DEADLY DILEMMA by Dan Stratman (story read aloud .txt) 📗

Why did he…” Lance winced in pain. “Why did he accuse you of being behind all this?”

“I have no idea,” Cyndi shot back. She yanked her wrist free from his weakening grasp. “He’s lying. What possible reason would I have to do such a horrible thing?”

McNeil emerged from his office holding a folder. He opened it up. “Plenty of reasons, it turns out.”

Chapter Forty-Nine

McNeil tapped the documents in the folder. “I did quite a bit of research on you, Captain Stafford. I wasn’t about to trust the new Alpha design to just any commander. I thought I’d found the right person. Obviously, I was wrong. The more I dug into your past, the more concerned I became. So, I called in a few favors from friends in Washington. The last details from your background investigation by the CIA came in this morning.”

Cyndi’s jaw dropped. “You had me investigated by the CIA?”

“Is that surprise I hear in your voice, Captain Stafford?” McNeil looked at her with a smug grin. “Or…could it be the sound a traitor makes just before being exposed?” He pulled a sheet out from the folder and began reading. “Graduated top of your class from missileer school. Expert helicopter pilot. Black belt in several different martial arts. Expert marksman.”

“Anyone with a cell phone could have Googled me and found that out,” Cyndi said in her defense. “It doesn’t mean a damned thing. Why would I want to launch a nuclear missile?”

“For revenge.”

McNeil let the incendiary words hang in the air like a bad odor.

“It’s the strongest motivation of all.”

Lance straightened up, still clutching his ribs. He cocked his head and peered at Cyndi with apprehension. “What is he talking about? Revenge for what?”

“I don’t know!” Cyndi pleaded. “I swear, I had nothing to do with this!”

“Your record paints a much different picture, Captain Stafford.” McNeil ran his finger across the page as he read. “It says here you were kicked out of pilot training by the base commander himself. According to him, you were a danger to yourself and others.”

“He tried to rape me!”

“So, there must be a police report, correct? A harassment complaint? Something in your record that would corroborate your story?”

“It’s not a story! He…I…It would have been his word against mine.” Cyndi turned to Lance. “It happened!”

Lance listened but didn’t respond.

“Then you accused the accident board that investigated your dad’s crash of a cover-up.” He craned his neck forward and looked more closely at the page. “Well, isn’t this interesting. According to you, it wasn’t your dad’s fault he crashed a perfectly good $300 million jet. No, of course not. According to you, there was a bug in the flight software. Yet not a single accident investigator concluded that a problem with the software was responsible for the accident.” He looked out over the top of the folder. “Please, another bug in the software? You two could have been a little more original when you concocted your story for what happened out there today.”

“Crappy software happens all the time,” Lance volunteered. “My laptop crashed just last week because of a problem with Microsoft Windows. And that software is older than I am.”

McNeil ignored Lance and flipped the page. “This is where your report gets most troubling. Your baseless claims of a cover-up became so outrageous that the general in charge ordered you to have a psychiatric evaluation by an Air Force doctor. For paranoia.”

Chapter Fifty

“He did that to try and get me to back off,” Cyndi fired back. “That’s one of the devious retaliation tactics that powerful people use when they can’t handle having their decisions challenged. They weaponize the mental health system to silence their critics. He was trying to ruin my reputation and discredit my allegations.”

“So, the psychiatrist, he was conspiring against you, too?” McNeil said mockingly.

“That Air Force quack wasn’t about to torpedo his career. He told the general what he wanted to hear. I went to three different civilian psychiatrists on my own. They all said the same thing. I was one of the sanest, most well-grounded patients they’d ever examined.”

“I don’t care what they said. You are a disgrace to this command and all missileers.”

Lance stepped forward. “Excuse me, sir. I have to speak up. Look, I know you outrank me by a million miles, but you’re wrong. Captain Stafford is the best damned missileer the Air Force has. Her willingness to spend day after day in a dank, claustrophobic cave and accept full responsibility for firing the bullet without any control over the gun or even why it’s being fired, proves she is the perfect role model for missileers.

“I’m the one who refused to follow the launch order, not her. She was going to shoot me for not doing my job. That’s how dedicated to the mission she is.” Lance cleared his throat. “I don’t think I’ve ever said anything so…so illogical, but the fact she wouldn’t pull the trigger—in either situation—proves she is the least crazy of us all. I don’t care what you or that report says. I believe Cyndi.”

McNeil looked at Lance and shook his head. “Gullible to the very end. How noble of you. Maybe if you heard it in her own words, you’d change your mind.”

“What do you mean?”

“Two years ago, your girlfriend took herself off active missileer status for an entire month for what she herself described as”—McNeil rested his finger on the page and read directly from the report—“being emotionally unfit to be in command of a nuclear weapon.”

The walls of the spacious office felt like they were closing in on Cyndi. Her heart began to race. “My dad had just died,” she cried out. “Of course I was upset. Who wouldn’t be after losing a parent? I needed time off to help my mom settle his affairs after the funeral. I was trying to do the right thing by taking myself off active status!”

McNeil appeared unmoved by her explanation. “I’ll be leading the investigation during your court-martial. The resources