Marie
“Don’t tell anyone, but I don’t think I’m needed.”
“Not yet.”
She glared at Jamie. “Why the hell would you say that? You’ve just basically promised me trouble.”
Her assistant manager grinned. “What can I say? I want you around. If it takes something bad to achieve that, I’m not about a little mischief myself.” He shuddered. “Besides, if you aren’t here, that means I’m the one in charge. Could you imagine that?”
“I think you’re the only one who doubts your own abilities, Jamie. Everyone here knows that you could do a damn fine job of running the place without me.”
“You’re a kind soul, Marie, but you’re wrong. I could keep it going for a bit in your absence, but only with the knowledge that you were coming back. On my own I’d crack inside a week and this would disintegrate.” He waved a hand to encompass the entire kitchen.
“Maybe. Think you could hold it together for the afternoon?”
Jamie groaned. “What are you doing now? If Q finds you somewhere else, he’s going to have an aneurysm. You know how bad his blood pressure is!”
Q was John Stillin, the base quartermaster. A rather portly fellow with a suspected penchant for lifting sweets from the base supplies, he was also the man in charge of the entire supply chain for the base. A man of the law, he expected everyone to do exactly as he told them, with no deviations unless he authorized it.
He saw it as efficient management. Marie saw it as extreme micromanagement, a recipe for disaster in any organization of decent size.
“I won’t be caught,” she said, injecting plenty of false bravado in an attempt to put him at ease. “Trust me.”
“I do. Which is why I’m worried. I don’t know where you sneak off to, Marie, but one of these days it’s going to bite you in the ass.”
“Maybe. But not today. Besides Jamie, I need to do this. I don’t have a choice.”
Jamie frowned, but he didn’t protest any more. He’d made his disapproval clear, but Marie was an adult and he treated her like one. “What are you looking for out there anyway?”
It wasn’t the first time he’d asked the question. Each time she’d avoided giving an answer, and this time was no different. Jamie didn’t need to know, and she didn’t want to bring up her past to him either. This was her failure to deal with, and until it was rectified, she intended to keep it that way.
“I’ll be back in a bit. Text me if the place blows up,” she teased, then left.
The base was slow today, most of the officers were gone, and thus the staff under Jamie could handle all requests with ease. She had faith in them. That meant for the next few hours, until the dinner rush at least, she could move about with a large degree of freedom.
She exited Under the Mountain, leaving the officers’ club behind and heading at a steady clip toward the motor pools on the opposite side of the base. In her first few months she’d thoroughly searched the ones on the east end of the base near the mess halls and officers’ clubs, but now she headed to the western entrance.
The farther she got from the club, the less familiar she became with the layout of the base. It had changed a lot since she first got hired. Temporary buildings were giving way to more permanent structures and fortifications, and the walls continued to be pushed out farther as additional units were deployed to the area.
Marie had thought that the military was in a shrinking phase this past few years, but judging by what she’d seen in Fort Banner, that wasn’t entirely true. The men and women assigned here were veterans one and all, some of the hardest and meanest-looking people she’d ever come across. What the hell were they all doing out here in the middle of nowhere?
Her badge ensured she got little more than a once-over from the frequent patrols that roamed the grounds. Once she was stopped by an over-eager soldier, but after a closer inspection he let her go without any questions asked. Which was good, because she hadn’t come up with an excuse as to why he hell she was all the way on this side of the base.
At least she eased open the side door to the H motor pool building, slipping inside the cavernous warehouse. Easing the door shut behind her, she crouched down, the shadows absorbing her black uniform, helping mask her presence. The entire end of the motor pool was shrouded in darkness, the vehicles almost exclusive military, or hidden under tarps.
It was these that she made a beeline for, cautiously lifting each tarp to view the lines of the vehicle underneath before setting it back down. One by one she went up and down the rows, but her search was quickly proving fruitless. None of them had the classic lines or fire engine-red color that she was searching for.
Growing frustrated, she sped up her search, moving between vehicles with a haste borne of frustration as each additional peek was revealed to be a failure.
“Hey! You!”
A beam of light impaled her as the soldier aimed the under-mounted light from his rifle at her.
Marie froze, a dull roar filling her ears, the beats of her heart coming too fast to differentiate. Her fingers trembling, she stood, keeping her hands out to her sides. The soldiers here were all on edge, and the last thing she wanted to do was set one of them off.
“Who are you? What are you doing here?”
A second soldier appeared from the other end of the row, and Marie cursed her luck. In the reckless haste of her search, she’d forgotten to listen for approaching footsteps of the patrols that frequented the buildings.
“You shouldn’t be here,” the first guard said after inspecting her badge.
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“Why are you here?” the second guard asked. He was older, more seasoned, and Marie knew that a simple apology wouldn’t do it for him. She would have to think quickly. What sort of story would he not want to hear about?
“There was this guy,” she said, forcing herself to pout. “I thought he was a nice guy at first. Smooth-talker, good-looking.” She sighed dramatically. “He said I was the only one.”
The older guard was almost rolling his eyes already, and she’d barely started.
“Let me guess,” he rumbled. “You weren’t.”
“No, the asshole. I caught him with some slut from administration. And you know what he said to me?”
“No, I don’t.” Both soldiers were looking bored by now, and she couldn’t help but wonder how many times they’d done something similar.
“He told me that it was just a blowjob! Can you believe that? As if that makes it better.”
Audible sighs filled the space around them as she got herself more and more worked up.
“Listen, ma’am.”
“No, I’m not done! So I came over here, because he said he has an inspection coming up. So I’m going to find his vehicle, and then I’m going to mess it all up. That’ll teach him, right?”
The guards exchanged looks. “Ma’am,” the older one said. “You know it’s a criminal offense to deface government property, right?”
“What?” She looked back and forth at them, letting the panic she felt at getting caught reflect on her face, hoping they would interpret it as her panic that she was going to get in trouble for something else. “But I didn’t do anything! I swear, I was just looking.”
“Which is why, if you leave now, we won’t report this or anything,” the older guard said. “Okay?”
“Okay, deal.” She looked around. “What’s the fastest way out of here?”
The younger guard, at a cue from his superior, gestured for her to follow as he escorted her from the building.
“Thank you,” she said profusely. “I promise, I won’t do this again.” Today.
“I know, ma’am. Now go on, before we’re forced to do something we don’t want to.”
She nodded and hurried off.
“Oh, and a word of advice?”
Marie paused. “Yes?”
“Stay away from the soldiers here. You’re too nice for us. We’d just hurt you.”
He dipped his head once and then went back inside.
“Well that was unexpected,” she muttered. I didn’t think any of you were that self-aware. Interesting.
Marie hurried back to the club, having already been gone longer than she wanted. The trip across base had taken far longer than expected. She couldn’t drive over, nor could she appear hurried. By the time she got back it had been nearly two hours, including the time spent searching the motor pool.
Two hours for a fruitless search and nearly a trip to the detention center. What a waste.
“Where have you been?” Jamie hissed, coming up from behind her as she walked inside. “Q is in your office and he’s furious!”
“Fuck me,” she groaned. “You’re joking, right? This is a cruel joke. I can’t deal with this right now, Jamie. Don’t fuck with me.”
Jamie looked pained. “I wish I could say that. No, he’s really in there, and he’s on the warpath.”
“What happened?” She slowed her walk, wanting to get completely caught up before confronting her irate boss.
“One of the infantry mess halls had a water leak I guess. So they sent everyone over here.” Jamie paused. “All five hundred of them.”
“Fuck meeee,” she groaned again. “That is not fair!”
The officers’ club could handle that many at once. If they had fair warning. But a sudden and unexpected surge of that many mouths to feed would have sent the kitchen into a frenzy. All of it without its head around. Jamie would have done the best he could, but she had been needed there. And she had been elsewhere. This was not going to be pretty. In fact, it was going to be downright ugly.
“Anything else?”
Jamie shook his head.
“Great. Wish me luck.”
“Break a leg,” Jamie muttered under his breath.
Marie flipped him the finger, but she didn’t stop walking into her office. The sooner she got the chewing-out started, the sooner she could be done and get back to doing important things. Like searching for that damn car.
She knocked at the door, gritting her teeth. It was her office. She shouldn’t feel like the stranger there.
“Come in.” The voice that called through the door was weak. Watery. A perfect reflection of the man it belonged to if he wasn’t in a position of power.
Stepping inside felt a little like stepping into the lion’s den. If the lion was about forty-eight years old, nearly three hundred pounds, and standing perhaps five foot nine. The lion’s mane was wispy thin strands of black hair combed back over a shiny bald head that seemed to be constantly sweating. Add in thick-rimmed spectacles and your lion was complete.
“Marie.” He tried to greet her with an intimidating single word.
“John.”
It infuriated him not to be called Q, and she knew it. But Marie was irritated by the way he was sitting comfortably behind her desk, like he owned the place. His arrogance was legendary, and she hated him for it.
“Good to see you.”
Marie declined to respond. Anything she said to echo that would be a bald-faced lie. Besides, John wanted to feel like he was in charge, so she was going to let him.
“It would have been nicer to see you a few hours ago. When you were needed.”
She kept quiet once more, not wanting to get drawn into the useless back and forth. They both knew why she was in there, and what he was going to say.
“Where were you, Marie?”
“I needed some air.”
“For two hours?”
“It was really needed.”
John sneered. “Let me guess, is it that time of the month again?”
Marie held on to her temper by the weakest of threads, a hairbreadth away from laying into him. John was a relentless sexist who disapproved of women in the combat arms, or any position of authority. He felt they were best served in the kitchen making food, or on their backs for pleasure and procreation.
John was also very, very single.
She seethed silently, waiting for him to continue speaking, unwilling to give him the satisfaction of seeing her cracking. Marie waited several seconds, but when she refused to give in he sighed unhappily.
“You went AWOL, Marie.”
“We’re not in the military, John.”
It grated on her when he tried to trade upon his former career in the military. As if using phrases and terms he learned there made him superior to her in some way. It was just another reason why he was almost universally hated. Marie wondered just what dirt he had on Major Von Kamp, the base commander, that allowed him to keep his job.
“Either way, you weren’t doing your job. The job you were paid to do. We had a situation here that required everyone to make it work, and you were off gallivanting around doing who knows what. That’s unacceptable.”
“I know. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again, John. I promise.” Now was the time to grovel just a little, to make it appear that she was appropriately upset and chastised.
“It had better not,” he huffed. “I’ve covered for you for long enough, Marie. This is it. If it happens again, you’re gone. There will be nothing I can do about it.”
Covered for her? She just about lost her cool once again. John had done nothing but impede her ability to do her job since the day she’d been hired as a line cook in the infantry mess hall. The asshole thought he’d been helping her? Marie had to force herself not to jump across the desk and choke the life out of the bastard.
“I understand.” If her voice didn’t sound very meek, well too fucking bad for him. She was done taking his shit. “I’m going to get out there and make sure everything goes smoothly from here on out.”
“As you should.” He waggled his fingers dismissively in her direction.
From behind her desk.
Marie turned on her heel and left, positive that veins were popping out in her neck at the way she’d just been treated. She really needed to find that car.
Or him.