The Blockade

by Darrell Maloney

  “Precisely. I’m glad you got my point.”

  “Please, Lester. Let me finish.

  “By the same token, knowing all the years these colonels have faithfully served their country, don’t you think they deserve the benefit of the doubt? I’ve always heard that military officers are held to a higher standard than enlisted personnel. And that only officers of the highest quality are promoted to the rank of colonel or above.”

  He couldn’t argue the point without casting doubt upon his own character.

  “Correct me if I’m wrong, general. But aren’t colonels normally given a great deal of respect? Aren’t they generally taken at their word? If they say there was no message in the safe pertaining to the bunker, and a follow-up investigation confirmed there was no message, shouldn’t that be the end of the matter?”

  “Colonel Bettis had more years in the service than either of your colonels, Hannah. He knew damn well the importance of leaving that message behind for his successor.”

  “He was despondent. He was depressed. He was getting ready to desert his post and would soon take his own life.”

  It wasn’t often General Lester Mannix let his emotions get the best of him. But he did on this occasion.

  “Don’t you understand, Hannah? He was a colonel. And as such he shouldn’t be doubted!”

  -26-

  Hannah was a woman, and as such had a very understanding nature. More than that, she usually had an excellent control of her emotions.

  Except when she watched dogs die in movies like Old Yeller or Marley and Me. But everybody cries then, so that didn’t count.

  When the general overplayed his hand and blurted out that Colonel Bettis shouldn’t be suspected of destroying a critical message just because he was a colonel, Hannah showed no emotion.

  She simply said, “Lester, let’s just let those words lie here and sink in for a moment.”

  She stared at him.

  It wasn’t a glare, for she wasn’t gloating.

  She was just waiting for him to think about what he’d just said.

  Just in case he was too angry, though, she helped him a bit.

  “Lester, you’re saying we shouldn’t cast any doubt or dispersion on Bettis because he was in the military for a very long time. He’d attained the rank of colonel, which is an impressive feat in itself. And he’d been given the position of base commander, of one of the largest military installations in the United States. Another impressive feat. And you’re saying that because of his rank and position we shouldn’t assume he destroyed that message. We should assume that he was perfect. Too perfect to make such a mistake, given his rank and position.

  “Then we have Colonel Wilcox and Colonel Medley. Two Air Force surgeons with impeccable records who saved the lives of countless wounded men during their careers. Something not even Colonel Bettis could claim. Wilcox and Medley were also full colonels. An impressive accomplishment for them as well. And they were working in key positions when you had them arrested. Wilcox was filling the same role he took from Bettis after Bettis committed suicide. Medley, as his vice commander, was one short step below him.

  “So why hold them to different standards? Why say we shouldn’t disparage Colonel Bettis because of his rank and position? Yet at the same time not take the word of two men in the same rank and position?”

  “I think you can see my point, Lester, but I’m going to drag it out anyway.

  “I’m not saying Colonel Bettis wasn’t a fine man. But when a man gets to the point he contemplates suicide he has changed. He’s probably clinically depressed and he’s nearing a state of desperation.

  “He’s not thinking clearly at that point and he’s not the same man of sound judgment he once was.

  “Maybe he wasn’t sure what would become of the message after his death and didn’t want it to fall into the wrong hands. If it was Top Secret, need to know, he wouldn’t have wanted just anyone to stumble across it.

  “Or maybe he destroyed it accidentally, while disposing of other classified material he no longer needed. Who knows? You say his judgment or actions should not be questioned. Yet he deserted his post before he killed himself. That’s a crime in itself. I’m just a dumb civilian and even I know that.

  “As much as you don’t want to hear it, general, the man you want to believe over colonels Wilcox and Medley was a criminal when he committed suicide. I’m not saying it’s his fault. And I’m not saying that, given his state of mind a court martial wouldn’t have cleared him. But he was never arrested and never charged, so technically he was never cleared of deserting his post. So technically, at least according to the UCMJ and the Manual for Courts Martial, he died an unexonerated criminal.

  “Why on earth would you give Bettis the benefit of the doubt, and say he would never destroy that message because of his rank and position, but deem two other guilty under the same conditions?

  “General, I know you’re a fine and honorable man, or you wouldn’t be sitting where you are right now.

  “Pardon me for saying so, and I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but I also know you have a reputation of being a vengeful man. I’ve heard you tend to carry grudges.

  “Lastly, I know your pride was hurt that night when you had to stand outside in your pajamas, in front of your wife and children. I know that must have been quite difficult.

  “Standing there in front of your men and women, the ones you command, must have caused you a considerable amount of embarrassment. I get that.

  “But you’re holding two good men to an unreasonable standard. A standard you didn’t apply to their predecessor, who was the only one of the three to have committed a crime.

  “General, it’s time to put an end to this.

  “It’s time to show some compassion, and show these people that you understand.

  “You understand that sometimes things happen which are no one’s fault. And sometimes people make mistakes. And that while the UCMJ typically punishes people for making mistakes, it shouldn’t be used to punish people for others’ mistakes.

  “I know the old adage innocent until proven guilty applies to civilian criminal law and not to military justice. But I believe the military justice system should adhere to the same standard.”

  “And you honestly believe I’m responsible for the death of Colonel Wilcox?”

  “Not responsible, no. Complicit maybe. You didn’t wrap that sheet around his neck and order him to hang from it until he died. He did that, not you.

  “But no one can measure the amount of stress another man is feeling. You added to that stress by ordering his arrest and throwing him into a jail cell. A place where despair is the rule of the day, every day. A place where men give up hope and sometimes see death as their only way out.

  “I can’t say whether your arresting Colonel Wilcox drove him to suicide. It may have been the straw which broke the camel’s back. Or maybe it wasn’t. I suspect that you’ve given it some thought as well, and if you’re a decent man I suspect it’ll haunt you for the rest of your life. Not just the possibility you drove him to hang himself. But also the not knowing.

  “What I’m asking you, Lester, is to let Medley go. Release him and drop the charges. Don’t let your pride make a bad situation worse.

  “It’s time to stop the madness.”

  General Mannix checked his watch.

  He apologized to his guests.

  “I wish we could continue this, but I’ve got a meeting to get to in exactly seven minutes. Normally I just wouldn’t attend, but since I called the meeting I pretty much have to be there.”

  He stood and Captain Wright and Hannah followed suit.

  The general walked around his desk and shook Hannah’s hand.

  “I don’t know where you found this woman, David, but she’s a hell of a litigator. You need to offer her a job.”

  To Hannah he said, “I admire a woman… or a man, for that matter, who isn’t afraid to speak frankly.

  “You’d be surpr
ised at the number of people I deal with who pay me lip service because they’re afraid to tell me the truth. Or what they’re really thinking. Maybe I’m an ogre or a monster. Maybe they’re afraid I’ll bite their heads off.”

  Hannah managed a smile and answered, “I don’t think you are, sir. You just come off that way.”

  He openly laughed.

  “I’ll settle for that, I suppose. Anyway, it’s refreshing to hear unfiltered opinions. You’ve given me several things to think about and I appreciate your time. Captain Krebbs will give you her number. I ask two things of you. If you’d like to pick up our conversation on another day, call her and she’ll make it happen.

  “Also, don’t give that number to anyone. David already has it, but I give it to as few people as I can. I don’t want her to get yelled at or abused for things I’ve said or done.”

  He walked them to the door.

  He bid them each a pleasant day.

  But he never said whether her words swayed him in any way.

  A good negotiator never does.

  -27-

  As Captain Krebbs led Hannah and Wright back down the corridor to the exit of the bunker, Wright queried the general’s exec.

  “Do you think she scored any points at all?”

  “I don’t know,” Krebbs honestly said. “I will say that as long as I’ve known him, that’s the longest I’ve seen him carry on a conversation without yelling or losing his temper. So… maybe.

  “I guess we’ll find out in time.”

  As they walked to Wright’s staff car Hannah noticed the sun getting rather low in the sky.

  “Holy Moley. Were we in there that long?”

  He checked his watch.

  “Just over three hours.”

  “Really? It didn’t seem that long. I’m sorry if I made you work overtime.”

  He laughed.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “There’s no such thing as overtime in the United States Air Force. That was true before the world froze over and it’s especially true now.

  “And besides, when you live and work in the same place it feels good to get out and about.”

  “What? You live in your office?”

  “Only temporarily. And not technically. Actually I live in an unused storage room in the back of my office. I brought in a cot when the rumors started about the blockade because I didn’t want to get stuck off base when it happened. I can’t do our friend Colonel Wilcox any good if I’m on the outside looking in.”

  “Poor you.”

  “Oh, it’s not so bad. There’s nothing comfortable about sleeping on a bare military cot, but it’s fairly comfortable with an air mattress on top of it. I do my laundry in the sink and shower at an emergency shower in the basement.

  “Since I’m on base I don’t have to stand in line at the FEMA truck for food. I just go to the dining hall twice a day. So all in all it could be much worse.”

  “Are all the military people in the same boat?”

  “No, actually, about half of them got furloughed. The other half, the ones deemed mission essential by their commanding officers, are making whatever arrangements they can.”

  “Furloughed?”

  “Told by their unit commanders to stay home until the blockade is lifted.”

  “They’re still getting paid, aren’t they?”

  “You’re kidding, right?”

  “No. Why?”

  “Nobody in the military has been paid since two weeks after Saris 7 struck. The military pay system was one of the first things to go. The computer system went down and there was no way to pay the troops. Everything’s been done electronically for so many years there are no longer any provisions made to write checks anymore. And even if they did, distributing the checks would be a major problem.”

  “So… everybody in the military has been working for free all this time?”

  “No. Everybody’s been working for our country all this time. And believe it or not, nobody is complaining. A few did at first, but they got over it.

  “After the government declared the dollar worthless they figured getting paid wouldn’t be worth the trouble anyway. I mean, there’s not much food on supermarket shelves any more, and with the dollar being worthless they couldn’t buy it anyway. So most military members and their families just eat in the dining halls or off the FEMA trucks, just like everybody else.”

  “How come they don’t pay you guys with the new blue money?”

  “My understanding is that they will, but that it’s a slow process. They’re making it a little at a time and then distributing it around the country. Once every city and town has its designated share they’ll establish a uniform exchange rate. Until then it’s like the Wild West. So they’re advising those who have it to just hang onto it and not spend it.

  “Me personally, I’ve only seen a few blue bills floating around.”

  “Are all the other mission essential people sleeping in their offices too?”

  “A lot of folks are.

  “A lot are sleeping on the gymnasium floors at the base high school and middle schools or on the pews in one of the base churches. All the billeting rooms are taken.

  “And while most base housing is off base, there are about six hundred units inside the fence. Each of those families has been asked by the base commander to take in one person as a temporary guest until the blockade ends.”

  Hannah smiled.

  “Obviously you were too grouchy to get an invitation?”

  “I’m told I snore loud enough to wake the dead. I did get a couple of invitations but figured I’d wear out my welcome in no time at all.

  “To be honest, I kind of like living in my office, though. It does have its advantages. For example, on the nights I can’t sleep I just get up and do some work. If I can get a couple hours of work done I can lock my office the next afternoon and take a nap without feeling guilty or falling behind.

  “Plus, I can snore all I want.”

  The smile left her face and she looked at him seriously.

  “I’m worried.”

  “About Colonel Medley?”

  “Yes.”

  “I wouldn’t give up on the general. He can carry a grudge for years and be the most vengeful person on earth.

  “But I have to believe he wouldn’t have made it to the top of the Air Force food chain without being a good officer.

  “And they tell me us officers are supposed to be fair and just. So I gotta believe he is too.

  “And his wife’s been married to him for over forty years, I hear. He must have some good qualities.”

  She laughed one last time.

  “Maybe she’s the only one who can see them.”

  -28-

  Almost four hundred miles away and due north, Frank Woodard and wife Josie were discussing their plans to stop for the night.

  It had been a very long day. They’d left Frank’s old friend Ronnie Rosco’s place right around daybreak and started shoveling their way south through the snow.

  The new snow plow blade they installed on the Hummer worked so much better than the first one, and ate through the snow with ease.

  The problem wasn’t the snow, but rather the roadway. And the flatness of west Texas.

  The road was level with the landscape and under three feet of snow. Except when they passed an occasional tree or farmhouse the horizon in front of them was flat as a pancake.

  It was difficult to tell whether they were on the road, on the median, or in danger of driving into a bar ditch.

  They were at a loss until Eddie had a great idea. He was once again able to contribute, despite the severe damage a chemical poisoning incident did to his brain.

  “Why don’t you just drive on those little bumpy things they put on the lines in the road?”

  At first the suggestion seemed like just another of Eddie’s pie-in-the-sky fantasies. Just another wild idea which would not work.

  But Frank gave the idea enough considerat
ion to see that it might have merit.

  Despite the high snow pack, the layer of ice beneath it was only a quarter of an inch thick. It wasn’t thick enough to cover up the reflective knobs glued to the highway between lanes of travel.

  And the Hummer’s tires, due to the extreme cold, were rock hard.

  The people inside the vehicle would be able to feel things they wouldn’t feel in the heat of summer when the tires were soft and pliable.

  “You know, that just might work,” Frank said while Eddie glowed. “Let’s try it.”

  Try it they did and it worked like a charm.

  The only problem was they had to drive at an extremely slow speed. Barely faster than a brisk walking pace, lest they lose track of the knobs beneath the wheels.

  At the end of the day they’d barely made it thirty miles from Lubbock.

  But it was better than nothing, and they were thirty miles closer to home.

  When night fell Josie pondered aloud, “Do you think if we stopped at one of these farmhouses they’d put us up for the night? Maybe we could pay them with MREs.”

  “I think they’d shoot us on sight. Living way out here, they’re not used to people walking onto their porches and knocking on their doors at night.

  “Besides, we’ve already got a hotel on wheels, if you close your eyes and squint and use your imagination.”

  “Where, Frank?”

  He said, “Right here. In the Hummer. The seats recline and there’s plenty of room.”

  She was concerned.

  “Just because you’re comfortable with that idea, honey, doesn’t mean I am. What if somebody sneaks up on us? What if they rob us or take our vehicle, or just shoot us out of meanness?”

  “Honey, we’re miles from anywhere. There’s nobody out here. Even the farm houses are half a mile away from us. And I don’t think a farmer is going to dig his way through a half mile of four foot drifts. Let’s go to sleep and catch up on our rest so we can put even more miles behind us tomorrow.”