Black Project 10

By Bob Gabbert

Cate Farmer has just completed her second term as Governor of Washington State. Her husband, Senator Robert Sebastian, is running for President of the United States, and he is the frontrunner in the Republican Presidential Primary race when the plane he is on crashes killing him and his senior campaign staff.

Cate is devastated by her husband’s death, but she picks up the tattered pieces of his campaign and wins the Republican nomination for President of the United States. She goes on to defeat the incumbent President and during the transition period, the outgoing President informs her that terrorists are trying to get a nuclear bomb into the Unites States.

Sharif bin-Abdallah runs the Black Wednesday terrorist organization with an iron fist. He has a shrewd plan to infiltrate teams of terrorists into the United States where they will rendezvous with a nuclear bomb that is being brought into the country by other means.

President Cate Farmer and her Administration must stop a plot that they don’t know when it will happen, where it will happen, or how many are involved. And, it must be accomplished without the American people finding out, because if they knew that a nuclear bomb was heading for the East Coast, millions of people would try to escape and the resulting panic could cost thousands of lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bob Gabbert
• Release date: Jan 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310774102

Bob Gabbert

Bob Gabbert has been writing novels about strong women for eleven years. Asked why his protagonist is always a woman, Bob said that generally speaking, women are physically smaller and weaker than men. Consequently, they must use their intelligence to solve important issues, and that's more interesting for a writer. Bob Gabbert is a world traveler who has lived or worked in many of the places he writes about. He graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle where he and his wife, Janet, make their home.

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By Bob Gabbert

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Publisher: Smashwords, Inc.

ISBN: 9781310774102

Copyright

Copyright © 2015 by Bob Gabbert

All rights reserved, except as permitted under the US Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission by the publisher.

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Smashwords Edition: January 2015

Smashwords Rev 3: February 2015

The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

About the Book

Cate Farmer has just completed her second term as Governor of Washington State. Her husband, Senator Robert Sebastian, is running for President of the United States, and he is the frontrunner in the Republican Presidential Primary race when the plane he is on crashes killing him and his senior campaign staff.

Cate is devastated by her husband’s death, but she picks up the tattered pieces of his campaign and wins the Republican nomination for President of the United States. She goes on to defeat the incumbent President and during the transition period, the outgoing President informs her that terrorists are trying to get a nuclear bomb into the Unites States.

Sharif bin-Abdallah runs the Black Wednesday terrorist organization with an iron fist. He has a shrewd plan to infiltrate teams of terrorists into the United States where they will rendezvous with a nuclear bomb that is being brought into the country by other means.

President Cate Farmer and her Administration must stop a plot that they don’t know when it will happen, where it will happen, or how many are involved. And, it must be accomplished without the American people finding out, because if they knew that a nuclear bomb was heading for the East Coast, millions of people would try to escape and the resulting panic could cost thousands of lives.

Table of Contents

Title Page

About the Book

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Acknowledgement

About the Author

Chapter One

By the time she was 42, Cate Farmer-Sebastian’s intelligence, beauty, and drive had gotten her elected three times to the Washington State Legislature representing the 36th District, and twice elected governor of the state. Now, she was involved in her husband’s campaign for President of the United States.

Robert Sebastian, 44, followed Cate into politics, but he chose to go for national office. He was twice elected to represent the Seventh Congressional District of Washington, and he was in his second term as senator from Washington when he decided to run for President.

Cate and Robert had discussed running for President many times. It was Cate’s life goal to be President, but she agreed with Robert that her chances of being elected would be enhanced if she followed him to the White House. They also agreed that he would not run until she completed her second term as governor so she could campaign with him; it would be a team effort.

As a former Chair of the National Governor’s Association Executive Committee, Cate was better known in some parts of the country than he was. Consequently, the campaign required them to go separately to different parts of the country making speeches and raising funds. They tried to arrange it such that their paths crossed once a week, so they could spend time together.

Their latest crossing of paths occurred in St Louis but they only had a few hours. Cate had to fly out that evening for a campaign stop in Philadelphia. Robert would fly out the next morning for another swing through California. To maximize their private time, they stayed in the hotel room and made love. There was barely enough time left for room-service dinner, before Cate had to go to the airport.

Robert said, as they sat in the departure lounge waiting for her flight to be called, I wish you could come with me to California. You know how to talk to those California people better than I do. I always feel that I’m not hip enough for them.

"Robby, you won the state by a wide margin. They’re not looking for a rock star; they want a leader. Besides, we have to follow the campaign strategy. There are still 313 delegates left to win. If we’re going to get the nomination on the first ballot, we have to win Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Kentucky. Now is not the time to let up."

I know. I just thought that when you ended your term as governor, all of this living apart would end.

She patted his hand. It will end very soon, Robby. You just have to be patient. When you become President, we’ll have eight years in the White House to look forward to, and then hopefully another eight with me as President. By that time, you’ll be so tired of me, you’ll—

"I’ll never be tired of you, Cate. We’ve been married more than 17 years, and it seems like yesterday when I watched you come down the aisle."

Robert studied his beautiful wife with her dark, shoulder-length hair and her blue eyes. Most women he knew Cate’s age had begun to put on weight, but not Cate. She had the same slim figure as when they first met. The way she carried herself, the way she fixed her hair just so, and used very little makeup to enhance her beauty, reminded him that he was married to a woman who could have been a runway model. He once told her that she could have been a model, but she laughed and make a joke of it.

He rubbed his finger along her arm. Do you remember when we met?

"Of course. It was during my initiation to Skull and Bones at Yale. They made you my advocate, but you didn’t want to represent me. You didn’t think I was Bones material."

No, that’s not when we met. We met when I was a teaching assistant to Professor Steinbrenner in Constitutional Law.

Cate wrinkled her nose. "Robby, that was after I was already in Skull and Bones. That’s when we started dating, but we met at the Bones initiation. Don’t you remember? There were two of us women and seven guys. They wanted all of us to take our clothes off, but I wouldn’t do it. You came to my defense, and nobody had to strip that year."

"Oh, yes. He frowned and shook his head. I don’t know what I was thinking, because I wanted to see you nude, but you looked so... sad. I didn’t know then that you… he lowered his voice, thought your boobs were too small."

They are too small, but let’s don’t go there.

"I don’t think I’ve ever asked you why you wanted to be a Boneswoman in the first place? Not many women do."

"You mean, not many women are allowed to. They started admitting women in 1992, but even now there are only a handful of us, but surely you know why I wanted it. I knew that someday I’d run for President, and I knew the Bones network would help me. Several former Presidents have been Bonesmen. That’s the only reason I went to Yale instead of Stanford Law."

There was a flight-boarding announcement. Well, that’s my flight they’re calling. I’ll see you in San Diego in three days. I love you, Robby. They hugged and kissed and said goodbye.

The next day in Philadelphia, an old woman, who looked old enough to have been around when the Liberty Bell cracked, came to the podium. She adjusted her glasses and cleared her throat, and then spoke with a high voice, We are honored this morning to have a speaker who will soon be our First Lady. Please welcome two-term Governor Cate Farmer-Sebastian!

Cate came on stage to loud applause. The large room was stifling hot even though it was the middle of April. People were fanning themselves with their programs. Air conditioning was added long ago to the old building, which was built during Colonial times, but it was inadequate for the unusual heat wave that Philadelphia was sweltering in. Of course having 300 people in a room designed for 250 didn’t help. Someone had pulled the heavy royal blue and gold-fringed drapes over the windows to keep the hot sun out, but it didn’t help much.

Cate had been warned that the room might be warm; so she wore a blue suit dress made of lightweight cotton. However, she could see that others were not as well prepared, and she knew it would distract from her message. She fanned herself with her hand and said jokingly, I’ve heard of warm receptions before, but nothing like this. Laughter. Let’s all get comfortable. She took off her jacket and put it on a chair. Most of the audience did the same.

Before she turned back to the audience, she pulled out the front of her blouse. It was a habit she started as a teenager to make her chest look fuller. It was so second nature to her that she didn’t even realize she did it. She kissed a small gold butterfly pendant and tucked it into her blouse.

She stood at the podium and waited until people settled down. At five-foot nine-inches, Cate was a tall woman, especially in heels, and her slim figure made her look even taller.

When I was in the state legislature and later Governor of Washington State, we used to look to Washington, DC, for leadership, but those days are gone. The last Democratic President promised to change things. She paused and looked slowly around the audience. It was one of the techniques that made her a good speaker. Even in a large audience, she made people feel as if she were speaking directly to them. The only way we’re going to get change in Washington, is if…

Sam Wallace, her chief of staff, came to the podium and whispered in her ear, "Governor, you must come with me right now."

"Sam, I’m in the middle— His expression sent a chill through her body. She left the podium and followed him backstage. What’s happened?"

Sam took her to a chair and sat her down. Faye Simone, her assistant and best friend, knelt beside her and took her hand. She was crying. Sam said, Governor, I have bad news… very bad.

The hair on the back of Cate’s neck stood up. Is Robert hurt?

Governor—Cate, his eyes filled with tears, Robert’s plane was landing in fog at San Francisco—

She grabbed his arm. Is Robert all right?!

No. I’m sorry.

Cate fainted. Sam and other members of her staff carried her to the Green Room and put her on a sofa. A doctor was already there.

Sam Wallace went to the podium and looked out over the restless crowd. Ladies and Gentlemen, I have terrible news. Senator Robert Sebastian’s plane crashed on landing in San Francisco a few minutes ago. There was a collective gasp from the audience. The Senator and 18 other people on the plane were all killed. The Governor will release a statement when she’s able. Please pray for their souls and for their families.

Chapter Two

She was born Catherine Louise Farmer. Her parents called her Cathy until she went to preschool. The first word she learned to spell in preschool was cat, and when someone called her Cate, she liked the sound of it. Mommy, I’m still me, but now, you have to call me Cate. It’s kind of like cat, but it’s not. It took her a while to train her parents and break them of the habit of calling her Cathy. Thomas, her father, didn’t like the name Cate. He kept calling her Cathy, but Cate’s stubbornness—he called it hard headed—won him over, and no one ever questioned her decision again.

Cate was a brilliant child. She was a savant, but not autistic. She could see a group of people or things and know how many there were instantly. She could see a telephone number or a house number and immediately know the sum of the digits. Math was both her talent and her curse. Quite early, she developed quirks about numbers. She was six years old when she told her mother she couldn’t call home when she needed to be picked up from a birthday party, because the digits in their telephone number added up to 33, and she couldn’t call an odd number. Mommy, Cynthia’s phone number adds up to 28 and Lucy’s is 44. Why can’t we have a number like that? Her mother thought Cate was just being difficult. Her father used a stronger word when he was told they had to get another telephone number.

If the digits of a house number totaled an odd number, she would not go in it. Later, when she told her father she wanted to be President some day, he pointed out that the President lived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and the address added up to seven—an odd number. How are you going to handle that? he asked.

I’ll make them change it, she said, convinced that they would.

As she matured, she overcame many of her quirks. House numbers and telephone numbers no longer stopped her from using them, but there was a slight increase in pulse rate when she did. One quirk she never overcame was red food or candy. If nothing was red, she had no trouble eating it in any sequence, but if something was red, then she had to separate the food into colors and eat the red food first, as if she needed to get rid of it, so she could enjoy what was left.

Puberty brought the most serious of her problems. Her breasts started developing and then for some reason stopped getting any larger. Even as an adult, she felt that she had the breasts of a 13-year-old girl. She was one of the most beautiful girls in school, and academically she was always at the top of her class in every subject, but she was acutely aware that she had not developed like her peers. It made her feel inferior to them, especially with boys.

She began wearing layered clothes in an attempt to hide her chest. She refused to use the common shower after gym class. It was rare when she went swimming, because she didn’t want to expose her body to anyone. On those occasions when she had to swim, she wore a padded bra-top and covered it with a boy’s tee shirt explaining that her body couldn’t take direct sunlight.

Dating in high school was infrequent, because she wouldn’t get into the back seat with any boy. Only one boy got beyond first base, and he ultimately took her virginity, but even he never completely saw her chest completely nude.

A final superstition was her gold pendant. When she was 12 years old, her grandmother gave her a gold butterfly charm to wear as a pendant. When the grandmother died a few days later, Cate thought she died because she had given her luck to Cate with the charm. At her grandmother’s graveside, she secretly promised that she would never take off the charm. After that, she never left her room without the gold butterfly pendent around her neck. She even used two gold chains in case one broke.

Cate grew up on Queen Anne Hill in Seattle. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Washington in pre-law, and went to law school at Yale. After her trial practice and legal clinical work, she was awarded a JD—Juris Doctor or Doctor of Law—summa cum laude. While at Yale, she was admitted to the secret Skull and Bones society and met the love of her life.

Robert Sebastian was born into comfortable wealth not far from the famous estates along Beach Road on Long Island, New York. His family was not a part of the ultra-rich society of Southampton, but they were not far removed from it either. He was from five generations of attorneys who were all educated at Yale University; the last four were Bonesmen.

After earning his JD from Yale, he planned to join his father’s law firm on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, and eventually take it over when his father stepped down. His plans were delayed when a professor he admired and respected, Professor Mortimer Steinbrenner, asked him to stay on as his assistant. It was a decision that would change his life forever, because it was during this period that he fell in love with Cate.

Cate was a second-year law student when they met. Neither of them would admit they fell in love on their first date, because both of them were too levelheaded to admit to such emotional hysterics. However, within months, they were sharing an apartment off campus.

Robert Sebastian was the first man Cate ever allowed to see her totally nude. He made her feel as if she was the most beautiful woman alive, and to him she was. They were in love and both of them knew it.

Why won’t you marry me, Cate? I love you, and I know you love me too. We could join my father’s law firm and be making six figures our first year.

Robby, I’ve told you. I’m going back to Seattle, and after I practice law for a while, I’m going to enter politics. For me, the law has always been a means to an end.

You could go into politics here. New York is about the most political place in the world.

I can’t live in New York, Robby. I’ve told you that. I’m going home just as soon as I get my doctorate. I’ll gladly marry you if you’ll move to Seattle.

What would I do in a hick town like Seattle?

Cate’s head jerked back. Have you ever been there?

No, and I don’t intend to go. A woman is supposed to live where her husband is.

Cate made a face. What planet do you live on, Robert?

He knew he was in trouble when she called him Robert. He started trying to back pedal. I’m sure Seattle is a nice little town—

Getting deeper, Cate said, folding her arms and turning her back on him.

They argued all of the time, but for all of their differences, and there were many, they both loved each other deeply. They were also both unyielding when it came to their ideas and beliefs, especially about politics and the law.

Cate went back to Seattle after graduation. It was not without much soul-searching and doubts, but the one thing that stood uppermost in her mind was the fact that she knew she could never be satisfied being a housewife. She was not the stay-at-home type.

Please change your mind, Cate, Robert said when he took her to the airport.

Come with me, Robby. We can be happy in Seattle. I promise.

"Cate, you’re asking me to give up my father’s law practice that’s been in our family for generations."

We can have our own law practice in Seattle.

Doing what? Settling lawsuits over dogsleds? He knew it was the wrong thing to say as soon as the words came out, but he couldn’t get them back.

Cate went home to Seattle and started Cate Farmer Legal Services.

Robert left Yale and joined his father’s law firm. Over the next year, Cate and Robert talked endlessly over the phone and by text and email, but Cate was unyielding. Finally, it was Robert who gave in. He moved to Seattle, and they were married two weeks later.

They changed the name of Cate’s firm to Sebastian and Farmer Legal Services and moved into a larger office.

Within a year Cate was pregnant, but she miscarried in the second trimester. She got pregnant again, but this time she miscarried in the first trimester. Doctors told them it was unlikely that Cate would ever be able to carry a baby to term. Unfortunately, doctors were correct.

Chapter Three

Faye Rogers-Simone went to high school with Cate. She was a cheerleader and just about the most beautiful girl in school. Her long, silky blonde hair and permanently tanned complexion was the envy of every girl, and the desire of every boy. Faye didn’t hesitate to use her beauty to take any boy she wanted. Cate hated her, because Faye took two of her boyfriends away and then dropped them shortly afterwards.

In high school, Faye and Cate were known as Beauty and the Beast. Faye was the beauty and Cate was the beast. It was not meant to be an insult to Cate, because it referred to her brainpower that no one seemed to be able to match. Faye was definitely not in Cate’s league in terms of intelligence, but she was intelligent. It’s just that with her great beauty, she never had to use it.

To Cate and others who knew Faye in high school, she was always about beauty and the superficial. Therefore, it came as a surprise when Faye came to Cate’s office to interview for executive assistant when Cate was staffing up for her first term as Governor of Washington State.

Cate was working on something at her desk when Faye came in and sat down. Cate looked up and was surprised to see her ole nemesis. "Faye. She picked up the resume. It says Simone. Is that your married name?"

Yes. How are you doing, Cate?

Uh… great. I’m surprised to see you. I mean we were not—

Friends. I know. I’m sorry I was such a boob in high school. Do you forgive me?

Cate leaned forward and rested her arms on the desk. How can I put this? The person I’m looking for will be with me many hours every day. She will be my right hand, knowing what I need before I need it. She will be—Faye, you’re not the person I’m looking for.

"Cate, did you read my resume? I didn’t know anything in high school. I went to UCLA, because they were near the beaches, but I discovered something important about myself. I’m smart. Maybe not as smart as you are, but I suspect I’m pretty close. I speak three foreign languages—German, Spanish, and French. My major when I started was social studies, but I switched to international business and graduated cum laude. I know you and other girls in high school hated me, but I’m not that person anymore.

I met my husband, Carl, at college. We have a son, Carl Junior. He’s a senior in high school this year, and I’m trying to teach him that high school is nothing like the real world. I’ve been special assistant to a district court judge for the last two years. I’m good at my job, Cate. I’ve followed everything you’ve done in the legislature. I’m your biggest fan. Give me a chance.

Cate did give Faye a chance. Even though Faye did her job well as executive assistant, Cate kept her at arms length for months, but as time passed their relationship grew closer.

One evening, they were sitting on the sofa before the fireplace in the Governor’s Office in Olympia. Everyone had gone home but them. They were enjoying a glass of wine before leaving for the day. After a moment of reflection, Cate looked at her and smiled. Beauty and the beast. That’s what they used to call us.