Free Secret Sanction by Brian Haig Page B

“Any other questions?”
    Morrow inched forward in her chair.“Could you tell us why the First Battalion is called the old-timers’ club?”
    The general’s right eyebrow sort of notched up.“That? Well, it’s an old tradition with some of the sergeants in the Group. It’s harmless, really. It’s kind of a natural evolution to want to move up to a unit that has a little higher standards, that’s a little more challenging.”
    “Is this encouraged within the command?”
    “It’s sergeant’s business, handled by the sergeant majors within the Group. There’s no official policy on it.”
    “Is it a good thing?” she asked.
    “I think it has its advantages, yes. The men seem to like it. And I can tell you from my perspective, it’s a damned good thing to have one unit that’s totally reliable, that you can put in to handle the really tough missions.”
    She shot me a quick sideways glance, a kind of triumphant look.
    Delbert, the prosecutor, took his shot. “Sir, could you tell us who ordered the arrests of Terry Sanchez and his men?”
    “I did.”
    “What chain of events led to that decision?”
    “When Milosevic and his people began holding daily press conferences, we realized that something had happened.”
    “But how did you narrow it down to Sanchez’s team?” “Simple, really. The corpses were found inside what we call Zone Three. That’s where Sanchez’s team was operating.”
    “Did you order his team out?”
    “I didn’t have to. They had extricated three or four days before I ordered their arrests.”
    “Why did they extricate?”
    “Because the Kosovar unit they were training were all dead.” “How long had they been dead?”
    “Three or four days.”
    “When their Kosovars were killed, didn’t they report that immediately?”
    “I believe they did. I’d have to check the operations logs to see exactly when they reported it, but I think so.”
    “Then why weren’t they ordered to extricate at that point?”
    “Because I made a decision to leave them in place.”
    “Why?”
    “Because, after their Kosovars were ambushed, Terry automatically relocated his team to a new base camp, one known only to his team. Their safety wasn’t at issue.”
    “I’m sorry. I don’t understand.”
    “We’re training more Kosovar guerrilla units, and when we infiltrate those units into Kosovo, we might have wanted to use Sanchez’s team to perform the same Guardian Angel function with a new team. I hadn’t made a decision yet. I was keeping my options open.”
    I said, “How is morale in the unit, General?”
    “Great. In fact, as high as I’ve ever seen.”
    “Why so high?”
    He offered us a very humble smile and genuflected ever so slightly.“I’d like to take credit for it, but the truth is that soldiers are always happiest when they’re in action.”
    “No disillusionment with the mission?”
    “These are soldiers, Major. They don’t question the mission.” Like hell they don’t. Personally, I’d never met a soldier yet who didn’t spend every waking hour dissecting every aspect of the mission and moaning miserably about the complete idiots who designed it. Anyway, I said, “I heard you’ve had a suicide and an attempted suicide.”
    “Every unit has suicides.”
    “True, but you’ve had one successful and one attempt in only a few months.”
    His eyes got real narrow.“Look, Major, the Group hadn’t had a suicide for three years. Our number came up. I don’t mean to sound cavalier, but go study any unit and you’ll see we’re way below average.”
    “You must’ve investigated the causes of the suicides?”
    “An investigating officer was appointed in the case of the successful one.”
    “And what did he find?”
    “The man was a staff sergeant with serious marital problems. He had a son with Down’s syndrome. He had a drinking problem, and his peers afterward described him as a borderline manic-depressive.”
    “And the attempted