Chapter 166

I knew when I got out of bed that today was going to be hectic, but I was going home at the end of it. I had breakfast brought to my desk in the Oval Office.

I had two patties of pork sausage, one egg and toast with orange juice. Lunch would be a salad. The security briefs were twice as thick today. It was going to take a while to read through them. I was glad there were no appointments for today.

Iran was at it again; one of their fast boats came within inches of colliding with one of the JBG ships assigned to the Boxer. It was the second time in two days that they harassed the JBG ships. They were assigned to the Navy, but were still operating under the Boxer’s orders. If they had been under Andy’s control they would have been fired upon and sunk.

Since Andy had sunk several of their boats, they had been giving the JBG boats more room. That was slowly changing. The General was getting either more courageous with his orders or reckless - whatever your point of view was.

Satellite and radio intelligence had shown the live fire training and war games had been finished earlier this week. The troops and equipment were not moving back to their home bases. They were being sent to bases in the south west area.

There was a lot of transportation from the military warehouses to where the troops were being stationed. They were being resupplied with weapons in the field.

There were orders being sent to previously unknown new groups in Gaza, Syria and Iraq from Tiam and the General. I had to wonder if it was a disinformation trick. The general broadcasts were getting more threatening every day.

While I had been meeting with the Russians, Andy’s men in Nigeria had eliminated another Boko-Haram group headed for Gusau. The Emir was very pleased. He was even more pleased with the progress on his infrastructure projects.

After replacing damaged equipment, exports of raw materials were slowly increasing to acceptable levels. The first road and bridges construction had started.

BM&M was doing that part of package and was training local workers to do the construction. The locals were ready for work and to learn. Wanting something was always a plus.

There was another issue brewing in Nigeria and several other countries in the region and that was about the oil pipelines that went to the coast. As wells were drilled or repaired and there was safety for drill rigs and operators, the pipelines became targets for rebel groups.

They weren’t interested in the oil for their own use, they wanted to hold it hostage. They wanted millions not to blow up the pipelines and production equipment.

It was going to require a different approach than was used in Mexico. With BM&M running the oil production operation, they were expecting JBG and or Nigeria to furnish security.

Providing security to a pipeline to stop pilferage was one thing. Trying to stop someone from placing a bag of explosives with a timer under the pipe and walking away was difficult.

Wide and clear right of ways would be needed - a problem in itself and then surveillance; eyeballs, drones, helicopters and more.

Saturday - when I was home - Vicky had scheduled meeting with Ching Lee, Andy, Paul and Drake. One of the topics was an expansion of Africa operations to counter the pipeline threats and that included another senior person or two reporting to Andy.

Andy and Vicky wanted me to sit in on that meeting - another ethics violation, if anyone was counting. The Emir understood the problem and was willing to expand the agreements with JBG.

Frank Love - Director of the CIA - knocked and came in with the latest pictures from the China and Russia border. Russia had started moving heavy artillery in that direction. President Orbatch had indicated that he was going to, just as a precaution. He needed to show some response to the buildup and I understood that.