by Bob Blink
Thank you very much for your attention.
Toshiko leaned back, but didn't relax until the little light on the camera went dark.
"Good job," Joe Taylor said. She'd asked the former President's chief of staff to stay on. She would need all the expertise and guidance she could get, and he wasn't responsible for the horrid actions of his former boss. Neither were the others in the organization, all of whom she planned to ask to stay on until the June election. "You didn't mention the pardon."
Toshiko had told Joe to write in a section that reached out to whoever had killed Mark Pilcher and promise him a pardon if he turned himself in.
"I want to be absolutely certain that I can do that. Seems like President's can pardon almost anyone, but there's often a hidden catch. I don't want someone to come in, and then learn he gave up and I can't help him."
"Why do you want to pardon him anyway? He killed the President."
"Who deserved killing. Look, this whole thing is going to incite the entire country. If Pilcher was alive, there would hearings, and trials, and jail, and appeals that would go on forever. All that time the country wouldn't be able to really get past it. I want this closed and forgotten. The person who killed him actually may have helped our ability to heal, especially if we can avoid a trial for him."
The Majority Leader of the Senate walked up to her and nodded in their direction, having missed the topic of their conversation.
"You are better at this than you let on. But you are going to need help in the coming weeks. One of the first things that needs to get done is to nominate a Vice President. It makes the public uncomfortable having that position unfilled."
"I've already thought about that," Toshiko replied. "I plan to submit my nomination later today."
"Good, good," Ted Banning said. "May I inquire who you have in mind?"
"Harry Abbott," Toshiko said without missing a beat.
"Senator Abbott? You can't," Banning objected. "He's a Democrat."
"I know who he is. I've worked with him over the past four years. He's a moderate Democrat with a great deal of experience and a lot of very good ideas. Ideas that this country needs as opposed to the extremist crap being backed by progressive liberals and ultra conservatives."
"You have to nominate someone from your own party," Banning insisted.
"No I don't," she objected. "That's not specified anywhere. I've noted that the Democrats have often nominated an Independent to fill positions, and that's someone outside their party. A mixed party arrangement might be just what this country needs to get its act together."
"He'll never be approved," Banning warned her.
"Wanna bet? Suppose I get in front of the people, tell them what I proposed, and the old school party members are opposing my selection and reasonable progress forward after the damage their president has done to the government. I'll fight you to the very day I'm replaced. Do you want to see who loses the most? Remember, I don't want this job. You appear to be very concerned about your own position from what I have observed since being in Washington."
She knew she had the political capital at the moment to get Harry chosen. And once he was the VP, if they gave her any shit, she'd offer to resign and leave them with a Democrat who'd become president in her place. She'd see how they liked that!
She turned and walked away, aware that it was going to be a rough couple of weeks, and probably a rough six months. But she was the top dog now, and damn it, things were going to be done for the people, not the way the assholes that had been running things for so long wished. The most they could do would be to fire her, which wouldn't be so bad after all.
This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locals, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright 2019 by Robert Blink
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.
Proof Release:October 2019
First ReleaseNovember 2019
Books by the Author:
Timelines
The Second Compound
Reversal
Split Creek
EndRun
Dirty Money
Crossover
Battle for Earth
The Mind Writers
Deadly Wilderness
The Sixth Extinction
Out of the Bottle
Crossed Trails
Infiltrator
Jake Waters Series
Corrector
Back-Tracker
Double-Back
Wizard's Blood Series
Wizard's Blood [Part One]
Wizard's Blood [Part Two]
Ancient Magic Saga
Ancient Magic
Into The Ruins
The Baldari
KalaBhoot [Limited Release]
The Protector Saga
The Barbarian/The Protector
The Sor'ee
Dedication
This is for my wife Evelina and my daughter Nicole.
Acknowledgements
As always, I owe a significant debt of gratitude to those who have aided in the creation of this book. The help they offered includes background information, story suggestions, plot review, checking for correctness and inconsistencies, as well as the tiresome effort of chasing down grammar and typographical errors. Those who performed these tasks this time around were Jim Spiva and John Taylor
Author Comment
A few words about some of the uncertain areas of the book. Frankly, I didn't research as much as I might have, but I doubt what the NSA can really do to track our phone calls isn't something readily available anyway. I assume that anything I say over my cellphone is permanent stored on silicon chips somewhere in their vast domain. As for the White House, I find conflicting information there as well, which is not surprising. What secrets the building holds are best kept that way. So, while I find articles about a complete underground, parallel subway, I tend to be a bit doubtful.
As for the politics. I am certain that parts of the story annoyed both Democrats and Republicans. It's a story! For my own part, I'm an Independent and I find a very great portion of what each of the major parties supports annoying and misguided. I'm convinced our fearless politicians are in it for what they can line their own wallets with. But, if what is in the book offends you, to paraphrase Tom Lehrer from some years ago; If anything I wrote bothers you, I am prepared to deny under oath that I wrote it.