Chapter 278

Patti and I went to KCC on Tuesday like normal; we drove separate cars. I was coming home at noon and she was putting in a full eight. Patti had no clue that I knew she was getting a little more than friendly with one of the newly hired maintenance people at the college.

She had been a long time getting over the last abusive boyfriend. Purnell Miller - from all appearances - seemed like a nice gentleman. As of September I was doing background checks on all new hires for KCC. Purnell's came back kitten clean.

If she found someone she could be truly happy and comfortable with, I would be happy for her. I would hate to see her move out of the house but she has to live her own life.

Emails I worked on emails and then the paperwork I needed to complete for the month of November; with the holidays it would be a short month. The e-mails and notes left on my desk had to take second place on the to-do list this morning. It was after 10 when Bob Jackson and Mr. Nobles walked into my office.

"I see you are at it again, we saw you on the news again. How are the injured students? God, they were lucky," Bob said.

"Dan Parker, my director there, is going to the hospital this morning, and then I will get an update," I replied.

Remembering that I had my JBG laptop with me with my copy of the video files from yesterday a couple of clicks and it was connected to the flat screen in my office. They watched the video of the assault that still had not been released to the public yet.

Then for shock value I played the previous three visits the pair had made to the Warrington campus.

Bob asked, "How many hours of searching did it take to come up with the visits?"

"It was easy after the fact, because we had the van," I said. I explained about the tag scanner and how it narrowed the search parameters. Then I explained about developing a program to capture more real time data.

"We don't have those scanners here. Why?" Mr. Nobles asked.

"Simple - all the open street parking defeats their use here. It would take a major reconfiguration of the traffic pattern to work here for us. That or a major fencing project and a parking lot addition," I replied.

"Oh, OK, something to think about for the future security meeting with the full board," he replied.

A few minutes later they both left after reminding me that there was a Thanksgiving luncheon at noon tomorrow in the cafeteria.

Dan called a few minutes later with the update on Shannon and Sonny. Shannon would be discharged sometime Wednesday afternoon in time to go home with her family for Thanksgiving, if there were no changes in her condition.

Sonny - on the other hand - was going to be in the hospital for at least the weekend, possibly longer. The surgery needed to place the bone chip back into place and install pins to hold it there had been lengthy.

The old doc I had talked to was a football fan and went out of his way to move muscle, veins, and ligaments instead of cutting them. Even though it had made the surgery lengthy but full recovery a greater possibility and faster. Sonny and his family were more positive today than yesterday. I thanked Dan for the update and asked for another tomorrow.

I received a text from Frank asking if we were having a meeting tonight. "Of course," I replied.

"Good, I want to speak to you and your management team, I am leaving Washington now. I should be there in plenty of time. I am going out to Morton field first," he said.

Frank came in with several men and a woman I did not know.

Frank introduced us to Victor Edmonson, director of embassy security, Amy Lockerman, associate director of the State Department and Elmer Hobart from the Embassy Appropriations division.

Frank began the conversations, "We had talked a little in the past about an expansion of your security business and you had clearly stated reservations. We are here to clear those up and convince you to partner with the agency on embassy security."

"As you know Black Water is finished. The trials ended last week; the courts hammered some of those people hard but they deserved everything coming to them and more. The corporation will be closed and all government contracts ended on February 28 next year," Frank said.

"That leaves us with a tremendous security hole with no one we trust to fill it, except possibly your organization," Amy said.