Assignment for Webb
By Bernadeen

Chapter 8

Harm didn't remember much of the flight to the Vicksburg. He was vaguely aware of being moved out of the helo, brought to near consciousness by the pain caused by moving him. He knew he was in the Navy's hands now and gave himself over to the weariness that he couldn't seem to fight.

He became aware of movement again and managed to open his eyes. To his surprise, he found Mac at his side. He tried a weak smile. "Hey."

"Hey, yourself, sailor." Mac took his hand and held it tightly.

He squeezed her hand and asked, "Did we get 'em?"

"More than you know. Last night was the big raid – both sides of the border. We didn't have the final count when I left the command center."

"Good .." Harm drifted a bit but managed to ask another question. "Where are we going?"

"You need a hospital. We're on our way to Corpus Christi. They'll patch you up, shoot you full of antibiotics, and you'll be fine." Mac answered, hoping she was right.

"Okay." And Harm's eyes closed. Mac hoped he was sleeping rather than unconscious.

-o-o-o-o-o-

When they arrived at the Naval base, Harm was whisked away to an examining room. After a short wait, a doctor found Mac pacing in the waiting room.

"Are you here with Commander Rabb?"

"I am. How is he?"

"He has a nasty knife wound in his side. We're taking him to surgery to fix that right now. The wound is infected, but the antibiotics should knock that pretty quickly. He'll be pretty sore for a few days, but he'll be fine." The doctor assured Mac.

After the doctor left, Mac went outside to make some phone calls. First was to the Admiral. Webb had called him earlier with a report on the successful raids, but didn't have any information about Harm. Mac updated the Admiral on Harm's location and condition. Then the Admiral informed Mac that he needed her in the office the next morning since her assignment was finished. Mac hated to leave Harm, but his life wasn't in danger and she couldn't disobey a direct order. She told the Admiral she'd leave as soon as Harm woke up after surgery.

But in fact, Mac wasn't able to stay until Harm was awake. He was still in surgery. When she checked flights, there was only one remaining flight that evening that would get her back to Washington in time to be at work the next morning. To catch it, she had to leave for the airport in less than half an hour.

Mac really didn't want to leave without seeing Harm, but she had no choice. After obtaining a notepad and envelope from the nurses station, Mac pondered for several minutes before writing a note to Harm. It was strange going from the role of Harm's girlfriend back to … what? What was she to Harm? Friend? Not so much any more. She wasn't his real girlfriend. Since officially he wasn't in the Navy, she wasn't his colleague any more either. Time was running out. Mac had to get to the airport, so she gave up, not finding an answer to what she and Harm were to each other now. In the end her note simply wished Harm a speedy recovery and said she would see him in Washington soon. She knew it was stiff and impersonal, but Mac couldn't find the right words. One needed to know what one wanted to say before searching for the words to express it. Mac didn't know what she wanted to say, so of course she couldn't find the words.

0800 EST
Monday, January 24
JAG HQ

Mac arrived on time, as usual, the next morning after arriving in Washington only a few hours earlier because of flight delays. In spite of concern over leaving Harm without talking with the doctor after surgery, Mac managed to get a couple of hours sleep. The last week – it had been just over a week since Harm supposedly left the Navy in disgrace – had been crammed full of worry, stress, satisfaction, and uncertainty. Mac asked to see the Admiral and was told to go in, she was expected.

After telling Mac to take a seat, Admiral Chegwidden looked at the tired Marine. "You get any sleep?" he asked abruptly.

"Some, sir. I'm all right. Have you gotten a final report on the mission?"

"Webb called a few minutes ago. The enforcement teams hit nine locations on both sides of the border. They rounded up 45 people suspected of smuggling contraband and drugs between the US and Mexico. Five of those were top people in the organization. After preliminary questioning, eleven of that group don't seem to be connected with the targeted cartel, but with a rival group trying to take over parts of the business. Apparently they had been sabotaging the planes, making the deliveries unreliable so they could become the alternate supplier. Probably caused the first plane to crash and also forced Rabb's plane down."

"Sounds like a successful effort."

"Very. Webb is pleased, and he tells me the other agencies involved view it as extremely successful."

"What about Harm? What happens now?"

The Admiral hesitated. This part was tricky. "We're still working that out. How is he, by the way?"

"The doctor told me he has a knife wound in his side that became infected. He was still in surgery when I had to leave to catch my plane back here. And what's that mean – what happens to Harm is still being worked out, sir?"

"There's plenty of evidence to make strong cases against most of those in custody so Harm shouldn't need to testify. Still, if we bring him back into the Navy and acknowledge that it was an undercover mission, we could expose him to retaliation from any members of the cartel that we didn't get. It was part of the deal when Harm took this assignment that he might not be able to come back to JAG or the Navy right away."

Mac was shocked. How could they just abandon Harm after sending him on a dangerous mission – one he carried out as ordered. "Sir, you can't just abandon him!"

"Now, Mac. You know better than that. Sounds like he won't be cleared for active duty for awhile so he'll be told to lay low. Call the hospital and let me know his condition."

Mac returned to her office and placed a call to the hospital at NAS Corpus Christi. After several transfers, she was finally told that Commander Rabb was responding well to treatment and expected to be released in a couple of days. She asked to speak directly to Harm, but was told he wasn't available at the moment. After leaving a message for him to call, she reported what she had learned to the Admiral.

The remainder of the day Mac worked on the files that had stacked up during her absence. The number was larger than usual because Harm was also gone. Throughout the day, she kept hoping that he would call, but when Mac left for home at 1800 he still hadn't called. As she prepared for bed and still hadn't heard from him, she began to feel the prickle of worry usually associated with Harm being in trouble. Though it was late, she called the hospital, but was told the patents were asleep for the night and couldn't be disturbed. Mac didn't want to go to sleep, yet there wasn't anything she could do. The lack of sleep the night before finally caught up with her and she drifted off.

Tuesday
Mac's Apartment

Mac awoke suddenly in the early morning hours with her heart pounding and a sense of impending tragedy. It took a few seconds to realize she had been dreaming, yet she didn't remember the dream – just the sense of fear it produced. It was 0423 and clearly her night's sleep was over. She got up, showered, dressed, and waited impatiently until she could reasonably call the hospital again.

At 0526 her phone rang, and she knew immediately it was not a good thing. Her caller ID showed a blocked call. The caller was Webb.

"Mac, have you talked with Harm since you left Texas?" he asked immediately.

"No. I tried yesterday morning but was told he wasn't available. I left a message for him to call but he never did. What's wrong, Clay?"

"Two of our agents were sent to check on Harm and have the base provide some additional security for him. He wasn't in the hospital."

"But he's in the middle of a Navy base. Surely the cartel's assassins couldn't get to him there?" Mac asked sharply.

Webb hesitated before responding. He knew she wasn't going to like his answer. "Mac, from everything we can learn, Harm left on his own. Checked himself out and disappeared."

"But that makes no sense. Where would he go. He's hurt. He needs medical care."

"The doctors patched him up. Apparently the knife didn't hit anything vital. He was responding well to the antibiotics and he took a prescription with him."

"Is he still wearing the ring with the tracking device?"

"No, the agents found it in his hospital room."

"Damn!"

"Exactly. I'm working on finding out how he left the base, but it would go quicker with a request from the Admiral."

"I'll call him. Let me know when you find anything."

Ignoring the early hour, Mac called the Admiral and updated him. Chegwidden immediately called the base commander at NAS Corpus Christi, who promised to call back shortly with answers. In less than 15 minutes, the Admiral was told that Harm had caught a ride to the airport. Though AJ knew he had an expert at tracking down people using computer records, namely, Lt. Roberts, he still wanted to contain any information about this mission until they knew more. The other experts at tracking people were, of course, the CIA. AJ called Webb with what he knew. Webb set about tracing Harm's activities. An hour later, Mac, the Admiral and Clayton Webb met at JAG HQ to discuss the latest information they had found.

Webb's people had managed to find out quite a lot, but the information gave a puzzling and suspicious picture. "Harm didn't get on a plane, but at an internet kiosk at the airport accessed his bank accounts. Four days ago a deposit of $250,000 was made to his checking account, which he now has transferred to an account in the Cayman Islands. He then rented a car, drew $500 from an ATM, and disappeared."

TBC