Bjjonesmylife. Book 2

The weekend was quiet. We ventured to the truck stop several times each day just to check on things.

I looked over the intel intercepts several times a day. General Bashir was still posting so much I began to wonder if they knew we were listening and feeding us misinformation. But then there were the other sources we were using to double check as much as we could, said the same.

One of those things was the Paris subway system. Louis Boucher – the commander of the French police we were working with – was sending the EIT group the daily surveillance videos from the subway stops in the area of the training compound. Robert was running all the pictures through the facial scanners and comparing them to Interpol and our other sources.

Robert and Tom were getting hits from the video; some were from Germany, England, Spain and Italy and they were apparently staying in the training compound. They were seen getting on and off the subway stop by the training center.

They made a trip every other day, always carrying large boxes and bags when they returned. Louis had undercover agents getting on and off at different stops trying to put together a map of the subway rides.

It had taken two weeks to put the map together, plus some connections from General Bashir and his brother in the Paris mosque helped.

In one of the communiqués the general had asked if several people by name had arrived as scheduled. Omar Alhalmi, Fahd Samaha and Maged Alsabahi were the names he had asked about.

Timely research showed they were from the Halabjah area of Iraq that bordered Iran, which was the notorious smuggling route through the mountains during the never ending wars. It was through this smuggling route that the deadly IEDs made their way to Iraq.

Then he asked another time if the materials were showing up in a timely fashion. In another General Bashir implied there may be special guests to the send-off on the 23rd.

On Monday we had an early meeting on the truck stop weekend that left the girls on an emotional high – sales had been exceptional. There had been over fifteen hundred applications for the discount gas credit card backed by Midwest Bank; those would be regular customers.

I warned the girls to be prepared for a letdown, that the gang – buster sales would not continue. The gas discounts and curiosity had brought a lot of people to look who may not end up as regular customers.

Next up was the meetings with Andy and Robert – it was crunch time. Wednesday was the 21st. We spent three hours going over reports, the subway video and messages from the General. Also Tiam was back, handling part of the communiqué transmissions.

Tiam had disappeared from the postings shortly after Harrisburg. The number of postings to different cells had picked up. I was ready for the lunch break and another mug of coffee.

After lunch we decided the Paris mission was a go and Andy began issuing final orders to put everything together.

The 747 was going to pick up two hundred men and their equipment from Fort Dean on Wednesday morning of the 21st. The 747 was then flying to Morton to pickup seventy five more including Andy and myself with gear. It was then flying on to Paris and would land just after dark at the French Air Force base at Bagnolet.

Bagnolet was just ten miles from the Muslim section where the compound and the mosque was located.
Another fifty men from Fort Adams at Loures Portugal were to arrive around the same time. All of us would spend the evening in the base barracks.

The French Air Force had cleared out one of their barracks at the base for the JBG personnel to use for the two days we would be there. The base was operating at 50% staffing so there was little problem.

Thursday the 22nd we would orient the entire group to the mission and the French armored personnel carriers and other vehicles we were going to use.

Maps of streets would be studied closely and the few drivers Louis was going to supply were going to meet their right seat commander and work out any last minute details. Thursday evening was early to bunk for everyone.

Friday morning the twenty third the raid would begin 0900. 0900 because according to the communiqués Robert had pieced together that all the lone wolfs to be were in either the training center or the mosque, receiving final instructions and blessings to carry out mass carnage of the Infidels.

Saturday morning the ones that had to travel the greatest distance were to leave through a variety of methods; train, automobile and buses. The plan was to have them all in place to begin their vile acts on innocent people throughout Europe on the 26th.

The other planning was for the Oklahoma State College. Ching Lee, Vicky and Paul Drake were running the show in Oklahoma.

Ching Lee had pulled a total of fifty more security guards from the college system who were shuttling in and out of the college at night.

The communiqués were still showing that Sabir and the General were firmly sticking to their plan. We were still desperately trying to find out where they were using as a base of operations and better yet, where they were storing the weapons.

Oklahoma City had sections that were modern and filled with surveillance cameras and sensors – the latest gadgets in law enforcement. Other areas were far behind because of pressure from special interest rights groups.

Those groups fought tooth and nail to have cameras and routine police patrols removed from the college block as they called it. The college block incorporated the college and dozens of city blocks around it that were dedicated to student dormitories and subsidized housing for students. The argument was the cameras and police invaded on student privacy and the ability of the students to freely assemble without possible government surveillance. The presence of police and cameras stifled freedom.

With threats of lawsuits and marches by students, the city gave in – police came only when called and no cameras. I had no doubt that the weapons were stored in the rentals off campus. Just finding out which ones was the issue.

I gave up thinking about where the weapons may be stored as not knowing ended the possibility of an early strike off campus to eliminate the threat.

I called Melinda Schaffer, ”Hey girlfriend, what are you doing for a few days at the end of the week, say starting Wednesday, then be home Sunday late? You do have some vacation to burn don’t you?” I asked.

”Where are we going?” Melinda asked.

”I can’t tell you. But you will be strictly limited on what you can film and I will have to approve before you send it, at least in the beginning,” I said.

”Let me call Nick Cote, he is still my cameraman after all the changes that ZNN did. I will go – it will still be an inside scoop. Is Hanna and Jed going?” she asked.

”I’m getting ready to call her next. You won’t be together all the time. Be at Morton around 0600 and pack a go bag for four days. Jeans would be in order with full shirts. We are not going to be among friendly people at times,” I said.

I called Hanna and repeated what I had told Melinda. Both were going, even with the restrictions they might face.

I called Dick James, ”Dick, I have a problem and want to know if you can assign a lot of extra personnel to the Morton customs station.” I explained what I needed and how fast it needed to be. I just needed their passports stamped then I was going to stamp them with the Pact stamp that all the Pact countries had agreed upon. That stamp gave JBG employees the fast track through the Pact countries customs. France was a member of the Pact.

Tuesday was busy packing and getting everything ready to go. I was going to France while Ching Lee, Vicky and Paul Drake were leaving to Oklahoma. They decided to be there early in case the raids in France set things in motion at the college early.

Tuesday night was family night, spending time with boys and after they were in bed, intimate time together. With the three of us gone Marcy, Lorrie and Jenny had all of it to look after.

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Bob W.

Wednesday quickly became Monday and then Wednesday again and the fourteenth; seven days left before we had to go the France. I spent more time in my office and Andy’s office looking at maps and plans in those days than I had in weeks – or so it seemed.

Updates were a continuous chore. Tomorrow Marcy, Andy and I were flying to Port Arthur Marine Works to inspect the two fast patrol boats and go on the shakedown run.

I had found out why Black Bear had wanted them. There were ongoing negotiations with five OPEC producers to supply bulk oil terminal security and escort tankers into and out of the Strait of Hormuz. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Qatar were the five.

The negotiations started at the height of the pirate attacks on tankers and merchant ships kidnapping the cargo and the crews two years ago. Those attacks were still going on occasionally and because of other world events, were not making the headlines any more.

They had dropped off in the last couple months and that had taken the urgency off the negotiations for a while, but the attacks were on the upswing again. The negotiations were still active until the court award. Charles had asked that the talks be put on hold until the JBG transition was complete and there could be a discussion with the new owners.

Charles Black, Milton Bear, Andy and I talked a couple of hours about the arrangement. Then Andy and I talked some more about it before telling Charles to aggressively pursue the contract talks.

With so much manpower on the payroll and available to work, I didn’t think we should turn down any possibilities without thorough investigations. I knew Marcy would feel the same way and didn’t have to ask.

I had to wonder why those countries did not come to an agreement on their own to patrol the waters and protect their livelihood. They had bought hundreds of billions of dollars of military equipment over the past decade. They also had marvelously massive military parades with all the pomp and circumstance at the drop of a hat.

After some thought it hit me. The officers were cronies, political elite and princes. Being an officer in the military was an ego trip and notch up the ladder. It looked good in all the portraits hung everywhere. Of course there were the prestigious parties and events they all went to.

The marching soldiers were the low end of the social ladder; they weren’t entitled to be called princes or other prestigious names. But they were not going to work in the oil fields; that was nasty, hot, dangerous work so the military was the place for them.

They spent days cleaning equipment, barracks and practicing whatever. Of course they looked good all decked out and lining the routes when important visitors came.

They didn’t want their own sailors and soldiers to do it for fear of failure so they hired it out to foreigners. The same as they hired out ninety percent of everything done in those countries for construction, house building and road building. Practically every household had foreign servants from China, Indonesia, Japan, and a variety of African countries.

There was no one now other than JBG that would do that kind of work. It was going to be expensive for them.
Thursday morning Marcy, Andy and I boarded N297A for Fort Dean then a couple cars to Port Arthur’s ship building and marine services area.

One boat – if you can call an eighty foot ship a boat – was setting high and dry in the dry dock. They wanted us to be able to do a walk around to look at the hull and drives.

The other was tied up at the dock waiting for the shakedown cruise. But first was the walk around sales pitch.

Eighty foot long with a special hull design to maintain a dry deck and stabilized handling at all speeds. The hull was hardened aluminum with titanium reinforcements. Critical areas were surrounded with honeycomb titanium similar to the pilot tub in an A10 warthog, tough – just unbelievably tough. It was painted in an ocean camouflage scheme.

For power they had twin Detroit Diesel MTU 12V-4000 with 2750 horsepower, each driving Arneson Surface Drive-16 articulating propulsion systems drives allowing thrust control for mind boggling tight turns. The combination gave the boat speeds of fifty knots under most conditions and sucked fuel at that speed like a dry dog at a water bucket.

On the forward deck was two independently controlled M230 30MM chain guns. On the stern were two twin mount 12.7 MM machine guns – better known as 50 cal. Mounted over top the cabin on a rack were four tubes for Hellfire missiles. On each side of the missile rack was an eight tube launch system for Hydra 70 rockets. Over top the Hellfire tubes was mounted a radar and a sensor array. This thing could be loaded for bear – a lot of them.

It could travel 1700 miles on a fuel load at ten knots; over that all bets were off. It required a crew of twelve with berths for six. There was a small shower with waste tanks, a fresh water tank and a microwave.

We boarded the one at the dock for a shakedown run. While we were gone the dry dock crew floated the other one and fueled it up.

The thing was more than impressive, as there were 5-point harnesses to keep us seated in the boat. From idle to full throttle was a white knuckle experience; so were the high speed turns. I could just imagine Jason docking this thing at the travelers dock next to the seafood restaurant to impress his friends.

I was amazed that it had the latest control systems and laser sighting by Raytheon for rockets, Hellfire missiles and advanced sensors mounted in the array – even more, it seemed all of them were operating.
After testing the other one we accepted the delivery and Marcy paid the bill.

Before we left the commercial sales section and engineering, ”Just for shits and giggles work up a price on twenty two more with the same engines, drives and outfitted the same. I also want to know when we could expect the first delivery and how often they would follow after that.”

”I also will tell you that we know of another offshore manufacture that builds a very similar patrol boat that we will be getting prices from and comparing the product,” I said.

The question of what to do with these two boats was the question that would only be answered after more negotiations with the oil producers. One thing for sure – there – was no need to send them back to Fort Dean. There could be no tanker escort training in the lake or the bayou there.

Charles Black had texted me twice since we left Morton; three of the OPEC countries were serious – dead serious – about continuing the negotiations. Somalia pirates had tried to hijack a freighter and an oil tanker off the coast of Oman this morning, for the second time this week.

The only thing that had saved the two ships were the crews had violated international law by carrying small arms allowing them to repel the attack by a small raiding party. If it had been a larger party with RPGs they would have had two ships and crews.

Just one more thing to fit into our expanded company, if there was any value in it for us.

We were back at Morton by late afternoon and back to the planning and double checking.

Friday all of us spent the day at the truck stop getting ready for the grand opening at 1500. With all the work that had been done there were still little things to do to suit Lorrie.

The nearly one hundred men and women that were going to staff the site had started on the payroll on Monday. It was going to take that many to give the 24/7 coverage that we wanted. They had spent the time learning what their jobs were and how everything worked.

By 1500 all the dignitaries we expected were there and more. The three news stations were there; Hanna’s channel 34, the Delaware station from Dover and Melinda with ZNN. I wondered why this was a news worthy event for them. Elmo Cartwright was there for the local papers.

The five county commissioners were lined up with Lorrie and Marcy with the big scissors and at 1500 – to cheers – the ribbon was cut into multiple pieces. The flashing signs out by the highway said ”Open for business”.

The tall pricing sign was flashing ”Regular gas for two dollars, low sulfur diesel for two twenty five and off-road diesel for one seventy five.”

With all the advertizing that had been done, trucks and cars were waiting in lines for the pumps to be turned on. They were as soon as the ribbon was cut.

The parking lot was full of cars as customers filled up with gas and then went inside to see for themselves if the things that had been in the ad pictures were really there.

I stayed back so Lorrie and Marcy could be interviewed; after all, this was their dream project.

After the cameras were gone we walked into the truck stop to see the action and how things were on the inside. The place was packed and there were short lines at the cash registers with almost no waiting. I was glad to see that – nothing pissed me off more than to wait in a slow moving line to spend my money.

Stores that were notorious for having one register open when they should have had four did not get any repeat business from me. I had walked your store and spent time looking, just quickly take my money and let me get on my way.

The fast food restaurant were busy as was the convenience store. Things looked promising as we left to get the boys. We were coming back to have supper in the sit down truck stop restaurant and then do a final walk-through for the evening and surely answer ten thousand questions from the boys!
Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Bob W.

Wednesday I worked out hard in the gym after I spent several hours with Andy and Robert, then spent my daily hour at the firing range.

My MP5, my Glock and M16 got a workout each day and a good cleaning after. Another thing I did was to make sure all the buckles, straps, and attachments were in good shape on my military grade body armor. With so much riding on the outcome of both France and Mexico, I was going to be there.

I worked with Ching Lee, Vicky and Frank Hammonds on the Oklahoma College plans to thwart the attack. We decided to reduce the number of security employees who made a daily appearance at the college and then bring them back at night after dark, starting a few days before the planned attack. Then we could slip them out in the mornings.

Sabir Mahmoud and General Bashir were communicating daily. They were doing as we were doing – planning. Sabir was counting the number of security employees. That was the reason for the apparent reduction in manpower.

Frank Hammonds sent out an email to students and administrators that recurrent training for the security department would be over in the next few days and staffing would return to normal levels very soon, thanking them for putting up with the inconvenience.

It was a see what kind of response Sabir would send to the General kind of an idea.

The school bus conversion was not going as planned. It took three days to get the armor plate completed on the first one. At that rate only half of them would be ready in time. Texas Steel had the latest fabrication equipment, but it still took a day of CAD programming to get it set up to form the roll above the windows.

Andy’s design called for plate from the floor past the ceiling curve. That curve had to be done by a roll forming machine. The plates were four foot by eight foot and a half inch thick – they were heavy. The lower plates were easy, with the holes to bolt it through the wall pre-cut with a plasma cutter. It was the upper plate that was two and a half feet wide that was giving them fits getting them right. With the machines finally set they were able to do two buses a day. The good thing was Marcy had only purchased buses with Bluebird bodies so the shape and upper curve were all the same.

The three day delay had allowed the RV dealer to get a head start on mounting the roof heat pumps. That installation was easy – pick a spot, lay the template on the roof, cut the hole and apply heavy dose of sealer to the gaskets fastening it down. They were doing three buses a day. The wiring was going to be done after the generators were mounted.

The generators were another issue. The intent had been to install them on the front. The buses had flip front hoods so a bracket to hold the generator tray needed to be devised to allow them to be lowered so the hood could be opened. The front bumpers went into the iron pile.

After trial and error on the first couple, it became routine. Pulling two pins allowed the whole assembly to be tilted down by two people so the hood could be opened.

While Texas Steel was working through all those problems, there were others.

All the MRAPS were made by Navistar Defense Division; half of them did not run and had to be pulled off the lowboy trailers which were delivering them. I wondered if I had bought piles of junk. The only good thing was in the spare parts and tool kits the General sent were several laptops with the programs and cables.

With so much of the equipment not operating, the mechanics we had sent there needed help – a lot of it and soon – and we could not send it from here with the dealership opening on Saturday.

I called General Ingram and explained the situation, ”Can I post on the bulletin boards of the Army post near Brownsville for short-term part-time MRAP and Humvee techs?” I asked.

”Tell me what you want to say and I will have it posted for you,” General Ingram’s replied.

” MRAP and HumVee repair techs needed for short term project that must be completed within the next twenty days. Have some leave coming up? Extra days to use up? Wondering what you are going to do with them? How about making extra money?”

”Rooms, meals and tools supplied – work up to sixteen hours a day, fifty dollars an hour with overtime paid after working over eight daily,” the post said.

I was sure I was going to get flack over the posted wage. Lorrie was paying thirty at Morton and the truck stop for techs with full benefits added. The benefit package we furnished cost twenty dollars an hour – thus the fifty number. They were not going to get any benefits and when the job was done they were gone. I desperately wanted everything running, ready to run over the border.

I hoped the rate would entice experienced techs to come for the quick buck.

All I could do now was wait to see if there were any results. If there were none, the last resort would be to see if the international dealers in the area had mobile techs at over one hundred an hour or else look for independent truck and equipment techs.

Each night we girls moved gold from the crates and stacked it in the basement room. But we had it down to a science now and occasionally Dad and Jake helped. We would have all the crates empty and a few days to spare before the C5 made the next round trip.

Fort Polokwane was moving along. Both mines were fully staffed with a total of fifteen hundred miners. There were that many working on the construction side; six houses a day were being completed. The word had been put out that we were no longer hiring.

Putting the crusher plant at the abandoned mine was a stroke of genius. The mining trucks filled with aggregate made several trips to the concrete plant each day building the reserve pile bigger.
The main road was now concrete instead of stone, mud and ruts. With all the extra manpower, as concrete became available more streets were going to be done.

The grocery store had been finished and its shelves were kept stocked by women who had never worked a day in their life other than to forage for food and water and try to survive. They were considered by western standards to be dumb and un-trainable. They were trainable and they were by no means dumb.

They were getting a paid on Friday just like the husbands. They were working in the grocery store, painting in the new houses, final yard work, setting up the furniture and making the houses ready. Above all they were attending classes, learning to read and write and basic math.

The small hospital, doctor’s office and dental office were finished and the women were painting them as well. I had wondered how and if they would ever be staffed. But with almost twenty five hundred people at the site, they were a requirement.

Doc Burns helped with that, he thought all doctors in the modern age were forgetting the basics, getting cocky and too dependent on technology. He believed that the poor people in desolate places were getting left out.

With help from JBG he would expand his practice and require all his doctors to rotate two months a year at his new satellite clinic in Polokwane. He would also solicit the big medical universities to send nurses and med students there for additional real world experience and for credits. He had a plan – if he could get it to work.

Another thing that Andy and I talked about was a command structure problem that we were going to encounter that we had not had before.

Normally when we did an OPS mission it was less than one hundred people with a small group of team leaders. They had men assigned to each of them. It was easy to keep their groups together with their leader.

The Paris mission was three hundred spread out at two locations. One location was two city blocks square, the other nearly a city block. This was not going to be easy.

Andy and I decided – with the acquisition of Black Bear and joining our two groups together – with the types of operations we were going to be involved in, it was time to establish a military style chain of command. One thing that was a driving factor was in the French operation our men were going to wear black masks.

A style of command and control was first noted in ancient writings around 500 BC and all armies and police departments used the system in some version.

We decided we would use an abbreviated structure; private, corporal, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, colonel, major and general. We also decided rather than unit numbers or insignias we would use color stripes on the gear to quickly identify what command group the individual belong to. Red, Orange, Green, Yellow, Gray, Blue and Black and if necessary, double stripes.

The reason the men were going to wear masks and eye protection was to counter the possibility of chemicals being thrown in our faces. That was a growing tactic that was being used in Europe by triple digits.

Battery acid was the favorite. It was easily available with no questions. Auto repair shops had stacks of junk batteries that could be drained to get it. In many places new batteries were shipped dry and the acid sold in five gallon plastic lined boxes.

The mask was also to thwart images of my men being plastered on various hate groups web sites and being added to hate lists for family harassment.

I hated the command structure and the mask but I saw no way around it. One plus, we could use it in Mexico as well and anywhere else after that.

I was responding to several inquisitive calls a week from countries or major companies about security arrangements.

Andy was going to meet with his group leaders and finalize the command structure and unit colors in the next day or two. Once that was done patches could be special made with Velcro so the men could be reassigned to another unit depending on the skill needs. The rank insignia would be sewn, glued or painted on hard items. A name tag was also to be sewn with the rank on the right front of the shirt.

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Bob W.

At 0700 I was in Section Twelve planning on how to address the group of intelligence experts coming for the 0800 meeting. They were all coming.

This time I blacked out the signatures on all six files and put Roxy’s through the copier, making ten copies total.

I needed commitments that everyone would work to contain leaks for at least for thirty days. At 0745 they started filtering in. Attorney General Dunne, Art Cummins Director of the NIS, Eric Roberson Director of DHS, Frank Love Director of the CIA, Marty Coeburn Director of the FBI, Ben Smith Director of NSA and chair of the task force. I had Andrew and Anne at my side.

After coffee and a plate of donuts was on the table I started the conversation.

”You told me to investigate Black Bear, I did with a fine tooth comb and we are not through yet. We have found things that were usual and some downright infuriating.”

”Accounting found there were routine deposits made to ten numbered accounts at Thimble Shoals Pirates Bank,” I said.

”They are dead ends then,” Frank said.

”Five of those numbers are held by Senators, one held by a Representative and four by Iraq political figures,” I said as I noticed I had everybody’s attention.

”Here is where it gets dicey, I could give you all the information and let you run with it. But and it is a big but, I need thirty days of calm. In those thirty days JBG has three Major events happening on two continents involving terrorists and I don’t want to cause any of them to get cold feet and change their plans. That would be catastrophic because they plan a flood of lone wolf attacks in Europe and a terrorist attack in Oklahoma City on the same day.”

”I considered holding the information for those thirty days because at the time I thought it would make little difference in the final outcome, but with continued investigation that has changed.”

”One of them cannot be put off. I am afraid that it may involve the sale of classified materials to our enemies.”

I passed out the copies of Congresswoman Roxy Granger’s account.

”Page one is self explanatory. Page two lists the account numbers and the details of the account holder. Pages three through eight are the account details with forty lines to the page.”

”Page three is the current cycle. The very first line can be traced back to Chicago Investments LLC. It is an insider trader scheme. In the five pages they made thirty deposits to the numbered account.”

“Black Bear made twenty deposits. Line item twenty one and fifteen others were traced back to the Moscow International Bank. Line thirty eight and six others were from the international Bank of Hong Kong owned by the Chinese.”

“Line item seventy eight and ten others were traced back to the Iranian National Bank of Tehran.”

“Line item ninety four and four others are on the Bank of Thailand and it looks like it is a North Korean account.”
”I believe Roxy is a traitor as well as a common criminal,” I said.

The conversation was hot, very angry at times and loud. So loud Secret Service knocked on the door asking to tone it down. I called for a break to allow heads to cool.

”Who are the others?” AG Dunne asked.

”Senator Ruth Gavin, Senator Gilbert Howell, Senator Rose Pearlman, Senator Hope Emerson and Senator Sherman Ballard. None of these accounts showed any foreign deposits to them,” I said.

”Damn. I just attended meetings where several of them were in attendance,” Marty Coeburn said.

Shortly after that Marty’s phone rang. I refilled my mug while he carried out his conversation.

”Roxy has been arrested – she sent a text to a Russian diplomat to meet in Veterans Park. She had thumb drives with classified information on them in her possession,” Marty said.

”Well you won’t need any of this then – her phone logs and the material will be enough to jail her for a long time. You will just have to get her to confess to see what she sold. Although you may be able find out what she downloaded onto the House computer. It is almost a sure thing that is where it was put on the thumb drives,” I said.

”As soon as it breaks that she has been arrested, the others may try to get their money and flee to some country that chooses the money over them, by looking at the sums of money in Roxy’s account,” Eric said.

”The CIA can get the money under normal circumstances, but Pirate Bank won’t cooperate with us,” Frank said.
” I can say with certainty that they can’t get at it either,” I said.

“How do you know that?” Eric asked.

”Because I know that it is locked down,” I said.

”How can you know that?” Ag Dunne asked.

”Remember that old Garth Brooks song ‘Friends in Low Places?’ I know some people in lower than low places. There are times that I have to speak their kind of language. I have high confidence the accounts are locked,” I said.

What I didn’t say was that it could only be unlocked by the Director who had locked it – me.

”She will lawyer up quickly and we will learn nothing,” Frank said.

”If you want, in three hours she can be in the Mexican desert stripped and staked out with a dribble of honey on her. In a couple hours of 120 degree heat and after wasp, flies, mosquitoes and an occasional reptile munching on her, she will be glad to tell you everything,” I said.

”Or there are other places with options,” I added.

”I like your line of thinking but I don’t think we had better do that in this case,” Eric said.

”All of you have agreed to keep this out of it then,” I said as I held up the papers I had passed out.

”Yes for the time being. If we need it, I know you will let us have access,” Art Cummins said as he and the others passed the papers back to me.

I had one more committee to appear in front of today. It went quickly because the media was filled with Rep. Roxy Grainger’s arrest and every time two or more got together, that was the topic of the conversation.

The media was hounding every politico it could find who would stand long enough for questions.

I was in the Senate hall headed for an exit to make my way back to the White House when I met Senator Hope Emerson, Senator Ruth Gavin and Senator Gilbert Howell. They motioned me towards the elevator for another conference.

”I thought you were going to wait before you took any action?” Senator Hope Emerson said.

”I did with you. But there was a difference with Roxy; she expanded the business by selling classified information to the Russians, the Chinese, Iran and everyone else she could find that would buy. I only hope that you did not supply her with any of it.”

”If you did, sooner or later grief is coming your way so you may need to lawyer up early. You would probably want to go the FBI and bargain for a lighter sentence by turning state witness when they do.”

”The other possibility is that when the pressure is applied she is going to trade names for a lighter
sentence of her own and throw you to the wolves anyhow. I doubt that it will help with as much as she has sold – and there was a lot of it.”

”She had four thumb drives on her when she was arrested. You are going to have to go it on your own to save yourself at some point. The decision is one only you can only make,” I said.

My phone dinged a text. It was from Frank Love, ”Can you meet us in fifteen minutes on the Capitol steps for a news conference about representative Grainger’s arrest?”

”No problem, I will have a couple capitol police walk me to meet you when I see you there. What do you need me for?” I said.

”We just thought we should present a unified group as the intelligence community,” they said.

”No problem, I can stand with the rest of you and look pretty,” I said.

I listened while Frank Love, Eric Roberson, Marty Coeburn and Ben Smith told of the arrest of Roxy Grainger and the amount of classified material she had in her possession. The arrest was made in sight of the foreign agent she was to deliver them to. He was on a plane back to his home country.

I avoided all the questions but one and that was how the task force and the oversight committee fit into this case.

”It’s going to take all the intelligence agencies working together to access what and how much information she now gave our enemies. Then the monstrous task of countering the damage will begin and of course – build a case that will put her away for life,” I said.

The news conference was over. Bob informed me that I was to attend an expanded meeting with intelligence community this time including the various military intelligence units as well as including the President, Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader of the Senate as well as the minority leaders.

The meeting lasted two hours with new restrictions on Congressional ability to access classified information. Those restrictions were formidable – essentially read only, under guard and in a six by six room allowing no notes, copies or cameras.

I wondered why I needed to be in that meeting – all I did was sit and listen. I was glad when the Suburban door closed behind me and we headed east on Rt. 50. I would not be back in Washington until after the France, Oklahoma and Mexico issues were settled, unless I was summoned by the powers that be.

We were nineteen days from France – twenty two days from Oklahoma.
Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Bob W.

We stopped by the cafeteria and the three of us got a loaded salad on a carry plate, from there we went to the big table in Section Twelve. The conversation over lunch was about the elevator meeting.

”You wouldn’t really do that? Would you?” Anne asked.

”Do what?” I asked.

”Dry?” she asked.

”No but don’t tell anyone – it’s not going to happen, I wouldn’t give them the pleasure. I just wanted them to worry a lot, hopefully not getting a good night’s sleep any time soon,” I said.

”Can you document everything you said in there?” Andrew asked.

I opened my portable office and pulled the six folders out, putting the three I had just confronted on the table. The top sheet was the Pirate Bank Logo and had the account number with the copy of the paper index card with all the real information on the account owner. The paper card was one of the only two places that information could be found at the bank.

The next sheet was the request to search the account and authorization. My name and signature was on it in two places. One as the bank officer requesting and as bank director authorizing. The next sheets were the accounting pages on which I had written notes where the deposits had come from.

Anne had Senator Hope Emerson’s account and Andrew had Senator Ruth Gavin’s. Anne picked up on the signatures right away. I could tell by the eye cut she gave me and then by the finger tap on the paper after she nudged Andrew under the table.

Sly girl but not sly enough I thought – you need training or more practice.

They looked while we were eating then swapped papers and I read the Senator Howell file.

”Very profitable business,” Andrew said.

”Yep, if they hadn’t been so greedy they may have gotten away with it for a very long time,” I said.

”Did you notice the dates? There were six accounts started the same day, within minutes of one another,” I said.
”There are more?” Anne asked.

”This one has a committee meeting after lunch. We shall go see her. The other two are having a committee vote on funding for the grants today or tomorrow. I will wait until after the vote. I would hate to influence the outcome. Doing things like that tend to bite you in the ass,” I said.

The others started to return from lunch, I tapped the papers and motioned to return them and then I put them away.
”The real question is – what else are they willing to sell and to who?” I said.

”That’s a good question,” Andrew said.

”What can be done about it?” Anne asked.

”Nothing without a major restructuring and chaos in the Senate and House. I cannot get any more information from the source or allow this to go public without major repercussions. You have no idea the difficulty and expense in getting these,” I said as I put the papers away.

”Oh, I can just imagine! Everyone in the world has been trying to get information from that bank without success,” Andrew said.

”I would like to get their access to classified documents canceled but that would start a fire storm. But on the other hand, none of the deposits so far are – although I am not finished – from any foreign banks. If there were, they would be in jail already,” I said.

”I need thirty days of quiet and then I will hang them,” I said.

”Why don’t you talk to Dick James – as Secretary of State he is the one that has to cancel their security clearances, and Art Cummings as head of NSA – he may be able to have all their systems watched. They do work with you a lot and you are always bailing them out it seems. Also they were instrumental in the Black Bear takeover,” Anne said.

”I could do that in the morning, which would give me time look at the rest of the data I have. They were the ones that encouraged me to investigate everything at Black Bear so maybe they knew or suspected something,” I said.

I decided not to see the other three – unless they gave me more trouble today – until I had more time to review all the data and meet with Art Cummings.

After lunch we went to the House set of committee meetings. Congresswoman Roxy Granger of the House Foreign Affairs committee avoided me at all cost- never looked at me during the whole presentation and made sure she was on the opposite side of the room. She was texting the whole time. There was no doubt she had been warned. The minute the gavel struck she was gone like a bolt of lightning.

The Senate Appropriations committee passed the funding request for the college security bill. Senator Rose Pearlman railed against it and voted against it as did Senator Sherman Ballard.

I wondered if Roxy was running – she was scared. I was willing to bet there was more in her file than was in the others plus the dollar amount was a lot higher than the others, as I glanced through it again. I looked at all the deposits closer and where they came from. I then compared the bank numbers eliminating those from Black Bear, the defense industry and the broker.

I called Robert and read the bank numbers. It only took him fifteen minutes to call back. They were from Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, China and Russia. That was the only motivation I needed.

I placed a conference call to Art Cummings and Eric Roberson, ”Put a tag on Representative Roxy Grainger, travel, phone the works – do it today, she may be trying to run. If she tries to get into any foreign embassies or a flight out, arrest her. It’s important; I will fill you in on the details tomorrow.”

Tomorrow I would have enough answers to decide the fate – or what was left of it – for the others.
The trip home was a beast. We left just as the rush hour was underway. There were big meetings tonight, also Andy was back and putting his people together. Black and Bear were moving into their offices and the employees from McLean were setting up their new offices – they had been there all day. The movers had started this morning bringing the things we owned and not leased over from the western shore.

Marcy and Lorrie were excited; this Saturday was the grand opening for the truck stop and the truck dealership after all the months of work. Rows of diesel pumps had to be checked out and operational. There was a lot of them!

Rows of gasoline pumps were ready to go with four lanes for RVs with fresh water, sewage dumps and for pickups pulling big trailers. They were big and long enough with clear access for even the novice driver.

It had two fast food restaurants and a Country Kitchen run by the people who had the excellent restaurant at Morton.

There was a convenience store with everything a traveler and anyone else could want.

The trucker’s section had thousands of accessories for trucks of all kinds. For the drivers there were showers, plenty of bathrooms, a laundry and rooms set up for brokers.

The overnight parking could park over three hundred trucks and had a section away from the trucks for overnight RV parking with electric hookups.

The dealership shop was going to do service and repairs as needed. The parts bins were stocked, oil tanks filled and display areas set up. Forty new trucks were arriving this week for the opening.

Marcy had been pulling the best of the trucks from the utility auction to put on the used truck lot. There were pickups, dumps, bucket trucks and other special equip she thought would sell and draw customers.

There had been dry runs verifying the gas and diesel pumps all worked with credit cards at the pumps. Lorrie said there were over fifty national fleet credit cards that truckers used as well as normal cards. All of them were checked to make sure they worked.

The county finally relented and allowed a big tall electronic sign with prices that we could control from the fuel control terminal.

Lorrie was going to offer a big discount price for both gas and diesel. Fifty cents off local market price – two dollars for gas and two twenty five for diesel – for the grand opening from 1500 Friday until midnight Sunday.
Local businesses could get a gas card backed up by Midwest Bank that offered a twenty cent a gallon discount on fuel if the card was kept current.

The ribbon cutting would be at 1500 Friday by the county commissioners, Marcy and Lorrie. Maggie Hayes and her group had been making ads for TV commercial spots that were going to start running Thursday night. Hanna Page with the channel 34 crew was going to run the cutting live with a short piece on the truck stop. The major Delaware station was going to be here as well. This was to be the largest truck stop in the three state area.

The overpass was not done and would not be done for months. The state allowed JBG to widen the road, add turn lanes from both directions and a stop light, all of which had to be removed when the overpass was completed.

At our meeting the sleeping plan that Lorrie and Andy had been talking about was reveled. Lorrie had bought thirty used sixty five passenger school buses for practically nothing. Once a school bus gets fifteen years old, they cannot be used for public schools in most states. There are plenty of them on the market.

The buses were taken to the Texas Steel site where our mechanics stripped the seats out of them. The Texas Steel fabrication shop was going to line the walls with half inch armor plate bolting it to the sides, front and back and cutting an entrance and an emergency door. They were also going to make a carrier on the front of the bus to mount a ten kW generator on.

Lorrie had found a large RV dealer that was going to supply two roof mount heat pump units and wire up the generators to them with thermostats on each bus.

Texas Steel was also to mount a waste tank in the left rear corner and a gray water tank on the right rear. Also a fresh water tank and pump were at the mid-section. A RV flush – because they used little water – was to be mounted above the waste tank and a sink and mirror over the gray tank. Just three feet at the rear was needed for that. Most people needed a bathroom break in the middle of the night. Those additions would eliminate the need to go outside.

Several portable bath trailers had been rented with real showers and home-style fixtures. All that meant that fresh water trucks and sewage trucks were needed and just added to the logistics nightmare.

Carpenters had been found to build bunks in place, thirty inches wide and three high. When completed each bus could sleep eighteen men if they were close friends and there were no heavy snorers. But at least they would be safe from drive by shooters. Another fear, another problem solved along with others.

Several tractor trailer loads of bottled drinking water were acquired. The food trailers were at the site waiting. Tractor trailers of frozen foods were to arrive the day before M day.

When I went to look at Andy’s office, on the wall was a big map of Mexico with pins on the prospective sites. There was a list of things needed and a check off if and when they were acquired. On another wall was a map of France, Fort Polo, Fort Dean and Oklahoma with the same things.

All of the cubicles in his office had someone in them. Andy had filled half of them with experienced logistics people from the Mclean office. The rest were his trusted people from the OPS team.

Andy had chosen Forest Singer as his second in command. Forest was from the original Special OPS team.
I breathed a sigh of relief, good things were happening and I felt better about everything seeing maps and lists that I could walk over and look at any time.

Marcy passed out the new credit cards to Andy’s team – they needed them. Logistics were expensive and the cards had high limits and a pin number for each transaction. Andy’s limit had been raised again – like the girls and mine, it now had no limit. The bank would automatically text all of us if anything looked suspicious.

But first things first and that was France and Oklahoma.

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Bob W.

It was just a few minutes before the 1100 hearing time when we walked in and sat down.

Senator Hope Emerson and Senator Ruth Gavin started out sarcastic and nasty as soon as Hope gaveled the committee into session.

”We have sent you subpoenas that you have not responded to by law. Do we need to hold you in contempt of Congress?” Senator Hope Emerson asked.

”I have been extremely busy, if you take the time to look at the news. I got the subpoenas this morning when I went to the office to check in. The subpoenas were addressed to me and not to the committee so they were not opened. I have today and tomorrow scheduled to be in Washington, if you want any testimony. Then I am out of the country for the rest of the month,” I said.

”You will not set this committee’s schedule. Those subpoenas have dates on them and you will be here to testify on those dates or else just who do you think you are?” Senator Hope Emerson said.
”Make your report,” she said.

I gave the same report that I had earlier without changing anything. Senator Ruth Gavin started with the questions related to the report asking for the numbers to be broken down by state.

”I will not break them down by state to preserve ongoing investigations,” I said.

”I want to know how many are going on in my state. I have been getting reports that your investigators are discriminating against religious minorities or races in my state and that you may be using stereotyping in your investigations,” Ruth said.

”Reports to the tip lines carry no information about race, creed, color, ethnicity or national origin. Each one is investigated on merit only.”

”If you allow stereotyping to be involved you are going to eliminate the ones that potentially will kill you. Terrorists come from all walks of life, races and national origin.”

”These are people with a beef against something, someone, a group or no one in particular. They can be uneducated or highly educated, poor or wealthy. They fall for the propaganda, promises, ideology or hate and in some cases, no reason other than they are looking for thrill and excitement.”

”Investigators, scientists, psychologists – some of the best in the world – have yet to come up with a definite answer as to why?” I said.

”I think this committee needs to see it broken down that way,” Senator Ruth Gavin said.

”I will take it before the agencies for review but I doubt that kind of report will be generated. A report like that may be viewed as discriminatory in itself and be misleading,” I said.

”Since this is the foreign relations committee, I have to tell you that your war on terror is beginning to cause rifts with some of the foreign nations that we consider friendly. They are calling for restraints in arrests and more understanding when dealing with their former citizens,” Senator Howell from California said.

”My best advice to them is to keep any of their citizens home that may have terroristic tendencies, otherwise they will be dealt with accordingly,” I said.

”The committee had subpoenaed the last four years of the records of Black Bear over six months ago, before the court became involved. Those subpoenas are still active and we still want those records,” Senator Howell said.

”After the court ordered Black Bear dissolved, because of the abundance of classified materials they also ordered all records sealed forever. You will have to take up that subpoena with the courts,” I said.

”JBG has to have original copies of the contracts and accounting to continue the business they acquired from Black Bear. We demand all contracts and records, plain and simple,” Senator Howell said.

”Again the court ordered those records were sealed after the agreements; you will have to deal with the courts,” I said.

”Many of the contracts Black Bear had involved foreign agreements that have a direct bearing on international relations. This committee has a duty to review those contracts and any new agreements to verify that no potential damage or infringement is be done to those relations,” Senator Howell said.

”If you approved the original contracts then you have all there is to those contracts, the only change was the name,” I said.

”That does not matter, we have subpoenaed those records and you will deliver them,” Senator Hope Emerson said.

”The next matter is this security zone agreement with Mexico; there will be issued a subpoena for all the documents and agreements,” Senator Ruth Gavin said.

”Those documents are listed as top secret by the Mexican government and by agreement, JBG, as are the documents with the security agreement with Mexpo. To allow this committee access to those documents would violate Mexican and long standing international laws and agreements.”

”Multiple federal intelligence agencies reviewed and gave their approval for JBG operations in Mexico. Those records are also sealed until 2050.”

”Another thing, those agreements are with a private company and a foreign government as are thousands of other business agreements with other foreign governments and there have been no subpoenas or investigations of them. I would have to ask our lawyers to file suit in federal court for harassment and other violations and infractions,” I said.

”International law does not overrule the subpoenas of this committee. JBG and you will comply with our request,” Senator Hope Emerson said.

”There are other questions about JBG’s involvement in the Pact agreement that need to be investigated,” Senator Howell said.

I stood up, ”It’s time for a ten minute recess. Senator Emerson, Senator Gavin, and Senator Howell, if you will meet us in the elevator for a private conference we will see if we can defuse this situation before you gavel back in order.”

I could tell by their expressions and glances they saw victory.

”Anything to resolve the issue would be a welcome change.” Senator Hope Emerson replied.

Andrew, Anne and I followed then into the elevator, ”Andrew, hold the door closed and push the stop buttons until we are finished,” I said.

The three were on one side looking at me, waiting for me to beg I thought.

”Puffy pussy lips, red ass cheeks, hung stud muffin for key word verification. That must have been one heck of an orgy at the Thimble Shoals Casino Hotel. That must have been just hours before you opened the numbered accounts in Pirates Bank,” I said.

Expressions drained from their faces, Senator Ruth Gavin lip started a nervous quiver.

”Yes I know all about your numbered accounts; all about the bribes, blackmail and extortion of Black Bear, Boeing, Newport News ship building, General Dynamics and others.

”I know all about the insider trading scheme you have been running with Chicago Investment LLC and the deposits to the accounts,” I said.

I thought Senator Hope Emerson was going to faint as she leaned back against the wall.

Senator Howell was the only one to respond, ”No need to deny it – You got us. Where do we go from here?” he said.

”Well, you do have options. You could walk out to the steps Capitol and announce your resignations for participating in criminal activities, conduct unfit for a Senator and bringing disgrace to the hallowed floor of the Senate.”

”I could have a revolver with a full cylinder sent to you. You use both hands and place the barrel just above the eyes on the forehead and aim straight to the back of the head and pull the trigger. Messy but quick and effective.”

”I could have a courier deliver a couple cyanide capsules to you. Just put them between your teeth and bite down. Not as fast and a little discomfort but cleaner.”

” I have some expert people with rope. I could have them make a hangman’s noose for each of you. You put it around your neck pull the slack out of the noose and while standing by your balcony, tie it off with a good knot and a loop a little below the hip. Simply sit on the balcony and drop off. If you do it right it will snap your neck. Death takes a couple minutes. If you don’t do it right you die slower by strangulation,” I said.

I waited for a response.

”Or we could put this conversation on hold for a few weeks until I have time to have a more detailed meeting with you. I am kind of pressed right now.”

”I think we should do that,” Senator Hope Emerson quickly said.

”Then you have some things to do then. First you need to figure how you are going adjourn this meeting quickly before you piss me off any more than I already am.”

”Then since you are into kink I have a big strap on that will stretch your ass plenty. I can’t wait to hear you scream. I will call you with a place and a time – you just have to wonder until then if you are getting it dry or with lube.”

” By the way don’t try to withdraw any funds from Pirates Bank – I locked the accounts,” I said.

”Who were your cohorts in the crimes?” I asked.

”There are no others,” Senator Ruth Gavin said.

” I know better, yours is going to be dry,” I said.

Hope’s eyes were still fixed to the floor, ”Rose Pearlman, Sherman Ballard and Roxy Granger,” she said.

”Don’t warn them of the impending storm. I will deal with them on my own time. Do you understand?” I said.

Gavin and Ruth nodded, finally I reached and lifted Hope’s chin to have her look me in the eyes.

”Do you understand?”

”Yes”

”Yes what?” I asked.

”Yes Ma-am, Ambassador Jones,” she replied with a hint of submissiveness.

”All of you need to become church mice, rarely seen and not heard from.”

”Release the door Andrew – let’s get back to our seats.”

As soon as we were in our seats, Senator Hope Emerson gaveled the desk.

”The committee is back in session. Due to scheduling conflicts this committee is adjourned,” Senator Hope Emerson said as she gaveled the desk again.

Within seconds the three of them were gone. Because of the elevator confrontation we had just, we had just made it on time to the third committee meeting for this morning.

It went smoothly, the chairperson thanked us for the report and work we were doing.

The ride back to the White House was quiet, with Anne and Andrew each lost in their individual thoughts.

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Bob W.

After a few minutes of scuffling in his seat, ”Hope Emerson, Senator from Montana, Chairperson of the Senate foreign relations oversight committee.”

”Ruth Gavin Missouri, Senate foreign relations oversight committee.”

”Gilbert Howell, California Senate foreign relations over sight committee.”

”Rose Pearlman, Oregon Senate appropriations committee.”

”Sherman Ballard, Minnesota Senate appropriations committee.”

”Roxy Granger Ohio, House foreign relations committee.”

”The other four were to Iraq government officials; they were supposed to be for compensation divided between the victims of the Market Square fiasco. That was how the officials demanded payment. The victims ended up with nothing.”

”All the ladies play bridge every Wednesday night and gossip. Hope, Ruth and Gilbert routinely delayed legislation that would have a negative impact on us. Rose, Sherman and Roxy were sending us proposed contracts before they were published, giving us advance notice and pushing our bids higher on the list,” he said.

”It started with Hope, Ruth and Gilbert. They were steering countries to us that needed the services we supplied. Sometimes they arranged foreign aid funding or mutual security grants for those countries to help pay for our services. Then they got help from their friends to expand the enterprise,” he said.

”As long as contracts were coming the payments were viewed as a cost of doing business. Then several things went haywire and the contracts slowed down or stopped. They thought they should still get the checks. We couldn’t do it anymore and that’s when they started all the investigations to force our hand to pay them again,” he said.

”Have they tried to contact you since the court decision?” I asked.

”A couple times but the courts ended our problem, but they may have their sights on you,” he said.

”I can handle them – let them bring it on. I have several surprises for them when they do,” I said.

I learned all that I needed to know and what to expect when I went to Washington on Monday the third. I didn’t want to go but I needed to give the monthly terrorist report to Congress.

I expected that there would be trouble from the foreign relations committees and the appropriations committee. Also trouble with the foreign relations committee because so much of the terrorism was foreign sponsored.

The appropriations committee because we were still requesting anti-terrorism funding and awarding grants to colleges for security. The very people that were railing against the grants and our international findings had their hands out.

Milton Bear confirmed what Charles had said. There was no need to continue with that line of questioning.

I brought both of them back in and began discussing some of the previous contracts they had held and the men assigned to them. I was sure Andy would do the same thing when he had time.

The weekend was upon us and so was Indian summer. It was still warm and muggy with the days getting shorter. Dad and Jason were back into the farming mode with harvest in full swing. They would be done with their corn crop in another week. Then they needed to plant a cover crop but the real thing on their mind was getting goose blinds set up in the bay property they had leased. It would not be long before the Canadian geese would in full migration.

Last year I had brought a select few to go goose hunting; Troy, Frank Love and Eric Roberson. This year General Ingram and a couple more Generals and Supreme Court Judge Harvey Sizemore wanted to join the group. He and Judge Slaughter were old friends. Judge Slaughter was part of the regular hunting group with Dad, Jason, Andy and Judge Kellerman – aka Bones. Several of the county commissioners joined the group from time to time.

Bones didn’t apply anymore; she had filled out to be a real catch for some lucky man.

The girls and I spent part of Saturday putting Halloween decorations up. JJ and RJ were big enough to be interested in the festive atmosphere of the season and picking out trick or treat costumes.

Supper tonight was at the seafood inn; we wanted a little change plus we had worked hard today. No one had taken time to think about putting together supper. Family time and intimate time consumed the rest of the evening.

Most of Sunday was laid back. I did spend time moving six of the crates that came back on the C5 to the office basement. The rest were placed into the secure hanger. Thirty five crates came in this time. The weapons had been taken directly to the explosives bunker until we could get them shipped to Texas.

The jet was taking off for Texas with the additional trainers going to Fort Dean to train the men going to France in crowd and traffic control – French style. Andy had chosen two hundred of the men that were there for the task. The day after the French raid they were flying back to go to Mexico. At least that was the plan.

I arrived in Washington at 0730 – early enough that I missed most of the press staking out the back entrance to the White House. I waved at the ones that were there as I walked inside.

I took the elevator down to my office in Section Twelve. Andrew and Anne were already waiting on me. They had put the reports together for me. All I had to do was put them in a format so that I could report to the Intelligence, Foreign relations and affairs and the National Security committees. Three presentations in the Senate this morning and three in the House this afternoon. Andrew and Anne were going to accompany me.

Together we finished up the reports and I went over the findings so I would be familiar enough to make sense in my presentation.

We just had finished as the mob came in, the President followed by Troy, Dick James, General Ingram, Frank Love and Eric Roberson.

”Looks like a good day for a hanging; is this all of the lynch mob?” I asked.

”I don’t know about that but I might have to take a serious look at that letter that is in my desk I have been holding,” the President said.

”If you are going to do that I would suggest doing it by the twenty third,” I replied.

”What is the significance about the twenty third?” he asked.

”That is the day I unlock the cover and push the red button of no return underneath it,” I said.

”But don’t worry, all is good after that – maybe except for the circus and the zoo that follows,” I said.

”Eric, what has your department been able to come up with all the communiqué blasts from Bashir?” I asked.

”There is expected to be an uptick in lone wolf attacks in Europe on that day,” he said.

”And an attack at Oklahoma State,” I added.

”We saw some of that but that is one of your colleges so we were pretty sure you had things under control. Have you communicated what you have found to the local authorities?” Eric asked.

”Yes, but they are more interested in restricting JBG into an unarmed college security. He basically said we were full of it and there was no threat, that the community worked in harmony with all groups and there was no chance that any group would be terrorists,” I said.

”Ching Lee is handling it, extra people for there are in the works and Andy approved the plan,” I said.

The National Security committee was first. I went through the numbers, calls into the federal tip line and combined numbers from the state tip lines and the number of calls forwarded from state law enforcement tip lines.
Then there was the breakdown of how they were rated and the investigations of each. Then I reported the numbers of those being labeled as bogus, false reports and misrepresented facts.

I continued on with the numbers of those that were labeled high as probability requiring in depth investigation with advanced techniques by multiple agencies. I broke them down by area, North East, Middle Atlantic, South East and so on.

When I finished the session went into a question and answer segment.

”No, I will not break the numbers down by states or localities. There are ongoing investigations that may be jeopardized by such information,” I said.

”No, we do not have any undercover employees working in illegal establishments. No strippers or pole dancers,” I said.

”Yes, I expect there to be an uptick in activity as the holidays and religious holidays get closer,” I said to another question.

”No, there has not been any new information gleaned from the Harrisburg investigation. We are assuming everything that was of intelligence value went up in the flames. For the size and scope of that operation it was disappointing not to gain a wealth of information,” I said.

”The security contract between Mexpo and JBG surely can’t fall within the scope of this committee. After all, it is just another international contract that has no connection to national security,” I said.

”No, I am not overseeing that contract. The security division under Victoria Jones and Ching Lee Jones is in overall charge of that project with Vice President Andy Reddick in charge of the particular project,” I said.

”No, I do not have control of that operation or need to direct it. If Vicky or Ching Lee whisper sweet nothings in my ear at midnight in the form of a question, I might passionately respond with the appropriate suggestions,” I said.

When the laughter subdued the chairman thanked us for appearing and gaveled the meeting to an end. The Foreign Relations committee was next. It was looking like it was going to be a hum dinger. Hope and Ruth had been twitting all during this morning’s testimony. They hoped I had brought lunch because I was not leaving until I answered all their questions.

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Bob W.

”I found ten acres fenced in 6 miles from the Brownsville International Bridge. The property is owned by Texas Steel and Fabrication. It was a shared property, they use half of it. They had the rest of it on lease to Gulf Shores Petroleum Ventures.”

”Gulf Shores was sold and incorporated into Shell Oil offshore. I leased it for one hundred eighty days with an option for more.”

”Texas Steel says they can do any kind of fabrication. Andy and I worked on your sleeping problem and we think we came up with a workable solution. I am working on the pieces for it today; as soon as I get them all together Andy and I will fill in the blanks for you.”

“The service trucks are here and the two mechanics who are going to run them are putting tools and supplies on them as we speak.”

”Four pallets of spare parts and special tools arrived today from Quantico via Army trucks. They are loading them on the trucks. Tomorrow both service trucks are heading to Texas; they should be there on Monday.”

”I am sending two of the motor homes with them and Vicky is sending two men from the college security group to go with them to help. The motor homes will give them a place to sleep and keep dry plus guard the equipment. There is a motel and restaurant close by,” Lorrie said.

”Tuesday the trucking company is to start delivering the MRAPs to the Texas Steel site. They will have plenty to do to get them checked out and ready,” Lorrie said.

Andy came on the line with updates and questions.

”Did you find what you needed today to take the heat off?” he asked.

”Oh yes and more. Plus, I have to go there once a month from now on,” I said.

”The two men I sent to Port Arthur confirmed the boats are yours and so are the unpaid invoices. I have copies of all the paperwork. They go in the paint shop and then final prep and fit out next week, after that a shakedown run. I told them that we wanted people on board for that. Have you figured out what you are going to do with them yet?” Andy asked.

”No I haven’t. When I meet with Black and Bear tomorrow I will find out, they must have had some kind of contract or plans for them,” I replied.

”I know this is rushing but have you put together a management team you can trust there?” I asked.

‘‘Yes, I’m planning on coming back on Monday and work on filling my staff there. I want to do one more review of the list for France then and get them notified. I do want to go over Ching Lee’s plan with her and Frank Hammonds. It looked good, I just want to make sure they are still on track,” Andy said.

”This place is shaping up; men are grumbling and night life has changed to bunk time. I want to bring the trainers here for a week or so for riot and heavy crowd control training. That seems to be something that was not done and we may need some of that in France,” Andy said.

”That’s what the extra hundred men are for – police duties and control. I guess they don’t have enough police or they have doubts about them. Worse yet they don’t want any of them to possibly get hurt. The good thing is I want the leaders so the Doc can interrogate them. The extra men will help with that,” I said.

”We need to be there at least by the twentieth to work out the last few glitches and check out the route plans,” I said.

”I take it you are planning on going?” Andy said.

”Oh yes – the first major operation like this; I have to be there. The outcome will be watched from so many places. There is just too much at stake on this one for me not to be there,” I said.

”By the way, I have convinced Sheila to get the Suburban we talked about and give Sandy the car,” Andy said.

”Just have her stop by and see Lorrie to pick out one – don’t forget to get the gas card with it,” I said.

”Schedule the trainers you want there – the jet can deliver them and their tools of the trade on Monday and bring you back,” I said.

”The FBI found what was left of the office equipment. It’s not worth bringing back unless Robert’s group can use any of it for parts,” Andy said.

”Have the two techs that are there look at it and call him,” I said.

”I will tell Marcy that as we still have not canceled their insurance yet she may want to turn it in for a claim,” I said and finished the call with ”See you on Monday.”

We were landing at Morton by the time I was finished the VCATS. It was a good thing I was talked out but still I was not done. I needed an update from Robert on the latest happenings and a quick walk-through of the Horsey office building.

Tomorrow would be the last day for changes before the spaces started filling up on Monday. Baltimore Office and Bob were to be here at 0800 to meet Marcy.

Bashir was continuing his posting frenzy, putting more pressure for the strip clubs to produce intel they could use. Bashir demanded that the strippers be properly punished using the ancient traditional methods for lack of productivity. In other words, beat the crap out of them. I guess he did not realize bruises would lead to reduced visits from customers and police visits with lots of questions.

Friday was a busy day with calls from Louis confirming my thoughts about the situation in Paris and he was wanting updates. One thing was obvious, he was far more nervous than I was and there were still over twenty five days ago.

A call that should have lasted ten minutes lasted well over an hour while I went through the prep work for the raid, finally convincing him that everything was in hand and on hand to carry out the raid. I even offered to send a G5 to pick up him and a delegation if he wanted to view the training that was going on for the raid.

We met with the various contractors at the Horsey office and declared it usable. Andy had a nice big office with a smaller private office with a nice fancy desk and a small meeting table. When you walked out the private office door into the larger part, there was a larger meeting table and ten large cubicles for his people and there were two bathrooms. Four rooms had been combined into one for his office.

Black and Bear were going to share a two room unit with one clerk for each of them. The cubicles were larger for them. A major step down on the ego ladder but at least it didn’t have bars.

The freighter was in Maputo, the C5 was on the ground with the men to help get everything to Fort Polo. An Israeli C130 was bringing my hardware order along with the now 8 hard items for it to bring back along with the shipment from the mines. It would make the trip back tomorrow.

I was in my office early, meeting with Lexi. She had broken down all the payments to the Pirate Bank for the last six years from Black Bear.

With the account copies from the bank along with all the other transactions, it all fit. The six congressional people would face decades of time in prison if I wanted. Not only them – but brokers, aides and accomplices as well.

There were a total of ten numbered accounts deposits that were made to and from Black Bear accounts. In a few minutes they were coming here separately to meet, that would be one of the topics. I would find out just how truthful they were going to be.

My next trip to Pirates Island may be sooner than I wanted to find out who the other four were, unless Milton or Charles decided to divulge.

Charles Black was first in the barrel and I started with the accounts, pushing a list of just the account numbers in front of him.

”Do you want to give me the names to go with this list and what they did to earn it?” I asked.

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Bob W.

Thursday morning Marcy, Jeanna and I departed Morton Field at 0800 for Thimble Shoal Island after dodging reporters that were everywhere. I stopped long enough to answer two questions.

Thimble Shoals was a two island nation – one island a five star resort with casinos that catered only to the very wealthy, the other the banking island and private residence. There were no motels on the banking island and a simple bridge connected the two.

Thimble Shoals was the illegal banking capital of the world and an independent nation. They were not aligned with any world government and were anti-disclosure of any private agreements. Even the famous Swiss banks had finally thrown in the towel and agreed to divulge their depositors to the world’s tax collectors and courts. Thimble Shoals told the UN banking system and foreign tax collectors to put it where the sun didn’t shine.

They had enough of the world’s movers and shakers – powerful people – as depositors that the UN backed off. That just proved where those unaccounted billions were that were missing in the UN’s annual budget.

There were two main banks in Thimble Shoals. The Thimble Shoals National Bank and the Pirates International Bank. Several of the board of directors rotated between the two banks.

The National Bank handled international transactions – including electronic transfers – and everything for the resort and its casinos. It bought gold, diamonds, platinum and other hard currency for its depositors and sold such items. The directors of the National Bank were essentially the government of the island.

The National Bank was the island’s treasury with the President of the bank as the island’s governor. There were less than five thousand permanent residents on the island. There was no immigration to the islands and only temporary visas. The residents worked the resorts, casinos, airport and tourist shops. There were no personal taxes or property taxes. Heavy taxes on the tourists paid the bills. There were no taxes on the winnings at the casinos.

Pirates Bank was a storage facility and accepted transfers and such deposits directly from depositors who walked in the door carrying the items to deposit to their numbered accounts. New customers walked out with a numbered account with their names sealed in Pirates Bank system. Funds deposited in Pirates Bank gained no interest.

When funds were sent to National Bank that were destined for Pirates Bank, a bank director withdrew the money and physically carried it across the street, listing it as a cash withdrawal on the electronic accounts. Certain electronic transactions were never recorded as being received.

My security team had loaded twenty of the gold bars and four bags of diamonds onto the plane. Marcy had twenty of the five million US treasury bonds in her briefcase that we had taken from the Prince. I had opened the door by promising to invest in the bank. It was a two hour flight over the Caribbean past our Deep Water Cay resort island.

Two taxis carried us and our investments from the airport to Pirates Bank to our meeting with the board.
Winston Churchman was the senior board director and apparently the spokesman of the Pirates Bank. Sidney Blake and Oscar Dente were the other two directors who met us.

”We can only assume that you are here for more than investing in our bank. We stay up on the world news and have seen recent news events that seem to be focused on you a lot the last few weeks. Let’s talk about the investment to see just how serious you are, then we can talk about other things.”

Winston went through all the bank’s investment opportunities including levels to buy in and all the services they offered to those wealthy individuals, including the untraceable numbered accounts.

They laundered money, cut and reshaped diamonds or other jewels and melted bars of gold and silver into coins or other collectibles.

”We mint coins for over a dozen other nations as well as for our nation and can mint special coins for special occasions of customers. Thimble Shoals only uses gold and silver as it’s national currency and is accepted worldwide using the gold standard and US dollar,” Winston said.

Jeanna informed them that she was an executive Vice President of Midwest Bank and wanted to know about the executive positions and how one progressed to a bank director.

He looked a long time before deciding if he was going to answer. ”There are ten directors. The original directors put up the money to start the banks. One hundred million each for a total of one billion dollars. All transactions are in US dollars. The bank charges three percent and we don’t do transactions less than one million dollars. That is the return that is divided between the directors.

”There is only one way to become a director and that is to buy out a director who wants to retire – or his estate if he dies – for the original one hundred million amount and you have to maintain a ten million minimum on deposit. Directors are the only ones who have access or can make changes in the numbered accounts,” Winston said.

”So there are few turnovers at the director level,” Marcy said.

”Yes, very few. Director Olgermeir is ninety and has been looking to retire for a while; he would be the first in a decade,” Winston said.

”Do you have a specialist to place a value on uncut diamonds?” I asked.
”Yes, Benjamin Otto,” Winston said.

”Call him please. We wish to deposit diamonds and need to have a value placed on them, along with several gold bars. We wish to start a numbered account,” Marcy said.

”I would also like to talk with Mr. Olgermeir – if he is available – to see if he could be persuaded to retire and sell his directorship,” I said.

A little while later Ben Otto was seated in a meeting room at a table with a stainless steel tray on it.
”Just pour the diamonds on it and I will get started,” he said.

By the expression on his face, he wasn’t expecting a bag of uncut diamonds the size of a ten pound bag of flour to be dumped into his tray. He put on his little monocle and started grading and assigning a value on his pad. I didn’t have the heart to tell him we had three more bags from the South African mine.

Director Olgermeir had arrived and was talking with Jeanna and Marcy off to the side. I’m sure they were negotiating with him. He better be up on his game because he was dealing with two experts.

”I will evaluate the gold if you will bring it in. I will start on it while Otto works on the diamonds,” Winston said. He was holding a scale that looked like something that drug dealers used. I guess he thought we had dust or nuggets.
I went to get the first bar and had the security men bring the rest back. We had wrapped the bars in cardboard. As I cut the cardboard off to expose the first bar, he looked at the scale, then went and got a hand cart.

”It’s been ten years since I saw any bars that size and the mine marks are the same as those back then. I have a much bigger scale in the back.” We loaded four bars onto the cart to be weighed and made four trips to weigh them all.

By the time we were finished, Otto was working on the second Bag. Marcy and Jeanna were smiling and shaking hands with Olgermeir. I knew a deal had been reached; I wondered what it was. I guess I would soon find out.

Winston came back with a paper, ”At today’s market price the bars are worth $514,500.00 each and you have 20 of them for $10,290,000. How do you want to handle it?” he asked.

The three of them came over to the table where we were.

”Winston, these ladies have convinced me that it is time to retire. They have met my financial conditions. BJ, if you want to come to my office before you leave I will show you your duties and how to access the things I know you are looking for,” Olgermeir said.

I was pissed, as everybody would be pissed if – when – the word got out that I was a director of an outlaw bank that flew in the face of every ‘I can’t get enough taxes’ loving nations, there was someone who would try to rip my head off for sure. I didn’t think I had time but Marcy must have thought differently. Maybe she had found out something different while talking with him. Marcy could see the concern on my face.

”BJ, the full board only meets once a month on Mondays, for which you have to be here, and they do a video meeting every two weeks. I’m thinking we leave Friday evening and spend that weekend at Deep Water Cay. You go the meeting on Monday and pick the rest of us up on the way back. We are not spending enough time in the sun and surf and you need to recharge,” Marcy said. She was always thinking of me it seemed.

Jeanna was standing behind her trying to control a smile.

”Let’s go to your office and these ladies can finish up with the paperwork here. Marcy knows what I had planned,” I said.

I was surprised how simple the duties of a director were, but then they were all millionaires and more. They spent their real time on the beach or traveling around the world. They only required two of the ten directors to be at the banks. I would need to come and do two weeks every six months, unless otherwise needed.

He gave me his manual with all the policies, directives and copies of bank forms they used with instructions. Long time employees handled everything else that took place in the bank.

He showed me how to access the numbered accounts. When we were done I had the names and copies of everything on the six numbered accounts that were being paid from the former Black Bear accounts. Passwords, logins, nicknames – everything.

All of them were current holders of Senate or Congressional seats. I locked the accounts so no money could be withdrawn using his instructions. They were being compensated heavily from Black Bear; no wonder they upset over the turn of events.

There were other deposits to the accounts, other than the ones from Black Bear. They were supposed to be untraceable but he showed me how to access the National Bank records across the street and backtrack to their origin. The world of bribes and payoffs in defense industries was immense.

Then there were the deposits from stockbrokers; I wondered about that. Then I realized they were proceeds from insider trading. The Congressional people had the inside track on many things. They knew in advance when a defense contract was going to be awarded and who was likely to get it.

They couldn’t actually buy the stock themselves but friendly third parties could and then split the proceeds.

I would bet I would be approached to ease the pressure and smooth the way for JBG or maybe outright threatened to continue the payments. They were in for one hell of a surprise.

We walked back just in time to hear the debate on the diamonds.

”Each of these bags has some very interesting pieces in them and a value between 75 to 85 million dollars in the current state. With a skilled cutter and the right polishing, the value would double – possibly more,” Mr. Otto said.

”The diamond department over in the other bank would drool over these,” he said.

“Mr. Olgermeir is to get the bag of his choice and ten of the gold bars for his Director’s position. You can take one bag and have them cut and retail them,” Marcy said. There was quick agreement and smiles.

”The funds from them and the rest we want deposited into four numbered accounts with these names. They were the names of our children with parents as co-owners.”

I – or I should say we – filled out the forms as I assigned the numbers.

The flight home was a conversation blow out. I now knew what I was going
to do with some of the gold and definitely with the diamonds over time.

I paged Andy as he had asked. As soon as it went live Lorrie came on line.
Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Bob W.

We were up early; the six of us and the new security team. Flying with us was Curtis Warren and two of his attorneys. We were stopping at Fort Dean to pick up Andy. We were taking the older business jet; there would be just enough seats.

With the big meeting table it was just right for final discussions while we were flying. With the agreement in the final print version after yesterday’s marathon faxing sessions, Andy, Curtis Warren, his two international attorneys and we girls went through the document page by page for anything that was problematic.

By the time we landed in Mexico City, we had finished and were having a general conversation on working scenarios and solutions. Scenarios were scary and the solutions even worse, but I had no doubt that we could handle them.

The meetings lasted four hours, with explanations, concerns, promises, threats and solutions. The meetings were broken into four parts, the one with the President and his cabinet ministers was contentious at times.

Then Mexpo’s President and board of directors were to finalize their financial obligations and how much Mexico’s treasury was going to contribute. Mexpo’s contribution had gone up substantially, all of which had changed because of the addition of the southern pipeline and limits by the government on what they were willing to spend.

There were bonuses for JBG’s early completion of each phase because the size and scope of the original contracts had grown so much. All of these things were in the final faxed contracts from yesterday.

The next piece was part D – those discussions were very heated. There had been references to it in the faxes and contracts.

With Part D Mexico was to lease JBG a mile and a half wide strip from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean for a period of ten years. All improvements at the end of the lease were to become property of Mexico.

The property was to be a security zone between Mexico and the United States patrolled by JBG and giving JBG full autonomy over the property without any interference for the term of the lease. It included courts, jails and any activities prudent and necessary.

The Mexican government was willing pay JBG to reduce or eliminate drug, gang and human trafficking both ways on the border. Mexico’s argument was the problems were as much the US’s fault as theirs.

Mexico was getting pressure from all over. The US was screaming about all the drugs and people coming across the border. Officials were estimating that the number would reach hundreds of thousands this year. Bales of grass were transported across almost every night. The cartel was cutting holes through the fence or launching it over the fence.

Cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, LSD and other custom made drugs were hidden in everything; under the seats of cars, in their tires. They were in shipping containers, dropped over the wall with small drones. They were being carried by persons or being trafficked in body orifices.

Members of the cartel were traveling at will across the border with no fear of the Mexican police. The cartel was setting up camp in many US cities: Los Angeles, Flagstaff, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Denver and Oklahoma City. They were turning some of these into major distribution hubs.

Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela – at the prodding of their Soviet masters – were willing to send troops to help fight the cartel. Mexico was smart enough to have none of it.

At 1400 after lunch a statement was written for President Martinez to open the news conference after the public signing of the documents, making the contracts and agreements official.

A long table was set up with President Martinez and me in the middle with a stack of the agreements and a microphone.

”Today we are signing a historic document that covers several fronts. It establishes a working partnership with Mexico’s leading oil producer Mexpo, the Mexican government and JBG – the world’s largest security company.”

“It has been a difficult negotiating process but we believe we have a workable agreement that is fair all parties,” President Martinez said.

”Mexican petroleum is proud to partner with JBG for security of our three major pipelines. This agreement will end illegal activities that have been stealing our product, damaging the pipelines and will allow Mexpo to increase production to meet the needs of Mexico and the world,” Mr. Garcia said.

”JBG has been given the special liberties and permits to enforce the law to work in partnership with and outside the limits of Mexican law in all illegal activities in the designated areas.”

”A new approach is being made to cross border human trafficking, the drug trade, and host of other illegal activities. The Mexican government has agreed to lease a 1.5 mile wide strip that runs the length of our border with America. This will be called the Mexican American Security Zone.”

”This agreement gives JBG full autonomy over the security zone including the authority to confiscate property and enforce the law as they see necessary. This includes courts and prisons,” President Martinez said.

”This is indeed a historic document. It is the largest nonmilitary security plan ever devised. We at JBG are proud to be a partner with Mexpo and the Government of Mexico. I fully expect there to be difficult parts of the plan and I fully expect them to be worked out smoothly. In a matter of weeks JBG security will make a major presence in Mexico,” I said.

I had asked earlier if any of the girls wanted to give a statement. ‘No!’ was the prevalent answer.

For the next ten minutes copies of the agreement were signed and shuttled between us. Champagne toasts and a round of handshakes ended the official ceremony.

President Martinez, Mr. Garcia, AG Inez and I spent thirty minutes answering questions for the media. Many were tough questions but we made it through without making too many people mad.

Well, except those trying to get me to answer my phone. It never stopped vibrating. An hour later we were back on the plane heading for Fort Dean.

As soon as the gear was up I was on MTAC. I sorted through the missed call list then sent a text to Troy ”MTAC in 10 minutes”.

They did as I figured they would when I opened the screen chat; it was full on Troy, the President, Secretary of State Dick James, Eric Roberson of the DHS, Frank Love CIA, Marty Coeburn FBI and Bob Smith NSA. I wondered how they were all going to talk at one time.

“Can you tell me just what the hell you are doing?” the President asked.

”Security for Mexpo’s pipelines. That’s what our contracts say,” I replied.

”What is the security zone President Martinez was talking about? That is an odd arrangement with autonomy, full control, courts, prisons, and working outside of Mexican law,” Dick said.

”That’s right, full autonomy on everything, it’s essentially an independent nation for ten years, Dick has some negotiating to do for border crossings,” I said with a laugh.

”But why?” Bob asked.

”I’m going after the cartel like the terrorists they are – the same as I do for terrorists, I go after everyone up the chain, not just the flunkies at the bottom. Mexico wants me to be aggressive, but I intend to be super-aggressive.

”I intend to interrogate my way to the top. As that happens, they are going to start running. AG Inez is going to work to keep them from disappearing into the Mexican cities. That only leaves north, we do not want those cartels in the States. As soon as they step over the border, the lawyers take over and my interrogations are over. We end up with a complete new set of cartel operations and gangs to deal with in our cities.”

”Get ready – the hell is going to fly. I intend to put an end to all pedestrian traffic through the zone, all bus traffic and every vehicle gets searched. Unless they have a valid US passport and can prove citizenship, they are going to be sent back to Mexico.”

“The gang members and cartel will be staying in prisons in the zone with no lawyers there, and until they – and they will! – give up their bosses.”

”Mexico and Mexpo are putting up one hundred million a year and that’s not going to cover it. I’m expecting some help from you. You are going to save billions over just the immigration changes and much more in the courts and prison costs,” I said.

”Another thing I’m going to need is access to your drug experts who can identify the criminals and the drugs trying to cross the border. I am going to shut down everything except at designated border crossings, even commercial,” I said.

”That is a lot for us to digest plus you are one hot potato right now! Congress is screaming for you to testify,” Troy said.

I heard the gear go down. We were landing at Fort Dean.

”Excuse me just a minute, I need to talk to Andy for a second.”

”Andy, the raid in France is a go on the twenty third, the numbers have been upped. We need three hundred men there. Keep that in mind. The Oklahoma terrorist attack looks like it is going to happen the same day. Ching Lee and Vicky are going to handle that by using men from the college security teams. Get Ching Lee a list of any you want to go to France so she can make the necessary changes,” I said.

”Are you still going to the island tomorrow?”Andy asked.

”Yes, I should be back by dark,” I said.

”VCATS on your way back. I will have updates on things by then,” Andy said.

‘‘Ten-four,” I replied as he descended the steps. Moments later we were moving again.

”OK gentlemen, where were we in this conversation?” I asked.

”I have to give a report to Congress on task force activities on the third as required by the over sight agreement. I will testify on that day and the following day. Every day is booked and those are the only two days I have open for that.”

I could make any day open but I wasn’t going to be making daily trips to sit in Congress to give them time grandstanding for the media.

”What’s up with France and Oklahoma?” Dick asked.

”I can’t talk about France, you will just have to wait for the news. Oklahoma is a terrorist attack and we’re on it. I will have more information when I see you on Monday. If you want to know more sooner, you will have to come to me. I will be in my office on Friday,” I said.

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Bob W.