Mirrored Man: The Rob Tyler Chronicles Book 1 (16 page)

When the four were seated, Danny was the
first to speak. “Before you get started,” he glanced at Carla, “we
need to confess something.”

“Oh?” Rob sat back in his chair and laced
his fingers over his mid-section. He looked at Carol. “Well, be
careful what you say because 'when words are many, sin is not
absent'.”

Danny uncharacteristically shifted in the
chair uncomfortably. He was a professional. He wasn't supposed to
get nervous. But this was a very different state of affairs than he
was used to. He wasn't in his office. He had lied—even if it was a
lie of omission. And worst of all, he had come to respect and
admire Rob and Carol immensely.

Carla, seeing Danny's difficulty, spoke up.
“We didn't get transferred to Charleston.”

“You didn't?” Rob asked as a smile grew on
his face.
Have they read my mind?

“No.” It was Danny again. “We've been on
TDY.”

“Really,” Rob said flatly, his amusement
growing.

Carol sat motionless and stone faced as she
watched the three. She wanted to say as little as possible, letting
the officers duke it out verbally if it came to that.

“Yes,” Danny said, not wanting to pass this
responsibility on to his wife. Taking a deep breath and letting it
out slowly, he glanced to Carol and then back at Rob and continued.
“We were sent here to evaluate you. Both of you.”

“Evaluate us?” Rob feigned ignorance.
“Evaluate
us
?”

“I'm sorry, Carol,” Carla said, looking at
Carol. “We didn't have any choice.”

“We did have a choice.” Danny corrected her.
“But …” He searched for the words. “Captain Walsh said that you and
he were friends.”

“Captain Walsh?” The mention of his friend
and mentor confused Rob. “Benny Walsh?” The last he had heard, the
captain was at the Pentagon in weapons development.
What could
he have to do with this?

Danny nodded, affirming Rob’s question.

“We're friends.” Rob was somewhat on the
defensive now. This was not at all how he had envisioned this
conversation going.

Carla had a look of genuine remorse on her
face as she searched Carol for some indication of her feelings. But
Carol simply continued to sit silently as the conversation went
on.

Danny continued. “We could have turned this
assignment down, but Captain Walsh made it clear to me that it was
something he considered very important. I think it was important
for him
personally
, as well.”

Rob glanced over Danny’s head at the patio
door. He saw Sack and his father there, watching as things
unfolded.

Danny wanted to tell Rob that he was sorry.
To explain that he had developed a deep sense of friendship with
him. But he wouldn't allow himself to say the words. He had been
ordered to do a task and he had completed that task. That was all
there was to it.

Rob contemplated Danny's words for a moment.
It made a boatload of difference that Benny was somehow part of all
of this. In an instant, Rob was forced to alter his perspective of
the past ten months, and of the couple sitting before him. He
gathered his thoughts and organized them to a point where he felt
in control again. He looked Danny in the eye and said, “We knew why
you were coming here before you arrived.”

It was Danny's turn to be confused. He
glanced at Carla who was looking at Rob in disbelief. Turning back
to Rob, Danny started to ask how they could have possibly known,
but Rob stopped him. “I've spent comin' up on twenty-four years in
the Navy. I have friends all over the world, even Washington.” He
looked the lieutenant commander directly in the eye. “I keep
informed of what's happening, especially when it involves me.”

Danny accepted the statement as fact. He had
come to know that Rob was not a man to make bold claims he couldn't
back up. The only thing that confused him now was that Rob had gone
along with the charade for so long. He furrowed his brow and asked,
“If you knew, then why—”

“An instructor’s life can be a little …” He
searched for the right word, “… boring.”

Again, Danny accepted the statement without
question, but he became suddenly concerned that Rob might have been
merely play-acting the entire time. He just as quickly dismissed
the thought. Rob couldn't have possibly hidden his personality from
him for so long. No. He gave himself at least some credit as a
psychologist. He glanced at Carol, who hadn't moved. It was
becoming clear why Carla had had such a difficult time trying to
befriend Rob's wife.

Carla turned her attention back to Carol.
“You knew?” She still held a look of disbelief on her face.

It was all Carol could take. She stood
quickly and looked into Carla's eyes. “Don't you dare try to make
yourself out to be the injured party here.” She stuck her palm in
Carla's face and stormed off.

“That's not—” Carla started. After watching
Carol walk off in a huff, she stood up and followed, calling after
her.

Danny watched the two go through the gate
and toward the front of the house. He turned back to Rob with a
look of great concern on his face.

“I'll put twenty on Carol,” Rob said with a
smile.

Danny briefly considered going after them,
but Rob suddenly addressed him formally. “Lieutenant Commander
Carter. Are you going to tell me what this whole thing has been
about or—”

Danny held up his hands defensively. He
stayed with the formality introduced by Rob with his answer.
“Commander, I'm afraid I can't tell you any more than I already
have.”

Rob looked at him doubtfully. “You can't or
you won't?” There was just a bit of an edge to his voice. He was
growing tired and wanted to end the conversation, but to his
satisfaction. Danny wasn’t cooperating.

Danny sensed Rob's growing impatience and
wanted to comply with his request. “We came here, observed you and
Carol, and reported back to Captain Walsh. I don't know what this
is all about.” He produced the envelope containing Rob’s orders.
“But I think this might answer some of your questions.” With that,
he handed the envelope to Rob and stood. He was satisfied that his
job was done and all he wanted to do now was collect Carla and get
back to Washington.
To get back home
.

Rob accepted the sealed envelope. He knew
Danny hadn’t read what was inside. He doubted Danny knew any more
than he had already told him. He stood up and faced the man. “You
were following orders.” It wasn't a question.

Danny answered anyway. “Yes, I was.”

Rob studied him for a moment, and then he
chuckled and said, “I'm impressed that you stuck with me during our
workouts.”

Danny smiled. “It was challenging, I have to
admit.” He tapped himself on the chest. “But I feel great.”

Rob furrowed his brow again. “You know,
you're only supposed to do it twice a week.”

Danny laughed. “I know. I found that out six
months into it.” He gave Rob a sideways glance. “Couldn't let an
old man show me up.”

“Commander!” Rob shouted, suddenly
serious.

Instinctively, Danny came to attention,
“Sir?”

Rob put his face threateningly close to
Danny's. After a moment, he smiled widely. “I'm just messin' with
ya.”

Danny relaxed. He was ready for a dressing
down right there on the spot. But Rob was a man with a dry sense of
humor. His deadpan personality, obviously gained through the close
tutelage of his father, changed gears faster than a stock car
driver at the Daytona 500.

There was an awkwardly long silence as they
stood there. Danny sensed something over his shoulder, and when he
looked back he saw Sack and Ted standing on the patio, looking his
way. Suddenly looking uncomfortable, they turned to go into the
house, closing the door behind them. Sack returned to the couch
where Becca and the kids had passed out, and Ted went to the
kitchen where Mary was finishing up the dishes.

Something Rob had said earlier suddenly
popped into Danny's head. “Hey, what you said before, about too
many words can be sinful, or something like that. That was a pretty
cool line. Shakespeare?”

Rob smiled. “Nope. Solomon. Proverbs twelve
nineteen. When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds
his tongue is wise.”

“Huh,” Danny said.

There was a
creeaak
from the gate as
Carol and Carla came back into the yard, arm in arm.

Rob watched them as he cupped his elbows and
frowned. “That woman has a feisty temper, but she cannot hold a
grudge.”

Danny mimicked Rob's stance. “Well, Carla
can be pretty good at groveling when she feels guilty.”

“I've always found that groveling produces
excellent results.”

“Jewelry works pretty good too,” Danny said
with a straight face.

“Yeah, yeah,” Rob agreed. “Also, foot
massages.”

Danny nodded. “I can see that.”

The girls saw them standing there and
started to giggle. They joined the men again and the four talked
for a few more minutes. Danny and Carla expressed their regret at
having intruded on their lives. Carla vowed never to do this kind
of work again. Carol asked if they could continue to be friends,
and they all agreed. But this time, business would be business, and
pleasure, pleasure. They were all disappointed when Danny announced
that they were on a flight at oh six hundred the next day. So, the
two couples said their goodbyes amid handshakes and hugs.

As they watched the Jeep drive away, Carol
turned to Rob. “Becca kept asking everyone why Stacey calls you
Rot.”

“What'd you tell her?”

She screwed her face up. “Nothing. That's a
disgusting story. You or he can tell her that one.”

Rob thought for a moment. “Naw, it adds to
my mystique.”

“You mean
mistake
don't you?” She
turned and put her arms around his waist. With her face somber, she
asked, “So, what’d ya find out?”

Rob reached for his back pocket and produced
the envelope Danny had given him. He held it out for Carol to see.
She had seen envelopes like it many times before. “CONFIDENTIAL:
COMMANDER ROBERT ORSON TYLER, EYES ONLY.”

She looked at her husband. A tinge of
disappointment showed in her green eyes.

Without a word, Rob used his thumb to open
it. He pulled the documents out, unfolded them and read to
himself.

“Please don't tell me they're sending you
overseas again.”

Rob continued to read and then flip back and
forth between the pages. Carol could see through the patio's
floodlight that the first page had only a single short paragraph on
it, but she couldn't make out the writing. The second page appeared
to contain several lists.

“Okay, I won't,” Rob finally said.

“Then, what?” Carol asked, even more curious
now.

“Looks like I'm going to Washington.”

Carol scrunched her eyebrows together.
“State?”

Rob looked back at the first page.
“D.C.”

“Washington, D.C,” Carol said
incredulously.

“Yeah,” he said, looking at her
disdainfully. “And goin' on a diet.”

ROB WORE HIS WHITE
C-class
short-sleeve uniform as he stood in the midst of a grove of
paper-bark maple trees. The warm wind rustled noisily through the
leaves in the mid-afternoon of this overcast day. He was standing
on holy ground outside the Pentagon close to the center of the
nearly two acre Pentagon Memorial in Washington D.C.

He glanced at his silver and gold Seiko. It
was just after fourteen hundred hours. He always found the white
face and silver hands of this watch more difficult to read than the
Luminox model 3001 he normally wore, especially in the light of the
outdoors. But the Seiko was a wedding gift presented to him by his
father. Thus, he treasured it and wore it only on certain
occasions. He thought that his first visit to the Pentagon in over
a decade was about as appropriate as occasions got.

The orders he had received two days ago
simply read that he was to meet with an old friend, Captain Benny
Walsh, at the Pentagon for a late lunch this afternoon. He had
flown commercially out of Charleston that morning. After a quick
stopover in Atlanta, he flew on to Baltimore-Washington
International Airport where a young ensign, Bill Murphy, had been
waiting to pick him up.

Although this would be a very short
turn-around, he felt he should at least take a minute or two to see
the memorial and pay his respects to the fallen while he was in
town. The memorial had been dedicated and opened to the public on
September 11, 2008, in remembrance of the 184 victims at the
Pentagon who lost their lives in the September 11 terror attacks
seven years earlier. The monument itself was situated at the
southwest corner of the building near the highway interchange.

As Rob stood among the trees, he tilted his
head back slightly and closed his eyes, listening to the breeze and
thinking of the souls who had died that fateful day. As expected,
unwanted memories intruded on his solitude. Memories that he tried
to forget, but that still haunted him nine-and-a half years later.
He had still been attached to SEAL Team Six then. In fact, it was
his last operational assignment while in their ranks.

It was January 2001 when he and Sack, his
long-time spotter and friend, had been sent on a covert mission to
Afghanistan. They were there to monitor one of the possible hiding
places of the man who was now, at present, the most wanted man in
the world. Osama bin Laden. That day, bin Laden had been in the
crosshairs of his scope. But the kill order never came and the man
lived on. Rob was certain that bin Laden had been instrumental in
the 9/11 terrorist plot.
Would it have made a difference if
I had killed the man that day?
Could I have prevented
that massive loss of life and chaos?
In the moment they had
been stood down, Rob had felt only relief. Relief that the burden
of taking another life was lifted from his shoulders. He had made
the decision to leave the SEALs because he had become a follower of
Jesus and no longer wanted to kill for a living. But the unknown
results of a task not accomplished had troubled him since that
awful day in 2001.