Chapter 212

We all had a busy day planned. Jenny was going to Annapolis to chair the Governors Criminal Task Force meeting. Jason was going to go through the Crash Morton files with a fine tooth comb and then discretely check to see if all the exemptions were still in effect. I had left early to go to KCC and was only going to work half a day.

Ching Lee and Vicky were doing training of my new security people today. Marcy and Lorrie were working the numbers on the Crash airport. We had a 12:00 meeting to look over the property and see what kind of shape his house was in.

I had the blowups of the property plots and photographs. I sent Bozman a text that I wanted to see him when he had a chance. Then I started on the daily routine only to be interrupted by a visiting delegation from an international Asian education group.

I could easily see that Bob Jackson was not at his best. His guests were a mix of Japanese, South Koreans and Taiwanese. I was surprised that they were having so much trouble communicating. They were all carrying those little translation dictionary's.

They must have been from the rural areas of those countries - in most of the cities English was almost a mandatory second language. I wondered where their escort and translator were; groups like these always had one.

As if reading my mind Bob said, "Their host is very hung over in my office; there was too much sampling of Kentucky whiskey and mixed drinks last night, from what I was able to understand.

An elderly lady in her early sixties and a younger lady were trying to get something across to Bob. She was flipping through the pages in the little book like crazy.

I asked in Japanese if I could help her. Her eyes flew wide and she threw the little book in the air as she stepped in front of me.

"Back there, outside, we just walked by a meditation area. There were these delicate white flowers." She was doing little designs with her fingers. "I want to know what they are."

The meditation area - as she called it - was a flower garden with several concrete benches to rest and relax on. Of course some of the students found other uses because of the privacy the taller flowers and trellises offered. The activity broke the boredom when reviewing security tapes.

"They are called Queen Anne's Lace. They are a wild flower found over much of the East and Southern United States. The roots are edible and high in sugar, the flower can be French fried or used in a salad. Poison hemlock, fool's parsley and water hemlocks are all poisonous cousins of Queen Anne's Lace," I replied in my best Japanese.

I answered questions for ½ an hour before Bob's secretary, leading the tour host, found the group. I found out that she was from a small village south west of Tokyo - the same village as Master Chu Tuc, the BDSM master that I had trained under for awhile when I was stationed in Japan.

I asked if she knew of Master Chu Tuc, if he was still alive and how his health was.

She responded first with an astonished and surprised look and then one of steel as she said, "Everyone in village knows of the master. His health is failing. He sits in the sun every afternoon wrapped in a light blanket. He is out every day when I come home from teaching."