Commander

Chapter 1 TuesdayIt was another muggy summer evening in Song-tan, South Korea, an industrial city roughly sixty miles south of Seoul, and I was playing salesman in my wife's jewelry store located in the Ville, the GI term for the ten square blocks of shops, bars, and whorehouses outside the main gate of Osan Air Base. A vaguely familiar young airman in a green Battle Dress Utility uniform stood before me at the counter, intently looking over a diamond engagement ring. He glanced up and asked nervously, "How much is it, Major Webber?""Eleven hundred dollars," I answered, finally placing him as the personnel clerk who had processed my separation paperwork from the Air Force last month. I added, "And you can relax, Tanner. I'm not a major or a cop anymore. Call me Burt."Airman Tanner quickly diverted his eyes back to the ring. "Sure, Maj -- uh, Burt."I had to smile at his reaction. Like most of the base personnel who came into the store, Tanner treated me as if I were still Major Burton Webber, the chief of the Osan Air Base Office of Special Investigations. Frankly, I saw myself that way, too. I'd planned on being a military criminal investigator until I could have retired at twenty years. Instead, I'd abruptly resigned from the Air Force after fifteen, forgoing any chance of a pension. A lot of people thought I was crazy not to stick out the extra time, but in light of the circumstances, I really had no choice. Besides, it's not like my wife, Chung-hee, and I are hurting for money. Even though her jewelry store, which Chung-hee's father left to her when he died, is fairly modest compared to those back home, it does pretty well. Last year we cleared almost two hundred grand, give or take.Not that I saw myself running a jewelry store in Korea for the rest of my life. But until Chung-hee and I could figure out our next move, maybe sell out and move back to the States, it's not a bad gig.Airman Tanner sighed dejectedly and handed me the ring. "It's sure pretty, but -- ""Too much, huh?" I said, knowing it was. As a two-striper, Tanner barely made that much money in a month. To me, it's a crime how little military enlisted were paid, but don't get me started.Tanner nodded.I said, "You could make payments -- no?" He was shaking his head."I'm heading home to Iowa in a couple of weeks. I was going to give it to my girl then.""How much can you afford?""Maybe seven, eight hundred.""A ring like this will run you a couple of grand back in the States. Maybe more.""I know..." He drifted off with a shrug. "Guess I'd better go with something smaller -- ""Not so fast. Maybe we can still work something out.""Oh?"Before knocking that much off the sticker, I'd wanted to clear it with my wife. Even though she's always gone along with my altruism, it bugs her when I let items go below cost.At the moment, Chung-hee was at the far end of the counter, haggling over the price of Korean Rolex knockoffs with a couple of fighter pilots in flight suits. I settled on a stool, waiting for her to finish. Watching her, I kept thinking I was one lucky man.By any standard, Chung-hee was a beautiful woman. At five-seven, she's tall for a Korean, with shiny, waist-length black hair and delicate, almost fragile, features. She's pushing thirty, looks twenty, and has the kind of willowy figure made for magazine covers. We'd met shortly after I arrived in Korea, when I'd popped in to buy something for my sister's birthday. While I'd definitely noticed her looks, what really heightened my interest was her accent. Chung-hee speaks English with a soft southern drawl, like she'd been raised in the Deep South. Later, after I finally wore her down and she agreed to go out with me, she explained that she'd received her undergraduate degree at the University of Alabama and earned her master's in economics at Auburn. She'd planned on a career as a Wall Street analyst but, upon her fatDavis, Patrick A. is the author of 'Commander', published 2004 under ISBN 9780743475723 and ISBN 0743475720.