Page 29

LINDA

L inda was nervous as she walked into the company offices. Normally, she avoided the administrative hub of Charlie Company as much as possible, with the First Sergeant, the XO, and the Company Commander located there. And then there was Tyrone Crews, who loved to hear himself talk.

But when Sergeant Lincoln told her to report to the company commander's office, she had to do it.

What freaked her out more than anything though was the fact that Crews made himself noticeably absent when she came in. Even though it was officially lunch time, Crews was never the kind to miss overhearing some gossip unless doing so could get him in trouble.

Lieutenant Parker was waiting for her though, his freshly cut hair sticking up slightly more than usual and making him look more like 'Iceman' than normal.

"Hey Sergeant... you look worried."

"No offense sir, but no Crews, and lunch hour? That's normally a recipe for at least a bit of skittishness," Linda said. She took a deep breath, and lifted an eyebrow. "I hope there isn't a problem."

"Well, there shouldn't be," Parker said, "but Major Kirk wanted to have a chat with you. I'm pretty much in the dark as well. Come with me, we're in the conference room."

Linda followed Parker, surprised slightly to see her entire chain of command outside of Sergeant Orkin gathered in the conference room.

What was shocking and turned her concern up to full nervousness was seeing Lieutenant Colonel Remsburg sitting at the head of the table.

The Battalion Commander didn't come down to the company offices, the company came to the battalion.

"Sergeant Castellanos, thank you for coming in on your lunch break," Remsburg said, indicating a seat on his left. "Please have a seat."

"Uhm... okay, sir." Linda walked over and stood behind the chair. "Sorry, is this a reporting situation?"

"No, no," Major Kirk said.

He was seated on the other side of the table and looked rather relaxed. That helped, but didn't totally allay her fears.

"We're having a chat outside of duty right now, hopefully to prevent having to do it later on duty."

Linda nodded in understanding. There were plenty of ways that the military handled things. Sometimes, things had to have paperwork. Sometimes though, things got handled through unofficial channels.

"Thank you. So what's going on, sir?" she asked, sitting down carefully in the chair.

She might be in the conference room unofficially, but she was surrounded by the most powerful officers in her chain of command. There was no way she was going to fully relax in front of the battalion commander.

After all, she was just an E-5 sergeant.

"So, I got a call from the Pentagon this morning," Remsburg said as way of introduction. "A friend of mine has a wife who happens to like certain gossip websites. She noticed a story, told her husband... long story short, you're in the gossip sites."

"What?" Linda asked, shocked. "Uhm, how, sir? I haven't talked to any reporters or magazines. You know that if someone approached me I'd tell them to talk to the Public Relations Office, and-"

"It wasn't specifically about you." Major Kirk handed Linda his phone. "Rather it was about Brutus."

Linda looked, her eyes widening as she read the short story. It wasn't much, mostly just asking a lot of leading questions. Did Brutus have a new girlfriend? Who was she? Why did they choose such an out of the way location for their torrid weekend?

That last one brought the hairs on the back of her neck to full attention and she looked through the pictures, her jaw clenching as she saw the last three.

"Someone was spying on us? And uhm... Dios mio."

"On the positive side,” Remsburg said as Linda passed the phone back to Kirk, “the photos don't identify you. In fact, of the published ones, none of them have a clear image of your face. You're just 'a new woman' in Brutus Townsend's life."

"A new woman who had a torrid weekend with him, quoting that story. And I'm sensing a 'but' coming, sir," Linda said, swallowing her nerves. "The three photos-"

"Castellanos... Linda," First Sergeant Austin rumbled, getting her attention.

"What you and Brutus have been doing is totally above board.

As for someone taking hazy photos through a curtain because you two left the lights on isn't something you should be ashamed of.

If it were up to me, I'd like to find the photographer and teach them a few lessons about the right to privacy. "

"Well said First Sergeant," Colonel Remsburg said.

"Linda, I'm certainly not going to tell you anything about you dating Brutus Townsend.

Everyone says that you were a totally professional team leader during his time in the unit.

But my Pentagon friend did bring up something to think about.

While you weren't named in the story, it's almost guaranteed that there's other photos out there.

Maybe they weren't published because they didn't have a good angle on Brutus in them, or maybe they just weren't spicy enough for this website.

Either way, it's only a matter of time before someone sees the PR photos the battalion took and starts putting the pieces together. You might get named in the press."

"Is that a problem, sir?" Linda asked. "I didn't know about the photos, and I for damn sure didn't authorize anyone to take photos of me when I was on pass."

"Normally, no," Major Kirk said. "No more than any other member of the company dating a civilian. But there's a few things that we need to make sure we're all clear on. First off, most of our missions are classified, and operational security is essential."

"I know, and Brutus knows, sir. I swear to you, I don't tell him anything about the job that he doesn't already know from his week in the unit. Actually, it sort of annoyed him, considering the bruise I had after the last mission."

Kirk nodded, leaning forward. "I'm sure.

Actually, I was amused that day. I could see he was full of questions, but you kept shutting him down.

It was sort of funny to watch this big linebacker get mentored by Sabby Goodman.

What was it Sergeant Lincoln, three or four times that Sabby had to tell Brutus to shut up and nobody could tell him? "

"Only twice I think, sir," Linc said. "Sabby just makes a big, repeated impression on people. Was he as curious when you two were on pass, Castellanos?"

"Negative Sarge," Linda insisted. "He wanted to know what I got shot with, but other than saying it was a drug interdiction mission, I didn't tell him anything. We've told people that before, leaving out the details. Was I wrong?"

"No... no, you're right, I told my brother the same thing when we got back," Major Kirk said. "If we're going to ding you on that, ding me as well."

"You're right, but perhaps we can all have a review class on what we can and cannot tell our friends and family members about missions," Colonel Remsburg said. "In the meantime though, I think we've all wasted enough of our lunch time then, let's go ahead and end this. Thank you for your time."

Remsburg left along with the other officers, and Linda waited for them to leave. Afterwards, it was just her and Sergeant Lincoln, who had a clouded look on his face. "Got a minute, Castellanos?"

"Sure Sarge," Linda said. "I was going to grab some lunch, though."

"Let's walk together." He led her out of the company offices and heading towards the dining facility.

"My point is, while that's old Army, there's still enough of those old minds, old thoughts around places like the Pentagon.

All it's going to take is the wrong colonel or general, or hell, wrong politician on some budget oversight committee getting wind of this. Feel me?"

Linda nodded, swallowing. "I feel you, Sarge."

"Then let's try and get some lunch," Lincoln said.

Agreeing, Linda went into the DFAC, where she ate her lunch and thought.

Did Brutus have someone take the photos? She wasn't sure, but it would be a surefire way to rehabilitate his image. How could anyone say he was anti-military when he was seeing a soldier?

Or was it a paparazzi thing? Brutus was famous enough that he was recognized every time he came onto post, and more than once on their dates he'd been recognized by a fan.

She'd laughed it off each time, but this was on a whole new, disturbing level.

Could she handle that level of inquisitiveness into her life?

The truth was, the answer to that last question was no. She was more than just a regular soldier. She was a female infantry NCO in a unit that handled lots and lots of classified operations. She wasn't a person who could afford to be in the press constantly.

Wrapping up her lunch, she pulled out her phone, texting Brutus quickly.

Hey, saw something online about you. About us. Need to talk as soon as possible, tonight if you can.

The rest of the day went almost as normal, with only a light day of training on the schedule.

She didn't know if nobody else had seen the news story, or if Linc had put the lid on any commentary about it.

Either way, she was grateful, just wanting to get the day over with.

Luckily she was able to get by without too much focus, although as she formed up for the end of day formation, she saw a few glances from people around the company.

Clearly the news had gotten out.

"Come on," Jess Adams said as soon as Major Kirk released the company for the evening. "Join me over at the gym. You clearly need it."

"You sure?" Linda asked. "We're nowhere near the same in strength levels."

"Yeah, I'm doing some acceleration work tonight, so the movements will be awkward for me," Jess assured her. "And what's speed work for me might be a good regular style lift for you. Come on, we can stop by the barracks for you to grab some gym gear. I'll give you a ride."

"What, my bike isn't cool enough?" Linda asked wryly,.

Jess rolled her eyes.