CHAPTER 16

It alarmed Patty when she saw the choppers rising into the air. It was not because of the machines per se, because, that was an incredible sight. Patty could actually feel the energy as she watched the helicopters not only take off but, how they did so in formation, all at once. That part was beyond description and almost intoxicating to watch. The part that Patty found disturbing was the fact that she was supposed to be on one of those choppers and now they were leaving her behind.

Patty quickly looked to her escort, the elf, and scornfully said as much to the woman. Major Ceascu responded as if she were not really concerned with the reporters attitude, “you were not meant to be on that flight, Miss Walsh.”

The way the elf said it sounded almost mystical when Patty thought about it. She had to ask, “is that some kind of Zen, fate, thing?”

“No,” Taylya replied in a matter of fact kind of way, “it is some kind of colonel’s orders thing.” Taylya had led them to the tent city that had been set up on the other side of the tarmac. Patty had watched it go up and she had been of the opinion that it was anything but temporary. The very tent, that the elf Major stopped at, was proof of that. A sand bag wall was going up around it’s perimeter. When Ceascu opened the flap, Patty also noticed that you had to step down once entering. Apparently, all of the dirt going into those bags had been dug out of the very spot where the tent was. Taylya even noted, “watch your step.”

Patty did just that as she walked in and she also noticed that the Elf was not following. The major waived it off just before leaving, “I have somewhere else to be. For you, this is your post for now.”

Patty wanted to protest but, the Elf did not give her a chance. Instead, Patty looked around what was most definitely some kind of headquarters, and found that someone else was waiting for her. He was a short black man and had lots of stripes on his rank thing. Patty wasn’t sure which rank that was but, she did figure he had to be important. The man smiled at her and introduced himself, “I’m Sergeant Major Price. Colonel Isaacs was the one who sent for you.”

Patty now protested to this guy, “I’m supposed to be on one of those choppers!”

Price kept his smile and calm, “the colonel can explain it to you, ma’am. That’s why the army has them.”

He led her to a corner of this crowded big tent and to a place that had been sectioned off. Patty could only describe this makeshift office as a sandbag cubicle. She also found Bob Isaac’s and this silver headed fellow, sitting in fold out chairs, drinking coffee, and joking with each other. Everyone’s light mood here did not fit Patricia’s. She protested once again and, once again, she was met with calm and smiles.

Isaacs never even bothered to get out of his chair as he offered her a seat. Patty chose to stand and it did not seem to bother Isaacs in the least. He simply said, “suit yourself Miss Walsh, oh, and welcome to the TOC.” He then introduced the silver headed soldier, “this piece of shit is Sergeant Major Lewis and you already met Sergeant Major Price.”

Patty looked quickly behind her to notice that the new guard dog had not gone anywhere. She tried to find some humor in the situation, “that’s a mouthful. You keep a lot of them around?”

Bob laughed and replied, “yeah well everybody is always saying god is on their side. I got proof and usually keep two around me at times like this. Never know when you might need a spare god.” The army humor went right over the woman’s head so Bob waived it off as he then offered her some coffee and explained, “I had Avery pull you from that stick. You should have never been on it.”

Patty stuck to her guns, “that’s not the agreement with the Pentagon. I was promised full access to this operation.”

“No,” Isaacs finished pouring her a cup of coffee and then after handing it to her he finished by saying, “point of semantics here Miss Walsh. You were promised full access to Operation Wind Storm. This is Operation Yellow Brick.”

“You are very right colonel,” Patty huffed, “that is a game of semantics.”

Bob did not think twice about the attitude he was getting, “and it was made very clear to your news service that you would not be allowed to interfere in any operations that might put my people, including you, in any kind of danger. Colonel Avery needs nothing but shooters on his mission and you, no matter how well you can shoot, are not a soldier.” The woman tried to speak again but Isaacs cut her off, “and don’t try and change my mind because I made this decision two days ago.”

“What!” Patty went for agitation to just plain old outrage, “and you let me finish all that training? Then you pull me at the last minute with a lie… and… and, why only two days ago?”

Bob did snap at her this time, “cause I only found out about this situation, two days ago. In case you haven’t noticed Miss Walsh, neither me, nor any of my people are here to just baby sit you. We are not fighting this war for your ratings or to entertain the people back home. So I was busy and only got infor…”

Patty tossed up her hands, “wait a minute! Did you just call this a war? Can I quote you on that?”

“Hell no,” Isaacs replied.

Patty shook a finger at him for that, “you see, why is it the military wants to keep secrets from their own people more than they do the enemy? Huh? You’re telling me now that I can’t report the truth, even as you admit it?”

Surprisingly, Bob did not blow up at her. He simply sipped at his coffee, slid a look to Ed Lewis, and then they both laughed. Patty was not happy with that either. Then Bob told her, “everything I do is a war Miss Walsh. If you use a little common sense it might occur to you that war is what you have an army for. You do not send soldiers somewhere to make friends. We’re here to kill things and blow shit up. It really is that simple. Even if the politicians back home don’t call this war, mainly because this is so small nobody is really going to notice it, for a soldier it doesn’t make a spit worth of difference.”

Patty held her ground, “I was told my reports would be uncensored. Are you telling me that I can’t tell people what you just said?”

Again, Bob found it amusing, “you can say whatever you want Miss Walsh. Even if I had a mind too, I couldn’t really stop you. The fact is I don’t have a mind too. It’s all on you because if you want to report my words out of context, like you people are in the habit of doing, go right ahead. Just know that you’re dealing with issues way beyond my little blurb.”

That caused Patty to blink. She took a second to digest that and finally, after putting her hands on her hips, she had to ask, “what is that supposed to mean?”

Bob chuckled, set is cup of coffee aside, and then led Patty out into the working area of his tactical operations center. The reporter was impressed with what she saw even if Bob was anything but. Bob found the paper maps, the little markers, the plastic covers and grease pencils, to be archaic. He kind of thought that General Ulysses S. Grant had probably run his operations in a similar fashion.

Bob gestured to everything and explained a little bit of that to the reporter. Then he told her, “you really want to know why we’re here. Why we’re willing to risk the lives of our kids? What we’re really going to gain from all of this?”

Walsh took a deep breath, crossed her arms, and seriously replied, “I think the American people, even the people of planet earth, have a right to know that.”

“Believe it or not Miss Walsh,” Isaacs told her, “so do I. Only I’m not sure a lot of people are really going to understand it or even care.”

“That’s a cop out and you know it,” Patty told the man looking him dead in the eye.

“No it isn’t Miss Walsh,” Bob told her equally as resolute, “because most people don’t have a clue what my job is really all about. They’ve seen a few war movies so they figure they’re experts but, the truth is, unless you do this every day, there’s no way in hell you can keep up with all the changes. Having to come here, is a big change for all of us.”

Again, Patty was not impressed, “that’s stating the obvious Colonel.”

“Doesn’t look that way to me,” Bob told her. When it was clear she did not get it he waived to everything around her, “this whole TOC looks wrong to me. It’s like something out of a museum or a war movie. There’s nothing right about any of this to my eyes. You’ve been staring at it for how long now? It’s been right under your nose and you have yet to realize how screwed up it all is.”

Patty could admit that to a point but, she still did not see where he was going with all of this. She told him as much and the colonel replied, “you want to know what it is we want from here? My people are here to learn, Miss Walsh. Now that we know Middle Earth is real, that elves are real, we have to learn how to deal with them.”

Patty crossed her arms and replied in an almost scornful manner, “by killing them? Is that always our solution?”

“Killing might be what we do,” Bob told her seriously, “but that’s not what we are about. Like it or not, violence is not only an integral part of our universe, it is apparently a constant in two of them, at least. Other people’s jobs are to figure out how to trade, talk, and sing Kumbaya with these other species. My job is to learn how to defend ourselves.”

Patty tossed her arms in the air, “defend ourselves from what, colonel? They aren’t attacking us!”

“That doesn’t mean,” Bob told her seriously, “ that one day they won’t. If we maintain contact with them then the likelihood is that we’re eventually going to be in a brawl with them, one way or the other. From everything I’ve seen, yeah I am convinced it will happen. When it does, we’re going to make mistakes. My job is to make sure those mistakes are at a minimum. We make them now so that when the day comes that there are serious consequences, we don’t royally screw up.”

“Spoken like a true soldier colonel,” Patty told him resolutely. “Very pragmatic, well thought out, and extremely paranoid beyond belief.”

“I don’t get paid to handle best case scenarios Miss Walsh,” Bob replied, “I get paid to help make sure the best case scenarios stay that way.”

Patty thought about that and realized that him doing his job was probably one of the reasons the ‘best case’ situations never stay that way. That was how she saw it at any rate. It also led her to one inescapable conclusion and she put it to the colonel in the form of a question, “and what happens when the best no longer is?”

Bob replied in a very matter of fact kind of way, “then I get paid to blow shit up.”