by Joni Parker
“Thanks.” Alex waved and went in.
The Captain went into the Admiral’s quarters and stood staring out the window at Alex as she entered the building. After a while, he went to speak to the Admiral, who was reading a book. “I just stopped by to see if you needed anything, Admiral.”
“No, I’m fine,” the Admiral said. “How was archery?”
“I’ve never seen anyone shoot like that. She hardly missed a target. She even split an arrow, the show-off. She’s good. And she seems fearless. She wants to get her hands on that fellow who’s after you. We may want to use her skills. She sounds willing.”
“I don’t want her to get hurt, Jonas. I think my plan is working. I can tell she’s on our side because she wants to protect me.”
“Yes, it seems to have worked. I’ll be back for dinner at six, Admiral.”
“Thank you, Captain, for this afternoon. It was a close call.”
“Alex saw the red light, even though she didn’t know what it was.” He went to his room and knew the Admiral was right. They’d brought Alex into the fold.
Across the street, Alex returned to her room and took a shower. It took her some time to figure out which handle to turn, but once the water started pouring out, she jumped right in. She put on the clothes Ecstasy had found for her and went back across the street for dinner at six.
She joined the three men already seated at the table. Dinner was a feast of Beef Wellington, green beans, and au gratin potatoes. The last time Alex had beef this good was on Seaward Isle; she had to admit it was delicious and would have asked for the recipe, but she didn’t know how to cook anything this elaborate. After the meal, the men retired to their rooms and Alex went across the street. She changed into the gray scrubs Mrs. Gibson told her to use as pajamas. They were soft and comfortable. As she snuggled in bed, she felt like she owed the Admiral something in return for these clothes and the trip to Portsmouth. She’d made the right decision to ask him for help, but it’d been a long day and she fell asleep, safe and secure.
Chapter 44
SECURITY MEASURES
Alex woke early, as usual. She put on her camouflage uniform, finding more pockets than she knew what to do with. She made sure to wear her green stone necklace; the wand was the closest thing she had to a weapon. After drinking handfuls of water from the faucet, she wondered where to get breakfast. She went across the street to ask the Admiral or Captain Jonas, whoever was awake.
Alex waited on the curb for the cars to drive by, noticing a few curious stares from the people inside. Once the traffic cleared, she jogged across the street to the Admiral’s quarters where she was met by a Marine guard.
“Good morning, Miss. May I help you?”
“I’m looking for Admiral Teller or Captain Jonas.”
“Wait here.” He went inside the parlor and returned with Nelson.
“Top of the morning to you, Alex,” Nelson said. “Are you ready for combat?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re wearing cammies. That’s what our Royal Marines, like Corporal Mitchell here, wear into combat. Join us for breakfast. You haven’t eaten, have you?”
“No, that’s why I came. I didn’t know where else to go.”
He led her inside, where the Admiral and Captain Jonas were seated at a round table, covered with a crisp, white tablecloth and set with silver utensils and crystal glasses. Nelson showed Alex to an empty chair and sat beside her. The Admiral and the Captain were busy reading and didn’t notice Alex come in. She sat quietly, trying not to disturb them.
A man in a black suit brought her a plate of food on an elegant blue and white plate. He poured some orange juice in a crystal glass and brought her a cup of tea with some honey. Alex spread some strawberry jam on her toast and started eating. The strawberry jam reminded her of home. Tears welled in her eyes.
“Alex, is everything all right? You haven’t said a word.” The Admiral peeked over his newspaper.
“I didn’t want to disturb you. Is that the same paper you were reading yesterday?”
He chuckled. “No, this is a new one, published just this morning. Did you sleep well?”
“I did, thank you.”
The door opened behind them and D.I. Tyler came in. “Good morning, Admiral. Lady Dumwalt, are you a Marine today?” He smiled at her uniform.
Alex’s smile disappeared. “I guess.” She plunged into her scrambled eggs and ate without looking at him.
“Since you reported the man in the red car, D.I. Tyler was sent to assist with my security. Would you care to help him, Alex?” the Admiral asked.
“I’m sure you have people who are much more qualified than me. Thanks, anyway.”
“I would appreciate your assistance, my lady. Good help is hard to find,” Tyler said.
Alex paused and glanced around the table. They were all staring at her and she relented. “Sure.” She shrugged.
“The Inspector will bring you up-to-date on the bald man and the security procedures,” Captain Jonas said. “We must be on our way, Admiral. Church service will start in a half hour and then the meeting you wanted has been arranged for this afternoon.” The Admiral, Captain Jonas, and Leftenant Nelson left the table.
Alex sat silently and continued eating.
“We haven’t been able to identify the bald man. Can you read his thoughts to find out who he is?” Tyler smiled at her and sat in one of the empty chairs.
She could tell he was making fun of her, so she shook her head and frowned at him.
“What can you do?” He leaned forward.
“Obviously, nothing that would be useful to you.” She shrugged and shook her head again.
“Are you still angry?”
“What do you expect? You had me shot and thrown into prison.”
“Not prison, jail.”
“It’s all the same.”
“It isn’t. Prison is where you go after you’ve been sentenced in court; jail is before.”
“There’s no real difference. And then they used this Taser thing on me. It was awful.”
“A Taser? What did you do?”
“I was trying to break up a fight.”
“Well, prison is worse, I guarantee it. But it’s my job. May I call you Alex?”
She stared away. “Where’s Detective Sergeant Smith?”
“London. He’s on another case. Why?”
“He’s a lot nicer than you are.”
Tyler looked away. “My apologies if I’ve been rude to you. Shall I call him and have him come down for you?”
“No, he’s busy.”
“Look, we need to work together for the Admiral’s safety. After Captain Jonas told me about the shooting at the pub, I thought I should come down and check things out for myself. I ask again, may I call you Alex?”
She shrugged. “I don’t care.”
“That’s a start. Well, before we begin, I need to give you something. Here’s a check from the prison for twenty-eight pounds. They said you earned it.”
“Wait a minute, I earned more than that.”
“Less charity donations and a trip to the clinic.”
“Charity? What charity?”
“The clothes and toiletries you received.”
“Then it wasn’t charity. And I only went to the clinic once. What kind of money is this anyway?” She waved the check in the air.
“It’s a check. You can put it in the bank or cash it. And here’s your eating knife.”
She folded up the check, stuffing it into one of her pockets. She had no idea what to do with it. The eating knife went into a different pocket.
“Where should we begin?” Tyler asked.
She shrugged. “Everyone seems to think someone else is going to solve the problem for them with this equipment, but no one is trying to think like this bald man. If you were in his position, what would your next move be? He’s already failed twice and he’s drawn attention to himself. But he can’t stop. It seems like he has a
deadline or something. Are there any important dates coming up?”
“I can think of several. The Admiral has several meetings this week, including an evening event on Tuesday. Hmmm, that makes me think.” He twirled his mustache.
“What kind of evening event?”
“A cocktail party. Are you going?”
“I don’t think so.” She pulled at her cammies.
“Is that all you have to wear? You can go as my date, but you’re going to have to look the part. Let me take you to a nearby shop. It’ll be semi-formal. We can go in my car. Shall we?”
“All I have is this check.” She patted her pocket.
“I’ll take care of it.” He took her by the arm and led her out the door.
As they left, a female Marine Captain stopped talking to her subordinates in the hall. When she saw Alex, her eyes narrowed. “Leftenant, may I have a moment?” She took her aside. “I ask that if you’re going to wear our uniform, you wear it properly. Where’s your cover? Your hair must be worn off the collar and you have no rank insignia or name badge.”
Her words were precise and cutting. She stood as tall as Alex’s shoulder with dark brown hair worn up under her camouflage cap. Everything about her was immaculate, even her make-up.
At first, Alex was taken aback, but she knew she was in the wrong. “I’m sorry. I don’t have a hat like yours nor any rank insignia. And I don’t know where to get a name badge.” As she stared into the woman’s eyes, the hardness softened and she seemed amused.
The Captain dug into her pocket. “Here, I have an extra set. In the Marines, you’d be a captain and not a leftenant.” She pinned a rank insignia with two black bars on one side of her collar and then the other. “How do you spell your last name?”
“D-u-m-w-a-l-t.”
She wrote it in a small notebook from her pocket with a pen. “First name?”
“Alex, A-l-e-x.”
“I’ll have a badge made for you. Put on my cap and see if it fits.” She took off her cap and handed it to her. “It’s a little small, but I have larger one at home. I’ll bring it in.”
“I have a black beret. Would that work?”
“It would.”
“Thank you, Captain. What’s your name?”
“Captain Shauna O’Leary, Royal Marines.” She nodded.
“Alex.” She shook hands with her. “Do they allow women in combat?”
“Yeah, they do.” O’Leary smiled.
“Captain, I’ll bring her back shortly.” The Inspector chuckled as he led her to his black car and held the door open for her. Alex sat down and he closed the door.
“Can you wait a minute? I need to get my hat.” Alex turned in her seat to get out of the car, but found the door locked. “How do I get out of here?”
Tyler leaned over and pulled on the silver handle. “I’ll be here.”
Alex ran up to her room. She pulled her hair into a tail and pinned it in place. She found her beret and set it on her head. Disrespect had never been her intention, but she’d been neglectful. She should have known there were standards to meet.
As soon as she returned to the car, Tyler put it in gear and headed off, but Alex covered her eyes while he drove. The little car seemed to be going too fast and too close to the buildings for her. He laughed. On the way, he asked her to describe the bald man.
“He was taller than me and heavier, maybe fifty pounds or so. And of course, he was bald. He had tattoos on his neck—a cross in a circle and lightning bolts.”
“A cross? Can you draw it?” He handed her a small notebook from his pocket as he drove.
Alex pressed her lips together and drew a cross, overlaying a circle on top. “It sort of looked like this.”
Tyler’s jaw dropped. “A Celtic cross? Are you sure?”
“Have you seen it before?”
“If that’s what you saw, then we’re dealing with some bad people.”
Tyler touched his phone and held up a picture of a man’s neck with lightning bolts and the Celtic cross. “Did it look like this?”
“That’s it. How did you get a picture of him?”
“It’s a different person, but the members of this group all have the same tattoos. They belong to a white supremacist group, advocating the elimination of all colored people from Britain. They call themselves, the 23rd Infantry.”
“Does that mean there are another twenty-two infantry units?”
“No. The twenty-third letter in our alphabet is w which, in their minds, stands for white. There’s only one unit, with two to three hundred members. This is quite disturbing. I’ll have to caution the Admiral to take this more seriously.” He rubbed his chin.
At the Cascades Shopping Center, Tyler took her to a store, but found it closed. Then he read the sign. He groaned. “It’s Sunday. They’re closed. We can try again tomorrow.”
They returned to the base where Tyler took her to a building marked Security. He was greeted warmly.
“I’ve worked with the Navy on several special projects. All hush-hush.” He put his finger over his mouth. “I wanted to show you the Security Command Post, as we call it. We can monitor the base from here. There are literally hundreds of cameras located throughout the base to show us what’s going on at any given moment.”
They entered a large room with screens on the wall and computers on dozens of tables. Young men and women in camouflage uniforms stared at the screens continuously. He took her over to a special bank of computers. “We’re monitoring the Admiral’s quarters, even when he’s not there.”
“It looks very impressive. Does everyone know who they’re looking for?”
He nodded. “All the systems have a computer monitoring system with facial recognition software. Now that we have a better description, thanks to you, they’ll catch him. In addition, we have several patrols on foot and in cars. The Royal Marines are in charge of security at the Admiral’s quarters. They’ll be on guard twenty-four hours a day. Does this make you feel any better?”
“Yes, but there’s always a weakness. If this man is good, he’ll find it.”
“The Admiral wants you to stay out of this. Let us handle it.”
“I know, but--”
“No.” Tyler held up his hand. “Admiral’s orders.”
Alex didn’t like being cut out of the process and felt like they didn’t give her enough credit, but she relented. This wasn’t her fight. “All right.”
He drove her back to her room. “I have to attend a short meeting. The Admiral and his staff will be busy for dinner, so I’ll pick you up around six o’clock. Please wear something other than cammies.”
“Thanks.” Alex had yet to figure out how to get out of the car, so Tyler leaned over and opened it for her. She climbed out and went up to her room. As much as she wanted to hate Tyler, he was being so nice to her, she couldn’t. She changed into the clothes Ecstasy picked out for her and strolled over to the Admiral’s quarters to get an overall look.
There was a small lawn around it, but there were no other houses or buildings next to it. Across the street, there was a small meadow with cut grass, and a dozen small trees along one side. It looked bare, but at least there were some trees. She went to the end of the block and noticed the security cameras for the first time inside a dark glass ball on the side of a building. She turned to her right to examine the area behind the quarters. A strip of grass and an alley, with another large metal building on the next block.
Two doors on the building faced the Admiral’s quarters, five on each of the long sides and two on the opposite end. There were no windows. A sign on the door said that access was restricted. Several people entered the building, wearing cards around their necks. They each waved the card over a device that unlocked the door. Once inside, the people showed their badge to a man, who let them pass.
Alex sat on a bench and watched people, drawing some curious stares.
Down the street, a man swept with a broom and picked up debris, putting it in a bi
n he pushed along with him. He was one of many gardeners, tending to bushes along the road. But they were often overlooked in security measures.
More dark globes were attached to the walls of the buildings. Cars filled the streets and people gathered at a place not far from her, where a coach stopped. The people climbed on board and left. She was just returning to her room when Tyler drove up.
“Where have you been?” he asked.
“For a walk. Is it time for supper?”
“No, I came by to find you. Someone reported seeing a tall woman wandering around the buildings. I thought it might be you.” He took out his mobile and touched the screen.
“Security, D.I. Tyler here. I can confirm that the stranger reported on the bench was Miss Alex, who is with Admiral Teller’s party.” He ended the call. “Did you find anything?”
“No, everything looks fine. There are a lot of people here. How do they make certain everyone has left?”
“The supervisors in each area account for everyone. They turn in a report at the beginning and end of each day.”
“What would happen if one of those dark globes were to get damaged or destroyed?”
“An alarm would go off and a patrol would be sent out to check it.”
“Has it ever happened?”
“Don’t try it. Do you like Chinese food? There’s an excellent restaurant in town. Would you like to go?”
“I don’t know what Chinese food is, but I’m willing to try. The food here has been excellent so far.”
Tyler opened his car door for her and waited until she was seated. “I notice you don’t wear the seat belt.”
“What is it?”
He leaned over and pulled the belt out, strapping her in the seat. “It’s the law.”
Chapter 45
DENTED FENDER
Tyler’s car joined the heavy traffic flow leaving the base, taking a long time to get to the restaurant. Along the way, Tyler pointed out the sights. There weren’t many; Portsmouth was a small town.
The Chinese restaurant had four tables inside and was painted bright yellow. The Inspector stood at the counter and ordered fried rice, lo mein noodles, and moo goo gai pan. He paid for it with his mobile phone and they sat down and waited. The woman brought them some Chinese tea. The food arrived and the Inspector explained each dish. He took a pair of chopsticks out of a paper wrapper and split them in two. “Do you use chopsticks?”
