CH38
Kate was sitting at the kitchen barely dressed nursing her breakfast. Kate had already checked on Alexis, who still had a temperature and was asleep.
Kate got Lucy to do some research on local marriage culture. "I need a dress!? … What do I need a dress for?" These people needed to take a serious look at their rituals.
First it was a place, when, flowers, music, guests, invitations, food, and now a dress? What else was there?
How did anyone get married if you had to go through all this?
"You also need something old, something new, something blue, …." Lucy is interrupted by Kate.
"Enough, enough already. Seriously!? … The people who thought up all this stuff aren't going to be at my wedding. My Wedding so we'll do it my way. …. Ok what other items are on this seriously bloated list?" Kate asks very afraid of the answer.
"Rings. …. I have my ring." Kate lifts her hand to look at it again. It wasn't overly fancy, it looked relatively simple. The diamond was pretty big on her slim finger. She had already ruined a number of gloves when it ripped them open.
"I need to get Rick a ring? …. Oh I see, my ring keeps the men looking at bay while his ring keeps the women looking at bay." Kate took an instant liking to this particular part of the culture.
"Kate, there is a woman at the front door attempting to gain illegal entry." Lucy tells her.
Kate looked up at the monitor and saw a medium height, slim woman with fiery red hair with a large suitcase standing next to her and struggling with a large bag over her shoulder. She was trying to get a key to go in the lock on the door.
Rick had all the locks changed when Lucy was allowed to remote lock and un-lock all the doors.
"What the hell does she think she's doing?" Kate got up and grabbed a robe and put it on while walking down the stairs.
Kate opens the front door. "Who the hell are you." The women with the fiery red hair screeches at her. Kate didn't know who she was but she already hated her voice. It sounded like someone crying while finger nails were dragged over a chalkboard.
"I live her, who are you?" Kate responds back.
"WHAT!? What are you doing in my house, and why doesn't my key work?"
"This is my house, now who the hell are you?" Kate tries again.
"I'm Richard's wife, now get out of my way and out of my house." She tries to make it past Kate.
Kate however blocks her way with her body and her arm.
"Wife? Rick isn't, …." Kate is interrupted when Alexis pops up on a monitor.
"MOM, where are you?" Alexis calls out.
Kate can hear her strange woman inhale deeply. "Why did she call you mom?" Completely in shock.
"Alexis is my daughter. Not that it's any of your business." Kate tells her.
"WHAT!? What have you done to my daughter? Get out of my way." And she tries again but is blocked by Kate.
"Your daughter? Alexis is my daughter! … Wait are you, …." Kate thinks she understands now. "You're Meredith."
"How dare you keep me out of my house and from my daughter." Meredith screeches yet again. And then slaps Kate.
Kate is shocked! The bitch hit her. In a heartbeat Kate goes from mom to kick ass Detective Beckett, Chief Security Officer.
The next thing Meredith knows is that there are two EMT's looking her over with a gurney nearby. Along with two of New York's finest taking Kate's statement. That and the fact she is in a lot of pain. Correction, make that a whole lot of pain.
"She has three loose teeth that will probably need to be removed, a broken nose, a possible concussion, both bones in her left arm are broken, her right shoulder is dislocated, her right knee has been hyper extended and may require MCL and ACL surgery to correct and her right ankle has a minor sprain." One of the EMT's comments for the officer to add to his notes.
"What happened to her? Did she get hit by a truck?" The EMT asks. Some of the injuries were consistent with being hit up high by a truck.
"Oooo, is there a truck nearby? I can fix that." Kate adds. Only too willing to do still more damage to Meredith.
"Ms. Beckett." The officer tries to get Kate to calm down. "I'll need you to come to the station so you can give an official statement."
Kate takes a deep breath. "Sure, let me see if Martha can come watch my sick daughter and I'll be right behind you."
Meredith is long gone by the time a taxi arrives and deposits Martha at the front door. The ambulance is long gone but the police cruisers and officers are still there.
"Katherine dear what happened here?" Martha was worried for her and Alexis.
Kate then proceeds to tell her what happened and that she needs her to watch over Alexis till she can get back from making her statement.
"Oh Katherine dear, bless you! Can she still walk?" Martha asks clasping her hands in front of her.
"MARTHA?" Kate is shocked. Even Kate thinks she may have over done it.
"Oh posh, it's about time that woman met her match. You go on dear, I'll watch Alexis. …. And pray for a slow recovery." Martha adds softly. Which just gets Kate to grin.
It was almost three hours before Kate was back home. Kate had taken the door security camera recordings with her. Not the ones Lucy had inside the truck bay, just the ones at the front door.
They showed the confrontation with Meredith and her slapping Kate.
Kate thought so long as on one found out about Lucy she was safe. Meredith had started it and Kate was protecting her sick daughter and her home from an unwanted guest.
"Katherine dear, how about we keep this to ourselves. What Richard doesn't know won't hurt him, … or us." Martha offered.
"Martha I'm not going to lie to Rick." Kate was willing to take her medicine.
"Oh I'm not asking you to lie dear. Just omit that Meredith was here and what happened. If he doesn't ask, we don't have to lie." Martha explains.
Kate isn't so sure about this plan. "What about Alexis?"
"That child slept thru the entire time you were gone. She'll never know you ever left. It'll be our little secret." Martha tells her.
"Thanks for coming Martha." Kate tells her.
"I'm happy to help dear. … And next time, break one of her legs for me would you please?" Martha asks shyly.
Kate giggles. "Sure Martha, I'll see what I can do."
"Well I better run dear. Alexis is obviously in good hands, and I have some celebrating to do. It's never too early to drink and celebrate such a happy occasion like this one." Martha pats her arm and steps out front and into her waiting taxi.
Kate is grinning all the way back upstairs. "Rick is right. That woman is unique."
It was time to check on Alexis so she took her temperature which was coming down. So she woke her and got her to eat something and gave her another pill and let her go back to sleep.
Kate went back to work doing background checks on everyone while Lucy continued to study the servers that were Kate's clients.
All the while there was something in the back of Kate's mind trying to get out. There was something, she just couldn't place it. Then her phone rang. A quick scan of the caller ID had her smiling.
"RICK!" Kate all but yelled into the phone.
"Hi, I've got a few minutes while I travel from one location to the next. How are my two favorite girls?" Rick was missing both of them.
"Alexis has a temperature and is home sick. It's nothing serious and it's coming down." Kate informs him.
"Oh my poor baby. Hopefully it's just a cold. She hasn't complained about anything else has she? Rash, itching, aches and pains?" Rick asks, tying to be a back seat doctor.
"No just not feeling well and her slight temperature. She'll be fine in a couple of days." Kate knew she was going to have to talk to Martha again about watching her tomorrow so she could work on-site.
"How are you holding up?" Kate asks him.
"I think my hand is ready to fall off. Writing a little something and signing your name is surprisingly tiring." Rick tells her whining a little.
"Oh my poor baby has a boo boo. I'd kiss it and make it feel better, …." Kate trails off. Kissing his hand wasn't the only part of him she wanted to kiss.
"How is your t-shirt idea working out?" Rick was missing her almost as bad as Kate was missing him. Or so he thinks.
"It's kinda working. It's just not the same." Kate is forced to admit.
"Well I left you a little present in the top right dresser drawer if you want to go look." Rick tells her.
"Really!?" Kate hops off the bar stool at the kitchen and goes into the bedroom.
Finding the drawer mentioned she opens it and sees a rectangular box in wrapping paper.
"Can I open it?" Kate was dying to find out what it was.
"Of course, it's why I bought it." Rick tells her.
Kate rips the paper off with one hand and finds a box underneath. Opening the box she sees inside a long thin object. It was smooth on all sides and it was pointy at one end.
"Rick?" Kate whispers out since it was all the breath she had.
"Twist the bottom." Rick tells her.
Kate puts the phone down and places it on speaker so she can use both hands. Taking it out of the box, Kate finds it has a little weight to it, but not much.
Kate sees a nob at the bottom and twists it and it instantly puts out a grilling humming noise and is vibrating in her hand.
"RICK! Is this, …. I mean this is, ….. Oh babe, thank you!" Kate is beyond excited. The love of her life may have just saved her sanity.
"I've gotta run, we've reached the next signing location. Have fun honey, and try not to use up the batteries in one night. … I love you." And Rick is gone.
Kate was melting where she stood. She could almost feel her whole body vibrating in time with this thing in her hand.
Kate turned it off and put it back in the drawer. Kate was still vibrating as she looked at her watch. Six or seven more hours till bedtime. It was going to be an eternity. Maybe she could put it to use now? Alexis was in bed asleep.
Kate opened the drawer back up then quickly closed it. No she would wait.
Kate used everything she could find to hold herself up as she made it back to the kitchen. Since her legs were now made of jell-o.
Kate checked in on Alexis and found that her temperature was coming down, slowly. Kate got her to eat something and gave her another pill before bed and kissed her warm forehead, and let her sleep.
Lucy made sure everything was locked up tight and Kate went to bed taking her new toy with her.
Kate soon had herself worked up to a fever pitch and then put Rick's new toy to use. Alexis was asleep and Kate was screaming into her pillow. It wasn't Rick but it was going to save her sanity.
Kate got Martha to spend the day with Alexis allowing her to go into work and spend the day with her new team and her new client.
Kate was sitting with both of them eating lunch off-site when her cell phone rang.
It was a potential new client. They had seen her company on the news casts. It seems working with and being cleared by the SEC had gotten her some publicity and they wanted to know what she could do for them?
Kate made an appointment to give her presentation in about a week.
Kate and her team had only just made it back to their client when she got another phone call from still another company that had seen her on the news casts. Someone that good that could work with the SEC was enough for them to listen to.
So Kate made an appointment two days after the other one.
Kate was in the clouds by the time they started work again. If she got both of them at her price, she could easily afford to have an architect start work on her new building. Then give it to the Engineers for HVAC/Plumbing/Electrical and Structural.
Rick was back in a few days and her company was doing great.
Bracken was happy too. The information he got back from the test case in DC was back to him and it exceeded his dreams. There was a huge hole where the electrical substation used to be. It would probably take them a year to replace it.
In the meantime their power grid would be overloaded possibly giving them brown outs if not full black outs from time to time.
The next phase of his plan was already underway. This time they would use motorcycles with explosives in saddle bags.
The men and women had already volunteered and the explosives were being put together. Bracken was just now going over the site selections and coordination of when to strike.
Substation Nahal-Shehoret - April 2009
Substation Camon - July 2009
Substation Shoham - July 2009
161KV AIS Single Busbar , with two Overhead Lines, two Transformer Bays and one Coupler (with potential for addition of one Overhead Lines and one Transformer Bays). Two 161/24KV 45MVA transformers.
Two 24KV GIS single busbars, each with one Coupler, one Earthing-Transformer bay one Capacitor-Bank bay and seven Outgoing Lines.
Bracken had a list of all the electrical substations that were operational:
26 Indoor (GIS) 161/13-36KV Substations
70 Outdoor (AIS) 161/13-36KV Substations
He already knew he didn't need to take out ALL of them. Just certain ones along with some of the transmission line towers to black out almost the entire country.
Still three wasn't enough, he wanted to hit more of them. Because as soon as he started they would increase their security for what they had left.
And when they did he would switch targets.
Oil Refineries Ltd. (ORL), located in the bay area of Haifa, is Israel's largest Oil refinery. Using its sophisticated and state-of-the-art industrial facilities, ORL is capable of refining approximately 9.8 million tons of crude oil per year providing a variety of products used in industrial operation, transportation, private consumption, agriculture and infrastructures.
With the refining business representing 90% of the Company's total activities.
Paz Ashdod Oil Refinery is the Paz Group's refining division, which manufactures petroleum products and electricity, both for its own use and to sell to customers. This division manages the supply chain, importing crude oil and feed materials, exporting products and more. The division also provides procurement service for the Group.
Israel has two refineries, in Haifa and Ashdod. In 2006, Paz acquired the Ashdod refinery, which had been in operation since 1973.
In just one more week Bracken would launch his first strike at six of the electrical substations along with a number of the distribution towers. This would be followed two days later by the strikes on the two oil refineries.
This would cause Israel to ship in needed supplies at prices they cannot afford. Of course their master, the Americans would step in and offer financial support, by borrowing still more money from China to help them.
Israel's economy would ultimately collapse making them ripe for the picking. And he would accomplish what countless people before him could not. Destroy Israel!
Then he would sit back and watch Israel wither and die on the vine. By then he would be running for President and have the support of over half if not 6/8th of the country's population behind him.
Egypt would one day be a world power like in the days of the Pharaohs and the building of the Pyramids.
"Are you sure this will work my friend?" Bracken is questioned.
"Of course, it is written. Waging War/The Challenge explains how to understand the economy of warfare and how success requires winning decisive engagements quickly. This section advises that successful military campaigns require limiting the cost of competition and conflict.
We use limited resources to attack a target of importance.
Attack by Stratagem/The Plan of Attack defines the source of strength as unity, not size, and discusses the five factors that are needed to succeed in any war. In order of importance, these critical factors are: Attack, Strategy, Alliances, Army and Cities.
We will not attack their cities. They will fall to us after we have defeated them. If they have no oil, gasoline, electricity, food sources, the size of their military will mean nothing.
Energy/Directing explains the use of creativity and timing in building an army's momentum.
We make them waste theirs while we direct ours at their weakest points. They will then collapse under their own weight" Bracken tells him. Getting everyone around him to smile.