Chapter 35

After the kafuffle with Burger things settled down for me and went into overdrive for the intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Once Sam was back in the White House and overseeing the government in his usual engaged style, his detractors went back to picking on him and his supporters told his detractors to stuff it.

It appeared that the sudden removal and disappearance of the former Secretary failed to raise more than a slight ripple in the D.C. pond. CIA and other agencies continued meet with me at the Residence, where we went over the latest information and strategized moves I could make from inside the Administration to help their cause.

My appointment secretary buzzed me one day just before breakfast and informed me that a well-known federal judge wished a moment of my time. I had a car go for him immediately. Charger was waiting with me on the front steps of the Residence, when his small motorcade pulled up. His car was flanked by two Federal Marshall Service SUV’s, and two Secret Service vehicles joined up with the motorcade before coming in sight of the Residence. The result was nice. The Judge felt like a dignitary and I scored a few style points with him in the process.

“Good morning, Mr. Justice. Please join me in the study, where the kitchen has set out a variety of breakfast foods for us to nibble while you tell me why a federal judge is meeting a sitting Vice President, in the Naval observatory.” We walked slowly toward the study, which was a converted sun-room that needed to be closed in for security reasons. It was a quiet and comfortable place to visit, work, study, or rest after a long day.

“Mr. Vice President, I am Judge Cornelius Dorsett. My role on the secret court is to try and fit the two poles of the agenda within the constitution. That is not always easy, but I have a serious problem with one such case and hoped to tell you all about it, seek some advice and decided how to proceed.” He paused to let me think about his opening statement. If it wasn’t about Burger and the missile attack on Sam, he wouldn’t be here, so I remained silent and let him chair the meeting, so to speak.

“In the course of examining the results of a former Cabinet Secretary’s interrogation, it has come to my attention that the President is in far more danger than you two think.”

That got my full attention. Even Charger reacted to my surprise when I heard those words.

“It appears, Sir that let us just say, ‘others’ are maneuvering behind the scenes to violently remove the President and have you declared unqualified for the office. There is some indication that the former Secretary believes, or has been led to believe, that the courts can be ‘fixed,’ after the fact to remove you and turn over power to the Secretary of State, who is thought to be very much more aligned with the agenda of those behind the missile attack.

“Mr. Vice President, I am empowered to act somewhat ... fluidly ... when faced with such a crisis and it is my decision to give you full access to what I know, what the intelligence community suspects and all supply any and all data supporting their findings. We – the secret courts – agree that the standard rules of procedure go out the window when a credible threat to the dually elected administration is in play.”

He paused once more to let that all sink in.

When he continued he hit me right between the eyes.

“Mr. Vice President. The former associates of George Soros have reconvened and are actively buying up judges, congress members and the odd senator. They are not nearly as financially solvent as before, but they do seem to be much more intent upon killing you and the President to provide a route toward overthrowing the present government.”

Well, there you go...

“Your Honor, while a guest in my temporary home, please call me Thomas. Do you have some advice as to how best we might thwart this coup?”

“Mr. Vice President, OK, Thomas, please call me Cort. In regards to that question, my associates and I have cobbled together absolutely everything we have that has any relevance to the safety and well-being of you and the President. It has come to my attention that you run a very sophisticated spy network out of here and that your contractors often circumvent the law to discover the truth about many things.

“We are of one mind on this topic, Mr. Vice President. Your sources seem to pull information out thin air that is turned over to U.S. intelligence and sanitized before coming before us. We are fine with both your methods and the reasons for them. Now is not the time to wallow in self-importance, but to work together to end this threat to the nation.”

We talked a lot.

He had reams of data that our network could pick over and see if they’d missed anything along the way. In the end, it was obvious that Sam needed to know how deep this thing ran and who was on board with killing him. It wouldn’t help those unintelligent souls, but it was going to end some very powerful careers before we were done. There were some others in the conspiracy that would not survive once the President loosed the reins and let our dark contractors handle the trash removal.

Mother once said, “If you lie down with dogs, you’ll wake up with fleas.” Some of these people wouldn’t wake up too many more times. I promised myself that the people coming for Sam were going home in a hearse.

Stacy Covington secured me ten minutes with Sam starting whenever my chopper arrived, and I cleaned up a bit and headed to The Cottage. The President received me in the Oval Office but we quickly left for the bunker down under. When Sam took his seat the phones and screens out in the Defense area lit up to tell everyone that their boss was in the house. Sam had to assured the Two Star on duty that he had no intention of taking personal command of the bunker at this time, and then we were left alone to talk.

“We have a problem...” I simply laid it out and waited to see what Sam would say.

“Thomas ... you are always guarding my back. There are many day that I look back at my time in Kansas and wish you had been there through it all. The thing is, you would have been about eight years old and pretty useless to me, but it’s a nice thought, just the same.

“So here is what I think. Soros’ cabal has created a deep dark hole where they can hide while cooking up this scheme. They very nearly killed me and if my wife and children were in the chopper with me, they might have been killed, which means those bastards couldn’t care less who they have to kill to take me out...” He was getting mad.

His eyes turned as hard as flint. “We’re going to follow the Judges on this. Here is my order.

“Kill every last one of them. Kill them, destroy their networks. Seize their assets, take their money, sell their art works, burn their damned houses down if that is what it takes, but make sure that every son-of-a-bitch involved ends up dead.

“That’s what I think.”

I smiled, but did it gently. Sam needed to stay calm. He needed to know he and his family were safe. My President needed to know that the people who came to kill him, died trying.

And that was exactly what I did.

“Bring them to Guantanamo. Interrogate them until you know everything they know, think, suspect, or wish. Round them up, take their property and fortunes. Take everything they own when you take them. Leave nothing standing when you leave. If they have children and mistresses get them the Hell out of your way, but kill the bastards no matter what.

“Call me when you are done with interrogations. I want to look these bastards in the eye and make sure they know that I ordered their death. Nobody tries to hurt my President.

“No one.

“Ever.

“You will not rest until this is done. We have billions from the first round of asset seizures. You’ll have all the support from here that you could ever hope for. Our goal is total destruction. Nothing less will be considered successful. They and their friends need to be pounded back to the Stone Age as far as ever trying this again.

“If they are involved, find out everything they know and then kill them. Period. That is my final word on this subject.”

It was four days later. They had four operations scheduled for just after midnight, when a bunch of malcontent traitorous killers were meeting up in the Alps, at a private mansion they rented using four cut outs, on three continents. There were other, even more sinister partners, meeting with arms dealers around Eastern Europe at the same time.