Chapter 63

I spent an hour on VCATS with Tom. Then I made an MTAC call to Ben. The task force had been quiet all week. I wondered if the Feds had broken the codes - there was only one sure way to find out.

I was glad to hear the task force was making progress on the code changes – slow, but progress. I left it at that; no need at the moment for them to know any different.

But first there were things I wanted to know from others. I had opened the door to send armed personnel to a foreign country to conduct a military- police type operation under contract.

I fully expected Louis and President Bisset to figure out a way to do the raid themselves - or at least lower their pride a step and allow the pact countries to help carry out the raid. But I needed to have all the bases covered and my ass especially, just in case they want JBG to do the job for them.

I started with the Secretary of State Dick James. The conversation lasted an hour. It would take Curtis Warren several days just to do the paperwork for the State Department. Then there would be a closed hearing process before any approval. Slowly but surely JBG secrets were going to be put on paper and the freedom of information act would slowly reveal all.

The State Department was just the first agency I made contact with. Next on the list was the CIA and I placed a call to Frank Love. The CIA was one of the agencies that needed to give its approval. More forms and copies of the State Department application needed to go their way.

The DHS was next on the list; they would get copies as well and Eric would need to sign off on the application along with Marty Coeburn of the FBI.

Next was a callback to Ben Smith. The NSA would have a major role in approving the request. I did not even get to state my request with Ben; someone had already called him.

‘‘Are you sure you want to get started in this line of international work? JBG supplying soldiers of fortune and mercenaries does not sound like your kind of business. You know you are going to be competing with the remnants of Black Bear Corp,’’ Ben said.

‘‘I have no interest in running a mercenary unit, I just want my ass covered so no prosecutor comes out of the woodwork with some rule or law that we did not comply with and wants millions in fines.’’

‘‘While there are some things that Black Bear has and does that I would like to have, Black Bear can have all the mercenary work. They are being sued for wrongful deaths of their employees and collateral damage, just to name a few. I want no part of it,’’ I said.

‘‘That’s interesting to know. Black Bear’s legal dilemma is on the fast track through the court system to closure. It has a lot of agencies on edge. The court is indicating they are going to revoke all their licenses and force them out of business while collecting their remaining assets to settle the suits. There is not much left asset wise as it is; the courts and lawyers have taken huge a toll.’’

‘‘They do a lot things that will be hard to replace - much of it off the record for several agencies and the DOD. Black Bear’s weakness was never sending enough people to correctly do the job. Their systematic planning assumed their men were ten feet tall and bullet proof. I will talk with some people and get you all the information I can,’’ Ben said.

While I was doing that, Marcy, Jenny, Cindy, and Mary Ann had been busy talking with the office back at the gym. Ching Lee, Lorrie, Andy and two of her administrators made the flight to Oklahoma City this morning; they were just now landing. It had slipped my mind that while it was just afternoon where I was, it was 0600 in Oklahoma.

Andy’s team included the drones and the men to control them. They were staying for a few weeks. Ching Lee and Vicky were meeting with Chancellor Hemming at 1300.

‘‘Let the fireworks begin,’’ I thought.

I knew there were going to be fireworks before everything Ching Lee wanted to do was implemented. The Chancellor was furious that all the ID’s were being canceled and redone - including his.

Then came the changes to all the camera systems with the addition of dozens more. Also upsetting him were the upcoming changes to rules for visitors to the campus.

Today there would be drones flying all over the college grounds gathering close-up video and data for baseline data streams. This was something the EIT group wanted. It was a new field they wanted to experiment with: inlay, overlay and 3D graphics.

The new drones were going to fly grid patterns using their onboard computer and map every inch of the campus in extreme detail. When one drone signaled the controller that its hard drives were nearing capacity, the other drone would take over the grid and continue while the data was downloaded and check for clarity and accuracy.

At 1500 Ching Lee had scheduled a meeting with the Chancellor and a select few administrators and was going to drop the hammer on them. I suspected that it would happen well before the planned 1500.

We closed down the all the communications. We were just three hours into a ten hour flight; it would be midnight when we arrived. We had debated on staying in the motel, only to find out it was full up during the flight. That left one of the big tents or sleep in the plane.

We elected to sleep in the fancy reclining seats of the plane to finish out the night rather than trying to get situated in a tent that late at night. Andy and men could hit the tents if they wanted or join us. Andy and his men bunked in the tent that had been reserved for security, leaving the plane to us girls.