The Begining (The Navigator Book 1) (11 page)

“A messy business this is. However, Senior Navigator Small is in need of retirement. I will assist where I may. Doctor, please make your inquiry for two bodies. One for Major Anderson, and one for Mr. Garreth. If I can report him as deceased, it will neatly close this case, so none of my people are searching for him,” Singh said.

“Wait!” Thom asked. “If I'm dead, where am I supposed to go?”

“Your profile says you want to become a medical doctor, is that still your dream, Son?” Hawklings asked.

“Yeah, but I don't have enough work credits yet for the learning center,” Thom said.

“Really?” Hawklings said. “Are you certain?”

Thom was about to open his mouth, when Joe cut him off. “He can't stay here, Admiral. Can he start there on Darkwater with Dr. Ortegon?”

“I don't see why not. We just need to get him here,” Hawklings said.

“Sir, is Shana Darryl still in port here?” Becka asked.

Hawklings looked down and typed on a keyboard no one could see. “Uh, yes she is, but she's due to leave in about an hour. Why?”

“She's a friend, and very trust worthy. If we tell her you need to get a stowaway back to Blackwater without anyone knowing about it, she'll get him back to you safely,” Becka said.

Hawklings nodded. “Okay, call your friend, Becka. Try not to tell her everything, though.”

Becka grinned. “No problem, Sir!” She bolted out the door before anyone could say anything else.

“Shana is a very nice young woman. Really lonely though, I'm sure she'll welcome the company for the trip back,” Joe replied.

Symms also headed for the door, but at a slower pace. “I'll go arrange for the bodies for the Constable.”

“Thank you, Doctor. Now, we are going to need a believable motive for the murder,” Singh replied.

“He's a little young, but we could always say he recognized me from my former life, and sought revenge. The Admiral could then classify the whole thing, so no one can see it. That way, when Jared has his flunkies get to it, he'll discover his ruse is still in place,” Joe suggested.

“What would you have done in your past life that would make a man want to kill you?” Singh asked.

“Sorry, Constable, I can't tell you any of that,” Joe said.

“Constable, the Major is a former black ops soldier. He cannot disclose the nature or goals of any of his duties,” Hawklings explained.

“Ah, in that case, I agree, that would be a very good motive.” Singh bowed once again to Joe. “Thank you, Major, for your service to our homeworld." Turning back to the Admiral, he continued. “Is he still then, a black ops soldier?”

“Not officially, Constable,” Hawklings said, putting an emphasis on the second word and raising an eyebrow.

Singh nodded. “I understand. I will take steps to be prepared. I wish you good hunting, and clear weather, Major.”

Becka returned to the room. “Thom, come with me. We have to get you set up to sneak on board Shana's ship.”

Thom got up and took three steps toward the door when he turned around. “Thank you for this chance, Admiral. Thanks for not killing me, Major. I'll look forward to hearing from you.” Before either man could say anything, the excited young man left.

“I will remain, to 'guard the scene' until we are ready for the forensics team to come in. May I have the murder weapon, Major?” Singh asked.

Joe handed the weapon to him, not mentioning the weapon was unloaded. Singh took the weapon, backed away a couple of steps aimed and fired the weapon at Joe's head.

              Click.

Joe got off the Bed and took the gun away from Singh. “There are three things you fucked up on, Singh; first, you didn't check to see if the gun was loaded. Second, a special ops soldier will never hand a loaded weapon to someone he doesn't know intimately.”

Singh was reaching for his stun baton when Joe struck him in the windpipe crushing his larynx. “Third, never try to kill someone like me. You don't stand a chance,”

Joe watched until the light left the man's eyes, then dropped him to the floor. “This is a problem.”

The Admiral had watched the whole thing, he hadn't actually seen the strike that had killed the Constable, but that could have been the electronics he was watching through. “Not really, get Becka back in here before she and Thom head for the landing field. We'll need Symms too.”

When Laura got into her suite she found a handsome redhead sitting in her lounging area, with an iced tea. She was about to step back out into the hallway, when the woman spoke.

“Please Laura, come in and talk with me? My name's Sharon. I'm the woman that sent you the note that led you here.”

Laura entered the room cautiously. “Uh, Hi! Thank you for the note. I'm sorry, it's just that you've taken me by surprise.”

The woman stood and turned around. She gave Laura a slight smile. “I imagine I did, and I'm sorry for that. But, you said something at the bank that I had to ask you about.”

Laura cringed. “You had it bugged?”

“Yeah sorry; I did say I would start watching over you when you got here,” Sharon replied, nodding.

Laura nodded. “You want to know what I meant when Jed and I were talking about Joe.”

Sharon nodded. “Is he alive?”

Laura sat her belongings on one of the chairs. “I'm not sure really, but I think so.” She pointed at the tea. “Mind if I order one of those?"

“I ordered a pitcher. It's in the fridge,” Sharon said nodding toward the mini-bar. “I was tempted to order long-island iced tea, but I need to have a clear head for a little while at least.”

Laura poured herself a glass of tea then sat on the couch with her visitor. “Joe told me about you. Thank you for coming to his funeral.” She took a drink and swallowed, hard. “We thought you took him. When I got your note, we really started wondering. Since you're here and you're asking me that, you obviously didn't take him, so you don't know either?”

Sharon shook her head as she stared into her tea. “No, since I heard you say that, I've done some discrete checking. Nothing so far. Do you mind telling me what you know?”

“It's not much really. Joe had his cellphone record the conversation when they came to get him and he managed to leave it behind without them seeing it,” Laura said and pulled her purse over to herself.

“That was sloppy. They should have at least stuck around to make sure he didn't get some kind of message to you. I don't mean to scare you, but if it had been one of the combat agencies, they would have simply staged an accident that killed you and your son and leave a body that would have been identified as him,” Sharon said.

“They did threaten to kill me, but; well listen to this,” Laura said and played the message for her. She'd been afraid to leave the cellphone anywhere in case it disappeared like Joe had.

As Sharon listened she seemed to get more confused. When the message ended, she looked thoughtful. “Did you get the money?”

Laura nodded. “It came to my account as a wire transfer from an insurance company. That's how I could bring Jed and his family with us.”

“Joe's still alive then,” Sharon said, relieved. “However, I wouldn't bet against you not seeing him again. Look, I'm not supposed to even know this, but there's been something very big buried deep in the black bag for years now. It isn't a combat operation though, because no one has seen it.

“Even in the condition he was in, Joe's still dangerous, but he simply wouldn't be worth reactivating for his previous skill set. There's just too much wrong with him for field work and trainers aren't acquired like that. It had to be for some other reason!” Sharon said, frustrated.

“Forgive me for asking this, but why do you even care? He left your world twenty years ago and never looked back,” Laura said.

Sharon still wouldn't look Laura in the eye. “I love him. I always have.”

Laura thought she saw a tear falling down one delicate cheek, but that would certainly be at odds with the cold, heartless bitch Joe had told her about.

“He told me that you never showed anyone weakness. Even through the sex and all the training, you never let any of them see how you really felt. He hated you for awhile, especially when the others started dying and you still didn't show the least bit of emotion. But he told me, just before he left, he thought that he'd begun to understand you.

“He knew that once he ran, that you'd have to order the team out that would kill him. He also knew that you had been the one that had ordered the others destroyed when they started going insane. He told me that the one thing that had saved your ass from him, was you were not the one that sent him on the last mission," she finished.

Sharon shook her head. “I'd been called back that night. They didn't want me around when the cleaners went through. Joe got there before the cleaners did. Although what he did to the command section did raise some questions, they had me come in to track down any loose ends. I made sure Joe wasn't one of them.

“I was reassigned to another project, then I just stayed away. I knew they were watching me because I'd been the one to report my former employers and they wanted to make sure I hadn't had another agenda. I did, but they either never figured out what was or if they did, it was deemed a non-threat and ignored. I'm thinking the latter.

“Now this. For all intents and purposes, he's fallen off the planet. I would bet my pension that he fell right into that big black project, too,” Sharon said. “It's really the only one I can't get any information on.”

“Could it have been another government?” Laura asked.

Sharon shook her head. “No, if it had been, we'd have already started finding the bodies. He never would have gone peacefully if they had been foreign or even against the nation. No, he actually helped us a little; he identified the two men as being former special-ops soldiers, specifically Marine Force Recon. That's not much help mind you, but it's a place to start. I don't suppose you got a license plate on the truck did you?”

“Yeah, but it was the standard black SUV everyone sees on TV; generic as you can get,” Laura said.

“Not really. The fact that they used that particular vehicle tells me that they were playing to an audience. Everything you've told me backs up that theory. But the question then becomes why? Why did they want everyone in your trailer park to think the MIB took him?” Sharon asked, rhetorically.

“Joe was a vocal conspiracy buff. So, the MIB was a believable cover. However, it did make people wonder which conspiracy he was right about,” Laura said.

“That's easy, he was right about most of them. Nothing ever gets done about it because the conspiracy folks actually help make the whole thing sound absurd, which keeps the conspiracy a secret. It would make sense for Joe to do that; if they did find him, they would see he was actively working to keep their secrets and they would leave you alone," Sharon said.

“So how do we find out who took him and if he's still alive?” Laura asked.

“You don't. They'll kill you if you try. I have access to most of those sort of resources and even I'd be risking my life trying to find out. However, I'd stand a better chance than you would; killing a General is a political quagmire most agencies avoid. Laura, I'm serious here, I've worked for the intelligence services all of my professional life; they would kill you and not even think twice about it. You would not believe how easy it is to stage a believable accident that would keep Joe from retaliating.

“As for him still being alive, you can bet he is. After all, why go through all of that just to kill the person that was taken? No, there are far easier, and cheaper, ways to pull that off,” she fell silent a moment, as if in thought. "I've been offered a new job. I was going to refuse it since my area of expertise is for ground operations, but it might get me an inroad on this. The draw back to it will be that I can't contact you after I take the job. I'd be going in alone, so I don't know who I could trust to contact you with any information.”

“The PTB's know all about your sexual preferences, right?” Laura asked.

Sharon looked at her, confused. “PTB's?”

“The 'Powers That Be'; you don't actually work for the Air Force. That's the name that Joe put on his bosses at the agency," Laura explained.

Sharon snorted and nodded. “Very apt. Yes, they know. I suspect they knew about my connection to Joe as well, but since I never pursued it, they never said anything.”

Laura took her hand. "How many red flags would it raise if I was your 'girlfriend'? We met at the wake and became friends, we can progress that relationship into something they might accept."

Sharon smiled sadly at the woman. "Laura, that sort of thing can't be 'staged'. I mean, we could certainly go through all the motions, but if they even had a hint it was fake, we'd both be retired."

Laura nodded her understanding. "I know I'm not very attractive anymore, but I think I really would like to get to know you better; you were an important part of Joe's past. Yes, this would be to find him, but if you'd have me, I'd like to try."

“This isn't going to work,” Thom said as he looked at himself in the mirror. “I don't even have the same skin tone or hair color as Singh.”