Operation Holiday Cheer - A Spy School Story

Chapter 16: Day I (Settling)

Georgetown

Washington, DC

Oakwood Apartments

December 18th, 2015

1300 hours

Jawa POV

After about a half-hour's worth of driving later, our little group reached Georgetown, an area within the District of Columbia northwest of Washington.

I did my research earlier: it's said to be one of the most popular and safest areas of DC, and has a relatively urban feel, with plenty of options for eating, entertainment, and such.

Unfortunately, I didn't get too far into this research before Chip yanked me away from my computer, jokingly calling me a nerd and telling me to "get off my keister and get moving." As usual, my best friend absolutely loves to dive into everything headfirst with maximum force at the ready. I swear, if you placed him into the US military, Chip would be the guy going full Rambo.

Picture an operator in heavy-duty body armor toting an M240L machine gun and an M32A1 grenade launcher for maximum firepower, his "sidearm" is an MP7A1 personal defense weapon, and he has enough M67 frag grenades and M18 Claymore mines to wipe out a couple city blocks. He'd also have, at minimum, an M3 MAAWS recoilless rifle with him as well, hoping to destroy some tanks along the way.

In other words, he'd be a standard Call of Duty character, carrying ordnance for at least a platoon's worth of troops (seriously, why does nobody talk about the sheer amount of gear that CoD and other videogame operators carry while running around like Sonic? While I enjoy such videogames every now and again, I facepalm at how unrealistic they can be).

'It must be his parents,' I thought. 'He's got that door-kicker Devil Dog attitude.'

Yes, his parents are United States Marines; his father is a Master Sergeant in the US Marine Corps Special Operations Command (MARSOC) while his mother is a Captain and an AV-8B Harrier II pilot.

You like the excessive details I'm pouring out? I'm the brainiac, it's what I do. Seriously, this stuff is natural. Throw in the fact that my dad's a Chief Petty Officer and a US Navy Special Warfare Combat-craft Crewman (SWCC)... I think I just might know too much about the military for my age, my CIA connections notwithstanding.

'Yeesh, no wonder Chip called me a walking encyclopedia,' I mused.

Anyways, mine and Chip's lineage aside, the entire car ride there, I kept glancing at Ben. I think I just wanted to make sure he was there, still alive and breathing. What happened early this morning... Seriously, I've been shot at before, but I was barely able to sleep after witnessing what happened in Alexander's office. How Ben kept himself going was beyond me.

I noticed that Chip and even Erica were doing the same. Although I couldn't say I was surprised about the latter.

The Academy's unrefuted valedictorian for our year—or as we liked to call her, the "wonder girl"—had eyes for Ben (which she seemed to prove by whacking me upside the head when I teased her about using military lingo—which she certainly learned from her crush). Of course, the almighty Ice Queen was refusing to admit her feelings.

So much for letting it go and feeling rather than concealing... but this didn't make it any less obvious.

I don't have any dating experience, and even I could see the jealousy in Erica's eyes when Zoe pulled Ben to the car. Of course, Zoe doesn't like Ben in that manner (not anymore; that was in the past), but rather a certain third-year in the car with us. And that third-year had the hots for her.