Book 2 Chapter 54
Wednesday morning I went to Washington even though I said I was not going until Thursday. I had two things that were a top priority. Anne had texted me to contact her by MTAC. When I did she informed me that the investigative report – the final draft of Harrisburg – was complete, just waiting for my approval.

I had reviewed the first drafts online while we were traveling giving approvals and recommending changes. Now it was getting one final review before going to the secure government printers. They were holding a spot on the print schedule for it at 1100 today. Together we both were happy with the final review.

Anne made four copies of the original, one for Andrew, one for me, one for herself and the one for the printers. I wanted each of us to have an original for insurance. I sent Anne with two Secret Service agents to deliver the report to the printers.

I spent the next few minutes putting together the rest of the documents for my next meeting.

With two Secret Service agents in tow I met Curtis Warren at a classy restaurant for lunch – my treat.

After lunch we went to his office across from Judiciary Square where I laid out Harrisburg from the beginning and ending with my little white lie.

Why Curtis Warren? First he was a family friend and one of our many corporate attorneys. When something needed to go to court his law firm handled it for us. He was a former Federal Judge who was twice asked to accept a nomination to the Supreme Court.

Prior to his retirement he was one of the three federal judges who developed and wrote the guidelines for the secret terrorism Federal court and served as its chief judge for two years. Judge Warren was only one of a handful of judges able to argue cases before the court.

After listening to my tale and reading the subpoenas he laid out the steps that we had to follow.

“I am going to ask for an emergency hearing for either Thursday or Friday – depending on the courts schedule – to squash the subpoenas. I agree presenting the evidence even to Congressional intelligence committees poses a grave danger to our national security. They simply have too many leaks,” he said.

The wheels of a secret process were put in full motion, picking up speed before I even left.

“You will have to appear at the hearing with the evidence and testify for your position and against the Congressional and Senatorial attorneys as will the chairpersons of those committees,” he said.

It was 1530 before the agents and I walked in the rear door of the White House complex. I ignored the media that was by the fence. I went to Section Twelve to pick up the first of the properly bound and dated official report of the investigation.

I was going to read it one more time before a news conference tomorrow to make sure the printers had not made any changes. On the President’s approval it would be made public. Copies would be handed out to senators, representatives and agency heads as position dictated.

I was just walking to the elevator when General Ingram stepped out.

“Here is the information you wanted. 120/240/480 single or three phase and they can work with 50 or 60 cycles. They have inverters and converters to make it work,” he said.

“How soon are you going to get the units down there and how soon do you want them operational?” I asked.

“I will have them trucked to Morton and you can finish out the load for a C5. I think they said it would take three flights to get it all there if you load it right. I’m sure you are going to have lots of things needing to go back and forth. It will take about three weeks to get it checked out and to Morton,” the General said.

“By the way, the rest of the Joint Chiefs saw the video – when you get time they would like the narrative to go with it,” he said with a grin.

It was a three Suburban convoy home; we were still short handed and would be for a while. This group in training was already assigned and none were to guard me. I wouldn’t stand for it. I had far more important things for them to do than follow me around.

I walked into the office to a packed house. The big meeting table was covered in heavy white paper. On the paper were satellite pictures of the Polokwane property.

Standing around there were a host of people; some I knew, some I did not. There was Bob Short from Bob’s Construction plus two of his design engineers. Irving Gunther was there – Irving was a retired engineer from the local utility. Irving had helped in designing the service for the truck stop and the Pig Iron marine terminal.

Nesbit Pringle was the owner of the water and sewage engineering group Q-town used.

On several easels there were goals for each step of the project; water, sewer, power, hangars, runway extension, fuel farm, the shanty town and how to deal with it and its replacement.

On the maps were drinking cups with sticky notes on them to identify locations and objects. They were easily moved around as changes were needed.

I handed the power requirements to Irving for the radar installation.

“This finishes the electrical system, I recommend two Cat 1000kw generators synced together with three phase 7200 volts out of the generators. That will eliminate the need for a power plant transformer and switch yard. We will need just the normal distribution transformers at the houses and plants. That will save a bunch of money and time.”

“South African Power is using Polokwane as load shedding based on your description. When the power demand overloads their system they open the switch and shut it off. Once the plant is up and running, you can cut their lines; the two generators will handle the new town, mines and everything you want to do there. By having two generators you will have redundancy as long as the issue is not fuel supply,” he said.

‘The airport needs to have major changes. We think we should plan those changes and lay out the work accordingly. There needs to be a taxiway so the new hangars need to be placed accordingly,” Lorrie said as she showed me the penciled in taxiway, hangars and runway extension.

I nodded in agreement.

“I think this site is the best place for the radar; it is a mile from the runway but the elevation is three hundred feet high and a half mile off the center line of the runway. The radar will have an unobstructed view above the hotel and everything,” Lorrie said. Again I nodded.

“I’m sure that when they built the runway and motel that the contractor brought in a portable mix plant. There is no redi-mix plant for two hundred miles; just too far to truck that amount of concrete for that kind of project.”

“I would just buy one because you are looking at a long term project here. I would place a portable crusher at the abandoned mine and truck the finished aggregate to the plant; that is a trip of less than thirty miles,” Jake said.
“So what are the priorities?” I asked.

“Water; find a contractor and get the wells fixed and drill a big well and a water tower. Without plenty of water nothing works,” Bob said.

“Next the electric – get the generators there and the equipment setup and in place. We need fuel tanks for at least forty thousand gallons of diesel for the plant, equipment and a supplier. Without those two things nothing is going to work for long.”

“Cat has dealers there and I’m sure they can supply the generators and equipment you need. They are closed there now but we will get the wish list completed tonight and I will call them tomorrow. There is a dealer two hundred miles away from the site,” Irving said.

Irving Gunther, Nesbit Pringle, and a coordinator from Bob’s Construction – along with Jake when available – were going to be the team on this end of the project. For the next two hours lists were made with priorities and a time line.

Marcy found them an office space and set up the IDs for them. Robert set their computer systems on a separate internet service from the local cable company for security reasons. They were coming to work at 0400 to be on a closer schedule with Raymond Underhill in Polokwane. Bob’s man would be here at 0800.

Tomorrow things would begin in double time for Polokwane.

I was just getting ready to go to the gym with the girls when my cell phone rang; it was Curtis Warren.

“Wear your best pant suit, preferably black with a white blouse and jacket tomorrow. We have a court appearance at 1000. The subpoenas were served to the senator and house committee chairpersons after you left Washington. Make sure you bring everything that will support your case,” he said.

There was no meeting tonight; we were meeting out. The only thing other than Polokwane that was discussed was Lorrie stating that the FAA added both BBJ’s to our commercial flight authorization. The pilots and attendants slots were filled and were volunteer. The 2016 was leaving on Monday for the month long business trip.

An hour in the hot tub with the girls and time on the floor playing building blocks with the boys finished out the night. I worried little about tomorrow – it is what it is.

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Bob W.