by Mark Donovan
“No problem,” said the girl with a twinkle in her eye. “It was a pleasure talking with you.”
“You know, I’ve seen you at the airport on a number of occasions, but I never got your name,” said Dave.
“Oh, it’s Lorraine,” replied the girl with a big smile.
“Well it was a pleasure talking with you Lorraine. My name is Dave. Thanks for the chat and for getting the fuel for us.”
After saying goodbye, Dave exited the FBO office and walked back to the Citation. Though he had given the girl his first name, he was confident it wouldn’t be a problem. He could see it in her eyes that she was already protecting him.
Five minutes later an FBO attendant drove up in a fuel truck to the Cessna Citation and began filling the aircraft’s tanks. Twenty minutes later Dave and Joe pushed the Cessna Citation back into the hanger with the airport’s aircraft tug tractor.
As they were closing up the hanger, Dave saw Ed Clemons drive into the airport in his pickup truck and walk into his hangar. Ed had given them a quick wave as he passed them. As Dave and Joe got into the Explorer Dave said, “I want to stop by and pay Ed a brief visit to thank him again for the use of his plane and confirm that he found the keys I left under the doormat last night. Why don’t you stay in the Explorer while I run in? This way I can get in and out quick and he doesn’t have to see you. The fewer of us he sees the better off for him and us.”
“No problem. I’ll just sit here and listen to a few tunes on my IPod,” said Joe.
Dave drove up to Ed’s hangar and jumped out of the Explorer. He knocked on the hangar’s service entrance door and a minute later Ed opened the door.
“Hey Dave, nice to see you so early this morning. Are you planning to take out one of your birds today?”
“No, just doing a little spring cleaning in the hangar.”
“Well what do I have the honor of seeing you so early in the morning,” laughed Ed.
“Oh, I just wanted to thank you again for the use of the Skylane yesterday and let you know I filled up the fuel tanks and left the keys underneath this doormat.”
“Heck, I forgot to get them,” laughed Ed.
Dave bent down, lifted the mat, picked up the keys and handed them to Ed. “Here you go,” said Dave. “She ran beautifully yesterday, albeit the weather was a little less than perfect.”
“I would have been surprised to hear otherwise. I fly her all the time and keep her meticulously maintained. Why don’t you come on in and I’ll fix you another cup of coffee?”
Dave thought of the filthy coffee pot from the other day, before saying, “I wish I could Ed, but I have a friend who drove up late last night from McCall. He’s in my vehicle waiting for me, and we need to get back to my office.”
“Alright, I won’t hold you up any longer. Thanks for stopping by.” He cocked his head slightly and looked over at the Cessna 182. “And if you ever need her again, feel free anytime.”
“Okay, will do. I may take you up on that sometime. Thanks again.”
Dave left Ed Clemons standing in the doorway as he strode back to the Explorer. As they drove off, Ed gave them a big parting wave.
“One of the nicest guys you could ever know,” said Dave to Joe who was looking out at Ed as they drove off. “The guy has a million stories and a wealth of aviation knowledge. If you ever decide you want to learn how to fly, I’ll have him take you up someday.”
“I might just want to do that,” responded Joe enthusiastically. “I’ll probably never be an astronaut, something I’ve always kind of dreamed about, but I could probably be pretty content on being a pilot and flying my own plane someday.”
“When all this stuff is over then, we’ll bring you back up here to fly with Ed. Besides a phenomenal aircraft mechanic, he’s also a certified flight instructor. After all this stuff I’ve put you through since you’ve started, the least I can do is foot the bill on getting you your private pilot’s license.”
Joe looked over at Dave with a huge smile. “That would be fantastic. Thanks Dave.”
“No problem. You’ve earned it.”
Dave and Joe drove out of the airport and headed east, back to their operations, just as the morning fog began to lift.
Chapter 79 (March 30, Saturday 9:00am Eastern Daylight Savings Time)
Though it was after midnight when he was on his way home from the office, Jeff had called Kevin Ames cell phone. As he had suspected, his cell phone was off, so Jeff left him a brief message saying he needed him in the office the next morning by 9:00am for an important meeting.
At five minutes before 9 o’clock in the morning, Kevin came strolling into Jeff’s office where he found Jeff engrossed in front of his computer. Jeff had made it back to the office an hour earlier and had already downed his first large mug of coffee of the day. He was primed and wired. As he looked up from his computer and saw Kevin he said, “Hey Kevin, thanks for coming in here on a Saturday morning.”
As was customary of Kevin, he was dressed to the nines in a sports coat and slacks and was wearing black wingtip shoes. Although today he wasn’t wearing the tie with the stiff white collared shirt.
Kevin always worked and looked like the consummate professional investigative reporter. Though he was an extremely polished and professional New York journalist, he was born and raised in Iowa, and received his Bachelors of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Iowa. Consequently he had a folksy mannerism about him that he let shine through when he wasn’t in front of the cameras reporting a news story.
Jeff jumped up out of his chair and waved Kevin to take a seat. He also closed the door to his office before returning to his chair.
“No problem, my wife and daughters had shopping plans in town this morning and I had no intentions of going. I just hadn’t come up with a good excuse yet, until I got your voicemail this morning.”
“Glad to hear it. Although I’m going to probably need you for the next couple of days.”
Kevin made a frown at the thought of losing his entire weekend.
“I know, I know and I am sorry to have to ask this of you, however, I think you’re going to find my request right up your alley.”
“And what pray tell is that?” asked Kevin suspiciously.
Jeff looked at Kevin for a few seconds before taking the plunge and possibly creating career suicide. Finally he said, “What I am about to tell and ask of you doesn’t leave this room, at least not until after Monday evening. Can I trust you to live up to that request?”
“Jeff, you’ve known me for years. Our wives are friends and our kids have played together over the years. You can trust me,” he sighed. “So what’s up? What’s the big request?”
Hearing Kevin’s commitment to him, Jeff went on, further putting himself out onto a limb that he was cutting behind him.
“I know you’ve never been a fan of the President and his administration.”
“You’re damn right about that,” interrupted Kevin.
Jeff continued. “And over the years you’ve asked me on several occasions to basically expose the President for what he is. An anti-American globalist who doesn’t really give one whit about this country and the American public.”
“Right on, again,” interjected Kevin.
“Well I now want to give you that chance.”
Kevin’s mouth dropped open. “Are you kidding?” he asked.
“In light of the scandalous videos that have come out on the President and his administration over the past month, that frankly have proved to be irrefutable and indefensible, I think it’s time we come straight with the American public and act like true journalists at ABO.”
“You mean like our predecessors once used to do,” Kevin asked sarcastically.
“Yes, like our predecessors once used to do, and what deep down you and I both know is the professional and morally right thing to do.”
“Amen to that. What about Grivas? Is he onboard with this?”
Jeff looked Kevin strai
ght in the eyes and said, “No. If Grivas knew of this, the two of us wouldn’t be here talking about this subject right now. I’d already have my hat in hand, unemployed, and walking the streets, never to find a job in the news media world again. At least not the news media world we live in at the moment.”
Kevin grunted in agreement.
“The truth is we can’t tell Grivas, because his boss, and effectively our boss, Dimitris Barbas, is connected at the hip with the President and his administration. As you know he’s even been featured in a couple of the videos that have been released.”
Kevin acknowledged Jeff’s last statement with a simple nod of the head.
“So what is it you want me to do?”
“I want us to put together and air a special investigative report on the President and his administration that corroborates the corrupt behavior in the videos that have been recently broadcast to the nation. I want to showcase some of the reams of evidence we’ve collected and suppressed over the years that clearly demonstrates the President is not working in the best interest of the American public. That instead, he is actually working with international groups to strip the country of its economic and political power, and effectively take the American public back a hundred years in history.”
“When do you want to air this report?”
“Monday evening, during the 7 o’clock news hour.”
“Jeez, that doesn’t give us a lot of time,” responded Kevin in disbelief.
“I know, but we have no choice. Suffice it to say, I have it on good authority that another shoe, or should I say video, is about to be dropped on the American public tomorrow evening. It will be a bombshell. Any news media that continues to support the President after its release will be permanently discredited when the President and his administration fall, which they undoubtedly will. It’s just a matter of time. I believe it is ultimately in the best interest of the nation, ABO shareholders, and us to do the right thing, and finally tell the truth about this President. By doing so we can accelerate the collapse of the President and his regime, and to some extent have ABO save face by being the first news network to fess up to the truth of what has been going on at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for nearly a decade.”
“So how do we pull this off without being caught before it goes live?”
“By you and I working by ourselves for the next two and a half days on putting together this piece. All the report will consist of is a montage of video clips showcasing the real President with you narrating over it. Prior to its actual airing, we’ll have Gave Hernandez, the news anchor during that hour, introduce you and give you a minute to frame the report the viewers are about to see. I will deal with getting it scheduled into the news hour.”
“What’s going to happen when Gabe and the rest of the studio staff start to see the video? Gabe will break in and cut me or the video off.”
“No they won’t. I will be standing on the studio set as you air it and make sure it continues to roll.”
“What happens when Grivas sees it?”
“It will be too late. Hell, he never watches our news shows anyways. He just reads the ratings reports and threatens my job when they’re dropping.”
Kevin sat quietly just shaking his head. Finally he said, “Okay, it sounds like you’ve got this plan pretty well figured out. I’m in. Let’s flush the President and his administration down the drain.”
“I knew I could count on you,” said Jeff with a big smile. “I’ve already confirmed that you and I have access to all the files we need to put together a sordid and unfortunately true story of the man we currently call Mr. President.”
Chapter 80 (March 30, Saturday 1:00pm Central Daylight Savings Time)
Since the President had declared martial law two days ago, active and reserve military units, as well as state National Guard units, and state and local police forces, began patrolling the streets in all major cities around the country. Besides military and police personnel patrolling the streets on foot in full battle gear and brandishing automatic weapons, light military equipment including Humvees and Armored personnel carriers, crisscrossed the city streets and roadways to provide an extra level of intimidation. A 9:00pm local curfew had also been included as part of the President’s martial law directive. Consequently, streets had to be cleared of all pedestrian and automobile traffic, with the exception of critical services such as ambulatory medical staff and utility service workers.
The public was outraged with the President’s martial law directive and were protesting constantly during daylight hours in the streets, and whenever they could get away with it, into the late evenings. Small shoving and pushing skirmishes had broken out between military units and citizens in various protests around the country, but fortunately no one had been seriously injured so far.
It was early Saturday afternoon in downtown Dallas and another protest was forming. There were already ten thousand people in the streets of Dallas comprising of all ages and walks of people. Of particular surprise was the high number of college students that were participating in today’s protest. Up until the President had instituted martial law, college campuses around the country had seen little outrage or activity in terms of student protests. The President had been “their man” ever since he had made it to the national political stage nearly a decade ago, and they had continued to back him up until they were told they had to be locked down inside their dorm rooms and apartments after 9:00pm. They had been a loyal and vocal political demographic group for him on key initiatives that he had successfully championed through Congress over the years, including healthcare and immigration reform. They had even been his strongest supporters for his successful change of federal laws that eliminated Presidential term limits. And for their support, the President had rewarded the students well, with the federal legalization of marijuana, dramatic increases in college financial aid money, and student loan forgiveness programs for graduates who couldn’t find employment in their field of study within two years of graduation. But the institution of martial law had hit a raw nerve on college campuses. It was one thing for college students not to be able to find a job after graduation, but it was another thing to eliminate their ability to socialize, mingle and hook up. The former they could accept, with the President’s lavish unemployment safety net programs, however, the latter was unacceptable. The idea of being grounded by anyone, and effectively imprisoned, was a complete anathema to them. This was the generation who had grown up doing what they wanted and where they wanted, parental rules and civil laws be damned. So college students from all over the greater Dallas area had come to protest with the older working class men and women. And with them they had brought their energy and new vitriol for the President.
Jane Wilson and Mary Sullivan had also decided to participate in today’s protest, and each had brought with them one of their children. Jane, her ten year old son John, and Mary her twelve year old daughter Meghan. The liberating experience they had felt a couple of days ago when they joined the spontaneous protest had been so powerful that they couldn’t resist their desire to participate in today’s more organized protest.
Besides all the protestors in downtown Dallas, there were also a couple of thousand military army reservists and local law enforcement personnel. So far the protest had been fairly peaceful with people simply marching in the streets and demanding the impeachment of the President. As a result, the soldiers and police units were simply observing the crowds and showing a presence.
However, as the Dallas afternoon wore on and the crowds became larger, the intensity of the protest picked up. College students had become increasingly vocal as the hours had passed by. Many were intoxicated. The energy of the crowd, and particularly among the college students groups, had become palpable. The tipping point came at 3 o’clock in the afternoon when one male twenty-five year old college student literally threw his body through a plate glass window of a convenient mart. His simple incendiary act of violence was instantly contagious.
Within seconds, other college students in the protest march began turning over cars in the streets, kicking in store windows, and throwing whatever they could find at both windows and the law enforcement.
Immediately the military reservists and the police tried to stem the outbreak of violence, however, their attempts to curb it only exacerbated the situation. Within minutes, the entire Dallas protest degenerated into the equivalent of a raging forest fire of violence. Many of the non-college student protestors attempted to run from the violence. However, the police and military reservists interpreted the rush as a threat to their personal safety. Shots began to be fired from both the military and police. Though they were using rubber bullets, at close range they were nearly as damaging to human tissue as regular ammunition. As the gunshots started to occur, the protest instantly broke out into wild chaos with people fighting, screaming, and running in all different directions to get away from the violence and turmoil.
Jane Wilson and Mary Sullivan, along with their children, had been near the group of college students that had initiated the violence. Like the other non-college students, they had panicked when the violence broke out and had started to rush away from it, each pulling their own child behind them by the hand. As they approached the wall of army reservists, Jane heard the crack of gun fire and saw the smoke from the fired weapons. In a heartbeat Jane saw people around her go down. Her ears were ringing and motion seamed to slow to a stop. She was still holding on to John’s hand when she turned to her left. When she did, she saw Mary on the ground with a crimson stain growing on her chest. Mary’s daughter Meghan was down on the ground beside her, holding her head and screaming and crying. Mary’s eyes and mouth were open, but no sound or life shown from them. Similarly, around Jane lie several other people dead or injured. Blood was everywhere. Jane put her arms around her son John who was standing shaking and crying, and the two collapsed on the ground huddled next to Meghan and Mary’s body. She sobbed, rocking her son John back and forth in her arms as the wave of humanity and violence passed around them like a raging fire sweeping through a forest. Within minutes the violence had passed and medical personnel were on the scene to help the injured. Jane, however, just continued to hold her son and sob as her world and country collapsed around her.
