| Subject: ...For Meritorious Service, Chapter 25b - conclusion |
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TxJAG_b
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Date Posted: 10:26:38 07/29/08 Tue
In reply to:
TxJAG_b
's message, "...For Meritorious Service" on 09:04:26 05/08/07 Tue
To this chapter - not the entire story ;) Per Voy restrictions, I have to not go over a certain number
of pages. Sorry for the delay, but it did allow one
of my avid readers to help me out with minor point - if
you have access to Yahoo Shipper, see if you can spot
the change. On with the story....
*~*
Harriet had been relieved to hear that no one on the JAGMAN team had been killed or seriously injured in the attack. Once that was out of the way, the IGO Liaison set about getting the office back to working mode. There was still a lot of work to be done to get Headquarters back to operational status and the lunch break wouldn’t begin for another hour.
Lieutenant Sims munched on an energy bar as she as and Sergeant Givers went over the schedule for the telephone technicians. Then there was the Gomez court martial to reschedule.
Despite the tasty goodness of the military issue candy bar, Harriet’s stomach protested loudly about there not being enough. In response to the growling, junior added his own kicks.
“Maybe we should break for lunch…” Harriet said holding her side after one particularly sharp kick from junior.
There was still a ton of work to be done--workmen’s schedules to be coordinated, trials and hearings to be arranged and re-arranged, assignment of new cases to the existing lawyer pool, and of course any intel that could be provided to the JAGMAN team in Mirbullah.
After a few minutes’ discussion about lunch options, the group decided on carryout from Beltway Burgers for the entire bullpen staff. Marla volunteered to call in the order and pick up the food. Harriet insisted on going with her.
At first, the Marine had reservations about the pregnant woman coming along, but Harriet persisted, saying the doctor told her exercise, like walking, would be good for her and the baby, but she did grab another energy bar from her desk before they left.
After a few minutes’ walk, they approached the busy parking lot of the local Falls Church eating establishment that catered to JAG Headquarters and businesses in the area.
Marla and Harriet made their way inside. The inside of the fast food restaurant was lunchtime chaos. Military personnel and civilians milled around the length of the store, looking for available seating, others were seated and eating food, while others were getting rid of their trash before heading back to work.
The two JAG Corps office workers made their way to the line that began at the end of a row of tables where an obviously frustrated mother was having little success at getting her son to eat his French fries.
Marla looked around with shell shocked bewilderment. “Is it always like this ma’am?”
Harriet smiled. “This is a good day, Sergeant….”
The line moved at a surprisingly brisk pace. In no time they had reached the counter.
“Call in order for JAG Headquarters, Sergeant Marla Givers?”
The counterman nodded. “Givers order up!” He called back to the kitchen area. In a moment one of workers from the kitchen brought out a large polystyrene case and set it on the counter.
“That’ll be one twenty five,” he said tapping on the keys of the computer register in front of him. Harriet pushed a card toward the counterman. “Here; use my credit
card--”
Marla turned to her and shook her head. “Ma’am I couldn’t….”
“Go ahead, Sergeant.” Harriet insisted. “You can owe me lunch another time.”
“Yes ma’am,” she turned back to the counterman and nodded. “She’s paying….”
As the counterman rung up the purchase, Harriet opened the box and found her first sandwich. Unwrapping it, she took a healthy bite.
As she chewed, a strange look crawled across her face.
“Lieutenant?” the counterman looked at her face, concerned.
Marla also saw her odd expression. “Ma’am? Are you all right? What is it?”
Harriet swallowed her bite. “The sandwich…. Where are the croutons?”
Neither Marla nor the counterman said anything.
“I ordered a bacon double cheeseburger with croutons.” Harriet stated plainly.
“With croutons,” said the counterman with a blank look.
“She’s pregnant,” explained Marla hastily.
“No kidding,” said the counterman sarcastically. “Hold on for a moment,” he turned back toward the busy kitchen. “Sally, give me an extra salad for the JAG order!”
“You got it, Sam,” Sally replied, giving him a salad box.
“Here you go,”
Harriet started to protest this addition. “But I ordered--”
Sam deftly opened the salad box and removed the crouton packet, then he took the Lieutenant’s second bacon cheeseburger from the polystyrene carton, opened the sandwich, sprinkled the croutons on top, and then closed it up and handed it back to her.
“You wanted croutons, didn’t you, ma’am?” Harriet nodded. “Good, there you go; now you can give that extra salad to someone else at the office, no charge…”
JAG Headquarters
Garden area
At the back of the impressive JAG Corps Headquarters’ building was a simple but functional garden with a few stone tables, some metal lattice-work chairs, and a fountain. For those personnel whose offices looked out toward it, the area served as nice distraction
when they needed it. For the lawyers, it was an oasis where they and their clients could escape the office confines when they needed to talk in private. At other times the various JAGs had used it as their personal break area. Admiral Brovo used to practice his clarinet playing here in this refuge from the world. Anytime Admiral Chegwidden wasn’t using it, he allowed the staff to take their lunch breaks in the area.
Jason and Jennifer arrived first and were soon joined by Harriet and Marla who had just finished distributing the rest of the food to the staff in the bullpen.
“Okay, what’s so hush-hush that we have to meet out here for lunch?” Harriet asked as she put down the box containing the remainder of the food from Beltway Burgers. “What’s going on, Tiner?”
Jason reached over and pulled out a Styrofoam cup and took a sip of tea. He kept his voice low so only the four of them could hear. “The Admiral and I found three bugs this morning in the bullpen.”
Harriet, who had just opened her sandwich bag stopped and gave him an odd look. “Bugs?”
Marla quickly cleared up her misconception. “Electronic listening devices, ma’am. Very sophisticated. Probably planted when the clean-up work was being done.”
Jason was quick to squash that theory. “No, Marla, the Admiral thinks they were planted some time ago. Probably just after the first JAGMAN team investigated Lieutenant Dodge’s death.”
“So someone in the bullpen is working with al-Qaeda?” Jen could scarcely believe it.
“And with that traitor in Mirbullah,” added Jason.
“It’s probably traitors….” Everyone looked at Marla. She quickly explained her correction of Jason’s comment. “It’s too big of an operation for just one person in that Marine unit to be involved. I think there are others besides’ Secord and the guys he eliminated.”
Jennifer swallowed her bite of sandwich. “That’s what the Commander and Colonel MacKenzie believe….” She didn’t tell them the rest. That the Colonel and Commander believed it was Colonel Livingston, the Force Recon commander and Captain Lewis, head of the 36th MEU’s
Company A. Jen wasn’t sure at this point they could even trust Marla -- no matter how big of a help she had been so far….
Harriet nodded her agreement with Coates’ statement. “Bud believes that too. He told me during the court martial there was something weird about the way some of the senior officers were acting during the proceedings.”
The IGO Liaison focused her attention at the senior Petty
Officer. “Okay Tiner, what do *we* do? How do *we* find any more of these bugs?” It was obvious even though Harriet was an officer and should lead any effort to the find the bugs, she also knew that Jason knew more about these bugs and what to do.
Jason saw that all eyes were on him. They were all looking to him for a plan. Sweat beaded on his forehead. He had one – a plan, that is - it was not much of one, but it was a start. He leaned closer to the women. “Uh, well, we check around all the phones and workstations, anywhere you might think someone might place a
listening device. Use these sniffers,” he stated with a little more confidence as he handed out a small device to each of them, “the LED indicator will turn red when a bug is found.”
Jennifer looked at the small electronic device that was no bigger than a matchbox. It actually had two LEDs on it. One red, one green. “We don’t want to destroy them though, when we find them, do we?” She said as she fingered the device. Jason gave her a brief smile. It was like they were on the same wavelength.
Jason shook his head, getting into the role of leader. He’d never been in charge of something like this and he found he liked it. “No, just locate. We don’t want them to know we’ve found’em. The Admiral says continue with your normal routines, keep feeding them the same information that we’ve been giving them up to now.
When the time is right, the Admiral says he’ll spring the trap shut. And this is important: Do not let anyone else know what we are doing….”
The three women looked at their devices and then back at him. “Why?” They said in unison.
Jason paused for a moment. He hadn’t considered that they might ask that question. But then the answer he supplied was the only one that made sense. “Because right now the Admiral only trusts us. Everyone else in JAG Headquarters is suspect….”
“Everyone, Tiner?” Lieutenant Sims said with a hint of officer disapproval. Harriet couldn’t believe this. It was like some bad dream that she couldn’t wake up from. Just who else was involved?
Jason was momentarily taken aback. Harriet had deferred to him because of his technical expertise, was she changing her mind? Had he not handled this properly? “Well, yes ma’am,” he replied a
little unsteadily, “Everyone.”
Marla fingered her sniffer. “I didn’t like Major Clemons at first, but I can’t believe that she’s a traitor….”
Jason felt his self-assurance crumbling. Maybe the Lieutenant should have taken the lead on this….
Harriet could see the crisis of confidence in Jason’s face. It was hard to believe, but right now, other than their group and the Admiral, anyone could be sharing info with the enemy. It was time to put her personal doubts aside and support the Admiral’s Yeoman. “Sergeant, I don’t think the Admiral wants us going around sharing this information about the bugs with everyone at JAG Headquarters….”
Jason looked over at Harriet and gave him a brief nod of support. Jason felt his confidence returning.
“All right,” Marla conceded, “I can go along with that, but what do we say to anyone who asks what we’re doing?”
Tiner nodded. Her question was a good one. “Try to be
inconspicuous; go to a person’s desk when they’re not there. Off hours, early morning, late evening. If they happen to be there when you are, tell them you’re checking phone and internet connections. Admiral’s orders. If it glows green, then you tell them everything’s okay. If it glows red tell them something’s wrong with your indicator – bad batteries, malfunction, something like that.
If you notice anyone taking a special interest in what you’re doing, note who it is and let me or the Admiral know….”
After Jason finished his ‘talk’, he drained his cup. It left him with nothing to drink for lunch, but the drink had calmed his nerves. “Lieutenant, if you could, ma’am, you and the Sergeant should start checking out the rest of the workstation areas after lunch.”
Harriet understood that it was the Admiral, not Jason, who was issuing these orders. But what she couldn’t understand was why he wasn’t going to be involved right now.
“Where are you going to be, Tiner?”
“The Admiral has requested that Petty Officer Coates and I attend a funeral this afternoon,” Jen, who had been examining her sniffer, looked up in surprise at Jason’s comment.
Woodhaven Memorial Cemetery
Falls Church, Virginia
Chegwidden, Jason Tiner, and Jennifer Coates, dressed in their service dress uniforms, stood silently at the gravesite. Many of the onlookers noticed that the two Petty Officers were sporting bandages. Everyone stood silently, the Reverend having just finished his sermon.
In the background a white gloved Arlington patrol officer walked over to her cruiser, opened the door, and pulled out her radio mike. She switched the car radio mike to loudspeaker mode.
“Twelve twenty four adam…”
“Twelve twenty four adam…”
Only silence greeted the request for the officer to check in.
The officer cleared her throat and clicked the mike again. “Officer Low is ten-seven…may God rest his soul.”
AJ, Coates and Tiner held their salutes as a soft rain began to fall on those gathered around Michael Low’s grave. In the background, a handpicked team from the Arlington Police Department shouldered their rifles and when ordered, fired their salute to their fallen
comrade.
As quickly as it had begun, the light rain paused. With the salute completed, the riflemen were dismissed while the Arlington Police Department’s Chief spoke quietly with Mrs. Low.
Rear Admiral [RADM] Chegwidden, closely followed by Coates and Tiner, walked over to them.
“Ma’am….”
The Chief stood up and silently acknowledged the Navy personnel and then excused himself. Ms. Low slowly turned and cast a baleful stare at the Navy/Marine JAG and the Petty Officers who had walked up to her.
“It’s so nice of the Petty Officer who got my husband killed to attend his funeral,” she said icily. Seeing Jason’s stricken look, or maybe something else, must’ve made her stop and reconsider.
She sighed deeply and shook her head. “I’m sorry Petty Officer, you didn’t deserve that. That was wrong and spiteful of me.”
She chuckled humorlessly and gave him a sad smile “Michael would have chewed me out for doing something like that to you. He’d…he’d tell me that it wasn’t your fault,” she bit her lower lip to keep the tears building in her eyes from spilling down her flushed cheeks.
“Mrs. Low, we are so very sorry for what happened,” said AJ gently, “If there is anything I, or my office can do for you…”
She sniffed and smiled. “Thank you…Admiral. I really appreciate that; I’m sure Michael would have….” She gave all three officers a brave smile.
“There is something you can tell me, though,” she said after a moment of uneasy silence passed between them.
“Yes ma’am?” said the JAG replied as reverently as he could given her earlier snide comment.
“Did we stop them? Did we catch them before they could do any more harm?”
It was a question AJ had been asked repeatedly since the attack. In a way, she hoped they would reassure her that the bad guys had been caught and this wouldn’t happen again. The painful truth was that AJ really couldn’t tell her that, or that it wouldn’t happen again.
Jen looked sadly at Jason, and AJ looked down, then back at the woman. “They won’t be attacking anyone else, if that’s what you mean Mrs. Low,” Of that he was sure – out of the nearly full company of suicide terrorists who had attacked JAG Headquarters, only one had survived – as a fugitive.
Jen felt more had to be said. This woman had just lost her husband. To her right now, his death must be so meaningless. It needed to stand for something. “Ma’am because of your husband, we were able to rescue two Afghan nationals that were being held by the terrorists at their safe house. One of the two risked their life to give us a book that contained their plans. It allowed us to foil their assault and keep them from carrying out more attacks.”
At this revelation Mrs. Low smiled again. “Michael would have been proud. Who is this person, Petty Officer?”
Jennifer Coates bit her lower lip, she’d already risked the wrath of the Admiral by this breach and to say anything more could endanger Ms. Dodge’s life, “I’m not at liberty to say ma’am….” she saw the crestfallen look on the woman’s face “…but they were the spouse of a Marine who was killed in combat in Iraq.” Jen quickly added, hoping the Admiral would not ream her out for this admission.
For the first time since they had met AJ saw hope light the woman’s eyes. “Admiral? Would it be possible for me to visit this person?”
AJ paused for a moment to consider the consequences.
To hell with consequences; this man had given his life for his country as bravely as any solider would have. The least he could do was honor his widow’s request.
He nodded. “Of course, Mrs. Low. You understand, you cannot talk to anyone about this meeting….”
Mrs. Low quietly acquiesced to the conditions. “I understand Admiral; I just need to know that my husband’s death wasn’t in vain….”
AJ nodded silently. Jason offered his arm to the woman and Jen fell in on her other side like a protection team. The Navy/Marine Judge Advocate General lead the procession back to the waiting Navy limousine.
---TBC…
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