by David Archer
“We got it,” Benny said. “I’ll be right on their tail when they leave.”
“Good, keep me posted. See you at the rendezvous.”
The senator and her escorts came back to the limousine a minute and a half later, and it drove out of the parking lot. An SUV started up and pulled out behind it, turning in the same direction down the main thoroughfare.
Ten blocks and eight minutes later, the limousine suddenly accelerated. The flashers on the car came on and it began racing through the streets, obviously trying to get somewhere in a hurry.
Fox, this is Bird-dog,” Benny said. “Looks like things went according to plan. They seem to be in a big hurry to get somewhere.”
“Nearest hospital, no doubt. Okay, let’s meet up and see what we can do about getting out of here.”
He took out a cell phone and dialed a number, waiting until the international connections went through.
“Pegasus, report,” Allison said. Ralph was taken aback for only a second, then grinned.
“Pegasus reporting mission accomplished,” he said. “Awaiting confirmation of target termination, but all signs indicate success.”
“Very good,” Allison said. “Noah has arranged a flight for you. It’s a charter, so it will be ready at Ronald Reagan at ten a.m. After you get confirmation, get to the airport and head for home.”
“Pegasus, yes ma’am,” Ralph said. The line was dead by the time he finished, but that was normal when you were dealing with Allison.
The news about Senator Mitchell broke less than twenty minutes later, with a special announcement coming over the radio. She had apparently succumbed to a massive heart attack, just as Senator Clark had done a few days earlier. The news commentator made a point of saying that there was no suspicion of foul play, which was enough to tell Ralph that her death was going to be investigated as thoroughly as possible. The sooner he got his team out of the country, the better.
They had gone back to their hotel and packed everything up, and had been on the way to the airport when the news came through the radio. The charter flight would be ready by the time they arrived, so they didn’t bother to stop on the way. They went directly to the charter area of the airport and found the flight they were looking for. The pilot greeted them and helped them stow their luggage, then they were in the plane and in the air.
The aircraft was another Gulfstream, with enough range to make it all the way to London without stopping. They crossed into international airspace a short time later, and Ralph began to relax. He really did enjoy his work, but he was always nervous until he was certain he had made his getaway. He chalked that up to his earlier life, and the many times people around him were arrested and carted off to jail.
At least, in this business, getting taken to jail wasn’t necessarily the end of the situation. The teams had a habit of taking care of their own, and more than one team member who had been caught and arrested had been rescued in the past. Ralph had a gut feeling that, should that ever happen to him, Noah would make sure he got out of the situation safely.
It was ironic, since Noah was only a few years older than Ralph, but the boy had come to think of Noah as a father figure. His own father had been a monster, a mobster who thought nothing of killing innocent people to get whatever he wanted. While Ralph had a sadistic streak and enjoyed taking a life, he’d also developed some sort of moral code. He wanted to know that the person he was killing deserved to die, and he had found the perfect place for his talents in E & E. He was also grateful that Noah had decided to keep him on when the situation went crazy.
With these thoughts rolling around his head, Ralph Morgan drifted off to sleep.
* * *
It was Cody who drove the van to pick up Team Pegasus late that night. Ralph and his people were well rested, having slept most of the way back to England, but they were also ready to relax. They had each had only one night in their new lodgings, so they were all looking forward to getting back home.
Cody dropped them off at their trailers and then headed back to the estate. It was getting close to midnight by then, and he was ready for bed. Everything else that needed to be done could wait for tomorrow morning, and that suited him just fine.
* * *
The following morning, everyone reported to the factory to get started on their “official” jobs. Renée was installed as marketing department secretary, with Marco as general sales manager. Ralph, Diana, Tommy Kelly and JC were set up as regional salespeople, each of them responsible for sales in a particular area of the world. JC, naturally, was assigned to Europe; Diana was given North America, Ralph was handed the UK and Tommy was assigned to the Middle East. Team Aladdin would be filling in with other areas when they arrived, which was being planned for later in the week.
On the production floor, the first prototypes were being assembled and prepared for testing. A room had been set up inside the development lab with water and power, a number of closets and dressers and a dining area. The very first Laundromax, Personal Valet and Smart Chef models were being installed so they could be tested before the production floor begin turning them out by the hundreds.
“This is exciting,” Molly said. She had set up a number of cameras, with Neil helping her. They planned to produce videos of the appliances in action, from which commercials and instructional videos could be made. “What’s the first step, Wally?”
“Well, we brought a bunch of dirty clothes from back at the Manor,” Wally said. “Marco, would you dump them on the floor?”
Marco did so, and then Wally turned on the Personal Valet. The machine had been programmed to locate dirty clothes by smell, essentially, looking for odors in the air that were consistent with unwashed clothing. It sat where it was for almost a minute, then began moving toward the pile of dirty laundry.
Its arms reached out and picked up each item, while sensors including a video camera examined each one. Within a matter of seconds, the entire pile had been loaded into the basket on the machine’s back and it turned to head toward the Laundromax. As it approached, a panel opened on the side of the bigger machine, and the PV shoved in the entire load at once.
This particular model of Laundromax had been built with Plexiglas sides, so that they could see all the action inside. Within the machine, all of the dirty clothing was sorted into different sections, including one for whites, one for colors, and one for heavily soiled items. As soon as the sorting was finished, the first section, whites, was loaded into one of three drums, which then swung out of the way so that the colors could be loaded into another drum. The third section of heavily soiled items went into the third drum, and then water began flowing into each of them. Detergent was added, and an oxygen generator built into the machine began extracting oxygen from the air and circulating it through the water.
Fifteen minutes later, with the water extracted by a combination of spin and vacuum, the three drums were switched with three in the drying section. They turned on their sides and were then flooded with hot air, and the drying cycle began. Had there been more dirty clothes, a second wash cycle would’ve also begun at that time.
Because of the vacuum action in the removal of water from the wash section, drying the clothing took only another fifteen minutes. In total, since the PV had loaded the clothes into the machine, only forty-two minutes had elapsed.
The freshly dried clothes were pushed out onto a shelf, where the PV began sorting and folding them. Each item had a tag that was a match for a tag in one of the drawers or closets, and each tag told the PV whether the item should be folded into a drawer or placed on a hanger. A rod extended up from the PV with a horizontal bar for the hangers, and all of the clothing was folded and sorted within another fifteen minutes.
Then, the PV moved out and went to the first closet. Certain items were selected to be hung there, and then the PV moved on to a dresser nearby. Items were inserted into the drawers, and then the PV moved to another closet. More items were hung up, and then more were placed into ano
ther dresser. By the time all of the clothes were put away, a total of one hour and twelve minutes had elapsed.
“It’s absolutely amazing,” Allison said. “Wally, that thing is going to be a hit everywhere.”
“Oh, of course, of course,” Wally said. “It takes away all the drudgery, and that’s what everybody hates. Now, let’s go make us some lunch, shall we?”
In the Smart Chef, there were sections for frozen and refrigerated foods, as well as dry and canned goods. Wally decided that they should have roast turkey and dressing for lunch, and punched the appropriate buttons on the face of the machine. Like the Laundromax, this machine had Plexiglas sides, so they could watch as all of the ingredients were gathered together and placed into different cooking sections. A fifteen-pound turkey was stripped of its packaging, washed and placed into a roasting oven, while another section began mixing the dressing. When it was complete, the dressing was shoved inside the bird and then packed around it. Two other sections prepared mashed potatoes and green beans as side dishes, and when all the preparations were complete, the machine announced that it was cooking.
Infrared sensors in each section monitored the temperatures of the food. This allowed the roasting oven to raise and lower its temperature in a pattern that resulted in much faster cooking while keeping the bird moist and tender. The entire executive staff, including all the salespeople, sat drinking coffee and watching as the Smart Chef did its job, and they were all amazed when it announced less than seventy minutes later that everything was ready.
A pair of arms fitted with utensils carved the bird and scooped out the dressing, putting it all on a platter that appeared moments later on a table that extended out of the machine. The side dishes ended up in large bowls, and then enough plates for everyone were presented.
“That is absolutely incredible,” Molly said. “Do you know how much time that will save at big family dinners?”
Wally giggled. “Not to mention the fact that people are likely to start eating healthier,” he said. “One of the reasons they don’t is because cooking healthy food takes too long. If they don’t have to do all the work, they’re more likely to want a good nutritious dinner.”
“Well, now comes the important test,” Neil said. “The taste test. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m ready to eat that.”
“So am I,” Marco said. “Let’s dig in. We’ll know soon enough if this thing can really cook or not.”
A half hour later, the consensus was that Wally had done the impossible. Each of them declared it the best-tasting turkey they had ever eaten, and they sat around the table discussing the next steps.
“We need to test other recipes,” Wally said. “I think we could choose fifteen or twenty and test it on those.”
“That shouldn’t take long,” Noah said. “It’s all in the programming, anyway, right?”
“Yes, I guess it is,” Wally said. “That’s why I think we could just do some general testing. If it can get several recipes right, then it’s probably going to do fine on all of them. I’ll get started on testing them now, and we should have a final definitive approval by this afternoon.”
“What about the laundry system?” Noah asked. “We only tested it once, should we do more?”
“I don’t think so,” Wally said. “It’s actually a pretty simple machine, and its AI is fully capable of adapting to other situations. I would say it’s ready to go.”
“Then I suggest we inform the production crew that they will start full-time tomorrow morning,” Noah said. “I suspect that’s going to make the entire town rather happy.”
* * *
Thirty-six hundred miles away, the president of the United States was sitting in his office, just getting his day off to a good start. His receptionist suddenly buzzed him, announcing that a group of four senators were hoping to speak with him immediately on a matter that they said was extremely urgent.
“Send them in,” he said. “Might as well get this over with.”
The three men and one woman filed in and stood before his desk. POTUS looked up at them calmly, already fairly sure he knew what was on their minds.
“Well? Don’t all of you speak at once.”
Senator Wellborn, the current chair of the intelligence committee, cleared his throat and took a step forward.
“Mr. President,” he said, an ominous sound in his voice, “I’m sure you are aware of just how strange it is that two of our number have died suddenly in the past few days.”
POTUS shrugged. “Clark and Mitchell? I heard it was heart attacks. Seems to me a heart attack is a likely occupational hazard for politicians, wouldn’t you think?”
“But both of them having massive heart attacks only a few days apart? And, let’s face it, Mr. President, it’s no secret that they were instrumental in outing the assassination organization. I’m sure that must’ve stuck in your craw, so I’m afraid we can’t help wondering if that same organization might be behind these sudden deaths.”
“Then I would suggest you check with the medical examiner,” POTUS said. “If he’s found anything suspicious about these heart attacks, then you know what to do. Just go to the Justice Department, ask for an investigation. I’m not sure why you are here talking to me about it.”
“I—we are here, Mr. President, because only you could have ordered such actions. Considering that the woman who used to run that organization has suddenly vanished, we can’t help but wonder if perhaps it’s simply been moved to a new location and put back into business. Surely you can see why this might concern us.”
POTUS leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers in front of his face. He looked each of them in the eye, moving from one to the next, before returning to Senator Wellborn.
“I guess I could see why that might worry you,” he said. “If, and I stress the if, I had simply moved them around and put them back to work, then you probably have to worry a bit about just how I might plan to use them, right? I mean, if I were the type of president who would do something that underhanded, then I might be the type of president who would use such an organization for my own personal political gain, right? And, if that were the case, which I assure you it is not, then it’s likely that each one of you is rather worried you might be on some short list. Now, if I were you, and if I honestly believed such ridiculous theories that I can personally assure you have no basis in fact, I suspect that the last thing I would do is try to antagonize that type of president. That might be a serious mistake, wouldn’t you think?”
Wellborn’s eyes went wide, but it was Senator Andrews, the one woman in the group, who spoke.
“Dear God,” she said, “are you actually going to sit there and threaten us?”
“Of course not,” POTUS said. “We were discussing a purely hypothetical situation with no basis in fact. I was simply extrapolating from that hypothetical situation as to what might be a prudent or non-prudent course of action. I’m quite certain that absolutely nothing I said could be taken as any kind of threat.”
“You’re not fooling us,” Andrews said. “We are fully aware that you had Senators Clark and Mitchell assassinated, and I can assure you that we are going to do everything possible to prove it. We cannot in good conscience allow you to continue to rule as if you’re some sort of dictator, and letting this slide would be doing exactly that.”
The president let out a sigh. “Senator Andrews, I really hope that you’re seeing someone about these delusions. I can assure you that the last thing in the world I want is to be a dictator. We have a mandate from the people, my dear senators, a mandate to govern them properly according to our Constitution. Can’t we work together to accomplish that?”
“I suppose,” Senator Lewiston said, “but a lot of that will depend on how many more of us drop dead of heart attacks in the next few days. We came to warn you, Mr. President, that we will not sit by and allow you to use your personal death squads to intimidate us.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear that,” PO
TUS said. “Any senators who could be intimidated wouldn’t be worth the votes that put them in office, now would they?” He got to his feet. “Please, let me assure each and every one of you, I have absolutely no intention of arranging any unhappy endings for anyone. It’s been a rough few weeks since E & E was exposed, but can we get past that, now? We still have the business of governing to deal with, and I really don’t think we need to be bickering amongst ourselves right now.”
SEVENTEEN
The president pointed at Andrews. “Senator Andrews, your constituency is one of the only areas that still has an unemployment rate in double digits, so I know you’re trying to get jobs there. I’m looking very hard at putting a government supplies distribution center in your home city, and a new airbase within your state. That will create more than six thousand new civilian jobs, and the influx of money into your economy will generate another two or three thousand.”
He turned to Lewiston. “Jack, you want to protect some of your wildlands from oil drilling. I’ve been looking at the situation, and it seems to me that we can come to a compromise. There is a high point right on the edge of where we suspect your biggest oilfield would be, and we could drill in at an angle. That would allow us to harvest the oil under your wildlands without interfering with the ecology, and it would also generate new jobs in your state because we have to build a pipeline to carry that oil to the refineries. Is that enough to make you willing to give up this wild goose chase?”
“I—I’m not sure what to say, Mr. President,” Lewiston said. “I thought you were dead set against letting us set aside the wildlands.”
“Of course not,” POTUS said. “We need the oil, but we don’t have to destroy nature to get it. According to the US Geological Service, we can drill one well at an angle from the mountain outside that area and harvest all of that oil without causing any environmental issues. No fracking, no drilling in the wildlands, no interfering with the wildlife or local flora—just clean oil extraction.”