Chapter 77

While I vetted everyone on the crew that I felt needed it, the security wheels were grinding. The security team had Arnold pretty much disguised as he had the breakfast buffet with 'The Girls'. Since they had a Chef making meals no one expected or knew about the buffet. The armed guards couldn't hover about him so they tried to fit in. Hiding their weapons was next to impossible so a lot of the security fell to me and the comedy team of Moe and Curly. The Dovecheck family and the people seated near them got a little extra service. It was a buffet so we couldn't do much for them.

The gun thugs were depending on no one having time to plan an operation. I found Jeremy in the buffet line. I cornered him as he walked to a table close to the Dovecheck family. "Jeremy, how far in advance did they plan this trip?" I asked.

"It was done a week in advance. Until that time Arnold and his Head of Security were the only ones who knew. They brought us in at the same time. Unless you find someone who signed on with the crew last week he should be okay."

"Except Arnold would also be a target of opportunity, as well as the target of a terrorist plot," I said.

"True, that's why you are here. You can adapt and overcome," Jeremy said with a smile. I had a feeling he was kissing ass not just complimenting me.

"Enough ass kissing, tell me you have a man on the bridge," I demanded.

"To do what," Jeremy asked.

"To keep an eye on the radar among other things. The only terrorist operation they could mount in this amount of time is a pirate type operation in a small boat," I suggested. "The need to know anything happening on the bridge was it could all be important to keeping the Dovechecks alive and well.

"Yeah, I'll mention it but I'm sure the Commander thought of that," Jeremy said. It was at that time that I saw the man in the terrible Island shirt walking with a cane. "Don't tell me I'm back in the employ of that dog shit company?"

"Okay, I won't tell you. You aren't working for them. You are working for Executive Protection Services. Andrew is the owner. We knew you would find out eventually, so he decided to have this meeting."

"Why didn't you just tell me?" I asked.

"We didn't want you to do it out of some sense of loyalty. We wanted you to do it because it was right for you," Jeremy said.

"So Executive Protection is in bed with Swamp Dog?" I asked.

"Was Andrew working for the Dog when I called about the missing girls?" I asked.

"He had already gone out on his own. He asked Sylvia for your location. They go back farther than you do," Jeremy explained.

"Okay now that we have all that explained. Is he running the armed detail as well?" I asked.

"No, the men with the guns belong to Sylvia. You don't need to worry, we are all on the same page here," Jeremy said.

"Well he uprooted my life once, this is the end of it for me. I will see this through, then no more," I said. "He lied to me to get me on board."

"I had nothing to do with that," Jeremy said. "I knew nothing about it. They hid it under the label need to know. You need to know something else."

"Oh what other good news do you have for me?" I asked.

"Dovecheck is a national treasure. After that death sentence shit by the mukluk of Iran, Homeland Security has a detail here as well," Jeremy said.

"So if the shooting starts, there will be cops shooting at the boat's security officers, who will be shooting at the Swamp Dog crew, who will be shooting at me. What a cluster fuck that will be," I suggested.

"Look on the bright side. With all that shooting someone is bound to hit the bad guys by accident," Jeremy said with a grin.

"This is the only one ever. Jeremy, tell your new master that for me," I said. "By the way where is Alice?"

"You won't believe it," Jeremy said.

"Sure I will," I replied.

"She went to work for MI5," Jeremy said.

"You are right, I don't believe it," I said.

"It's a long story," he replied obviously trying to duck the explanation.

"Run, now," the voice in my head with the British accent said.

"How the fuck do I do that," I answered out loud. "I would need a fucking boat."

"You are doing that shit again that scares us all," Jeremy said.

"My dead friend is just giving me some good advice," I replied.

"Then ask him who is coming for Arnold," Jeremy said with his skeptical smile.

"He told me you were and the only way to save him was to kill you now," I replied with a smile.

"That isn't funny. We all think you are psychotic," Jeremy said.

"Take it easy. I know he isn't real. He's a ghost," I informed him.

"Oh that makes me feel so much better," Jeremy said.

I ignored him as I kept my eyes on the crowd. I knew there were several people watching the crowd with better threat assessment skills than me, but I watched them anyway. I didn't concentrate on the other diners as much as the waiters and cooks.

The 'Girls' ate from the breakfast buffet, but Arnold Dovecheck had his breakfast brought to him by a waiter. I assumed that the waiter had been vetted so I ignored him more or less. I was interested in the staff who put food onto the buffet. Unlike the others I expected the attack, if it came, to be something meant to be spectacular. I couldn't see a terrorist group missing the opportunity to make a larger statement.

However if it was the lone gunman bounty hunter, it would be more likely a targeted hit but could also take out anyone standing near him as well. I expected it to be if not a suicide bomber, at least a suicide gunman. I couldn't see how he hoped to escape after the hit attempt. Like I said earlier in my talk with Liam there was no where to go. I knew that Liam would have given me the answer, if there was one at that time.

I had to stop thinking that the assassin would be an irrational man. He might not even be zealot either. He might be someone deranged or someone just desperately in need of money for his family. He might know he wouldn't live to spend it himself.

"Where have you been?" Jeremy asked as a comment on my drifting off in thought.

"Thinking. Have Wilson run every crew member's Facebook type sites for crew members. Check for anything that sounds like severe financial problem, as well as religious nut cases. The guy, if there is one, is not planning to escape. He is planning to go out in a huge act of sacrifice for his family or his god. He will target Dovecheck alone or all those close to him at the time. A knife to gut for him or a suicide vest for them all," I said.

"And your dead friend told you this I suppose?" Jeremy asked.

"Sort of," I replied. "Just do it. If you don't and I'm right, you get to explain it to your new friends. Speaking of which Andrew went to sit with a gun thug and not us."

"He is trying to keep a distance so as not to blow our cover," Jeremy said.

After breakfast I spent the morning talking to more people. It was a big boat with lots of people to make it run, so there were plenty of people for me to talk with. I was going to be limited with the number of interviews I could do before some kind of shit happened, so I needed Wilson's input. If I was correct in my assessment, there might be a way to trim the list. I continued to interview people randomly just to keep my cover intact.

Since the Swamp Dog gun thugs were watching for the terrorist attack, I was free to pursue the fanatic, or lone gunman loser avenues. My two other Exec Protection people were keeping watch on the crew with access to the penthouse cabin. Jeremy was the final checkpoint before people attempting entry to the area were allowed to proceed. Jeremy was running the metal detector at the hallway outside the suite. A standard practice when dealing with rich or famous people. He wouldn't draw too much unwanted attention.

We still had a major problem even in my theory. "I know you are thinking how in hell is the assassin going to get into the suite?" Liam asked in my head.

"Of course I am," I said to him between interviews with the crew.

"First of all the suite isn't going to be the kill sight. It's too difficult to gain access," he said.

"I agree," I said.

"Of course you do, I know what I'm talking about," he said.

"Okay, I'm waiting. How would you do it?" I asked.

"I personally would want a way off the boat. I mean I would know in my heart that it wasn't going to happen, but I would want a shot at it," he said.

"Okay hope springs eternal kind of thing?" I asked.

"Exactly," the voice said. "Mull that over. I leave you with a clue, Lets Make A Deal." After that the voice was gone.

"Jeremy have you considered they don't have to have Arnold. If they have 'The Girls' he will walk into their arms willingly," I suggested.

"Yes, they have assigned people to accompany them where ever they go. Your two friends are going to be going along in case they need to get close without anyone questioning them. Just like you, nobody would mistake them for commandos," he said.

"Just in case nobody told you, we are not commandos. I have no idea what the backgrounds of the two younger people are, but I don't see them at Church Camp. We have both worked with the Camp's operatives, these just don't fit the mold," I said.

"The are washed out cops. Moe went undercover and got too involved with the drug business. He cleaned up, but the cops didn't really want him. Curly was a Rural Patrolman up near where we were living. She shot a man, who the courts decided didn't need to be shot. Hindsight and all that," Jeremy said.

"What a crew," I said with a grin. "Misfits each and everyone of us."

"True. Andrew is hoping the other two come up to your standard," he said.

"What bullshit," I replied.

"Too much," he laughed. "Trying to keep us all happily working together, that's all."

"Okay, but listen the odds are good that someone is going to grab 'The Girls'. Arnold may stay in the cabin, as Silvia wants, but the Girls are going to move around the boat. I don't think you can keep a fourteen year old under wraps long. Especially if she is horny," I said.

"Speaking of which, they are planning to go to the pool after breakfast," he said.

"Now you tell me, I need to go interview the pool boy and the waiters," I said.