Monday I spent two hours on VCATS with Prime Minister Cordeiro and then another hour with Biff and Ed. Things were coming along nicely with the Portugal security arrangement. With the Pact firmly situated and the addition of two more countries – Slovenia and Austria – into the Pact it was time to move forward.

I gave Ed an assignment to look at several properties that Lorrie’s group and a Realtor had found. With the bulk of our people in Portugal I – along with Andy – felt our European headquarters should be there. I felt that we could handle all the Pact needs from there, especially if the right location could be found.

Portugal was on the Atlantic coast and all of the JBG planes, with the exception of the C130 and the C5, could make the flight without refueling.

I certainly had no interest in having a headquarters in Italy or France.
The US Navy had a base in Italy and it was unsafe for the sailors to go alone practically anywhere after dark; they needed to be in groups. It was nearly as bad for tourists. You stayed with tour groups at assigned hotels and points of interest. Anything else could get you robbed and beat up or worse.

It was rumored that Italy was the largest maker of snuff porn in the world.
Snuff porn is where the actress dies for real in the movie. In Italy the Mafia controls the porn industry. High risk strippers, hookers, high end call girls and porn movie queens unknowingly met their fate in snuff movies.

High risk meant someone who catered to politicians, Mafia bosses, or those involved in extortion or murder rackets, or when they knew too much to risk being flipped over to the prosecutors with information that could damage the Mafia.

End of career was when they were too old, fat or worn out. How does one get worn out? After the run of main line porn and being no longer in demand, they go to fetish porn; the crazy kinky stuff and abuse. After that is the end of their career. Instead of dead in a ditch, the Mafia wanted one last euro from them and to eliminate the risk; it was snuff movies for them. Obviously they do not get the last page of the script.

Few of the movies were ever made public. They were to be viewed by a special clientele and Mafia bosses. Occasional clips were leaked on the internet but very few. Everyone who was allowed to watch them knew the consequences for leaking.

It was also rumored that the Ukraine and Russia were now big in snuff movies and for them the girl did not need to be at the end of her career. The Russian mob and powerful politicians had a sick sense of pleasure and an unlimited source of girls. The Russian mob made the Italian mob – even in its heyday – look like a kindergarten class.

France was another one that was out of the question since we were investigating the ISIS and its Iranian connection near Paris. I thought it best not to stir the pot that large, at least for time being.

We had to have a facility capable of housing two hundred with an area for training both physical and firearm.

There were ten more trips with the C5 to Turkey to pick up the last of the classified cargo. It was enough for us to get nearly all the things Biff and Ed needed. It would be stored in the hangar until the site was ready.

After lunch I was helping Lorrie; she wanted me to look over the air show plans. There was a lot to look at; Lorrie’s clerks had white boards with the timeline for events. There sure were a lot of events.

There was another set of white boards with the list of displays that were going to be there. I was surprised to see that the Coast Guard was going to have one of their newest rescue helicopters on display.

General Ingram had come through on my request; there on the white board were spots for fly-over’s by military aircraft. There was no description of what was flying over, just a time. I did know that the Army Golden Knights parachute team was going to drop in early at some point.

There were a dozen or more historic aircraft going to be on display. Ching Lee had advertised the air show in every paper, radio station and on TV station for a hundred miles. We were hoping for a good crowd.

One of the fences had been moved back to expand the parking area for planes that could be parked on the grass. The portable bleachers were coming tomorrow. It was going to be a good show.

I didn’t get to work more than two hours. When the calls started, first was the EIT duty man, “Make sure you come by and check your box.”

I wondered what that was all about; if it had been important he would have said something on the phone. Then again, maybe not. Robert had cautioned his people to be careful about what they said on the phone.

Tom Folsom was not one of the normal EIT men who worked the duty desk and talked to me. He was always quite to the point and little else but he knew how to work computer hacking. His desk was as far from the door as he could get. Maybe he was playing it close to the chest to make sure he did not make any mistakes with me.

The second call was Ben Smith, “The search of Jaed’s house ended today. There was a trove of well hidden information collected. I ordered Harrisburg to send all of it to Washington. It will be here today.”

“I believe you need to come and look at it. I will have it copied for you but we need to go through it together at 0800 tomorrow morning,” he said.

“I’ll be there,” I said.

“Two days – just two days,” I thought.

The next call was from General Ingram.

We had a wide-ranging conversation; part of it was on the flights to Turkey. Then on the next question, “I understand you are buying property in South Africa?”

I wondered how in the hell he knew that? “Yes, we have put a down payment on some property there,” I said.
“I hear you are coming to the White House tomorrow. I will talk more about it then,” he said.

Now I did wonder what that was all about.

There was something nagging me about my conversation with Tom Folsom. I left Morton and went to Roberts’s office.

Tom was sitting at the control panel working with gibberish. That was the best name I could think of off the top of my head. A screen full of slashes, periods and all other kinds of symbols.

I picked up the big stack of paper from my box and it was a stack, considering there had been nothing there last night. Instead of leaving I pulled up one of the other chairs by Tom.

“Good afternoon Tom, looks like you have had a productive day,” I said.

“Yes – very productive and lucky I think. There were twenty responses to Tiam’s orders yesterday. I spent most of the morning trying to run down where they came from.”

“Ten are from the US, the rest are Europe, Australia, Japan, and South America. I concentrated on the ones from the US. We were right that there is a group in Oklahoma City. The others are in California, Minnesota, Illinois, Texas, Washington, Kentucky, Michigan, New Mexico and Arizona.

“It Looks like Texas, New Mexico and Arizona may be way points for those coming across the border, possibly orientation and training. I did find several short messages from them to Tiam, usually just a few words basically like – shipment arrived or something similar. You have a binder with all the information I could get about them.”

“Oklahoma is the only one we have seen before in any of the other communiqués. The rest appear to be dormant cells or have a separate communication link assigned to them,” Tom said.

“If that were case, why would they answer on a general broadcast?” I asked.

“Good point and I do not think they would. One cell making a mistake – maybe – but all ten, I don’t think so,” Tom replied.

“The process team has wondered if there were more links we had not found.”

” Since I had the time I went looking and experimenting. I found in the same general area of the dark web two goodies. One was a link from Tiam to the KGB and the other was a link to the Chinese Intelligence services; both have been active in the last few weeks.”

“Iran wants a base in Northern South Africa but knows it would never get one legitimately. Russia is supporting the move behind the scene. Iran is trying to get the Chinese to buy the property for them.

“They are close to making an agreement; the only sticking point is China wants them to buy a substantial anti-aircraft system from them and the price of the land would be included in the pricing.”

“Russia is objecting; they do not want China to get that kind of deal – afraid that they will work Russia out of the arms sale picture with Iran over time.”

“Here is the real kicker; Iran wants the mines in Polokwane. The reason is to continue the nuclear testing and development, and to store materials and waste away from the international inspectors.”

“Isn’t that the same property you are looking at? Tom asked.

“Yes it is,” I replied.

I called Marcy.

“Close the deal on the South African property today. Send them the full amount. Get a bill of sale – complete as much as can by whatever means necessary to get it locked down, giving them no wiggle room to get out of it.”
“Please get it done today – forget about the survey. If you have to use the embassy team to get the paperwork, do it,” I said.

I started reading that section of the report one line at a time in deep concentration and thought.

The more I read the more pissed I got and that was not a good thing.

An hour later I had finished, “Thanks Tom for the good work, keep me informed.”

I rode the elevator to the first floor to see Marcy.

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof Read by Bob W.