“Colonel?” Matt replied hesitantly. How exactly did you respond to something like that?
The senior officer continued with the plodding tone of someone who had something to get off his chest. “It was a combination of a lot of things: overwork, enormous amounts of pressure from my responsibilities, bad intel, bias in favor of the men under my command, and a negative predisposition towards your town.”
Matt wasn’t sure why the man was telling him this. Guilt? Trying to excuse away his culpability? “All right.” Then he couldn’t help himself. “What negative predisposition?”
The colonel chuckled humorlessly. “That you guys go off half-cocked. Back when we were fighting the blockheads, a few of your strikes against the forces occupying the area around your town caused a hassle for me.”
“They did?” Matt blurted, incredulous. “We barely made a dent in the grand scheme of things.”
“For want of a horseshoe…” Grimes replied. “Small things, I’ll admit, and you did more good than harm. Mostly it was the fact that you never bothered to let us know what you were doing so we could plan accordingly.”
“We, uh, hadn’t considered that,” Matt admitted sheepishly. “I guess we figured the area we were guarding was our business. But since we were part of the larger war we really should’ve been coordinating better with the military.”
The older man waved him off. “You got better later on, probably thanks to your radio man Chauncey. And my people who worked with you had good things to say, from what little I heard. But with so much else to worry about a bad first impression was all I had time to give you.”
Huh. So Grimes could’ve been an ally if Lewis had just taken the time to radio the guys up north that they were going to be stirring up the hornet’s nest around Aspen Hill. Such a simple thing to get so many people killed.
Of course, even if the colonel had a legitimate complaint about something that happened during the fight against the blockheads, it had nothing to do with what’d happened here. Nor should it have. “Was that why Rogers went after us, too?”
Grimes paused thoughtfully, then shrugged. “Possibly. Something about your town definitely seems to have put a stick up his butt. And the fact that you tried to handle him on your own certainly didn’t help things.”
“We constantly tried to tell our side of the story and ask for outside arbitration,” Matt pointed out.
The colonel didn’t get defensive or back down this time. “Yes, but when it came right down to it instead of going through proper channels you drew weapons on one of my officers and twenty of his men.”
Since going through proper channels had done so much good. “I guess we’re used to only being able to depend on ourselves when it comes to handling problems,” Matt replied. “That comes from hard experience.”
He hadn’t meant to be quite that accusatory. Or maybe he had. The senior officer gave him a resigned look. “I don’t expect you to let me off the hook for this mess, but things will go better if we can work together from now on. I hope my efforts to rectify this situation help with that.”
Well Grimes was right about that first part. But at least he’d paved the way to heal relations in the future. Matt was willing to cut him some slack. “Aspen Hill wants to work with the military and be part of the larger events going on in the Rocky Mountains. Keep us in the loop and we’ll do our best.”
The colonel abruptly chuckled and offered his hand. “I made a jibe about your age when we first met, Larson, but you do a good job. I can see why you landed this job.”
“Thank you, Colonel. That means a lot.” After they exchanged a second handshake Matt indicated the crowd, and Grimes nodded and allowed himself to be led back that way. Hopefully he’d be willing to field a few questions and make further comments.
But just short of rejoining the Aspen Hill townspeople the older man stopped again. “By the way. The initial surplus given to the town, which Major Rogers largely used as an excuse to start this mess in the first place, was arranged by Sergeant Ethan Davis, with the support of Lieutenant Dell Faraday and approval by my staff.”
“Good to know,” Matt said. The news coming now was a surprise, but he’d suspected it would be something like that back when Corporal Bryant first delivered the supplies.
Grimes shook his head. “In fact it wasn’t a surplus at all. It was provided specifically for services rendered by the town and its volunteers, as well as the loan or gift of valuable heavy weaponry and its ammunition, a captured enemy truck and fuel along with a significant stock of supplies, and finally the sale of dozens of good condition M16s and 1911s.”
That certainly seemed reasonable, although Matt’s brow furrowed. “For that last one I was led to believe we already received payment.”
The colonel smiled slightly. “As I understand it you received verbal permission for first chance to sift through the trash Sergeant Davis left behind when he rolled out. That doesn’t seem like an equitable exchange.”
“So Rogers was trying to steal our own supplies from us, and lied about how we got them?”
Grimes shook his head slowly. “In this case I believe the Major was in fact misinformed as to specific details. But basically yes.”
Matt wasn’t so sure. Rogers was a bureaucrat, specific details were his bread and butter. But it wasn’t worth making an issue of. At least now there was even better assurance the military wouldn’t be coming after their supplies again. Hopefully now the town could get back to scrambling to survive in peace.
The colonel graciously accepted the refreshments Matt brought out to make the event a proper celebration. He stayed for a half hour or so chatting with the leaders of the town, discussing the future of the US.
At one point he took a swig of his powdered lemonade and grimaced. “Some folks have started calling what we’ve got here in the Rockies the New United States.” He spat off to one side. “New what? We’re US citizens, guarded by the US Armed Forces and occupying US territory. It’s irritating enough when people talk like we’re remnants of the country. What we need is to return to our roots, not abandon them for something new.”
“Maybe a bit of both is called for,” Lucas said mildly. “I’d also prefer to call ourselves the United States we still are, but I’d say the New United States at least gives a nod to our roots.”
“That may be,” the colonel grumbled. “But when the elections roll around I won’t be getting behind anyone who uses the name. How about the message it sends to the rest of the world? This is our home, our land. If we start acting like we’re a brand new country then the Gold Bloc and Canada and Mexico and everyone else will have no problem arguing we don’t have a legitimate claim, and will come try to take a piece of us.” He spat again. “Besides, New United States just sounds stupid. Name one country out there with “new” in its name.”
Predictably, Lewis was willing to field that one. “New Zealand and New Guinea, off the top of my head.”
Grimes waved that off. “Would you really want to be a citizen of the New United States?”
“Not really,” Matt admitted. There were a few nods around the group.
“I actually don’t care all that much,” Deb offered. “As long as it’s a stable country.”
Before Grimes left he had a gift for them. Specifically, six months of supplies for the wounded veterans and the recruited refugees. “Our job is to make sure everyone has their share,” he said by way of explanation. “I don’t know what this Corporal Bryant was thinking pawning veterans off on you without supplies for them. If anyone deserves their due, it’s those hurt protecting our country. If anything they deserve more than we can give, but this’ll have to do for now.”
“It’s more than enough,” Matt said. There was no shortage of volunteers to offload the much-needed supplies.