Denton looks up. “Bruno.”

“Sir.”

“It’s the little things that can cripple a unit, that can hurt a commanding officer, don’t you agree?”

He has no idea what Denton is going to say next, but the safest thing is just to play along. “Certainly, sir.”

“The minor things, the items and information that can slip through the cracks…They often can come back and bite an officer right in the ass, even if he had no knowledge of them. Even if they weren’t his fault. But because something untoward happened to somebody under his purview, he takes the ultimate responsibility. And the ultimate fall.”

Crap, Wenner thinks. Denton has found out about what he did for Captain Cooper. One of Denton’s big commandments for the officers and soldiers in his battalion is staying free of too much debt, and if he ever finds out anyone in his battalion is behind in car payments, mortgage, or credit card bills, he will throw a tantrum and possibly cripple an officer’s career. In the overall scheme of things, Denton is right to be concerned, because overdue bills make someone vulnerable to blackmail or extortion, but the way he always goes at it…

Captain Cooper had earlier come to him, pleading for help to stave off an imminent car repossession, and Wenner had lent him the necessary funds—with the typical tearful promise to make it all good with the next pay period—but Denton will be ripshit if he knows Wenner did this behind his back.

Wenner feels like his heart is now encased in a heavy block of ice.

Denton picks up the offending sheet of paper. “It’s like this, Bruno—I don’t like being surprised by…unexpected developments.”

“Sir,” is all he can come up with.

Denton purses his lips and says, “I have information here concerning our missing Captain Amy Cornwall.”

“Sir,” he says again, but this time, the word is full of relief and relaxation. So this will have nothing to do with his loan to Captain Cooper.

“Tell me the latest you know about her location.”

Wenner goes to his paperwork. “Yesterday she was at a Bank of America ATM in Kenedy, Texas, at 6:03 p.m. EST, where she withdrew four hundred dollars. Prior to that, she took part in a river rescue near a bridge on US 59. The Jeep Wrangler she was driving was bearing stolen license plates. Earlier…well, you’ll recall her assault on the Tennessee state trooper.”

Wenner pauses. He certainly recalls it well, for when he told the colonel that bit of nasty news yesterday, Denton exploded, yelling, face red, hand pounding the desk and then sweeping paper and folders to the floor.

“Go on,” Denton says.

“That’s all I have now, sir. CID out of Quantico is still working to find her. I’ve got a good working relationship with one of their XOs over there.”

Denton rubs at his eyes. “Then all they need is to go online and check the news out of Texas.”

“Sir?” Wenner feels a little worm of worry drop in for a visit. Something bad has happened in Texas, something bad enough to make the news.