Chapter 21

The waiter held the door open; in walked Frank, Eric, Ben and Marty.

‘‘Well, we get to see one more of your secrets, you do have a bar. I’m impressed,’’ Frank said.

‘‘There are lot more, there a few that you will never see,’’ I said.

‘‘They said at the desk that your mates are away, they are not filling your spot on a clandestine special operation, are they?’’ Frank asked. But, before I could answer, ‘‘Then they said Andy was away and that raises more questions?’’ Ben said.

‘‘My mates are conducting business at Thimble Shoals and will be back later today. Andy is somewhere in Africa then to the Middle East for the next week and after that, on to Portugal,’’ I said.

‘‘No, they are not filling my spot on the OPS team today, although they have several times recently,’’ I said.

‘‘With Marcy and Vicky expecting, Ching Lee, Lorrie and Jenny have stepped up to the plate on the OPS team,’’ I said.

‘‘Marcy and Vicky are expecting?’’ Frank said.

‘‘That’s not for public knowledge yet,’’ I said.

‘‘Marcy was to leave some items for me for an operation in Asia. It was a last-minute thing this morning, did she have time to get them before she left?’’ Frank asked.

‘‘She was in the air when you called but she filled me in. They are across the hall in the walk-in vault. I’ll get them before you leave,’’ I said.

‘‘How are you coming on the special projects?” I asked.

‘‘Making steady progress - as soon as we decode the work Robert has done we need to plan a raid. Andy is scheduling the people for the specialized mission requirements,’’ Frank said.

‘‘Our hope is to catch the trainers all there. These are the people that were initially paid by the prince and are now being paid by Pakistani factions and China,’’ Frank said.

‘‘Robert has been monitoring the traffic and comparing the satellite photos. When are you going to replace that crappy satellite with something that is the best we have?’’ I asked.

‘‘I know there was money budgeted for ten new ones in the budget two years ago. Where are they in the launch schedule?’’ I asked.

‘‘On top of those, money was budgeted last year for ten more to complete upgrading the surveillance systems,’’ I added.

‘‘I don’t know but I will find out. I have sent several requests to NASA and have gotten no response for the five they were to launch. Vandenberg has one a month starting in July.

‘‘Are the satellites completed and just waiting on NASA for the launch vehicle?’’ I asked.

‘‘The packages are complete and ready to ship to the launch assembly site,’’ Frank replied.

‘‘Troy, get me a list of all scheduled launches from NASA for the year. I also want to know what agency the launches are for and the what functions the satellite are to perform and for whom,’’ I said.

We talked about intelligence that was affecting the agencies and where the experts thought it was leading. I questioned the group aggressively.

After an hour, ‘‘Gentleman, my meeting with Frank, Ben and Eric is going to last a while. If there is nothing else we need to talk about now, I will talk with you tomorrow unless there is an emergency,’’ I said to the military men, sending them on their way.

‘‘Frank, you seem to be having more trouble with some of your secret connections. Are there new issues developing?’’ I asked.

‘‘No, they are not new, but they are growing with a lot of help from China, now that Russia is out of the picture. They started with the Obama administration. President Clinton had made many promises to the western European countries after the fall of the Soviet Union to get them to join the nonnuclear nations and give up the nuclear weapons under their control,’’ Frank said.

‘‘They did. The agreements were called ‘The Budapest Memorandum’. Welcoming the accession of Ukraine to the Treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons as non-nuclear-weapon State also happened,’’ Frank said.

‘‘Great Britain, Ireland, the United States and the Russian Federation agreed to respect the sovereignty and existing borders of Ukraine. They also agreed to immediate United Nations security council actions and to aid Ukraine in the event of aggression against them,’’ Frank said.

‘‘France and China also issued similar agreements with Ukraine if it would to give up its nuclear weapons, although the wording was not as strong as in the Budapest Memorandum,’’ Frank said.

‘‘The agreements were solid under Clinton and under the first President Bush. The second Bush was distracted by 9-11, then with all the military in the Middle East, things took on a new meaning with intelligence after the failures that led to 9-11,’’ Frank said.

‘‘Then Obama became president and things in the intelligence agencies changed again and our longtime adversaries were now the good guys. The situation became terribly worse with Obama’s support for the spring uprisings in the Middle East and Africa. That distraction led to the Benzi incident that cost the ambassador and his staff their lives, then came the distractions of the cover up, with Obama allowing China to build islands for military use with only a whimper in objection,’’ Frank said.

‘‘While all that was going on, Russia attacked Ukraine then withdrew with the US hardly raising its voice, when it should have been the leader and very vocal about the implied guarantees in the Budapest Memorandum. Shortly thereafter came Russia’s problems and Putin’s mysterious death,’’ Frank said.

‘‘Then came the Trump administration which was mired in conflict and controversy from the very beginning. His domineering aggression and at times abusive demeanor, over-use of social media and what would have been helpful was not. All the while China was growing in power and influence,’’ Frank said.