"It certainly worked," Cook commented, also sotto voce. "I had a feeling it was something like that, and I'll bet I even know which movie it was. My question is what kind of trouble this will make for you, Captain. A medically retired foreign national usurping command of a combat unit just before battle is . . . irregular, to say the least. Not all senior Guard officers will be privy to the 'foreign national' part, but they certainly will understand the 'medically retired' part. As far as I know there's been no formal reactivation of your commission, either your assumed one here or your real one back home, so you had no legal standing for command at the time you exercised it."