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diff --git a/missing-persons/CH-7.txt b/missing-persons/CH-7.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..17a018b --- /dev/null +++ b/missing-persons/CH-7.txt @@ -0,0 +1,47 @@ + +Then Chapter 7 sees her head down to Florida and someone, not John follows her there. That's the mystery man, the other person who picked up Sil's broadcast. + +------------------------ + + + +"Let me get this straight, you think this Lt. Lawrence was a deserter?" Steven was chewing with his mouth open again. Chase cringed. He did it whenever he was distracted by conversation he considered more interesting than whatever he was eating. It was part of the reason Chase almost always insisted they sit side by side at a counter whenever they went out for lunch. She kept her head down, sipped her coffee. + +"I don't know." She spun the cup in her hands. "It's a possibility." + +"You know what that means right? This guy could still be alive." Steven pushed back the plate of fries and twisted his tool to face Chase. "Holy shit. I mean holy shit. Have you thought this through?" + +"I check the records he'd be 93 if he were..." + +"Have you told Tk bassman what's going on?" + +"Of course not. This has already gone too far to bring it to TK bossman now." She had actually been considering doing just that all day, but she wasn't about to admit it to Steven. And she couldn't shake the feeling that that was exactly what her anonymous tipster wanted her to do. She didn't want to give them the satisfaction until she had the satisfaction of knowing who they were. "Besides I've already run the name through everything we have and there's nothing much there. Certainly no mention of desertion. There was even a note saying he was MIA, so I'm not the first person to look into this one." Chase shook her head. "Part of the problem is that record keeping in the Caribbean Theater was apparently some sort of a joke during the war. Or at least early on in the war." + +"I didn't even know there was a Caribbean theater..." Steven stuff the last of the chicken sandwich in this mouth and wipe the crumbs from his lips. + +"I didn't either," admitted Chase. "But I do now and by all accounts it was a fucked up command." + +"How do you mean?" + +Chase shrugged. "Usual power struggles, Navy not wanting to be under the Army, Army appointed to the top position by someone in Washington... the thing is Washington cared enough to keep an eye on the top guys. The canal was down there you know, they considered that a prime target from both sides. There were U-Boats all over the Caribbean as early as 1938. So Washington was always watching closely enough that the infighting stayed mostly out of sight. But the top guys didn't care enough to pay attention to much that was going on below them it seems. And the bases were so spread out, no one was really watching what happened. Well. Except for the Canal, they were watching the Canal. I've found records for nearly every ship that went through it from 1939 until the end of the war." + +"Hmm, I thought the Canal was all we had. Guantanmo I guess. I didn't know we had any other bases down there." Steven waved for the bill. + +"We didn't and we don't really anymore. But when the Germans invaded Belgium and then France we took over a lot of their bases. Except for some French commander who decided to throw in his lot with the Vichy government." + +"Fucking French." Steven laughed. + + +They were headed back to the office when Chase spotted a familiar looking dark green Jaguar in her rearview mirror. She had already seen twice in as many days, but had dismissed it both times. I'm getting paranoid she thought. This time she wasn't so sure. She made a few deliberate but unnecessary turns and the car stuck with them. Steven asked where she was going, but she didn't say anything and he fell silent as she zigzagged her way toward the mall. She waited until they were on Peensyvania avenue and she put a large SUV between them. + +"Take the wheel." + +"What?" + +"Take the wheel dammit." Steven reached over and helf the wheel as Chase climbed into the backseat. "Now slide over." Steven did as he was told. + +"Where do you want me to go?" + +"Get in the right lane, I'm getting out at the light. She glanced behind them and sure enoug, it was still there, changing lanes, but Steven darted over faster and car was still int he lane next to them and five cars back when they stopped at the light. Claire ducked down in the seat and opened the door. "Just drive straight, I'll call you," She said and ducked out the door, keeping low to the ground. She crusched behind a set of newspaper racks and ignored the two mean who stopped to stare. She waited until the light turned green and then carefully moved forward the racks until the Jaguar passed and she stood up, pen in hand and wrote downt he license plate with shaking hands. As soon aas she had it she turned down a side street and walked as fast as she could toward the crowd of people exiting a long row of buses parked between the Washington and Lincoln monuments. She fumbled through her purse and pulled out her phone. It took her several fumbling tries to find Stevens name on her phone. Get ahold of yourself she kept repeating. Breathe. She calmed down a little talking to Steven. She told him to go back to work without her, she would take the metro back later. She needed to be outside, to walk off her nervous energy and to be lost in the crowds for a while. She walked the entire length of the Mall. + +A couple of kids sat on the steps of the Lincoln memorial. Somebody out on the quad was flying a kite. The leaves had already started to turn orangish, bits of yellow. It was just and another ordinary Tuesday afternoon in Washington D.C. But someone was obviously keeping tabs on her. |