Danger Close (Shadow Warriors) (38 page)

“Corporal Fremont, I have your service record before me. I see your DI, Sergeant Rice, whom we heard from earlier in these hearings, noted that you were a loner. What can you tell us about that?”

She swallowed. “Only that she’s wrong. I’ve never been a loner. I’m a group person who enjoys working with people. I’m team oriented.”

“What about working under people and taking orders?” he snapped.

“I have,” Cathy replied tautly, going on guard.

“There are at
least
ten different comments here on your inability to take orders. Someone is lying here, Corporal, that’s obvious. Why couldn’t you take orders? Or are sergeants’ Rice and Rogers plus your officers all wrong and you’re right?”

Mackey squirmed inwardly. Roman was going to put Cathy up against the wall and crucify her. He anxiously looked over at her.

Cathy pulled the microphone closer, her face flushed. Why couldn’t they get to the heart of the problem instead of trying to tear her to pieces? It didn’t make sense and she swallowed hard. “There were times that I refused to obey an order out in the bush. Especially when Sergeant Thatcher wanted to march us into a known LA ambush. My responsibility as point was to protect the squad. I was not going to let them walk into an ambush and get slaughtered.”

Roman waved his hand airily overhead. “Then you anointed yourself as savior to the women and disregarded the person in charge?”

Cathy hesitated, hating him for dramatizing a specific incident. Between clenched teeth, she said, “My refusal of orders was based upon the criteria of the situation at that time, Senator.”

“Did you get Sergeant Thatcher killed in that particular firefight because you wouldn’t obey her orders?” he pressed savagely.

“That’s a lie!” Cathy cried out. “Thatcher insisted on moving into an ambush and I tried to talk her out of it.” Cathy jerked a look at Lane and then glared up at Roman. “I was so sure of ambush that when Thatcher insisted on moving ahead with the squad, I drew my Ka-Bar and held it to her throat to make her retreat before we all got killed!”

A cry of surprise and rage rippled through Lane’s camp. One of the lawyers held Lane down so that she couldn’t stand. The room exploded. Wagner leaned over to Cathy, cupping his hand to her ear. “Why didn’t you tell us about that?”

Cathy snarled, “Because I didn’t think it was important! Who’s on trial here? Her or me?”

Wagner gripped her shoulder. “Roman’s baiting you. Don’t fall for it. He’s trying to swing the focus to you and bury the angle on Major Lane. Don’t elaborate on your answers. You hear me?”

Cathy turned miserably to Tucker and she reached out, gripping his hand.

Tucker winced physically as he saw anguish written in every plane of her face. He squeezed her hand. “Courage, Cathy, courage. Don’t let him take you down. You’re doing fine. Fine…” He saw his words have an immediate steadying effect on her, fortifying her. It left him shaken. Guilt scored his conscience as he sat there. He knew what was coming next and he gripped her hand hard.

Roman twirled his pen absently while the room quieted down. He dearly loved a good cross-examination. It was his bread and butter. Roman’s mild voice cut across the restive silence in the room. “Am I to understand you are admitting to threatening…even drawing a knife on one of your superiors?”

“I felt the circumstances warranted such action, Senator. The women of the squad—”

Roman’s eyes slitted. “By your own words, Corporal, you believe in doing whatever the circumstance warrants.”

“In that situation, protection of the squad—”

“Corporal, a simple yes or no will be sufficient. You had your chance to make your statement earlier. Now, just answer my question. Do you believe in taking the action the circumstance warrants? Yes or no?”

“Yes, but not as you mean it,” Cathy protested, her voice strained.

“Let the record reflect,” Roman boomed out in his imperious tone, “that my meaning is not the issue, but Corporal Fremont’s willingness to take whatever action warrants, as viewed by herself, is the issue.” He smiled at her. “Let’s pursue another issue, Corporal. What about this love affair with the now-deceased Captain James Boland? He was XO of Alpha Company and a member of Colonel Mackey’s staff.” His voice turned low and insinuating. “The way I understand it, the Colonel ordered him to woo you into wearing a wire once you were rotated back to Delta to gather so-called evidence against Major Lane. And then, thanks to Colonel Mackey’s generosity, you were both flown off to Hua Hin, a resort, to get acquainted on five days of R & R. And even had you transferred to the captain’s company for forty days?”

The room again exploded into disbelief, only this time, it was Mackey’s side of the room. The lawyers looked blankly at one another for a moment.

Mackey paled.

Cathy gasped, her fingers moving to the base of her throat. That was secret information! How had Roman gotten a hold of it? Her eyes widened. She felt Dorn jostle her, grabbing for the microphone in front of her.

“Objection!” Dorn interrupted hotly. “You’re making allegations and statements that draw a conclusion even before Corporal Fremont can answer.”

Fredericks leaned down the table and saw Roman sitting there smugly. The bastard had somehow gotten wind of Mackey’s wire attempt. Dammit, anyway! Who was responsible? Who? His angry gaze raked the assemblage.

Major Louise Lane was sitting there with a triumphant gleam in her eyes.

“My apologies,” Roman murmured graciously. He smiled at Cathy Fremont. “Tell us in your own words what relationship existed between Captain Boland and yourself.”

“First of all,” Cathy began, her voice trembling, “let me answer your accusation. I only became aware of the plan to get me to wear a wire on my last day with Alpha Company. I did not know I was under surveillance by Captain Boland or Colonel Mackey. Secondly, I went on R & R with the entire Recon team that I had been assigned to. Colonel Mackey was the one who asked me if I’d wear a wire, not Captain Boland.”

“Perhaps we’re to believe the good captain had nothing to do with Colonel Mackey’s plan to subvert one of her own women against Major Lane?”

“Objection!” Dorn said.

Roman shrugged, implying he would not pursue the wire issue any further at this time. “I’ll yield to the learned attorney’s objection.” His smile increased; his real purpose with such a question was to feed the information to the media.

“By the end of your tour with Alpha Company, had you fallen in love with the handsome captain?” Roman coaxed gently.

Cathy chewed on her lower lip, a deluge of emotion nearly suffocating her. “Yes…yes, I had.”

“And wasn’t that love for him part of your decision to become a traitor to Delta and lie before this hearing?”

“Objection!” Wagner thundered, slamming the palm of his hand down on the table. “Intimidation of the witness by labeling her a traitor!”

“Sustained!” Fredericks barked. He looked down the table at Roman.

“Senator, can you refrain from courtroom tactics long enough to get to the truth? This is not a trial nor should it pretend to be!”

Roman smiled easily, watching the woman’s face very closely. He had her exactly where he wanted her. “My apologies. Wasn’t your love for him, Corporal Fremont, part of the reason why you decided to become an instrument for Colonel Mackey to investigate Major Lane?”

Cathy sat there, her eyes narrowing. She felt as if she were in a firefight, her senses once again screamingly alert. All the grief and explosion of pain over Jim’s death sheared through her, tearing her apart inwardly. “No. It was not. After—” She hesitated, finding it almost impossible to say Jim’s name without breaking into tears. Grimly, Cathy pursed her lips and forced out in a low tone. “Jim told me the truth.”

“And that was?”

“That he could no longer support the wire plan. He felt it was too dangerous and knew I opposed it, too.”

Roman straightened up, surveying the room like a lordly lion. “Now really, Corporal Fremont, what woman who is obviously and passionately in love with a decorated Marine officer like Captain Boland, is going to refuse to do anything he asks?”

“Objection!” Wagner shrieked, throwing off Dorn’s warning hand on his arm.

Cathy Fremont shivered visibly, her face growing waxen. Roman smiled down at her like an avenging angel, ignoring Wagner’s rebuttal and Fredericks’s stinging condemnation. His voice cut through the uproar. “Indeed, you were constantly in trouble under Major Lane’s command due to
your
inability to follow orders. You were transferred to easy duty in Alpha and fell in love with its captain. And then, you were opposed to acting as an informant against the object of your hate, your commanding officer, Major Lane.”

Roman hesitated, his voice rolling like a hellfire-and-damnation preacher across the room at the peak of his fevered delivery. “I believe you are straining your own credibility. You are certainly going beyond my ability to believe you were nothing but a malcontent, willing to pull a knife on your superior. And then you dally around on R & R and have the nerve to tell the whole world you couldn’t support Colonel Mackey’s plan to get Major Lane. Bullshit, Corporal.”

Both lawyers were up and shouting objections. Arnley’s hand bit deeply into Cat’s shoulder as she tried to rise, anger blinding her better judgment.

Roman sat back, watching them trying to control the woman. He smiled, pleased that he had goaded her into a sufficient state of reckless anger. The room swam with deafening noise. Fredericks was furiously banging away with his gavel.

Mackey watched Cathy apprehensively. He was just as stunned in the wake of what had happened as she was. Who had leaked information to Roman? My God, his general’s star was as good as gone. There was nothing left of his career now that the information had come to light. Roman and Lane would turn the hearing in on his abortive attempts to get Cathy Fremont to carry a wire and implicate Lane. Dammit all!

Tucker sat frozen, watching every emotion register clearly on Cathy’s shocked features. Arnley was there, leaning over her, whispering in her ear, trying to get her settled down as she burst into tears, sobbing uncontrollably. Lane, Roman, Mackey, Fredericks and, yes, even himself, were using her to their own selfish advantage. He shut his eyes tightly and bowed his head. What had he done?

JIM BOLAND cursed richly as he reached out, wrapping his fingers around the brass doorknob. He nearly ripped the door off its hinges as he entered Cornell’s lavishly appointed office. Two days being bed-bound and then three days of being isolated despite the fact he could move about had pushed even his considerable patience to an end. At first, Jim thought it was him: any phone calls he’d tried to place were snafued. Cornell was acting edgy. Today, he slipped out of his ICU room, unknown to the nurses, and found a lounge. He was walking through it, trying to locate a pay phone, when he saw Cathy Fremont being assaulted by Senator Jacob Roman on the television.

Boland had stood frozen. First disbelief, then shock, and, lastly, boiling anger ripped through him. Why hadn’t Dr. Cornell told him about the hearings? He’d asked about Cathy so many times, only to get vague answers that she was recuperating Stateside from her wound. Something was up—he sensed it. He tasted it. And now, Cornell was going to explain his deceitful behavior and why he hadn’t told him the truth about Cathy.

The doctor raised his head from a report he was reading as Jim strode over to the desk. The Marine’s face was drawn and livid with rage.

“Dammit, Cornell, you get orders cut for me to get the hell out of here. I’m not sitting around here another day for tests. I’m going Stateside. Now! Do I make myself clear?”

Cornell sat up, pushing the medical report aside. Boland had been restless since regaining consciousness five days ago. He had bitched more than once, although regaining some of his lost fifteen pounds and bouncing back quickly from the effects of the coma.

“Perfectly clear, Captain,” he answered, unruffled.

“I want those orders signed by you. I’m hopping the first military aircraft out of this place that I can get.”

He stood, straightening his white jacket. “Why are you upset, Captain? I don’t understand.”

“You damn pill pusher,” Boland returned acidly. He moved around the desk and grabbed Cornell by his jacket. “I managed to slip out of that little prison of mine in ICU and just happened to catch the senate hearings on a TV in a lounge.”

Cornell visibly paled. “Very well. I’ll sign orders releasing you from the hospital.”

Boland dug his fingers into the doctor’s shoulder. “I also want a phone number where I can reach Cathy Fremont. And no more screwing around.”

“I don’t have a number for her. I can give you Colonel Mackey’s, however.”

“Fine.” His eyes narrowed darkly. “Get it.”

MACKEY WATCHED, stunned as he saw Cathy wrestling with and finally controlling herself. It was a magnificent tribute to some unknown reserve of strength that she was pulling from deep within her. She seemed to shift into overdrive, the tears that had spilled from her wide green eyes vanishing, her mouth compressed with anguish. Taking a glass of water, she gulped down a swallow, her eyes hurt but defiant as she set it back down.

Mackey had never sweated so much in his life as he did the rest of the day, listening to the lightning exchange between her and Roman. The senator tried to destroy all of Cathy’s credibility again and again. She shot back snapping answers, fighting valiantly to maintain a flow of anger in order to sustain her through the questioning.

Fredericks’s face lost much of its anxiety as she continued to parry and riposte Roman’s trapping innuendos.

“You accused Major Lane of being a sadist in boot camp.”

“Yes.”

“Don’t you hate her enough to slander her?”

“No. I hate her methods enough to tell the truth.”

“Did she single you out as a scapegoat?”

“Yes.”

“So you have created these lies to get even with her for punishing you for continually disobeying orders?”

“No. She had it in for me the instant I tried to keep my squad safe out in the bush instead of risking them for high body counts to make her look good.”