Ambush - 140

Because of Harm's (H) "run of bad luck" in the courtroom Chegwidden (C) assigned him the Capt "FRUTT" case in Quantico. Mac (M) was assigned the investigation of Capt William Shepard who had led his men into an ambush in Sierra Leone, which killed six. H became very anxious about the assignments and said that he "wasn't without influence on the hill" which was needed in the Shepard case. C reluctantly agreed and swapped their assignments. To help with Hs run of bad luck Tiner (Ti)gave H a velcro'd statue of Saint Ivo of Kermartin, the patron saint of lawyers, to put on his cars dashboard. Harriet (Ht)gave H a copy of "7 Secrets of Highly Successful Lawyers" by Don McGill (the writer of this episode) and Bud (B)let slip that she had also given a copy to him after he had lost his first case.

B assisted H investigate the incident and found that Shepard had "exceeded the rules of engagement" by splitting off from a convoy he was escorting to go in pursuit of War-Lord Col Mohammed Makani, leader of a faction in the civil war who had been targeting US peace keeping forces. The convening authority didn't follow Hs recommendations and ordered a public court-martial due to public and political pressure. Shepard said that he had been given verbal orders to take out Makani by Col Klesco who then denied giving them. Turner (T), the prosecutor, showed that Shepard had posted a wanted poster and reward of up to $90 for Makani and had twice before broken away from an escort mission in pursuit of Makani. Congresswoman Leatham (L)invited H to a party where a new missile was going to be unveiled. T was also there and was introduced to L. At the party H met ex-Maj Frank Seawell who said that he had been given verbal orders by Klesco to take out a Taliban leader after the Bekea Valley army barracks bombing. He did so with faulty Intel and ended up killing the whole family. Klesco "left him hanging" back then too. H also found that Klesco had been subpoenaed before the "National Security Sub-Committee" chaired by Bobbi Leatham and Leatham had sent several SPECAT messages asking Klesco to capture Makani. Klesco had armed and fueled all his men for "aggression" not just escort. Because Seawell didn't want to testify H tricked Klesco into admitting giving verbal orders in Bekea Valley and also to Shepard. Shepard was found not-guilty. T said he "didn't mind loosing this time," Leatham, very angry, told T to "talk some sense into" H. She told H that "Shepard wasn't the only one to receive 'unofficial' orders" but wouldn't say who had given them to her. Klesco told H he had no hard feelings and "may need a good attorney." H agreed to help if necessary.

M's "FRUTT" case was a "peeping tom" incident which used the "Forward Remote Unmanned Tracking & Transmission" hovercraft being developed in Maj Millan's unit. The mother of a 17 year-old girl caught the unit hovering outside her daughters bedroom window and went mental hitting it with a broom. She demanded M to "throw the book at him" to "protect her daughters virtue." M eventually found that Maj Millan had "borrowed" the unit in order to catch his own daughter who had been sneaking out of the house. Before he could do it though, the unit was stolen out of his locked car. M found that it was Millan's 13 year old teckky son who had thought the girl was pretty and just wanted to "hang out." He was upset when M wouldn't just let him apologize by Email. He was grounded to "Low tech" by his father and M told C that the boy would get "much worse" from the angry mother. Maj Millan would receive a letter of reprimand.