Chapter 56

“What’s going on?” Anne asked.

I showed her the phone. The congressional people suddenly found some reason to be hanging around.

“Anne, when the other Suburbans get here, you and Andrew are to split up and each take one back to the White House. There is no need of you two being collateral damage if there is an attempt on me. I will ride by myself,” I said.

The court clerk handed me six copies of the judge’s order; typed, written and signed as he spoke it in court. I was reading it when Senator Black stepped beside me.

“Are they after you again?” he asked.

“Chatter is making rounds on terrorist channels. You never know what will happen. It may be nothing but you cannot take chances. Either way it would be best to keep some distance from me in public for a while,” I said.

Agents in tactical gear walked in carrying my heavy armor. ‘It was just too hot to wear this too long,’ I thought as I put it on.

The trip back to the White House was quick and quiet. That meant if the threat was real, it would happen on the way home again.

Anne, Andrew and I met with the President’s inner circle and went over the Harrisburg report one page at a time. I answered a lot of questions and a lot more on the recommendations.

Anne and Andrew were leaving at 0800 for Harrisburg; their meeting was scheduled at 1000.

The press conference and release of the report was also at 1000. Department heads and the congressional committee heads were to receive their copies at 0900.

Andy sent four Suburbans with six of the new graduates from training. They would be leaving in a few days for Europe but today they were in body armor with MP5s slung across their shoulders and fingers on the trigger guard.

The press at the gate knew something was different than this morning. They shot right to the fence and started yelling questions. I didn’t even bother to wave as I was hustled into the SUV.

The ride home was fast. I watched ZNN for their latest take on things. After I left, the White House had released a statement that the final report on Harrisburg was at 1000. They were building up hype for today’s news run. It was politics as usual in the Washington merry go round.

We arrived home without incident, nothing unusual at all. It was a relief but at the same time concerning. Were they trying different communication methods to see if we had broken the codes and were able monitor them?

I headed straight to Robert’s office to find out what was going on. Robert had left for the day but there were several reports in my box and the duty man explained how they had come across the chatter.

It came from a telephone and then a text conversation between the escort group handlers near the Norfolk Navy yard. The time on the call logs indicated the text happened at noon. I wondered how Robert got the active phone conversation.

This would be something new if the EIT group had come up with a way to randomly monitor phones. I knew the NSA had the capabilities but they were not sharing the tech.

One thing that I was certain of is that the terrorists were embarking on a systematic testing of all their communications. They were then waiting to see our reaction to determine if that line of communication had been breached.

I left Robert strict orders that unless there was reliable, indisputable evidence that an attack on the family was imminent, we were to respond in no way publicly.

It was a short meeting with a quick read over things at Polokwane. There was a spreadsheet with material, equipment orders and delivery dates. That list was growing by dozens of lines daily.

Someone had sprinkled outdoor fever dust on my mates. They all wanted to go the gun range and then visit Fort Smith.

I knew what the Fort Smith visit was all about; Jenny let the cat out of the bag. RJ and JJ had been pestering all day to go there. The girls had promised them that I would take them when I got home.

I should have been upset, but it had been a while since I had taken a close look at the fort in a while. It was getting used hard and I wondered how everything was holding up and if repairs were needed.