Chapter 7

Two more of my men were to be discharged from the hospital today; that made me feel a little better.

I had a 0800 meeting with Andy and Ed; Andy wanted to start the process of replacing the men on Monday to get the OPS and Rapid Response teams to full strength. He was right in his argument that we may need them in a hurry. I agreed with Andy’s assessment and the quest would begin with HR reviewing all the applications already on file.

The funerals were on Friday; HR was checking and double checking everything. There had been an issue with the school board about parking. We were sure that there was going to be a shortage. Jason wanted a section of fencing removed and over-flow parking on the soccer field close to the auditorium. Only after agreeing to pay and repair any grass or fence damage did they agree.

I met with Robert; some of the web sites he had been watching had been going crazy. One site the Iranians had moved to the general internet to be a forum for hunting for their general. They were having no real luck, although there had been an item that he may have survived the attack.

There were only a handful of people in Israel that knew he was alive. The Mossad had seen to that and whisked him away to a Mossad controlled section of the hospital.

The traffic on the other web sites had doubled and almost tripled on the sex trade one.

The traffic between Jaed and Tiam had substantially increased and there was a new player in the US. All leads were pointing to Oklahoma City, although there was not enough evidence to confirm it yet.

The thing that set off alarms was that Jaed indicated that the prospective target list was down to two locations and the decision would be made in a day or two.

Tiam’s response was that the explosives had been secured and after the place and date was decided arrangements would be made to get them to him.

I needed to go to Washington; I wanted a face to face with the task force. I went back to Fort Smith and the jail; I asked the General if he had finished the letter.

“I’m sure you will read it to make sure I followed your instructions and I have no problem with that,” he replied as he handed me the letter. I placed it in an envelope with a couple of blank sheets.

I read what the General had written as best I could; I was a long way from being able to put all the scratches and symbols together and make sense out of them.

Back at the office I first had Robert scan it then run it through the translator for an English version. Andy was waiting as I donned the heavy vest. Ziva and Abra were in the SUV with me. I asked her to read the General’s letter to me. I then read the translated version. Both were very close; the General had followed directions. It was a simple letter from someone who knew he was dying.

“Goodbye; I am dying. Tell the family to stay strong and together. I shall greet them with Allah,” was the essence of the letter. It took three pages of ramblings with notes to all his children and wife.

Andy was carrying me to the South Hill Federal Penitentiary where Balthazar was being held. I called the warden and told him to have Balthazar in a visitor room in one hour.

An hour and ten minutes later I was sitting across the table looking at Balthazar; he did not look as good as when I saw him last time. I wondered if he was on a hunger strike.