Bella’s Back on the Watch List

Undisclosed Location US Navy Special Warfare November 12, 2013/2017 Zulu

Hey remember me?  I know it’s been a while, I’ve been deployed.  Well I’m back now and since I’ve returned, things seemed to have quieted down a little or so it seemed until today… 

Looks like while we were gone mopping up the bad guys, Bella has been laying pretty low, too.  We’d managed to arrange it so she’d be so overwhelmed with her day job that she couldn’t breach national security in her spare time.  Apparently she found some spare time. I was walking in from having lunch off base with my dive buddy and a couple of the other guys in the group.  We decided to head out to an awesome Thai place near the base.  I was feeling pretty good until I saw double trouble heading my way.

“Hold up!”  Master Chief Jones called to us. 

“Lieutenant, I need to see you right away.  In my office, ASAP”   Captain O’Malley said. 

I searched my mind and tried to remember if there was anything I’d done to get my ass chewed.

“What the hell did you do now?”  My dive buddy LTJG Shaq Harman asked.  

“Hell if I know, we haven’t been back long enough to screw up that bad.”    

“No, it’s not you LT.  It’s Bella,” Friday said.  He was the captain’s admin and when we wanted the latest scuttlebutt we just went to him.  “He got a watch list hit on her today.  He called Master Chief into his office first and then Badass dropped by.  They must’ve decided what to do.”

A shudder of terror ran through me.  I’ve dealt with some pretty scary shit in my time and not batted an eye at the danger but when it comes to dealing with Bella I just want to scream; fuck it!  I’m not doing this anymore.  For those of you who don’t know the hell she’s caused, read the previous posts.  Let me just say this in summary, Nostradamus didn’t see her coming!  He saw every scourge to mankind in modern times, but that ancient bastard fell short when it came to Bella. 

Shaq put his hand on my shoulder and shook his head, “Good luck with that, bro.  Nice knowing you and I’ll miss you.”

“Thanks,” I said sarcastically.

“Come on, LT, captain’s waiting,” Friday said with concern.

I drug my feet as I walked to the command suite.  Bella had managed to achieve what even the most sinister bad guys and Master Chief couldn’t; she scared the hell out of me.  My chest tightened and I swear I was on the verge of panic.  I gave myself a kick in the ass and got my head in the game as I walked into the captain’s office. 

“About fucking time!  What the hell did you do, take the scenic route and get lost?” Master Chief demanded. 

“No, I found the office just fine.” 

Nope, that cranky old bastard didn’t scare my anymore.  I was about to get it from Bella, I knew it was coming and that scared me more than Master Chief in all his fury, and that’s saying something.  Captain looked off into the distance and shook his head.  This was bad I knew that look and he was pissed. 

“I have a problem and I need it solved,” the captain said. 

“What’s the problem, sir?” 

“Bella is back and I think she has a mole in my group.” 

Holy fucking shit, Batman!  We’ve got a mole?  Someone’s been giving her information?  What the… No!  That can’t be…   

“How can she have a mole?  Everything she has is electronic unless someone gave her access and sure as hell wasn’t me.” 

“I’m not saying it was you, Dan.” 

“Unless you just want to confess now and save us the trouble,” Master Chief said.    

“Whoa!  You think it is me?”

“Shut up and quit fucking around!  This is serious.”  Captain snapped at Master Chief.

“Damn right it’s serious.  It’s seriously fucked up.  I’ll find the cocksucker responsible.  Don’t worry about that.”  Master Chief said.

Jihad had found a new definition in Master Chief’s statement.  That crazy-ass fucker declaring war was bad news. I felt sorry for the poor bastard who was the mole because deep shit didn’t cover what was about to happen when we found him out.

“I think she’s doing this the old school way, she has someone helping her.  Your new mission in life, until I tell you different, is to track every electronic device that comes in and out of this building.”

“Yes, sir,” I said as I turned to leave.

I had a hell of job ahead of me.  I had to figure out just how in the hell I would track and pair every electronic computer device that came into this building AND get hits on keywords that would lead us to this mole.  Not to mention sift through the data and try to make any sense of it. 

“Oh and Lieutenant, find out who that next book is about.  I think I saw she has one coming out soon,” the captain said. 

“Oh?  Are you a fan now, captain?”  Master Chief asked. 

“Fuck you! Master Chief, I’m doing my job not sitting around with my thumb up my ass.  I’m not the fan girl you are!” 

“You just don’t appreciate good literature,” Master Chief mumbled.

“Is that what it’s called, Jasmine22?”  Captain asked referring to Master Chief’s BookStand username.

Master Chief started to say something but I opened my big mouth faster than he could open his. 

“Can I go, sir?” 

“What the fuck’s your hurry?” 

Uh-oh, things were getting tense around here again.  I was finally dismissed and went back to my office.  I dug back into my archives.  Unfortunately the last book I had information on was for Minefield, Doc’s book.  I launched a computer program that I’d written and had perfected while I’d been gone. It gave me something to do while waiting for the next op.  This time I was sure Bella couldn’t breach it.  Within an hour, I was downloading information from her cloud storage drive.  I saw she didn’t have one book but two books coming out.  One was due out on Black Friday and apparently Bella had been busy infiltrating another military outfit, the Air Force combat engineers at RED HORSE.  No wonder she’d been so quiet with us.  I made a mental note to tell the captain that we needed to reach out to the group that was her new target. 

“So what happened?”  Shaq asked as he took one of the chairs in my office.

“Holy shit, you scared the fuck out me!”  I said nearly jumping out of my skin. 

“A little jumpy aren’t you?”  Shaq said with a frown, “Spill it, what the hell is going on?” 

“For the love Christ, Shaq, I can’t tell you.”  I snapped as I watched the last folder sync to my drive. 

I opened the drive and perused the folders.  She had at least six books in the works, one ready for release and one she was hot and heavy on.   I opened the one that was due for release and saw it was about a guy from RED HORSE.  That was cool at least it wasn’t any one here.  I opened the folder she was hot and heavy on and the blood drained to my feet, my vision got foggy, and the next thing I knew I was looking up and Shaq was keeling over me. 

“Wake up damn it!  I’m not giving your ugly ass mouth to mouth!”  Shaq screamed frantically. 

“What the fuck are you doing? And what the hell am I doing on the floor?”  I demanded pushing his hands off my chest.

“How the hell am I supposed to know?”  Shaq said helping me to my feet. 

“What’s the racket about? I’m trying to write up my research…  Are you okay?”  Doc asked coming around to help Shaq.  “What the hell happened?” 

Lieutenant Alex “Doc” Richards, the resident doctor and head of our medics started looking me over.  “You might have a concussion, look at me.”  Doc said grabbing my face. 

“Get your fucking hands off me, Doc.  I’m fine.” 

“Bullshit, what happened? Did your chair break? Is that how you fell?”  Doc asked while he felt me up.  “You might need to go to the ER.  Let me see.” 

“I’m not going anywhere.”  I said backing away as far as I could. 

“Fine motherfucker, go ahead and die from brain trauma.”  Doc shrugged and walked off.

I shook my head and squeezed my eyes shut.  I sat in my chair and leaned my head back trying to remember what had happened before I passed out.  That’s right, I was reading Bella’s latest… Oh fuck!  I got dizzy again.  Shaq went around and resumed his seat.  I looked away from the screen and at my dive buddy.  He’d caught a glimpse of what I was reading.  Book six was coming and it had my name all over it.

“Not a fucking word.  Do you hear me?” I growled at Shaq.

       To be continued…

Coming November 28, 2013 from Decadent Publishing