by Jeff Yee
Although he knew the instigator of the conspiracy, Sean refrained from naming anyone in front of the large group. The President had backed off, but it was still not clear to Sean if there would be any charges against the conspirators. It was not public knowledge and he was not sure if it would ever be made available to the general public. As much as he longed to see someone be held ultimately accountable for the takeover, he was more relieved than upset. At that moment, Sean was simply happy to see that his son, his employees and the labs were safe. There would be time to fight the battle with the government later. When Sean looked around to count the employees that were detained against their will, he saw the faces of tireless workers who were caught in the middle of a political war, battling for a world-changing technology. He reacted by saying, “I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry that this has happened.”
Some of the employees responded by comforting each other with hugs. Others began to gather their belongings and slowly exit the lab. Sean greeted each with an affectionate embrace before they left the room. Kris Harrison stood next to his father, also apologizing to his employees as they left, waiting for an opportunity to talk to his father alone. Unlike Sean, Kris was steaming mad. He wanted to know who was behind the takeover. And more importantly, he wanted revenge.
Chapter 49
This is Sandy Iverson reporting for CBS. I am standing outside of the Tace Technologies building where twenty-two members of the company have been held by the United States military since yesterday. Moments ago, the United States Marine Corp stormed the building you see behind me. Although we have not seen a Tace employee leave the building, we have been told by the commanding officer that they are not being held against their own will and that Tace Technologies is no longer under federal control.
Senator Rob Cordeiros watched the news unfold from the comfort of his plush office in Washington D.C. Astonished, he was mesmerized by the events on his television – shocked that the military mission had failed. He watched the journalist push her way through the crowd to find someone to interview. After Cordeiros watched the first Tace employee leave the building, he took his shoe from his right foot and hurled it across the room towards his television. A loud bang echoed across his office when the shoe hit squarely against the large screen.
“Is everything okay in there?” asked the senator’s assistant over the intercom.
Out of options and frustrated, Cordeiros poured out his emotions. “No! There’s only one thing that can help me now. The frickin’ time machine. But a damn private company is holding it and I can’t do anything about it. If only…”
As Cordeiros continued talking, he could hear a faint conversation between his assistant and uninvited guests over the intercom. He overheard her say, “Excuse me, you can’t go in there without an appointment.”
But it was too late. The double doors to his office were already opening before his assistant could stop the intruders. Cordeiros recognized them immediately. It was the FBI.
“Senator Rob Cordeiros?” asked the nicely dressed man.
The senator didn’t bother looking at the FBI agent. He knew who was coming and why they were in his office. With one hand on his phone, he stared out his window in disbelief, wondering if it would be his last time in his office.
“Senator,” the man said a second time. “I’m agent Peter Hou with the FBI and this is agent Rebecca McNeely. We’re here to take you into custody for the kidnapping of Ryan Graves. Your associate, David Kim, has entered into a plea deal and has named you as a suspect in the kidnapping.”
The normally energetic and confrontational senator collapsed into his chair. With his weak legs buckling underneath him, he fell backwards and landed softly in his chair. He was still in disbelief over the failed takeover at the San Diego laboratory. Cordeiros said nothing to the agents. There was nothing that he could say or do to get out of the mess that he created.
Cordeiros sat in his chair with his eyes glued to his wall as the FBI read him his rights. After being handcuffed by the agents, he was led out of his chair and escorted by the agents towards the door to his room. Walking under his own power, he smirked at his assistant as he passed by. Oddly, she was not shocked to see him in handcuffs. But his devilish grin was surprising. Cordeiros offered no explanations to his assistant, nor a goodbye. He left his office, possibly for the last time, with a cunning and deceitful sneer. If he was shamed by his actions, he certainly didn’t show it as the FBI agents and a team of D.C. police officers escorted him out of his office and down the halls of the Hart Senate Building.
Chapter 50
It was late on a Friday afternoon; only hours after twenty-two Tace employees were freed from captivity. Stacey walked through the double glass door entrance to New Age Media PR, her daughter’s public relations firm. Having spent a lot of time with Alyssa on the Tace campaign, Stacey knew her way around the office fairly well. She walked directly towards Alyssa’s office, but stopped short of the entry when she saw her daughter pacing back-and-forth in her office with a mobile phone to her ear.
“She’s on the phone with the New York Times,” said Alyssa’s assistant Stephanie Kershaw, poking her head over her computer monitor to catch Stacey’s attention before she walked into her daughter’s office.
“How are you Stephanie?” asked Stacey.
“Good,” she replied. “But busy. Very busy. It’s been non-stop calls since yesterday. We’re fielding overflow for Tace to help them keep up with the media. How’s Kris?”
“He’s fine. Just tired. I saw him briefly, but he’s busy with all of this mess as well.”
“I can only imagine. I should stop complaining about our work here.”
Stacey continued, “Sean is taking Kris home and then he’s going to join me here. He should be here shortly.”
Alyssa ended her conversation with the New York Times and walked to her office doorway. Once within shouting distance of her assistant, she asked, “Steph, who’s up next?”
“Fox. Here’s the contact info.” Stephanie handed Alyssa a scribbled note with a name and phone number to call the journalist from Fox.
“Thanks,” she said to her assistant. Then looking at Stacey, she said, “Hi Mom!”
“Hello, darling.”
Alyssa ran back to her desk and grabbed a file folder. “Mom, why don’t you read through this and I’ll meet you in the conference room once I’m done with this call,” she said as she handed her mother the folder.
Stacey took the design concepts to the conference room and spread them across the table. Being her obsessive-compulsive self, she neatly arranged all of the papers in a perfect grid, with even spacing between the drawings and its edges aligned parallel with the ends of the table.
We can learn from the future to make today a better place.
The theme seemed to be working. Variations of the same theme had been broadcast across the U.S. in advertisements and blogs since Stacey and Alyssa’s campaign began. A study showed that public opinion was beginning to change with regards to time travel. They had made steady progress to counter the fear that Cordeiros had strategically planted.
“What do you have there?” asked a voice behind Stacey.
She recognized the voice without needing to see his face. It was Sean, her husband. Without turning around to greet him, she continued looking at the designs and answered, “The latest concepts for the campaign.”
Sean gazed at the papers lined across the table, although he had only a few seconds to review the materials before his daughter interrupted.
“Hi Dad!” said Alyssa as she walked into the conference room.
“That was short,” said Stacey, not expecting to see her daughter so quickly.
Alyssa put her mobile phone on the table and provided an answer. “Fox already ran the story. They didn’t have time to wait for a quote.”
Immediately recognizing that her daughter’s phone was not parallel to the papers and the edges of the desk, Stacey carefully adjusted it to be at a r
ight angle to match the desk corner. Her actions went unnoticed as her daughter and husband continued a conversation.
“What do you think, Dad?” asked Alyssa.
Sean answered, “Honestly? I think we need to change our game plan.”
“Really?” asked Alyssa, confused as she glanced down at the papers on the table. “How?”
“I’m not sure what’s gonna happen to the senate committee now that they’ve lost their chairman, but assuming things continue as planned without Cordeiros, we have less than a week before the hearings wrap up.”
“Yeah, so we accelerate our plans,” said Alyssa.
Sean softly patted his daughter’s arm in comfort. “More than that. I appreciate all of the work that you and your mother have done here. But we need to take advantage of this golden opportunity that Senator Cordeiros has given us. We no longer play defensive. We now go on the attack.”
“On the attack?”
“Yes!” said Sean passionately. “The American public should realize that their government misled them. This has been a witch-hunt since the very beginning. The entire process should be called into question. At this point, I have no idea if the remaining senate committee members are in on the scandal, but we should exploit this opportunity and ask the question. We should call out every senator!”
Alyssa looked at her mother to see if she would respond. When Stacey didn’t react, Alyssa replied, “That’s rather bold. I think we need to be very careful about our message. Until we know who was working with Senator Cordeiros, we can’t make any assumptions. If we’re wrong, it will come back to bite us.”
“Then go grass roots with this one.”
“What does that mean?” asked a puzzled Alyssa.
“Hit all of the public forums on the Internet. Contact blog authors. Get a groundswell going that questions the government, questions the Senate hearings and the senators running it. Make it look like it is coming directly from the people. Not from Tace nor its public relations firm.”
Alyssa knew better than to question her father. She knew that once he set his mind to something that he was going to accomplish the task. And as he explained his proposal, she began to warm up to the idea. Like her mother and her father, she shared the burning desire to punish the organization that had kidnapped Ryan Graves and then held her own brother, Kris, hostage at the company their family had founded. It was a risky plan and one that could backfire, but she committed her support to her father. She then lined up her company resources to work through the weekend to execute their plan.
Chapter 51
Twenty minutes from Dulles International Airport, a Gulfstream jet prepared for its decent into the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. Four days after the arrest of Senator Rob Cordeiros, the nation’s capital was still recovering from public outrage against the government’s involvement in the kidnapping and takeover at Tace Technologies. Miles above the politicians and protests, Kris Harrison powered off the television in his corporate jet as it began to descend.
“It’s officially over now,” Kris said to his father, the only other passenger on the plane other than two pilots guiding the jet gently down for a landing.
Strong public interest in the time travel senate hearings meant that television networks broadcast it without delay across the country, including the satellite feed into the Tace Technologies corporate jet while in midair. Sean and Kris Harrison had enjoyed watching the final day of the hearings during their five-hour trip across the country to Washington.
“Quite different with Klein at the helm, don’t you think?” asked Sean, referring to the newly appointed Senator Klein to the role of committee chairman.
“Certainly less confrontational without Cordeiros.”
Sean stretched out his legs and folded his arms behind his head. “Wish I could have flown this way my previous trips. The new commercial blended-wing planes are something, but nothing beats a private jet.”
“All you needed to do was invite me along and we would’ve ridden the jet,” said Kris teasingly with a smile.
“Someone needed to run the business. Besides, you should be thankful that I spared you the misery.”
“Well, it’s different now,” said Kris. “It’s not just the absence of Cordeiros in the hearings today, but look at the reactions of all of the senators. They’ve taken so much heat these past few days that they know they can’t afford another misstep.”
Sean felt a sense of accomplishment for the intense scrutiny and pressure on the senate committee. “I think our campaign worked. The PR team, Alyssa, your mother – they all did a great job exposing the ones behind this and to shift the power our direction. Klein and his colleagues are now more worried about being linked to Cordeiros than they are concerned about who travels in time. We couldn’t have asked for better timing.”
Minutes later, the jet landed safely at Dulles airport and pulled into its designated hanger. As Sean and Kris stepped off the plane, they found their two locally assigned MPP security guards already waiting for them.
One of the security experts approached Sean and Kris as they deplaned. “Sir, I’m Craig Berkshaw with MPP. How was your flight?”
Sean answered, “Fine. Thanks. Do you have the details of our plans?”
“Yes, sir. Grant prepped us in advance. Capital Grille, correct?”
“Correct.”
Craig checked his watch. “There’s a bit of traffic on the roads right now. It’s rush hour, but we should be able to get you there on time.”
“Well then, let’s hit the road.”
After loading the bags and passengers into the black sedan, Craig Berkshaw weaved through traffic, heading towards Capital Grille’s Pennsylvania Avenue location. Unaware that it had also been a favorite meeting location of Senator Rob Cordeiros, the new chairman of the time travel committee had coincidentally suggested the Capital Grille for a dinner meeting with the Harrisons.
The black sedan pulled in front of the restaurant at 6:56pm, four minutes before their dinner reservations. Sean and Kris jumped out of the sedan, tailed by one of their security agents while the second parked the car. Inside the restaurant, they found their dinner date. Senator Jacob Klein had already been seated at a table reserved for three.
The senator rose to his feet as the Harrisons arrived at the table and offered his hand. “Gentlemen,” he said shaking hands firmly. “Perfect timing. I just sat down.”
Sean removed his coat, placed it over a chair and then introduced his son. “Senator, this is Kris Harrison, chief executive officer of Tace.”
“Heard a lot about you,” said Senator Klein with a polite gesture towards Kris.
“Likewise,” replied Kris.
Wasting no time, Sean got right to the point. “Thanks for the invitation tonight, Senator. I realize that you’ve been busy wrapping up the hearings, so we appreciate the opportunity to get together to discuss the bill that the committee will be proposing.”
“Please, have a seat,” said the senator, motioning to the two empty chairs across the table. “Let’s order our drinks and I’ll fill you in on the details. Martini?”
Kris politely accepted the offer for a dry martini. Sean waved off the cocktail order. “Water, please,” Sean asked the waiter.
As the waiter left the table with drink orders, Senator Klein briefed the Harrisons. “First of all, you both have my sincere apologies for the events that have transpired these past few weeks. I intend to fully cooperate with the authorities in the investigation and I’ll personally assist in the prosecution to ensure that the conspirators are punished to the maximum extent of the law.”
“Thank you Senator,” replied Sean. “Your sincerity is appreciated.”
Kris nodded in agreement with his father.
Sean spoke very sternly, “As you can probably imagine, we’re quite distrustful of everyone in the public sector right now. Until we understand who was involved and why, it’s hard to move on.”
“I don’t blame you,” said
the senator. “If I were in your shoes, I would feel the same way. That is why I asked you to dinner this evening. I’d like to take the first steps to correct the issue and to set forth a plan that we can all agree to.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“I’ll be honest with you. We’re all under a lot of pressure to get a bill passed quickly. The President, myself, my colleagues… we all want to bring closure to this issue immediately.”
Understanding that he now had political capital, Sean smiled and said, “I can see that. I’ve seen the polls the last few days.”
Senator Klein took a folded paper from his suit pocket and without opening it, left it on the table as a talking point. “Now that the hearings are complete, the committee is drafting a bill that will go before the Senate tomorrow. If all goes well, it will go immediately to the House, first thing on Thursday. The President is on standby, ready to sign a bill into law as soon as we have one ready for him. He understands the mistake that was made at Tace and he’s prepared to do his part too.”
“Good,” acknowledged Sean as the senator paused briefly to sip his drink.
Senator Klein wet his lips on his martini and then continued, “I want you to realize that we’re talking about a very exceptional piece of legislature to move this quickly through the process.”
Kris chimed in with his first words of the discussion. “We appreciate it, Senator. But how do we know it will pass?”
“And that it’s a bill we’d agree with,” Sean added.
“Gentlemen, I would not have asked you here tonight if I was not willing to work with you. As for the approval process, I cannot make any guarantees. To get a bill to pass, we need to draft a bill that we believe is in the best interest of the United States.”