by Mark Donovan
“Really,” responded Jeff. “I know there have been some incidents over the years of the Vice President showing some overt affection to women in more than a fatherly way. But there’s never been any belief, nor evidence of, the Vice President going beyond the level of friendly flirtation. Heck he’s been a married man for over 25 years.”
“Jeff, we both know that many a politician’s spouse has had to live with the pain of a cheating husband in order to protect her financial status and lifestyle,” parried Dana. “I can assure you that what I am about to tell you goes far beyond “just a flirtatious little old man syndrome” with our Vice President. To be succinct it’s quite disgusting and damming to hell.”
“Okay, you’ve piqued my interest. Fill me in.”
Dana proceeded to describe to Jeff what she had viewed earlier in the day making sure to leave out none of the sordid details. She did, however, hold back on who provided her with the information. After finishing her report Jeff sat back quietly and stared at her for a few seconds. If what Dana was saying was true, and he had no reason to doubt her, it would prove to be very damaging to the President and his administration. The Vice President would certainly have to resign and he possibly could be indicted as an accomplice to murder.
“Who was the source of this information and video?”
Somewhat embarrassingly, as she had some level of journalistic respect for Jeff, she responded with, “reporter’s privilege, I can’t divulge that information.”
“So how do you expect me to run a story like this without providing the source of the information?” asked Jeff.
“The video in itself is all the evidence necessary for the American public to draw its own conclusions,” responded Dana.
“How do you know the video is not a fake and somehow doctored or photo-shopped in some way,” pressed Jeff.
“Jeff, you and I both know that we have the resources here at ABO to assess whether a video is real or not,” replied Dana. “I will provide you with a copy of the video for our IT guys to evaluate it for its authenticity. If it’s authentic, which I am sure it is, the question to you Jeff is whether or not you will run with it and allow us to report this information to the public.”
“Dana, I will personally review the tape and have our IT boys examine it to assess its authenticity. However, at this point and time I cannot promise you that we will be able to run it. I’ll need to talk to Christos about it first.” Appointed four years earlier, after Mr. Barbas had done some restructuring at ABO’s executive and board levels, Christos Grivas was the CEO and Chairman of the Board at ABO.
Dana understood how the chain of command worked and knew how explosive a story like this was, however she felt a bit of trepidation when she agreed to provide the video to Jeff. But it was the only way the story ever had a chance of seeing the light of day. She could only hope that Jeff and Mr. Grivas would appreciate the importance of this information and feel just as compelled as her to want to inform the American public about it. She had to put her trust in them, however she walked out of Jeff’s office with a sick feeling in her stomach.
Chapter 15 (March 3, Monday 4:30pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time)
One hour after leaving Jeff Kolosky’s office Dana returned to the bank where she had stored the two copies of the video in a safety deposit box. She wanted to make sure Jeff got a chance to view the video before the end of the day.
After being greeted by a bank employee she was directed into a back room. As she waited in the room, the bank employee took her safety deposit key and went to find her safety deposit box. The bank employee returned two minutes later with the box. He closed the door behind her to allow Dana to review the contents of the box in privacy. She quickly opened the box and removed one of the copies of the video and stuffed it into her purse. She then closed up the box, opened the door and walked out of the room with the safety deposit box. Another bank employee took the box from her and stored it in the vault before returning the key to her. The employee then let Dana out of the back area of the bank.
As Dana was leaving the bank and walking out the main entrance, a man sat in a chair in the bank’s main lobby area watching her every move. He had instructions to only observe her movements and report back. He was not in any way to approach or engage with her.
Dana returned immediately to ABO headquarters and to her own office, where she placed the video recording into a large manila envelope and wrote Jeff’s name on it. Dana then went up to the twenty-third floor of the building and left the envelope with Jeff’s administrative assistant, as Jeff was wrapped up in another meeting. She explained to the assistant that it was urgent Jeff receive the envelope this evening before he left for the day. The assistant promised Dana she would personally deliver it to him when he finished his meeting.
Chapter 16 (March 3, Monday 4:00pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time)
Immediately upon Dana’s earlier departure from his office Jeff had picked up his cell phone to call Christos Grivas. He knew the information that Dana had was explosive and could be the torpedo that could finally sink the administration. Over the past twelve years of the administration’s reign of power it had become increasingly bold and arrogant, and it had frequently stumbled, embarrassing itself and to some extent damaging its credibility. If it had not been for its national press allies the administration would have been tossed out on its behind years ago. Fortunately, and conveniently, it had influential friends in high places, and this included Mr. Barbas and Mr. Grivas.
Though Jeff could already predict Mr. Grivas’s reaction and response to Dana’s report, he believed he had a legal and ethical responsibility to bring the information to him before deep sixing it himself. He also had his own personal career to think about as well. Jeff was sure Mr. Grivas would not allow him to run the story, no matter how sordid and legitimate the video was. However, instead of rejecting the story himself, he would raise it up the flag pole and would prove to Mr. Grivas once again that he was a trusted soldier that deserved to be compensated handsomely during his next contract negotiation.
Grivas answered his phone.
“Hello Mr. Grivas, it’s Jeff.”
“Hey Jeff, how’s my man?” replied Christos. “By the way, I loved the segment you guys ran last week on the upcoming Iditarod Race and lack of snow. Showing those poor sled dogs with bandaged feet caused by running them on bare ground really resonated with the viewership. We need more of these types of pieces to hammer home the realities of manmade global climate change. Keep up the good work Jeff. I know Mr. Barbas loves what you’ve done for the network over the past couple of years.”
“Thank you Mr. Grivas,” replied Jeff. “The team did an excellent job with that piece. I will forward on your positive feedback to them when they get back.”
“They’re not already back from that podunk wasteland?” responded Christos. “Heck, I’d figure they’d be out of there as soon as they hit the off switches on their video cameras.”
“They should be back tomorrow,” responded Jeff. “No sooner had they completed filming the piece when a massive storm came in off the Bering Sea. It snowed for nearly five days straight bringing all air-travel to a standstill in the process. Fortunately, they were able to upload their video feeds to us from their hotel while they sat the storm out.”
“Hmm, well, again give them my best when they get back into the office,” said Christos.
“Speaking of videos Mr. Grivas, it’s actually the reason I called you,” replied Jeff, “My crack investigative reporter Dana Cogswell came by my office today to tell me about a disturbing video she received this morning. I wanted to discuss it with you as it has the potential to be quite explosive and damaging to the administration if it is authentic. It involves the Vice President’s attendance at the International Global Climate Change Conference down in Buenos Aires last week.”
“So what did our country’s chief lounge-lizard do this time?” questioned Christos.
“Well if the video is le
gitimate,” replied Jeff, “Vice President Houlton raped a young and unconscious woman in his hotel suite. And that’s just the half of it. Her lifeless body was found washed up on a local beach the next morning.”
“Jesus,” whispered Christos. “Have you personally viewed the video Jeff? Do you think your reporter may have her facts wrong?”
“No, I have not seen the video yet,” replied Jeff. “Ms. Cogswell is bringing over a copy of it to me later today, and as far as the possibility of her making a mistake, not a chance. She’s already viewed the tape and she vouches for her source that provided her with the tape.”
“Who provided her with the tape?” questioned Christos.
“She claimed “reporter’s privilege” and refused to provide any additional information other than the tape”, responded Jeff. “She claimed the video says it all.”
“You’re right Jeff,” said Christos. “I’m glad you called to give me a heads up. This video could prove to be very damaging for the administration if it is seen by the public. You commented that she was going to give you a copy of the video. That must mean there is more than one. Do you think she’d be willing to give us all of the copies she has if we were to agree to run this?”
“She might,” responded Jeff. “However, who’s to say that she won’t still keep her own private copy. Not to mention, her source has the original and assuredly additional copies.”
“Okay, get back to me once you’ve watched the video,” responded Christos. “Also, go ahead and ask her about getting any additional copies of the video. Feed her a line that suggests we will most likely run it, but that we want to be assured of exclusivity. In the meantime, I’ll talk to Mr. Barbas to see how he would like us to proceed. But as you and I both know, don’t expect this video to see the light of day. Mr. Barbas and some of his closest friends have a lot invested in this administration and their global policies. Regrettably we will most likely end up needing to squash this story. Hopefully your reporter will understand.”
“I’ll call you back as soon as I get done reviewing the tape,” responded Jeff. “Your points are well taken in terms of what will most likely need to be done with this story. Although Ms. Cogswell is a headstrong woman, and this type of subject hits home heavy with women, she highly values her job here at ABO. I’m sure we will be able to convince her to understand our decision not to run with it.”
“I hope so,” replied Christos in a somewhat threatening tone. “Assuming she does, make sure she is well compensated at her next performance review. Stress that her bringing forth important information such as this, and being a team player, is greatly appreciated by both me and the Board of Directors.”
As soon as he ended his phone conversation with Kolosky, Christos Grivas dialed another local number. This issue was going to require the assistance of someone who was not directly associated with ABO. Someone who could be discrete, and that had a certain skill set. It was imperative that he find out who the original source of the video was.
Chapter 17 (March 3, Monday 6:30pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time)
It was early evening when Jeff finally finished up his last conference call meeting and opened the door to his office. As he stepped out of his office, he saw his administrative assistant still seated at her desk. Normally she would have already left for the day, however, based upon the urgency in Dana Cogswell’s voice when she dropped off the large manila envelope, the assistant felt compelled to personally hand it over to Mr. Kolosky before leaving.
“Dana Cogswell came by a while ago and asked me to make sure you got this,” said the assistant, as she handed over the large manila envelope to Jeff.
“Thank you. I was hoping to get a chance to review this information tonight before I left the office,” responded Jeff, as he anxiously looked at the package. “I appreciate the fact that you hung around here waiting for me, but go home now and enjoy the rest of your evening. I won’t need any additional help tonight.”
The administrative assistant privately beamed over Mr. Kolosky’s appreciation of her efforts as she shut down her computer and put on her winter coat to leave. As she walked out of her office, and Jeff returned to his, the two said goodbye.
With his office door closed he opened the manila envelope and poured out the contents. A small and innocuous single DVD was all that fell out of it. He quickly inserted it into his computer’s DVD drive. A few seconds later a video window popped up on his computer screen and a high definition video started playing. Both the video and sound were clear and crisp, and featured in it was none other than the United States’ Vice President Houlton and a young beautiful South American girl.
“Dana was right,” thought Jeff. “There’s no doubt that this is the Vice President of the United States. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a video recording that had the quality of a Sasquatch sighting. Moreover, there were no breaks in the filming. Just one long continuous recording of a despicable person performing a despicable act on a defenseless person. There was no need to have the video authenticated by the IT guys. It was clearly legitimate and the fewer people that saw it the better for all.”
Jeff knew he had to call Christos Grivas back and report what he had observed on the video. However, thirty minutes after the video had finished playing he was still just staring vacantly at his computer screen. The brutality of what he had just witnessed by the Vice President touched a raw nerve in him. A nerve that he had thought he had buried a long time ago when working his way up the ABO corporate ladder. Pity for someone other than himself. Seeing the young woman violently raped by the egomaniac Vice President had brought back feelings of guilt with some of his own actions and decisions over the years. Not acts of violence as he had just witnessed. But instead, of being actively complicit to a CEO and Board of Directors who tacitly conveyed a message of “the end justifies the means” in accomplishing a larger and greater global good.
Jeff sat back in his chair and thought how far he had come, and sank, from his college years majoring in journalism. As a 21 year old graduating senior he had told himself back then that first and foremost he would use his sharpened and honed journalistic skills to produce honest and accurate work to his readership, whomever that would be. “Where did I go off track?” he said to himself.
As he pondered this last question his cell phone rang. He looked down and saw it was Christos Grivas. He let the phone ring three more times before he had composed himself enough to hit the answer button and tell Mr. Grivas what he had just watched.
Chapter 18 (March 4, Tuesday 10:00am Mountain Daylight Savings Time)
Dave was sitting behind his desk reviewing a patent application that his company was filing on a new biological threat sensor that used nano-scale lasers when his phone rang. It was Dana.
“Hey Dana,” answered Dave. “How are you doing this fine winter morning?”
“Not so good,” replied Dana. “I just came out of a meeting with Jeff. Suffice it to say he was non-committal at this point in running or even reporting the video. He claimed he is concerned about the recordings authenticity.”
“I’m not surprised,” interjected Dave.
“He said he would let me know next week if he’ll run it, or bury it, but I’m not hopeful. He also asked me to turn over all copies of the video to him to ensure ABO had exclusivity to it. I agreed I would give him my backup copy knowing you had the original.”
“Sounds like he plans to bury it,” responded Dave. “But that’s fine. The story will be told, with or without his and ABO’s senior management’s help.”
“It’s not fine,” replied Dana. “I just can’t believe that Jeff would do this. Any respect I had for him has totally vaporized.”
“Dana, keep in mind who his boss is, and who the majority stock holder is in ABO,” responded Dave. “I’ll bet he had very little choice in the matter. To be honest, I expected this response. And, they haven’t officially said no yet. We’ll just have to wait it out a week to see what we’re really up against.”
“I could see it in his eyes Dave,” replied Dana. “Jeff’s words were saying it’s possible they will run it, but his eyes were clearly relaying a different message. You could tell he was nervous and uncomfortable talking to me. He could barely look up at me when he spoke. He was guilty. ABO’s going to bury it.”
“Fine, we will give them a week,” said Dave. “If they don’t run it, we’ll go to plan B a little sooner than I anticipated having to do so. We’ve been working on something new here at NSurv that will render ABO, and its wayward media brethren, irrelevant. Once again it’s time the public be regularly informed of objective and newsworthy information, such as is the case with this report on the Vice President. Maybe then the public will begin to make smarter decisions in the voting booth.”
“What are you specifically saying Dave?” asked Dana.
“For now,” replied Dave hesitantly, “someone else is going to need to step up and serve as the fourth branch of government in our country, since your industry has become polluted by the corrupt power that now owns and controls it.”
Dana was unclear with what Dave was suggesting, however, she could tell in his voice he was very serious and determined. She decided not to press him for specifics over the phone. She would plan to visit him soon out in Idaho. Dave and his team obviously had bigger plans than just catching bad politicians in action. She trusted in him, that whatever he had planned, it was in the best interest of both the country and the American citizen.
“Fine Dave,” replied Dana. “I will let you go for now and call you as soon as I learn anything more from Jeff”.
“Good, I look forward to hearing back from you soon.”
After the two hung up their phones, the circuit connection remained active for a couple of seconds longer before finally being terminated.
Chapter 19 (March 4, Tuesday 2:00pm Atlantic Standard Time)
