Chapter 519

After a few minutes of social conversation I told the President of my plans to leave at noon, to take a week off and that Ben would be back in charge of Section 12. He did not question why so I did not need to tell him a lie.

I needed to be back at the office for the meeting with the attorneys of the man who was suing JBG. Jenny called this the discovery phase. It was where they pried into all your business looking for anything they could find to support their case.

The girls - along with our attorneys and me - were in the meeting room with several of my security staff when the attorneys were brought in. My security personnel were changing daily. I knew these men but had worked with them very little. The teams going to Africa forced the changes. The team leader today was Ray Boggs and, as usual, they were heavily armed.

Ray had the men checked for wires and brought in two bomb sniffing dogs. “Where the hell did they come from and when?” I wondered.

My men took and emptied the contents of their briefcases on the table and let the dogs sniff the cases and then the attorneys.

The attorneys were livid and let it be known that they had never been treated like this before.

“Has anyone tried to blow you up lately?” I asked.

For the next two hours they tried to get various confidential information that I denied them access to for security reasons. We gave them general information that was available publicly.

After the two hours Jenny asked for their client’s name and what position he had applied for; discovery works both ways.

Malcolm Wicks had applied for a job in the security department when we were adding manpower for the embassy expansions.

There were now five levels for employees in security. Level one is mall and school security; I did not like that we were doing that but it was a joint effort by Ching Lee and Vicky under Ching Lee’s supervision, although we did not have too many of them yet.

Level two is college security with the team leaders being level three; all of them reporting to Ching Lee and Mark.

Level four is Embassy security with the team leaders at level five and reporting to Vicky, Cindy and me.

Andy, Bill and Ed were senior director level and reported to me or Vicky.

Jason printed off several copies of his application and the results of the initial research into Jesse.

Malcolm Wicks applied for the level four position. The position as posted on our website had several requirements. 1. Must be 21. 2. Must have a US passport. 3. Must have prior security experience, military service or a law enforcement degree. 4. Must be fluent in two foreign languages at the time of employment and willing to learn more. 5. Must be height and weight proportional. 6. Must be able to pass the standard fitness test approved by the US Law Enforcement Association. 7. Must be willing to travel worldwide on four hours notice or less. 8. Must take all immunizations required for foreign travel. 9. Must be able to qualify with handgun, rifle and shotgun with a score of 97% or better and remain proficient. 10. Must pass the JBG self defense course and remain proficient.

I passed the job specs to the lawyer and then the resume that Malcolm had sent in to HR.

“Your client does not meet any of the job specs that he applied for. He refuses to get the necessary vaccinations and he put that it in writing,” I said.

“You could train him in the things he was lacking,” the attorney replied.

“We did not post looking for trainees. We posted for qualified individuals. We needed 800 qualified people immediately. If I remember over 3000 qualified persons applied for the jobs,” I replied.

“I need a breakdown of your employees by race, sex and nationality,” the attorney said.

“We do not collect that kind of information on our employees and, as for sex, that is medical information and we can’t give that to you even if we wanted to,” I replied.

“This is the discovery phase and I am not satisfied with your cooperation. I will get a judge to order you to supply the information. I will see you in court,” he replied.

“Be my guest,” I replied as I stood.