Chapter 5

On the other side of the country, Mac had just been summoned to the admiral's office where she was informed she was being sent TDY with the CIA. "You'll be the 'pregnant' wife of the agent; you'll be given a prosthetic belly, unless there's something you want to tell me." Chegwidden's attempt at humor fell flat, as Mac glared at him, as that was about the only thing she could do under the circumstances. It was then Clayton Webb made his presence known in the admiral's office. Chegwidden actually felt the temperature drop when the Marine realized just who she'd been paired with.

"Admiral my presence is needed here, we're short handed as it is" Mac pled. The look on the Admiral's face told her what she didn't want to hear.

"These orders came from very high up. I'm sorry Colonel. I have no choice, therefore you have no choice. We'll deal with this. I'm getting a replacement for Singer; in fact, her replacement will be here Monday. I have the paperwork started on Rabb's replacement." Looking at Webb, he glared at the man and directed the next words at the man. "Now I'll have to get a senior attorney here on TDY for you, until then we'll be extremely short-handed, as will a few other posts because of this request. I might have to bring in Lindsey but I'm sure there's someone I can find, so I don't have to do that."

The admiral didn't appreciate the end-run Webb had done to get Mackenzie to go on the mission. He changed his focus to the agent. "Webb, Colonel Mackenzie will make herself available tomorrow afternoon, and not before; she needs to clear her desk and bring others up to speed on several cases. If you will excuse us Mr. Webb, you are excused." Webb took the hint; after all, he had Mac where he wanted, with the bonus of no Rabb in the picture.

The admiral gave Mac the parameters of the mission, told her he'd arranged to have Victor Galindez as part of the team; it wasn't that he didn't trust her he didn't trust Webb. The Gunnery Sergeant had been assigned embassy duty in Asunción, Paraguay a couple of months before. It was to be a quiet tour for the Marine after Afghanistan. Victor spoke Spanish fluently and could pass as a native, even though his accent could give him away. He was ready to go undercover because he'd been given an exemption regarding the length of his hair. When he returned to the Middle East, and that could happen at any time, he needed his hair to be longer than Marine regulation. Chegwidden insisted on Galindez' inclusion; he told them that Mac needed one person in her corner that she knew could completely trust. He didn't phrase it that way but that's what he meant when Kershaw and Sheffield insisted on using the colonel. He knew that Webb had his good points, but he tended not to complete important missions without a major screw up. At his age and experience, he should be further up in the Agency by now, no longer in the field. He'd skated too far on his father's name for all too long.

Chapter 6

Because of an adult lifetime in the military Harm adapted quickly to the routine of prison life. Admittedly, he didn't like the loss of freedom and privacy. He didn't look forward to being with the general population, but after nearly two months of protective custody he craved being with people. He knew the next few years would be difficult, as his status as a murderer of an unborn child and a woman was just asking for trouble, his size would help him but he knew his chances of surviving his entire sentence was doubtful. He'd heard enough verbal abuse already from the guards about his of his supposed crime. Saturday afternoon, Harm went with his guard to the 'family' room. His mother was using everything she'd learned over her lifetime to not break down and cry and she managed to keep tears at bay for the time on the island. "What exactly happened Harm? I know you wouldn't have done that to her." Trish said once they were seated at a table with the limited privacy that they were allowed.

"I don't know what happened, the last I saw Lauren, Lt. Singer, was outside Benzinger's when I had her call Sergei. I was in her car; the temperature was too low to call Sergei, outside. That's why my fingerprints were in her car, it was the only time I was ever in it. She was quite alive when I left; as she was extremely upset with me for making her call Sergei. You washed my mouth with soap when you hear me say those words when fourteen. What clinched it for the panel; it was my cover that was found downstream from where she was tossed over the bridge. I've never been there, no I take it back, I have, but I've always been there in civvies."

Trish wanted to give her son a hug, but this was most assuredly not the place for it.

After a few minutes Harm changed the subject, "Mom can you go to DC and close up my loft, I have a few pictures I want sent here; the rest of my things could you store at your place?"

Getting a list from Harm, his mother agreed. They talked as long as they could. Frank then arranged for monies to be placed in his account, as he would not receive a paycheck, the allotment a prisoner received was minimal, and families could contribute a small amount. Harm went back to his cell in solitary; he had a few days before he'd move to the general population of the prison.

As soon as they got back to Tacoma, Trish and Frank met with the investigator they'd hired to clear their sons name; they were willing to go to the ends of the earth to clear his name, even if it meant finding out Sergei was the guilty party. They fervently prayed that this wasn't the case, as they both knew with that outcome that they would lose Harm forever. It was the reason Harm got himself into this pickle; it would destroy him to find out he'd doomed himself for something his brother actually did.

Chapter 7

Monday found Mac with extra time on her hands, Clayton had an unexpected meeting regarding the mission and she was amazed that wasn't cleared to attend. She decided it would be a good a time to go see Abby. She first stopped off to get the 'bribe', a Kaff-Pow; she entered NCIS headquarters and arranged to see Abby. "I know you don't get thanked very often for doing what you do, especially when someone is convicted, but I want to thank you for doing your job, I know you always do a thorough job." She told this to the forensic specialist after handing her the drink. It was the truth, despite the fact that in doing her job, Abby had pinned the nail in the coffin for the prosecution's case.

"Thank you Colonel. I know you and the Commander are friends. I've seen the two of you when I've testified. I don't think he did it, but the scientific evidence said otherwise. Don't tell this to anyone else, but to tell you the truth I think Gibbs was trying to get the case wrapped up in a hurry; I think that he was pressured by the Director to get onto another case, a terrorist case. I was up in the bullpen, and I saw them talking, I can read lips, because my parents are deaf, and I learned to do that almost before I signed, but I can't prove it legally, it's just my impression."

Mac was amazed, not only had Abby said that in one breath, but there was a slight possibility that they could retry Harm, if they could find that undue influence had been brought to the NCIS team. This was a start, just maybe they could prove the Singer investigation was rushed and not all avenues of investigation were completed. Re-opening the case couldn't do Harm any worse---it could only help.

After meeting with the investigator, Trish had called Mac and informed the Marine they had hired a nationally renowned investigated agency to clear her son. With this new information, Mac would contact the agency to talk with NCIS. As an objective third party, maybe they get NCIS to admit they'd goofed in arresting Harm so quickly.

Friday night, she wrote Harm, letting him know she'd be away for a while. She told him the truth, she'd been ordered to go on a mission, told him that she thought of him several times each day. In the letter, she gave him as much information as she dared, knowing other eyes would see the letter.

After a week of intense preparation; which included being fitted for a prosthetic belly, shopping for maternity clothes for her 'changed' figure, and tutelage to become something of an 'expert' on diamonds she and Webb departed for South America.

Chapter 8

In Washington Harm was finally introduced to his cellmate, Ibrahim Bashir, who was a few inches shorter than Harm but bulkier; having spent most of his time in the exercise yard since entering prison. Harm soon found out he was a celebrity of sorts, as someone had recognized his name. It appeared there were two groups when it came to his fellow inmates, those who hated him because he'd been a lawyer for the Navy, but most seemed to appreciate he'd served his country and risked his life in getting rid of the nuke the year before. One inmate who seemed to wield a lot of influence in Harm's cellblock let it be known very quickly that Harm was off limits for retaliation. Harm had saved his nephew's life not once but twice. The first time by proving the seaman innocent of manslaughter, and more importantly in the uncle's eyes, Harm, the pilot who'd diverted the nuclear warhead away from the ship his nephew was stationed. It turned out the boy was his only remaining kin, the older man thought of him as a son. He was grateful for this protection, because even with moving to the federal prison system Harm was at risk for vengeance.

Mac knew this mission was doomed; it seemed to her that Clayton was trying harder to woo her into his bed than he was trying to complete the mission. She used everything in her arsenal she could, short of kneeing him in the groin, to indicate she was not at all interested in him that way. This wasn't working very well because, unfortunately, most of their time was spent in public and she had to maintain their cover. Instead, she used the 'pregnancy' to her advantage; from Harriet, she knew how could get away with "stay away from me". However, she was one more incident from breaking her cover and reporting Webb to the Ambassador no matter what it did to her career, when the ball finally started rolling as far as the mission was going.

They were to meet Raul Garcia, who presumably was getting drugs for Sadik Fahd. When they reached his estate in the Chaco Boreal, she was completely disgusted with Clayton Webb and vowed to herself that as soon as this mission was finished she would tell the man never to contact her again. She was also relieved to see a familiar face, Victor Galindez.

Chapter 9

Back in DC, Abby Sciuto had a bit of free time waiting for the latest crime scene evidence to be completely analyzed. She still had Harm's cover and decided to run another test on it, as well as the airline ticket that had been found in Lt. Singer's uniform. She ran more comprehensive tests than she'd been allowed to earlier, the tests she'd would have done earlier if politics hadn't been involved in the case against the commander.

The first conclusive thing she found was from the ticket. It was now obvious that the destination was not San Diego, California but Shannon airport, located in Dublin, Ireland. She called in a favor with a friend with Homeland Security and asked her to see the passenger manifest for that flight. Within a few moments, the list was faxed to her office. She saw Singer's name and that she'd not been on the flight when it departed Dulles.

The second was a complete analysis of the soil not only on the cover and but of Singer's uniform. There were distinct differences. A baseball cap that had been found near the cover had New Years 2003 on it was closer to the chemical composition of the uniform due to the amount of water and soil from the long-term exposure to the elements. Abby knew they had found the wrong man guilty as Rabb's cover DID NOT have the amount of silt on it that it should have. The soil analysis was completely different than the cap or the uniform. She called her team leader to come down the lab as soon as he could make it. He had just returned from the mission that had taken precedence over Rabb's case. If the scuttlebutt was correct Agent Blackadder was about to be booted from the team. A few minutes later the silver-haired senior agent was in her lab.

"Gibbs, while waiting on the Smythe investigation, I was able to complete the tests on the cover from Rabb. I did another test on the airline ticket, it turns out that the Lieutenant was headed to Ireland. Shannon airport to be exact. For the cover, as a comparison, I used the cap Tony found at the scene. The hat was there since approximately the beginning of the year, about the same time she died. The cover couldn't have been there for that long, since for one thing it wasn't nearly as dirty as it should have been for time it was supposedly in the elements."

Hearing this Gibbs knew that it could cost him his career, but Rabb's case needed to be reopened. He hated it when politics got in the way of justice. He was back at his desk when Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo came bounding to his desk. "Boss, there's a Lee Stetson, from Stetson Group to see you. He's a private investigator." Gibbs knew exactly who Stetson was. And what he'd been when he was younger. The Stetson Group worked mostly in corporate espionage, but they were known for the right fee; or the right situation, to do investigations for individuals. Gibbs knew Rabb came from a moneyed family; if Gibbs remembered correctly, it was just one reason that Rabb was considered a flight risk.

He decided everyone involved in the Rabb case originally: DiNozzo, Abby, and Vivian Blackadder would meet the man. He remembered that Stetson had worked in the intelligence field and should understand the pressure the team had been to make an arrest. Gibbs decided he'd invite Director Morrow along for the meeting. Maybe next time the guy would allow justice to take precedence over politics.

"I believe that my client's case was sloppily done, because of undue influence from the powers that be the case against my client was hurried, and other possible suspects were not even considered. Because of new evidence it is obvious that that an innocent man had been convicted of a crime he did not commit."

With the information Abby had just uncovered it appeared they might have jumped to the wrong conclusion. By shortchanging the investigation, a thorough job wasn't done. Yes, the investigation they'd brushed Rabb aside for was vital, but the info they'd been able to glean from the few remaining terrorists involved in the firefight yielded no new information.

Director Morrow was rightfully embarrassed, he'd been pressured by SecNav Sheffield to get Gibbs and team on that case, no matter what case was currently ongoing. When the meeting was finished, the chastened Director returned to his office, "AJ, I need you to come over here, ASAP, it's regarding Rabb. New information has come to light."

The admiral was reluctant, and was about to say he had too much to do, and not enough staff until Morrow relayed that new information had been made available on the Singer/Rabb investigation and it cast real doubt that Rabb was guilty. With that, Chegwidden said he'd be there. As he drove over to NCIS, he remembered something Rabb had said several weeks ago; when Lindsey was 'terrorizing' them with the audit.

Rabb had been late to work the next morning, "I had to stop by and get a new cover, somehow I've misplaced mine, or somebody took mine by mistake, I didn't realize until I left for home last night." When he left work, his cover hadn't fit. The one he'd taken home the night before was a half-size too small. When AJ heard about the evidence that had been uncovered, he KNEW Rabb had been framed. Now they had to find the guilty party and legally prove Rabb's innocence.

Using the power of his office, Chegwidden got Rabb to the warden's office to ask him a few questions. Questions that gave Harm hope this might be over soon. Harm told him that the only possible time his cover could have been switched was when Lindsey had been in his office.

A check of Harm's banking records found that Harm bought a replacement cover in March, at the same time as when Lindsey was doing his audit. He hadn't purchased anything at the uniform store, with the exception of the cover, in over a year. If he'd indeed killed Singer and lost his cover, he'd have needed to replace it in January, not in late March.

It was at this time Abby remembered the passenger manifest. The only no-show on the flight had been Lauren, would there be a name or names that someone who'd worked with Singer would recognize? It was quite possible the father of her unborn baby had been on that flight. Tests had already proven that neither Sergei nor Harm had been the father of the unfortunate baby. There was a plus side to this whole tragedy; Abby was able to prove that Sergei and Harm were indeed related. That they were half-brothers. Chegwidden would be able to impart that bit of cheery news to Rabb, if nothing else.

Chapter 10

On the flight manifest were only two names on the list anyone recognized that might have possibly known Lauren or Harm. Clayton Webb was on the list, as was his mother Porter Webb and unsurprisingly, both had been in first class. Admiral Chegwidden knew of Webb's current whereabouts, knew that Webb's mother would do anything to protect the Webb family name, she would make sure an illegitimate grandchild would be took care of; especially if it were a girl. The old families still had that bias about girls and inheritance apparently.

With the evidence in hand they; Chegwidden, Gibbs, Lee Stetson, and the Director went directly to the Attorney General; this investigation needed to be reopened. The AG was in a meeting so they bided their time until he was free, they could not be seen for three hours, by going to the Webb estate.

The intelligence community was a relatively small one, so Lee Stetson took point; he told the others his parents had worked with Porter and Neville Webb just before their deaths. At the time, the Webb's weren't even dating. "She might be more willing to listen to me," he said, it turned it out having Lee do the talking had been the correct approach.

Porter had only recently returned from a trip overseas, and thus was unaware of the death of Lauren and the unborn baby. She astounded the men by confessing she'd been the baby's grandmother. "Lauren was to travel to Ireland with us, give birth while she was there; that had been agreed upon by my son and her, but Lauren didn't show. Both Clayton and I assumed she'd changed her mind about adoption and would contact him when the baby was born so Clayton could sign away his parental rights." Excusing herself for a moment Porter went to Clayton's bedroom suite. When she returned she had a handkerchief in her right hand, in it was a hairbrush. "This will prove that what I've just said is true, please return the brush at your earliest convenience, its part of an heirloom set." With that, she dismissed them, knowing that if need be, they would return with a warrant for more evidence.

Thus, they were able to eliminate Clayton as a suspect; he had an ironclad alibi for his whereabouts when Singer was killed. He was on a plane headed to Ireland, with several people who could verify he was nowhere near DC at the time of the murder.

With that information in hand, they confronted the SecNav: they'd sent the wrong man to prison. Chegwidden knew one individual who hated Rabb's guts, who'd the motive and opportunity to switch covers. Now they just had to prove it.

Before that meeting, in front of Gibbs and his team, the director surprised Admiral Chegwidden with the admission "I was pressured to wrap up the case so resources could be concentrated on the terrorist cell."

Chegwidden realized the mission Mac was on was directly tied to this case, the information discovered by Team Gibbs was already known to Webb, Gibbs and company had been pressured to work on a case at the expense of Rabb's freedom.

"Gentlemen, I can't prove the real killer yet." Chegwidden said, "But I have a pretty good idea who it was. AJ had asked Lee Stetson to look into the whereabouts of Ted Lindsey while en route to the SecNav's office, He asked that Lee run a check on the commander's bank accounts for unusually large withdrawals, if he assumed he was the father of the baby he may have be trying to pay her off.

Chapter 11

It was now Friday evening, nearly everybody had left work at JAG and NCIS, with the exception of a few people, Gibbs and his team; Admiral Chegwidden, along with Lee Stetson, who was currently talking with his business partner and wife, Amanda. Using two different sources, they found Lindsey had indeed withdrawn $10,000.00 one day and had returned it to the bank the next day. What was very incriminating, the dates were when death had occurred.

Earlier in the day Amanda Stetson went, in the guise of a member of the many organizations she belonged to and gained entrance to the Lindsey home. She saw a laptop on the desk and asked Mrs. Lindsey what she liked about that model. Mrs. Lindsey replied, "it's my husbands, he is on terminal leave from the Navy, he's an attorney."

"My husband was in the Army before we met, could I trouble you for a cup of tea, all this talking is leaving my throat dry" with the help of a flash drive Amanda was able to download everything that ever been on the laptop. "If your husband is leaving the Navy, he might want to work for us, here's my card." With everything she'd found out about the attorney, Amanda knew he'd be desperate for a job.

Chapter 12

Mac and Webb left Garcia's estate in a hurry; it was obvious to Mac at least, that the mission was doomed. At least they'd managed to get Fahd to turn on Garcia. If Galindez hadn't been shot while leaving, they would have completed the mission without harm. She insisted they go back for Gunny "Clay, we don't leave people behind." In the process of rescuing him, Victor Galindez was able to get away; he appeared to be in good shape despite the wounded arm.

Unfortunately, they were quickly captured. Unbeknownst to them, Victor was able to get to Asuncion and inform Langley of their capture. He'd had enough experience with the agent to know Webb had no backup in place if anything went wrong. He was told to sit tight, wait for someone to contact him. Somehow, he knew he might wait for a long time. He 'knew' it would not be someone connected with the CIA when he finally was contacted.

When Amanda returned to her office with the flash drive, everyone hoped to find something, in only a few minutes, she found the 'smoking gun'. It was obvious to all that Lindsey had used Singer and vice versa. No wonder Lindsey had been able to go after specific situations during the audit, Singer had been feeding information to him for months. Amanda noted that those files were deleted the same day that the findings of the audit had turned on Lindsey, the dates correlated with the original when they all thought Singer had died, before finding out it was months earlier.

It was quickly decided that Amanda would call Lindsey into the Stetson Group company headquarters, where her assistant would talk to him for a few minutes. Seeing a photo of the late Lauren Singer Amanda realized that her assistant looked eerily similar to Lauren. When Chegwidden met the woman he agreed, she could've easily been Singer's twin. They decided to set a trap and

"Do you have something white, that might look like a summer uniform, it was the closest they could do for a naval uniform on such short notice. When Maisy put her shoulder length hair up in a bun, Chegwidden shuddered, as the resemblance was uncanny. AJ thought to himself, 'no wonder Rabb looked like he'd seen a ghost when he met Mac.' If Lindsey were guilty, this could get him to confess.

The blonde said, "I have the perfect combination, at home, the only thing I don't own are shoulder boards." Amanda told her to get the clothing and return as soon as she could.

As they expected, a desperate Lindsey wanted to find out more about the Stetson Group, he eagerly agreed to meet with Amanda despite the short notice. When he got to Amanda's office, he was more than a little rattled, as the person who was her administrative assistant looked eerily familiar to him.

"Mister Lindsey, I was told to expect you. I'm Amanda Stetson's assistant, Lara Nissangar; she's in a meeting right now but will be with you momentarily." So far so good, Maisy had been given several lines to say, seeing the man in front of her was visibly rattled, she went on "Mrs. Stetson told me you're in the Navy, you've worked with some of the important people, she said you're a VIP at the SecNav's office. I'll bet it's an important job, especially with everything going on right now in the world." She laid on the charm, thick.

From their vantage point three floors above, they could see he was basking in the fawning attention. The admiral had seen Singer do this; trying to curry favor with false sincerity. They could also see Lindsey was vulnerable. Maisy would do her part right, she'd been an undercover agent for five years, knew exactly what to say and what to do, "You remind me of a friend of mine; she hooked up with a commander at the Pentagon, or maybe it was it was some other office, but that's neither here not there. She, my friend, went and did the mattress mambo with him then found out he was happily married, he'd told her he was legally separated, and she told him to forget her number."

Maisy said this scornfully, because she was letting Lindsey know what she thought of men that did that. This part was no act. It had happened to her sister, who had committed suicide when she found out she was pregnant.

The group above could see the sweat gathering on Lindsey's forehead, 'so that must have been what had occurred' Chegwidden and the others thought.

From here on Maisy had to mostly wing it, but years in the field taught her well. "My friend found out she was pregnant, just between you and me, I think she must have been in denial, or maybe it was all the stress in her life at the time, the bank she was working for was in the middle of yet another merger, but she waited too long to get an abortion. The last time I saw her she was going to talk to one of the two daddy possibilities. She never told me who 'daddy' was. She said she'd slept with two guys about the time she got pregnant, so it was either the married jerk or the other guy. I take it the other guy wasn't married cuz I know her, she'd of said something about him if she found out that she was two for two bedding married men. I only heard from her once since then, it's been a few months, but we were like that, several months at a time and not talking. My friend, she had a prickly personality at the best of times, so I didn't think anything of it. I don't think I could have handled being around her on a daily basis. It turned out she had a baby girl, it wasn't the married guy who was the sperm donor it was Mister X."

The group noted Lindsey's face was a combination of relief and terror when he heard her say that. "Sorry about that, my boss tells me I tend to ramble on, just like his wife." Upstairs Lee just looked at his wife, who gave him a quick glare; compared to their first years together she'd toned down her tendency to ramble since meeting him.

Chapter 12

Still it surprised everyone when Teddy Lindsey blurted out. "I didn't mean to do it. I was upset; you see, Lauren was going to expose our affair. She wanted ten thousand dollars from me to keep quiet, she was going to leave the country if I gave her the money. I honestly didn't know she was pregnant until months later. I pushed the briefcase with the money towards her, I guess I pushed too hard because she stumbled and fell backwards, hitting her head on the railing. All I know is she went down; I felt for a pulse, nothing, I panicked and picked her up and tossed her over the railing. That day I put the money back in the bank, my wife didn't even know anything about it until the bank statement came, I told her the bank must have made an accidental withdrawal and deposited the money back in the account the next day. The stupid woman believed me, she always believes me even when I said I was working late. She even believes I left the SecNav's office. I got the boot. He told me I could keep my pension, but I was on terminal leave as of that moment. Rabb, and all the 'special people' at JAG, think that they're so much better than me, getting all the plum assignments or promotions when I got capped at Commander" Lindsey confessed, he was not aware it was all on tape.

Maisy and those standing above her were amazed. The recorder continued to record and everyone up in the conference room sat there, they were appalled and let him continue, no one was prompting him to incriminate himself further. "It was so easy, all I had to do during the audit was take wonder-boy Rabb's cover, go downstream from where she went over. When and if they found her was it would look like he did it. I know cuz there'd been scuttlebutt when Lauren returned from the Seahawk that Commander Perfect had been running his own investigation, instead of the one Chegwidden actually sent him on."

Maisy was the perfect witness, she could testify to what she'd heard. Because of the nature of the business, the Stetson Group as matter of security had a security camera going at all times in the lobby and in the outer offices of the senior staff. She twirled her hair with her left hand, the signal to end the conversation; they had the goods on the Commander.

A few minutes later Lindsey sat in the conference room in handcuffs and when he was told that he'd confessed to murder and had several witnesses to the conversation, in addition he would be charged with conspiring to frame another officer for the crime he'd committed he collapsed crying knowing he could not get out of this.

When they went back to NCIS headquarters Lindsey wrote out his confession. He knew he had too many witnesses that heard his confession, witnesses that were a prosecutors dream. Meanwhile, Chegwidden, Bud and Sturgis were frantically trying to locate a judge to get Harm released immediately. They were able to find Captain Sebring at home as he was the judge on-call that night, he needed to stay at home, the nurse he had for his wife had been called away for a family emergency, and he couldn't leave her, and asked they come over.

On the drive to the Sebring house, Chegwidden told Bud and Sturgis, that for this, he would take the position for the government; he'd plead the government's case and they were to be Harm's attorneys. That was fine, they wanted to do everything by the book and quickly.

By 2100, the proceedings were taking place; it might have taken place in an unlikely location---the living room of Owen Sebring's home but it was perfectly legitimate. En route, they stopped by JAG to get anything and everything they might need to get the release papers signed.

Captain Owen Sebring heard the arguments on both sides and quickly signed the papers. He'd taken a few minutes, while they were on their way over to verify the procedure of releasing a federal prisoner. He was disappointed to find out that though he could clear Rabb, it also would take a federal judge in the district where the prisoner was to sign off on the release. "I can clear him, but I need to get hold of a federal judge in the Seattle area, to sign the release papers." He looked disappointed at this; Friday night was not a good time to track down a federal judge.

Amanda and Lee were witnessing this unusual hearing, when she heard the problem she spoke up. "My ex-husband, Joe, is a federal judge in Tacoma. I have his number; we should be able to do this over the phone. Especially when he hears what happened." Rabb could be walking out of prison in a few hours, and Monday at the latest. She was sure of it.

"Dial it." Owen ordered.

Amanda quickly explained the reason for the call, which due to the time difference wasn't as late in the evening on the west coast.

Joseph King understood all too well what it was like to be framed for murder. "I'll get the ball rolling; he'll be released by morning at the latest." It would take a few hours to get everything taken care of. "If he's freed tonight, he'll have to stay on the island, I'll have him moved to the infirmary. For obvious security reasons, we don't keep boats docked; he'll be free to leave in the morning with the graveyard shift."

Chegwidden knew with Rabb's release things could be taken care of on his end. Because of his conviction and less than honorable discharge, Harm was considered a civilian; his discharge papers had been quickly processed.

Harm could go into Paraguay as a civilian; this would be easier than AJ or any military person who was constrained by laws not to interfere. AJ knew that as soon as Harm heard what had occurred in the Chaco Boreal he'd be on the next available flight south, even if it meant he'd be returning to the states in a casket. He immediately got on his cell phone and called Frank Burnett to inform him of the positive developments. Within fifteen minutes, Frank and Trish were headed to the airport to fly to Seattle to get Harm.

Lee and Amanda didn't mind AJ making the call, despite the fact the Burnett's were their client.

As soon as the meeting with Sebring was finished, AJ stopped by Langley to have certain papers signed by Kershaw. He cleared his idea with Kershaw over the phone on his way, but wanted it officially cleared by Kershaw, who'd agreed, with the proviso that once seen, the papers were to be shredded by the recipient.

Driving to Andrews Air Force Base Chegwidden was able to get himself on a plane to McChord AFB located near Tacoma. He knew that after his release Rabb might understandably not want anything to do with the Navy. After what had occurred in the past couple of months, he couldn't blame the younger man if he only signed the papers giving him an honorable discharge. However, he knew what made Rabb tick; he'd learned as a teen in Vietnam, and again, under his tutelage, never to leave anyone behind.