On Monday morning at 6:30 the G5 LR brought Lorrie and Vicky over and returned Marcy and me to the Island Airport. Marcy and I were both worn out. I should have warned Lorrie and Vicky what they were in for tonight with Jenny. Then I thought, let them find out on their own.

At my request, the pilot made a fly-over of the airport construction site. One more piece of the runway was down. Tuesday’s pour and the NE/SW runway would be completed with the exception of the turn-a-round P loops. The site looked even more impressive from the air.

I asked Marcy if she would have someone with one of the smaller planes take weekly photographs of the site from now on. I mentally kicked myself for not doing it from week one.

Marcy was paying one of the satellite services for live availability through MAAR and the JBG security. I asked her to get a daily digital photograph for comparison.

I needed to ask Tony tonight about a contractor to paint the runway markings and if there were regulations as to the size. Patti was waiting at the airport for me – we were going directly to KCC. Marcy was driving Lorrie’s car back to the gym.

I had hardly settled into my chair when Sly and Janice came in. I wanted to talk to them before the meeting with Eric and had planned on doing that at lunch time. It had become a daily event for them to bring their lunch and eat with Patti and I in the lunch room.

“I hear you had to use some of your training and skills again,” I said.

“Yes. When we went inside the van to pick up the IDs in the afternoon, as soon as he told us they were finished the SWAT team was going to come busting in. They saw them out the window coming and tried to run through us. We were expecting them to do something so we were ready for them,” Janice said.

“Eric asked us to not kill them unless we had to, but he did not say anything about how much pain we could inflict and we did plenty. Eric explained the terrorist connection to the cards and the mall shooting and we figured a little payback was in order,” Sly added. “Both of them were crying like babies for us to stop.”

“They weren’t expecting us to do anything and neither was Bobby; he almost crapped himself. He did puke on the floor,” Janice said, “He says he cannot stand the sight of blood or violence and there was plenty of both.”

“Do you know why Eric wants us to meet at the gym tonight?” Janice asked.

“No. I would suggest that you call him Mr. Robinson or Director Roberson,” I replied.

“He asked that we call him Eric, he said it makes him feel younger,” Sly said with a giggle.

They had only been gone to class a few minutes when Mr. Jackson and Mrs. Short from HR came into the office and closed the door.

“I saw on the security screen this morning that there are six students wearing ankle monitors that Shirley and I know nothing about,” Mr. Jackson replied.

I explained the offense that the six had committed and the connection to the mall terrorists. Then I explained that I had arraigned that there would be no charges against five of the students and no official reports in the papers. That was the reason for ankle monitors and the secrecy about the events.

Then I explained Saturday’s events with Bobby’s participation and that I would find out tonight the direction that DHS wanted to go with him tonight.

“I plan to remove five of the monitors today before they draw a lot attention and an accidental confession,” I said. “I tried my best to keep KCC out of the papers and so far it has worked,” I said and then added for good measure, “DHS insisted that no-one be told anything until the sting was over and they approved it.”

“Put them on probation until the New Year. Let us know what happens tonight. When it gets so you can fill in the details, please do,” Mr. Jackson replied and then they walked out.

I sent messages to the five for them to come to security at lunch. Patti, Janice, Sly and I were eating a salad for lunch when they came in. All six of them came. I explained the probation orders from HR for the five and removed the ankle monitors.

I explained to Bobby that his had to stay on until I had met with DHS, that the meeting was scheduled for tonight and that I was expecting them to allow KCC to administer discipline. HR had ordered that if DHS had no objection he would get probation as well.

Bobby stopped at the lunch table where Sly and Janice were eating on his way out. “I don’t remember if I apologized but I’m sorry about puking there Saturday when you were fighting to save us. I never saw so much happen so fast and when they started bleeding, I lost it.”

‘No problem, we had everything under control until the Cavalry arrived,” Janice said.

“I have a feeling that was not the first time you two have worked as a team and won’t be the last,” Bobby replied as he turned and walked away.

Patti and I left after the afternoon shift was in place and brought up to date.

The first order of business at tonight’s meeting was a video conference call to see how Jenny was today. We were greatly relieved as soon as she started talking. Jenny was the natural relaxed Jenny we were used to.

Just maybe more than the case had been bothering her. With any of us she was always able to talk about anything at any time. I suspected the down time with us was more important than we realized.

The day in the court had been tough but she was confident that she had made major gains for the prosecution’s case.

I had time to review all of college sites and the girls and I had supper before Sly, Janice and Eric arrived. Then I reviewed the notes that Lorrie and Vicky had sent to my email and the follow-up by their administrators.

Tony, Kathy and Janet came in to update the progress maps and to leave a pile of invoices for Marcy to look over before paying. “This week’s runway pours are still on schedule for Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday,” Tony said.

Tony said, “All the concrete work will be done and have time to cure before the freezing weather arrives.”

We were still well under budget for the project, even with all the changes in the construction. Crash still had not cashed the checks for the land purchase. The agency had paid for the land lease and their hangar rental for the year with two checks up front.

Grants from the FAA and the other agency’s were waiting on Marcy’s desk to be deposited. They were to pay for the expansion of the terminal, baggage scanners, and other requirements they had insisted on including the landing system and expansion of the fuel farm.

There was some confusion on the landing system. The agency had a complete one sitting in two shipping containers that came from over-seas that they were going to install as part of their agreement. The FAA grants paid in full for a new one.

We were paying the million dollar cost of the water tower, the sprinkler system and sewage system to satisfy the insurance company. Fire hydrants were starting to show up everywhere and the pile of green 8 inch water pipe was nearly gone. Hopefully things would balance out at the end.

The annual grant from DHS had not been received yet nor had there been the first of the 10 annual payments from the County funding problem.

Marcy had a letter of commitment from DHS that we had to use any grant for Airport improvements. The County had 60 days from the court date to make the first installment or appeal the ruling.

The federal Judge had written in his orders that any changes would reopen the criminal cases against all the past and present commissioners. I doubted that they would want to reopen that can of worms.

The commissioners may not want it open, but there were several citizens groups that had so-called self-taught legal experts who wanted to file appeals on behalf of the county taxpayers, and special interest groups who were afraid of up-coming cuts to their handouts.

We were going to assume that until there was a check in our hand, there was no money we could count on. That part could drag on for years, Jason informed us.

Edit by Alfmeister