CHAPTER 4

The definite upside to being in the military, and the main reason that Pete Winston had made it his career, was all of the places that you got to visit. The down side to this perk was that, usually, you were too busy to enjoy yourself while you were there. Unfortunately, for Pete, this also applied to the White House. He was supposed to be a guest here today but it was proving to be a working vacation.

It all started five seconds after he walked in the door. Harry Wu was the first person he saw, other than those in his own party, that he actually recognized. Wu was having some difficulty with the Secret Service who thought it essential to go over him with a magnetic wand. Pete had to wonder if the Secret Service had a detector for bad taste and that was what Harry had managed to set off. The Caltech engineer was wearing a very ill fitting suit.

When Pete cleared the check point he found Wu first thing. It was easy enough since Harry had spotted Pete too and, decided to wait within sight as the Marine passed security. Pete just had to point out Harry’s choice of attire, “you didn’t have a suit that fit?”

“Pete, I already told you I don’t even have a suit,” Harry complained. “I borrowed this from the guy that works down in the robotics lab.”

Pete had to consider that at least Harry had not gone with his first choice of attire which was nothing but a T shirt that was painted to look like a tuxedo. The entire dress code issue was still enough to make Pete wince, “you know you might need one before all of this is over Harry. You didn’t think coming to the White House was good enough to warrant buying a suit?”

“Look Pete,” Harry replied in his usual half joking fashion, “I hope a tie isn’t a pre requisite for where we’re going, you know?”

After rolling his eyes, and counting to ten, Pete decided to move on to his next disaster. He was happy to see that Jack had already arrived, and finally put on a uniform. Jack was busy talking with Pete’s commander, Air Force Major General Carl Lubowski and, with that being the case, what Pete had to talk about would have to wait. Instead of jumping on business, Pete elbowed his fellow Marine and nodded to Jack’s dress blues, “surprised they still fit.”

“Up yours Pete,” Jack replied as if he were delivering a polite comment.

The Lieutenant Colonel then mentioned to the full bird Colonel, “well how does it feel to finally make it to the top?”

“What?” Jack looked around the East Room where they had hoarded all the guests for this thing, “you mean the White House? I been here before Pete.” After considering it for a moment Jack added, “and every time I’m afraid to even move. I might knock something over and have to pay for it.”

That actually got Pete to thinking and suddenly he felt very self conscious. He snapped out of it really quickly though.

Lubowski noted, “well it’s good seeing you again Jack. I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of each other in the near future.” He then pointed to Pete, “come on we got a meeting Colonel.”

Pete made an excuse, “can I join you in a second General. I have to fill in Colonel Kelly on something.”

With a check of his watch Lubowski responded before walking off, “five minutes.”

Once the Air Force General was gone Jack got the first words in, “oh bullshit Pete.”

How did Jack know what Pete wanted to talk about? “What’s that supposed to mean, Jack?”

Jack laughed, “all you want to do is bitch about that reporter that called me yesterday. I’m assuming your little spy already filled you in.”

Pete groaned, “she’s not a spy Jack. She’s your assistant now.”

“Then you can tell Gina to stop squealing on me,” Jack really had not held it against her. She was just a little E-3 and, to kids like that, colonels were generally on the same level as god. Pete had probably ordered her to do it anyway.

Jack went on, “Look, I didn’t tell him anything and by us having this conversation I’m taking it to mean that you really don’t have my phone tapped. You’re slipping on me Marine.”

Pete was stewing now. Jack had just poked him pretty hard in a lot of different ways. After counting to ten, again, he got on with business, “what did the guy want anyway?”

“His name’s Red Darby,” Jack replied. “He’s not a media type. He’s a shop kind of guy. You know? He writes for aeronautical trade publications.”

Pete already knew that much. Gina had gotten the name and Pete had already checked the guy out from top to bottom. What he didn’t know was why the guy had called Jack and more importantly how this reporter knew where to call.

Jack apparently took the incident a lot lighter than Pete did, “he just wanted to know what I was doing back at NASA.”

“Wha…” Pete caught himself and lowered his voice. After looking around to make sure nobody had paid him that much mind he went on, “how the hell did he know you were back?”

“He didn’t say,” Jack felt almost like laughing. The President was about to announce all of this to the world and here was Pete, having a heart attack about a reporter. “Look I didn’t tell him anything Pete. Why don’t you just give it a little more time? You know, wait for the press conference and the entire thing will be moot. All right?”

“That’s not the point Jack,” Pete looked at his watch and grunted, “I got to go. We’ll talk about this when we get back to Houston.”

As Pete walked off Jack took a sip of his drink and mumbled, “not if I have anything to say about it.”

By the time Pete found his way to the meeting, being held in the Red Room, he had managed to get recomposed. There was a Secret Service guy at the door and after looking down at the security pass, clipped to Pete’s dress blue uniform, he opened the door and let the Marine in. Once inside, Jack’s words about breaking something, kept playing back in Pete’s mind. The room looked quite ‘fragile.’ Even worse was the fact that everything in it looked like it cost more than what Pete would make in a year.

Fortunately the little distracter known as work got Pete’s mind on something else. Lubowski introduced Pete to the President’s Chief of Staff. Pete was trying to shake hands with the man while some flunky shoved a small stack of papers in his hand. Before Pete could even ask about the small stack his boss noted, “think you should read that pretty quick Colonel. There’s a part of the Presidents speech you might find interesting.”

The Chief of Staff noted, “say what you want General. I need not remind you that we’ve lost a lot of sleep, around here, discussing this matter. The President has made his choice and I stand behind him on it.”

Pete noted a certain edge in the man’s voice when he said that. Unfortunately, there was little that Pete could say about it. In a place like the White House you found that Colonels were a dime a dozen and somewhere near the bottom of the food chain. Considering his lowly status, Pete was somewhat relieved that Lubowski got to do all the talking.

“No disrespect intended Hank, but I’ve heard tell you have your doubts all the way round?”

The Chief of Staff crossed his arms, “and I’m not at liberty to discuss such a matter. I will say this much though. The Vice President has his doubts if you people can really pull this off. That’s not even taking into account, what Congress is going to have to say over the matter. I’ll have to admit it Carl, we’ve already been putting out feelers and, it’s not looking all too good.”

Before Lubowski could comment, another man slid into the conversation. Till now he had been loitering around the edges of the room and lost in the small crowd of advisors. He was a curly headed guy who moved and sounded like a slick operator. “Hank, I already told you that your misgivings are a little hasty.”

The guy was quite chipper as he went on, “if anyone can make that drive work then it’ll be Doctor Brewer.”

Despite the fact that the guy was being optimistic, General Lubowski still resented the intrusion. This man spoke out like he actually was somebody in this room and in the General‘s mind he was not. The simple fact that Carl had no clue who he was spoke volumes about that. “Who might you be sir?”

“I’m Gary Baringer, General” he gave his hand for a shake. The man was practically beaming, “and it’s good to finally meet you. You too Colonel Winston.”

The Chief of Staff explained, “he’s with OK. Both the CEO of the company, and the President, asked Mister Baringer in on this. He is someone that everyone in our little - um - merger is familiar with.”

Gary laughed it off, “I guess you’d say I’m playing liaison. I know the President from back in his MIT days. I also hold several grants from the OK Corp.”

Pete had actually stopped reading long enough to study this Baringer guy. Pete instinctively didn’t like him from the start but, he wrote it off as a natural military reaction to anyone from OK. The man’s presence here was what really disturbed Pete more than anything else. It was just looking too much like this little project was growing out of hand by the second. When Pete went back to reading he found further evidence that proved this to be the case.

Even if he did not like it, Pete held his thoughts close till he and Lubowski were walking down the hall towards the White House press room, “the President can’t be serious.”

Lubowski was obviously not happy about it but, like any general, he did his best to support the decisions of the Commander in Chief. “Look at it this way Colonel. We always knew we were going to have to bring some civilians along. You‘ve already got some on your team.”

“Yeah but those are hand picked sir,” Pete protested quietly. “They’re mission specialists with skills we need. This whole thing here… Well it sounds like a stupid publicity stunt.”

Both officers stopped by the door that led to the press room. They melted back against the wall as people passed back and forth. Carl noted, when it looked as if the coast was clear, “so what if it is? You have to remember the President has to sell this. It’s not a done deal, yet.”

Flippantly Pete replied, “why don’t we have OK just write us out a check and skip the middle man.”

“That’s enough Colonel,” Lubowski scolded. The General kept the reprimand minimal however. After all, Carl felt the same way.