by Laura Acton
When the gale forces stopped, William spoke in an icy and unyieldingly hard voice, “Corporal, you will stand down now. These are not light accusations you make. Calm down now or I will have you detained. When you can explain yourself calmly I will listen.” Then William just stood silent. Jaw set. Immobile. Eyes locked directly on Winds and waited.
Winds glared at the General as his body shook violently with rage and adrenaline trying his damnedest not to beat the shit out of the General.
Blaze looked to the General and stated, “I’m taking him out. We’ll be back.” He placed a hand on Winds’ shoulder and said, “Come with me now.” The two left the room closely followed by Patch. The rest simply stared at each other unable to fathom what had just happened.
General Broderick did a crisp about face, strode stiffly to the window and stared out. He thought, This is worse than I ever imagined, as fury thundered through him burning, searing, blistering, and shredding his heart. The sick bastard had been hurting his son all along and he never knew it.
Daniel was in the field for six years straight. How? Why? Left alone, forgotten? Who? Why? When?
My God, the last photo and message made sense now. The image of every message was etched into his brain. He started adding up the HB numbers as hot, stinging, angry tears flowed silently down his cheeks unchecked—no longer caring if anyone saw.
He wanted to kill the man. If Plouffe was in the room now—he’d be dead.
Chapter Fifty
July 17
Grand Citadel Hotel – Main Suite – 3:10 p.m.
It took Blaze, Patch, and a small amount of sedatives nearly an hour to get Winds calmed enough to return to the room. Winds had flatly told Blaze that he would never apologize for his outburst, even if it cost him what little was left of his career. He’d wanted to tell the General off for so long. Blaze was just glad Winds hadn’t struck the General—Winds’ career would’ve been over for sure if that had happened.
William had made a decision while waiting for his men to return. He must finish the briefing. They needed to know the rest. Rebuilding relationships and righting wrongs would have to wait until Daniel was safe from this merciless bastard.
So General Broderick took charge of the conversation as soon as the men reentered the suite. “I’ve sorted through your words and accusations. Harsh as they were to hear, as the Commanding Officer, it’s ultimately my responsibility. I accept that fully. However, these actions were taken without my knowledge or my consent and are counter to all I value. I believe you’ve just given me the means to finally bring to justice the sadistic bastard who has been pulling the strings. There are, however, a few more things I need to share.”
Looking Winds directly in the eyes, the General asked, “Are you prepared to listen Corporal? Can you remain calm? I ask because what I’m going to tell you next may be painful for you to hear—painful for everyone to hear.”
“Yes, Sir. I will contain myself,” Winds responded slowly and sat slumped slightly, an effect of the sedative.
The General’s gaze intently assessed each person in the room then proceeded, “There is one more photo I need to tell you about. It’s the last one I received and it arrived after Daniel finalized his separation paperwork.
“It’s the catalyst to where we are today. The last one was different from all previous ones. The photo was different and it came with a short note. I believe it to be the work of a man that has long been a thorn in my side. However, if he is behind this, then he has covered his tracks exceptionally well and finding proof will be extremely difficult.
“My gut tells me he’s involved, but there may be others involved. In January, I was made aware of a murder in Vancouver. Inspector Redmond was investigating the death of a former soldier. Mr. Jheeta had worked in the mail rooms in Ottawa and Kandahar. He was killed as he was writing out a confession of his crime—which was the interception of mail to and from Daniel. The thefts occurred the entire time Daniel was in Special Forces. Mr. Jheeta was about to name his blackmailer when he was shot by a sniper.
“He only wrote the first two letters of a name, first or last, I don’t really know. But it was the first thing that started my gut churning and this name popped to the forefront.”
Jon interrupted. “Sir, I remember when Dan got a call from you. He was under the impression you withheld his mail.”
William nodded. “I know. I chose my words unwisely and Daniel has ignored every attempt I’ve made since then to contact him and clarify it.”
Blaze was confused. “Blondie’s mail was stolen?”
“Yes. Initially most of it was forwarded on to him after Mr. Jheeta’s blackmailer read it and returned it to Mr. Jheeta. But eventually, he was instructed to burn all of the mail to and from Daniel. Mr. Jheeta complied for a while, but then began saving Daniel’s mail.”
Patch’s eyes were wide. “His cousins didn’t abandon him?”
William winced as he just shook his head no.
Nick saw the fury in Dan’s former unit and quickly redirected by asking, “Has the blackmailer or the murderer been found?”
William answered, “No. The investigation into Mr. Jheeta’s murder and into why the letters were stolen has been stalled for some time. And other recent incidents involving an attempt on my daughter’s life confused things more and brought another potential culprit into play. I warned Daniel about him at the same time I tried to tell him about the mail.
“The more I’ve thought on everything I know, the more I believe that the threat to Daniel right now is more related to the photos than the mail, but it may be the same man behind both. If it’s who I think it is, I can’t figure out why he would do this—his motive eludes me completely.”
Turning his gaze to Winds, William stated, “But I now fully understand what the note and the messages on the photos mean thanks to the Corporal’s outburst. Neither I nor my analysts knew what they meant before.
“Gambrill was aware of the contents of the note. One element changes things and I firmly believe it makes Daniel a direct target after the gang war and Aaron’s death,” William stopped and inhaled deeply to steady his nerves.
“Sir, what are the details?” Blaze asked as his gut raged.
Bracing himself mentally, William recited verbatim the details of the note. “The note read, ‘Nice long run with my toy soldier. He’s innocent. Never hurt me. Fun watching you hurt. Couldn’t knock him over. Always stood again. Wanted him to do it. Would hurt you most. Didn’t work out the way I planned. Too bad toy soldier gone now’.
“This time it was a photo of Danny and Brody smiling. They looked so happy, they had their arms around each other’s shoulders. Messages were also written on both Daniel’s and Brody’s chests in the photo.”
The General’s voice lost all its steel and audibly shook with emotion as he said, “On Brody, it was ‘All clear 184’. On Daniel, it was ‘Bite the bullet’.”
It was silent in the room for half a second.
Blaze seethed as the connection was made in his mind. Fury flared red hot as he exploded in a deafening roar, “I’ll kill the bastard now! Right fucking now! Major Plouffe is a dead man!”
Winds was pulled out of his lethargy and his eyes met Patch’s. Plouffe? In the next instant Winds was on his feet trying to stop Blaze from leaving the suite. He was quickly joined by Jon, Patch, and Bram.
Blaze continued to roar, wholly enraged, as he stormed towards the door with murderous intent. He was going to find and kill the bastard now and no one could stop him. Mayhem ensued as Jon, Winds, Patch, and Bram tried to restrain Blaze. All five ended up on the ground as Blaze struggled relentlessly to get out of their hold.
Loki, Ray, and Nick placed themselves in front of the door as a last line of defense should the others fail. So many voices were yelling for him to calm down, but Blaze was too engulfed in blind fury to register them and continued to fight. Grunts and groans were heard as blows were exchanged, connecting hard, but had no effect as Blaze fou
ght against them to get loose.
Patch was just about to get sedatives when a flood of bitterly cold water was dumped directly on Blaze’s face—shocking him into stillness as he sputtered for air.
Five men stared disbelievingly up at Lexa who held a water pitcher in each hand and was glaring at Blaze. The tone of Lexa’s voice was strict and demanded immediate obedience. “Stop! Behave now or …” Lexa tipped the second full pitcher in a threatening manner—ready to let it flow.
“Christ, remind me to never piss her off,” Patch breathed out.
Loki and Ray bent over in laughter at all the surprised faces. Loki managed to say, “She grew up with four older brothers. What’d ya expect?”
Lexa’s glare was unrelenting and the pitcher was still poised ready to dump the contents as she asked, “Are you ready to be good?”
Some semblance of wits returned to Blaze as he slowly nodded yes.
Jon, Bram, Winds, and Patch cautiously removed their holds on Blaze and stood—ready to grab him again if this was a fake out.
“Damn, Lexa, great way to put out his fire. I’ll have to remember that,” Winds said in awe.
Blaze lay quiet and still on the floor—gaping up at Lexa. Calmly, Blaze asked, “May I get up now, Ma’am?”
SPLASH
“What the hell?” Blaze sputtered out as he was doused by the second full pitcher of ice-cold water.
“Wrong word. No one calls Lexa ma’am,” Bram said, laughing almost too hard to get the words out. Then he grabbed a towel and tossed it to Blaze.
Lexa turned, walked to the table, set the pitchers down, calmly sat down, and with a hint of a smile said, “Got what he deserved. Just sayin.”
It took a long time for the room to settle down, laughter ringing so loud that the men guarding the elevator wondered just what the hell was going on.
When it finally quieted enough, Nick asked, “I assume from Blaze’s reaction that the man you suspect is Aaron’s uncle, Major Plouffe.”
Jon’s voice was harsh, “Aaron’s uncle?”
The General, inwardly impressed by how Lexa defused the situation, simply stated, “Yes. Walter and I were unaware of the connection until Walter visited Aaron’s parents and met the Major on his way out.”
William cleared his throat. “The note said Daniel was innocent, never harmed him. I believe that because Daniel was with Aaron when he died that the Major will twist it and believe that Daniel has harmed him now, making Daniel a target. I believe the man Lexa saw in the lobby is the Major.
“I need your help. I need to find solid evidence of his crimes against Daniel so he can be brought up on the appropriate charges. It may even point to treason if there’s a connection to Jorge Pletcher—the man who tried to kill my daughter and who I believe is still after her.”
Ray was a bit confused. “Sir, I don’t understand. What crimes against Dan?”
“Willful and malicious neglect of the welfare of a subordinate, for starters. With what I just learned, I’m sure we’ll find more,” the General stated.
Seeing Ray didn’t connect the dots, Blaze added solemnly, “The six straight years Blondie was in the field, for one.” Ray nodded in understanding as Blaze stood up, wiped his face with the towel, then added, “We need to look for connections to abuses Blondie suffered while with the other units—like the ones who left him out alone. Others may need to be brought to justice, too.”
Patch, Winds, and the General all nodded. The potential depth of this was staggering to all four of them and would indeed shake SF to the core.
“I’m wondering if there’s any connection to the training incident—we should look into that also.” Lexa suggested. “You said it wasn’t a standard exercise,” she added when the General looked curiously at her then nodded.
But William couldn’t see how it could be connected. Plouffe wasn’t part of training, but then … this whole damned thing boggled his mind so perhaps it was possible. How could this happen right under his nose? He was the General—he should’ve known.
“We also need to find out how or why this all started. Assuming it is Major Plouffe, what did he stand to gain? What is his motive? Sir, how long and how well do you know Plouffe?” Nick asked.
“Met him over thirty years ago, but I don’t know him well personally. We move in different circles, so I’ve never socialized with him. Colonel Grasett promoted both of us to the rank of Major at the same time.”
William wasn’t sure how much to divulge of Plouffe’s performance, but he added, “Never cared for the man professionally. His skills aren’t up to the caliber I expect from my officers. I would’ve never promoted him to Major. But while he’s not an ideal soldier, I’ve never had just cause to remove him.
“Colonel Sutton deals with him mostly. I’ve had little interaction with the Major, except for some planning sessions. On a few occasions, I’ve had to dress him down privately. And last year there was one public dressing down after a huge brawl which resulted in several injuries and damages.”
Lexa’s mind was working. “Perhaps he has a weak ego. He said he liked watching you hurt—it could be a passive aggressive way to boost his ego. To get back at you for some perceived wrong. What concerns me is that with Dan no longer within his control, the Major may not be satisfied with just hurting you emotionally. He could escalate and seek to physically harm you now.”
Nick nodded. “That makes sense, but we need more to go on before we jump to conclusions. And there is also the other man to consider.” He looked at the General and said, “You called him Pletcher. Since you have no definitive proof it’s Plouffe, we should investigate both of them and see what we find. We’re going to need information on both Plouffe and Pletcher from you, Sir.”
“I’ll make the appropriate arrangements to grant you access to whatever you need,” the General stated with a hint of hope in his voice.
Patch went to check on Blondie as the group discussed what those needs were. The General placed the necessary calls for access. Then he called Corporal Merrill and arranged for his aide to email his personal file on the harassment to Loki. It was nearing dinner time by the time all the arrangements and introductions were made between TRF officers and Howard Bransworth, the CSIS liaison, so the General ordered up dinner.
Over dinner, Jon and Blaze revised the security plan. The original was no longer feasible because Blaze, Winds, and Patch were needed to work with the team to access and review files which were above the team’s security level.
Winds talked with Lexa at dinner and asked her what it was like growing up with all those brothers. Her clipped answers made it clear that subject was off limits. So Winds redirected his questions to what it was like working in TRF. Those questions she gladly answered and it gave him an insight to Blondie’s new life. He was glad the kid ended up with the TRF.
Loki was too engaged with the files to take a break. He was determined to find the information needed. Ray fixed him a plate, grabbed him an energy drink, and took it to him. Loki didn’t even notice. Ray then joined Jon and Blaze to help with the new security plan.
The General, Bram, Nick, and Patch sat off in a corner in quiet conversation. Their topic was Dan and the fact that he would eventually have to be woken up. They were all concerned how Dan would cope with all that happened previously and now the new threat.
Bram was worried it would be too much for him to handle that they needed to go slowly and carefully. He urged them to allow Dan to set the pace. Nick agreed, thinking they should hold off on telling him about the new threat and let him deal with the other things first. The General felt that Dan had the capability to sort through it all at once and come out stronger, especially given what he had been through during his time in Special Forces.
In the end, it was Patch’s support of Bram’s advice, let Dan set the pace and give him the control to decide what he needed, that had them agreeing to that course of action.
Just as Blaze, Winds, and Jon and were about to leave to relieve
the men guarding the hall, so they could take a break and eat, they heard Lexa ask the General, “Sir. What did the Major mean by ‘wanted him to do it, would hurt you most, didn’t work out the way I planned’?”
The meaning was there at the edge of Lexa’s brain, but something was barring her from seeing it—as if protecting her from its true meaning.
Naked emotion laced his words as William explained. “Again I have no proof, but I’m pretty sure it means he set up Daniel to kill Brody. I believe he thought he could get Daniel to kill himself—to eat the bullet—after he found out it was Brody. That would definitely hurt me the most.”
Lexa flinched but asked, “What makes you think he set Dan up?”
Blaze’s voice was full of rage, “Because Major Plouffe was the one who gave the all clear to fire order that I relayed to Blondie. I’m going to kill that bastard.”
“Dan’s stronger than the Major thought,” Bram quietly said. Recalling Dan’s pain, he didn’t share his private thought, I wonder how closed Dan came?
Jon recalled the ivory-handled pistol he took from Dan and returned in a gun safe. He blew out a breath as his eyes locked with Nick’s. Yeah, it was a damned good thing Dan was strong—they both knew it had been very close, though. But that was best left unsaid—emotions were too raw right now and they all needed clear heads if they were going to resolve this situation.
Everyone turned and looked at Loki when he stated loudly with conviction, “Dantastic chose the beauty of life. He honored Brody by living.” His eyes never left his laptop as he reviewed the photos which had arrived when everyone was eating dinner. He thought, Almost done, on the last one.
“I understand the ‘all clear’, but not ‘184’. What’s that?” Ray inquired.
Blaze and the General shared a look that conveyed ‘We know, but should we tell?’ Before they could decide, Loki broke the silence.
“Noooooo, God no!” Loki wailed. He looked to the General, chestnut brown eyes opened wide, filled with grief and tears, as all color drained from Loki’s face.
