Supper was on the stove, needing another hour to simmer. That was fine with me. A quick decision put us in the hot tub for 30 minutes. It took two of my favorite brews and 20 minutes in the churning water before I relaxed.

Today had been the most stressful so far; even my team was giving me a little more room after we returned to section 12.

There was some good news today; the Coast Guard had stopped the Exxon Val Diageo off the Delaware coast and had given the ship a thorough inspection.

In the engine room they found a fake wall. Behind that wall were six bunks and today they captured six terrorists who were headed for the New Jersey and New York learning centers.

The Captain and the first officer were both arrested and suddenly lost the ability to speak English. They were able to demand to see the Liberian Ambassador.

Frank let it slip that the ship and its cargo had been seized. The CIA was the only US government agency that could seize foreign assets under international criminal and terror laws.

I wondered what they were going to do with a million barrels of crude oil, let alone a super tanker that was over a thousand feet long.

Jenny, Vicky, Dad, Robin, Bob Jackson and Jason were going deer hunting tomorrow at the new hunting property. This was the first deer hunting on that property this year and the deer hunting season ended Thanksgiving Day. Goose season was starting the day after Thanksgiving.

They had high hopes for a good hunt tomorrow; Jason had been scouting before coming to the office. There were bucks, big bucks and because there had been no hunting since last year, they were not flighty. I told them to send pictures to my email after the hunt.

When I woke up at 5 Jenny and Vicky were already gone. It was their night to be together and it worked out so they would not wake anybody getting ready for the hunt. Lorrie was sleeping with me and the boys were in the crib. They would sleep another hour.

I quietly showered and dressed to the smell of coffee, I wondered who was up and made that. Today’s dress was the same as every day, another expensive pant suit, jacket and comfortable shoes.

When I went into the kitchen Lisa was sitting at the table with two cups, “I know you like yours black,” she said as she slid the cup towards me. We had a nice talk while I made Cheerios and toast, something light, quick and quiet.

It was cold out this morning. Lisa was going to sit with the boys here instead of bundling them up and carrying them out in the cold.

With no wind the hunters should have a good day, I thought as I walked to the Suburban. A look over to the gym and I saw a TV truck from one of western shore stations in front of the building. I was surprised it was not blocking our driveway, forcing me to get out and talk to them.

I called the Command Center phone, “Anything new?”

“All quiet so far,” Otto replied.

The ride was fast and good. Things went to hell at 8 when all the assembled players settled into section 12. My agency had priority; first was the power play of each person.

I finally had to shut everyone down; it was time to change the direction of the thought process. At the white board across the top I wrote each game that was to be a target. Down the left side was each agency.

“How many undercover agents can your agency put on the street at each of these cities today for scouting? I mean undercover agents who do not telegraph ‘I am a cop’?” I asked.

I wrote the numbers in each column. For agencies that had thousands of employees I was disappointed at the numbers; were there really that many desk jockeys needed?

The next step was to cross section the cell towers – that the phones used in the calls yesterday – over a map to start the scouting process.

The good thing about yesterday’s calls; they were all made from the same geographical location in each city, meaning the tower’s pings did not change with all five calls over the two hour time frame.

They were in a house, apartment or some other location. It narrowed the search area at least temporarily. In each city it was almost a square mile area to scout looking for anything unusual.

I gave orders through the agency directors to pool all the agents together to search the area as best they could, without sending out alarms.

My phone went off, announcing a series of texts.

“I don’t like it when your phone does that anymore,” Ben replied.

It was pictures from the deer hunters; they had struck pay dirt. All bucks with nice racks. I put the pictures on the big screen because they were so much easier to look at.

I was sure all of the heads would be mounted. It was strange seeing Vicky and Jenny holding up the head for pictures, the blood on their hunting gear and their ear to ear grins. The Cole love of the outdoors bug in Jenny had been awakened and was spreading in the brood.

All the men were ready to go hunting. I wondered if it was for deer or the girls in hunting gear that was the turn on; there were comments on both. It’s funny the emotions and hormones girls with guns will stir up.

I also wondered when the girls would realize that the creek that came up behind our house could be dredged for a big fishing boat of our own, with our own pier for it.

The rest of the day and the next day were spent in research and campfire sessions. We went through blow-ups of the stadiums, access to the stadiums and everything else about them we could find.

Friday morning another little break came our way; there was another group call with the Prince, Rafi Quastri and Saif. The guns were coming across the border Saturday night.

They were going to spend Friday night and Saturday at the villa between La Jarita and the US border and border between Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon sections of Mexico. The villa was owned by a middle level drug lord – Diego Juan Fernando. A drug transportation deal was also in the works.

The plan was for a mule to guide them across the border north of Laredo and get them onto highway 1472 Saturday night. They would split up and go to San Antonio and then go the college cities and meet the other terrorists.

The agency, the FBI, the DHS, border patrol and the Generals refused to cross into Mexico and do anything in La Jarita. They said they had to wait until they crossed the border; a very bad choice in my opinion.

Once they crossed the border, the gig was up. At the first sign of cops, calls would be made to Rafi Quastri and they would lawyer up and make more calls.

I left the group to evaluate more on the stadiums and closed the door to my office behind me.

I did not want even one chance that they could get the heavy machine guns across the border and I did not want to cause them to change plans. A heavy machine gun bullet was so powerful they could penetrate a car engine block. The Coast Guard used them to disable engines on drug runner boats trying to flee. It could take down a dozen people before it ran out of energy. Body armor was useless against them.

I called Ed Dean and Bill Townsend; in Andy’s absence they were in charge of the two teams. I sent them to the command center so I could have a good planning session with them. Then I sent a text to both Vicky and Lorrie to be in on the same conversation.

Every piece of information was given to them including satellite photos, ground imagining and the timeline that it needed to happen in, along with the resources they could use or buy.

“When you are finished planning, I want to hear the complete plan,” I said and closed the screen.

Edit by Alfmeister

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