A/N: Sorry about the delay. I actually wrote Chapter 30 before this, had a minor case of writer's block on this one and just had to get 30 out. So lucky you guys, you get the last two chapters at the same time! Hope you like them, and fear not a sequel is in the works after I get out Ghost and Mac's view of You Can't Live in the Past.
Chapter 29
North of Union Station
Thursday August 18, 2004
1200 Zulu
Harm knocked on the door to Jen and Mattie's apartment insistently. He only had to wait a moment before Jen opened the door and peered out blearily. "Commander?"
"Jen. I need to speak to you about something."
"Sir?"
Motioning Jen out into the hallway Harm led her down towards his own apartment. "Jen, I need you to stay home with Mattie today. I'm calling her school to tell them she won't be coming in. I'm having a Marine guard sent over to spend the day as well."
"Sir?" Jen asked confused. "What about the Captain sir?"
"I'll take care of Krennick. Lock the door today and don't let anyone in unless its Mac or me."
"What's going on sir?"
Harm looked at the young woman before him closely. In a short time she had come to mean a lot to him as the sister to his soon to be adopted daughter. "Jen, someone is looking for me and I'm afraid he may try to hurt those I care about. I want to keep you and Mattie safe."
"Yes sir." Jen said simply letting her training take over. An officer had given her an order and she would follow it.
Smiling at Jen's crisp tone Harm put a hand on her shoulder. "You're one of those people I care about Jen. I'll call you guys today and let you know what's going on if I can."
The sound of feet on the stairs caused Harm to move in front of Jen as he moved towards the sounds. As he got to the door to Jen and Mattie's apartment Mac and a marine guard exited the stairwell. Sighing Harm smiled slightly at Mac.
"What's going on Harm?" Mac asked curiously.
"In a minute Mac. Corporal, you will stay at this door and guard the people inside. Do not let anyone in unless they are accompanied by the Colonel here or myself. Is that understood?"
"Yes sir." The young marine said as he snapped a salute and then took up position outside the door."
Taking Mac's arm he nodded to Jen and took Mac inside his apartment. "Mac…I couldn't find you yesterday…you were doing a good job at avoiding me."
Mac blushed and looked down at her feet. "I'm sorry Harm…I shouldn't have done that."
"Its ok Mac. Anyway…Meg told me yesterday that Rivers is in DC, and he's looking for me. I just wanted to make sure Mattie and Jen were safe. I don't want to take the chance that Rivers will strike out at me like Palmer did through the people I care about. Mac…if I could I would stick you in there with Jen and Mattie behind that guard, but I know how you'd react to that." Harm said with a smile.
"I'd kick your six flyboy." Mac said fiercely.
"That's my Marine." Harm said fondly.
"So what's the plan?" Mac asked uncomfortably.
"I'm going to give Rivers what he wants."
"Excuse me?" Mac asked incredulously.
"I'm going to put myself in a position to draw Rivers out. If he's looking for me, I'll let him find me."
"Harm…" Mac said warningly. "You know better than that…"
"Mac…I don't know why he's looking for me. All I know is he is. He has the answers we need about Riley…for all we know he was the last man to see Riley alive."
"Harm why don't you let NI or the CIA handle this?"
"Because its me he's looking for Mac."
"I'm going with you then." Mac said as Harm walked over to the cupboard he kept his lockbox in.
Shaking his head Harm looked at Mac. "No."
"Yes."
"Mac, we're not going to fight about this too. I know you'll stand with me if I asked you to, but I still need to know what the CIA knows. I need you to use your contacts to find something out."
Harm could see the struggle in her features as she looked at him while he pulled out his handgun and ammunition. "Please Mac?" he asked finally.
"Fine, but I will be coming to where you are when I'm done."
"I would expect nothing different Mac." Harm said wearily.
"I'll get over to Langley now then." Mac said.
"I'll let Krennick know you're unavoidably detained as well."
Nodding Mac started to walk away and then turned and quickly threw her arms around Harm. "Stay safe Harm…I don't want to lose you."
"You too Marine." Harm whispered into her hair.
As soon as Mac was gone Harm picked up his phone and dialed Krennick's cell number. After six rings she finally picked up. "Krennick." She said wearily.
"Its Rabb ma'am."
"What are you doing on my phone at this hour Rabb?"
"Ma'am I'm going to be late getting into the office today, I'm following a lead in the Riley murder. Lieutenant Colonel MacKenzie has gone out to Langley and will also be out the of the office."
"Is that a fact Rabb."
"Yes ma'am it is. I also require the services of Petty Officer Coates today."
"What do you need her for?"
"I believe that there may be a danger to those near me and have ordered her to stay home with my daughter ma'am."
"Am I running a baby sitting service Commander?"
"No ma'am."
"Are you sure about this Commander?"
"Yes ma'am. I have had one of the Marine guards brought over to watch over them ma'am."
"Making awfully free with my staff aren't you Commander?"
"Respectfully ma'am, I would move heaven and earth to protect those around me."
"I believe you would Commander. Very well, report to me when you have something to report."
"Aye aye ma'am." Harm said and then hung up his phone. Now to decide where he was going to do this. He wanted to do it away from the apartment just to be sure he kept Mattie and Jen out of it, somewhere with lots of people, but not too many. Too many people can contain surprises that he didn't see until too late. A slow smile came across his face as he found the place he wanted. The Washington Museum was having an exhibition of the history of aviation. He was planning on taking Mattie and Jen on the weekend, but he could give himself a preview.
Grabbing his jacket out of the closet Harm walked out into the hallway and returned the guard's salute when he passed by and took the stairs down to the street. Getting into his SUV Harm turned the ignition and started the engine.
"Don't tell me you're going to the museum exhibition of aviation." A quite voice said from behind him. As Harm reached for where he had his gun tucked into his waistband the man continued. "Tsk tsk Commander. Lets have it."
Looking in the mirror Harm saw Rivers sitting in the backseat. With a sigh he slowly pulled his gun out and handed it to Rivers.
"Let's go to the Museum Commander…wouldn't want you to miss your tour."
Can't really argue with a man with a gun Harm figured. Besides if he could get out of the SUV he'd have a little more in the way of options. Mac wouldn't be back from Langley for a couple hours at least, so he was on his own. With a sigh Harm put the SUV in gear and started driving.
"So…where's your investigation led you Commander?"
"Into my car with a mad man?"
"Close. I'm not mad though."
"Why'd you kill Riley?"
"We'll talk about that in time Commander."
Silently Harm drove through the early morning streets downtown.
"Relax Rabb…I'm not here to hurt you."
"Really. Like you didn't hurt Riley."
"I told you, I'll tell you all about Riley when we get to the museum."
"Why the museum?"
"Same reason you wanted to go there first. Lots of people. I don't expect you to give me a ride home later Rabb."
"Well that's good to know." Harm said sarcastically.
Ten minutes later Harm pulled up outside the Washington Museum and got out of his car slowly. The fact that Rivers had not made an aggressive move against him so far had him confused. The black hearts that Harm had encountered in the past made no qualms about who they were. Palmer was about as bad as they came and Harm knew right from the outset that Palmer wished him ill.
"Well, shall we go see what the museum has to offer in the way of history of Aviation?" Rivers asked as he came up beside Harm.
"Why not?" Harm answered with a bitter twist to his lips.
"Oh chin up Commander. Isn't that what you military types always say? Lets go."
A few minutes later Harm and Rivers were inside the museum walking through pictures and displays of aircraft and aviation wonders throughout the years. When they came across a mock up of an F-4 from the Vietnam war they stopped to look at it.
"What carrier did your father fly off of again?" Rivers asked.
"The Tycho." Harm said shortly.
"I've heard you remind a lot of people of him, and not just physically. Word is you're an even better pilot than he was. Pity you had to give it up to become a lawyer. You miss it?"
"We're here to talk about you, not me." Harm said.
"Give and take Commander, give and take. I'm interested by you…a crack pilot who becomes a lawyer, to go back to flying, to go back to lawyering, to go back to flying and then returns to being a lawyer. Did I miss any of your flip flops?"
"No…I think you got them all in there." Harm said. "Yes, I do miss it sometimes. But there are more important things to me than flying."
"Yes…I heard you are working on adopting a girl…Mathilda is it?"
"She'd rip out your spleen if you called her that…but yes, that's her name." Harm said with a smile. He could just picture Mattie tearing into this spook.
"I'm not the man you're looking for Commander." Rivers said quietly.
"You didn't kill Riley?"
"Oh…I did that sadly…but not for the reasons you think."
"And what is it I think?"
"That I killed him because he learned something, or found me doing something, or because I'm an evil traitor…something along those lines. Am I right?"
"To tell you the truth we don't know why you did it, but we have reports you were the last man to see him alive."
"Riley's partner didn't tell you why they were there?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Harm said in an effort to protect Meg.
"Oh come now Commander. I know you and Ms. Austin used to be partners, and I believe that you are still friends. Surely she told you why she was there undercover." Rivers said disbelievingly.
"Actually she didn't." Harm confessed. "She refused to tell me even when Riley was dead."
"Interesting. She's more strong willed than we thought. Our analysts thought she had told you for sure. We figured you would have charmed it out of her."
Smiling Harm shook his head before he remembered who he was speaking to. "No such luck. Meg's a strong willed woman."
"Interesting. Well then…I guess I'll start at the beginning. Are you listening Commander? Because I won't repeat anything I tell you here today."
"I'm listening." Harm said levelly. While Rivers was talking Harm was looking around for something he could turn into a weapon.
"Six months ago we began to suspect someone was selling information to the highest bidder."
"What sort of information? Cookie recipes?"
"Very funny Rabb. Webb told me you had a sense of humor, but he also told me you were an intelligent man. Just listen or this conversation is at an end."
"Fine…go on."
"No, he wasn't selling recipes. He was selling troops movements, times of aerial patrols, times of ground patrols and the like. Surely you had to notice that all of a sudden the Iraqi rebels were scoring some pretty heavy victories all of a sudden."
Harm just nodded as he thought back to the news casts that he had been watching for the past few months.
"We were trying to figure it out when we found out that your Naval Intelligence had stumbled upon the same conclusions that we had…that it was someone deployed with the Navy who was involved with this."
"How did you guys figure that out?"
"We have our sources Commander…its need to know."
"God, you did know Webb didn't you?"
"I did, and he was a good man. A disturbed man since Paraguay, but a good man. Now, we found out that Naval Intelligence was sending a team out to investigate the claims and see if they could track down the leak."
"Riley and Meg."
"Correct. What Naval Intelligence didn't know was that our information pointed to one of those two as being the leak. Imagine our shock when we found out that someone had screwed up and sent the leak to hunt himself."
"How do I know any of this is true?"
"You're going to have to trust me Commander. Come on, lets move for a bit, people are going to start looking at us funny if we stand here looking at this F-4 much longer." Rivers said and then led Harm off towards a Space Shuttle display.
"How do I know you aren't the leak?" Harm asked suspiciously.
"As I said, you'll just have to trust me for now Commander."
"That's easy for you to say."
"We'd noticed a few large purchases made by Riley over the last couple months. Nothing to extravagant…he was a smart man. But larger than normal all the same. Webb and Keeter were hoping to use Riley's status as a pilot to trap him into showing himself, but unfortunately Keeter was injured and you were brought in. We knew we could trust you, but we didn't know how far. Your…animosity for Webb is well known. And admittedly he does deserve some of it. He did have a habit of tossing you and Colonel MacKenzie into danger only to have you two pull him out by the short hairs."
"That's putting it mildly." Harm said quietly. He didn't like to speak ill of the dead, but the truth was the truth.
"We were shocked when we found out that Riley had arranged to not only give up patrol times and coordinates but your location when you went down. Apparently the Iraqis are looking for pilot prisoners for some reason we are unsure of. I came across him as he was relaying your location."
"Awfully convenient." Harm said suspiciously.
"Look…you want to know why I killed Riley? Because he attacked me. It was self defense, you have my word on that Commander."
"Alright, say he did attack you, say he was the leak. Why would you just disappear like that?"
"We weren't sure if Austin was in on his plans or not…I couldn't risk exposing my knowledge."
Just then Harm's cell phone rang and he flipped it open to see Mac on the call display.
"Go ahead Commander, take it."
Hang pushed the send button on his phone. "Rabb."
"Harm its me. I've got some information about Rivers…apparently he was trying to find the source of a leak that was giving information to the Iraqi rebels."
"I know."
"You know?"
"He's right here with me. So you're telling me he's on the level?"
"It looks that way…I can't get much information from my contacts, but they gave me that. Harm…they think the leak is Meg."
"It wasn't Meg Mac. It was Riley. He attacked Rivers when he was found out."
"Where are you?""The Aviation exhibition at the Museum."
"I'm on my way."
"Thanks Mac."
When Harm put his phone back in his pocket Rivers looked at him expectantly. "So?"
"So it looks like you're on the level. Go on."
"Not much more to say; I took these from his computer before I left the Henry." Rivers said holding out two CDs. "Information about his contact and the information he was selling. Those are copies of course…we have the originals. I hope you'll use those to put an end to the investigation."
Harm took the CDs and slid them into his pocket. "No one is going to hear about this investigation, are they?" Harm asked wearily. He'd had too much contact with the CIA to think this would go anywhere.
"Probably not. The Director assured me he would have it taken care of. But I thought you'd like the know all the same. Now if you'll excuse me Commander, I think this interview is at an end." Rivers said and with a slight nod he walked off into a passing tour crowd.
Harm walked slowly out of the Museum with his mind turning over all this new information. He needed to go somewhere and think about what he'd learned…to digest it. Unlocking his SUV he got in to find his handgun on the floor of the front seat. With a little shake of his head he picked it up and put it in his pocket and started the car.
Afterthoughts: At the time of writing I'm not too sure how I feel about this chapter. In some ways I think it's a little weak and can use some work, so it will probably undergo a rewrite in the future.