The Chronicles of Benjamin Jamison: Call Sign Reaper (17 page)

“Do you like young girls?” Reaper asked.

Rolo started to move and Reaper moved the knife. He felt it bite the skin. All movement stopped. “Who is your contact for the girls? Give me a name!”

Captain Rolo was sweating.

Captain O’Shaughnessy turned on her recorder. She knew he was going to talk. Rolo started with one man’s name then gave another and then another.

“When you are done with the girls, you kill them and dump their body out the air lock?” Reaper asked. The captain’s head dropped on Reaper’s boot. If he had thought he was getting out of there alive, he now knew he wasn’t. This wasn’t just a scare tactic. He turned his head as much as he could in Reaper’s direction. “Fuck you!” he said.

The knife came up in a spray of blood and balls. Captain Rolo screamed. Ben shoved his knife through Rolo’s throat and that stopped the screaming. He shoved it into his heart and held it until the heart stopped pumping. Ben looked over at Captain O’Shaughnessy. She had a little blood spatter on her face.

“I hope you were done questioning him,” he said. He wiped his knife off on the captain’s shirt. He took his finger and wiped the drops of blood off of Captain O’Shaughnessy’s face.

“You should probably go get a shower and have a drink or two, Captain. Unless you are going to lock me in one of these cells, I am going to get cleaned up and go check on the little girl and Gunny.”

Captain O’Shaughnessy stepped out of the cell. There was no need to shut the door. Ben asked the captain to open Lorelei’s cell for a minute. She almost argued, and he said he wouldn’t go in. She opened it up. Lorelei saw Ben and cringed, pulling her legs up to her chest and hugging them.

“Lorelei,” Ben said. “What is the girl’s name?”

“Natalia,” Lorelei said.

Ben walked through the main door and out into the waiting area. The sergeant and corporal had just gotten back with coffee. Ben had blood spatter on his helmet chest and blood all over his leg. He unlatched his helmet and took it off. He tucked it under his arm and grabbed a coffee.

The captain was only a couple of steps behind him. She looked at the sergeant and asked him to call the med bay, Captain Rolo had succumbed to the wounds he had received prior to be taken prisoner and Lorelei needed assistance for her wounds she had received from the fight on the gunboat. Ben thanked them for the coffee and said he had to get down to the med bay and see Gunny and the girl.

The major grabbed the captain by the arm and asked what happened in there.

“Come on,” the captain said, “I’ll show you. Then I’m going to get cleaned up and have a drink, or six.” She led them to Lorelei’s cell. Lorelei was still in a sitting fetal position. Andrea saw the blood on the floor and on her.

The captain shut the cell door. “He cut her little finger off and started on another one until I asked him to stop,” she explained. “We got a lot of good intel though.” She walked them to the next cell and the door was open. Captain Rolo was lying slumped over with his pants open. There was blood everywhere. His throat had a gash that they could tell went deep and his chest was soaked in blood over his heart.

“Why did he do all this?” the major asked.

“It seems our captain here had a liking for young girls and when he tired of them he killed them and had them thrown out the airlock like trash,” O’Shaughnessy said. “The captain knew if Ben was asking about young girls his time was up. Ben asked him a question and before I could move back blood was everywhere.”

The sergeant and the corporal walked back to see the captain, major and sergeant major staring into the cell and talking softly.

“Sergeant, come here,” the captain said. “Put this piece of shit in a body bag along with his parts.”

The sergeant looked confused, but said, “Yes ma’am.”

“Tonight, late, take the trash all the way out. Do you get my meaning, Sergeant?”

“Yes.”

“Once all that is done, have the cell cleaned and scrubbed top to bottom.”

“Aye, aye Captain.”

“Now your remaining prisoner — be nice to her unless she gives you reason not to. Get her coffee or food anytime she wants some within reason. If she would like to shower, get a female marine to accompany her.”

“Yes Captain.”

“If you have any questions or get questioned by anyone, you call me.”

“Aye, aye Captain,” the sergeant repeated one last time.

Ben was a sight walking through the ship. Crewmen made room for the soldier in the blood-covered combat suit with the grim reaper on it. He got to his quarters and walked straight into the shower. He let the shower wash the blood off of his suit as he soaped it up and scrubbed it with a brush. He shut the water off and unzipped it, taking it off and hanging it up. He slipped out of the thermal suit and got back into the hot shower. He lathered up his hair and face. He knew his body wasn’t bloody, but he washed it as if it was. He brushed his teeth and shut the shower off.

His door chimed. He wrapped a towel around himself and listened, it was the major. Enter he said. The major walked in. Ben was holding his towel with one hand. His hair was dripping water down his back and chest. He smiled at her but said nothing as he sat down in the chair at his desk. He wondered if he was going to get a lecture or worse. She walked over behind him and put her hands on his shoulders. She was feeling the synth skin that covered the wounds on his back. She started massaging his shoulders and neck. She stopped after about five minutes and walked away. He heard her come back and felt a towel on his head. She dried his hair and back. He stood up and turned and she dried his chest.

“I need to get dressed,” he said. “How about you go change and we will walk down to med then grab a bite to eat?”

Natalia was asleep. Nurse Tanaka was still on duty. She looked tired, Ben thought as he walked in and saw her. She walked up to him and the major

“I gave her something to help her sleep,” she said. “I put some healing meds on the welts on her body. I am hoping we can get her in the tank tomorrow. I think her body will heal up fine. It’s her mind that worries me,” the nurse added. “She hasn’t said much of anything other than ask for you.”

“Where is Ensign Aok?” he asked the nurse.

“She left when Natalia fell asleep. She said she would be back later to check on her.”

“I will be back after I eat something,” Ben said. “Can you get me a chair so I can sit in her room?”

“Not a problem,” the nurse replied.

Ben and Andrea made their way to the officer’s mess. It was late, but they were able to get a cold sandwich and something to drink. They sat and ate, mostly in silence. She was still processing the scene from the brig in her mind.
It’s not any great revelation
, she thought.
At heart he is a good man, a soldier. To see the young girl abused and beaten it would make anyone outraged.
Even she was outraged, but Ben had taken on the mantle of judge, jury and executioner. Now he sat across from her like it had never happened.

“Are you ok?” she asked to break the silence.

He looked up at her and asked, “Are you referring to what happened just a little while ago, or my life in general?” She had been only referring to the incident in the brig until now.

“You have had a busy week,” she said.

“I’m fine,” he said. “I just keep telling myself it’s all your fault.” Looking at her, his smile turned into a chuckle. He knew he had just kicked the hornet’s nest. He slid his chair back and started to make his getaway.

“My fault!” he heard her say, coming up behind him fast.

“What, are you going to deny any involvement?” Ben asked. “My life was quiet and peaceful, until you showed up.” He was looking at her as she tried to form her defense. He put his finger on her lips and shook his head at her.

“I am glad you showed up,” he said, looking her in the eyes. “Now let’s go back to the med bay.”

Andrea walked along quietly. How she had let him get the last word in, she didn’t know. She decided she was okay with it. She knew he wouldn’t get that chance very often and almost laughed out loud at that thought. They arrived at the med bay about the same time as Ensign Aok. A corpsman was on duty. He said Nurse Tanaka was catching a nap.

Ben looked at E’Aria. “How do feel, you want first watch or second?” he asked. Ben was determined one of the two would be there when Natalia woke up.

E’Aria said she would take the next four hours.

“Would you com your quarters to let me enter and I will get my things out?” Andrea looked at him, wondering what he had in her room. She decided to wait and see.

E’Aria’s quarters were across the hall from Ben’s, so he opened his door and had it hold. He entered E’Aria’s quarters and everything was all together. She hadn’t separated it out. Andrea looked at everything, then looked at him.

“What is all this?” she said.

“I liberated a few things from the pirate ship that they will no longer need where they’re at,” Ben answered. Andrea saw the huge broadsword and the safe as well as the Japanese sword and jewelry.

“Ben,” she said, “you can’t do this. It’s against regulations for us to loot property.”

Ben didn’t feel like arguing with her. He started picking up things and taking it to his room. She didn’t like being ignored and wasn’t sure how the captain would take this breach of protocol. But so far the captain had overlooked all of Ben’s infractions, including killing a prisoner and injuring another one. She probably would do nothing about his looting the ship either.

“Ben, I am your commanding officer and I am ordering you to put it all back.”

“No!” Ben said. “We are commandeering these items. We are going to sell most of them. Then we will use the proceeds to buy the tech I want E’Aria to find for the team. This will give General Grey plausible deniability if anything ever happens to the team. There will be no record anywhere of funds being used to purchase the weapons and com gear. I am going to use some of it to set Natalia up somewhere with a family. She will be able to provide for herself and contribute to the family she is living with.”

Andrea thought about that for a minute. Even when it looked like he was doing something selfish, he had a plan to do something good, she thought. She couldn’t look at him and felt ashamed she had thought he was taking all those things for himself. She turned and walked out of his quarters. Ben put away what he could. He took everything out of E’Aria’s room because she was a member of the military and would have to do what she was ordered. He had no such inclination.

Ben’s door chimed and he thought it might be Andrea coming back, but it was the captain. She walked in and saw the safe sitting in the floor and the few things he hadn’t found a place for yet. The broadsword was sitting out. She walked over and picked it up.

“Looks like you have been busy,” she said. He just nodded, waiting for it. “I saw the major as I walked in. She didn’t notice me, looked like she had a lot on her mind.”

“That is possible,” Ben said.

“Is there anything going on in here?” She motioned with her hand to the things lying around his room.

Ben looked her in her emerald green eyes and said, “No, Captain. There is nothing here you need to know about.”

He continued before she could question him. “I’m not sorry about what happened in the brig in the least,” he said. “If you hadn’t been there it might have been worse. But I am sorry if I put you in such a situation. I am going to talk to the major and sergeant major and tell them that their story is you weren’t in the room with me, that I acted alone before you or anyone knew what I was doing.”

“You don’t have to do that, Reaper,” she said.

“Yes I do,” Ben responded. “I also want to ask your help with something. Can I leave Natalia in your care until I can find her family or a home for her? Maybe you can find her some small job on the ship to keep her busy until I can get that all straightened out.”

The captain smiled at the man in front of her.
Cold blooded killer and protector of the innocent
, she thought.
She stepped forward and took his hand.

“I will do what I can to help both of you,” she said. She turned and left his quarters.

Ben decided to lie down for a few hours. He gave the command to let the major in if she came while he was asleep. He was about out when he felt the air pressure and light change slightly in his room. A warm body eased itself gently over him and lay down. He felt a warm kiss in his cheek and an arm lying across his body. He went back to sleep. It seemed as if he had just closed his eyes when the alarm went off.

He slid out from under the arm and went to wash his face. He looked back to the bed where she still slept. Andrea was so beautiful. He wondered when she would come to her senses and move on. She was jeopardizing a spotless career just by being in his room. He didn’t mind taking the risks he was taking, but it wasn’t just him that would go down if the shit hit the fan. He sat down to pull his boots on when he noticed a change in her breathing. She was lying there staring at him with her black hair lying across her face. She smiled and sat up, stretching.

“You know, we really need to take a day off and catch up on all the sleep we have missed in the last week,” she said with a small yarn.