I awoke to my phone ringing. We were descending from 45000 feet, basically in a low power glide; we were just off the coast of Virginia.

It was Eric, “I guess you have seen the news.”

“I saw; what have you learned?”

“Nothing concrete so far, it’s going to take a couple more days to identify the bombers. So far, not one thing to identify them has been found; not one piece of paper, fingerprints came up negative. DNA is the only thing left,” he replied.

“Nationality,” I asked.

“Middle Eastern we think, we don’t know, a lot of explosives, lots of little pieces all mixed together,” Eric replied.

“I called to tell you that you will be getting transcripts of all the testimony this week in a file in a few minutes. I thought you may want to look it over before Monday. Nothing earth shattering so far – talk more later – got to run,” he said as the line went dead.

We were on the ground minutes later, making our way to the terminal building; it was 5PM. When the plane stopped, I stood and made a couple statements.

“For you first time travelers abroad, you must go through customs and declare everything that you did not take with you. You will have to pay fees on the things you bought. If you need money, yell.”

“There is a welcoming committee in the terminal; family, friends and some news reporters.”

“Hanna, your colleagues and competitors are upset that you pulled off a coup. They are waiting for you. Honey, you are on your own,” I added with a laugh.

Andy and his men spirited the cargo to the armory through the cargo doors away from the terminal, using one of the foul weather covered baggage carts, and into our secured hangar. They did this while the masses were busy in the terminal.

Vicky and I were the last off the plane and into the terminal to meet our mates. We walked into the media firestorm; everyone was cornered in some fashion. Hanna and Sylvester were trying to film the coming home and get one final interview with all of us, but the competition was stiff.

I hugged Lorrie, “That is a great plane, thanks for sending it. When did the C5 get back?”

“Three hours ago,” she replied.

By then two little boys were in my arms, all smiling and giggles and happy as they always were.

After everyone was through customs, the McBride family made their way over to me; Rachael extended her hand with some cash. “This is what I have left of the money you gave me.”

“I gave that to you; it is yours, I did not want any of it back, thank you for going with us. I hope you learned a lot and had fun. Have you had a chance to talk to Mom and Dad about using my video link to communicate with Aric?” I said.

“I heard about Aric but not about a video link,” Paul replied.

“Aric is gifted like Rachael and they quickly became friends. Aric is the youngest son of German Ambassador Schmitt. Given the sensitivity of the position, most conversations have to be on secure links. I have a secure video link that Ambassador Schmitt has agreed to allow Aric to use if we can get it set up,” I replied then added.

“Rachael would have to come to the office and be mindful of the time difference. My tech people will try to get the connection set up on Monday.”

“We are not that far away, maybe once in the week and weekends, if she behaves,” he said then added, “I don’t think there will be an issue; let us know when you get it hooked up and running.”

The rest of today and tomorrow was going to be spent with family and tomorrow would be a good day for a cookout; work was going to wait this weekend. Tonight it was an early supper at the famous seafood and steak restaurant.

At home after things were done, it was the hot tub in what amounted to extended foreplay and then we moved to the basement. It was a long needed orgy; hugs, kisses, tongues, toys, the chair and just holding that lasted hours.

Sunday morning was laid back with an easy breakfast. Then we made ready for the cookout that was to be the last of the season. Cold weather was right around the corner. November was only a few days away; the Indian summer was ending.

The menu was all the normal things, hot dogs, hamburgers, homemade baked beans, cucumbers and onions, mac & cheese. Today there were some additions, deer balls in a pasta type sauce and deer burgers and pasta. Ching Lee had developed a sudden hankering for pasta and clams.

All the family was there, plus Jake and Mindy, Patti and Purnell and the North six, along with Mischief and Mayhem, Victor and Joni.

Patti and Purnell’s wedding was Thursday night – Halloween night – and their new house was completed. Patti’s was just outside Hillchurch, less than ten miles from KCC. Patti officially started on JBG payroll November 1st. JBG had bought all the vehicles which were assigned to the KCC security department. She had her Suburban.

Victor and Joni’s wedding was Saturday. They were already in their new house. Joni had bought one of the bigger lots from Lorrie in the development that we had bought. She was working full time as a flight attendant for us. She wanted the lot; something to call hers.

When things became serious they decided to build a new house for them on Joni’s lot. Victor didn’t feel right about asking Joni to live in a house that had so many tough memories for him and Allie.

It was a big expensive house with 5 bedrooms. I guess they were serious about having a lot of children.

The afternoon was filled with family and friend’s good food, cold beer and wine. It was well after dark when everyone finally went home. Paper and plastic made cleanup a breeze and even better, leftovers were carried home with the guests.

It was another night of intimacy with my mates and holding the boys. Morning came faster than I wanted.

All of us went over to the office early; Ching Lee and I plus Andy and the team leaders were flying to Minneapolis to testify. I had a lot of reading to do before I sat down at that table.

At the office I opened the file Eric had sent me on the laptop in my portable office, to make sure it would open OK and did not need any special encryption.

I was just starting out the door when Robert handed me two interoffice envelopes; both marked Classified, Top Secret and sealed with security tape.

“Read the transcripts first,” he replied.

Edit by Alfmeister

Proof read by Bob W.