Chapter 30

Even after all the time on the planes, I was up at a reasonable time. I had slept with Marcy. She wanted to cuddle for a while and I felt the baby kick a couple of times. We were affectionate, lightly talking and holding for the better part of an hour.

Today’s dress was another tee shirt and a pair of shorts over a bikini bottom. I had promised the boys I would go snorkeling with them.

All of us went to the cafeteria for breakfast. Today it was cooked under the watchful eye of the White House chef with an agent looking on.

I was surprised to see Bob Short - owner of Bob’s Construction - sitting at one of the tables, drinking coffee and looking at building plans.

While the chef was making our breakfast, I took my cup and sat at his table.

‘‘I see Lorrie got some strings pulled to get your men here to work on our project,’’ I said.

‘‘Yes, she wants the four cottages finished as soon as possible. The Island approved contractor had to hire us as subcontractors. It got us away from the cold ass crappy weather we are having at home. They do have some strange construction practices here to deal with for the storms, took a little getting used to,’’ he said.

‘‘Three quarter plywood with half inch concrete board on top of that, adhesive back rubber shield and the vertical laths with concrete siding over that on two by eight wall studs on twelve-inch centers seems like overkill. And then there are the galvanized metal brackets at every joint on top of driven piling with steel plating and double cross bracing. And, the roof system is even heaver,’’ he said.

‘‘They need these building codes in our hurricane zones. It would eliminate most hurricane damage,’’ he said.

‘‘That would kill the building trades in the south-east, the storms supply steady work and billions for insurance companies,’’ I said.

‘‘The accommodations could be a little better, but no-one is complaining. What is that, an off-shore oil rig support barge Lorrie has us staying on?’’ he said.

‘‘You will have to ask her; I was out of details for that loop,’’ I said.

I had not seen what they were talking about, but I did know it was tied up over by the maintenance building so the paying customers would not be complaining.

‘‘Did I tell you I love working for you? I never know where we will be working or how much rush it will be under, but it is always interesting, working here is a nice break,’’ he said.

‘‘I have a bunch of jealous crews at home. The guys have been sending them pictures of the progress. Of course, they have been sending them pictures of working in shorts, and bonfires on the beach and an occasional scantily clad lady or two. Pictures of the fishing trips didn’t help either. Then again, no-one has complained about not getting overtime,’’ he said.

‘‘I may have to rotate crews out to keep the peace at home,’’ he added.

‘‘Do whatever you have to do,’’ I said.

‘‘Just keep your passports up to date. There may be some management type things for you to oversee in Nigeria and Cameroon later in the year,’’ I said.

Breakfast was ready and that ended the conversation. I had just finished eating when an agent placed today’s updates and intelligence reports on my table.

I took a table that had been vacated and cleaned and read the updates. Two more cruise ships - filled to capacity and over - had left Hawaii for California last night and two more would make the trip this morning. One pair of the Japanese ships had unloaded survivors last night and had left port for the return trip at 0400.

The second pair of Japanese ships would arrive from Hawaii at 1000 today. Camp Parks was full. Last night’s arrivals and all from now on were going to Camp Pendleton. Sixty thousand had been transported to the states in the last twenty – four hours with ten thousand on ventilators sent to various Midwest hospitals.

Camp Pendleton was still putting up tents and scrounging the nation for equipment. So far food was not a problem - medical equipment and staff was.

Another report said that the Longshoreman union was walking off the ports and going on strike at 1200 California time. Now was not a good time for them to try my administration.

The executive order and the national emergency declaration I had signed extended the existing contract for one hundred and eighty days. They were quickly going to find out I was not beholding to the unions as other presidents had been.

I made a conference call to the Justice Department that included Marty Coeburn of the FBI, Eric Roberson DHS and Tim Hayes of the Federal Marshal service. Federal Judge Dwayne Hovator would sign several orders if they did strike after my call to activate the process.

One was the arrest all the union leadership of all three unions. They were to be placed in solitary confinement and were to be held under a no bail order.

The other was an order decertifying the three Longshoreman’s unions. Decertifying them would end union dues, union provided health benefits and most of all, union work rules.

Another judge would reinstate all of that under appeal in a few days, but it would be an immediate wakeup call for the unions.

With all the family and security along, we went to the dock. It took all six of the clear bottom boats for all of us. Two of the boats were Secret Service and two were Navy Seals.

Ziva, Abra, Farah and Sanaz - the four former Mossad ladies who were my JBG personal body guards - were along. It was the first time all four of them were together in a while. Usually, they were split on different shifts. Today was the first time I had seen all of them in bikinis with gear on.

They had a combat knife strapped to each thigh, on a belt at their waist was a semiautomatic pistol in some kind of thin tearaway plastic wrap – it could not be fired underwater. With the characteristics of the water a bullet would only travel a few feet and the shock wave from the explosion could be deadly. But the instant they above the water they were armed, ready to fight.

For three hours we snorkeled with the boys showing me all the new things they found yesterday. We swam all around and in the newly sunken boats. They still had the steering wheels and controls in them.

We took turns staying in the boat with Sara and Takeo. It would be a couple more years before they would be big enough to snorkel.

As a group we had a lot of fun. The Secret Service agents swapped out with the ones in the boats so they could all spend time in the water.

After the swimming and lunch, it was down the beach so the kids could build sand castles and play in the shallow water. We made sure we were away from the cottages - far enough so we would not offend anyone - and we girls worked on our all over natural.

We talked a lot of JBG business and how Marcy’s acquisitions were coming along. I found out Lorrie and Vicky were now involved in some additional pieces. I listened as they described the companies they were after.