Chapter 540

The President was sitting in one of the fancy chairs in the Oval Office. The President introduced me to Saudi Ambassador Rashid Dandachi who was in another, there was one left in the circle for me. There was no one else in the room.

For the next two hour we talked about a mutual fight against terror. I thought it was a little on the ridiculous side since the Saudi’s had funded so much terror worldwide and in the US.

Most of the 9-11 hijackers were Saudi. The shoe bomber was Saudi. All four attempts on my life were either by Saudi involvement or paid for by a Saudi.

But I played nice; there was no need to cause a stir on my way out. At the President’s request I had pulled selected emails of the Prince’s back and forth between Balthazar and Saif.

I was careful to choose only the ones in our possession that could easily be explained as coming from Saif’s and Balthazar’s captured computers and emails connected to them.

We discussed the email in detail and the connections to Iran and the Iranian proxies in the area.

The parting at the end of the meeting was cordial and ended with, “I suspect that there is much more that you cannot tell me,” Ambassador Dandachi replied.

“I am equally sure that I can say the same thing,” I replied.

He just smiled and nodded.

Since I was already on the ground floor I stopped by the cafeteria for a salad to carry to Section 12 and my desk to eat.

There was a crowd around the TV in the lobby off the Oval Office. I stood a few feet behind them; they did not know I was there.

“Back it up and play it again, Jim. Stop it at the picture,” I heard Troy say.

It was the first run of the ads that Ching Lee had put together last night. Her clerks were to put the finishing touches on it this morning and have it aired.

“That’s BJ and her family, no doubt about it,” one of the others said.

It was the picture that was taken of us on the beach minus clothing walking away from the camera. It was taken by Tammy Tittles. She walked part of the beach with us asking questions.

“Great picture, nice cheeks too, so soft. I like to feel them quite often,” I said with a laugh. All breathing stopped.

“Back it up to the beginning. The spot was not finished when I left this morning. Let me see the whole clip,” I said as there was a rush of air; they all started to breathe again

No one objected.

The spot was one minute long; none of the pictures were on screen more than a few seconds.

“Not bad for the first run; Ching Lee is there all week with some great looking people making clips and pictures for different ads to run in the different markets,” I said.

“So that was the pleasure trip you took over the weekend. You bought an island and went to road test it,” Troy said.

“Something like that. It will be a great getaway. I told you that I was going to spend time somewhere where it was warm and could be access controlled,” I replied as I turned and walked to the elevator.

Bobbie followed me into my office, “Dan says he can get the day off; in fact he is taking Thursday afternoon off to do few things so we can go. What do we need to bring?” Bobbie asked.

“Why don’t you take Thursday afternoon off as well to help? It’s 80 there, couple pieces of summer clothing and a swim suit or not; everything else will be taken care of,” I replied.

After lunch I was again summoned to the Oval Office and asked to bring Ben and Kathy Shellman with me. Upon arriving Troy asked Kathy to take a seat in the lobby next to the Oval Office for a minute.

Troy led Ben and me into the Oval Office. Attorney General Dunne and Marty Coeburn were also there.

“BJ I am going to nominate Kathy to a federal Judgeship to fill a vacancy in the first circuit federal court. I wanted you to hear it from us. If you want to you can file a recommendation and an endorsement of the nomination,” the President said.

“Of course that means the AG will have to send a new person to that position in the taskforce,” Marty added.

“Kathy was the best at the prosecutor position and will be missed. I am not familiar with the process but more than willing to recommend and endorse her nomination for the position if it will help,” I replied.

Kathy was brought in and there was a discussion and round of congratulations that followed.

That was two that out of the task force who had been promoted. I was sure there would be more.

Alyssa Cotton was assigned to replace Kathy. I had met Alyssa several times and she had been at a couple terrorist updates I had given. She was always direct and to the point with her questions and observations.

As Ben and I were leaving I met General Ingram in the hall.

“Have you got a minute to step into my office BJ?” he asked.

“The transfer of items you requested has been approved. The shipment process will start in a few days; they should start arriving in a week or so. There will also be some pallets of spare parts this time; the depot needs to make room in the warehouse,” he said.