Chapter 169 - What do we know?

28 January, Military Base, City K

After delivering Lexi to her studio, Matthew settled down for the drive back to base, thinking about the passing comment Lexi made about David Hwang. Who is he? What made her make that leap? Was there something to investigate?

Pausing, Matthew considered whether he was willing to trust Warrant Officer Wang. To a point he knew he would as he was competent in his job. The question for him was, was he part of the issue on base. He had though time and time again to remain here, but every time a reassignment was posed he reminded the military of his family commitments here, and they relented in him staying here.

After thinking, Matthew picked up his secure phone and decided that he needed to talk to Ben. When the phone was answered he said "Ben…"

"Yes, Colonel Rong, what can I do for you?"

"I get it we cannot talk as you have someone there."

"Correct."

"I am on my way to the base after dealing with that personal matter. I need you, Joseph and David in my office on my return. We have something important to discuss. I should be there in about," Matthew looked outside and at his watch before continuing "in about twenty-five minutes."

"I will see what I can do," responded Ben before ending the call. He was worried this was about what happened at the Charity Function on the weekend, particularly the confrontation between Monica, Lexi and Monica's mother. Thank goodness his in-laws accepted that he was Jessica's choice and supported them.

Listening to Major Hung on the other side of the desk, he sent out a message to both David and Joseph of the meeting in Matthew's office, while paying attention to what was being said.

Trying not to react Ben realised how much Major Hung loved the sound of his own voice and wanted to tell him how things should be. After ten more minutes, Ben had had enough "Major, I have to end this meeting. That call, as you guessed was from the Colonel Rong and he has called a meeting."

"So, what time do we have to be at his office?"

"Major, this is a meeting your presence is not required at. He has asked for myself as well as Majors Dang and Wang, who have been requested to be present."

"I protest Colonel. I have been based here the longest and therefore the knowledge I have will be highly important."

"Colonel Rong has convened this meeting, not me. He decided who needs to be present, and that does not include you. And by the way, just because you have been based here for years does not mean you should be in every meeting. That is not my call. Colonel Rong is in charge of the special forces here, and despite being of equal rank due to his seniority for meetings such as this I cannot override his decision. And before you say anything, for your information I grew up here as well, so there is no need for you to be present to tell us about here."

"But…"

"Major I note your protests, but they will do nothing. Now, I need to finish this review of data before my meeting. Remember what I have said, Colonel Rong has ordered that over the next couple of weeks both you and I have to join the operators in training to ensure we have the right skill sets."

"As I said I am an analyst not an operator, so expecting me…"

"Orders are orders. Raise your objections with Colonel Rong, not me. Now you are dismissed."

Seeing that he had left no room to argue, Ben watched Major Hung walk out of his office. It was obvious that he was angry about the situation but arguing with him too much would amount to insubordination. His observations to date were such that Major Hung was not going to cross that line as his position was important to him.

Quickly looking at the time, Ben closed the laptop on his desk, and removed the lid from the Faraday cage installed in a draw of his specially designed desk before placing it inside a laptop case. Given the lack of trust the four of them had with just about everyone on base, their highly encrypted laptops they had in the capital all needed protection from everything, including electronic surveillance.

Walking into Matthew's office Ben saw that David and Joseph were waiting for him, and as soon as the door was shut, Matthew switched on his jamming devices.

"Feel free to speak freely."

"Matthew, I know the plans for announcing promotions, but we need to cut Major Hung down. Only my promotion being known has him throwing his weight around as to everyone, other than you or I, he is the next in command."

"Ben, there are reasons…"

"Ben is right Matthew, he is insufferable. Just this morning, and I suspect that this was before your meeting Ben, he came over in interrupted the two of us talking about training schedules to order us to remove him from a training block."

"Joseph is right. He started then to tell the two of us how to do our job. We both had to restrain ourselves from lashing out at telling him some home truths. We know that Ben's promotion was announced so that he had seniority within the intelligence area, and ours have not been announced as you do not want us to far apart from everyone else, but it is causing issues. Just last week I gave an order, and he countermanded it."

"We have to be patient. You all know that there are two parts to our deployment here. Firstly, we are here to undertake the reorganisation needed to bring this base in line with everyone else. That is public knowledge and we all know that we are quite capable of that. As was explained to all of us, national headquarters will announce promotions when it is necessary. And, David and Joseph do not forget you are not burdened with the responsibilities of your rank but are receiving that pay."

"There is that," laughed Ben. "Boss you know that is mean, I have to publicly do the work and they care hidden and get the same wage."

"Money hungry. You know we are working as hard as you but do not get the recognition..." Chimed in David.

"True, and you have to complain. At least you are not being ordered around by that idiot based on seniority of promotion," added Joseph.

"I guess there is that. You are getting compensation for dealing with him."

Matthew could only shake his head. His friends were better entertainment that most television shows and movies when they got going. "Gentleman,..."

"Oh, are you being serious," quickly interrupted David drawing laughter from Ben and Joseph.

"I sometimes wonder about your three. You would not get away doing this with anyone else," added Matthew shaking his head. "We need to be serious for a minute. There is something more important. You all know the real concerns at national headquarters that someone is leaking information regarding the special forces to the Devil. We are here to find that mole. Our ties here make it harder for us to be set up and chased away."

"We know that, and we are all working on it. But that is not why you got us here, Matthew."

"David Hwang. What do we know about him?"

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