Chapter 22

Mike looked around at his surroundings overwhelmed by the idea that he was actually standing in the Oval Office of the White House. All of his previous trips had been to meetings held in other parts of the building. In awe at the thought of the history that had been made in that room, Mike said, “Wow.”

“What are you doing here?” the President asked looking up from the report he was reading and seeing Mike standing at the door.

Mike held out a single sheet of paper typed on White House Stationary and said, “I’ve brought something for you to sign, Mr. President.”

The President looked at Mike for a minute and then, with a nasty smile on his face, said, “It must hurt like hell to call me Mr. President.”

Mike ignored the jab and approached the President’s desk. On reaching it, he said, “This is a Presidential Executive Order in your name. We’d appreciate it if you would sign it.”

The President grabbed the sheet of paper out of Mike’s hand and, without even looking at it, said, “You bastards in Homeland Security just can’t wait to take over the country.”

“Read it,” Mike said in a hard voice.

He walked over to the window and looked out at the view. Mentally he reviewed the key elements of the document. Previous Presidents, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and a member of the Intelligence 100 were to sit on an oversight committee with full access to all on-going intelligence gathering activities involving American Citizens. They were charged with upholding the civil rights of American Citizens, but only American Citizens. They would have the power to halt any activity that crossed the line. He waited a few minutes for the President to finish reading it and turned to look at the man.

The document was not what the President had been expecting to read. Stunned by the contents of the document, he looked up at Mike and asked, “What is this?”

“It’s an attempt to keep the Constitution of this country alive and well,” Mike answered convinced that it would do no good.

He was there on the very slim chance that it would help. Very few assignments given to Marines were pleasant and some were worse than others, but this was the hardest of Mike’s career.

“You are placing me on an oversight committee that is to prevent abuses of power within the intelligence community?” the President asked stunned by what he had read.

“No. You will establish the oversight committee and will join it when the next President is sworn into office,” Mike answered.

The President picked up a pen and signed the document with a smile. The idea that he would oversee the intelligence community even after he left office was just too good to ignore.

He handed the paper back to Mike and said, “It’s signed.”

“Thank you, Mr. President,” Mike said.

He turned and left the office without waiting to be dismissed. The idea that he might be working with the man for the next few years made him sick to his stomach. No one had ever said that a Marine had to like the dirty jobs that came his way, only that they would get the job done or die trying.

As he walked away, he muttered, “Semper Fi.”

It was nearly ten at night and Mike was hard at work. He looked over the outputs of the face recognition program after having fed videos from several bus stations into it. One of those bus stations was located in Cleveland, Ohio. There were several dozen hits, but the certainty factors on most of them were pretty low. There was one exception.

Grinning, he looked up and said, “I think I found one.”

There was no one else in the office other than the Marine Guards. They looked over at him and basically ignored him. Listening to Mike mutter to no one in particular wasn’t an uncommon event after hours. Three nights a week he stayed late to hunt down individual terrorists. It seemed to them that he found one about every other week.

Mike brought up the video and watched the terrorist who had been identified by the program move around the bus station. The man had gotten onto a bus that would take him to Milwaukee. After pulling up information on the bus schedule, Mike saw that the man would be on the bus for another four hours. After a few keystrokes on the keyboard, a picture of the terrorist, along with a warning that the man was passing through their area, was sent to every police station between Cleveland and Milwaukee. Grinning, Mike picked up the phone and dialed the Milwaukee police station.

On a Friday evening, Mike returned home from work to discover Sun Yung waiting for him in the living room. This was the first time he had seen the man since the initial meeting. He could hear Kim muttering in the kitchen and wondered what had happened before his arrival.

Feeling the onset of a headache, he asked, “What are you doing here?”

“I have brought plans for your garden retreat,” Sun answered.

“Garden retreat?”

“Yes,” the gardener answered. He held out a stack of papers and said, “The top sheets are drawings of what I have planned and the bottom sheets explain how much the various options will cost.”

Mike looked at the first drawing. It showed an enclosed patio with glass walls. He figured that was going to cost a fortune. Inside the patio area was a water feature consisting of a small waterfall that fed a pool.

He asked, “Is this supposed to be a spa or a fish pond?”

“It’s a small bathing pond for two,” Sun answered with a nod of his head. He added, “It will be surrounded by ferns and other plants that like a little humidity. The idea is that it will be like you are surrounded by nature despite the small area used.”

Nodding his head, Mike looked at the plans again. He noticed that there privacy curtains that would allow him to block the view into the patio from the neighbors.

He said, “It will be hot in the summer.”

“The glass walls slide open like the patio doors that you have now. In fact, there will be six pairs of sliding doors as the exterior of the patio,” Sun said.

“What if I want the bathing pond to hold four?” Mike asked finding that the idea was beginning to grow on him.

Smiling and bowing, Sun answered, “That is the second drawing.”

“Oh,” Mike said turning to the next drawing.

It was basically the same design, but there was a three foot solid wall between the pairs of sliding doors along the side. He liked it better than the first one.

“Plants will surround the entire room. There will be grow lights above so that the plants will have plenty of light. You will be able to dim the lights in order to set the appropriate mood. The room will be heated so that the plants will grow year round,” Sun said after Mike had been studying the plans for several minutes.

“I really like this one. How much is it?” Mike asked.

“Close to twelve thousand dollars,” Sun answered.

“That’s too much,” Mike said shaking his head. The idea had really appealed to him.

“Not the next one, but the one after that is the same design, but it’s only seven thousand dollars,” Sun said.

Mike shuffled through the stack of papers until he reached the one Sun had mentioned. It looked like the one he liked. Without looking at the details, he asked, “What’s different?”

“I use much cheaper materials. The roof is simpler with wood and no shingles. The walls are plain and I only use glass along half of the walls. All is done much cheaper,” Sun answered. He was pretty sure that was the one that Mike would choose. When he had shown the plans to Sanjay and Teva they had wanted him to build one for them.

“I guess we’ll do that one,” Mike said.

“Good.”

It was eleven at night. Mike was at the office searching video feeds from around the country for another terrorist to nab. There was a lot of chatter about the upcoming holidays, but it looked like the terrorists were lying low for the moment. He was about to give up for the night when the telephone rang. He answered it wondering who would be calling him at the office that late at night.

Picking up the handset he said, “Hello. You’ve reached Mike Bowman of Homeland Security.”

“Mike! This is Sanjay. Teva just gave birth to a baby girl,” Sanjay said excited about the birth of another child. Although they had been hoping for a boy, he was just as pleased that it was a girl.

The child was born a week late despite the fact that it was Teva’s third child. Pleased to hear the news, Mike said, “Oh, that’s great. Congratulations. I’m glad to hear that. What are you going to name her?”

There was a slight pause and then Sanjay said, “We wanted to ask your permission to name her Karen.”

The request took Mike totally by surprise. Choking up, he said, “You have my permission. Karen would have been honored.”

“Thank you, Mike,” Sanjay said hearing the man’s voice crack when he said the name of his late wife.

“How is Teva?” Mike asked remembering how Karen had been while giving birth. He wondered if Teva had cursed Sanjay for getting her pregnant.

“She’s doing fine. It was an easy birth,” Sanjay answered. Teva had been in labor for only two hours.

“That’s good,” Mike said looking down at his left hand. Knowing that Kim would want to see the Teva and the baby, Mike said, “I’m going to swing by the house and pick up Kim. We’ll be up at the hospital in twenty minutes.”

“Great. I’ll see you when you get here. I’ve got to call my parents now,” Sanjay said.

It was closer to thirty minutes before Mike and Kim arrived at the hospital. Kim ran off without waiting for Mike in order to find Teva. It took Mike another ten minutes before he found Sanjay standing at the window of the natal care unit looking at the baby.

As Mike approached, he asked, “Which one is Karen?”

“That one,” Sanjay said, “The third one from the right.”

Mike smiled at the infant and said, “She’s cute. You’re lucky that she takes after her mother.”

For all intents and purposes, Mike was alone in the Internet Café. The only other people there were the Marines guarding the place. It was Christmas Eve and everyone else was at home for the day. Mike was there by choice rather than obligation. There was no other place where he wanted to spend the day. Sitting around the house only reminded him of what he had lost while sitting in the office allowed him to get back at those who had stolen his wife and child from him.

Mike watched the situation board as reports of terrorist actions slowly scrolled past. The majority of the messages were about suicide bombers killing themselves in crowded shopping malls. The malls that had implemented security procedures at the entrances were having the suicide bombers blow themselves up at the doors where crowds of people were waiting to clear security. Those that hadn’t taken steps to keep the malls safe had bombers blowing themselves up in the crowded lines. It was a no-win situation for the good guys.

It was still early in the day and the death toll was climbing. He figured that at night the messages would be about church burnings. While Christians prayed to God at the midnight masses, Satan’s minions would be throwing Molotov Cocktails into the churches. He hoped that local police departments were smart enough to station men at all of the churches with orders to shoot to kill if anyone tried to burn down the church.

Thoughts about deaths at the shopping malls served to remind him why he was alone that day. He tried to remember what he had done the previous Christmas, but it was a complete blank. He couldn’t even remember what he had done over the previous Thanksgiving.

Feeling depressed, he said, “Merry Fucking Christmas.”

The telephone rang and he reached over to answer it. Holding the handset to his ear, he said, “Hello. You’ve reached Mike Bowman.”

“What are you doing there?”

Hearing his father-in-law’s voice, Mike cringed. He had ignored the invitation to visit Karen’s parents Christmas Eve. He had forgotten that his parents had invited him to come over on Christmas Day.

Mike answered, “I’m watching the situation board.”

“You are supposed to be here,” Vincent said.

“I’m not good company,” Mike said wanting to duck out of spending the evening with Karen’s parents.