Chapter 344

I held the boys a little tighter when it was my turn to hold them. I wondered just what kind of world they were going to be growing up in.

To me it looked bad; the economy was getting worse for the middle class and poor. The good jobs were leaving the country at an unprecedented rate; what was left was nothing. Even having college degrees did very little when there are simply no jobs. Our current government was the most corrupt in history.

When government starts to fail, the first thing they try to do is get total control of the citizens, disarm them first, then control the money, food, land and finally total surveillance of the citizens.

They could do a lot already - phones, internet, and utilities, even to taking your money out of your bank account without due process. A bureaucrat with a lifetime job could take every penny without reason or consulting anyone.

Government could now stop your car from starting; just another bureaucrat with a terminal is all it takes. My conversation with Robert and Burt had been very informative. They had access to all the things the powers wanted to be able to control and it was everything.

JBG was doing well because we were in high demand fields because of the times and in one of the richest areas of the country because of proximity to Washington.

We went over to the gym to work out but I needed to go to the office first. I wanted to do a VCATS with Andy about Haamid; a job well done, pat on the back was in order and to tell them that we had found the financier and would track him.

The day people were still at the office. I paged Vicky, Ching Lee, Jenny, Jason, Lorrie, Marcy, Cindy and Mark to come to my office. While I was waiting I printed off the picture Andy had sent to phone on the color printer.

When all were assembled, I passed out the picture that EIT had given me of Haamid.

“This is Haamid Mohammad, he was the man that planned and ordered the attack that killed Koons and Adams.”

“Haamid Mohammad was taken out by a JBG special ops team today,” I said as I passed the other one to Jason first.

“I did not know we had a special,” Jason started to say and stopped. He had put 2 and 2 together.

“That is all I wanted to say. Nobody kills our people and gets away with it. Write it in stone,” I said.

I picked up the pictures and went to the EIT office to see if Burt and Robert were still there; they were.

“Yesterday and then today,” as I handed them the pictures, “Our special ops team took care of him today. I want to know if the prince makes any trips to Morocco in the next three weeks,” I said.

“10-4 boss, we will think about a way to entice him to go there,” Burt said as he handed me the pictures back.

“By the way, we are putting the folder together for the debate. You will have it on Monday ready to use, but they are going to take continuous monitoring, right up to the debate itself” he added.

“When you had access to Haamid’s computer, were you able to get his contact list off it?” I asked.

“Yes, we assumed you wanted us to monitor his contacts, Robert is working on that,” Burt added.

It was an aggressive hour in the gym then home for supper. A loaded salad again, minus cucumbers for Jenny - we had come to the conclusion the boys were getting cucumber in mother’s milk and bad gas with it. Pepperoni was another no-no, as was garlic.

Thursday Patti and I rode together to KCC for the first time in weeks, it seemed. She was driving so I could look at the latest alerts from the state department and DHS. There was nothing new anywhere. I looked over everything from the Middle East very carefully, especially Morocco, Libya and Saudi Arabia. It was 8:30 when I finished; time that most Washington people were getting to their offices. I wanted to inform Victor and Amy myself and should have done it last night.

I paged Victor and Amy on a VCATS call on my State department computer. When they both responded, “What’s hot in Washington today?” I asked.

“Not exactly sure, other than Washington is on a buzz. There is a 10:00 o’clock high-level meeting for all G10s and above.”

“I can tell you what part of it is about,” I sent the first picture.

“That is Haamid Muhammad taken three days ago. He is the one that planned and ordered the attack on the embassy in Morocco,” I said.

“This is Haamid Muhammad at 2:10 PM yesterday,” I sent the second picture, “A JBG special ops team took him out,” I said then added, “Nobody kills my people and gets away with it. Write it in stone!”

“JBG supplied other information to the intelligence community; that is probably what the buzz is about,” I said.

“A JBG special ops team, when did you - never mind, I don’t want to know,” Victor replied.