When I wrote this section I knew I was pushing the limits on what could possibly happen. If one of my advisers or editors said, “That’s impossible.”, I would go in a different direction. If they said, “That’s unlikely.”, I might not. These last few chapters I pushed the limit on unlikely. “The jumps would probably have been made from American Air Force planes.” “Ammo is rarely issued except on the ground.” “The jumpmaster usually does it this way.” Etc., etc., etc. Probably, rarely, usually - that means there is a small but finite chance of something occurring. I pushed the limits all the way around!
I’ve gotten a lot of information on how Carl can beat the case against him. I also got a lot of info on how the general has overstepped his bounds in a legal sense. There was some interesting legal information on who has jurisdiction and authority at various points. There were huge numbers of people reporting they knew family or friends who had been railroaded on something or other at some point.
For those who wanted Carl to stay in the Army, fight the charges, win, and go on to ever greater glory - sorry, that would never have happened. Leaving aside the fact that nobody actually wanted this mess to go to trial, even ultimate vindication would have ended Carl’s career. As he commented, he was marched off in handcuffs in front of his men. When a promotion board sits, they are examining officers they have never met or heard of. Negatives far outweigh the positives. The first thing they do is look for reasons not to promote somebody, and only then do they look for reasons to promote somebody. Alexander the Great couldn’t be promoted after an episode like this. Carl would have spent the remainder of his career as a captain, never having done his R&D stint or going to CGS, and assigned as Assistant Housing Officer at an army reserve base in Nome, Alaska, until he either resigned, was passed over enough times to get chucked out of the Army, or drank himself to death. Better to go out this way. So ends Carl’s short but illustrious career, not so much with a bang as with a whimper.
And so ends Book 4. What new fields are there for Carl Buckman to conquer? Or will he just spend the rest of his life goofing off? That would be pretty easy to write about, since my wife says all I ever do is goof off! Write what you know about!
I got a lot of emails about Chapter 59. There were several specific themes to the responses. One subset of reader wanted Carl to arrange violent paybacks to everyone involved (Hawkins, the sergeant, Fairfax, etc.) Sorry, not going to happen. We’ll meet some of these people again, down the road, both the good guys and the bad. Besides, if he wanted to do something to them, he’d do it himself, not hire killers. Another subset wanted him to sue everybody and make this all public and bring down the military. Again, not going to happen. If you haven’t figured it by now, whatever Carl personally feels, he’s not going to the press or push for court martials. The whole reason he did what he did with killing the four narcos was to get his men back without anybody knowing they were there, and trials negate that. A third group thinks that Special Operations and the CIA are about to recruit him. Why, I can’t imagine, since as far as they’re concerned, he is nothing but a busted-up company-grade officer who is good at the stock market.
Perhaps the most interesting subset was a group of readers who haven’t figured out where the story is coming from or heading to. By this, I mean the readers who want Carl to behave radically different. He’s been given a chance to go back in time, and he needs to do everything differently! He should have a new wife (preferably a supermodel or something of the sort), stay in the army and become a super Ninja general or something, along with being wealthier than Midas. Why go back and do the same thing over again (remarry the obviously imperfect Marilyn)? This group says that the entire point of the story should be escapist fiction, and over the top is better.
I never looked at this project as simply escapist fiction. Why go back in time and find and marry Marilyn again? Maybe he simply loves his wife! The escapist part is the fact that he has money now. Other than meeting her again, almost everything he’s done to this point has been different. I’m not changing my plans for this group of readers. There are plenty of do-over stories like that out there already.
On a different matter, there was a question about whether nurses wear wrist watches (which I have one of the nurses in 59 doing.) The reason was, don’t they have to take them off all the time for sterile purposes? Good question. I googled this & the answer was that most nurses wear a wristwatch, but make sure it’s waterproof and really cheap, in case it gets yucked upon. Some wear them upside down on their lapels, but that seems more English than American. I’m leaving the scene as is. Good question, though!
In any case, we are taking a break from Carl Buckman and returning to Grim Reaper for a few weeks. Enjoy!