Chapter 3

The General walked up to me, stopping in front of me. “Lieutenant John Richards, for service for the Army, your squad, your country, plus the recent rescue. Washington and command have promoted you from First Lieutenant to Captain.”

He then removed my single silver bar, then pinned a double set of silver bars to my lapel. He then saluted me, as did the rest of the officers there. “Congratulations captain.”

I was in shock for a moment. I was only doing my duty. Then I stopped thinking about it. I had stopped two spies, saving lives. OK, I thought, maybe I did deserve it.

It was at that moment that Catherine appeared, what the hell I thought. That’s when she started to point at a young Second Lieutenant. Damn it, I thought this was going to be hard.

I walked out as many of the men were congratulating me. Damn it, this would require more than just my word.

I made my way back to my squad’s hut. As I walked in, I heard, “attention!” I stopped as I looked round at the squad saluting me.

“Alright, enough of that shit!” I yelled as many of them started to laugh. I was still a little shocked about the whole thing.

Then, of course, I heard Catherine start to giggle as well. “I am proud of you master, you have made things safer for all of them.”

I sighed as I thought, some yes, but we still have two more to capture. The officer that you indicated will need serious evidence before I turn him in.

Master, please don’t forget that you have me. I can do many things that will aid you greatly.

I’m sorry Catherine, I am so used to doing things the hard way. I keep forgetting that you can do this for me. What have you got for me?

Catherine proceeded to start making more than a few things appear on my desk. The further we got into it, the more pissed off I became.

Shit I thought, as I went through everything, this mother was in deep. The more I read, the more I was surprised that there were as many alive as there were.

I had to hold my temper as I could see that this traitor was responsible for a great number of deaths. Then the worst thing came up, as I found the payments, and that he was married to a woman here.

I needed to get all this to the commander as soon as I could. This was a major breach of security, though that same man was trying to get all of us captured. I growled, that wasn’t about to happen.

I loaded up everything as I tried to make my way to the commander’s office. I cursed as I drew near the commander’s hut. The same self fucker was in there reporting on me.

I tried to calm but seemed to be fighting a losing battle. A moment later, I was standing on the other side of the camp. “Thank you, Catherine, if that ass has proof on me, we need to truthfully show that it is all false. You can do this?” I asked.

“It should not be very hard at all, master. When you have calmed down, do you wish to be back at that place?” Catherine asked.

I just nodded as I took a few deep breaths, I then felt the tension leave my body. Catherine started massaging my neck and shoulders. Damn, I thought she was damn good.

“Thank you master, I try,” Catherine said, then giggled.

I was finally relaxed as I nodded to Catherine. We appeared at the commander’s hut, he looking up at me with a suspicious look.

“We’ve been looking for you, Captain, I have evidence that you have been spying for the enemy,” he said.

“Really sir, that’s funny because I have evidence of a spy within our ranks. If you wish, I will clear my name first if you wish,” I said.

The commander looked at me shocked, then nodded his head as I disproved all that the man had presented. I then gave him true proof of the man’s guilt, proof he couldn’t disprove.

The commander started shouting orders, then we waited for less than ten minutes, the Second Lieutenant walked in.

“We have a serious problem, Lieutenant,” the commander said as the man saw what was on the desk. He thought to draw his side arm, then froze when the bolts of several rifles cocked.

The man laid the pistol on the desk then sneered at me. “You are a dead man, you should know. It’s too bad I won’t be here when they slit you open, spilling your guts into the sun.”

I stepped up, getting in his face, “Yes, too bad, though I will be there when they execute you. I hope that your wife kills herself from the dishonor you bring her!” I then slapped the man across the face, “traitor!”

I could see the boiling anger that rose in the man’s eyes. He broke free swinging at me, then caved when I caught him with a fist to his stomach.

“Get this piece of tortious trash out of here!” The commander ordered. “Shit! We dodged a bullet with that. I think we need to go through personnel again.”

“Glad I could help sir, I am looking into one more, though I am not sure at the moment,” I said.

“Well, son, get it to me as soon as you can. Though this is disturbing, this many especially as close to command as he was,” the commander said.

“Yes sir, I will do all that I can. My squad has a mission today. I’ll see you when we return,” I told the commander.

I looked at Catherine as we left his hut. Is our mission known to the enemy? I asked her.

No sense walking into a death trap, I thought. Catherine looked away as she concentrated. I she started; I am seeing your entire squad being filled with bullets.

I nodded, it was as I thought, whomever the fourth spy was, they wanted us, actually me, dead. I needed to make a few changes before we left.

I looked out over the sand, trying to see the other trail we were supposed to take. Thankfully, I had been warned.

We were approaching the area we were patrolling from a completely different direction.

I had us coming over the last dune slowly, glad that I did. We all saw that there had to be at least fifty, maybe more waiting for us. I had part of the squad circle around to the other side as we set up.

Less than thirty minutes later, I got a couple of radio clicks, letting me know they were ready. We started to fire as the insurgents tried to back away from us, right into the other half of the squad.

I smiled as the ambush we had set up worked in our favor. It was over in no time at all, we even got a few prisoners, for the first time.

We were getting everything ready to head back, when Catherine warned me that there were more enemies approaching. I signaled for everyone to take cover, as it appeared another twenty or thirty came over the dunes.

Shit I thought, “we need cover fire, get everyone to the rendezvous point. Call in an air strike!” I yelled to the radio man as they started to bug out.

I tried to keep the new insurgents’ heads down as they tried to creep closer. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that the squad was undercover further back.

I continued to try and pick off all that I could. Thing was, they were actually starting to get me in range. Damnit! I thought I was dead for sure, when Catherine appeared next to me with an angry look on her face.

“Master! How can you forget about me!” Damn, I thought she actually looked pissed.

“After doing this for so long it’s kind of easy to forget,” I said as I managed to hit the three closest to me. This stopped their advance for a few moments, then they started to edge closer again.

I saw that the squad was safer for a moment as I started to crawl a little further back. This, of course, had them firing even more at me. Damn, they were getting closer with their shots.

For the moment, it was a stalemate, ‘til I heard the sweet sound of at least two approaching jets. The insurgents started to yell, then our boys opened up ripping the enemy to shreds.

I, of course, took this opportunity to get the hell out of there. I breathed easier when I saw that all of my squad were OK. They had already loaded up as I and another man came over the dunes to them.

The radioman handed me the receiver as I reported in. I looked at the few that we had captured, finally we had a few to question.

As soon as we got back, I went to see the commander. “Sir,” I saluted as soon as I entered.

“What in the hell had you dividing your squad?” He asked. “That seemed to be a bad situation.”

“Sir, I had reason to believe that it might be an ambush. Apparently, I was right, they were waiting for us. The problem was they had back-up waiting not that far away,” I explained.

He looked at the report in front of him. “I see that you had a total of five hostiles that you took prisoner. Perhaps we might get a little more information about their movements. Have you anymore on that other spy?” He asked.

I thought, then shook my head, “I haven’t got anything at the moment, still working out all the details. I can’t say at the moment who, the evidence is taking a while to compile,” I told him.

He took a long look at me then nodded. “Alright, be careful, the last one still isn’t talking. Army internal affairs are still working on him, they’re not sure if he’ll crack. All the same, he’s got a firing squad with his name on it,” the commander said.

I nodded then saluted as I left his hut. I had just entered my squad’s hut when I was suddenly within a darkened building. What the hell was going on?

A moment later, I heard a deep voice, “come forward.” I moved down what appeared to be a long corridor. It ended in a large room that had a long table in the middle of it.

Behind the table appeared to be twelve males that were sitting in equal places along it.

The one in the middle spoke, “you are John Richards, master of the Genie, as you have named her Catherine?”

I stared at him and the others a moment, then I opened my mouth, then closed it. I repeated this a few times, then said, “I guess?”

“You guess? You don’t know if you have a Genie? Are you a complete simpleton? What are you!” The man said, pointing a finger at me.