Chapter 5: Science?

Three days later Jake met with Linda in her office to discuss her security needs. He had a basic security plan written, ready for her to examine. It was seventeen pages long.

“You have several problems for us to solve. Everything is in my report, but I’ll go over the main points with you now. Of course, I’m available to go over the whole report with you point-by-point, whenever you want.

“You’re biggest problem is right here on the Island. The majority of the people who live here are convinced that you’re one of the Angels, or at least a close friend of the Angels. They even have betting pools about which Angel is really Linda! That leads to the real issue. Tourists. They hear what the locals have to say, and pass it on when they go home. I guarantee foreign surveillance outfits are already watching every move you make. Maybe not physically because you would mentally detect them, but electronically? Yes. And they are using computer models to track Angel activities. We’ll get into your scheduling problems later.

“No way to change all that now, you gave away too many clues in the past for us to dispel. I go into your mistakes in more detail in the report. No offense is intended. You did great for a young lady with no professional training. I only included the debriefing to help you in the future.

“Right now, your compound here is wide open to infiltration. You can’t completely stop a professional assassin every time, but we can make it as difficult as possible. I recommend a ten foot tall, three foot wide, steel reinforced concrete wall around the entire compound. That’s the outer wall. The inner wall will be another wall around the main residence, pool, and tennis courts. The inner wall needs to be eight feet tall. Concrete and steel again.

“The original owner must have had some security issues of his own. The actual building is pretty well constructed, with more reinforced concrete and bullet proof windows, steel doors, and you have concealed firing ports upstairs.

“The primary security threat here is the beach. You have two hundred feet of open beach front. We’ll keep that open. Your mansion is a home, not a prison, but we will build a secure defense bunker right on the beach with good visibility and secure fields of fire. Maybe two bunkers, one at each end. Motion sensors, video, and heat sensors, too.”

“There go the property values, and the beautiful views of the ocean and stuff. I guess we can still see everything from upstairs windows at least.”

Jake shrugged. “You want secure, I’ll give you secure. You want pretty views of the sunset and ocean, find another security chief. The problem as you stated before, arises when the Angels aren’t home. When you’re here, I don’t think any normal threat applies. I can see the possibility of a foreign government being afraid of you enough to launch a nuke from a submarine and blow the entire island to kingdom come. You can’t read the mind of an incoming missile. So we defend against known possible threats.

“Jake, relax. I was only kidding about the views and stuff. I’m sure we can disguise the bunkers and some of the security measures to resemble cabanas and such. The ocean frontage doesn’t have to look like Omaha beach.”

Jake nodded to indicate he understood, then continued with his briefing, “I want to build the visible security center between the two compound walls. The main floor and most of the upstairs will be a trap for intruders. Not the kind of traps that go ‘boom!’ We want to isolate them into rooms they can’t escape from so you can mentally interrogate them.

“There will be a small room on the second floor with an observer inside watching the electronic monitors. The only access will be up a flight of stairs from the basement where another observer watches. Redundancy. The main house will have a third set of eyes watching the monitors as well so we have a double backup to the primary monitor.

“We’ll need quarters inside the compound for both single and married personnel. I’m thinking possibly cottages for the married folks, and private bedroom pods around a central living space for small groups of singles. I plan to recruit almost entirely single personnel, but there are a few married guys out there who are just too damn valuable to ignore. Plus, the single status of some of our guys will change here in the islands. I’ve noticed the availability of quite a few good looking single ladies here.

“I want dog handlers, too. We need a nightly set of three or four dog teams roaming between the walls. The dogs are quite safe unless given an attack or guard command. No worries for your family or guests. I do recommend that ‘no man’s land’ between the walls is off limits during the late evening hours, however.

“We will have a ton of sensors and video monitoring in place. The very top quality money can buy or Angels can steal. I have the required equipment lists and costs in the addendum at the end of my report. It’s going to be expensive, but you said to get the best. Give me the word, and I’ll start recruiting. We need to get the construction started right away, too. I know of a secure contractor in the states, former spec ops type. He’s good and he won’t try and make extra money by selling our site plans. Besides that, he’s missing a hand. Fix the hand and we own him.”

“Jake, this is a pretty intense plan. Let me read this overnight and I’ll meet with you in the morning. I’m already on board with what you’ve told me. I just want to read the details. Now what was that you were saying about changing my activities? I’m not going to stop using the Angels to kill scumbags.”

“Killing them isn’t the problem. It’s your daily schedule. It’s been the same for five weeks now. The same hours, doing the same things, every single day. You’re too predictable. If you really want to be effective, you have to mix things up. Another thing. In the past, you have concentrated on cleaning up one physical area of the map at a time. The United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Western Europe. The criminals have figured you out. As soon as you start cleaning an area, they all move away. You only get to punish the dregs and those who can’t afford to move. If you concentrate on Italy, they move to Germany or France. Target the Netherlands and they move to Switzerland. They also hide in small towns, farms, ranches, and remote locations like Alaska.

“Add to that, you always hunt at the same time each day. They only need to hide-out for those three hours. You have to become Ms. Unpredictable. Hit a city in Mexico, then one in the Middle East. The next day, hit a city in Ukraine and one in Alaska. Sometimes, go back, hit the same place the next day and catch the returning scumbags. Keep them jumping. Fight a smart war now. You’ve shown them the hammer, now show them the scalpel.”

After the next day’s breakfast, Linda gave Jake the authority to start with an initial budget of five billion dollars. She also talked with Joyce and came up with a more fluid daily plan. The number of people being Angelized increased dramatically.

Ret snooped while Linda was working Mexico City and found the government had locations for seventeen major cartels. Linda put them on her go to list. The days of Mexican Cartels running roughshod over the country would soon come to a violent end.

She also found agents from eleven unfriendly foreign governments, three criminal organizations, and six friendly governments on Grand Cayman Island, watching her activities and mansion. She killed all of them except those from the friendly governments. Jake disapproved.

“You should have left them alone. As long as they didn’t know we were aware of them, we could watch them watching us. Now they will be more careful. You’ve also verified you are a person of interest. Killing them validates their suspicions,” Jake admonished Linda. “Next time, come check with me before taking this type of action. Unless it’s an emergency.”

Juan Gomez called the meeting to order. Attending were Linda, Diane, Jerry Sanders, George Waters, Joyce, Jessie, Patricia, Norm Peski, Lieutenant Jake, and Dave Jennings.

Author’s Note to remind everyone:

Diane is head of Linda’s Caribbean Business Development Company
Jerry Sanders is Linda’s business and personal accountant
George Waters is running Linda’s British company ‘Waters International’ which hasn’t been renamed.
Joyce is Linda’s friend and personal assistant. She’s taking notes for the meeting
Jessie is Linda’s best friend, adviser, and skipper of the Lady Whisper
Patricia Cunningham is the head of the Initial Disaster Response Department of Linda’s emergency aid initiative, CERO.
Norm Peski is Managing Director (CEO) of Linda’s entire Caribbean Emergency Relief Organization or CERO.
Lieutenant Jake is in charge of security for Linda and her compound.
Dave Jennings heads up Linda’s legal team on the Grand Cayman Islands.

“This meeting is for the purpose of reviewing Linda’s various business and research endeavors. There are some important new scientific developments to discuss. Mr. Waters, would you start please?” Juan asked.

“With Linda’s purchase of the debts incurred by the former management team at Waters International Holdings, and an infusion of much needed capital, the company is again profitable. Our primary interest is installing solar panels in large tracts of African wasteland to provide inexpensive electricity to the continent, and eventually sell excess energy abroad. We have the land purchased and the permits in place. The company is ready to begin purchasing solar panels for installation,” George reported.

“Security?” Jake asked.

“We hired a respected British firm, Black Talon, a semi-mercenary outfit, to provide on-site security for us,” George said.

“They’re well known and reliable. A bunch of ex-SAS guys. Good choice,” Jake told them.

“Sounds like things are progressing then. Diane? You’re up next,” Juan said.

“Hello everyone. I’ve been busy these last few weeks. We have our basic infrastructure hired and we’re ready to jump in feet first. Now we’re exploring possible businesses and targeting companies we would like to convince to move into the Caribbean. We’re also working with local island governments to advise them how they can attract and keep good companies.” Diane reported. “All we have to do is mention we are owned by Linda Spencer, and the island governments can’t open their doors fast enough.”

“That’s encouraging too, Diane,” Juan said as he tried to suppress some laughter. The rest of the people in the meeting didn’t bother suppressing anything. They had similar responses. Linda’s name was magic in the Caribbean.

“Jerry? Want to cover the financials? What kind of shape is Linda’s money in?” Juan asked.

“Linda, you’re doing great. We have a lot of your money invested aggressively and with the current business climate, thanks to Congress and the Angels, things are booming. You’re making money faster than you can spend it,” Jerry said. “I love it when I can give such a positive report. This makes my day! The whole place, the job, the island, I just love it all. I couldn’t be happier. Now I need to marry an Angel and life will be complete!”

Linda said, “Thanks, Jerry! Keep up the good work! I might find an Angel and introduce you, too!”