Chapter 288

Thursday morning I was up early at 0500 - it was already 0900 in Bamako. Vicky never moved as I slipped out of bed and quietly dressed in the kitchen to keep from waking everyone up. Crash was sitting at the table drinking a cup of instant Maxwell House, watching.

"Getting an early start today?" he asked.

"The C130 landed in Bamako at 9 last night, they should soon start the second leg. I want to make sure it gets off without a hitch," I replied.

If Charlie started on schedule, they should be nearly finished. Either way, I was going to call and check on progress. I left a note for the morning cook that I was in my office and what I wanted for breakfast when she started cooking.

I logged into VCATS and my email. My email had several dozen messages, some with large attachments. Four were from Charlie - the first one was still shots from Buddy's camera. It was a picture book of the flight from takeoff until they were in sight of the air tanker.

The second started where the first left off with the C130 approaching the fueling tanker and ended with it pulling away. The final group of pictures was of the African coast and landing. The video clips were of the complete in-air refueling with another segment on landing at the Bamako airport. It looked like I was the only one sent the emails, so I forwarded them to the rest of the girls.

I answered my ringing phone, "They are test flying the chopper now. The C130 has been refueled. As soon as Glen and the State Department returns and signs off, we are ready to leave for Khartoum," Charlie said and then he continued.

"You should know Boko Haram has advanced its gorilla campaign closer to the international air route between Bamako and Khartoum. There are reports of aircraft coming under small arms fire. They were low flying small planes and helicopters. Two British and one French cargo plane are making the same flight we are today. The French plane wants to join up with us and fly as a pair. We agreed to that and they are scrambling to be ready when we are. I told them we would wait for a reasonable time on them."

"The two Brits are leaving either later this morning or after lunch. They are not friendly at all, an independent group," Charlie said.

"They may be going to detour somewhere along the flight for a resupply air drop. There are a lot of things going on in the area," I replied.

"What is your plan?" I asked.

"Fly high and fast," he replied then he asked, "What are the chances of side arms if something should go south on one of these flights?"

"To be honest, I don't know but I will make some calls to find out. I know I would want one," I replied. "Keep me informed - more often if you can - try not to get Lorries plane shot up; she would not be happy."

I called Frank to ask about the sidearm request.

"Technically no; a lot of countries frown on civilian firearms, even when they are at war. You could get some jackets that say U.S. Diplomatic Security on them - that would get you some leeway. It is a gray area," Frank replied.

At 06:00 Eastern, 10:00 GMT in Bamako, Charlie called again, "We are taxiing behind the French plane and will be airborne in a few minutes. Everyone is thrilled with the 407. I told them to call you. I told FBO, where the old chopper is, that we will pick it up tomorrow afternoon."

"Be safe, Charlie," I replied.

MaryAnn brought in my breakfast with another large mug of hot coffee. While I was eating, I looked at a notebook Cindy had prepared for me to work in tandem with the computer file on my computer.

I looked first at the Bamako embassy staff, Ambassador Steven Crow, 52 years old, had served in various diplomatic services world wide for a number of years. Grew up in the Midwest and had attended UCLA before joining a congressional staff as an intern. He quickly moved up and then was appointed as an aid to Ambassador Melvin Mitchell at the Japanese embassy.