She looked at Markie and said, “But… it’s up to Markie whether we go back to the classroom and review the last lesson first.”

  Markie groaned, “Oh, man…”

  “Markie, can tell me what the square root of 144 is?

  “If you’re right you’re all released. If you’re wrong we’ll all go back and review the lesson one last time before we go home.”

  Markie thought hard.

  David had to bite his tongue to stop himself from helping him.

  Melissa rolled her eyes and sighed.

  She had absolutely no faith in Markie’s math skills.

  Rachel crossed her arms and gave Markie the evil eye.

  “Um… twelve.”

  “Twelve is correct. Good job, young man.”

  “Does this mean we’re free to go?”

  “Yes. Can I trust you to make your way back without me? And to follow the safety rules along the way?”

  They all said, “Yes, ma’am,” in perfect harmony.

  “Okay. Remember to walk on the side of the corridor. If I see any of you stray we’ll all stay after school tomorrow for a pop quiz.”

  There are few words grade school students hate more than “pop quiz.”

  Karen didn’t have to worry. They’d follow all the rules on their way back to the main part of the mine.

  Karen wanted to stay behind to talk to Sarah.

  She helped Debbie clean up the afterbirth and transfer it to her compost pile while Sarah fed and watered the livestock.

  After they were finished the three walked back together to wash up.

  Karen said, “Sarah, I’m concerned about Hannah.”

  “Why?”

  “Well, I saw her and Mark sitting in the dining room, talking and having coffee.

  “I was on my way to school and was running late, so I had no time to stop and join them.

  “But she honestly looked like hell. And she looked like she’d been crying. You’re her best friend. Is she okay?”

  “Yes, she’s okay. But if she and Mark were together that would explain why she was crying.

  “They’ve been arguing a lot over the last couple of days over her decision to testify on behalf of her doctors.”

  “But why should that cause friction between the two?”

  “Mark is concerned that maybe she agreed too readily.

  “He keeps reminding her that Frank disappeared without a trace, despite all their efforts to find him and bring him home.

  “His assertion is that the world is a dangerous place. He says whether Frank slid off the icy road into a ravine and died, or was kidnapped by someone, or was shot dead by someone who wanted his vehicle, that the exact same thing could happen to her.

  “She counters that she wouldn’t even be here today except for the military’s efforts to rescue her after the helicopter crash.

  “She said that her doctors put her back together and made her whole again. She says they worked hard to save her life.

  “And that she owes them.”

  “Is she determined to do it, despite Mark’s objections?”

  “I can’t say for sure. He’s been trying very hard to talk her out of it. But she gave the doctors’ lawyer her word.

  “And when’s the last time you’ve known Hannah to go back on her word?”

  “Never.”

  “Right. I’m just hoping they wait until the thaw comes.

  “Then icy roads won’t be an issue anymore.”

  “And Mark can go with her to help ensure her safety.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Do you think they can delay the trial for that long?”

  “I don’t know why not. I mean, all the lawyer has to do is explain the situation and ask for a delay.

  “How hard can that be, really?”

  -46-

  Captain David Wright pulled the collar up on his overcoat as he waited in the bitter cold.

  It was his first visit to the massive Kelly bunker… the one the base populace had started calling the “palace on the hill,” since cameras were installed on the outside.

  As he approached a voice came over a recently installed intercom.

  “State your name and business.”

  Wright thought the terse demand to be unnecessarily harsh. He’d have chosen, “May I help you?”

  But he wasn’t consulted. Perhaps it was harsh on purpose to scare away anyone who didn’t have legitimate business.

  And he most certainly did.

  “Captain David Wright from the Area Defense Council. I’m here to see General Mannix.”

  “Do you have an appointment, sir?”

  “No. I do not.”

  “One minute. I’ll see if the general will see you.”

  The one minute turned into several, and as he waited Wright’s thoughts ran from here to there to everywhere.

  The tone of the mysterious voice’s last statement made him feel as though he were requesting tea with the queen.

  “One minute. I’ll see if her royal highness is accepting company today.”

  And of course he had no appointment.

  He was sure the bunker had an internal phone system, but doubted it was tied into the Joint Base Lackland system.

  How in heck was he supposed to call and make an appointment?

  Actually the general was tied into the base phone system, but only by hotline to two places: the base command post and the base commander’s desk.

  And Wright had access to neither phone.

  Finally, when he was getting frustrated and considering leaving, the mysterious voice returned.

  “Stand by. The general has agreed to see you and your escort is on the way.”

  Another three agonizing minutes went by before the massive hardened door creaked open and two men in Air Force service dress appeared.

  Both had sidearms and M-16 rifles slung over their shoulders.

  The staff sergeant stood by and observed.

  The technical sergeant asked the Captain, “Are you armed, sir?”

  “No, I’m not.”

  “I’m sorry, sir, but I’ve been asked to frisk you. General’s orders.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Wright raised his arms to shoulder height and the sergeant checked his sleeves, his waistband, his ankles.

  “Very well, sir. Follow me, please.”

  The technical sergeant led the way, with Wright closely behind him.

  The staff sergeant brought up the rear, obviously watching Wright closely to see if produced a smuggled weapon or tried to overpower the airman in front of him.

  Wright wasn’t sure how to describe the treatment he was getting.

  He went back and forth between ludicrous, overblown and unnecessary.

  He voiced none of his concerns to his escorts, however. He had the sense they were only following orders.

  Halfway down the bunker’s main corridor they took a right turn down a slightly narrower hallway and stopped abruptly at a closed door.

  A small sign on the door read:

  General Mannix

  Air Force Chief of Staff

  Wright thought it a rather simple accouterment to a man of such high stature. But he said nothing.

  -47-

  The technical sergeant rapped twice on the door.

  A tall and exceedingly thin captain answered the door.

  It was Captain Kathy Krebbs, the general’s adjutant.

  She introduced herself to Captain Wright and invited him into the general’s outer office.

  She dismissed the escorts and said, “I’ll see him out when he’s finished.”

  “Yes ma’am,” said the technical sergeant and the team disappeared down the corridor.

  “The general is finishing up another matter. He’ll be right with you. Please have a seat.”

  This time it took no time at all.

  In less than thirty seconds the door to the inner office opened and there stood the Air Force Chief of Staff, a hulk of a man who towered over Captain Wright.

  “You’re the defense counsel for Wilcox and Medley.”

  It wasn’t a question. It was a statement. As though the general was telling him something he already knew.

  Wilcox wondered why. Perhaps it was a power thing. Perhaps the general was telling him in a very subtle way he already knew everything there was to know about him.

  Which was, of course, not true.

  But it made Wright almost certain he was left to wait outside in the horrific cold on purpose to put him at a disadvantage in what might be a rather confrontational meeting.

  That wasn’t true either.

  The truth was, General Mannix was in a foul mood and was mad at the entire world.

  It seemed the night before he was served his favorite meal from the bunker’s kitchen.

  Beef enchiladas with chipotle dressing and refried beans.

  He’d had the dish a dozen times from the same staff, drawing from the same food supplies.

  This time, though, it presented him with what tourists used to call “Montezuma’s revenge.”

  He’d spent the entire night, and most of the morning, running to or from his bathroom.

  When Wright showed up at the bunker’s entrance unannounced and without an appointment the general was sitting on the toilet and in no mood to hurry up just because a captain he’d never met was there to see him.

  Now, as he looked up at the Lurch-like figure looming over him waiting for an answer to his statement-slash-question, Wright meekly answered, “Yes, sir.”

  The general walked back into his office and Wright followed.

  Mannix waved the attorney to a guest chair in front of a huge desk.

  Both men were seated.

  “I was expecting you days ago.”

  “Yes, sir. I received the statement of charges from the Staff Judge Advocate’s office on Monday. I’ve been visiting my clients and familiarizing myself with the elements of the case.”

  “And?”

  “And what, sir?”

  “Do you think it’s a case you can easily defend?”

  “Actually, sir, I believe I can.”

  “Based on what?”

  “Sir, with all due respect, I don’t feel comfortable discussing the case with the convening authority before my inbrief with the president of the court martial panel.”

  “You haven’t met with Major General Stephens yet?”

  “No, sir. When he arrived he was coughing and sneezing. The doctors at Wilford Hall put him in quarantine for a week to make sure he wasn’t going to gift us with the flu.”

  “I’m sure he wasn’t happy about that.”

  “No sir.”

  “Then why are you here?”

  “As a courtesy, sir. It’s customary for counsel to introduce himself to the convening authority in any court martial.”

  “I’m aware of that, captain. But in a world where the norm is now abnormal and where chaos is the new order of the day, I’m surprised you’d feel the need to provide such a courtesy.”

  “I like the old ways, general. I like to abide by them whenever I can.”

  “And you didn’t come here to get me to drop the charges on behalf of your clients?”

  “No sir, not at all.”

  “What did you mean when you said you thought you could beat the case?”

  Wright shifted in his seat and hesitated.

  “Oh, come on, Captain Wright. I’m not the bad guy. I’m the convening authority. We’re both military officers. We should be able to discuss matters not prohibited by statute.

  “And I’m also the only one who can dismiss this case for cause.

  “If there was some extenuating circumstance for colonels Wilcox and Medley to act in the manner they did, it seems to me you’d want me to know about it.

  “Who knows? If you convince me they were justified in attacking my bunker I might save us all a lot of trouble and order their release.”

  “Sir… there were at least two extenuating circumstances I plan to ask the president of the panel to consider.”

  “And is there any reason I should not hear them first?

  “I mean, I’ll hear them anyway.”

  “Yes sir, I suppose not.

  “I plan to present evidence that neither of the defendants could have known of the bunker’s existence.”

  “How could they not have known? Wilcox was the base commander. Medley was his deputy.”

  “Sir, they weren’t in those positions at the onset of the bunker’s construction. A colonel named Bettis was in charge.

  “He didn’t survive the first freeze.

  “Neither did his deputy.”

  “And Wilcox didn’t think to open up the commander’s safe when he took charge, to read any classified directives Colonel Bettis might have been given?

  “He had an affirmative duty to do so when he took command.”

  “With all due respect, sir, he’d never held a command position before. He may not have known that.”

  “For Christ’s sake, captain, you’ll have to do much better than that. I’m not an attorney, and even I know that ignorance of the regulations is not an effective defense.”

  -48-

  Captain Wright was an experienced litigator with more than a hundred cases beneath his belt.

  He hadn’t won all of them.

  But he’d won some that others expected him to lose.

  He was bowed but not broken by the general’s bluster.

  “Well,” the general pushed, “Do you have anything else?”

  “Yes, sir. I plan to ask the president for a delay.”

  “I directed a tribunal within ninety days.”

  “Yes, sir. But our key witness is over a hundred miles away, in the Kerrville/Junction area. She cannot be summoned until after the thaw.”

  General Mannix raised a suspicious eyebrow.

  “What witness?”

  “She was a patient of theirs at Wilford Hall. She’ll testify that she was the one who told my clients the bunker was built and occupied by rogue military officers who stole food and supplies from the people of San Antonio to stock their bunker.”

  “Then I’ll court martial her too, by God.”

  “You can’t, sir. She’s a civilian.”

  That caught him off guard.

  But only for a moment.

  “Then as a civilian, captain, she had no authority to demand they break into my bunker. And, as a civilian, they had no obligation to do so on her urging.”

  “Agreed, sir. It goes to their state of mind.

  “They didn’t even know about the bunker until she brought it to their attention.

  “They honestly believed the bunker was occupied by bad men. As base leadership they honestly believed it was their duty to breach the bunker and arrest those inside.

  “It was really just a misunderstanding, sir. Nothing more. Aggravated, perhaps, by the chaos of the second meteorite coming and taking everyone by surprise.”

  “A mistake? Just an honest mistake? Is that what you’re telling me?

  “Those two yahoos break into a top secret bunker and jeopardize the continuity of the Department of Defense and the future security of the United States of America and you’re telling me it was all just an honest mistake?”

  “Yes sir.”

  “So you want me to just give them a do-over. Is that it? To let them out and pretend none of it ever happened and pray their next stupid blunder is less severe?”

  “Sometimes a mistake is just a mistake, general.”

  “I don’t believe that, captain. What I believe is that there are mistakes and then there are horrific mistakes. And that horrific mistakes cannot go unpunished.

  “Not even if lucky circumstance prevents anyone from being seriously hurt.”

  “Yes sir.

  “Sir, may I be frank?”

  “I thought you were David. Why on earth would you want to be Frank?”

  “Excuse me, I don’t follow.”

  “Sorry. A very old joke, obviously before your time. Speak your mind, captain.”

  “General, would you at least entertain the possibility you were partly to blame for the misunderstanding?”

  Mannix was stunned, but not for long.

  “Captain Wright, I hope you have an adequate foundation for such a remark.”

  “Air Force protocol has always called for visiting VIPs to pay a courtesy call to the base commander when visiting an Air Force base, even when passing through on leisure time.

  “If, as you say, the commander had been notified of the bunker project and who would be occupying it, he’d have a duty to protect your bunker instead of assault it.

  “If you’d made such a courtesy call to the new commander, Colonel Wilcox, you could have told him in person about the continuity team and he wouldn’t have taken action to breech it.”

  Mannix was silent, very obviously not pleased.

  “I’m just asking you to consider the possibility, general.”

  “I’ll take it under advisement.”

  At that moment the general’s stomach started to churn wildly.

  He saw a mad dash to the restroom in his immediate future.

  “I hate to put an end to all this fun we’re having, captain, but I’ve got some other pressing business to attend to.

  “Major General Stephens is a good man and will make a good president of the court martial panel. He’ll be fair and impartial, and if he thinks I haven’t given our colonels a fair shake he won’t hesitate to tell me so.

  “Present your motions to him.

  “If you can convince him to dismiss the charges or lessen their severity I’ll abide by his ruling.

  “But in my opinion, not being an attorney or legal expert myself, what you have to defend these men is very weak.

  “Now, I might be wrong.

  “But I doubt it.

  “I didn’t get all these stars on my collar and rise to the top position in the Air Force by being wrong very often.”

  “Yes sir.”

  He excused himself and closed the office door behind him.

  In the outer office Captain Krebbs smiled.

  She said, “You survived your first meeting. That’s good. Some come out of there close to tears.”

 

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