Chapter 243

We were just finishing up breakfast when there was a knock on the door. I still had not removed the chair blocking the door. I moved the chair out of the way, unlocked the door, then moved back and off to the side a couple of feet, aimed my Glock and said, "Its open, come in."

In walked the captain who had given us the tour on Saturday. "Friend or Foe" I asked to his astonished look before I lowered and holstered the Glock.

"Would you like a cup of hot coffee made the Marine way?" I asked.

After he cleared his throat he said, "I will take one to go. They want everyone to assemble in the court room in a half an hour for updates on the attempted break-in last night."

I filled one of the JBG plastic go mugs that Lorrie kept on the G5's for special customers with the strong black coffee I had made and handed it to him. The real reason Lorrie bought them was to reduce spills on the very high priced carpet in the G5, they kept hot things hot, cold things cold and had no spill tops.

"We will be there," I replied as I handed him the cup.

Jenny, Ching Lee and I walked right up to the front of the room and sat in the front row.

The Public relations officer gave the briefing.

"Last night at 1:45 a stolen tandem dump truck loaded with stone, the interior of the cab reinforced with ½" plate and a heavily reinforced 'V' snow plow tried to force its way through one of the closed side entrances. The tires were filled with jelled foam no-flat of the kind used on the off-road equipment. The engine and radiator were also plated over.

The dump truck was followed by two equally armored one ton vans filled with the drug gang version of a SWAT team. The dump truck crashed through the gate and bulldozed the concrete barriers out of the way.

The DHS had picked up chatter and some intercepted blue prints of the armored vehicles. Homeland and the FBI had stationed teams inside and outside the base to intercept the intruders. Even though this base is equipped to handle things like this in a time of war, the FBI and Homeland had point and the military personal were prepared to back them up.

The armored vehicles were stopped inside the compound but well clear of any base equipment and buildings by shoulder fired weapons. In the firefight after the vehicles were disabled 22 of the attackers were killed and 10 are in secured hospitals.

None of the attackers were American citizens; therefore they have been designated as terrorists. Because of the nature and severity of the attack they will be moved to Guantanamo as soon as their health allows. To keep them here would bring repeated attacks on US soil, risking civilian lives.

At the completion of this conference the Judge wants all the parties in his chambers for conference as to the continuation of this trial.

There will be no question and answer period. This briefing is over."

Jenny and her prosecuting team along with the defense team headed towards the Judge's chambers. Ching Lee and I waited near the chambers doors as close as we could get.

We waited for two hours before they came back into the court room. Jenny at some point had been furious; her face was still carrying the glow.

"The defense wanted the judge to rule for a mistrial. We would have to start over from the beginning. It took a lot of arguing but the trial goes on," Jenny said.

"The assailants knew what building the defendants were being held in. Either the defense attorneys or someone on the base is feeding information to the gang," Jenny said and then continued.