Naval Academy, Annapolis

Thomas was the first one back to the academy for the spring semester. He had arrived Thursday afternoon, three and a half days early. This was a product of mixing up the days and ordering the wrong tickets back to the academy.

John was next and arrived Friday morning. True to form his checked bag was the last one that was sent up the carousel. Thomas witnessed John writing a very sternly worded letter to someone at the airline over lunch.

Andern and Jessica shared a cab as their flights arrived in Annapolis later Friday afternoon. The two looked oddly uncomfortable around each other. Andern especially didn’t want to be back so soon. He wanted to be around his friends, but not necessarily school.

Kevin and Theresa’s flight landed late Saturday night. Their flight back to the academy was an absolute nightmare. They got diverted three times. One engine failure and two rowdy passengers caused a five-hour flight to be sixteen hours.

Alice and her mother had plans for the Friday and Saturday after they got back from the Bahamas, so she didn’t arrive back at the dorms until Sunday morning. Alice was so happy to see her friends again.

Nathan was the last one to show up and got back to the dorms just after the cafeteria shut down for lunch on Sunday. Nathan’s break was less than stellar, his girlfriend showed up at the airport three months pregnant. Which was a clear sign that the child she was carrying wasn’t his. Nathan seemed to take it pretty well as he was laughing about the ridiculousness of the whole situation.

Sunday. 13:00 Lounge

Some of them had worked out in the gym that morning. A few of them went to the library to get a head start on studying. After lunch the group retired to the lounge and were relaxing and sharing stories about their Christmas break. They were all genuinely shocked that John quit Intelligence.

“So yeah, I quit on Christmas Eve. Got on a red eye flight and headed too Mobile. Hacked the security system, picked the lock to her house and then crawled into bed with her. Then she kinda freaked out and got excited at the same time the following morning because I was there on Christmas day.”

“You’re lucky she didn’t whoop your ass for that stunt.” Jessica said while shaking her head.

Everyone agreed that John’s actions were sweet and very romantic but highly idiotic. They were generally surprised that he would actually do something that dumb. It came off as a very dumb plan all around.

“I mean, it was really nice to see him after the shock wore off. At first I punched him because there was a big man in my bed.” Alice was blushing. “He’s a lovable idiot. But it did make the day since my family had to attend to some business.”

“I heard you were in Fargo. The fuck man? Why didn’t you come visit?” Andern was annoyed.

“Dude, fourteen inches of snow, windchills of like negative sixty-five and winds of thirty-five miles per hour were happening. I’m not driving, living or visiting anyone in those god-awful conditions you call home ever again.”

“Oh, boo hoo. That’s called winter you pussy.”

“Now in my defense, I was planning to drive to Valley City and visit you after the interviews I had to conduct. But the blizzard said no to that plan. I do have some winter clothing up in my room for you that I don’t need or want though.”

Andern was smiling. “You are forgiven sir.”

Kevin was looking at this term’s syllabus. “So, we have seven weeks of class. Then a weekend off followed by going up to Yaeger station for four weeks of zero g training. Spring break then six or so weeks of classes. A five-day weekend then summer term. Which has four wargames spread between classes in the summer.”

“We’re gonna be slammed hard with homework and studying.” Andern said forlornly. He knew the compressed schedule meant more study time.

“Zero g training isn’t a full four weeks.” John corrected Kevin. “We go up that Thursday and we are basically in class, simulations, or practice for twenty-five days. Pretty sure there’s a weekend or two off in there too. Once we’re done it’s spring break.” John switched the channel over to the Ocho and it had cornhole on. “Yes!”

“I was wondering when spring break was on this thing.” Jessica said.

“Yeah. Term ends on the third Wednesday in May. Then summer term starts the following Monday.” John still thought they should get a Navy cornhole team together sometime.

“Ugh, why do we have to do school in the summer?” Thomas wasn’t one to normally whine but he was taking like Andern in complaints.

“John, aren’t we up on Armstrong station in the fall? And Grissom station on the moon in the Spring.”

“Yeah, except I’m hearing we won’t be on the moon base next year. Possibly when we’re seniors but I wouldn’t expect that. So basically, we get all the classroom stuff the previous classes have but a bunch of hands-on experience.” John preferred this new plan compared to the old one, with the except of not having summers off. “We get the summer off before we’re juniors at least.”

“And when we’re seniors too.” Andern was getting his hopes up, despite that being two and three full years away.

“Not when we’re seniors. We get our class duty ships at the end of the Junior year. Serve on them here from mid-May through the end of the year before semester break.” Alice said.

“Shut up, no we don’t.” Andern was genuinely surprised.

The whole group looked at him. Then gave him a fair amount of crap for not reading or remembering any of the documents they sent to all the cadets prior to boot camp earlier in the year. Such is the way of Andern, the man who was absent minded.

Monday Morning. 10:00 Frigate Wing Tactics

“Good morning class. Apologies for running a couple minutes late. Let’s get started with today’s lesson. Frigate wolfpacks.” Commander Josep was the professor for this class.

John found the class interesting, but he had already read all but one of the recommended books for the class several years before. There were generally two ways to become a captain of a ship. Be an executive officer of ships that are at least battlecruiser size or bigger, then get a command of one of those ships when you reach the rank of captain. The other one is getting a command of a smaller ship when you’re a first or second lieutenant. John’s preference was the second option.

An hour and fifty minutes later the lecture finished and the students were packing their belongs up and walking out of the lecture hall. Commander Josep asked to see John before he headed to lunch.

“Cadet, I hear you put in your focus for Command.”

“Yes, sir I did.”

“Many of my peers presumed you’d go recon given your history.”

“That doesn’t surprise me. But I have no desire to be in the special forces or intelligence again. I want command of my own ship. I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m roped into some special force actions as an interim command officer of some sort before getting command of a ship.”

“Understood. I’ll sign off on your command focus and send it on.”

“Thank you, sir.”

John saluted and left the building. He arrived at the cafeteria a few minutes after his friends had. All of them had conversations or had meetings scheduled that week to finalize their focus.

12:05 Cafeteria

“Why is this such a big deal?” Thomas asked as he was stuffing his mouth with fries.

“Probably want everyone locked in now so they can plan how to do wargames or balance classes for next term.” John took a bite of the cheeseburger.

“I think I speak for everyone at this table when I say I want to be on your team.” Kevin laughed as he spoke.

John just smirked and continued to eat his lunch. “I wonder if it’s going to be more of what we saw in boot or if it’s going to be way different? In any case it’s likely to reinforce our focus and give us some practical skills.”

John looked at his tablet, a message came in confirming his focus to be recon.

“Son of a bitch. Gotta run, cya guys in a bit.” John looked pissed as he ran toward to his academic advisor’s office.

12:35 Captain Orion Deshok’s Office

“Cadet, the Captain will see you now.”

John stood up and acknowledge the secretary. He walked into the office and saluted his advisor.

“At ease, sit down cadet. Why the rush to see me?”

“You changed my focus to recon. I’ve never once expressed any interest in that, nor did I ask for that sir. I’m requesting that you remove your sign off for recon and approve my request to command.”

“The special forces need you more than command.”

“With respect, they don’t. Unlike command they do operate as a proper meritocracy. Members that aren’t performing up to expectations don’t last long, unlike command.”

Captain Deshok was not amused. “I won’t be reassigning you son. Recon is your best option.”

“You actually don’t get to dictate that sir. I have enough professors that have already signed off on my decision to go command to override your singular decision. I’d rather not go down that route but if you push the subject, I’ll have to do just that sir.”

The captain was incensed. He stood up and shoved his chair back. “You will do no such thing. I am giving you an order to halt any attempts to override my decision.”

“Naval Command, article 13B paragraphs six through eight say otherwise sir. I’ll paraphrase but while you are allowed to choose my focus for me, should I have enough officers sign off on my focus decision, then my decision will be selected. I’m within my rights to disobey compliance to your order because it is not a legal order in the first place.” John took his tablet and transferred the signatures. “Here are thirty-six professors and officers in the Navy and Intelligence that have approved my focus request be command.”

Deshok look almost apocalyptic. “This isn’t over, you are not going to command.”

“With respect sir, I am, and it was never your place to choose for me in the first place. It was your place to advise. You are dictating to me now, not advising.”

“You’re going nowhere in command with that attitude Cadet.” The captain sat back down at his terminal and updated John’s focus.

John received a message confirming command was his focus. “As you can see sir, I am aware of where, when and how to fight certain battles and win them. Thank you for changing my focus to command.”

John saluted and left the office and headed to his Leadership in Command class. He was ten minutes late to his next class. He took a seat near the exit and messaged the professor for the reason why he was late. These fights were just beginning, he was going to have to get used to fighting these types of battles.

John looked disinterested and distracted in his afternoon classes. He tested a hunch and wanted to see if Deshok and Daniels had any connections. Nothing appeared in active-duty military, so he figured he’d look into his civilian messaging account. There was something there, John was going to have to get the camera footage from an upscale restaurant in downtown Baltimore from the previous week.

18:00 Cafeteria

Alice gave John a kiss on the cheek and sat next to him. “Hey honey. What are you up too?”

“Hey. My advisor switched my focus. Doing some ‘research.’” John used air quotes.

Alice didn’t know what exactly he was doing but was on alert. John doing research typically meant he was going to do something. Most likely that would involve bending laws if not outright breaking them.

“Just be careful.”

“Always am.” He smiled back at Alice.

Alice noted John’s demeanor changed slightly. Something personal was affecting him. But it looked like he was in control.

“John, tell me. What’s bothering you?” Alice insisted.

Jessica and Andern sat down across from them.

“You remember when we were in that office building, and we ran into that man that knew your dad before our vacation?”

“Ugh, yes, what of it?”

“Well, he was on the phone with someone who he shouldn’t have been talking too.”

Ander started eating dinner and interrupted. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“Nothing major. Just a weird coincidence.” John said trying to end this conversation.

“When are we going to start studying again?” Jessica asked.

“Tomorrow or Wednesday, suppose it depends on when we get assignments. My room works, but if that motley crew over there wants to join then we’ll have to do it in one of the lounges here.”

“Study sessions?” Kevin caught some of what was said and correctly surmised what was said.

“Yeah, we were in John’s room last semester but that’s not big enough for all of us.” Alice said.

Alice was disappointed in the dinner tonight. The tater tot hotdish was kind of a hot mess of mushy bland tasting food. The vegetables added the general mushiness of the plate.

John had finished dinner ahead of everyone else.

“Sorry, got an errand to run, should be able to make it back by 22:00.” John winked at Alice and headed out.

He smiled at her as he sent her a telepathic message. ‘Don’t worry, just going to have a chat with a couple jackasses.’

19:45 Top Hat and Spectacle Bar

John was outside sitting of the upscale bar on a bench. He had an audio bug on the outside window that he was using to filter out the conversation in the bar except for the two people at the bar.

“Dammit Tim. I told you, he knows the damned Navy bylaws way too well. Your plan won’t work.” An off duty and highly agitated Captain Orion Deshok was talking with Timothy Daniels.

“That little bastard needs to pay. We can make that happen. The first step is to get him out of command, he’ll sully that division.” Tim was having none of the pushback.

“With what? He’s at the top of his class. At bloody fucking everything. He got every single multiple-choice question correct in both the midterms and finals last semester. Only in a calculus course did he see anything marked down at all. And his history prior to the academy is either classified above my clearance or fully redacted. I can’t touch it.”

“He has to have some history that we can use against the punk. He needs to be put in his place.”

“Tim, he was a bloody spook for the old man Aspern. He wasn’t an ordinary agent. On paper he was, but there’s no way they didn’t utilize like a secret agent. He was sent on missions by the fucking director himself. Look let’s say I get anything on him; he’s smart enough to trace it back to me. Then he comes after me and you.”

“Good, then we can nail him for attempting to go after a superior officer.”

“Tim, that’s easy for to you say when you’re out of the service. I’m not.”

“Look, you get me the information then my people can lean on him. It’ll be fine.”

“What’s your dad say about this?”

“He doesn’t know.”

“The fuck Tim. I told you I’d only help if he was on board. If he’s not…”

“Don’t puss out on me.”

John was smiling. Deshok was a spineless coward. Tim on the other hand, was every bit the pompous idiot he assumed him to be. He grabbed a spare tablet he brought with and loaded some information on it. He put that in his coat pocket and switched back to his primary tablet and was keying in some things on a website. He was accessing Tim’s offshore account and sold some stocks. John wired the money to the pay day loan store behind him. After the wire was confirmed, he shut their surveillance camera off before entering the store and got the credit chit with the proceeds. He exited the store then entered the bar.

John waived at the bartender. “I’ll take a pour of Laphroiag Twenty-One, neat please. Oh well imagine the surprise. Tim Daniels and Captain Orion Deshok sitting at the bar together. Weird.”

Orion looked none too pleased about this. Tim looked like he saw a ghost.

“Say Captain Deshok, take a look at this tablet.” He slid the tablet over to him. John handed the bartender a pair of one hundred dollar bills. “Keep the change.”

Deshok grew pale when he saw what was on the tablet.

“So, captain, just so we’re clear here. You’re not going to try any shit against me, but instead will begin to advocate for me irrespective of your true feelings for me. In return the information on that tablet is kept buried between us. Your now excused from this conversation. I’m sure your wife would like to have your company back home.” John kept looking straight forward.

Orion got up, put some bills on the bar and left. The little bit of dirt John dug up was enough to not only torpedo his career but possibly put him in a military prison. The military system of justice was biblical in its punishments. An officer having an affair could cause them to lose their pension, get busted down to ensign and spend five years or more hard labor in a military prison. They didn’t fuck around.

“Now, Tim. I am pretty confident that you heard me loud and clear what was going to happen if you took any action against me. And you took not one but two actions against me. This one here and the one with the Ricci’s. You must be a slow learner. Luckily for you I’m not feeling all that homicidal today. Why don’t you pull up those secret investments you don’t tell your wife about?”

Tim was pissed off and angry at this upstart cadet. “And why the fuck should I do anything you say?”

“Ah come on man, humor me.” John still hadn’t looked over at him.

John took another drink of his scotch. He made a mental note to purchase at least two bottles of this scotch at his earliest convenience.

Tim pulled out his tablet and pulled up his accounts. Nothing seemed amiss.

“No dumbass, not those. The private ones that not even your dad or wife know about.”

Tim didn’t like hearing that. How the hell did he know about them. He had snuck a substantial amount of money into foreign banks prior to getting married as a means to limit how much his wife could take from him should the marriage end. He entered a couple passwords in. He looked at the figures, then dropped the tablet.

John turned towards Tim on the barstool. “Now, unless my math is way the fuck off, you just lost two thirds of your ‘oh shit’ fund. You should thank me for allowing you to keep some of that. Now, you need to listen damn closely and comprehend what I’m about to say.” John took another sip of his drink. “I am persona non grata to you now. You avoid me like the plague. You take no action against me. You don’t talk about me to anyone. You suck up your feelings and you leave me the fuck alone.”

“You dishonored my family you poor little shit.”

“No, your ancestors did that, and you your ancestor personified in the entitlement you possess. You also inherited his stupidity. The next time you try anything against me people around you are going to start going missing. I’d rather not be the big bad evil guy, but I will not allow you to interfere with my life. So, if that means I need to grind your life under my foot by eliminating a kid or three, wife, or your many mistresses, I will.”

“Listen here…”

“No, you shut the fuck up and listen. You’re going to leave the bar. On the ride home you should take a look at the Avery Brooks homicide scene on Meridian Minor. I give you my solemn promise that if I need to involve myself with you again, your family members crime scenes will make that look mild in comparison if you keep up this idiotic crusade against me.”

“This won’t be the end of it.”

John finished the drink and got up.

“Oh, it will be. That conversation the two of you idiots had is now in your father’s hands. I’m doing you a favor by enlisting his help to prevent any unnecessary escalation of hostilities. Jury’s out on whether or not your intelligent enough to realize that. In any case, you can properly fuck off asshole.”

John flicked him off as he walked away. Tim searched Avery Brooks on a secured extra-net account he had. He almost vomited on the bar when he saw the crime scene pictures. His self-preservation instincts began to kick in; this cadet may not be someone to trifle with. If he was involved in that murder, then he really was a monster.

21:00 Lounge

“Hey assholes, how’s it going?” John said smiling.

“Why so cheerful. What did you do?” Andern asked.

“What? I’m not cheerful.”

“Yes, yes you are.” Jessica agreed with Andern.

“Yeah, you are, not post sex cheerful but a weird cheerful. What did you do?” Alice joined in.

John sat down on the sofa next to Alice and put an arm around her. “Oh, not much. Just kinda shut down one nonsense conspiracy and may have liberated two thirds of a real dickheads hidden slush fund…”

Jessica leapt over the table and was covering John’s mouth with her hands. “Stop talking now. I do not want to be an accomplice after the fact.”

“Jessica, you stop. I want to hear more.” Andern was quite curious about what went down.

“Oh yeah, and I had a pour of Laphroiag Twenty-One. Next time I head by the liquor store I’m getting a bottle or two. Stuff is a fucking delight to drink.”

The three just looked at him and shook their heads in near unison.

“So, y’all figure out where we’re studying tomorrow?”

“Yup, down here. You get to help out four more people this semester.” Alice said smiling.

“At least I can watch the Ocho while you guys do that stuff. Speaking of which.” John turned on the television to see hockey playing on it, it was the second period of the Wild and Canadians hockey game.

The group talked for another hour before deciding to call it a night. Plans for the rest of the week were drawn up. Weekend plans were made as well. First up was the basketball game Friday night, even though their team was hot garbage. The four friends were also going out to eat at a restaurant near campus Saturday evening. They’d start Sunday off with PE and then relax in the lounge.

The new semester was upon them. John was reviewing the day’s events. The first salvo was fired in the political sphere. He was determined to improve his political game to reduce the need to play dirty like he did that night. But no one was going to stop him from pursuing his dreams, that much he was fully committed to.