Authors: Rising Sun [jagrslc@yahoo.com]
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Rated: PG-13
Classification: JAG Story/Adventure/Romance: Harm/Mac
Summary:
Harm and Mac are forced to work together and the Admiral is NOT happy about it!
Disclaimer: JAG characters portrayed belong to JAG, CBS and Paramount Television. No copyright infringement intended. All other characters depicted are purely fictional and any similarities to actual people are purely coincidental.
Permission to archive: Permission Granted
Feedback: Yes please
Permission to archive: Permission granted.
Story Written: August 17, 2002
0010 LOCAL
NATIONAL IMAGING AND MAPPING AGENCY (NIMA)
BETHESDA
A street person explored the contents of the bin that was located on the street corner. So far it had proved to be a virtual disaster. Then he saw it. Treasure!!! He placed the prize in his trolley and moved along to the next stop.
Or so it seemed.
==================================
ONE MONTH LATER
HAMILTON, CANADA
“Well?” Faye asked her husband as he banged phone down.
“The same run around.” Herbert Schell replied. “They think it’s a hoax.” They both looked at their TV. “I can’t believe that no one is willing to even come over and see this!” he ranted.
“That looks like a camp.” Faye pointed at the screen.
“THAT IS EXACTLY what it is.” He informed her. He examined the satellite image closer. “It looks like the British Royal Marines.”
“Live from Afghanistan! Military movements!” Faye announced with heavy sarcasm. “Change the channel honey JAG is about start.”
“Sure.” And with that Herbert changed the channel. They could always come back and see the latest satellite photos of another classified military site. If the powers that be didn’t believe him then so be it.
==================================
0835 LOCAL
JAG HQ
Mac returned to her office with the intension of being reunited with her coffee, but t’was a dream. The Admiral poked his head into the bullpen and bellowed. “Mackenzie! My office NOW!” She scrambled to obey the order. Yep she missed Harm but it was great to be back!
She entered her CO’s office and sank into the leather chair he offered. He passed a file to her. “Welcome back Colonel I have a case for you to sink your teeth into.” He launched.
“Thank you sir.” She answered to both comments. She glanced at the file “Japan Sir?”
“Commander Turner is out there on a case. THAT case. He has been called to testify as an expert witness in the UN Commission of Inquiry into the Russian Submarine Tragedy of 2000. You will take over his case thus freeing him to testify.”
“Yes sir.”
“One word of warning.” AJ said. “The place is soccer mad and it is the thick of the FIFA World Cup Finals. Brace yourself.”
“Understood sir.”
“You are on the first transport out. Tiner has the details. I know you just got back but this needs a senior person.” He almost apologized.
“It’s alright sir.” She assured him.
==================================
SAME TIME
CIA HQ
LANGLEY, VIRGINIA
Webb had no reason in logic that he could explain to his superiors. Hell he couldn’t even explain it to himself. But there you had it. A month ago the Satellite codes of the Iknonos Satellite had been stolen. Of course the entire series had been reconfigured. Irrationally he suspected the ISI Pakistan Intelligence Agent Omar Akhim. He sighed – he was getting as obsessed as Rabb!”
==================================
JERICHO
Harm looked up as a Lieutenant entered his office. “Sir!”
“At ease.” Harm replied.
The young woman handed him an envelope. New orders.
He read the contents “Well Lt. Hanson seems I’m on the move again.” He sighed.
“May one ask where to sir?”
“New Dehli, India.”
==================================
RABB’S RESIDENCE
The phone rang twice before Mac got it. “Rabb!” She stated.
“That sounded nice.” Harm greeted.
“Hey sailor. I was gonna call you later.”
“You still can.” He teased. “I just wanted to hear your voice before I shipped out. How’s JAG. More to the point how’s Bud?”
“Nice to hear you too. JAG is fine Bud will live. SHIPPING OUT?” She pounced.
“Yeah. I’m replacing Bud in New Delhi.” He explained.
“It’s a conspiracy.” She stated. “I ship out to Tokyo to relieve Sturgis.”
“SHIT!” was all he could think to say. “I saw more of you when we were single!”
“Don’t I know it!” she agreed. “You still owe me a honeymoon.”
“At this rate we’ll get it for the twentieth anniversary.” He groaned. “Tell me about Bud.”
She did.
==================================
TWO DAYS LATER
TOKYO
INVESTIGATION OFFICE
“Ohio-go-zai-mas.” Mac bowed.
“Hey!” Sturgis replied in English.
Mac pulled a face at him. “Hey indeed.”
He grinned. “Good trip?”
“Thirteen hours non-stop could NEVER be a good trip. Got in last night and I’m still on US time.” She replied.
“Up to a briefing?”
“Do it now as I’ll be out like a light later.” She informed him.
“Right.” He launched. “I assume you’ve seen the file.” She nodded. “Well it was suspected that a cigar started the fire. But get this… There was no cigar butt to be found. Now fire produces carbon monoxide but there was none in the victim’s lungs. Nor is there was no soot in his nostrils. The conclusion of the ME is that the victim…” He checked the file.
“Richard Williams was dead when he was burned.”
“So you are saying that the Japanese Authorities have a case?” she concluded.
“Colonel Marcus Chapel was seen leaving the area just before the fire was discovered.” Sturgis reminded her.
“That makes him guilty?” Mac demanded.
“Hey I’m only telling you what we got so far.” He defended.
“Sorry.” She shook her head. “Jet lag.”
“He’s going to need defense counsel.” Sturgis observed.
==================================
JAG HQ
“He’s going to need defense counsel.” SECNAV stated.
AJ leaned back in his seat. “You had someone in mind sir?”
“Rabb.”
AJ sat bolt upright. “Rabb!”
“I know AJ. They’re married.” SECNAV said “But they are the best. We need the best out there. Get him.”
“Sir I told those two that they would not be working together.”
“And they won’t.” He was assured. “They will be apposing counsel.
AJ glared at his Commander and reached for the phone.
==================================
NEW YORK
UNITED NATIONS BUILDING
Sturgis is full “A” Uniform entered the room took his seat and began his testimony. “The incident of the Russian nuclear-powered submarine Kursk in the Barents Sea lasted over seven days. There was a display of incompetence, spinelessness, arrogance and hypocrisy on the part of both the Russian political elite and Russian military. There were one hundred and thirteen sailors left to be eventually entombed in the Kursk. As a submariner I can tell you they died slowly and painfully on the seabed at a depth of one hundred meters! I am here as an expert witness gentlemen but words will never convey the horror on that boat.”
He
continued. “As imperative as it was to establish the causes of the disaster, at
that time it was not primary issue.
What was needed was a strategy to save those men. As expressed byVolkov and Dänenberg what
must now be examined is this: Why did
this happen? Why was information about
the tragedy not transmitted immediately to Russian and international press
agencies, but delayed for days? Why did
prominent representatives of the army and government-Secretary of Defence Igor
Sergeyev, naval boss Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov, Vice-Premier Ilya Klebanov and
others-try for so long to hide the extent of the tragedy from the Russian and
international public?”
He
sustained the rapid-fire questions at the panel. “Why did the rescue operation
only begin after three days? Why was
foreign assistance only accepted at the last moment, when it was already clear
that all efforts had failed to save the sailors with Russian resources and no
other solution remained? Why, finally, did President Putin keep quiet for five
days and remain at his holiday resort on the Black Sea, instead of going to the
scene of the accident? Gentlemen once these questions are answered then and
only then will you know the true tragedy of this disaster. Thank you.”
==================================
TOKYO
INVESTIGATION OFFICE
Harm slammed the file down. “Mac you have nothing!” He reviewed the evidence.
Mac shook her head. “My dear darling husband. Richard Williams was not a smoker or drinker. Beer bottles were found and yet there was no alcohol found in his blood. Tests show that once the chemical retardant are in effect that cigars cannot set a pillow or bed cover on fire. Therefore the fire was deliberate.”
“Oh I don’t dispute that we have a murder here.” He kissed her. She kissed him back. “I just dispute that it’s my client.”
“It’s a thing of beauty when opposing counsel get along so well.”
Mac reacted as if stung. “Webb! What are you doing here!” then “NO! Don’t tell me. You are still on the trail of Omar Akhim.”
“I plead guilty.”
“And you say I obsess.” Harm joked.
“I had a lead that brought me out here but then it went cold. Thought I’d look you up.”
“Well howdy.” Mac grinned.
Webb did a quick scan of the photos. “That the victim?”
“Sure ain’t the accused.” Harm replied.
Webb picked them up. “Were you able to run a finger print check?”
“No need to.” Mac frowned “He checked into the hotel. The clerk confirmed that. He has... had ID.” She dreaded her next word but said it anyway. “Why?”
“See the nail missing on the left pinky? Omar Akhim had a similar finger.”
“Do you know what you are saying?” Harm demanded.
“I do.”
“We’ll get a work up.” Mac assured him.
==================================
HAMILTON, CANADA
“Well?” Faye demanded.
“Contact!.”
Herbert announced.
==================================
TOKYO
INVESTIGATION OFFICE
The room was quite but for the movement of the ceiling fan. Mac stood staring out the window. Harm sat at the desk with his head in his hands and his elbows on the desk. Webb leaned back and stared at the circling fan.
“Did you hear the latest?” Webb asked as he continued to observe the fan.
“You mean that the victim is in fact ISI Pakistan Intelligence Agent Omar Akhim?” Harm replied as he too maintained his posture.
“No. That for the last three months a couple in Canada have been watching Classified Satellite photos as it became available on public Cable TV. Called the Military and were fobbed off.”
Harm sat up bolt upright. Mac gaped. “Say again?” Harm knew he had to have heard wrong.
“Three months ago the codes of the Iknonos Satellite were stolen. The codes were changed but once in the perps managed to stay in.”
“You suspected Omar Akhim.” Mac stated.
“I did… But now with him dead... I don’t know. After all the images were being broadcast long after he was dead. My people are still tracing it round the world.”
“Obviously he sold the codes.” Mac stated.
The three froze.
“To… Colonel Chapel?” Webb smelled blood.
“Whoa! Now back up there people.” Harm came to his client’s defense. “You can’t even prove murder. You want to add espionage? Akhim was a military man like Chapel. There is no sign of a struggle, no sign of blunt force trauma. How did he do it?”
“Succinycholine.” Webb replied. “It’s a muscle relaxant and given in a large does it can kill.”
Harm stared at him waiting for more.
“It was Akhim’s favorite drug.”
“Don’t make it my client’s fav brew besides he’d still have to get it into him.” Harm stated.
“My question is this. Why?!” Mac interrupted. “Espionage or murder I have method and means I don’t have motive.”
“You don’t have evidence to tie him there either!” Harm warned her.
“Where is the Colonel anyway?” Webb asked.
“Restricted to base.” Harm replied.
“Not arrested?”
“Not enough evidence.” Mac informed him as she checked the case file. “The ME didn’t check for this succinycholine of yours.”
The three looked at the door at the same time as there was a knock. “Hi?” [Yes?] Mac asked the Japanese woman. For the next half an hour Webb and Harm watched Mac interact with the woman.
Once she was gone Mac reached for the phone. She held up a finger to stop all questions. “This is Lt. Colonel Sarah Mackenzie JAG Corps. I want Colonel Marcus Chapel arrested and detained on an Article 118 Charge – Murder.” She hung up. “Now. For the full story; that was Detective Sergeant Sammi Nagagawa. The police found the pack that held the cigar used in the fire. It had a price tag. The ink on said price tag is same as those used at the corner shop down the road from the hotel. The sales rep remembers Chapel buying the cigars.”
Harm opened his mouth to object.
“Ah!” she stopped him. “The clincher is this. The finger prints on cigar pack match Chapel.”
“That still doesn’t give us motive.” Webb grumbled.
==================================
ONE MONTH LATER
JAG HQ
Webb sauntered into Harm’s office. “Hey.”
“Webb.” Harm greeted him.
“Got a minute?”
“Sure.”
“Where’s Mac?” Webb didn’t want to repeat the story twice.
“Behind you.” Came her voice. “The answer is no. This man owes me a honeymoon and we are not going on any mission for you or with you.” She teased.
He grinned. “Came for something else.”
“Then by all means do tell.” AJ Chedwiggen suddenly joined the trio. “As you were.”
“AJ.” Webb acknowledged.
“Chapel is of Russian descent. Fifth generation I think. Anyway in a case of pure greed Akhim moonlighted and stole the Iknonos Satellite codes for Chapel. He collected the codes and killed Akhim as payment. Now armed with the codes Chapel began a search for the Russian nuclear-powered submarine the Kursk apparently he had family on that boat and was determined to use the Satellite to expose the Russian Government. Don’t ask me how he planned to do that. Any what he didn’t realize was that every time he scanned the globe he was broadcasting to the world.” Webb ended his tale.
The three JAG Officers stared at the CIA Agent.
“Please Webb if you don’t want to tell us what happened keep the fairy tales at Langley.” AJ snorted, then “Commander do I have to order you to take your wife on her honeymoon?”
Mac looked at her husband with great anticipation and a gleam in her eye.
“No sir!” Harm replied.
“Mmmm” AJ said and left.
Webb looked from Mac to Harm and back. “You believe me right?”
“Of course we do.” Mac replied.
“Why do I think that you are faking that reply?” Webb lamented.
“Have no idea.” Mac grinned. “So husband of mine where are we going? And when?”
“Er.”
“Let me help you there Rabb.” Webb interpreted. He pulled out an envelope from his pocket. “I didn’t get round to getting you a gift so here you go.” He handed the envelope to Harm. On his way out he turned at the door. “I was telling the truth about Colonel Chapel.” And with that he was gone.
Mac snatched the envelope and squealed. “Two air tickets to Europe with two rail tickets for the Orient Express!”
AJ heard the squeal and sighed “Never a dull moment in this place.”
END