Lethal Authority (Wade Hanna Series Book 2)

by Joseph D'Antoni

  “Well, sir, our team had several run-ins with one of the other team members after we arrived for training, but I have no evidence to suggest the shooting was done by that person or anybody else.”

  As the Captain turned to respond to Wade, they heard voices of the approaching forensics team.

  “We’re over here,” called Colonel Miller, and he walked twenty feet to meet a uniformed man he introduced as Captain Penata. They exchanged greetings before the Colonel pointed in an arch from the bivouac area to the trees bordering the open field.

  “I want the entire area taped off as a crime scene. Have your men walk through it carefully. The shooter’s position was off in that direction, about sixty yards from the bivouac. Hanna here has already marked off several sites for possible foot impressions. I want all the foot impressions taken, and I want that branch with lead fragments brought in and analyzed at the lab. Once you set up your perimeter, I want your men to fine-tooth comb the area looking for any evidence, including spent shells. This was no accident. We have a shooter in our midst in a no-weapons area, and we have to find out who’s responsible for this breach. I’m taking Hanna back with me for debriefing.”

  The forensics team was shown the location of the footprints and Wade’s markers, as they walked the path taken by the shooter. When he was satisfied that the team was equipped to handle the detail Miller motioned to his driver to pick them up.

  Colonel Miller’s car stopped at the barrack to drop Wade off. “Clean up and grab some chow and be at my office in an hour.”

  “Yes, sir.” Wade turned toward the steps of his barrack still amazed at the detail with which Colonel Miller approached the incident. But for some reason he couldn’t identify, he felt anxious, not knowing what would happen next, and wondering where his men were.

  Wade opened the door to his barrack to find that the premises had been vacated. All the beds had been stripped, and his duffel was the only one in evidence. His backpack lay on the floor at the foot of his bed. Resting on the mattress was a neatly folded square piece of paper.

  Wade looked at the folded paper but decided to leave it until after he showered. After showering, he sat on the side of his bed and unfolded a hand-written note.

  Dear Wade,

  I realized I might not see you before I had to leave. I just wanted to thank you again for saving my life last night. I realize that you didn’t have to watch out for me like you did. I will always remember what you did for me. Please call me sometime when you’re in D.C.

  Thank you,

  Yari

  Wade folded the note and put it in his backpack. He was due in Colonel Miller’s office in forty minutes, so he grabbed a burger at the base snack shack before walking to Miller’s office in the main administration building.

  Wade entered the building and asked where he could find Colonel Miller’s office. Without looking up, the desk sergeant pointed to the right corner of the floor. Wade walked over to the desk, where a soldier in fatigues sat typing an Army form.

  “My name is Wade Hanna, and I’m reporting as requested by Colonel Miller.”

  “Take a seat. I’ll let him know you’re here.”

  A row of chairs lined the wall outside of the Colonel’s office. After a ten-minute wait, Miller’s assistant said, “He will see you now.”

  Wade approached the door and knocked twice before hearing a voice. “Enter.”

  The Colonel was sitting with another gentleman in uniform. He motioned for Wade to come closer and take a chair opposite his desk.

  “This is Major Jarvis. Dr. Jarvis is our base psychiatrist. I want him to assist in our debriefing.”

  Wade and the psychiatrist acknowledged each other, shaking hands as Miller continued the introduction from his chair.

  “I have given Major Jarvis an overview of the incident. We just want to ask you a few more questions about last evening and what led up to it. Why don’t you explain what happened in your own words to Major Jarvis?”

  Wade felt strangely comfortable in these surroundings even though he was speaking with the second-highest-ranking officer on the base and a psychiatrist he had never met before. As Wade started summarizing the events of the previous evening, he looked directly at Major Jarvis, realizing he had never met any other psychiatrist. That thought made him a little nervous.

  He repeated his story nearly word for word while the other men took notes. Dr. Jarvis had an analytical look about him, although his close-set eyes darted back and forth when he concentrated, giving Wade a creepy feeling.

  Jarvis asked his first question. “Were you at all suspicious of anyone on Blue Team?”

  “No. I don’t really know anyone on Blue Team except in passing, and neither do any of my men.”

  “Isn’t it true you’ve out-maneuvered Blue Team on caches since the exercise began? You were winning the exercise, were you not?”

  Before Wade could reply, Dr. Jarvis came in with another question. “In fact, isn’t it true you only had one cache left when the incident happened?”

  “That’s correct. We were winning and only had a single cache left to capture.”

  It wasn’t clear where Jarvis’s questioning was headed. Wade thought but didn’t say: Jarvis sounds more like an attorney than a psychiatrist. Is he trying to establish some kind of motive for the incident?

  Wade took Jarvis’ question to imply that his team might have provoked or had something to do with the shooting incident. It wasn’t long before the doctor’s questions began to rub Wade the wrong way. His tone seemed somehow confrontational. Perhaps he was looking for some weakness or contradiction in Wade’s responses. Wade wondered if this was some kind of psychological profiling. He reacted by becoming extremely cautious in his responses.

  Perhaps that was the reaction Jarvis was looking for. The whole thing bothered Wade more than he wanted to admit.

  Colonel Miller caught the tension between Wade and Jarvis and jumped in to provide some balance.

  “Hanna, you started to tell me about a confrontation your group had with another person or group when we were interrupted by forensics. Please tell Dr. Jarvis about that situation. It may be important.”

  “Sometimes I find animosity directed at me when taking training courses at military bases. There seems to be a general distrust of intelligence officers on most military bases. So I wasn’t surprised when that situation came up here. Usually those feelings blow over after the people get to know each other. In fact, it’s not uncommon to become quite friendly with those who initially mistrusted me before the training is over.”

  Wade paused to see if Jarvis’ expression had changed, but his head was down and he was taking notes as fast as he could write.

  Wade continued, “We had a couple of situations occur since arriving for this training session. My team member Milton Yankovich and I are from intelligence. When we arrived, we were harassed during assembly at the loading dock by some Vietnam Special Forces vets.”

  “There was one person in particular that became extremely boisterous and aggressive towards us. He made his comments primarily at me, about the inadequacies of intelligence officers in the field. He was speaking loud enough so that everyone within shouting distance could hear. A group of Special Forces guys gathered around me in a tight circle, and that man was their leader. He indicated that members of his recon team were killed in Vietnam because they took orders from an inept intelligence officer.”

  “He was clearly blaming the entire intelligence community for the problem. The evening before we started the cache exercise, this same Special Forces guy approached Yari and me in the mess hall and asked when we were leaving the table, because they wanted to sit there, and not with us. The soldier said how pathetically we had performed in the team firing exercises, and at another meal they even accused us of cheating. He said that if we weren’t careful, we might not make it out of the next exercise alive.”

  Jarvis paused briefly from his note-taking and looked at Wade. His eyes were dartin
g rapidly back and forth. “What did you say or do after he said that?”

  “Nothing. We ignored him like we did his other threats.”

  Colonel Miller jumped back into the conversation. “Who was the soldier making these comments?”

  “James Lockhart.”

  “Was Lockhart a member of Blue Team?”

  “No, sir, I believe Lockhart was on the Orange Team, far to the east of our location during the cache exercise.”

  “Did you have a feeling that Lockhart may have been involved in the shooting incident?”

  “I have no idea who was responsible for the shooting. I’m just recounting the only incident I can think of where there was some animosity during this whole exercise. I don’t want to see Lockhart or anybody else get in trouble if they weren’t involved in the shooting.”

  Colonel Miller pushed a button on his desk. Within seconds his assistant was standing in the open door at attention.

  “Get me the personnel file on James Lockhart. He’s Army, Special Forces, and part of this training exercise group.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  His assistant did a formal about-face and left the room. While Wade was debriefing with Miller and Jarvis, the cache exercise had ended, and from the window he could see men returning to the barracks. The debriefing discussion continued for another half hour as Miller and Jarvis continued asking small details about different parts of the incident.

  Wade was explaining how his team had intended to approach the fifth cache when a firm knock on the door interrupted his thought. Everyone turned toward the door.

  “Enter.”

  Miller’s sergeant came in holding a manila file under his arm, which he handed to Colonel Miller.

  While Miller was opening the file, the desk sergeant spoke up. “Sir, I thought you’d want to know that we just received a call from exercise command, that Orange Team reported to the finish station missing a man. They reported that Lockhart was missing. He left the prior evening on a recon mission and didn’t return to camp.”

  The Captain took the personnel file, looked at Jarvis, and told his aid, “Call the exercise coordinator. I want the Orange Team held for questioning and debriefing.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The sergeant executed an about-face as before and left the room. Colonel Miller turned to Wade with an expression that said Wade’s part of the meeting was over.

  “Is there anything else you can add to the events of last evening?”

  “No, sir.”

  Turning to Major Jarvis, the Colonel asked, “Do you have any more questions for Mr. Hanna?”

  “Not at this time, but I may want to ask him more questions after I’ve done more investigation on this matter.”

  Colonel Miller asked, “Do we have all your contact information?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Miller asked Wade about his flight plans, then indicated that one of his aids would give him a lift to the airport, compliments of the base.

  “Thank you, sir.”

  The Colonel got up from his desk and followed Wade to the door. He waved his aid over.

  “See that Mr. Hanna gets a lift to the airport. You can use my staff car.”

  Chapter 10

  Greenstone, Alabama

  The uneventful return flight and drive to his apartment gave Wade time to think. Lack of sleep, combined with the stress of the last two days, made Wade realize how tired he was. He was glad to finally be back in comfortable surroundings.

  Mail had piled up behind the slot in his front door. Stepping over the stack, he headed for the refrigerator. Finding only a half-filled jar of jelly and a single bottle of beer, he opened both and made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on stale bread and headed toward the mail on the floor.

  He picked up the mail before sinking deep into his favorite overstuffed armchair. His mind slowly readjusted to familiar surroundings. Flipping through the mail, he quickly discarded junk promotions and put the unpaid invoices in a stack which he tossed on the table next to him. He was annoyed to see the light on his answering machine flashing a bright red. Looking across the dining table, he saw the economics book he’d left and remembered that he had a test the next day.

  His jaw muscles tightened as he tried to remember what his economics test would cover. He vaguely remembered his professor talking about “cobweb theorems.” The only cobwebs he could think of were the ones in his brain right now from lack of sleep. There would be no studying this evening. He was already half asleep.

  Wade walked into the bedroom to set his alarm for 4:30 the next morning to give him time to study before the test at 10:00 a.m. He then turned to the recorded messages on his answering machine and pressed the replay button.

  The machine promptly replied, “You have five unanswered messages.” Wade pressed the start button and heard Megan’s voice.

  “My God, we just got word that there was some kind of a shooting incident during your training. Are you all right? Call me as soon as you get in, no matter what time it is.”

  The second and third messages were also from Megan – all similar, each showing increasing signs of worry.

  “You should be back by now. I haven’t heard from you. Call me at home anytime – as soon as you get this. Where are you? Don’t you dare forget to call me! Call anytime. You know the number.”

  Wade didn’t want to go through another long description of the last two days, but thought he’d better answer her call. How did the Agency find out about the sniper incident so fast?

  He looked through the bedroom door at the bed that seemed to be calling his name. He put his hand up to hold his head and closed his eyes for just a moment’s rest, to catch a mental breath. As soon as his head rested in his hand, he was asleep.

  After a few minutes of sleep, Wade’s body twitched like someone had applied a small electric shock. His eyes flew open, realizing he had never made the return call to Megan. For the first time in the last two days, Wade realized he was losing the battle with exhaustion. Without thinking, Wade dialed Megan’s number, hoping she had calmed down and was rested. In his condition he had no use for hysterics.

  “Hi, it’s me.”

  “My God. Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “What the hell happened?”

  “I’m really exhausted. Can I give you the short version now and the details tomorrow, after I get some rest? I just remembered I have an economics test tomorrow.”

  “I was going to remind you of your test. First tell me what happened.”

  Wade gave a brief summary of the incident, and asked her how she’d heard about it.

  “It was a big deal at headquarters. The head of the Agency was on a call for over an hour with the base commander at Benning. All I heard was that you performed well in the situation. Some Special Forces guy is AWOL, and there’s a big investigation going on.”

  Megan had a list of questions ready for Wade, but she could tell he was running on fumes. Now that she’d heard his voice and knew he was okay, additional details seemed less important than his rest. She realized he had to focus on sleep now and the exam tomorrow. She also knew that he had a paper due on Thursday. Perhaps she would wait until he got some rest before reminding him. Megan sensed that she was losing him.

  “Now don’t go to sleep on me quite yet.”

  “I’m sorry. I really need to get some rest.”

  “Get some sleep and call me after the test tomorrow.”

  “Thank you.”

  He hung up the phone and crawled into his bed with his clothes on. No other sound registered in Wade’s brain until the alarm went off at 4:30 the next morning.

  Two days later, Wade had just learned that he’d passed his economics test, and was working to finish his second paper when his phone rang.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi, it’s Yari. I was just thinking about you. It’s good to hear your voice. Did you get the note I left on your bed at Fort Benning?”

&nbs
p; “Yes, I sure did. Thank you very much.”

  “Well, I wanted you to know how much I appreciate you saving my life.”

  “You’re welcome. You were really a trooper throughout the whole miserable exercise.”

  “No, I wasn’t – but it’s kind of you to say so and to have put up with me during the exercise. I was out of my league during the whole training. I know I held the team back. You guys were good enough to keep me around. The truth is that I’m no longer involved in field work, and I don’t think the NSA is keeping that program anymore.”

  “What happened to you and the other team members after I got stuck with Colonel Miller and the forensics team?”

  “They brought us back by Army truck and debriefed us, and then told us to clean up, strip the barracks, and get on the next bus to the airport. They said there was another training group arriving right behind us. The team wanted to wait for you, but we were ordered on the bus.”

  “I was hoping to stay in touch, but I never got the other team members’ contact information.”

  “I have all that information, and can give it to you anytime. What happened to you after we left?”

  “I had to stay at the site and go over everything with forensics. I was then debriefed by Colonel Miller and a psychiatrist, Major Jarvis. They kept me in debriefing for quite a while. When I was finally released, they offered me a ride to the airport. At the time I left, they were getting ready to question Blue Team and start the forensics investigation. I also heard that Lockhart was AWOL from his unit.”

  “Are you speaking from a secure phone?”

  “No, just the one from my apartment.”

  “I’m calling on one of the NSA’s secure lines, so we should be okay. I’m also having our conversation encrypted, so we can speak freely.”

  Yari paused, and then continued. “I don’t know if you know this, but the day after we left, they found Lockhart’s dead body in a motel about forty miles from the base. He was found with a bullet in his head – apparent suicide.”

  There was silence on the line as Wade tried to process that information. “You’re kidding. Where did you hear that?”