CHAPTER 42

   "You know we still have one or two matters we have to handle that doesn't involve Dungeons & Dragons," said the president.
"Wouldn't it be nice," said Mary as she dropped a few more classified folders on the Resolute Desk. When Bill gave her a strange look she explained, "you know? If there were no elves to deal with, life would be a lot more simple."
That should have just been a passing comment but, Bill actually thought seriously about it, even rubbed his chin, and then replied, "well I know you're not about to run off and join the Reverend Shoals but, if you feel that way Mary, I can't even imagine how a lot of other people are right now."
"Well aren't we becoming reflective," Mary replied in an almost facetious way. She simply crossed her arms and told the president, "doesn't matter how I feel, or anybody else for that matter, it's the truth."
The president remained sullen but, Mary figured it was just because the guy was tired, and she could not blame him for that. He still looked away from his paper work and pointed at her while saying, "tell you what else is the truth. No matter how much we might want it, or feel like it, they're not going anywhere. Even if we never get that damn Dell reopened, the simple fact is we know what's there now. Once you learn something it's kind of hard to unlearn, you know?”
Mary crossed her arms and shrugged her shoulders as she replied, "I don't know about that either Bill. Seems to me, we unlearned it before. Maybe we really should think about doing it again." Of course she was not that serious, or at least, she didn't think she was but, did it really matter? A call on her personal cell phone ended her thought train and Mary was a bit confused when she saw the name on the screen. She told Bill as she left the oval office, "a guy I trained down at Langley. I have no idea why he would be calling me but, let me take this."
Mary answered even before she was clear of the reporters who were mingling down by the press room. She even mentioned the reason why as she passed them since Sam had something to tell her but would not. Mary told the guy that she had trained at the European desk, "okay let me call you back from my office, Sam. Are you at your desk? Okay talk to you in five.”
Mary was a little surprised to see Alicia sitting in her office when she arrived. The girl seemed to be daydreaming and Mary figured that maybe she had earned it. Mary let it go and called Sam back at the CIA, "alright this is a secured line what is it?"
When Mary hung up she discovered that she actually had Alicia's attention. The the presidents daughter asked, "is everything okay? You got a funny look on your face."
"Oh," Mary thought about it and shook it off. She then tried to answer Alicia as best she could with, "I don't think so. It's just that was a strange call. Old friend of mine down at Langley. He's working my old desk right now and he thought I might want to know about a memo he got from the FBI." That definitely commanded Alicia's attention. She knew that the FBI was running the investigation into the attack on her. Mary read the girls face and waived the notion off, "no nothing like that. Just a little counterintelligence memo. I'm actually surprised the FBI even thought it was important enough to send over." When it was obvious that Alicia wanted to know, Mary decided to go ahead and tell her, "some elf that they've been tailing missed his drop this morning. You know, they think the guy is a spook and his asset didn't show up. I guess that might be important but, not enough to get flagged.”
Alicia thought about it and then shrugged, "oh." She was sure that her tone was less than enthused, which was fine, because she was. She quickly changed the subject and said, "thanks for the hint last night, by the way."
This caused Mary to have to think because her mind was elsewhere at the moment. Then she realized there could only be one thing that Alicia was talking about. Mary had used the girl as a distraction to keep that Caldwell guy as distant from her daughter as was possible. From everything that Mary had seen, Alicia had done a wonderful job of it. Caldwell and Janet never got a moment alone. Now, Mary had another worry. She heard a certain tone in Alicia's voice and said, "you know your father might not hurt you but, he would wring his neck, right?"
Alicia waived the notion off and said, "oh please Mary, give me a little bit of credit will you. I have more sense than that, you know?”
Mary remained unconvinced as she picked her phone back up and buzzed the communications center. Her eyes were still locked with Alicia's as she told the person on the other end of the phone, "give me a secure line to Coven Hill please." As she waited she told Alicia, "you had better young lady. You know I can't fault you because I have to admit, the guy is kind of cute. In fact that's why I wanted you to help me keep him away from Janet. It's just if you ever want to be anything in this town, you have to keep even the appearance of indiscretions from surfacing. Besides that, if what Janet told me is true, somebody has already laid claim to him."
Alicia winced in confusion, "I thought that Thompson girl was dead?"
Mary felt smug. At least she had Alicia was thinking about it. Even so, it sounded as if this was about to be one more thing that Mary would have to deal with. Right now though, she had more pressing and serious issues. Her call to the operations center at the Coven Hill delegation connected and she held up a finger for Alicia to hold that thought and wait. Then Mary turned her attention to the guy who had been waiting on her call, on the other side of the Atlantic, and she asked him, "okay Phil, what's the deal?"
Phil Conner was sitting in the secure NSA communications center and he thought that Mary sounded as tired as he felt. He rubbed his eyes and then answered the question with, "they are definitely trying to stonewall us."
Mary huffed and in a commanding tone she told the Army Colonel, "that's not acceptable Phil. I've already told you what the president's position is on this. Are you certain?"
Phil let out a deep yawn before replying, "about as certain as I can be, Mary. That Dominique guy had a whole list of reasons why it's not working. The main one being that the vacuum pumps haven't been repaired yet. I'm no engineer but, I had a look at them and they look fine to me. I couldn't see any damage on them at all."
Mary realized that if what Phil was saying was true then the Camelonians wanted to keep the Dell closed. Mary could not conceive of a reason why and was now wishing she had taken this phone call before the Somerset woman had left the White House grounds. It presented a question that Mary would have most certainly put to the woman. This was not a few days ago and any military option was now off the table. The United States could not very well turn around and attack a nation that they just gave diplomatic recognition to. This was going to have to be worked out another way but, in the end, it was going to have to be worked out. There were too many lives on the other side of that hole in reality that depended on it.
Mary changed the subject and asked Phil a very simple question, "tension level?"
The question needed no great explanation. The situation at Coven Hill was all too obvious anytime you stepped out the door. What could Phil say but, "the Russians and Chinese soldiers are still walking around in full combat gear at their barracks. They're on full alert over there. What can we do but the same?"
Mary seemed far more interested in, "the British. What about them? You said they had a another unit there to reinforce their security team?"
"Their forces are on alert like everybody else," Phil replied. "As for the Black Rats, nobody is protesting them being here right now. They're the only ones guarding Building 13. I know, I personally ordered one of their companies to set up blocking positions right after the explosion. With the way things are, everybody is afraid to move any of their troops, so, for the time being, those guys are the only ones we have that can stop the orcs if they suddenly come pouring out of the Dell."
Mary went on with, "NSA and DIA are telling me that they're getting increased chatter from the British Army."
That was something that Phil was all too familiar with since he was sitting in the very room where a lot of those reports were being generated from. He figured he was not telling Mary anything that she did not already know but, "we know that they have reinforcements just outside of the international zone but, a lot of those troops moving down the A 40, from Gloucester, seem to be headed toward Cardiff. I don't know why."
It seemed that Mary did, "Thayer is worried about trouble in Wales. That's not your problem right now...” Phil thought that there was some static on the line and he even wondered if his call had been disconnected until he heard Mary talking to someone else in her office. He was certain that he had not heard her correctly because he could have sworn she used the word, "earthquake." Before he could ask, Mary told him, "Phil I have to go. You have somewhere else to be to be, anyway.” This time the call really did end. Phil simply shrugged and hung up. After all, Mary was right. Phil had to be over at the airstrip.
The plane had already landed when Phil arrived and picked up its passenger. Sergeant Major Price did not seem to be a happy camper and while that was a normal demeanor for most Sergeant Major's, Phil suspected that this time it was real. When he got in the car with Phil, Lenny even said, "you know I was never a fan of flying over the Atlantic. For that matter, I don't think I was ever much a fan of flying at all."
Phil remained his usual bland self as he noted, "you do have a pair of jump wings."
"Yeah," Lenny replied, "cause I like getting promoted. Not because I like flying in goddamn airplanes. Let's face it Phil, there are some orders that even God's can't ignore. When the chairman tells you to get on a plane, there's not much choice in the matter."
As Phil began driving towards Building 13 he told Lenny, "I really don't know why Garrett sent you over here. It's not like we can do anything more than we already have."
"We'll see about that," Lenny replied. A few minutes later he seemed just as confident when he and Phil were standing inside the mansion at the top of the hill. As they waited, Lenny noted the collection of melee weapons that were hanging all over the walls. He noted to Phil, "all this shit looks real.”
"Yeah," Phil replied. He was not quite as impressed since he had now seen all of it before but, still he had to wonder, "I wonder where they keep Excalibur."
That actually broke Lenny out of his usual sergeant major routine and his eyes got big when he replied, "I hadn't thought about that. You think it's real?"
Phil waved it off and blandly replied, "of course not. Total fantasy. Just like elves."
Lenny grumbled beneath his breath, "now why did he have to go and say that." The man they were waiting for walked in the room and ended the sword conversation, thankfully. Lenny exchanged greetings with Ian Dominique and after listening to a five minute spiel, from the British physicist, Lenny put a stop to it and just said, "I don't know if you noticed, or not, and Mr. Dominique but, I'm not a diplomat. I'm not from the State Department. I'm a soldier and I am here on behalf of the highest ranking guy in the US Army. Let me give you a clue, I only show up when that guy is tired of the bullshit. Right now, he is very tired of it."
Dominique was less than impressed and made no secret of it as he replied, "as I explained to your colonel here, we are doing everything that we can. You people are just going to have to be patient."
Lenny told the man in no uncertain terms, "no you still don't get it. I only show up when there's no patience left. I'm here to tell you that you either open that goddamn Dell or we're going to do it for you."
Again, Dominique took the threat with a grain of salt. He put his hands on his hips and stated resolutely, "don't threaten us sergeant. You people wouldn't dare try another stunt like you did the other day. Not now, not the way things are at the moment. we're not stupid you know."
Lenny had been carrying a briefcase since he got off the airplane. He now set it down on the table that they were standing next to and opened up the lock. He took out a folder and handed it to Dominique as he told the man, "neither are we Mister Dominique. The fact is, we don't need your control room to open the Dell now.”
As Dominique scanned the folder, in his hand, his eyes got big. When he looked back to Lenny he had an accusing tone, "who told you this?"
Lenny seemed confident that his point was made when he replied, "that's none of your goddamn business but, if you really want to know, nobody. As I just told you, we're not stupid. We figured it out on our own. Now, if all the small talk is over with, why don't you close the doors to that bunker, turn the vacuum pumps on, open the Dell, and smother that fire."
Dominique tossed the folder down on the table and took a deep breath before he replied, "it's not that simple. Even after we do that...”
Lenny interrupted with, "we've got dump trucks and bulldozers a-plenty. With all the construction going on here, we can clear out the debris that falls through the Dell."
Dominique's nostrils flared and he seemed genuinely scared when he replied, "and what if it's an orc army that falls out instead?"
"You know," Lenny replied, "we also have the largest international security force in the history of mankind, just loitering around this place. I think they could be of some use should that happen.”
That caused Dominique to snap right back with, "yeah, and right now they're all pointing their guns at each other."
Lenny he put his hands behind his back and rocked on his heels as he told the guy, "then maybe an orc army is just what we need right now. So, tell me Mr. Dominique, when I leave here, do I have to call those Navy prowler's that we have just off the coast. They got their radar sets tuned up just right, or so I'm told. We'll just open up that Dell and keep it that way.”
Dominique snarled as he asked, "what good would that do you?"
"Maybe none at all," Lenny replied. "Won't do you much good though. I don't figure the damage it will do to the inside of that bunker will be too much but, them doors are still open. I might imagine a lot of people will start asking us how we're doing it. We might be inclined to tell them, since keeping a secret like that isn't so easy." Lenny he watched the man think and then added, "I can see that you thought of a few more downsides than we did."
In one last act of defiance, Dominique stated, "you know, just like you, I have orders I have to follow too."
"Make whatever calls you got to," Lenny replied without missing a beat. "Don't take too long about it though. I've got some trucks to send over your way. Be ready to start when they get there." Without another word Lenny turned on his heels and began to walk out with Phil in tow.
As Phil started the car back up, and prepared to drive back to the US delegation, he had to ask, "are we bluffing?"
Lenny only shrugged in replied in an almost disinterested tone, "how the hell should I know, Phil. I was practically reading from a script in there."
Phil was a little surprised that this entire thing was so prepared, "that's funny. I just got off the phone with Mary Moore, right before you got here, and she didn't give me the impression that she had even read my report."
"That's probably because," Lenny replied, "she didn't. You know they do have one or two other things to deal with at the White House. Jim Garret read your report, and that's all that matters. That's why I had to get on a goddamn airplane which, by the way, thanks a lot Phil."
"You're welcome," Phil replied in his usual monotone. It was enough to leave Lenny wondering if the guy knew what sarcasm was.
Lenny was gruff and in frustration he looked out the car window at the facility around him. He then vocalized a feeling that he had been having since they left the mansion, "why is it I can't shake the idea that we just reenacted that scene from that movie. You know the one? Don't pay no attention to the guy behind the curtain. That one?"
Phil simply replied, "Dominique is no wizard. He just wishes he was one."
"I do believe," Lenny replied, "that was the whole point of that scene in the movie. That guy was no wizard either." Lenny forgot everything he was going to say when he heard the clap and felt the car shake.
Phil even stopped the car in the middle of the road and got out. He was joined by Lenny a second later and they were both looking at the cloud of black smoke that was drifting skyward in the distance. Phil let his jaw dropped before stating in an uncharacteristically nervous manner, "oh that is not good. Unless I'm completely turned around that's about where the Chinese barracks is at." The earth shook again and this time the dark cloud was coming up from the exact opposite direction. Lenny knew this was bad but, he did not know where everything was around here. He asked Phil who replied, "it's definitely in the middle of the office park area. That's where we were headed."
Lenny pulled off his hat and crushed it with his hand as he asked, "okay, what the fuck do we do now?”
What could Phil say to that? The only thing he could think was, "how should I know? I'm just a colonel. You're the one with omnipotent powers.”