O-Negative: Extinction (5 page)

Partly to spite the authorities that had covered the ancient tomb in concrete and partly because it seemed like fate that she’d found herself at the tomb of the first woman when she’d been forced to stand up for her rights as a woman she decided to walk around the concrete block in a similar manner to the other ladies present.  She found herself asking for Hawwa’s guidance and protection in her everyday life.  As she did so a strong premonition that change was in the air came upon her.  She prayed that this would be for the better but as she thought about this she shivered ever so slightly in the 35 degree heat.  Not really the omen she was looking for.

“Congressman Mitchell, Megan Lu, editor for the Washington University review”.

He glanced up at the young woman who stood in the doorway to his office.  Though she was slight she had a certain height that meant there was no way she could be described as petite.  Her Asian features framed by long dark black hair.   Wearing a short pleated skirt, black tights and an expensive looking silk blouse he found his glance lasting longer than he’d expected.  This turned into something of a too obvious stare as his attention was drawn to her striking blue suede high heel shoes. 

“Err Ms Lu good to see you, I’ll be with you in a moment please take a seat” he indicated the sofa located at one side of his office.  He looked down at the papers he’d been reading wrote a meaningless comment in the margins of the page and then got up and went to greet his visitor.

“Ms Lu my apologies for keeping you waiting, David Mitchell”.  He held out his hand.  She rose from her seat to return the hand shake which caused the papers she’d taken out of her brown leather satchel and now had in her lap to spill on to the floor.  Without thinking he crouched down to pick up the fallen papers at the same time that she did.  Their faces were suddenly much closer than he’d been expecting.   He caught the aroma of her lily scented perfume.  He stood up quickly holding half the papers in his hand.  She also stood and nervously pushed back one side of her hair with her free hand.

“Ms Lu I’m sorry to startle you, please take a seat”.  “Can I get you something to drink? Tea, Coffee?”

She sat down on the sofa opposite the single seated arm chair and crossed her legs which inadvertently drew his attention to them. ‘Jesus David pull yourself together’ he thought, ‘you’re embarrassing yourself’.

“Just some water if that’s ok”

Her voice was American in nature, the accent of the North East clearly evident, yet it was also tinged with a hint of an exotic foreignness.  He was beginning to think he might be in serious trouble.

“Water right.”  He moved over to the sideboard located at the back of the room and poured two glasses of water.  He returned to the seating area and put the glasses down on the table making a conscious effort to keep his eyes fixed on her face as he did so.

“So Ms Lu, your mother tells me your studying politics at Georgetown.  How’s that going?”

‘Oh my God what a complete ass I sound’ he thought. 

“Fine thank you, I’m in my final year so it will all be over soon.  This piece I’m doing for the student newspaper will probably be my last before I leave”.

“Well we better make sure it’s a good one then, what are you planning on doing afterwards?”

‘W
hat are you doing afterwards?’
Such a statement could be misinterpreted to mean what are you doing after this meeting - as opposed to after she finished school.  His subconscious seemed to be exerting some sort of mini coup. Fortunately she chose to understand the latter meaning.

“I haven’t got anything planned yet but maybe an internship at the UN where my father works – though I’m not sure that’s such a good idea given the potentially nepotistic overtones”.

“Yes well politics is often all about who you know, but I understand how you’d want to make your own mark.  Have you thought about interning in Washington?”

“I’ve thought about it but demand for internships in Washington is so high I wasn’t sure I wanted to throw myself into the mix, or even stand much of a chance”.

‘Move things away from this topic.  Move things away from this’….he tried repeating the mantra over and over in his head but his mind didn’t seem to want to comply.

“Well I know we’re in the process of looking for a couple of interns so please feel free to submit an application form to Julia my secretary if you’re genuinely interested….. and don’t mind working for a first time congressman”.

“Oh……thank you for your suggestion Congressman …”

‘Oh my god that’s gone and done it. She probably thinks you’re hitting on her.  Are you?’ he thought.  This wasn’t going quite how he’d expected at all.  He needed to move on to safer ground.

“Great well we better start this interview hadn’t we? Fire away with your questions Ms Lu”.

She flushed slightly as they moved onto the main reason for her being there and she couldn’t find the right page in the papers she was holding.  After a slight pause she found the page she was looking for and reached into her satchel to pull out a recording device.

“Are you ok if I record the interview Congressman?”

“Sure no problem.  If CNN can do it I don’t see why you can’t”. He said smiling.

“Thank you, and thank you Congressman for taking time out of your busy schedule to do this interview.  As I said in my email to your assistant I’m doing a piece for the University Newspaper on what it’s like to be a new congressman in Washington so I wonder if you could begin by outlining your average sort of day?”

“Well the first thing to say is that I haven’t come across an average sort of day yet.  Each one is quite different from the last but that’s what makes the job so interesting.  Let me think… well this morning I started with a breakfast meeting with the Republican members of the Homeland Security Committee.  Is that the sort of thing you’re interested in hearing about?”

“Yes absolutely.  Would you mind expanding upon what the meeting was about?”

“Well this sort of meeting is really an informal way for representatives to chat about how best to spend the budget of the departments they’re responsible for and, in the case of the Homeland security committee, to provide oversight to decisions taken by the department regarding risks to the structure of government and citizens.  It’s largely a friendly open atmosphere and you can have some constructive conversations away from the glare of the more public hearings and formal meetings”.

“Sounds useful Congressman, and given our current political climate I’d imagine you aren’t struggling to find issues to talk about.  May I ask if you were at all surprised to be asked to sit on this important committee given your relative inexperience in Congress?”

‘Wow.  No messing about here.  Straight into what she wants to get at’ he thought.

“I was extremely honoured to be given the privilege of serving on the Homeland security committee and though I am the first to admit to a degree of inexperience as a first time congressman there’s no system of hierarchy about who sits on which committee, it was just the luck of the draw really”.

“Aren’t you also on the budget committee as well, that’s remarkably good fortune for a junior congressman no?”

He laughed to take the sting out of her question and to provide him with a moment to collect his thoughts.  She was obviously nobody’s fool.

“I guess it must be from all that Irish ancestry.” He quipped.  “But I admit it’s unusual to be on two primary committees at the same time but it’s not unheard of.  To my mind this is a progressive step.  We need younger congressman on the committees to ensure the policies and programmes they enact consider the impact of government legislation over 50 years not just 5 years.”

Ms Lu shifted her notes about a bit on her lap before asking her next question. 

“How would you respond to the recent criticism that the Homeland security committee has more Republican congressmen on it than Democrats, despite there being a Democrat administration in the White House?”

“I’ve heard the more liberally orientated media outlets talking about this but actually I take the view that domestic security is an issue for every American and from my own perspective party politics shouldn’t come in to the decisions we take for the benefit of all Americans.”

He saw she wasn’t going to let him off the hook that easily.

“And the criticisms concerning the number of contracts that have been awarded to security contractors based in the Southern States, some of whom were contributors to your election campaign?”

‘Mmmmhhh.  I wonder if someone from one of the larger media outlets has fed her questions to ask’.  He wouldn’t want to come up against her after she had a few more years of experience behind her.  She was a sharp cookie no doubt about it.

“I think criticism might be a bit of strong word here but what I would say is that the committee has absolutely no influence on procurement matters.  Those decisions are left entirely to officials in the Department of Homeland security.”

He could see that she wasn’t fooled.  And nor should she be.  He and his fellow Republicans had worked hard to make sure those contracts had gone to Chad McGovern’s firm or other firms associated with him in some way.  In the first nine months he’d been in the job he’d heard nothing from McGovern.  Nevertheless he knew who was behind the call when Tessa called him a few weeks ago.  They’d largely discussed inconsequential items but the conversation had contained a number of references to ‘the work of the Homeland Security committee’ and ‘public contracts’.  Tessa had ended the call noting that friends in Texas sent their ‘regards’.  She hadn’t needed to say anything else.  He knew when a chit was being called in.  Later that day he’d made a point of meeting with Dennis Waters the Undersecretary at the Department for Homeland Security to highlight how important it was that their forthcoming security contracts were ‘tendered fairly; and ideally across a wide geographical area’.  Dennis had subsequently understood this to mean that the tenders shouldn’t be tendered fairly and should end up with companies in David’s or neighbouring Republican states.  Dennis knew which way his bread was buttered.  When the budget committee next met other departments had their budgets cut but David had argued strongly that the security of the nation could not be compromised and cutting funds to the Department of Homeland Security would be a false economy.  The committee had agreed with him and Dennis had given David an almost imperturbable nod from the back of the committee room when the decision was announced.

Despite being unconvinced by his answer Megan moved on to another area.  If she’d have been a professional journalist she wouldn’t have given up on this line of questioning quite so easily.

“Congressman you’re also on the house budget committee and have been particularly critical of the budget of the current administration which has otherwise been well supported can you tell me why?”

This was better; she was giving him the opportunity to put forward his views on a subject close to his heart.

“I have and as I’ve said before I will continue to speak my mind without fear of differing opinions.  I made a promise to my constituents to always represent their views to the best of my ability and that’s what I’ll do.  With regards to public finances it is not a hard concept to understand.  We simply cannot continue to spend money we do not have, which is why I recently co-sponsored a bill to amend the US constitution so that the federal government be required to spend and collect the same amount of money”.

“Won’t that be near on impossible given the current recession and need to boost public spending?”

He wasn’t sure if this question was heartfelt or if she was just playing devil’s advocate but decided to push back a bit to see how she’d react.

“Ms Lu those sentiments are exactly what got us into this situation in the first place.  We live in the greatest country in the world.  I’m honoured to call that country home and I will fight every day to make sure our conservative voices are heard in Washington whether the leaders of the current administration agree with me or not”.

Perfect.  He’d got out all the points he wanted to make.  He hoped he hadn’t come across too dogmatic but he didn’t want anyone to think he was anything other than a true blue Republican congressman.

“Congressman you put forwards a convincing answer.”  Non-committal, but neither was this a hostile reply he noted.

“I don’t want to take up too much more of your time but perhaps you could let our readers know how many staff you have assisting you in your day to day work?”

“Well Ms Lu the work of a congressman is substantial and as a result I need a team of people to assist me with that work.  As it stands at the moment I employ 8 aides here in Washington and a further 6 in my District office in Louisiana.  These staff help me prepare for committee meetings, identify important issues and trends, draft legislation for new bills and meet with constituents.  My team and I answer 1,000 letters and 500 emails every week - responding to these is a priority and though we won’t necessarily reply immediately we make it a commitment that every single one of them gets a response.”