“Got it. I’m not headed to California, am I?”
He shrugs. “No clue. Before you ask, I don’t know the job. What I do know is that you're here on a fast track, Alder has you marked for anything medical so he’s your doc for anything on your leg, the rest you can see the Club doc. Cort, Falcon, Ari and the Princes are following your progress here.” He ticks every point off on his fingers.
“You got a lot of military here. Why follow me?” Known names like Graywolf, Harky, Stone and Cooper are here.
He laughs. I think it would be a normal question so I wait until he’s ready to answer.
“No disrespect, but even Brothers that were never military ask that same question. Bishop was dumbfounded then President of a Club within a week of his move. I don’t know why you, but Badass Officers mark Brothers on the LS board because they see something that strikes them as Badass Leadership. Whoever you saw in Virginia marked you for a closer look. You got out of the Quantico training quick and shipped here for Officer training, then moved into Protector training on day one. That’s not an automatic no matter your rank while in.”
The Bishop name is at Law. I don’t know law but I do have other skills, none of them freaky. I ask what’s left. “What’s the LS board.”
“Lives saved. Every bit of training is broken down into like five categories per line. It tracks everything so if you’re a thinker that avoids shooting, it’s known. Other traits show you fit this job or another one. Leadership is moved to Officer level and the testing is used to see how you affect a club or team. Non ability Protectors aren't easy because you’re not freaky but may show weird traits that would change the dynamics of a club. Some are loners that do the job to perfection but change nothing in the club alone, but the team as a whole does. All your experience gets rated with the Badass LS board showing us whatyou’re capable of. If it’s a job you don’t want, you say no thanks. If you’re slated for Pres, you’re going to get shit from Cort to take the job. Just keep saying no if you don't want it.”
Shit. I nod. “Lives saved meaning the ability to…”
He interrupts me, “The number of lives saved based on the Club, Brothers surrounding you and the focus. Manager isn’t saving lives on the level of a Leader unless they’re making, or shipping bad food, I guess. The point is finding where Brothers can reach and giving them the option.”
I get it. “Unless it’s a Pres.”
He laughs standing up. “You catch on quick. No one shows for nothing around here. If you’re here, you’re meant to be here.”
That’s one I won’t forget because I’ve heard it three times now. “Roger, Boss. Advice that will help me out?”
“Be you. You’re a laid-back planner who uses everything. Keep doing that. Officer is ingrained, so honor, loyalty and respect is too. The military is good for that. Make sure you remember equal here means everyone.”
“Roger, Boss. I’m not likely to forget.”
“My ol’ lady is waiting. See me tomorrow if you have more questions.” He heads to the side door.
I walk out the front door feeling my step lighter. Zeke is better than morphine, I guess Pablo is too because my mind settled.
A couple of trainees are at the bikes so I follow them back to Flight Guard thinking about the Officer oath and Mika. She made sure I’d never forget what equal means. Her Facebook posts were deleted, then her account was but she put that shit out there. I was great until I lost my foot, then I was disabled. My buddy from Virginia sent me a message through the Club to come west. Another from Central Command sent the Badass Phoenix website and told me Virginia sent my bio so I need toget my ass in gear. The CENTCOM buddy is at Elite working IT. He lost an arm and they got him back at a job he was meant for. Sawbones is the doc at Sentinel and I told him I don’t know what I’m meant for but a purpose is important. Virginia Badass always accepted me when I had downtime before Mika. Sawbones pushed for me to put the Club job app in so I did and have no regrets.
Turning, I follow the road up into the mountain roads. Jeff didn’t get to live out his next purpose. Since I needed the time to lose all remnants of Mika, I dove into work and my therapy, anything to stay busy. It wasn’t long before I felt whole with my new leg and foot, I shrugged off ‘disabled man’ and spent a year playing the nursemaid. Proving I could do what Mika described as the nursemaid life she walked away from, I put everything I had in me to make life better for Jeff. I didn’t expect he’d be so bad off, but the cancer ran through him like lightning. For a while there, he was my purpose, then making it good for him was all that mattered. It was a tough year but I wouldn’t change a thing looking at it now. I needed to be worth something and he needed the help. It worked. I smile slowing to a roll then head back to the Flight Guard Club. Jeff became my purpose and was the reason it didn’t take so long to feel comfortable with no shin and foot. He was fighting for his life when I was released from the hospital. There is no way in hell I’d disrespect his fight by whining about my little battle scars. Jeff was my teacher and test. Everything he was up for is what we did, it wasn’t always easy or convenient. I made it happen and he was happy. I was happy in a bittersweet way but he taught me so much. We spent time we’d never have made important doing what was important in the moments we had. He set me up for the job with Badass. Hand out, protocols with reasons to them and Brothers who have my back. Jeff knew I’d need this and here I am.
Badass Officers deserve their positions and now I know how they get them. I’m going to like whatever they decide for me knowing it will be orders I won’t spend a lifetime trying to forget.
Virginia said the giant is crazy, smart and funny. They call him POT of the west. I never called the generals crazy or POT but I’m still relatively young. Everyone I’ve met is a little crazy and they gave up running drugs years ago according to the Bible. My new purpose feels good even if I don’t know what it is. I need to call Mario. Badass crazy is rubbing off. He’s going to throw, ‘everyone gets to live their dream’, at me. He’ll be right and here feels like the place that will happen. I’m ready to believe in my old mantra again, I spout it enough to the vets at our group, I think smiling.
§*§*§
Bravo Rising
Sophie Michadeau
Lifting my ass off the seat, I brace for the jump by bending my knees a tad and centering my body and mind over the bike. This kid is going to kill me with jumps like this. I made it through nine years working my way up from CANSOFCOM to CSOR and finally to my dream job at CJIRU, aka a ‘Silent Professional.’ That job should have killed me, but this one is more fun. If I’m going, it’s with a better reason and Brothers I can count on. The JTF2 trained us for everything, they started with the long ass acronyms.
The first jump Asa speeds us through is an easy one over a log on the path. I smile and plop my ass back on the seat. CANSOFCOM, Canadian Special Operations Forces Commandplays in my head sounding monotone to me.
Looking over at Asa, now that we’re rolling down an incline, I see crazy little Ford brothers at the bottom jumping a huge hill. God help us. I move on to CSOR, Canadian Special Operations Regiment, this one has a little sassy pitch to it. I was sassy then, so it fits.
Swerving quickly to the right, I miss a huge rock that would have thrown me over the bars. Stella is right, Asa is a nut. Getting my bearings, I look ahead and smile. I've got one more little tricky blip, the series of quick turns and mid-level jumps before that damn kamikaze ending. I am hoping isn’t as hard or lethal as I’ve named it.
The Acronyms seem easier so I go back to my jobs. CJIRU reverence is what I feel saying this one, even if I’m the only one to hear it. It’s a job I was in awe of as soon as I heard of it. I worked off a plan that merged what JTF2 trained me for then I went looking for more. If I was coming back from the war that isn’t called a war, it wasn’t gonna be in a box. Moving to my sassy first promotion, I used the brash and bold to get real life advice from other nations top Operators. I met someone from almost every NATO country out there but only three took my request for the training I’d need to survive whatever the hell we were fighting for seriously. A Delta Operator who runs a Security firm called Adroit here in the US, a British SAS Operator who is still in and a SEAL wrote a plan of action and real-life obstacles I’d have to face head on in the manuals they handed to me. The Badass SEAL was the one that had more than the others in technical matters. I relied on that one for the jobs where my Command Control was American, which was most of them and it served me well.
Higher ups in the Canadian Joint Incident Response Unit were surprised I had made it, then asked formymanual with all the notes. I didn’t hand it over but did make them themerged version I used without my sassy, and sometimes, bitchy comments, pointing out their hoser-like procedures.
Men can be morons with the performative humanity expectations. Being a woman who reached the Elite Force should indicate that I can do the job. It doesn’t have to be the way you do and I don’t need training wheels to make it over the finish line. I’m also not gonna do more than bump fists for anyone else making it. Men who make it don’t get cartwheels from me for making the same job I did, so I’m always wary of why that causes some of them to meltdown. I avoid those men.
