he was given the opportunity to change clothes, Key remained in olive-colored short sleeve, short-pant, hospital scrubs Daniels had found for him.
“Josiah, no-middle-name, Key,” the shaved-bald Logan continued quietly, as if reading. “Born 1992 in Murrieta, California. Mother a singer, father a marine and then a USMC recruiter.” Logan glanced up to meet Key’s eyes for the first time. “Sounds like an interesting recipe. Mom wants an entertainer, dad wants a warrior.” When Key continued his silence, Logan’s bright, beady, eyes returned to the open file on the table top. “On the basis of your college record, you apparently decided to be both. Wrestling star and drama club president. Managed to excel at both.”
“You left out the strawberry shaped birthmark on my left buttock and my date for the senior prom,” Key finally said.
“I’ll make those notations when I give a shit,” Logan replied.
Key glanced back at Strenkofski, who looked as if she were molded by a paper-thin coating of ice. “It was Destiny Arnold, by the way,” he said pleasantly.
“Sorry?”
“My prom date,” Key replied. “Smartest girl I ever met.”
Strenkofski looked like she wanted to guess why, but hid behind a small, tight grin.
Key turned back when Logan’s voice cut through his bonhomie. “How’s your health?”
Key returned the gaze, at half-intensity. “You tell me. You obviously know more than I do, since Doc W wanted me decommissioned, and you, apparently, wouldn’t hear of it.”
“We have a ‘three conks and you’re out’ rule in the Marines, Corporal.”
“Don’t I know it,” Key retorted. “I was counting on it. De-comm was doc’s idea, not mine.” He glanced back at Strenkofski again with another pleasantry. “Supposedly that kind of thing is a medico’s prerogative but not today, apparently.”
“Not today,” Strenkofski echoed then waited.
Logan waited until Key returned his attention. “Not here, not now,” he agreed. “A supervising commander has full discretion to dictate the service of any active marine.”
Key perked up at that piece of the puzzle. “You don’t have to quote regs to me, sir. I’m sure you know there’s a reason I’m still a corporal at my age. That aberration notwithstanding, I know the regs by heart.”
“Yes, I know you do, Corporal Key,” Logan said clearly, trying to establish rank without question. But when all Key did was continue to show him his knowing little smile, he went back to studying the file. “And you know how to bend them just to the point of breaking. No reprimands, no blots, no arrests. I can’t even find an official warning.” He looked back up. “You’re still a corporal because the men who could promote you just didn’t like you.”
“No, sir, I disagree,” Key pleasantly, but immediately, responded. “I think they liked me. I think you’ll like me too. But I also think that they, like you.” He turned quickly to the blonde. “And you.”
“Don’t trust you,” Logan interrupted, again trying to regain control.
Key looked back at him, his smile now dusted with slight resentment. “No, sir, I don’t think it’s that. Ask anyone I’ve served with, or under. They trusted me with their lives, sir, and I did my utmost to deserve that trust. No, the people who could promote me didn’t like the fact that they couldn’t predict what I’d do. And that, in a marine grunt, is not conducive to promotion.”
Both men looked up when they heard Strenkofski’s quiet realization. “Too smart for a private, too pensive for a sergeant.”
Key smiled, nodded, and pointed approvingly at her. “Bingo. You may give Destiny Arnold a run for her money after all, ma’am.” Key waited until the blonde reacted to his comment with a hastily-concealed expression of being flattered before turning back to face Logan—who was not even trying to conceal his expression of growing anger for losing control of the debriefing. He resumed flipping through the report.
“I will attribute this borderline insubordination to post-trauma stress,” Logan said.
“It isn’t, sir,” Key informed him.
Logan’s impatience was growing. “Oh? What is it, then?”
“Impatience,” Key assured him. “We both know why we’re all here.”
The Captain’s look of amazement turned to one of begrudging admiration. He slapped the file closed, leaned back, and crossed his legs. “All right, I’ll bite,” he announced, clearly deciding that if he couldn’t beat him, he’d join him. “Why are we all here?”
Key put his hands up. “You told me so, yourself, sir. ‘A supervising commander has full discretion to dictate the service of any active marine.’ If you weren’t my new supervising commander, you wouldn’t have full discretion, now would you, sir?”
Logan just stared at Key, as if he were examining a particularly talented circus monkey. “Go on,” he urged.
“So you’re here to offer me a new assignment, and I’m here to tell you I’ll take it, but with one caveat.”
Logan actually laughed. He rose and started walking in a bemused circle.
“You’ll…take it,” he said. “With a caveat.”
“Yes, sir.”
“What’s your caveat, Corporal?” He stressed the final rank in a last-ditch attempt to return to normal marine relations.
“Sergeant Daniels has to be included,” Key said.
“Why is that?”
“He was there, too, sir. He will be invaluable in this new mission.”
Logan stopped and put his hands flat on the altar table. He leaned down to pinion Key with his most challenging stare. “So you already know the mission too, Corporal?”
Key leaned back. “Any Brigadier General could’ve discounted my report from the safety and comfort of a tropical paradise. They didn’t have to send you, and your big guns—” Key had the politically correct grace not to even glance at the blonde behind him “—to the Gate of scorching Tears to read me my life story. But they did. So there’s something in my report they want explained, and I’m guessing it’s not how I thicken my very fine hair.”
By that time, Logan had returned to his seat and reopened the file. “Yes, Corporal, your observations in the field were somewhat contradictory.”
“There,” Key interrupted, pointing at the file. “That’s why you want Sergeant Daniels involved.”
Logan looked up in confusion, so Key continued.
“Sergeant Daniels would’ve said ‘contradictory how?’ I don’t have to. Your case history tells you my IQ, so let’s get to the heart of it. You want me to find out how Lieutenant Colonel Goodman died, and I do too.”
Logan sat and stared at his new soldier, seemingly
