Free A Shepherd's Calling (What Comes After Book 2) by Peter Carrier Page B

Outside your pay-grade?” Tom offered.
    Apparently finished with his check of the immediate area, the officer returned his focus to the way ahead. Vargas nodded. “Indeed. There are a host of psychologists, sociologists, professors and others far more qualified than us lowly grunts who can tell you what happened and why. No doubt they will when we get you back to the city.” Distaste was painted across Vargas' face.
    “ They had their reasons, sir.” Turner said this quietly and not without respect.
    “ They certainly did.” The Major frowned as he spoke, and Tom was sorely pressed to remember hearing three words spoken with more careful, deliberate neutrality.
    Silence again fell on the group, and in that quiet, they shifted positions and re-checked their surroundings, adjusted their spacing. They tried to spot the other marines moving through the forest around them. After a few minutes of this, Major Vargas addressed Tom. “Mr. DuPuis, I hope you understand... we really had no idea you were at the farm. If we had, things would have gone very, very differently.”
    Tom agreed. We would have met under very different circumstances . Angie and Greg might have survived. Janessa and Toby probably wouldn't have . The thoughts, unbidden and painful, pulled at his throat and stomach. He banished it with his next breath. “I believe you.”
    There was another pause, this one shorter but no less awkward. The Shepherd glanced back at the siblings as he asked a question. “How long had you known?”
    “ Long enough,” the officer answered. “We'd been gathering intelligence on that place for years. We took our findings directly to Division, who forwarded it on to Command. Due to the offenders being civilians, J.A.G. couldn't process. Had to be turned over to the F.B.I., instead. Six months later we still hadn't heard anything, so I ask my immediate superior who's going after those sons of bitches. You know what he tells me?”
    Tom shook his head. “No, but I think I see where it's going.”
    “ The acting Attorney General declined to prosecute. 'Insufficient evidence'. Guess a border drawn with bones and skulls was 'too vague'. A mass grave for the unused bones, deliberately cut and broken, was 'inconclusive'. Images of people being led into an empty room they never emerge from, but is suddenly filled with curing meat, was 'subject to interpretation'. Not even proof enough to send in a team to extract a few residents and conduct an on-site interview.” Vargas ground his teeth. “Just thinking about it gets my blood up.”
    “ But you found a way,” the Shepherd prompted. He noticed Chris moving up to join them.
    The marine nodded. “We had to be careful, though. The rules of engagement where civilians are concerned are very strict and very clear. Not open to interpretation. Between after action reports and the quartermasters munition tallies, we need to be fairly accurate with what we log 'used in the field' and why.”
    “ Always a chance someone sees us, too,” Turner said while patting the radio on his back.
    The Major grunted in agreement. “That's right. But if we did it a bit differently... well, who would argue with the results?”
    It was Tom's turn to frown. “I don't understand. How would someone else be able to see what you were doing out here?”
    “ I'm confused, too,” Chris said quietly. When Tom said nothing, the older man no doubt took the Shepherd's silence as approval to continue. “Even if there was a satellite fixed on your location, with a team of observers dedicated and ready, they'd be sorely pressed to know who started what. If there were Turned in the mix, how could you be held accountable for anything other than the safety of your men?”
    “ Satellite info is spotty: bad reception, inconsistent images, data corruption. It's good for buildings, roads, geography and topography. Things that are sizable and in a fixed location. Too much of our satellite recon comes from outside