Battleground

20

Blake Murdock squirmed in the metal chair at the small white-painted table across from his mother, who had that cat-canary expression he'd seen several times before. He glanced at his wristwatch.

"Look, Mom, it's almost one o'clock. She isn't coming. Hey, I've been stood up before. Let's order, eat, and get out of here."

Mrs. Ruth Mae Murdock smiled at her son. "You're getting more and more like your father every year. I swear he's said the same thing a dozen times when someone is a couple of minutes late. She's a busy lady. She probably is running a little behind on her schedule."

Murdock shifted in his chair and took a long breath. He'd rather face down a charging knife-swinging terrorist any day than have a lunch with his mother and one of her blind dates for him.

"Mom, you're sure this is the same girl Dad sent the picture of to me?"

"Yes. Now relax. She's Ardith Manchester, daughter of Senator Manchester. Same girl. Lovely, and brilliant from all I've heard. I've met her a few times. She's a fine young woman."

"Sounds like the kiss of death, Mom. Remember Harriet? Now there was a perfectly fine young woman."

His mother laughed softly. "Yes, that was a mistake. How did I know she was two months pregnant at the time? Ardith is different."

She stopped talking, and looked past him. Murdock turned, then stumbled as he stood up quickly, and almost knocked over the metal chair.

Ardith Manchester came toward him moving like a dancer. She was prettier than her picture. Blonde hair like gold swept around her shoulders. She wore a light blue suit that showed just enough of her slim figure to be intriguing. Blue eyes were laughing at him as she came to a stop between him and his mother. Her face had delightful high cheekbones without being obnoxious about it, clean brows, and a smile that dazzled.

"Mrs. Murdock," she said, her voice just a little husky, yet smooth and mellow. "Sorry I'm late. That committee hearing just never ended." She turned, and looked at Murdock.

"So, from what your father tells me, you must be the famous Navy guy Blake. Right?"

"Yes, ma'am. I'm not famous, but I am Navy. Here, a chair." He was sweating, flustered, unsure of himself, acting like a sailor on his first date. He held the chair, and edged it into the table, then sat down.

"So good to see you again, Ardith," Mrs. Murdock said. "Blake here was sure you wouldn't arrive."

She looked at him, and lifted her brows. "Men are always in a rush, except when it comes to committee meetings."

"A Senate committee meeting on Saturday?" Blake asked.

"Appropriations. They are having problems. Big push. But no more of that. Lieutenant Murdock, I understand you just love the Navy."

He at last found his real voice. "Yes, absolutely. Mother tells me you're a lawyer, and about to be snapped up by some cabinet member as an under secretary."

She smiled. "I wouldn't know about that. I just try to do my job the best way I can. What do you do in the Navy?"

Murdock had a stock answer for that one with any civilian. "I have a friend who is with the FBI. When anyone asks him what he does with the bureau, he says he'd be glad to tell them, but then he'd have to kill them."

She laughed, and he liked the sound of it, the way it made her face light up. "I see. So it's secret stuff. Yes, I can understand that. It must be a wonderful job that keeps you in the Navy. I know your father wants to get you into politics. Your father could give you a big push up the ladder."

"Politics isn't really of much interest to me. You make the laws, I'll help the Navy keep us safe."

"Now there is a really great line. I'll remember that."

Mrs. Murdock spoke up. "Oh, goodness sakes, I nearly forgot. I have a hair appointment. If I miss it I may never get another time with Rene. You know how touchy he is. You have to pay for it if you miss, so I might as well hurry over there."

She turned to her son. "Blake, dear. I do hope you don't mind my leaving you this way. I thought I'd have time. I really did. You'll excuse me, won't you, Ardith?"

"Yes, of course. I've never met this man before, but he does look civilized, and we're in a public place. I don't think he'll use any of those vicious military weapons on me. You run along and don't disappoint Rene."

Mrs. Murdock stood, and Blake hurried to his feet. His mother leaned in for a kiss on the cheek from him. Then she walked away through the tables. Blake sat down.

"Ardith, forgive my mother. She probably doesn't have a hair appointment at all. She's one of the all-time persistent matchmakers."

Ardith watched him from soft blue eyes. She smiled. "I hope you don't mind too much my being dumped on you this way."

He laughed. "Not at all. Usually I don't have any trouble meeting pretty girls, but my mother…"

"I understand you're here on leave after your last deployment."

"Yes. I have two weeks, so I thought I'd see the folks again. I'm stationed out in California."

"Your father told me. Coronado, to be exact. Isn't that where there's a Navy Special Warfare Detachment?"

"Right. Most people don't know that."

"The senator likes to keep up on the military. He was an Army pilot back a few years."

"Coronado is a real Navy town. It has North Island Naval Air Station and a batch of other Navy facilities. Nice little place, about thirty thousand people, and no room to get any larger."

"You live there?"

"I have an apartment off base."

A waiter hovered, and they took menus and ordered.

They ate, but Murdock didn't remember what it was. They tarried over a second coffee, and he found himself relaxed, and enjoying himself. This was a remarkable woman.

"How did you get so smart?" he asked.

Ardith looked up at him with curiosity, then glanced away.

"Oh, dear. I feel like a first-year law student sitting in on her first real murder case. Not exactly embarrassed. More than a little surprised, and pleased, and mostly glad that you didn't cut and run as soon as the dessert was over. I'm not all that smart. I try to pick my spots, I try to know as much about a subject or a person as I can before I meet them, and I do have a retentive mind. My memory doesn't often fail me. My speech is over."

Murdock realized he was smiling. "So you researched me when Mom set up this little meeting, and you came anyway.

Blue eyes looked down at the table. "Yes, I know something about you. I've known your father for several years. Frankly, I was curious to meet you. Oh, I did like your picture."

"Picture?"

"Your mother sent me one about a month ago." Murdock laughed with enthusiasm. "Yes, I bet she did. My dad sent me your picture through a top-secret fax machine when I was in the China Sea."

They both laughed.

He caught the waiter's attention and asked for the check.

"It's already been taken care of, sir. The lady who had been at your table."

"Mom strikes again," Murdock said. He stood, and helped Ardith from her chair. She put her hand on his arm as they walked out of the restaurant. Her hand felt good, and it seem natural for it to be there.

That afternoon they walked Washington like two tourists. They both had seen it all many times before, but somehow this was different. Murdock couldn't remember when he had enjoyed himself so much.

There were three more stops for coffee at those little coffee bars that had cropped up. They talked.

"Hey, you know what I just realized?" Murdock said. "We've been jabbering away, and what we're each doing is laying out our life's story for each other. This is first-date kind of talk, do you realize that?"

She smiled, and Murdock melted a little more.

"I figured that out about five minutes ago," she said. "So much for my quick study. I don't want anything to be quick when I'm with you, Lieutenant Murdock."

He reached across and took her hand. "What in the world is happening here, Miss Manchester?"

"I'm not sure I want to evaluate it right now, Lieutenant Murdock."

He looked into her blue eyes, and she stared back at him. Her hand gripped his harder, and then relaxed.

"Are you involved with anyone?" he asked.

"No. I date now and then, but I've been too busy, too rushed to get my career moving. Law school was a terror, then the bar exam and a year in a Portland law firm, and then a bid to work here in the center of the whole universe." She paused. "You almost got married once."

"Yes. I was totally mystified, and thrilled, and desperately in love with that lady. I still miss her."

"That's good. You should never forget her."

"You must know the whole story."

"Your mother told me when I asked."

"Any close calls for you and matrimony?"

"Not really. One guy thought it would be a good idea, but that was our last year of law school, and the studies just washed us away from each other."

"Sounds like confession time," Murdock said.

"Almost. I know what work you do."

"If you're not cleared, I may have to kill you," he said.

She smiled. "You're not that top-secret. Just hush-hush. Your father told me. He worries about you. How is that shrapnel wound, all healed up?"

He laughed. "You heard about that too? My major embarrassment. My men called me old Iron Ass. I'm going to have to have a long talk with my parents. Yes, yes, all healed. Not more than a pound or two of Chinese shrapnel still in my hindside."

Ardith sobered, frowned slightly, and put both her hands over his.

"You like the work you're doing with the Navy?"

He watched her closely. Was she curious, concerned, or was it something more? "Yes. I'm doing a job that needs to be done. Not a lot of people around who can do what me and my men do. For that reason, there is a great satisfaction in it."

"But it's so dangerous. Not just once, but several times, you've been in great danger."

He grinned. This was more familiar ground. "Hey, it's dangerous in this town just walking across the street. Or you could have your car hijacked and be shot dead at any intersection. Danger is where you find it. When we go into action, we are remarkably well prepared and ready for any danger we get into."

Ardith sipped her coffee and nodded slowly. "Yes, that's about what your father told me you'd say."

They sat there working on their coffee and watching each other. For a time they didn't say a word.

"We could go somewhere and get out of the weather," Ardith said.

"Like shopping or a movie?"

She shook her head. "No, I was thinking about my place. I'm not a bad cook. How about really doing something dangerous and taking a try at one of my home-cooked dinners?"

"Oh, yes, fine idea," Murdock said.

Ardith Manchester, daughter of the senior Oregon senator, smiled and said, "Good."

A half hour later, Ardith led him into the fourth-floor apartment in one of the better sections of Arlington just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. It had two bedrooms, a big bathroom, a working kitchen, a living room, and a den.

"I used to have a roommate, but last year we both could afford to have our own places, so she moved to an apartment of her own."

She dropped her coat on the sofa and went to the kitchen. He put down his coat and followed.

Ardith turned. "So, will it be coq au vin, spaghetti and meatballs, or steak and country vegetables?"

"No TV frozen dinners?"

"I save them for company I don't like."

"I'm partial to a good steak."

"I just happen to have some T-bones I've been saving. Don't worry, I love to cook, really. I usually don't have much time. I'm going to call my father and tell him I'm taking the next week off." She watched him closely. "I hear you have a two-week leave."

"True.

"I hope you'll be spending the first week here in the D.C. area."

Murdock smiled, and couldn't help but chuckle. "That's what I had in mind. Unless you'd rather I be somewhere else."

She reached up, kissed him quickly on the lips, and pulled back. "No, I want you right here. Now, go do some man thing while I cook."

The dinner was a mouth-watering success. He had watched, and helped some with the preparation. Ardith brought out the tall candles, and turned down the lights, and had just the right red wine.

"If you ever need a job as a cook, I know where there's an opening. It's in Coronado."

Ardith grinned, and passed him a special ice cream dessert topped with whipped cream and a red maraschino cherry. Beside the dish were two soda crackers.

"The crackers, in case you aren't from mid-America, are to create a delicious contrast with the sweetness of the ice cream. Try it, it's really interesting. I learned this from a little old lady in Shelby, Nebraska."

Later they started a blaze in the fireplace, and sat on the sofa watching it.

"I love watching a fire," Ardith said. "It's like discovering a small bit of the universe. Like a star going supernova, blazing up in a blinding brilliance, and then fading, and dying out to a huge ash somewhere out there in the universe where nobody can see it anymore. Look at that small stick. It blazes up, then glows red for a moment, then it's nothing but a falling line of ashes."

"A philosopher too," Murdock said.

He pulled her closer and kissed her gently on the lips. She eased away and looked at him, then returned the kiss, hard and insistent and with an urgent need.

They eased to the side until she lay on the couch and he was half on top of her. Ardith smiled, and traced one of his eyebrows with her finger.

"Hey, nice. Now please kiss me again."

The next morning, which was Sunday, Murdock made eggs ranchero for them for breakfast, and they figured out what they would do that day, which was a bit warmer than usual.

On Tuesday they called on Representative Charles Fitzhugh Murdock in the House Office Building. The congressman was in the middle of a floor fight before a roll call vote on a money bill he had been working on for two months.

He had the phone on a shoulder mount, and was working hard.

"Yes, Gunderson, I know you represent some of the people who will be affected, and that's why I say you should support the bill. It will bring stability to the area, it will mean better markets for the farmers, and more availability of raw materials for those producers in your area who need them. It's a win-win situation. Can I count on your vote at four o'clock?" The congressman paused, and waved at his son and Ardith.

"Good, Gunderson, you bet I owe you one for this. I'm a man who always pays my debts. Yes, you can put one of those damned red three-by-five cards up on your tote board. I never forget a friend or a favor. See you at four." He hung up, and turned to Blake and Ardith.

"Well, well, well. I see that picture I sent you did some good."

Blake shook his head. "It was really a bad picture, didn't do this lady justice at all." They sat down in the chairs near the desk.

"Looks like you're hard at work in the trenches, Dad."

"Roll call vote coming up on Bill 4439. I want that sucker. Working my tail off. You two want to make some calls for me?"

"Afraid I'm not all that good on a phone, Dad. Just wanted to be sure you and Mom are still on for that dinner tonight on me. I've got reservations and the whole thing."

"We'll be there. Let you know how the vote comes out." His phone buzzed, and he picked it up.

"Stan, good to hear from you. Now, about that bill I've been working so hard on."

Murdock and Ardith stood and went to the outer office.

"Is it always this way?" Murdock asked the assistant at the front desk.

"This is an easy day," she said. "He said he was glad you dropped in."

That afternoon they checked in at Senator Manchester's office and met the Oregonian. He was small and gray, older than Murdock had guessed, but with a lean, hungry appearance that told you he got things done, and done the right way. Senator Manchester was warm and gracious, and Murdock liked him at once. They made a date for dinner three days hence, and then Murdock and Ardith went back to her Virginia apartment.

The two weeks slammed past so quickly that Murdock couldn't believe it. He had a last dinner with his parents and Ardith at his parents' home, and a long good-bye with Ardith that night. The next morning he hitchhiked a ride on a MATTs plane out of Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, and set down in San Francisco.

He realized that he hadn't thought about his SEALs more than twice during the whole leave. Ardith was more than he had expected. He wondered just where they were going. They had left it open-ended. He knew she hated what he was doing, from the standpoint of danger if nothing else. He'd half convinced her that it wasn't all that dangerous, but he wasn't sure that she would accept that for long.

At last she had looked down at him and kissed him softly. "Look, I know what you do, and I'll freeze up with terror every time something happens in the world and I know you're going to be there. I'll endure it. I'll hate it. I'll put up with it to be with you. But one of these days I hope that you'll decide that you've done enough for your country in the Navy, and that it's time for you to serve in some other way, or to get out of government service and go in a different direction. That's what I'll be hoping."

He had gone over it a dozen times as he flew to San Francisco. Now he was waiting for a Navy plane to take off for North Island. He'd be home in a few hours. For the first time in two weeks he wondered how DeWitt was doing in the training sessions he had laid out for the platoon. They'd all deserved some time off. Each man had had his choice of a week's leave or two weeks'. Some of them had no family to go to, and felt a little uncomfortable out there in the civilian world. He knew the feeling.

It would be good to get back to Coronado and back with the SEAL program. He had a platoon to get filled up and trained as sharp as a fine saber. You never knew when a call to action might come.