Chapter 373

It was four when the finger food and socializing petered out. I had shaken the hands of more Senators, Representatives and VIP’s than I would ever be able to remember. The green carts carried us back to the Suburbans. I walked to driver’s side only to be stopped by Marcy.

“No you don’t; Ambassadors don’t drive, they get driven. Get your butt in the back seat and don’t forget to buckle up.” Never argue with Marcy when she is that direct; you are not going to win.

The General walked up, “I will follow you back to your office, then I need to find a motel room close to you as your liaison until you depart for Kampala.”

Marcy’s driving was as fast as Jenny’s; I knew who was giving who driving lessons. The trip from Washington in rush hour was normally an hour and a half; we were sitting in front of the gym in an hour with a minute or two to spare.

On the way home I had asked the three girls riding with me what they thought about having the General stay in one of the upstairs bedrooms for the five days. Crash and Marlene were staying in one while they were there; the other three were empty.

“We are not changing our life style. If he does not like it, he can leave,” Marcy replied.

I called the Inn and reserved a group of tables for us for supper. I thought that since I was going to be gone for a while that I should enjoy some of the foods that I often craved before I left. I had little else to do since I was in the back seat.

When I turned the phone on I started receiving text from all afternoon. Most of them were congratulatory; several were business related. I had time to respond to them.

Andy wanted a VCATS as soon as I was able. There was a partial list of things he wanted to discuss; that would wait until we arrived at the gym.

It took ten minutes to finally make my way to the office because of the well wishers. It seemed everybody was happy and supportive. The eastern shore media was blasting out Hanna’s report and the interview at every news break. The General was by my side every step of the way. I wondered if he was a liaison or a spy: he was staying so tight.

The first order of business was to page Andy.

“Congratulations, Ms. Ambassador,” Andy said as soon as the system keyed ‘Live’.

“You know I am going to put your ass on the floor for that Ms. stuff,” I replied with a laugh.

“I’m bigger that you are,” Andy replied.

“That means your ass will just hit the floor harder, that’s all,” I replied.

“Yeah, you’re probably right about that, you have a faster reaction time than I do,” he replied.

“Can you acquire the construction blueprints of the embassy at Kampala? I am thinking about doing some blast reinforcing after we arrive. The prints will tell me how much we will need to do and where,” Andy asked.

“I think I can; I will find out for sure in a few minutes,” I replied.

While I was talking I sent a text to Victor with the request.

“What’s on the list to bring so far?” Andy asked.

“Two of the older armored Suburban’s, the four drones and the hardware Howie has been working on. We are live testing them in the morning,” I replied, “Oh, and one Blackhawk with a pilot.”

“Are the air freighters going to be JBG or Air Force planes?” Andy asked.

“DOD plane - I would imagine - not that it makes any difference. Whatever we need will be on the plane no matter what. I will ask my DOD liaison as soon as he gets situated. I had him wait in the meeting room while I made a few calls,” I replied.

Our supper reservation was for 7 so we had time to work more on the planning. Today I had the General sit in; I wanted to keep my eyes on him instead of allow him to wander around. Cindy and her three new assistant administrators - Stacy James, Lynn Smart, and Kurt Williams - were joined by Mark and his two assistant administrators - Cody Kims and Karl Schiff.

Lynn, Kurt and Karl were new promotions; they had been clerks for the security department. Yesterday was the first day as junior management and the start of 6 months of probation for the position. Today was the first meeting they had attended. There were now 10 assistant administrators in my security department.