Walker (In the Company of Snipers #21) - Irish Winters Page 0,159

of steel, piss, and vinegar.

“I know that,” he’d told his new boss. “but America needs the truth, and to prove our case, we need to turn over a live suspect to someone other than NCIS or any branch of the Navy.”

“Already taken care of,” McQueen had drawled. “The US Attorney General will be there waiting when we dock. Pretty sure he’s bringing a couple Marines with him. Heads are gonna roll, son. Trust me.”

But Alex had still been steamed. And God, Walker had wanted to let him beat the shit out of Goff. He’d wanted to do the same, but…

“That’s not who we are, Boss. He’s the asshole. Not us.”

It had still taken a full minute before Alex had cooled down and backed off. Damned if that spit-in-your-eye loyalty hadn’t been further confirmation that Walker had chosen well.

For the duration of the short trip to San Diego, Alex had kept Goff sitting on his ass, flex-cuffed to the railing on the far end of the aft deck. He’d only uncuffed the rat bastard twice, once to escort Goff to the head, then when he’d allowed Goff ten minutes to eat. Not one second more. Then back into flex cuffs Goff went to await judgement day.

If it’d been up to Walker, he would’ve keelhauled Goff for the duration of the trip home. But common sense and his innate sense of honor demanded he prove to the world and to Alex that, above all, he was everything Goff was not. Honest. A vow-keeper, not a vow-breaker. That he’d only ever supported and defended the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That, like Alex Stewart, he’d done the job America had asked of him.

Turned out the Senator and Alex were good for their word. The moment they’d put Puerta Vallarta in the rearview, Senator Sullivan had called the Secretary of Defense and provided all the evidence his and Alex’s teams had uncovered. Every last detail. About the bogus trial. The human trafficking. The gangs in Guatemala. Officer Bruno’s disappearance. Renzo’s suspicious suicide. Persia’s abduction. The fact that Goff had also bribed the ICC judge. Hans Koning was the one who’d discovered that. He was another unexpected ally in what had become an all-out battle for Walker’s freedom and his life.

The Sec Def had taken it from there. Yesterday’s morning news had reported he’d fired his underling, the Secretary of the Navy. Not that the man had known what Peckering and Goff were into, but purely on principal. As the top naval officer, the Secretary of the Navy was responsible for everything that went down on his watch. Turned out, the Sec Def was especially pissed the Navy had been depriving quite a few American sailors of their rights to fair trials. Apparently, Walker Judge wasn’t the first accused of crimes he hadn’t committed, but the Sec Def was adamant that he would be the last.

As always, America’s talking heads were spinning the blatant corruption under Admiral Peckering’s command. NCIS, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, was also under hot and heavy scrutiny, not only by the US Attorney General, but by the very press they’d leaked all their slanderous lies about Walker Judge to. But that was the media for you. Ready to turn on anyone, even their buddies, if it made a buck.

By the time Persia Smiles purred into San Diego Harbor, Captain Spenser Cole, the presiding judge over Walker’s trial, had been called in to answer to the US Attorney General for his too-close association with Prince Khalid, as well as the US contracts that had come out of the now-suspect program management review years earlier.

McQueen seemed to have enough clout to make heads roll and do it quickly. The Navy prosecutor overseeing Walker’s trial, Commander John Cudahy, had failed to show that morning when summoned to the Sec Def’s office in the Pentagon. The Coast Guard had already found his body, floating offshore near Chula Vista. There was no evidence of foul play. Investigations were pending.

But Miss Sunday Night Breeze had no trouble making plenty of statements on last night’s late-night propaganda show. Where Walker had once made a typical-male error in hooking up with her, Commander John Cudahy had turned his male stupidity into a fine art. He’d proposed to Breeze. She had a ring to prove it. And a prenup! No wonder he’d committed suicide. Allegedly committed suicide, that is…

Lieutenant Cameron Kroft, who’d never seen combat and shouldn’t have been assigned to defend a Navy SEAL, had been