The group was too stunned to reply. Furness considered going to the manager, but Tobias wisely reached into his pocket, pulled out a ten, and gave it to him. The man withdrew his wallet to make change, but Tobias waved it off.
“Have a nice evening,” Lieutenant Colonel Daren Mace said, then walked away, picked up his tanks, and carried them into the back room. They didn’t notice the cellular telephone stuck in his back pocket, the one that all military personnel knew as belonging to a Wing staff officer.
“Whew,” Furness said finally, after a long, stunned pause. “I …
I think I’d like to get to know that guy better.” Everyone at the table knew they had just been told off by one of the best.
“I’m married with two kids,” Frank Kelly said, “and I’d like to get to know him better.”
Everyone laughed.
PART THREE
The grim fact is that we
prepare for war like
precocious giants, and for
peace like retarded pygmies.
SEVENTEEN
As usual when Furness woke up after her first night in the alert facility, she didn’t know where she was. The windowless rooms were completely dark, illuminated only by the red 3:45 AM LED numerals on the alarm clock — again, she had awakened several minutes before the alarm. The feeling of vertigo was so bad that she had to feel for the edge of the bed and the cold whitewashed concrete wall before attempting to move out of bed. It reminded her of the reason why she had no curtains over the triple-paned windows on her Vermont farmhouse, and she suddenly longed for its quiet privacy, its isolation, its serene beauty.
Showering in the open-stalled bathroom in the alert facility brought her back to reality very quickly, and Rebecca got out of there as fast as possible. In twenty minutes she was dressed. She was ready to head upstairs to get breakfast when the phone startled her.
“Becky? Ben here.” It was Ben Jamieson, the Alpha Flight commander, who was acting as duty officer in the facility for the evening. “You better get up here. Fogelman just made an ass out of himself — and you.”
In the CQ office, her heart sank — Colonel Hembree was waiting for her along with … Mark Fogelman. At least it looked like Fogelman, except this character had a shaved head! “Fogman?” she gasped, forgetting for a moment that Hembree was standing there. “Is that you …?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Fogelman replied matter-of-factly, his voice uncharacteristically official and disciplined. Not one hint of his usual smug grin.
“Major Furness,” Hembree began irritably, “maybe you can explain what’s going on here. Lieutenant Fogelman claims that you ordered him to cut his hair like this. Is this true?”
“Wha— No, it’s not true!”
“With all due respect, ma’am, you’re not telling the truth,” Fogelman said. The word “ma’am” coming from Fogelman’s lips sent a chill down her spine, like fingernails down a chalkboard. “I distinctly remember you giving me an order to cut my hair, and then you ordered me to cut it all off.”
“I did no such thing!”
“I will be happy to get witnesses for you, sir,” Fogelman told Hembree. “It was right after the open-ranks inspection. She was upset at me after the inspection, and she warned me that I had better not show up today without a haircut, and then she ordered me to cut it all off, to make sure I passed inspection, I suppose. Why would I do this unless she gave me a direct order?”
“Because you’re a little prick, that’s why, Fogelman.”
“That’s enough, Major,” Hembree said. “Addressing a fellow officer like that is out of line, and I won’t stand for it, hear me? As far as your haircut, Lieutenant — well, it’s within the regs, and you did it to yourself, so you have to deal with it. You are dismissed.” Fogelman snapped to attention, turned, gave Furness a satisfied grin, then departed. “Major, I want a word with you.” Hembree walked into the adjacent facility manager’s office and closed the door after Furness followed him inside.
“Rebecca, what the hell is going on here?” Hembree asked angrily. “I’ve got the wing commander and the commander of Fifth Air Battle Force coming out here in twenty minutes to view this exercise, and what’s he going to see? Two of my crewmembers arguing and sniping at each other like children. What is with you two?”
“I told him to get a haircut and to get his mobility gear together, that’s all,” she replied. “He made a joke about cutting off all his hair — hell, I didn’t think he’d really do it. I’m not trying to bust his nuts, Dick, but he shows up for work clearly out of uniform and without his required equipment, and he fights me at every turn—”
“Becky, I could see you two weren’t getting along, but I was hoping that would change,” Hembree said wearily. “I thought he’d get over this attitude problem he has, especially toward you, and I was hoping you’d straighten him out. I was wrong on both counts, but I’m especially disappointed in you. Fogelman has a suck attitude — I think bringing him out of C Flight so early was a mistake — but you have got a chip on your shoulder the size of a concrete block. Bravo Flight doesn’t need someone to constantly challenge them like you do.
“As soon as this exercise is over, I’m splitting you two up and putting you in C Flight,” the Colonel said. “Martin Gruber will take B Flight, and you’ll take C Flight. I’ll put Fogelman with Gruber or Alomar.”
“Dick, I don’t deserve this,” Furness said. “I spent almost twelve months in C Flight, longer than any other instructor. When Fogelman came out of C Flight four months early and before qualifying on PAVE TACK, I recommended against it. Give me Gaston from C Flight and—”
“It’s already been decided, Rebecca,” Hembree said. “Listen, your experience and knowledge will be good for C Flight, your effectiveness reports will still go to the one-star for his signature, and you and Fogelman won’t be in each other’s hair.”
“If you send me down to C Flight you’ll be giving Fogelman what he wants — the satisfaction of busting me.”
“This is not a demotion, Rebecca, it’s a change that reflects your management style, your expertise in the weapon system, and the need for your knowledge with the newcomers,” Hembree said. “The newcomers in Charlie Flight need a strong hand, and your style would fit in better there. Maybe next time you’ll think more carefully about what you tell your troops. You like playing games with people’s heads, and this time it cost you. And lay off the name-calling in front of the staff — if this shit gets outside the squadron, you may both find yourselves out on the street. Now let’s go to work. Your flight will be the first ones through the range today, and half the Air Combat Command will be watching. I want your people firing on all cylinders this morning. Anything else?”
Furness didn’t want to argue the haircut incident anymore — it made her look bad. “Are you going to fly with us?”
“General Cole and Vice Commander Lachemann of Fifth Air Battle Force want to observe our deployment procedures, so I’ll be on the ground with them while your flight does their bomb runs,” Hembree replied. “Alpha Flight has landed from its ‘deployment’ but hasn’t configured for strike yet, so I’m sure the brass will want to watch that, and C Flight is getting ready to ‘deploy.’ I’ll probably fly in C Flight’s first strike mission after the brass leaves.”