CHAPTER 25

One of the most annoying factors in politics was the little weasel types who were always around and ready to ride your coat tails. Some of them knew they could never carry their own water bucket and that was irritating enough. Bill Devon was not sure if it was more irritating than the guys who were little fish and had no idea that was the case. What they all had in common was that they were most definitely fair weather friends.

Back when the President was playing the distance card, with Bill, none of those guys had much time to talk to the Secretary of State. Oh they handled business, most were polite enough, after that was over with they acted like Bill had some kind of disease they could catch. Now that the big guy had let it be known, at least in the administration, that Bill was the heir apparent, a lot of attitudes changed. Bill was kind of wishing those people would go back into cold shoulder mode. It was far easier to deal with than the constant ass kissing moves they were making now.

At least Joel Habersham, the Press Secretary, was acting somewhat normal. Bill figured the fact that the guy was lining up a job with one of the major networks had something to do with that. He had no intentions of coming over to Bill’s administration, should there actually be one. The fact was that Joel and Bill had never really gotten along to begin with. It made for an ironic twist that Bill found amusing. The fact that they did not like each other made Joel one of the few people he could currently depend on.

That was why Bill actually listened to the guy when he spoke at the little unofficial meeting of administration insiders. This was the kitchen cabinet of the kitchen cabinet and Bill was the only guy in here that actually got approved by congress. That list also included the congressman, Clancy Oldham, who was a junior guy over on the hill that everybody knew as on the way out the door. The fact was, the President liked the guy and was probably Clancy’s ticket to a job when this next election was over with. Bill found the kid like most of the other young hotshots on the hill. His hair stylist cost more than his political advisors and his suit cost more than most of his constituents made in a year. What could be done? People like Oldham were a dime a dozen in this town.

None of which was really an issue at the moment. Bill had mostly been listening to the banter going on but, finally he had to speak up after Oldham made a particularly stupid suggestion. Bill asked, “how exactly do you hide this Clancy? There’s a reporter imbedded with them. Even if we could convince her to sit on it, the families are going to find out.”

Oldham was paying more attention to Habersham and proved it by asking, “what was that Joel? You know that thing you just didn’t say?”

Habersham gave a sarcastic and quite fake laugh before asking, “how did you get elected the first time?” He then turned to the grown up in the room and told Bill, “we don’t hide it. We make people not care.”

Bill was still unimpressed, “Joel, I know you’re like this master spin doctor but, we took some serious casualties on what was supposed to be a very small and low risk operation which, by the way, translates into no casualties. Exactly how is it you plan on putting a happy face on that?”

“We don’t,” Joel explained.

Clancy spoke up again, “just a quick question here guys but, um, how about we take this as a sign of things to come and just get our people the hell out of there?”

“I wish it were that simple Clancy,” Bill told the guy. “Cause if we’re being honest here, and that’s what this meeting is for, I’d like to do nothing better.” That was as far as Bill could go with the junior congressman. The guy was not cleared for anything else.

Clancy was quite contemptuous and even a little sarcastic when he said, “seems pretty simple to me. We just send the orders on over to the old Pentagon and home they come. Oh yeah, we might schedule a few air planes to bring them back, you know, while we’re at it. You know? Do the whole stewardess thing with the…”

Joel interrupted and got back to being serious, “let that story play out Bill. There’s no stopping it but, it doesn’t matter if it isn’t big news.”

Bill just shrugged, “how could it not be?”

“This isn’t reality mind you,” Joel told them, “this is the news. A story has to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. It has to make people want to watch and, well, some guys getting killed in another universe doesn’t really have an ending, it kind of starts out there.”

“I understand all that Joel,” Bill replied, “this isn’t my first goat roping. What I’m not getting here is what are you suggesting we do about it?”

“Give them a hero,” Joel said as if it was so obvious. “We still got two people missing, right?”

Bill nodded, “true but they could be dead, if I’m reading your suggestion right. You want make these two hero’s, is that it?”

Joel sat back and laced his fingers with a smile on his face, “doesn’t matter if the parade has a casket or a convertible, Bill. What these two missing grunts have is a good story. It’s a good story that makes people forget about the ones that don‘t have that. Reporters eat that shit up.”

Again Bill nodded at the suggestion and, unfortunately, once again, he had to concede that Joel had a point. The problem that Bill had was, “I just got to ask you Joel, does your job description say you have to go to Conscience Holders Anonymous before you can get hired? I was always a little fuzzy on that.”

Joel did not take the insult as such, he simply smiled again, “it’s not a job requirement Bill. It’s also what you need right now.” That was also a rebuke and Bill knew it. Joel was really saying, “you’re going to be screwed when I’m gone and I’m going to be laughing about it.”

Fortunately, the office was interrupted by the biggest distraction that it could have. The President, with sleeves rolled up, came walking in with Paul Corbin, his chief of staff. The big guy glad handed everyone, passed out a few metaphorical pats on the back, and then sent everyone packing but, Bill and Paul.

When the door shut, Bill had to ask his boss, “why was Clancy here?”

Frank shrugged, “it’s a hill thing. It’s also not the problem right now.” Bill agreed and he laid out what they had discussed in the meeting. Frank nodded but, not because he really agreed, he was just letting Bill know he got the message. Frank also noted, “I figured it would come down to something like that and, the way things are going, I’m not so sure we have much of a choice except to let Joel run with it.”

Corbin was not pleased at hearing that but, then again, nobody in the room was. He did state a similar opinion to Clancy Oldham but, at least Corbin sounded like an adult when doing it, “there has to be other options Frank, plain and simple. If what Bill’s people are saying is true then, the best case is we wind up in a century long quagmire.”

“Trust me Paul,” Frank told him, “this is not something I am taking very lightly here.”

“Oh I know that,” Corbin replied with a definitive edge to his voice. “I just can’t help but think we haven’t played all our cards yet.”

“We haven’t,” the President replied, “and we’re going to play every damn one of them first. In the end, I can already tell you it isn’t going to be enough.”

“We need to at least try and talk to these things,” Corbin stated definitively.

“And how do we do that Paul,” the President asked with his own edge. He was, obviously, not mad at his chief of staff though. Frank seemed to be angry that he was stuck. “From all I’ve been told, you can’t even talk with these things.”

Paul blew that off, “that sounds like the same shit they used to say about the Russians during the cold war. You know the very kind of crap that got us stuck in Vietnam for ten years. Only this time we’re talking ten times that and god knows how many more lives. Those are our best soldiers over there and these lizards are making them look like they belong to the Salvation Army Reserve.”

Bill interrupted, “well that’s the real kicker here, isn’t it Paul?”

“What do you mean,” it was clear that Corbin had not see that he answered his own question.

Bill pointed it out, “they used to say that the Russians were ten feet tall. These things really are. I know cause we got two of them sitting on a slab up in Boston. You say talk to them but the point is, we really can’t. Not because neither side will listen. It’s because neither side can really speak the other’s language. This isn’t just another crisis Paul. We aren’t worried about loosing face or some economic concession here. We’re talking about the survival of our species.”

“Oh that’s horseshit Bill,” Paul came back, “and you know it.”

“I really wish it was Paul,” Bill relented.

Frank was just sitting and listening. Bill noticed exactly how tormented the commander-n-chief looked while he was doing it. It made Bill really question his own sanity. He was really starting to wonder if dropping out of the race was exactly what he needed to do. Then there was the flip side of the coin. Did he really believe that stuff he just told Corbin? If he did then there was no way he could drop out and live with himself.

Finally the President seemed to snap back into the here and now. He told them, “none of that gets us anywhere gentlemen. The boys and girls out there in that forest, the one they call the Forest of Hurt, the pain it’s making me feel in an entirely different universe, we owe them something. We owe them to make sure that their sacrifice wasn’t meaningless.”

Paul was not that impressed, “by killing more of them?”

Frank slammed his fist on the table, “by using what they’re giving us to find a way Paul! They pay us to be smarter than them so it’s about time we start doing it! Don‘t you think?”

Bill raised a finger and, strangely enough, it got their attention. He remained rational and asked a question that he hoped was seen as equally so, “ok guys. Nobody wants a war here. Still, it is definitely a foregone conclusion that our options, at this point, are pretty bleak. So while we still have some time, how about lets look at some of this other stuff Paul is talking about?”

Strangely enough, Corbin was not very happy about being flattered. It made Bill start to wonder about, exactly how much in the loop this guy was. Bill had only assumed he knew everything but, was starting to suspect if that was really not the case. If he had been, Bill suspected, his opinion might have been very different and, he might have been a little more compliant with Bill’s idea. Then again, as Bill noted, even Frank seemed confused.

Bill had to explain, “we’re looking for other options here? What about the British?”

Again, Corbin blew it off, “what about them? Do you really think they’ll be that interested in sacrificing their kids?”

The President had a slightly different take on the matter, “if worse comes to worse they will. They’re asses are more on the line than us. At least we have an ocean between us and that Dell thing.”

“Not what I mean guys,” Bill told them. When he got blank looks he almost exploded, “come on! Am I the only one who has noticed? Why is it every time I talk to one of those guys, I get the feeling I’m not dealing with Ten Downing Street? Has anybody else got that feeling? Has anybody else read any of Garret’s summaries?”

The President reluctantly raised a hand and said, “yeah Bill. We’ve suspected something similar since day one, when I was first briefed on this whole new reality we have. It’s just, we didn’t think it was all that important, not in the face of everything else we’ve had to deal with.”

That told Bill more than he realized. Frank had just told Bill that he had been completely read into this situation when they had the meeting with Mary and Lasky. Now Bill was wondering how much that they left out when he was allegedly told everything. He put it to the commander and chief and Frank replied, “we didn’t think it was important Bill. If you get elected then you’re going to get the whole national security briefing. Then you can make up your own mind about what’s important and what isn’t.”

Bill slapped his hand on the table and exclaimed, “Jesus Christ Frank. You’ve been having me run point for you since day one. You’ve been holding out on me for just as long. Now I’m finding out you’re still keeping secrets?”

Corbin was even more alarmed, “what are we talking about here?”

Frank did not cower from the accusation no matter how stressed out he seemed right now, “I wasn’t holding out on you Bill. There’s just so much there, we didn’t have time to bring you up to speed on everything. We had to prioritize.”

“Horseshit,” was all Bill could say in return.

“Easy for you to say now,” Frank replied, “wait till you’re in my office Bill. You’ll understand then.”

“Well,” Bill said calmly as he leaned over the table, “until I am, how about letting me and Paul know a few over looked details that might be relevant to this discussion. How much do the Brits know and more importantly, how long have they known it? We all know their story about this Ian Dominique guy is total crap.”

Paul sniffed and then his spine stiffened as he said, “he’s their laundry guy, right? I thought that was pretty obvious from day one.”

Frank was most obviously in a dilemma. Bill had to really wonder why. The man was not looking at them and he was definitely more stressed out than before. Finally the President relented, “Mary was the one that put the pieces together. That’s why she’s on this.”

Now Bill sat back and sternly asked, “something happened didn’t it?”

“Not really,” Frank waived it off, “well sort of. Multiple agencies started seeing red flags going up, all over the globe. Guns were moving from all kinds of places. Somebody was buying up surplus military stockpiles from Hong Kong, Hanoi, Cape Town, Central America, Russia, every damn where. The problem was, nobody could figure out where they were going.”

“Let me take a wild guess here,” Bill said. He did not have to say anymore.

Frank simply nodded, “yeah, NSA surveillance finally tracked them down. They were all ending up in Liverpool and being trucked out to Coven Hill.”

Bill added, “that guy Arbuckle, right?”

Frank shrugged, “he was one of them. Between his team and Mary‘s, they managed to map out some kind of organization to all this. When I was first told about it, the CIA was really getting nervous. They thought Britain was on the verge of some kind of coup. We couldn’t figure out why they’d need all that hardware.”

Paul was furious, “and of course they didn’t.”

“Right,” Frank agreed.

On the other hand, Bill was seeing something else quite different here, “in other words, they didn’t go public about the Dell, because they made some monumental discovery. It wasn’t even because the Elves were ready to open up relations. Hell, it wasn’t even because they needed our help with the Orc’s.”

Paul winced and asked, “what are you saying Bill?”

Frank simply bowed his head and pointed to his Secretary of State, “he’s right.”

Bill put it on the table and was angry when he did, “they went public because we caught them red handed. We didn’t give them a choice, did we?”

“You have to understand how we saw it back then Bill,” Frank pleaded.

Corbin actually stood up and walked to the door. He put his hand on the knob and said, “Mister President, if you don’t pull those boys out, right now, you can expect my resignation on your desk in the morning.” The man walked out.

When the door slammed behind the chief of staff, the President looked over to Bill and asked, “you’re not leaving too, are you?”

“No,” Bill was every bit as angry as Corbin had been but, he was also more aware of the problem. “Frank, I can’t really say what you did back then was a monumental fuck up or not and, besides that, it’s not really an issue anymore. We have this problem and we have to deal with it. What I want to know is, who are these people, in Britain, that are pulling the strings. I need to know this because, as in the dark as you’re keeping Corbin, he’s still right about one or two things.” After a moment of reflection he added, “in fact he’s more right than he realizes. He’s doesn’t have the entire picture and if he did, he’d be as scared shitless as I am right now.”

The President simply shrugged, “I’m not following you Bill.”

“Frank,” Bill replied, “if we get in a quagmire with these things then they are going to beat us. What Corbin doesn’t see is what is at stake if we loose. We’re not going to explore other options because we’re idealist waiving a peace sign. We’re going to do it because we can’t afford to loose this fight and, make no mistake here, it is already a fight.”

The President did not answer. He did not have too. Both men knew that Bill was right. So Bill waited a moment and let it all settle in before he said, “so who the hell are these guys in Britain, cause from where I’m sitting, they’re starting to look more and more like the key to all this.”

“For certain?” Frank asked that question as he looked out a window. Then he followed up with, “we don’t know for sure. We’ve identified a few of them. Some of them even look like tier ones but, they hide their tracks pretty good.”

Bill considered that for a moment. He had a few pieces of the puzzle now and one of the important ones just fell in his lap. Two years ago the President had obviously circumvented the State Department when they cut this deal with this unknown group of Brits. Bill knew the man who occupied the Oval Office, and he knew him better than most. Frank would have never done that unless he saw no way out of it. That gave Bill some insight into where he needed to start digging, yet, with some sense of irony, he realized the more things changed the more they stayed the same.

Bill knew he was not looking for some mystical universe like what Frank had inadvertently kicked over. In fact, they had all been so overwhelmed by that, they forgot a few basics. No, what Bill Devon was looking for was something as mundane and old school as a simple money trail. The laws of physics may have been amended but the laws of politics were far more immutable. In that realm, the one that Bill had spent most of his life living in, it always boiled down to that one thing, follow the cash.