O-Negative: Extinction (14 page)

The other emails were relatively straightforward and, after the excitement of yesterday, somewhat of an anti-climax.  In fact now that he thought about it everything he’d been told yesterday began to seem distinctly fanciful.  He told himself he needed to ‘get back to reality’.  After he’d called Greg in his office to let him know he was going to be away another day he sent a text to Megan letting her know the same.  “Sorry need to spend another night.  Missing you.  See you soon.  Love David”.

As he was finishing his text a text from an unknown number popped up.  “Sending a driver to pick you up around 19.30.  Hope you had a good evening”.

He smiled. He had had a good evening and he wondered whether Chad had had a hand in this as well given both girls worked in his wife’s bar.

The car that picked him up was driven by a guy called Chuck.  Chuck seemed to have that same look that most of Chad’s staff had and when he’d asked him if he’d been in service Chuck confirmed his suspicions and regaled him with some of his escapades while in the tribal areas of Afghanistan/Pakistan.  Chuck was also extremely complimentary about ‘Mr McGovern’ who had looked after his family while he’d been overseas and then got him the job as a driver when he’d left the service.

The ranch they pulled up outside was more a mini fortress than a house.  The 10 foot wall surrounding the property was impressive but passing through the solid metal gate he could see that there was a further chain link fence on the other side that surrounded an immaculate looking lawn and appeared to be electrified.  Chad obviously didn’t do things by halves.  There were also several CCTV cameras spaced at regular intervals on top of the metal poles holding the fence in place.  As they pulled up outside the garage, he spotted an expensive looking satellite dish on top.  Chad obviously wanted his privacy and yet still have the ability to remain in contact with the outside world. 

After he’d thanked Chuck for driving him over a woman with a perfectly sculptured brunette bob and dressed in a dark green trouser suit greeted him at the door.  She introduced herself as Elizabeth McGovern and kissed him on both cheeks before leading him inside the main house. 

“Good to meet you David I’m so glad Chad invited you over.  It’s normally just him and a load of his old fuddy duddies so it’s nice to see a younger face.  Now tell me did you have a good evening?  I told Chad it was rude of him to leave you all alone like that but I’m sure a good looking fella like you wasn’t left alone too long huh?”  She smiled sweetly as she said this and he wasn’t entirely sure that it hadn’t been her rather than Chad that had set him up with Teri and Felicia the evening before.

“Pleased to meet you Elizabeth.  No I didn’t mind being left alone, it was good to experience a real American bar after the polished establishments in Washington.”  Giving her an innocent look he continued “and the waitresses were most accommodating”.  She laughed daintily at this but artlessly moved on to describing what dinner was likely to consist of.  The list of dishes seemed endless and he found himself saying.

“My goodness Mrs McGovern I hope you haven’t gone to too much trouble on my part.  I’m easily satisfied when it comes to food”.

“Please Liz or Lizzie and no of course it’s no trouble.  What would people say if I didn’t make sure you tried some of our local Texan delicacies, you being a dashing young Congressman and all and anyway you’re not the only guest tonight.  Anyhow I’d better stop chatting or you’ll never get rid of me, Chad’s downstairs in the basement or as he likes to call it his ‘operations room’ and he asked me to send you down when you arrived.  The lift on the left will take you there.  I need to go and make sure the crayfish haven’t over cooked.  See you later David” At that she pressed the down lift button and went off in what he presumed was the direction of the kitchen.  While he waited for the lift he wondered what she’d met by not the only guest tonight’.

When the lift reached the ‘basement’ the doors opened and he stepped out to find a solid metal door that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a nuclear bunker – this was obviously somewhat more than a traditional basement.  A soft hiss sounded and Chad opened the door from the inside.  “David hi welcome to Casa de McGovern.  Come in and I’ll introduce you to the fellow conspirators”. 

Now it was ‘others’ which sent a few bells ringing in the back of his head but he realised he was probably far too far into Chad’s schemes now to start worrying about exactly who he was meeting in the home bunker of his largest financial backer.  “Good to see you to Chad.  Quite a set up you have here.  What are you expecting World War Three?”

Chad shrugged his shoulders slightly “Well World War Three might be a bit much but as you’ll see I like to be prepared for whatever may come; and anyway what’s an old millionaire to do with all his money if it isn’t to buy a few toys?”

After walking down a narrow concrete corridor they stepped through another thick blast door into another corridor which turned sharply to the left and right.  Turning to the left they entered the sort of room he’d only previously seen in movies.  In the centre was a large oval shaped table and surrounding this a number of computers showing images from outside the house and what looked like satellite images of Antarctica.  There were 4 or 5 older men gathered towards one end the table and one woman who he recognised, his old political fixer friend Tessa.  Behind them was a large electronic white board displaying North America and a young man sat at a desk busily tapping away at the computer, which he assumed the whiteboard was attached to.  Most of the southern states were shaded in red while the Eastern and Western states were in blue.  The Central states above New Mexico were highlighted with a combined red and blue striped background.  Glancing around the room he noticed that there were two other dark coloured doors similar to the one they’d just entered on the back wall of the room.

“Jesus Chad this looks like a command and control bunker”.

“Well David in a way it is.  As I’m sure Lizzie said to you there’s a reason I call it my ‘operations centre’.  C’mon let me introduce you to the guys”.

As they walked over to the table Chad said.  “Guys can I introduce David Mitchell the Congressman for South West Louisiana.  David has been busy making his mark up in Washington over the last few months.  He’s proved to be very useful on one or two small matters that could only be resolved up in the capital”.

“David on the left is Rear Admiral Jerry Strickland.  Jerry is Commander of Navy Region South East based in Jacksonville Florida.”  He shook Jerry’s hand. “Pleased to meet you sir”.

“Next to him is Teddy Austin who runs the farming and food conglomerate Gregsons.”  “Mr Austin good to see you sir, I know your company well given you’re one of the biggest employers in my district”. 

Teddy replied “Pleased to meet you too congressman. I’m sorry we haven’t met before.”

Chad went on to say “Tessa as the owner of Bio Pharmaceuticals you already know”.

“Hi David”.

“Hi Tessa good to see you again.”  He kissed her on both cheeks. 

“Next to Tessa is Bill Jacobs.  Bill is the Managing Director of my Securifort business.  And then Gareth Thomson and Lieutenant General Graham Chapman.  Gareth is President of Techcity the science park located on the Texas University campus and Graham is Commanding General of the Army’s Third Corp based over at Fort Hood.”

He shook hands again “Pleased to meet you Bill, Gareth, General Chapman.”

He took in a breath before saying.  “This is quite an assembly of distinguished personages Chad are you sure I’m allowed in here?” He smiled as he said this but there was an element of question in his tone.

“Of course David I think I know you well enough now to bring you into this little group of ours.  Tessa why don’t you give David a quick summary of what we’re about and why we’re here today”.

Chad sat down at one of the chairs and indicated David to sit down in the chair next to him.

“Well David all us round the table today are a group of similarly minded concerned citizens.  Citizens who though deeply supportive of the democratic process also worry about the state of our country and our place in the modern world.  As you know the country remains deeply indebted and not just to our allies in Europe and the Middle East but also to a number of countries in the Far East who are at best luke warm friends.  We’re also heavily engaged in a number of on-going conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and more recently and somewhat more covertly Syria.”

All of this was well known to him but she went on to say.

“Our current President while an intelligent and well-read man seems incapable of solving the underlying domestic issues that face our nation.  Our industrial output is down, our unemployment levels are at levels not seen since the depression and our spirit of innovation and free enterprise has been stifled by red tape and government intervention.  Now of course I’m sure it comes as no surprise that many of us here would prefer for there to be a different political party in power, but even within the Republican party there has been an extended period of introspection that has prevented us from presenting a united point of view or policies to address these issues.  Issues that I would highlight have been felt disproportionately hard here in the South and Central United states. 

Tessa took a sip of water.  He hadn’t realised what an accomplished speaker she was.  She’d obviously taken great pains to hide her intelligence from him previously.  Her act as a well to do Southern Belle had been almost faultless when he’d previously met her in Louisiana and in Washington.  She continued where she left off.

“Loyal American citizens whose forefathers have been here for several generations find their jobs being shipped overseas or their jobs being taken by more recent immigrants from Latin America.  Even the previously solid government employers in the South such as the Army, Navy and the Air force have been forced to cut jobs and halt recruitment despite the on-going conflicts we are involved in.  As a result over the last couple of years there has been a growing feeling amongst a number of likeminded individuals here in Dixie that our views and the views of our constituents are going unheard in Washington.  This is part of the reason why Chad has been quietly supporting and financing individuals such as yourself and why this group was originally formed.  Now in addition to these problems we find ourselves facing another potential threat.  A threat that none of us feel the current administration will understand nor have the willingness to address if it does turn out to be as bad as your friend Mr Lynch has inferred.

All of us pray that the worst case scenario will not occur and that what Mr Lynch has briefed you on turns out to be nothing more than some dust on a satellite.  And of course it is likely that like so many storms before us we will as a country weather these circumstances as best we can.  Outside of any external issues which may or may not be occurring in Antarctica there are encouraging signs that the country is beginning to pull itself out of recession.  But these positive signs are still tentative and a committed plan of action and strong leadership from the top to all the other issues that we are facing does not seem likely.  Should some internally or externally generated shock occur before or even after any economic recovery our way of life could vanish in the wind along with our previously assured hegemony on the world stage.

These are the reasons why Chad and I and the people you see here today formed ourselves into a loose affiliation of likeminded people.  An affiliation which is committed to protecting and strengthening the country we are all so proud of.  Let me be clear we are absolutely committed to doing whatever we can to prevent the country disintegrating however slowly or indeed however quickly.  But because it’s impossible to help everyone all the time we have and will continue to focus our attention on protecting the interests of those States in which we have a semblance of control and influence – largely based here in the South.”

As she finished her summary, much of which he agreed with, he felt that he was on the cusp of something much greater than he had ever imagined himself becoming involved in.  He had known that there was a deep seated unease with the policies of the current government and that yes many southern states had suffered disproportionately.  Not just economically but also in how the liberal media portrayed them – often mocking the way Southerners spoke and the values based around their heartfelt Christian beliefs.  But to find that such a powerful group of individuals had coalesced around these disparate issues to the extent that they were prepared to actively consider taking direct action to protect not just their own personal interests but also the interests of the South was unexpected.  Hearing these words from Tessa he suspected that had it not been for the potential situation developing in Antarctica it might have been some time before he would have been invited to a meeting such as this.  He paused for a moment to absorb and assess what Tessa had outlined to him before replying.