the Light
Chapter 6 (Pt 1)
Harm's testimony. Final day of the trial.
"Please state your name for the record."
"Commander Harmon Rabb, Jr., United States Navy."
"Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?"
"I do."
"Be seated."
Harm sat down in the witness chair, glancing around the courtroom. Mac was there, giving him an encouraging smile, and he smiled back at her, grateful for her presence. Just seeing her here made it a little easier to breathe.
Last night she gave him something he didn't think was possible for him anymore - a blissful, though fleeting, sense of security and the
knowledge that he CAN get through today. It also gave him hope that, perhaps, someday he'd eventually be able to face the darkness on his own and settle the score with it once and for all.
He looked over at Nettleback. The plump attorney was nervously fumbling with his notes, trying to hide his anxiety by looking utterly absorbed in his current task. The man had good reasons to be nervous. The Attorney General wanted results - Akhbar's head on a platter, and the whole case pretty much depended on Harm's testimony. Earlier testimonies from agent Clayton Webb, the Seahawk's captain, and the captain of the SEAL team that led the assault on the cave helped a little. But Sid Bowers, attorney for the defense, managed to put significant cracks in those testimonies in addition to pointing out that none of those men had enough information to connect Akhbar to the terrorist cell.
Nettleback's task was to make sure that nothing gets out of control, and that this final testimony drives the last nail in Akhbar's coffin.
The defense, too, was well aware of the significance of today's witness. Harm glanced at Bowers, whose aquiline features reflected the same tension that could be read in the nervous movements of his prosecuting colleague.
The defendant was the only one who seemed unfazed by the seriousness of the situation. His face was an impenetrable mask of indifference. But when their eyes met, Harm saw in them the same pure black hatred that first greeted him amidst the cold cave walls in Afghanistan. He withstood the hateful stare without flinching, offering a small smile instead. And he derived momentary satisfaction from the brief look of confusion that flashed in the other man's eyes.
Yes, this was definitely not going to be an easy day, but at least Harm was going to make damn sure that it would be worse for Akhbar.
"Commander Rabb," Nettleback rose from his chair and cautiously approached the witness stand. "I understand that you have been through quite an ordeal over these past few months. I appreciate you agreeing to appear before us today."
Harm nodded absently, pulling his attention away from the Afghani.
Nettleback gave him a nervous smile and continued. "As was established from Mr. Webb's earlier testimony, you were sent aboard the USS Seahawk to uncover a potential mole; someone who was supposedly selling classified information to the Taliban.
"Lieutenant Turrick," Harm supplied with a nod.
"Right." Nettleback clasped his hands together on his round belly, rolling back and forth on the heels of his well-polished shoes.
"So once you were certain of the identity of the mole, what possessed you to accept what you must have known to be a suicide mission?"
"I didn't accept it," Harm objected. "I volunteered. And there was no other choice."
"Explain what you mean by that, Commander."
"As Captain Johnson explained earlier, the evidence we had against Lieutenant Turrick was circumstantial - a simple matter of timing that placed him in the wrong place at the wrong time." He shrugged as if asserting the obvious. "We needed a more solid piece of evidence."
"Like a confession over a plane's intercom system; a connection to the ship deliberately left open?"
"Precisely."
"So what happened?" Nettleback took one step closer to Harm and leaned on the banister before him.
Harm suppressed the urge to pull away from the portly form that hung over him.
"We flew over hostile territory. I suspected that the Lieutenant would try to warn the Afghanis once he knew he'd be flying the mission. That way they'd know not to shoot down the plane with him in it. So the Captain and I decided to change the mission's heading without letting the Lieutenant know about it."
"That way if you were spotted, you'd be taken for regular American pilots on a reconnaissance mission," Nettleback nodded in understanding.
"Correct."
"So what happened next?"
Harm shifted slightly in his chair, stealing a quick glance in Mac's direction. Her lips were a tight line of worry, but her eyes when they met his were filled with warmth directed solely at him. He gave her a ghost of a smile and returned his gaze to Nettleback, who was already beginning to get alarmed by the prolonged silence.
"We were spotted about 20 miles south-east of Kabul. We began taking on heavy ground fire. I went in for a closer look to give a more detailed information to Seahawk. And that's when Lt. Turrick fired on me."
"Why did he do that?"
Harm shrugged again. "To convince the men below that he was one of them, I suppose."
"And after that you shot him down."
"Correct."
Nettleback nodded, turning to face the jury. Still leaning on the banister, but this time with his back toward his witness, he continued,
"What happened next, Commander?"
"My plane went down soon after that, and I had to punch out. I hit the ground pretty hard ... I must have blacked out for quite some time." He shook his head, straining to remember. "I- I woke up, and there were men around me ... armed men."
"Was the defendant among those men?" Nettleback stretched out his hand in Akhbar's direction.
Harm nodded slowly, his gaze following Nettleback's gesture. "He was there, yes."
The Afghani pursed his lips contemptuously and leaned back on his chair, pretending to have no interest in what was being said. Harm had to suppress the urge to go up to him and wipe that arrogant expression off his face.
"They made me go with them," he continued in a forced monotone. "My head was spinning - I couldn't stay on my feet... I remember them dragging me behind them on a rope ... like some bag of dirt." He tore his gaze away from Akhbar and added a little quieter, "That's how I ended up in that cave."