Chapter 10

Sometimes it's just a Crap Shoot

Dusty stood outside the old wooden clapboard dorms held over from the base's World War Two history. The old clapboard barracks set farthest from the airfield were assigned to the Soviet teams. A bouquet of desert windflowers held nervously in his hand.
/He'd spent the last two hours combing the Mohave desert for the beautiful, exotic blooms. He wanted to surprise the bewitching Czechoslovakian sniper with native flowers. Dusty wanted to share the beauty of the desert he'd grown up with in Arizona
/with her. Despite being from the wrong side of the Iron Curtain, he couldn't help being attracted to the Communist beauty. He never really got over her after the Cobra E.T. debacle. This time, on his home turf, he was bound and determined to get
a

/date.

It was eight in the morning and the helicopter crews were due on the flight line by nine with a briefing promptly at eight-thirty so he was expecting the Soviet bombshell any minute. For all his bravado in the desert, with this girl, she still made him
/slightly nervous. Not that he'd ever show it.

"Dusty?" An Eastern European liltingvoice called from behind him.

"Daina" Dusty turned to face the raven haired beauty in her stiffy starched Czechoslovakian Army uniform.

"Vat iz diz?" She indicated to the flowers in his hand

"Oh, these are for you. Desert roses, desert lavender, desert lilies, and the bear paw poppy. I found them just for you."

"Dey are wery pretty. Dank dyu" She took the proferred flowers, smiled and inhaled the fragrance from the blooms.

"I was wondering, would you like to have dinner with me, tonight." Dusty asked.

"I vould have to ask Colonel Brekhov. But, da, I vould love to have dinner vith you Dusty." Daina replied with a smile. "Da Colonel, he likes to have meetings at night."

"Ah, General Hawk lets us have the nights to ourselves." Dusty responded.

"I vish Colonel Brekhov vould allow dat." She sighed.

"Daina, ve must get to briefing." Horror show reminded. The five Soviet troops that exited after Daina started walking towards the waiting blue Air Force bus.

"Ano, samozrejme " She replied in Czech. "Dusty, I vill let you know, vat Colonel Brekhov plans for tonight." She smiled. "Dank dyu for da pretty flowers." She walked onto the bus.

Dusty smiled with some hope as he followed her onto the bus bound for the operations shack.

Inside General Hawk's Office at Nellis

"Lieutenant, care to explain what happened out there?" Her father narrowed his eyes at his daughter, a newly minted Air Force pilot. She was standing ramrod straight.

"Sir, permission to ask if you're asking as my commanding officer or as my father?" Kerry asked , her eyes never leaving a spot on the wall behind him.

"Both." Hawk answered leaning back in his chair, steepling his hands, clearly waiting for an answer.

"Sir, Captain Wheeldon and I dated while I was in flight school." She answered. "I came in to the operations shack to report for duty, fonnd Captain Wheeldon flirting with that Lieutenant?P

"Was Captain Wheeldon your instructor?P

"No sir. He was assigned to a different squadron."

"Did you know he was married?"

"No, sir!" Kerry responded.

"So, in other words, he deceived you." Hawk asked, looking his daughter in the eyes.

"Sir, yes sir. I wasn't even aware he had been seeing another girl, sir."

"Very well. I can't punish you for an adulterous affair. However, I can punish you for your actions once you learned of the affair." Hawk leaned back in his chair. "You will be docked one month's pay." Her mouth dropped. It was unfair. Wheeldon was the
/one who deceived her, and she was paying the price. "Dismissed." She saluted and turned an about face on her heels and started to depart. "Kerry, speaking as your father. Next time kick harder or punch his lights out." He smiled.

"Yes, sir." Kerry laughed. "Daddy?"

"Yes, sweetie."

"I love you."

"I love you too. But, you're still being punished."

"I know". She smiled as she walked over and kissed him on the head.

"Send in the Captain and his commander."

"Yes, sir."

Kerry walked out and met Wheeldon in the hallway.

"Your turn." She raised her nose in the air indignantly.

"Bitch." Wheeldon muttered under his breath and eliciting a look of disapproval from his commanding officer. Walking through the office door, he and Pete Bradley went in. Both men stood at attention in front of Hawk, who stared them both down.

"Colonel Bradley are you aware of why we're here?" Hawk asked his brother-in-law.

"All I've been told is that Captain Wheeldon was caught by a girlfriend making a pass at another woman." Bradley responded.

"Captain Wheeldon, not only made a pass at a subordinate officer, but was having an affair with Lieutenant Abernathy while she was in flight school." Hawk told his brother-in-law.

"Is this true, Captain?" Bradley asked.

"Sir, respectfully. My personal life is personal."

"Not when, first of all, you are making passes at subordinates while on base and in uniform. And second, it is against regulation for any instructor to have an inappropriate relationship with a student." Bradley pointed out. "While the affair did not
/take place under my command, I will still take the appropriate action. Is that understood. "

"Yes, sir" Wheeldon responded.

"Consider yourself under investigation and confined to the Security Police center for possible courts martial."

"Wait? Why am I being courts martialled and not Lieutenant Abernathy, she was just as willing a participant as I, sir." He snarled the last, his voice filled with disdain for the general officer seated behind the desk.

"For two reasons. First, Captain, she was not found trying to get a date while on duty. Second, She is not knowingly committing adultery and obviously multiple times. You are married, correct?" This time it was Bradley that answered. "My niece knows better,
/and so should you, Captain" Pete added. "Now, get out of here before I add insubordination to the charges of rape and carnal knowledge and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman."

"With all due respect, Lieutenant Abernathy was a willing participant."

"Are you suggesting, Captain that an attorney does not know the law?" Bradley responded.

"Sir, in this case,yes."

Pete pulled out a copy of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and threw it at the insubordinate and indignant Captain. "Here's some light reading for you, Captain. I suggest you payparticular attention to Articles 89, 120 and 133. Those are your

current charges. One of which carries the possibility of the penalty of death. Take a guess at which one."

"But, sir…." Bradley cut him off by calling for the security police to take Wheeldon away.

"So, what did you do about Kerry?" Pete said as he slid into the chair in front of Hawk's desk.

"Took away one month's pay. It's not like she needs it while on my team. We pretty much give everything she'll need." Hawk answered leaning back in his chair.

"Did she know about that guy being married?"

"She says no."

"You believe her?"

"She's my daughter, Pete."

"And she's my niece, Clay. But, even I know she's been known to try to get out of trouble."

"She's grown up a lot since the academy, time in the joes and flight school."

"Good enough for me." Pete smiled, just as the phone rang.

"General Abernathy?" Ace opened the door. "Doc called from the base."