Issue In Doubt by David Sherman Read Free Book Online

and is not to be discussed with anybody not here without specific permission from me or the President. Violation of that will land you in a federal prison so fast your head won’t have time to spin. If any of you don’t find that acceptable, you can leave now and submit your resignation.” He stopped to fix the civilians with a glare. “By authorization of the President, that applies to you as well.”
    The civilians looked shocked, and Walker opened her mouth to protest.
    Ignatz Gresser’s adam’s apple bobbed as he cleared his throat to interrupt her, and said, “That is what the President said, Mary. He told me himself right before I left the Prairie Palace to come here.”
    “He can’t do that!” Caruana of Extraterrestrial Affairs objected. His normally fair complexion seemed to turn whiter. “That’s not—”
    “He most certainly can,” Hobson cut him off. “He’s invoked the Alien Threat clause of the War Powers Act. To refresh your memories in case it’s slipped your minds, basically what that means is that Albert Leopold Mills can do just about anything he pleases so long as it has something to do with the alien threat.”
    “But...” Walker objected weakly, her fingers fluttering at her throat. She shook her head and said more firmly, “I’ll take this up with the President when I see him next.”
    “You do that,” Hobson told her. To the group; “Does anybody want to resign?”
    They all shook their heads, murmured negatives.
    “Good, the President and I would hate to lose any of you.” He neither looked nor sounded relieved. “Now to the business of this meeting.” He turned to the sole enlisted Marine in the room.
    “Staff Sergeant, I’ve already heard about it from the Commandant and J2, as I imagine everybody else here has. Now I want to hear about it from a man who was there. What the hell happened on Troy? How did more than two dozen Force Recon Marines get killed on one quick in-and-out mission?” He didn’t sound angry, just baffled.
    Harrell cleared his throat, then spoke in a firm voice befitting a Marine non-commissioned officer. “Sir, it was like they were expecting us. They hit us from ambush, except for my squad...”
    The basic telling only took a few minutes, then the questions began. Hobson was the first.
    “Have you seen the after-action reports from the other squads?”
    “Yes, sir. And I’ve talked to the other survivors.”
    “All of them?” Robinson asked, incredulously.
    “Yes, sir. Every one of them.” Harrell repressed a shudder at how few of the Force Marines had survived what should have been a simple in-and-out.
    “And you didn’t see any people?” Walker wanted to know. “Any of the citizens of Troy?”
    “Yes, ma’am. Ah, I mean no, ma’am. We didn’t see any people.”
    “You’re absolutely positive that you didn’t see any people?”
    Harrell looked at her sharply, but his voice was level when he answered. “Ma’am, neither I nor any of the other sur—” He paused to swallow. “Any of the other Marines saw any people.” He took a deep breath before continuing. “We didn’t see any body parts, either. Although we did find old marks that were probably blood stains.” He was gratified to see the Secretary of State flinch—he’d been offended that she’d seemed to doubt his word.
    “What about alien corpses?” Welborn asked.
    “Sir, the only aliens we saw were alive. Except for the ones we killed,” he finished harshly.
    “Different topic.” Madison’s fleshy cheeks and jowls testified to the many years he’d spent skippering a desk. “What did you see of enemy aircraft or space vehicles?”
    “Sir, you’d have to ask Commander Schonland about spacecraft. On the ground, we didn’t see any aircraft.” Harrell saw a question in the eyes of a couple of the civilians, and added, “The captain of the Monticello .”
    “I know who Schonland is,” Madison growled.
    “I know you do, sir. I wasn’t telling