Chapter 96

The reunion home with the kids was special and heartwarming. They were growing like we were feeding them fertilizer. They were as glad to see us as we were them.

We spent a couple hours in the office going over Black and Bear’s Middle East trip. They had three possible locations for bases for the fast boats. Two of them had small dry docks and fueling equipment. The other one would need work - nothing new for anything we did anymore, it seemed.

In the end it would still take another port. Three would make too much distance to travel in an emergency in the shipping lane. They went back to the Middle East to secure the fourth base.

We decided on the Seafood Inn for an early supper. Cold beer, crab cakes, and steak fitted my mood to a tee. With it being steak and seafood night all the old friends were there. Duke Justice, Clarence Hallworthy - two of the county commissioners - and Elmo Cartwright.

Elmo was not only editor, he was now part owner of the now bi-weekly local paper. Elmo was seated with Hanna with his notepad. I was sure there was going to be a column about Hanna’s experiences in the next issue.

I had our waitress take a round of drinks to their tables just to be friendly. I was going over to speak but their food came and our waitress delivered our appetizers.

They came over to speak as they were leaving. It was a short but quick conversation.

At 0800 we were in a convoy closing in on Washington. One of the Suburban’s was filled with the bags of cash collected in Mexico. Eric and the director wanted to display the cash for the news conference along with all the drugs. Bigger bucks with the drugs equal bigger news bang.

The DEA agents had picked up the last of the collected drugs as soon as our planes landed. I had assurances that the money belonged to JBG.

The news conference was to be at 0900. With the flash bulbs keeping the room lit up, we stood on the stage with Eric, DEA director Hamler, and the Mexican Ambassador Ramirez. I started the news conference with a statement.

“The evidence is presented before you on these tables about what genuine cooperation can do to solve the problems between countries when the true interest of the people come first. What you see is ten thousand pounds of illegal drugs, cocaine, heroin, Fentanyl and several kinds of prescription look alike pills. Also note the millions of dollars. JBG is proud to have a small but active part in stopping this drug traffic.”

“All of these drugs were destined for our cities to feed habits and the coffers of the cartel. Together we partners took their money, their product and their men. All this displayed was gotten in just three days,” I said.

Politics just plain pure politics. Every now and then I made it work.

I turned the news conference over to the Ambassador who was beaming. He spoke for ten minutes. Eric smiled and gave me a knowing nod; he was well aware of the challenges.

Eric and Director Hamler spoke at length, patting everyone on the back.

Hanna and Melinda were both in the front row, both getting questioned intensely before the conference started.

Just before Eric closed the news conference down I asked “Melinda, have your teeth stopped vibrating from that helicopter ride yet?”

“They have, but I’m not sure about my stomach yet. That was some ride,” she said before laughing and the rest of the reporters laughed with her.

“You and Hanna keep your go bag packed and that passport up to date; you may need them soon,” I said. I did that just to rile up the press corps, reminding them there would be no lottery.

The money was bagged back up and went back to the office with the girls and a security escort. I talked another fifteen minutes with Eric and the Ambassador.

Then I went to see the President for a quick meeting before I went to the Senate. Troy was in the room with the President.

“Mr. President, have you given any more thought to the document you are holding in your desk?” I asked.

“Yes we have, with no decision. How about we release a statement that your term is up at the end of the year and we will reevaluate your position on the oversight committee that time.” “That will keep everyone guessing and give us some more time,” Troy said.

“Now let’s talk about important things. Iran has been granted a full UN assembly to level charges and threats against you for the assault on Iranian citizens in France. That is in three weeks; it was pushed back a week from their original request. How are you going to respond?” the President asked.

“Depends on how Mexico plays out in that time and issues growing in France that I cannot discuss right now,” I said.

“However, I intend to be there to respond. They have no real ability to censure or penalize me, Katy bar the door. I intend to fully unload and disclose their actions with proof from captured documents. It will be interesting to see who the officials are,” I said.

“You are right on that. We have not received the list from Iran requesting permission to visit,” Troy said.

“I will be back after the Senate comedy before I go home,” I said.

I was fifteen minutes late - just to piss them off - and it did. I listened to a few more minutes of verbal abuse before I stood up to leave, “If that is all the questions, I have a flight to catch after a visit to the White House to get another verbal spanking,” I said.

That was all it took to get down to business. Fifty percent of the questions I didn’t answer- couldn’t because of international secrecy rules. They knew I couldn’t but they wanted the media time.

When they questioned a lot of things about France, even more about Mexico, I told them we needed to go to a closed door session if they wanted any discussion about those topics. Even then many of their questions may not be answered.

After answering what was little more than public knowledge, it was time to put the shoe on the other foot. I was going to try to put off return visits every time a new JBG announcement was released.

“Since this is the intelligence committee and you are supposed to know everything, what do you know about the new JBG super max prison being built?” I said.