Corps Justice Boxed Set: Books 1-3: Back to War, Council of Patriots, Prime Asset (5 page)

By habit he turned around
swiftly to lock the door and deadbolt it. No deadbolt. There were,
however, two buttons; one about two feet above the door handle and
one two feet below. He pressed the button above the handle and
heard a mechanical scrape as the deadbolt engaged.
Interesting.

Brian did the same with the lower button
then turned to get his bearings.

Wow. Even the lobby downstairs hadn’t
prepared him for this. What was visible of the unit was almost
completely open. You could see the living and dining area from the
kitchen. It looked like there was another hallway leading to the
bedroom.

The furniture looked new
and modern in a Spartan way. Color accents here and there but
mostly clean lines and polished stainless steel.
I haven’t met many enlisted guys with a place
like this. I wonder what Cal’s whole story is
, Brian pondered.

What really took Brian’s
breath away was the view. One whole wall was windows that faced the
Nashville skyline. At this time of night he could see the city
clearly.
Impressive
.

He pulled out his phone and dialed the
hospital switchboard. Seconds later he was connected to Cal’s
room.

CAL
: You
get in ok?

BRIAN
:
Yeah. You said you had a little condo in the Gulch. I wasn’t
expecting this place.

CAL
(ignoring the comment): Where are you standing right
now?

BRIAN
: I’m
in your living room.

CAL
: Ok.
Head down the hallway toward my bedroom in the back.

BRIAN
: Got
it.

Brian made his way toward
the hallway. Walking into the bedroom he noticed the pictures on
the wall. Cal and his fiancée in every shot.
Poor bastard.

BRIAN
: All
right. I’m in your bedroom.

CAL
: Ok. Go
over to my closet and open the doors.

Brian did as instructed. He pulled open the two
doors, peered inside the huge walk-in and switched on the light.
This closet felt as big as his apartment.

CAL
: Go to
the back of the closet and open the panels of the built-in
armoire.

BRIAN
:
Done. You want me to get some of these socks and boxers?

CAL
: In a
minute. Now take out the bottom right drawer.

BRIAN
: You
mean open it?

CAL
: No.
Take the whole thing out and put it on the floor.

What was Cal doing? Brian had the nagging
sense that he wasn’t going to like what was coming next. Did Cal
have some kind of secret stash? Drugs?

CAL
: Now
feel along the right side of where you took the drawer out. You
should feel a button about the size of a dime. Press it and step
back.

Once again Brian did as instructed. He
pressed the button and heard a mechanical click and he could now
see that the interior of the wardrobe had moved forward a bit and
there now appeared to be a seam in the middle.

CAL
:
Alright, now open the panels. Once you get that open there’s a
separate light switch inside.

Brian pulled the two heavy
panels apart and stepped back. Well it was definitely a secret
stash. It just wasn’t the stash Brian had guessed. Neatly held in
racks, and now lit by the interior light, was a bottom row of an
assorted number of rifles. The top row was half pistols of varying
calibers and half full of other gear like knives, GPS, compass and
survival gear.
What the hell? This Marine
is ready for war.

CAL
: Now
grab the first pistol on the top left. Should be my Beretta nine
mil. Grab the one next to that too: the forty-five cal Springfield
XD.

BRIAN
: Hey
man, I can’t bring these things back to the hospital!

CAL
: Look,
doc. I know I’m asking a lot on this one but I need your help. You
should know me well enough by now to understand that I don’t like
asking for help.

BRIAN
: Saw
a small glimpse of that the other day when you refused my help
getting up to take a piss and you landed flat on your
face.

CAL
: Yeah,
I know. But look, I just have this funny feeling and I want to be
prepared. You ever get that feeling in your gut while in the field
that something bad was gonna happen?

BRIAN
: Of
course, but, Cal, this is different. You’re not in the field and
you’re surrounded by trained hospital security staff. Not to
mention the local cops are always stopping by to see how you’re
doing.

CAL
: You’re
right. But I thought the same thing about taking Jess out to dinner
at a seemingly safe downtown restaurant.

Cal let that sink in for a couple seconds
and continued.

CAL
: You
know I wouldn’t let you take the heat for this. If anyone finds it
on me I’ll blame it on myself. Thing is, the minute I walk out of
that hospital I’ll need to have some protection of my
own.

Brian knew he could trust Cal but the
thought of bringing loaded weapons into the hospital still did not
sit well with him. Worst case he could get fired AND thrown in
jail. He liked his job at Vanderbilt and wasn’t planning on leaving
anytime soon.

On the other hand, whether
a new friend or not, Cal Stokes was his brother-in-arms; a fellow
warrior that upheld the highest standards of the military
establishment. He knew deep down that Cal would never let him take
the fall.
In for a penny, in for a
pound
.

BRIAN
: Ok.
You said the Beretta and the Springfield. Anything else?

Cal went on to ask for a couple boxes of
ammunition and one of his knives from the top row. Then he
instructed Brian to grab one of his gym bags from the front of the
closet, fill it with some random clothing and hide the weapons
inside.

Brian put the phone down
and started. He grabbed the first pistol and reflexively ejected
the full magazine and checked the chamber.
Fully loaded. Just like a Marine
.

The next pistol was the same. With both
magazine reinserted he stuffed each into a separate pair of boxer
briefs. Next he grabbed two boxes of ammunition: one of 9mm and one
of 45 cal. He finished by hiding the knife in a pair of socks and
loading some workout pants, shirts and sweatshirts on top.

Mission completed, he picked the phone back
up.

BRIAN
:
Anything else you need?

CAL
: Yeah.
Grab my cell phone. I think it’s either on the kitchen counter or
on my nightstand. Thanks again for doing this, doc.

BRIAN
:
Yeah, yeah. You just make sure that if we get sent to jail you’re
the one that gets to bunk with Bubba.

CAL
(chuckling): You got it. I’ll see you in the
morning.

Brian put his phone back in his coat pocket,
picked up the gym bag, now laden with a small arsenal, and took it
out into the bedroom and laid it on the bed. He went back into the
closet, closed the hidden panels, replaced the drawer, and
re-sealed the armoire.

He found Cal’s cell phone
on the night stand.
I wonder why Cal
didn’t have it with him that night?
He
wondered. Most people carried their cell phones everywhere. He’d
have to ask Cal later.

He did one final sweep of the condo. Brian
stopped by the nightstand and as an afterthought grabbed the
photograph of Cal and Jessica sitting next to the bed. It was a
portrait of the couple sitting on the edge of a dock at some lake.
They looked happy.

With the small picture frame now wrapped in
a t-shirt and safely packed in the full gym bag, Brian headed for
the door.

+ + +

Brian decided on the way back down to the
lobby not to wait until the next morning to get the weapons back to
Cal. The night staff at the hospital was lighter and going in
through the staff entrance would attract less scrutiny.

Getting off the elevator he waved to Irene
as he went by.

IRENE
(bubbly): You tell Cal that we want to know as soon as he’s
getting out. Maybe we can throw him a little party when he gets
back.

BRIAN
: Ok,
thanks.

Brian knew the last thing Cal would want
coming home was a cocktail party. Guys like Cal didn’t want or need
that kind of attention. Better to be among close friends or, even
better, with a couple Marine buddies drinking beer and swapping sea
stories.

He’d tell Cal that the girl had said hello
but also warn him about the possibility of a homecoming fiesta.
Brian remembered when his parents had thrown him a surprise welcome
home party when he’d returned from overseas. By then the Navy had
informed the Ramirez family of Brian’s valor in battle and his
parents couldn’t have been more proud. They decided the best way to
show him their pride was to show off their son to a bunch of
friends and a few neighbors Brian didn’t even know.

He still remembered the look of devastation
on his mother’s face as he’d screamed at her for throwing the
party. She’d left the room crying and his father had somehow
ushered the guests out of the house.

Brian wasn’t proud of that moment. His
parents were not raised in a military family. They didn’t know the
truth about serving in the armed forces. They just wanted to
celebrate their son the hero, and had honored Brian in the only way
they knew how.

What they didn’t know was that the last
thing guys like Brian or Cal wanted was public recognition for
their acts of gallantry. Brian didn’t want the awards they’d given
him. He just wanted his Marines back.

After a period of time Brian had explained
this to his parents. Luckily his mother and father loved their only
son. They had worked hard to understand what he’d been through, and
realized it might never be the right time for him to tell them the
whole story. He was very happy for that.

He’d seen other friends return to similar
homecomings, only the families had not understood their need for
privacy, and as a result, the familial relationships suffered
heavily.

That was a problem with even serving in the
military. The only ones that understand what you’ve gone through
are those who’ve served as well.

+ + +

Fifteen minutes later he pulled into the
staff parking lot. He grabbed all of Cal’s things and headed
through the staff entrance. Security presence was scarce mainly
because most of the doors were locked and only accessible by
key-card at this time of night.

In five minutes he was back in Cal’s
room.

CAL
: Hey,
doc, I wasn’t expecting you back until tomorrow morning.

BRIAN
:
Yeah, well, I didn’t really want to be lugging around your arsenal
for the next twelve hours.

CAL
: Thanks
again for going. I won’t forget it.

BRIAN
:
Yeah, yeah. Just don’t let anybody see it. It’s my ass if the
Marine I’ve been assigned to gets caught with all that gear. Just
be careful, ok, Cal?

Cal nodded and struggled out of bed to grab
the gym bag.

CAL
: Hey,
doc, you wanna do me a favor and go watch the door for
me.

BRIAN
:
Sure.

Brian walked over to the door and leaned
against it, keeping an eye at the window slit while Cal unpacked
the bag.

The first item he pulled
out was the framed picture of him and Jess. He stared down at the
picture and touched Jess’s face. His eyes watered and the pent up
grief almost overwhelmed his resolve.
I’m
not gonna do this now dammit.
He reverently
placed the picture frame on the side table.

Next he checked the weapons to make sure
they were loaded and ready. Then he took both guns, loaded each
into one of his white socks, and stuffed them back into the bag
along with the knife.

CAL
(with a
conspiratorial grin): The dangerous stuff is back in the bag, doc.
Have a seat if you want to stick around.

BRIAN
(suddenly curious): Stick around for what?

CAL
: You’ll
see. I’ve just got a feeling.

Next Cal grabbed his cell phone, sat on the
edge of the bed and started scrolling through the phone’s touch
screen. He had a lot of voicemails and missed calls. He’d deal with
that later.