When she arrived back with the sodas, the three men had already started going over the evidence she and Raleigh had collected and brought with them. The general sat and listened and examined each piece of evidence that Raleigh showed him. Samantha handed the men their sodas and stood back in the corner to await further orders. As her mind started to wonder about what Raleigh had planned for them that night, there was a knock on the door.
“Sergeant O’Hara, can you please get that? That would be our other guest,” the general ordered.
“Yes, sir,” Samantha replied as she opened the door to come face to face with a very handsome gentleman dressed in an Armani suit and Ray Ban sunglasses. The man barreled through the door, but Samantha caught up to him and blocked him with her arm.
“Excuse me, sir, but you can’t just barge in here. I have to announce you to the general,” Samantha said, irritated that the man had shoved right past her and was halfway into the office when she caught up with him.
“Oh, I am sorry, miss. Please let the general know that Chance Maxwell is here to see him.”
“And Mr. Maxwell, what do you need to see the general about?” Samantha questioned him, but before he could answer, General Andrews intervened.
“Chance, my boy! Come here. We were just going over a few things,” the general said as Chance gave Samantha a grin and scampered towards the conference table where the men stood.
“Thank you, sir. It’s been a minute since I’ve seen you. I think the last time was at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in D.C.,” Chance said as he shook each of the men’s hands.
“Yes, yes, I think you are correct. It’s been several months. Well, gentlemen, Mr. Maxwell is here because it appears that his case and your case, Chief, are overlapping. Because of that fact, the Central Intelligence Agency will take point. Chance, if you can brief them on what will happen with assignments, please.”
“Yes, General. Chief, I understand that the general here has been trying to get you to come back to Special Operations. Is that correct?”
“Yes, but I don’t see what that has to do with anything.” Raleigh hesitated. “I haven’t given him an answer because I needed to think about it.”
“Well, sir, you will have to belay that. I am sorry, but I regret I must order you to transfer to Special Operations Command on the basis of National Security by Executive Order 12347 of the President of the United States.”
Raleigh stood in stone silence as he took in Maxwell’s words. “The President?” Raleigh questioned.
“Yes, sir. I work with the CIA, and I have been on a case that involves a Senator and your terrorist Saheed Mohammad Al-Balshera and his brother, Muhammed Jahan Al-Bashera, which led me to your case, Chief. I will also have to request that the sergeant behind us…is that you Sergeant O’Hara? Can you come join us over here please?” Chance asked. “I must ask that Sergeant O’Hara be reassigned to the Criminal Investigative Division here on Fort Bragg. She will be attached to the CIA to assist and liaise between myself and the Chief’s investigation effective immediately. Can you make that happen, General Andrews? If not, I will have Langley go ahead and process the transfer.”
Samantha was at a complete loss for words. She stood between Matt and Raleigh, and her heart raced a thousand miles a minute, her knees grew weak, and her first thoughts were of all the possibilities with her and Raleigh living in the same town. It was almost too much. She pinched herself to make sure it was all real and not a dream.
Raleigh saw when she pinched herself and laughed as he asked her, “What was that for?”
Samantha replied with a whisper. “I needed to find out if I was awake or dreaming.”
Raleigh couldn’t help but laugh out loud, and when he did, the whole room burst out laughing until Chance caught his breath and asked, “What are we laughing about?”
Raleigh quickly answered, “I was just laughing at something Sergeant O’Hara did. Nothing significant, but it did break up the tension in this room.”
“I suppose it did,” the general said, still laughing. “Well, why don’t we finish getting this briefing done and then we can get on the horn and get these transfers completed?”
Raleigh started his briefing; Samantha stood back and watched. She loved the way the muscle in his jaw flinched as he talked. Her mind drifted to other things as he continued his speech.
***
Raleigh
“As you see here, sir, there are maps of Forward Operating Bases in Afghanistan circled on this map as well as on this one.” Raleigh pointed each map out to the general, who sat somberly behind his massive oak desk. “This map here, it shows Kandahar Air Base and this picture of the Q-1C Gray Eagle. There are also schematics of the Gray Eagle and names attached to this map.”
The general held his hand up. “Whoa. Wait. What are you saying, Chief?”
“Well, sir, I can’t be certain right now, but when I cross checked the names, they matched UAV pilots in the area of Kandahar Air Base. We need to do more checking, sir, before I can give you a definitive answer.”
“All right, Chief, get me that answer. We can’t have these crazy motherfuckers running around with an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle droppin’ hellfire missiles on our guys. You have anything else right now, Chief?”
“Yes, sir. We found financial records from various banking institutions overseas, a book full of names and aliases as well as passports and money. We are still going through the evidence, and as you know my room was shot up by a helicopter last night so Sergeant O’Hara and I were unable to finish going through the evidence,” Raleigh explained.
“And what about the deaths of Sergeant First Class Jared Thompson and his wife, Semeana? Anything on that?”
Raleigh continued, “Sir, the pathologist has said that both deaths were murder, not suicide.” As the words left Raleigh’s lips, it almost made him sick to his stomach. “Right now, sir, the way it looks it was an inside job. They were both in a secure military facility, and the only ones that had access were military personnel.”
“So you are telling me more of my soldiers, here on my post, are traitors? Is that what you’re telling me, Chief?”
“Sir, it would appear that way, but I cannot say for certain. All we can do is follow where the leads take us.”
General Andrews eyes grew large, and his face turned a ruby red. He pounded his fist on the large oak desk and roared, “Chief, I want you to track down those mother fuckin’ turncoat pussy sons-of-bitches and bring them to me so I can kick their fucking asses all the way back to their momma’s cunt!”
“Roger that, sir. Thank you, sir. That’s all I have at this time. But I would like Sergeant O’Hara to brief you on the status of the equipment recovery as of this moment,” Raleigh replied as he stepped back from the conference table.
***
Samantha
Samantha made her way to the table, her heart pounding through her chest, and her stomach turning as if any moment she would vomit. As she began her briefing, the feeling became more intense, then it happened at the worst possible moment. She vomited, running for the nearest trash can as the entire room watched her. Samantha, mortified, ran for the nearest exit only to fall flat on her face when her feet got tangled around a table that sat near the door. Raleigh and Matt ran over to help her, but Samantha, who was already tearing up, fled out the door to the bathroom.
“Excuse me, sir, let me go check on the sergeant.” Raleigh bolted out the door after her.
“Excuse me, sir, I will go see if they need my help.” Matt followed, and General Andrews and Chance were left staring at each other.
***
Raleigh
“Can you see her?” Matt asked.
“No, I can’t see a thing, but I can hear her crying. I’m about to just go in.”
“Do it,” Matt replied. “I will go back and keep the general and the suit busy till you come back.”
“Okay. Thanks, brother. I’ll be as quick as I can,” Raleigh said as he anxiously pushed open the door of the women’s bathroom and stepped inside, calling for Samantha and letting his presence be known just in case there were other females inside.
“Sammie, are you in here, baby?” he whispered only loud enough for those in the bathroom to hear. As he made his way around the stalls, he took notice of the bathroom itself.
“Wow, y’all have doors on y’all’s stalls. That just ain’t right. The men’s room don’t have doors. And y’all don’t have a urinal either. Ain’t that a pisser,” he said, then he heard her giggle as he came around the corner past the last stall. Samantha sat on the floor holding her head up and covering her nose with a paper towel as blood soaked the paper towel.
Raleigh rushed over and grabbed more paper towels then ran them under the water. “Girl, I swear you’re like a bull in a china shop. Let me see, darlin’,” he said as he knelt down beside her and wiped away her tears.
“You’ve been as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rockin’ chairs,” he declared as she pulled the towel away.
“Say what?” Samantha said, finally laughing.
“I said you’ve been as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rockin’ chairs. In other words, darlin’, you just been really nervous. I told ya you don’t have anything to worry about, and hey, half of what we were gonna ask the general is already done. We don’t have to ask for transfers now, and we are in different units, but we still get to work together so…bonus. The only thing we gotta tell the general is about our relationship, and I promise you he will be on board. Not sure you impressed him with the vomiting, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers,” he said as he helped her get herself back together.
“Are you feeling better?”
“Yeah, I think so, not sure what’s going on, probably a virus. I will be okay,” she told him as she stood up and looked in the mirror.
Raleigh stood up and pecked her on the cheek. “I think I will wait on the kiss until you brush your teeth,” he said as he started for the door, but Samantha caught him as he grabbed the handle and gave him a little love peck. “That’s a deal.”
“You ready to go back in and finish up? If you want, we can do your part another day. I know you’re not feeling well. When we go back in, just sit back in the back of the room and take notes, and I will try to get this wrapped up quickly,” Raleigh promised.
“I’m ready. Are we gonna talk to the general about us?” Samantha asked.
“If you’re feeling up to it, we will. I would love nothing more than to step out on the town with you tonight and not have to worry about hiding.”
“Me too, Raleigh. Let’s get back in there,” Samantha insisted.
***
“Ah, Sergeant, happy to see you back. Are you okay?” the general greeted Samantha as she came back into the office, sat in the chair in the back of the room, and pulled out her note pad.
“Sir, thank you. I am feeling better,” Samantha replied.
“Sir, I am going to have Sergeant O’Hara brief you on equipment statuses when we come back, if you are agreeable with that?” Raleigh commented.
“Oh yes, yes. No problem, it is entirely understandable. Feel better, Sergeant O’Hara.” The general nodded.
As the men gathered around the conference table once again, it was Chance Maxwell who still needed to brief all of them on exactly what he was investigating and how the two cases fit together.
“Chance, the table is all yours,” Matt announced.
“Thank you, I appreciate all of you attending this briefing. Like I said before, I am investigating a case that involves a Senator and your terrorist Saheed Al-Bashera and his brother, who uses his middle name Jahan. Have you heard of Senator Josh Warren?”
The general was the first to speak up. “Yes, isn’t he up for the job of Secretary of State?”
“Yes, sir. The one and the same. I just returned from an overseas trip in which a bank executive had uncovered some accounts in the Senator’s name that contain some questionable deposits from other banking institutions connected to Al-Balshera’s group. We have the bank official in protective custody. Now we just gotta track the money, and it seems that the books you found might just be the key. So you see this goes to the top echelons in the government, hence the reasons only the five people in this room will know exactly what is going on at any given time. That is all I can tell you right now. We need to get these transfers done ASAP. We will also need a secure area to work out of. Sir, will you be able to make that happen?” Chance asked.
“Yes, that’s no problem. I will have my aide call Buildings and Maintenance and have them get you the old post office building just down the road. There are secure telephone and LAN lines still hot in that building, so you will be able to connect via SIPRNet to communicate with Langley and the like.” The general added, “There are also secure pin codes to get into the building, so it should work for what you need it for. I will get my aide working on that and the transfers.”
“Thank you, sir. Here’s my card. We will meet back here tomorrow at ten hundred hours. Is that okay, sir?” Chance requested.
“Yes, that’s just fine.”
“Okay that sounds great. I will see everyone back here tomorrow. Thank you.”
As Chance headed for the door, Matt stopped him. “Hey, man, I will walk you out.”
“That sounds great. Thank you.”
Raleigh watched as the men left the general’s office, and then he turned to his old friend. “Sir, I need to talk to you. Do you have a few minutes?” Raleigh asked.
“Of course, anything for you, Fitz. Sergeant, can you give us a minute?” the general asked Samantha.
“Sir, this concerns her also,” Raleigh requested.
The general sat back in his chair, his demeanor seemingly confused, but he went with it. “Oh,” he replied. “All right. Go ahead, Fitz.”
“Can you come up here, Sammie?” he said as he watched the general’s reaction. Samantha got up from her chair in the back of the room and stood next to Raleigh. Her heart raced as Raleigh started his speech. “Sir, we have known each other a long time, and you know I don’t make rash decisions or go into things blind. I always have a plan,” Raleigh acknowledged.
“Yes, of course, Fitz. Spit it out, brother,” Jasper teased.
“Well, sir, I know this is crazy, but I want to make you aware that Sergeant O’Hara and I have been seeing each other, as in dating,” Raleigh declared. “I am in love with Samantha, and we want to be together. I know that this could be an issue, but since we will technically be in different units, there shouldn’t be any problems,” Raleigh reasoned.
“Oh shit, brother, is that all this is about? Shit, I saw it on your face the moment she vomited in my trash can.” He laughed, then looked over at Samantha. “Thank you, by the way.” Then he laughed even harder, which caused Raleigh and Samantha to join in. “All I need to do is a counseling on the two of you and some other paperwork, and you will be good to go. Okay?”
“Yes, of course. Thank you, Jasper, I appreciate this,” Raleigh confided.
“Shoot, ain’t nothing to thank me for. Hell, that suit Chance Maxwell did most of the work,” he replied, and the three of them started to laugh. “Do y’all want a drink? I have some whiskey right here in my bottom drawer.” He pointed to the drawer then slid it open. “Jack’s Special Black, it’s smooth as a baby’s bottom.” Jasper pulled out three glasses and began to pour. “One shot for the road?” he asked.
Raleigh looked at Samantha, and she nodded in agreement. “Hell, yeah, bring it on.”