by Sam Black
Another limo waited for him as he stepped out of the helicopter. The limo driver, Pierre, a Frenchman, drove him to the Marshall Building on 32nd Street; not one word was spoken. Shear appeared to be as nervous as a married man seeing his mistress approaching him and his wife. The law firm of Mallory, Pittman, and Herrington occupied the top five floors of the 32-story Marshall Building.
Sterling Shear, with a broad grin on his face, walked into the mammoth reception area. The receptionist smiled at him and asked, “May I help you?”
“Yes, you may, Peggy.” Sterling knew everyone liked to be called by their first name. “I’m Sterling Shear. I have an appointment with R.D. at 6:15. I’m a bit early, but if you could let him know I’m here, I’d greatly appreciate it.” Shear forced a large, warm smile as beads of sweat trickled down his back.
“I’ll call him now, Mr. Shear. I know he is expecting you.”
“Thank you, Peggy.” She smiled and dialed the number.
Three minutes later R.D.’s assistant came through the door. She was tall, thin, had a model’s figure. Her sexy, full lips were painted red. She extended her right hand; fingernails painted red to match her lips. “Good afternoon, Senator Shear.”
“Good afternoon to you too, Miss?”
“Barbra Simpson. I’m Mr. Mallory’s assistant.” She wore a fitted, navy skirt, with a white sweater and black heels.
“It’s my pleasure to meet you Miss, or is it Mrs. Simpson?” Sterling said, impressed with her body. She must be forty, he thought.
“It’s Barbra to my friends.”
“Mind if I call you Barbra?” She must be five ten.
“Not at all, Mr. Shear.” She smiled and turned to show her backside to Shear.
“Barbra, why don’t you call me Sterling?” He was getting aroused.
“Okay, Sterling.” She moved her long legs down the hallway; he watched her every move.
They entered a large room which held a long table set up for dinner for fourteen people. The bar sat off to the right, backed up to the wall. All the furniture was solid mahogany and artwork decorated the painted, dark green walls. The rich, close-weave, multi-colored carpet gave the room a warm, relaxed feeling. Four chandeliers hung from the ten foot ceiling.
The time on the digital wall clock read 5:58; Sterling and Barbra were the only two in the room. They chatted mostly about getting together later for a drink. The trickles of sweat disappeared from Shear’s back.
R.D. arrived in the room at 6:07 and walked gingerly over to the Senator and extended his hand. “I really appreciate you taking the time from your busy schedule to meet with us.” He never gave his name. “Everyone should be here by 6:15, unless traffic holds them up.” He smiled at Barbra and said, “You have met my assistant, Senator?”
“Yes, Sir.” Shear’s eyes were on Barbra’s. “Barbra has been very congenial, to say the least.” Shear winked at Barbra.
Being so engrossed with Barbra, Shear’s southern manners had slipped; he had forgotten R.D.’s last name. “It is my pleasure to meet you, Sir.” What is his last name?
Cocktails lasted a half hour and all fourteen people sat down. Shear had kept his eyes and mind on Barbra the entire time.
Eight people from Mallory, Pittman, and Herrington were in attendance; five people from the three drug companies. All were dressed in suits, including the three ladies. Barbra put on a navy blazer to match her skirt and sat next to Sterling. It had been set up differently, with her at the other end of the table, but she changed it so she could be to Sterling’s left. R.D. sat across the table from Shear, with his partners and their assistants scattered around the table.
Dinner was served at 7:00. The main course consisted of prime rib with garlic mashed potatoes, baby carrots, mixed salad, dinner rolls and coffee or ice tea. No dessert.
The conversations around the table included sports, politics, and the Middle East situation.
Barbra had her right hand on Sterling’s thigh most of the time through dinner.
R. D. Mallory stood and spoke to the other thirteen in attendance. “Senator, you have had the opportunity to meet everyone here. We are new to the drug industry, but believe me, we have a handle on it. I will cut to the chase here and get right to the meat. The drug companies are losing millions of dollars every month because of SAWWS. I’m sure you are aware of what SAWWS has done to this industry over the past four years. SAWWS has grown tremendously in the last two years. They have a great product, but it’s killing this industry. I know it’s saving lives all over the world, but business is business. It has to be slowed down. What we need from you is to get a bill through the Senate that would put the squeeze on SAWWS. The President would have to okay it, but I’m told you have a great relationship with the President. We know, Senator, that you are the most powerful man in Washington. We need your help and we need it now.” R.D. took a drink of water and sat down. Barbra continued to tease Sterling’s upper thigh with her fingers.
Shear cleared his throat and moved Barbra’s hand away from his thigh. Barbra’s fingers had worked their magic; he knew if he stood, it would be embarrassing. He replied, while seated: “I’ll see what we can get done. I have worked very hard and diligently for the drug companies in the USA. I will, of course, continue doing so. However, we must remember that SAWWS is a very powerful company, not only here, in America, but all over the world. SAWWS has rectified differences between our country and many other countries. They serve as a peacemaker, a diplomat, a foreign ambassador, a negotiator, and a friend among our enemies. Some of those enemies have now become our allies because of SAWWS Inc. It will, I repeat, it will be extremely difficult to get SAWWS to slow down its production.”
“Senator, we understand what you are saying, but what happens when everyone keeps on living and not enough people die. We will run out of food, water, and places to live. We have to let people die. We can’t keep them all alive. The world is too crowded now and growing at an alarming rate, especially the poor people in our world,” R.D. said, sitting down.
“Where do you draw the line?” Shear asked, thinking of his people in Mississippi, my voters. Me!
“Senator Shear, these companies will put a billion dollars in your bank accounts, regardless of where they are, if you can get a bill passed.” R.D. smiled and looked directly at Shear.
“A billion dollars is a lot of money.” Sterling’s eyes widened; he scratched his chin, pulled on his ear and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ll get it passed.” Shear looked everyone in the eye after he had finished speaking. A billion dollars!
“Thank you, Senator Shear.” Everyone shook Shear’s hand and the meeting ended. Barbra and Sterling headed for her suite in uptown New York and rolled in the sack until the early morning hours.
Chapter 12
JUNE—WASHINGTON D.C.
Sterling Shear hired the most expensive escort ladies money could buy. A billion dollars could make any man a little crazy, especially if he isn’t paying any taxes on it. The drug companies were going to deposit the billion dollars into six different European banks in Switzerland, France, and Germany. The accounts would be under twenty different names, none of which would be Sterling Shears. Sterling’s financial manager, Howard Taylor, organized everything.
Sterling worked harder than he ever had since becoming a US Senator. The bill he was trying to put through would be a fifty percent cutback on SAWWS Inc.’s production. The drug companies wanted SAWWS slowed down. Sterling proposed fifty percent, which allowed for some wiggle room if the Senate floor asked for something lower. He needed to convince six more Senators to swing the vote in the Senate—he thought. Sterling knew he had the President in the palm of his hand. In order to get these six members on his side, he had to be extremely careful. They were the more honest; they couldn’t be swayed by sex, money, or any other means. Honest documentation would have to be used to persuade them.
His staff assembled over one-hundred pages of information stating why SAWWS Inc. had to
cut back production. The main instruments listed in his arguments were: Over population; food shortage; water shortage; not enough doctors, hospitals, nurses, and nursing aides; not enough nursing homes; insufficient staff to operate nursing homes; increased pollution; contamination from human waste; overabundance of garbage; and too many sick people who couldn’t afford medication.
Other reasons included: An increase of social security and medicare benefits, along with an increase of non-tax-paying individuals. Every Senator had been given the one-hundred page document three weeks before the bill hit the floor of the Senate chamber. The drug companies were spending millions in lobbying for this bill.
Senator Shear laid out his platform to every Senator in the chamber and proceeded with his fifty-minute speech outlining why SAWWS Inc. had to cut their production by fifty percent. During his speech, Shear was counting in his head every dollar of the billion he would be getting. His palms were wet; his voice trembled at times; he swallowed three glasses of water. None of these things had happened to the Senator since his first campaign as a junior Senator. Greed spread throughout his body like a fast growing, terminal cancer.
The vote came in and Shear was not smiling. Beads of sweat were seeping from his forehead. He knew if he got this billion from the drug companies, he could get another billion from them. He knew he could be the richest man in the world in three more years. He would definitely have more than David Holloway. Shear grinned on the inside; once you get the leverage, you can get most things done and make them crawl on all fours.
The ballots were tabulated and majority leader, Senator Reading from New Hampshire, read the results: “Ladies and Gentlemen of the Senate, Senate Bill Number 1107 proposed by Senator Shear has been defeated by a narrow margin of 36 nay votes to 64 aye votes.” The bill needed 2/3 of the majority to pass. There were one-hundred votes cast. The bill came up 3 votes shy of passing. Shear’s body slumped in his chair as if it were full of lead. His mouth fell open, chin dropped, eyes closed, and his heart sank to his knotted stomach. “The session is adjourned,” barked Senator Reading. Shear never moved. He had just suffered his worst defeat. Several colleagues stopped and murmured a few words not heard by Shear.
Shear stayed put for over thirty minutes before he rose and walked slowly out of the Senate chamber. With his hands stuffed in his pants pockets, shoulders dropped and head down, he walked slowly to his office. It was cold, with blustery winds and intermittent snow flurries during his thirty minute walk. Rhonda Jones was sitting in his office when he entered. “If there is anything I can do to please you, let me know, Sterling.” Her legs were crossed, showing most of her shapely thigh.
Shear plopped down and stared at Rhonda as if she had cast the deciding vote. After several seconds, Shear spoke, “I will resubmit the bill. Three damn votes, Rhonda.” Shear stood up and stuffed his hands in his pockets and stared out the window. “Three lousy votes, that’s all. Three lousy votes would have made me a very rich man and you would have had five million more in your bank account.” He turned and looked at Rhonda. “Damn it!” He plunked down in his chair again. “Let’s go get drunk and spend the rest of the week on the boat.”
Shear owned a seventy-five foot motor yacht on Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont. He also owned a one-hundred foot yacht in the Cayman Islands. Rhonda stood up and replied, “I’ll be ready in an hour.”
“I’ll have Amos pick you up at,” Shear peaked at his diamond Rolex, “it is half past three now, how about five sharp?”
Rhonda puckered her lips, slowly opened them, and moved her tongue across her lips. Shear started to forget the vote, but not the billion bucks.
Chapter 13
OCTOBER—LAKE CHAMPLAIN
Senator Shear sponsored the bill for SAWWS Inc.’s cutback through the Senate two more times; it got voted down each time. The nays increased with each vote. Shear was devastated. Was he loosing his power? He had spent over ten million to get this bill through the Senate. He lost millions in drug stocks he had bought in anticipation of the bill passing. Since he hadn’t cashed them in yet, his losses were only on paper. His finance manager, Howard Taylor, had begged him to sell months ago, even though he would have prospered if the bill had gone through.
Shear had helped his son, Travis, get appointed to the CIA through an unethical route a few years back. Sterling wanted Travis in the CIA to protect him in his shady dealings with the drug cartels in Columbia, South America. The Senator has been dealing in drugs for several years. He buys drugs from the drug cartels in Columbia and Mexico. His son and other corrupt members of the CIA confiscate the drugs before the sale. The Senator then sells the drugs directly to the drug dealers in the USA. Every third shipment is confiscated by Shear’s people; thus, nobody becomes alarmed. Shear banks the huge profits.
The drug runners are let go after several weeks and the cartels think Shear is the smartest and most powerful man alive. The ten corrupt members of the CIA and Travis get a percentage of the money he collects every month. This money gets deposited in a Swiss bank account for Travis and the CIA members involved. No one is allowed to withdraw a nickel of the drug money from the Swiss bank until after a ten year period.
The Food and Drug Administration was founded in 1906 and has been revised several times. It is overseen by the United States Senate. They appoint the Chairman of the FDA. The FDA is responsible for the manufacturing and use of all food, dietary supplements, drugs, medical products, blood products, medical devices, vet products, and cosmetics sold in the USA. The FDA is under the Department of Health and Human Services. Their annual budget is well over 3 billion dollars per year.
Ronald Edmonds became chairman of the FDA last year. Many conservatives in the Senate were opposed to Edmonds because of some shady dealings in his home state of Arkansas. Nothing was ever proven, but Edmonds had been brought to trial three times on charges of bribery, fraud, and money laundering in Arkansas.
Several members of the FDA, including Edmonds, and a few Republican and Democrat Senators and Representatives, own huge amounts of drug stocks. Getting new drugs approved by the FDA is relatively easy. Over the past seven years, though, drug company stocks have fallen drastically, causing one hell of a stir and resulting in the selling of such stocks by members of the House, Senate and the FDA. This has cost the drug companies millions of dollars.
Senator Shear called his son, Travis, to set up a meeting on his yacht on Lake Champlain. He asked him to bring along his CIA buddies who assist in the drug trafficking. Everyone from the CIA involved in Shear’s drug trafficking, except Travis, were trained to kill people no matter what the reason or who the people were. The meeting would be held on the first Saturday of October. The fall colors would be magnificent.
Shear had enough liquor, cold beer and food for the ten guys. They were informed about SAWWS Inc. With everyone seated before the party began, Shear spoke: “I will pay you guys more money for this job than you ever thought you would ever see in a lifetime. You will each get ten million dollars, but you won’t be able to touch it for ten years.” Every ear in the galley was tuned to the Senator. Travis’s mouth hung open.
He told them he wanted the plant destroyed and its entire work force killed. He wanted it to look like Sam Abbott, or a terrorist attack, had killed them. He wanted SAWWS Inc.’s bank account closed. He wanted Sam Abbott’s bank account closed, all communication systems taken out, his wife beaten and then drowned in Oconee Lake. Shear, perspiring, continued: “I want Sam Abbott killed.” Shear paused, thinking of the millions he’d have. I’ll be the richest man in the world. “I need this all done on October 12th next year. I have learned from very good sources that the land sits on top of tunnels that were used during the Civil War. You have one year, plus a few days, to get this mission accomplished.”
Shear informed them before he left and they began eating and drinking: “SAWWS Inc. is like Fort Knox. Even with the tunnels, this will be a very difficult job. Any mistakes of any kind will cost you and
me. On October 15th, the ten million will be put into your Swiss bank accounts. Good luck to all of you. Remember, not a word is to be spoken to me or to anyone else. My son, Travis, will be the only person talking to me about this plan. You men converse with him, only. If there aren’t any questions, then the boat is yours for the night.”
Shear had invited ten gorgeous ladies to arrive at the boat after three hours of eating and drinking. He headed to the airport and flew back to D.C. to attend a dinner party with his wife and several close friends from the Senate. He knew he would get the billion dollars, no matter what the cost.
The CIA had been involved in several scandalous encounters since its inception in 1947. FDR formed the CIA to spy against enemy countries of the United States, predominantly communist countries. They were later used in the Korean War to spy against North Korea. The CIA organized the Bay of Pigs with Cuba in the late fifties, which turned into a fiasco and drew many questions from Americans; the answers were never disclosed. According to news articles printed during the Vietnam War, the Phoenix Program, when more than 20,000 Vietnamese were slaughtered, was another CIA initiative. Secrets were kept inside the forty-six million dollar building that sits on the Potomac River. In the 50s the CIA used LSD, or d-lysergic acid diethylamide 25, to control the human brain. They could erase or alter the mind. These experiments were conducted in U.S. prisons and mental institutions. The outcome of LSD on our American streets triggered fried brains and hundreds dying.
During the Vietnam War, it had been reported Air America, a CIA service, had hauled in arms and ammunition while taking out crack cocaine stuffed in the body bags of dead soldiers. This cocaine got dispersed on the streets of many large cities in America. Several articles were printed accusing the CIA of assassinating JFK, but it was never proven. It was believed that JFK had tried to shut down the CIA prior to his death.
