As I closed the door behind me, he gazed at me and blurted, "Jerry, for years now, I considered you a friend more than an underling. Your promotion to captain was approved yesterday. That was the good news. Unfortunately, this morning, I got bad news too: Your father suffered a fatal stroke and died before reaching the hospital. You didn't get the message yourself because of our unique situation as a classified unit in a secretive place. For the next 3 days our unit has urgent assignments that cannot be postponed, but after that time, if you wish to go home for a while, I'll approve it."

I was in...