Chapter 46 - Rubbishing a Friend? (1)

27 December, City K Military Base

Matthew returned his attention to the papers on his desk and was interrupted by a knock on the door. Despite being frustrated at the interruption he called out "Enter" and looked up noticing it was Major Hung.

"Major, what can I do for you?"

"Apologise for interrupting sir. At present I am designated as your second-in-command, and I noticed that the police liaison officer was here a little while ago. While I did not want to disrupt your meeting, I believe that I need to come and give you a warning about him. He is an arrogant individual who believes the military owe the police. He is narrow minded only looking out for an arrest, rather than taking the wider view that we have to, in the military."

"Yes, is there anything else that you want to say about him?"

"Sir you cannot trust a thing he says. I have been trying to convince the police to assign another member to be our liaison. There is someone there, a junior person, mind you, that I have worked with. He understands and accept that there are limits on what we can give them at time, given wider considerations. I would be recommending to you, that you urgently contact the police to have him replaced. I can get you the details of the person who I believe would be perfect for the liaison position."

"Do you know Major Hung, he said I could not trust you."

"Sir my loyalty is to the military and this country. He is an egotistical self-entitled rich kid who believes that we should kowtow to him. That I refuse to do, hence he does not like me. There is no way that anyone with a rich background should be allowed near any real form of public service in terms of the military or the police. They come with their self-entitlement and believe that they are better than those of us, like myself, and even you sir that have achieved through their own efforts."

"Major Hung …"

"Apologise for interrupting you sir, but you know I speak the truth."

"Major Hung" spat out Matthew. He knew that he had to be careful what he said, not wanting to let Major Hung know his real connection to John Nang.

"I would shut your mouth before you dig yourself into a deeper hole. You may not trust the police liaison, but I do. He appears to be honest and has given up being involved in the family entertainment company where he could have earned millions per month for very little work to go and risk his life day in and day out to protect people. I note your recommendation, but I will not be requesting the appointment of a new liaison officer."

"Sir, I protest."

"Protest all your like. It will not change my decision. And furthermore, no more holding back of intelligence. While protecting military intelligence sources is important, allowing a young child to be kidnapped to protect it, allowing weapons smuggling to go on for months, and I am guessing a number of other things is unacceptable."

"We have to protect our sources."

"I do not give a care about wholesale protection of sources. It is a balancing act that on what I have been informed of, that you can achieve. Now you will sit down and listen to me."

Major Hung realised that he was caught, and wanted to leave, but he knew he could not as he had been given an order to sit.

"Your team is going to be broken up. They will be broken into three groups and rotated as and when I say. One third will be training for deployment, one third working under me, and one third working for you. You will receive in rotation members from active units who need to hone their analysis skills. I am sick and tired of seeing special forces operators who cannot analyse intelligence gathered during their operations and to adapt quickly. They need these skills, as much as your intelligence officers need to be ready for a deployment."

"Sir, that is unfair on the specialist knowledge and skills that those who work in intelligence had developed. Taking them away hurts the public, as we cannot …"

"Major, your protest is noted but you are getting close to insubordination. I will listen to reasonable arguments but at present the intelligence department has three times as many people as there are operators within the teams. That is messed up logic. We should have three times as many operators than specific intelligence officers. Special forces operators are highly intelligent and with appropriate training can be intelligence analysts."