Part Fourteen
JAG office
Memphis NAS
0805 Local
Mac and the others looked up when Harm entered the conference room, trailed by Tyler. He looked like he'd had as rough a night as she had. She'd only managed to sleep in bits and snatches, finally giving up around 4 a.m. Ordinarily, she would have gone for a run, something that was out of the question for the time being. Instead, she dived back into the case, chasing ideas and theories around on paper. Around 6:00, she had cajoled the MP at her door into accompanying her to the JAG office. He'd stationed himself at the conference door until Perez and Bell had shown up at seven.
Proving the cliche about books and their covers, Bell turned out to be the morning person and Perez was the one not fit to talk to until he'd had his second cup of coffee. Singer arrived at 0705, looking surprised and chagrined that she hadn't been first to the office.
Mac gave Harm a smile and gestured with her thumb towards the coffeemaker. Perez had made the coffee - it was capable of waking the dead. She kept her expression bland at the look on Harm's face after the first sip. His eyes narrowed and he dropped into the chair next to her, "You could have warned me."
Mac regarded him innocently, "About what?"
"That someone managed to liquify solid rocket fuel." Harm took another careful sip and grimaced. "You know, this might have turned out better if water had actually been added to the coffeemaker."
"Wuss," Mac grinned. She turned her attention to the rest of the room. "Where are we right now with Jarvis?"
Perez put up a hand, "No luck with the motorpool logs, ma'am. Either all this stuff is still on base somewhere or they've found another way to transport it. I also checked the gate logs around the time of each 'acquisition', no unusual activity during the days or nights. I've assigned a couple of teams to start checking through the warehouses."
Mac nodded and looked at the others, "Anything else?"
Singer spoke up, "We've gone over Jarvis' service record," she indicated Ensign Tyler, "No one name is jumping out at us. Everything appears normal."
Mac drummed her fingers on the table, "Then I guess we keep looking. We know something's going on and I can't believe they're that good at covering their tracks." She acknowledged the nods around the table and watched for a moment as everyone dove back into the paperwork. Mac glanced at Harm and handed him a sheaf of papers from the ones in front of her. "Here, Tink's been running out copies of all sorts of requisitions and invoices. See if anything catches your eye."
The next several hours were spent reading and cross-checking a myriad of records. Harm leaned back and rubbed his eyes. Mac looked over and gave him a sympathetic smile before returning to her own stack of papers. He watched her for a second or two, she acted like everything was fine between them. At least she wasn't mad at him. He had half expected her to be; hell, he would've been if he'd been on the receiving end of his idiot behavior. Rubbing his neck, he leaned forward again and went back to reading.
A short time later, Mac looked over when she heard Harm grunt thoughtfully, "Found something?"
"Maybe," he replied, sorting rapidly through the papers. He pulled out another sheet and compared it to the one in front. By now, the others were watching him as well. Harm looked over at Perez, "Do you still have the motorpool logs?" The captain slid a folder across. He quickly scanned the pages, comparing it to the two papers in front of him and then smiled.
"Well?" Mac asked, voicing what everyone else was thinking.
"Fuel consumption. It goes up every two or three weeks but there's no increase in the odometer readings."
"They're falsifying the odometer records, sir?" Singer asked.
"They'd have to turn back the odometers each time, otherwise someone would notice the discrepancy. If they did it that often, someone should have caught it." Perez said.
"What if they've acquired their own trucks?" Harm saw Mac's eyes widen as she made the same jump he had. He waited while the others sorted it through.
"But how could they get the trucks on base, sir? Since 9/11, security's been really tight. Wouldn't somebody notice that they didn't belong?" Tyler said, looking at Perez for confirmation.
"Not if the trucks have been here all along," Mac replied. Harm gave a confirming nod.
"They stole transport trucks from the base and hid them in the motorpool? Is everyone over there blind?" Singer asked in disbelief.
"Who's in charge over there?" Harm asked.
"Master Chief Wilkins, sir." Perez answered promptly.
"We'll assume he's in on this," Mac said. "I think we need to visit the motorpool and take a look around."
She looked around in surprise at the dead silence that greeted her statement. Exasperated, she said, "Not me." She glared at Harm and Perez, "Not you two either." She cut off Harm's protest, "I'd rather not spook anyone with senior officers. I was thinking about Corporal Bell and Ensign Tyler." She looked over at them, "You two up for some recon?"
Tyler, still looking surprised, nodded enthusiastically. Bell merely smiled, the effect was chilling.
"Good," Mac said, "Now we need some innocuous reason for a JAG officer to visit the motorpool."
They hashed through a number of scenarios until they decided on an overzealous environmental group complaining about truck exhaust. Finally, Mac leaned back and said, "That should do it." She paused and looked around at the others, "Okay, it's 1122. Why don't we break for lunch and then you two," indicating Tyler and Bell, "can head over to the motorpool. The rest of us will meet back here at 1230."
She stood up, everyone else rising as well, and watched as they filed out of the room. Bell and Tyler already had their heads together, formulating their plans. They were quite a pair, Bell made the ensign look like he was ten years old. Mac looked over at Harm, "Buy you lunch, Sailor?"
"Sure," Harm smiled. He held the door for her and then waited while she locked it. Together, they walked out of the building. Singer was nowhere in sight, but Perez was standing just outside the doors talking to Bell and Tyler. After Harm and Mac returned their salutes, the three men fell in beside the two officers. Mac found herself in the center of the group. "Excuse me," she said, smiling slightly, "Did all of you practice this maneuver or was it just a spur of the moment thing?"
"We've been working on this for hours and hours, ma'am," Perez said seriously. "Wait 'til you see us on bicycles."
When they reached the cars, Bell and Tyler split off from the group. Mac watched them leave and then looked at Perez, "Any good places to eat besides the O club?"
"There's a nice little family-style restaurant just outside the base," Perez replied. "I'm meeting my wife there, if you two would care to join us."
"Sounds good, Captain," Harm said, glancing down to see Mac nodding also. He had half his attention on the surrounding area. He'd feel better when she was no longer out in the open. "You sure your wife won't mind?"
Perez shook his head as he held the back door open for Mac. Harm slid in beside her. Ten minutes later, they stopped in front of a small building. Getting out, Perez said, "I know it doesn't look like much, but Mother Jones can cook like nobody's business. I think she's been here since Christ was a corporal. Her husband was in the Corps. A gunnery sergeant, killed in Nam."
They walked in and stood in the doorway until Perez waved and started towards a petite redhead who was gesturing at them. When they reached the booth, Perez said, "Honey, I'd like you to meet Colonel Sarah MacKenzie and Commander Harmon Rabb. Commander, Colonel, this is my wife, Dr. Ellen Kelsey Perez." He smiled with obvious pride.
"Mac or Sarah," Mac said, smiling and extending her hand.
"Harm," Harm smiled as well. Dr. Perez was a pleasant-looking woman with a cheerful, outgoing manner.
"Please call me Ellie," she said, shaking hands with them both. "Shall we sit?" After everyone had settled and the waitress had taken their drink orders, she smiled, "I've been looking forward to meeting you both, Bobby's been obsessing over this case. It's nice to put faces to the names." Mac and Harm exchanged slightly uncomfortable glances. Ellie saw and laughed lightly, "Oh, he never goes into details about current investigations and I don't ask. Turnabout's fair play, I can't talk about my cases with him."
"What field are you in?" Harm asked.
"She's one of the shrinks over at the base hospital," Perez said happily.
Ellie gave her husband an amused look, "That's me, wig-picker extraordinaire. Someone has to keep Boo on the straight and narrow."
"Have you two been married long?" Mac smiled, they reminded her of Bud and Harriet. Beside her, Harm looked at Perez with a grin and mouthed 'Boo?'
Perez shrugged and said, "Short for Boomer. I'm pretty good with a riotgun." At the same time, Ellie was answering Mac, "About two and half years, but I was a camp follower for a year before that. My parents had a fit. I thought my dad would have apoplexy when we were married." With a mischievous gleam in her eyes, she leaned forward and stage whispered, "This is the first mixed marriage in the family."
"Ell," Perez said. Mac was looking unsure of how to respond. He looked at Mac and Harm, "She's fourth-generation Army brat and I'm the first Marine in the family." He arched an eyebrow at his wife, "Not being a Marine tends to give people inferiority complexes."
"I've noticed that," Mac agreed. Both Ellie and Harm snorted at the same time and smiled at each other. The rest of lunch went quickly while Ellie kept them laughing with tales of med school. Finally, Mac said, "It's 1213, we need to get back to the JAG office."
Ellie looked at her watch in surprise and then glanced at her husband, "Wow, you were right." She looked at Mac, "That must be handy and annoying at the same time."
"It is," Harm said dryly, earning himself an elbow in the side. Leaving the booth, they paid their checks and walked outside. Harm and Mac waited at their car while Perez escorted his wife to hers.
Mac leaned against the side of the car while Harm scanned the area. She glanced around, "I'm sure it's okay, Harm. They're probably waiting for their rocket-powered rollerskates to be delivered."
"Uh-huh," Harm answered, he looked down at her, "How can you be so casual about this?"
"Beats being hysterical," Mac said, watching Perez approach. They piled into the car and headed back to the office.
JAG office
Memphis NAS
0805 Local
Mac and the others looked up when Harm entered the conference room, trailed by Tyler. He looked like he'd had as rough a night as she had. She'd only managed to sleep in bits and snatches, finally giving up around 4 a.m. Ordinarily, she would have gone for a run, something that was out of the question for the time being. Instead, she dived back into the case, chasing ideas and theories around on paper. Around 6:00, she had cajoled the MP at her door into accompanying her to the JAG office. He'd stationed himself at the conference door until Perez and Bell had shown up at seven.
Proving the cliche about books and their covers, Bell turned out to be the morning person and Perez was the one not fit to talk to until he'd had his second cup of coffee. Singer arrived at 0705, looking surprised and chagrined that she hadn't been first to the office.
Mac gave Harm a smile and gestured with her thumb towards the coffeemaker. Perez had made the coffee - it was capable of waking the dead. She kept her expression bland at the look on Harm's face after the first sip. His eyes narrowed and he dropped into the chair next to her, "You could have warned me."
Mac regarded him innocently, "About what?"
"That someone managed to liquify solid rocket fuel." Harm took another careful sip and grimaced. "You know, this might have turned out better if water had actually been added to the coffeemaker."
"Wuss," Mac grinned. She turned her attention to the rest of the room. "Where are we right now with Jarvis?"
Perez put up a hand, "No luck with the motorpool logs, ma'am. Either all this stuff is still on base somewhere or they've found another way to transport it. I also checked the gate logs around the time of each 'acquisition', no unusual activity during the days or nights. I've assigned a couple of teams to start checking through the warehouses."
Mac nodded and looked at the others, "Anything else?"
Singer spoke up, "We've gone over Jarvis' service record," she indicated Ensign Tyler, "No one name is jumping out at us. Everything appears normal."
Mac drummed her fingers on the table, "Then I guess we keep looking. We know something's going on and I can't believe they're that good at covering their tracks." She acknowledged the nods around the table and watched for a moment as everyone dove back into the paperwork. Mac glanced at Harm and handed him a sheaf of papers from the ones in front of her. "Here, Tink's been running out copies of all sorts of requisitions and invoices. See if anything catches your eye."
The next several hours were spent reading and cross-checking a myriad of records. Harm leaned back and rubbed his eyes. Mac looked over and gave him a sympathetic smile before returning to her own stack of papers. He watched her for a second or two, she acted like everything was fine between them. At least she wasn't mad at him. He had half expected her to be; hell, he would've been if he'd been on the receiving end of his idiot behavior. Rubbing his neck, he leaned forward again and went back to reading.
A short time later, Mac looked over when she heard Harm grunt thoughtfully, "Found something?"
"Maybe," he replied, sorting rapidly through the papers. He pulled out another sheet and compared it to the one in front. By now, the others were watching him as well. Harm looked over at Perez, "Do you still have the motorpool logs?" The captain slid a folder across. He quickly scanned the pages, comparing it to the two papers in front of him and then smiled.
"Well?" Mac asked, voicing what everyone else was thinking.
"Fuel consumption. It goes up every two or three weeks but there's no increase in the odometer readings."
"They're falsifying the odometer records, sir?" Singer asked.
"They'd have to turn back the odometers each time, otherwise someone would notice the discrepancy. If they did it that often, someone should have caught it." Perez said.
"What if they've acquired their own trucks?" Harm saw Mac's eyes widen as she made the same jump he had. He waited while the others sorted it through.
"But how could they get the trucks on base, sir? Since 9/11, security's been really tight. Wouldn't somebody notice that they didn't belong?" Tyler said, looking at Perez for confirmation.
"Not if the trucks have been here all along," Mac replied. Harm gave a confirming nod.
"They stole transport trucks from the base and hid them in the motorpool? Is everyone over there blind?" Singer asked in disbelief.
"Who's in charge over there?" Harm asked.
"Master Chief Wilkins, sir." Perez answered promptly.
"We'll assume he's in on this," Mac said. "I think we need to visit the motorpool and take a look around."
She looked around in surprise at the dead silence that greeted her statement. Exasperated, she said, "Not me." She glared at Harm and Perez, "Not you two either." She cut off Harm's protest, "I'd rather not spook anyone with senior officers. I was thinking about Corporal Bell and Ensign Tyler." She looked over at them, "You two up for some recon?"
Tyler, still looking surprised, nodded enthusiastically. Bell merely smiled, the effect was chilling.
"Good," Mac said, "Now we need some innocuous reason for a JAG officer to visit the motorpool."
They hashed through a number of scenarios until they decided on an overzealous environmental group complaining about truck exhaust. Finally, Mac leaned back and said, "That should do it." She paused and looked around at the others, "Okay, it's 1122. Why don't we break for lunch and then you two," indicating Tyler and Bell, "can head over to the motorpool. The rest of us will meet back here at 1230."
She stood up, everyone else rising as well, and watched as they filed out of the room. Bell and Tyler already had their heads together, formulating their plans. They were quite a pair, Bell made the ensign look like he was ten years old. Mac looked over at Harm, "Buy you lunch, Sailor?"
"Sure," Harm smiled. He held the door for her and then waited while she locked it. Together, they walked out of the building. Singer was nowhere in sight, but Perez was standing just outside the doors talking to Bell and Tyler. After Harm and Mac returned their salutes, the three men fell in beside the two officers. Mac found herself in the center of the group. "Excuse me," she said, smiling slightly, "Did all of you practice this maneuver or was it just a spur of the moment thing?"
"We've been working on this for hours and hours, ma'am," Perez said seriously. "Wait 'til you see us on bicycles."
When they reached the cars, Bell and Tyler split off from the group. Mac watched them leave and then looked at Perez, "Any good places to eat besides the O club?"
"There's a nice little family-style restaurant just outside the base," Perez replied. "I'm meeting my wife there, if you two would care to join us."
"Sounds good, Captain," Harm said, glancing down to see Mac nodding also. He had half his attention on the surrounding area. He'd feel better when she was no longer out in the open. "You sure your wife won't mind?"
Perez shook his head as he held the back door open for Mac. Harm slid in beside her. Ten minutes later, they stopped in front of a small building. Getting out, Perez said, "I know it doesn't look like much, but Mother Jones can cook like nobody's business. I think she's been here since Christ was a corporal. Her husband was in the Corps. A gunnery sergeant, killed in Nam."
They walked in and stood in the doorway until Perez waved and started towards a petite redhead who was gesturing at them. When they reached the booth, Perez said, "Honey, I'd like you to meet Colonel Sarah MacKenzie and Commander Harmon Rabb. Commander, Colonel, this is my wife, Dr. Ellen Kelsey Perez." He smiled with obvious pride.
"Mac or Sarah," Mac said, smiling and extending her hand.
"Harm," Harm smiled as well. Dr. Perez was a pleasant-looking woman with a cheerful, outgoing manner.
"Please call me Ellie," she said, shaking hands with them both. "Shall we sit?" After everyone had settled and the waitress had taken their drink orders, she smiled, "I've been looking forward to meeting you both, Bobby's been obsessing over this case. It's nice to put faces to the names." Mac and Harm exchanged slightly uncomfortable glances. Ellie saw and laughed lightly, "Oh, he never goes into details about current investigations and I don't ask. Turnabout's fair play, I can't talk about my cases with him."
"What field are you in?" Harm asked.
"She's one of the shrinks over at the base hospital," Perez said happily.
Ellie gave her husband an amused look, "That's me, wig-picker extraordinaire. Someone has to keep Boo on the straight and narrow."
"Have you two been married long?" Mac smiled, they reminded her of Bud and Harriet. Beside her, Harm looked at Perez with a grin and mouthed 'Boo?'
Perez shrugged and said, "Short for Boomer. I'm pretty good with a riotgun." At the same time, Ellie was answering Mac, "About two and half years, but I was a camp follower for a year before that. My parents had a fit. I thought my dad would have apoplexy when we were married." With a mischievous gleam in her eyes, she leaned forward and stage whispered, "This is the first mixed marriage in the family."
"Ell," Perez said. Mac was looking unsure of how to respond. He looked at Mac and Harm, "She's fourth-generation Army brat and I'm the first Marine in the family." He arched an eyebrow at his wife, "Not being a Marine tends to give people inferiority complexes."
"I've noticed that," Mac agreed. Both Ellie and Harm snorted at the same time and smiled at each other. The rest of lunch went quickly while Ellie kept them laughing with tales of med school. Finally, Mac said, "It's 1213, we need to get back to the JAG office."
Ellie looked at her watch in surprise and then glanced at her husband, "Wow, you were right." She looked at Mac, "That must be handy and annoying at the same time."
"It is," Harm said dryly, earning himself an elbow in the side. Leaving the booth, they paid their checks and walked outside. Harm and Mac waited at their car while Perez escorted his wife to hers.
Mac leaned against the side of the car while Harm scanned the area. She glanced around, "I'm sure it's okay, Harm. They're probably waiting for their rocket-powered rollerskates to be delivered."
"Uh-huh," Harm answered, he looked down at her, "How can you be so casual about this?"
"Beats being hysterical," Mac said, watching Perez approach. They piled into the car and headed back to the office.
