Girl Takes The Oath (An Emily Kane Adventure Book 5) (9 page)

“Two dead bodies turned up in Randall Court, beaten to death, the same night you were seen in the area,” Detective Marley said.

“And you think I had something to do with it?”

“What would you think?”

“I don’t know, but what about the other guys?”

“What other guys? The CCTV footage only shows two men. How many others were there?”

“At least two others. Shouldn’t you be looking for them?”

“We know all about them,” Braswell said.

“If this is a DSS matter, then they must be diplomats, right?”

“That’s not your concern, Midshipman,” Agent Everett said. “We just need to ascertain your involvement.”

“I don’t have any involvement, other than running away.”

“On Calvert Street, you were observed talking to an unidentified subject,” Braswell said.

“I don’t know who you’re referring to,” she said, now painfully aware that she was on the far side of the truth. Could they know about Kano? If they pressed CJ and Stacie, they might recall what they saw in the alley weeks earlier. But what did they see? A strange man followed them, and then spoke to her, maybe even knelt before her. Would the authorities know how to interpret that information? Perhaps he was merely tying his shoe. And if they find out about him, what would it prove?

“You sent the young man you were with ahead and you lingered for a few minutes. Who did you talk to?”

“On Calvert Street, I remember noticing two men standing by the monument across the street. I didn’t speak to them, but I did try to get a look at them.”

“And did you recognize them?” Detective Marley asked.

“I’m not sure. They looked Asian to me, like the guys at Church Circle.”

Padgett shook his head and looked like he was about to speak, until Braswell tugged on his shoulder and shook his head.

“Unless you have more questions for Miss Tenno, perhaps we can let her get back to class,” Captain Jefferies said.

“Just as long as she understands that we’ll be checking her story and interviewing her friends,” Agent Horton said.

“Yes, sir.”

Emily’s steps echoed in the hallway as she made her way back to Chauvenet Hall, alone in the middle of the day, an unusual experience in the Yard. It made no difference that they’d interview her friends, other than the inconvenience it might cause them. And the needless concern it might stir up. But nothing they could say would conflict with the information she’d just given. All they had to do was tell the truth. And yet, she had not simply told the truth herself. She’d been careful to say only what was necessary, even when it created a misimpression of the meaning of the events in question. And what about Bauer? Would he contradict her? Would they even know to ask him anything about her in the first place? But what could he say, after all, without incriminating himself, or at least making himself ridiculous in the eyes of his own company? No, she was probably safe on that front.

And Kano? What would they make of him, if they caught up with him? He’d be as silent as a tomb, she was sure of that much. But she still worried that all this attention might hinder his efforts to serve the Princess’s interests. And what of her own efforts… was she also now in the service of the imperial family? She put off trying to figure out how this could be consonant with her duty as a naval officer.

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Chapter Eight

Secrets and Lies

“Is this a secure location?” Perry asked, standing outside a shop festooned with women’s dresses in the Bagram Bazaar. Rows of stalls, at least seven or eight deep, constructed out of plywood and iron posts stretched a hundred yards in either direction, the largest open-air market in this ancient city. Conquerors had come and gone for millennia—Cyrus the Persian, Alexander of Macedon, his lieutenant, Seleucus, and a long list of Mauryan rulers from India—but the city of Bagram remained, and some sort of market probably occupied this space for most of that time.

“As secure as it needs to be,” Theo said. “And much safer than the base, at least for the purpose of this meeting.”

“What the hell are you and your brothers up to anyway? I mean, giving information like that to Cho… how’d you know you could trust him?”

“The same way you know it… because she rescued him.”

“Is that supposed to be some sort of code?”

“We’ve all been there, you know, when she looks at you, and you see that darkness… you’ve seen it, too.

Perry huffed, just a little annoyed that so many other people seemed to have found an intimate connection to something at the bottom of her eyes. That Theo was right about trusting Cho was undeniable, but he couldn’t help wondering whether anything was reserved only for him in those eyes.

“What does any of this have to do with her?”

“Michael got wind of something and he can’t follow it up through ordinary channels without tipping his hand to… well, anyone who might have an interest.”

“So that’s why we’re taking the roundabout route?”

“Yeah.”

“And it’s got what to do with her?”

When Perry heard what Theo had to say about an extradition process, and undefinable suspicions of a darker design, he found that he had lost control of the muscles of his face, and his lips felt numb. It took a moment for him to recover his voice, and another moment before he could form a cogent question.

“Pull it together, man,” Theo growled under his breath. “She may need you to show some metal before this is over.”

“And the fleet knows nothing about all this?”

“Not yet. So far, it’s just State. As far as we know, NCIS isn’t involved, which means no one’s connected all the dots… yet.”

“But you’re sure the Chinese know who she is?”

“Not absolutely, but I think it’d be foolhardy to assume they don’t.”

“If the extradition request is just a smokescreen, what are they really after?”

“Too soon to tell, but it feels different than the previous time, more public…”

“The previous time?”

When Theo didn’t respond, Perry grew heated.

“Don’t hold out on me now, man. If you know something, you need to spill it.”

“It’s not my place to tell her secrets.”

“Not even to me?”

“Especially to you.”

Perry stared at him disbelief.
How many layers does this girl have? And would he ever get to the bottom?

“Fine,” he muttered. “But I hope you guys have a plan, ’cause we’re stuck on the other side of the damn world. How the hell are we supposed to help her?”

“There’s not much you and I can do. Michael thinks the extradition process will take months to straighten out, so we may have some time. And there’s someone on site keeping an eye on her.”

“Someone in the Academy?”

“No, definitely not. We can’t risk reaching out to anyone there, since Michael thinks SECNAV may have his own agenda for her.”

“Then who is it? Or is that too grave a secret to share with me?”

“It’s not that,” Theo said, and the confusion on his face seemed to confirm that something of a different nature held him back. “It’s just that this is the strangest part of the whole business, and I don’t know what to make of it… at all.”

“Well…” Perry’s eyes grew hard and sharp in the fading light of the afternoon.

“You know how the Japanese Imperial family has an honor guard, not just the usual suits, but guys in kimonos armed with swords?”

Perry nodded uncomprehendingly.

“It’s one of those guys.”

“What the…”

“The Crown Princess has apparently taken an interest, though how she knows anything about any of this is beyond me. And it gets even stranger, because those guys can’t just leave her service. There’s this code, and it’s like a huge disgrace for any of them to be dismissed.”

“So, you’re saying a samurai has accepted some sort of disgrace in order to keep an eye on Emily? Our Emily? A real, live samurai?”

“Yup. Kimono, katana and fan—the whole nine yards.”

“And he’s walking around Annapolis like that.”

“Of course not. He’s probably undercover, or something.”

“And we’re sure he’s trustworthy? The disgrace isn’t real?”

“I’m just telling you what my sister told me, which is what Yuki told her.”

“And she got it from the Princess?”

“I don’t think anyone talks to Princess Masako. People like that live in isolation from the rest of the world, you know, kinda like virtual prisoners, or something. There’s an entire branch of the government dedicated to keeping them from mixing with ordinary people.”

“That has got to be the strangest story I have ever heard,” Perry snorted.

“Welcome to her world. This is precisely the sort of thing you signed on for when you took up with her.”

“And you’ve gotten used to this sort of thing?”

“Are you kidding? Things are never business-as-usual around her. But you deal with it, you know, like the rest of us, ’cause that’s what it takes to keep our girl safe.”

“And how, exactly, did you end up on this detail?”

“When she rescued my nephew, I kinda figured I owed it to her. And besides, Connie wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“That woman scares the crap out of me,” Perry said, as a shiver ran down his spine. “How’d she ever get involved with your family?”

“She’s a hard one, that’s for sure. And no one seems to know how she fits in, no one besides Emily, and she ain’t talking. I’m just glad she’s on Emily’s side.”

~~~~~~~

“Mr. Bauer, how exactly did you come by your injuries?” asked Ensign Commander Funderburk, sitting in the office of the Deputy Commandant, Captain Crichton, with the rest of the review board.

“Car accident, sir,” Bauer said, keenly aware of how dry and raspy his voice sounded. He could only hope that it lent some pathetic credence to his story, that and the sling holding his right arm in a fixed position.

“I can see how you might have gotten the shiner from a car crash, but what about the dislocated shoulder?”

“The seatbelt failed, sir. I was thrown forward, but my shoulder was fouled in the belt.”

“And Caspar and Martens were in the car?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And the airbags didn’t deploy?”

“No, sir.”

“And what were you doing in Galesville?”

“Caspar wanted to test drive a car offered for sale by a private party down there, sir.”

“Tell us, to the best of your knowledge, what caused the accident.”

“I believe the brakes failed, sir, causing Caspar to lose control of the vehicle in a turn.”

The members of the review board conferred for a moment in lowered voices, occasionally glancing at Bauer. They’d heard all the facts several times earlier in the course of the inquiry. The purpose of today’s deposition was primarily to get all parties on record with their version of events, and to give each of them one last opportunity to recant. He had tried his best to answer their questions with a patina of military professionalism, in the hopes that it would discourage anyone from looking beneath the surface details of the story he had cooked up with his friends.

The whole affair had cost him dearly within his own company, since he’d been made to look a fool, and had lost much of Trowbridge’s respect and goodwill. Caspar and Martens could be relied on to stick to the story, but there was no very good opinion of those two in the company. Their friendship would hardly compensate for the loss of Trowbridge’s. And, to top it off, they’d had to come up with a few thousand dollars to buy a car and wreck it, all so they could create a police report. At least Kathy had stuck by him, though things had cooled a bit between them. She’d come around, though—he was sure of that much.

“Your testimony concludes this phase of the inquiry,” Captain Crichton announced. “You will be informed if we decide to investigate the incident further, or refer the matter to NCIS. I trust you are aware that injuries sustained as a result of reckless or criminal behavior are grounds for dismissal, even if no other charges are brought against you.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And that in such an eventuality you would still owe the Navy four years of service as an enlisted man.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Also, that perjury in any of your statements to this board would be sufficient to deem you unfit to serve as an officer, with similar consequences.”

Yes, sir.”

Although he figured Crichton’s final admonitions were
pro forma
, they shook Bauer more than he expected. In his mind, Tenno was somehow responsible for his troubles, and the thought of being busted down to an enlisted man was rendered unspeakably more hideous by the possibility, however unlikely, that he might one day have to take orders from her.

“Well?” Trowbridge asked, once he and Bauer had exited the building.

“It looks like they’re gonna accept our version of events.”

“Version of events,” Trowbridge snorted. “That makes it sound so tidy, not at all like the bald-faced lie it is.”

“You gonna support me or not?”

“I’ll do what I said. As long as nobody asks me, I’ll keep quiet. But I will not lie for you. Are we clear on that?”

“Yeah, whatever,” Bauer muttered. The entire story had been concocted to suit Trowbridge’s delicate conscience. Of course, the alternative was hardly more palatable. To accuse her of attacking them without provocation lacked credibility, and even if anyone believed it, he’d end up looking worse than he already did. He felt it now even more bitterly than before, just how badly he’d been outmaneuvered by that infernal girl.

“God, I hate that bitch,” he growled as they approached Bancroft Hall.

“She let you off easy, dumbass. If you can’t see that, there’s no hope for you.”

“Oh, shut up, will you?”

“You know, I ought to do just that… leave you to stew in your own juices. I don’t know what set you against her, but it’s not doing you any good. You know this is gonna have an effect on your ranking in Military Order of Merit, and in OOM, right?”

“And I have her to thank for that, too.”

“Her? Why not you? You’re the one who picked a fight you couldn’t win. You created the conditions for your own defeat. And sure, maybe she roughed you guys up a bit, but you deserved much worse, and she easily could have done it, too. What if she’d kicked through your knee? That alone could have been the end for you at the Academy. And even if you’d hobbled through an extra year, you’d have been stuck behind a desk your whole career. As it is, there’s nothing to exclude you from any of the active billets. You should thank her for that.”

In one of the deeper folds of his cerebellum, Bauer knew his friend was right. But allowing that thought to work its way to the surface of his mind required more humility than he possessed.

“You talk like she’s some sort of saint.”

“All I know is what I saw, and the only reason you’re still relatively in one piece is because she wanted it that way.” Trowbridge glowered at his friend for a moment before continuing. “And I’m sure it’s no accident that Caspar and Martens came off so much worse. I mean she smashed Caspar’s nose all across his face, and Martens doesn’t look any better. Now those guys are as ugly as they are stupid.”

“What, so now she’s like the Mikado, making the punishment fit the crime?” Bauer said, with a smile, reminded of the good offices of a friend in restoring one’s good humor. Things had been so much simpler in their plebe year, when the two of them competed for bit parts in a musical production. Not much else troubled them, other than the usual harassments inflicted by the 3/Cs. But with each passing year, their responsibilities had grown and eventually began to crowd out his pleasures. He didn’t exactly know how Tenno figured in this process, but some part of him wanted to blame her for it.

Lt. Commander Gangalal, the Company Commander, frowned at him as they took their seats in King Hall. Laid out in a T pattern, with curved beams supporting the arched roof along the length of each of the three radiating legs of the galley, the hall could accommodate the entire brigade, though Firsties weren’t required to eat there everyday, and the ones who could afford it only made the minimum number of appearances. After the latest debacle, Bauer resigned himself to eating more of his meals here, and took a seat next to Trowbridge. And his friend was probably right, the relief he felt at seeing Caspar and Martens sitting at another table highlighted the fact for him. When the 2/Cs asked about his injuries, even their solicitude oppressed him. Every further lie he told only created another opportunity to be caught out, or strapped him that much more tightly into the straitjacket of his tale.