"Lieutenant Pike, Chief Jones; it is the recommendation of this court that all criminal charges be dismissed. My report to the convening authority is forthcoming. Furthermore, you are hereby released from pretrial confinement."
I breathed a sigh of relief. Chief Jones lowered his hand.
"Unfortunately, gentlemen, the evidence that exonerated your team is classified. That means that while you are innocent in the eyes of your country and your Navy, the trial by media is likely to continue."
I nodded.
I could neither defend myself based on the evidence in the report that had freed me nor could I remain silent.
Pete Rogers had been right.
There was only one thing I could do.
Disappear.
There were congratulations all around. My attorney smiled and gave me a hearty handshake. Chief Jones turned and waved. I remained standing.
"Attention on Deck." The voice rang out once more, calling all to the position of attention as the Captain stepped from behind the bench and left the room.
I remained standing, motionless for a few moments.
Then I stepped down the long wooden hallway past the empty chairs that lined the courtroom, my steps echoing off the hard and faded wood. Beyond the two dark wooden doors, my wife and child waited, potential victims of the same organization that had taken the lives of twenty school children, and seven of my friends.
I would not allow them to suffer the same fate.
The crowd had thinned when I reached the foyer. Only a few uniformed personnel and Leigh and Clementine remained.
Leigh's dark hair cascaded down her face. Her mascara was still running slightly from the tears she'd shed.
When she saw me standing alone, outside of the handcuffs she knew.
She ran to me and threw her arms around my neck her soft lips pressed against mine.
"I knew you were innocent." She whispered, as Clementine's little arms wrapped around my upper thigh.
"Daddy," she said sweetly, "Are you coming home now?"
"Yes," I answered. I'm coming home now."
Chapter 26:
I peered out the passenger window of Leigh's station wagon as we pulled slowly from the small parking lot behind the federal courthouse. In the back seat, Clementine was singing and kicking the back of my chair.
Normally I might have told her to stop.
Not this morning.
The cool fresh air poured through the windows of the vehicle as Leigh pulled through the main gate of the Naval facility.
The next traffic light was our turn. She began to merge into the right lane. Our home was only minutes away.
"No." I said. "Go straight."
She turned towards me inquisitively, "What? That leads to the interstate."
I nodded. "We can't go home." I said simply and without explanation.
She shook her head. "Does this have to do with the men who followed us up to the cabin?"
"Yes," I answered.
She continued onto the interstate.
The busy streets of Norfolk were soon behind us as Leigh pulled into a small gas station along the side of the interstate ten minutes later.
As I climbed from the car to pay for the fuel, Clementine continued to laugh and sing in the back seat, her voice carrying over the sound of the cars passing on the highway.
"Where will we go?" Leigh asked, her voice steady.
I shrugged. "I can't go back to my unit. We can't go home. We just need to get off the radar for a while."
"Jackson," she said pushing the hair from her face, "what happened in there?"
I shook my head sadly. "Nothing," I replied. "And everything."
Someday I would try to explain. Some day.
For now it was enough that she and Clementine believed we needed to disappear.
For now, that would do.
As I strode towards the cashier's window, digging a few wrinkled bills from my pocket, I scanned the cars that passed by the gas station, not sure what I was looking for.
There, I thought as the white Crown Victoria appeared from around the corner for the second time.
We were being followed.
I walked with purpose, neither too fast nor too slow to the small glass window inside of the convenience store.
I peeled a few bills from my wallet and paid, my mind racing as I watched Leigh hang the nozzle back on the gas pump. She smiled, unaware of the vehicle that circled our location.
The midday sun streamed through the glass windows of the convenience store. I hadn't seen the vehicle drive past since I'd walked in.
That could only mean one thing.
I glanced towards the rear of the store. Next to the restrooms was an emergency exit. I pressed hard on the emergency exit door stepped into the bright midday sun.
I found the car parked where I would have expected. Near a gas pump, within full view of the facility but not close enough to be suspicious. There were no cameras on this side of the facility. Both men remained in the vehicle.
I scanned my surroundings. Theirs was the only vehicle on this side of the gas station, and a copse of trees masked the rear of the building from view of the interstate and the adjacent access road.
I grimaced. I would take no pleasure in what I was about to do.
I pushed my way back into the convenience store. Inside I grabbed a large glass bottle of iced tea and as many cans of lighter fluid as I could.
A cheap twenty-five cent lighter was all that remained. I obtained one from the clerk, who looked at me like I was insane.
Maybe I am insane, I thought as I went to work.
My undershirt made an excellent wick, and the lighter fluid would do the rest.
When I emerged from the restroom moments later, I held what is colloquially called a Molotov cocktail.
I pushed open the back door of the gas station once more, lighting the lighter fluid soaked wick as I did.
I heaved the glass bottle across the parking lot and the bottle shattered, showering lighter fluid across the vehicle, the gas pump and the men inside.
I didn't wait and watch.
I walked as casually as possible towards the glass double doors at the front of the store. I nodded kindly to the clerk and stepped through the parking lot to the station wagon.
I smiled to Leigh and waved to Clementine.
"I'll drive," I said as casually as possible as Leigh climbed into the passenger seat.
I accelerated quickly as we merged onto the interstate. In the rear view mirror I could see a ball of flame and a column of thick black smoke begin to rise from behind the gas station.
I smiled and turned to Leigh, taking her hand in my own.
As the road stretched away from us I knew that we had to leave all vestiges of our past lives behind.
In my mind, among the quiet hypnosis of the passing vehicles and asphalt whooshing below our feet, I had already drafted my letter of resignation from the SEALs.
I squeezed Leigh's hand tighter and drove on down the highway, another face in a vehicle on the interstate.
Pete Rogers had been right. I needed to disappear.
Luckily for me and for my family, I'd trained for years to do just that.
Afghan Sunset: A Jackson Pike Novella Page 8
