Chapter 68

The first order was VCATS to the office; it was a split screen with Vicky going first. I had Andy come sit in the front with us and listen.

“There are many things to tell you, so I will just hit the high points. The legal team say two of the contracts are not money makers, but are losing money every day. The odd thing is there are electronic deposits made to that island bank we stopped at on the way back from the first trip to Africa to six different numbered accounts. The deposits are made every thirty days.”

“By the way Andy - congratulations on the promotion,” the girls all said together. I had introduced Andy at the news conference with his new title.

“When Robert finishes up what his group is working on, he will look at it. His group has already found many questionable emails and texts between Black & Bear and six congressional people. I know you don’t believe in coincidences, neither do we. There is some very interesting reading.”

“The rest of the contracts - when they are renewed with the increases - will be OK. Lexi had found hundreds of double entries of charges against various accounts that need to be looked at. Lexi thinks there was a lot of money laundering going on.”

“Jenny’s group of lawyers looked in depth at the foreign contracts. They were well written and with strict requirements on both sides in both bonuses and penalties,” Vicky said.

Lorrie had all the updates on the property. “There were no liens recorded on either and the owner was listed as a Delaware corporation with a Washington DC phone number that was in those reserved for government,” she said.

“The property tax on the Montana site was twelve cents an acre, with the property description as ranch and range land. The property tax on the fifteen thousand acres of swamp and bayou was sixty thousand dollars. I guess crawdads, gators, muskrat, and water moccasins added value,” she added with a laugh.

I wondered how the land was deemed private property. In Maryland it was the high tide mark - was Louisiana the same? It must be different there with the deeds listing the property as bayou.

It was here that Andy asked where we were going to get all the extra men for this contract, the France raid, the Pact plus potential South Africa problems.

It was then that we gave Andy a detailed explanation of our takeover of Black Bear, their manpower use and on call reserves.

Max announced over the intercom we were in landing mode at the Louisiana site.

The plane made a couple circles around the facility before landing. Max let the G5 coast to the end of the runway and then the turn on the big circle and taxied back to the terminal area.

Andy and the guards were the first ones out as two old jeeps came out to the plane. We had just stepped onto the tarmac.

Some rough looking man - apparently in charge - exited the jeeps with the others.

“Who are you, what are you doing here and by whose permission did you land?”

“I can answer those questions for you. I am Roberta Jones, Ambassador Jones to some people; President of Jones Business Groups. As of tomorrow I am your new boss, which includes approving your paychecks. That also includes ownership of this property so I authorized the landing. I am here to inspect this site.”

“I was always told first impressions were important. So far I’m not impressed. Let’s start the inspection with the office and command facility and then the rest,” I said.

Marcy was taking pictures of everything in every direction.

The office was a disaster, just plain filthy and trashy. No organization, no one in command here that gives a damn. That would soon change.

What should have been a command headquarters and executive offices were empty of anything of value. Computer screens, terminals and consoles were all gone, nothing but cables and outlines in the dust marking were they once had been.

I suspected our greeters had been helping themselves either own their own or possibly for Black and Bear.

The rest of the tour was not any better.

There were three hundred men in various barracks and “quote” in training - if training was watching TV and playing cards. There were barracks for at least a thousand men. The barracks were in good shape.

The mess facility could sit four hundred at a time. I asked how much food was on hand for the training groups that would be coming.

“We have a week’s supply of canned goods, enough frozen pork and beef for three or four days,” the cook said.

I looked into walk-in freezers and coolers, they were operating and were cold at least.

“Where are the food deliveries ordered from?” I asked.

The cook wrote down three suppliers and what was ordered from each of them.

“Write me up an inventory of what you currently have and what your normal order quantities are. This place is going to be active again - for a while at least - and fax it to my office,” I said as I handed him a business card with the numbers.