A Time to Blossom

Chapter 17

Taxing times

“Hi, Mandy.”

“Morning, Brat. What you got there? A letter? I saw you grab it from the postman as you walked down the path past him. What’s in it? Who’s it from?”

“Give me a chance, Mandy, I only got it twenty seconds ago.”

“Well, it’s one of those blue airmail style envelopes, so I guess it’s from America. And it won’t be from your dad because he doesn’t go back to America until the weekend. So that leaves Foxy Boy.”

“If you say so, Miss Marple.”

“Aren’t you going to open it?”

“Yes, Mandy. Just not now. I’ll stick it in my bag and look at it later.”

“I think you should open it now.”

“So you can see what’s in it? It’s addressed to me, Mandy, not you. It might be private.”

“Brat, since when have we had secrets from each other?”

“Since twenty seconds ago when I got handed this letter. Anyway, if I start reading it now, you’ll either whinge that I am ignoring you while I read it or I’ll walk into a lamp post.”

* * *

“Hi mom, where’s dad?”

“Hello, Craig, nice to see you too. And don’t just throw your school bag on the sofa, put it down carefully. Your dad is out in the garage. What’s the urgency? You haven’t been in a fight, have you? I’ve told you before about… ”

“No, mom, of course I haven’t been in a fight. I just want to talk to dad. I got a letter this morning. From America. It’s from some accountants. It’s about tax. So, I want to talk to dad about it. Unless you know about American tax? I’m not old enough to pay tax am I?”

“Err, no, I don’t think so, but I don’t know about tax law. Especially American tax. I doubt your dad does either. What’s the letter say?”

“It’s from some tax accountants, in Pittsburgh. Offering to act on my behalf. It says they are retained by the Bauers for tax stuff and they want to represent me for my filings with the IRS. That’s the American tax people. I haven’t done any tax filings. I didn’t know I had to. Do I have to? I don’t think I’ve even earned any money yet. Will’s company might never make any money.”

“Umm, I think you need to speak to your dad about this. He may be able to help. Or at least, the Navy might, they sort out what taxes your dad pays when he is based over in America. I don’t think he has to, though. He’s still employed by the Queen and so pays his taxes here, not in America.”

“I’ll go find him, mom. What’s for dinner? It smells good. Can I have extra?”

* * *

Incoming message:

Nat:                      “Is this urgent, Craig? I’m just about to go into class.”             

Craig:                    “I thought you’d still be on lunch break, Nat. It’s sort of urgent. I need to talk to you about a letter about tax. I’ve been trying to call you all day.”    

Nat:                       “That explains the missed calls I had earlier. My phone was on silent. Strictly speaking I shouldn’t have been carrying it in classes. Can we talk in a couple of hours? At tea time here, so just before your bed time?”

Craig:                   “Okay, Nat. Can you call me the instant you get back to the dorm?”

Nat:                     “Yes, sure will. I think I can guess what it’s about. DeGrasso and Moskowitz?”

Craig:                  “Er, yes. How did you know?”

Nat:                      “They are my pop’s accountants. Mine too. I asked them to contact you. We’re going to appoint them our company accountants. Will and I were going to let you know next time we have a board meeting. Maybe you’ll want them to represent you too for your taxes. We’ll be filing some income soon. Got to go now. Speak soon. The instant I get back to the dorm.”

* * *

Incoming Video call

Craig:        “You took your time, Nat, your classes ended 20 minutes ago. Oh, and my dad’s here. Say ‘Hi’ dad.”

Nat:            “Hi there, pleased to see you again, Mark. Craig’s usually this impatient…”

Dad:           “Hi Nathan, good to see you again too. We’ve just been looking at the letter Craig received from DeGrasso and Moskowitz. We’re wondering if you can shed some light on it. To me it looks like they want to act as Craig’s accountants.”        

Nat:            “Yeah, that just about sums it up, Sir. They are our accountants, look after all my dad’s business affairs. Mine too now.  What with Craig owning part of mine and Will’s company, he’ll need to file tax returns here, so I asked them if they’d represent him. Of course, he can get any accountant he likes, he doesn’t have to use D&M. They’re good though, and as they will be our company accountants if Will agrees – and he will – it’ll make life easier.”

Craig:         “Do I have to do taxes? What will accountants cost me? I haven’t earned any money yet.”

Nat:            “Everybody has to pay taxes, Boots. But the accountants can minimise that for you. And any good accountant will make sure they save you at least enough to be able to pay their fees.  I talked it through with my pop before recommending we get them to represent you, Craig. It’s slightly complicated you see. You’re not dual nationality, and you aren’t domiciled here, but you potentially will be earning money here. According to the UK-USA Tax Harmonisation Treaty, you have the option of paying tax either here or over there. A good accountant will guide you through the rules and make sure you don’t pay more than you absolutely have to.”

Craig:       “But what if we don’t make any money, Nat? I can’t pay taxes on nothing. I might end up paying accountant’s fees just not to pay anything at all – except the fees! So I’ll be losing money.”

Nat:          “You will be earning some money, Boots. Three Rivers Telecom are about to award us a small contract for a ‘look-see’ at their coverage, just like you suggested. Anyway, even if that doesn’t come through, you’ll need to file a tax return each year just saying you haven’t earned anything and don’t need to pay tax. It really would be worth having a good accountant.  And if we aren’t making money, I have to pay the admin and accountancy fees, Will was clear on that when we set up the company. It’s my start-up investment, like he provides the technology and you do the bright ideas. Until we’re profitable, I’m footing the bill.”

Craig:        “Oh, so it isn’t going to cost me anything?”

 Nat:          “No, not a dime until we start making money. Then you’ll be able to pay your own bills. And you might not be paying much tax to start with anyway. From the brief chat I had with pops, it looks like your best option is to file here but choose to pay UK taxes. You have a tax-free allowance over there, and your first pay check isn’t likely to exceed it, so you won’t pay tax. But really, you should have proper advice, either from D&M or somebody over there.”

Craig:      “That’s kind of what you said, isn’t it , dad? That I should pay taxes here and I might not earn enough to actually need to pay anything?”

Dad:        “That’s pretty much it, but don’t take my word for it. I’m not a tax expert. It probably wouldn’t do any harm to run this past Mr Allardyce, then if he sees no issues, let DeGrasso and Markowitz represent you for at least the rest of the year and file your first tax return. If you actually need one. If the company goes nowhere, you might not even need to do that.”

Nat:          “That’s about it, Boots. Get some advice, and if they agree, let D&M file your first-year tax forms. It’s only going to be a few hundred bucks, and you’re not even paying that.”

Craig:       “That sounds sensible, doesn’t it dad?”

Dad:            “Yes, I think that’s a good way forward. I can check it out in more detail tomorrow now Nat’s told us more about what is involved. Now, do you still need me here, or do you have other things to talk about?”

* * *

Nathan had barely finished the call with Craig when the dorm door opened and Travis entered, followed by Shane.

“Hi, Nat, you not changing into smarts for tea yet? We saw you heading here nearly a quarter-hour back when we were on our way to the library. We’ve got the books you said.”

“That’s good, Shane,” replied Nat, “Put them on the admin desk. Noah and Will over at stores?”

“Sure are,” said Travis. “We thought of a few extra things too that Boots didn’t mention. Noah added them to his list.”

“Okay, looks like things are coming together. Remember, nobody is to know anything about this, not yet anyway. Just us and Jackson. If we want him to give us the go-ahead, we have to be able to do this stage in total secrecy.”

“We’ve got that, Nat,” replied Shane.

“We just need to make sure we don’t rouse any suspicions. Travis, if you can organise things this end, I’ll just pop up and see Jackson, get him to ensure the Hall Corporals and Duty Sergeants turn a blind eye if they see us around for the next few nights…”

“They won’t see us, Nat,” smirked Shane as he glanced at Travis. “Us Mouseketeers can do this.”

* * *

On Saturday afternoon, just after lunch, Jackson parked up the college HUMVEE on the edge of the woodland overlooking the playing fields after spotting Jayden and several officer cadets waiting for him. Jayden stepped forward, guiding Jackson to where a table had been set up with some maps of the college grounds and a radio set. It was the Patrol and Recce Milskills test and Bensinger Squad had been made the central part of the evaluation.

“This is our control centre, Jackson. The patrols are sweeping through the grounds right now, controlled from here. Every movement is coordinated. The freshmen are coming in towards us from the far end of the woods, each patrol comprising an officer cadet, one or two sergeants and then the freshmen. At a right angle to them, so moving in from the river at the bottom of the hill, we have the sophomores, again with their patrols led by officer cadets. That’s the brute force element of the search: two waves of troops criss-crossing the fields and woods, not giving Bensinger squad any time to relax, continually forcing them to move on. We know they were out right away after breakfast, got a good half hour start on the search teams, but they won’t get far. The net is closing in on them.  If they stay still, try to go to ground, they’ll be discovered. So, they have to keep moving. That’s where the sergeants come in. They have nearly three years’ experience of learning fieldcraft. I’ve deployed them in roving hunter teams, using some of them to block likely routes with ambush positions and the rest are free-running, being unpredictable, tracking them down. Finally, we have our quick reaction interdictor teams, all manned by officer cadets. They are scattered throughout the grounds, ready to move at a moment’s notice to plug any gaps that open in the search line or, more probably, to close the net the very moment a sighting report comes in. We’ve got this place nailed down tight. I don’t give Bauer and Bensinger squad more than another hour before they are spotted and we’re closing them down.”

Jackson smiled. “They seem to have evaded us all morning, Jayden. What are we over-looking?”

“We had a lot of ground to cover this morning. We had to brief and then deploy the freshman and sophomores right to the perimeters of the college grounds. They have been moving inwards ever since. Narrowing the area free for Bauer to operate in. The net’s tightening”

“They couldn’t slip through? Get behind the search lines and go to ground again?” asked Jackson.

“Unlikely, but we aren’t risking it. That’s why we have the roving hunters, operating in front of and behind the search line. Connor’s plotting their movements on the map here, minimising gaps, ensuring there’s nowhere that isn’t traversed by a search team as often as we can.”

Jackson nodded and walked over to Kyle who was standing nearby. Once out of earshot of the others, he smiled and asked, “So, Kyle, you know Bauer and Bensinger Squad  better than any of us. Where do you think they are?”

Kyle smiled. “A step ahead of Jayden, that’s for sure.”

Jackson nodded. “Jayden is doing things by the book. Deployed the search lines and hunters perfectly. I doubt there isn’t a square foot of the grounds that he hasn’t got eyes on at least every thirty minutes. He’s assigned people according to their talents, not their ranks. The deployment was slick. We might have given Bensinger squad a 30-minute start but that time was well used for briefings and preparation. Yes, this is definitely a text book search.”

For a moment Jackson and Kyle looked at each other, then both smiled.

“That’s the problem, isn’t it?” continued Jackson quietly. “Bensinger squad will have studied the books and operating procedures. Adapted to them. Prepared their own plans. Jayden’s having to rely on luck, good on his part and bad luck on their part, if he wants to catch them. I heard the other day that PFC Lundgren borrowed several pepper pots from the dining room. Now why might he want those?” Jackson paused for a second as Kyle grinned, then continued. “Unless of course, they were even preparing for the eventuality that we might be able to get our hands on a tracker dog for today’s evaluation exercise. They’re smart, Kyle.”

* * *

Deep in a briar patch on the edges of the wood overlooking the football field, Bensinger squad hunkered down, waiting for the nearby footsteps to recede back into the woods. It was the second time within a half hour that one of the roving patrols had crept through the woodland, pressed right on to the open sports field, paused to survey it for a minute or two, then headed back into the wood. No-one in the squad moved even after the scrunch of footsteps on twigs and leaves had died away. A lack of sound didn’t necessarily mean a lack of searchers. They could have been suspicious, gone silent nearby, waiting for Bensinger squad to reveal themselves.

Several minutes later, Will was the first to move. Adjusted his ear-piece and then slowly reached out and tapped Noah’s ankle twice, then left his hand in contact with Noah’s foot. Noah stretched out and tapped Shane’s shoulder twice, then flexed his foot against Will’s hand, let him know the signal had been passed on. The squad would shortly be on the move again.

* * *

The radio speaker on the trestle table at Jayden’s control centre crackled. “Zero from Blue Seven, Zero from Blue Seven, possible sighting, over.”

The half dozen or so other cadets manning the command post all listened in intently as Jayden and Connor leapt towards the map and the radio operator, Sergeant Danton, tweaked the tuning and scribbled down the time in the log. “Send, Blue Seven.”

“Hello Zero, we’ve found some very feint tracks exiting a stream down at the clearing near the chestnut stand. Grid square Kilo Seven, Delta Five. Hardly discernible. Barely a half footprint, a little trampled grass, a few disturbed leaves. Somebody’s gone to a lot of effort to try and hide their trail. We can only follow for about ten yards. Heads up the hill towards the main vehicle track then vanishes.  Over.”

Connor plotted the location on his map as Jayden looked on, then spoke. “Danton, get Red Two to move down the vehicle track from their present location. Tell them to be on the lookout for any signs of people coming out of the undergrowth onto the track. Get me the nearest two roving teams, that’s Blue Two and Four, direct them to the track too. Seal off the ends.” As Danton started to call the designated teams, Jayden and Connor conferred.

“They must have been walking through the streams, that’s why nobody found any traces on any of the tracks.”

“Or why the Observation Teams at the choke points didn’t see anything. They haven’t been using the tracks and paths.”

“We’ve got them now though. Make sure you get a couple of the roving teams to start heading down the streams towards where they left the steam. Just in case the track Blue Seven found was deliberate and they have actually doubled back into the stream after trying to set us a false trail.”

“Sneaky!”

“We shouldn’t under-estimate them, Connor.” Jayden looked at the map again as Connor re-plotted the positions of his roving teams from the grid references Danton was passing him as calls came in from the field. “Yes,” thought Jayden, “Bauer is smart, but now we’re gaining the upper hand. Taking control. He’s going to have to react to us from now on.”

Kyle and Jackson observed but said nothing. As part of the Commandant’s umpire team, they had to be impartial. Jayden’s command team was coordinating well, updating the maps, re-positioning the roving teams, ensuring the two search lines didn’t get excited and try to join the hunt. Their slow, methodical sweeps would be vital at re-establishing contact and denying free movement to Bensinger Squad if the hunter teams couldn’t follow up successfully on the track discovery. They were the backstop. In the background, the monitoring channel on the second radio crackled and buzzed with messages as the teams on the ground communicated between themselves on the field frequency.

“Red Three to Red Seven. Just finished our sweep to your flank. Nil found. Moving to our next location.”

“Blue Two, now in position. Red Four, we can see your point man coming towards us. Swing to your left and cover that valley off.”

Blue Nine to Red Four, negative on the last. We’re in position there already. Suggest you swing back uphill; we’ve got the valley.”

“Blue Two to Red Four. Copy last. Red Four, comply with Blue Nine. We have eyes on too.”

Connor added more arrows to his map, re-marked the trigger lines as Jayden smiled. Yes, they were closing in.

Kyle stepped closer, looked at the map. Looked at the list of call signs on the Command frequency by Danton’s radio. Orange serials for the freshmen, green for the sophomores, then blue and red for the roving the teams of sergeants and officer cadets. Kyle grinned as a penny dropped and then stepped away, wandered over to Jackson.

“I think I’ve seen a chink in Jayden’s operation. It’s the radios.”

Jackson looked at him, trying to work it out. Kyle waited a moment then, when he saw Jackson hadn’t figured it out, he spoke again.

“Sergeant Danton’s doing a great job on the command net, monitoring calls and updating Connor. Nothing amiss there. But nobody’s been assigned specifically to monitor the field net the teams are using to co-ordinate their operations at a local level.”

Jackson nodded. “Yes, but that’s a luxury. Danton can’t monitor and co-ordinate two frequencies, two sets of call signs simultaneously. Ideally, Jayden would have a second radio specialist on the second frequency, listening in. But he’s short of men, got everyone deployed out into the field, or guarding the objective, that he can. The second radio is on the speaker, people round the map table can listen in, track what’s going on if they need to. But the command net is the crucial one, and Jayden has that covered.”

As Kyle smiled again, Jackson knew he’d missed the point. Raised his eyebrows quizzically.

“You remember Boots, of course?”

“Of course,” replied Jackson. “And I wouldn’t put it past Bauer to have asked him for some tips and advice. They’re still in touch, as I‘m sure you know.”

“If Boots was running that radio net instead of Danton, he’d have made some wise-ass crack about British radio operators having a better brain and two ears, and had two earpieces in, one on each frequency. He would have spotted the discrepancy.”

“Discrepancy?”

Kyle smirked. “Danton’s list of blue call signs tops out at Blue Eight.”

Jackson looked blank for a moment longer, then the light bulb behind his eyes lit up and he grinned back at Kyle. “And yet we just heard call sign Blue Nine, on the field net, that Danton isn’t monitoring, re-directing a search team…”

“Opening a gap in the cordon.”

* * *

“Zero from Red One, message, over.”

“Send, Red One,” responded Danton.

“Red One to Zero, somebody’s just triggered a signal flare to our rear. Sounds like a few hundred yards back. We’ll go to ground here and await instructions. Over.”

“Red One, copy that. Wait out.” Even as Danton turned towards the map table, Jayden and Connor were reacting.

“Danton, raise Blue One, they’re behind Red One. Ask if they accidentally tiggered a flare.” Connor turned to Jayden. “If it’s not an accident by Blue One, we’ve got Bensinger trapped between Red One and Blue One.”

Danton had hardly begun his call when the message was interrupted by several static bursts and some garbled speech. He responded immediately. “Unidentified call sign, this is Zero. Wait out. I say again, WAIT OUT.  Zero to Blue One, say again your last.”

“Zero from Blue One, I say again: negative here on flares. We haven’t set one off.”

Connor and Jayden exchanged glances. “It’s either an animal, or Bensinger Squad,” said Connor.

“With two hundred cadets roaming through the woods and fields, the animals will all be keeping a low profile. It’s Bauer and his guys. Trapped between two hunter teams. Danton, instruct both teams to go firm where they stand and go to silent over-watch as we vector in more hunter patrols to seal the flanks of that box and shut their escape routes. Connor, what teams are nearest?”

For several minutes the ether was full of signals from Danton as Jayden liaised with Connor and his map plotters, re-aligned search axes, re-set stop lines, drew the net in tight. Out at the control centre only Kyle and Jackson seemed to notice Sergeant Danton struggling to establish reliable communications with one team, Red One. Whenever he tried to call them, or they tried to call him, the signal would be drowned out in a series of static bursts.

“Zero from Orange Two, radio check, over.”

“Orange Two, this is Zero. I have you loud and clear. How me? Over.”

“Zero from Orange Two. We have you loud and clear too.  We can hear you struggling with Red One. I have comms with Red One on the field net. Relay your message through me, over.”

“Danton smiled. “Copy that, Orange Two. Relay message begins. Zero requests confirmation of Red One’s location, and the time and direction of the flare. Over.”

“Red One from Orange Two. Relay message from Zero. Message begins. Confirm your location and the time and direction of the flare signal. Over.”

“Orange Two from Red One. Advise Zero we sent no signal about flares. I say again, we DID NOT hear a signal flare. Over.”

“Zero from Orange Two. Relay message from Red One. Red One advises they sent no message about signal flares. I say again, Red One sent no message about signal flares. Over.”

Sergeant Danton paused for just a fraction of a second to take in what he was being told, then slickly continued. “Zero to all call signs. Zero to all call signs. Net compromised. Switch to alternate frequency Bluebird immediately. I say again net compromised. Switch to Bluebird immediately. Zero out on this frequency.”

Jayden and Connor were turning to look at Danton. Danton was busy dialling in a new frequency even as he confirmed to Jayden what he was already working out.

“We’ve been had, guys. Red One never sent that original call about the signal flare. Somebody’s been spoofing them, then trying to drown out their attempt to alert us. I’m re-establishing a new command net right now. Once that’s up, I’ll instruct the call signs to go to a new frequency on the field net too. We have to assume that’s been breached too.”

Jayden took it in his stride. “Okay, ensure you get the two search lines up first, Danton, the hunter teams can be second priority. Connor, let’s go back to the last known position prior to that flare message. Bauer’s trying to get us to concentrate our forces over by Red One and Blue One’s area of responsibility. That tells us where he isn’t, narrows down where he really is. Let’s be smart. We know where they set off from, and where they have to be by the end of the exercise. We know where they aren’t right now, and how they are probably moving around.”

Connor grinned. “I’m enjoying this hunt. Let’s highlight all the streams on the map between the known locations. Prioritise the ones anywhere on the route to the objective.”

“Add metalled roads too,” said Jayden. “They are so obvious and difficult to move along unseen that we gave them a low priority.  But they won’t leave tracks on a hard surface, and our teams might have been distracted or pulled away from the Observation Posts overlooking the junctions in the last few minutes, plenty long enough to provide a window of opportunity for Bensinger squad to slip across or even a short way along one. It’s a risk to use them, but Bauer is nothing if he isn’t devious.”

Jackson and Kyle nodded approvingly, ticked boxes on their checklists. Bauer might have gained the upper hand temporarily but their opposition hadn’t been thrown for long. Jayden had responded quickly and decisively, ensured his slow, grinding backstop lines were intact, continuing to restrict Bensinger Squad’s freedom of movement. Connor was well on with re-positioning the hunter teams effectively. Sergeant Danton had spotted the spoofing effort and was taking steps to sanitise the net. Yes, as an end-of-year Milskills Evaluation exercise this was certainly proving worthy of a possible Golden Year.

* * *

“Orange Two. That’s Hawke. I know the voice,” said Will as he placed his radio set on the floor. “You trained him too well, Noah. He shouldn’t have been aware of relays from just what’s on the freshman Milskills syllabus but he handled that blackout like a Class One Comms Specialist.”

Noah smiled. “Win some, lose some, Will.”

“I count it as a ‘win’,” said the Commandant. “Increasing the skills level throughout the college has to be a win. I’m intrigued as to what you plan to do next though. Now Sergeant Danton is re-configuring the net you’ll lose your advantage of being able to listen in and disrupt them. You don’t know their new frequencies. Sometimes it’s better to listen in and not let your adversary know that you are aware of their moves.”

Will grinned and glanced down at the waterfall display on the laptop he had just picked up. “Oh, I think I’ll have them again in a few minutes, Sir. This software can scan their frequencies way faster than if we tried to listen in on the standard issue radios. Even if they try to hop, I’ll spot patterns. Identify which bit of the spectrum they have moved to. We know what band they are limited to. I don’t think we plan to disrupt them again, do we, Sergeant Bauer?”

Nat grinned from the chair opposite the Commandant’s. “No, I don’t think so, Will. They’ll be very wary from now. Might not even fully trust some of the genuine commands being issued. They’ll always have that niggling doubt in the back of their minds.”

Shane carefully stepped deep into the shadows to one side of the window and slyly glanced out through the nearly closed blinds. “They’ve just swapped over the guards outside. And hidden a couple of extra people behind the wall of the rose garden. Looks like they aren’t taking chances. They want to make it really hard for us to get to you, Commandant.”

“Same on this side,” said Travis from his vantage point at the other side of the Commandant’s office. “But they still haven’t plugged that blind spot between the patio door and the car lot. We can still get you to the mini-bus unseen, Commandant, if you’ll creep low behind the hedge.”

“Very well,” smiled the Commandant. “It seems I have no choice but to let you smuggle me out to the car lot after all and make me drive you to the Command Post. It would be useful though if you let me get out and be briefed by them first before you reveal yourselves…”

* * *