Chapter 307

Hearing that the Johnson's were in the terminal building Vicky and I left the pilots office to greet Bob and Emily. As a group we headed out of the terminal building to the tarmac where the plane was waiting for us. As we walked to the plane with our baggage, the fuel truck was still topping off the tanks of the G5LR.

My pilot Vance and co-pilot Josh were double checking the refueling operation. They wanted to make sure every drop was being put in the tanks that could be squeezed into them; they wanted to make sure that the tanks were filled to cap. This trip was pushing the G5LR to its extreme – we were trying to go seven thousand miles without refueling. When they were satisfied they helped us with our baggage.

"If the winds at thirty thousand are not in our favor, we will have to divert to one of these three countries Spain, Italy or Morocco to refuel," Vance said.

"If it comes to that, Spain or Italy is the better choice - Morocco is not a fun place anymore, I hear," I replied.

I knew that from reading the State Department daily security reports of the region I had access to, Rabat Morocco was one of the largest JGB sites with fifteen employees. They had a Blackhawk and two Suburban's. What caught my eye about the Rabat Morocco embassy was that the ambassador on site had requested one more of each and additional employees. Even though the ambassador's request was in the hands of the Secretary of State, the request was made months ago while still under control of Black Water, and there was a request to revaluate the site and expedite the decision a month ago, before JBG took over

The latest Intel I was privy to indicated that when the embassy and the staff left the compound, they were under heavy surveillance by multiple groups.

"Ten four, Boss" Vance replied as we took our seats.

Bob, Emily and Vicky made small talk while we taxied and took off. Vance did a gentle climb to thirty thousand feet before leveling off. It was the first time that Bob had been to Morton field. He was impressed and much of the talk was about the airport, helicopters and planes that had been on the tarmac.

My thoughts were by leaving around three Wednesday with a twelve hour flight and the changing time zones, it would be nine AM Thursday by the time we finally landed in Riyadh.

At four I activated SVOL and Vicky and I participated in the nightly meeting taking place at the gym from 30000 feet, at over 500 miles an hour. After we finished that meeting I took a break for a bit and chatted more with our guest. I needed a hot cup of coffee before I logged into VCATS.

I brought back 6 cups plus the fixings and carried two forward to Vance and Josh. After the coffee, I logged onto VCATS and looked at the evening's updated embassy alert system. Nothing had changed for the region we were going to since I did a quick look at it this morning.

Because of the jet lag and time changes, we decided to call it a night. Bob and Emily decided to sleep in the fancy comfortable reclining passenger seats while Vicky and I took one of the fold-down bunk beds.

At 6 Vicky and I were up, dressed. And we were ready to start our day. I made coffee and nuked several of those precooked brand name breakfast biscuits. I carried fresh coffee and a tray of biscuits to the pilot's cabin. While Bob and Emily were still sleeping we checked our e-mails.

While we were sleeping, Vance and Josh both had made trips to the bathroom located in our sleeping area. I knew that because I was doing the half-sleep half-awake routine that I did during my time in the sand box. I also knew that when Vance came through, Vicky and I were together and our arms tightly around each other. The heat was on, it was warm in the cabin and the covers were half off of us. Josh came through an hour later.