Author: Ali Vali
Category: LGBT
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“That’s it for today,” Berkley said, and everyone saluted before they exited the conference room. They’d already had dinner, but it was too early to turn in. Berkley locked the door before she sat next to her but didn’t touch her. “Is there some specific reason you look pissed?”
“Sorry. I’m not mad,” she said, taking Berkley’s hand because she couldn’t resist the urge to feel some part of her. They hadn’t had much time alone since they’d sailed, and she missed the closeness of the last year. Granted, they’d been working, but they’d slept together every night and woke up next to each other every morning. “Not with you anyway.”
“Ah, so you’re a little pissed.”
“I keep looking at Jin, and I don’t know what to do with myself.”
Berkley leaned over and kissed the side of her neck. “Are you trying to make me jealous?”
“I don’t have a crush, baby. It’s more like I want to punch her in the throat. She shot you down.” Admitting it out loud made her sound childish, but talking about it might help.
“It’s true, and it is hard to wrap my head around the fact that she’s here, but I’m confident she hates these people more than she wants to betray us.” Berkley kissed her lips next. “We need her to find the target we’re after and to speak for us if we’re spotted. I don’t know a word of Korean, and I’d like to keep it that way.”
“I know that on a deep level, but she could’ve taken you away from me,” she said, caressing Berkley’s cheek. “I miss you, Cletus.”
“Want me to read you some poetry? I brought a book with me.”
She laughed, and Berkley joined her. “Poetry? Really?”
“It’s more a book of limericks, and it might give you some ideas if I get through enough pages.”
“Think you can stay awake long enough for me to set the night watch and navigation?” She stood and leaned over Berkley so she could kiss her.
“Go ahead, but make it snappy. I miss you too, darlin’.”
She smiled when Berkley saluted her before heading for her room. At their current speed, they’d be in position in another week and a half, so she was praying for calm seas. She didn’t want to send Berkley into danger any sooner than she had to, but once they arrived, they could at least complete their mission.
The only way to make herself feel better was to enjoy as much time with Berkley as she could, so after another hour of work, she’d do just that. She stepped out and started for the bridge, finding the corridors fairly quiet, but she heard conversation from some of the open doors and saw Devin headed her way.
“Anything to report, Commander?”
“All’s quiet, ma’am, and the weather report is clear so far. It would’ve been easier to start this cruise from the West Coast, but maybe we can sightsee on the way back if we take the same route,” he joked as he turned and walked with her.
“I’ll see what we can manage, and we can both tick some stuff off our bucket lists.” She was chuckling when she noticed a petty officer walking toward them. The man didn’t look familiar, and he appeared out of place and strange, with a towel draped over his hands. “Who is that?”
Devin didn’t answer right away as he placed his hand on the holster under his arm and slowly started to withdraw it. “Halt, and raise your hands slowly,” Devin ordered him.
Aidan glanced at Devin briefly, wondering what the hell he was doing, but then the guy dropped the towel and she saw the pistol in his hand. She’d been so worried and focused on Berkley, she hadn’t thought about any real danger to herself. Whoever this guy was, he seemed ready to die as long as he was able to take them with him.
“Drop your weapon,” Devin said, raising his. The guy raised his as well, and Aidan held her breath.
The man’s arm suddenly jerked up, and he fired, hitting the ceiling and causing the bullet to ricochet but not hit anything. He then arched forward at an odd angle before the gun fell from his hand, making a clanging noise when it hit the metal floor, but the sound was almost drowned out by the guy’s moans. Devin was on him before their would-be assassin could pull the knife sticking out of his side free, but Aidan doubted the woman who’d put it there would’ve allowed it.
“Thank you, Jin,” Aidan said as Devin radioed for backup. “I truly appreciate your timing.”
“I am glad I was here, but you should thank Captain Levine. She told us all to take turns watching out for you,” Jin said softly. “Tonight was my turn, but this was not to prove myself, Captain. I realize what happened before might make you uncomfortable, but I am only here for some sense of justice for everything that was stolen from me.”
“Please call me Aidan, and Berkley told me the same thing about why you came with us. Please forgive me for any lingering doubts,” she said, and Jin seemed to study her thoughtfully.
“We all have doubts when someone we love is harmed,” Jin said for only her to hear, and it was a bizarre conversation to have while her people subdued the guy on the ground and the medics tended to his knife wound. “Like I said before, I am here because I want to help someone I care about, if she is still alive. That I was able to keep you from getting hurt makes me happy.” Jin stood back and bowed slightly.
“If he doesn’t need surgery, lock him up and meet me in my office,” she said to Devin.
“What the hell?” she heard Berkley say as she walked rapidly toward them, and Aidan put her hands up to stop her from getting near the guy.
“Give me an hour, and I’ll have everything you need,” Devin said.
“Let’s try for twenty minutes,” Berkley said, holding the gun the guy had used. It wasn’t military issue and was too shiny to be practical for everyday use. “This is either a gift from a friend with tacky taste or a showpiece for some wannabe pimp.”
At Berkley’s comment, the guy struggled against the MPs, and Aidan figured Berkley had decided to insult him instead of punch him in the face. Berkley was at times a rule breaker, but hitting someone who was being held down wasn’t her lover’s style. She did, though, enjoy being the subject of Berkley’s overprotectiveness, and she’d been that way from the very beginning.
* * *
Hawaii Nine Years Earlier
After a week of rampant screwups throughout the base, their commanding officers were making everyone run the obstacle courses until they either threw up or passed out from the heat. Aidan refused to let that happen if she could help it, so she was pacing herself as she started her fourth round. She reached the wall and was wiping her hands on the sides of her shorts so the ropes wouldn’t slip and blister her palms. It was hard to keep them dry for this part since the heat was unrelenting.
Berkley was almost to the top, her shirt and shorts soaked with sweat, but from the look of her, she could do this for the rest of the day with no problem. If she’d learned anything about her new girlfriend, it was that she possessed plenty of stamina and proved it whenever she had the opportunity. Berkley straddled the top and seemed to be waiting for her, so she started up, only to have the guy behind her reach up, slide his hands under her shorts, and palm her ass hard enough to make her drop down.
She felt instantly dirty, but before she could do anything about it, Berkley flew past her, landed on the guy, and pummeled him with a flurry of punches before he could get to his feet. “You son of a bitch,” Berkley yelled when the guy was finally able to stand up. His friends who’d been egging him on stepped back when they heard the sirens.
“You fucking bitch, you’re going to pay for that,” the guy said, clearly embarrassed by what had happened.
When the MPs showed up, the guy was charging at Berkley and landed a fist to her right eye, opening a gash along her eyebrow. That didn’t stop Berkley from hitting him a few more times before the MPs pulled her off the guy.
“Berkley, please,” she said when Berkley strained to fight the guy again. “Calm down, and we’ll go with you,” she said of the men and women who’d lined up to tell the MPs what had happened.
&nbs
p; The action of fighting for her honor could’ve gotten Berkley thrown out of the military, but there’d been enough witnesses to what had happened that a month of weekend obstacle running had put Berkley back in the cockpit. It had been a lonely month, but that Berkley had defended her without hesitating touched the very center of her heart.
* * *
USS Jefferson, Present Day
The scar on Berkley’s brow the asshole’s punch caused had faded some with time, but her overprotectiveness had not. “Make sure you check him for any device he can use to kill himself,” Aidan said as they loaded the guy onto a stretcher and sedated him to keep him still.
“Yes, ma’am. We’ll scan him before we do anything else,” the medic said.
“We’ll be in my office,” she told Devin, confident Berkley would follow her. “Thanks for looking out for me, and for having your people doing the same,” she said to Berkley once they were finally alone. “You’ve been doing that for a long time,” she said, running her finger over Berkley’s eyebrow.
“I love you, so of course I’m going to take care of you, and Jin isn’t exactly mine, but I owe her one.” Aidan closed her eyes when Berkley put her arms around her and held her in a way that made her feel cherished. “Do you know who this guy is?”
“Unfortunately, I don’t know every single person on the ship, sweetheart. After our initial sail, the Pentagon supposedly did some background checks and switched out some of our personnel. So much for that.” She rested her head against Berkley’s chest and, tired, had an urge to go to bed. “Now we need to know who this guy befriended.”
“Lately I feel more like Eliot Ness than a naval pilot,” Berkley said, kissing the top of her head. “After the hell I had to go through to get into that cockpit, I should be able to concentrate on only that, just like you should focus on nothing but the Jefferson.”
“We’ll get there eventually, but I need you to channel your best gumshoe for now, Ness.”
Devin returned thirty minutes later and handed Aidan a list of everyone Petty Officer Dale Whitner had been friendly with since he boarded. “He was assigned to maintenance, and the guys in the pool said he seemed fairly normal,” Devin said, handing over an information sheet on Whitner. “He complained a little about the number of women he had to salute around here, but when no one else joined in, he backed down.”
“And armed himself, obviously,” Berkley said, clearly aggravated.
“I got all the information off the pistol, and I’ll pass that along to Command when we’re done. We need to question him, but the doc has him sedated so he could sew him up. Captain Umeko knew what she was doing. She didn’t hit anything important, so this asshole shouldn’t be laid up that long.”
“What a shame,” Berkley said.
“Okay,” Aidan said before Berkley got any angrier. She picked up her phone and requested a line to General Greenwald at Command. Five minutes later, Carl appeared on her screen, and she gave him a rundown of events. “I’m not sure where he came from and why he waited until now, but he was ready to kill me and my security officer if he’d had the opportunity to pull the trigger.”
“We expected something, and I think you did too,” Carl said, rubbing his chin. “This crap is maddening since we’ll never have the mindset to sabotage a mission, but these bastards are willing to die for their cause.”
“You’re right about that, sir,” she said as Devin finished his email with the facts he had to share.
“You need to involve the consultants on board the Arlington, and the people Whitner talked to are going to have to understand they’re in for some tough questioning. This is no time to go soft.”
“Yes, sir, we’ll handle it,” Aidan said, and Berkley and Devin nodded.
“The command of the ship is yours, Aidan, but you need to acquire a shadow until we’re done with all this.”
“We’ll take care of that as well, sir,” Devin said.
“Is there anything new?” Berkley asked.
“You all need to prepare for every foreseeable situation, starting now,” Carl said, and Berkley glanced at her briefly. “Tomorrow Jeffery Chandler will become a reality-TV star when his trial begins. The whole thing will be broadcast live, aimed at an audience of one. All the people who are smarter than me keep saying that seeing his little prince in leg irons should send Dick into a frenzy. All of us learned early in our careers that when you engage your enemies in anger or with any kind of crazy behavior, you make mistakes.”
“What will they charge him with?” she asked.
“First, desertion, then terrorism for his attack on the Jefferson, and treason, which all carry some stiff penalties, but they plan to kill him for that last one.” Carl put his glasses on and scanned the email Devin had sent. “And the odds are he’ll get the needle, because no one’s in a forgiving mood.”
“That should poke daddy bear with a sharp stick,” Berkley said.
“We need to ramp things up to pinpoint where we need to paint targets,” Carl said, rolling a cigar in his fingers. The habit made her think of her father, who liked to do that until he was someplace he could light it. “The folks who like to dissect people’s brains think the attack on the building across from the detention facility and the other targets you helped thwart were all diversions to free his little boy.”
“Can you share what happened to Rachel Chandler?” Aidan asked.
“She’s in a secure facility recovering from Wiley’s calling card. From what I understand, they’re giving her a few more weeks. Then she’s going to work on her tan and heat tolerance for as long as she has left to breathe on this earth. Any legal action against her might take some time since she’s not enlisted, but DOJ will probably charge her as an enemy combatant.” A door opened behind Carl, and Aidan smiled when she saw her father. “We’ll let the government folks worry about that, but our job is to give you everything you need to get this done as quickly as possible.”
“We’re ahead of schedule, and that should hold if the weather cooperates,” Aidan said, and Preston nodded. “If you can rush the fact-finding on Whitner, we’d appreciate it. The information might find the point of recruitment, and that could lead to anyone else on my boat trying to kill us.”
“That’s priority, and your next update should include the information they’ve gathered from their interviews with Chil. He started talking a week ago, but Agent Edwards wanted to vet the information he’s spilling like his life depends on it. And knowing Walby, this Chil guy is anything but chill and believes his days are numbered,” Carl said firmly. “Now excuse me a moment. I have to step out before we lose this link.”
“I’ll be outside,” Devin said, leaving as well.
“Cletus, are you falling down on the job?” Preston asked once they were alone.
“No, sir. She just attracts trouble,” Berkley said, and Aidan glared at her. “Don’t worry, though. I’m posting Devin as her shadow while I stretch my legs later on. If he lets anything happen to her, I’m throwing him off the boat with a raw-meat life vest.”
“Good, and you arm yourself,” he said, pointing, Aidan guessed, at her. “Something like this happens again, you shoot and hang the bastard from the bridge as an example to anyone else thinking of taking a pot shot at you.”
“That’s a little dramatic, Daddy, but we’ll be careful. I’m beginning to believe we’re not the popular kids on the playground anymore.”
“The world’s going nuts, kiddo, and it’s our job to get it in a straitjacket and beat it with a rubber hose. Take care of yourself, so I don’t have to report you to your mothers.”
“That’d be worse than a firing squad,” Berkley said, and Preston laughed. “Thanks for crashing Greenwald’s party line, Pop. It’s nice to see a friendly face.”
Preston smiled like an idiot at the way she’d addressed him, Aidan guessed, and she knew her father had asked it of her. That was the final thing that made her think he accepted Berkley as part of their family and the most impor
tant person in her life. “No problem, and I’ll call your folks. They’re staying with us a few more weeks, and that’s as much advance warning as I’m giving you when it comes to Maggie and Mary Beth.”
“My life won’t be my own, will it?” Berkley asked, shivering.
“I doubt it,” Aidan said as the screen went black.
Chapter Eighteen
The Jefferson was close to the South Korean border a week later, and Berkley was in the air leading her pilots through defense drills one small squadron at a time.
The consultants on board had been questioning Whitner all week, but the self-described patriot for justice seemed to almost relish sitting and locking wits with who he said was the enemy. Aidan had told the guys not to use what was considered enhanced interrogation, but the brick wall Whitner had thrown up was making Berkley think about talking to Aidan to change her mind.
The other people Whitner had been friendly with had checked out and had fully cooperated. That didn’t convince or lower Berkley’s suspicions, considering the number of possible traitors in their midst. She gave the order to come about and head back, wanting to be on deck again before the sun went down.
“You still awake back there, Junior?” she said as she circled toward the Jefferson at a low altitude.
“I’m taking in the pretty water and pink sky. Radar’s clear, and we’ve only got two ahead of us before we hit the chow line. It’s apple-pie night, and the cooks used the captain’s recipe.”
She laughed at Harvey’s response as she banked left to circle around again. “Cletus,” the communications officer said, cutting into their conversation.