Veil of Silence (18 page)

Feeling defensive, Colonel Rugster looked at Major Osborn, waiting for him to answer the questions.  They were very well aware that the cameras filming this interrogation would be seen by others.  Their motives and answers would be put into question.  “We felt she was safer at the embassy and keeping her presence quiet was for her safety as well.  Her wife was informed as you are well aware, but her parents were not.”

“Were her parents not informed because of the media attention they garnered with her disappearance?” he asked carefully.  Something stank here and he intended to get to the bottom of it.  His assistant, Corporal Harris, was taking notes.

The major nodded.  “They did create an unwarranted media storm with her disappearance.  We wanted to cover all bases, including her general health, before informing them.”

“Was the information they were seeking in regard to their daughter, or her companions that went down in the crash?” he guessed.  He saw their startled glances and thought, ‘Bingo!’

“That isn’t important here, Captain.  We need the information from Captain Gagliano to try and recover the helicopter and any information on those who died in the crash and their whereabouts.  Those families need to know what happened to their sons.”

“And their daughters?” Lance asked astutely, glancing at Marsha, but not missing the annoyance on the faces of Major Osborn and Colonel Rugster.

Ignoring his impertinent questions, the major cited regulations.  “Yellow Ribbon Phase III got her stateside and her wife was informed so that she could meet her.  I understand she has a medical appointment this afternoon so protocol is being followed.”

Sick of being spoken about as though she were an object and not even there, Marsha started to speak, but Lance put his hand on her arm, applying pressure and signaling her to keep silent.

“Yes, she does have an OB/GYN appointment this afternoon.  Will a SERE psychologist be made available soon to monitor the captain’s repatriation process?”  He was annoyed, but not surprised that the major was aware of her medical appointment.  They were keeping tabs on Captain Gagliano, close tabs.

“I’ll see about arranging that,” the major answered, feeling backed into a corner.  This wasn’t going quite like the colonel had wanted.  He glanced at the other colonel present who nodded, encouraging him to continue his questioning.

Lance adroitly avoided their repeated questioning.  He turned it on them once again.  “Will Captain Gagliano be given a desk position until she can fully return to duty after the birth of her child?”

They were all startled at his question, including Marsha.  She hadn’t thought about if she wished to return to duty, retire, or simply leave the army.  She knew that might be an option.  She did, however, wish to find out about her promotions and pay.  She leaned into Lance to whisper, “What about my promotions?”

He nodded slightly, but didn’t ask the room.  Instead, he waited for them to answer his question.

“Once Captain Gagliano has been fully debriefed and after she has been evaluated by SERE psychology oversight and intervention, I’m sure we will have a full knowledge of Captain Gagliano’s abilities.”

“Will she have to go to the Robert Mitchell Center?” Lance asked next.

“Why would she have to do that?”

“Well, that is where repatriated prisoners are eligible for follow-up medical and psychological services.”

“Of course she would be eligible for that.  Right now, we are trying to debrief her and determine everything that happened over there,” he blustered.

“You already know what the captain has gone through.  I’m just wondering who was on the chopper that you are really looking for and that you want to know if the captain saw them after the crash.”

The room was so silent you could have heard a pin drop.

“Captain, I get the sense you do not wish to cooperate with this inquiry.”  Colonel Rugster addressed Marsha directly.

“Not at all, Colonel.  I’ve been very forthcoming.  I have to wonder though, like my defense attorney has asked, why I’m being denied my rights as set forth by the army in regards to missing servicemen and women, and why I am being asked the same questions in five different ways over and over again?  Who are you looking for and why would I even know?  I told you I only knew one other person on that helicopter, and other than the two pilots, who I definitely saw were dead, I have no knowledge of any other passengers.”

They were quiet as they exchanged looks and the major shuffled papers.

“Gentlemen,” Captain McKellan began, “and ladies,” his glance took in Marsha, “I suggest that we have the psychologist debrief my client after they have watched her disk.  You could be doing irreparable harm to my client by pressuring her.  I understand you need comprehensive intelligence.  I’m sure we would all agree that Captain Gagliano was, by her own admission, in captivity involuntarily.  We cannot allow the PTSD that she will undoubtedly suffer from to go untreated.  Once the SERE psychologists have seen my client and released her for further questioning, then we will continue this.”  Lance was watching the civilian and he saw a slight smile come over the man’s face.  Something about the man told the savvy captain that this man was not a civilian at all.

“Wait a moment, Captain.  You’ve done this to us for the last time,” Colonel Rugster blustered.

“I assure you, sir, this gives me no pleasure.  My client has cooperated with you as much as I’m going to allow her to.  She has an appointment,” he made a great show of looking at his watch, “this afternoon and I’m sure you will all understand that a pregnant woman must have her chow.”  With that, he stood up and Corporal Harris practically leapt out of his seat with him, helping Captain Gagliano out of her own seat. 

Captain McKellan knew he wouldn’t be able to pull these stunts again once the psychologists got hold of Marsha.  He could tell his questions today had angered a few of them, and they also started a few thoughts that were better off left alone.  He made mental notes to have Corporal Harris look into some more things for him.

Escorting Marsha out of the building, he was pleased to see that her wife was waiting for them at the curb.  “Your wife is prompt,” he mentioned.

“Yeah, she’s good that way.  Hates to be late to anything and I suggested we go eat before I left today.”

“I have a million phone calls to make,” he confided.  “May I come to your home this evening with what I find?”

She stopped and looked up at him.  “You think you’ll have something for us to discuss that soon?”

“Oh, I almost guarantee it.  That civilian was no civilian,” he mentioned conspiratorially.

“You noticed his military bearing too?” she asked with a grin.

That was what had been bothering him.  The man sat as though he never relaxed in a chair, always upright and at attention…a lifetime of being at attention.  “Not only that, but I’m certain I’ve seen him somewhere.”

“Okay, Captain, I’ll see you this evening after dinner.  The kids are in bed by nineteen hundred hours,” she informed him.

He smiled and nodded to the captain’s wife.  “Ma’am,” he said respectfully.

“Captain,” she responded, nodding and smiling in return.  She watched, amused, as he headed off to his car parked nearby.  The Corporal followed him, talking animatedly.  She’d heard from Marsha about the car compensating for something.  “Where shall we eat?” she turned to her wife to help her into the car.

“Well, as we don’t have the money to eat out, why don’t we go to the chow hall?”

“I’ve packed us a lunch.  What I meant was, would you like to go eat at a park with the kids?” she glanced at the two in the back seat who were looking at the two women.

Marsha smiled.  Even eating on base would have cost them money.  “Yes, let’s go find a park.”  She finished getting into the car and Heather handed her the seatbelt.

* * * * *

“Well, Captain, after what you have told me, you are in amazingly good health.  I think those scars will fade after a few years,” the doctor indicated the marks on Marsha’s back.  Heather had winced seeing them as the doctor examined her.  The kids had been left to play outside, supervised by a nurse.

“So, how far along am I?” Marsha asked, curious.

“I’d say you’re due any day now by the size of this baby.  I can’t believe they didn’t examine you more thoroughly before putting you on a plane!” she stated, outraged at how the military had treated her.

“Well, they were kind of anxious to get me back home,” she allowed.

“Well, good thing you didn’t go into labor on the plane.  Do you want to know the sex?” she asked as she finished the exam and handed them both copies of the ultrasound with a clear picture of a baby inside her.

Marsha glanced at Heather, who shook her head slightly.  She smiled.  She should have known.  “No, we’d like to be surprised.”  She inwardly laughed.  They had had enough surprises to last them a lifetime.

“Well, I’ll let you get dressed.  I’d still like you to take the prenatal vitamins I’m going to prescribe for you.  I’m amazed that you had these children with no prenatal care,” she shook her head as she made some notes on a tablet, checking off boxes.

Marsha looked at the tablet in awe.  Technology had come far since she had Hayley.  “Well, we were very isolated.”  She’d told the doctor about her prior four pregnancies, including the miscarriage.  The nurse went to get a form to request her records from Hayley’s birth as they would help with future care.

“I see no reason why you shouldn’t have a healthy baby this time,” the doctor reassured her with a smile.  She was amazed at the tale this woman had told her.  It reminded her of stories where the women had a baby in the field and returned to work afterwards.  “Try to keep your stress levels to a minimum,” she advised as she finished and left the room so the woman could get dressed.

“Oh yeah, no stress,” Marsha mumbled and Heather laughed.  She helped her back into the uniform, realizing with Marsha’s sweat and body odor it would have to be laundered that evening, at least the dress shirt would. 

“I’m so glad she says everything is okay.  I’ll have to go through Hayley’s things and see what we have for newborns.”

“You kept all that?” she asked as she pulled her pants back on.

“Somewhere.  Remember we were going to try again when you got home and retired.”  She hesitated, but it was the perfect time to ask, so she did.  “Are you going to retire now?”

Marsha had wondered that herself.  It was all happening so fast.  She couldn’t fathom it.  She shook her head.  “I don’t know yet, babe.  There is so much that Captain McKellan has to find out for me before I can consider it.”

Heather nodded.  She was disappointed, but she agreed Marsha had to be cleared of whatever fact-finding mission those people were on.  She didn’t know what they were asking her wife, but she could sense from the tension that both Marsha and Captain McKellan oozed that it wasn’t a good thing.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Over the coming week, Captain Gagliano was seen by the SERE psychologists.  They met with her one-on-one and then after that first week, with Heather to see how she was adjusting.  Marsha hadn’t known until Heather mentioned it that she frequently woke up at night in nightmares, unable to realize that she was home and safe.  She was still determined to escape Zabi and his people.  It was obvious she was concerned about getting her children to safety.  Her escape was very important to her.  It helped to have Heather hear more of her attempts to escape.  It also helped that the psychologists recorded that in their report, which was given to Captain McKellan for her defense as well as to those waiting to question her again.

“I don’t understand why they didn’t enact Phase II before Phase III?” the psychologist asked Captain McKellan.

“I believe that was due to a matter of safety,” he told him formally.

“Her medical screening in Kabul was haphazard at best.  The children were given those inoculations as though they were cattle,” he complained as he read the report on the medical procedures she and her children had endured at the embassy.

“We were told they couldn’t come to the States without them.”

Shaking his head, the lead psychologist mumbled to himself, “Damned bureaucrats.”  He looked up at Lance and asked, “Has the captain had time to tell you her stories about life in the village or anything other than the actual crash and things that the army would have an interest in?”

“Stories?”

“When the returnee comes back to their home, it is essential that they have unstructured time alone, unsupervised time alone, so they can talk about the good things, if there are any, so that the time away isn’t so traumatic, it’s normalized.  It’s part of the decompression process,” he explained.

“Captain Gagliano has been with her wife in her off time.  I’m sure she’s doing that.”

“I’ll have to ask her.  It’s vital to her well-being to share those things with her wife.  I wonder how the wife is dealing with the readjustment too?  She should come in for a few of these meetings.”

“With Captain Gagliano?” Lance clarified.

“No, alone.  She too has a tremendous amount to deal with.  After all, Captain Gagliano brought home two children and is pregnant with another.  That birth is imminent and I’m certain this whole thing is traumatic to Mrs. Gagliano.”