| Subject: For Meritorious Service, Chapter 24a, part one |
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TxJAG_b
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Date Posted: 14:18:06 10/03/07 Wed
In reply to:
TxJAG_b
's message, "...For Meritorious Service" on 09:04:26 05/08/07 Tue
A/N1: Big thanks for Janlaw and Mary Ann for their guest-betaing. :)
A/N: 24a is 21 pages. Therefore, we have a part one [now]
and a part two [later]....
1230 Local
Baghdad International Airport [BIAP]
Baghdad, Iraq
As the helicopter touched down on the tarmac, Harm was shaken out of his slumber by his seatmate. Despite his unease with helos, the aviator/lawyer had been able to fall asleep quite soundly. It could have to do with the fact he and Mac had been going full tilt since the court martial proceedings had ended.
“Okay, you jet jockeys, up and at’em!” The helo’s crew chief barked, “let’s hit that ground running!” As Harm stumbled out of his seat, he noted the sadistic smile plastered on the man’s face.
The chief’s ‘order’ was met with grunts, mumbles, and a few under-the-breath curse words from the departing aviators.
As Harm made his way from his seat to the lowered ramp, his seatmate, a young cocky Marine First Lieutenant clapped him on the back. “C’mon Commander, time to get back to Naval Air.”
Jake had, in the past, served in a couple of carrier based F-18 squadrons, so he was familiar with both Navy and Marine slang.
Harm gave the Lieutenant a sleep-filled grin.
The JAG Corps attorney joined a line of bored and sleepy looking Marine and Naval personnel who made their way from their ride to the busy interior of the jetport. In his mind, the aviator/lawyer was thinking about what Mac had said to him yesterday evening….
**~~~**
“Well Mac, what did Mr. Green say?”
“Not much, but he did indicate that there was a DSD operation in Afghanistan in October 2001 and that Captain Lewis might have worked with them.”
“So where do we go from here?”
“We locate a Special Agent Albruzzo…we’re supposed to meet him at BIAP….”
**~~~**
Harm realized that with their respective new assignments, it was likely neither of them would get a chance to see the DSD Special Agent.
Maybe that was for the best.
Then he casually looked down at his watch and realized he and Mac were supposed to meet the DSD agent in less than ten minutes! Harm looked around and saw a tired looking soldier with Marine Captain’s bars who seemed to be manning an information kiosk.
“Excuse me, Jake,” he said to his seat partner, the youngish looking Marine aviator, “I’ll be right back.”
“You’d better be, buddy,” the Lieutenant said smiling, “I’m not going to hold your space on that COD.”
Truth was, Jake wanted to stick with Harm as long as possible. He was smart enough to know the Commander just might share some tactical advice with him – if he made himself available.
A COD. They were taking him out to a carrier…maybe. (Steady yourself, Hammer. They could be using COD aircraft to get the pilots to their land destinations more quickly…)
Still, he had to risk missing the flight to get this information from the DSD. It was vital to their case…and Bud, Sturgis and the NCIS team were going to need all the help they could get.
Harm walked up the kiosk. “Excuse me, Captain?”
The Marine Captain looked up from his terminal. “What can I do for you, Commander?”
“Terminal 1A?”
“Over there, just behind the stairwell.” He said pointing. Then he gave the tall Naval Commander an appraising look. “Say, you’re part of the aviators they’re recruiting because of the flu bug, right?”
The kiosk Captain noted the guy was tall, but at he realized that at this point CENTCOM probably wasn’t being too picky….
“Yeah,” Harm said hurriedly as he turned toward the terminal entrance, not wanting to lose anymore time than he already had.
“You’ve got fifteen minutes,” the Captain called out to Harm, “and then the COD goes without you. Good luck Commander, I hope it’s worth it.”
The JAG Corps attorney gave the officer a friendly wave as thanks.
“It is, Captain.” Harm said quietly.
*~*
Harm’s long stride brought him down the walkway to the terminal gates in a little under a minute. The airport was full of aviators and soldiers flying in and out of Baghdad.
As the Commander searched the surging crowd, he saw a guy dressed in a non-descript sport coat and khaki pants standing over to one side of the walkway. He was holding a brown leather portfolio and a tan attaché case. As the Commander approached, the man sat down on an adjacent bench. Harm walked over to him.
“Special Agent Albruzzo?”
He nodded and looked Harm up and down scrutinizing him “You’re Rabb, aren’t you?”
Harm looked grimly at the man, not knowing what to expect next. “You’ve heard of me, I take it,”
The agent gave him a humorless smile that quickly disappeared. “Yeah, in relation to Clark Palmer…. Look; I don’t have a lot of time. Here’s the information you and Colonel MacKenzie requested.”
As Harm slowly took the bulging portfolio, a look of confusion crossed his face “We didn’t request any packets of information…. Why are you doing this?”
The man smiled again; this time with a faint trace of warmth in it. “Call it a peace offering from the DSD for Palmer’s antics.” That brought a surprised looked from the Commander which melted into suspicion as he fingered the leather portfolio.
Albruzzo chuckled at the JAG attorney’s distrust. “Trust me Commander, you’ll want what’s in here. I have to go now; gotta plane to catch.”
With that, he hurriedly got up from his seat and jogged down the jetport and joined the passengers boarding a Swiss Air flight.
When Harm couldn’t see him anymore, he turned his attention back to the portfolio. As he slowly opened it, he found himself sitting down as he leafed through the papers that were inside.
It contained a service record for Captain Lewis along with an annotated list of DSD operations on which he’d worked and several other sheaves of papers both stapled and clipped together.
*~*
Mac stood on the firing range, willing her breathing to slow down. Carefully she took aim at the target downrange and squeezed the trigger.
A three round burst erupted from the automatic rifle she was holding.
The grizzled Sergeant, chewing on a toothpick, lowered his binoculars. “That’s mighty good shootin’, ma’am.”
Mac nodded her head in satisfaction. “Thank you, Sergeant. What’s next?”
“The 200 yard range, ma’am. Two magazines, standing to kneeling, full auto.”
“Let’s get to it.”
“Aye, aye ma’am.”
In the background a grim looking Captain Jacques Lewis watched the performance.
36th MEU/BLT Headquarters
Gibbs walked down the hallway toward the MEU main entrance. He had just spent a fruitless couple of hours talking with witnesses who knew less about the case than he did. He was not in a good mood. It seemed his team was being stymied at every turn. He was used to being stonewalled but when it was Marines that were doing the stonewalling that made the former Gunnery Sergeant even angrier. As he approached the front doors of the building, he met Commander Sturgis Turner entering.
“Commander,” Gibbs grunted as a way of acknowledgement and nodded as he passed the man. The senior NCIS agent had work to do and didn’t have time to say much else.
Sturgis turned toward Gibbs. “Special Agent, could I have a word with you?”
“I’m on my way to talk to someone.” Gibbs said brusquely. He didn’t want to be tied up with these JAGs any longer that he had to, besides he already had Commander Coleman on his team.
“May I remind you, Special Agent,” Sturgis said sternly, “this is supposed to be a joint investigation, under the aegis of the Judge Advocate General’s office.” When Sturgis whipped out his authoritarian voice, people usually stopped what they were doing.
Not Gibbs. But he did pause briefly. “Then c’mon, Commander.”
“Where are we going?” Sturgis asked as he caught up to the NCIS Agent.
“To talk to a possible witness,” he answered cryptically.
Commander Turner sighed and shook his head. This man was as bad as Harm or Mac when they got a lead.
*~*
“Okay, Colonel, take five…”
Mac sat down on the bench to catch her breath. Her hip vibrated. She reached into the lower pocket on her BDU’s and pulled out her cell phone, opening it.
“Colonel MacKenzie,”
“Mac, can you talk?”
The Marine Lieutenant Colonel got up from the bench and moved away from the other soldiers.
“Where are you?”
“At BIAP. I’m getting ready to board a COD.”
He could have told her it was headed to the Patrick Henry but remembering what happened the last couple of times he had flown from that ship, and he figured the less said, the better.
“Why the call?’
“If I told you I missed you, would you believe me?”
She smiled. “Hardly,” she said coyly. “So, what’s the news?”
“Some very damning evidence about Captain Lewis and his connection with DSD and the CIA, Mac. I’m having it sent back to Gibbs, ASAP”
Like most men, Harm sometimes did things like this; a kind of ‘random act of kindness’. “Thanks Harm, but you didn’t have to do that….”
“Hey, just because I’m going to be flying Tomcats for awhile doesn’t mean I’m not part of the team anymore, Mac. Tell Gibbs to give Darcy an extra hard stare for me.”
“Good-bye, Harm,” Mac said sarcastically. He knew she was giving him one of her wry smiles.
“Bye Mac,” Harm said smiling into the phone.
“So who was that, Colonel?” It was Captain Lewis. Mac fought the urge not to appear startled.
She whipped her head around in anger. She was getting tired of people sneaking up on her. “Do you always listen in on private conversations, Captain?” she snapped.
“My apologies, Colonel.” He said, sounding sincere. But he really didn’t mean it.
As he walked away, she wondered just how much of the conversation Jac Lewis had overheard.
*~*
"Ah the ‘rocks and shoals’, sir…."
The young Marine said smiling. The young Combat Engineer had been on guard duty when Gibbs and Turner found him. Now having been relieved, he was sitting on a plastic and metal lawn chair that looked really out of place when compared to his Iraqi surroundings. The lead NCIS Agent and the JAG attorney were sitting in similar lawn chairs, facing him.
The term had legal meanings if you were a military attorney, but using it in this manner gave Sturgis a hint about the man’s background. “You a, Navy brat, Corporal?”
The Marine nodded. “Yes sir, Commander, my father was stationed on the Rodger Young.”
The Bubblehead had to follow his line of thought. His Dad’s a Navy man, so-- “So how come…?”
The Corporal smiled again. “…how come I’m not serving on board some ship?” He finished for the Bubblehead.
It was sometimes unnerving to meet an enlisted man who was so at ease or unpretentious. “Yes.” The Bubblehead said somewhat hesitantly.
“Well, sir, this is my way of getting back at my dad. He hates the Marines.”
Gibbs smiled. Despite his initial impressions about this kid, he was starting to like him.
“You joined the Marines out of spite, Corporal?” Sturgis said incredulously. If the JAG attorney had thought about the idea long enough, he might have remembered that instead of becoming a chaplain, like *his* father, he had opted for the silent service.
The Corporal sensed he might have said something that upset the JAG, and that was not a good idea at any time, but especially not during the middle of a murder investigation. “At first, sir, but that quickly changed. The Corps’ now my life. I wouldn’t trade
it for anything….”
“Oo-rah,” Gibbs said in support of the man’s decision. “Did you see anything, notice anything unusual that happened when Lieutenant Dodge was shot?”
“Just what I told Commander Rabb, sir.” The Corporal answered honestly. “Uh, that is, one minute he was standing in the hatch of his AMTRAC and then, BAM, he was slumped over the side of the hatch, blood pouring out of him.”
Gibbs and Commander Turner exchanged interested looks.
Gibbs pressed him to elaborate. “Did you see who shot him?”
He thought about that for a moment, as if weighing what he was going to say. When he did speak, the two military investigators were impressed by his forthright answer. “A lot of the guys thought the two gunship pilots had done it, sirs, but I didn’t think so.”
Gibbs thought they might have found something. “Why not, Corporal?”
The Corporal addressed the NCIS Agent, but the answer was meant for Commander Turner. “Because, sir, Lieutenant Lukens wouldn’t make that kind of mistake.”
Sturgis decided to see if the man had anything solid or if he was just stating a strong opinion like many others had. “Anything else besides your belief that backs up that statement, Corporal Gage?”
The Corporal leaned forward in his chair. It was evident whatever he had he believed it was of value to these men. “Yes sir, Lieutenant Dodge slumped down too quickly to have been hit by the gunship crew.”
That was too bold a statement just to make in the heat of the moment. There was thought and observation and just maybe something else behind this. “What do you mean, Corporal?” Gibbs’ gut was telling him something was here that had been previously overlooked.
But the Corporal quickly lanced that idea. “It’s just my opinion sir, but those shots came way too quickly…the gunship crew didn’t even have a chance to chamber a round in their pistols before the Lieutenant was slumping in his hatch.”
Or did he? Sturgis was having a hard time swallowing what this Corporal was saying to them. “Are you an expert in small arms, Corporal?” he asked pointedly.
Again the man had an honest answer for them, but one that sustained the feeling in Gibbs’ gut that there was more here to be uncovered. “No sir, but my father taught me a lot about guns. Something just didn’t seem right about the fact that those nine millimeter rounds were hitting the man when no one around him had a pistol ready to fire. But like you said, I’m not an expert, so I guess my opinion doesn’t mean much. Guess that’s why Commander Rabb didn’t have me on the witness stand.”
It was still just circumstantial but a nagging feeling in Gibbs’ gut told him there was something else that this kid knew. Something solid, a piece of evidence, maybe. “Did you notice anything else?”
Again the Corporal paused, as if trying to recall the battlefield at that time. When he spoke, the two investigators could tell, he was telling something he hadn’t revealed before. “I saw a couple of holes made by a light fifty in the gunship….”
Gibbs gut was screaming at him now. “Are you sure about that?”
The kid nodded again. “Yes sir; I didn’t think much about it at the time, but when it was brought up in court about someone using a light fifty to bring down the gunship, then those holes I saw in the Cobra made sense.”
Gibbs and Sturgis exchanged glances. Although his info at the time would have just added to the ponderous list of witnesses and experts they had, now Corporal Gage was a gold mine of information for this case.
“Do you know Captain Lewis?” It seemed like an obvious question with an obvious answer, but sometimes those kind yielded the most valuable information.
“Company A’s commander? Sure; everybody knows the Cap’n…” Not a gold strike, but not a bust either.
“Is he a crack shot?”
“The best sir; it’s scary just how good he is.” Getting closer.
“Do you remember where he was when Lieutenant Dodge was shot?”
“Let’s see… I was over here with the rest of the quick reaction force/combat engineers who had been held in reserve. We had just made it to the square when the gunship was hit….”
Gibbs could see it in his eyes. Though the Corporal was sitting with them, in his mind he was back in the town square in Mirbullah on that fateful day. “…we made our way forward to the downed gunship where Lieutenant Dodge had his AMTRAC parked while he gave them protective fire…somebody, guess it was Gunny Sanchez…gave us the order to advance…we moved forward past the gunship, providing cover fire for the AMTRAC…and the Captain….the Captain….”
Sturgis sensed the man was searching for something and what he had found, he didn’t like. “What is it, Corporal?”
The kid sounded shocked “He wasn’t there, sir.” He gave both of them a lost, helpless look. “I just realized that in all the commotion that was going on, he wasn’t there with us.”
Jackpot. “Where was he, Corporal?”
The Corporal’s answer didn’t yield any solid evidence, but it did add to the number of fingers pointing toward Lewis and Livingston. “I don’t know, sir. I honestly don’t know, but he wasn’t there with us.”
*~*
Gibbs watched Sturgis carefully as they walked back towards the Visiting Officer Quarters. He could tell the former submariner turned attorney was deep in thought.
“Do you think he’s lying?” Gibbs finally said out loud.
Sturgis looked at the NCIS Agent. “I don’t think the Corporal was in this case.”
“And what makes you say that?” Gibbs wanted to know if this Naval Commander had the same gut feeling he had or whether it was just educated guesswork on his part.
Sturgis thought about the question. “It was the way he responded to our questions, the movement of his eyes….”
Gibbs decided to test this statement. “You’re very observant, Commander.”
Sturgis let a little pride slip in. “I’ve always been detail oriented. Plus I’ve been doing some reading on how to spot when people aren’t telling the truth. How about you, Special Agent, could you tell?”
Gibbs was holding all the cards, and he wasn’t about to let the former Dolphin see his hand. “Yep.”
Now it was the Bubblehead’s turn to probe. “Okay, how?”
Gibbs gave him a wry smile. “Trade secret.”
Sturgis stopped walking. “Are you screwing with me, Special Agent?”
Gibbs sensed that the JAG attorney wouldn’t let this rest until he knew the answer. He could string this out for a while, but he figured Sturgis wouldn’t take this well. Okay then, he’d tell him.
“He’s young, Commander, probably this is the first time he’s been away from home. He likes tweaking authority, but only when it’s safe to do so. This wasn’t the time or place for that.”
Gibbs studied the Commander’s face. He knew his answer had surprised the Commander. He decided to push it a little further.
“Plus, there were the little things that you saw in his face.”
Sturgis chewed over that well placed barb. He knew that the former Gunnery Sergeant was baiting him, much like he had at JAG Headquarters back in April when questioning him about Harm. He decided to do what he did then, bait the agent right back.
“I’ve heard that your Gut also helps you with this process. Is that what your Gut was telling you, Gibbs?”
Gibbs felt his irritation growing. Sometimes lawyers made his rear end hurt. “*My gut* told me that he was a young inexperienced kid. The rest of what I know about him comes with *experience*, Commander.”
He decided another dig was in order. Just to even the score. “By the way, did Lieutenant Roberts tell you he was headed to Bahrain?”
Now it was Sturgis’ turn to be irritated. “No he did not. How did *you* find out?”
Gibbs knew he had the upper hand again. “My lead agent told me that Lieutenant Roberts wanted to go to the NLSO BROFF in Bahrain and talk with Lieutenant Commander Lexington.”
Sturgis remembered the name from when Bud had mentioned it during the court martial. The junior JAG officer had uncovered information about the previous JAGMAN investigation, but Bud told him it didn’t seem relevant to their court case.
The Bubblehead wondered if Bud wanted to revisit that evidence, and why now….
“Commander?”
Sturgis and the NCIS Agent turned to see the young Lieutenant approaching them.
“Lieutenant.”
Bud quickly threw a salute. “Permission to --”
The Naval Commander returned his salute.
“Granted Lieutenant.” he said before Bud Roberts could finish his sentence.
Lieutenant Roberts was perplexed by the senior officer’s sudden burst of ESP. “But, sir, I haven’t even told you--”
Sturgis gave Bud a gentle smile as he held up his hand. “I already know, Lieutenant. Go.”
Bud didn’t waste anymore time. If he was going to catch that C-130 flight to Bahrain, he’d have to leave soon. “Aye sir, and thank you sir. Oh and Agent DiNozzo wants to go with me. That is okay, isn’t it, sir?”
Gibbs tried hard not to let his surprise and anger show. Tony was supposed to notify him directly – not send a messenger. “Thanks for letting me know, Lieutenant.” Gibbs said without a hint as to his current emotions.
“Yes sir,” Bud saluted again and then headed off in the direction of the Camp’s runway.
The JAG and NCIS man watched as Bud Roberts stumped his way toward the airfield. “Very good Commander, a couple of more years and you’ll be as good as me….” Gibbs said without looking at Sturgis.
***The concluding part later this week...***
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