Noah settled in for a wait, his thoughts churning. He tried to arrange what he should say, but he couldn’t concentrate. To his great surprise, though, he nodded off, only to jerk awake when Esther burst into the room.
“What the hell are you doing here,” Esther asked, her voice tense with stress as she put her cover on the top rack.
“Is it true, Ess? Are you getting a Section Five?”
She spun around to face him, asking sharply, “Where did you hear that?”
“Pokky Opparell. She came to see me two hours ago.”
“Hell, Pokky. Of course. She knows everything before they even happen,” Esther said bitterly. “Yeah, it’s true.”
“What the heck, Ess? How can you be getting a Navy Cross and a Section 5?”
“A Navy Cross? That’s what I’ve been put in for? That’s just precious,” she answered. “And so fucking appropriate.”
She flopped down on her roommate’s, rack, the purple zebras falling over. She absent-mindedly reached over and pulled it into her lap, her eyes unfocussed.
“Did you do it?” Noah asked, straining to keep his voice emotionless and non-accusatory.
“Did I do what, Noah? Did I order my Marines to take the building under fire? Yes. Did civilians die there? Yes. Is that what you wanted to hear? Does that make you feel better?”
“Ess, stop that! No, it’s not what I wanted to hear, and no, I’m not feeling better. I’m pissed, royally pissed. I just need to know for sure so we can figure out what to do next.”
“So ‘we can figure?’ Who’s this ‘we?’ You my lawyer now?”
“I’m your brother, Ess, and that more important than any lawyer.”
Esther pulled her roommate’s zebra into her chest, dropping her chin until it rested on its head.
“I know, Noah. And I appreciate your concern. Yes, I gave the order, but I didn’t know any civilians were in the building. I had approval from my lieutenant. Paragraph 3b covers me.”
“You know that, Ess, and I know that. But you know who initiated the Section 5, right?”
“Admiral Fucking Blankenship.”
“So you know what’s happening here.”
“No, I’m an idiot, Noah. Why don’t you explain it to me because my poor little old brain can’t connect the dots.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“I’m waiting for my lawyer to arrive. And we’re going to present the facts.”
“Which isn’t going to do much with a Navy captain, one of Admiral Blankenship’s buttboys, running the investigation. We need to go higher with this.”
“What, call up General Simone and ask him for help? ‘Hi, Jorge, this is Esther. You know, you worked for my father. Can you just call up Admiral Butt-for-shit and ask him to drop the investigation? Please?’ Noah, it isn’t going to happen. Even if a Lieutenant General could overrule an Admiral, the First Minister at that, what the hell are we saying? I did nothing wrong. Oh, I have nightmares, and I regret it, but I am not guilty. But I need to be proven not culpable, not that I got off because I know someone.”
“And if you do nothing, you’re going to burn, Ess. And you know it.”
“So be it.”
“Come on, Ess. You’re a shooting star, here. You’re going places. You’re getting a Navy Cross, and a commission is within your reach.”
“The thing is Noah, a shooting star burns out.”
She pulled down the zebra and looked at its face for a few moments before she tossed it back onto her roommate’s pillow.
“We know more than General Simone. More than retired generals.” Noah said.
“Who?”
“The chairman.”
“Oh, that’s even better. I go out of the chain of command to get cleared. That will go over well. If I ever had a career ahead of me, that would sink it.”
“And if you do nothing, your career is sunk, too.”
“So I’m screwed either way.”
“No, one of those ways and you’re still a Marine.”
“Tarnished. No, this has to go through the process, without interference. I can’t pervert my honor.”
“You’re making a mistake. I want you to contact the chairman. Just talk to her.”
“Yeah, just call her up.”
“It might take a bit of time, but she’ll take your call. She owes father, and she said she was there for us.”
“No, Noah. I’ll let the system play though.”
“And you’ll dishonor father?” Noah blurted out, standing up. “You’ll let his name get dragged through the mud?”
Esther jumped off her roommate’s rack and stood face-to-face with him, her eyes centimeters from his nose.
“Who the fuck are you to say that, Lance Corporal? You haven’t been doing much to honor him, have you? And you really think running to the Chairman of the Federation Council is honoring him? Get the fuck out of here, Noah. I don’t need to listen to your crap!”
Noah stood silent for a moment, his nostrils flaring, as he stared down his sister.
“If you’re too stupid and too proud to take care of yourself, then I’ll have to do it myself,” he finally said, steel in his voice.
“YOU. . .WILL. . .DO. . .NOTHING! Now get the hell out of here, Lance Corporal.”
At that moment, Corporal Gnarson opened the hatch.
“Oh, are you two still busy?” she asked, taking half a step back.
“No, my brother’s leaving now,” Esther said, her voice firm with determination.
Noah waited a few long seconds before he said, “My sister’s right. I’m leaving. Thank you for giving us your room.”
Noah wheeled around and strode out the hatch. His heart was pounding, his vision narrowing. He knew his sister was stubborn, but this was going too far. If she was guilty, that was one thing, but she was innocent of the charges, and to let the Admiral get revenge on their father this way was a travesty. If she wouldn’t reach out for help, well, the chairman would take his call, too.
Chapter 36
Esther
“It’s been dropped,” an obviously relieved Lieutenant Markopoulos said.
“Sir? Dropped?”
“Yes. I just got the word now, and I wanted to be the one to tell you.”
“So Captain San Delgado found for us?” she asked.
Her meeting with the captain had not gone over well, Esther had thought. He seemed to have already made his mind and was only fishing for enough so-called facts to back up his conclusion. She’d been expecting a release of findings any day now, but she also expected them to refer her to a court martial.
“No, the captain didn’t find us innocent. He never had the chance to release his findings. This came from somewhere on high. Someone finally realized what was happening to us and put a stop to it.”
“So we were not cleared, sir?”
“Cleared? From Captain San Delgado, no I guess not. But cleared, yeah, I’d say so. No charges. No misconduct. No court martial. I’m calling that cleared.”
“So we were never technically cleared? Someone just ordered the investigation stopped?”
“Well, yeah. But so what?”
“Sir, that means this is hanging over us. Unless we were formally cleared of misconduct, other Marines can assume the worst, and that it was politics that stopped a court.”
“I. . .well, maybe, but really, Esther, I don’t think that’s a problem. Everyone knows what was what here. We didn’t do anything wrong. You’re Navy Cross is still in the pipeline, and that would have been pulled if you’d screwed up.”
“Some Marines know, sir, but with all due respect, not all. The word will go out that you and I were protected, that we had friends in high places who did what they had to make this all go away.”
“Friends in high places? Hardly. You, maybe, but not me,” he said, then hurriedly added, “I didn’t mean, that. It’s just that I don’t know anyone high up the chain of command. And from what you’ve said, I don’t think you ask
ed for any favors.”
“No, sir, I didn’t. I wanted us to be found not at fault, that we did what we had to do. I wanted full exoneration, not getting off on a technicality.”
“Corporal Lysander, I understand what you’re saying, but I think you’re putting too much into this. The bottom line is that we’ve got nothing on our records. I can look forward to captain, and you can re-enlist. As far as I’m concerned, that is a victory to me.
“I probably shouldn’t tell you this,” he said in a conspiratorial voice, “but seeing as it’s OBE, I guess it doesn’t matter. Word is that Captain San Delgado found us culpable. He was going to release a finding of misconduct. You and I were heading to a court, so given the alternative, I’m embracing the events.”
“He found us culpable?” Esther repeated, not surprised.
“Yeah. I heard that two days ago. I didn’t tell you because it wasn’t confirmed, but I got it from a reliable source. In fact, today, when the SJA asked me to contact him, at first, I thought it was to give me the bad news. So right now, I’m feeling pretty good.
“Now this isn’t confirmed at all, but my source says our guardian angel was none other than the chairman herself.”
“Chairman MacCailín? She intervened?”
“Looks like, yeah. I mean, who else could? It was the First Minister who signed the convening letter, after all.”
Esther stomach roiled with bile, and she had to swallow down the vomit that threatened to burst up.
Noah!
She knew with certainty that Noah had gotten involved. He’d contacted the chairman and somehow convinced her to intervene. That was the only thing that made sense.
A tiny part of her was relieved that it was over, but anger blossomed that overwhelmed any relief. She was not being righteous when she told the lieutenant that she wanted to be formally cleared of any wrongdoing. She needed to be cleared. Having suspicion placed on here was bad enough, but having a rep of getting heavy hitters to intercede for her was the kiss of death with regards to her aspirations in the Corps. She couldn’t afford that reputation. Having a court martial and being found guilty would almost be better. At least then, her career would be over now while she was still young enough to forge a new career. Now, she could serve years before the consequences would have any effect on her. She’d invest years of time and effort only to be sunk later.
That is why she’d forbade Noah from contacting anyone on her behalf. If she couldn’t get cleared through the system, then she needed to accept that and find a new purpose in life.
But Noah, in his brotherly protective mode, screwed that up. He’d placed her in career limbo, where she could still hope to achieve her goals only to fall short later.
Why can’t he just leave me alone?
Esther barely knew what she said to the lieutenant over the next few minutes, only that at last, she was standing outside his office.
She pulled out her PA and sent Noah a simple, “Get to the waftball court, now!”
She strode with a purpose, eyes locked ahead. No one stopped her. The waftball court was in the rear of the weightroom. When the base was built, waftball was popular; now, sixty years later, the sport was mostly forgotten, and the odd pentagonal shape of the court was useless for most anything else. Marines had been known to use it to settle disagreements the old-fashioned way, and Esther was in a fighting mood.
“Hey, Lysander!” someone shouted out from the bench presses as she stormed through, ignoring whoever had called out.
She kicked open the door to the court, which had a habit of sticking, then paced back and forth, waiting for her brother. On the fourth time to the front of the court, she kicked out, slamming her toe onto the bounder board.
Shit! She thought as she hopped up and down, her foot on fire.
“Ess,” Noah said from behind her.
Esther turned around, put her foot down, and asked, “Did you contact Chairman MacCailín?”
“Oh, so that’s what this is,” Noah said. “I take it I was successful?”
She strode up to him, trying not to limp, and hit him high in the chest with the flat of her hand.
“I told you not to,” she shouted, hitting him again.
He took half a step back, but didn’t raise his hands to protect himself.
“I did what I had to do because you are too stubborn.”
“It was my choice, not yours!”
“Your choice to drag dad’s name into the dirt? Your grubbing choice?” Noah asked, his voice getting louder.
“What the hell do you care about that? You never loved him anyway, and he never loved you, you, freak.”
Noah went still, then said, his voice level and even, “The Lysander name’s my birthright, too. And whether Dad loved me as much as you or Ben, that doesn’t matter. Mom is a Lysander, too. And I wasn’t going to let you shame either one of them. Or me. I wasn’t going to let you shame me.”
“So now, you think you saved our name? Saved me? You think having the fucking Chairman of the Federation Council step in to protect me is saving our benighted name? Do you have any idea how the world works?”
“I know that Admiral Blankenship opened the Section 5 to get back at Dad. I know you didn’t deserve that. And I knew I had to act. I waited, Ess, until I knew what the results were going to be before I moved, so grant me that. But with you getting a court martial, I knew it was time to act.”
“You knew about the court? Before me?”
“Yeah, I knew. It was kind of important, you know? So I kept informed. Like you might have wanted to do if you could have gotten off your lofty perch.”
“And how did you find out?”
“I’ve got avenues. I had the copy that went up to the Admiral for his approval.”
“Fuck, you were hacking accounts? You can’t do that yourself. Who helped you? Lieutenant Fairhold? Pokky?”
Noah’s eyes gave him away, and she said, “Pokky, then. Risking her retirement. That’s frigging precious.”
“It doesn’t matter how I got it. I did, and I acted. To save your ass, you’re welcome.”
“I never asked you to do that. In fact, if I remember my words, I told you not to. Did you forget that?”
Noah stared at his sister for a full twenty seconds as her chest heaved with each breath.
“I didn’t forget. But you needed help, even if you’re too pigheaded to realize that. And I had to protect the Lysander name. Mom and dad deserved that, at least. And Ben. Did you forget them in your pride?”
“I haven’t forgotten anyone! But I’m going to forget you. We’re done, Lance Corporal. Done! Do you understand that?”
Noah stared at her once more time. He opened his mouth as if to say something, then closed it.
Finally, he said, “As you wish, Corporal.”
He pushed past her, his shoulder hitting hers as he left the waftball court.
Esther was fuming, and she wanted to shout out at Noah, but with him now in the weightroom, she didn’t want to air the family’s dirty laundry.
Not family anymore! I’m finished with him.
Hidden in her righteous anger at Noah, though, was a hole in her heart, one she feared would never be filled.
Epilogue
Noah
“Hey, Noah, I just heard. That’s pretty copacetic,” Jessie Rose said as Noah walked down 4B to the Mamba maintenance bay.
“Thanks, Jessie,” he answered, wondering how Jessie knew about his orders.
He’d just received them 25 minutes before, and he didn’t think they were important enough to be spread about.
“So, are you going to have to salute her?” Jessie asked as he came to an exaggerated position of attention and executed a flamboyant, palm-out salute.
Of course. He’s taking about Ess, not me.
Esther had been selected for a commission and would be leaving the battalion for NSA Annapolis in a month. Noah hadn’t spoken to her since then—he hadn’t spoken to her since their blowup in th
e waftball court. He’d sent her a brief congratulations on his PA, but he’d received nothing in return.
Amazingly, most of the battalion hadn’t noticed their rift. Sampson, Princess, Pad-Man, and a few others close to Noah knew, but he was pretty sure Esther hadn’t told anyone. That wouldn’t be her style.
“You better believe it,” he said, forcing a smile onto his face. “You know those butter bars. They need their fragile egos stroked.”
“Damn right!” Jessie agreed.
“OK, see you. I’m heading down to the bay,” he said.
Noah walked to the end of the passage, then took the elevator down to the logistics deck. He stuck his head into the tank section’s office, but it was empty, as he’d expected. Sergeant Phong was not a desk jockey—as a motorhead, she preferred being with her babies.
And sure enough, as he entered the bay, he could see her legs poking out from under 213.
“Sergeant Phong, you go a second?”
“Hand me a cross-spanner, Lysander” she shouted from under the tank.
“Cross-spanner, cross-spanner,” he muttered as he looked over the maintenance table. “Oh, this one.”
Noah had spent quite a bit of time with the section over the last year, but he was hardly an expert. He was relieved that he recognized the correct tool. He handed it to her and waited patiently while she grunted and groaned under the Mamba. It took at least a minute for her to finished whatever tasked he had before she scooted out from under the tank.
“What’s up, Corporal of Marines,” she asked, brushing her cheek, but leaving even a greater smudge of black across it.
Noah smiled. He’d been a corporal for only three weeks, and the title still seemed fresh and new to him.
“Just thought I’d let you know I got my orders. I’ve got 42 days and a wake-up.”
“And. . .?”
“Camp Ceasare,” he said, his tone nonchalant while he was brimming with excitement on the inside.
“Son-of-a-gun, Noah. The Itch! That’s phantasmagorical, Marine! You, a tanker!”
She jumped up, wiping her hand on a dirty rag before thrusting it out. Noah took it, giving as good as he received from her firm grasp.
Legacy Marines (The United Federation Marine Corps' Lysander Twins Book 1) Page 23
