Chapter 90

Sunday morning started off quietly with mostly good news. The men that had been hurt in OK had all been released from the hospital. The DHS and FBI had interviewed all the JBG men Ching Lee and Vicky had on duty there for the attack.

Many would be interviewed a second and third time as the feds wrote and rewrote the reports of the event.

Monday all of them would be returning home - where ever that happened to be. Ching Lee, Vicky and Paul Drake were coming home Monday.

The plane that was going to pick them up was taking new weapons to the Oklahoma security group. It would be weeks before the alphabets were done reconstructing and testing to their satisfaction. They had copies of all the video tapes, and two unexploded vests. They had raided every address connected with the group that had been so elusive for us to find.

It would take weeks and months for some things and all the collected evidence to be evaluated, analyzed and put to any use. Anyone - not already in jail - connected to the cell would be long gone.

We had done all we could do. We had stopped a massacre and had lost only two students as collateral damage. I hated that part but I had to accept it. I know Ching Lee and Vicky were bothered badly that it happened under their watch.

All the Sunday talk shows were filled with opinion heads giving uneducated opinions about both Paris and Oklahoma. Radical Candy Brown on ‘Sunday Morning Washington Live’ was really livid that JBG had the major forces in both.

At 1100 I called Arthur Kennedy of ‘Sunday Morning Washington Live’ while they were on the air just to see if he would answer his cell phone while he was on the air. I knew he kept it on the table beside him.

‘‘I have to answer this. Hello Ambassador Jones, is this really you? You’re live on speaker,’’ he said.

‘‘It’s not my ghost because I’m still alive much to Candy’s dismay. You are not doing a very good job of countering her whimsical offerings and keeping that balanced program you advertise,’’ I said.

‘‘Well there have been a lot of things going on with you and JBG the last few days. It had some people on the edge. It’s a big job sometimes, more than I can handle by myself. I need help,’’ Arthur said.

‘‘Unless you are a terrorist, support terrorist financially or materially and terrorism in general, there is nothing to be on edge about. On the other hand if you fit into those categories, you better grow eyes in the back of your head. Sooner or later we will get you. You are running out of places to hide.”

‘‘The Paris operation was a clear example of new cooperation and new laws between the Pact countries to fight terrorism,’’ I said.

‘‘Just why did JBG have so many men involved in a French operation? France has a large military, couldn’t they have handled it?’’ Candy said sarcastically.

‘‘JBG is the unifying security force supporting the Pact countries and drawing together police and their military when necessary only in terrorist matters. JBG allows the appearance of normalcy in domestic affairs by doing that and maintaining secrecy. In this case - by luck - we even had operatives inside. Less than one hundred French military knew about the operation and most of them less than 24 hours in advance,’’ I said.

‘‘It is reported that you had two battalions there. How many men are in a JBG battalion?’’ David Little asked.

‘‘Depends on the operation. Our new command and control structure can handle up to five hundred in a battalion,’’ I said.

‘‘Just how many battalions of fighters do you have?” Candy asked.

‘‘You are asking for something about the actual numbers that is JBG classified. If you are looking for a number for a talking point, ten could be that number or it could be twenty - or it might even be thirty worldwide,’’ I said.

‘‘There is no way you can justify having that many mercenaries,’’ Candy said.

‘‘They are not mercenaries, JBG does not work for dictators or want to be dictators or anyone trying to overthrow a government. We only work with stable governments and what we do for those governments is classified by them and by JBG,’’ I said.

‘‘We’re out of time. I really want to continue this heated conversation another time,’’ Arthur said.

‘‘Three weeks from now. Lots of things are going to happen before then that we will be able to talk about. Wear your iron pants because I intend to kick some ass. I am not going to let you bash me without repercussions,’’ I said.