Thursday morning the C5 returned in time to be loaded by noon. The pilot group went home and the maintenance group stayed to check out the post flight inspection list. Lorrie’s text said it would take the rest of the day for that.

The day was a drag at KCC. I did text Vicky and Ching Lee to get them to check on more food to carry to Nimule. I was late on that one; there was already a hundred thousand pounds of soups and supplies donated from several different companies on the shore in one of the hangars.

When I stopped by Morton Field, all the crew from the C5 was gone. Major Culpepper was sitting in the restaurant drinking coffee.

“How did my guys do? Is there anything I need to cover with them?” I asked.

“Really good job; they are a very dedicated group of individuals. I hear we are going to South America tomorrow 0500.”

“That’s right, fly down and back,” I replied.

It was a great evening; hot tub, boys and my mates. We went to bed early; we wanted to see the C5 take off again, was the excuse. From all the moans, it was really just an excuse.

We were at Morton at 0430. Major Culpepper was strolling towards the plane with a go bag, a big coffee mug and whistling Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Lorrie handed Adam the refilled cash bag. At 0500 the C5 was rolling coal from the south end of the runway and was already a couple hundred feet in the air when it went past the terminal building.

This time we made it home in time for me to cook breakfast. With the dishes in the dishwasher we were over in the office at seven.

At 0730 Karen called to say that I had several visitors, “The one that speaks for the group is Ambassador Hagen Abelman,” she whispered into the phone.

“Give them a visitor’s pass and send them into the gym; I will be right there.”

“Ambassador Ableman, it’s good to see you. Welcome to my little part of the world. Let’s take the elevator and go upstairs to the office.”

The ambassador introduced me to his three associates, who were Israel intelligence officers; I read into that Mossad officers. They each were pulling a large travel cart on wheels.

“We have a mutual friend in Africa who suggested that you may be able to make good use of what we bring. Did you have time to get the things the email suggested?” Officer Ben-David asked as we were making our way to the EIT office.

“Yes, my men should have it set up per your instructions,” I replied.

After the introductions, Officer Ben-David said, “This is going to take several hours to get set up, run through then test. I will call you when we are ready to demonstrate and use.”

I took that as a polite way to tell me and the Ambassador to get lost for a while. I started with Marcy and we made the rounds through the office and a tour of the gym to watch some of the training that was going on. We finally ended back in my office where I got an in-depth lesson on Middle East politics; and the things that were going on behind the scenes.

The things in real life were a lot worse than were being broadcast in our media. In between conversations, we both had to deal with texts and calls. One of those texts I sent was to Frank, “Send me the file you have from Uganda with the 515 information.”

It only took seconds for the reply, “Why?”

“Working to build my bucket,” I replied. A few minutes later the file arrived in my e-mail; that I then forwarded to Robert.

We spent over 30 minutes talking about the American embassy there, the transfer to JBG security that was going to happen in the next few weeks and the difficulties we could expect.

I made a mental note to go through and hand pick my employees going there and to make sure they could speak Hebrew and the local Arabic dialect, if at all possible.

Israel was one of the areas that there had not been a decision yet as to if they were to get a chopper.

“We are ready for a live test and you’re the guinea pig,” Robert said as he was standing in my office door. With Robert’s entire group and Vicky there, the explanation and demonstration began.

First was the description of what was installed by Ben-David, “This system is several different systems linked together. The first computer has the bucket – as you named it – from Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe. There is some on Americans if they travel abroad.”

“The information in your bucket will be 2 weeks old, meaning you will get an update every two weeks. That update will be sent on DVDs.”

“The second computer has the identification data on it, its files contain facial recognition, finger prints, DNA, and retina scans if they are available.”

“I feel sure you are doing DNA and fingerprints on all your employees on hard copy; you should add that and retina scans to the data on this system. It gives you instant recognition if you ever need it.”

“Some of the equipment I have installed with the third computer includes the newest electronic fingerprint reader, a retina scanner and facial scan, should you decide to use it.”

“By putting your employees in there, you will reduce the chance of moles, double agents, spies and someone selling your information,” he said. Then he added, “You can use the existing photos you have in your files from your ID cards.”

I wondered if that statement meant that we already had a problem and we were the last to know.

Robert took my picture with his cell, sent it to his email, from there loaded it to a thumb drive, put it into the second computer and began the search.

Before he could type my name into the first computer to search by name in the bucket, the facial scanner had found me and linked the two together.

It was going to be interesting to see what Israel had on me.

‘Send it to the big plasma Robert,” I said.

It was a complete file, birth certificate, school grades, Marine file, everything ever printed in the media, JBG and its history, my mates and their connection and info on our boys – and of course, my financial records.

“Robert, anything you did not know?” I asked.

“No, nothing new there,” he replied.

“Get Ben-David to show you how to run the DNA information I emailed you.”

We watched while Officer Ben-David made each one of my Intel Group input one of the files into the system and then we waited.

Aadam Mohamed was the first one to pop up. The history on him was indeed interesting; his last days – according to Israeli Intelligence – almost mirrored what Robert had found. Robert’s glance after seeing Aadam’s name told me he knew.

Dagar Daharr came up next, as I thought he would at some time in the process. Frank’s file on him was empty compared to what these files had. I handed Robert a thumb drive, “Copy his picture to the thumb and the bucket as well as any joined files – brothers, sisters, parents, contacts – I need to slowly read all that.”

The next connected file was Crown Prince Alwaleed bin Salman Al Saud, grandson of the King. I handed Robert another thumb that he handed back a minute later. Then said, “Take it to the last couple pages, I want to see the last entries.” The last entries placed him in Kampala both Saturday and Thursday, with no entries after Thursday. Then there were pages of official inquiries as to his whereabouts.

The computer was still dinging that it had found files. I handed Robert another thumb, “Put the rest on here; I have a lot of reading to do in my spare time.”

“Robert, print out the file header sheet on each one that gets identified, please.”

Robert handed me the papers, “I need a refill of coffee, does anyone else?” The Mosad men pulled the carts as we walked to the counter where there was a row of Bunn coffee makers and one big old fashioned percolator.

Robert and his guys took their coffee and went back to the EIT office. I invited the Israeli group to mine to finish our coffee and to thank them.

As we finished our coffee, I asked Officer Ben-David “Who updates the bucket?”

“Any Intelligence supervisor,” he replied.

I handed him the papers, “You can update these.”

“What’s the connection?” he asked.

“Besides all dying at the same place the same day and at the same time?” I replied.

“Kampala?”

I just nodded.

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read By Bob W.