Missy was in a rare mood and since no one was anywhere near them, she once again raised the book back up and slowly moved it around in small circles, hovering over the table. Messing with Ben was fun!
Ben stared at her and then laughed. Seeing the book floating right there in front of him was simply ridiculous. Witchcraft. And, of course she’d known about Chasen. “Okay. Missy? You know I’ll have to explain all this to Sal. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised. You being a witch and all.” He paused and grimaced at the thought of telling Sal. Then he smiled at her. “Sure. By the way, you were quite spectacular on that video. Why didn’t you just kill those guys? Was it because you knew it was all on tape?”
Missy smiled, all sweet and innocent. Then, she lowered the book back down and said, “Not with Sally right there. And, of course, your girls? Nadine and Madeline? Even though they left so quickly, they certainly wouldn’t forget things. My FBI buddies are counting on their testimony.”
“Your FBI buddies. Robert Ulrey, right?”
“Oh, he’s only one of my buddies. By the way … all those immunity deals for your girls? For all your girls? I sort of lost count once it got to be more than a dozen. You and Sal should probably be thanking me for those deals.” Missy really hadn’t had any difficulty getting the government’s agreement on the immunity. Especially with the Army so anxious to keep a lid on the scandal as much as possible. Robert had assured her that no one cared about prosecuting any prostitutes.
“So, this Gosselin guy. Since you’re asking about him and you’re suggesting he might contact us, I have to believe he somehow managed to escape. Why do you need our help? It’ll serve him right if he’s crazy enough to go after you.” Ben was already thinking what a great video that would make. In spite of her messing with him, floating that book like that -- or, maybe because of that -- he realized he was now feeling much more relaxed about being there with her.
“Yes, he did escape, Ben. And, I don’t want his quest for revenge to hurt any of my friends. Especially not Sally.” Missy stared at him intently to be sure he understood.
He did. He stared at her for several moments and then nodded his head. “Right. And, you figure he might contact someone in Sal’s organization, maybe looking for help with either his escape or perhaps some revenge. And, we might be contacted even before your FBI buddies manage to find him.”
Missy smiled and said, “Or, he might contact some other mobsters. You and Sal have friends, right? Mobster buddies here, there … everywhere?”
“Mobster buddies? Missy, you’re actually quite a comedian, aren’t you? I guess I’m seeing why this would be a favor, though.” He was now actually looking forward to explaining all this to Sal. “Do you want us to simply make him disappear for you? Or, will you want to hear his last words before we do that?”
“No, no! This is why I wanted to discuss all this with you in person, Ben. Don’t kill him. Don’t even castrate him, although that’s probably what he deserves. I realize it’s much harder for you guys to merely capture him. But, that’s why I said this would be a favor. I’m rather busy at the academy so I won’t be getting involved. Here’s Robert’s number. Call Robert once you’ve got him.” She handed him one of Robert’s business cards.
“You’re right about it being a lot more work that way.”
“If it helps, you can tell him he’s being castrated. You know. For fun.” Missy’s eyes now sparkled with some yellow specs and she pushed out just a slight energy pulse. Ben definitely noticed this and laughed, shaking his head. Yeah, she was a comedian all right. Then he left.
Chapter Twenty-Five
May 6, 2019
Captain Matthew Grimes backed away from the edge of the cliff and turned to his team sergeant, Master Sergeant Adrian Hernandez. “Well, finally! That’s the base where those three Germans were being held. I knew it was only a matter of time before we’d get sent up here to spy on it. From the reports which came down from higher, there supposedly were a hundred and twenty Taliban in there. That was four months ago.”
Sergeant Hernandez said, “Well, there’s a lot more in there now. At least double that. Team Sixteen estimates over two hundred and fifty.”
Captain Grimes was commander of Special Forces A-Team Twenty-Two which had just replaced A-Team Sixteen. Their current mission was merely surveillance and they were required to stay completely hidden; his team was relieving Team Sixteen who had been there for the past four weeks. After that long a period, living only on the Army’s MRE’s -- Meals Ready to Eat -- as well as enduring the strain and difficulty of surveillance like this, the teams were being rotated to keep them fresh.
The MRE’s were eaten cold, since cooking fires could not be used, and there were no hot showers. These surveillance missions for Campaign Angel’s Wing were definitely hardship tours. There were at least a dozen CAW teams that had been deployed at various locations in the Kunar Province. Now it was time for Team Twenty-Two to take its turn.
The rotations after four weeks helped the troops do a better job at this unique surveillance and also minimized the number of mistakes being made. It was difficult to remain sharp out here, living in a cave and just watching; going much beyond four weeks increased the risk that their mission might get compromised or they might simply miss something important.
Although a full A-Team would have twelve men, this surveillance was only using eight man teams and Grimes had left his assistant commander, Warrant Officer Thomas Morley, along with three others back in Kabul. Staff Sergeant James Williams, his Communications Sergeant, would be sending them back his team’s reports using the satellite phones they’d brought along. Staff Sergeant David Murphy was their medic and Sergeant First Class Louis Harold was their engineer. Sergeant First Class Henry Town was intelligence and the two weapons guys were Sergeant First Class Walter Heimbold and Staff Sergeant Brent Carter.
Grimes was the youngest member at twenty-eight and Hernandez was the oldest at thirty-eight. They all wore beards, to blend in with the local populace, and were wearing Afghan attire rather than uniforms. Town was fluent in Pashto. Each man had served in Afghanistan for at least one prior tour and only Carter had less than six months on this current tour; Carter had been assigned three months ago.
They’d all studied the reports from Team Sixteen as well as that earlier recon report that had first identified this base in January and they were well prepared to take their places out here. Their insertion had gone smoothly and Team Sixteen had all climbed into the same Black Hawk helicopter that had brought Grimes and his team out. As that aircraft had departed, the Team Sixteen guys had given his team the thumbs up. Similar to when Grimes had come out for the three Germans in January, there were two helos but only the one had actually landed. Although not the middle of the night this time, they’d flown near the treetops for quite a while and it had been dusk and nearly dark.
Someone at headquarters had decided on using landing zone Johnson, one of the new LZ’s identified during that mysterious January recon by that strange “asset”. Grimes knew this because he’d been given clearance to read those reconnaissance reports and, due to being the person whom the Germans had talked to, he also had known about the asset. Some very high ranking officers had interviewed him and he was well aware of how only a few people actually knew about that asset’s existence. He’d not even been allowed to discuss the asset with anyone on his team. All very hush, hush and -- after what the Germans had let slip -- he really wasn’t surprised.
Hernandez said, “You know, Captain, ever since our team was ordered to take full credit for rescuing those Germans, I’ve wanted to get out here. I guess I thought seeing where they were held? Maybe then telling our bullshit story might get easier. I mean, always saying how all the details for that mission were classified has worked okay, and all, but it’s still all been bullshit.”
The cliff edge which Grimes and Sergeant Hernandez had been looking out from was an excellent vantage point and also provided them with adequate co
ncealment, due to the trees and bushes that were there along with the large rocks. Not only could they see the Taliban base main entrance but they could also see vehicles travelling back and forth along the road down in the valley far below. Although the distance from this observation post to the base entrance was over 300 meters, the telephoto lens on their digital camera would enable the Army’s facial recognition software to be fairly accurate for all the photos they’d be sending back, even when taken during less than optimum light conditions.
“Yeah, I hear you, and I know this really doesn’t change that. Taking photos out here and sending back reports … it’s still not the same. Not enough. Not as big a deal. Doesn’t seem anywhere near as important. But, the Army doesn’t give us these missions so we can feel important.”
After verifying that Sergeants Harold and Heimbold were all set, Grimes and Hernandez returned to the large cave which would now be their home for the next month. Both the OP as well as this cave had been located and established by Team Sixteen. There would always be two on constant surveillance watch up at the OP and another one or two on security watch back here at the cave. Everyone would rotate, on watch for four hours at a time.
Hernandez had worked out the complete duty roster. Typically, for the other six enlisted men, it was four hours on, four hours off, four hours on and then eight hours off. Then, this twenty hour cycle would repeat. This shifted the cycle start point for each man by four hours each day, so sometimes he was watching at night and sometimes during the day. Hernandez was on for either four hours or eight hours, always during the day. And, most days, Captain Grimes was on from noon until four.
During those periods when not watching or sleeping, there would still be various other tasks to keep everyone fairly well occupied. Twice each day there would be the trek up the mountain to the ridge where they’d link up with headquarters via the satellite and upload their reports, with photos. Then, they’d download any data that headquarters might have for them. These treks would always be done by at least two men, for security reasons.
Since they might need to move out suddenly, to avoid possible detection, all their gear had to be stowed and maintained where it could easily be grabbed with only a moment’s notice. Any trash needed to be buried right away and latrine areas needed to be kept filled in and covered over. It was important, if they had to vacate, to leave no significant trace behind that any U.S. forces had been there. They had several planned escape routes for evacuating, and as time permitted, they would do some exploring along each of these.
It was day one and the team slowly began settling into a normal routine. Murphy and Carter were already asleep, deep inside the cave, by the time Grimes and Hernandez got back there.
-----
May 10, 2019
Classes were finally over. Missy, Sally, Sharon and Tracy were all free that night so they stopped in at Kelsey’s Korner to check if they were needed. With end of term exams now looming ahead, Kelsey was really busy and that would now continue through all of the next week until exams were over. She and her assistants were trying to provide final preparation for various subjects to over a hundred of their classmates. Her study group efforts had been so successful that the academy had even acknowledged what she was doing. She had been given a designated study hall plus a couple of satellite classrooms to use for this final review week.
On the way over, Sally had been discussing how she felt now, being the only one of them not in any relationship. Due to all the notoriety from when she and Missy had been attacked, everyone knew her name. But, she was very insecure about that and not ready to let her guard down. She couldn’t relax and be open with any guy in her class, afraid she’d find he was merely interested in the big scandal rather than in her. Maybe later … or, maybe she’d find someone outside of the academy.
She was glad to hang out with the other three girls who all had boyfriends not at West Point. The four of them were doing well enough with their courses and, at least for this night, they didn’t need to study. And, as it turned out, Kelsey didn’t need them either. She signed each of them up to assist her on other nights later in the week. So, they decided to head over to Cullum Hall to see if they could grab a table, get a soft drink and maybe just relax. After their last time there, no one wanted to suggest pizza and beer.
A bit later, after enjoying how nice it was having nothing else they needed to be doing, their conversation soon got around to reflecting on the year they’d just had. They talked about everything they’d accomplished, how much they’d changed since arriving at West Point ten months ago, and how some of their classmates had changed. They also couldn’t resist gossiping about which hookups had worked and which had not.
Tracy said, “Remember how horny Kelly was during Beast Training?” Kelly Wong had been Tracy and Missy’s roommate and she really enjoyed sex. She’d been having it frequently prior to West Point and after five weeks of abstinence, she’d desperately wanted to accept the advances from one of their plebe classmates. It didn’t matter that he had a girlfriend back home; she hadn’t really had a meaningful relationship with any of her former boyfriends. She was just extremely horny and didn’t want to wait any longer.
“Good thing we convinced her to wait. Not only did that Jeremy Hanson leave right after Beast but he also got Irene Hwang pregnant.” Irene had decided to drop out and have the baby, in spite of Jeremy refusing to have anything to do with either her or the baby. Missy looked at Sally, who hadn’t heard any of this. “Poor Irene … or, as our extremely jealous and frustrated Kelly kept calling her, that slut Hwang … she was the girl Jeremy approached next. By the way, I heard she just had her baby last month, a boy.”
Tracy continued on with the story, “Kelly eventually invited Gary Sabre to join her and her parents during Acceptance Day weekend, since his parents couldn’t be there. Gary was in the same squad with me and Missy and, like the other guys in our squad, he stopped by our room almost every night. He was extremely smart but a bit pudgy and not in very good shape to start out with. However, by the end of Beast Training he lost weight and got into great shape. He lacked confidence when around girls but was actually very easy to talk to and was a great listener. Kelly started chatting privately with him, one-on-one outside our room. This happened more and more as the weeks went by, without her really noticing how much his appearance changed. She just really became comfortable with him.”
Sharon had heard the whole story and knew both Gary and Kelly, but Sally did not. By the time Tracy and Missy finished explaining how Kelly had seduced Gary, only to then fall deeply in love with him, Sally was in tears laughing. Sally said, “So, a true case of lust at last sight? They’re both crazy about each other now?”
Missy giggled and said, “Gary not only keeps finding creative places and opportunities for making love to Kelly but keeps giving her orgasms that are out of this world.”
“Which she’s not the least bit shy to brag about,” Tracy was quick to add. “The only one who brags about her orgasms more than Kelly does is Angel Meriwether.” Angel had been in Kelly’s squad during Beast and continued to be Kelly’s closest friend at the academy. Angel was black and five-eight, like Missy, while Kelly was a classic Asian beauty and barely five feet tall; Angel and Kelly made an odd pair.
Angel had large breasts and a very bawdy sense of humor, constantly entertaining everyone with stories of her alleged sexual escapades, many of which were actually true. Many of them were not true, of course. Her blatant sexuality was very open and in your face and she was always making outrageous and suggestive remarks. In spite of how deliciously sinful she’d hint that her behavior could be, however, she never was truly coming on to any of the guys. They were not being invited to join in or participate in such awful behavior. No, no! She was hilarious and very popular.
She also struggled academically and, had it not been for all the assistance she was getting from Kelsey’s Korner, she wouldn’t have made it. But, thanks to getting the help she needed and h
er own hard work, it was now looking pretty good that she’d pass. Missy pointed all this out, saying how great a thing it was that Kelsey was helping so many.
Sharon couldn’t resist bringing up how things had changed for Kelsey. Mitch Cooper was now her constant companion. For all her Kelsey’s Korner sessions, he was either there getting help from her with Calculus or else being her assistant with teaching other subjects. And, whenever they weren’t busy with that, they could usually be found together in the gym. With his help, she had transformed herself; while she would never become much of an athlete in competitive sports, her level of fitness was now amazing. On the romantic side, she and Mitch were taking things slow but everyone knew they were definitely a couple.
Sally said, “There’s no one more fun to tease about sex than Kelsey. Did I tell you how she finally admitted to letting Mitch play with those amazing breasts of hers?”
“It’s about time,” said Sharon. “We all knew he wasn’t only interested in her great mind. He just needed to see past those boobs and convince her how much he was really interested in her mind first before she would let him enjoy her tits.”
“You mean, before she’d let herself enjoy it … you know … him doing things to her tits. Have you seen the hands on him?” Sally laughed.
“He wants her to visit him this summer, meet his parents, etc., etc. Then, he wants to visit at her home as well.” Missy looked at Tracy and laughed. “Look what happened when my brother did the visit at home thing with Tracy and her parents.”
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