Chapter 7: It's Just Math

"Cassie, I need to talk with Julie before I make a decision. This is not a solo decision. It involves both of us. It is going to take me at least a week."

"That is fine; we have an office address in Washington, but that's all it is. That address is the same as our lawyers there. Or if you decide you like it here we can build you a house and an office complex."

"We have a lot of construction going up so we could add yours to it with no problem."

"Ma'am."

Cassie turned to look at Schultz. "Yes Sergeant?"

"It's getting late; your reservation is open ended. Not to be rushing, you need to be heading out."

Cassie scanned the Grandfather clock in the next room. Schultz was right.

She stood up and everybody followed her lead pushing the chairs back from the table.

"Clint, do you think a double security team will be enough?"

"How big a team?"

"I usually take three, one of them my driver."

"Let keep the drivers with the vehicles. Take one for each inside with us. Put three on patrol around the area." He said.

"Sergeant Schultz, make it so."

"Yes Ma'am."

They all began to leave the office.

"Major Woods, write up a summary of the meeting and let Sergeant Schultz have a copy tomorrow."

"Yes Ma'am."

She took off and disappeared down the hallway. Clint eyes followed her.

"Where did you get her Cassie?"

"I told our law firm I wanted an in house counsel who could keep up physically. They sent me her resume. She was working for them as research assistant and had just passed her bar exam. She had gone through college and law school on the G.I. Bill or its equivalent."

"They included her military records. That was it. She has heard the whistle of bullets."

They walked to the rear entrance to the house, Cassie heard over the general comm channel, "This is Sgt. Townsend, all security and vehicles ready to leave."

"The vehicles are ready. Let's get out of here."

As their party entered Russo's, Pietro Russo was standing next to the Maitre'd. Stepping forward he gave Cassie a bow.

"Welcome Signorina Howard, please follow me." He turned and led them to a corner that was elevated a foot above the rest of the dining area.

He and a group of waiters helped each lady to have a seat. Schultz pulled a little black box out and sat it in the center of the table. A green light on it was flashing.

Russo looked at it for a moment and smiled as he nodded at Schultz and stepped away. The waiter took their orders and the wine steward took their drink orders.

"What is that?" Her mother asked,

Schultz paused, than answered, "It's a bug detector. It also emits white noise which interferes with any parabolic mike system. If the green light goes out or the red light comes on, stop talking."

"Why do we need it?" Rosie asked.

Cassie took that one. "The man that seated us is Pietro Russo, he owns the place but he is also Don Russo to the local Italians. He is connected to the real Mafia. The law enforcement in the area favors him over any possible competitor."

"He controls most local crime and tries to keep it away from kids allowing no drugs near any schools. In cases of missing children, we have thousand of free searchers looking as soon as he hears. If a pedophile is involved, we will hear where the body will be found."

"I don't think he would bug us, but why take a chance. This place is the best place in Roanoke to eat."

The weekend sped by and Cassie was busy the whole time. She spent hours just talking with her Mother; even taking her out to the range to show her mother her ease with weapons.

Later she took both her Dad and Clint to do the same with them. They were really flabbergasted to see her firing an aa-12 with a 32 round drum.

It was in these private talks that she let them in on just how much she had authorized under her own name. Cassie showed them where all the new construction she had ordered would be going. With the increase in personnel new dormitories and houses were needed.

Then there were the offices and the medical center where they would work. A larger and better equipped garage was planned for more intensive work on transportation. The new roads and parking areas were needed to connect all of it together.

The final touch was the construction of a security fence between the two different divisions. Cassie planned to pull her personal security on the front gate back to this new fence when it was completed. The front gate security would be under the 'base' administration.

"The new fence perimeter will shorten our patrol tremendously and give us less frontage to defend. Clint, my idea is to have over a thousand experienced and well trained men within six months. Dad, I want a Hyperion nuclear reactor, in fact two of them. That is over-kill I know, but we would be completely free of the eastern seaboard electrical grid. In fact with two we could supply power in an emergency into the local grid."

"Hum, I think I can get that done. They want 25 million each for those, but that is cheap, in fact. One can supply power for seven to nine years with almost zero maintenance."

"I contracted all this construction out before our board meetings. This is all included in that summary for which I need retroactive approval for having done already. Next meeting I want to move 3 to 5 percent of the stock in "We Find It!" directly into CHH Security so that Clint will not have to get both boards approval before he can buy anything."

"Cassie, I have a dinner to attend Wednesday evening and you have been invited. No weapons will be allowed as it's at the White House. Will you be available?"

"White House! Yeah, I will be available."

They continued to talk and get familiar with the ideas that Cassie had on what she wanted to build. At the same time she was stretching her abilities to their utmost increasing her range and sensitivity.

Monday morning, Cassie was up and dressed when she remembered that she had been excused from the math test.

This offered a good opportunity to check in with the campus police. She had only dropped by that one time directly after they tried to tow her vehicle. All her vehicles now had decals with all parking allowed from the chancellor office. She knew that the chancellor had used the incident as an excuse to clean house.

This would be her chance to see just what he had done. She gave the orders.

"Schultz, we will be going to the campus police building. I want to see if I can get a better look at their organization today."

"Yes Ma'am."

Cassie paid no more attention. Over the days since Schultz had become her Aide she had found that giving her the information and what she wanted done was all she had to do. Schultz would get it done.

"Also Schultz, Wednesday evening I'll have dinner at the White House. I can have no security inside and no weapons. I need a top quality formal gown before then."

"Yes Ma'am."

"This Coachman 1, transport and security is ready for the Shadow."

"Roger, Coachman, the Shadow is coming." Schultz answered. Cassie laughed silently. Her security was having too much fun with all these code names and such.

As Cassie stepped out the rear entrance, Grace was waiting and covered her opposite side from Sgt. Townsend. They escorted her to the open door of the Tahoe. Today she sat behind the driver Cpl. Jerkin with Grace next to her. Townsend was riding shotgun.

They had finally convinced her that not even her seat in the Tahoe should become a regular thing. Today was the beginning of musical seats in the Tahoes.

The Tahoe quickly drove off the estate and down the road to the campus.

Cassie and Cpl. Perkins walked into the police station on the college campus. Unlike some colleges, the police at VTI wore real uniforms that made them look like police in any city. The Sgt. at the front reception area looked up as she walked toward him. Cassie reached to her belt and pulled her credential case loose and held in up so he could see it.

"Special Deputy United States Marshal Cassandra Howly Howard. I would like to look your facilities over and meet your people."

The Sergeant leaned closer to read her credential. Then he picked up the phone while pushing some buttons on it. "Lieutenant I have a Special Deputy US Marshal out here ... Yes Ma'am."

"Excuse us Deputy, we have had a new broom through here so I have the Day Shift supervisor coming."

"Perfectly understandable Sergeant, I'm a student on campus myself. This is simply a courtesy call."

The meeting was smooth and took little time. Cassie introduced herself explaining that she was a student on the campus and how she became a special Deputy Marshal. They exchanged phone numbers.

After the meeting, Cassie felt better about any interaction that might happen between her and members of the Campus police. She then proceeded to the classroom where the other students in her class were finishing up the test.

She looked through the open door to see the last student turning in his paper. Cassie walked in to the room.

The Professor was studying one of the tests that had been turned in to him. He looked up as Cassie stopped next to his desk.

"Ms. Howard what can I do for you?"

"Friday, when you excused me from the test today, I was in a hurry. My parents were flying into the Regional Airport and I did not have a chance to ask why the excused test?"

"I have a question first. Have you previously taken Calculus? Are you retaking it now for a higher grade?"

"No Professor Robbins, I have never taken any calculus course prior to your class."

He turned, opened his briefcase and pulled out three sheets of paper which, he held them out to her. She took the papers and rotated them one at a time so the camera in the room could see them. In her ear she heard the Sergeant at HQ Security come back to her.

"They are the papers that you wrote the orbital problem on Friday. He has circled some of your equations in red, underlined some other and there is a large Red 'A' at the top of the first page. He signed your name to the top of all three pages."

"An 'A' Professor?"

"Yes, that is your test score for this test. There is a letter from me included with my copies of the papers in case there are any questions."

"Ms. Howards those papers covered every part of what I have taught this last six weeks. The 'A' is really an understatement of how well you have learned the material in the course so far. I would not be surprise to learn that you have finished the text for this class."

He sat there for a minute quietly, than mentioned one more thing.

Ms. Howard with the permission of the Dean I will test you out for the remainder of this class. Next semester if you take any of my courses I will do the same if you think you can do so."

"Test me out?"

"Yes, I have a meeting with the Dean and if he agrees that's what we will do. It's a waste of your time to set in the class if you are not learning anything new by doing so."

"Professor Robbins, I have no idea what to say."

"You need say nothing at this time. I am sure it will be just fine. Professor Howell was very pleased to see your paper. He said he would have to come up with a much harder problem for you to work on."

Well, Cassie thought, Physics was her next class so she guessed she would find out just what Professor Howell had planned. The halls were pretty empty as she and her team walked down them. The click of their heels on the tiled floors echoed off the walls.

They were early as the class still had thirty minutes before it was scheduled to start. This classroom was one of the small ones. For some reason they were in a small class. Most physics 101 classes seemed to bulge at the seams and were scheduled in the larger lecture halla.

Another abnormality of this class was the lab table on the side. Professor Howell liked to demonstrate principles in the middle of a lecture.

The four of them found their seats at the front of the class room. Cassie opened her briefcase and prepared her equipment. Her scan found no one paying attention to her so she took the time to converse with Security HQ.

"Cassie online and in class."

"Security HQ, Roger! Videos are on line."

"Stay on your toes; I'm expecting a surprise question, problem or test today."

"Roger that, Shadow."

With that she noticed Sgt. Townsend suppressing a grin. They really were having fun with that codename for her.

Behind her Cpl. Perkins leaned forward and quietly said, "Ma'am why was your Math Professor so surprised at your work?"

"I'm just a lowly freshman, basically just getting started. I should not have been able to plan let along work out that problem. Kind of like a new recruit firing at an expert level the first day on the range."

"What I did was like a new Sergeant coming in from sniper school and firing as an expert on the range you would expect those kinds of results from a trained sniper but not from a lowly recruit. I think today Professor Howell is going to see if that same recruit can fire a machine gun with the same expert results."

"It's good and bad at the same time. They will then decide to push me. It will be like a Sergeant in boot camp, seeing a recruit and deciding that he's got a live one. I am going to be given every tough problem and course they can load on me. If I do well then it's great! But if I don't they will drop me like a hot potato."

"What about this course? Are you as up on physics as you are on Math?" Cpl. Perkins asked her.

"Let me say this, it's almost impossible to get a Bachelor of Science in Physics without getting a minor in Math. Math is the language of Physics. When you talk physics you have to use math to make yourself understood. So let's say, I speak the language like a native."

Cpl. Perkins sat back in her seat with a very thoughtful look on her face.

Cassie 'saw' Professor Howell coming down the hallway with a person she did not know. He had to be another Professor; Cassie was still almost a stranger here at VTI. Not living on campus and being a freshman she was not as familiar with the faculty members as other students would be.

As Professor Howell stepped into the class room he spotted Cassie and she could sense his smile when he saw her. His companion walked over to a seat near the windows.

Within minutes of the Professor entering the classroom, the rest of the students filled up the small space. After a quick roll call the Professor was ready to start his lecture. He did a quick diagram on the black board.

In Cassie's ear she heard from Security at HQ. "Ma'am it's your sketch of the asteroid as it circles the earth and falls back into deep space. Now he's putting a list of data on the side: Speed of approach, mass of asteroid, closest approach, everything you had listed on the problem."

Behind her she heard a mixture of groans as some of the students figured out what the Professor was doing.

"Class, I have a simple problem here for you to examine. Now let's see if you can solve it for me. Given this known data, tell me the velocity and angle of departure of MD 2011. The answer will count for 20% of your final grade. Dr. Andrews's, the head of the Physics Department, has agreed with me on the grade." He turned and nodded at the stranger sitting to the side and he waved his hand at the students.

Every student started pulling their laptops out and entering data as fast as they could type. Cassie simply pulled out her papers she had gotten back from Professor Robbins that morning and laid them on her desk.