Beyond the Checkpoint

by Addison M. Conley

  Lynn cut Ali off. “You received orders from your agency that you will now report everything—every report, every map, every image, every note, every conversation—to JETT leadership. We are JETT’s new leadership. No disrespect to Miller, but Evans is my NCOIC. In case you forgot, that means he’s in charge when I’m not around. Understood?”

  Yeah, loud and clear. You’re in charge of everything but the special project. Whatever the hell that turns out to be.

  Dan had told her to be on the lookout for any mishandling of classified material. So far, other than ignorance, arrogance, and misogyny, Ali hadn’t found anything concrete with the Brigade. Lynn’s taking over the JETT was a distraction that would have to be handled delicately.

  Evans cocked his head to one side. Gesturing his upturned palm toward Lynn, he said, “You should answer the major, Ms. Clairmont.”

  “I understand you’re my new supervisor perfectly, but I’m not going to sacrifice quality or bend over if someone tries to push me around.” She glared at Evans.

  “You’ve always been ethical. I expect no less now,” Lynn said. “It appears to me that security is lax on base. I’ll be tightening the entire JETT procedures to prevent any accidental classified spillage under my watch.”

  “JETT’s not the problem and neither am I. The Brigade—”

  “I can’t control the Brigade since they’re under a different chain of command, but hopefully, they will treat our interactions with the highest standards. Help me out. Do you know of anyone who is sloppy or that I should be concerned about?”

  Ali propped her feet back on the dashboard and brushed the dust off her boots.

  Lynn softly said. “I sense something’s going on.”

  Ali shrugged. “Same age-old story. A few bad apples spoil the whole bunch.” She folded her hands on one knee and drew it to her chest. “Lieutenant Hernandez and a few of the guys, including a couple contractors, try to intimidate me all the time. Hernandez took me out back one day, screaming in my face—and I mean at the top of his lungs—that if I didn’t like him or the Army, then I should go home.” Ali laughed with a tinge of bitterness. “He just can’t get it through his head that I’m in a different chain of command. Hell, he doesn’t understand basic technical issues like my workstation is on the NGA network and not even connected to the Army. The bottom line is I don’t trust him. His misogynistic, asshole personality doesn’t help.”

  “Their computers aren’t even at the same classification as NGA and JETT,” Evans said.

  “Precisely! He’s technically an idiot. I’ve tried to explain until I’m blue in the face. And speaking of that, the only way I can transfer secret reports is by dumping it onto a disc and handing it to them. That’s because almost all of my reports contain imagery products that are too large to email. They don’t understand file size.”

  Lynn’s face was hard. “The Brigade controls the physical space of the Ops Center, but you’re a high-level civilian representing your agency working with JETT. We’ll put a stop to that. Are they harassing you in other ways?”

  “It’s subtle things, usually bully comments when I’m alone. But one big thing that pisses me off…” She sunk into the seat and crossed her ankles. “They’re all-source analysts—research dudes gathering bits and pieces from others. They are not subject matter experts in imagery or signal intelligence. Okay, they have some training in our disciplines, but it’s a week or two at best. At times, it can be downright dangerous.”

  Lynn’s head snapped around. “What do you mean?”

  “It’s stupid arrogance. Like I have basic NSA training, but I don’t tell you how to do your job that you’ve spent years perfecting. They frequently ignore my expertise, and I’ve caught them annotating unclassified imagery with wrong information.” Her hand went up. “Which I have reported. They just don’t know what the hell they’re doing. They figure anyone can read a map, so why not any old image. And just so you know,” she held her index finger up, “most of the Google map images are one to three years old. They have no clue how to work with classified remote sensing and imagery.”

  “Geez. What a mess. Part of your job is teaching. Have you—”

  “Lynn, I’ve helped the young soldiers where I can, but most are inexperienced. When Hernandez and this one sergeant come along, they clam up.” She threw up her hands. “To make it worse, those two dump projects on me, then send the Brigade team members off to do guard or chow hall duty. I’m left swamped, and the Brigade team doesn’t get a chance to improve. It’s annoying and frustrating.”

  “Is Hernandez the main obstacle?” Evans asked.

  “He’s backed up by a captain and a major. Trust me. They’re uniform blind. They don’t want to go against another soldier. I’d bet a truckload of chocolate that Hernandez is filling them full of lies about me, but honestly, I think the main reason is they’re jealous.”

  Lynn scrunched her eyebrows. “Jealous?”

  “If you examine the statistics over the past six months, you’ll see the Special Forces and Engineers have had a boatload of success. The Brigade lacks in that department. So, it’s like a macho turf war. They want to appear to be the toughest guys at the top of the heap, and they detest me working with other units because they want to control me.”

  “Holy crap,” Lynn said under her breath.

  “Don’t get me wrong. There are good people with sharp skills in the Brigade, but a few Brigade leaders are weak and on a power trip. That brings everyone down. Unfortunately for us, they just happen to be in the Ops Center. Honestly, I’ve worked with many fine military personnel over the years and have never seen such a screwed-up unit.”

  Lynn shook her head. “We have a job to do, and we need you and everyone on JETT to operate at the highest level. I’m going to move your workstation to our side of the room. That should immediately cut down on some of the abuse.”

  “We’ll set things straight.” Evans hopped into the back seat. “Shall we go have a bit of lunch before we shake things up?”

  His stare went back and forth between them. The smirk on his face made Ali’s stomach lurch.

  “Sounds like a divine idea. Is the chow decent around here, Ms. Clairmont?”

  “Yes. Occasionally, they serve MREs if supplies run low.”

  “Ah, delicious field rations.” Evans smacked his hands together.

  Ali turned around. Evans cocked his head to one side as they peered at each other. His jet-black hair, dark eyes, and light skin really do make him look like an android. She repositioned her body forward as Lynn drove.

  Chapter 20

  The private pointed to the fridge. “Help yourself to water or an energy drink. Colonel Peterson will be here in about fifteen minutes.” He left them alone.

  There was a whoosh sound at the closing of the door, and a fan came on.

  Evans said, “Sweet. I didn’t know they had soundproof rooms overseas. Leave it to Special Forces to get all the bells and whistles. By the way, you pushed Ali’s buttons. Is she strong enough to hold up?”

  “Don’t let her façade fool you. She’s a highly dedicated professional with an experienced background. If she smells wrongdoing, then she’s onto something.” Lynn cleared her throat. “Ali’s problem is she wants to make things right instantaneously. In the process, she can become irritated.”

  “In my experience, too much emotion leads to disaster.”

  “Her heart is in the right place. I will calm her down, get her concentration back, then find out what she knows.”

  “But headquarters also wants to use her as a distraction.”

  “She won’t be much good if she gets kicked out of the country. Trust me. I’ll calm her down a notch or two. And by the way, what a brilliant hard persona you displayed. That will make her think you’re all business. Keep her focused and push her more towards me, but don’t go too far. Don’t let her see your soft side.”

  “I have a soft side?”

  “Yeah, you smile once a month.
” Lynn jokingly punched his shoulder. “Your fiancée seems nice. I enjoyed her humor at the picnic.”

  “I got lucky.”

  He seemed to be good at his job, yet Lynn found it odd that they had no contacts in common. She knew a lot of people, including upper management at three cryptologic centers outside of Fort Meade headquarters.

  “Lynn, this is an important assignment. We need to be totally in tune. Was she your girlfriend? That’s what I heard.”

  Lynn gave her best neutral look. “No.”

  “You never slept with her?”

  Lynn didn’t blink and held his gaze for several seconds. “I’m not sure where you’re going with this—”

  “General Carr believed that Admiral Kent picked you because of the 2008 assignment. Everyone seems to think she will be more pliable with you. I personally don’t care if you’re gay or not. I just feel it’s best if you and I have no secrets between us.”

  Lynn clenched jaw. The sound of the door swishing open caused them both to turn. A tall man entered and pushed it closed. They saluted upon seeing his eagle rank insignia.

  “I’m Colonel William Peterson, good to finally meet you both. First, my covert investigator role remains only in this room. Clear?”

  They both nodded.

  “My unit is one of JETT’s customers. They cannot visit JETT in the Brigade Operations Center without causing alarm, and to be honest, you don’t need to know who they are right now. I will run the ops from here. For communications between us, use the encrypted email account. You can also use Jabber, but I personally hate that damn chat app.” He held up his index finger. “Remember, everything you write is cataloged and sent straight to the top. For conversations between you two, the truck has been outfitted with software that constantly checks for bugs, and Evans will maintain it and ensure no one has tried to plant anything while it’s unattended. Any questions so far?”

  “No, sir,” Lynn said. Evans shook his head.

  Peterson handed a small bag to Evans. “That’s the last of the hardware to hack into the Brigade’s computers. The more we can do remotely, the better. Headquarters said you’re still working on a secure connection back to Meade. How far are you?”

  Evans was rummaging through the bag and took out a dull silver metal square about the size of a jewelry box. “I’m connected to headquarters but haven’t sent any sensitive messages.” His finger tapped on the little box he was holding, “This is what I needed to scramble the signal. Now only headquarters can read it. I’ve already installed the software to double-check if someone tries to break into us.”

  Peterson nodded. “Don’t forget, Admiral Kent or Mr. Blair could jump in anytime. Hopefully, you have what you need at this point, but just in case you need additional equipment and can’t make it to our compound, we have a drop zone.” He spread out a map of the FOB and explained the details.

  The meeting was winding down until Peterson said, “Now regarding Ms. Clairmont. I don’t want to scare her off,” he pointed to Lynn, “but I am aware you two have worked well together on a previous deployment. Keep it going. We need to get some bugs into the computers of her contacts.”

  Frak, frak, frak. How were they going to do that? And did NSA brief everyone on our past? Frak!

  “Lastly, you will attend early Catholic Mass this Sunday. Drop by here on the way back to the other side. We’ll have some goodies.”

  “Pardon me, sir. I’m not Catholic,” Lynn said.

  “Not everyone is, especially the Brigade leadership.” He winked. “Evans will fill you in. Going to Mass provides an excuse for leaving your office and coming to this side of the base when you have no reason. Got it?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  He turned to the computer. “Well, that wraps it up, unless you’d like to add anything, Admiral.”

  Lynn hadn’t realized the admiral was listening in. Kent’s voice bellowed over the speaker. “I think that will do. We are depending on you two. Let’s shut down this illegal operation.”

  Lynn was nervous and shifted in the chair. “Sir, we’re single-threaded, and anything could happen to us. What if who we’re tracking discovers us before we figure them out?”

  “I think you know the answer, Major. Let’s not have any tragic endings here.” The admiral’s words ended the meeting.

  A wave of queasiness swept through Lynn. After Peterson departed, she said, “Evans, I think someone would go for Ali first. How are we going to protect her and do the mission?”

  “Sorry, Major. I’m the tech whiz. It’s out of my realm, but maybe I should rephrase my earlier comment: Rekindling a romance might be the only way to wrap this up swiftly and protect her. I can provide cover and help you find an isolated location so you won’t get caught.”

  “Stop insinuating.”

  “To put you at ease, I’d be a little more discreet, but we don’t have much time. Think about it. Besides, the alternative—as in hurt or dead—could be a lot worse. By the way, you might also order her to practice at the firing range with another JETT member. We all need to be up to par.” He stood and said over his shoulder, “Let’s go, I have to get the hardware installed.”

  “You seem to forget you’re second in command.”

  “Whatever.”

  Lynn grabbed his arm. “Is something else going on here? As you pointed out, there should be no secrets between us.”

  “Come on. My job is infinitely harder, and we’re wasting time.”

  Lynn ran her fingers through her hair and followed Evans out of the soundproof room.

  Chapter 21

  Sergeant Cramer grabbed Ali’s arm. “Do you know the junior enlisted who got kicked out last month?”

  “Yeah.” Ali kicked a rock. “What a way to go. Overall, he’s a good kid. He should have known better with all the warnings and paperwork, but you know the mind of a nineteen-year-old. They think they are invincible. I wonder if he understood how harsh his sentence would be. Those are the rules—no alcohol in a war zone. Zero tolerance, and it’s illegal in Afghanistan.”

  Cramer whispered, “The booze is coming through Captain Dalton.”

  “Are you sure, Jill? He’s a bit weird, but damn, they’d lock him up for years and throw away the key if they caught him.”

  “That’s not the half of it. He’s involved in more than liquor.”

  Ali narrowed her eyes. “Let’s take the long way to the Shoppette. We can talk more freely in the open once we move away from these buildings. I don’t want someone overhearing us.”

  Jill Cramer was the same rank as her partner, Michele Miller. Jill was in the Engineers, and Michele and Ali were members of the JETT.

  After a group of soldiers passed, Jill said, “Captain Dalton is a frequent rider on my team’s humanitarian missions. Other teams monitor and inspect the construction of new police facilities. I know Dalton’s an intel officer, but four times, he’s passed up trips to the police headquarters. Instead, he’s gone with my team to school or medical facilities. He’s visited some two or three times and always has a meeting with the Afghans.”

  Ali cringed. “When an intel officer meets with Afghan officials, I usually hear about it. The info is on things like the Taliban influencing or threatening locals. I don’t recall any recent reporting.”

  “I’ve noticed that he meets with the same Afghan guy and sometimes with the man and his wife. That’s not the worst part.” Even though they were in a clearing, Cramer scanned the area. “He brings a bag or briefcase. It’s not the official double-locked gear.”

  “That’s serious. Sounds like he’s hiding something.”

  “Yes, but none of the officers question him or inspect the contents since he’s on Brigade orders. I asked once and was told we don’t have the need to know.”

  “Who is signing Dalton’s orders?”

  “Major Ratcliffe.”

  “There’s something strange about both of them. Can’t put my finger on it. Have you reported the issue further up the chain?”<
br />
  “I’ve told Dan.”

  Ali exhaled with relief, but she couldn’t let Cramer know. She had to maintain Dan’s cover. “Dan’s not the proper channel for reporting security violations.”

  Then the thought struck Ali. Dan’s expertise was his knowledge of explosives: from how they were manufactured to finding the persons and organizations involved in IED attacks. She grabbed Cramer’s arm, “Wait a minute. Do you think Dalton’s involved in bomb manufacturing?”

  “No. It’s just that Dan has connections at the Pentagon.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Remember my friend that visited last month? She recognized him. He’s a retired command sergeant major. There is no higher grade of rank for enlisted, except the Sergeant Major of the Army. She says he has clout, and she works in an office that supports the Secretary of Defense.”

  Ali caught the waver in Cramer’s voice. “What else is going on?”

  “Dalton threatened me.” Cramer kicked the toe of her boot in the sand. “You know Michele and I have been so careful with DADT. He told me to back off. Said he would out us to my chain of command and promised to make Michele’s life hell. Ali, I’m scared.” Tears were gathering in her eyes. “I trust Dan, and he says he will help. I only told you because it’s wearing me down.”

  Ali wanted to give her a hug but restrained herself. “Did you tell Dan about the threats?”

  “No, only about the improper procedures and my suspicions.”

  “I understand your fear. Stay strong.” She quickly rubbed Jill’s arm. “I trust Dan, too.”

  That evening, Ali spotted Dan around the burn barrel. It was the only method they had of destroying classified papers since the shredder had broken. Several people were milling about.

  “Hey Dan, how’s it going today? Got any anything for me?”

  “Hi, Ali. I was planning on dropping off an assignment tonight on Major Stewart’s desk.” Dan kept feeding the barrel.

  “Good. I like working projects for you guys.”

  “Well, we appreciate you doing both a classified and unclassified package. You’ve helped the unit tremendously. I have another roll-up report I’ll email to you. Good stuff for your weekly status report back to headquarters.”