Page 45 of A More Perfect Union

Zoey drew in a breathand shoved all other thoughts to the corners of her mind where they belonged.“Good morning, General.”

“Not as good as itcould be,” he said. “Major, is there some reason you decided to traipse allover Colonel Mitchell’s house without contacting anyone in your chain ofcommand?”

Zoey stood in frontof his desk and glanced around the room to see if she could get a boost fromSharp, but he was seated across the room with his arms folded over his chestand a blank expression. She had no desire to tell either of these men thatshe’d arrived at the scene with Rook, but she had to find a way to explain howshe’d found out about the shooting and why she’d ceded authority to Rook oncethey’d arrived at Mitchell’s house.

“I was told we wereto work directly with the White House on anything related to thisinvestigation.” She cast about for a tactful way to say what was on her mind.“Respectfully, sir, we should keep you out of this as much as possible to avoideven the appearance of impropriety.”

“Are you telling meMitchell is wrapped up in this stupid situation out of McNair?”

“I have a feelingeven answering that is a minefield you don’t want me to cross.”

Bloomfield turned toSharp. “You were right about this one. She doesn’t hesitate to speak her mind.”

Zoey couldn’t quitetell from his tone whether he considered that a good thing, but she wasbeginning not to care. If they didn’t want her in this position, the solutionwas easy—send her back to Fort Bragg where she could work on arm wrestling herCO into assigning her another deployment. Of course that would probably meanher promotion would be stalled indefinitely. And they’d have to assign someoneelse to work with Rook Daniels or leave Dixon in charge. She was confident Rookwould hate that, but would Rook miss her if she were reassigned?

Ugh. What was shethinking? She’d never considered her career in terms of another person. Onekiss and she was losing all sense of practicality. But it had been one veryhot, addictive kiss.

Zoey shook off thememory of Rook’s lips on hers and focused on the generals who held her futurein their hands. “Respectfully, sirs, you put me in this position because Ispeak my mind. I’m as good as any other soldier when it comes to followingorders, but when it comes to righting a wrong, I can’t help but speak out, andif that’s a problem, I’m not the right person for the job.”

Bloomfield’s laughwas a loud roar. He punched Sharp in the arm and pointed at Zoey. “Oh, you’rethe right person for the job. When this mess is all cleared up, I want there tobe no doubt that every stone was turned to make sure I wasn’t involved in anywrongdoing. My son never should have gotten involved in this mess, but I’ll bedamned if that boy is going to muck up my career when he can’t even handle hisown, no matter how many opportunities are handed to him.” He raised his handsin the air. “That’s all I have to say on the subject. Go with General Sharp andtalk about the rest out of my presence. Fair enough?”

“Yes, sir.” Zoeysaluted him and followed Sharp from the room. Despite the early hour, shespotted plenty of people in the halls and wondered how many of them had beencalled in to deal with a crisis of their own. Sharp walked briskly, withouttalking until they were back at his office. They passed Louden. Did he ever gohome? He shot her an encouraging smile, and she filed it away for comfort asSharp closed his office door behind them.

“I heard Rook Danielswas at the scene,” he said without preamble. “Is that how you knew aboutMitchell eating his gun?”

“Yes, sir.” No senselying since he probably already knew the answer. “She and I were going overinterview notes when she got the call.” Partly true since they’d intended to dojust that. She prayed he didn’t ask for more details, certain she wouldn’t beable to conceal her whirling mix of emotions where Rook was concerned.

“Who called?”

Again, she hesitatedand felt silly for it. “Julia Scott from the White House.”

“Tell me what you sawat Mitchell’s.”

Zoey thought fast,but couldn’t come up with an excuse not to tell him what he likely alreadyknew. She relayed the details in a sharp and concise manner. Mitchell’s wifeand kids escorted from the house. No signs of foul play. Mitchell shot with hisown gun.

“Did he leave anote?”

And just like that,her matter-of-fact recollection stalled. There was no practical reason not totell him about the note, but it felt like a betrayal somehow. Mitchell had toldher to trust no one, but he’d meant the people directly involved with the case.Right? Telling herself she just wanted to find out more details beforementioning the note, she settled on a half-truth. “The agents on scene werestill investigating when we left. I’ve requested a full report of theirfindings.”

“Agents? What agency?Were the DC Police there?”

“I don’t know andno.” She dreaded saying the next part. “I assumed the agents at the scene wereeither FBI or Secret Service, but I don’t know for sure. It was pretty clearthey’d been notified by the White House.” She stopped talking since all she hadto offer were suppositions, and at this point Sharp was shaking his head.

“I’m not telling youhow to run this thing, but this is not a situation like Nine Tech. Innocentpeople aren’t getting ripped off. Some soldiers couldn’t be bothered to keep alid on their libidos and they embarrassed the service. Not only that, but theirstupidity could cost a good man from achieving a post that could benefit themission of this administration and the Joint Chiefs. I think you know whatneeds to be done, so I’m leaving it to you to take care of things and get thiswrapped up pronto. Are we clear?”

They were as far fromclear as they could possibly be, but Zoey knew she’d exhausted the tolerance ofher commander and there was only one correct answer. “Yes, sir.”

Louden stopped her onthe way out of Sharp’s office. “Everything okay?”

She looked back atSharp’s door. “It will be. Did you ever get hold of Colonel Mitchell’s personnelfile?”

He shook his head.“No. It’s still showing restricted, and I’m pretty sure that’s not going tochange anytime soon.”

“Of course.” Sheshould’ve known there would be a hold on the file until the circumstancesregarding his death were officially certified. “Thanks for checking.” Shestarted to walk away, but a thought popped into her head. “Do you happen toknow if Colonel Mitchell was a Ranger?”

Louden raised hiseyebrows and she quickly added, “Strange question, I know. It’s just…” Shefaltered for a moment, not wanting to share the contents of the note with himwhen she hadn’t yet told Sharp. “I’d heard somewhere that he was and I may havehad a friend who served with him.” Lame response, but it was all she could comeup with on the fly.

“I have no idea,”Louden said. “I didn’t know him, but maybe you could ask General Bloomfield’sson. He was enrolled in one of Mitchell’s classes at McNair.”

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