Secret Things

And then there was Gen.  Padilla, who seemed to think his daily calls were the highlight of Luckinbill’s life.  After all, they always had been .  .  .  until very recently.

“I .  .  .  I, ah,” Padilla started, still sorting papers by the sound of it, “I’m hearing things, Luckinbill.  I’m hearing things that lead me to believe we may have made some miscalculations when we put all this together.”

“All what together?  What kind of miscalculations?”

“Operation WindowPane,” came the answer to the first question, followed quickly by an answer to the second: “Troop strength, resources .  .  .  breakdowns in command and control.”

“I assure you, General,” Luckinbill countered quickly, allowing no lapse in the exchange, “command and control in Talawanda is very effective.  There are no breakdowns.  As you acknowledged last week, this operation has been by the book from the start.  Textbook, even.”

“I acknowledge that.  But there is a saying amongst those who work in sales,” Padilla answered  smoothly, “that says you are only as good as your last sale.

“What was your last sale, Colonel?  Metaphorically speaking, of course.”

Easy, Luckinbill thought, one .  .  .  two .  .  .  three .  .  . 

“I am,” Luckinbill started, after taking a deep breath, “encountering some .  .  .  difficulties that I...that we had not anticipated.  But that doesn’t surprise me, and it shouldn’t surprise or alarm you.  Nothing ever goes exactly as planned.”

“True.  But military operations that do not go exactly as planned rarely succeed.  I am worried.  The President is worried.  The media is showing a great deal of interest in what is happening out there on the Olympic Peninsula.  All they see is a tremendous amount of hardware moving in and out of the area, but many are starting to speculate about what is happening in and around Talawanda.  And that speculation is triggering interest overseas as well, the kind of interest we don’t need. 

“We recently intercepted Japanese satellite photos of this region.  I'll remind you that the entire Pacific Northwest region is very important to the Japanese and their neighboring Asian countries for many reasons, primarily timber, shipping, and industry.  If international pressures begin to mount, we could be in serious trouble.  I am told the U.N.  is paying close attention, as well.

“We're waiting on recommendations from the Pentagon, but the President has been in Cabinet meetings all day and hasn't been available since due to fatigue,” Padilla said.  “After all, it is nine o’clock in D.C.  right now.”

"Washington won't do anything," Luckinbill returned, his tone perhaps a bit too sarcastic.  "The President is too worried about the potential for severe, damaging backlash here.  You know as well as I do that he will always be in meetings or in the can or on a golf course somewhere.  This administration is so preoccupied with the Middle East that it doesn’t have a clue how to handle domestic incidents.  Even after 9/11, our military efforts and resources were focused overseas rather than here on the home front.”