Waltzing at the White House

 

Waltzing at the White House

Chapter 8

 

Cassie’s scans had not missed all the cars gathering at the scene. When her team exited the bomb truck and got the all clear on her Tahoe, the agents in those cars headed for her like sharks after chum.

 

“Marshal Howard.” Special Agent James Williams was the first to arrive and he had a stranger with him.

“Special Agent Williams, what a pleasure to see you again.”

“Well I would think so too, if every time we met it wasn’t to look into problems involving you. Let me introduce you to Special Agent Kirk Reynolds of the BATF. He will be in charge of the investigation as it involved an explosive device and a Federal Agent.”

“Agent Williams, you know my Federal Status is more of an honorary position then an actual agent.”

“That is probably a very good thing. You have more violent incidents than any other ten agents together.”

“Agent Reynolds, how can I help you?”

“Ms. Howard, do you have any idea who would try to blow you up?”

“No I don’t, anymore then I have any idea why eleven people attacked me in Idaho more than two months ago.”

Cassie said nothing more and there was a moment of intense silence.

“What about just a couple weeks ago when you had to shoot three men on your property?”

“That was an easy one. The man in charge had been working for his uncle doing odd jobs. He heard about a delivery of some weapons to a rich person and thought he could pull a little home invasion. He really should have thought twice about that idea.”

 

“I heard that you not only spotted this bomb but that you disarmed it.”

 

“Well Sergeant Norm of the Bomb Squad said it was one of the simplest bombs. It was primarily a timer with a pressure switch if anyone tried to move it.”

“Where did you get your training in demolition Ms. Howard?”

“This last summer in Idaho while I worked on a gold claim.”

“Now if I had done a bomb I would have made sure I had control of it with a remote trigger such as a cell phone or pager hooked up to the battery to trigger the blasting caps with a call.”

“Then there was the explosive, it was really overkill! Not only would it have taken out the Tahoe but everything around it for at least fifty feet.”

 

“Maybe they think you are dangerous and wanted to take no chances.” Agent Reynolds said.

 

“No, they don’t know me, not really. If they did, they would never have gotten that close to me. They would have tried a Barrett 50 at a mile. Not that they would have been any more successful.”

 

“Excuse me, Deputy Howard; I need to speak to you.” Both agents turned to see the US Marshal for the District standing behind them. Cassie, of course, had sensed him coming. “Marshal Scott, this is Special Agent Williams of the FBI and Special Agent Reynolds of the BATF. Agents this is Marshal Harry Scott of the Western Judicial District of Virginia.”

“Excuse us agents, I need to speak to Deputy Marshal Howard a moment.” He turned and walked away.

Cassie followed him until they reached his vehicle.  He turned and faced her. “Deputy, you are a trouble magnet. As soon as I can, I am going to find a way to pull that badge from you. I want you out of my district now!”

“Well sir, I am afraid that is not happening. I own several million dollars worth of property here. I am the head of two corporations which now own facilities here. Besides, I have a dinner party with the President Wednesday night to attend.”

“I will mention your problems to him.”

If she could have seen, she would have noticed that he turned pale with her mention of dinner with the President.

Cassie turned and left him. She returned to her Tahoe and headed back to the estate. “On your toes team, the bomber might have a 2^nd arrow for his bow.

“HQ, Security do we still have air surveillance?”

“Security, yes Ma’am we’ve got double eyes in the sky. You’ve got back up behind and in front. Those two agents are following you also.”

“I’m not worried about them. Did you record the conversation with the Marshal?”

“Yes ma’am, you were letting it come through so we thought you might want it for later.”

“Ma’am will the Marshal cause you problems? “

“I hate saying this, but most Marshals are just political appointees. They are not really law enforcement professionals. They just want no problems during their tenure. Most come and go with the Presidents. Now the Deputy US Marshals are the professionals; they are civil servants and work for the Department.”

“So when we look at his political pull versus mine, I’ve got millions and my Dad. Who do you think I will bet on winning?”

“Let’s get home I want to talk to my mother.”

_________________________

Cassie and her mother were eating dinner together. They were not alone. Her mother’s assistant, Helen, and Cassie’s Aide, SSgt. Schultz, were sitting at the same table.

“So Cassie, what do you think those Professors are up to?”

“It’s ridiculous Mom, but I think they are planning on me getting an advanced degree as quickly as they can. I love it so far. Math, Physics and even chemistry all seem to be just different phases of the same thing.”

“It’s like me scanning the ground outside of the house. Then you go to a window and look out.”

“If we told somebody else, they might not even understand that we were describing the very same thing just from different viewpoints.”

 

“That’s what I see when I am studying the different sciences.”

“Mom, it seems to be getting easier and easier for me. I just spent an hour on the internet. I was researching some of the advanced math. I swear mom, I think I could pass any test given on calculus right now.”

 

“It’s like me being able to see more and better now than before I went blind. I can see deeper and more of Physics then I could have even imagined a year ago.”

“And math is like another language, one that I had learned as a child and was now being given again. Every new theorem I am presented with takes me seconds to understand and to apply. Now I analyze every moving object around me and predict its trajectory.”

 

“It seems to me, Cassie, like you are even more enthralled by science then you were by your new senses last year.” Sarah stated.

“Yes and no. Mom, I am constantly exercising my senses now. I do it unconsciously. Right now I am scanning out to over 4 miles all around us. I’m examining a car going down State Highway 311 right now. There is a deer in the forest behind the estate. I ‘see’, examine and continue on. I am always stretching my abilities further, narrowing its sensitivity trying to get more details.”

Cassie paused, thinking. “Mom, I can sense down to the molecular structure now. I have not been able to make out the building block yet, but I know its coming.”

 

“One of the things about the sciences is to explain what I see and feel. Nobody has made up a manual to explain what, how and why I can do what I do. Maybe science can help me write it.”

 

“So, science is not something new, it’s a continuation of these abilities you have?”

“Yes! That’s it Mom!”

“Oh my!”

“What is it Cassie?” Sarah reached over and grasped Cassie’s hand in hers.

“That’s it! My math and science abilities all bloomed right after I really started stretching my senses! They are connected in some way.”

“My sensing abilities have to be centered in the brain. When I began to stretch it, I must have also stretched other things about my brain.”

“You need to see a specialist Cassie!”

“Mom, there are no specialists in this field. I have searched and searched. No physical scientist, neurologist or similar believes in mental abilities such as ESP.”

“Don’t worry about me Mom; I examine my own body daily. My brain cells are just a hair more active since I started looking at this last year. Not even enough to see the difference on the charts.”

“Ok, let’s change the subject, Sergeant anything I should know about operations. Any problems?”

 

“No Ma’am, Major Woods has asked for an appointment. The subject matter is recruitment.”

“Did you set up the appointment?”

“Yes, Ma’am. You will meet with her tomorrow afternoon when you return from school before your time in the dojo.”

“My time in the Dojo?”

“Yes, Ma’am, Sensei Inoue has scheduled you for three workouts a week. He said you have gotten sloppy.”

“Ouch, that is going to hurt.”

“Yes Ma’am I believe so.”

______________________

 

Cassie rolled over and out of her bed. She had her Glock 27 in her hand as she dropped and rolled; she had it pointed at the window as she waited. On the wall, outside of her room, a man was clinging as he slowly pulled himself up. Cassie stood and eased back to her bed. Using her left hand she picked up her comm unit earpiece and inserted it in her left ear. The Mic, a small button, she hung around her neck.

Cassie picked up the comm unit off the bedside desk and pressed the button on her comm, activating it and alerting security. In a soft voice she said.

”Cassie here, go to silent alert. We’ve got intruders climbing the outside of the building. One is feet from my window. We want as many alive as possible.”

“Get my mother and dad covered now!”

Over her comm she heard the estate go to alert. Then she heard the returns.

“Perimeter patrol 2 is down, no response from them. Building patrol 1, no response.”

“This is Building patrol 2 inside security residence we have started wakeup protocol. The Captain is up, and two of the Lieutenants are up. The other one is not here.”

“This is Lieutenant Taylor; I am in the main building Security Room. All inside security have been alerted and ready to move. We are fully armed.”

“This is Sensei Inoue. I have taken out three intruders behind the security residence.”

“Roger that Sensei!”

“This is Shadow I am unarmored, my main gun only. Do not enter my room. Security, lights off in building. Lockdown all rooms and go to night vision.”

With those instructions all the lights went out on the main building. She moved to meet the intruder just as he breached her window. Her left hand flashed out and with one jerk she had removed his night vision throwing it over her head. Then her Glock caught him barrel first in his throat. She twisted and caught him with a rear kick into his solar plexus and he was down.

“They are wearing night vision also. Security use strobe flash, eyes closed everyone.” With that, Security set off the electronic light strobe. Anybody looking anywhere at the house with night vision was now blind. 

 

“Security I need a detail, one prisoner in my room now.”

“Okay, perimeter patrol 1, there are three vans parked one quarter mile away now on 311, presently one driver each.”

“Building patrol 2, you’ve got three coming at your rear. Go to ground.”

Estate patrol, we’ve got three more to your right going away from the house. Take them on my mark. Three, two, one, mark!”

“Main Building, we’ve got two on the roof trying to find a way inside. They are preparing to rappel down the east side.”

Cassie scanned inside and out but could find no more intruders. That was an awfully light force to hit a place as big as this. She extended her scans further and further. She spotted a sniper in the Forest, about a mile and half away. Cassie had no patrols in the national forest.

The sniper had a Barrett 50 and she followed the barrel to its target. “Everybody down incoming fire!”

She was going through the door as it opened and Security tried to come in to recover her prisoner. One was knocked flat and she picked up the other two and carried them for about ten feet before they slid off her body. Her scan showed the sniper was reloading; he was using a single shot technique. She refused to look as she kicked her parent’s bedroom door down.

“Mom! She screamed, as she sensed her Mom on the floor with her Dad holding her. He looked up at her with tears in his eyes. “She is okay. He got her on the side, just a really long scratch. Get him Cassie; they do not know what they have unleashed today.”

She stopped her movement toward them and pivoted toward the window. It seemed impossible but she had nothing else to try. She stood in the window with no cover staring straight at the sniper a mile and half away. “I gave my warning already; you and yours are now dead.”

With that she brought up her .40 caliber Glock and aimed and aligned it with the barrel of the rifle. With a squeeze, she fired. She turned back to her mother as the sniper pulled his trigger. 

Three inches from exiting the barrel of the Barrett, the .50 caliber slug was met by a .40 caliber counterpart. They plugged the barrel making it worthless. The expanding gases flashed back down the barrel exploding the receiver into the sniper’s face.

The fall from the blind in the tree broke his back and both legs. He lay there in agony. Every so often the thought ran through his mind, “How? How had that girl done that impossible shot?” By the time he was found there was no chance of saving his life.

The remains of his rifle were found also. The men stared at it in awe. It was obvious that something had jammed the barrel causing the back flash. But it took a lab analysis to determine what caused the blockage.

 

When the results came back, there was an argument over what to do with the rifle. Captain Gifford settled the question when the sergeant explained to him what had happened.

“Sergeant, get us a glass case. Mount what’s left in that case and hang it in the dayroom. Put a plaque on it telling the distance, and the title. ‘.40 versus .50 the .40 won!’”

 

“I will put up one thousand dollars to one dollar for anybody who wants to challenge The Shadow to a gun fight.”

It got quiet and heads started shaking. Those with a second thought took a look at the destroyed Barrett 50.

______________________

 

Cassie sat beside her mother in the hospital bed in the emergency room, holding her hand. Tears ran down her cheek from her overflowing eyes. She laid her head down on the clasped hands.

She raised her head when she felt a hand pushing the hair out of her face. Sitting up she saw the smile on her mother’s face. “MOM!”

“Don’t scream dear, I am wounded you know.”

The room filled with doctors and nurses. Cassie was pushed out of the way as they worked on her mother. She listened as her mother let them know she had enough.

 

Cassie’s mother’s initial treatment was completed and Cassie and George went with her to her hospital room.

 

George hugged his daughter as he pulled her out of the room. There, in the hallway, was Clint. He stepped forward and hugged her too.

“It’s going to be okay Cassie.”

“We know who these people are. They are a professional hit team out of Cleveland. The modern day ‘Murder, Inc.’, they are part of a local Mafia family there.”

 

“Well I guess I’d better go up there and talk to them.”

“I don’t think so girl. From my ears to the ground, more than ten percent of the family has died since last night from car wrecks, heart attacks, burning buildings, and mugging! I mean who mugs a Mafia person? They are dying like flies.”

“Cassie, look at this!” He handed her a paper. It was open to an inside news section. A single car accident on the highway from Cleveland, Ohio to Knoxville, Kentucky had killed four men.”

Cassie could not read more as the ink was too thin, looking at Clint. “Read it to me.”

“…four brothers Charles, Richard, Thomas, and Prichard Howly were all killed as their car had three tires blowout at the same time causing their car to roll off a bridge.”

“Howly?”

“Yeah, I’ve got people looking for more Howly deaths. You just don’t screw with the Howards. Payback is an m… a bitch.”

“You think this is part of what led to us being attacked?”

“Your Dad does. When I told him I was hunting for any sign of who did this he told me not to bother. It was taken care of.”

Cassie thought for a moment, remembering the scene of her scanning the sniper as she brought her Glock down onto the target. What had she said? “I gave my warning already; you and yours are now dead.”

Yeah, she thought of the newspaper and what Clint had said. They were one and all dead men walking.

___________________________

 

Wednesday afternoon she entered the main house after a couple hours working out in the dojo. Her focus had been so sharp that she had been able to take Sensei Inoue down three times.

“Six times next week.” He said to her as she bowed off the practice mats. Her mind was busy with its routine scans of the estate. New sensors were being installed along the perimeter fences.

The forest behind the estate was also being secured. Hidden cameras, sensors, and trip wires were going in over the whole area within a mile of the estate’s back boundary.

She and her sensing abilities had saved the day when they were attacked. Further investigation found that all the men involved were specially trained for infiltration and assassination. The Cleveland family was gone. Every member that knew the business was now dead. Most of their muscles were gone as well.

Cassie had taken a break for lunch at Russo and invited Pietro to join her. There, she explained what had happened at her estate. She told him that her mother had been wounded and who had taken the contract. Then she quietly told him that every man in the family would die. She further mentioned that the four men who had given them the contract were dead, and soon the deaths would flow through that family as well.

“Pietro, in Texas they say ‘don’t mess with Texas’. Then they follow that statement with another ‘For God and the Devil’s sake don’t mess with The Howards.’ My family is the Howards in that statement. You might pass the message on to the rest of the Families.”

She had skipped school the last two days so had no idea what the two professors or the Dean of the Math department had been doing. Now she had to get dressed up for the dinner with her Dad at the White House.

 

Her scan had picked up Cpl. Lambskin in her rooms and the gown hanging on the dress rack in the middle of her bedroom. It took the two of them an hour to bathe her, put on makeup, and fix her hair and dress. Her body tingled after the crèmes were rubbed into her body.

 

The gold chain used as a belt was in reality a fifteen feet of gold plated steel. Her shoes had steel toes on them. She might not be allowed to wear her guns but she was not walking into that place completely unarmed.

The two hair combs that Cpl. Lambskin had used to manage her hair had five very strong and pointed teeth, which she could hold in either hand.

Cassie looked at Corporal Lambskin,  “Corporal, we’re going to spend the night in Washington.  Pack me a set of Dress Uniforms and undergarments to wear on the trip home tomorrow.”

After getting dressed she left her rooms and walked down the hallway to the guestroom area where she knocked on a door. “Come in!”

Cassie opened the door and entered the guestroom where her mother was lying in bed. They had sent her home that morning to finish her recovery.

“Oh my god! You’re absolutely beautiful Cassie! Her mother’s face beamed with a broad smile as she tried to push herself higher in the bed. Cassie quickly moved forward and knelt next to her mother. Sarah leaned over carefully and smoothed back Cassie’s hair.

Cassie heard her softly murmuring “Beautiful!”

“Stand up Cassie I want to get the full effect!”

Cassie came to her feet and slowly turned around, letting her gown sweeps out around her. Then she took a couple of steps away and rotated and came back. Her scan showed her a frown growing on her mother’s face.

“Cassie, where is your gun? I understand now what you meant about having time to find one. You don’t go anywhere without your gun!’

“Mom, this is to the White House with the President and his family. There is no way they will let me in there with a gun!”

“Then don’t go!”

“Don’t worry mother, I will be safe.”
“Humm! In that dress you might be right. Find some big military man and stay behind him.”

“Mom, when I enter a room I am the most dangerous person in that room. So don’t worry about me.”

She spent an hour with her mother and then their party exited to the vehicles. Cassie’s ear bug was hidden under a sweep of hair on that side of her head. The Mic button was stuck to her Celtic Eye that nobody ever seemed to see.

The normal comm traffic buzzed around her.

“Coachman 1, the Shadow and party have entered the limo.”
“Point one is mounted and starting our egress.”

“Tail back one is mounted and prepared to follow.”

“Hawks one and two are airborne and sweeping the path.”

“Backup one and two are already enroute.”

“This is Coachman one, we are on the exit drive approaching gatehouse.”

 

Cassie extended her scan for over five miles behind them and in front of their vehicles. She watched the routes with an overlap of 300 yards along either side of the route she was taking.

The drive to Washington took two and half hours and they pulled up to the gates into the White House. “George Howard, with his daughter Cassandra Howly Howard.”

Security covered the limo and scanners and mirrors were used to confirm the Limo was clean. They stepped back and waved the limo forward to the portico where she and her dad exited. Cassie had kept track of their two vehicles which were parking at a previously arranged spot. The backup vehicles were there and waiting them. The two Hawks were holding and circling on the edge of the restricted air space.

 

The dinner was very elegant. Cassie conversed lightly with her companion seated to her left, a middle aged ambassador. Mostly, she just observed. Leaning toward her father she quietly asked. “Dad, why are we here?”

“To be seen. Tomorrow the Society and Political columnists will both be speculating about why and who we were. You see, we are little known outside of our part of Texas. Heads up! This part is about to end.”

Cassie brought her attention back to the dinner which was ending and people were standing up. She did so with a smile to the ambassador. Taking her father’s arm she walked with him as they proceeded to another room where dancers were taking to the floor.

 

“Our turn Cassie.” With that her father twirled her around and they danced the waltz. As the dance proceeded Cassie was asked by many of the young men to dance. She was dancing with a man in his early thirties wearing a dress mess uniform. She scanned him closely and soon determined he was a marine. “Excuse me but could we find a seat, I would like to ask you some questions.”

He looked around and then danced her off the floor into a hall way. He led them to a guard in the hall. “Smoke area?” he asked the guard. From there they exited to a covered portico where small groups were walking or setting on benches. Escorting her to a bench he helped her take a seat.

“We should be able to talk for a minute or so.”

“Thank you. First, I never caught your name Captain.”

“I am Captain George Howell, United State Marine Corp, assigned as one of the military aides to the President.”

“I am Cassandra Howly Howard, I am color blind, and so I cannot determine anything about your ribbons. But I am sure that three rows of them are a little extraordinary for a young Captain to have. Could you tell me what each of them are for and what you did to get them.”

 

 

“Miss you need to know one thing, most real combat veterans do not like talking about their experience. Most men who get these,” he tapped the ribbons. “Would just as well forget how they got them. So I will just tell what the medals are.”

 

“This is the Silver Star, Iraq second gulf war. This is the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, and this is the Bronze Star the little metal piece means I got more than one. This next one is the oldest medal in the United States armed forces. It started as a heart made of purple cloth during the Revolutionary War. It’s the Purple Heart. You get it for being wounded in service to your country. The next one is the Navy and Marine Commendation medal. The bottom three are ‘I was there’. They are for combat campaigns in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. They just tell other persons who know them that yes I was there.”

 

“Excuse me Captain. Ms. Howard, I was to tell you that your father is waiting for you in the Oval Office. I am to escort you. Sorry Captain.” The Captain waved that off as he was looking closely at Cassie. He stood and offered her his hand. She took it and let him give a gentle tug.

 

“Jeff, I will escort Ms. Howard to the entrance and you can escort the two of us.”

“Perfectly okay Captain.”

He escorted her down a hallway and then another until they approached a door with men standing outside it and along the halls as they merged. He turned, bringing her hand up to his lips and softly touched her gloved finger with his lips. “It has been a pleasure Ma’am.”

 

Cassie came to attention and then curtsied with a bow of her head. “Equally mine, Captain.”

He came to attention then did an about face and slow marched away. She watched him, feeling a shiver go through her body.

“This way ma’am.” A voice brought her back to awareness of where she was. She turned and approached the door with a man who she now recognized as a secret service agent. He nodded to the man standing next to the door where the second agent, brought a wand over to check her out. A beeping picked up and became steady as the wand ran over her body.

 

Everybody froze, the two agents stepped away from her to give them range. Cassie looked at the wand and pointed at her upper torso above her bosom. The agent brought the wand to that position and the beeping increased again. Cassie reached up and spread the top of her dress wide so that the agent could see that there was nothing there. Then she lowered her head and pointed at her two combs. Again when the agent brought the wand near it began to beep louder.  The agents then determined that both combs were made of metal.

 

The first agent next to the door opened it wide and Cassie stepped inside the Oval Office, the most well known office in the world. Her father was sitting to the left of the desk talking to the man behind it, the President. Cassie stepped forward slowly to an internal beat of drums. She was about to meet the President of the United States.

Her scans were going at full speed. This was important; she did not know how she knew this but this meeting was one of the most important things happening on earth today. She hesitated just as she reached her chair; her scan had sensed something about the President. She concentrated and sensed that he had a growth on the bottom of his left lung.

 

The President and her father had both stood as she entered the room. Then her father introduced them. She sat down and waited.

 

Her father and the President then sat down, returning to their previous conversation.

Cassie listened but did not participate at all. The growth was important but not the most important. What was she supposed to see?

 

Her scans began to expand outward. Then she narrowed it, forcing her range to even greater length. Then she caught it. On the roof, four miles away, a door opened and three men came out. One was carrying a rug, which they laid on the roof and unrolled. It was big. Then she saw a pack with the mortar rounds. This was a 120 mm mortar and the White House was well within its range.

“Excuse me Mr. President, but do you have quick access to a bunker from here.”

“That’s one of those top secret things Ms. Cassie.”

“Well then you better get to one quick because there are some men loading a 120 mm mortar on the roof of one those buildings in the distance. I think we are well within the range of it.”

 

With that she did not get another word out as the Secret Service hit the President with what at first looked like a football huddle. Then he was moving out of the room and down a secret passage. Cassie and her Dad were grabbed and hustled right behind the President. The place became like an ant hill that had been kicked apart. People were scrambling everywhere.

 

Though being hustled along Cassie kept her scan focused on the roof. From what appeared to be out of empty air three different helicopters appeared.

The first one was an attack helicopter that came at the roof at full speed, as soon as it was in range it lay down suppressing fire.

 

Its attack lasted only minutes then it had to pull up and out of the way of the next helicopter that was entering its fire zone and they were not stopping!

Men were already rappelling down ropes before they were over their target. Guns were going off.

 

The third copter hung back waiting for the second helicopter to pull out.

 

Cassie’s thoughts flew. Where had they come from? She had not spotted them while doing her scan. She flashed back and followed backward from her first detection. They had been in the air outside the no fly zone when the Secret Service alert had brought them in.

 

Knowing the Oval Office was the target and its location. They had no trouble anticipating the correct alignment for the mortars to be setup. It had taken them no time to direct their flight into the area where a 120 mm mortar had to be.

 

Now that was the kind of training she wanted her people to have!

 

Cassie was pushed into an empty room. Her scan showed her father was in the next room. As soon as the door closed, he found a seat and sat down. Cassie saw no reason not to imitate him. The men on the roof never had a chance to fire the mortar. This whole night would be covered up.

Hours later, she was escorted out of the room and taken to a conference room. There were cameras all over the room. A little later her father was brought in also.

He reached for her hand, “No touching! No talking! Just sat down and wait.” One of the men said from a desk on the far side of the room.

Cassie looked at her father and smiled.

Her scan picked up the President entering the room that looked into this one through a one way mirror. He was arguing with some of his advisors. Finally they backed off and he sat down so he could see and listen to the room where she and her dad were sitting.

“Okay let me tell you. You are under arrest under the Patriot Act. We want to know the whole organization that you’re working with.”

“First, you are operating under false premises. We are not members of any organization other then public corporations.”

“Secondly, the only people I know that should be arrested are you idiots.”

“Cassie.”

“Sorry Dad, but it’s the truth! Furthermore, Dad, they are about to get me angry. You know what will happen if they do.”

“Cassie, please stay calm.”

Okay. But if that man says one more word I will make him eat it. If anybody wants to talk to me, please do so, but not him.” With that she pointed at the man who seemed to think he was in charge.

“Listen, little girl, I am the director of the Presidential Protection Detail. I will…” he froze as Cassie stood up and slowly walked around the table and toward him. She stopped before she reached him. He stuttered as Cassie turned away from him and looked directly at where the President was sitting.

 

“Mr. President. I know you are there.  Please forgive me but I will not talk with this arrogant and officious man.” She nodded at the man behind her.

 “First, “Mr. President I’d advise you that you have a small growth on the bottom of your left lung. I cannot tell if it is benign or malignant. And the man three to your left is carrying a bug and is recording everything it hears.”

 

She continued her scans as the man she had identified tried to leave. The Secret Service stripped him down and found the bug. Another man entered the room with the President and gave him a folder. Soon the President was engrossed in his reading. He would say something and, one by one, the advisors gathered around him took pages he had finished and read them themselves. The President stood up and everybody followed him as he exited the room and headed for the door to the room where Cassie and her father were. “Dad, the President is coming.”

They turned to face the door. The other men in the room all looked at them and then snapped to attention as the door opened and the President and the mob of men following him entered the room. The President came to the table and pulled a chair out and sat down. His attention was focused fully on Cassie.

 

“Are you Cassandra Howly Howard, 14 years of age?”

“Well, yes, but Witsec has given me a new birth certificate so I am 18 now.”

“Eighteen! A Special Deputy US Marshal, owner of twenty-five percent of a company called “We Find It!” which is mining about 8 million dollars worth of gold a day?”

“The heir to an estate worth more than 200 million dollars on the day you were born? As a Special Deputy Marshal you have killed more than 12 men this year?” At that, she saw all the Secret Service personal go to extra alert.

“So far you‘ve got the details correct, Mr. President. You missed the recent hit at my estate in Virginia I killed the sniper that shot my mother by putting a .40 caliber round into the barrel of his .50 caliber Barrett at a range of a mile and half.”

The room got very silent. “You donated over a million dollars to the campaign funds for both the Senators from Texas. A couple of weeks ago you put half a million into the campaign of Congressman Cole of your district in Virginia.” The President stated.

“That is correct. Mr. President, have one of your men check my eyes.”

He nodded to a man that had followed him into the room. He stepped over to Cassie and pulled out a pocket light which he began to shine in her eyes. It did not bother Cassie as her eyes could not detect any light.

“No! This is not right.”

“What’s wrong Jack?” The President asked.

“She is blind Mr. President. There is no light response or reflex from her pupils. Mr. President she is as blind as a bat.”

 

“I shoot 100 percent on the range. I never miss if there is a clear passage from my gun to the target.”

“I saw those attackers at a range of four miles setting up those mortars. I saw the bug that other man was carrying, oh, and that growth on your lungs.”

 

“It’s a form of ESP, but stronger than any ever found before me. Officially you are the first to be informed of this. My range is now about 5 miles when I narrow the focus of it, but when I just relax it’s a sphere over half mile in radius. I think it is based on mass. I actually sense the mass of the materials around me. I found a stream of gold in Idaho that is daily making me richer than Midas.”

 

With proof of what Cassie had said, the interrogation was soon ended. They returned to the Oval office where Cassie’s history was discussed in detail. Her Celtic Cross and Eye was never brought up. To Cassie that began to seem more like magic then psychic powers.

She mentioned the problems she was beginning to have with the Marshal in the Western District of Virginia. It was late or really early morning when the meeting finally broke up. They left and went to one of the many major hotels in Washington where Sergeant Schultz had made prior reservations.

Before going to bed, Cassie made contact with her people on the estate. “I need a change in security teams. Sergeant Schultz, please bring me my fanciest dress uniform, in fact bring me Cpl. Lambskin. I have a fresh set of clothes but they are too informal for the White House and we have another appointment with the President tomorrow.”

 

“Roger, that Ma’am. We are getting ready to leave now.”

“Have the team rest as much as possible enroute. The team on duty has to be worn out.

“Roger, we are now departing. See you later Ma’am.”

“Sergeant Townsend.”

“Coachman 1, reporting.” Came back over the comm unit.

“Did you get in the loop on what’s happening?”

“Ma’am, your aides and another security team are enroute to this location, roger!”

“You will have the duty until they arrive. Get on a phone and find out how many and who will be reporting in. Hopefully, you will get some sack time.”

“Yes Ma’am!”

“I am about to hit my bed, hopefully it will not hit back, ‘Nite’ and out.”

She removed her comm devices and set them on the bedside desk, where she placed her regular Glock. Then she climbed under the covers.

As she dropped to sleep, in the distance she heard the Marine Corp Hymn being played.

 

____________________________

 

 

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.