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Commander. I know that this wasn’t easy.” He thought for a moment as the others watched him. Then he relaxed visibly and released a long sigh, “Well, I guess I’m gonna do this. What’s the game plan? What’s the schedule?”
    The commander reached behind his chair and pulled a briefcase onto the table. Opening it, he removed a sheaf of papers and returned the briefcase to the floor. “I have here a set of secret orders that won’t be seen by anyone outside this room. These are temporary additional duty orders that take you from here to the FBI Training Center in Quantico for two months. When you finish the course, you return to this ship. You leave here this Sunday and start school there on Monday. I also have plane tickets for you and a check for two months’ expenses. You and I will be the only people signing these orders and the only copies will be in your file back at BUPERS, under my control. Does this make sense so far?”
    “Yeah, but that doesn’t give me much time to take care of things here.”
    “Don’t worry, Lee. You’ll have plenty of time when you get done with Quantico. I also have a set of orders that take effect when you get back to the ship from Quantico. These are standard transfer orders that move you from this ship back to Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for duty. They have normal travel time and leave built into them. By using the two sets of orders, no one will see the training that we’re giving you. Anyone looking at your record will just see a normal personnel transfer package. Just another Navy officer going to the shipyard for duty.”
    Lee was listening with half an ear as he studied the paperwork the commander handed him. After a short silence, he looked up. “Okay. Let’s do it.”
    After some small talk, the commander took the signed papers and departed, saying that he had some other visits to make before heading back to D.C. Captain Neilsen left to perform his shipboard duties. The conversation between Lee and Tom Wright went on for several more hours, moving to the base Officer’s Club for dinner and a few beers. Before long, Lee found himself learning to like and trust the FBI agent. Finally, they talked themselves out and left the club, agreeing to meet again in Quantico.
    Since Maggie was on an evening shift that day, Lee returned to the ship after leaving the club. This day had been overwhelming, and Lee lay awake for a long time, going over it again and again in his head. Finally he slept, a fitful sleep speckled with images of mobsters from old movies that floated through his dreams. None of them seemed to be particularly friendly.

CHAPTER THREE - MEMORIES AWAKENED
    he next day Lee woke early as usual. Like most days, he pulled himself out of his bunk and threw on some jogging clothes. After brushing his teeth and splashing his face, he was out of the ship and off for his morning run. Although many of his shipmates gave him a tough time about working out and running, he was dedicated to the routine.
    A few years ago, he had been like most of his shipmates, putting off anything that could be considered healthy. Then a few well-placed Viet Cong bullets had brought him face-to-face with death. He’d stopped smoking in the hospital. Then his rehabilitation therapy had mandated stringent physical work-outs. By the time he was discharged from the hospital, he found that he felt better than he had in years. So, after leaving the hospital, he had kept with it. Now his six-foot-two body was twenty pounds lighter than the two hundred twenty pounds it had weighed back on the gunboat. He was in far better shape than he had been even a decade earlier.
    Today, as he ran lightly past the Navy piers with their gray ships looking down on him, he was deep in thought. His mind played back all the revelations of yesterday and tried to focus on the strange journey he was about to undertake. But, try as he might, the whole thing seemed surreal. He just couldn’t wrap his mind around the