Chapter 533

Two hours later we drove up to the open cargo doors of the C5s and let the cargo masters tie down the trucks and equipment. It is a sign of a successful mission when you go home with everything and everyone you took to the fight; in our case, we were plus three.

As soon as we were in the air, I called the President, “I have the goods, mission complete.” A little conversation and I ended the call.

The next call was to General Ingram, “Great news, I want the details Monday. When can we pick up the materials?”

“Three hours at Morton,” I replied.

“We can’t get anyone qualified there in that time. I understand you have secure storage; just go ahead and store them. It will be Monday morning.”

You will get details before then, I bet; just as soon as the media finds out, I thought.

I called Ben, Frank and Eric on a conference call that lasted 20 minutes. I informed Eric to send the DHS to pick up the drugs. Then I napped until I heard the gear lock down. It was midnight; I feared the fun was just beginning.

It was late 0300 when I crawled into bed with Jenny. At 0600 I heard the boys being shushed and carried out of the room. An hour later they had snuck away and were crawling on the bed to see if I was awake. I had been watching out of the corner of my eye as they helped each other up on the bed.

Another year or two and this pair are going to be something to be dealt with; they were learning and reasoning things out way too fast for their age.

I sat up quickly and grabbed both of them for a tickle session and a kiss before sending them back to the kitchen for the breakfast that I could smell cooking.

After breakfast and cleanup, I turned on the news and was sorry that I had.

Mexico City was a disaster; some of the legislators that had been taken hostage had been executed on the steps. Shop owners were being killed, the stores looted. The only ones spared were the ones paying protection money to the cartel.

At 0600 there had been a change in orders from their President. It was a two part order; the first part was the troops were shooting on sight anyone with a weapon of any kind and they had been turned loose in the streets. The second part was a complete curfew at 1200; any violators would be shot. It was a last ditch attempt to restore order.

The next part of world news was devoted to the massacre at La Jarita. The Mexican media was there in the form of live TV from Ciudad Anahuac. There were bodies and burned vehicles - and of course - crying widows.

I felt bad for them but not that bad; their men had decided to take the cartel route. Rumor had it that the new cartel boss’s requirement was to kill someone in front of a leader to prove they were worthy of joining.

If that is true, justice was served with just a shortcut missing the trial. No cartel member had been convicted of anything in months; the witnesses never lived long enough to testify, no matter how the prosecutor tried to protect them.

When they settled into the national news I was shocked.

“Now to Congressional reporter Tracy Cox with breaking news. Tracy, what do you have?” the host asked.

“An anonymous Congressional source told me a little while ago that Terrorist Task Force chairperson Ambassador Roberta Jones handed her resignation to the President on Thursday. The ambassador was not at the White House on Friday,” Tracy said.

“That would be startling news considering how effective the task force has been; our White House reporter is trying to find a spokesperson for a comment,” the host replied.

“That same source said that there are nuclear weapons components and possibly a nuclear warhead missing from the strategic inventory,” Tracy said.

This information could have only come from one of the two Senators who were at the meeting Friday. I wondered when the rest would come out.

It was a classified meeting. I wondered if I could investigate the source of the leak; if any more came out, I knew I would.