Chapter 368

I was in my office with Lorrie and Marcy; we were discussing the latest update of the work on the two C130s at Toronto. Every few days Lockheed sent pictures and a report on progress; they clearly understood the deadline was fixed. Jenny and Marcy had insisted there be a daily financial penalty for every day past the deadline in the contract.

Amy sent an email that the budget had been signed and that we should precede with logistics for the new embassies. Everyone would be super busy again with some things on hold until the state department decided what they wanted and where. The email indicated that we would have the final numbers and locations in two weeks.

We did not discuss these things outside our small management group. Our administrators and clerks had signed confidentially forms and were told to never discuss pending contracts, potential contracts or expansion plans, not even with other groups within the company.

When it became necessary for other company groups and divisions to be involved, all teams would be notified. We did this to stop endless hours of rumor, water cooler talk and messaging.

We would begin the hiring and training process again. It would take every day of the five months we had to put it together and then some, unless I depended heavily on their previous military training and experience. I intended to hire as many former military as possible.

Twenty embassies with 30 employees and twenty with 25 employees; damn - 1100 more security employees to hire and train; what a headache this was going to be. That headache did not include all the other pieces I needed to make it work.

Jenny, Marcy, Lorrie, Ching Lee, Vicky and I no longer could devote days at a time to the training process; we were just too busy. We are going to be able to tweak certain parts of the training - we simply had to - but that was going to be it unless there were problems. I was planning on using the expertise of many of our existing employees, including the RRT.

I called Bob’s Construction; the call went to voice mail, “Bob, I need an update on both projects at least twice a week and I need to see you as soon as you can.”

I called General McJames and asked, “Is it still possible to get help wanted posters put onto military bases in the recreation center and clubs or has there been an executive memo to end that as well?”

“Yes, that can still be done. The post has to be approved; send me the post and I will get it to the review committee and they will notify you of any changes needed. Then once approved it will be electronically sent to each base to be put on the bulletin boards,” the general replied.

“How many new employees are you looking for?” McJames asked.

“1100, plus up to 35 pilots,” I replied.

“Wow; a whole battalion,” McJames replied.

“Yeah, to be scattered in 40 different countries,” I said then added, “As soon as HR gets the post drawn up, I will send it to you.” After some small talk, “Thanks General, I need to run.”

I hand wrote a post and added an informational sticky note; it would one of the topics for our meeting tonight. General McJames would have it in an email late Monday.

Frank and Eric were stepping off the elevator as I returned from the coffee pot that was always full with fresh strong coffee.

Seated in my office, Frank began the conversation, “All the Blackhawks left in the Arizona bone yard are on hold. The DOD wants to give all of them to a couple of our allies as part of a military assistance deal. They were requesting Cobras but the powers to be are only going to fund a few through the aid program and give them a few of Blackhawks,” he said.

“Neither one of them really want the Blackhawks, but will likely be forced to take them to get the few Cobras they want. You may be able to deal with one of them to buy a few,” Frank added and then continued.

“There is an intelligence/military meeting with a selected few of our allies in six weeks at the Wye Plantation retreat; both of them will be there. I will see that you get an invite and make the introductions. I will also make it known before hand that you may be interested in buying some if they want to sell,” Frank replied.

“Eric, do dirty vice cops fall under the jurisdiction of DHS if trafficking is involved or will I need to go to the FBI or somewhere else?” I asked.

“Just about everyone will want and get a piece of that action. Where is this at?”

“Cleveland Ohio,” I replied. Then I added, “My investigation is not done yet. But it looks like he is dirty to me. Just too many coincidences, and I know what you guys think about that.”

“Where is the trafficking coming from?” Frank asked.

“Mexico and more, I’m sure,” I replied.