Moving quickly, forcing herself not to break into a run, Ashlyn made her way to the second floor landing. Her heart skipped a beat in expectation and relief to see Talbot, his back to her, standing before the security panel. She watched closely, holding her impatience at bay, as he activated the house’s security system. Then he turned and started for the stairs. When he looked up and saw her, he nodded slightly. For a moment, her heart seemed to stop. Had they failed? Then she saw the satisfaction reflected in his eyes. Hope flared once again.
“Master Guns, please join me in the library.”
With that, Ashlyn turned and disappeared down the hall. As she did, she frowned thoughtfully. Talbot looked much as he did at the end of most missions. But then, little ever really ruffled him. That was one of the many reasons he was such a good Marine. It was also why she trusted him not only with her life but with her son’s. Still, there had been something about his expression that worried her and she wondered yet again if something had gone wrong.
As she entered the study, Ashlyn grinned to herself. Talbot had made it clear from that first day when the Capital had been attacked that he was there to help her however he could. There had been times when, over her objections, he had made sure she ate or slept. He had kept her, on more than one occasion, from doing something that could have sent her straight back to the Tarsus penal colony. Now she would do whatever she could to make sure he was all right, whether he liked it or not.
A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth as she realized just how much she needed this opportunity. Talbot would never fully understand how great a help he had been those first few weeks after her return to Fuercon. After so long at the penal colony, after being betrayed by the Corps and the government, Ashlyn knew she had been little more than an animal. Oh, she had put up a good front in an attempt to hide her anger and fear from the others but Talbot had seen through it. He never said a word, but he had been there whenever she needed him, no matter what or when. He had kept her focused on duty when the thirst for vengeance would have had her risking everything just to get a little of her own back. More than anyone except her parents and son, Talbot had been her anchor as she found her way back to humanity.
“Have a seat, Kevin,” she said gently as he entered the study.
Without waiting to see if he obeyed, Ashlyn turned to the antique butler’s table and poured two glasses of whiskey. As she turned, she shook her head to find Talbot still standing just inside the doorway. She handed him one of the glasses and settled on one end of the sofa resting against western wall. Then she cocked an eyebrow at him in question. Talbot hesitated another moment. Then Ash shook her head, giving him her best “I’m your CO and this isn’t a request,” look. Smiling slightly, almost apologetically, he inclined his head and moved to the chair nearest her.
The silence stretched between them for several minutes. Recognizing her companion’s need to collect his thoughts, possibly even come to terms with whatever he had seen or done that evening, Ashlyn leaned back and sipped her whiskey. As she did, she watched the master gunnery sergeant through lowered lashes. She had no doubt he understood what she was doing and why. Now she wanted him to see how much the decision to let him go with Liu had worried her as well as seeing how relieved she was he was home safely.
“Are you all right?” she asked simply as she placed her glass on the table at her elbow.
“I am, Ma’am,” he assured her, a satisfied smile lighting his features. “My apologies if I worried you but things took a bit of a left turn on us.”
“Oh?” She cocked her head to one side and looked at him in questions. That things had not gone exactly as planned didn’t surprise her. She had learned long ago few plans went off without a hitch of some sort. For a moment, she said nothing else, waiting for him to explain. When he didn’t, she frowned slightly, concern once again flaring. “Master Guns, explain.” She was too tired and too aware of everything that could have gone wrong to be patient.
“Sorry, Ma’am, it’s been a long evening.”
He had no idea.
“You will get a full brief tomorrow from Lieutenant Liu and Major Quintana. The LT said to ask you if it would be convenient to meet with them at 0700.”
She nodded. It would mean letting her mother know she might be a bit late to weekly briefing of battalion COs, but she was not going to miss hearing what the JAG officers had to say. She hoped her mother would understand.
“But the short version is we missed Moreau. From what the doorman at her building said, she left a couple of hours before we got there. My take is she is on the run, not necessarily from us. It could be her handlers decided she was a loose end they can’t afford any longer.”
Another nod. If Moreau was on the run, they still had a chance of catching her. Not that Ash would hold her breath. She knew how easy it was for someone with the right skills and enough cash in their pocket to find ways in and out of the capital and, from there, off-planet. But at least they knew who they were looking for and, if she knew Liu and Quintana, the alerts had already been sent out.
“We did manage to take Kurt Sorensen into custody. Let’s say the good councilor was not pleased to be treated like one of his clients.”
“Did you get anything out of him?”
“No, but I have no doubt that will change. He struck me as the type who has to bluster and posture but he will ultimately try to cut a deal to save his own skin. Liu left his own investigators combing through Sorensen’s apartment and office. If there is a data trail to find, they’ll find it.”
Ashlyn sipped her whiskey. As she did, she wondered what the arrest of Sorensen would mean to the courts martial. She feared it would postpone them, even for those the man had not represented. If so, it meant she would be stuck on Fuercon even longer. That did not sit well. She was a Marine, a Devil Dog. She should be on the front lines, commanding her battalion in the fight against the enemy. Instead, it looked like they might remain in-system for the unforeseeable future.
Damn it!
“Anything else?”
“No, Ma’am.”
“Were any of our people injured?”
“That’s a negative, Colonel.” He finished his whiskey and set the glass on the table at his elbow. As he did, he grinned and the coils of concern nesting in Ashlyn’s stomach eased. “Angel, we might have lost our tempers a bit, and I’d be lying if I said we weren’t royally pissed not to get our hands on Moreau, but we’re Devil Dogs. We took down the targets without any muss or fuss. These bastards weren’t any challenge to us.”
Targets?
Ashlyn leaned forward, elbows on knees, her expression intent. “Loco, explain. Targets?”
Still grinning, he nodded in confirmation. “Yes, Ma’am. Targets.”
“Master Guns, I swear if you don’t get to the point, you will be walking night watch for the next month.”
“You wound me, Ma’am.” He laughed and then held up a hand to keep her from saying anything else. “Sorry, Ma’am, but you know how it’s been. The rest of us have wanted to do something, anything to make the bastards responsible for what happened to you and the others pay. Tonight we took the first step in doing so.”
She listened closely as he reported on the rest of their evening. After taking Sorensen into custody – and hearing how Liu had offered to leave the attorney in the gentle care of her Devil Dogs instead of arresting him brought a smile of her lips. She would have loved to have been there to see the expression on his face when presented with that possibility. – Liu had remained behind to begin the search of the attorney’s apartment. Talbot and the others reported to Quintana. She had been waiting for them near the Midlothian embassy.
For more than an hour, they had waited. Then the JAG officer indicated a man just leaving the embassy. He was tall and thin but moved like a fighter. Instead of taking one of the waiting aircars, he simply walked away from the embassy. Every half block or so, he would pause, as if looking in a shop window or checking his comm-unit. It
hadn’t fooled any Talbot. The man had been checking for a tail. What he had not anticipated was the fact Talbot had put two of his team on the rooftops and they were relaying the man’s position to the rest of the team.
“We tracked him to a bar in a part of town where you wouldn’t expect someone like him to be found, at least not willingly,” Talbot continued. “Quintana figured it had to be a meet but no one joined him and we did not see any sort of info drop take place. She said she would get with Colonel Santiago in the morning to set up surveillance on him.”
“Why him? I assume you found something linking him to either Sorensen or Moreau.”
“Sorensen had been in contact with him more often than he should have been, especially since he denied knowing him.”
“Interesting.” She thought for a moment. The morning briefing with the JAG should prove interesting. “All right, Loco. Go get some rest. If I’m supposed to meet with Liu and Quintana at 0700, we both will need to be out earlier than usual.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“And, Kevin, thank you. Make sure the others know how much I appreciate all you did tonight.”
“No need, Ma’am. They know.”
Ashlyn watched as he slowly left the study. He had given her a lot to think about and even more questions to ask when she met with Liu and Quintana. But all that had to wait for morning. In the meantime, she needed to leave her mother a message explaining why she might be late for the battalion COs briefing. Then she’d better get some rest. Morning would come all too early.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“BEGGING THE COLONEL’S PARDON, Ma’am, but are you supposed to be meeting with JAG first?”
Ashlyn couldn’t blame Talbot for sounding confused. She had reread the message from her mother three times that morning before deciding she hadn’t read it wrong. Instead of giving her permission to meet with the JAG officers, Elizabeth had left instructions to be in her office at 0700. Apparently, according to the message, they had something they needed to discuss. That did not bode well, at least not based on her experience as a daughter. Whenever Elizabeth wanted to “discuss” something, it usually meant Ash had broken one of her parents’ rules. What it meant with Brigadier General Shaw, she wasn’t sure – and wasn’t sure she wanted to know.
“There’s been a change of plans, Master Guns.” She handed over her comm-unit so he could read her mother’s message. “Any thoughts?”
“No, Ma’am.” He pressed the control on the door next to him that raised the privacy screen in the aircar. Ash frowned, wondering what he did not want their driver to overhear. “Honestly, Ma’am, too many and it is all speculation. The first thing that came to mind is that last night’s activities are coming back to bite us.”
Damn it. That worried her as well. At least she had a record of what Liu told them the day before – not to mention the fact her mother had been present. But that didn’t mean her people, men and women who acted out of loyalty to her, might not be in trouble for their actions. If anyone tried coming for them, they would find a fight on her hands. She had learned a lot since her own court martial. She’d played by the rules then. That was a mistake she would not repeat of last night’s efforts were backfiring on Talbot and the others.
“Did you keep a record of your activities?”
“Aye, Ma’am, and I ordered the others to as well.” His expression spoke volumes. Unless she missed her guess, he had also made sure they each had made copies and secured them just in case they would be needed later.
“Good.” She frowned as the aircar slowed. Soon they would have to get out and any chance of speaking privately would be over, at least until they could get to her office. “You will let me do the talking, Kevin.” She held up her hand when he started to protest. “We don’t know what is going on and, let’s be honest, we are anticipating the worst based on what happened to me. Hopefully, we are wrong. If not, well, let’s just say I know how to fight this battle now.”
He nodded, but she knew he would do whatever he could to protect her. Of course, that was only if she let him.
Ten minutes later, they waited to be shown into Elizabeth’s office. As they did, Ashlyn stared out the window. She wanted to pace, to burn off some of the nerves knotting her stomach but she wouldn’t. If anyone happened to be watching, she would not let them know how this unexpected summons worried her. She would not give them anything they might use against her or Talbot.
“You may go in now, Colonel,” the lieutenant manning the desk next to the door to Elizabeth’s private office said.
Ashlyn squared her shoulders and turned away from the window. As she did, she felt Talbot’s eyes on her. When he reached over to carefully adjust one shoulder seam, she smiled slightly. Leave it to the Master Guns to make sure she did not appear before their division CO with so much as a seam out of place. With a nod of appreciation, she crossed the anteroom. Like it or not, it was time to find out what was going on.
The moment she stepped inside, Ash came up short and braced to attention. She had expected her mother. What she hadn’t expected was to find not only Quintana and Liu there but General Okafor as well. Surprise had her swallowing hard even as she sensed Talbot bracing to attention one step back and to her right.
“Lt. Colonel Shaw reporting as ordered, Ma’am!”
“Stand easy, both of you,” Elizabeth said. “Have a seat.” She waited as the lieutenant appeared in the doorway to see if they needed anything. Elizabeth instructed him they would have coffee and then she waited as he left, closing the door behind him.
A moment later, a knock sounded at the door. When Elizabeth called out for the newcomer to enter, the door slid open and Colonel Rico Santiago, head of Intel, entered. Before he could brace to attention, Okafor told him to relax. He nodded his appreciation and then took the chair next to Ashlyn’s.
“I really hope someone is going to tell me what’s going on and soon,” Ash said. “Right now, I don’t know whether to relax and listen to what you have to say or make a break for it.”
For a moment, her mother and Okafor looked at her with almost matching puzzled expressions. Then her mother cursed softly before moving around the desk. For a moment, it looked like she might go to Ashlyn. Instead, she leaned against the desk, her expression contrite.
“I – we – didn’t think. I’m sorry.” She frowned and shook her head when Ashlyn started to say something. “I promise, you want to stay and listen. You are in no trouble, nor is the good Master Gunnery Sergeant.”
“Thank you.”
So why had they sent for her?
“If I may?” Quintana waited until Okafor nodded. “Colonel, I’m sure Talbot briefed you on what happened last night.”
“He did.”
“Lieutenant Liu will be sending you a complete report once it has been finalized. However, suffice it to say that enough evidence was found last night to confirm our suspicions about not only those already charged with regard to the conspiracy against you and your team. Sorensen started singing like a bird once he figured out we weren’t bluffing about the evidence we already had against him.
“The good news is that it appears there are only a few more suspects we need to take into custody. While I know it may seem like the conspiracy against you and your people was widespread, it really wasn’t. I’m not making light of what happened to you, but you were simply collateral damage for most of them. They had been involved with the cover-up of Sorkowski’s and O’Brien’s smuggling operations and were doing whatever it took to hide their illegal activities.”
For a moment, Ash didn’t say anything. Part of her wanted to snap with anger at Quintana for the almost casual way she called them collateral damage. Whether the conspiracy had been actively aimed against them or not, good people had died and others had lost two years of their lives because of it. They were definitely more than mere collateral damage.
Then Quintana’s words sank in. She had said “most” of those involved had been trying to hide their ill
egal activities and Ash and her team had simply been collateral damage as a result. That implied at least one of those they had evidence against had other motives. What and could it be something personal?
“Ash, I’ve reviewed all the information Captain Quintana and Lieutenant Liu have complied,” Rico Santiago said. “I even agree with their take on it. For whatever reason, Moreau has targeted you. My people are digging into her history, trying to find out what connection you might have with her. There had to be a motive and I promise we will find it.”
“There’s more. Just tell me.”
“There is more,” he said and then paused as the lieutenant returned with coffee for everyone. “The short version is, Sorkowski’s information led us to a former Academy instructor who is now in Logistics. This former instructor has benefitted greatly from Sorkowski’s illegal activities. In fact, he had been the station commander before Sorkowski took over for him. He is also the one who, when Sorkowski said you and your team had been assigned to the sector, said he had better take you out of the picture if he wanted to keep his activities secret.”
“Who?”
“More importantly,” Talbot broke in. “Has he been arrested?”
“And who is it?”
“He is being picked up as we speak,” Quintana said. “JAG is taking care of it because we don’t know – yet – how deep his involvement goes. My gut says it goes no further than his own activities and Sorkowski’s with regard to the smuggling and taking bribes to look the other way. But if he is involved with the Midlothians, we don’t want to tip our hands. So far, they aren’t aware that we are on to them.”
“And that is how we need to keep it,” Okafor said. “And that comes directly from the President. He wants us to keep digging, to find out exactly who is involved in the conspiracy against Fuercon. He will not let anyone, not even Midlothian, get away with selling us out to the Callusians. That said, he knows the danger of having to go to war with someone we thought an ally. So he has tasked us, especially Colonel Santiago and Captain Quintana, with determining if those working against us represent the Midlothian government or a faction of it or something else. In the meantime, we will continue to keep out eyes and ears open and he is taking steps to make sure they do not have any further access to operational data that can be used against our forces.”
Honor from Ashes (Honor and Duty Book 3) Page 11