Chapter 493

With the folders on the rear seat I made the drive to Washington. Traffic was always heavy and was getting heavier as the date moved closer to Christmas.

I guess the word was out to the transit authority who I was or what kind of vehicle I drove, or else someone in the office had flagged my easy pass. Almost every morning and evening one of their officers pulled up beside me, hit the light package then waved or gave me thumbs up and then drove on.

I started coffee and then sat at the big meeting table with the copy of the files, a hi-lighter and a pack of small sticky notes to mark pages.

I was doing that when the rest of the force came in. I started checking off the things that looked interesting and marking the pages.

“What are you working on?” Emmett asked.

“The data off of the computers we brought back from West Virginia; hasn’t the DHS tech department sent you their break-out yet?” I asked.

“I don’t have anything in my mail box. I’ll call them,” he replied.

I worked another hour on what I had, then found several interesting things.

One was interesting enough that I emailed Special Agent Patrick Pine of the DHS Charleston office; ‘Have you interviewed or arrested, or searched the property of Balthazar Khamini?”

The second name in was noted as coming from New York so I had Emmett call the DHS assistant director there for an update on Raed Jabbour.

“He is not on any watch list,” Emmett replied.

“I found a note that indicated that he and Balthazar Khamini each picked up 4 of the new suicide belts on the Monday before the raid,” I said.

“The Balthazar Khamini entry has Washington DC written off to the side. We need to find him,”

Kathy Shellman responded, “I will issue search and seizure warrants for them and put out a national all points bulletin to pick them up.” Kathy was the special prosecutor assigned from the Justice Department to the task force.

Finally Emmett replied, “DHS IT says they have not broken through the codes yet on the computers.”

“Well we can’t afford to waste time. What’s on those computers is on these thumbs. Do not send the files outside of this office. I want to compare what your IT finds to my group, each of you take one and run it on a flat screen if you see something interesting yell so we can all look at it.” I said as I slid the thumbs out on the table.

“Eric, where are the computers you collected from the New York raid?” I asked as soon as he answered the phone.

“The IT department has them; I haven’t seen any reports about what was on them,” Eric replied.

“Eric run an investigation on your IT group; something’s not right,” I replied.

“Why do you say that?” Eric replied.

“Because my people broke the encryption and did translations yesterday on the ones we had. Why are your experts so slow? Is someone intentionally delaying or are they scrubbing as they go?” I replied.

“Both camps were communicating with each other; the encryption should have been the same for that to happen. It may be complicated but apparently it’s not that complicated,” I said.

I wondered just how far into our government and how high into the intelligence areas ISIS, Al-Qaida and the other terrorist groups had made it?

At ten Troy called to tell me I was needed for a meeting in the Oval Office.

When I walked into the Oval Office Troy, AG Dunne, Eric’s counter part that had direct responsibility for the border patrol, Nelson Lewis and General Garcia were sitting around the President’s fancy desk. There was one empty chair for me.

For two hours the discussion centered on terrorism, illegal immigration, the illegal drug trade and cooperation between the two border control groups. There was a long discussion about direct communications and we finalized an agreement to form joint patrols on both sided of the border in sixty days. There was also an agreement for a direct line between the two border departments.