When we stopped at the White House the media was crowed at the gate shouting questions. I just waved as I went into the side door. I went straight to Section Twelve.

The table was full; the only ones not there were Troy and the President. I guess everyone wanted to see and hear what my position on the impending fiasco was.

“The last few days have been busy, filled with earth shattering changes that are just beginning,” then I changed the subject.

“What’s the latest on Harrisburg? It looks to me like they have possibly moved all the bikes to the farm. Do you have the 0800 pictures yet?” I asked.

“What have you noticed about there being anything different in the farm pictures in the last few days?” I asked.

The conversation about the pictures lasted ten minutes before I opened my portable office, placed the pictures from last Wednesday and yesterday on the table and pointed to what they were missing.

A much larger conversation on if they suspected their cover was blown or a final stand ensued.
“Ben – have you had someone looking at all the credit cards issued and used in the Avon Heights zip code in the last six months?” I asked.

“No – why do you want that?” Ben responded.

“I am kind of interested what they have been buying. More importantly, what have they been having delivered,” I said.

“Get somebody to UPS, FedEx and the USPS to see what they have been having delivered and from who in the last six months. Check all credit cards in the zip for the same reason and have them flag all purchases for the next few days. Have them send a report every hour. You want to know if they have rented any trucks or private aircraft charters,” I said.

“We have identified four men at each machine shop that are on the watch list. They have been seen in the surveillance video helping Jaed and at the barn,” Ben said.

“We have voice recordings from the machine shops and cell phone conversations that indicate their plan is to carry all the bikes to the park on Wednesday afternoon.”

“They are planning to use the distraction and confusion of getting the fireworks and viewing stands set up to get the bikes in place. You may be right that they are going to rent a larger truck.”

“We will watch the comings and goings at Avon Heights and make plans to raid the barn and the machine shops Wednesday at noon unless something dictates we go sooner. I will notify the SWAT teams I want to participate to be ready to go at 1000,” Ben said.

I nodded my approval as I packed up my things to leave. I was going to stop by the Oval Office on my way to the IRS.

“We were wondering when you were going to stop by,” Troy said as he handed me a list. The list contained six more Senators and eight Representatives that had their accounts seized this morning by the IRS.

Hap had sent me the email Friday that it was going to happen this morning.

“You can’t say they weren’t warned,” I said. “There will be more tomorrow,” I added.

“Did you see the report on delinquent funds recovered? Five hundred million a day over normal revenue deposits,” I said.

“The phone banks are setting record call volumes for non tax season,” I added.

“Congress is getting miffed; some of them are calling for your removal,” the President said.

“Wait until after the 5th. I have approved some changes in the tax rules to the way the TV and movie industry get to calculate profits that will add substantial tax revenue by ending their creative accounting procedures for production and syndication cost and profits.”

“The letters notifying the studios of the change have been mailed, wait for them get to them so they can vent at me and not the new commissioner,” I said.

“By the fifth the rest of the Congressional delinquents will be served,” I said.

“Is the task force going to be able to stop the Harrisburg thing?” the President asked.

“Life is never a sure thing but I feel confident it will be brought to a satisfactory conclusion by late Wednesday afternoon,” I replied.

“I’m going over to the IRS building then I’m going home, I have a conference call from the Pact nations at noon,” I said.

“I understand there are several more EU nations wanting into the Pact,” Troy said.

“There are provisions for that to happen on page two,” I replied.

“You have a photographic memory?” Troy asked.

“No, I have an administrator’s copy of the Pact documents for when the memory fails,” I replied.

“How many men are you going to hire for the security contract?” Troy asked.

“One sixty for sure for Portugal – possibly three times that – maybe more depending on developments in the next few days,” I replied.

“I wouldn’t count your chickens before they hatch, the EU is backtracking today on key provisions of their charter that were previously unchangeable. Those in control are suddenly open to modification and updating key portions that divided the members,” the President said.

“Makes you wonder if they think I could be used as a pawn,” I replied.

“That might have a tendency to piss me off, bad things have been known to happen to people that do that,” I replied as I stood to leave.

I went over to the IRS building. Hap was walking towards me as I opened my office door. My desk had several neat stacks of paper with sticky notes. One note said ‘Needs your signature at the arrows’ the other, ‘Please read and suggest plan of action’. Susan was living up to her reputation as a capable and qualified executive secretary.

Hap looked over my signatures and filled me in on the last few days while I was away.

“The last of the Congressional people that fit the criteria that you requested will be served Wednesday morning. Where do you want us to go from there?” he asked.

“Drop the amount from ten million to five million, start on the hill and this time expand it to all employees first then everyone else,” I said.

“I anticipate that I will be out of this job in a week or so. The necessity of me being here should come to a climax Wednesday or Thursday.”

“If I have any input I will recommend you for the job. In the Congressional hearings blame me for all the grief of the collections,” I said as I stood to leave.

My new security crew was waiting as the secret service dropped me back at the White House; so was the media at the fence. They had seen my Suburbans park in the parking lot and knew I was soon leaving.

That was something I was going to change as soon as we were back at the office. It was a slip up that could not be tolerated.

I was back at the office and in the command center. I opened the link to Premier Cordeiro. Biff had set up the VCATS using his laptop and camera with the satellite link.

“Two more countries have asked to join the Pact and two more are in discussions. Will adding these countries create any hardship on your existing plans?” Premier Cordeiro asked.

“No – it will be an added contract and fees. Have you determined the financial arrangements for the Pact? Specifically are you going to create your own financial structure or use the existing EU arrangement?” I asked.

“We will be starting our own joint banking system. That was the first thing the EU did while trying to leverage us to drop the Pact. They were shutting off our ability to carry out international transactions through their system. We knew they would so we were prepared for that.

“The decision on a central bank, location and what will be the Pact currency will happen in the next few days.”

After the conversation I felt much better as I made my way to Marcy’s meeting. As I started looking through the papers that had been placed for me to look at, I noticed one of them was a page from an international commercial property sales group with a note on it from Vicky.

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Bob W.