From Paraguay to Happiness

by Paul Decker

Story follows Harm from the rescue of Mac, his capture of Sadik, and his decision to abandon JAG and start a new career in law in California. There he joins a law firm and finds his wife whom he marries in spectacular style, Warning: NOT Mac friendly

From Paraguay to Happiness

The last echo of gunfire had faded away, all the terrorists were dead and laying about the plantation buildings and grounds in grotesque positions. Webb and Mac had been rescued. All that remained was to look for any useful intelligence in the house and to get the Land Rover's tire changed in preparation to leave the area. While Harm was changing the tire on the SUV in the driveway, on the other side of the SUV Gunny was putting Webb in the passenger seat. As soon as he is seated, Mac ran over to him. He started to apologize for getting them in this situation, saying that he chose her for this mission because she was a marine, spoke Farsi, and because he needed her. Further, he told her that he had hoped that she would warm to him in her role as his wife and that despite it all, he had enjoyed having her near. Mac responded that she also enjoyed playing the role of his wife, then leaned down and kissed him. Harm saw Mac kissing Webb, heard him confess that he needed her, and heard how Mac said she liked being his wife. Truth was that MacKenzie enjoyed waking up next to a warm body each day, enjoyed wearing a half million dollar diamond necklace, enjoyed the excitement of assuming another identity and playing secret agent, and was receptive to Webb's declaration of love. The sex was just OK, but that was offset by the prospect of tying into the Webb fortune. She didn't care whether old Mrs. Webb liked her or not. She was old and unlikely to be around that much longer. Mac knew she could endure Mrs. Webb. Webb says he needs me, I'm willing to see where this all goes. Harm is probably never going to commit, so what if he played the hero as usual. I'll go with Webb and if it doesn't work out, Harm will always be around and ready to take me back, she thought. Mac gave Harm an annoyed look like he was ease dropping. Upon seeing this exhibition between Mac and Webb Harm thought, I gave up my commission, my ability to fly, and emptied my savings to get down here and she could care less. When the tire was changed, Harm joined the group to listen to Mac start to tell him that the two of them would hunt down and destroy the load of Stingers in the terrorist's green semi truck while Gunny drove Webb to the hospital. "I was forced to give up my commission to came down here at my own expense to find you and if necessary, free you from captivity, not to join a search and destroy CIA operation." declared Harm. At this, Mac inferred that he was a fool to give up everything to find her and now he had nothing. "You seem awfully close to Webb given that once again he has screwed up this mission and that would have resulted in you getting a new permanent address in a shallow grave" Mac replied, "Well, it is true that Webb and I have grown closer." "Kind of like Stockholm Syndrome?" asked Harm. "Yes, something like that. He protected me from being tortured by offering himself time and time again." Harm replied, "First, for all that torture, he doesn't look that bad and second, Webb was not the guy that prevented you from being tortured. You were Faud's prisoner to do what he wanted with you. HE decided who got tortured not numb nuts over there and its obvious that Faud thought Webb had more information to spill. It is positively amazing to me that you have fallen for the guy who almost got you tortured and killed. Wow!" said Harm. Mac's face got bright red and her face contorted into a shape that Harm had only seen once before. That was on a summers day a year ago when they had a picnic in the park close to headquarters and Mac had stepped in a giant, gooey pile of dog poop in her regulation pumps. "You know that talk the we were going to have about us? Well, we aren't going to need it because there is never going to be an US." said Mac. "Actually Mac, I had already come to that same conclusion the night you came to my apartment in your pregnancy outfit laying it on thick about how secret and dangerous your mission was as you were going off to play spy. I especially liked your statement about me not being interested until you had one foot out the door. As I thought about that it struck me. You were obviously alerting me that if trouble developed I should be ready to rush to your rescue - like always." At this juncture, Webb piped up, "Yea, me and Mac expected you earlier and we were beginning to be concerned that you would not get here in time to rescue us from the deplorable situation we were in." His comment earned him a scathing look from Mac. "Everything that I had done for you in the past 8 years obviously meant nothing to you except when you needed me to be the backup guy to be there to bail you out when things got rough and to fill in when one knight in shining armor dumped you while you waited for the next one to arrive. Once that happened then I reverted to reserve service. I have decided that I have had enough of being played and that I deserve better. And guess what? I have already found better." replied Rabb. "It is your duty to help us search out and destroy the Stingers!" screamed Mac. Harm replied, "I am now just a private citizen and I have done what I set out to do down here. I am now leaving. Surely the three of you, lead by the CIA's equivalent of the village idiot, can manage to deal with the Stingers." With that, Harm climbed into the red Land Rover as Webb was helped out and drove off while Mac hurled insult after insult after him. Harm responded by flashing Mac "the Bird" out the window. Mac watched Harm leave and said to herself, We don't need that bastard anyway. I am a Marine and I can handle this mission without him. But deep inside her, Mac's little voice told her that, you have just pushed him away for the last time and now he is gone forever along with your chance for happiness. As Mac stomped back to where Gunny and Webb were, Gunny started to get a real bad feeling about his mortality, the likelihood of a successful operation, and thought to himself, Rabb gives up everything for you and you turn around and reject him out of hand - for a clown. What were you thinking?

Rabb mulled over his decision to leave and wondered if he had acted too hastily. No, as once again he remembered the pattern starting with Radle, Farrow, Dalton, Bugme, and now Webb and assured himself that it was time to break that pattern and find someone who really did love him. As he was turning all of this over in his mind, he was suddenly passed by a dark green Lincoln Navigator with 2 occupants. Damn Paraguan drivers. And then it hit him, Those two guys are the ones I saw drive off after killing the two missionaries just before Gunny and I made our assault on the plantation. Gunny mentioned that we missed Faud because he had just driven off while we were scoping out the compound. That had to be Sadik Faud and his driver in that car. The Navigator turned into a Petropar gas station about a half mile down the road. Big SUVs like that are thirsty creatures and their need to fill up may well be a golden opportunity to bag Faud. I'll pull in and scope it out. If things look good, then Faud, you are mine. Harm pulled into the gas station and began to refuel the Land Rover while he casually scoped out the place. The terrorist's driver was busy refueling the Lincoln and paid no attention to him. Just another driver in need of and apparently the station attendant were inside the station itself and appeared to be in a heated discussion. With conditions looking favorable, Harm made his move. In two quick steps he was behind the driver and quickly broke his neck. Just as quickly he moved to the gas station wall and waited. Sadik concluded his conversation and headed out the door where Harm was waiting with drawn pistol that he used to KO him with a rap over the head. The station attendant inside went for a gun, but Harm was too fast for him and dropped him with two slugs to the chest.

Harm now turned his attention to securing his prize. He looked around for a length of rope or possibly some lightweight chain but found nothing. He continued looking and spied a large roll of that thick, shinny grey, super sticky duct tape. He remembered his boyhood friend Tommy O'Toole being taped to the wall of his room by his two older brothers with duct tape for some long forgotten transgression and how hard it was to get him unstuck. The perfect thing. Sadik was still out cold so Harm grabbed the tape and taped him up like a mummy then put a length of tape over his mouth to keep him quiet. Once that was done, Harm dragged him to the Land Rover and put him on the back floor under a blanket. Harm decided to go though the Lincoln and see what he can find after he had gone through Sadik's pockets and extracted a large sum of Guaranis (the local currency), the chain from around his neck, and his ring. Harm also found the two metal cases which contained the Stinger mother boards that Webb had sold Sadik as well as a brief case which contained a large number of documents written in a mix of English and Farsi as well as a cell phone, a diamond necklace, a satellite phone, and a silenced pistol with a couple of spare clips. These will come in handy, Harm thought and took the brief case minus the satellite phone and pistol along with the mother board cases and placed them in the Land Rover. Harm finished filling up the Land Rover and realized that Captain Molina along with his three troopers, whom Gunny and he had met that morning, were probably still running a road block up the highway. It would be impossible to sneak Sadik and the other booty through that check point. He either had to wait until they returned to barracks or create a diversion. In addition, he needed to arrange transportation out of Paraguay. He tried the satellite phone. It operated just like the one he had used previously while on assignment in Afghanistan. He decided to go long and call Keeter. He knew that Keeter was TAD to the CIA and that he was flying for them somewhere in South America. He had a cell number for him that had worked six months ago. He decided to give it a try. Keeter answered on the third ring to his enormous relief. Harm briefed Keeter on what had happened, his capture of Sadik, the mother boards, and the load of documents. He needed Keeter to arrange transportation out of Paraguay - assuming Harm could make it to the airport. Keeter knew something of Webb's mission and said he would get the transportation process moving. Harm gave him his phone number.

Harm decided that a diversion would provide the best solution to get past the road block and set about implementing the one his subconscious had been developing while he talked to Keeter. He was going to blow up the station and Sadik's car in a manner that would make it appear that Sadik's car had caught fire during refueling and that the resulting conflagration had spread to the station itself and the underground gas tank. Not only would the blaze be spectacular enough to draw the captain and his men, it would also incinerate the bodies in the car and at least temporarily, make it look like Sadik died in the fire. Harm dragged the dead station attendant/terrorist from the station and put him in the passenger seat after putting Sadik's chain and medallion around his neck and then put the dead driver in the drivers seat. As an afterthought he took the white caps from both terrorists as souvenirs. A liberal spray of gas into the interior of the car and around the car as well as the station should ensure a nice fire, he thought. Now, how to set a delayed ignition? He considered several delayed ignition scenarios including a twisted rag soaked in gas, but could not figure how to get enough delay. As he looked around, he spotted some road flares on a shelf as well as a bunch of disposable aluminum pans in the garbage from various food packaging. He remembered that as a boy scout they used to take aluminum cans and toss them into the camp fire and by the end of the evening they had been reduced to mere blobs of aluminum. He decided he could use the same principal to create a delayed ignition source. Harm pumped several more gallons of gas into the interior of the Lincoln, set one igniter afloat in a deep pool of gas, and then he unscrewed the cap on the fill pipe to the station's underground gas tank and placed the second igniter on top of that. Finally, he decided that he was too conspicuous in the clothes he was wearing and looked around for some more inconspicuous native clothing, finding what he needed in a stack of Petropar service station uniform shirts. Now he would look like just another station attendant either heading to work or coming home after work. Harm did a quick check to make sure he had gotten everything and decided to take the station's AK 47 to beef up his fire power, if needed. Once he did this, he was ready to carry out his plan. He started the Land Rover, made sure Sadik was still out cold with his bonds tight, and the two cases were there. When he was satisfied with everything, he lit the flares, jumped into the Land Rover, and pulled into traffic. About 10 minutes down the road Harm was starting to get worried that his diversion plan had failed. He was fast approaching the Army checkpoint and nothing had happened. He started to look for pull offs, but had not found one when the air was suddenly split by a deafening explosion followed by a second even louder explosion and a giant ball of flame that appeared in his rear view mirror. Within minutes Captain Molina and his troops came flying by without even a glance in Harm's direction. Harm decided to get while the getting was good and accelerated as he headed for Ciudad del Este. Captain Molina and his men arrived at the gas station only to find it totally engulfed in flame. The fire was so hot that they could not get close to the fire. It only took one look to realize that any effort to extinguish the blaze was futile. All they could do was watch the station burn and direct traffic. They could see two occupants in the Lincoln. Poor bastards, the Captain thought. It would be a full day before anyone could even go near the station proper.

Meanwhile, Webb, Mack and Gunny were approaching the farm indicated on a map they had found among Sadik's papers at the plantation. The farm was situated about 20 miles from the plantation near the Paraguay river. They stopped the van they had found at the plantation about a block short of the farm yard and started a recon of the property of foot. There, next to the barn, stood the green semi they had seen previously being loaded with the Stingers at the plantation and 8 terrorists loading boxes that appeared to contain Stingers. Mac decided to let the terrorists finish loading the truck and then ambush the truck as it came up the access road. Gunny wanted to do additional recon, but his request was denied by Mac. They would shortly pay dearly for this decision as unbeknownst to them there were 8 more terrorists in the barn. The trio made their way back to the van and prepared to ambush the truck using the van as cover. They figured that the terrorists no doubt knew the van from the plantation and seeing it would not arouse suspicion. About 20 minutes later the truck lumbered up the farm access road and the ambush was sprung. Initially it was successful as they killed the driver and two terrorists who had stopped and dismounted the truck to see what was wrong with the van. Then five other terrorists in the trailer started to return fire. Suddenly, a flat bed farm truck came roaring up the road with the other 8 terrorists that they were unaware of. Fire from the now 13 terrorists completely overwhelmed the trio's fire and pinned them down. As Gunny peered out, one of the terrorists was taking aim with an RPG. Gunny's warning resulted in the trio making a mad dash for a nearby drainage ditch with bullets buzzing all around them. Because of Webb's injuries, he was not able to keep up so Mac and Gunny grabbed him under his arms and hauled him after them. Webb later swore that they pulled him along so fast that his feet never touched the ground. As their van exploded upon impact of the rocket, they were peppered by fragments and literally blown into the ditch. Dazed they watched as the terrorists cleared the dead from the road and proceeded on while the second truck continued to provide covering fire as it moved though the kill zone. Taking stock of their injuries, they found that everyone had superficial shrapnel wounds but no one was seriously wounded. Since the van was destroyed, the dynamic trio started to search the farm for an alternate transportation source. There were no more cars or trucks, but they did find a first aid kit, a tractor, and flat bed farm wagon. After binding their wounds, they started back towards Ciudad del Este with Mac driving the tractor. Their game plan was to proceed on the tractor until they could find a bus or place where they could rent a car. Since they were in an agricultural area, it was quite common for tractors to run on the roads. Damn Rabb. If he had been here we would have had the firepower to prevail in the ambush, thought Mac.

As Harm was driving towards Ciudad del Este, Keeter was burning up the air waves to Langley working his way up to Kershaw, the deputy director, to advise him of Harm's success in capturing Sadik and the Stinger boards. Kershaw wanted to get Hardy, the resident CIA agent, involved in the withdrawal plan, but Keeter objected saying that Rabb had told him Webb suspected that Hardy was the leak down there and that the fewer people that were involved, the better. Keeter outlined a plan he had been formulating. Send a small jet like a Lear jet to pick up Harm, Sadik, and all the captured materials at the Ciudad del Este airport and return to the US. It was important to get in and out quickly to ensure maximum secrecy. Kershaw agreed and authorized Keeter to fly to Rio to pick up a Lear the CIA had there, pick up both Harm and Sadik, and fly them back to the US. Keeter had already anticipated the OK for his plan and had already begun to divert from his current mission. In addition, he had already called Beth O'Neil to get the Lear ready and be ready to accompany him. Keeter got on his cell and called Harm to brief him on the overall plan and to work out specifics. Keeter estimated that he could be at the Ciudad del Este airport in about four hours. Harm estimated that he was about three to three and a half hours out, so that would work well. Just as he hung up with Keeter, Rabb heard banging and felt movement in the back seat. Sadik had awaken and he would need to deal with that. Finding what looked like a disused access road, Harm pulled off the road and opened the back door. There was Sadik looking up at him with flashing eyes. Harm grabbed the canteen and ripped off the tape off his mouth. With this done, he was promptly met with a mix of threats in English and Farsi. Harm listened to this for about 10 seconds before he had had enough and yanked Sadik out of the SUV in one fluid movement that ended with him being slammed against the side of the vehicle. Holding him upright Harm proceeded to backhand the terrorist until he shut up. He then took the canteen and shoved it into his mouth and poured about a third of the contents down his throat. Finally, he told Sadik that there were not going to be any more rest stops and that he would just have to pee and/or poop in his pants, the terrorist spit in Harm's face. This earned the terrorist a savage right cross to his jaw. The terrorist collapsed in a heap. Who would have thought the bastard had a glass jaw? Harm thought and proceeded to retape his mouth and load him back in the car. The balance of the trip to Ciudad del Este was uneventful. Sadik was out cold and once he was on the Pan American highway the rest of the trip was easy. The aviator pulled in between two large trucks and stayed there to minimize his profile. The airport was about 5 miles outside of town and Harm had no problem finding it. As it turned out, he arrived about 20 minutes after Keeter and Beth had landed. Harm parked next to the perimeter fence opposite the only Lear jet on the field. As soon as Keeter saw the battered Land Rover he knew that Harm had arrived since no one else would be caught dead in such a beat up wreck. They met at the fence and greeted each other with a hardy handshake and a hug. Since it was now dark, loading up Sadik, as well as the cases of intel and the AK 47 attracted no attention. With the terrorist safely tucked away, Keeter and Harm walked to the airport office to file a revised flight plan as well as secured some take out for themselves and Beth.

As they strolled down the tarmac, they noticed an old, unmarked C123 cargo plane landing. That struck them both as strange since Ciudad del Este was constructed to support passenger service and did very little air freight. The plane taxied to a secluded portion to the airport, which struck the two as even stranger. Still, they had a job to do and they needed to get moving. It was when the green semi passed them heading for the now parked cargo plane that Harm put two and two together. The truck carried the Stingers and they were being shipped out. Keeter and Harm both thought it a good idea to call Langley for direction. After some discussion in a hastily called conference call with Kershaw and others, it was decided that Harm and Keeter should try to blow up the Stingers. Langley felt that as long as the missiles were intact that there was a chance the terrorists could obtain guidance chips elsewhere and implement their plans. If for some reason Keeter and Harm were caught or killed, Beth would take off with Sadik and the captured Intel and fly the original plan. Harm and Keeter took the plane's infrared binoculars and headed towards the terrorist's plane. The semi had almost been unloaded by the time the were able to find a isolated spot with a clear view of the plane. The plane's pilot and co-pilot were walking down the tarmac towards airport operations leaving two guards posted at the plane, one on each side of the loading ramp. The binoculars were powerful enough to be able to read the lettering in the shipping crates: Stingers! The area around the plane offered no cover that would enable them to move in undetected. Clearly a diversion had to be created. After some quiet discussion, the two agreed that they needed to hijack a fuel truck. No doubt the plane would need to be refueled and since Harm was wearing a Petropar shirt, and knew how to operate a fuel truck, he was the logical choice to create the diversion. Keeter would hide in the truck with the explosives, climb aboard while Harm diverted attention and set the charges. Keeter had what they needed on the Lear. As they approached the Lear, Harm spotted what he thought was a figure dressed in black holding a pistol approaching the jet. A quick glance through the infra red binoculars confirmed it. Harm quietly approached the figure from behind using a piece of airport equipment as cover. The man in black was having trouble threading a silencer on to the pistol and so he was not aware of the movement behind him until it was too late. In one quick move Harm had the intruder in a choke hold that quickly rendered the assailant unconscious. After carrying the unconscious figure onto the plane, the assailant was identified as station agent Hardy. Webb thought that Hardy was the leak and it appears that he was correct - for a change. A shot of dream juice and Hardy was bound and shoved into a seat. There were two refueling stations at the airport: each about a block from the terminal building. Harm jogged over to the refueling station and found a worker having a couple of shots of Cana, the local liquor. On the way over, the terrorist's semi roared by - the loading was complete. The Petropar employee spoke a little English and told Harm that he has to refuel the terrorist's plane for an early morning takeoff and complained that he had been so busy he had not even had time to eat his dinner. Since the airport worker thought Harm was also a refueler from his uniform shirt, Harm volunteered to refuel the plane and let the other guy finish his dinner. The other refueler gratefully accepted his offer and staggered back into the little crew shack to eat - and drink. Harm started the truck and drove down the tarmac, picking up Keeter and the explosives along the way. Harm drove past the terrorist's plane while Keeter "painted" the aircraft with an infrared camera to see how many terrorists were there and their locations. There were only two, both at the rear of the plane. Keeter said, "You know Harm, it would be real easy to hijack this plane and probably less risky to yours truly than blowing it up". Harm considered his statement and realized that he was right. They decided that Harm would deal with the guards and on signal, Keeter would slip aboard and do a hasty preflight while Harm refueled the bird. After dropping Keeter at the agreed spot he made a broad turn to return to the target like he had missed the plane in the dark. Harm roared up to the rear of the plane and got out. Both terrorist guards came running over, guns at the ready. Harm put up his hands. The guards did not speak English, Spanish, or the native dialect Guarani, so Harm had to resort to sign language to convey the idea that he was there to refuel the plane. After some tense minutes he got the guards to understand that he simply wanted to refuel the plane. Apparently the pilots had told them to expect a refueling truck and crew. Harm pulled the truck under the wing and refueled the plane. When he had completed the task, he wrote down the amount pumped and presented it to the guards to have them sign for the fuel. As before, all communication was in sign language. The guards become angry at his request and started to unlimber their AK47s so Harm pulled his silenced pistol from his back and shot them both. Harms signaled Keeter who rushed up to the cockpit to begin preflight checks. Wanting to leave no evidence of foul play, Harm dragged the corpses onto the plane and thought to himself, Let the CIA take out the garbage when we land. While checking the tie downs to make sure the load was secure, off in the distance he spied the two pilots returning to the plane and alerted Keeter. Quickly they grabbed the AKs and both stood in the shadows next to the fuselage so that the pilots could see the faint outline of two armed men. Their deception worked until the two pilots got close and then one of them saw through their little deception and went for his gun. Harm cut him down with a shot from his silenced pistol. The other quickly raised his hands and shouted in English, "Don't shoot I'm an American." That voice sounded very familiar to Harm and in seconds he placed it: X Man! In an instant, Harm had the hot muzzle of his pistol pressed against X man's neck and said, "Working for terrorists Andy Buxton? I ought to kill you right here!" "Don't do it Pappy!" cried Buxton. "The X Man has to fly and with few opportunities open to a cashiered Navy pilot in the States, I had to look globally to get a job. I know a lot about their operation, which I will gladly share with you if you let me live," he said. Harm replied, "OK, Drag your buddy onto the plane and then step over here." Harm quickly gave Keeter a thumbnail sketch of his involvement with X Man and they decide to take him along. Keeter would take X Man back to the Lear and secure him with the others on the plane. Since it was imperative that Sadik be delivered quickly and too much was happening that could easily spin out of their control, it was agreed that Keeter would return to the Lear with X Man and take off immediately. Harm would take the C123 and follow. Keeter had found the filed flight plan, maps, and operating manuals in the cockpit for Harm to study. The pilots shook hands and wished each other luck. Harm dropped Keeter and X Man at the Lear in the refueling truck and then drove back, buttoned up, fired up, and lumbered into the air right behind the Lear.

Once airborne, he contacted Ciudad del Este flight control and filed a revised flight plan, then contacted the Lear on a little used channel favored by the CIA to discuss transit plans. The cargo plane cruised at 175 mph and had a range with the drop tanks of about 2,500 miles. Since both aircraft had about the same range, they agreed that the best refueling point where security could be controlled was the now little used old Howard Air Force Base, now called Panama Pacifico International in Panama. The airport is on the Pacific side of the Itmas and very isolated. This was at the end of the C123's range, but Harm was pretty sure he could make it. Keeter said he would get on to Washington to update them on the situation and make all the arrangements with CIA Panama. It was further agreed that since the Lear was more than twice as fast as the C123, Keeter would refuel, take care of the prisoner's needs and then wait for Harm, but be ready for a fast departure. Further, Harm suggested that the CIA arrange for the C123 to be flown out of Panama with the Stingers and moved to a secure location pending a decision on the disposition of the missiles. The next hurdle to be crossed was where to land in the US. Harm, Beth, and Keeter discussed various landing options. After discarding several suggestions, Harm suggested Key West NAS. He had tried a case for murder there and was familiar with the base. The base was among the smallest naval installations in the Navy. Everyone seemed to know everyone else thus making it harder for an unknown terrorist to sneak on base with hostile intent without being challenged. Aircraft servicing facilities were also adequate. To beef up security, Seal Team 2, which was stationed at Roosevelt Roads in Puerto Rico, could be moved quickly and quietly to the base for additional security. While the plan would require close Navy/CIA coordination, Keeter liked the idea and set the wheels in motion with a call to Washington.

During the refueling stop in Panama, two men claiming to be CIA agents approached the Lear and claimed to have authorization to take charge of Sadik. While Keeter kept them busy on the tarmac reviewing their paperwork, Beth called Washington and learned that no agents were instructed to meet the plane or take Faud. Beth appeared at the door and with a nod to Keeter, invited them on board. As the two reached the top of the stairs, they reached for their pistols which was a mistake. Beth's pistol barked once and one imposter was dead. The other quickly threw up his hands. The survivor as bound and anesthetized, while security was quietly increased around the Lear, and the deceased quietly offloaded. When Harm landed, he was briefed on the kidnap/assassination attempt. Even with the added security, Harm felt that as soon as they got Washington's approval for their revised plan, it was time to take off to minimize their exposure. Almost immediately, a message arrived approving their plan. Seal Team 2 was already moving and would implement procedures to deal with any threats. Further they should be in place before the Lear arrived in Key West. Two CIA pilots known to both Keeter and Beth delivered the package of requested items for the prisoners. With the package in hand, the Lear was in the air five minutes later, while the two CIA pilots took off in the C123, destination unknown.

While events were unfolding in Panama, the CIA team was making slow progress in returning to Ciudad del Este. The tractor could do no more than 15 kilometers/hour flat out. So far, she reckoned they had traveled a little over 15 kilometers. Mac apparently pushed the tractor too hard and it quit with a mighty gasp and a deep rumble. With the tractor broken, the only alternative the team had was to hitch hike. After being ignored by what seemed like a hundred vehicles, a older man stopped his truck and offered them a ride. He was an old German Mennonite farmer on his way to Ciudad del Este to sell a load of soybeans. The team gratefully accepted his offer and piled into the cab. Mac was especially pleased to ride on a well padded seat since she had been wounded in the right cheek and every bump made the wound hurt that much more. A stop for fuel gave the team a chance to buy food, beverages, and rebandage their wounds. After about four hours, the truck rolled into town and dropped them off at the Ciudad del Este Hotel, the one they had stayed at the beginning of the mission and still had their checked luggage. After checking back in and obtaining their luggage, the house doctor was called to examine their injuries. They explained that they had been stopped by bandits who stole their car and tried to kill them with a hand grenade. Apparently this story is not uncommon here and the doctor accepted their story at face value. After a hardy meal, they set about obtaining transportation home and further medical care for Webb. They tried contacting the resident agent, Hardy, but they were unable to reach him. Webb contacted the CIA resident at the US embassy in Azuncion to arrange travel for them back to the States. Webb and Mac were in their old room, the Honeymoon Suite, while Gunny took the room next store. Even though his wounds hurt and he was bone tired, he could not get to sleep since Webb and the Colonel were going at it next store like crazed animals. The groans and moans were clearly heard though the paper thin walls as well as the rhythmic banging of the bed board against the wall. Gunny thought to himself, the Commander resigned his commission and put his life on the line to rescue the Colonel, killing at least a dozen terrorists in the process only to have her show her appreciation for his sacrifice by openly rejecting him in favor of that scum bag Webb, the guy who got us into this mess to start with. Then she executes an ambush without adequate recon that almost gets us killed. If she had listened to me and done it right , we would have known about the additional 8 terrorists, adjusted our tactics accordingly, and avoided getting wounded. Then she blames the Commander for her failure because he was not there to provide extra firepower. She keeps rationalizing all these mistakes by saying that she is a Marine and knows what she is doing. She is definitely a Marine, but if you ask me, I think she must have gone through basic training without her helmet on. As he finally started to finally doze off, he made a note to himself that in the future he was going to give her a wide berth.

After take off Harm started to think about the ramifications of the assassination attempt. Part of Washington's message mentioned that it had been announced that the Paraguay Federal Police identified Sadik as one of the victims in the burned out car in Paraguay based upon the chain around his neck, unburned fragments of his personal papers, a wallet in his pocket that somehow survived the fire, and the vehicle's license plate number. Only a very select group in Washington knew the truth and yet the two assassination attempts clearly indicated a leak. The CIA interrogators would undoubtedly eventually discover the guilty individual/individuals, but that would take time and would not stop another attempt in Key West. The presence of Seals would certainly enhance security, but Harm had a nagging feeling that more steps were clearly necessary to guarantee that Faud arrived safely. "Keeter, does this plane have an encrypted link to talk to Washington?" asked Harm. With the affirmative reply, Harm asked them to get Deputy Director Kershaw on the line. When Kershaw came on, Harm outlined their fears about the mole and outlined a second level of precautions that need be taken. After some back and forth, Kershaw agreed to the suggestions and said he would get them implemented immediately. In the meantime, Beth took the controls while Harm and Keeter implemented their part of the new plan.

First, the duo untied the unconscious X Man and removed his clothing. Then they removed Faud's clothing as well which was smelling pretty ripe after being worn for two days and put it on X Man after fitting him with a bullet proof vest. They then strapped a bullet proof vest on Faud and dressed him in X Man's flight suit and finally cuffed him. Harm and Keeter paused to admire their handiwork. Since both men were close in size even up close it was near impossible to establish which one was Faud. Next, all the prisoners were fitted with a black hood that was securely fastened. All was ready for the final phase. When the Lear was 10 minutes out, Harm and Keeter administered drugs that brought all the prisoners except Faud back to consciousness, but they would remain groggy and thus docile for at least 30 minutes. More than enough time for the handoff. All talking was immediately silenced by a hard cuff to the head. Keeter explained the disembarking procedure and warned them that any funny moves would result in their immediate demise. The jet landed and taxied to a hardstand in front of a hanger. A towmotor hooked on to the nose gear and pulled the jet into the hanger where a black Suburban with darkened windows was waiting. Beth handed Harm a list of CIA operatives names that were supposed to greet them and Harm opened the hatch and looked around. Standing there were Lieutenant Kellogue and one of his Seals, four Marines in battle gear, and three men in dark suits with sunglasses. Harm descended the stairs and waited for the three CIA men to approach with their ID cards ready. The CIA operatives names were compared to the list Beth had handed him. With everything in order, Harm nodded to Keeter who helped the prisoners down the ladder. The prisoners were all loaded into the SUV, which promptly departed at high speed. As soon as the Suburban cleared the hanger, the third window on the passenger side exploded and the vehicle accelerated to get out of the line of fire. Sniper! Seconds later, three series of shots rang out and then all was quiet. The Seals have neutralized the threat, thought Harm. After getting the OK that the area was now clean from the Seal team, Kellogue and the other Seal hauled the still unconscious Faud off the plane and half carried him and half dragged him out the hanger's side door to a helicopter that had just landed. Beth and Harm carried the case of mother boards and Sadik's brief case while Keeter got the slumbering terrorist buckled in for the flight. After that, the rest of the party climbed aboard the copter which immediately lifted off. Next stop, the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center outside West Palm Beach. The ride was quite pleasant as Kellogue reported that they had anticipated a sniper would make an attempt and adjusted their tactics accordingly. Three snipers were detected, one in a drainage ditch and two on the roofs of hangers. All were killed but one got off the shot that hit the Suburban, but caused no injuries. Upon landing, they were greeted by another black Suburban with Deputy Director Kershaw standing beside it along with two other CIA agents. All three knew Kershaw by sight, but Harm still demanded their IDs. Kershaw said, "Commander, don't you trust us?" Harm replied, "After everything that has happened, I don't trust anyone but Keeter or O'Neil - no offence, sir." With that, the Seals dragged the unconscious Sadik Faud from the helicopter "Director, may I present Sadik Faud, murderer and terrorist, and remand him into your custody. I left him sedated because I wanted him to experience the gut wrenching transition from a man going about being free to rain terror as he chose to a man waking up a caged prisoner who's life was about to get a lot harder." "Harm, I want you to know that you and your colleagues have done a tremendous service to this country and indeed the free world in capturing Faud, capturing the Stingers, as well such a large quantity of intelligence materials. Naturally we will need to debrief everyone, but that can wait until all of you have had a chance to rest. You all look exhausted." said the deputy director. "Mr. Kershaw, we have been hard at it for the past 48 hours and I think it fair to say that we could all use a good dinner and a very comfortable bed."

The next morning, the trio were flown to Washington to begin the debriefing process. Between sessions, Harm was able to call Frank at work and his grandmother. Harm told Frank that he resigned his commission and was out of the Navy. Further, he asked that Frank not tell his mother and that he would fully brief both of them when he saw them. For now, Harm could use some help in doing an expedited move out from his apartment back to California as well as arranging a car transporter for his Corvette and Lexus. Frank said he knew a mover Chrysler used to move executives around that was based in DC and would get the ball rolling. Further, Chrysler used several trucking companies to move test cars about for writers at various auto magazines to review, so that was no problem either. He then called his grandmother. He simply asked her to have old Moss Hanks mow the meadow he used as a runway for Sarah when he came to visit since he was flying in and asked if he could visit for a week or so. Gram was delighted that he was coming and said she would get Moss right on it.

The next two days were spent debriefing and visiting with one of the CIA's therapists to make sure Harm's head was still screwed on straight. Harm actually enjoyed the visits and asked for the name of a therapist in the Southern California area. To his delight the recommended therapist was in La Jolla. Kershaw came down to again congratulate the trio on the success of the operation and request that all of them appear at Langley tomorrow at 1000 hours attired in suits and ties or an appropriate dress in the case of Beth. On the way home, Harm stopped at Home Depot and bought a bunch of packing boxes and tape. After a nice dinner, Harm called Pops Warner, the owner of the Blacksburg airport where he kept his Stearman. He requested that he install a long range fuel tank in the forward cockpit because he was going to be flying cross country and needed extra range. He also asked the name of the rental car company that he was an agent for. Frank called to say that he had arranged for the Hoskins Moving Company to appear Friday morning for the big move out. They would pack up everything but his personal items. In addition, he had arranged with the car transporter to pick up Harm's cars that Friday morning as well. With any luck, Washington would be just a memory by Friday evening. After a couple of hours of packing, Harm hit the shower and then the rack for a good night's sleep. The next morning found Harm dressed in his dark blue Armani suit that his mother had made him purchase with a white shirt and his red power tie. Promptly at 1000 hours the director of the CIA presented the trio with the highest award the CIA could bestow, the Intelligence Medal (secret) in his office. He commented that he had never seen so much important work done in such a short period of time in removing such a great threat to the country. Once they had returned to Kershaw's office, he added his congratulations and then told Keeter and Beth O'Neil to take the rest of the week off and then return to their current assignments. Further, he told them that they had found the Washington leak when the Panama assassin they had captured rolled over on a clerk in Blaisdales' office. While Keeter and Beth waited outside, Kershaw offered Harm a job with the CIA as a pilot. Harm had expected this and politely declined the offer saying, "I greatly appreciate the offer but my resignation from the Navy has created an opportunity to take my life in a different direction and I want to seize that opportunity." The director asked him what he planned to do. Harm replied, " I plan to go into a private specialty law practice. I feel I have given the last full measure of service to my country and that this is the perfect time to step out with a record of outstanding achievement. By the way, I assume Webb and company will be arriving for debriefing shortly. Can you tell me when they will arrive?" "They will be here this Saturday. Do you plan to come out to greet them?" asked Kershaw. "Hell no" was the reply, but I would like to see Faud one more time if that can be arranged." After a wonderful lunch at the agency's expense, Keeter and Beth O'Neil said their goodbyes and headed out while Harm was taken to what looked like an abandoned small factory building in a run down part of Washington for his visit.

After the visit, he was dropped off at his apartment and continued packing as well as made a few phone calls. The first call was to Admiral Tom Boone. Harm called to ask if he would be available for an early dinner on Friday night. Boone was delighted to hear from Harm and agreed to a time and place on the phone. The second call was to Jason Tiner. When Tiner answered, Harm said, " Tiner this is Rabb. How would you like to make a $100 cash the easy way?" Tiner replied, "What do I have to do?" "Clean out all my personal things from my old office and deliver them to me at my apartment this evening. Here's my address. By the way, has the Admiral cooled off yet?" he said with a chuckle. Tiner replied, " Hardly sir, I am sorry to tell you that he has processed your resignation. You are out the Navy as of two days ago. Let me read you back your address ..." Just then, apparently the Admiral walked by and spotted Tiner repeating a familiar address back to someone on the phone. "Tiner, is that Rabb you are talking to?" he roared. Tiner nodded. "Put him through to my office immediately! " The Admiral picked up the phone and roared, "I suppose you want your old job back. Well mister, I want you to know that I had your resignation expedited! You were never a team player and you always failed to consider the big picture! You are completely controlled by your emotions! You need to get a job as a cab driver or maybe wrestling alligators! You are not getting your old job back!" Harm calmly relied, " Well sir, when I resigned I knew that I would never work at JAG again. Actually, I never WANT to work at JAG again. I can't work for an officer who would leave a man behind for fear that it would make the department look bad. When I handed you my resignation, I really expected you to meet me at the elevator and we would both go down to Paraguay to rescue Mac. Recall that you dropped everything and went with Webb to rescue Tim Fawkes in Italy and you did the same when you drafted me to help rescue your daughter Francesca from the clutches of her ex boyfriend regardless of the consequences from above. Suddenly, you have apparently stopped caring about the well being of your officers that were obviously in serious trouble and quite willing to let them die. You have made a mockery of the very credo of the Seals, the badge of which you so proudly wear on your chest. As for not being a team player, whatever happened to your instructions to, "Do what you have to do?" So Chedwiggen, I am out of here. Permit me to leave you with one last thought. You know while this Paraguay mission is classified, parts of it are bound to leak out as scuttlebutt and will be widely circulated. I don't think it will be very long before your fellow officers will learn what you have done. Goodbye Admiral." The Admiral hung up the phone and contemplated what Rabb had said to him for some time. "Tiner hold all my calls and cancel my appointments for the rest of the day."

Harm had not expected to talk to Chedwiggen, but as he reflected on what he said, he regretted nothing. He needed to do a bunch of errands to get ready for the Big Bugout as he called it. Starting with calling a cab to take him to Dulles to rent a car. It took some time to find Capital Rentals in the car rental area, but he finally found it tucked away in a corner. As a bonus, he was able to get a tourist special rate from the young lady behind the counter using his patented 100 megawatt smile. From the airport, he stopped to pick up his remaining uniforms at the dry cleaners and returned home. At home he called to cancel his cell service, cancel his land line and cable services, and the utility company to have a summary bill sent to his new address. Once everything was done on his punch list, he resumed his packing until Tiner arrived after dinner. Over a beer, Tiner told him that what ever he had told the Admiral had made a great impression because he told him to cancel all his appointments, hold all his calls, and did not come out his office until he left for the day.

Friday morning arrived early with the car carrier driver knocking on his door at 0700. Harm quickly threw on some clothes and opened the garage where his Corvette was kept and brought the Lexus around. Both cars were quickly loaded up and secured. After breakfast, the movers appeared and started the moving process. By 1600, the load out was complete and the truck pulled out. It was time to throw his bags in the rental and head off to have dinner with Admiral Boone. At the restaurant, Boone started the conversation by asking Harm why he so abruptly resigned and what had happened in Paraguay. Apparently the expedited treatment of his resignation had raised a number of eyebrows and SecNav was ducking questions about it. Over the first two courses of the meal the aviator told the admiral as much as he could about why he resigned and what happened in Paraguay. He then related his conversation with Chedwiggen. Boone shook his head and said, "In Naval Aviation, for fighter pilots there is no big picture, only what is before them in the dogfight. As for being a team player, I have reviewed all of your evaluations and I conclude that you are the epidemy of a team player. You have to be to survive up there. What are you going to do now, son?" Harm replied, " I plan to go into a private specialty law practice of some sort after I study for and pass the California Bar. I feel I have given the last full measure of a service to my country and that this is the perfect time to step out with a record of outstanding achievement. What I would ask your help in doing is to get me into a Reserve squadron in Southern California - maybe at North Island. As you know, I am obligated to sign up for the Reserves and I do not want to be somehow dragged back into JAG. I am a little over a year short of qualifying for a pension and by joining the Naval Reserves I can kill two birds with one stone. Naval Air is where I belong." " I think I can make that happen. Give me a little time to talk to some people. Keep in touch and I will let you know how to proceed. This is my cell number. Only about a dozen people have it." said his Godfather.

After leaving Admiral Boone headed for Bud and Harriet Robert's house to see his two Godsons. He rang the doorbell and Bud almost fainted when he opened the door. "Commander!" " Its Harm now Bud" said Rabb. "Please come in and make yourself comfortable while I get Harriet and the boys." replied Bud. The next two hours were spent playing with AJ and Jimmy and the last half hour talking to Bud and Harriet after Harm tucked the boys into bed. "Since you have left the Navy, what will you do now?' asked Harriet. "Well, I have not fully planned things out, but I going to start by studying for the California Bar and after that I will likely set up a practice. There is nothing keeping me on the East Coast. Not to mention that I am from California." he said. Bud asked, "What about the Colonel? " "Mac and I are through. I am tired of her using me. On this mission, as a reward for rescuing her from certain death, she told me I was a fool for resigning my commission and has thrown her lot in with Clayton Webb. Didn't even bother to say thank you for saving her life. She barely had time to say hello before she started kissing Webb immediately after I had freed her." replied Harm with a look of disgust. "One of the reasons I wanted to stop by before I left was to thank you both for all you have done for me over the years. You two were the closest thing I had to a family out here. Always welcoming, never criticizing. Again, thank you so much for that. I will keep in touch if that is OK and will stop by at every opportunity, but now I am afraid that I have to leave to get ready to fly my Stearman out tomorrow morning. Good night and good luck because I think things at JAG are going to start to get very rough." he said as he got up to leave.

Last stop, Blacksburg, thought Harm as he started his rental. He made good time getting to the airport and when he arrived, Pops was still there working late. They went over the extra fuel tank modification and calculated the change in the center of gravity, fueled up the plane and checked everything over one more time. When they were through, Harm invited Pops for a night cap which they enjoyed at the Ceiling Zero restaurant. Harm rented a room from Pops for the night and turned in his rental since the airport was an agent. The next morning, after a pleasant breakfast with Pops, Harm paid his bill, put his bags in the storage compartment, and took off for Belleville to visit his grandmother. He decided to fly over Falls Church on his way out of town. Many of the JAG staff saw him fly over the building and silently wished him the best of luck in whatever he planned to do. Included in the crowd was the Admiral who was just getting out of his SUV and also silently wished him good luck. As he walked into the building, he was overcome by a deep sense of loss and foreboding.

As Mac was getting out of the car at Langley for debriefing, she heard a familiar noise and looked up just as Harm's Stearman flew over and disappeared behind the trees. Looks like the Admiral refused to reinstate him and he is leaving Washington to find a job elsewhere. I tried both Harm's cell and land line last night and found that they had been disconnected. Well, Rabb knew there was a risk that he would not be reinstated when he went to Paraguay. He gave up his commission and flying for almost nothing since he did next to nothing other than support Gunny's attack and take out the two terrorists getting ready to torture me. Gunny did the actual rescue and he didn't even help us try to destroy the Stingers, thought McKenzie. With a shrug of her shoulders, she joined Gunny for the walk to the lobby where a clerk greeted them and guided them to the debriefing area. Not the greeting Mac expected. After everything they had been through, she expected at least Kershaw would welcome them. Debriefing took a full day and they both had to return for additional debriefing since Gunny's and Mac's statements had significant differences that had to be cleared up and a visit with a therapist was required as well. When the trio had arrived in Washington after the long flight from Paraguay, Webb had been sent to a CIA hospital for his injuries and recovery, he would be debriefed separately while Gunny and MacKenzie were sent to Bethesda to have their shrapnel wounds looked at and determine if further treatment was necessary. The hotel doctor had done a good job of treating them, their wounds were healing nicely and other than a final follow up in 30 days, they were declared fit for duty, and ready for debriefing. Something is up, thought McKenzie. Clay had been very quiet last night during her visit and she knew from previous CIA assignments that it was unusual to have a second set of debriefings. Three CIA analysts filed into their debriefing room and the questioning began. First question was why did McKenzie minimize the contribution of Harmon Rabb to the rescue of Webb and herself? This seemed odd to her since it was obvious that Gunny had planned and executed their rescue and Rabb had merely provided additional covering fire for the assault. "How do you reconcile your statement with Gunny Valendez's statement that he was merely hanging out in Cuidad del Este hoping that the cavalry would arrive to do the rescue. He did not have any weapons nor any men to make an assault. As he says in his report, he only knew the location of the Plantation. Rabb was the one who took over, killed two men with his bare hands to obtain AK 47s for the assault, planned the assault on the fly, and then executed the assault killing according to Gunny's statement, a dozen terrorist to affect yours and Webb's rescue. If Rabb had not shown up when he did, it appears likely that you and Webb would have been tortured and killed like the two missionaries. Also, why would you plan an ambush for the semi truck carrying the Stingers when you only had three people, only two were able bodied and one partially disabled? Thirteen fully armed terrorist against two and one half seems like pretty lousy odds, Why not just follow the truck and see where it went and then develop a plan to destroy the Stingers? Seems to me that the two of you are lucky to be alive. I also have a question regarding your long term relationship with Rabb and your sudden attraction to Webb that caused Rabb to abandon your efforts," said the lead analyst. Mac became very annoyed at these questions which implied that she was out of her depth. "I'm a Marine, I knew what I was doing. Harm is always playing the hero on missions. Gunny had been part of this operation from the beginning and as a Marine, I know he would do everything in his power to not leave a man behind, namely me and Webb. With his background, I was confident that he would organize and lead a rescue mission instead of merely participate in an operation led by a squid. As for the ambush. We did a limited recon because it appeared that the truck was close to being loaded and I did not want to miss an opportunity to destroy its cargo of Stingers. In retrospect, perhaps merely following the loaded semi may have been the best course of action. Finally, Webb and I have grown close during the duration of this operation. My role was to be his wife as well as assess the quality of the diamonds used in the transaction and listen to any Farsi conversations. My display of affection for Webb was no doubt caused by our near brush with death. I was Rabb's partner at JAG for eight years and in that whole time he merely wanted to be best friends rather than commit to a relationship while Webb did. If he wanted more than friendship, he should have said so. I cannot control Rabb's reaction to the new reality." said MacKenzie. As the two were leaving the room, the lead agent thought to himself, What an ungrateful idiot. After the final debriefing, both MacKenzie and Gunny visited with the Agency's therapist to discuss the mission and to talk about how it had affected them. Mac spent the majority of the session defending her demonstration of affection for Webb in Rabb's presence and his reaction. The therapist found that Gunny needed no further counseling, but recommended that MacKenzie undergo additional counseling as it was evident the she had PTSD. As Mac was walking out of the office, the therapist, who as it turned out, was the same one that had talked to Harm thought, How could you be so stupid as to go to the agency's resident idiot when such a quality guy like Rabb was in your grasp? What an idiot! Following the therapist session they were lead to a conference room where Deputy Director Kershaw awaited their arrival. After they arrived, Kershaw thanked them for their participation in the Paraguay operation and told them that the operation had been satisfactorily concluded and they were to return to their respective units. Mac piped up and asked, "Can you tell us if Sadik Faud has been killed or captured and the Stingers destroyed?" After a moment of contemplation, the Deputy Director replied, "Yes on both counts." "Gunny and I spent a good deal of time in Paraguay working on this assignment and were almost killed. I think we deserve to hear the whole story of what happened." Kershaw replied, "OK, but this whole operation is classified and agency contained. If any word of its success leaks out, we know who did it. Sadik Faud was captured by Harmon Rabb along with a large trove of documents, a personal cell phone, and other items. Our analyst's preliminary assessment of the documents is that they are a gold mine of information on the operation at the highest echelons of the world wide terrorist organization and outlines a series of proposed terrorist acts world wide. In addition to Faud, our station agent down there, Hardy, was caught trying to kill Faud. He is obviously a mole. At the Cuidad del Este airport, Harm along with two other agents, captured one of the pilots of the cargo plane the terrorists had loaded up with the Stingers as well as the cargo plane itself which Rabb flew out under the very noses of the remaining terrorists. During a refueling stop, another attempt was made to kill Faud. Once again that assassin was captured and is being interrogated. Rabb was concerned that an attempt would be made on Faud in the States and developed a clever plan that worked perfectly when the attempt was actually made. Faud was sent to one of our prisoner debriefing centers after Harm had one last visit with him. I don't know what Rabb said, but after he left, our agents reported that the terrorist had a genuine look of terror in his eyes as he shrieked, not shouted or screamed, shrieked at the top of his lungs to, "Never let Rabb near me again." As Gunny and MacKenzie were leaving Langley, Mac became enraged. Once again Rabb is the hero while Webb, me, and Gunny failed to complete the mission. The only thing we got were shards of shrapnel from the ambush. Its not fair. When she visited Webb in the hospital that night he glumly further elaborated on Rabb's exploits. It was clear to her that he had been harshly criticized for the mission's failure, and the price the trio of operatives had paid for no results. Webb moaned that, "Rabb always comes out smelling like a rose no matter the situation, while I always get the blame for failed operations. It's not fair!" Webb further confided that he was afraid that he was going to be assigned to desk duty in some God forsaken part of the third world after he was discharged for the hospital.

Harm was ushered into a plain, concrete room with a metal table and two chairs. Faud sat at the table hand cuffed to the table. "YOU!" "Yea, its me Faud. I came to make sure that the CIA guys told you that you were my property. I captured you and I own you. You are on loan and I expect you to cooperate. If you don't, let me tell you what is going to happen to you. I will pick you up and take you to my farm. After a tour of the farm and a nice meal, I am going to take you out to the skinning tree where we skin the deer we kill during hunting season and hang you up. I have a special knife that does a real nice job of separating flesh from meat that I use. I am going to skin you alive and then take your hide and nail it up on the out house door so I can say, "Good morning Sadik, How are you this fine day?" and at night say, Good night Faud, sleep tight." When I am finished, I am going to take your carcass and throw it in the pig pen. I have twenty five head of pigs who will eat anything and I am sure terrorist meat tastes particularly fine. I' ll come back in a couple of days to take your skeleton out to the stand of dense forest we have for conservation purposes. Its inhabited by a pack of wild dogs. The remaining meat on the bone and the freshness of the bones will attract them. They love to eat the marrow in the center of bones. They will chew on your bones until they get to the marrow. In a week, I'll bet there will be nothing left of you but bone fragments. But here is the best part. Muslims cannot touch pork but here you will now be literally part of a pig who will drop pig crap that is also partly composed of you. In addition, those dogs will also drop dog crap which will also be partially composed of you. I am no Imam, but I think your exposure to pigs and dogs means that you do not get to go to Jannah and your order for 70 virgins will be cancelled. You may want to check that with an Imam yourself to make sure. Finally, I will have my hands load up the pig crap in the manure spreader and spread it on the fields. I plan to erect a small sign that says: Spread over these five acres is Sadik Faud, terrorist and loser. What do you think about that?" Faud responded by spitting across the table and hitting Rabb. Harm calmly got up and walked around the table, grabbed Faud by the shirt, and jerked him up straight. Whereupon he backhanded him hard half a dozen times. "Do that again and you will be eating though a straw permanently. By the way, if you think I am kidding consider this, I saw you kill the two missionaries, people who were doing God's work helping the downtrodden develop a better life, while showing less regard for their lives than you would stepping on an ant. Rest assured that after seeing your lack of regard for human life, I will have that same lack of regard for you if you fail to cooperate."

Harm made good time on his flight to Belleville thanks to a strong tailwind. He landed and pulled up to the out building he would use to store Sarah. Grams was waiting for him. He climbed down and gave her a big hug. Gram did not say anything, but she could immediately tell that her grandson had recently experienced a severe trauma by the lost look in his eyes and the almost imperceptible tremor in his voice. These were the same traits he displayed as a lost little boy when he and his mother came to live on the farm after her son was shot down and declared MIA, signs that only she would recognize. A little boy looking for direction on what was going to happen to them now that his dad was gone from a mother that was as lost as Harm and who was struggling to put on the brave face that the world expected from the wives of dead and MIA naval officer's. Even though she was grieving internally for the loss of her love, was merely reacting to the situation at hand rather than doing any planning for the future, and wondering how they would survive since her parents had told her they would provide her no support because she should have "married better". Gram was proud of herself as she reflected back to that period when she provided the stability that young Harmon needed, as well as providing support for his mother while she learned to put her grief behind her and develop a plan for the future. Gram also knew that as before, all she could do was to be supportive until Harm was ready to talk about whatever had happened. After Harm had tied down Sarah, they headed into the farm house for lunch. Grams told him that he was welcome to stay as long as he wanted, but he had to earn his keep and handed him a lengthy list of chores and repairs that needed to be done. Harm told Gram that he would not leave until the list had been completed, but after that he planned to go to La Jolla to visit his parents and study for the California Bar. He tentatively wanted to start practicing law somewhere in California. He further shared with her that he had resigned his commission, but did not explain why. Gram did not press him to explain knowing that it would all come out when he was ready. The rest of the day was spent getting unpacked and catching up on all the local gossip. After bringing in the eggs and mucking out the horse stalls, Harm set about storing Sarah. After rolling her into the shed and putting the large tarp over her, he closed the shed's rolling door and would not reopen it for more than a year. Once everything was done for the day, Harm disappeared to his thinking rock, a large boulder situated next to the spring fed creek that ran though the farm. This is where he went to think complex issues through ever since he was a boy. This pattern would continue for the first three weeks he was there. Sit and contemplate after all the chores were done. Frequently, when he came in for dinner Gram thought she detected blood shot eyes from crying, but said nothing. It had taken Harm about a month to work through Gram's to do list painting the barn and the house, mending the fences, and fixing various pieces of machinery. As time passed, Gram thought he was acting more and more like his old self. Harm attended church with Gram every Sunday. The minister had extensive therapy training and had seen that Harm was carrying a large burden. After the second Sunday, he and Harm started to talk during fellowship. They talked for some time. The following Thursday evening, he borrowed the truck to visit the minister, the Reverend Mr. Potts, at the rectory. Soon he was visiting every Tuesday and Thursday evening. Gram saw that he seemed more like his old self after each of these visits. Finally, after the fourth week, the dam broke. After dinner, Harm and Gram were reminiscing about the Wooden Spoon incident when he was six years old when suddenly he started to explain why he had resigned from the Navy, and the Paraguay rescue mission. While he had started to talk at a normal pace, soon everything started coming out in a rush, like a dam bursting. By the end of the talk, tears were streaming down Harm's face as well as his grandmother's. Grams was absolutely outraged at the way her grandson had been treated and yet proud of what he had accomplished almost single-handedly against such great odds. After another week, and two more sessions with the Reverend Mr. Potts, Harm announced that since the to do list was complete and he thought he was ready to head to California. Harm called home and told them he would like to come visit and discuss his future plans with them. Gram drove Harm to Harrisburg where he caught a commercial flight to New York and from there to San Diego.

His mother was waiting for him at the gate. He spotted her and rushed over to give her a big hug. In the car, he talked about the flight from New York and all the unruly people but otherwise remained quiet - too quiet thought Patricia. Harm dragged his bag to his old room and set about putting his clothes away. By the time he was done, it was time for dinner. Frank had arrived and cornered Harm as he came down stairs to let him know that his mother did not know that he had left the Navy. After dinner everyone gathered on the patio to hear what was new with their son. Harm was originally going to hold off telling his parents the whole story, but decided that he would just lay it all out since it was Friday night and they would have the whole weekend to digest the news. He decided to include the worst news, he had resigned his commission. Harm explained why he had been forced to resign his commission in order to go after Mac who was TAD to the CIA in Paraguay. He omitted the classified parts, but otherwise gave them a full briefing including how Mac had reacted after he saved her. To say that his parents were stunned was an understatement. They thought he was performing the duties of a lawyer and occasionally flying to stay qualified. They had no idea that he had ever been farmed out to the CIA for various missions. They were equally stunned at the way Mackenzie had behaved. His mother started to cry saying that the sacrifice and service her son, father, and grandfather had rendered the Country and Navy were obviously unappreciated and the Navy could just go to Hell. Harm and Frank had a few tears in their eyes as well. Frank asked, "Well, now that we understand why you resigned, what are your plans going forward?" "Frank, I plan to take the California Bar and once I pass it, I will either go with a law firm or perhaps start my own practice. In the meantime I need a place to stay. I spend all my savings chartering a plane to get me to Cuidad del Este and paying my outstanding bills in Washington. I am functionally penniless." Pat looked at Frank and when he nodded his head Pat spoke, " Darling, you will need a quiet place to study. While you are always welcome to stay here, I think I have a better place for you. Remember our little two bedroom cottage on the beach when we first moved out here? Well, I never sold it. I have been renting it out all these years and the current tenants are moving out next week. If you are willing to do some much needed maintenance on it and give me a little help at the Gallery periodically, then you can stay there as long as you want rent free. As for money, the educational fund we set up for you when we moved here has never been tapped since you went to Annapolis. There is a tidy sum in there that you can access to pay for your living expenses while you study for the bar. If you need more, I am sure that additional funds can be found." "Thank you both for the support and understanding of my actions," replied Harm. Frank said, there was one more requirement. "You have to play golf with me at least once a week. I want to introduce you around to both my friends and also some influential people." "Its a deal and sounds like fun." replied Harm.

The next morning, Harm started to download information from the Bar Association about qualifications and especially the exam schedule. He decided to target the exam being given in six months. Next he researched the various law review programs available and settled on one with a reputation for a large number of passes. After signing up for the program and receiving their study guides, on line access, and a class room training schedule, he applied to the Bar Association to take the bar exam. He was on his way. During the next few months, Harm's life fell into a routine after he moved into their old cottage on the beach. Up at 0600 every day, a six mile run on the beach, shower, breakfast, and then studied 'til noon. After lunch, he helped out at the gallery three days a week, and the remainder of the day he studied or did online sessions. On Saturdays, he usually attended prep classes at the University of California San Diego campus in La Jolla and then gave himself the balance of the afternoon off. On Sundays, his schedule remained the same as the weekdays except he usually golfed with Frank in the morning and had dinner with his mom and dad that evening. While he also dated, and enjoyed female company, most of the women were "Valley Girls" who shared Mac's goals of a good job, a good man, and lots and lots of shoes and/or clothes. Half way through the fourth month of his study regime, Harm read a blurb in one of the law journals that one of his old professors in International Law formerly at Georgetown and now UC San Diego was speaking on campus the next week. Harm decided to attend hoping that his old professor would remember him and may prove to be a good reference when he started looking for a job. Professor Peter Hofsteder delivered a brilliant talk on the legalities of countries extending territorial waters. After the speech, Harm reintroduced himself to the professor. As it turned out the professor not only remembered Harm as one of his best students, but also had kept tabs on him through the occasional newspaper article in the Washington papers prior to his move to the coast. Harm invited him to dinner that evening and Hofsteder accepted. The pair spent the better part of the evening catching up with each other. Harm explained that he had left the Navy and was studying for the California bar with the intent of getting into a firm that specialized in the Maritime law and International law. The professor mentioned that he and Professor Harlan O'Brien of Harvard were working on a paper for publication that was a survey of changing world events and the need for Maritime and International law updates to cover these events. Hofsteder was particularly impressed that his former student had been the US Navy's leading expert for both Maritime and International issues and had played a leading role in drafting opinions during the Hong Kong International Legal Symposium held in Hong Kong on the legality of the Mainland China/ Great Britain Hong Kong Governance agreement as well as the Icelandic International Forum held in Iceland two years ago. Hofsteder was so impressed that he invited Rabb to contribute to the project (read do research/grunt work). Harm realized that this would about double his work load, but is willing to do so in order to get recognition that would help him in his job search, so he accepted. Though it was a lot of work, Harm enjoyed researching various topics that Hofsteder and O'Brien assigned him, proof reading various sections, and making suggestions for additional topics to be covered. This work along with his regular study schedule, virtually eliminated all of Harm's free time except for the weekly golf game and working at the gallery, but he foresaw rewards down the way in doing it. The day of the two day California Bar exam finally arrived. After two grueling days of essays and multiple choice questions, he was totally exhausted. The exam certainly lives up to its reputation as being the toughest bar exam of them all, thought Harm as he hit the sack. He was so drained that he slept through the night and the next morning and probably would have slept through the better part of the afternoon as well except that his sleep was interrupted by a phone call that afternoon. It was Professor Hofsteder calling to discuss the paper. The professor related that he and O'Brien thought that the paper was complete and asked Harm to proof read the final draft prior to submitting it for publication. Since he is now free, he readily agreed. That afternoon, Admiral Boone called to tell him that he was been able to set things up so that when Harm registered for the Naval Reserve, he would be assigned to a squadron at North Island, a base only a short distance away. His Godfather then went into detail as to how he needed to set up his Reserves registration and to whom he needed to submit it to. If everything worked the way it was supposed to, Harm would be back in the cockpit in 30 days. The Admiral mentioned that he should be out there on an inspection tour about that time and would arrange for Harm the meet the "right people". Rabb thanked his Godfather profusely and invited him to dinner and a round or two of golf when he arrived.

The next 30 days passed very quickly. Harm read and reread the paper making several suggestions on ways to enhance various section of the article. Finally, the article was complete and submitted to the International Law Journal for publication. Unbeknownst to Harm, his many contributions had won him inclusion as a coauthor of the article. During this period, he received a letter from the Navy notifying him that he had been accepted into the Active Naval Reserves and further, he had been assigned to fighter squadron VF 14 and ordered to report to the flight surgeon at North Island for a physical within 30 days. Upon passing the rigorous flight physical, the aviator received orders to report to his squadron the first Saturday of the following month. At Admiral Boone's suggestion, Harm arranged to get the paper work associated with joining the squadron, ID, flight equipment, etc, taken care of early so that he was ready to fly on the report date. The Admiral would meet him at North Island for as he termed it, "introductions". The aviator had told his mother that Boone was coming out to California and since he was an old friend, she insisted that he at least come for dinner and issued an invitation for him to stay with them, while Frank arranged for a golf game at his club. When Admiral Boone arrived, protocol demanded that he visit with the base commander as well as introductions to all the squadron commanders. Once this was done, Harm was summoned to the base commander's office to be introduced by Boone as a new reservist. The admiral briefly reviewed Rabb's record as an aviator and commented that he had more fruit salad for aerial accomplishments in combat than most naval aviators earn during their entire career and his ribbons did not reflect his accomplishments while performing TAD missions for the CIA including medals awarded in secret. The base commander was very impressed with Harm's experience and knew that that experience could be very useful in upgrading the skills of the younger pilots in his reserve squadrons. After dismissing Rabb to return to the squadron, the base commander invited the admiral to lunch and asked if he could include a couple of officers, including Harm's new CO, Tom McDuff. The luncheon went well as the base commander and the new CO gently probed as to the acts the two DFCs and the Silver Star on Harm's chest were awarded for. The story of the nuclear tipped missile astounded all the officers present and pushing a damaged Tomcat out of danger using its tail hook was a close second. After introductions to the other members of the his new squadron, it was time to fly. Harm needed to requalify and the newest carrier in the Navy, the Abraham Lincoln, was about 60 miles offshore on a shakedown cruise. They would do the their quals on that carrier. This would kill two birds with one stone for the CO, get Rabb qualified once more and give him a chance to "see what he's got." The Tomcats they flew were older models, but well maintained and Harm felt like he had only gotten out of the cockpit a week ago - all his skills were instantly available. The flight out to the carrier was uneventful and the daylight traps went without a hitch. They had dinner on the Lincoln and then finished their night traps. As usual, Harm's scores were far above any of the other pilots that had previously qualified on the carrier. Since it was late when they finished their quals, it was decided to remain on board over night and return to North Island the following morning. After breakfast, the CO and Harm took off heading for home. About half way the CO suggested that they do some dog fighting. Harm had expected this and was more than ready. What he had not expected was that the CO had arranged for another Tomcat to come out from the base to "jump" Harm. As the CO pulled away, Harm's lock on warning sounded and a glance in his rear view mirror confirmed what his RIO was shouting at him - they had an aggressor on their tail. The pilot defeated his adversary in about 15 seconds when he performed a high speed scissors maneuver that placed him on his nemesis' tail so the aggressor could enjoy the sound of his lock on warning sounding. Knowing that his CO was going to pounce at any moment, he slammed the Tomcat into a high G turn and let his RIO find the other adversary. He was spotted 5 thousand feet above and a mile behind his Tomcat. Since they were flying in broken clouds, he pulled into a tight loop allowing the clouds to mask his move and then dropped down to shoot the CO in the face. The CO didn't know what hit him. With fuel levels diminished it was agreed that the dog fight was over and the three Tomcats formed up and returned to base. After a briefing on the current global crisis centers, it was time to go home. Harm was pleased that things had gone well and that he had lost none of his skills. His new CO was doubly pleased with the abilities of his newest pilot. I have some plans that I think Rabb will fit into perfectly, he thought. Harm drove up to his parents house to find Admiral Boone there enjoying cocktails on the patio with his parents. Harm briefed him on his first weekend back flying, completing his quals, and his little dog fight with his CO and the third aircraft surprise. Boone got a kick out how fast Harm had dispatched the two. The admiral had accepted his mother's invitation to stay over and plans were made for a golf outing the following day over dinner. After the round of golf accompanied by a quiet chat between Boone and his Godson during which Harm expressed his profound thanks for helping him get back into the Navy, the Admiral left for Washington.

In the six months since Harm had left, JAG was starting to show signs of marked deterioration both as a good place to work and in the quality of their work. The day before the Colonel's return to duty, Gunny Galindez stopped by JAG headquarters prior to shipping out to his new assignment at Camp Lejeune. The Admiral saw him talking to some of the staff and invited him into his office for a chat. Gunny explained that he had been released for duty a little earlier than the Colonel and had just stopped to say hello before he left for his new assignment. Chedwiggen offered him his old job at JAG, but Gunny declined. It was the way that he declined the offer that made the Admiral curious. The Admiral pointed out that a second tour with JAG would no doubt be a career enhancing move and then asked point blank why he declined the offer. Gunny knew that the Admiral wanted a straight answer so he decided to lay it all on the line. He told him point blank that he wanted nothing to do with the Colonel after what he saw in Paraguay. The Admiral pressed him for more details, and after being granted permission to speak freely, related everything that happened in Paraguay that was not classified with a special emphasis on the Colonel's behavior both toward Rabb, what he believed was her lack of leadership in trying to seize the Stinger missiles, and the fact that the trio's actions had been a disaster. The Admiral thanked Gunny for his candor and wished him luck in his new assignment then decided on the spot that changes in the organization were needed. At the first morning meeting after Colonel MacKenzie's return, the Admiral announced department changes due to the loss of Rabb, "Commander Sturgis Turner would become the new Chief of Staff. Recall that he had taken over those responsibilities when the Colonel MacKenzie was TAD and has done a good job. Colonel MacKenzie would assume a large part of Rabb's responsibilities including trying the most difficult and politically sensitive court cases as well as perform most of the JAG Man investigations. Finally, Carolyn Imes would be returning from Europe and would assume the balance of Rabb's responsibilities." While these changes looked good on paper, it soon became apparent that the staffers were not up to the changes. Turner morphed into a martinet demanding perfection in every report and statistic and demanding a more military atmosphere in the bullpen. In addition, he continued his feud with Bud. Mackenzie undertook the JAG Man investigations with the basic premise that someone had to be found culpable for every incident no matter the facts and if they were culpable, they had to pay. This was especially true on carrier incident investigations where her approach during crew interviews was ruthless and towards pilots, down right vicious. In addition, moral started to deteriorate as the staff blamed the Colonel for Harm's departure and gave her the cold shoulder. Harriet still interacted with Mac on issues in a professional manner, but avoided her otherwise as much as possible. She was heartbroken first of all because of the way she treated the Commander in Paraguay after he gave up everything to save her life, and secondly, that her dream of bringing them together in holy matrimony had been shattered. Both Sturgis and Bud also avoided the Colonel as much as possible. In addition, the Admiral was becoming more isolated and ill tempered by the week. In addition to dealing with sagging moral, a mounting back log of cases, and he was getting pressure from SecNav on among other things, a legal assessment of the China/Taiwan armed clashes, and the issue of the legality of declaring as territorial waters a demarcation line of 200 miles by China. Issues he was having a hard time getting answers for since Rabb was the Navy's legal expert on International and Maritime law. His only avenue was the State Department and while they agreed to research the issue, it would only be when they had the time. In addition, now that Rabb was gone, each of his cases would have to be scrubbed. Since he was the top producer, that would take time and resources to complete, which meant that the backlog of cases would continue to grow. Finally, Rabb was right. Scuttlebutt surrounding the ill-fated Paraguay mission and the willingness to leave of a man behind spread through out the Navy from the halls of the Pentagon to its most remote duty stations. As a result, he was starting to get stares and even hostile looks wherever he went. Everyone knew.

The last six months had be a grind, studying for the bar, working on the article and joining his reserve squadron. Harm decided he need a couple of weeks off since he would not get results of the bar exam for at least 60 days and reserve duty was only two days a month. He spent a great deal of it helping his mother at her gallery and working on performing maintenance on the beach house. It needed painting, some carpentry work and there was a plumbing issue as well. When this was all complete, Harm set about getting his resume together and researching a list of likely law firms to send a resume to. He also dug out the name of the therapist that the CIA had given him and called for an appointment. He found the therapy sessions helped and started to attend once a week for several months until he felt they were no longer helping. Finally, he increased the number of golf games with Frank to twice a week and found that they were helping draw them closer together. Things were finally going well for Harm and were about to get even better. Monday morning, the postman brought a large brown envelope containing several advanced copies of the International Law Journal that contained their article and was doubly pleased that he was listed as a coauthor. Naturally he gave a copy to his folks who were thrilled and showed the magazine to all their friends. As Harm was about to mail his resume to his targeted list of law firms, Professor Hofsteder called to tell him that they were going to present their paper at a International and Maritime law symposium that he and O'Brien were organizing. The professor told him that their paper had been very well received both in academia and government world wide and great interest had been expressed in discussing the paper and their proposed solutions at a symposium. He replied that he would be honored to participate and to let him know the details when they became available. During the ensuing conversation concerning what part O'Brien and Hofsteder envisioned for Harm's portion of the presentation, he mentioned that he was just about to start sending out his resume and that participation in a major symposium would certainly help spike interest in his resume. Hofsteder was a bit vague, but suggested that he hold off because he had some people he wanted Harm to meet. Since a kind word in the right places from one of the leading authorities in the field could result in a significant boost in finding a job, Harm readily agreed. The professor asked Harm to meet him at his campus office the following Tuesday to go over organizing the symposium. The next Tuesday, Harm arrived at Hofsteder's office at the appointed hour and the two of them got on a conference call with O'Brien to hash out the agenda of the meeting along with who to invite as speakers. After a whole afternoon of back and forth, it was decided that the symposium would be sponsored by Harvard at the end of July. Harm would be the point man in setting everything up. As Harm was getting ready to leave, Hofsteder asked him what he was doing for dinner that next Thursday. He indicated that he nothing planned and was invited to join the professor and several other guests for dinner at an upscale restaurant in La Jolla. On Thursday evening, Harm was escorted to the professor's table and introduced to Ted Howe and Frank Dewey of Dewey, Chetum, & Howe, one of the seven law firms that specialized in Maritime Law in the U.S. and headquartered in San Francisco. It became clear very quickly that the firm had looked into Harm's background and apparently liked what they saw. Over dinner they gave Harm an overview of what the firm did and explained that they were going to expand the practice beyond Maritime law into International and some domestic law as well. Over after dinner drinks, they offered Harm a job as a principal and head of the International law division in their firm at a six figure salary plus bonus. Harm indicated that he was certainly interested in their offer, but indicated that they should know that first, he was not as yet accepted to the bar in California, second, he was still in the Naval Reserves and had a monthly commitment to fulfill, and thirdly, he was interested in doing the occasional pro bono work. The partners indicated that none of these issues created a problem for them. They applauded his continued commitment to serving his country and as it turned out all the partners did pro bono work as well. Since he would be involved in setting up the new division as well as assisting in several maritime cases in the short term, the bar issue would be no problem. While he probably should have said he would need time to consider their offer, it felt so right that he accepted it on the spot with all his fingers and toes crossed in hopes that he had made the right decision. It was decided that he would start on the first of May, three weeks hence. Harm went home on cloud nine and told his parents of the offer. While they were sad to see him move to San Francisco, they were pleased that their son was going to work for a premier law firm after all the adversity he had recently gone through.

The next morning, Harm started to plan the symposium according to O'Brien and Hofsteder's outline of how it should be presented. While he had never planned a conference, his mother had extensive experience and Frank offered to detail Chrysler's event planner to help as well. He learned that the first thing was always to line up the speakers. He spent the next two days calling the individuals the professors had indicated they wanted to speak on what topics. After locking them down, the publicity was next. His mother knew a graphic artist that would create all the art work and the Harvard publicist would handle publicity. With some guidance from others, the preparations for the conference proceeded smoothly. In the next two weeks, the space had been reserved and the electronic requirements specified, the brochures and announcements created and approved, the luncheon menu set, hotel arrangements made, and the press releases sent to the professors for their approval. Once approval was received, the publicity campaign was launched. Given the interest in the legal community, the major television networks, NBC, CBS, ABC, BBC, Al Jazeera and other global networks called to arrange interviews. The professors tapped Harm to do the interviews. His combination of looks, charm, depth of knowledge, and his reputation as a Naval Aviator as well as being a lawyer, attracted the network National reporters to do the interviews. During the interviews, Harm expressed the legal concepts that would be covered in simple terms, was easily able to answer all of their questions concerning why those issues were important, and just as easily deflected controversial ones. His presentation along with his hundred watt flyboy smile simply beguiled many of the interviewing reporters. As a result, the interviews were featured on all the network morning and/or evening news shows including Today, Good Morning America, The Evening News, etc. as well as getting broad coverage in the Wall Street Journal and various other newspapers. As icing on the cake, the coordinator promised access during the conference to the speakers for interviews. By the end of June, all was in readiness for the symposium.

In the meantime, Harm had started his new job. It had been a scramble to work on the symposium, pack up and move to San Francisco, and get ready for his new job, but he had pulled it off and now was sitting in an office bigger by half than Chegwidden's office overlooking the Embarcadero. The partners had given him carte blanc to hire the staff for the new division. Because the Navy isolated him from having a good idea of the abilities of lawyers specializing in International law, Harm asked Hofsteder and O'Brien for their thoughts and recommendations. A quiet dinner in San Diego with Hofsteder and an hour on the phone with O'Brien had resulted in a page long list of highly qualified lawyers. A blind ad was placed in two of the most prominent legal journals. There was nothing to do now but sit back and wait to see who on his list applied. In the meantime, he had been assigned to handle a breach of contract with the U.S. government case involving one of the firm's oldest customers that was being taken on as a favor. As punishment for various past transgressions, Chedwiggen had assigned Rabb to review countless Navy contracts. Over time, Harm had become the department's expert on government contracts and became the go to guy for any legal issues related to contracts. He had learned the underlying regulations for contract issuance and had also developed relationships with the key people through out the government that handled contracts. In addition, he had put together a book containing a checklist of points that contracts must have along with copies of the various regulations governing contracts. Tiner had found the book in Harm's office and made sure it was included in his personal possessions. The case he had been assigned was a large shipping line that had entered into a five year contract with the Department of Defense to provide logistical support for the troops in Iraq as well as Afghanistan. While everything went well for the first year, suddenly Defense began refusing to pay submitted invoices citing breaches in the contract. Specifically, the shipping company was providing incomplete documentation for each shipment and was delivering cargos beyond the specified time limits for receipt. As Harm poured over the contract, he discovered that the documentation Defense was requesting was not specified in the contract, only the international standard shipping documentation was specified as required for payment. In addition, the contract specified that the shipments were all priority cargos and that the government guaranteed that suitable berthing would be available within 24 hours of arrival. As it turned out, the harbor facilities in both Iraq and Pakistan were backlogged and the harbor masters made no attempts to grant the shipper's ships any sort of priority. They were required to drop anchor and wait off shore until docking space became available, which frequently took weeks. Harm was able to prove this by reviewing each ship's log as well as the harbor masters in both countries records, which corresponded perfectly with the ship's logs. Harm tried to negotiate a settlement with the Department of Defense's lawyers but their attitude was "sue me", so Harm did. The trial in Federal Court lasted four days during which Defense's lawyers again tried to defend by making unsubstantiated claims about lack of proper documentation and slow delivery as the basis for their failure to pay. Harm submitted copies of the ships' logs as well as brought in the harbor masters as witnesses to substantiate the shipper's claims. The harbor masters stated that they were unaware of any priority for these shipments and thus required the ships to drop anchor and wait for a berth. The high point of the trial is when Harm challenged the defendants to show where in the contract the use of documentation other than the international standard was required. After two days of having an army of staff lawyers pore over the contract, they had to admit in court that there was indeed not such requirement. The Department of Defense lawyers summation consisted merely of waving the flag and yelling that Oceana Shipping had breached its contract and should pay the penalties as specified in the contact for nonperformance. After Harm's brilliant summation, the jury found for Oceana and required Defense to pay all outstanding invoices, pay damages of $10 million, and agreed to Harm's request that the contract be declared null and void. This created a very large problem for Defense since there were few carriers in the world with both ships capable of handling the types of materials being sent to the middle east and were fast enough to get the cargos to their destinations within the time frames required, and finally, who would enter a war zone. The next day, Harm was summoned to Ted Howe's office. There was Tom Morgan, Chairman of Oceana Shipping. Morgan wanted to know why Harm had requested that the contract with Defense be declared null and void. Harm explained that it was apparent that Defenses' lawyers would be watching for any infraction, major or minor, to demand penalties which would likely result in Oceana taking at least a small loss on the contract. "I have done a quick search of available ships that could meet the needs of Defense and found that except for the Russians, either no such ships were available or the shipping companies were unlikely to enter waters that insurance companies could quickly declare war zones. In short, Oceana was the only game in town. "Further, since we are the only player, I saw an opportunity to both rewrite the contract to make it more suitable and also raise our rates to cover our higher labor costs and fuel prices - plus a greater profit margin. They will be back with hat in hand in a week or less." said Harm. "I think you are correct that the court loss would result in Defense gunning for us. I can afford to wait a week or so to see if they come back. I will leave any further negotiations to your firm, Ted." replied Morgan.

After a futile search for another shipping company that could meet Defense's middle eastern shipping requirements, Defense was back at Oceana's door with hat in hand the very next week, as forecast. Ted Howe appointed Harm as the chief negotiator rather than himself because he wanted to see just how good Harm really was. The Defense negotiating team was lead by Bob Sharp, the lawyer that had tried Defense's case in court. The name Sharp is an oxymoron since this guy is an idiot, thought Harm. "We have come to reinstate the old shipping contract." stated Sharp. "I am afraid that that will no longer be possible as there have been changes in economic, operational, and theatre operating conditions that will require a new contract. But before we get into that, I have a question to ask. Do you or any member of your team have the authority to sign a new contract?" replied Rabb. " No." was the reply. "Then there is no need to waste anymore time discussing a contract since I am not going to get into a he said, they said situation. I want someone to negotiate with that can give me decisions immediately. I am not engaging in shuttle negotiations. When Defense is ready to add that individual to your team, please let me know." said Harm. Sharp was momentarily speechless but recovered quickly and replied, "That's not how this works." Rabb responded, "I reviewed government contracts for nine years when I was stationed at JAG Headquarters and I know exactly how it works. This contract is complex and requires people who can not only understand the concepts and reasoning behind them, but also have the authority to sign a contract and can defend it to the higher ups. They must be satisfied that they understand everything that has been negotiated here and agreed to, not someone trying to explain the terms from their perspective. Until that person is in this room ready to negotiate, there are no negotiations." "Very well we will just find some other shipping company." replied Sharp. "As you wish, but as you know and I know the only ships that meet your requirements are either Russian flagged or belong to companies that avoid the middle east like the plague. I am sure the press would have an absolute field day if you let a contract to the Russians and the Russians would just love it as well. Especially the ability to pick up samples of our first line equipment due to 'spillage from damaged shipping containers'. But if you really want to pursue the Russian angle, I have taken the liberty of writing down the contacts and phone numbers for these contacts. Good luck and good day."

Harm thought it prudent to brief Ted Howe on this morning's meeting. While Howe was a bit apprehensive about Harm's negotiating strategy, his rational for why he went this route made sense and gave him comfort. First thing the next morning, Harm got a call from Sharp indicating that they had reconsidered their position and would like to proceed to negotiate a new contract. He wanted to know when they could meet. Their negotiating team would be joined by a Bob Lutz, a Deputy Assistant Director of Defense. Rabb replied that in the interest of expediency, they could meet that afternoon at 1300. As a courtesy, Harm contacted Howe's admin and told her of the meeting and enquired whether Ted wanted to attend or not. Howe's admin called back to say that he was tied up, but that Chelsea Morgan, a junior staff attorney, would be attending. Over the next three days of all day contentious negotiations, an agreement was reached. The new contract called for the use of standard international documentation, a 15 percent increase in rates to cover rising costs, and a guarantee that suitable berthing would be made available within 24 hours. Inability to find suitable berthing at destination would result in no penalties. After a review of the draft agreement by both Howe and Morgan, the agreement was signed. Needless to say, both the partner and the shipping company's chairman were extremely pleased. In addition, the word filtered back through the various back channels of government contract procurement that if you were negotiating with Harmon Rabb, you had better wear a flak jacket. There was another positive aspect that came out of the negotiations. Chelsea Morgan was very impressed with Harm's handling of the negotiations. Harm had met her when he was introduced around to the staff the day he started. He thought she was very attractive and very intelligent, but thought no more about her other than she was a coworker. What he did not know was that she was Tom Morgan's daughter and one of the heirs to the Morgan family fortune. The Morgans were one of the old money families that ranked at the top of San Francisco society and had a great deal of influence throughout the city as well as the state house. J.C. Morgan., an English shoe maker, had come to California to strike it rich during the 1849 gold rush and was one of the first to hit it big. He made a fortune and wisely invested it. Later generations continued to build on the fortune until the Morgans were rumored to be the second largest owner of real estate in San Francisco proper (second only to the City of San Francisco) and had a number of other interests including an international shipping company, vast land holdings outside of San Francisco, a winery in the Napa Valley, large orange groves, and a string of auto dealerships. Chelsea had been educated at the finest schools and much to her mother's dismay proved to be a tomboy. While she had had boyfriends and a couple of relationships, nothing lead to marriage. When Chelsea had asked her grandmother how would she know she was in love, she replied, "Don't worry child, you will know." The chill she got around Harm suggested to her that just maybe this was the sign and decided to get to know Harmon Rabb a little better.

Meanwhile at JAG, the Admiral was in his office feeling sorry for himself. It seemed that since Rabb had left, just about nothing had gone right. While MacKenzie had returned to duty, but she was "touchy" to deal with, becoming very defensive at the most harmless comment. Many in the department still considered her a pariah for what happened in Paraguay. Even Harriet kept her distance as much as possible. Her file of complaints arising from JAG Man investigations now exceed Rabb's. Scrubbing all of Rabb's files had involved an enormous amount of time and resources which had forced him to push many cases back to the various JAG offices for trial. Many of these cases were being assigned to young, inexperienced officers to review and try. Many were just serving out their 3.5 year obligation after the Navy paid for their legal education and didn't like the effort involved in preparing for trial. As a result, many were just taking the facts contained in the files without any real in depth interviews or research to ascertain the true facts of each case. The result was that justice was not served for many sailors and marines. Complaints about this lack of justice were starting to be heard from the various commands. The Admiral was also starting to see that same thing at Headquarters since he was forced to bring the best of these inexperienced lawyers in from the various field offices. Rabb was gone, Turner became eligible to retire and was gone a week later. He thought ruefully that Sturgis didn't even attend his farewell party. That left only MacKenzie and Roberts in a senior role, since a routine security check of Imes, triggered by her return from Europe, had uncovered the fact that she had never passed the bar in Michigan. That meant that not only would there be a trial to prepare for and her probable dismissal from the service but also that he had to have 14 years worth of her files scrubbed, thus eating up more resources. He didn't even want to think about the time and resources that was going to take. SecNav was starting to get wind of the grumbling concerning his office. Just that morning SecNav was on his line complaining about the $10 million settlement Oceana Shipping had beaten out of Defense and the lawyer that represented them was none other than "Harmful Rabb"! Finally, department moral was declining despite his best efforts to reverse the trend. Several key enlisted had requested transfers already and more were rumored to be considering doing so. Speaking of Rabb, the admiral was so startled that he spilled his bowl of Cheerios into his lap that morning when he saw the interview NBC had on Today with none other than Harmon Rabb concerning the need for revisions in International and Maritime law and the symposium on the subject at Harvard at the end of July. Others in the department reported seeing similar interviews with Harm on ABC's Good Morning America, ZNN, CBS, etc.

The day finally came. Harm opened his mailbox on his way to work and found a letter containing his grades on the California Bar Exam. Since he was late, he put it in his brief case and hurried down to the car. Once he had his first cup of coffee, he summoned the nerve to open it and was surprised by its contents. Not only had he passed the bar, but he had placed first among all those taking the exam and would be awarded the gold medal at the California Bar Association banquet to be held the third week in July. The firm was a strong supporter of the bar association and always bought a table at these banquets. Harm fired off a quick email to Ted Howe notifying that he had passed the bar. Later in the day, it became common knowledge that not only had Harm passed the exam, he was also the gold medalist. Chelsea's chill just got a little stronger now when she thought about Harm. Meanwhile back at JAG, Bud Roberts knocked on the Colonel's door. She motioned him in and said, "What is up, Bud?" "You had requested that I let you know when the California Bar Exam grades were posted. They were posted this morning and I thought you would want to see the results right away." He handed her a printed list of the grades. She started scanning the three pages for Harm's name, but did not see it in the listings and said, "Ha, looks like old Harm failed the exam. Well, sucks to be him." Bud replied, "I think you missed the paragraph at the top of page one." There at the top of the page was a short paragraph on the winners of the gold, silver, and bronze medals. The first paragraph announcing the gold medal was none other than the name of Harmon Rabb Jr. The golden boy gets the gold medal, she thought to herself. Just then a twinge of pain shot through her right buttock. This was from the wound she sustained during the Stinger ambush in Paraguay. Even though the doctors have assured her that no fragments remain, she still felt pain whenever it is cold and rainy or from sitting for long periods of time like now when she was studying a case file. Naturally she blamed Rabb for the wound and her ongoing suffering since he abandoned them and she was wounded as a result. She thought, that's Rabb, always golden even when he is a pain in the ass.

Word of Harm's success in defending vendors in disputes with the U.S. government had spread among companies far and wide and had resulted in some of the largest companies with government contracts approaching the firm for help in negotiating with the government. The largest was Rhodes Shipyards. Rhodes had a several hundred million in contracts to construct a new super carrier for the Navy as well as several subs for a new class of subs. The Navy was constantly making construction changes to the carrier and expected the shipyard to either "eat" the increased costs or at least "suck up" a significant portion of the these costly changes. These changes not only reduced the profitability of the ship, but was also creating delays. Despite these delays. the Navy wanted the ship in the water by the contractual completion date and was threatening to levy monetary penalties if the ship was not finished on time. After a review of the 2,000 page contract, Harm recommended that the firm accept the case. After going over the case and the proposed strategy for winning the case with the partners and winning their approval, Harm told the shipyard that they would take on their case and specified a retainer to be paid in advance. In addition, if the outcome was successful, it was expected that the shipyard would become a regular client. When this was agreed to and the retainer paid, Harm started his campaign by calling some old friends in Navy contracts for an off the record chat. The contract agents were receptive to Harm's inquiry and filled him in on the background of this particular contract. With this information, Harm flew to Washington to start negotiations on changes to the contract. With Congress looking to cut funding everywhere to pay for the Afghanistan incursion, the Navy's budget was looked upon as a fat cow ripe for budget cuts. To date, the Navy had lost $120 million in this fiscal year. As a result, the Navy was looking to lean on their providers for better pricing to make up a portion of the shortfall. For ship builders and plane manufacturers, they were not budging off contract terms and change order practices. A week of futile discussions and off the record discussions with various friends like Admiral Boone, convinced Harm that the only way Rhodes was going to make any profit on their contract was to sue. During his Washington stay, he visited the Roberts twice to see his Godsons, taking the whole family out to dinner both times. The picture Harriet and Bud presented of JAG was bleak. The Admiral stayed primarily in his office instead of roaming like in the old days. Turner had retired and left without even saying goodbye to anyone, and Mack was becoming ever harder to deal with. Harriet speculated that she was having problems with her relationship with Webb. Upon his return to California, he reported the results of his discussions with the Navy first to the partners and then with Rhodes Shipbuilding with the recommendation that they sue if they wanted any hope of being reimbursed for the additions and delays. Subsequently, the firm authorized Harm to bring suit in Federal Court. The Defense and the Justice Departments sent an army of young lawyers to defend the Navy, while Harm and Chelsea Morgan represented the plaintiff. Despite the numbers, the defense lawyers had no real idea of how government contracting worked and as a result, they were woefully out gunned by Harm and Chelsea. Harm had a parade of shipyard officials including the project manager, various accountants, purchasing managers, and administrators for Rhodes as well as contract specialists both for the Navy and the Federal Government proper called as witnesses. Harm made the very complex contracting and change order process from both the shipbuilder and Federal Government's perspective both simple to understand and to educate the jury as to just what was agreed to in the contract and how the Navy was deviating from the agreed process for change orders to suit its own needs through skillfully questioning each witness. With Harm's help, Chelsea also performed well cross examining witnesses. After a short deliberation, the jury found for the shipbuilder and required the Navy to make payment on the cost of the change orders issued to date as well as awarded $15 million in damages and recommended the appointment of a contract referee to adjudicate any future contract and change order disputes. Given the grasp the law firm had of a very complex contract and contract procedures, the judge appointed Dewey, Chetum and Howe as the referee. Not only were the partners happy about the outcome of the trial, but also the prospect of future work from Rhodes who was more than happy with the outcome, not to mention a future stream of revenue from acting as the referee on a contact due to run 18 more months. Chelsea was happy to be able to participate in a major case and to bask in the glory associated with it. Harm had accepted her as an equal partner rather than a junior, took a fair amount of time to explain the background of federal contract making, the trial strategy, and allowed her to actively participate in the witness examination process. The chill she felt around Harm continued to grow.

At the end of July, The Maritime and International Update Symposium was held at Harvard. Harm had flown into Boston a couple of days earlier to make sure everything was in place. Harm was tasked to be the coordinator. The symposium attracted over two hundred participants from all over the world and counted participants from academia as well as government, both domestic and foreign, and of course the working press. Harm knew that wide spread press coverage was important for the success of the meeting and had arranged with each speaker to agree to grant interviews after their speeches. A breakfast as well a luncheon was arranged for both days. A formal dance was also on the program for the first night at a fancy hotel on Boston's Long Warf. Before the start of the symposium, Harm corralled all the members of the press to go over the ground rules and the location of the interview rooms. Harm, Professor O'Brien, and Hofsteder started the meeting with an overview of the importance of updating both International and Maritime laws. Following their remarks the keynote speaker, the Secretary of State, spoke outlining how the U.S. saw the state of the world. After the opening joint session, the symposium split into a series of speakers on Maritime Law and another series of speakers on International Law. All the speakers were prominent in their specialty and some of their remarks caused some controversy and debate among participants as Harm hoped it would for controversy equaled headlines. Harm was extremely busy all day making sure that speakers got to the right rooms for their press conferences, acted as the master of ceremonies, made sure all was ready for the luncheon, and greeted the speakers and made sure they got to where they needed to be on time. By the end of the first day, Harm was able to detect a very positive buzz from the participants. ZNN, ABC, Al Jazeera, Fox, BBC, and CBS all had remotes set up with their national correspondents reporting on the conference live. Many of the speakers as well as prominent participants were pleased at the interest in their work and the issues at hand and gave some very spectacular interviews that were widely reported. Unbeknownst to Harm, the Admiral and Colonel MacKenzie had signed up for and were attending the conference. They were both astounded when they saw Harm acting as the master of ceremonies. Harm had spotted them early on while introducing a speaker and was easily able to avoid them the rest of the day. The confines of the formal dance would make it harder to do so, however, he had a plan that involved Chelsea Morgan and unbeknownst to him would continue to have implications down the road. When Chelsea was walking out of a session on Maritime law, Harm caught up to her and suggested they take a break and have a cup of coffee. An invitation she eagerly accepted. After chatting about what she liked and disliked about the conference, Harm asked if she was going to the dance that evening and if so, who was she going with. She replied that she was going alone, so Harm asked her to be his date. She accepted and a time was set for dinner prior to the dance. Following a very pleasant dinner at a restaurant recommended by Chelsea's dad, Harm and Chelsea took a cab back to the hotel. While Ms. Morgan went upstairs to put on her gown, Harm made sure that all was ready for the guests in the ballroom. He had a quick summit meeting with O'Brien and Hofsteder to quickly go over the first day of the conference and make sure that everything they wanted done at the ball was complete. It was obvious from the way they talked, that they were extremely pleased with the proceedings. All preparations done, Harm went to his room to don his Armani tux that his mother had bought for him and after retrieving the corsage for his date, proceeded to Chelsea's room to pick her up. The ball was already in full swing by the time they arrived. Having been announced, they proceeded to mingle with both participants and speakers and their wives. Harm and Chelsea were frequently seen dancing with attendee's wives and husbands. Finally, they had fulfilled their obligations as hosts and broke free to dance as a couple. Both were excellent dancers and their Tango was the talk of the ball. Through out the ball, Harm's strategy was to be very attentive to Chelsea. The idea being to minimize opportunities for the JAG participants to engage them in discussion. After the way he had been treated, he was not sure that he could hold his temper if they met face to face. Further, Harm took great care to keep as many people as possible between them and the Admiral and Mac. Unfortunately, a deep discussion with the president of Lightning Aircraft concerning a contract with a mideast country distracted Harm and allowed Chegwidden and MacKenzie to stand behind the pair when they turned around. Stifling his surprise, Harm immediately introduced Chelsea to both of them. "Admiral, Colonel, I would like to introduce my date Chelsea Morgan." said Harm. Harm quickly explained that the Admiral was his former commanding officer at JAG and the Colonel was his chief of staff and also Harm's partner for almost nine years. He then asked how they liked the symposium to which they replied that they were learning a great deal about Maritime and International law. The conversation was interrupted by Mac's face turning white and emitting a loud gasp when she saw Sadik Faud's signet ring on Harms finger. "I see you are admiring my new ring. Sadik wanted me to have it as a reward for everything I had done for him," replied Harm smoothly with a smirk on his face. He then excused himself citing further hosting duties before anything more could be said. As they were walking away, Mac heard Harm tell Chelsea, "Yea, she was my partner for almost nine years. I thought I knew her, but I was mistaken." Well, true to form Harm has picked up another long legged, blue eyed, blond bimbo with a large chest. She does seem to have a nice personality though and is wearing a gorgeous gown, thoughtMacKensie as the pair walked away. The Admiral was curious about the Colonel's extreme reaction to the signet ring and asked her for an explanation. While she would have preferred to defer the story, the look on the Admiral's face told her that she had to outline the Paraguay operation and fess up to the failure of the CIA operation to destroy the Stinger missiles as well as her part in it. At the end of her story, the Admiral scowled but didn't say anything.

When Rabb had captured Faud, he removed among other things the signet ring which he zipped into a small pocket in his pants and promptly forgot about it. When he had finally reached the States, he remembered the ring as he changed into clean clothes and tried it on. It fit perfectly. I am sure that Sadik would want me to have his signet ring and it makes a nice souvenir of this adventure, thought Harm as he slid it on his finger.

After the ball had ended and all the follow up details were attended to, Harm suggested that they have a night cap before heading to their rooms to which Chelsea agreed. Over a brandy, Harm further elaborated on his past relationship with the Admiral and the Colonel and the non classified details of the Paraguay operation and the fall out from it. Chelsea was astounded but tried not to show it. She had never realized that the mild mannered lawyer in the office was the real life equivalent of James Bond - in addition to being a fighter pilot. As they headed upstairs, Chelsea felt the chill she got when she was around Harm was growing larger. She definitely had to call her grandmother when they got back.

The next morning Harm was back at the Harvard conference center at 0600 going over the program for the second day. He was joined by Chelsea at 0730 who helped with some of the follow up. When they were done and the conference had started, she reflected on how organized Harm was and how he handled the inevitable problems that develop at any function so smoothly and quickly. After the breakfast brunch, a panel of justices from the Hague and the International Court of Justice discussed past cases including war crime cases in the Baltic and current cases and issues facing the courts today. The question and answer period after the initial presentations was especially well received and widely covered by the press. The luncheon speaker was the ambassador from Saudi Arabia who did a wide ranging presentation on the status of the middle east and speculated on some likely outcomes. The symposium ended with closing remarks from O'Brien and Hofsteder. Harm and Chelsea spent the next couple of hours making sure that the speakers and panelists got to the right press rooms for interviews and that the transportation plans for those who signed up were functioning smoothly. Once again ZNN, ABC, Al Jazeera, Fox, BBC, and CBS all had remotes set up with their national correspondents reporting on the second day of the symposium live outside the conference center. After a meeting with the two sponsors on what went right and what could have been improved, Harm and Chelsea headed to the airport and home.

The day after the symposium was Saturday and Harm was up early to drive down to San Diego to fulfill his monthly Naval Reserve obligation. By now he had settled into the squadron and was rapidly being considered a leader by the squadron members having been in combat and earning two DFCs and a Silver star. Most of the squadron was made up of younger pilots and RIOs who had fulfilled their flight obligation and left the Navy shortly thereafter. None of them had seen combat. He thoroughly enjoyed once again flying his favorite plane, the Tomcat, even though they were the older models. Next month the squadron would be going on their annual two weeks of active duty. Little did Harm know that his tour would have such a far reaching impact on his future. Captain Tobias Ingles, captain of the USS Seahawk, was faced with a daunting problem. His carrier was assigned to enforce the No Fly Zone but one fighter squadron, the Raptors, was composed almost entirely of new and low time pilots and RIOs. Some on their first cruise out of flight school. They had only rudimentary dog fighting skills and he desperately needed some pilots with combat experience to show these newbie's the ropes since his current CAG was not up to the challenge. The Navy was desperately short of combat experienced pilots and RIOs and Ingle's requests were falling on deaf ears. So the captain did what any good skipper does, used the back channel to call his friends. His call to Admiral Thomas Boone yielded pay dirt. He would have Lieutenant Elizabeth Hawkes (Skates), one of the best RIOs in the Navy assigned and after some research, found that Harmon Rabb was about to start his annual two week tour with the fleet. Once in the fleet, it would be easy to get his tour extended. And so the orders were cut and sent out. Slates was on a shore rotation that was terminated and she was on board within the week. Rabb would be there in two weeks. When the squadron assembled at North Island to receive their orders, everyone was surprised to learn that Rabb was heading to the Seahawk, which was currently enforcing the No Fly Zone around Bosnia. Rabb got an uneasy feeling about these orders, but orders were orders. After two day's travel, Harm found himself standing on the deck of the Seahawk in the Adriatic watching the air traffic. Some of the Tomcat pilots were making rookie mistakes on their landings that definitely called for prompt corrective action. Upon reporting in on the bridge, Ingles took him aside and explained why he was there. "Commander, the Raptors squadron is composed of half nuggets and half more seasoned but lacking combat experience pilots and RIOs. The more seasoned aircrews have not shown much interest in helping bring the nuggets along. I had hoped that the more experienced aircrews combined with the CAG's efforts would get them up to where they need to be, but that has not happened. You were assigned here to help bring these nugget's proficiency up to where they need to be if they are to survive in the hostile environment we find ourselves in. I realize your tour was to be two weeks, but I am sure that that will have to be extended. I am counting on you commander. You will be given a free hand by the CAG. Good luck," said Ingles. With that, Rabb was dismissed and shown his quarters. As he put away his uniforms and personal items, he thought, Why me? And right away the answer came back, Because you are the best and probably one of the few who can do it. After that, it was lunch in the ward room and then off to the squadron's briefing room to meet the squadron. To his surprise and delight there sat Skates with a big grin on her face. When she had heard that Harm had been assigned, she let everyone know that the best of the best was coming to town. After being introduced around, the squadron were once again briefed on the rules of engagement and the flight schedule handed out. Rabb was on for that afternoon at 0300 with Skates assigned as his RIO. During the run up prior to launch, Hammer told Skates that once they were in the air he was going to shift coms to intercom only and he wanted a full run down on everyone in the squadron. After launch, on the way to the no fly zone accompanied by Flash and Stormy, Skates briefed Hammer on what he could expect from each squadron member. The briefing was depressing. The mission was uneventful, but all though it, Rabb was thinking about how he was going to approach his assignment. By the time he got back to his cabin, he had a preliminary plan worked out. Every day he would fly two missions and every day he would do so with two different air crew. He would mentor them intensely and watch for improvement. Some were probably beyond redemption and the CAG would have to decide what to do with them - transfer to another squadron, put them before an air review board, etc. After two hard weeks, his tour was extended at the convenience of the Navy and he was starting to see a material improvement in aircrew proficiency. He called Ted Howe to tell him his tour had been extended and why. Ted was an exNavy man and fully understood what had happened and told Harm not to worry, his job was safe and they would look forward to his return. As it turned out, Admiral Boone had already called Howe to tell him of Harm's extension. Needless to say, Howe was very impressed that an admiral called him concerning Rabb's tour.

The next day, Hammer and Flash were patrolling the No Fly Zone when Flash informed Rabb that he was getting a hydraulic failure warning light. Hammer ordered him to return to the ship immediately, but since there was no other Tomcat in the vicinity and would not be for another hour, Flash could not be accompanied back to the ship, which was standard procedure. Rabb notified the carrier that Flash had a malfunction and was returning to the carrier unescorted and that he would continue the patrol until the next flight relieved him. Ingles approved the return and told Hammer that ship's radar had not detected any other aircraft in the area. As Hammer and Skates continued their patrol, a Yugoslavian radar operator noticed that there was only one Tomcat patrolling the No fly Zone and notified his superior. A quick conference at Yugoslavian Air Force headquarters decided this was a golden opportunity to teach the US Navy an expensive lesson and a decision made to scramble three MIGs to attack Rabb was made. As insurance, it was further decided that one of their Soviet advisors would be included in the flight. Fifteen minutes later, Skates detected three MIGs at low altitude trying to sneak up on them. Hammer radioed the Seahawk, "We have picked up three MIGs flying low into the No Fly Zone. The MIGs are now making a firing pass and I request permission to return fire." "Permission granted," radioed Captain Ingles. The pilot maneuvered for a favorable position to attack the MIGs which were now climbing for another attack while Skates activated the fire control system. The engagement started with a head on pass with an exchange of cannon fire. Rabb performed a maneuver that involved dipping the aircraft slightly below the approaching MIGs to avoid their fire and then quickly pulling the nose of the Tomcat up directly beneath the nearest MIG and firing the plane's cannon. Armor piercing, incendiary, and explosive rounds from the Tomcat tore into the lead MIG raking it from stem to stern and turning it into a ball of fire. Afte turn, the Tomcat was on the tail of the second MIG and after defeating some evasive maneuvers, locked onto the MIG and fired a heat seeking Sidewinder right up the MIG's tailpipe. The MIG exploded and virtually disintegrated in mid air. The third MIG flown by the Russian had stayed back to observe the dog fight and when the first two Yugoslavian aircraft were destroyed he attacked. Das Vadonia, Yank, thought the Russian advisor as he rolled in for the attack. Skates was frantically searching for the third MIG, finally spotting him after telling Hammer to do a quick 360 to give her a larger field of vision. He was almost on their six and the radar lock warning light was starting to flicker indicating that the MIG almost had a lock on them when the RIO called out her warning to Harm, "We have the third MIG approaching on our six and he just about has a lock on us! You had better do some serious pilot stuff or he's going to lock us up!". Even though he did not have a lock on the Tomcat as yet, the Russian felt he could put enough lead on his cannon fire to hit the American anyway. The Russian made his adjustments and fired sending a stream to tracers whizzing past the Tomcat's canopy. Harm threw the Tomcat int turn, but the Russian stayed with him. This guy is too good to be Yugoslavian. He's got to be a Russian advisor, thought Hammer. Well, let's see how he likes a high speed scissors. With that, Hammer stood the Tomcat on its tail and climbed with the MIG right behind. Just as the Russian was getting a lock on the Tomcat, the Navy fighter suddenly banked to the left, lost speed which dropped him behind the MIG, and then banked right placing the plane squarely behind the MIG. Skates had already set up the second Sidewinder for a snap shot so as soon as Harm got a lock, he fired. The heat seeker buried itself in the MIG's tailpipe and exploded.

In the MIG, its pilot Major Ivanovich Putin, was momentarily blinded by the sun as he pulled into the vertical behind the Tomcat. He quickly pulled down the tinted visor in his helmet and was surprised to see that the American Tomcat was no longer there. Before his brain could even decipher the changing situation, his radar warning system told him he had been locked onto and a split second later came a terrible explosion from the rear of the MIG. His plane had been hit and the major reacted instinctively by pulling the trigger on his ejection seat. With a loud roar the seat fired and blasted him into the sky just as the MIG evaporated in a fiery explosion. As his chute blossomed out and he floated towards the sea below, he thought that American must be the devil himself to have bested me, but I'll get him next time we meet. Unfortunately, there would be no next time as a flaming piece of his plane landed in his chute canopy setting it on fire. As the advisor watched, the canopy disappeared in a ball of flame sending him plummeting 7 thousand feet to the ocean below. As he fell, he cursed Harm, God, and his superiors who had assigned him as an advisor. Das Vadonia, comrade, thought Harm as he watched the MIG pilot plummet into the ocean. The Tomcat banked left quickly to avoid being caught in a shower of MIG parts while Hammer radioed the Seahawk and cryptically reported, "Attacked by MIGs, destroyed same. Out." Back on the bridge of the Sea Hawk, the bridge crew was absolutely mesmerized by the live feed of the three kills from the Tomcat's gun camera. After Rabb's cryptic message, Ingles allowed them a moment of muted celebration before getting back to the business at hand. Best decision I made all year was requesting Rabb. Nailed all three in 50 seconds flat. Got to be a Navy record, thought Captain Ingles. Soon the entire ship had heard of the dog fight. "Good going Skates. Good eyes on spotting the third MIG before he could get a lock and for setting up of the second Sidewinder for a snap shot. That made all the difference." Hammer said. "That's why I get the big money, Hammer." chuckled Skates. The remainder of the patrol passed quietly. They were relieved on schedule and headed back to the ship. Once there, Hammer requested permission for a low level flyby. With permission granted, Hammer cranked the Tomcat into a sharp left turn and headed down the port side of the ship were he performed three consecutive victory rolls before entering into the pattern and landing. The deck crew went wild as they saw Hammer perform the victory rolls, hi fiving each other or clapping each other on the shoulder or back. As the Tomcat shut down its engines and the canopy raised, the deck crew swarmed the plane in a manner reminiscent of Lindberg's arrival in France after crossing the Atlantic. "Guess they love our work Skates." said Hammer. He climbed half way down the ladder and addressed the crowd. "We had some success up there today, but we wouldn't have had anything at all without each man and woman in the ship's crew's skill and dedication in doing their jobs. So, I would like to think that perhaps a little bit of each of you were riding up there in the cockpit with us today and share our success. Thanks to all of you for your hard work." The aviator and his RIO headed down to the squadron area to get out of their flight gear and start writing up their after action report. Half way through their report writing, they were summoned to the bridge. "Congratulations on your victories today Hammer, Skates. I think you may have set a record for the shortest time to down three MIGs. Unfortunately, we have Stuart Dunston from ZNN as well as several other journalists on board and naturally they want a news conference. The PRO has scheduled it for 1700 in the Ward Room. Dismissed." said Ingles. As they turned to leave, they spotted Dunston standing next to their Tomcat broadcasting live.

"This is Stuart Dunston reporting live from the USS Seahawk. We are standing next to the Tomcat that moments ago, a Navy Reservist and his Radar Intercept Officer landed safely after being attacked by and subsequently shooting down three Yugoslavian MIGs in the No Fly Zone. We are told that the reservist's full time job is being a lawyer in San Francisco. More details on the encounter as we get them."

Promptly at 1700, Hammer and Skates walked into the Ward Room to face the working press. Rather than face the same questions numerous times, Harm read a prepared statement approved by the PRO that outlined the encounter and its outcome. Then he opened the floor to questions. "Yes, it was true that I am a Reservist assigned here for my annual two weeks of service with the Regular Navy. No I am not married. I am a lawyer with the law firm of Dewe, Chetum, and Howe in San Francisco specializing in Maritime and International law (Harm and Skates both were wearing Dewe, Chetum, and Howe baseball caps). Prior to that I was a lawyer in the Judge Advocate Corps of the Navy as well as being a naval aviator. I think it should be comforting to the average citizen to know that their Navy Reservists are highly trained and can effectively step into an active combat role at a moments notice." After a series of ever stupider questions, the Public Relations Officer ended the press conference. The attendees left immediately to either write or tape their stories and sent them out so they would be in either the morning newspapers or a taped segment on the various networks' news programs. Everyone at Harm's firm were astounded to come home and turn on the news in time to see Stuart Dunston reporting on a dog fight in the No Fly Zone that involved their very own Harmon Rabb. All of them got a kick out of seeing Harm and his RIO standing before the camera wearing their Dewey, Chetum and Howe baseball caps. The next morning the dog fight was the headline in most newspapers in the US and abroad including the San Francisco Chronicle whose headline read: Attacked by MIGs, Destroyed Same. The article detailed the attack on one Harmon Rabb, normally a lawyer with the local firm of Dewey, Chetum and Howe, as well as a Naval Reservist doing his annual two weeks of active duty. Hell, this is the best advertising the firm could possibly get and we got it for free, thought Ted Howe. The Admiral and the JAG staff were equally astounded when they saw Dunstan's report on the TV in the bullpen at JAG. Even though the names of the pilot and RIO were not mentioned, the Admiral had a deep down feeling that he knew who the pilot was, it had to be Rabb! His theory was confirmed the next morning when he saw the headline and story in the Navy Times: Three to One Dogfight in the No Fly Zone, Navy Reservist Guns Down All Three.

After all the publicity, the squadron got back to business as usual. After his aerial successes, Harm and Skates found that not only the nuggets, but the more experienced aircrew were more open to approaching them for help on problems they were having. Over the next two weeks, the duo spend many unassigned hours in the air with the youngsters working on landing skills, formation flying, simulated dog fights, etc. At the end of the second week, two Yugoslavian MIGs ventured into the very edge of the No Fly Zone to test the American's response, Harm stood back and let two of his charges handle the MIGs. When the Tomcats went into their combat spread and started maneuvering for a radar lock, the MIGs turned tail and ran for home. The youngsters were starting to become combat ready aircrew and that made Harm and Skates proud. Upon return to the carrier, Hammer learned that Admiral Boone had pried two combat veterans loose from their stateside assignments and had them reassigned to the Seahawk to continue the skills development program. Harm was being relieved and sent home. The next morning he was packed and after having breakfast with Skates, was called to the bridge. " I just wanted to tell you that you did a magnificent job for us. The Raptors have vastly improved from where they were when you arrived a month ago. Hopefully these two new pilots can keep up the momentum. I wrote a commendation for you outlining your performance out here and sent it to your CO. Good luck, Harm." "It was an honor to serve under you once again skipper." said Harm. After a warm hand shake Harm was ready to go. As he waited for the COD, one of the other passengers mentioned that he had heard that a JAG was coming to do a JAG Man investigation of an electrical fire the carrier had suffered in one of the main power distribution panels which had blacked out the ship for a short period of time. That could only mean Mac was coming. Since he did not want to see her, when the COD landed he stood behind some equipment and waited for the passengers to disembark. Sure enough, there was Mac wearing her loaded for bear look on her face. Harm knew that this JAG Man investigation was going to be ugly. Someone or perhaps several crew are about to have a very bad day, thought Harm. When she had disappeared into the carrier's island, Rabb sprinted across the deck and onto the COD which promptly buttoned up and launched. After formally reporting to the captain, MacKenzie asked where Harm was presently. Ingles reply was, "He is in the air." "Flying a patrol?" asked Mac. "No, as a matter of fact he just left on the COD you came in on. I'm surprised you didn't see him. His extended tour was up and he is going home" replied Ingles. "Oh" was all she said, but her inner voice told her, he obviously didn't want to see you again and it is your own damn fault.

After a 14 hour trip home in a C 17 Harm was finally home. He called Ted Howe who told him to take a couple of days off and that between the contacts he made at the symposium and his success in the air, the firm was being asked by several large firms to help them with various maritime and international legal problems. He took a couple of days off to rest and after visiting with his folks, accepted Frank's invitation to do some rounds of golf at his country club. Harm had reached celebrity status at the club with Frank introducing him to all of his friends. Naturally all of them wanted to hear about his combat with the MIGs forcing him to recount his dog fight several times. Harm was glad to do it because he knew it meant a lot to Frank.

On Monday morning, Harm returned to the firm. Ted Howe asked him to once more recount his dog fight for the staff at the morning meeting. Following that, he was assigned new cases to begin working on including the Lightning Aircraft case. Lightning had sold a number of Lightning Bug armed UAVs to Saudi Arabia and had also secured a contract to train the Saudi's on how to maintain them. The Lightning Bug was much simpler to maintain than the Predator, was easier to fly , and just as effective in just about every respect. The sale was made at the behest of the Defense Department because Lightning utilized off the shelf components for the electronics as well as the power plant while the Predator UAV used components and a power plant that were proprietary. Some of its parts, especially telemetry were considered Secret. Despite an extensive initial training program, the Saudi Air Force was having a very hard time keeping them in the air, both from a maintenance standpoint and their pilots were complaining that they were hard to fly. As a result, they were threatening to sue Lightning and the US Government for $100 million and it was feared that there would be political ramifications as well. Lighting's staff lawyers went to Saudi Arabia to represent the company and succeeded in so angering the Saudis that they were thrown out of the country with no progress made. Clearly Lightning needed not only a lawyer, but also one that was a pilot that could relate to Saudi Air Force personnel. Harm's growing reputation as a combat pilot was a distinct plus. In analyzing the problems, he concluded that he needed a two pronged attack. First, he would see how far this problem had grown by visiting with the Defense Contracts Division to get some background on the original deal. Secondly, one of the original drafters of the Lightning Bug contract was now assigned to the Saudi Embassy in Washington and he needed to chat with him. Thirdly, he had learned that the Saudis like to meet face to face to discuss issues so it was likely that he would be heading to Saudi Arabia for negotiations . That meant that he needed someone who could advise him on the subtleties of Saudi culture during negotiations and a staff member to assist him. Fourth, he had to become acquainted with the Lightning Bug's maintenance and flying protocols. With that, he made his proposal to the partners and after some give and take they agreed to his plan. Harm and Chelsea Morgan flew to Texas to present their proposal to Lightning management. Again after some give and take and a lot of questions, Lighting management agreed to provide them with the initial contracts, a copy of the suit, the manuals for maintenance and flight for the UAVs, and copies of the follow up memos from the Lightning lawyers that were tossed out of Saudi Arabia. Harm told them that there was no doubt that he would need additional help from the aircraft manufacturer as the case progressed and was assured that any and all help would be promptly provided. In addition Harm and Chelsea were given a briefing on the Lightning Bug, its maintenance and flight characteristics. They also talked to the instructors for maintenance and flight that had taught the Saudi trainees. The trainers indicated that most of the Saudi Air Force mechanics had never worked on anything as sophisticated as the UAV and were slow learners. As a result, they were not fully trained when they returned home. Lightning had informed the resident Saudi officer of the problems, but they were told that they had only six weeks to train them and that period could not be extended. In addition, the pilots sent were all recent graduates of their flight school and had a hard time controlling the UAV remotely. Once again, the training period could not be extended.

With everything approved, Harm started his campaign with a long conference call to old friends in Defense Contracts. His contacts provided him with the basics of the initial negotiations as well as what they had heard about the suit. From there, the lawyer flew to Washington to meet with Colonel Mohamed Al Orair to get the Saudi's original goals, why the contract was constructed the way it was, from his perspective what had gone wrong, and his thoughts on how to fix the problem. The Colonel had apparently done a background check on Harm and welcomed him as a fellow pilot. He was very gracious with his time and his perspectives on the situation as well as provided some off the record comments and suggestions. According to the Colonel, the Kingdom wanted armed UAVs to patrol its borders since they were experiencing Iran sponsored terrorist groups attempting to infiltrate into the kingdom to sabotage oil facilities. In addition the UAVs were useful in patrolling the vast deserts of the kingdom much faster than vehicle patrols. The US would not allow them to have Predators, but offered the Lightning Bug as a suitable alternative. Since they were represented to them as easier to maintain, were more rugged, easier to fly and just as mission capable, the Saudi government purchased the Lightning UAVs and sent trainees to the US for training on it. Thanking the Colonel for his help, Harm mentioned that he was going to go to Saudi Arabia personally to see the current situation first hand. The Air Force liaison said he would email a list of contacts that would be useful when he arrived. After briefing the partners on what he had found so far, he told them that he needed to go the Saudi Kingdom to see the problem first hand. In the meantime, a Saudi National who was a distant relative of the Saudi king had been recruited to accompany him. Two days later, the pair were in Riyadh waiting for their escorts to take them to the airbase where the UAVs were located. In the meantime the Saudi consultant, Hasan Salman, briefed him on the culture, and how to present himself and the proper way to discuss issues in the upcoming discussions. The next day they were taken to the airbase where the two met with some of the officers on Mohamed Al Orair's list to discuss the issues and see for themselves. Once again, the Saudis were well briefed on Harm's background and that appeared to open some doors for them. It was obvious from the start that the maintenance staff needed additional training and that there was an issue with Lightning unique parts availability. Harm felt this could be rectified by having Lightning technicians on site helping the Saudi mechanics until they were proficient. Next they were taken to the area where the Saudi pilots flew the UAV from. Sitting at a control panel, Harm immediately spotted problems. The UAVs were fitted with a video camera that had a lens that provided a too narrow field of vision. A lens with a much wider field of vision was clearly indicated to provide a picture that was comparable to what the pilot would see if he were actually in the plane. In addition, the simulator provided was OK as far as layout and controls, but the screen provided looked more like a video game screen. Clearly this had to be changed to display a real picture like US simulators. While it took a little getting used to, Harm was able to do fairly well flying one of the UAVs for about an hour. The drone was maneuverable and when the vision problem was corrected should satisfactorily meet the Kingdom's needs. Naturally, the Saudi pilots were quite impressed with Harm's ability to fly the drone with no instruction. A round table discussion was scheduled with the pilots and maintenance people to hear their concerns. Just before the round table meeting was to start, Harm bumped into a US Air Force pilot he knew in Washington, Major Harley Earl. While they chatted, Earl turned to the assembled Saudi pilots and said, "You guys know who this man is don't you? He is the Navy pilot who killed three Yugoslavian MIGs in the No Fly Zone a month ago." The fact that one of the best pilots in the Navy had been sent to help the Saudis fix the UAV problems made the round table comprised of maintenance officers and the pilots flow much more freely and resulted in many other issues being discussed as well. By the meeting's conclusion, Harm had pretty well decided on a solution. Later that evening, Rabb was in the hotel bar having a night cap when he happened upon a Lightning Aircraft sales representative. After a few drinks, the rep's tongue was sufficiently loosened up and Harm found out that this man had been one of those that arranged the Lightning Bug deal. According to the rep, Lightning knew that what they were offering the Saudis really did not meet the Air Force's requirements, but it was what they had available. They offered the UAV package at an attractive price and could deliver it in 30 days compared to their competitors that were pricing their UAV package considerably higher and they would not be available for at least six months. The only way Lightning could meet this price point was to load a fundamentally good flying UAV and telemetry set up with the same components that they had designed for a South American air force that wanted the UAV in an attack mode configuration. Installing the components that would meet the Saudi's requirements would have involved some significant delays in acquiring the necessary parts and may have required some redesigns. Any changes meant added cost and longer delivery times.

As Harm was in the air returning to the US, he got out his laptop and started to put together his recommendations for a solution to the Lightning Bug problem. First, the mechanic's training time was inadequate and as a result the UAV down times were excessive and they were not performing well when they were available. The solution was to put Lightning technicians on the ground in Saudi Arabia to continue to assist until such time as the Saudis were satisfied with the performance of their men. Even after Lightning's trainers had been withdrawn, it was recommended that a tech representative remain in Saudi Arabia to handle problems in real time. Second, the Lightning Bug was hard to fly because the field of vision was far too narrow. This could be rectified at a reasonable cost by fitting a camera with a much higher resolution and a much wider field of vision to the UAV to duplicate what a pilot would see if he were actually flying the Bug and also installing monitors the pilots used to fly the UAVs that were larger and had a higher pixel capability to take advantage of the greater detail afforded by the new lenses. Finally, the flight simulator had to be brought up to US flight simulator standards. Following the presentation of his solution to the Lightning Bug problem to the partners, he was sent to Texas to tell Lightning's management that there were indeed problems with the Saudi contract. Harm related his conversations with the Saudis and told then that he came away feeling that if Lightning could make the needed corrections, the suit would go away. If fixes were not implemented, the firm would gladly represent the company before the International Court of Justice, but their likelihood of prevailing was low. With that, he outlined problems in detail that he had found and his proposed solutions. Management was a little taken aback by his frank assessment of the legal situation, but welcomed his suggestions and said they would consider them and get back to him.

Chelsea Morgan had followed through on her plan to contact her grandma Jo to talk about the chill she got every time she was around Harmon Rabb. Chelsea and her mother were never close and as a result, she went to her grandmother for advise with any affairs of the heart. Having Chelsea and her brother Robert was a gross inconvenience for her mother, but she had the children because that was what was expected of her. As a result the two siblings had nurses in infancy and then had nannies from when they became toddlers until they entered high school. When they were old enough, they were whisked off to boarding schools and then in Chelsea's case, a finishing school in Switzerland. In retrospect, the Morgans should have saved their money because their daughter was a tomboy, much to her mother's chagrin, who preferred playing baseball with Robert's friends to learning the famine arts that would help her find her place in San Francisco's high society. Instead of taking a degree in liberal arts, Chelsea took a degree in pre law and then went to Harvard law school. As she helped her grandmother in her garden, she talked about the feelings she got around the new lawyer at the firm. He was an brilliant lawyer, a Navy fighter pilot in the Reserves, devilishly handsome, polite to a fault, a mentor, and an excellent dancer. She also mentioned that she had assisted him on several cases and despite the fact that she was a junior lawyer, he always took the time to explain the case strategy, the underlying assumptions, and even had her participate both doing research and actually cross examining witnesses - something no one else in the firm had done. Her grandmother notice the sparkle in her eyes as she spoke of Rabb and her increasing animation as their conversation progressed. Grandma recognized the signs immediately, Chelsea was in love. Now all she had to do was to get her granddaughter to discover it for herself. To do that, she suggested that they take a break and discuss the issue over tea, Through a series of questions, grandma Jo was able to steer Chelsea to the realization that she was indeed in love and to make some gentle suggestions on how to proceed to see if he felt the same way.

In the nine months since Rabb's departure, things were continuing to go from bad to worse at JAG. The department continued to show signs of marked deterioration both as a good place to work and in the quality of their work. Imes had been found guilty and dismissed from the service but her files still had not been scrubbed. Nearly half of the staff working there when Rabb had worked there had asked for and received transfers. The young, inexperienced officers brought in continued to try cases failed to have any real in depth interviews and genuine research and as a result, in many trials justice continued not to be served. The complaints that here to fore had been made informally were now being put on the record and the torrent was increasing. Even worse was the disaster involving SecNav. The SecNav was charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Court in connection with an action by Marines in Iraq where a squad had come under attack from a Iraqi army unit that was using a hospital as a strong point and had been forced to destroy it. This resulted in a number of civilian patient deaths. Despite Chegwidden's recommendation that the US ignore these charges, it was decided by the executive branch that SecNav should answer the charges at the Hague. Further, it was decided that JAG would defend him. The team led by Colonel MacKenzie was assembled that included two new attorneys, as well as two lawyers from the State Department. The State Department lawyers had reviewed the team's strategy and thought that they would not prevail. Since they did not want to take any blame for the upcoming failure, they busied themselves with what they did best: filing paperwork with the International Criminal Court and explaining international protocols to the JAG lawyers. Unfortunately, the State Department lawyers were right. Their defense strategy had many holes that the prosecutor found and used to his advantage. After a ten day trial, SecNav was found guilty and sentenced to five years probation and a fine of $20 million. The White House could not have a Secretary of the Navy in office that had been convicted of war crimes and as a result, Alexander Nelson was out of a job a week after his return. He was replaced by Edward Scheffield, a former congressman, who saw it as his duty to "shape up the Navy". The combination of the complaints of railroading coming from the commands and the embarrassment of SecNav being found guilty of war crimes and having to be replaced, meant that Chegwidden's job was hanging by a thread. Moral at JAG plummeted even further. The Admiral knew things were near the bottom when Harriet announced that she was not having her traditional Thanksgiving dinner this year. The family was going to Florida to spend Thanksgiving with her parents. Between assuming the Chief of Staff role from Sturgis Turner, trying to mentor the incoming new lawyers, and managing his own court assignments, Bud Roberts was starting to burn out and needed to get away. The Colonel was also being pushed to her limits and was becoming a basket case, unable to sleep, stretched by her office and investigative duties, failing at the Hague, dealing with her undiagnosed PTSB, and her crumbling relationship with Clayton Webb.

Mac's relationship was falling apart. Mrs. Webb politely made it abundantly clear to her that she was not good enough for Webb. Webb was gone frequently on assignments, sometimes for months at a time. Further, Mac was now doing most of the important JAG Man investigations which meant that she was traveling a great deal more. The net result was that they did not see each other very often because when he was in Washington, she frequently was out on an investigation and vice versa. When the two were able to get together, the priority for Webb was sex. There were no discussions about the future. No talk of a house, kids, or a wedding. In addition, Webb's drinking was getting progressively worse. Many a night ended with the spy passing out on the couch, in the bathroom, and once during sex. Finally, Mac felt like the only time he was really attentive to her was when she was on his arm as "eye candy" at formal fund raising events such as a gala for charity, the opera, etc. Their relationship started to deteriorate even faster after she told him that she had endometriosis and had only a 4 percent chance of bearing children. When his mother heard this, she started to put real pressure on her son to find someone else so the Webb family would live on. She needed heirs and by God, her baby Clayton was going to provide them!

Following his return from Saudi Arabia on the Lightning Aircraft matter, Harm found a number of contacts he had made at the Symposium were approaching the firm with legal problems. Most were sovereign state's contract disputes that in many ways were similar to the Lighting case while some were contract disputes between a foreign and a US companies. One was a maritime case involving a collision at sea. Another was a damaged cargo suit. Harm was just finishing up a meeting with a new client when he was summoned to Ted Howe's office. Ted asked him what the status was on the Lightning aircraft case. "Ted, nothing has happened since I went to Texas to brief company management on what I had found out in Saudi Arabia, It was the same presentation that I made to you and the other partners on my findings They advised me that they would consider my proposals and let me know. I have heard nothing since and I assumed it was because they were working on the suggested fixes to the problems." replied Harm. "Well I have just heard from their chief legal counsel that things have taken a turn for the worst. It seems that after your briefing, management decided that the changes were too expensive to implement and that they would just hunker down and hope that the Saudi threat to sue them would go away as they gained more experience with the UAV. Things have not worked out that way. It seems that your visit raised the Saudi's expectations that corrections would be made on a timely basis. Now that that has not happened, they have elevated their complaints not in the form of a lawsuit, but to the king of Saudi Arabia who summoned our ambassador and as it happened, the Secretary of State was there visiting and was roped into the king's meeting as well. Apparently, the king was livid about how the kingdom was being treated and threatened to cancel all of his current defense contracts with the US and meet his weapons needs from Russia or France! Needless to say this threat set off alarm bells in the White House and Congress. A special team of State and Defense Department lawyers are coming here on a fact finding mission armed with subpoenas to hear just exactly what you found in Saudi Arabia and what you told Lightning." said Howe. When the fact finding mission arrived, all three partners as well as Chelsea Morgan were present when Harmon Rabb made his presentation. It was the exact same one he had made to the partners and Lightning Aircraft. Government lawyers always try to make themselves look good by asking questions, no matter how arcane, to try to stump the presenter. Unfortunately, Rabb was about 20 steps ahead of them and patiently led them to an understanding of the very complex problems associated with the Lightning Bug program. One question asked by the lawyers was, "What is the big deal about changing lenses on the UAVs?" Harm replied, "the lens currently on the UAV only had a radius of vision of 35 degrees. That is fine for an attack UAV since the operator is only concerned with hitting the target right in front of them. These UAVs are being used primarily for reconnaissance with limited attack missions where they need at least a 120 degree arc of vision with 180 degrees preferred to ensure that they are not missing targets to their left or right. In addition, the camera needs to be upgraded to afford the operator greater clarity and the display units need to be upgraded to take advantage of the new len's performance." From the conversation came the discovery that the Saudi Air Force officers Harm had discussed the problems with were very impressed with his willingness to listen to and grasp the problems they were having and his ability to suggest solutions to the problems. They thought his proposals were very good and while he told them he no authority to make decisions in the matter, on the basis of his report, Lightning should be acting quickly to resolve the situation. Unfortunately that did not happen. As the fact finding team left, their chairman indicated that the problem did not lie in San Francisco but in Texas with Lighting, which was their next stop. The partners were both relieved that no fault was found with the firm's actions and doubly impressed with the way Harm fielded the flurry of questions and was able to make complex issues and technical concepts simple to understand. Over a double bourbon in Dewey's office that evening, the three partners all agreed that Harm had real potential.

During this time of great activity, Chelsea and Harm were slowly drawing closer together. In addition to having lunch together whenever possible and the occasional dinner, they also paired to attend formal functions. She had attended the Symposium Gala as Harm's date and she had asked Harm to be her escort to the San Francisco Children's Welfare Charity Ball. This ball was a high society must attend for everyone who was anyone. Chelsea knew there was no such thing as a secret in her circles and had quietly talked about Mr. Dreamboat with one of her closest friends who pinky promised that "her lips were sealed". Soon everyone knew Harmon Rabb's background and his reputation as not only as one of the Navy's Top Guns, but also his prowess as a lawyer and an up and comer at his law firm. The evening of the Ball finally arrived. Harm had picked up Chelsea at her apartment and then taken her to dinner at her favorite Italian restaurant. After a leisurely dinner, the pair arrived at the Ball. Rabb in his summer tux and she in a red satin, off the shoulder designer gown that accentuated her ample cleavage and her blond hair. They spent most of the first hour engaged in meeting and engaging in polite conversation with key couples in high society in addition to dancing with many of them. Harm danced with the wives and Chelsea danced with the husbands. By the time they finished dancing with these people, the shine on Harm's shoes was badly scuffed from society ladies stepping on them and Chelsea was limping slightly from the number of times their husbands had stepped on her feet. Harm made sure to flash his fly boy smile at each of the ladies as well as the camera when photos were being taken with them. After their social obligation was met, they started to dance. As at the Symposium dance, they were both excellent dancers and their fluid dancing was the talk of the Ball, especially once again their very torrid tango. As the evening progressed, the couple only had eyes for each other and they started to communicate without saying a word. Having lost track of time, the pair were startled to discover that the last song had been played and most of the couples had already left. After a night cap in the hotel's lounge, Harm drove Chelsea home, making sure that she got in safely. After taking off her gown and getting ready for bed, Chelsea stood by the sliding glass door looking out over the bay and dreamily thinking of Harm, a little house in the Valley with a white picket fence, and three little children running around its back yard. Harm returned to his apartment and got ready for bed. As he climbed under the covers, he started to think of Chelsea. This feeling he had, could this really be love? After Paraguay, he didn't think he could really love a woman again. After tonight, he was beginning to think he was wrong. The next morning he arranged to have a dozen red roses delivered to her apartment with a card that read, "Thanks for such a great evening. Harm" Once she read the card, she knew she had to call her grandmother.

The next week at the office was busy with no time for Harm and Chelsea to get together for lunch. On Friday morning, Harm was skimming a draft of the report on the Saudi Arabian UAV situation by the joint State and Defense Department Fact Finding Group. In gratitude for his help, the chairman had seen to it that he got an under the table copy of the final report marked "Draft". Suddenly, his door flew open with a crash and there stood Charles Manson, President of Lightning Aircraft and behind him his entourage, as well as Ted Howe, and Colonel Mohamed Al Orair of the Saudi Air Force (currently attached to the Saudi embassy in Washington). The lawyer quickly suppressed his surprise and asked how he could be of service. Manson produced a copy of the Fact Finding Group report and started yelling that the report was filled with "damn lies" and Rabb had better explain how his recommendations from the confidential report that Lightning had paid for found their way into the government's report. Coolly, Harm suggested that they adjourn to the large conference room that would afford confidentiality and where all could have a seat to discuss the matter. Harm knew immediately that this meeting and the indignation of Manson was a smoke screen for that fact that Lightning had saddled the Saudis with a UAV that did not meet their requirements because they would loose money on the contract if they followed all his recommendations. In addition, he figured out that Lightning's strategy was to blame Dewey, Chetum for a bad report and hope that the wrath of the Saudi's and US government's wrath settled on the firm and not Lightning. The Lightning could then come back and offer to make the suggested corrections for a bucket of money. Once all where seated, Harm started by telling Manson that the Fact Finding Group had come armed with a subpoena that required the firm to disclose anything connected with the Lightning situation including the results of his fact finding trip. The firm merely complied with the subpoena. Rabb took this opportunity to coolly remind Manson that in fact Lightning had not as yet honored the law firm's retainer or report invoices despite the fact that 60 days had passed since submission, so technically there was no confidential report. Finally, Harm stated that he had done extensive research on the contract as well as actually going to Saudi Arabia, seeing the system, testing the UAV in the air for suitability, and exploring the support organization training. Harm summed up his presentation by stating, "My report is based on my experience as an aeronautical engineer, years of experience as a pilot, and as a lawyer. My research has uncovered why the UAVs were configured as they were for a prior contract instead of being tailored to meet the Saudi Air Force's requirements. You are here simply to deflect blame to this law firm for the contract's problems instead of fixing the obvious short falls. In my opinion, if in fact the Saudi government does sue your firm, the likely hood of them prevailing is very high." Following his summation, the discussion turned to the defects found and methods to correct them. As the meeting wore on, it was obvious that the aircraft manufacturer was going to have to make expensive modifications to the UAVs and their systems to meet the Saudi needs. It was also obvious that Manson was becoming increasingly angry, lashing out at all who challenged his statements. His anger was capped by his getting up and walking over to Harm and screaming that this mess was all his fault and followed up with a vicious right cross aimed at Harm's jaw. Rabb read in Manson's eyes that he wanted physical contact as he approached him and moved to an open area behind the conference room table. As the blow came, Harm stepped into the man, grabbed his arm and used his momentum to flip him so he landed with a crash on the floor. Manson got up roaring like a wounded bull and charged at Harm who again read the move and stood next to the wall. When the aircraft president's head was almost in contact with his stomach, a quick jump to the side allowed Manson to ram full bore into the wall and bounce off, landing back on the floor. Manson got up and after Harm had looked up at Ted Howe who nodded, he jerked Manson up straight, delivered a karate chop to his neck and finally slammed his head down on the conference room table so hard Howe feared he had broken the table. Manson collapsed in a heap on the floor. Pouring a pitcher of water over his head revived Manson enough to allow Harm to pick him up by his tie and throw him in a vacant chair. Now fully revived, Manson stood up and said, "You bastard, I will see that your bill is paid, but I will never use this firm again!" With that, he and his entourage stomped out of the conference room. Ted Howe just sat there looking out the window and subconsciously envisioning a large sum of potential revenue flying out the window. Just then, Colonel Mohamed Al Orair addressed Ted. "My government has been very impressed with Mr. Rabb's tenacity in getting to the bottom of this situation and then seeking an equitable solution to this matter. While we have had other firms represent us in the past, none has shown the willingness to go to the lengths this firm has to ensure that the Kingdom's interests are fully protected. I am authorized to retain this firm to represent us in our lawsuit against Lightning Aircraft and to represent the Kingdom in all future contract negotiations with various firms as well as your federal government. Representatives from our Justice Ministry will be in touch in the next few days to get things rolling and iron out all the details." That evening over a drink, Howe related the events related to the Lightening Aircraft meeting to the other partners. All were more than pleased with the way Rabb had handled the meeting and himself when attacked.

The balance of the year flew by as the firm geared up to handle the Saudi Kingdom's considerable legal needs and the Lightning suit. Harm's friendship with Bobbie Latham, now the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, proved invaluable in dealing with the government. Even if a matter was not military related, she was able to open the right doors for Harm to get things done. Despite the hectic work schedule, Harm and Chelsea were growing closer together. He was spending increasingly more time with Chelsea. The couple had a standing date on Saturday night and frequently during the week, Harm would cook dinner for both of them. He found cooking to be a good way to relieve stress. In addition they both enjoyed their Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday jogs. At Thanksgiving he invited her to meet his parents and have Thanksgiving dinner. His parents and grandmother, who had agreed to spend the winter months in California. were thrilled to meet her. At Christmas, he met Chelsea's mother and grandmother as well as her father whom he already knew from the Oceanic case. At New Years, both families celebrated New Years day together in La Jollya where everyone got along famously, especially the two grandmothers. The day ended with Frank inviting Tom Morgan to visit him at Chrysler's San Diego regional office and design center since it had come out at dinner that Morgan was a car buff. Things between Chelsea and Harm were now really starting to really heat up.

In contrast, Admiral Chedwiggen spent Thanksgiving at home eating a Turkey TV dinner alone while Colonel MacKenzie spent the holiday at the Webb's with Webb passed out with his face buried in the mashed potatoes, his mother glaring at her and silently blaming her for her son's drinking problem, and the wait staff trying valiantly to not notice the whole situation. Only the Roberts family were enjoying Thanksgiving at her parent's home in Florida where adoring grand parents spoiled their only grand children rotten. The boys practically lived in the swimming pool while Harriet and Bud decompressed by spending many hours in lounge chairs by the pool watching the boys and enjoying the quiet and warmth after freezing Washington. Christmas and New Years were no better for Chedwiggen who spent the holidays at his sister Adele's house with his two nephews who had no interest in doing anything but playing video games. The Admiral tried his hand at video games, but unfortunately found himself ill suited to play since he always lost. To get away from the Webbs the Colonel volunteered to be the duty officer at JAG on Christmas day and was on a JAG Man assignment flying to Japan on New Years. The Roberts family were once again in the Florida sun for Christmas and New Years.

Harm's firm put on two golf outings for their clients each year. One near Los Angeles and one near San Francisco. This year, the Los Angeles outing was being held at his stepfather's club, Bushwood Country Club, which was situated on a bluff overlooking the Pacific. Unfortunately, it was being held the same weekend as Harm's Reserve duty and because they were going to Top Gun, he could not miss it. especially since he suggested it. In discussions with the partners, they agreed to let him go, but he had to be back for the banquet on Sunday night. As it turned out, the squadron had finished up at noon and headed home. As flight leader, Rabb set a course that would take him north of the country club and then down the shore to North Island. He wanted to make a low level pass by the country club for two reasons: to generate a little excitement at the golf outing caused by a flight of Tomcats roaring by the club at a low altitude, and to let Chelsea know that he was back and he would be there in time for the banquet. Since they were technically flying above the ocean, normal altitude rules did not apply. As the country club came into sight, the flight leader ordered a combat spread as they roared by the startled golfers at eye level just out over the ocean. Harm spied Frank with his brightly striped golf bag on hole eleven and dipped his wing as he flew by letting his step father know that he had seen him. The rest of the flight home was uneventful. No complaints had been received about their impromptu flyby, so he showered and put on his golfing outfit. A quick discussion on lessons learned by the squadron members at Top Gun and then they were dismissed. As Rabb's CO watched him walk to his car he thought to himself, The commanding officer at Top Gun told me that not only had Rabb won all of his engagements, but also that his instructors actually feared him. He said if Rabb were on active duty, he would move heaven and earth to get him assigned to Fallon. Taking on Rabb may be the best thing I have done since I took over as CO of this outfit. It was a short drive to the country club, so Harm had plenty of time to mingle before the banquet started, introducing himself to the few clients he did not already know, chatting with the remainder. He flashed his million dollar flyboy smile to the ladies and making sure the photographer got pictures of each client and wife with him. Client mementos are important, he thought. At the banquet, the main topic of conversation was the flight of Tomcats roaring down the coast at eye level. The partners quietly let it be known to their best clients that those Tomcats were being led by none other than their own Harmon Rabb who was just as aggressive in the court room as in the cockpit of his fighter plane. After the banquet, he and Chelsea teamed up to continue their client charm campaign until it was time to go.

At the last Reserve meeting of the year, Harm suggested to their CO that the squadron would benefit from a trip to Top Gun, if only for a weekend. Their CO had sent the suggestion up the chain of command and at their first briefing in the new year came word that the suggestion had been accepted and they were scheduled for a three day tour in Fallon, Nevada in mid February. Rabb was a graduate of Top Gun, so he was designated to brief the other members of the squadron as to what to expect, how the different scenarios worked, etc. The day finally arrived when the squadron mounted their Tomcats and headed to Top Gun. Once they arrived, they were briefed on the latest tactics being used in the fleet and told they would get a chance to utilize each of these tactics in exercises against the Top Gun instructors. Since they would only be there for three days, the number of exercises that a normal class would perform in the first week were going to be jammed into just three days. After a light lunch, the first exercise started with a one on one dog fighting exercise. The squadron was to fly out to the practice area and then assume their combat formations. The instructors would then engage them. The instructors set a trap for their students by having one instructor fly straight and level a few thousand feet below the students seemingly unaware their students were nearby. The students saw the decoy as "meat on the table" and dived for what they thought would be easy kill. Unfortunately, they concentrated on the decoy Tomcat and failed to notice the two other instructors drop down from the cloud cover and shoot them down from behind. Elsewhere, another group of students were attacked in a frontal passing engagement. The students immediately executed a high G turn to engage the aggressors, but they did not turn hard enough and after a couple of high G turns the instructors were on the student's tails for the shoot downs. Simultaneously in a third exercise, Harm and his wingman Irish saw a flash in the clouds beneath them and knew that their instructors were trying to use the cloud cover to jump them. Since it was known that Harm was a Top Gun graduate who had not only graduated at the top of his class but was also the pilot that recently shot down three MIGs that violated the No Fly Zone over Bosnia, the two instructors assigned to this exercise decided to show Harm that he was not that hot by double teaming him. Little did they know what a mistake it was to try to humble Harmon Rabb. During the exercise, Hammer called for a split S maneuver that put them under the two instructor's aircraft so when they popped out of the clouds to attack, there was no one there. Meanwhile, Hammer and his wingman executed an Immelman that put them behind the two instructor's aircraft. While the instructors were looking to see where their prey had gone, the student duo got a lock on the instructors followed by their inevitable theoretical destruction. After their successful engagement, Hammer spotted an instructor going after another student and decided to intervene since his squadron mate was calling for help. Harm and his wing man caught the instructor focused on his prey and forgetting to check his six periodically. When he finally did, he saw Hammer and Irish sitting on his six. After a series of aerobatics to try to shake the duo he was driven below the 10 thousand foot "hard deck" and eliminated from the exercise since he theoretically had been flown into the ground. At the end of the three day course, the final exercise was at hand. Once again it was a squadron size dog fight. During the engagement, the plan was to triple team Rabb since he had defeated all of his attackers in the previous exercises. During the engagement, one instructor decided to attack head on in a passing engagement while another got on his six. The idea was that Rabb would be so busy trying to avoid a mid air crash that he would forget about the Tomcat on his six. As Hammer flew at the one instructor, the other climbed onto his six. This guy is very good. Only one thing to do, thought Harm, pull up and let the two of them have a nose to nose confrontation. While they are busy avoiding a mid air, I will jump both of them. With that, as the Tomcat approaching head on was about a second away, he stood his Tomcat up on its tail, slammed the throttles to the wall, and shot straight up leaving the two instructors preoccupied with avoiding a mid air collision. A simple roll out dropped him behind instructor number 1 who was promptly dispatched and then an Immelman put him behind instructor number 2 who was also dispatched. Instructor number three then climbed on Hammer's six and an amazing display of aerobatics ensued. Instructor number three was being amazingly hard to shake forcing Harm to reach deep down in his trick bag for the right move. Time to use a Rabb on this guy, thought Hammer. He had discovered by accident that with the right inputs of aileron and rudder a Tomcat could be made to literally spin in a flat circle momentarily, so that the plane's nose was facing the aggressor who would then literally fly into a hail of cannon fire. After checking with the Grumman engineers to ensure that the aircraft would not be overstressed, Harm practiced the maneuver simply called "the Rabb" until he had perfected the move. Harm spun the Tomcat and theoretically downed instructor number three by raking his plane with cannon fire. When the squadron landed after the dog fight, they received their grades. All of them had performed well, but once again Harmon Rabb was at the top of the class. His plaque was presented by instructor number three who turned out to be Admiral Boone. The Admiral was out at Fallon on business and decided to give his Godson a bit of a shaking up since he was at the top of the leader board. Unfortunately it was the Admiral who got the shaking up. After a quick lunch with the Admiral, the squadron headed for home. After lunch, Boone asked the CO of Top Gun how Harm had performed overall. He was also told that the instructors had come to fear Rabb. When asked why, the CO told him that he had forced one instructor well below the hard deck on one exercise and had actually chased the chief instructor right out of the practice area. He was undefeated in all ten exercises. That's my boy, thought Admiral Boone. Hammer would be proud that his son has become one of the best aviators in the Navy, even though he is in the reserves.

By February, the relationship between Harm and Chelsea had grown to the point where they were inseparable. If they could not get together for dinner, a movie, or a run, they talked to each other at length on the phone. Her intellect, easy going personality, fashion sense, and sense of humor made her fun to be around. Chelsea strongly reminded Harm of Diane in many respects. During a long run on the beach, Harm made up his mind. He was going to propose. The next day, he dropped Chelsea at her parent's home after work and was invited in as he usually was. He accepted and after some banter with her grandmother, her father arrived home and joined them on the balcony. When Chelsea was called to the phone and the grandmother went to see about dinner, Harm saw his opportunity to ask Tom Morgan for his daughter's hand in marriage. Tom got a big smile on his face and said, "Son, what took you so long? Chelsea has done nothing but talk about you almost from the first day she met you. You have my blessing. By the way, when do you think you will propose?" "I am planning on taking her out for Valentine's day and asking her after dinner. You are her father, do you think that will work?" said Harm. "I think that will be absolutely perfect," replied Tom. Shortly afterward Chelsea returned, Harm made his excuses and left. But before he left, he invited Chelsea out on Valentines day. Valentines Day fell on a Saturday so Harm had plenty of time to get dinner reservations and get the Rabb engagement ring from his mother. When Harm picked up Chelsea, she was dressed casually as was Harm. The drove to their favorite Italian restaurant for dinner. After dinner, they decided to drive up the coast a bit and watch the glorious sunset. He knew that Chelsea had a favorite spot on A1A where they could watch the sunset. It was there that Harm made his move. While they were sitting on the front of the Corvette watching the sun go down, he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him. She said "Yes!" with tears in her eyes and threw her arms around him so tight that he could not get the ring out of his pocket. He had to wait until she realized that she had pinned his arms and backed away to pull out the ring and slide it on her finger. The fading sunlight reflected at just the perfect angle to make the diamond in the ring sparkle brightly. Harm saw this and prayed that it was an omen for the success of their marriage. When they arrived back at her house and announced that she was engaged, Mr. Morgan practically crushed Harm's hand during the handshake and he mother gave him a warm hug. Her mother had decided that while he was not from San Francisco society, he came from an excellent family, he had a distinguished military record, he was an excellent lawyer and he could provide Chelsea with a comfortable living. He had performed well during the charity ball she had helped sponsor and should do well in establishing himself in the upper crust.

It was a gloomy Monday morning in Washington with heavy showers all weekend and more forecast for the next two days. Everyone at the morning Officer's Call was in a crabby mood except Harriet who was her usual bubbly self. After the usual case assignments, Admiral Chedwiggen announced that he was retiring at the end of the month. Despite his best efforts, he had not been able to reverse the deteriorating performance of the office and decided to retire on his terms rather than being pushed out the door. Everyone just sat there stunned by his announcement. In all probability the family type atmosphere that they had enjoyed all these years was about to disappear. Later, as Colonel MacKensie sat reviewing a file, Bud knocked on her office door and waited for her to waive him in. "What's up, Bud?" asked MacKensie. "I periodically troll for any information on the internet about Commander Rabb and this morning this came up." replied Bud as he handed her a sheet of paper that was a clipping from the San Francisco Chronicle that read: Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Moran are pleased the announce the engagement of their daughter Chelsea Ann Morgan to Harmon Rabb Jr. Mr. Rabb is a lawyer with the law firm of Dewe, Chetum, and Howe as is Ms. Morgan. In addition to being a lawyer, Mr. Rabb is also a pilot in the Naval Reserves stationed at North Island. The wedding date has been set for June 30th. Bud had never seen the Colonel turn so white. He hoped that she was not about to faint, but fortunately Harriet was near and would know what to do if she did. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Looks like Harm has finally found a mate. Good for him. Close the door on your way our, would you? I need some quiet to study this file." After he left, she pulled her blinds closed, sat down at her desk, and started to cry. She thought, Once again, I picked the wrong guy. I have always counted on the only one who I was sure really cared for me and to be there when things fell apart. Now he is gone and once again I have nothing. How stupid I was! Harriet saw her blinds close and knew what that meant, but chose not to try to console her friend. Once again, she had made a bad choice in men thinking that Harm would always be there for her but after the way she had treated him in Paraguay, he had moved on and she was left out in the cold. She had no sympathy for the colonel. That evening Mac was just finishing washing the dishes when her door bell rang. It was Webb. She opened the door and let him in. The smell of liquor on his breath almost knocked her over. She had not seen him in almost three months and had only heard from him a couple of times via phone. As they both sat on the couch, he drew her near but did not speak. This is strange, usually after a long absence he is a babbling fool, she thought. Finally he started to speak. He told her that while he wanted to remain friends, he no longer saw them in a relationship. He did not elaborate but started to talk about children to carry the Webb name forward. She could accept that as a reason. They talked a bit longer and then he started to groping her and suggested that they have sex one last time. Mac exploded, "How dare you stagger in here drunk as a skunk, tell me that our relationship is over apparently because I cannot provide you with an heir, and then demand sex. You are scum! I don't know what I ever saw in you!" With that, she got up, grabbed Webb by his shirt and jerked him up. Then she hauled off and hit him in the nose, breaking it in the process. With blood streaming down his face she dragged him to the door, opened it, and pushed him out the door screaming, "I never want to see or hear from you again!" Webb staggered down the hall muttering audibly, "... Mother was sure right about her...Bitch..." After she finished cleaning up the dishes and laying out her uniform for tomorrow, she decided to go to bed. Loosing the Admiral, seeing Harm's engagement announcement, and having that scumbag Webb not only break off their relationship but also have the nerve to ask for sex on top of dumping her was more than she could stand for one day. She desperately needed to talk to the only one who really cared about her, but he was now out of reach. What was she going to do now? She decided that she only had one choice, she had to go back to therapy and she would call for an appointment the very next morning. All she had to do was remember the name of the therapist Chegwidden had demanded she see. McCool wasn't it?

The next three months were busy ones for Harm, He was preparing the Lightning Aviation case for trial, representing the Saudis in contract talks for new weapons systems, as well as handling assignments for existing clients assigned to him. Bud had told him that the Admiral was retiring at the end of the month. So for the Admiral's retirement party, he had a friend create a Photo Shopped poster of him shirtless showing a bare rippled stomach with enhanced muscular arms holding up an alligator by the snout in each hand. Beneath the picture was The legend, "Harmful Rabb Wresting Alligators every Sunday Noon at the Hillman Nature Preserve." He sent the poster to Bud in a gift wrapped mailing tube to give to the Admiral as a gift from him at his retirement party. Bud later told him that the Admiral laughed when it was presented to him and said he would hang it in the head at home. In addition, he and Chelsea were busy negotiating with both families on the invitation list, and then working like beavers to get the invitations out the door. Harm had called Bud and asked him to be a groomsman, an assignment he eagerly accepted. In addition to Bud, he had asked Keeter and Frank. Frank was thrilled and Keeter had just rotated off his assignment with the CIA and happily accepted the invitation although he would be reporting to the Seahawk almost immediately after the wedding. Harm left all the details concerning the gift registry, food, reception planning, the type of wedding she wanted - military or civilian, and church to Chelsea, his mom Trish, and Chelsea's mom to work out. He would handle the honeymoon arrangements.

With the invitation list finalized a wedding planner was hired to work with both families to actually plan the wedding. The wedding was to be a high society must attend affair and would be held at St Raymond Church in Menlo Park, an upscale suburb of San Francisco that was the Morgan family's church. Although Harm would have preferred a civilian wedding, both mothers thought a military wedding would be splendid with the groom and his groomsmen except Frank in their white dress uniforms as well as several of the attendees including members of his Reserve squadron, Admiral Thomas Boone, Lieutenant Curtis Rivers wearing his Congressional Metal of Honor, and one of the State of Michigan's senators for good measure attending. Naturally a saber arch ceremony would be performed. The reception would be held at the St Regis hotel in San Francisco and the event would be THE wedding of the year in the city. While the mothers proceeded with the wedding, Harm and Chelsea concentrated on work. The International side of the practice was continuing to expand and they would soon need additional staff. Seeing the results that Saudi Arabia had gained, several other middle eastern countries were in negotiations to retain the firm. Earlier efforts to attract lawyers with International experience were unsuccessful. Active recruitment was indicated and for that, Harm needed to visit with Professor Hofsteder. The professor was a fountain of knowledge on all the International lawyers of any value and would be able to point out those lawyers worth recruiting. He made a note to start the recruitment program in earnest after his return from the honeymoon.

The day finally arrived for the wedding at St Raymond Church in Menlo Park. Menlo Park is right next to Atherton, the ancestral home of the Morgan family. The church was filled with fresh flowers. Eight of Harm's fellow squadron members in dress white uniforms volunteered to be the ushers. Luxury and exotic foreign cars filled the parking lot as their owners filed into the church that had been transformed into a sea of flowers. This was the wedding of the year and any one who was anyone in San Francisco including the mayor and governor made sure their name was on the guest list. Elections were coming in November and the Morgan family had always been generous supporters. On Harm's side of the isle were his mother and grandmother as well as the law firm partners, Professors Hofsteder and O'Brien, Admiral Boone, Senator Bobbi Latham, Lieutenant Curtis Rivers, and a large number of boyhood friends and other friends in the Navy in attendance. Harm's side of the isle looked like a sea of white and gold. The Morgan guest roster gasped when Admiral Boone was seated next to a US Senator and gasped again when a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor was seated as well. Meanwhile, Frank, Keeter and Bud were in an ante room with Harm getting him ready. Keeter had arranged for the saber arch to be led by Admiral Boone and included Lieutenant Rivers as well. It would be quite the spectacle. At 1100 sharp the wedding got underway with Harm and his groomsman standing at the front of the church along with Chelsea's maids of honor. Tom Morgan escorted his daughter slowly down the isle to the front of the church with tears in his eyes. Morgan gave Chelsea's hand to Harm to hold and said, "Please take care of my daughter." Harm replied, "You have absolutely nothing to worry about on that account." he replied giving him his hundred megawatt flyboy smile. The wedding vows recited by Harm and Chelsea were ones that they had written themselves and as they recited them, both the bride and groom started to stream tears of happiness down their cheeks as well as many of the guests that were touched by the sincerity and tenderness expressed. The priest declared them man and wife and the attendees all rose as the bride and groom marched down the isle and stopped at the rear of the church while the guests streamed out to witness the saber arch as the Admiral organized his officers. When all was ready, the bride and groom stood at the church door while the officers marched out of the Church ahead of the bride and groom, split into two groups that marched down both sides of the stairs and at the command halted. Admiral Boone began the chain of commands associated with the sabre arch, "Officers, draw swords! Present swords! Blades to the wind!" At the last command, Harm and Chelsea exited the church and stood at the top of the stairs while they were announced by Bud's deep baratone voice, "Presenting Commander and Mrs. Harmon Rabb Jr!" With that, Harm and Chelsea started slowly down the stairs so that the bride did not trip. As they came abreast of Admiral Boone, his blade dropped from the arch and swatted the bride with the flat side barking, "Welcome to the Navy Mrs. Rabb! The move took Chelsea by surprise and she let out a girly squeal. Just as they reached the bottom of the stairs, the command was issued, "Officers lower swords! Officers sheath swords! Dismissed!" As the bride and groom started to move to form a reception line, the air was suddenly filled with a low growl. As the guests looked around to see what was causing the noise, six Navy Blue F/A 18s in a perfect diamond formation thundered down the street in front of the church low enough to cause the tops of the trees lining the street to sway wildly, They were the Navy's Blue Angels and they were streaming red, white, and blue smoke as they flew by and disappeared as quickly as they had come executing a climbing 180 degree turn that showed the guests the diamond formation at a higher altitude. As the jets had neared the church, suddenly a little white parachute was ejected from the trailing plane's flare chute and lazily descended to earth where it was picked up by a young boy who brought it to his dad. The chute had a small box attached to it that read "Commander and Mrs. Harmon Rabb". The guest dutifully handed it over to the bride groom who separated the box from chute and handed the chute back to the father for his son as a souvenir of the wedding. Harm was going to wait to open the box but Chelsea insisted that he open it now. Inside the box was a congratulatory wedding card signed by all the Raptors as well as a small can of Hersheys chocolate syrup with a tag that read "Use for extra energy during the honeymoon" Harm and Chelsea laughed until they had tears in their eyes. Only one aviator would do something like this, Tuna! Clearly none of the A listers had ever been to a wedding like this with all its splendor, so many naval officers ranging from admirals on down, witnessed a sabre arch performance, and most of all experienced the noise and shock of six Blue Angels' F/A 18s roaring down the street at treetop level streaming colored smoke. The consensus among them was that this was indeed the wedding of the year, if not the decade. Mrs. Morgan was on cloud nine. Not only had she gained a superb son in law, but the wedding had far surpassed her wildest expectations and was no doubt the event of the year. After a seemingly interminable period, Harm and Chelsea had accepted the last congratulatory hand shake or hug and it was time to head to the reception at the St Regis.

A week prior to the Rabb wedding, Tom Boone picked up the phone to call David "Tuna" Medwick at the Blue Angel's headquarters in Pensacola. Tuna had recently been assigned to the aerial performance team as its XO. Tuna had served under Boone on the Seahawk as a nugget when the admiral was CAG and still had the occasional nightmare about the chewing outs that the CAG had given to him. He had taken the criticisms to heart and that started a pattern of continuous improvement that eventually made him one of the best Naval Aviators on active duty. Now he was XO of the Navy's exhibition squadron and was still feeling his way since the Angels had a long line of traditions to uphold. Boone told Tuna that Rabb was getting married in a week and inquired into the possibility of the Angels doing a flyby after the wedding ceremony. Tuna was Harm's old room mate on the Sea Hawk as well as the recipient of a brilliant rescue over Bosnia when Harm literally pushed his damaged Tomcat out over open water by pushing on his tail hook. Tuna replied that the team was scheduled to perform at the Los Angeles Airshow on the First and Second of July and over North Island on the Fourth. Naturally the team would have to arrive early, say June 30th in order to practice for their California appearances. After learning the time and location of the church, Tuna promised to send a aircraft safety team to scope the location and get back to the admiral. A air safety team from North Island checked out the church, checked for surrounding obstacles, and likely insert and egress routes. A couple days later, the team reported back to Tuna that a flyby was a go and that they would have an air safety team member on site the 30th to call down the flyby and brief the flight on the altitude of any obstacles. Facts in hand, Tuna reported back to Boone that the flyby was a go and asked him to speak to the CO to get approval to do it. Approval was obtained and the flyby briefed. Unnoticed by the wedding guests was a black US Navy car parked half a block from the church. The air safety officer in the car was in constant contact with the Angel's flight and as the bride and groom exited the sabre arch, he called down the Angels flight. He called, "Wedding Bells 1, the bride and groom are in front of the church. You are go. Highest obstacle in the flight path is 175 feet and heading is 090." The flight leader, Tuna replied, "Roger that, out". Then he addressed his flight, "I want a tight and perfect diamond formation for the pass with plenty of smoke. We will make the run at 300 feet AGL. Commence run now!" Following the successful execution of the maneuver and the ejection of the wedding card and gift, he said to himself with a laugh, I bet they'll remember their wedding for a looong time!

The reception was a blur for Harm and Chelsea. The first dance, the cake cutting, and the endless mingling with their guests. No expense had been spared for this event and was a lavish as anyone could remember both in decoration, staff attentiveness, food, and drink. Once again Harm's shoes were badly scuffed from the wives of guests stepping on them and Chelsea's feet were killing her as a result of dance partner's missteps as they performed their obligation to be attentive to their guests. Bobbi Latham had two dances with Harm and quietly told him that they would always remain friends and any time Harm needed help in Washington, he need only ask. As Harm and Chelsea made their escape, Harm couldn't help but notice that Curtis Rivers had a big smile on his face as he chatted with a lovely young woman while two good looking older women were putting moves on Admiral Boone. Frank and Trish were holding hands and looking deeply in each other's eyes while Bud and Harriet did the same. The surprise location for their honeymoon was the Rabb family compound in the Bahamas. It was luxurious, modern, had an attentive staff, and was right on the ocean but very secluded. They both would enjoy their honeymoon immensely and hated for it to end. Nine months later they were blessed with their first child, a little boy.

As Tom Morgan and Admiral Boone stood together watching the couple drive away from the reception, each was thinking about Harm. Tom Morgan was thinking, that boy has it all. He will do well both as Chelsea's husband, the father of our grand kids, and he has all the qualifications necessary to be the future head of the Morgan empire. Admiral Boone on the other hand was thinking, the Navy suffered a grievous loss when Chegwidden refused to let Harm return. He had everything the Navy required to succeed. With the right assignments and some additional mentoring, he could easily have become the DNO one day. What a waste! Still, he has done well in the short period he has been a civilian and I am sure if Hammer were here today he would be very proud of his son. As the newly wed's car disappeared from sight, Tom Morgan turned to Admiral Boone and said, "Now that we have successfully launched Chelsea and Harm on the sea of matrimony, I think we deserve a drink, maybe a few, as a reward for our efforts." "I wholeheartedly agree," replied Boone as they turned and slowly walked back inside.

The outcomes stemming from that get together are a story for another day,