Part Forty-Two
Mac's Room
Base Hospital
Memphis NAS
0815 Local
Ellie walked over to the bedside. Mac had collapsed back against the pillows with her hand over her eyes. "Sarah?" she said quietly.
Mac dropped her hand and looked at Ellie wearily, "She's probably right, you know. The way I've been over-reacting, I should be in restraints."
The doctor tilted her head to one side, "Well, that's certainly an idea. Then we could charge people to come and gawk at fifty cents a pop. We'd clean up here at the hospital - you and your colleagues are on the way to becoming legend." Mac stared at her with a mixture of hurt and anger. Ellie calmly returned the regard, "Well, my idea has as much merit as yours. Another option would be to put all this in perspective. Unless, of course, you prefer wallowing in guilt."
Mac's eyes narrowed in anger, "What the hell would you know about it?"
Dr. Perez gazed at her for a long moment, "I know that most of what's happened isn't your fault unless you've somehow managed to acquire omnipotence along the way. You're not responsible for other people's choices."
"But I am responsible for my own actions and how they affect others."
"It's still their choice on how it will affect them." Ellie sighed, "This is a circular argument. Your actions are the choices you make in regard to the actions of others."
Mac was silent for a moment while she digested this. She looked back at the doctor, "The fact remains that I struck a fellow officer."
"An officer who chose not to review your case file thoroughly and chose to ignore warnings not to startle you. Did you make a conscious effort to flatten that particular officer or did you react to an unidentified threat?" Ellie crossed her arms and waited.
Mac sighed and ran her hand through her hair, "I just reacted."
Ellie grinned and dropped into the chair, "I'd have made a conscious effort. Lt. Michaels is a royal pain." She paused for a moment, "Who knows? I still might whack her one. You're here to recover from trauma, not have more added."
"I thought you shrinks didn't believe in violence," Mac said with a hint of a smile.
Glancing around, the petite redhead leaned in and stage-whispered, "That's mostly because we're a bunch of weenies." Settling back, she smiled, "I've always felt that humans are, to a certain extent, inherently violent. We're predators, it comes with the package. To keep from preying on each other, we've developed this complex, ever-evolving social structure. Unfortunately, it doesn't always take into account that survival is a genetic imperative that's hard-wired into our heads. So, on occasion, instinct collides with social mores and voila, guilt."
"Is that a professional opinion?" Mac smiled. Dr. Perez was one of those people who had a knack for making you feel better.
Ellie pretended to ponder this for a moment, "Hmmm, think of it as a personal interpretation. All professional opinions are required to use incomprehensible words of five syllables or more and be delivered with the appropriate solemnity." At a raised eyebrow from Mac, she held up both hands and grinned, "Honest, it's in the teeny-weeny print under the fine print on my license."
"Appropriate solemnity?" Mac said, amusement beginning to show. She could well believe the incomprehensible part.
Ellie assumed a serious demeanor although her eyes were dancing, "I have a Greek chorus ready to scramble at a moment's notice. They lend a certain panache to my prognoses."
Mac shook her head and chuckled. She was quiet for a few moments and then said, "So, Ellie, were you stopping in to say hi or did you instinctively know I was about to punch out a nurse?"
Putting an elbow on the arm of the chair, Ellie rested her chin, "It was partly personal, partly professional. Of course, if I'd known Lt. Michaels was going to be in here, I would have gotten here sooner." She smiled sweetly, "I might have flattened her for you." Growing a little more serious, she continued, "On the personal side, I wanted to make sure you were okay. Bobby gave me the salient points... you've impressed the hell out of him, by the way. He takes being a Marine very seriously. On the professional side, you've been through a helluva of a lot more than anyone should have to and if you need to talk or vent, I'd be happy to listen or recommend someone." She raised an eyebrow, "You realize that you do need to talk about this?"
Leaning back into the pillows, Mac sighed, "I'm learning." She looked at Ellie, "It's not easy. I'm not used to opening up about how I'm feeling and in the military, 'under psychiatric care' tends to be a career-breaker." She glanced down at her hands, "Unfortunately, this case has turned out to be tied to a previous one. One that's actually still on-going, although my part is pretty much done... that's what I thought anyway." Mac rubbed her eyes, "It got hairy for a while with the upshot being that I've been having some fairly horrendous nightmares. So, what I have been doing for the last month, is seeing a civilian therapist when I'm off-duty."
Ellie listened carefully, one finger tapping absently on her chin. Between what Bobby had said and her own observations, she thought she had a fairly accurate thumbnail sketch of the Colonel. If the nightmares had been bad enough to drive someone as fiercely self-reliant as Mac to a therapist, then 'hairy' was definitely an understatement. She nodded thoughtfully, "Good move." Ellie paused while she considered her next words, "You must have felt like you were going crazy." The guarded look that Mac gave her told she was on the right track. Smiling, Ellie said, "Well, that's normal."
Mac blinked, "Feeling crazy is normal?"
"Well, feeling normal after that kind of trauma would be crazy." Ellie's smile grew wider as she spread her hands and shrugged, "Nutty, isn't it?" Mac nodded silently in bemusement. Waving a hand, Ellie continued, "I'm glad you didn't let pride get in the way of smart. Having an objective third party to bounce this stuff off of will do you good." Glancing at her watch, she said, "Well, I've kept your Admiral cooling his heels long enough and if my father's any indicator, the higher the brass, the less the patience. I'll send him in, I believe he wanted to talk to you." As she stood up, she caught the look that flashed across Mac's face. Turning back, she said curiously, "Sarah?" Mac looked at her wordlessly, Ellie watched her for a moment and put up a hand, "Just a sec... ."
She walked out into the hallway. Chegwidden, who'd been pacing up and down the corridor, stopped when he saw her. "Doctor? Is she all right? Can I talk to her?"
Dr. Perez folded her arms and regarded him with a neutral gaze, "If you'll forgive the psycho-babble spin, 'all right' is a relative term. She's better about decking the Lieutenant but pretty tense about talking to you. You weren't planning on chewing her out for that little incident, were you?"
AJ scowled down at the Doctor, "No, I was not." He rubbed a hand over his head, "I do have a problem I need to discuss with the Colonel and I'd like to get to it."
Unfazed, Ellie continued to stare at the Admiral, "Would you mind telling me what the problem is?"
"Yes, I would mind." AJ snapped, "This is between Colonel MacKenzie and myself."
Ellie shrugged, "Fine, Admiral. Just keep it civil - she already has a lot to deal with. I'll let her know you're on your way in." She turned around and re-entered the room. Fifteen seconds later, she strode out. Looking at Chegwidden, she said sternly, "Don't forget to listen, Admiral. The Colonel has my pager number." She walked back down the hallway. AJ watched her leave, then squared his shoulders and entered Mac's room.
Military Police
Memphis NAS
0825 Local
Harm and Walters entered the building and looked around. Gunny looked at the Commander curiously as they headed for the elevator, "Why here and not JAG?"
Harm waited until they were on the elevator, "Because the leak had to come from here or JAG and because I trust Capt. Perez. I don't know if I trust Lt. Barker."
Walters' eyes narrowed, "Wouldn't it have been better to stay away from both places?"
"Maybe, but Perez can access personnel files without tipping our hand. If we're lucky, we'll catch the leak and the Acme Assassination Gang." Harm quit speaking as the doors opened and headed down the hallway to Perez's office. Rapping on the doorframe, he waited until a harried Capt. Perez looked up.
"Commander. Gunny." Perez stood up and motioned them in. "How are you feeling, sir?"
"A little sore here and there, Bobby." Harm smiled at the captain. He gestured towards Perez's desk, "It doesn't look like you've gotten any sort of a break."
Perez grimaced and nodded towards the papers mounded up on his desk, "I was supposed to take a couple of days leave but... ." He directed them to the chairs in front of his desk and then dropped back into his own with a sigh. "Ellie's been keeping me up-to-date on the hospital news. Cpl. Bell's recovering nicely and it sounds like the Colonel will be okay, too." He leaned back in his chair, "Tell me you're about to rescue me from this mountain of paperwork."
At Harm's glance, Walters got up and closed the office door. The Commander leaned forward, "Have you made any progress in finding the leak?"
Perez looked sheepish, "I'm afraid I haven't devoted a lot of time to it, sir." He looked at Harm and the Gunny, "Do either of you have any ideas? I know it has to one of my people or someone at JAG." He scowled briefly, the thought of one of his people betraying a trust did not sit well.
Harm looked over at Walters and then back at Perez, "We reached the same conclusion. Between the three of us, we can probably narrow it down." He started to tick off the pertinent points, "Okay, first - they had to be aware of our investigation but not the plan for that night. Second, they knew we were going to be back at JAG. Third, and there's two ways to go with this, either they knew Mac, Singer and Morris would be the last ones out or they were watching and just took advantage of the opportunity."
"We know it was Koslov's men who grabbed the Colonel and Lt. Singer," Gunny said thoughtfully, "Did he have the personnel, and more importantly, would he have risked stationing that many around the JAG building in hopes of an opportunity? How many were there?"
"Three, according to Singer," Perez answered. "I can't see Koslov taking that kind of chance without knowing there'd be a definite payoff. He went with a minimum number of men, too. That's not smart unless he already knew for sure how many people he'd be dealing with." He thumped a fist on his desk, "Goddammit, that makes it one of my people."
Harm looked at him sympathetically, "Which of your people would have known about that night?"
The Captain sighed, "Everyone?" Harm nodded. "Well... me, Cpl. Bell, PFC Morris, Lt. Grafton and Staff Sergeant Eddings. Grafton's my exec and Eddings handles the shift schedules," Perez concluded.
"Grafton was running things in your absence?" Harm said. At Perez's affirmative, he continued, "So he would have been aware of the Admiral and Gunny heading for the militia base. Koslov was down there. If he was working for Koslov, wouldn't he have tried to contact him and warn him about the Admiral?"
Perez looked grim, "So Eddings is the chief suspect."
Harm nodded, "The question is, is he the only one or does he work with anyone else? Maybe we can set something up to find out." Harm looked at Perez, "We can hash that out a little later. I've also got a theory about the identity of our inept assassins. I need to pull some personnel records without raising any flags."
Perez looked at him in pleased surprise, this was definitely better news, "Great!" He swung towards his computer, "Give me a moment to access the files." He busily tapped away at the keyboard for a few minutes and then sat back, "Okay, we're in. Who are we looking for?"
Harm smiled, "Alan Jarvis."
Mac's Room
Base Hospital
Memphis NAS
0815 Local
Ellie walked over to the bedside. Mac had collapsed back against the pillows with her hand over her eyes. "Sarah?" she said quietly.
Mac dropped her hand and looked at Ellie wearily, "She's probably right, you know. The way I've been over-reacting, I should be in restraints."
The doctor tilted her head to one side, "Well, that's certainly an idea. Then we could charge people to come and gawk at fifty cents a pop. We'd clean up here at the hospital - you and your colleagues are on the way to becoming legend." Mac stared at her with a mixture of hurt and anger. Ellie calmly returned the regard, "Well, my idea has as much merit as yours. Another option would be to put all this in perspective. Unless, of course, you prefer wallowing in guilt."
Mac's eyes narrowed in anger, "What the hell would you know about it?"
Dr. Perez gazed at her for a long moment, "I know that most of what's happened isn't your fault unless you've somehow managed to acquire omnipotence along the way. You're not responsible for other people's choices."
"But I am responsible for my own actions and how they affect others."
"It's still their choice on how it will affect them." Ellie sighed, "This is a circular argument. Your actions are the choices you make in regard to the actions of others."
Mac was silent for a moment while she digested this. She looked back at the doctor, "The fact remains that I struck a fellow officer."
"An officer who chose not to review your case file thoroughly and chose to ignore warnings not to startle you. Did you make a conscious effort to flatten that particular officer or did you react to an unidentified threat?" Ellie crossed her arms and waited.
Mac sighed and ran her hand through her hair, "I just reacted."
Ellie grinned and dropped into the chair, "I'd have made a conscious effort. Lt. Michaels is a royal pain." She paused for a moment, "Who knows? I still might whack her one. You're here to recover from trauma, not have more added."
"I thought you shrinks didn't believe in violence," Mac said with a hint of a smile.
Glancing around, the petite redhead leaned in and stage-whispered, "That's mostly because we're a bunch of weenies." Settling back, she smiled, "I've always felt that humans are, to a certain extent, inherently violent. We're predators, it comes with the package. To keep from preying on each other, we've developed this complex, ever-evolving social structure. Unfortunately, it doesn't always take into account that survival is a genetic imperative that's hard-wired into our heads. So, on occasion, instinct collides with social mores and voila, guilt."
"Is that a professional opinion?" Mac smiled. Dr. Perez was one of those people who had a knack for making you feel better.
Ellie pretended to ponder this for a moment, "Hmmm, think of it as a personal interpretation. All professional opinions are required to use incomprehensible words of five syllables or more and be delivered with the appropriate solemnity." At a raised eyebrow from Mac, she held up both hands and grinned, "Honest, it's in the teeny-weeny print under the fine print on my license."
"Appropriate solemnity?" Mac said, amusement beginning to show. She could well believe the incomprehensible part.
Ellie assumed a serious demeanor although her eyes were dancing, "I have a Greek chorus ready to scramble at a moment's notice. They lend a certain panache to my prognoses."
Mac shook her head and chuckled. She was quiet for a few moments and then said, "So, Ellie, were you stopping in to say hi or did you instinctively know I was about to punch out a nurse?"
Putting an elbow on the arm of the chair, Ellie rested her chin, "It was partly personal, partly professional. Of course, if I'd known Lt. Michaels was going to be in here, I would have gotten here sooner." She smiled sweetly, "I might have flattened her for you." Growing a little more serious, she continued, "On the personal side, I wanted to make sure you were okay. Bobby gave me the salient points... you've impressed the hell out of him, by the way. He takes being a Marine very seriously. On the professional side, you've been through a helluva of a lot more than anyone should have to and if you need to talk or vent, I'd be happy to listen or recommend someone." She raised an eyebrow, "You realize that you do need to talk about this?"
Leaning back into the pillows, Mac sighed, "I'm learning." She looked at Ellie, "It's not easy. I'm not used to opening up about how I'm feeling and in the military, 'under psychiatric care' tends to be a career-breaker." She glanced down at her hands, "Unfortunately, this case has turned out to be tied to a previous one. One that's actually still on-going, although my part is pretty much done... that's what I thought anyway." Mac rubbed her eyes, "It got hairy for a while with the upshot being that I've been having some fairly horrendous nightmares. So, what I have been doing for the last month, is seeing a civilian therapist when I'm off-duty."
Ellie listened carefully, one finger tapping absently on her chin. Between what Bobby had said and her own observations, she thought she had a fairly accurate thumbnail sketch of the Colonel. If the nightmares had been bad enough to drive someone as fiercely self-reliant as Mac to a therapist, then 'hairy' was definitely an understatement. She nodded thoughtfully, "Good move." Ellie paused while she considered her next words, "You must have felt like you were going crazy." The guarded look that Mac gave her told she was on the right track. Smiling, Ellie said, "Well, that's normal."
Mac blinked, "Feeling crazy is normal?"
"Well, feeling normal after that kind of trauma would be crazy." Ellie's smile grew wider as she spread her hands and shrugged, "Nutty, isn't it?" Mac nodded silently in bemusement. Waving a hand, Ellie continued, "I'm glad you didn't let pride get in the way of smart. Having an objective third party to bounce this stuff off of will do you good." Glancing at her watch, she said, "Well, I've kept your Admiral cooling his heels long enough and if my father's any indicator, the higher the brass, the less the patience. I'll send him in, I believe he wanted to talk to you." As she stood up, she caught the look that flashed across Mac's face. Turning back, she said curiously, "Sarah?" Mac looked at her wordlessly, Ellie watched her for a moment and put up a hand, "Just a sec... ."
She walked out into the hallway. Chegwidden, who'd been pacing up and down the corridor, stopped when he saw her. "Doctor? Is she all right? Can I talk to her?"
Dr. Perez folded her arms and regarded him with a neutral gaze, "If you'll forgive the psycho-babble spin, 'all right' is a relative term. She's better about decking the Lieutenant but pretty tense about talking to you. You weren't planning on chewing her out for that little incident, were you?"
AJ scowled down at the Doctor, "No, I was not." He rubbed a hand over his head, "I do have a problem I need to discuss with the Colonel and I'd like to get to it."
Unfazed, Ellie continued to stare at the Admiral, "Would you mind telling me what the problem is?"
"Yes, I would mind." AJ snapped, "This is between Colonel MacKenzie and myself."
Ellie shrugged, "Fine, Admiral. Just keep it civil - she already has a lot to deal with. I'll let her know you're on your way in." She turned around and re-entered the room. Fifteen seconds later, she strode out. Looking at Chegwidden, she said sternly, "Don't forget to listen, Admiral. The Colonel has my pager number." She walked back down the hallway. AJ watched her leave, then squared his shoulders and entered Mac's room.
Military Police
Memphis NAS
0825 Local
Harm and Walters entered the building and looked around. Gunny looked at the Commander curiously as they headed for the elevator, "Why here and not JAG?"
Harm waited until they were on the elevator, "Because the leak had to come from here or JAG and because I trust Capt. Perez. I don't know if I trust Lt. Barker."
Walters' eyes narrowed, "Wouldn't it have been better to stay away from both places?"
"Maybe, but Perez can access personnel files without tipping our hand. If we're lucky, we'll catch the leak and the Acme Assassination Gang." Harm quit speaking as the doors opened and headed down the hallway to Perez's office. Rapping on the doorframe, he waited until a harried Capt. Perez looked up.
"Commander. Gunny." Perez stood up and motioned them in. "How are you feeling, sir?"
"A little sore here and there, Bobby." Harm smiled at the captain. He gestured towards Perez's desk, "It doesn't look like you've gotten any sort of a break."
Perez grimaced and nodded towards the papers mounded up on his desk, "I was supposed to take a couple of days leave but... ." He directed them to the chairs in front of his desk and then dropped back into his own with a sigh. "Ellie's been keeping me up-to-date on the hospital news. Cpl. Bell's recovering nicely and it sounds like the Colonel will be okay, too." He leaned back in his chair, "Tell me you're about to rescue me from this mountain of paperwork."
At Harm's glance, Walters got up and closed the office door. The Commander leaned forward, "Have you made any progress in finding the leak?"
Perez looked sheepish, "I'm afraid I haven't devoted a lot of time to it, sir." He looked at Harm and the Gunny, "Do either of you have any ideas? I know it has to one of my people or someone at JAG." He scowled briefly, the thought of one of his people betraying a trust did not sit well.
Harm looked over at Walters and then back at Perez, "We reached the same conclusion. Between the three of us, we can probably narrow it down." He started to tick off the pertinent points, "Okay, first - they had to be aware of our investigation but not the plan for that night. Second, they knew we were going to be back at JAG. Third, and there's two ways to go with this, either they knew Mac, Singer and Morris would be the last ones out or they were watching and just took advantage of the opportunity."
"We know it was Koslov's men who grabbed the Colonel and Lt. Singer," Gunny said thoughtfully, "Did he have the personnel, and more importantly, would he have risked stationing that many around the JAG building in hopes of an opportunity? How many were there?"
"Three, according to Singer," Perez answered. "I can't see Koslov taking that kind of chance without knowing there'd be a definite payoff. He went with a minimum number of men, too. That's not smart unless he already knew for sure how many people he'd be dealing with." He thumped a fist on his desk, "Goddammit, that makes it one of my people."
Harm looked at him sympathetically, "Which of your people would have known about that night?"
The Captain sighed, "Everyone?" Harm nodded. "Well... me, Cpl. Bell, PFC Morris, Lt. Grafton and Staff Sergeant Eddings. Grafton's my exec and Eddings handles the shift schedules," Perez concluded.
"Grafton was running things in your absence?" Harm said. At Perez's affirmative, he continued, "So he would have been aware of the Admiral and Gunny heading for the militia base. Koslov was down there. If he was working for Koslov, wouldn't he have tried to contact him and warn him about the Admiral?"
Perez looked grim, "So Eddings is the chief suspect."
Harm nodded, "The question is, is he the only one or does he work with anyone else? Maybe we can set something up to find out." Harm looked at Perez, "We can hash that out a little later. I've also got a theory about the identity of our inept assassins. I need to pull some personnel records without raising any flags."
Perez looked at him in pleased surprise, this was definitely better news, "Great!" He swung towards his computer, "Give me a moment to access the files." He busily tapped away at the keyboard for a few minutes and then sat back, "Okay, we're in. Who are we looking for?"
Harm smiled, "Alan Jarvis."
