The Devlin Deception: Book One of The Devlin Quatrology (26 page)

“We will also make this combination available to people under
65 in age, nationally, at their own expense, with a limit of $20,000
per year for contributions to the Health Savings Account. Again, a
debit card will be issued by the insurance companies for that
account, and customers will have a choice of deductibles on the
catastrophic policy. Premiums can also be risk-based, and
pre-existing conditions will be covered, but with a five-year waiting
period.

“Insurance companies may also offer other kinds of policies, up
to and including what we now call Major Medical. Optional riders for
other conditions and/or treatments will be available, sort of a la
carte.

“My new Health and Human Services Secretary, Gigi Maitlin, and
her staff and I will be working closely on several aspects of this
new program, including very tough negotiations with the drug
companies for much, MUCH better prices than Medicare and Medicaid
have been able to get, and with medical professionals and hospitals
and device manufacturers to not only start bending the cost curve,
but to significantly bend it down.

“Also, the past practice of charging the uninsured up to five
or six times what the insurance companies pay, that's over and done
with. That practice is illegal as of right now, and in four months,
all advertising to consumers for prescription drugs and medical
devices will be illegal.

“We will establish an impartial rating system for all the
policies that people can choose, and it'll make it really simple to
compare policies and see which one is right for you and your
situation.

“And since we're also allowing for national, cross-state
policies, nobody will be stuck buying a higher-premium policy as an
individual. Everybody will get the lowest group rate available.

“I'm also encouraging medical professionals to establish
low-cost urgent care clinics in or next to every emergency room in
the country, staffed by nurse practitioners and pro bono volunteer
doctors. Every patient coming to the emergency room will first be
thumbprinted and triaged at the clinic and treated there, if
possible, and only sent to the emergency room if it's absolutely
necessary.

“I'm sure that once you have your HSA, you'll be happier
paying, just for example, fifty bucks at one of those clinics rather
than nine hundred at the ER for the exact same treatment.

“Now, this has just been an overview, and there are lots of
details to go over, and as you've heard often enough, 'The devil is
in the details,' so we'll be looking this whole concept over very
carefully between now and a year from now, but we'll be posting
everything we have on this on the web site at ten o'clock tonight, so
you'll be able to review it all and take whatever notes you might
want to whenever you want to, and talk it over with your health
insurance agents and your other advisers.

“Again, this won't go into effect for Medicare and Medicaid
clients until 2013, but I'd expect we'll soon be seeing some pretty
innovative ideas coming from insurance companies that want to get a
piece of the action, and I'll have the joy of letting them all know
that not only will the playing field be absolutely level, but that
any chicanery on their parts will definitely NOT be in their best
interests. They, like I and the entire federal government, will
always put their clients' needs first. Word to the wise.

“So on that note, I'll wish you all a very happy and
informative Monday evening and night, and a great rest of the week
and year.”

As soon as the camera was off, Donne leaned back in his chair,
sighed, cracked his knuckles and stretched mightily. Then he buzzed
his chief of staff.

Emily's voice came through immediately. “Yes, boss?”

“I think we're ready to do the Munich on our guests down in the
basement.”

“Tony's all set, Gordy, and looking forward to it.”

“Good, good. Let him loose.”

“Will do. And you sleep well, okay? You need to take better
care of yourself; long days and nights ahead.”

Donne chuckled. “I promise, Mom; off to hit the sack right
now.”

Emily also chuckled. “Good night, boss.”

“Good night.” Donne clicked off, picked up another sheaf
of papers and his tablet and headed out of the Oval Office and over
to the Residence, chuckling. Two Secret Service agents, the military
aide carrying the nuclear football and two of his private guards
followed.

-46-

Four Months Earlier

Saturday, August 13, 2011

11:45 a.m.

Bonita Beach, Florida

Pam lazily rolled over on her towel, propped herself up on her elbows
and looked up at Jake, who was still writing in his notebook.

“Jake?”

“One second, Pam.” Jake wrote a little more, then looked
over at Pam. “Okay; sorry.”

“It's okay. Just a thought here. What kind of love life does
Donne have?”

“Love life? I haven't thought about that, not at all.”

“Well, he's not married, is he? No kids?”

“Nope, but that's just so his enemies don't have anyone to
kidnap or threaten. He's just focused on his policies.”

“Well, what does he do, have an affair, bring a hooker in now
and then, get a blow – I mean oral sex from an intern under his
desk?”

“I don't know; it's really not something I've considered.”

“Well, does he eat?”

“Yeah, and that I have thought about. He's comfortable with a
simple diet; like his usual meal is a grilled ham and cheese
sandwich, sometimes a cheeseburger. In fact, he let the White House
chef go, since he knew he wouldn't be happy doing simple menus. But
he gave him his choice of head chef positions at six of DEI's
restaurants, and the guy took one in Paris. They stay in touch, and
Donne occasionally invites him back to do the very rare state dinners
he has to do, but they bore the bejesus outa him. And he absolutely
hates getting all formal; he's been there, done that, probably has
ten tuxedos. But I can't justify writing that whole scene out
between the two of 'em.”

“But, Jake, that does give him some personality, some regular
guyness.”

“Well, I'll stick that info in somewhere, just not the whole
scene and the dialogue.”

“Cool. And does he sleep?”

“Oh, yeah. I've got a scene where he gets awakened for some
sort of emergency; still gotta figure out what that is, but it'll go
in there. And his chief of staff, who's sort of a motherly type,
gets on him about not getting enough sleep, eating a crappy diet and
needing to delegate more.”

“Well, I think you ought to give him at least SOME kind of love
life, or at least some kind of a sex life.”

“I guess I could throw in a line or two about that somewhere.”

“Oh, Jake, you should do more than that, have a whole scene
with him and someone, super-erotic and sexy. Maybe more than one
scene.”

“I don't --”

“He's not gay, is he?”

“No, he's – you know, I hadn't even thought about that,
either.”

“Well, then I think you need to put in a really erotic scene,
maybe with him and a woman, or maybe a couple of women, lots of
rolling around and sweat and toys and maybe handcuffs and leather and
ropes and feathers and --”

“Wait, Pam, wait. Feathers?”

“Yeah, feathers. They can be really sensuous, sexy, erotic.
Just imagine a really soft one, with him running it slowly and
teasingly all over a naked woman's body, slowly and then even more
slowly, light as a whisper, just barely touching her, running
incredibly slowly across her belly, up and down her sides, under her
chin, across her face, her lips … especially her lips ... her
eyes, her nose, her ears, then down to her --”

“Pam, wait, wait. You're getting way ahead of me. I wouldn't
have the faintest idea of how to even start writing something like
that.”

“Oh, Jake, haven't you ever read a romance novel?”

“Nope, never. If there aren't car chases, CIA guys or some
kind of spies, I don't bother … well, in fiction. I do read a
lot of nonfiction, especially since I started this whole project.”

“It's a very popular genre. And putting some great sex scenes
in would help sales, I'd bet.”

“I'm not writing this for the money, Pam, just to – you
know, I'm not sure I know exactly why I'm doing it anymore; it just
seems pretty important to do somehow. I guess I'm just curious how
his policies might – oh, and that whole debt ceiling showdown
last month, and the rating downgrade, that all sure added to my
motivation. That debacle got me royally pissed off, and --”

“That got a lot of people pissed off.”

“And for Obama to tell seniors that they may not get their
Social Security checks? Geez, I hate politicians.”

“Hate? That's a pretty strong word, Jake.”

“Well, both sides were using the public as sacrificial pawns,
but that comment was pretty damned low; it's disgusting, all of it.”

“Easy, Jake, easy.”

“It's okay, Pam. I just need to talk politics at least five
times a day to get my blood pressure up to near normal.”

Pam laughed and Jake smiled, his anger apparently dissipated.

Then Pam said, “But back to your guy, if you make him a little
more human, less nerdy, people might like him better.”

“You think the union guys, the Pope, televangelists and lawyers
will accept his policies more just because he --”

“The who?”

“Oh, you haven't seen that stuff yet. Those guys and a lot of
others are pissed at him because he --”

“No, no, no, Jake, not them, not the characters. The readers,
they might like him better.”

“Oh.” Jake puzzled and thought for a moment. “Hmm;
maybe you're right.

“I'd thought maybe the Asperger's would help explain his style
and personality, but maybe --”

“Asperger's? You gave him Asperger's?”

“Yeah. Wasn't that in the – oh, I think I put that in
the press conference. Maybe it'd be better if I stuck it in his
first speech.”

“The one they watch at … oh, what was the bar --”

“Slinky Joe's.”

“Right.”

“I don't have the press conference online. I'll move that
chunk up. I thought about giving him Tourette's Syndrome, but then I
had Debbie Jackson swearing a lot, to flesh out her character, so I
thought his doing that might be overkill. So I just went with the
Asperger's instead.”

“Yeah, maybe if you moved it to the speech, that'd be good, but
I really think he'd be much more interesting and sympathetic –
you do want him to be sympathetic, right? Not a bad guy?”

“Well, Pam, I'm not gonna give that away yet. He's gonna be
pretty complicated and I'm hoping readers will be surprised by the
ending.”

“You can't tell me? I'll keep it to myself.”

Jake smiled, but shook his head. “Sorry, Pam, can't do that.
It's a secret.” He held a finger up to his mouth. “Shhhhh.”

Pam looked closely at Jake. “You haven't even figured it out
yet, have you?”

“Oh, no, no, Pam, you're wrong there. One of the first things
I wrote was the ending and some alternate ones, and everything I'm
writing now fits with the one I picked. But some of the stuff can
fit with any of them.”

“Does he die?”

“Oh, c'mon, Pam.”

“Sorry; can't blame a girl for trying.”

“Everybody dies … sometime. But he does have a pretty
clever plan for what happens to the country when he does go. At
least I think it's pretty clever. We'll see.”

“Well, it's your book. I'm sorry for trying to mess with it.”

“That's okay, really; I'm enjoying it. This is the first …
and only … substantive conversation I've had about it, with
anybody.”

“Really? But I still think you oughta think about his sex
life.”

“Okay, okay. I will. By the way, do you know the difference
between erotic and kinky?”

“I think so.”

“No, no, you're supposed to say no.”

“Oh, a joke. Okay. Geez, no, suh, I do not know the
difference between erotic and kinky. Could you puhleeze enlighten
me?”

“Sure. Erotic is when you use a feather; kinky is when you use
the whole chicken.”

Pam laughed so quickly and loudly that heads all around the beach
turned to look … some, mostly the older men, to ogle.

“I've got to remember that one,” Pam said, still
laughing.

“Glad you liked it.”

She rolled over and sat up, slid into her beach chair and lifted her
sunglasses.

“You know, Jake, I'd like to try something.”

“Oh? What?”

“I'd like to write a love scene for Donne, see what you think
of it.”

Jake, again totally perflutzed, could only blurt out, “What?
Really?”

“Really. No pressure; I'd just like to try, see what I can
do.”

Jake, still perflutzed, frowned, rubbed his forehead, pursed his lips
and finally said, “I guess I couldn't stop you, could I?”

Pam smiled a winning smile. “Probably not. But you wouldn't
have to read it if you don't want to.”

Jake shrugged and dropped his hands in surrender. “Okay. And
I will read it; promise.”

Pam gave Jake an even broader smile and reached over to grab his
hands, but from where she was, she couldn't reach them, so she put
both of her hands on his shin. “Oh, thank you, Jake. You
won't be sorry; promise.”

“Okay.”

“Cool.”

Jake sighed, leaned back on his lounge and closed his eyes. Pam
leaned back in her chair and closed hers, a tiny smile lingering on
her face.

After a minute or so, Jake opened his eyes and looked over at Pam.

“Hey, Pam, I'm getting hungry. Want to join me for a hot dog?
I'll buy.”

Pam opened her eyes, sat up and stretched. The oglers ogled.

“Sure. But I thought you always had stuff in your cooler.”

“Yeah, but I've got a hankering for one of Deb's jumbo dogs.”

“Oh, over at the Seabreeze?”