Chapter 390

We began the tedious task of checking all those terrorists lying on the ground. Each one had to be checked for life, making sure there was no suicide vest on them. I split my men into two groups to do that on each side of the embassy.

I went inside to check on Linda, Alice and Ellen; no one had seen them. I found them still in the front office with two dead men in the broken entrance door.

“We got this, you are needed outside; go help Andy,” Ellen said.

My phone had been ringing almost constantly but I ignored it for the time being. I had so many more important things to do.

Andy met me on my way out, “You need to come handle this, it’s above my pay grade.”

Four men were on their knees with their hands tied behind their backs and they were definitely out of place here.

“They were trapped in one of the center cars, glued to the floor,” Andy replied. Then he added as he handed me their IDs, “Two are Russian officers and two are Iranian Quads Unit officers.”

“Confident son of bitches, aren’t they. Search the car they were in then throw 4 bodies in it, torch it and do it fast. Someone else knows they were involved in this; that will buy us some time,” I replied.

“We have diplomatic immunity, call the Russian Embassy,” one of Russians said. “You have to honor that request as Ambassador.”

“Like you honored the sovereignty of my embassy grounds,” I said in my best Russian. Then I added, “Give me any excuse for me to shoot you; any excuse will do.”

Howie and the four drone operators came over, “What do you want us to do?”

“Two of you take these four to the basement, tie their feet and loop a noose around their neck to their feet and if they give you trouble, do not hesitate to shoot them,” I instructed. “I will be down in a minute.”

To the other two, “Scope out the grounds and pick up all the big pieces of the devices we dropped; put the pieces in the garage and do it fast.”

“The police and emergency people are screaming to get in here,” Andy said.

“Tell them we will be finished in ten minutes, then they will be allowed in teams of four to pick up the dead and injured and that is all until my investigation is done,” I said. “Take facial pictures of all the dead.”

“Andy, if you have a minute, send someone to the front office. There are dead there that need to be removed. I am sure the girls would like to see them gone,” I said.

“What? Those girls did that?” he replied. “I will send someone right away.”

I hurried to the basement. Time was running out; both of my phones were still ringing nonstop.

I held the ID in front of each one, then sent the pictures to Frank, and then called him.

As soon as he picked up, “Do you want them alive? You have exactly 4 minutes - not a second longer to decide - or they will be dead,” I said.

“What in the hell is going on there? ZNN is running horrible footage from a distance. How did you get these guys?”

“Three and a half minutes; Frank, I will fill in the blanks later. I don’t have much time.” I replied.

“Yes, yes I want them. I will get a jet on the way. Call somebody – anybody - everyone here is screaming wanting to know what is going on there,” Frank said.

“I don’t even know if VCATS survived the explosions,” I said.

“Looks like you assholes get to live a few days longer, but you still better not give me any excuse to shoot you,” I said in my best Russian.

I went back upstairs, “Andy, are you doing a body count?”

“Yes, there is a reporter wanting an official statement,” he replied. “By the way we are on generator - the lines were blown down - and the front has been secured. I told the Ellen, Alice and Linda good job and to see if they could get the communications center up and running.”

“Ten of my men are on the way to the hospital in the chopper. A couple of them are rough but they will make it. Clean up before you call home, Jenny will chain you to the desk if you call home looking like that,” Andy replied. “I have two people taking pictures; I figured you may need them for the investigation and hearings.”

“10-4 - tell the reporters half an hour and I will make a statement,” I replied.

I headed to clean up as best as I could; the bullet-proof vest would join the souvenirs in my office at home. I washed my face as gently as I could; I didn’t want it bleeding again. My arms had nicks, scrapes and cuts. I was lucky, very lucky again; there was no way to hide that I had minor injuries. I did put on one of the extra vests.

In the communications room, “We have everything running; it all seems to be working. Everyone is paging you and I mean everyone,” Alice said.

I sent a note to Jenny, “5 minutes to VCATS,” and looked at the pages of lists for who was waiting for a response. Alice had been right; everybody was paging me, including the Secretary and the White House situation room.

As soon as Alice keyed the control I had a full screen of a filled office. Sighs of relief were abundant and it was clear there had been some crying.

“I’m OK, just scrapes and bumps, as you can imagine I am very busy. I have 10 injured of the JBG group; a couple of them are serious, no dead.”

My girls and I talked for a few more minutes; I promised to call back as soon as I was freed up but I had to go. Ellen was handing me notes one after another and a mug of coffee.

The next call was a conference call with Victor, Amy and the Secretary. One of the notes was a body count of the insurgents from Andy.

“One hundred fifty dead and twenty wounded; most of the wounded will not survive. The east wall has a 30 foot section that has to be replaced and the west wall a fifty foot section. There are 20 destroyed vehicles that have to be removed from inside the compound. I have 10 wounded of various degrees,” I relayed.

“Yes, Mister Secretary, we are documenting everything for the official investigations and eventual hearings,” I replied.

“Ambassador Jones, the FBI, CIA and Homeland investigators will be leaving Washington within the hour,” the Secretary said before he cut his feed.

A few more words with Amy and Victor and I cut the feed; I had things to do. I started by writing a statement to read to the news group that had gathered and was growing.