Lady Jaye and Duke continued to meet in his office, going over phone and computer logs, conversations, backgrounds, files, and even rumors about the members of the team. They were stuck. Nothing jumped, or even creeped, out at them.
Duke put his elbows on the desk and rested his forehead in his hands. "There must be something. Why don't we have a single unusual phone call, one strange log on the computer in the middle of the night?"
"You said this wasn't going to be easy. It's only been two weeks. Something will show up."
He sighed, shaking his head. "All that's showing up is weird things in my food and interesting additives to my morning coffee."
She looked up in surprise, and he let out a frustrated laugh. "You're a popular team member. I've had no fewer than twelve people in my office trying to tell me very politely that I should back off. Well, some not so politely. I can deal with the cut up underwear and the spiders, but I do feel like a complete heel every time I yell at you."
Lady Jaye laughed. "Someone put underwear and spiders in your food?"
He smiled in return. "The spider was in my coffee this morning. I think someone's trying to tell me something."
"And the underwear?"
He made a disgusted face. "My omelet."
"Ugh. Sorry."
"Don't worry about it. It's nothing compared to what you've been going through." He looked her over carefully. "Are you okay with this?"
She nodded. "It would be pointless to have suffered this last two weeks for nothing. What are we planning next?"
"Well, how far do you think we can push the language without having someone calling Hawk to come in and break it up?"
"Well, I've seen some pretty decent arguments between you and Beach Head, and Shipwreck, well, he's the king of mumbling derogatory statements under his breath. I think we can take this pretty far before anyone starts talking court marshal."
"I agree. Here's what we'll do…"
Their behavior over the few days had everyone walking on eggshells. They had managed two pretty convincing arguments, though neither had quite started yelling. That would be step six.
Beach Head had refused to put Lady Jaye in PT anymore, telling Duke that if he wanted his soldiers in shape, they should all be out there together. Duke had inwardly winced, but agreed, ordering early morning work outs for the entire team. Those few who hadn't been mad at him before were now hardly speaking to him.
For her part, Lady Jaye started doing the best she could to alienate the others. They had discussed it, and realized that Duke could play the bad guy only so far. She began to instigate some of their arguments, acting openly disrespectful to not only Duke, but Beach Head as well. Not that that was a stretch.
Flint was growing more concerned as the days went by, nearly tearing his hair out trying to get her to curb her hostile behavior. She merely refused to discuss it with him, telling him that everything would be fine. She took great pains to be as attentive to him as possible, though there were more awkward silences between them than ever.
She could generally divert his attention with a kiss and other things, but she didn't think it would work much longer. He was firmly on her side, and yet she was doing everything in her power to get Duke as riled as possible. Flint might not be very pleased with his CO right now, but he could see that she was making things worse.
Cobra attacked two top-secret military installations that week, with one success and one defeat. The Joes had stopped the Crimson Twins from stealing research into biodefense, but had not been able to stop Zartan walking out of a medical facility carrying the only known sample of an experimental virus. That had everyone worried, and most of the Joe team had been called into active status.
Various Joes were in and out of the base, some of them new to the situation between Duke and Lady Jaye, finding headquarters a different place than it usually was. Most of them simply used avoidance and denial to deal with it, although Lady Jaye suspected that she and Duke were the main topic of conversation when neither of them were in the room.
The yelling started the third week. They had budgeted four weeks altogether, but the lack of response had them stepping up the pace.
To Duke's request for yet another file dug out of a remote storage room, Lady Jaye screamed, "What am I these days? Your freaking secretary?" Duke had responded by putting her on all-night watch duty, and she stormed out of the room. The other Joes in the room tried their best to act nonchalant, but Duke could hear rebellious whispers from the corners.
Not all of them were aimed against him. Several team members had commented upon Jaye's open hostility, justified or not. Step six was in effect.
He nearly lost it for real two days later when she yelled that he was a power-hungry, sexually repressed excuse for a commanding officer. Duke had managed to take the insults in stride so far, knowing that she was only bluffing, but it made him wonder where she came up with them.
He felt his face go deadly calm. "Into my office--now." he ordered her, striding out of the room. They seemed to do that a lot these days, between the two of them.
He closed the door and motioned her to stay silent. He removed the small scanner from his desk drawer, checking for bugs as he put on a show for any would-be listeners.
"How dare you insult me to my face in front of my men? You have been treading the line of insubordination now for days! I have it in mind to have you transferred permanently to—" He completed the circuit of the room and continued in a normal voice, "Ok, room's clean."
They sat in their chairs and Duke made a quick call to the comm room to make sure the hallway was free of eavesdroppers.
"This isn't working," Lady Jaye began.
"Obviously. I take it no one has approached you to see if your… ah, disillusionment… might harbor any great need to talk to Cobra?"
She shook her head. "Not a peep. If the traitor is on base, he's playing it close. I know the possibility that he might approach me was remote, but I was hoping not to have to continue with this. It's not exactly doing great things for my image around here."
He smiled. "Tell me about it. By the way, Flint finally came into my office today."
She winced. "I wondered when that would happen. Well?"
"Let's just say he's very worried about you. And extremely pissed at me. If he had to choose between the team and you…"
Lady Jaye shook her head. "We have talked about our priorities, and we've agreed that the team comes first."
Duke laughed. "Yeah, well, if you'd seen him today, you'd wonder."
Lady Jaye put her head down on the table. "Oh, this just sucks. Please tell me you recorded a midnight conversation with Destro last night and all we have to do is identify the other speaker's voice…" Her tone was light, but she was thinking about Flint. If she left the team… Would he try to follow her? Was he really willing to risk his career over her? The idea that she was hurting him this much… the traitor had a lot to answer for, and it was starting to get personal.
"No such luck." Duke banged his fist on the table. "Damn it! I feel like I've been looking at everyone sideways since this whole thing started. I can't even have a normal conversation with anyone anymore."
"Well, we could move things up even more."
He considered the idea. "I don't know. We're relying on Cobra to recruit you once you leave. What if they haven't heard, or don't care, that we're at each others' throats? Can I leave you sitting at home for a month waiting for Major Bludd to knock on your door? How could I possibly keep Flint in check for that long?"
He saw her face and immediately regretted the last sentence. "I'm sorry. I know that this is hard on both of you. I trust Flint with my life, and I wish we could let him in on this… But it wasn't my decision to make. Hey," he continued, "you should be happy that the guy's this crazy about you. If need be, I can put him on surveillance duty for the next two months. It might not keep him busy, but it would keep him away."
Lady Jaye sighed. "Not yet. Please. Sometimes I think I would be a walking nut-job right now if it weren't for him."
Duke let out a chuckle. "Aw. That's so cute. I may be sexually repressed, but at least I can live vicariously through you two."
"Uh, sorry about that comment. I was running out of things to yell at you."
"Just out of curiosity," Duke asked, "Where do you come up with it all? I mean, 'gun-toting masochistic tyrant?' You don't harbor any real hidden resentment I hope?"
She laughed. "Not a bit. I just think about how sore I am, picture Beach Head standing in front of me, and let fly."
"Oh, so Beach Head is sexually repressed?"
"More like everything-repressed. He does anger really well, though."
"Speaking of which," he looked at the clock, "I would hate to make you late for evening PT."
Lady Jaye stuck her tongue out at him. "You owe me big time for this. I expect to be waited on hand-and-foot when this is over."
She rose to leave. "So are we on for step seven tomorrow?"
He sighed and shook his head. "Let's give it until the weekend. Keep it a little calmer until then, okay? I don't want Airtight to have to scrape my remains off the floor just yet."