Dale Brown - Act of War

He glared at Richter suspiciously, then shook his head sadly. “This is the most egregious, the most outrageous, the most foolhardy example of abuse of power and authority I’ve witnessed in all my years of government service. You were America’s best hope to track down terrorists all over the world, Major Richter. I trusted you. I wanted this thing to work, and I was hoping that technology like your CID unit would be the key. Unfortunately, you thought you didn’t need to work as a team. Not only will you and your fellow teammates, but all of America, pay the price for your lack of judgment. I should have provided better leadership.”

He looked around at all of the assembled task force members and said, “This training area has now become your detention facility, folks. All of your weapons will be impounded here and used as evidence. You are all material witnesses, and you will be held here indefinitely until our investigation is complete. You will retain your current rank, pay grade, and privileges until formal charges are levied against you. Until then, I expect nothing less than your full cooperation.” And with that, Chamberlain walked away and into his waiting vehicle and drove off.

After he was gone, the others started to drift away, murmuring comments quietly to one another, until eventually only Jefferson, Richter, Vega, Skyy, Kelsey DeLaine, Carl Bolton, Doug Moore, and Kristen’s camera crew remained.

Moore was the first to approach Richter. “I trusted you, sir,” he said simply before he walked away.

Kelsey walked over to them, looked at the wounds on Ariadna’s face with a look of concern…then turned to Richter and slapped him hard across the face. “You stupid jerk!” she shouted. “You egotistical ignorant childish bastard! You not only destroyed this task force but the careers of each and every person here!”

“You guys still don’t get it, do you?” Jason asked. “This is a setup. We’re being framed…”

“We’re not listening to you, Richter!” Bolton interjected. “You’re nothing but a crazy-ass flake. I’d sleep with one eye open from now on if I were you, buster, because folks are going to realize that their lives would be pretty much back to normal if you got yourself fragged.”

“That is enough!” Sergeant Major Jefferson shouted.

“Hey, Sergeant Major, I’m not going to listen to a damned thing you have to say either!” Bolton retorted. “You could have stopped Richter before he left the country with the CID unit! Then, when you got your clearance to go to Brazil, you over-stepped it by going to chase down that other GAMMA terrorist. You have absolutely no right to be ordering us around. You’re just as responsible for us getting shut down as he is…!”

“I am still in command of this task force…”

“Didn’t you hear, Sergeant Major—there is no task force any more, thanks to you and Richter! There’s nothing here but a bunch of soldiers and engineers in a detention facility!”

“Mr. Chamberlain did not disband this task force—until he does, I retain command of this unit, and we will continue to organize and train as before, with any equipment and resources we are allowed to have,” Jefferson said hotly. “If we’re not given any equipment to use, we’ll use sticks and stones; and if we’re not allowed to use those, we’ll do PT; but we will continue to train.”

“This is bullshit, Jefferson,” Bolton said. “It’s a waste of time. I’m not doing anything you tell me to do.”

“Until I am relieved of command, I am in charge here,” Jefferson said in a low, menacing voice, “and my first directive is aimed squarely at you, Agent Bolton—if you touch Major Richter or anyone else here with the intent of causing them any physical harm, I will personally beat you to a bloody pulp and hang your carcass on the barbed-wire fence. And if you don’t follow my orders to the letter, I’ll make your existence here at this facility extremely uncomfortable. Do I make myself clear?”

Bolton stepped over to Jefferson and stood face to face with him. Bolton was much taller than Jefferson and probably had ten to fifteen kilos on him—it would be a spectacular fight, if one broke out.

But with one look at Jefferson’s icy warning glare, Bolton blinked and backed away. “Tell me, Sergeant Major—why do you give a shit so much about that loser?” Bolton asked in a low voice. “He hasn’t been part of this team since day one; he’s succeeded in getting us all canned and ruining our careers. What do you care what happens to him? If he ends up with his teeth pushed in so he can’t talk anymore, this whole thing would be over, wouldn’t it?”

“Not by a long shot, Bolton,” Jefferson said. “If that happened, I would be extremely suspicious of the guy who did it. It would make me wonder why that guy would want to make sure Richter was permanently silenced.”

“You think I had something to do with Richter taking the CID unit to Brazil?”

“No, I’m sure that was the major’s idea, along with Miss Skyy there,” Jefferson replied. “But I’m wondering about how we got ambushed so well out there. Someone knew we were coming and tipped off the terrorists…”

“And you think I did it?”

“I don’t know who did it, Bolton,” Jefferson said. “But until I do, everyone is a suspect—and I’d consider the guy who threatens to bump off Richter the number-one suspect.” Bolton looked as if he was going to say something, but thought better of it and remained silent. “Now I’m going to repeat my order just one more time: anyone who harms any other person in this facility will deal with me. Am I making myself perfectly clear?” Jefferson affixed an angry glare on every face around him, then shouted, “I said, do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, sir!” the others responded loudly.

“Until we receive orders to the contrary,” Jefferson went on, “we will continue to study our tactics, develop and refine our TO&E, and maintain our training schedule. Everyone trains, or they will get to experience the feel of my boot on their ass—and that includes you, Bolton. You will all cooperate fully with the investigators…” He turned to Kristen’s crew and added, “and that includes you too…”

“Like hell it does, Sergeant Major,” Kristen said. “We have our orders, same as you, and our orders say we don’t speak with anyone unless we have an attorney present. Just tell us where our quarters are—that’s where you’ll find us.”

“Miss Skyy…”

“And don’t give me that ‘boot up my ass’ crap, Sergeant Major,” Rich the cameraman interjected. “I was a Marine—I can dish it out better than I can take it.”

Jefferson knew there was no use arguing with them—he had absolutely no authority over them at all. “Very well. I’ll see to quarters for you. You will be restricted there at all times except as required by the debriefing teams. I’ll post a guard if necessary.” Kristen, Rich, and Bonnie could do nothing else but shoot Jefferson evil glares and walk away. Jefferson checked his watch. “Pass the word along to everyone else: our training schedule resumes after lunch. In the meantime, I want an update on our training and readiness, and I will brief the staff on what we learned in Brazil. That is all. Dismissed.” Soon just Jefferson, Richter, and Vega remained on the parking ramp outside the hangars.

“Sergeant Major, we need to talk about what’s happened,” Jason said. “We need to file a report with the intelligence agencies, the FBI, and probably Interpol or somebody…”

“You have your orders, Major.”

“Excuse me, sir, but with all due respect, can you get off your macho command-sergeant-major high horse for a moment here?” Jason asked.