Train paused to gather his thoughts. He wondered why Carpenter was asking him this question instead of Karen Lawrence, who was nominally in charge of the Sherman problem. Was Carpenter checking up on her? Or had the admiral perhaps detected her sympathy for Sherman? He launched into it.. He took fifteen minutes to bring the admiral up-to-date, including the events of the preceding night.
When he had finished, Carpenter was no longer smiling.
“Is Karen, Lawrence safe?” he asked.
Train told him about taking one of his Dobes out to her house. “But if there’s a rogue SEAL on ‘ the loose, no one is safe,” he concluded. “The good news is that Karen is not his target. Sherman is. The bad news is that someone’s been knocking off everyone who’s close to Sherman.”
“Are Karen Lawrence and Sherman ‘close’?”
Train hesitated for a fraction of a second. Good question, that one.
“Not in a personal sense, not that I know of. But she’s been with him at the Walsh apartment, the Walsh memorial service, the funeral, and two meetings with the cops, one in his house, one in her house. And somebody sure as hell knew where to find her last night.”
“Did she actually see this guy?”
“No, sir.”
“So nobody has ever seen this guy, right?”
“Correct. Nobody except Admiral Sherman, and that was twenty-some years ago. But I don’t think Karen imagined all this. She was really scared.
She put on a good front this morning, but whoever did this knew how.”
“So you think this Galantz guy is for real? I mean, all the records say he was lost in Vietnam. He’s even on the MIA list.”
Train hesitated. “It’s possible,” he hedged. “As you know, that MIA classification covers everything from someone who was actually observed being blown to little bits to guys who simply went out and never came back.”
“So he could be alive?”
“Admiral Sherman says he is, or at least was back in 1972. The only other possibility is that Sherman is doing it.
He’s had opportunity in at least a couple of these incidents.
Even last night, for instance. But what’s his motive?”
“So you’re coming down in favor of HMI Galantz,” Carpenter persisted, ignoring Train’s question.
Train wasn’t quite sure where this was going. “Possibly,” he said. “Or someone calling himself that. Oh, did I mention Sherman’s son?”
Carpenter shook his head patiently. Train told him about Jack, and the fact that, after many years of estrangement, Sherman had seen him twice recently, both times in circumstances that suggested the son knew something about what was going on.
“Curiouser and curiouser,” the admiral muttered. “Okay.
We’ve got two problems with this Sherman situation’ The first is that, given the Navy’s intense sensitivity to bad PR, Admiral Sherman is becoming a political liability.”
“The big guys are ready to just drop him over the side?”
Carpenter gave a small shrug. “There is an unlimited supply of eager-beaver flag-material captains in the surface warfare community who do not bring baggage of this sort along with them.” Train nodded. “Karen told me about their little sdance with Admiral Kensington. I take it he’s a heavyweight here in Opnav?”
“Heavy enough. Especially when the problem concerns a surface guy, and Sherman is surface Navy.”
Train nodded. “And the second problem: Might that involve a certain government agency?”
Carpenter gave him a speculative look. “It might,” he said.
Train stared down at the carpet. The picture was getting a little clearer, and he now understood why Carpenter was talking to him and not Karen. He laced his hands together and cracked his knuckles, then looked back at Carpenter, who was watching hirh intently.
“Are you telling me not to try to find Galantz?”
Carpenter got up from his desk and came around to sit in one of the chairs. “Not exactly, Train. I am going to order you to stay away from anybody’s efforts to find this Galantz individual. I am going to tell you not to hunt down Galantz yourself.”
““Going to’? As in orders that will be forthcoming soon?”
“Very soon.”
“And in the meantime?”
“In the meantime, I do order you to keep Karen Lawrence safe.”
Train nodded slowly. “And if that involves-“
The JAG raised his hands. “Use your best judgment on how to execute your tasking, Train. You need not bother me with details. In fact, I’d prefer you did not. But that’s your tasking: Keep Karen safe while she makes a determination that Admiral Sherman is either the victim of a setup or one diabolically clever villain. And your time is limited.
Remember what I am going to tell you-soon.”
Train nodded again and got up. “Got it. And I appreciate the latitude, Admiral. I think. I suppose if this thing goes off the tracks, I can expect to be chastised?”
“Most severely, although ultimately I’ll get over it.”
Train nodded. This was a game he recognized.
in probably doing the wrong thing here,” Carpenter said equably. “But it seems to me that Sherman deserves one chance, especially if he’s innocent.”
Carpenter got up walked back around to his desk. He picked up some papers and pretended to study them for a moment before continuing. “By the way, Karen had an archive request in to review the investigation records on the incident in Vietnam,” he said. “I’ve had her request intercepted. That investigation report is highly classified. But from what I saw, Sherman did the right thing in that incident.”
Train had been about to ask. He was glad the admiral had brought it up first. “Galantz may not think so,” he said.
Carpenter looked over at him. “You know that. I know that. That’s why I want you to keep an eye on Karen Lawrence. I have my reasons for having her on this case, but I don’t want her hurt.”
“I understand, Admiral,”
Train said, although he wasn’t sure he did.
“Good,” Carpenter said. “Remember, time is of the essence, especially for Admiral Sherman. That’s all.”
When the door closed, Carpenter sat back in his chair and thought for a moment, then punched the intercom.
“Get me a secure call into Admiral Kensington’s office,” he said. He punched off and waited. Kensington came on the line.
“Admiral Kdnsington.”
“Good morning, Admiral,” Carpenter said. “Further to our last conversation on the Sherman matter, I have a suggestion to make.”
There was a moment of silence. “Is this thing under control, Tom?”
Carpenter thought about the DNI’s little bombshell. “I think so, Admiral,” he said slowly. I
“Because if it isn’t, we need to do something. We’ve had i enough dirty laundry hanging out there lately.
I’m not sure any of us could stand this thing getting loose.”
“I understand. I think we need to take Sherman out of circulation for a few days.”
“I’m all ears.”
Train left the JAG’s office, shaking his head as he walked back to his own cubicle on the fourth floor. Neatly done, Admiral, he thought. You want me to beat the bushes, but you can always say that I was never tasked to find this guy.
If there was to be any trouble, Mrs. von Rensel’s bouncing baby boy, Train, had, in fact, been told to stay away from Galantz.
He reached his cubicle, checked his voice mail, and then called Karen to back-brief her on his meeting with Carpenter. “He wanted an update, soup to nuts, on the whole case.
I gave it to him.”
“You told him about last night?”
“Yup. That upset him. I also got the impression the bigs are stirring.”
“What did he say about that archived file?”
“That he blocked it. That it contains highly classified material. That it shows Sherman did the right thing back there, whfttever that means.