Dan arrived and was briefed. He was taking Ethan’s side, then Kellie told them about how Ethan had come to the house and how they fled. Dan was no longer as staunch a defender of Ethan.
Rich came over to Grant and said, “This is a commander’s call. Troop discipline is a military thing, not a court thing. Not a civilian court thing.”
Grant nodded. Rich was right. Under the Constitution, the military got to discipline its own members outside of the civilian court system. Grant would not be the judge on this matter. Besides, he was biased in favor of Wes. Rich, who was not biased like Grant or Dan, could make an impartial decision.
Rich paused for a moment and then said to everyone assembled outside the Richardson house, “OK, fighting is not allowed. Neither is banging on someone’s door and trying to do who knows what. I don’t give a shit who did more fighting. Here’s the message: Fighting and acting up is dealt with severely. And fairly. So both Ethan and Wes are in jail for three days. Starting now. This is a commander’s call and I’m the commander. Period.”
“What?” Wes said, looking at Grant for help. “Me? I’m going to jail?”
“Yep,” Grant said sternly. “Military discipline is critical. And it’s the commander’s decision, not a civilian court thing. I support Rich’s decision.”
Kellie started crying. Ethan just stood there with a very strange look in his eye.
“What if I quit?” Ethan said. “And I leave here.”
“You can’t quit,” Dan said. “You…” Dan thought about it. The guards had not pledged to serve for any period of time, and he knew he couldn’t insist on the guards enlisting for several years. Dan had never thought about that. He just assumed the guards would serve as long as the community needed it.
“Well, I guess you can quit,” Dan said. “But not Scot free. If you walk out of that gate, you can never come back. Never. If you try to come through that gate, you will be shot. And we keep all your stuff. That’s the price you pay for us feeding you for so long.”
Grant and Rich went up to Dan. Grant said quietly to Dan, “Dude, this guy knows all our defenses. You can’t let him go into town.”
“We can’t keep him jail for a few years,” Dan said. “We can’t have him on guard duty if he’s said he doesn’t want to be there. Besides,” Dan smiled, “I purposefully don’t tell the guards much of what’s going on just in case one of them ends up in the enemy’s hands. Ethan doesn’t know much more than a person observing us from a hidden position off the road for a day or two would know.”
“What about the ‘fifty Marines?’” Grant asked. “What if Ethan tells Winters they don’t exist?”
Rich and Dan were silent for a moment.
“Ethan is a disgruntled guard,” Rich said, “leaving Pierce Point over a woman. Not exactly the most trusted source of information, so I’d say Winters would strongly discount whatever Ethan says. But, yeah, Ethan will probably say that there aren’t fifty Marines, though he can’t say for sure that they don’t exist. We’ve been hinting to everyone, including the guards, that some security people are secretly hiding out here, so the worst Ethan can say is that he hasn’t personally seen fifty Marines.”
Rich thought about it some more and then said to Dan and Grant, “Worst case: Ethan tells Winters that we have snipers on the hill. That keeps Winters out of here. I’m OK with that. And I’m not going to let Ethan stay here. Wes will kill him.” Rich looked around to make sure no one could hear him. “It’s not like Wes doesn’t know how to do it,” he said and then mouthed “Lima down.”
“Besides,” Dan said, “No one is going to leave Pierce Point willy nilly. They have food and security here. Only fuck ups like Ethan will go. Good riddance.”
Rich, who was in command, got to make the call. He went over to Ethan and said, “So here’s your choice: First option is three days jail and you go back to guard duty without any other incidents. Second option is you quit and walk out with nothing, never to return.”
Ethan quickly said, “I’m outta here.” He smiled. He hadn’t done that in a long time. He was relieved. He never wanted to show his face there again. He’d take his chances outside the gate. It couldn’t possibly be that bad out there.
Rich said, “OK. That solves that. We’ll drive you back to your house where you will give us the keys to everything you have and then you leave.”
“Great,” Ethan said. “I’ll be out of this little hick town.” To Rich, who knew how bad it was back in Frederickson, leaving Pierce Point sounded insane. He realized that pride was a bigger motivator to a young hot heat like Ethan than safety and food.
Now it was Wes’s turn to receive his punishment. Rich turned to Wes and said, “Surrender your weapons, Wes.” The moment felt tense.
Wes realized that he had to obey. He thought it was crazy for him—the one who was protecting Kellie from a psycho—to go to jail while the bad guy just walked away. He looked at Grant and asked, “Really?
“Really,” Grant said. “I fully support Rich’s decision. He’s in command. Period. The Team gets treated like anyone else.” Grant really didn’t fully support the decision because it was unfair, but he understood why it needed to be done, and he had to publicly support Rich. Grant also had to show everyone that the Team got no special treatment.
Wes, who was still handcuffed, motioned with his head to Bobby to take away his pistol. It felt weird to be disarming a handcuffed member of the Team, but Bobby did it. He handed Wes’s Glock to Scotty. Wes motioned with his head at his AR, which was on the ground. Bobby picked it up, checked to make sure it was on safe, and handed it to Rich.
Bobby went up to Wes and pointed to his front pants pocket. “Sorry, dude,” Bobby said and took out Wes’s Zero Tolerance folding knife. “I’ll take good care of this,” he said, “for three short days, brother.” That knife meant everything. Members of the Team always had their matching knives with them. Always.
Wes realized that all eyes were on him. Would he be a whiner or a man? “The sooner this starts, the sooner I get out,” Wes said to Rich. “Who’s taking me back there?”
Kellie started crying. She needed Wes right now. She needed him and now he was going to jail. This wasn’t fair.
Rich made arrangements for someone to take Wes to the jail. As Wes walked by Rich, he pulled him aside and whispered, “Don’t worry. You’ll get the star treatment in jail. Comfy room. Good food. I just had to do this to show…”
“I know, I know,” Wes whispered back, “the Team gets no breaks. I understand. One request: conjugal visits?” he said looking over at Kellie.
“We’ll see,” Rich said. “I just don’t want you to get caught. It’ll take away the ‘no special treatment’ thing I’m trying to do here.”
Wes nodded and recognized that Rich was doing what he could. Wes decided to think of it as three days of rest, which he could use. They had been patrolling and training hard for weeks.
A truck came for Ethan. A few minutes later, one came for Wes. Kellie was crying while Sheila took her away in their car.
Things got quiet for the first time in a while. Finally Rich said, “OK, let’s get back to work. Let’s run through this raid one more time. In slow motion first, then full speed. Empty mags and empty chambers. Safeties on. Let’s go, gentlemen.”