Cadet 3 by Commander James Bondage

yes, right away,” Kate
answered, freezing her arm in mid-salute. “I have a suggestion of
my own, if I may. I saw a pile of camping supplies in the garage:
sleeping bags, tents, freeze-dried food, everything, and I think we
should bring them along, just in case.”
    “Not a bad idea,” agreed the Colonel. “It
would be a hell of a lot harder to find you out in the woods than
the cabin, if the location turns out not to be as secret as we
hope. Secure the camping supplies, and bring boots and hiking gear
for everybody. Then let’s get our fugitives out of here, on the
double.”
    There was a flurry of activity. Jodie, Robin
and Merry were hustled back to the garage by Steph, and loaded into
a ridiculously luxurious Cadillac sport utility vehicle, while Dick
Murphy and Kate Swenson piled supplies in the rear cargo area and
under the seats. Ten minutes later, they were rolling through the
streets of the capital.
    It looked to Jodie as if they were not
leaving any too soon. The outsized green personnel carriers of the
Military Police, the blue and white cruisers of the D.C. Police,
and swarms of unmarked vehicles containing grim-looking men in
business suits and wearing sunglasses, whom Jodie suspected were
not tourists in town to see the sights of the nation’s capital,
seemed to be everywhere. Uniformed soldiers were busily setting up
security checkpoints at every major intersection. It seemed that
either the cabal had learned of Jodie and Robin’s escape even more
quickly than Colonel Bransom had feared, or there had been a sudden
change of plans for some other reason and they had decided not to
move quietly behind the scenes by arresting and charging Jodie with
treason, but to openly stage a coup d’etat .
    Dick Murphy followed smaller streets to avoid
the roadblocks as long as possible, while still continuing to head
toward the western side of the city. Eventually, however, in order
to cross the Potomac on the Pershing Bridge, he was obliged to use
a main road, and ran into a checkpoint on the east bank, covering
the approach to the bridge.
    Murphy chatted with the soldiers as they
examined the driver’s licenses of the party, and checked them in
the DMV records. As all the new identities of the party had been
prepared in advance, and matching information inserted in the DMV
records and were as good as their real IDs, there was no danger
that the driver’s licenses would give them away. However, Jodie’s
retinal patterns were on file (as were those of all general
officers, as a routine security precaution), and her phony contact
lenses would not prevent her being identified if she was
scanned.
    “What’s all the fuss about, Corporal?” Murphy
asked. “Looks like somebody really stirred up the ants’ nest this
time.”
    “Who knows?” the soldier answered, shrugging,
as he waited for the private running their IDs and the car’s plates
through the DMV computers to return. “First there’s a rumor that
Red agents were plotting to blow up the Pentagon, then we’re told
it’s all just a drill to test the city’s security plan in case of
an invasion, and then… this one was really unbelievable… that
assassins had killed General Lawrence and replaced her with a
double, and were planning to use the fake to take over the country.
I mean, did you ever hear anything so ridiculous in your whole
life?”
    Before he could answer, the private who had
taken their I.D. cards returned with them in his hand. “They’re all
clear, Johnny,” he told the Corporal, “and the plate is clean,
too.”
    “So where are you off to, Mr. Carlton, with a
car full of lovely ladies?” the Corporal asked Murphy, casually. He
went on without waiting for an answer. “Wherever it is, it has to
be a lot better than what we have to look forward to. We’ll
probably be standing around out here like idiots the whole weekend,
and then they’ll tell us it was just a drill or a false alarm. But
that’s the Army for you. Go ahead and