31 October @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2206: Ghost diplomat

Image by Justin Weir from Pixabay
 

 
“I need us to go find whoever thinks they are running things at Google and go teach them how to cook – cinnamon goes on cinnamon rolls, and toast, and oatmeal, but not in spaghetti!”

“I'm impressed, Robert, with your knowledge of spices.”

“See, my grandma actually knows how to cook, because, see, the spices for sweet things go to this side of the cabinet, and the spices for spicy things go on this side of the cabinet, and you don't cross that line, see, because, and then –.”

Lil' Robert Ludlow, five years old, was still mad about the recipe his big Cousin Maggie had found online with people putting cinnamon in spaghetti and meatballs. He had spent a lot of time in the kitchen because he enjoyed cooking with his grandparents as much as he loved eating. Mrs. Maggie Lee had also welcomed him when she and her husband Col. Lee kept him and his six elder siblings for eight weeks while the Ludlow grandparents were away.

So, it turned out that the precociously communicative five-year-old had amassed a vast knowledge of why things tasted the way they did based on what side of the cabinet his grandparents pulled down spices from, and he knew the names because he could already read and they had shown him what things were.

“And then there's alphabetical order and stuff!” he said. “I don't really get all of that, but I know that there is no cinnamon in spaghetti – the letters don't even match right, because, see, that's a C over here, and that's an S over there – see, because, and then –!”

But he was calming down and no longer yelling at Google on the porch … Col. Lee was holding him on his lap and just hearing him out … Lil' Robert was not triggered by many things, but he had been through a lot in foster care just like all his siblings before being adopted by his grandparents, and there were just some things he didn't stand for.

“It's like this, Cousin Harry – it's like Papa says all the time – there's a line between right and wrong and you don't get to cross that line without meeting the consequences, and sometimes, Robert Edward Ludlow is the consequences! Papa's not back yet, so I gotta handle this because I'm the only Robert Edward Ludlow here right now, and you gotta help me, Cousin Harry!”

The little boy's grandfather was Capt. Robert Edward “Hell to Pay” Ludlow, and even in his retirement, quite a few of his grandchildren's foster parents had found out why the grandfather had that nickname because they had crossed the line into neglect and abuse of his grandchildren. Lil' Robert was the miniature representation of what those people had run into!

But this also brought back another, darker memory for Col. Henry Fitzugh “Angel of Death” Lee … the adult Ludlow and Lee cousins both knew about the life of being the consequences.

In a particular time and place, there had been a diplomatic incident – a deadly provocation, in fact, meant to show power and bait the U.S. State Department into either showing itself foolish by accepting the story given, or challenging it and inflaming the entire region. It had been well-played … but not quite well-played enough … so the State Department had called Army Special Forces, and Special Forces had called Black Ops, and they had found a major for the job that was necessary … so they made a ghost diplomat out of him, with a dossier made up of whole cloth and gossamer thread, and sent him in.

It turned out that the major was made for diplomacy … his angelic manners, his good looks, his magnificent and well-traveled intellect, his ability to make anyone feel seen and heard completely … he got more done in good diplomacy in his first three weeks there under the circumstances than anyone might have expected, especially since no one was at all operating in good faith!

But the U.S. Army's Angel of Death was there for one purpose: to kill the assassin who had killed he previous ambassador, upon said assassin's attempt to kill him. When it was all done, Major Lee left a dossier of the evidence the State Department was prepared to release to the public about the now-dead assassin and his assassination of the previous ambassador, with a note in that nation's language for “Mutually Assured Destruction.” That, in fact, had done more for diplomacy in the region than anything else, because the State Department had called its combatant's bluff in no uncertain terms, and proven it could get to anybody in the country at will. So, in his last three weeks in country, the ghost diplomat – ghost-making diplomat, perhaps? – actually negotiated the agreement necessary, with nobody being the wiser as to how exactly he had achieved this result!

And that was how Major H.F. Lee, already considered too young by many to be among the majors, became Special Forces' youngest colonel of his division, and how he and his eventual Unit 6 would end up on a mission called Five Bright Nine … but instead of letting his mind go down that path, Col. Lee recalled himself to his upset baby cousin, and applied those diplomatic skills.

“I think I can help us defend this house, Mr. Robert Edward Ludlow III,” he said to Lil' Robert. “When we get tired of Google, we can just turn the computer off – in fact, let's even unplug it until tomorrow, and then Google can't even get back in here until we say so.”

“Sounds like a plan!” Lil' Robert said happily. “I knew I could count on you, Cousin Harry!”

Mrs. Maggie Lee, who had been researching for a video she was putting together on strange recipes of the Covid-19 era, smiled as peace and tranquility returned to the home.

“Oh, Harry can just talk with anyone and get them into a better state of mind,” she often said about him. “He's such a natural diplomat I don't know how Special Forces ever got any of their kind of work out of him.”