Perhaps that was the reaction Jarvis was looking for. The whole thing bothered Wade more than he wanted to admit.
Colonel Miller caught the tension between Wade and Jarvis and jumped in to provide some balance.
“Hanna, you started to tell me about a confrontation your group had with another person or group when we were interrupted by forensics. Please tell Dr. Jarvis about that situation. It may be important.”
“Sometimes I find animosity directed at me when taking training courses at military bases. There seems to be a general distrust of intelligence officers on most military bases. So I wasn’t surprised when that situation came up here. Usually those feelings blow over after the people get to know each other. In fact, it’s not uncommon to become quite friendly with those who initially mistrusted me before the training is over.”
Wade paused to see if Jarvis’ expression had changed, but his head was down and he was taking notes as fast as he could write.
Wade continued, “We had a couple of situations occur since arriving for this training session. My team member Milton Yankovich and I are from intelligence. When we arrived, we were harassed during assembly at the loading dock by some Vietnam Special Forces vets.”
“There was one person in particular that became extremely boisterous and aggressive towards us. He made his comments primarily at me, about the inadequacies of intelligence officers in the field. He was speaking loud enough so that everyone within shouting distance could hear. A group of Special Forces guys gathered around me in a tight circle, and that man was their leader. He indicated that members of his recon team were killed in Vietnam because they took orders from an inept intelligence officer.”
“He was clearly blaming the entire intelligence community for the problem. The evening before we started the cache exercise, this same Special Forces guy approached Yari and me in the mess hall and asked when we were leaving the table, because they wanted to sit there, and not with us. The soldier said how pathetically we had performed in the team firing exercises, and at another meal they even accused us of cheating. He said that if we weren’t careful, we might not make it out of the next exercise alive.”
Jarvis paused briefly from his note-taking and looked at Wade. His eyes were darting rapidly back and forth. “What did you say or do after he said that?”
“Nothing. We ignored him like we did his other threats.”
Colonel Miller jumped back into the conversation. “Who was the soldier making these comments?”
“James Lockhart.”
“Was Lockhart a member of Blue Team?”
“No, sir, I believe Lockhart was on the Orange Team, far to the east of our location during the cache exercise.”
“Did you have a feeling that Lockhart may have been involved in the shooting incident?”
“I have no idea who was responsible for the shooting. I’m just recounting the only incident I can think of where there was some animosity during this whole exercise. I don’t want to see Lockhart or anybody else get in trouble if they weren’t involved in the shooting.”
Colonel Miller pushed a button on his desk. Within seconds his assistant was standing in the open door at attention.
“Get me the personnel file on James Lockhart. He’s Army, Special Forces, and part of this training exercise group.”
“Yes, sir.”
His assistant did a formal about-face and left the room. While Wade was debriefing with Miller and Jarvis, the cache exercise had ended, and from the window he could see men returning to the barracks. The debriefing discussion continued for another half hour as Miller and Jarvis continued asking small details about different parts of the incident.
Wade was explaining how his team had intended to approach the fifth cache when a firm knock on the door interrupted his thought. Everyone turned toward the door.
“Enter.”
Miller’s sergeant came in holding a manila file under his arm, which he handed to Colonel Miller.
While Miller was opening the file, the desk sergeant spoke up. “Sir, I thought you’d want to know that we just received a call from exercise command, that Orange Team reported to the finish station missing a man. They reported that Lockhart was missing. He left the prior evening on a recon mission and didn’t return to camp.”
The Captain took the personnel file, looked at Jarvis, and told his aid, “Call the exercise coordinator. I want the Orange Team held for questioning and debriefing.”
“Yes, sir.”
The sergeant executed an about-face as before and left the room. Colonel Miller turned to Wade with an expression that said Wade’s part of the meeting was over.
“Is there anything else you can add to the events of last evening?”
“No, sir.”
Turning to Major Jarvis, the Colonel asked, “Do you have any more questions for Mr. Hanna?”
“Not at this time, but I may want to ask him more questions after I’ve done more investigation on this matter.”
Colonel Miller asked, “Do we have all your contact information?”
“Yes, sir.”
Miller asked Wade about his flight plans, then indicated that one of his aids would give him a lift to the airport, compliments of the base.
“Thank you, sir.”
The Colonel got up from his desk and followed Wade to the door. He waved his aid over.
“See that Mr. Hanna gets a lift to the airport. You can use my staff car.”
Chapter 10
The uneventful return flight and drive to his apartment gave Wade time to think. Lack of sleep, combined with the stress of the last two days, made Wade realize how tired he was. He was glad to finally be back in comfortable surroundings.
Mail had piled up behind the slot in his front door. Stepping over the stack, he headed for the refrigerator. Finding only a half-filled jar of jelly and a single bottle of beer, he opened both and made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on stale bread and headed toward the mail on the floor.
He picked up the mail before sinking deep into his favorite overstuffed armchair. His mind slowly readjusted to familiar surroundings. Flipping through the mail, he quickly discarded junk promotions and put the unpaid invoices in a stack which he tossed on the table next to him. He was annoyed to see the light on his answering machine flashing a bright red. Looking across the dining table, he saw the economics book he’d left and remembered that he had a test the next day.
His jaw muscles tightened as he tried to remember what his economics test would cover. He vaguely remembered his professor talking about “cobweb theorems.” The only cobwebs he could think of were the ones in his brain right now from lack of sleep. There would be no studying this evening. He was already half asleep.
Wade walked into the bedroom to set his alarm for 4:30 the next morning to give him time to study before the test at 10:00 a.m. He then turned to the recorded messages on his answering machine and pressed the replay button.
The machine promptly replied, “You have five unanswered messages.” Wade pressed the start button and heard Megan’s voice.
“My God, we just got word that there was some kind of a shooting incident during your training. Are you all right? Call me as soon as you get in, no matter what time it is.”
The second and third messages were also from Megan — all similar, each showing increasing signs of worry.
“You should be back by now. I haven’t heard from you. Call me at home anytime — as soon as you get this. Where are you? Don’t you dare forget to call me! Call anytime. You know the number.”