Chapter 51

 FIFTY-ONE

The JAG Officer crushed out his cigarette into the ash tray, a small pile had formed over the few hours. He pulled out his red and white packet and cursed to himself before returning the pack to his coat pocket. 

“And that’s how we got to today.” Trigger concluded. 

The JAG Officer nodded and scrawled something in a small notebook he had with him. Despite not being able to see what he was writing, Trigger could guess that a significant amount of the books pages were taken up by his story. An uncomfortable silence filled the room as Trigger fidgeted in his chair. 

“So Your name, Is it like the comic book character?” Trigger asked. The lawyer raised his eyebrow, “I saw your nameplate, Colonel Roshack is it? that’s pronounced like the comic book character’s right?” He explained. The Lawyer grinned slightly “I prefer to compare it to the basketball player, but I guess that works just as well Trigger.” 

“You seem a bit short for basketball if you don’t mind my saying.” 

“I do mind.” 

“is it because your short?” 

“Trigger, Not the time.” The Lawyer replied annoyed. “You don’t have any goodwill to rely on with this case. Your attitude can only hurt you.” 

“Sorry” Trigger mumbled to himself as Roshack finished his notes. He closed the book forcefully and sighed. 

“So now what?” Trigger asked. 

“Question of the hour, isn’t it? ‘What do we do?’” Roshack said absently. “Frankly, I find your story to be absurd at best, and self-incriminating at worst. By your own admission they have enough to charge you for dereliction of duty, conspiring with the enemy, otherwise known as treason, Evading authorities, plus half a dozen lesser charges. Frankly if they wanted to, they could probably hit you with lying to the court on top of that if you tried to tell them this with the evidence, we knew about three days ago.”

“But I’m not lying.” Trigger defended himself. 

Roshack held up his hand, “Yeah, that’s the kicker that has really stirred up this hornets’ nest. The most unbelievable detail of your entire story is currently sitting in the floor above us and, in front of dozens of witnesses, confirmed at least some of what you said. Now you could be a spy, but I don’t think Erusea would do that much in the way of keeping you out of jail if you were just an intelligence asset.” 

“So does that help or hurt me?” 

Roshack thought for a moment. “I can’t say, not for certain. Its reasonable to expect the Plea deal Agent Palmer brought to you is null and void. With the Princess’ testimony we at least have a shot. If it helps? That’s an entirely different story. Unlucky for the prosecution, they might actually have to try instead of having an open and shut homerun of a case. Your status now as the fiancé of a diplomat also complicates these matters.”

“How so?” 

Roshack opened a briefcase and pulled out a file, he started flipping through the papers until he found the one he needed. “Under normal circumstances, you can be remanded into disciplinary barracks for up to one hundred and twenty days before trial. Since your fiancé doesn’t seem like she has any intention of leaving your side through all this, odds are the powers at be will not want a foreign dignitary wandering around Oured for four months, so everything has been sped up significantly. Sounds like we will have opening plea in the next week. The Judge already has been decided so we have that going for us for better or for worse.”  

“Who is it?” 

“We have Major General Marjorie Payne of the Air Defense Force. I’ve tried cases in front of her and she isn’t one to accept any amount of crap. It stands to reason she will pick other hardliners if not worse for your panel.” 

“How so?” 

“This no longer is a general court martial for some quisling. Its political now, way more than you can comprehend.” 

“So, I’m screwed you’re saying?” 

Roshack shrugged. “While some of these details have been covered in other cases, this is relatively new ground we’re walking here. The closest precedent to your case is still only fleeting in its comparisons.

“Well, what happened to that guy then?” 

“Last intel report is that he’s a head instructor at the Yuktobanian Air Force’s aggressor school teaching the best and brightest of the Union our tactics.” 

“Oh.” Trigger said slowly.

“Your own personal history won’t buy you any favors but I’m reasonably certain we can get past that. Overall, you’re probably going to have at least a paragraph written about you in some textbook in the near future because of this.”

“Yay me.” Trigger said sarcastically. 

“Best thing you can do is relax. I think it’s safe to say we’re done for today; I’ll be by to talk to you again tomorrow so just try to rest up and not do anything to make yourself look any worse. You might not be in actual jail, but until we reach the end of the trial, you’re not authorized to leave the premises either, so you can consider this your gilded cage for the time being.” Roshack directed as he stood up. 

“Good to know.” Trigger said standing up, Roshack got to the door and paused “Trigger, do something about the beard. You look like a bum” he said, motioning to his own face before leaving.

“I thought it looked pretty good myself.” Trigger said to himself.

Trigger waited for a moment until the Lawyer departed before he made his way out of the room and towards the elevator. Unsurprised to see multiple armed Erusean Marines stalking the hallway and positioned at the elevator. 

Trigger rubbed his leg absently as he made his way towards the elevator, severely missing his cane. The Erusean Marine stared at him as he slowly approached. 

“So, you the doorman or?” Trigger joked to which the much larger marine stared at him blankly. Unsure if the man didn’t find the comment amusing, or just didn’t understand the question, Trigger elected to keep his mouth shut and reached for the call button; Before he could press however a gloved hand firmly grabbed his wrist. 

“Up or down?” the Marine said gruffly in a heavily accented voice. 

“Uhh, Up please.” Trigger said, trying in vain to pry the mans fingers from around his wrist. 

“Cannot let you do that.” The Marine replied simply, his grip still iron around Trigger.   

“Why not? That’s my room?” 

The Marine paused for a moment. “Impossible. You lie.” 

Trigger rolled his eyes, “Everyone’s saying that. Look, I know its weird but, that’s just the fact, now let go of me!”

“No, we have problem.” The Marine replied pulling Trigger away from the door, Trigger threw a weak punch into the Marines shoulder to no avail as he fell over. Hearing the commotion other Eruseans rushed to the scene. 

“What the hell is going on?!” Shouted the senior most looking marine that arrived to the melee. 

“He tried to go into the restricted area.” The Marine replied “Because I’m supposed to be there!” Trigger shouted from the floor. 

The senior marine shouted something in Erusean and the guard let go of Trigger. The marines rushed to his side picking him up off the floor as the senior marine berated the guard. 

The senior Marine relinquished his tirade against his inferior and turned to Trigger. “I apologize, he ‘didn’t get the memo’ as you say. Are you OK?” 

Trigger nodded “Yeah, its fine. Frankly its not the worst I’ve faced this year.” He said massaging his wrist. The Erusean gave a pained expression “I’m sure. If you’ll come with me sir, I’ll escort you to your room.” the Marine offered. Trigger held up his hand “It’s fine, just radio to the group ahead, will you?” 

“Of course. Hopefully this doesn’t change your view on us.” He said tersely 

Trigger sighed “Like I said, not the worst.” Before limping back to the elevator, he slammed his palm into the call button and waited for the doors to slide open. The ride was short enough that Trigger didn’t hear enough of the muzak to recognize the song, one more chime from the door and he was on the executive suite. The Marines guarding the door nodded to Trigger and said nothing as he passed. 

Shutting the door behind him he sighed, Cossette walked out to greet him in a pair of long pajama pants and a November City University T-Shirt. “That looks familiar.” Trigger said grinning as he took his coat off “It should, it was yours after all.” She replied handing him a coat hanger. As Trigger removed his shirt, Cossette gently grabbed his forearm and placed her hand on his fresh bruise. 

“What happened here?” she said concerned. 

“Run in with Andre the Giant downstairs. Not a big deal.”  

“Merde, Tomorrow you’re pointing him out to me and –“

Trigger placed his hand over hers reassuringly “Look, it was just a misunderstanding, I’m over it now. Relax.” 

She shook her head “I know, its just.” Her voice trailed off. Taking a second to compose herself, she spoke “Your meeting took a long time, I hope you don’t mind I ate without you.” She said changing the subject. 

“After everything today, I don’t think I can eat.” Trigger replied half-jokingly, in truth, his last proper meal had been over a day prior in Selatapura, and aside from some snack foods on the C-17 ride over that he shared with Cossette, his hunger seemed lost in everything else that had occurred. “Well, we can definitely afford the room service if you change your mind.” She replied. 

“Bed first, Room service later.” Trigger replied as he continued to get changed. In the bedroom he found that Cossette had set aside a pair of pajamas for him. Cossette leaned in the doorway as Trigger gently placed his uniform back on hangers in the closet, making a mental note to himself to iron them before he left the next day. “Who was the meeting with, If I can ask?” 

“Lawyer, just wanted to know the details of the case from my side.” 

“How much did you tell him?”

“Everything.” 

“Everything? Including about us?”

Trigger thought for a moment. “Pretty much, you know I couldn't brag about this for a year, so I had to make up for it. My fiancé the princess.” 

“So, you’ll tell a lawyer your entire life story, but not that aforementioned fiancé?” She asked, Trigger couldn’t tell if she was joking or truly was insulted. He walked to her and grasped her by the hips “Well, just the interesting parts. Frankly the rest is pretty boring if you ask me. Maybe we should make some more interesting parts?” He whispered. 

She shot him a coy look “How about you tell me where you’ve been, and I’ll think about it.” She said brushing past him and sitting on the bed. She patted the spot next to her and motioned for him to sit. 

“Where should I begin?” He asked. 

“What happened after McKnight?” She inquired. 

He nodded. In truth some of the details he could only guess at, but he understood most of what had occurred. 

“Those first Oseans that greeted us seemed to think I was involved in those attacks, I wasn’t, but that didn’t stop them. They figured that since they couldn’t reasonably lay a finger on you, they’d get their pound of flesh from me, and they did. According to Hernandez I died a few times on the table when the surgeons were working on me.” Trigger explained. 

“Wait, is that how you got these? And whose Hernandez?” she said motioning to his fresh injuries. 

Trigger shook his head “I’ll get to that part. Some people from my past I guess caught wind of what had happened and pulled me out of there. Hernandez was one of them but there was eight in total. Since I was wanted by apparently everyone in connection with those attacks, these operators kept me at their safe house. The payment for my protection was to help them out on their primary mission anti-terror mission in Usea. I was mostly flying ground attack while they raided various compounds tracking down the Cartel who sold the Radicals those weapons they used on us. In all honesty most of it was pretty mundane if that makes any sense.” 

“It really doesn’t but go on.” 

He chuckled “Eventually the operators got a lead on where these scumbags leadership was meeting, and we decided to drop in and ‘cut the head off the snake’ as it were. Mission kinda went sideways but we accomplished most of what we had set out to do. Fortunately or unfortunately, we had made quite a stir in Anchorhead Bay and made the Cartel’s operations in Usea difficult.”

“So that was you!” She said excited “They had said I was crazy but!” 

Trigger placed a hand on her shoulder to calm her down “Slow down! Yeah, I was the dumbass in the tunnel. In hindsight I guess I was a bit on the nose with the three strikes on the tail, wasn’t I?” He asked rhetorically. 

“Where was I? Oh yeah, after Anchorhead was when I found out about you and Alex. That kinda set me off.” Trigger said shamefully. “Turns out one of the operators I had told about us was purposely censoring the information I was receiving and that kinda set me off. I did something stupid and almost blew the operation and got someone hurt.” 

“What do you mean?” Cossette asked concerned. 

“I got angry, and well, as you know, when I get angry, I get stupid. The Cartel wasn’t happy we had killed most of their Lieutenants like that prick Troy’s brother. They were out for revenge and my stupidity led them to us. I was ambushed and in trying to get me out of danger, someone we were working with got hurt herself. Apparently, she pulled through but.” He paused; his shame turning to disgust with himself. “I shouldn’t have done that. It was from there, the operation’s plug got pulled right as we located the last of their major holds on the continent.” He snapped his finger’s for emphasis “Boom, like that some bureaucrat decides we were no longer needed, and thus my deal of protection was null and void.” 

“What did you do then?” Cossette asked. 

Trigger laughed to himself. “Then? Then we did something really stupid. You see, the Cartel had taken over some old ISAF base from the old war and was pumping out these discount stealth fighter jets. I had dealt with them a few times and they were a pain in the ass in the best of times. Turns out that the IUN and Erusea had been encroaching on their supply routes in and out of the continent and was using these jets to shoot our guys down. The rest of the Operators and I decided to put an end to that.” He grinned and tapped his leg. “It didn’t go according to plan.” He said simply. 

“What was the plan?” 

He thought for a moment. “Pretty much all our plans boiled down to the same basic premise. Go in, kill everything, leave. Sometimes it deviated but most of the time it was that.” 

“How inspired, these men must be the greatest tactical geniuses of our generation.” She replied sarcastically. Trigger shrugged. 

“Lucky for us, the Cartel wasn’t that smart. We were mostly good about putting them on the back foot but this time our luck ran out. I got shot down. I guess it all worked out in the end because most of the operators survived but, we still took casualties.” He said simply. 

“From there I was picked up by some Yuktobanians that we had been working with. They had wanted to see what we would do and placed a tail on us. Lucky for me, I guess. They pulled me from the crash-site and I spent the past few months on a Yuke hospital ship. I guess dying twice on an operating room table within a six-month span tends to make doctors anxious. After I recovered enough, I figured the odds of me pulling a threepeat were unlikely, so I came back and surrendered myself.” He took her hand in his “All for one more shot at seeing you.”

He leaned in and gave her a kiss. 

The couple sat in silence for a time before Cossette spoke. “Trigger, I’m sorry, I didn’t know you had gone through all that when we saw each other the other day.” 

Trigger nodded “It’s my fault, I didn’t know what had happened to you either.” He thought for a moment. “Come to think of it, that was our first major fight, wasn’t it?” 

“I guess you’re right?” She said puzzled. 

“Damn, can’t wait for us to start buying furniture together. That’ll be fun.” 

She snorted “If I’m paying for it, then I’m picking out the couch.” 

“Yes dear.” Trigger replied smarmily.

She took another deep breath to composer herself. “What did the lawyer say to all that?” 

“I don’t think he believed me, but he also said the most un-believable part of all this is sitting next to me.” 

“Does my being here help your case at all?”

Trigger sighed before shrugging. “Hard to say. Peace treaty or not there is still bad blood between most of Osea and Erusea, so theres nothing said that they won’t use me to get to you somehow. That’s just the way it is.”

“That’s bullshit!” She said sharply, causing him to shrug “That’s politics.”

“Well, if it comes to that.” She replied sternly, “If It comes to that then we can figure it out then. For now, lets just hope they’ll put those feelings aside and look at the facts. No one needs to start a shooting war on my behalf.” He replied. 

“It worked for Helen.” She quipped. 

“I’m not nearly that attractive.”

She placed a hand gently on his cheek and kissed him gently “well we can argue that fact.”