Chapter 14

We waited for several days after the completion of the second part of the operation. We wanted to see how long it would take for the order to go out to stop listing, tracking, or trying to capture Tom, Courtney, Brenda, whom they thought of as Pam, and me.

While it wasn't instantaneous, they finally did get around to telling the directors to call off the search for us. Unfortunately, people further down the chain of command within these organizations ignored the order.

"Actually, I had expected this. While they are going through the motions to appease you, the main problem is you people represent a powerful unknown, and they want to either control you, or eliminate you as a possible threat. I'm afraid it won't be as easy as you had hoped," Lord Avery-Smythe told us.

Tom gently nudged the law makers at first, but as time went on and no further action happened, the nudging took a harder tone. ABC was the first with the breaking news story.

"Tonight's top story, House Representative Bill Slater has been implicated in taking bribes for votes! Information has been sent anonymously to ABC which purports to be representative Slater accepting bribes at a restaurant in downtown Washington D.C. Close up videos shot by an unknown photographer show it definitely is Representative Slater. The other person in the video giving the bribe has been identified as a Middle Eastern diplomat from Jordan.

"As you know, Representative Slater has been a strong and vocal voice against the war on terrorism for the past year. Now he is linked to accepting bribes. Is his opposition due to his opinion being bought? More on this, from correspondent Lisa Rowan. Lisa?" scene cut to Lisa 'in the field'.

Tom turned down the TV.

"And so it begins," he said with a sad sigh.

"You knew this was a definite possibility," Courtney told him.

"I knew. I had hoped that we could have had a better reaction and response from our little get together. I hate having to stoop to this sort of thing," Tom responded.

"Get used to it. It's called power brokering. It is one of the primary ways things get done in the world of politics," Lord A.S. said with a sigh.

We delayed the launch of the next phase of the operation. Two operations of that magnitude take it out of you. We rested, and waited to see how our government was going to resolve this 'little problem'. Another five days went by, and the heads of the agencies were pulled in for direct face to face orders at a closed session.

Tom attended, observed, and took video of course. He came back and reported that the heads had in fact sent out 'stop' orders, but the problem was the career people further down the chain. So congress took an extraordinary step, at that conference. They told the heads to inform their agencies that funding for the next fiscal year was on hold, and that they were going to find their ability draw from the general funds, frozen.

They would start with the CIA first, then go to the FBI, then do the NSA, and, if it went on that long, then the DOD. Congress told them to pass this tidbit along to their employee's and also remind them who they worked for. The heads were then dismissed, and the session was adjourned.

We had been relaxing for a total of ten days by this time. Tom suddenly announced it was time to begin the next part of the operation. We would now do the judicial branch of the government. These people would be handled in a slightly different manner, since they were a smaller group. These were the people who allowed 'certain excesses', in the name of allowable questioning tactics. We decided to subject them to the same standards that they used on the citizenry.

The Supreme Court judges were all grabbed, as was the US attorney general. They were placed inside a secure building. We wanted to have exact temperature control. After all, we would do no more to them than they allowed our local police or federal investigators to do in an intensive investigation. After all, that's fair, isn't it?

Consider... a person is murdered, and 15 suspects are in the immediate vicinity. Now they already know that not all 15 did it. But, to whittle it down, why they had to question all of them, right? So what if all 15 are made uncomfortable. That's just good investigative work. Sure, the innocent will get treated the same as that one guilty guy. But this is the way of investigations, and screw your hurt feelings or outrage. The finding of the guilty one is the point, after all.

Thus began the next phase of 'Operation Knuckle Sandwich'. Ten persons were gathered. Nine Supreme Court Justices, and one US Attorney General. We were at a toss up as to whether to treat the Attorney General as a member of the judicial, or the executive branch. While an appointee of the executive branch, he was also strongly into the law and order side of things.

Tom gathered them, and teleported them to a building that was totally secure, and climate controlled. The first thing we did, was to have them strip searched, and given thin 'hospital type' robes to wear. Goodness, the things they said at the indignity of being subjected to a little strip search! After all, it was something they allowed to be done as regular as clock work. We told the very large guards doing the search, to be polite, but to let their contempt show through.

After this, the group was taken to a theater, and the usual spiel was done with some slight modifications. We made sure it was a chilly 62 degrees in the theater. After all, these were the same people who said it was alright to do that kind of thing. For some strange reason, they were not appreciative. They kept shouting strange things like 'rights, due process, warrants, civil liberties, right to confront accuser, and a host of other nonsense. After all, we weren't really going to hurt them, and this is how they said the average guy or gal on the street should be treated.

"Tom, you're missing something. While it's true, the judges you have now represent the final authority within the judicial branch, you have missed out by not taking all of them. What about the federal district judges?" Lord Avery-Smythe asked.

"Actually, I thought about it. Believe it or not, I am getting ready to grab them, also. But there are a lot more of them than there are Supreme Court judges. So they are going to be held at a different facility, and it's not ready yet. But trust me, I will deal with them, too," Tom replied with grim satisfaction.

I never did bother to go to that other facility. I was having too much fun watching the show with the vaunted supreme beings... errr Supreme Court judges that is. The blustering finally stopped when they realized no one was impressed, nor was going to cower in fear of their wrath. They became a very subdued group.

Another thing we did was inject them with saline solution, involuntarily of course, but after all, this was something that they authorized all the time. Would you know they objected to being given any medications or drugs against their will? Who'd a thought they would fight so hard against something that they allowed states to do, as a matter of routine? Go figure.

One actual drug was injected into what Tom considered a very 'liberal oriented' offender. The drug injected was a form of a truth drug, which had proven to be very effective. It had no harmful side effects, with the exception that a person told the truth for a few hours.

This judge had, single handedly, managed to get enough of the others on his side to write new law. Not only did he get four others to sign off on it, he wrote the decision. Thus it was, that a strange law (self limited to 25 years, "since it would not be needed after that time frame,") was introduced into the laws of our land.