WAR (38 page)

“President Rand, why would you offer such a thing to an enemy?”

“The world is too small for us to be enemies. We have to find a way to live together, hopefully, become trading partners, if not actual friends. We could have destroyed the world if we fought a nuclear war against each other. I’d rather have you for a friend than an enemy. We share more in common than we share against each other. Most of what drove us as enemies was different politics. We can have different politics and different government systems and still be friends. We don’t have to agree with everything in order to work together. We should set an example to other countries that enemies can become friends.”

“You are offering to pay us $1 trillion to help rebuild us?”

“President Avdotya, I’m willing to go to Congress to have them grant you an aid package in the amount of $1 trillion. I’m willing to send specialists to help in the clean up of your strategic systems we destroyed. Some sites may be radioactive from the warheads being split open from our ‘Hammers’.”

“So that is what you call them. They came as a shock to us. We didn’t think you had developed such a system.”

“We have learned how to maintain some secrets.”

“President Rand, I need some time to confer with my staff to gain their support. I propose we hold in a cease-fire and agree to talk again in 24 hours.”

“President Avdotya that is agreeable to us.”

Both Presidents terminate the connection. President Brownstone looks at President Rand saying, “Interesting, do you think his staff will go for it and do you think Congress will support giving them a grant?”

“If we don’t become allies, we are going to spend more than $1 trillion in a new class of weapons to counter whatever they develop. If we don’t find some common ground to become friends, then they will hate us for the damage we’ve done to them and they will find a way to settle the score with us. It may not be for many years, but they won’t ever forget the outcome of the war. The Treaty of Versailles set up World War 2. If we don’t find a way to come to terms with the Russian Federation we’ll be fighting them in World War 3, 4 or whatever number the future war becomes. Rod, we’re screwed by our own success. Our technology allowed us to destroy their strategic weapons systems without loss of American life. If we set terms for Russia like the allies did to Germany at the end of the First World War, we’ll be doomed to fight them again when we might not have the same technological edge.”

“Paul, I agree with you. Life is a circle. Today we are in a position of technical lead over the Russians; in the future, a liberal administration may cut defense and R&D spending allowing them to overtake us. I agree with you, spending $1 trillion now when we can afford it is much better than fighting a major war tomorrow. I’ll do everything I can to help sell it to Congress. I suggest you announce it when we attend Ted’s funeral.”

“That’s a good idea assuming Avdotya can sell it to his staff.”

“If he doesn’t, the entire world will pay the price when the war continues.”

“We’ll know tomorrow what he says.”

@@@@@

“Hello, this is Sean.”

“Sean, it's Wolf. I’m sorry for the late hour.”

“Wolf, I assume you’re calling to discuss the settlement offer.”

“Sean, I’ve spoken with President Booker. He has turned down the offer to end hostilities and work together on a common way forward. He said he can’t cease hostilities until all of his people receive their just compensation from the many years of discrimination and slavery.”

“Wolf, no one living today was a slave. Slavery ended over one hundred years ago. The people making these demands have no standing in any court. It was their ancestor’s own people who captured them for sale into slavery. They believe a falsehood that whites captured them. Not all whites owned slaves, and slavery still exists in many parts of the world; it exists in countries the LSA has treaties of friendship with, why don’t you start by breaking those treaties. Why don’t you teach the actual history to your people versus the bullshit of white privilege?”

“Sean, there are many areas I agree with you. However, I’m the Minister of Truth, not the President. I can’t do anything on my own.”

“Yes you can. You’re the Minister of Truth. Start by telling the truth, start by teaching the world’s real history.”

“Sean you know as well as I do that I can only publish what the President agrees to. My hands are tied.”

“Wolf, I want to make sure I understand the LSA’s rebuttal, you will only agree to a cease fire when people are compensated for treatment none of them suffered?”

“Sean, it’s in their family, it’s in their genes, and they’ve been educated to believe their problems stem from when their ancestors were taken from Africa and made slaves.”

“Wolf, tell you what, the USA will accept their claims by returning them to the home they say they were taken from. We will lease ships and arrange free transport for them to their home in Africa. We won’t charge them a penny for the transport. That should make them happy. If their claims are based on they shouldn’t be here in the first place, then we agree to transport them home.”

“Sean, I don’t think that’s going to work. I will take it to President Booker and get back to you.”

“I’ll be here waiting for your call.”

Wolf knocks on President Booker’s door to inform him of the call with Sean. Part way through the review of the call President Booker explodes. He starts screaming at Wolf, “Who do you work for? Who do you represent? Which country do you live in? Maybe you should move to the USA. I’d say you should take their offer up and move to Africa. However, you’re white. Wolf, my people want, they demand, they deserve to be compensated for their pain and suffering. Generation after generation, they have been abused by the 1%. They have been beaten down to the point that we as a society owe them.”

“Mr. President, I’m not sure those statements are true. There are many African-Americans who overcame their problems to become very successful. Sir, history shows many blacks owned slaves.”

“Wolf, I’m not talking about a handful of basketball players. Get out of my office and convince your friends in the USA the time has come to be fair and to compensate those who they wronged. You’ve read too much false history to be saying blacks owned blacks, that’s a line of bullshit invented by the USA 1% to cover their sins.”

“Yes sir. Sir, what are we going to do if they refuse?”

“We have a plan. You don’t need to worry about it yet. Minister, just do your job.”

“Yes sir.”

@@@@@

The Quebecois air force is destroyed either in the air or on the ground.  The electrical grid is shut down, all cargo going in or out of the country is stopped at the border. President Rand ordered a total embargo on the country. The only people allowed to leave the country are American citizens who have an up to date passport and valid travel documents. Thousands of refugees are stopped at the border and turned around. The few cars and trucks which tried to run the embargo, are attacked, stopping them before they cross into the USA or the LSA. Slowly the American plan, to squeeze the Quebec government into surrendering, is having an impact; food is scarce, and fuel is almost nonexistent. The US Army that parachuted into Toronto has control of the airport and ports. Additional troops and equipment are flown in on the air bridge that sees a new cargo plane land every thirty minutes, refuels and takes off as another plane lands. The Americans start expanding their circle of control from the airport and port. They go street to street freeing the population while they kill or capture every Quebecois troops they encounter.

Quebecois military bases are attacked from the air until they are smoking holes in the ground. On the third day of the counter attack, the Premier sues for peace which is accepted by President Rand. The Premier asks for terms. President Rand replies the only acceptable terms are total and unconditional surrender. The Premier sadly accepts, knowing he has no options left.

When informed that another of the LSA’s allies has fallen, President Booker throws a temper tandem like a spoiled three-year-old. He waves his arm across his desk pushing everything onto the floor. He calls for Wolf to see him.

@@@@@

Leon says, “Mom, Dad can I talk to you a minute?”

“Sure, what’s up? Problems?”

“I got a strange email from Scott Smith.”

“Oh? What does he say?”

“He’s asking if we’re OK and if we’d like to get together on vacation this year.”

Carol replies, “Leon, please print out the email, I’d like to see it.”

“Mom, already did, here it is. It’s a little funny, some of the sentences use numbers and some letters.”

Bob looks at his wife saying, “A code? I wonder what he’s trying to tell us.”

Reading the email, Bob says, “Son, thanks a lot, please email back that we’d love to get together on their vacation.”

“Dad, really? We’re going to get to meet them face to face?”

“I hope so.”

Leon goes to his room to send the email, he’s excited to get to meet his counterpart.

Bob says, “Look at the numbers, if we use the numbers and take the first letter from each of the numbered words, it says, we need to get out, can you help.”

Carol responds, “Oh my God, I worried that the damn slime balls in the LSA would make an example of them. They became too famous, they overshadowed the government.”

“They carried the government’s water. Why would they be made an example of?”

“Under Bloomberg, they were OK, under Booker they are white privilege. I was worried they would get caught up in Booker's policies.”

“How can we help them?”

“I don’t know, however, maybe Sean knows. We have his private cell number. If we reach out to him, maybe he can figure out a way to help them. He works in the White House now, I’m sure he has the clout to pull strings.”

“Won’t he be too busy to talk to us?”

“Only way, to find out, is to call.”

“OK, here goes nothing.”

“Thank you for calling. I’m sorry I’m not able to take your call right now. If you have this number because I gave it to you, please leave me your name and the number written on the back of the card I gave you.  I, or one of my staff will return your call as soon as possible. Best regards, Sean.”

“Sean, this is Robert and Carol Smith, number 177. We think that we and the Jones family need your help. Please call us at 336-555-1234. Thank you.”

Bob says, “I guess now we wait and see. I have no idea how often he listens to his voice mail.”

“It could be days. I bet he’s real busy working in the White House with the war and everything.”

Bob responds, “Honey, we’ve done everything we’ve thought of, I think we have to wait for him to call back.”

They sit in the family room watching the evening news when their phone rings, “Hello,”

“Bob, this is Sean, are you and Carol OK?”

“Sean, thank you so much for calling. We’re OK, we’re worried about Jason and Sharon. Watching how the LSA is responding to everything, we worry that Booker is going to make an example out of them because they were on the show.”

“Do you have any proof of this?”

Bob says, “Sean, Leon got an email from Scott, it was written in letters and numbers. When we used the first letter of every word that matched the numbers, we got a message, they said they need to leave and asked if we could help them.”

“May I have a copy of the email?”

“Of course.”

“I’ll send you an email address to forward it to. Don’t copy and paste it, I need you to forward the email so it comes with the full metadata. Any problem with that?”

“None, we’ll ask Leon to forward it to you since it came to him.”

“Thanks, I’ll have some people review it and get back to you.”

“Thank you very much. We were worried you were too busy to spend any time on this.”

“I gave you my card with a number, I knew you would only use it for an emergency.”

“Didn’t you also give one to Jason and Sharon?”

“Yes, but it makes sense for them not to use it, their DepLIES monitors their phone and email, having Scott reach out to Leon makes perfect sense. Two teenagers chatting. I doubt the DepLIES would even look at it. If they called, they would have been picked up within minutes.”

“Sean, thank you. Congratulations on the new job.”

“Thanks, it’s not something I wanted. I wasn’t given a choice so I bit my lip and accepted. I will get back to you as quickly as possible. I don’t want anything to happen to the Smiths. Plus Joan would kill me if anything happened to Sissy and I didn’t do everything possible to help.”

“Thank you, and goodnight.”

Hanging up, Carol says, “I guess now we wait.”

“Leon, can you please come here, we want you to forward Scott’s email to Sean.”

“Sure Dad.”

“I don’t think it’ll be too long, I imagine Sean carries some weight in the government.”

While the Joneses return to watching the news, Sean looks at Scott’s email. He asks the White House switchboard to connect him with the deputy director of the NSA. “Deputy Director Smithfield speaking.”