A/N: So sorry for not updating sooner. It's all my fault for not writing the stories mac asks me to write, I swear. I hope she was happy enough about "so to speak" to keep betaing the chapters I throw at her...
Two
"So, get anything from those files, Eliot?" Nate asks him and he frowns. He's seen some pretty strange personal records but these two… seem to top everything else. He'd been trying to make sense of them, had even tried some of the tricks he'd picked up from Hardison about online research… but so far he'd come up with almost nothing. Well, nothing that could explain the strange career change both of them undertook – the Major in 2003, the Captain in 2005 – that is.
But yeah, the team expects something from him; the team will get something from him. He takes the remote and pulls the Major's file on the screen first. "Not much. The Major joined in 1990, graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1994 as one of the top three of his class," along with Williamson… and a certain other Air Force officer he used to know, as he'd noticed quite surprised but that's not of importance, anyway, "did some stints as a pilot on various bases, was deployed… Until he made Major, he was some kind of shooting star. See, he was promoted to First Lieutenant in 1996, got promoted to Captain in 1998 and got promoted to Major in 2003. But since then… no further promotions."
He takes a look around the hotel suite's seating area and finds the faces of his team members in various stages of confusion and wariness. In the end, it's Sophie who says, "Maybe he fell from someone's grace?"
Yeah… good point. He nods. "Thought so as well. The year he was promoted to Major, he got transferred to something called 'deep space telemetry', based in Colorado Springs. Hasn't been transferred out of it since then."
Hardison snorts. "Sounds like some real punishment for the flyboy."
"Yes, it does. I wonder what he did," Parker interjects and for some reason he gets the feeling that Hardison meant it as a joke but Parker does have an inkling as to what something like that could mean for someone who'd had the privilege of flying fighter jets. It does astound him a little that Parker of all people might be able to relate to someone so very different from her.
Giving her an appreciative look even when she's still looking intently on the screen, he continues, "Me too, mostly because he's got a Master of Science in Geology. That's about as far away from 'deep space telemetry' as the Earth is from the moon. That transfer positively did not happen because of his academic qualifications."
Nate is the next one to speak up. "What about her?" Ah yeah, the Captain… he pulls up her file on the screen and half waits for someone to make a com…
"Oh, she looks like someone we know." Yep, there they go. And of course it had to be Parker who picked up on the likeness between the Captain and Aimée and actually voiced it.
Ignoring that question – and hoping Parker will leave it alone – he tries to sound as casual as he'd sounded when he'd given them his report on the Major's files. "She got into the Corps through NROTC…" cue confused faces all around and him barely refraining from sighing, "that's the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps. It's a training and scholarship program at colleges and universities. When the participants graduate, they have to spend a certain amount of time either in the Navy or in the Marine Corps." Ah yeah, that more or less cleared up most of the confusion… not Parker's, apparently since she just raised her hand.
Right now, though, he does not want to deal with any of her questions so silently apologizing he simply goes on, "Anyway… our young Captain here enrolled at George Washington University in 1999 and graduated in 2002, being commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. She was promoted to First Lieutenant in 2005 and promoted to Captain in 2009, after she got transferred to that 'deep space telemetry' thing."
Sophie bends her head a little and for a moment he's afraid she might comment on the likeness between the Captain and Aimée but she just says, "Why did they put her there?"
Yeah, he'd wondered about that as well. He shrugs. "No idea. Can't be because of her expertise, either. She's got a Master of Science in Chemistry and all her postings had something to do with explosives. Not exactly the kind of girl you'd put on some space research thing." And now… the final blow. "But that's not even the weirdest thing about this."
Yep, absolute incomprehension on Sophie's, Hardison's and Parker's face. Not so much on Nate's because he'd held true and had told him briefly why the Captain being married to the Major just doesn't make any sense. But yeah, let's just start at the beginning, huh? "Number one: I have never, ever heard of a permanent joint operation between the USAF and the USMC before, most of all not on something space related. That's the Air Force's territory, fair and square. Second thing: according to the client the Captain is a direct subordinate to the Major. They should have never gotten the permission to marry. Hell, they should have been court-martialed the moment someone got wind of them getting a little too friendly with each other."
Parker's hand shoots up again. He rolls his eyes. "Yes, Parker?"
"Excuse me if I got that wrong but… they would have gotten shot for sleeping with each other?" Wha… oh right. Leave it to Parker to automatically connect 'court-martial' with 'execution squad'. He resists a sigh.
"No, they wouldn't. She probably would have gotten a slap on the wrist and a demotion and he'd probably gotten a dishonorable discharge. Well, in the best of cases, anyway." And only in the very best of cases. Seriously, sleeping with a subordinate… what had that guy been thinking? And what had she been thinking? Maybe they'd both been banished to 'deep space telemetry' because of their stupidity or something.
And no, this whole annoyance thing doesn't have anything to do with the fact that the Captain looks scarily much like Aimée and that she's married to some fighter pilot shooting star who'd gotten himself shot down – so to speak – and banned to Colorado Springs for God knows what. He's about to make a comment on the lack of brains on both their parts but Nate interferes. "Right. Is there anything else you've got on them?"
Resisting a sigh, he shakes his head. "No, not yet." At that, Nate only nods with a thoughtful look on his face and then turns to Hardison.
"Okay. You got anything on the two spooks?" Immediately, Hardison's face lights up and he tosses the hacker the remote, glad to be off the hook for now. He's quite good at digging stuff up – after all, he's a retrieval specialist – but he's not really keen on having to talk more than necessary. And that presentation just felt like he'd been babbling way too much.
On the screen, documents and pictures keep popping up as Hardison rifles through his files. Then he pulls up another personal record. "Spook number one. Goes by the name of Anthony DuValle and is – according to this thing here – an agent of the DOD, just like his buddy Carl Hinston here." Another personal record shows up on the screen and he can tell just after a few moments of looking at it that both are fakes, acting as a front for something else. He considers pointing it out to the team but figures Hardison has it covered. There will be plenty of other opportunities to rile him up later, anyway.
"Doesn't say which department they work for, though. First sign there's hinky stuff going on here." Ah, dammit.
He can't help raising his eyebrow and throwing in, "Oh, you mean two spooks following an honest, hard-working Air Force officer wasn't a sign that something is wrong here?" It makes Nate and Sophie roll their eyes, Hardison frown… and Parker grin, though she really tries her best not to let it show… well, much.
"I was gettin' to that, alright? I got it covered." All he does is give Hardison one of those looks that say 'Oh, I'm sure you do,' and mean 'Like hell you do.' Sadly, though, Hardison chooses to ignore it for now. "I tried to find out more through their cell phones but everything on it got wiped only minutes after you left the coffee shop. Someone's not eager to share their little secrets." Damn, another dead end. But if anything, it seems to have made Hardison really happy.
"I also tried to hack the Pentagon's servers to see if I could find anything there… but I got nothing. Not even some random e-mail or memo. It's like they don't even exist at the DOD." Which they probably don't and he's about to add it when Hardison throws him an evil look, "So I figured they either don't work for the DOD or belong to some super sekkrit department, like Area 51 or something."
"Could have told you that as well." Another evil look and he can't help grinning back… but only until both Sophie and Nate clear their throats and narrow their eyes. What? But hey, at least Parker's having fun, like she always does when Hardison and he go at each others' throats.
"Ey, man, I'm trying to work here, okay?" He shrugs, barely holding back another grin.
Nate clears his throat again, this time a little louder. "Is there anything else you found about them?"
Hardison almost sighs. "Nah. Tried to run their pictures through every data base I know but nothing came up."
"Right." Nate runs a hand through his hair and it's one of the very few moments where it shows through that the time he had to pass in jail cost him more than he usually lets on. It's as if… it made him tire earlier, made him more careful… taking his time before making a decision. He's not quite sure if he likes that, despite his worries about Nate's out-of-the-guts decisions before he got caught. "Keep working on it, though. They have to turn up somewhere."
For a moment, it's silent around the table, until Sophie speaks up. "So… what do we do now?"
Again, there's silence and Nate leaning back and staring off into space just a tad too long. He catches Sophie looking at him questioningly and can't do anything else than shrug his shoulders as discreetly as possible. Then, thankfully, Nate blinks and wears that grin that's just a little bit too confident. The one he always has when a plan starts to form in his head. "So, since it looks like we won't get any further here… everyone get their flower beads ready? We're going to San Francisco."
Parker's face lights up at that and he wonders why that is but before she gets to say something, Sophie barges in, wearing a frown on her face. "Nate… please tell me we're not going to steal another wedding."
He smirks at her. "And what would be so bad about that?"
"Everyone's still reeling from your godawful speech from the last one." Hit and sunk. And he's glad Sophie got to say it before he did because in all honesty… Sophie's the only one in the team who can get away with it. Well, maybe apart from Parker but that's just because Parker still hasn't quite grasped the concept of 'if you don't have anything nice to say, better not say anything at all.'
Nate, though, seems to have recovered from that broadside amazingly fast because he just shrugs nonchalantly and replies, "Good thing, then, that I don't like recycling old plans. Now come on, I always wanted to see one of those old-fashioned formal military weddings."
He could tell Nate now that he had and that there's nothing special about that kind of wedding but that would mean he'd have to tell him why he'd been there and that's not really the kind of thing he wants to talk about. To anyone. Ever.
So in the end, he just nods and gets up with the rest of the team to go packing. But he doesn't get very far because Parker says, her head bent a little to the side, as if she's pondering something intently, "Eliot? What's so special about a military wedding?" And she looks at him as if she knows he's the person who'd know best about it… because he's got some personal experience. How the hell does she do that?
For a moment, he's tempted to simply brush past her but knowing Parker… she'd just bring it up at some other random moment, until he'd finally give in and tell him so telling her now is his best option. He sighs. Oh well.
