It’s Just Math

Into The Shadows

Vlfouquet

It’s Just Math

Chapter 7

 

 

 

“Cassie, I need to talk with Julie before I make a decision. This is not a solo decision. It involves both of us. It is going to take me at least a week.”

 

“That is fine; we have an office address in Washington, but that’s all it is. That address is the same as our lawyers there. Or if you decide you like it here we can build you a house and an office complex.”

“We have a lot of construction going up so we could add yours to it with no problem.”

 

“Ma’am.”

Cassie turned to look at Schultz. “Yes Sergeant?”

“It’s getting late; your reservation is open ended. Not to be rushing, you need to be heading out.”

Cassie scanned the Grandfather clock in the next room. Schultz was right.

She stood up and everybody followed her lead pushing the chairs back from the table.

“Clint, do you think a double security team will be enough?”

 

“How big a team?”

“I usually take three, one of them my driver.”

“Let keep the drivers with the vehicles. Take one for each inside with us. Put three on patrol around the area.” He said.

“Sergeant Schultz, make it so.”

“Yes Ma’am.”

They all began to leave the office.

“Major Woods, write up a summary of the meeting and let Sergeant Schultz have a copy tomorrow.”

“Yes Ma’am.”

She took off and disappeared down the hallway.  Clint eyes followed her.

“Where did you get her Cassie?”

“I told our law firm I wanted an in house counsel who could keep up physically. They sent me her resume. She was working for them as research assistant and had just passed her bar exam. She had gone through college and law school on the G.I. Bill or its equivalent.”

“They included her military records. That was it. She has heard the whistle of bullets.”

 

They walked to the rear entrance to the house, Cassie heard over the general comm channel, “This is Sgt. Townsend, all security and vehicles ready to leave.”

 

“The vehicles are ready. Let’s get out of here.”

_____________________________

 

As their party entered Russo’s, Pietro Russo was standing next to the Maitre’d. Stepping forward he gave Cassie a bow.

“Welcome Signorina Howard, please follow me.” He turned and led them to a corner that was elevated a foot above the rest of the dining area.  

He and a group of waiters helped each lady to have a seat. Schultz pulled a little black box out and sat it in the center of the table. A green light on it was flashing.

Russo looked at it for a moment and smiled as he nodded at Schultz and stepped away. The waiter took their orders and the wine steward took their drink orders.

“What is that?” Her mother asked,

Schultz paused, than answered, “It’s a bug detector. It also emits white noise which interferes with any parabolic mike system. If the green light goes out or the red light comes on, stop talking.”

“Why do we need it?” Rosie asked.

Cassie took that one. “The man that seated us is Pietro Russo, he owns the place but he is also Don Russo to the local Italians. He is connected to the real Mafia. The law enforcement in the area favors him over any possible competitor.”

 

“He controls most local crime and tries to keep it away from kids allowing no drugs near any schools. In cases of missing children, we have thousand of free searchers looking as soon as he hears. If a pedophile is involved, we will hear where the body will be found.”

 

“I don’t think he would bug us, but why take a chance. This place is the best place in Roanoke to eat.”

 

 The weekend sped by and Cassie was busy the whole time. She spent hours just talking with her Mother; even taking her out to the range to show her mother her ease with weapons.

 

Later she took both her Dad and Clint to do the same with them. They were really flabbergasted to see her firing an aa-12 with a 32 round drum. 

 

It was in these private talks that she let them in on just how much she had authorized under her own name. Cassie showed them where all the new construction she had ordered would be going.  With the increase in personnel new dormitories and houses were needed.

Then there were the offices and the medical center where they would work. A larger and better equipped garage was planned for more intensive work on transportation. The new roads and parking areas were needed to connect all of it together.

The final touch was the construction of a security fence between the two different divisions. Cassie planned to pull her personal  security on the front gate back to this new fence when it was completed. The front gate security would be under the ‘base’ administration.

 

“The new fence perimeter will shorten our patrol tremendously and give us less frontage to defend. Clint, my idea is to have over a thousand experienced and well trained men within six months. Dad, I want a Hyperion nuclear reactor, in fact two of them. That is over-kill I know, but we would be completely free of the eastern seaboard electrical grid. In fact with two we could supply power in an emergency into the local grid.”

 

“Hum, I think I can get that done. They want 25 million each for those, but that is cheap, in fact. One can supply power for seven to nine years with almost zero maintenance.”

 

“I contracted all this construction out before our board meetings. This is all included in that summary for which I need retroactive approval for having done already. Next meeting I want to move 3 to 5 percent of the stock in “We Find It!” directly into CHH Security so that Clint will not have to get both boards approval before he can buy anything.” 

 

“Cassie, I have a dinner to attend Wednesday evening and you have been invited. No weapons will be allowed as it’s at the White House. Will you be available?”

 

“White House! Yeah, I will be available.”

 

They continued to talk and get familiar with the ideas that Cassie had on what she wanted to build. At the same time she was stretching her abilities to their utmost increasing her range and sensitivity.

 

Monday morning, Cassie was up and dressed when she remembered that she had been excused from the math test.

 

This offered a good opportunity to check in with the campus police. She had only dropped by that one time directly after they tried to tow her vehicle. All her vehicles now had decals with all parking allowed from the chancellor office. She knew that the chancellor had used the incident as an excuse to clean house.

 

This would be her chance to see just what he had done. She gave the orders.

 

“Schultz, we will be going to the campus police building. I want to see if I can get a better look at their organization today.”

“Yes Ma’am.”

Cassie paid no more attention. Over the days since Schultz had become her Aide she had found that giving her the information and what she wanted done was all she had to do. Schultz would get it done.

“Also Schultz, Wednesday evening I’ll have dinner at the White House. I can have no security inside and no weapons. I need a top quality formal gown before then.”

 

“Yes Ma’am.”

“This Coachman 1, transport and security is ready for the Shadow.”

“Roger, Coachman, the Shadow is coming.” Schultz answered. Cassie laughed silently. Her security was having too much fun with all these code names and such.

As Cassie stepped out the rear entrance, Grace was waiting and covered her opposite side from Sgt. Townsend. They escorted her to the open door of the Tahoe. Today she sat behind the driver Cpl. Jerkin with Grace next to her. Townsend was riding shotgun.

 

They had finally convinced her that not even her seat in the Tahoe should become a regular thing. Today was the beginning of musical seats in the Tahoes.

The Tahoe quickly drove off the estate and down the road to the campus.

 

Cassie and Cpl. Perkins walked into the police station on the college campus. Unlike some colleges, the police at VTI wore real uniforms that made them look like police in any city. The Sgt. at the front reception area looked up as she walked toward him. Cassie reached to her belt and pulled her credential case loose and held in up so he could see it.

 

“Special Deputy United States Marshal Cassandra Howly Howard. I would like to look your facilities over and meet your people.”

 

The Sergeant leaned closer to read her credential. Then he picked up the phone while pushing some buttons on it. “Lieutenant I have a Special Deputy US Marshal out here… Yes Ma’am.”

 

“Excuse us Deputy, we have had a new broom through here so I have the Day Shift supervisor coming.”

 

“Perfectly understandable Sergeant, I’m a student on campus myself. This is simply a courtesy call.”

 

The meeting was smooth and took little time. Cassie introduced herself explaining that she was a student on the campus and how she became a special Deputy Marshal. They exchanged phone numbers.

 

After the meeting, Cassie felt better about any interaction that might happen between her and members of the Campus police. She then proceeded to the classroom where the other students in her class were finishing up the test.

 

She looked through the open door to see the last student turning in his paper. Cassie walked in to the room.

The Professor was studying one of the tests that had been turned in to him. He looked up as Cassie stopped next to his desk.

“Ms. Howard what can I do for you?”

“Friday, when you excused me from the test today, I was in a hurry. My parents were flying into the Regional Airport and I did not have a chance to ask why the excused test?”

“I have a question first. Have you previously taken Calculus? Are you retaking it now for a higher grade?”

“No Professor Robbins, I have never taken any calculus course prior to your class.”

He turned, opened his briefcase and pulled out three sheets of paper which, he held them out to her. She took the papers and rotated them one at a time so the camera in the room could see them. In her ear she heard the Sergeant at HQ Security come back to her.

“They are the papers that you wrote the orbital problem on Friday. He has circled some of your equations in red, underlined some other and there is a large Red ‘A’ at the top of the first page. He signed your name to the top of all three pages.”

“An ‘A’ Professor?”

“Yes, that is your test score for this test. There is a letter from me included with my copies of the papers in case there are any questions.”

 

“Ms. Howards those papers covered every part of what I have taught this last six weeks. The ‘A’ is really an understatement of how well you have learned the material in the course so far. I would not be surprise to learn that you have finished the text for this class.”

He sat there for a minute quietly, than mentioned one more thing.

Ms. Howard with the permission of the Dean I will test you out for the remainder of this class. Next semester if you take any of my courses I will do the same if you think you can do so.”

“Test me out?”

“Yes, I have a meeting with the Dean and if he agrees that’s what we will do. It’s a waste of your time to set in the class if you are not learning anything new by doing so.”

“Professor Robbins, I have no idea what to say.”

 

“You need say nothing at this time. I am sure it will be just fine. Professor Howell was very pleased to see your paper. He said he would have to come up with a much harder problem for you to work on.”

 

Well, Cassie thought, Physics was her next class so she guessed she would find out just what Professor Howell had planned. The halls were pretty empty as she and her team walked down them. The click of their heels on the tiled floors echoed off the walls.

 

They were early as the class still had thirty minutes before it was scheduled to start. This classroom was one of the small ones. For some reason they were in a small class. Most physics 101 classes seemed to bulge at the seams and were scheduled in the larger lecture halla.

 

Another abnormality of this class was the lab table on the side. Professor Howell liked to demonstrate principles in the middle of a lecture.

 

The four of them found their seats at the front of the class room. Cassie opened her briefcase and prepared her equipment. Her scan found no one paying attention to her so she took the time to converse with Security HQ.

 

“Cassie online and in class.”

“Security HQ, Roger! Videos are on line.”

“Stay on your toes; I’m expecting a surprise question, problem or test today.”

“Roger that, Shadow.”

With that she noticed Sgt. Townsend suppressing a grin. They really were having fun with that codename for her.

Behind her Cpl. Perkins leaned forward and quietly said, “Ma’am why was your Math Professor so surprised at your work?”

“I’m just a lowly freshman, basically just getting started. I should not have been able to plan let along work out that problem. Kind of like a new recruit firing at an expert level the first day on the range.”

 

“What I did was like a new Sergeant coming in from sniper school and firing as an expert on the range you would expect those kinds of results from a trained sniper but not from a lowly recruit.  I think today Professor Howell is going to see if that same recruit can fire a machine gun with the same expert results.”

 

“It’s good and bad at the same time. They will then decide to push me. It will be like a Sergeant in boot camp, seeing a recruit and deciding that he’s got a live one. I am going to be given every tough problem and course they can load on me. If I do well then it’s great! But if I don’t they will drop me like a hot potato.”

 

“What about this course? Are you as up on physics as you are on Math?” Cpl. Perkins asked her.

“Let me say this, it’s almost impossible to get a Bachelor of Science in Physics without getting a minor in Math. Math is the language of Physics. When you talk physics you have to use math to make yourself understood. So let’s say, I speak the language like a native.”

Cpl. Perkins sat back in her seat with a very thoughtful look on her face.

 

Cassie ‘saw’ Professor Howell coming down the hallway with a person she did not know. He had to be another Professor; Cassie was still almost a stranger here at VTI. Not living on campus and being a freshman she was not as familiar with the faculty members as other students would be.

 

As Professor Howell stepped into the class room he spotted Cassie and she could sense his smile when he saw her. His companion walked over to a seat near the windows.

Within minutes of the Professor entering the classroom, the rest of the students filled up the small space. After a quick roll call the Professor was ready to start his lecture. He did a quick diagram on the black board.

In Cassie’s ear she heard from Security at HQ. “Ma’am it’s your sketch of the asteroid as it circles the earth and falls back into deep space. Now he’s putting a list of data on the side: Speed of approach, mass of asteroid, closest approach, everything you had listed on the problem.”

Behind her she heard a mixture of groans as some of the students figured out what the Professor was doing. 

“Class, I have a simple problem here for you to examine. Now let’s see if you can solve it for me. Given this known data, tell me the velocity and angle of departure of MD 2011. The answer will count for 20% of your final grade. Dr. Andrews’s, the head of the Physics Department, has agreed with me on the grade.” He turned and nodded at the stranger sitting to the side and he waved his hand at the students.

 

Every student started pulling their laptops out and entering data as fast as they could type. Cassie simply pulled out her papers she had gotten back from Professor Robbins that morning and laid them on her desk.

 

A minute later the Professor walked past her desk and picked up her papers. Without slowing down, he continued over to Dr. Andrews where he handed the papers to him. The Department Chairman sat up straight and began to examine the papers closely. He used a calculator to double check some things but, mainly, he appeared more interested in looking at relationships between the data points then the actual answers.

 

The bustle of the students in the classroom became more hectic the closer it came to the end of class. Cassie noticed that a few students had noted that she was not working on the problem. Twenty percent of the total grade for the class put this problem right up there with a major test. For a student to not even be trying was almost the same as dropping the course.

 

Slowly, one by one, each student reach their stopping point and got up to leave, dropping their work on the professor’s desk. Cassie kept her seat even after the last student had left. Professor Howell and Dr. Andrews were head to head going over her paper with a fine tooth comb. Finally they reached a conclusion.

“Ms. Howard, you used vector matrix algebra at this one point to determine the net force being applied to the Asteroid. Your records show no courses on vector analysis. Where did you learn to do this?” Dr. Andrews asked.

“I read and studied ‘Vector Analysis of Orbital Mechanics’ by Victor Blanzstien and Franz Krafa, 3^rd edition.”

“It was very interesting. I found their analysis of three body orbit mechanics very, very interesting as it really applies anytime a manmade object is in orbit around the earth or moon.”

“Did you take that into account when you predicted that the trajectory of MD 2011 will be different then what the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA are predicting?”

“Of course, there are thousands of manmade objects in orbit around the earth, each exerting a minute gravity field. Over all they add to the earth’s gravity as a system whole. When MD 2011 cuts between the moon and the earth that total gravity field will be pulling on the Asteroid. It’s going to be more than one ‘G’ of force; not much, more like 1.00001 ‘G’. But over time that little fraction of gravity is going to exert enough force to change the trajectory as it leaves the earth-moon system. Then, as it gets further away, that diversion will become bigger and bigger.”

“Professor, call the computer center and tell them we need a couple hours of computer time. I will call Dr. Holh, he’s our best orbital astrophysicist and, tell him what we need. I want this published before Midnight if we confirm her calculations. We need a full analysis in less than eight hours. Can we do it?”

 

“We will do it, sir!”

“This will be a poke in the eye for UAH, UCLA and NASA huh!”

“Ms. Howards, how did you come up with the mass of those orbiting objects?”

“Every object around the earth is tracked by the North American Space Defense. They list each and every one of them, with their mass and orbits. I just entered them into a program that totaled up their masses.  Normally, they would be included into the mass of the earth but they are in orbit which discounts their mass by the square of the distance.  Their individual mass begins to become more effective the further they are away from the earth.”

 

“Howell, you get this written up for presentation. Her name goes first then yours with mine to follow at the end. Throw Dr. Holh’s in if he screams since we are going to be using him to confirm.”

“Sir, I don’t understand what is so strange about my calculations?”

“Well your final trajectory is different than the predicted one. At first we just thought you had missed a decimal somewhere. But Professor Robbins called Howell here and said he could find nothing wrong with your calculations.”

 

“I have double checked to the limit of accuracy of my TI calculator and I can find nothing wrong. That leaves us with either rounding errors on our part using calculators or bad data somewhere.

“If the computers, with Dr. Holh, confirms your calculations; then it means that NASA has not taken into account all the data.”

 

If so, then by publishing it tonight on the internet we become predictive, and first. Let me tell you, by tomorrow night every math department at every major university will be double checking us.”

 

“That Asteroid will have every telescope in the world focused on it. You have just developed a technique for predicting orbital mechanics more accurately than anybody else has done.”

 

“Professor Howell, get with Professor Robbins and Dean Clark of the Math Department and start the process to have her tested out in Math.”

 

“Ms. Howard, you application has you down with a major course of study degreed in Nanotechnology. With your permission we are going to change that. We want you down as a Physics Major, Minor in Math and Nanotechnology. I am proposing you as a student on our new BS/MS program. You would be taking some graduate courses in your senior year in place of senior year courses. It will save you a semester of work.”

“Also, we are going to push you into a program as an Undergraduate Assistant. You will be working directly with our research department in Advanced Physics. If I have to, I will assign a tutor to follow you around to teach you when you are doing nothing else.”

 

“Could you come see me tomorrow? I will get the paperwork started. If I have my way, you will have a doctorate in four years.”

 

Once more, Cassie was lost in thought as they walked toward her Tahoe. She came to herself as Grace gripped her left arm to guide her down some steps. “Thanks Grace.” She flicked her scan to their Tahoe half a block away. She froze, stopping dead still. Her team stopped and looked at her and went on alert. Grace quickly stepped in front of Cassie.

 

Cassie went to full attention as her scan went out like a sonar searching. She saw no one paying any extraordinary attention to them.

“HQ, Security, this is the Shadow, full alert, red, red, red! There is a bomb in our Tahoe on campus. Students everywhere! Get me full coverage. I am out of armor. We are going to ground.”

“This HQ Security, we have triple red alert. A bomb has been detected in Deputy Marshal Cassandra’s vehicle. Dispatch; get some drones out over the college. Support, get on the road now. Ms. Cassie is out of armor. Get her covered now. Let me hear those Rogers!”

“Security Support we have two enroute with eight. Roger.

“Drone dispatch I got two in the air. Follow-up warming up. Roger.”

“HQ Security we have notified Campus police, County Police Bomb Squad, FBI, and ATF as well as the USMS in Roanoke.”

“HQ Security, Cassie here, notify the Chancellor of the College!”

“Roger, Shadow. Clint Wilson has been alerted also.”

“Thanks. Roger.”

 

Cassie was lying on the steps lengthwise with Grace sitting, or rather lying, on top of her. Both Sgt Townsend and Cpl. Jerkin were on either side of Perkins fully alert to any approaching strangers. They had both reversed their jackets. With nothing better to do, Cassie had scanned the jackets to determine why they had reversed them. 

 

With her practice recently she was able to make out that lining had been covered with large letters stating Security under which it stated Bodyguards. They all were wearing credential cases hanging from their inside pockets with some kind of badge. Any policeman would think they were law men at first.  That was a plus.

Cassie could scan campus police cars blocking both ends of the street. One of her drones was now overhead. The other one was circling the area.

 

That second one was to keep all the news copters from getting too close when they started appearing. She did not want pictures of her appearing on the internet or on television.

 

Cassie sure wished she had found a way to read LEDs so she could tell what the one on the bomb was saying. Her people were turning into the college from the main road. She had picked them up with her scan as well as hearing the report over the radio. She began to visualize the result of the explosion. The explosive appeared to be C-4 or similar. There were over a pound of the stuff and it was attached to the bottom of the fuel tank. “f1 expanding in a spherical field would rip the tank open and then f1 + f2 would expand in a ball of flame. The Tahoe would come apart there, there and there. Each of those parts would disintegrate and ride the wave front. They would scatter out like a shotgun being fired.”

 

She could see where every piece of the Tahoe would go. This was not a safe place. At least four major size pieces would come down right on these steps. “Up, security we have to move. This is a primary target for the falling pieces. We need to move a minimum of twelve feet to the north or west from this point. Move it now!”

Cassie rotated and picked up Cpl. Perkins then stood holding her over her shoulder in a fireman’s carry. She jogged quickly, due north, up the steps and along the sidewalk. Twelve feet later she set Cpl. Grace Perkins on her feet but continued north until they were past the corner of a building.

There she leaned for a moment to catch her breath. Then she spotted the county police arriving with the bomb squad truck.

“HQ Security this Shadow, who is in charge from the county?”

“HQ, a Sergeant Eric Norm. He is in charge of the bomb squad and where a bomb is involved the bomb squad has supreme command on site.”

“Well, I can’t blame them for that. If I was disarming bombs I would want to have command myself. Can we talk to him? I can give him a complete description of the bomb.”

“One moment, pulling the Chief up.”

“They would rather we stop using the radios as they are afraid they might detonate the bomb.”

 

“Okay, there is no radio type receiver in place. It’s strictly timing plus a pressure switch.”

 

“Who are you and how do you know what type bomb it is?”

How the hell had he done that? Nobody sneaks up on her! She turned to face the man who had asked the question. He looked like a black Pillsbury dough boy. He was dressed in a black outfit that bulges with armor underneath the cloth arms, chest, and legs. He was well covered.

 

“I am special Deputy US Marshal Cassandra Howly Howard. That my Tahoe a half block down the street there. I was coming out of class getting ready to leave when I spotted the bomb.”

He looked at her then backed up a step and looked at her Tahoe. Then back at her. “Okay. Where is this bomb?”

Cassie looked once more at the bomb and its placement. “Its dead center under the fuel tank attached with a magnet to the tank. The tank got about 17 gallons of high octane gasoline in it. There’s about a pound of plastic explosive of some kind. There is a nine volt battery attached to a timing circuit of some kind. There is a pressure switch between the magnet and the tank. There are two detonators with separate blasting caps. One goes to the LED control the other to the pressure switch.”

 

“I can only see one method of disarming the bomb you have to cut both wires going to the battery. Once that battery is out, it is almost completely dead.”

 

“I love that statement, ‘almost completely dead’. Why almost?”

 

“Because those blasting caps are still in the explosive. A jar or anything that can set off those caps and that bomb will explode.”

“Yeah, you have bomb training?”

“No, this is my first bomb. But I worked around explosive in Idaho while mining. I learned explosive and blasting caps don’t go together.”

 

“A very good point! Now if only we could convince the rest of the world of that. How much time do you think I have.”

 

“I would think zero, as I cannot read the LED display.”

“Yeah, zero. Well it’s time for Robo the robot.”

He turned and waved his arms back and forth in the air. Back at the bomb truck a man was guiding a remote device as it backed down the ramp on the back of the truck.

“Where are the controls for that robot?” Cassie asked.

“In the truck, it built to withstand a nearby explosion.”

“Okay then what are we doing here. Let’s get to your truck.”

 

“Lady, I’m not taking anybody closer to an explosive device!”

“Oh, Well I guess we have to do it ourselves then.”

“Team lets go.”

They rotated and began to jog toward the road behind the truck.”

“Hey wait! You can’t do that.”

Cassie had mentally mapped the area when she had previously seen where the debris from the explosion would go. She kept them outside the blast radius as they headed toward the bomb truck.

 

She smiled as she saw that the bomb tech was following them as quickly as he could in all that armor. As they arrived at the truck, she did not slow down but ran right up the ramp.

“Hey nobody but the bomb squad is allowed in here!”

Cassie did a quick scan and saw the controls. “Move!”

She pulled back her jacket to show him her badge and credentials. He looked at them briefly and at her team behind her and slowly moved out of the way. Cassie slid into his seat.

 

With a few quick moves she had moved the robot around in circles, then stopped it and backed it up. It took her a couple of minutes but she soon had the robot doing everything but dancing. The monitors were useless to her but that did not matter as she was scanning the scene directly.

 

The robot began to move quickly to the rear of the Tahoe. There Cassie extended a probe with cutters under the bumper on the rear and reached toward the bomb. Here was the delicate part, getting the cutting edge in place to cut the wires.

First was the timer. Cassie examined it closely. There were no booby traps on that set of detonators. The cutter slid between the battery and the LED. Snick, and the wires were cut. She did not see it, but the rest of the people in the truck did, on the monitor the LED readout went blank.

 

The next step was harder the wire from the pressure switch had been shoved through the plastic explosive and came out under the battery. The bomber got tricky here a single thin bare wire connected to the switch wire and the battery. A thicker wire was attached over the little wire to hide it and was just shoved into the plastic, to most observers it would appear to be the connecting wire.

 

Cassie worked the cutter edge under the battery until she could sense the thin wire was in position to be cut. Snick, she had done it.  Now she grasped the battery and pulled it loose from the explosive. She let the robot drop it. Then she grasped the explosive and pulled it free of the magnet. Cassie backed the robot out from under the Tahoe. Rotating it, she began the trip back to the truck.

 

“Do you have a place to put this explosive?”

“Stop it, and let me take over.”
Cassie stopped the robot and pushed back from the controls. Then she stood up and stepped out of his way. The man that had previously talked to them took over. As she and her team gathered to the rear, out of the way, the man who had relinquished control of the robot to her approached.

“That was the craziest thing I have ever seen. You did not once look at the monitor! How did you do it?”

 

“I used ESP, I just looked at it real time.”

There was a loud whoop whoosh! “There it’s done.”

Within minutes they had jacked the Tahoe up and detached the magnet device that had held the bomb in place. The bomb squad went over the whole vehicle before they gave her a clean bill of health. As Cassie stood there, the agents began to descend on her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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My thanks to Grumpybear for his editing and proofing help. But the final results are mine and all criticism should be loaded onto my shoulders.

 

 Into The Shadows © Virgil Lee Fuqua III and ‘vlfouquet.wordpress’, 2008-2011. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Vlfouquet and Virgil Lee Fuqua III with appropriate and specific direction to the original contents.