Sleep came quickly and was filled with visions of his wife Gloria. She was holding a baby boy in her arms, while little Mary clung to her pant leg. They all looked happy and he recognized the house where he grew up in the background. More scenes came after that, all happy and healthy. At some point Gloria looked up at him and smiled.

When he woke up he had a headache and his right eye would not open. Sitting up caused a new pain, making him think he had broken his tail bone. He found a bathrobe in his room and went to take a shower. After that he found Gomez and Blair in the kitchen. They gave him breakfast and filled him in on what was going on. Telini and Stander had gone to see about grain shipments, while Roquette went to the hospital to check on Derrik. A hot drink helped to clear his head, but the food went down slowly. He was pondering his dreams as he chewed, when Gomez handed him a cold fizzy drink.

“What’s this?” Lewis mouthed.

“I’m hoping this will help settle your stomach,” Gomez said, going back to the stove. “Come on, drink it.” He drained the contents and set the glass down.

“You know,” said Lewis, punctuated by a burp. “I had some strange dreams last night.”

“Really,” Gomez sounded interested, wiping her hands and coming over to sit on the table. “Do tell.” He described his dreams in as much detail as he could recall. Then he told her that while he felt like a reaper had chewed on his head and could barely sit down, and yet his nerves felt better than they had in a long time.

“It sounds to me like she’s telling you she’s doing OK,” Gomez told him, sounding very serious.

“Let’s go see Major Hardwin,” Lewis suggested. “Hopefully they have those guys in custody, how many were there?”

“Two,” Blair answered. “That’s all I saw.”

At Hardwin’s office, the secretary squinted at them through her thick lenses. It was obvious that they had interrupted her train of thought. At least six ledger books were spread around her desk, all open and facing toward her, and she had been jotting numbers in a notebook. “May I help you?” She asked mechanically, setting down her pen like she had been defeated.

“Is Major Hardwin in?” Lewis queried.

“Do you have an appointment?” She shot back.

“No, Private, I do not.” Lewis winked with his good eye. “My name is Lieutenant Lewis and I just came by to say hello, but if he’s too busy I’ll leave him a message.”

She stood up suddenly.

“I’m sorry Sir,” she stammered. “I didn’t know, I’ll go check,” she went to the door and stuck her head in. “Excuse me Sir; Lieutenant Lewis is here to see you.”

“Send him in,” Hardwin’s voice said. Hardwin’s office was spartan, with just a few metals and certificates on the wall. There were two chairs facing the desk, he gestured toward the chairs. Blair and Gomez sat, while Lewis stood between them. Hardwin puffed on a pipe and finished signing a paper, then set it aside. He looked up at Lewis his face devoid of expression.

“You look like crap, son,” he commented.

“That’s what I said,” Blair whispered.

“Pardon me?” Hardwin inquired.

“Sorry Sir,” Blair said. “Nothing Sir.”

“Hmm,” Hardwin turned back to Lewis. “Did you have a prior problem with those men?”

“No Sir,” Lewis answered. “I didn’t recognize either of them. But they either attacked the wrong guy or they were irritated about something I did. I’ve been thinking about it, but I can’t seem to come up with what that might be.”

“May I call in a man who we pay to think about these things?” The major asked.

“Certainly,” Lewis agreed.

“Private Ellsworth,” Hardwin said loudly. “Please call the investigator in. May I offer you a drink?” They all nodded, and he picked up some glasses from his desk and poured everyone a glass of pure water.

“Not easy to come by, clean water,” he said. “Ah, here he is now. Meet Captain Weal. Captain, this is Lieutenant Lewis, Staff Sergeant Gomez and Sergeant Blair.”

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Gomez and Blair rose and stood at attention; Weal nodded at them and shook Lewis’ hand.

“Heard you had some trouble at the shield,” Weal said. “Sorry about your face.”

“Oh, well,” Lewis chuckled. “It’s just lucky I had friends watching my back.”

“At ease you two,” Hardwin said, nodding at the chairs. Gomez and Blair sat back down.

Weal had each of them explain what happened and then he asked questions to clarify points. When he was finished, he told Lewis that he would get a copy of the summary report. Lewis asked if they knew who the guys were who attacked him.

“Yes, we’ve been trying to catch one of them, Gavin Mortimer, for a long time he is implicated in several high level criminal schemes. We even have reason to believe he was involved in an attempted bombing at our headquarters in Fort Wutanna. He may have assassinated a major in Ladzoo’s defense force a few years back,” Weal said. “The other fellow whose name, we think, is David Sandlin, is your basic street tough. He does odd jobs, here and in the maze, anything from collecting debts to unplugging toilets. They both denied any wrong doing and claim not to know each other. This investigation could take a long time, but we need to establish a chain of events that led to the altercation in the head last night.”

“Are you able to speculate on a couple of things for me?” Lewis asked.

“I suppose,” Weal answered. “What’s on your mind?”

“Well,” Lewis thought about how to ask his question and then said. “If that guy, Mortimer? Anyway if he’s as good at what he does as you say, then why did he fail last night?”

“We will do a post action analysis later, and maybe he’ll tell us at some point,” Weal opined. “All we can do at this point is guess. However, maybe you showed up before he was ready. Also your back up arrived very shortly after you did, from the sound of it he might still have been able to pull it off. Then the other soldiers showed up and really messed up his plans.”

“Why was he miffed at me?” Lewis asked. “It didn’t feel like it was a coincidence that he was there when I arrived.”

“I’m here to look into the missing grain shipments,” Weal told him. “And it could be that there is a connection. If it was high jacked and stolen, that’s one thing. However if the point of it was to keep it from getting to Port Mist, well let’s just say DeLeah Shipping is messing that up.”

“So then,” Lewis said. “Do you know who is responsible for sinking those ships?”

“Not exactly, but we have some leads,” Weal said. “Your little incident might put us closer to understanding what happened. Now if you don’t mind I’d like to ask you some questions.”

“Go ahead,” Lewis told him.

“We have been advised to consider you as general staff to the DeLeahs and Ascore and treat you as a VIP.” Weal looked solemn. “That’s all well and good. Then your man in Port Mist applied for and received a business license for Romeo Company, specializing in Security Services and named you as the CEO. We don’t treat mercenaries as VIPs very often, so what’s going on?”

“We work for the DeLeahs, and we will still do. Staff Sergeant Rollins, my man in Port Mist as you called him, had some experience offering security services to a civilian population,” Lewis informed him. “So we figured we would try that on the side. As for being general staff, I’m not sure what the DeLeahs told Sir Trun. I’m just a first lieutenant, not a general. So you tell me, what’s going on?”

“They must think highly of you, and Sir Trun had a good impression of them. That much is apparent from his letter. He is our observer of potential new independents,” Weal said. “So we are bound by Sir Trun’s letter to treat you as a visiting dignitary from the potential new independent, Ascore. Rest assured we will do everything in our power to find out why you were attacked while in our care. Furthermore, if I were you, I would think hard before making the DeLeah’s, or Ascore signatories to any further move on your part toward becoming a military or paramilitary organization. Be careful not to commit your co-signers to a fight that they don’t have the resources to engage in, for we are not bound to step into a conflict between two independents. You can, and I dare say, must defend yourself against violence or attacks, but do consider the consequences of putting any of our protectorates at serious risk. After the big war things were a mess, but it is getting better. What I mean is that all across the islands citizens are now more likely to live to become productive adults, and when they do it advances our cause. The last thing we need is a new destabilizing force.”

“Back home, we went all over the world doing things that plain old soldiers woulda messed up…” Blair said, trailing off as Gomez thrust her elbow into his ribs, Blair glared at Gomez and Weal ignored it.

“Is that true?” He asked Lewis.

“Our specialty is sneak and peek, not all out assault. Our training allowed us proficiency with all available weapon systems and diplomacy as well. We were sent to deal with guerilla activity in hot spots, or as bodyguards, security back-up for military installations, and advisers to lesser trained militaries.” Lewis answered. “It’s true that we are not fully educated or aware of the situation here. But I believe Team Romeo, or the Romeo Company, is uniquely qualified to integrate into this scenario. We are not here to cause problems for the Defenders; we want to be your allies. Let’s be clear though, we are here, and we don’t intent to disband or retire.”

Weal just nodded, looking like he was deep in thought. Hardwin leaned forward, and fixed them with a serious look. Lewis thought he saw a hint of amusement.

“Answer me this, son,” Hardwin’s voice was all business. “What specifically, is your relationship with the DeLeah’s. And does that differ from your relationship with Ascore?”

“The DeLeah’s are our employers, but they are not a military organization. Therefore the terms of employment are quite a bit looser than we are used to normally. Ascore is probably too new to be considered an entity unto itself.”

“Fair enough,” Hardwin said. “Just out of curiosity, what are the wings for?”

“We’re qualified to jump out of flying vehicles,” Lewis informed him, enjoying the shock on the two officers’ faces for the split second that it lasted.

“Captain Weal, have we gotten what we need out of these folks?” Hardwin asked.

"Yes major,” Weal said. “Thank you Lieutenant Lewis.”