by JL Curtis
Stunned the old man sat back, “Why Eddie? I’ve never…”
Eddie sat his cup down and stared at the old man, “Mr. Cronin, you saved Iris from seeing Junior’s head in the car. You took me down to Mexico and let me be part of that. You’ve given me, well you and the Ranger have given me a chance, and I’m earning honest money now. Iris is pregnant again, and she’s happier than I’ve seen her in years. I owe you!”
“You don’t… Iris is pregnant?”
Eddie smiled, “Mizz Ronni took Iris to the doctor day ‘fore yesterday. Iris hadn’t been feeling real good, and finally Mizz Ronni just forced her to go. Doc says she’s three months along.”
The old man shook Eddie’s hand, “Congratulations, now where the hell is your truck? We need to get you headed home!”
“It’s up by the cemetery, I hid it in the gully.”
Getting up, the old man continued, “Let’s get you up there, and Eddie… Don’t do this again. You’ve got a reason to stay on the straight and narrow now, more so than before. Keep the colt down there about a week, then bring him back, okay?”
Eddie ducked his head, “Yes sir, I will. I’m kinda relieved I didn’t have to shoot anybody today, to be honest.”
The old man could only nod.
Scrambling
The chief had delivered Aaron’s repaired leg to the apartment, and spent some time with him adjusting the fit of the sleeve and sock. Jesse and Felicia were grocery shopping for the week with Jace in tow, and the chief took advantage of the women being gone to chew Aaron out for not coming in or calling the rehab section about Goss’ requirement to use the walking leg for PT. Aaron finally had enough, “Dammit Chief, he’s an officer! I couldn’t call him down in front of the troops!”
“Maybe not, but you damn sure should have said something in private. That’s one helluva expensive leg, and it’s not up to Golf or Goss or whatever to decide what leg you wear when…”
Matt chimed in, “Chief, you gotta understand, the Corps is a bit different than the Navy. We don’t argue with officers…”
The Chief waved a hand, “Oh I know, I know. But dammit, there are regulations out there for a reason! And this sumbitch decides on his own that he don’t like them? I’ll be glad when the captain gets off leave. He’ll get a chunk of his ass. When are you going back in?”
Aaron replied, “Tomorrow. Snake’s been holding the fort down, and this weekend has let me get the swelling back under control. I promise I’ll wear the right leg at the right time, okay?”
Grumbling the chief stood up just as Boo Boo hit the door barking, welcoming Jesse, Felicia and Jace home, and doing everything she could do to trip them up, so good things would hit the floor. A frazzled Jesse plopped the bags on the counter and gave the chief a hug, “Thanks for coming over and helping Aaron. You remember Felicia right?”
“Yes ma’am, I sure do! Those tamales were great!”
Felicia blushed prettily at that, “Thank you, Chief. But they’re just an old family recipe.”
Jesse asked, “Can I get you a beer or anything Chief?”
Shaking his head, he said, “Nope, gotta get home and cook dinner. The wife is working late, so it’s my turn.” Turning to Aaron and Matt he continued, “Guys, I know things are different, but we need to have the systems actually work to prove we can put Marines back in the field after major injuries. Having some ass… Some officer decide he doesn’t like it doesn’t fly, okay?”
Aaron nodded as the chief headed out the door, “Will do, Chief.”
***
Aaron stumped into the team spaces and came to a dead stop. Snake was directing the team guys in moving two old desks into the corner outside of what had been his and Snake’s office. His and Snake’s office equipment was piled in the floor, and he saw a butter bar and a first lieutenant moving around in their old office, putting things up.
Aaron walked over and quietly pulled Snake to the side, “What is going on?”
Snake replied, “Goss showed up at oh six hundred with those two in tow,” nodding toward the office, “They are they new team leads, so they get the office. I was told we had thirty minutes to get our shit out of the office before it would go in the dumpster.”
Aaron started to turn, but Snake reached out, “Aaron, stop. There isn’t shit you can do.” Reaching over Snake pulled a piece of paper off a bunk, “Here’s the new org table. You’re now admin, and I’m the only field guy. Goss made sure that I knew this has been approved all the way up to the colonel. This is apparently all that new Marine 21 crap.”
Scanning quickly down the document, Aaron asked, “Mac is no longer a JTAC? No intel? What the…”
“I haven’t told the teams yet. I didn’t want to do anything before you got here. We gotta talk about this and sort this out first. I wanted to get some desks in here, and get us a corner before we lost that. I haven’t even been introduced to the LTs yet.”
Aaron slumped against the wall, “God, what did we do to deserve this? This is going to destroy the continuity we’ve spent two years developing, much less what it’s going to do to morale. We were in line to deploy in three months, and now with the decert, we’re a year out at best.”
“Uh, Gunny?”
Aaron and Snake both turned to see the first lieutenant standing there, “Gunny, we want to address the team at morning muster. If you’ll tell us when everyone is here, we’d like to get started.”
Aaron bit off a reply as Snake said, “Yes sir. Are you Lieutenant Pollock?”
The lieutenant said, “Yes, I’m Pollock, the second lieutenant is Levine.”
Aaron said, “Sir, if you don’t mind my asking, what are your backgrounds?”
Pollock replied, “We’re both TBS and AIT graduates, I’ve been through JTAC school and we were at MCCDC with Captain Goss.”
Aaron nodded, “Thank you, sir. Let us get our desks set up and we’ll get the muster started about oh seven thirty.”
Pollock replied, “Very well, carry on,” and walked back into the office.
Aaron and Snake quickly arranged their desks, and propped their corkboards in the windows for lack of a better place to put them. As Mac and the other members filed in, Aaron glanced over his shoulder into the office, then made a wind it up gesture, and pointed out the door. The troops eased out closely followed by Aaron and Snake.
Aaron led them around the side of the building, and said, “Guys, massive changes are happening this morning. We’re getting new teams, and are going to be led by the two lieutenants in there. Keep your mouths shut when all this starts going down. I don’t want to hear a single word! Got it?”
Mumbled replies of “Yes Gunny, got it,” and various levels of cussing were heard until Mac asked, “Gunny, what the hell is this? First we’re decertified, now we get a butter bar and a first looie, and y’all look like you’re demoted out of your offices.”
Snake jumped in, “All will be revealed. Y’all just cool your jets. Gunny Miller just got back, so let him get up to speed. As soon as we know what’s going on, we’ll clue you in. Fill the rest of the team in as they come in. Be ready for anything this morning as usual.”
As the teams wandered off to get coffee, or back into the team building, Aaron dug out his phone. Calling First Sergeant Brill at admin, Aaron waited. When the phone was answered, Aaron said, “Mike, Aaron. You got any idea what the hell is going on over here?”
After listening for a couple of minutes, he said, “Thanks Mike. I’ll let you know what comes down.” Slipping the phone back in his pocket, he turned to Snake, “Mike is as clueless as we are. He said there is a closed door meeting going on right now with the colonel, Fitch, Goss and a couple of other officers, but no troops are in the meeting. He said he was rather pointedly told he wasn’t needed.”
Snake rolled his eyes, “Oh just fucking lovely. So we’re getting dumped on and nobody has a clue!”
“Yeah, pretty much. I think this is more about getting rid of me, than anything you did though
.”
Snake spit, “This is hosed. Goss is a vindictive little shit, and all he’s done is prove it. I still think you should go to the IG over this crap!”
Aaron shook his head, “Nope. Not going to give him the satisfaction. Glancing at his watch he said, “I know one other person that might know something. I’ll meet you back inside in a few.”
Searching through his phone, Aaron finally found the number he was looking for, hitting speaker and dialing he waited patiently. Finally it was answered with a mumbled, “Gunnery Sergeant Smith, MCCDC, weap…”
Aaron grinned, “Stretch, it’s Aaron. Got a question, actually a couple.”
“Hey man, long time no talk to. Where you at these days?”
“First SOBs, at Pendleton. Got a couple of things. Can you talk?” Aaron asked.
He heard a couple of squeaks of a chair, then “Yeah, what you got?”
“You involved in the Marine twenty-first Century thing?”
Smith replied, “Nope, wouldn’t touch that with a ten foot pole. Why?”
“You remember a captain named Goss? And a couple of looies, Pollock and Levine?”
Smith sighed, “Don’t tell me they’re out there.”
Aaron said, “Yep, taking over our teams. Goss is a replacement for Captain Grazio, who’s out for medical, and apparently Pollock and Levine are going to be new team leads.”
“Figures, Pollock and Levine were Goss’ butt boys here. I don’t think either of them have any experience. Pollock failed out of flight school, and they dumped him here AWO. Levine is some kind of Brainiac, but he’s never led anything either. What do you mean they are taking over the teams?”
Aaron leaned back against the wall, “Snake and I, you remember Venmen, right? We were the team leads. We’re being replaced this morning. New org table too. And they’re taking the JTAC billet away from a damn good staff sergeant.”
Smith growled, “Straight out of the Marine twenty-one playbook. The general didn’t look fondly on that back here. He thought it took too much initiative away from the troops and concentrated too much command in the officers.”
Aaron said, “Well, Goss is playing things close to the vest, that’s for damn sure. You getting out of there anytime soon?”
“Yeah, six months. I’m going to two/nine. I hear I might see a familiar face or two there.”
Glancing at his watch, Aaron realized there was only five minutes until muster, “Good luck Stretch. I’ve gotta run. Mustering in five. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Yeah man, take care, and keep your damn head down, Aaron.” With that, Aaron hung up and dropped the phone back in his pocket.
***
Thirty minutes later, Aaron pulled into battalion headquarters, and headed into the admin section. Seeing First Sergeant Brill at his desk, Aaron sat next to the desk and slid a copy of the new organization plan across to him, “Mike, do you have any idea what the hell is going on?”
Brill quickly scanned the plan and sat it carefully in the middle of his desk, “No, this is the first time I’ve actually seen anything out of Goss. Looking at this, you’re now bumped to an admin slot which doesn’t exist in the standard org table.”
Aaron nodded, “I know that, you know that, but what I want to know is whose fu… damn idea this is! I know we’ve been decertified, and from the looks of this pile of shit, all our training will have to be repeated! This is total bull…”
Brill held up his hand, “I know. Hang on for a minute.” Brill walked over to Major Finch’s door, knocked and stuck his head in. Motioning Aaron over, they both stepped into the major’s office.
Aaron came to attention but Major Finch said, “At ease Gunny, take a load off. You too, Brill.” Spinning his chair around, Finch took a stack of paperwork from the credenza behind the desk and plopped it on his blotter. “I’m guessing you want to know what is going on, right Gunny?”
Aaron nodded, “Yes sir. I’ve been out of pocket for a week with the prosthetic problems, and this caught me cold this morning. The two lieutenants just basically said they are in charge, and we’re redoing everything.”
Finch nodded, “That’s pretty much it. The colonel is gung ho to get his star, and figures early implementation of Marine twenty-one is going to get it for him. It’s never been done in the field, and only your teams were selected, since Captain Grazio is out for an unknown period.”
Aaron shifted uncomfortably, “Major, the problem is we’d finished all our pre-deployment workups, and we were going back in the barrel for deployment next month. According to what we were shown this morning, we’re back at square one, basically having to completely redo the entire training pipeline!”
Finch held up a hand, “Gunny, I know. But with the realignments in your teams, effectively you are back at square one. What it does is put any deployments for y’all out six months to a year now.”
Aaron interrupted, “Sir, it’s not fair to the men, and taking JTAC away from Staff Sergeant McKenzie for no reason is counter-productive. You know how effective he was in…”
“I get it, I get it. The problem is that I’m only the Ops ‘O’, Gunny. I just have to make the paperwork dovetail, and I’ve been told to keep my nose out of your teams. I don’t like that, but we’re Marines, we take orders and do what we’re told. My suggestion is to get a low profile and hold that position. Goss has made comments about not wanting cripples in his teams.” Holding up both hands, he continued, “I know you’re not! Hell, I was one of the ones that fought to get you back. Your leadership is worth a butt ton more than what we’d lose if you left.”
“Thank you, sir.” Aaron stood up with Brill, realizing the meeting was over. Finch dismissed them and they ended up back in Brill’s cubbyhole. “Mike, what are my options?” I’m being pushed out by Goss, he’s got me slotted as admin support, and that’s your job. What the hell am I supposed to do?”
Brill looked at him, “I just don’t know Aaron. I just don’t know. Lemme call some folks and see if we can figure a way out of this cluster.”
Pushing a Rope
Bucky looked at the old man, “Glad you could come down to work with this batch of students. Are you ready for some lunch, John?”
The old man nodded, “Food is good. This is an interesting set of students, and I can see this bunch asking a lot of questions.”
“Yeah, we’re not going to get off easy on this one. All but one are ex-military. Seems like we’re getting more and more of those folks. C’mon, I’ll drive.”
“Well, look at the number of tours these folks are doing on active duty and in the reserves! Since they dropped the stop loss, folks are bailing, and looking at where they can go work and buy in for their military time,” the old man replied.
When they got in the car, Bucky asked, “Choices?”
The old man replied, “Anywhere is good for me, but drive around for a few minutes, I need to fill you in on something I came across. Didn’t want to do it in the office.”
Bucky looked sharply at him, “What?”
The old man said, “What would you say if I told you I had A-two intel that both Los Zetas and Sinaloa are importing Crossbow and Grinch MANPADS?”
Bucky pulled to the curb and slammed on the brakes, “You’ve got to be shitting me!”
Shaking his head, the old man continued, “It would be A-one, except I only have one source, and no confirmation. And they are both getting into the terrorist smuggling game; they are getting paid by Muslims to bring AQAP[15], Taliban, and other terrorists across the border.”
Bucky just stared at the old man, then put his head in his hands, “A-two? Really A-two? How in the hell…”
The old man said gently, “Bucky, it’s a CI that will only work with me. Nobody else. Don’t even ask. All I can say is he’s inside the organization.”
Bucky slammed his hand on the wheel, “That is why you wanted to talk to Larry, isn’t it?”
The old man shrugged, “Yeah.”
“So whoever
you’ve got is a heavy hitter.”
The old man held up both hands, “You know I can’t go there.”
Bucky nodded, “Yeah, you got a heavy hitter. Fuck it, let’s get lunch. I gotta figure out how to push this rope up the chain. Damn you John, you know they are going to want to know who the CI is so they can determine its viability and whether or not to trust the info.” Pulling back into traffic, Bucky continued to mumble to himself all the way to the restaurant.
***
On the way back to the office, Bucky asked, “Coming across the southern border?”
It took the old man a minute to understand what Bucky meant, “Yeah, both the missiles and the terrorists I think.”
Bucky sighed, “I’ll put some feelers out to my contacts and see if they’re hearing anything. Does this tie back to that goat rope you and Clay got in the middle of down on the border earlier this year?”
“In a way. Oh yeah, I heard back from Hector Ortega over at El Paso. Actually, he stopped by the ranch one day while I was recuperating. He updated me on Covington and the whole cluster over at Marfa.”
Buck sighed, “Yeah, Covington was responsible for your and Spears names getting out there.”
“Yep, posted the entire report on the bulletin board with nothing redacted. One of the cleaning folks copied it and sent it straight to the cartel. Speaking of which, I heard Spears is over at DEA now.”
“We did a lateral for her to get her out of Marfa. She’s working out of here for now. I’m actually using her as a dumb blonde stalking horse around the OTMs. She’s picked up some pretty interesting info, and she’s a damn hard worker. So what did Hector say?”
The old man chuckled, “Well turns out all those OTMs that day? They were Iranian, Yemeni, and Iraqi. Seems State jumped in and spirited them away, never to be seen again. Didn’t even want to tell Hector where they went, but apparently they were quietly deported within days. Hector thinks they were probably connected to one or the other of the terrorist organizations.”
“So, Spears’ comment about hearing Urdu was probably accurate then.”
