Chuck
Life was settling down all around. I was just doing the usual office work with no flying everywhere on an almost daily basis for a change. John Scott seemed to have settled down in DC and was enjoying his job again.
I had the flying lessons and was checked out in the new Citation X but had no reason to go anywhere. The charter company used it once for a quick trip to San Diego and back, but Lisa took that one. She said it was great to have an aircraft that could fly that far, that fast, and that high, as she was able to get over the tops of some tall cumulus clouds that would normally cause a bumpy ride or cause her to go around them.
While sitting back in my downtown office, John called to ask me if I would be interested in a trip to Omaha. He said he had a task force there, working along with Bureau task force, trying to get all of the information necessary for the prosecution of the men still in federal holding cells in DC.
"What do you want me to do there, John?"
John said, "I thought you could help the men there stimulate some of the witnesses we've uncovered. I think we need to define whether they are whistleblowers or guilty associates trying to cover their tracks. You've always done well with interrogations, so go up there and work them over. Take your new man Nightfox with you for a good guy/bad guy routine. Your man, Bud Anderson and your old sidekick, Blake, are up there too, so it will be like old home week. You'll be there in support of Bureau people, so help them out all you can."
"I'll go up in the morning, John. There is also some unfinished business in Salt Lake City that needs attending to. The station chief up there did a hell of a job when we were hiding those escapees. I need to go by there and buy him a nice meal and say thanks. I'll work with Omaha a day or two then go up to Salt Lake."
"I'm glad you take care of the guys you work with, Chuck," John said. "That means a lot to them. We can send out commendations and letters all day long, but nothing says thanks more than a personal pat on the back and a good free meal."
John gave me a word of caution, "The Pentagon has a group of investigators out there that are more in the way than a help. It's been reported that every time the interrogations get close to some solid information, the Pentagon boys screw up the witness. They're either stupid investigators or are sly about concealing what they want to conceal. We also have some intelligence concerning the company that hired the imported muscle in the first place. It seems they are importing some more muscle, even with all of the federal men around there. Just a heads up, Chuck, but watch your back."
"Sounds like there's more to be found under some rocks, John," I said, while thinking through what he had been telling me. "I'll give you a call if we come up with anything. Make sure the Director knows I'm going to be out there."
John chuckled, "That's who asked for you to go there. He'd steal you in a heartbeat if he could. Thanks for helping all of us out, Chuck. Be careful."
After talking to John, I called DeDe to make sure the Citation would be ready in the morning, then called Nightfox to advise him we were going to Omaha and out to Salt Lake. Sam asked me, "You're going to make me do something I've put off doing for years. Can you take me to wherever it is you buy your clothes? I need dress clothes if I'm going to hang around with you. I can't hang around in jeans while you're in one of your expensive suits or sport coats. Hell, even your sport coats put most other men to shame."
I thought for a second and said, "How about I swing by where you are and pick you up. I'll call my special fashion assistant and have her meet us. She'll help out and we'll get you fixed up. I've trashed a couple of suits, several pairs of slacks, and my favorite sport coat once again, so I need to do some shopping as well. Where are you?"
"Home, your house. Maria is working, so I usually stay here or the patio during the day and watch training videos. I've been doing the online testing after each video and I think I've done well so far. I'll be ready to go when you get here."
I called my fashion consultant, Metarie, "Hey, Metarie, want to go shopping? I have a friend that needs a whole wardrobe like you did for me. I need some stuff too, but you are the one to give a guy a good look. Do you have time to do that this afternoon?"
Metarie laughed her beautiful laugh and said, "I'd love to. I'm bored to death at work today. You know who would be a help if you would let her?"
"Who's that Metarie?"
"Brandy. Between her and Tiani, they are the best-dressed girls at the office. Your other three are good dressers, but Brandy and Tiani are really fashion conscious."
"Well, if you can let them off, bring them along. Tell them they will be shopping for Sam. Sam is a new cohort of mine, Metarie. You probably met him at the open house. He's also a new deputy that I drag around the country."
"Well, Chuck," Metarie said, "Meet us at the warehouse in forty-five minutes to an hour. We'll fix up your new guy."
I picked up Sam at home, making sure he was ready to try on clothes. He had on a pair of Dockers and dress shoes, so he was ready to do some serious shopping. "Sam, do you usually use a belt or shoulder holster? Whichever it is, you need to have it with you to try on clothes. Just pull your shirt out if you wear a belt holster or put on a light jacket if you wear a shoulder rig. You need to make sure the clothes don't bulge where your piece is."
Sam put on a bigger shirt with the tail out of his pants. He said, "You're right about making sure of the fit. I've always used the telltale bulge as a way to know who was packing and who wasn't. This is the smart way to do it."
When we pulled up to the warehouse, I saw both Metarie's Mercedes and Brandi's new Cadillac Escalade. It seems everyone in the house has been buying cars that will haul more people at a time. Brandi usually drove her little Saturn, but when she took everyone to work, she drove the Escalade.
Inside the warehouse, I re-introduced Sam to Metarie. Tiani was bouncing around, wanting to get to some serious shopping. In just a few minutes, the three women, along with a saleswoman from the store, had a huge cart loaded down with suits, sport coats, and slacks. The ladies were pulling various shirts out to wear with suits and sport coats and were pushing Sam toward the fitting rooms so he could get his clothes sized up.
The poor guy must have tried on over a dozen pair of pants, from at least six suits, and over a half dozen pair of slacks. The tailor marked up the parts and jackets, making note of where Nightfox wore his gun. He only had to exchange a few items to get the right fit.
While he was busy, I pulled a few pair of slacks, a couple of suits, and a couple of sport coats for myself. I took Sam away from the shopping frenzy and had him try on a couple of pairs of shoes. He said to me, "I saw the prices of the stuff here. I'm going to make a pretty big dent in my savings account."
I told Sam, "Those are the manufacturer's recommended prices, Sam. The prices they charge are less than half of what those tags say. Just wait, you'll be pleased."
When we were at the register to pay for our clothes, after the tailor had marked up our jackets and slacks, Sam was astounded that he was paying a third of what he had thought it would cost him. The warehouse owner, who now knew me, said to Sam, "You've come with one of my good customers. Thank you for shopping with us and please recommend us to others."
The owner handed Sam a large selection of ties and a dozen pair of socks to go with the suits and shoes he had purchased. Sam tried to pay for them, but the shop owner refused saying, "Everyone gets a gift from my store. You bought a large amount of clothing; you get a large gift."
Sam saw the suitcases that were displayed on top of the racks and asked, "I need a nice suitcase to hold these clothes when I travel. Can you pick out one for me to buy? I need something that will hold three or four days of clothes."
The owner pulled down a leather fold up garment bag that would easily hold a couple of suits and a sport coat. That would be perfect for three days to a week on the road. I told Sam, "When you get stuck out too long, you can always have your clothes cleaned at the hotel at night. It's a great way to get along with a smaller bag."
The owner had been taking his time with us and not leaving us as he usually did. He told us to step back to the fitting room area and two of his tailors began bringing clothes out for Sam and I to try on. The tailors had altered all of our purchases while we had been paying and talking ... How can you not love a place like that?
Metarie, Brandi, and Tiani were all smiles at having helped us get new clothes. They had each picked out at least one nice business suit for themselves. Metarie bought a couple pair of nice heels too, so her day was complete.
Sam and I went home and the three ladies left to go back to work. At home, the housekeeper, Maria, took our new shirts to wash and iron and went to hang up our new clothes. Sam was staying in one of the apartments on the second floor when he wasn't at Maria's trailer park home. Sam asked me, "When we travel, do you always take your personal weapon? How about your tactical weapons?"
"Always have your personal weapon with a couple of spare magazines. As far as the tactical weapons, you and I need to keep them at hand, as we never know when we will need them. The service doesn't give us much notice most times. They have people watching us that know where we are all the time. I don't know who watches us around here, but I can assure you they do. They are here to make sure we're alright, so I'm not concerned about it."
Sam said, "I'll bet whoever they report to are surprised I've actually hooked up with a woman, Maria. She'll be unhappy that I'm going out of town, but we've talked about it and she knows that it's my job. She says that she'll support me at whatever job I have. And you know what? I believe her. She is really a genuine and sincere lady. Her kids are great too."
"Sounds serious, Sam?"
Nightfox said, "I am, but she said we have to wait before we make a public commitment to each other. She says she wants me to be sure she is the one I want and she wants to make sure I am the one for her. I think she's the one, Chuck, but I'll be patient and see how it works out."
We spent a little while cleaning our tactical weapons. I had a larger suitcase than Sam did since I have the 308, the collapsible MP5, plus the .50 caliber. We checked our ammo supply and put our cases away for the trip tomorrow.
Sam took off to meet Maria when she came home from work. I decided to go to the patio to see Steve and family.
The first person I saw when I entered the patio was Bonita. She grabbed me and pulled me into the living room, where she was using the back half of the room as her personal music studio. She picked up her acoustic guitar to show me some of the techniques that I had taught her. The little girl was playing some very decent blues with her tiny fingers. She was really proud, saying, "It took me a week to finally be able to get that neat sound when you pull the string down with your left hand. I'm going to learn to play like you and Lisa so we can all play lead."
I commented, "You know, I think I need to have you playing an electric a little more. You're really showing a lot of aptitude for the guitar."
Bonita looked at me funny, "Is aptitude a good thing?"
With a laugh I said, "It means you are showing the ability to learn."
"Okay then, I have an aptitude. The mommas will all say I have an aptitude for an attitude." Bonita was laughing as I left her with her guitar and went back to the patio.
Mercy came out and sat with me, "You're going somewhere tomorrow and I want you to use your gift while you are there working. You know you can find out a lot more from someone if you use what's in his mind to ask him more questions. Work smarter, Chuck, use your gift."
"You're right, Mercy, I do need to use whatever means I have on this one. Something's wrong with this case. I'm really not comfortable with it and I am very apprehensive for some reason."
Mercy was nodding her head, "I know, I can feel it in you and I feel your uncertainty. There's danger, but there's mostly deception. Look into everyone you meet to find out if they are really who they appear to be. You're more like my mother than I am and can listen to someone easier than I can. Use your gift Chuck, look into people, look beyond where you are, anticipate what you feel."
This time it was me nodding, "This gift is a wonderful thing, but it is so strange. Every time I use it, it seems to get bigger, more intuitive. Lately, I'm hearing things from people I talk to without even trying to listen. Normal stuff usually goes unheard, but anything extreme is amplified and I hear really good stuff or really bad stuff. When we were holding those men on the boat, I could hear the two professionals trying to think up ways to get loose. I could hear their plans to escape even when they go to court. I can feel their murderous attitude and to what extremes they will go. It was very disconcerting in the beginning, but as time went by, I used it against them and was able to anticipate each of their futile attempts to try to escape."
"That's what I mean, Chuck," Mercy said. "Listen to them, feel them and the situation so you have a warning."
Steve came in the door of the patio and gave Mercy a hug and kiss. As he went through to the kitchen, Juanita and Kathy met him with more hugs and kisses. There soon was a stampede of young feet that crowded around their dad, as they all spoke at once to tell him what they had done today.
As the kids began to go in different directions, Sue came from her office and gave Steve a loving hug and kiss. We were sitting with a beer when Tiny and John Truant came into the patio. John said, "We just received two high density seating modules for the 737. One module is a group of eighteen seats, three rows of six seats with an aisle in the middle. The other module is similar to standard first class and has eight seats, two rows of two seats on each side of an aisle. We'll see how that works out and if we need more of either module, we'll order them."
Steve said, "With this increased flexibility, we should have the 737 in the air daily. Phil put together a sales presentation for local businesses. His men are going to spread the word."
It was Tiny's turn, "I talked to the leasing company and they are not in a good cash flow position. They offered us the aircraft at very good price. I think we might buy it, but I'll let them give us a better price before we commit. If they can unload this one aircraft, they will be out of hot water, so we may be able to make a very good deal."
I mentioned to Tiny, "You better check with Ben to make sure I can spend that much. Half a 737 is a lot of money."
Tiny said, "Actually, we'll do this a little different. We'll put this on a lease purchase with our bank so we can write off all of the cost as we go. The only increase in cost is the sales tax on the lease. That's a lot of money, but it will be worth it so we don't use up our cash reserves."
"I don't understand all of that, Tiny," so I asked him. "Who's going to lend us the money for the lease?"
"One of the investment portfolios Ben has. It's a great low risk investment, so it fits right in with the fund's strategy. If you guys begin to look shaky, the fund can always force you to buy the aircraft or find a new lessor."
Steve said to me, "Don't try to understand what they do with money, Chuck. Just let them do what they do and forget about it. Tiny's a master at manipulating dollars for us. When he gets his head together with Ben, I'm sure the treasury department sends out investigators just to follow them around. They do make them nervous, that's for sure."
Tiny said, "The IRS is auditing S&S Truck Bodies right now. They've spent two weeks looking for something that isn't there. The bad part is that I have had to have one of my better men, plus a representative from the accounting firm, with them the whole time. I invited them to put an office at the shop so they could audit the books when the accounting firm is doing it. That way they could both do it at the same time. Their problem is that we pay our taxes on time every quarter, but we also re-file for changes and refunds if any numbers change. They have actually found that we've overpaid again."
Steve looked at me and said, "That's why you have Ben. He's responsible for keeping you straight on taxes. He now has a whole group of attorneys and accountants to handle the offshore accounts as well as the 401K plans he's managing. Between S&S and Quality clothing, that's a lot of money to manage. He's doing a good job, because he's making the money grow even in this economy."
Sam, Maria, and her kids all came into the patio at that moment. The kids took off to be with the other children, Maria headed toward the kitchen and the other women, and Sam walked over to us. Tiny was behind the bar and put some ice in a tall glass and poured Sam some iced tea. He said, "Nice that you don't drink up our beer, Sam, it leaves more for us."
Sam asked me, "What time are we leaving in the morning? If we leave too early, I'll stay at the house instead of at Maria's."
"Just get your stuff together and I'll bring it with me when I pick you up in the morning. It's always good to spend your time with a special person."
Steve jumped in, "Or persons."
Sam said, "One's enough. I don't know how you and Chuck do it, Steve. I'm surprised he can even remember all their names; I have a hard time remembering them all."
Over the next half-hour, the patio filled with people and my ladies showed up. The five were chattering about Sam's and my shopping expedition. Sue kept saying that she needed me to take Steve to the warehouse so he could get some nice clothes. Just before the food was brought to the tables, Lisa came in and greeted everyone before giving me a special hug and kiss.
Lisa told me, "There's a front moving into the plains tonight and tomorrow. You're going to have some bad weather when you get to Omaha. If you were to leave tonight, you could beat that front. You might get into a little rain, but nothing like what the maps show is coming."
I thought about it and motioned to Sam. When he came over, I said, "What do you think, Sam, want to leave tonight and beat some bad weather or would you rather wait and get beat up trying to fly through the soup?"
Sam's eyes got big and he said, "Man, I hate it when airplanes act like they're on a trampoline. Ah," Sam looked toward Maria and the kids, "I'd really like to stay tonight, but maybe we should get an early start."
I nodded, "Let's eat. You and I can say our goodbyes and head out to the airpark."
My ladies and I were seated across from some of the others from the trailer park. The older gentleman who worked out at the R&D department, Mark Robbins, and his wife, Caroline, were seated across from me. He sort of had a harem, as his wife was on one side of him, and two other ladies were on the other. They obviously had a close relationship, but probably not like Steve's or mine.
Mark said to me, "So you're off to Omaha?"
I nodded and said, "We're going tonight to beat some weather."
Mark said, "Yeah, I was thinking of flying up that way too, but I'll put it off a week or so to wait out the weather. The little things I fly are more like kites than big aircraft."
I said, "I've seen you flying a lot of the light sports out at the airpark. Don't you fly any of the conventional aircraft?"
"Can't," Mark answered. "I can't really pass a physical to fly more than a light sport. That's fine though, when Caroline and I fly up to Cheyenne, we're not in a big hurry anyway. It gives us a chance to do some sightseeing."
I said, "You know you're always welcome to fly with me when I'm going most places. Keep in touch with DeDe or Lisa. They know where I'm at most of the time."
Caroline nudged Mark and said, "Go ahead, ask him. You're not going to get there for the kids' birthday if you don't go commercial or ask for a ride." She looked at me and said, "Both his grandkids, Suzy and Dan, have their birthday next week. Mark was planning on spending their birthdays with them."
With a smile I asked, "Can you two get ready real quick? We'll be leaving from the airpark in about an hour or so."
Mark had a big grin on his face, "We sure can. We're already packed. I'll give my kid, Gene, a call to let him and his wife, Sandy, know we're on the way. How long do you think it will take to get there?"
"I think that even with a little headwind, it should take about two hours to get to Omaha," I said trying to remember distances.
Mark dropped his fork and with wide eyes he asked, "Holy smokes, what are you flying?"
Lisa laughed, "He's flying a really hot Citation X. That thing will do over six hundred miles an hour. Darn near the speed of sound. That reminds me, I better call out to the airpark so the plane is ready for you now instead of in the morning."
Caroline said, "You better call Gene and ask him if he can come and get you. He might be able to borrow that twin that his friend has. If he left now, he would just about meet us. What is it, about four hundred fifty miles from Cheyenne?"
Mark nodded and said, "You could just about over fly the runway in Omaha and let us out in Cheyenne. I don't think that runway there would be long enough for your Citation though."
I said, "Find out, Mark. It wouldn't be that big a deal to drop you off then fly into Omaha. We're going early to beat the weather."
Mark used his cell phone and called his son. He asked the question about the length of runway and repeated what the answer was, "Right at twelve thousand feet huh? I don't remember it being that long. They did? Why?" There was a pause, then Mark was nodding his head, "I guess that's a good reason. How do they maintain the security they need when they're testing? They shut the whole field down? That kind of cramps the other pilots out there, doesn't it? They do, that's nice of that company to do that. Okay, we'll be there in about three and half hours. Should be about nine your time. See you then, Son."
Mark looked up and said, "The company my son works for and the Air Force lengthened the runway so they could test their new aircraft on another runway. They needed an alternate for security purposes. He says the contractor even hires some of the local pilots and mechanics as security people so they will maintain secrecy. Pretty smart to make them all part of it."
We finished eating and I gave my family kisses before heading to the house to get my bags. Our Maria wanted to go with me to help me pack. Taiying and Sing wanted to help and then the Fab Five all thought they should be along to direct. Lisa said she would ride with me out to the airpark.
Sam said his goodbyes to Maria and the kids and drove his cart back to the house, following the ladies in two other carts.
The entire group didn't take long to pick out clothes and fill my travel bag. I told them I was going to Salt Lake City for a day so they made sure I had two nice suits along with slacks and sport coats. I made sure my vest and extra magazines were in my tall, thin, toy suitcase, along with my travel case for the big fifty. After lots of hugs and kisses, the eight women I was leaving behind stood at the door and waved as Lisa and I left with Sam.
At the airpark, the Citation was sitting out in front of the hangar, with a night mechanic doing a preflight inspection. While I went to help him, Lisa filed a flight plan for me inside the charter office. When she came back out, she said, "I filed straight through to Cheyenne with a return to Omaha for you. According to the stats, the little airport in Cheyenne now has all the modern instrumentation. It looks like the contractor out there has put a lot of money into it, either that or the Air Force has. I had to give your fed ID number to get permission to land out there. They are under some kind of security watch."
Mark and Caroline pulled up and carried their two small bags toward the aircraft. I grabbed the two bags and brought them and the couple on board. I told them they had their pick of seats and stowed their bags with Sam's and mine in the rear of the compartment.
Back outside, I had Sam go ahead and board, then I held Lisa for a kiss. She said, "You be careful. I'm hearing a lot of apprehension and that's not like you. If you need me, talk to me. I'm always aware of you and listen for you. Use your gift, Chuck, make it work for you."
With a final kiss, I boarded the Citation and pulled the door closed and locked it. When I turned around, I saw Sam and Caroline seated together, and when I looked into the cockpit, Mark was strapped into the right seat looking over the startup checklist.
"Gonna get some right seat time?" I asked Mark, as I sat down in the seat and buckled up. I said, "Okay, you might as well earn your seat, begin at the top."
We went through the startup procedures, spooling up the two engines. When we were finished checking gauges, I released the brake, applied some power to get moving, while I called ground control.
In a couple of minutes, we were hurtling down the runway and climbing out at a steep angle heading for forty-two thousand feet on a heading of roughly three hundred degrees. I punched in all the data, and checked the instruments and cabin indicators. With everything in the green, we were on our way. I flipped on the cabin intercom and said, "How about some coffee, Sam. Make it just like on the other aircraft."
In a few minutes, Sam and Caroline brought a couple cups of coffee to the cockpit. Sam said, "This is one nice aircraft, Chuck. You should feel how comfortable those seats are. Those folks really took care of you on this one."
Mark asked, "Who took care of you, Chuck? The Marshal's Service?"
"Something like that, Mark. This is kind of a reward for doing my job. Some reward, huh? I needed something a little faster than what I was flying, and we didn't have the waiver for single pilots on the Lears yet. This is a real treat for me and those that will need to use it."
We touched down in Cheyenne a little over three hours later. There was absolutely no headwind where we were flying, so we made even better time than I had anticipated. When we parked in front of the operations building in Cheyenne, a taller model of Mark, a pretty lady, and two kids came running up to the aircraft. As soon as I opened the door and let down the stairs, the two kids rushed onto the aircraft and embraced Mark and Caroline. They were excitedly calling them grandma and grandpa.
When I followed them off the plane, Mark introduced Sam and me to his family. His son, Gene, was all smiles and wanted to check out the cockpit of the plane. I said, "Go ahead, check it out. From what I hear, you might play with toys a lot more advanced than this one."
Gene and Sandy both climbed into the cockpit and were sitting in the seats, looking over the array of instruments, gauges, and switches. I had left the electronics on so the cockpit area was lit up by the displays.
When they climbed down, Gene said, "That is one nice aircraft. Everything looks brand new."
"It is," I said. "The aircraft was just delivered a couple of weeks ago. It's part of one of my jobs, so I get to use it whenever I travel now."
"Wow," Sandy said, "That makes life easier, doesn't it? So you're going to Omaha now. You don't have time to come home for a snack?"
Gene said, "The company I work for has its headquarters over there. They are involved in several different kinds of projects for the military. This division is just for aircraft, but over there, they make several types of vehicles and some armament."
I told Mark, "I'm going to Salt Lake City in a couple of days. Do you want me to call you when I leave there? You could ride back to Tampa with me."
Mark said, "Call me. We'll see if everyone has had their fill of Caroline and me. We might stay a couple of weeks though, as I haven't visited much lately. Besides, Caroline needs to practice being a grandma, she really enjoys it."
Sam climbed back inside while I did a quick outside check of the aircraft. I was soon rocketing down the runway for the short flight to Omaha.
As soon as we landed, I could tell we had been expected. A couple of Deputy Marshals met us when I parked. One said, "We'll tow your aircraft into the federal hangar where we can watch it. John Scott told us to put a guard on it. Do you want us to refuel it for you?"
"If John is so concerned about the aircraft, I'll refuel it. Have the fuel truck pull over so we can get that done now."
The big truck pulled up to the aircraft, and between the driver and I, we fueled the aircraft and prepared it to be towed. I cleaned up the inside so it would be ready when we needed it, then shut and locked the aircraft. Sam and I decided to leave our tactical cases on board the aircraft so we didn't have to worry about their security in a hotel. If things were that strange, a locked aircraft was best.
Sam and I were taken to a nearby hotel as all of the various companies' headquarters were near the airport. We checked in at the hotel, but were asked to put our bags in our rooms and come back down to speak with the Bureau and Deputy Marshal teams.
When Sam and I sat down at a big table in the bar, the first person I noticed was a familiar face. He was sitting with the Bureau agents, but the last time I had seen him was out west at the Secret Service operations base. He noticed my recognition and nodded at Sam and me.
The team leader for the Bureau said, "We're making decent progress so far, but the only way we seem to get ahead is to restrict access of the witnesses from the Pentagon team. I won't say they are sabotaging our investigation, but they seem to scare off the witnesses before they reveal everything they know. Johnson, we need you to keep those guys away from us until we're done with them. Do anything you can to divert them. I want to go back over a couple of witnesses that I think know a lot more than what they were giving us."
I asked, "So what exact information are you looking for?"
The leader said, "That's easy. We've found e-mails and correspondence where they are illegally trying to acquire technology owned by other companies. We've found a trail of various break-ins at companies throughout the U.S. that hold technologies that could primarily enhance the products manufactured by Martinson Industries. Martinson hired the men you captured in Tampa. The other investigation is to find out what kinds of deals have been made with Pentagon contracting people. It's starting to appear that Martinson has bribed several of the purchasing staff, and has even some military procurement people in hand. It's our job to identify all involved and to what extent they have accepted incentives. I'll give you the file to read in the morning. We're keeping our findings under lock and key at the Bureau right now."
I asked, "What have you done with the depositions and recorded confessions I took while I interrogated the prisoners from Tampa?"
"What depositions, what confessions?" The leader asked.
I flipped open my phone and called John. "John, the Bureau team leader and our team leader have not seen any of the depositions and recorded confessions I sent to you and Justice. How come?"
There was a long pause, "I don't know, Chuck. Justice said they had distributed them. I know I personally sent copies to our team leader out there. He should have them."
Bud Anderson was the Marshal Service team leader and was sitting with us, "Bud, John said he sent you a big package with all of the information I'm talking about."
Bud said, "I haven't seen it. When did he send it?"
"John, something is really rotten here. Bud said he hasn't received it. When did you send it and where did you send it to?"
John said, "I sent it through courier direct to the office. It was marked only "Secret," but it should be easy to track. Let me begin tracking it from here right now. I'll call you back."
I looked at the Bureau team leader, then at Bud, "You two need to tighten up big time. Everything you do should be under guard 24/7 from now on. Everything should be reclassified to at least secret and if necessary we'll upgrade it to top secret. That way only eyes of those assigned will have access."
Turning to Bud, "Who is the special prosecutor on the case. Are they here?"
Bud pointed across the room to a table with two guys and two women. Bud said, "The guy with the bald head is the lead prosecutor and the other four are additional attorneys from Justice. They were all hand picked by the AG. They seem to be good people, sincere, and they really make sure we dot all the "Is" and cross all the "Ts." They don't want any of the evidence withheld because of the manner we obtained it."
I said, "I'm going to go meet them. I'll be right back."
When I went up to the table, the bald guy rose and said, "Nice to meet you, Mr. Johnson. I'm Brad Henry. This is Connie Mechum, Dorothy Tagert, and Robert Kemp. We all work in Justice and have been working on nothing but boring Supreme Court interrogatories. This is kind of a bonus for us."
"You know me?" I asked.
"Sure do," Brad Henry said. "The first time I made up a file on you was a while back when you were involved in a raid in El Paso, the one with the four buildings and the death of an ACLU watchdog attorney and that little girl. You were hurt pretty bad on that one. When that one was investigated, it was my job to put together a dossier on you to evaluate whether you used tactics that were too strong. I determined that you could have even used more heavy-handed tactics than you did at the time, but you were under a time constraint. Several others in Justice had you pegged as a maverick, a wild man, killing people when they didn't need to be killed. I investigated your captures for an entire year and found you to be good at your job and that you didn't go beyond what was necessary to get the job done."
"You recognized me though, so you must have had a lot of pictures of me."
"The most memorable picture was of you standing in front of the blown-up car in Oklahoma. You had just saved several people and had been shot in a short gun battle."
"I didn't know anyone had taken a picture of me. Okay, so what I need to know is whether you four are keeping an eye on your materials. It seems we need to keep any materials and evidence under lock and key."
Brad said, "We leave our briefcases in the vault at the Bureau every night. Since so much of this is sensitive, I thought that would be best. So why are you here? Are we in any danger?"
I told them, "You folks should be fine. Just stay away from dark alleys, if you know what I mean. If you need to go anywhere or do anything, use a deputy to go with you. That's what they're for. There are several around, so always get one to accompany you."
Robert Kemp said, "I know a little of you, Mr. Johnson. You were with a Special Ops team when I was assigned near you. My company had to go out to try to find you and clean out the group that attacked you. By the time my team reached the community you were attacked at, the attackers were gone. We never did have any more trouble in that area again. It must have been a one time thing." He smiled and said, "Semper Fi."
"Ooorah! Glad to know another who went to help us out over there. Anyway, just be watchful and pay attention to your surroundings."
The whole time I was talking to the group, I was trying to listen to what they were thinking. Brad was sincere and too much in awe of what he thought I might represent. Robert knew me, or at least my type, and respected me enough to listen to my caution. The two girls were quiet, but I could feel their apprehension, and with one, fear of me as she thought of the violence I represented. All in all, they were being straight up with me.
I rejoined my group and offered, "I think they are trying to do a good job with us. They trust the Bureau enough to leave their work there in the vault at night."
While we sat having some late night iced tea and coffee, I tried to get a handle on the men sitting at the big table. Only a couple of men had a beer in front of them. None had any liquor so I guessed they all felt as if they were on duty. This job had them scared for some reason. Listening to them, I could tell they were all waiting for something. They all were anticipating something they feared was going to happen. They didn't know what it was, but felt it should be feared.
A little later, I suggested, "Let's get to bed. I want to get to the offices and get a thorough briefing with everyone present. Let's see if we can set it up with the Pentagon people as well? I'll go tell the Special Prosecutors from Justice so we can all participate."
Sam and I went to our rooms for the night. When I walked into my room, I had the feeling I wasn't alone.
Editing: Primary Pepere'
Continuity Sagacious
Helicopter and Legal "Rotorhead"
Special last time through: Deenara2000