Chapter 26


The governor's mansion was already a century and a half old. The construction had been started by the original Texan colonists who were, at the time, still Americans. Then construction was halted for a war, way back on Earth, that had eventually resulted in Texan independence. When the new nation state could no longer afford the colony they actually sold it off, to a private company, that also halted construction on this building. Eventually, work on the palace had eventually been picked back up by that company until the colonists revolted and it was halted once again.

In the years following, a host of nations and international conglomerates had run the colony and this building was the living symbol of that. It was a gaudy, over built, miss mash of styles and time periods. The currently Governor, Helen Crass, a local who was appointed by the United Nations back on Earth, was spearheading the movement to have most of the building torn down and 'remodeled' in one style that she thought might really symbolize the human presence on this world. Naturally, there were plenty of people who disagreed with her on exactly what that style was.

It all came down to a matter of money, namely, who could raise most of it. That faction would more than likely have the most say in how the palace was rebuilt. Having an office in the building helped too. For one thing, besides the obvious, it gave the governor a platform to raise those very funds. That was why she turned even the most mundane function into events and, put her hand out every single time.

The governor was doing just that now. The US Council was present with several of his staff and Helen had always calculated they were good for a lump sum every time they walked in the door. They got invited to a lot of parties. Since they could not afford to be showed up by the officials of other nations they never had any choice but attend.

Other than the money, Helen was most curious about one particular detail that the Americans seemed to have overlooked, "well this is your man Barton's party. Why is he not here?"

It was that annoying little man with the buzz cut, Gary Moss, who answered for his boss, "well he is currently indisposed your excellency. I'm afraid that we still have him being debriefed by our legal team. It's uh…" Moss cleared his throat, "some treaty matters."

Whitman, his boss, smiled politely and said, "I'm sure we can hand over his credentials in a more private setting."

Helen graciously smiled even if she knew they were full of shit. In fact, she never would have asked the question had she not already known why. If there was one thing she loved even more than taking American money, it was putting their ambassador on the spot. She saw yet another chance to do so when her eye caught sight of a certain individual entering the room. She had only ever saw his photograph but he was recognizable enough. That was made doubly so by the black man who was following him. Helen had met that man, Norman Scoggins, on multiple occasions. She had heard even more about him on the side.

Jake Barton was actually dressed for the occasion. His tag along at least put on a coat even if it looked like he had bought it at thrift store. Barton marched right up to the governor and shook hands, then he nodded to the American diplomats, and finally addressed the other man in the little crowd, "Chief Summers. Good to see you again. We keep running into each other today."

Summers was stewing. His face was turning red but, he kept his mouth shut. He did manage to point a finger at Norm. The governor pushed his finger back down and quietly told him, "not here."

Moss cleared his throat again, "um, Major." He forced a smile, "Jake. I thought that…"

"No," Jake cut him off with, "plans changed." He retrieved some neatly folded papers from the inside of his coat and handed it over to Helen, "I think you need these your excellency."

Helen took them and quickly passed them off to one of her staffers, "you couldn't wait to the official presentation, Major? I think I would love for you to stick around and tell us about your extraordinary day. From what I've been hearing, they put you to work rather quickly."

"Oh no ma'am," Jake told her with a smile. He then looked around the room at all the lavishly dressed people and said, "I think this will do. I don't have any money, oh, except one hundred dollars which I will gladly donate to your rebuilding fund. The chief here can pay you."

Summers did bust out with, "that man, Scoggins, I will…"

"That man Chief," Jake told him, "was working undercover on my orders. As it so happens he, in cooperation with Herr Oberst Horst and the Three Twenty First Intel team, managed to stop a major drug shipment from reaching the streets."

Of course what Jake was not going to say was that the drugs had most likely been stolen from the Germans in the first place. Unless Jake missed his guess, that theft had been facilitated by Horst himself until the crew in the white jump suits had double crossed him. Jake was not sure of the specifics but, that was about the only thing that made sense so far. Now the drugs were safely back in the German property room where, no doubt, Horst was busy arranging another theft with people that he could trust a little better.

Summers replied to that, "he's not wanted for drug smuggling."

"Oh yes," Jake kept right on smiling and he even laughed. He got the Governor to do that as well. Then Jake said, "I couldn't tell you at the time but, Roy Kingsley was Agent Scoggins confidential informant on the matter. When the smugglers found out they killed Kingsley and tried to frame Agent Scoggins for it. We know this because our witness, a miss Sally," Jake had to look to Norm.

Norm just shrugged, "don't look at me I can't pronounce her name ether."

"Yeah well," Jake went on, "they tried to blow up Sally with the same kind of device that they killed Roy with. The German ordinance specialists can testify to that much." Jake gave a sly look at Whitman and Moss, "as it turns out it was stolen US military ordinance."

Whitman coughed. It was Moss that stated, "yeah I think we have some paper work on that."

The governor nodded to Jake and asked, "and did you catch these drug smugglers?"

"Well, not us," Jake told her. "The Wehrmacht tracked down a local plastic surgeon and, as it turned out, Misses Kingsley, the wife of the Confidential Informant, were involved. Unfortunately, they resisted arrest and the Wehrmacht got control of the situation with typical German efficiency."

Whitman coughed again and this time almost spit out his drink "they killed them?"

The Governor remained calm when she asked Jake, "you do realize she was one of our top models, Misses Kingsley that is."

What could Jake say to that? He really did not care. He had to hand over the bodies to Horst in order to really seal the deal. Even his threat to blow up the drugs was not enough to deter Horst. The guy figured he could take them before Jake could get the chance, and, he was probably right. It was Jake pointing out that if he caught Roy's murderers the Texans would owe him a favor and, as it turned out, Horst was quite pleased with that offer. The only hitch was he needed Sally and the Ranger's alive to make that work.

Jake bowed to the governor, "if you will excuse me your excellency. I do look forward to receiving my badge and ID card at your leisure." He then nodded to Norm and prepared to leave. He did stop for one parting comment, and that was directed to Chief Summers, "one hundred dollars."

The Governor already had her hand out.

When they reached the station and parked their car, Norm got out and walked over to a good spot where he could see the beach and the sea. He put his hands in his pockets and just watched the little caps of white form in a sea of darkness. He did not see Jake walk up but, he heard him. He told the man, "you got balls of steel, you know that."

Jake stopped next to the man and wondered if that were an insult or compliment. He decided he really did not want to know so he changed the subject, "and you could have at least worn a tie."

"You're lucky I even tucked my shirt in," Norm replied. They both stood in silence for a minute and then, finally, Norm worked up enough nerve to break it, "you do realize this ain't over yet."

Jake stayed vague, "why whatever do you mean Agent Scoggins."

Norm almost laughed but then he said, "you and me both damn well know that whatever they used to blow up ole Roy Boy wasn't the same thing as that bomb little Shannon tried to eat."

Jake knew one or two other things but, for the time being, he decided that he would keep those to himself. He wondered if Norm had figured all of that other stuff out too. It was probably a safe bet so what was the point in dredging it all up? Jake remained silent.

Norm filled that silence with, "well, my war is over today. That is all except for trying to explain this to my wife. You," he looked right at Jake and poked him in the chest, "have a bigger war to go fight right now."

"Yeah," Jake was all ears, "and what might that be?"

"When we was coming down the drive," Norm told him, "I noticed that the other chopper was back up at the hanger." He looked over his shoulder, towards the station, and saw the silhouette of a loan individual in the window. He then looked back to Jake, "I think I'd rather deal with my wife right now so, good luck Jake."

As Norm started to walk to his car he did turn and leave a passing thought, "just remember that we have a saying down here in the Arch. You're a military man so I'm sure you're familiar with anagrams. Just always remember T-N-O."

Jake looked up at the window and saw the person in the window. He could guess who it was. He then looked back to Norm and asked, "yeah and what's that mean, Agent Scoggins?"

The man did not bother looking back as he vanished into the dark while saying, "Trust No One."

Jake thought about that for a minute. Then he decided that was for tomorrow. He went back to the room where they had stashed all of his stuff. It looked like he would really be staying here, at least for the night. With everything that had happened today, the last thing on Jake's mind had been finding a hotel room. After Johnson had his car stolen in the middle of a shootout, Jake had also questioned the wisdom of getting a room
at all.

Jake changed clothes into a T-shirt and pair of shorts. He also decide that flip flops would do for foot ware. This was going to be a different kind of meeting than the one he had with the governor. He stopped by the commissary, said hi to Cal, and grabbed a beer from the fridge. Then he headed up the stairs to Operations. What he saw there kind of surprised him.

Barbara Reilly did not look anything like what he had expected. She was a lean woman, with shoulder length brown hair, dressed in slacks and a red turtleneck. She was drinking a cup of coffee in what had to be her favorite mug and, above all else, she had an air of being relaxed. On top of all that, Jake had to admit, that she had a very nice ass on her.

As Jake stood there on the stairs and looked at her, Barbara turned and with an air of humor asked him, "not what you were expecting?"

Jake finished his climb up the stairs and she offered him coffee but he pointed to his beer. He leaned up against one of the cluttered counters and told her, "and to be honest. No you aren't."

She smiled, and even giggled, "well I left my green skin and broomstick at the other station." Then she added, "now it's my turn."

Jake shrugged, "not what you were expecting ether?"

Barbara struck a thoughtful pose and said, "I think this is the part where I'm supposed to say, aren't you a little short for a storm trooper?"

Jake laughed along with her and said, "well I'm glad we got all that out of the way. Now we can get down to the part where you tell me you resent me even being here."

Barbara was a little more serious but, she kept it light, "they told me you were very perceptive. That's good Mister Barton, I like that. They also told me you had a very busy day."

"Yeah," again Jake shrugged, "well it did not turn out exactly the way I would have wanted, still, we managed to take down the bad guys anyway, I think. It's just not exactly how we did it back on Earth."

"Yeah," Barbara nodded in agreement and was very serious, "welcome to my world Mister Barton. These are good kids we have here. We do the best we can do with almost no budget at all. I barely have enough money to keep those whirly birds and our boats operational. Oh hey, lets not even think about giving my people a raise every now and then."

Jake snickered, "so you don't like the governor ether."

"Helen Crass isn't the problem here Mister Barton," Barbara told him.

Jake took a sip of beer and pointed to himself, "no it's guys like me."

Barbara actually took a moment before replying. She was serious but, not hostile when she did, "ok, if you want to go there. Yeah, guys like you. The last two guys they sent out here, to hold your job, the first one wound up blowing his brains out and the other one, seventy two hours, and then he marched right back over to the US Consul and filed his retirement papers."

Jake laughed and then commented, "good thing to know I'm already a third of the way to retirement."

Now Barbara did sound a bit hostile, "I don't think it's funny Mister Barton. You know that last big war they had. We never saw any of it here unless it was on TV. Yet we sent our friends, our family, off to fight in it. They were people like my Dad, my brother, my husband, and none of them came home." Barbara turned away from him before she went on. "Then one day a starship jumps into orbit and tells us, yeah it'll be all right. We're going to let everybody else run your lives for you. People like my father and brother, everything they had and bled for was just erased. Do you know that both of them served at this very station. My father, well," she took a minute compose herself, "he ran this place for twenty-six years. His father, another twenty before that. I first met my husband when he came to work here."

Jake became a bit more somber, "and I'm walking on their graves?"

If Barbara even heard the question she did not show it, "my daughter Shannon, you know the one you almost blew up today? This place is all she has ever known. This isn't a profession Mister Barton. This isn't just some duty station. This our home. This is our family."

"Well first off," Jake rose from his seat, "I wasn't the one that took her joy riding on a criminal investigation."

"I know," Barbara replied resolutely, "and I'll deal with Tony and Amy when the time is right."

"You know lady," Jake told her as they squared off, "if you want to point fingers about who almost got your daughter killed…"

"This isn't about pointing fingers Mister Barton," Barbara told him, "and when you've been the boss for longer than a day then, maybe, you'll understand that."

It was Jake's turn to ignore the statement at hand and continue his thought, "maybe Agent Reilly, you should start by taking a real good look at yourself."

She took a step back and her face turned red. Barbara then blurted out, "and exactly what is that supposed to mean?"

"It means, Barb," Jake told her, "that if your kids, and that includes your biological one too, had been more important to you than snubbing me, then just maybe none of this would have ever happened."

"You're out of line," Barbara bit back.

"No," Jake told her, "I'm making a point. These aren't bad kids you got here Barbara. They got guts and that is a start. What they are sorely lacking in is leadership."

"Oh," Barbara snarled and turned it on him, "and I suppose you're the one to give it to them?"

He surprised her, in return, by saying, "well somebody better start. This is your world Barbara. I don't need to tell you how dangerous it is out there. Unless these kids get proper training and guidance, and to hell with the damn budget, one of them, if not all of them, are going to get killed. Just like your Agent Nguyen almost managed too this morning."

"I'll have you know," she came back with.

Jake cut her off, "if you had been here you might have stopped Nguyen from running off in the middle of her shift. If you had been here then Scoggins might not have gone off half cocked. If you had been here then your daughter might not have wound up tied to a bomb." She almost said something but Jake cut her off once more, "tell me I'm wrong?"

Now Barbara surprised Jake, yet again. She relaxed. She smiled and then she reached out for a shake with crossed arms. She was quite calm when she told him, "maybe you'll live after all Mister Barton. You certainly have to watch that temper of yours though."

Jake shook her hand. Looked her in the eye and she did not blink. He finally nodded for a good night and began his walk back down the stairs. As he did he heard her say, "oh and by the way Mister Barton. I think you have a cute ass too."

Jake just kept on walking.



THE END