Objective- Freedom Read online

  Ambassador Randall said, “Madame Governor, we’ll tell this as a history. Both of us are knowledgeable about the facts. Is that acceptable?”

  She nodded agreement.

  “In the six months prior to the last election, President Curtis called me to his office. It was a cordial meeting. I’ve always had the fullest respect for the office of the President of the United States. The same can’t be said for the current occupant or many who preceded him. Most were either political appointees made by leading financial concerns or were errand boys for radical groups whose purpose was to undermine the everyday working man and woman.

  “This one seemed different at first, though. Curtis didn’t seem beholden to anyone. He isn’t a career politician. His background was as comptroller of his state. During his tenure in that position, he reduced unneeded expenditures by over sixty percent. Of course, there were certain sacred cows he couldn’t touch, and he was enough of a politician to see what they were.

  He rankled at the idea of some of the money flowing out of the treasury, but there was nothing he could do, so he backed off and fought battles he felt he could win.

  “When he was appointed to audit the states’ accounts by the newly elected governor, his mandate was to decrease expenditures. Curtis saw that as a working mandate, not just a political position. He did no campaigning for the current governor, nor did he contribute to any candidate. His fame came from his accomplishments.

  “He’d been employed as the controller of funds for a large aircraft manufacturer and found too much waste and some clearly criminal activities. He hired a retired bank examiner to work on the cash flow. His next hiring was a former civil services investigator.”

  “They replaced the otherwise useless men and women from the previous controller’s staff, who were just time fillers waiting for retirement. Curtis found enough waste and mismanagement, which was what the board of directors wanted the thievery called, that he eliminated many useless expenditures. The company showed increased profit on its next earnings statement.

  “That was just the beginning. Success followed success. His next position was as a stock trader in New York. There he learned how things were manipulated to show profit, loss, earnings, and gains. He also noticed a trend in the market. Every time the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a certain number, it started failing.

  “He’d seen that before, but he hadn’t been in a position to check his theories. As a state comptroller, he was suddenly in that position.

  “What he learned caused the defeat of his state’s governor and possible malfeasance charges being lodged against members of the US Treasury Department. Stock manipulation is a serious crime. Curtis thought the treasury officials were somehow exempt from those laws. When his exposés became public knowledge, the new governor asked him to come to the capitol to be comptroller of public accounts. Though Curtis was doubtful, he went and excelled again. That was his stepping stone to the Oval Office.

  “Curtis didn’t have the recognition that his opponent, Vice President Bill Harvey, did. Harvey was the vice president from the previous administration, and, as a politician, he continually strived for mediocrity. He succeeded. His campaign slogan was sincere—Elect Bill Harvey: He Wants to Do the Job. That was about as inspiring as his speeches and personality.

  “Harvey won the nomination by taking on a northwestern running mate to balance the ticket. Harvey was from Connecticut and wasn’t well known beyond being the vice president to a lackluster president. They were known as the two dullest men ever to hold office.”

  Ambassador Randall stopped and beckoned General Polk to take over, so he could save his voice.

  “Curtis was young, energetic, attractive to some, and a renowned speaker without cue cards or teleprompter,” Polk continued. “His choice of Elliott Randall as his running mate brought in the conservative and senior-citizen votes. It wasn’t a landslide, but he won without any possibility of doubt.

  “Vice President Randall, an extremely capable man, was a fixture around DC and had mainly been in the diplomatic circle. He’d been ambassador to several leading nations. He was the United States representative to a couple of peace conferences, which he felt were a total waste of time. The US wasn’t involved in the wars under discussion and didn’t need to poke its nose into them. The countries promised nothing America needed or wanted. At the time, the administration felt the need to meddle in everyone’s business while ignoring problems at home.

  “Randall was attending one conference when it broke down over the shape of the table for the conferees. He walked out and

  returned to America, telling the secretary of state to keep her pointy nose out of other countries’ business and to forget about sending America troops to die for countries who wouldn't protect themselves. When he was asked to resign, he did. The Rand Corporation snatched him up immediately.

  “Once again he made a name for himself and was asked by Curtis to be his running mate. Curtis had no foreign- policy experience, so he was totally dependent on someone else. He preferred a man with experience over a recently graduated expert.

  “When they won the election, Curtis immediately put Randall to work. His mission was to clarify our relationship with every country in which we have an embassy. If we were pouring foreign aid into that country, Curtis wanted to know what they did with it.”

  “If Randall ran into the normal stonewalling those countries regularly pulled, he returned home, and the president immediately cut off that country’s foreign aid. That didn’t make him any friends, but he didn’t need them.

  “While the vice president was doing that, he flew to London with General Green, who was director of the National Security Agency. General Green took him to a couple of meetings with the British version of the NSA, where he met the director of the British security service, commonly called MI-5.

  “They got on very well, and General Green arranged to exchange information as each person saw fit. It was back channel and didn’t bear congressional or parliamentary scrutiny. Randall felt that was fine. He didn’t want to bother functionaries with day- to-day findings.

  “General Green met and was enchanted by an up-and- coming member of the diplomatic corps. He lost track of her as they both advanced their careers. The general moved up in the military, while the diplomatic lady moved up within the field of international diplomacy.

  “General Green didn’t forget her. When he was chosen chairman of the joint chiefs, his biography was posted worldwide. It was in the diplomatic pouch one day at the ambassador’s office in London. Catherine Blakely read it and approved. She always liked Green and thought it was a good idea for the chief of staff to have a substantial background in intelligence.

  “When Green was appointed chairman of the joint chiefs, he kept up his intelligence contacts. That was a requirement of his job, and some of those men were people he mentored into the programs. He liked watching their progress and felt he could rely on them.

  “General Green also thought he should have a back channel to world events. What better way to receive them than from some of his protégés in the communications department? There wouldn’t be any questions. Ray and his subordinates knew and understood the need for credible intelligence.”

  “The fact that Catherine Blakely was his back channel was icing on the cake. They communicated regularly. When one visited the others’ country, they found time to exchange items of intelligence the other might need and couldn't obtain any other way.

  “Catherine Blakely came to admire Ray Green. He was what some called a man’s man. Women love that sort of thing, even a woman’s woman. It’s not known if they ever overstepped the bounds of discretion. Neither of them could shake their minders long enough for it. Still, their feelings grew and flourished.

  “Due to several items of intelligence that Catherine presented to the prime minister, many incidents of dangerous adventurism were halted in time to keep England from being involved in another brushfire war. The back-channel
information Green sent to the British stopped them from making serious mistakes in foreign affairs.

  “The ultraliberal government stripped the military to nothing more than a small militia. Conscription was out of the question, and the all-voluntary military services were of little use to anyone. Catherine Blakely thought part of her job was to keep England safe and to keep foolish decisions from being made based on imperfect intelligence.

  “Several of her investigations brought her to the prime minister’s attention. Prime Minster Dennison included her on the Queen’s honors list, and she was made a dame commander of the bath, DCB, and as such was entitled to the name Lady Catherine. While not royalty, she still commanded much respect for the honor. She was announced in the London Gazette and received many telegrams and calls of congratulations.

  “One call was from General Green, who was just elevated to the position of chairman of the joint chiefs. He was a highly decorated officer and a bachelor. His marital status was very uncommon in those days.”

  “It was generally assumed a man’s wife was a necessary ingredient to promotion to general, but that wasn’t the case with Green. He told her he hoped to meet her someday in better times and circumstances.

  “Lady Catherine Blakely often sat in her private office in her comfortable penthouse in Putney, a district in Southwest London, where she relaxed and thought of Green and the wonders they could achieve if given a chance.

  “Lady Catherine’s main concern was the drug traffic into England from Central America. Drugs enter the country from many other countries, but the Central American cartels are the most vicious of them all, and they will stop at nothing to make a few more dollars. They had to be watched closely. She made a note on her calendar about it and resumed her normal activities.

  “In her investigations, she kept coming up with strange coincidences involving a man named DeMarco and his daughter. Both seemed a bit too friendly with the Middle Easterners living in Columbia. They also seemed a bit too affluent for civil service workers. Even American senior government officials couldn’t steal that much money.

  “The deeper Lady Catherine’s investigators dug in Columbia, the more they found. Evangeline Demarco made scheduled trips into and out of the interior of Columbia, which is not a place that caters to visitors.”

  Governor Espada was bored. “Can you get to the point?” Ambassador Randall stepped in. “I’ll wrap it up.” General Polk went to the bar for a drink.

  “Of course,” Randall said. “Investigators found DeMarco was a drug mule for the cartel, carrying goods in diplomatic pouches. When she came to Washington, she often stayed two or three days. She rented a condo in the same complex as Sutherland and his wife. Apparently everyone knew he was a gadabout except his wife.”

  “He met Evangeline, and they became increasingly friendly. One

  thing led to another. You know the rest.”

  “Yes, everyone does.”

  “When the talk of Sutherland possibly being named as the president’s running mate started, Miss DeMarco received a coded message in the next pouch. She was to hook Sutherland on drugs and keep him under control. He was already totally captivated.

  The recreational chemicals she gave him made him think he was a superman with her. In reality, he was a strung-out junkie. When he was chosen as the next vice presidential candidate, he backed off to avoid being caught in the public eye.

  “That worked well with DeMarco’s handlers in the Middle East. They figured they would eventually have him in a position to aid them. The Iranian ayatollahs who were running her knew that time was on their side. Greedy Western powers want things immediately.

  “Waiting four years until they got President Curtis out of power was nothing to them. They would spread their prophet’s teaching over the world in time. The ayatollah messengers told Evangeline to ease off her relationship with Sutherland. He knew the situation was more delicate, too. There are two things a young man can’t live without once he uses them, and the other one is high-grade cocaine.”

  Governor Espada wasn’t amused by the turn of phrase. She didn’t appreciate Randall’s humor, but he stopped worrying what people thought a long time ago.

  He continued the story. “Apparently Sutherland couldn’t live without either, and he took chances. Since MI-5 kept DeMarco under constant surveillance, they quickly noticed the soon-to-be vice-president’s adventures.”

  “Are you telling me there are MI-5 spies in America? I won’t stand for that.”

  “Please back off from political rhetoric. Remember who you’re talking to. I was the vice president once, and I was also on the Senate’s intelligence oversight committee. I know more about these situations than you’ll ever know. There are reasons for it beyond your understanding. We won the cold war by having more ICBMs, bombs, planes, ships, better allies, and better intelligence systems. We won and survived. The Soviets fell. If we worried about what we did to get our information, we’d be marching on May Day. Just relax and let me finish.

  “Today, we don’t know for certain who the enemy is. When they blew up the World Trade Center and hit the Pentagon, we couldn't threaten them with A bombs. We needed to find out who did it, and that took intelligence. We know that Islamic forces are dedicated to our destruction. If you can’t countenance a mutual exchange of intelligence information between allies, you should stay away from national politics and stick to Albuquerque.”

  She was stunned by the way he stood his ground. “Please continue,” she said quietly.

  “Since we had some absurd laws about spying on Americans, we depended on the British intelligence service to help us. The current ambassador, Lady Catherine Blakely, and General Green have corresponded for years. She brought the pictures to me, and I brought them to you. Some also found their way into Mrs.

  Sutherland’s hands. How is anyone’s guess. I’m sure MI-5 could answer that, if pressed.

  “That’s why General Polk and I didn’t show emotion when we

  saw the pictures. When Sutherland died in that explosion, we knew about it from US intelligence. We didn’t know the details, but we knew how it happened. When Ms. DeMarco mysteriously disappeared, we knew about it. When her father, Sharif Sufa, posing as Mr. DeMarco in Columbia, was recalled to Iran. “

  “We knew it. We also know that the British have done more than they’re telling, and we’ll have to wait and see what our alliance is with the British before they divulge more.”

  Governor Espada was quiet for a moment. “Gentlemen, I feel I’m out of my league. I’m just a loudmouthed activist governor of a small state. I’m not sure I can operate on your level. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. Have I made a mistake?”

  General Polk walked over and handed her a cold drink. “Madam Governor, you made no mistake. Your foresight and determination will help us see this through. You aren’t out of your league. You have more experience than the entire Continental Congress. You have more morals than Franklin and Jefferson, and you have more friends that Samuel or John Adams. Stay the course with us, Ma’am. We need you.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  “The President of the United States, Robert Curtis, is scheduled to appear on national television this afternoon at 5:30 PM Eastern Standard Time.” The heavily made-up, shellac-haired newscaster continued, “There has been no advance notification from the White House as to what the speech will be about, which is highly unusual.”

  Ray Green looked from the TV toward Lady Catherine. “Wait until tonight. Then she’ll see something unusual.”

  Lady Catherine thought about that but kept her thoughts to herself. There was no sense encouraging him.

  “Come now, Ray. You need to get the president’s speech finished. There’s a lot to do and only a short time. Do you need to clear this with anyone, or can the president walk into the press room and talk?”

  “Some presidents would clear it first, mainly because they couldn’t perform without encouragement and support. One former pr
esident couldn’t speak coherently or complete a sentence without a teleprompter. We survived even him. This one’s different. President Curtis will do fine. No one dares tell him that he need permission to do anything.”

  Ray, looking distracted, prayed the Senate would back the president’s latest initiative. If not, they were asking for more trouble than they could imagine. He wanted to be on the forefront of the battle, not watching from a small room. He knew the president’s decision was correct.

  At four-thirty, the president entered the room, and Green handed him a rough draft of the speech. The president looked it over, his expression sad but accepting. Catherine had never seen him looking so miserable. She was concerned he wouldn’t be able to project the necessary image of power.

  Ray placed his hand on the president’s shoulder. “Bob, you can do this. Make the speech. Carry on as if nothing is wrong.

  After tomorrow, you’ll have a partner. You no longer have to do this alone. Your advisors thought they were doing the right thing with Sutherland, but that’s over. We have to toughen up now. Get it right, Bob, and you’ll show your steel. You’ll tell others they can’t have it their way. This nation isn’t a hamburger chain.”

  President Curtis laughed, then Ray joined him.

  Catherine didn’t understand the 1990s commercial reference.

  Curtis looked at Ray. “That was cheesy.” They laughed again.

  “We’d better stop this, so you can get your buns onstage.”

  They cracked up a third time.

  Lady Catherine Blakely, who was always proper, feared the two men had cracked under pressure and said so.

  The president, tears rolling down his face as he laughed, said, “Not cracked. Did anyone order egg burgers?”

  Ray Green almost broke a table when he staggered to the couch, laughing.

  “Gentlemen, this is bad,” Lady Catherine said. “We’re getting behind and need to catch up.”