Veil of Silence (25 page)

As Lance walked with Marsha to the Corolla she had driven to the base, he noted how old and dilapidated the vehicle was.  He handed her an envelope with much pleasure before she got in.  “That’s your back pay and papers certifying your promotion.  I’m still working on the other one,” he told her with a smile.

Marsha opened the thick envelope and her major’s insignia slipped out.  She held them in her hand, thrilled for a moment at what this meant.  Next, she pulled out the paperwork that informed her of the promotion.  Finally, she pulled out a notification that a specific amount had been deposited in her bank account, breaking down the years and the pay difference.  “Is this already in my account?” she asked, wonderingly as she looked at the captain.

“It should be.  You can check.  I didn’t want to say anything until I knew for sure.”  He didn’t tell her how hard he and the corporal had pushed on this item.  It hadn’t been missed when he had visited her home how poor the home was.  He could see Heather had tried for too long on far too little.

“This will help, Captain…enormously,” she told him.  He could hear the relief in her voice.

Just then they both heard the sound of helicopters coming in, several by the sound of it.  Lance watched in awe as the huge CH-47 Chinooks came in formation and flew over them, the three of them looking absolutely monstrous at over sixty feet long.  He wondered why they were coming into their base and then he looked back to find Marsha down beside her car.  Thinking she had fallen, he leaned over her and shouting over the sounds of the copters asked, “Are you okay?”  He could see she wasn’t.  She had her arms over her head and it was obvious she was trying to hide by the car door, making herself as small as possible, impossible with her adult size.  He was relieved that the helicopters flew over and by as quickly as they had come in.  Once the sound started to fade, he asked again, “Are you okay?”

It took a minute for Marsha to answer him.  At first, she was surprised to hear the English words.  She blinked rapidly as she began to recover.  She looked around, realizing she wasn’t where she had to hide from such machines…not anymore.  Slowly, with the aid of the captain, she began to rise from her ungainly position on the ground.  “Thank you,” she gasped, trying not to look embarrassed.

“Are you okay?” he repeated for a third time.  He could see she wasn’t.  She was cold and clammy and looked like she had broken out in a sweat.  “You are going to have to have that checked out,” he advised, not knowing what else to say other than, “It’s okay, they’re gone.”

She nodded as she straightened her clothes, trying to get some of her dignity back.  She hadn’t known she would react like that and it took several moments to regain her equilibrium.  She looked down at the papers that had been clenched into her fists.  She made a big show of straightening them out.  It took a few minutes, but she was finally calm enough to attempt to get into her car.  Lance looked on worriedly, wondering if he should offer to drive her home.

“Major?” a voice called and she turned to see the psychologist approaching them.

“Captain?” she acknowledged the salute, they were both, after all, in uniform.

“I want you and your wife to continue therapy.  The SERE psychologists are here for you,” she repeated what she had said to her a couple of times.  “I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to continue to talk to us,” she told her, acknowledging that she was repeating herself.

“Yes, we will.  My wife said it helped and she thinks it will continue to do so.”  And after what had just happened, she knew she needed help.  She glanced at Lance to see if he would say anything, but he was still looking at her worriedly.  She nodded to show she agreed with the therapist.

The woman smiled.  Heather had thought she was adjusting so well, but there was an underlying anger there that the woman had been surprised to find in therapy.  It was because of how the army had handled things, but it was unintentionally misdirected towards her wife.  “Just because SERE stands for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape doesn’t mean we aren’t here for you after all the drama ends.”

Marsha smiled.  She had known she needed the therapy and the woman and her team had helped immeasurably.  Talking to the different therapists had opened up some of the things she needed to talk to them about.  She had allowed them to share some of the information that had come out just today in the interrogation.

Going home was a pleasure, both for the news she had for her wife regarding the money and promotion, and the relief of getting away from the scene of her embarrassment.  Seeing her little baby and knowing how enamored her wife was with their little boy gave her such joy.  It helped to know she had this to come home to after the ugliness of what was coming out in the interrogation—the disbelief that she didn’t know more, couldn’t give them more.

* * * * *

“Pashto and Dari are the official languages of Afghanistan, sir,” she explained patiently, trying not to sound defensive at the continued questioning she was receiving.  She was so tired of this.  “The Persian language is Dari.  The minor languages such as Uzbek, Turkmen, Balochi, Pashayi, and Nuristani are spoken by minority groups throughout the country.  Afghanistan is an ancient country and with more than forty minor languages spoken and over two hundred different dialects, it’s no wonder I don’t speak them all.  The dialect or language I learned from the tribe was Tajik.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you don’t know more or couldn’t contribute more to this discussion,
Major
.”  He spat her rank as though it rankled him to acknowledge it.

Marsha understood their frustration that she simply didn’t know more.  It all came back to the men that had disappeared from the chopper.  One of them was important enough that her lack of knowledge was causing these men and women to be exasperated with her.  “I learned of the various languages, sir, before I was captured,” she explained.

He looked at her suspiciously.  It was obvious to her and Lance that they didn’t believe everything she told them.

“Could you explain when exactly you became aware that you had been captured?” he asked.

Lance interjected before she could even open her mouth, “She’s explained that.”

“Captain, I would appreciate if you let the major answer for herself for a change.  I have to say, you have been more detrimental to this investigation than anything else.”

“As I’ve explained before, sir, I’m here to defend the major’s rights.  This panel…” he gestured at the group, some of whom he now knew had been flown in from Kabul at the public’s expense and had remained here all during Marsha’s interviews and childbirth, “continues to ask the same questions and they continually come back to the same time frame—when the major was captured.  As I have asked before, what exactly do you want to know so we can all adjourn this pointless line of questioning?”  I’m sure we are all anxious, after these many weeks, to conclude this.

“You are being impertinent, Captain!” he nearly shouted.

“No, sir.  I say this respectfully, but you are wasting the American taxpayers’ money and all of our time.  Unless we resolve this and now, I’m advising my client not to cooperate any further and we will take this further up the chain of command until my client is clear of anything you think you may have on her.”

“She hasn’t been charged…” he sputtered.

“No, she hasn’t, not formally, but you’ve time and again flaunted the protocol in this matter and I would appreciate a resolution from this panel,” he answered firmly, knowing he was in the right.

Several members of the panel exchanged looks and at the nod of Colonel Kodel, the other colonel turned back to Lance and Marsha.  “Major, Captain, would you excuse us for a few minutes in order to discuss some things?”  He looked up at the cameras and the man that controlled them.  “You can turn those damn things off for now,” he ordered.  The man scrambled to hit the pause button.

Marsha exchanged a look with Lance and the two of them rose, saluted smartly, and made their way out of the room, followed by Corporal Harris.  “What the hell is that about?” Marsha asked, her thumb pointing back where they had come from.”

“I think we are about to come into the loop of some top secret information,” he murmured softly.  Looking around, he said, “Let’s go outside and enjoy the sunshine.”

Since it was pouring rain, she looked at him curiously, but walked outside with him to stand under an overhang as the wet came down.  Corporal Harris stayed inside, pretending he wasn’t interested in their conversation.

“I found out the other week that Colonel Kodel wants information kept out of the official findings on your disappearance,” he began and looked around to make sure they weren’t being overheard.  With the rain coming down it wasn’t likely.

“Why?  What do I know that they are looking for?”

“Did you know the other two riders in the chopper at all?”

She shook her head.  “Only Sergeant Ames.”

“Did they introduce themselves?  Do you remember their names at all?”

She shook her head.  She’d wondered about it many times, but she didn’t know.  “Do you?”

He nodded.  “I do now.”

She waited.

He waited, watching her curiously.

“Well?” she finally asked.

“Lieutenant Kodel was one of the men.”

The name was the same and too much interest from Colonel Kodel meant that he must be related.  “Son?”

“That’s what I’m trying to get him to admit.  I don’t know what the hell they are keeping from us, but it wouldn’t look good is what I’m guessing.  You didn’t notice his rank?”

“I don’t recall seeing lieutenant’s bars at all,” she closed her eyes, trying to picture those last two men who had climbed out of the chopper with her and Sergeant Ames.  She shook her head as she reopened her eyes.  “Think he was dirty?”

Lance nodded.  Now that Marsha outranked him, he wondered what she would do if he couldn’t get the powers-that-be to give her the promotion to lieutenant colonel.  His arguments had fallen flat so far, but if she somehow came out of this as a hero, it would look a lot better and could help.  “Do you remember when we first met?  Colonel Kodel didn’t want me to go, but General Biggins insisted.  I think Biggins knew something was up with Kodel or his son, if that’s who the man was.”

“This has been a whole lot of ridiculous,” she stated, tired of it all.  Pulling her out of time off for the birth of her son was the worst.  She should be home enjoying this time, but instead she was here once again being interrogated.  It was like they felt they had new ammunition to fire at her each time and really, it was the same questions asked different ways.  Enough already.

“Captain?  Major?  We’re ready for you now,” a voice called from the doorway to be heard over the rain.  The sergeant looked curiously at the two of them, wondering what they had been speaking about.

They turned and returned to the conference room, heading back to their seats.

“Major, you understand anything you tell us or we tell you in this room is classified?” began the colonel.

Marsha glanced around the table and caught the anger in Kodel’s eyes.  He was not happy with whatever they had discussed and their decision.  She decided, since she had no choice, that she would agree and she nodded as she replied, “Yes, sir.”

“The day you disappeared, you were accompanied by Warrant Officer Brown and Warrant Officer Wicker, both deceased,” he confirmed as he looked up to see her nod, “Sergeant Ames, Lieutenant Wesley Kodel, and a civilian named Bridgette Townsend.”

She looked surprised.  There was no way she had thought the other passenger had been a woman. 

“I can see on your face that you didn’t know that the other passenger, Bridgette Townsend, was a woman.”

She nodded in agreement, but kept quiet so she could hear the rest of the story.

“We do not have much data on Bridgette Townsend.  From what we have gathered, she was a trans from male to female.  She met the lieutenant at some point, may have developed a romantic relationship with him, and convinced him to desert.”  Marsha was well aware that Colonel Kodel had flinched at that statement about romance.  “They hopped the same flight as you in order to head over to the base to get his personal belongings.  We have information that indicates he had money, passports, and other things he would need to enact his plans.”

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.  She didn’t dare look at Colonel Kodel sitting in the corner.  She could only imagine how furious he was at the release of this information.  No wonder they wanted to know what she knew.  A desertion was not treated lightly.

Lance had no such compunction.  He looked directly at Kodel to see his reaction to this news.  The man was furious, his face a mottled red color.  After the colonel finished his statement, he could no longer hold himself back and nearly shouted, “My son was not a deserter.  He was AWOL, but he did not desert his post!”

“Colonel Kodel, you are here as a courtesy as we look for information that might help us locate Lieutenant Kodel.  If you can’t maintain a civil tongue and keep it to yourself, you may be excused.”

Lance understood now why Kodel was in civilian clothes.  He must have either lost his commission or resigned voluntarily.  He made a mental note to have Corporal Harris investigate that further.  Since Kodel had been involved in his orders to Kabul, he thought perhaps the man was on leave regarding this and had no official capacity in these matters.