The yellow legal pads Arthur had used to work out his mortgage demands were gone, and three copies of the official military property release lay in their place.

Paragraph four gave me full legal discretion over secondary access to the house, utility responsibility and family financial payments.

Under the emergency extraction code, I had complete authority to cut off every dollar of financial support to my parents right away.

I picked up the black pen lying next to the command folder.

I opened the ledger section labeled Personal Allowance and wrote Arthur’s name on the line set aside for monthly housing assistance.

I entered an amount of twelve hundred dollars a month, to come out of my own officer pay.