Reprisal!- The Eagle's Challenge

by Cliff Roberts

  Starks just sat there staring into space, so Roger continued.

  “Alan Greene, the senior senator from Vermont, is being a real pain in the ass. He’s telling everyone who’ll give him thirty seconds of airtime he won’t support any contract with Mexico or Venezuela because of their anti-American stance.” Bascome took a deep breath while waiting for the President to respond, but Starks just sat there, looking out the window into the darkness.

  “Sir, I suggest we provide the man with some campaign help to cut off his concerns. Say, around a half-million?” Roger floated the balloon, but President Starks still remained quiet.

  “Then there’s Senator Bains. She’s now officially jumped on the bandwagon against the bill and is making speeches wailing against it, complete with the Texas delegation’s talking points. Plus, she is calling it just another one of your failed leadership issues. Our internal polls are showing that she is starting to gain ground with the public. She’s beginning to rise in the polling, with the latest numbers putting her at thirty-nine percent to your fifty-seven percent in head-to-head polling. That’s up from her nineteen percent just a month ago, and it shows you having taken a nineteen point drop over the same time frame.”

  Still receiving no response from the president, Bascome now had to discuss even unhappier news. “Steven Howard gave a speech today, basically calling you a do-nothing socialist. He harped on what he called, and I quote, ‘the inaction of the administration to deal properly with the terrorist attacks and being the weakest president on national defense since Grover Cleveland.’ Joining him on stage were several active duty generals and admirals, but no General Clarett. It’s been his basic speech as of late, but he added a new twist when he went off on a tangent suggesting that foreign influences were corrupting our government, and when they asked for specifics, he challenged the press to dig the story out for themselves,” Bascome stated.

  “The good news is, Senator Rougeford of Illinois has called for Congressional hearings to investigate what the papers are calling ‘Encryption Gate.’ Rougeford says he’s on track to begin in a week. Senator Harcord of Pennsylvania is supporting the hearings, though he has backed off holding his own because Senator Bains provided proof, supposedly, that he was accusing her of wrongdoing using false documents. I tell you, he’s running scared at the moment. We shouldn’t have tried to use him to begin with. He is so weak!” Bascome added his opinion of the man as an afterthought. “Senator Rougeford, though, should be able to keep Senator Bains and Steven Howard busy and get them off the nightly news other than to be attacked by the press,” Bascome concluded.

  “I want the press to be relentless in their attacks on those two, Roger. You understand me?” the president growled at his NSA director. “And I want those generals identified and charged with insubordination.” He then he added, “What bad foreign news do you have?”

  “First of all, sir, you need to hire a new chief of staff to handle all of your legislative and political issues. It’s not my job, and I won’t be taking it on. The generals—I’ll look into them, but you’ll need to take them up with the Joint Chiefs or the Secretary of Defense, as it is their area of responsibility, not mine,” Bascome answered curtly. “As for the foreign news, we have all the usual crap!” Bascome began. “The Russians have cut off natural gas supplies to Europe again, claiming the Ukraine is stealing gas from the pipeline that crosses their territory and they now owe them more than ten million Euros for the stolen gas. Plus, the Europeans haven’t agreed to a contract with the Russians, and that is really pissing off Putin.”

  “Great. Won’t that affect the supply of winter heating oil and natural gas?” Starks asked.

  Bascome ignored the question. The answer was so obvious.

  “The Chinese are demanding that we not interfere with their planned military exercises in the Straits of Taiwan and that we increase the payments on the interest for the debt they have bought. They are demanding the interest rate rise from four percent to seven percent based on our economy’s nosedive. They actually said they were concerned that you would balk at making the next scheduled payment, which is due in a month. They have lost faith in our currency and are demanding that the payment be made in gold ingots. They claim the amount should be twenty-six billion,” Bascome explained. Starks made no comment.

  “Venezuela is finally sending us refined gas,” Bascome stated, moving on. “The first tanker arrived in Texas City yesterday. Hugo is expecting a sweetheart deal for building new refineries in the U.S., which I alluded to but didn’t promise would happen.

  “The number of undocumented workers crossing the border from Mexico is estimated to be up by some twenty percent since we struck the gas deal with Mexico. President Kruse is calling on you to relax border enforcement further and allow unfettered access to the U.S., but as usual, he refuses to allow easy access to Mexico, citing sovereignty issues, which is a crock of shit, if you ask my opinion.

  “Then to top it all off, France has been caught trying to hack into several Wall Street firms. The hack originated from their U.N. offices, which means the people responsible for the hacking have diplomatic status. We’ll need to have your decision on what action we should take as soon as possible, sir. From my perspective, we have three choices. We can let the press know; we can expel the U.N. delegation; or we can expel the ambassador.” Bascome finished ticking off the issues rapid fire without taking a breath, and then sat quietly waiting for the president to speak.

  “Feed the French to the press,” Starks blurted suddenly.” It’ll get the assholes in Congress focused on someone besides us. After the press beats them up a bit, demand the French replace the ambassador along with the entire staff, or they can get out and don’t come back,” he snarled, then almost immediately drifted off into deep thought again.

  “I stand corrected. There are four things we could do to the French,” Bascome added sarcastically.

  President Starks then interjected, ignoring Bascome’s comment. “Then you had better sic the cyber warriors on them and make sure they can’t get into any system but their own from here on out. Then let the boys over at State handle the rest of the shit. That’s what they get paid for. I’m more concerned about what Bains and that asshole Howard are up to!” The president changed the subject to what he felt was the really important issue—his public persona and the overall legacy he would leave after he left office. With their continued harassment of him, he was beginning to doubt that history would treat him kindly, and his legacy of being the Greatest American President of All Time was in jeopardy.

  “I’m afraid that I do not have good news on that front, either,” stated Bascome. “Our surveillance teams caught former CIA Director Westlyn going into Kilauea Corp. headquarters two days ago.”

  “What? Has Westlyn joined up with Howard?” the president blurted out.

  “He actually went to work for Howard about two months ago, along with Bill Richland, the former FBI director,” Bascome added casually as he continued to shuffle the papers in his folder.

  “What? Why wasn’t I told about this? This is a God-damned disaster! Those two could supply Bains and Howard with all kinds of inside information about what we’re doing and who we’re working with!” Starks growled.

  “Actually, sir, you were advised of this new situation by Jason when it was announced in the Wall Street Journal almost two months ago. You told him not to worry about it,” Bascome calmly corrected.

  “Shit! You should have known that there would be a problem and worried about it anyway!” the president spat.

  “Yes, sir, and I did. I’ve had the two of them followed for the last two months. They both work out of Bryson City, North Carolina at a recycling plant that Howard has there. There have been at least three meetings, which were attended by Howard, Senator Bains, Chip Clarett, Richland and Westlyn.”

  “You don’t happen to know what those meetings were about, do you?” Starks asked sarcastically.

  “No, sir, I don’t. As
you well know, Kilauea Corp. has the best encryption code, and they have the most sophisticated anti-spy systems in the world. The building is impenetrable by any outside devices. What we have managed to get are their emails and data transfers from their non-corporate accounts. Though we still haven’t been able to break the encryption on either of them.”

  “Roger, you must think I’m an idiot, talking to me that way! You work for me, God damn it!” the president shouted.

  Bascome rolled his eyes. “Calm down. I don’t think you’re an idiot, just overworked. That’s why you need to hire a new chief of staff, and you need to depend on me to handle the foreign issues to our advantage,” he stated flatly. “I’ve done some digging through the database at the NSA and have found some interesting—although circumstantial—evidence about where the calls from the Bryson City office have been going. It seems there have been lots of calls going back and forth between Bern, Switzerland, Paris, France and a small island in the Bahamas. Howard has it labeled as Kilauea Corporation’s Research and Development Office. The calls to Bern have been going to a private security firm run by a former CIA operative, and the calls to Paris have been going to a company that specializes in financial sector information.

  “Kilauea’s R&D office is where General Clarett has relocated as head of security for Kilauea Corp. Clarett, it seems, has renounced his citizenship, and the only times he has been back in the country has been when he was attending meetings in Bryson City.

  “On his second trip to Bryson, he stopped off at the Howard estate. So, I did some checking on the estate, and I found they have better security than the White House. The security system and plan were designed by Clarett. The estate has more than three dozen guards at all times, and the house is equipped with two safe rooms that would take high explosive charges to open. If I had to guess why they chose to meet in Bryson City, I’d say it was to avoid being seen at the Richmond headquarters. Most likely, they were there to plan their attacks on you, Mr. President. You know, a strategy session and maybe to buy off the senator.” Bascome stopped at this point and waited for the president to speak.

  “This is just great! You are some great spy master, Roger. With all the sophisticated ways to spy on them at your disposal, and you still haven’t found out a thing.” The president gave him a withering look.

  Roger stifled a sigh. “Mr. President, I think we need to ratchet up the pressure on the senator and really lower the boom on Howard. I can arrange to have the senator’s private car, which she uses every weekend, to be involved in a… traffic mishap. It’ll be a hit-and-run incident where she will have someone put the fear of God into her under the guise of stopping to help her. We’ll do our best to ensure that the senator will be uninjured, but she’ll receive a good scare!

  “As for Howard, he is clearly challenging you, sir, and I think we need to make it clear that he needs to walk away as fast as he can, while he still can. A couple of years ago, you may remember Howard and his family were attacked at their California estate by members of Hamas. It had something to do with the fact that Howard wouldn’t sell them any encryption software, and without his encryption codes, anything they put on computers can be easily compromised by anyone who knows where to look.

  “Hamas was really pissed off at him and still is, according to the Israelis. Anyway, I think Mr. Howard needs to be reminded of that fact, now that he has allowed himself to assume a higher profile again. Nothing causes a man to back off like having his family threatened.” Bascome took a deep breath and waited.

  “Do you think we could use those overseas calls, especially the calls to Paris and the secret meetings in Bryson City, to discredit Howard?” Starks asked, but didn’t wait for Bascome to answer before going on. “Couldn’t the calls be use as a smoking gun, confirming the connection between the French hacking attack on Wall Street and Howard? You know, like insider trading!”

  “That is a reasonable assumption one could draw from the secrecy that Howard insists upon. It’ll make great front page news.” Bascome beamed a big smile as he replied. “I’d be willing to bet your money that Howard will be shitting bricks when he is implicated in the hacking scandal. He stands to lose billions in business, and he’ll be tied up with lawyers for years. I’d have Tenants start an investigation into Howard’s actions over the last two years and include a tax evasion charge which will get the IRS involved. Say, that could be another push point for the senator, as well. I’d have the IRS investigate her, too!” Bascome suggested.

  “Yeah, I like that! Why didn’t you think of this before?” The president smiled at Bascome, playfully chiding him. “You’ll, of course, provide the intercepts, both email and phone calls, that will be the basis for the FBI investigation.”

  “Of course. I’ll also arrange for the senator to have an accident and for Howard to have some uninvited guests out to his estate. They’ll give his security system good solid test. Seeing just how vulnerable he and his family truly are should shake Howard up quite a bit. Hell, the last time it happened, he packed up and moved. Then he didn’t say a word for two years to anyone other than people he met for business reasons. I would think that our friends at Solution Brothers could supply the muscle for such a test, giving us complete deniability.”

  “Make it happen,” the president stated flatly, then added, “Roger, you know you have to take control, and if that requires that you get your hands a little dirty, well, so be it. It was George Bernard Shaw who said, ‘The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.’ I intend to be the unreasonable man. I’ll handle the political pressure myself, and my new chief of staff will handle the petty secretarial-type work only.

  “You get in touch with our media contacts and have the French connection on the front page day after tomorrow. Then, on Friday, have the IRS story put out, listing the source of the story as an unnamed IRS source. If the papers run with this long enough, we’ll have a real scandal that’ll keep everyone looking the other way while I gather more power, and I can then truly take total control!”

  Bascome smiled, knowing that he’d hitched his wagon to a totally evil egomaniac, who just happened to be the President of the United States. The fact the man had decided to become a benevolent dictator of the world’s only superpower was icing on the cake. Roger didn’t care how Starks managed to gain complete control, only that he did. He was his right hand man now that Combs was gone, and he was thrilled to be a part of the plan. Not only for the money, but for the power that was to be his very soon.

  “Roger, there’s something I’d like to speak with you about in depth before you leave,” President Starks stated as he picked up his phone and dialed the Secret Service office next door to the Oval Office. “Agent Peters, this is the president. I want all of the recording devices turned off, and bring me the discs for the last hour as well, in, say, thirty minutes. Thank you.” Starks hung up and turned to Bascome.

  “Can we trust him?” Bascome asked quietly.

  “He’s Secret Service! He can’t tell anyone anything by law. Hell, those guys have kept some really juicy secrets over the years. If they hadn’t, I’d kick them out of the White House and hire my own security team,” he responded.

  “I just don’t want any recordings of our conversation to be leaked to media or, heaven forbid, Howard. In fact, I don’t want any recording made of our conversation by anyone, including the Secret Service or you!” Bascome snapped. “I remember Nixon and the missing eighteen minutes of tape!”

  “Relax, Roger. You just heard me order the man to stop recording and bring the discs to me later. No one knows what we’re talking about in here, and they never will,” President Starks dismissed. “Now, I think your suggestion regarding how to deal with Howard is a fine one. But I want it to be more than just a scare. I want that asshole eliminated from the political stage once and for all! He’s too rich and too powerful to have him ru
nning around challenging me. So, let our friends know I want an all-out assault of his estate.”

  “Yes, sir. I understand,” Bascome replied succinctly.

  “I also want to thank you for having dealt with the Combs situation so quickly and so efficiently.

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “What have you done with his insurance package?”

  “I have it in my safe for safe keeping,” Roger explained.

  “I want it, and I want it by ten tomorrow morning. I don’t want to see any copies turning up later, either.”

  “No, sir. It’ll be here by ten a.m.”

  *****

  The news broke the following evening that the FBI and CIA had caught two French diplomats in the act of hacking into six Wall Street firms with the intention of robbing the firms of money and insider information. The two were being held by authorities, while they looked into allegations that the men were working with an as of yet unnamed American. That same evening, both Steven Howard and Senator Bains received notices that they were being audited by the IRS.

  The following day, the SEC announced that they were opening an investigation into allegations of insider trading by Steven Howard, the billionaire, owner of the Kilauea Corporation and several dozen subsidiaries in seventeen countries. At the bottom of the front page of the New York Times, there was another small article expanding the coverage of the story regarding the IRS audit of a prominent senator from Georgia, Senator Sarah Bains, Republican, and how this was just the latest in a series of scandals involving the senator, including the Congressional hearings about to take place regarding allegations of Senate ethics violations.