Chapter Eight - "Need For Speed"

"Hail and Well Met"

Chapter Eight - "Need For Speed"

0610 Room 620, Falls Church Sheraton Inn Hotel, Falls Church, VA; MAY 14,1997

First light crawled through the window first along the ledges then down the sides of the wall following in inverse direction the gradual journey of the sun along its ecliptic . The incremental increase in warmth within their hotel bedroom was what made Meg stir as eventual consciousness claimed her from the abyssal plane of sleep.

Eventually conscious thought managed to recover physical ability and Meg started to move her head to look out the window. Evidently the smell of the fresh morning dew was what caused her nostrils to twitch and she lifted her head to breath in the scent of the morning as she lay in the cocooning comfort of the quilts.

She looked over to see the somnolent form of her husband still exhausted from the late night that they'd had.

They'd returned from Norfolk at around 2330hrs and then made their way to her storage locker, accessible via coded door and key. Which meant that not only did one have to have a key to open the main gate, one also had to have a key which triggered access. If they did not insert the key, the code would not trigger the opening mechanism to the gate. That kept miscreants from attempting to gain access.

She'd gained access to her unit and quickly found what she was looking for, and it was now in her bedside drawer as his was in the drawer on his side. They weren't paranoid, DC came with its own set of dangers and well even if they didn't come across them, it was better to be prepared for anything.

She started to feel a bit hungry and there was no food in the kitchenette fridge. It was time to wake up her husband and remedy her desire for something to eat. Then they had to go find themselves vehicles to drive as the separate modes of transportation would allow them to get to their separate places of work.

"Honey?"

Her husband rolled over back towards her, let out an muffled snort into his pillow and proceeded to be still again. Evidently he was still tired and wasn't planning on waking up anytime before eight. Well this is going to take some tactical initiative on my part, Meg thoughtand curled her fingers of her right hand around a certain body part of her husband while he slept pressing her body up against him hoping the feel of her bare skin might coax him awake and get him up so that she could find a place to eat and get the day's tasks going and if it took a round of love-making to entice him to consciousness, then that's what she'd initiate, not to mention it felt good for her too. Her favorite part of him, outside of his eyes and lips was certainly awake and perfectly well aware of what she was doing.

After a while, her husband did stir, he rolled over to face her and she rolled over to spoon against him. His left hand caressed her and Meg allowed him to enter her and he started moving slowly. Of course the pace quickened eventually as the sensation of tension preceding release cascaded over her as she buried her head in the pillow to muffle her exclamation of passion as he and she had their mutual peak and it seemed like it went on for some time, but eventually it subsided and when Meg was able to speak without panting she purred, "Good morning, lover...".

"Good morning, indeed..." her husband said, his voice still hoarse with passion mixed with sleep.

"We need to go car hunting and return the Escalade." Meg stated.

"Oh..." was his response. "Right. We need food..." he continued, his voice still somewhat drowy.

"Obviously..." she said, as she looked at him with a smug look of expectation. "I'm going to take a shower...care to join me?"

Animal's countenance was eager. Besides the shower would clean off the evidence of their lovemaking that was now making itself known on the sheet. "Damn..." Meg said "I think the sheets need changing."; thought for a moment then continued, "Well since we're checking out today, maybe we can just strip the sheet and the caretaker can deal with the changing." She smirked at Animal. "Or should I put a warning note on the bed. Do not reuse sheets until washed, After sex bodily fluids on sheets?"

Her wise-acre remark caused Animal to crack up laughing.

"C'mon, let's get clean." She tugged him into the bathroom and into the shower.

It was about 0800 by the time they finished washing up and getting ready for the day. Putting their clothes on and concealed carry, they packed up their room and headed out to the lobby, along with the luggage trolley. Returning the keys and pass-cards to the hotel they trundled the trolley out to the Escalade to load their luggage into the trunk . After returning the now empty luggage trolley to the lobby, Animal headed to the car and they were on their way by 0900.

Meg and Animal stopped in at a mom and pop restaurant down the road about ten miles away and had a nice relaxing breakfast. When they were back on their way, their stomach's much fuller, they found that the trip went by much quicker.

Reston had its own Chevy as well as Ford dealerships. And well there also was a Hertz car rental location as well but first of all, they had to buy a car as they needed to transfer all the stuff they had in the trunk of the rental Escalade into the trunk of whatever car they chose to buy.

"Hit the Chevy place first?" Animal said,"both dealerships are side by side. And we can take care of both." Animal grinned at Meg who nodded eagerly. After all car shopping was a fun experience coupled with the attraction of a big ticket item being purchased. And for them making two purchases of vehicles on the same day was certainly unique.

"Let's." Meg said simply. After all she was eager to take a test-drive of the vehicle of her choice. Being able to test the vehicle was a key part of the customer experience of buying a car.

The experience was heightened by the fact that they were each getting a vehicle that took a substantial portion of an year's income and put it into an object that does not retain value. The depreciation as one drove off the lot was significant but that wasn't on either of their minds. What was on their mind was curb appeal and the personal satisfaction of having vehicles that would be eye-catching to others while Meg or Animal were driving them.

And Animal was not going to spend nearly $100,000 or more on a supercar like a Ferrari or Porsche or a Lamborghini. He was practical, not stupid. And his practicality lent to ensuring that only his transportation needs and not his ego were taken care of.

So he pulled into the Chevy dealership and as soon as they walked in, they were pounced on by an eager beaver young salesperson who was, it looked like, looking to make his first sale.

"Hi, my name is Jim Bodsdale, how may I help you today." Meg had worn a miniskirt and a gorgeous tank-top and that garnered a lot of meerkat-sentrying around the "bullpen" from the male sales staff. The female sales staff just rolled their eyes at the male sales staff's reactions which were quickly stifled when they saw the tall Asian guy standing beside her.

Military style haircut, tough looking countenance, muscles bulging out of his shirt sleeves of his polo-shirt. No this was not an Alligator polo but a Navy polo shirt with gold embroidered naval aviator wings and gold embroidered lettering that read VF-41 XO. And it was not only an identifier of who this man was; a United States Navy flier who evidently spent a lot of time in the gym when he wasn't out defending the country. He was also wearing tan trousers. And carried a VF-41 patch emblazoned navy blue ball-cap with one row of authentic navy style scrambled eggs on the brim in his hand. If anyone knew military, they always doffed their caps indoors.

And furthermore they noticed the ring on the blonde haired lady's left hand ring finger and the matching ring on the finger of the left hand of the man in the military polo. Yep no luck there.

"Yes, I'm looking for a Camaro." Meg said.

"Oh we have a great selection, right this way." The eager Jim Bodsdale, took them out to the lot where a whole row of Camaros sat parked and waiting. "We have the entire lineup of this year's stock in all the colors."

"OK." Meg missed her sedan that she sold when she left the USA but now upon her return to the USA she was ready to move into something sporty. After all, the lines of Chevy's muscle car/sports-car intrigued her and she was wanting to learn more about them.

When the salesperson quoted off all the specs and the various models and prices within the Camaro lineup, Meg stated, "OK, I want a test drive of the cherry red LS that has all the features. And you said that you had a black one as well? I'm just kind of torn between the colors at this point in time." Meg shifted her weight from one foot to another providing Animal with a nice view of her mini-skirt clad rear end.

When the test drive was over it was time to get down to brass tacks and start haggling price. Certainly, the vehicle was nice and she wanted it, but the price had to be a certain amount and she was not going to turn around and get the car at the tag price.

So Meg waded in and started haggling price with the salesman. And no-one can match wits with a lawyer when it comes to haggling. The original tag price on the LS was $22,900USD; she managed to knock it down to $18,900USD and grinning at Animal who was suitably impressed by his wife's negotiating skills, she was all smiles when the salesperson handed over the keys. The salespeople were suitably impressed when one call to Animal's bank paid off the entirety of the car for Meg.

"I think that worked out just nicely. Meg smirked at her husband as the two walked towards the door, again, those salespeople not with a customer following her with their eyes, every step she took.

The vehicle was washed and brought out to them and they started loading up the car with all of their luggage that the Escalade was currently holding. It fit. Meg grinned at Animal. "I was always good at Tetris," she smirked.

Animal and she made their way; one vehicle behind the other to the Hertz rent-a-car and dropped off the Escalade after stopping by a gas station, refilling and vacuuming out the interior. And after showing proof of the Medal of Honor card was given the discounts promised by the Airport Hertz. They appeared to still be under gas limit mileage so no gas payment, just the reduced rental fee which was reasonable and paid by debit. That took the reserve off their credit card.

The cell-phone rang and Animal answered it, it was the VA Loans just confirming that they'd gotten the paperwork for the condo purchase and were disbursing funds and confirming the rate that for Animal as a decorated vet with the highest award for valor, was ultimately two points interest below everyone else on all monies borrowed from them. When Animal let Meg know about the lower interest rate she was elated. She was looking forward to the moving in one they were certain of the finish date of the apartment.

Getting back in her new Camaro, they went to grab a bite to eat before once more plunging themselves into another negotiation for yet another vehicle.

The Ford dealership was just as dead as the other dealership. There wasn't a lot of traffic and they were currently hurting for the walk-ins. Animal spent a lot of time just browsing the lot and commenting to Meg about the various Mustang examples that he saw on the lot until a young salesperson saw them and came out. He didn't look too hopeful about making any sort of sale. And Animal had to walk him through the sale in order to get him to the point where the salesperson woke up that this was a genuine buyer and not just a tire-kicker.

"Look, let me get the keys and we'll take this car and get you out on the road with it and see how you like it." the salesperson informed him. He was back out with the keys and Animal grinned at Meg as the other salespeople who had ignored the couple were now kicking themselves. Animal figured that there was no hierarchy of who got which walk-in in what order as it was probably whoever it was that was attentive got the sale. And Animal wasn't about to let this salesperson do all the work and some other guy reap the rewards by scooping the sale just because it was his turn on the leaderboard.

Again when the test-drive was done , the negotiations began. "Tell me something first-off, Nick, you get the commission off the sale, right? You don't have a bullpen rotation where you have a number of guys working the walk-ins; that whoever gets the commission whose number is up no matter who works the client?" Animal was no-nonsense.

The salesperson was silent for a minute. Is that the reason why morale was so low and no-one made the first move.

"Call in your sales manager. Nick, I'm gonna have a word with him." Meg looked at Animal who had on his command voice.

It wasn't more than ten minutes before Nick's sales manager came in. "Yessiree, how can I help you folks."

"You guys have a bullpen rotation?" Animal rounded on the guy.

"What?"

"Don't try to snow-job me, pal, I deal with two hundred and fifty characters a day that I can read like a book if they're lying to me or not..." Animal growled, "Is this salesperson who put in the effort to bring in this sale going to get the commission on this sale or not? Is some schmuck on the sales floor who sat there with his finger up his ass singing zippity do-dah gonna scoop his hard effort and walk away fat, dumb and happy?!" The young salesperson, Nick looked like he was barely out of his teens and he didn't look happy to be there. "And right now I can see you sweating." Animal glared at the sales manager, "You get the guy who gets this sale in here right now!"

The sales manager leaned out the door. "Larry. Get in here!" He did not sound happy that the customer had figured out his gig. Sure enough the guy was a portly son-of-a bitch living large on everyone else's efforts in the bullpen who waddled over to the office. Animal instantly told him, "You're not getting this sale. Nick did all the work while you sat on your ass and shot the shit with your other coworkers. How many of the other coworkers have you done this to? Shall we go out there and take a poll? Does the owner even know this shit is happening? Because I can ask the maintenance manager to give me his direct number. And I'll let him know."

He tried to bluster but failed miserably when Animal, five ten all muscle and sinew, got in his face. "You are the human equivalent of a leech. You suck other's efforts dry and take their money because you..." Animal turned on the sales manager who he happened to notice had the same last name as the portly leech. "Allow it to happen!" Some nepotism going on. Animal snarled, "In fact I think calling the owner of this dealership is a very good idea right now."

The sales manager started to say, "You can't d-"

Animal cut him off, "oh, I can. Nick, do you have the number of the owner?"

"Yes, he's my dad..."

"And this guy has been doing this under his nose?"

"Yeah, my dad doesn't believe me."

"Well maybe he might this time around. You give me the handset and dial in the number." Nick did. While the sales manager and his brother glowered. But both did nothing.

The phone rang three times and picked up. "Nick... what the hell is it this time?"

"This isn't Nick." Animal growled,

"Who the hell..."

"This is one of your customers who has just figured out the con your sales manager and his brother have been running on the rest of your sales staff."

"What the he-"

"How about you get your ass down here right now and maybe you won't lose a sale tonight?"

"You have some nerve."

"Oh, I do...and you haven't seen the half of it. I also have a lawyer here and she's taking notes since this could very well be an employment policy violation. So why don't you get your ass down here and straighten this out before the Employment Standards Branch of the Virginia State Department of Labor takes a closer look at what you have been doing allowing this."

Nick's father spluttered some more then hung up. Sure enough he came down not more than half an hour later. By this time Nick and the other sales staff had taken up a stance that they were going to have it out with his father.

When the owner came storming into the showroom, Animal cut him off. The man paused as he took a look at Animal's sheer physical intimidation factor, the polo shirt with the gold naval aviator wings and he realized this wasn't someone who was going to cow by his breathing flame and bluster.

"Mr. Fontowski, you're going to sit down and listen to each and every single one of your staff as to how much income in commissions they've lost to these two." Animal walked over to the door and locked it. Other wronged sales-staff locked the other doors.

By the time each sales-staff had related their story, Mr. Jerry Fontowski had shot several looks at the sales manager that read how could you betray me like that? And he was fairly vibrating with rage.

"Jim," he said, "I...I..."

The sales manager tried to backpedal, "Jer...I can..."

"You were my friend in high school. I thought that I could trust you." Jerry looked over at Jim Dawkins and his fat brother Larry. "And you've done this to my crew. I believed you when you told me that these were all falsehoods that nothing was going on. I believed my own son was lying."

"Jer...I can..."

"No, Jim, we're done. Pack up your office, And tell your brother to do the same. Then I suggest you get off the lot before I call the cops and have you two arrested." Jerry's voice was cold.

Five sales staff escorted Jim and Larry to their offices and made sure they didn't take anything they weren't entitled to. Then they escorted the men off the lot before coming back inside.

Jerry looked over at Animal, "I owe you an apolo-"

"No, Mr. Fontowski, you owe your son an abject heartfelt apology." Animal stated.

"And that lawyer..." Jerry said still fearful that he was still going to have the axe fall on his head.

"My wife..." Animal said gesturing to Meg who smiled at Mr. Fontowski while holding a pad of paper that she'd borrowed from Nick to write things down on,"...and she is a lawyerfor the Judge Advocate General of the United States Navy. She would have passed the information off to a civilian legal attorney specializing in employment law." Animal paused a long moment "Your son doesn't seem happy here, why is that, Nick?"

"All my life I wanted to join the Navy, see the world, but my dad wouldn't hear of it. He said that the Navy was too dangerous of a job and when I saw you today wearing that Navy shirt I came out to help you, mainly because I wanted to. None of the others were going to because they knew their efforts would be scooped up by Larry."

"So why don't you let your son join the Navy?"

Jerry crumpled in his chair hand covering his face. "I had an older brother. He was seven years older than me. This was 1963. Just as Viet Nam was kicking off. I was ten. He lied about his age; he was sixteen - looked older than his age; to enlist in the Navy. They let him enlist and he served on a destroyer for three years as a engineer in the engine room; he became a engineering mate third. Then when he came back, he said he was going into SEAL training, he'd had enough with the sweaty heat of cramped spaces, he wanted to crawl around in the jungle with the snakes and spiders in the swamps. So he toughened up and went to Coronado and trained to become a SEAL. then he headed back overseas, kissed my momma and hugged my dad, told me to man up and be strong for my parents, that he'd be back before I knew it. But he never came back. The Navy said he'd been caught in some ambush; the VC had pinned down his team and picked 'em off one at a time. My brother was the last one killed. But they couldn't retrieve his body; he was on some wrong side of some line on a map and they couldn't get him back. So that's why I didn't want Nick to go into the Navy. I lost a brother; I never wanted to lose a son too."

"You never said anything about an Uncle, Dad."

Jerry, still struggling to regain his composure, pulled out his wallet, pulled out an old age-yellowed picture of a young man barely out of his teens in tiger-stripes holding a Stoner rifle. was a Vietnamese jungle. "Nick this is Uncle Dave...this is the last picture I had of him. Three months before he got killed. I boxed up all his other pictures, couldn't stand lookin' at'em and reliving those memories." He paused for a long moment.

"You realize your son isn't your brother, Mr. Fontowski." Meg said. "His experience may be totally different from your brother's. You can't stamp out your children's goals and aspirations just because of your brother's experience and your loss."

"I know...and I've been wrong in that." Jerry's admission sounded like it was dragged out over hot coals "I know that he's been unhappy here with my grooming him to take over the family business. I know that he's unsuited for the life of coming to the office and the day to day of earning a pay-check..."

"Dad. I know why you wanted to protect me, but I'm twenty and I need to find my own way."

"But what happens if you find that you want to..," Jerry's old position made one futile last stand in the face of logic.

"Then that's my choice, you have to let go, Dad."

Jerry nodded. "OK. But don't you make me have to bury you like I did with Dave."

"The military is a dangerous life..." Meg said, "...but for those who choose it, it can be rewarding too."

"Sure about that?" Jerry asked "It's easy for a lawyer to say..."

"It wasn't so easy three years ago when I was fighting for my life, sir." Meg replied. "According to my legal investigation partner at JAG at the time I was shot in the head." She informed him.

Jerry's mouth hung open.

"I was lucky I had such a hard head. But things like that happen. Your son could get hit by a car crossing the road while going to get himself lunch. Are you going to stop him from going to get lunch?"

Jerry nodded as though he understood the foolish nature of his stance. "So...what do you want to do in the Navy."

Nick said, I've always wanted to work with electronics and maybe work on avionics systems."

"Well," Meg grinned at her husband who knew that Meg was winding up for a zinger at him, "the recruiter would be the best person to talk to about that. My husband doesn't know much about avionics other than tinkering with the dials and knobs in the cockpit and cursing them out when they don't work." Animal winced.

Nick smiled. "Maybe I'll do that."

Animal handed him his card. "If you enlist and go through your schools and get your rating. Give me a shout. I'll see if I have room in the Black Aces for you. We're always looking for good avionics technicians. And it translates well out of the Navy too."

"Thank you, Commander."

"Now, I have one last favor." Animal smirked to Nick's father. "Can we write up that purchase of sale for that Mustang and make sure that he gets his commission? If he's going into the Navy that may help him a considerable amount."

An hour later. Animal was sitting in his new Mustang GT in the drive through of the McDonald's two doors from the Ford dealership: his wife was in front with her Camaro and she was making her order to the order taker when he saw out of the corner of his eye a truck circling around the McDonald's to go down the street towards the car dealer-ship they'd returned from. Animal shouted to his wife "Call 911, that truck looks suspicious." I'm going around to get a closer look." Pulling the wheel he moved out of the order line. Hand on the wheel, he felt the reassuring grip of his Beretta at his back. He was trailing the truck when two shot gun blasts rang out and the windows of the dealership doors shattered. A whoop and a holler sounded from the truck and smoke as they spun their tires and peeled out, by that time he got their license number clearly. He trailed them for a while longer to make sure they weren't circling around to make a run on the McDonald's then he called it in. Within six minutes. Six police cruisers had corralled the truck brought it to a stop and approached the vehicle, guns drawn. Animal was not surprised when it was that sales manager and his idiot brother Larry who were pulled out of the vehicle and cuffed. Led to a squad car and the door slammed on them.

"Commander?"

"Animal looked up. A familiar face, unfamiliar uniform. Jared Yarbrough, officer Reston PD.

"Officer."

"You were the one that called in the report, sir. We've been watching these guys. And this is the first time we've been able to book them in on anything concrete."

"Glad I could help."

"They're slippery devils, sir. They've gotten away with a lot of stuff but I don't know if they'll be able to walk away from this one." Jared stated, a satisfied smile on his face as he saw Larry Dawkins being led to the police cruiser cuffed, "If you can give me a report of what you saw we can sort out what happened and be able to charge them."

Animal related every thing from the time he first saw that suspicious looking truck while he was waiting to order at the McDonald's and how it had headed towards the Ford Dealership, and the events that followed.

Officer Yarbrough spoke on his radio "Unit 34 inbound with witness to suspected site of shooting, possible injuries of people on site."

"Roger do you need backup"

"Negative, will advise."

Yarbrough put on his lights but no sirens as he drove past, "Follow my six, sir!"

Animal pulled out and got on his tail. When they reached the site, Meg was there. She was relieved.

"They arrested them." Animal informed her. Meg looked confused.

"It was Jim and Larry."

There was an ambulance on site tending people injured from flying glass. Some of the sales staff were bleeding from cuts. And all looked stunned.

"Where's Jerry?"

"They took him by ambulance to Reston Memorial; he caught the initial shower of glass from the shot gun blast impacting the safety glass. They used twelve gauge buck. It was lucky no one was killed."

"Nick went with his dad?" Meg nodded.

"Shit".

"Sir? Ma'am?!" Yarborough came up.

"Jared." Animal said. "Do you want us to come down to the station to file the witness report?"

"It would be preferable, sir...but..."

"We've had a long, way too exciting day than we bargained for."

The sun was starting to lower itself below the horizon and the shadows were starting to lengthen by the time Meg and Animal had finished relating the report to Officer Yarbrough who wrote it all down then asked Animal and Meg to sign the report. They did.

"We may have to get your testimony in court."

"OK."

"Thanks, sir...".

"Good to see you made it outside." Animal said "Jared...".

"Wasn't it you, sir, who told me that if one door closes to remember that there are always other doors?" He tipped his hand to his brow, "it's good to see you again, sir."

Animal nodded to him, "stay safe, officer, and good luck."

"You too, sir".

Meg headed over to her car, pulled out a big bag and handed it to him. "While you were chasing criminals, dear, I went ahead and got you your food."

"I love you." Animal said, looking in his bag and finding three Big Macs, a large order of fries. And she handed him a large cup with a straw. Animal took a sip. Strawberry milkshake, "my favorites " he grinned.

"I know..,let's go get some two litres and some ice and go find ourselves our temporary home until our condo finishes.

2200hrs EST; Motel 6, Reston, VA

"Well this looks like a typically seedy motel." Animal said to Meg "looks like your typical get away to have a sordid affair."

"Luckily we're not having an affair." Meg smirked at him.

"In this drug infested den of iniquity?" Animal muttered, "I would have hoped for the Sheraton."

"Sheraton doesn't have monthly rates." Meg informed him. "This was the cheapest at 600 a mo. Wanna go see the next cheapest?"

"How about we pick the one that's the lowest that looks like a decent hotel, doesn't look like the location for a snuff film and that the local mafia doesn't use to dump bodies off in the dumpster?"

"And that you don't have to wear an armored vest and tote an M-16A3 to go out and get the mail?" Meg smirked.

"Something like that..."

Some shadow detached himself from the darkness and took a step towards them. In one motion Animal moved Meg behind him and drew his Beretta, the distinct snap of the safety coming off, as Animal warned him, "Think again, pal, there's one in the chamber and it's got your name on it if you take another step." The shadow stopped and stepped away melting back into the shadows as Meg reached into her purse withdrawing her own Beretta. Animal waited until she got back into her car. And then he got back into his car, he pulled out after her.

2224hrs EST, Gantry Manor Hotel, Reston, VA

Tosh and Meg didn't bother going to see number two since one could see its condition on the picture clearly; these first two offerings on the list having been squalor pits. They went directly to the next one on the list and this, surprisingly, was the third which inexplicably looked a far sight better than the other ones; the one they'd seen and the one they took a pass on.

The parking lot was lit though rather empty and there was an actual lobby and a concierge desk with someone actually working the front. The site looked like it was nicely landscaped and the building looked somewhat modern as if it was built recently during the mid-eighties. And Animal was surprised that there wasn't anyone coming to this place.

"Why is this one so low on the list?"

Meg looked at the list and the description then back at him, "Indian burial ground; reputedly, it's haunted..."

"NEXT!"

2240hrs EST Middlegate Hotel, Reston VA

"No termites, no lice, no other live vermin, no Caspar the Friendly Spook?"

Animal twisted the tap. "No running water..."

"Shit!"

2330hrs, MCB Quantico, Quantico, VA.

"So, married couple, need accommodations halfway between Norfolk and Falls Church. You're both service, you're both Navy and you need use of one suite in VOQ for two maybe four months depending on off-base accommodations completing... Does that sum it up right about now?" Marine Major General Graham O'Callaghan grinned. "Well, you, Commander, Lieutenant Commander, are in luck. I have a suite that has kitchen, bathroom, one bedroom and will fit the bill for however long you two may need it until your off-base accommodation is complete. You will have to as any other, be willing to wear your uniform when you are on base as per NAVUNIREGS, so that Marine personnel can identify you on sight as Navy personnel allowed on this base at my discretion."

"Yes, Sir!"

"Civilian attire is perfectly fine within the VOQ."

"Aye, sir!"

"You may, in order to save money, partake in your meals at the chow hall with Marine officers. Military service uniform is required when doing so. "

"Aye, sir!"

"Civilian Attire may be worn when going off base and coming on base when your direct route is to your VOQ quarters."

"Aye, Sir!"

"You will check-in with sentries on leaving for work and upon return.

"Aye, Sir!"

"Fair enough." The major general nodded. "Lieutenant Judson, find these fine Navy officers their quarters at the VOQ!"

"SIR YES, SIR!" The Marine First Lieutenant snapped to attention, "follow me, sir, ma'am." They walked over to the VOQ and the Lieutenant settled them into the quarters along with Animal and Meg having to move their vehicle to the parking lot at the VOQ.

When they were in their VOQ, Meg sighed. "Our burgers and fries are cold."

"Well at least we found a place to rest our heads for however long it takes for that building to complete."

And that was the most important thing at any rate. Nuking the burgers would get them edible again. It wasn't so certain about the fries. McDonald's fries reheated were just barely short of disgusting.

"Nick! How's your dad?" Animal phoned Nick on his mobile phone.

"Commander. He'll be all right they've picked all the glass out of him and they did find one buckshot slowed down by the glass. So other than a few nasty abrasions and cuts, he'll be all right."

"Good to hear, Nick, you need anything let me know."

"Thanks, Commander."

2335hrs EST; Reston PD, Reston VA

"John, we're going for twenty six counts of attempted murder on Jim Dawkins; same with his brother Larry."

"Think you can make it stick, Jared?"

"You're damned right, I'm gonna."

"Jared, I hope you're right. Those Dawkins Two proved just how unhinged and dangerous they really are. It was lucky that they didn't have rifles otherwise there'd be reports of dead people."