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“SHERI!”  Chuck dove for the radio.

“Relax, Chuck,” Sheri laughed, “I turned it off out of reflex when I picked it up out of the Mustang.”  Sheri didn’t want to use Pete’s name if she could help it.  “Whose reputation were you trying to protect there anyway, huh?”

“Ours, ma’am, ours.”

“Ok, that’s fair.”  She leaned up and kissed him on the tip of the nose, then reached over and grabbed his radio and handed it to him.

“Thanks.  Ok, here goes.”  As soon as he turned it on he got a call.

“Charlie One this is Alpha Six, over.”

“Alpha Six, this is Charlie One, over.”

“Chuck, we heard a gunshot and then heard Sheri’s voice and then her radio went dead.  Please tell me what the hell is going on, over,” Mallory said.  She’d been the one on the radio the entire time most likely.

“Alpha Six, I am returning to base with Sheri.  There was an encounter with Pete, who was holding Sheri hostage with a gun to her head.  Pete was killed during the encounter by a single gunshot wound to the head.  Sheri is unharmed.  Over.”  Chuck was keeping what Sheri had said about people questioning his actions later in mind while talking to Mallory.

“Was the gunshot wound self inflicted?  Over.”

“Ultimately, yes, actually, no.  He made the decisions that ultimately lead to the gunshot wound.  The bullet did not come from his gun, however, if that is what you are asking.  Over.”

“Yes, that is what I was asking.  Ok, drive slow as you approach the parking lot, you’re going to have a welcoming committee.  Out.”

“She’s thinking the same things you were thinking, about me and my future.”

“Which speaks well of her, she’s not thinking about herself, or at least not only herself.  She’s concerned about you too.”  Sheri reached out and took Chuck’s hand.  “It’ll be ok.”

“I know.  Whatever happens, it’ll be ok.”

Mallory hadn’t been kidding about the welcoming committee either.  With the exception of the military personnel who were on active patrol or duty, it looked like everyone at the base was waiting for them to get back and the applause started as soon as they heard Chuck’s truck.

“Oh you have got to be kidding me!” Chuck said as they rounded the last curve to the parking lot.

Sheri was grinning from ear to ear when she looked at him and her eyes were glistening.  “You, sir, are going to come around to my side and pick me up and carry me out of this truck.  You are my hero, you rescued me, you are my knight in shining armor, and you are going to play that up.  Understood?”

“Yes, ma’am.”  Chuck said with a small smile.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Getting back to his parking space was a slow process as the way was just a tiny bit crowded.  Thank goodness the civilian portion of the lot wasn’t as packed with vehicles as the military side, and there was actually room for him to carry out Sheri’s plan.  Chuck got out and made his way around the front of the truck, amid back slaps and the continued applause.  When he got to the passenger side, Sheri had already slid back over and was really playing it up even though there weren’t any cameras.

He picked her up the same way he had back at the house, and the arm with the handcuff came out first and went around his neck.  She buried her face in his shoulder for a minute and then looked up, eyes legitimately wet, and waved--again with her right hand--and people saw the handcuff.  Those closest to them murmured and passed it on, ensuring all the others saw as well.

“Don’t lay it on
too
thick sweetheart; you don’t want them to think it was rehearsed.”  Chuck murmured into her ear.

“K, go ahead and set me down when we get to a clearing in the crowd.  I think we’ve made our point.  That is, if it’s ok with you.”  She hugged him.  She was enjoying being close to him now that she was there.

“I’d completely forgotten I was holding you.  Imagine that,” he smiled.  “Probably ought to take my own advice here though.”  Mallory was coming through the crowd and she had a couple of MPs with her.  “I’ll probably need both my hands here in a minute anyway.”

Chuck set Sheri down just as Mallory got to them, turned to face her, stood up straight, and held out both of his hands (close enough together that handcuffs would fit on him).  It was ironic in its own way.  He’d just gotten back from freeing Sheri, who was still wearing a handcuff on one wrist, and he was getting ready to be handcuffed himself.

A ring of silence surrounded Mallory, the MPs, and Chuck and Sheri, and slowly spread outwards through the crowd.  As the silence grew, Chuck noticed the wire-boom jawbone microphone Mallory  wore.  They had lights in the parking lot, and apparently some of the PA system speakers had been newly put up over the last hour as well, as Mallory’s voice was amplified over the lot when she spoke, “Put your hands down Chuck, I’m not here to arrest you.”

“Everyone,” Mallory looked around at those nearest to them and above their heads into the crowd and repeated a little louder, “Everyone, please listen to me.  Today we learned a very valuable lesson, and we were very lucky.  One of our own was taken from us by force.  Taken by someone that all of you have heard of and some of you have specifically been trying to flee.  It was the first such occurrence, but we have no way of knowing, and frankly no way of guaranteeing, that it will be the last.

“Tonight, whether by luck, skill, divine intervention, or a combination of any or all three and something else besides, a potentially nasty episode has come to an end.  Pete will no longer trouble any of us.  It is my personal opinion that Chuck acted in the best interest not only of Ms. Hines, but also of the base, and our group as a whole--and that had he not, we may very well have been recovering Sheri instead of rescuing her.”

“That is, however, my personal opinion and not my professional opinion.”  Mallory paused for a few seconds to make sure that everyone was still paying attention.  “My professional opinion is this: Regarding the events of this evening, no military personnel were engaged, no military assets were used, including vehicles, firearms, or ammunition, and no military laws were broken.  This is an entirely civil matter, and the military has absolutely no jurisdiction over it.  I am here, right now, for two reasons.”

“The gentlemen behind me have a number of keys to handcuffs, as they are all keyed to a very small number of keys.  They are here to help Ms. Hines remove her encumbrance.  The second reason is to give my personal thanks to Mr. Turner, and don’t you dare correct me, Chuck, I’ll call you whatever I please at this point.”  Mallory smirked to take the sting out of it, but she wasn’t going to take any lip about the ‘Mr. Turner’ bit either.

“He did an incredibly brave thing tonight.  I have an idea what his motivation was, but I won’t go into that.  I also plan on reading him the riot act and you will all probably hear me scream at him sometime tomorrow until I lose my voice, because it was also reckless, dangerous, irresponsible, completely unplanned, and borderline stupid.”  Chuck flinched at each adjective she threw at him, but stood there and took it because she was right.

“However, none of those things take away from the fact that it was brave, and Sheri is back, and I really couldn’t be happier.”  Mallory’s eyes were shining now as she stuck out her hand.

Chuck went to shake it and was startled to be pulled into a hug, and the applause started up all over again.  “If you ever do anything like that again,” Mallory whispered through a smile into his ear, “I will
start
by letting Ramirez and KB come up with something appropriate to do with you when I find you.”  Apparently she’d shut the microphone off before she’d said that.  Chuck shuddered.

“Yes, First Sergeant, I mean, no, First Sergeant, I mean, it won’t happen again.  Promise.  I have something to stick around for now.”

“Outstanding, Mr. Turner, I’m glad to hear that.”  Mallory looked over at Sheri and winked.  Sheri was all smiles.  I sure hope that lasts and I’m guessing that smile means he got there in time.  Good deal.

The third key the MPs tried worked and the handcuffs came off, and Sheri found herself doing what every newly un-handcuffed person did in every movie ever made, rubbing her wrist, even though it didn’t hurt.  It was just, what …instinct?  Verify that you were free, check to see that the weight wasn’t there anymore?  See that the irritant was in fact gone?  She didn’t know, and as soon as she realized she was doing it she immediately dropped her hands to her sides.

“If you two would come with me, I still have an operation to plan.  Although it no longer needs to go off by tomorrow morning, I’d still like it to.  And since both of you have at least been there, I’d like to have you two included in at least the initial planning stages.”

Making their way back to the command portion of the base was by no means quick, with all the well wishers and residual crowd, but it wasn’t as slow as the first few steps away from the truck had been.   

Evidently Mallory had distributed a brief statement to be passed on by the “block moms” about the incident, and it was sinking in that Pete was dead and not just ‘not going to be a problem anymore’.  They even encountered a few whoops and ‘yee-haw’s’ on their way back to the command tent.  Chuck sincerely hoped that was more a case of pent up frustration and nerves than anything else.  He knew that he, while relieved, certainly didn’t feel giddy about the situation.

The usual suspects were already in attendance when they arrived, and in the relative quiet of the tent, he realized that Mallory and Sheri had been carrying on a conversation most of, if not the whole way back.  “I’m gonna have to keep an eye on that,” he thought to himself.  “The last thing I need is Sheri getting advice on how to keep me in line from Mallory.”

“Jackson, Halstead, who’s going in?”  Mallory asked.

Jackson replied first, “First Platoon, First and Third Infantry Squads will be covering the east approach to the town.  They’ll be going in heavy so they can either be using AM or Satellite.  We have no recon at this time, so we have no idea what to expect as far as resistance or capabilities in the town.”

“Second Platoon, Second and Third Infantry Squads on the western approach to the town will be supported by Fourth Platoon, First Communications and Third Medic Squads split evenly between the east and west ends of town,” Halstead had the next group.  “Like Jackson said, we don’t have any recon yet, and while Sheri and Chuck where only there for a short time, and Chuck was only there after dark, we’ll take anything they can give us that will help prior to committing anything.”

“All right then, I’d like to begin with you, Sheri, if you’re ok with that?”  Mallory asked.  At a nod from Sheri she continued.  “If you could start with everything you remember about the town, including layout, number of occupied buildings, number of people, anything that you can remember could be useful.”

Sheri told them everything she could remember about the drive into town, descriptions of people and buildings, numbers of people, and anything she could remember that Pete had told her.  The fact that there were some technically-savvy people there, but that they didn’t seem to be in charge was interesting.

When she was done, Chuck went through the same process, filling in any blanks that he could, although he hadn’t been doing nearly as good a job cataloging information as Sheri had.  She just seemed to be a natural at this.  “I did notice that although there were supposed to be a number of homes with power, only four of them had lights on when I came into the town and when we left.  I don’t know what that means, if anything, but knowing what I do now about how many have power, I just found it interesting.

“I also didn’t encounter anyone outside, which I was grateful for at the time, but it seems more than a little odd now that I think about it.  I’m pretty sure I remember seeing a couple of curtains move, but I didn’t see anyone outside--nobody.  No one challenged me getting into the town; we were able to get Sheri’s stuff out of the Mustang without incident.  Nobody even yelled after the gunshot,” Chuck grimaced a little when he said that.  The adrenaline was wearing off and he was starting to come to grips with the fact that he’d shot Pete.  He had a sneaking suspicion he was going to be violently, noisily sick in the very near future.

Sheri grabbed Chuck’s hand and stepped into what could have become an awkward silence, “I mentioned it to Pete, but at the time I thought I was just trying to piss him off to leave me alone.  The three guys that were nominally in charge, or at least that were in the group that came to meet with Keeler and I, didn’t act like they were happy to have Pete around.  They certainly didn’t act deferential to him--not in front of me.  I’m not surprised that they didn’t come to his defense or make any effort to stop us.”

“Ok then, we aren’t going in with guns blazing, but now that Pete’s out of the picture, we need to talk to these people.  I’ve got a couple of suggestions…”

…

After about thirty minutes of discussion, it was obvious that Chuck and Sheri didn’t have anything more to offer, and Mallory called for a break.  “Sheri, have you had anything to eat?  I can’t believe I didn’t think of that before, but do you need anything?”

“No, I’m good.  Pete actually brought back the ruck’s from the Humvee and I had a #5.  The adrenaline is wearing off though.”

“I think we’re good then.  If either of you thinks of anything else that you feel would be helpful, let us know though, k?”

“Roger that,” Chuck said with a small smile.

They both got up and walked out of the tent, and by mutual assent took each other’s hands as they left.

The first awkward moment came as they were approaching the more-or-less civilian side of the base where both Sheri and Chuck had their tents.  They were still holding hands while they walked, Chuck on the left, Sheri on the right, and they each proceeded to walk in those directions towards their own tents when the time came, each assuming the other was coming with them.  Neither of them, however, let go.

They didn’t actually get to the point where their arms were sticking straight out before they looked at each other, but it was obvious that they were headed in two opposite directions.  Sheri was the first to blush, but not by much, and then they were both giggling, and then they were chuckling, and pretty soon they were sitting on the ground laughing, all without saying a word.