Chapter 2

 TWO

Trigger noted three things when he awoke. The first of which the sneaking suspicion he had done something incredibly stupid last night, a feeling he was accustomed to since commissioning. Thing two being a foreign environment: the room wasn’t dingy, more than could be said of his dorm at Selatapura Air base. A pleasant aroma floated in the air, seemingly descending from the raised ceiling and resting on the silky bed sheets, softer than anything he felt before. It was about as far removed from what he had endured the previous six months, but much more welcoming than a cell at Zapland.

 

The third and most important thing Trigger noticed was that there was an arm draped over his chest. Looking over he found the owner, a young woman with blond hair snoring softly curled next to him. Her skin radiated a pleasurable warmth, but softer still was her face, partially obscured by some loose hair, yet parted enough to see a faint smile. He desperately tried to remember who exactly she was. He enjoyed the freedom of soaring the skies, and peeking under the sheets, Trigger discovered he was free of his clothing, as was his bedmate. While not the strangest conditions he had awoken to in the past, it was certainly different. He quickly surveyed the bedroom, finding it barren of his uniform.

 

The rustling must have awoken the young woman next to him, as she stirred ever so slightly. Trigger studied her oddly familiar face; something was awfully familiar about it, yet without context, he was lost. The word princess did strike out to him though, and much to his frustration he couldn’t think of why. His eyes locked onto hers, steely blue pearls peeking from behind silk soft hair. In a sleepy and slurred voice, she asked a question. Then it dawned on him, impacting his gut with the force of a freight train.

 

“Oh… shit” he said shooting straight up in the bed.

 

That got her attention “What? What’s wrong?” her voice was soft but with a noted sharpness to it, different from the drowsiness he had heard just seconds ago. Her eyes showed her concern as she put a hand softly on his shoulder.

 

He gulped for a moment then looked at her, “You’re the princess?!”

 

She giggled “Well, that is my title, yes.” He quickly looked forward, right at a mirrored wardrobe, reflecting their image.

 

With dread steadily building up, Trigger repeated his earlier worries. “Shit”

 

“Is that a problem? It’s not like I’m underaged” she asked incredulously.

 

“No, It’s not. Wait? How old are you again?”

 

Looking insulted, she replied rather crassly. “Nineteen. Don’t worry, I’m completely legal.”

 

“Ok, that aside, did we...?” Trigger motioned with his free hand to the bed. Her smirk told him everything “Well. Shit. I’m going to jail again.” He sighed in defeat.

 

“Oh?” she said, tilting her head.

 

“Well, you see, I don’t know how things are in Erusea, but in Osea we have laws and things about military officers having contact with foreign diplomats. I can only imagine the shit show that would befall both of us if they knew I just had sex with an Erusean diplomat, never mind it being the woman in charge of the country that was in active war with us eight weeks ago. Oh God, my history” he groaned, rubbing his face.

 

Amused with Trigger’s sorrows, she offered some kind words. “Well, if anyone asks I can have the hotel staff say you got drunk at the bar and slept in the lobby.”

 

“But I don’t drink” He replied.

 

“Well, there’s a first time for everything” she added cheerfully.

He squinted at her, her soft features making it difficult to actually be angry.

 

“yeah, not helping”

 

“Well, look at it this way, you’re going to be in trouble either way. You can go and confess your sins now, or you could spend right now with me and go later.” She twirled the linens around her delicate finger. Not really in the mood for an argument, Trigger sighed and let his head rest next to hers.

 

“Fair enough”

 

The two laid there In each other’s embrace. Trigger eventually spoke up.

“So, was I at least a gentleman?”

Cossette looked at him and smiled, giggling slightly at the question.

“Of course,”

“Well at least they can’t use that against me”

Trigger watched as the wind blew the curtains slightly. Off in the distance he could hear the roar of jets taking off from the Airport nearby.

“Hey Trigger?”

“What’s up?”

“I’m sorry you’re in this situation.”

Trigger continued laying there, trying to put the words together. He wasn’t upset or even worried. He wasn’t even sure he really cared. If nothing else, it was going to make a good story at the O-club when he returned to Osea.

“Its fine, Just –“Trigger was cut off

BANG BANG BANG the front door shook

“Cossette? You home?” A voice came from the other side

“Shit!” Cossette hissed.

“Cossette? Whats going on, you haven’t been picking up your cellphone” The voice continued.

BANG BANG BANG

“Just a Minute!” Cossette yelled back, looking at Trigger

“You have to hide!” she whispered desperately

“Yeah, No shit. Where?” Even though Trigger had been in countless dogfights, to include one where his weapons didn’t even work, he hadn’t felt this exposed before.

“Also, where are my pants?” he whispered, tossing around pillows and other items in a frenzy.

“Doesn’t matter, just get out of sight!” Cossette ordered.

“Where?” Trigger whispered in response

BANG BANG BANG

“Come on Cossette, what’s taking so long?” The voice interrogated

Cossette disappeared for a moment before returning covered in a towel.

“here! Now go hide in the bathroom!” She demanded, throwing Trigger a towel to cover himself with. As she rushed to greet the interloper Trigger ran into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him.

***

Cossette peered through the peep-hole of the door, on the other side Avril stood impatiently.

Before Avril could continue her assault on the door Cossette opened it to greet her.

“Avril! Come in, come in!” Cossette cheerfully greeted. The Princesses state of undress, only being in a towel making her vaguely modest, caught Avril off guard.

“Uhh, ok? What’s with the empress’s new cloths?” Avril enquired

“Just stepped out of the shower, give me a second to get dressed” Cossette lied.

“Yeah… Right…” Avril muttered as Cossette walked back into her bedroom, shutting the door behind her. Keeping herself amused Avril walked around the main living room of the penthouse. She noticed on the back of a chair was an Osean service coat.

Moments later Cossette returned, sporting her more recent look of long sleeve top and cutoff jeans, tying her hair in a bun. She briefly checked herself in a mirror, and feeling satisfied with the look, moved her attention to Avril, standing puzzled in front of the coat.

A slight twinge of panic washed over her when Avril looked up

“So? Did one of them leave it?” Avril asked.

Cossette froze before answering, rushing over to pick up the jacket. “Oh Yes, I think one of them did.”

“Hmm. Right.” Avril said in mock acceptance of the excuse, not letting on that she had also seen the balled-up shirt on the floor of Cossette’s bedroom when Cossette had returned.

“So, what can I do for you Avril?”

“Oh nothing, figured I would stop by. See if you were busy and all with running a country” there was a hint of her trademark sarcasm in her voice.

“So, who is he?” Avril asked, watching Cossette’s reaction in the mirror.

 

Cossette stammered a retort for a second “Well I-, Uh-“, the Princess was now visibly flustered, this made Avril crack up laughing.

“Cossette, your nineteen, pretty good looking and, Jesus you’re the leader of a country for crying out loud. I would be amazed if guys weren’t lining up to get in your pants. Look at me, When I was your age, all I did was hang out with war vets, drink and work on some relic during my free time and I still had some fun. So, I ask again, sister to sister. Who is he?” Avril elaborated.

Cossette’s embarrassment quickly turned to defensiveness. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. There was no one here, and its rude to imply otherwise”

A wicked grin broke across Avril’s face.

“The Lady doth protest too much, methinks!” Avril shouted making her best way to the door behind Cossette, this catching Cossette by surprise tried in vain to keep Avril back.

“Avril- Stop! There’s no one here but you and I” Cossette pleaded in vain as Avril crashed into the door.

Cossette continued to plead as Avril started opening the closets and dresser in the room. Feeling satisfied with causing as much devastation as possible in the main room, Avril moved to the other rooms purposely avoiding the bathroom.

For minutes, against the protests of the Princess, Avril went through systematically opening and closing every nook and cranny that could possibly hide a person.

 

In mock sincerity Avril collapsed on the couch and held her hands up in defeat, sighing.

“Well, Cossette, I guess you were right. There isn’t anyone but you and I here”

“See, what did I tell you?” Cossette said tiredly.

Both women sat in the living room, catching their breath.

“You know what? I seem to have forgotten one last place!” Avril exclaimed making best speed towards the bathroom. Cossette tried in vain but was unable to beat her friend.

With one hand on the door Avril looked back at the somewhat terrified Cossette, bent over with her hands on her knees trying to catch her breath, looking slightly more unkempt then when Avril saw her opening the door.

“Let me guess, is your bachelor behind this door?” Avril asked rhetorically. Swinging the door open Avril to her surprise came face to face with a familiar looking man of average build and handsome features, wearing only a towel, and shrieking.

“Trigger?”

***

Avril was pacing the living room laughing hysterically.

On the couch was a still toweled Trigger and almost beet red Cossette.

“You know Scrap Queen, it isn’t really that funny” Trigger said irritated.

“Oh, yes, it is” Avril wheezed out between fits of laughter.

“Trigger, you remember how pissed the brass was when you killed Harling? Just imagine what they’re gonna say when they find out you slept with the Princess of Erusea!” Avril exclaimed with a hint of sadistic joy.

“First off, I didn’t kill Harling, Second off-“ Trigger angrily shot back. Cossette watched, sitting clutching her legs close to her body watching the two Oseans.

Avril shrugged, regaining her composure. “Trigger, don’t worry. You two’s secret is safe with me. But I do hope you have a convincing cover story if anyone asks you where you were last night.”

Trigger could tell Avril was sincere but thinking about the cover story made him bury his head in his hands.

“Yeah, unfortunately the only one we came up with is that I got drunk and passed out in the lobby” He muttered.

“I didn’t know you drank” Avril said

“Yeah, I don’t.” Trigger moaned. He was frustrated with his lack of plan. While he was known for quick problem solving on the fly in combat, on the ground he was useless.

He was somewhat calmed by Cossette resting her head on his shoulder.

“Its okay, Im sure you can think of something.”

Trigger sighed.

“Say. What time is it anyways?” Trigger asked

“Eleven thirty, why?” Avril answered

Trigger groaned covering his face with his hands. “Well, if I wasn’t fucked already, Im certainly am now”

“well, if you can find your pants, I can at least give you a ride back to base. You might get off with just a warning” Avril offered.

***

Ten minutes later Trigger was dressed and walking out the front of the Hotel behind Avril. Cossette had stayed behind to bribe the staff and to make the story if any Oseans came asking around along with the understanding she would be in touch later with the Pilot.

Despite what looked to be a text-book trap, Trigger felt on cloud nine. It had been some time since he had been on a date, and from what he could tell with Cossette he felt like he hit it out of the park.

Trigger took a seat in the ageing sedan as Avril started making her way towards the Airport.

“So did you two kids have fun last night” she said, merging onto the highway.

“I really don’t care to talk about it”

“Oh come on Trigger, Not many people can say they did what you did, you know –“

“Im not one to kiss and tell, I don’t wanna talk about it” Trigger shot back, adjusting his tie in the visor mirror.

Avril shook her head slightly and turned on the cars radio.

For the next half hour they sat in silence listening to Erusean Pop music until they arrived at the makeshift bases front Gate.

The Sentry walked up to inspect the two’s Identification Cards. As the first sentry verified their cards, a second walked around the vehicle looking for explosives while a Third stood off to the side with a HK-416 at the low and ready.

Once everything was confirmed, the Sentry Saluted Trigger, and directed them to the building that was acting as an administrative Headquarters.

Driving through the Air Base, Trigger could see even more Personnel had arrived. Selatapura had become a staging area for the scattered Osean Forces following the recapture of the ISEV.

On the ramp Trigger could see the F-15s of Strider and Cyclops Squadron.

Trigger stepped out of the vehicle and thanked Avril for the ride, before walking up to the door of the Headquarters, It was unusual for him to have to come to the HQ since most of the accountability was done at the squadron’s operations building, but it had happened in the past when the Base’s Colonel needed him so he wasn’t too worried.

He was however caught off guard when he entered the dimly lit lobby and was greeted by two men in polo shirts, tactical pants and badges that read OADF OFFICE of SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS.

The OSI acted as the Osean Air Defense Forces law enforcement branch outside of the standard Security Forces. Agents routinely dealt with poorly acting airmen and in rare instances intelligence threats.

They had become the boogieman and Trigger had always been nervous dealing with them, even before he was in the Penal unit.

After Identifying themselves, they guided Trigger to an empty conference room and sat across from him.

“Good morning Captain, how are you doing today?” The first agent asked.

“Uh, fine I guess” Trigger Stammered

“Is everything alright?” the second agent asked.

“Well, Yeah I guess, not every day in a war zone the OSI wants to speak with you” Trigger quipped nervously.

The first agent smirked.

“Well don’t worry too much, you’re not under investigation as far as we can tell. We just came here to get some follow ups on a case we’ve been investigating. So far you and one other pilot here are the only potential leads we can find.” He explained.

With that, Trigger had been put at ease, as far as anyone outside knew, he was just returning from a binge on his day off, nothing illegal.

Trigger swallowed “So what can I answer for you?”

The second agent slid over a folder, Trigger briefly looked at its contents. Inside was a personnel file, a Major in the OADF whose name he didn’t recognize, the Photo of the individual looked familiar but he couldn’t place who the mystery officer could be.

“Before we continue, We understand you were assigned to the 444 Squadron, is that correct?” The second agent asked.

“Yes, I was assigned to the 444 Squadron for a few months.” Trigger answered.

“Mind telling us about your time in the unit? I should add that both Myself and Agent Baxter here have been read in on the Penal unit, so don’t worry about anything OPSEC” The first agent asked.

Trigger spent some time sharing his brief time with the Penal Unit, all the while both Agents listened intently taking notes, and only interrupting to ask for clarification. Finishing his story in Bulgurdarest, he waited for the Agents to speak.

“Thankyou for that Trigger. So the reason why we came here is to talk to you about your Air Battle Manager, I believe you referred to him as Bandog?” Agent Baxter explained.

“Yeah, That was the callsign we referred to our AWACS as, why?”

“Well, we cant share everything, but we have reason to believe that Bandog may be related to a series of intelligence leaks, and we believe that he was using the same channels that Zieja, Excuse me, Full Band, was using.” The first Agent, who Identified himself as Palmer explained.

“how do you figure?” Trigger asked

“Well, You see, We were on Full Bands track for some time, it was originally what had him sent to the 444 in the first place. When he died, so did his small network of intelligence leaks. However, a few months later, we started getting reports that his network was back up and running – someone else had taken the reigns. We spent some time and eventually narrowed it down to Bandog here. He seemed to have gotten the drop on us. His crew was supposed to have a stop at Fort Grays where we were going to apprehend him, but they instead made a diversion into Expo City due to the fallout of the Satellite network failure.” Baxter explained
“Last known position of him was leaving the base in Expo city, past that we haven’t been able to track him. Unfortunately, you and Captain Count are the only ones left we can find who served with him any length of time outside his AWACS crew.” Palmer finished.

Trigger sat for a moment.

“What about Colonel McKinsey?”

“Dead” Baxter stated flatly

Trigger snorted at that news. McKinsey was objectively the worst officer he had ever dealt with. He made a mental note to see what the cause was later.

“So, you really think he went rogue?” Trigger asked

“Hard telling. All we know is that the network Full Band ran has restarted itself, and someone that the Belkan Intelligence Service has been referring to as Der Gesichtslose Soldat is behind it” Baxter explained, struggling in the Belkan pronunciation. Trigger slightly cringed as the Agent stumbled his way through the word.

“Well unfortunately, I haven’t heard anything about him since I left, and Only met Bandog face to face a few times at the Penal base. Sorry” Trigger admitted.

The Agents nodded and stood up

“Well Thank you for your time anyways Captain. If you think of anything, please let us know.” Agent Baxter stated, before both men collecting their belonging and left Trigger alone in the room.

 

Trigger sat thinking in the chair for a moment before the Conference room door opened. He was greeted to see Count, who had traded his Formal Dress for his regular olive drab flight suit, carrying two bottles of water.

“So I see they grabbed you too” Count said offering a bottle to Trigger before taking a seat.

“Yeah” Trigger sighed

“I was gonna swear they were going to take me back to jail for a moment there” Count quipped, leaning back in the seat and resting his feet up on the table.

Trigger half heartedly laughed.

“So how did the Flight go this morning?” Trigger asked

“Eh, Same old. Same Old. Twister has us going up again tonight for Night patrol, but now its more or less a formality since we haven’t seen any other military hardware not Osean in like, a month now?” Count complained.

“So, Trigger, What happened after we left? Rumor is your just now getting in.” Count asked.

“Yeah, I had a bit too much to drink and slept it off in the lobby. My bad.”

“Oh well, in that case, let me get you another water” Count offered.

“Eh don’t worry about it.” Trigger said, dismissing the concern

“Funny, In all this time I never knew you drank.”