Chapter 57

I went to the White House first to meet with Troy and the President. I wanted to see if they had any special instructions I needed to follow. There were none.

Andrew and I met Curtis Warren on the steps of Congress. I was wearing the new heavy body armor at Andy’s insistence. If anyone was going to kill me, it would have to be with a head shot. There were dozens of security from the Secret Service and the capital police on the steps.

They were needed to keep media back. I wondered why the White House wanted me to climb the stairs. It was clear they wanted the airtime at my expense.

This morning’s appearance was to be Senator Black’s Senate Judiciary committee. This was not the first time that I had testified before congressional committees. It was one of the few times I was forced to do so under a subpoena.

Inside walking to the judiciary chamber to testify was like walking through a maze. There were Senators everywhere standing in the hall. Most were politicking for the home town papers, wanting handshakes or to be seen with me as their staff took pictures.

“Raise your right hand. Do you swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth?”

Just to piss them off, “So help me God - I do,” I said.

The questions began, “Ambassador Jones.”

“I am prohibited from answering any questions about the collection of intelligence in this case by the Federal Court of Special Cases of the District of Columbia,” I said.

“I cannot answer that question because I believe it falls under executive privilege,” I said.

Then they changed tactics to questions that only required yes or no, trying to trap me. It didn’t work.

Finally they gave up and went through the report and asked general questions related to the meat of the investigation. By lunch time they had run out of questions related to the planned Harrisburg terror attack. Then they started asking just general questions about where we stood on stopping terrorism.

For lunch we were asked to join a group of Senators in the congressional cafeteria. Lunch there was a five course meal on the government’s meal card. A nap would have been more appropriate than sitting for three more hours in the congressional hot seat. But that is where we headed.

It was at the lunch that I met Senator Ginger Brothers from Nevada. I had met her husband Sam in Polokwane. She was brassy and ballsy. She pulled a chair from another table and forced herself into the table and the conversation without invitation.

“I see you met my husband in South Africa flying around on the government’s dime,” she said.

“Actually I was flying on my own dime when I met Sam,” I said. Then I added, “All this extra time in Washington is costing the government a lot so I will be able to do a lot more flying,” I said.

“What do you mean?” she asked all surprised.

“My agreement calls for only sixteen hours or two days a week max - for anything over that the government pays ten thousand an hour plus expenses. You have got me here testifying all week,” I said jokingly.

She was all flabbergasted, stuttering and didn’t have a quick comeback.

“Don’t fret, that is only about one - tenth of what it cost for congressional salaries,” I said.

After a few minutes it was easy to see why Sam wanted to be as far away from Washington and her as he could get. I wondered how two so completely oppositely personalities could be married and not be in a continuous brawl. Distance was the only answer.

The congressional side was more of the same, just different people who thought they were important asking the same questions, getting the same answers.

“Four more days of this to go, what a waste,” I thought. But there was a reprieve. Friday morning both the Senate and House finally came to the conclusion that they weren’t going to learn anything new from me by any tactics they tried. The two subpoenas for Friday were withdrawn before we went into the chambers.

Curtis went back to his law practice with one hundred thousand of the government’s money for his time. Andrew and I went back to Section Twelve to catch up on all we had missed, or so I thought. Instead there was a party for us in the White House.

Troy called it a survivor’s party for lasting a week in the hot seats and not killing any of the Congressmen or pissing any of them off. “I know you had to be fighting the temptation,” Troy said.

I was home early enough to sit in on the whole meeting that was now done by division. Then there were the new divisions from Polokwane and Loures teams.

The report from the A team indicated Loures was progressing - in a month they would be ready for the full complement of men and ladies going there. Training would be ready to send the men and ladies there a couple weeks after that.