Side tracking Mara from finishing this thread should be a hanging offence...
Case Study: Sun Tzu, III/31
- Thread starter Marauder06
- Start date
Side tracking Mara from finishing this thread should be a hanging offence...
A short time later, after a very productive talk, Faith reopened the door to the office that he and Marion shared. He felt a lot more confident and optimistic about the future of the MID. During the discussion he discovered that he and Marion shared a lot of concerns, and a lot of very similar ideas about the future. And it wasn’t just Marion agreeing with Faith’s vision; Marion offered a number of good ideas of his own. He also provided institutional knowledge and unit-level experience, which is always a good balance to the “good idea fairy.” Faith’s presence was required at an early-morning staff meeting, so they agreed to talk more in-depth after lunch.
At the top of the rusted steel staircase that led down to the parking lot, Faith was surprised to run into Chief Rollins. “Hi, sir!” she said cheerfully.
“Hello, Ms. Rollins,” Faith said, genuinely glad to see her. “All ready to start your first day with the MID?”
“Absolutely!” she replied enthusiastically. “I have some inprocessing to do over at the Group headquarters. I wanted to see if it was OK with you if I went ahead and knocked that out, they said it would take most of the day.”
“Yeah, of course, go ahead and get that taken care of. You don’t want it to bite you in the ass later.”
“Soooo…. what do you think about me heading up the re-inspection prep?” she asked. Faith liked the way she got straight to the point.
“I just got done talking with Master Sergeant Marion about that,” Faith told her, “and we both agree that it’s a great idea. This is probably “the” most important thing we have going on at the moment, but there are a lot of other things, like the change of command inventories, that are going to require my attention. So it’s all yours, Chief, don’t let me down.”
“I won’t sir!” Rollins said enthusiastically. “So I was thinking, since I’m going to be running the inspection, it might be better for me to work out of the SCIF instead of here at the MID. What do you think about me scaring up some desk space over there?”
“Well,” Faith said, “I’m clearing out of my old Assistant S2 office, why don’t you just move in up there? It’s right upstairs from the SCIF, and on the same hallway with the S2 and the HHC commander, both of whom you’ll have to deal with for the inspection.”
Chief Rollins wrinkled her nose. “Well, I guess I have to work with him, but I’ve got to tell you sir I don’t trust that Major Dudley one bit. He’s dirty, just like Major Teller.”
“Tell me about it,” Faith muttered. “But yeah, we have to work with those guys down there. I’m counting on you, as the new guy, to find a way to get maintain some level of professional relationship in order to get our job done for the Group.” Rollins nodded.
“And listen,” Faith continued, “I want to be the one to let the guys in the SCIF know what’s going on, with you in charge of the re-inspection effort. With you being ‘the new guy,’” Faith used air quotes for emphasis, “to the unit, there could be a perception issue, like I don’t trust the NCOs who have worked down there for years to run the re-inspection. That’s the opposite of the impression I want to convey. I have absolute trust that they’ll do the right thing, and I don’t want them to think otherwise. So I’ll let them know what’s going on this afternoon at the detachment training meeting. Until then, keep this whole ‘I’m in charge of the SCIF’ thing under your hat.”
“No problem, sir.”
“And listen, one other thing, if that thing with Captain Criss got a bit out of hand yesterday…” Rollins cocked her head to the side and it was obvious that she didn’t know what Faith was talking about. “At lunch?” Still nothing. “All his comments?”
“Oh,” Rollins said, laughing. If you’re worried that I might have been offended, I wasn’t. I thought Captain Criss was funny as hell. Charming even.” Faith felt a bit relieved. “I’ve been in the Army a long time, sir, I know how to handle myself, and how to deal with most of the situations I’m going to find myself in. If there’s ever something I can’t handle on my own, I’ll come straight to you.”
“Roger, Chief, have a good time at your inprocessing.”
At the top of the rusted steel staircase that led down to the parking lot, Faith was surprised to run into Chief Rollins. “Hi, sir!” she said cheerfully.
“Hello, Ms. Rollins,” Faith said, genuinely glad to see her. “All ready to start your first day with the MID?”
“Absolutely!” she replied enthusiastically. “I have some inprocessing to do over at the Group headquarters. I wanted to see if it was OK with you if I went ahead and knocked that out, they said it would take most of the day.”
“Yeah, of course, go ahead and get that taken care of. You don’t want it to bite you in the ass later.”
“Soooo…. what do you think about me heading up the re-inspection prep?” she asked. Faith liked the way she got straight to the point.
“I just got done talking with Master Sergeant Marion about that,” Faith told her, “and we both agree that it’s a great idea. This is probably “the” most important thing we have going on at the moment, but there are a lot of other things, like the change of command inventories, that are going to require my attention. So it’s all yours, Chief, don’t let me down.”
“I won’t sir!” Rollins said enthusiastically. “So I was thinking, since I’m going to be running the inspection, it might be better for me to work out of the SCIF instead of here at the MID. What do you think about me scaring up some desk space over there?”
“Well,” Faith said, “I’m clearing out of my old Assistant S2 office, why don’t you just move in up there? It’s right upstairs from the SCIF, and on the same hallway with the S2 and the HHC commander, both of whom you’ll have to deal with for the inspection.”
Chief Rollins wrinkled her nose. “Well, I guess I have to work with him, but I’ve got to tell you sir I don’t trust that Major Dudley one bit. He’s dirty, just like Major Teller.”
“Tell me about it,” Faith muttered. “But yeah, we have to work with those guys down there. I’m counting on you, as the new guy, to find a way to get maintain some level of professional relationship in order to get our job done for the Group.” Rollins nodded.
“And listen,” Faith continued, “I want to be the one to let the guys in the SCIF know what’s going on, with you in charge of the re-inspection effort. With you being ‘the new guy,’” Faith used air quotes for emphasis, “to the unit, there could be a perception issue, like I don’t trust the NCOs who have worked down there for years to run the re-inspection. That’s the opposite of the impression I want to convey. I have absolute trust that they’ll do the right thing, and I don’t want them to think otherwise. So I’ll let them know what’s going on this afternoon at the detachment training meeting. Until then, keep this whole ‘I’m in charge of the SCIF’ thing under your hat.”
“No problem, sir.”
“And listen, one other thing, if that thing with Captain Criss got a bit out of hand yesterday…” Rollins cocked her head to the side and it was obvious that she didn’t know what Faith was talking about. “At lunch?” Still nothing. “All his comments?”
“Oh,” Rollins said, laughing. If you’re worried that I might have been offended, I wasn’t. I thought Captain Criss was funny as hell. Charming even.” Faith felt a bit relieved. “I’ve been in the Army a long time, sir, I know how to handle myself, and how to deal with most of the situations I’m going to find myself in. If there’s ever something I can’t handle on my own, I’ll come straight to you.”
“Roger, Chief, have a good time at your inprocessing.”
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2006
- Messages
- 2,766
The End....:-"
The end is written, it just hasn't been posted yet. 
The end is written, it just hasn't been posted yet.
This waiting crap sucks. I think I'd rather be waterboarded... :blkeye:
doesn't Bruno take care of that every evening?:troll:
Back at the Group headquarters, Faith endured another mind-numbing command and staff meeting. Faith wasn’t opposed to meetings per se, but ones that were unproductive, time-consuming, and/or just plain stupid really irked him. The biggest problem was, of course, The Dud. He was, in Faith’s opinion, a terrible staff officer. Complementing his stress-stammering and overall poor public speaking skills, he lacked a spine. He let the operations types walk all over him, and foist all sorts of unreasonable taskings on the Group S2 shop. Faith intensely disliked the Group Assistant S3, Captain Jakis, for the way he tried to lord it over the Group’s support personnel. In the short time that Faith had been in Group, he noticed that there tended to be two types of Special Forces Soldier: those who were mature and secure with their status as genuine badasses, and those that felt that a long tab on their left shoulder meant 1) the rules didn’t apply to them, and 2) everyone else in the military was an inferior being. Captain Jakis was clearly of the second type. Fortunately, Jakis was a captain, which meant he and Faith were peers. Additionally, this appeared to be a “deputies” meeting rather than a traditional command and staff. No one in the rank of major or above (other than The Dud, and he didn’t count) was present. That would be good later in case there needed to be some kind of confrontation.
Apparently, the MID and Group S2 section weren’t the only ones with an upcoming inspection. Jakis had a list of of inspectable items, and was busily assigning them to the other staff section, which was interesting because Faith recognized them as areas for which an S3 section was usually responsible.
“OK, the S6 has responsibility for COMSEC… S2 you’re going to handle the OPSEC inspection,” Jakis directed. This caused Faith to raise an eyebrow. OPSEC was DEFINITELY an S3 function. But he said nothing; if The Dud was going to allow himself to be browbeaten into extra work, who was Faith to intervene?
“Uh, uhm,” The Dud began. Faith rolled his eyes. “Um, w-w-we don’t have the manpower to take on additional responsibilities,” The Dud stammered. “A-a-all the guys I would have had to put against this tasking are in the SCIF and now work for the MID, I think you should have M-M-M-Major Faith take that one.”
You slimy little turd, Faith thought as he stared at The Dud incredulously. For his part, The Dud seemed quite pleased with himself.
“OK then, OPSEC is yours,” Jakis stated, looking directly at Faith.
“Nope,” Faith replied flatly.
“Excuse me?” Jakis replied. He seemed genuinely stunned.
“OPSEC is an operations function, not an intel function,” Faith informed him. “That’s why it is ‘OPSEC’ and not ‘INTSEC.’ We’ll be glad to give you a hand, but we’re not doing your job for you. We have our own inspection to get ready for.”
Faith felt his face flush again. He was getting angry, and that usually wasn’t helpful. He forced himself to calm down, but at the same time he knew that the best way to confront a bully was head on. And he also knew from his time in command in Korea that the best way to ensure his company didn’t get hit with dumb-ass taskings from assistant staff officers is to make it a pain in the ass for them every time they tried to pull some kind of shenanigans. Eventually they quit trying to do it. But you had to start off strong right away; any initial weakness would be hard to overcome later on.
Jakis’s eyes narrowed. “Who are you again?” he asked. Faith was astonished that an assistant to a primary staff officer in Group could not know who he was. Faith knew who every primary and assistant staff officer at the Group level and in all the battalions, and he had only been in Group a short time.
“Scott Faith, the new MID commander,” he replied tersely.
“See me after this meeting?” Jakis asked, looking at Faith closely.
Apparently, the MID and Group S2 section weren’t the only ones with an upcoming inspection. Jakis had a list of of inspectable items, and was busily assigning them to the other staff section, which was interesting because Faith recognized them as areas for which an S3 section was usually responsible.
“OK, the S6 has responsibility for COMSEC… S2 you’re going to handle the OPSEC inspection,” Jakis directed. This caused Faith to raise an eyebrow. OPSEC was DEFINITELY an S3 function. But he said nothing; if The Dud was going to allow himself to be browbeaten into extra work, who was Faith to intervene?
“Uh, uhm,” The Dud began. Faith rolled his eyes. “Um, w-w-we don’t have the manpower to take on additional responsibilities,” The Dud stammered. “A-a-all the guys I would have had to put against this tasking are in the SCIF and now work for the MID, I think you should have M-M-M-Major Faith take that one.”
You slimy little turd, Faith thought as he stared at The Dud incredulously. For his part, The Dud seemed quite pleased with himself.
“OK then, OPSEC is yours,” Jakis stated, looking directly at Faith.
“Nope,” Faith replied flatly.
“Excuse me?” Jakis replied. He seemed genuinely stunned.
“OPSEC is an operations function, not an intel function,” Faith informed him. “That’s why it is ‘OPSEC’ and not ‘INTSEC.’ We’ll be glad to give you a hand, but we’re not doing your job for you. We have our own inspection to get ready for.”
Faith felt his face flush again. He was getting angry, and that usually wasn’t helpful. He forced himself to calm down, but at the same time he knew that the best way to confront a bully was head on. And he also knew from his time in command in Korea that the best way to ensure his company didn’t get hit with dumb-ass taskings from assistant staff officers is to make it a pain in the ass for them every time they tried to pull some kind of shenanigans. Eventually they quit trying to do it. But you had to start off strong right away; any initial weakness would be hard to overcome later on.
Jakis’s eyes narrowed. “Who are you again?” he asked. Faith was astonished that an assistant to a primary staff officer in Group could not know who he was. Faith knew who every primary and assistant staff officer at the Group level and in all the battalions, and he had only been in Group a short time.
“Scott Faith, the new MID commander,” he replied tersely.
“See me after this meeting?” Jakis asked, looking at Faith closely.
I hope this recent turn of events means there's finally going to be an Orificer fight.
Ha, at this point, Faith would probably rather be up in that plane right now.
policemedic
Verified SWAT
Jakis is a derivation of the Olde English Jackhisoff. In short, a family name reserved for cunting wankers since King Arthur's time.
I thought it was short for Jackass.
policemedic
Verified SWAT
So you're promoting your characters mid-story now?
Well, you know how The Dud is, always getting shit in the story wrong and stuff.
Well, you know how The Dud is, always getting shit in the story wrong and stuff.
because he has weak or non existent NCOs to proof read his reports....
Most of the rest of the meeting, Faith was focused not on the discussion at hand but on the pending meeting with Jakis. “Jakis?” Faith mused, “more like ‘Jackass.’” Faith glance at Jakis. He looked kind of tough. And the only reason he’d want to see Faith after this meeting is to fight. Fine, game on bitches. It wouldn’t be the first time he had a squabble with another officer.
Faith’s daydream about what he was going to do to Jakis after the meeting was interrupted when the staff duty runner appeared at the door.
“Excuse me, gentlemen,” the private said, “but the DCO said he needs to see Major Dudley. Now.” Dudley, stammering, gathered his things and excused himself from the meeting.
When the meeting was over, Faith remained seated as the rest of the staff members filed out. Jakis closed the door and walked over to Faith. Faith stood up, not wanted to be seated if he was going to be on the receiving end of a dressing-down, or something more physical. Faith was slightly taller than the other man, but Faith estimated Jakis’s fitness was probably significantly better. Jakis walked over to Faith until he was close enough to touch. Then he did something unexpected. He held out his right hand.
“I don’t think we’ve been introduced formally,” he said in an even, almost friendly voice, “I’m Jared Jakis, the Group assistant S3.”
“I know who you are,” Faith responded suspiciously. If Jakis detected the tone, he didn’t let on.
“You’re Scott Faith, the new MID commander, right?” Jakis said as he slid into a seat at the table and indicated with his hand that Faith should join him. “I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you earlier, I don’t get out of the S3 shop much,” he added, smiling broadly.
Faith hesitated for a moment. “I’m sorry,” he finally managed to say,” I didn’t expect this to be the way this ‘see me after class’ meeting was going to go,” he told Jakis. Jakis looked perplexed. “What, you didn’t think we were going to fight or something, did you?” he asked rhetorically. “Well, actually…” Faith thought to himself. “Too tell you the truth,” Jakis continued, “I’m just glad to finally find someone in the intel shop who has a pair of balls.”
Again Faith said nothing, sensing it would be better to let Jakis continue.
“Look,” said Jakis, “You’re absolutely right about the OPSEC thing. I read the reg before I came to this meeting. But there were two reasons I tried to put it off on the J2. One,” he said, raising his index finger, “That guy doesn’t do shit around here. For once I’d like to see him pull his weight for the Group.” Faith nodded his head enthusiastically.
“Two,” he added, raising his middle finger parallel to his raised index, “…I don’t know what I’m doing when it comes to OPSEC,” he admitted sheepishly. “This stuff is complicated and time-consuming. I need a little help to get through it.”
Faith nodded once again. “I have some people who are very familiar with the security regs, OPSEC and our intel-specific inspection requirements are actually pretty similar. If you want, I’ll have my people come by and see you or whomever you put in charge of the OPSEC portion of your inspection, and we can help you guys out.”
“That would be great,” Jakis said.
Faith’s daydream about what he was going to do to Jakis after the meeting was interrupted when the staff duty runner appeared at the door.
“Excuse me, gentlemen,” the private said, “but the DCO said he needs to see Major Dudley. Now.” Dudley, stammering, gathered his things and excused himself from the meeting.
When the meeting was over, Faith remained seated as the rest of the staff members filed out. Jakis closed the door and walked over to Faith. Faith stood up, not wanted to be seated if he was going to be on the receiving end of a dressing-down, or something more physical. Faith was slightly taller than the other man, but Faith estimated Jakis’s fitness was probably significantly better. Jakis walked over to Faith until he was close enough to touch. Then he did something unexpected. He held out his right hand.
“I don’t think we’ve been introduced formally,” he said in an even, almost friendly voice, “I’m Jared Jakis, the Group assistant S3.”
“I know who you are,” Faith responded suspiciously. If Jakis detected the tone, he didn’t let on.
“You’re Scott Faith, the new MID commander, right?” Jakis said as he slid into a seat at the table and indicated with his hand that Faith should join him. “I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you earlier, I don’t get out of the S3 shop much,” he added, smiling broadly.
Faith hesitated for a moment. “I’m sorry,” he finally managed to say,” I didn’t expect this to be the way this ‘see me after class’ meeting was going to go,” he told Jakis. Jakis looked perplexed. “What, you didn’t think we were going to fight or something, did you?” he asked rhetorically. “Well, actually…” Faith thought to himself. “Too tell you the truth,” Jakis continued, “I’m just glad to finally find someone in the intel shop who has a pair of balls.”
Again Faith said nothing, sensing it would be better to let Jakis continue.
“Look,” said Jakis, “You’re absolutely right about the OPSEC thing. I read the reg before I came to this meeting. But there were two reasons I tried to put it off on the J2. One,” he said, raising his index finger, “That guy doesn’t do shit around here. For once I’d like to see him pull his weight for the Group.” Faith nodded his head enthusiastically.
“Two,” he added, raising his middle finger parallel to his raised index, “…I don’t know what I’m doing when it comes to OPSEC,” he admitted sheepishly. “This stuff is complicated and time-consuming. I need a little help to get through it.”
Faith nodded once again. “I have some people who are very familiar with the security regs, OPSEC and our intel-specific inspection requirements are actually pretty similar. If you want, I’ll have my people come by and see you or whomever you put in charge of the OPSEC portion of your inspection, and we can help you guys out.”
“That would be great,” Jakis said.
Sorry guys, I completely rewrote the rest of the story after post #488, originally Jakis was going to be another antagonist, but I felt like I was making too many SF guys the bad guys in this story, when that's really not the focus here. Now Jakis is a good guy and I had to change a bunch of stuff. But it's coming along and I almost have the middle matched up with the end.
/////
Faith and Jakis talked for about 20 more minutes about a variety of different subjects. Faith left the room feeling both relieved, and enthusiastic about being asked to help out another staff section. He also departed feeling Jakis wasn’t such a jackass after all.
As he exited the meeting room, Faith literally ran into The Dud, who was furiously pounding his way down the hallway. “Oh, sorry!” Faith exclaimed before he realized who he had run into. He wished he had lowered his shoulder instead. “You!!” The Dud hissed by way of greeting. “My office!” and then he stomped his way down to his office, entered, and slammed the door shut behind him. Faith considered simply leaving, but decided that it would be more amusing to find out what was bothering The Dud so much. Still though, he wasn’t going to play this little “I’m a major, you’re a captain, do what I say now” game. So Faith took his time meandering down the hallway, pausing to read the policy letters on a corkboard in the middle of the hallway. He read through the Commander’s Open Door Policy, the Equal Opportunity Policy, and the Consideration of Others/Prevention of Sexual Harrassment Policy. Not for the first time, Faith idly wondered why all of these policies were presented first, with the Army’s emphasis on “put the bottom line up front.” Shouldn’t the policy that establishes the Group’s mission, or the one that states the Commander’s vision, be presented first with all of the other policies following after in support?
Eventually, the door to The Dud’s office cracked open and Faith saw him peeking out. “I’ll be right there, sir,” Faith said, knowing he had won this little battle. When The Dud closed the door again, Faith walked down to it, knocked twice, and entered without being invited.
“What can I do for you today, sir?” Faith asked cheerfully.
“You.” The Dud said angrily. “I don’t know how you did it.” The Dud was red in the face and visibly shaking. This caught Faith’s attention; he couldn’t remember seeing The Dud so angry before. Faith said nothing, but walked over to the large bookshelf in The Dud’s office and ran a finger across a line of books, as if he were browsing at a library. This was a calculated move of casualness that Faith intended to irritate The Dud. “Wow, you’ve got some great books here, sir,” Faith said, ignoring The Dud’s initial comments.
“Do you know what this is?” The Dud demanded rhetorically, holding up a piece of paper. “This is a counseling statement from the Group Commander! About the inspection that YOU just made us fail!”
“Really?” Faith said, genuinely surprised. He took a step closer to examine the paper. The Dud snatched it away.
“This should have been YOUR counseling statement,” he said.
“Well, sir, if you’ll remember, you tried that once. It didn’t go so well for you.” Faith paused, thinking. “Of course, you could go back to the Group Commander and blame all of this on me, he might see it your way,” he said, knowing that wouldn’t happen.
“I tried that,” The Dud said with exasperation.
“How’d that work out for you?” Faith asked. The Dud just glowered.
Faith, uninvited, sat down on the small vinyl loveseat in front of the bookshelf.
“So, are we done here?” he asked casually.
“Not even close,” The Dud replied angrily. “First you show up here, and because your father was some bigshot in Group back in the day, you con the DCO into giving you MY job as the MID commander, then you purposely screw up that inspection to make me look bad. You’re just… a-a-a-nobody. And I’ve been in Group for three years.’
Faith considered The Dud’s words. It was clear to Faith that he possessed the upper hand over The Dud in this… discussion… argument… whatever it was they had going on between the two of them. But he couldn’t resist twisting the knife a little.
“You know what your problem is, sir?” Faith inquired, running a finger across the line of books behind him as he sat. “You have all this time in the Group, but no one wants to give you any of the good jobs here. You have all this rank, but no one respects you. And you have all of these books here, and yet you have no knowledge.”
“You have all of these field manuals, but can’t pass an inspection,” he continued. “You have all of these books by military masters… Clausewitz, Machiavelli, Thucydides, Sun Tzu…, but you constantly get out-maneuvered by people like me. Here,” Faith took down a book and opening it to a familiar page. “If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril in every battle,” he read. “Art of War, Sun Tzu, III/31. You see,” he said, standing and walking over to place the open book down in front of The Dud, “the problem with you, sir, is you don’t know shit.”
The dud glanced down at the open page, read the few lines and flew into a rage. He tore the page from the book and slammed them both down onto the table. “Get the f-f-f-fuck out of m-my o-o-o-o-“
“Office?” Faith offered helpfully. The Dud picked up the book, now minus one page, and flung it at Faith. Faith, not expecting this, was struck in the chest but caught the book before it hit the ground.
“Get the fuck out!!” The Dud raged. Faith calmly walked over to the door, opened it, stepped out into the hallway and closed the door behind him.
“Fuck you, Faith! I’ll get you for this!” he heard shouted from inside the office.
“Well, at least I got a free book out of it,” Faith thought tp himself as he left the building to make the drive back over to the MID.
/////
Faith and Jakis talked for about 20 more minutes about a variety of different subjects. Faith left the room feeling both relieved, and enthusiastic about being asked to help out another staff section. He also departed feeling Jakis wasn’t such a jackass after all.
As he exited the meeting room, Faith literally ran into The Dud, who was furiously pounding his way down the hallway. “Oh, sorry!” Faith exclaimed before he realized who he had run into. He wished he had lowered his shoulder instead. “You!!” The Dud hissed by way of greeting. “My office!” and then he stomped his way down to his office, entered, and slammed the door shut behind him. Faith considered simply leaving, but decided that it would be more amusing to find out what was bothering The Dud so much. Still though, he wasn’t going to play this little “I’m a major, you’re a captain, do what I say now” game. So Faith took his time meandering down the hallway, pausing to read the policy letters on a corkboard in the middle of the hallway. He read through the Commander’s Open Door Policy, the Equal Opportunity Policy, and the Consideration of Others/Prevention of Sexual Harrassment Policy. Not for the first time, Faith idly wondered why all of these policies were presented first, with the Army’s emphasis on “put the bottom line up front.” Shouldn’t the policy that establishes the Group’s mission, or the one that states the Commander’s vision, be presented first with all of the other policies following after in support?
Eventually, the door to The Dud’s office cracked open and Faith saw him peeking out. “I’ll be right there, sir,” Faith said, knowing he had won this little battle. When The Dud closed the door again, Faith walked down to it, knocked twice, and entered without being invited.
“What can I do for you today, sir?” Faith asked cheerfully.
“You.” The Dud said angrily. “I don’t know how you did it.” The Dud was red in the face and visibly shaking. This caught Faith’s attention; he couldn’t remember seeing The Dud so angry before. Faith said nothing, but walked over to the large bookshelf in The Dud’s office and ran a finger across a line of books, as if he were browsing at a library. This was a calculated move of casualness that Faith intended to irritate The Dud. “Wow, you’ve got some great books here, sir,” Faith said, ignoring The Dud’s initial comments.
“Do you know what this is?” The Dud demanded rhetorically, holding up a piece of paper. “This is a counseling statement from the Group Commander! About the inspection that YOU just made us fail!”
“Really?” Faith said, genuinely surprised. He took a step closer to examine the paper. The Dud snatched it away.
“This should have been YOUR counseling statement,” he said.
“Well, sir, if you’ll remember, you tried that once. It didn’t go so well for you.” Faith paused, thinking. “Of course, you could go back to the Group Commander and blame all of this on me, he might see it your way,” he said, knowing that wouldn’t happen.
“I tried that,” The Dud said with exasperation.
“How’d that work out for you?” Faith asked. The Dud just glowered.
Faith, uninvited, sat down on the small vinyl loveseat in front of the bookshelf.
“So, are we done here?” he asked casually.
“Not even close,” The Dud replied angrily. “First you show up here, and because your father was some bigshot in Group back in the day, you con the DCO into giving you MY job as the MID commander, then you purposely screw up that inspection to make me look bad. You’re just… a-a-a-nobody. And I’ve been in Group for three years.’
Faith considered The Dud’s words. It was clear to Faith that he possessed the upper hand over The Dud in this… discussion… argument… whatever it was they had going on between the two of them. But he couldn’t resist twisting the knife a little.
“You know what your problem is, sir?” Faith inquired, running a finger across the line of books behind him as he sat. “You have all this time in the Group, but no one wants to give you any of the good jobs here. You have all this rank, but no one respects you. And you have all of these books here, and yet you have no knowledge.”
“You have all of these field manuals, but can’t pass an inspection,” he continued. “You have all of these books by military masters… Clausewitz, Machiavelli, Thucydides, Sun Tzu…, but you constantly get out-maneuvered by people like me. Here,” Faith took down a book and opening it to a familiar page. “If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril in every battle,” he read. “Art of War, Sun Tzu, III/31. You see,” he said, standing and walking over to place the open book down in front of The Dud, “the problem with you, sir, is you don’t know shit.”
The dud glanced down at the open page, read the few lines and flew into a rage. He tore the page from the book and slammed them both down onto the table. “Get the f-f-f-fuck out of m-my o-o-o-o-“
“Office?” Faith offered helpfully. The Dud picked up the book, now minus one page, and flung it at Faith. Faith, not expecting this, was struck in the chest but caught the book before it hit the ground.
“Get the fuck out!!” The Dud raged. Faith calmly walked over to the door, opened it, stepped out into the hallway and closed the door behind him.
“Fuck you, Faith! I’ll get you for this!” he heard shouted from inside the office.
“Well, at least I got a free book out of it,” Faith thought tp himself as he left the building to make the drive back over to the MID.
Shit just got real yo!
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