She let go and he crumpled – still moving, thankfully – and I waited, blade still held at the woman’s throat.. and almost dropped it when I heard her voice. “Hey baby, you want to join the fun?” Hotez? What the fuck was she doing here?
I clearly didn’t understand, and eased off – pulling Rage back. “Ivy, what the fuck? I told you, what you do on your own time is your business. Are you looking for a new playma-“ and then stopped as she started a full-out attack on me.
“Dammit Major! Stand down!” She wasn’t having it. I had a blade, but this was my lover, maybe even girlfriend – I didn’t want to unleash the demons that usually took over in this kind of situation. I could see the Colonel behind her, pushing himself upright with his hands.
I was in the midst of blocking a rather severe assault from a very attractive, very capable, naked woman, when he turned and gasped, “It’s her! She’s the one!”
I must have had a blonde moment myself because I didn’t understand what the hell he was talking about.
Then it dawned on me. It’d been so long since we had actively pursued whoever that leak was, within the Ranger Battalions, I hadn’t really thought about it.
The look on my face must have changed, because Ivy was laughing and stopped her kicking and punching for a moment. “Stupid, thinking with your cock like most men. Finally figuring it out, now, are we?” She came in and for the first time in a long time, I found myself losing traction to an assailant. She had my arm in a bar, and I couldn’t continue holding rage – or she’d break my arm in half.
I had to let go, and the next thing I knew, my own knife was coming at my face. Another block, now she’s pinned… and then her knee comes up and I’m twisting to avoid her hitting what she was accusing me of thinking with. Hm. Maybe some truth to that after all.
It was at that point that I felt a piercing pain in the lower back of my head, one I hadn’t felt since they put that goddamn hunk of metal in my skull in the first place. I gritted my teeth, drawing on my martial arts training, letting myself zone out.
I didn’t really feel the pain of the blade cutting into my chest, I just remember the block pushing it away before it dug too deep, and the almost ‘rote’ motion of the sweep and neck jab with my fingertips.
That pain in my head was still there but duller, not as sharp.
Another attack, swept aside, arm capture, knife still in her fist.
Heel of my hand below hers.
Fall down backwards, draw your attacker towards you, James-San.
As you fall, cross your arms, and use the heel of your hand to push up towards their neck.
Then, twist at least 90 degrees to assure sufficient dama-
And the pain disappeared. I was on the floor with blood all over me, and she was laying on top of me. Great tits, but Rage shoved up into her brain, from under her jaw, her hand still on it and my hand around hers.
I rolled to the side and pushed her away.
“Colonel, are you injured? Are you okay?” He was looking at me like I was some sort of boogeyman monster from the stupid vid entertainment. Oh. Right. I’m covered in blood. Surprised that would bother him.
“Major, I… think we need to contact… wait.” His face went slightly blank, and I my chest started to feel a bit sore.
James, what’s going on? Where are you? What’s your injury?
- MSgt Pangan
I’m combat effective, minor injuries. Colonel Wentz’ quarters; get here ASAP, he’s been attacked.
- Maj Wolf
I was hurting a bit more, and I looked down at my chest. My shirt was soaked in blood. Wow, I knew head wounds would bleed like crazy, but I didn’t think Ivy had bled out entirely, on me.
Then I felt a little dizzy – yeah, coming down from the combat high… and then I was coming down to meet the floor, and it was a little upset to meet me, so it slapped me hard… and it all went dark.
---
I woke up later that evening, back in my own quarters, with a massive bandage across my chest. I think it was my quarters, because I wasn’t about to sleep elsewhere. I couldn’t open one eye, though, so I opened the other, looking around. Yeah. My quarters.
“He’s up. Ping the Colonel.” Hey, that’s Brice. What’s he doing in my room? What the hell’s going on?
“Brice, what the hell…” My mouth felt weird, and when I probed with my tongue, it turned out my lips were pretty swollen.
Moments later, Colonel Wentz was in the room.
“Goddamn, I’m glad you’re still with us. Pangan, contact Paulson and Willis, I want Wolf medevac’d immediately, now that he’s conscious and stable. You’re going with him, I’m going to take his team and run the rest of the op – what little of it is left to handle.” How do some people manage to sound like they’re rolling their eyes, just from the tone of their voice?
I was pretty fucked up, and once we got back to base in Georgia, I was taken by ambulance to the infirmary. Apparently, I was the worst casualty they’d dealt with, outside the AOR, in years.
That blade didn’t just ‘graze’ my chest. She’d stabbed one lung and punctured it (The term is, I’m told, a “Pneumothorax.”), and then the blade shifted and nicked my heart. I nicked my face (okay, I cut the hell out of it) on that final move, which I honestly don’t recall doing – I’d basically pithed Ivy, with Rage. She didn’t bleed out – there was practically none of her blood on me. *I*… had nearly bled out.
My face was pretty fucked up, she’d beaten the hell out of me – although at least this time, when it came right down to it, I was better at her in hand to hand combat by the only metric that counts: She was dead, and I wasn’t.
The debriefing with CID was, to say the least, pretty dry – not to mention, threatening.
“Major Wolf, we’ve already spoken with your commanding officer, and in light of your actions in saving his life, we’re prepared to be lenient – subject, of course, to your open and forthcoming answers to the rest of our questions.” Master Sergeant Heidelberg was a real charmer. Then again, as a military police detective, and one who was coming to grips with a major leak in his own organization probably didn’t make him any happier.
“Master Sergeant, I’ve already told you what I know. I’m not sure who the hell she really was, I only ever knew her as Ivy Hotez, I’ve known her since Basic Training where she was an instructor with Master Sergeant Ballard. I don’t know anything other than what I’ve already told you!”
“Sir, we are aware that you and Major Hotez were engaged in egregious acts of fraternization-“
“You can stop right there. While on mission, we were anything BUT fraternizing. In fact, this last mission was the first time she’d ever pushed that limit.”
“As I was saying sir, CID is aware of your activities regarding Major Hotez, and, we were initially under the impression that you may have been a co-conspirator. In light of the evidence from the recording device and GPS tracker however, we are dropping those charges.”
“Wait, what recording devices? WHAT tracker?”
“Major Hotez was a double agent. Her role in MIB was, as far as we can tell, compromised years earlier. When it became apparent that the two of you were going to be working together, while she was merely under suspicion, one of our agents activated this, “ and he raised a small blocky looking thing – not much to look at, “where it was stored in your personal religious item. We apologize if that caused you any theological distress, however, the needs of the service dictated that we were not going to relinquish the opportunity presented to us.”
“What are you talking about? There’s no place you can hide anything on Rage.”
“It was within the grip, sir. Were you not aware of the concealment area underneath the scales? Sorry, never mind, stupid question, of course you weren’t.”
It got worse. That mind-numbing (literally, numbing!) pain I felt? That was Hotez… who had found a way to hack my implant. The video of the van explosion outcome that had been on the gla
sses was apparently never meant to be seen. It had, when evaluated by the clean-room staff as I’d recommended, shown that military explosives had been used for that job. The taggants - little microscopic markers in the explosives - led back to us (COB, that is) as the source. That wasn’t the worst part, though. The case (which never did surface) for the glasses was suspected as being the vector by which Hotez had hacked my implant. She couldn’t do much, but that kind of pain was enough to knock down most people. Apparently, the way I’d pushed back at it gave the neuroscientists an idea, and they’d already come up with a way to negate both the effects of that kind of a hack, while also giving them a way to identify the software glitch that allowed it in the first place.
I was still pissed at Ballard for fucking with me that way. It turned out he’d been an undercover CID agent for nearly a decade, and had been tracking Hotez even during basic training. I have no idea why they were tracking her back then, but then again, that’s also not my problem. He’d slipped the GPS tracker into Rage when I asked him to hold it for me while I went to that goddamn awards ceremony, years ago, in DC.
Merry Fuckin’ Christmas.
25 DEC 2100
In Re:Major James Wolf
S/N 20690401142857
Pursuant to general orders of the Commander, subject soldier is promoted from O3 rank to O4 rank effective 25 December 2100.
Pursuant to general orders of the Commander, and as a result of wounds received defending self and Commanding Officer, Subject Soldier is awarded Purple Heart. Citation to follow under separate cover.
Pursuant to general orders of the Commander, and as a result of actions of 16 December, subject soldier is awarded Oak Leaf Cluster Device for Distinguished Service Medal. Citation to follow under separate cover.
…
Chapter 29: Going Home. No, Going Back. No, Going Home. No…
After we got further down the road to recovery, the impact of Hotez’ treachery hit home hard – and in more ways than one.
I was a team leader, now a Lieutenant Colonel – far higher than I’d expected, not as high as I’d hoped – at the tender age of… Damn. I was only 31. That felt strange to think about, since I don’t think Pip ever made it that far, and living on the streets, no-one expected to make it that far… but in this world, it was barely the beginning.
I had been temporarily detached from my team; Pangan was running the show there after we got back to base. Why was I detached? I HAD A FUCKING HOLE IN MY CHEST! Pay attention, hm? I spent the first week in the infirmary, under direct doctor supervision, getting x-rays taken every day to see if my airbag had filled back up again. After all of that rest, the doc told me I needed… more rest. Bed rest, mandatory, for another MONTH. I wanted to scream and hit things (and, yes, people) but was told any strenuous exertion could re-open the wounds and make me have to start all over again.
My team was the only real family I had at this point, and they made a point of someone coming to see me at least daily – sometimes, multiple people. It helped to keep me oriented on my role and my team, and my mind off of the holidays I was missing out on.
I had a strange visit, though, near the end of my bed rest month, that unsettled me a little.
Colonel Wentz came through the door, wearing civilian clothes. Not uncommon for us – we deployed discreetly fairly often. The look on his face didn’t match up, though. “Lieutenant Colonel, I… wanted to thank you. You saved my life – and I won’t forget that.”
“Hey, anytime sir, what’s a little pinprick between friends?” I was a smartass. So?
“I’ve come close to death plenty of times, but this… this was different. I… Thank you, James.” Before I could say anything, he turned and was gone.
That was weird. I debated pinging someone from my team to give me the rundown, but the nurses had caught me pushing back into work like that electronically, and they had me shut out of the team network – vocal comms were the only option at that point; my implant was permitted access to the general library but I couldn’t do any ‘work’ other than routine paperwork that was specific to me as a soldier.
I hated it.
Lisa – Corporal Chang, that is – and Frank (Francine, Master Corporal Francine Jones, remember?) came in later that day with some flowers. I was never one for decorative, “sitting around shit” but I appreciate the gesture – plus, they smelled good. The flowers did, too - they were yellow; I had no idea what kind of flowers they were, actually.
“Hey sir, We figured you might want something to color this place up!” Lisa was a cute little Asian girl, easily the tiniest member on my team.
Frank piped up, too, “Yeah, you could say brighten up the room, but there’s too much fucking white in this place already.” I chuckled.
“Hey, I know I’m not supposed to ask, and I know you guys aren’t supposed to tell, but I got the weirdest visit yesterday… Is everything okay with Wentz?” I wasn’t one to dick around with small talk. Get right to the point, get it done and over with.
“Uhh… We REALLY aren’t supposed to say, sir. As in, Brigadier General Watts said, don’t say anything.” Lisa looked happy and excited, but sad at the same time, if that makes and sense.
“Frank? You gonna help papa out, or do I have to start moaning and groaning about how bad I feel, and guilt you two into telling me what the fuck’s going on?”
Frank looked unhappy, and her face fell even further when I said the ‘moaning and groaning’ bit. “Sir, we… really can’t. You know we’d help out however, but the General said tha-“, she cut off abruptly, as Sergeant Major Ballard walked in.
“Ladies. Give us the room please.” He was all business.
Lisa patted my arm, and Frank squeezed my hand on the other side, then they both left, Frank pulling the door closed behind her. She *did* have a nice ass; probably better that she was under me, or else I’d wanna get on top of her.
“Sir, You’re going to be put on light duty this afternoon, and there have been a few changes in the unit that you need to be apprised of.”
“Smaj, you’re sounding awfully serious. Are you sure that’s wise, with me in my current state? Don’t I need rest and relaxation?” I’m not gonna turn down a chance to give him shit – especially since I was a little pissed still about the slight he’d offered me with that tracker/GPS bit.
“Sir, Colonel Wentz was relieved of duty yesterday and placed under arrest this morning.” He delivered this with a deadpan face.
“Yeah, sure, pull the other one it has bells on it.”
“I am not joking sir.”
“Okay, Smaj, let’s work with ‘not joking’ for a sec. Is that ‘not joking’ as in, he really did get relieved and arrested, or, ‘not joking’ as in, you’re still a fucking spy and wanting to hit me up for MORE bullshit? Cuz frankly, if you’re not joking, then you really are a joke.” Hm. I must be more upset about that than I realized.
“You are the senior officer in the Battalion, which means, congratulations.” He had a sour look on his face.
“Fuck me, you really are serious!”
“Yes, fuck you sir, I am serious.” Okay, so maybe he wasn’t entirely serious.
Ballard went on to tell me that yes, Hotez had been a leak… but not the leak. The Colonel was – and Hotez was his eyes and ears. She wasn’t happy with that and wanted more, which is why she ended up killing him.
Then I thought back and realized there was no reason for her to have been naked in there with him, unless they were doing something naughty. Between two Majors, or a Major and a Captain, that’s one thing… but a full Colonel and a Captain, or a Colonel and a Major? That was a stretch – especially since one was directly above the other in the chain of command.
Wow. Haskins would have a field day with this story as an example – a shame he would never heard about it.
So, yeah. I got sprung out of the hospital because I had a battalion of special forces to run. Damn. Talk about heady with power!
Or, not – beca
use it sucked. I was still on enforced light duty – the Traumatic Pneumothorax, if aggravated, can re-open wounds. It’s critical that you enforce sufficient rest and recovery, as you can aggravate the healing tissue between your pulmonary system and the thoracic wall. In simpler words… relax, or else you’ll fuck yourself up again.
That wasn’t the worst part, though. I had a lot more responsibility than just 3 brick leads and 15 teammates to worry about; I had five direct-action TEAMS (including my own, which was now under the command of one MSgt Brice Pangan – lucky bastard - that I was coordinating and leading, 6 support platoons, a headquarters company, and… I had to attend daily briefing meetings with General Watts.
That SUCKED. I tried to delegate most of it (including those damned daily briefings with the general) to Colonel Bradburry – a full colonel, who worked for me, a lieutenant colonel. That made absolutely zero sense to me – but then again, there was always the difference between rank, vs. position. This position should have been filled by a full Colonel, and the Battalion G1 position would normally be a major – although with the SF rank bump, it would have been a Lieutenant Colonel. Bradburry laughed and told me it wasn’t gonna happen, because if I pushed the issue, Bradburry would reach out to Watts, who would order me not to.
Rage & Fury Page 29
