Military Police Office, Joint Operations Command, Bungendore NSW

The Joint Military Police Unit (formerly the Joint Service Police Group) is the unified military police agency of the Australian Defence Force. The Joint Military Police Unit is led by the Provost Marshal who reports to the Chief of Joint Capabilities responsible for general policing, law enforcement, and the Australian Defence Force Investigative Service. Wikipedia

The AFP was providing the technical assistance, so the evidence was transferred over to them for processing. The Directorate of Military Prosecutions (DMP) would provide the prosecutor and the Defence Counsel Services (DCS) would provide the defendant’s solicitor. A parallel AFP major incident investigation would occur as one of their people had been injured.

It was agreed by all parties that handling the matter initially as a Military Court issue would simplify everything, allowing better control of the news and restricted information involved.

The case started with a briefing to cover the classified side, where once again Alexa had to provide the 'evidence' of the existence of shifters. Afterwards, Alexa did take Joey aside and point out that this had to stop, especially asking her in front of people, as that made it more difficult for her to say no. Sooner or later, the evidence would have to wholly consist of the public record. While she didn’t necessarily mind, she did feel it wasn’t very fair and a bit counterproductive.

Joey thought about this and agreed.

---***---

As a result of the initial interviews, it was agreed that Lieutenant Mbabazi had not actually committed a crime. At no stage was he informed of what action the Commander would take, nor was he complicit in the Commander's plan. He had only ever followed legal instructions from his superior.

He showed remorse over the outcomes and when asked if he felt he could continue with the taskforce, he thought he could.

When Alexa was asked if she could work with him, she asked to interview him. At the puzzled look, she simply pointed out she could tell if he was lying.

---***---

"Thanks for agreeing to talk to me, Commander Mbabazi."

"Umm, it's Lieutenant, ma'am."

"Sorry, what's your full name again?"

"Lieutenant Charles Mbabazi, ma'am."

Alexa didn’t let herself smile, but the ploy had worked. She now had a baseline to help her in reading Charles.

"Were you aware of Commander Anthony McClaine's plans to detain me?"

"No, ma... Oh, I thought you were going to ask me about him shooting you, ma'am. That I had no idea about. I suspected he was going to do something to prove you were a threat, ma'am, as I saw him pick up the cross on a chain."

"It was a crucifix, not a cross."

"There's a difference, ma'am?"

"Yes. A crucifix is 'occupied' - Christ is still on that cross. A cross is empty. So, did you know the Commander was armed?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Did you know he had the crucifix and chain?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Did you expect him to use the crucifix and chain?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Did you expect him to use the pistol?"

“No? I wasn’t sure at all what he was going to be doing. I suspected he planned to ‘expose you’ as demonic, but he had not shared his plans or thoughts with me, ma'am. Umm, after interacting with you, I expected nothing to happen."

“Why is that?”

“You didn’t seem to be anything like what I expected a demon to be.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Joey glanced across to Alexa, noting she started to blush. He supressed the grin that was trying to escape.

"So, what do you think now?"

"I don't know ma'am. It's sort of got me doubting what I believe, ma'am."

Alexa sighed. Looking at Joey, she asked, "Does Commander McClaine have a theory why the chain did not burn me?"

"Yes. You're obviously a very powerful demon, able to temporarily resist the 'purifying effects of the silver'."

Things made more and more sense to Alexa.

"Lieutenant, did the Commander ever admit that he didn't know something, or was at least partially incorrect?"

Charles thought for a moment, then said, "I don't think so, ma'am."

“Always be wary of someone who can’t admit their either fallible or at least admit they don’t know everything. Their pride will happily kill you. ‘An extremist is someone who will happily let you die for their beliefs’.

“There is a difference between power and morals. A powerful person can be moral, or an impoverished person can be immoral. The opposite is also true. Someone being paranormal will not automatically make them ‘good’ or ‘bad’. On the flip side, someone who is good or bad is not automatically paranormal.”

Alexa cocked her head to the side in thought, then asked Joey, "Do you think they're trying for a reduced criminal responsibility for the Commander?"

Joey thought for a moment and said, "Maybe?"

Alexa said, "Now I'm offended. You realise they’ll be saying that if you believe in God, you're certifiable, right?"

Joey nodded. “Yes, but it doesn't meet the three tests."

Charles said, "Three tests?"

Joey said, "For a person to have reduced criminal responsibility, they have to have no understanding of what they did, did not know what they were doing was wrong, or the person had no way of controlling their action. It's a bit more complicated than that, but that's basically the law."

Joey started laughing.

Alexa asked, "Care to share?"

"If they try to use the God or Demon defence as proof of reduced capability, I'd simply ask them if they believe in werewolves."

Alexa joined in the laughter and even Charles smiled.

With a sigh, Alexa said, “As we work together, you’ll come to know me. All I can ask for is for you to take the time to see which of us, McClaine or me, proves to be the most reasonable – or most demonic. Sorry Joey, got into preaching mode. I can work with the Lieutenant. I don't know when I'll be cleared by the AFP's psych, but once I am, we'll try this over again. OK, Lieutenant?"

"Yes, ma'am. Thanks."

Once Charles had left the room, Alexa turned to Joey and said, “I wonder when he’ll realise that he actually outranks me?”

Joey just smirked.

---***---

It felt good to be back in her department. The two days off required by the psych eval had been good, with the chance to chat with her mum and dad and help around the farm. Just the normality of it helped her to make sense of things.

Plus, as they were sponsoring a shifter refugee family for six months - to help them settle into Australia, she dived in to help with the spring clean her mum wanted to do to get the house ready. They’d be arriving sometime today, Friday.

She had unconsciously begun to think of her work group as a pack, or more correctly for an eagle, a convocation. Chatting with her parents had given her a bit more insight into her shifter-self. It was strange that the 'big reveal' had made her more of a shifter then she was before. She supposed it was not having to hide any more.

What still confused her, though, was the weird way that the various project's security levels behaved. The evidence for the existence of shifters within AFP was a PV, basically the highest level of security, for the ADF it was a level below that, NV2, but the actual work she was doing with the ADF to integrate shifters was only BC - Baseline Clearance. She’d talked to Joey about it, but all he did was shrug and say, ‘that’s a bureaucracy for you’.

Anyway, the upside to that was the meetings with the ADF could now be mostly virtual.

She set up a secure, virtual meeting within the GovTeams platform, then pinged Charles. He attached in and they started planning to take over the world, no, wait, that was next Thursday, she said to herself with a silent giggle.

"Hi Charles, ready to start our planning session?"

"Hi Alexa, you sure you’re OK?"

"Yep, let's go!"

---***---

At the end of two hours, they had crafted their plan, set their milestones, and scheduled in the first set of meetings. The next meeting of the ADF Paranormal Integration Steering Team was to be the following Tuesday and Alexa would attend in person, so they could submit the plan for approval.

She allowed herself a giggle at the acronym for the group, ADF-PIST.

Charles organised to have the whole gymnasium secured for the meeting, including the indoor pool.

Alexa signed off, saying, "Promise I won’t get shot this time?"

Charles responded, "Come on, give me a break. How long's it going to take to get some forgiveness here!"

"I'll let you know, but it’s certainly going to take a few more hot chocolates."

Charles sighed.

Alexa laughed, and said, “OK, OK. I’m just stirring you. I’m enjoying collaborating with you and, yes, I’ve forgiven you.”

Feeling very nervous, Charles said, “Umm, once things are a little more stable, would.”

Charles stopped, realising what he was about to say and what Alexa would probably reply. As much as he enjoyed her sense of humour, there were moments of frustration involved.

“I’m going to ask you out to dinner. I would…like to get to know you better.”

For once, Alexa was struck speechless.

After some extended silence, Charles said, “Alexa?”

“Ah, yeah, I don’t know what to say. Ahh, Charles, Yes?”

“Great. I’m looking forward to buying you another hot chocolate next week.”

“Bye.” Once she’d disconnected, she realised that she’d got quite fond of hot chocolate.

She blushed, again.

She spent the next three hours tracking down and talking to most of the shifters based at HQJOC (B). There were about twenty and she spoke to each and got seventeen to agree to be involved. As expected, one was in the Air force, two in the Navy and the rest were in the Army. Of the volunteers, fourteen were male and three were female.

She found an on-line store and ordered a stack of camo bathrobes, in assorted sizes, to be delivered to her home over the weekend.