doing, so the officers let her call the shots, everywhere except the operating room.
Sanchez had seen it all in her time on the base. Presidents, vice presidents, cabinet members, generals from every service, admirals, rock stars, movie stars, and comedians. They all came with their entourages and even though they meant well, they were all a pain in the ass. Sanchez had made it very clear to the people down at the front desk that when these groups came through, they were not to be sent to her floor. Send them to see the patients with broken bones and bullet holes, but leave her head trauma patients the hell alone.
The first thing she did was draw the index finger of her left hand up in front of her mouth and shush the entire group of men. Having silenced the crowd, she headed for a man who had made it around the desk and had pushed his head into one of the rooms. The agent, caught in no-man's-land, didn't know what to do, so he stood there frozen in the doorway. Sanchez swatted him in the ass as if he were a three-year-old boy who had just run out in the street. When the agent turned to protest, Sanchez grabbed him by the tie and yanked him down the hall and back to the area on the other side of the desk.
Keeping her voice down but her intensity extremely high, Sanchez hissed, "Do you people think you're at the zoo? My patients are just animals . . . you can just walk in here, loud as hell, and start poking around?"
Wilson stepped forward with a scowl on his face and his credentials in his left hand. "Listen here, lady. We're here on official FBI business. I need to speak to one of your patients, and I need to speak to him right now."
"Lady?" The word flew out of Sanchez's round little mouth like a counterpunch. "You see this here?" She swung her left shoulder around so Wilson had a clear view. "It's not 'lady,' it's Command Master Sergeant Sanchez."
Wilson still didn't get it. He rolled his eyes and said, "I don't have time for this. I am running a very important investigation. Get out of my way or - "
"Or you'll what?" Sanchez stepped forward and poked Wilson at the base of his sternum, right above his solar plexus.
Wilson retreated two quick steps and brought his hand up in case she tried again. "You just assaulted a federal agent."
"Then arrest me, you big pussy."
"I'm not going to warn you again."
Without turning, Sanchez called to one of the nurses, "Amanda, get base security up here right now."
"Listen, la - " Wilson almost said "lady," but stopped himself and then noticed the name tag on this crazy woman's ample breast. "Ms. Sanchez, this is a federal facility. We work for the FBI. We have jurisdiction over this base."
"The hell you do," Sanchez laughed in his face, "and it's Command Master Sergeant Sanchez, Special Agent Dumbass, or whatever your name is. I have been in this man's United States Air Force for thirty years and I know every regulation from top to bottom. Did you check in with USAF Security Forces when you came on base?" She paused a beat to see if he could muster an answer, which he couldn't. "Of course you didn't. Are you working with the USAF Office of Special Investigations?"
Wilson knew he was in trouble and managed to look at one of the special agents who was assigned to the base to see if he could offer a little assistance. The man shrugged and shook his head. "Command Master Sergeant Sanchez, I run the Counterintelligence Division at the FBI. This is a national security issue and if you don't step aside, I'm going to have to have you arrested."
Sanchez raised her fist again as if she might strike him. "I can't seem to get it through your thick head - you are not in charge here. I am."
"I am a federal - "
"I don't give a rat's ass who you are. You are not authorized to be on my floor."
"But - "
"But nothing. You've got two strikes and that means you only have one more chance. Here comes the third pitch, and my guess is you're gonna whiff on this one just like the first two." Sanchez held up the stubby index finger on her right hand, started with the first man on her left and then continued around