Page 6 of Ava
“Okay, but let’s wait until Uncle Chip arrives.” She began pouring cups of coffee, and it was John who joined her to carry them to the table. The last cup Morgan carried and placed at the head of the table was for her uncle. She had just taken her seat when the door beeped, and they all turned to watch him enter. He had several files with him, and immediately took a seat at the head of the table. He took a bracing sip of his coffee, then looked at the three men intently before he began.
He opened the top file and withdrew three pieces of paper, and pushed each one toward the men. “Before we begin, I need the three of you to sign an NDA.”
“What’s that mean?” Justin asked.
“It’s a non-disclosure agreement. It means that until you sign them, I can’t tell you anything, and if you do sign them, then what I tell you can never leave this room. There are only three people you can talk with if you have any questions down the road about what is discussed today.”
“Who?” Josh asked as he took the paper and began reading it.
“Myself, Morgan, and her future brother-in-law, Dillon Erwin.”
Morgan noted as her brothers looked at her, and frowned. “Why him?”
“He’s a former Marine, and he’ll be read into any situation that I’m having problems with. He already knows what Boswell Group is all about, and has agreed to help, but only if it doesn’t interfere with his family, nor his working on Wyatt’s ranch. He spent most of his life, twenty years, in the military and Wyatt raised his sons, he doesn’t want that to happen with the baby April, his fiancée, is currently carrying, but he will help, though mostly in the consulting department.” Morgan explained to her brothers. She and Chip exchanged looks when the boys looked at the papers, read them, then signed them. After they passed them back to Chip, he put them back in the folder, then crossed his hands over the file, and studied the men intently for several moments before he began.
“As you know, nothing said in this room is to be repeated. Also, as you know, your sister was a Marine.” At their nods, he continued, “What you don’t know, is that Morgan was part of a special team that recruited her right out of boot camp. She only became qualified, because she was the top of everything she did while in boot camp. There are only twenty-five women that are on these special teams. When one retires, or is killed, another one takes her place. I don’t mean to sound cold and callous, but I don’t make up the rules. The team Morgan was a member of is referred to as the EWMs. Which stands for Elite Women Marines. As I said, there are twenty-five EWMs. They make up five teams of five. They are always on call to go on special assignments. Each team is based out of a different military base, but never more than one team at a time, and while on the base, though they have jobs to do, when they get the call, they drop everything, and go. Not even the base commander can prevent them from doing what they need to do...” Chip paused and looked at the men, then at Morgan. At her nod, he sighed, settled back with his coffee, and continued, “The call to send the EWMs out comes from very high positions in Washington.”
John looked at Morgan, and if she had to put a label on his expression, she’d have to say respect shone from his eyes. “Can we ask what kind of missions you went on?”
Before Morgan answered, she looked at Chip for permission. It wasn’t like she had to, but she wanted to know how much she could reveal. When he only shrugged, she knew she had the okay to be more elaborate than she had been in the past.
“First, please don’t think that I think you are stupid when I tell you what I did as an EWM. My team would be called out when a team of males ran into a snag.”
“What type of snag?” Josh asked.
“I won’t mention any names, but when a team of SEALs couldn’t complete their mission, because they didn’t have all the Intel, my team, or a team of EWMs were called in. They needed to know exactly where their target was going to be on a certain date. The men only arrived dressed in their military gear, and weren’t really equipped to walk into the local market and start asking questions. One of the requirements to be an EWM is that you have to speak many languages. I not only speak English, but also Spanish, Farsi, Hebrew, Arabic, and several of their dialects—among others. Anyway, we would be called in and we’d be armed, but no one could see our weapons, because we would be wearing the local garb of the women. With our weapons hidden in the jilbab’s or robes, we could infiltrate the market area, act as a customer and listen to the chatter. When we got the information we were seeking, we’d make our way back to the men, and reveal what we had learned, then they would carry out their mission. Once we turned over what we learned, we were out of there, not needed. Sometimes it was a quick in and out, other times we ended up having to wait for several days before we’d get the correct message.” She held up her hand, then chuckled. “And, no, we didn’t all go into the market at the same time. Maybe one or two of us, while the other team members would go to other parts of the city, trying to gather Intel to take back to the teams waiting for us to return. “
“What if you didn’t return?” Justin asked. “What if you were in danger and were kidnapped or something?”
“We had tracking devices on us. The head of the team of men we gathered information for wouldn’t allow us into the market unless we had the added security of those devices. They would track us the entire time we were in the middle of hostile territory. If something went wrong, they’d be there to get us out.” She saw concern on their faces, but reached out her hand, and when they laid theirs over hers, she nodded. “I was safe. I wouldn’t take a mission if I didn’t have the added protection.”
“Did you ever kill anyone?” John asked quietly.
Morgan again looked at her uncle, then at her brothers. Without any other explanations, she nodded her head once, and said, “Yes.” She left it at that. Her answer seemed to appease them, because they didn’t question her further.
“Okay, then,” Chip said as he leaned forward, intertwined his fingers, and placed them on the folders. “Again, what I’m about to tell you stays in this room. You are only to discuss things with Morgan, or Dillon Erwin.” The men nodded, and he continued, “When a woman leaves the EWMs it’s because of retirement, or being medically discharged for some reason or another. Very rarely do one of them die in the line of duty. I won’t get into that, and you don’t need to know the reasons, but once they are done, the higher ups I mentioned earlier call them in to be interviewed. They are asked if they would like to continue what they did for the Marines, but in the private sector. That’s where I come in. Boswell Group is me, supported by those higher ups, where I recruit both men and women with former military experience, that parted ways with the military in honorable ways. I get several missions where one or two people are needed to go in, and either take out a target, or infiltrate areas to gather information to bring back to me, and I pass it on to the people that need it. Sometimes the missions are only fact gathering to be used at a future date. That’s basically what I do here at Boswell Group.”
“If Morgan’s opening another branch of Boswell Group out in North Dakota, will she be doing the same thing as you do?”
“Yes and no. Yes, she’ll be the boss and sending her recruits out on missions, however, they won’t be overseas missions. Her missions will be domestic, which means here on US soil. Word from the higher ups in Washington are getting chatter that there is a group of doomsday preppers that are stepping over the lines of just prepping, by gathering food and weapons. There’s word that they’ve now started trafficking guns, drugs, and even women over into Canada. Morgan’s job, and her teams’, will be to interact with these people and get information, and Morgan’s job will be to coordinate that information, and make plans to deal with it. There are other groups of former military close by that will be able to help when the time comes to take these people down, but not until we have all the information we need...” Chip paused and saw that his nephews had interest all over their faces. “And that’s where you guys come in.”
“Us?” Justin asked in surprise. “What about us? I thought we were going to go to North Dakota and help build her barracks.”
“Yes, but if you really want to help, like I said to Morgan earlier, you can’t go on any missions, because you’re not trained, but you can go to the local bars as bikers, and see if you can hear anything. Our information says that about half of the preppers are bikers. I don’t know what your father would say about flying your colors out there, but you might want to refrain from wearing them if you’re gathering information.” He held up his hand to ward off any questions. “Before we get into all of the details, see those weapons on the wall?”
The three cranked their necks to look at them, then turned back to their uncle and nodded. “What about them?”
“You will be trained in how to use all of them before you head to North Dakota.” Chip let that bombshell drop as he sat back and watched their expressions. He was surprised that they didn’t show outrage at his suggestion.
Justin looked over at his sister with a critical eye. “Do you know how to use them?” He waved his hand toward the wall that held the guns.
“I do.” Morgan studied her brother intently for several minutes, but when their gazes didn’t waver, she drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Before we go any further with this, I need to tell you something, and I’m not talking to hear my own voice, I’m dead serious about what I’m going to say.” She paused again, and waited. When they nodded, she continued, “I’ve seen how you and the A’s have treated women in the past, as your own personal servants. That won’t fly if you’re serious about coming to North Dakota. When I get Boswell Two up and running, Iwill be the one in charge. The people I will be hiring, and will be living in the barracks you build will be women. Each and every one of them will have either been an EWM, or the equivalent from another branch of the service. They will be going out and gathering information to bring back to me. Some of those times may be dangerous. You will not, under any circumstances, tell either myself or these women I’ve yet to hire that they can’t do the job, because they are women, that’s it too dangerous for them. If I hear any of you say something along those lines, I will take you out. I won’t kill you, but I will seriously maim you, and then you’ll have to explain to Mom why you can’t father any children.” She looked her brothers dead in the eye, and ignored the smirk on their uncle’s face. She didn’t look away until they all nodded, but not before they swallowed hard enough that she heard it.
“One question?” Josh actually held up his hand, like he was in school or something.
“What’s that?”
“What other branches have female groups like the EWMs?”
