Chapter 12

Eckert helped her get dressed again. "I was hoping you'd be free by now."

Marla shrugged. "It won't make any difference," she said, as he tied the silk scarf around her chest again. "I'll just follow behind you tomorrow."

She helped him prepare a terse report on what they'd found, the hard part was encoding it using the minimum amount of spelling. Hopefully whoever decoded it would understand. They watched the seconds tick down together. Eckert twisted the volume knob and the radio crackled to life. He pressed the button and spoke into it with a clear firm voice. "Sierra-Sierra-Six this is Sierra-Sierra-Two-Three. Over."

They waited a long five seconds before Mel's voice crackled from the speaker. "Two-Three, this is Six. Stand by for Six-Actual."

Another voice came on immediately after. "Two-Three, this is Six-Actual. Attention to Orders. Extract begins. You are hereby promoted to the rank of sergeant. Signed Six-Actual, Captain, acting commander 142nd MP Battalion. Extract ends. Hard copy on file at this location. Prepare to copy. Over" The voice was male, older and sounded very confidant.

She looked at Eckert, but he only shrugged. "The voice doesn't sound familiar, but I don't think Sgt. Mel would hand over command to just anyone." He turned his attention to the radio. "Ready to copy, Over."

The message was short. He confirmed it and transmitted the message they'd prepared. While he was busy, she decoded it. "Evac schedule confirmed Transmit recon report 0 6 0 0 transmit voice 1 2 0 0 details"

She ran her hands through Eckert's short hair, and lay on the couch, left leg up to relieve the pressure. He read off five four letter groups, waited for confirmation, then read the next line. He was only half way done when someone broke in, drowning out the kid reading back the letters. "Two-Three, your battalion commander isn't even in this state. Give me your location and I'll confirm your promotion. Over."

Eckert grimaced. "Sir, Authenticate Bravo-Sierra or get off my net. Break. Charlie-Romeo..."

He got out another line, but again the confirmation was drowned out. "Two-Three, don't give me that shit, tell me your location right fucking now, or I'll have you up on charges."

"Last calling station, this is Sierra-Sierra-Six-Actual." it was the man who'd spoken before. "You will not bring charges against any of my people for following lawful orders. Break. Two-Three, complete current message during next transmission. Break. Unauthenticated station, I'm a little busy here, but I understand you're a lieutenant. I'm giving you a lawful order to cease transmission on my freqs until thirteen hundred hours, I'll have time for you then. Six-Actual out."

Eckert listened to the lieutenant protest for a moment, laughing, then shut off the radio. "The battery is a little weak, does your cell phone have a signal?"

"I don't really know," Marla dug it out of her bag and turned it on. She moved around the room, looking at the screen. "I get one or two bars here, and I still have a quarter charge."