’d been to confirm some of the mission coordinates because as a rule, he preferred writing them while they were still fresh in his mind. Now he was finally going to change with the rest of the team.
He had all his gear on including his backpack, the antics, an Uzi on his shoulder.
He really couldn’t wait to get it all off.
As he walked down the corridor however, he walked by the Shower Room entrance and distractedly glanced over at Jorgenson, who was sitting there on his own.
Jorgenson had taken all his equipment off except for his shirt, his dirty camo pants, and his belt.
Even though he was sitting on one of the benches in front of the showers, it looked like he was waiting for his turn. He wouldn’t have showered with all that stuff on however, and Ortega couldn't understand why he was still wearing his belt.
Ortega knew right away that there was something wrong with his friend, so he slowed down, almost to a halt, trying to figure out what may have been wrong.
Jorgenson was short of breath.
His face was sweaty, and he continued to nod gently, so he seemed to be talking to himself, and constantly saying no, no, no.
Ortega caught a glimpse of him and eventually thought that as strange as it was, maybe Jorgenson just wanted to be alone for a moment, preferably somewhere where there was no one else to fuck with him.
On balance, that was far more likely than it was for his friend to be insane and waiting his turn to shower with all that stuff on.
What’s more, at that time of night, the showers were all empty.
Therefore, Ortega thought that he was probably still upset by the death of Krakauer (not to mention by the shit he did during that mission, like losing the flamethrower) and decided to simply leave him alone with his pain, pulling straight down the corridor.
A few minutes later, Ortega would rethink that decision and come to consider it as the biggest mistake of his whole life.