Chapter 136 - Leaving me in peace (1)

13 January, Matthew's Villa, City K

Matthew stood in his home office, with Joseph, Ben and David. While he had reviewed the results of the in depth analysis of the HUMIT and ELINT that had been obtained from the Devil's terrorist camp and those they rescued on Friday, he had taken the time so far over the weekend to ponder what that revealed.

The scouring of the camp, including digging through rubble so far had not located any body of a senior ISX member let alone the Devil himself. It was as if they had disappeared into thin air. That meant that some of them needed to head back to the terrorist camp and be involved in the investigation of the area let along the remains of the camp.

Seeing the frustration on Matthew's face, Ben said "Matthew, we are meant to be relaxing, but something is on your mind."

Joseph and David said "True"

David then continued "You have is worried, and have something planned. So what are your plans?"

Shaking his head, Matthew said "You three know me too well..."

Joseph interrupted and said "Well, what did you expect from you friends in the military? We hate your guts?" This drew laughs from Ben and David.

"There is that, sometimes I wonder though why I am friends with you." Matthew saw the stunned faces and then laughed. "Honestly the three of you helped keep me grounded."

After a few moments of silence Matthew said "I have considered the data and analysis report. We need to head back to look at the terrorist camp. Something does not make sense. I have my suspicions, but they need to be investigated. I need to go, so Ben you need to stay and be temporary head of special forces. As your promotion is public, Major Hung cannot pull rank based on seniority, is Joseph and David stayed."

"Not a problem. You need me to keep him sidelined?"

"Absolutely. I know your wives will kill me as they have only arrived, but Joseph adn David I need you to accompany me. Rather than anyone knowing where we are actuially going, what will be said is we have headed to national headquarters to not only deliver material from the base that cannot be uploaded into the systems but review other material that due to its sensitivity is not uploaded."

"A smokescreen?"

"Partially. To sell the cover story we will head to the capital, show our face at national headquarters and then leave. Once we are finished at the terrorist camp we will reverse the process to hide what we have done. Given that, you need your uniforms to fly in, with a spare uniform in the bag, but..."

"Non-identifying uniforms for when we are at the terrorist camp, We know the drill," responded Joseph.

David added, with a light laughing undertone "You know the more we talk the more our wives will get annoyed with us, possibly kill us. We should forget about work, and head out to join them."

Matthew realised that David was attempting to joke about the situation, but in some respect, it was not a joke. Lexi was still so angry with him that if she had the opportunity she would hurt if not kill him. Things had not changed in the last few days, so hopefully being away for a few days may allow Lexi to calm a little and be willing to talk to him about the situation rather than causing an argument.

Meanwhile, Lexi was sitting outside with three women who all seemed close to each other. She felt a total outsider with how they acted. It was only when Sarah Dang said "Jessica, where are you staying? Monica and I have not seen you on base since we got here."

"Monica that is surprising, I though you would have spent a few days at your parents with the children rather than straight into your on-base housing."

"Ha, unlike you Jessica, my parents never approved of my marriage to Joseph. They could not see why I would waste my time on someone, who if you remember at the time was just an enlisted soldier. They always argue that I could do so much better than him. The only worship money, and I pity my sister as they have spent months trying to set her up with that elusive businessman David Hwuag."

"You are kidding me," responded Jessica. "Do they not learn. Lexi you might remember this …"

Lexi looked at Jessica Pang strangely. She did not know these two.

"You are trying to place us. My father is Maxwell Fung. He was a senior executive at Jax Corp until he retired a few years ago due to ill health. Monica's father is Kevin Mo, the CEO of MoTang Enterprises. We both grew up here and attended school with you. You remember that incident at our end of final year formal there the venue was stormed of some boys with guns?"

That event Lexi remembered; her parents blamed Matthew for that. "I do."

"Ben was my escort, and Joseph Monica's. David was involved with Monica's cousin Sophia Mo and he escorted her. At the time the three of them were troublemakers and on the edge of being thrown out of the army. They were the soldiers that your husband confronted when everything went down and helped him defuse the situation. The reality was that saved their careers and has them where they are. They all feel they owe your husband, and I must admit we agree. Sophia after that dumped David quickly, but Ben and Joseph got us to commit. A couple of years later we met Sarah and introduced her to David and the rest was history for them."

After getting that information, Lexi was finally able to place Jessica and Monica. They were two quite girls in the year. Sophia was their complete opposite, loud and in your face. She had come into her Paris store just after it opened and she realised immediately who she was. She had never changed. It was not surprising twelve months later she read about her dying from a drug overdose.

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