CHAPTER 7

The situation was not getting any better and they had started out at the bottom to begin with. It was quite clear, to Barbara at least, that Helen Crass had every intention of dragging this hearing out. Barbara had not figured out the why of this situation but, it was quite clear that the woman wanted something. It was not that Helen was above doing something this petty just to satisfy her own vain needs but, the woman was not stupid either. She would need a substantial reason to go this far.

Something that Jake had told Barbara still kept ringing in her ears. People do things for more than one reason and, Barbara was starting to think that applied to more than just commando raids. Politicians, also, seemed to live by the same rules. Helen could frustrate the crap out of Barbara, and build some currency at the same time. Why not? If it was her plan it was a good one.

They had spent most of the early morning listening to the findings of the “preliminary” investigation. It was boring, tedious, and even seemed to put Helen to sleep. Barbara wondered if putting everyone to sleep was it’s only real purpose. Was she intentionally being drowned in details that had nothing to do with the issue. It sure seemed that way because, as near as Barbara could tell, there was no way the CAB could have possibly compiled all of that data. How did they have the inspection logs on the chopper engines when nobody had even been out to look at them? Did they just make all this crap up or did some clerk, downstairs, pull out the last ones and then pass them on to somebody over at CAB who then thought they sounded good enough to stand on?

The worst part of it all was that none of the preliminary drowsiness could hold a candle to the real slap in the face. When the logs were finished being read, Barbara was recognized by Helen who just happened to be chairing this panel for no particular reason. Barbara stood up and asked the panel, “what is Horst doing here?”

Helen leaned over to the microphone on her table, acting as if she were interrupting some vital paperwork in front of her, and stated in a boring voice, “let the record show that the reference is to Colonel Commandant, Johan Jonas Sterling Von Horst.” Helen probably could have stopped there but, she drove her point home, “here at the invitation of the Colonial Governor’s Office, the Colonial Aeronautical Board, and the Colonial Authority for Safety and Transportation.”

Horst smiled down at Barbara and Tony. He seemed quite chipper as he said, “please Agent Reilly. The Governor thought that, in all fairness, I would be an impartial, outside, voice. I can assure you, I am a fully certified pilot and I have logged over a thousand hours in rotary wing aircraft. My presence here can only be to your benefit.”

Barbara ignored him and told Helen, directly, “he’s not even a citizen of this colony. What’s he doing on a government board?” When she did not get a real answer she stated, “I wish to file an official protest on this matter. I want it on record.”

That did not rankle Helen one little bit. She still seemed to be half reading the papers in front of her. She simply stated, “duly noted by the board. It is the right of any witness, council, or petitioner to file any protest deemed necessary. Have it, in writing, on my desk, with the appropriate protocols and signatures, by the end of tomorrow’s business day.” She banged her gavel without even so much as looking at it. Then she announced, “next order of business.”

Helen flipped a paper in front of her, “the afore mentioned colonial subpoena, in the afore mentioned case, concerning pilot negligence of CG-4 Agent Anthony Caldwell Tippet, shall be read in to the record.”

Barbara finally sat back down as it did not seem that she could make Helen have to tell her too. Barbara then gritted her teeth and whispered to Tony, “I don’t know how I’ll be able to file a protest by tomorrow afternoon when we’ll all still be sitting in here.”

The beeping on Barbara’s hip almost woke her up. She reached down to turn her phone off but, not before Helen spoke drolly into the microphone, “all members of this hearing have been instructed to leave their phones off for the duration. There are no exceptions to this…” Helen’s phone started beeping and then it was quickly joined by another phone. That one proved to belong to Horst who was more surprised than anyone else that this would be the case. He and the Governor got up, virtually at the same time, and walked off in separate directions while reading the screens of their phones.

It was more than enough to scare Tony, although, he was wondering what it all had to do with him. He was going to ask Barbara what was going on when he noticed that she had not put her phone away either. She had it down beneath the table and was mouthing the words off as she read. When she stopped, Tony did not like the look on her face. As Barbara seemed intent to study Horst and Crass, Tony had to ask her, “what’s going on? Don’t tell me, they’re going to give me to a German firing squad now?”

Barbara was only half paying attention to Tony when she replied to him, “no, it’s worse than that.”

Tony blinked, “what?”

Horst began walking quickly to the door where several of his soldiers had just appeared and were waiting for him. Helen saw it and ended the call that she had just made, rather abruptly. She called out for Horst as she stomped across the room towards him. Horst did stop and look at her but he seemed far less chipper than a few minutes ago, “not now Helen.”

That made Crass stop and she became very stern, almost commanding, “Colonel, I think it would be in your best interests to discuss this matter.”

Barbara found the exchange a little more than fascinating. She watched Horst actually pull at his collar before he finally told the Colonial Governor, “very well. Your office. Fifteen minutes.”

When the German left, Helen seemed to deflate but, she was most definitely not relieved. She just stood there staring at the open and empty door for a minute. Then she looked around the room until her eyes locked with Barbara’s. Helen walked over to the witness table and said, “Chief Agent Reilly, my office, twenty minutes.” She left without another word.

Tony’s jaw fell open and with great horror he said, “execution by committee meeting.” He was not happy, “for a blown fuel line?”

Barbara never bothered looking at the boy nor did she feel the need to reply to his commentary. She simply stood up from the table, put a hand on his shoulder, and said, “Tony, go get the car. I have a feeling this won’t take very long.” She left him babbling out a thousand questions and she did not bother to answer a single one.

When Barbara reached the outer chamber of the Governor’s office she could hear the yelling going on behind the big, pink, double doors that led to Helen’s actual office. One person was screaming in German while the other was returning the favor in English. Barbara didn’t need a doctorate to figure out who was who. She simply stood outside the door, crossed her arms, and listened.

Helen’s receptionist barely even noticed Barbara. She was stunned, if not outright scared, and her eyes did not leave the door for at least a minute. When she finally noticed Barbara the poor girl mouthed off the words, “you’re next” like someone in that room could actually hear anything outside.

When the shouting finally stopped one of the doors promptly opened and Horst was walking out in a hurry and with a very determined look on his face. He did take the time to touch the brim of his cap as he walked by and he politely said, “Agent Reilly.” He never slowed nor actually looked at anything but the hallway that he vanished in shortly after.

The receptionist gulped and meekly stated, “I think…”

Helen’s voice was not pleasant when she yelled out, “Barbara! Get in here!”

Barbara gave the receptionist a little smile and then walked in the room. She shut the door behind her without even being asked. Helen was pacing in front of a window and biting on a pen as she did. When Helen finally spoke, “I take it you already know what happened. So I won’t even bother with that.” When Helen stopped and finally looked at Barbara she said, “you win. Tippet can keep his license.”

Barbara rolled her eyes at the woman, “oh please Helen. You never had any intention of grounding him. You can’t afford a feud with a family his size, and we both know it. So why don’t we just cut right through it, since I have a feeling that we don’t have a lot of time.”

“You’re right,” Helen was angry even if Barbara could not quite figure out which part of today’s events had gotten to her the most. What really disturbed Barbara, even more, was the fact that the woman seemed to be scared too. Helen’s voice almost had a quiver to it as she spoke, “We have to take care of this matter, internally, before Horst does something stupid.”

“Take care of it how,” Barbara asked. Then she pointed to the door, “and what does all this have to do with him?”

It was clear that Helen was considering everything very carefully. She was also picking and choosing her words with extreme prejudice, “Horst is a man that is in the unenviable position of having to serve many masters. He is somewhat restrained by the Beta Canaan Treaty, he answers to the UN General Assembly in New York, and most of all to the German General Staff in Berlin.”

Barbara crossed her arms and huffed, “and you seem to know an awful lot about him.”

“It’s my job Barbara,” she shot back. “It’s also unimportant right now. What you have to understand is that sometimes all of these interests conflict, sometimes they don’t even matter, and it can leave him with having to pick the lesser of three evils. The one thing he can’t do is nothing.”

Barbara was unconvinced, “because somebody blew up a car wash?”

“The driver,” Helen said carefully, “was one of his officers. I was able to restrain him after the Family Day Massacre, by bringing in the UN inspection team but, that will not work a second time.”

Barbara wanted to scream, “how does he even know who the driver was? My people are there. The fire department is there. Hell, even Chief Summers got off his lazy ass and went down there. They don’t know anything yet, well, except they haven’t seen the Wehrmacht. So how?”

“I don’t know,” Helen screamed back but it was not in anger. The woman almost wanted to cry, “All that matters is that Horst believes it. He’s on his way back to Riggins Field, right now, and he’s ordered a roll call of his people. When they find someone missing it won’t take them long to figure out what Horst already seems to know. That the victim was a German. Do you know what’s going to happen then Barbara?”

Barbara felt scorn, “what Helen? Another real estate scam?”

The Governor ignored the statement, “Horst’s troops will take control of this island, then the planet. Whitman will have to call in his Marines, and by the time it’s all over with we won’t have a colony anymore. Is that the price you’re willing to pay just so you can turn your nose up at me?”

Barbara grunted, “what are you asking Helen?”

“I’m not asking Barbara,” Helen shot back immediately with renewed anger. “This is an order from this office. You will use whatever means are at your disposal to conclude this incident in whatever way is required to prevent this disaster.”

What the hell did that mean? Barbara was almost afraid to ask, almost, “conclude? Prevent? You don’t mean bring to justice. You don’t mean to arrest. What are you saying Helen?”

The woman took a second to compose herself, “I am saying, that I hope to god there is enough of your father in you to handle this. I hope you are still not that scared little girl that wanted nothing more in life than to just get even with him because things didn’t turn out how she liked.”

Barbara stepped closer to her, “yeah well I can see you’re desperate enough. A few hours ago the highlight of your day was railroading one of my kids, after all the other crap you’ve put us through. Now you want me to do your dirty work?”

“You’ve got resources,” Helen replied without backing down. “You’ve got that American who seems quite keen on shooting up the city. You’ve got Mister Kent ‘Whatever He Calls Himself Today,’ so, why don’t you put his slimy little ass on it. It’s what he does best isn’t it?” Helen walked back to her desk and was still fuming when she answered Barbara’s unasked question, “of course I know who he is. Did he really think he could come back without me finding out?”

There did not seem to be much choice in the matter so, Barbara said, “fine. I want something in return.”