Cadet 3 (5 page)

“Captain…?” Rodriguez paused, waiting for the
man to offer his name.

“Harkness, sir,” the Captain supplied.

“Captain Harkness,” the Major resumed in a
clear tenor. “You were ordered to arrest these two suspects and
hold them for two hours until my Bureau could take custody of them.
It was a simple assignment, one which was well within the
capabilities of a rookie MP on his first day on duty. What I find
is…” he trailed off, shaking his head, apparently at a loss for
sufficiently scathing words. “If this is your standard arrest
procedure, I can see why the Military Police have such a sterling
reputation in the law enforcement community.”

Captain Harkness cringed under the sarcastic
lash of the Major’s tongue. “But sir, they’re only dirty traitors.
Who cares what happens to them?”

“Have you considered the possibility that
General Lawrence and Captain Bransom might be acquitted of the
charges against them?” Rodriguez asked. His voice was as cold as
ice. “Have you thought about what will happen to you and your men
if they are? How stupid do you have to be, to be a commissioned
officer in the Military Police, Captain Harkness?”

Harkness paled. He had never heard of anyone
arrested on these kinds of charges actually being acquitted, so he
had not considered the possibility. It seemed unlikely, but if it
did
happen… “Why, Major, sir, I simply…” he began.

“Never mind,” Rodriguez snapped impatiently.
“Just get some clothes on them, and my men and I will take them.”
He pulled a sheaf of folded papers from inside his jacket and
thrust them at the Captain. “Here’s your receipt for the prisoners.
Sign off on my copy,” he said, indicating the place with his
finger.

As Harkness scribbled his signature on the
form, the Military Police were freeing Robin, and putting her and
Jodie back into their bathrobes. The two uniformed NSB men
handcuffed their wrists behind their backs and held them by their
elbows, waiting for their superior.

The Captain offered the signed receipt back
to Major Rodriguez with his left hand, and saluted with his right.
“They’re all yours, sir,” he said.

“Aren’t you forgetting something, Captain?”
the Major asked. The corners of his lips curled up a fraction of an
inch in response to Harkness’s obvious confusion. He returned the
salute, and turned away, motioning for his men to take the
prisoners out. “You never asked me for any identification,” he said
over his shoulder. “How do you know I am who I claim to be? I could
be practically anybody waltzing in here, and you just handed these
high-profile prisoners over to me without the making the slightest
effort to confirm my identity. I
should
report such a
serious breach of security procedures to your superiors. I don’t
imagine they would be especially pleased with you. What do you
recommend I do, Captain Harkness?”

The blood drained from the MP officer’s face.
The possibility of the suspects being cleared of the charges and
returning to seek revenge was a little troubling, but it was so
unlikely to happen that he could put it out of his mind without
great difficulty. But this was different. A report from an NSB
agent about a failure of security this serious would undoubtedly
blight the Captain’s career forever. It could potentially get him
busted down to the ranks, or possibly even court-martialed.

“I, uh, would really appreciate it… sir, if
you would overlook it… this one time, Major Rodriguez, sir,” he
stuttered. “I… I’m sure it… won’t happen again.”

Major Rodriguez did not wait for the Captain
to finish. He squared his shoulders and strode out of the room
without another word or so much as a backward glance, while
Harkness was still stammering out his plea. Harkness slammed the
door shut behind Rodriguez, waited long enough to be sure that the
National Security man was out of earshot, and exhaled loudly.
“Fucking bastard,” he muttered in the general direction of the
departed Major.

* * * * *

“Fucking bastard,” Rodriguez muttered, as he
followed Robin, Jodie and his men through the long, unadorned
corridor that led out of the Military Police station. They emerged
in an underground garage and slid into the back seat of a waiting
vehicle, a big command car with tinted windows and windshield.
There were three rows of seats inside. One soldier was sitting in
the second row on the far side of the car, looking out the window,
facing away from the women, and another was in the driver’s seat.
The two men who had been holding Jodie and Robin helped them into
the second row of seats, then climbed in behind them. Major
Rodriguez slid into the second row next to Jodie.

The soldier who had been waiting in the car
spoke in a high voice, without turning his head to face them. “This
is a fine mess you’ve gotten yourself into, isn’t it, General
Lawrence?” Robin and Jodie both knew that voice. They had known it
since their first day at the National Women’s Military Academy. The
soldier turned around to look at them.

“
Jesus Christ
, Steph! What the hell
are you doing here?” Robin blurted out. The soldier was the first
person she had met at the Academy, a tall, slender brunette and
fellow “Cadet Cunt”, Lieutenant Stephanie Carroll.

“She’s here for the same reason I am. We came
to rescue your sorry little butts, meaning no disrespect, General,
sir,” said Major Rodriguez from behind them. His voice sounded
higher than before. Jodie and Robin’s heads swiveled back, as if
they were spectators at a tennis match. They saw the NSB man
pulling at the mustache on his upper lip, and cursing foully under
his breath. “Fucking glue won’t come off.”

Jodie and Robin gazed at him open-mouthed.
“Who…?” Jodie asked.

“It’s me, Kate Swenson,” replied Major
Rodriguez. Kate was another member of their class at the NWMA, a
fellow “Cadet Cunt” from Company A, First Cadet Platoon. She was a
natural blonde, with the pale complexion of her Scandinavian
ancestors, and it took them a long second to recognize her in her
current dark-skinned incarnation. “I just cut and dyed my hair and
tinted my skin,” she explained. “Turn around and let me get those
cuffs off you.”

* * * * *

After hugs had been exchanged and the tears
dried, Kate briefed Robin and Jodie as they drove away from the
Military Police compound. “General Cafferson thought that something
like this was likely to happen after he died, so last year he
formed a special squad from some of his most trusted men and us
“Cadet Cunts”. We’re paid out of a ‘black budget’, unofficial and
off the books. We all have bogus assignments, disguises and fake
identities, spook gadgets, and top level security clearances, but
our real job was to keep an eye on you, General, and I wish we had
done better job of it. We should have gotten you out of your house
before the MPs picked you up, but they moved a little faster than
we thought they would, dammit. I’ll have that sorry piece of shit
Harkness’ balls for breakfast, see if I don’t.”

“They? Who are
they
, exactly?” Jodie
asked.

“We don’t know, exactly,” Steph answered.
“We’re still trying to find out who’s behind this conspiracy…”

“It’s those Navy bastards,” put in the
driver, speaking for the first time.

“That’s Captain Dick Murphy, Cafferson’s
personal spook,” Kate explained. “I agree, it probably is, Dick,
but we don’t have any proof.”

“Yet,” added the intelligence man.

“That’s it, “ Kate said. “We are going to
find somebody who knows who the sons of bitches behind this coup
are, and we are going to peel him like an onion until we have the
details of the plot and the names of the traitorous bastards behind
it.” Her eyes had a faraway look, as if she could see the guilty
parties trying to hide from her fierce gaze.

She returned her attention to the present.
“But in the meantime, you two will have to make yourselves scarce
for a while. It won’t do us much good to uncover the plotters if
you’re lying in a shallow grave somewhere when we finally clear
your names.” Kate looked at Robin and Jodie’s expressions, and
nodded grimly. “Yeah. These boys are playing for keeps. There are
not going to be any second chances for anybody in this game. It’s
their necks or yours, all or nothing.”

“We’re here, Kate,” Murphy said. The car
turned up a driveway and rolled into an open garage. The door
closed silently behind them.

“Listen, Jodie, Robin,” Kate said urgently.
“There’s not much time. Pretty soon somebody’s going to start
wondering what happened to the real NSB men we took out before we
came to get you away from the MPs, and then they’re going to start
asking where
you
are. In a few hours, you two are going to
be hotter than bubbling cheese. This is a safe house, where we can
give you cover IDs and disguises, but you can’t stay here for very
long. We have to get you out of Washington, and fast.”

Kate took them through a door in the garage,
which led into the house. They went up a short flight of stairs
into a large living room. All the windows in the room were covered
with heavy drapes. The only lighting was provided by a few
low-wattage floor lamps. A woman in the dark blue uniform of a West
Point cadet was seated on a sofa next one of the lamps, which
illuminated her book but left her face hidden in shadow. When they
entered, she looked up, then stood and ran to Robin, wrapped her
arms around the latter’s neck and exclaimed “Thank God you got them
out, Kate!”

“Merry!” Jodie and Robin chorused, greeting
Robin’s younger and even more beautiful sister, as she exchanged
hugs with Jodie. “When did you get here?”

“The boss thought they would probably pick
her up too, and charge her with being part of your ‘spy ring’,”
Steph explained. “He figured they might use her to get at you, if
necessary.”

“ ‘The boss’?” Jodie echoed. “So, who is this
mystery man that General Cafferson’s trusted as head of his black
ops squad?”

“I was wondering the same thing,” added
Robin.

“That would be me,” they heard a very
familiar voice say. From the stairway stepped a broad-shouldered,
gray-haired man in an Army uniform, with the silver eagles of a
Colonel on his shoulders.

“Daddy!” “Major Bransom!” Robin and Jodie
shrieked, respectively. “What…?”

He raised his hand, gesturing to them for
calm. “Colonel Bransom now, actually. Bernie jumped me up when he
re-activated my commission.” He smiled at the astonished women.

“General Cafferson foresaw that there would
be trouble for you after he was gone, General Lawrence, and he
needed someone that he could count on to act when the crisis came,”
Colonel Bransom explained, directing his reply to Jodie. “When he
told me that Robin and Merry would be in danger, that
might
have been enough to get me out of retirement. If it was just that,
I might have simply told you girls to resign your commissions to
keep you from getting caught in the gears. But when he explained
that the plot would be aimed at
you
, General Lawrence, then
I had no choice. I could not turn down the job.”

Robin and Merry looked at their father
inquiringly.

“I’m sorry, girls,” he said to them
apologetically. “There is only one thing I love more than you: my
country. You, General…” he nodded respectfully at Jodie, “…are the
most important person in the United States, in the entire Free
World. Without you, we have no chance to stop the Chinese. I am
ready to give everything I have, my own life, the lives of my
daughters, if necessary, for you and for my country. I know it
sounds cold, Robin, Merry…” he finished, again addressing his
daughters,”…but that’s the way it is. That is the way it’s always
been, for me.”

Merry and Robin surrounded him and hugged him
simultaneously. “You don’t have to apologize, Daddy. We knew that
about you already,” Merry said. “It comes with the uniform.”

“We feel exactly the same way,” added
Robin.

Colonel Bransom nodded approvingly. “In any
case, I am not about to let a cabal of traitors overthrow the legal
government of the United States,” he continued. “A handful of
little men are trying to suppress Bernard Cafferson’s political
testament and undo everything he has built by seizing power and
destroying his chosen successor, and I…”

“His successor? Who do you mean, Daddy?”
Robin interrupted.

The Colonel’s gaze swung to Jodie. “In his
will, General Cafferson instructed the General Staff to make
General Lawrence the new CGS…” (pronounced “sigs”) “Don’t tell me
you’re surprised, General.”

Jodie blushed. “Not really. The one time he
brought the subject up, I told him that I didn’t want it, and he
never mentioned it again. I suppose I should have known he wouldn’t
care what I wanted, knowing the way his mind worked. Duty first,
right? But the reason I didn’t want the job is that I really didn’t
think that I was up to the responsibility of running the whole
country. I still don’t, for that matter.”

Robin protested, “But Jodie, you’d be a great
Chief.”

She smiled and shook her head. “All I ever
wanted to be was a soldier. I never wanted to get involved in
politics. Well, it doesn’t much matter what I think, anyway. If
he
wanted me to do it, I don’t see that I have any choice.
How could I refuse to obey his last order?”

“Now you can understand why they made their
move so soon after General Cafferson was gone,” Kate said. “Once
the General Staff voted you in as the Chief, it would be too late
for them to do anything about it. They broke into his safe deposit
box and took the original testament from Cafferson’s papers, to
keep it from becoming public knowledge.”

“But then…” Jodie said in bewilderment.
“…we’re done. We have no proof of his final instructions.”