Page 49 of Ava
Morgan looked at him in shock. “You baked?”
“Yep, Aunt Peggy told me what to do, and I did it all. I thought we could have a snack during the meeting. I hope everyone likes blueberry muffins.”
“My favorite,” Ava said as she rubbed her stomach. She didn’t normally eat sweets, but her biggest downfall was blueberry muffins, though she would hold off until later. “Where’s everyone else?” she asked as she looked around, and didn’t see anyone but the two in the kitchen.
“Dillon isn’t here yet, and the boys are in the offices putting the desks together.” The women shared shocked looks, put their things down and hurried down the hall. Because of the way the offices were set up, they could stand in the hall and look into both rooms. When they saw the mess laid out before the men, they both shook their heads, and went back to the dining-room area and began to set up. Just as they finished, the door opened again, and Wyatt and Dillon walked in. From the hall, the men joined them, and Ava overheard one of them say that they could go back and work on the desks after the meeting.
People started claiming seats, and Dillon went out and brought in several folding chairs. “Didn’t think you’d have enough,” Wyatt said as he passed them around to the ones that didn’t have seats. It was crowded, but they managed to fit.
“Before you begin,” Aunt Peggy said as she came over to the table. “I want you to know that there’s a fresh pot of coffee on, and if and when you decide to take a break, there’s enough blueberry muffins for each of you to have two. Now, could I borrow someone’s vehicle, so I can go over to the ranch and ask Dolly what I can do to help with the upcoming BBQ? I’ll get out of your hair.” When almost a dozen sets of keys were handed to her, she laughed and held up her hand. “No stick.” All but three sets were taken away, and she took the keys from Morgan with a grin. In under five minutes she had gathered her things, and was out of door.
“Speaking of vehicles,” Wyatt said as he looked around the table. “Could it be possible for you guys, and you, Ava, to get your bikes out of the equipment shed? That’s all we lack to getting it completely cleaned out.” They all agreed, and the meeting was called to order by Chip.
“First, I want to thank all of you for being here. I know a few of you might be confused, but that’s why you’re here, to learn some things. All but four possibly five know what’s going on.”
“Five,” Morgan said. “I asked Wyatt to be here, because he lives here and has all his life. He might be able to add some insight.”
“Okay,” Chip nodded, then leaned his forearms on the table, and looked everyone in the eye. “Three years ago, I was told some scuttlebutt from several different bowls of alphabet soup. It took me a year to fully, or as fully as I could, investigate. Due to that scuttlebutt, that is why we are all sitting here today.”
“What’s scuttlebutt, and what do you mean by alphabet soup?” Chuck asked. Ava noted that he had a small pad of paper before him.
“Scuttlebutt is the military term for gossip. You know, talking around the water cooler at an office, or first thing in the morning, talking to co-workers about rumors they heard about other co-workers.”
“Ah, okay. And the bowls of soup?”
“ATF, DEA, FBI, CIA, though they don’t work on US Soil, they’re still kept in the loop.”
“Damn,” almost all the men at the table said as they looked at Chip with wide eyes.
“What I’m about to say, needs to stay in this room. You are about to learn some classified government information, and I might be needing your help. I won’t let any of my operatives work in the dark. That’s the reason why I’ve called this meeting.” He looked around and saw he had everyone’s rapt attention. He nodded once, and continued, “My name is Chip Boswell, and I own and operate Boswell Group out of Buffalo, New York. I employ several retired military personnel that, depending on the job, I send all over the world to do a job for the government. I won’t get into the details, but the people I send are highly trained by the military, and I also make sure their training is kept up, especially in weapons.” When he still had their rapt attention, he again nodded once, and continued, “Morgan used to be one of my operatives, but she met Wyatt, fell in love, and moved here. I do not begrudge her decision one bit. I only regret that I lost one of my best operatives. That is why we are sitting in this house right now. After regaining her memory from her accident, she went out on her last mission and told me she was done. It took me six months, but I was able to talk to those bowls of soup, and get funding to start up another branch of Boswell Group. This house is where the operatives that Morgan will be hiring will be living.”
“Ava?” Alfie looked at her in shock. “You’re going to be a secret operative?”
“I am.”
“So will I,” Morgan said. “But, for now, I’m getting everything up and running. Now that the house is done, I plan on having six operatives. Each woman has their own specialty from when they were in the military. Uncle Chip? If I may?”
“Go ahead.”
“Okay, you guys know that I went into the Marines, right?” At their agreeing nods, or grunts, she also nodded, “What you don’t know, is that a woman, from the second she steps off the bus in Parris Island, the place of the Marine Corps bootcamp, she is judged. However, it’s not a men vs. women judgement, like you see in many workplaces. No, this judgement is how good she is, and the thing about it is, that she never knows about it. The Marines have a special unit of women that they call EWMs. Which stands for Elite Women Marines. There are only twenty-five EWMs at any given time. If one retires, or is discharged out, another one takes their place.
“These women don’t know they are being judged, not until they complete the twelve to thirteen weeks of training, and they are about to receive their first set of orders after completing their training.”
“What Morgan didn’t tell you, is that to become an EWM, you have to be the best in everything, I mean number one in running, the obstacle course, shooting, even in the gas chamber.” Ava added.
“How the hell can you be number one in the gas chamber?” Justin demanded.
“You don’t puke, you don’t tear up, and you don’t complain,” both Morgan and Ava said as one. “I can’t speak for Morgan, but after my mother died when I was ten, I went into the foster-care system. It was one hellhole after another. When I was seventeen and a half, several Marines came to the school I was attending, and I signed up. I didn’t tell anyone. However, I had to wait until I was eighteen to sign on the dotted line. The morning of my eighteenth birthday, I went in to the local recruiting office, showed him my papers, and spent the next two hours signing everything they put in front of me. Two days later, I graduated high school, and in case you’re wondering, my foster parents, nor my foster siblings attended that graduation.” She paused to sip her Cola, and held up her hand.
“I’m not looking for sympathy here. I’m stating hard, cold facts. The day after my graduation, I got up at three in the morning, and when my foster father demanded what I was doing, I said I was leaving. Everything I owned could fit in one of those white garbage bags. I left it all there, and only took a picture of my mother, my journal, and my driver’s license. I walked out that door and never looked back.
“For me, being a Marine meant that I would finally have a family, friends, people I could rely on, and people that needed me to be there for them. I went into boot camp with the mindset that I would be the best that I could be—and I did. The day of graduation, when they passed out everyone’s orders of where they were to report to for the next leg of their journey in the Corps, I was called to the commander’s office. There I learned about the EWMs, and that I had been accepted. My next step, after fifteen days of leave was to go to school, and study up on my languages. I already knew six at the time. Now I know ten.”
“The only difference my experience was,” Morgan began. “Is that I had Mom and Dad’s full support behind me. I didn’t have to do all the signing myself. Other than that, it was basically the same.”
Alan looked at Chip and frowned at him. “Did you have Morgan put into the EWMs?”
“No, I never knew those special teams existed until after Morg had been in for three years. I never found out about them until I started Boswell.”
