Fallen Pride (Jesse McDermitt Series) by Wayne Stinnett Page B

quickly escorted us to a rear table, away from the others.
    “Have a seat men,” Tank said. “I asked the manager to set up a table back here just for us.”
    We sat down in a semi-circle around the table and a waitress appeared and quickly took our orders. Tank, as usual, cut straight to the chase, “So, you want to know what happened to your son in Iraq?”
    “I just want to help him,” Williams replied.
    “It was pretty bad,” Tank began. “Jared was part of the lead element when 1/9 was spooled back up and he was assigned to 6 th Marines when we deployed. Three months into our deployment, he and his spotter located a high value target in a house north of Ashraf. They’d been in position for two days, watching and waiting for a chance to take out one of Al-Qaeda’s top people. Once he was cleared to engage the target, he took the shot. But, the target’s daughter stepped in front of the window and she was killed. Jared was debriefed by a CIA spook, who made out like he’d killed the girl on purpose. I don’t blame the kid one bit when he flipped and started beating the shit outa the spook. Anyway, the CIA guy had connections, both political and financial. He took the beating kind of personal and railroaded your son, had him court martialed, and dishonorably discharged. I know Jared, he was a good Marine and had a real future in the Corps. Personally, I’d like to meet that spook, Jason Smith, in a dark alley one day.”
    I was stunned at first. “Jason Smith?”
    “You know him?

Chapter 6: Smith Revealed
    Three hours later, we were flying over the ocean again, south of Myrtle Beach, SC. I’d been lost in thought ever since lunch with Tank. Jason Smith was Deuce’s, and therefore my, old boss, the former Assistant Director of the Caribbean Counter-Terrorism Command for DHS. Deuce hadn’t told me any of the details about why he was no longer there, or why he’d been transferred to Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa. I’d been there once, not a pleasant place and a wonderful place for him to be sent. To say I didn’t like the man would be putting it mildly.
    “Jesse!” Williams said.
    “Yeah, huh?”
    “I said do you wanna take the controls for a while?”
    Deuce, Rusty and Julie had been talking away in back. Deuce told her about Sunday’s plans with the President and the role she was going to play. They were now quiet, looking forward to where I sat in the co-pilot’s seat.
    “Sorry, I must have dozed off. How about Julie and I switch seats? Maybe she’d like to fly some. ”
    I started unbuckling my seat belt and looked back at Julie. “Me?” she asked. “Fly an airplane? This is only the fourth time I’ve ever been in one and the first three were airliners.”
    Deuce saw that I’d been troubled since we got back to the hotel and said, “Go ahead, babe. Just like driving a boat.”
    I climbed back , sat down in the seat opposite Rusty as Julie climbed forward, took the co-pilot’s seat and put on the headset. Once she was settled in and Williams was busy telling her what to do, I motioned to Deuce. He took off his headset, leaned forward and in a low voice asked, “What’s on your mind, Jesse?”
    Rusty leaned across the narrow space between the seats and pulled off his headset. “I need to know more about how and why Smith got transferred,” I said.
    “It’s a bit of a long story,” Deuce replied. “Can it wait?”
    “Smith was responsible for Williams’s son getting a DD. He was the one that debriefed him in Iraq two years ago.”
    “Long story short, he was pissed about our sudden take down of the camp in Cuba and his not calling the shots.”
    “I thought he was in the loop the whole time,” Rusty said.
    “No, I should have let him make the call, but I knew he wouldn’t go for it and screw around, till Tony was killed.” Tony Jacobs was one of Deuce’s operators that came with him to DHS from the SEALS. A wiry, black guy with a great sense of humor, I’d grown to not