Chapter 1
Posted: June 25, 2007 - 08:58:23 am


Mike Bowman used the remote to turn off the news concerning the contentious appointment of some minor political friend of the President to an insignificant ambassadorial post overseas. He wasn't all that interested in hearing the typical Democrat versus Republican political dance since he had more important things to do with his time. He was scheduled to defend his dissertation later that afternoon.

Seated on the couch next to him, his wife, Karen, said, "I was watching that."

"Sorry," Mike said reaching for the remote control to turn it back on, "I just wanted to go through my talk one last time."

"Don't worry about the news. Focus on your presentation," Karen said with a grin. Hopefully, by the time the afternoon was over she would be married to Dr. Mike Bowman rather than just plain old Mr. Mike Bowman. The years of being married to a poor college student were coming to an end. Within ten days, Mike would be starting his new job at the CIA.

Almost as if he was reading her mind, Mike asked, "Are you ready to move to Virginia?"

"I'm not so wild about Virginia, but I'll be happy when you start your new job," Karen answered. She loved living in Boston and she would have loved to stay there. However, there were advantages to living in Virginia rather than Boston. Her parents lived in Chevy Chase, Maryland and they would be right down the road from them.

"You don't mind being married to a member of the US intelligence community?" Mike asked with a grin. His new job was within the CIA as an intelligence analyst focusing on high energy weapons development programs by various countries overseas.

"I don't know, Mister Marine. My Daddy is a Naval Officer and he always says that the phrase Military Intelligence was an oxymoron of the highest order," Karen said with a light teasing tone in her voice. She looked at him and, batting her eyes, said, "I'm not sure how I'll feel about being married to an oxymoron."

"Oh, I'm wounded," Mike said with a laugh. She was always teasing him about how Captain Vincent Dougherty viewed Marines. He had met the Captain back when he was still in uniform and had just begun dating Karen. He knew his father-in- law's views about Marines and they were far better than Karen liked to imply.

Despite the jokes, it was easy for Karen to see that her husband was concerned about his defense. Wanting to keep his mind off it, Karen said, "You know, after this afternoon you are not going to be plain old Mike Bowman any more. You're going to be Dr. Bowman."

"I hope so," Mike said. His advisor had told him that it was basically a done deal and he shouldn't expect any problems. After all, no one knew as much about the material as Mike. No matter how much he knew about the topic, there was always that little bit of fear that he'd fail the defense.

"Well, I'd like to fuck plain old Mike Bowman one last time. Of course, I'll have to entice the esteemed Dr. Bowman to bed tonight so that I can compare his performance," Karen said with a wink.

"Hmmm, I wonder what will be the result of your comparison," Mike said reaching for his wife. He liked it when she talked dirty like that as a precursor to sex. Karen looked and acted like a very proper woman as befitted an officer's wife, but she could surprise the unwary person with the words that came out of her mouth at times.

She giggled when he pulled off her tee-shirt and discovered that her breasts were hidden behind a bra. This wasn't one of her lacy little bras that looked sexy. This was one of her heavy duty bras built for support. The look of disappointment on his face was almost too cute.

After six years of marriage, Mike still found Karen to be the most attractive woman he had ever met. She wasn't the standard hard body or anorexic type that graced the covers of women's magazines. Mike didn't care about women who looked like that. Other woman might think that she was five pounds overweight, but he thought she was womanly with all of the curves that made a woman a woman. With her light brown hair and green eyes, she looked like the girl next door. He, and most men that he knew, thought she was sexy.

Karen enjoyed the expression of delight that her body brought to her husband. The physical attraction wasn't only one way. His broad shoulders, flat stomach, and muscular arms and legs took her breath away. At the age of thirty-two, Mike was still in great shape. He jogged five miles every day and worked out every morning following habits instilled as a Marine. Every time they went to bed, she was the lucky recipient of his fitness.

The injury that had cut short his military career after two years of service was more of an irritant than a liability. He had never imagined that a simple hole through his hand would have such an impact on his plans for the future. The hole wasn't enough to completely disable his left hand; only two fingers were affected. According to the military doctors he was five percent disabled and no amount of physical therapy would correct it. The wound came too early in his career and not being able to have further combat experience would slow his career as a Marine Officer to a crawl.

Once in bed, they proceeded to make grand and glorious love. Years of knowing exactly what made the other feel good allowed them to take their time. Mike had learned to use a slow hand on her body and she loved it. She enjoyed everything a couple could do in bed and provided the kind of variety that kept his interest. Their sessions in bed often lasted for four or five hours. The session that day was only two hours long. Both Mike and Karen would have been disappointed that they had been rushed except for the knowledge that he had to get to school to defend his dissertation.

While he went off to jump through the last hoop of his quest for a Doctorate, Karen stayed at home to pack up the house for the move. They would be leaving for Virginia in four days and there was just too much work left to be done. She paused and looked around the house trying to decide if he would appreciate her support at the University.

The past four years had been tough financially and she was looking forward to easier times. Money was always tight despite his military benefits, research assistantship, and her job as a legal secretary. Time had always been tight with her working full time and him working long hours in the lab. Boston was not known for having a low cost of living.

It seemed the only time they spent together was when she was typing his dissertation. Mike had been touch typist, but that was now impossible. The bullet had taken out bone, tendon, and nerves rendering his little finger and ring finger useless. His damaged hand made it difficult to type the letters: a, s, q, w, z, and x. Now he had to be a hunt and peck typist. That made typing anything of significant length a long laborious process.

She didn't mind a single moment of the time spent together at the computer working on his dissertation. If anything, it made her even more proud of him. Marines didn't allow obstacles to prevent them from accomplishing their goals and Mike was a Marine through and through. He recovered from his injury, his career setback, and charged on to establish a new career. He might have had his doubts and concerns, but he didn't allow that to hold him back.

Karen decided that rather than going to the university, she was going to make a nice dinner and dress up for him. He liked it when she did things like that. To tell the truth, she liked how he showed his appreciation when she did things like that.

Mike returned home from his defense satisfied with the result. He was now Dr. Mike Bowman, although there were still a few minor things to finish. He had to correct a couple of typographical and grammatical errors. He then had to submit five copies of his dissertation along with a copyright form. It wasn't much considering the years of work that had gone into it. The university would have the copies sent out to be bound and he was looking forward to getting a bound copy.

Entering the dining room, he could see that Karen had gone all out and set up a nice formal meal that significantly dented their budget. The table was set with the china and silver they had received as wedding presents. There was even a very expensive bottle of wine on the table. The candles were waiting to be lit.

All of her dining room preparations paled beside the beauty of his wife. She was wearing her slinky black dress with the low front and even lower back. He was pretty sure she was wearing a garter belt to hold up the stockings that encased her legs. She had even done her hair up to show off her graceful neck.

Adopting a very sad tone of voice, Mike said, "It is such a shame that we have nothing to celebrate."

Karen looked at him thinking that he had not been successful in defending his dissertation. She didn't even know what they would do if that had happened. After being worried for a second, she realized he was teasing her. She swatted his arm and groaned. Attempting to sound angry, she said, "You are so bad."

"Didn't you know that a Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering can't be bad?" Mike asked with a grin.

"Why?"

"We're too dorky," he said with a grin. She was always teasing him that he'd turn into a complete dork when he got his degree.

"I'll dork you!" she said in a threatening voice. It was too difficult to pretend to be angry and she burst into a grin.

"Nope. I plan on dorking you very thoroughly after dinner," Mike said moving in and hugging her. The hug turned into a kiss that lasted long enough to threaten dinner. Stepping back, he looked her tenderly in the eye and said, "I love you, Mrs. Bowman."

"I love you, Dr. Bowman," she replied. The celebratory dinner was outstanding as was the after dinner celebration in the bedroom. It always turned Mike on when she wore her stockings and high heels to bed.

Early the next morning, the couple was hard at work finishing the last touches of the dissertation. Karen scrolled through the document and entered the corrections. Habits gained as a legal secretary served her well. Mike watched from his seat beside hers fully familiar with the speed and accuracy of her work. It only took her an hour to finish what would have taken him all day. Turning over the last page, she said, "It's done."

"Yes. We need to print up five copies on the heavy paper and then drop it off at the school," Mike said watching the monitor as the computer saved the updated document.

When the computer finished with the save, Karen started printing the document. She sat back and said, "It is printing."

"You know that I could never have done this without you," Mike said.

"I know and I'm going to make you pay for that every day for the rest of your life," she said in a teasing voice. She gave him a little nudge in his side with her elbow.

He reached over to the mouse and opened a document. In a soft voice, he said, "This page goes at the very beginning; right after the cover page."

Karen's eyes misted as she looked at the dedication on the screen. Aloud he read, "This dissertation is dedicated to my lovely, brilliant, and supportive wife, Karen. Without her understanding and love, I would not have had the motivation to finish my research. Without her intelligence and wit, the results presented here would never have been possible."

"That's lovely."

When she looked up at him, he said, "I love you, Karen Agnes Bowman. I look forward to growing old and gray with you by my side."

Wiping the tears from her eyes, she said, "Look at what you made me do. I'm crying."

A tissue appeared in his good hand and he used it to wipe the tears from her face. Looking at her with a loving expression, he said, "You've never looked more beautiful to me."

"You're too good to me," she said.

"Me? You've supported us while I've gone to school. When we married, I promised you that you would be able to pursue your Doctorate in Political Science. Now it is time I keep that promise. When we get to Virginia, I want you to apply to Georgetown University. They have a program in Government," he said handing her an application packet.

"You don't think that it is too liberal at Georgetown?" she asked looking down at the packet in her hand.

"Maybe, but I don't really know. The current political environment is just too confusing for me to decide how I feel about it. I'm not sure if I'm a liberal, conservative, Democrat or Republican anymore. None of our current leadership seems to be all that concerned about the good of the country," Mike answered.

"What bothers you the most?"

"I don't know. Maybe it is the partisan bickering that has over taken Washington. People are saying the most outrageous things about the situation in Iraq and I can't believe that they actually believe what they are saying," Mike said looking down at his two useless fingers. There had been a time when he had been willing to give his life for his country. He still felt that way, but it was moderated by the idea that he wasn't willing to give his life for the leadership of this country.

"My Dad keeps saying that we win every battle and lose every war. Watching Iraq, I think he's right," Karen said. The American forces were emerging from every engagement victorious, but it seemed that they were losing the war. It didn't make sense to her or to Mike.

"I know. Your father and I have had long talks about that in the past. The Captain doesn't understand why that is any more than I do. We engage the enemy and win, but as far as the world is concerned we lose. It doesn't matter what we do, everyone says that we lost.

"Mogadishu is an example of that. We won that battle. We killed so many of those Somalia militiamen that it isn't even funny. We lost eighteen men and they lost between 1000 and 1500. We had seventy-three wounded men and they had between three and four thousand wounded. In my book that is definitely a win for our side.

"What happens? President Clinton declares it a loss. We pulled out leaving behind an even larger mess. The situation there is worse now than it was before," Mike said in disgust. He had served with a few men who had been there and they were still angry about the withdrawal. To a man they believed that if they had stayed, they could have cleaned up the war lords who remained. Mogadishu could have been stabilized.

"It was a mess," Karen agreed.

"It was a cluster fuck of the highest order. Lots of good men were killed and even more were wounded. Regardless, our men fought and overcame the enemy," Mike said feeling far more bitter about it than was justified. He hadn't been there, but he took it personally.

Karen smiled and said, "You sounded just like daddy there for a minute."

"I know," Mike admitted.

The dissertation finished printing. Karen printed out the dedication before turning back to Mike. She asked, "Do you think that working for the CIA may help you change things?"

"I don't think so. I don't think that the terrorists will be using high energy weapons anytime soon. Everyone thinks they're going after weapons of mass destruction like nuclear bombs and biological weapons. I don't think so. I believe they'll use a dirty bomb long before they get around to nuclear or biological weapons. Most likely they'll use chemical weapons in the form of chlorine gas. Actually, they are already doing that. It's not too difficult to steal a couple of chlorine gas cylinders and blow them up."

"So who will you watch?"

"I'll be watching the scientific communities of Russia, China, and Europe. Lots of people think that China is our friend, but I don't think so. They occasionally exhibit very aggressive behavior that suggests they aren't as friendly as we think. The jury is still out on Russia," Mike answered.

Karen smiled at his answer. This was old territory for her. Mike and her father didn't trust communists. They didn't even trust former communists believing that leopards don't change their spots. Despite the President's assurances to the contrary, they didn't trust Putin.

The single page finished printing and Mike slipped the dedication into the proper place. Lifting the dissertation, he said, "One of the committee members remarked that it was one page short of being heavy enough to be acceptable. At least we've corrected that situation."

"Oh, you're horrible," Karen said.

He grinned at her and said, "Well, I could always insert a page with the text, 'This page intentionally left blank, ' as a solution."

"Don't you dare! I love what you wrote about me," Karen said giving him a playful swat on the arm.

"Do you want to go up to the school with me?" Mike asked. He felt guilty about her having to do most of the packing for the move.

Karen looked around the room and sighed at the amount of work that remained to be done before they could move. She answered, "Go without me. I've got to get back to packing."

After Mike left, she took a minute to write an e-mail to her mother. Mike had surprised her; she hadn't even thought of including a dedication in the dissertation. She attached the dedication page thinking her mother would enjoy reading it. Although she often teased Mike about her father, her parents liked him a lot. Vincent Dougherty, in his role as Navy Captain, approved of the Marine and, in his role as a father, was pleased that his daughter had chosen a man with moral character.

It was very early in the morning three days later when Mike and Karen got into a moving van to drive from Boston down to Maryland. Although it was supposedly only a seven hour drive, Mike suspected that it would take them closer to nine hours after stopping for lunch and gas along the way. They'd have to take it carefully since he was towing their car behind the rental truck.

They were planning on staying at her parent's house in Chevy Chase until they found a place of their own in which to live. Her father was currently assigned to the Pentagon and was at home rather than at sea. Mike was looking forward to seeing Captain Vincent Dougherty again. He liked and respected the man.

The drive was just as bad as Mike had predicted. The traffic was particularly bad that day. Grumbling, he said, "I hate the traffic here."

"There must be some protest or something going on at the mall," Karen said referring to the mall behind the White House. Some of the protests held there could involve huge amounts of people and tie up traffic two hours outside of the capital.

"I'm not aware of any protests being held. It is probably that school is over for some of the kids and their parents are bringing them here to visit the capital," Mike said.

"I respectfully disagree, Dr. Bowman. There are protests in Washington almost every day," Karen said. She batted her eyes at him even as she said it.

Mike laughed and asked, "You respectfully disagree?"

"Oh yes, Dr. Bowman," Karen said nodding her head.

"And why do you respectfully disagree?"

Karen pointed to the car in front of them and said, "Check out the bumper stickers on the cars in front of us."

Mike looked at the car in front of him and read the bumper stickers. The one that caught his eye read, 'Stop The Murder, Leave Iraq.' Calling the soldiers murderers was the same tactic that had been used in protesting the Vietnam War. He was angered by the bumper sticker. He growled and said, "Mother Fuckers!"

Karen said, "Don't get upset. They are idiots."

Mike said, "They are calling us murderers when we are the ones trying to stop the terrorists. The terrorists are the ones who are blowing up bombs in the middle of crowds of innocent women and children. Don't they have a clue?"

"Well, they think that all of the killing is because we are there. They believe that when we leave there will be peace there," Karen said.

Shaking his head, Mike said, "They are right. After the terrorists, Islamic radicals, and extremists are done, there will be the peace of the dead there."

They pulled up to the house of Karen's parents around six that evening. It was a large house by local standards. The lawn was immaculate. Mike said, "I see that everything at the Dougherty house is ship shape as usual."

Karen laughed at his comment and said, "That's right, buster. Daddy will have you scrubbing the floors before it gets dark out."

The couple laughed at the long standing joke. It was one of the first things her father had said to Mike when he had started dating Karen. Imitating her father's voice, Mike said, "All Marines are good for is scrubbing the deck. We've got a kitchen floor that needs cleaning. Get to it."

"The look on your face was priceless," Karen said laughing at the memory. She said, "The look on his face was pretty good too when you saluted and said, 'Yes, sir.' I thought he was going to die when you went in the kitchen and started washing the floor."

"We were both in uniform," Mike said with a crooked grin.

Karen's mother, Sally, raced out of the house to greet them. Karen jumped out of the rented U-Haul truck and hugged her mother. Mike got out of the truck and went over to greet the excited woman. He noticed Karen's father come out of the house in a much more distinguished manner. Rather than interrupt the hug- fest between mother and daughter, Mike met the Captain with his hand out. The men shook hands.

Mike said, "It's good to see you again, Captain."

"You're my son-in-law now. You don't have to call me Captain," Vincent said repeating what he always told Mike whenever they met. He was actually pleased that Mike called him Captain.

"I'd prefer to call you Admiral, but that's up to you," Mike said with a grin.

Vincent laughed and asked, "What do you call your father?"

"Colonel," Mike answered.

"Where is your father?" Vincent asked shaking his head at Mike's answer to his previous question.

"He's over in the Big Sandy," Mike answered.
Lazlo Zalezac
Chapter 2