Unwanted Power

Disrespected

Brigadier General (Retired) Nathan Forrest is not a man who is used to or enjoys being disrespected. Not by men of lesser rank, people of any color other than white, or anyone else that, for any reason, Forrest thinks are lesser beings. His entire review board was firmly in that category.

If Heather had been in a female form, he would have slapped her down. The only women Forrest would hold back on hitting were women in his command (because of consequences) and his wife (because he is afraid of her). As Jessie, Forrest faced a larger, younger, fitter man. A man with a demonstrated ability to still be alive after the literal strongest punch Forrest could throw.

He settled for growling. "What do you know about the review?"

Heather nearly giggled in delight. In her Jessie body, giggling would have thrown Forrest for a loop. "Are you kidding me, Nat? I was there. Not in plain sight, of course. I was hiding. I had to hear the proceedings. See how long it took the officers on your panel to get past the pomp and circumstance. Get to the nut of it. You are a clever guy. Flew under their radar for years. I wanted to hear you wiggle. See what possible defense you might dredge up for misappropriation and detonation of nuclear armament. I had a right to know. After all, I submitted a lot of evidence to the board. I made sure they got all the receipts, so to speak."

Forrest switched to confused and outraged. "What?!!?"

"You tried to wiggle out of it. You tried to destroy evidence even. But there is a paper trail. Technically speaking? You did not do all the actual work, did you? You had your underlings running it. They had to follow military procedures. Even people with orders from the general have to present the orders to the keepers. Lots of cameras along the way. Badge logs. The board may not know where the bomb is, but they know who took it. They know something blew up out in West Texas. It may not be radioactive, but something did. Guess what? The damage exactly matches what a bomb the size of the one you took would do. I listened in to a conversation the other day with some field units still investigating. They are convinced the destruction in West Texas was the missing bomb. They want to know how you did it. How you drained all the Rads. That is a revolutionary tech you seem to have that no one knows anything about. It would revolutionize warfare! Yet you are not talking about it. Expect some more misery around that. And guess what? You can't tell them I did it! There is evidence of a bomb. No evidence of a guy who was standing next to it. Beautiful. Isn't it?"

That was not utterly true. There is a long trench of unknown creation in the next prairie land to the East. A part of a mountain had been knocked off by a projectile. As mysteries of the bombsite went, it was just one of many. As cause and effect went, many things had been damaged that were not traceable to an exact cause. If one assumed the missing warhead, the damage made some sense. Not the missing fallout.

"You think you are so clever." Forrest snarled.

Heather ignored his attitude and went on lightly recounting the evidence. "Then there were requisitions for the cameras and long lenses. Webcams. Computers. AV security recorder. Monitors. Desks. An RV. Satellite and cellular gear. Work orders for earth moving equipment. Destroyed Humvees assigned to your unit. It was all stuff associated with you. All of that is onsite. The review board doesn't know HOW you did everything you did. Get that? You, Nat. Not me. What technology you used to turn a missing bomb into radiationless destruction? Everything was destroyed. Melted. Expert testimony at your board said over and over that they had no idea what exactly happened. The facts are that the bomb is missing. The destruction is distinctive. A lot of gear was destroyed. Mysteries abound. Rounds of ammunition and shell cases were found. No obvious targets. It added up, Mr. Forrest. You exploded a Nuc on US soil. You killed a guy with that Nuc. You are damn lucky he was the only one. You were after me, of course. The bogeyman. You could not tell them that because you have nothing. No evidence at all I even exist. Not a single picture. Only some testimony a while back from people who say they saw me."