“Very well, send him in,” the General replied, and then quickly composed himself.
“Captain LeSade reporting, sir!” Tommy said, but did not come to attention or salute the General. He figured what the hell, he may spend the rest of his life at Ft. Leavenworth, so disrespecting a flag rank officer was no big deal.
“Captain, have you forgotten military courtesy?”
“No, Sir, you have.”
“In what way, Captain? I never intend to offend. Even those of lower rank,” Hawk smiled, reminding him of his place in the scheme of things.
“Sir, while I was under Mister Cramer’s command, I was assured by him that he would get your permission to send me on a mission of great importance to you, him, the Army and the United States. He assured me he had your authorization. I completed the mission successfully and returned to my unit only to learn that I have been listed as AWOL and that my Commanding Officer was recommending court-martial proceedings against me.
“Sir, as you know,” Tommy continued. “During court-martial proceedings I have no right, as an officer, to refuse to answer any question I am asked. I do however have the right to defend myself. I would prefer not to answer any questions asked by anyone. Therefore, I would like to request that you, perhaps, recommend to my Commanding Officer, Colonel Austin Lake, that no disciplinary action is needed for my absence. It would not be in the best interests of the Army, or the United States, sir,” Tommy concluded.
“I assure you, Captain LeSade, this was an oversight on my part and I will take care of it.”
“Sir, could you possibly do it now, while it’s fresh in your mind?”
“Of course, Captain. No problem,” General Hawk said, then reached for his phone and dialed a number. He listened for a moment while looking Tommy over carefully.
“Yes, this is General Hawk. Put Colonel Lake on, please.” Hawk stared at Tommy, then nodded without blinking. To Tommy, he looked guilty.
“Austin, yes fine. How are you? Great! Listen Austin, a couple of days ago, I meant to inform you that I had need of one of your soldiers. Yes, Captain LeSade, and it slipped my mind until your report crossed my desk just now and reminded me that I neglected to call you. Yes, Sir. He seems to be an outstanding officer. Colonel, you say? I was thinking that very same thing myself. No, sir, I haven’t seen him recently. But, I look forward to meeting with him again. Yes, Colonel, I agree. He is an asset to the Army. Yes, Colonel. I’m disposing of your report as we speak. Okay, Austin. Take care. Goodbye.” He hung up the phone and stared at Tommy. “Politics, Captain. Never show your hand.”
“Sir, I appreciate you taking time to take care of this for me. Thank you, sir.”
“Captain, I’m always here for my men. Rank is irrelevant,” the general assured him with a straight face. A little too straight as far as Tommy was concerned. He was guilty to the same degree as Cramer. “Is there anything else I can help you with, Captain.”
“No, sir; that should handle my problem.”
“Glad to help, Captain. Good day, sir.”
“Good day, sir. Again, thank you, sir!” Tommy said, then came to attention and saluted the General, then did an about face and left.
“Lieutenant, destroy the incident report on Captain LeSade filed by Colonel Lake,” Tommy heard the general say as he stepped from his office.
“Yes, sir!” The Lieutenant replied smartly, then stepped from the door and eased it closed behind him.
Tommy and Ryan waited by the lieutenant’s desk until he arrived.
“Well, looks like you’re out of the fire on this one, Captain,” Ryan smiled wryly.
“Let’s hope so,” Tommy said, remembering his father’s words. “I don’t trust any of them anymore. I have a feeling General Hawk would have just as soon seen me burn.”
“What are we waiting for?” Ryan asked, watching as the lieutenant came up to the desk.
“I want to see him destroy that report,” Tommy said. “I’ll sleep better.”
“I hear ya,” Ryan laughed, as the Lieutenant came back from a file cabinet with a file in his hand.
“Captain, I was going to destroy this file before it ever left here. I didn’t believe it when I read it. It’s bullshit. I overheard what the General and you talked about during your last visit. I knew about the mission,” he said, handing Tommy the file.
Tommy opened it and looked at the report. After reading it he tore it up and handed the pieces back to the lieutenant for disposal.
“Let’s go, Major,” Tommy said, then turned and headed for the door. Ryan followed.
* * * * *
As soon as Tommy left and the door closed, Hawk picked up his private phone and hastily dialed a number. Then sat nervously awaiting an answer.
“Niles Cramer, please. General Hawk. When do you expect him back? Have him call me. It’s an emergency. Thank you.” The general looked worried as he hung up the phone.
Captain LeSade had to be dealt with. He could cause more trouble than the general cared to deal with. There were literally hundreds of billions of dollars on the line. He wasn’t planning to lose his share. He didn’t care how many captains he had to dispose of!
Chapter 4
Tommy’s life returned pretty much to normal. For the following three months, he had been stationed in and around Baghdad. Saddam and all his followers were in hiding. His sons were dead. The rewards being offered for their heads were not being collected near as fast as everyone had thought. He had not seen Major Ryan for the past few weeks, so figured, he must be staying busy flying missions and shooting up what hadn’t been already blown up.
Tommy had added four more bodies to his already impressive total. But, hoped he wouldn’t have to add more to it. For the life of him, he couldn’t figure out why the Iraqi people couldn’t stop killing each other and come to some sort of settlement over their differences. He knew, as the Iraqis had to know, that the United States was not going to leave until it got what it wanted, no matter how long it took or how much it cost.
America was ‘top dog’ and had every intention of staying top dog. Russia had learned as did Germany and Japan. For all three it had been very expensive, both in lives and reconstruction. War was a non-profit operation to the loser. But, if you were top dog, well it was unbelievably lucrative. Top dog never worried about the cost in human lives. Everyone below the top dog position was expendable cannon fodder. However, to the families of the fodder, no amount of money and power was ever worth the loss of their loved one’s lives.
So, what were these people thinking? Tommy wondered. Were they thinking? What was Allah thinking? Tommy wondered if He even appreciated the untold numbers who had given their lives in His name. Wasn’t He satisfied, yet? How much blood did it take to please a God?
Tommy was glad he was not Muslim. If he were, he would have died at the very beginning. His dedication and faith knew no bounds. He would have offered himself up quickly and never regretted it.
“Captain LeSade, sir,” a female voice said from behind him, interrupting his storming thoughts.
“Yes, what is it?” he answered, glancing over his shoulder from his prone position at the pretty M.P. Lieutenant. He lay in a nest of sandbags peering through his sniper scope at the streets below.
“Sir, Colonel Lake wants to see you at H.Q. as soon as possible, sir.” the lieutenant replied seriously.
Tommy stood up and stretched. He smiled as he looked into the pretty blue eyes of the blond-headed girl he towered over. She was maybe five foot six inches and feisty as a badger on a kill. Even though she weighed less than a hundred-and-ten-pounds soaking wet, he had heard tell she had taken down near seven footers who pushed the scales at three-hundred pounds on several occasions. And she had witnesses to back her up.
“Stiff,” Tommy explained, coming out of his stretch. “Been lying there for hours.”
“I know I sure love a good stretch after a long day,” she replied. Tommy didn’t know for sure if she was ser
ious, or coming on to him, or both. He decided both.
“It’s really no fun unless you have someone to really stretch out with, though,” he winked.
“Captain! Are you coming on to me?”
“Of course. You’re beautiful as an angel. Why wouldn’t I?” he replied seriously, smiling down at her as they walked.
“That’s sexual harassment,” she joked playfully.
“Now, that’s what I hate about society today. A man can’t even pay a beautiful woman a compliment without it being sexual harassment! It’s a shame!”
“I agree. Pay me another and I won’t report you,” she laughed, looking at him from the corner of her eyes.
“How about later?” he smiled down at her. “The Colonel’s waiting.”
“No, now! You may be in hot water again and I won’t see you later. So pay me now. I hate credit,” she laughed, enjoying the game.
“Let me see,” Tommy said thoughtfully, striking a pose with his chin resting between his thumb and forefinger as he thought. “How about...shit!” he finished springing in front of her.
She heard a meaty slap, then a rifle shot and Tommy was shoved back into her and they fell to the ground.
Tommy felt it, but didn’t hear it. He stumbled back into Lieutenant Tremmel’s arms and then they were crashing to the ground. He lay staring up at the cloudless sky. He kept seeing Cramer’s face lowering to the scope and seeing the puff of smoke from the barrel. “Cramer!” he sighed, then rolled over onto his back.
The rifle slug hit him in the right chest, four inches down from his collarbone. His chest began to suck air and bleed profusely.
Lieutenant Lindsey Tremmel raised her M-16 and began to shoot cover fire as she struggled to drag Tommy into a doorway. She didn’t know for sure where the shot had come from, so she covered their whole front.
There was no return fire. Cramer was convinced he had hit his mark. Even the captain wasn’t faster than a speeding bullet. So, he had left the scene and was now running down a back alley to his new office.
When she received no return fire, Lindsey began to call for assistance over her radio. She was promised help in five minutes. Just hold on! They had said. What else could she do, she asked herself, applying palm pressure to the hole in Tommy’s chest.
“Come on Captain, don’t you die on me!” she demanded. “I might actually be in love with you!” she said aloud, surprising herself.
“Well, in that case, I won’t die on you, then,” he said weakly.
“You better not, Captain! Or you will never get any of this!” she said, again surprising herself.
“In that case, Cramer could shoot me again and I still wouldn’t go anywhere. Until afterward, that is,” he joked.
She punched his chest on the left side playfully. “Just be quiet, Captain. Help’s on the way. Should be here any minute.”
“I’m being quiet. If you’ll give me one good kiss I promise not to raise a ruckus!”
She kissed him. He passed out.
* * * * *
Cramer received the General’s call just thirty minutes before he fired the fatal shot into the Captain’s young heart. It had been a close thing. He had just gotten into position when he saw LeSade and the girl MP approaching. He had the cross hairs directly on LeSade’s heart when he pulled the trigger. There was no way he missed. He breathed a sigh of relief. Their secret, and fortunes, were safe.
The Captain may have been the best, but no one is faster than a speeding bullet. Not even the best. That’s why he hadn’t waited around to gloat, and double confirm that LeSade was dead. The Captain was dead. Hanging around wouldn’t make him any deader.
Besides, he had to get away. It wouldn’t do for him to be caught in the area. Too many questions would be asked and questions were bad. Answers were worse. Especially in his line of work. He had no desire to provide answers concerning the demise of Captain Tommy LeSade. He couldn’t care less about the Captain. The only two things he cared about in the entire world were that the Captain was dead and that his money was safe in Pakistan.
With the American crackdown on money transfers it would be several years before he had it all safely salted away in accounts around the world. But have it he would. Even if it took ten years. Money was good any time.
When he reached his office, he stashed the briefcase containing the disassembled rifle and then relaxed. He was home free. No one had seen him and he could not be linked to the death of Captain LeSade.
He picked up the phone, listened for the dial tone, then dialed the General’s private line.
“General Hawk,” the general answered.
“The foul deed is done,” Cramer smiled at the irony. He had actually enjoyed making the billion dollar shot.
“Good.”
“No problem.”
“Good-bye,” Hawk said, then hung up before Cramer could respond.
Cramer hung up, leaned back in his chair and relaxed. He lit a cigarette and blew a cloud of smoke around his head. He hated the foul smelling things, but he had to have them, too. He smiled into the smoke, he was home free!
* * * * *
When Tommy came out of surgery he was missing half of his right lung. His running days, for the most part, was over. His military career was over unless he wanted to be a desk commander. He wouldn’t like that for the next ten or twenty years, depending on whether he stayed for twenty or thirty years. He didn’t mind the lung so bad; it was the loss of his career that hurt him to his very soul. The military had been his life, his love.
True, there was the desk option. But, he knew he’d go insane within a year of being strapped to a desk. He needed to be on the edge. Not necessarily on the cutting edge, but close enough he could see the shine from it. He couldn’t do that from a desk anywhere in the world.
When he opened his eyes in post-op recovery Lieutenant Lindsey Tremmel was holding his hand, looking intently into his face and wiping tears from her eyes.
“Hello Angel,” he whispered softly.
“Hi,” she smiled, touching his face affectionately.
“Have I been here long?”
“About three hours.”
“Can I get another kiss? I don’t remember the last one very well.” She kissed him again.
“Can I get another, Angel?”
“They’re cheaper by the dozen,” she smiled, kissing his lips again.
“My credit any good?”
“Triple A rated.”
“In that case, I’ll take a million.”
“Okay, but you’ll have to sign a contract. And I’ll have to have at least sixty or seventy years to deliver the full order.”
“Sounds reasonable,” Tommy smiled. “I agree,” he whispered softly, then began to drift away into sleep again.
When he awakened again he had been moved to a ward and Lindsey was gone. He wondered if he had dreamt her being there and the conversation they had shared and the promises they had made. Maybe, he thought, staring at the ceiling.
He began to think seriously about what he was going to do with his life away from the Army. Hell, the Army is my life! I don’t know anything else but martial arts and computers. With a lung and a half I’ll have to settle for computers. I’m still good for writing programs. Very good, he amended. Okay, that’s it. Computer programming. His thoughts began to run wild as he lay his plans for the future. Then, Cramer’s face ducking behind the sniper scope came to mind. That led to the money and the plans for balancing the scales began to form.
Cramer had tried to kill him twice! It must be the money! Then he knew, they weren’t taking the money to return it to the United States Government, they were stealing it for themselves!
When he thought about it some more, he realized he was the only other person besides Cramer and Hawk that knew about operation ‘Clean Sweep’. Well, there were the other three drivers of the trucks, but he was sure they were dead by now if they weren’t in on the theft from the beginning.
And for that much money, what were their simple lives?
Now that he thought about it, Cramer had never allowed the other drivers to come to the back of the underground warehouse, or to see what was being loaded into the trailers. That alone told him they were dead. Their lives meant nothing. What were three lives compared to that much money? What were a hundred? Was the sky the limit? Was there a limit? For hundreds of billions of dollars in cash and maybe twice that much in gold bullion would anyone be safe?
Tommy was so deep in thought he didn’t notice when Colonel Austin Lake approached his bed and looked down at him with a concerned expression.
“Captain LeSade, I hope I’m not disturbing you,” he said softly, so as not to disturb the other patients.
“No, Sir,” Tommy replied, glancing up at Lake’s round, black, bowling ball of a face. “Just thinking about the future,” he added, noticing the papers in Lake’s hand.
“Well, the future is uncertain at best. But, let me be the first to congratulate you, Major, on your promotion.”
“Thank you, sir. I’d forgotten about that. Other things came up that took precedent over promotions and such. Too many other things going on,” he continued, taking the proffered orders from Lake.
“Yes,” Lake said thoughtfully. “Lots going on around here. Also,” he added after a slight hesitation. “Let me congratulate you for being awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star and pending a Presidential Awards Ceremony, the Congressional Medal of Honor. It is my honor to have known and served with you, Sir,” Lake said, handing Tommy the orders for the awards as he named them off. As Tommy took the last, Lake came to full attention and saluted him after his last statement.
“Thank you, Sir,” Tommy replied, returning the salute. “But, I wasn’t expecting this. I don’t believe I have earned them, Sir.”
“Major, ‘by your actions in the face of overwhelming enemy fire, you single handedly overcame the enemy forces and saved the lives of no less than fifty American soldiers’. It says so right there in those orders signed by the Commander-in-Chief. Therefore, it is my humble opinion, sir, that you deserve far more than a simple medal to honor your service, bravery and honor.”
“Thank you, sir. But, at the time, it didn’t seem like much of a big deal. I was just doing what I was being paid to do.”