Seawolf Mask of Command by Cliff Happy Read Free Book Online

her IQ at over one hundred seventy, and she’d answered every one of Brodie’s increasingly difficult questions without fault, something Graves had never witnessed before. But he now watched, more out of curiosity’s sake than anything else, as Brodie continued.
    “Come now, Lieutenant,” Brodie asked, “surely someone as smart as you knows why you’re here?”
    Graves watched impassively as Brodie began to slowly circle her, almost as if stalking her.
    “Why are you here, Lieutenant?” he asked again, his hard eyes seeming to see right through her. “Perhaps you think you’re the twenty-first century’s Susan B. Anthony?” he asked. “Are you going to start the next wave of feminism?”
    Whitaker found her voice again. “No, sir! Not at all, sir.”
    “What then?” Brodie asked and paused, still staring at her, watching every minute movement of her facial muscles. “Oh, I know what it is....” Brodie said accusingly, suddenly nodding his head as if in understanding. He leaned in close to her, the hint of a smirk on his face. “You want to be famous. That’s it, isn’t it?”
    “No, sir,” she insisted. “I don’t care anything about that.”
    Brodie rolled his eyes, clearly not believing her. “Come on, Lieutenant,” his tone was filled with doubt. “Your face was on the cover of Navy Times . Hell, you met the President and the First Lady. I watched it all on CNN.” He resumed circling her, but his critical eyes stayed on her. “I saw you seated in front of Congress testifying about how you’re being oppressed! How the whole world is against you! Those fools swallowed it all, hook, line and sinker, didn’t they?”
    “That’s not true, sir,” she insisted, and Graves heard something unusual in her tone, something he’d never heard any new officer use toward Brodie: anger.
    “Bullshit,” Brodie snapped crisply with a whip-like voice. “I saw you,” he reminded her. “The whole world saw you sitting there giving your pitiful little ‘woe is me’ tale to those congressmen. You enjoyed every minute of it. Didn’t you?”
    Graves was beginning to feel a little sorry for her. He’d seen Brodie turn full-grown men into pools of emotional jelly, and for a few moments it seemed like Brodie had her on the verge of tears. Graves hadn’t been too happy about having her on board. It had nothing to do with her being a woman; he could care less about her sex. But the sub was on an incredibly compressed turn around schedule. Nearly a third of the enlisted men on board were fresh out of basic submariner training and were just learning the ropes. Added to these difficulties, the Commodore, the Admirals, and the CIA were screaming louder every day for the Seawolf to put back to sea, and they didn’t have time to deal with this “female experiment.” Now, despite the pressure they were all under, Graves was no longer comfortable watching Brodie’s almost brutal interrogation of her.
    Brodie stopped circling and was now beside her, staring at her, watching for her reaction. Graves could see Brodie had made her angry and he knew it. She seemed on the edge of either breaking down or slapping him. Brodie looked almost curious as to which response she would choose.
    Then, she turned her head to look at him. Her eyes no longer showed any hint of nervousness or intimidation, only cold fury flickering in her own icy glare. “Are you mad?” she asked him bluntly and turned her head back to look straight ahead.
    Graves watched in fascination as a slightly pleased smile crossed Brodie’s face, knowing he’d hit his mark. Graves knew this was what Brodie had been waiting for. Not the prim and proper, well-rehearsed new officer, but the real person underneath the skin. Brodie was a fighter, and detested weak-kneed officers who were easily cowed.
    But the lieutenant was just warming up.
    “Do you honestly think I enjoyed being dragged before Congress and publicly humiliated by having to justify myself as