Goliath

by E. A. Briginshaw

  “We’d like to send out our best wishes for a speedy recovery to Frenchie Bouchard,” the announcer said. “He was involved in a car accident late this afternoon on his way to the arena and is in critical condition in a Washington hospital. We’ll be providing further updates on his condition as we receive them.”

  “Oh my God,” Henry thought.

  * * *

  The curtains of the room had been closed as tightly as they could, but the light from the flashing neon sign outside the hotel lit up the room with an eerie throb that seemed to be in synch with the man’s own breathing which was much faster than normal.

  “Please enter your password:” prompted the screen.

  The man pulled something out of his back pocket and carefully entered the complex combination of letters and numbers written on it into the computer and hit the “Enter” key. After a few seconds, “Welcome, Goliath” flashed on the screen.

  The cursor scrolled down further and a single “>” prompt appeared.

  “Transfer of package failed. Pursuing other options,” he typed.

  “Other options,” he thought to himself. Even he didn’t know what that meant, but he knew he had to come up with something. He wasn’t the type of person to give up easily. When someone knocks you down, you get back up and fight harder. That’s what Frenchie had said, but that may have cost him his life.

  * * *

  Since Washington’s traffic seemed to be snarled even at the best of times, Henry decided to take the Metro-rail to RFK stadium and got to the stadium much faster than he expected. Even though it was quite early, there were already more people there than had been at the game in Florida. The local MLS soccer team was called D.C. United and there were numerous concessions open offering their merchandise as well as promotions trying to entice the patrons to purchase season tickets.

  Henry headed out into the stands and could see David along with his teammates out on the field stretching. Since David was pretty close to the stands, Henry headed over towards him, waved at him and yelled his name. A security guard was keeping a close eye on Henry.

  “It’s OK. He’s my son,” Henry said. David had heard him and come over to see him. David was scanning all of the people in the stands and Henry could tell he was nervous. “Don’t be nervous son. You’ll do just fine. Just pretend you’re playing a game back home at your high school.”

  Henry gave him a quick hug before he sprinted back over to join his teammates. They went through a few more pre-game drills before they headed back into their dressing room. In the dressing room, most of the players were chattering and buzzing with excitement, but not David. He was sitting in front of his locker with his head down looking like he was about to throw up.

  “Anybody using this locker?” someone said as he pulled the locker door open.

  “Alex!” David said, rising to give his best friend a hug. “What are you doing here?”

  Alex lowered his voice so the rest of the players couldn’t hear. “Apparently Tim was mouthing off about being sat down for this game and the coach sent him home. Coach called me last night and said if I could be here by game time, I’d be able to suit up. My dad drove all night to get me here.”

  “Awesome!” David said, giving him another hug.

  “It’s no big deal,” Alex said. “I’ll probably just sit on the bench the whole game.” But it was a big deal, and they both knew it.

  “Alex,” the coach yelled from across the locker-room. “Here’s your jersey” he said as he threw it to him.

  David was surprised when he saw the disappointed look on Alex’s face. “What’s the matter?” David asked.

  Alex spun the jersey around so that David could read it. “They spelled my name wrong.”

  They had spelled his name “Bujazcek” instead of “Bujaczek.” David was just about to say that no one would notice when he suddenly remembered the sewing kit his Grandma had put in his soccer bag. “I can fix that,” David said, grabbing the jersey from Alex.

  “OK boys, let’s head out to the field,” the coach yelled.

  “Tell the coach I’ll be out in a minute,” David said.

  The crowd cheered when both teams headed out onto the field. Henry was standing up applauding looking for David, but couldn’t locate him and was getting more and more concerned. It was almost five minutes later when he saw David run out onto the field.

  “Make sure you exchange your jersey with number 19 after the game,” David said to Alex as he handed the jersey to Alex. “It’s important.” Alex grinned from ear to ear to see his jersey with the correct spelling on it. He held it up and showed it to his father in the stands before he put it on.

  Once the game started, it became apparent that this game would have much more intensity than their previous game in Florida. The American team seemed to be spurred on by the crowd and scored a quick goal. But Canada had responded almost immediately with the tying goal. Since then, both teams had numerous good scoring chances. Henry could see the smile on David’s face as he played. Even after he had been fouled hard by one of the American players, he continued to flash a smile and it was apparent that he was having the time of his life.

  At half-time, Henry stood to stretch his legs and scanned the crowd which had grown fairly large during the first half of play. Suddenly his eyes locked on two men in suits who were sitting about 20 rows behind him. They looked suspiciously like the two men he had seen watching him at the game in Florida.

  “This is stupid,” Henry thought to himself. “Don’t be paranoid. There are a lot of guys wearing suits here today.” Sure enough, Henry saw a dozen or more guys in suits scattered throughout the stands. It seemed like they were all wearing sunglasses, but then again, so was he as it was a bright sunny day. Henry saw two more guys in dark suits and sunglasses standing up against the rails at the end of his row. There was a woman talking to one of the men. When she turned, Henry could not believe his eyes. It was Laura.

  Henry stood there frozen trying to figure out what was going on. Laura had seen him and started heading down the aisle toward him. “What’s going on? Who are those men?”

  “Come with me and I’ll explain,” Laura said.

  Henry was in such a state of confusion that he couldn’t have resisted even if he wanted to. Laura pulled Henry into one of the exit tunnels where there were no other people. “That’s Todd,” Laura said. “You know, the FBI agent I was telling you about. I called him today and asked him to keep an eye on you.”

  “Why?”

  “Because something strange is going on and I’m worried that you might be in danger. We found out this morning that the car accident that Frenchie Bouchard was involved in was no accident. Someone tampered with the car. It seems that anyone associated with your brother has a much higher chance of getting into an accident.”

  “Why didn’t you call me?”

  “I did, but I didn’t get an answer. I thought you might be in trouble so I called Todd. I had to do something.”

  Henry reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. Sure enough, it showed that he had five missed calls. “You must have called when I was on the Metro-rail. Are those other guys with the FBI as well?”

  “What other guys?” Laura asked.

  “The two guys in the grey suits - they’re sitting about twenty rows behind me and I thought they were watching me. I think they may have been watching me when I was in Florida as well.”

  Henry pulled Laura out of the exit tunnel so he could point them out to her, but they were gone. “This is so strange,” Henry said. “I have nothing to do with a secret network. Why would anyone think that I did?”

  “It’s because of your brother. The chatter is that Goliath, which is what you said your brother’s code name was, is still active. The NRA is nervous about the vote on the President’s gun control legislation which gets voted on tonight in the Senate.”

  “I’m just here to watch my son’s soccer game,” Henry said, trying to comprehend the situat
ion.

  Carter and Cujo were trying to blend into the crowd outside of the concession stands. They had bolted from their seats shortly after Henry had recognized them. They had also picked out the FBI agent standing at the end of the aisle and decided it was time for them to make their exit. They had called their boss to let him know the situation and once again, dumped the cell phone in a trash can on their way out.

  The second half of the game had been going on for a while, although Henry had been oblivious to it. Henry headed back to his seat and Laura sat in the seat beside him. A few minutes later, Todd came over and sat beside Laura. “Hey, Laura,” Todd said. “I have to head back to headquarters. I don’t think your friend is in any real danger here.”

  “I’m sorry,” Laura said. “I’m probably just being paranoid.” Laura realized she had never introduced them. “Henry, this is Todd – Todd, this is my boyfriend Henry.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Henry said as he shook Todd’s hand. Todd was younger, better looking and was obviously in very good shape. He looked like he should be featured on brochures to recruit people to join the FBI.

  “Nice to meet you sir,” Todd said as he removed his sunglasses. He seemed to assess Henry in a single glance. “Make sure you take care of Laura.” Henry sensed this was more of a command than a request.

  “Thanks so much,” Laura said, giving Todd a quick kiss on the cheek. Todd gave a quick signal to his partner who was waiting at the end of the aisle and they headed out of the stadium together.

  “I suppose it was silly of me to think that you were in some kind of danger,” Laura said, reaching over to take Henry’s hand.

  “Paranoid behaviour seems to be contagious,” Henry said, glancing around to see if the two guys in the grey suits had returned. They hadn’t.

  Henry turned his focus back to the soccer game just in time to see David streaking down the right side of the field with the ball. He fed a pass into the middle and that player chipped the ball over top of the defender back to David who hadn’t broken stride. David hit a perfect cross which was easily headed into the back of the net by one of the Canadian strikers.

  The Canadians in the crowd let out a loud cheer. Even the American supporters who were sitting around Henry were commenting about what a nice goal it was, even though it now put the Canadians up 3-2. David celebrated with his teammates and then looked up at Henry as he ran back to get into position. Even though the distance between them was large, their eyes seemed to lock on each other for an instance as if guided by a laser.

  It was only a few minutes later when the final whistle was blown. The Canadian team had come through the three friendly matches with a win, a loss and a tie which was much better than expected.

  Henry watched as the Canadian players exchanged jerseys with the American players. It was great to see the players from both countries heading off the field together as if they had been friends forever.

  *** Chapter 25 ***

  Henry unfolded the newspaper at breakfast the next day back at home. “Gun Control Legislation Fails in House,” read the headline. The story went on to say that the President’s new gun control legislation failed to pass in the House of Representatives. The President had announced that he would be addressing the nation at a press conference later that night.

  “David will be disappointed,” Henry thought to himself. Once again the politicians had spent so much time arguing with each other that they had failed to make any kind of progress. Henry wondered whether David even knew. He would be on the bus with the rest of the team heading back to Canada. It should be a fun bus ride as he knew they would be celebrating their victory over the American team.

  When Henry was in the office later that morning, he stopped by Greg Blackwood’s office. He was in the process of removing his gun collection from their cases. “I figured it was about time to let these things go,” Greg said when he saw Henry.

  “I thought you were going to keep a few of them from your dad’s old collection?” Henry said.

  “Times have changed and we have to change with them,” Greg said. “Sometimes the old ways do more harm than good. You can’t use force to get people to do what you want. You just have to reason with people and trust they will do the right thing.” Henry sensed that Greg was talking about more than his father’s old gun collection.

  That evening Henry was watching the hockey game when he heard some good news. At the intermission, the commentators announced that Frenchie Bouchard was now out of intensive care. Although it would be a few more months until he was back on the air, he was expected to make a full recovery.

  “Thank God,” Henry thought to himself. A few minutes later, the broadcast was interrupted to go to live coverage of the President’s press conference.

  “Good evening everyone. As you are aware, we failed to obtain the necessary votes yesterday in the House of Representatives to pass the gun control legislation I had put forward. That legislation is effectively dead. However, I believe addressing this issue is critical to the future of our great nation and I refuse to give up.”

  “Tomorrow morning I will be introducing new legislation for approval in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. I know both parties have been putting forward their ideas for such legislation, but this is not just a watered-down version of my previous proposal with enough compromises to obtain approval. It is completely new legislation with a new approach and new ideas. I’m hopeful that we can allow free votes on this legislation so that we can move forward as a nation.”

  The President then opened the floor for questions. “Mr. President, since your current legislation just failed to get approval in the House yesterday and you’re introducing new legislation so quickly, have you had a task force working on this new legislation behind the scenes knowing your initial proposal was not likely to succeed?”

  “No,” said the President. “I did not have another task force working on this initiative. This new legislation was just given to me this morning, but I believe this new approach is the correct path forward.”

  Although they didn’t show the faces of the reporters asking the questions, Henry immediately recognized Laura’s voice when she asked the next question. “Mr. President, if your task force did not create this new legislation, can you tell us who did?”

  The President paused before answering. “No, I can’t. To be honest, I’m not sure myself. However, it is apparent that our friends from Canada and England had a hand in putting this proposal together. Although they are not perfect, those two nations don’t seem to have a problem with gun violence to the same degree that we have here in the United States. I welcome their ideas and their input.”

  The President then pointed to a reporter to ask the next question. “Mr. President, why do you think this new legislation will get approval from all parties where the previous legislation failed?”

  The President turned his head and gestured for two people who had been standing on the side to join him at the podium. “I’d like to welcome the Majority Leader of the Senate and the Speaker of the House to join me here at the podium. It turns out this new legislation was presented to both of these representatives at the same time it was presented to me and I believe I’m correct in that it will be supported by all parties.” The Majority Leader of the Senate and the Speaker of the House both nodded their agreement.

  “Mr. President, does this new legislation have the support of the NRA?”

  The President thought carefully before answering. “I believe that’s a question the NRA should answer for themselves, but I believe we have the support of both the Democrats and the Republicans and more importantly, I believe we will have the support of the American people. I believe today will be a very important day for the United States of America.” The President then thanked everyone for coming and left the podium.

  Henry sat stunned by what he had just heard. It was rare to see anything supported by both major parties. Henry wished David had been there to see it.


  * * *

  The next morning Henry was still in bed when he heard the door-bell. It was early, very early, and Henry laid in bed wondering whether he had actually heard it or just dreamed it. When he heard the pounding on the door, he knew it wasn’t a dream. He threw on a robe and was surprised to see detective Benedetti when he opened the door. The expression on the detective’s face told him this was not good news.

  “We found the plane,” the detective said after he stepped into the house. He moved over to sit on the couch. “The plane crashed into the water east of Cornwall,” continued the detective. “There were no survivors. I’m so sorry for your loss.”

  Henry gave a heavy sigh. He thought this day would come eventually but it still came as a shock. “Cornwall?” Henry asked. “Why would they have been so far east?”

  “That’s why it took us so long to find the plane,” said the detective. “It crashed into the water and it has been covered in ice and snow for months. It’s only when the ice and snow started melting that it was discovered. We can’t say for sure at this point, but we suspect that they lost their instruments and were flying blind in the blizzard that occurred that night.” The detective paused before continuing. “We suspect that someone may have tampered with the plane.”

  * * *

  The next few days were extremely hard for the family, especially for Grandma. Kids are never supposed to die before their parents. She was the one who had held out hope that Alan would be found alive. Henry didn’t tell her any of the details about the plane crash that had been told him by detective Benedetti, but she sensed that it was Alan’s involvement with the secret network that was behind it all. Although Alan had gotten into lots of trouble in his teen years, he had always managed to come out unscathed. It seemed ironic that the single greatest thing he had been involved with in his life would be the thing that did him in.