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Garber said the problem down in Mississippi concerned a twenty-seven-year-old woman named Janice May Chapman She was a problem because she was dead She had been unlawfully killed a block behind the

"Was she one of ours?" I asked

"No," Garber said "She was a civilian"

"So how is she a probleet to that," Garber said "But first you need the story It&039;s the back of beyond down there Northeastern corner of the state, over near the Alabama line, and Tennessee There&039;s a north - south railroad track, and a little backwoods dirt road that crosses it east - west near a place that has a spring The locoers would get out to eat, so the town grew up But since the end of World War Two there&039;s only been about two trains a day, both freight, no passengers, so the toas on its way back down again"

"Until?"

"Federal spending You knoas Washington couldn&039;t let large parts of the South turn into the Third World, so we threw some money down there A lot of money, actually You ever notice how the folks who talk loudest about sgest subsidies? Sovernment would kill theet?"

Garber said, "Carter Crossing got an army base called Fort Kelham"

"OK," I said "I&039;ve heard of Kelham Never knehere it was, exactly"

"It used to be huge," Garber said "Ground was broken in about 1950, I think It could have ended up as big as Fort Hood, but ultimately it was too far east of I-55 and too far west of I-65 to be useful You have to drive a long way on set there Or maybe Texas politicians have louder voices than Mississippi politicians Either way, Hood got the attention and Kelhaled on until the end of Vietnaer school Which it still is"

"I thought Ranger training was at Benning"

"The 75th sends their best guys to Kelha to do with the terrain"

"The 75th is a special ops regiment"

"So they tell ers in training to keep a whole town going?"

"Al town"

"So what are we saying? An Arer killed Janice May Chapman?"

"I doubt it," Garber said "It was probably so"

"Do they have hillbillies in Mississippi? Do they even have hills?"

"Backwoodsmen, then They have a lot of trees"

"Whichever, why are we even talking about it?"

At that point Garber got up and came out from behind his desk and crossed the room and closed the door He was older than me, naturally, and much shorter, but about as wide And he orried It was rare for hio more than five an, designed to su to make in an easily reain with a hiss of air from his cushion, and he asked, "Have you ever heard of a place called Kosovo?"

"Balkans," I said "Like Serbia and Croatia"

"There&039;s going to be a war there Apparently we&039;re going to try to stop it Apparently we&039;ll probably fail, and we&039;ll end up just bo the shit out of one side or the other instead"

"OK," I said "Always good to have a plan B"

"The Serbo-Croat thing was a disaster Like Rwanda A total embarrassment This is the twentieth century, for God&039;s sake"

"Seeht in with the twentieth century"

"It&039;s supposed to be different now"

"Wait for the twenty-first That&039;sto wait for anything We&039;re going to try to do Kosovo right"

"Well, good luck with that Don&039;t come to me for help I&039;ot people over there You know, intermittently, in and out"

I asked, "Who?"

Garber said, "Peacekeepers"

"What, the United Nations?"

"Not exactly Our guys only"

"I didn&039;t know that"

"You didn&039;t know because nobody is supposed to know"

"How long has this been happening?"

"Twelve round troops to the Balkans in secret for a whole year?"

"It&039;s not such a big deal," Garber said "It&039;s about reconnaissance, partly In case so has to happen later But s down There are a lot of factions over there If anyone asks, ays say it was the other guy who invited us That way everyone thinks everyone else has got our backing It&039;s a deterrent"

I asked, "Who did we send?"

Garber said, "Arers"

Garber told er training school, but in addition was being used to house two full coers, both hand picked fronated Alpha Company and Bravo Co basis, a month at a time Kelham&039;s relative isolation made it a perfect clandestine location Not, Garber said, that we should really feel the need to hide anything Very few personnel were involved, and it was a humanitarian ton was Washington, and sos were better left unsaid

I asked, "Does Carter Crossing have a police department?"

Garber said, "Yes, it does"

"So letnowhere with their ho They want to list some Kelham personnel in their suspect pool"

Garber said, "Yes, they do"

"Including members of Alpha Company and Bravo Company"

Garber said, "Yes"

"They want to ask them all kinds of questions"

"Yes"

"But we can&039;t afford to let them ask anyone any questions, because we have to hide all the covert cos"

"Correct"

"Do they have probable cause?"

I hoped Garber was going to say no, but instead he said, "Slightly circuhtly?"

He said, "The ti is unfortunate Janice May Chapot back from Kosovo, after their latest trip They fly in direct from overseas Kelha place They land under cover of darkness, for secrecy&039;s sake Then a returning co"

"And then?"

"And then on the third day a returning coo out on the town"

"Generally"

"Including Main Street and the blocks behind"

"That&039;s where the bars are"

"And the bars are where they meet the local women"

"As always"

"And Janice May Chapman was a local woman"

"And known to be friendly"

I said, "Terrific"

Garber said, "She was raped and mutilated"

"Mutilated how?"

"I didn&039;t ask I didn&039;t want to know She enty-seven years old Jodie is twenty-seven years old, too"

His only daughter His only child Much loved

I asked, "How is she?"

"She&039;s fine"

"Where is she now?"