Page 7 of A More Perfect Union

“Touché.” Rook heard a knock at the door. “As fun as this littlecatch-up has been, my dinner just showed up and I’m starving. Count me in forAddison’s party and I’ll see you soon.” She hung up and answered the door tousher in the room service waiter impatiently waiting while he arranged thetable with a T-bone, loaded baked potato, and a salad with more toppings thangreens. When he started fiddling with the bottle of Cabernet, she shoved atwenty in his hand and told him to leave the bottle opener. Solitude, food, andthe better part of a bottle of very expensive wine were the only things shewanted right now. As she settled in to enjoy them all, she wondered if Zoey wastucked away in a DC hotel room doing the same thing.

Chapter Three

Zoey reached forthe pitcher and filled her water glass with deliberate slowness. She was on herfifth day of Senate hearings with no end in sight. She’d repeated, numeroustimes, the full details of how she’d discovered that managers at Nine Tech werebribing soldiers under her command to requisition munitions and other equipmentin exchange for kickbacks, including how she’d uncovered that the soldier whoran the scheme on the Army end was also selling the excess equipment on theblack market and double dipping from the already profitable enterprise.

She’d taken no gloryfrom her findings. These men and women had been under her command, and theircrimes reflected on her abilities. Her superiors had suggested to her more thanonce that she keep the disciplinary action in-house to save face, but she’dignored the well-intentioned advice. If Nine Tech was bribing soldiers in herunit, chances were good they were making similar deals with other militarybases as well. Not coming forward simply wasn’t an option. Not one she couldlive with anyway.

“Major, pleasedescribe for us again how you were able to detect the discrepancies?” thesenior senator from Texas, Connie Armstrong, asked. Before Zoey could answer,the senator added, “I’m interested because I think your methods should probablybe implemented system-wide if we want to prevent this kind of large-scalelooting of our limited military coffers in the future.”

Zoey cleared herthroat, pushing down her first response that questioned if it was a good use oftaxpayer dollars to keep her away from her command to answer the samequestions, over and over. But Senator Armstrong had lobbed her a softball,designed to help her look like a hero instead of a failed commander, so she setaside her frustration and repeated the information she’d relayed no less than adozen times in the past few days.

Two hours later, thecommittee chair thanked her for her time and service, excused her from hersubpoena, and adjourned the committee for the day. Zoey turned to the Pentagonlawyer beside her. “Is it over?”

“For now, for you,yes,” he said as he packed up his briefcase. “They’ll start on the not sofriendly witnesses next. Are you headed back to your base? I’ll need to be ableto get in touch with you in case the committee has any follow-up questionsabout the documents we provided.”

Zoey had wonderedseveral times over the past week what her future would hold, but she hadn’t letherself dwell on it. But now that he’d asked, she realized she didn’t have aclue. She fudged. “I’m supposed to check in with General Sharp as soon as we’redone here to get my orders. I’ll get you my updated contact info as soon as Iknow.”

She tucked away hiscard, hoping she never saw him again, and left the building. It was just afterthree on Friday afternoon and the mass exodus of legislators was in full swing.She should probably head back to the Pentagon right away, but it was a gorgeousspring day and she hadn’t had an opportunity to experience anything in the cityso she lingered for a moment. The hearings had taken place in the HartBuilding, a couple of blocks from the Capitol, and she started out in thatdirection, determined to at least capture a couple of pictures to send to hermother back home. As she walked onto Constitution Avenue, she was surrounded byhistory with the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress to her right and theCapitol building to her left. She walked by a group of tourists posing forpictures with the statues in front of the Library of Congress and wished shewere here under different circumstances, dressed in jeans, T-shirt, and sandalswith no agenda other than to soak up some history.

The buzz of her phonerousted her out of her daydreams. “Granger,” she answered the unknown caller.

“Major, I hear itwent well.”

She recognized DavidSharp’s voice and seized on the lifeline since he was likely to have answersabout her future within the service. “Glad that’s what you heard, althoughthat’s a little spooky since we just finished up. I guess it went okay, butit’s kind of hard to tell when you’re being chewed up and spit out over andover again.”

Sharp laughed. “Beenthere. Trust me, it doesn’t get any easier. Happy you survived.”

She waited, wonderingif he’d called just to check in or if he had something definitive to tell herabout her future. He rambled a bit longer about his own experience testifyingbefore Congress, and when he paused to draw a breath, she seized theopportunity. “When should I report back to base?”

“We should talk aboutthat. In fact, that’s one of the reasons I called. Take the rest of theafternoon off but plan on sticking around for a few days. There’s a functiontomorrow night and I’d like you to go with me. Service dress. I’ll pick you upat your hotel at seven sharp. Let me know if you need anything between now andthen.”

His conclusory tonedidn’t invite any questions, but she had plenty. Why was she sticking around?What was this function? Did she still have a future with the Army or was hetaking a little extra time to let her down easy? “Will do,” she said, but he’dalready clicked off the call. Resigned to waiting until the next day to learnher fate, she focused on the right now. If she hurried, maybe she could fit ina tour or two before they shut down for the day. Her mind drifted to RookDaniels and the way she’d effortlessly guided her through the airport. No doubtas a DC insider, she’d know exactly where to go and what to do in the capital.But Rook wasn’t here now and she was on her own. Zoey pulled up the camera onher phone and snapped a few photos of the buildings lining Constitution Avenue,and then made her way to the tall columns of the Supreme Court building. Shemight not be from a big city and she definitely wasn’t an insider, but she’d dojust fine on her own.

* * *

Rook swung throughthe door to her office suite and waved at Ben, the receptionist.

“Jenkins’s office hasphoned exactly seven times in the last fifteen minutes,” he called outcheerfully as she walked briskly down the hall.

“On it.” She stoppedin front of her assistant’s desk and waited impatiently for her to finish hercall.

“That’s right,” Lacysaid into the phone. “We’ll have a full statement within the hour.” She shookher head. “No advance copies, for anyone. Thanks for—” she stopped abruptly andthen muttered “asshole” as she hung up. “That little jerk from Fox thinks he’sentitled to the inside scoop. He’ll get his copy of the press release exactlyfive minutes after everyone else.”

Rook waved a hand infront of her face. “Earth to Lacy.”

“Hey, Rook. Abouttime you got here. Everyone’s in the conference room. They should have a draftready for you.”

“Maybe you could leadwith that next time. Any messages not about this case?”

“Several, but theycan all wait.” Lacy flicked her hands at Rook. “Go, now.”

“Trying to rememberwhy I hired the bossiest assistant in the history of assistants,” Rook said asshe walked toward her firm’s conference room.

“Ignoring you,” Lacyyelled back.

Rook pushed throughthe conference room door and took a second to watch her team at work. Imagesprojected onto a light box on the wall captured the most important aspects ofthe Buster Jenkins case including the bombshell that had interrupted herafternoon meeting with a high level executive from Diamond Credit who wantedadvice about dealing with a recent hacking scandal that had resulted in theexposure of their clients’ private information.

Buster’s case hadtaken a wicked turn. What had started as an embarrassing case of infidelity hadturned criminal this afternoon when FBI agents showed up at his DC office witha search warrant. Rook’s phone had started blowing up during her Diamond Creditmeeting and hadn’t stopped since. Lacy had George on standby to drive her backto the office, and on the way Rook had contacted one of her sources at the USAttorney’s office to see what she could find out. What she’d learned had beenshocking, and her first call was to Farah to see if she was still hired to workthe case. To her surprise, Farah had told her to fix it and money was noobject. With her full team assembled, she planned to do just that.

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