Marlow couldn’t believe how quickly he had been swept along by the currents of events. Just twenty four hours ago he had been begging to write a single sentence — now he was drafting with someone very senior to him a one page high level brief to be given to the top brass of Naval […]

It wasn’t difficult to construct a single slide brief and script. Aenid and he used the language they originally had in their separate pieces. After several electronic exchanges of edits. Aenid and Marlow agreed on the final-final and sent it off to the CO with emailed carbon copies to the intervening layers of bosses. While […]

As minutes ticked by, coworkers dropped by his screen to congratulate him on his rise to the top of the day’s VTC briefing schedule. Normally those slots were occupied by senior uniformed and civilian analysts, not mere JOs. He managed to avoid making too much eye contact with his two bosses but was gratified when […]

Marlow was searching his files for the finishing touch graphics for his Brazilian destroyer piece, when the Commanding Officer’s secretary appeared on his screen. She told him that the boss wanted to go over the piece. He alerted Aenid and they headed for CO’s office. When they entered, they found the CO slumped over their […]

Ding dong the screen went and up popped the senior experts from the Navy’s Technical Intelligence Center of Excellence. “Oh crap” Marlow muttered. Actually only one expert, who was known as The Iceberg. Marlow felt like the Titanic. “I’m afraid I don’t understand why operational intelligence authored this piece. This falls within our bailiwick,” she […]

Marlow headed off to face “Cluster Twin” Aenid. Of course, no one in Naval Intelligence ever called her that to her face. No one dared. Still, the name fit, and no one ever thought of her as anything else. Marlow had run afoul of Aenid before as an Ensign watch stander in Hawaii over the […]