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From: "Bill Morgan" <morg1058@chartervt.net>
Subject: {ASSM} NEW from Morgan: KELLY, 4 of 4; M/F Rom
Date: Wed,  1 Aug 2001 20:10:02 -0400
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<1st attachment, "Kelly 4.txt" begin>

The following is a work of fiction regarding sexual
relationships.  If you feel that it is illegal, immoral, or
otherwise improper for you to read this, then DON'T READ IT.

* * *

Kelly

Copyright 1989, 1998, 2001 by Morgan. All rights reserved.

You will note from the copyright dates above that this book was
written before the fall of the Berlin Wall.  One does get lucky
sometimes.  What did not happen, though, was the overthrow of the
Soviet government; it's most of the same people wearing different
titles.

Incidentally, you will find occasional entries, _word_.  The
reason for this is that MS Word's Auto Format function puts a
word preceded and followed by an underscore in italics; that's my
intent.  Similarly, *word* results in the word appearing in bold
face.  If you use Word's Auto Format, it will take care of
things; if you don't, you at least know why it's there.

More of my works are posted on my site <www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Authors/Morgan/www> If
you like it -- or if you don't -- please let me know at
morg105829@aol.com.

Incidentally, _Kelly_ in its complete form is also on my site in
.rtf format.  It enables the reader to read it with appropriate
accents, italics, etc.

* * *

Chapter 24

The 101st Airborne and the 82nd Airborne were positioned on a
military reservation in New Mexico.  The 101st was the defending
Blue Force and the 82nd was the attacking Red Force.  Mike and
Kelly agreed that the 101st was as ready as it possibly could be.
 They thought they had an edge because the very survival of the
101st depended on its performance against the 82nd in the
Red-Blue War Games, while to Jim Ames and the 82nd it was only a
game.

It was February 1.  Kelly had not had her command for even ninety
days and she knew the unit was marked for extinction if it didn't
perform.  Cathy Adams had told her the full story in an
off-the-record conversation held with Sam's full knowledge.  She
learned that the only way Sam had been able to get Kelly a combat
command was in a unit that was considered to be virtually dead
anyway.  Kelly was determined to prove that the 101st was very
much alive.  They were going to whip the 82nd!  Although both
units were Airborne, the exercise was going to be run as if they
were ground troops.

Kelly grinned thinking about her argument with Mike.  She was
with a volunteer provisional company positioned on top of a cliff
that loomed vertically 300 feet above and behind the 82nd's
command post.  When she introduced the idea, Mike had gone pale.
He said, "Kelly, you'll kill yourself!  That's like going down
the side of a thirty-story building in the middle of the night."

They were sitting with their senior staff and senior unit
commanders.  She smiled fondly at Mike and asked innocently, "Is
it more dangerous than running barefoot through a minefield?"

Mike suddenly grinned, took her in his arms and kissed her.  The
other officers just smiled.  Colonel Collins asked about the
remark and Kelly said, "Didn't you know?  That's what we did on
our first date.  Mike had me running barefoot through a
minefield.  That was fun.  Then I wanted to dig in a sandbox.  We
didn't have any sand or a box, so I used Mike's leg instead.  It
was much more fun!"

Collins looked at Mike who shook his head resignedly.  Mike
nodded and said, "Unfortunately, she's right.  She did run
barefoot through a mine field.  In fact, she was running naked. 
I took a hit from an AK-47 and Kelly removed the bullet."  He
kissed her again and said, "Okay, honey, if Colonel Collins
agrees.  Tom, what do you think?"

Collins just shook his head.  He was from the Tennessee hill
country and could affect the mountain idiom in his speech when he
wanted to.  He said, "My mama didn't raise no fools!  When the
commanding general wants to do something, I was told that
whatever fool thing it might be, to be sure to say it's a great
idea."  Then with his eyes wide he declared, "General, I think
it's a great idea."  He grinned at them and they continued their
planning.

At the foot of the cliff were trees and dense undergrowth.  Mike
was in command of the main body of the 101st while she and the
special assault company were going to rappel down the side of the
cliff and then capture the 82nd's command post.  They were
waiting for 0400, a time when they thought guards at the 82nd's
headquarters would be the least alert.  Meanwhile, the main force
of the 101st had been falling back.  The plan was to let the 82nd
chase a rear guard into a trap in which they would suddenly find
the men of the 101st on both flanks.  Then Kelly intended to hit
the command post, put it out of action, and with luck cause even
more confusion.

She checked her watch and checked her rappelling ropes.  In the
darkness she could scarcely see the men on her right and left. 
All had camouflage paint on their faces and hands.  Kelly was
wearing her Kevlar vest and helmet for luck.

She gave a thumbs-up signal and started to drop.  She had almost
reached the bottom when she grinned to herself.  Being so
preoccupied with getting the troops positioned and checking all
the equipment with the company commander, she had not really
stopped to think about what she was doing.  But Mike was right,
of course.  It was like going down the side of a thirty-story
building in the middle of the night.  She slowed her rate of
descent as she neared the ground.  She had told the first men to
be very careful because they weren't sure what the ground surface
was like at the base of the cliff.  After she felt her feet
touch, Kelly eased her way out of the rope.  After tugging twice
she felt it soar up to be used by the next men.

With men at the bottom of the cliff it was now much easier.  They
could signal to the men coming down and let them know when they
neared the bottom.  They also increased the number of ropes in
use.  Kevin joined her and they eased through the undergrowth
moving toward the CP.  When they crawled to a point within sight
of the command post, she tapped Kevin on the helmet.  He went
into his pack and brought out a highly directional shotgun
microphone.

Kelly took the earphones and put them on while she aimed the mike
at the headquarters tent.  Listening for a moment, she gave Kevin
a thumbs-up sign and grinned, then gave him the earphones.  A
signalman came crawling up to them as Kelly worked her way back
towards the base of the cliff.  So far, so good.  The microphone
was working perfectly: It was almost as if they were standing in
the middle of the tent; they could hear everything being said. 
Kevin and the signalman were taking careful notes to identify the
call signs of the units of the 82nd.  If her plan worked, there
would be more than enough confusion to help Mike and the main
body.

The company was now off the cliff and the ropes had been
retrieved.  Now all they had to do was wait.  Kelly was with the
company commander, Captain Jensen.  She motioned him to come back
into the woods where they could talk without their voices
reaching any sentries patrolling around the CP.  She found there
were no sentries between the CP and the cliff.  As she had
guessed, the cliff itself was considered to provide all the
protection necessary.  She had been counting on it being
considered an unbreachable defense.

She turned to Jensen and said, "Bill, how are you feeling?  You
look like you're getting a little nervous."

It was hard to see his face because of the combination of
darkness and the camouflage paint.  He said, "Yes, ma'am, I'm
afraid I am.  Ma'am, may I ask the General a question?"

Kelly whispered, "I don't know about 'the General,' but you can
certainly ask me.  What's on your mind?"

"Ma'am, aren't you ever frightened?  I'm scared that I'll do
something stupid and really louse things up."

He couldn't see Kelly's face with her camouflage paint, but he
saw her white teeth as she smiled.  She said, "Bill, that's the
nice part of my position.  What could possibly be expected of a
teenage high school dropout?  If I screw up, people just point
out the absurdity of having a teenage girl serving as a
commanding general."

She could see the motion as he shook his head.  "But... But you
have the Cross of Liberty.  General, I... it's a genuine pleasure
serving under your command.  It's not my place to say, I guess,
but there's no one alive who could have done what you've done
with the 101st.  It's not just that you got us squared away. 
It's that you did it in less than ninety days!  General, I
learned a lot about the meaning of leadership just watching you.
I never heard you give an order.  You always go first and show us
what you want us to do and then we try to do it, too.  We almost
never can, but while trying we do accomplish far more than we
ever thought we could.  Thank you, sir."

"Bill, thank you.  But please do me a favor?  As long as we look
like refugees from a cat and dog fight, I'd appreciate it if you
called me Kelly.  I am younger than you are, Captain, by a good
bit, I think."

She could see his teeth gleam as he smiled.  "I think you're
right.  My wife, Cathy, can't believe that she's older than my
commanding general, and she's only twenty-four!"

Kelly looked up and could see the first signs of dawn.  Looking
up through the trees, they could now see the branches against the
lightening sky.  Then they heard a rustle of leaves as a
messenger came back to where they were sitting.  He had the first
sheet of information gathered from the microphone.  Using a
carefully shielded light she and Bill Jensen looked over the
paper.  Someone had carefully recopied the notes onto a form
Kelly had worked out earlier.  Virtually all the blanks had been
filled in, including all of the important ones.  The sheet had
the call signs of all the units of the 82nd.  Kelly grinned,
tipped her helmet down over her eyes and went to sleep.

Bill Jensen saw her and in no time heard her breathing become
slow and regular as she fell asleep.  He motioned to the
messenger to bring a couple of men back to stand guard.  He said,
"My God, have you ever seen anything like it?  She is cool!"

The messenger whispered back, "Captain, I guess when you've done
all that the General's done, you don't lose much sleep over a war
game!  I'll bet she slept in Germany, too."

The first moves in Kelly's plan were scheduled for 0800.  At 0755
Jensen saw Kelly's hand move and lift her helmet off her eyes. 
She whispered, "Good morning, Bill."

She checked her watch and nodded.  He just shook his head in
amazement.  There was a new Kelly Jackson story to be told.  She
gave him the sign and he went to the troops on the right flank. 
Kelly was taking the left.  She checked over her men, making sure
their Blue Army arm-bands were in position.

Exactly at 0800 she moved.  Almost simultaneously, her men
simulated knifing the sentries.  Kelly had a strange feeling as
she put her right wrist around a guard's neck and put the point
of her combat knife against his ribs.  She whispered, "I'm afraid
you just bought the farm, son."

He turned and saw who it was.  Even under the camouflage grease
paint he identified her.  He grinned and whispered, "Damn it,
Kelly, that's a hell of a thing to do to a friend!"

She grinned back, winked, and whispered, "War is hell!"

She checked both ways.  All the sentries were out of action. 
After scrubbing off as much of the camouflage paint on her face
and hands as she could, Kelly walked into the 82nd's command
post.  Jim Ames had just put down a radio microphone when she
said, "Hi, Jim!  Do you have any hot coffee?  I haven't had any
yet this morning."

He grinned and said, "Sure, Kelly!  There's a pot over on the...
_Kelly?"_

As if by magic her automatic was in her hand as troopers of the
101st moved into the command post and disarmed the headquarters
troops.  She grinned at Jim Ames as she went to the corner to
pour her coffee.  "Do you want some, too, Jim?  Black and sweet?"
 Ames nodded and smiled wryly.  She poured him his coffee and
said, "Give me your parole to be a good boy while we clean up
this exercise?"  Again he nodded resignedly.

They sat on the ground as the men from the 101st took their
positions.  Since the plan involved sending false orders by radio
and field telephone, Kelly just watched.  Word was coming back
from men of the 82nd who had seen the rear guard Kelly and Mike
were using to entice the 82nd out of position.  Kelly nodded and
orders were given to pursue the Blue Force down the road in
force.  Jensen said reserves were being brought up into position
to support their attack.  Instead, he then gave orders to the
reserve units to move farther to the rear.

Ames just shook his head.  "Kelly, I'll never learn!  And there's
just no damned excuse.  Of course I've had a bunch of new
officers added to my division since Germany.  They don't know
you, but I do.  You came down that damned cliff in the middle of
the night, didn't you?"

Kelly was sitting on the ground with her legs crossed apparently
absorbed with her coffee.  She stirred it and had a sip.  "Jim,
this is great coffee!"  Then she looked at him and grinned.  "Of
course.  How the hell else could we get here?  We weren't allowed
to fly."

Just then Sam Adams came striding in.  He was wearing the green
arm-band of an official observer.  Kelly and Ames jumped to
attention.  Ames said, "Sam, when this exercise is over, I'm
going to get even with this teenybopper!  I will fix her little
red wagon!  I'm her senior."

Sam shook his head, appearing sad while trying to control a grin.
 "I'm afraid not, Jim.  She's senior to you."

"But she can't be!" Ames protested.  "I've been a lieutenant
general for almost six months -- ever since Germany."

"Sorry, Jim.  I guess you didn't read some of the fine print in
the law that created the Cross of Liberty.  You see, to
differentiate it from a lousy Medal of Honor, Cross of Liberty
recipients are senior in rank to all others in the same pay
grade... all services.  I'm afraid Kelly is the senior lieutenant
general in the Army, Marines, and Air Force, and senior to any
Navy vice admiral."  He smiled and added blandly, "Of course, if
there are several Cross of Liberty winners of the same rank,
ordinary seniority applies among them.  But, since she's the only
one we have at the moment, she's senior."

Ames face fell as Kelly's plan unfolded.  The major portion of
his division was trapped between the units of the 101st and was
forced to surrender.  Mike then sent units to the known position
of the 82nd's reserves and forced their surrender as well.  By
eleven o'clock it was all over.  The 82nd had been annihilated. 
The 101st had taken almost no casualties.

Kelly looked at Sam and said, "Can you stay for lunch, General? 
I owe one to Jim, and I had free time on my calendar, so today's
the day."

Jim Ames just grinned and shook his head in amusement.  Sam Adams
agreed and Kelly excused herself.  She left the tent and was gone
for about twenty minutes.

When she returned she was wearing her khaki summer service
uniform.  Her face was scrubbed and her hair was still wet,
apparently from a shower.  Ames looked up in amazement.  She
shrugged and said there was a small waterfall she had found. 
"Jim, that water is cold!" she said as she shivered.  She had run
a comb through her hair and it was tied back in a ponytail while
drying to its normal golden color in the dry New Mexico air.

Just then Kevin and Katrina appeared wearing white waiters'
jackets over their uniforms.  They opened a camp table and set up
chairs.  Then they unfolded a linen tablecloth and proceeded to
set four places for a very formal lunch.  By the time they had
finished, there were even candles on the table protected from the
breeze by hurricane glass.  Soon everything was ready.  Mike came
strolling up, also wearing his summer service khaki.  He appeared
to be coming to a picnic in the woods.

He kissed Kelly warmly and said, "I hope I'm not late?  Has Kevin
taken the drink orders yet?"

Nothing at all was said about the morning's exercise.  Kevin took
drink orders.  Mike and Kelly ordered Bloody Marys and Jim Ames
thought he would go along with the gag, as did Sam Adams. 
Moments later he returned with four beautiful drinks in crystal
goblets.

Ames looked at Adams, grinned again and said, "Sam, what are we
going to do with this girl?  She is too much!"

Kelly said, "Just because we're fighting a small war, there's no
need to be uncivilized, is there?  Jim, I would like to offer a
toast to the 82nd Airborne Division.  One of the best fighting
units in the United States armed forces.  It's nearly as good as
the 101st!"

When lunch was served it was a glaceed breast of pheasant stuffed
with foie gras and truffles.  Ames and Adams looked at it in
utter amazement.  Kelly said, "Sam and Jim, your wives told me
you both have to watch your cholesterol.  I was going to serve a
filet of beef, but they thought poultry would be better for you.
Sam, Cathy feels that since she's been pregnant you haven't been
getting as much exercise as usual.  She doesn't want you to gain
weight."

The two generals just shook their heads.  Finally, they had
coffee and cognac.  Sam pushed back his chair and said, "Kelly,
that was superb.  I didn't think there would be more than five
chefs in the world who could do this and they're all in Europe!"

Kelly said, "There's an exception: Selma Franklin.  She's here in
the States and is probably the finest chef in the world today."

"Selma Franklin?  Who's Selma Franklin?" Adams asked.

"She's the wife of my Division Sergeant Major.  She insists she's
working for Mike and me now.  I'm glad you like her cooking.  How
about you, Jim?"

He smiled and said, "Kelly, it almost makes losing bearable."

He turned to Sam and said, "You know what she did, don't you? 
She brought a company down that cliff behind our CP in the middle
of the night.  My guys said the cliff was better than a battalion
of defenders.  I should have known better.  It would be true for
anyone but Kelly.  Sam, what now?"

Adams frowned.  "Now I have a problem, Jim.  I said the winner
was going on a special mission.  I was sure there was no way the
101st could beat you.  But I don't see how the 101st can possibly
be ready in time.  Special training is required, and the unit is
supposed to move out in a week."

Kelly said, "Our Spanish is the best in the Army, General.  Of
course, we don't know what you have in mind, but the accent we
have been practicing is Central American.  I guess all the
instructors who've been working with my people are Nicaraguan.  I
hope that doesn't upset anything?"

Adams just shook his head.  "And I suppose the regional accent is
from the territory that borders Honduras?" he asked with a wry
smile.

"What a coincidence!  As a matter of fact it is, General," Kelly
said with an absolutely straight face.  "I hope that doesn't put
us at too great a disadvantage?  Of course, there aren't many men
in the division whose accents are good enough to pass as natives.
 I'm not sure I even have a full battalion."

Adams turned to Ames who was just shaking his head.  "Jim, you've
known about this operation for nearly six months.  How good is
the 82nd's language capability?"

"Sir, we've been working very hard.  Kelly says she doesn't have
a full battalion who speak like natives.  I don't have a full
squad!  Sam, regardless of the outcome of the exercise, the 101st
is the unit to go.  And the outcome was typical Kelly Jackson:
the enemy is annihilated and she sustains essentially no
casualties."

He turned to Kelly and put out his hand.  "Kelly, the best man
won!"Chapter 25

It was the end of March and the 101st Airborne was back at Fort
Campbell.  The mission in Central America had been a spectacular
success, achieving results beyond the most optimistic
expectations.  Having just celebrated her first official
anniversary in the Army, there was an inspection and review in
honor of Kelly and Horace Franklin who was retiring from the Army
after more than thirty years service.  Kelly, now pregnant, was
being relieved as commanding officer of the 101st.

In the meantime spring had come to the hill country of Kentucky.
The flowering trees and shrubs formed a brilliant backdrop of
color as the division was formed up on the parade ground.  A
presentation had been made to Franklin on the occasion of his
retirement.  Sam Adams had flown down from Washington and Cathy,
looking beautiful in her pregnancy, was with him.  The troops
were standing at Parade Rest in front of the reviewing stand. 

Adams stood in front of the microphone and said, "Ladies and
gentlemen of the 101st Airborne.  I have good news and bad news
today.  The good news is you are now rated the top combat unit in
the Army.  With this rating goes the right to carry this special
flag as an emblem of excellence along with your divisional
colors.  The bad new is Lieutenant General Kelly Jackson is being
relieved as your commanding officer.

"Kelly is expecting a baby, and we thought commanding an airborne
division would be a bit much for a pregnant woman, even for
Kelly.  She is taking command of the War College.  I want you to
know how proud we are of what you have accomplished.  This unit
has pulled itself up by its bootstraps to become the Army's top
combat division.  Congratulations!"

Sam stepped away from the microphone and the order was given to
pass in review.  The band struck up and the troops marched in
front of the reviewing stand.  Adams could not remember ever
seeing more heartfelt salutes being given as were given that day
by the units to their commanding officer.  Finally, they were
formed up in ranks facing the reviewing stand.

At this point Horace Franklin stepped up to Kelly and saluted. 
"General Jackson... Kelly... I have been asked by the men to make
a presentation to you today on their behalf.  When the word
spread that you were going to leave us, I have never seen so many
grown men cry.  At least that's what I think I was seeing; I
wasn't seeing too clearly, myself.

"We passed the hat to buy you a farewell present.  That didn't
work too well.  This division has 17,000 men.  We finally
restricted it to one dollar per man.  Mrs. Callahan, I have
something for you."

A man came forward carrying a large rectangular package. 
Franklin took it and opened it.  The sun reflected off the
highly-polished surface of a large sterling-silver tray.  In the
upper left corner was engraved a large Screaming Eagle emblem of
the 101st Airborne Division.  Franklin said, "The words engraved
are, 'To Kelly Jackson Callahan from all the men and women of the
101st Airborne Division.  We cannot express our gratitude for
what you have done for us.  We cannot express our regard for the
leadership you have provided.  We can only say we love you,
Kelly.' It carries today's date.  In addition, there is a
matching sterling silver tea and coffee service with all the
pieces carrying our Division's emblem.

"Kelly, I have been in the Army over thirty years.  I have never
seen a commanding officer respected and loved the way you are. 
These men would gladly follow you to hell!"

Tears were streaming down Kelly's cheeks as she accepted the
gifts.  She passed the tray to Mike and she and Franklin began to
inspect the troops.  She was determined to say good bye to them
all.  They went to the First Regiment and was saluted by its
commanding colonel.  The inspecting party looked at every man and
woman.  As they passed through the ranks, Kelly picked up more
gifts, many of them for her expected baby.  She couldn't stop the
tears which kept streaming down her cheeks.  She loved thesemen.

Tears were streaming down the cheeks of many of the officers and
men as well.  Reaching Bill Jensen's company, he saluted smartly
and said the company was ready for inspection.

When she completed it, he saluted, then kissed her on the cheek.
"Thanks, Kelly.  We could never have done it without you, because
I still don't know how we did it with you!"

The last speaker was Colonel Holmes, the senior officer remaining
with the Division.  He said, "In November, when General Jackson
took command of the 101st, we were a ragtag bunch.  I don't think
you could even call us troops.  We had been left out of action in
Europe because people felt we would be more dangerous to
ourselves and our forces than to the enemy.  It grated because we
knew it was true.

"Then Kelly took over.  She asked us to do things we could not
possibly do.  Except she always did them... and did them
perfectly.  We struggled.  Remarkably, we accomplished a great
deal.  She took us from nowhere to defeat the 82nd in war games.
She got us to learn Spanish and we successfully discharged our
mission in Central America.  Do you realize she hasn't been in
command for even six months?

"Kelly, as a promise to you, we're going to work as hard as we
can to be sure the 101st doesn't ever let you down.  And Kelly,
as a symbol of our pledge, we are giving you the flag we just
won, emblematic of the top unit in the Army.  You won it, Kelly.
Please keep it for us.

"Men, do you realize we have had the rare privilege to be the
only unit... of any size at all... to be commanded by Kelly
Jackson?  Do you realize what that means?  It means that the
101st has been commanded by the most decorated soldier in the
history of the United States Army!  Men, we are distinctive.  We
are honored!  Can I hear three cheers for Kelly!?"

Three thunderous cheers echoed from the parade ground.  Then the
order was given to dismiss.

Mike came up to her and kissed her.  "Honey, I hope you realize
how serious they were?  They truly love you."

Sam Adams, with Cathy at his side, came up and said, "Kelly,
could you and Mike fly up to Washington with us?  I understand
the Franklins are working with you and will handle the packing
and bring up the cars and stuff.  Will you?"

They went to the air base next to Fort Campbell.  As they left
the fort, men of the 101st were lined up at the gate to give them
a parting salute.  They boarded the plane and it moved toward the
active runway.

When it reached cruising altitude, Sam Adams turned to Kelly and
said, "Good luck at Fort Meade.  It's in the District area. 
We're posting Mike... the lucky guy... to the Pentagon.  But
you're the one we're worrying about.  Let me tell you what the
situation is: First, the good news: The President's house at the
War College is considered the finest military housing we have. 
It's an easy commute for Mike up the road to the Pentagon.  There
are going to be some noses out of joint on that one.  But that's
just tough!

"Now the bad news:  The faculty at the War College -- almost
entirely civilian, by the way -- thinks it's a private college. 
As you know we require attendance at the War College for
promotion to flag rank -- with a couple of exceptions, like you
two.  However, we've been getting an increasing amount of flak
from the officers coming out of the program.  They consider it to
be a complete waste of time.  Worse yet, there's increasing
question about whose side the faculty is on.  The students see no
relevance between what's taught there and their jobs as senior
commanders.

"Of course, a problem with education is the student may not see
an immediate benefit from even the most valuable courses. 
However, we are coming around to believe the officers have a
point.  But there's more: The faculty has a lot of influence in
Congress, particularly on the liberal side of the aisle.  They've
chewed up the last three or four College presidents.  The most
recent guy was pulled out after less than six months.  He's been
gone for nearly a month now.  He wishes you luck, by the way.

"Kelly, we need a War College.  But we need to get it back on
track to prepare general officers for their new responsibilities.
 I'll tell you right now, they are going to howl when they learn
who the new president is.  The last three were all Ph.D.'s,
selected to mesh easily with the intellectuals at the school.  It
didn't do any good.  Kelly, we're throwing you into the lion's
den and we're not even giving you a chair or a whip!"

Sam was very serious as he looked into Kelly's eyes.  She had
been impassive as he reviewed the situation for her.  He said,
"Kelly, Cathy almost took off my head when she heard about it. 
She said, 'Thanks a hell of a lot, Sam.  That's a neat way for
you to take care of the greatest military hero this country has
ever had.  What would you have given her if you hadn't liked her?
 Something nice in Antarctica?'  Kelly, she's absolutely right."

Cathy nodded her head as Sam told the story.

"Look, I've been thinking more about it.  I think I'll give you
command of The Presidio in San Francisco.  If there's a place
nicer than Meade, it's that post.  It's right under the Golden
Gate Bridge, sitting on some of the most valuable real estate in
the country.  Let's forget the whole College thing, okay?"

Kelly looked very serious as she said, "Not okay, Sam.  I want
the job, and I have an idea.  But I have a couple of questions
first.  As president, can I teach a course?"

Sam looked puzzled.  He picked up a telephone handset by his seat
and placed a call.  With the noise of the aircraft, Mike and
Kelly couldn't hear what was said.  Sam nodded his head and
disconnected.  He said, "The answer is yes.  It hasn't been done
in living memory, but the president is a member of the faculty
and can teach.  There's a great deal of tradition and law
affecting that place, which is why I had to ask.  Nothing over
there is ever simple.  Anything else?"

"Two things:  First, since you said I can teach, am I correct in
assuming there are no specific academic credentials required? 
Second, do faculty members have tenure, civil service status or
any other legal bar to their termination?"  She looked at him and
waited.

Adams picked up the phone again.  This time his conversation took
longer.  There was a period in which it appeared no on was
talking.  The other party apparently had to leave the phone to
check something.  It was obvious when he came back on the line. 
Sam's face lit up in a broad grin as he listened and then hung
up.

"Kelly, how in hell do you always do this to me?  The reaction
from my resident expert was, 'Holy smokes!  She's got it!  The
heavily civilian composition of the faculty is fairly new, but
the law has never been changed.  Since it used to have an officer
faculty when we didn't have well-educated officers, there is no
education requirement.  By the same token, the only tenure that
attaches is military.  These people draw a civil-service pension,
but technically they are not civil servants!'  Then he said to
me, 'General, would you please congratulate General Jackson and
tell her I promise to have my wife give me a swift kick where it
will do the most good, unless she wants to come over and do it
herself.'  Kelly, tell me more."

Kelly proceeded to outline her plans.  As she did so, Adams'
smile got broader and broader.  By the time she was finished, he,
Mike, and Cathy were laughing loudly.  Cathy hugged her and said,
"Kel, I always knew you were brilliant!"

Sam said, "Kelly, you surely will do!  When can you and Mike come
over for dinner with Cathy and me?  Our baby will be along soon.
Incidentally, we would both be honored to have you and Mike serve
as the godparents.  Will you?" he asked as he held Cathy's hand.

Kelly looked at Mike and then back at the Adams.  "Cathy and Sam,
we would be honored!  Thank you for your vote of
confidence."Chapter 26

Kelly was wearing a summer service uniform when she entered the
War College.  She had learned that the tradition was for both the
faculty and the student body always to wear civilian clothes. 
Uniforms were never worn at the school.  Since Kelly was about to
start changing behavior she wore her uniform.  A civilian guard
was on the desk.  He stood up and attempted a salute which Kelly
smartly returned and then asked directions to the President's
Office.  The guard pointed down the hall.

Kelly went to the indicated door and went in.  As Kelly entered a
secretary looked up from her typewriter.  The girl's eyes bugged
when she saw Kelly's uniform.  Kelly smiled and walked by the
girl into the corner office.

The secretary followed her in.  "Are you Lieutenant General
Jackson?" the girl asked.  Kelly smiled and nodded.  "Why are you
wearing your uniform?  Uniforms aren't allowed at the War
College!"

Kelly held out her hand which the girl took in a limp grip.  "I'm
Kelly Jackson Callahan.  What's your name?  I assume you are my
secretary."

The girl was pretty but appeared very nervous.  "How do you do,
General?  I'm Rita Nelson.  Yes, I am your secretary."

Kelly went behind her new desk and sat down.  When she noticed
Rita had her steno pad with her, Kelly dictated two memos.  The
first one, effective immediately, made the wearing of uniforms
optional at all times for faculty and students at the College. 
The second was to the commanding officer of Fort Meade, a major
general, requesting military guards to replace the civilians at
the College.

The girl took the notes and then said, "But General, you can't do
this!  It's illegal.  We're special here.  We're a national
university and we avoid a militaristic image."

Kelly looked at the girl impassively.  "Rita, I'm the commanding
officer.  Those are my orders.  It may have escaped the notice of
some people, but the name of the institution is The War College.
War is, in essence, a rather violent activity.  Soldiers do their
work when diplomacy fails.  Am I clear?  See that the memos are
sent out as soon as possible.  And, Rita, call a meeting of the
faculty and staff in the auditorium at 0930."

The girl looked startled, but obeyed.

At nine-thirty Kelly was standing on the stage of the auditorium.
 She noticed that when the faculty members came in they gathered
at the back of the auditorium.  Because it had been sized to
handle the faculty and student body together, the staff alone
took up fewer than 20 percent of the seats.  She checked her
watch and nodded to a uniformed Army captain wearing an MP
brassard.  He nodded to his men and they started to move the
faculty to the forward seats.  Kelly smiled at the MPs; it was
obvious that some faculty didn't want to move, but finally they
were in their new places.

Kelly began, "Good morning.  I am Kelly Jackson.  I am the new
president of the War College and I want to take this opportunity
to introduce myself.  I have three announcements to make and then
I would be happy to answer questions.  First, effective
immediately, wearing of uniforms at the War College is optional
for both faculty and students at all times.  Second, also
effective immediately, there will be military guards at all
posts; current ID's will be carried and shown to any guard on
request.  Finally, there will be a reworking of class schedules.
Classes will begin at 0800 hours daily.  We will try to end all
classes by 1200 hours to provide time for work in the library and
for physical training.  That's all for now.  Are there any
questions?"

A man with very long gray hair falling from a very large balding
head rose.  He was wearing a shabby tweed jacket and a dirty
shirt with no tie.  He said, "General, I'm Clarence Klein,
chairman of the Peace Studies Department.  Surely, you can't be
serious about these militaristic changes?"

Kelly looked at him with piercing eyes.  "Mr. Klein, I am very
serious.  However, there is one thing I overlooked that is
applicable to both faculty and students.  For those who do not
chose to wear a uniform or do not qualify to do so, I expect the
same standards of personal neatness and grooming I would expect
from an officer in uniform.  Mr. Klein, in your case, your hair
is much too long, your shirt is dirty, you are not wearing a tie,
and your jacket should go to the Salvation Army... if they're
willing to take it.  Are there any other questions?"

Klein remained standing.  He said, "That is an illegal order,
General.  I cannot be ordered to do anything!  I trust you will
withdraw your last statements.  Moreover, I am addressed as
Professor Klein or Doctor Klein!"

Kelly smiled sweetly at him and said, "Do I take it, Mr. Klein,
you do not intend to abide by my orders?"

"I most certainly do not!  And it is Doctor Klein!"

Again, the sweet smile.  "In that case, Mr. Klein, your
employment at the War College is terminated, effective
immediately.  Are there any other questions?"

There was an instantaneous buzzing in the auditorium and several
faculty members gathered around Klein.  Kelly looked around and
said, "Since there are no more questions, the meeting is
adjourned.  Good day, gentlemen.  Thank you for coming."  She
strode off the stage and out of the auditorium.

On the way back to her office she saw the MP captain again.  She
went up to him with her hand outstretched.  He snapped to
attention and saluted smartly.  Kelly withdrew her hand to return
the salute and then held it out again.  He was surprised at the
firmness of her grip.  He wore his name badge and two rows of
decorations on his chest.

She said, "How do you do, Captain Martin.  Am I correct in
assuming you are now in charge of the security detail here at the
War College?"

"Yes, sir.  Is there anything the general wishes, _sir?"_ he
replied standing stiffly at attention.

She smiled warmly and said, "The general wishes Captain Martin to
accompany her to her office."  He fell in step with her as they
walked through the halls to her office.  She closed the door
behind them.  "Captain, would you excuse me for a few moments? 
Make yourself at home and please relax.  I haven't eaten a
captain before lunch in weeks!"  She grinned as she said it.  He
weakly returned her smile.

Kelly went into the private bathroom off her office.  In a few
minutes she came out wearing a blue linen dress in a shade of
blue that matched her eyes, along with a single strand of pearls.
 She looked lovely.  She went behind her desk, sat down and
asked, "Captain, what is your first name?"

He drew himself up to attention in the chair and replied, "It's
Peter, sir."

He looked puzzled as he saw Kelly look herself over and then
mutter, "Oh, damn!"

Martin was both puzzled and embarrassed and looked it.  He said,
"Ma'am?"

Kelly smiled and said in a slightly louder voice, "I said, 'Oh,
damn!'  The saleslady positively guaranteed me that if I wore
this dress I would not look like I eat junior officers before
lunch.  Clearly, Peter, she was wrong.  It's not working.  I'm
afraid I'll have to take it back.  And I do so like the color,
too."

She smiled at him with her warmest smile.  "Peter, please do me a
very big favor?  I'm younger than you are by several years.  I am
also expecting my first child.  In a while I'm going to blow up
like a balloon.  I'm trying to look feminine this morning.  I
don't want to look like a general.  Am I really so frightening? 
And -- at least while the door's closed -- please call meKelly?"

Martin's eyes bugged.  "You're _expecting?_  Honest?  General...
Kelly... you are the most un-pregnant looking woman I have ever
seen."  He started to relax and added, "In fact, you're the most
beautiful girl I've seen in years.  You are absolutely
exquisite!"

Kelly beamed.  "Why Peter, thank you so much.  I think I'll punch
my husband when I get home.  He hasn't said anything so nice to
me in months!"  She looked at him speculatively and asked, "By
the way, Pete, are you married?"  He reddened at the personal
question but said he was not.  Her face turned serious.  "Pete...
is Pete all right, or do you prefer Peter?"

He smiled and, now relaxed, said, "Pete is just fine, Kelly."

She continued, "Pete, right now you are the only officer around
here I can count on.  My aide and my husband's, both of whom are
Captain Murphy -- we must have the only husband and wife aide
team in the Army -- are on leave, soaking up the sun in Hawaii. 
I don't mean to impose, but what are your reactions to what
happened this morning?  Whatever you tell me is in confidence, of
course."

He looked thoughtful for a moment and then began.  "Kelly, you
really started something.  The War College has been becoming an
increasingly sharp thorn in the side of the fort for years.  I
don't know whose side they're on, but it sure as hell isn't the
Army's.  Are you sure you can really fire Klein?  He's probably
the worst of the bunch.  They have academic tenure, and can't be
touched.  Moreover, they are reputed to have a lot of clout on
Capitol Hill."

She looked at him thoughtfully and said, "Well what do you know?
It sounds like I hit the bulls-eye with the first shot.  Pete,
the fact of the matter is they do not have tenure.  They aren't
even Civil Service.  Thus, they serve at the pleasure of the
President of the College.  Right now, that's me.  It's my
pleasure for Mr. Klein to go away.  Now we'll see.

"Incidentally, Pete, put the word out there are two very
influential men from the Hill coming down to lunch today.  There
is Senator Robert Fuller of Virginia, Chairman of the Senate
Armed Services Committee, and Representative Samuel Pinkney of
South Carolina, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. 
Be sure to put the word out to your people to treat them with the
respect they feel they deserve!"  She grinned as she said it.

He said, "Kelly, did you know this would happen?  The Klein
thing, I mean."

She shook her head and smiled.  "No, Pete, I didn't, but I was
hoping!"

At eleven thirty, there was a knock on the door.  A guard opened
it and ushered in two men, saluted, and then closed the door
behind him.  Kelly greeted the two congressmen and made small
talk to get them relaxed.  She thanked them both for the kind
remarks each had made on the floor of Congress when they were
voting on the creation and award of the Cross of Liberty.  Both
smiled like schoolboys just complimented by the teacher.  Then
she ushered them into a private dining room off her office. 
Selma was in the kitchen and had prepared a magnificent lunch
that Camille served.

The meal was a spectacular success.  Selma made sure to have both
Carolina and Virginia specialties, both done superbly.  In
response to the Senator's question, she said that General Thomas
"Stonewall" Jackson was indeed an ancestor.  She told the
congressman that one of Mike's ancestors rode with the South
Carolina First Volunteer Cavalry in the War Between the States. 
By this time Kelly could do no wrong in the eyes of the
influential congressmen.  Soon they were insisting she call them
Bob and Sam.  Since Camille had served mint juleps before lunch
and a beautiful wine with the meal, the congressmen were feeling
very mellow as they lit up cigars she had provided for them when
they returned to her office.

They were seated on a leather sofa when the door opened suddenly
and Klein, along with several of his colleagues, burst into the
office.  Kelly looked up at Klein from her chair next to the sofa
and said, "Mr. Klein, why are you still here?  You were dismissed
hours ago."

"I'm here because I refuse to leave.  You can't make me!  You
have no right to terminate me.  I have tenure on the faculty."

She looked at him and spoke to him the way she would to a
recalcitrant child.  "Mr. Klein, no one at the War College has
tenure.  All civilian employees serve at the pleasure of the
school's President.  That's me.  My pleasure is for you to leave,
so get out.  Now!"

Klein smirked and said, "You can't get away with this!  I'll take
it to Congress!  They won't stand for it."

"Mr. Klein, I think you just did.  Permit me to introduce my
guests.  This is Senator Fuller, seated on the left, and
Representative Pinkney, on the right.  They chair the Armed
Services Committees in their respective houses.

"Gentlemen, this morning I announced that, effective immediately,
faculty and students may wear either civilian dress or uniforms.
If they chose to wear civilian clothes, they would be subject to
similar standards -- shirts, ties as appropriate, trimmed hair,
and so forth -- as officers in uniform.  Mr. Klein refused and
was dismissed.  Incidentally, Mr. Klein, you were some distance
away from me this morning.  As you are now close, it's clear that
you should also take a shower.  In a word, you smell."  Klein
just sputtered.

Fuller looked at his colleague who nodded and then looked at
Klein.  His face was stern and his eyes cold as he said, "Sir, I
gather that you took exception to General Jackson's order on
dress and grooming.  We do not.  The General has fired you.  Your
employment is now terminated.  Good day, sir!"

Kelly went to her desk and buzzed.  When Pete Martin, along with
two burly MPs opened the door, she said, "Captain, would you
please show these people out?  And please be sure Mr. Klein is
off the post within sixty minutes."

Pinkney commented that Kelly was New York Debutante of the Year.
They both congratulated her on the brilliant job she had done
rebuilding the 101st and then on the job she and the 101st had
done in Central America.  As they were walking back to their
waiting limousine, they both assured Kelly of complete support on
Capitol Hill for whatever she might try to accomplish at the
College.  It had been a very successful luncheon.Chapter 27

Ten days had passed and the schedule changes had been put in
place.  Kelly noticed that most of the students were now wearing
uniforms to school.  This morning she was wearing a simple spring
dress rather than her uniform and was sitting in the student
lounge sipping coffee and reading a book on military strategy. 
She had not yet sat in on any classes nor had she done anything
about teaching a course.  It was a little after eleven o'clock. 
With classes beginning at eight o'clock, many of the students
were now finished at eleven.

She lifted her eyes and saw that a colonel in uniform was
standing beside her table.  She looked up and smiled.  His
nameplate said GEORGE.  She said, "Good morning, Colonel George.
Would you care to join me for a cup of coffee?"

The colonel looked embarrassed, but sat down.  Kelly motioned for
a waiter who brought over two fresh cups.  She looked at George.
He appeared to be in his early thirties, quite young to be a full
colonel.  He, too, had rows of ribbons on his chest.  "What can I
do for you, Colonel?" she asked quietly.

"May I ask you a couple of questions first, please, General?"

"Of course."

"General, I read excerpts from a forthcoming book about you.  It
says that you were the one who set up the tactics for our
breakout in Germany and for the later collapse of the Soviet
government.  Is that true?  The authors, Collins and Carlson,
claim it is."

"Chris and Bill get a little carried away sometimes, Colonel.  I
think they're trying to get even with me.  They accuse me of
causing them to get married."  She grinned and said, "To answer
your question, though, I was involved in the planning to a
degree."

George pursued the issue.  Finally, Kelly admitted that she was
the one who read the Russian book on tank warfare and coupled it
with her knowledge of Russian behavior to conceive the plan.

George smiled at her and said, "General, you aren't held in great
esteem by some of the faculty.  They feel it could have been done
differently, and should have been."

"I'm sure there are many ways it could have been done.  What does
our illustrious faculty recommend?"

"They believe we should have ignored the Russians in Germany and
moved against them in the south in the Strasbourg sector."

"How were we going to cross the Rhine?  The Russians were already
at the Rhine down there.  Did they say?  Also, in what way would
it have produced a better outcome?  Faster?  Fewer casualties? 
What?"

George looked puzzled.  "I really don't know.  I apologize.  I
certainly should know."  He smiled and continued, "As a matter of
fact, I feel like a fool!  This is the first time I've ever heard
of second-guessing a victory."

"Incidentally, you said 'some of the faculty'.  Who,
specifically, is saying it?"

"Professors Carson and Wilson make the most noise about it. 
Horace Wilson is probably the most outspoken one.  But why do you
ask?"

Kelly smiled and said, "I may want to sit in on a class or two. 
I want to be sure it's the right one."

George looked alarmed.  "But you can't do that.  I mean, a
professor's classroom is sacrosanct!"

Kelly ignored his comment and asked, "By the way, Colonel, what
is your first name?  I'm sure you know that mine is Kelly.  Since
I am the youngest person around here, I would appreciate it if
you would call me that."  She smiled warmly and added, "After
all, we're supposed to be informal here at the College."

George put out his hand and said, "Kelly, my name is John, but
everyone calls me Jack."

Kelly took his hand in a firm grip and said, "Hello, Jack."

When she looked up she saw several other officers standing around
the table looking at them.  They were maintaining a distance just
great enough to be out of earshot.  Kelly looked around and said,
"Pull up chairs, guys.  This isn't a private conversation.  We
were just talking about some interesting statements being made
here at the school."

Chairs were pulled up, officers sat down, and the conversation
quickly became more general.  Kelly kept it on the subject of the
Allied offensive in Germany.  No one could recall hearing any
statement which would show in what way the campaign was
deficient.  However, they had all heard the campaign denigrated
by Carson and Wilson.  They also denigrated the new book Chris
and Bill were writing as not being worth the paper it would be
printed on.

Finally, Kelly was fed up.  She said, "Gentlemen, I'm
didsappointed in all of you.  The purpose of the War College is
to get you officers to think for yourselves.  The reason it's
required for almost all general officers is it marks a major
turning-point in your careers.  As junior officers, you were
expected to carry out orders.  As senior officers, you initiate
them.  As general officers, you are responsible for setting
strategy and tactics.

"Now I have been sitting here for over an hour listening to you
whine about the way the Allied campaign in Germany is being
criticized.  Yet no one here has had the guts even to ask the
basis of the criticism, let alone ask why an alternative course
of action would have been better.  You don't even know in what
terms it might have been better.

"Gentlemen, if we don't do better than this, the War College
fails in its mission."  Kelly's eyes became piercing as she
looked around the group.  She said, "However, gentlemen, you will
fail, also.  Do I make myself clear?"

The officers looked very sheepish.  Jack George said, "General,
what you're telling us is we're acting like sheep... or very
junior officers.  A professor says something and we record it as
being true.  This, in spite of absolutely no evidence being cited
and in spite of it being contrary to our own firsthand knowledge.
 What should we do?" he asked.

"Well, for openers, do you know what actually did happen?  Do you
know what the Allied and Warsaw Pact troop dispositions were?" 
The officers shook their heads, no.

Kelly for the first time sounded exasperated.  "Well why, in
hell, not?  I thought you were supposed to show initiative?  Do
you know a characteristic differentiating this school from
others?  We have access to classified information.  Other schools
and scholars do not.  Now I'm going to make an assignment.  I
want to see you all back here tomorrow at 1200 hours.  By that
time I expect you to know what the Allied casualties were from
the time of the assault to the end of the war compared to those
of the Warsaw Pact.  You figure out who's going to get what, and
how."  She smiled and said, "I will see you all here again
tomorrow."  She rose from her chair to leave.

As she walked away from the table, she smiled to herself.  She
could hear a buzz of voices.  They had been chewed out and knew
it.  Kelly went back to her office and found Pete Martin waiting
for her.  He was talking to Rita Nelson who appeared to be very
flustered by his presence.  She asked Pete to join her in her
office and close the door.

"Pete, are you trying to get something going with my secretary? 
You ought to know that's my stunt.  In some quarters I'm
notorious as the officer who stole SACEUR's confidential
secretary."

Pete gaped.  "You didn't!"

"Sure I did.  She was Cathy King.  Now she is Cathy Adams.  I
tease Sam that he had to marry her to get her back.  She's about
to deliver their first child."

Pete just shook his head.  "Kelly Jackson, you are really a piece
of work!  No wonder you're relaxed.  The Chief of Staff is a
buddy and the chairmen of the two Armed Services Committees think
you walk on water.  Is there anything else?"

She grinned.  "Mike wanted to put in for reimbursement for our
honeymoon.  He claimed he was carrying out the direct orders of
the Commander in Chief."  Pete looked incredulous.  Kelly said,
"He was, too.  The President ordered us to get married... several
times, in fact."

"My God!  I think this is really going to be funny.  These
turkeys on the faculty have their heads buried in the sand.  They
don't know when they're overmatched.  And they sure are if they
try to cross swords with you."

He changed the subject.  "Seriously, about Rita... do you mind me
talking to her?"

Kelly smiled warmly.  "Not in the least.  You could do her a
great deal of good.  I'm not at all sure what's in it for you,
though."  His jaw dropped as she continued, "If you're looking
for someone to share your bed, I know several girls who would be
a lot better for that job."

She changed the subject.  "Pete, what I really want to know is
what you know about Horace Wilson and Homer Carson.  I'm hearing
things.  Do you know them?"

"I don't know either of them but I hear that Horace Wilson is a
buddy of Clarence Klein's.  He was in Klein's Peace Studies
Department until you disbanded it.  Why did you do that, by the
way?"

"Pete, think about it: Peace Studies in the War College?  Does
that sound like an oxymoron to you?  The job of military officers
is to prepare to win a war.  It's the job of the State Department
and others to try to keep the peace.  We're the backup if they
fail.  Are we supposed to second-guess the civilian control of
the military?  Are we supposed to have our own foreign policy
like some of the South American military leaders?"  She smiled
and concluded, "Does that make sense to you?"

Martin shook his head and said, "Kelly, you always make sense.  I
guess that's why the men all love you.  It's always clear what
you're trying to do, and what you expect the men to do to get
that job done.  Frankly, it's these other turkeys who don't make
sense."  He left after checking again on Kelly's feelings
regarding Rita Nelson.  Kelly grinned and wished him good
hunting.

When he left she picked up the phone and called Sam Adams' office
at the Pentagon.  After telling the secretary who she was she was
put through immediately.  Sam said, "What can I do for my
favorite teenybopper?"

Kelly grinned and said, "For openers, I'm going to be twenty next
month.  Then you'll have to knock off that shit!  Besides, is
that any way to refer to an expectant mother?  Speaking of which,
how's Cathy?"

"She's absolutely great, Kel.  You know what the remarkable thing
is?  She's due in just a couple of weeks, and she doesn't really
look that pregnant.  And she certainly doesn't act it!"

Kelly chuckled.  "Good for both of you, particularly Cathy.  Sam,
I can say only one thing:  I hope you two are as happy together
as you seem to be.

"Kelly, if I was any happier, it would be illegal!  With all
respect to my late wife, I've never been so happy in my life. 
Cathy is a dream come true.  But I don't think that's what you
called to talk about."

"Sam, to get to the purpose of my call:  There are some people
here at the College who are badmouthing the Allied campaign in
Germany.  Question: What were the comparative casualties,
beginning with the breakout?"

"Kelly, from that point to the end of the war we didn't suffer
500 killed from all causes.  Keep in mind that we have
significant casualties in war games.  We are known to engage in
hazardous activities from time to time... like teenyboppers
jumping off thirty-story buildings.  Of the 500, I don't know how
many were victims of enemy action, but it can't be a very big
number.  As for the Warsaw Pact, their casualties were up in
seven figures with the largest number, by far, being the number
captured... MIA to them.  Do you need anything better thanthat?"

"Thanks, Sam.  That certainly ought to do for starters. 
Incidentally, there may be some more faculty numbered among the
missing soon."

Sam said that would be no problem.

Kelly hung up and sat quietly at her desk thinking through her
course of action.  She buzzed Rita's desk and the girl quickly
responded.  Kelly asked her to bring in the class schedules and
her notebook.  When Rita entered the office moments later, Kelly
was bothered by certain of the girl's mannerisms.  Taken
together, Rita reminded her of a frightened rabbit.  Kelly asked
her to sit down.  She took the schedule and quickly noted that
Horace Wilson's class was scheduled for eight o'clock and would
meet the next day.  She smiled to herself thinking of Wilson
having to be in the classroom at such an unseemly hour.

Then Kelly looked at Rita closely.  She decided the girl really
did look frightened.  "Rita, what's wrong?" Kelly asked.  "You
always come in here looking scared to death.  How long have you
been secretary to the President of the College?"

The girl almost jumped out of her chair when she heard Kelly's
question.

Suddenly, Kelly had an idea.  She said, "Rita, are you a good
friend of Professors Klein, Wilson, and Carson?"  Rita turned
white as a sheet.  Guilt was all over her face.  She didn't
answer, but her face had answered for her.  "Rita, how old are
you?" Kelly asked quietly.

"I'm twenty-six," the girl replied in a quavering voice.  She was
looking at Kelly with fear that was a palpable thing.

Kelly continued in a very quiet tone of voice, "You do know that
unauthorized disclosure of confidential information is grounds
for immediate dismissal, don't you, Rita?  I believe your
position is under civil service, but you can be immediately
terminated for cause."

The girl broke down completely.  She started bawling.  Kelly sat
behind her desk, making no move in the girl's direction.  The
girl's crying quickly escalated into hysteria.  Kelly went around
to her, helped her out of the chair and led her to the sofa.  She
sat down and Kelly held her as she continued to cry.  Finally,
she was exhausted.

Still maintaining her very quiet tone of voice, she said, "You
are being blackmailed, aren't you, Rita?"  The girl had run out
of tears.  She was still sobbing, but they were now tortured dry
sobs.  She looked at Kelly with her tear-reddened eyes showing a
look of total defeat.

Kelly said, "Rita, do you mind if I ask Pete Martin to join us? 
As chief of security, he really needs to know what happened."

The girl was stricken by the words.  "Pete?  You have to ask
Pete?"  The girl stuck out her hands with her wrists together.

Kelly smiled to herself.  It was obvious the poor girl thought
she would be taken away in handcuffs.  She said, "Rita, do you
like Pete?"

The girl's eyes widened.  "Like him?  I adore him!"  She forced
herself to sit up straight and, with a superhuman effort of will,
regained control.  She said, "General, would you allow Pete to
take me here on your sofa before they take me away?  If you allow
that, I'll testify to anything and may not even mind spending the
rest of my life in a Federal prison."

Kelly was now angry and it showed.  "Rita, you're not going to
prison at all.  If I have anything to do with it, you'll still be
my secretary.  Do you want to go to jail?"

The girl was stunned.  "Of course not!  But they said that if it
came out, I was certain to be sentenced to life in prison." 
Suddenly, she snapped up straight and a spark of fire showed in
her eyes.  "General, did they lie to me?"

Kelly shook her head sadly, "I'm afraid they did.  I'm sorry,
Rita, but I have to get Pete in on this.  I think it will be
better for you, too.  Can you see ever becoming serious with him
if this whole affair is still hanging over your head?  Wondering
when he'll find out?"

The girl said, "Of course you're right, Kelly.  You're always
right.  I don't know how...  Oh, General, I'm so sorry!  I
mean..."

Again, the warm smile from Kelly.  "Rita, it is my name.  Almost
everyone calls me Kelly.  I don't mind a bit.  Pete calls me
Kelly now, too."

"He does?  But you're a general and he's only a captain!"

"And he's about ten years older than I am.  You're twenty-six. 
You have me by over six years."  Kelly grinned and added, "Sam
Adams still calls me a teenybopper, for Heaven's sake!  Don't
worry about it!  I certainly don't.  Seriously, Rita, wouldn't
you feel better if Pete found out about this now?  Get it over
with?"

The girl's head nodded quickly.  Kelly went to her desk and
called security.  She said, "This is General Jackson.  I must see
Captain Martin immediately.  If he's not around, find him.  It's
urgent."

She could almost hear the sergeant of the guard snap to
attention.  When the commanding general says "immediately," it is
right now!  He said, "We'll have him in your office right away,
sir!" and hung up.

Five minutes later there was an urgent knock on the door.

Pete came in still tucking in parts of his uniform.  Kelly
smothered a grin as she looked at him.  She said, "Captain
Martin, we have a major security problem here at the College.  It
seems Rita Nelson has been blackmailed to reveal confidential
information.  I want to get base security and Army Intelligence
on it immediately.  You handle the base and I'll handle
Intelligence."

"I'll get it underway immediately, General."

He started to leave the office when Kelly stopped him.  She told
him to use her private line.  "Pete, let's assume everything is
compromised until proven otherwise.  It's safer."

He called base security and advised the security officer.  When
he hung up, Kelly took the phone and called Sam Adams' office. 
She motioned Pete to take a seat.  Again Sam was quickly on the
phone.

"Sam, it's Kelly.  I have a major security problem here at the
War College."  She quickly told him what she had learned and what
she wanted to do.  She smiled as she realized the way she and Sam
were back in a war mode.  In spite of all their kidding, he could
and did move very quickly when the circumstances warranted.

He said, "Kelly, John St. Clair is now the Chief of Army
Intelligence.  Hang on and I'll call him on another line."  A few
minutes later Adams was back on the line.  "John is sending two
of his top plainclothes teams down.  They will be there in less
than fifteen minutes.  And Kelly... thanks."  Then she heard a
quiet chuckle on the phone as he added, "It must be your
pregnancy.  It took you nearly two weeks to discover it!"  He
hung up.

She then told Rita and Pete what was about to happen.  When her
phone rang she answered it and found it was General Bradford, the
commanding general of Fort Meade.  He said, "General, I just
learned about your problem.  With your permission, I would like
to reinforce your security detail.  I will put it under the
command of a major, double its size, and add more officers to the
detail."

Kelly said, "Thanks very much, Charley.  I appreciate the extra
manpower.  However, unless you plan on promoting Pete Martin --
which would be a fine idea, by the way -- I would prefer that
security remain under his command.  He's a very fine officer and
we're working very well together.  I would like him to remain as
the College's security officer."

"Are you serious?  Do you consider him to be that good,General?"

"Yes, I do, Charley.  Shall we give him his oak leaves tonight?"

There was a quiet chuckle at the end of the phone.  "Do it,
General.  It helps when the word comes down, from both the
Pentagon and Capitol Hill, that what Kelly Jackson wants, she
gets.  He's a good man.  And may I call you Kelly?"

"Of course!  I've been calling you Charley.  I'll tell Pete. 
Thanks again."  She hung up the phone and smiled at Pete. 
"Congratulations!  Let me be the first to congratulate you on
your promotion to major.  The security force is being doubled in
size.  There will be several more officers joining yourcommand."

Pete Martin just shook his head.  He looked at Kelly and said,
"General, I only heard one side of that conversation, but it
sounded like you as much as ordered General Bradford to promote
me to major.  Did you?"

Kelly just shrugged and smiled.  "I'm learning there are some
advantages that come with wearing stars on your shoulders.  It's
not all bad!"

Kelly checked the time and was pleased to see it was after four
o'clock.  Most of the faculty and students would be out of the
building by now.  A few minutes later there was a knock on her
door and Pete opened it.  There were two men in colonel's
uniforms accompanied by a security guard.  Pete saluted and it
was smartly returned.  They thanked the guard, came into the
office and closed the door.

The men introduced themselves as Army Intelligence officers from
CID -- Criminal Investigation Division -- and showed their
credentials to Kelly.  The senior, Chet Morrissey, said, "I'm
sorry, Major.  I'm only a captain and Mike Jordan here is a first
lieutenant.  We play fast and loose with rank insignia sometimes.
 Here at the War College, we figured captains and lieutenants
would stand out more than colonels."

He turned to Kelly and said, "General, General St. Clair sends
his respects.  And he means it, too.  Ma'am, I think you swing
more weight with our general than General Adams does.  Our orders
are to do whatever you want done.  And he emphasized_whatever!"_

Pete made the introductions.  Rita had been sitting beside him on
the sofa and Kelly had noticed that the girl seemed to draw
strength from the man sitting beside her.  When they turned to
her, she was composed.  Kelly said, "Rita, why don't you tell us
what happened?  It's been going on for years, hasn't it?"

Rita told how she had been in her position for almost six years.
She graduated from college, took a secretarial course, and got
the job as secretary to the President of the College.  She had
been attracted to Clarence Klein because he seemed to be a man of
peace.  He pumped her about what went on in the President's
office without ever seeming to.  Then as time went on, she found
she was telling him more and more.

Finally, after nearly three years, she was hooked.  One day Klein
and Wilson came to her and asked for material from the
president's confidential files.  She was shocked and refused. 
They said it was too late.  She had no choice.  They told her she
already faced life in prison for prior breeches of security. 
Everything was documented.  She told the investigators that she
knew Klein, Wilson, and Carson were involved.  There might have
been more, but she didn't know of any others.

She turned to Kelly and said, "General, when you fired Clarence
Klein, I almost shouted for joy!  I hate him!  He's tortured me
for years.  I'm glad it's over at last."  She stood up and smiled
at the investigators.  She put her wrists out in front of her and
said, "I'm ready now."

They looked at her, pretending ignorance.  "Ready for what?"

Rita looked baffled.  She said, "I'm ready to go to jail for
spying.  Could..."  She stood up very straight and said, "I'm
ready to testify for the government."  Then she suddenly turned
and took Pete's face in her hands.  She kissed him passionately.
He put his arms around her, and hers went around his neck.  The
kiss continued.  When she pulled away, tears were streaming from
her eyes again.  She said, "Goodbye, Pete."

She turned to go.  Chet Morrissey said quietly, "Rita, we're not
taking you anywhere.  You were blackmailed.  About the only thing
you're guilty of is being gullible... and that's not a crime. 
I'm only sorry you didn't come to us years ago, though.  It's
obvious that you've been living in terror for years.  Now, will
you help us put these guys in jail?  What you did isn't a crime,
but what they did certainly is."  He smiled at the astonished
girl and said, "Well, will you?"

"You mean... you're not taking me to jail?"  Chet shook his head.
 Suddenly, Rita blushed scarlet.  She looked at Pete and said,
"My God!  Pete, I only did that because... because I was going to
spend the rest of my life in prison."

Martin didn't say anything.  Instead he took her in his arms and
kissed her slowly and thoroughly.  Kelly could see the
unmistakable signs of the girl holding on to keep from falling as
her knees gave way.  Gently, he released from the kiss and put
her face on his shoulder and just held her.  Finally, he held her
away and looked at her face.  He said quietly, "It was even great
when you knew you weren't going to prison!  At least I thought it
was."

Morrissey and Jordan looked at the couple.  Mike said, "If it's
all the same to you two, could you hold that until later tonight?
 Meanwhile, we have some plans to make to get those guys."

They talked about various courses of action, but none of the
ideas sounded very good.  Then Kelly had an idea.  She called the
house on base where Katrina and Kevin would be living.  They were
due back that day.  When Katrina answered the phone, Kelly asked
for her father's fax number.  The girl found it and gave it to
her.

Kelly grinned and said, "I think we may be able to enlist some
help."

She turned to Rita and asked, "Is there a typewriter with the
Russian Cyrillic alphabet at the school?  I need one right now."
Rita was startled but knew where there was one.  She called for a
security guard to help her bring it to Kelly's office.

The others looked at her questioningly.  Finally she said, "Look,
let's assume these guys weren't doing all of this for the hell of
it.  Assuming there was a purpose, what was it?  For whom were
they working?  I may be able to find out."

A few minutes later Rita returned.  The guard was pushing a
typewriter on a mobile stand.  He positioned it in Kelly's office
and Rita plugged it in.  Kelly sat down and started typing
rapidly.  Rita exclaimed, "You can write... _Russian?"_

Kelly smiled at the girl and said, "You can learn a great deal at
the end of a whip.  Yes, I can write Russian."

She finished the letter and went to the facsimile machine in
Rita's office.  After dialing a long number the machine came to
life and the paper started to feed through.  Kelly smiled and
returned to her office with her paper.

Morrissey looked at her and said, "General, could you please tell
us what you just did?"

She said, "Chet, I just asked the President of the Russian
Republics to check the KGB files.  I asked if he can find
anything on Klein, Wilson, or Carson.  I also asked if they find
the names, to let us know who else is associated with them. 
Neither President Solov of Russia nor I like the KGB very much."

By this time a second team of intelligence agents had arrived. 
Morrissey was senior and assigned them the jobs of checking
locally on Klein, Wilson, and Carson.  Finally they left the
office with Pete offering to drive Rita home.

Kelly went back to her quarters where Selma had outdone herself
to make a spectacular dinner to welcome back the Murphys.  She
filled them in on developments and Katrina expressed the hope
that the KGB files might prove to be useful after all.Chapter28

Kelly kissed Mike goodbye early the next morning.  So far, except
for a slight swelling of her breasts, there was no sign of her
pregnancy.  She was in the office at seven o'clock and found an
answer to her facsimile message of the day before.  For a change,
the seven-hour time difference to Moscow came in handy.

She took the sheets to her office, sat down, and started to read.
 It was a personal message to her, signed "Uncle Mischa." 
Mikhail said he was replying in Russian on the assumption there
was an obvious breech of security at the College.  A search of
the KGB files showed that Klein, Wilson, and Carson were all on
the KGB payroll from a period beginning about eight years earlier
and continuing until the KGB was finally shut down the previous
year.  It appeared that their primary mission was to infiltrate
Fort Meade.  There were several Meade names included, people whom
the trio controlled.  Also included were their code names, the
person in the Soviet Embassy to whom Klein, the leader of the spy
cell, reported, and an accounting of payments to them going back
five years.

Finally, Solov noted there was an ominous report on Rita Nelson.
The KGB files confirmed the story she had told the day before. 
She was lured in on inconsequential matters and then hooked with
the threat of exposure.  When the Russians had attacked in
Germany, Rita rebelled.  Klein insisted she was becoming
dangerous; there was a dispatch in the file ready to be sent
ordering her execution.  It was dated the day the KGB ceased to
exist.

Kelly suddenly realized how close to death the girl had come. 
She picked up the phone and called security.  Pete Martin was at
the desk and she asked him to find "one of the new colonels who
reported in the previous evening."  She sat down at Rita's
typewriter and quickly typed an English-language version of
Mikhail's message leaving out the personal parts about Katrina's
pregnancy and her own.  Uncle Mischa was obviously elated at the
idea of becoming a grandfather.

She was just finishing reading the translation when Rita came in.
 Kelly looked up and whistled.  The girl's appearance had changed
totally since the previous evening.  Before today, Rita had
always looked like a frightened rabbit.  This morning she was a
beautiful young woman.  She glowed with happiness.

Rita was startled to find Kelly at her typewriter.  Then she
blushed, but stood up straight.  She said, "General... Kelly, I'm
not wearing a bra this morning."

"Your breasts seem firm enough.  You don't need one.  But why?"

The girl smiled warmly and said, "Because Pete's a boob man. 
Frankly, they're too sore.  I tried to put one on, but it hurt
too much for me to wear it today."  The girl's head rose even
straighter.  "I'll have my resignation on your desk in ten
minutes.  It shouldn't take more than thirty minutes to clean out
my desk."

"Rita, go get us some coffee, please, and then come into my
office."  Kelly glanced at her watch and found it was seven
thirty.  Moments later the girl came into the office with two
cups.  She gave Kelly her coffee and sat down on the edge of the
chair facing her from across the desk.  Kelly said, "Now why are
you resigning?"

The girl's head came up straight and she looked directly at
Kelly.  "Because I slept with Pete Martin last night.  I know I
should not.  It's fraternization with staff and it's forbidden. 
I could tell you it will never happen again, but I would be
lying.  I intend to keep doing it."  She glared at Kelly and
continued, "If he wanted to take me this minute, I would be on my
back on your carpet with my legs spread!"

Kelly smiled softly and replied, "If Mike came in and looked like
he wanted me, I would be, too.  So what?  And where did this
fraternization rule come from?"

Rita looked startled.  "Well everybody knows..."

"Does Pete?  Did he say anything about it last night?"

"Of course he didn't.  He's a man.  He wanted to get in my pants.
 And I wanted him to."

"Oh, I see!  You're just a hot cunt to Pete?  He doesn't care
about you at all?"

"Of course he didn't say that.  He says he loves me and wants to
take care of me."

"Do you believe him?  Do you love him?"

The girl's smile was beautiful.  "Kelly, I love him so
desperately.  But he can't love me.  I'm ugly and plain and..."

Kelly looked at the girl steadily.  Then she said, "Rita, let me
tell you something about Pete.  Yesterday afternoon before all
the trouble started, I saw Pete talking to you.  When he came
into my office I asked if he were interested in you.  Do you know
what else I said?  I said if he wanted someone to share his bed,
I could give him names of several beautiful girls who would be
happy to oblige him.  That was yesterday.  This morning I think I
see what Pete saw.  You are stunning!  And when you speak of
Pete, you glow.  Now for your information, there is no
anti-fraternization rule.  If there was, it's rescinded
retroactive to my taking command.  Now get your trim little ass
back to your desk where you belong!

"Oh, there's one more thing.  It's something I discovered with
Mike, and now all my friends do it, too.  At night after we make
love, I sleep on my back with my head on Mike's shoulder.  I
snuggle as close to him as I can and he puts his right hand over
my right tit.  I put my hand over it to keep it there.  I just
immediately fall asleep feeling warm and loved.  The next morning
if I wake up first, I squeeze his hand.  If he does, he squeezes
my breast.  In any event, he takes me that way before either of
us is fully awake.  What a wonderful way to start the morning!"

She smiled warmly at the girl and said, "Try it with Pete.  I
think you'll both like it."

Rita had listened carefully.  As Kelly spoke, the girl's mouth
started to drop.  Finally, she said, "My God!  But you're both
generals!"

Kelly just grinned.  "At home I'm just a hot cunt.  Rita, I'll
say just one more thing.  I've been raped by hundreds of men over
nearly a year's time.  I guess it was twenty to thirty a day,
every day.  I've made love with only one man: Mike.  It's so
exquisite, it makes all the other worthwhile.  It really does. 
Now get your ass in gear!  I've got to get moving."

Just then there was a knock on the door.  Pete and Chet Morrissey
came in.  Ignoring everyone else, Rita went to Pete and kissed
him warmly.  Kelly heard her murmur, "Good morning again,
darling."  Then with a quick wink at Kelly, she shot out the door
to her office.

Kelly glanced at her watch.  She wanted to be in Horace Wilson's
classroom in five minutes.  Quickly, she briefed them on what she
had learned.  Chet went to her phone and called the FBI.  He told
her that they had been alerted the previous night when it was
clear that civilian employees of the Army were involved.

Kelly had made copies of her translation so while Chet was on the
phone, Pete was reading the report carefully.  Finally he reached
the note about Rita and let out a soft whistle.  He looked up at
Kelly and said, "This confirms everything Rita said yesterday
afternoon.  Kelly, thank you!"

"Thanks for what?  I didn't do anything," she protested.

Pete just shook his head.  "You saved the life of the girl I
love.  General, it's well known how you and Marshall Solov ended
the war.  It looks like you did it just in time to save Rita's
life.  I'm sure this death warrant is no joke!"

Morrissey was off the phone and waiting.  He asked, "What do you
want us to do, General?  Should we pick up Wilson and Carson
now?"

Kelly remembered her discussion of the previous morning.  She
said, "Why don't you ask the FBI to pick up Klein now.  I want to
sit in on Wilson's class this morning.  It might be informative.
Morrissey, why don't you come, too?  You might learn something."

The call went out to have Klein picked up and Carson watched. 
When they entered the lecture hall where Wilson's class met,
Kelly went to the back of the hall where she could hide behind
some students.  Morrissey sat in the front.  They figured that
Wilson was sufficiently egotistical that he wouldn't know one
student from another.

As students came in and took their seats, Jack George saw her and
she told him what she wanted to do.  They found a seat for Kelly
behind a particularly large officer.  At nine o'clock Wilson
entered the classroom.  He went to the lectern and proceeded to
pick up where he had left off the day before.  Before he could
begin, Jack George had his hand up and Wilson acknowledged him.

George said, "Professor Wilson, yesterday, and for a number of
days prior, you said the attack through Germany was not the way
to go.  You said a move from Strasbourg was superior.  Why?"

Wilson huffed and said, "That's a stupid question.  The answer is
obvious to anyone with half a brain!"

George persisted: "I have at least half a brain and I was there.
It wasn't obvious to me then or now.  Furthermore, I realized
after class that this may be a first: second-guessing a victory.
Now, Mr. Wilson, suppose you tell me why a Strasbourg attack
would have been better?  For openers, how do we get across the
Rhine?  What about casualties?  I checked yesterday and found
that Allied losses from all causes from the time of the attack to
the end of the war were fewer than 500.  The Warsaw Pact forces
lost millions, overwhelmingly captured -- MIA to them.  The war
was over in less than sixty days.  How could it have been
better?"

Wilson looked startled.  This was the first time he had ever been
challenged in his classroom.  He said, "Those numbers are
ridiculous!  Our casualties were enormous.  Whole units were
wiped out by the Russians and their allies.  Casualties from a
Strasbourg campaign would have been much lighter."

At this point Kelly decided that the game had gone on long
enough.  She stood up.  Wearing her uniform, Wilson recognized
her instantly and she saw a look of fear on his face.  She said,
"Mr. Wilson, what is the source of your information on
casualties?  The KGB, perhaps?  I know you were an employee of
theirs for eight years until they were... put out of business...
suddenly!

"You should know, Mr. Wilson, that I am not a great fan of the
KGB, having been a prisoner of theirs for nearly a year.  It
isn't a great deal of fun to be raped twenty to thirty times a
day, every day, and to be whipped constantly.  We got kind of
dirty.  They took over our shower room for use as a torture
center.  Then all they had to do was turn on the shower when they
finished beating us to wash our blood off the floor."

The whole class had turned and was looking at Kelly in horror as
she continued, "I received an interesting message from Russia
this morning.  It seems you, Klein, and Carson have been on the
KGB payroll for years.  I suggest we end this now, shall we? 
There are some people waiting outside who want to take you into
custody.  Personally, I don't think it could happen to a nicer
guy!"

A look of stark terror came over Wilson's face.  He reached into
his coat and pulled out a gun which he started to aim at Kelly. 
He screamed, "I'll fix you, you bitch!  You ruined everything! 
We would have run this country!"

As his gun came around, he fired a shot that hit the ceiling. 
Suddenly, there were two fast shots and a red hole appeared in
the center of Wilson's forehead.  As he crumpled to the floor,
Kelly returned her automatic to its waistband holster.  The class
sat in stunned silence as agents of the FBI and Army Intelligence
burst into the room.

Kelly was still standing unperturbed.  She announced, "I'm sorry
the class ended so abruptly.  I guess there's early dismissal
today."

She went up to the front of the room and met with the agents. 
Chet Morrissey looked at her in utter amazement.  He said, "Holy
Christmas!  Now I see why St. Clair is so high on you.  I was
watching the whole time.  You were standing there quietly and
suddenly there are two shots.  I never saw your hand move."  He
said, "General, may I see that weapon?  I just saw a gleam for an
instant."

She reached behind her back, took the gun, extracted the magazine
and removed the round from the chamber.  She passed it to him
butt first.  The other law enforcement officers crowded around. 
They had never seen a weapon like it and said so.  Kelly smiled
and said it was because there was no weapon like it.

An agent had been carefully looking around the front of the room.
 He joined the group, shaking his head.  He couldn't figure out
where the second bullet went.  They had heard one shot --
Wilson's weapon -- followed by two more: Kelly's.  They could see
the mark in the ceiling where Wilson's slug had gone, but
couldn't find Kelly's second bullet.

Kelly looked sheepish.  She said, "Tony Labruzio said it could,
and I guess it did."

Chet Morrissey looked baffled.  He said, "Who's Tony Labruzio,
and what's he got to do with anything?  What did what do?"

Kelly smiled and said, "Tony's the lead craftsman in Smith &
Wesson's Special Weapons Unit.  He and his people crafted this
piece for me.  He said it's capable of putting two bullets into a
single hole.  I think it just did.  I think an autopsy will find
two bullets, one behind the other in Wilson's head.  Of course,
they can bounce around inside the skull and probably did."

Carefully, they returned her weapon to her.  By this time an
ambulance had arrived to take away the body.  Kelly left the
classroom and went to the lounge.  Everyone present came to his
feet and began to applaud.  Kelly reddened and went to the table
where she had been sitting the day before.  She decided it had
been a very eventful twenty-four hours.  A waiter brought over a
cup of coffee.

Jack George was sitting at the table.  He said, "General...
Kelly... I've never seen anything like that in my life!"  His
facial expression suddenly became one of awe.  "Now I remember! 
The 'Kelly Jackson Trademark'!"

One of the other officers looked puzzled.  "What's the 'Kelly
Jackson Trademark'?" he asked.

"I heard about it from a guy in the 82nd Airborne," George said.
"They relieved Kelly and found eighty bodies, each with a bullet
in his head.  I thought it was standard battlefield exaggeration.
 Now, I'm not so sure.  In fact, I guess it's probably true.  Is
it Kelly?"

She smiled wryly and shook her head.  "I really don't know.  Like
good women everywhere, I fainted when it was over.  I have no
idea."

Another officer said, "I was with the 82nd, and I was there.  It
is true.  I saw the bodies myself.  And what the General neglects
to mention is that she fainted from loss of blood as she handed
Jim Ames a cup of coffee.  I don't know how many blood units they
pumped into her, but it was a bunch.  She was hit in the shoulder
by shrapnel and her left sleeve was dripping blood."  He smiled
and added, "If the coroner's jury is smart, they'll bring in a
finding of death by suicide.  Drawing a weapon on Kelly Jackson
amounts to the same thing.  Down the road at Quantico they speak
of Kelly Jackson in hushed and reverent tones."

Kelly changed the subject.  She said, "Jack, it sounds like you
did your homework I assigned yesterday."  She looked around and
saw that the group from the day before was present.  "How about
the rest of you?"

Chairs were pulled up and an animated discussion began.  As they
talked, more men pulled up chairs.  At the end of an hour Kelly
looked around and said, "We're missing a couple of teachers. 
Until replacements are found, I guess I'll teach Wilson's class
on strategy.  The assignment for tomorrow is Caesar's
Commentaries.  We'll begin with the Romans and then see what
happens."

Kelly went back to her office.  Opening the door, she found Rita
and Pete in a close embrace.  She said, "Ahem!"  They broke apart
and stood looking like school children.  Kelly just grinned and
looked at her watch.  She said, "Rita, be sure you charge this as
personal time on your time sheet.  And as for you, Martin, you
haven't broken up a spy ring in over an hour!  Let's get with
it."

Pete left the office and Rita turned to go back to hers, but
Kelly asked her to take a seat.  The girl did and Kelly was
delighted to see how changed she was in appearance.  Now she
seemed very relaxed.  Kelly said, "Rita, between kisses, did Pete
tell you about the fax I received from Moscow this morning?"

Rita looked startled.  "No, he didn't.  Honestly, Kelly, I had
forgotten all about it.  I was... occupied.  What did it say?"

"First, Rita, it confirmed everything you told us yesterday
afternoon.  The KGB files supported your statement that you were
trapped into working for Klein and company.  However, it said
something else.  Klein was concerned that you were going to go to
the authorities.  There was an execution order in their file
ready to be dispatched: yours.  They were about to kill you to
keep you from talking."

Rita turned pale.  Then she looked at Kelly with her eyes bright.
 "Thank you, General, for saving my life.  I guess you closed
down the KGB just in time."  The girl smiled weakly and said,
"And that was great shooting this morning!"

Kelly shook her head and said, "It was my fault, I guess.  I
could have tried to do something fancy like shooting him in his
gun arm.  But he had reminded me of my treatment at the hands of
the KGB and I wasn't feeling very friendly."

Just then there was a knock on the door.  Kevin and Katrina
Murphy came in.  Both were showing concern.  Kelly introduced
them to Rita and said, "Katrina is like me: also pregnant.  She
doesn't show it, either.  Kevin, could you excuse us a minute? 
Girl talk?"

Kevin grinned and left the room after kissing Katrina warmly. 
Rita just looked.  Kelly stood behind Katrina and gently put her
finger tips on the girl's abdomen.  She could feel the tiniest
bulge, but then she felt a kick.  She took the older girl in her
arms and kissed her.  "Sis, you look great!  How do you feel?  I
could feel your passenger just then."

Katrina was radiant.  "Kelly, I feel great!  But that's not what
you wanted to talk about."

Kelly smiled and shook her head.  "Katrina, it's Rita here.  She
had her first experience last night.  She just discovered sex.  I
told her about sleeping on Mike's shoulder and said you do the
same with Kevin.  Do you have any advice for her?"

Katrina took Rita in her arms and hugged her.  "You look great,
Rita, so I guess you enjoyed it.  I gather it was a first for
you?"  Rita nodded.  "Kevin was the first and only for me.  All I
can say is if you follow Kelly's lead, soon you'll have a bulging
belly, too.  Kelly's been married less than six months.  Every
girl in her wedding is now pregnant.  She's contagious!"

Kelly said, "Every girl?  You mean Chris..."

"I sure do," Katrina replied with a grin.  "She told me last
night.  And Kelly, she said she's traded in her personhood for
motherhood and feels it's good riddance.  She loves you, Kel, and
so does Bill.  She says that Kelly Jackson Callahan is proof that
a girl can have it all.  She also says it couldn't happen to a
nicer guy!"

She turned back to Rita and said, "Kelly's advice to me was to
sleep with my head on Kevin's shoulder.  All I can say is, take
the advice.  Every night is like going to heaven.  I have never
had such beautiful dreams.  Sometimes I sort of wake up.  I feel
Kevin's body against mine, his arm around me, and his hand
cupping my breast.  I feel so great!  Then I just drift back to
sleep."Chapter 29

Kelly had received an invitation to speak at a meeting of the War
College Officers' Wives Club.  When she checked with Rita, she
was told it was a standard invitation.  The president
traditionally spoke at the club's major spring meeting.  Rita was
sitting across from her in her office.  She had been teasing the
girl about the dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep. 
The girl spread her legs wide and rubbed her groin gently.

By this time Rita had become accustomed to Kelly's teasing.  She
just stuck out her tongue and said, "You're just jealous because
you're bulging with a baby and I'm not."  Actually, they both
knew that Kelly wasn't bulging at all.  The only sign -- which
wasn't visible when she was dressed -- was her swollen breasts.

Kelly smiled softly and said, "Rita, you can't believe how
wonderful I feel!  The important thing is it relieves our minds.
Mike knows I was pretty badly beaten by the KGB and no one could
be sure I was still capable of having children.  My doctor says
I'm made for having babies.  She says there won't be much bulging
at all.  The same thing is true with Katrina.  Anyway, what about
the Wives' Club?  What should I wear?  Should I go in uniform?

Rita cocked her head to one side and looked pensive.  "I think
you should, Kelly.  I don't know about you, but I've always
thought that a pregnant woman in uniform is a contradiction
somehow.  But you can certainly wear your uniform now, and I
think you should."

Kelly agreed, so she went over to the Officers Club wearing her
summer service uniform.  She was greeted at the door by the
president of the club, Marian Collins, whose husband, Harry, was
a brigadier general and a student at the College.  The woman held
both of Kelly's hands in hers and looked at her.  She slowly
shook her head.  "Harry told me about you, but I didn't believe
him.  You look so young!"

Kelly grinned and said, "Sh!  They're not supposed to serve me,
but they've never had the nerve to ask a general for proof of
age."	

Marian Collins was aghast.  "Do you mean to say you're not even
twenty-one!?"

"I won't be twenty until next month.  It's known to a lot of
people but I still don't advertise it.  Please don't mention it
today.  Now, I didn't prepare a speech.  I have no idea what the
members are interested in.  If it's all right with you, Mrs.
Collins, I would prefer to just answer questions from the floor.
Would that be satisfactory?"

Marian Collins looked nervous.  "I'm sure that will be fine," she
said, but she didn't look as if she meant it. 

Kelly said, "Mrs. Collins, it looks like your heart wasn't in
that answer.  What's wrong?"

Marian explained, "If I had known what I was getting into, I
never would have taken this job.  Even though we're all officers'
wives, we have some militant feminists in our group who come with
all the well-known baggage.  Frankly, I don't see how some of
these girls stay married or why they would want to if they really
believe half of what they say.  I guess I was hoping you would
have a nice boring speech that would put everyone to sleep.

"I know that's a terrible thing to say, but I can't take the
constant battling anymore.  Usually the president of the college
gives a speech like that.  No one knows what he's talking about
but the big words sound real good."

She grinned at Kelly and said, "Come on, General.  I'll buy you a
drink.  If they ask, I'll say you're my daughter and of course
you're over twenty-one.  As a matter of fact, my youngest child
is twenty-three now."  The woman smiled at Kelly and added,
"Please call me Marian."

She smiled at Kelly who decided she liked Marian Collins very
much.  She had beautiful features, a beautiful figure, but
carried enough extra pounds to appear matronly.  The woman led
the way to the bar.  She asked, "May I call you Kelly?  I hope
that's not being too familiar?"

Kelly said of course not and asked her please to do so.  They
were seated in a booth and Marian Collins looked at Kelly's
breast for the first time.  She saw the array of ribbons and
immediately looked puzzled.  She said, "Kelly, I apologize.  I
asked for a biography to use in your introduction but it never
arrived.  I'm looking at those ribbons.  The second one looks
familiar, but I can't tell you why.  What is it?"

Kelly replied softly, "It's the ribbon of the Medal of Honor."

Marian Collins turned pale.  "My God!  We're used to academic
presidents at the War College!  When I asked for your bio, I was
just being polite.  But... it's the second ribbon -- and there's
an oak leaf cluster.  That means two, doesn't it?  I thought the
Medal of Honor was the highest award we have.  What's the first
ribbon for?"

"It's the ribbon of the Cross of Liberty.  It is now the senior
United States award for valor.  And yes, there is an oak leaf
cluster on the Medal of Honor.  To save time, it is followed by
the Distinguished Service Cross, the Legion of Merit, the Silver
Star, Purple Heart, and some foreign stuff."

Marian raised an eyebrow.  "Foreign stuff?  What 'foreign stuff'?
 Specifically?"

Kelly blushed.  "The Victoria Cross, the Croix de Guerre, the
Gold Order of the Knight's Cross, and the Gold Cross of the
Republics.  In order, Great Britain, France, Germany, and
Russia."

Collins let out a soft whistle.  "I guess it shows what happens
when you don't pay attention to what's going on in the world. 
Kelly, there are two things:  I'm no military genius, but I
recognize the first couple of names.  Am I correct in assuming
that those awards are the highest awards for valor the respective
countries ever award?"  Kelly nodded.

"And the Cross of Liberty?  That has to be very new.  I'll bet
you are the only winner, aren't you?"  Again Kelly nodded. 
Marian Collins smiled and nodded her head.  "In that case, I
guess you're just the person to enter our lion's den.  If you
can't handle them, we'll just have to give up!"  They finished
their drinks and went to the dining room.

Kelly was surprised to find Camille acting as head waiter.  She
caught the girl's quick wink.  As she was being seated, Camille
quickly whispered that her mother was managing the luncheon. 
"Kelly, we have an investment in you.  We can't take a chance
with you eating yucky food!"  Kelly just grinned and winkedback.

The luncheon was a memorable feast.  Marian Collins couldn't
believe what she was eating.  "Where did this food come from? 
It's the best I've ever eaten -- anywhere!  Kelly, have you ever
had anything to compare with it?"

Kelly grinned at her and whispered, "As a matter of fact, yes. 
It's my cook who's cooking today.  You see, I'm expecting a baby.
 The beautiful girl who seated us is my doctor.  They want to be
sure I eat the right things."

Marian's jaw dropped.  "You're serious, aren't you?  But, my God,
you don't look pregnant.  And the person who cooked this is _your
cook?"_

Kelly assured her she was indeed pregnant and Selma was the
family's cook.  "I won't try to tell you how that happened,
because I haven't quite figured it out yet, myself."

Finally the lunch was over and it was time for the meeting to
begin.  First, there was a short business session.  In spite of
the wonderful food and the routine nature of the club's business,
the antagonisms in the organization became immediately apparent.

Finally, Marian adjourned the business portion of the meeting and
introduced Kelly:  "Ladies, we are fortunate today to have with
us the President of the War College, Lieutenant General Kelly
Jackson.  General Jackson... Kelly... represents a significant
break with the recent past.  As most of you know, the last
several College presidents have been academicians.

"I don't believe Kelly qualifies.  I learned some things today
which cause me to believe she is the most highly-decorated war
hero in the history of the United States.  You see a row of
ribbons on her chest?  There is not a single service ribbon
there.  Every one is an award for gallantry.  She leads off with
the Cross of Liberty.  It is the highest award our nation can
give and was created for her.  Why?  Because following it are two
Medals of Honor, formerly our highest award.  I guess Congress
didn't want to make it three.  She also wears the highest awards
that can be given to anyone by England, France, Germany, and,
believe it or not... Russia.

"Please welcome our guest speaker today, the President of the War
College, Lieutenant General Kelly Jackson!"

Kelly stood up and went to the speaker's rostrum.  She said,
"Good afternoon, ladies.  I spoke with your president this
morning about the topic for my talk today.  Apparently, there is
none.  I gather that precedent is for the President of the
College to put you all to sleep with an academic speech on some
arcane subject or other.  I can't give an academic speech.  I'm
not an academic.  Accordingly, I just intend to answer any
questions you may have about the College or anything else you may
be interested in."

A woman who appeared to be in her mid-thirties stood up.  She had
a very stern face and wore mannish clothes.  She said, "I think
it's wonderful for us to welcome General Jackson this afternoon.
She has demonstrated what happens when women have full control of
their own bodies.  What happens when they have access to the
right kind of education.  Now, perhaps they'll see what happens
when women have access to degrees and..."

She stopped because Kelly was shaking her head from side to side
and trying without great success to control her laughter.  She
stopped and Kelly looked around on both sides.  She said, "I was
looking to see if someone else was up here with me.  Madam, your
statements may be correct.  I don't know.  I do know you can't
use me to prove them.

"First, with respect to 'control of our bodies' and 'the right
kind of education'.  My body was under the control of the KGB. 
My education was administered at the end of a whip.  I don't
think that's quite what you had in mind.  As for degrees, I don't
have any.  In fact, it's been pointed out to me a few times by a
number of people, including the President of the United States,
that my high school diploma is honorary.  And that's true it is.
I'm afraid I didn't let you finish the speech you were starting
to make.  I apologize.  However, I could see you were headed for
trouble when your preliminary remarks were factually incorrect,
at least as they concern me.

"However, I think I know where you're going.  I think you were
headed for a diatribe about dominating men and subservient women.
 How we have no control over our bodies.  I guess I can
understand that.  My first child is growing in my belly right
now.  This morning I could feel his first movement.  It's a
little boy, and Mike and I can hardly wait.  I have no control
over that.  It's taking place inside me right now.  Do you know
what?  I'm the proudest woman on the face of the earth.  I am
going to be the mother of Michael Callahan's children!  It's all
I ever wanted from the first night I met him.  Control of our
bodies?  I will do anything for Michael Callahan.  The only
important question to me is, 'Will it give my husband pleasure?'
If the answer is yes, I do it.  But I'm afraid that's not what
you wanted to hear, either."

There was the sound of people moving and then a voice behind
Kelly said, "Stand aside, young lady.  It's time for
reinforcements."  Kelly spun around and found Cathy Adams
standing there behind her.  Cathy hugged her and moved to the
microphone.  Kelly was stunned to see Katrina, Mary Harris, and
Chris Collins.  Mary was now Mary Carson and Chris was married to
Bill Carlson.  Kelly returned to her seat and waited to see what
would happen next.

Cathy spoke into the microphone.  "Ladies, order please.  My name
is Cathy Adams.  I guess I'm here this afternoon because, since
my husband, Sam, is Army Chief of Staff, I outrank Kelly... sort
of.  On my left beginning with the silver blonde, we have Katrina
Solov Murphy, then Mary Harris Carson, and finally Chris Collins
Carlson.  We are the female members of Kelly's wedding party. 
We're all married.  And we're all pregnant -- although none of us
has been married a year yet.  As the oldest, it's only right that
I'm closest to delivering.  We came to tell you something and to
tell Kelly something.

"First, my child will carry the name Kelly... probably as a
middle name.  I was Sam Adams' secretary.  I loved him for years,
but didn't do anything about it.  The first time I met Kelly, I
hated her.  I thought she was a call girl who Sam had arranged to
have visit him at SACEUR headquarters in England.  I'll never
forget what she said: 'Sam said this was the first time.'

"We went into Sam's office -- Kelly was a major then -- and he
tells me to arrange for an immediate promotion for her to
lieutant colonel and to begin action to award her the Legion of
Merit.  Then I find out that she already had her first Medal of
Honor, as well as the Silver Star, and a Purple Heart.  I wanted
to die!  Keep in mind, I had just accused her of being a whore!

"Do you know what she does?  She tells Sam I love him.  How did
she know?  She pointed out to Sam that he was terribly attractive
to me.  He thought he was too old.  She said if I considered a
nineteen-year-old as competition for his attention, being
thirty-two, I couldn't possibly consider him to be too old. 
Kelly then told me how to act and what to do.  She told me how to
seduce Sam.  I did.  We got married.  I got pregnant.  I couldn't
be happier.

"Oh, I nearly forgot.  I'm a West Point graduate with a graduate
degree from Harvard.  I'm a major in the Army.  I have all the
pieces of paper you were alluding to.  You know what?  You can
take them and shove 'em!  Since I've been with Sam, I've never
been happier.

"One final point.  I saw Kelly when she was wounded and evacuated
back to England.  She was white as a sheet from blood loss.  Do
you know what happened?  They put her in one of our fastest
helicopters.  It came all the way back to England from Germany
covered by four helicopter gunships and a full fighter squadron
covering above.  Why?  Because it was Kelly!  When the men of the
82nd Airborne Division saw her fall, the word spread like
wildfire: 'Kelly's down!  She's hit!'

"Those men went berserk.  Do you know why?  Because they love her
so damned much.  When she came to in the hospital, her first
thought was for Mike.  She had operated on him -- for the second
time -- to remove a bullet.  Degrees?  Right kind of education? 
No, ladies.  It's being women.  Now I want to introduce Mary
Harris Carson who knew Kelly before I did.  Mary?

Microphones had been placed in front of the women  Mary spoke
from her seat.  She said, "Like Cathy, I'm a West Point graduate.
 I met Kelly at Quantico, just down the road.  I was a second
lieutenant at the time and very proud of my West Point education
and my Regular Army commission.  Ken Carson, my husband now, was
the platoon leader of our training platoon.  I was his assistant
platoon leader.  We had this beautiful young girl assigned to our
platoon.  Because we were training for penetration behind enemy
lines, there were all sorts of people in our unit including
civilian foreign nationals.  Of course, I knew all about Kelly. 
She had to be a punk kid out of the enlisted ranks.  I was an
officer.  I was going to show her how it was done.  Boy, I sure
did!

"She seemed to delight in showing me up.  I was an officer, mind
you!  But there were things I observed that I didn't understand.
The instructors in small arms and explosives at the school seemed
to defer to her.  She was very good with weapons of all kinds,
particularly including Russian small arms.  But I could get even!
 I was giving her punishment details for everything --
principally for showing up at school in the morning.  The most
she ever did was to look at me with the faintest expression of
hurt in her eyes.  I was being unfair and she knew it.

"Finally, after two weeks, I couldn't take it any more.  I made
an issue of it with Ken.  I had Kelly in my charge, and he took
my word for it.  I'll never forget what happened then.  It was a
Monday morning.  We met with Colonel Rogers, the school CO.  I
said, 'Kelly's exercises are okay, Colonel, but she'll never be
able to operate behind enemy lines.  She doesn't have the
temperament for it.'  He said he would take my recommendation to
drop her from the program under advisement and let us know his
decision after a meeting of the student body that afternoon.

"That afternoon I looked around the auditorium.  Kelly was gone.
Well, I thought, that takes care of one problem.  Then Colonel
Rogers addresses us.  He points out that we are organized as a
training company, but we have no company commander.  He tells us
we're fortunate to have an officer -- a major -- who is fluent in
German and Russian, an officer who has the Medal of Honor for
gallantry in action behind enemy lines.  That's just the sort of
work we were there to train for.  The officer was Kelly, of
course.  When the meeting was over, Kelly asked Ken and me to
stay.  I resigned my commission on the spot.  Instead of
accepting it, she ordered me to do twenty pushups.  I did.  I
said I had been punishing her unfairly.  She replied that she had
just punished me unfairly, too.

"Later, she asked Ken and me to join Mike and her at Virginia
Beach for our one free weekend.  Why she would want to associate
with me I never could figure out, but we went down with them.

"Lying on the beach that day I saw the marks of her whippings all
over her body.  She had been continually tortured by the KGB for
nearly a year.  I had the gall to ride a girl who had been
through that -- and wins the Medal of Honor, too.

"Anyway, Kelly takes over our company.  She wants us to set
records for achievement.  She shows us how to do everything and
then we try to follow.  Our company set every record the place
has.  Oh, I nearly forgot.  Kelly set every personal record they
have...  Every single one!  You know what?  It was a by-product.
She was just demonstrating what she wanted us to do.

"Well, anyway, Ken and I went on the mission with Kelly and Mike
that took out the Russian reserves and made our breakthrough in
Germany possible.  She planned it and then she executed it.  And
she got us out.  I have never felt so honored in my life as when
she asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding.  Ken and I are
married now.  I adore the man.  Like Cathy, I took advice from
Kelly.  It works.  I'm pregnant, too.  I can hardly wait to
deliver our baby!  Now I want you to hear from Katrina Murphy."

Katrina smiled at the women and said, "I'm Katrina Solov Murphy.
As was the case with Cathy and Mary, I started off with Kelly on
the wrong foot.  I was sure she was some general's mistress
masquerading as an officer -- a colonel, yet.  I was a captain in
the Red Army and a prisoner of war.  One morning two MPs took me
from the POW compound and escorted me to a German castle.  I was
seated between them when this beautiful blonde comes up and says,
'I'm Kelly Jackson.  Your father has told me so much about you.'

"Then she takes me into a room and I see my father there.  He was
Field Marshall Mikhail Solov, commander in chief of Warsaw Pact
forces in the West, and a candidate member of the Soviet
Politburo.  I learn that this is the girl he had told me about. 
A girl -- a junior in high school -- captured in the first days
of fighting and enslaved by the KGB.  I did not believe him. 
Then she took off her clothes at my father's request.  I saw
where she had been viciously beaten around the loins and breasts
-- not just on one occasion, but continually for months.  My
father knew her because she had danced for him and then had been
made available to him when he was a guest of the KGB at the
school.  My father tried to close the prison school down but
could not.  He felt it was wrong to make war on women and
children.  Well, one of those children made war on us.

"Later that day my father and I were guests at a military review.
 My father understood the significance of what we were seeing,
even if I did not at the time.  There were troops from all of the
Allied assault units there to pay tribute to Kelly Jackson. 
Leading them was the 82nd Airborne.  The men love Kelly.  She was
awarded the Victoria Cross and the Croix de Guerre by the
governments of Great Britain and France that day."

Katrina beamed.  "That was the day I met my husband, Kevin.  He
came up to us and kissed Kelly.  He still had a black eye and a
broken nose.  I asked him what had happened.  He said he had
encountered the best unarmed combat specialist in the Army when
he was with two buddies.  I asked him if the brute was put in
prison.  Kevin told me the brute was Kelly Jackson.  She took on
three men, including my husband, Kevin, all of whom weigh over
200 pounds.  They ended up unconscious.  Kelly didn't displace a
hair."  Katrina looked at Cathy and said, "Cathy, you were there
that day, weren't you.  Was it as I have said?"  Cathy said it
was.

Katrina continued.  "Why do the men of the 82nd love her so? 
I'll tell you why.  First, she was attacked by three junior
officers.  She was a lieutenant colonel.  She was in the company
of SACEUR's secretary.  When General Adams asked her about it,
she lied!  She said the young officers had slipped on a wet
floor.  Later in Germany, my husband, Kevin, was the first man to
reach her behind the Russian lines.  She spoke to him like a
Southern belle, remarking that she didn't know he had been
invited to the ball.  She then makes black coffee for General
Ames that she gives to him as she drops from loss of blood.

"My people -- the Russian people -- consider her to be our
nation's liberator.  We have taken down Lenin's Tomb in Red
Square.  It will be replaced with a statue of Kelly.  Plans are
not final yet.  However, current thinking is to have a statue of
a naked woman -- Kelly -- spread-eagled for whipping.  Why such a
thing?  My father points out that we would still be under a yoke
of oppression reaching back seventy-five years under the Soviet
system and hundreds more under the Czars, had it not been for an
accident of history.  If we had done what we should have done,
all the girls at the school in Langenhagen would have been
repatriated to the United States.

"Instead, the KGB enslaved them.  Kelly finally escaped, killing
the commandant with his own knife in the process.  The next day
she dynamites the bridge on the River Weser and that was the
beginning of the end for the Warsaw Pact forces.  Therefore, in a
perverse way we Russians owe our liberty to a young woman who we
brutally tortured for nearly a year."  Katrina's voice dropped
until it was almost a whisper.  "What a terrible price for a
beautiful young woman to pay!  And yet she did.

"Let me say that, at the request of the Russian Government, I
presented Kelly with a Faberge egg.  Before long, she will have
them all.  They are beautiful things.  But they are inanimate. 
She is beautiful, too.  But living.  She suffered.  God, did she
suffer!  I was there when she was cheered by my people.  Do you
know what she said?  She said that millions of Russians had lost
their lives through the activities of the KGB.  She survived. 
She was then engaged to be married to Mike, the man she loves. 
The Russians left grieving widows, children, parents.  She hadn't
suffered at all compared to what we did.  My people cried!  They
really did!  Their liberator had suffered as they had.  They love
her as I do.

"Then she told me how to behave with men -- one man, Kevin. 
We're married, and I, too, am expecting a baby.  Like Kelly, I
have felt him move inside me.  It is the most beautiful feeling
in the world!  Now, I want you to hear from someone who I think
you may recognize, Chris Collins.  I'm sure many of you have seen
her on television."

Chris smiled and went to stand behind the microphone.  She looked
at the woman who asked the first question and said, "I think I'm
the one you were talking about.  Like Cathy, I have two degrees.
I made my way in a dog-eat-dog business, broadcast journalism. 
As a matter of fact, I think my dues to NOW are still paid up. 
However, I don't intend to renew my membership.

"I first met Kelly the night she was awarded the Gold Cross of
Liberty.  I was in the network news booth watching as the
President told Congress of her exploits.  I watched as Congress
passed the legislation on the spot to create the medal and then
to award the first -- and only -- to Kelly Jackson.  I saw this
golden-haired creature address a joint session of Congress.  Who
were they trying to kid, anyway?  Nineteen years old?  Utterly
ridiculous!

"I jumped on my people and got down to the door where my fellow
jackals of the press were ready to pounce.  Kelly stood there and
said she would spend time with two journalists: Bill Carlson and
me.  Boy, was I going to eat his lunch!  Bill is a conservative
journalist.  I'm a big time broadcast news personality.  That
means my pay check is in six figures.  That night we went to get
some things from my apartment.  As we were leaving, we were
jumped by a gang of thugs.  In a matter of seconds, Kelly and
Mike had buried ten of the leaders of the worst gang in the
District of Columbia.

"The next day we went to Hartford and the Smith & Wesson factory.
 I saw Kelly cry as she hugged the girl who had modeled for the
Kevlar vest she wore in Germany.  It's a flak vest, so called. 
It's supposed to be bulletproof.  Hers is.  It was custom-made
for her and took five hits, at least three of which would have
been fatal had she not been wearing it.  When Smith & Wesson went
to make it, time was so short that instead of using the girl to
make a form and then using the form to shape the Kevlar, they
molded the scorching hot plastic to her body.  She suffered
terrible burns in order for that vest to be ready in time.  The
girl had lost her husband in Germany early in the war.  She
wanted to do something to help.  She suffered, but she
accomplished something!  God, did she ever!  I did a story on her
awhile ago.  I learned recently that she's met a new guy and is
very happy.  She deserves every happiness.

"Anyway, then we went down to Fort Campbell where Kelly took
command of the 101st Airborne.  I saw done with a full division
of 17,000 men what Mary described happening with a company at
Quantico.  However, at Quantico the students were handpicked for
dangerous missions.  They were all volunteers.  The 101st was a
bunch of sad sacks.  The division probably ranked at the bottom
of the Army's readiness list.

"Airborne means assault.  Yet the 101st was the only assault
division that was never sent to Europe.  Why?  Because they were
thought to be a greater danger to themselves and to the units
around them than they would be to the enemy.  Kelly was given
command of the division late in November last year.  It was the
first time in our history a woman has commanded a combat unit,
let alone an assault division.  What happened?  On the first of
February, this year, Kelly and the 101st took on Jim Ames' 82nd
Airborne in Red-Blue War Games.  You heard the regard in which
she's held by the 82nd.  What happened?

"Kelly and a company of her men came down a 300-foot cliff in the
middle of the night and seized the 82nd's command post.  By the
way, in the morning she walked in and asked Jim Ames if he had
any coffee on.  She hadn't had any yet -- and by the way, he and
his men were all prisoners.  The 101st annihilated the 82nd and
suffered negligible casualties in the process.  Following that
she took the 101st down to Central America where she cleaned up
some unpleasantness there in a matter of weeks.  Oh, I nearly
forgot!  She had heard of the upcoming Central American
assignment when she took command of the 101st in November.  By
February 1, she had nearly a battalion of her men speaking
Spanish like Central American natives.

"Then I was present when Kelly was relieved of the command of the
101st.  I have never seen so many big men cry like babies.  They
were awarded a flag, emblematic of the finest combat unit in the
Army.  Kelly has it in her office today.  She has it as the
Division's pledge to her that they intend to remain the Army's
number one unit in her memory.  She took a unit from the bottom
to the top in just over sixty days!  And that counts Christmas!

"But there is more:  The food was so bad when she arrived at Fort
Campbell, it was inedible.  That changed between noon and five
o'clock on her first day.  She ate all her meals in the enlisted
mess hall.  Then she canceled all leaves and furloughs over
Christmas.  Particularly her own.  For those of you with social
aspirations, Kelly is New York's Debutante of the Year for the
current year.  Christmas is the big social season there, of
course, and Kelly could have gone to New York for a continuous
round of parties.  It never entered her mind.  If leaves are
canceled, the cancellation applies to the commanding officer
first.  She had a dance at the fort instead.  The enlisted men
got the division's band to play for them.  Kelly then scrambled
to find a civilian band to play for the officers.

"What about me?  I was the doctrinaire liberal to end all
liberals.  My husband, Bill, pointed out that it was hard to keep
track of all the things one had to do and couldn't do.  The list
changed daily."  Chris grinned.  "The first morning, Bill stole
the most beautiful omelette I had ever seen in my life right out
of my hands.  My mouth was watering from the delicious aroma. 
Why did he take it?  I was complaining about cholesterol.  He
just ate it, cholesterol and all.  Oh, I nearly forgot.  Kelly is
a spectacular cook.  Until a short time ago, she did all the
cooking at home.  Mike says, in fact, that he'll know when Kelly
wants to get rid of him: She'll let him eat his own cooking and
poison himself.

"Bill and me?  I'm expecting a baby, too.  We thought we had
invented babies but then found there's been a lot of it going
around.  There must have been something in the water served at
Kelly's wedding.  I'm more relaxed than I've ever been in my
life, and I'm happier.  I remember telling Kelly some bullshit
about personhood the first night I was with her.

"Now I remember!  Bill and I were sitting across from Kelly and
Mike.  I was still shaky because of the events of the evening
when Kelly and Mike burned the hoodlums.  Kelly pulled her
uniform shirt out from her waistband and was sitting next to
Mike.  He had his hand under her shirt and on her bare breast.  I
thought it was demeaning and disgraceful.  You know what she
said?  She said her keeping her shirt on in front of Bill and me
was as far as she was willing to go as a concession to modesty. 
I didn't understand her at the time.  I do now.  Bill often takes
me on the floor in our hallway when he comes home.  I've come to
like being taken on the carpet.  The surface is harder and it
feels good.

"As for Kelly, I owe her all of my happiness now and all I will
ever have in the future.  Bill and I know it.  I leave you with
one bit of advice.  If you would like to have a brilliantly happy
marriage, talk to Kelly.  She's a great coach!"

As Chris sat down, Kelly saw Cathy lurch.  She motioned to
Camille who came running over.  Cathy said, "Cami, I think I cut
it too close!"

Camille rushed her to a private room and got her stretched out on
two tables that were quickly pulled together.  Kelly was going to
help her when Selma came in and said everything would be all
right.  Kelly called for an ambulance and went back to the head
table.

Marian Collins was again behind the microphone.  She looked
around at the women in the room, now sitting in stunned silence
and said, "Wow!  This morning I was expecting a soporific speech
from the President.  That has been our usual experience.  I
thought it would be a respite from our usual battles.  What did
we get?  We got a short talk from the greatest military hero in
the history of our country... possibly the greatest military hero
who has ever lived!  Then we heard from a series of remarkable
women.

"I don't know what you saw.  What I saw were women who epitomize
the things Carolyn was referring to in her short speech when
Kelly was at the microphone.  I saw women who are stunningly
beautiful, every one.  I saw women who are madly in love.  Women
who are completely selfless.  Yet women who are joyously happy."

Just then, they all heard the cry of a baby.  Marian smiled
warmly and continued, "It sounds like the Chief of Staff has a
child.  I don't know what you thought when you saw Cathy Adams. 
I thought she was four or five months pregnant.  She said she was
almost to term.  I guess she was right.  Kelly is pregnant and
doesn't look it.  In fact, none of these young women do.

"Ladies, I'm adjourning this meeting.  I intend to ask Kelly to
come back and meet with those of us who would like to be happier.
 Chris says she's a great coach.  I want to try her out."

Just then Selma came in holding an infant wrapped in a large
linen napkin pressed into service as a receiving blanket.  She
said, "This is Cathy Adams' idea, not mine.  She wanted her
firstborn son to greet the public.  His name, she tells me, is
Samuel Kelly Adams.  Because her husband is also named Samuel,
the baby will be called Kelly.  She asked me to remind you,
General, of your promise to be the baby's godmother.  She asked
if you would care to hold him?"

Kelly ran over to where Selma was holding the baby.  She said,
"He looks..."

"Kelly, he's perfect," Selma said softly.

Kelly held the baby and took him back into the room where Cathy
lay on her back.  The birth process was nearly complete.  As she
held the baby, she touched the woman's forehead.  "How do you
feel, Cathy?  Was it awful?"

Cathy's eyes opened and she looked at Kelly who saw the joy in
them.  She said, "Kel, it was too easy!  And now it's all over. 
Could you bring a phone over to me, please?"  Kelly brought over
a phone and called Sam Adams.  His secretary said he was in
conference and asked if it was important.  She identified herself
and said it was vital -- life and death.  In moments Sam was on
the line.

Kelly said, "Sam, let me be the first to congratulate the new
father.  Cathy just delivered a very handsome baby boy here at
the Fort Meade Officers' Club.  She wants to say hello."  There
was silence on the line as she gave the handset to Cathy.

"Darling, I did it!" Cathy said with joy in her voice.  "I made a
baby, all by myself... with just the least little bit of help
from you.  Sam, he's gorgeous!  I'm sorry, honey, I'm not in the
hospital.  Camille and Selma delivered me and it was over in
about thirty seconds.  When I hear the horror stories of 24-hour
labors, I think this is clearly the way to go.  Honey, the way I
feel now we can be back to normal by tomorrow night.  I miss
you."

For the first time, Sam spoke.  "Cathy, you're not teasing me,
are you?  It's really true?  We have a baby?"

"Darling, I even named him.  He's Samuel Kelly Adams.  Do you
approve?"  Just then they heard the siren of an ambulance scream
as it came up to the door.  Cathy chuckled and said, "Did you
hear that, dear?  That's the ambulance about to rush me to the
delivery room, or wherever they dump dumb broads who can't get to
the hospital in time.  Honey, quick, before they get here, what
do you want me to do?  Stay here?  Go to Walter Reed?  What?"

She heard Sam chuckle.  "Honey, why don't you just stay there? 
Their nursery is as good as any, I guess.  It's easy to get to
from the Pentagon, and your best friend and our son's namesake is
there.  How is she, by the way?  And what were you doing?"

Corpsmen had come rushing into the room with a stretcher.  They
came to a screeching halt when they saw Kelly.  She said, "Relax,
folks.  The baby's arrived.  The mother is the wife of the Army
Chief of Staff, so why don't you call back to the hospital and
tell them who you're bringing back with you?  I think the
administrator would like to know."  Kelly smiled and added,
"She'll be with you as soon as she gets off the phone.  But I'm
not really sure.  She might want to take a shower first."

Cathy hung up the phone and looked at Kelly with love in her
eyes.  But she couldn't resist teasing her friend, though.  "A
shower?  Why would I want to take a shower?  I took one this
morning.  And all I've done since is give a short talk.  Kelly
Callahan, are you suggesting I need to change my brand of soap? 
Are you trying to tell me something?"

Kelly grinned and kissed her.  Cathy looked beautiful and was
remarkably relaxed.

Cathy smiled warmly as she was taken away.  Camille was carrying
the baby.  Cathy said, "Kel, I pray yours is as easy as this one.
 I'll see you at the hospital later."Chapter 30

It was a warm day in May in Northern Virginia and Kelly was
walking back across the campus of the College after finishing her
teaching for the day.  She was amused at the way it was going. 
Her course in Military Strategy had become the most popular
course in the school.  Enrollment was now so large she was
thinking about breaking it up into sections, but wasn't sure she
wanted to take on the additional work.  Then she ran her fingers
lightly over her abdomen.  It was now starting to round out.  At
least she thought she could feel it, even if no one could see it
yet. _Oh, well,_ she thought, _the baby isn't due until
November._

Her summer uniform still fit, though; she was wearing it for the
meeting she had coming up in her office.  Kelly was puzzled by
the phone call she had received the previous afternoon.  It was
from a Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Planning, a man
named Simon Cameron.  She had never talked to or heard from
anyone in DOD and didn't know what to make of the call.  When she
reached the administration building, she was grateful for its air
conditioning.  In addition to being warm, the day was veryhumid.

She walked into her office and winked at Rita Nelson as she
walked by.  Rita picked up her pad and followed Kelly into her
office.  Kelly sat down in her chair and saw Rita sitting
attentively across the desk from her with her pencil poised. 
Kelly continued to be surprised at how beautiful the girl now
looked.  She leaned back in her chair and motioned to Rita to put
her pad away.  The girl put the pad down on the desk and leaned
back in the chair with a big smile.  Kelly smiled at her and
asked, "Rita, where are you spending your nights now?  Your place
or Pete's?"

"My place," she replied with a grimace.  "And I'm going to start
charging Pete rent.  He doesn't have a place.  He lives at the
Bachelor Officers' Quarters.  I accuse him of freeloading, and he
makes more than I do."  She smiled as she continued, "Pete calls
it his private witness protection program.  He says he's
protecting me from Klein and Carson, now that Wilson's dead.  I
can't figure out if he's serious or not.  What do you think,
Kelly?"

Kelly just shook her head.  "Rita, I don't have the first clue! 
I do know I never expected Wilson to pull a gun, but he did. 
Those other two are free on bail awaiting trial.  Frankly, Pete
staying with you certainly isn't the dumbest thing I've ever
heard."  She changed the subject suddenly.  "Have you tried
sleeping on Pete's shoulder, by the way?"

The girl smiled warmly and said, "Kelly, did you ever think to
patent it?  If you did, you could make millions in royalties. 
The fact is I couldn't sleep without Pete anymore.  It just feels
so wonderful to snuggle as close as eI can and then feel his hand
cupping my boob.  Then we both fall asleep.  It's like being in
Heaven!"

Rita smiled warmly and says, "Pete complains a bit, though.  He
says, instead of snoring, I make a lot of soft, happy sounds that
keep him awake.  When I'm aware of doing it -- which isn't often
-- I do know Pete just tightens his grip on my breast to hold me
even closer."  Rita glanced at her watch and jumped up.  "Oops! 
I'd better get out to my desk.  Cameron is due any minute."

When she left the office Kelly picked up her private phone and
called Sam Adams on his.  He picked up the phone and Kelly said,
"It's me, Sam.  You can no longer call me a teenybopper.  I'm
twenty years old today!"

Sam's voice was warm.  "Happy Birthday, Kel.  Thank God, we're
finished with teenaged generals!"  He chuckled softly and said,
"Cathy is looking forward to seeing you.  We want you and Mike to
get to know your godson.  I can't tell you how wonderful I feel
right now, Kelly.  Cathy's back to normal.  And now we have a
baby who's the new light of our lives.  We're both so damned
proud you'd think we invented the tiny things.  All I can say is
I sure hope the rest of your pregnancy and delivery goes as well
as Cathy's.  She still can't believe how smooth and painless it
was.  And by the way, can you and Mike come over to the house on
Sunday?  We can swim, barbecue, and just have fun."

Kelly smiled and said, "Sam, we would love to.  I'll call Cathy
tonight and set up a time for Sunday.  However, there's another
reason for my call.  Have you ever met a DOD type named Simon
Cameron?  He's coming over to see me in a few minutes and I have
no clue what it's about.  He's Deputy Under Secretary for
Planning."

There was silence for a few moments, then Adams replied.  "Kelly,
I've never met him but I've heard a few things about him. 
Basically, I wouldn't trust him farther than I can throw him, if
the rumors I've heard are true.  My suggestion to you is to
listen to what he has to say but don't promise anything or agree
to anything.  Does that answer it?"

"It sure does, Sam.  Thanks."  As she hung up, Rita buzzed and
said she had a call from Senator Fuller.  She punched the button
and picked up the phone again.  "Good morning, Senator!  It's
great to hear from you!"

"Now Kelly, you know you're supposed to call me Bob!"  He
chuckled and continued, "There are two reasons for my call. 
First, Sam and I want to thank you for making us look so good. 
This goes back to your taking command of the 101st.  We thought
you would do a fine job, but even we didn't expect you to do as
well as you did.  Then, over the objections of some of the
liberal members on our committees, we supported your appointment
as President of the War College.  Beyond breaking up a spy ring,
we're now hearing great things about the place.  The best course
at the College is supposed to be a new one on tactics and
strategy.  And, as usual, the name Kelly Jackson is always
mentioned.  You're the professor, we hear."

Then his voice took on a serious note, "The reason for this call,
though, is we've formed a new Special Joint Committee on the
Armed Services.  Sam and I are co-chairing it.  The committee
grew out of what you did last year.  As you know, for nearly
fifty years the constant in our military posture was strategic
defense... spelled, Soviet Union.  That's now a thing of the
past.  We're talking about what changes we should be making in
our strategic posture and Sam and I want you to be an early
witness.  Would you be willing to testify?"

"Bob, I'm just a kid!  I just turned twenty today!  There are a
bunch..."

"Now, Kelly, no more of that!  There is no one in the uniformed
services who is as respected as you are.  No one!  You are one of
a kind.  You are the only person we've ever known or heard of who
has the intellectual ability to see the straight line between two
points and the military skill and leadership ability to then take
an army from one to the other.  You do it all.  Please, Kelly,
can you come up to the Hill?  Perhaps tomorrow morning?"

Kelly gave up.  "Bob, thank you.  I'm not happy about it, but
I'll come.  What do you suppose would have happened, though, if
my ancestor had to spend all his time testifying in Richmond
instead of leading troops for Robert E. Lee?"

Fuller laughed and said, "Maybe he would have been at Richmond
instead of Chancellorsville, and we might have won the damned
war!"  There was silence on the line for a moment and the tone of
Fuller's voice changed.  "I'll say one thing, Kelly.  Wherever he
is, he's mighty damned proud of you!"

On a hunch Kelly asked, "Bob, to go back to your committee's
charter for a moment, do you know a guy named Simon Cameron?  A
Deputy at DOD?"

"Yes, I do.  Where did you hear his name, Kelly?"

"I got a call from him.  He's due over here any minute to see me.
 I never heard of him before, though.  That's why I asked."

"That's odd," Fuller said.  "He's supposed to be a guy with a lot
to say about force structures in the services.  As a matter of
fact, some of the our committee members have been touting him as
the most authoritative witness we could get in front of us.  Sam
and I are skeptical although I've never met him myself.  Kelly,
you've heard the expression, 'known by the friends you keep?' 
Well, Sam and I aren't at all sure about some of his friends. 
Does that answer your question?"

"It sure does, Bob.  And I'll see you tomorrow morning."

As she hung up the phone, Rita buzzed again.  Simon Cameron had
arrived and she was asked to show him in.  Kelly rose from her
chair to greet him.  Cameron was shorter than she was, about five
feet six inches.  He appeared to be in his mid-forties,
well-dressed with a pink complexion.  He did not appear to get
out in the sun much nor to exercise at all.  They shook hands --
he had a very limp handshake -- and he took a seat.

When she returned to her seat, Cameron got right to the point. 
He said that he had heard that she was going to be called to
testify before a minor committee on Capitol Hill.  Knowing how
busy she was at the college, he had taken the liberty of having
his staff prepare testimony for her.  He reached into his
briefcase and took out a fat sheaf of papers and passed them to
Kelly.  She glanced at the cover sheet and read, "Testimony of
Lieutenant General Kelly Jackson, USA, before the Joint
Congressional Committee on Military Forces."

Kelly realized that the reason the paper was so thick was that it
had been typed on a speech typewriter.  All she needed to do was
read the script and turn the pages.  Cameron said she had been
invited and would be testifying the next day and he said he would
meet her in the Committee room.  He smiled and let himself out of
the office.  Kelly wondered how he knew about her invitation even
before she did.

Kelly was interested to see what Cameron wanted her to say.  She
quickly skimmed through the speech.  In it she was being made to
say that the force structures in the Armed Forces in general and
the Army in particular should be maintained essentially as is. 
Moreover, there was a discussion of global threats to peace --
unspecified -- that required the maintenance and enhancement of
U.S. strategic forces.

Kelly called Sam Adams again and told him about the call from
Fuller and the later visit from Cameron.  With respect to the
written testimony she said, "Sam, I've only had time to skim it.
However, as far as I'm concerned, it's unmitigated bullshit.  I'm
not going to give this speech.  I hope my refusal won't put you
in a bad spot."

Sam said, "Kelly, the Committee has asked you to testify.  I'm
sure Bradley, me, and others will be in soon enough to have our
say.  First, I think Fuller is absolutely right.  You are the
best person to lead off.  Second, the testimony is yours, not
Cameron's, nor ours.  If he wants to make that speech, he's
welcome.  The short answer, Kelly, is do and say what you think
is right.  The country has done pretty well when that's what
you've done.  Go get 'em, Tiger."

Kelly looked at the phone after hanging up.  Then she checked her
book and made another call to the former President, now retired
on his farm.  Moments later the phone was answered by his
secretary.  Kelly identified herself and asked to speak to the
President.  A few minutes later he was on the phone.  Kelly told
him about the events of the day, her meeting with Cameron, and
the prepared testimony.

He listened with interest and finally said, "Kelly, I'll be back
to you in an hour or someone else will.  Will you still be there
in your office?"  Kelly said she would.

She went back to reading papers written by her students on the
Peninsula Campaign in the Napoleonic Wars.  She decided that the
quality of both the thinking and the writing had improved
enormously in just the last thirty days.  Kelly thought for a
moment of the incongruity of correcting the grammar and
punctuation -- as well as the strategic thinking -- of men who
averaged twice her age and two degrees to her none.

Her phone buzzed.  A tone of awe was clear in Rita's voice as she
said, "Kelly, it's the White House on the phone.  The operator
says it's the President, for you!"

Kelly picked up and moments later was speaking with the new
President, John Collins.  She hadn't met him but certainly knew a
great deal about him.  He said, "Kelly, I'm glad to have this
opportunity to talk to you.  Bill just called me and told me
about your conversation with him.  I thought it was time for us
to talk.  Bill, of course, is one of your greatest living fans. 
So am I.  Kelly, you've made the country and its leadership --
Bill and me -- look awfully good over the last twelve months or
so.  He told me about the testimony prepared for you to deliver.

"I'm calling to tell you to say whatever you damned well feel
like saying.  I want to hear what _you_ think.  I hear from those
idiots across the river all the time.  I would like to leave it
like this:  Regardless of what you may say, I am assuring you of
my complete personal support."

The timbre of his voice changed.  The President's voice sounded
lighter.  "Kelly, I'm certainly not guaranteeing I'm going to
agree with everything you say.  I may not agree with anything.  I
am saying, though, that anyone who tries to interfere with the
content of your testimony is in deep trouble with me.  Am I
making myself clear?

"Incidentally, I know you're expecting a baby pretty soon. 
Nevertheless, could you possibly come to dinner some evening --
just your husband, Mike, and my wife, Jill?  She desperately
wants to meet you.  Could you do that?"

Kelly hadn't said anything.  She had just listened.  She said,
"Mr. President, we would be honored.  At any time, sir."  They
set a date for the following week.  Then she hung up the phone
and looked at it thoughtfully.  Now she knew what the former
President had meant when he had said he would get back "or
someone else will."  It never occurred to her that the "someone
else" would be the new President.

The next morning after their morning lovemaking she had her head
on Mike's shoulder.  She turned her head to give him a light kiss
-- or thought it would be a light kiss.  Instead, there were the
bells and the electricity flowing between them.  She thought of
Rita as she made happy noises deep in her throat.  Mike pulled
her even closer and gently caressed her now-swelling breast.

She asked him what she should wear and he looked down at her bare
body.  "Why don't you go like this, darling?  Give them a
thrill?"

She poked him in the ribs with an elbow and said, "Mike, this is
serious.  I'm testifying before Congress!"

Mike kissed her again and suggested she wear her service dress
uniform.  She was wearing it as she walked into the hearing room
accompanied by Kevin.  She was introduced to the Committee
members by Bob Fuller and Sam Pinkney.  Kelly was amused because
they were acting like proud parents introducing their beautiful
daughter to their friends.  Although most of the members greeted
her warmly, she noticed a few who appeared to be cool.

She took her seat at the witness table as Cameron arrived.  He
gave her a small smile and began to speak as soon as Bob Fuller
gaveled the hearing to order.  He said, "Gentlemen, the first
witness this morning is Lieutenant General Kelly Jackson.  As
many of you know, she is expecting a baby.  Accordingly, she has
prepared written testimony which has already been distributed to
you all.  On behalf of the Department of Defense, I ask that Mrs.
Callahan now be excused and her written testimony be incorporated
into the hearing record."

Bob Fuller listened impassively.  When Cameron finished, he
looked at her and said, "Kelly, is this what you want to do?"

Kelly glanced over at Cameron and said, "As far as incorporating
the written statement into your record, Senator, it's fine with
me as long as there is just one minor change.  The cover sheet
should read that the testimony is that of Mr. Simon Cameron of
the Department of Defense.  It certainly is not mine."

Cameron jumped from his seat.  "Senator, this is ridiculous! 
Clearly Mrs. Callahan isn't feeling well.  The Department cannot
allow her to continue this morning.  If necessary, we will invoke
executive privilege to prevent Mrs. Callahan from testifying.  As
for her comment, I can't understand it.  We reviewed the
testimony in detail in her office yesterday."

Kelly glared at Cameron.  Her eyes were like blue ice.  She said,
"Mr. Cameron, my health is excellent.  Furthermore, we did not
prepare this testimony nor did we review it; you just gave it to
me.  I disagree with every substantive statement in it."

Cameron became livid.  He jumped to his feet and said, "General,
I demand that you leave this hearing room at once!  This has
become a matter of civilian control of the military!  Civilians
are in charge, Mrs. Callahan.  I demand you leave at once and
return to your post.  You'll be hearing from me!"

Fuller glared at Cameron and his voice was like ice.  "Mr.
Cameron, I believe that the civilian control you're referring to
is to be exercised by this Congress.  That is precisely what we
are doing.  Moreover, I take the strongest exception to your
threatening General Jackson! _Sit down, sir!"_

Just then a spectator sitting in the back corner of the hearing
room stood up.  Fuller recognized him and said, "Mr. Sampson, do
wish to speak?"

Bill Sampson was Secretary of Defense.  He said, "Mr. Chairman, I
must completely disagree with Mr. Cameron.  With respect to any
testimony General Jackson cares to give, there will be no
invocation of executive privilege either now or at any time in
the future.  I should add that I am speaking under specific
instructions from the President on this matter.  Speaking for
myself, I came here today to hear what General Jackson has to say
and I intend to do so if it's possible."

Fuller looked at Cameron who was visibly distraught.  On seeing
Sampson in the hearing room, he had gone white.  Bob Fuller
looked up and down the committee table and saw several members
who were obviously sharing Cameron's discomfort.  Fortunately,
they were only a small minority of the Special Committee's
membership.  He said, "Kelly, it is so noted.  We have heard from
the Secretary of Defense, and through him, the Commander in
Chief.  Are you prepared to testify this morning?"

Kelly said, "Senator, I am.  With respect to Mr. Cameron's
comment on my pregnancy, I was examined by my physician this
morning.  I asked her about testifying."  She smiled and
continued, "She said as long as the Committee doesn't have me on
the stand for more than twenty hours a day for more than thirty
consecutive days, I'm fine.  In other words -- hers -- I'm
disgustingly healthy and as strong as a horse."  Kelly grinned
and pretended to looked puzzled.  "Those don't sound like normal
medical terms, though, do they?"

Her face became serious.  "Senator, I am prepared to testify in
the sense of answering any questions the Committee might wish to
address to me.  I only learned of the existence of this committee
yesterday so I felt it would be presumptuous of me to prepare
testimony when I have only the vaguest idea of the Committee's
area of interest or its specific charter.  Are there any
questions you would like me to address?"

Anothercommittee member, Representative Baskin of Texas, was
recognized.  He said, "General... Kelly."  He stopped himself and
smiled at her.  He said, "General, all we've heard for the last
year is Kelly Jackson.  I hear people calling you General this
morning, which, of course, you are.  Nevertheless, every letter
I've received from my constituents about you -- and there are
many -- talk about Kelly.  Do you mind if we call you Kelly,
too?"

Kelly gave him her warmest smile and he melted.  She said, "Sir,
I would be delighted if you would.  I know the decorum of the
Congress must be preserved, but if the Congress can stand the
informality, I know I would certainly prefer it.  Please do call
me Kelly."

Baskin returned the smile and became serious as he said, "Kelly,
this Special Joint Committee has been formed to look at our
strategy, our force composition and our force levels.  I read
your testimony last night and have two comments.  First, it
doesn't sound like you.  It doesn't sound like it's coming from
the girl my constituents have described to me in such glowing
terms.  Second, it doesn't make a lot of sense, and I'm told you
always do."  He looked very interested and said, "Would you
comment on this written testimony.  From your earlier comments to
the Chairman, I gather you don't completely agree with it."

Kelly smiled at him and said, "Sir, I couldn't disagree with the
statements more!  Let's look at the present situation and our
force structure.  First, for nearly fifty years the defense
establishment has been focused -- correctly, in my judgment -- on
a major threat posed to us by the Soviet Union.  We built and
maintained strategic forces and maintained major air and ground
forces dedicated to NATO's European defenses.  I understand that
nearly 70 percent of our defense budget now goes to those two
components.  In my opinion, neither is as necessary now as both
have been in the past.  I am certainly not proposing to destroy
our strategic capability nor to dismember our conventional heavy
ground forces.  I would propose scaling them down in size
dramatically, however."

Kelly continued her testimony for the next three hours.  She
proposed a very sharp reduction in the overall defense budget. 
The savings were to come from strategic forces, heavy ground
forces, and from the DOD establishment itself.  At the same time
she proposed the expansion of the number of ships in the Navy: a
focus on conventional weapons, particularly guns; additional
airborne and light infantry divisions, and more ground-support
aircraft for the Army and Air Force, while developing strategic
defense.

When the time for lunch rolled around, most of the committee
members were hanging on her every word.  At the same time the
members who had been cool towards her when she arrived were now
glaring at her.

Fuller hosted a small lunch in the Senate dining room with
Pinkney and Sampson.  Sampson shook her hand and expressed
delight at meeting her in person.  As the lunch concluded, Fuller
was looking thoughtful.  Finally, he said, "Kelly, your testimony
this morning was brilliant -- and very well received.  I have an
idea.  I don't know if anyone will support it, but I thought I'd
try it out.  I don't think a committee room is the best forum for
what we're trying to do.  Could we convene our Committee sessions
at the War College and make them real working sessions?  Get
people down from DOD, the Navy and the Air Force and hash this
whole thing out?"

He turned to Sampson and said, "Bill, it's your Department.  What
do you think?  Would your people be available to attend?"

Sampson replied, "Senator, it makes all kinds of sense to me. 
What we just saw and heard, I think, is something Admiral
Bradley, Chairman of the JCS, told me about.  He said he has
never seen a person with the ability to go straight to the heart
of a problem the way Kelly does.  When she laid out the course of
action to end the war, he said, it was an exercise in simplicity.
 Once she laid it out, it was the most obvious thing in the world
to do.  However, the idea hadn't occurred to anyone else until
she had laid it out for them.

"Senator, I, for one, would be delighted.  In fact, if you choose
to proceed on that course, I will personally attend for my
Department.  Frankly, I don't know how many more Camerons I may
have in DOD, and I'm not sure I care to find out.  However, I
believe Admiral Bradley will support your idea, and I am sure
General Adams will.  What about the rest of your committee?  Sam,
what do you think about it?"

Pinkney had been letting Bob Fuller do the talking.  He smiled a
bashful smile and said, "Bob and I talked about this earlier. 
Frankly, we're both more than a little suspicious.  We have a
hunch there's some hanky-panky going on involving the Committee
staff, some DOD people led by Cameron, and the few committee
members who spent most of this morning frowning.  The odd thing
about it is that, by and large, the ones who are looking so
unhappy are the same ones who have voted against every defense
budget in living memory.  Frankly, when those guys look unhappy
at the thought of reducing defense spending, Bob and I smell a
rat!  I have one question for you, Kelly.  What would you propose
to do with the money you cut from the defense budget?"

She smiled a very warm smile.  She said, "Sam, why do you do this
to me?  Remember me?  The high-school dropout?  The kid with a
high-school diploma largely through the generosity of the German
government?  But if you insist, I'll take a stab at it.  I would
cut the initial saving roughly into thirds.  One third would be
redeployed in DOD for the expanded programs for limited warfare
and missile defense.  The second third would go to reduce taxes.
The last third would go for an expanded space program."

Pinkney regarded her thoughtfully.  "Why space, Kelly?"

"Sam, you all know I'm pregnant.  I'm thinking of the little boy
who's growing inside me.  I think man needs to dream dreams.  It
happened before my time -- before I was born, in fact -- but I've
seen the pictures of the first landing on the Moon on television.
 Every person in the country, and I guess almost everyone in the
world who knew about it, felt prouder that day.  Mankind had
accomplished something.  I think we need to nurture that sense of
responding to a challenge.  I want my children to address such a
challenge.

"Last Christmas, Mike and I were at Fort Campbell.  On Christmas
day the mayor and his wife came to call.  They wanted to tell me
about the reaction of my men to me being in command.  They said
that the men of the 101st were really standing tall.  They
thought they were in the best, the toughest unit in the whole
Army.  It made them feel good about themselves, good about the
unit, and good about what we were doing.  They were the same guys
they had always been.  But what they were achieving was
remarkable.  They were responding to a challenge."

She looked at the three men around the table and said, "You asked
me what I would do.  I told you.  Why aren't you laughing?"

Fuller looked at his colleagues and then at Kelly.  He said,
"They can speak for themselves, but as far as I'm concerned, I'm
not laughing because I didn't hear anything at all funny. 
Frankly, it makes a great deal of sense to me.  Tell me about
downsizing the Pentagon, though."

Kelly smiled wryly and said, "You've heard of Parkinson's Law?  I
guess everyone has.  Not many people know it resulted from work
done by a man named C. Northcote Parkinson.  He worked in the
British Admiralty.  He was checking back in old files and found
something very interesting.  Starting around 1790, the size of
the Royal Navy, measured by the number of warships in commission,
went up and down like a yo-yo, depending on world events.  The
size of the fleet increased dramatically during wartime and
shrank in times of peace.  However, Parkinson found that the size
of the Admiralty staff itself just kept increasing in size. 
During wartime, the Admiralty staff grew.  During peacetime, it
grew, too.

"In short, Parkinson's Law is not a joke.  It's real.  I'll bet
that today you could go across the river to the Pentagon, line up
all the employees -- but I'm not sure where -- and have them
count off by twos.  Fire all the 'twos' on the spot, and the
establishment wouldn't miss a beat.

"That's the real crime!  Taxpayers want defense but they don't
want to pay for waste.  Unfortunately, the waste is marbled
through the whole establishment like fat through a fine sirloin
steak.  It's just there."  She looked at the congressmen soberly
and said, "To be honest, gentlemen, a great deal is the result of
micro-managing defense programs.  We're famous for spending ten
dollars to save a dime!"  She stopped abruptly and turned to the
Secretary of Defense.  "I'm sorry, Mr. Sampson.  I was out of
line.  I apologize."

Sampson shook his head and smiled.  "Kelly, don't apologize.  The
only fault I can find with what you just said is I think you
could count off by fours, fire all the twos, threes, and fours,
and still not miss a beat.  My only disagreement with you, Kelly,
is I think you're being much too kind.  I have one question,
though.  What do you think is going on with the committee
members, Cameron, and company?"

Kelly looked at the others and said quietly, "Weapons systems as
a multi-billion dollar pork barrel.  I'll bet you would find that
the liberal members have defense contractors in their states or
districts that have major contracts for the strategic weapons
programs they're now trying so very hard to preserve."

Sam Pinkney just shook his head and said, "Kelly, you're right,
of course, at least with respect to the House.  But damn it, you
were only twenty years old yesterday!  You're not supposed to be
able to figure out things like that for at least fifty more
years!  Unfortunately, you're also right about micro-management,
too."

He winked at Bob Fuller who signaled the headwaiter.  A waiter
started to roll out a serving cart with a huge cake on it.  The
senators present and their guests started to sing "Happy
Birthday" to Kelly.  The waiter rolled the cake up to her.  There
were twenty candles burning.  The inscription on the cake said,
"Happy Birthday to Kelly Jackson, the youngest lieutenant general
in history!"  In the center of the cake was a replica of the Gold
Cross of Liberty.  Kelly took a deep breath and blew out all the
candles in one puff.  Then she leaned over and kissed Bob Fuller
on the cheek and said, "Thank you, Bob.  This is a wonderful
birthday surprise!"

By this time most of the senators in the dining room had left
their tables and gathered around.  Fuller rose from his chair and
said, "In this day of concern about ethics in government, I'm
concerned about undue pressure being put on the Congress by the
Executive branch.  And if a kiss from Kelly Jackson isn't undue
pressure, I don't know what is!"

The bystanders laughed and applauded while Kelly blushed.  Fuller
continued, "I did this for Kelly today, but I did it for myself,
too.  As the senior senator from the Old Dominion State, I
learned something a few weeks ago that explains a great deal to
me.  You see, I found out that Kelly Jackson is a descendant of
another great Virginian, General Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson.  I
can only conclude that she comes by her military skill naturally.
 I will repeat for you today something I said to her that day. 
Wherever he is now, Stonewall Jackson is very proud!  Kelly,
thank you!"

Senators came up and formed what became an impromptu receiving
line to extend their best wishes.  Finally, they returned to
their tables and Kelly and her friends sat down.  When the cake
was served, Kelly asked that it be offered to everyone else
present in the dining room.

While the reception was in progress, Bill Sampson had left the
room.  Kelly was having coffee with Bob and Sam when he returned
to the table.  He said, "Senator, have you had a chance to think
any more about your idea -- continuing the session of your Joint
Committee at the War College?"

Fuller said, "No, but I still think it's a good idea.  Why do you
ask?"

"Because, Senator," Sampson replied, "I have been talking to
President Collins.  He has asked me to tell you that he supports
the idea wholeheartedly.  You will have the complete support of
the Executive Branch if you decide to proceed in that direction.
He recognizes that the committee is a committee of Congress, of
course, so it is at your sole discretion.  However, we are
prepared to supply helicopters to ferry the Committee to Ft.
Meade to make it a little easier for you."

"Bob," Sam Pinkney said, "It sounds like we got our marching
orders.  Speaking for the House, I'm sure I can get at least
two-thirds of my people to support the idea."

Fuller smiled and said, "I guess that's it, then.  We're going to
do it!"Chapter 31

It was Sunday afternoon at Fort Myers in Arlington, and Kelly was
soaking up the sun in the backyard of Sam and Kathy Adams' house.
 As the home of the Army Chief of Staff, it was intended to be
the finest housing in the Army.  They were lounging by the
backyard swimming pool and Kelly was wearing a tiny white bikini
at Mike's insistence.  She claimed she looked pregnant.  He said
the only sign was her swelling breasts and he thought they looked
great.  She had stuck out her tongue at him but had taken along
the bikini.  Cathy was lying beside her in the sun and the two
women were talking quietly.

Meanwhile Sam and Mike were stretched out in lawn chairs admiring
their wives.  Sam said, "Mike Callahan, you are the second
luckiest man alive -- second to me.  You're supposed to be a
military genius.  Just tell me how we got so lucky?"

Mike's eyes were almost closed as he admired his wife's body.  He
replied, "General Adams, your honor, sir, I'm just a combat
soldier.  It's the staff that's supposed to provide answers like
that and since you're Chief of Staff you must know.  So you tell
me."

"In that case, Mike, it's going to have to remain one of life's
great mysteries."

Just then Cathy called over to Sam.  "Sam, come here a minute,
would you?"

Sam eased himself out of the lounge chair and went over to his
wife.  Mike thought that he looked about ten years younger than
his forty-three years.  There wasn't an apparent ounce of fat on
his body.  Meanwhile, Kelly was lying on her stomach half asleep.
 The bikini was a slash of white against her tanned body.  She
had untied her bra which was lying under her.

"What's the problem, Hon?" Sam asked.

"Darling, I've heard some jokes about Kelly's first Purple Heart
-- about the nature of the wounds she suffered.  Just look."

Sam looked at Kelly's body as Cathy showed him the lines scoring
her back, thighs, and hips.  "Kelly, they tortured you
constantly, didn't they?"

"They're almost all gone," she murmured sleepily.  "They're not
as bad as some others, anyway."

Sam looked and could see dozens of faint marks crisscrossing the
girl's body.  He just shook his head and said to his wife,
"Darling, just remember who called her a prostitute on first
meeting."

Cathy looked beautiful.  Her brown hair was sun-streaked and her
figure was tanned and perfect.  The only sign of her recent
pregnancy were her milk-swollen breasts, but they were covered by
her bikini bra.  She said softly, "Please don't remind me,
darling.  Every time I see this girl I blush, remembering.  But I
don't think I've ever seen Kelly like this before.  It's one
thing to hear about a person being tortured and something else to
see the results.  Sam, remember, it's been over a year now, too.
Does it bother you, Kelly?"

Kelly took the sides of her bra and held it in position.  She
blinked and rolled over, quickly tying the bra behind her.  She
was now on her back with her eyes closed again.  She said,
"Everything's fine now, Cathy.  Honest.  My real fear has been
taken care of by the young man growing in my belly.  The doctors
didn't think I had been permanently injured but where it comes to
having children they can't know for sure.  Now I feel just
great."

Sam just shook his head.  "Cath, remember this, will you? 
Remember who pushed to avoid an invasion of Russia to spare its
people.  A person who had been viciously tortured day after day
for months.  I supported her position, but didn't realize the
extent to which she could have -- should have -- gone for
personal revenge against the people who did this to her."

With her eyes still closed Kelly said softly, "The Russian people
didn't do this, Sam.  Some KGB goons did.  As far as we can tell,
they're all dead.  Besides, the Russian people suffered far more
and for far longer than I did."

Sam looked at his wife who smiled softly.  "What can you do with
a girl like this?" he asked rhetorically."  He turned to Mike who
was now standing beside him.  "By the way, what in hell is your
wife doing with the officers' wives down there at Meade?"

"Officers' wives?  I have no idea."  He winked at Adams and in a
peremptory tone he said, "Kelly Jackson!  The Chief of Staff
wants to know what you're doing with the officers' wives at
Meade."

Kelly opened one eye and then the other.  Finally, she sat up and
flipped her hair back.  She pretended to glare at Mike and said,
"I give up.  There's obviously a plot to keep me from just
sleeping in the sun."  She smiled warmly at Mike and said, "Why
don't you do something useful?  Bring over those lawn chairs so
you and Sam don't have to keep standing there like a pair of
grizzly bears with your hands on your hips."

Mike smiled and brought over the chairs he and Sam had been
sitting in.  "And by the way, why do you two insist on
persecuting defenseless women?  Damn it, Callahan, I thought we
settled this a few months ago.  I outrank you!  If you want to
bully poor Major Adams here, there's nothing I can do about it,
but damn it, you can't bully me!  I'm your senior."

Sam Adams grinned at her and said, "General Jackson, you wouldn't
be referring to the same Major Adams who keeps me awake every
night?  The Major Adams, because of whom I fall asleep in my own
staff meetings?  That Major Adams?"

"No, General.  I mean the Major Adams who keeps you warm at night
and who has just presented you with the most beautiful baby boy
in the whole world."

Cathy just ignored the byplay and sat down on Sam's lap.  She
leaned back against him and he ran his fingers over her exposed
skin.  She said softly, "Sam, that feels so good.  But could you
keep your voice down a little please?  I'm trying to go to
sleep."

Sam just leaned back in the lounge chair and Cathy fitted her
body to his.  He continued to run the tips of his fingers over
her body and he could hear his wife make soft happy noises while
her muscles reacted to his touch.  He pulled his mind back, even
while his fingers continued to work.  Sam said, "Kelly, I'm
hearing things about the War College Officers' Wives Club.  What
in hell is going on?"

Before Kelly could speak, Cathy answered softly without opening
her eyes, "It's just Kelly and her coaching, dear.  There's
nothing to worry about.  Nothing can possibly happen except a few
pregnancies and that's not a disaster."  Cathy lifted herself up
and looked at Sam.  "Do you feel abused, dear?"

Sam smiled dreamily and said, "Cathy, abuse like this I can take
for the rest of my life... and God knows, I hope I get it.  But
what's that have to do with anything?"

"Honey, do you know Harry Collins?  I think he's a brigadier?"
she asked.

"I guess so," he replied.  "But what does Harry have to do with
anything?"

"He is married to Marian Collins who is president of the Wives'
Club.  I was speaking there the day our son arrived.  Anyway, I
hear Marian has lost nearly twenty pounds and appears to have
lost nearly twenty years in age.  Poor Harry!  He's having to
spend a lot of time working out to keep in shape to stay up with
his beautiful wife.  It seems that Kelly has been talking to
Marian and an increasing number of other wives.  But you didn't
explain your question.  Are you getting complaints?"

"Certainly not from the guys.  But I am getting some complaints
from other people.  A couple of guys have just reported to their
new commands after leaving the College.  It seems there are
pretty dramatic changes taking place at a few posts around the
country and if this keeps up, it's going to spread."

Kelly was now flat on her back again with her eyes closed.  She
said softly, "Why don't you boys go off and play or something? 
Then I can get rid of this dumb bra.  And Sam, what's going to
spread?"

"I'm not really sure.  All I hear about is a bunch of women
losing weight, toning their muscles, and getting very
affectionate."

"I can see that can be a serious problem," Kelly murmured.  "I
guess that's why we did so badly in Europe last summer.  It seems
I heard something about the turkey who was running SACEUR at the
time being pretty distracted."

"I beg your pardon!" Cathy exclaimed, opening her eyes.  "He was
focusing on important things."

"I know.  I think I can hear a by-product of those 'important
things' starting to sound hungry."  They all now heard the crying
of a hungry baby.

"I give up," Sam said.  "Mike, always remember the first rule of
good generalship: Know when to retreat.  When you're outmanned,
outgunned, and outgeneraled, that's a very good time to beatit."

Later they had a barbecue with Sam cooking, Cathy and Kelly
teasing him, and Mike standing off to the side laughing.  After
they sat down and were eating, Sam turned to Kelly and said, "The
hearings start tomorrow, Kel.  Are you prepared?"

Kelly looked at him and smiled.  "Sam, I'll tell you what I told
a young officer in the 101st awhile ago.  This is the nice thing
about being a twenty-year-old girl wearing a uniform with three
stars.  No one expects anything from her."

Sam looked at her seriously and said, "Kelly, that's where you're
wrong.  It may have been true six months ago.  It probably was,
in fact.  It certainly isn't today.  Today you are regarded,
believe it or not, as our top strategist by the President of the
United States, the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, and by yours truly.  You may be young, but
you are the most clear-eyed military thinker we have, and very
probably the best alive in the world today."  Sam looked her
straight in the eye and added, "Now what was that you were saying
about no one expecting anything?"

Kelly had been looking at him as he spoke.  When he got to his
list of people, her jaw started to drop.  Finally she said,
"Surely you're joking!  Please say you're joking, Sam!  This
really isn't funny."

Sam just shook his head.  "You're damned right, it's not funny. 
But it's true nevertheless.  Once again, young lady, you don't
realize how valuable you are.  Do you want an illustration?  I'll
tell you what happened at the last meeting of the JCS.  Bradley
asked me about giving you Secret Service protection, carrying out
a specific request of the President, by the way.  The President
was prepared to go to Congress for the authority, and Fuller and
Pinkney were prepared to introduce the legislation.  In my short
list, I forgot to mention them.  They very much belong on it.

"Anyway, I was able to talk them out of it on the basis of your
skill with small arms and in unarmed combat.  I pointed out that
you were personally more effective than the Secret Service
anyway.  The President let the matter drop... for now.  But he
hasn't forgotten.  He was tremendously impressed when you and
Mike were guests at the White House for dinner.  Young lady, let
me assure you that if there is any threat to your life or a
member of your family, you'll have the Secret Service all over
you like a blanket whether you want it or not!"  Adams' face was
very serious as he spoke.

Kelly looked at him carefully.  After a pause she said softly,
"Okay, Sam, I believe you."  Suddenly she looked scared.  Mike,
who had been watching her carefully, didn't know whether to laugh
or take her in his arms.  He lifted her out of her chair, sat her
on his lap, and held her tightly.  He decided he had done the
right thing.

Kelly put her arms around his neck and hugged him.  She murmured
in his ear, "Thank you, darling!"  She kept her cheek next to
Mike's as she turned back to Sam Adams.  She said, "Mike
understands me, General.  He knows that I've used my youth and
inexperience as a security blanket.  Now I'm scared.  I don't
know anything!" she wailed.  "I don't know what to do."

Sam Adams understood.  He said to her quietly, "Kelly, did you
want a career in the Army?  Ever?"

Even though she was on Mike's lap, she sat up straight.  She
said, "Of course not!  All I ever wanted was what I've got.  A
wonderful big lug of a husband who's so dumb he loves me, and a
fine baby growing in my belly.  You know that, Sam.  I think we
had this conversation in England.  I have all I ever wanted and
far more than I ever dreamed of getting."

Sam smiled warmly, and said, "Okay, so what's changed?  You say
you have everything you ever wanted out of life.  Kelly, I
realize this is a personal question, but I seem to recall your
family has a lot of influence -- and a lot of money.  If I
remember correctly the President wanted you flown back to the
States immediately after Mike rescued you, or you rescued Mike,
or whatever."

Kelly reddened and said, "Sam, I'm a rich bitch.  In fact, I
guess you could say I'm loaded.  But what's that have to do with
anything?"

"Just this," he replied, "you don't really need your military
pension, do you?"

Kelly started to relax.  She squirmed into a more comfortable
position on Mike's lap and, appearing to ignore Sam's presence,
put Mike's hand under her bra and on her breast.  Sam shook his
head and laughed.  She said, "What I'm hearing you say, Sam, is
that I should just say what I think.  The worst thing they could
do is fire me.  In which case I do what I've wanted to do all
along.  I can be just be a loving wife to Mike, and a mother to
my children."

She sighed and smiled.  "Sam, you asked about the Wives' Club. 
Can I apologize now for giving you a hard time?  Of course I knew
what you meant.  All I do is talk to the women about being loving
wives and mothers.  Do you know what?  I've found that the harder
I work to give Mike pleasure, the more pleasure I give myself." 
She smiled warmly and said, "I'm going backward.  Now I pass out
about three times in four when I cum.  At the beginning it was
only about one in three.  I work to increase his enjoyment. 
Obviously, I can't increase mine any more.  I end up unconscious
as it is."

Cathy came into the conversation.  "She's absolutely right, Sam.
That's precisely what she does.  The girls in Kelly's wedding all
subscribe to her theory.  We're the best loved women in the
country in all senses of the word."  She went up and kissed him
softly on the lips.  The kiss took on increasing passion and
Cathy put Sam's hand on her breast.  He lifted her onto his lap
and continued to kiss her.  Finally, she eased away to breathe. 
"Do you feel abused, darling?" she asked softly.

"Of course not!  My God, Cathy, I've never had it so good and we
both know it."

She held him close and whispered, "Then don't worry about those
other guys.  They'll live.  No one's died of sex yet... I don't
think."

They enjoyed the dinner.  Later Mike and Kelly took turns holding
the Adams' baby.  Sam noticed the way Kelly's eyes lighted as she
cuddled the tiny infant who was just starting to notice things in
his new world.

As they were leaving, Sam said, "By the way, the President asked
you to join us next week -- both of you.  We're going up to the
graduation at West Point.  We're guests of the President who will
be receiving an honorary degree.  It's become kind of standard in
a President's first term."

During the following week Kelly spent as much time as possible at
the Congressional hearing.  At the insistence of the co-chairmen,
the committee recessed whenever Kelly was scheduled to teach a
class.  They pointed out that she had a vital job to do beyond
her committee work.  Between her class work and the hearing, she
was going flat out.Chapter 32

They were going to fly  to West Point early the following Monday.
 On Sunday, Camille came in and offered to wash Kelly's hair. 
She washed it, styled it, and combed it out.  Kelly loved the
look the girl achieved.  Then Selma came in and did her trick on
the back of Kelly's neck.  The girl was asleep almost instantly.
On Monday morning Kelly and Mike got up early to have breakfast.
Returning to her room, Kelly found her white dress uniform laid
out on the bed.  Mike said it was the uniform of the day for the
commencement.  After Horace drove them to Andrews Air Force Base
they met the President and then boarded a Presidential helicopter
for the flight to West Point.  When they boarded the chopper,
Kelly was surprised to find Cathy flying up, too, along with Sam.
 She said with a grin she was coming along to keep him from
putting his foot in his mouth.  Kevin and Katrina had driven up
the previous day with Kevin saying something about a reunion.

When they arrived at West Point, Kelly was ushered to a place of
honor on the speakers' platform with Mike at her side.  When the
President came up and took his seat on the platform, the Corps of
Cadets snapped to attention as the band played "Hail to the
Chief".  He winked at Kelly.  At least she thought he did.  The
commandant of the academy, Lieutenant General Oscar Caffrey, came
over to Kelly and gravely saluted her.  She was on her feet for
the President's arrival, and she returned the salute and extended
her hand.  He seemed genuinely pleased to meet her.

The degree award was made to the President and then he began the
featured commencement address.  He said, _Honoris causa._  That
is a phrase on the honorary degree I just received.  It's a Latin
phrase meaning 'for reasons of honor.'  In my case I guess the
honor consists of having received more votes than the other guy
last November. _Honoris causa._  'To honor, or to renderhonors.'

"I was rendered honors this morning.  I'll let you in on a
secret:  My greatest joy in being President is hearing "Hail to
the Chief".  I love it.  I really do."  The President appeared to
be thinking out loud.  "To honor..."  President Collins mused. 
"I wonder...  You see, we have a problem.  Seated behind me is a
young woman, Lieutenant General Kelly Jackson Callahan.  She is
the problem.  Let me tell you a little about it.

"First, because she's wearing her dress whites, she's required to
wear her medals.  You see a gold cross hanging from her neck,
shining in the sun.  It's the Gold Cross of Liberty.  You have
never seen it, because hers is the only one in existence."  He
grinned and turned to face Kelly.  "Incidentally, Kel, they would
like to borrow it to photograph it for the books and manuals on
awards.  They forgot to do it before it was awarded to you and
yours is the only one in existence.  Could you lend it back to us
for a few days?  Please?"

He turned back to face the gathering.  "You may also see
something else you've never seen before and likely will never see
again.  The next medal on her chest is the Medal of Honor.  She's
the only person in history for whom two Medals of Honor are
junior decorations.

"But I digress.  The problem is that Kelly has no college degree.
 As one of our most senior generals this can be a little
embarrassing.  I thought of ordering her here to the Academy as a
student and, in fact, I even talked to the Secretary of Defense
about it.  That idea didn't work out too well.  First, she's
married... very!  In fact Kelly's expecting their first child in
November.  We've never had a married cadet at West Point, let
alone a pregnant one."  The President grinned and continued. 
"But never let it be said we're not creative.  As President, I
could waive the family thing.

"But then we get in deeper.  Some of you may have seen your
commandant, Lieutenant General Caffrey, salute Kelly.  You see,
she's his senior.  An element of the Cross of Liberty award is
that the holder is senior in rank to any other person in the same
rank or pay grade in the armed forces.  Therefore, the only
officers senior to Kelly wear four stars, and there aren't many
of those.  But what the hell, we're at peace, so I guess we could
scrounge up a slightly used four-star general to command this
place while Kelly attends.  But this brings us to the curriculum.
 The purpose of the school is to turn cadets into bright young
officers... junior officers.  It has been pointed out to me that
a lieutenant general is not a junior officer.

"But there's more.  I ask you!  You graduates have completed your
first-class year.  Could you imagine trying to haze a plebe...
wearing three stars?  Can you really?"  The president grinned and
said, "Oh, and I nearly forgot:  She's also the leading
small-arms expert and unarmed-combat specialist in the armed
forces.  Trying to haze her could be hazardous to one's health!"
The graduating seniors broke up in laughter.  "But we're
creative.  We'll finesse the plebe summer.  We would have to
anyway for reasons I'll come to in a moment.  Once enrolled here,
what would she study?

"Well the course of study here is primarily military science and
engineering.  Although there now is a broad range of majors
available at the Academy, you must all take courses in military
science.  What does that consist of?  Well, it includes military
history, strategy, tactics... that sort of thing.

"This creates another problem.  You see, General Jackson teaches
courses in that stuff.  She's president of the War College.  And
by the way -- and she doesn't even know this -- the relevant
faculty here at the Academy are all now enrolled in her courses.
I suppose it could get pretty dull taking a course in a subject
that you taught to your professor.  But there's more.  I spoke a
moment ago about her schedule this summer.  She's unavailable. 
She has an additional assignment serving as senior advisor on
strategy and tactics to a joint congressional committee that is
restructuring our entire armed forces.  The two co-chairmen
insist she's absolutely irreplaceable.  So we'll have to finesse
strategy.  What else?

"Leadership!  There we go.  We'll teach her leadership!"  The
President paused and looked over the sea of faces, then
continued, "The hell we will!  No one can teach Kelly Jackson
about leadership!  She is a specialist in small-unit operations.
Sort of the efficient female approach to things.  She won the war
in Europe with three other _people!_  That's right, people!  I
didn't say armies, or corps, or divisions.  I said people.  The
other three are here with us today, also.  But what the hell! 
This is the Army.  So she gets a lot of mileage out of three
people.  What would this do to our defense budget if we cut the
Army down to five people, the Navy to ten, and the Air Force to
ten?  How in hell could we possibly justify the 110,000 people in
the Department of Defense?  Now understand, bureaucrats are very
effective at protecting their jobs, but there _are_ limits!  Even
for them."

There were howls of laughter from the cadets at that line.

"Back to larger units," the President continued.  "Kelly has had
two larger commands.  The first was a training company at
Quantico, Virginia.  Kelly took command two weeks into a ten-week
program.  When she took over, the company was about average in
its performance.  Eight weeks later, the company held every
record they maintain down there.  Every record they set still
stands today.  Oh, yeah, I forgot.  Kelly's style is to lead by
example.  She sort of says, 'Follow me," and the troops try to. 
Well, in the course of the follow-me routine it seems Kelly set
every personal record they maintain.  Every single one!  And they
all still stand!

"But hell, the Army has units bigger than companies.  Last
November Kelly was given command of the 101st Airborne Division.
Why the 101st?  Because it was in the garbage dump.  There was no
way anyone could screw up that bunch of weirdos.  And a young
girl commanding an assault division is a little weird, too, isn't
it?  It was the only combat division -- let alone assault
division -- that stayed home.  Why?  Because we thought they were
a far larger threat to themselves and our friends than they could
possibly be to the enemy.  It was formally scheduled for
extinction on February 5th of this year.  But Kelly screws that
up, too.

"On February 1st in war games against the 82nd Airborne Kelly
annihilates the 82nd while suffering negligible losses.  She
earned for the 101st the rating of the top combat unit in the
entire Army.  She then takes her division down to Central America
where she cleans up some unpleasantness my advisors felt was
insoluble.  Of course, it took her nearly six weeks so I guess it
must have been a tough assignment.  I guess she can handle
sizeable units.  Oh, one more thing:  When Kelly was relieved as
commanding officer of the 101st, Fort Campbell was almost flooded
out by tears from crying men.  I'm serious -- General Adams,
here, was down there that day.  The troopers of the 101st cried
when they learned Kelly -- not General Jackson, mind you, but
Kelly -- was being transferred.

"But back to the Cross of Liberty.  What's that for?  That's for
a small piece of history.  She won the war in Europe, along with
her husband, Major General Michael Callahan, who graduated from
the Point six years ago, Major Ken Carson, who graduated three
years ago, and his wife, Captain Mary Harris Carson, who
graduated two years ago.  Now West Point graduates winning wars
for our country is part of a very old and proud tradition.

"But what do we do when she's a high-school dropout?  A girl who
only turned twenty last month?  In fact, a girl who was
complaining to me on the flight up here this morning that her
infant son will be six months old before she can legally buy a
drink?  There's only one thing you can do -- _honoris causa_ --
for reasons of honor.  Kelly, come up here!"

He turned and watched as Kelly, still grinning about the
President's remark about her drinking, came up, faced him, and
saluted smartly.  As she stood on the platform, two female cadets
came up behind her with an academic gown they held for her to put
on.  They then hung the hood symbolic of a doctorate degree
around her neck.  Finally, they removed her hat and replaced it
with a black mortarboard with a gold bullion tassel.

General Caffrey replaced the President at the microphone and
said, "Kelly Jackson Callahan:  For exemplary service to your
country, for exemplary achievement, and for exemplary
scholarship, it is my great honor to award you the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy in History and Military Strategy, _honoris
causa!"_  He held out the diploma and shook her hand.	

The President led her to the microphone.  She said, "Thank you,
Mr. President, and Commandant Johnson.  I don't know what to say.
 I guess I now have a degree from West Point.  I feel very proud.
 I look around and see bright faces, including a few women.  What
I would like to do is to meet with the women in this graduating
class.  I would like you to meet some very successful women who
graduated from the Point, starting with my closest friend, Major
Catherine King Adams.  She is the senior officer in the United
States Army.  As Sam Adams' wife, she tells him what to tell us
to do."

She turned to the commandant with a question in her eyes.  He
smiled and nodded his head.  He went back to the microphone and
said, "It sounds like a fine idea to me.  All female members of
the graduating class are invited to meet with General Jackson in
the gymnasium immediately following the ceremonies thismorning."

Kelly went back to her seat.  Mike rose, took her in his arms,
and kissed her soundly.  Neither heard the storm of cheering
behind them as her cap fell off her head.  When he released her,
she just hugged him.  Finally, she looked up at him and said,
"Mike, could I trade aides with you for a couple of hours?  I
would like Katrina to come along with me."  Mike agreed
immediately.

While her back was to the audience, she heard the President's
voice again.  He said, "I would like to conclude my speech today
with a couple of additional remarks.  "First, I was honored today
to receive a degree from West Point.  However, Kelly was not
honored.  She honored the Military Academy!  As I tried to make
clear, I received my degree essentially for doing nothing.  Kelly
received hers in recognition of demonstrated achievement far
beyond human expectations or understanding.

"Finally, I would like to go back to the change of command
ceremony at Fort Campbell.  I neglected to mention that the 101st
Airborne now holds the flag symbolic of the finest combat unit in
the Army, but the division doesn't have it.  Kelly does.  It's in
her office, hanging on the wall.  Why does she have it?  It's a
solemn pledge to her from the men of the 101st.  They will keep
it -- and their standing as the Army's top unit -- in her honor.
They're the best!  She made them the best, and by damn, they're
going to remain the best!  Let me ask you?  Is that not a test of
leadership?

"One of the officers in the 101st said it best.  He said, 'Kelly
never gives an order.  She just shows us what she wants us to do,
and we try to do it.  We never can, of course.  No one else is
that good.  But we end up doing one hell of a lot better than we
ever thought we could.  Leadership?  We would follow that woman
to hell and consider it a rare privilege that she would allow us
to keep her company!'

"Ladies and gentlemen of the Academy:  You have before you an
example you should try to follow -- the finest person ever to
graduate in the history of the United States Military Academy at
West Point, Kelly Jackson Callahan!"  The student body present
and the graduates rose to their feet and gave Kelly a standing
ovation.

The President came back to Kelly, took her in his arms and kissed
her soundly.  He then shook Mike's hand and said, "Mike, you must
be the luckiest man on the face of this earth.  Take good care of
her, please?"

Kelly slipped off her cap and gown and turned to give them back.
She was told that they were hers to keep.  Kevin Murphy grinned
and took them from her.  She found Katrina waiting for her along
with Mary Carson and Cathy Adams.  Together they marched over to
the gym.

As they walked, Cathy started to chuckle and Kelly asked her what
was so funny.  As second senior, Cathy was on Kelly's left.  She
said, "Kel, you're the military historian -- Dr. Jackson, yet --
but do you know why you're on the right and we're arranged in
rank order to your left?"  Kelly looked at her and said she had
no idea.

Cathy clapped her hands in glee.  "It's to give you free use of
your sword arm.  As senior, you're supposed to be the best
swordsman so you're on the right to have fullest use of your
sword arm to protect us."  She grinned and said, "On the other
hand there's that bulge in the small of your back from your
automatic, so I guess you really can."

They arrived at the gym and went to the front where a lectern and
a microphone were being set up.  Academy staff were quickly
setting up chairs for the graduates.  Within a few minutes, the
newly-commissioned second lieutenants started to stream in.  They
were at strict attention as they marched down the rows of chairs
in formation and stood at attention while the others took their
places.

Kelly watched the proceedings with interest.  One girl was
standing to the side directing them.  Kelly assumed she had
probably been the senior cadet officer in the group.  When they
were all in their places, the girl gave the command, "Hand...
SALUTE!  All the young women snapped a salute in unison.  Kelly
returned it smartly and the girl said, "Two!"  The hands came
down together.  The girl said, "Female graduates of the U.S.
Military Academy, reporting as ordered, sir!"

Kelly said, "At ease.  This may turn out to be one of my dumber
ideas."  She smiled a wry smile and said, "Despite what the
President said, where it comes to dumb ideas of mine, there are a
great many to chose from.

"I wanted to see you girls for two reasons.  First, I just wanted
to get a look at you.  You're outnumbered and outsized by your
male classmates.  In other words, you're a little hard to find in
that crowd.  The other reason is to just chat and answer
questions for a few minutes.  You have heard something about most
of these women in the President's remarks.  There's Major
Catherine King Adams.  Cathy was secretary to SACEUR until I
stole her.  Sam Adams had to marry her to get her back.  Then
there's Captain Mary Harris Carson.  Mary has the DSC for helping
to win the war in Europe.  Finally, there's Captain Katrina Solov
Murphy.  Katrina is the daughter of the President of the Russian
Republics and the wife of my aide, Kevin Murphy.  My husband,
Mike, and I swapped aides for this meeting.  That's who we are. 
Now, are there any questions?"

A young girl standing by the door raised her hand.  Kelly
recognized her as Sgt. Brown from the office of the 101st.  She
smiled and said, "Sgt. Brown, welcome!  What brings you here?"

Sgt. Emily Brown stood at attention and replied, "You did, ma'am.
 I wanted to add a little something to what the President said
about the General.  I was in the 101st Airborne.  I was in the
office when she first reported to take command.  I was typing and
looked up.  I see a beautiful young blonde girl in civilian
clothes with a big handsome man standing behind her.  She asks to
see the commanding general.  I called the General's assistant, a
female major, following our standing instructions.  General
Jackson goes down the hall and a few moments later a notorious
sergeant accompanied by three MPs goes down the hall after her. 
The next thing I know, he's pushing her down the hall and starts
to throw her out.  There's some commotion outside and then she
comes back in a few minutes later without a hair out of place. 
We find out later that the sergeant has four or five broken ribs
and a punctured lung.

"You heard how she squared away the Division.  Well, I'm here to
start my plebe summer at the Academy.  There's a prep school that
starts later today.  You see, General Jackson got us to do things
we never dreamed possible... me being admitted to West Point, for
example.  I want you to know I feel sorry for General James, the
new CO of the 101st.  Why?  He's really a fine gentleman and a
fine officer.  Nevertheless, it's not just the 101st Airborne
Division any more.  It's Kelly Jackson's 101st!  The Screaming
Eagle patch ought to be replaced with one with her picture on it.
 All the men care about is maintaining the tradition she built...
in less than four months.  Why am I here?  Because she inspired
me, is why.  I hope she can inspire you, too."

"Thank you, Sergeant Brown.  You flatter me.  You and the people
of the 101st did it all.  I mostly watched."  She smiled at Brown
and said, "Good luck here at West Point.  I'll be pulling for
you."

"Now, how about questions from the graduates?  Where are you
going?  What are your assignments?  What do you want to do?"

A girl sitting near the front rose and said, "Second Lieutenant
Martha Caffrey, General.  The President listed your
accomplishments this morning.  But I got confused.  I can't make
sense of your age, your rank, or your accomplishments.  How long
have you been in the Army, General?"  The girl sat down again.

"First, thank you for identifying yourself.  However, I guess we
can omit the rank.  I assume you are all second lieutenants.  But
to answer your question, I've been in the Army officially since
March 1 of last year, and in actuality since April 15."  Kelly
smiled warmly and added, "I guess you could say my rise has been
rapid.  I was initially commissioned as a captain."

A dark-haired girl stood up and asked, "But General, how did you
get a direct commission?  From a remark the President made, I
gather you're not twenty-one yet."

"That's correct," Kelly replied.  "I'm not.  In fact, I guess I
must be the youngest person here with the possible exception of
Sgt. Brown.  I received my commission because of some special
skills, primarily with languages.  Anything else?"

"Jane Simpson, General.  How did you develop the special skills
when you were so young?"

Katrina came forward and said to Kelly, "May I answer the
question, Kelly?"  Kelly nodded and Katrina took her place at the
microphone.  "I'm Katrina Murphy.  I think I'm more qualified
than anyone else except Kelly to answer that question.  My father
is president of Russia.  Kelly told you that.  She did not say
that previously he was a Marshal in the Red Army commanding all
Warsaw Pact forces in the West.  I met Kelly through him.  He met
her at a school in which the girls who had been students before
the war were imprisoned and enslaved.

"Lieutenant Simpson, you asked how Kelly developed her special
skills?  The answer is primarily at the end of a whip.  Kelly was
enslaved for nearly a year before she escaped... by slitting the
throat of the prison commandant and sliding down a drain pipe.  I
have seen Kelly nude.  I have seen the countless scars she
carries on her body from being tortured daily.

"A sculptor visited Kelly a short time ago.  She saw him at the
request of my father who didn't give her a reason for the
request.  One of the things one learns about Kelly is her friends
never need to give reasons.  If she can do what they ask of her,
she just does it.  The man who saw her is reputed to be the
finest sculptor alive in Russia today.  He has been commissioned
to create a statue that will be located at what was formerly the
site of Lenin's Tomb.  The statue will be one-and-a-half times
life size.  Thus, a six-foot person would be nine feet tall.

"I saw that sculptor after he saw Kelly.  He was almost
physically ill.  He said, 'Who could be so cruel as to torture
such a beautiful girl?' The answer, of course, was the KGB.  The
statue will be very different from most heroic sculpture, though.
 It will show a naked girl holding on to a bar above her head. 
It will show whip cuts all over her body.  The face will reflect
the agony the girl is suffering.

"The statue is of Kelly, of course.  The square -- formerly Red
Square -- will become Kelly Jackson Square.  We haven't asked
Kelly if she approves.  I don't know if I would like a nude
statue of myself in the principal square of a major city. 
Nevertheless, it is what we are going to do.  Why?  Because of
something my father said.  He said, "If we -- the Russians -- had
done what we should have done, Kelly and all of her schoolmates
should have been immediately repatriated to the United States. 
Kelly would then have been a high-school student somewhere here
in the States.

"They were all children, all female, and all civilians.  We
should never make war on women and children.  We did.  Making war
on Kelly caused her to make war on us.  She first stopped our
offensive in the West.  She then effected the Allied
breakthrough.  Finally, she caused the collapse of the Soviet
government and its replacement with the Republic we have now. 
One person did this: Kelly Jackson.

"I cannot tell you the regard in which she is held in my country
today.  To say she is revered as a living saint would not be too
strong.  Jane, you asked how she developed the skills.  I think
now you know."

"Kristin Murray, General.  How do you get respect from men and
get them to leave you alone?"

"Kristin," Kelly replied, stepping back to the microphone, "I
can't answer your question about getting respect.  I have just
tried to do my job.  In some way, though, it relates to the
second part of your question: getting men to leave you alone.  In
my case I saw my job as trying to keep Mike Callahan alive long
enough to get him to the altar.  Then, if I was extremely lucky,
I might become pregnant and carry his child inside me.  You see,
I was afraid that because of the abuse I suffered I could never
have children.  God was merciful.  I can.  I'm expecting our
first child now.  Incidentally, all the women you see up here
with me are also expecting."

There was a sound of disbelief from the young women when she said
it.  She continued, "I'm sorry!  I'm wrong.  Cathy gave birth to
a beautiful boy last month.  At any rate, that was my job.  To do
that job I felt I had to be as good as I could be to help him
stay alive."  She smiled warmly and said, "The very last thing in
the world I want is for Mike Callahan to leave me alone!"  She
turned to her friends and said, "Do any of you want to try the
question?"

"I will," Cathy said, coming up to the microphone.  "I'm the
senior graduate of the Academy.  I've been out for ten years. 
Let me just say I've never been as happy as I've been over the
last year or so.  That was after I met Kelly.  I think you asked
about men taking advantage of you?  In my case it was a woman:
Kelly.  The first time I met her, I was a captain and she was
wearing the uniform of a major.  I accused her of being a call
girl that Sam had invited in to his headquarters.  Do you know
what she said?  She said very softly, 'Sam said I was thefirst.'

"We entered Sam's office and he asked me to put in papers
promoting her to lieutenant colonel and awarding her the Legion
of Merit.  Then I find out she already has the Medal of Honor,
the Silver Star, and the Purple Heart.  I wanted to die!  Kelly
picked me up off the floor, buys me a drink, and talks to me like
an older sister.  The fact that I'm thirteen years older than she
is has nothing to do with anything.  She asks me what in hell I'm
waiting for with Sam?  Do I really want some other girl to take
him?

"To make a long story very short, she was the maid of honor at
our wedding, and the godmother to our son.  Our baby's name is
Samuel Kelly Adams.  To avoid confusion, we're going to call him
Kelly.  I think that says it all with respect to what we think of
her.  Respect?  Kelly isn't just respected -- she certainly is
respected, by the way -- she's loved!

"Kristin, I didn't really answer your question.  How do you get
respect?  I guess I would have to say the same way Kelly did. 
She earned it.  The fascinating thing to me about Kelly is she is
the most feminine woman I have ever known.  She doesn't ever
compete with men.  She outperforms them, of course.  She's killed
a whole bunch.  But compete?  No.  Do you know what she says? 
She says she'll take help from wherever she can get it.

"I guess that's all I have to say, except don't worry about being
a woman.  That's a biological fact of life with all of us.  Kelly
never has and is now a three-star general."

The discussion continued for the next two hours.  By the time the
session broke up, the new officers appeared to feel better about
the Army, their own prospects, and most particularly about
themselves.

*  *  *

Kelly spent the rest of the summer with the Joint Committee.  At
the end of their deliberations, the Committee came out with a
unanimous report, fully endorsed by the administration,
restructurning forces in the manner Kelly had initiallyoutlined.

Early in the Fall, Kelly was invited to attend the Senate session
to vote on the legislation to effect the restructuring.  The
House had already passed it.  She sat in the gallery with Mike
holding her hand and watched it pass overwhelmingly.  Mike took
her in his arms and kissed her.  As he did, he could feel the
baby kick inside her belly.Chapter 33

It was a year later.  Kelly had delivered a beautiful baby boy
who was now over six months old, Mikhail Adams Callahan, called
Mickey.  Although the plan for Camille to be his wet nurse hadn't
worked out, the girl slept in the nursery with the baby and
normally had taken care of his two o'clock feeding.  Kelly
thought about her pregnancy with some amusement.  She remembered
telling everyone she would be a mess -- a happy mess, but a mess.
 She never was.  In fact on the day of her delivery, she appeared
to be just starting to show her pregnancy.  The delivery itself
was nearly as fast and easy as Cathy's had been.

She smiled to herself.  She had just learned that Cathy was
expecting another child and the Adams were ecstatic about the
prospect.  Kelly was on her way to her office because Camille was
wheeling Mickey in his baby carriage over to see his mother. 
Kelly thought about her son.  He looked exactly as Selma had
predicted: He had dark hair and blue eyes.  She thought of him as
a baby Mike and adored him.

She opened the door to her outer office and encountered
resistance.  The door would not fully open.  After pushing her
way in, she found Rita lying unconscious on the floor in a pool
of her own blood.  Quickly, Kelly grabbed the phone and called
the emergency number.  She called for security and an ambulance
on the double.  Then she grabbed the first-aid kit and knelt
beside the girl.  As she did, she saw Rita's eyes flutter open.

She heard her say in a hoarse voice, "They got him, Kel!  They
got Mickey..."  The girl fainted again.

Kelly straightened the girl out on the floor and saw she had been
shot twice.  One bullet hole was dangerously close to the heart
while the other was in her shoulder.  As she applied compresses
to try to stop the bleeding, Pete Martin ran in.  He stopped and
dropped to his knees.  He put his finger on her pulse.  It was
there, but weak and thready.  They heard the sound of approaching
sirens and moments later hurrying footsteps as the EMTs --
emergency medical technicians -- arrived.  As soon as they took
over, Kelly went into her office.  There was Mickey's baby
carriage sitting beside her desk, empty.  Camille was gone, too.

Kelly picked up the phone and called Security.  She said, "This
is General Jackson.  There has been a shooting and a kidnaping. 
Seal the post immediately.  No one is to enter or leave without
full identification.  I mean no one, particularly any civilian
vehicles that might be on the post for routine deliveries.  I
want all posts on the alert and I want the full security unit on
duty with loaded weapons.  Whoever did it has shot one person
already.  Since no one heard it, I assume they're using silenced
weapons.  Consider them to be extremely dangerous."

Kelly depressed the hook on her phone and then called her home. 
Selma answered it.  She told the woman that Cami and Mickey had
been kidnaped.  Selma was silent for a moment.  Then she said in
the strange tone of voice she used when she was seeing things in
her mind, "Look near the commissary... a dark panel truck."  The
timbre of her voice changed back to normal.  She said, "Horace
will be right over."  Kelly hung up.

As she was changing into her BDUs, Pete came in the office and
found Kelly only wearing her bikini pants.  She smiled, but it
was a grim smile.  As he watched she slipped on her combat
jacket, then put on her Kevlar vest and tightened the straps to
fit her body.  She then checked the load in her pistol.  Finally,
she slipped four more loaded clips in her jacket pocket.

She looked at Pete and asked, "How's Rita?  It looked to me like
she lost a lot of blood.  And I didn't like the looks of that
chest wound at all!"

Pete looked grim.  He said that the EMTs thought she would make
it.  He had his dress uniform on and asked her to wait for him to
change.  She shook her head and said, "Pete, first, call Security
and tell them to look for a dark panel truck that's over near the
commissary.  Then I want you to stay here and watch things until
Kevin gets back.  When he does, go to Security headquarters and
coordinate this operation from there.  This place should be
crawling with special units any minute now.  Ask Kevin to call
Mike and Sam Adams.  Meanwhile, get on the phone and call the
FBI.  I want to find out the status of my dear friend, Clarence
Klein.  They're supposed to have him under surveillance.  And ask
about the Hostage Rescue Unit!"

She got into her staff car, drove close to the commissary and
parked.  When she got out, she worked the slide on her automatic
to jack a round into the chamber, and started walking towards the
commissary.  As Selma had predicted, there was a dark panel truck
parked beside it with its motor running.  To reach it she had to
pass by the corner of an adjacent building.  As she got close to
the corner Kelly saw movement in the shadows beside the building.
 Thinking of gunmen waiting for her, she moved away from the side
of the building to be about thirty feet away from it as she
reached the corner.  She made sure her shoes made noise on the
pavement as she walked so they would know she was coming.

When she reached the corner, two men armed with automatic weapons
moved out and opened fire.  One round hit her vest, and Kelly
rolled with it, bringing her weapon up at the same time.  It
coughed twice and red holes appeared in the foreheads of the two
gunmen.  They folded and collapsed.  Just then the panel truck
started to move, headed toward the gate.

Kelly ran back to her car and grabbed the radio microphone.  She
identified herself and said, "Kidnappers are located.  They are
in a dark blue panel truck, Virginia license 495-BKG, now pulling
away from the commissary moving towards Gate 4.  Do not let it
through the gate.  Occupants are armed and extremely dangerous. 
Shots have been fired and two of them are down."  She started her
car and went after the truck.

As she came up behind it near the gate, the truck suddenly
stopped.  Kelly slammed on her brakes and dove out the door just
as her windshield was shattered into thousands of tiny pieces by
automatic-weapons fire from gunners in the back of the truck.  As
soon as the truck stopped, they had opened the back doors and
started shooting.  From her position flat on the ground partially
shielded by the door of her car, she returned fire.  Two gunmen
fell from the truck with bullet holes in their heads.

She heard firing from security forces at the gate responding to
automatic weapons fired from the front of the truck.  She stood
up and started to move slowly toward the back of the truck.  When
she was still about thirty feet away, Clarence Klein emerged from
the back of it.  He was holding Camille in front of him, while
she held the baby carefully in her arms.  Klein had his left arm
around her neck and was using her tall body as a shield.  Then he
fired at Kelly.  She felt the bullet glance off the left side of
her vest and ricochet into her left arm.  Kelly remembered the
terrorist firing course she had shot at Quantico and more
recently, at Fort Campbell.  Klein was lining up another shot
when she put a bullet between his eyes.  As at the two firing
ranges, the bullet hole made a third eye, exactly centered
between the other two.

Cami calmly stepped away as Klein's body collapsed behind her. 
At the same time, she was still cradling Mickey, and trying to
comfort him.  The baby was screaming because of the loud noises
from the gunfire.  Kelly suddenly realized she was bleeding badly
from her wounded arm.  When one of the security guards came
running up, she told him to get a first-aid team, on the double.
She went to Cami who now had the baby calmed down.  She whispered
to him, and he reacted immediately to his mother's voice with a
big smile, and he waved his arm.  Kelly slipped her automatic
back in her holster and took the baby in her good right arm and
kissed him while she held him tight.

She smiled wanly at Camille and said, "Cami, I guess you had
better take him.  I don't want to get blood all over him."  Just
then an EMT came running up.  He put a combat dressing on her
arm, which was all she would allow him to do at the time.  She
said she would turn herself in at the hospital later.  Just then
they heard a short burst of automatic-weapons fire followed by
the loud barking of a .45 automatic.  More security people were
coming up.  One took Camille into his vehicle and headed back for
Kelly's office.  Cami winked at Kelly as she left.

Kelly went with the security troops back towards the commissary.
When they arrived they found Horace Franklin standing over two
men.  The .45 automatic in his huge hand looked like a toy but
its muzzle was still smoking.

He looked up as she came up to him.  She said, "I guess it's all
over.  Those two make nine, I think.  It was a blue panel truck.
They're all dead, Horace.  Cami and Mickey are fine.  They're at
my office now.  Can you give me a lift?"

Franklin said nothing at the sight of the bandage on Kelly's arm,
now turning red from blood.  He drove back to her office and she
went in.  Camille had put Mickey back in his baby carriage, and
he was now sound asleep.  Kelly took the girl in her arms, kissed
her, and said, "Thanks, Cami.  I can't thank you enough for
keeping my baby safe.  I apologize for that shot I had to take."

Camille smiled and Kelly realized the girl was truly relaxed. 
She said, "Kel, that was death by suicide.  If I seem relaxed,
it's because I am.  Now, damn it, I will not have you standing
there bleeding all over the carpet.  Come here and sit down."

Kelly sat down and Cami went for the large first-aid kit.  She
took scissors, cut off the combat bandage and helped Kelly off
with her jacket and then her vest.  Kelly was sitting at the desk
bare to the waist when Pete came running in.  Kelly's back was to
him, and she swung her head around to see him.  She said, "Wait a
moment, will you Pete?  I'm not decent.  Cami will have me
patched up in a minute."

Cami carefully cleaned the wound noticing that Kelly didn't move
a muscle in spite of the terrible pain she had to be suffering. 
The only sign of pain at all was sweat breaking out on her
forehead.  She put an antibiotic on it and bandaged it up.  Then
she got Kelly's uniform blouse and helped her slip it on.  Kelly
looked up and Cami carefully wiped off her face with a clean
cloth to get rid of the perspiration.  Kelly was amused to see
she was wearing her dress uniform blouse with combat trousers. 
Finally, she put her left arm in a sling Cami made for her.

The doctor looked at her sternly and said, "As soon as you finish
with Pete, you're going to get your trim little ass over to the
hospital.  I'm going to call them and get a plastic surgeon in to
look over that arm.  Obviously the bullet hit your vest and
ricocheted into it."  She went to the phone and placed the call.

Pete came in and saluted.  Behind him were several other people
including the commander of a special hostage rescue team based at
Quantico which had just been helicoptered in.  Kelly asked them
all to sit down.

The commander of the special unit was an FBI agent named Clint
Broderick.  He said, "General, what happened?  And what happened
to you?"

Kelly said, "I really don't know the whole story.  When Dr.
Franklin gets off the phone, maybe she can tell us."  Just then
Camille hung up the phone and came over.  Kelly made the
introductions.

Broderick looked confused.  He said, "I think I missed something.
 I believe General Jackson referred to you as 'Doctor' but I also
heard you were with the baby.  I don't understand." 

Cami smiled at him and said, "You heard it correctly, Major.  I
am a doctor and I'm also Mickey's nurse."  She smiled warmly and
said, "I couldn't love that baby more if he were my own!  He's
the sweetest baby in the whole world.

"Well, we were here waiting for Kelly when I hear two pops -- a
silenced pistol -- and a bunch of men led by Klein burst in as
I'm reaching for the phone.  I picked up the baby and they took
us out of here.  I don't know what their objective was, but I
think it was to kill Kelly and then kill us.  Klein hated her. 
The fool!  He didn't know who he was up against.  He was a
complete egotist and thought Kelly was just a stupid girl."  Cami
smiled and said, "She's a girl.  But that's about all he got
right.  Who were the others?"

Broderick shook his head.  "I don't know.  I suspect the FBI or
the CIA will be able to tell us.  I do know they're all dead." 
He turned to Kelly and did a double take.  "You... You're Kelly
Jackson!"

"Guilty," she replied with a smile.

Broderick shook his head with amusement showing on his face.  He
said, "Talk about coals to Newcastle.  This takes the cake! 
You're the one who holds what's considered to be the unbeatable
record shooting the terrorist course.  In fact, there's that one
target...  Of course!  The terrorist with his arm around a woman
holding a baby.  I don't know how many times the woman on the
target or the baby or both have been shot.  We heard how you
always put the bullet right between the guy's eyes.  It was
exactly the way you did it today.  Congratulations, General!"

While Broderick had been talking, Cami had been watching Kelly. 
When he finished, she said, "Mr. Broderick, would you please take
Kelly to the hospital, right now?  Because if you don't, I'm
going to make her very mad by calling an ambulance to come and
pick her up.  And you saw what can happen when you make Kelly
Jackson mad!"

Kelly reached out her arm and Cami came to her.  Kelly hugged her
with her good right arm and kissed her.  She whispered, "Cami,
there are no words!  Thank you for saving my baby!"  The girl
winked, but Kelly noticed her eyes were moist.

She got up and Broderick steadied her.  He helped her out to his
waiting jeep and drove her to the base hospital.  There Kelly was
taken to an emergency room, undressed, and wheeled into surgery
where a plastic surgeon was waiting.  There was no pain this time
as they used a local anaesthetic to deaden the arm while they
worked.  The surgeon commented on what a thorough job had been
done in cleaning the wound.  He studied it carefully through
magnifying glasses and then carefully stitched it up.  They
bandaged it and took her to her room.

Kelly found that Rita was in the room next door -- or would be
when they released her from the intensive-care unit.  A thoracic
surgeon had operated successfully to remove the bullet in her
chest.  By comparison, the bullet in her shoulder had been a
cinch to remove.

A week later Kelly returned to the hospital to visit Rita.  The
door to her room was closed and she knocked.  She smiled as she
heard the girl -- obviously in the throes of passion -- say,
"Just a minute!"  A few minutes later she was invited to comein.

It was no surprise to see Pete disappearing into the bathroom as
she entered.  She went to the bedside and kissed the girl.  When
Pete emerged sheepishly from the bathroom, Kelly went into it. 
She got a wash cloth, wet it with cold water and returned to the
bedside to wipe off the sweat from the girl's face and neck. 
Rita was lying back on the pillow with her breathing only now
returning to normal.

Kelly frowned at Pete and said, "Why don't you go and get a cup
of coffee or something?"

Martin grinned, winked at Rita, and quickly left the room.  Kelly
said, "Was it good?"

Rita slowly shook her head and said, "Kelly, it was better than I
ever dreamed.  I just wanted to feel Pete inside me and give him
some release.  I decided I could be on top and just feel him
inside me.  It didn't work out that way!  I think I took about
two strokes and I came!  Poor Pete had to hold me by my right
shoulder to keep me from falling over.  It just happened over and
over until we both exploded."

The girl grinned and said, "My chest isn't too great, and my
shoulder hurts like hell, but my cunt is sure in fine shape!"

She looked at Kelly and her voice turned serious.  "Kelly, could
you do me a favor?  Could you teach me how to shoot?"  The girl
smiled and said, "Remember me, Rita Nelson, girl pacifist?  That
Rita Nelson was killed the other day.  This Rita Nelson decided
she has no interest in being the duck in someone's shooting
gallery.  Will you, Kel?"

Kelly assured her she would.

Pete came back in, followed by Mike.  They talked about the
recent developments regarding the kidnaping.  In addition to
Klein, Carson had been with the group at the post and had also
been killed.  The rest were a group of known terrorists who had
come over from Ireland.

Kelly said, "Rita, I think you're out of the woods.  The three
guys who had the greatest reason not to like you are now all
dead.  And think of the benefit to the taxpayers!  We won't have
to provide room and board to those traitors for the rest of their
natural lives."Epilogue

It was six years after the founding of the Russian Republics, and
five years since the adoption of its new constitution.  Kelly was
invited to be the honored guest at the fifth-anniversary
commemoration of its adoption.  She was also the official United
States representative to the affair, traveling as President
Collins' personal envoy. 

Kelly was still on active duty in the Army, and now wearing the
four stars of a general.  As a result of the Cross of Liberty law
she was the most senior officer in the United States Armed
Forces.  Mike, only thirty-two, was a lieutenant general.  Kelly
was still the President of the War College and continued to
teach.  However, she periodically undertook assignments as the
Army's Inspector General.  Sam Adams, recently elevated to the
post of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had commented that
Kelly's value in the role was utterly incalculable.

There was now a large and still-growing network of "Kelly's
people" throughout the Army.  These were people at all levels of
the service who recognized in Kelly a person who did what was
right.  Because of information they fed to her, she had an
uncanny knack for descending unannounced on a base or command and
unerringly going straight to a problem area.  The message
traveled quickly throughout the service:  If you have a problem,
fix it quick or Kelly Callahan will be down to do it for you.

There were three Callahan children now, and all were going on the
trip with their parents.  Mickey -- Mikhail -- was five,
Kathleen, a golden blonde with blue eyes in the image of her
mother, was three, and Billy, another boy with blue eyes and dark
hair, was one.  The Franklin and Murphy families accompanied them
on the trip.  When word of the European trip was released,
invitations for her to visit poured in.  As a result, they were
scheduled to visit Great Britain, France, Italy, and Germany
before going to on Moscow.

The children, particularly Mickey and his best friend, Sergei
Murphy, were thrilled because they were traveling in one of the
Presidential jets, a VC-135, with the 'V' designating VIP
configuration.  In addition to the Franklins there were the
Murphys now back for another tour as aides to Kelly and Mike. 
Finally, they were delighted to be accompanied by Chris and Bill
Carlson, representing the press.

In Great Britain, they were the guests of the Queen at Buckingham
Palace.  The weather was magnificent in June this year.  Kelly
was in a state of near-shock as she and Mike were escorted around
to see the sights of England by the Prince and Princess of Wales.
 Often, Kelly was in uniform wearing her Victoria Cross.

In France, there was a parade down the Champs Elysee in her
honor.  The children were excited as the parade featured horse
guards.  The children had loved the Horse Guards and the
Household Cavalry in London, as well.

In Italy, they visited the Pope.  The visit was in the papal
apartment along with the children whom they had been requested to
bring.  They also were accompanied by the Murphys with their two
children.  Tears of joy were in Kelly's eyes as she watched
Mickey holding his little sister's hand while the two of them
looked up at the Pope with eyes as big as saucers.  The Pope
spoke to them in beautiful English, and then shifted to Russian.
He laughed delightedly as Mickey replied in the same language. 
Katrina had been tutoring him and his sister for their trip.

The Pope asked Mickey some simple Catechism questions and was
very pleased with his responses.  He asked Kathleen about her
prayers and held her in his arms as she said them.  There was
great warmth in his eyes as he kissed them both and then kissed
the baby.  He held out his hands and pronounced a blessing on
them.  Kelly was so proud of her small children as they knelt for
the Pope's blessing.

The scene was repeated with Kevin and Katrina's children.  Mickey
and Sergei were best friends.  Sergei was as blonde as Mickey was
dark, but they were both sturdy little boys.  Sergei's Russian
was better than Mickey's.  He even knew a few sentences in Polish
that he used with the Pope.  The Pope hugged him and tousled his
silver-blonde hair.  Tanya, their daughter, was younger than
Kathleen by about six months.  She was dark haired and blue eyed,
and a beauty.  Finally, the children were led away by a couple of
young nuns.

The Pope looked at Kelly and Katrina and said, "Thank you!  You
have given me great joy today by bringing your children in to see
me.  I cannot tell you how pleased I am that God has blessed your
marriage with such beautiful children.  You are truly fortunate!
I would like to offer a blessing to you all.  Kelly, one of the
beatitudes is, 'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall see
God'.  Kelly, you are the greatest peacemaker of our time.  I
will tell you now, when you were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
three years ago it was a unanimous choice.  You are truly
blessed."

The four went to their knees and the Pope bestowed a special
blessing on them.  When they left, they were both awed and
feeling very good.  Even the children were subdued for most of
the day.

*  *  *

It was the first time Kelly had visited Germany since the war. 
When the plane landed in Berlin, newly restored as reunited
Germany's capital city, she was greeted by the President of the
Federal Republic.  He reminded her that she had the keys to the
country.  Their visit was a string of superlatives.  They were
allowed to pay for nothing.  The high point of the visit was a
trip to the old Berlin Wall, a section of which was being
maintained as a memorial to all Germans who had lost their lives
trying to escape from the East when the country was divided.

They traveled to Langenhagen and visited the school.  Kelly still
had a chill as she approached the prison-like structure.  They
were traveling guarded by a German Secret Service detachment as
if she were a head of state.  The young major in charge of the
unit was dazzled by her beautiful German.

When she asked about it, he laughed and said, "General, the joke
in Germany is that you could win election to the Bundestag from
any district at all.  It would be the only time in history one
person would be elected from every single one.  If you just said
the word, you would be given the seat... whichever one youwant."

They stayed in a castle overnight.  The next day she and Mike
retraced their route from the fateful night six years before. 
With Major Schmidt driving, they found the spot where Mike had
parked the car.  The woods was still there.  After walking across
the field that had been mined they found the spot in the woods
where Mike's camp had been.  They couldn't tell if they were
seeing or imagining the spot where the stores had been fired when
they left.

Mike took his wife in his arms and kissed her as they stood in
the woods.  He said softly, "Do you remember, darling?"

"Of course!  How could I ever forget."  Her eyes glowed with love
as she said, "A girl never forgets the first time she's loved. 
Mike, I love you so much!"

The major discretely found something of interest in the trees to
watch.  He was astounded at what he was seeing.  He knew, of
course, the full story of Kelly Jackson.  Yet it was one thing to
know she was young and another to see and experience her youth
and beauty.  He could not believe that this girl with her perfect
slim figure could possibly be the mother of three young children.
 They walked on through the woods.  The major used his radio to
have the car follow them along the road while they walked the
distance to the point where she and Mike had watched the bridge
over the River Weser.

The major had asked about walking the distance and Kelly just
smiled.  "Major, the first time we did this, Mike and I were both
carrying sixty-pound packs.  I had just removed a bullet from his
leg.  Today, it's just a stroll in the park."

Finally, they reached their former vantage point and were amazed
at how little the area had changed from what they remembered. 
They made their way to the cut in the embankment where Kelly had
first ambushed the fuel truck and tanks and later the ammunition
truck.  Remarkably, there were still marks where the explosion
had blown out the original embankment.

Finally, they went down to the rebuilt bridge -- the Kelly
Jackson Bridge now.  There they were met by the Murphys, the
Franklins, and the children.  One significant change had been
made in the scene.  There was now a large parking area that had
been bulldozed out by the side of the road at the point where the
bridge and road met.  When Kelly was immediately recognized,
Schmidt was concerned, but Kelly said it was all right.  Mike
gave the others a tour of the bridge while Kelly talked with the
visitors who crowded around her.  She spent the next hour signing
autographs, usually on a pamphlet written in five languages and
produced by the Government describing the events of six years
earlier.

*  *  *

There was a throng of people at the Berlin airport to cheer them
as they left for Moscow.  When they arrived, Kelly was glad there
had been such a throng in Berlin to see them off, fbecause it
prepared her in some very small way for the welcome she received
in Russia.  When the plane taxied to a stop, mobile stairs were
wheeled into position and the door was opened.

As she stepped out of the plane, she was enveloped in a bear hug
by Mikhail Solov.  Their reunion was warm and tearful.  Finally,
he led her to a speakers platform.  It was only then that Kelly
realized the crowd at the airport to greet her numbered in the
tens of thousands.  The day had been declared a national holiday
in her honor.  She and Mike were dazed by the reception.  She
noticed that the only people who took it calmly appeared to be
the Franklins.  When she asked, Cami said it was only her due.

The principal event of her visit, the dedication of the statue
and the formal renaming of the square, was scheduled for the
following day.  Red Square was being renamed Kelly Jackson
Square.  There was a huge speaker's stand erected behind the
sculpture.  All they could see was an enormous black granite
base.  It was engraved, but the engraving was on the side facing
the crowd rather than the speakers' platform.  The crowd present
filled the gigantic square and it was estimated to number in the
hundreds of thousands.

Solov addressed the crowd.  "Fellow Russians!  We are here today
to commemorate five years of liberty under our constitution.  And
we are also here to honor the person who made it possible.

"First, a brief report:  In the last five years our economy has
soared.  For the first time our grain output exceeds the levels
of 1914 -- levels never reached since.  This year, we expect
grain production to be 50 percent higher than the old record.  I
could go on and on.  By every measure, we are doing better as a
people than ever before in our history.  That's nice, but not as
nice as the most important thing -- our liberty!  For the first
time, a Russian is secure in his home.  He may say what he wants,
to whom he wants, without fear.  The courts dispense justice
fairly.  We've come a long way.

"We owe it all to the girl standing at my side.  She's a mother
now.  You see her three children up here with her.  She is only
twenty-five years old -- and only reached that age last month. 
Yet to this young woman we owe everything.  I said this before
but I must say it again.  It explains the statue.  The statue is
of Kelly Jackson, of course.  It shows her nude.  It shows a
truly magnificent body, which, I hasten to add is hers done 50
percent larger than life-size.  It also shows something else.  It
shows her holding on to a bar over her head.  It shows cuts all
over her body -- cuts made by whips.  Whips wielded by the KGB.

"Why do we do such a thing?  Why do we remind ourselves of our
own brutality?  Because in a way, we owe our liberty to that very
brutality.  Had we done what we should have done -- done what is
required under the Geneva Convention -- we would have repatriated
Kelly and her schoolmates within days of the outbreak of the war.
 Kelly would have been at home in school while the fighting raged
in Europe.

"The KGB didn't do that.  They enslaved Kelly and her friends. 
They tortured her mercilessly -- day after day after day.  It's
impossible to count all the scars on this beautiful woman's body.
 I will tell you, though, that every cut you see on the sculpture
is actually on her body.  There are dozens and dozens more that
are not shown.

"Eventually Kelly escaped from that prison horror and that was
the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union.  She stopped our
advance, she initiated the Allied breakthrough, but most of all
she saved the Rodina!  In spite of her suffering, all she would
say was we -- the Russian people -- suffered far more than she
did.  We earned our liberty and she would try to ensure we
received it.  I'm proud to say we did."

He turned to Kelly and said, "Kelly, would you please pull the
rope?"

Kelly was scared.  She pulled the rope which controlled a crane.
The cover of the sculpture was whisked up and away.  Kelly
gasped.  She looked up and saw her own face twisted in agony. 
She could see her breasts and thighs showing whip cuts.  She was
speechless.

Suddenly, she heard Mickey scream, "Mommy, it's you!"  He started
to cry seeing his mother's face in agony.

She picked him up and held him close.  "Darling, Mommy's fine. 
Look at me, dear.  Don't I look all right?"

The little boy looked at his mother's face as a smile took the
place of his tears, said, "Mommy, you're the prettiest mommy in
the whole world!"

Kelly could hear the explosion of sound as the Russian people
cheered her to the tops of their lungs.  She stepped up to the
microphone and gave her speech in Russian.  It was very brief and
very pointed.  She thanked the people for the great honor and
wished them every success in the continued development of their
nation.

Finally she said, "Thank you all.  There are almost never
revolutions without some blood being shed.  The Russian people
have bled rivers of blood.  I have shed a few drops.  Millions of
your people lost their lives.  I temporarily sacrificed my
freedom and suffered some small pain.

"You see my young children up here on the platform with me.  My
oldest is named Mikhail in honor of your president.  I think he's
a strong and sturdy little boy, don't you?"  The crowd cheered
again, even louder than before.  She continued, "I only hope and
pray that the Russian people may achieve the happiness for which
you have yearned so long and suffered so much.  As you can see, I
suffered no permanent ill effects -- nor, do I believe, did you,
the Russian people."

*  *  *

The last major event was a grand ball given in her honor.  Kelly
had brought a gown with her to wear for the occasion, but two
days before the ball Katrina came to see her.  Standing behind
her at the door was the small woman -- the dressmaker -- who
Kelly remembered from her first visit.

Katrina said, "Kel, this woman would like to see you, if you
could spare a few minutes?"

The woman came in and smiled shyly at Kelly.  Being much smaller,
she was looking up at her.  The first thing she did was to take
Kelly's hand and kiss it.  The girl was so moved she took the
woman into her arms and hugged her.  The woman spoke to her
softly in Russian.  She thanked her for the dressmaking supplies
she had received and then stood back, looking up to Kelly'sface.

"General," she said plaintively, "I have a great favor to ask. 
Would you do me the honor of trying on a gown I have made for
you?"

Kelly was taken aback, but agreed at once.  The woman clapped her
hands and a young woman -- obviously an assistant -- came in
carrying a gown on a hanger.  They went into Kelly's bedroom and
she stripped off her clothes.  The woman looked at her and shook
her head.  She smiled and said, "Such beauty!  I cannot believe
that your body has carried three children.  You are unchanged
from five years ago!"

The gown was produced.  The woman said it was made from the same
form she had used to produce the dress she had made for Kelly to
wear at Katrina's wedding.  Again, the only garment Kelly was
wearing was her bikini briefs.  She put the gown over her head
and the woman smoothed it in place.  Standing back, she slowly
shook her head and looked at Katrina.

Katrina said softly, "Kelly, it is the most exquisite gown on the
most exquisite girl I have ever seen.  Please take a look?"

Kelly looked at herself in the mirror.  The gown was principally
blue in a lighter shade but the same hue as her eyes.  She turned
and looked at herself in amazement.  The gown fit perfectly and
felt perfect on.  Yet it was low-cut on the swell of her bosom
and then fell away in a deep cut in the back to a point well
below her waist.  In spite of the engineering to make it stay in
position, it was comfortable to wear.

The woman looked at her and said, "Could you consider wearing it
to the ball?  It is a gift."  Kelly immediately agreed.

The night of the ball, she wore her new gown with the Russian
Gold Cross of the Republic.  Mike looked handsome in his dress
whites.  Before they left for the ball, they went in to say good
night to their children.  Mickey and Kathleen looked at their
mother and their eyes widened.

Kathleen said, "Mommy, you look so beautiful!"

The small child was right.  Kelly was a dream in blue and gold. 
Mike ran his fingertips up and down her bare back and said,
"Darling, I love the dress.  It gives me access to so much of you
all the time."  She grinned up at him and kissed him softly.  The
children smiled happily at their parents.

*  *  *

The next morning Kelly felt her breast squeezed lightly.  She
opened her eyes and looked at him.  He said, "Darling, are you
happy?"

Kelly nuzzled him and turned her head to give him a soft kiss
that rapidly became increasingly passionate.  She said, "Mike, I
couldn't be more happy.  But what about you?"  She ran her
fingers over his upper body.

Mike was in perfect physical condition.  He took her in his arms
and held her tight and she could feel his strong arms crushing
her body to his.  Then she felt him slowly enter her.  Kelly
decided she really did have it all.

The End

* * *

Comments and constructive criticism are sincerely welcome.  Let
me hear from you.  morg105829@aol.com

"Kelly"  Copyright 1989, 1998, 2001 by Morgan. 
<morg105829@aol.com>

All rights reserved.  No part may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any electronic means, including photocopying,
recording or by any information and retrieval system, without the
written permission of the author. <1st attachment end>


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