Chapter 38
Johnny turned his key in the lock and opened the door, then stood to one side to allow Julia to precede him into the house. "Hey, mum, I'm home!"
His shout had two effects, first, the door to the living room flew open and Zoe erupted into the hallway and then the door leading to the kitchen opened, less violently, and Judith Walker was framed in the doorway, wiping her hands on a dish-cloth.
Zoe was the first to recover her wits, and take in the scene, "And he's got Julia with him! Hi, you!"
Julia smiled but wasn't given time to answer as Judith Walker came towards the visitors, and holding out her arms gathered them both into a hug, "Hello, son," she murmured, and then "Hello, Julia!" and released them, but she hadn't finished yet, "It's good to see you again, both of you, come on through, and I'll put the kettle on!"
Johnny ushered Julia into the kitchen where they and Zoe unceremoniously helped themselves to seats and the four chatted inconsequentially until the tea was brewed and had been placed on the table to steep, at which point, Johnny broke off the exaggerated story he was telling about a very minor incident in Barracks to ask, "Is Alison around?"
"I'm right here," his sister said from the doorway, "I was in the bath when I heard you arrive!"
"Hot date tonight, Alison?" Johnny grinned over his shoulder as she zeroed in on him and planted a kiss on his cheek.
"Yes, Simon's picking me up at seven… that's in about twenty minutes… Oh God! I need to fix my face!" she yelped and turned to head for the door.
"No! Wait up a minute, please, this won't take more than a couple of minutes," Johnny said, and there was something in his voice that killed the happiness in the kitchen. Alison turned slowly and parked her hip against the kitchen work top, while the smile vanished from his mother's face as she sat at the table.
"What is it, love?" she asked.
Johnny fiddled with his teaspoon and cleared his throat, carefully not looking at his mother. "The CO held a muster parade today, just before lunch…It's not as if we weren't half-expecting it…"
A low moan broke from Judith Walker's throat, "Oh, Johnny, no…"
"Sorry, mum, I'm afraid it's yes." He took a breath and then lightly covered Julia's hand with his and looked in turn at his mother and then his two sisters, "We've been warned for a tour. Afghanistan, starting in March for a twelve-month."
For a long instant there was silence in the kitchen that was suddenly broken by the scrape of chair legs on the floor and what sounded suspiciously like a sob as Judith Walker sprang to her feet and swept out of the kitchen.
Johnny gave Julia, whose hand had clench almost painfully around his, a faint and apologetic smile, "I'd best get after her…" he started to say but was interrupted by Zoe who placed a hand on his shoulder as he started to rise from his chair.
"No… leave her alone for five minutes, and then I'll go and speak with her." She shook her sadly, "Johnny, she's been afraid this would happen every day since you got back from Iraq."
"But… she never said…" Johnny replied.
"No, well, she wouldn't, would she?" Zoe almost snapped, and then her voice nearly broke, "Oh… Timmy!"
It as a mark of how concerned Johnny was that he let Zoe's use of the hated diminutive pass without comment, and he turned his face to Julia, "You understand though, don't you?" he asked almost plaintively.
Julia's stomach had turned cold at the news. She had already enlisted when the Navy Chaplain and the Marine Corps Major had come to her parents' door with the news that her beloved brother, Tomas, was coming home early, but she had been granted family leave to attend his funeral, and she not only experienced her own pain, but witnessed the shattering effect of her brother's death on her mom and dad. But in the face of Johnny's question she did the only thing she could. She nodded, determined not to add to the distress on the house that was very nearly palpable, "I understand," she answered in a tight little voice, "Oh Johnny, I understand. I don't like it, but I understand. Orders are orders. We don't have to like them, but we have to obey them!"
Zoe stood quiet, marvelling at the strength Julia displayed, while she felt like howling to the moon that it wasn't fair! Timmy had done his bit, he even had a damned medal to prove it! And her eyes flew in the direction of the living room, where she knew the photographs of her father in his uniform were securely locked out of sight in the bureau section of the Ladderax unit. Timmy was so much like his father, not just in looks, but in his determination to join the army, even after his father was killed by an IRA roadside bomb nearly twenty-five years ago. Zoe had been too young to remember much about that time, but the stories her two older sisters had told her, of how mum had cried pretty much non-stop for six weeks had had a sobering effect on her. Blinking back her own tears, she nodded to an equally aghast Alison to follow her and silently slipped out of the kitchen in search of her mum, leaving Johnny and Julia, holding hands at the kitchen table, a kind of pleading expression on Johnny's face, and a queer, almost hungry expression on Julia's.
"I wish you didn't have to go…" Julia said wistfully.
"Hey, look on the bright side," Johnny said cheerfully, trying to lift the atmosphere, "It's a warning order, we might not even go, in the end."
Julia looked at him with a cynical lift of an eyebrow, "Yeah, right," she said sombrely, "How often do warning orders like that not get followed through on?"
"Hey, it happens!" Johnny protested.
"Yeah, but not often!" Julia argued.
"Anyway, even if the regiment does go, there'll be a rear party left at Tidworth, to look after the place, do family liaison and all that sort of thing… I could be detailed to that…"
"And how happy would that make you, Johnny Walker?" Julia challenged him.
Johnny looked uncomfortable, "Well…" he said uneasily.
"Yeah, just as I thought!" Julia said and then took a breath, "Johnny, we're both in the service; you've just had a warning order for a deployment and I could get a change of orders tomorrow and be sent to a shipboard billet. Hell, that's the chance we took when we signed up. So, let's not allow this to spoil what we've got, and try to work out something between us, and try to keep your mom from worrying too much."
"Hah, good luck with that!" Johnny retorted, but the thought did bring a somewhat wistful half-smile to his face, "according to mum, that's part of the job description."
"Indeed it is!" Judith Walker's voice made them both start. "But it's not part of yours! So you two stop worrying about me, and start thinking about what I'm going to do with you. Johnny, your room's ready for you, as always, but Julia, with both the girls home, the best I can offer you is the couch in the living room…" her voice trailed off doubtfully
Johnny stood, and drew his mother into his arms, gently kissing her forehead, "It's alright, mum, Julia and I… well… we've sort of racked things up a notch… and I figured that if both Zoe and Alison were at home, then Julia and me, well, we'd be best off getting a room at Owl for the weekend…"
"Oh…" even in that syllable the relief in Judith's voice was plain to hear, "I know that sounds inhospitable and ungracious, but perhaps that would be for the best… under the circumstance. Julia, dear, I'm sorry, I don't mean to be unkind."
"No, that's fine, Mrs Walker. This is your house and your rules, and if Johnny and I aren't willing or happy to abide by those rules, then it's not fair to expect you to put up with us."
"And as you weren't expecting us, I'll bet there's nothing de-frosted for dinner, either!" Johnny grinned, "So, give us an hour's start, and then come and join us for dinner at the Owl, all three of you. My treat!"
"We'll certainly come and join you for dinner!" Judith replied, "But as for your treat – nothing doing! When the day comes that I can't feed my own family, then I'll be sure to let you know! Now, if that's all settled, go and get checked in!"
"But mum…" Johnny laughingly protested as his mother bustled him and Julia down the hall towards the front door.
"But nothing, Timothy Walker! Go! And we'll see you in an hour."
Two minutes later Johnny and Julia were back in the Vectra. Johnny turned the key in the ignition and fired up the engine, but then instead of engaging the gears and moving off, he laid his head back against the head rest, closed his eyes and sighed, "That went well…"
Julia gave him a jaundiced look, "Yah think?" she demanded.
"Well… a damn sight better than it could have done, believe me!" Johnny said with a great deal of feeling, then he opened his eyes and looked at Julia, "Do you see now, why I wanted to tell you all together?"
Julia nodded, unbuckled her seat belt and leaned across the central console to plant a soft kiss on Johnny's cheek, "Yes, of course I do, and I'm sorry I was such a grouch about it!"
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Harm awoke to sense of well-being such that he hadn't felt in years, it was almost like the way he had felt when Mattie had first come to live with him, but was subtly different, it was even richer, more complete, more satisfying. And he realised, it was all due to the owner of the source of heat he could feel all the way down the left side of his body, the owner of the mass of rich, brown hair that shone on the pillow next to his, and the owner of the slim legs that seemed to have tied themselves into some incredibly complicated knot around his own. The owner of the two wonderful; eyes that smiled up at him from sleep pink face. The owner of the warm, slightly throaty voice that had a smile in it when it said, "Hi, sailor, how you doing?"
"Right now? I'm feeling pretty good," Harm smiled as he shifted position slightly so that he could look into Gill's eyes without having to squint sideways, "How 'bout you?"
"M'mm-m'mm, feeling pretty damn good!" Gill smiled.
"No regrets?" Harm asked, unable to keep the anxiety completely out of his voice, or his expression.
Gill chuckled, and propped herself up on an elbow, so that she could lean in and drop a gentle kiss on his lips, "Regrets? Nope, nary a one!" she grinned, but then sobered, "Oh… umm… yes, I do have one regret…"
Harm's heart lurched, "Oh… what?" he asked in a dismayed voice.
"Well, I'm sorry that you weren't ready for last night, before…" Gill smiled.
"Oh…" Harm's heart resumed its usual rhythm, "Don't do that to me!" he complained and then his brow furrowed again, "and what do you mean, 'before'? Before what?"
"Before last night!" Gill said, as if the answer was obvious. But then seeing that Harm still wasn't quite with her, she shook her head gently, "I would have quite happily taken this step before you went back to the USA, but you weren't ready. You needed to get the situation with the adoption sorted out before you ended up with more complications in your life!"
Harm's frown was gradually replaced with a smile as he worked through what Gill had said, "Just when did you get so damned smart?" he asked.
"Oh… I've always been pretty smart," Gill teased him, "And anyway, it's a scientific fact that women are smarter than men!"
"Oh, yeah?" Harm suddenly twisted over in bed so that he was looming over Gill, supported on his arms. "If you're so smart, then you can tell me what's going to happen next?"
"Yes, I can!" Gill retorted, the laughter bubbling up to her lips, "We're going to make love – again!"
Harm smiled just before he kissed her thoroughly. She was right, she was pretty damned smart!
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Victor Galindez nearly groaned when Jen came out of the bedroom, despite the evidence that she had provided last night that she was not a high school cheerleader, but a very passionate and fully grown woman, in her tan tailored slacks and white button down shirt worn under a crimson V-neck sweater and with her beautiful long brown hair swept back into a ponytail she looked absurdly young; much younger than the veteran Marine felt this morning.
"I made coffee," he offered.
"Real coffee or industrial strength toxic waste?" Jen grinned.
"What you might call toxic waste is real coffee!" Victor shot back.
"Grouch!" Jen grinned as she unceremoniously plopped down on his knee and captured his lips with hers. "There, is that better?" she demanded with a smile when she broke the kiss.
Victor shook his head, "You're impossible!" he grinned.
"Yeah, I know," Jen replied with a smug smile as she slid off his knee and made for the counter where her coffee maker was gently steaming. "Have you had any breakfast?" she called over her shoulder.
Victor shook his head, "No… I was waiting for you!"
"Oh…" Jen looked at her watch, "It's getting late, if we're going to make it to Blenheim Palace, will a couple of slices of toast be enough for you?"
"I guess it'll tide us over until lunch," Victor agreed.
"Good!" Jen smiled and then took a sip of the coffee and a horrified expression swept over her face, "Good God! What the hell is this?" she spluttered.
"Well if that's the way you're going to talk about perfectly good coffee, then damned if I make any more!" Victor huffed.
"Oh, there is a God, then!" Jen retorted.
For several long moments Jen and Victor's eyes locked until the corners of Victors' mouth twitched and Jen almost managed to stifle a giggle. "Does… does this count as our first fight?" she asked.
"This, nope, this was just a slight difference if opinion. Put it down to early morning grouchiness!" Victor answered, now smiling broadly.
"But you weren't grouchy at all…" Jen began and then her mental light-bulb glowed into life, "Oh! You… you… I am never grouchy!" she expostulated and then as if to prove that was the case she promptly broke into giggles as her sense of humour kicked into high gear.
Ten minutes later, their toast eaten and coffee drunk – in Jen's case heavily diluted with water from the kettle – Victor ushered Jen downstairs and into the front passenger seat of a Peugeot 406. "Nice," she commented after looking around and as Victor slid behind the wheel, "Rental?"
"Nope," Victor grinned, as he turned the key in the ignition. "It belonged to the Master Sergeant who was here before me, "He couldn't get it shipped back to the states, and the price was right… It needed a bit of work done on it to make it street legal, but she's all mine, now!"
Jen nodded approvingly, "Complete with satnav, and an automatic, too!" she added.
"Yeah, couldn't be doing with a shift stick – not over here, I am definitely not left-handed!"
"No, but I am…" Jen smiled and sat back against the support of the seat-back.
Victor shot her a sideways glance pout of the corner of his eye, wondering what she had meant by her last remark, but then was forced to abandon all extraneous thoughts as he concentrated on following the satnav's directions out of Stanmore south towards the A40 and then the M40 to Oxford.
The route was strange to Jen and until they were passing it she didn't realise exactly where they were, but as they swept past the perimeter fence and she could see the runway beyond it, she suddenly exclaimed, "Oh! This is where the Captain lives!"
"Where?" Victor demanded.
"There on that RAF base we've just passed!" Jen said as she craned her neck to look back over her shoulder. "This is the road that leads straight into London to get to the office!"
For a moment Victor frowned, wondering for an instant how come Jen was so familiar with where Captain Rabb lived, and then as realisation dawned, he gave himself a savage mental kick for harbouring any suspicions. Of course Jen knew where the base was! She had lived on base housing for the first couple of weeks she was in England! And she had told him that she had filled in for his regular driver for a while, so she was bound to know exactly where the Captain lived!
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Johnny reluctantly forced himself out of bed and into the bathroom, it had been a long, sleepless night for him, as he lay awake, with Julia's head nestled into the hollow of his shoulder. There had been no love-making for them last night, neither of them had felt in the mood after a long-drawn out dinner, where Julia and Johnny had both tried to pretend that there was nothing out of the ordinary in Zoe's brittle gaiety or Judith's apparent placid acceptance of what was to come. In addition, once the meal was over and a brave attempt at cheerful good nights had been made, the two had retreated to their bedroom and after a few minutes desultory conversation, Julia had excused herself to the bathroom, where she had remained for what to Johnny seemed a suspiciously long time, only to emerge in a voluminous t-shirt style nightdress and a freshly scrubbed face that Johnny suspected was an attempt to hide recent tears.
This morning Julia had been up and about a good hour before Johnny was ready to crawl out of bed, and he was grateful for the time she took in the bathroom as it allowed him a few extra minutes of precious rest, but now a combination of her calling, "Johnny! We're going to miss breakfast if you don't get up!" and the morning pressure on his bladder finally drove him out of bed.
Fifteen minutes later, shaved, shampooed, showered and dressed Johnny emerged from the bathroom, "What's all the panic about? You keep forgetting that us blokes don't take so long to get ready in the morning – no war paint to put on!" he hurriedly explained as he caught the look in Julia's eye.
"No, but we don't have to scrape our faces!" she shot back at him.
"And we don't have to shave our legs!" Johnny riposted.
Julia looked at him with a stunned expression on her face, "I… you… I don't… you…I don't believe you just said that Johnny Walker!"
"Hey, it was easy!" Johnny smirked.
To his surprise and horror, Julia almost jumped off the foot of the bed where she had been sitting and threw her arms around his neck and then burying her head against his chest, she burst into tears.
Johnny was so surprised that he was reduced to rubbing comforting circles on her back and to whispering, "Hey, hey, it's all right, sweetheart, everything's going to be okay…"
"No! No, it's not!" Julia wept bitterly, "You're going to that horrible place, and I couldn't stand it if anything happened to you!"
Johnny led her gently to the bed and eased her down to sit next to him, "Hey, nothing's going to happen to me. I'm a clerk, remember? A shiny arsed REMF. It's not like I was a grunt out on patrol. I'm going to be behind a nice, thick sandbag wall, surrounded by razor wire and miles from any angry camel jockeys! And besides, like I told mum the warning might get cancelled!"
"And that's how you got you medal, isn't it?" Julia demanded sarcastically, "Hiding behind a sandbag!"
"No, of course not… but I'll let you into a little secret, when all that shit was going on, I was terrified. I have never been so scared in all my life, and trust me once was enough. There is no way that I'm ever going to be in that position again! Once I'm safely behind the wire, then that's where I'm going to stay!"
Julia looked up at him doubtfully, "Promise?" she hiccupped.
"Damn right I promise!" Johnny said emphatically.
But they both knew that he was making a promise he couldn't possibly keep. If he was ordered out on a patrol, or even an admin detail then he would put on his body armour and his helmet, pick up his rifle and follow orders.
Nevertheless the couple sat where they were for a good long while until a knock on the bedroom door and a cry of "Housekeeping" disturbed them
Johnny went to the door and asked the housemaid to either skip their room, or perhaps clean the next room on her list before coming back to this one, while Julia once again hurried into the bathroom to make repairs to her tear ravaged face.
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Harm idly stirred his coffee, a soft smile on his face as he recalled sharing the shower with Gill, enjoying the way her muscles slid under her smooth skin. Like all soldiers she kept herself fit, but her weeks of living at the Kings Troop and her almost daily rides out had firmed and toned her muscles, without bulking them, and his first clear sight of Gill's body was both a joy and a wonder to Harm.
"Umm… Harm? Harm? Planet earth calling space cadet Harm?" Gill's voice brought him back to the here and now.
"Yeah?" he asked as his eyes refocused, "You called?"
"Where were you?" Gill grinned, you've been stirring an empty mug for the last two minutes!
Harm looked down, realised that Gill was telling the truth and a faint blush turned the tips of his ears pink, but he made a brave attempt at a comeback, "Oh… I was in the shower," he said with heavy innuendo and was gratified by the success of his ploy. Well, if the blush that rose from Gill's neck to her face was any indication, it had been successful.
As was her choked response, "Oh… you!"
"Yeah, me! Was there something other than that you wanted?" he asked in an ultra-polite tone.
"M'mm... " Gill agreed, thankful for the chance to regain control, "I was wondering what, if any, plans you had for this weekend?"
Harm shook his head, "None really… except that I'd like to finish the front ramp before Monday… but that's not going to be much fun for you…"
"What needs to be done?" Gill asked.
"Just weatherproofing… so I guess a couple of coats of creosote, or something along those lines…"
Gill shook her head, "Not creosote, that'll transfer to the soles of shoes and to the tyres on Mattie's chair…" she thought hard for a moment, "There's a range of products you can pick up from any DIY store, that stains and protects all in one go and they're eco-friendly… they're a bit pricey, but they claim to last for years… We could look it up on the net?"
"Oh… okay… you go ahead, and I'll clear this mess up!" Harm indicated the remains of breakfast.
"Of course! Anything to avoid washing up!" Gill smiled as she pushed her chair back from the table.
"Damn, I missed that, must be getting old!" Harm grumbled.
"Not from where I was sitting, last night!" Gill twinkled and then whisked out of the kitchen before Harm could reply.
Harm stood, slack-jawed for a few moments before a rueful grin spread across his face. "Well, I'll be damned," he murmured.
Ten minutes later he joined Gill who was sat at the dining room table frowning this laptop. "Having a problem?" he asked.
"M'mm… how old is this thing?"
Harm shrugged, "I'm not sure… I think… yeah, I had to have this one to replace my old one, when it went down with my Tomcat, so that would have been… summer two thousand one."
Gill nodded, "That would explain a lot… it's very, very slow… do you ever run a drive cleaner?"
"A what?" Harm asked.
"I'll take that as a no, shall I?" Gill asked, and this time Harm heard the irony in her voice. He fingers flew over the keyboard and the screen painstakingly changed to a display of icons. "This is the desktop," Gill explained and the frowned, "But I don't see an icon for internet security…"
"For what?" Harm asked.
Gill looked at him blankly for a moment, "Um… have you ever heard of a firewall? Or Virus protection, perhaps?"
"Of course I have! We've got them on the computers at the office! Department of Defence standard issue, top of the range stuff. Got to protect our national; security!"
Gill just looked askance at him, "But you didn't think it was necessary to protect this computer? Do you ever plug into the network at the office?"
"No… I've already got an office computer. But I mostly leave that to Martinez and Coates, I only ever really use it for word-processing!"
"Just as well, because unless I miss my guess this machine is riddled with worms, viruses, Trojan horses, the lot. Once I've found a local DIY place, we need to close it down, and then you need to buy a security programme and then we can download some free software and see if we can get this thing working back at anything like its optimal speed!"
"That bad, is it?" Harm asked in dismay.
Gill gave him an old-fashioned look. "Harm, if it was any worse I'd advise you to take a sledge-hammer to this and buy a new one!" Shaking her head Gill turned from a very much abashed Harm and started her search for a local DIY store, and while she was on-line for a local computer store!
A few minutes later she smiled, "We're in luck! There are two DIY stores just past the supermarket on the other side of the railway, you know, the one we went to a few weeks ago when we stocked up or our picnic!"
"Yeah, I've been there a few times since!" Harm agreed, relieved that he seemed to be out of the doghouse.
"Good let's go…your car or mine?" she grinned.
"Mine!" Harm said emphatically, "the last time I got in your car I ended up all twisted up like a pretzel!"
Less than an hour later they were back at Harm's quarter, unloading a five litre tin of wood stain and preserver, a tin of solvent for brush cleaning and a small bag containing what Gill assured Harm was just about the most reliable security software commonly available.
"Right, let' get on with it!" Harm said.
"Yes, let's; just hand me a brush!" Gill replied.
For a while the two worked in harmonious silence, applying a coat of stain to all surfaces of the ramp, top and bottom and to its framework, until at last Harm stood back and stated, "That should do it! We'll have another look in the morning, once this has dried in properly, just to see if it need another coat. And…" he cast an eye up to the grey sky, "let's get it into the lee of the house, if it gets rained on it's not going to be much use. We'll need to leave it for an hour until its touch dry though!"
"That's handy," Gill smiled, "Leaves us time for a cup of coffee!"
"I like the way you think!" Harm said looping an arm around her waist and lowering his head to give her a swift peck on the cheek.
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Johnny and Julia left the hotel and checking that his mum didn't need him to do anything around the house, or to do any shopping, they headed for Aylesbury, where Johnny assured Julia, they'd be able to find a coffee shop and a sandwich in lieu of the breakfast they had missed at the hotel.
For a short while Julia was silent as they drove, until she eventually turned her head to look at Johnny, "I'm sorry," she said quietly.
Startled, Johnny took his eyes off the rod for a second, "Why?" he asked, "What for?" as he turned his face forward again.
"For coming unglued like that," Julia said sheepishly.
"No apologies needed, in fact I'm glad you did. Although I'm just as glad you held it together as long as you did. You know, it would only have taken one of you to start last night, and I would have had mum, Zoe and Alison, all howling at the same time. I am so proud that my family are so strong… and by the way, just in case I haven't made it plain in the past, the words 'my family' include you!"
All Julia could find to say was "Oh…" but for some reason as she settled back against the car seat she suddenly felt a whole lot better and realised to her surprise that she was even smiling a little.
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After lunch Gill settled down to sort out Harm's computer, it took a while but after installing the security and anti-virus programme he had bought – the computer store was providentially in the same retail park as the DIY store, so she had been able to guide him there despite his protests, and once that was done she felt safe enough to go back on the net and download a suite of freeware that she set to scan and repair the computer. Wincing a little at the remaining time shown on the programme, she went in search of Harm to find him measuring up more timber to make the ramp for the back door of the quarter.
Wordlessly, she turned on her heel and disappeared back into the kitchen to reappear five minutes later with two mugs of coffee, which they drank sat cramped together on the back doorstep.
Gill might have been a computer wizard when compared to Harm but she was the first to admit that she was no handyman, and she was lost in admiration at the surety of Harm's movements as he set about measuring, marking, sawing and chiselling the framework for the ramp before he dug the glue gun and clamps out of his tool box, and then when all was assembled, he got to his feet, dusted off the knees of his jeans and said, "That'll do now until tomorrow… No… until Monday. You've been an angel of patience today, so tomorrow we'll do something you like!"
Gill held out a hand so that he could haul her to her feet, "I like watching you work," she smiled.
Harm shook his head, "Nuh-huh, tomorrow we'll go out somewhere and do something… I can even use my new super-computer to check out our options!"
"Umm… Harm, you do know that 'super-computer' has a specific meaning, don't you?"
"Yeah, it means that it's a computer that you sorted out for me!" Harm said.
Gill just shook her head, and decided to quit while she was still ahead, "So if you're going to organise tomorrow for us, do I have to organise this evening?"
"No, already organised. You run upstairs now and take a shower, I'll follow you, and then I'll fix dinner, then we can watch a movie and then…" his voice dropped to a husky growl, "and then I intend to take you to bed and make love to you until neither of us can think straight."
To her surprise, Gill felt herself blushing, but she grinned and said in what she hoped was a voice as seductive as Harm's. "I like the way you think, sailor!"