Wilson nodded back. “Good. What can I do for you?”
Weed gathered his thoughts. “Our friendship is important to me.”
“Me, too.”
“I have a job to do.”
“Doing it well from what I can see.”
As Weed hesitated, Wilson eyed him with disdain.
“I’m not sure why I came here, or what I was going to say, because…. Well, I’m here. And I want to…. How’s the squadron?”
“Fine,” Wilson answered. “Our new intel officer is the talk of the ship, and I can see the sharks circling. Stretch, Blade, and Olive are doing well. I’m concerned about one of my chiefs. The usual stuff.”
“I miss it,” Weed said.
“Then why did you leave it?” Wilson raged, surprising both of them with his intensity. “You were on track for command! You’d be here now with your own squadron, and don’t give me that bullshit guilt trip that it’s my fault!”
Weed shot back. “You tell me, Skipper. I wasn’t privy to the screen board results that selected you and not me. I went to operational test because I couldn’t get out of the damn Pentagon fast enough! Maybe that’s it. I got off the fucking career track because I couldn’t put up with the bullshit in the five-sided wind tunnel. Glad you could.”
“You think you’re making a difference?”
“I know I am.”
“At what cost? You’ve become an executioner.”
Weed shook his head. “Ha, and you aren’t? How about that truck you turned into Swiss cheese in Iraq? You didn’t give them a chance.”
Knowing Weed was right, Wilson didn’t have an answer.
“I thought so, Mister Holier-Than-Thou. You don’t want a fair fight. None of us do. The cartels don’t fight fair with uniforms and set-piece movements, but they’re fighting us and winning! How old is Derrick now? Ten? Eleven? Given the chance, they are going to poison him. And you are going to let them do that to your son because you follow fucked-up rules generated by lawyers. They don’t.”
“Are we a country of laws or not?” Wilson asked.
“Yes, and I am following them! Just because the news networks aren’t here doesn’t change that. You live by need-to-know, and they don’t need to fucking know! Hell yeah I’m following orders, valid orders delivered by National Command Authority, reviewed and blessed by the damn lawyers. You’re pissed because you’re missing out on the fun. Well, you’re the CO with a formal photo, twelve-piece band at your change of command, following your orders and tasking, a bright future in uniform ahead of you… you earned it so be happy with that. I’m happy with my lot…making a difference and protecting our kids.”
“You could have been a CO,” said Wilson.