Bauer looked at his friends and nodded. “This way, Midshipman,” he said, pointing to the more private darkness of Cumberland Court. “Step lively now. We may need to do a more thorough inspection.”
“Casey, that’s enough,” Gunderson said.
“You’ve had your fun,” Trowbridge growled. “It’s time to leave her be. Nothing good’s gonna happen in that alley.”
“Trowbridge, if you’re officer material, you’ll go get the gate guards,” Emily said. “That’s the only way to stay in the clear.”
“Shut it, DUB,” Caspar snapped at her. Martens shoved Emily in the back toward the alley, and she complied, glancing back at Trowbridge.
“Damn it, Casey,” Gunderson shrieked. “Cut it out.”
“You’re on your own, Bauer,” Trowbridge said. “I’m not gonna cover for you.”
“Really?” Bauer replied. “You’ll take her side over your own company?”
“This isn’t company business or brigade business.”
Bauer sneered and turned away from his friend
“Get yourself gone, Mr. Trowbridge,” Emily called out. “And take Gunderson with you.”
“Silence, Tenno,” Martens said. “You’ve had this coming for a long time now.”
“In this alley, we leave the fleet behind, Mr. Martens,” she said. “No ranks in here. Be warned.”
“That’s quite a mouth on you, DUB,” Caspar said, and grabbed her from behind, pinning her arms. That she offered no resistance ought, perhaps, to have given him some pause.
“We’re gonna have to mark up your face, Tenno,” Martens said, as he raised his hand to strike her. “Hold her steady.”
“Watch out,” Bauer cried out. “She’s dangerous.”
But the warning came too late. Emily had already seized control of Caspar’s hand, twisting it down and then out, extorting a shriek of pain from him as he cartwheeled into Bauer, inadvertently striking him in the face with his feet. Martens stared at her in disbelief, hand still upraised, helpless as she drove a sharp knuckle into his biceps. Before he could cry out in pain, she had already pivoted into an elbow strike to the soft spot in the center of his chest, and then delivered a fully extended back-kick to the same spot, sending him sprawling backwards onto the cobblestones.
“You bitch,” Caspar yelled, struggling to untangle himself from Bauer, and then the two of them charged at her, arms outstretched. She stepped to her left to evade Caspar, and seized Bauer’s hand, pressing the knuckles with both thumbs as she pivoted again, and pulled him forward over her shoulder, flipping him onto Martens’ supine body. Just before releasing him, she tugged on his wrist sharply enough to dislocate his shoulder, so that he howled until the back of his head crashed into Martens’ face. Then the two of them went silent.
“This is the end of the Academy for you,” Caspar said, and swung his fist at her face, but too slowly to catch up to her, since she had already struck his arm twice, in the biceps and the crook of his elbow, which cracked ominously. Three more strikes hit his chest and face before he was able to respond, or perhaps even quite know what was happening to him. As a final blow, she struck him across the nose with the heel of her palm, breaking it and leaving his face bloodied. He crumpled to the ground.
Standing over Bauer and Martens, she glowered down at them, her face warm with anger. Bauer looked up at her and cringed, covering his face with his good arm. “Shall I send someone to help you guys get home?” she asked, and then turned and walked back to the avenue, where she found Trowbridge and Gunderson gaping at her. The entire incident had probably taken less than fifteen seconds, not enough time for them to have gotten very far, even if they’d tried.
“What have you done?” Gunderson stammered out.
“I resisted an unlawful assault.” When Gunderson said nothing, she added, “Don’t worry, they’ll live. Who knows, maybe I managed to knock some sense into them.”
~~~~~~~
When the word finally came, a few days later, Emily assumed it would be about the business with Bauer and his buddies. What would she say if they accused her of insubordination, assault, conduct unbecoming, etc.? She hadn’t intended to make a formal accusation against them, and expected none in return, since the bruises would announce pretty clearly what had transpired in that alley. The safer path for them would be to keep quiet and lick their wounds, rather than risk the humiliation of admitting she’d beaten them, not to mention the unsavory implications of their own intent in attacking her. Was this the best policy? She knew Zaki would disapprove and quote the code to her: “a midshipman ensures that the truth is known.” But old habits die hard, and the practice of secrecy was deeply ingrained in her family.
“Good Morning, Miss Tenno,” Captain Jefferies said as she stepped into the Commandant’s office. “These agents would like to have a word with you. I hope it isn’t necessary to remind you of your obligation to be frank and forthright in answering their questions.”
“No, sir.”
Some of the people in the room had familiar faces, Braswell and Padgett from DSS—what were they doing here? The other four, two men and two women, were new to her experience.
“Detective Marley, APD,” one of the women said. “This is my partner, Detective Hedges. Can you account for your movements last Friday?
“Yes, Ma’am.” The question seemed simple enough, but Emily knew that not all of her evening could be related with equal safety. “I went to a lecture at St. John’s, and then met some friends at the Ram’s Head. These gentlemen from DSS can corroborate that,” she added with a nod to Braswell, who remained impassive.
“And after the Ram’s Head?” Marley asked.
“I walked back to the Yard.”
“Alone?”
“My friends and I parted company at Church Circle. They walked someone home along College Avenue, and I crossed over to State Circle and took Maryland Avenue. I met up with some other mids over by Cumberland Court.” The last bit brought a smile to her face, since she got the information out, though without giving any sense of the character of that meeting.
“Any incidents along the way?”
“What is this about?”
“Just answer the question, Miss,” Hedges growled at her.
“I saw several men loitering outside the Governor’s Mansion. They yelled something at me, and I took off down School Street.”
“Were you in Randall Court at any point?” Marley asked.
“I’m not sure if they followed me, but I ducked in there to lose ’em if they were. Now, would you mind telling me what this is all about?”
“Right now, your job is to answer questions, Miss Tenno,” one of the other men said.
“And you are?” she asked.
“Agent Horton, NCIS,” he said, flipping a badge open for her. “Did you have any physical contact of any kind with the men you saw?”
“No, sir.”
“We have CCTV footage of you running along State Circle, and of the men pursuing you,” the last unfamiliar face said. When Emily looked at her quizzically, she said, “Agent Everett, NCIS.”
“So that confirms what I said, right?”
“Any idea why they chased you?” Horton asked.
“No, sir,’ she said, taking some consolation from the fact she had not had to lie yet. In truth, she didn’t know what they wanted, since Kano had not been able to tell her anything specific in their first meeting. “Doesn’t this seem like a lot of attention for a street crime that didn’t quite happen?”
“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?”
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