by Jake Devlin
"Sondra _____ of ______. I'll try for a tough one, Mr. Donne.”
"If anyone can, Sondra, it's you. Go for it.”
"You were accused of being unpatriotic and anti-democratic on one of the talk shows. Are you anti-democratic and unpatriotic?”
"Oh, I heard that on Sunday, and it came from one of the very best and most practiced mudslingers, and he can sling vague and highly emotional terms around like a short-order cook slinging hash in a dirty diner kitchen. But I do like his Loosiana accent.
"First, I am NOT unpatriotic; he is dead wrong on that score. I am concerned about making things better for this country and for as many of its people as I possibly can. In my opinion, that's pretty darned patriotic.
"As for the anti-democratic bit, I am definitely opposed to what our, quote, representative, unquote, democracy has become, where it seems your representatives do NOT represent you, but use crony capitalism and earmarks to enrich themselves and their friends and campaign contributors, at YOUR expense. If they were in the private sector and pulled the kind of stuff most, if not all, of them pull, they'd be in prison for life. Oh, that's my opinion.
“Also, I do think that democracy, and by that I mean mob democracy, can be destructive and often illusory. I much prefer plurocracy, which means individual choice in as many areas as possible.
“Just for an overused example, if our breakfast cereal choice was determined democratically, there would only be ONE cereal on supermarket shelves, and about half the people wouldn't like that one cereal. Plurocracy is what gives us the many choices we have there. Our Founding Fathers were appropriately leery of direct democracy and set this country up as a republic, with an electoral college, to protect against ochlocracy, another word for mob democracy.
"Then there's the whole issue of minority rights. In a country as large and diverse as ours, it's difficult in a democracy to restrain people who want everybody else to believe and behave the way they do and can lobby a few powerful representatives to accomplish that. But we have to recognize that controlling everybody's behavior is not a goal that we should support. Democracy can lead to tyranny just as much as military force can, even by a 51-to-49 percent vote, and if we look at how easily opinion can be swayed with propaganda, I think a strong case can be made against mob democracy.
“My highest value is freedom and individual choice for 'the people,' and that can be tromped on by democratic tyranny as much as by any other kind of tyranny. I think you'll find as you look at my policies and directives, freedom and plurocracy is the underlying principle.
"Also, with elections every two years, there's a huge loss of certainty. It makes it very hard for people and businesses to do much long-term planning, when the rules could change with each election. We have got to stop the pendulum from swinging so far to the right and then to the left and let it settle down in one spot. And what we have now and call democracy, but has gotten so corrupted, just doesn't cut it when it comes to that need. Okay. Next? Yes.”
“Dennis _____ from _____. In an interview in yesterday's issue of our paper, one of your competitors called you, quote, a “ruthless negotiator.” Are you ruthless?”
“I read that interview and I want to thank him for the compliment, but that particular fellow is prone to understatement. Okay. Yes?”
“Doris _____, _______. In your directives, you have eliminated the National Labor Relations Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Minority and Women Business Enterprise and Affirmative Action initiatives, as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act. How can you possibly defend those actions?”
“Well, Doris, I don't need to defend them, but I'm more than happy to explain the philosophy behind them, and that boils down to three words: Merit, Choice and Opportunity. While all of those ideas were well-intentioned at first, they have all become little more than full- employment-for-lawyers policies, as well as shakedown vehicles for certain greedy and self-aggrandizing activists. Preferences and quotas have come to overpower qualifications and merit. That's over and done. The ONLY hiring preference that will continue is for veterans, but even that will not outweigh merit and qualifications.
“As for the ADA, that piece of well-intended legislation has been used by hundreds of money-grubbing lawyers simply to shake down thousands of small businesses and to literally kill thousands of good developments. That's over. Next? Yes.”
“Charles ___, ____. Have you seen the report on the $800,000 GSA party in Las Vegas in October of 2010?”
“I haven't yet, but I've been briefed on it. And I understand there are some videos, as well. If it turns out that what I've heard is accurate, everybody involved in the decisions about that event will be summarily fired AND held personally accountable for all taxpayer money that they wasted on that fiasco, and I do mean personally accountable. Furthermore --”
A rumble of voices was heard in the hall outside the press room, and a uniformed Marine walked swiftly to Donne's chair, saluted and handed Donne a sheet of paper. Donne read it briefly, then looked at the press corps.
“I'm sorry, folks. We're gonna have to take a brief break here, not more than ten minutes, and we'll continue this right after that.” He stood up and the journalists did, as well. “No, no, no, don't bother standing; I don't need y'all to do that. I'll be right back.”
The break actually lasted nearly 15 minutes, during which the press corps milled around the room, a few heading outdoors for a quick smoke break. But notes and attitudes were compared and contrasted, especially after Donne's last answer. Many arguments centered around the correct pronunciation of “divisive.”
On Bonita Beach, Paul glanced at Gayle and Lucy, just as Lucy noticed a middle-aged guy casting his line into the water.
“Hey, idiot, no fishing in the swimming area,” Lucy bellowed.
-20-
Five Months Earlier
Sunday, July 3, 2011
4:54 a.m.
Vienna, Austria
The Carnivore (one of his many names) had arrived on a private jet at four a.m. local time. A driver stood by a black SUV, which had been chartered anonymously through a cutout.
As soon as the Carnivore had settled himself in the back seat, the SUV left the airport through an open back gate. The driver had been instructed to engage in no conversation with his passenger, so he drove in silence to the Bahnhof Wien Meidling, where his passenger left the SUV, watched it drive off and then entered the station, favoring his right leg. But he wasn't there to board a train.
Inside, the Carnivore went into the men's room and into a stall, where he turned his jacket inside out, removed a set of scraggly teeth, pulled off his blond wig and replaced it with a black watch cap, stuffing the wig into a pocket with the fake teeth. As he left the men's room, favoring his left leg, but only slightly, he checked for watchers and, finding none, returned outside and climbed into the last taxi in the line, giving the driver an address on Pottendorfer Strasse, a short drive from the station. He got out there, paid the driver and walked slowly toward the house, still favoring his left leg.
Once the taxi was out of sight, he went back to the street, limped to the corner of Pottendorfer Weg and turned north, walking with no limp to the safe house a bit up the street, eyes constantly checking for anything out of place. Again seeing nothing, he stopped on the sidewalk and used his remote to deactivate the alarm system and unlock the door, then hurried up the walk and inside, closing the door and reactivating the alarm system at the keypad in the foyer.
“Welcome back, Carnivore,” a raspy female voice echoed from the living room.
The Carnivore pressed a red button on the bottom of the keypad and a rapid swoosh, a muffled shriek and a loud clunk came from the living room. The Carnivore chuckled quietly, walked from the foyer into the living room and turned on the lights. When he saw what awaited him, his chuckle expanded into a full-blown laugh.
The Sniper squirmed in an easy chair, but she and the chair were both encased in an all-plexiglass hal
f-wheel about two feet wider than the chair, arching over the chair from front to back. As she realized what had just happened, she started to laugh along with the Carnivore.
“Very funny, Carnivore. I like it. Now get me out.”
“Of course, Sharon,” the Carnivore replied, still laughing. He crossed to the couch, lifted a part of one of the end tables and pressed a button. The half-wheel quickly rotated forward, sliding into the floor in front of the chair, where its edges merged imperceptibly with the hardwood flooring.
Sharon slid out of the chair, got down on her hands and knees and examined the interstice.
“Damned near invisible, and definitely very clever. How did you come up with that?”
“I saw a tire half-buried in a garden in Sorrento when I was on the Grianchi job. Of course, that one had a Madonna underneath the arch. So maybe I'll call it the Madonna cage.”
“I like that. What makes it work? Hydraulics?”
“Springs to swing it up, winch to pull it back down. And check this out.”
He pushed another button and a tiny nozzle slid out from the left side of the back of the chair.
“Any kind of spray you want in that, incapacitating to fatal.”
“Nice.”
“You're the first chance I've had to really test it.”
“Thanks for skipping the gas.”
“You're quite welcome, my dear. This is just a prototype. The final will also be bulletproof and soundproof and we'll make a key fob remote.”
“Very, VERY nice.
“So how'd it go in Copenhagen?”
“Pizza cake. The DX201/6 worked perfectly.”
“Details, Carnivore, details.”
“Okay. Picture this. Ten minutes after midnight, full moon, just outside the Rosenborg Palace Garden. I'm slouched over, in full disguise, doing my drunk act, leaning against the fence near the Gothersgade entrance when I see the target, with three heavy-duty guards. He's waddling around the corner from Kronprinsessegade, one BG in front and one on each side, slightly behind him.”
“No fourth guy to fill out the diamond?”
“Nope; stupid lapse in tradecraft.”
“And fatal?”
“Absolutely.
“Once they passed me, I lurched up from the fence, staggered out to where I was about 15 feet directly behind the fat fuck, got a clear shot between the two heavies, and took it. The dart ran right into his big butt and he reached back to pull it out, but the barbs kept it in. The two rear BG's moved in to try to help get it out, and just after I'd gotten back around the corner to safety, I pushed the boom button.”
“How big a boom?”
“Same as in our final test on the first prototype.
“The BG on point survived, barely, but the other two and the target are now splattered over a big part of that intersection; they'll be picking up bits of them for months, if not years.”
“But you're okay?”
“Yup. I only got a bit of blow-by, mostly the BGs, probably. Got away clean, dropped the gun and the costume with Hailey at the safe house and flew back here on the jet. Pizza cake. And zero collateral damage, other than some of the fence, maybe a few bushes and trees.”
“Well, one less bad-ass human trafficker.”
“And our client will move up and take his place. So what have we really accomplished?”
“20 million euros, for one.”
“Yup, from another bad guy. And we'll probably get a contract on him from HIS assistant in a month or two.”
“Right,” Sharon said. They both laughed.
“Great technology. I think we can move it into production now.
“Meanwhile, you're heading back to Florida, right?”
“Right. Flying out tomorrow afternoon – I mean this afternoon.”
“Good. See you there sometime, maybe.”
“Probably not. I'm on the top floor all day every day.”
“Right. Anything else we can get for you up there?”
“Nothing I can think of; it's comfy and cozy, nice furnishings. I'm pretty well set.”
“Well, if you do need anything, just let Amber know.”
“Will do; thanks.”
“Okay. I gotta get a quick bite and some rack time; getting too old for even this mid-distance stuff. So g'night, Sniper.”
“G'night, Carnivore.”
-21-
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
1:35 p.m.
The White House Press Room
Washington, DC
At 1:30, a Marine had come into the press room and given the press corps a five-minute warning, and exactly five minutes later, Gordon Donne returned to the podium and nodded at everybody.
“Sorry for the interruption and the delay, folks. Sometimes things need to be decided, and this was one of those times. Thanks for your patience.” He moved over to the chair and sat back down.
“Now, I think we're ready for the next question. Yes?”
“Marissa ______ from _____, Mr. Donne. I'd like to follow up on Doris's question.”
“Go for it.”
“How can you eliminate the preference for women in particular when their earnings are only 78% of males' earnings?”
“It's easy; I just sign a directive. Seriously, that number has been bandied about for years and it ignores lots of factors that go into it, like women leaving the workforce to have kids, just for one example. My goal is to absolutely level the playing field and opportunities for all people, regardless of gender, race or any other characteristic other than qualifications. And the MWBE has been gamed too much.
“Now, Marissa, this is going to be an extreme example, but in your field, would you hire a woman who couldn't spell just because she's a woman? I would hope not. And my government is not going to try to make employers do that kind of thing. We encourage both the public and private sector to simply hire the most qualified, and get rid of unqualified and/or unproductive employees. In particular, we have abolished all quotas, whether by statute or in practice to satisfy some implied or inferred standard.
“Along those lines, if you read all my directives, you'll have seen that we will be offering green cards to foreign students who earn advanced degrees in math, engineering and the physical sciences. It will be their choice, but we are no longer going to force them back out of this country when they graduate. Nor will we continue to force the children of immigrants who've opened businesses here under E2 or EB-5 visas to leave the country once they turn 21. And we will be loosening the requirements and getting rid of most of the bureaucratic red tape for those two types of visas, and expanding the availability of H1-B visas.
“We want to attract and keep talented, educated and creative people, regardless of their national origin, as well as keep families together … as long as they add to our growth and economic health.
“Now, for those who would object to all those evil immigrants coming in and taking American jobs, I would suggest that you all encourage your constituents to improve their own skills so they can compete effectively.
“On the other end of the spectrum, we will no longer encourage slackers and system-gamers to come here or stay here. Next? Yes.”
“Terry _____, _____. I'm sure you saw the editorials in our paper today, especially the one from our Nobel Prize-winning economist, that pointed out that your economic policies are exactly the wrong thing to do in the midst of a recession. How do you respond?”
“Well, Terry, someone once said that the reason astrology was invented was to make economics look scientific.”
Many in the audience laughed aloud, although a few, including Terry, did not join in.
“Now, you may remember that at the end of my speech Friday night, I invited economists to submit their predictions based on their analysis of my policies. Well, we received over 200 of those in time to include a few of them in some charts that we've prepared. Here's one that combines their GDP growth projections over the next 20 years.”
Donne
then tapped on a tablet PC on the table beside him and a graphic appeared on the screen on the other side of the podium.
“Oh, I'm sorry; that's a spaghetti plot of hurricane paths in the Gulf of Mexico. Yup; there's Texas, and Florida's over there.”
This time, the entire audience joined in laughter.
“Let me change that a little. Let's see. If I just pull on the ends of the Gulf Coast, like this, so it becomes a straight vertical line, or axis, on the right end, then change the units to percentages, and we make the bottom line a time axis, you can see that we now have a lot of lines squiggling up and down, and ending up in a range from minus 23% ... that's your guy's, Terry … to plus 19% in 2032. And look at all the squiggles each one takes in the near term. Which of these is most accurate, only time will tell.
“Now, I've looked at LOTS of economic forecasts, 90% of which are downright wrong. And many of them are ideologically or politically driven. So I don't give a whole lot of credibility to any of them, especially the Keynesians your paper seems to prefer to hire.
“As to the guy you mentioned, Terry, I think Paul could do a great service for this country just by buying a big, luxurious motorcycle with a sidecar, some leathers and a helmet and taking a year off from your paper and traveling the country, talking to lots of regular people. That would be both a small contribution to GDP growth and a great contribution to his education in the real world, where he apparently hasn't been living ever since he got the Nobel Prize. Next? Yes.”
“Leslie ____, ____. Mr. Donne, what you do think about the Tea Party and the more recent Occupy movement?”
"I think that both of them are a result of the frustration that most of our population feels about 'business as usual' in both the public and private sectors. As for the Occupy people, in my opinion, they are MUCH less than one percent of the population claiming to represent 99 percent, and that's downright false. I think they probably speak for maybe five percent. Think about it. Look at someone at, say, the 70th percentile; they're doing just fine. At the 40th percentile, maybe not that well, but they're getting by okay. But it's easy to look at in black and white, especially if you're loud about it, as they sure manage to be. But frankly, I don't get a sense that they have any concrete and realistic ideas to put forth. If they ever do, I'd be happy to discuss those with one or two people they want to send over here … but just one or two; more than that and it tends to deteriorate to a lot of noise and not much significant give and take.