Chapter 504

Frank, Eric and Ben followed Marcy - who had met them at the elevator - and stopped in front of me.

“We came to offer condolences and help to the girls; we never expected this. Does the President know? I just talked to him a few minutes ago, he didn’t say anything,” Frank asked.

“Only two people know in the leaky bucket known as the White House and only a very few here. I thought that we could turn this into a positive to collect information. So far it looks really good; they have thrown caution to the wind rejoicing over my demise,” I said.

“Ben, tomorrow you will be emailed names and numbers for the task force to work on from a G-mail account with a sender of ‘one-pissed-off-bitch’. Oh, by the way; you will also be named temporary chairperson just in case the information keeps coming and I need to lie low for a couple days or am so sore I cannot wear a vest before I have a miraculous recovery” I said.

“You know all the networks are saying you are dead,” Eric said.

“My team did a great job getting me out of there, leaving the images we wanted the media to broadcast. That gives them something to talk about; we just need to make sure no one official confirms I’m dead. Troy already has a statement to read tomorrow morning that he and I worked out a few minutes ago,” I replied.

“Just WHEN was this plan put together?” Eric asked.

“While I was hanging upside down in the seat belt. Just before the truck bomb exploded and rolled the body upright,” I replied.

“You didn’t get a scratch?” Ben asked.

“I’m black and blue and sore all over, Doc Burns is coming to check me out in a few minutes,” I replied.

“You are not really going to let that guy work on you, are you? You trust him that much after what he has helped you do?” Ben asked.

“Ben, you do not know even one percent of what he does for us,” I replied.

“That is one more thing I do not want to know anything about,” he said.

“You could write a book on what you do know and I could write an encyclopedia on what you do not know,” I replied.

We talked a while longer while the EIT team was working the intelligence. The screens were full of phone numbers and data. The terrorist had indeed thrown their normal caution out of the window. Some calls were 15 minutes long, giving Robert’s team time to fix locations and record the calls.

A VCATS call came in from South Korea, Ching Lee and Vicky were checking in on me again. It was a full room with Jake and Jason.

“We think we have found a building to convert into a dormitory for the men. It is a well built industrial building - three stories with a flat roof - that can be made into an outdoor recreation area. There are ten foot ceilings and is large enough that all forty men can have large accommodations; two rooms with a bath, if you want to spend that kind of money,” Vicky said.

“I have drawn a sketch and will meet with prospective contractors and the governing regulators tomorrow. The way I have it drawn up there will be a buffer of 10 feet on the inside to meet your security requirements. It will be a building inside a building,” Jake said.

“How are you feeling? ZNN has been playing the attack in every cycle; they now have the traffic camera footage, the truck bomb explosion was horrendous. Your Suburban was pushed and rolled twice by the blast,” Jake said.

“The Doc is on his way down. I will know in a few minutes, I’m sore all over, but everything works OK,” I replied.

“While I have everyone here, what is your opinion about promoting Cindy to a Vice President position reporting to Vicky, with all the embassy security administrators reporting Cindy? That will free up Vicky’s time to start visiting embassies and devote more time to special OPS,” I asked.

“I am thinking you have some special plans for the OPS team,” Jenny said.

“You think and I know it,” I replied.

The Doc arrived; Cindy was told to bring him down. No one upstairs knew that I was alive, including Cindy.

After the shock, Marcy offered Cindy the new Vice President position. Mark would be offered a VP position reporting to Ching Lee for the college administrators.