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

“I heard you, sir,” Norris said, trying to keep his cool.

“Then do it, dammit!”

Crawford blocked the door. “Wait, I can prove who’s telling the truth.”

“How could you possibly know?” Norris said. “You weren’t in the room.”

“Because it’s on tape.”

“What?” McNeil’s face turned ghostly white.

Crawford pointed at the ceiling.

The tiny red light on the smoke detector cover was blinking.

“My friend Oliver secretly installed a tiny video camera in the smoke detector. That’s why he stopped by once a week, to change the batteries in it. The recordings are stored in my cloud account.”

“Why would you do that?” Norris asked suspiciously, looking up at the ceiling.

Crawford planted her hands on her curvaceous hips and glared at McNeil. “I wasn’t about to let this jerk sexually harass me again and get away with it. Next time, I’d have proof. With everything on tape, he couldn’t lie his way out of it like he did before.” She directed a contemptuous grin his way. “Pretty smart of me, wouldn’t you say, Arthur?”

“You conniving bitch,” McNeil growled. “I should have fired your ass months ago!”

“So, it was you,” Colonel Wilmer said from the back of the room.

“Shut up, Colonel!” McNeil shouted.

“Take their cuffs off, Lieutenant,” Wilmer said, pointing at Cyndi and Lance. “Arrest General McNeil.”

Norris lifted a flap on his belt and pulled out a key to unlock the cuffs.

McNeil suddenly lunged for the .38 Special on the desk. “I’ll kill all of you!”

Cyndi spun and broke free from the grasp of the security police. She raised her shackled fists and slammed them down on McNeil’s left forearm as he reached for the gun. His ulna bone broke in two with a sickening crack.

The gun fell to the floor. Cyndi kicked it away.

McNeil went down on one knee and screamed in agony as he cradled his fractured forearm.

“Still think I’m just a yoga instructor?” Cyndi said mockingly, glaring down at McNeil. She turned to Norris. “He’s all yours.”

“You can’t do this to me!” McNeil struggled to get to his feet. He was practically foaming at the mouth. “I’ll have every one of you locked up for this! I’m the commander of this base!”

“Not anymore.” Wilmer stepped forward. “You are clearly unfit to control nuclear weapons. I’m relieving you of command as of now. You’re under arrest.”

McNeil remained defiant till the bitter end. “You backstabbing son of a bitch. You’ll be dead by the end of the day, Colonel Wilmer. Just like Dr. Zhao. Just like Major Pierce. I got them, and I’ll get you, too!”

With a team of security policemen protecting him, Wilmer got up the nerve to say, “Kiss my ass.” He turned up his nose. “And it’s General Wilmer to you.”

Norris directed his men to remove the restraints on Cyndi and Lance. After that was done, he took a pair of cuffs and approached McNeil. “You are a disgrace to the uniform and everything it stands for.” He roughly grabbed the general’s good arm and slapped a handcuff around his wrist. Norris was no less aggressive with his broken arm.

McNeil yelped in pain as the last shackle was clamped down on his wrist. Spittle flew from his mouth as he shouted, “I did what any patriot would do!” He pounded the wall of medals on his chest with a closed fist. “I’d bleed on the damned flag if that’s what it took to keep the stripes red!”

His sanctimony enraged Cyndi. She glared at McNeil and pointed a finger right in his face. “Don’t you dare call yourself a patriot. You’re no different from every other tyrant willing to murder innocent civilians to achieve his agenda. The oath you took when you joined the Air Force means something. That uniform you wear means something. It’s not about how many medals you wear on the outside. It’s about the mettle of the person wearing it. You don’t have the courage or integrity to wear anything other than a prison jumpsuit.”

“Take him to the stockade,” Wilmer ordered. “Put him in solitary.”

General McNeil wasn’t about to go willingly. It took two men on each arm to forcefully drag him from the office. As he was being led down the hall, he screamed out supposed justifications for his deranged plan. Everyone from spineless politicians to greedy CEOs who’d sell out America if it meant a quick buck to China killing millions of innocent people by unleashing the COVID-19 virus on the world were included on his list of culprits. His last outburst was, “You’ll be sorry; mark my words!”

Wilmer, Crawford, Cyndi, and Lance looked at each other, trying to make sense out of the last few bizarre minutes.

Before anyone could speak, the radio clipped to Wilmer’s belt went off.

“Colonel Wilmer, this is command post. How do you read?”

He lifted the radio to his mouth. “This is Wilmer, go ahead.”

“Sir, all the other launch control centers tested good. No anomalies found. All missiles are offline.”

“Copy that. As I suspected, my command post wasn’t the source of the problem. Stand down until you hear from me.” He clipped the radio back onto his belt.

Lance nudged Cyndi and rolled his eyes. They each rubbed their wrists to get the circulation going again.

Cyndi went over to Crawford and smothered her in a hug. “Thank you. We owe you our lives—literally.”

Crawford squeezed her tightly. “No thanks needed, honey. It felt good finally putting that jackass in his place. Behind bars.”

“That was very clever, Miss Crawford,” Wilmer said. “Installing a camera in the smoke detector was a brilliant idea. Without that, McNeil never would have confessed.”

“Um…thanks,” Crawford said quietly. Her head dropped. Her eyes searched the floor. “Yeah…about that.”

“About what, Miss Crawford?” Wilmer asked suspiciously.

She bit her lip and looked up with an awkward expression. “There’s no camera. I made that up. Oliver was just changing the battery every week hoping to get a date. Maybe I should go out with him after all.” She winked at them.

Cyndi’s eyes opened wide. “What?”

“I had to do something!” Crawford replied