Roam Around The Earth: Whitney Powers Paranormal Adventure #2 (Whitney Powers Paranormal Adventures)

by Jason Paul Rice

  “I did, I know letters. The substance though, I couldn’t agree more about Ellerbee. I’m surprised he didn’t sprout wings and fly back himself. This is too great. I wish I could see the look on his face right now, knowing the jig is up. I don’t understand how they walked around for so long like nothing had ever happened and they were just whistling into the wind. I’ll never understand the criminal mind.”

  Trent smiled and said, “That’s a good thing. I’d be a little scared if you understood and sympathized with criminals. We still haven’t hit the top two people involved in this investigation. The President and Vice President are probably getting some pretty interesting phone calls right about now.”

  Barrett stated, “I think we should interview most of these guys first to see if we can dig up any more dirt on the big boys to have as much ammunition on those two as possible.”

  “Good plan. We need to start removing these jerks from government soon before they destroy our country.”

  Trent said, “I wouldn’t expect this process to go too fast. This will get done and people will pay for their crimes, but it’s going to take a while. The scope of this thing is enormous. With all the international aspects, it’s going to take some time. Impeachment will only take place if the Bull Party makes it happen and it doesn’t really seem like it’s in their best interest to do that.”

  “That’s for sure. They don’t want anyone to know what happened. The confessions will speed it up a bit if they all spilled the beans on our President.”

  Barrett said, “Most of them confirmed that the plan had the blessing of the President but none of them were ever contacted directly by Gergen. Almost all of them had the VP or Ellerbee approach them with the plans.”

  “They do seem to turn up everywhere we look in this investigation. Looks like they masterminded this whole operation to get Gergen elected and reap the benefits of power. We need to find out if the President was behind everything and just didn’t want to get directly involved.”

  Barrett looked at his phone and said, “Everyone else is getting together at the Graffiti Garage if you guys want to meet up with them. Udanowitz says that Chief McTalbot is there.”

  “Of course we’ll go to see everyone.”

  14

  Whitney stared across the table at the President of Adoxia. They sat in the dimly lit interrogation room. The man looked defeated as he shifted around in his chair. His thick red mustache and eyebrows matched his thinning hair in color. Several beads of sweat clung to the bottom of his jowl, waiting to fall to the ground. Whitney sensed he was nervous and for good reason.

  “Mr. President, I want to thank you for sitting down with us today and just let me remind you that this is all on the record. I also want to remind you that the President of Adoxia is essentially protected against any criminal wrongdoing on the federal level. However, that doesn’t include crimes committed on the state or international level. The President isn’t even insulated against those kinds of charges.”

  Alan Gergen took a drink from his water bottle and wiped his mouth. “Thank you for the friendly reminder.”

  “I really hope you don’t think this is going to be a friendly chat. Do you know what’s been going on in the past week?” Trent asked.

  The President answered, “You mean all those arrests by the Bureau. I am briefed every day by the Chief, you know?”

  “We know. We know a lot more than you might think. We know about all the deals. We have intercepts, receipts and confessions. The ship is going down fast. Do you want to drown?”

  The President said calmly, “I didn’t have anything to do with any of that business that everyone is talking about.”

  Trent asked, “But you do admit that the basis of those accusations is true?”

  The President shrugged his shoulders. “I wouldn’t know. I wasn’t involved with any of it.”

  “Well, I can tell you from firsthand knowledge that most of these deals were made with the promise of your blessing. What do you say to that?”

  Mr. Gergen shifted around a little more. “You could walk out on the street and tell someone that you have my blessing. It doesn’t make it so, does it? Did you ever hear me sanction any of this?”

  Trent said, “No. Not directly from your lips. How close to the Vice President would you say you are?”

  The President took a deep breath. “Frank Mooney was posed to me by my campaign manager. I immediately balked. I don’t like the guy, but sometimes you have to work with people you don’t like.”

  “What do you think of his morals?”

  Alan Gergen shook his head. “What is this? You think you’re going to get me to say something bad about him so you can run over to him and blab all about it. You’re going to have to do a lot better than that.”

  Trent said, “Alright, let’s talk about some of your high appointees and how you chose those people for their roles. What factors did you take into account?”

  The President said, “The Vice President took care of most of the appointees and I took care of the big picture stuff.”

  “Big picture stuff? Nothing is more important than picking the people that are going to work for you for the next five years. What big picture stuff would that be?”

  “Worldwide terrorism. The biggest threat to all of us. I’m trying to make sure both of you are safe so you can sit here like this and berate a sitting President. You people are despicable,” Alan Gergen chastised.

  “With all due respect Mr. President, our country is only as strong as the laws that hold it up. If we lose sight of that, there’s nothing to fight for. We’d just be an empty egg shell. We can go back and forth all day if that’s what you want but we know about the deal with Olodomo. How does that fight terrorism?”

  Whitney noticed a flash of nervousness come over the President’s face. He slid back in his seat and arched his back. She sensed he was close to the edge.

  “We know about the meeting in Starvary and Goldera along with the meeting at the Rose Ridge Club. The one that you were supposed to be the Honored Guest at. Such a shame you couldn’t make it.”

  The President rubbed his eyebrows and took a deep breath. He looked around the room and leaned over on the table.

  He said, “It wasn’t me. They asked me to get involved early on and I told them no and that they needed to be careful.”

  Trent asked, “When you say they, who are you referring to?”

  The President said, “People involved with the campaign. They started coming to me with all kinds of cockamamie stories about how we could get help to win the election by using some sort of crazy computer from another country. They kept saying that we could all get rich off the process. I said I didn’t want anything to do with it.”

  “But you didn’t tell them not to do it or that they weren’t allowed to do it?”

  A strange smile came over Alan Gergen’s face, “These are grown men. Alpha males. I can’t control these animals. If they want to do something, how am I to stop them?”

  “So, you didn’t tell them that it would be inappropriate, and they were making these deals in your name. In the name of Adoxia.”

  The President said, “I didn’t know that. I never signed off on any of those shady deals. I stayed completely out of it until we won.”

  Trent said, “Wait, so what changed after you won?”

  A troubled look came over the President. “They turned on me. It’s hard to confess this, but I was used by my party to push all their policies. When I made it clear that I would never lift the embargo or sanctions on Goldera, they came at me with the pictures.”

  “What pictures?”

  The President took a drink of water. “My wife and I are doing wonderful now, probably the happiest we’ve ever been. There were a few years in the past that I needed something all men need. When you work in government, the days can be long and frustrating. I’ve been involved in fourteen-hour filibusters before, not to mention all the rest.”

  “Let’s get to
the point please.”

  The President stared at Whitney. “The point is that I participated in two extra-marital adventures and the Vice President and leaders of the party had the pictures. I wouldn’t take part in the deals, but I swore to turn a blind eye toward their indiscretions. I wish it would have stopped there, but then they forced all my high appointments. I was the President of Adoxia and I was powerless. I just wanted to protect my wife and kids. Youngest is going to be a senior in high school this year and I didn’t want him to suffer from my mistakes.”

  Trent said, “That is sad, but you do realize you are an accessory and you are guilty of obstruction of justice with all of your appointees?”

  The President said sharply, “I do, but I want to make sure you realize that I’m not guilty of any high crimes. I didn’t sell out my country. I just wanted to protect my family, that’s all.”

  “This isn’t to say that I don’t believe you, but we will need to question some other people about this for veracity. It’s just hard for me to believe that a President would do what you just confessed to. With that precedent, it’s hard for me to say where you would draw the line.”

  Trent said, “I want to let you know that we won’t be leaking any of that information about your past. You will be asked about it in court and from there, it will likely get out. You are going to have to tell your family about your mistakes. I suggest you do it before they see it on TV.”

  The President said, “I know. I need to do it as soon as I see them tonight. Those vultures are going to release everything once I am no longer of use to them. I wouldn’t be surprised if they did it before I got home. They know I am talking to you right now and they know I have a slight sense of honor, not much, but some.”

  “Did you ever think about just being honest about it? If it happened in the past, before you were President, you wouldn’t have been impeached for it.”

  The President said, “As I sit here and think about it, everything sounds so easy. It’s like I’ve been in a race going around a track at 110 miles per hour ever since we started campaigning. I’ve had some days with twenty meetings and forty phone calls. I guess when you’re in the middle of it all, that bad stuff just seems like a really small part, at least that’s how I rationalized it to myself. But now that I am out of the race and standing on the sidelines, I can see clearly. I can see how big one thing out of a million can be. Maybe I should have stood up and been stronger.”

  Trent asked, “Do you know anything about the details of any of the deals?”

  The President shifted around in his seat. “I really don’t. I walked into many conversations that soon became hushed when the people noticed me. There was a huge disconnect between the few of us that were trying to do great work for Adoxia and the majority that only cared about enriching themselves. So I heard a thing here and there, but nothing in detail. They seem to have gone out of their way to keep me out of it. Probably a smart move.”

  “Why should we believe you?”

  Alan Gergen said, “As I said, since this entire process to become the President of Adoxia, I’ve been moving farther away from the party I once held dear to my heart. My only solace became my wife, Ethel, and my kids. I would talk to her ten times on the phone before I got home and then we would spend every evening together. Then they came at me with the pictures.”

  “You’ve already explained this.”

  The President held up his finger and said, “I’m getting to the point, which is, my wife and kids were the greatest things in my life. Why would I confess to what I just did? Why would I risk doing that to my family?”

  Trent answered, “To avoid jail for one thing. I don’t want to sound cynical, but I’ve never really trusted politicians. What do you plan to do from here?”

  The President took a drink and waited a moment. “The dream is over, obviously. I dreamed ever since I was a little boy about becoming the President of Adoxia. As I previously stated, with all the hoopla going on the entire time, I overlooked the workings of some very crooked people. You’ll probably say I even abetted them, but I never profited off any of my decisions as President. I will take responsibility for the appointees. I shouldn’t have let them strong-arm me on that.”

  “You keep talking about the past. What do you plan to do moving forward?”

  The President said, “Considering this process has just started, I’m not quite sure.”

  Trent asked, “Did you really think that you were going to get away with it? I mean, how did you all sit around and pretend like nothing had ever happened?”

  Alan Gergen exhaled audibly and said, “The business during the campaign that I managed to stay out of never really bothered me because I wasn’t sure of what exactly they were doing. After the blackmail and everything that followed, I’ve been riddled with guilt every day. And the one person I want to talk to about it, I can’t. I can’t tell Ethel about the biggest concern on my mind. And she knows, believe me, she knows. I don’t know how the others are handling it, but I’ve felt the walls closing in. After the Daryl Hopkins interview, I knew our time was limited. Mooney told me to hold it together.”

  “So you expressed worry about the situation to your Vice President?”

  The President slowly nodded his head, “Yes. I told him that if there was intelligence out there, he couldn’t make it all disappear. He said we own the investigative and justice departments of this country and we would never get caught. I think his exact words were, ‘stop being paranoid.’”

  Trent said, “There is something you can still do for your country, sir. There’s no doubt your legacy has been tarnished by this criminal activity and cover up, but this isn’t the end. You can show your love of the country still. Some serious crimes have been committed and the people of Adoxia are going to want answers and accountability.”

  The President cut him off. “You don’t want me to pardon any of them?”

  Trent said, “Exactly.”

  Alan Gergen let out a light and hollow laugh. “I have the best protection of anyone in the world as President of this country. Even with that, these guys can still get to me. You think mobsters are bad; politicians can be worse because they control the laws of the land. These guys will have me killed within a week. I’m not sure you know what kind of game they are playing?”

  “Actually, we found out the hard way about the kind of game these guys play. I understand your plight, but I can get the government to make sure you stay safe with increased security. No matter what you do, these men aren’t going to be very fond of your testimony.”

  The President told them, “I’ll see what I can do. Maybe I’ll end up doing the right thing just for honor’s sake.”

  “I should hope that you can come to this conclusion too. I want to thank you for coming in today and being candid with your responses. Obviously, we will need to speak with you again after we hold a few more interviews to see if your story holds up.”

  The President got up and put his suit jacket back on over his sweat-soaked white button down shirt and left the small interrogation room.

  Trent said, “We just got the President of Adoxia to admit that we were right. I’m not sure I believe him fully, but we will find out when we get to our Vice President, Frank Mooney. That is going to be one fun interview tomorrow.”

  “It feels like we are right near the finish line on this one. I can’t believe the other agents let us handle these high profile interviews. If we can get the Vice President to admit to his wrongdoings, there won’t be much need for a trial.”

  “Unfortunately because these are government officials, we have to jump through a few extra hoops to get criminal convictions. I didn’t want to say it in front of him, but the President is unlikely to spend a day in jail. His crimes are serious but his Presidential powers will make it nearly possible to even indict him.”

  Trent added, “Exactly. And if he pardons anyone, all our work is basically for nothing as the biggest criminals in Adoxia history will get to walk fre
e. We haven’t even started with whether the House of Delegates will get involved and hand out immunity.”

  “I know. I remember how long it took for all the Benno Dante paperwork just to go through to start those proceedings. Now the web is even more tangled.”

  The Vice President cancelled the scheduled interview at the last moment. He used the same tactic with the next two attempts and Trent and Whitney had to get a subpoena to make sure he would show up. The married couple sat in the same interrogation room that they had used for the President and waited.

  Frank Mooney entered the room with his lawyer and angrily kicked the chair out from the table so he could sit down. His lawyer sat by his side and across from Whitney and Trent.

  “I would say thank you for coming in, but we are way past those pleasantries. I don’t know you, Mr. Vice President, but innocent people usually revel in the opportunity to clear their names. You’ve been accused of some of the biggest charges in the history of Adoxia. I would think you would be chomping at the bit to set the record straight.”

  The Vice President said casually, “What’s your point?”

  “My point is that you have obstructed this process at every point. The President came in here and answered every question we asked. He didn’t cancel the appointment at the last minute three times and have to be dragged in here. My point is that you better answer our questions, and you better tell the truth.”

  The Vice President commented, “That’s all I know how to do.”

  Trent laughed and took a moment to compose himself. “Sorry, I thought you were making a joke. How do you respond to the charges of conspiring with a foreign government to win our election and making a back-door weapons deal with Olodomo?”

  Frank Mooney looked at his fingernails on his right hand and appeared bored to answer the question. “Lots of rumors go around this town. I would expect you got answers about this from our President. I’m just his underling and a Vice President in this country doesn’t really have any power. Nobody listens to me. I’m just there in case the President dies. I’m nothing more than a mannequin.”